by E S Richards
Instead she listened carefully to what was going on outside her curtained wall. It sounded dramatic whatever it was and when Zahyra heard the words two gunshot victims she realised how dramatic it really was. Surely no one would have been shot inside the safe haven, which meant this had to be the result of people going outside the facility.
From what she’d learned so far that narrowed the victims down to the red band: soldiers, or the green band: scavengers. From the details of a gunshot wound being inflicted – two actually – Zahyra narrowed down her suspicions even further and assumed there were two red banded people receiving treatment.
Shouts continued throughout the medical area and Zahyra listened intently, trying to garner any information about what had happened. Unfortunately everything that was said pertained to medical information, perhaps unsurprisingly, so instead Zahyra listened to Grant and a handful of other medics trying to stem the bleeding and various other medical terms.
One of the victims sounded much worse off than the other. Zahyra learned that the bullet was still inside them and had maybe ricocheted around in their chest or something similar. Zahyra thought back to things she had learned from books or been taught in her very basic self defence classes and she thought that meant the bullet had broken apart inside of the victim. If her guesses were correct it was indeed a very serious problem and Zahyra worried for the fate of whoever had been hit.
As the more serious victim was wheeled away for surgery – the second victim sounding like a fairly straightforward fix – Zahyra puzzled over what could have happened to them. She assumed they were with the red band due to them being shot, but realised that as the wounds were likely the work of advanced mutants outside the safe haven’s boarders they could have struck anyone down. She remembered her father telling her he went out on scouting missions for his scientific experiments, so Zahyra really had no idea who could have been caught outside the facility.
They would have had a guard though, whoever it was, and the explanation for the shoot out was still a mystery to Zahyra. Later that evening however, she got her answer.
In all the drama of the day a medic had only checked on Zahyra once, and it hadn’t been Grant. She’d feigned sleep when she heard them approaching, allowing them to believe she was still unconscious from the operation. She wasn’t sure why she decided to do that, but wanted to resist seeing Heather, or Professor Welbeck, or her father for as long as possible. Being unconscious was definitely an easy way to achieve that.
The more seriously wounded gunshot victim hadn’t returned to the medical area as far as Zahyra was aware. Although she had drifted into sleep a few more times as the day dragged on. She figured it was late into the evening when her explanation of what had happened came, her timekeep having been removed during her operation. Victim number two – the more straightforward fix – was in the bed opposite Zahyra, so she was in a great position to hear the whole exchange.
“Lieutenant.”
“General.”
It was the formalities that brought Zahyra into focus, realising that someone of rank had entered the medical area. From how they addressed one another Zahyra realised her first suspicion of the victims being from the red band was correct and she propped herself up slightly on her pillows to listen in.
“What happened out there?”
There was a rustling of bed sheets, indicating the gunshot victim was about to give their explanation and Zahyra held her breath.
“It started off like any other trade General. The report came in yesterday that they’d captured a Zero, a young girl apparently. So we set off at 0600h today.”
Zahyra furrowed her brow. Why was the safe haven getting reports from people outside capturing Zero’s? The only group she knew on the outside world that hunted Zero’s were the more advanced mutants, but they did it so they could kill them. Wipe them off the face of the planet so the genetic mutations continued to evolve and thrive.
Why would anyone be capturing Zero’s to hand them over to the safe haven? Zahyra shook her head and continued to listen, wary about missing any important details.
“The black band was really pushing for it last night. They say they’ve got one in T128 at the moment, but that a second would exponentially speed up their process. As a result we…” the gunshot victim, who Zahyra could now discern was a woman paused, “we didn’t carry out all the proper protocol. They wanted us out as soon as possible so we didn’t have time to complete a thorough recce. I take full responsibility for that General, I am at fault.”
The General mumbled something under his breath that Zahyra couldn’t make out but her mind was in shock. They were definitely out searching for Zero’s, looking for someone to join her on T128. The big question was who were they trading with? Was there another safe haven set up somewhere else that Zahyra didn’t know about?
For a second a horrible thought flashed through her mind that this wasn’t the safe haven at all and she had been led to a false destination. She panicked for a moment, before being grounded as the injured woman across from her continued to speak.
“Five of us, only three of them initially. We exited the vehicle following protocol but straight away I could tell something wasn’t right. All three of them got out, but they left the rear doors closed so we couldn’t see if the child was with them. As we spoke another group of them jumped us from behind. They outnumbered us more than two to one and managed to get to our weapons package before we could cover it. It was chaos after that, bullets flying everywhere. They had some strong mutations too. Throwing fire and flying around above our heads. We couldn’t get to the case so only had our guns. It was an ambush. Roffe, Morley and McGuire were all down in seconds. We had to fall back. And then well, you know the rest…”
The woman trailed off and silence descended over the medical area, save for the constant beeping of machinery.
“How many were there?” Zahyra heard the General ask quietly.
“I’d guess at twelve, no more than fifteen. But they just appeared out of nowhere. It was definitely planned. We drove straight into a mutant ambush.”
