Even Dr. Robinson seemed embarrassed by Anderson’s bluntness. Madison looked down, her face turning bright red, which Anderson seemed to interpret as a confirmation of his question. Noah interjected.
“Actually, no we did not have sex. I’m not sure how it happened, but it definitely wasn’t sexually transmitted.”
Dr. Anderson seemed skeptical, but decided to move on. Noah felt like he was getting whiplash from dealing with this guy’s erratic thoughts.
“Well, let’s go ahead and proceed with the blood draws. Gabriella, if you would please proceed with drawing Madison’s blood with the big needle, I’ll go get another one for Noah.”
As Dr. Anderson disappeared from the room briefly, Dr. Gabriella Robinson spoke in a low voice to the two of them. “As a scientist, I’m really excited to have this opportunity to witness this marvel of evolution, but, as a somewhat new mother, I’m really sorry you two have to experience all this. Unlike most of my colleagues here, I don’t think the end result justifies the means…but keep that to yourselves. ”
Noah realized that his perception earlier that she might dislike ‘non-humans’ was actually a façade. She didn’t want to be seen as what she really was – a sympathizer to their dilemma.
Madison whispered back, saying, “Thank you,” as Dr. Robinson readied the big needle to draw her blood.
Dr. Robinson again looked concerned as she asked, “Are you going to be okay?”
Madison smirked at her then, for the first time in a while. “Yeah, I’m not really afraid of needles. I donate blood a couple times a year. Well, technically I just started this last year as soon as I turned sixteen.”
Dr. Robinson smiled back, while Noah resisted the urge to smack his hand into his forehead. So, she wasn’t afraid of needles after all. Now that he knew Madison was different like him, he started to wonder about some of her other odd behavior in the hotel. Was this the reason why she hadn’t wanted to have sex? When had she discovered that she was changing?
As Noah contemplated that thought, Dr. Robinson had to put her full weight into the massive needle, and even then it advanced slowly like it was being shoved through plastic. Finally, a flash of blood appeared, and she began filling up tubes.
Looking up at Madison, she asked, “Did that hurt at all?”
“Not really. ”
“Good. Also, since you have the Keras genome after all, we will need to fill up more than just one tube, but I image that won’t bother you if you’re used to giving blood.”
Madison agreed. She looked up at Noah, searching his eyes for answers regarding how he felt about the situation. He could see she was seeking forgiveness for not telling him. He gently squeezed her hand in response. The shared glance didn’t go unnoticed by Dr. Robinson.
“Actually, if you could just keep this in your arm for a minute, I need to run and grab something. Also, Dr. Anderson probably won’t be back for another minute or so, unless he ran, because the big syringes are rarely used and in a supply room all the way on the other side of the building.” She winked at them then, as she got up and walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. They were both surprised by her sudden exit.
Noah spoke first. “I don’t know if we can really trust her – this might be an attempt to find out how it happened, so we need to be really quiet.” He leaned in closer to her. “When did you find out?”
Madison whispered in his ear. “I realized something was different when the bruising on my chest disappeared in the hospital. That’s why I had to tell them it was make-up for a play, and why they believed me.”
Noah’s eyes widened as he realized how it had happened. It had been transmitted blood-to-blood when he had gone inside her veins to protect her from being shot. It made sense, considering the Keras apparently did it to Riley by stabbing her in the back. They must have injected a chemical directly into her bloodstream, and Noah had done something similar by invading Madison’s body with his blood.
Madison continued. “That’s why I didn’t want to have sex. I was afraid you would notice the bruising was gone and figure it out.” She paused for a moment before continuing. “And do you remember when I was in the bathroom this morning?”
Noah nodded in response. She had gasped as if something was wrong, but then stated that she needed pads out of her purse. He had assumed it was that time of the month for her.
“Well, I had watched you do your thing with your blood, making swords and such, and while I was in the bathroom I decided to try to do it…and it worked.”
Noah looked at her in surprise. It wasn’t just that she was more durable, but she had already used her blood like he could. He knew she had been lying when she had told them she had just now confirmed it was true, but he hadn’t realized just how much of a lie it was.
Madison continued to explain herself. “I just tried to think up a good reason that might delay you finding out. I’m really sorry Noah. I didn’t want you to be upset at yourself, or me. I love you.”
Feeling her whisper against his ear, he turned his head to find her lips with his. Up until this point, he had perceived himself as a monster, but he couldn’t see her with the same perspective. He did feel bad that he had given her this curse, but he knew it’s what she would have probably chosen if she had the choice, because now she really was stuck with him like she wanted.
Dr. Robinson abruptly entered the room and hurried back to the table. Noah and Madison quickly disengaged their lips.
“Sorry I couldn’t give you more time. He’s coming.”
Dr. Anderson then appeared at the doorway holding several syringes with thick, massive needles. “I brought a few just in case,” he announced. Then, examining the few tubes that had been filled, he asked, “Was it difficult getting access?”
Dr. Robinson nodded. “Yes, I just got it in a seconds ago. I had to really force it with all my weight.”
Madison chimed in, to help collaborate on her story. “And surprisingly it didn’t hurt at all when she finally did get it in.”
