by Aline Riva
Jekel looked on in surprise considering all she had said as Joy asked another question.
“You can accelerate a pregnancy?”
“Yes,” Elise replied, “It can be draining on my resources but I can produce a full term human child in three weeks if I choose to. Or I could let it go nine months but that's a long time to put up with being pregnant, I don't know how you humans do it!”
Joy laughed on hearing the genuine surprise in her voice, then she repeated her question:
“So what are you, Elise? You talk like you're an android but androids cant have babies...I don't get this.”
Elise smiled warmly.
“I have wanted to tell you for so long,” she replied, “But Felix advised me long ago to remain silent about my true origins because of the UNA connection... I am a human - android hybrid.”
Joy drew in a shocked breath as she stared at Elise, that sweet, softly spoken woman was part android?
“What the hell does that mean?” she demanded, “What does hybrid mean? That you used to be human and -”
“No,”Elise told her quickly, “I was originally an excellent example of a highly programmed military android. I was altered by the addition of human parts, even part of my brain is human – I'm not like a regular android built by the UNA, not any more. I wasn't linked to the mind hive once they made me hybrid. But my deep loyalty to Astral soon shifted when the human part of me fell in love with Felix. Then I made my own choices. Around the time I ran, Felix was was taken away with many other human UNA members to be used for various experimentation procedures. We were lucky to find each other again when it was over.”
Joy was still looking at Elise in surprise.
“You're part human? You're a hybrid?”
Elise smiled warmly as fondness shone in her dark eyes.
“You humans... always wanting answers. Yes, Joy, I am half UNA android, and the rest of me comprises of harvested human parts.”
Jekel gave a gasp.
“Harvested?” he said in horror.
“Oh shit,” Joy exclaimed as she shook her head, “The bastards used people like lab rats...”
“Elise,” Lynch said, leaning closer as he lowered his voice, “I've told you...don't say harvested. Us humans can be very sensitive at the thought of our kind being used in that way. Just say half human in future, okay?”
She nodded in agreement.
“I get it now...” said Jekel as he started to smile, “What you said about falling in love with a monster...”
Lynch exchanged a glance with Elise and laughed softly.
“Oh yes, she's my monster... My Frankie -”
“Stein?” guessed Jekel, and then Elise chuckled as she nodded.
“It was sort of a private joke between us and the nickname just stuck,” she added, “That's me – an experiment come to life.”
Lynch looked at her with love shining in his eyes.
“My Elise,” he said fondly, “My Frankie – the best thing to come out of the UNA....And so that brings us to our big announcement,” Lynch added, putting his arm around her shoulder as he looked proudly to the others, “Elise is pregnant – with my baby.”
Jekel looked at him in utter confusion.
“Lynch,” he said carefully, “I don't want to spoil your happiness..but if you've been a cyborg from the waist down for five years -”
“It's mine!” Felix said, and he laughed as his own joy at the news shone in his eyes, “Elise conceived back when I was a UNA General. She doesn't have a human womb she has a specially built part organic unit inside of her. It's capable of putting a pregnancy on hold for a maximum of five years.”
“I put it on hold when I ran from the UNA, “ Elise added, “And when I found out how badly wounded Felix had become in the battle for Freedom City, I put the pregnancy on long term hold while he recovered. But I can't do that any more, pretty soon I'm going to be looking a bit bigger than I do now – the baby comes in three weeks on the growth acceleration programme. I'm sorry, I know that having a baby out here in these difficult times isn't the best thing to do but I have waited as long as I could.”
Joy looked into her eyes and as she thought of Elise, the hybrid who broke away from the UNA and made all her choices for love, she started to smile.
“Don't apologise,” she said as she smiled back at her, “It's great news. You waited five years? Wow, that's a long time.”
Jekel stepped forward and kissed Elise's cheek. Then he shook Lynch's hand
“Congratulations, mate,” he said, and Felix smiled and replied Thanks, as Joy looked on in surprise feeling sure that what she had just witnessed would never happen again – Lynch and Jekel had just warmly exchanged a handshake and Jekel had called him mate...surely, that couldn't last...
And it didn't.
The soft and warm look of love that looked so new and strange to be in the eyes of Felix Lynch vanished as he stepped away from Elise and looked to the others.
“Okay, good news is over...Let's get ready,” he said, “We need to arm ourselves and grab some supplies...We all need to take up arms. That means you too, Jekel.”
Jekel swallowed hard as he looked nervously at Lynch, who went back inside the vehicle, followed by Elise. Joy slipped her hand into the grip of the former stage magician and gave it a squeeze.
“You'll be okay,” she promised him.
Chapter : 5 Through Hell's Gates
“Get ready we are moving out as soon as I have my driving gloves on - that includes YOU, Mister Jekel - move your lazy arse!”
Just as he was shaken up by Lynch yelling, he pounded on his closed door and Jekel tensed as every nerve in his body seemed to jolt at the same time. He had gone back to his tiny cramped living space to hope to grab a brief rest before the dreaded violence began – but there was no chance of that. He sat up sharply, ran his hand through his hair, got off the bed, paused to smooth the creases out of his suit and then he shook his head, wondering why he had bothered to do that, because despite being the worlds most advanced cyborg, he was also a civilian and being cyborg meant part machine, part human – so it was quite likely he would die today no matter what Joy had said...He put on his holster and then quickly added both guns, then opened up the door and stepped out into the walkway.
