Evie took a deep breath and pushed away the feeling of being overwhelmed as she began to share her history with America and everything she knew to people who actually wanted to listen to her. She wasn’t trying to get funding for experiments, she wasn’t trying to piece the fabrics of everything together. She was sharing part of history that they had never heard before, and it felt good to finally be able to talk to people who wanted to listen.
‘When Galen’s grandfather closed America’s borders it was so he could start an extensive genetic testing programme,’ she started. ‘There are stories of how a craft landed in a town called Roswell during the 1940s and that’s where alien DNA originally came from but no one can know for certain. What we do know is that the American government was taking DNA samples from its citizens as early as vaccinations were in place.’
‘To what end?’ McCord asked.
‘So they could build a database,’ Evie said. ‘A catalogue of information on the American people so when our DNA could be fused with that of alien DNA, scientists would know what genome would be successful, they would know what blood types were needed, what type of human would succeed the best. Anyone who didn’t fit the profile for success were people who could be killed.’ A wave of shame came over Evie as she spoke. She had been a scientist, she had studied how the genome worked in humans and in Genics and had provided Galen’s government with statistics that would help them continue the evolution of Genic powers. She had been no better than the scientists that had come before her and created this mess. She took a hard gulp and continued. ‘A base called Volt was established when Washington D.C. was destroyed as a new headquarters for the government. There was land in the state of Maine that they could use but the geography spanned as far as New York. Originally it was supposed to provide sanctuary during the attacks and people went there of their own free will but once they were inside, no one was allowed to leave. A network of barracks had been created, along with jails, training grounds and chambers.’
Evie saw a few people tense at the mention of chambers and she looked over to Sinclair. ‘During the second world war Hitler used chambers to kill Jews,’ she explained.
Evie had read of Hitler in one of her banned school books but hadn’t thought what she had read was true, when she had been caught she had been told by her teachers it had been nothing more than a bad story made by the government. It had just been another lie. ‘Well, Galen used these chambers to kill American people. He must have gotten the idea from Hitler.’
People squirmed in the seat, Evie didn’t know the full extent of the history the same way they did, but she was getting the sense that this Hitler person must have been as bad as Galen.
‘There’s one thing I don’t understand,’ McCord said. ‘How did the experiments result in you being able to do what you can do? You have powers that no human can dream of, how can that be simply because of an experiment?’
Evie flinched as she remembered all the times she was tested on, the times she spent locked up in a lab while they conducted their experiments on her. ‘The experiments weren’t simple blood transfusions,’ she said. ‘They started as early as a foetus is created. An unborn child is taken from the mother’s womb and placed in canisters. They’re injected with alien DNA and left to gestate until they are newborn. We were given then to other Genics who raised us as their own children, we were given some sense of family but it wasn’t real. It was so that the scientists could take us when they wanted. They would cut us open, they would find new ways to fuse our genetic makeup with whatever they found that they believed was alien. Our powers come from the aliens because we are as much a part of them as we are human.’
As Evie said the words they hit her harder than she had expected. What she had believed for years but had been too afraid to admit was now undeniable. Genics had wanted to be treated like humans for so long but they never could be, because they weren’t wholly humans. She wasn’t like the people she was sat around the room with. She was advanced, she was the next evolution of the human race and that’s how they were going to win the war. Galen’s methods may have been sardonic, but they had known back then what was going to be needed to survive the alien take over. Humans weren’t going to win this war. Genics were.
Chapter Thirteen
Night had fallen by the time that they had arrived. The Hercules C4 plane landed on the dusty runway and as she looked out of the window, Hawk could see the two white orbs glowing in the distance, nestled amongst the corn crop.
She looked over to Polskin and Walker who were sat opposite her, they looked out of place in this military place, with their well-pressed suits and finely groomed appearance. Government men weren’t military leaders, they just liked to think that they were. ‘Are you sure coming here was the right thing to do?’ Polskin asked through the microphone.
Hawk scowled at being questioned, ‘A war is about to break out, and if we can combat it with biowarfare then I say that this is exactly where we should be.’
She looked over to the back of the plane where they had loaded Galen’s body. Her chest rose faintly and the rhythmic beeping from the machines had managed to keep her stable during the flight from Volt.
The plane came to a land with a shake and lurched to a halt. Hawk rose to her feet as soon as she could unbuckle the safety harness they had been strapped into and she went to check on Galen.
‘Ma’am?’ She was aware of the tentativeness in her voice as she spoke.
Galen looked over to her, her lips were dry and cracked, her face shallow and her eyes grey and losing the life they once had. ‘Where have you brought me?’ She rasped.
‘I’ve brought you back to the beginning,’ she said. ‘Where it all started.’
Galen’s eyes widened. ‘Why?’ She asked, her voice was barely audible now. Once so powerful, it was now just a shadow of what it once was. Hawk’s heart was starting to pound and the small voice inside her that she tried to silence was getting louder. She had done this to her leader, she had reduced another human being to something that was clinging onto life. Memories tried to seep through, the times when Hawk and Galen had been at the pinnacle of their relationship when things had ebbed and flowed in a way Hawk had never experienced before. Galen had mentored her in ways she could have only dreamed of, and this is what she was doing in return. Hawk quickly dismissed the voice and made it quiet again.