It worked. Anderson was more amazed at the durability of Madison’s skin than concerned about the amount of time it had taken Robinson to get the needle in.
“Right. Well Noah, let’s go ahead and get started on you since Dr. Robinson will probably be awhile with Madison. Plus, I image your skin’s durability is a lot higher now than it had been yesterday when they first obtained blood samples. It might need a man’s touch to get this needle in.”
Noah could see Dr. Robinson roll her eyes in response to her colleague’s comment, yet the erratic scientist remained oblivious. Anderson motioned Noah to sit down at the next table, and he immediately went to work trying to dig the needle into Noah’s arm .
After putting all his weight into it, it still wouldn’t budge. Robinson had a smirk on her face as she continued to fill tube after tube of Madison’s blood. When Dr. Anderson still couldn’t get the needle in Noah’s arm, he began talking more to himself than anyone else.
“Yes, well I expected this might happen. I need to get a good estimate of your overall durability to find out if it will even be possible to draw your blood.” Then suddenly, he had an idea. “Oh! Can you just put blood in the tube for me?”
Noah shook his head. “I can’t separate it from myself. I already tried that this morning.”
“Oh, well then it may truly be impossible to draw blood from you now that your DNA has fully converted to the Keras genome. I guess it’s good we have Madison here, who hasn’t fully converted yet.” He then directed his monologue to the rest of the room. “We should be able to determine what hour it is for her based on the percentage of conversion, and we will also be able to determine changes in her abilities as it progresses. Gabriella, I’ll need you to get a blood sample from her every hour, and in between blood draws we can test changes in her performance to estimate their maximum levels in the event it can’t be determined from Noah.”
Dr. Robinson nodded in response. She was filling up the last of the
tubes that had originally been for Noah.
Now done with the first set of blood draws for Madison, Dr. Anderson led them to a large military hanger to begin their performance testing.
Chapter 17: Hidden Agenda
As Noah and Madison entered the military hanger, there were about ten armed soldiers waiting for them. The room was massive and empty, with a concrete floor and metal walls. It looked like it could easily store multiple large airplanes.
Anderson tried to dismiss the armed soldiers’ presence as insignificant. “These guys are just here to help me move things around. For example, Noah, when we test your strength, I’ll have two of them load plates onto the bar.”
Noah was surprised the tests were going to start off with normal weight lifting. He too wondered how much he could lift, but he was still shocked the tests would be so simple.
Anderson continued. “Madison, you’ll be down at this end, while Noah and I will be down there.” He was pointing all the way on the other side of the hanger. Both Noah and Madison exchanged a look, not wanting to be that far apart. Noah was the one to oppose the arrangement.
“Why can’t we both be on the same side?”
The scientist was quick with his response. “Well, we hadn’t planned on testing Madison in the first place, so I’ll need to brief one of the soldiers on how to proceed with her testing. Plus, we will need a lot of room for your tests Noah, if what I’ve heard about your running speed is correct.” Anderson didn’t wait for them to approve, but continued on. “Now, if you two will wait here for a moment, I’ll brief your instructor Madison. Coleman!”
“Yes sir!” The guy who responded was extremely tall and good-looking. He looked cocky, like a football player who thought every girl wished they could be with him. Noah was immediately suspicious of Anderson’s choice.
“You’ll be testing this girl’s physical abilities. I need to brief you on what information to record. The rest of you guys, grab some weights and another bench.”
“Sir!” All the soldiers responded in unison.
The soldier Coleman had an arrogant smirk on his face as he walked by, eyeing both Noah and Madison. He then followed the scientist back down the hallway where they had come from, leaving them alone with the other nine soldiers.
Noah tried to ignore the men as he heard them all cursing under their breath while they obeyed Anderson’s orders. Referring to Noah, one said, “He ain’t military. He should go to prison.” Another said, “They should just shoot him and be done with it.”
Noah looked down at Madison, whispering so no one could hear. “Will you be okay?”
Now that Madison’s secret was out, she appeared to be in a better mood about the situation. She nodded in response, and then whispered, “We just need to get through this day, and then hopefully they will be done testing us. I did the math, and since we know when the change happened, it should be done for me in about thirteen hours, which will be around 2 AM.”
Noah nodded. “Right. They will already be testing someone who has fully changed, so they shouldn’t need us any more after that.”
“Hopefully,” she agreed. “But what if they decide they want us to fight for them?”
Noah wasn’t sure. He didn’t want to leave the world to fend for itself, but he also didn’t like working with these people when they really only saw him as a weapon. “Let’s just get through today, and we will figure out what to do from there. If you are really like me now, then it should be easier to escape if we need to.” Noah then paused for a second, before continuing. “I’m sorry.”
Madison looked surprised, “Why? You saved my life, and now I can really be with you without being a burden.”
Noah looked at her seriously. “You are not a burden. I just feel like I’ve ruined your life. None of this would have happened if it weren’t for me.”
“Noah, none of this is your fault. Those aliens are responsible for this. If you hadn’t already caused me to change, I probably would have asked you to try in the hotel – I want to be with you.”
