Second Genesis

by Eric Williams

  The way assimilation worked, was an Immortium cell, used a tentacle to absorb the target host cell. While another tentacle became swollen, releasing a hybridized version which took the place of the one it integrated with. Once in the heart, the new cells began to emerge quickly. They always went for the heart first. Then once assimilation cells specific to that individual host emerged, they went for the adipose cells, the fat cells, and converted them into an alienized stem cell that the body would use to repair tissues with along with growing new organs and muscles and various other tissues. The bone tissue was next, then all other muscles and visceral tissues later on. The skin was usually last. In a resurrected case, tissue repair was the prime directive the Immortium cells performed. They had a stem cell quality, able to produce any manner of needed cells within minutes. Xairin’s body was looking more and more like it did before he was brutalized. His Immortium cells went straight for the fat reserves as expected and began converting his fat cells into the new variation of stem cells resembling human amniotic stem cells, but with tri core nuclei which flooded the bloodstream to speed up regeneration.

  His face had regained itself. His bruises were vanishing slowly, along with every broken bone, becoming gay in color, melding and becoming alien. The ripped lining to his colon from the glass bottle had also begun healing. While his mental status remained that of a brain-dead corpse. His brain cells were still being replaced.

  Four hours had passed. Compared to others in far worse shape than Xairin, his body had recovered in record time. Aaron was perplexed by the speed his cells were performing regeneration. Finally, electrical sparks started to fire among his nerve tissues.

  Xairin began dreaming. His rapid eye movement was a clear hint.

  His dream wasn’t a loop of the attack in the sewer, but of the dronemobile accident that took his family from him. He recalled seeing his father smiling at his mother. His mother had a sad look on her face, but she was happy that day, her oldest child was graduating. He remembered her hair being up in a bun like it always was, neatly kept, keeping it out of the way when she worked out. She was a personal trainer and had taken up martial arts. Xairin never had any interest in it.

  She had what looked like two metal spikes, silver hair sticks, that she kept in her hair, to tie it up. Xairin often made jokes that she was going to stab someone with them one day. When he made that joke, she usually raised an eyebrow and smirked. His mother looked younger than his father, almost fifteen years younger. She always joked claiming it was the virgin blood she bathed in from the missing kids in the neighborhood. Xairin never found that funny.

  His parents were talking, smiling at one another. His sister and brother were fighting as usual, and his dad’s mother was snoring. They didn’t see the large flying truck that hit them on the side. Xairin remembered his parents screaming when it hit. He remembered their dronemobile plummeting. He saw the ground coming at them, and his mother turning around as if in slow motion, counting her children.

  His younger brother Scott didn’t have a face. The impact from the side killed him almost instantly. His sister Rileigh’s neck broke from the force of the strap holding her in place, while his grandmother was crushed like Scott was. He never remembered much of the accident until now it seemed. He had blocked most of it out.

  Xairin saw the ground coming at them. He thought he heard his father yell out. “SAVE THE KIDS, DON'T WORRY ABOUT ME!” He felt the strap confining him, vanish, and the next thing he knew was being carried. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the vehicle. His vision was blurry. He could make out a feminine figure carrying him and lying him outside their flying minivan that was now nothing but wreckage in the middle of a busy street. It looked like his mother, but it couldn’t have been. He had always thought she had been decapitated.

  His thoughts continued to hone in on the woman standing over him. She was weeping and screaming. Cursing against every deity he had ever heard mentioned. It was his mother, somehow, she had got out of the van, and got him out before the impact. What Xairin saw next in his dream baffled him. The vehicle that had crashed into them was right beside the van. A figure crawled out of the broken windshield. He saw the blurry man, run at his mother. She turned around, and kicked him in the throat, causing him to choke. He heard animal noises, roaring sounds. It looked like his mother was ripping the man’s arms off and beating him with his own limbs. He tried to crawl away the beast that was making those horrible noises. Xairin then realized it was his mother bellowing out those horrific screams. He recoiled as he turned his head away from whatever the thing was that used to be his mother. He then saw his father, crushed. Xairin screamed.

  He felt himself flipped over. A man he didn’t recognize was looking down at him now. The man put his right foot on Xairin’s throat and began applying pressure, forcing him to look upward as his breathing was halted. This man’s eyes weren’t human, they were reptilian. The yellow eyes with black slits down the center echoed into Xairin’s soul, filling him with fright. The man’s face began to burst into brown scales. Xairin shrieked a mumbled plea for help as his throat was slowly being crushed. He saw the man’s mouth open, as a forked tongue rolled out and two long fangs sprung forward like a rattle snake preparing to bite. A second later, the lizard man’s head was twisted around, as a woman, his mother, ripped its head upward from its shoulders. Xairin watched the body fall beside him, and begin twisting in convulsions, disintegrating into some strange steam filled puddle. This had to be a dream, some horrible nightmare. He looked up at his mother. She looked like a monster. Her black eyes looking down at him, with a profound sadness staring at him that seemed loving, yet predatory.

