Visceral

by Adam Thielen

  Matthias pressed her hand in between his. “I betrayed you. Such an idiot! Before I knew what was happening, it was too late. I became a monster,” he stopped to cry and he saw Maria’s eyes turn glassy and her smile had started twitching ever so slightly.

  “I cheated on you, with that bitch,” he growled. “She told me nothing. I nearly died in our bed one morning after being sick for two days straight. You… the real you would remember that.”

  “The sun hit me,” he continued. “and I knew I had to hide. I only found answers later. I wasn’t me anymore. My feelings were gone, and I just stopped caring about anything. I abandoned you. I abandoned Shawn, for fucks sake! Somehow I forced myself to forget…” Matthias couldn’t stand any longer. He collapsed onto his knees in front of Maria. “That’s the worst part. I didn’t just betray and abandon you, I forgot you. You were the light of my life and I fucking forgot you like you meant nothing. I’ve hated myself ever since, I just never knew why.”

  He felt Maria’s hand run through his hair, shaggier back then. “We thought you died,” she said. “We grieved, but we never held a funeral. It tortured me, every day, for years.”

  Matthias nodded, knowing that had to be the case, justifying his anguish.

  “You should be ashamed, and sad, and angry. But I forgive you… And you won’t do us justice by dying here.”

  “Damn you machine,” Matthias snarled as he turned around. “They aren’t toys to play with.”

  “I cannot make them say anything, Matthias. I have resigned myself to my fate,” Drew assured.

  “This is where I belong, with you and Shawn. For as long as it lasts, I want to spend my final moments with you,” Matthias stood.

  “Listen to me, Matthias. I don’t know what this is,” she said, sweeping her eyes across the room, “But I know you. This creature that has invaded you has made a mistake. It thinks you are weak and alone,” Maria said, placing a hand onto Matthias’s cheek. “You were weak once, but I knew you when you were strong and I see it again. There’s a reason you kept trying to remember us, why you kept digging; you are ready to face it. The real you is awakening. And you may have been alone for a long time, but you are not alone right now. The man behind you. Kate, Taq, and Tamra. Your wife, your son.”

  “Please stop this. My wife and son are dead by now.”

  “I passed years ago, but not Shawn,” she argued. “He would make you proud. He’s got a family, lives well. Has a prominent position at Reclamation Processes, you can still find him.”

  “Maria, I don’t understand, how?” Matthias asked.

  “You owe him more than a convenient death here. You must accept what you’ve done and live with it. You cannot change the past. Let us go and live.” Maria embraced him, cradling his head in her hand and pressing her lips in the soft spot under his ear. “Remember us this time,” she whispered.

  She let go and stepped back.

  “I need you, Maria. I can’t go back to what I was.”

  “You can let this guilt consume you and die with us, but you can also change,” assuaged Maria. “You can determine who you are, what you are. It’s time to make your choice.”

  Matthias turned toward Drew. “You said you wanted to kill the fiend through me. How?”

  “This is the way,” Drew replied gesturing at the three of them. “This has always been the way. Leave this room, knowing they are gone and you must live with the truth. The fiend played a game with your mind that it is about to lose. Unknown to it I have trapped its consciousness inside of you where it will wither and die once it has failed to possess you.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I need you to trust me, Matthias.”

  Matthias looked back at his son, Shawn. “I will see you again.” He told Maria he loved her one last time as she smiled, holding Shawn’s hand. For a moment he was held fast by the idyllic scene. He still wanted the peace that only death promised, and he realized that this family he destroyed was the only thing he had ever wanted out of life. Summoning all his strength, Matthias tore his mind away from the longing that bound him to the room. What he wanted and what he felt no longer mattered. He turned to the door and walked out.

  Episode 9: What Drew Said

  A sharp buzzing noise filled Angela Koch’s ears. Based on past experience, she knew that this sound had likely been perforating her eardrums for several minutes: she was a heavy sleeper. Looking at the clock (the only light in the room), she saw that it was nearly two in the afternoon. Someone had better be dead.

