by R. J. Henry
Eugene’s brittle breath shook. “N-now, w-wait. Y-you don’t need to do that.”
“Really? I thought it was all a game, hoax, to you. You’re scared. Heh. Too late.” Seizer pressed it on his skin.
“No, stop,” Katie screamed. She piled on top of him, tumbled down towards the ground.
The syringe flung out of his hands. He reached for them, grasping just a little too far away. She pounced on him, holding him down. He growled, grabbing her leg, and swung her off. She attempted to retreat into Trudy’s arms, but her hair was met with his firm grasp. She cried out, but not in pain. She tried to pry his hands free, but stopped the second he placed a cool barrel against her back.
He chuckled, grabbed the syringe, and stood up. “Yeah, you know what this will do to you. Don’t you?”
“Let her go,” Trudy cried out.
He spun her around, digging the gun, rather, into her abdomen. Trudy stepped closer. “You come any closer, I will kill her!”
“She’s a little girl. You’re a psychopath!”
“Right. A little Fledge girl. It’s just a matter of time before the entire human race turns into one of these. Why fight them? You will all lose, unless you become one of them!”
He jabbed the syringe into his thigh, grunted. “Ahhh.”
Trudy whispered, “Katie, come here,” when Seizer covered his eyes, with both hands.
He growled, wincing. His thigh burned like flames from Hades’ home. It tingled with sharp pricks, ending in a cooling sensation.
He glared up at them, flared. His eyes, gunmetal blue, hungrily targeting Maddie. He bolted after her, inhaling the intoxicating scent of her pumping veins; the juices inside her veins, made him thrive to yearn for the succulent taste amongst his tongue.
Her posture, rigid, and her eyes were unable to blink.
Run, she thought, move out of his sight. But, her feet refused to move to her command. A tiny whimper escaped the back of her throat, each centimeter he came closer to her. She squeezed her eyes shut. His surly appearance, slack-jawed and dead-set demeanor, refused to dissipate its imagery from the back of her eyelids.
Steven halted his furtive movements with inexplicable ease. Seizer’s body bounced off his shoulder, shuddered. He writhed on the ground, as Steven kept a sternness about him.
“Steven, no!” Maddie, shaken, teared up as her heart jumped out of place.
Seizer, stunned, grunted back on his feet. “You’re going to pay for that.”
“Bring it,” Steven said, keeping a lowkey tone to his deep growl.
Seizer bolted towards him, determined to chew his flesh like gum. However, he stopped him by swiftly grasping him around his neck. He raised him up in the air.
“How are you going to charge me now?” Steven squeezed tighter, turning his face deep red. “I can kill you, easily.”
He dropped Seizer to the ground, and bellowed, “But, I don’t like easy things.”
“Argh!” Seizer, in one quick second, bit his shin.
Steven kicked him off, jumped up into the air, landing on Seizers chest with his elbow pointed out.
Seizer yelled, wincing, “You. You are the one.”
Steven pressed his arm into Seizers’ jugular. “What are you talking about?”
“You were… the one… we erased,” he said, spatting after each pause.
Steven examined him, unable to read if he were, indeed, telling the truth. His nostrils, enflamed with bulging rage, protruded from his face. “What the hell are you talking about?” “Move your arm… I’ll tell you.”
Steven forced a sigh, ready to apply more pressure, but something told him to listen. “Fine.”
“It was twenty years ago….”
As Seizer explained, with each bit, Steven recalled those memories that he had always played off as nightmares.
A seven-year-old boy rode his bike around the block where he lived. Secret Service Agents, watched precariously at him, and snatched him up along with a hundred other children. Seizer continued to explain that he was lead in the earlier experiments of Project Fledge. They had completed the series of genes, perfecting them. However, anyone who was injected died. Their bodies couldn’t handle it. But, one boy, in particular survived. “… You! You were given impeccable strength, knowledge, and you don’t even need to survive on flesh. You can eat real food.”
