Habeas Corpus: Black Womb (Black Womb Collection Book 1)

by Matthew LeDrew

  “Quick,” Tim said, walking over to her. “What document was that from?”

  “Um... something called Alpha Quadrant up near the Canadian border,” she replied.

  “And about six miles from where the orphanage was,” Mike murmured, stroking his top lip with his index finger.

  “Alright then,” Tim smirked, heading for the door.

  Floating. He felt like he was floating. That was the first thing that Xander thought when he woke up. Every inch of his body ached. He tried to move, but pain shot up and down his spine, making him wish that he were dead. He struggled to open his eyes and when he did the light shone at him, bright and burning.

  “Hi, lover,” came Spider’s voice, her evil cackle echoing through the stone walls.

  The light was lowered and he could see Spider and Genblade looming over him, smiling. There was someone else too...

  “AAAARRRGHH!” he shouted, as pain shot through his body.

  “A reminder,” Genblade said coldly. “Don’t try and escape. Those electrical currents will eventually kill you.” His teeth showed as his smile grew. They were pointed, each one sharpened to a razor’s edge.

  Xander’s body went limp. He was covered in a thin layer of blood again, his head splitting from repeated blows. He could feel blood pumping out of his ears and down the side of his neck.

  Spider reached out and took some of it onto her finger.

  “Fear is so much more interesting an emotion than hope, isn’t it, Adam?” she said as she put the bloodied finger into her mouth. “Tastier too.”

  Xander felt like throwing up. The mixture of a blood filled stomach and what she had just done causing him to have to fight back the urging of his gut.

  “You look just like your mother, my child,” came a voice from the darkness. It was the exact same voice that had come over the intercom before. Thick, raspy, and nearly hushed to the point of a whisper. “She fought us too, you know. But from her, we learned. Taking people from the outside leaves them with a sense of resistance. They long for the relationships, friends and lovers that the outside world brings. After your mother’s death, we decided to scrap all those projects and start anew.”

  Xander squinted his eyes, trying to penetrate the darkness. “Who are you?”

  He laughed, then let out a wracking cough. It chilled Xander to the bone. “Soon son, soon. Now, as I was saying, we learned a lot from your mother’s escape. When we won the gene war, there were a few section heads that were nervous about the damage that would be done if word got out about project Black Womb. About you. It had almost happened once before in the seventies and almost led to the collapse of our entire research and development department. They were idiots, all of them. Old fogies set to their mindless ways and then bold enough to call their work a new genesis. They had to go. How else could one rise above in this world, after all? Soon I was a section head myself and one of the controlling stockholders at Engen Industries.”

  “Engen?” Xander murmured, the words striking a chord.

  “Also known as Alpha Quadrant. You see, I believed that you and the others on the outside could be assimilated into life on the inside. But first, we had to sever all of your links to the outside. We had to end your relationships with those you love, those you hate... everyone associated with you. This would leave you susceptible to the mind tempering needed for the final step of assimilation.”

  Xander looked over at Genblade. “So you sent this walking militia to kill off my friends.”

  “No, boy. We needed to do research. I found you online after months of searching through chat sites. Finally I found you and, using a user name that was not easily traceable, I approached you and eventually gained your trust.”

  “Soul,” Xander said, cursing inwardly.

  “Precisely. Then, my dear Spider began contacting your friends via the internet, making them trust you even less.”

  “Spider.”

  “Exactly. Thinking we would never meet, you felt free to talk to me about your friends, your loved ones, and even people you didn’t like much at all. We thought it wise to begin there, sending Spider to herd the cattle to a certain spot for Genblade to mow them down.”

  “Jamie,” Xander whispered as shock ran down through his face.

  “You hated him because Sara loved him. Pathetic, teenage drivel! You were bred to be better than that! Cur! But what else could I expect from you, really? Whether you blame it on nature or nurture, you didn’t really have a chance. You were made of junk DNA and raised by white trash... How could we hope for you to grow into anything but garbage?”

