Chapter One: The Five
We all know the five senses and most of us have personal experience using them. However, some don't have the luxury of utilizing all five: Touch, Hearing, Smell, Taste, and Sight. Some people lose a sense through disease or tragedy, and some people are simply born without a sense. Some lucky few, or rather unlucky few, are given a gift, but with this gift comes a grievance. In exchange for the loss of a sense, some receive enhancements to the senses they retain. Our story focuses on a group of gifted individuals who have gained from their losses. All of whom are enrolled in a special CIA program focused on finding and utilizing individuals who have gained abilities beyond normal human means, thus being dubbed "superhuman".
The Year is 1990. The President is George H. W. Bush. Home Alone has yet to release and spend twelve consecutive weeks at the top of the charts. Songs like Ice Ice Baby By Vanilla Ice and U Can't Touch This by MC Hammer will hit the Billboard Hot 100 list. There will be a heist ending with the culprits getting away with the theft of twelve paintings, collectively worth $100 to $300 million, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum located in Boston, Massachusetts. The Denver Broncos will receive an overwhelming defeat from the San Francisco 49ers in the Superbowl at the Superdome. The Voyager 1 probe will send its Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth from around 3.5 billion miles away after completing its primary mission. Seinfeld will air the rest of season one on NBC this year, going on to run for nine total seasons. The current Director of Central Intelligence is William H. Webster. Under his order, an unnamed man will begin to lead a secret program out of an undisclosed location that will be given the codename The Weird Studies.
The Weird Studies main team is made up of 6 gifted individuals. The Leader whose name is known to none and whose code name is only known by a small few, then there is Theodore Taylor codename: Touch, James Johnson codename: Taste, Nicole Nguyen codename: Smell, Katherine King codename: Hearing, and lastly the programs poster boy, everyone's favorite Garrett Gray codename: Sight.
Chapter Two: Touch
The date was October 30th, 1967, a Monday, the day before Halloween. The President of the USA was Lyndon B. Johnson, and the Director of Central Intelligence was Richard M. Helms. On this day, Theodore Taylor was born to David and Michelle Taylor. Theodore only received a 4 on his first two Apgar assessments. After a few nerve-racking minutes and some urgent care from doctors, Theodore received a score of over 7, which is considered to be normal for a newborn baby. Despite this, Theodore never received a score of over 0 on the grimace portion of the assessment. He did not react to stimulation, not even a facial expression change. The doctors examining Him concluded that Theodore was born with some sort of hypesthesia: A diminished capacity for physical sensation, especially of the skin.
At a young age, Theodore became a very picky eater. He would only eat fresh meat and produce. Later on in life, now that he has more knowledge about the food industry, he claims to be able to taste the preservatives and other additives in unhealthy foods. This has caused him to eat extremely clean and healthy for the majority of his life. This healthy lifestyle and his lack of feeling touch have helped him push his body to peak human efficiency. Theodore looks like a monster of a man, tall and covered in muscle, but don't let this fool you, he is a big softy. Theodore loves to collect stuffed bears and is very fond of fluffy animals because of this, he is often called Teddy by his closest teammates, Garrett and Katherine.
Currently, in 1990, Theodore is constantly monitored by a team of prestigious doctors and other medical officials employed by the CIA. They consider his condition to be a medical anomaly. He cannot feel pain or rough touch but can feel soft or light touch, which explains his enjoyment of stuffed bears and fluffy animals. It was also discovered that Theodore has an enhanced sense of taste, which explains his ability to taste the impurities in unhealthy foods.
Chapter Three: Hearing
The date was July 17th, 1980, a Tuesday. The president of the USA was Jimmy Carter, and the Director of Central Intelligence was Admiral Stansfield Turner. On this day, Katherine King was brought into the newly established Brigham and Women's Hospital located in Boston, MA, early in the morning because of a severe ear infection. Later on in the day, there was an unexplained explosion within the hospital, there were a handful of injuries along with a few deaths, including the deaths of Katherine's parents. At the age of 13, Katherine King lost her parents and her sense of hearing. It is believed that a mixture of severe chronic ear infections increased the sensitivity of her ears, and this large explosion caused the loss of hearing. She was taken in by the government and was housed at a special government-run orphanage.