“You’re lying. Yeah, I’m strong. So, what?”
“The boy, who survived, lost his memory. His name was Tommy; Thomas Michael Jean.”
He was ignoring Seizer, but the name he spoke rang a familiar tone inside him. “What did you say?”
“Ah,” Seizer grinned. “Sound familiar?”
“Who is it? Tell me! What does that boy have anything to do with me?”
“He is you. You were given a new identity. Tommy was erased from anything and anyone who ever came in contact with him, after he ran away.”
Steven shook his head violently. “I don’t believe you!”
“You were adopted at seven, where you not?”
“Shut up! That doesn’t prove anything!”
“You were found on the side of the road, almost dead. You know exactly who you truly are. Don’t you, now?”
“Shut up!”
“How else do you think that my bite did not affect you? It is because you are the product of such gene. The original, not a copy like me… You are a, well, Super Fledge, if you like dallying in comic book personas,” he said, chuckled.
Steven, pulsated by the flooding of his repressed memories, dropped him to the ground next to Seizer.
“One more thing,” Seizer said, rising from the ground. He shadowed over Steven, “The only time you are weak is when you are weak in the mind. And, about now, I would say that you are on the verge of a mental breakdown. Hope you don’t mind if I kill you.”
Seizer hovered over him, opening his mouth wide enough to tear his neck from his head.
BANG! BANG!
Two shots, fired one after the other, rang through the eerie silence. Seizer snarled, and then groaned.
Steven jumped, checked if he were shot, looked up as Seizer’s lifeless body weighed its way down.
He rolled out of the way, avoiding the crushing sound Seizer made as he hit the pavement.
He gasped, breathing rapidly. “What the hell? Who— “
He ran his sight across the circling crowd, landing on Maddie. Her eyes held open a wide expression, as she trembled the tightgripped gun between her hands.
He headed towards her, rose one hand, and took the barrel of the gun with his other hand. He stayed in defense, pointing the gun to the ground. He emptied the rounds, keeping steady eye contact with her. When the bullets clanked to the ground, her eyes filled with color. She began sobbing gently.
“Thank you,” he whispered.
She nodded. “Y-you… I-I…”
He held up a finger to her lips. “I’m fine. At least, if I have you by my side, I know I will be.”
She tilted her head, squinting her eyes. “What do you— “
He grabbed her by the face, brought her towards him, and gently pressed against her lips. He pulled away. “I was wrong to ever pick Theresa over you.”
She giggled. “Well, you don’t really pick her. More like, you catch her like you would a disease that lasts for life.”
Theresa raced to his side. “Steven, honey, are you okay?” She patted his left peck, shimmering off the huge carat on her ring finger.
He lifted her hand, grimaced at the ring. “I didn’t give that to you.”
“Oh, well, I know work is slim now, so I used my own money to by myself one. No Biggy.”
“Yes,” he exasperated. “Huge Biggy.”
“What? I didn’t see nothing wrong with it. We have been together for years. You need to commit to me by now.”
“You know what? No. Actually, that is the problem. You think everything you do is good. But it is not. It is selfish. So… We are done. Through. Over.”
“But, no. I won’t allow it.”
He wrapped his arm around Maddie’s shoulder, bumped past Theresa, and then steadily walked away.
Theresa through her fists down, screeching in frustration. “Ark!”
Emily cleared her throat. “Did we miss anything?”
Maddie grinned, reddened. “You’re back!”
“Yeah. But, where is Seizer?”
“Look for yourself,” Maddie said, pointing at the ground to his lumped over body.
“Oh, good.”
Jack pulled Emily out of his way. He swirled his head around, then froze. With wide eyes, he found her.
He crinkled his eyes, pulling Katie into his chest.
Emily smiled, and then her lip quivered. She folded her lips in, creating a thinlipped smile when Nick brushed passed her. Marcel, slumped, sent a chain of thorny guilt and sadness throughout her brittle, but deepened, heart. “We’ll find her,” she assured him.
