Crimson Judgment

by Robert Lyons

  “How do you have, Rutem?” The Chroma’s guttural voice sounded slightly different than before. The voice was muffled, as though there was material blocking his vocal cords.

  The Chroma turned around to face the musician. Wedged inside of the monster’s mouth was Sydney’s forearm, torn off below the elbow. The red eye focused his leer, studying Zayde curiously.

  At that very moment, something inside of Zayde’s bowels turned over. However, seeing the gore that used to be his lover didn’t trigger this sudden upset in the deepest parts of him. Something moved inside of Zayde.

  What the hell was that?!

  Reaching down to his stomach, Zayde grabbed a hold of the skin stretched over his abdominals and gave it a twist. The pain from before was nothing compared to now. The inside of his body felt like it had caught on fire.

  “Ah! AH! You fucker!” Zayde screamed, leaping up to his feet with sudden vigor. Although the pain was almost unbearable, it served as fuel to propel him forward. There was no time to figure out what was going on. There was only time to act on his impulse.

  Now that he was upright, Zayde was able to look over the crouched form of the Chroma to see Sydney’s half-devoured corpse. Her lifeless eyes stared up at the ceiling with a blind stare. Her body was separated into two main pieces, top and bottom with the belly button being the reference of the severing line.

  Silence took over Zayde’s world, remnants of the screams from other people in the concert hall and roars from the other Chroma that had attacked the attendees fading.

  Kill it!

  Zayde’s internal voice coaxed him to take action. His fists tightened. Where was the influx of power coming from? Zayde couldn’t give a shit anymore. He was far too preoccupied preparing to exact his revenge.

  The door behind Zayde leading to the lounge room where the other artists were relaxing swung open unexpectedly. Light from the brightly lit room flooded into the dimly lit passageway he was standing in. A second Chroma stood in the doorframe, slightly bent over and breathing heavily. Another compression point appeared on his body, directing back to where the other threat was located.

  The Chroma looked directly at Zayde. From what the young man could see, the walls were splattered with blood, the corpses of the musicians thrown about the room.

  Zayde took a step back; his anger quickly subsided and was replaced with fear. Wait. Why are they not attacking me?

  Before Zayde knew it, he found himself running forward, past Sydney’s corpse without looking back. She was gone; there was nothing that could be done to change that. He had passed through a couple of bends and found the door leading to the stage was within his reach.

  Launching himself through the opening and out onto the empty platform, Zayde held breath as he stood alone in the spotlight.

  Somewhere in the darkness of the amphitheater’s seating, Zayde found that mostly everyone had evacuated, not counting those who were unfortunate enough to become some a savage beast’s meal. There were five Chroma spread out across the seating section of the audience, all of them busy devouring their captured prey.

  His abrupt appearance must have triggered their keen senses, because all of them snapped their heads in Zayde’s direction, red eyes glowing brightly in the obscurity. Strangely, not a single one of them made a move to confront the new potential target. Instead, they were silently observing the human’s movements.

  Zayde couldn’t fathom what was going on. For what reason were they not attacking a defenseless human? Was he not their prey? Or were they too full from the flesh of others?

  A scuttling sound echoed above the lone surviving human’s head. There was movement up in the rafters. Soon after that subsided, there was an entire army of that sound following the lead. Zayde didn’t wait around to find out what that was hiding in the ceiling, diving for the nearest cranny he could fit himself into to hide.

  Somehow sensing and identifying the nervous energy emanating from the beasts that were feasting in the audience seating area, Zayde held his breath. The Chroma’s cries of surprise and horror rang out as a song of despair in the otherwise silent concert hall.

  Punching massive holes in the ceiling tiles, bodies began to plummet down to the ground. Zayde could only catch the flash of their red eyes as they crash-landed on the Chroma that feasted on the corpses. He could scarcely believe his eyes. What he was witnessing was the clashing of Chroma, red eye against red eye.

