The Immortal Harvest (30 page)

Oppenheimer laughed again as he wedged his foot into Michael’s side and propelled the seemingly lifeless body into the wormhole.

He ignored the wailing protest from the Doctor and touched the side of his head to activate his neural net communicator.

“It’s done, send in the drones and level this place!”

Oppenheimer strode to the Traverser console and set the power to maximum and quickly moved towards the door.

“It’s been a pleasure Doctor Becker, enjoy the last few minutes of your life. I will think of you in a few hundred years from now and smile as I remember how pathetic and defeated you looked.”

“Oppenheimer, you bastard, you promised to release me!”

“Sorry Doctor Becker – I lied!”

With that said Oppenheimer did not wait for a reply, he quickly left the laboratory complex and smiled as he watched the fleet of drones move in for the kill.

Susan smiled as she surveyed the end result of a single day of labour. After her team had worked all night with a lot of her World’s technological wizardry, the derelict building that she had selected was at last completed and already operational.

The soup kitchen was capable of producing three hundred meals a day. She was astounded that there were so many homeless people, so many unfortunates,
so many sources of fresh organs,
she thought as she strolled through the dining hall. She marvelled at the sheer brilliance of her Father’s plan.

The complex was a masterpiece. At street level the homeless were lured in by the promise of a free meal, a shower and a warm bed.

Those unfortunates who took a shower were doused with a potent sedative. It was a wash they would never remember.

Below the kitchens and dining halls, connected via a freight elevator, was the new organ storage facility. Below that level was the new home for the Traverser.

Susan had just entered the freight elevator to inspect the organ storage facility when she observed the tell tale flashing red light in her peripheral vision.

She was surprised that her Father would contact her via her neural net, she frowned. Such a call could only mean bad news.

She tapped the side of her head and connected the call.

“Father, what is it? What’s wrong?”

She waited several seconds for the reply. The effects of dementia were beginning to interfere with her Father’s neural pathways.

“Susan, it’s done. I’ve shut down our enemy.”

“You have neutralised the RTD movement?”

“Yes I have cut the head off the beast and eliminated the mutant. We are free to proceed unhindered. Begin sending through the organs, we are ready to receive them.”

“Excellent Father, you can expect the first batch through within the hour. What do you want me to do with our original facility?”

“It is an inefficient use of resources, I have shut it down.”

“But what of our people, do you want me to send them back?”

“No. They have served their purpose; they are of no further use. Everyone with a TDI in the hospital will self destruct and obliterate the entire facility. It will be an illustrious sacrifice for our cause.”

Susan could sense a change in her Father. She knew that her Father was in the early stages of dementia, but now she sensed a darkness within him that was growing.

She had an overwhelming sense of dread. She urgently wanted to sever the connection before she was consumed by her Father’s insanity.

“I’m sorry Father, I have to go and attend to your organ shipment.”

Susan tapped the side of her head and shut down the link to her Father. She felt troubled by her Father’s complete lack of compassion for the men and women of her Earth that were working towards the common goal of Mundus Nova. She tried to push the feelings toward the back of her mind and reassured herself that her Father had a plan.

She was greeted by the Storeman as soon as the doors of the freight elevator opened.

“Good, I have had my orders. I want the first shipment packed and ready to be despatched through the Traverser within the hour.”

She watched as the Storeman nodded in acknowledgement and then turned to carry out his task.

Susan rubbed the lump on the back of her neck and wished that she was the one being sent through the Traverser.

She suddenly felt an urgent need to leave this fucked up planet and get back to her Father. She knew he needed her, she could help him to subdue the ravaging effects of his disability and if necessary take over from him as the head of Mundus Nova before his insanity became uncontrollable, …before he decided that she
was of no further use
.

Once Sylvan had freed the people from the wards surrounding hers, she led them out of the hospital building and told them get as far away from the hospital as possible.

She told them to alert the authorities as soon as they could. She had to tell them to tell the Police, or whoever they called, that there was a terrorist threat.

She knew that if they were to tell them what was really going on they would not be believed. They were homeless people; they were the unwanted dregs of society.

Who would believe them?
She thought as she stopped to catch her breath.

Her mind suddenly flashed an image of Justen and she realised what she had being trying to do before she had passed out and woke up in that horrible hospital. She had been trying to find Justen. Suddenly a terrifying thought crossed her mind.

Why were Justen and Crystal missing? What if they had been picked up as well?

She turned to face the house of horrors that she had just escaped from and inhaled deeply. She knew that she had to go back. She had to know for sure that the monsters had not taken her son and her friend.

She decided the best course of action would be to retrace her steps and enter the hospital at the same place she had left it.

She had not encountered any of the hospital staff during their escape. Perhaps they had been fortunate enough to have found an unused part of the hospital.

I guess there’s only one way to find out
, she thought as she made her way back onto the hospital grounds.

The land surrounding the hospital was leafy parkland with rusted benches and cracked pathways.

The overgrown lawn was covered with various pieces of litter and leaves swept around by the force of the steadily increasing bitter wind which was pushed ahead of an encroaching storm.

She shivered as she moved stealthily from tree to tree, cognisant of being noticed by someone through one of the many hospital windows.

She felt a bit calmer realising that most of the windows were shuttered or so completely covered in filth that any accidental sighting of her would have been hindered.

She made sure that there was no one around when she entered through the rear fire exit doors of the hospital that led to the Morgue.

Luckily the rusted hinges had left them ajar after she had initially exited the building.

Once inside, the first thing that she noticed was that the fire alarm sirens had been silenced. She didn’t like that, she knew that at least while there was a lot of noise and distractions she could remain undetected. This fact had helped the exodus. She knew that she would have to be a lot more careful.

