The Serpent League

by Brendan Walsh

  Elder raised a hand. “I promise you, that aspect won’t be a problem. Now, if I may continue.”

  The doctor slid off the central science board, letting it fall face down on the floor. That action revealed several layers of graphs and images hidden at the back of the display. And what was on the other side of the diagram made everyone almost drop their glasses.

  Where the previous information stood now bore a series of disturbing images. The settings were dark, lonely, based on the equipment visible in the background they were from a laboratory. But the center of each starred a different horribly mutated animal.

  “Good God!” Gordon boomed to his feet. “You’ve already begun this process.”

  He took a closer look. It was difficult to tell the species of each considering how differently they looked from their original form, but some that could easily be made out were cats, dogs, rats, some kind of elephant/toad hybrid. All the others were too fantastical.

  Gordon Buchanan stuttered. “How could you have gotten all the resources for such a…project.”

  “There is much about my business dealings that is, well, kept out of the light for many reasons. Let’s count this instance as one of them.” Elder vividly rubbed his palms together. “I’m going to make the rest of this short. I’ve started a project that’s going to update how we conduct warfare. These new breeds of fighting animals will replace our brave sons and daughters in the battlefield. They’re going to be scary intelligent, and aptly constructed for as many tasks as need be. Once this is accomplished, we keep the proper funding of the project flowing from the government. They’re going to want in on this very quickly.”

  “This is all very peaches and cream and apples and stuff,” James said without breaks. The disturbing images were affecting he and Gordon the most. “but what could we possibly do to help you? We’re not scientists.”

  “You can propagandize.” Elder replied curtly.

  Everyone was speechless.

  “You,” he pointed to Gordon. “An esteemed storyteller, you can influence thousands of minds with your words. Help make people see that this is an ethical and necessary course of action.” he turned to James and the rest of the gaped jaws. “You’re a journalist. A fantastic one. Keep doing what you do, and you’ll be the first to break this story, but mind your words. And Grant, your position in science will open many doors for you. Many minds will hear you out, and Jefferson over here will be my greatest aid.”

  The room was quiet for several more moments. Everyone was privately going over the ludicrousness of the plan. As Elder watched their mouths and eyes squirm around he knew that his part of the plan was going well. All that needed to happen now was for the group to show at least some support for his clandestine endeavor.

  Gordon looked down at the ground as if held by the weight of his shame. “I think I can speak for us here when I say that an operation like this is undoubtedly for the greater good. But this whole thing leaks of problems.”

  “How so?” Elder replied.

  “As uniquely clever as your assignments to us are, there is only so much I can do as a storyteller. It’s strange that you would-”

  At that moment Elder knew that Gordon had caught something in his eyes. He mentally cursed himself for minutely breaking his character.

  “It’s about more than that isn’t it?” the novelist’s eyes widened. “There’s another reason you want me and James here isn’t there?” Gordon crossed his arms and grew a prideful smile. “We’ve been friends a while, Samuel, you know you can tell me anything. What are you hiding from us?”

  The doctor smiled, remembering the script he composed for himself earlier. “One thing at a time, friend. You can trust me when I say that when this thing is even only half way done, we’re all going to have much improved lives. It’ll be like a fairy tale.”

  Elder ended up answering a few more questions from the awestruck group of influential men and woman. After the official part of the meeting came to a close he made his guests a serving of chai tea, which they enjoyed with the hearty sandwiches he grilled for dinner. By the end of the evening, when his guests were all retired to their own homes, he stood in the middle of the living room in grim solitude.

  Wanting to give himself a shove to get back to work, he opened his wallet and took out a tiny picture of the little girl he was doing all of this for. Sure, there was some degree of merit to the utilitarian, patriotic speech he performed for his friends, but usually visions such as those were masks for personal ambitions. In the photo his daughter lay helpless on a rough laboratory resting bar. Her hair had all fallen off in the transition process. It wasn’t even the result of chemotherapy. Stage four cancer. There was less than a one percent chance she would make it to her sixth birthday.

  He clutched the photo tight in his palm, and passed it to his chest after a sobbing breath.

  “I will save you, BJ.”

  A wind brushed through his open window, followed by a feathered flapping.

  Samuel turned around, letting out a startled scream as a black bird flew in to his house.

  “You ashamed of us, Samuel?” asked the bird.

  The bird flapped its wings a couple more times before settling on the carpeted floor. Once still, the bird’s body began to deform into a colorless void, like thick paste the color of water.

  “No, I’m not!” the doctor replied.

  “Then why didn’t you tell your friends about us?”

  “Because I just unleashed my ambitions upon them.” He gave himself a second to catch his breath. “It wasn’t exactly a normal meeting of friends. I wanted to give them one thing at a time to think about.”

  The void began to fill with color. A flush of black and purple filled the organism as its body leaped up and around. From its wings, it grew long, five-fingered arms and a short head of hair. The human creature standing in front of him wore black clothing with purple stripes. It seemed that that’s what they all wore.

  “Thinking about your daughter, I see.” the former bird smirked.

  “I’d appreciate you not coming in here unless it’s good news about her.”

