by Mikael Aizen
Andre nodded. "Yes, Kyle. You're completely right." He looked at Kyle with stricken eyes. Wet eyes. Angry eyes.
"If I told you, then the experiment would be over wouldn't it? Then our hard work and the people that have died would be worth nothing, and hundreds and millions of people would suffer because we couldn't finish the experiment. I didn't want that to happen. Not with your wife in the Murder City, and my birth father there too," Kyle explained as if thoughtfully.
He was enjoying this.
"Yes Kyle, you were right to do things the way you did. We lost equipment, but as you said, nothing critical to the study was lost. You're a naturally gifted scientist." Andre's voice was monotone and bland.
Kyle sighed in exaggerated relief. "I'm glad, I was really worried. You're a really good teacher, Father...Oh! What about my first question? How many more do I have to kill?" And who might I kill NEXT?
Andre's shoulders lifted, and dropped. Like a slow and overwhelming shrug. "Maybe none, maybe many more. I will have to test you in a few weeks to see the changes that have occurred in your genes, if any."
"So should I stop and wait before finding my next target?"
Andre put his arm around Kyle's shoulder, and began patting Kyle back in irregular intervals, like he couldn't quite decide what to do with his hand. He didn't answer Kyle's question.
"Father?" Kyle said.
"Yes Kyle."
Not son? "This means that I shouldn't tell you who the next person is, right?" This was what he had been waiting for.
The patting stopped. After all, there were only two people left in Andre's life that were important to him. Three maybe. Callie, Andre's wife--if she was still alive, and...Kyle himself. Without Kyle, Andre would never be able to finish the study. But Andre probably hadn't thought of that, and since his wife was in Murderer city, that left only one person.
Andre's mouth worked like he wanted to say something.
"Did you want to say something?" Kyle asked.
Andre shook his head. "No."
"No, you don't want to say something? Or no, I shouldn't tell you who the next person is?"
"Both," Andre sighed. His eyes looked raw and there was a deep, slow, swallow. "Both." he said again.
"I understand." Kyle patted Andre's big back a few more times and stood up. "Is there going to a funeral? I'd like to be there. It'd be good to remember Jess and Ryant and their contributions to science."
"Yes. I'm sure there will be," Andre said, vacantly.
"One more thing," Kyle said.
"Yes Kyle."
"If somehow you found out or guessed who I'm going to kill next. Could you do anything? Or are you supposed to let things go on naturally. Because if this Natural Science Method is really an important thing to follow, maybe you could even put up a few cameras to record everything around the place I'd be, if you guessed correctly, that is. And since the last cameras during the last kills were destroyed in the explosion, it might be important?" Kyle shrugged and held his hands out to either side of his shoulders. "I don't know, that's why I'm asking."
A shivering breath. A slow, shaking, breath. "Y...yes Kyle. You are probably right."
"I could carry the camera on me instead, if you'd like. Maybe that would help. You could see me do the killing like you were there." How much did science really mean to Andre?
"Maybe," Andre said.
"OK. That sounds good. Let me know if there's anything else I can do."
"I will, Kyle. I will."
"Kyle." Andre abruptly said.
"Yes, Father?"
"It's my fault."
"What's your fault?" Kyle prompted.
Andre's eyes drifted lazily through the air, through space. "I was lead researcher for The Code, the founder of the Association of Genetic Determinism. I caused the movements and I led the science of Behavior Behavioral Genetics. My wife...Mara's death is my fault."
Kyle understood what Andre was saying immediately. Andre caused this and that was why he wanted to reverse it so badly. That's why he cared so much. But he was using science, again, to do so.
Instead of making Kyle feel sorry for Andre, it made him even madder. Because Pa was in Murderer City and the other people in the Murderer Cities around the world were dying because of this man's science. Kyle hated science. "Yes, it is your fault," Kyle repeated.
His comment didn't seem to bother Andre. "All this," Andre said, pointing his chin head at the burning remains of the house, "has been bought with blood." Andre didn't look up. "My research has always been funded by blood. What you're doing, it's not going to stop me. It's not going to work."
