“What the hell was that?” Jack asked.
“I don’t know, but it looks like he was once human,” I replied.
As I inspected the dead creature, I noticed a number under his right armpit: 101. He must have been some kind of test subject. Power was restored to the room, and multiple armed guards came rushing in. They told us to drop our weapons and kneel down. They then restrained us by tying our wrists together. Another man came in after we were restrained. He was wearing a black suit and had a neatly groomed haircut.
“Nice work,” this leader said with a British accent. “We have been expecting you.”
After we were captured, we were brought outside. They kept Jack and Harper restrained but undid my restraints for some reason.
“So, you’re Alex Connors, also known as 115. You are the sole survivor of the Omega Project?” the leader asked.
“Yeah, who are you?” I asked.
“You may call me Jackson. My employers and I have been keeping a close eye on you for some time now,” Jackson replied.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“You have been genetically engineered and trained from birth to be a one-man army with the strength, speed, and tactical knowledge of dozens of highly trained soldiers. In short, you’re the perfect killing machine,” Jackson replied.
“Yeah, so why did you send people to kill me?” I asked.
“The school you go to is riddled with cameras, all of which we can monitor you easily. When I saw you, I had to make sure that you were the one we were looking for. The men who were trying to kill you were the first test to you. The second test was the couple of bio-weapons you fought and killed in town. And now, we reach the last test,” Jackson replied as two men in all black brought out a big, white tube.
It looked like a cryo-chamber to store the bio-weapon. It was tall, round, and made of metal with a small window where the face could be seen. As two men opened it, an enormous creature emerged from the tube. He was at least seven feet tall, and his skin was completely gray. His teeth were exposed as if the flesh was ripped off of them to reveal the jagged teeth. He was extremely muscular and strong.
I noticed a number under its right armpit: 89. At first, I thought it was another test subject, but then I realized that he was more than that he was an Omega Project test subject turned into a mutated aberration. I also remembered the creature in the square with the number 24 on his side. The creature we just fought with had the number 101 on its side.
That’s when I had the realization that they took the kids that had been captured from the Omega Project, experimented on them, and turned them into mutated aberrations. I felt like I was about to throw up, and I was breathing heavily. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the creature.
“What the hell did you do to them?” I asked in shock.
“We upgraded him and the others. Some of the other subjects died in the tests. 89 was our best work so far. When we recovered research from the Omega Project, our scientists were able to create the Type-2 serum. It allowed us to completely modify the human gene to our will. Here’s the result of that serum, one of many results,” Jackson replied.
“You turned them into mutants! You’re sick!” I exclaimed in anger.
“You misunderstand Alex. The creatures were the first to be truly genetically manipulated at the molecular level. Unlike the Omega Project, we can completely modify and change the genes to enhance and manipulate them into whatever we desire. This could revolutionize genetic engineering as we know it, and we will be the first to master it. Now, in order to see which is truly superior, you will fight it,” Jackson replied.
“One question first: Why did you do it?” I asked.
“Do what?”
“Attack the Omega Project facility. And what exactly did you do to the facility, and the people there?” I replied.
“We sent in a team to secure the area and collect all the research. We killed anyone who resisted. We captured some of the subjects, but unfortunately some were killed. We needed the research, and they would not give it up. So, we took it from them by force and now we have a new breed of bio-weapons. Now, fight it,” Jackson said.
“No!” I exclaimed.
“Now!” Jackson replied in a calm manner.
“And if I don’t?”
“Bring them out,” Jackson said as two men pull out two people with bags over their heads from a van with their hands tied up. They kneeled them down and pulled the bags off their heads. It was Max and Sarah. They must have grabbed them in the middle of the night. They looked scared, their eyes widened with fear, their jaws dropped slightly, and breathing heavily.
“Let them go!” I shouted.
I walked closer to Jackson, and two guards clicked their guns at me.
“Fight or they all die,” Jackson said.
It turned out that the map that we found was put there for us to find. A trap.
“You wanted me to come here. That’s why you gave that one guard the map.”
“It was the only way to get you to come here, to conduct the last test. Now, begin or I execute them.”
I looked at the creature, and then turned to the others. I hesitated for a few seconds, and then agreed to fight.
“You hurt any of them, and I’ll kill you next,” I said to Jackson.
I raised my guard by lifting my arms in front of my face with my fists clenched and prepared to fight. I tried to break through to the creature, assuming it could even understand me at all, that is.
“I don’t know if you’re still in there. But if you are, I’m 115 and you are 89. Remember 89!” I said.
The creature ignored me and attacked.
The creature came in with a punch. I dodged and did a roundhouse kick to its side. I spun around and side kicked it.
The creature turned, and punched me again, but I bent forward and followed up with a side kick in his face.
I attacked the creature with a tornado kick to its face, but he caught my leg and threw me into a nearby wall. He then walked over and grabbed me by the chest and began slamming me into the ground before throwing me again like a ragdoll. I hit the ground, feeling like all the wind got knocked out of me.