  “Fools! Berserk heathen! Where is the body of Gentaro Mori?!” a loud voice cried out in the monster’s native tongue.

  “His blood has … uncovered our eyes. We will not serve … your master anymore!” The rebellious Chroma’s voice was far less human-like than his opponent.

  “Then you will die,” the giant Chroma growled, reaching out and grabbing a hold of the rebel. There was a small struggle, until the leader established a firm grip on the rebel’s neck, throwing him up into the ceiling. His body slammed into a cluster of metal beams that supported the roof from collapsing on the audience below. The impact from the body’s weight and speed shook the building down to the foundation.

  A different body abruptly dropped from the ceiling about five feet from where Zayde Maddox was situated. It was the mangled mess of an older man.

  A pair of powerful legs landed right in front of Zayde. Slowly raising his head, Zayde’s eyes ran up the massive body of the Chroma.

  After uttering some words in the Chroma’s language, with an air of disgust and hatred, the presumed leader lifted his head, catching sight of Zayde. A wicked grin widened across his pale face, red eye gleaming with anticipation.

  The Chroma switched to English. “What’s this? Rutem energy … from a human?”

  PHASE 05

  Predatory Instinct

  Three days ago.

  March 14th, 2037. Local Time; 13:00

  Near Rygozy, Russia; Site Zero

  1.

  The bio-isolation suit that Phillip wore while he roamed the grounds of Site Zero was prone to building up moisture and heat, despite the frigid temperatures of the Russian tundra. Sweat covered almost every square inch of his body.

  For the past two hours, Phillip Delgado and a team of NanoXLabs sample collectors were sweeping through the small village where the Alter-gens were first discovered to have broken out. To prevent the chances of contracting the fatal pathogen, all personnel wore the staple bio-isolation suits that were equipped with a re-breather apparatus that allowed the users to breathe in purified outside air. This gadget eliminated the necessity of carrying a cumbersome oxygen tank.

  Most of the villagers’ corpses that were strewn all over the street were now relocated to an assortment center. From there, the corpses that fulfilled the requirements to become research subjects were separated and brought back to the labs.

  A peculiar phenomenon was transpiring within each body that was found. Each and every one of the bodies was solidified. The texture and structure of the corpses’ skin was eerily similar to that of petrified wood.

  “A damn head scratcher, ain’t it?” Jake suddenly interjected, breaking the intense silence and scaring Phillip, who was morbidly engrossed with studying one of the last remaining human corpses left on the street. Phillip nearly fell backward trying to put some space between the unannounced person and himself. Once the young man recognized his friend, he shook his head in respite.

  “Geez, man!” Phillip took a deep breath, gathering his bearings.

  It was the first time the two had the opportunity to speak to each other since their arrival at Site Zero.

  “Still collecting material?” Jake sighed, looking curiously over Phillip’s shoulder. “I think we have enough to fill a small warehouse.”

  “We probably do, but it’s going to take a small warehouse worth to figure out what the hell happened out here. On a side note, I’m not very sure what the bodies are like on the inside, but if they are all rock-solid like the outer layer of the skin … well, research is going to get very interesting to
say the least.”

  “Flesh turning to stone … I feel like I’m in an ancient Greek epic.” Jake looked around the empty area where they were currently standing in. “That chick with the snake hair … you know what I’m talking about.”

  “That was probably one of your best references to date.” Phillip exhaled absentmindedly.

  The town square of the small village held just over three thousand people. Over a third of the people were found out on the street, the bodies spread out from one end of the single main road to the other. To the cleanup crew’s credit, over ninety-five percent of the corpses were relocated in less than two weeks.

  “I wasn’t expecting this when I got briefed into the program.” Phillip stood up. “Now I’m starting to see why Clay was so adamant about keeping a lid on this. All you need is the media to get wind of this and pretty soon a pandemic ends up breaking out. The people are better off not knowing.”

  Jake’s uneasy feeling got a better hold of him, making him shuffle in place.

