"What could possibly be more important than the
security and sanctity of the ARC?" I queried.
"Oh, I don't know. JUST THE BIRTH OF YOUR CHILD! MY
WATER JUST BROKE!" yelled Em.
"THE BABY?!" I exclaimed as I tightly held her hand.
Just then an explosion went off at one of the escape
hatches.
"Doc! We just had an explosion at the hatch near the
windmill!" shouted Brian over the comm.
"Are we under attack?" I asked.
"I don't know. Me and Henry are headed there now!"
said Brian.
"Go! Take care of this place," said Em. "I'll be in
good hands with Eli and the rest."
I kissed Em and ran off to the hatch. When I arrived,
I saw someone running away from the farm. Whomever it was, there was no way
they could escape me.
I chased after the culprit who was moving at a pretty
good clip. It took me a little over 5 minutes, but I caught up to him and I
cornered the son of a bitch at the rim of the quarry. He had on a hoody and I
couldn't get a telepathic read on him.
"Look, whoever you are, we can work this out," I
yelled over the droning of the DCs in the quarry. "Why don't you tell me what
this is all about?"
"Tell you what this is all about?!" said a familiar
voice. "Fuck you Marvin!"
He turned and glared at me with hatred and a crazed
look in his eyes. As I attempted to read his mind again, all I received was
something akin to static.
"Tim, why? Why would you do this to us? Why would you
blow the hatch?" I asked in a panic.
"Why?! Why you ask?" asked Tim. "I tried to take what
happened to Nancy in stride. I really did. I tried to forgive you. I even
commiserated with Fred for losing his hand. But when that prick got his
precious hand back, that was the last straw. He got his hand back, so where is
my Nancy?"
"Tim, you know Nancy is gone," I said. "We even had a
funeral."
"That fake ass funeral and everyone refusing to make
eye contact with me. It was too much to bear!" he shouted. "No one cared. You
all just pretended and not very well!"
Storm clouds were beginning to gather as the wind
picked up. The clouds were as dark as the situation we were in.
"Tim, I had no idea you harbored such hurtful
feelings," I said attempting to calm him. "We all suffered loss that day."
"Fuck your loss and fuck that hag of a mom of yours
who killed my Nancy!" he shouted. "I'm sure Naomi feels the same way as she
killed her friend too. How can she stomach being with your 'Yes-man' T?"
"LOOK Tim! I understand you might be angry, but that
is no reason for you to disrespect the memory of my mother!" I said angrily. "No
one wanted what transpired to happen!"
"As I said, fuck your mother and fuck you too!" he
said. "You all didn't give a tinker's damn about Nancy or me. And you think I
forgot that you started this whole apocalyptic mess? Once I placed these ionic
strips behind my ears, it was as if a fog had been lifted from my mind. My mind
was now clearer than it has been for months. Something or someone in that place
kept everyone placated."
It was Em's and my unborn child. It seems that Em and
I were the only two unaffected by its "placation." I noticed that unnatural
storm clouds were rapidly forming and approaching. I could see in the distance
that two funnel clouds were touching down. Tim looked over his shoulder and
shook his head.
"I'll bet you have something to do with this weather
as well," he said with a dismissive smirk. "This is not a natural storm, is it
Marvin?"
Tim was right. This storm wasn't natural. But the
intensity seems to correlate to that of a pattern of labor. Incidents began to
occur in intervals, minutes apart like contractions. Can this have something to
do with the birth of our child? The winds quickly began to pick up speed and
Tim began to pace. Debris was beginning to blow by as the wind howled.
"Look Tim, we can work this out," I said. "Come back
to the ARC with me and we can discuss this."
"I'm afraid Marvin, when and if you make it back to
the ARC, it won't be there," he said as he grinned. "You see I came up with an
elaborate plan to get rid of you and the rest of those heartless bastards who
just forgot about my Nancy!"
"What the hell are you talking about Tim?" I asked. "What
did you do!"
"You see, I'm not the only one with this ionic
technology," he said.
And with that I was hit from the back with a force and
momentum that took me and my assailant over the edge of the quarry. It was
Grundy. We landed with a hard thud as the DCs began to back away from the two
of us.
"Doc, Senator Harrington was none too happy when you
cheated him out of what you agreed on," said Grundy. "Imagine how we felt when
one of your own contacted us with a plan to wipe you all out? Needless to say,
the good senator was ecstatic. And when Timothy told us he could also secure us
samples of the serum, well that just made our respective millennium."
