by Mike Essex
“I’ll save you,” said Grace.
“How sweet,” said a voice from behind us. We turned around to see General Kull. The man we had seen die that morning. He was back to life but worst of all his orange eyes were back too.
He pulled Grace’s hair, causing her to scream out in pain and he dragged her away from the cell.
“No!” shouted Gabe.
I still had my gun and seven bullets to play with. I raised it upwards but hesitated for a second. Would this kill him? And kill Frazier, his twin? They were probably just following orders and didn’t deserve to die and yet if I did nothing they would hurt Grace. I moved my target away from his head and shot at his torso hoping for a non-lethal shot.
I heard the ‘thud’ as the bullet impacted on his body but it did not proceed any further. It simply bounced to the floor in the same way it had done with Tobias. His skin was bulletproof as well. I spotted some exposed skin on his neck that didn’t seem to have the reflective bulletproof gel and I took my second shot.
This time it made an impact. The bullet went right through his neck puncturing his wind pipe. Yet he did not gasp for air. It was as if he didn’t need to breathe. The shot would have killed any other man very quickly, yet he stood tall as if the world around him hadn’t changed one bit.
He threw Grace to the floor as Gabe screamed for him to stop. She hit the hard concrete and a cracking sound came from her back. She struggled to lift herself up again, her body reeling from the impact and a look of sheer pain all over her face. The animals barked and roared in a frenzy. Are they enjoying this? I hoped not.
The General had no interest in me. Despite my gun he didn’t see me as a threat or even an inconvenience. It was as if I wasn’t even there or I was firing rainbows at him.
He leant down, pushed Grace down on to her back with one arm held on her neck keeping her down. He then lay down on top of her entire body, pushed his face towards hers and whispered “There’s no camera’s in here. I could do whatever I want and your boyfriend and girlfriend over there will see the whole thing. Best of all they won’t be able to do anything to stop me.”
It horrified me that this voice was that of Frazier. That he was controlling everything that happened now. As he stroked Grace’s hair and she struggled to get away I learnt the truth about the man and his motivations.
The ability to do anything he wanted through another body had clearly changed him. No responsibility, just easy pleasure and immortality. He was starting to become corrupted and I knew at that moment that there was no way anyone with orange eyes could ever act in a normal way.
If Tobias truly wanted to use this technology to build an army, it wouldn’t be one built on morals and peace. It would be one built on seizing power and dominating opponents. That wasn’t what our world needed.
He started to run his hand over her chest and I made one last attempt to take him down. I stood behind him and fired a bullet through the base of his skull. The bullet buried its way through his skull in milliseconds and emerged through the other side taking half of his jaw bone with it. Blood splattered back onto me and on to Grace and he finally fell down onto the floor.
“He’s not dead,” said Gabe. “I’ve seen this before. We shot an orange eyed man through the head and he survived.”
“What?” I asked. “You’ve seen people like this before?” Whilst I already knew there were more, it didn’t make any sense that Gabe could know. Movie producers don’t tend to get attacked by orange eyed monsters.
“I’ll explain everything when we get out of here but just trust me, he is not dead.”
“No but he will be,” a mysterious voice came from the walkway above us. I looked up to see March climbing down the ladder above us. He tossed a key at my feet and pointed to the cage that held Gabe. “Free him.”
Whoever March was, he had a habit of being at the right place at the right time. From the moment he greeted me in the lobby of TethTech he’d been able to help me see an orange eyed man, get an interview with Tobias, helped me escape from Tobias’ grasp and now he’d saved Gabe as well.
For a man who had earlier seemed like the number one fan of Tobias Zen, he clearly held a lot of secrets and some vested interest in me. For whatever reason he wanted to see me succeed but with what I had no idea.
