by J. Stone
She ran toward the back exit, making their way past a couple of coughing hunters and the frightened server that had called them out in the first place. Otherwise, the exit was unguarded, and no one seemed to even recognize their absence as they fled. They ran for several blocks to make sure that none of the bounty hunters had followed them. When Vincent was satisfied, they stopped to catch their breath and decide their next course of action.
“You think she’ll be okay?” Cassie asked him, as they hid in an alleyway.
“She’s too stubborn to die,” Vincent said.
“What happened between you two anyway?" she asked.
"Sometimes, things just fall apart," he replied.
“But you were married, right?” she went on.
“Still are,” Vincent answered. “Marriage didn’t really suit her, I guess.”
“How do you mean?” she asked.
Vincent allowed himself a half-smile. “You know what she said when I gave her the ring? ‘It’s a little constricting.’ That pretty much summed up her feelings on marriage.”
“I guess it was a complicated relationship?” Cassie asked.
“You could say that,” he answered. “Enough of that. We need to get out of here. We’re drawing too much attention, and it’s only going to get worse from here. If we’re going to deal with Maynard we need to do it now.”
Cassie had a resolved expression on her face and nodded in agreement. “Let’s go then.”
Chapter 27. Germ’s Escape
He had no idea how long he had been caged in that small prison cell. The Pocket’s passage of time never felt quite real, and the utter darkness that they were surrounded with gave them no help whatsoever. To make the situation even more unbearable, the suffering creature that he had found bleeding and unable to die was constantly making foul, moaning cries. Germ knew it was not the thing’s fault, but he found himself resenting it. The sound was a constant reminder of the fate that awaited him, should Rowland not come for him in time. He feared its mewling and wailing might drive him mad.
Brodie, at least, was there to help keep his mind off the agony that awaited him should the creature decide to return for him next. They spoke of anything they could. Anything to blot out the knowledge of what was coming. As a means to pass the time, Germ related the story of how he had come to exist there. He told him of Erynn, the lottery, their trip to the west, everything. The rat had spent so much time writing down his experiences in his journal that he had become accustomed to the catharsis of it. Brodie had, for the time being, become the journal that he released his thoughts onto.
As Germ related the journey to his only companion in that complete darkness, there was suddenly a strange light that seemed foreign. The bright flare looked almost like a window floating in nothingness. Whether his eyes were playing tricks on him or not, he wasn’t sure, but the rat thought he saw the professor’s image through the brightly lit window.
“Did you see that, sir?” Germ asked.
“The light?” Brodie replied.
“I thought I saw… never mind,” Germ said.
Whatever it was, it had been short lived. Surely, the professor was working on a way to extract Germ, as Simon had indicated, but there was no telling when he would accomplish such a feat. Some immeasurable bit of time passed before another flash of light, but this one was different. This flare was smaller, quicker, and dimmer. When it ended though, there was a loud clang of metal, and it felt like something was gone.
“What happened?” Brodie asked.
“I’m not sure, sir,” Germ replied.
The rat’s whiskers were of use in the darkness. His eyes were capable of seeing nothing, and his nose was picking up very little that he wished to smell. The undying creature in the cage had overwhelmed it to the point of uselessness. The whiskers, however, could pick up the nearby objects and their relative positions. He turned about in his cage, and something was indeed missing. The cage door that had sealed him inside was now gone. Vanished. Nothing remained to indicate it had even been there. The metal bars simply ended abruptly. He was free.
“The cage is open, sir,” Germ told Brodie.
“How?” his fellow prisoner asked.
“I think it was Master Rowland,” Germ said. “He’s getting closer to discovering how to get us out. I think he pulled the cage door through to the other side.”
“That’s amazing,” Brodie replied. “I didn’t think it possible.”
“If there is one thing I have learned in my time with the professor, it is that anything is possible, sir,” Germ said. “Now where is the key for your cage?”
“I’m not sure,” Brodie said. “I think that fox hangs it on the wall somewhere. Maybe try finding the light switch first.”
“Good idea, sir,” Germ agreed.
Following the information presented to him by his whiskers, Germ slowly exited the cage. Thanks to the odor coming from the other creature, the rat could recall the rough positioning of where Finly and the abomination had come in from and exited to. The light switch had been somewhere in that direction. He proceeded to move forward at a speed where his underutilized whiskers could keep up with what was near the rat. He knew he was getting close to a wall, and he raised his paws up to help him feel around. His furry fingers soon found the paneled walls, and Germ scraped along them trying to find any kind of switch.
He made his way into a narrow hallway, where Finly and the other creature had passed through. The blood trail of the suffering creature could be felt under his paws, and he nearly slipped when he first stepped on it. Moving forward, he extended his arms, so that each was pressed against a different wall, and he began walking slowly down the path. Thanks to his whiskers, he was able to form a sort of schematic-like vision of what the hallway looked like. The mental image was incomplete and not entirely reliable, but it helped to guide him in the total darkness.
