Sick with the horror of it, Marcus looked upon his creation as she writhed and undulated her body to push the bullet out from the middle of her chest. Marcus stared in disbelief as the force of the extraction shot the bullet in the air, followed by an almighty scream, which sounded more of frustration than pain.
“What have you people done to her?” Marcus pleaded. He clenched his good hand. Scott shrugged, his expression appraising, as if he was curious how Marcus would react.
“The scientists here are giving her a drug in measured doses to bring out her caver side. Your girl in there, is becoming stronger with every day that passes. Every dose that enters her body, only enhances the power she holds within.”
Marcus clenched his teeth and squeezed his eyes closed in frustration. He had no other way to show his true feelings, but for now anger would do. He had grown to love Catherine Hyde as he did his own daughter. This horrific revelation had him reeling.
“Why was this kept from me?” Marcus shot Scott a look that could have killed a thousand people a thousand times over as he tried to comprehend the information. Scott turned from the penetrating scowl and looked into the cage at Hyde, weakened temporarily by the shot. Marcus followed Scott’s gaze, Hyde was struggling to get up, only to fall back down again.
Marcus couldn’t stop looking at Hyde, transfixed with wonder as the wound from the bullet just below her rib cage on the left-hand side began to close over. This is how they should have been; my creations. Indestructible. She’s perfect, and still beautiful. Marcus thought as he stared at the right-hand side of Hyde’s face, covered in slick, greying scales. Clumps of hair were missing from that side of her scalp.
Hyde turned her head to look at him. But her face contained nothing, just a blank expression, unreadable.
Marcus felt a tug on his shoulder. It was Scott.
“You need to leave now. She will be fine,” he said flatly as he pulled Marcus toward the intercom on the wall by the exit..
“Does she even know who I am?” Marcus asked, hearing the regret in his own voice.
“She knows who you are, that’s all that matters.”
Scott lifted the receiver of the intercom and awaited a response. A few moments later the comm crackled into action.
“Private Kirk, come to the training room. I need you to escort Dench back to his cell. I need to get back to my office.” Scott shut the comm off before the person at the end could respond properly.
CHAPTER 6
On the way back to his cell, Marcus’s mind was reeling with thoughts about what might be going on.... Something...anything. These would be his alone to ponder for the rest of the day.
“I’ll come back for you tomorrow. You rest until then,” Kirk said as they arrived outside the holding area. He fumbled in his trousers side pocket for the key to enter, making the task look harder than it was. Marcus couldn’t remember the main door being closed, ever. But there was a first time for everything.
“During this time, do I get to see my daughter...or anyone, for that matter?” Marcus asked as the door was pushed open.
“Not until you have done what has been asked of you,” Kirk said eyeing the strip light that had begun to flicker. Marcus followed his gaze and remembered seeing the camera before. He sensed that there was something on Kirk’s mind as he watched the other man’s eyes narrow. Was he trying to tell Marcus something? Something about the cameras maybe? But nothing was said as they entered the corridor leading to Marcus’ cell. His lay at the end of the block of five. The sound of light sobbing hung in the air as they passed one door. Marcus turned to where the sound was coming from. Jas?
“Look straight ahead and keep moving,” Kirk said in a taut whisper.
Marcus faced forward and said nothing as a firm hand pushed him along. He felt a sharp tug on his arm as they arrived outside his cell.
“Look after her, please. She’s all I have left,” Marcus whispered forlornly, as he tried to read the private’s face, but only received a stone-cold stare in return. Marcus took a deep breath and waited for Kirk to open his door. It took the usual fumbling to complete the task, but Kirk managed it without making himself look like too much of an idiot this time.
“Please,” Marcus begged. But Kirk ushered him through the door and shut it behind him, closing the shutter by the barred recess as well. Marcus dropped on to his bunk lying back, draping his good arm across his face. The day had taken its toll on his weary mind. The revelation that Hyde was one of his creations, and the fact that his daughter was being used as a pawn in this debacle, everything had heaped up and there was no way to fight it. He had never let his emotions take this much of a hold on him before. Not even when he lost his wife the day the bombs fell. It was one of those occasions that required his strength for the sake of his daughter. But now, there was no one around to tell him he couldn’t cry. Years of pent up emotion released itself in that one moment, and he didn’t care who heard it.
JAS SAT UPRIGHT, HEARING a man’s muffled sobs in the next cell. She nudged Aggie, who had cried herself to sleep, just as she had every night since they’d been separated from the others. Aggie swiped her puffy eyes and blinked them open.
“What? What is it?” she asked sounding worried. “Have they come back?”
“No, they haven’t come back,” Jas replied. “Can you hear that?”
There was a moment of silence before the sobbing started again.
“Poor sod,” Aggie said softly. “I wonder what they did to him?”
Jas wrapped her arm around Aggie’s shoulders and drew her in.
“I don’t know?” she said with a heaviness in her chest.
“Do you think the same will happen to us?” the older woman questioned.
No more was said as they sat and listened for what seemed to be an eternity. Waiting to see if anyone came for them or for him.
