by R. Brewer
No lights shone from houses or businesses. In the distance, an aid worker called out for mandatory evacuation. From what Jodie could make out, the earthquake had severed a major natural gas line. She’d have to move now or risk being caught in an explosion, or worse, discovered by Gypsum and killed.
Mustering the little bit of energy remaining in her battered body, Jodie struggled to stand up, the pain in her knee unbelievable. She hobbled toward an area filled with rescue workers rushing to evacuate. Staying in the shadows as long as she could, she finally saw an opportunity to hitch a ride. Scrambling to catch it as it started to move, she jumped at the back of a fire truck, hoisted her body on the deck, and slid as far as she could behind the hose reel mounted on the deck. The truck picked up speed, following a caravan of emergency vehicles.
Jodie wondered where she would end up. She knew approximately where the Gypsum installation was. The easy part would likely be finding a way to get closer to it. The hard part was going to be getting inside, but she would take one thing at a time for now. She closed her eyes and concentrated on not passing out. She'd need to be ready for whatever came next.
* * *
Christy woke up with a start, her head throbbing and her mouth dry. She couldn't remember when she'd last eaten or drank anything. She cringed in the corner of the room as someone unlocked the door from the outside. A Gypsum guard entered, his gun pointed at her.
"Get up. Time to come with me," he barked.
Christy got up slowly, her eyes adjusting to the light streaming in from the hallway. She was scared without Nick. She'd thought she’d put on her best brave face so far, but inside she really was terrified of what Gypsum would do to them. The level of anxiety she felt about Noah being left behind was debilitating, leaving her not knowing what to do next. The Gypsum guard solved that question for her by grabbing her arm and dragging her behind him down the hallway.
"Where are you taking me?" Christy asked, trying to wrest her arm away from the man. She got no response to her question and the man gripped harder. He stopped at a door, unlocked it with his free hand, opened it, and pushed her inside the room, slamming the door closed behind her. She fell as he shoved her, her body weak from not enough food or rest. It seemed to her like she was moving in slow motion as her body headed toward the floor, but she couldn’t get her hands out in front of her quickly enough to break her fall. She gritted her teeth, preparing for the feeling of slamming her face into the tile when hands reached out for her.
"Oh my God, Christy," Nick said, pulling her close.
Realizing it was Nick holding her in his arms, Christy buried her face in his chest.
"Are you okay?" Nick asked. "Tell me you're alright. What did they do to you?"
Christy looked up at Nick, whose face wore an expression of relief and pure love. "Nothing. They just left me in this room. It was like a cell. I didn't have any food or water." She sensed others moving near as Nick held her close.
"Mom?" a voice called out.
Christy spun around, her heart feeling as if it would burst, not believing that she was seeing Noah. He ran to her as Nick let her go. Christy wrapped her arms around her son, interrupted by Hunter, whose tail wagged at a furious pace as he brushed against her leg. "I don't understand. Why are you here? How did they find you?"
"They got us in the forest . . . the Gypsum people."
Christy pushed her son away to arm's length and looked at him. Other than a few scratches on his chin and a bruised cheek, he looked unharmed. She reached up and touched his face. "What did they do to you?"
"Nothing, really, Mom. I tried to run away, but a guy tackled me in the woods. They just made us get in another truck and brought us here."
"Us? Who was with you? Where's everyone else?" Christy was finally getting her bearings and looked around the room, seeing Evan lying on a gurney and Isaiah digging through a first aid kit, tending to a wound on Evan’s head.
Isaiah looked up at her. "Hi, Christy. I'm glad you're okay." Isaiah gestured to her to remain silent and motioned toward a camera mounted near the ceiling. It panned back and forth across the room.
Nick pulled Christy close and whispered into her ear. "Jodie's still out there. They didn't get her. We told them she was killed in the tunnel. I don't know if they believed that, but we don't want Gypsum to know she's still alive."
"Where are the others? Mei, Bonnie and Fester?" Christy asked.
Nick shook his head and grabbed her hand. "We don't know. Maybe they're going to bring them here next."
"I hope they're taking care of Mei," Christy said. "She didn't look good at all."
"She had a concussion," Nick said. "A really bad one, from the looks of it. She needs a hospital. I'm worried they'll just let her die."
Christy felt a bit guilty because she was sad about Mei, but still somewhat relieved for herself. Whatever was going to come their way, at least she had Noah, Nick and Hunter with her now. "What happened to Evan?" she asked, walking over to the bed.
"Well, hello my dear," Evan said. "Forgive me for not standing. I seem to be a bit dizzy right now."
Christy walked over to the bed and reached out to touch his hand. "Oh, Evan, what happened to you?"
"They … the Gypsum guards … pinned me to the ground, but Noah fought with them and got away,” Evan said.
“Unfortunately, that didn't work out too well," Isaiah said.
"I couldn't run fast enough," Noah said, an embarrassed tone to his voice.
Christy squeezed Evan's hand. "Thank you for protecting my son."
"I'm all finished here, Evan," Isaiah said. "Do you want to sit up?"