He nodded, sullen. “I know. But I have an idea of where she might be.”
“Where?”
“My old lab.”
“Okay, sure.” She rubbed his upper arm, but felt unsure if her sympathetic warmth went through with him having an icy stare out towards nowhere in particular.
Nick started walking away. Emily asked, “Where are you going.”
He paused, bowed his head, then spun around on his heels.
She felt safe in his eyes, but knew that it wouldn’t change anything.
Her phone rung. “Hello?” she said. “Hello, Emily.”
“Hank?”
Nick stepped towards her, narrowing his eyes.
“It’s Boss, now. The first one is about to meet his fate. Just wanted to send you a message.”
“What?”
“You’re next.”
The line clicked. She hunched her shoulders, wrapping her arms around herself. She clenched her phone tight, and nodded at Trudy. “Close that wall.”
“What is it?” Nick pressed.
“Hank. He’s behind it all. Or, at least, he is trying to make it seem that way. I don’t know. But, our lives are in danger, because we are trying to stop this.”
“Well, if I have to die soon, then there is one thing I have wanted to do since we came here. I just didn’t know how to, or what to say. But, now, I have no time to waste.” He looked down at his feet, then back up to Emily. “Please… Come with me.”
She nodded. “S-sure, Nick. Okay. To where, exactly?”
He looked back at her, barely revealing his chin over his shoulder. He sighed. “My parents.”
She followed behind. Her palms started feeling sweaty under her gloves. She twiddled her thumbs, and kept silent for most of the walk. But she couldn’t stand another awkward step. “Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, how are they going to react?”
“I don’t know,” he shrugged, “probably the same way they reacted the day I left to find you.”
“I’m getting the hint that they don’t like me too much. All I did was skip town for a better life of my own.”
“And how did that work out for you?”
“Not at first, but as the years passed it got better. Well, sort of.”
A grim smile tightened his lips. “Exactly.”
They came up to a red door, surrounded by a white frame, and beige-yellow siding. In the top center, a small window, typically found in public restrooms, protruded from the door. It has always looked weird to Emily, but it doubled as a mail slot, and peephole. Which, in her eyes, seemed efficient. At least, up until ten years ago when mailpersons stopped delivering mail to the doors. It was deemed more efficient to just drop mail off at the corner of every block. No matter if the owner was disabled, or not, like Misses Leanne Douglas, Nick’s Mother.
She was the one who opened the door.
Chapter 20
Agent Myers threw open the closet door. His shoes squeaked on the newly polished tile as she shifted into his pocket for his keys. He thumbed through them until he found which key he was looking for.
Calista, balled up in the far corner, vigorously shook at the sight of him.
After unlocking the cage, he demanded that he came with him.
She fought to pull away as he yanked her by the arm. “Argh!”
The sun shined down, blinding her sight as they passed by four men in sanitation suits. Myers nodded at each one. Calista, however, pained when no one tried to stop him. She narrowed her eyes at him. “You just have everyone under your belt, don’t you?”
He chuckled. “Just about, now keep moving.” He pushed her against the car door in order to unlock the sedan. However, she noticed, he refused to use his key fob.
“No,” she said as she nudged away. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
He shoved her inside, making her land face down in a pile of trash and old food. She propped herself up into the leather seat. “You should learn how to clean.”
“And you should learn how to shut that pretty trap of yours.”
After an hour of speeding down the highway, he sped into a stop, parking into a lot by a fenced in area.
He walked over to her side, dragging her out by the back of neck.
“I’m not going with you,” she snapped, pulling away.
With a large handful, he yanked back her head, and with a deep, cynical, voice, he said, “You will do as I command. To you, I am God! I control you now. There is nothing you, or anyone, can do about it.”
He led her, knowingly, down a corridor beneath the Fledge Camp. The walls, now, lined with once normal appearing Fledges. Their flesh dropped from their faces, but a twinkle of sadness beamed in the eyes of the lost souls.
