Chapter 13

Lady Luck finally decided to smile on us for a change. The research facility is actually on the outer city limits on our side of the city. No going through downtown Ottawa and fighting our way through inevitable hordes of leeches and whatever other crazy crawlies lurk in the alleyways and abandoned buildings. About damn time Luck stopped being such a bitch.

Doc H is finally able to pick up transmissions from the facility, and with their radio help we easily find the side street leading to it. The trees are thick on the overgrown lane, broken only where the road runs through them. The branches over our heads meet like a canopy, creaking and rustling with movement and adding to the creepy vibe already emanating from the dark woods surrounding us. It feels like we're entering some freaky-deaky cave, and it doesn’t help that I can't get Sam's weird actions from earlier out of my head. Sunlight shimmering through the occasional openings throws moving shadows that I catch in my peripheral, adding to the unease. By the time we finally emerge out of the trees and into a clearing, my frayed nerves are at their snapping point.

The clearing is dominated by a ten-foot-high brick wall, overgrown with weeds and ivy, enhancing the look of abandonment. If they've tried to stay unnoticed over the years, I think they've succeeded. There's nothing to indicate the research going on beyond that wall and no sign of life whatsoever. Other than the watchful eyes of the two guards peering through the rusted iron gate at our arrival, you would think this place was given up on long ago.

As we crowd the gate, the two men become more discernible through the foliage.

“You the hotel bunch the docs inside been waiting for?” one asks, and I fight the urge to laugh at the stupid question.

How does he expect us to answer that? No. We're some other crazy, bike riding, cross country traveling idiots just here for a neighborly visit. It's what I want to say, but I bite my lip and let Doc Howarth do the talking.

“Yes. We're here at Doctor Kasina's invitation. May we come in?” Doc H asks.

“What's your names?”

“Doctors Howarth and Wicker.”

The two guards give us the once over with weary eyes. One grunts at the other. Must be a command grunt since the guy starts unlocking the rusted gate and pulling it open. It screams in protest like it hasn't been opened in quite a long time and prefers not to be now. I wonder to myself how long this bunch has been cooped up in here? By the look of the two guards as we pass by, I'm thinking a long time. They look as old as Moses and have matching chest length beards to boot. Not quite sure if they were put at the gate for protection or if they are actually overgrown lawn gnomes. The army fatigues they wear look worn and threadbare in spots but clean. They may not be the most intimidating guards, but at least they appear to have good hygiene.

“Glad to see you made it in one piece,” gnome one grunts at us with a hoarse voice typically associated with a lifetime smoker. “Kasina and the others are waiting for you inside. Head up the lane a bit further. We'll let the house guards know you're coming.”

The lane is just a worn-down foot path through the hip high garden of dry grass and sticky burrs. I sigh as I watch Scruff run through the grass with complete disregard for the stickers that are clinging to his fur like shit now. Those are going to be a bitch to get out. Stupid animal.

It isn't long until the research facility comes into view. The building appears to be more wide than high. Only two stories but spread out with a long center core and two ninety-degree wings on either side. Basically, a giant H. It’s a nondescript beige color with concave, reflective windows covering the second floor and hiding the many pairs of eyes more than likely watching our approach at the moment.

Four more grizzled guards stand at the steel enforced doors, although they don't appear to be as old as gnome one and two. At least these guys have attempted to keep their scraggly beards down to a short fuzz. One raises a hand in greeting as he takes the couple of steps down to meet us.

“Welcome, peeps. Glad to see you made it. I'm Barclay. Leave your bikes and supplies with the boys here; they'll take care of everything. I'll show you the way to the lab where Kasina is waiting for you. She's eager to see you.”

Nothing like getting down to business. These boys don’t waste any time.

Luke’s smile at the guard is friendly enough, but I can tell his brain is working overtime.

“No offense, Barclay, but we were promised supplies in exchange for the ones we've brought you. And while I'm sure your people can handle the exchange no issue, I'd like to have some of my own guys along on that.”

Barclay nods his shaved head. “Understandable.”

“Glad you see it our way. Robyn, Mike, and Kelly want to give these guys a hand with the supplies? Take stock of what we're getting in exchange? The rest of us will make nice with the locals.”

We split up on command, half of the crew following Barclay's men while the rest of us are herded like sheep inside. The once white-and-beige tiled floor is now stained and caked with dirt after years of foot traffic, and the air is stale with body odor. The hallway must house the resident’s rooms since doors open at our procession and heads poke out to stare at us in curiosity. Some of the people smile a greeting. Others just watch us with the distrust associated with this shit world we now live in. I don't blame them. I'm pretty sure my look is reflective of theirs.

