Fear of God (Trials of Strength Book 1) (20 page)

We didn’t need
to, any minute she would be there. As if in prayer, three beeps
echoed through the streets.
Anna.
A tank truck, filled with oil, skidded round the
end of the street, crushing bodies and lurching from the ones that
already littered the ground as it crashed towards us, Anna at the
wheel.

‘
Move!’ I
screamed at our group. ‘Get to the sides!’

They tried, shooting and
slicing, clearing a path away from the long truck coming towards
them. The vehicle let out another beep, but this time it didn’t
end. The creatures shrieked in pain, even with the control I had
over my senses, the sound was excruciating. They flew at it, trying
to grab hold and silence the sound as Anna mowed them down. One of
the attackers struck the side, tore the metal and oil burst from
the hole, showering the monsters.

The truck however, wasn’t
moving well. It bounced and crushed mounds of bodies and lurched
every time a super-powered resident hit it. Then it tipped. I heard
Anna scream as the massive metal tank jumped into the air and
landed on its side. I raced for it.

The creatures piled on
the metal, soaked with oil and tried to reach the incessant howl of
the horn. I cut through the packs in their distraction and reached
the overturned drivers side. I smashed the pane of glass in front,
and dragged an unconscious Anna from the seat, blood slid down her
forehead. I lifted her and ran.

We almost reached Chris,
the monsters too occupied by the pain and sound to notice. It was
time to cause the distraction we needed, and leave. Chris chucked
his gun towards me, and I caught it and opened fire on the
tanker.

Nothing
happened.

‘
Try and hit
the metal!’ Chris shouted. ‘More shots, we need a spark! This ain’t
Hollywood!’

I did as he asked. I shot
once, twice-

We weren’t far enough
away.

The force and heat of the
explosion ripped through the air, lifting Anna and I off the
ground. Luckily though I smacked into the concrete first, and
Anna’s fall was cushioned. It was like the screaming was abruptly
cut off, there was still some, but our plan for the most part had
worked. Arms and legs drifted back to the ground, and our group
gathered together. We kept a safe distance from the blast, but the
carnage was easy to see.

A few of the creatures
staggered aimlessly around, some even on fire, but Chris gathered a
few men and women and took them out. I stood, hefted Anna’s shallow
breathing body and watched as the creatures who had kept us in the
dark burned.

Our group hadn’t fared
well though. There was half as many of us only slightly hurt and
even more who had wounds oozing blood and were as white as
snow.

‘
I doubt
that’s them all,’ Chris returned, his face spattered with blood.
‘But it’s a damn good chunk of them.’

‘
Let’s just
hope it was enough,’ I replied. ‘And let’s hope it was enough of a
sign to move my Dad’s men.’

Chris laughed. ‘They are
going to be freaking out, don’t worry. After that they’ll fly back,
to here, to your father.’

On cue, a double-decker
bus pulled up by our group. Paul, his son, and the other man,
jumped from it.

‘
Holy shit!’
Paul shouted and jogged over.

‘
Did they
move?’ I cut him off.

‘
They weren’t
there,’ Paul said as he stared at the flames and chaos. ‘At least
not that we could tell.’

‘
What?’ Chris
asked.

‘
We scouted
the place you said was bomb free, and no one’s there, after that we
got the bus like you said,’ Paul breathed. ‘Are we
going?’

Chris nodded, and Paul
and some able survivors started to help the wounded onto the bus. I
turned to Chris and handed him Anna.

‘
What are you
doing?’ Chris asked, but he knew the answer.

‘
I’m not done
here,’ I replied anyway. ‘I have one final meeting with my
father.’

Chris nodded.

‘
Take care of
her,’ I said, kissing Anna’s cheek as I said, ‘I’ll be back for
you.’

With that I turned,
headed for the opening we had sprung from not too long ago. It was
surrounded with blood and fire as I descended back into
hell.

The
Sibling

I had no idea how I would
find him, but I decided to start with the place we met last. I made
my way to where Anna had roused me from sleep to lead me to him,
and decided to try and trace the steps we took. I didn’t have to
though. I entered the room, small stains of blood still on the wall
I had attacked. Although unlike before, a black arrow, eerily
similar to the ones that had led me to my mother, had been painted
on the wall.

I ignored my heart as it
pounded and followed the arrows through the tunnels. I let my
thoughts drift and hoped the rest made it out. I didn’t like that
after all this time of defending the exits my father’s men were
gone. That aside, I couldn’t leave yet, I wanted
answers.

I turned a corner and at
the end of the tunnel light poured through the room beyond. I
entered the large room with the glass balcony halfway up the wall
and the pipes that grouped together and finished by its sides,
powering the place. My mother rattled against her chains
underneath, desperate to tear me to pieces. I winced.

From the blindingly white
room a shadow crept across the floor, and my father stood, smiling
down at me. I wanted to scream.

‘
Welcome
again, son,’ Richard beamed. ‘I barely recognise you.’

I doubt he was talking of
the blood that stained almost every inch of me.

‘
What did you
do?’ I asked through clenched teeth.

He laughed and started to
pace. His hand found his chin as he thought of what to say. I
wanted to throw the blade in my hand at him, to take the gun Chris
had tossed me and fire through the glass at his head. Everyone that
had died had died because of this man and his sick mind. I had been
changed out of a disturbed new idea for experimentation.

‘
Well, I guess
it’s time,’ Richard chuckled. ‘You’ve already succeeded. Everything
went according to plan.’

‘
What did you
do!?’ I shouted.

‘
I gave you a
gift, I did this for you,’ he pleaded, eyes bright. ‘Look at you,
you’re strong and fast and
unstoppable.
The old skin shrugged
off.’