Evan nodded. "Well, let's give it a try, shall we?" he said loudly, apparently still suffering from hearing loss caused by being too near the explosion in the tunnel earlier.
Nick moved over to the side of the bed. "Let me help you." Nick slid his hand behind Evan's back and helped him slowly move up to a sitting position. "Feeling okay?"
"A bit like I've been bludgeoned in the head by a buffoon is all," Evan said. "We did give them a run for their money, though, didn't we, Noah?"
Noah smiled. "Yeah, we did. I almost made it, too."
The sound of the door being unlocked startled Christy. It swung open and a Gypsum guard pushed a cart filled with food and water into the room. He said nothing as he left the room, locking the door behind him.
"Whoa. Look at that," Noah said, lunging for the cart. Christy reached out and grabbed him, stopping him before he could get to it.
"Nick, do you think it's safe to eat that? I mean, what if they're going to poison us or something?" Christy said.
"If they were going to kill us, they probably would've done it by now," Evan said. "They're saving us. For what, who knows? Maybe Bonnie persuaded David to feed us."
"Well, we're going to need all the strength we can get, so let's dig in, people," Isaiah said, walking to the cart and grabbing a liter of water.
Chapter 9
Chuck caught up with the Gypsum guards easily. He could hear them ahead and stayed in the shadows as he followed. For a few minutes, he considered killing them all, but dismissed the idea. After all, he didn’t really know where the train would take him. What if it stopped? How would he ever know where he was? No, there would be time enough to take care of Gypsum later. For now, he needed to focus on finding someone who could tell him where Jodie was.
The Gypsum guards finally finished loading the train car and got in, closing the door behind them. Now was his chance. Chuck slid along the tunnel wall, careful to keep himself hidden from anyone who might look out the back window. He remembered the way the train cars bucked and clanged as they left the platform and knew that would be his chance.
He waited. He’d have to time it just right. A gentle humming, gradually increasing in intensity, filled the tunnel as the engine started. Chuck crouched into a sprinter's position. As the train jerked forward, clanging toward the electromagnetic field that would silently support it, Chuc
k made his move. He burst out of his hiding place, covering several hundred feet in a few seconds and jumped, landing on the back deck of the train car. His body hit the side of the car with a loud clatter.
He knew he’d made a louder announcement of his arrival than he'd intended, so slipped over the edge of the rail, out of sight, clinging to the bottom of the train car. The back door opened and Chuck could see the combat boots on the deck above him as a Gypsum guard stepped outside.
“Nothin’ here,” the guard said to someone inside. “We musta jumped a rail for a minute.”
“Yeah, well, get back in here,” another guard said. “Jason’s just about to set the bomb off.”
The guard turned around and went back inside.
Chuck stayed in his hiding spot, just to make sure no one was waiting for him to appear. A memory flashed in his mind. “I was on a train like this. I … I died on a train like this.” He could see Jodie shaking him, asking him to wake up. He heard her crying. Then, he remembered that she had been crying for him. He almost couldn't believe it. She must have cared about him. He recalled nothing else after the sound of her crying until he woke up on the tracks, changed forever.
The door opened again and a hand reached out. Chuck could see the small metal box with the antenna being held by one of the Gypsum guards, who reached over with his other hand and flipped a switch on top of the box. He watched as the guard went back inside the train car.
They were careening through the tunnel at a furious pace, blurring the blue safety lamps mounted on the ceiling into a stream of light. Chuck pulled himself onto the back deck and watched as they picked up speed. For a moment, he thought he saw something in the darkness. Thinking it was just his imagination, he reached up to rub his eyes, and winced in pain, not remembering the strength of his fingers or the fact that he had no eyelids. “Ouch, that hurt,” he said. His vision was blurred at first, but then he saw clearly what he thought was only in his mind.
Hundreds, maybe thousands of those things were following the train. The insect things, the results of experiments gone altogether wrong, the things that killed everything in sight were running after the train and gaining ground. He felt the deck railing bending beneath his hand and relaxed his grip a little, hoping the train would go faster very soon.
The voices of the guards inside caught his attention and Chuck turned his head to hear what they were saying.
“I didn’t hear nothin’. Maybe it didn’t go off at all,” a guard said.
“Well, maybe it did and all this rock just muffled the noise,” the guard with the gruff voice said.
Guess again, Chuck thought, looking back at the horde behind him.
"Either way, we can’t do anything about it now," the guard said. "Gypsum’s gonna blow the whole thing when we get back, anyway. They’re sendin’ a train car fulla C4 right into the middle of those fuckers.”
“Nothin’ like deep fried insects,” Billy said. “Um, um, finger lickin’ good.”
“Billy, for the last time, shut your mouth before I shut it for you,” one of the other guards barked.
Chuck looked back at the creatures pursuing him. They were losing ground, but were still following at an incredible pace. Their bodies seemed as diverse as the bodies of real insects. It was as if Gypsum had taken insect DNA and shaken it up in a jar, resulting in a million combinations of winged and multi-legged creatures, each a lethal force.
