Scarlet Memories (Book 2): Metamorphosis

by Jessica T. Ozment

  “He must be having a seizure.” Jeremy guessed. The least that Jeremy could do would be to put him out of his misery.

  Jeremy took one last glance at Jerry’s body on the floor. He cocked his head to the side, watching blood pour from Jerry’s mouth onto the carpet.

  “What a fascinating sight.” Jeremy stated aloud. He decided he would leave things as they were. He would leave Jerry alone on the cold, hard floor. All because he wanted out. He didn’t care who he stepped on or took out in the process. That was the person he had become. The person Jeremy felt that he had to remain in order to survive.

  Jeremy walked into the unlaundered bathroom. It was almost worse than the rest of the room. It smelled heavily of ammonia and body odor. He wouldn’t even be in the bathroom if he didn’t have to clean his cuts from the attack. He had been paged earlier by one of the doctors, telling him that later on tonight he would be picked up for a round of testing. That time was nearing and he would need to be ready. He would make his move then. Since no one else was with him on this, he wouldn’t have to worry about anyone but himself. Jeremy rinsed his hands with warm water. From what he could see, he had a rather large gash in one area of his palm. He gently pulled on a piece of glass still left in his hand and blood gushed from the wound. Jeremy hastily pressed his shirt over the cut, trying to get the bleeding down. He applied more pressure until after a few moments the bleeding slowed. Jeremy decided to just grab some toilet paper and wrap his wound. It didn’t have to be perfect; he just didn’t want to attract too much attention to himself. At the very least, not until he wanted it.

  Jeremy grabbed an extra roll of toilet paper and took out the lighter from his pant pocket. He lit the roll on fire and watched as the flames grew stronger. He then threw it into the trash can next to the toilet and watched as the flames danced around inside, growing each second that passed. He decided he would start a fire in this room as a distraction. Jeremy wasn’t worried about the cameras catching what he did to Jerry. No one ever visited him and everyone ignored him, including his captors. Something about Jerry made people do that to him. He was easy to forget and always looked over.

  “Ultimately, his downfall.” Jeremy contemplated.

  Jeremy left Jerry’s room at a quick pace. He wanted to be away from the room once the fire spread. He made his way to the common room, where he would be meeting up with Charlotte. She was to take him to the testing room. Whenever she did a pickup, she always brought at least one military personnel to accompany her. That was what Jeremy was banking on.

  Jeremy reached the common room only moments later, where as expected, he saw Charlotte. She was waiting by the elevator doors for him. She did, indeed, have a soldier with her; Jeremy studied him. He was a brutish man, with brown cold set eyes. He smiled as he noticed the rifle at his side. Jeremy walked up to them and held his wrist out for handcuffs to be placed on them. The soldier was about to cuff him, as he routinely did, when his walkie talkie sounded off.

  “Royce?” A scratchy voice questioned on the other end.

  “Are you there?” The voice inquired. The soldier snatched the walkie-talkie and set down the handcuffs on the table next to him. His face was scrunched up and his eyes rolled annoyingly.

  “Come in, over” He replied, as he pressed the talk button. A low voice sounded out of the talkie.

  “There is a fire in the living quarters not far from where you are now.” The voice disclosed to the soldier. Jeremy watched as the man’s body language changed drastically; he was no longer annoyed. The soldier adjusted his gun and looked at Jeremy.

  “Come with me; the both of you.” He commanded using the barrel of his gun to point them in the direction of Jerry’s room. The pair walked in front of him and filed out of the common room. Jeremy wasn’t exactly sure how he planned on getting out of this, but he knew something would come to him. It always did. He had a knack for getting out of tight spots when he was put to the test.

  Soon, they reached Jerry’s door. It was still shut as Jeremy had left it. The soldier slowly moved passed Jeremy, eyeing him the whole way.

  “You, open the door.” The soldier ordered him, pointing his gun directly in Jeremy’s face.

  He opened the door and a plume of smoke escaped, engulfing the three of them. The fire had not taken long to spread. Already from the door, Jeremy could see flames licking at Jerry’s dresser from the bathroom.

