by J. M. Pierce
“Can I ask a question?” interrupted Thad. Without waiting for anyone to respond, he continued. “Dad filled me in on most of the details, but my question is, what is the point of you risking your lives to get this kid?”
“It’s not really about the kid,” answered Test. “It’s about what Casper and Ashley want to do with him.”
Thad, sitting in the recliner, replied. “And what is that?”
“Revenge,” answered Iku morosely.
Thad eyed the stranger and a cold chill ran down his back as Iku turned to him. He couldn’t help but focus on the dead eye as the Native spoke.
“Casper and Ashley were the youngest of Isaac’s Reapers. They were also the most ruthless, aside from Anil.”
The image of Anil flashed into Test’s mind. The face frightened him as much now as the day he had ended the Reaper’s life. It was the same day that Anil had ended Alyssa’s.
“They worshipped him,” continued Iku. “When Isaac was destroyed, there was never any doubt that they would want revenge.” He turned to Test. “Lucky for all of us, I was the first on their hit list.”
“Why?” asked Thad, his focus now becoming more intent on Iku’s story.
“I was one of them, and I betrayed them,” answered Iku. He turned to look at Test once again. “They fear you, Test; or at least they did. That’s why they took the clone.”
Thad leaned forward with his hands clasped in front of him. “They thought the only way to beat you was to have you?”
Test raised an eyebrow. “I guess they got what they needed then.”
“And more,” replied Prim as he returned to his seat on the couch. Leaning his head back, he ran his fingers through his hair repeatedly. “This kid is like nothing I’ve ever seen or heard of before.”
“If he’s a clone,” asked Thad, “then how can he be different than Test? Doesn’t being a clone mean that you’re identical?”
“It’s hard to say,” answered Prim. “They’ve done things to manipulate his growth rate. There’s no way of knowing how that’s affected him. Also, when you’re talking about messing with DNA, there are so many variables that can be changed that any one little thing could mean life or death.”
“Or the ability to absorb energy,” said Test.
Prim craned his neck to see Test. “Yeah—that too.”
Thad’s brow furrowed deeply as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Okay, let’s think about this. This kid can steal your energy, right?” He looked between the others in the room as each of them nodded their heads. “So how is that different than what you all did last year? Didn’t you use an army of ghosts to steal the Reapers power?”
Cliff took a step to his son. “Yeah. Where are you goin’ with this?”
“Well, if I understand how your powers work, you all can become ghosts in a sense, right?” asked Thad.
“Yes,” answered Iku.
“Well, if you go at him from the other side, wouldn’t that work?”
“No,” answered Iku in a firm voice without saying more.
“Why not?” asked Thad.
Stepping directly behind the couch, Test answered. “Because they can’t touch anything in the world of the living while they’re in the world of the dead.” Test watched as Thad deflated. “I said they; I didn’t say anything about me.”
Prim pulled his feet from the coffee table and sat up, turning in his seat so that he could see Test. “You’re forgetting one thing,” he said.
“What’s that?” asked Test in a mildly arrogant manner.
Prim rolled his eyes. “Think about it, genius; if you’re half in one side, that means that your power is still available to the kid. He’d still be able to suck you dry.”
Matching Thad’s reaction a moment ago, the smug look on Test’s face melted as his face blushed with embarrassment.
Prim stared him down for a moment before turning around and leaning back once again.
“There’s got to be a way,” said Cliff as he rubbed his chin.
“Perhaps,” began Iku, “if we could somehow separate the boy from Ashley and Casper, perhaps then we could at least take the twins out of the equation so that we can focus on the boy.”
“There’s the problem,” answered Prim. “If the boy was by himself, this would still be next to impossible. But with the twins by his side, it is exponentially more difficult to win.” Prim stood and walked around to the front of the coffee table, pacing back and forth. “Ashley’s got that kid wrapped around her finger though.” He looked to Test. “You should have seen the look on her face as that kid was wringing the life out of me. The pride in her smile as she watched him was sickening.”
Prim returned to pacing as the room fell silent. Test walked around the couch and took the seat that Prim had occupied while Cliff remained behind the couch. Everyone was deep in thought when Prim stopped suddenly and turned toward the west.
“We’re out of time,” he whispered.
“What?” asked Thad.
Test’s heart froze as Prim turned to look at him. “Something’s happening. I can feel them; that way,” he said as he pointed to the west.
“Manhattan’s that way,” answered Thad.
Prim turned to him. “So are they.”
Taking a few quick steps to the side of the couch, Cliff looked back and forth between Prim and Test. “You all go ahead,” he said forcefully. “I’ve got an idea.”
“What is it?” asked Test.
The old man turned. “I need the two of you to trust me. I’ll be there just as soon as I can.”
Before either Prim or Test could respond, Cliff faded from view.
Chapter 31
Destin stood in a room full of death as he watched Casper clutching the last of the guards by the throat. Though Casper wasn’t in direct contact with the man, Destin watched as he twisted his hand and then watched as the guard’s neck folded to the side in a ninety-degree angle. He was horrified to the point that he had no ability to speak or move. It wasn’t until Ashley gripped him by the arm that sound was able to even register in his mind.
