Anthology of Ichor III: Gears of Damnation (21 page)

“
Here goes.”

Adam removed the metal grate and clambered into the vent. He had no idea that one nosy editor had crawled through the same pipes just five years before. And he had no idea what he would find on the other end until he dropped into the murky storage closet.

“
What the fuck is this place?” he whispered. All around him were shelves filled with glimmering metal scalpels and big glass vials. There was a strange scent in the air, a pungent sweet aroma that made his stomach turn. It smelled like a sketchy clown’s bowel movement.

Adam swallowed and tasted the blood in his mouth. His head throbbed like there was no tomorrow. Whatever lay beyond that closet door was possibly more horrific than anything he’d encountered so far. But that didn’t matter. His son was in danger.

The door creaked open and Adam peered outside. He’d never been in a mad scientist’s lab before, but this was how he imagined it would look: steel cages stacked on top of each other, stainless steel gurneys awash in blood, used syringes tossed haphazardly across the room. And there in the corner was his son, Alex.

“
Omigod, omigod.”

Adam dashed across the room, careless for his own safety. Alex was lying in a solid steel cage, motionless, his little head resting between his arms. He didn’t respond when Adam grabbed the steel bars and shook them, or when he called out his name.

Was he dead? No. They wouldn’t keep a dead body locked up in a cage. He must be sleeping, tranquilized by a debilitating drug.

Adam hurried around the lab, searching for a key or a hacksaw, anything to free his son. Sweat pooled down his forehead, trickled down his neck. There wasn’t a hacksaw in sight. And to make matters worse, he heard footsteps thundering down the hallway.

“
Shit, shit, shit.”

Adam tore through desk drawers, overturned plastic bins. He was making a lot of noise, but fuck it, time was of the essence. Those bastards probably knew where he was anyway, so he continued his frantic search.

“
Looking for this?”

Adam spun around, breathless. He knew that voice.

“
Albert?”

The man smiled his thin, reptilian smile. He was holding a silver key in the palm of his hand, and he looked positively delighted to see him. A wicked light danced in his dark eyes.

“
Bravo, my friend. You managed to escape my mutants, slip past my security, and infiltrate my factory. Only one other man has accomplished such a feat. His name was Roger Smith. But I caught him. I caught him just like I caught you. I cast out my bait, and waited for you both to come swimming after it. You humans are so pathetic.”

Adam sneered, concealing the nine millimeter inside his coat. “What are you talking about?”

“
Why, you of course. You and every other bipedal mammal on this wretched earth. The problem is that you’re far too sympathetic toward your fellow man, especially your offspring. You fight to eliminate AIDS and HIV, when you should really let them flourish. Don’t you see? The human race is slowly killing itself because it is resisting its true nature. Civilization has tamed the human beast. It has suppressed the primal lust to kill and replaced it with shallow lies called morals. All I’m doing is putting the bite back into the beast. Reacquainting mankind with his true nature, so to speak. Do you understand?”

“
Yes. I understand. I understand that you’re a madman.”

The smile disappeared from Albert’s face. “Pity. I thought you would understand. But don’t worry. Once I inject my serum into your bloodstream, you’ll understand. You’ll become like those creatures outside, those pinnacles of humanity. All you need to do is hold still.”

Albert slid a syringe off the counter and held it between two long fingers. “Don’t worry. It won’t hurt. Just a slight prick. You’ll feel a bit nauseated when the serum begins to spread through your bloodstream, but that’s only temporary. When you regain consciousness, you’ll be an entirely new creature, free from petty morals and ethics. You’ll become what nature intended you to be.”

The needle edged closer, brimming with some gooey purple liquid.

Under normal circumstances, Adam would have asked the nurse if the needle was sterilized and then consented to the injection, but Albert was no nurse, and he knew for a fact that needle was not sterilized, so Adam did the only thing he could do. He whipped out the nine millimeter and fired the last round directly into the man’s shoulder blade.

Albert jerked back in surprise, but not before he managed to bury the needle into Adam’s forearm.

“
Son of a bitch,” Adam cried. He tore the syringe out of his arm as Albert collapsed to the floor. Blood stained his shirt where the bullet tore through, leaving a hole the size of Adam’s knuckle.

“
You’ll never escape!” Albert screamed. “Wonderworld Industries is the future! We will find you, and when we do, we will kill you! Do you hear me?
We will kill you!
”

Adam gathered the key up off the floor. He was getting really tired of Albert’s voice and contemplated pistol-whipping him unconscious, but decided not to, even though that would have made him feel better. Albert was a poor, demented little man, and he would be brought to justice soon enough.

Adam had spilled enough blood for one day.

Chapter 16

Alex was only partially awake when Adam emerged from the ventilation shaft. His son was groggy and bruised, but otherwise okay. The first thing he said when he opened his eyes was, “Where are we?” in his cute adolescent voice.

“
We’re leaving,” Adam replied, holding him against his chest. “We’re leaving and we’re never coming back.”

“
Why?” Alex gargled.

This time Adam didn’t respond. There was no reason to tell the boy what had happened and scare him even more. Maybe he would tell him later, when he was all grown up and had children of his own. Then Alex would realize how much his father loved him, even if he didn’t show it all the time.

But that could wait. Right now Adam still had to slip them past security and find the minivan. He hoped it hadn’t been hijacked by those mutants. God knows they were smart enough.

A team of security guards thundered around the building, barking into their radios like a pack of rabid dogs.

“
Team one to base! Team one to base! We located the targets! Send backup!”

Adam rattled off a series of curses under his breath. He would have said them aloud, but he didn’t want his son repeating them. He was supposed to be a role model, Goddamn it!

