Glimmer, Part Two

Day Three

         Mad. Crazy. Insane. People are crazy.
         Why do they want to know my story? Been locked up here for a long time. No one bothered with me before. Why now? Why them?
         Craziness. Insanity of people.
         Can’t stay here much longer. Restless. Need to kill. Must get revenge. Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell must die. Always die.
         Can’t die. Always alive.
         Why do they want me? Need me? Why?
         Always ask. Never know.
         Crazy. Mad. Insane. Madness for humans. Not human anymore. Can’t be human anymore. Dr. Harris tried. Failed. Always failure.
         Can’t change.
         Seek revenge. All I live for. Must kill Dr. Tobias. Must kill Dr. Russell. Kill. Kill.
         They stole everything. Life. Family. Mind. Freedom.
         Want it back. Must have it back. They must change me back.
         Can’t stay like this. Stuck forever.
         Must escape. Prison. Prisoner here. Can’t escape. Must get out.
         Just like them. They keep me locked up. Just like Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell.
         Sick, crazy, deranged scientists. Playing with human lives. No regard. No regard for humans. No regard for lives. Do whatever they want. Don’t care. Selfish. Selfish lunatics.
         Get up, a harsh voice demands.
         I stand. Follow guard to same room. Always same room. Same dim light. Same two men. I sit. They sit. Guard always stands behind me. Always stands behind me. Never anywhere else.
         Do you remember where you left off? two asks.
         Yes.
         Continue from there, one requests.

         They walked through the mesh of gates and fences and found themselves on a walkway winding through an elaborate garden in full bloom. The four assassins followed the doctor through the garden to a pair of silver doors set into a building dripping with ivy.
         The doors slid open and Dr. Harris led the way into a pure silver setting. It looked similar to Shyan Lab, but Nyan Lab felt cleaner to the assassins. The lighting was brighter and oddly cheery. Plants bloomed on several of the counters and a waterfall bubbled in a corner next to a tall tree full of lavender blossoms.
         Dr. Harris led them over to a large antique steel desk and gestured to several chars sitting before it. He went and sat behind the desk in order to look at them. The assassins sat and regarded the doctor silently.
         “I wasn’t sure how many of you there would be,” Dr. Harris began. “It looks like there are less of you than I thought. But it’s for the best. Would you tell me your names?”
         In clipped, toneless voices, they each gave their name and nothing else. It sounded like four staccato beats as they spoke and Dr. Harris didn’t ask for anything else.
         “The plants,” Dr. Harris said, his gesture including them all. “I’m a horticologist by profession, and that’s what Nyan Lab is known for. But I am a specialist in the sort of devices that Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell used on you, a type of altering device designed specifically for humans. That allowed me to create this.”
         Dr. Harris held up a silver device with several small buttons under a screen displaying two lines, one jagged and the other straight.
         “Every person is assigned a distinct signal at birth that allows them to use a Personal Transporter. That’s what the straight line represents. It’s the normal functioning of any given human’s signal. Your signals have obviously been tampered with. The jagged line represents signals that have been distorted by unnatural causes, such as your own. Normally, it would be smooth curves. It became jagged like this because something went wrong. When I noticed the change, I tracked the signal strength to Central Park. That’s how I found you.
         “I’m the only one who can possibly help you at this point. I can’t guarantee any success, but there’s no one else in the galaxy with enough knowledge of these sorts of devices to even know where to start. I’m asking, do you want my help?”
         “Yes,” Schuyler said immediately.
         “I need to know what happened,” Dr. Harris said quietly, putting down the device and leaning forward. “Whose signal was distorted?”
         “Mine,” Schuyler said. “They told me to kill my family. I went. I killed my daughter. I held her heart. She was dead. Felt like my head was falling apart. Shattered.”
         Dr. Harris nodded. “I couldn’t say why that happened. I don’t think anyone could. But Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell apparently left some human quality within you. You killed your daughter and it got the best of your mind. I have to ask, Schuyler, would you agree to let me experiment on you, to try to reverse what they did?”
         “Yes,” Schuyler replied unhesitatingly.
         “Good.” Dr. Harris stood and the four assassins rose with him. “We need to begin now. There’s no telling how long this will take. I’ve shut my lab off from the others in this building. My assistant knows what I’m planning and she will be arriving in the morning to help. Her name is Aryelle. She will not bother you and I ask that you not bother her. Once she arrives, the six of us will be sealed in this lab until our experiment is done with.”
         “We’re another experiment then,” Dionysius said flatly.
         “I wouldn’t call it that, exactly, but, yes, it is an experiment. We don’t know what’s going to happen. All we can do is follow the procedures Aryelle and I mapped out months ago and pray we’re right. We want to get you back to normal, or as close to normal as possible. I must warn you that we could fail. Are you willing to let us help you?”
         “We have no other choice,” Jen said tonelessly. “There is no where else for us to go.”
         “Good. Follow me.”
         Dr. Harris led them to a long table. On the neighboring table was a tray of instruments and devices. Dr. Harris instructed Schuyler to undress and lie on the table. The other three assassins stood on the other side of the table from Dr. Harris.
         “I’m going to put you to sleep,” Dr. Harris said softly as he prepared a hypodermic needle. “You won’t awaken until the procedure has finished. Are you ready?”
         “Yes…”