Zahyra gasped and then quickly clamped a hand over her mouth, hoping neither of the soldiers had heard her. Whether she had meant to or not the injured woman had given Zahyra the answer she’d been waiting for. The safe haven was trading for Zero’s. With advanced mutants.
She let her head fall back on the pillow as it sunk in. It went against everything she thought she knew about the more developed mutants in the outside world. She had always been told they hunted Zero’s to kill them and surely, that was what they were going to do with Asher as well. Maybe it wasn’t all mutant groups, just a select few that had been selected by the safe haven. Whatever the reasoning it didn’t seem right.
From everything she knew about the safe haven they were strictly against any of the mutants beyond Gen 3. Aside from the exception of creating a New-Wave in the form of Asher, but that was the only case where Zahyra had heard of anything to do with more developed mutants. If the safe haven did in fact have a deal with advanced mutants on the outside that was yet another reason not to trust them. And the reasons were racking up fast.
“How’s Tim?” Zahyra heard the woman continue and propped herself up to listen again.
“I’m sorry,” the General replied. “He didn’t make it through surgery.”
There was another blanket of silence throughout the medical area and Zahyra realised that Tim must have been the other soldier who returned earlier. That other woman was lucky to still be alive by the sounds of it and Zahyra heard a few sobs escape her as she heard the news about her final dead teammate.
Zahyra closed her eyes as all the information washed over her, doing her best to make sense of it all. The safe haven was clearly working with some advanced mutants on the outside, with their aim being to gather up more Zero’s like her.
Zahyra remembered what she had overheard between Heather and Professor Welbeck several days ago about them weaponizing whate
ver she was inadvertently helping them to create. Was everyone else in the safe haven aware of this true cause, or were there a select few working off their own agenda? Zahyra sighed inwardly as she realised there was no one she could trust, no one she could ask for an explanation.
Another question that frightened her was where Asher fit into everything. She still had no idea what differences his new Gen 6 mutation had given him. Was he going insane in one of the rooms, breaking down like Cain did when he lost control of himself? The thought brought tears to her eyes and she struggled to remain quiet, still aware of the two soldiers just a few feet away from her.
The General said his farewells to the woman shortly after giving her the news about Tim. She was still crying softly as the General’s footsteps disappeared out of the room, leaving Zahyra to process everything she had heard.
But try as she might she just couldn’t wrap her head around it. The conversation between the soldiers went against everything she was already beginning to believe about the safe haven. Kicking herself she accepted that she had been slowly buying into their propaganda, without even realising it.
T128, Asher’s mutation, her father’s work. It was all part of some bigger plan that she couldn’t even begin to make sense of. Zahyra half considered climbing out of her bed and demanding answers from the gunshot victim lying opposite her, but knew any more deviances from the safe haven’s rules wouldn’t end well. She was cutting it close as it was; being very lucky she hadn’t been discovered that morning in her father’s lab.
As she thought of her father Zahyra found it odd he hadn’t come to visit her. He must have been made aware of the complication with her bone marrow procedure and yet, despite how much he claimed to care and love her, he was nowhere to be seen.
Her dislike for the man grew in that moment. Not that she wanted him by her side, but because it confirmed to her what she had really hoped would not be true. His true loyalty lay with the safe haven, not with his children. She should have accepted it already from what he did to Asher but there had been a small part of her hoping and praying that he did still care about her. Now that small part was extinguished and she truly meant the words she had said to him before. He wasn’t her family, not anymore. But she did have a family somewhere, part of it very close by.
She had to find Asher. Time was running out by the sounds of things and Zahyra didn’t want to be inside the safe haven when the mutants who had attacked the red band today came even closer. They could have easily followed Tim and the woman back to the facility and if they knew even half of what was inside they wouldn’t stop at trying to claim it. Even with the impressive array of weapons Heather had shown her Zahyra doubted they could stand up to an angry hoard of developed mutants.
Zahyra kicked at the blanket laying over in frustration. It was all well and good promising herself over and over that she was going to rescue Asher and then break out of the safe haven. But all her attempts so far had resulted in her either being locked in her room, or in a hospital bed – although that last part wasn’t exactly her fault.
All the talk of mutants made her heart long for Cain as well. If he was there with her he would have a plan, she just knew it. But she didn’t even know if he was alive, let alone where he was. Her mind was filled with an image of his face and she watched it longingly, hoping that wherever Cain was he was safe and she would see him again one day.
Chapter 16
Cain crouched low in the treeline, his gun held tightly in his hand. It had taken him days to reach this point and although he didn’t agree with what was about to happen he knew he had to go ahead with it.
Three of his teammates, he shuddered to call them that, had already parked up their SUV and were waiting inside it. They were about one hundred meters away from him, a distance easily covered at a quick sprint. There were five other mutants hidden in cover beside him and several more dotted around the perimeter. In reality Cain knew he was lucky to be included in this party, but he was also fully aware that how he performed today would be a test and several pairs of eyes would be watching him closely.
