Axiom Theory: Book Four of the Shadow Series (28 page)

“Damn it!” shouted Casper. “I thought you said that
the cameras were taken care of!”

Ashley turned and shouted back over the alarm that felt as though it were piercing her
ear drums. “These must be under control from somewhere else!”

As she turned back toward the door, the crack of a gunshot cut through the alarm
and echoed off of the walls. With Destin’s arm still in her hand, she felt him fall to the floor. She tried to catch him, but as she spun another shot rang out and the concrete just to the left of her head exploded into fragments. Losing her grip on Destin, she watched him fall as she dropped to her knees. She could see the shock in his eyes and knew immediately that he’d been hit. Above her, a red light began to grow and she felt the waves of energy pressing against her flesh. She looked up to see Casper with his power ignited, and watched as bullet after bullet was deflected by his energy.

Enraged, Casper looked down the hall. Through the red light and shadows, he could make out the silhouettes of three men. He watched as the muzzle flash
es erupted in the darkness and, as each bullet collided with his energy, he stepped forward with a lust for their end. Reaching out and taking them into his grasp would be too easy; though it wouldn’t quench his desire to cause them pain. He watched as they began to back away; he’d take one step towards them and they’d take two backwards. As the first of them turned to run, he reached out to hold them. The three of them snapped together like a bundle of wheat as their weapons intermingled amongst their twisted arms and legs.

As Casper handled their attackers, Ashley cradled Destin’s head in the crook of her right arm.  He clutched his right shoulder as his
face contorted with the pain.
“Thank God,”
she thought to herself as she went to remove his hand to look at the wound. He resisted and, in order for her to hear him over the alarm, she shouted into his ear. “Let me look at it!” She grew anxious as he shook his head and continued to clutch the wound tightly. It was then that she noticed that he was hyperventilating. “You’re going to be fine!” she shouted. “Your body will heal itself pretty soon!” He stared at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Trust me!” she screamed, hoping that with the power to phase, the power to heal had developed as well.

She looked to the steel door and then turned back to Destin. “I’ll be right back!” The boy nodded his head quickly and scooted himself against the wall. He’d released his shoulder to do so and it was then that she took the opportunity to look at his wound. Lifting his t-shirt sleeve, she saw the large hole on the front side. She knew that the shot had to have gone completely through and, as she ran her fingers over the back of his shoulder, she saw a trace of blue light begin to form within the hole on the front.

With a relieved grin, she lowered the sleeve. “You’re going to be fine! I’ll be right back!”

Without any further hesitation, she stood, phased into the dead world and slipped through the steel door.
Once inside, before phasing back, she quickly scanned the room. To her left was a short wall that contained a multitude of different equipment including microscopes, centrifuges, and several other pieces that looked unfamiliar. Her heart skipped a beat as she looked to the center of the room. She immediately recognized the bank of incubators. While they weren’t identical to the one she’d taken Destin from, they were very similar. Each step forward was met with an elevated excitement, but it quickly faded as she saw that each of the five units were empty. As she glanced to her right, she caught movement in her peripheral vision on her left.

Snapping her head
back towards the left side of the room, she saw two figures in white coats huddled in the corner, each of them holding a pistol in their right hand. Her lips curled as she turned away from them to examine the rest of the room. On the back wall, behind the incubators, she saw a large number of flat screen monitors and what looked like dry-erase type boards that were made of glass. They were illuminated somehow, though she could not see the source, as the many formulas and notes that were written upon them were glowing fluorescent green and orange.

As she looked to the right, her
excitement once again began to build. There, on the far wall, were ten cylindrical tubes made out of stainless steel. Each of the tubes measured approximately twenty-four inches in diameter and forty-eight inches tall. On the front of each was a clear viewing window that took up nearly two-thirds of the face. There, floating inside of each, was an infant in various stages of growth. At first, her excitement piqued, but then it quickly faded as she stepped to the cylinders.

To the left of each was mounted what looked to be a vitals monitor. Flashing on the bottom of each and every screen was a glowing green zero. She looked closer and saw that this number signified the heart rate. In a panic, she stepped down the line and was horrified as she
discovered that each of the infants were dead.

Enraged, she turned back to the two figures huddled in the corner. Moving as fast as her thoughts, she appeared before them; the flash of light that accompanied her presence temporarily blind
ed the humans.

Her fury ignited the instant she phased
. The waves of energy streamed in every direction as a barrage of bullets dropped in front of her. She threw her hands out and ripped the weapons from the humans. As she held them in midair beneath each palm, she glowered at their previous owners. It was then that she realized one of the humans was female. She glared into her eyes as she allowed her power to rage, and watched with sadistic pleasure the fear in the human’s eyes. As the pistols began to pool into a jiggling mass of liquid in mid-air, she watched the woman cower into the male next to her.

Looking to the much older male on the left, she was delighted to see his white beard collecting tears as his panic laden eyes strained against the light that emanated from her palms. In a burst of fury,
she hurled the molten pools of steel towards the humans. Their faces caved under the force of the impact and the first drop of blood was unable to fall before their bodies even hit the floor.

Initially, the act of ending another life had satiated her anger, but as she turned to the bank of cylinders across the room, the light in her core ignited. She threw her arms forward with every ounce of strength sh
e possessed, and the cylinders exploded under the pressure, sending the primordial ooze within them in all directions.

“What the hell are you doing?”

She instinctively spun to defend herself, but lowered her arms as she saw Casper and Destin standing just inside the exterior steel door.

“They were already dead,” she said as she marched towards them. “The humans killed them. They knew we were here.”