As a child, Katherine loved Spot the Difference games, puzzles, and other games that involve acute perception. Now, though, those things just feel like work. Spotting errors in paperwork, picking targets out of a crowd, piecing together evidence it's all so easy and boring. Her sense of sight is so exceptional that it is believed that she can take in and understand visual information 10 times faster than a normal human. She can also make out small details from a considerable distance without the need for scopes or binoculars. Because of her enhanced sense of sight, she is an expert marksman, the best in the CIA, no, actually just the best.
When Katherine King first tried to join the CIA by recommendation of her Guardians, no one believed in her skills. To prove it, she shot a dime from a great distance away, with no scope. When it was chalked up to luck, she did it ten more times in a row with the last one being flipped in the air by an overconfident recruit who was observing. This recruit was Garrett Gray. Shortly after Garrett introduced Katherine to his now best friend Theodore, the three became good friends fast. Katherine was always far better than the other two at any drills involving marksmanship but her skills do not end there because of her enhanced ability to process visible information she is easily able to examine an opponent's fighting style and determine a course of action that will allow her to subdue or defeat them, though this doesn't make her any better than the other two it does allow her to keep up with them. Katherine claims the only time she enjoys herself is when training or spending time with her best friends, Garrett and Teddy.
Chapter Four: Smell
The date was September 5th, 1975, a Friday. The President of the USA was Gerald Ford, and the Director of Central Intelligence was William E. Colby. On this day, Nicole Nguyen was working an average day at the lab. The location and name of this lab are not disclosed in her file. A chemical leak believed to have been hydrogen sulfide almost killed her. Fortunately for Nicole, the man who would become the leader of The Weird Studies took an interest in her condition and was able to get her urgent care. This incident left Nicole with no sense of smell, but in return, she developed a heightened sense of hearing.
Now, in 1990, Nicole is in charge of surveillance and communications for The Weird Studies. She is not very fond of the position. She spends most of her missions in a surveillance van, managing communication between the other members of the team. She is only a handful of years older than the other members, but the program has decided not to train her to work in the field so that they can focus more effort on the younger members of the team. She has displayed that her hearing does allow her to perceive attacks coming at her from her blind spots more easily. Though this does make her a bit of a natural when it comes to hand-to-hand combat due to her age, the program has still decided to focus more attention on training the other members for fieldwork.
Since Nicole is the primary communications operator, she spends a lot of time talking and listening to the other members of the team. She doesn't have very high opinions of any of them. Johnson is a pushover who always gets stuck with the work no one else wants to do. What bugs her more is he never complains. Taylor is a stubborn muscle head, in general, he's a somewhat smart guy, but most of the time, it feels like she is talking to a brick wall. King seems like a nice girl, but Nicole finds her hard to like because she has everything Nicole would like for herself: the training, the attention of the program, and the eventful position within the team. Lastly, there is Gray, everyone's favorite, he is self-centered and always quick to one-up everyone else on the team. He may not have King's sight and marksmanship skills or Taylor's overwhelming strength, but he can beat everyone at everything else they can do best. To Nicole, the team is dysfunctional at best, but what bugs her the most about the whole situation is how well King, Taylor, and Gray work together despite how unlikable Gray seems to her.
Chapter Five: Taste
The date was December 10th, 1987, a Thursday. The President of the USA was Ronald Reagan, and the Director of Central Intelligence was William H. Webster, the man who would approve the founding of The Weird Studies. James Johnson was just a slightly above-average CIA operative. Deployed on a mission overseas. The details of this mission are not divulged in his files. While on this mission, Johnson was exposed to toxic substances. What exactly he was exposed to is not clear. This exposure left Johnson with true ageusia: the loss of the sense of taste, more specifically, the inability to detect sweetness, sourness, bitterness, saltiness, and umami.
