Now out in the corridor, Scott whispered to John, “I’m going to take you to my office, there are no cameras in there. We can talk freely, and I can fill you in on what’s about to happen. For now, you need to look like my prisoner.”
The pair began to walk again, and for effect, John started to pull against his brother’s grip, to give the cameras a good show.
When they got back to Scott’s office, he opened the door and pushed John roughly inside, then made sure the door was shut behind them.
“Sit down, John,” Scott said as he walked to his desk. He reached for the termination order and handed it to the older man. “Read it.”
John took the piece of paper from Scott’s hand and opened it up. He read for a bit, then looked up, his eyes wide in obvious disbelief.
“You can’t let this happen, Greg,” John said, the colour draining from his face. “They can’t kill us...and that poor girl; What has she done to deserve this kind of treatment.”
“That ‘poor girl’ is turning into one of the most powerful things I have ever seen.” Scott retaliated. “She could kill someone with the swipe of her right hand. I intend to get you all out of here, so don’t concern yourself about the content of that notice.” He took the letter from John’s hand and placed it back on his desk.
“I will prepare for your departure within the week. Be ready.”
John nodded.
“And please keep it to yourself, I don’t want the wrong people getting wind of the fact that I intend to help you escape.”
Scott pushed himself away from his desk and gestured for John to stand up. He grabbed his arm by the elbow again and opened the door. They remained silent as Scott led John back to the dorm.
CHAPTER 12
On the third and final day of Hyde’s starvation period, Judd sat and gazed upon Miller’s red raw, blistered body from his console. He liked watching Miller suffer. For hours, he’d played with the climate control in the blackout cell. Miller was nearly ready for what the captain had in store for him. The skin would be soft enough. Tender. Judd turned the monitor to Hyde’s cage and watched as she sagged in the corner. She looked close to death. The forced starvation had taken hold. He watched as a guard pushed a bottle of water through the bars and Hyde tried to reach it. The bottle was just beyond her grasp. Judd zoomed in. The look on Hyde’s face suggested to him that she was in panic mode. Desperate. He smirked to himself as he watched his subordinates laughing at her.
Judd reached for the comm and held the button.
“Stop teasing the animal. She’s to have no water.”
JUDD HAD LEFT THE CONFINES of his office and headed toward Clark’s to report on the Miller situation. The captain smiled to himself, took a deep breath and knocked.
“Enter.”
Judd was greeted by an expectant-looking major.
“Hyde is at a critical starvation level, sir.” Judd said flatly.
The corners of Clark’s mouth curled slightly.
“This is good news,” he said, “When will you be ready to dispose of our guest properly?”
“I’m softening him up now, sir,” Judd responded.
“Good. Inform me when you are ready.”
“Very good, sir.” Judd saluted and left.
SCOTT HAD LEFT THE confines of his office and headed toward the cell block, opened the difficult door and walked to Marcus’ enclosure, opened the eye level and peered down. Marcus was awake, laying in only his pants and socks. The man’s red, puffy eyes met with Scott’s as he lingered at the door.
“What do you want?” Marcus asked, his tone flat and indifferent.
“The time is close. I need you ready to come to our lab in a short while. Get dressed. I’ll be back.”
The eye level shut again, and Scott headed back toward his office. But this time he stopped to look in on the girls.
Aggie was the one to look up first. Her brow creased slightly as she stared pleadingly at Scott.
“You have nothing to fear from me, girl. I’m your friend, not your enemy.”
“What does that even mean?”
“You’ll find out soon enough. I suggest you and your sleeping friend there be ready to leave at a moment’s notice.”
SAT AT HIS DESK, JUDD hit the comm.
“Jenkins. Kirk. I want to see you both, now.”
Minutes later, the two men from the training room appeared through the already open door. They stood to attention.
“Sir?”
“Come with me. Hyde needs feeding.”
He didn’t miss that the two men exchanged an apprehensive glance, then followed him from the room
“Fed, sir?” one questioned.
“Yes...fed, Jenkins. Now, no more questions. Get miller and throw his corporate arse in with Hyde.”
Judd was amused when Jenkins turned to Kirk and said nothing. He didn’t need to. His face painted the perfect picture; a mixture of disbelief and delighted horror. The two men went, leaving Judd, who then turned his attention to the console that displayed the room where Miller was being held.
JENKINS AND KIRK HAD arrived outside the blackout cell. Once the door had been opened, the pungent smell of seared flesh, piss and shit hit the two men head on. Vomit raced up their throats, and it was all they could do to hold onto the contents of their stomachs.
“Jesus wept, why do we get all the shit jobs?” Jenkins mumbled to himself as he entered the room. Kirk followed behind, pinching his nose.
“Should we clean him up first?” Kirk asked as they loosened the restraints.
“What’s the point? He’ll be dead soon enough.”
They lifted the barely conscious man up and placed his soiled backside on the wheelchair for transportation to the training room. His hands were drawn tightly around the back of the chair and fastened in the restraints, then his feet were fitted in the steel boot restraints that were attached to the foot rests. Jenkins wheeled the condemned man out of the cell, followed closely by Kirk.
