Northern Exposure: The Divided

by Luken Du Pont

  Chapter 19

  The Solarcycle swept us through the streets, reducing our mileage in half the time. The sweet silent purrs of the soft battery operated motorcycle caused no attention and not even if a Reaper stood around the corner would they be able to hear us revving onwards. I felt Sharif tugging at the back of my shirt as I steered us onward, he shouted in my ear, “keep straight that’s the last marker before we hit the industrial area.” Sharif was referring to the Statue of the New York Mayor Charles Duke Oliver. The huge bronze statue which once stood proud, now stood decapitated thanks to the large rocks which swept his head clean off. If that was not degrading enough it had been painted a spotted white colour thanks to the pigeons which flew by. I nodded my head and pressed down on the throttle harder, the Solarcycle was intentionally brought out for a younger target market who wanted to zip around the city in a hurry which in turn meant it only hit a max speed of 50MPH. But that was okay, the ride was so fun, it felt like I was flying across the mainland.

  Alas like all fun things, my joyride had to come to an end as we reached the outskirts of the gloomy industrial area. We slowly entered the dark passageways, The Street was blackened out by tall building, parallel and running down as far as the eye could see. We turned down a narrow deserted road and almost immediately an eerie sensation came over me. As we made our way down the shadowed valley of death, we separated a thick mist trapped in between the rows of buildings. To make the scenery even for horrifying, all around us bodies lay decaying, most falling victim to the meteors; a few less lucky becoming pray to the Reapers. Even though we had become accustomed to death, as we continued down the light deprived ominous road, I knew I had reason to be as scared, when I felt Sharif a man I regarded as having nerves of steel, clutch tighter to my jacket than a boa constrictor. But the reality was there were no ghouls or ghosts, those peoples spirits had been long lost, having said that it was not like there was nothing to be afraid of because the real monsters were ten times scarier than anything my mind could conjure up and I felt like a mouse trapped in a tunnel, if any reapers found us we had no were to run or hide. All we could do now is keep pressing forward and hope the path was clear.

  Out of all the darkness a bright blue light shone like a beacon of hope, confirming the long trek was eventually over, we had reached our destination. The blue “Rips-Chips” factory stood much taller than its peers, still looking unscathed by the rocks; it looked like a welcoming fortress from all the Reapers. I pulled the bike in front of one of the factories entrances. Sharif immediately jumped off the Solarcycle and hobbled straight into the building. I followed close behind, not wanting to be left alone in the dark nightmarish street.

  Eventually I had found the place where I would either get the answers I had been looking for, or have my dreams shattered as I found nothing, leaving me with a the same void of unfilled questions. The garage door lead to a large abandoned hall, our presence stirred a wave of boisterous flapping from the startled loft of pigeons residing in the cross beams above. As we walked in the echoes of the deserted building our footsteps sounded like the beats from a drum. The walls had been stripped of their paint, and were now left a grey dull looking colour, which faded into the similar looking concrete floor. The building was as dark and deserted, the only light which pierced through the giant windows on the higher levels was fading as the sun set and we knew we needed to make haste before we were left in complete darkness.

  The more I looked around, the more I could not picture anyone living in this place, which all in all made me think this was one more reason I wouldn’t find the Professor. I scanned the area and there was nothing except abandoned chip packets and the lone pairs of workers boots and hard hats separated from their most likely dead owners. The factory was still intact and I presumed it was thanks to its hard steel framework. I looked around for any signs of life, but there was nothing, no clothes or food, no fire wood, nothing. As Sharif scouted the lower levels of the factory I decided to take a look upstairs; after all I had come so far it would be silly to stop here; I wanted to sweep this place as clean as a forensic team at a murder scene. So I made my way up a sketchy staircase which led all the way to the top of the floor, I looked up at the daunting task ahead of me and figured, just commit and get it over. I ascended, floor by floor, my heart raced; peeping down Sharif looked like nothing more than a scurrying little ant, snooping around the large factory. My legs burned and my back ached but I had to keep pressing on, there was no point stopping now, I was only three flights away and had almost reached the summit.

