I take several of the papers and read through them. It’s a lot of scientific mumbo jumbo, but I comprehend enough to make some sense of some of the experiments. “Looks like they also experimented on full grown…volunteers.”
“Yeah right. Volunteer is code for kidnapped, unwilling victim.” Marcus dwells on how Level 6 had taken him and Cadence to turn them both into BEKs. “No one would volunteer for this crap.”
The turritopsis nutricula jellyfish, or the immortal jellyfish, survives forever, and they used this with several test subjects. Astid keeps reading. They even used babies in these experiments. This is the worst thing I’ve ever heard of. None of them survived. One adult lived for three days, but she had excessive seizures.
“That’s messed up,” Marcus says.
I ask, “Can we use this material to expose them?”
“Who would believe it?” Marcus asks. “People can say it’s a hoax and we made it up.”
Let’s take this with us, just in case. Astid shoves it into her backpack.
“Should I take Yoda’s ear for evidence?” Marcus points to the wall of jars.
I can’t help but laugh. “You’d probably break the glass in your backpack. Then you’d have nasty Yoda ear juice all inside, ruining our pulverized granola bars.”
We exit the lab and search the other rooms, several of which contain only ratty blankets and pillows. One room had bloodstains on the floor and walls, and that didn’t seem to faze any of us. We’ve seen enough weird and gore to last ten lifetimes.
“Do you think the other floors are empty, too?” Marcus leads the way out of the first floor back to the nasty stairway. “Something’s going on. I don’t sense anyone being down here, but damnit if I don’t sense something.”
I follow him down the next flight of stairs. “Either the agents are out of our range, or they are somehow blocking your mental powers.”
Astid remarks, I sense it, too. It’s so vague, but there’s something around here.
The door to the next level down is shut tightly. As soon as Marcus reaches for the key pad, it beeps and pops open.
That’s not creepy or anything. Marcus backs up a little and steadies his gun. “Somebody’s playing us.”
We all scan the area with both our minds and our eyes, but there are no cameras anywhere.
Do you sense anyone or anything? I ask. I feel no one. I search as far as I can, but the only minds I find belong to Astid and Marcus.
Just the vague sensation I’ve been picking up. Astid’s uneasiness grows. Someone wants us to see what’s in here.
That’s it, I’m done. Marcus shakes his head and motions towards me. You go first.
Are you serious? I’m the one with the gimpy arm, and you’re the one with the big ass guns!
Marcus refuses to move.
“So much for our point man,” I say through tight lips.
With my left hand, I push the door open and step through. The hallway looks almost exactly like the one above us, but there is only one door on the level. Cracks line the sold rock wall on the south side. Dark glass windows line the north side with the door in the middle. Marcus tries to look into the glass, but he can’t see anything.
Marcus whispers, “One-way glass?”
I reply with a shrug.
Do either of you feel that? Astid asks. It’s cold.
I place my hand against the glass and it’s like ice. I have a bad feeling about this.
Marcus tugs at my good shoulder. Hey, a Star Wars reference!
Astid stands in front of the locked door and places her hand near the keypad. Just like before, it clicks open. Whatever’s on the other side, be ready for it.
Marcus hikes the gun up and points it in front of him once again. He goes in first, but I sense the fear threatening to seize him. He probably wouldn’t be able to even pull the trigger if he needed to.
The freezing, dark room surrounds us. With a loud buzz, the lights overhead start popping on, starting from the back of this massive space. One row at a time comes on until it finally reaches us, revealing the ice-cold graveyard inside the huge laboratory. Glass coffins house hundreds of bodies, and not all of them appear to be human.
“Shiitake!” Marcus gapes.
We walk down the first row, looking into the misty caskets. I stop next to the one holding a man-creature that looks somewhat reptilian. “Hybrid?”
Astid’s black eyes study the body behind the frosted glass. Chimera. Its body is shaped like a human, but it looks like it’s covered in scales. Perhaps…Astid’s too aghast to even finish her telepathic words to me.
