The Gathering

by Michael Timmins

  A good deal of them had only minor scrapes and after their initial treatment, most of them thought they were going home.

  They couldn’t have been more wrong.

  Within several hours of arriving at the hospital, the place went into lock down. No one else in and no one else out. The ones who had tried to leave had been wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and locked in a room with an armed guard.

  By the end of the day, they had all been loaded up into buses and moved to a huge warehouse, divided by long chain-link fences. Between the confusion, fear and recent trauma, most of them allowed themselves to be herded into what amounted to cages.

  Elias saw several people with DHS jackets coming and going throughout the night. They had confiscated everyone’s phones and tablets so there would be no communication with the outside world. As far as Elias could tell, they were prisoners at an undisclosed location, and no one knew they were there.

  What this portended did not sit well with Elias.

  The cages were equipped with cots and blankets and some had laid down either to fall asleep or lie in a fetal position and cry. Elias wasn’t ready to do either. Something was happening here, and no one would explain what it was.

  By mid-afternoon the next day, a dozen or so people had collapsed and had to be rushed out with a team of medics. There was no explanation, though the medics were peppered with questions. They had already given up asking the guards anything.

  Those who had been rushed out began to trickle back in. More and more people were stricken down. Elias learned from one of the captives who had come back that they had suffered from some sort of myocardial infarction.

  Every. Last. One of them.

  Elias knew, before long, he’d suffer the same.

  When the next group of buses arrived things went from bad, to worse. Scores of newcomers were pushed in among them. They were only given blankets as there were not enough beds to go around.

  The newcomers were victims of a second attack. They had worked at a refinery as well. The details of the attack were eerily like what Elias and the others had suffered. Elias did his best to gather as much information as he could, though what he would do with it, he didn’t know.

  For some reason, others turned to him for guidance and he tried to keep everyone in high spirits, but he felt himself falling into despair.

  “What are going to do, Elias?”

  Reva sat next to him on his cot, barely concealing the panic in her voice. Across from him, Susan sat, and next to her, Sam. He had tried to keep the team together, but Matt had collapsed earlier and hadn’t returned. Cynthia had collapsed yesterday and hadn’t returned either. Elias didn’t want to consider what it meant.

  Elias scratched at the bandage on his arm from where the beast . . . man had scratched him. The others had similar cuts on their arms.

  It was Susan who answered. “What are we supposed to do, Reva? We are here, surrounded by armed guards with no way to get out or communicate with the outside. All we can do is wait. This is still America; at some point they will have to release us. Family members will be demanding our return and they can’t hold us against our will forever.”

  Elias didn’t know about that. There were all sorts of scenarios Elias could imagine the government could come up with to justify keeping them here. Hell, they could deny they had us and stonewall whomever was trying to find them long enough . . . long enough for what though? What were they keeping them here for? Why were they systematically having heart attacks?

  He realized Reva was crying, and he put his arm around her shoulder, rubbing her back softly.

  “It will be okay, Reva. It will,” he told her, not believing a word of it himself.

  At that moment his heart stopped.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  When he awoke, they had moved him into a white sterile room. He lay upon a gurney, wired to a heart monitor. The steady beep beep beep of his heart was the first noise he heard.

  Sitting up, the hospital gown rubbed his skin irritatingly and he rubbed it against his bare skin to ease the itchiness. The fluorescent lights seemed extra bright in this room and he rubbed his eyes to lessen the glare.

  He remembered little from what had happened. One minute he had been comforting Reva, the next, pain shot through his chest and he fell. Shouts, strangely distant, had been calling his name. Shouting for help. Then all had gone black.

  The door on the other side of the room opened and a woman entered. A hefty looking brunette, she had her hair tied back in a tight ponytail. She wore a white smock over a blue blouse and khaki pants, and she carried a clipboard. A stethoscope hung tightly around her wide neck.

  She offered him a smile as she entered. He wasn’t in the mood to return it.

  “Hello,” she glanced down at the clipboard, “Mr. Tepper. I’m Dr. Hensley.”

  “Why am I here?”

  She gave him a look of mild amusement.

  “Because you had a heart attack.” They both knew it didn’t answer the real question he had been asking. “Now, I’m going to run some tests to see how you are doing, O.K.?”

  He snorted. Like she was going to allow him to say no. He decided to push it anyway.

  “And if I refuse?”

  She smiled condescendingly and motioned with her hand. Two armed guards entered the room and took up position beside his gurney. Not surprising.

  “Will you be cooperating today, Mr. Tepper?”

  “Why am I here? Why are any of us here?” Anger overcame his reason. “You can’t keep us here like this!” He swung his legs off the gurney and landed on his bare feet. The floor held no heat but felt like fire against the soles.

  The two guards moved instantly, each locking their arms around his elbows, grabbing him tightly.

  “Mr. Tepper,” the doctor began curtly, “we can do this the hard way, or the easy way.”

  Elias had never been so angry in all his life. Heat rose within him making his face flush and his breath coming raggedly. He wasn’t this guy. Never had been, this guy. He did not get angry at people. He was always the mild-mannered one. The one who diffused situations, not escalated them.