  As I reached the top, I was stopped by a make shift barricade, planks had been nailed in a zigzag pattern across the doorway, a metal cabinet, desk, photo copier and a small mini fridge had been pushed in front of the entrance in what I presumed to be an attempt at keeping Reapers away. There was a small opening at the top, barely large enough for me to fit. As I squeezed my body through I was elated with the discovery of the barricade, this was the first sign that someone was living here, if they took their time to make this elaborate reaper prevention system it meant they had planned on staying, and the hope of me finding the Professor become more of a reality. I climbed the poorly made structure, it wasn’t really the best line defence but hey, it was better than nothing. Scanning the room it was clear someone had once lived here.

  The room looked to be an old office, which had been revamped into a living quarters. The first thing which caught my eye was the old, ragged mattress in the centre. It reminded me so much of home. For a slight second I was taken back to the bunker as I thought about how the others must have been spread across the room sitting on the similar looking sponges wondering if Sharif and I were even still alive. Right beside the mattress was a rusty rank looking bucket which I presumed was used for....well, you know! But the main focus of the room, was the make shift Frankenstein looking laboratory, set up across two tables. The first table comprised of a mess of relatively basic equipment, nothing you would not find in your High School Chemistry Lab. From rusty old Bunsen burners, Clamps and Tongs to dust covered Petri dishes, beakers and test tubes, the equipment might not have been in the best shape but it all still looked functional. As I looked towards the opposite table I found myself being drawn to the horrendous site, like a moth to a flame. The weirdness of the paraphernalia which was being used for who knows what, now induced me into a trance like state, to the extent that I could not avert my gaze.

  A collection of jars and cylinders were placed on the table, each of them possessed an odd liquid which encased numerous biologic obscurities. I walked over and took a closer look at the first jar, as the object spun around in the murky water I made out it was a human hand. In the other a decomposed foot, one contained a full rats body preserved perfectly and the last had what seemed to be a decapitated reaper head. I think I had found the Professors home, but was he a man of genius as Smith had described or simply a complete lunatic. I continued to stare at the disturbing jars, while trying to piece together what this man was doing with them.

  But as I heard Sharif scream my name I immediately snapped out of my hypnotised state. The queries of the jars would have to wait, I needed to get down to Sharif; I guessed the worse, and the worst meant Reapers! But I could not take the same way I came up; it would take way too long. I had to improvise, so there was only one thing I could think of. I had to transform; this time quicker than usual. So the transformation began with no delay, as my body began reshaping, taking on its gigantic form, my limbs soon doubled in size, and my finger nails and teeth fell to the floor being replaced by fangs and claws. My rigged spine arched my posture as it expanded. My hair retracted into my skull and lastly the red membrane covered my eyes.

  However transforming was hardly enough, I still had to find a faster way down to Sharif who would be in a world of trouble if he was in the kind of trouble I presumed. I could not take the conventional way down; the stairs would be time consuming. I had to get to him faster, and then an idea came flashing to
my attention as I conjured up a strategic risk, which would either get me down to Sharif in the most badass of fashions, or leave me at his feet in a mangled pile of broken bones. I remembered right outside the room I had seen a large cylindrical pipe running from the base of the factory all the way to the roof. In actual fact it was a huge steel chimney which had been in the baking process of one of the Rips-Chips products. If I could leap off the flight of stairs outside from the balcony, I figured I could maybe “and this was a big maybe” catch onto the pipe and somehow slide down to the floor. I would be down in a matter of seconds, to be honest though I knew I was no agile slick moving Reaper; no I was a huge goliath of a being. Doing what I perceived in my head would be way more difficult in real; the chance of failure far outweighed the chances of success. Not only would I need the chimney to be strong enough to support my cumbersome girth, but I would also have to firstly make the jump from the rails, which was around a meter or so away from the edge of the balcony, easy enough to do in my human form but now with this big body, would it be possible? Oh and there was also the question of how the hell would I stop when I got to the bottom?