Germ found no switch along either of the walls and soon the hallway ended. He moved his hands to his front, where there was a door. No light peeked through the crevices where the wood met its frame, but he knew it was a door regardless. His whiskers gave him the rough location of a metal knob. Perhaps there would be light on the other side to guide him to the switch. Or maybe the switch was even on the other side. Either way, it would help him get Brodie from his cage. There was the possibility though, that it would alert their captors to his escape. He had no choice. If he wanted to escape the Pocket, he would first need to get away from this devouring creature.
Ignoring his fear, Germ turned the knob and pulled open the door. The light was blinding. There was no light switch at all. Opening the door simply allowed the stars above to pierce through the ceiling overhead and illuminate the room. Germ raised his arm to shield his eyes from the sheer brilliance of the shooting stars.
“Do you see the key?” Germ called back to Brodie.
“Not yet,” the man replied.
Both of them scoured the area, as their eyes adjusted to the extreme brightness of the fully lit room. He almost had preferred the darkness of the basement without the light from the comets. With it fully illuminated, Germ could see that there were dozens more cages lining the room. The blood that trailed from the entrance into the cage with the wounded creature was not unique. Blood was splattered all throughout the prison area - on the floors, the walls, and in a dried puddle of nearly every cage. He knew that they had to hurry and find the key, so they could escape that horrible room.
“There!” Brodie exclaimed, pointing to the wall near the hallway.
The key hung there on an oversized key ring from a nail that had been placed in the wall. Germ hurried to it and grabbed the loop from off the nail and then continued on to Brodie’s cage. Only a single key was looped around the metal hoop, so there was no great difficulty in determining which one was the correct key. The rat slid the key into the lock, and the latch popped out. He pulled the lock away from the door, so that it could be opened, and Germ backed up, as Brodie swung the ce
ll door open. As the man stepped out from the cage, he was finally able to stand up straight. The man was quite a bit taller than Germ would have guessed. He felt better to finally see Brodie out of the cell, and he was sure that his fellow prisoner felt the same way.
“What now, sir?” Germ asked.
“We can’t hide, we can’t run, and we can’t fight,” Brodie answered. “I’m not sure what we can do.”
“Why are our options so limited?” the rat inquired. “Surely we just need to avoid the creature until Rowland can find us in here.”
“It’s got an incredible sense of smell, it’s fast, strong, and without mercy,” Brodie explained.
“How do you know so much about him, sir?” Germ asked.
Brodie frowned. “It’s my other half.”
“Sir?” the rat simply asked, confused by that answer.
“Your master attempted to separate the darker inclinations of my psyche,” Brodie answered. “In the natural world, it was a failure. My mind was splintered, so that I didn’t have complete control over myself. Here, however, each side of my personality was made physical. As soon as we arrived, it began to consume everything else. They gave it all their genetic mutations. It took them into itself and with each new meal would grow and change. It’s all it cares for now.”
“How have you survived all this time?” Germ inquired.
“He’s tried to consume me, but something has always prevented him from finishing the act,” Brodie said. “Perhaps it fears that things will return to like they were on the other side - the two of us competing for dominance in one body.”
“Then what do we do, sir?” Germ asked.
“I’m not sure,” he replied.
The pair stood there considering how to proceed. “Maybe our best chance would be to stay here,” the rat eventually suggested.
“How’s that?” Brodie asked.
“Master Rowland found me here,” Germ continued. “He might expect me to be here the next time he tries something.”
“You might have a point,” Brodie reluctantly agreed. “But this place isn’t exactly safe.”
“Maybe we just need to make it safe,” he said. “Block the doorway. We can’t run, hide, or fight, but we can at least hold him off for a time.”
“It’s better than nothing, I guess,” his fellow captive replied.
They took stock of everything they had available to them. Their major resource was the cages that lined the walls. They tested the weight of the cages, and though heavy, if they worked together, the two of them could just barely manage to move them.
They pushed the tallest cage down the hallway and against both the open door and its frame as best they could, jamming it in place. They purposefully left the door open, so that they could still have the light of the shooting stars overhead. Brodie and Germ continued in this fashion, jamming the heavy cages into the long hallway. After some time, they had moved all but the cell belonging to the injured specimen. Every little bit would help, though, and they moved it into place last.
When they had stopped, they realized that the noise had finally attracted both Finly and Brodie’s other half. Huffing heavy breaths out of its nose, it was very clearly angry at what they had done. The beast stepped forward and began trying to dislodge the cells. It could not pull them as the doorframe was keeping them in place. It couldn’t climb over with a tall cell at the front. A simple push was nowhere near enough force either.
The creature then snarled and roared, as it rammed the metal cages, attempting to charge into them and clear them from his way. The cells rattled, but they ultimately stayed where they were. Their collective weight was too much for even the incredibly powerful other half of Brodie’s psyche. It wrapped its claws around the bars and pushed, pulled, and shook, but there was just too much in its path.
The cages had proved capable of keeping out the juggernaut of a creature, but the slender fox found himself easily able to move through the bars of the cells. He wormed through the blockage that Germ and Brodie had set up through the hallway, making his way toward them.
Before Finly had finished navigating the course of prison bars, the agonized creature still sitting in the final cell swiped up with its broken hand, snatching the fox out of the air. Seeming to understand the way of the world, it brought the squirming fox to its mouth.
