The ghoul as it happened was not only the most out of character for all the meta humans I had woken but also the most polite and clued up on what was going on.
"One managed to stay awake longer than their drugs could take one out" he explained, he had an odd hiss to his voice, but besides that he spoke almost like an upper class man, his back was straight when he sat, his clawed paws folded neatly in front of him. "One was chosen because one come from the first of the bloodlines to show magical re-introduction" he said the last part with some pride, so they were pure bloods?
"Any idea about the cat?" I asked, the ghoul simply shook his head
"No, however the assistant was overheard talking about the gene for mutation being important" he said, I wondered what that meant, the Ghoul looked about showing his sharp needle like teeth "Is there any food around per chance?" he asked, the whole group that had gathered around him took a slight involuntary move backwards, the Ghoul laughed "One does not only eat flesh, one can sustain one's self for a short time on human sustenance" it took a moment to realise he didn't mean human as a sustenance and the relief in the air was tangible and a candy bar dutifully handed over, which was eaten with impeccable manners, it all seemed very wrong to me, but so long as he wasn't going to eat anyone else that was fine by me.
"Does 'One' have a name?" K.C asked as she watched him eat with as much odd fascination as I did.
"Bobvikchekovnia" came the reply, wow, it was quite the mouthful
"Yeah, O.K umm I'm going to call you Bob if I may" K.C said "I'm sorry I simply cannot attempt to repeat your name in full"
"Bob?" The Ghoul asked "hmmm, yes, Bob will suit one quite sufficiently for the time being" so we had a Ghoul called Bob, could this day get any weirder?
"Right people" I said addressing everyone, those who had gone exploring what was left of the base gathered round "We have two options open to us, we can all make our way to Gary and split from there on the train, or we can split here, some taking the train, some taking the bus, or you can chance the desert on your own, the choice is up to you, we leave in half an hour"
"Excuse me" the elf a tall beautiful creature Carlia stood "The giant is of metamorphic rock" she said "I believe the rock pass where the base was located is of the same type, it may be a good place to start looking for his family" she looked out over the party "Anyone who wishes to head back to Seattle and Boston way is welcome with me, we'll take the train for some of the distance, but we're closer than Gary" A sound plan, several of the meta humans stood to go along, leaving myself and KC with the bus, Bob, Adam, Mannery, Geraldine, and Hacker.
"We'll take Cakador with us" I said "I have someone who can help wake him up and maybe unravel some of the pieces" Carlia nodded, Theo looked confused and undecided, choosing in the end to go back to the base area. "Take as many rations with you as you can just in case you need to head into the desert" I told them, "Stick together as a team until you can make your own way and you'll be fine"
"What about weapons?" The troll asked, aside from myself and KC no one had any physical weapons, we had retrieved a dagger and a pistol from the dead body of the train driver, but that was about all, the pygmy stood forward and held up a hand creating a faint blue ball of light
I can provide protection for the child he said, Carlia also demonstrated some magic, they would not be completely defenceless.
"Good luck guys" We split the group, K.C and I prepped the mini bus, the tyres were good after a quick change and the engine after a few tries turned over fine enough, there even seemed to be enough gas to get us all the way. Mannery took the wheel, before we left K.C retrieved two white lab coats from the train and the medical files for all the meta humans. She also threw me a clean t-shirt and base insignia jacket she had found in an abandoned locker, this would be much better than my sleeveless jersey, sadly the combat trousers she had found were far to large, I would have to hope that my now dry jeans would pass as acceptable, I also hoped no one would spot the bullet hole . . .
"Might need them" she said nodding to the lab coats, we loaded our menagerie onto the mini bus, thankful that we didn't have the weight of the giant which would surely burst the tyres, as we drove off we saw the train set off, chugging backwards along it's rails. "Think the kid'll be O.K?" she asked
"He'll be fine" I said
"Yeah I guess so, the pixie guy is with him" I snorted a laugh
"Pixie guy?"
