Chapter 27

     Cassie screamed into the sky. She didn't know if there was a God or not but right now, she didn't care. She just screamed.

      "Take his body to the lab." Said the Russian.

Cassie's body rippled with rage. She stood and swung at the man that had held her. She hit him so hard she felt his jaw shatter along with the splintering of her middle knuckle.

The pain fueled the fire that raged within her. She used his moment of vulnerability against him and stripped away the 9mm he had holstered.

She put two rounds in him, one in the chest, and one in the head.

Before she could train the sights on the Russian, a stinging pain flared in her neck. When she looked to Alyx she seen the dart gun.

"What...?" Was all she muttered before her eyelids fell like iron curtains.

***

When she awoke, she was in a room. Alone. No sign of Jack. As her senses began to fully come back she realized the room was decorated with pictures of her family.

In the corner of the room stood her tall vanity mirror. The bedspread that she was laid in was also from her room.

She stood and a wave of nausea crashed over her. She grabbed the wall to steady herself. She slowly made her way to the door and tried turning the door knob, but to no avail.

     She beat on the door for what felt like hours. Her busted knuckle throbbed and pain shot all the way up her arm.

    She didn't care though. All she could think of was Jack, laying there in her arms. Dying in her arms.

Don't stop fighting, kid... He had said, and she never would. Not until the day of her death.

She continued to beat on the door. Her entire hand numb from the pain, anger swelled inside of her. Alyx will pay for what she did. She thought to herself over and over.

Then the door clicked. The knob turned, and it opened. Cassie stood there, her hand still in the air ready to continue beating on the door.

There, in the doorway was a man. A man in a wheelchair. Her father.

"Dad?" She asked aloud. Looking into his deep green eyes.

Her father doesn't say anything. His green eyes stare deep into hers. It seems like hours go by before he says anything.

     "I'm sorry for your loss, Cassie." He says after a deep breath.

      Anger fills her once again, her face burns red hot.

     "Don't talk about him." She says, "you didn't know him like I did. He was like my brother. Like a father figure that I didn't have while you FUCKED OFF!" She tried to keep the anger inside but upon the last two words of her sentence it broke loose. She punched the wall, shooting pain all the way through her arm.

     "Come with me, Cassie." Is all he says and he turns around in his wheelchair and rolls down the hallway.

Reluctantly, she follows. She keeps a sharp eye, though. Looking for easy escape routes. Something that she thought Jack would do in a situation like this.

It was almost as if she could hear Jack say, that's it, Cass, always know your way out. Just thinking of his voice made her tear up. She missed him so much.

They came to a door that looked like the rest. Her father entered a code into a keypad and the hydraulics of the door released and it slid open.

The room smelled like she thought a lab would smell. There were beakers and test tubes lining a wall and screens were everywhere. On one wall was a screen that displayed the human body's nervous system. Only everything below the waist was dark.

Cassie's father rolled under the screen and looked at her, "what's wrong with this display?" He asked, pointing to the screen.

"The nerves below the waist aren't getting a signal." She replied, not getting the point of this.

"Exactly, now paralysis can be caused by many things." He said reaching for a remote. "My case, was this." He pressed a button and the lower half lit up like the rest of the body.

Suddenly, the bones of the spine splintered and severed the spinal cord. From the sever down slowly flickered and then faded all together.

"Why are you showing me this?" Cassie asked, still not seeing the point in all of this.

"Because, Cassie, since this has started I've had time to develop something, very, very special." He said with an awkward smile. He rolled over to a nearby counter and picked up a syringe with a yellowish liquid inside.

     The same yellowish liquid Devin had taken.

    "Dad, don't!" Cassie screamed as she ran to swipe the syringe, but she didn't make it in time. 

     Her father plunged the needle into his thigh and took a deep breath before passing out.

     She grabbed his head and quickly checked for a pulse. It was there, beating normally. "Dad?" She asked, confusion filling her voice.

      And his eyes opened. Only they were no longer green. They were smoky gray. She backed away, slowly, not sure what was happening.

     The next thing she thought she would never see. Her father stood. He walked over to her and embraced her in a hug so tight.

     "What?" She said almost silently.

     "The Ealim Jadid has the power to bring back the dead things, Cassie." He said, letting her go, admiring the needle still in his hand.

"Ealim Jadid?" Cassie asks, letting the words roll off of her tongue.

"New world, Cassie. This is the age of the new world. Ealim Jadid."

Cassie's mind slowly started to put things together. The power to bring the dead things back, her father had said. Jack!

"Dad, this can bring dead things back, right?" She asked, masking the hope in her voice.