Kyle paused, and let out a little smile. We'll see. "OK, Father," Kyle replied. "I'll see you later."
Andre's body jerked and he stared at Kyle. "Where are you going now?"
Kyle gave Andre a surprised look, like it was obvious. "Callie's brother and sister just died, I thought I'd go visit Callie. To comfort her, of course."
Andre stared and stared and stared at him. His jaw quivered. A small whimper slipped from his lips. Then he nodded and dropped his head. "Yes. That's probably a good idea."
"Would you like to come?" Kyle offered.
Andre shook his head.
"Fine then. Don't worry about me. I'll find a way there. I already know where she's staying, anyway." Kyle knew because Callie had told him on the computer in one of her messages. She hadn't known the address, but she'd found out the real name of the person who she was staying with. A simple search gave him the exact address that he needed. "Don't have the funeral without me. Us. Don't have the funeral without us." Kyle walked away. "And send the camera in the mail. It'll beat me there."
Chapter 29
Proposal:
Recently, with the understanding of behavioral genetics in murder, studies have moved in force to discover a cure for The Code. It is our proposal to create a controlled environment, a city for those with The Code. Two benefits will arise from this. First, those with The Code will be in their natural environments. We will be able to observe and discover through generations if The Code will persist. Secondly, we can study how humankind progresses when not held back by violent and destructive behaviors.
-O.N., Will. "Generational Disassociation Proposal." Primary Prevention. Volume 2, pp. 17. Aug, 2022.
Fucking suicide! How dumb were we? Really? How the SHIT did this ugly immortal-man trick us into trusting HUNTER, of all people? "Fucking DIE! Do you hear me? You Mother-Fucking BASTARD!" Jay screamed, throwing himself against his restraint.
Immortal Leader didn't care, in fact he enjoyed the raging so much that he patted Jay's head and chuckled. "Drink puppy-dog, drink. Master give you reward."
The same reward each time, choice. Slant-Eyed Bastard. Jay felt it coming up and he couldn't hold it in. He vomited straight into the bowl of blood and flesh.
Immortal Leader clapped. "Bad puppy-dog! Eat fast and you still choose."
He didn't want to choose. He didn't want to pick who got to fight Immortal Leader in a predetermined fucking battle, he didn't want to pick who got to die and then get chopped up into ground human, fed back to their comrades raw as sushi in doggy bowls made from human skulls.
And he didn't want to choose between the four people left.
Adan, Xiaos, Bitch, and himself. It hadn't taken long to figure out that Hunter had betrayed them. It became clear in no time that Immortal Leader had Hunter by the toes, using Karah as bait. Who would have guessed that a guy like Hunter would fall head over heels in love?
Jay would've chosen himself if he didn't have to shit out the Tag. Put himself out of the misery of choosing who got to die to become everyone else's next meal. But the Tag was lodged somewhere, stuck in his colon. Jay had searched and searched through his shitpiles every day twice over and still no Tag.
Plan C was given up to Hunter the day they'd been captured, Plan B failed because of Paul. He'd thought he could trust Xiaos, he'd thought he could trust Paul, he'd thought he could trust h
imself. Because for Plan D to work, Jay had to pass the fucking Tag first, and it wasn't coming out.
Jay forced himself to chew. This one had been a woman under Adan's protection. The rule had been that the survivors had to finish the body of whoever died by the next day. When it became clear that it was a little unreasonable to ask any less than twenty-some people to eat one ground up human body in one day, they became forced to eat at least one bowl each. This most disturbing part about all this?
Bitch looked like he was finally putting on weight.
Ridiculous. Jay glanced over at Adan beside him. For the first time ever, the man was eating like he was famished.
"Ho ho!" Immortal Leader said to Jay. "Hurry puppy-dog, or else you die!"
Jay shook off his alarm. Between Adan and him, whoever finished their bowl first got to choose who faced Immortal Leader one-on-one UFC style next. Adan never even tried to eat any faster than any child forced to eat greens. He was today.
Jay had to survive. If only to shit the Tag, he had to survive.
Jay ate like he never'd eaten raw human before. Like he didn't feel like he was sick as a dog.
