The Talents of the Fallen - 35. Epilogue

Epilogue

Kate knew she was in doomed before the tournament even ended. Regardless if her plan to get rid of the Aaron brat had succeeded, the Chosen would make her endure such things that would make a quick death preferable.

Hiding in maze of sewers beneath Chicago she waited for her handler to get her out of the mess she was in. This would be the fifth day she been waiting.

Unknown to the Chosen, Kate was not an agent of the Master. Her true loyalties lay with the Order… or better put the Shadow Puppeteer who ruled over it. As a woman in the Coven her options toward obtaining promotion were quiet limited. In most cases and for whatever unknown reason, unless she possesses uniquely useful Talent, the Master had little use for the fairer sex beyond their ability to produce more Talents.

That’s where the Order came in. They offered the chance to Entwine to one of their strongest women. It was her job to find a suitable vessel. The person Kate had picked had been her brother. As was the custom he had been the one who had killed their parents. It was only fair he be the one to bestow upon her the Talents she needed to escape a similar fate.

It had not been hard for her to trick him to walking into the ambush. With the fabricated evidence of his treachery she would produce against him no one in the Coven would miss him. As things turned out she was greatly rewarded for disposing her treacherous brother for the Coven. That in of itself helped her avoid the fate of most women.

They didn’t use the same ritual used in a true Entwining. She, after all, was not the strongest of Talents. She was not even a mix. Her specialty was using mental Talent. In order to survive the ritual they could not use the most potent form of the Entwining ritual used by her treacherous Chosen and that weak willed headmaster had partaken in.

Hers had been a lesser ritual. It was a process in which only one person would gain the magnified powers on an Entwined. The woman from the Order was to be so blessed. Kate, on the other hand, was only given the abilities and increased Talent three ranks above her own.

There had also been no child. Only two members of the Elected of mix Talent and of great strength could create life out of the Vessel’s death.

She didn’t complain the power she gained proved enough to get her positioned of ensuring that Landon continued to remain loyal.

The Master might be willing to ignore Landon’s misdeeds but she couldn’t. No matter how much evidence she had gathered against Landon, he remained untouchable. The Master either didn’t care what his favorite was up to. It could be that Landon’s planned rebellion served the Master’s own goals. Either way, it infuriated her and angered her mistress that she was unable to bring Landon down and sow chaos within the Coven.

A few years ago her Mistress suggested she investigate the connection between the Chosen and a child named Aaron Mays. While she couldn’t discover the reason it became clear that many of Landon’s recent actions had in some way been to the Blip’s benefit. When she reported what she found to her Mistress she was greatly pleased.

The Order, believing Aaron Mays was a crucial piece in Landon’s devious plots, soon marked Aaron for elimination.

Through their web of contacts the Order was able to get their hands on around a hundred mutated Nulls and set them loose on Mays and his friends on the Graft’s island. That should have proved enough. With their ability to prevent them from using their Talents and the creature’s near impossibility to be destroyed, no one should have survived.

Somehow Aaron or any of his comrades found a way to kill all of the Nulls and escape the island. Something had gone wrong. That something could only have been Aaron.

With the Nulls failure her mistress gave her Blood Servant one last chance to deal with the Blip. With the games in the arena drawing close Kate focused on finding the Coven’s strongest duelist. She and her mistress might not know what the Blip’s Talent was but with every one of his duels on record they were able to figure out some of its limitations.

Whatever shield Aaron had it was potent but was near useless against mundane force. She therefore trained her kinetics on how to use the powers of momentum and inertia to overcome Aaron’s defenses. With grafts to magnify their physical strength and their special training the Blip shouldn’t have stood a chance. Yet once again Aaron somehow survived.

It had not occurred to her that Aaron’s friends would be as willing to break the rules of the arena as she been. It was more unimaginable that Andrew Balthazar would Convert at the very moment necessary to save the Blip’s life. It was as if god or fate had decided to make him the Order’s greatest enemy.

