Awakened

by C. Steven Manley

  Now, he did a thousand. When he was done, he felt no fatigue of any kind. He just stopped because he didn’t see the point in continuing. Whatever had happened to him, he wasn’t the man he had been. If Warburton was telling the truth, which was by no means a given, then maybe he was a threat. Maybe, just maybe, this was where he belonged.

  Israel sat down on the edge of the bed and listened for a heartbeat that wasn’t there.

  He sat that way for a long time before he heard the sound of the outer door opening. He looked up to see Allison coming in with a small tablet computer clutched in her delicate hand. The tightly woven braids of her hair were hanging loose and bounced against her shoulders as she walked. The starched lab coat she wore was pulled over jeans and a black tee shirt that read ‘Guns don’t kill people, Magic Missiles do.’

  She approached the wall and smiled at Israel. It looked forced but he didn’t say anything since he barely returned one of his own. “How are you holding up?” she asked.

  He gave a short, sarcastic laugh. “I did a thousand push-ups.”

  Allison nodded. “I know.” She glanced toward the camera in the ceiling.

  “Oh yeah,” he said. “I forgot.”

  “I just wanted to come in and let you know that I’ve gotten Olivia to agree to something. If I can find a way to suppress the infectious nature of your Necrophagic state, then she’ll let you out of this box. You won’t be entirely free but you’ll be able to be around other people.”

  Israel thought about that. “Can you do that?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said, “but I won’t stop trying until I do.”

  “I still don’t get how this… how I… am possible. I mean, I accept it now, but how the hell?”

  Allison looked around for a place to sit, realized there was no furniture in the outer room, and then shrugged. “You have to understand of couple of things, Israel. First off, it was only in the last thirty years or so that we discovered that the Awakened were the products of dormant genes. For years, we were treating them as though they had gone through some inexplicable, spontaneous mutation.”

  Israel grinned. “Mutants? I am so calling Warburton Professor X from now on.”

  Allison laughed. The sound bubbled and echoed through the room like welcome but out of place music. “I would love to see the look on her face,” Allison said, “but I doubt she’d get the reference. My point is, what we understand compared to what we don’t is a lot like comparing a house cat to a tiger. We get the general shape of the thing, but there’s a whole lot more to look at and it’s all potentially lethal.”

  “How many Awakened are there?”

  “Globally? A little more than half a million, I’d guess. The majority are pretty benign, like Olivia said, but the ones who aren’t are monitored. The Awakened community as a whole has a policy of secrecy that keeps them from getting overrun by the rest of humanity. They call it the Veil.”

  “So they’re organized?”

  “To a degree. It’s all kind of complicated.”

  Israel raised an eyebrow at her. “I have nothing but time, it seems.”

  “Well, I don’t. I’m going to get you out of that see-through box you’re in. To do that, though, I need to take a lot of different tissues samples from you.”

  “Hang on,” Israel said. “I thought you said I was full of zombie making stuff.”

  Allison smiled again. He thought he could look at that all day. “You are, but your tissues have to be introduced into someone for the condition to transfer. That’s where the whole zombie-bite, ingesting vampire blood thing came from. Still, though, we’re going to treat it like you were infected with the most virulent disease in the world. Full isolation protocol.”

  Israel shook his head. “This is insane.”

  “Yeah, it kind of is. Israel, you have to also understand, you’re a Paragon. That’s beyond rare. Olivia wasn’t kidding when she said that you’re the first since Vlad. That was nearly six hundred years ago. The science we have now…” Allison shook her head. “I will never treat you like a lab rat,” she said, “but we could learn so much from you. You and Erin both.”

  Erin. He mentally kicked himself. With all the coming back from the dead and everything he had completely forgotten about her. “What about Erin? Is she like this too?”

  “No,” Allison said. “We aren’t sure what happened to her. She just… disappeared. I mean, literally vanished into thin air right in front of half a dozen witnesses. I only saw it over the video, but the guards who were holding her said she was just suddenly not there.”

