Mutation: Parables From The Apocalypse - Dystopian Fiction (9 page)

The girl gingerly stepped outside of her prison. Charlie, and the General stepped back, while Chaz moved towards the girl. She made eye contact with Chaz, but initially never said a word. Then, she spoke.

“I know you,” she said to Chaz.

Chaz had to smile, then looked at the other two briefly and back to the girl. “I don’t think so. We’ve only just met.”

“No,” she said. “We met a few days ago. You were my driver. You got me some medicine, then you drove me and the others.” Her expression changed from one of discovery to one of anger. “Then you deserted me. You left me alone in that truck with the others, and the medicine ran out. That was painful. Why would you do that? Why would you leave us all to suffer like that? We never hurt you.”

Chaz moved a little closer to her. “I’m sorry for that, it was out of my control what happened at the graveyard. I meant to come back for you, but we had some difficulties.”

The girl walked over to the monitoring equipment connected to her tank. Looking over the displays and buttons, she asked, “This is about me, isn’t it. It knows about me, and my body. It’s about the insides of me.” She looked and gestured to Charlie. “You know about me, about who I am. What happened to me? Was I dreaming?”

Charlie was taken aback a first, and didn’t know what to say. Chaz spoke first. “Your cured now. You were sort of sick before, and now you're better.” He looked to Charlie. “Tell her Charlie. Explain to her what she’s going through.”

Charlie regained his composure. “Yes, like he said, but more complicated. Your entire DNA has evolved. Your body has learned to do things you couldn’t do before. We don’t know exactly what yet. We’ll need to do some testing.”

The girl looked back at the tank and the monitors, clearly upset. “No more testing. I’m done with that. You can’t control me any longer. I’m not your prisoner. I’d like to go now.”

Chaz interrupted the conversation. “What’s your name?”

The girl just looked at him, and thought for a moment. “I think it’s Angela.” She looked down for a moment, and closed her eyes. “Yes, it is. They called me Angie.” She then caught glimpse of the other tank, with it’s inside walls smeared with the blood of it’s captive. She moved closer to the tank, and placed her hands on the glass. For the first time, the zombie inside relented his pounding. He watched Angie’s every movement, as she walked around his tank.

“I was like this, wasn’t I?” No one answered. “I know I was. I’m changed now. Even more than the last time.” She motioned to the zombie in the tank. “You did something that allowed me to change. You need to let him change now to. He’s suffering, and that shouldn’t be allowed. It’s not natural.” She moved back towards Charlie. “You know how to do it. You triggered it in me. Do it for him. It’s going to happen eventually anyways. It’s natural.”

Charlie looked to the General. The General shook his head and said, “No, we can’t … we won’t do that. Not today. We have other work to do first. We can’t have a bunch of you changed into this before we understand you better.”

Angie looked to the General. “Your the one in charge here. You have the power, but you don’t really understand what’s happening. You're afraid. Afraid of losing power.”

“That’s ridiculous, I’m not afraid of anything. Certainly not of you. You're just a girl. Why would I be afraid of you?”

“Because, you know that’s a lie. I’m more then you know. I’m more then you understand. He knows.” She motioned to Charlie. “He triggered the change, but soon he won’t be needed. Christa will make the change for all of us.”

Chaz boldly moved towards Angie. “How could you know Christa? You’ve never met.” He looked towards the General and Charlie. “What kind of stunt is this? What does she know about Christa?”

Angie placed a hand on Chaz’s shoulder. “You worry too much. When you and I first met, I saw Christa. But only briefly. She was there when you helped us.”

Charlie, now somewhat concerned said, “General, we need to move on. Angie, don’t touch him,” gesturing to Angie’s hand on Chaz’s shoulder. “This wasn’t part of the experiment. We should move to the next step, before …”

The General interrupted. “That’s enough. I’ll decide when we move on.”

“Move on to what?” Chaz asked. “What more could there possibly be?”