“JEKEL!” yelled Lynch again and Jekel froze on the spot, looking down the walkway towards the drivers area, where Lynch was in the drivers seat, turned around and glaring at him, and he just stood there staring back in fright like a deer caught in headlights.
“Are you armed?” Lynch called back.
He nodded, then as Lynch took a seat and started the engine, a door opened up and slammed into his back, knocking him forward as the motor home lurched away from the camp site at speed. Jekel grabbed the door frame and looked around in time to see Ruby come out of the doorway, she closed her metallic hand about the lapel of his jacket and pulled him closer as she glared at him with one human eye as the robotic one revolved dizzily.
“Me and Spike had to take down the fencing because you were asleep...but don't worry, we ate your breakfast afterwards!” she said, and then she let go of him and pulled a hand gun from beneath her skirt, he caught sight of a shapely thigh covered in a torn fishnet stocking and then Spike placed a heavy hand on his shoulder.
“I'm up top with the big guns,” he said, Wanna join me? It's fun!”
Jekel shook his head as he looked back at him with wide eyes, and Spike laughed, then shoved a curtain aside and hurried up a narrow, tight stairway. Jekel looked up the stairway, realising this vehicle had a small upper level - but he had no plans on going up there, not to be in the line of fire. He was still thinking about how incredible it seemed that Spike was enjoying this as he was shoved again, as Ruby pushed past him and ran up the stairway to join her boyfriend.
As the motor home hit a bump the vehicle shuddered, then took a steep, downward path and he clung on to the door frame, his face turning pale as he looked to the driver's area, whe
re Lynch was clutching the wheel and fixing his sights on the bottom of the hill. As the view loomed closer and they hit the long, straight road that looked to stretch on for miles, the vehicle flipped a bump in the road and Jekel's stomach flipped with it.
“I want to go home!” he said under his breath, and then he remembered yet again that home was gone long ago...
And at the back of his vision, a warning light blinked up and a message flashed, informing him his battery was down to twenty percent power... Suddenly the crazy, break neck speed of the ride and the potential danger of the destination didn't scare him half as much as his own concerns:
Conserving power had been an issue for a while, ever since he had managed to fall badly whilst running from Howlers and heard something audibly snap deep in his guts. Now he was breaking out in a sweat through fear for his life and that fear was so great it almost cancelled out the threat of anything they might run into at the end of the journey...Jekel continued to hold on to the door frame as the floor shook as the wheels of the vehicle turned on bumpy ground, and he shook with it, mostly through fear for his own life and his worsening power failure...
Lynch kept the vehicle at top speed as wheels turned kicking up dust as it headed towards a lone, dark building that looked like a high, wide dome surrounded by wire fencing topped off with razor wire that glinted in the sunlight. Something had been tied to the fencing, from a distance the pinks and reds and purples and the way other colours trailed off and fluttered in the breeze made it look as if the place had been brightened up with flowers tied to the stark barrier.
As spike and Ruby sat up top where the big guns were ready, Ruby smiled as the wind below her hair.
“It looks so pretty!”
Spike laughed as he took in the colourful sight, then his expression changed to one of horror as his face paled and Ruby gave a cry of alarm.
Downstairs, Lynch killed the speed as Elise gasped and Joy murmured “Jesus Christ...”
The motor home came to a stop, the engine running as Lynch unbuckled his seat belt and got up.
“Wait here,” he said to Elise.
She shot him a look of defiance.
“Are you forgetting what I'm made of, literally?”
“Suit yourself then,” he replied and snatched up his gun, his eyes dark and weary from the horror of war and the horror of the sights set along the fence that reminded him of all of it at first glance.
Lynch left the vehicle first, followed by Elise and then Joy as Spike and Ruby stayed up top only too glad to be close to the mounted guns. Jekel half stumbled out of the motor home, his hazel eyes wide in horror as he stared at the fencing.
“No way, we have to turn back!” he said as he blinked away tears, then he clutched at the open door of the vehicle as he turned sharply away and coughed hard, fighting the urge to throw up. Then he coughed again and bent double, his hand shook as he clung to the door and gagged again and Joy turned away from the sight of the mutilated body parts tied to the fence and joined Jekel, placing her hand on his shoulder as she quietly told him to breathe.
Lynch went over to the fencing, ignoring the stink of rotting flesh and the flies that swarmed around it and crawled over it as maggots wriggled their way through stinking gore. A large weathered, severed hand had been rammed into the fence by its bloody wrist and the flesh had rode up over white bone, the hand forever outstretched as it rotted. Another hand that seemed slightly smaller and a shade darker seemed to clutch at the mesh higher up, the fingers locked into the mesh as the remains of a shirt sleeve hung in tatters and fluttered in the breeze. Other limbs had been left, strewn about the fencing, whole arms, a lower leg, all with shredded material left behind, remnants of clothing left to trail in the wind like a ghastly decoration, as higher up, rotting heads were impaled in spikes that ran between the sharp pointed posts that had long since lost their features, eyes pecked out by the starving birds, skin peeling back and expression lost to decay as hair blew back in the breeze.
