F
U T U R E B A R R I E R
( The
4th Novel )
Secret Technology,
Unrequited Love, Absolute Vengeance
© June
2020
- Written by David
Wicker
Please do
not reprint without permission
CHAPTER 55 -
"The Girl With The Least Gifts"
[
CHOOSE A
DIFFERENT
CHAPTER TO
READ ]
* * *
This chapter is
Rated: TEEN
Good afternoon.
Going to make this one brief. Rose was telling me that over 500 people in Tarrant County alone were admitted recently to the hospital - for the virus.
Now it doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize if you're out shouting and protesting, mask or not, you're going to be breathing a little harder and heavy than just reading a book at home.
So ... yeah, if you're still attending protests be aware that a whole lot of human breath is being spread around in all that shouting, something to consider. Instead what you might do - possibly ?
Is create a website to protest. Get a bunch of your friends together and lay out the facts as you see them with images and encouraging messages.
If it gets really mighty like say 100 people in it or so, you might send a copy of the website's URL to your local mayor to have them see that what you're doing here is of great concern but that you are staying safe by not protesting in person and risking others and yourself in getting the virus.
You also don't get hit by 'crowd control' weapons being employed by the police. That has got to be a positive right there.
With that, stay safe, be good, and I will return for more on this next week ...
And now back to our regularly scheduled chapter ...
Now Tyr knew something was up, she just didn't know what.
It seemed everyone was all around the school hush-hush about what happened, but the name DEV did get thrown around.
After school she went to the back parking lot and mounting up with the schoolbooks in her backpack got her bicycle ready and started for home.
She saw once again the area that claimed there was high radiation, and Tyr told herself she needed to investigate that at some point.
When she got home though she found her front door was wide open !
She quickly looked inside and found her entire home devastated ! Clearly some people had broken in, but more importantly, her Mom was nowhere in sight.
"Mommy ... ?" she started out quietly.
"Mommy ?" A little louder, till she was finally shouting, "Mommy ! Mommy, where are you ? Mommy !"
She was not here ... Tyr fought back tears. There could only be one answer. She went to her bedroom and while everything was smashed to bits she found her little jewel box in the corner. Not even that was saved from the ravage, and - the lock on it was broken.
She opened it up and sure enough the copy of the plugin device that Dev made for her much earlier was not there. Surely this is what they were after.
Now she knew it didn't work anymore and was apparently just a chunk of plastic at that point, a temporary copy that SIM made seemingly aware that Tyr would try to make use of it for all the wrong reasons. But the people who broke in, apparently that is what they were looking for, functional or not.
And now she was angry ! That place she passed earlier with the radiation signs. Those were the ones responsible !
She carefully locked up the house and still carrying her schoolbooks in a backpack, rode back to the signs, following them to an entry gate.
A guard stepped out of the shed all dressed in radiation gear, "Little girl. this place is off-limits. Radiation danger. You need to go back the way you came."
"You've taken my Mommy !" Tyr shouted angrily.
He seemed confused, "We ... what ?"
"You kidnapped my Mommy and I want her back !"
He held his hands up. Tyr got quiet. He spoke, "Look, let me check on something."
He picked up a phone on his side and spoke into it. "Have a very angry girl here saying we kidnapped her Mother." He looked up to Tyr who added.
"You also smashed up my house and took my plugin !"
He relayed this back on the phone. A voice sounded excited and repeated back where he could hear, "Plugin ? Did you say plugin ? That could be the very thing we're looking for ! How did she arrive ?"
He looked up, "On a bicycle. Really pink. She's got a backpack too, I think she goes to the local school here."
The voice replied, "That's fine. send her through, we'll take care of it."
The guard then raised the gate, "Go on through." he told her. "Someone will meet you there."
Tyr pedaled her Polly Rocket bicycle on through and entered the cocoon of white tents. She got to a cross-section of paths to take when a doctor in a fine white outfit met her.
"Are you Tyr ?" he asked her.
Tyr was still furious, "Yes I am and where's Mommy !?"
He put his hands up to try and calm her down. "Please believe me dear, we don't have her here. I can promise you that. Now tell me what happened ..."
. . .
Back with me despite being unconscious papers were being signed left and right and up and down all about patient rights and my apparent lack thereof. If I had looked around in this room I would've left in a great hurry.
While there did seem to be one kindly doctor in here the other looked more like a grade A hit-man and dressed in a fine business suit, rather scary to look at in truth.
The doctor approached me and attached a mask over my face. "Can't have him waking up while we do a bit of investigation, can we Chard ?"
* * *
Then he started to remove all my clothes. The one called Chard came to look. When the doctor had finally removed my underwear he started guffawing, "Like two acorns and a scrawny worm, Ferris !"
Doctor Ferris himself was not amused, "Yes, well, we're not appraising him on his ... look, we're here to make a proper examination, to see if he is indeed the genuine article."