Immortal Leader just laughed and snorted like it was the funniest thing in the world.
Jay raised his skullcap of blood. "To Adan," he said tiredly. Weakly.
"To Adan," Bitch and Xiaos repeated, toasting him with their own skullcaps.
If Bitch had flourished from regular meals--human or not--Xiaos had been the one to suffer most. Xiaos stared at the bowl in front of him with black rimmed eyes. It was always a trial for him to drink.
Jay lifted the skullcap to his lips and finished the blood in four big gulps. His stomach flashed pain. Something about blood made you vomit not much later, it didn’t help with the pain.
Xiaos touched the blood to his lips, and pulled it away, shaking his head. "I cannot continue."
The guards in the corners watched with wary eyes. Only four of them now. One waved a rifle at Xiaos and said something along the lines of "drink up motherfucker." In Korean, of course.
"Fuck Xiaos, I need you," Jay said feebly.
"My spirit is corrupted. I can no longer feel my soul. I am cursed." This time Jay didn't blame the man for being depressed. They all were just about ready to give up. But as long as Jay had the Tag in him, he dared to hope.
"If you're going to hell for this, you're there anyway. Just stick with me a bit longer. Drink it."
Xiaos stared at the drink. It took a long minute, but he drank. Xiaos dropped the skullcap and bowed over himself, shaking like he was in physical pain. "I will fight Immortal Leader tomorrow. You will choose me."
"I swear I'll shit today. It's got to be today. The really bad pain in my belly hasn't hit for hours. That's got to mean that the Tag's finally moving on, right?"
"You're sicker than yesterday. Weaker than the day before. I do not think the Tag will come out today any more than it has any day because it is stuck, and now the Tag's poison is killing you." Xiaos glanced at his arms, who's bones had begun to show through. "My soul rejects this tainted sustenance. I am a husk of a human." He smiled. "I will join my sons, soon."
Pain flashed through his abdomen suddenly, minutes without stop. "Fuuuuck!" Jay screamed. "Bitch, help me get this fucking Tag out!"
Bitch came over to him. The guards didn't move from their places. They even smiled at one another. "What do I do?" Bitch asked.
"I don't know! Just push it out!" Jay said.
Bitch reached out and touched Jay's stomach. Agony cut through Jay's belly. "Your stomach's hard as a rock. Relax, will you?" Bitch pushed again.
Jay screamed again.
Sweat poured down Jay's face and he felt cold and nauseous. He was shaking.
"Don't think it's gonna work, Jay," Bitch said.
"Oh fuck, I'm dying," Jay gasped.
"Yeah, so are we all. What the hell's wrong with you?" Bitch asked.
Jay just gasped. Even breathing hurt. "Don't tell me I...have appendicitis."
"Hell if I know. Are you really dying, Jay?" Bitch looked genuinely concerned.
"...It looks like you actually care," Jay managed.
"Yeah," Bitch admitted.
"I am the only one who might kill Immortal Leader," Xiaos said. "You should have chosen me from the beginning, when I had my full strength."
"Kidding me?" Jay couldn't laugh, it hurt too much. "We're wearing him down...or didn't you see?" Jay breathed real slow, it hurt less if he breathed slow. "Quit wallowing in regret, Xiaos...I'm the one who's dying."
Xiaos didn't move from his head bowed, cross-legged position. More pain shot through Jay, worse than any before.
Bitch walked over to the door that trapped them inside. They were in one of Morir's buildings, holed up in a brick room with guards that were as good as Christmas decorations. Bitch pounded on the door. "We need a doctor!" he yelled.
One of the guards in the corner yelled at Bitch. Bitch yelled right back. "Get a fucking doctor!"
The door opened and another guard glanced in and jabbed a handgun into Bitch's face. He said something.
Bitch kept on yelling. "Doctor! We need a doctor you asshole!"
More yelling and gun pointing and Xiaos lifted his head. He spoke something in Korean to the door guard. The guard glanced at Jay, who lay useless in a pool of sweat. Xiaos said something more. The guard looked at Jay again. He nodded and said something else to the other guards.
