EXPERIMENT

by Cyma Rizwaan Khan

  The man hit Connor and Connor reeled. He tried to hit back but the man had a gun pointed in Jace’s direction. “He’s going to die,” the man said. “If you try anything.”

  “What do you want?” Jace asked.

  “I’ll tell you what I want,” the man said. “I want revenge from the man who is murdering people in the name of revolution.”

  “Jace isn’t the villain,” Connor said. “You must know that. He’s all about peace. He hasn’t hurt anyone.”

  “My sister was killed in one of his peaceful riots!” the man yelled. “So don’t presume to tell me who this man is! He’s a monster!”

  “You’re wrong,” Connor said. “You’re wrong about the riots.”

  “Wrong?” the man said. “How am I wrong?”

  “Because Jace wasn’t the one who got those people killed,” Connor said, unsure where he got the sudden strength from. Maybe he couldn’t stand to see Jace get hurt and knew he had to do something. Especially after all the wrong things he had done, Connor wanted to do something right. “I know that because it was me! I caused the riot that day, not him. So you need to leave him alone.”

  Jace stared at Connor, unbelieving. “You caused the riots?” he said.

  “I’m sorry,” Connor said. “I didn’t even know you then. And it wasn’t like I did it because I needed something out of it, I did it because my boss gave me the job.”

  Looking at Jace’s face, Connor couldn’t tell if that made any difference to him, but for a minute the crazy man waved his gun at Connor instead of Jace.

  “You’re lying,” the man said, pointing the weapon at Jace again. “You’re both lying! I know it! You’re doing it to save your damn leader! I don’t buy it!” And Connor saw the man’s finger pressing the trigger and he rushed to cover Jace, and pushed him to the ground but it was too late. The gunshot rang in the air, and Connor’s hands were bloody from Jace’s gunshot wound. The man saw this and ran. For a second, Connor was tempted to run after him, but the way Jace was, he knew he couldn’t leave him alone.

  “Hey,” he said. “Jace…stay with me, man. I’m going to get you help, you hear me?”

  Jace pointed his bloody hand to the camera shifting on the wall. It was the first time Connor realized it was even there. “The camera? What about it?”

  But Jace was having trouble speaking. Finally, he coughed, and it was nothing but blood but it gave Jace a chance to speak. “I nominate you,” he said the words clearly. “Connor…Volze…I nominate you to be the leader after me.”

  “What? Jace no…no one’s dying here!” Connor tried to get up but Jace wouldn’t let him. His grip tightened over Connor’s arm. “Please. Emily…kids…”

  “No harm’s going to come to them I promise.”

  In a matter of seconds, Jace Dyer was gone.

  CHAPTER 22

  THE KING IS DEAD

  Everyone was still reeling from Jace’s death a few days back. But the world had to go on and the war hadn’t stopped so there was nothing to do but to keep going. That’s what Connor knew Jace would have wanted. Everyone had accepted him as their new leader and Connor was having trouble assuming that kind of responsibility. But Jace had trusted him with this, and he couldn’t betray that confidence. Worst, was watching Emily and the kids. The children loved Jace and the way they kept crying over and over again at the funeral, it made Connor want to do something, not just for them, but for the rest of the group. Their morale was incredibly down, and for this reason, Connor tried to keep everyone working and doing their jobs, he wanted to make sure Dyer’s people, who were now his people, knew they were in good hands. He would have done anything to make that possible.

  He watched Lane standing by their car, all alone and he looked unwell. In all the Jace business, Connor had been neglecting Lane. “Hey,” Connor said. “The fever hasn’t broken yet?”

  “Not yet,” Lane said, wiping his nose with a tissue.

  “What did Natalie say?”

  “That I need to lie down,” Lane said. “She thinks rest might help.”

  “And yet you’re here instead of back home.”

  “I feel good around these people,” Lane said. “Feel like I know them. And this gives me something to do. I don’t like going back home just to lie down.”

