“Yep, she’s very unique all around,” Robert replied.
“I hope that’s a compliment,” Blair retorted, seeming to regain some of the smug confidence she had arrived with.
“Sure,” he offered. “Anyway, this is Knight, Clay, and Locklear. The latter two will show you around base while Knight and I make a trip to gather some intel. I expect you to be compliant while I’m gone. Are we clear?”
She nodded confidently. “Yes sir.”
“Good,” he replied, focusing on me. “Let’s go then.”
It took me a moment to respond, because I was still confused about the age thing.
“I think I’m missing something,” I finally admitted. “Is there something unique about her age?”
Zayden surprised me by being the one to answer. “There are no twenty-four year old metahumans,” he scoffed.
I looked at him in bewilderment. “Wait. What do you mean by that?”
“I can explain on the way,” Robert replied. “But basically, there are no metahumans between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five.”
“Except for me,” Blair corrected him.
“There are also no metahumans between the ages of thirty-three and thirty-six,” Ava added from behind me. “Or any that are younger than ten years old.”
“What?” I exclaimed in disbelief. “Are you guys serious? What about that six-year-old you told me about?” I asked her directly.
“That was like eight years ago, Jake. That boy would be fourteen now had things turned out differently.”
“Oh,” I replied simply, not knowing what to say to that. I still couldn’t believe there were age ranges for metahumans. “Is there a reason for the gaps?” I wondered out loud.
“I’ll explain on the way,” Robert repeated, sounding annoyed again. “Let’s go.”
“R-Right,” I agreed, heading in his direction. I glanced at Blair one last time, and then glanced over my shoulder at Ava. She gave me a weak smile, which I returned, glad that she didn’t appear to be showing any signs of that fear I had heard in her voice earlier.
Robert gave Blair one last glare before leading the way out of the gym.
As the door began slowly closing behind us, I could hear Zayden speaking up, his voice echoing down the hall. “If you make me piss my pants, I swear I’ll fry your pretty little ass.”
“Fine,” she snapped. “But then I better not hear you say anything unpleasant about my appearance. Especially any comments about bestiality, or else I’ll cut your balls off in your sleep.”
“I don’t give a damn about how you look or any of that shit,” Zayden scoffed.
“Then do we have a deal?” she demanded.
“Deal,” he agreed.
Chapter 10: Origins
I followed Robert out of the building while tucking my shirt back in, like how we were required to have it. Once outside, he made a beeline for a black car parked at the end of the building. He had arrived with a couple of soldiers, so I assumed they were bringing him here like they had done Blair. But when he fished the keys out of his pocket and got in, I suddenly wondered if this was actually his car.
Did the military trust this guy enough to let him live a more normal life?
Was that the reason why he was someone they could rely on to discipline other metahumans?
Ava had commented that the military perceived metahumans as the enemy, but maybe that wasn’t the case for all of them. I wondered if it was possible for me to get in their good graces like him, although I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to. It might also be possible that criminal history was a part of it. I didn’t consider myself a criminal, but I knew by the world’s standards I was.
Despite my curiosity, I got in without asking, and he took off.
It wasn’t until we were a few miles away from base that he broke the silence between us.
“Knight,” he said hesitantly. “What we are about to do is top secret. It is absolutely essential you don’t share the information we learn with anyone else. Are we clear?”
“Umm, yeah,” I replied, still uncertain about the situation.
“Good. Because you’re about to become privy to extremely sensitive information that few know about.”
“And what’s that?” I wondered, becoming annoyed with his stalling. “Where are we going?”
He sighed heavily, and leaned back in his seat more, gripping the steering wheel with both hands. “We’re headed to a military hospital to meet a woman named Jordyn Kirkwood. She’s a vital asset to the military. We normally wouldn’t even tell you her name, but we know she’ll probably tell you herself when she meets you. But everything about her is highly classified.”
“Oh,” I replied simply. “Okay.” I paused, trying to process the situation. “I mean, obviously I’ll keep all this a secret, but would it really be so detrimental for the rest of the team to know?”
His grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Well, the fact that it’s classified isn’t going to change either way, but yes…at least, prior to us losing Ms. Graham and Mr. Fowler, it would have mattered a lot.”
I gawked at him. “And why is that?” I asked seriously.
“Because they both knew her,” he replied. “And they both believed she was deceased.”
Holy shit!
Was this person who I thought it was?
Was Jordyn Kirkwood the girlfriend Zane had lost? The person who spared Trinity?
“She was Zane’s girlfriend,” I stated matter-of-factly.
He glanced at me in surprise, before shrugging. “That may have been. I don’t know.”
“Can she determine what powers people have?” I asked seriously.
His eyes narrowed then. “She has an illness,” he stated in a rush. “One that they can’t cure. She’s been in a medically induced coma for the last five or six years. They rarely wake her up – only if they need help with something major like this.”
My brow furrowed in confusion at his shift in subject. “Okay? So then, does that mean she can’t determine what powers people have?”