The creature charged into me screaming, but I jumped to the side and landed a right hook to his chest, knocking him back. The creature struck with a back fist toward me, but I dodged it and kicked to his chest. I followed with a jump kick to its face.
The creature attacked again, but he managed to grab me. He threw me across the lot where we fought. The creature ripped off a piece of metal from a nearby support beam and threw it at me like a harpoon. I quickly jumped out of the way, almost getting hit. I got back up and went back after him.
“Get him, Alex!” Max shouted.
The creature struck out toward me, and I dodged the attack and countered by placing my right foot on its leg and climbing up him by placing my left foot on its shoulder, and I started elbowing his head repeatedly. The creature grabbed me and threw me onto the ground.
89 swung down toward me with a bottom fist, but I quickly got up, and blocked it with both my arms and kicked him in the stomach. This time, he kicked me in the chest, picked me up by the throat, and slammed me into the ground, cracking the pavement. I could barely move, let alone get up. He then placed his foot on my neck and started suffocating me.
I tried to lift his foot off, but it felt like trying to lift a fully loaded truck. As I struggled, I looked deep into the creature’s eyes. I noticed a deep and strong sadness and pain, as if the creature was trying to say, “Kill me.”
And that was the last straw.
I slowly mustered up the strength to push the creature off me, and I mercilessly and aggressively attacked the creature with everything I had.
I noticed the broken metal beam that the creature ripped off the pole. It looked sharp enough to stab the creature with. I got into guard position like I did earlier and attacked the creature. I started by throwing a front kick, then a 540 spinning hook
kick, which was followed by several sidekicks. Then, I did a spin side kick followed by a jump kick.
Once in position, I did another 540 spinning hook kick to push the creature into the broken pole. I pushed him into the pole to put the creature that was once human out of its misery. I even bent the pole so the creature could not remove himself from it. I watched in horror and sadness as the creature screamed in pain, blood pouring from his mouth. I made the final killing blow by picking up the metal piece the creature ripped off and throwing it into his head like a spear.
“I’m sorry,” I said, devastated.
I slowly backed away from the dead creature with tears rolling down my face.
“Do not feel bad, Alex. The creature was simply a failed experiment,” Jackson said as he placed his hand on my shoulder.
“He was a human being!” I replied as I swiped his hand off.
“But you’re something else entirely,” Jackson said. “Not only are you the perfect breed of super soldier, but you are the next step in human evolution. You will change the world as we know it. Everything we know about the human genetic structure has changed because of the Omega Project. We can now rewrite human genes.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked.
“Let’s just say that we share the same goal,” he said.
“Which is what exactly?” I asked.
“Saving humanity, of course,” he replied.
“From what?” I asked.
Jackson walked closer toward me.
“From themselves,” he said.
I paused for a moment. I remembered what I read on the blogs I saw online, and then it all started to make sense.
“So, you do want to save the world after all by enslaving everyone. The rich and the powerful ruling the world, and the poor being enslaved and brainwashed to serve you. Giving them a false illusion of freedom and happiness. A new world order,” I said.
“A new world order designed to save humanity, to bring peace and order. Now join me, and together we can save the world,” he said as he reached out his hand toward me.
I stared at his hand for a moment.
“No,” I said.
Jackson retracted his hand.
“You’re such a disappointment,” Jackson replied. “Kill them.”
As Jackson turned around to walk away, the guards approached to kill my friends. I immediately pulled out the pistols of the two guards next to me and shot them. I then shot the other guards holding my friends hostage.
Jack and Harper picked up some guns and shot more guards coming in before taking Max and Sarah to safety. I grabbed an assault rifle from a dead soldier and went after Jackson.
My objective was to reach the back of the warehouse to get to Jackson before he took off in his helicopter. I went through the facility to get to Jackson and encountered more soldiers. I shot the first set of soldiers as soon as I entered the compound. More soldiers came in from my left, and I shot them too.
I went to the next room and ran into more soldiers. I took cover behind a crate and shot at the soldiers. They sprayed their rifles at me, tearing crates and other objects into pieces, flying through the air. I managed to take some soldiers down, but there were still more. I could not wait any longer. I got up and ran to the opposite side of the room where the soldiers were defending. As I got to the end of the room I did a roll and shot the last of the soldiers to my left. I ran out of ammunition for my rifle, so I grabbed a pistol and some more ammo off of a dead soldier.
I got outside where Jackson’s chopper was about to take off. More soldiers arrived, and I took cover behind some crates. I took out my pistol and started shooting. I was highly trained in not only firearms, but math and physics.
I could make almost laser-perfect shots by simply making the calculations in my head in seconds. I shot the soldiers and never missed. I was also able to reload super quickly, and if you blinked, you would miss me reloading. I shot all the soldiers in the head and then went after the helicopter. It was taking off. I shot at it with the last of my ammo, but it was not enough, and the chopper took off.