“Let’s go,” she said as she tugged his arm, dragging him down a long corridor.
The walls were concrete with what looked like giant metal wheels embedded into them. It wasn’t until he was dragged past the third one that he realized they were fans. Every ten feet or so was a bright white light overhead and between every fourth one was a red bulb that shone fiercely.
They walked slowly with Casper in the lead. The corridor curved to the right just enough that the line of sight was cut off at twenty feet. Casper hung tightly to the left side of the corridor so that he could see what might be ahead.
“This is stupid,” said Casper in a whisper. “Why don’t we just go back to the dead side and walk right in?”
“We went over that,” replied Ashley with a hiss. “We can’t afford to waste any of our strength. Who knows who might come to try and crash our party?”
Casper stopped and turned. “Seriously? With the kid here they couldn’t do squat.”
Though Destin knew exactly what Casper meant, he couldn’t help but feel confused. “Why are we here?” he asked timidly. “What is this place?”
“I told you,” said Ashley, squeezing his arm more tightly. “There’s something here that belongs to us, and we’re here to get it.”
He glanced behind them towards the room that led to the corridor, the room that contained the bodies of at least four men that he watched die. “Why did you have to kill those people?” he asked with a furrowed brow.
“Oh, Jesus,” replied Casper as he rolled his eyes. “Look kid, you’d better…”
“Shut up,” interrupted Ashley as she pointed at Casper. She turned back to Destin. “Destin, I’ve told you that there are people in this world that are out to do bad things to us. Those men are a part of that group. If we didn’t kill them, they’d have killed us…or worse.”
“Or worse?” asked Destin as he wrinkled his nose. “W
hat’s worse than dying?”
Ashley brushed his hair away from his eyes. “You’ll see. Now just be patient and let’s keep moving.” She turned and, with Destin in hand, passed by Casper who shot her a sinister look.
“I’m getting tired of your…”
In a flash Ashley snapped around and put a glowing hand in Casper’s face. “Watch it, brother. I’m growing tired of things as well.”
Casper’s pale face glowed in the blue light coming from his sister’s hand. Pushing it from his face, he looked down to Destin and then back to her. “You’re pretty confident with that kid standing by you, aren’t you?”
A frightening grin took over Ashley’s lips as she looked down to Destin. Shrugging her shoulders, her grin still intact, she turned and began the slow trek forward once again.
For Destin, the walk seemed to go on endlessly. As the corridor continued to wind in what seemed like a downward spiral, he tried to imagine what it was they were going to find. Once his imagination took over, however, he quickly tried to forget those thoughts.
Ashley had stopped just ahead of him and then backed up a few paces, pushing both Destin and Casper back against the wall.
“The entrance is just ahead,” she whispered. As she turned back towards the large steel doors, the white lights went out, leaving only the red ones to glare in the darkness while an alarm echoed off of the concrete walls. She looked up and saw two cameras on either side of the door pointed directly at them.
“Damn it!” shouted Casper. “I thought you said that the cameras were taken care of!”
Ashley turned and shouted back over the alarm that felt as though it were piercing her ear drums. “These must be under control from somewhere else!”
As she turned back toward the door, the crack of a gunshot cut through the alarm and echoed off of the walls. With Destin’s arm still in her hand, she felt him fall to the floor. She tried to catch him, but as she spun another shot rang out and the concrete just to the left of her head exploded into fragments. Losing her grip on Destin, she watched him fall as she dropped to her knees. She could see the shock in his eyes and knew immediately that he’d been hit. Above her, a red light began to grow and she felt the waves of energy pressing against her flesh. She looked up to see Casper with his power ignited, and watched as bullet after bullet was deflected by his energy.
Enraged, Casper looked down the hall. Through the red light and shadows, he could make out the silhouettes of three men. He watched as the muzzle flashes erupted in the darkness and, as each bullet collided with his energy, he stepped forward with a lust for their end. Reaching out and taking them into his grasp would be too easy; though it wouldn’t quench his desire to cause them pain. He watched as they began to back away; he’d take one step towards them and they’d take two backwards. As the first of them turned to run, he reached out to hold them. The three of them snapped together like a bundle of wheat as their weapons intermingled amongst their twisted arms and legs.
As Casper handled their attackers, Ashley cradled Destin’s head in the crook of her right arm. He clutched his right shoulder as his face contorted with the pain. “Thank God,” she thought to herself as she went to remove his hand to look at the wound. He resisted and, in order for her to hear him over the alarm, she shouted into his ear. “Let me look at it!” She grew anxious as he shook his head and continued to clutch the wound tightly. It was then that she noticed that he was hyperventilating. “You’re going to be fine!” she shouted. “Your body will heal itself pretty soon!” He stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Trust me!” she screamed, hoping that with the power to phase, the power to heal had developed as well.