‘Because you can help end it,’ Hawk tried to mask any empathy in her voice. ‘You can help end this war once and for all, by destroying them.’
‘General Hawk?’ Polskin quickly sat back in her seat as Hawk shot him a look and strode over to him. ‘President Hawk?’ He corrected and Hawk let her muscles relax a little. They would learn eventually, or she would kill them if they didn’t.
‘Get her to the chamber and to Molanger, he’ll want her while she still has life in her.’
‘This is treason,’ Walker exclaimed.
‘This is what we have to do to survive,’ Hawk hissed. ‘And you work for me now, so do what I say and get her to the chamber.’
She walked to the end of the plane and jumped down through the open hatch. The smell of corn drifted across the breeze and she was almost dwarfed by the size of her surroundings. A man wearing a hazmat suit came over to her with a helmet tucked under one arm. He was an elderly gentleman, his fine white hair was illuminated in the moonlight and as he approached Hawk could see more wrinkles had appeared under his eyes but when they embraced it was like he was the man he had always been. When they pulled away, Jeremiah Hawk beamed at her.
‘It’s been far too long my girl,’ he said.
‘I know father,’ Hawk almost couldn’t look at him, the sense of always wanting to apologise for something grasped at her, although she never knew what it was that she should be apologising for. ‘Things have been…busy,’ she said.
‘So I hear,’ he said. ‘Did you bring her with you as I asked?’
‘I did, she’s being taken to the chamber,’ she said and
saw Jeremiah look over her shoulder. When she turned she saw Galen’s body and machines being wheeled out of the plane.
‘It’s sad in a way,’ Jeremiah said. ‘She’s been your ally for so long, raised you when I couldn’t and is part of this country’s history. We shouldn’t be doing what you’ve proposed.’
‘If there was any other way I would choose it,’ Hawk said. ‘But she’s dying, would be dead if it wasn’t for the machines. The Fox girl did this to her, but it would be wrong of us not to try and use it to our advantage.’
She watched as her father studied her for a moment. ‘And you want to assume the role of the Presidency?’ He asked her. ‘You know what that entails?’
‘I do,’ Hawk said, answering both questions. ‘For years I have seen the Galen regime run this country to the ground, after the Blast they didn’t restore us to our rightful place of power, instead they cared only about building their own futures, about segregation and civil war. And where has it gotten us?’ She asked. ‘We’re about to be invaded by a source more powerful than we can comprehend and we have nothing to fight back with.’
‘That might be where you’re wrong,’ Jeremiah said with a glint in his eye. ‘Come with me, I’ll show you some of our developments.’
Hawk followed her father through the corn and to the chambers. She admired how he knew every sinew of this place, every turn, every person who worked there. He had been here from the beginning, at the dawn of Genic creation and as much as Hawk loved her father, she also had learned to fear him and what he could do. Like most great men, his heart was often left behind so he could do the work that others refused.
Jeremiah led her to the bright white orbs and as they walked into the small foyer, Hawk looked through the small window on the door. She could see rows and rows of women all on operating trolleys. All unconscious and being held down by wire netting. Hawk gulped at the sight but quickly composed herself. ’The trial is continuing?’ She asked.
‘The trial was a success,’ Jeremiah said. ‘The removal of reproductive organs from female specimens, mixed with the alien genome to grow new life has been the way of the world now for decades. Each generation grows stronger, and soon you will have an army that cannot be beaten.’
Hawk didn’t say anything and her father led her to a door that had metallic steps leading down to darkness below. The air cooled at the entrance to the chambers, as Hawk walked behind her father she thought of the women above them. The lives they would have had and the lives they would have after. She had always known about the tests, of course, that much had never eluded her, but seeing it up close was different.
She pushed the thought away, emotion wasn’t going to help her in this situation.
When they reached the bottom of the stairwell, Hawk saw that they were at the edge of rows and rows of large green tinted canisters. Jeremiah led her down the side of them and when Hawk stopped to look at one she stepped backwards in shock. Inside was a creature unlike any she had seen before. The creature stood on hind legs with clawed feet, it’s ribs protruded through a grey skeletal frame that rippled in the small shafts of light. It’s face is what captured Hawk the most, it was almost double the size of a regular human face, its eyes were large and angular, it’s mouth small and bore fangs that looked as sharp as knives. Its eyes were locked on Hawk. They stared at her and as they looked at one another, Hawk’s heart twisted, as though the thing was looking directly into her soul.
‘What is that thing?’ She asked.
Jeremiah looked at her. ‘You know what that is,’ he said. ‘If you don’t I’d be surprised. It’s one of them, one of your Others,’ he said. ‘Only we call them by what they actually are, aliens, captured by us and preserved for testing. This is where Genic power comes from. All these canisters contain creatures like him.’