  The thoughts crashed upon him like a wave onto the shore. It was his fault. All of this. Jamie’s death, Carl Dent’s death, the attacks on Mike, Cathy, Sud, Tommy... all his fault. And Sara. At the thought of her, he wanted to cry. He’d killed her. He may not have actually done the deed, but he may as well have pulled the trigger. It was his fault that she was dead. Dead.

  “You fucker. You killed all these people... just to get to me?” The hatred burned in his eyes.

  “No,” Genblade said, his smile growing ferociously as he wrapped his hands around Spider, letting them trickle up and down her front. “I killed Jamie Dawkins. I loved it. He came apart so easily I could taste it. That old couple and your little whore, yeah I did them too. But that was it.”

  “Then who?!?” Xander shouted, pulling against his restraints. Electricity surged up from them, forcing him back down. “Who did it? Give me a name. I’ll kill him right after I’m done with you, you sick son of a...”

  “You want a name?” Genblade interrupted, laughing hysterically. “You want the name?”

  “Just give me the damn name!” he shouted. This time when the electricity surged, he ignored it. The emotional pain outweighed the physical.

  “Xander Drew.”

  CHAPTER NINE:

  TRUTH

  All was quiet. The words sunk deep.

  “What?” Xander spat, his upper lip curling.

  “It was you. Or rather, the ‘savior’ within your veins.”

  “You’re a liar. And a killer. Give me one good reason why I should believe you.”

  “Because,” came the voice from the darkness. “It’s true. The Black Womb’s consciousness resides within you. You have remarkable skills, my boy, but not even you can control a Black Womb twenty-four hours a day. These past few months ever since you hit puberty, when you sleep and your mind is overpowered by that of the Black Womb, he escapes. It’s easy to identify. When you call him, that is, when you have his body surrounding yours but you still remain in control, your eyes have a reddish tint to them. But Black Womb’s consciousness is let out when you stop thinking rationally, when you get extremely emotional or when you sleep. On one of his outings, the Womb happened upon Genblade murdering Jamie Dawkins. Spider and Genblade thought it to be an extraordinary bit of luck and allowed you to watch and participate as they stripped him of his usable organs. The Black Womb’s savage instincts took over. He had gotten a taste of the blood that he was meant to bathe in and he wanted more. There were other programming methods, of course. Engen.com filled the Womb portion of your consciousness with subliminal messages while that screen was flashing. But in the end, it was that simple act of getting blood on your hands that brought out the real you. So each time you slept, he went out to claim another. Or at least to try. It seems that your consciousness had some residual effects on Black Womb. When it came time to strike down someone you loved, Mike Harris, he could not. A pity.”

  “M-me?” Xander stammered, the words cutting into him worse than any of Genblade’s daggers ever could. He had maimed and killed all those people. Not indirectly, but in pure form. “Kill me.”

  “Oh! No my boy, no,” the figure laughed. “Not quite yet.” Then, his captor’s voice became surprisingly sympathetic. “I wanted to die once, too. Once, when I was just a security guard, waiting for death to claim me as I lay in that hospital bed...” then his voice perked up. “But y
ou must remember, my boy. It wasn’t you. It was that bloody bastard in your veins that did it. That’s why I brought you here.”

  “What?” Xander balked, again searching the darkness. “What are you talking about?”

  “I think my predecessors did a bad thing. We let you go. Out there, in countless orphanages, you didn’t get the training that you needed to harness the Black Womb. You didn’t know what was happening inside of your body every minute of every day. But alas, this can be remedied. You can be rid of it.”

  “Not sure I follow.”

  “If you willingly give up the Black Womb and someone else, at the same time, willingly takes it, I can surgically remove it from you. I can relieve you of your curse.”

  “How?”

  “In the years since that lowly security guard Abner Jacobs was injured, I have become a man of science. With the help of Engen scientists, I mastered the darkness. Even found a way to purify it and all other diseases from unborn children, thus producing my genetic Adam and Eve.”

