Apocolypse Story

[Chesa]

Untitled

Ch. 1
An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

In the original Night of the living Dead movie, radiation causes an outburst of mutation, resulting in Zombies. Due to this and the inability to kill them, an apocalypse was create. George Ramiro wasn’t that far off…
In the year 2093 the Alger power plants nuclear power generators blew. No one expected a chain reaction of such intensity. It seemed like it was going to simply be Another Chernobyl, until the mutations accrued. It started out as nothing more then small changes in the pigments of skin, hair and eyes. But then the other generators exploded. Soon reaction were outrageous. Human and animal genetics merged on a sub atomic level, odd changes in brain activities, and much more. These mutations caused huge panic and for 10 years civilization suffered a slow and painful death. Those of us who are left, us Freaks are trying to rebuild life as we can.
My name is Ollie, I run a pound. A pound, that’s what we call these safe houses for us freaks among the Freaks. Our Pound is locked in a major Hive. A hive is like a city where a lot of us survivors have gathered. Some parts are actually really nice, like cities used to be. Unfortunately, only the rich and the important, or people with connection can afford to get put in a part like that. Normal, those were people that were able to avoid most of the after math of the Disaster. Most of those people, the lucky ones, only have green hair, or crazy eyes. Nothing too messed up, like us.
We, on the other hand, live in the slums. Some in half hearted shacks of houses, others in old run down buildings. My pound, Howl’s Castle, is in an old department store. At first, I thought the find was too perfect, that maybe it was claimed already, but lucky for me, it wasn’t. It had everything I needed to open my pound. Generators, TV’s, beds, clothes, everything. I just couldn’t believe my luck. Me, and the small group I had with me, quickly stacked our claim.
The four founders…The first is Gadget, a 18 year old wiz with electronics. With in days he had us hooked up to the main frame computer network of the Hive, not a simple task. Kimmi, 16 but wise beyond her years. At times she was the reason that kept all of us from loosing our minds. Jack, 24 and an expert fix it man. This man could fix a computer that had a piano dropped on it, and you would never known. And last me, Ollie. I’m 18 but I feel like I’m older. It’s like that for all of us who grew up in the Disaster. This chaos is all we’ve known. But, unlike the others, I’m special. For this reason, I thought that I would never be able to be around any of the other survivors, but for some reason, our pack elected me leader. And now our pack of 4 has grown to 10. Not much, but that’s six kids we were able to save.
That’s one of the things that is special about our pound, we only take kids. Most of them were born to parents that were killed by the radiation, our oldest is only 11. Most other pounds refuse to take kids, thinking they are a pain but, those are the survivors we want. It’s going to sound cruel an jaded but we want the ones that aren’t going to argue with us about our rules and try to change them. What we have works, and we don’t need anyone changing that, and nothing is going to change, not if I have a say in it.
I have to take trips to the center of the Hive a lot, to meet with the ‘Queen Bee’. I really don’t mind the talks, it’s the test that bug me. I was infected by the radiation more then the normal Freak. I don’t know why, and I really don’t care. I refuse to use my curse for anything big, so it doesn’t matter. What’s my curse? Well there is a big fancy medical term that the doctors so lovingly gave it but personally, I’m not smart, so I don’t remember it. I can, on the other hand, tell you what it means. My curse is the ability to move things with my mind. Cool huh? No… It’s the worst curse I could have. It happened because unnatural parts of my brain are working, and a lot of the time, I can’t control it. Due to the ‘destructive capabilities’ of this curse, I have to see the doctors at the Algren research facility. The name look familiar? Yeah both the power planet and medical research group were founded by the same man, who tried to use Radiation for both cures and power.
It’s on one of these trips to the center of the Hive that this story begins.

[Chesa]

I was walking down the narrow streets of the Hive. Tall buildings rose around me, as we got closer to the gleaming glass and steel research building that was the center of the Hive.
Gadget was with me. He was always convinced I was going to get jumped, though no one would dare jump me. I was pretty well known in the slums. I grew up there, the streets were my home. Unfortunately Gadget was convince, and once he had his mind set on something, there was no stopping him. So there we were, walking towards the center of the Hive. Soon the dirty little kids playing in the street turned to clean men in crisp suits rushing around trying to get where they needed to be. Slowly run down buildings turned to tall sky scrapers that seemed to touch the clouds.