“Where are we?”
“That is none of your concern.”
“Then, where are you taking me?”
His jaw clenched as they approached a lone, metal, door. “Here.”
Inside, there was a single metal slab of a table with five different restraint systems on it. In a chair, similar to the table, sat a woman.
“No,” Calista screamed as she kicked her feet into the air. She pressed up against the frame, keeping her from going in. “Let go of me!”
He grunted, and with one quick nudge, she landed face down on the tile floor. Her head lifted as he yanked her by the hair. “Stand,” he demanded.
The woman, dazed, groaned a melancholy tone.
Myers growled, “Shut the hell up!”
He slammed Calista down on the table as he snapped her wrist in the first restraint. With a bit of a struggle, he succeeded in securing the last four; one around her head, other arm, and both of her feet.
An echo sliced through the, now, darkened air as he slammed the door shut.
She twisted and jerked her limbs, and with no prevail she succumbed to her new prison. “This is not what I was planning when I wanted to be safe from people,” she whispered to herself.
“T-tests… T-tests… Pain,” the woman whispered.
“What? You’re alive. How do we get out?”
“Pain… T-tests.”
“They’re going to do tests on us? What kind?” Calista clenched her fists.
The woman moaned, unable to answer coherently.
“Who are you? What’s your name?”
“Chris…t-t…I….”
“Christy?”
She moaned again. “Christ…t….”
“Crystal?”
“Teen! Christine,” she bellowed with all, but little, strength she could muster.
“Okay, calm down. Look, I will get us out. I promise.” She squeezed in her abdomen, grunted, as she continued to pull at the straps. “Once I am able to budge these bitches free, I will.”
•••
The door clicked as Marcel eased it open. A mixture of lemon and bleach wafted into his face. It burned his nostrils as he edged further into the laboratory. My wife must’ve dropped by, he joked, falling a bit sullen remembering the days she would just clean for no reason. His heart a
ched, missing her warm kiss from a hard day of spring-cleaning in the middle of summer.
However, one scent in particular caught his attention the most. Ammonia, he noted before kneeling down at the mop and bucket left behind the coat rack. He felt a strand of the mop. It was still wet, as was the bottom of the blue bucket. He tilted the bucket on its side, and read it was from USSN: United Sanitation Services of the Navy. He cocked his head to the right, squinting his eyes around the darkened room.
He flipped on the light.
“Doctor Johnston? Why are you here?”
He spun around at the familiar woman’s voice. His eyes met with Jane.
“Agent?” he said, tossing a quick glance over to the agape closet door. “Where is she? What have you done to my daughter?”
She held up a hand. “Relax. I actually came here to find her missing.”
“Why did you want her? Huh? For more of your silly, ungodly, experiments?”
“No,” she hissed. “I wanted to save her. Hank, err, um, Agent Myers, is the one wanting to continue with the experimentation. I was told to end it.”
“End it?”
“Yes. It was a mistake. We should have known that a perfect copy of my kind was not possible.”
His anger shifted, lightened, relieved. “Who is ‘we’? And what are you talking about, ‘My kind’?”
“Look, I don’t have time to explain. Myers already had his crew in here. They cleaned up any evidence of Grant, or your daughter, ever being here.”
“What does he want with her?” “We took in a couple of newly transformed Fledges. A mother and daughter. We tested them with a fifty-year old project that was thought to be destroyed. Experiment Z. The mother, however, is dying from it. Her daughter, Katie, survived it. Myers wants to see how much further he can take it. Boss never knew about it.”
“Experiment Z? You mean that old military vaccine that was banned by the CDC. I thought it was just a defective small pox vaccine.”
“That is what they told the press. But, you can’t always believe what you see online. At least, Myers and I didn’t believe it. And Katie was proof of it.”
He shook, containing his tongue from spewing out profanities. He knew she was genuinely trying to help, and knew verbally attacking her would not be a smart move. “What does it do, exactly?”