Sons of Sludge (Postmortem Anomalies Book 1)

by Josiah Upton

  BANG BANG BANG!

  I stop moving. Someone is pounding on the front door.

  “APA! We got the place surrounded!”

  Chapter 43

  The voice echoes through the house, loud and distorted, as if coming out from a speaker. My captors have already arrived, ready and willing to carry out the task of collecting a monster. I knew their headquarters were just down the road, but I wasn't expecting them this soon. I feel a hand on my shoulder, and smell Gordon standing right behind me.

  “It's time to go, Zaul. Now, before they bust down the door.”

  My eyes return to Genny, whose face has now backed away a few inches, but still remains expectant. Her lips are still quivering in anticipation, her chest still heaving with labored breathing. Now is my only opportunity. My last opportunity.

  But I don't take it. I don't know if it's from the last two months of constant restraint, the fear of what would happen if my lips touched the flesh of a human, or the strange yet unbearable thought of her rejecting me, but I can't bring myself to act. She quickly looks down to the ground, a grim smile coming across her face. “Good-bye, Zaul.”

  “Good-bye,” I say. I rise slowly from my chair, following Gordon to the entryway, leaving behind the only thing worth living for, the only thing I considered worth sacrificing myself for. But I would do it again, over and over again – whatever it would take to keep her safe. And as I move further away from her, I hurt more and more inside. Once we finally arrive at the front door, I hear the sound of her sobbing, and her feet running up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door behind her. She's gone forever.

  BANG BANG BANG!

  “APA, open up!”

  “I know!” Gordon shouts. “I'm coming, I'm coming!'

  He stops at the door, grasping the handle, but then turns to face me. Though I won't be needing it anymore, he hands me my wig. I put it back on my head, one last time. “Thank you, Zaul, for what you're doing for my daughter. For me. People say Hybrids are only half human, but I know many humans who aren't half the man you are.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  He chuckles. “Hey, I told you to call me Gordon, okay?” We exchange one last look, before he twists the handle and opens the front door, letting the light from the bright lamps on top of the APA vehicles flow into his entryway. Even though it's still daytime, the sky is dark, and heavy rain is pouring down on the collection of ten to fifteen agents, all pointing rifles in my direction. All here for me.

  “Where's the Hybrid?!” the voice says through the speaker, followed by an ear-piercing, high-pitched squeal.

  I walk out onto the porch, hands up in the air. “Right here.”

  “Sir!” an agent in a soaked gray suit at the front of the group shouts at me. “A call was made from this location, notifying us of an unregistered Hybrid Reanimate residing within. Please step away from the house, and we will search the premises!”

  “You want me to come down there?” I ask, coming to the porch's edge. Just inches away from the pouring rain, seconds away from revealing myself.

  “Yes!” the agent screams, gun pointed up at the door behind me.

  “Okay,” I answer, taking the first step out from the porch. “I'm coming down.”

  The instant I step out into the rain, I feel cool water cover me. Pouring down onto my head and my face, washing away four years of lies and deception. I can't see it, but I know the makeup is coming off, because one by one, the agents' attention turn from Gordon's front door to me, looks of confusion on their faces. I decide to finish the job, to destroy the facade completely, and rip the wig off my head, tossing it just in front of their feet.

  “Stop right there!” the one in front screams. “One more step, and we'll blast you!”

  “Don't shoot!” I hear a voice scream. It doesn't come from the speaker, and it doesn't belong to Gordon or Genny or anyone else I can see. But it's definitely a voice I've heard before, and from the sound of it, it's originating a few yards away, from the house nextdoor.

  Caesar.

  “Don't you dare shoot that Ugger!” He comes stalking down his front steps, totally oblivious to the pouring rain as his clothes become soaked. He's only concerned with one thing at the moment, and by the looks of the wicked stare locked my direction, that thing is me. He doesn't stop until he is just a foot away. “No one touches this one. He's all mine.”

  “Ortega, what are you doing out here?” the lead agent asks.

  “Can it,” Caesar barks, throwing a stiff finger behind him, but keeping his eyes on me. In them I see an undying contempt, and the realization that the very thing he hates the most was right in front of him all along. “I live next door. I've seen this Ugger visiting this house for the past two months. Walking around, talking, like he's a human being, and not some freak.”

  I lean forward, a menacing sneer forming on my face. “That's not all I've been doing in this neighborhood...”

  Caesar's fist jerks forward, socking me in the gut. A white flash goes off in me, bringing my Rage to a quick boil on the surface. It's not so much the pain from the impact, because I can barely feel it, but the fact that this man is attacking me. Touching me. My instant reaction is to jump on him, but the agents surrounding us raise their weapons, anticipating my retaliation.

  The triumphant grin returns to Caesar's face, and he leans in, so close that no one can hear his words except us. “You played me for a fool, you little Sludge stain. Made me feel like a real jackass.” He looks me up and down, his expression absolutely rife with hatred and disgust. “I guess I finally know what all that Mortetine was for.”

  “Yeah,” I say. “The Mortetine I bought from you.”

  He shakes his head, laughing sharply. “You think they're going to take your word over mine? An Ugger versus the Containment Captain? I don't think so. You're in my house now. My rules.” He gets even closer, bringing his mouth inches away from my ear, and his neck inches away from my teeth. “I'm going to make whatever is left of your pathetic, filthy, godforsaken existence a living hell. And, I'll be keeping a real close eye on your two friends next door.”

  He backs away, his maniacal eyes wide as his smile reaches from ear to ear. But it isn't there long, before a fist flies into his face, making him stumble back into the muddy grass. That fist belongs to Genny, who is now standing right next to me.

