by Teo Xue Shen
All my doubts have now been cleared. Damn this bastard to hell. Street 51. Human experimentation. There seems to be no bounds as to how low he’s willing to sink.
“So Street 51 was your doing?” Raine grits her teeth. “You were using a living person to create Heires?”
“Yes. But that’s not my point. Now, I know that after all you’ve been through, you probably won’t be excited to join my side, but…”
“Oh, you have no idea,” Ivy snarls.
“Ivy, Ren, Raine and April. Squads Seventy-Two and Fifty-Seven. You were captured by the Savages while trying to aid the conquest of a city. Yet somehow, you returned to kill me. You see, I’m not Captain because of my physical prowess. I’m Captain because of this,” he smirks, tapping his head. “I’ve memorised every single detail of every single operation and the names and faces of every single soldier in our country. What goes in, never comes back out. For that matter, Ren, your parents were one of the most stubborn people I’ve had to deal with. I’m glad I killed them. And of course, it was me who placed you and Raine in the same group in hope that if she found out you were involved in the Street 51 accident, she’d kill you for us. You see, I didn’t completely trust your little act. Unfortunately, that didn’t go as planned. Of course, you still might not remember a single thing about it, do you, Ren? About how you got Raine’s brother killed?”
I tense, ready to strike this bastard down where he stands. Raine grabs my hand. He’s baiting you, she mouths. I know, Raine, I know. But it’s so difficult not to go for his head.
“Why?” Raine whispers, throwing him a look of pure spite. “If you know so much, why carry on with this pointless war?”
“Pointless?” his eyes widen. “I’m cleansing this bloody planet. Cleansing them of genetically modified people. Utterly disgusting. They should all be buried six feet under. They are a disgrace to the human race.”
“Your own people are genetically modified,” Raine growls. “And so are you.”
“My people?” he snorts. “Those pawns are not my people. They are tools which I have engineered to suit my purpose, which is the eradication of genetically modified people from the face of this earth for the greater good. Their lives are worth nothing. Damn monstrosities. In fact, I’ll destroy the lot of them and spit on their corpses when this entire farce is over. And, for the record, I do not possess any Extensions.”
“Destroy them?” April echoes. “Why? Why not just reverse the surgical process?”
“Pah!” he sneers. “You really believe that rubbish? Reversible surgical procedure? What utter bullshit! You’re stuck like that for the rest of your lives! You damn imbeciles. You get it, don’t you? You were lied to and now, you’re condemned to remain as monsters for the rest of your short, miserable lives!”
My rage is boiling over. To hear him so casually dismiss the millions of soldiers who have died for this ridiculous cause makes me want to vomit.
“You…you lied to us?” Raine’s voice trembles.
“Yes.”
“There’s no way back?”
“Nope.”
“I’ll kill you, if that’s the last thing I do.”
“Yes, yes,” he nods smugly. “I got that.”
So that’s it. I’ll be modified forever. All of us. I don’t know what to feel about it any more.
“Well now, back to the main point,” the Captain says, wiping a bead of sweat off his forehead. “My offer.”
“Does it include your death?” Raine asks pointedly.
“Nope. I’ll offer you something better. Freedom. All I want is information on the Savages. Where their bases are and all that stuff. You’ve been captured so it’d be right to assume you saw some, well, interesting things. And in return, I’ll grant you your freedom. You’ll be able to live your lives as normal people. I’ll ensure that the military never touches you again. All you have to do is put aside your petty idea of revenge and give me the information I need.”
“You damn snake,” she snarls. “You must have lots of enemies out there.”
“I’m pragmatic,” he shrugs. “And don’t worry about me. All my enemies are either rotting away in prison, or buried underground. My intellect isn’t to be trifled with, I’ll have you know.”
“There are no Savages,” April says firmly. “You are a waste of time.”
“How unfortunate,” he sighs, taking an object out of his pocket. “I suppose it’s time for us to part.”