When William H. Webster allowed the funding of The Weird Studies, he recommended Johnson to be one of the first special operatives to enter the program. In exchange for the loss of taste, Johnson received an extremely acute sense of smell. Johnson's sense of smell picks up on things most humans won't detect. Johnson can smell bombs and drugs better than any K9 unit could. When testing his abilities after joining The Weird Studies, he was blindfolded and placed in a room filled with many things that gave off different smells. These things ranged from food items to chemicals, drugs, and others. He could determine what was placed in the room with a 70% accuracy rate. It was discovered that even though his sense of smell is extremely acute, some especially potent items could mask the smells of others. When being exposed to some more potent unpleasant smells, Johnson became nauseated and reacted more extremely than someone with a normal sense of smell would. After discovering the potential of his abilities, they focused most of his training on memorizing the smells of different things that may be hazardous during missions. After a few short weeks, he was able to detect most hazardous things with a success rate of 99%. They also attempted to increase his resistance to more potent nauseating smells with little success.
James Johnson is content with his position within the team. He was scheduled for reassignment to a desk job before the program was created and took him in. He did not wish to stop working in the field and was ecstatic when he was recommended for a position within the program. He may get stuck with most of the work no one else wants to do, but he is always happy to do what needs to be done so that he can continue to be part of the team.
Chapter Six: Sight
The date was June 3rd, 1987, a Wednesday. Three years before the founding of The Weird Studies. A 17-year-old Garrett Davis lied about his age so that he could attempt to join the CIA early. He was allowed to participate in the required testing and training programs, but the CIA made it clear to him that he might not be accepted into service because of his condition. Garrett Davis has a rare condition that left him without a sense. Miosis is a condition that causes the constriction of one's pupils, which has a negative effect on sight. It is not known how exactly Garrett ended up with this condition, but it is believed that he has Complete Miosis; his pupils are constricted to a level that they are closed. This loss of sight left Garrett with all of his other senses enhanced.
Garrett's performance during his tests and training was exceptional, though because of his inability to see, they were not planning on accepting him from the beginning. Near the end of his training period, it was discovered that he had lied about his age. The CIA was somewhat impressed that he was able to get by their screenings and also make it as far as he did through the training despite his disability. Sadly, because of his trickery, he had to be expelled from the program and was told not to return.
Since then, Garrett has attempted to join the CIA two more times using altered identity information, both times getting rejected for different reasons. The first was the discovery that he was blind during the screening process. They did not discover that he was lying about who he was, but when they discovered his inability to see, he was rejected immediately. The second was his general attitude and personality while in the program. During his attempt to join the CIA in 1989, Garrett's remaining senses had improved to an extent that he could successfully seem as though his sight was not impaired. Garrett's other senses had improved to a point that he could sense things quicker and more accurately than if he could see them. On top of this, he had spent so much of his time studying and memorizing important information that would appear on written assessments during the training process that his scores were always at the top of the class. This made him a bit cocky and overconfident, he did not come off as a team player and was very quick to steal the spotlight whenever the chance arose. This did not make him very popular amongst the other trainees or instructors.
Now in 1990, He was attempting to join the CIA once again, this time as Garrett Gray. At the age of 20, Garrett was acquainted with Theodore Taylor and Katherine King, who were also attempting to join the CIA. They would all get taken in by the program that would be known as The Weird Studies and became the best of friends quickly. Garrett continues to be not the most likable or socially aware person, but this doesn't seem to bother Theodore or Katherine. He does get on the nerves of those who are employed by the program, but since he is such an important and highly skilled member of the team, they are forced to hide their emotions.
Chapter Seven: Step by Step
The date is July 10th, 1990, a Tuesday about six months after the founding of The Weird Studies. The American League won 2-0 in the 61st All-Star Baseball Game. The number one song in the United States is Step By Step by the New Kids On The Block. Garrett, Theodore, and James stand in a large open field somewhere near Las Vegas, Nevada. Step by step, Garrett approaches the other two, with his eyes closed. The team has never seen them open. He stretches his arms out to his sides, straightens his back, and brings his hands behind his head. James deactivates the safety of the Colt Government on his hip and then slips on a pair of brass knuckles. Theodore squeezes a tiny stuffed bear he keeps attached to his bulletproof vest as a good luck charm. It was a gift from Katherine, as he draws his long sword. "We aren't going to let you get to her Sight," Theodore states calmly.