  Chairwoman of a rising corporation consisting mostly of night stalkers and blood suckers (the latter being accountants both human and vampire), she was both amused and anxious of how others saw her. Appearances were everything. Her body was thin, pale, veiny. Sleep lined her eyes, she smelled of alcohol and rotting produce (a natural odor from ingesting human food that undergoes relatively rapid fermentation), and her hair was a tumbleweed. No one on the planet would respect or heed Ms. Koch if they ever caught a glimpse of her in this state.

  She somehow imagined that other executives and board members woke up in their perfectly fitted sport coats and pressed slacks, but this thought deconstructed itself under any scrutiny, and she imagined many of the boys looked worse off than she. It was a small comfort. Angela was still aging. It was taking a long time, but it was happening. She wasn’t nearly the oldest of the known kin, but she was up there. Maybe in the top one hundred, possibly even fifty. Her memory had not grown more powerful as she aged. She remembered only glimmers of the many lives she had led. None compared to her time on the council. Before Noxcorp was an official entity, there was the council. Koch had been a part of it for nearly two centuries after relocating to the United States from Berlin. It was the only life she could imagine for herself anymore.

  The council was far older than Ms. Koch, but, well-versed in history, she knew it was not eternal. It was born from a bloody war that nearly destroyed the entire vampire race. A war waged by three arrogant vampires who believed themselves fit to rule all, vampire and human alike. All that stood between them and absolute power was a relatively young republic of vampires who had entrusted much to the population of a handful of human colonies willing to to partner with monsters in return for protection. The veil that kept the ether separate from the facade was strong back then. Humans had no magic to help them against these conquerors. But their ingenuity combined with weaponry wielded by vampire allies was enough to to turn the tide and defeat the three. But before they fell, they took most of the vampire world with it, along with almost all of the humans that knew them. Those that survived made a pact to never let it happen again and went into hiding for many centuries to slowly rebuild.

  The buzzing persisted until Koch rolled off the bed and onto her feet.

  “Answer,” she spoke. Then, “Report.”

  “Ms. Koch, this is Ramsey at the facility,” he said, not needing to explain what facility. “We have a situation that requires your attention.”

  “Fuck,” she said. They never made direct calls to her. “Tell me now.”

  “I can’t. You know.”

  “Dammit. I will be there shortly. Is anyone else coming?”

  “Yes, the second has been contacted, and the staff have been called in.”

  “Fuck!” Someone was definitely dead.

  * * *

  Tamra climbed the long ladder up. She was leaving the hidden facility that contained a strange artificial intelligence named Drew, a mage she felt responsible for, and a neuro who had gotten them all tangled into the web they now flailed against. The hatch at the top was lighter than it looked. Lifting it revealed the city of Santa Cruz. “When did this country become a freakin’ maze?” she wondered aloud.

  Drew’s words continued to replay in her head. Beginning to finish, over and over again. Tamra was looking for inconsistencies or flaws but had found none… yet. He had revealed to her a secret he learned while absorbing all public knowledge found on the greater
net, and while he wormed his way into private data stores and servers. Trusting him little, Tamra gave no assurance that she could carry out what he expected.

  Looking around, Tamra sighed. Unlike most of the former United States, Cruz was picturesque. It had yet to succumb to the need to become completely utilitarian. That was the contemporary excuse for unkept buildings, grounds that were no longer green more than a few weeks out of the year, and housing projects sandwiched together for miles. Instead Santa Cruz was a throwback to a time where prosperity abounded with no one to appreciate it until it was gone.

  The warden noticed that the streets were empty, and the sound of the daily bustle was absent. The ghouls, she thought. Tamra called MESS headquarters to report. She told them nothing about the machine, only that she had found information during Kate’s rescue that confirmed Grapeseed to be behind the attack. Her superiors ordered her to return immediately for a full debrief.