"Pygmy, I meant pygmy" she corrected blushing and smacking me as I continued to howl at her expense.
"Hey!" Mannery called from the drivers seat "Don't make me come back there!" despite the weariness we couldn't help but laugh. I checked Cakador's vitals as we bumped around in the back of the bus, hopefully he'd be fine. I was still curious to find out what was so special about this cat that meant he had to be drugged and restrained differently.
"Err Hey Ghost, Miss" Adam's voice wavered out, sheets seemingly lifted up of their own accord and shuffled around "I think you should see this"
I moved over, swapping seats with Geraldine and taking the sheets, my fingers brushing something else there, invisible hands, strange since whenever I became invisible my things and anything on my person also shifted. This was just his skin.
"Are you not uncomfortable" I asked "Being . . ."
"Naked?" he finished "Yeah I suppose when I meet a pretty mage who can see me, but generally no not really" I blushed at the compliment and turned my attention to the sheets. "Bob said that we were chosen because we were pure bloods, so we were all descended from the first line of those to appear when magic crept back in during the fall of 2012, now that to me seems bull as my invisibility is self made"
"Self made?"
"I'm a mage who cocked up the first invisibility spell basically" he explained, I thought hard
"But that would make you . . ." I began
"Late 70's" he interrupted, "Indeed I am my girl, but I'm also not of the original descended line, I know my parents weren't part of the original make up and neither was I, so why pick me? I've taken a look at Mannery too, he's different but I'm not sure why, I think it has less to do with the fall and more to do with the strength of the genetics for each individual, see here with our elven lady, she was not related to the first fey that bore through but she does have an unusually high peak of a genome known here as the T15, seems to be a repeat of thiamine in the genetic sequence found on the fifteenth Chromosome, the longer the length of this repetition the more desirable the subject for experimentation, if you look here you'll see she wasn't the first to be brought in for this, the other subjects were measured and replaced whenever a higher peaking subject was found"
"But how did they even know who to look for? They can't screen everyone in UCAS can they?" I asked this was getting over my head, I only remembered a little of the genetics I had learned in school before my life with Torrin, but if what Adam said was true then these people were chosen specifically for their DNA.
"Well funny you should say that, it looks very much like they were all tracked using their comm. devices" my stomach fell away "Something in their DNA set off a trigger in certain comm. links"
"Let me guess, they were all disposable comm. devices, all produced within the last five years" I said.
"Well yes as a matter of fact they are" Adam said, his voice hinting that he had figured I knew more than I was letting on, at least with an invisible man you couldn't see the look which I was sure would be curiosity, and maybe even pressing for more information.
"I came across the technology some years ago" I explained "Back then we could only find evidence that it was designed to only search for one specific DNA profile"
"You mean an individual?"
"Yes" I said "So what about our cat friend?" I asked changing the subject "What do we know about him?"
"Well not a lot really other than he's the first subject to be brought into the project, he's been in and out of drug induced coma's for a while now, his body adapts to each type of drug over time and they end up having to use a different one, the last time he broke out, let loose a bunch of his people and they ended up putting him in "stasis" which I'm sure you can guess is not your average drug coma"
"So the tubes were to keep his body going? Not keep him out?" I asked
"You got it, no muscle atrophy and well fed so he's still in peak condition, he needs to be able to produce sufficient blood to make Serum 80"
"Serum 80?" I asked
"Don't ask me, I can't find any other info here on the serum, or about why he's been targeted specifically, he did have a partner, a mate, but when she broke out she escaped into the caves, they never found her" I glanced at the huge cat laid on the stretcher
"Poor guy" I whispered
"He's a shifter too" Adam said showing me a a chart of Cakador, the body on display however was very much human "they might have needed his shifting genes to make the blood serum?" he guessed
"Hey we're coming up on Gary now" Mannery called "Good thing too, we're nearly outta fuel" We hit a main road leading to Gary, the lack of bumping and jostling from the uneven sand was not missed.
"Good, I need to get out and stretch" K.C complained.