"Oh, Ya? You two and what…" A loud bang echoes over the field, immediately followed by a large flash of light. A bullet just barely misses Theodore's ribs; its intended target is Garrett. He swiftly but just barely evades the shot while drawing a military saber he keeps at his side. "...army?" he finishes with an annoyed look on his face. "I didn't think we were starting yet. Kath, you have no patience."
"I told you to call me by my codename while on the job, Sight!" Katherine responds over comms a bit too loud, as usual. Katherine has a special device attached to her wrist that converts speech into Morse code so that she can properly communicate with the team while on missions. However, if she has a line of sight on their faces, she does not need it and can simply read their lips.
"Tone it down a bit. Hearing you're going to make the rest of us def like you." Nicole responds in a fed-up tone, as usual. "You only missed him by a bit. Try aiming slightly more into his dodge on the next one. Also, please try to avoid hitting your teammates. Your shot was closer to hitting Touch than it was Sight."
Katherine chambers a second round into her custom Barrett M90 sniper rifle equipped with iron sights not featured on the standard model. Now that Theodore and James have engaged in close-quarters combat with Garrett, Katherine takes this as an opportunity to reposition and take a second shot.
"That shot was not closer, Hearing. Try to wait and fire when he is already dodging," Nicole says, not attempting to sound any less fed up than before, knowing that Katherine cannot detect tone through Morse code.
"One centimeter, two centimeters, ten, then twenty," Katherine says, trying her best not to be too loud, also sounding as annoyed as Nicole.
"What's that?" Nicole questions.
"My first shot missed Touch by exactly one centimeter. That shot missed Sight by two. My second shot missed Touch by ten centimeters. That shot missed Sight by twenty. Understand? The only way I'll be able to hit him is if I shoot through Touch." Katherine explains.
"We can't leave the training grounds until one of you hits me." Garrett says in a teasing tone, sticking his tongue out, "So I guess we'll be here forever then."
"Arghhh!" The rest of the group sighs in frustration.
They've been living at this training ground for the last few weeks, running the same drill every day with no success. Everyone is getting tired of it and as the days pass the task seems less and less possible. All they need to do is stop Garrett from getting to Nicole, who is in a surveillance van on the other side of the field. They have already been on a handful of successful missions for the program and have been working well together. Despite this, the higher-ups said that they could be a bit closer, so they thought it would be good to have them spend an extended period of time together.
Theodore and James continue to attempt to overwhelm Garrett with their melee attacks, and Katherine continues to try to get a better shot, while Nicole helps by giving strategic advice from afar. Katherine takes two more shots at Garrett. On the second shot, Garrett decides to show off a bit and blocks with his military saber. The bullets are training rounds; they should be rubber, meaning they should bounce off his blunt sword, but when the bullet makes contact with the "blade" it shatters. This shakes Garrett to his core. In a matter of milliseconds, James pulls out his pistol and shoots Garrett in the back. Garrett feels the impact; his eyebrows rise, and his eyes almost open. Lucky for him, he was wearing a bulletproof vest because the bullet was real despite the equipment and magazines being marked for training. They all decide that even though it was not exactly a fair win, they will report their success to the higher-ups so that they can avoid any more incidents like this. They begin to pack up and get ready to head home. On their way, they are notified of their next assignment.
Chapter Eight: From Shadows
July 12th, 1990, a Thursday. The parliament of the Russian Federation declares its sovereignty. In an official-looking building, an agent enters a dark room dimly lit by medical devices and monitors. A few agents sit around what looks like a hospital bed. In the bed is a man who is hooked up to a large number of life support machines. "Are you sure they can handle this, sir?" questions the man who just entered the room.
"Don't you dare question his authority," an agent standing by the bed responds. "He would never send his team on a mission…" The man in the bed grasps the wrist of the one speaking, cutting him short.
When he speaks, everyone understands, but no one hears. It makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. A shiver rolls down your spine, goosebumps cover your body, and there is a sickening feeling in your gut. You become painfully aware of your heartbeat. Ba-dum, ba-dum "-.. - / -. - - / -.- ..- . ... - .. - -. / - . .-.-.- / .. .-. ...- . / ... .- -.-. .-. .. ..-. .. -.-. . -.. / - - - / - ..- -.-. ... / - - / ... - .- .-. - / -. - .. -. -. / . .- ... -.- / -. - .- .-.-.-" ba-dum, ba-dum.
