"Do not shoot, I said, it's my father!" exclaimed Johnny.
"It was your father, my boy," the man replied, glancing at him briefly before aiming at his target again.
The young man and his friend Bo who was holding him looked angrily at the armed man who was about to shoot.
But all at once the guard opened his eyes wide and was open-mouthed.
The two young men saw him with surprise lower his weapon and, taken aback, they saw that he continued to look at Harry.
They did the same and both had a shock.
The face of the colossus had resumed its dark color. The cruel bites had disappeared, replaced by superficial wounds that were no longer raw, seeming to have begun to heal. Finally, the wounds disappeared in a matter of a few seconds, leaving Harry Jackson’s face intact, whose eyes had returned to their natural dark brown color.
Harry turned his head to the armed guard and asked, "What's up?"
"Oh, nothing," replied the man, who, his rifle now completely lowered, looked sheepishly. "I thought that..."
"What?" the colossus asked dryly.
"Uh, nothing... I'm sorry, I have to go back to my surveillance station."
And, turning away his fleeting eyes, the guard went back to the level of the ramparts.
"Dad!" exclaimed Johnny happily, rushing toward his father who laughed cheerfully, hugging him affectionately.
The young man pulled back and said, "I thought you had definitely been turned into a zombie!"
"Not quite, thankfully," Harry replied, a big predatory grin on his lips before continuing, "There was still Dr. Mengele's drug substance in my veins... But I feel I'm going to have to go quickly find him to "fill up."”
"I'm coming with you," Johnny said cheerfully, and arm-in-arm they headed for the tall, white medical facility.
Bo watched them leave, just smiling, but also... very intrigued.
An animal clamor rising from the other side of the wall made him jump, making him say to himself, Weird things are happening… and with that, we are only at the beginning of our struggle for survival...
***
Renaissance
Red felt as if she was floating in total darkness...
It was strange. It was as if she no longer had the slightest sensation, no more body, was an entity now disembodied.
She felt good...
Relaxed...
Something sharp pierced her solar plexus.
This made her scream in pain and open wide eyes that were dazzled by a strong white light.
She closed her eyes as hard as she could, reddish gleams seeming to dance under her eyelids.
Several minutes passed, during which she found herself plunged into a near darkness.
She blessed it because it was less aggressive, this time, than the light that had dazzled her before.
She slowly opened her eyes and saw the light again.
It was a headlamp for medical purposes.
Although still partially dazzled, she recognized the face that made her uncomfortable, as always.
The face of the man so many called Dr. Mengele...
She caught a glimpse of the scientist's hand, which seemed to be on something.
With difficulty, lowering her head to the point of compressing her throat with her chin, she saw that the man's hand was resting on the handle of a large syringe.
And its needle was deep in her heart!
The scientist sharply pulled the syringe upward, pulling it out of her plexus, causing a new pain that made her scream even louder.
The pain passed quickly as she saw a smile widen on the man's face, who watched her with as much interest as an entomologist observing a praying mantis... as usual.
Feeling terribly vulnerable, she quickly fell back into unconsciousness.
***
Red woke up with a sudden jerk, abruptly moving into a seated position while pushing the doctor's mischievous smile with the flat of her hand.
He was thrown back violently and crashed against a nearby wall.
The girl, her heart pounding as she felt like choking, watched him stand back against the wall, head down, while he held his nose with one hand.
She saw blood flowing down his closed hand just in front of his flawless white coat, while, uncomfortable, she realized she was not breathing.
Still sitting, Red tried to inspire, but nothing worked, it was as if her lungs were not working. The air that they still contained became hot, her bronchi making her suffer more and more.
I can’t breathe, I'm going to die, she told herself, opening wide, frantic eyes.
A little laugh caught her attention, and she saw that the scientist standing against the wall had raised his head and was watching her, seemingly satisfied by the fear that was probably visible in her eyes.
"Breathe," he said in a satisfied-sounding voice, though it was a little altered by the blood that was still flowing from his nose, which he no longer held with his hand.
"You'll see, you'll eventually get to breathe," he added, a hint of mockery now in his voice.
She made a new effort and finally her respiratory diaphragm unblocked.
The girl pushed out a strange baby-like wail that allowed her to vent the little stale and burning air that remained, and immediately she inhaled fresh air.
It was a delight that she highly appreciated...
I’m going to live!
She breathed hard at first, but gradually she felt that it became easier and easier. It was like she was learning to breathe again...
As if she had just been reborn.
As she finally relaxed, lying on the rollaway bed on which she had been placed, she saw the doctor approaching her, holding again his nose in a handkerchief now completely bloodied.
Embarrassed, she remembered having hit him... then no longer felt any embarrassment.
She concluded that it was because, like everyone else in the Community, she didn’t like him.
"Well, you came back from the dead!" said the scientist, approaching her casually, his usually disturbing smile partly visible behind the handkerchief.
"True... really?" replied the girl, feeling more and more uncomfortable having to establish a conversation with this man.