  It was now or never I could not contemplate my dangerous descend any longer. So I marched over to the barricaded door, duck my shoulder and charged straight threw it. Now standing on the platform with the chimney insight I had to commit, before taking the leap I looked down at the ten story drop. I doubted the likeliness of my success, even with my new strong form I was asking for trouble. I took a deep breath looked down one last time, took three steps back and started running towards the rail. The entire steel platform shook as I ran, and with one not so swift jump I managed to barely clear the rail. Immediately I started plummeting to the ground, but thankfully my momentum kept pushing me forward until I collided into the chimney. Which was surprisingly sturdy, I just kept sliding and sliding until my hands started burning and the smell of roasting flesh made me aware of how stupid this idea was. But there was no going back now, I had to suck it up and concentrate, the ground was catching up to me and I was about to become new breed road kill! There was one way I figured I could slow myself down, because clearly my first choice of using my hands was not working. I released the chimney for a second and began free falling. I drove my claws through the steel hoping this last resort would work, but I just kept falling as my claws ripped though the steel. Thankfully I started slowing down; until eventually I had come to a stop. With one floor between me and the ground I knew I could easily make the jump, and released to land perfectly next to Sharif as if I had planned the entire smooth descend, truthfully it was ten percent me knowing what I was doing ten percent pure panic and eighty percent luck.

  Sharif was standing wide eyed and hands in the air. I grunted at him, in an attempt to figure out what the hell he was doing. With his hands still raised, Sharif singled only using his eyes that I look to the left. Behind a conveyer belt I saw the man Sharif and Smith described as the Professor. Hunched over, in a poor attempt at hiding .I cautiously approached him not wanting to come across as aggressive or intimidating, but just as I was about to introduce myself he jumped out and shouted “Sharif is that you?’’ still waving the shot gun he had pointed at Sharif he came running out eagerly excited to greet his old companion.

  Only after multiple handshakes and hugs with his long lost acquaintance, did the professor happen to realise there was a monster standing right by his side. But even though he seemed interested, he was not startled or scared, as if my presence was as common as the sun rising in the sky every morning. The professor circled me, inspecting me thoroughly, poking and prodding at me like I was a show pony. He could not control his excitement as he jotted in his little note pad about the biology of my existence. Only once ready, he addressed Sharif.

  “Oh my, your friend is quite the Specimen Mr Sharif, where did you ever happen to stumbled upon such a magnificent creature?”

  Sharif was quick to answer, adamant to let the professor know he had already met me. “You’ll never believe it Anthony, but you both have already had the privilege of meeting one another.”

  The Professor looked confused; he would have surly recalled meeting someone with my kind of abilities. Sharif continued, seeing that the Professor could not put two and two together, “Do you remember when you came down to the Bunker; we had a patient, a young boy in a Coma, well...” Immediately the professor jumped in, interrupting Sharif half way through his sentence.

  “Mr Cairo!””But how can this be, ah but of course your mutated cells must have been lying dormant keeping you alive, that is the only way you could possibly be here, thanks to the transformation you have been preserved my boy, truly incomprehensible!””Come, come both of you please follow me, we have so much to discuss.”

  Chapter 20

  As we walked up our final flight of stairs I became nervous knowing the pile of destruction I had executed on this man’s property. I found myself walking through the entrance way which only resembled a pile of broken debris; I had torn down all his hard work and left his well constructed barricade a messy pile in front of his room. Relieved with his unconcern of the structure we followed him in, stepping over the broken planks and slipping past the wrecked fridge. I could not help but laugh as I watched Sharif fall under a stupefied trance, similar to the one I had experienced, in his amazement while witnessing the oddities which the Professor had collected. As we took a seat around the room, the Professor acted like an excited housewife, trying to offer us an array of different not so appetizing looking snacks. Both of us declined as quickly as possible, in the most hospitable way we could.