His knuckles were almost white now even despite his dark complexion. “I’ll let her share what she wants about her ability. My point is just that they’ve only woken her up recently – prior to that, she had been asleep for a long time. She has no association with anyone currently on Omega squad.”
I tried to understand where he was going with this. Why was he telling me that information?
And then it hit me.
What if Jordyn had been the reason they had targeted me? What if she had been responsible for identifying a metahuman who could defeat Weaver? Technically, I shouldn’t know they were the ones responsible for triggering me that first time in the mall, but that was the funny thing about lies – it was easy to forget what the other person should or shouldn’t know.
Which meant he had either just slipped up, or else he was telling me this because he was concerned I might figure it out soon on my own. And if I did figure it out, no doubt they were worried I might get pissed and kill her in revenge.
But, on the other hand, that didn’t make any sense. If they were concerned about her safety, then why take me to meet her?
“Why are you bringing me on this mission?” I asked seriously. “Why specifically me?”
He bit the inside of his cheek, before sighing heavily. “Because she specifically requested to see you,” he admitted. “And because she has refused to help us anymore unless we give in to her demand.”
I gawked at him, before sitting back in my seat. “Sounds like she’s the one in charge,” I commented.
“Unfortunately, that’s how it is with her. She can’t be replaced, which gives her a lot of leeway. If she wasn’t so sick, then she could probably do just about whatever she wanted.” He lowered his voice then. “Although, she wouldn’t be so powerful if she weren’t so sick.”
“What do you mean by that?” I wondered.
“Ah, right. I almost forgot. I meant to tell you abou
t the gaps in metahuman ages too.” He sighed. “Do you even know why metahumans exist?”
“Well, no, I don’t. No one has told me anything.”
“It’s caused by a virus,” he admitted.
I stared at him in disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not. It’s a virus that is normally too weak to replicate in the human body. However, it does extremely well inside a human fetus.” He glanced at me. “They suspect someone created it as a biological weapon, but no one has been able to track down the origin. But that’s what happened to you Jake, as well as the rest of us – you got sick before you even had a heartbeat, attacked by a virus that modified your DNA permanently.” He paused. “Miscarriages have been on the rise for a long time, and they suspect that the virus is actually the cause. Those who don’t survive their DNA being modified end up as miscarriages, while those who do survive end up like us.”
I was silent for a moment as I tried to wrap my head around that.
“And that has something to do with age ranges?” I wondered.
He nodded. “It’s not uncommon for diseases to come in waves, although usually those waves last months – not years. But that’s exactly what has happened with this virus. The first wave, the Alpha Wave, began about forty-three years ago, and lasted about seven years, peaking in its intensity after about five years before infections dropped off rapidly in the remaining two years for no known reason. Then, there were almost no new metahumans being born for a solid four years. Right now, basically none are age thirty-three, thirty-four, thirty-five, or thirty-six, like Locklear mentioned previously.”
“So then, what about Blair?”
“Like I said, her age is unique, because the second wave, the Beta Wave, also lasted about seven years, with a four-year dormancy. Granted, there are always outliers, and she’s definitely one of them.”
“So then, I’m assuming there was a third wave? The wave I’m a part of?”
He nodded. “Yes, except this time it didn’t follow the pattern established by the first two. It lasted longer, with metahumans in your grouping being as old as twenty-one and as young as eleven. However, what’s really strange is that there have been no new metahumans since. They originally named it the Gamma Wave, just following the Greek alphabet, but when they realized the pattern wasn’t holding, they ended up renaming it the Omega Wave, thinking it would be the last, especially since a three-wave pattern is historically valid.” He sighed. “But that’s where our nicknames originate. If you had ever heard someone call Fowler a Beta, or you an Omega, that’s were it comes from. I’m a Beta metahuman, and you’re an Omega metahuman, as are Locklear and Clay.”
“Umm…no,” I replied. “No one has used those terms around me at all.”
He shrugged. “I guess that’s not too surprising. If anyone were to call you an Omega, it would probably be a regular soldier. Not to mention, you might think they were referring to the squad.”
I wondered if he was right, if someone had called me that and I just hadn’t realized it, but as I tried to recall if anyone had referred to me that way, I couldn’t think of any examples. Most of the soldiers didn’t speak to me at all, and if they did, they used my last name. Furthermore, when we were in a group, regular soldiers usually only directed their attention towards the leader, which had been Trinity. Granted, I’d only been around for barely a week and a half, so maybe that was why I hadn’t heard it yet.
“Do you think the virus is really gone?” I wondered after a moment, considering the massive gap after the Omega Wave.
He shook his head again. “No, it’s not gone, although it’s only been in the last year that they’ve confirmed the virus is still around. It’s very good at disguising itself.” He angled towards me slightly in his seat. “That’s why Ms. Kirkwood is sick – she has been infected with a new strain of the virus that is capable of surviving in an adult body.” He raised his voice. “Which means Mr. Knight, it is absolutely essential that you follow all their hospital protocol. Right now, the virus she has is bloodborne only, but if it mutates further and obtains the ability to leave her body through something like a sneeze, then it might wipe out the entire world.”