Grundy's mannerisms and diction were elevated. His
musculature seems to be more developed since the last time I saw him. I peered
at him on the molecular level. It was as I feared.
"Guess what Doc? I know what you're thinking," teased
Grundy as he laughed. "Yes, I took your serum. So has the senator and so has
Cisco. We're better, stronger and faster too."
I quickly blocked all attempts of Grundy and anyone
else from reading my mind. The only drawback is that this also cut me off from
those in the ARC. Grundy and I circled each other like two kids in a school
yard ready to fight at recess in the midst of thousands of the dead who droned
on in a perfect circle around us.
"Well Doc, as you can see, I now truly can control the
dead," said Grundy. "Me personally, I wanted to leave you in this pit with
these listless bastards, but Timothy being the sociopath he is, he had another
idea. Would you like to know what it is?"
Grundy pointed up to the edge of the quarry. I looked
up to see Tim peering over the edge of the quarry smiling. He then held up a
device of some sort. Still the winds were picking up something fierce. I could
tell that this was unnatural and was somehow linked to my child.
"Well I won't keep you in suspense any longer Doc,"
said Grundy. "Timothy wants these DCs in your camp. He adamantly insisted on
it!"
"What about the innocent survivors that are there!?
What about the children!?" I pleaded. "My wife is at this moment giving birth
to our baby!"
"Well I guess since you can no longer read my mind,
I'll have to tell you what I'm thinking, Doc," Tim explained. "Fuck your wife
and that baby! I want everyone in that place dead!"
Tim had obviously succumbed to psychosis. The mental
anguish of not healthily dealing with Nancy's death pushed him over the edge.
Just another bead in the string of failures on my part for not psychologically
screening the people to whom I gave these abilities. That was the impetus
needed for me to forgo this charade any longer. To be honest, I think I kind of
lost it when those words escaped his lips.
With that, Tim pressed a button on the device and an
explosion cleared a lot of the debris that blocked the path from the quarry.
Grundy motioned and the DCs began their march. I could no longer attempt to
pump them for information. I had to act swiftly.
In the blink of an eye, I was on Grundy removing his
ionic strips. I easily overpowered him, and I reach into his mind and for all
intents and purposes, "turned it off." He was truly a mindless brute now
wandering with the hoard. I levitated to the edge of the quarry to a stunned
Tim. I was on him just as quickly as I was Grundy. I quickly removed the strips
and shoved him to the ground.
"You shouldn't be able to do that!" he shouted. "You
shouldn't have these abilities! I'm going to kill you and every member of your
family!"
"Tim, you crossed the line when you insulted my
mother," I said has I reached out to him with my mind as my eyes began to glow.
"But when you disrespected my wife and my unborn child, you signed your own
death warrant! If there is one lesson to be learned from all of this, it is:
DON'T FUCK WITH MY FAMILY!"
I levitated Tim into the air as the DCs stumble by me
as if they were on a singular mission oblivious to us. Tim kicked and struggled
in vain as the wind whipped debris, branches and dirt all around us. I focused
my entire attention on Tim as I began to separate his molecules.
The pain was excruciating for me as well as Tim, but I
fought through it to end this threat to my family. I had yet to get a true hand
on molecule manipulation. This was really complex, and I was treading into a
dangerous and dark territory.
"AAAAAAAARRGGGHHH!" screamed Tim both physically and
mentally as his molecules slowly began to separate and he dispersed into
nothingness. The process sapped me of my strength as it took me quite a while
to compose myself. I fell to one knee as the DCs continued on with their last
command from Grundy.
I tried to link with someone, anyone, back at the ARC
but I had no success. That move on Tim completely wiped me out. It was
difficult to run in the winds of this storm in my current condition. At the
rate that they were moving, and the time allotted for them to travel and the
vector they were heading, I estimated that approximately 600 DCs had made it to
the ARC. I trudged on pushing myself to get back.
When the farm was in view, I saw Joshua, Henry and
Brian fighting relentlessly to push back the herd that was on the farm. It was
strange that there was an air of calm on the farm as far as the weather was
concerned. No wind, no storm, just the droning of the DCs.
"Dad! They made it inside! There were more bombs and
the DCs made it inside!" screamed Joshua as tears streamed down his face. "They
got the kids! They got Louis, Elsa, Jim Jr. and Ronny! They're all dead!"
My heart sunk. Luis, Mirna, Jim, Ariel and Jamie must
be devastated. I continued on into the ARC. It was wholesale slaughter as I had
to step over the bodies of the DCs and those of whom we were supposed to
protect. I ran into T and Leon as they were pushing back about 30 DCs, dropping
them left and right. I joined in to help clear the ARC sooner, rather than
later. We crushed skulls like they were little more than Styrofoam cups
destroying the brains.