March dropped down from the ladder with a thud. Unlike our earlier entrance this did not lead to noises from the animals. They did however come to the front of their cages, as he walked past them patting each of them on the head. They seemed fond of him. He reached the cage of the sick dog, who even managed a small burst of energy to reach the front of the cage for a tickle under her chin. “Hello Pixie,” said March as he stroked the dog.
Meanwhile I had released Gabe from his prison. He thanked me and dashed over to Grace, who still lay on the floor, she looked in severe pain from her back injury. She held one hand to her back and the other reached out to touch Gabe’s face.
“Gabe?” she asked weakly. “Is that you?”
“It’s me. Grace I’m so, so, sorry this happened to you. I never should have recruited you,” he replied.
“It was worth it to meet you,” her eyes closed as her arms became weak and fell to the floor.
Before Gabe could react, the orange eyed man awoke and went straight for him. He was startled but ready. He grabbed the orange eyed man’s arm and twisted it until he could hear a cracking sound. Despite what should have caused severe pain, the orange eyed man carried on undeterred.
His arm hung down from him bent backwards. He could no longer move it but he didn’t seem to care. With his other fist he grabbed at Gabe again but he was far less effective with his left hand. Once again Gabe grabbed his fist and twisted it back, breaking his other arm. His days juggling on stage were over.
The orange eyed man stood there with two broken arms a bullet hole in his neck and a disconnected jaw. He looked like something out of a horror film.
“What do I have to do to stop you?!” screamed Gabe.
His question was answered by March, who walked over to the man and pressed a button on a small black box. As the signal from the box was emitted, the orange eyed man tried to reach his neck with his broken arms. The shock of my first gunshot hit him first as he tried to frantically refill his lungs with air. Before he had a chance, the bullet hole in his head registered with his brain and he collapsed on the floor. His eyes had returned to a brown colour.
--<><>--
Frazier Kull
The Tether was severed and he felt the full impact of his injuries. In an upstairs room Frazier began to spasm uncontrollably. Doctors dashed to his side but it was no use. He too had felt the impact of the gunshots. He felt his arms break and felt his body be punctured by two gunshots. His eyes closed for the last time.
--<><>--
Emmie Keyes
In the basement we couldn’t believe our eyes. “Is he dead?” I asked.
“Yes, I turned off the machine that was allowing Frazier to control his twin. The link has been severed and both he and his twin have died,” replied March.
I wanted to be sick. I’d never killed anyone before and now I had the blood of two people on my hands. No amount of police training could prepare me for taking a life. It just felt so wrong.
March saw the tears start to form in my eyes and he tried to comfort me. “It was a case of life and death Emmie. Without you Grace would have been abused or be dead right now. You’ve proven you don’t have to be a victim any more. You can control your own fate.”
His words seemed in direct contrast to those of Tobias, who seemed to think he owned me and that he controlled my life. When Tobias killed Will he had tried to take control of my life. Now March was giving me the tools to regain that control.
I couldn’t look at the dead body on the floor any more. There was so much blood and even though his eyes had changed back to brown, they lacked life and they were almost more horrific than the orange eyes had been. I tried to focus my attention on G
race. “How is she?” I asked.
“Not good. She has severely damaged her spine. There is no way she is walking out of here,” replied Gabe.
“Actually there is one other way out of here,” said March. “But I need your help.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Emmie Keyes
March had been gone for 10 minutes and during that time he’d given us a box full of needles that we injected into the animals to temporarily put them to sleep.
When I walked over to Pixie she cowered in the corner of her cage and started to whimper as soon as she saw the needle. “I’m so sorry,” I said but I couldn’t do it. Whether it was her big brown eyes or the look of sadness on her face I didn’t want to subject her to another injection. I hid the needle in my jacket and told Gabe I’d finished with the animals.
We then loaded all the animal cages we could manually move onto a large platform at the end of the room. Grace remained on the floor. Every few minutes her back went into shock, sending her arms twisting around from the pain. She kept her eyes closed the entire time. It didn’t look good.