She looked to the steel door and then turned back to Destin. “I’ll be right back!” The boy nodded his head quickly and scooted himself against the wall. He’d released his shoulder to do so and it was then that she took the opportunity to look at his wound. Lifting his t-shirt sleeve, she saw the large hole on the front side. She knew that the shot had to have gone completely through and, as she ran her fingers over the back of his shoulder, she saw a trace of blue light begin to form within the hole on the front.
With a relieved grin, she lowered the sleeve. “You’re going to be fine! I’ll be right back!”
Without any further hesitation, she stood, phased into the dead world and slipped through the steel door. Once inside, before phasing back, she quickly scanned the room. To her left was a short wall that contained a multitude of different equipment including microscopes, centrifuges, and several other pieces that looked unfamiliar. Her heart skipped a beat as she looked to the center of the room. She immediately recognized the bank of incubators. While they weren’t identical to the one she’d taken Destin from, they were very similar. Each step forward was met with an elevated excitement, but it quickly faded as she saw that each of the five units were empty. As she glanced to her right, she caught movement in her peripheral vision on her left.
Snapping her head back towards the left side of the room, she saw two figures in white coats huddled in the corner, each of them holding a pistol in their right hand. Her lips curled as she turned away from them to examine the rest of the room. On the back wall, behind the incubators, she saw a large number of flat screen monitors and what looked like dry-erase type boards that were made of glass. They were illuminated somehow, though she could not see the source, as the many formulas and notes that were written upon them were glowing fluorescent green and orange.
As she looked to the right, her excitement once again began to build. There, on the far wall, were ten cylindrical tubes made out of stainless steel. Each of the tubes measured approximately twenty-four inches in diameter and forty-eight inches tall. On the front of each was a clear viewing window that took up nearly two-thirds of the face. There, floating inside of each, was an infant in various stages of growth. At first, her excitement piqued, but then it quickly faded as she stepped to the cylinders.
To the left of each was mounted what looked to be a vitals monitor. Flashing on the bottom of each and every screen was a glowing green zero. She looked closer and saw that this number signified the heart rate. In a panic, she stepped down the line and was horrified as she discovered that each of the infants were dead.
Enraged, she turned back to the two figures huddled in the corner. Moving as fast as her thoughts, she appeared before them; the flash of light that accompanied her presence temporarily blinded the humans.
Her fury ignited the instant she phased. The waves of energy streamed in every direction as a barrage of bullets dropped in front of her. She threw her hands out and ripped the weapons from the humans. As she held them in midair beneath each palm, she glowered at their previous owners. It was then that she realized one of the humans was female. She glared into her eyes as she allowed her power to rage, and watched with sadistic pleasure the fear in the human’s eyes. As the pistols began to pool into a jiggling mass of liquid in mid-air, she watched the woman cower into the male next to her.
Looking to the much older male on the left, she was delighted to see his white beard collecting tears as his panic laden eyes strained against the light that emanated from her palms. In a burst of fury, she hurled the molten pools of steel towards the humans. Their faces caved under the force of the impact and the first drop of blood was unable to fall before their bodies even hit the floor.
Initially, the act of ending another life had satiated her anger, but as she turned to the bank of cylinders across the room, the light in her core ignited. She threw her arms forward with every ounce of strength she possessed, and the cylinders exploded under the pressure, sending the primordial ooze within them in all directions.
“What the hell are you doing?”
She instinctively spun to defend herself, but lowered her arms as she saw Casper and Destin standing just inside the exterior steel door.
“They were already dead,” she said as she marched towards them. “The humans killed them. They knew we were here.”
Not in any sort of mood for twenty questions, she tore into her brother. “I don’t know how and it doesn’t matter!” she screamed. Noticing the look of horror on Destin’s face, she followed his line of sight, turning towards where the bank of cylinders once stood.
On the floor was the dead body of an infant. While it was physically intact, its lifeless blue eyes remained open as its limbs were bent in unnatural positions. She turned back to Destin and saw that his eyes were bulged and ready to burst.
“What is this place?” he asked as his body trembled uncontrollably.
Trying to side-step the question, she gripped his shoulder and lifted his sleeve. “How’s your arm?” she asked.
When he didn’t answer, Casper replied. “While you were in here tearing shit up, he healed.”
Destin’s expression remained unchanged as his gaze remained locked on the dead infant. Frustrated, Ashley grabbed at his face, gripping his cheeks between her fingers, and turned him to her. “Snap out of it!” She waited for him to respond—to blink, to cry…anything. Instead he stared at her blankly. Spinning on her heels, she pulled him by the arm over to where the two humans lay on top of each other on the ground in the opposite corner of the room.
“Look!” she shouted. His eyes hugged the floor at his feet. “I said LOOK!”
Destin looked up, saw the bodies, and quickly looked away.
“They did this!” said Ashley. “They killed those babies. Not me!”
Destin’s head slowly turned towards her. He didn’t know what to believe. “Why?” he asked. He could barely hear his own words as his ears were ringing from the alarm and all of the shouting.
“To keep them from us,” she replied turning to face him square.
Destin’s face wrinkled as he turned to look at Casper who had positioned himself behind him. “We came here to take these babies?” he asked.