by Lim, Candice
“Don’t trust too soon,” warned Vaxine. “We don’t know what he is up to yet.”
“So we going or not?” A sigh dropped Sam’s chest.
“If we don’t go, what do we do?” I said.
Sam rolled his eyes and eased into the campus. The static sparked in the air as we trained our eyes at the surroundings. The car came to another abrupt stop in front of the Alpha Hall. Through the broken double glass door, the lights flickered in the foyer.
“Someone has broken in,” said Axon.
“Or out.” Mandy arched her brow.
Armed with Zappers, we hopped out of the car and stood before the once majestic Alpha Hall, now in a state of mess. Bloodstains on the walls and windows. It looked like an outbreak happened not long ago. The metallic stench of guts and body fluids still rank in the air.
When we climbed up the steps to the door, body parts dotted over the floor.
I suppressed the urge to throw up.
“I don’t even want to imagine what happened here.” Mandy shifted closer to the group.
As I wrestled to grapple with the reality of what happened, my thought went to Ronin. I groped for my phone to call him but only the beeping dial tone answered. My fear for him swelled in my chest. We had lost so many allies. We couldn’t afford to lose Ronin as well. “We have to find Ronin!” I shouted to the group.
“If he’s still alive,” mumbled Axon.
My mind pulsed with all sorts of possibilities, churning my stomach. My thought went back to the time when I visited Ronin’s room. “I don’t understand. How could this have happened? ANNUS is a maximum security facility that covers every emergency. The recruits wore some metal bracelets that would have been detected by the MagnaWalls.”
“Maybe it’s an inside job,” remarked Axon.
“Things aren’t looking up. We should find out what happened here. Let’s go to the control center.” Vaxine turned around to us. “You guys have been here before? If so, lead the way.”
Axon and Mandy traded glances, then he shrugged. “You guys are calling the shots.”
Sam’s eyes glued to the tablet while his fingers furiously tapped away. “All the cameras are offline. I can’t access them. Well, we’ll have to grope in the dark then.” Pocketing his tablet away, he looked around and picked up a rusty crowbar.
Vaxine glanced between us, waiting for either to step up. The urgency gnawing inside me catapulted my feet forward. My head spun quickly from all the possibilities and the choking stench.
I had the blueprint of the Alpha Hall tattooed in the back of my mind. Like I had been programmed with an internal compass. Perhaps, the asymptomatic Infected like Hershey felt the same way.
“Be careful, bro.” Mandy followed behind me. Then, Vaxine and Sam. Axon took the rear.
I gripped the Zappers in my hands, sweat rising from my palms. The static in the air emanating from our skins bristled my hairs.
The air became thinner in the hallway. Every breath became labor.
“Hey!” A high-pitched voice ringing through the empty corridor put a stop on our tracks. We glanced around and cued at each other we weren’t alone.
Axon stepped forth first. “Who is that?” His loud voice echoed off the walls.
A lab coat-clad man crawled out of a door in the hallway, jolting us few steps back. My heart lurched with hope for Ronin, but he happened to be another lab rat. His face and lab coat streaked with blood.
Mandy and I traded glances, then Mandy aimed her Zapper in his direction. “Who are you?”
“I’m a lab tech.” The groveling man’s face was stoned with fear. “Please don’t shoot me.”
“What happened here?” Vaxine stepped forth.
“There has been an accident in Zeta Hall,” muttered the lab tech. “Some National Service recruits had been contracted with the virus. We didn’t know how that happened. They were asymptomatic. About an hour ago, they suddenly turned. As if the viruses in their brains could communicate with one another.”
“It be like that sometimes,” said Mandy.
“I thought the facility is secured. How did that happen?” I asked.
“The protocols are designed for when the Infected are inside the confinement, not outside.” The lab tech spluttered. “Please…help me. I’m going to die. Call the ambulance.”
No one moved a muscle. Glances traded. Everybody waiting for the other person to do something.
“Alright, I’ll call.” Mandy reached out for her phone when a hunch twisted in my gut. My thought immediately sprang back to the Underlab where everything had all started.
“Wait!” I cried out, grabbing onto Mandy’s arm.
“He’s dying!” cried Mandy.
My gaze passed between Mandy and the dying lab tech.
“It would be too late to save him if he didn’t get to the hospital any sooner, but something’s amiss.”
Mandy rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone to call when I retrieved the Sequencer Gun Ronin got me and shot at him.
“Argh!” The man squealed in horror pain. “Father of Science! What on earth are you doing?”
“The right thing,” I muttered to myself.
Mandy’s eyes widened instantly. “What did you do―?”
My tablet beeped. ‘97.98% match with Cranax. Novel strain found. Register strain to database? Y/N?’
The fear tickling in my chest rose into a panic. “He is an Infected.”