Their heartbeats slowly return to normal. "Sorry, sir. I will notify the team of their roles in the upcoming mission".
The team members are given their assignments separately. They will be traveling to a homestead in Grassy Cove, a valley in Cumberland County, Tennessee. The people residing in the homestead are believed to be plotting some sort of anti-America movement, and it seems that they may be planning to carry out an act of terrorism. The team's mission is to detain the residents and bring them in for questioning. Touch, Taste, and Sight are assigned to be the front line, they will be in charge of approaching and entering the homestead to detain the residents. Sight has been assigned as the leader of this group and has been approved to use lethal force if necessary. Smell has been assigned to drive the front-line group to the location and run communications out of the vehicle used. Lastly, Hearing will be placed at a distance where she can provide intel to the rest of the team from an overwatch position.
Chapter Nine: Acceptance
Five days later. July 17th, 1990, a Tuesday at 6 am. The President of the United States of America is George H. W. Bush, and the Director of Central Intelligence is William H. Webster. Under their order and the order of the Director of The Weird Studies, Garrett and the team have been deployed to a quaint valley located in Cumberland County, Tennessee. Sight, Touch, and Taste sit in the back of a transport vehicle. They sit in silence. James decides to break the silence, asking, "Do you two ever get nervous when we are on our way to these things?". Theodore looks in his direction, giving a curious look, and Garrett turns his head to face James. Though they have spent a lot of time together, James still finds it very difficult to read Garrett. His eyes are always closed, and his eyebrows are fairly expressive, but it always feels like there's this missing connection. "Back when I was taking regular CIA fieldwork, if I was working with other agents, we would discuss the things that motivated us to ensure we'd be coming home after the mission. Like loved ones, pets, or our goals in life. You guys got anything like that?" James continues to explain.
They sit in silence for a moment. Theodore looks down and squeezes the tiny stuffed bear that hangs from his bulletproof vest. He looks up with the intent to say something, but Garrett raises his hand, stopping him. "Jay" Garrett begins.
"A nickname?" James thinks to himself. This catches him off guard. Garrett has only given nicknames to Katherine and Theodore, his closest and most trusted teammates.
"We don't get nervous. We have three of the best operatives the CIA has ever employed. A virtually untouchable blind man, a man built like a brick wall with the pain tolerance of an actual brick wall, and a woman who is as deaf as she is accurate… actually four. The four best operatives. Can't forget about the tasteless guy who's generally all around one of the best operatives and men I've ever met." You can feel the confidence and maybe arrogance flowing out of him as Garrett says this.
"Why? What makes you say that? I'm nothing special. How are you this confident in our abilities?" Asks James, not allowing himself to accept the compliment.
"I felt it in you on the field when you shot me. I can smell what you ate for breakfast on your breath. I can taste the saltiness of your sweat in the air. I can feel the gravel getting disturbed below the tires of this van. I can hear your heartbeat. All of my senses are so powerful that what I can smell, taste, feel, and hear paints a perfect image in my mind of what's going on inside this van and what's happening around it at a fairly wide range. I don't need to be able to see. You all have progressed far enough in our field to have the privilege of standing next to me, and I have such a high level of confidence in myself this gives me the confidence that you too have something that makes you worthy of standing in the position you fill."
"What is this? This feels great. I've accomplished many things throughout my career. I generally don't strive to gain the approval of my superiors or peers. I just do what I need to do for the job. But is this what I've been working for? Is this what it feels like to be acknowledged as an elite operative? No, it's what it feels like to be acknowledged as a force to be reckoned with, as a superhuman." James thinks to himself as he turns away from Theodore and Garrett. A small tear rolls down his cheek, and he thinks, "This is what it feels like to be accepted."
Chapter Ten: Eyes and Ears
July 17th, 1990, a Tuesday at 6:30 am. A bit over one thousand meters away, Katherine watches the transport van slowly approach its destination from the treeline at the edge of the valley, to the west of the compound. "Testing, testing, Smell I'm in position now and watching your approach. They don't seem to be aware of our presence."
