Ch. 2

Crazed gunmen, dead-alive people, and military units you don't want to screw with. Lovely...

"My grandpa was there. I pestered him about all the stuff he did in the Military whenever we went to go see him and Gram. He must've figured that since I was really young, I either: A. wouldn't understand it at the time or B. wouldn't remember it. Hah, he was so wrong," Kate laughed a little, "I was smart enough to record all he was saying and I only recently replayed them. He was talking about all this bad shit that was going on in Hope and in other places as well. Infetious diseases, zombies, death, nukes... It was horrible," she shook her head.

Apparently, people up in the government and science wing had tested this disease on rats and my guess is that they wanted to test it on humans. And you remember how polio was big back then? Well, they passed this off as a vaccine. They spread this stuff all over the place in Hope. And everyone took it. No questions asked. So, get this, the virus didn't immediately rise until a few days later. Brass dropped their guard, figured it probably didn't affect us afterall. God, they were beyond wrong. So, the virus rose up and everybody who was infected died. There were a few military casualties. So, the president gave the call and they nuked the place. That information was locked up forever, until now. That's all my grandpa told me. When... he was dying. Even his wife didn't know about this stuff."

I looked at her. I had heard a little bit about what happened with the Hope incident, but damn...

It continued like this for a two more nights. We stayed up late.

On the second night, the morgue incident almost gone from my mind, Kate and I were going through old data: files that I managed to hack from Gentek's databases. Kate slumped down on her desk and looked behind me. "We should probably head to bed," she said. I glanced at the clock: it was already pass one. "Go ahead, I'm staying up," I told her and continued plugging away at my computer. I found my iPhone and plugged in my earphones. I had the volume turned up so all I could hear was the music. Kate was asleep in the living room. That's why I never heard our door open and close. Nor did I see someone approach me, not until something tapped the side of my head.

I looked up, music still blaring in my ears. It was Eric the Pizza Guy. He mimed pulling out the earphones. I glared at him and pulled both out. "Yeah?" I asked. "Get up," he told me quietly. I gave him look. He bumped me again. That's when I saw him holding a gun to my head. I froze. My blood seemed to turn to ice.

"Now will you get up?" he asked again. I complied. I desparately tried to keep myself from shaking.

If I moved over to the end of my bed, I could find my aluminum baseball bat. "What do you want?" I asked and began to gently ease myself over to the end of my bed.

"I need to know what you know," was all he said. I looked at him. Crap! So I was right! He was one of them and he must've bugged my room. Wait, if he's asking to know all I know, he wouldn't have to ask. He must've jumped at the first sign, whatever that was, and came over here and waited until Kate was asleep and I was preoccupied, I thought.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said as calmly as I could.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about. PROJECT: BLACKLIGHT. Mercer. Hope, Idaho. Ring any bells?"

"Nope, not really," I replied.

He flicked off the safety and pressed the gun closer to my head. I clenched my hands to keep them from shaking.

"Oh, really?" The muzzle dug into the side of my head. "Maybe this'll jog your memory," he growled.

"Hey," I said, "If you kill me now, whoever set this mission up for you will be pissed because he might have questions that I may just have an answer to."

Eric looked at me. "I am asking you the questions my superiors want answers to and since you obviously don't know anything, I may as well kill you now," he whispered maliciously.

My heart slammed against my chest as the muzzle of the gun rested against my forehead.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," came a voice behind us. Both Eric and I turned around. In my doorway stood a hooded man. He was looking down with his fists clenched. I looked at Eric for a moment. His eyes had grown wide with what looked like fear. He swiveled the gun in the newcomer's direction. My iPhone was still playing and the first notes of Monsters by Matchbook Romance started to play.

"Drop the gun," the man muttered. Eric did not respond. The man finally looked at us. First at me then at stayed on Eric. His eyes seemed to glow within the dark of his hood. It was eerie but kind of cool. What was weird was that I was tempted to draw him at that precise moment.

"Do you value your life?" Hoodie asked Eric in a husky voice. Eric's response was to fire. The gunshots rebounded off my walls. I dove for the floor with my hands over my ears. Dimly, I could hear Kate screaming in the other room. Then, I heard Eric yelling with a psychotic grin plastered on his face. "Don't you get it, Mercer?!" he was yelling, "This girl will be the bane of your existence. You may be the dark one, but she's the light! Your life will become a complete hell with her around!"

Then, quick as a flash, Mercer, Hoodie, whoever he was called, grabbed Eric's throat. Eric clawed at Mercer's hand and his facing was turning red and slowly to blue. I sat frozen where I was as Mercer chucked Eric out my window. Glass shattered and I dove under my bed for the bat. I picked it up and came at the man in a batter's position.