  “Genblade and Spider.” Xander’s eyes widened as he looked over at the two assassins as they kissed.

  “But they were incomplete, missing organs. It created artificial ones for their use, but they were still inferior.”

  “So you strip mined your victims... and mine... to put their organs into these two?” He had to strain the word ‘mine’ out of his lips.

  “Yes. My goal is to have them reproduce. To create a new, perfect society, under a new god. Me.”

  “You’re sick.”

  He laughed. “You don’t know the half of it,” he coughed. It was sick, like he was throwing up a lung.

  “Something wrong?”

  Electricity jolted through the shackles. “Quiet. Anyway, I finally got the last thing I needed for my children. Or, more appropriately, for their children. Ovaries.”

  “Sara.”

  Spider smiled at him. “Mmm. I can feel how much she wanted you to touch them, Xander. To taste them.”

  Xander lowered his head, forcing his eyes not to well up with tears.

  “Yes. You should be proud. Your friend will live on in Spider’s children.”

  He processed this. “But, I don’t understand. There were way more organs than you needed. And what do you need Black Womb for?”

  “Will you give the creature up?”

  Xander thought about it. Hadn’t he done enough harm? Like the guy said, he couldn’t control this thing. He couldn’t even restrain it. This guy, whoever he was, he had already melded it into life. “Okay.”

  Genblade walked over and cut Xander across the stomach.

  Xander’s back arched and he screamed in pain. Blood flowed from the wound which had already been opened too many times this night. The blood ran down his legs, mixing with the red film the Black Womb had left behind.

  Then, finally, the man came out of the darkness.

  He was in pieces, no part of his form whole. His head was only half there, a line having been ripped down his nose and dug out as if somebody had taken a shovel to the left side of his head. His mouth didn’t end, it just melted into the mauled flesh that was his face. There were gaping holes of ripped flesh covering his bald head, giving way to his skull. Blood poured freely from those holes. There was a hunch on his back so huge it rose slightly above his hairline. It had stretched the flesh to the near breaking point and was covered in hideous warts and boils. His ridiculously muscular arms were covered in places where skin just melted away, showing his actual muscles as they rippled. His stomach and rib cage were missing, revealing the convulsing organs within. His heart pumped so fast that there was hardly a space between beats. His legs were much the same as his arms. They were covered in torn laboratory pants, the tears revealing exposed tendons and blisters. He looked like a cross between an Ogre and a corpse.

  “Christ. What are you?” Xander asked, astonished.

  “Call me Alpha. You see, I needed all those extra organs for myself,” he said as he inserted the Womb organ into his lower chest, easy considering it wasn’t covered. “You see, I was a guard on duty the day your bitch of a mother saw fit to leave us. She also left us a parting gift. She blew our power generator, killing all of your brothers and sisters that were in stasis. She prevented Engen from ever creating a soldier capable of bringing you back. She truly loved you.”

  For the first time, Alpha’s words felt good. He had always assumed that his mother had abandoned her child out of hatred and bitterness, not circumstance.

  “But I was on duty in that sector. She literally blew half of me away. The preservatives in the goop that kept your siblings in stasis kept me alive long enough for Engen scientists to find me and rebuild me. One took me under his wing and taught me everything he knew. He became like a father to me as I became a son to him. By the time my condition was stable, I knew everything I needed to do to rise to the top of the company and get my vengeance on your mother... by killing you.”

  “I still don’t get what you need Black Womb for.”

  “I’m falling apart,” he said, gesturing toward himself. “The Womb’s healing capabilities, which I saw fit to test in your battles with Genblade and Spider (hence the crucifixion), will heal me. It will meld all of my stolen body parts into one ... my own.”

  Even as he spoke, Alpha’s face began to flow like liquid, reforming itself into a normal one. A thin covering of skin formed over his exposed stomach, then getting thicker and thicker. His muscles covered over with flesh as blood flowed from his mouth and ears. Black blood. The substance oozed over him as he laughed, deep and hysterical. When he was covered, a large jaw formed that, when opened, stretched down to his chest and displayed a full ten rows of jagged, yellow teeth. His eyes were gigantic and red, meaning that he was in complete control.“Alpha lives.”

