by Thomas Shaw
“Look, I said, it's not my department. I'm part of communications for this site. You'd be better off going back where you came from”
The woman was stood now and looking at him in horror, “How do you know this?”
“I’ve been working with Agent Cole, been sending his reports through the system. But I had to, listen, they have some great ideas...”
She looked at me and then back to him, “Yeah, really great”
“You don't understand, they're actually doing something, unlike Mike, who just sits on everything and doesn’t develop anymore”
“What about the Sentry programme? He got those guys doing- “
I was getting annoyed, “Shut up! I need a cure… or… or something to help”
The man squirmed, “There is no cure! They tried to create one, but all tests failed! Just let us go, I've told you everything I know! Look, you need to leave, otherwise you're gonna be killed. The army’s on its way. They've been ordered to shoot to kill!”
I stepped back, to let them both go. Not because I feared the army, the other guards and soldiers were trying to kill me before. But mainly because they were useless to me. They walked carefully around me and headed for the door when I heard them stop. I turned to see Six stood in the doorway.
“And where do you think you're going?” He said menacingly at them both. He grabbed the man and walked out, “One! Get the girl!”
I took a hold of her arm and marched her out of the room. She struggled but didn’t put up much of a fight. Six had left the room and was in the classroom across the hall. The lights were on in the room now. Bodies of dead guards were lined against the wall. They were covered in blood. All the tables were shoved back to make a large space in the room. The others were stood at the front of the room and watched as me and Six marched our captives in. The woman screamed and Six threw her a look, she was instantly silenced.
“So, thanks to this one, we have the army after us now!” Six announced. He threw the man in the middle of the room, “Tell us, why are we to be killed? Was we not created for something?”
The man looked around at us. He looked frantic, but he took two deep breaths then composed himself, “You were test subjects. You were all ill and we tried to find the cure. But the cure didn't work properly, it made some of you unbalanced, so you were locked away. Then, our boss, Darren, decided that you all become test subjects for something else. That's all I know. As I keep saying, it's not my department. I just know what I know from reading emails”
“Not my boss” The woman beside me mumbled. No one else heard her but I gave her a look. She noticed that tight and she should freely move her arm, but something compelled her to stay.
“So, what do we do now?” Six asked the man, “Wait to be taken again and locked away? No, we were made to be better than people like you. So that's what we'll do! And to do that, we need to make room” Six stepped across the room till he was face to face (well, face to chest) with the man. He placed on hand on his head and drove his fist through the mans stomach, right through and out of his back! Blood splattered all over the floor and the woman next to me screamed. She ran off out of the room. I stood, not even thinking about catching her. Seven shouted at me, “One! Get her now!”
I turned and ran out of the room and down the corridor, but I gave up after a minute. She was too far, and I didn’t fancy bringing her back just to be slaughtered by Six and his madness, I returned empty handed.
“What happened?” Six asked.
“She got away, I couldn’t catch her”
Six stomped over to me, and got too close for comfort to my face, “At least you tried One” He smiled and turned away and looking around at the others, “I didn’t see any of you helping tonight!”
The others were all looking at the floor, like kids being told off by their teacher. I noticed Seven was absent. Six looked down at the man he had just killed and then at his hand, which was still covered with blood, “These people tried to make something better than them, and they succeeded. We. Are. Better. Then. Them! It’s about time we started acting like it! From now on, you all obey my every command, you do as I say!” With that he walked out of the room. Me and the others looked at each other. We didn’t know what to do so I just walked out after him.
I decided to investigate the building, to maybe try find some more information. After an hour I found an office suite, one that was only furnished with a large, comfy chair and a computer desk. Apart from a set of shelves on the wall, the rest of the room was empty.
I went to sit on the chair, but I was much too big for it. I placed my hand on the desk and the glass surface illuminated white. A screen appeared on the surface and started humming quietly. Then a small part of the desk tilted so the screen part of the desk was now upright. Text started scrolling upwards, as if something was loading. The screen changed to red and various icons popped up around the screen. I couldn’t see a keyboard of any sorts around, so I instinctively tapped on the screen on one of the icons named 'Cure All Project'. The screen changed to one that was filled with files of information. I saw one that said personal diary and opened it up. Text filled the screen and I started reading:
15/05/2104:
I've finally settled in this office. It's nice, prefer to have stayed at headquarters, but I suppose if Mike wants me here now, so be it. Think he's catching on, wants me tucked away so I can't do anything. But I'll take this position and do what I can with it, maybe he'll see sense.
I skimmed the next few entries, mostly were just about meeting the staff and making contacts at this office and at the laboratory. I came upon another entry, one which instantly caught my eye:
06/06/2107
So, we have our test subjects. All ten of them. Met them in the cafe across the road, checked out their various health conditions, all seem just right for the testing procedures. One of them, however, probably doesn't have long left, but I'll have a word with the chief scientist, see if we can't get him seen sooner.