Nicole sits in the front of the transport van in the driver's seat, angrily thinking to herself about why they didn't give them a driver. She is slightly removed from the group, who are chatting in the back of the van. As usual, Nicole feels like she is less of a part of the team than she should. There is a small, thick glass sliding window that divides her from them. Nicole goes to open the window so that she can alert them of their approach to their destination, but it is stuck, so she opts to just give it a few knocks, hoping that will suffice as a warning. "Testing, testing. Hearing have you got to your position? Coms are up, running, and secure. It's ok to communicate. Just a few moments before we arrive, how are things looking for our entrance?" Nicole says over comms, annoyed that Katherine hasn't checked in yet.
Not receiving a response from Nicole, Katherine is frustrated but decides to finish setting up her equipment. She screws a specially-made suppressor onto her Barrett M90 sniper, flips out its bipod, and then lays down prone on the ground to hide herself a bit better. Katherine watches as a man exits a shed on the grounds, he then begins to make a beeline to the main building. His walk and stride have little to no character to them. "All business, no feeling," she says to herself. Watching him walk is somehow uncomfortable. There are no signs of anyone else on the compound grounds.
The transport van pulls up to the path that leads into the compound. Promptly, the back doors swing open. Touch hops out fully covered in heavy bulletproof armor, followed by Taste wearing standard equipment and then Sight wearing nothing but his usual button-up shirt and tie. "A bit overconfident as usual, I see. Hu Sight?" Katherine says over coms. The group begins to carefully approach the main building of the compound.
Chapter Eleven: Wait
July 17th, 1990, a Tuesday at 6:25 am. A young man holding an ax and wearing a hazmat suit covered in mud, blood, and gore stands in a pool of blood inside an old farmhouse. He slowly reaches up and pulls off his gas mask. His facial expression is blank, his eyes are empty. His general facial features are unassuming but almost handsome. His hair is dark and neatly combed, and his face is cleanly shaven. He rips off the rest of the suit, revealing an outfit that looks like what any other farmer would wear, though it is far too clean. He steps over what looks like a pile of freshly butchered meat, flies buzzing around it. He steps on a bone. It cracks and crumbles beneath his heavy foot.
The young man checks his watch "6:26 am running on schedule" he begins to talk to himself in an extremely deadpan and emotionless voice "Step one: secure the farmstead in the valley. Check. Step two: bring the hostages to the main house. Check. Step three:" he pauses and gently places his blood-stained ax on a table next to the front door "prepare the hostages for our trap." He takes a quick look around the blood-splattered room. "Check. Step four: deploy the explosive payload just out of range and prepare the detonation device". The young man then picks up a large duffle bag that is leaning up against a wall next to the door. He exits the building and makes a beeline to the shed just across the large driveway.
He calmly makes his way over to the shed, swings open the door, then rests the large duffle bag on a table inside with a thud. He opens the bag, connects a few wires, and flips a few switches. He removes a detonation device from the bag and primes it. He brings his watch up to his mouth and clicks a button, then says, "Foot squad, what is your position?".
In his earpiece, he hears, "We are approaching her position now, sir."
"Remember, she may be skilled, but she is deaf. As long as she doesn't see you coming, this should be an easy job. Air squad, you can begin your approach now. Remember, don't come in too hot, and don't open fire until he enters the building. Your targets are the van and the other two men." The young man then begins his walk back to the main building.
He enters the building, walks through the gore down the hall, connects the detonation device to a tripwire, picks up an old Mossberg 500, chambers a round, turns to face the doorway, and says to himself, "Step five: wait". He then strikes a match, holds it out in front of him, and watches it slowly burn.
Chapter Twelve: Sensitive
July 17th, 1990, a Tuesday at 6:35 am. Sight, Touch, and Taste approach the main farmhouse. "It's really quiet out here in the middle of nowhere, kind of peaceful. Are we even sure if anyone's actually here?" Touch says to the group.
