by Joseph Storm
Julie Reed continued to beg, as the tattooed woman shook her head in disappointment. She wanted a challenge, though it was clear she wasn’t going to get one.
“You want blood?” Tattoo called out to the crowd.
“Hell yeah!” they shouted.
The loud hazing went to a quiet, blurred hum. Julie looked up at her husband, singling him out. In her mind, it was just the two of them. They locked eyes, as she mouthed the words, “I love you,” followed by her last one, “Goodbye.”
Realizing that the show needed something big, the tattooed woman approached Reed, who continued to stay zoned in on her husband. She went to that place where no more pain could reach her.
The scaled hands of Julie’s opponent were placed on her soft, dirty face. Inky webbed fingers gripped her chin. She grabbed a handful of skin from the defeated, tearful woman.
With one swift movement, Julie’s life was over. The opponent broke her neck, twisting the front all the way to the back.
Julie’s eyes went blank, and she spilled to the ground. The crowd cheered loudly, as Jonah yelled, “NO!” He tried to jump into the hole, desperately wanting to join his dead wife. Joe, Gunner, and Tommy stopped him before he could take the plunge.
“Not now...not like this! We’ll get our revenge,” Joe assured him.
******
Becky lay awake in the crowded bunk, trying to conjure up hope that her friend would return alive.
The doors flew open. In walked the victorious and cocky tattooed woman. “No challenge at all,” she said, laughing out loud. Most of the women fled their bunks, paying homage to the tattooed prisoner. They hoped that it would buy them some goodwill. Becky however, stayed in her bunk, trying to extend her line of sight to the open doors.
To her horror, she saw Julie’s dead body laying on a cart. Lita made her way inside, as the women scrambled back to their beds in fear of punishment.
The heartless guard made her way to Becky and Stacey. “You were her friends?”
“Yes,” Becky said.
“Well...I didn’t really know her that well,” Stacey said. Becky gave her a dirty look.
“Come with me,” Lita ordered them. Stacey gasped and they rose, exiting the building. Becky looked back at Jane, who was not called upon, only furthering the suspicion of her.
As they exited the prisoner barracks, the body was the first sight to greet them. Ms. Fox bolted to it, shedding tears. She placed a hand on the gentle woman’s lifeless face.
“My G..,” she said, pausing before she said the punishable word of God.
“Disgusting! I’ve never seen a dead body so close before,” Stacey cringed.
“Grab the cart, and follow me,” Lita demanded.
Becky grabbed a handle of the heavy cart. She looked toward a frozen Stacey, staring at the body in pale disbelief.
“Help me,” Becky yelled at her.
Stacey joined, but was little help in the dragging of the death cart. They were made to march to a far corner of their camp, where two shovels awaited them.
“Dig,” Lita said.
Becky pulled herself together. She used her bare feet to thrust the spade’s dull tip into the ground. The dirt had already been disturbed.
Stacey was still very little help. The high maintenance woman moved slowly, unearthing little ground.
The shovel struck something hard. Becky uncovered a half decayed face staring back at her. Stacey screamed loudly, as Fox gasped in horror.
“Keep going...deeper and to the right,” Lita demanded.
Following the directions, Becky dug a shallow grave. They were made to lift the lifeless Julie, placing her into the hole.
As they did it, Stacey vomited off to the side. Lita smiled at the sight. Becky shoveled dirt, gently covering the body. “May I say a few words of remembrance?” she asked Lita.
“On your own time,” Lita said coldly. “Which, you have none. Back to bed.”
Becky helped Stacey to her feet, as the two marched through the chilly night air. They returned to their bunks with nothing but nightmares awaiting them.
******
“Julie....Julie....Julie,” Jonah Reed repeated constantly. It was as if he could hear or speak nothing else.
The group of men whispered through the dark confines of the bunks. They were confident the others around them were in the same state of mind. “It’s time to make a run for it,” Tommy said. “We’ve got nothing else to lose.”
“One shot...why waste it on a death charge? We need a solid plan,” Joe said.
“What other options do we have? You said it yourself...ask them permission to leave?”
“I second that, kid,” Gunner said. “Caution is for pussies! Run or done.”
“They’ll mow us down one by one,” Joe replied. “We’re out gunned.”
“But not outmanned,” Tommy said.
“We will be if we pull a mindless stunt like that. First of all...we can’t move until Spring.”
“You must be crazy,” Tommy said.
“Again...I second that,” Gunner replied.
“We need cover of foliage...and besides...we’ve been out there. You can’t make it long or far in these cold, Virginia winters. We’ll need weapons, time to set up an offensive. At least a distraction to give us a fighting chance.”
“Weapons? Where do we get those?” Tommy asked.
“By doing what you do best...trading for them. Cigarettes, favors, anything we can get our hands on will work. We’ll need some firepower...explosives.”
“The last time I checked...there wasn’t exactly a bomb depot nearby. Get real...would ya, kid,” Gunner told him.
“Not a bomb...just the ingredients to make one.”
“You know how?” Tommy asked.
“I do.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t pick that up in congress?”
“That wasn’t on the agenda.”
“They were too busy voting on pay raises,” Gunner called out.