‘So that their genome can be mixed with the eggs in those women we saw?’ Hawk looked around the room, so many vile specimens stared back at her. She couldn’t imagine what would be created if their DNA was mixed. But part of her had always known. This is where Genics had come from. This was their origin, it’s just now she was seeing it up close for the first time and it made her more uneasy than she would have liked.
Jeremiah smiled at her, as though she had just gotten a question right on an exam. ‘Exactly,’ he said.
‘You’ve never shown me this before,’ she said. ‘I’ve only read reports of your work that was done on old DNA samples. Why have you waited till now to bring me here?’
‘Because you didn’t need to see it before now,’ Jeremiah said. ‘And I was concerned that if you saw it in anything other than a report, you would reject what we’re doing here and turn against us. Because this isn’t like anything we’ve done before. It’s the next wave of human reduction and if you’re planning a mass extinction then you have to be loyal to the cause, once it’s in motion, you can’t back out.’
Hawk frowned as the air between them tensed. ‘You know my loyalty is absolute,’ she paused, she had learned long ago that arguing with her father would never end well. ‘What did you want to show me?’
He motioned for her to follow him and as he took her into an adjoining room, it was gray and smelled of bleach. There was an old looking dentists chair in the centre of the room and various metallic appliances by its side. It was cold in here, Hawk could see her breath in the icy room. This was her father's lab, his torture chamber. Jeremiah handed her a hazmat suit that had been hung up and as she pulled it on she noted her heart face increase as she was stepping into a world that was no longer one she owned or had control over. Here, deep underground, her father knew more about the world that she could only begin to imagine.
Jeremiah took her over to a large bay window. Inside, Hawk thought it was an empty cell but when she looked over to the corner, in the shadows she could see a dark creature that was restrained against the wall. It’s black skin rippled and translucent slime glistened in the small glimmer of light. Its mouth bore teeth that were like talons and its eyes were dark and hollow. It was straining against the clasps that were holding it back. Begging for release. Hawk wanted to look away, she wanted to run. The thing made her squirm inside but she remained still. Fixated by what she was seeing.
The doors opened behind them and Hawk saw two scientists wheeling forward Galen’s bed. She had been strapped down at her wrists and ankles and Hawk could see the white in her eyes.
‘You can’t do this to me!’ Galen tried to shout. ‘I demand you release me,’ she broke out into a cough and Hawk saw blood trickle from the corner of her mouth.
‘You’re already dead,’ Hawk told her. ‘This is just a means to an end.’
The scientists wheeled her forward and a knot of fear and terror grew in Hawk’s stomach as the door opened and the bed was left inside the cell. The door was locked and Hawk watched as Jeremiah pressed a series of commands on a console. The restrains that were holding the creature back were released and it fell to all fours. It shook its head and noticed the bed.
‘What’s it going to do?’ Hawk asked.
‘Watch,’ Jeremiah said, his eyes were fixated on the creature, he was almost salivating at the sight.
The creature walked cautiously over to Galen, it nestled at the base of the bed for a moment as Galen struggled against her restraints.
‘Let me out of here Hawk!’ She called. ‘After everything I’ve done for you, this is how you repay me? You’re nothing more than a traitor!’
Hawk’s eyes narrowed, she willed the creature to kill. Wanted it to finish the job Fox had started. The creature pulled itself up, in its full frame Hawk saw how huge and fierce the creature really was. It raised its hand and from one of its fingers it extended a talon and scraped a deep gash along Galen’s throat. The sight of the blood made Hawk want to look away, when Galen’s eyes froze open in fear as life was finally taken from her, Hawk couldn’t bring herself to believe that it was finally over.
America was hers.
When Evie looke
d at the clock she saw that the night had drawn late. Exhaustion was scratching at the corner of her eyes, and she didn’t know how much more she could give them. Everything had been shared, from how America had come to be the way it was, to how Volt worked, to what her research had shown. The people in the room had interrogated her to the point where she had begun to wonder if what she was saying was the truth at all.
‘So you’re saying that a western government, experimented on children for years, and the people just let it happen?’ A woman asked her.
At this point Evie had to summon what strength she had left to pull words from her. ’The people had no choice,’ her throat was dry, her voice no longer holding the command that she wished it did. ‘And yes, children were experimented on. Often they were orphans so they had no choice in the matter. Either people didn’t know or they looked the other way.’
‘And this was all sanctioned by a governing body?’ A man asked.
Evie sat back in her seat, she could see Sinclair looking at her with concern but Evie continued. ‘You don’t have to believe what I’ve told you,’ she said to them. ‘You can think it’s all made up, but it happened. It’s still happening. I was one of the children who was experimented on, so was my partner, and people we call family. Everyone was at risk in Galen’s regime and people are still at risk. They don’t see us as human, because we’ve gotten to the point where we no longer are human. We’re cattle. Pieces of meat that are being prodded and cut open. Our DNA is being changed and manipulated so that we can become something subhuman, so that we’re ready to fight what’s coming.’ The room was silent now. ‘There’s a war arriving on our doorstep if it’s not already here. Instead of questioning me, we need to be figuring out how we’re going to fight back so that we can survive.’
Evie was done, she didn’t know what else she could tell them, thankfully Sinclair interrupted the conversation.
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