  “We have a patient down and it looks like by force! Heavy trauma to the head.” The soldier updated the voice on the other end of his walkie. He moved into the room further, checking for anyone else that might be in the room. At that moment, the living quarter’s lights began flashing and a pre-recorded message sounded off.

  “FIRE ON LEVEL 6 IN LIVING QUARTERS ‘B’! ACTION IS REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY. FIRE ON LEVEL 6 IN LIVING….”

  The recording blared through the halls as the light fixtures turned red and began flashing rhythmically. The emergency sprinklers, located on the ceiling, started showering the rooms with water, barely making a dent into the continuously growing fire. Jeremy took this as a sign that he needed to step it up. Taking a deep breath, he pushed passed Charlotte and got directly in behind the soldier who was examining Jerry’s body. The soldier was too busy to see Jeremy come in behind him. Jeremy jumped onto his back and anchored his arm underneath his chin. It only took Jeremy a matter of seconds to sink it in. He squeezed on the soldier’s thick neck with all of his strength, nearly popping his elbow out of socket in the process. The soldier was strong and wasn’t going to yield without a fight. He knew choking out a well-seasoned military soldier would be difficult, but with what little leverage Jeremy possessed, he had managed to maintain it. With his other hand, Jeremy brushed up against something solid on the soldier’s vest. It was his standard issue military knife. He fumbled with the clasp, trying to remove it from its prison. Finally, he was successful. Jeremy looked down at the soldier’s red and blue face. He was losing oxygen, but not fast enough for Jeremy’s taste. He let go of his grip on the soldier’s neck and viciously sunk the sharp edged, six- inch blade into the base of the soldier’s throat. He could feel tendons and muscles being sliced through as blood poured from the puncture and the soldier gurgled in shock, trying to cover the gaping hole in his neck. Soon, Royce fell silent as blood seeped out of the corners of his mouth.

  “What have you done?” Charlotte screamed at Jeremy as she pushed him to the side. She raised a shaky hand to her forehead as she checked the soldier’s pulse. Nothing.

  Hearing her words, Jeremy swiftly stood up with the man’s combat rifle in hand.

  He pointed the weapon at her chest.

  “If I were you, I’d move!” Jeremy yelled as his crazed eyes shifted to rest on her; he knew what he had to do. Shoving past Charlotte, Jeremy ran to the elevator doors and pushed the first-floor button. The elevator let out a soft ding and opened as Jeremy ran inside. As he turned around, he saw that Charlotte had followed him into the common room. She was out of breath and soaking from head to toe.

  “She’s relentless!” Jeremy admitted to himself. He had to give her that.

  He saw the disbelief washing over her, like a title wave bombarding the shore of a beach. This looked like her breaking point.

  “You can’t do this!” She cried as the elevator doors slowly began to close in on Jeremy. With a menacing smile, Jeremy flashed his rotting teeth. It appeared that the experiments had affected them greatly.

  “I’ll do as I damn well please.” He coolly answered back at Charlotte. He didn’t have to worry about anyone any longer.

  “Least of all, those idiots.” Jeremy laughed out loud. He tossed up his middle fingers and turned his back to her. The elevator doors closed, leaving Charlotte behind, stunned and in utter disbelief.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Sam stuck her head out from behind Ian’s door. Water began to shower from the emergency water system, drenching everything. The sound of the voice over the PA system was deafening. She brushed her d
amp hair out of her eyes and looked around. Off in the corner, not far from her doorway, she saw Jamie standing without his mother.

  “How odd…” Sam thought. “He was always with his mother.” She knew something was wrong, so, she rushed over to him and scooped up the eleven-year-old boy. He was much tinier than any boy his age. His frail body was trembling underneath his soaked clothes, making his body seem to vibrate

  “Where’s your mom?” Sam asked. Her voice was soft and sincere. The boy looked perplexed and did not answer.

  She quickly made her way back to Ian’s room and shut the door.