The next split second, the lab tech’s eyes turned crimson red and threatened to burst out of his skull. The venomous veins cobwebbed over every inch of his skin fueling the cells in his body. He flew to his feet and launched himself in our direction. “ARGGHH!”
Paralyzed with shock, my feet rooted to the ground. Time expanded and everything slowed down before my eyes as the Infected gained at me. Diseased jagged nails cut through the air and aiming at my neck. The blind gaze drilled into my soul. It ripped out a horrendous cry and collapsed at my feet.
My eyes fell on the body spasming on the ground. A hole formed on the chest of the lab coat where a tendril of smoke wisped out and fused with the particles in the air. The body continued to jitter for a few seconds before life seeped out of him.
When the body stilled as the air, the reality sank in and filled me with fear. It could’ve been me who fell dead on the ground.
Axon cussed and lowered his Zapper. “Blot my gel. You can’t trust anybody nowadays.”
“I can’t imagine what would have happened if he got to the hospital.” Sam wrapped his arms around himself.
“That’s the plan. He tried to trick us into sending him to the hospital,” I said.
“Father of Science. I’m so sorry.” Mandy’s face was etched with guilt. She pocketed her phone.
“We should keep moving.” Vaxine stepped up and led the way. Her footsteps rang with urgency and echoed through the corridor.
I patted Mandy on the shoulders, and we followed suit.
In less than a minute, we found the door to the control room. Vaxine grabbed and turned the knob. When the door sprang open, all five raised our weapons, ready to shoot whatever jumped out. The vacant room had nothing save for the snowing multiscreen that gave off a dim light.
Vaxine groped for the switch and turned on the lights. Axon entered last. He peeked into the corridor and closed the door behind him.
Right on cue, Sam got to work. Vaxine went to help him. Their fast fingers tapping on the keyboard filled the air.
Flanking each side of the door with their arms over their chests, Mandy and Axon kept guard.
Sam and Vaxine spoke in foreign terms, so I retreated to the corner and sat down to look at the tablet. The message box popped up, so I typed Y to register the new strain to the database. I didn’t want to see the same message pop up every time I shot an unsuspecting target. Plus, it would be handy to crunch the virus phylogenetic data and connect the dots of their origin.
&nb
sp; “We’re in.” Vaxine snapped her fingers to catch our attention. The rest hovered over the screen in front of Sam and Vaxine where it showed the footage of a laboratory in Zeta Hall. When I recognized some faces, a sick feeling rose in the pit of my stomach.
I stepped back into the group with my hand over my mouth. Bile rose in my throat when a recruit pipetting some liquid into a tube keeled over clutching his guts. The other recruits and the ATP agents hovered around him, checking him out. My heart pounded in my chest at the muted activity taking place before my eyes.
Though expected, my stomach lurched when the first recruit snapped his head up and launched himself at the ATP agent. The other recruits flew apart and headed for the locked door where they thumped desperately.
Sam switched between a few other cameras. All the same gruesome scenes of Infected chewing the heads of their victims off. No sign of Ronin.
I turned away, grateful for the lack of sound. I wouldn’t have thought a few weeks ago, these people would be dead now.
My thought went to Armani. I snatched the control from Sam and switched the cameras to Alpha Hall. My stomach dropped at the same scene of the mindless Infected mauling their victims' heads off. I frantically searched for a familiar face. The blood ran cold in my veins when I found Armani. He ran towards the staircase when an Infected pounced on him and the screen went black.
“I think we’ve got an idea.” Vaxine switched off the monitor.
A full minute of silence hung over the control room. The reality sank in us. Armani Ng, my best friend and lab mate I’d known since I set foot in CU had left the world forever. It felt like yesterday when I met him at ANNUS.
“It’s over,” muttered Sam, certain displeasure in his voice. All heads turned in his direction. “Whoever behind this, they have won. We have lost to them. There’s nothing more we can do.”
I shook my head in disbelief and defeat. The hopelessness brewing in my chest grew so indisputably massive. Armani died. Ronin, the only person who knew my parents’ whereabouts, could fall to the infection. I wanted to cry but my tears dried out.
“No, we cannot give up.” Vaxine slammed her fist on the table. “We have come so far. We’re the only people who have a clue what’s going on here. We cannot give up and walk away. What are we gonna do? Sit at home waiting for the end of the world to come?”
“What else can we do now?” Exasperation heavy in Sam’s voice. “The world we’ve always now is crumbling down. All the people behind Project Cranax are dead. It’s over.”
“We are still alive,” Vaxine clamored with an air of confidence. “As long as we’re still breathing, there is hope. As long as we’re fighting, we are not lost yet. If we are the only survivors left in the Community, it becomes our duty to protect the nation and bring it back to its glory. That is what it means to be a member of the Community.” When Vaxine had said the last part, she reminded me of Hershey.
Sam rolled his eyes and turned away. “And what do you have in mind now?”