  “Look,” Connor said. “We’ll go back home now. Take the night off. Come back tomorrow. You can do that at least?”

  “You’ll come with me?” Lane asked. “What about these people? Don’t they need you?”

  “They can take care of themselves for one night,” Connor said, and went over to the driver’s side.

  *

  Connor could hear Lane coughing from his room and went to check up on him. “Lane?” the room was empty and Lane was standing in the bathroom in a pair of shorts, the door open and the coughing had turned even worse than before. Connor placed a hand on his brother’s forehead and the fever looked like it had increased. Lane had a coughing bout again and when Connor saw the sink, it was bloody. “Okay, this can’t be good,” he said. “Put some clothes on, we’re going to Natalie now.”

  “Connor we can go in the morning.”

  “I don’t want any arguments,” Connor said, getting out of the bathroom. “Get dressed and come downstairs.”

  *

  All the drive back to the hideout, Lane started shivering badly but at least the coughing fits had stopped. Connor helped him walk to the infirmary and Lane sat down on the patient’s chair. “He was coughing up blood,” Connor told Natalie. “I thought I should bring him here.”

  “You were right to do that,” Natalie said, and started checking Lane’s vitals. “Are you feeling sicker?” she asked Lane. “Be honest. Did the medicines make you feel any better at all?”

  “No,” Lane confessed.

  “You couldn’t have told me that two days ago?” Connor said.

  “You guys had actual problems,” Lane said. “I didn’t want to load this on you.”

  “Lane, I need you to lie down,” Natalie said, getting up and helping Lane to the exam table. “Do you have any pain?”

  “My bones hurt,” Lane said. “And there’s a pain here,” Lane pointed to his side. “It gets really bad sometimes.”

  “I’ll run some tests,” Natalie said, bringing over a syringe and some vials and drawing blood. “Just take it easy.”

  *

  “He’s getting worse,” Natalie said. Connor went to check on his brother. “Lane?” he placed a hand over Lane’s forehead which was burning up still, and Lane mumbled something but it was nothing coherent. Connor looked at Natalie. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “I don’t know,” Natalie said. “I’ve given him everything I could possibly think of, but the fever won’t go down. There’s an infection circulating in his bloodstream but I don’t know what it is, I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Sir?” Jean said, interrupting their discussion.

  “What is it, Jean?” Connor asked.

  “It’s the captive, Sir. She’s been saying some strange things, I thought you should know.”

  “I’m a little busy now Jean, can’t this wait?”

  “Sir, this has to do with your brother.”

  “My brother?”

  “Sir, I think she knows what’s wrong with him.”

  Aana was smart. She must have figured out there was something going on with Lane and now she was playing another one of her tactics. “Okay, I’ll be right there.”

  *

  “What is it Aana?” Connor asked.

  Jean took the duct tape off Aana’s mouth so she could speak. “Your brother’s not doing so well is he?” Aana asked the minute the tape was off.

  “How did you know?”

  “Because I could hear him screaming,” Aana said. “The infirmary’s right above this place, didn’t you notice genius?”

  “What did you want to tell me?”

  “I wanted to tell you your brother’s sick.”

  “You
called me all the way down here to tell me something I already know?”

  “You can’t find what’s wrong with him, can you?” she said with a smug grin. “With any luck, you’ll never find out.”

  “Aana,” Connor said. “I know you. The minute you think something can work in your favor you take advantage of it. You use it to play games and I’m sick of it. Don’t dare call me or next time it won’t be Jean you’re going to be afraid of.”

  “Necrotizing fasciitis,” Aana said before he could leave. “Ever heard of it?”

  “No.”

  “It’s a kind of flesh eating virus,” Aana said. “But not just any flesh eating virus, Connor. Your brother is the carrier for the most dangerous form of that virus, especially designed to rot his insides faster than you can imagine.”

