Fear of God (Trials of Strength Book 1)

by Matthew Bell, Jr

  ‘At least we know we don’t just need to aim for their heads,’ I said. ‘Major things like their hearts and necks kill them. Anywhere else though and they’re tough SOBs.’

  But he was right, we couldn’t keep up our momentum.

  We didn’t need to, any minute she would be there. As if in prayer, three beeps echoed through the streets. Anna. A tank truck, filled with oil, skidded round the end of the street, crushing bodies and lurching from the ones that already littered the ground as it crashed towards us, Anna at the wheel.

  ‘Move!’ I screamed at our group. ‘Get to the sides!’

  They tried, shooting and slicing, clearing a path away from the long truck coming towards them. The vehicle let out another beep, but this time it didn’t end. The creatures shrieked in pain, even with the control I had over my senses, the sound was excruciating. They flew at it, trying to grab hold and silence the sound as Anna mowed them down. One of the attackers struck the side, tore the metal and oil burst from the hole, showering the monsters.

  The truck however, wasn’t moving well. It bounced and crushed mounds of bodies and lurched every time a super-powered resident hit it. Then it tipped. I heard Anna scream as the massive metal tank jumped into the air and landed on its side. I raced for it.

  The creatures piled on the metal, soaked with oil and tried to reach the incessant howl of the horn. I cut through the packs in their distraction and reached the overturned drivers side. I smashed the pane of glass in front, and dragged an unconscious Anna from the seat, blood slid down her forehead. I lifted her and ran.

  We almost reached Chris, the monsters too occupied by the pain and sound to notice. It was time to cause the distraction we needed, and leave. Chris chucked his gun towards me, and I caught it and opened fire on the tanker.

  Nothing happened.

  ‘Try and hit the metal!’ Chris shouted. ‘More shots, we need a spark! This ain’t Hollywood!’

  I did as he asked. I shot once, twice-

  We weren’t far enough away.

  The force and heat of the explosion ripped through the air, lifting Anna and I off the ground. Luckily though I smacked into the concrete first, and Anna’s fall was cushioned. It was like the screaming was abruptly cut off, there was still some, but our plan for the most part had worked. Arms and legs drifted back to the ground, and our group gathered together. We kept a safe distance from the blast, but the carnage was easy to see.

  A few of the creatures staggered aimlessly around, some even on fire, but Chris gathered a few men and women and took them out. I stood, hefted Anna’s shallow breathing body and watched as the creatures who had kept us in the dark burned.

  Our group hadn’t fared well though. There was half as many of us only slightly hurt and even more who had wounds oozing blood and were as white as snow.

  ‘I doubt that’s them all,’ Chris returned, his face spattered with blood. ‘But it’s a damn good chunk of them.’

  ‘Let’s just hope it was enough,’ I replied. ‘And let’s hope it was enough of a sign to move my Dad’s men.’

  Chris laughed. ‘They are going to be freaking out, don’t worry. After that they’ll fly back, to here, to your father.’

  On cue, a double-decker bus pulled up by our group. Paul, his son, and the other man, jumped from it.

  ‘Holy shit!’ Paul shouted and jogged over.

  ‘Did they move?’ I cut him off.

  ‘They weren’t there,’ Paul said as he stared at the flames and chaos. ‘At least not that we could tell.’

  ‘What?’ Chris asked.

  ‘We scouted the place you said was bomb free, and no one’s there, after that we got the bus like you said,’ Paul breathed. ‘Are we going?’

  Chris nodded, and Paul and some able survivors started to help the wounded onto the bus. I turned to Chris and handed him Anna.

  ‘What are you doing?’ Chris asked, but he knew the answer.

  ‘I’m not done here,’ I replied anyway. ‘I have one final meeting with my father.’

  Chris nodded.

  ‘Take care of her,’ I said, kissing Anna’s cheek as I said, ‘I’ll be back for you.’

  With that I turned, headed for the opening we had sprung from not too long ago. It was surrounded with blood and fire as I descended back into hell.

