Prologue

Where the birth of enemy begins is where the life of a brother ends.

Prologue:

Placid stood at the edge of the forest, his hair wildly whipping from the helicopter blades behind him. The gun’s shiny barrel inches away from the young women’s head. Dwane and Edus stood stiffly. They did not dare move any closer to him. Debris flew up into the air. His eyes were cold and lifeless as he held the woman’s arms twisted painfully behind her back. 

“Don’t do this, Maar!” Dwane shouted, trying to be heard above the chaotic whirring. “Please, just let the girl go!”

Placid threw back his head and laughed devilishly. “You want me to let her go? Then what? Just walk back down and be locked away in that dungeon forever? No, no, no, I don’t think it’s going to that easy.”

“Placid, listen to me. Think of everything you will loose. All of the formulas, the progress you have created, what we made together, this is not worth it!” Edus stepped forward as he shouted reason. 

Placid’s hand snapped the gun away from the woman’s head and pointed directly at Edus. Edus froze and slowly lifted his hands. Placid cocked his head back, his cloudy, yellow eye glaring at him psychotically.  

“You take one more step towards me and I swear, I’ll put this bullet through that brilliant mind of yours.”

Edus backed away to his original place. “Placid we’re, we are like family, brothers-”

“You are no brother of mine!” Placid shouted as he cocked the hammer back. “It was all about you two. The practical ones. Those imbeciles were too near sighted to see real genius!”

“You had gone outside of our ethics as scientist; as human beings!” Dwane shouted back, balling his fists. 

“I was going change this godforsaken world, for the better, Dwane!! This is an experiment that would of changed everything! It was going to progress us far quicker than your simpleton idea!” Placid growled as he yanked the woman up from her knees and pressed the barrel against her head. The woman screamed in fear. 

Placid licked his lips and a crooked smiled carved into his face. 

“I’m going to take what I want; what I need to progress this world forward! Sacrifices need to be made for science, lives must be lost to captivate a successful future! And once they see what I can do, they will worship me!” 

“This is perverted! There’s no progression here! They won’t worship you, they’ll only fear you! The Apocal people don’t need a vengeful god!” Dwane yelled.

“The Apocal people are weak! If we don’t force them to make the hybrids, then they will die like flies, we all will! There’s no sense in these people! They weren’t meant for this environment, but they’ll stay in their little hovels until another bombing hits, thinking they are untouchable!” Placid shifted his crazed gaze towards the woman. “What does it matter what the inferior say? We don’t even need them alive for a little DNA.”

“Placid they are people!” Edus screamed, his voice cracking.

Placid shook his head. “Edus, Edus, Edus. I really thought you were on my side, but you care more about the livestock you call people more than your own kind.”

Edus swallowed.

“What have they ever done for you? You provide them with the safety, medicine, life, air in an underground thriving city, but what have they done for us in return? Outcast our forefathers! Shoot at us! Treat us like those grisly Warped Ones! They are too scared and stupid to see past the smoke of their gun barrels and you know it!” Placid thundered.

“It doesn’t matter what we get in return as long as the human race survives!” Dwane reasoned back.

Placid ignored him and directed his vacant stare at Edus. “Edus, if we really are brothers like you say, then help me! Let’s build this new world together! I am willing to share.” 

Dwane hunched his shoulders as if he was about to launch himself at Placid.

Edus looked at the woman and then to Placid and his cloudy eye. He shook his head slightly as he spoke, “Placid, I, I can’t help you. You did this to yourself. The uranium…its in your blood, its taking over your mind. This isn’t you! You would want them to live as much as I do if you were still the man I used to know.”

Placid threw his head back and laughed. “I was an incompetent fool then. The transfusions enlightened me, showed me the truth!” he stepped back toward the helicopter dragging the woman with him who was hysterically crying and screaming. “You’re just too stuck in your degenerative ways to see it! Can’t say I didn’t see this coming.” 

Dwane tried to move forward, but Placid shot the gun right over the woman’s head. She shrieked and Edus and Dwane ducked. 

“Ah, ah, ah. Another move like that and it’s going right through her precious skull.” Placid looked from Dwane to the woman then smiled with a wicked thought crawling through his brain. He slowly pointed the gun at Dwane and cocked it once more. “Or maybe it should go through yours. It would be less of a waist. After all,” he pause as he looked at the woman, “live cells from a live animal are much easier to rip the genes from than a dead one. 

“You don’t really want this Placid! I know you! Please put the gun down, come away from the helicopter. Let the girl go! She doesn’t want this, no one wants this.” Edus pleaded. 

Placid straightened as he lowered his gun slightly distracted by Edus. 

“She will be a fine specimen. So perfect I might just use my own genes with hers. Our children will inherit this earth. It will be the new Eden.”

