Synthetic: Dark Beginning (25 page)

He laughed and she could feel it vibrate his chest. “Then I guess it's a good thing I'll only to live to five hundred.”

Vaughn took her hand to help her wade in and when the water reached her shoulders she stopped.
“
I'm sorry for how I've treated you. I—”

“You don't need to—”

“No, let me finish. I don't remember everything about myself, but I remember enough to know that I was a better person when I made you, and being with you this past week has reminded me of what I once was. When I'm with you, I'm who I should be.”

“As much as I love this, it's sounding a bit like a confused eulogy. I won't drop you, Kora, I prom—” She cut him off with a kiss. His eyes opened in surprise but it wasn't long before his lips moved against hers as she wound herself around him in the freezing water. “I'll never let you go again,” he said before pulling her under. 

Chapter 28

Joshua squatted behind the propane tank and listened as the forth shot rang out followed by a swell of agonized wails. He kept still as three soldiers banged through the door, dragging five bodies between them. They heaped them next to the back tire of an old pickup truck, then one of them pulled out a bottle and they passed it around. Joshua glanced at the bodies: three old men and two old women shot through the head. Wherever Ruby was sending them, old people weren't welcome. He recognized the faces but didn’t allow himself to think too much about them.

He took a deep breath to steady his nerves and swaggered out from behind the tank. “You fuckers with your guns. It’s a sad state the world has come to. Used to be a man proved his worth by killing with his bare hands.” Joshua twitched his fingers in the air as if casting a spell, and the men stared at him as if he’d just arisen like flames out of the brush.

They stepped down from the platform and surrounded him on all sides. “Where the hell did you come from?” asked a fat one with a gray stripe in his beard.

“I snuck out the back. Sick of watching you girls whack the old folks,” said Joshua.

A skinny kid with long arms cackled. “You’re one stupid dead man.” He raised his rifle to Joshua’s head, but the man with the gray beard glared at him. The kid lowered his gun and glared back, his green eyes menacing slits in his bruised face. “What?”

“Take your gun and go stand by the door. If this prick comes after your skinny ass, you can shoot him but we’re going to honor his last request.”

“Why do I have to watch?”

“Because all you know how to do is shoot and you can’t even do that worth shit. Now go guard the goddamn door.”

The kid spat on the ground beside Joshua and tromped away. He leaned against the corrugated metal, his hands toying with his gun as he watched. The bearded man and a younger one with dark skin and pale eyes circled Joshua like wolves, their arms out to the sides as if they expected him to run. Joshua stood still, moving his eyes from one to the other as he waited for the first blow. It came from the dark man who lunged forward and punched Joshua in the stomach. He crumpled to the ground, unable to breathe. The man with the beard swung his fist into Joshua’s jaw and blood gushed from his mouth, the strange warmth of it saturating his neck.

Joshua tried to get back up, but the dark man whirled in the air and kicked him in the head, knocking him back down. They closed in at the same time and Joshua writhed in a pool of his own blood as heavy boots pounded him from all sides, snapping his bones like twigs. The dark man raised his boot one final time to bring down on Joshua’s head, and even though his eyes were closed, he could feel its cold shadow crossing his face.  Joshua waited, but the blow never came. He heard the dark man step back and the sound of a bottle opening.  It was over.

“Nate, you load that dead bastard into the truck,” said the bearded man somewhere off to his right.

Joshua heard a groan of protest and seconds later, he felt the ground moving under him as the kid dragged him up into the pickup and slammed the gate closed. He listened as the engine started up, and only when they were thumping across the uneven ground did he dare open his eyes. At first he couldn’t see at all, but then he made out the face of the body across from him. It was Ben, the newly elected clan leader. He had a bullet hole in his forehead the size of a quarter.

He couldn’t see out of his left eye.  He tried to reach up to figure out why, but his arm wouldn’t move. Instead, he craned his head to the side and felt something wet roll along his cheek.  After moving his head back and forth a few times, he decided it must be his eye dangling from the nerves like a root refusing to let go of the soil. His other eye was still intact, but it was swelling shut and he knew it wouldn’t be long before that was useless as well.