Then he left.
"What'd you tell him?" Jay asked. "That I'd be dead by tomorrow and Immortal Leader wouldn't have his fun after all?"
Xiaos nodded. "Yes. That's exactly what I told him."
"And that worked?" He could barely lift his head.
"Perhaps," Xiaos responded. "The guard is inquiring with Immortal Leader."
Another bout stabbed through Jay, and he thought he fainted because when he opened his eyes again, Immortal Leader was in the room watching in the background with a bunch more guards. He didn't look too happy. Karah was kneeling beside him, prodding at his stomach. "Fuck, not you again," Jay said. “What’s with you? You patch me up just so you can betray me later?”
Karah ignored him and stood up. "His gut's entirely inflamed. He won't make it through the night."
Immortal Leader came up. His flat wide Asian face glared at Jay. How can anyone worship someone so ugly? "Die?" Immortal Leader asked.
Karah nodded like the man was an idiot. "Yes. He'll die unless I find out what's causing it. And even if I do, without the antibiotics required from such an operation, it would leave him dead in a week anyway." She looked at Jay. "He's a walking corpse."
"Don't cry...too much," Jay groaned.
"Alive." Immortal Leader stated.
"For now," Karah replied. "Few more hours, he's done."
"Fix him." Immortal Leader seethed. The man looked like a gorilla.
"It's useless," Karah said. "He's got peritonitis, or some other abdominal-itis. That means infection, and without antibiotics I can't help him."
Immortal Leader looked at one of the guys beside him who was skinnier than the others and smarter looking. Immortal Leader didn't even understand what Karah was saying. The skinny Korean shrugged and spoke in English. "I do not understand either."
Immortal Leader got all red and mad. Jay felt bad for the translator. First nice thought he'd had for a Slant-Eye.
"An-ti-bi-o-tics," Karah enunciated.
The skinny man finally nodded like he understood, then translated for Immortal Leader. Immortal Leader shook his head. "No," he said.
"No? Don't you want me to save him?" Karah demanded.
Immortal Leader spoke through the translator. "Fix him. One week still alive is acceptable."
"He might not make it one week. That's if I'm lucky and I find out what's wrong with him," Karah said.
Immortal Leader nodded. "One week," he said without the translator's help.
Karah cursed under her breath. "Tell him that I need tools, medical tools," she
told the translator.
The translator passed the message and Immortal Leader sent a man running. But he kept his eyes on Jay, watching Jay like it was Jay's fault he was sick.
"Bitch," Jay muttered.
“Hum?” asked Bitch.
“Not you, her,” Jay said, glaring at Karah.
She nodded. "I know. I'm sorry about Esperanza. I didn't have a choice."
"I’m going to kill you," Jay said. He flexed his elbow as he laid flat on the floor, staring at the ceiling. He pointed at the bells. "One for Hunter. One for you."
"That's fine. But wait until I fix you up."
"No talking," the interpreter said.
"You shut up," Jay said. "I'm dying. I'll talk if I..." another wash of pain, and more gasping. "If I want to."
Then the guy came back with a bunch of medical tools.
"Why you? They don't have...their own doctor?" Jay asked.
"None with my skill. Immortal Leader's figured out how valuable I am," Karah said.
"Good...for you."
"Yeah." Karah went to work, cleaning and disinfecting his stomach. She ignored Jay's flinching.
"What are you going to do?" Jay asked.
"Cut you open side to side. Look for the source of the infection and get rid of it. Sew you up and hope for the best."
"Is that all?" Jay asked.
"While you're awake. They didn't give me any anesthetic."
"Will it hurt?"
"Are you stupid? Of course it's going to hurt."
"Hey," Jay said.
"What Jay."
"I still...think you're...knock-out."
"Just wait till I cut you open."
"You better kill me," Jay said. “Otherwise...”
Bitch bristled over them both.
Karah nodded at him. "I'll see what I can do. Now shut the fuck up."
She began cutting, and he began screaming. The rest passed in endless waves of nausea. But he forced himself to stay conscious, to watch her expression, to see what she discovered because he knew what it was that caused his pain.