  The Sibling

  I had no idea how I would find him, but I decided to start with the place we met last. I made my way to where Anna had roused me from sleep to lead me to him, and decided to try and trace the steps we took. I didn’t have to though. I entered the room, small stains of blood still on the wall I had attacked. Although unlike before, a black arrow, eerily similar to the ones that had led me to my mother, had been painted on the wall.

  I ignored my heart as it pounded and followed the arrows through the tunnels. I let my thoughts drift and hoped the rest made it out. I didn’t like that after all this time of defending the exits my father’s men were gone. That aside, I couldn’t leave yet, I wanted answers.

  I turned a corner and at the end of the tunnel light poured through the room beyond. I entered the large room with the glass balcony halfway up the wall and the pipes that grouped together and finished by its sides, powering the place. My mother rattled against her chains underneath, desperate to tear me to pieces. I winced.

  From the blindingly white room a shadow crept across the floor, and my father stood, smiling down at me. I wanted to scream.

  ‘Welcome again, son,’ Richard beamed. ‘I barely recognise you.’

  I doubt he was talking of the blood that stained almost every inch of me.

  ‘What did you do?’ I asked through clenched teeth.

  He laughed and started to pace. His hand found his chin as he thought of what to say. I wanted to throw the blade in my hand at him, to take the gun Chris had tossed me and fire through the glass at his head. Everyone that had died had died because of this man and his sick mind. I had been changed out of a disturbed new idea for experimentation.

  ‘Well, I guess it’s time,’ Richard chuckled. ‘You’ve already succeeded. Everything went according to plan.’

  ‘What did you do!?’ I shouted.

  ‘I gave you a gift, I did this for you,’ he pleaded, eyes bright. ‘Look at you, you’re strong and fast and unstoppable. The old skin shrugged off.’

  ‘You call this a gift?’ I gasped. ‘Killing innocent people, destroying families and lives? And for what? You turned this town into an unstable slaughterhouse!’

  He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.

  ‘I set this mundane town free, I did it all to give you what you have now,’ he replied and I bristled.

  ‘Don’t you dare pin this on me,’ I growled. “Now tell me what did you do? Don’t make me ask again.’

  He laughed, but not to mock me, he believed me.

  ‘Brilliant! Ha!’ Richard said. ‘Well, the government way back when wanted something simple, well, simple to them that is, stronger soldiers, better soldiers, fast and efficient and, as I said, unstoppable.’

  I waited as he let that sink in.

  ‘Now that’s not as simple as it sounds. There is almost no way to meet those demands without changing the body, at least at a genetic level,’ he beamed. ‘And that’s exactly what we did. We began to work on altering DNA, changing it, making it better and making us better!’

  ‘I don’t understand. You changed my DNA?’ I asked.

  ‘Yes!’ he exclaimed. ‘We managed to isolate key points of change, change that allowed the subject strength and speed, advanced senses and accelerated healing. The perfect combination of attributes that made the subject deadly, but, unfortunately, there were some problems.’

  ‘Problems?’ I said with venom.

  ‘Yes,’ Richard sighed. ‘When we started human testing before I moved to Greystone, it changed the subjects.’

  ‘Like it changed those in town?’ I growled.

  He nodded, as if saddened not for the lives he’d taken, but only
for the fact his precious work had failed.

  ‘The drug we created to inject into humans was problematic,’ Richard sighed. ‘There were two factors to take into account: The body and the mind.’

  ‘Explain,’ I said.

  ‘First the body,’ my father continued. ‘Too little of the drug, and it’s diluted, useless. Too much and it’s like an overdose, the subject has no time to adapt.’

  I shook my head in disbelief, but my father assumed I still didn’t understand.

  ‘Add in a subject’s mind,’ Richard said, ‘and both become strong allies. It leaves the subject fighting the drug for control, to be dominant, and it turns the subject’s body into a warzone.’

  I shivered at the memory of changing. The flames that burst through my veins and the pain, the way I couldn’t focus or remember and my senses couldn’t be controlled. I’d wanted nothing more than to make it stop, to make anything that made sound stop and anyone who wasn’t suffering to share the same pain I did.