The pickup stopped and the kid got out to open the gate.  He then pulled the truck up next to the pile of bodies Joshua had observed from the hill. He pictured Berta sitting beside him, her long hair pouring over her shoulders as she strained to look for her family. It seemed like weeks had passed rather than minutes. If he lived through this, he’d never heal. Never be the same again.

Nate opened the gate, unloaded the bodies, and flipped back the tarp. Once again the flies rose up, so thick that it seemed as if night had suddenly descended. The boy dragged the bodies up to the edge of the pile one by one and left Joshua for last, pulling him by his broken leg. Joshua would have screamed, but luckily his jaw was so smashed up he couldn’t open his mouth. Nate walked back to the truck but instead of leaving, he returned with his gun.

Joshua felt the cold steel barrel press against his forehead and waited, wondering if he’d even have time to hear the sound of the gun firing before the metal tore into his brain. Then the muzzle lifted and Joshua felt a hard kick in his chest followed by a series of blows to his head and stomach. When Nate was done, he stood up panting and somehow didn’t notice Joshua twisting in pain as he yanked the tarp down, dispersing the rage of flies before stomping back to his pickup. The sound of the truck door slamming was the last thing Joshua heard before he passed out.

He awoke when something smacked into his face. He opened his good eye, which was now swollen to a mere slit, to see several more bodies had been heaped on top of him, all of them old people from the clan. Nate closed the flap again and Joshua waited until he heard the sound of the truck engine starting up. He listened as the truck paused outside the gate while Nate got out to close it behind him.

Joshua had a feeling the kid would be back within the hour for another delivery, so he struggled to sit up but pain shot through every limb. Instead, he squirmed over the pile, leaving a trail of thick blood. He fixed his good eye on the nearest rig parked at the edge of the lot, stopping to rest after a few feet of progress. From where he sprawled on the ground, the truck looked miles away. More than anything he wanted to sleep, but he continued to writhe through the dirt until a pile of rocks and debris had gathered against his shoulders and pressed into the open wounds in his neck. The pain and the sound of his own grunts seemed to keep him awake while the moments when he lay still, he could feel everything drifting away.

Half an hour later, Joshua lay on his side, staring at the bottom of the truck cab's metal step. He tried to calculate how in the hell he was going to reach it; slithering over the dirt was one thing, but rising up on his stack of shattered bones was another. He shoved himself up against a metal grate and tried to cling on with his useless arms. When he finally managed to pry himself up, he looked down at his body for the first time: he was a bloody pulp, his left leg bent completely the wrong way at the knee. “Holy mother of hell,” he said in a faint voice he hardly recognized as his own.

After careful testing, Joshua found he could raise his right arm more than his left. He watched as his hand rose higher and higher until it nearly touched the door handle, then cried out in agony as he shifted onto his busted knees. He grabbed the handle, pulled as hard as he could, and the door swung open on creaking hinges. Joshua hung there for a while unable to move, gritting his teeth against the pain. He looked down to see a pool of blood below him and knew he was growing weaker by the second.

A seat belt dangled down, the metal buckle shining in the morning light, and he grabbed it with shaking hands. Joshua dragged himself up onto his broken legs, then flopped onto the seat where he wound his wrist through the strap to keep from toppling back to the ground.  Using the belt for leverage, he swung his legs under the dash and hauled himself up an inch at a time.

When Joshua finally sat looking out through the windshield, he knew it’d been nearly an hour since he crawled out from the death pile. Nate’s pickup would be back soon. He knew the moment he got the truck started, he would have to move fast because everyone would come running. He peered around the side of the steering wheel, relieved to see the keys dangling from the ignition.
That would have sucked.

He drew in one last ragged breath and turned the keys. The truck started up like a great, waking beast and the powerful engine nearly knocked his foot off the accelerator.  It took all his strength to hold it down as the tires rolled forward.  Joshua crashed through the fence, lodging it above the cab like a net that dragged along the ground on either side. He managed to steer the truck around to face the warehouse as men poured from the portables, their faces blank with confusion. Before anyone had time to think, he gunned the truck straight at the main entry to the warehouse where he guessed most of the guards were hanging out.