A volley of semiautomatic fire rippled over his right shoulder. He could hear the lead slugs whistle past his ear, singing their death tunes ever louder. Then one of the bullets struck his side. Adam’s knees buckled, but he managed to regain his balance. The adrenalin in his veins dulled the pain, but it could not rejuvenate his tired legs.

Run, for God’s sake! Move those pansy legs. That’s right, one step at a time. Left, right, left, right, left, right. Damn it, Jim, I think he’s onto something!

Adam forced himself forward, ignoring everything but the little bundle in his arms. He was determined to get Alex out safely, even if he himself didn’t survive. He could die in peace, knowing his son would live and carry on his lineage.

That’s it. Over the fence!

Adam sprang onto the chain link barrier with Alex draped over his shoulder like a hunting trophy. It was harder to climb with all that extra weight, but his will to survive was equally as tough. Even though his arm was numb and the links cut into his palms, drawing beads of blood, he managed to vault to freedom.

Little did he know, freedom was not so easily attained. A section of the fence opened, and a swarm of ATVs sped after him, throttling over the hilly terrain like there was no tomorrow. The men driving them wore familiar black fatigues, with the company’s slogan on their vests.

Helping To Build a Better Tomorrow.

Adam wanted to laugh at the irony, but he was too winded. His legs felt like rubber by the time he reached the purple minivan, and he collapsed onto the back seat. His mind told him to move, but his ass told him to stay. Fortunately, asses don’t make good debaters, so he jumped into the front seat and stepped down hard on the gas. The minivan spit rocks and dust behind it and jolted back down Main Street.

Behind him, Adam could hear the ATVs gaining ground, their motors buzzing like a swarm of demented bees. Their rifles crackled, and the
zing, pong
of gunfire tore through the flimsy metal exterior. He was lucky Alex was asleep, or else he would have been whiter than a ghost. The little guy had seen enough action for one day.

Hell, he’d seen enough action for a lifetime
.

Screaming down Main, Adam hung a sharp left down Sparrow Lane. According to the map it zigzagged into a dead end, but not before connecting with a little street called Chinook Way. Then, from Chinook he could take Willow Spring Drive back to Main and get the hell out of town. That is, if he could lose his pursuers along the way.

At first, the tight left seemed to work. Two of the ATVs lost their edge and toppled into the ditch, but the other four gained speed. They were faster on dirt roads. Faster than his minivan at least, and had greater maneuverability.

One man in an ATV tried to motor up behind him and open the back door, but Adam slammed on his brakes as he was reaching for it. The resulting collision caused the ATV to flip upside down, while the driver made out with the rear window. Glass exploded into the cab, but the driver still took more damage. His head snapped back and he fell to the road like a ton of bricks.

Three down, three to go.

Adam felt the van shift back into fourth gear. It burst forward, gaining ground for the first time. His unusual evasive action seemed to make the ATV drivers hesitate. They didn’t think some twenty-eight year old white guy could drive like that, which gave Adam an edge.

However, the standoff didn’t last long. Two of the ATVs tried speeding alongside the minivan so they could shoot out the front tires and make him lose control, but their plan backfired. Adam swerved left, then right, using the minivan’s fat ass to throw them off their vehicles. He watched them crash and burn in the rear view mirror. The sight brought a wry smile to his lips. He’d never experienced such a thrill before. Not since he drove go-karts at
Funland
when he’d been twelve years old.

Even mowing down half-human monsters wasn’t as exciting.

“
Alex, are you okay?”

Adam glanced back suddenly, but his concern wasn’t warranted. The boy lay fast asleep on the back seat. He’d slept through all the excitement, all the blood and bullets, all the pain and anguish. And, for once, Adam felt like a good father. He felt like he’d accomplished something. That made him swell with pride.

Ping, pang, pong.

One final burst of gunfire peppered the vehicle, and then everything was quiet. The last ATV turned around and fled. Obviously he didn’t want to end up like his five companions, all beaten up and battered on the side of the road. Or dead, as the case may be.

A moment later, the reality of the situation sunk in. They were safe, safe from the bloodthirsty townspeople and that evil company. They were free to go wherever they wanted and do whatever they wanted to do. But more importantly, they were free to stop Wonderworld Industries and end its reign of terror. Nothing could stop them. The only thing restricting them was the blue skies up above.

Adam eased off the gas pedal as they motored out of town, leaving the twisted factory and its haunted inhabitants behind. He thought about what Albert said about mankind—how civilization was just a blanket to cover its true nature—and about his ex-wife, Saundra. He didn’t believe men were inherently evil. Sure, they had a dark side, but that didn’t mean they were rotten to the core. There would always be virtuous individuals who put their life at risk to vanquish the darkness. And that made Adam smile.

Speaking of blue skies, there they were now! The toxic black cloud disappeared behind him, leaving nothing but clear skies ahead.

Clear skies that would never end.

Chapter 17

“
They escaped, did they?”

“
Yes, Mr. President, sir.”

“
How delightful.”

Albert rubbed his hands together despite the cast on his arm. The factory was quiet now, and the idea that Adam and his son had managed to escape intrigued him. He had never seen such depths of devotion before. Not even within family circles. There was a bond between those two that death itself could not break, but then again, his objective had never been to kill them. He’d just wanted to unleash their full potential, make them realize their true nature.

“
They took Main out of town, you say?”

“
Yes, sir.”

“
How utterly delightful. Oh my, it sends chills up my spine.”

“
Sir?”

The guard seemed confused, but then again, that was to be expected. He didn’t know what Albert knew. He didn’t know that the father had been pricked by an infected needle, or that the son had been given a full dose of the serum. All he knew was that two trespassers had escaped.