  “Don’t worry, Doctor Elder.” The human showed some teeth. “I just want to make sure you’re not backing out of our agreement. Next time feel free to actually give us credit for most of your work and even invite one of us to your meeting. The Serpent League can be a temperamental bunch.”

  5

  Respect Your Elder

  A surge of kinetic energy woke him up from his chemical slumber. Edgar writhed around in fright, but his binds prevented him from moving his limbs. Any pain that was inflicted from the brutes earlier that night had subsided. Whatever chemicals his body was being drowned in by IVs had accelerated his already great healing power. By some power other than his physical squirming, the devices attached to him retreated to the back of the wall. A large helmet-like device that he didn’t initially notice, rose off his head, giving his protruding ears enough room to wiggle freely.

  Now that he was no longer bound, the bat was able to evaluate his surroundings. He wasn’t exactly free due to the large steel bars covering all his corners. He was in a large, inescapable cage, and he knew who put him there. Beyond his cell was nothing but woods. Off in the moonlit distance he could see nothing but darkness, so he let his ears and echolocation do most of the work. Chirps of tiny insects along with the intermittent call or cry of nocturnal birds and scuffles of raccoons and possums among twigs were the main attractions. Not since he joined the Raven Gang did he feel so isolated and out of place.

  But the most telling animal in the area was the one hidden in the shadows several yards in front of him. Of all the creatures Edgar had encountered in his gifted lifespan, the one arrogantly standing before him was the vilest. As if sensing that the flying mammal was now fully conscious of what had all transpired, Elder took his form out of the darkness and approached the lone cage.

  He wore the same thick glasses and rugged features as always. Only
now he seemed peaceful, not threatening. Instead of a chemical stained white lab coat, he had a tidy, welcoming suit.

  “Edgar, right?” he started with a grin. “That’s what your friends call you. Since you don’t seem to object to it, I will do the same. Is that okay?”

  Edgar didn’t move for a moment. He glared at the doctor’s eyes unblinkingly. As much as he detested his creator he didn’t want to spend more time in his prison than necessary. He obediently bowed his head in reply while privately putting together a string of English words.

  “Yes, Elder. Go on ahead.” the bat replied.

  Edgar’s mouth dropped open and his tongue fell out as if he were out of water. In his current state he couldn’t realize the cause of the language he put together. It had a rough, genderless tone, and in the moments after the words were formed in English in his brain he came to the correct realization. Just like the gryphons who had ambushed him in urban Washington, he now had the technology to speak.

  “You…” the bat started. “How am I doing this?”

  “The device that was resting on your head before you woke up hacked into your brain waves.” Elder couldn’t stop his smile from widening like the Cheshire Cat’s. “I can’t take much responsibility for making it. If you have the kind of resources I’ve had in my career as a scientist, you get to play with a few cool toys all by yourself.”

  “But…I…is this permanent?”

  “No. Sorry, old friend. It’s temporary. It will wither away in a brief period.” The doctor adjusted his frames and took a step closer to Edgar’s cage. “But giving you the ability to communicate telepathically with me will make this conversation a lot easier.”

  Edgar lowered his head angrily. He moved back to the end of the cell and crossed his wings over his chest like a moody teenager.

  “You can talk. I have nothing to say to you.” His fangs began to bare. The bat’s long white teeth were almost the length of small swords. It made no difference to the doctor. Nothing spooked him anymore.

  “Really? Even though I saved you from a lowly existence?”

  The disgruntled creature raised an eye to the scientist. It was a bitter one. “A lowly existence? I don’t recall you being there. And I remember being content.”

  “Whatever fondness you have of your average vampire bat days are clouded with sentiment. You don’t see what I see when I look at you.”

  “Oh?” Edgar took two slow steps towards Elder’s side of the prison. He lowered his yellow eyes, leveling them with Elder’s lensed ones. “And what do you see when you look at me? The animal that bested you? The one that broke free of your tyranny? The being that made a better life for himself?”

  “No!” Elder boomed sharply. “I see a waste of a life. I see an animal that only lives by taking life force from others. I see a leech reliant on the existence of other lowly beings to survive.” Elder wrapped his palms around two steel bars. Edgar was unnerved by the quick loss of his mild manner. “As I seem to recall, nothing has changed in that department. You still take blood in order to survive. So tell me, Edgar, what is the worth in that? What is the worth in your existence if it can only be sustained by taking such vital fluid from others? What good do you bring?”

  The bat quietly lowered his brow. The winter, east coast wind started to chill him to the point fur wasn’t enough. He tightened his wings around his body, and soothed himself with several warm flaps of air from the friction of his wings. When he was satisfied he looked back up at his creator, who was waiting for a reply.

  “You know what I see when I look at your species?” he started softly.

  Elder pouted his face, softly shrugging in reply. “No.”

