Murder Genes

by Mikael Aizen

  "It's Gamer that made you do it."

  "I made my choices. My own damn fault. I helped Gamer take down thousands."

  "Shit, thousands?"

  Bitch gave him a wry smile. "Still a bit proud of it too. How messed up am I?" He kept talking. "See, the thing is, you trusted me even after seeing what I'd been doing. You gave me a chance like some king's pardon. It's fucking noble. Altruistic. Suicidal." He sighed. "But you're here and your plan's working. I know it doesn't mean much, but I'm on your side even if it kills me. You're what Morir really needs. Fuck!" Bitch snapped his fingers. "You're Jesus!"

  "If I'm Jesus, you're definitely going to hell," Jay answered. "Can't have someone who's killed thousands going to heaven, now can I?"

  "Hell no. Just keep it warm down there for me and I'll have no regrets," Bitch grinned at him. When he did, it struck Jay again how young Bitch was. Bitch hadn't any choice until Jay came into the picture, and the kid switched teams right away. Heaven wasn't good enough for a kid like him, not if Jay were Jesus.

  They were getting close to Pope's Hat. Pope's Hat was a ravine without water with a giant rock in its middle that looked a lot like it's namesake. Jay had chosen it because it'd be easy to scout the place out. Jay hadn't planned on feeling so weak though. That was why Bitch was here.

  "Go on ahead," Jay said.

  Bitch nodded and disappeared.

  Jay crawled to the edge of the exit that would look down on Pope's Hat. They were late and it was well past dawn. When Jay peeked his head out, he saw Karah waiting. "Good girl," he murmured to himself.

  She was standing by the rock, nervously scanning the ravine. She had a grey bag clutched to her chest and was wearing her red-tape-cross T-shirt. Jay wanted to go out there now, but he'd be patient. All he needed was for Bitch to get back from his scouting...

  "No no no," Jay whispered. Karah began to fidget. She back pedaled a few steps, then stopped and kept searching with her eyes. "Just wait a little longer. I'll be there. Just a little longer," he murmured.

  But she wasn't listening to him. She was panicking. She began to back pedal quicker, pause, back pedal. Karah turned and walked, jogged, ran from the big pointy rock in the middle. Damn Survivor instincts. Straight back to safety and what she was familiar with. Fuck. "Karah!" Jay called, and then dipped his head down. It'd been stupid, but if she left Pope's Hat he'd likely never see her again.

  Karah froze, looking around wildly. She called out softly, "Jay?" then louder, "Jay? Where are you?"

  Jay didn't answer, praying and hoping that she wouldn't leave. Just wait, he willed.

  Oh, she waited. Long enough for Jay to know how stupid he was.

  "Boo!" the snarling lips said, popping in front of Jay's vision. Arms grabbed him and pulled him roughly from the hole. Enforcers.

  And Hunter.

  Jay didn't have a chance. He struggled until one of them figured out that grabbing Jay by the wrapped up bone made him comply a whole bunch easier. "Well hellooo there!" Hunter called from below, sauntering into the ravine.

  He looked good. Youthful with bright blue, calm, eyes. It didn't look like he'd picked up a single wrinkle since Jay last saw him. The Enforcers dragged Jay down into the ravine. He didn't help them any, slumping his weight into their arms until one of them poked a knife into Jay's backside. "Stand on your own," he muttered behind Jay.

  Jay stood. "Hello back," Jay muttered, wiggling his stump. Then he looked at Karah, searching her expression. It was guilt, pure guilt.

  She didn't meet his eyes.

  Pure... seeping... rotten... guilt. There was something to being betrayed that when stacked on betrayal after betrayal--it really felt like sucking asshole.

  "Speaking of Bitch," the Chief Enforcer said like someone had said the name. "Where is that good fellow?"

  "I put a bullet in his head and dumped his corpse where the birds could get him for betraying me," Jay answered. He looked at Karah. It hurt inside, it really hurt. Not like this whussy arm and jaw pain that he kept dealing with.