He wondered if she really meant that. “But we wouldn’t have known how it might be transferred, had it not happened by accident.”
Madison’s smirk returned to her face. “Oh, I would have made you experiment. Biting, sex, and of course what you actually did that worked. It would have happened one way or another.” She seemed proud of her confidence and determination.
Noah just smiled at her. “Madison, I’m not a zombie. Biting probably wouldn’t have done anything.”
“How do you know?” She teased. “But I’m glad I suspected it had already happened, because the biting you did in the hotel room was much more pleasant than it would have been if we were actually drawing blood.”
“I’ll have to bite you like that again soon.” He retorted. He was glad they were still able to tease each other despite the situation.
Anderson and Coleman returned then. The other soldiers were still bringing weights over from several large metal storage containers. Noah was surprised by how much weight they were bringing for Madison. How much did Anderson think they could lift?
“Alright, Coleman you have your orders. Barnes! You stay here and help record the numbers. The rest of you, come with me down to the other end.”
Noah kissed Madison on the forehead, and then released her from his embrace. She whispered, “I love you,” as she let go and watched him follow Dr. Anderson. Noah could already hear Coleman giving Madison instructions behind him. He really didn’t like the guy – he could tell the cocky soldier probably enjoyed stealing women from other men. He heard Coleman telling her to remove her jewelry, so she didn’t damage it. He offered to keep it for her, but she refused. Noah knew the only jewelry she had on was the ring he had given her. She wouldn’t part with it for anything.
Anderson was already talking to him, trying to explain what kind of tests he would be doing, but Noah was distracted. He really wanted to try to listen to what Coleman was saying to Madison, but then he reminded himself she could take care herself. Abruptly, Noah recalled that they had talked about this very subject at some point, but he couldn’t remember when. Although, he knew it had definitely been before her birthday. They had discussed the fact that it should be the girl’s job to set her own boundaries and keep away the men – she should make it clear she isn’t interested. The guy should only intervene if the men didn’t take the clear ‘no’ for an answer and refused to respect her boundaries.
Noah remembered the conversation had been sparked by a movie where the husband had threatened his wife’s male friend who had been sending suggestive texts. Madison had been monologuing about how stupid the whole situation was, saying it should have the wife’s job to tell the guy it was inappropriate. Madison had said, “She should’ve stopped texting him in the first place. The problem isn’t with the guy. The problem is with her . She needs to set some boundaries with other men. Really, why does she have male friends anyway? They’re married . You can’t go hang out with other guys when you’re married. I bet she’s cheating on him.”
Noah smiled at the little memory of Madison’s rant. He took a deep breath, reminding himself that they just had to make it through the day. Madison would be within sight most of the time, and he knew that even now he could sense her presence despite the fact that he wasn’t looking directly at her.
Finally listening in to what Dr. Anderson was saying, Noah realized he was talking about cars for some reason. “And if that isn’t too heavy for you to lift, then we’ll try a three-ton wrecking ball.”
Noah was startled. “Wait. How much do you think I can lift exactly?”
“No idea, but if you can run approximately 1.3 miles in about forty-five seconds, then I suspect you can lift a lot. That’s about 100 MPH! Granted, there isn’t an exact correlation between speed and strength. So, we will be testing your max speed too.”
Approaching a bench press, Noah saw that it had already been loaded with eight plates. The soldiers scoffed as he lay down
to lift the weight. He overheard one of them say, “He can’t lift no four-hundred pounds.” Noah certainly wasn’t small, but even he agreed he didn’t have the appearance of being able to lift that much. Anderson began giving Noah instructions.
“Now, first I just want to verify you can lift it. I’ll have two guys spot you in case you can’t. If you can lift it, then I want to see how many times.” The eager scientist pulled out a small clicker that he would use to keep track of Noah’s reps. “Everyone ready?”
Two of the men were already at each side as Noah reached up to grab the bar. He slid his hands along the metal to find a comfortable position, and then lifted it up. After the first rep, He was shocked by how light it felt. He did another rep, and then another, going faster. The soldiers were all visibly surprised by the lack of effort it seemed Noah was putting into it. He wasn’t even straining as the scientist tried to keep up with his clicking. Noah suspected Dr. Anderson had originally intended to talk to Noah during the reps, but he was using all his concentration to click in sync with Noah.
After five minutes, all of the soldiers had stepped away, just watching in amazement. Finally, after it had been about ten minutes, Noah spoke without slowing down his pace. “Umm, I feel like I could do this all day. Maybe we should add more weight to it.”
After a few more clicks, Dr. Anderson finally stopped. “Yes, I think your right.” He looked over at one of the soldiers. “What’s the weight limit for this barbell?”
“Sir, it can handle twelve-hundred, but we can only fit sixteen plates, eight for each side. So, eight-hundred maximum.”
Anderson didn’t seem overly pleased with this news. “Okay. We will try eight-hundred, but do we have anything we can put more weight on?”
“Sir, we have a hex bar with extended arms that can fit up to ten plates on each side. That’s a thousand total.”
“Alright, go get that.” Anderson then had two of the guys double the number of plates on the barbell Noah was currently using .
The Keras Genome Page 16