  “Where is she?”

  “We don’t know. Stone and Olivia are doing their thing trying to track her down, but, as far as I know, no luck so far.”

  “So she could be dead?”

  Allison shrugged. “Maybe, but that just doesn’t feel right to me. The way she vanished, you being a Paragon, the way the Progeny abducts people… I don’t know. My theory is that they have somehow come up with a way to target individuals with the potential to become Paragons. I just don’t have a clue as to how or why they’re doing it. That’s another reason we need these tests, Israel. There must be something in your cells that they are locking onto and, if we can find it, we gain another foothold against them.”

  “What’s the real deal with those guys, anyway?”

  Allison sighed. “That’s a very, very long story. When all is said and done, though, they’re a doomsday cult. The only difference between them and the other doomsday cults is that they could actually pull off a doomsday if they get their way. That’s one of the reasons The Sentry Group exists. Also why I need to take samples from you.”

  Israel watched her eyes. They were conflicted, he thought, torn between her scientific curiosity and her need to care. When her eyes met his, though, he knew there was no way he could refuse.

  “Let’s get this started, then,” he said.

  Allison left the room and returned a few minutes later dressed in a heavy, red isolation suit that rustled as she moved. She was followed by two other people who were similarly attired and carrying two trays filled with various medical apparatuses. Behind them, Stone came in flanked by two guards in isolation suits holding stun batons.

  Stone approached the cell and said, “We’re going to open the cell. My mates are going in first and then the doctor and her technicians. You’ll behave yourself, yeah?”

  Israel nodded. “Yeah. It’s all good.”

  “Brilliant,” Stone said. “Trust the doctor, mate. If it can be figured out, she and her sister will get it done.”

  So, for the next hour Israel stood in the middle of the cell while Allison poked and prodded at him with needles and tiny blades. He barely felt any of it and at one point he said, “Hey, Allison?”

  “Yeah?” she said without looking up from the syringe she was filling with some yellowish fluid from his spine.

  “What’s his story?” he whispered, nodding at Stone. “What kind of Awakened is he?”

  “What makes you think he’s Awakened?” she said.

  “Look at him. He’s five foot nothing with shoulders like a linebacker. He’s got something going on.”

  “He does,” Allison said, “but he’s not an Awakened and it’s not my story to tell. Now, hush- I’m working.”

  When it was finally done, all of Israel’s tissue samples were carefully placed into an insulated, hard plastic case. Once he was alone in the cell again, he watched while, one by one, Allison and the others removed their protective gear and placed them carefully into heavy plastic bags marked with a bio-hazard symbol. Stone told him that if he wanted anything to just speak it out loud and the security agents watching him would be able to hear and respond. Shortly thereafter, he was alone again.

  He spent some time rearranging the room slightly so he could sit up in the bed and have direct view of the television. Once he was satisfied, he tried to occupy himself by perusing Netflix, but nothing caught his eye so he clicked it off. T
he laptop they had given him doubled as a tablet and he found an e-book application that contained a vast number of choices. He loved to read, but usually preferred hardbacks over paperbacks and had never really given digital a chance. After an hour of rereading one of his favorite Jack Reacher novels, he decided he had not been fair to the digital reader revolution.

  He was a little over a third of the way through the book when he heard the outer doors open. Stone and the Twins rushed toward the cell. Stone was carrying a black backpack that was obviously filled to capacity. Israel got up quickly and said, “What’s going on?”

  Stone pulled a plastic card from a pocket and swiped it through a reader next to the door. Magnetic locks clicked and he pulled the door wide open. “Things have changed, mate. We need to get you out of here.”

  “Excuse me?” Israel said.

  “The government is here,” Michelle said. She was holding a tablet computer in her hand and studying it. “I’ve got them on the security feeds. It looks like John and some of the other guys are stalling them at the gate.”