“What? How?” asked Casper.

Not in any sort of mood for twenty questions, she tore into her brother. “I don’t know how and it doesn’t  matter!” she screamed.
Noticing the look of horror on Destin’s face, she followed his line of sight, turning towards where the bank of cylinders once stood.

On the floor was the dead body of a
n infant. While it was physically intact, its lifeless blue eyes remained open as its limbs were bent in unnatural positions. She turned back to Destin and saw that his eyes were bulged and ready to burst.

“What is this place?” he asked as his body trembled uncontrollably.

Trying to side-step the question, she gripped his shoulder and lifted his sleeve. “How’s your arm?” she asked.

When he didn’t answer, Casper replied. “While you were in here tearing shit up, he healed.”

Destin’s expression remained unchanged as his gaze remained locked on the dead infant. Frustrated, Ashley grabbed at his face, gripping his cheeks between her fingers, and turned him to her. “Snap out of it!” She waited for him to respond—to blink, to cry…anything. Instead he stared at her blankly. Spinning on her heels, she pulled him by the arm over to where the two humans lay on top of each other on the ground in the opposite corner of the room.

“Look!” she shouted. His eyes hugged the floor
at his feet. “I said LOOK!”

Destin looked up, saw the bodies, and quickly looked away.

“They did this!” said Ashley. “They killed those babies. Not me!”

Destin’s head slowly turned towards her. He didn’t know what to believe. “Why?” he asked. He could barely hear his own words as his ears were ringing from the alarm and all of the shouting.

“To keep them from us,” she replied turning to face him square.

Destin’s face wrinkled as he turned to look at Casper who had positioned himself behind him. “We came here to take these babies?”
he asked.

Ashley bent down as the lie came to her as easily as her next breath. “We came her
e to save them, Destin; just like we saved you.”

The young boy closed his eyes and shook his head from side to side. Nothing made sense and he felt like he was going mad. He opened them and a dizzy sensation rushed through him. “What…you saved
… I...” He paused and studied Ashley’s face as she spoke.

“We saved you from a place just li
ke this and from these same people. They were doing awful things to you. Tests and experiments,” she looked to Casper who rolled his eyes at her production. Though she wanted to throw him into the wall, she knew she was treading water and needing to give Destin the artifice of comfort. “We came here to save these babies, Destin, but we are too late.”

Test stood with Iku and Prim flanking him on either side. He peered through the trees on the back side of the property that housed the future Biohazard facility. Though they were three quarters to a mile away, they could see that white pipes jutted up from the concrete and the beginnings of metal framin
g were erected on the far side.

The thumping of helicopter blades echoed overhead. He waited for them to appear in his line of sight and caught himself holding his breath as they appeared. He’d seen them up close and personal before
, and the sight of them lit his internal fire.

There were soldiers everywhere, like ants swarming a mound. He found himself pitying them, wondering when they would learn their lesson. There was nothing that they could do to stop his kind. He found the pity being replaced by disgust as he realized that their
downfall was a product of their own greed and ignorance. Knowing that their goal was to make a Shadow, Test mused on the thought of how they could ever hope to control their creations when they continually failed at understanding (or containing) a Shadow’s abilities.

He watched as one of the helico
pters landed in a clear spot near them. On its side was a big red cross. He watched as two groups of men carried stretchers to the helicopter.

“It’s started,” said Iku.

Test didn’t respond, though he knew Iku was right. Anxiety began to creep into his mind. He’d thought about this moment; he’d struggled with the possible outcomes. Now that it was here, the fear of not returning to his home, to his family, was real.

“What’s your plan?” asked Prim in a cracked whisper.

Test glared ahead as the helicopter lifted from the ground. Turning to Prim, he clenched his teeth and swallowed hard. “We end this.”

Without a reply, Prim nodded.

One by one, with Test in the lead, they phased into the spirit realm. As they walked through the empty field, Test watched as the spirits of soldiers recently passed wandered aimlessly. One of the spirits watched them as they passed without saying a word; the sadness and pain on his face was palpable. Test looked away, determined to remain focused. Worrying for those already lost would do nothing for those who were about to be.

As they reached the concrete, it was odd to watch the chaotic scene in the silence of the spirit realm. A soldier’s mouth moved
, his neck muscles straining as he shouted and pointed to an opening in the center of the foundation. A group of men ran past him and Test’s heart sank as he watched them descend into the opening.

“Fools,” he whispered to himself. He turned to Prim. “You two follow me, but stay on this side. I can’t let them die.”

Prim nodded.

“What are you going to do?” asked Iku.

Test flared his arms out to his side as he looked to Iku. “I’m gonna light this place up.”

Test lowered his head and summoned the energy from within. He felt his body began to tremble as the intermediate shift began. Suddenly the sounds of the chaos filled his ears. He looked up to see the soldier that was shouting moments before aim his rifle and fire.
The bullet traveled through him harmlessly. Though his initial reaction was anger, he felt a calm confidence wash over him. He began to walk forward. The soldier continued to fire round after round until he ran out. He then retrieved a pistol from his hip and emptied it through Test as well.

As
Test closed the distance, the man finally turned to run. It was then that Test phased fully to the side of the living. As he did, he stoked the furnace hotter. Waves of energy rolled off of him as his chest and arms blazed in the late afternoon sun. Reaching out his right hand, he took the fleeing soldier into his grasp and lifted him a foot off of the ground. He could feel the man struggling, and took care not to hold him too strongly. Turning him around, he walked towards him until he was only two feet away.