  “What are you doing here?” I ask.

  “I forgot something.”

  She looks at me with a peculiar expression, a longing in her eyes as the rain pours down the fair skin of her face. Before I can ask her what it is that she forgot, she wraps her arms around my neck, lifts herself up on her toes, and kisses me. All that light and warmth and heat and intensity I was longing for is transferred in a single moment from her lips to mine. I couldn't imagine wanting anything else.

  “I love you, Zaul,” she says, pulling herself only a few inches from my face, her blue eyes staring intently into mine. “It took me a while to realize it, but I do. More than I ever thought I could love any being. I love you so much.”

  I never thought I'd hear those words, being the creature I am. I never thought a human being could feel something like that for me, or that I would be capable of receiving it. Love was never a possibility in this life, especially not this kind of love. But now it all makes sense. All those things I felt when I was around her, all those sensations that I couldn't explain. I couldn't put a name to it before, but now it's so obvious what it was.

  “I love you too, Genny.”

  The agents are shouting at her, telling her to step away from me. “Don't let that place change who you are,” she pleads. I nod, placing my hands on the side of her wet face, aching desperately to stay here with her, but knowing I never will. “Don't let them take away your humanity.”

  “Step away from the Hybrid!” the voice shrieks out from the speaker.

  “I won't.” I say. “I promise.”

  “And Zaul?”

  “Yes?”

  “I wil
l not let you rot in there alone.” She leans in close, whispering, her hot breath on my neck. “I don't know when, I don't know how, but I will find a way to get you out of there. That's my promise to you.”

  “How...” I start, but she doesn't let me finish. She kisses me one last time, more strongly and passionately, pressing her warm body firmly against mine, before the agents rip her away from me. We lock eyes the whole time the agents separate us, all the way across the lawn. All the way into the back of the armored truck, until the doors shut, and the image of her face is taken away forever.

  Pain consumes me, an indescribable hole boring itself into the soul that I'm not even sure I have. It keeps digging deeper, prying harder, until there's nothing left to feel inside myself except for the agony of holding the most precious thing you will ever experience for just a second, only for it to be kept from you for all time. No Rage, no Lust, no Hunger. No Prisoner to battle, to ignore, or to tame. Just agony.

  The pitch-black holding area at the back of the armored truck bounces up and down as we travel to my final destination. I think about those agents, and the guns they held up to me. Wishing I could go back, and attack one of them, or attack Caesar. Maybe just start running in the other direction. Anything to put them in the position to pull their triggers. Because I want to die, I want to end what I'm feeling, and close the dark hole that's sucking me into oblivion.

  The only thing that keeps me going is the promise I made to Genny, to keep my humanity. Gibbs may have taught me how to act human, but she helped me become human. I won't waste such a precious gift. All I can do is hold onto it, and hope that perhaps one day I can return that gift to her.

  The truck comes to a stop after only a few short minutes, giving me almost no time to prepare for my new future. I hear the agents jump out and walk through the puddles around the perimeter of the vehicle. The doors open, and after my eyes adjust to the gray light shining in, I see the many guns trained on me again. I'll have to get used to this.

  “Welcome to Colorado Territorial!” a man in a blue containment uniform says, shining a bright flashlight right into my eyes. “As a Phase II Hybrid Reanimate who has no guardian, the United State of New America has deemed you unfit to exist within society, and has sentenced you to spend the rest of your days in a federal containment facility. However, since you're probably too brain-dead to understand what I just said, let me put it in words you can grasp: You bad Ugger, you locked up now. You no leave, ever.”

  “I understood everything perfectly well the first time,” I say, walking up to the doorway at the back of the truck.

  “Well, well!” the man says, a surprised grin on his face as he looks at the agents and other containment officers around him. “Looks like we got a smart one on our hands! Tell me, you go by something, Ugger?”

  “Excuse me?” I say, jumping down from the truck. Any guns that weren't pointed at me before are now.

  “A name,” he says slowly. “Who are you?”

  Who am I? A smile stretches across my face. I didn't think I'd be wearing one so soon.

  “I am Zaul Jarreux. A good person.”

  The End…

  …But The Story Doesn’t Stop There.

  You’ve just devoured Sons of Sludge, and yet there is much more to be consumed. To find out what awaits Zaul and Genny, read the epic sequel, Daughters of Death, available 11/14/16 on Amazon!

  Stay In The Know

  Want to keep up to date on all things Josiah Upton? For news about this series, other works, promo deals and giveaways, sign up to Josiah Upton’s mailing list. In return you’ll receive the free Postmortem Anomalies short story Zoo, a gripping tale of Sonny and Coco from within their Hybrid Reanimate Exhibit.

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  Acknowledgments

  This story was a few years in the making, and went through many revisions and rewrites, but from the very beginning the person that supported me 100% was my wife Jessica. You were my idea-bouncer, my first reader and my #1 fan. It goes without saying that this would never have been possible without you.

  I'd also like to thank my wonderful mother Ellen, and my awesome mother-in-law Deborah Reynolds, for watching and loving my wild little boys while I put my fingers to the keys. Additional thanks to my mom for lending a pair of editing eyes, and to my brother-in-law Josh, who is always eager to read the earliest (and crappiest) of drafts.

  And thanks to everyone else who has waited a long time to read this story, I hope you enjoyed it.

  About The Author

  Josiah Upton is an independent author from Fort Worth, Texas. When he isn't assembling monsters to the heavy metal soundtrack playing in his head, he's enjoying domestic life with his lovely bride and three crazy little boys.

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