She tried not to feel overwhelmed by the fact that the hospital was a large place and it would almost be a miracle if she found Justen and Crystal. It’s not like she could just ask someone.

Sylvan involuntarily shivered again as she crept past the stainless steel vaults which housed the deceased.

In her rush to leave she had not noticed the dozens of gurneys that had corpses laid out on them, covered with blood stained light blue sheets. The tang of death struck her nostrils like a razor. Her stomach heaved and she fought the urge to vomit.

She began to panic as the blood drained from her face and a wave of nausea swept through her.

Her flight instincts struck her and she made a beeline for the door.

She was just about to exit the Morgue when she heard approaching footsteps. She tried not to panic further, and looked around the room for somewhere to hide. She spied an empty gurney and rushed to it, covering herself with the sheet just before the unknown people entered.

She held her breath and tried to remain perfectly still.

From the noises and voices, she could tell that there were two people. They were grunting like they were exerting themselves.

She remained perfectly still and hoped that they would do what they came there to do and then leave.

She heard their voices; loud like they were right next to her. She could also hear her own heartbeat beating out an increasing tempo.

“I can’t believe Stringer would kill one of his own. What an arsehole!”

“I’d be very careful if I were you. He’s a psychopath. He warned you not to mention that he was here.”

“Yeah, yeah, he doesn’t scare me. Anyway who’s gonna tell anyone, these gutless corpses?”

“Those are brave words from a man who almost pissed himself when he killed old Charlie here.”

“You’re not kidding; I wouldn’t want to be that Peters woman, or her kid.”

“I wouldn’t worry about that; those two would already be carved up by now. How about we toss Charlie in the freezer and get the hell out of here. I need a coffee.”

“Ok sounds great, it’s your shout anyway.”

Sylvan waited until she was sure that they had left the Morgue before she carefully pulled the sheet off herself and sat up.

She was shaking uncontrollably. She was terrified by the realisation that she and Justen were being pursued by some psychopath called ‘Stringer’.

However, there was some consolation in knowing that Justen was definitely somewhere in the hospital. She just had to find him.

She quietly opened the door to the Morgue and peered down the long corridor which led back to the elevators she had taken to flee the hospital with the other victims.

Subconsciously she felt in the pocket of her Lab coat for the two syringes that the FBI agent had given her.

Since her escape from the hospital had been unhindered she did not need to use them. Now her circumstances had changed. She wished that the syringes were a more substantial weapon.

Oh well, they’ll just have to do
, she thought as she quietly crept up the corridor towards the elevators.

She could feel a trickle of cold sweat run down her back as the adrenalin coursed through her.

She approached the elevators cautiously and pressed the ‘up’ button and then waited patiently for the elevator to arrive at her floor. She faced away from the doors and peered left and right, up and down the corridor and listened for any noises or signs of anyone approaching.

She heard the distinctive
ding
of the elevator as it arrived; she turned around and then froze when the doors opened and she was confronted by a group of people in white Lab coats like hers. They were all talking excitedly and did not seem to notice her.

Crap
, she thought as she kept her head down and entered the elevator. She tried not to look at any of them. She nervously fumbled with the syringes in her pocket and realised that they would be useless as there were four of them and she only had two syringes.

She mumbled “Excuse me,” and moved to the rear of the elevator. She kept her head down and tried to blend in as best she could as she listened quietly to their conversations.

“I can’t understand it, my TDI is not responding except for a red flash in my peripherals, it’s as if it’s been disabled somehow,” said one of the two young female interns in the group.

“Yes, I know, mine is the same, there’s been too much strange shit happening. First all of those power glitches, then one of the Doctors are murdered, then the fire alarm and now this!” Exclaimed the much older male intern who was at the front of the elevator and who Sylvan thought was staring directly at her. She could almost feel his stare.

“I don’t want to be trapped in this shit hole. We have to find out what’s going on. Because our neural net is down, we are going to have to find Doctor Argyle and get him to tell us what’s going on,” said the older intern who seemed to be the leader of the group.

Sylvan felt the elevator come to a stop and the heard the familiar
ding
again. She looked up just as the doors opened and the group moved to exit. She waited for them to leave and breathed a sigh of relief when the doors started to close again.

She was just about to relax when a hand suddenly grabbed the door and held it open. It was the older intern. He looked at Sylvan and said gruffly.

“Hey Blondie are you coming or not? Come on we don’t have all day”, he said as he turned and started walking away up the hallway towards the rest of the group who had disappeared through an exit door.

Shit! I’m screwed
, thought Sylvan as she reluctantly followed the intern out of the elevator. She knew that she had to act quickly and felt for one of the syringes in her lab coat pocket.

She grasped the syringe firmly in her hand and then with enormous effort, lunged at the intern who was a few paces ahead of her and plunged the needle into his back.

“Oww! What the…”, the intern exclaimed as he first tried to reach behind his back to find the source of the pain, but then collapsed face first onto the floor as the anaesthetic did its job.

Seizing her opportunity, Sylvan turned and ran back to the elevator and entered it just before the doors closed. Shaking all over, she exhaled a long breath as she slumped to the floor.

Her body was still recuperating from the trauma she had recently received and with the adrenalin levels declining; she suddenly started to feel the dull aches and pains.

She felt the elevator begin to descend – she had no idea where she was going.

By the time the FBI team had arrived at the neighbourhood of Ms Crystal Meth, the sky had started to darken.

Lewiston hunched his shoulders as a chilly blast of air swept up the seemingly abandoned street.

He stood beside Lisa and waited for the other two FBI agents to park their van. He noticed that they seemed to be taking their time leaving their vehicle and glanced at Lisa to see if she too had noticed the delay. She seemed nonplussed so he said nothing.