  Xairin heard a hissing from behind her. A woman had climbed out of the second vehicle. She too was becoming serpent like. Her hair was absorbing into her skin. Xairin gasped. He saw a long-forked tongue, reach out of her mouth like a chameleon reaching for a cricket on a limb, but the limb was his mother’s neck. He watched his mother struggle, grasping the eight-foot tongue while trying to break free. The silver hair sticks in her red hair, looked like pointed chopsticks. His mother reached for one of them, and flung it at the lizard woman’s face, her left eye socket caught the silver pin. A moment later the woman hissed as she slowly disintegrated on the solatex patterned road.

  Cecilia turned to Xairin. Her eyes were as black as coals, she had two fangs coming down from her medial incisors, she growled the words. “Xairin, get back!”

  The crash was in the middle of a busy intersection of automobiles. A truck that couldn’t stop, came plowing in, his mother didn’t see it coming by the time she heard the horn, it was too late. The next thing Xairin remembered was being on a stretcher, looking at the blood on the ground.

  Startled by this nightmare, Xairin’s green eyes opened for the first time since his attack. He drew his first new breath as his lungs came back online. His heart began beating again slowly and strong. He looked around the room, terrified. He had another night terror, only this time, he recalled it. His breathing was erratic. He was confused. He began ripping the pads off his chest, and the IV line in his left arm came out when he fell off the table. “Where…” His disoriented voice asked.

  Aaron had made it into the room right as Xairin fell off the table. A white medical droid was with him. Xairin was scared. “Where...?” He mumbled. It was as if he couldn’t say any other word yet.

  Doctor Battle tried to kneel down, but Xairin bolted backwards. His new muscle density propelled him with such force, he shoved himself back, forcing the table to slide across the room. “Where?” He mumbled again, sobbing.

  “Mr. Thunder?” Aaron tried to get out. Xairin looked from side to side, panicked. “Mir Thunder, you’re safe, you’re in the hospital, I need you to calm yourself.” That didn’t come out as assuring as Aaron wanted it too.

  Xairin stood up in a blink. His vision was still adjusting to the harsh light in the room. “Where am… I?” He whimpered.

  “Mr. Thunder, I ne
ed you to enhance your calm please, you’re in the hospital, please, calm down.”

  The droid approached Xairin before he had come to understand his surroundings. It put its hand on his shoulder trying to assure the man. Out of reflex, Xairin’s right hand reached out, and crushed the droid’s left arm at the forearm...

  The droid struggled, which only furthered Xairin’s frantic confused state. Claws burst from his fingernails and left five gashes in the droid’s face before he sent it flying. He heard the crash against the other side of the room. He then looked at his fingernails and screamed. The claws on his hand terrified him.

  Aaron had no choice but to run out of the room and press the hand print module to seal the door. Xairin was too confused to be reasoned with. He had no choice but to enter a sequence of commands to prompt the release of a nerve gas they had found effective in sedating the various immortals he had encountered into the room. The gas poured in through the vents above Xairin. Unfortunately for him, this only added to his terror, he thought he was still in a nightmare.

  Xairin saw the white vapor coming at him. He panicked again. He ran around the room, trying to find an exit door but couldn’t. He kept turning around, and watched the white mist come for him. All he could do now, was breathe it in. He coughed at first, and tumbled over, ripping the gown as it snared on the side of a desk. He hit the floor hard and began breathing slowly while his eyes fought the sting of the vapor, forcing them to finally close.

  Aaron let out a shaking breath as he slid down the white wall of the hallway. “FUCK!”

  Droids were sent in to collect Xairin and restrain him to a table with titanium clamps. Meanwhile, the others were just now beginning to twitch. None had awoken like Xairin did, they were healing slower.

  _____

  Day 2.

  Xairin slowly opened his eyes. He went to move but felt the restraints holding his arms down. The same was confining his legs, each joint had been restrained to keep him from moving. He was wearing the hospital gown again. He looked around the room as his vision came back to him, he still had no idea of where he was, but he was more cognizant now.

  Aaron Battle sat on top of a rolling chair, waiting on Xairin to wake up. When the blurry vision subsided, Xairin could make out the handsome man’s face. He could see the man was tired and hadn’t shaved in probably three days now. “Where. Am... I?” Xairin asked slowly.

  He was mildly sedated. “Where am I?”

  Aaron documented Xairin’s responses on a tablet as he entered them in on the touch screen. “Do you know your name?”

  Xairin seemed like he had trouble remembering it.

  “Can you tell me your name?” Aaron asked again.

  Xairin looked around the white room. He saw the monitoring equipment. He saw the wires leading to electrodes on his chest and temples. He noticed his heart rate on a screen beside him, it was beating slowly, 38 beats per minutes. His eyes were rapid in studying the room, the seemed to flutter before he finally answered. “Xairin. My name… It’s Xairin.”

  “Hello Xairin, I’m Doctor Aaron Battle, it's nice to meet you.”

  He wasn’t sure of himself, but he knew he was in a hospital room of some sort. Though the technology in the room was a bit more advanced compared to what he remembered from doing his first FNP job, that was before he realized he couldn’t handle working around too many people because of his sensitivity issues. “Where am I?”

