Neo Genesis - Chapter 1- Pt1 - R.D.

Chapter 1: The beginning


The day began just like all the rest for the past couple of months, hot.
I woke up alone, just like past days, and in a pool of sweat. The California sun had made its presence known early on, seeping into my apartment through gaps in the window blinds. I half expected to wake up and find Teresa perched Indian style at the foot of the bed gazing at me. Her dark green eyes piercing my flesh and peering into my soul. Her dark hair draped over her slim face, smiling her smile. “Good morning love” she would say to me. Her words soft like flowers and flowing like the calmest river. The thought of it now makes me cringe. She wasn’t here, and hadn’t been for months, she had been away on yet another business trip. This one had been longer than the rest. We met in college, it wasn’t one of those love at first sight encounters that you read about it romantic novels or see in the movies. But if it had to be compared to a movie it was more or less like “The Runaway Bride” minus her actually being a bride, and me a reporter. We couldn’t stand each other. But somewhere among the dislike we found the love that brought us together. The kind of love that only exists between two people that are opposites sides of the same coin. Only between two people, that was made for each other.

She continued her major in Photography, while I dropped out to enlist in the military in my second year. We kept in touch, and talked whenever we could. When I got out she was there waiting on me, as beautiful as ever. And soon after, we found ourselves married. The photographs of that day stationed all throughout the apartment in a joyous reminder. I became a cop a year later and moved up the ranks much quicker than most. In six years I had become a highly decorated Homicide Detective, surely on the fast track to Chief. The work, my job, as “T” described it, was unsavory, darkness in an already dark world. Understandable, since her job allows her to photograph things, and people, and portray them in a beautiful light. To show the world no matter how threatening the things around us seemed, that somewhere hidden there is something loving, beautiful. I would joking pass it along and tell her that “Nothing is as beautiful as you”.

Recently I was presented with a “once in a lifetime job opportunity”, the Purge Corporation, a powerhouse Pharmaceutical mogul, had been in the market looking for someone to head a new branch of security for their California office. Someone experienced, with a military background. The CEO, D. Anthony Purge former Marine Captain, pulled some strings in the Police Department and selected me. Not by rotten luck I’m sure. We had history; I served under him, which was until I socked him in the jaw for badgering a fellow soldier for being a homosexual. He had me dishonorably discharged, stating that my lack of discipline wouldn’t be tolerated by him or any member of the armed forces. This was clearly his way to get me back under his thumb. But what the hell, I’ll play, we could use the money and “T” would love the fact that I’ve taken a desk job.
I got out of bed and put on yesterday’s clothes, blue jeans and a dark green tee shirt. The stains from yesterday’s dinner darkened and dried on them. I proceeded out the door and into my car; I drove for what felt like hours in the GOD forsaken heat. Each drop that fell from my brow seemed to sizzle and immediately evaporate as it hit the leather steering wheel. The gates to the Devil’s kingdom were open and in full swing today. I pulled into the parking lot adjacent to the Purge Corp. office, switched off the ignition and tucked the keys into my pocket. The towering structure seemed more for use as “eye candy” rather than the California base of pharmaceutical operations. Twenty-three stories of shimmering glass and stainless steel, its enormous insignia stamped on the buildings face. A triangle with what appeared to be a symbol of a man with heavenly light passing through him, the words “Trust”, “Family”, and “Future” printed at the triangle’s point and base; the company’s corner stones. Entering through the double doors, I headed to the main desk and was directed to an elevator with two well dressed guards waiting.

Surveying the lobby I found enough suit’s and over exposed cleavage to last a lifetime, and here I was a middle aged black man in semi wrinkled jeans and a TV. dinner stained tee shirt; thinking to myself that this looked more like a modeling agency than a manufacturer for medical products. I approached the “suits” and was ushered inside the elevator as it opened with them following behind. I’ve never been one for elevators, or “mobile death traps” as I like to call them. The fact that you are suspended, and lifted into the air by a pair of cables rattles me. As the doors closed the “suits” moved to my rear in unison. Their matching tailor made suits also moving in harmonic unity. The “death box” jolted to a start, and my heart stopped for a split second with it. While taking deep breathes to calm myself, I noticed the “suit” to my right slowly reaching into his blazer by way of his reflection in the metallic door. Every “cop instinct” that I’ve developed over the past six years screamed in my ears. Tense, I clinched my fists, my body preparing itself without a single demand from my mind. As he grabbed his concealed object, he gave a slight pull. In the silence my hearing was on point, I heard the familiar sound all cops know too well; the simple click, as one slides the hammer back on a firearm.