“You nervous?” Gadget asked me. I stifled a laugh.
“Psh, nah. It’ll probably just be the usual. Some idiot in a lab coat psycho analyzes me, I get poked with a few needles, and I get to move a foam ball from one end of the room to the other. Real scary,” I said, walking with my hands behind my head.
We passed one of the many in nice suits. He gave Gadget and I a nasty look.
Gadget in his dirty no sleeved T-shirt that was probably once white and his jeans, real jeans, like the heavy duty ones that the workers wore. I had on a black halter top and guys jean shorts that had once belonged to Gabe. Both of us had on combat boots. It was no wonder the guys gave as that look. I grinned, laughing. Gadget ran his hand through his glowing red hair, and I mean really glowing. In the dark his head was a natural flash light. He was a hoot at parties.
The man glared at us over his shoulder. I giggled. “It’s your hair, pissed him off,” I said, grinning. Gadget rolled his eyes. “Bah, at least I’m original, Miss boring brunette,” he retaliated, pulling my loose braid. I slapped his hand away, sticking my tongue out at him, like I was a kid again. I don’t get to act childish at Howl’s Castle. I had to be strong for the kids. They were confused and needed a leader, not another kid.
Gadget laughed at me. We continued to walk towards the building, chit chatting about random things. That’s why Gadget was my Best friend. We could talk about anything. Sometimes it was deep, but most of the time it was just us enjoying being around each other. We took the moment by the rains and rode it full out. Both of us belived that in a life like this, it was best to enjoy every moment, So we did. Even if it was something simply liked walking to the clinic for some test.
I hopped as I walked, jumping in between the cracks in the old side walk. Gadget laughed at me. “Sometimes…” He started but didn’t finish his sentence. He just stared at me. I stopped walking, staring back at him. “Yeeeeees,” I said raising an eye brow. He shook his head, opening the door to the research facility and holding it open for me. I just gave him a weird look, walking into the lobby. I wasn’t very surprised though, Gadget always lost his train of thought.
I looked around the lobby. I had been here tons of times, but it was still a shock each time I came in. The ceiling rose into the air as level upon level workers in lab coats scurried around to various places.
There in the middle of the giant lobby stood a silver statue of James Alger, founder of both Alger power and Alger labs. I never quite understood why they still praised him after the Disaster. I never knew him, so I don’t know if he truly was a good man. What I do know is that he was tinkering with stuff he shouldn’t of been messing with, and that this world was his fault.
As we passed the statue, on our way to the reception desk, I stared at the ground. I really didn’t feel like looking at a statue of a man that had cause the apocalypse.
I stood in front of the large circular desk that sat in front of the entrance to the actual labs. A woman that looked like her whole body was covered in third degree burns sat at the desk. Her eyes were pure white, like the retinas had melted out. She was obviously blind. Her head had perked when she heard us approach.
“Welcome to Alger Labs. How may I help you?” she asked. Her words sounded as if they should’ve been cheery but, her voice was slightly sad. Poor girl, probably one of Alger’s thrown away experiments. At least they had given her a job…
I shook my head, coming out of my trance. “Yeah…um, Ollie Calcifer and guest. I have an appointment with Dr. Hunt,” I said leaning on the edge of the desk. Gadget took that as a sign that he could us me was an arm rest. I nudged him off. “Ollie Calcifer, 1:30,” she said into a mic. There was a pause as the computer thought. “Confirmed,” It said in it’s mechanized voice. The receptionist pushed a button and one of the doors behind her swung open. “Proceed through security,” she said. I began to walk to the door, Gadget behind me.
I had actually picked the name Calcifer when I first registered in the city with Gabe. I had seen only one movie at the time. Howl’s Moving Castle . It was an old animated film from 2001. Calcifer was a little ball of enchanted fire, and my favorite character. So I chose his name as my last. I was an interesting child…sue me.