“Let me go!” Finly shouted.
The suffering experiment paid it no mind, however, and bit into the flying animal. Finly’s head had disappeared into the beast’s mouth, as Germ and Brodie looked on with complete surprise. Finly continued to writhe in the bloodied hand, despite its lack of head. Truly, there was no death here, Germ thought. The experiment’s oversized mouth bit into the fox again, and with a third bite, it had eaten Finly in whole.
It started slowly, but the broken and bleeding creature began to change and mutate. The flesh that had ripped with its unchecked growth began to knit itself back together. Wings sprouted from its back, sharp canines protruded from its gums, and the fur over its body took on a red tinge like that of Finly.
“You think he’s on our side?” Brodie asked.
The creature growled menacingly and shot its head toward them.
“I have a distinct feeling that it is not, sir,” Germ replied.
“At least we didn’t unlock its cage,” he said.
The new creature roared fiercely and bashed its paw against the cage. After several swipes, the door had come off its hinges. One last hit, and the beast knocked the door clear away and it skidded along the floor towards them.
“You had to say it, didn’t you?” Germ asked.
“Looks like we’ve kind of boxed ourselves in here,” Brodie said. “Literally, in fact.”
The repaired, aggressive, and now freed creature began to slowly walk toward them, exiting its cage.
“Master Rowland,” Germ began, looking up. “If you can hear me, now would be a perfect time to save us.”
Chapter 28. Alice’s Search
Finding Cullen, Viola’s biological sibling, had suddenly skyrocketed to the top of Alice’s list of ways to unseat the empress. Even the intermittently appearing voice of god in her head agreed that it was what she was meant to be doing. If Ezra had taken the child as his own, he had not given the boy his last name. Considering what the treasonous act he had perpetrated, that was probably the smartest thing he could’ve done. Joseph Arkmast would have undoubtedly had him executed for such an act of rebellion. As it turned out though, it might be the very thing that saved the empire from the heresies of his daughter.
How then to best track down where Ezra’s adoptive son had gone to? Alice knew that there had to be some record of the boy’s life. She just had to find it and tie it to the scientist. Ezra was an important individual to the empire during his younger years. The empire was known to take care of such people. The house bought for him was an example of such generosity. Another would be the vaccine to the Sweeper Bot Plague.
Before the rebels had gone around and cured the thing, the empire had been in possession of the cure, an expensive treatment, as well as a preventative vaccine. The vaccine was given to those who the empire felt had earned it. Most, if not all, of the scientists at the Center for Empirical Research would have earned this injection. Alice herself had received it, after she had gained favor with the empress.
It was extremely likely that Ezra would have been given such a vaccine. Close family members were generally given access to this as well, and if Ezra truly had taken the child as his own, he would have protected him from the ravages of the plague. The empire kept immaculate records when it came to the medicine they doled out to its citizens, so Alice was sure that if Cullen had received the vaccine, she could find out who he was.
All the records on the administered plague vaccines were kept within the center’s archives, which she had access to thanks to her operative status. Whatever digging she needed to do, she would have to be quick. There was only so long before Maynard or Viola would begin
to ask questions about the bounty hunter and why she hadn’t brought him in yet.
After staying the night at her house, Ingrid gave Alice a ride over to the center, but that was where she had to go it alone. As good a friend as she had been, the former operative would only draw questions and unnecessary attention during her investigation. Alice knew that she could rely on her if she needed anything further though. Entering the main doors of the center, Alice used her tattooed hand to get past any guards or through any locked doors. Though she had never personally visited the archives of the center, she somehow knew exactly where the room was. She couldn’t explain the knowledge, but she didn’t spend much time considering it either.
Pushing through to the archives, Alice found a massive chamber filled with rows upon rows of bookshelves. She knew that some of the shelves were stocked with boxes of files, others had assorted records in the form of audio tapes, photographs, or possibly even the chemicals or serums themselves if they weren’t deemed dangerous. The operative had no idea how she knew any of that. Despite never having been there, she felt like she was being guided there. God’s hand was directing her exactly where to go. Cutting through the bookshelves, Alice found a series of boxes labeled, ‘S.B.P. Vaccines.’ Grabbing the first box in the set, Alice pulled it and dropped it to the tiled floor, flipping the top off.
Inside, she found a master record sheet laying atop the individual documents stacked upright. The master file was a series of pages stapled together. The document listed every vial of the vaccine from the first one administered up through the final one of the last year. Running her finger down the sheet of dose numbers and recipients, Alice searched for Ezra’s name among them. By the eighth page, her eyes felt as though they had gone crossed. Every name started to blend into the next, and she had almost convinced herself that if the scientist’s name did appear, she was going miss it. On the twelfth page, though, she finally found success. Batch number 1432-XQ assigned to Ezra Hale. The very next batch of the vaccine was administered to one, Cullen Eckhart. She had found his name. Next, Alice needed only find out what kind of man this Cullen had become. Stuffing the documents back inside the box, she placed it on the shelf where she had found it and crisscrossed her way out of the archives room.