  “Something bothering you, Jake?” Phillip turned to look at his colleague.

  “Just a question,” Jake said with a nervous chuckle. “I overheard that you figured it out right before you were brought out here. Back at the lab, you used the program we made and you found something. If that’s the case, why are you gathering more samples instead of finalizing the Cipher Break sequence?”

  “I wasn’t even close to cracking the code. This pathogen’s structure … it’s perfect. Also, there was a new element found inside of the code.” Phillip shook his head in an attempt to clear his busy mind.

  “What element?” Jake asked, leaning up against the car that was to his immediate left. “I did the programming portion, so I’m aware of the parameters that make up the code analysis function.”

  “The program didn’t specify, it just listed it as an unknown element.” Phillip shrugged, feeling a bit at a loss now that he was reminded of his failure to pinpoint the mystery puzzle piece.

  Jake exhaled sharply.

  “How complicated is gene-editing and gene-splicing nowadays? It’s become one of the most understood fields of study. With that in mind, the program that identifies the adenosine, guanine, thymine, cytosine, and uracil nucleotides found in DNA and RNA structures can be rudimentary without effecting data accuracy. What else is there to be found, granted we aren’t talking about the ribose/deoxyribose sugars or phosphates?”

  “I understand the cynicism, genetics has come a far way. However, the evidence I’m finding is backing up my hypothesis.” Phillip glanced between his right and left before continuing. “Although this pathogen seems to possess some characteristics of a virus, I theorized that the microbe we are looking into could never be a virus from the get-go. I propose that the pathogens that caused this are the Alter-gens that Doctor Mori mentioned in his research.” Phillip bit his lip for a moment. “It’s not so farfetched anymore. We’re knee-deep in this shit.”

  Jake shook his head in disbelief. “I wonder how long they all had to suffer before their bodies gave up the fight.”

  “I’d say it was instant … and therefore, it has to be airborne.” Phillip stared at the empty town center. “Remember how the bodies were laid out when we first arrived?”

  “All over the place?” Jake mildly shrugged.

  “Precisely. They all looked like they dropped dead in their tracks, while they were carrying on with their lives,” Phillip said.

  “Good eye.” Jake took a second look around.

  “Back at the lab, the rodent I was testing with didn’t solidify like these bodies. However, everything on the inside was replaced with this sort of lime-green paste.”

  “Paste? As in, the organs melted?”

  “Mhmm.” Phillip nodded.

  “What the hell?”

  “There’s a possibility that there are different pathogens or just a single one that exhibits different symptoms, depending on the species it’s infected.” He then paused to take a deep breath. “It could be a biological weapon, or there is a characteristic to this region that could make the Alter-gens possible.”

  “A characteristic? Such as?”

  “Maybe there was a certain element that was unearthed. For all we know, this could have been created by a freak of nature incident of naturally occurring components coming together at the wrong time.”

  “So what do we do if that’s the case? Do we just scorch this entire area?”

  “No, we can’t do that just yet,” Phillip shook his head. Although the longer the scientists prodded the area, the greater the risk of the pathogens spreading grew. That potential condition weighed in heavily on Phillip’s mind, but there was a process to getting answers. “We need the data! If we destroy all of the evidence, then we won’t learn anything!”

  “I agree with Phillip.” Clay slowly clapped his hands as he approached the two young men. He too was outfitted in the neon, light-blue NanoXLabs bio-isolation suit. “It would be a catastrophe if we lost valuable information that could be the very key that solves this problem.”

  “Of course, sir. Sorry,” Jake offered his apology.

  “No harm done.” Clay smiled. “After all, we already have the necessary material to test with, or has our bright prodigy found something else to add to our growing inventory?”

  “When comparing the symptoms of the rats at the lab against the people here, I’m arguing that we are dealing with are two different pathogen groups that are infecting at the same time. Then again, it could be a single one that develops different symptoms depending on species. I can’t say that for sure until I run some experiments.”