We're hustled an impressive distance through a couple more hallways and up a flight of stairs. The higher floor, although identical in appearance to the one below, appears to be a bit cleaner. Not as much traffic up here, I assume. The Barclay dude leads us through until this hallway terminates with a set of armor-plated glass doors. He stops and actually swipes an ID card to get the doors to open. Seriously? Even after all the world has been through, they still have locked doors here? Don't they trust each other after all this time? The motion, while innocent I'm sure, kind of puts me on the uneasy side of the fence. Why do they feel the need to have locked doors inside the building?

There are about half a dozen people in the room we now find ourselves in. No mistaking it. This is the lab. Well, I mean, it looks like a lab. It has all the right equipment and gizmos. Not like I'm an expert in lab equipment, but it looks legit to me. The people, however, look as far as removed from scientists as you can get. I was expecting fuzzy, gray-haired little geeks with glasses and lab coats. These people are dressed in casual tie-dyed shirts, jeans, and sandals. Not a white lab coat to be seen. They look more like a hippie commune than scientists. At our intrusion, a blonde in her late forties looks up from the papers she’s studying and smiles at us all warmly.

“Jules,” she gushes as she steps toward Howarth and embraces him in a very familiar way. Doc H said they worked together, but from the way he's smiling at her right now, I think the relationship was a little more intimate than a work one. Who would have thought Doc H was a player in the day?

“Ellen,” he returns the embrace before she finally steps back and checks him over, still grasping his forearms.

“It is so good to see you after all these years. And I'm so glad you made it safe and sound. All of you.” She smiles our way as Doc H does the official introduction.

“People, meet Doctor Ellen Kasina. Ellen, Roger here I think you know. The rest of them...well they are the reason I am still alive right now.”

He goes on to introduce us one at a time. I doubt if she'll remember all the names, but she beams at us like we're her new best friends. I like her vibe right away.

“Thank you all for getting Jules and Roger here alive and well. I truly believe our collaboration will be crucial in uncovering that elusive link to figuring out our enemy’s weakness.”

I almost smile at that. I think it's damn funny she thinks they have a weakness.

“You brought every bit of your research?” She questions Doc H again, and he holds up his battered leather satchel he's been guarding closely since leaving the Grand.

“Everything is in here.”

She claps her hands. “Wonderful. I can't wait to compare it with ours. The whole lab has been in a tizzy since finding out about your arrival.”

A tizzy? Who the hell says that anymore?

“But no work talk yet. You must all be starving. Come. We have some refreshments waiting for you in the cafeteria.”

Now she's talking. She takes no more than two steps before Doc Roger stops her with a hand to the shoulder.

“First things first. Have you destroyed the building of pods you found?” All of our heads swivel his way in disbelief. Did I hear him correctly? They found a nest of pods, and no one told us? When? Where? And most importantly, have they already hatched? Is there an army of those things crawling over the woods as we speak?

“What the hell, people? You didn't think to mention that to us before?” Luke demands, and I can see the vein popping in his neck. He's pissed.

Kasina can tell as well. Her smile is conciliatory. “Don't worry. The pods have been destroyed and the threat contained.”

Whew. The tension eases from my neck at her words, though I can tell Luke is not appeased. That is kind of a huge fucking secret to be keeping from us. What else have they not told us? Luke seems to be thinking along the same lines since he asks that very thing.

“Anything else we should know? Have you seen any presence of the hybrids in this area? If there are other pods around, they may have birthed.” He glares at the two docs who had accompanied us. “Not something you should have kept from us on our travels. One thing you two should realize by now...secrets get us killed. Understood?”

The two docs stand chastised like little kids, and I squirm right alongside them since I know Luke's words are aimed at me as well.

“About those refreshments?” I try to change the subject. Talking about secrets and getting killed kind of makes one uncomfortable.

Doc Kasina sighs as she stares at Luke. I don't like that sigh. I've had that same look on my face before when pressured by Luke. It's an admission of guilt and acknowledgment, and I know those refreshments aren't coming anytime soon.

“You're right, young man. I apologize on behalf of my brethren. I asked them not to mention the pods since I didn't want them destroyed until we had a chance to study them in their metamorphosis stage. We did get some amazing results from that study. Something I'm eager to show you all, and I guess now is just as good a time as any. This way.”