Two of them had too many questions, I mean, for god sake, I'm offering you a cure for your dementia and arthritis and what not and you're more bothered about how long it will take? Don't think they'll be here long if I'm being honest.
I remembered the cafe again. I remembered me sitting with others around a table, discussing illnesses and cures and pain. I couldn't remember any faces though, like my memory was a water painting that had gotten too wet. All the images were running into one another.
I went to read the next entry when I heard gunfire. It sounded like it came from outside of the building. I stood up immediately and headed to the door. Four appeared from around the corner, “We've a problem! It looks like backup’s arrived. What are we going to do?”
Why ask me? What was I supposed to do? I decided to get rid of him, “Go find the others. We need to stick together. I’m sure Six will have an idea what to do next”
Four nodded and ran back the way he had come. At the end of the hallway I could see a window. Red and blue lights flashed outside so I ran to the end of the corridor, to get a better look at the situation outside. I looked out but couldn’t see much, just the back end of a few police cars. I turned to go back to the room when I looked through the doorway to the room on my left. The lights were off, but I could make out a strange green glow coming from a table. I walked in cautiously and up to the table. There was a crate with vials of a thick, green liquid which gave off a fluorescent glow. There was eighteen that I counted. I looked around the room and saw nothing else. Just this lone box on this lone table. I turned back and jumped at the sight of Seven stood at the other end of the table!
“What do you think this is?” I asked, lifting one up.
“Don't know” Seven replied, “The notes on the side of the box say it's the second version of the Cure All drug. Version 2.2 it says here. Maybe it'll correct what went wrong”
“And if it doesn't?” I asked, taking the lid off one of the vials and sniffing it. It smelt like medicine, and not
the good type.
Seven looked me up and down, “Hey, what's the worst that could happen?”
He was right. I had already changed in to some hideous form, it could hardly get any worse. I raised the vial up and gulped down the slimy liquid. It even tasted like medicine, really really bad medicine and I tossed the empty container back in the box.
“Now what?” I asked.
“Feel anything?” Seven asked, looking closely at my face.
My head felt hot, and the sensations started traveling through the rest of my body. I swayed, and my legs felt like jelly. Then everything went black.
4
Everything was a blur. My eyes were closed. I felt like I was dreaming. There was screaming. And then the sounds of metal and glass colliding into one another. Finally, an ear-splitting roar, it sounded unlike anything I'd ever heard before.
Then I opened my eyes, and everything was quiet. I was laid on the bed I had made at the construction site. I sat up and looked around. The sun was setting on the horizon and a harsh wind blew, dragging tiny, loose bits of wood across the floor. I must’ve been out for the full day. Whatever the drug did, it didn’t cure me. I looked down at my hands. They were still giant green things with sharp talons on the end. My memory wasn’t any better either, however my migraine had subsided.
I got to my feet and my entire body ached, it was like I hadn’t slept. My body ached, and my eyes stung, like I had been straining them too much.
I looked across the city as the light in the sky finally faded but the lights in the buildings still kept the city bright.
I had brief flashes of Seven and Six carrying me, dragging me out of the main entrance of the building. Then my eyes widened as I remember how they got past the barricade. They killed them. They killed every single one of them. They had jumped from person to person, tearing them apart, with their claws, with their teeth. I felt terrified. This was something I expected from Six, but not Seven as well, Seven who had mainly kept to himself, was just as bad as Six.
How long I had been out exactly, I had no idea. But there was a brief spark of memory. The name Charlie. Whether it was my name or not, it was something. And I felt a bit of comfort from that. I heard Threes voice in my head, but he wasn’t talking to me. I think he must’ve been thinking about me and therefore tapped me into his thought process.
“What do we do about One? Has anyone seen him?” He said.
“Looked all over. No luck” replied Five, “Maybe good idea he’s not here”
“It’s been over a day now, he must be somewhere?” Came Two’s response.
I chose not to reply, just listen. But that was foiled, “One. I can sense you. Where are you?”
I stood, looking up at the faint stars in the sky. The clouds had left a small window for me to look through and see the endless void of space.
I didn't reply. Instead I chose to go find them. I took a running jump from the building and this time landed in the road. I started sprinting down the middle of the street, in between cars and onto the pavement. I dived in to an alleyway and started climbing the walls, until I reached the top. I pulled myself upwards and pushed off backwards and flipped landing on a roof. I looked up and could just see the sign for the hotel on the roof above me. I scaled the wall next to me and jumped up the last floor and landed on the edge of the roof, much to the surprise of the others.
Someone had made a campfire and it burnt brightly. The fire cast long shadows of the others on the back of the large billboard. Two, Three and Four all looked at me with a terrified expression. Five seemed indifferent, but refused to look at me.
“What's the matter with you?” I asked. None of them responded. Then, from behind a large metal box, out walked Seven. I blinked, slowly. They didn't want to say because Seven had likely told them to be quiet.
“One, where have you been?” Two asked. He stepped forward, “We've been looking for you”
“Sleeping. At a place I've found”
“The construction site?”