Chuck mulled over the idea in his head. This must be what Gypsum had wanted. To create a kind of creature designed for only one thing. Killing. But why would they want to do such a horrible thing? And, why was he different? For a moment, Chuck let himself hope that he might not meet the same end as the creatures he’d read about in the files. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t end up like them or the things chasing the train. He continued watching the horde until they fell out of sight as the train picked up even more speed. Chuck realized he’d better hang on. The ride was just beginning.
* * *
“You know I hate you, don’t you?” Bonnie screamed. “What you did … you almost killed us, for God’s sake.” Bonnie backed away from her husband, shielding her son behind her.
"Mom, what are you talking about?” Tim asked, his voice shaking with emotion.
“Bonnie, you’re scaring him. Can’t you see that?” David said, moving toward her.
Bonnie backed into the corner, pushing Tim behind her. “Don’t you come any closer. You’ve done enough damage for one lifetime.”
“Bonnie, just let me explain. I need to tell you what’s going on,” David said.
“I know everything I need to know. You blew up all those people in the tunnel. Your men … they were going to kill Noah. They hurt Mei. How do you explain those things?” Bonnie tried to hold back the tears. She didn’t want to give David the satisfaction of seeing her cry. “You’re a monster.”
David backed away and sat down in a chair on the other side of the room. “None of you would even be alive if I hadn’t intervened. You have to believe me. We’re going to get out of here. All of us.”
“Mom, why don’t we sit down,” Tim said, tugging at her hand and pulling her toward a chair.
Bonnie sat next to her son and pulled him closer to her. “Thank you, Tim.” She looked over at David, feeling a mixture of pity and anger toward him. She wanted to believe he had an explanation for all of this, but how could she possibly believe him after all he'd done. “Okay, I’m listening.” She wondered what kind of story he would try to concoct to get back into her good graces.
“I had to come back here,” David said. “You don’t understand. Gypsum . . . what Evan thinks he knows about Gypsum, it’s all wrong. There’s a reason that those people had to die. They’re not what you thought they were. Everything I did --” David stood and began to pace. “Everything I did, I did to keep you safe. I love you both. You have to try to understand.”
Bonnie sighed. “Understand what, David? Understand that everything I thought you were has been a lie? Is that what you want me to understand?” Bonnie felt the impact of her own words. Their entire life together had been built around fabrications about his job, his work, where he went every day, what he did. All of it one big lie.
“Most of them, well, they weren’t people anymore, Bonnie. They were alien, some of them clones, some hybrids. The program started out so different. Fifty nations, all working to establish a cooperative relationship with an alien civilization.”
Bonnie felt herself slip into a kind of manic state. She started to laugh. “Aliens? Did you say aliens? Well, now I think I’ve heard it all. Why don’t you just let me and Tim go and you can continue with your science fiction fantasy all by yourself.”
“It’s not a fantasy. It . . . the program was supposed to benefit humanity. Cure disease, create energy sources never known to exist before. But then they started taking people against their will. Taking their DNA. Helen . . . Jodie’s mother . . . was trying to create a super soldier for the military. There were thousands of trials. The aliens couldn’t survive here without human DNA, so she developed hybrids.”
David stared at the floor. “Helen finally perfected the super soldier. It took her years. She devoted her entire life to creating this thing, but it turned on her and started destroying the lab. It killed seven men before it could be contained. It was indestructible, made of an impenetrable alloy given to us by the aliens. She finally had to kill it with a virus that attacked its human DNA.”
David stopped and rubbed his eyes. He sat in the chair again, looking defeated. “She only created enough of the virus to kill the thing. All of the concoctions she made in her laboratory . . . all of them were released into the tunnels when the explosion happened. Everyone from Gypsum who was still down there was exposed. Whoever was still alive, at least. If anyone was exposed to the super soldier formula, they'll have become one and we don't know how to kill them. That’s why I had my men go into the tunnels and retrieve whatever records they could find. Maybe we can find
Helen’s formula.”
Bonnie had no idea what to think. Either her husband had gone completely crazy or the rest of the world had. Could his story possibly be true? She stared at him, thinking he looked like such a sad character. “What was in this for you? Was it money or fame, or what?”
David looked at her, his expression softening into one of love. “What was in it for me?” He cleared his throat. “What was in it for me was a promise from Helen. A promise that you and Tim would never be touched by this. A promise that you’d never know about it . . . that no one would ever know what we’d been a part of. That,” he gestured with his upturned open hand at her and Tim, “that is what was in it for me.”
“That makes no sense, David,” Bonnie said. “Then why did you have us brought back here? Why not just leave us where we were?”
“Because you're only safe with me right now and I have to make them think I’m still part of their plan.” David stood up and crossed the room, kneeling at her feet.
She pulled her son closer to her, barricading him with her arms. “Don’t touch us, David.”
He cringed in front of her, looking stricken. The expression on his face made her want to trust him. She wanted to believe every word he had to say, but it was all so incredible. Bonnie loosened her grip on Tim slightly and willed her body to relax.
David wiped his face on his sleeve. “Bonnie, I’m begging you. You have to listen to me now. If something happens to me, you have to tell the others what to do.”
With those words, she felt herself start to give in. She was beginning to understand just how terrified he was of what could happen. “Okay,” she said.