  “Ian!” She shouted. He was still in the bathroom getting dressed.

  “It’s pretty hard getting dressed when it’s raining inside your bathroom!” He hollered back to her. They were in the middle of taking their shower when the alarm was triggered.

  “Almost done!” Ian yelled back soon after. His voice sounded extremely muffled with all of the other noise going on around them.

  Sam placed a hand on Jamie’s head. Her initial reaction was to pull away as his forehead gave off growing warmth.

  “He’s burning up! Might even be a few degrees’ higher than when we last checked him. Poor kid. They were killing him. Killing all of them. This has to stop.”

  Ian stepped out of the bathroom drenched as if he had just turned the shower on and stepped in without undressing. He looked over to his bed and saw that Jamie was huddled next to Sam. He was pressing his head into her shoulder, trying to shield his eyes from the falling water. He was soaked from head to toe, and it reminded Ian of a drowned rat. There wasn’t much that Ian could think of to keep him dry. He searched around the room until he realized what he needed. Ian rushed into the bathroom and grabbed a towel from under the sink. He slipped in the steadily rising puddle of water. It had reached around 2 inches high. Luckily, Ian staggered forward, nearly falling face first into the bathroom cabinets. He quickly grabbed for the door frame and caught himself before slipping any further. He would have to remember to be careful. If he hadn’t found leverage, he would have knocked himself unconscious. Ian turned to the bathtub and ripped off the shower curtain.

  “This would have to do until they turned off the security system. Hopefully, that would be soon.” Ian ran a coarse hand over the curtain and was satisfied that it would keep Jamie dry enough to work.

  He wrapped Jamie in the towel first and then added the shower curtain up over his head to keep the water from soaking him anymore.

  “I know this isn’t the best idea, but you’ll manage,” Ian uttered to him. Without a word, Jamie nodded at him and snuggled deeper into the towel and shower curtain. Ian and Sam could see Jamie’s tiny body reverberating underneath the ensemble. It seemed to be working for now, though if things didn’t let up, they would all be swimming in the tiny room. Ian decided they needed to find out where the fire was and what was going on.

  The three of them left Ian’s room, heading down the constant rain of water throughout the hallways. Sam stayed as close as she could to Jamie to give him body heat. He would need attention if she couldn’t keep his temperature up.

  “Where should we start?” Sam asked Ian, as she bent down and placed her arms around Jamie, snuggling him tightly to her.

  “I suppose we could start with his mom’s place.” Ian decided.

  They walked down the hall a little further until they came to Jamie’s door. The door was ajar, so Ian walked in. Once inside, Ian realized it was much too dark for him to make anything out. He reached for the light switch near the door and switched it on. Click, click. He couldn’t seem to get the light to come on.

  “The water probably caused a short,” he thought. Ian could barely make anything out. There were no other lights in the room, so it was pitch black. He reached forward with his hands, trying to feel for anything that might be Susan.

  “Susan, are you here?” He asked as he stepped forward. He stumbled and fell over something left out on the floor. Relieved that he didn’t hit anything on the way down, Ian pushed up off of the ground and felt in the air next to him for something to grab on to. He felt something soft and realized it was the cover of the bed. He gently pulled himself up, gripping the cloth lightly. His eyes became level with the top of the bed and he noticed something with a bit of color lying in the middle. He squinted his eyes tightly and slowly they started adjusting to the low light. As he moved closer to the bed, Ian noticed that it was Susan lying down completely motionless.

  “Susan?” Ian asked as softly as he could. He didn’t want to alert Jamie outside that he had found her just yet.

  “Susan!” He spoke a little louder. No response. He leaned in and tried to allow his eyes to adjust more to the darkness. Eventually, they did. She was lying face up, staring at the ceiling. Her eyes were glossed over and her body lay limp. He reached for her hand and felt its icy touch. Alarmed, Ian placed a hand on her forehead and felt the more of the same. Cold. Ian grabbed hold of her wrist, searching for a pulse. Feeling none, he dropped her arm back down to the bed and took a step back.