After five days she found her mistress. She was dressed white and blue silks. A veil covered her face, head, and the top of her chest and back. Kate had never been told her name and had never seen her face but she would never forget in a million years the potency of her Talent.

Her mistress looked about the tunnels. What she saw didn’t please her. “I see you have failed Blood Servant.”

“It wasn’t my fault. He had help. You can’t expect me to take in consideration the impossible.”

“True… we thought it would be impossible for that Blip and his brat friends to survive our Nulls but somehow they did.”

“Yes my mistress. Yes. We’ve both failed. But now that he’s been expelled the headmaster won’t be able to protect him. I’m certain we will succeed eventually.”

“Perhaps, perhaps. But if we do, it will be of no thanks to you.”

Even in the summer heat that made the tunnels unbearable, Kate cold feel the heat of her mistress’s anger. “Please my mistress. All I ask is a second chance. After all I’ve done for the Order, surely I deserve that.”

“You deserve nothing but what I give you. If not for the Order you would be down in the Master’s birthing catacombs waiting for your son to come down to eat you. If not for the Order you would be…” Her mistress went silent. Then as if by magic she faded away.

Kate suddenly realized the truth. Except for the Entwining she had never been in the true presence of her mistress. All the other times what she saw was an astral projection her mistress had channeled through her Blood Servant.

Fearing her mistress’s sudden disappearance meant that danger was drawing near. She hurried deeper into the tunnels. Her mistress and the Order would not save her. If anything they had greater reason to see her dead than the Chosen and the Coven.

Slipping on a section of wet pavement she plunged into the filth that flowed in the tunnels. The danger, wherever it was, was drawing closer. She knew she had to get out of the tunnel.

Wadding toward the first sewer lid she could find she summoned her kinetic Talent and pushed the disc away and, with greater focus shot herself out like a bullet.

As she was not the strongest of kinetics, even as a Blood Servant she ended up belly flopping onto the sidewalk. Struggling to get back on her feet she felt excruciating pain radiating from the side of her chest. Looking down she saw part of a broken rib sticking from her side with blood running in steady streams from it.

She looked around and wondered why no one was trying to help her. Had people become that callous or was something else going on. She tried screaming for help but everyone ignored her as if they couldn’t hear. With blood filling her lungs she collapsed back down on the sidewalk. Before long two things would happen; her pursuers would get their hands on her or she would be dead. She didn’t have to think hard to know she wanted it to be the later.

Just as the loss of blood was sending her into unconsciousness she saw the outline of three shadows hovering over her.

“Hello Kate… missed me.” She had heard Landon’s sadistic laugher to know it by heart. Standing beside him was the newly removed headmaster of the Lakes School for the Gifted and the Chief Liaison of Chicago.

She wasn’t going to die. She was going to hell.

Dr. Edmond Peels entered the laboratory to find the experiment had started without him. This perturbed him greatly for wasn’t the MEAT Project his? Wasn’t he the one who first came up with the poorly named Taint drug? How dare a mere underling start such an important experiment without him? “Sybil! What do you think you are doing?”

Sybil Iguchi, Liaison researcher to the Master turned her chair away from the lit up control board. She was dressed in a tight red leather miniskirt, silk black blouse, and black six inch steel stiletto shoes. She held a cigarette in on hand and a glass of red wine in the other. “What does it look like I’m doing dear doctor?”

“It looks like…” It was so hard being angry with a woman he dreamed of fucking but this time she went too far. “It looks like you’ve moved on to the next stage of the project without my approval.”

“Did I?” She balanced the glass on one of the hand rests. Reaching back she retrieved a clipboard. She went through the papers on it until she found the one she was looking for. “It says here that the Master order you to speed up your research. As his Liaison it is my J-O-B to make sure we stay on schedule. We wouldn’t want to disappoint the Master. Do you?”