“In the meantime, we watch each other’s backs. Plan carefully and quietly....use our heads, as muscles are no match for the guns. The most important thing...” Joe told them.
“What would that be?” Tommy asked.
“Stay alive.”
Chapter Fourteen:
The Experiment
“Just relax. This is meant to help...not hurt,” an eerily eager Dr. Johann Mange said. He pushed his thick, rimmed glasses up his longish nose to his beady eyes. A slight German accent touched his dialogue. Messed plugs of hair, and a long white lab coat gave him the look of a mad scientist. It was a fact not too distant from reality.
Gunner’s police colleague, Jerry Simmons, laid nervously on the table. He was draped in a paper gown. Dr. Mange pressed a button, as Jerry was sucked into an MRI-like tube. It stopped at his lower extremities. There was no need to go any further.
“Take it easy. The machine will do the rest of the work,” Dr. Mange said, as he started to exit the room.
“What are you doing to me?” Jerry yelled out.
Dr. Mange stopped and thought for a moment. “Fixing nature’s errors,” he said with anxiousness on his face.
Jerry looked even more weary and confused than before.
Dr. Mange exited the room with an eager smile. He entered an adjacent room, watching through a glass observation window. Dr. Layman awaited him there. “Activate the gamma radiation for the subject,” Johann said proudly.
Dr. Layman picked up a recorder and spoke into it, “Mr. Jerry Simmons...”
“No names!”
“Excuse me, doctor?”
“Never speak a patient’s name in my presence. You are to say test subject and the number on his neck! Names indicate humanity. These things are scourges of the earth...not human beings.”
“I am sorry, doctor. Test subject 10035,” Dr. Layman said, deactivating the recorder after his learned lesson in humility.
“Do not let such incompetence repeat itself.”
; An uneasy look came across Dr. Layman’s face, though he forced himself to speak. “Sir, I know I am overstepping my bounds here...but, this is unethical...at best. At worst...it’s inhuman.”
“Are you questioning my methods, doctor?”
“No...no, sir. I just...I just feel that something more humane might be in order. A vasectomy maybe...but bursts of long term, high levels of radiation? It will end up killing more than his ability to procreate.”
“That is not your area of expertise or concern, doctor. Vasectomy’s can be reversed...wasting valuable time and resources we do not possess. You were chosen to assist me, not question me. My education far outranks yours. Were you awarded the Noble Prize for science?”
“I was not, sir.”
“Exactly. Now do as you are told.”
Doctor Layman activated the machine. A searing light shot out from the tube, covering Jerry’s reproductive areas. He didn’t feel any pain. I guess this won’t be as bad as I thought...whatever it is, he told himself.
However, what he didn’t realize was that the true damage would be long term. It was not only to his body, but to American society in general. Project eradicate was signed into law by Mika Sorka. Its first wave decreed that males aged 12-65, which voted against the Government Party or showed insubordination, would be sterilized by radiation or castration. Jerry was lucky to be in the early stages of the radiation cycle.
The hundreds of prisoners at the camp, millions country wide, would take years to treat. The costly process would only allow them to sterilize one per day. However, if everything went according to plan, the second wave would be much cheaper, quicker, and deadlier.
That was still in testing mode.
Dr. Mange watched the deadly light dance through the room. Tears entered his eyes, as he said, “It’s like an opera...beauty, life, death...all played out before our very eyes.”
Dr. Layman observed his colleague with disturbed eyes. He wondered if it would have been better to have refused past orders, and paid with his own life. The heinous acts required of him couldn’t compare to a quick death. He almost hoped that the government was correct about religion being a hoax, because if they were wrong, judgement day would not be one to look forward to.
In contrast, Dr. Mange often slept soundly and satisfied. The prior Nobel Prize winner for finding various cures had immediately caught Mika’s eyes. Sorka offered the doctor more money than he could refuse, though the young prodigy surprisingly refused it. “You refuse me?” Sorka asked him.
“Not you, Herr Sorka. It is your money which I refuse. The opportunity to create...to take medicine where it’s never gone before. That I accept.”
Dr. Johann Mange was born in Germany. He did the things that society always required of him, such as finding the cure. However, deep down in his dark brain, he always asked himself, “Anyone can find the cure, but how many amongst us can birth the disease?” It was a question he once wrote a thesis on. It was pulled from the light of day by a particular professor, who geared Johann towards the mainstream, while sending the work to Mika. Many professors around the country were paid scouts for the powerful trillionaire, searching for “talent” all over the globe.
Dr. Mange found inspiration in old Frankenstein movies. He fixated on the ability to go outside the mainstream, beyond the fringe, and create a niche of all his own. The sterilization was just a warm up. The procedure was nothing new and had been done before. However, his true purpose was near. He would soon get to perform the experiment.
The Gamma Rays had done their job, killing every one of the million + life giving sperm inside the former police officer. It assured that the offspring of a man who voted against the government would never see the light of day.
The machine shut down, as Dr. Mange entered the room. He walked through the remains of radioactive haze hanging invisibly through the air. “Your treatment is complete,” he told Jerry, who sat up, unfazed.
“What did you treat me for?”