  The guards had firm grips on his arms and for a moment, he ceased resisting. His muscles eased, but when he glanced at Dr. Hensley who wore a smug expression his anger came roaring back.

  With a twist of his body, he tore one of his arms out of a guard’s grip and used it to push the other guard away from him. To his amazement, the man sailed backward, stumbling over the gurney before falling to the ground.

  Elias stared in wonder down at the man who stared back at him in utter shock. The other guard recovered quickly and wrapped his arm around Elias’ neck in a choke hold.

  The hold squeezed his neck and constricted his windpipe, his breath wheezed as he sucked in life giving air. In a desperate move, Elias pitched forward, tipping his shoulder downward. Lifting the guard from his feet, he tossed him over and the guard landed with a dull thud upon the ground.

  For the second time in minutes, surprise struck him. He wasn’t this strong. Couldn’t be this strong.

  What the hell?

  The doctor screamed for more help, her voice sounding like an angry chicken, as she backed away from him. Armed guards flooded the room, quickly surrounding him. With both hands held out he warded them away. Strength and awareness coursed through his body. He could feel the blood flowing through his veins and arteries. He could feel the power of his body in a way he had never felt before.

  When they came for him, they weren’t messing around. Several guards physically restrained him, others had their pistols out and began striking him about the head and arms with the butts of their guns. He fought as best as he could, but in the end, he went down under a flurry of blows and the combined weight of four guards.

  Consciousness returned gradually but return it did. Memory followed shortly after and he began to groan, only to realize, he felt no pain. Hesitantly, he opened his eyes and found himself lying fl
at upon the gurney again. This time, however, they had strapped him tightly to the bed. Leather straps dug into his wrists and ankles, while larger straps ran across his chest, his pelvis and his calves.

  He strained against his restraints and they creaked with his efforts but did not relent. With a little more strength, he knew he could get free, but whatever had been the cause of his amazing strength from earlier had fled.

  So, he lay there. Hours passed, or perhaps only minutes; it was hard to say as there were no indicators as to the passage of time in this room. It was the same sterile room he had been held in before.

  His stomach began growling as the door opened and Dr. Hensley entered.

  He growled at her, before catching himself. What the fuck? Did I just growl? He had. She faltered a step as she came in but straightened and continued toward him.

  He got a decent look at her. Blue and purple stained her eye socket and her lower lip was split and swollen. Apparently, someone else took issue with being kept here and managed to get to her before the guards had gotten to them. Elias smiled.

  She narrowed her eyes at him. “You’re not so tough now your all strapped in, are you?”

  He glared at her and fought his restraints again. They held tight.

  “Why am I still here?” The words were forced out through clenched teeth and held all the vehemence he could muster.

  She sniffed as she went about making sure all the straps were still tight. “We couldn’t let you back into the general populace. Not with what you have realized.”

  What had I realized? Elias racked his brain, trying to figure out what she could be referring to. She began to examine him, touching his face and examining his head. “Remarkable,” she muttered.

  What had happened when he had been subdued came back to him; she was examining the areas of his head where they had hit him with their guns. The areas which didn’t even hurt.

  As nonchalantly as he could, he glanced down at his arms. The blows had hit him all over, but mainly about the head and the arms. And yet, he bore no bruises anywhere he could see.

  Like sun gradually climbing above the horizon, it dawned on him. The increased strength. The healing. They were all the result of what that monster had done to him. Only, it hadn’t manifested itself until after he had his heart attack.

  He gasped, and the doctor looked at him sharply, trying to read him, but he made his face go blank. If all these things happened to me after my heart attack . . . everyone else who has survived the heart attack must be the same!

  No wonder they didn’t want him to return to the group. There had been dozens of men and women who had heart attacks and had been returned to the group. If they all decided to fight, there would be little the guards could do about it.

  Oh, they might open fire and kill some of them, but the numbers would not be in their favor. And given the amount of hits he had taken from those guys the other day, a gunshot wound or two wouldn’t slow any of them.

  After a series of pokes and prods, and a battery of other tests, the doctor took a blood sample and left. No one else visited him. As time passed, lone guards would bring him meals, help feed him and leave. They never responded to any of is questions or demands to be released.

  Elias had no idea how long he remained strapped to the table. Days maybe? At least two. For a while he yelled and screamed for help and all he got for his effort was a sore throat.

  All he had was time, time to think. Clearly, they were afraid of him. For whatever reason, he was a danger. Yes, he had fought off a couple of guards, but did that make him a risk?

  Keeping him from the others, he understood. If he hadn’t fought those guards, would he have been aware of his extra strength? Yes, he felt amazing, and more alive than he ever had, but he might have chalked it up to surviving a heart attack.

  But no. Something happened to his body, continued to be happening. He couldn’t comprehend what it could be. He remembered the way the Boar had bashed in the door. Such strength! What had the Boar said? ‘I can make you into someone like me. You will have power! You will have strength! No one will be able to hurt you. You will be unstoppable!’