“We might have to start from the beginning. We go back to Hershey’s lab to get some rest and see what we can do from there.” Vaxine’s eyes passed between us in turn.
Axon nodded. “Vaxine is right. We have come too far. We can’t give up now. The burden of restoring the nation is on us. In reason we trust.”
Mandy smiled. “In reason we trust.”
Sam’s gaze interlocked with mine, his eyes betrayed his unhappiness. He had tirelessly been by my side since the beginning of the pandemic, hoping for the day when this would all be over, and we would go back to our old life. My thoughts flitted to the summer in Whiteshore with Sam.
I sucked in a deep breath, expunged all the thoughts of Whiteshore, and turned to Vaxine. “In reason we trust.” My heart withered when Sam’s face fell.
I hardened my heart, knowing I did the right thing for us.
2
RONIN
The metal door cranked open. The column of light pierced the abyss. The only thing other than the dull ache in Ronin Yamashita’s skull that convinced him he wasn’t dead. With his remaining strength, he forced himself on his feet and glared at the silhouette at the door.
The shadows in the room differentiated into gray shades, revealing he had been in a cell, location unknown. The last place he remembered had been the conference room.
The silhouette walked into the light, revealing the half-smirk. President Professor Peyton’s voice reverberated through the walls. “Well, well, look who we have here. Professor Ronin, I bet you’ve never even dreamed of being in this position, have you?”
Though the anger pulsated through his veins, he knew it would have been unwarranted. It wasn’t the President talking. Rather the mastermind behind Project Hive Mind, controlling him through the Cranax virus in his head.
“Quillon, I know you’re behind this!” cried Ronin. “Let’s cut all the red tape!”
Peyton let out a contemptuous laugh. “You are too quick to point your fingers. How positive are you your dear old friend is behind this?”
Ronin’s glare burned into Peyton’s except he wasn’t the President anymore. In his head, his face had been replaced with Quillon Riley, Ronin’s ex-best buddy and colleague. Though their fields of study had been worlds apart, their mutual principles and loyalty to the Community brought them together.
When Ronin had got his first PhD, Quillon Riley, his junior by a year, began his third in ANNUS. Ronin, a golden graduate, took a backseat in ANNUS when Quillon’s faces graced the university’s advertisements, replacing his long-held glory. In no time, Quillon rose to fame in academia, crediting to his humorous and at times charming demeanors―the total opposite of Ronin’s serious aura.
Their paths crossed during Ronin’s third PhD when Quillon had come for him for help. Partly flattered by his request and partly intrigued to pick his brains, Ronin decided to meet him. But he never expected Quillon to invite him for an adventure that changed his life forever.
Ronin still remembered that fateful day like yesterday. On a Tuesday afternoon, about thirty years ago when they had met in a meeting room in the campus library Quillon had pre-booked.
They sat on the opposite long ends of the table when Quillon, notorious for his eccentricity, handed him a BotDog. Ronin frowned at him.
“It’s a small gift for you.”
“Thanks for your kind thoughts, Quillon. But I’m not into robotic pets.”
“It’s not an ordinary gift, Ronin. It’s the whole reason why I’ve invited you out.”
Ronin arched his brow, second-guessing his intention.
Ronin had worked his arse off to get into this prestigious university, he wasn’t going to throw it all out because of a foolish adventure. “Spill the tea.”
A mischievous grin quirked up the corner of Quillon’s lips. “I’ve worked with artificial intelligence since I learned to walk. My folks bought me lots of toys to keep me company as an only child. No matter how good your imagination is, they can’t replace sentient and self-governing friends and siblings, so I’ve done some modifications to them.”
Ronin arched his brow when Quillon pulled out his phone and showed him an old photo of a boy holding a teddy bear. He believed the kid had been Quillon. He had the same quirky grin.
“Don’t I look handsome?” Quillon laughed. “I’m kinda smart too. That is my first friend, Teddy. I’m not very creative with names. He became the first toy I’ve given life to. Using parts from my robotic toys, I turned it into a walking, talking friend with the mind of his own.”
Ronin’s brows crumpled. “Your folks knew about this?”
“Yeah, they did.”
“And they didn’t think of taking you to see someone?”
“Oh, of course. They took me to see a family friend working in the field. I got a summer internship out of it.”
Ronin regarded him cautiously. “And what’s the reason you have come to me?”
Quillon took a
deep breath, his face suddenly serious. Ronin didn’t think he could be this serious. “You see, my whole life, I’ve been trying to give life to non-living objects. Toys, robotic pets, you name them. The novelty is wearing off. I’m craving for a fresh twist.”
Ronin leaned in. “And what is this fresh twist you speak of?”
The playful expression returned. “I’ve done some research. Scientists have been manipulating the genetics of living things around them for centuries. I believe I shouldn’t have to explain further since it’s your forte.”