"In a manner of speaking," he replied, leaning down to pick up an object that had fallen to the ground, and getting up, he showed it to her.
She recognized the big syringe he had held in one hand, earlier. Disgusted, she saw that the needle was still all bloody.
"I had to give you an adrenaline shot in the heart, to get it to go again," said the scientist. "Adrenaline, to which I added a nice little mix of my own composition."
He had said that with a voice full of pride, and Red, still muddy, bowed her head and discovered, between her small breasts, a small hole, blood red in color.
Between her breasts?
Red blushed when she noticed that she was naked under a sheet that covered her up to her waist, and quickly pulled it up to hide her chest.
The man looked at her mockingly, obviously amused by her embarrassment.
Then he took out a small container with a needle containing a bright green liquid, which she recognized. It was the same liquid that Harry had injected into his own brain.
Glancing around her, the red-haired girl felt something like an electric shock when she saw an assortment of instruments on a table next to her.
Syringes, scalpels, various surgical instruments.
Fear made her fire-colored hair stand up on her head.
No, not me... not my brain!
"Do not be scared," the scientist said amusedly, nothing in the teenager's attitude seeming to be able to avoid his observation of her. "I will not have to open your cranial box, contrary to what I thought initially… Happy?"
She opened her mouth, which immediately twisted with pain.
The professor had, without any warning, put the needle of the container in one of her arms.
The surprise of the sting, joined
to the liquid that entered her veins, burning like boiling lava, had been enough to make her pretty face deform with the pain.
The burn in her veins disappeared quickly, and, comforted, she relaxed completely on the bed with wheels.
"You’re young and healthy, you will not undergo a transformation as advanced as Mr Harry Jackson... and I cannot wait to see if the effects of the same treatment will be as impressive on you as it was on him!"
The young redhead felt that he was watching her with interest as if she were a lab rat, not a human being, and she felt hatred for him.
"Thanks to me and my serum injector, you will stay with us in the community, instead of being thrown out with the zombies around us, or in the inner detention facility… What do you say to the kind Professor Harding?"
"I guess... thank you..." said the teenager, having a hard time hiding the hate on her face while looking at him.
"You're welcome, girl," the man replied with a superior air.
He has a God complex, Red thought.
That's when she saw Hiroto.
He was lying, still unconscious. No sheets covered his body, but the girl felt no discomfort, since her old Master had remained dressed. In fact, she even had the impression that he had been left dressed, as is, without trying to take off the clothes to heal him more easily, as it had been in her case.
But, above all, something shocked the teenager, who observed one of the old man's legs, partly visible, showing a deep bite. It was a dark, rotten bite, obviously extending into dark veins and venules, invading his leg. She had already seen these kinds of marks: they originated from the rapid invasion of the body by the accursed bacterium responsible for the epidemic which had transformed the majority of Humanity into creatures hungry for human flesh.
An infection that was quickly transmitted by the slightest bite.
"Ah, are we concerned about grandpa?" asked Professor Harding with a mocking voice, as he approached the old man.
"But... I don't see any serum injector on him!" exclaimed the girl.
Harding just looked at her, shrugging.
Red now got really hot about it, and she asked, "Aren't you treating him against his transformation into a zombie, too?"
"Too injured, too tired, too old... At his age, the transformation is fast, even if it can be slowed down a bit by the treatment, so..."
"So?" the girl murmured, glaring at him as she waited for the cursed scientist to continue.
"So, I felt it was not worthwhile to treat him, the serum is too precious..."
"Heal my grandfather!" the young red-head roared, throwing down the white sheet that covered her and jumping to the ground beside the bed, making the professor jump. The sound of her bare feet touching the floor echoed along the tiled white walls all around. She found herself standing next to the bed, instantly stripped down to her birthday suit, her skin very white and the totality of her fire-colored hair clearly visible under the intense light of the neon ceiling lights.
"Sorry, Miss, but I have to save the serum," said the scientist, who was looking at her without the slightest embarrassment.
She took a determined step towards the professor and grabbed him by his throat, looking at him furiously, her green eyes filled with hatred.
It was then that she heard small noises that intrigued her.
Looking down she saw that they were coming from the scientist's shoes. Their tips were tapping the tiled floor. She realized that she had almost lifted him from the ground. Then, much to her surprise, making a little more effort to lift her arm, she lifted the man completely off the ground, his shoes floating above it.
Red then heard a choking sound and looked up again.
She was shocked to see the head of the man becoming puffy and red but, on reflection, wasn't surprised: the neck of the scientist clamped in her teenage hand as in a bench vise, she was literally hanging him...
The girl opened her hand wide and the scientist's buttocks unceremoniously struck the floor.
He could thank his reflexes for not falling on his back too, catching himself with his arms just in time. Then, having managed to stabilize, he sighed heavily and blush began to leave his puffy face.
Then, looking at her, he grinned and laughed.