There were two cages we couldn’t move at all, which contained large monkeys. March said he had a plan for them so we left them not wanting to risk another broken back.
As we loaded the cage with Pixie the dog onto the platform, a large shutter in front of us lifted up and a bright light shone on our faces.
My initial thought was that the guards had finally found us but March said most of them didn’t even know this room existed. It seemed Tobias thought his experiment would be enough to stop us so sent him alone rather than risk exposing this room. It was his biggest mistake.
As the light cleared we saw the back of a large lorry in front of us. March jumped out of the front of it and shouted “Come on then,” as he grabbed a cage containing an animal and loaded it into the back of the vehicle, making sure it was secure.
He was going to help us save all of the animals. Another positive point for March.
Gabe and I grabbed cages and loaded them into the lorry. It was in plain view to anyone outside at the back of the building. We knew we’d have to act fast to not get noticed.
“What about them?” I asked, pointing to the monkeys. March headed to a control panel and pressed several buttons. The monkey’s cages were then lifted into the air and carried along on two separate tracks which ran along the ceiling. I looked upwards and watched as the tracks took the monkeys directly into the lorry in a space March had cleared.
“You’re amazing!” I said to March.
“You can thank Grace. I found the schematics on her phone. After that it was just a case of putting everything together. Gabe, look in the lorry.”
Gabe found a stretcher in the lorry which he wheeled over to Grace. The three of us lifted her onto the stretcher and tied her down. Her eyes opened and she murmured “Gabe?” He smiled, happy to see some life in her again and he held her hand as we wheeled her into the lorry. We attached the side of her stretcher to a panel on the lorry’s inside wall so she wouldn’t move around as we travelled.
“Hey!” a loud shout came from in front of the lorry. It was one of the guards. Hearing the noise, March motioned for us to stay in place and he pressed a button that caused the back of the lorry to close. For better or worse, Gabe, Grace and I were trapped.
“Hello,” said March. “Just a routine delivery.”
“Documents please.”
March handed over some fake paperwork. I’d heard Gabe speak to Grace’s mystery contact and ask them to create it and March must have printed it off during his time away from the group. I wasn’t surprised that Gabe also knew Grace’s contact and it wouldn’t be long before I could start asking them for the truth.
“Thank you. Have a safe journey,” said the guard.
As the lorry moved forward Pixie started to growl. It was a quiet noise at first but suddenly she started yapping over and over.
“You didn’t inject her!” said Gabe, knowing he would probably have done the same.
“I’m sorry, I couldn’t do it,” I replied as I handed Gabe the needle.
He went to inject her but the sight of the needle made her stop immediately.
The guard ran after our lorry and started banging on the side. “Wait!” he shouted. March stopped the vehicle and we stared at Pixie willing her to be quiet. We watched the guard through a slit at the side of the lorry.
“One more thing,” said the guard. “We’re looking for a missing journalist in the building, she had blonde hair, a short figure, blue eyes, around a C cup bra size,” he motioned with his hands the bra size.
“The cheek!” I whispered to Gabe.
We quickly silenced ourselves and March confirmed he hadn’t seen anyone matching that description.
“Thanks anyway. Can’t be too careful,” said the guard, as he waved our lorry through out of the main gate. As March drove us away from the building we could see large displays that showed Tobias talking to the press, clearly unaware that we had escaped. His love for the media had failed him this time but he’d found me so easily once before that I knew it was only a matter of time.
--<><>--
Tobias Zen
Tobias watched as a large lorry pulled away from the building. He knew there were no deliveries that day. It had to be them.
After he’d finished his speech a guard stood waiting for him and took Tobias away into the basement area.
“We found him like this Sir. A lorry left the premises earlier and when we checked the loading bay we found him,” Jacobs motioned over to the dead body of the General. He had a hard time looking at it but Tobias did not.
Tobias looked at the corpse amazed by the handiwork. “She had help to do this, it seems like our little prisoner proved very helpful.