  "So who're you waiting for?" The Chief cupped his hand to the side of his mouth. "Xiaos maybe? You out there?" He looked at Jay and raised an eyebrow. "Maybe the twins, even? No," the Chief continued, tapping the side of his forehead. "I don't think any of them could have gotten around my men so easily. Even Xiaos is no bitch." The Chief chuckled at his own joke. "Bitch! Or whoever's out there! Come out or Jay's dead in ten...nine..." The man with the knife put the blade up to Jay's throat.

  "All right!" Bitch's voice rang across the ravine. "Hold your horses, I'm coming!" Even though he was yelling, Jay couldn't identify quite where the voice had come from. Until the Chief spun and caught the incoming dagger, that was.

  The Chief held the boy up in the air by the wrist. "Nice try Bitch, one of the best attempts on my life I've ever had the pleasure of receiving." He shook Bitch until the boy dropped the knife.

  The knife looked familiar. Jay looked closer. It was Mike's knife. Bitch had been telling the truth, if he'd shown Jay that in the first place... Damn, Jay wanted that knife.

  The Chief Enforcer spun and threw Bitch into the ground and pulled his gun, walking over to Bitch's groaning body and pointing it at the boy's head. As small as Bitch was, he'd survived this long by never being caught.

  The Chief had just caught him.

  That's why they called the Chief 'Hunter.' If Bitch was the ultimate escape artist, then the Chief was the ultimate predator. He'd planned the whole thing perfectly. Jay and Bitch had fallen for it like damn newbies. All because of a woman and Jay's misguided savior complex.

  "I couldn't wait to catch you," Hunter said to Jay. "I've got to admit, I don't think I've wanted anything so bad in a long time."

  "Congratulations. You've fulfilled your greatest dream."

  "No one's run for as long and survived." Hunter paused. "My men. They want me to kill you. They're very unhappy with the way you treated their comrades."

  "Then kill me."

  Hunter tsked and shook his head. "See, I knew you'd say that. But here's the thing that I explained to my men. Killing you wouldn't make you pay for what you did, not really."

  Jay didn't say anything.

  "Tell me where Esperanza is," Hunter said, wiggling the gun at Bitch's head.

  "Fuck no," Jay answered immediately. Not a chance.

  Hunter shrugged and looked at Bitch. "Well that was quick. You two must be good friends." He pointed the gun at Jay. "Tell me where Esperanza is," he repeated to Bitch.

  Bitch hesitated.

  "That's weird," Hunter said to Bitch. "Even after seeing that your 'Redeemer' doesn't care about you, you're still interested in protecting him." He nodded to Jay. "You must be a good leader. I respect that. Quite a talent to cultivate sacrifice out of your men even if it means their life." He paused. "You know, I respect you a lot more than you realize. I underestimated you from the first time I saw you. You had me tricked because I would've bet after our first meeting that you'd be dead in mere days if not hours." Hunter stared at Jay, leveling the gun at Jay's head and walking forward. "I've never been deceived like that. Not successfully." The barrel of the gun hit Jay in the head. It stung in a dull kind of way.

  The Chief Enforcer tilted his head to the side. "You look a bit feverish, is something wrong?" He took the gun and tapped on Jay's stump. "This what you killed Mike with? I saw some bone I think you left behind. It was pretty bad-ass I must say. Scared my men. A man with the sheer willpower to find a way to kill no matter what the circumstance is. You're a born murderer."

  "Is that why there are three fully 'armed' men holding me, 'cept they're shaking like pussycats?" Jay lifted his arm to ninety the best he could, being held by the Enforcers. "You can't tell, but I'm giving you the finger right now." Jay wondered where the other Enforcers were.

  "Ahh, you're right," Hunter smiled. "I couldn't tell. This'll help."

  He shot Jay, right in the forearm at the stump. The whole Goddamn thing exploded into bits of flesh.
Blood spurted. Pain flashed through Jay. He screamed. Then Hunter shot Jay again, moving up a bit. To his elbow, then the upper arm. He stopped at the shoulder, aimed for a second with his tongue between his teeth, and fucking shot again.

  There's only so much a man can take.

  The hands on Jay never let go. None of the Enforcers had been hit by Hunter's shots and if Jay wasn't screaming his head off and being turned into a fountain, he would've admire the man's skills.

  "Damn, still can't see that finger. It's in there, isn't it?" the Chief asked. His voice came through dulled, like Jay was underwater and time had slowed.