  Connor grabbed her throat and tightened his grip but told himself it wouldn’t be the right thing to do. Even if there was a one percent chance that she was right, they would need her. He left her with Jean and without a response, started walking back to the infirmary.

  *

  Lane was screaming in pain by the time Connor went back to the infirmary. Connor went up to the exam table and tried to comfort him while Natalie prepared a syringe. “I’m giving him something for the pain,” she said. “It’s getting worse.”

  She administered the shot and Connor waited. When Lane finally looked like he had gone to sleep, Connor turned to Natalie. “Aana says she knows what’s wrong with him” he said. “She claims it’s a flesh eating virus.”

  “How does she have that information?”

  “I don’t know,” Connor said. “For all we know she’s making it up.”

  “I don’t think she’s making it up Connor,” Natalie said, and uncovered a portion of Lane’s shirt to give a view of his flank. The skin looked raw, as though someone had chewed through it.

  It made Connor nauseous. “Is there a cure?”

  “I just remembered something.”

  “What?”

  “The annihilation of the Anzoftians on their home planet,” she said. “Do you know how the virus spread? They created a patient zero, let him go about in the populace. No one knew what it was that got to them until entire families were puking their guts out. The Khaltars never had to lift a finger, they just let an entire town to rot and stepped on the land when there was nothing but dead bodies and decomposing flesh. Afterwards, they sprayed something over the area that killed the remaining victims and made the air safe again. Now they’ve got an entire planet in their hold and no humanoids. They just relocated Khaltar populations from their home planets and acted like it was nothing.”

  “You’re saying Lane’s patient zero?”

  “Remember he kept talking about the experiments they did on him?” Natalie said. “What if that’s what they were doing? What if they planted him with a virus?”

  “But how was he okay for this long?” Connor said. “Wouldn’t the virus have showed up on tests? Professor Chandler did all kinds of tests on him, he found nothing.”

  “That’s the part I can’t figure out.”

  “So if Aana is right, and she knows something about this maybe she can tell us more,” Connor said. “I’ll go talk to her. Figure out what it is she wants this time.”

  “I’ll call Professor Chandler,” Natalie said. “Maybe he knows something.”

  *

  “Okay Aana,” Connor said. “You got my attention. Now tell me what you want.”

  “Want?” Aana laughed. “You think I want something?”

  “Come on Aana, everything with you is a business transaction. You get something you give something that’s how it works with you, isn’t it? So just tell me what you want, and we can both get on with our lives.”

  “You know what Connor,” Aana said. “I used to think you were a decent guy. Until you put me here and tortured me for weeks! And now, when I know for a fact that I can ruin you, you think I give a shit about anything else? You want to know what I want, fine I’ll tell you. I want to see you suffer.”

  “Your fight is with me why do you have to involve my brother?”

  “Don’t you get it, Connor?” Aana said. “The future of this world is in your brother’s hands. Well, technically it’s his veins but you get the drift.”

  Connor started to leave when Aana called out. “Your brother’s going to die Connor,” she said. “And there’s nothing you can do about it.”

  *

  “I talked to Professor Chandler,” Natalie said when Connor went back. Lane was still asleep. “He knows what virus Aana’s talking about. I told him Lane’s symptoms, he says the virus is new but he can try making the antidote.”

  “Connor?” They heard Kevin’s voice.

  “Where were you?” Connor asked.

  “I’m sorry I was working with the guys,” Kevin said. “What’s going on?”

  “It looks like Lane has been infected with a flesh eating virus,” Connor told him. “He’s patient zero. Aana knew about it all along.”

  “They wanted it this way,” Kevin said. “They wanted us to save him. We thought we were playing Aana, but she was the one playing us!”

  “What I don’t understand is, if the virus was inside him, how could he survive this long without any complications?” Connor asked. “Why is it coming up now?”

  “The Professor has a theory about that too,” Natalie said. “He thinks the virus might have been planted on him in the form of a chip. It might be scheduled to release the virus at a future time, instead of releasing it right away. He thinks it would be best to deactivate the chip and destroy it.”