         For the first time, I dreamed, I say. I dreamed impossible dreams of my family. Happy dreams. Good dreams.
         Could you estimate how long you were dreaming for? one asks.
         No.
         And you had no idea what happened while you were asleep? two asks.
         No. When I awoke, though, I saw a young woman I had never seen before. She told me she was Aryelle. She told me she and Dr. Harris had removed everything Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell had put into me. They were replaced with new brain tissue and new devices that should make up for being mostly dead. Jen, Erika, and Dionysius had also agreed to undergo the procedure. Aryelle told me they had gone ahead and done the procedure on them. They awoke shortly after I did.
         Did you return to normal when you awoke? two asks.
         I gaze at them for long moments.
         No.
         What happened, then? one asks.
         Chaos.
         Please elaborate, one requests when I don’t continue.
         I stared up at Aryelle and had a feeling of coldness and utter loathing. I couldn’t explain it. Dr. Harris’s face came into view and he looked drained and very pale. He gripped Aryelle’s arm and she looked up at him with fear in her eyes…

         “What happened?” Aryelle whispered. “They look worse than they did when I first walked in here.”
         “We failed, Aryelle. The tissue and blood samples we took indicate that some of Curt and Eleanna’s devices were actually absorbed into their bodies. There was no way we could counter them and our devices made it worse. They may yet regain some degree of humanity, but, for now, you need to run.”
         “Run?”
         He nodded. “Don’t worry about me, Aryelle. Go. Now.”
         She hugged him quickly and fiercely, then turned and ran from the lab just as Schuyler broke free of his bonds.
         Dr. Harris didn’t look at any of them as the other three assassins broke free and put their suits back on. “I’m sorry,” he said, very quietly. “I failed all of you…and myself. Dr. Tobias’s and Dr. Russell’s programs are mostly intact. The only thing left for you to do is to start the Apocalypse, just as they wanted, just as you were programmed to. There’s no stopping you now.”
         With that said, Dr. Harris reached into a pocket, drew out a vial, and drank the contents. A moment later, he lay at their feet, his eyes wide open and remorse and guilt plain to see on his lifeless face.
         The four assassins looked at each other. Their only source of help was gone. They were left in a far worse condition than when they had arrived at Nyan Lab. They had never felt as destructive as they did at that moment.
         “What do we do?” Erika asked softly.
         Schuyler turned toward the doors of the lab. “We start the Apocalypse,” was his quiet reply.
         The other three assassins fell in beside him and they left the lab together. They walked out into broad daylight in New York City. They advanced up and down streets, a solid line of destruction, mindlessly killing everyone they came across as they headed to no particular destination.
         No one was safe and no one could capture them. It wasn’t long before the people began to realize they couldn’t escape the four who were killing left and right. Rather than try to stop them, they fled for their lives.
         “This will take a long time before everyone is dead,” Jen said, just as emotionlessly as before.
         “We need to start wars, cataclysmic disasters, get everyone to hate and kill everyone else,” Dionysius said as he withdrew his hand from an anonymous man’s chest.
         “Kill the world leaders,” Schuyler said as he glimmered out of the city.
         The other three assassins traded glances and nods and likewise glimmered to other parts of the world.

         So you killed every world leader? one asks, interrupting me.
         Yes. Then we killed other important officials. We killed day and night. We became the most internationally wanted individuals. But they could never catch us. Countries started blowing each other up in attempts to find us. They caused natural disasters that killed more and more people.
         Did you work together or alone? one asks.
         Both. Sometimes we worked as a group, sometimes in pairs. Most of the time we were alone.
         Did you see each other often? two asks.
         Yes. We agreed to meet every day at sunrise to determine what to do that day and to see how far along we were in world destruction.
         And that’s how you knew they are still alive, one remarks, understanding in his voice.
         Yes. We agreed to keep going if something happened to one of us. They are still on Earth, still pushing the Apocalypse along.
         Well, you succeeded, two says. The Apocalypse is quite evident. Could you tell us how you arrived here?
         Certainly. It was some time after we had started killing people. I had lost track of where I was, but I was sure I was somewhere in North America. The two countries on that continent were at extreme odds with each other. They attacked each other mercilessly. I happened to be at their target city one day…