“It's a warning,” Lynch said, his grip tightening on his gun.
“But the scanner showed nothing, not for miles,” Elise reminded him.
Lynch was still looking up, surveying the horror displayed across the fencing.
“But we both know its not a hundred percent for deep underground,” he reminded her, “Howlers beneath the surface on the move – sure. Those greedy bastards don't like to wait to feast – they stay shallow. But I think....” his steel gaze shifted left and right at the ghoulish display, then he looked to the locked gates, “I think who ever first guarded this place ended up here...and who ever did this could be long gone, or they could still be in there, deep underground.”
Elise glanced down at her gun then back to her lover.
“And we still need those supplies.”
“Too right we do,” Lynch replied, and they turned back towards the motor home.
Moments later as he slammed the door to the motor home and sat in the drivers seat, his voice carried down the walkway:
“We need to go in there. And I need everyone, Jekel!”
As the battery warning sign flashed up in his head, Jekel leant against Joy, thankful she had taken him back inside and sat him down at the table. He was still sitting there, feeling weak and shaken and the power drain that had worsened now made Lynch's voice sound underwater. He raised his head, looking up the walkway as the battery blinked at the back of his mind again..
“He can't, he's ill!”Joy called back.
“He can and he will or he's out of here!” Lynch barked back, then he started up the engine and set the vehicle in rapid, jolting reverse at speed.
Joy flung herself into the seat beside him, closing her hand over his as Jekel sat stiffly at the table, shaking with the violent movement of the vehicle as it continued to back off, ready to ram the gates.
“Jekel...”
Joy's voice came though to him, pulling him back from despair. He had broken out into a sweat, his hair hung in his eyes as he kept his head bowed as he breathed slowly, trying not to pass out. As she gave his hand a squeeze he realised the vehicle had come to a halt at a distance from the gates. He looked down the walkway to see Lynch turn his head and speak to Elise. The engine was still running, but in this moment of no more painful jolts, he looked to Joy, recalling the day they had met when she and Murdock had saved his life, and knew if he had to trust someone, it would be Joy Thorn.
“I'm damaged,” he whispered, blinking frightened eyes as his hair hung over his eyes as he sat slumped over the table, “You want to know how I survived back then? I'm a cyborg, I'm the one they talk about... Riley's prototype...and I'm damaged, my power keeps draining...I need help!”
Joy's eyes widened as she thought back to how they had met: He had been alone, an ordinary man in an ordinary suit, who had survived such devastation, at the time, he had seemed so impossible.... the way he had survived the Howler attack, too... He was Riley's prototype cyborg?
“Don't tell the others.. my cybernetic fluid is not like theirs - its self renewing...I can't help in that way... I hurt myself a while back, running from Howlers... something went crack...now I cant hold much power...” his eyes filled with tears, “I'm scared!”
Joy tightened her grip on his hand as she looked up towards the front of the vehicle where Lynch was about to drive for the gates.
“Lynch!” she called sharply.
He looked back at her.
“Leave Jekel out of this.”
All plans to ram the gates were temporarily cancelled as he turned around further, glaring at Joy.
“Did you just give me a fucking order, lady? Who are you to tell me -”
“I'm a cybernetics medic and Jekel is a cyborg with a serious power supply issue!”
For once in his life, Lynch looked stunned. He stared at Jekel, then looked at Elise, and back up the walkway again.
“You're a cyborg, Mr Jekel?”
Suddenly all hostility had left the voice of the usually abrup
t former General, as he looked to the slender former illusionist who sat there in his suit looking pale and shaken as he weakly met his gaze. It suddenly registered to Jekel that Lynch had changed his tone...there had even been a hint of respect in it.
Jekel drew in a breath and tried to fight off his exhaustion.
“I'm heavily modified internally – a lot of wiring... it doesn't show on the outside...”
“And he's showing classic symptoms of main cable damage,” Joy added.
Jekel's grip on her hand tightened as he looked at her sharply.
“My...my main cable? That's like tearing an artery!” Jekel said in panic.
“And I'll scan you later...try and stay calm.”
“I can't!” he said tearfully.
“HOLD ON, WE'RE GOING IN!” Lynch yelled, and the vehicle shot forward with a sickening lurch and gathered speed as Joy slipped her hand inside Jekel's open jacket, pressing her hand against his abdominal area as she hoped the support would lessen the impact to his damaged cable when the motor home hit those gates.
The motor home slammed into the gates at speed, sending chains snapping and gates flying apart with force as they buckled and hinges tore and the severed heads and body parts were scattered as they were flung free from the mesh and the motor home continued at speed like a freight train as it headed for the building set in the middle of the open space within.
As the vehicle came to a sharp halt, shouts came from within a doorway to the dome that opened up as men ran out and began to fire shots that bounced off the armour plating as Lynch gabbed Elise and pulled her down as a bullet hit the windscreen and glanced off the bullet proof wind shield. He reached for his seat belt and released it.