  Stone grabbed Israel by the arm and pulled him from the cell. He shoved the backpack into his chest. “Take this,” he said. Israel did as he was told.

  “Why are we doing this?” Israel asked.

  Allison stepped forward. “We were trying to keep your presence here a secret,” she said. “Somehow the government found out. They’ve come to take you, Israel.”

  “And that’s bad?”

  “Only if you think getting cut apart and ground up to see what makes you tick is bad,” Michelle said without looking up from her screen.

  “’Chelle!” Allison said.

  Michelle looked up at her sister and then at Israel. “Right. Sorry,” she said.

  “Talk while you walk, people,” Stone said and turned Israel toward the door. Israel remembered everything that Allison had said about his condition being communicable and he pulled his arm away from Stone. “Be careful,” he said. “If you scratch me or something…”

  “Don’t worry, mate. You’re no danger to me. I’m not from around here, yeah? How are we with the feeds, Michelle?”

  “Hopelessly corrupted,” she replied. “Everything going back for the last eighty-three minutes, including card swipes.”

  They led him through the outer room and into a well-lit corridor of gray painted concrete that led up a small flight of stairs at one end and to a dead end at the other. Israel counted a total of eight identical doors in the corridor. Stone pulled him toward the stairs.

  At the top, they came across a small office filled with eight large video monitors and a couple of desks. The room was in shambles and two men were sprawled on the floor. Their faces showed signs of having taken a respectable beating.

  “You owe those two a pint,” Stone said. “They took a beating so this would look right to the Federals.”

  “Why? I didn’t know those guys.”

  “Doesn’t matter. Like me, they don’t like seeing good men in cages.”

  They stopped before a set of metal doors. Stone reached for his key-card but Michelle stopped him. “We’re okay right now,” she said, “but that will show up on the digital record and if I tamper with it anymore than I have it’s going to look intentional.”

  “We need to get out,” Stone said.

  Michelle shrugged and nodded at Israel. “Just have Solomon Grundy here kick it down. It’ll look better that way, anyway.”

  Israel looked at them both, shook his head, and stepped into the guard station. A second later he returned and swiped one of the guard’s badges through the reader. The locks disengaged and he pushed the door open. The other three filed out as he held the door. When Michelle passed him, he dropped his voice and said, “Grundy smash.”

  That earned him a soft laugh and they stepped into the Georgia night. The metal doors slammed shut behind him. Israel was surprised to find himself standing at the opening of a small concrete alcove that was built into the side of a hill. He’d just assumed he was in some kind of basement at the Silversky mansion, but he scanned the area around him and the house was nowhere in sight. That was when he noticed that he was seeing everything in those same shades of silver and gray that he had seen after first waking in the cell. Clouds drifted through the night sky and blotted out most of the starlight and the glow from the half moon.

  “I can see in the dark,” he said.

  “Brilliant, then. Get that pack on, yeah?”

  Israel did as he was told and Stone pointed to their right. “You need to leg it that way,” he said. “Your pack is loaded with plenty of food. You keep moving until you get to a road, yeah? That will be Flat Bridge Road. Take a right at the road and follow it until you hit the South River Bridge. Stay around there; a lot of homeless and transients tend to congregate there, so it won’t seem too out of place.”

  “But avoid people,” Allison said. “I know you wouldn’t hurt anyone intentionally, but if there was some kind of accident…”

  “Then this whole thing goes arse over tits,” Stone said.

  “There’s a phone in your bag, too,” Michelle said. “Do not call anyone on it. We will call you. No calls, I mean it. You’ll get tagged.”

  “We have to go. You birds get in the vehicle, yeah? I need to talk with Israel a tick.”

  The Twins wished him luck as they headed for the Tahoe parked nearby. Allison’s eyes lingered on Israel for a moment. There was a sad gleam to them that he didn’t like. Michelle called her name and Allison turned away.