  ‘What happens to them if neither the drug nor subject wins?’ I asked.

  ‘It’s obvious. The body can only handle so much. It burns out and dies,’ he said casually.

  I closed my eyes.

  ‘Why didn’t that happen to me?’ I asked. The question hitched in my throat.

  ‘We began an experiment when your mother and I moved to this town while she was pregnant with you, predicting that the government wouldn’t be happy with these mistakes,’ Richard beamed. ‘When we had you, I knew you’d be the one I could work on. The blank slate.’

  ‘You sick bastard!’ I shouted.

  ‘We tried to work out how to fix the two factors,’ he continued as if I hadn’t spoken. ‘We started to administer the drug slowly, little amounts at a time. Sadly the end result was the same, but the body resisted less, the subject’s DNA changed but they still were unable to adapt. It’s the mind that causes the greatest barriers.’

  My mother’s chains rattled in the silence.

  ‘Mind over matter is what we needed. And that is what we began. You see people live their lives facing countless problems, stress, failure, uncertainty. They love, break up and hurt, and each time, when they recover, they build walls up against the world,’ he said. ‘They believe they become stronger, but in actuality they shut off their mind from the world and render themselves useless. This, in turn, causes them to reject change.’

  ‘And me?’ I whispered.

  ‘We kept you sheltered,’ my father replied. ‘You faced little problems as you grew up, a loving mother, stable home. But you see that is the flip side. Without life’s challenges the mind has no defences against the change and it overwhelms it, again, rendering the subject useless. Trust me we tried, with adults, men and women and children, each to failure.’

  I wanted to throw up.

  ‘A few months back we set in motion our biggest experiment, you, Subject 17,’ he smiled. ‘We threw you from a predictable little life into the frying pan, watched as you built those invisible walls, and during their upbringing, injected you with a final dose.’

  I understood what he said to some extent. The drug altered DNA for the better, granted us these heightened attributes. The problem was that it was foreign to the body, and the mind, with its metaphorical walls that helped people adapt to the hardships in life, rejected it. Or those that led the bored and predictable lives I had once cherished were too weak to adapt. To rectify this, they created the changes that rocked the foundations of my town, because of me, their test subject.

  ‘And look at you now, you accepted the change. It was perfect. Too complacent in life and it overwhelms you, too defended against life and it is rejected,’ Richard continued ecstatic. ‘But caught in the middle, caught in the balance, and the mind accepts the change to survive! It strengthens you!’

  I lowered my head and closed my eyes. I tried to breathe evenly but the air felt thick and sharp, sending pains through my heart.

  ‘That still doesn’t explain why I am the only one to adapt,’ I shook my head, ‘what about the other people in town with boring lives that were thrown into this hell?’

  ‘They didn’t have my particular interest,’ he sighed, tired of explaining. ‘We injected you every now and again, readying your body for when our trials started. Then we used massive amounts of the drug on the town. You were prepared, they weren’t. Yes, if I’d focused on them, it may have worked, but it’s you I needed. I created all your trials throughout, and you survived, you want to live. Your mind is allowing you to.’

  ‘You destroyed this town as you played God. You sentenced people to death, and left the rest to fight against their families and friends,’ I whispered. ‘You’ve taken Anna’s brother. You’ve taken Chris’s wife. But most of all, you took my mother and destroyed everyone’s humanity.’

  ‘Don’t be so ungrateful! Your gift came with a price, for everyone!’ he shrieked, the excited energy gone and replaced with anger.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I whispered, a single tear sliding down my cheek as I let go.

  ‘And so you should be, son,’ my father smiled.

  ‘I wasn’t talking to you,’ I spat back.

  Before he could reply, my free hand grabbed the gun at my waist, my head lifted and I fired. My mother dropped to the ground and my heart broke, but I used the pain and moved. I threw myself into the air, almost fifteen feet to the balcony, and smashed through the surrounding glass. My father hit the floor as he jumped backwards and let out a terrified shout.

  I landed firmly, dropped the gun and lifted my blade at his throat.