“Mav-Man, I think we hit the jackpot here. If we took pictures of all of this, someone would have to believe us.” Marcus sets down the gun and searches through the front pocket on his backpack. He pulls out our phone. “Damn it! It’s dead.”
I approach the next glass chamber. “I’m not entirely sure anyone would believe the pictures were real anyway. We need a damn video camera, or a news reporter to see it for themselves.” I move onto the third one. It’s a smaller one containing a tiny body. She looks like a perfect young child, sleeping peacefully. “I don’t see anything wrong with her. She looks normal.”
Astid gasps. I remember her. She was one of the kids taken away by Agent Lopez. She was so quiet and scared.
There’s a series of lights on a small control panel on each contraption. “I don’t know how to tell if they’re alive or dead. It looks like they’re dead, but I don’t know.”
Marcus taps on the glass holding the little girl’s body. “Carbon freeze.”
Astid studies the little girl further, placing her hand on the cold glass. “They are all dead,” she says out loud. I would be able to sense their weak life forces, even if their bodies were suspended.
We proceed down the rows, gawking at all the failed experiments Level 6 had put to rest in this giant freezer cemetery. One greenish humanoid I swear has gills. One obviously female body has horns protruding from her head. Level 6 didn’t discriminate. They used women, men, and children of all shapes, sizes, and races.
“If I wasn’t here to see this, I wouldn’t have believed it.” Marcus wipes the condensation away from one of the glass caskets. “They were trying to build an army of monsters.”
It’s all too much to take, and I have to cover my eyes for a moment. “An army of freaks.”
“The ultimate warrior,” a strange voice echoes in the room, startling us.
An older man wearing black rounded glasses stands in the open doorway. “We were trying to build an army of soldiers and assassins with special abilities.”
The man looks like my old Algebra teacher. He’s wearing a maroon sweater and khaki pants. Without saying another word, he calmly moves towards us.
Marcus raises the gun. “One more step, and I will empty this gun into your chest.”
With a steady hand, Astid pushes the rifle away. “Dr. B?”
10
ASTID
DR. B RAISES HIS hands and walks toward us. “You have nothing to fear from me. I disabled the security systems and cameras for you, except for the cameras outside, which that young man,” he motions to Marcus, “so gracefully took out.” He turns his attention to me. “Hello, Astid. It’s good to see you alive and well.”
His thoughts turn to Mother and how much I look like her. It doesn’t take much work to also know he’s speaking the truth about having turned off the security systems.
“What do you want?” I ask.
Regardless of the fact he was kind to us and freed us, he still conducted the experiments on me and the other children. He did unspeakable things to several of the BEKs. I send these thoughts to both Maverick and Marcus so they are aware of the threat. Dr. B takes another step forward.
“That’s far enough.” Marcus points the gun at Dr. B again.
Dr. B stops and drops his duffle bag. “I’m assuming it’s the same thing you all want, considering you’re here of your own free will.”
&nb
sp; He knows Marcus and I can read his thoughts, yet he makes no effort to stop us.
“How did you find this facility?” he asks us.
“We should be the ones asking the questions.” Maverick’s anger is like a flash of lightning in my mind. “I know what kinds of things you’ve done to people like Marcus and Astid.”
I probe further into Dr. B’s mind. “They’re still doing experiments on people and children.” I turn to Dr. B. “What are you doing to them?”
He replies, “I’m not doing anything to them. In fact, I’m no longer privy to that information. You see, Level 6 is after me just as they are after you, Astid.”
Dr. B recollects the day Kren and I escaped. He had been reassigned to a new facility thereafter, only to fail his superiors yet again. Level 6 wanted him dead. He had wiped the computer drives containing all his research and fled with some hardcopy files including top secret information. They’ve been searching for him ever since. Dr. B even left one of the files labeled Project Immutability on the desk for us to find.
He’s telling the truth, I telepathically tell the others.
“What are you doing here, then?” Maverick asks. “You’re in their facility, in their labs, and you want us to believe you’re no longer a part of Level 6?”