CHAPTER 13
Judd looked at his beaten-up wrist watch, and then at the door. He’d expected Jenkins and Kirk to be here already.
He looked at Hyde, his expression, blank and emotionless.
“You’ll be fed soon.”
The sound of squeaking wheels and a putrid smell alerted Judd to Miller’s arrival. He turned to see the broken body of the man who had become a scapegoat. Had it not been for the company that he worked for, Hyde would not be going through the caver transition, and he wouldn’t be paying the price. The scaling had spread further to the left on her face and body. The talons on her right hand had grown longer, and Judd feared that they would cut through the cage eventually.
“Kirk, run and get the diazepam injection. She may look weak, but she can still have your hand away...and drag Scott out of his office, he should be here, and tell him to bring a recording device...hurry.”
“Yes, sir,” Kirk acknowledged as he left the room, running.
Judd looked down on the sorry-looking mess that was left of Quentin Miller and sneered at him before reaching down to pull the cloth out of his mouth. Miller gasped for breath and hacked out a violent, dry cough. He looked at Judd incredulously and shook his head.
“W-why?” His voice was raspy, and just about audible.
“Oh, Miller, you know why. You insisted in trying to get in the way of our progress, and for that you need to pay. We can’t have you undermining us at every turn. Surely, you realised that there would come a point where we would need to erase the problem, and that time has come...Now, I’m going to put this rag back in your mouth, as I don’t particularly want to hear you scream.” Miller’s eyes filled with terror as Judd rammed the cloth back in his mouth and wheeled him closer to the bars.
“See her? Your company commissioned her creation...and how fitting it would be if you met your maker by her hand.... or should I say, claw. That is what I would call sweet revenge. Don’t worry, she won’t kill you straight away, she’ll be too dosed up to
know that you are in there with her to start. But as soon as she is fully coherent, say goodbye to this world.”
By now, Judd saw Hyde seemed to have noticed the struggling Miller. Muffled screams filled the room, which made Hyde more alert to what was going on around her. She struggled but managed to sit up. She stared at Miller and looked him up and down, licking her lips with anticipation. The genetic cannibal and her victim just stared at each other, but then the moment was broken by Kirk re-entering the room with Scott, who held on to a small recording device with white knuckles. Kirk held out the syringe for Judd to take and went to open the door. Judd readied the needle and entered the cell.
“Get your rifle ready, Kirk... shoot her if she makes a move.”
Judd approached Hyde as if she were a wild animal. It only took a few moments after he had administered the shot for the extra strong dose of diazepam to take effect. Hyde became limp and fell to the side, giving Judd the perfect opportunity to relieve her of the chains. They clanged as they fell to the floor and Judd noticed Miller flinch.
“Wheel in our guest,” Judd said, a twisted, sick smile tracing his lips as he gestured to the near corner of the cell. “Put him over there.”
Jenkins wheeled Miller in, placed him in the closest corner, and locked the wheels of the chair. From that point on was a waiting game. The drugs would take at least three hours to wear off, which gave Miller an agonising respite. His breathing became laboured. Death was upon him.
MILLER COULD FEEL HIS eyelids getting harder to hold open. A need to sleep hit suddenly, and Hyde was still in her drug induced coma for the time being. But dare he close his eyes? Would Hyde kill him in his sleep? No sooner had the thought crossed his mind he realised how silly it sounded. Of course, she wouldn’t, she would want her victim fully conscious while she toyed with him.
He spent, what would be his final hours, pondering his bad decisions and life choices, and wondered if anyone within the consortium would realise he had been gone longer than he should. Why should he be the one to pay for the consortium’s greed? His mind flashed back to a time that didn’t involve the work he did for the consortium. A time of joy and happiness. A time from his youth. Everything came forward in his mind as he tried to block out anything related to his current situation - and then Hyde stirred.
CHAPTER 14
Once her vision had come back, she instantly recognised Miller as the man that had told her of her true origins. The man who had told her that her whole life was nothing but a lie. She glanced at Scott, who stood the other side of the bars with his recording device, ready to catch every little detail of the death scene that was about to play out, and watched as another man entered the room, Major Clark, her commander.
Judd saluted the new arrival to the scene.
“You’re just in time, sir.” he said as the major took his position in front of the cage.
“Let’s see what she’s got.” Clark folded his arms across his chest and waited.
A tide of anger rushed through Hyde’s body as she stood over her helpless victim. She looked outside the cage again and saw Judd smirking. She gestured her intentions for him by swiping her index finger across her throat. She could smell his fear, though he didn’t show it.
Hyde slowly ran her human fingers over Miller’s naked, blistered chest. With every stroke she could feel herself fighting the urge to rip this man apart. Yes, she was angry, and to the point of starvation, but she wanted to fight her ever increasing caver mentally.
Why are they making me do this? I don’t want to kill this man.
So hungry.
He’s human. I can’t.
But I’m so fucking hungry!, And they will kill me if I don’t.
Her thoughts ate away at her soul as she looked down at the man she’d be forced to kill. In the end, she’d rather do their bidding than face a bullet to the brain.