  By cutting his arm, he had made Elias like him somehow. Which meant . . . he could turn into one of those monsters! But how?

  Elias didn’t know. Didn’t have a single clue how to make himself into one of those monsters. He blew out a breath in frustration.

  The door opened, and a guard came in carrying a plate. The aroma of eggs and sausage reached Elias the moment the door had opened, and his stomach rumbled in greeting.

  Pulling up a chair, the guard sat next to him. Elias didn’t recognize this guard. A formidable looking man, like most of the guards, he had a broad chest and large, muscular arms. His left arm was inked with a picture of a dreamcatcher, the long, beaded tassels below the hoop trailed down the man’s bicep.

  With careful deliberation, the man scooped a spoonful of scrambled eggs and offered it up to Elias. The way he was strapped to the table made eating difficult. Straining his neck, he lifted his head up so he could put his mouth around the spoon to eat the egg.

  Shift!

  Egg fell from his mouth. The guard cursed and tried to catch the pieces of egg as they tumbled from his open mouth. He tried to shovel the pieces back into Elias’ mouth, but Elias made no effort to receive them.

  Where had that voice come from?

  He knew he had heard it. Clear as day. Not from inside the room, but from inside his head. Elias became acutely aware of a presence inside his head. With shock, he realized the presence had been looming there, inside his head, for some time now.

  With awareness of this presence, he could sense where in relation to him it was. Somewhere to the south and west.

  Shift!

  He strained viciously against the straps and the guard scrambled back from him, unsure of Elias’ sudden violence.

  Something shuddered through his body and instinctually, he clenched every muscle he could. It felt like everything in his body wanted to flee and it was all he could do to keep them from going.

  SHIFT!

  The compulsion overwhelmed him this time. The strength of will from the presence pushed away every other thought. With the command came instructions. A flood of images flitted through his brain and compelled him to follow them.

  He remembered what that monster looked like. He pictured it in his head, somehow adjusting to make it more . . . him. The image solidified in his head and the pain came.

  Like a torrent, it washed over his body. Bones broke, tore skin and reformed. He vaguely heard the guard yell and run for the door. In moments, he would bring back more guards.

  In moments, it wouldn’t matter.

  Every inch of him broke and reformed. As these changes took place, he fought his restraints and they snapped in half or were ripped from where they were attached to the table.

  When he stood, he towered over his usual height. He didn’t need to see a mirror to realize he resembled the monster who had attacked the refinery. He had shifted into a humanoid Boar. Powerful and unstoppable!

  Good. Now come to me!

  Elias slammed into the door of his room, bursting it open as a half-dozen guards descended upon him. Like an avalanche, he rolled over them, slicing and shredding as he went. Blood and screams trailed him as he made his way through the building he had been held at.

  When he began to hear other screams, screams from other areas, he realized others were escaping. Weres began to join him, and they tore their way out of the building. Several times he and the others were accosted by guards. He had been shot several times already, but to his amazement, his body healed itself, slowly, but it did heal.

  They were in some sort of industrial park. Across from them, a huge squarish looking building sat. The rapid pop, pop, pop of gunfire could be heard from there. To the left lay an open parking lot which had been abandoned a long time ago. Cracks marred its surface and sprouts of grass had begun their long, slow war of rec
laiming what had been taken from them.

  The entire area was enclosed in a rusty chain-link fence fronted by a gate. On either side of the gate were wooden towers each standing twenty feet high or so. There were guards posted in each of them, pointing in their direction.

  Somewhere, sirens began to whine.

  As if the sirens were a summons instead of warning, the doorway to the squarish building blew off its hinges, striking the pavement, flipping over once and sliding to a halt a few feet away. Streaming out from the doorway came the most frightening and exciting thing Elias had ever seen. Monsters.

  They came in a flood. There were ones like him, boarish, with huge white tusks jutting from their jaws and arched backs, and there were the Crocs. Huge beasts with long, jutting maws full of razor-sharp teeth and scaly hides, their ridged tails swishing back and forth as they ran for the gate.

  Screams, shouts and roars were a battling chorus as Elias and the others with him joined the mass of beasts hurtling toward the gated fence and the two watch towers.

  Gun fire began to rain down upon them, but as they struck across the front of the mass, they did little damage and were healed instantaneously.

  Elias could hear gunfire from behind them as more and more armed guards exited the buildings they were posted at and took up the attack.

  Bullets perforated his hide as he ran, but he ignored them. His only goal, to make it to the gate and get out of this area as quickly as he could. He needed to get to the one who summoned him, and he needed to get to him now.

  More and more bullets struck him, and Elias realized that one guard had chosen him to concentrate his fire on. Elias broke from the pack and headed toward the tower. Fire and pain erupted from his side as the other guard upon the other tower had joined in the attempt to eliminate him. Bullets began to shred his right leg as he ran, closing in on the tower. His body fought to heal the damage, but the damage came too quickly for him to keep up.

  The front of the pack slammed into the gate and it broke under their assault and they scattered into the surrounding industrial park, losing themselves from sight as quickly as they could.