A Human Element (22 page)

X-10 decided to stick to the woods and hike his way to New York. It could take days but the government had their people out there watching for him by now. He could kill a few humans if they caught him but it might be the end of him. He couldn't let that happen until he killed the girl. He crushed his hands together. He had to find her first.

It had been twelve hours since he escaped and he felt fresh now from sleeping all day under a thick blanket of leaves. He wasn't sure where in rural Virginia he was but he believed he was near the Blue Ridge Mountains in the northern part of the state. He could follow the mountains north all the way to Pennsylvania. If he picked up the Appalachian Trail he could hike fast under cover as a through-way hiker. The human authorities wouldn't think to look for him on the Appalachian Trail. He laughed at his perfect plan.

Dusk fell early in late September and it lent him the cover to be on the move. He stretched tall, shaking off the leaves. His white skin shone in the dark under the near-full moon rising. An owl hooted in soulful mourning somewhere above. He looked for it, but it disappeared in a shadowy swoop to catch its night prey. X-10 was hungry. He had to find food. He strode under the trees for a mile when he discovered the white, faded blaze of an Appalachian Trail sign. He had read hikers often left cans of food in the trail shelters. Perhaps he would get so lucky.

He turned onto the trail and moved with speed over the rough path. His eyesight was so keen he could spot roots and rocks and nimbly stride over them. He stretched his long pod fingers outward to push branches aside as he raced toward the girl. Not so long now. She had no idea she had but a few days left to live. For miles he hiked, his stomach growling with hunger. He would have to find some animal to eat soon if he couldn't find other food.

In his freedom, thoughts of beautiful Sabrina came to him, urging him on. If he'd only escaped to save her before Bjord killed her he could be with her now. Perhaps they could have made a life together, delved into the pleasure of flesh night after night. Perhaps he would not be hunting Laura. Sabrina's softness came to him and it fed his hunger. He let his hate subside as he ran through the woods, not seeing the trees but his cell full of her wondrous glow.

At first she'd been terrified upon being thrown and locked into his cell. She was a whore there to initiate a virgin, but she hadn't expected a monster.

She looked around the room then saw him in the corner. He stepped forward and she gasped, backing up into the door. She turned and pounded on it.

"Let me out! Please. It's a mistake."

She glanced back, her mouth a pink carving he yearned to touch. She was his game here in this cell for his easy taking.

X-10 stepped closer. A whiff of buttery caramel and vanilla delighted his massive nose. His gray walls held so little scent. He savored the few scratch-and-sniff perfume ads he'd found in used magazines. He breathed them over and over, imagining them caressing a female's skin. And now it did. He inhaled deeply. She faced him and pressed her back up to the door.

"No one is coming," he said. "I won't hurt you."

She shook her head violently as her wide, blue eyes darted up and down his body. She was as young as he. Large breasts pushed up from her white blouse and tan legs were exposed all the way up to her mini-skirt. Dr. Bjord did a good job finding this one on the street. X-10 had killed uglier ones than this from his mind's eye.

"What are you?" she whispered. She looked left and right but kept coming back to his face.

"Just a government experiment."

"You have yellow eyes."

"You have blue ones."

"Contact lenses?"

He shrugged, running his hands down his chest and legs. She shook her leg nervously and crossed her arms. "I want to leave."

"You can't. You're bought and paid for."

"I want my money back. It was only for an hour."

X-10 stepped closer. Deeper he breathed. Something else was in all that buttery sugar. An earthy smell of pine and bark. Her smell. She didn't shrink away this time.

He jerked his head at the camera on the wall. "He's watching us, you know."

"The old man?"

He nodded.

"You sound like a normal guy, except…"

"Normal." He liked saying that word.

"You don't look it."

He grunted.

She sighed, resigned. "Don't you have clothes?"

"They hurt my skin."

"Oh." Her face softened. Her fear was fading it seemed. "What's your name?"

He paused a moment. "Charlie."

She smiled. Her white teeth between full lips dazzled him. "That's a nice name. I'm Sabrina."

"Sabrina." He drank it in like hot chocolate. Rolled it around his mouth, warm and intoxicating.

"Why are you in here? For…hurting someone?"

"No. Scientific testing."

"That sounds awful. Am I being tested too?"

"Just me."

She looked relieved. "He said it's your first time."

X-10 nodded. He grew hard thinking about it.

She looked down and her eyes widened. "You're big."

He stood taller, feeling empowered. Her words poured over him coating him in unbearable yearning. Part of him wanted to push her down and throttle her, then bite into her soft neck and taste her insides. If she knew those thoughts she would start pounding on the door again. But part of him wanted to sink his rigid sex softly inside her and lick her smell. Could he make her want him?

No one will ever want you
, the doctor said.
You're too different. A killing machine. Not all human. Unworthy.
Dr. Bjord's words burned in his brain. X-10 would prove him wrong.

Sabrina took a deep breath and walked toward him. "Okay, an hour." She placed her hands on his chest and looked up into his eyes. Her scent made him dizzy. His breaths came faster as her warmth infused him. No one had ever touched him except to plunge needles in his arm or clamp probes onto his skin. He shuddered.

"Are you afraid?" She raised her eyebrows.

He shook his head and tried to find his voice to say 'no' but only air floated out. She smiled at him then and leaned her whole body into him. He stood frozen at first then swam his broad hands through her soft locks. He tugged on them. They bounced back. Her lips touched his chest. Tingly explosions ripped through him. When she wrapped her arms around him and stroked his back he tipped his head back and moaned.

And the wind moaning through the trees snapped him back to reality.