MARCUS HAD EXHAUSTED himself, and the desire to sleep clouded his mind. But no, he couldn’t sleep. He was still processing the day’s events. Seeing Hyde had brought about a realisation; he had forsaken her. But what could he do to help her? Could he make up a drug that would put her out of misery, or maybe he could try and formulate a drug that would reverse the process? The easiest option would be to kill her, but this was Catherine, his Catherine, if there was a way to save her he had to try for it. He needed his work to begin in the lab soon, before it was too late. He wanted to do as he had been asked, if only to get his plan underway.
He calculated and weighed up the pros and cons of what it would mean if it all went wrong. What would happen to him, but more importantly, what would happen to Jas? They had already threatened to do things to his daughter, so what would happen if he defied them completely? There had to be a way to get Hyde out of this mess without endangering Jas.
CHAPTER 7
Scott looked at the drugged and restrained Hyde, who’d been asleep for most the day. As he watched, her brow began to furrow in compliance with the drugs making their way through her system. She no longer wore the straitjacket, but her hands and feet had been chained together, and the loose, leftover chain was attached to the bars.
Her clothes were filthy, covered in urine stains and brown marks, and she stank. So much so, that it forced Scott to turn away from her powerful smell.
“We need to get you washed, soldier,” he said, but in a calming tone, not the usual brusque tone used by Judd.
Scott paused briefly to look at her once more before heading over to the intercom on the wall.
Pressing the button, he spoke “Sir, Hyde will be ready for you soon.”
“I’ll be there shortly, sergeant.” The other end crackled, then cut off.
Moving away from the intercom and back towards the cage, Scott looked at Hyde once more. Only this time her eyes were fixed on his, which forced him to turn away again.
“What’s the matter, sergeant? Don’t like what you see? Does it make you feel uncomfortable?” Hyde’s voice rasped angrily. “You did this to me, no one el
se... you, so you will look at me and see what you’ve created.”
Hyde had hit a nerve and he knew she knew it.
Actually, it wasn’t me. I’m trying to delay the process. He thought, before turning back to his hellish role
“You don’t speak to me in that tone, do you hear me, caver?”
The compassion he felt for Hyde had to be replaced with anger, for the sake of his cover, which he found difficult to uphold. What he really wanted to ask her, was if she knew who he was? The way she looked at him sometimes made him think that she was trying to push herself to remember him, but there was never anything said.
SCOTT SAW THE SMILE leave Hyde’s face as Judd entered the room, with two armed guards following behind him. He meant business. Scott scrutinised Hyde as her animal instincts began to rear. Her movements became predatorial toward Judd. She tried to reach the bars at the opposite end of her cage, but the chains snapped taut and hurled her back. She lost her footing and hit the ground hard. She stayed down, head bowed.
“I thought you said she was ready for me, sergeant? She doesn’t look ready to me,” he seethed as he stared at Hyde, laying there in the middle of her perfect square.
The smell of ammonia hung in the air, and the time had come to rid the room of the ungodly stench. Scott headed to the far corner of the room, just beyond the cage. He had in his hands a high-pressure washer, which was usually reserved for cleaning out the cells once a prisoner had been vacated. Today, it would serve a different purpose. Scott wheeled the device to the front of the cage. He then passed the hose to Judd, who stared at it briefly then smirked. A grimace appeared on Hyde’s face, as if she realised that Judd was about to drag the memory out from the back of Hyde’s mind, of what he’d done to her back at the encampment.
Scott primed up the pump, and the water filled, ready for Judd to begin. Hyde still lay where she had fallen, her face toward the ceiling as if just waiting.
“Get up soldier,” Judd ground out.
She continued to lay there, breathing heavily.
“Don’t force my hand, Hyde.”
She pulled on the chains that held her, with a degree of frustration in her action, but still stayed put.
“Get her up!”
Judd’s two men went into the cage and rushed the transitioning corporal. Before she could do anything, Hyde had been picked up with force and held fast. The two men were finding it difficult to carry out the task with the stench that surrounded Hyde. Both gagged.
“Let go of me,” Hyde hissed. But these men kept their tight grip on her arms and shoulders, as she tried hard to escape their grasp. Scott watched Judd as he held the hose. He heard the force of the water as it built up pressure in the system. Hyde closed her eyes; she knew what was coming. With the force of a wrecking ball, the water blasted Hyde so hard it winded her.
“Turn her,” Judd ordered.
Judd turned off the hose and remained braced for the next go. The two men spun Hyde with quick precision and held her fast just as Judd turned the water back on. His body jerked from the force of the water as it blasted into Hyde’s back. The dirt was washed away, but an inevitable hint of the former stench remained.
“Turn it off, she’s clean enough,” Scott snapped, forgetting who he was talking to. “Sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to sound out of turn.” Judd said nothing and gestured to the two men let go of Hyde. She fell to her knees, and the chains clanged as she landed hard on the floor. Her head remained down. She didn’t move.
“Get out of there,” Judd ordered his men and walked out of the door.