“There’s more Colonel, there’s one more thing you need to see today.”

The General nodded to Charlie, who keyed and clicked some commands into the computer. “It’s time to move on to the next phase Colonel,” said the General. Today is not about demonstrating the power of remarkable mutation. We’ve known about their mutations for years, we just never witnessed or had control over it.  Control, is what we’re all about here today. Not just controlling the mutation, but about retaining control after the mutation. Angie here is going to help demonstrate real control.

Chaz felt a weight pressing on his shoulder, as Angie held on to keep her balance. Chaz looked to her, and saw her face go visibly pale, almost ghost like. Then, without warning, her legs buckled and she crumpled to the floor. Chaz kneeled to her side. She was still breathing, but unconscious. “What’s going on? Did you do something to her?” Chaz asked Charlie.

“Charlie, what the hell!” The General said. “You weren’t supposed to kill her, just render her controllable. Do something.”

“I’m cycling the air now General,” Charlie replied, tapping on his keyboard. “I told you this was too early a test. We haven’t had enough time to understand the dosages and the effect it has. Even Montgomery wouldn’t allow this.”

“Montgomery’s a fool. She doesn’t understand what we’re up against. I’m tired of waiting and listening to her damn excuses. Just make this work.”

“The air is fully cycled now, and I’m lowering the levels of the agent by twenty five percent. She should be fine.”

Chaz looked down at Angie, and sure enough, the color was coming back to her face. She started to stir, but still wasn’t strong enough to stand. Chaz helped her into a chair. She could sit up and her eyes were half open, but she was non responsive. Chaz kept one hand on her shoulder to stop her from falling over.

He looked to Charlie and said, “You cycled the air? Why would you need to do that?”

“No need to be concerned,” the General answered. “It’s perfectly safe for humans.”

“What’s perfectly safe for humans? What the hell are you talking about?”

“Why the control agent of course,” Charlie added. “It’s what caused her to pass out. I’ve adjusted the levels now, she’ll be fine in a few minutes.”

“She’ll be fine? She doesn’t look fine to me. She looked fine a few minutes ago. She actually look more than fine. She looked like she was ready to take both of you on and kick your asses. And now, that you’ve got me breathing some kind of chemical, I’m thinking maybe I’ll start kicking ass.”

“It’s safe for humans. The General just told you that.”

“Yea, and you said it was too early for testing. What the hell do you know? You couldn’t even get the dosage right. You nearly killed her. Not to mention, we’re breathing in chemicals you don’t even know how to administer properly.”

“She wouldn’t have died,” Charlie replied, trying to defend himself. “It only works on the mutation present in the zombies.”

“You know that for sure?” Chaz countered.

Raising his voice, the General ordered, “That’s enough from both of you. She’s not worth fighting over. She’s one of them. She’s no different than that blood soaked bastard in the other tank, or the ones outside, or the kid you brought in Colonel. Their totally expendable and I’ll use them however I have to if it moves us closer to winning this damn war. How could you of all people, forget what’s at stake here Colonel? Your concern for the girl Christa is clouding your judgment.”

Chaz reached behind his back, and felt for the pistol concealed under his shirt. After a few seconds, he pulled his hand away. “I’ve had enough General. I’ve got better things to be doing right now.”

“Actually Colonel, you really don’t. You need to watch the rest of this.” The General walked over to Angie, pushing Chaz to the side. “Angie, stand up.” Angie never moved, so he tried again in a louder voice. “Angie, get up.”

Slowly, Angie lifted herself from the chair and stood. Her eyes were unfocused, like she was staring off into a distance. She was weak and her legs shook, but she remained standing. The General raised his hand and slapped Angie hard across the face. Chaz took a step forward, but the General waved him back.