We follow the blonde scientist past the curious eyes of her staff and through a side door, which leads into another smaller room with a gurney in the center. It's flanked on either side with tables loaded with surgical instruments: heart monitors, IV stands, and shit I don't recognize. Don't know why, but the sight of this room terrifies me. I get the feeling things went on here that we don’t want to know about.

We pass by four metal doors, stopping at a fifth one at the end of the room. While the area we’re in is lit up like a Christmas tree, this room appears to be in darkness since no light lies beyond the circular glass window in the door. There’s no handle, only the key card slot that Kasina swipes with the card hanging from her hip. The door opens with a soft whoosh. She smiles over her shoulder at us as she disappears inside. Doc H and Doc Roger follow without question. Even though I'm next in line, I hesitate. There's something about this I don't like. I glance back, past Dom and Gordon, searching instinctively for Luke and his reassurance. Instead my eyes fall on Sam, who's looking more uneasy than I am. In fact, he looks downright unstable. His eyes roll widely back and forth, and his face gleams with sweat in the glow from the fluorescent light above our heads.

“Come in,” Kasina's disembodied voice floats on the darkness, but I step out of the way and let the others pass.

Luke pauses as he reaches my side, but I wave him on with a muttered, “I'm waiting for Sam.” It does the trick, and he stiffens as he brushes by me.

“Sam?” I question quietly as I take his arm. “You okay?”

He wipes a shaky hand across his brow. “Yeah, I'm fine. Just had a bad moment...but it's passed now.”

I know he's lying. I can feel him trembling under my hand, but I don't question his lie. I simply wrap his fingers in mine as we enter the room.

The room isn't in total darkness like I’d first thought. A small glow emanates from the monitors lining the left side of the room, and I study them with curious eyes. They hum with activity but what exactly are they monitoring? There's nothing in the room.

“Are we supposed to be seeing something here?” Dom sounds as irritated as I'm feeling.

“Oh yes,” Kasina answers as she flips a light switch, illuminating a glass enclosure immediately on my right. The distorted face of a hybrid slams against the glass; its teeth bared and snapping.

“Jesus!” I scream as I bolt backwards and stumble into Sam. My yell is matched by a couple of girly screams that I don't think came from the other female in the room.

“What the fuck? You couldn't warn us first?” My anger outweighs my fright as I finally realize the thing is enclosed behind the glass. Still. What the hell was she trying to prove with that dick move?

“Sorry,” she says. “I didn't think it would be awake yet. Or this agitated.”

Agitated? The thing is fucking pissed, but that doesn't seem to bother the blonde doc as she walks toward the glass cell and stares at the creature. The hybrid’s one hand splayed against the glass appears normal, very much a human hand. But the other that swipes at the doc repeatedly, has talons that screech across the glass with a jarring squeal that reverberates down my spine. If the glass hadn't been between them, Kasina's head would be rolling across the floor right now like some beach ball. Unlike the other hybrids we encountered; however, the dark male face that stares out at us now looks to be more on the human side. Very unsettling. But the mouth is weirdly distorted, and the teeth that are showing are leech teeth all right. The razor-like incisors are twice the size of a human’s and snap at us with intensity. Hatred, almost. Like it wanted nothing more than to get at us and tear us to shreds.

Kasina studies the creature, head cocked to the side. “Fascinating. I haven't seen it this riled up since it first birthed.”

What the hell is it with these docs and their fascination with these creatures? There's nothing fascinating with their ability to rip us apart at will. I don't get it.

“Why do you have that here? You told us when we spoke weeks ago that you had no idea of these hybrids. You lied to us?” Doc H questions, and his voice is a combination of disbelief and outrage.

“Lied? No. We didn't have any idea that this was even possible. Not until you told us about the rapid macroevolutionary change that occurred with your test subjects that we got the idea to carry out our own set of experiments. So before we destroyed the hive, we brought pods back to study. Like you did, Jules. The opportunity was too perfect to overlook. We had to see for ourselves. We took your research and improvised on it. While it took your test subjects weeks to mutate and change, ours only took days. We aren't sure why. Maybe the pods were at a more advanced stage of their evolution?”

Wait. What? Did she just say subjects? As in plural? I glance over my shoulder nervously, expecting another damned creature to sidle out of the dark corner.

“Subjects?” Luke asks. His tone is as hard as the look he gives Kasina. “There's only one in there. Where are the others?”

“Other. We only tested two. The second didn't survive. Its transformation was more accelerated than this one. I don't believe its human host was able to sustain the rapid modifications its body was undergoing.”

“So your testing killed it?” Now that's interesting. Kasina merely shrugs at my question. Either she isn't sure or doesn't want to answer me.