He presses a couple of buttons on the object. Instantly, the Heire begins to spasm wildly, thrashing around so violently that we cannot approach. The Captain drops the object and crouches down.
“What the hell did you just do?” I yell.
“Did you know that a cockroach’s brain is spread out along its spine?” he intones seriously. “All of the Hekatonkheires have genes of the cockroach embedded in them. What I have done is disabled the microchip inside their heads, meaning they are now commanded by a secondary brain of their own in their spines. They will now attack anything deemed a threat with greater precision and lethality than the microchip could ever command.”
One word catches my attention.
“They?”
“Yes. All Hekatonkheires within a five-hundred-kilometre radius.”
“Are you insane?” Raine demands. “What about the Heires above ground? They’ll go on a rampage! Stop this now! Your precious unmodified people will be massacred!”
“You know,” he says somewhat sadly. “I planned for this all along. Everything was going well until the people within the walls lost interest in the Savages. Guess why most of the people in the armed forces are orphans like you. Because we’re gradually losing the support of the public. This will fan the embers of hatred within them. It’ll be a catalyst for an even greater war. I’ll pin the blame on you guys and that’ll be it. You’ve provided the perfect opportunity I’d been waiting for. So what if a few lives are lost? A sacrifice must be made in the pursuit of greatness!”
His words echo across the cavern. For some reason, it sounds strange, a little too slow to be an echo. Then, I realise that it’s echoing above the cavern too. A grim look on her face, April taps the device in her hand, the one she had been fiddling with for the entire week. The Captain’s entire speech begins booming out.
“They’ve heard everything,” April informs him cordially. “I hacked into the media’s broadcasting network during the time I spent here. Thought you’d be pleased to know that your grand plan has been recorded and broadcasted throughout the country through my little device over here.”
The Captain’s disgustingly pleasant demeanour slips, his eyes growing wide with horror when he realises what April has done.
“What the hell are you…” The Captain loses his composure for the first time. “YOU WRETCH! I’LL KILL YOU…”
The Heire stops thrashing abruptly.
“You know, the more skilled the subject was when he was alive, the more dangerous the Hekatonkheire produced,” he fires his parting shot. “Squad Seventy-Two. Winner of the Tournament battle with Squad Thirty-Four. I’ll see how you deal with that.”
The Captain’s mouth snaps shut and he scampers away, down another passageway, throwing us a look of condensed hatred. Fully focused on us, the Heire advances.
“Rick?” April asks hesitantly. “Are you in there?”
It lunges at her so quickly that she doesn’t have time to react. She’s only saved by Raine, who dives in and shoves April out of the way.
“That’s not Rick!” Raine yells in her ear. “April! Get it together. That is not Rick!”
The Heire pivots on one foot, spinning around sharply to finish off the duo. I intercept it, catching its Extensions with my own. Growling, it wrenches free, a set of claws whistling over my head. A second set of claws follows suit, raking me across my chest. Pain flares as the front of my shirt is gradually dyed red. Ivy steps in, engaging the Heire with her rifle. She’s only buying us time, knowing that her bullets can’t hurt i
t. April gets to her feet and circles around it. Her eyes are determined, her expression blank. Finding an opportunity, she lashes out. And misses. The Heire twists out of the way of the deadly barb, reacting flawlessly even though it was attacked from a blind spot.
Time for Plan B. If that thing can stand up to the combined attack by the four of us, it’s likely that we won’t make it out of this by brute force. I take the explosive bracelets out of my pocket.
“Back up,” I warn. “April! Strike it on my count!”
She nods. As one, we leap back and I chuck the bracelets at the Heire.
“April! Now!” I shout as I hit the detonator.
The resultant explosion rocks the cavern, creating an insistent ringing in my ears. I’m quite sure my hearing has been damaged from all that noise. When the dust settles, I peer out cautiously. April’s Extension is sticking out of the Heire’s left shoulder. She missed. No, she didn’t miss. She couldn’t do it. As I gape at the Heire, it grabs April’s Extension and rips it out of its shoulder, swinging April around like a rag doll.