He’d already spotted that Gabe had escaped and that the animals had gone. A shame, he thought to himself. He was far beyond animal trials now and had planned to dispose of them this week now he no longer had a need for them. Tobias was far more interested in human trials now.
“I didn’t ring the alarm as you requested,” said Jacobs.
Quite right. thought Tobias. We can't afford another PR disaster.
“Thank you. You’ve done a good job. Tell the guards to return to their positions, the threat has been neutralised. And dispose of this body, as well as Frazier Kull.”
Tobias knew Frazier wouldn’t have survived if his twin was dead. Unlike his new obsession. Yes, there was something unique about Emmie Keyes.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Rex T Jules
“You are a very lucky man.”
Rex awoke to a sharp pain as a knife slowly scratched away at him. He looked down at his arm and saw that a diamond symbol had been haphazardly carved into his skin.
“I very rarely miss and a cut like that so close to your spine? Not many people would survive that. Maybe I’m still in shock because someone HIT ME OVER THE HEAD WITH A BAT!” Vlad, the man with the knives, was not happy.
“What made you think it would be a good idea to attack someone with such a great collection of knives?” said Vlad. “I could cut holes in you so small that you would bleed out from a thousand places bit by bit. Perhaps you’d prefer a larger knife that I’d use to chop through your limbs, section by section until you were nothing more than a pile of meat? What will it be?”
Rex was tied to the bed with ropes connecting his arms and legs to the four bed posts forcing him to make a star like shape. The ropes had specks of blood on them as if they had been used before and he prayed they hadn’t been used on Emmie or Will.
“You’re a quiet one. Very well,” he looked down at his belt deciding which knife to use.
He retrieved a thin knife from his belt; it was a long knife that had a blade which stuck out on the end. The knife was no more than two centimetres thick but the edge still looked razor sharp.
“Don’t move or this will be even more painful that it has to be,” he said, as he positioned the knife in
front of Rex. With a direct thrust he plunged the knife diagonally through Rex’s chest, past his rib cage and into his lungs.
The force jolted Rex upwards and he could feel his lung start to tighten as it registered the shock.
“Right now, you can still breathe but if I move the knife out of you then your lung will deflate and you’ll slowly and agonisingly drown. Your lung will collapse in on itself and you will spend your last few hours in horrific pain,” teased Vlad.
Rex grimaced from the thought. What have I gotten in to? he asked himself.
“However, if you tell me where Emmie is then I’ll leave the knife in and walk away. You’ll be able to call an ambulance and if they’re very careful you may just survive. If you tell me nothing then I’ll pull the knife out and sit here until you die. Your choice,” said Vlad.
“I don’t know, I swear!” Rex wasn’t lying, he really had no idea.
Vlad teased the knife to the left ever so slightly. It was enough to allow air to seep from Rex’s lung, which caused him to panic and force his mouth open in a mad fight for air. Vlad saw this and held his hand other Rex’s face and nose, forcing the lung on his right side to fight harder, applying more pressure to the knife wound.
Rex’s human instinct to survive was killing him. Every breath took him a bit closer to death.
Vlad removed his hand and Rex gasped for air, his lung continuing to cause its own destruction. “If you lie to me again I will collapse your lung and we’ll start on the other side. After that it’s game over.”
Even if Rex knew where Emmie was he’d never tell this madman. He didn’t want another person to endure what he was going through. If his death would save Emmie, then so be it.
“Go to hell!” shouted Rex, trying to kick his legs in a desperate attempt to hit his attacker. The rope held them down tightly and he was unable to fight back.
“Fine!” screamed Vlad as he removed the knife.
Rex’s body went into shock. He felt a sharp, tight pain on one side of his chest and leant forward on the right side of his body trying to force his lung back to life. Every intake of breath made the pain worse and the agony started to spread all around one side of his chest. Breathing became laboured and a constant torture.