  “How do we do that?”

  “Well we locate the chip first,” Natalie said. “The Professor has a piece of equipment he says we can use but someone has to go get it. The antidote too.”

  “I’ll go,” Kevin said.

  “I’ll keep an eye on Lane,” Natalie said and walked away.

  “You should go,” Connor said to Kevin. “Get the device and the antidote.”

  “Sure,” Kevin said. “But can I talk to you for a second?”

  Connor walked out of the room. “What is it?”

  “I’m so sorry about this,” Kevin said. “He doesn’t deserve what’s happening to him.”

  “Nor do the rest of us,” Connor said.

  “Will you stop talking like The Leader for one second?”

  Connor went quiet. In his mind, he could see his brother’s body being eaten by some virus and he tried to push the image away but it wasn’t working. “He’s just a kid,” Connor said. “They forced this war on him, Kevin! On us! How fucked up do you have to be to inject a kid with a flesh-eating virus!”

  “He’s not going to be the only one, if we don’t fight back.”

  “We will fight back,” Connor said. “We were always going to fight back, but now, we have no choice.”

  “Hey,” Kevin said, placing his hand on Connor’s shoulder. “Lane is strong. He’ll get through this. You know how he was when he was a kid? He’d eat everything he could get his hands on! And he was always out searching for critters! He once put a lizard in his mouth and got away with it, that virus isn’t going to do anything to him.”

  Connor smiled at the memory, but the tears came too from out of nowhere and Kevin hugged him. “He’s going to be fine,” Kevin said. “The antidote will work. When has something from Professor Chandler not worked? He’s going to fix Lane. This is going to be over soon, and we’ll all go show those alien bastards and their Zyronian counterparts what it means to be at war.”

  *

  There was silence in the infirmary, nothing except the beeping of machines and Lane’s shallow breathing. After a lot of debate Connor had convinced Natalie to get some rest, even if it was for a couple of hours. Kevin still wasn’t back from the lab, and Connor had time to think. His mind was all over the place, and there was too much going on. He remembered his parents, who died in an accident and the ones who still believed in superstition call
ed the brothers lucky because they had been saved. But now Connor was wondering if they were right at all to use the word lucky. His brother had been tortured in prison cells and science labs for over a year and now he might be the one to bring extinction to his species. How was that lucky? Connor had never thought of Lane as a brother, always as a child of his own, so how was it fair that he had to sit and watch while all this happened, and with the knowledge that it was out of Connor’s hands. He had been overprotective of Lane to the point where Lane couldn’t handle things on his own most of the time, but that had never been a problem because Connor had assumed he would always be there. But nothing could have prepared him for this. He doubted he would have done it differently if he had known it was happening, but he was just angry at the unfairness of it all.

  Lane stirred on the exam table, and Connor went over to him. When he saw Lane’s eyes were open he was a little relieved. “Con?” Lane said. His voice was strained, but coherent.

  “Hey,” Connor said, trying not to show how thrilled he was. “How’re you feeling?”

  Lane’s face was sweaty and it was obvious it was hurting him just to talk. “The pain,” he said. “Can’t they give me something?”

  “Natalie said she’s pumped you as full of painkillers as she could, I don’t think she can give you any more.”

  “Am I going to die?”

  “No Lane,” Connor said. “Kevin’s gone to get the antidote for the virus, you’ll be fine.”

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  “Don’t worry about that right now.”

  “You need to tell me if I’m dying,” Lane said. “I deserve to know.”

  “You’re not going to die,” Connor said, and wondered who he was trying to convince. “Please don’t talk that way.”

  Lane fell silent but Connor could tell he was still awake. They sat like that for some time, Connor holding Lane’s hand.

  “I’m sorry,” Lane said, after a while.

  “Lane, this isn’t your fault.”

  “I’m sorry for what you have to deal with.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” Connor said. “I’m fine. You need to focus on getting better.”