A mad laugh that disarmed her. This guy is definitely even madder than I was told!
He continued to have a few nervous laughs, and when he calmed down, Red asked him, "What... what did you do to me?"
"Aaaah, but I just saved your life, my dear!"
"That unnatural force... same as in Harry's case... that you also turned into a fairy animal, huh?"
"More than that," the scientist said, showing a big, cold, proud smile. "I made him a giant!"
She looked at him sternly, as if trying to understand, and she finally whispered, "Literally or metaphorically?"
"In every sense of the word!" shouted the scientist, who was now excited. These words elicited answers to many questions that Red and others in the Community had raised.
"Sorcerer's apprentice!" shouted the young redhead, her face turning red with anger. "At least save my grandfather!"
"Oh, him?" said Professor Harding, losing his smile to look beside him at the old man, who was still lying motionless with his eyes closed. "I told you, he's old and useless..."
Harding paused and began squatting, a grimace appearing on his face as he began to moan in pain as he grabbed one of his hands with the other.
Red smiled when he saw what was happening.
Hiroto had caught Harding's wrist with one of his hands, and, his eyes open, was watching him intently. Holding the wrist of the mad scientist between two of his fingers, the old Japanese gave him a very painful wrist wrench, while looking at him with a stern look with his little dark eyes.
"Sto… Stop..." the standing man writhed in pain as he felt a new twist of his wrist from the old man, before resuming, white as a towel, "Stop, you’re hurting me!"
"You're going to give me a double dose of your serum, one for me and one for my granddaughter," Hiroto said weakly, but decidedly.
"OK, OK," the scientist replied, practically kneeling and grimacing because of the pain, next to the old Japanese man, who was putting even more pressure on his wrist.
Confident that he had given his word, the old Master released his wrist.
Suddenly the professor got up and ran to the door of his laboratory that he opened wide and stopped, surprised.
Johnny was standing in the doorway, clearly taller than him.
"Where were you going like that?" shouted the young black guy, pushing back the scientist who was frightened.
"Father!"
It was Mei's voice, who had just appeared from behind Johnny. Looking from the doorway, she ran into the room and rushed to her old father. He said nothing but, obviously happy to see her again, he gave her a small smile.
Not far from them, Johnny pushed Professor Harding bluntly to a table with several syringes and other unused surgical instruments.
Mei helped her father sit down as Harding approached them with two syringes full of fluids in his hands, Johnny on his heels.
"This will make you feel better," the scientist said, as he poked Hiroto's arm.
The latter made a barely perceptible grimace when he was surprised by the needle that had pierced his arm. He pulled himself together again, resuming his usual impassive look.
His features relaxed suddenly as he felt the beneficial effect of the serum. He whispered, "I feel better."
"You see that I'm finally generous?" the professor said, trying to put some spirit in his voice, while turning his head towards Johnny, hoping to be treated well by him.
The teenager kept his stern look as he watched and Harding lowered his head.
"You will show yourself generous enough to give him a maximum of your doses of serum!" cried Red, who, looking at him angrily, walked towards him.
The scientist recoiled then, obviously more frightened by the girl than by the muscular young
colored man.
Looking at her as he helped Hiroto get up from the table, Johnny's eyes widened, and then he blushed. "Uh, Red..." he stammered, "you know you don’t have…"
"To be short," interrupted the old Japanese, who showed a slightly embarrassed attitude when addressing the Professor, "give me some doses, but give my granddaughter her clothes too!"
***
Respect
Mei was busy vacuuming the dining room in her father's apartment. She had done that four times this week. She knew it was starting to look like a mania, but it allowed her to keep her mind occupied. She devoted herself fully to the task without thinking about anything else, as when she practiced Martial Arts, which allowed her, momentarily, to forget her dark thoughts.
And momentarily forget what could be happening to her father and her adopted daughter.
The dining room door suddenly opened wide.
The young woman, surprised to see who came in, dropped the handle of the vacuum cleaner. It collapsed on a thick carpet in a vast noise.
Johnny and Red, both dressed, had just passed the door, supporting Hirot, who gave his daughter a beautiful smile.
"Father!" exclaimed the young woman, running towards them before stopping short in front of the trio, moving aside to let them pass, and resuming, her eyes full of anxiety, "What has happened to you? "
"The worst and the best happened to us," the old man answered in a weak voice, but in which one could sense a certain satisfaction, especially from the last words.
"What?" Mei asked, as she started walking in front of them, leading them to her father's futon, opening the bed as quickly as possible.
After Red and Johnny helped him lie down, the old man gave a sigh of relief when he found himself in the horizontal position, before resuming, "Joshua Adams, the Administrator, is dead... May his soul know nothing else than torments, for he was really an evil being!"
His daughter looked at him in a disturbed manner and then, looking at her adoptive daughter and her friend, she smiled at them and said, "Thank you both for bringing him back... Thank you."
Hungry Series: Tomes 1 & 2 Page 32