  ‘Wait!’ he pleaded.

  I hesitated, I’d killed the unwilling monsters above, but could I kill someone who was no less a monster but still human? Could I give up the final straw of my own humanity to stop the spread of his evil?

  ‘Wait,’ he repeated quickly, ‘if you kill me, you’ll never find your sister!’

  That threw me. I blinked and swallowed, he had to be lying.

  ‘You’re bluffing,’ I grunted, grinding my teeth.

  ‘Really?’ Richard whispered baring his teeth in a snarl. ‘Kill me, and you’ll never find out, or did you think you were our only test subject for this particular experiment? You were meant to be, but one can never account for the surprise a set of twins brings.’

  I gaped at him in horror. Whether he was lying I had no idea, but if it was true… My moment of hesitation was enough, he drew something from his pocket, and before I could react, a blinding flash erupted through the room.

  I sprawled backwards and swung my blade through the air. I didn’t hit anything other than myself smacking the floor. I couldn’t hear. It had been the perfect weapon; my keen eyesight and sensitive hearing were blurred and ringing respectively. I stood and squinted through the shifting objects. My father was gone though, and I cursed.

  Once I regained my senses I intended to follow, but a new ringing replaced the old, a high pitched alarm that echoed through the tunnels. A voice slid through the air from some unseen speaker. Its message sent an icy hand up my spine.

  ‘Ten minutes to detonation.’

  The Bomb

  I stood stunned. The news of a potential sibling and the constant voice in the air that counted down was initially too much for my system. My father had vanished and left me in a situation I couldn’t fix. I moved to the flashing screen of his computer, red digits blinked the countdown. A door opened behind me, and a blur of violet raced to my side.

  ‘What the fuck did you do!?’ Bonnie shouted over the noise, aiming her coloured eyes at mine.

  ‘Me?’ I choked.

  She shook her head and grabbed her hair.

  ‘I give you the way out, remove the guards at said way out and you repay me by blowing the place up?’ she fumed.

  I could only gape at her and she sighed angrily.

  ‘I didn’t do this!’ I screamed. ‘My father did!’

  ‘Dammit,’ Bonnie cursed.

  Bonnie shoved me away from th
e screen and sat at the chair, her fingers blurred as she hit the keyboard. I paced behind her, the nonstop ringing painful in my ears. I hoped she was trying to stop this.

  ‘What detonation is it counting down?’ I asked.

  ‘When the tunnels were built by the government they included a failsafe,’ Bonnie replied, but didn’t stop typing. ‘A bomb built into the main foundation of the tunnels in case an experiment became unstable. To contain, remove and clean up their asses. It’s if the doors to the testing facilities down here, the ones like the armoury you ransacked, fail to keep the experiments in, that’s why there isn’t any doors where you guys were hunkered down. If whatever the experiment is gets that far, it’s too late.’

  Shit.

  ‘Can you stop it?’ I panicked.

  She ignored me and continued her task.

  ‘Eight minutes to detonation.’

  Bonnie hit the table hard and swore. She stood, pulled a gun from the holster at her side and opened fire on the computer. She emptied her clip and kept pulling the trigger, the gun clicked. She tossed it to the side, her eyes wide and furious. Out of caution I lifted my gun from the floor and held it tight.

  ‘Come on!’ she said. ‘I can’t stop it from here.’

  She headed down the stairs beside the table, the ones I had been hauled up what seemed weeks ago, but was only days. We sprinted through the dimly lit tunnels, turned corner after corner and raced to somewhere only Bonnie knew. I had the feeling we should be trying to get out.

  ‘Here!’ Bonnie shouted back.

  We had reached a tall and wide room. I’d never seen it before but I wasn’t surprised. It was square and had a doorway on each wall that led God knows where. In the middle was a huge column of stone, the same sandy colour as the walls. Bonnie stopped there and crouched.

  ‘What are we doing?’ I hissed.

  ‘There is only one bomb. We’re at the centre of town, this chunk of rock is the only one that needs to be blown and then the whole town will collapse in on itself,’ Bonnie replied, pulling at a metal grate.