  The sun began to set and it was obvious Sharif and I had to stay the night, I was so excited I could barely contain myself. This was the man who had all the answers; this was the man I had risked my ass for. I sat quietly, like a scolded pupil in the principles’ office, hands over my knees, looking forward not saying a word. While Sharif did the complete opposite, searching the room amazed at the Professors experiments. The professor Stumbled about with a pot of water in his hands, he was as excited as I, but clearly conveyed his enthusiasm in a completely different manner. In one hand he grabbed a small tripod and the other his Bunsen burner; he then placed the small pot on the tri pod and proceeded boiling the water.

  Majority of the water had already spilt over but this did not stop the professor from continuously chatting away regardless of whether he got a response of not. He placed some freshly picked mint into the pot, which he stripped from a small rather fragile looking pot plant, who sat whitening away in the sun deprived shadows of his dusty window sill. He let the mint tea come to a slow boil, and joined me on the mattress. The odd man who was obviously over joyed with the reintroduction of his old friend but even more so elated with the discovery of me. He could not help himself from bubbling over in excitement. To be honest I was just as excited as him, but managed to handle it in a much calmer way, but even though I suppressed the urges to burst into a dance at the fact that I would eventually sit down and discuss the questions I wanted, I managed to relax and wait for the professor to calm himself down before we continued.

  The Professor released a deep breath, as if the task of making a pot of tea was so strenuous he was physically exhausted, he removed his thick glasses and ran them across his coat, wiping away splashed water droplets from the pot he had shaken up in his bumbling attempt to cater for his guests. Even though he may have been a bit clumsy, he was beyond bright. He knew why we had made the journey, having experienced the transformation as I had; he knew I had a well of questions waiting to be answered.

  I began without hesitation, there was no reason we should beat around the bush any longer. I wanted to know everything about the transformation, the reasoning behind me being able to do what I did was incomprehensible, and why could I change so many times and not bleed to death? Why was I able to heal so rapidly during the change but not in my transformed or human state, how was I capable of such mammoth fetes of strength, how com
e I was so durable, where did this all begin, what caused it, why where the reapers different to us, where there many more like us... The questions went on and on, and even though I was quite sure he would not be able to answer them all, I prayed he could answer at least a few. Just As I was about to bombard him with questions, he beat me to it, nonchalantly interrupting me he began.

  “So Mr Goodridge, how may I be of assistance, what would you like to know, I can only imagine you are riddled with unanswered questions, please let me be of assistance?”I stood and walked over towards the strange table, trying to show him how serious I was, after all, I just put both mine and my friend’s life on the line while in search of him, I banged the table and the jars shook under the force of my slamming fists. Sharif came and took a seat next to the Professor, feeling the tension rise in the room he wanted to be ready to help me control the beast if need be.

  “I need to know what I am Professor, why am I like this, why do these primal instinct take over, some days I cannot control it while other days we are at peace?”” I feel like I’m turning into a mindless beast by the hour, The physicality of the emotions I feel are so intensified even in my normal state that some nights I beg for death instead, and even though my family have helped me reduce the pain and suppress the urges to a minimal extent, I still feel like I’m going to explode and the creature inside me will have his human counterpart, trapping me inside forever!”

  Without me even noticing I had the Professor by his collar almost chocking him as Sharif tried pulling me off. The Professor had gotten a firsthand experience at how uncontrolled I was. Through my tear glazed eyes I begged him to help me, “He wants me out of here Professor, every time I change it gets harder for me to hold onto my humanity, he is becoming his own enemy.””

  Thankfully he was not fazed at my little outburst; calmly he removed my hands from his collar and pulled me closer towards him. We were now face to face, he adjusted his large glasses, the tip of his long protruding nose was now uncomfortably touching mine and he inspected my face as if it was one of his specimens in his jars.