"Chard." he spoke, "Give me a sample from his mouth." and handed him a Q-Tip.
Chard went forward, removed the mask temporarily opening my mouth and swabbed inside. Returned the mask and brought the sample back to the doctor.
"Here, doc."
Ferris took the sample and looked under a microscope briefly. "Not seeing anything unusual."
He went to pick up my lifeless hand and look at it. Then looked closer. "Something odd here. Chard, let's get some fingerprints from him. We'll need that for later identification anyways."
Chard approached with an inking pad. Ferris took it, dabbed one finger and then dabbed it on the square in the paper. Strangely my fingerprint now had a unique design that was unlike any human's. More like an inward curved 4-pointed star and in perfect repetition working its way outward for a total of 7.
Chard took the page and sat down hard in a chair there. "Fascinating ..." he said quietly. "Did you see this ?" and offered it to Chard. He was not a scientist so he only shrugged.
Finally he spoke, "Yeah, so he's a real spaceman from your anus." He eagerly reached for a cigar cutter and cut a cigar he had putting it in his mouth but not yet lighting it. "So when do we get down to the real act of cutting him open ?" and he clicked his cigar cutter in reaction.
Ferris raised his hands to the clearly bloodthirsty assistant, "Patience, friend. We have a real golden goose here. It wouldn't do to kill the goose and get no more golden eggs."
Chard sat down in a chair himself, finally lighting the cigar, puffed out a big nasty cloud and regarded me from where he sat.
"So what now, doc ?"
Ferris then held up a small thin medical razor. "I think we need a skin sample."
The doctor then approached me and slide the razor very gently over one of my fingers but couldn't seem to connect.
"Help me here." he said, finally.
Chard got up a little frustrated, puffing on the cigar. "What's the matter, doc ? Afraid you're gonna get blood on your fine suit ?"
Ferris struggled with the razor, "No, I - I can't seem to get a decent grip on him."
Chard gently shoved away the doctor. "Here I'll get your damned skin sample, gimme that blade."
Ferris offered the razor but shook his hands in front of him, "Gently now, Chard. We don't want to cut into him, not yet."
Chard then roughly grabbed my hand and had me extend my index finger. Then took the razor over the front surface and glided it gently across, and once again, no skin came off.
"Your blade is crap." Chard said, disgusted, finally throwing it away where it clattered on the floor. Ferris quickly reached to retrieve and close the blade before returning it to his pocket. Then Chard pulled out his own wickedly sharp knife from his back pocket to make a cut.
Ferris didn't say anything, he tried the easy way. This was why he had Chard with him, in case the patient woke up or he had other problems that required brute strength.
Chard took his own knife and expertly scissored across my finger not being gentle in the least.
Still nothing came out.
"Goddamit, what's this kid made of ?"
Ferris was excited now. "Precisely what we need to find out !"
Against permission Chard set my hand flat on the glass gurney I was sitting on. Then stabbed his sharp knife straight into my wrist, or so it seemed ! The knife bounced back and instead cut straight into him leaving a red welt across his own palm !
Chard flung his wrist up, holding it with the other hand as red seeped around it. "Goddamit ! Dju see what that sommbich did to me !?"
"He's asleep. He didn't do anything." Ferris replied simply.
Chard growled, "Asleep or not I don't think you're gonna get your sample, or even a blood sample ! There's something ain't right going on there."
He quickly grabbed some nearby gauze and bound up his wounded hand.
Ferris approached now, clicking back open the medical razor and with my hands still flat, tried to cut straight into the flat of my palm as Chard did earlier.
The blade felt slippery, like it was sliding on something. He struggled to hold it steady, but it wouldn't happen. The blade slid to one side or the other but would not cut into me.
Ferris then lowered his eyes and tried to cut again. He watched very carefully and - there - he thought he saw something.
"Get the lights." Chard complied. Only the dim lights of other machinery around continued to flicker in the blackness.
"Let's try that again." Ferris told himself and then with deliberate pressure pushed the blade down once again into the flat of my palm. There ! He saw it that time. The flicker of light. Small light only there for an instant, and then gone again.
Ferris got up stumbling a bit not used to the darkness and got his very high-tech microscope to bring next to me. He then turned the wheels to let it admit something much bigger than a single glass slide and stuck my whole hand under it.
It took him a minute to focus but then he could, right on the surface of my upturned hand. He then took his razor and again pushed in - this time while looking straight through the microscope.
There was the flash of light again. He quickly pressed a button which took a snapshot the instant of what he was seeing.
He then hit some buttons on the microscope and the quick photo he took returned. Then he used a rotary switch to focus and enlarge on the photo as if it were a single slide.
He kept zooming in and then saw it.
His eyes grew wide and he looked up and straight ahead, "That's impossible !"
END OF CHAPTER 55
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