‘
You call this
a gift?’ I gasped. ‘Killing innocent people, destroying families
and lives? And for what? You turned this town into an unstable
slaughterhouse!’

He waved his hand in a
dismissive gesture.

‘
I set this
mundane town free, I did it all to give you what you have now,’ he
replied and I bristled.

‘
Don’t you
dare pin this on me,’ I growled. “Now tell me what did you do?
Don’t make me ask again.’

He laughed,
but not to mock me, he
believed
me.

‘
Brilliant!
Ha!’ Richard said. ‘Well, the government way back when wanted
something simple, well, simple to them that is, stronger soldiers,
better soldiers, fast and efficient and, as I said,
unstoppable.’

I waited as he let that
sink in.

‘
Now that’s
not as simple as it sounds. There is almost no way to meet those
demands without changing the body, at least at a genetic level,’ he
beamed. ‘And that’s exactly what we did. We began to work on
altering DNA, changing it, making it better and making
us
better!’

‘
I don’t
understand. You changed my DNA?’ I asked.

‘
Yes!’ he
exclaimed. ‘We managed to isolate key points of change, change that
allowed the subject strength and speed, advanced senses and
accelerated healing. The perfect combination of attributes that
made the subject deadly, but, unfortunately, there were some
problems.’

‘
Problems?’ I
said with venom.

‘
Yes,’ Richard
sighed. ‘When we started human testing before I moved to Greystone,
it changed the subjects.’

‘
Like it
changed those in town?’ I growled.

He nodded, as if saddened
not for the lives he’d taken, but only for the fact his precious
work had failed.

‘
The drug we
created to inject into humans was problematic,’ Richard sighed.
‘There were two factors to take into account: The body and the
mind.’

‘
Explain,’ I
said.

‘
First the
body,’ my father continued. ‘Too little of the drug, and it’s
diluted, useless. Too much and it’s like an overdose, the subject
has no time to adapt.’

I shook my head in
disbelief, but my father assumed I still didn’t
understand.

‘
Add in a
subject’s mind,’ Richard said, ‘and both become strong allies. It
leaves the subject fighting the drug for control, to be dominant,
and it turns the subject’s body into a warzone.’

I shivered at the memory
of changing. The flames that burst through my veins and the pain,
the way I couldn’t focus or remember and my senses couldn’t be
controlled. I’d wanted nothing more than to make it stop, to make
anything that made sound stop and anyone who wasn’t suffering to
share the same pain I did.

‘
What happens
to them if neither the drug nor subject wins?’ I asked.

‘
It’s obvious.
The body can only handle so much. It burns out and dies,’ he said
casually.

I closed my
eyes.

‘
Why didn’t
that happen to me?’ I asked. The question hitched in my
throat.

‘
We began an
experiment when your mother and I moved to this town while she was
pregnant with you, predicting that the government wouldn’t be happy
with these
mistakes
,’ Richard beamed. ‘When we had you, I knew you’d be the one I
could work on. The blank slate.’

‘
You sick
bastard!’ I shouted.

‘
We tried to
work out how to fix the two factors,’ he continued as if I hadn’t
spoken. ‘We started to administer the drug slowly, little amounts
at a time. Sadly the end result was the same, but the body resisted
less, the subject’s DNA changed but they still were unable to
adapt. It’s the mind that causes the greatest barriers.’

My mother’s chains
rattled in the silence.

‘
Mind over
matter is what we needed. And that is what we began. You see people
live their lives facing countless problems, stress, failure,
uncertainty. They love, break up and hurt, and each time, when they
recover, they build walls up against the world,’ he said. ‘They
believe they become stronger, but in actuality they shut off their
mind from the world and render themselves useless. This, in turn,
causes them to reject change.’

‘
And me?’ I
whispered.

‘
We kept you
sheltered,’ my father replied. ‘You faced little problems as you
grew up, a loving mother, stable home. But you see that is the flip
side. Without life’s challenges the mind has no defences against
the change and it overwhelms it, again, rendering the subject
useless. Trust me we tried, with adults, men and women and
children, each to failure.’

I wanted to throw
up.

‘
A few months
back we set in motion our biggest experiment, you, Subject 17,’ he
smiled. ‘We threw you from a predictable little life into the
frying pan, watched as you built those invisible walls, and during
their upbringing, injected you with a final dose.’

I understood what he said
to some extent. The drug altered DNA for the better, granted us
these heightened attributes. The problem was that it was foreign to
the body, and the mind, with its metaphorical walls that helped
people adapt to the hardships in life, rejected it. Or those that
led the bored and predictable lives I had once cherished were too
weak to adapt. To rectify this, they created the changes that
rocked the foundations of my town, because of me, their test
subject.

‘
And look at
you now, you accepted the change. It was perfect. Too complacent in
life and it overwhelms you, too defended against life and it is
rejected,’ Richard continued ecstatic. ‘But caught in the middle,
caught in the balance, and the mind accepts the change to survive!
It strengthens you!’

I lowered my head and
closed my eyes. I tried to breathe evenly but the air felt thick
and sharp, sending pains through my heart.

‘
That still
doesn’t explain why I am the only one to adapt,’ I shook my head,
‘what about the other people in town with boring lives that were
thrown into this hell?’

‘
They didn’t
have my particular interest,’ he sighed, tired of explaining. ‘We
injected you every now and again, readying your body for when our
trials started. Then we used massive amounts of the drug on the
town. You were prepared, they weren’t. Yes, if I’d focused on them,
it may have worked, but it’s
you
I needed. I created all your trials throughout,
and you survived, you
want
to live. Your mind is allowing you to.’