  "Keep shooting and I have no reason to help you," Bitch's voice came through.

  "We'd find a reason. But, you're right for now. Where's Esperanza?" Something splattered into Jay's head.

  Pump pump.

  The blood--pulsating out of his arm second by second. "Don't tell him," Jay thought he said.

  "You're Jesus," came the reply. "You've just gotta survive and save us another day."

  The lights went out and the last thing he heard was from Hunter, to Karah. "You better get in there and help him, love."

  Love?

  Jay fought to wake. Everything in him screamed for him to quit trying and lay still and to rest for as long as it took to... Heal? Die? He'd fought long enough and he was tired. So damned tired that it no longer mattered who or why or how or what. Nothing mattered because.

  Because.

  Jay quit fighting. And slept.

  Chapter 19

  The Code is not what we thought. It is not a genetic variant or a combination of genes including MAOA and DRD4 tagged as: The Code. There is a far more specific and deterministic murder gene: MSN18A. This is the new code.

  -Itan, Kelly. "A New Code for Killers." Chicago Times. Aug 31, 2020.

  It was evening. And there were crickets. And that woman was sawing at his arm with a miniature saw blade. What's the point? Jay tried to escape, to sleep again, but the sawing kept waking him. He wished the pain would just quit, stop waking him up. Stop making him pay attention. He'd had enough pain for a hundred lives, a hundred people. Any more and he thought that he just, might, crack.

  Fucking Quit SAWING!

  Jay jerked up and grabbed the saw from shocked feminine hands, then he swung it, slapping Karah across the head with its handle. She went limp backwards. Jay twisted on his butt and stabbed the short blade saw straight into the oncoming Enforcer's stomach, between the Carbon-Nanotube vest and leggings. When he pulled out, he felt it rip through the man's insides.

  Then Jay stood, slowly. Pain pulsed his veins... It almost made him feel powerful.

  Besides the two, he was alone in the middle of Pope's Hat. It was dark and the sun was dipping right under the point of the rock's top. Jay looked at the Enforcer who'd fallen to the ground in a mess of his own guts. "You better survive," he told the man who probably wasn't listening...the man who'd stopped grabbing at his insides and was holding two ends of his intestines that didn't begin or end at his mouth or ass. "I'm not counting this one." Karah would be able to help the man when she woke, sew him up. Jay limped to Karah's crumpled body. He placed the saw right on her throat and left the blade there. Just so she'd know. He still owed her one to his count. Including right now.

  "If I find that Esperanza is gone, I'm coming back and making sure that you'll never save my life again." Jay croaked.

  She'd tied a tourniquet around his arm and stopped most the blood loss, enough for him to not die, enough for him to continue on and live. Jay looked at what was left of his left arm. There was nothing, really. She'd managed to cut through maybe four fifths the bone right off his shoulder.

  His eyes came across the Mike's knife sticking out from under a rock. He took it and stumbled away. Toward Esperanza.

  He was too late. Fucking Hell.

  Chapter 20

  Herein lies the proof that behavior has biological basis:

  Behavior patterns in animals are often species specific. In fact, some behaviors are so characteristic that differentiation between closely related species is done through behavior. For instance, the hirundo verbanaand and the erpobdella obscura. Leeches. Their particular bending in response to mechanical stimulation differentiates their species.

  Behaviors are bred and carried through generations. Consider the retrieval instincts of Labrador dogs.

  Human instincts of survival. Greed, Sex, Self-Preservation. Altruism. It is well-known that we all exhibit such responses. The lack of these basic psychological responses is considered a retardation or mutation of normal behavior.

  -Uthon, Tell. "Biologic Basis of Behavior." Behavioral Genetics. Jan, 2021.

  Kyle left his class early today. Because it broke pattern and if anyone was watching as he suspected they were, there was a chance he'd confuse them. And, a chance he'd see something he wasn't meant to and find another clue in how he'd trick them. He'd already found a lot of clues. Callie had been right.