I swung repeatedly.

My blows appeared to have no damage to him and I barely even made him stumble. I didn't care. My mind and body felt like they were on autopilot.

In the back of my mind, I knew this was extremely stupid, but I didn't care. This guy... He had just chucked a man out the window despite the fact that he was going to kill me. People do stupid things with anger or fear clouding their mind. And right now I was utterly pissed off.

At nothing.

After about two minutes, I heard Mercer ask, "Are you done?" He said it so calmly as if what was happening to him was barely affecting him. That pissed me off even further. I swung harder and managed to make him budge a little. I smirked and brought the bat back to swing at him again. Just before the bat made contact with his body again, his hand flew out and caught the bat.

I stopped for a moment when I saw his hand on the bat. I set my face, angry that he managed to catch it and started tugging on the bat. Mercer didn't let go. "God dammit! Let go!" I yelled. Suddenly, the bat was yanked out of my hands and I stumbled back into my bed. My arms and wrists hurt from the bat. I didn't even realize I had tears running down my face until Mercer was down on a knee near my face. I jumped at his presence. He raised a hand. I resisted the temptation to move away from him.

If he wanted to kill me, he would've already done it, I thought. And I just wanted to see what he was going to do.

He ever so gently rubbed his thumb under one of my eyes. He wiped off the tears that were coming down and moved to wipe my other eye. My face burned. I was shaking. Then, I just fell into him and wrapped my arms around him. I think I caught him off guard, for his whole body stiffened. I buried my face into his chest and the traitorous tears came again. That's when I felt his arms encircle me, his movements slow and easy as if he might scare me off. I hugged him tighter.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I felt kind of stupid doing this but I really didn't care. I just didn't want to move. Suddenly, we heard the door to my apartment slam shut causing us both to jump. I pulled away from Mercer and hugged myself. It was quiet for a few moments when Mercer said, "Your roommate is probably getting the cops."

"Why are you here?" I asked, anger tinged my voice. I looked at him.

Mercer met my gaze for a second and then looked away. "I had to find you," he struggled to find the words, "I don't know. I-I can't explain it," Here he got up quickly and paced the length of my room. "Something is happening to me," he continued, "I'm-my body's changing. It's like my DNA has been restructured. I can't remember any of the people who did this to me." He stopped.

"I had gotten wind that you are the best hacker in all of New York." He looked at me. I raised my eyebrows.

"And where, if I may ask, did you come across that information?"

"You remember that one incident when Gentek was hacked a couple years ago? Database security collasped an hour after it was installed. Their security had been the strongest in all of Manhattan, yet someone found a backdoor into their facility. A... friend of mine was able to trace what was left of the computer virus back to an apartment in this area. It was you and your roommate wasn't it?"

I set my face to neutral. "You never answered my question," I murmured.

"You haven't answered any of mine," Mercer replied. I glared at him. We weren't getting anywhere. "So what? You want me to hack Gentek again?" I asked him. Mercer nodded.

"There's... someone I need to see," he replied. I looked at him but I wasn't going to get an answer out of him. At least not tonight.

"You need to get your roommate out New York by the end of tomorrow, too," he said, "Meet me in Midtown West district."

"Why?"

"I'm going to need your expertise," he replied.

With that, he walked over to my broken window and set his foot on the sill. "Thank you," he said to me. I looked up at him.

"For what?" I asked.

"For helping me back... at..." He didn't to continue. I nodded and he leapt out my window and took off down the street. I smiled.

Wait... Now what am I going to tell the cops?

It was six in the morning when Kate and I got our apartment back in order.

This was the story we told the police:

Kate was asleep on the couch. I was in my room working on a project that was "due" at the end of break for school. I had my earphones in so I didn't hear Eric enter the premises. After he entered, I heard a dull thump and looked up. Eric was standing in my doorway and I told them that I thought he might've forgotten something when he came over earlier. That's when he pulled out his gun. I freaked out and threw my pillow at him. That's when he fired his gun because he panicked. The police told us that our neighbors heard another male voice inside our apartment. Surprised people could hear anything over the noise. Then again, it lulled down and it was only me... and him talking, I thought.I told them that one our "neighbors" heard the gunshots and ran into our apartment. Our neighbor saw Eric wild and flinging his gun around. Our neighbor tackled him to the ground. The gun was knocked aside and they were both fighting. Kate screamed and took off to get the cops. At this part, Kate shot me a discreet sideways glance.

I knew she was thinking about me and our "neighbor" hugging. I gave her a look, telling her that I would talk about it earlier... Maybe...

Anyway, the cops looked at us skeptically. "She took off and left you alone with a crazed gunman?" asked one of the cops. "I wasn't alone," I told them, "Our neighbor was in there helping me."