  It was all Xander could do to keep from urinating in his pants. His gut was slowly closing itself as a final gift from the now absent Black Womb. His clothes were splattered in blood and vomit. His eyes were filled with tears, but more than that, they were full of hatred.

  “Now you understand, boy. The cycle is complete. And I can finally offer an end to your suffering.”He snapped his fingers.“Spider, do with him as you will. Genblade, you’re with me.”

  Genblade paused, clenching a fist and stepping closer to Xander, before finally turning and obeying his master.

  Spider stood over him, smiling.

  Xander was fully content with letting her kill him. He had done enough damage. It was time to let him rot in hell, in peace. He lay on the floor and stared upward at Spider. He closed his eyes as she drew her sword and waited for sweet, sweet oblivion... until he heard that harsh, rough voice cut through his ears.

  “You know,” Genblade said as he walked toward the door. “You can’t start a new, more powerful civilization without wiping out the old one. Out with the old, in with the new, and all that crap.”

  Alpha snapped his fingers, and Genblade followed him out the doorway.

  Xander stared at the door for a moment, then let his head fall again. He clicked his burned, bleeding tongue against the roof of his mouth as Genblade’s words sunk in, ignoring the pain it caused.

  “So that Spider and Genblade can produce a new era in humanity, they’ll have to obliterate this era,” Xander whispered to himself.

  There were still so many people alive that he cared about. Mike, Cathy, his Mother and Father, Derek.... They would all be wiped out. Along with everyone else on earth.

  “And I just gave Alpha the power to do it.”

  Spider swung her sword down.

  Xander felt something twitch within his brain. That tiny spark he’d kept hidden from the world from long before Alpha entered his life, the part of him that kept him after Sara and telling himself that tomorrow would be better. Even though Sara was gone and tomorrow would never be better than yesterday, that part of him was still alive. He clapped his hands together and caught the blade with his palms. “Sorry lady, but no more blood goes on
my hands tonight.”

  He flipped up onto his feet and turned to face Spider, pointing her sword at her. She reached behind her and pulled out her second blade, then lunged forward, slicing at the air around him.

  He looked down and saw she had cut the fabric of his shirt above his heart. He allowed himself a small sigh of relief, then swung back in retaliation.

  She did a back flip to avoid the hit, landing on her hands. She pushed off with her palms, doing another flip and landing on her feet again, making the whole thing look effortless. Xander stood his ground.

  He remembered all of the times he had fought Mike in Marble Mutant Super Heroes. He’d pick Obsidian (because he’s Obsidian, of course) and Mike’ d always pick Stone Spider. Obsidian had the claws and all of these cool moves like ‘dark rage’ and ‘abyss x’... but he’d never get a chance to use them. As soon as he got anywhere near Mike’s Stone Spider, he’d start to cream him using ‘ultimate spider’, where Stone Spider just whipped around the screen, hitting Obsidian hundreds of times as he went. Stone Spider’s strength always relied on the fact that he was so fast and so agile, that anytime you got anywhere near him, he’d have you. Just like Spider. If he went near her in this weakened state, she’d slice him up like a sausage. He’d have to use a tactic he learned while fighting Mike: wait for the opponent to come to you.

  He stared at her and she stared back, both of their swords ready to draw first blood.

  She jumped at him again, but this time he was ready. He lifted his arms and let her pass by him. Her sword nicked his side and he cringed. It was so much more painful now, with the knowledge that without Black Womb, that one slice could be lethal. He turned around and stabbed at her. His sword punched through the skin of her thigh.

  “Ahh!” she cried, buckling a little to one side. “You can’t do this. You are an impotent dog waiting to be put down.”

  He hopped backward, widening the space between them. “In case nobody ever told you, Spider... every dog has his day.”