“April!”
Raine leaps forward and catches her before she hits the wall of the passageway. The Heire spins around, brandishing a cobra-like Extension. It spits in our direction, spraying venom across the floor. I absorb the damage with a pincer, tearing at its Extension with my own. Faster than my eye can follow, projectiles come hurtling towards me, followed by a large paw. I dodge, but one of the projectiles sticks in my right leg, sending a painful numbing sensation travelling up my spine. It’s a porcupine’s quill. Another hail of projectiles comes flying my way. Ivy jumps in front of me, her Extension, which is starting to look more like a pincushion by the moment, held protectively over her head. The Captain is right. This is the strongest Heire we’ve fought so far, possibly even the strongest out there. Our chances of winning are basically zero.
“We need to go!” I roar, emptying a magazine of ammunition at the Heire. “We can’t fight it!”
“As if it’ll let us!” Raine yells back, lashing out with her Extension.
“Pipes!”
“What?”
“Distraction!” I shout. “Out of the way!”
Attracted by my shouting, the Heire lunges in my direction. I back up, then smash my Extension into the metal pipes along the wall. There’s a loud hissing sound, as though I’d just punched a Gorgon, as a cloud of steam bursts from the pipe, right into the Heire’s face. Temporarily blinded, it howls madly and thrashes about, its Extensions gouging out chunks of concrete from the walls of the passageway.
“Run!”
We run. We may have failed, but at least I’ve learnt something. The crucial bit of information we need. They react to stimuli. Distracted by the explosion, it failed to guard against April’s Extension. Furthermore, it defended itself with its Extensions when Ivy shot at it earlier, despite the fact that its body isn’t affected by bullets. In a way, this makes them slightly easier to fight. They might be faster, stronger and more precise than the original Heires, but they lack human intelligence.
“You all right?” Raine prods me in the chest, right where I got raked by the Heire.
I wince. It hurts, but it isn’t anything to worry about.
“I’m fine. It’s just a flesh wound. Keep running.”
“Right. You’re getting it treated the first opportunity we get. Clear?”
No room for argument here. She doesn’t even bother to wait for a response. Instead, she produces one of Resh’s devices. The helpline. She hits the button and it blares to life, crackling with the sound of static interference. She frowns, then speaks rapidly into it. I can’t hear a reply. She’s about to try again when April gently takes the device from her. Within minutes, she’s informed Resh of the situation above us.
“Give me one day,” Resh’s monotonous voice comes through the device. “Hold out till then.”
I’ve no idea what made him decide to help us, but I sure hope we can count on it. Because otherwise, Pangaea, or rather, Singapore’s walled community of Pangaea, will be in deep shit.
“I’m sorry,” April huffs, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I couldn’t do it. It just…it just looks so…similar…”
“Forget about it.” I shake my head. “It was my fault for pushing that role on you in the first place. Let’s just hope it doesn’t find…”
A maddened roar reverberates down the tunnel behind us.
“I think it’s chasing us,” Raine curses. “Any ideas?”
“I think I can…maybe if I can figure out something…” April mutters, fiddling with a strange object in her hand.
The Captain’s remote control. The one he used to free the Heires. She must’ve grabbed it when the Heire flung her at the wall of the passageway. There’s no time for me to think. Ahead, the passage widens up. Panting, we burst into a brightly lit cavern. The ceiling is at least three storeys high, with six floodlights hanging from it. Stacks of wooden crates line the walls, reaching high above our heads. At the very end of the cavern is an underground river, a flight of steps leading down from its concrete banks. Moored by the steps is a boat, operated by two of the Captain’s guards who are standing in it. And right in the middle of the cavern is our quarry. The Captain. He sees us, yelps and makes a beeline for the boat.
“Ren! Boost!” Raine yells.