“Yes. I awoke an hour ago. Why do you ask?”
Three stood up, “I searched there, you weren’t there a few hours ago. And how have you been able to sleep? None of us have”
“What's the big deal, it’s only been a few hours”
“Try a day and a half” Three said quietly.
I had slept that long? How had this happened? I didn't even felt like I'd slept for an hour, let alone over a day!
“What’s happened whilst I’ve been gone?” I asked, leaning against a warm pipe. I tried to act casual but the amount of time I had been out was confusing me.
“We’ve been hiding” Four explained, “The police are after us and whatever that organisation is called; they’ve been trying to kill us!”
“I found my family” Two said. I looked at him with shock. I predicted it didn’t go well from the look he was giving. He continued, “They just saw me as a monster and turned me away”
“Because that’s all we’ll ever be now” Seven added.
Three was about to speak when he stopped. Mouth open, he closed his eyes and scrunched his face up, “It’s Six. He's calling us all to the laboratory. He says it's urgent”
The others all gave me a strange look. A distrustful and concerned look. I folded my arms and stared directly at Seven whilst the others started climbing down the building.
Me and Seven stood at the edge of the rooftop, watching them.
“I suppose I should thank you for not leaving me behind” I said to him with a nod.
“No one gets left behind One. Do you feel better?”
“I feel confused. I’ve been asleep for days, yet I feel like I haven't slept at all”
After a pause I finally asked the question, "You killed them, the police surrounding the building. I saw you kill them"
Seven shrugged, “And?”
“Don’t you care?”
“Kill people, save people, live or die; doesn’t really matter to me. This entire island could explode and I wouldn’t be too bothered”
“But doesn’t that make life that kind of- “
“Pointless? Yeah, but none of this matters, does it?”
I quickly changed the subject, “You remember anything?”
Seven sighed, “Not a thing. What about you?”
“I remember a name, Charlie, but that's it”
“That’s a start I suppose” He placed his hand on my shoulder and turned to me, “We have been given a gift, you know that deep down. The others don’t see it, they just want a cure and to return to normality. But you, One. You know that this is something special, and it’s something that should be shared. Embrace it” and with that he turned and jumped down to a lower rooftop. I stood their confused, his words sinking in. I shook my head, and followed.
We quickly caught up with the others and walked across the fields towards the DarkWatch laboratory. Flashing blue lights flickered over the grass and were reflecting off the large building. The lights were coming from the tops off two police cars that looked like they had been stopped in a hurry on the car park. In front of them stood Six. As we got closer, we could see the bodies of four police officers at his feet.
Six kicked one of the bodies on the floor, “Idiots. Tried taking me down with handguns” He looked down at his chest. There were markings on there, but nothing serious. It was like he had slept on something and it had imprinted his skin.
Four stepped forward, “Six what have you done? You can't just go around and kill police!”
Six laughed and stepped over the dead officers, “Can't I? When faced with a gun, what would you have me do Four? Stand down, turn myself in?”
“That would be better than killing th- “
“Wrong!” Six shouted, “They would either take me somewhere to be destroyed or kill me where I stood! It was either me or them. And of course, I chose me. I'm the stronger, the faster, the more evolved one. They are nothing and deserve to be eradicated”
“We shouldn't b
e killing. It’s abhorrent. It's wrong. We don't get to choose who lives and who dies?”
Six took a step forward, “Don't we? We have grown far beyond what DarkWatch wanted of us. We have shown that we are better than what the humans are. In the end it will come down to us or them. And we are the new generation. God must've been half asleep when he created man; what with all their flaws, their vulnerabilities. I’ve been back in that building. There’s records about us becoming a superior species, becoming a more perfected species. We are strong and able to do more. We can’t even consider ourselves human anymore. And to that, I think we need to get rid of them!”
“Well I refuse to take part in the genocide of-“ Four was cut short by the grip of Six’s hand around his throat. Four spluttered, tried to catch his breath but couldn't get any words out.
“If you're with them. Then you’re against me” Six looked over to the rest of us, “And that goes for the rest of you. You side with the humans; you suffer, like Four is going to”
I couldn't stand by. I turned to Seven who was smiling at me. He gave me a slow nod, as if he knew what I was thinking. His hands were behind his back, fidgeting with something but I couldn't make out what it was. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Four was desperately trying to get free from Six.
I stepped up, “Let him go!” I ordered.
He looked at me, with a look of surprise in his eyes, “One! I'm sorry, I didn't notice you there. Bit hard when we all look the same, wouldn't you agree?” he attempted to make a joke, but I didn’t laugh.
“Let him go” I repeated.
Not straight away, but Six loosened his grip and Four fell to one knee. He crawled over to my side, coughing and rubbing his neck.
“Now One. Surely you agree with me?” Six said in a more relaxed tone, “After all, you can see things from my point of view?”
“No Six I don't”
“Well, I'm surprised by that. You've done your fair share of wrong doings, haven't you?”