         It was hot, and Schuyler thought it was summer. But he had seen snow elsewhere and knew it was winter. It was the fires that raged all across the city that made it hot. People were scarce these days. Corpses littered the streets. No one was safe from the assassins and the explosions. Countries had been wiped out and more would follow.
         Schuyler walked through the streets, stepping right through the fires and feeling nothing but heat. His clothes had long ago burnt off, just as the clothes of the other three assassins had. There was no need for clothes, for decency, modesty. Everyone was either attacking everyone else or running for their lives.
         There wasn’t much life left in this city. There wasn’t much of anyone to kill. Schuyler contented himself with walking through the city, observing the evident destruction and wondering if Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell were still alive. He would kill them the next time he saw them. He swore it to himself, his one promise to himself and his fellow assassins. The two doctors had to die for what they had done to the four of them.
         The ground beneath his feet and the buildings around him exploded. His ears began to ring and he felt as though he were aloft in the sky. He looked down and found that he was indeed in the air. The city had been targeted and had been blown up.
         “Glimmer,” he whispered to himself, having no idea where he would end up.
         He was still floating. But he wasn’t in the Earth’s atmosphere anymore. He looked down and saw the Earth far below him. Even from this high up he could see huge red spots, where the fires raged, ravaging the earth.
         He wondered if the Earth would explode. Would he be able to see it from where he was? Should he go back and get his fellow assassins so they could wait and watch for the Earth’s explosion?
         It was quiet here, quiet as it had never been before.
         Schuyler closed his eyes and listened to the quiet. It was cold, but it didn’t affect him. He stretched out his limbs in space and enjoyed the coolness and the silence. It was almost pleasant to just lie here and float away.
         And then he was jarred back to reality. He was being reeled into some space shuttle and was inside before he could react. He was surrounded by three men and a woman in silver and black space suits.
         Without a thought, he thrust his hand up and killed one of the men. The other three quickly traded glances and then the woman pulled out a hypodermic needle. She quickly jabbed it into his arm and his eyes began to close.
         “Who is this?” he heard one of the men whisper as his eyes closed.
         “Don’t you mean, what is this?” the woman asked. “He looks human, but have you ever seen anyone kill someone like that? His hand and arm are clean. He can’t be human.”
         “Then what is he?” the second man asked.
         “That’s what I want to know,” the woman replied. “Go get some others…”
         Her voice faded away as he lost consciousness.

         Schuyler awoke suddenly, his eyes wide open and alert. He was lying down and found his upper body encased in a sleeve-less garment. His arms were tied down beneath the long shirt by thick ropes and chains encircled his torso and bound arms above the shirt. He squinted into the dim light and realized this was the first time he had awoken on a mattress and not a metal lab table.
         Slowly, he turned his head and saw a man dressed in dark blue standing across the room, speaking quietly through a wire mesh square in the door to someone on the other side. When he was done speaking, the man turned and walked over to Schuyler. He bent down and his intense blue eyes bore into Schuyler’s cerulean orbs.
         “Where are Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell?” Schuyler asked in a flat voice.
         “Who?” the man asked, puzzled.
         “Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell.”
         “There are no doctors by those names here.” The man gave Schuyler an odd look. “Don’t you want to know where you are?”
         Schuyler turned his head so he was staring at the ceiling again. “No. It doesn’t matter. Nothing matters anymore. Why can’t I move?”
         “You became violent while still unconscious. My colleagues and I thought it would be better to restrain you. Of course, the Continental Restraining Institute hasn’t been used in centuries, so the usual restraining jackets wouldn’t keep you held still. We had to tie your arms down to keep you still. Congratulations for being the first inmate here for five centuries.”
         Schuyler didn’t answer. He had no answer. He didn’t care where he was, who the man was, what had happened. He only wanted to know where Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell were. He had a score to settle with them.
         “Where are Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell?” Schuyler demanded again.
         “I already told you there are no doctors by those names here,” the man repeated as a knock came at the door.
         The man stood and opened the door. Three other men entered the room. Schuyler didn’t bother to look at any of them.
         Together, the four of them lifted Schuyler, carried him from the room, and down a long eerie hallway. They set him down in a smaller, dark room. There was no window, only four walls and a door. It seemed tiny, but it didn’t matter to Schuyler. He had no use for space. He had been locked up in a tiny room in Shyan Lab for months. This small room was a familiar setting.
         The four men set him down in the middle of the room. Schuyler turned so he was facing away from the door and sat down. A moment later, he heard the heavy iron door swing closed. Faintly, he could hear the locks being turned.

         And that’s how we found you, one says.
         Yes.
         Thank you for your time, Schuyler, two says.
         Where are Dr. Tobias and Dr. Russell? I ask.
         The two men look at each other.
         We assume they’re dead, one says. Nearly everyone on Earth is dead. Much of the earth is scorched, the oceans are drying up…there’s not much left there. We feel safe in saying the two doctors are dead.
         Have you found Erika, Jen, and Dionysius? I ask.
         We have not found anyone like you, is two’s only reply.
         Poor, poor Mari, I murmur.
         I’m sorry? one says.
         Nothing, I say sharply.
         Thank you, again, Schuyler, two says.
         One nods to the guard behind me and I am once again led from the room back to my little dark cell.
         Being locked up in a dark cell does things to your mind. Makes you crazy. Mad. Insane.
         But not me. Not me. Never.