Hyde knew they wanted her to make this man suffer, but she was not about to play their game. She struck fast and deadly, her talon peering between his ribs and into his heart. The body jerked a few times and then was still. She lengthened the slit in Miller’s chest, then jabbed her hand into his stomach and pulled his insides out. But there wasn’t much to pull out, barely enough to satisfy her hunger.
“I didn’t say you could kill him,” Judd snarled and gestured for Jenkins to aim his rifle at her head again, but Clark soon put paid to the idea.
“Don’t you dare pull that trigger, private. Lower your rifle. She stays alive.”
JUDD NOTICED THAT SCOTT had almost choked on his own vomit, watching the disgusting scene. Then he watched as Hyde took a tentative mouthful of Miller’s stomach content. Miller’s death was a bit of an anti-climax, and one that Major Clark wasn’t entirely satisfied with.
“She needs more work, Judd....see to it,” he said as he walked toward the door to exit. “Torture the caver out of her if you have to.”
Judd called Scott over.
“I hope you got everything with that camera of yours, Scott?” Judd seethed. “I would hate to think that we’d carried out this little experiment without recording it. The consortium need to see that we are making progress with her.”
“I got everything, sir. I shall transfer the material to a disc.” Scott headed out of the room.
Both Jenkins and Kirk followed behind, leaving Judd to watch over Hyde while she ate. He was fascinated by her caver nature. He wanted to bring it to fruition and revelled in the thought of being able to use torture to extract the caver element fully. He didn’t trust Scott to do it, or anyone for that matter. It was his job, and he was going to enjoy doing it. It was his thing.
He watched curiously, as Hyde took a bite from the larynx that she had stuck to her talon. She sucked on it like chicken giblets, getting all the meat from out of the cracks, then threw it in the corner. Hyde’s expression turned from one of satisfaction, to revulsion. The grimace was the telling feature.
Hyde concluded her feeding frenzy. Blood covered most of her body and face. Loose flesh had stuck in her teeth and her sandy brown hair now bore flecks of red. The floor of the cage was awash with blood and entrails. Miller’s half-eaten body remained clamped to the chair, his hands and feet crushed by the restraints. His eyes remained fixed in a death stare, and his mouth agape. Hyde stared blankly at Miller’s body, then flopped to the ground, placed her head in her hands, and sobbed.
CHAPTER 15
The two privates, Jenkins and Kirk had been summoned to Major Clark’s office. They stood at ease in front of his desk as he stared off into the distance, hardly acknowledging them. Jenkins cleared his throat to try and gain Clark’s attention, but it hadn’t worked.
“Sir?”
Clark snapped out of his trance and stared at the two men.
“Clean the training room and dispose of what’s left of the body. When you get back, I want you to eradicate all the witnesses to what we have just seen...Hyde, Judd, Scott...everyone. The consortium will retaliate against Miller’s death when they see the footage. I don’t want anyone alive who can place the blame on me for any of this. Is that clear?” He looked from one man to the other. “You will get promotion, both of you.”. The two men looked at each other and saluted their superior before leaving to carry out their orders.
“SCOTT NEEDS TO KNOW what’s going on,” Jenkins said as he turned to Kirk. “He needs to know what Clark is up to. I, for one have no intention of carrying out that evil old bastard’s orders. He can shove his promotion up his arse. I didn’t sign up for this shit, and neither did you.”
The two men headed toward Scott’s office to report what they had been told to do. At the pace they were going, it didn’t take long to get there. Jenkins banged his fist to the door.
“Sarge! We need a word.”
He waited for a response.
“Come in,” Scott said calmly as the door swung open. “What is it?”
“I thought you’d like to know what we’ve just been told to do, you’re not going to like
it.”
There was a short pause.
“Come on man, spit it out.” Scott ground out.
“We were given orders to clean out the killing room, that bit I don’t mind. But when we are asked to kill everyone who witnessed Miller’s murder. I’ll call it that, because that is what it was...cold blooded murder, then I object. I thought you might like to know what had been planned behind your back, and to let you know that we have no intentions of carrying out further unnecessary killings.”
Scott smiled.
“Thank you for bringing that to my attention.” He looked at both men briefly, then spoke again. “I’m glad you’re here, actually. I need you to restrain Judd and take him to one of the blackout cells. You have earned my trust in the couple of weeks I have been here, and I’m going to share something with you, are you in?”
“Sarge?” Jenkins felt a wave of confusion hit him. “What is it?”
“I’m here for a reason, and isn’t for what you expect...”
SCOTT HEADED TOWARD the dorms in the hope of finding John. He thought about what he was going to tell him. What he had been forced to undertake. As far as he was concerned, he carried out Judd’s orders. A decision that he was beginning to regret, as he had become instrumental in an innocent man’s death. It was the fact that Judd had to use Hyde as the execution method that perplexed him. A bullet to the brain would’ve been more humane. No execution at all, would’ve been preferable... but Judd was a sadistic fuck, who revelled in other people’s misery.
Scott finally arrived at his brother’s accommodations. Slowly, and with much trepidation, he entered. John sat on the end of his bunk, his gaze fixed on Scott as he approached.
Hyde's Lament_A Dark Novella Page 5