We went from room to room eliminating the DCs and
picking up any enhanced along the way to assist with the effort. I was making
my way to the med bay when Joshua reached out to me frantically.
"Dad! You have to get out here!" he said in a muffled
broadcast. "Cisco has found us!"
I raced back topside as quickly as I could, only to
witness Cisco plunging his hands through the chests of Brian and Henry, and
simultaneously pulling out their respective hearts.
"I'm such a heartbreaker, aren't I?" he said in all of
the sliminess he could muster.
Like, Grundy, Cisco was also more muscular and more
advanced mentally. To what extent, was unknown to me due to the technology that
blocked my scans.
I saw Joshua lying face down on the ground with a
bronze colored ionic collar on his neck. He must have gotten the message to me
prior to that bastard putting that collar on him. Blood was pouring from
Joshua's nose and mouth. I deduced that unlike the strips that prevent
telepathy from being used on the wearer, these collars prevent the wearer from
using their abilities. As Cisco put his boot on Joshua's neck, I kneeled and
placed my hands on the shoulders of both Brian and Henry. At that moment, I
sent out a little psychic S.O.S. of my own.
"This is between you and me Cisco. Let the boy go," I
said as I began to inch towards him.
"Uh uh uh!" said Cisco, as he stomped on Joshua's back
I heard and saw a few cracked vertebrae. "I will pull out his spine, unless you
put this collar on!"
I attempted to push him away with telekinesis to no
avail. He didn't budge. He tossed me the collar and it landed at my feet.
"You see Doc, first you put on the collar and then I
beat you so bad that you will beg for death!" he said. "And once I leave you
lying, I'm going inside and will have my way with every woman I see. Regardless
of age, race, color, nationality or sexual affiliation as I don't discriminate."
"You are truly a sick bastard," I said as I kneeled to
collect the collar. "Will this make you feel like the big man that we both know
you will never be?"
"Keep stalling," he said as Joshua groaned. "I've
already felt the fifth and sixth vertebrae shatter in this young man's back."
I put the collar around my neck as Cisco walked up to
me and punched me square in the face.
"Just like I thought," I said. "You punch like a
little bitch!"
"What the hell…why didn't that hurt you?" screamed
Cisco. "It doesn't matter. I'm just as big and bad as you are!"
T, helped up Joshua and removed his collar. He walked
him over to the barn while still maintaining his Antithesis Field on Cisco. My
calculated hunch was right. The ionic strip technology does not work on T's
Antithesis Field. He was able to negate Cisco's abilities.
I punched Cisco in the stomach and met his nose with a
knee lift. I went for a leg seep and he countered with a front kick to the
sternum. I fell back and used the momentum to complete a back handspring onto
my feet. Cisco charged me, wildly swinging as I dodged his attempts to connect
with a hay-maker. I countered with an uppercut, but he caught my arm under his
and dislocated it from my shoulder. That crunching sound was as horrible as the
pain was excruciating.
Just then a DC stumbled into our area and as it hit
T's field, it fell face first onto the ground. With that distraction, Cisco
performed a roundhouse kick right to my stomach.
"What happened to the big, bad Doc that knows how to
fight?" chided Cisco as I fell to one knee. "Where's that asshole?!"
He rushed in and was met with a head lift to his chin.
When he fell onto his back, I leaped into the air and landed on his chest with
both feet driving the air from his lungs. As Cisco laid there unconscious, I
pull the collar from my neck and placed it on his. T reigned in his Antithesis
Field as I felt my shoulder snap back into place. Joshua was now on his feet as
he stretched and adjusted his back as his vertebrae snapped back into place.
"He's here, just waiting for the right moment to KICK.
YOUR. ASS!" I responded.
I surveyed the wanton devastation visited upon this
place by one misguided, bitter individual who was used by evil. Did Tim really
have to die? How would I broach this with the survivors? Thinking about the
survivors, how do I face the Rodríguezes, the Carters and Jamie? I have to
check on Em and the baby.
Just then the storm stopped, and the clouds parted to
reveal stunning shafts of light from the sun as it shone from the heavens. The
dead that were streaming in from the quarry abruptly began to change direction.
I don't think I've seen them do that since this whole thing started. It was
then that Eli reached out to me telepathically.
"Doc, Doc! Congratulations! Em gave birth!" he
projected. "She had..."
TO BE CONTINUED…