"And what exactly was your neighbor's name?" she asked. My mind nearly blanked.

"Tom," I said. I was glad that I looked at the mail boxes a couple days ago and that the real Tom was actually a friend of Kate's so he would back us up. Now if the cops needed to confirm anything, there would be an actual Tom they could talk to.

"We also found a bent baseball bat in your room," said the same cop.

"It was the only thing we really had, other than the golf club which was behind the front door which I couldn't reach, obviously, to prevent something like this from happening," I said.

"But it was bent."

"Eric got loose from... Tom's hold. He picked up the gun and was about to fire when I brought up the bat and hit him."

The cops looked at me, as if trying to picture a 5'4 girl beating up an over six foot man.

I returned their look. "The guy had a gun previously pressed to my forehead and now he had it pointed at my friend. So, yeah, I was pissed and swung the bat at the guy pretty hard. He went down. Tom and I backed up for a few seconds because we weren't sure what Eric was going to do. Then, out of nowhere he gets up, smashes my window and... jumps."

The police nodded in a uniform manner. One was writing down everything we said.

"And your friend left after that?" one asked.

"Well, yeah. He made sure that nobody else was going to do a follow up in case Eric's 'mission' failed. And he left about ten minutes later."

They nodded again and turned to Kate.

"Now, you're the one who knew this Eric, right?" they asked.

Kate nodded.

"And two days prior to this, he wasn't acting strange or different than his normal behavior?"

Kate thought for a moment, as if replaying the memories when she met him at work.

"I... don't think so. Wait... he kept mentioning this faction in the military that he wanted to join. They were called Blackwatch? Apparently, they're lethal and basically merciless. I told Eric that he didn't belong in some group like that. I couldn't picture him doing that. All he did was just chuckle. He looked at me and said, 'You really don't know me well, do you?' I looked at him because I thought he was screwing around with me. I dismissed it and he continued talking about meeting up with someone named... Alex. Alex Mercer. That they had to 'talk' about something." Kate shrugged.

The cops looked at her. "Alex Mercer is dead," said one of the cops with a serious face. Kate and I looked at each other.

"Well, apparently Eric didn't know that," I said, "Guess he doesn't read newspapers or something."

"Why would Mercer's death be posted in the paper?" asked one of the cops.

"Well, didn't he work at Gentek or some place like it? I figured that the staff would hold something and that would be news worthy," the other cop said and shrugged.

The cops exchanged glances and began to move towards their cars.

"We're done here," said the leader, "If you ladies have any questions or anything else to add just call us." And he handed over a business card. I took it.

"Oh, and by the way, did either of you see somebody run off with Eric's body?" the cop asked us.

Kate and I looked up. "What?" we asked.

"The body? There's a giant blood stain under your window but there's no body? Did somebody take it?" My eyes widened. Did... did he take it? I thought. We shook our heads "no".

"Ah, alright. Have a good night." With that, the cops disappeared into the city.

Which takes us back to it being six in the morning, me and Kate watching crap shows, sitting on the couch, eating crap cereal. I had Cheerios. She had Cap'n Crunch .The volume on the t.v. was turned down low. It was just enough to where we where could hear it. Neither of us wanted to start a conversation.

I kept replaying the events from last night in my head. I have to get her out of here soon, I thought.

"Hey, Kenz?" came Kate's voice. I looked over at her.

"Yeah?"
`She shifted in my direction and lowered the volume. "Look... I think we need to talk about what happened earlier this morning."

She paused.

"Who... was that man?" she asked. I looked at her.

"The guy who basically beat the crap out of Eric?" she prompted.
I looked down and I was suddenly interested in the patterns on the couch.

"Kenz, you know me. You know you can tell me anything."

"I just wonder if it would be worth taking the risk," I muttered. Kate gave me a weird look and raised an eyebrow.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Remember that guy the cops and Eric were talking about?"

Kate nodded. "Well," I continued, "that was him."

Kate just looked at me. "Say wha-?"

"You heard me... And remember that night I went out?" I lowered my voice, "Well... I had done some snooping, Got into some of Gentek's databases again and a few security cameras at the nearby subway. I found two week's worth of footage, as well as our amazing hero. Apparently, he did use to work for Gentek. I don't know what happened but in the footage, it showed him holding a test tube of what looked like blood. Military personnel were surrounding him by the second. Then... he dropped the vial and the military unleashed hell on him. He fell down into both his own blood as well as the vial's. I did some research and it said that he had unleashed some sort of virus that was similar, if not, an exact match to the Idaho incident."

"And-and that was him this morning?" Kate asked.

I nodded.