  “Then let me tell you. I see a species that is arrogant enough to think that rationality comes from language or from some deity that treats them as though they were the center of the universe. I see a species that only cares about profit and won’t blink an eye about tearing down fellow animals’ happiness: even great apes that are so similar to you.” Edgar’s telepathic speech was chillingly cool. Even if you could have stuttered, he wouldn’t have. “A species that, to use your favorite word, leeches off farm animals for their meat and milk, substances that they don’t need but they consume for pleasure because it tastes good. Well, guess what, genius, I don’t have that choice. I need to consume blood or I will die. Now tell me, who is really lower? The one who steals because he has to, or the one that does it for fun?”

  After pausing for several moments in which both beings did nothing but try to outgun each other by looking at the other dead in the eyes, the doctor raised his hands and began a slow clap.

  “I made you too smart.” he nearly laughed. “Now that was an answer. Ever think of entering essay contests?”

  Edgar snorted and leaned his head closer to the bars. “You only made a small part of me. I’m my voice in my own head, I promise you that. As freeing as that sounds, it’s limiting, as are your actions. They’re wholly determined by the environment that bred and raised you as well.”

  The doctor didn’t reply. He steadily removed his glasses, tucking them in the breast pocket of his suit. He crossed his arms over his chest and stared once more back at the bat with a soft, sincere smile.

  “It gives me such pleasure to see you have such a fire in you.” he continued, with no trace of a threat. “You went through a lot of pain when my team made you. I know that. But even though the plan with you didn’t go as I’d wanted: seeing that those friends of yours are willing to have you at their side, knowing that you are trying to get past this whole thing,” his breathing became broken, and his eyes were lost of focus. “it makes me proud of you. As if you’re achievements are sort of mine as well. I haven’t been a father for a long time, but it felt a little like that.”

  The loud bang of a wing banging against the steel stopped Elder’s mouth. Edgar’s winged thumbs were bent around the bars, and he brought his head as close to Elder’s as the prison would allow him. “Don’t say that! That’s a sadistic thing to say considering what you did! I had a father. A biological one, and he was a much more noble animal than you.”

  Elder had to compose himself after the big animal’s outburst. “I understand how this sounds to you, but we haven’t even gotten to discussing the reason why I brought you here tonight.”

  “Yeah? So why did you?”

  “Because you’re dying.” Elder said breathlessly.

  The bat innocently blinked his eyes and relaxed his wings. “I’m dying? Is it the device in my brain?”

  “Yes. Days ago, when the energy blast from the watches broke the most vital part of it, a reaction was set off. So far it’s so miniscule that you can’t feel it yet. Its growth is exponential.” He frowned. Elder looked to the grass at his feet, not wanting to see his creation’s sad face. “In a few days you will be in intense pain. With your biological regulator only working in the part that gives you technology powers and simple stuff, you will slowly be drained of everything.”

  Somewhere above them clouds began to blot out the moon’s glow. Edgar took a seat at the end of the cell. The sobering news hit him like a mallet. He couldn’t give himself any comfort, and just laid there with his wings open on the ground.

  “How much time do I have left?”

  “By my estimation, you have until Christmas day.”

  Edgar scratched his head. “Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because there is a way to save you.”

  “How?” there was passion in his telepathy again. “What do I do?”

  Elder hesitated, biting his tongue. “Come back to me.”

  When the giant bat didn’t reply, Elder explained. “I can repair you in my lab. I can make the device as good as new. But you would lose your freedom and have to abandon your new friends.”

  The disenchanted Edgar sat there still with his jaw agape. “How do I know you’re telling the truth?”

  “You could wait a few days and see for yourself, but I think you know I’m
not lying.”

  Edgar shut his mouth. It wasn’t the right time to start a fight. He knew the biologist was telling the truth.

  “And if I did this. If I came back,” his mind said slowly. “you would control me again.”

  “Of course I would. I haven’t put all these plans together just to be defeated by sentiment. I wouldn’t expect you to understand. You don’t know what I know about the nature of how my vision came to be.”

  After a tense silence the bat shook his head. “No. There is no way I would do that.”

  He could hear Elder’s breathing change. “Take a moment to get away from your idea of fighting for the ‘greater good’. Be selfish for a second. Think about yourself. You need to ask yourself what these humans you’ve associated with mean to you. How do you know that they will continue to accept you if they go back to their normal lives? How do you know they won’t turn on you because you’re a danger to everyone around you? How do you know they really care about you? I still have an army, human and animal, as small as they have gotten now. Soldiers who believe in the project in every form it’s taken and beasts that are powerful enough to conquer cities. You can join the ranks and be part of the new order.”

  The doctor backed away from the cage. He turned around halfway into the looming darkness, and with a wave of his hand he dismissed any reply for his subject. “These are important questions. I’ll give you until dawn to make your choice.”

  Patrick’s heart leaped as he heard the search team come back inside.

  “Did you find him?” he asked, knowing well what the answer was.

  Gary, Lindsey and Johnny sloppily tossed their jackets onto the couch as the back door shut.

  “He’s not out there.” Lindsey frowned. “The only sign he was there was the pool of blood dripping from a pile of snow.”

  Johnny took a seat at the table. “You were right, Patrick. I don’t know how it happened, but you can sense these things. Let’s hope next time it’s not too late.”