by Jesse Gagnon
The groans startled him, especially the number of them. He heard their heartbeats race faintly in the darkness. He still didn’t hear Brooke’s growl or her heartbeat. A door creaked opened in the far corner opposite that of the window. A man entered the room, but his image was hidden in the darkness. He could hear his heartbeat beating slowly. Randall could see him fine if the sunlight wasn’t overloading his senses. The man walked closer and a hint of sunlight grazed his face revealing a large nose and a mole just above his upper lip. He sported a wicked smile baring a set of rotten teeth. He wore a white lab coat that had a blue ‘T’ on the pocket.
“Put him with the others in cell 20.” The man spoke into a handheld radio. The aroma of his breath smelled like shit.
“On my way.” A voice replied on the radio.
“Good, good. I’ve found another one.” The man gloated and smiled once more while banging the end of his pen on the clipboard. “I’ll see you soon.” He walked away and two men arrived. Before Randall realized that they carried two massive syringes they were pricking him with them. Within minutes he lost consciousness. Before he submitted to the darkness he smelled Brooke’s scent beyond the doors. He faintly heard her grunts before finally entering the dream world. At least now he knows that she is still with him, for now.
He closed his eyes in what seemed like seconds and reopened them again revealing a whole new room. It was filled with roughly a dozen other Azrael within a twenty-foot by forty-foot room. All, including himself, were chained to the walls unable to move more than a foot in any direction. In the center of the cell was some strange bench. The other Azrael seemed defeated. Yet, they all seemed different like him. He grunted and received no response. He grunted again slightly louder. The closest one turned nodded and grunted back. He was separated into a cell with others, like him. This was what he was searching for. Unfortunately, he was chained to the wall of a cell in a place he didn’t know existed. He also needed to get Brooke out of here. This place had a stench to it, a stench of death.
Suddenly a loud buzzing noise echoed throughout the room and the bench in the middle of the cell rose revealing a tunnel that went below. Two men exited the tunnel, stuck two syringes into the arm of an Azrael about a foot taller than Randall. He was wearing a weathered tank top and torn sweat pants. They released the chains and unlocked the locks with a key on a key ring that housed dozens of other keys. They carefully laid the Azrael on a large cart and pushed it down the tunnel. The buzzing noise returned and the center slowly dropped back down exposing the bench in its own state.
The other Azrael were quiet. They listened to what was going on down below. Randall focused his attention in attempts to hear anything beyond quick heartbeats and heavy breathing. After about forty-five minutes of faint growls and bumping sounds, the buzzing noise returned lifting the bench in the air again. Two men pushed the cart carrying a heavily bruised and cut Azrael through the tunnel. It was the same one that they took before. They struggled to get the behemoth upright and chained him up again. After securing the Azrael they pushed the cart back into the tunnel and disappeared back into the hole. The buzzing noise returned and after a few minutes, everything was back to normal.
What’s going on? Randall wished that he could talk to the others. He grunted towards the large Azrael. It didn’t respond. He continued but still received nothing. The others grunted back at Randall and shook their heads trying to tell him something. Randall stopped grunting and listened, watched and studied the others’ actions. This was the time to learn and process what he is and what he could be. The first thing to learn was what was taking place at this site. Why was he there? Where is he? What do they want with him and the other Awakened Azrael? After these questions were answered, then he can worry about retrieving Brooke.
CHAPTER 9 TOKO’S CARE
A calm pulsing noise entered the dark abyss Giselle found herself in. It slowly took shape and became a heart, steadily pumping blood throughout its cavities while thumping. Thump, thump…thump, thump…thump, thump…
Gradually the cadence of the beat quickened and likewise, the heart visually sped up to a racing heartbeat. Its color faded to a bland gray hue. After about thirty seconds the heartbeat stopped and it lay there lifeless.
“Giselle.” A voice entered her mind. Who was it?
“Miss Giselle.” Again the voice returned. The voice was familiar along with its accent.
“Good morning Miss Giselle. It’s time to wake up.” Why does she need to wake up?
“Miss Giselle.” The voice became more firm.
Suddenly the aroma of death and fecal matter surrounded her sense of smell. The hum of some machinery filled the background. Her own heartbeat raced and joined the hum along with a distant breeze whistling through a broken window. The darkness dissipated as a shadowy figure stood close to her. Its features were most assuredly human, or humanlike. It could be an Azrael. Its features became more and more detailed as did everything else around it.
“Miss Giselle, welcome back.” The voice returned. She couldn’t make out the details on the face. Was it coming from it? She focused on its mouth again. The shape morphed and danced until settling into a mouth.
“Miss Giselle, can you speak?” The man spoke. She knew this man.
“I…think…so. Yes, I can speak.” Giselle quavered, but the strain it pressed on her chest was enormous. She could feel some air escaping her lungs from somewhere unnatural.
“Wha…what happened to me?” Giselle asked still stricken with pains in her chest. She tried to move but her body didn’t respond. She licked her lips to see if she could feel it. She could feel it. She tried to move her hand to no avail. Her fingers had no response. She tried to move her legs with the same result.