  ”An old saying way-way before your time went, ‘the eyes are the window to the soul’, now take a good look into my eyes Mr Goodridge and see how relevant that quote is to your debacle.”

  Unsure of what he meant I blindly looked into his eyes not knowing what he expected me to see. He pulled me even closer and reiterated “look deeper Mr Goodridge” Than I saw it, the faint red ring around his pupils, similar to that of mine in my transformed state. He released me and rocked back, I was so shocked with his response I lost all anger and curiosity had now overcome me.

  “You may regard this so called beast trapped inside you as an extension of your body, a deformity with its own identity.”” But this is not the case, he is you and you are him, there is no demon or embedded entity within you, no Mr Goodridge what’s happening to you is evolution, and sure it will take time to come to terms with what is happening but one thing I can promise you is he is you, you just need to control the overwhelming feeling of your transformed state and not let your mind slip down the schizophrenic path which makes you believe your transformed state has its own personality and agendas.”

  “Goodridge we do not merely turn into these phenomenal beings and watch from the outside in awe of their amazement, Trust me I know most early days in the transformation it feels that way “But that soon fades as your two personalities both human and beast amalgamate leaving you not as two separate entities trying to work together, but as a single unit in control of one form as you are the other.” “Time... time is the key Mr Goodridge, there is no quick fix, no medication I can administer to help make it any easier, nothing else can help you, besides spending as much time trying to figure out all the ins and outs of this new beautiful mutation you have become.” In time like me small traces of the transformation will seep out into your human forms hence the red rings around my pupils, nothing major most times not even visible, this is an indicator that you have completely mastered control of your new form and your evolutional encounter is at its peak.”“Now let’s get to the fun part shall we, it has been hard for me to understand the vastness of our existence with my very limited supply of equipment, but what I have figured out is only the tip of our unfathomable abilities.”

  “Well its simple, you are just like me and the hundred others that roam this continent, we have become a pack of brothers and sisters related not by blood, but by something stronger, the fascinating hand of evolution.””We are new breeds, Apex miscreants who are scattered around this great country hiding like dogs from the other natural predators who have clearly perfected their new abilities they were dealt and embraced what they have become.” He was obviously talking about the Reapers; the Professor must have suffered some bad experiences out here all alone with the creatures and was clearly touchy to the topic.

  His tone changed and he calmed down, “Well it’s all quite simple Mr Goodridge, you are the next step in the evolutionary process, in all parts of life, be it the Seas, the Skies or land. All forms of life, from the big to the small engage in a slow and methodical race to rebuild their genetic structure to suite their surroundings and most times help defend themselves from the harshness of their environment, be it predator or element related. We too have entered this race; however our changes were magnified by the helping hand of the meteors gas, just think of the gas as a performance enhancer which has helped us compete on a level not even understandable to our opponents. We have over taken the evolutionary path man was set on, or perhaps have even branched into a new direction all together and have now been thrown to the top of the food chain, we have been given the chance to survive this New changed world and take our rightful place as the alpha species once again.” “But let me go back to the origin and explain from where it all began.”

  “I have been studying these foreign rocks for some time now, but in the beginning had just perceived them to be large chunks of dormant space debris.” Even though I believed I had reached a conclusion, I continued thinking that the coincidence between their arrival and the changes which began happening were too much, to just be left as chance.” No there had to be a connection, and one morning I happened to stumble upon it, while cracking open a segment of the meteors. I cracked its shell open, a pungent gas was released, the gas from the ten centimetre rock spread like wild fire, covering my entire room, and blanketing everything in its path.””Since you had the privilege of sleeping through the whole ordeal I’m sure the others have told you about the lingering peculiar gas which blanketed our great land.”