“Of course not but that does not change the fact that you went over my head and…”

“Over your head?” She stood from the chair and walked to the scientist. When she was within a foot’s breath she leaned down until her mouth was directly between his eyes. Taking a deep pull from the cigarette, she exhaled the smoke into his stinging eyes. “Let’s get one thing straight doctor. You work for me. Got it?” I do not need your permission to perform this experiment. In fact I do not really need you at all. Do I dear doctor?”

“Of course… hack.” Edmond coughed to clear his lungs. “Of course you need me. I’m the one who developed the drug. There is no one who knows more about it than me? If you get rid of me it will only delay the drug’s perfection. With the deadline moved up by several years any delay, no matter how tiny, will only displease your Master. No?”

Sybil threw her head up and let out a malicious laugh. “You fool? Do you think I am prepared to kill you? Of course not.” In a flash she had spun Edmond around into a chock hold. “Now you listen here.” She hissed into his ear. “No more delays, no more holding back for more tests… the drug must be ready for mass production in seven years. Got it? Because if you don’t, if you let your need to double and triple check the data get in the way of the completion of the project. I will not kill you.” She grinded the hot end of the cigarette into the bridge of his nose. “I will make you a permanent part of the project.”

Dragging him towards the control panel she slammed him against the observation window. On the other side was one the test subject Tom Mays. With him were three normal men locked up in separate pens.

Tom’s body had deteriorated to the point that most of his skin had rotten off. Leaking black pustules covered most of what was left. At certain points the flesh and left his bones exposed. What little hair he had left had gone brittle and wild. His mouth had all its teeth but they had grown razor sharp. His eyes however remained completely unchanged. The baby blues were wide open and intelligent as if their owner knew what he had become a feral monster but had no way of ending it.

“Quite a sight to behold isn’t it good doctor? He should be dead yet due to your miraculous drug he lives.” She turned her gaze to the technician at the controls. “Open cage number one.”

“Yes Ma’am .” The technician pressed several buttons on the control panel.

Sybil turned her attention back on Dr. Peels. “Now watch closely … this should be interesting.”

“Despite his decayed state Tom was at the open pen before its occupant had the chance to step out. His razor sharp teeth ripped into the young man’s bare neck. He tore chunks of flesh and swallowed with little attempt at chewing. From the neck he moved on to the legs and arms. His appetite was ravenous and seem limitless.

As he fed something remarkable happened. The sores on his body began to fade. His skin and flesh began to regenerate. As he regain a more human appearance so did part of his sanity return to him. “Can’t stop… can’t stop eating.” He stood and looked directly through the tinted observation windows and directly at Dr. Peels. “Why can’t I stop? Why won’t you kill me? Please kill me. Kill me god damn it. Mother? Mother? Why won’t you help me? Why have you abandoned me? Mother!”

Sybil let go of Peels and returned to her seat. “Poor child. Do you think we should tell him his mother is dead?” She took a sip of her wine as if the question was of no consequence.

“No… it would only disturb the kid more.”

“And that troubles you. After all his being here is the result of your life’s work? Anyhow it should be interesting to see how long the changes will last before he needs to eat again.”

“We should just kill him and get it over with.”

“How would you suggest we do that? The best solution is for you to finish your research and produce a drug that won’t turn its users into zombies.” She looked back out the window. “Well that was fast.”

Looking in the direction Sybil was pointing at Dr. Peels saw that the man Tom Mays had just killed was already beginning to stir. “Time?”

“Five minutes and twenty three second sir.” The technician reported.

“Fast… too fast. Peels thought to himself. An infestation could spin out of control until millions were just like Tom.”

Edmond watched as the new zombie made its way towards Tom. Tom attempted to run but didn’t get far. The creature didn’t eat him however. It gave him a sniff then moved on towards the nearest closed pens where another test subject was being kept. “Interesting indeed. It won’t attack someone who is already infected. It might be possible to develop a drug that will cause these creatures… these zombies from attacking. Separate the specimens and prepare them for dissection.”

To be continued…