“Am I…pa…paralyzed?” Giselle stuttered.
“Miss Giselle. It’s important to stay calm.” The Japanese accented voice urged her.
“I’m fu…fucking paralyzed. I can’t stay calm. This is bullshit!” Giselle interrupted.
“I have injected you with a numbing agent directly into your spine at the base of your neck. As a side effect, it causes short term paralysis. You’ve had a very traumatic experience that will take time, even for your body to recover.”
“What happened? Will I be normal again? Well, you know Azraelish normal?”
“In a few days, yes. Your body needs time to recreate tissue that was, eh, lost during the, uh, traumatic experience.”
“Traumatic experience?” Giselle mocked him using an attempted Japanese accent. “What does that even mean? Did I die?”
“Hai, but not soon after, your body restarted itself. It’s what the Azrael virus is good at. However, you are unique so you won’t return as, well, one of them.” The man clarified and directed towards an Azrael that was frantically trying to break the window. Giselle flinched, well from her neck to her head.
“What the shit!”
“Relax, relax, that is bulletproof glass. We are in an old police station. We are secure right here. They cannot get in.” The man attempted to comfort Giselle. She searched the area to verify what the man said. Bodies were all over the place, cut into pieces. It explained the aroma of fecal matter. Azrael body fluid has a shitty scent.
“Well, what about them? That looks…” She smelled the air. “… and smells like fresh blood to me.”
“Ah, very observant. Hai, these were caretakers of our safe house, the police station. When we arrived the place had been overrun and taken over by the Azrael. Fortunately for us, we are smarter than them so we ambushed them from the back entrance and engaged the locks on the doors leading to the front entrance.”
“We?”
“Hai, my brothers of the Veil were with us. They have left for other missions hours ago.”
“So, you use swords to kill them? Why not silenced pistols?”
“We use those too. Though the horde of Azrael on you would have overwhelmed us and there was little room for ranged combat. Once we arrived here, it
was more efficient to cut them down with swords since we had the element of surprise. However, if you look over there…” He pointed to a grouping of three in the back corner. “…those were killed by Kyo. He uses his hands to kill them.”
“You’re fucking lying?”
“No Miss Giselle. Like you, our senses and strength have increased. Kyo was a gifted martial artist who fought in underground mixed martial arts competitions. We are blessed to have such a warrior with us.”
“Well, shit. Why do you guys need me? Why so much trouble over me?”
“You are unique Miss Giselle.”
“Yeah, yeah I was created in the field and you guys were lab rats, blah, blah, blah. Seriously, that’s it?” Giselle interrupted.
“No, uh, you are the only female who has become enhanced with the virus.”
“So you guys want to get me pregnant to see if I’ll make little enhanced babies?”
“No, not exactly. Hai, it does pose a concern for us. What would come out a human body, an Azrael or something like us? But the hormones released within your body negate all adverse effects of the virus. Your body naturally fought off the necrosis event. We have to be given injections of a synthetic chemical to do what your body does naturally on a daily basis or we turn.”
“Into what?”
“Into them.” He directed towards the Azrael beyond the window.
“So, what if you take the injection after you turn?”
“Too late.”
“So your scientists think that there’s something in me that they can replicate for a more permanent solution?”
“Hai. Your recklessness has not helped our cause but we cannot take you against your will to our facility. Our contract with your government states specifically against it.”
“Why don’t you just take some blood and experiment?”
“The enzymes within the blood stream mask your inherent immunity. It is why it has been successful in the first place. And bone marrow can only be taken under consent. We are not sure if the key is hidden within your bone marrow but anything is possible.”
“Can you harvest it here?”
“No, we need to go to our facility to safely remove the marrow and keep the possible immunity chemical intact.”
“That’s where I have a problem. I need to find…”
“Jason.” He interrupted.
“Yes, Jason. How do you know about him?”
“You have been looking for him. You called out to him in your dreams. He was bitten?”
“Yes, he was. But Mario said that he didn’t fully turn. He was somewhat still aware, but when Mario left and came back he was gone.”
“Maybe your friend was mistaken. Maybe he did turn and…”
“He’s my brother. If there is any hope that he is still in there somehow I will do whatever it takes to find him and bring him home. We are blood relatives, maybe he…”
“It is not genetic. It is a mutation to be immune to the virus, like a benign cancerous mutation.” He interrupted.
“I’ve got cancer?”
“It’s a mutation.”
“In any case, I’m not coming to your facility until I find him. You can help me if you want, but I’m not giving up on him.”
“Hai, family is important Miss Giselle. It plays a dominant role in Japanese culture as well. If there is anything I can do to help simply ask.”
“Thank you, uh…”
“Toko, my name is Toko.”
“Thank you, Toko.”
“It is my pleasure.”
“So, how much longer until the paralysis goes away?”
“A few more hours. I’ll make you some soup. I’ll be right back.”