Dr. B studies Maverick, wondering how he plays a role in all of this. He’s human, after all. He also doesn’t recognize Marcus, and he is interested to know his story as well. “We haven’t been introduced. Let’s—”
Out of nowhere, piercing sirens blare from all directions.
“They must’ve found the dudes we tied up.” Marcus detects the presence of people in the top bunker first.
“Quick, we need to get out of here.” Dr. B motions for us to follow him. “They will come straight to this floor first.”
Dr. B picks up his bag and runs out of the room. We reluctantly follow. He turns right, toward a rock wall, but then pushes against it and it opens into a narrow corridor. Its walls are made of dirt, as if it was hastily dug out centuries ago, and it’s dimly lit by tiny yellow light bulbs lining the low ceiling. We all race into the space. Dr. B closes it at the exact moment agents flood through the door down the hall. He’s praying they didn’t notice the rock wall moving. Dr. B flashes a light at the ground and races down the path. A dugout hole next to the path seems to lead to an even lower level. He had made sure he could escape from any floor if needed.
As we hurry through the narrow tunnel, I continue to listen to Dr. B’s thoughts. He’s picturing what they’d do to him if he’s caught. After retrieving the information he had smuggled, they would put a bullet through his head. Since turning his back on Level 6, he’s learned a lot about the other experiments outside of his jurisdiction, and if he’s caught, he would never get the chance to right some of his wrongs.
When we reach the end of the hall, we come to a ladder leading up to a leafy cover. Dr. B holds the hidden door open as we climb through and then closes it behind us. We scramble to an area about 150 feet beyond the fences surrounding the facility.
Concealed by the tall trees, we pause as several agents go through the fence and fan out to search the woods with their guns drawn.
“We need to keep moving.” Dr. B grabs a bag from behind a tree stump and leads us through the woods. His emotions calm the further we get away from the Level 6 facility and the agents.
Do you think he’s on our side? Maverick asks.
He’s truly scared of Level 6, I reply. I don’t know what his intentions are, yet, and that bothers me.
We walk through the rough for several miles. All of us hear the rushing of water not too far in the distance. A cave finally comes into sight, and Dr. B leads us into it. He and Maverick enjoy the coolness it provides as they catch their breaths. Dr. B lights a fire with logs that were already in a pile. Cans of food are stacked against one wall.
The sound of a small waterfall reaches my ears. “You have been staying here?”
“Yes. I drove in a few more miles west and left my car at a picnic site. I’m hoping it’s still there.” He arrived a few days ago, and he’s still wondering why his friend never showed up to meet him.
“Who’s your friend?” Maverick asks.
Dr. B’s mouth falls open. “How did you do that?” He moves in closer to him, studying Maverick’s eyes. “Who are you?”
Maverick instantly regrets letting Dr. B in on the fact he had read his mind. He wants to kick himself.
I point to each of them. “This is Maverick and Marcus.”
The name Ronald comes to Dr. B’s mind. He’s also heard about Maverick from Ronald.
Maverick’s mind is running with too many thoughts for me to comprehend. “You knew Ronald?” Without waiting for an answer, he asks him, “Are you Beck? When we got into Ronald’s laptop, we saw he was going back and forth with someone named Beck.”
“Yes, I’m Beck.” Dr. B’s face blanches. He’s hoping Ronald is okay, but he’s assuming the worst. He knows if Ronald was alright, he’d probably be here right now. “And yes. I’m a friend of Ronald’s.”
“You have been trying to…find all of us?” I ask. BEKs had killed poor Ronald’s wife and son, and finding the Black-Eyed Kids had become his obsession. “You and Ronald worked together to keep track of us?”
“Yes. Ronald knew the dangers, but he was dedicated. I’d also been trying to keep tabs on Level 6 operations and movements as best I could, but that was nearly impossible without someone on the inside to help me. Ronald was my man on tracking the locations of BEK pods.” Dr. B’s head droops. “Is he…dead?”
Maverick knows Dr. B is sincerely upset. “Yes. I’m sorry.”