Nate was just backing his pickup away from the building with a new load of bodies when Joshua plowed into him, dragging him along as he burst through the metal walls. Joshua had guessed right. At least fifteen men crowded the area before the doors. He slammed their bodies against the far wall so hard, the entire building collapsed around the truck. He heard screaming and the sound of gunfire from all directions, bit it grew fainter as if a great battle was receding into the distance. He fell to his side on the seats that were already sticky with his own blood. He heard the passenger door click open and Berta appeared above him in a glowing light, her long black hair brushing his cheek. She pressed her lips against his forehead and Joshua knew, after years of swindling death, it had finally caught up with him.

Chapter 29

Kora awoke while Vaughn carried her up the cliffs from the beach to the back of the castle. “You can set me down now,” she said.

Vaughn held her tighter against his chest.
“Are you sure? You just drowned for the second time in one day.”

“I'm fine.” As nice as it felt, now wasn't the time for snuggling. Kora struggled out of his arms and crossed the brick driveway on her own feet.  They stood before a vast garage door carved with a great, winding sea serpent. Vaughn pulled a lever and the door groaned open to reveal an army of black cars. “Gus gave me the key to the Rolls Royce but I left it in the cell. It didn’t occur to me that I’d have to make a fast getaway tonight.”

“I have a key.” Vaughn prowled through the rows of cars and stopped before one that was completely covered in dents.

Kora tried to hide her disappointment. “This is the one you have a key to?”

Vaughn's face turned red. He reached in and plucked something off the dash. “No, I drove this one a few days ago. Just needed to grab the force field disruptor.” He continued over to a lime green wonder that shined beneath the gas lamps like an alien spaceship.

Kora slipped into the passenger seat and watched as he fiddled with the knobs and pedals until he finally got it started. “You know how to drive, right? Or is this car going to wind up looking like that other one you drove?”

“Not a chance.” Vaughn screeched through the garage, hitting the side of a shiny coup. Kora covered her ears as they scraped along, watching in horror as smooth metal buckled and paint flew into the air. Finally free of the carnage, Vaughn blasted up the driveway and Kora jerked on her seatbelt seconds before she heard a loud thump on the roof.  Vaughn jammed his foot down on the accelerator and gunned the car up Dume Drive before slamming on the brakes. A lithe form slid down the windshield, performed a neat flip, and landed in a crouched position in front of the grill. When the figure rose, she recognized Alex.

“We’re being attacked by Brigitte Bardot,” said Vaughn.

He shifted into reverse, rocketed backward, and sat revving the engine.  He and Alex glared at each other for a minute before he shot toward her in a green blur. Alex jumped straight up in the air like an acrobat, landed on the hood, and sliced her arm through the windshield, exploding the cab open like an eggshell. Then Alex hauled Vaughn through the glass and metal like a slab of meat through a grinder. The car glided to a stop while Kora screamed at Alex to let him go, but instead the girl punched him in the jaw so he flew over the car, landing in a heap on the pavement twenty feet away.

Kora scrambled out the door. “Why the hell did you do that?”

“It’s the only way to tell if he’s human or synthetic,” replied Alex, jumping down off the mangled car.  She winked at Kora.
“
I already know what you are.
”

Kora wondered what the hell Alex meant by that. She pressed her fingers against Vaughn’s neck and breathed a sigh of relief. He was still alive.

“Were you trying to escape, Doctor?” asked Alex.

“Of course, and if we’d left sooner we would have made it.”

Alex lifted Vaughn into her arms. “Where'd you find this guy? He's wimpy but cute.” She marched Kora down to the castle’s service entrance. “What’s in your bag?”

“None of your business.” Kora had forgotten it was still strung around her shoulders. She should have left it in the car where Ivan could have found it.

“Open the bag.”

Kora opened it and looked away. “See, it’s nothing but my wet clothes.”

Alex pulled out the smaller bag containing the drive and the camera they’d removed from Mud.  She looked at the objects with disgust and grabbed Kora by the arm.  “Let's go.”

“Please don't give that bag to Randall.  I need it.”

That stopped Alex in her tracks.  She held up the bag and looked at it again.  “This is important to you?  Why?”

Kora took a few deep breaths to steady herself.  “I'm sorry for how I've treated you over the years.  I was cruel and horrible.  But right now I need you to give me that bag and let us go.”

Alex stared at her in amazement.  “Did you just apologize?  I don't believe it.  The great Kora Lazar apologizes to no one.  You're full of shit.”