As the “suit” went to brandish his sidearm, I stopped him cold; spinning around and grabbing his gun hand by the wrist with my right, and swiftly delivering a straight left to his nose knocking his head back against the elevator wall. His partner seized me from the rear in a reverse bear hug, his increasing strength squeezing the air right out of me. Lifting me into the air I planted my feet deeply in the first “suits” chest sending us toppling backwards into the elevator door with a loud bang. Loosing his grip, I broke free and delivered and elbow to his ribs, grabbed him around the back of his head with his face on my shoulder; and dropped to the floor with all my weight pulling on his head to hyper extend his neck. The first “suit” was still dazed; the left to his nose had busted it wide open. Blood flowed through his hand as he tried to keep it covered, like sand through a shattered hour glass. Through watery eyes he raised his gun, I lunged under him from a knelt position grabbing his gun hand yet again and shoved him back driving my right forearm into his throat, and he inadvertently fired off a round into one of the overhead lights as we collapsed against the wall. Raining down on us a storm of broken glass fragments. Because of his staggered cries I never heard his partner get to his feet. In a split second I was knocked unconscious, and consumed by a welcoming darkness followed by silence.

No telling how long I was out, minutes, maybe even hours. At one point I had came to, the room was dark; dark being an understatement, pitch black is more the necessary term. The air was dry, though I tried many times to escape I couldn't move; I had been restrained by my wrists and ankles, bound to some type of steel table in a horizontal position. In the distance of the blackness I could hear voices. I couldn't make out what was being said but I knew I wasn't alone. To my left I could feel someone watching me, an unrelenting gaze of something not human. Soon the sound of me tugging at my restraints was the only sound flooding the room. “Where was I“? I thought to myself. I could feel the eyes getting closer, like a pendulum steadily closing in on it‘ s helpless victim. The fear was uncontrollable now; I couldn't resist it anymore, finally the inner child that’s in all of us rushed to the surface. A feeble wail parted my lips, full of somber emotion and a broken will, my voice shaky, my palms clammy, my heart inches from beating its way out of my chest. And then, like before the darkness, and silence came for me.

The second time I awoke, it was to a searing pain behind my eyes. The sheer twinge caused me to break out into tears, it was unbearable. The constant throbbing behind my eyes vibrated into my skull shaking it’s very walls; the overhead lights, now switched on “high beam mode” did little too dull it’s ache. Fighting back the agony for a brief second, I worked my eyes open and witnessed two shadowy figures positioned at my feet, their faces obscured by what little darkness was left in the room. All I was able to make out were their white lab jackets, and a symbol. A triangle, with what seemed like a man with heavenly light passing through him. “Purge” I managed to squeeze from my throat, my voice horse, demonic. What fear I had, had been replaced, destroyed by an ungodly hatred. My blood, once flowing with life and compassion had now run cold; I could feel its ice shards passing through my veins. Like razor blades slicing its way through my entire body, its movements slow but persistent. Noticing another “white coat” approaching to my left I focused on what he was carrying, a syringe with a two inch needle, filled with some type of green fluid. As he edged closer I tugged furiously at my chains. Pointless, I watched as he forced my head down and inserted the syringe into my eye socket. In a fit of rage I clinched the sides of the make shift operating table as the other “white coats” chuckled to themselves. They were enjoying this.

The instant he retracted the needle the pain behind my eyes amplified. No words could describe it; no amount of imagination could create a word to describe it. Before the darkness had taken me once again, I bellowed words that I now deem as a promise. Words that originated from the pits of my soul, spoken from the soul of my true self. “I will kill ALL OF YOU!!!!” I could feel their tension, the chills running down their spines. As I lost consciousness my hands fell limp from the table sides, and then silence.