  “Pay attention, lad,” Stone said.

  Israel looked at the shorter man. “What is it?”

  “I’ve had more than my share of scraps with your kind. I don’t say that to offend but to let you know this: Stop thinking like a human. You are stronger, faster, and tougher than you remotely realize and you’ll come to know this in time. But that doesn’t make you indestructible, yeah? That I’m standing here telling you about my fights with Necrophage should tell you that.”

  Israel nodded. “Okay, I get it.”

  Stone shook his head. “No, you don’t. I read your file, lad. You’re as vanilla a citizen as there is and it’s a shit thing that’s happened to you, but it’s what you have. Remember what I said, keep moving forward, and it’ll turn out all right.”

  “It is what it is. My dad used to say that you can’t polish a turd.”

  “Sure you can. Saw those Mythbusters fellas do it. Now, that way,” Stone said, pointing. “Start running and don’t stop until you see the road.”

  Israel turned and ran.

  CHAPTER TEN

  He didn’t just run, he sprinted. He ran as hard as he could and kept that pace without slowing. His heart didn’t pound in his chest, his breath didn’t come in wheezing gasps, his muscles didn’t grow fatigued. Israel just ran as hard and as fast as he could and he did not stop. With his newly discovered night vision, he moved around obstacles that otherwise would have tripped or tangled him without ever slowing.

  After a couple of minutes he saw the looming tree line of the Panola Mountain State Park come into view. He knew from his talks with John that it bordered Silversky on the north. Israel kept moving. Suddenly, he saw a ditch through the tall grasses. It was dry, but deep, and he was seconds from running into it. Instinctively, he jumped.

  He cleared the ditch and easily twenty feet of ground beyond it. He wasn’t prepared for that kind of distance and, when he landed, his feet were spaced wrong and he tumbled forward in a tangled heap until he finally came to rest on his side.

  He expected it to hurt, but he felt nothing more than a bit of pressure where he had hit the ground. Israel sat up and looked back toward the ditch. When the realization of what he had just done caught up with him, he started to laugh. He laughed at the sensation of flying through the air like that, at the fact that he felt no pain, and finally at the sheer absurdity of all of this. Israel lay back in the grass and let the laughter fade away. He heard something.

  He got to his
knees but stayed low. The sound increased. He could hear grasses shifting subtly in the distance, as though something were moving slowly through them. He was sure he wouldn’t have noticed that before. He kept listening and heard a faint, whispered voice join the shifting grasses.

  “Quantum five, this is one. Report.”

  Another voice, then, farther to his left. “Sound signature acquired. Uploading marker to reticle.”

  The first voice again. “Copy that. Quantum all, move to reticle marker. Maintain covert stance.”

  Israel mentally cursed. He recognized tactical speak when he heard it. The odds were good that these guys were government, probably set up to catch anybody trying to sneak off the property. Sprinting across an open field and jumping through the air had not been exactly sneaky. What had the second whisper said? It was something about a sound signature. He remembered laughing and cursed to himself. Somehow, they’d locked onto that sound and knew exactly where he was.

  Israel looked around. A glimpse of something appeared through and over the tops of the grass. It was still twenty or thirty feet away, but it was moving at a careful pace in his direction. The outline was that of a man in the same silver and gray as everything else he was seeing, but there was something brighter about it. Within the silver gray outline was a kind of subtle sepia glow that spread through it. It pulsed and beat softly through the outline. Beat. Like a heart.

  Israel pushed this realization away as the figure moved closer. The soldier had a heavy assault rifle pushed into his shoulder and he moved with one eye always sighted down the barrel.

  Israel cursed to himself again. For a second he thought his ability to see in the dark would give him an edge, but then realized that if they had technology that could zero in on his laughter, then the odds were very good they would have some kind of night vision device. If they managed to surround him, he knew he was caught. He had to move. That, though, presented its own problems, not the least of which were the really big guns these guys were carrying.