  “She’s dead,” Ian concluded. His heart dropped to the floor beside the bed, just as his knees did.

  “How long has she…?" He began to let himself ponder and stopped.

  “What’s Jamie going to think? He just lost his mother!” Ian thought.

  He rested a hand on her forehead and gently swept his fingers over her eyelids, closing them. Ian shuttered thinking about what the entire group had known all along. She wasn’t going to last much longer. Not with the way her body had regressed over the periods of examinations and experiments. Her body had degraded so rapidly. It had been noticeable from day to day. Ian lowered his head in respect to his dear friend’s departure. They had been through many obstacles together and he hated to see her go this way. It was a sad and lonely way to die. Tears formed at the corners of his eyes and dripped down his nose on to Susan’s lifeless body. He clinched his fist into the wet bed, twisting the sheets into knots between his fingers.

  Ian was outraged. His eyes ran red as he ran his fingers through his hair and over his face. How could he lose another friend? It’s not like he could say he had many of them. The world had ended and he was dealt very limited cards. Losing anyone of them crippled him significantly. He grabbed Susan’s hand and sent her off with fond memories of better times. He didn’t know of anything else to do. They were dealing with a crisis. And the last thing they needed was to let Jamie find out. He couldn’t handle something of this magnitude at the moment. This was a bad time. They needed to get to safety first.

  Ian walked out and shut the door behind him. Smiling at Jamie, he pulled Sam aside and told her what he’d found. She nearly hit the floor as sorrow flooded her eyes. Her cheeks flushed red and she threw her hand up trying to conceal the heartache that she felt.

  “Don’t let the boy see you. He couldn’t take that kind of damage right now. We need to push on and find out what’s happening,” He whispered into her ear.

  She took a moment to gather herself and walked over to an oblivious Jamie, grabbing his hand tightly.

  “Come on kiddo. We gotta go.” He told him with a sympathetic smile. Ian could tell that it took everything she had not to throw herself into his arms and cry. Neither of them had any idea what lay before Jamie. They truly felt sorry for him. Ian knelt down next to him and looked into his eyes. Could things get any worse in his life? Ian decided there was still a monstrous world outside they hadn’t seen in over a year. He had been the one to protect Jamie from it.

  They shuffled down the hallways one by one, opening the doors to check for the fire. It was just more of the same darkness and ‘rain.’ Eventually, they got to sector “B”, Jerry’s dorm area. He was the last person they would think to check. If he had still been his old self, the one that started coming out of his shell a year ago, Ian would have come to his room first. Lately, he hasn’t done anything except read books and kept to himself. The pyrotechnics manager was no more. He changed
once they began the testing, just like the rest of the group.

  Thick smoke drifted from beneath the door, causing a black haze to envelope the hallway. Thick flames were beginning to lick the outside of the door, flaring up to the ceiling.

  The fire was so intense that the sprinklers were useless. Jerry must have smuggled more than just a few odds and ends in with him. Ian was willing to bet there were chemicals stored in Jerry’s room that their captors weren’t aware of.

  “I’m sure some of those chemicals are highly explosive.” Ian worried out loud.

  ‘Come on, we need to go!’ Ian yelled. They needed to find a way off of this level. The fire and smoke were constantly growing. If it didn’t let up, the sprinklers would flood them out too. The water level had reached their 2 inches above their ankles. Although he preferred drowning over being burned alive, Ian felt he had more life to live. He wasn’t ready to give up just yet. He had others to think about now.

  Ian, Sam, and Jamie made their way to the common room just in time to see Jeremy take off to the upper levels of the building. It was too late to try and communicate with him, but then again, he was leaving without having them tag along. He saw Jeremy stick up both of his middle fingers and flip the bird as the doors to the elevator closed in. Ian had a feeling that Jeremy had started the fire in Jerry’s room. None of the others were here.

  “So, what did he do with them?” He wondered. Ian didn’t even realize that Charlotte was a few feet away from them. She had fallen to the soaking ground, clutching her arms as she shivered uncontrollably.