“I'll unchip you if you give it to me and let us go.”

For a moment Alex seemed torn. She looked at the bag and then back over at Kora.
“It's a tempting offer but I don't trust you, Doctor. You don't seem like the type to keep your word.”

When they entered the lab, Alex heaped Vaughn’s unconscious body onto the couch and tossed the bag to Randall who gazed at it with mild interest. “Very naughty of you to try and escape, Kora, and right before our wedding.  Who is that handsome man passed out on the couch?  Is that Ruby's vampire?” He shook a finger at her.
“
Kora, I'm shocked that you of all people would fall for such a loathsome creature.
”

Alex pointed at the bag in his hand.  “This seems really important to her.  I think we should check it out.”

Randall yawned.  “I'll destroy it when we get back to Mirafield.”

“Why can't we look at it now?” pressed Alex, her expression shifting from triumph to disappointment.

“Because I'm more important than you, little warrior.” Ruby swept into the lab from the direction of her office dressed in a black silk surgical gown trimmed in lace. “Kora’s here? Good.  Let’s get started. Gustavo—we don’t have all day.”

Gus mouthed something at Kora when he emerged from the hall behind Ruby. She knew he was asking if they'd found anything, but she didn't want to draw attention to the drive.  His cheek was red as if he’d just been slapped and he was holding his camera. “You’re back?” he finally asked aloud.

“Unfortunately,” replied Kora.

Ruby clapped her hands as if calling a dog. “Kora, come here.”

Kora crossed over to where the synthetic lay on one of two gurneys that now dominated the center of the lab. “How many times do I have to tell you, I can't do this? I know nothing about brain transplants and if you force me, I’ll end up killing you.”

“Yes, yes. I've heard that too many times, now.”  Ruby tilted her head, her voice full of syrup as she poked Kora in the belly. “I know you got into that new body of yours somehow, sweetheart, and I intend to find out.”

“How could I have performed an operation on myself?”

Ruby brushed the toe of her black ballet slipper in a semi-circle on the floor in front of her. “I guess you have a little dilemma: do the operation and kill me or don’t do the operation and kill Vaughn.  And Caleb and Gus, but they don't really matter.  I went back and forth on Ivan last night, but now that he refuses to do the housework I really can’t be bothered with him.”

“Didn’t you go back and forth on me?” asked Gus.

“Not a bit,” said Ruby. “I look forward to peace and quiet when you’re gone, Gustavo. But then there’s you, Kora.” Ruby pursed her lips into a perfect cherry; she’d spent extra time on her makeup this morning. “Out of everyone, I want you to suffer the most.  I'm still deliberating on the best method of torture—”

A whirring sound filled the air and Kora turned to see the only thing that could make this situation worse: Ishmael had picked this moment to emerge from his container. She ran up to him waving her arms. “Not now, Ishmael!”  But it was too late. The steel plates folded down to reveal his tall, cylindrical body glistening from a shower. His spiral of thick arms spilled off the base and he writhed over to the cupboards as if in search of his afternoon snack, oblivious that a crowd was gaping at him.

Ruby gasped. “That’s what you’ve hidden all this time?  A kraken! He reminds me of the robotic squid from one of my film favorites,
The Beast Who Lurks Below,
I lost years ago, but more beautiful.” She ran her fingers over Ishmael’s arm, lifted it off the floor, and wrapped it around her waist.

Kora couldn't believe that Ishmael let her do this. Whenever anyone, aside from Kora, touched his arms he’d sucker them to the floor so they were impossible to move.

Ishmael bounced Ruby in one arm as if she was a child on a ride at the fair, while his seven others poked through cupboards and drawers, occasionally drawing out something sharp and setting it on a surgical tray.

“What the hell are you doing?” demanded Kora.

Ishmael gently batted Kora away as he turned to face Ruby, a surgical laser gripped in each arm.  He lowered Ruby onto the gurney beside the synthetic body and spread her out like a salmon he was about to fillet.  He covered her face with the anesthetic mask and her eyes flamed open for a moment before they drooped closed.

Randall bustled over to Kora, his face twitching as he watched Ishmael burn a straight seem across Ruby’s forehead, filling the room with the smell of roasting skin. “What the hell is that squid doing? Can’t you stop him?”