Kate shifted again and hugged herself. A silence passed between us for a few minutes. All we could hear was the t.v. playing.

"Look... Kenz... I have been toying with this... idea and I think it's about time I head back home," she murmured.

I looked at her. "What?" She had caught me off guard with that one.

"I'm leaving. I can't take New York any more. I'm going at ten."

"Wait, you're driving?" We had both lived in Georgia, that's where we first met in college.

"Yeah, it's going to take awhile. I'm sorry, Kenz," Kate said.

I shook my head. "No, it's alright," I said, "I'll stay here and do a little more research."

"Wait, you're staying here? After what happened?"

"Yeah, I'm going to get to the bottom of this."

Kate sighed and we went back to the crappy shows and breakfast.

Kate left only an hour ago and the apartment felt bigger than it normally did. I felt tired and decided to head to bed before I went out to Midtown. I dreamed.

It was the night Kate and I gone to that party a couple nights ago. The one where I had gotten a terrible hangover from just one beer and knocked out. I was dancing with some random guy Kate had put me in front of. He was kind of cute. It was a masquerade so everyone was incognito. I could only see his eyes which reflected the light every so often. I had a beer in my hand and took a swig of it. Right here I expected myself to pass out and wake up in bed at our apartment because that was what I remebered. Instead, I felt loopy and stupid. I grinned in the face of the guy who I was dancing with. He smiled back. It wasn't a nice smile. You have to get out of here and away from this guy! some reasonable part of my brain said. I pushed the voice down but every once and awhile it would pop up and would take a lot longer to suppress.

Cut it out! I told it, I'm trying to party here!

No, you idiot! the voice replied, This guy's bad news!

I ignored it and soon me and my dancing partner were in a closet, the music muffled from behind the door. I sat down and took off my mask. My face was sweaty. I wiped the sweat off with one hand and looked up. My partner was standing over me. My heart pounded. I-I need to get out! Now! I thought and tried for the door. He stepped into my path. "You went with me willingly. I had already told you what was planned and you gave me your consent. In writing," he purred, "It's already too late."

His arms flew out and pinned my wrists against the wall. Adrenaline coursed through me. I thrashed out with my legs and hit the prize. My captor wilted for a moment and I shook out of his grip. I tried for the door again but stumbled over my own feet in my drunken stupor. I fell to the ground and felt a hand clasp over one of my ankles. I screamed and kicked out. He caught my other leg and pulled me down so I was underneath him. He smacked me.

"That wasn't a very smart move," he growled. His mask was cockeyed. That's when I caught a glimpse of his face. I didn't know it at the time but it was Eric. If that was even his name.

Then, he pinned me to the ground and pulled out a syringe. My eyes widened in fear as he pulled back the little lever thing on it.

"Nighty-night," he murmured and slammed the needle into my arm. Pain shot through me. I screamed in pain and kicked him off. I ran for the door, holding my arm. My movements felt sluggish as I pushed through the crowd of swaying bodies. I headed to the kitchen and threw up in the sink. I felt a hand on me. I turned around. It was him. I threw him off and ran.

I didn't even make it to the front door. Eric caught me before my hands could grasp the handle. A few people were looking at us. Even Kate. I looked at her, pleading with my eyes. But hers were clouded from all the beers she drank. She just smiled, laughed, and waved us off. "She's just had a little too much to drink," I heard my captor say, "I'm taking her home." The party goers nodded and didn't spare us a backward glance.

He led me out the door just as a black SUV pulled up into the driveway. My eyelids drooped and he had to drag me alongside him. One of the doors opened and a man in a military uniform stepped out as well as another in a black business suit. He had black, slightly graying hair, and glasses. He stepped aside as my captor handed me over to the military guy. He gave me one look and it was one of pity. "Please... help... me," I whispered. The man set his face grim and whispered back, "I wish I could, kid, but I can't. I want to be able to join my family."

"Is she out yet?" asked Suit Guy. Military Guy shook his head and the other came over to him. He pulled out another syringe similar to the previous one. "She's a fighter. Good, good. I'll have to up the dosage then," Suit Guy said and pulled out a little bottle filled with clear liquid. He stuck the needle into the plastic covering and filled it up nearly to the top. He pulled out the needle and flicked the tip. A little of the liquid spurted out.

I stiffened. "No... No!" I said, my voice rising an octave. I squirmed in the military guy's hands.

"Do you have her?" Suit Guy asked him. The other nodded. Suit came over to me and whispered in my ear, "We're glad to have you onboard." With that, the needle was injected into my arm again. My arms and eyes felt heavy. My eyesight went blurry. A knot formed in my stomach and started to twist my insides. "No..." I whispered and everything went black.