“Jeez,” I exclaimed. “Is it really that serious?”
“Yeah, it is. They’ve had a difficult time keeping her alive. The old strain of the virus was able to spread very easily, but it was a lot weaker. But what she has now is potentially very lethal. If it were to somehow gain the ability to spread like its predecessor, then it would basically be the end of the world. Like, imagine getting cancer as easily as you might get the common cold. Everyone would die. That is how serious it is.” He paused to let that sink in, focusing intently on the road. “But this new virus is also the reason why Kirkwood’s powers are a lot stronger,” he added quietly. “The thing that is killing her is also the very thing that has made her invaluable to us.”
“And she’s keeping her ability to herself unless you let her see me…” I thought out loud. “Why?”
He shrugged. “As far as I know, she hasn’t said. Only she knows.”
I glanced out the window to watch the buildings pass by, as I considered the possibilities. We were in a city now, though I wasn’t sure which one. I didn’t even know where our base was located on the map – just that it was really flat and bare in the immediate vicinity, with nothing hiding the outcropping of buildings except distance.
It was possible that Jordyn’s desire to see me might have something to do with Zane. Maybe she heard about the bombing and wanted to make sure he was alright. After all, surely even her power had limitations, especially if Zane was on the other side of the world. Granted, that reason was assuming she still had feelings for him after all this time. But if she had been in a coma most of it, then to her it probably didn’t seem like years had passed. To her it might be like weeks – maybe months at most.
Either way, I was curious to meet her now. And I definitely didn’t hold a grudge against her. It wasn’t her fault how the military handled the situation with me – it was their fault. They were stupid to trigger me in a mall, and downright evil to put me in a situation where I either had the options of prison or working with them.
However, now that I knew the General might be related to Ava somehow, I was beginning to wonder if maybe he hadn’t been involved with the situation. After all, he was responsible for handling the squad, but that didn’t mean he was responsible for orchestrating the fiasco that resulted in a ton of innocent people dying at my hands.
“Do you report to the General, or someone else?” I wondered out loud without even thinking.
Robert glanced at me in shock. “That…depends…” he hedged.
So then, that meant there had to be others who were intimately involved in all this, because otherwise he would have just said yes. Which also meant Avery might report to someone else too – someone who was an evil bastard, seeking out metahumans and incriminating them using any method possible.
“Who’s above the General?” I asked.
He was silent then, prompting me to glance at him. “That’s not information you need to know,” he replied firmly.
Well, that was certainly suspicious. I didn’t bother pressing the issue though, knowing he wasn’t going to budge on the subject. I wondered if I might be able to get one of the regular soldiers to tell me, although the person directly above Armstrong might not be the same one responsible for giving Avery orders.
“Alright,” he announced then as we pulled into a parking lot. “We’re here.”
I glanced up at the hospital, finding that it looked much like what I might expect, with one minor difference – the parking lot was almost empty.
“Not too many patients here, huh?” I considered.
“Only special ones,” he confirmed. “So no, not too many. Now, let’s go.”
I climbed out of the vehicle and followed him inside. In the foyer, a soldier serving as a security guard checked us bo
th for weapons, before allowing us to proceed into a lobby area. I had to smile at that, considering the weapons we both held within us were far more dangerous than the gun he was carrying.
There were two secretaries at the desk, both already aware we were coming. They took a second to confirm Robert’s identity, before one of them escorted us down the hall. We then took the elevator up to the second floor and were led directly to a hospital room from there.
The woman made sure we both put on blue gloves, yellow protective gowns, face masks, and even something to go over our boots. Once she was satisfied that we were completely covered from head to toe, she dismissed herself.
Robert entered first, only for the woman behind a curtain to speak up in a weak voice, her tone hopeful. “He’s here?”
Robert nodded, motioning for me to walk around the curtain.
And then I saw her.
Chapter 11: Pathogen
Jordyn looked to be about Robert and Zane’s age, with black hair, green eyes, and pale skin. She was so skinny that her bones were very prominent in her shoulders. The light-blue hospital gown she was wearing was tied loosely around her neck, revealing a lot of her skin around her collar bones and shoulders. The head of the bed was raised, and her head was propped up by a couple of pillows. Overall, she looked really tired, but otherwise didn’t appear nearly as sick as I thought she’d be. When Robert mentioned the virus being like cancer, I kind of pictured her without hair, but that definitely wasn’t the case. I suppose he said it would be fatal like cancer, not necessarily like cancer itself. Not to mention, it was the treatment that made people lose hair, not the disease.
Her eyes brightened more as her gaze fell on me, before she looked me up and down with an unexpected reservation. I had no idea the reason behind the change of expression, but then her eyes tightened, her brow furrowing as she glanced at Robert again.
“You can leave,” she said firmly.
Robert gawked at her. “Absolutely not!” he retorted. “I’ve been given specific instructions to–”
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