“She’s not an animal you can just breed! You’re twisted Placid! It’s sick and you know it!” Dwane spat at him.

“I am a visionary!! My plans will push this society forward! Day Walkers, hybrids, they are all my inventions!” Placid screamed back, the veins in his neck standing out. 

“We have all of the plans you created! Every formula because we were the ones that contributed to it! Without us you are nothing! You’ll never create the Day Walker army you wanted without us!” Dwane hissed back.

“That may be so,” his tone went low and sinister as he stepped on the landing ski of the helicopter, “but you have to let me leave if you want her to live.” 

“You’ll give us the girl?” Edus asked, taken back.

“Do you think I am a imbecile?” Placid cocked his head. “I know you called for the back up of your obedient little followers to help you. They won’t be coming anytime soon, I already jammed the gears for the flood gate. Until they hack their way into the system, there’s no help coming for you.” he chuckled maniacally as he stared over to the rising sun behind him. “But, I know you two will find a way to keep me here until they can help apprehend me, so I need to make a deal.”

Edus looked at Dwane who shook his head in disapproval. Edus pushed up his glasses and took a deep breath. 

“Alright.”

“Edus, what are you doing?! You don't make deals with the devil!” Dwane hissed through his teeth.

“It’s the only way to save the girl, Dwane.” Edus answered sternly back.

Placid smiled broadly, his fangs glistening. “Fantastic! Here is my offer, I’ll give you the girl and you let me leave. As long as I get a sample of her DNA. No weapons traded, no grabs for the gun, no one gets hurt, alright?”

Edus looked at Dwane who shook his head firmly. 

Edus's voice shook as he complied. “Okay, Maar.” 

Dwane winced at his brother’s decision.

Placid’s sinister smile spread across his face, “Wonderful,” he fished for his pocket knife and cut the hair off her head as close to the scalp as possible before thrusting her forward. “Come get her boys.”

Edus looked at Dwane his brow furrowed. Edus was too afraid to lift a foot. His legs were shaking. They were so close for this all being over and yet, Placid could turn any moment and just shoot him if he got any closer.

“I’m growing impatient.” Placid growled, and placed the barrel back to her head. 

The woman screamed bloody murder and coughed. She having trouble breathing the air. Dwane could not stand his brother’s lack of action anymore. He began to deliberately walk forward towards Placid. He stood in front of Placid glaring at him. He reached slowly for the woman. She looked up at him with puffy, watering eyes, pleading. He nearly had her in his grip when he grabbed Placid’s arm that was restraining her instead and went to knock the gun out his hand. Placid knocked off Dwane’s grip with a hellish strength pushing the woman to the ground. She shrieked as Placid clubbed the side of his face with his fist. Dwane grunted and stumbled. Placid yanked Dwane’s arm above his head and pressed the gun to his chest and fired. He let go of his arm and watched in arcane delight as Dwane crumpled to the ground.

“Dwane!!!” Edus screamed at the top of lungs. 

Placid shook his head as he stared disappointedly at Dwane’s body. “I shouldn't of expected anything different,” he retrieved the petrified woman and held her close to him. “You’ve proven to be quiet useless, Dwane.” he cocked his foot back and kicked the crumpled form of Dwane savagely toward Edus who was at his knees, shaking. 

The body rolled face down in front of Edus, blood pooling underneath him. He scrambled towards his brother’s body and clutched him, flopping him over. He grabbed his face desperately, hyperventilating. Edus shoved his hand over the bullet wound, trying to stop the bleeding, but the damage was already done. Edus held up Dwane’s limp head, trying to see if he was breathing. Dwane’s mouth was open slightly. His face had already gone pale; life, gone. 

“Dw-dwa…” 

Edus’s chest heaved violently as he looked up at Placid who was now climbing in the helicopter with the woman. 

“I guess the deals off. What a shame.” Placid said coldly. His dark eyes centered on Edus as he turned around from climbing, yanking the woman in. “I hope you learned something from this, Edus,”

Edus could not respond. He wanted to scream, to curse Placid’s name but his throat tightened and he could not squeeze out a sound. He looked from Dwane to Placid and just gaped. 

Placid put gun to the woman’s head and cocked it slowly, a chilling smile across his face.

“That the weak, should fear the strong.”

He pulled the trigger and the bullet exited the woman’s skull in a firework of blood. Her  body jerked and her eyes rolled back as she slumped over in the helicopter. Placid then walked calmly into the cockpit and lifted off. 

Clutching his dead brother, Edus watched helplessly as Placid’s helicopter disappeared into the dawn mist. 

Author's Note

This book is it the editing stage. There may be overlooked grammatical errors.