I walked into the security room, Gadget not far behind me. There was a small sitting area in the plain white room. The sitting area was full of white plastic chairs. The only color seemed to come from a few old news pads. Gadget took his normal seat in the chair closets to the security line. He picked up one of the news pads and put it in his media comp. A small screen popped up, print scrolling across it. He waved at me as I walked into the security line. Small lights glowed under the tips of his fingers. I wondered what it like to have pure electrical plasma flowing through my veins, instead of blood, would be like.
I walked up to a small metal arch. It looked like one of those old time metal detectors. The second I stepped under it though, a small bit of electricity shot from it, sending a jolt through my body. I cringed slightly. If I had had any weapons on me, that shock would’ve fried their circuitry.
I proceeded through the hall to the next place. Small mechanical arms reached from the walls. “Please hold out your left arm,” a computerized voice said to me. I sighed. I hated this one.
I held out my arm. One of the arms grabbed my wrist. The other injected a needle into me. I barely felt it, I just hated needles. “Identify confirmed. Ollie Calcifer. level of mutation, Class A,” the computerized voice said. Another door opened in front of me. I waved over my shoulder at Gadget as I walked through the next door. I stood in a large shower room. “Please remove your clothing,” the same voice said to me. The camera on the wall turned, it’s lense fixing on me. I knew it was to make sure that I hadn’t smuggled a weapon past the first security check but it still made me uncomfortable. I never knew what was on the other side of that camera.
As soon as I took off the last article of clothing the showers switched on. Hot water poured from the shower heads above me. The water burned slightly, but that was because there was a chemical in it that would kill off any and all germs, at least that’s what Dr. Hunt said.
The showers cut off. I sighed, walking over to a white cabinet on the other side of the room. I opened it, pulling out one of the paper robes that was inside. I got ‘dressed’ quickly, though I really wouldn’t consider the napkin I was wearing cover. I walked up to the corner the camera was mounted on. “Done,” I said looking up at it. Part of the wall swung open, reviling a small hall way.
I slowly walked down the white hall. Above me the blinding white lights hummed. The tiles on the ground were cold against my bear feet.
In old movies, when a person was going to heaven, it was always portrayed by a long white hall way with a blinding light at the end. That’s what it looked like to me.
I laughed slightly when I thought about it because what was at the end of the hall, was not heaven.
I stepped through the open doorway into the labs themselves. Tables, machines, cages with animals, work benches and cabinets, and desks covered the walls and were scattered around on the floor.
A tall woman with brilliant blue eyes and white blonde hair pulled back into a tight bun walked over to me. She adjusted the box classes on her face.
“Hello Ollie” She said looking down at me. I was fairly short, only five feet and two inches, so most people were taller then me.
“How are you doing?” she asked, holding a clip board in her hand. Her words held no kindness, like she truly cared. Her words were cold, empty. The only reason she cared enough to ask is because my emotions affected my curse acted. I just huffed, walking over and sitting on the couch near her desk. She followed me, pulling the chair out from under her desk and sitting across from me. I moved slightly. The cold leather was slightly uncomfortable, but better then standing. Dr. Hunt’s eyes never left me, and after a short pause, I decided to answer her question.
“well I have been a little bit stressed,” I answered. Dr. Hunt nodded, tapping her pen on the touch screen of her clip board. “And why’s that?” she asked, looking from her clip board to me.
I looked away, so there was never any eye contact. For some reason, her gaze made me uncomfortable. “Well Gabe had a dream , and it made me nervous,” I said. “What was it about?” Dr. Hunt asked, continuing to tap on her board. I sighed again. “Well he dreamed that this place was breached, and that it became a red zone, and all the kids in our pound were killed,” I said, a slight nervousness in my voice. I tried to hide it, bu obviously, did a poor job, because she caught my eyes.
“Ollie, this Hive is completely secure. Nothing is going to get in. That’s a completely Illogical fear. You know all this better then any of the other normal citizens. Why does it scare you?” she asked me. Curiosity was the only emotion in her voice. “Well, Gabe has had a few dreams before that have actually happened. Nothing like this. Just small things, like Alec getting sick, and Chime breaking her arm,” I explained. Dr. Hunt’s interest seemed to peak. “Really? What’s his level of mutation?” she asked, taping rapidly on her clip board.