"Weird you can't hear that?" Asks Sight "I guess it's never really quiet for me. Teddy, you take the left, Ja,y you take the right, and I'm going inside." He continues before either of the other two can chime in. Touch raises his Stoner 63 light machine gun and cautiously begins to check the left side of the property. Taste unholsters his Colt Government, takes it off safety, and begins to approach the shed across the large driveway to the right of the farmhouse. "Weird, am I hearing helicopters? We must be near a flight path." Sight thinks to himself as he approaches and opens the front door to the farmhouse.
He steps in, and the door shuts behind him. Sight is immediately struck by the overwhelming smell of death and decay. He no longer hears the helicopters approaching outside, and he can't quite make out the shape of the interior of the building or what kind of crime scene he just walked into. He feels sick, and for the first time in a long time, he is painfully aware of his lack of sight. He takes a deep breath, draws his military saber, and focuses on all his senses. He can just barely make out the smell of smoke and the sound of burning coming from down the hall. Sight turns and begins to move in that direction.
He hears a voice that of an empty young man. He can sense that there are no feelings or emotions in its pitch or cadence. It makes the hair on the back of Sight's neck stand and covers his body in goosebumps. "6:40 am, running right on time," says the young man as Sight begins to run towards him down the hall with his saber raised.
The young man drops his burning match. As it hits the ground, the butchered body parts scattered in the hallway burst into flames. Filling the building with smoke and the horrible smell of burning flesh. Sight gets about halfway down the hall in a matter of seconds, and he feels his ankle tug on something but pushes through. There is a large explosion outside. It shakes the building, the sound it makes, the smell of burning flesh, and the rising smoke throws Sight off balance, and he stumbles the rest of the way down the hall.
Sight hears the rotating blades of helicopters outside, then loud heavy gunfire. He stumbles again, falling to one knee somewhere in the hallway, an unclear distance from the young man whose presence is overwhelmingly vacant. The young man raises his shotgun. He remains expressionless and unfazed by the chaos unfolding around him. He calmly places his finger on the trigger.
Chapter Thirteen: "Superhuman"
Sight steps into the Farmhouse, and the door closes behind him. Touch begins to walk the perimeter of the property, and Taste heads over to check the shed and then plans to clear some of the smaller buildings. As they do this, Hearing watches suspensefully from her position hidden in the trees and attempts to warn Sight about the odd man, but the coms are still not transmitting. Smell is frantically attempting to get the communication devices working, and the young man patiently waits for all the pieces to fall into place.
With thoughts of acceptance and achievement in his head, Taste confidently approaches the shed with his colt government drawn. Now that he feels like a full part of the team, he is even more excited for his future with them and in the field. He feels confident, bulletproof, or even invulnerable. He notes a strong, potent smell in the air to himself then reaches out and turns the doorknob. He slowly opens the door, sweeping the room with his weapon at the ready. His eyes go wide as he sees the large explosive device placed on a table across the room just a few steps away.
Walking to the left of the farmhouse, Touch is thinking of his plans for the night: dinner with Katherine. They celebrate after every mission; sometimes they invite Garrett too, and sometimes he just shows up, but tonight is just the two of them. These kinds of plans keep him motivated to make it through the missions. He begins to turn the corner and sees three military-like helicopters approaching their position.
Now feeling extremely uneasy, Smell is unplugging and plugging in wires, turning things off and on, as well as messing with a few different electronics. She is trying everything to get communications running properly to call the team back to the van. She sees the helicopters approaching the farmhouse, the doors slide open, and men with large guns lean out, preparing to fire. She jumps out of the van and begins to run up the driveway, yelling for the team to return or take cover.
The small group of foot soldiers approach Hearing's position and are bickering about their task. "I heard they can dodge bullets," one says. "I heard they have superpowers," says one of the others. "That's why I brought this," says the one in the lead. "There is no way she's dodging a grenade. I'm just going to toss it at her, and we can head home and let the weird kid confirm the deaths," finishes the man, who seems to be taking charge.