No!
Whore!

All human females were whores. They pierced your flesh and heart with need then burning pain that infused you with weakness. He grunted and ran faster leaving that night behind, replacing his need for love with his need for revenge. He discarded Sabrina as Bjord had, tore her from his mind as her limbs had been torn apart to float down the river.

The wind's moans died down and he heard another moan. He stopped to listen. There it was again. Not the sound of the wind but of a woman in pleasure. Adrenalin rushed through him, filling his massive body with a surge of anticipation and lust. And hate. Hate for having the pleasures of love be given and taken away at the whim of another, and hate for Laura who could have the pleasures of love any time.

He scanned the woods. A small tent jutted toward the moon just off the trail ahead. Two campers, making love. How romantic. How unlucky for them. How lucky for him. He stepped closer, listening to the woman call out the man's name.

"Jimmy, oh, oh. Right there, don't stop, please."

X-10 moved closer, standing a few feet from the tent. He reached his hand inside his pants and pulled out his enormous hard cock. He stroked himself, listening to the woman's cries. It didn't take him long. He spewed violently, his thick jism gushing onto dry leaves. The couple stopped. X-10 tucked his relieved cock back in his pants when he heard the man speak.

"Shh, do you hear something?"

"What is it?"

"Listen."

"I don't hear anything. Keep going, please?"

"Wait, it sounded like someone was out there."

"Just the raccoons, or something, come on. I'm getting cold, Jimmy."

"Oh yeah, well feel this."

The woman squealed and laughed as Jimmy went back to his work. X-10 stepped toward the tent, standing right outside it. In one fluid movement, he reached his hand in and grabbed Jimmy by the neck. He pulled out the man, shrieking. His hard penis glistened with the woman's juices and his pants dangled around his ankles. The woman screamed.

"Should have finished sooner, Jimmy." X-10 broke his neck in one snap with his hands and threw him in the brush.

The naked woman rushed to the door but X-10 shoved her back in. He bent down inside the tent. The woman stared at him and screamed at his gruesome figure. X-10 grinned at her as he slapped a hand over her mouth. She looked to be college age with long red, curly hair and full, bouncy breasts. He thought about ravaging her before he killed her but repulsion overcame the urge. She was a human whore, unclean and used by another.

Such a waste. He snapped her neck as he had done to Jimmy. He never knew her name.
Too bad.
He left her there spread out and ripped the tent apart looking for food. He found none inside, but did locate their food bag hanging fifty feet away in a tree. He ripped it down and gorged on nuts, candy bars, crackers, and cheese. He washed it down with their water and looked at the mess he made.

He felt satiated now and full of energy, and so he mustered his powers to dig one deep grave. It needed to be wide enough to fit both of the lovers and their gear. He sat and moved his hands to work logs and rocks to dig. In a short time it was done. He placed the tent and their other belongings in first, and then draped them over it side by side.

"So the lovers can be together in death too." He laughed long and hard.

After dumping the bodies in the grave he covered them up and continued along the trail. It could take the authorities weeks to find their graves, if they ever did, across thousands of acres of national park.

"All in a night's work," X-10 quipped to himself and raced along the trail, a candescent monster dashing under the moon toward its prey.

Laura gazed down at Mr. B asleep in the hospital bed. She had so many things to tell him but didn't want to wake him. Ben put his hands on her shoulders.

"Come on, Laura, let's head back up to the cabin and get some rest. Visiting hours are almost over. Who knows what could happen tomorrow."

She nodded. "I wanted to tell him everything. He always has such good advice. I feel lost without him."

"You have me now," Ben murmured in her ear and held her tight from behind.

"I know, but just look at him. He looks so frail and old." She trailed her fingers on his hand and kissed his cheek. "The nurse said he's still the same. What if he's just too old to recover?"

"I don't think he's lost his fight just yet, he's too feisty."

"I don't know." Laura wanted to believe it. Then something struck her. "It's been so long since I tried to heal. Do you think I could help him?"

"You have nothing to lose. You've been practicing your other powers since you returned. Maybe your healing powers can work too."

"I've got to try."

She placed her hands on Mr. B's chest. It rose and fell in an uneven rhythm, ending each breath with a wheezy exhale. She envisioned his lungs filled with fluid and in her mind drained them until they were empty. She flowed her youth into him, wishing him health and strength. She imagined his blood squeezing in repetition through his heart and pumping with a strong life force. Then she opened her eyes. His wheezing stopped. His breaths steadied.

Ben just stared at her. "You're amazing."

"I don't feel like it's my power. I feel it's something inside me guiding me."

"Perhaps you are the future. Did you ever think of that? You are what we humans can aspire to be. To find our powers deep inside and use them for good. To be better than what we are. Perhaps it's our fate the Elyon people come here. Maybe in a way they could be our salvation too."

"Perhaps." It was hard for Laura to grasp such a colossal idea, one that spanned galaxies and changed the idea of creation itself. They both looked down at Mr. B who now had a smile on his face.

"It's good to wonder that the world might become a place full of hope and peace, not evil." Laura picked up a pad and pen on the bedside table. "Just a note." She folded it and placed it next to Mr. B's hands.

Ben took her hand. "Let's go home."

The word home sounded so funny to Laura. She hadn't had a home in a long, long time. Mr. B had been her only family left to call home. And now Ben was here, calling it home as well. It seemed so unreal they could ever hope to live a normal life. What did their future hold? She took his hand. It felt so warm and strong in hers. She looked back at Mr. B, drawing his face in her brain. She didn't know if she'd ever see him again.