Once the men left the room, Scott stared down at Hyde. Only stared, nothing else. There was only silence as he watched her chest rise and fall with laboured breath. He tried to determine her mood by the heaviness of her breathing. Was she angry? Was she in a calm state of mind? Now, had it been me, I would’ve been pissed... but she seems quite docile. He thought, as he continued to watch her slow, hypnotic movement. With one sudden turn of the head and a look that could only be described as deadly, Hyde returned Scott’s gaze. His eyes widened. It was time for him to leave the room and let her calm down. He backed away, still staring at her as she lay there, his gaze still fixed to her lethal expression. I somehow need to get her out of here. The only thought Mason had was her freedom as he left the room.
“Come back,” Hyde shouted. as the door lock clicked home.
Scott left, and didn’t see the single tear roll down the side of her face and fall onto the floor.
CHAPTER 8
Scott sat in his tiny office and watched Hyde pace her cell via his monitor. He did the same thing every day. He sat and watched for any reactions to what she’d been put through on any one occasion. Today was different. Today she was angry, and she had every right to be. He watched as she wrenched at the chains that held her in frustration. Everything seemed to be happening as it should. Her strength was growing, and everything seemed to be running on schedule, which would make Major Clark very happy. It would also keep the consortium off the major’s back.
All Scott could do was smile, but that soon dissipated as he watched her gaze slowly meet his. How do you know about the cameras? He thought to himself. Hyde constantly surprised Scott with her in-tune mind. But his real concern was what else she could do with that mind of hers?
On reading the journals that Marcus had written up when he’d first started his creating process, Scott had noticed the scribblings describing each procedure. They stated that each caver would have super-human strength and be able to figure things out quicker than any human being. From what he could see, Hyde was beginning to fit that mould, which pleased him. He shifted in his chair then rose to his feet, grabbed the paperwork that he’d been thumbing through and headed for the door.
I CAN FEEL MY BODY changing every day. Sometimes it hurts, and others, not so much, but with every change I feel my humanity ebb away. They’re taking everything that makes me who I am and replacing it with a monster. I wish someone would help me. I need to escape. I need to find sanctuary, somewhere to protect me from these bastards. Someone, please help me, I’m dying inside. Hyde felt helpless as she continued to pace. Her thoughts were heavy on her mind as she tried to conceive a solution to her situation. I could rush the guards, but then I could find myself dead no sooner I tried. I could take a hostage... the lovely Sergeant Mason is a good candidate. Oh, the things I’d like to do to him if I ever got hold of him. But what I really want is for Marcus to acknowledge that he did this to me. Him, no one else. He put this on me, and the people here are capitalising on it.
Hyde was pulled from her thoughts as the door to the training room swung open. A man stood there, waiting. Hyde tried to focus on who it was, but until the light was turned on, she couldn’t tell. Was it one of the guards? Judd? Scott? Someone else altogether? Her answer came as Scott pulled the light cord.
“Sergeant.” Hyde’s top lip contorted in a sneer and her voice grated. “Back so soon? How wonderful.” The sarcasm hung in the air as Scott approached the steel bars that held Hyde in. With a slow, wavering movement, Hyde made her way over, but the chains would only allow her to reach the middle of the perfect square.
“Now, now, you’d best control yourself,” Scott said, his voice, antagonistic.
Hyde scrutinised him but remained silent.
“Stop trying to get into my head, caver. Do I need to place the bag over your head?” It was enough to make Hyde shy away and go back to leaning against the bars to which her chains were attached.
“That’s better,” he said as he grabbed one of the bars of the cage and continued to watch her. Then Scott turned and left, as if not giving Hyde a second thought. The light was turned off and Scott’s silhouette darkened the doorway before he pulled the door shut behind him.
SCOTT TOOK A SLOW WALK back to his office. Lost in his thoughts, he hadn’t noticed Major Clark coming towards him.
“Sergeant,” Clark said in a firm manner. “I have left instruction on your desk. A
final decision has been made regarding Hyde, and must be carried out, without question. Captain Judd already knows about it and has delegated you for the task.”
Scott sped up then, a bad feeling growing in his gut. The orders were on his desk and having read them he swore and stormed out. It hadn’t taken him long to get to Major Clark’s office. He stood face to face with the door and nervously knocked on it. Scott knew Clark was in there, he could hear the shuffling of paper. As he raised his clenched hand to knock again, the major finally answered.
“Come in.”
Scott entered with trepidation, not knowing what he was walking into. His fears were unfounded. There sat the major, behind his big oak desk, staring at him incuriously. Scott saluted and stood to attention, until Clark waved him over and gestured for him to sit. Scott obliged, even if a bit reluctantly.
“What is it, Sergeant Scott?” Clark asked in his usual gruff manner.
“What do they mean by ‘termination’?” Scott demanded as he opened out the written order. “As I understood when I transferred here, she wasn’t to be harmed. She was to be enhanced. They can’t kill her. That isn’t the deal...and as for the other’s, why? They are innocent in this. This is Miller’s doing, isn’t it?”
The major furrowed his brow.
“I understand what you’re saying, but It doesn’t matter who or why, sergeant. What matters is the decision has been made and the order will be carried out. Did I, in any way, not make myself clear in the corridor?”
They can’t just change their minds about her. Something needs to be done, and if Clark doesn’t do anything, I will have to.
Hyde's Lament_A Dark Novella Page 3