"Well, there are some extents." Her father said, raising an eyebrow, "why?"

"What are those extents?" She asked, ignoring his question.

"As long as there is still brain activity, it doesn't matter how long the dead part of the body can be revived. But without brain activity you have 6 hours to introduce the Ealim Jadid."

     "How long was I asleep?" Cassie asks, the hope in her too much to hide now.

     "Cassie. I know what you're getting at and it wo..."

      "I don't care, how long was I out!?" She yelled, her hope turning into anger.

     "Five hours." Her father replies.

     "Do you have another dose of the virus?" She asks.

     "It's not a virus, it's a..."

     "I don't care what it is, just tell me!" She yells, anger seeping out of her.

     "Lower door of the refrigeration unit." He says, pointing behind him.

      She walks over and opens the door, grabs the needle and goes to the door out of the room. It can only be opened with the code.

     "Open it." Is all she says.

     "Cassie. They won't let you. They'll kill you, and us."

     "Us?" She asks.

     "Your mother and me. We made a..."

     "Look, Dad I don't care right now."

    "Cassie please!" He exclaimed, "listen to me. You're mother and I made a deal. I'd come and make Ealim Jadid better and they'd give me my legs back and let us live here."

     Cassie stared at him in horror. She didn't know this man anymore. "How could you!? They've killed millions of innocent people! They killed the president and nearly killed me more times than I can count!"

     Her father walked up to her and reached out to her. She backed away. "Don't touch me!" She yelled, tears welling up behind her eyes. "Just open the door and tell me where he is."

      He input the code and the door slid open. "Straight down this hallway to the last left, then the third right and the door is on your left. The code is six five seven nine." He said, all while keeping his head down.

     Cassie walked out of the room and heard the hydraulics hiss behind her. What she didn't hear though, was her father picking up the phone and dialing security.

     "She's on her way to Jack." He said and then hung up.

     He sat down in his wheelchair. Something he thought he'd never sit in again.

     He cried. For the first time in years, he cried.

                                  ***

     Cassie turned down the third right and seen the door to the lab. Hope swelled inside of her. She didn't know how much time she had left, all she knew was she had to hurry.

     She ran to the door and quickly entered the code. The door slid open halfway and then stopped. The keypad beeped and then the keys turned red.

     The door started to close. Cassie jumped through the door just in time, it barely caught her pants leg.

     The room she was in was enormous. There was so much lab equipment, there was a MRI, a X-ray, even a cat scan. In the center of it all, laying on a table with a bright white light shining down on him, was Jack.

     His skin was starting to turn a sickly pale. As she got closer, she could see that the knife wounds had been stitched, and so had the bite on his shoulder.

     Confusion hit Cassie light freight train. Why hadn't Jack turned yet? She didn't know and she didn't want to wait to find out. She stuck the needle into his neck, hoping she was hitting the jugular and pressed the contents inside of him.

     She stood over him, waiting for him to open his eyes. But he didn't. She waited for maybe five minutes. Why is it taking so long? She thought, her father stood up almost immediately.

     That when the hydraulics to the door behind her started to hiss. She hid the needle in her pocket and turned around. There were three big men, with security uniforms on. They walked to her.

    The biggest one, she assumed was the head, asked her "what are you doing in here. This is a red zone, civilians not allowed."

     She put on an act, "I had to say goodbye." She let's tears fall from her eyes and looks the guard dead in the eyes.

     "Come on, girl, it's time to leave." He grabbed her by her hair and yanked her along with him. She yelped out in pain and tried to fight him off but her hand had swollen so much and hurt so bad it was useless.

     They got to the door and one of the guards started to enter the code. He three numbers in before a scalpel came rocketing through the back of his head.

     He dropped to the ground, his body seizing. The guard holding Cassie went for his radio, but Cassie swatted it out of his hand. He punched her in the mouth. But she was smiling.

     The next second guard pulled his gun but it was too late. A bone saw crushed into his face like bag of bricks. Cassie could hear his facial structure disintegrate. He dropped to the floor, knocked out cold.

     That's when Cassie caught a glimpse of him. Of Jack. He was walking towards her and the guard. Everything about him was the same. Except his eyes. They had turned a light gray. The guard pulled his pistol but Jack was to fast. He chopped the guards wrist and the gun fell to the ground.

    The guard let Cassie go to try and fend for himself but it was useless. Jack  hip tossed the guard and stomped his trachea to pieces.

     "Jack?" Cassie asked. He walked over to her and hugged her.

      "I'm still me." Is all he said.