  The cameras were the obvious ones, they were all over the school anyway. The watching eyes of the teachers were next, they watched him closer than most kids. But more than the teachers was the way the other kids treated him. They weren't as good actors and liars as the adults. They were always watching him from the corner of their eyes. They'd whisper and talk only when he wasn't close. They'd stop acting as soon as he was out of sight and sound, back to their giggling and chatting as soon as he was gone. No matter how Kyle acted--happy, sad, angry, distant, they always remembered where he was. The corner of their eyes told him that.

  Of course this wasn't everything he noticed.

  He'd spotted Callie's father in the reflection of his spoon, in the mirror reflecting another and another and another mirror, the transparency through the window-glass when he pretended to nap in class. It was the man with dark glasses and bright orange hair watching and holding a small tablet in hand like he was taking notes in a class. He'd only stay for a second, never a minute, but Kyle didn't ever stop searching for the man because Callie's father could appear where he shouldn't, somehow. In Kyle's bedroom he'd see a shadow in the corner. In the bathroom he'd hear distinct gliding-swish footsteps in the hallway. One time, Kyle swore he'd seen the man step out of a student's locker. Cross his heart and hope to die kinda sure. But the only person he could tell about this and the only person he could believe was himself. Callie was gone from her class like she'd never been there. Kyle'd bet he'd never see her again, either.

  Kyle told his teacher he needed the bathroom, and while other kids didn't get let out to use the bathroom, Kyle stared at her hard because he knew that she knew about him. That he'd murdered people. A lot of people. And if she got in his way he'd murder her too. Then she'd be out of the experiment completely because she was dead.

  The teacher looked like she'd say something to him, but she didn't. She only nodded.

  Kyle didn't say thank you, he just waited until she opened the door just for him and walked out without a word. She locked the door behind him just because she was supposed to pretend to return to her class and pretend to be teaching while he wasn't in the room. She probably was, actually, just in case he'd peeked.

  Kyle ran as fast as he could down the hallways toward the doctor's office where Del was supposed to be. He burst through her door, panting from his run, and caught another clue. The kind of clue he'd set out to find for weeks already. That Del might be part of this, too.

  Del was sitting in the bench where the student usually sat. Above her was the boy Kyle had seen holding Jess down before Kyle had been kidnapped. This time the boy had different people around him and the needle was in Del and not Jess. And yes, she was in the room too--Jess.

  They looked at him in surprise. It looked so fake. "Kyle!" Del said, pulling the needle out and standing quickly, coming toward him. "What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

  "What are you doing, Mom?" Kyle asked.

  "I..."

  "None of your business,
" the boy muttered. Kyle hated him, him and his muttering and the fact that he seemed to know everything that was going on and everything that was happening and he, Kyle knew, was important to the experiment because he was one of the ones who'd done those horrible things to Kyle.

  "I'm not talking to you," Kyle said.

  Jess touched his shoulder. "Kyle," she said gently. "Come with me."

  He brushed her arm off his shoulder. "Touch me again and I'll kill you." The three other boys laughed, but not the muttering boy, or Jess, or Del.

  Del frowned. "Kyle, that's not nice. Apologize to..."

  "What are you letting them do to you?" Kyle cut in. A part of himself still wanted Del to be his real mom. A part of himself that Kyle was killing more and more of every day he discovered another clue, clues that meant that Del was part of this, too.

  "They aren't doing anything," Del said. "They are students learning to take blood because they want to be doctors someday."

  I'm small, but I'm not stupid. When will people learn that? "That's illegal and you'd be in big trouble if that were true," Kyle said. "Come up with a better lie, Del." She stared at him like she was hurt. He knew she wasn't. "Did I hurt your feelings just now because I didn't believe your fake story and didn't call you 'Mom?'"

  Del looked at the others in the room. "You should go," she said to them.

  "No, I'll go," Kyle said. "But come up with a better lie for tonight, I can't wait to hear it." He left the room, not rushing but not taking his time either. He knew he wouldn't get any real answers, not tonight or any night. Just another pile of lies that could become clues to something bigger. Something that until he got real answers straight from someone who actually knew something, he'd be guessing forever. Kyle was smart enough to realize that, and so it wasn't worth forcing Del to answer him. Not until Kyle found out which persons knew most about the experiment and then trick them into giving him more clues and one day force them to tell him the answers. Someone like the muttering boy.