  “Intriguing!” Clay was awe-struck. “I looked over the material you submitted over the past two weeks. First off—good job to both of you for all of the hard work. Second, from your findings, I can see that there is some sort of pattern of unique symptoms from cropping up.”

  Clay turned away and stared down the road, speaking to himself. “It’s sobering to see all of those dead bodies piled up, isn’t it?”

  Phillip glanced over at Jake. The young man was awkward to be in a conversation with Clay Maxwell. It was to the point that Jake keeping his “fake smile” was starting to tax his mental strength. There wasn’t a single instance in the past that Phillip could think back on and remember Jake ever being comfortable with his boss. There was always a fixed amount of coldness that Jake held against Clay Maxwell.

  “Thank you, Mister Maxwell. We appreciate your feedback and we’re striving to meet expectations,” Phillip acknowledged his superior.

  “Well said.” Clay casually smiled again. “Once we figured out what happened here, we will publish our findings and make sure the world is ready to counter any future outbreak. Well then, gentlemen. Good talking to you both, but I have other matters to attend to, as well.” Clay gave a small wave as he turned away. “Remember, guys, this is a joint operation. We have the best of the best from all around the world here. We’re all in this together.”

  “Yes, sir!” Phillip called back.

  After the CEO of NanoXLabs put some distance between himself and the two young men, Jake’s fake smile wrinkled into a nasty smirk. “‘We’re all in this together,’ he says! Bullshit!”

  “Come on, Jake.” Phillip sighed. “Give it a rest.”

  “Don’t tell me you believe what that clown says.” Jake turned to look at his friend. “You can’t take that guy at his word.”

  “Okay, he is a little weird for a CEO of a multi-billion dollar company,” Phillip tried to defend his boss, but he couldn’t stop recalling the terror of staring down the barrel of the gun that Clay had pulled on him. “But he’s under a lot of stress, as we all are. Cut him some slack, all right?”

  Phillip turned to meet Jake’s disgusted face.

  “Huh. What else should I expect from you?” Jake rolled his eyes. “He puts you on a pedestal with a huge promotion, so it is logical that you would stick up for him. Clay Maxwell could use those frozen corpses to
repave these streets and you’d somehow justify it was done in the name of science.”

  Phillip raised an eyebrow. “That’s what you think of me?”

  “Well, you are free to defend yourself at any time. Go ahead and say I’m wrong, but be prepared to back up your statement,” Jake shot back, his hand tightening into a fist. After a moment of hesitation, the fire in his eyes died out. “Okay, I went too far. Listen, all I’m saying is not to take that guy at face value and others won’t be accusing you of deep diving in his ass. Just stay on your toes, something about him gives me the creeps.”

  “Fine, but I think you’re overreacting,” Phillip shot back with a snarky voice.

  “I’m not going to fight you on this, Phil. You’re old enough to make your own decisions. I just wanted to give you a fair warning.” Jake turned away to leave. “I’ll be heading out to the transport. Lunch break is coming up pretty soon.”

  Jake left without waiting for Phillip’s reply; the integrated boots of his suit crunched loudly on the dirty cobblestone road. Phillip stood in place, watching the only person who he really knew here leave him behind. There were times like these in the past when Jake would stomp off to let himself cool down. Phillip never thought too much about it, since his focus was somewhere else entirely.

  I can’t expect you to have the same convictions as me, Jake. This is just a job for you. Me, on the other hand…

  Phillip glanced down at the dead body, thin films of water collecting at the bottom of his lower eyelids. He quickly swallowed the pain. He didn’t want anyone passing by to see that he was capable of being emotional.

  2.

  Ten years ago…

  “Come to my side, Phillip,” the weak voice coming from the withered body lying on the hospital bed beckoned the boy to come closer. The outstretched hand, slightly shaking from fatigue, was looking for the younger hand to grasp.

  “I’m here.” Phillip came to his father’s bedside, grabbing a hold of the bone-thin hand and stabilizing it.