“Okay.”
Giselle wondered what her limitations were. She’d come back from the brink of death multiple times. She’d been careless and destructive with her gifts. She’d been so selfish lately, ignoring all the good that has happened. She’d focused on all the wrong negative shit has been given yet another chance at life. “Don’t fuck it up again Giselle.” She spoke to herself under her breath.
“You say something?” Toko hollered from the other room.
“Nothing.” Nothing, she thought as she wondered how much she had learned about her within the past thirty minutes. The soup in the other room smelled delicious. Tomato soup was her favorite. She closed her eyes, took in the aroma in the room and fell asleep.
“I brought some bread. Didn’t have a toaster to toast but… Sleeping again?” Toko stated and he walked in with the warm soup. “Rest Miss Giselle. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
CHAPTER 10 THE ANTIQUE SHOP
A few blocks from the Paul Simon facility Mario showed Chris the transmission towers which hum, sedating the Azrael and drawing them in. However, the Azrael were gone even though the hum of the lines continued. What changed? Where did they go? The group0 circled the building and found nothing.
“That’s weird.” Savanna broke the silence.
“What’s that?” Chris asked.
“There should be Azrael all over this place. They’ve been drawn here since I can remember.” Savanna responded.
“Well, a lot has changed since the outbreak in Chicago. Maybe the Azrael got the flu and went home.” Chris laughed as he finished his statement. Savanna was not amused.
“They don’t get sick. That’s why they’re winning.” She added.
“They’re not winning Sweetheart. Bastards must have gone somewhere else, that’s all.” John tried to comfort her.
“It’s wrong, all of it. I don’t like it.” She expressed and was uncomfortable with the whole situation.
“Hey check this out.” Mario was on the ground rubbing his hand across a smooth surface in the dirt.
“What’s up Mario?” John asked.
“Looks like tire tracks and footprints over there.” He noticed a grouping of uncountable footprints in the dirt six feet away. “They disappear over here. It’s almost like they were drawn into a vehicle of some type.” Mario seemed puzzled.
“Why would someone do a stupid thing like that?” John asked.
“To study them, kind of like we’re doing.” Chris suggested.
“But we’ve done that before, not in the scale of herding up a whole courtyard full of Azrael though. It’s foolish and stupid to think that they can control these things. The Azrael virus has strong immunities and resistances to sedatives. Whatever they are using might work for now but once the virus figures out a way to defeat the drug then the control that they think they have is over.” Savanna declared.
“The Windsor Project.” Chris interrupted.
“You heard of it?” Savanna asked.
“Yes, I remember hearing chatter about it months ago in the perch…uh, my loft. It was one of the residents in the north building. He worked at the Field Museum and was talking to someone there about how failed experiments in D.C., caused an outbreak a hundred times that of the one we just had in Chicago. Millions lost their lives and joined the Eastern Shore Mega Herd. It wiped out most of the east coast. They were running experiments on captured Azrael on a large scale, trying to find a cure. After a few months, all forms of narcotics aimed at sedation failed. Next thing they knew they had a full scale outbreak that ended most east coast cities from ever functioning again.” Chris recalled with great detail.
“I remember that day, the day we lost the east.” John stated.
“Did you know the scientist?” Savanna asked.
“No, the Eagles Nest has expensive toys that have the potential of violating all constitutional rights. I used them with good reason of course.”
“Good reason?” Mario questioned.
“The man was suspected of stealing and selling proprietary intelligence from the Field Museum. He also smuggled a live Azrael into the museum. Said that he received it from the suits, whatever that meant. I found that out only recently after I purged all of the voice recordings from the Eagles Nest sharedrive that were linked to my account
. I can’t let some information leave the Nest.” Chris explained
“Do you think that it’s the same one from the outbreak?” Mario asked.
“Who knows?” Chris answered.
“So you spied on the citizens?” Savanna asked with disgust.
“I was paid to keep the peace nothing more, nothing less.” Chris admitted.
“A necessary evil to keep humans from destroying themselves.” Mario suggested.
“Do you know if they spied on me?” Savanna asked with annoyance.
“Were you ever suspected of treason or selling information about how to survive the Azrael to the highest bidder?” He asked.
“No.”
“Then I’m sure you were left alone.”
“We knew a lot of information that the citizens didn’t know about, but they were kept private and addressed in a positive way.” John added.
“Same job as mine, just with different information.”
“I guess.” Savanna agreed reluctantly.
“So where is this warehouse?”
“About twenty-five miles to the northeast.” Mario said while reading his map.
“Can we get there before nightfall?” Chris asked.
“Negative, we need to find somewhere to crash for the night about ten miles out.” Mario confessed as he inspected the position of the sun.
“Any safe houses between here and there?” Chris asked.
“Nope. Gotta clear a building and set up watch.” John answered.
“Let’s get moving then.” Chris followed the map’s direction with his finger, figured out his position and headed towards the warehouse in a swift walk.
“This guy’s all business.” Savanna whispered to John.