After his chopper took off, another chopper flew up, armed with two mini-guns and two rocket launchers attached. The chopper opened fire. I immediately sprinted to my left to take cover behind some metal crates. I spotted a truck the Union was using to transport weapons not too far from where I was, and I saw a rocket launcher sitting in the back.
The chopper shot off its rockets at me, but I quickly jumped out of the way and made my way toward the truck. I grabbed the rocket launcher and shot the chopper down. The chopper crashed, and pieces flew everywhere. After the crash, I dropped the empty rocket launcher and left.
I returned to the compound perimeter and found the base secured by National Guard forces.
“All clear,” Jack said as I approached.
“Good work fighting that big monster thing,” Harper replied.
“I just can’t believe what they did to him,” I said.
“Did you get Jackson?” Jack asked.
“Negative. He got away,” I replied.
“Damn. We were so close, too,” Jack said.
“How are the others?” I asked.
“They’re fine. You should go check on them,” Jack said as I walked off. I approached Sarah and Max. They were standing at a medical truck, getting checked on by the nurses for any injuries.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. I’m fine,” Max said.
“How did they get you guys?” I asked.
“I don’t know. The last thing I remember is going to sleep. Then, all of a sudden, I woke up with a bag over my head, and I was tied up,” Max replied.
“Same thing happened to me,” Sarah said.
“They must have used some kind of sleeping agent to keep you guys asleep while they captured you. I saw some canisters of it lying around the place,” I said.
“My parents are here. I’m leaving,” Max said as he walked off. He entered their car, and I could hear his parents frantically asking if he was okay.
I stood next to Sarah.
“So, what was this all about?” Sarah asked.
“What?” I replied.
“All this. These people wanting you for their new world order, with you as the perfect weapon. What do they mean by all of it?”
“It’s hard to explain,” I replied. “Sarah, I’m sorry I lied to you, but I had no choice.”
“Hey, I get it, okay? It’s just all this, the monsters and you, it’s insane. I guess I was wrong about you being the new shy guy,” Sarah said as she folded her arms.
“Look, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you about my past. It’s just that if I did, your life could have been in danger. Besides I didn’t want to tell because I didn’t want you to think of me as some kind of freak,” I told her.
“I don’t think you’re a freak. I mean, we’re all different, but not freaks.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“Look, if you ever want to talk, I’m here for you. We all are: Max, Melissa, Mark, Katie, and me,” Sarah said.
“Thanks,” I replied.
Sarah came in close and grabbed my hand. Her touch was soft and smooth.
“This will be a fun story to tell,” Sarah said.
“Yeah, but its best we don’t tell this to anyone for the time being,” I replied.
“Agreed,” Sarah said.
Chapter Fifteen
I went back to school the following Monday. Everywhere I went through the hallways, someone was talking about the attack over the weekend. They were doing everything from talking about it, to watching videos of the attack on their phones. I couldn’t seem to get away from any of it. It was like I was trying to run from someone only to run into them a second later. More kids were talking this time as I walked down the hallway.
“I heard that some kind of three-headed monster was attacking the park,” one student said to their friends.
“I heard that some giant creature w
as attacking the square,” another student said to a group of friends.
Almost all of the students were talking about the attack. I ducked into the bathroom hoping that no one would start asking me questions about last night. As I stood in front of the sink, Derek came in.
“I don’t suppose you’ve heard anything else about the attack last night? Seems like the whole school is talking about it,” he asked.
“A little. What do you want?” I said.
“Relax, dude, I come in peace. So, did you see anything else last night?” he said as he used one of the urinals.
“Not much. What did they say exactly?” I asked.
“All kinds of stuff. One guy said that he saw a monster with a chainsaw ripping things up. Another kid said that a friend of his saw a creature spitting acid on things,” he said as he finished up at the urinal.
“Yeah. Well, don’t believe everything you hear,” I said.
Derek walked up to the sink and washed his hands
“Look, I just wanted to thank you again for saving us back there,” he said.
“Just doing my job,” I said.
Derek dried off his hands and turned toward me.
“Look, between you and me, I hope you get the assholes that did this,” he said.
“What made you such a nice person?” I asked.
“I’m not always an asshole,” he said as he walked out of the bathroom.
After first period, I saw Sarah and Max talking at her locker. They looked at me, and then turned away. I walked up to them. They both weren’t looking at me all that much.
“Are you guys okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. We’re fine,” Sarah said, looking away from me.
“Look, I’m sorry again about last night. I didn’t want you guys to get involved in that,” I said.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it,” Max said.
Mark, Katie, and Melissa walked up toward us. Katie had a digital camera instead of her Polaroid camera.
“You guys, after the town was attacked last night, I got a bunch of pictures of the monsters.”
The Omega Archives Page 9