Touch spins and begins to run over to where Taste was heading, hoping to take cover on the other side of the farmhouse. He reaches the other side and sees Taste open the shed. Touch quickly positions the building between himself and the helicopters as he yells out to Taste, telling him to take cover. As the words begin to pass his lips, the shed erupts in a large fiery explosion. He watches as Taste is charred by the large flames and ripped apart by shrapnel. The shockwave from the explosion throws Touch up against the building, and he falls over onto the ground. He looks down the driveway and sees Smell running back to the van as bullets rain down on her coming from one of the helicopters as they sweep over the property. She doesn't make it. As the helicopters turn to make another pass, Touch hears an explosion off in the distance from the direction of Hearing's position. He squeezes the small stuffed bear that is attached to his bulletproof armor as the helicopters strafe his position. Bullets pelt the ground around him, the building, and his armor. He doesn't feel a thing, and soon, he will feel nothing as his consciousness leaves him.
Chapter Fourteen: What Could Have Been
July 17th, 1990, a Tuesday at 6:40 am. Step By Step by the New Kids On The Block is at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 list. The President of the United States of America is George H. W. Bush, and the Director of Central Intelligence is William H. Webster. Under their order and that of a mysterious third party, a secret program given the name The Weird Studies was created. On this day, The Weird Studies deployed a team of operators considered to be superhuman on a mission that they knew they couldn't handle. Step by step, Garrett Grey stumbles down the hall. Slipping in puddles of blood and tripping over loose bones as the building burns around him. He falls to one knee directly in front of the young man waiting patiently with his Mossberg 500 at the ready while ash falls like snow around them. Garrett lifts his head to face the young man and begins to open his eyes. His eyes are pupilless but beautiful. In his irises is a wonderful rainbow of color. The sight would have stopped any normal person in their tracks as they stared into his eyes flooded with indescribable emotion.
The ash disappears along with the unbearable heat, the nauseating smell of death, and the sound of heavy gunfire. Garrett reminisces about his failed attempts to join the CIA, meeting his best friends and teammates for the first time, and all their successful missions. It's only been a few months, but they have already done so much. He has never felt so comfortable or at home with another group of people in his life. He had planned to spend the rest of his life beside them.
Garrett thinks of the future. The team would be a well-oiled machine with every member holding their own. Even Nicole would be happy to be there after finding the place where she fits. James would prove that the CIA letting him go would have been one of their worst mistakes; they would even beg to take him back. Theodore and Katherine would marry in the summer on a nice day like this in a flower-covered meadow somewhere. Lastly, Garrett would have a family to call his own.
The young man stares unwaveringly into Garrett's eyes and watches as pupils begin to form and then dilate.
Chapter Fifteen: Senseless
Garrett's eyes begin to truly open. The world is too bright; it stings his eyes, it's blurry, and he can't quite understand the new information he is taking in. They begin to adjust, and he can finally see! All of Garrett's emotions flair up, he feels amazement at being able to perceive the world around him along with the shapes and colors that make it up, he feels outrage because he has never experienced or witnessed a scene like this and he feels shame because he has never been put into a situation as sticky as this one, and along with these he feels a range of other emotions boiling up inside him. After just a moment, his eyes and mind begin to properly process the information flowing into them. Then it dawns on him. The gunshots and the explosions. They weren't coming from his teammates; they must have been directed at them. He knows they may be dead. He looks up at the young man standing before him and sees his expressionless face. Garrett feels all his emotions filling him, making him feel far more powerful than he ever has. Garrett begins to yell out, "I'll kill y…" but his emotions burn out as he finally fully comprehends the situation he has found himself in. His teammates and only friends have died along with the future he envisioned for himself. Now he kneels in a gore-covered hallway, within a burning building, in front of a young man seemingly devoid of all emotion, and is staring straight down the barrel of a shotgun.
The young man stares at Garrett's face and watches as it changes. The different expressions and emotions shown are lost on him. The young man watches and listens as Garrett begins to stand and yell something. The young man calmly and swiftly begins to squeeze the trigger of his Mossberg 500. As he does this, Garrett's eyes fade to gray. Bang... The gun fires, and the contents of Garrett's head, blood, bone, and brain, are splattered throughout the hallway. The young man drops his gun and calmly walks down the hall. As he reaches the door, the building begins to cave in, crushing what was left of Garrett Gray.
Outside, the young man hears in his ear through a communication device, "Senseless, mission report?"
"The target is eliminated. Where is my extraction? A helicopter should have been waiting for me." Senseless replies, emotionless as ever.