“A hidden sickness which every prisoner in this camp has. It’s one unseen, lurking deep inside each one of you. Fear not, it will soon be eradicated from existence.”
******
The eighteen year-old Emma entered the camp in an SUV. She looked around at the poor, dirty souls who slaved away at hard labor. Her heart broke for them, even though compassion was supposedly brainwashed from her. It was still hidden inside. They can control my brain, but not my heart, she told herself.
The vehicle was brought to the male guards’ quarters, which she entered, finding it empty. “What do I do?” she asked the accompanying guard.
“I was ordered to bring you here, my job is done,” he said, exiting the room.
Emma looked around, seeing a cloth wrapped around a small object. It was laying on one of the beds.
She slowly made her way to it, looking around to see if anyone was watching her. Unwrapping the cloth, layer by layer, she uncovered a red rose. “I haven’t seen something so vivid...with so much color...so much life in years,” she told herself.
“I have,” Rock’s voice sounded from behind her.
“Rock!” she said with pure joy, lunging toward him. The two embraced. “I wasn’t sure if I’d ever see you again.”
“I made sure of it,” he said, as she stared into his eyes. Rock moved in, passionately kissing her lips.
A frightened Emma quickly pulled away, looking around in a paranoid manner. “But...but, if they find out...if someone sees us we’ll be punished.”
“I’m in control around here...it’s how I got you transfered to me. This camp needs its water girl...I need my girl,” he said, returning to kiss her. She was more comfortable, allowing the kiss to complete itself.
“You’re really in charge here? We’re really free to show our love?”
“No,” he said emphatically.
“I didn’t think so.”
“I mean...I’m in charge of this camp...but my orders still come from above. Commander Xavier arrives soon.”
The moment of rare happiness faded from Emma’s face, as they spent their whole lives learning not to test Commander Xavier. As the years progressed, Emma’s newfound control over her government minder was put to maximum use. She approached Rock, laying with him, talking for all hours of the night.
She told him of her family, her dog, her house, and life in general. They were things which Rock never had. He never questioned it publicly, but it plagued his thoughts daily. Where is my family? He asked himself. Although it was just small doses of reality, it was the reason that the steroid filled man had more than rage inside him. He also had heart.
“We must be extra careful while the commander is around,” Emma warned.
“Don’t worry...he’ll be busy interrogating the new prisoners. It’s his main purpose for coming.”
“Don’t you get new prisoners every day? What’s special about these?”
“They are the ones we’ve been hunting. The last holdouts.”
A look of disappointment crossed Emma’s face. Word of the rebels had filtered through the dojos, as they had taken on legendary status. They were known as the only ones who could outsmart the government. There were even rumors they had evidence to bring it all crashing down. However, that was no longer a possibility.
“Does that upset you?” Rock asked. “I caught them myself...I thought it would bring honor to us all.”
Emma quickly shifted her expression to one of overwhelming joy. “Oh no...I’m thrilled! It’s just that...it’s something else.”
“Who is bothering you? I’ll deal with them immediately.”
“I just...am tired of hiding us,” she said. “We’ve snuck around for so long...I just want to be able to hug you when I want. Love you in front of others.”
“This won’t be forever. Someday...I’ll take command of it all. I’ll make sure you are by my side.”
“You’ve said that for a while now. There are days...when it seems so far away. Almost impossible.”
<
br /> “Don’t give up on us,” Rock said, as he grabbed the rose and ran it along her freckled skin. She closed her eyes, letting the soft petals give her a rare moment of pleasure. She hadn’t had many like it in the years of captivity.
The truth is, she hadn’t had many years of happiness growing up either. Her selfish mother always put her second, and the death of her father left a gaping hole in her heart.
“Where did you get that flower? I haven’t seen one of those since I was a kid,” Emma inquired.
“Believe it or not...there are some perks that come with power,” he told her.
“I look forward to seeing more.”
“Why wait?” he asked, gripping her by the chin, and lifting her lips towards his. He moved in for a long passionate kiss, laying her down on the bed.
“Are you sure they won’t catch us here? We can be killed for this.”
“Trust me,” Rock assured her. Emma abandoned her fear, and moved back in towards his lips.
******
The new dawn had not arrived yet, though Joe, Gunner, and Tommy lay wide awake. A delirious Jonah Reed rambled on through the night. “Julie, Julie,” he said in defeat.
“He’s officially nuts,” Gunner said.
“He better snap out of it by inventory...or he’ll disappear,” Tommy warned. “The last guy that had a meltdown...we never saw him again.”
“I’ll drag him out if I have to,” Joe commanded. His voice went to a low whisper, as he quickly changed the subject. “At the moment...we have a greater issue to deal with. It’s time to make our grocery list.”
“Hey kid, I’ll take a steak and a shot of whiskey...straight up,” Gunner interjected.
“The groceries I speak of...have more of a kick,” Striker said. “We’ll need to start now...in order to get them by spring.”
“I just hope they’re realistic,” Tommy said. “They’re not gonna just hand out deadly items.”
“We’ll each take separate tasks. Can you get one of us on unloading duty with that guy?” Joe asked.
“The reaper?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s gonna cost me a boatload of smokes.”