“You damn well know what happened to us at St. Joseph’s by meddling with these creatures. Are you insane?” Doc H's face flushes with anger.

“We are well aware what happened to your people, Jules. Trust me when I say we took every precaution to ensure our safety.”

Uh-huh. So did the builders of the Titanic, and we all know how that ended.

She smiles at Doc H and places her hand on his arm again. Her use of feminine wiles to calm him down seems to work. His stiff shoulders relax at her touch. Stupid man.

“We did uncover something astonishing before its sibling died, however. Multiple testing, experimenting, and observation all led us to the same conclusion. The mutations seemed to have nonverbal communication, yet total physical awareness of each other. They were kept in separate cells with different outside variables, yet homeostasis remained the same despite the opposing environments. Whatever test one was undergoing, the other experienced it and reacted in the same way. If one was being fed, the other keened with eagerness. If one was in...pain,” she stumbles on the word and glances our way like she's ashamed of admitting they tortured the creatures. No wonder the one in the cage hates us. “The other wailed with pain and produced the same readings. One would act with a certain mannerism, and the other emulated it almost simultaneously. It appeared to us that they were acting as a single organism.”

“Soooo, you think they had a psychic link?” Dom asks and I snort at his question. A psychic link? That's just plain stupid.

“No, not psychic. You are all aware of our shared belief that these invaders have a hive mind similar to bees, yes?” She indicates to the two docs on her left, and I recall their referring to the leeches as worker bees and the new hybrids as the queen bees. I nod along with the rest of my crew. Kasina folds her hands and takes a deep breath. “How do I explain this?” She pauses, her furrowed brow indicative of her attempt to possibly offer her ideas in a way we can understand. To dumb it down for us.

“From observing these creatures, we believe that they possess a collective sentience, where all the individual multi-cellular organisms in the hive share the same genes. This causes each individual of the hive to act as a single super-organism. Whereas most singularity sentient creatures—like humans—have their own subconscious mind, these hives replace that with a superego, which acts as a collective mind, so all the creatures of the collective act as one.”

Doc H is nodding at her words, his earlier anger replaced by excitement. “Yes. Yes. We believe that as well. Our observation of the leeches and the hybrids seem to indicate that they all work together toward a single objective.”

“True, but there is more. The leeches over the years have shown us little intelligence. They seem to be made up of primordial instinct. Feed and repopulate. Typically, individual needs but they travel in packs. Work together as one. They don't come across as the masterminds behind infecting and dominating the humans. How did the humans end up at the hives? Once infected they had to have been controlled—herded if you will—to the hives. We don't believe the leeches capable of that task, so we came to the conclusion that there are 'super minds' involved. The master brain of the collective that controls each individual organism in its hive to do its bidding. Whether those super minds arrived with the invaders eight years ago or have evolved here over time, we are not sure. But we truly believe something more intelligent and dangerous than the leeches is in control.”

I look around at the rest of my crew. Did they get the same message I did? Did she just tell us that not only do we have leeches and hybrids to worry about, but also some super baddie who gets the rest to do its bidding just by putting the idea in their heads? Please tell me I heard that wrong.

“A super mind would make total sense. I can't believe we didn't think of that, Roger.”

Nope. According to Doc H, I heard it right. The alien hives each have their very own Charles Manson in charge. Great. The news just keeps getting better and better.

“So, does that mean if you take out the head honcho, you take out the hive?” I ask, hoping I don't sound ridiculously obtuse. I don't think my question is that stupid or difficult, but Kasina stares back at me like I'm speaking another language.

“I...I really didn't consider that option. Jules?” She stares at Howarth, but he doesn't get a chance to answer. At that moment, the creature decides to slam itself against the glass, making us all jump in terror.

“Maybe we should carry on this conversation outside of this room?” Luke suggests, and I couldn't agree more.

I don't want to spend another moment looking at the half-turned creature. I guess everyone agrees since they start piling out of the room without argument. All but Sam. He stands in the corner still as a mouse caught in a trap, staring at the creature with a morbid fascination. I think I'm the only one to notice thankfully, because I swear to God, the thing stares back. And not with any of the hatred or anger it projected at the rest of us. If I had to guess, I would say its look to Sam is pleading. What the fuck?

“Sam?” I question, hoping to distract him before anyone else takes notice of the creature’s odd behavior. He starts at my use of his name and turns his eyes my way.

“Yes?”

“Let’s go.”

He nods but even as he starts to walk with me, his eyes go back to the creature. Like he really can't help himself. Just like I really can't help being freaked the hell out by his peculiar behavior.