With unnatural quickness that only comes with having eight arms, Ishmael peeled Ruby’s flesh away from her brain and spine like meat from an overripe banana.  He then deposited her glistening nervous system into the synthetic that already lay open like a bare husk. After he’d neatly lasered all the incisions closed, Ishmael squiggled over to the sink where he used a little brush to get the gore out from between his suckers.

“Those canned krakens really are handy,” said Gus, pocketing his camera when Ishmael disappeared into his container for a shower.

“So it was the squid all this time, not you?” asked Randall.

Kora wished she could strip the last ten minutes from his memory.  What did this mean for Ishmael?  The entire surgery, the most complex in history, took the squid about the length of time it takes most people to brush their teeth.  Kora had taught him everything she knew, years ago, so he could transfer her brain into her new body. She’d created him and he, in turn, had remade her.

“It’s over then?” asked Vaughn from behind her. He weaved on his feet, his eyes unfocused.

She reached out to steady him and he leaned on her. “You should be lying down.”

“I want to see.”

They moved cautiously over to Ruby who was already stirring on her gurney, her head moving from side to side as Randall shouted her name into her ear as if she was a bottomless well.

“What should we do?” asked Kora.

“Take Joshua's advice and kill her while we still have the chance,” said Vaughn.

They both jumped when Ruby’s eyes popped open, the pupils focusing on Vaughn as she tilted her head back to stare at him upside down. “I remember you.”  She sat up and dangled her long legs over the side of the gurney. “Was I attacked by a giant squid?” Her voice was no longer strangled by infected lungs, but smooth and melodic.

Kora had forgotten how beautiful this synthetic was, even with ears that stuck out.  She had a long, pale neck, and a tumble of shiny dark hair.  Before this whole thing with Ruby, Kora had looked forward to waking the girl. But now that Ruby's eyes gazed out of that perfect face, Kora felt a deep pit widening inside of her.  A demon possessed her masterpiece.

Ruby slipped off the gurney and strutted up to Vaughn, the shreds of her surgical gown barely covering her willowy body. “I’m a marvel. A glorious wonder to behold.” She raised an arm like a dancer. “Definitely too good for you.”

“You should sit down and rest, my dear,” said Randall, trailing behind Ruby holding a silk robe. “It will take you some time to adjust to this new body.”

Ruby ignored him as he draped the silk over her shoulders. She ran her hands up her slender waist and cupped her breasts. “Miraculous aren’t they, Vaughn? So firm and round. They could have belonged to you, my dark prince, but not anymore. I’ve suffered so many disappointments, but allowing Kora to ruin you just pushed me over the edge.” She whipped around to face Kora, making her flinch. “Remember what I said during our chat last night? He dies along with everyone else unless you change him back.”

“That wasn't the deal,” said Kora.  “You said that he could live if I went back to the catacomb.”

“I've changed my mind.”  Ruby slipped a finger under Kora’s chin. Her nails were already painted black. “You might survive getting your head ripped off, but would he?”

“That’s what you threatened ten years ago,” said Kora. “You told me you’d kill Vaughn unless I turned him into a vampire.”

Ruby smiled and Kora noticed the sharp fangs. She must have added those herself. “This has been a refreshing visit for you, hasn’t it?” said Ruby. “Brought back old memories.”

“I’m not changing back,” said Vaughn.

“You have no say in this,” hollered Ruby, her voice shaking the dome so hard a dozen panes of glass crashed to the floor. She looked around with a delighted smile on her face. “I have a nice set of pipes, too.”

“Now Ruby,” said Randall with a trembling smile. “It’s time we all returned to Mirafield. We’ve fulfilled our side of the bargain, now it’s time for you to fulfill yours.”

“Oh Randall.” Ruby’s voice simmered as she raised her arms above her head and spun around on her tiptoes. “You expect me to think about marketing at time like this? I don’t want to be your little company mascot anymore.”

“You signed a contract.”

“Send your lawyers and I’ll do this.” She swung her fist at Vaughn’s chest and launched him with such speed, Kora thought he’d simply dissolved into thin air. Then an explosion rocked the floor and she watched him burst through the castle wall and disappear over the cliff.