“Class Q. He genetically bonded with the pet Dove he was holding at the time the radiation blast hit him,” I said. Dr. Hunt thought for a second. “Alright,” she said as if disregarding the conversation completely. She stood up, walking towards the lab tables. That’s probably the only think I liked about Dr. Hunt, her walk. I always stomped, walking clumsily. I thought I would amuse myself, and mimic her movements as I walked towards the lab table. Some of the other men in lab coats gave me weird looks. I just snickered.
“Lay down,” Dr. Hunt said to me, motioning to the lab table. It had a cushion at the top. Several other doctors walked over. I sat on the table, laying down, resting my head on the cushion at the top. Dr. Hunt held a mask over my mouth and nose. Slowly I began to loose all feeling in my body. I could tell my eyes were getting heavy. Through my half open eyes I saw the doctors put the needles in my arms and legs. I couldn’t feel them at all, but they still freaked me out. I tried to pull away but my body fell limp. There was brief moment of panic before I began to loose concentration. It was always like that though. I never remembered much of those test. When I finally came back from me semi-conscious state it was already dark outside. I had to have been out for at least six hours. That was much longer then normal. I sat up and felt a jolt of pain was I pulled up the needles. I screamed and began to pull against the cords. Panic rose sharply in me. Dr. Hunt rushed out of her office and over to me. I felt hands hold me down as Dr. Hunt quickly pulled out the needles. I pulled roughly. The only thing I could think about was getting away from those needles. “Ollie, they’re all out,” a voice through the madness said. I looked at my arms. Only small red dots were left where the needles had pierced my skin.
I breathed heavily, rubbing my face. As I started to calm down a loud crash sounded in the room. One of the other work tables laid crumpled on the floor, as if it had fallen from a height. “Did I… do that?” I asked, my breathing having evened out. Dr. Hunt wasn’t paying attention. She was typing furiously at her computer. “You are free to go,” she said, waving me away. I hopped off the table, grabbing my clothes from a bin. “and bring Gabe with you next time,” she said, not even bothering to look at me as she talked. I rolled my eyes, nodding as I walked out of the room. I got dressed in a changing room before I went into the waiting area, on the other side of the security hall.
When I went to where Gadget was I found him fast asleep. I laughed to myself. He was sitting in the chair, his head leaning against the wall behind him, his mouth hanging open like he was a fish. I shook his shoulder. He sat up. “Ugh, what took you so long?” he asked stretching and standing up. I shrugged “Dunno,” I said walking out of the building with him. His hair glowed adding to the light of the night lit signs of the Hive. Even though it was dark people still rushed around, like this part of the Hive never slept. “Hey what time is it?” I asked. Gadget checked his watched. “Eh…7:30,” he said. I huffed. “Can you call home, see if they’ve had dinner yet?” I asked him, looking around for a cheap place to pick up dinner if need be. . Gadget nodded, pulling out a small ear piece and hooking it around his ear. “Howl’s Castle,” he said. I stopped, looking in the window of a store. There was a small jeweled butterfly hair clip sitting in the stand. I admired it for a few moments, until Gadget came over to find me. Kimmi was about to start dinner but, if you want to pick up something it would make her life easier. The kids have been a pain. Oh, and Gabe picked up a little girl while he was out today. He hasn’t registered her yet so…” Gadget stopped mid sentence, his train of thought having derailed again.
I laughed, nodding. “Alright, let’s grab some burgers,” I said. Fast food restaurants had survived all the years, as well as the burger. We made our way to the closest Mickey D’s.
I placed our orders, pulling out my wallet. Not only was there a chain connecting it to my pants but there was a small lock on it as well. I used a small key to unlock it and give the woman behind the counter my cash card. No pick pocketer was going to steal my wallet even if they tried. I put my wallet back in my pocket, looking over at Gadget. He was poking a sauce dispenser. “what the hell are you doing?” I asked.
“Amusing myself,” he said. I rolled my eyes. “Grab the food glow worm and lets go,” I said. He shot me a look, grabbing our order ad following me out the door.