“Stand your ground Colonel, that’s an order.” They locked eyes for a moment, but Chaz stayed where he was. “Sit down Angie.” This time, Angie lowered herself directly into the chair. Once she was sitting, the General ordered her again, “Angie stand up.” Once she stood up, the General slapped her again. No one in the room budged, but a grin formed on Charlie's face. The General repeated his orders several times, and slapped Angie every time she stood.

Eventually Chaz had enough, and the next time the General raised his hand for a slap, Chaz pulled back his arm. “That’s enough General. You’ve made your point. You’ve managed to turn a mutated freak into your own personnel puppet. Congratulations. What do you plan for an encore?”

“You’d be surprised Colonel, the things I have in mind for an encore. Just imagine the possibilities? She’s totally under my control. She’ll do anything I say, without any regard for herself. Do you know what this means?”

“That you intend to undo all of Presidents Lincolns hard work emancipating the slaves?”

“No Colonel. We’re not talking about human beings here. These monsters have been terrorizing us for years. What were onto here, is the most important discovery of our generation. Hell, of the past ten generations. We’re not just ending the war with zombies, we’re solving a whole lot of problems that have plagued this country for years.”

“You can’t enslave an entire population General. There are laws against that.”

“A population of what Colonel? You of all people know what they’re capable of. These aren’t human beings. They’re monsters that have terrorized and killed millions over the last decade and a half. I don’t care whether they look human or like Frankenstein's bride. They’re all the same on the inside, and now for the first time we can put a stop to all the terror. So, why shouldn’t we use them? They created the mess we’re in, why not put them to work cleaning things up. It’s not slavery. They owe us. They owe us more than they can possibly repay.”

“Whatever you say General. Thanks for the show. If you don’t mind, I’ve seen enough for today, and I’ll be heading back to my quarters now.”

“What you’ve seen here stays amongst between the three of us Colonel. This is the beginning of the end for these freaks. Once Christa is out in the wild everything changes. Changes for the better.”

Chaz headed for the door, and spun the handle to open it. When he hear the locking bars click open, he pushed the door open enough to walk through. Looking through the open door, Chaz said, “You need to remember General, that this is not entirely your decision. Nor is it Montgomerys. I realize you two have been running the show down here for years.  It may seem like you're in charge, but there’s a whole country of people out there that will have something to say about this. Assuming of course, that they get the chance. And, in case you're wondering, they do need to have that chance.” Chaz paused for a moment, and looked back at Charlie, the General and Angie. “If you try moving forward with this on your own, you're going to look like twice the monster the freaks are. Even if you don’t care about what others think of you, you better be prepared to fight the biggest battle of your life. My advice to you, if you decide to go that way … get a lot more guns.”

Second Thoughts?

Chaz made his way down the hallway, as far away from the vault as he could get. Alex would be on his way to get to Montgomery. Alex needs to know what I know. He needs to understand, what I just saw. Christa really was one of those freaks. Angie was acting just like a grown up version of Christa. Seeing her transform from a freak to some semblance of person was unsettling to say the least.  Alex really needs to understand, what we're getting ourselves into.

A month ago, I would have been all for the execution of every freak bastard I could get my hands on, and even a few I couldn’t. It was simple. They were all clearly the enemy, there was no middle ground. This was the most politically correct war ever fought by this country. The freaks were mindless crazed monsters, that didn’t deserve to live. They were animals, and we were their food supply. Things were black and white. Politicians like to paint wars as a simple good guys vs the bad guys. It's easier to justify all the body bags coming home. Everyone knows it’s always a big lie. There’s always gray areas and usually more than two sides to every story. However, these wars with the freaks truly were black and white. At least until recently. I like black and white.  There's no complicated politics. It’s easy to get the public behind you, when the freaks are banging down their doors, and they just want their government to make their streets safe again.”

The elevator was just ahead, and Chaz slowed down his pace. There was another soldier waiting outside the elevator door. Chaz didn’t recognize the corporal. The corporal saluted Chaz as he approached. Chaz returned the salute, as the elevator door opened. The corporal stepped aside, to let Chaz go in first. On their way down, Chaz spoke up.