“How?” Dr. B looks as if tears threaten to escape from his eyes.
The three of us don’t know how to answer. I step forward before Maverick can speak. “Ronald sacrificed himself for all of us. He was a hero.”
Dr. B’s legs weaken, so he leans against the cave wall. “Like I said, he was dedicated. If you knew him, then you probably know his story. After his wife and son were killed, he wasn’t satisfied with what the authorities had told him.” He sits down on the cool ground. “I brought him into the fold, yet I was never fully honest with him.”
Maverick goes to sit down next to him. “How’s that?”
“Ronald and the others never knew I had been with Level 6. I kept them in the dark about all of that. All he had were theories about the so-called Black-Eyed Children, but I knew the truth. I felt as if I had to protect him and the others. The truth would have been too terrible.” He glances at me with a weak smile. “I never told him all but just a select few were created in a laboratory.”
Marcus weakly kicks a rock. “Yeah, I know what that’s like.”
“You intrigue me,” Dr. B says to Marcus. “What’s your story?”
“Level 6 captured me to help lure Maverick and Astid out of hiding,” he replies. “They implanted a little gadget in me to control me. For some reason, it didn’t completely work. Maverick was about to get killed, and I was able to break their hold on me.”
Maverick adds, “Maybe it has something to do with him being such a pothead.”
The three of them chuckle, but I don’t fully understand what’s so funny. “Marcus, in fact, saved Maverick’s life.”
“Yeah, but I had to kill the most beautiful girl in the world.” Marcus can’t help but imagine Cadence’s gorgeous face. “Level 6 changed her, too.”
Maverick lets out a pitiful groan as he leans back.
“What’s wrong with you?” Dr. B asks him.
“One of your lab creatures dislocated my shoulder. Marcus here popped it back into place, but it’s swollen and feels like it’s on fire.”
Dr. B nods. “I can help you with that. We’ve got some high tech medical equipment in one of the bunkers, but we’ll need to wait. It’s too hot back there with agents on high alert looking for you.” He squints both eyes at Maverick. “So you can read minds?”
Maverick
reluctantly nods.
“Fascinating. You’re a true-blue psychic?”
“I wasn’t born this way, if that’s what you’re asking,” Maverick replies. “Kren was in the middle of sucking my life force, but thank God, it was interrupted. Ever since then, I’ve been able to not just read people’s minds, but talk to Marcus and Astid telepathically.”
“Now that is an amazing story.” Dr. B wants to interrogate Maverick about his abilities, but he decides not to. “The interruption of energy flow…transference…hmm…”
I move toward Dr. B and crouch down so we’re eye to eye. “I have so many questions.”
“Oh, I’m sure you do. And I’ve got some for you too.” Dr. B looks me straight in the eyes. “Speaking of Kren, where is he?”
Marcus actually gasps, and Maverick is about to answer for me, but I mentally tell him to remain silent.
“After you let us escape, I vowed to never consume another life again. Kren disapproved. He and a few of the others continued to kill. They could not resist the hunger, but I had to. Eventually, I confronted Kren, and he tried to kill Maverick. But now, I do not know where he is.”
Dr. B examined my face. “You haven’t absorbed another life force since leaving Level 6? Extraordinary! You should be—”
“Dead?” My knees shake. “I was able to sustain myself on human food, but I continued to weaken. Kren did force me to take a human’s life.” I turn to see Maverick staring at the ground. “He would have killed Maverick had I not. Ronald offered himself up to me.”
“I see.” Dr. B’s eyes widened before closing.
I didn’t need the ability to read his mind to know Dr. B was filled with guilt.
Maverick says, “Astid explained some of the things that were going on at Level 6. She talked about how you tried to create a new army of soldiers with all these abilities, but Kren and Astid are different, though. They were born like this. Did their mom carry some kind of weird soul-sucking genes?”
Dr. B struggles to find the right words. His feelings for Mother resurface, and he is working very hard to keep his emotions from getting the best of him.
Black-Eyed Kids: The Complete Series Page 32