  Tamra asked about the ghoul outbreak. The security forces of almost all corporations were involved now, trying to contain damage and destroy the creatures, but attacks were becoming more frequent. The only good news came in the form of reports that some ghouls had dropped dead unexpectedly. The nine largest corporations had already agreed to meet that evening to coordinate a strategy for dealing with the infestation.

  As soon as she closed the connection to MESS headquarters, another call came in, this one from Noxcorp. Her heart sped up. Do they know? she wondered.

  “Where are you? Where’s Taq and Kate?” It was Robert Green, a member of their council.

  “I’m in Santa Cruz,” she replied. “I couldn’t get them out; they are both in Grapeseed custody.” It was close enough to the truth.

  “Did you come across any strange machines there?”

  “Just the usual, but Kate believed they were hiding some sort of dream machine. We never came across it, though.” Tamra felt sweat bead on her forehead.

  There was silence on the other end, and then, “Thank you, Tamra. Noxcorp will do what it can to get them out. Stay safe.” He disconnected, and Tamra exhaled.

  There were no tubes leaving or entering Santa Cruz. Tamra found an automated bus station and boarded for San Jose; the closest tube city. From there she boarded a pill with only two other passengers. Very light fare for the afternoon. Along the route she saw two different ghoul attacks. They were roaming in packs, striking when advantageous. Tamra looked at the passengers who glanced nervously at her, still well-armed. She wondered who they feared more.

  When the pill made its final deceleration toward K.C., Tamra saw forms scrambling about at the station. Then muzzle flashes. Then as it came to a stop, the sounds of screaming and screeching. A corpsec officer was caught in the open, trying to fight off several ghouls. One leapt at him from behind, impaling him with its claws. Its jaw opened at an almost right angle and came down on the man’s neck. One of the other passengers crawled onto the floor of the pill, crying. The other one was standing, with a hand raised to his mouth.

  The doors opened, but the ghouls hadn’t noticed yet as they chased after other victims who had been waiting at the station. Tamra handed her pistol to the man still standing frozen, he reluctantly took it. “Any ghoul that comes after you will have to come through the door,” she said, knocking on the inch-thick wall of the pill comprised of steel and correlated metal. “This will make them easy targets for you. You don’t have to do much aiming. Just timing.” The man nodded. “I can’t stay in here and wait. If you get a clear shot at one coming after me, take it.”

  The ghouls had begun to take notice. Instead of running at her haphazardly, two took cover behind thick square pillars. The third began to move erratically side to side. Tamra swung her AR off her back and took aim. At only twenty feet out, the fiend started moving forward, still weaving randomly. Tamra fired. Miss. She fired a second time. A second miss. Realizing its upper legs had the least lateral mobility, she fired again, hitting the ghoul in the thigh. It fell to a knee only a couple meters from the door. She continued firing, hitting it a few times in the chest then in the head.

  Tamra stepped out and started circling the left pillar, slowly exposing that ghoul’s position to the man left in the pill. The other ghoul ran around the side of his pillar and toward the man. He pointed his gun and fired, missing. Tamra took aim and shot it several times, knocking it off course. Its body tumbled onto the ground, hitting the tube wall. The first ghoul took the opportunity to leap at Tamra. She had no time to react. A shot rang out as the ghoul flung toward her. Airborne, the monster’s trajectory was thrown off and it fell beside her. She lowered her gun and fired five rounds before it could recover.

  The man had made an almost impossible shot, hitting the ghoul in mid-air and causing it to miss Tamra. He stood at the door frozen in the same stance. Realizing the fight was over, he pointed the barrel upward and waved it toward her, offering it back. “Keep it,” she said.

  Her watch said five o’clock. She walked out of the station and found her rendezvous in a black van outside. Tamra heard what sounded like an explosion and watched as smoke rose in the western horizon. At least two different sirens filled the air. She opened the passenger door and sat down. “Let’s go.”