  ”Man oh man was I scared, I mean there were days that I sat all alone hiding in the factory thinking the world was truly coming to an end, its only...””My apologies I tend to digress occasionally, like I was saying the gas filled my room consuming everything inside, including my dissected lab apprentice.” He pointed at a dead oversized carcass which lay covered which a white pillow case.

  “ It’s hard to believe the creature under there was once nothing more than a rat, With its little organs exposed it only took a week after the release of gas and the changes began. Right in front of my eyes, as I stared into its open chest cavity the creature started transforming.”” Its organs increased, and its body started reshaping until it was the size of a Yorkshire terrier, with fangs as long as my finger, thick hind legs almost making it look somewhat like a miniature kangaroo and it now had the ever so popular red eyes us New breeds have come to possess.!”“This was just the beginning of my increased interest of this gas and its effects it had, soon after the changes started happening in myself and just as you had I had so many question and day to day I am still trying to answers as many as I can.”

  “After my first transformation, I was more determined to find out what was happening, so my test became longer, I would spend day and night behind at that table trying my hardest to get as much from the limited equipment and test subjects I had “What I had gathered was that when the rocks fell the
small sediments of rock which broke off the larger ones, slowly leaked the gas into our atmosphere from their cracks until it was completely diluted into our air.” “This gas was high in volumes of unknown chemical compounds a mystery to me and I presume the rest of mankind until we get our hands on some proper lab equipment.”But that is hardly relevant, what the gas did...now that’s the fun part.”

  “The gas molecules have somehow intertwined with our genetic codes, endowing those with a certain strand of chromosome like you and I Mr Cairo, the abilities it had.” “The gas has allowed the modification of every cell in your body, which in turn have left them working harder, faster and at a much more efficient rate than our human forms.” “Take for example your dense tyre like skin, I could only presume your ectodermic tissue is being developed at an exceptionally fast rate, each time your brain sends the messages to your body to transform allowing your mesoderm, endoderm and ectoderm’s egg cell fertilisation to be sped up causing rapid cell separation which... “The Professor shifted his glasses as he squinted to look at me, he could see he had lost me after chromosome... To me so called “layman’s terms” was anything but. He knew I would not understand the genetic jargon he was describing so he tried to dumb down his example as best he could, so that I could get a grasp of what he was saying.

  “Basically what I’m telling you Mr Goodridge is that when you transform its not magic, no good sir, its science.””And as every good Geneticist knows in their heart but will never admit is, we will never truly figure out everything about the human body, and with our new dilemma it makes things even harder.”

  ”However I can tell you from a personal view and not that of a scientist, the pain, the primality, the scared feeling of uncertainty which boils inside of you, they all eventually become controlled. I could sit here and tell you it will all be better but that would be a lie, I could tell you exactly what you are and what you going through but that would be an even bigger lie.””The truth is Mr Cairo, I have just scratched the surface of what we are, and the reality is we are monsters, but we are not only monsters we are also human, and one thing about human beings Mr Cairo is our tenacity to never give up.””I know what you are going through is pain staking and excruciating, trust me I’ve been there, but it is up to you Mr Cairo, to give in and embrace what you have become and push your abilities as far as they can go, not only for yourself but for science!”

  As good as his pep talk was the end result is he barely knew what I was, was this, what I had risked my life for? I mean I could have gotten the same bull shit meditational advice from Sharif if that was what I wanted, angry yet somehow calmed by the fact that I had found him and I was not alone, which meant Smith and the others had been telling the truth the entire time, I tried looking at the entire excursion as a positive.

  The professor causally stood up walked over to his pot which had perfectly boiled on the little flame of the Bunsen, and poured the tea into three cups. He passed on the warm, surprisingly refreshing beverage and sat down. We both unknowingly sipped at the tea, not realising what we were in for. Not knowing the important news the professor was about tell us. I had come here to find answers on what I had become, but was about to get answers to a question I had not asked, which was so much more valuable than my unimportant little hissy fit with the beast.