A Strong Mind

"Now, to what I had originally planned on doing; checking in on the other's."

Soren led the way and walked to the second room on the right. The door was half open, allowing the two in the cage to the left to see them approaching. Movement could be heard in the room as the four prisoners stood.

Soren opened the door fully and stepped into the room. Agent Issac stood to his left and back a step. Avery stood behind them, hands in the pockets of his pants. He took a moment to look over his former teammates before looking down at the floor.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing? You can't keep us locked up like this. Where are the rest of our men?"

The man that spoke was in the center cage. He was large, someone who frequently lifted weights, and stood a good two inches taller than Soren. His brown hair was cut short and his brown eyes were shining with anger, and perhaps fear.

Soren smiled and the mercenary had to fight the urge to step back. He refused to show fear to someone who was little more than a child.

"If I recall it correctly, you guys were the ones who showed up on private property fully armed. I can't see where any good would have come by letting you run loose. As for your buddies; Cruz, Palmer, and Decker are dead."

Soren tilted his head to the side as he spoke, pulling up the names of the dead from his newly acquired memories.

"Bastard."

"What do you plan to do with us?"

The man to the right spoke up, his tone of voice was far more respectful. He was just as tall as the first man, but not nearly as muscular. His black hair was longer, though still cut short, and his brown eyes were guarded.

"Well, Vaughan is it? That's entirely up to the four of you. I can offer you a chance to work for me or join your friends. Wells has chosen to work for me."

Soren stepped to the side, exposing Avery to his teammates.

"Fucking traitor."

"Enough, Saunders, shut up before you make things worse."

Vaughan turned to Saunders, eyes narrowed. Saunders hit the bars with his fist and turned to look at the wall. It was clear that Vaughan held some authority. He turned his attention back to Soren.

"What are the terms of employment?"

"They're simple; do what I say and nothing bad will happen to you. The world is about to get bad, really bad, and innocent people are going to be at the forefront of this disaster. I'm building a safe place for these people to go to. I have all the supplies I need, plenty of food, and medical supplies. What I lack is manpower. That's where all of you come in."

"How do you know that things are going to get bad?"

"Have you not been paying attention to the news? A plane went down in Ireland and the government shut down half the island. Here in Culton people are freaking out and biting their neighbors. A man killed and ate his wife.

"The further out you look, the more you find. As this virus spreads more and more people will die. Hell, the longer the virus is out there, the stronger it becomes. I have the means to keep people from mutating. Our government is just sitting on its ass when they have the means to mass-produce a vaccine that would stop the virus before it gets bad.

"Too bad it's already too late."

Vaughan looked over at the two men at the opposite end as him. Saunders had turned around and was listening to everything while leaning against the wall. The cage on the far left held two men; one was as tall as Soren with short brown hair and brown eyes, the other was shorter by a good six inches with short blond hair, blue eyes.

The shorter man, Moss, stepped forward and grabbed hold of the bars.

"How can we be certain you won't just kill us anyway?"

"You don't. If I decided that one of you was going to die, you wouldn't even see it coming. That level of trust, where you don't doubt your safety, comes with time. Until that time we'll be watching you closely and you won't be allowed to leave the lower level."

"Why does he get to be out there?"

Saunders pointed toward Avery.

"Because he was awake through most of what happened and has a deep understanding of what I'm capable of. I'm sure he'd be willing to trade places with one of you, but that would require a time machine and I can't guarantee that any of you would have handled it as well as Avery.

"So, he gets to be out here with me, and the four of you are stuck where you are. I will give the four of you time to think about your next move."

Soren turned around and walked to the door, Agent Issac and Avery followed. None of them turned back to look when Saunders started yelling at them, they simply shut the door and walked on.

"I want you to make a phone call, Agent Issac. Let your commander know that I'm willing to bring back two people. Whoever they want."

"Is that what this was all about?"

Soren stopped at the bottom of the steps leading up to the basement of the house.

"Yes. They did exactly what I told them not to do and have been wasting resources to create a vaccine strong enough to bring a mutated back. They'll never succeed. I'm hoping that by doing this they will decide that it's not worth it and actually mass-produce the vaccine to save people."

"It's not safe to bring them back after so long?"

"No, the longer they've lived as a mutated the harder it is to bring their mind back.

"Fry and Ethan are doing as well as they are because I chose them. Trust me, if I hadn't believed that Fry could handle all of the changes I would have killed her when I found her. It wouldn't have mattered how much I liked her.

"The only reason she's struggling more is because I wasn't able to stay with her from the beginning, I was with Ethan. Give them another week and their control of the hunger will be nearly as good as mine."

On the main floor Agent Issac stepped outside to make a phone call. He returned a few minutes later.

"They agreed to it. The commander practically tripped over himself when I told him what you said. I'll come to pick you up at eight in the morning if you're ok with that."

"That's fine."

Soren thought it was funny that Agent Issac had not asked if he wanted to meet them there, since they now had two vehicles. It's as if he's taken to the role of chauffeur.

"I'll head out now."

"Have a good day, Agent Issac."

He looked as if he was going to say more then thought better of it and left.