  * * *

  “Lieutenant Redstone,” the page announced as Tamra entered MESS conference room. Most of the council was in attendance, with no outsiders allowed except Tamra and the page. The page left.

  “Sit down, please,” a gruff voice spoke. Gruff but smiling and warm. His thin shiny nameplate said Parsk. He was a thick man with gray hair and round cheeks. Parsk had been chairman for only a few years, and he did so little different from his predecessor that most of the rank and file didn’t know there had even been a change in leadership for several months. Tamra had met him twice, and only briefly. Even during her recent promotion, she never saw him.

  She gave her report for the second time, same as the first. “But there’s something else the council should be made aware of,” she said, concluding her speech.

  “We had some questions; is this part of your report?” asked Parsk.

  “I think it may be best that this be left out of the official report,” explained Tamra. “But it does concern details of the excursion into Grapeseed facilities that was not disclosed in my transmitted report.”

  Parsk shifted uncomfortably in his seat, with the other members looking at him as if judging him by his response, or perhaps simply wanting to shift any burden of responsibility onto him. “Perhaps I should hear this in private if it’s this sensitive.”

  “This is private enough,” said Tamra. I would like everyone here to be aware of what I have to say, sir.”

  “Maybe you can give us some idea of… No, you know what,” he said, leaning forward. “Lay it on us.”

  * * *

  “One of them is dead,” Phillip, the lead scientist in the facility, revealed.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes?”

  “How sure?”

  “I’m confident.”

  Koch argued. “This shows his heart rate.”

  “Electrically stimulated. The body is still alive… well the cells are fed oxygen and are at the very least fresh.”

  “No brain activity,” she sighed.

  “No brain activity,” Phillip echoed.

  “Shit.”

  “Indeed.”

  “How?”

  “There was a massive surge of activity a few hours ago. I gave him a small sedative, and it started to come down slowly. Then it just kept going until the brain became completely inactive. Teraprotonic scanning showed that key synaptic clusters were burnt out. The cells were destroyed in enough places to eviscerate connections between major parts of the brain.”

  “Are you saying that this was somehow intentional?”

  “Actually no,” he answered. “However, that seems a rational yet highly improbable conclusion.”

  Koch turned away from the scientist and looked at the formation of thr
ee pods with three bodies submerged in a thick gel. Karach was in the first pod and was likely dead for all intents and purposes, Brell in the second, and Gressen in the third. Each so emaciated as to appear alien, with light gray skin. Only Gressen still had any hair. Fangs protruded from their mouths. Innumerable tubes traveled down a pylon in the center of the room then separated into bundles of fibers perforating each body.

  It had been a tradition passed down from leader to leader to watch over them, and as technology advanced, so did the method of imprisonment. The facility was state of the art, filled with displays and computers constantly monitoring all biological activity of the subjects. There were only a handful of staff at the facility, but all had been dismissed except for Phillip, Ramsey, and two specialists.

  Koch folded her arms and pursed her lips in thought, then sent a page to her lead analyst, currently poring over the Neuroscape data. A few minutes later, the door to the lift opened and another man stepped into the room, wielding a shotgun. He looked at Koch and Phillip in turn. “How bad?”

  Angela Koch rolled her eyes while Phillip stood silent. “Put that thing away, Robert.”

  He sat the weapon on top of one of the consoles that lined the circular room. “Well?”

  She retold Phillip’s explanation, interrupted by a response to her earlier page. “Yes, what have you found in the data… Right, but what of the dreams… I see… So it’s real… Keep scouring, rest will come later. Thank you.”

  Robert Green stared at Angela Koch. He was the second, she was the first. It was their duty to protect the state of these men and the knowledge of their existence. He parsed the one sided conversation in his head. “What data?” he requested.

  “Our secret is out,” she said to an immediate groan from Green. “That neuro who broke into Grapeseed and the two that went to get her. Maybe Matthias.”