“You have any good friends son?”

“Sir?”

“Friends son. It’s a simple question. Do you have any friends … any good friends?”

The soldier thought for a second, “I suppose, Willstrop and Matthews are good guys. I bunk with them. I guess I’d count them as friends.”

“You guess? If you have to guess soldier, they can’t be good friends. I’m asking about good friends. That kind you know will always have your back. The kind that would do anything for you. Lie, cheat, steal for you. Maybe even take a hit for you, or put their own lives in jeopardy for you. Good friends. The kind you don’t have to think about whether or not their friends.”

“Yes sir.”

“So you do then? You do have friends like that.”

“Yes sir, my buddy Scotty. I knew him from grade school on. We got into a lot of scraps and trouble growing up. We were inseparable as kids, and anyone that messed with one of us, always had to deal with the other one. He really didn’t want me to join the army, but after my sister got taken by one of those freaks, I couldn’t not go. I didn’t want anyone else to have to go through what I did. She was only fifteen at the time.”

“Sorry to hear that kid, but OK, so you do have a true good friend.”

“Yes sir, I did.”

“Did? Did the freaks get him too?”

“Yes sir, they did. Just a few weeks after I shipped out. I felt guilty at first, thought that maybe if I was still there he would have been OK. That I could have helped protect him.”

“You realize, you probably couldn’t have right? Were you young when you signed up?”

“Yes sir, only eighteen. I know that now sir. There was quite a few of them when it happened. It was the middle of the night, and they took his whole family. If I’d been in the house I’d probably be dead now too.”

“You made the right decision corporal. You're making a difference now, you're helping to fight those freaks, and that makes a difference in the lives of others. Just being here, you're helping to save lives.”

“Thank you sir, I appreciate that.”

Chaz nodded in acknowledgment. The elevator moved slowly downward, as silence filled the air between them. Finally Chaz broke the silence.

“So, just hypothetically speaking, suppose your buddy Scotty … or say a buddy like Scotty did something that really pissed you off.” The corporal winced at the question. “Alright, let’s say someone totally different. Some guy that you were best friends with, but not Scotty. Let’s say this other guy really pissed you off. Let’s say, he broke into your house, and stole a bunch of your stuff. Stuff that was really important to you. Then, he lied about it. He totally lied about it, but you had proof that he really did it. What would you do?”

“I’d confront him. I’d want to know why he did it. He must have had a good reason. Maybe someone forced him to. Maybe his family was in trouble with no money, and they really needed the stuff. I’d need to know why. As long as he had a good reason, then I think I’d understand. We’re buddies right. We’d figure something out.”

“Suppose, he had no good reason. Or say, he just wouldn’t give you a reason. Say, he just kept denying he was ever responsible. Would you still be buddies?”

“Nah. If something happened to make him act that way, then he’d obviously changed. He wasn’t the same person I was friends with, and I’d probably just move on. After I got the stuff he stole back of course. If he was a friend, and really needed the stuff, then I’d probably let him keep it. But if he had changed that much to lie outright to me, then fuck ‘em. I’d do whatever I had to to get my stuff back, and then move on.  It'd be hard, but I'd do it.”

“So, it’s all about talking it out then huh?”

“Yes sir, pretty much.”

“What if you couldn’t talk to him? Say he was gone, or in a coma, or just wouldn’t answer your calls. Then what?”

“I’d wait if I had to, and just keep trying. For a good friend, I’d find a way. Whatever it took. I’ve learned, we don’t get that many good friends in this life, so I’d definitely make the effort. No matter how long it took. Eventually I’d find out the truth.”

“You're right, we don’t get that many. People do change, but that doesn’t mean they don’t deserve our friendship. Or at the very least, they need an honest effort from us to make things right. As right as they can be.”

The elevator doors opened, and the corporal held the doors open, as Chaz headed out.