  Aaron scooted his chair over and got a closer look into the man’s green eyes. “Mr. Thunder, you’re in a quarantine facility, site 8 to be exact. You’ve been here for over two months. You could say, you’ve been in a coma of some kind.”

  “A coma?” His raspy voice asked.

  Aaron nodded. “Yes. Do you remember anything at all before waking up here? This may come as a shock, but do you remember the club you were at two months ago. Do you remember the club you were at?”

  Xairin frowned while trying to recall what the man was asking. He closed his eyes for a moment. He remembered seeing a strobe light, and laser lights bouncing off the walls in purple beams, but that was it. “No, not really.” He mumbled. “Wait. Two months ago?”

  Aaron was a little pushy. “This may come as a bit of a shock. But, you’ve been incapacitated for 63 days. I know it's a lot to process, but if you can. I need you to try and think Mr. Thunder. You were at a club called The Haze. Do you remember anything about it?”

  Xairin’s head hurt thinking about it. He couldn’t recall anything other than the purple laser beams, and possible a drag queen in a ruby red dress, other than that, it was a blur. Aside from that, his face hinted at signs of shock. He tried to process what he was hearing. What came out was a stuttering reply. “No… Not really.”

  Aaron decided to push another question. “Do you remember being in a sewer Mr. Thunder? Something, biting you? Or being hurt?”

  Again, Xairin closed his eyes. He tried to think, but nothing was coming to him. “I’m sorry, but, I don’t know what you’re talking about sir.” His breathing hastened a bit. “Was I in a coma?”

  Aaron grew tired. “Not exactly. Look, two months ago, you were attacked. Abducted. Something happened to you after that, you don’t remember any of this?”

  The word abducted struck something. It forced Xairin to recall feeling like he was being crucified as two distinct grips held his arms. He quickly recalled the punches to the face. This caused his heart rate to spike up to 58. He tried to struggle. His breathing hastened more so. “Oh god… Oh... god.... they hit me… They hit me over and over. I... Xairin then remembered being raped by the glass bottle. He began to weep. “They…. Raped me….”

  Xairin tried to struggle free, but the clamps over his wrists and elbows prevented him from moving his arms. He tried to kick free, but the clamps over his ankles and knees were too snug. “Please, let me go. Just let me go, I promise I won't tell anyone, PLEASE LET ME GO!” He began reliving that terrifying moment.

  Aaron quickly increased the dosage of a blue fluid pumping into Xairin’s right arm through an IV line. Xairin shook, and sobbed, he couldn’t catch his breath while recalling the event. Once the drug took effect and slowed his mind down a bit, he started breathing normally. The look on his face however was another matter.

  “You’re safe Xairin. Calm down, enhance your calm, you’re in a medical facility, they can’t hurt you here. Calm down sir… Calm down.” Aaron said sternly.

  After five minutes the look on Xairin’s face drifted from horror to sadness. He looked at Aaron and stuttered. “I was raped, someone drugged me. I thought I was… dead.”

  The doctor seemed hesitant on answering that. “For a moment Mr. Thunder, you were dead. Or at least, a state resembling it. Do you remember what the man looked like that hurt you?”

  Xairin nodded, recalling Greg’s face. “I remember the one’s face, but the others with him, I never saw them. My vision was… too blurry.”

  Aaron sat back and sighed. “Jesus.”

  He tried to give Xairin a few more minutes before pressing forward. He needed to get to the grit of things, before parliament arrived. “Do you remember anything else after that? An animal attacking you?”

  Xairin shook his head, but a moment later, recalled seeing something white chewing on his arm. Xairin’s head looked at his right arm quickly. He didn’t see any scars or wounds, just flawless flesh. “Something… Something was biting me. I don't really remember.”

  Aaron scooted again, trying to lock eyes with Xairin. “After those men hurt you… An infected animal attacked you. A bat, an infected bat that, escaped a zoo near Bastion City. It infected you with something. Now I know this sounds fantastic, but I need you to listen carefully and try your best not to lose your calm. Can you do that?”

  Xairin shook his head up and down slowly while the deer in the headlight look washed across his face.

  “The comet, R-9… Some of it survived and crashed in various locations. The zoo for example. It was carrying an alien pathoge
n. One of the fragments that survived crash landed in that Zoo near Bastion city and released this organism. It infected the animal life, and many of them escaped. Some of them were vampire bats. Now this may sound crazy, but this alien organism, infused itself with those bats and transferred a new alienized hybrid strain when they bit you in that sewer into your bloodstream. You’re basically becoming a vampire Mr. Thunder.”

  Xairin began to laugh while tears streamed down his face. “Ok, someone pinch me. This is gotta to be a damn joke.”

  “I’m not joking Mr. Thunder. Your very DNA is changing as we speak. First it heals the infected subject, then other changes start to manifest. You’re going to lose your teeth, only to have them replaced by something that mimics teeth but isn't’ You’re going to be getting thirsty, no matter how much water you have to drink, they only thing that will make you feel any better is blood. Your entire physiology is being rewritten. Soon your digestive system won't even be able to tolerate anything solid, only blood. This is not a joke, you're changing Mr. Thunder.”