I swing her up on my pincer. Just when the pincer reaches the peak of its arc, she hits it with her clubs, catapulting herself across the cavern and over the Captain’s head. The guards shout in alarm and move to intercept her. Snarling, she engages. The Captain swivels around, coming to a complete stop. There’s a growing fear in his eyes as we advance. Too late, I realise that he isn’t looking at us. He’s looking at what’s behind us. The Heire. We’ve found the Captain and now, it’s found us. I leap out of the way as a pincer comes slamming down, smashing the floor tiles into smithereens.
“Raine!”
“Yeah?”
“The Heire! Be careful!”
“Just a little bit busy at the moment,” she calls over her shoulder, keeping the two guards at bay.
“We’ll stop it here,” I say. “Don’t let it get to her. And kill the Captain, if possible.”
“Hell yeah,” Ivy replies. “You think we stand a chance?”
I shake my head.
She stares at me for a moment, then beams. “Splendid. I’m glad we met.”
“Same here,” I nod.
She claps me on the back and begins sprinting towards the left wall of the cavern. I peel off in the opposite direction, circling around the Heire. It pauses, then seems to decide that I’m the more annoying target. Six Extensions come shooting towards me. I raise my rifle and fire. Three of the Extensions fold inwards, absorbing the impact of the bullets while the other three carry on along their initial trajectory. I catch an octopus’ tentacle with a pincer and stab a wolverine’s claw with a tail. Before the third Extension, a scorpion’s tail, can hit me, Ivy unloads a couple of rounds into the Heire. Immediately, the tail whips in her direction. She rolls out of the way as it hollows out a brand new channel in the wall. While it’s distracted by Ivy, I rip my Extensions free, plant the tip of my tail into the ground and swing myself at the Heire. I land on its shoulders, stabbing down viciously with my barbed stinger. It glances uselessly off the Heire’s armour-like plating. I’m about to try a different spot when strands of a spider’s web entangle my Extension, holding it tightly in place. There’s no time for me to react. A claw comes sailing in, cleaving my Extension neatly in two. I duck under the claw, only to realise that there is a second Extension behind it: the head and body of an electric eel.
I have roughly half a second to ponder the unfairness of life. Then, it hits me. The shock, coupled with the reflex from my muscles, sends me flying like a bullet out of an ejector port. My unceremonious flight through the air is cut short by a wall and I fall in a heap. My vision is blurred, and an excruciating soreness burns through my body. I start twitching an
d jerking erratically as my muscles begin to spasm. It takes tremendous effort to even move an arm the way I want it to. I stagger to my feet, blinking hard to get my vision back into focus. The Heire raises an Extension. Unsteadily, I raise my own in defiance.
Ivy darts in, using the Heire’s Extension as a stepping stone. She leaps at it, sailing through the air in a bundle of white feathers. But her target isn’t the Heire. It’s the Captain. She unfolds her Extension and swings her rifle around. I see her bring the scope to her eyes, taking aim in mid-air. She squeezes the trigger.
Crack! The bullet punches a hole in the wooden crate right beside the Captain’s head. Before she can fire another shot, the Heire swats her out of the air, sending her flying in my direction. She must’ve been hit with tremendous force, for I’m unable to catch her. Instead, she cannonballs into me, knocking us both to the ground. On the far side of the cavern, the Captain ducks behind a pile of crates, hiding himself from view. I struggle to get up and raise my Extension defensively in preparation for the Heire’s next attack. It doesn’t come. With a sinking feeling in my stomach, I realise that the Heire is no longer interested in us. Instead, it’s focused on a new, closer and more convenient target. April. She’s kneeling down beside four crates, pulling out wires from the remote control.
“Hey!” I yell, waving my arms at the Heire. “Hey! Look here!”
It’s no use. I’m too far away.
“April!” Ivy shouts. “Get away!”
April looks up, sees the Heire and freezes. But instead of running away, she raises the remote control and points it at the Heire, her fingers working desperately. The Heire advances.
“April! Forget that stupid remote! Get away now!”
She ignores us. Ivy curses and takes aim with her rifle.
“She’s in the way!” she grinds her teeth in frustration. “I can’t shoot!”