As the second SUV drove around the corner into view he crouched even lower, making sure he wouldn’t be detected in his hiding place. Murmurs circulated the forest around him but very quickly fell silent as everyone watched the second vehicle draw to a halt.
It stopped about two car lengths in front of his parties’ and then three soldiers climbed out, each wearing matching grey uniforms. All three mutants in Cain’s party’s SUV climbed out afterwards, leaving the backdoors closed and the false cargo hidden.
Two of the safe haven soldiers stepped forward, their hands casually on their guns as they exchanged a few words with the mutants. Then a low whistle ran out through the treeline where Cain was hiding and he sprung into action.
Keeping low he ran across the desert wasteland towards the two SUVs, aiming for the one driven by the safe haven’s team. He reached it quickly, third in the line of mutants who had also been hidden with him. Silently the two mutants who were in front of him reached through the back window and snapped the necks of the two soldiers who had remained in the vehicle. Both of them completely unaware of their impending deaths.
Then chaos ensued. They flung back the weapons that had been carried in the vehicle, intended as a trade for the Zero the mutant party had lied about finding. Cain grabbed a handful of guns and started handing them out, more mutants appearing from their hiding places at different points of the desert. One grabbed a pair of automatic rifles from Cain before staring him dead in the eyes and then flying into the sky above him. Cain steeled himself then spun around into the battle, firing his gun menacingly into the air above the heads of the soldiers.
The soldier who had remained just outside the vehicle had caught hold of the ambush quickly and warned her companions, each of them now standing with their weapons drawn. There was a moment of silence, just after Cain had fired his gun and then bullets began raining through the sky.
He hung back behind the vehicle, using the rear of it for cover with two other mutants as they fired haphazardly around the SUV. Already another of the soldiers had fallen, along with two from Cain’s mutant party. The remaining two had found pretty good cover, sealing themselves in between the car doors of the SUV, their bodies partly inside so they were protected from almost every angle.
Cain ducked as a bullet ricocheted off the roof of the SUV just above his head, the mutants standing behind him not being so lucky and falling heavily to the ground. Cain knew he was going to have to make more of an impact if he wanted to be accepted into their party so grabbed the gun from the fallen mutant and brandished it next to his own.
He fired both simultaneously. One at the car door protecting the female soldier from him, the other wildly into the air as covering fire. He expended both magazines quickly and ducked low behind the rear of the SUV, searching the bag that had been dropped onto the ground for a new clip.
“Grenade!” He heard someone yell and pressed closer to the ground, his arms covering his head. The force of the explosion shook the SUV behind him and he felt the sand on the ground fly up into the air. Reacting quickly however he slammed the new magazine into his gun and spun around. The woman was now in the driving seat of the SUV, a male companion slumped lifelessly beside her.
Cain heard her struggling to start the engine and drew his gun, aiming at her through the door that now hung off its hinges.
“Fire!” He heard another of the mutants yell at him just as the vehicle sprung into life. He adjusted his sights, aiming for the woman’s side so it would look like a near fatal blow, but if she got back to the safe haven in time she would survive.
Then he squeezed the trigger, the bullet flying out of his gun and finding his target square and true, despite the jerky movements of the vehicle. Other members of the mutant party expended a few more rounds after that, but the vehicle soon rounded a corner and disappeared from view.
“Cease fire!” The commander of the mutan
t party ordered loudly. “We didn’t come for these weapons just to waste all the ammo!”
The rest of the mutants obeyed his orders, setting their guns down and checking the magazines for remaining bullets. The mutant who had been flying ahead, and who Cain realised had been the one to drop the grenade floated down in front of him.
“Not bad first timer,” he quipped at Cain as he landed, “could’ve landed a better shot on that driver though.”
“Her driving was terrible,” Cain quickly retorted, “messed up my sights.”
The flying mutant said nothing to Cain’s response, moving over to the commander and whispering something in his ear. The commander nodded, climbing halfway into the driving seat of his SUV and then looked over at Cain.
He dropped his gaze immediately, moving towards the bag of weapons and repacking what had fallen out of it. Once he sensed the commander had stopped looking at him he jogged over to the SUV, depositing the bag on the back seat. Three other mutants quickly pushed it to the floor, climbing in and claiming the free seats.
“Back to base,” the commander shouted at the mutants who remained outside the SUV, then put his foot on the gas and drove off, skirting around the edge of the treeline and out of view.
Cain looked at the mutants who remained with him. With five in the vehicle and four of them dead only two others were left to make the journey back on foot with him. They both looked to each other and then back to Cain before picking up their weapons and jogging after the SUV, not bothering to acknowledge his presence as a new member of the group.
Cain sighed and flung his gun over his shoulder, tightening the straps that held it there before jogging after them. It was about a half hour run back to the mutant’s base camp, but Cain was thankful for the time to himself to think. To make sure he was certain about what he was getting himself into – or rather, what he had already got himself into.