Silent Jury
Issue #24
by Tom Zjaba

Chapter 28
Loose Ends

    Justin Rage looks at the vial before he drinks it. The effects from the previous dose are already evident. Already, he has trained his mind to move object. Nothing large yet, mostly coconuts and sticks, but it is still quite an accomplishment. He is also able to read minds, or at least he is guessing that he can. Since the only minds to read are the beast men, he does not exactly have any good subjects. All he is getting is a combination of grunts, groans and some broken English. But he is satisfied with the results so far and has decided to continue using himself as a guinea pig. Downing the vial, he makes a face as he drinks down the foul tasting liquid.

    Once he finishes the vial, he tosses it aside. Suddenly his mind senses something. Not sure what it is, he turns and looks around. In the jungle, he sees an outline of one of the beast men. The creature are hidden in the shadows, but not so enough to completely hide him. Using his mind, Justin tries to read the beast's thoughts. What he reads is a strange but somewhat coherent flow of thoughts. "Grunt. Grunt. Man. Grunt. Grunt. Look." He wonders for a moment how their feeble minds work. From previous mind scans, he knows this is the boarman. The grunts give him away as he is the only animal that does that. The others growl or snap or make some other animal like noise, even in their thoughts.

    As he walks from the smoldering fire, he already feels the effects of the liquid. His head begins to throb. Pulling his hands to his head, he rubs his temples, trying to alleviate the pain. But he finds no relief as the pain grows with each moment. Vertigo sets in as he falls to his knees and clutches his head in his hands. The entire world feels like it is spinning. Using an old trick from the days of riding carnival rides, he closes his eyes to make the spinning go away. It does not help. Faster and faster the spinning goes as he begins to feel sick to his stomach. He falls to the ground, wrapping up in a fetal position.

    The beasts slowly come out of the jungle to see what is wrong. They are unsure of what is happening to Justin. All they see is a human on the ground in pain. The bearman picks up the discarded vial and looks at it. He sniffs it to see if the contents are poisonous. It does not smell like any of the plants on the island which are not safe to consume. Since none of the beast men are indigenous to this island, a series of trial and error over the years has shown them what to eat and not to eat. But this strange being brings food and drink from the outside world. They are all fearful of what these strange bottles may contain.

    It takes a good ten minutes before the spinning finally subsides. Justin Rage slowly climbs back to his knees. He slowly opens his eyes and makes sure the spinning is truly done. Satisfied that the world is back to normal, he looks around and is surprised to see the beast men all around him. The bearman drops the vial by him and says "Bad." Justin picks it up and looks at the empty container. He then looks at the bearman and responds "Bad." The other beast men come over and look at the empty vial. One by one, they look at it and say "Bad."

    Back at North Harbor, some of the city workers are going through Justin Rage's tower. It has been closed down and police are stationed to keep anyone out. Until they have time to make sure there is no danger remaining, they don't want anyone coming or going. Two men in hazmat suits are going through the basement. The upper floors have all been searched and deemed safe. Allot of files and computers have been taken out as they look for any information that could indict Justin Rage. While he has left the country, they feel confident that he will return. He left too much behind to stay away for good. All that is left to search now is the basement.

    The two men slowly move through with their lights and guns ready. Stories have been told of all the experiments that went on in the basement. Up until a few weeks ago, everyone figured they were nothing but urban legends. But after seeing a demon terrorizing the city and a slew of super powered beings, the stories seem much more plausible. That is why they are taking no chances. Wearing gear that can protect them from any chemical or radioactive threat they may come across, the men feel safe. With weapons to protect themselves and radios to keep in touch, they have a false sense of security. If any horrors are hiding in this basement, they are prepared.

    Moving into the laboratories, they find the area has been destroyed. Tables are overturned, beakers shattered, strange liquids in small puddles on the ground. Overhead, lights flicker on and off, giving the room a more creepy appearance. The two men look at each other as one of them says "What went on here? The place looks ransacked." The other man shines a light on the large glass cage that once housed The One. "I hope whatever broke out of there is long gone." Walking over, the look at the broken pieces and marvel at how thick and strong it is. "I have a bad feeling about this place." the first man says as he tries to break a piece off, with no luck.

    As they look around, something small moves around by an adjoining door. The one guy catches sight of it out of the corner of his eye. He turns quickly and shines his light. The light stops on the face of a small girl. She quickly ducks back into the doorway and disappears into the shadows. "I saw a kid over there." the first man says as he looks for her. The second one turns and shines his light in the same area. "Where? I don't see anything." The man walks towards the doorway as he responds "I saw a little girl run through this door." The second man follows him over there. "Are you sure? What would a kid be doing down here?"

    As they walk into the next room, they find more disarray. Overturned tables, broken glass and what looks like blood are scattered around the room. They shine the lights around, trying to find the child. Back and forth their beams of light go as they look for any sign of life. Then they find it. The light catches a little girl behind an overturned table. She is about eight years old and has long blonde hair. The first guy finds her as he says "I found her." The other guy turns and shines the light on her. Her eyes glow in the light as they try to communicate with her. "We won't hurt you." the first man says as he puts his hand out. She moves away from his outstretched hand, showing fear. The second man begins walking around the table, trying to get closer to her. She turns and looks at him. "This is no place for a little kid. Come on with us and we will get you some ice cream. You do like ice cream, don't you?" She hisses at him as she continues to walk backwards, away from them. The first guy keeps his eyes on her as he says "We are going to have to just grab her. She's only a little girl." As they rush at her, she screams out. The men quickly apprehend her as she continues to scream. The second man calls back to base "We found a little girl. We are bringing her up."

    The girl screams louder and louder as they pick her up. "Feisty little girl." the first guy says as he struggles to keep hold of her. Suddenly, she stops screaming and looks behind them. "She finally shut up, thank God." the second guy says. Before they know what is happening, the room lights up. They turn to see another child standing there with his hands glowing bright red. He has a pissed off look on his face. "We have another kid, but something is wrong with him." the second man says to base. "What do you mean something is wrong?" the voice over the radio asks. Before he can answer, the boy raises his hands and aims them at the two men. Flames fly out of his hands and engulf the two men. The girl breaks free from them and rushes off. She quickly puts out the flames on her dress. The two men rush around screaming as the flames quickly eat through their outfits. The boy keeps sending flames out on them, making sure they do not escape. His arms start to blister up from the intense heat and the pain can be seen in his face. He winces as he keeps the heat on them. Once they fall to the ground and stop moving, he stops the flames. Falling to his knees, he starts to cry from the pain. Both his arms are covered in blisters. The girl rushes over to him and looks at his face. He looks at her as the tears roll down his face. She smiles as she takes her hands and lay them on his wounds. She closes her eyes and concentrates. Light comes out of her hands and cover his arms. Within seconds, the blister all go away and the pain in his face leaves. She grabs him and hugs him tight.

    After the girl lets go, the small boy, walks over and looks at the two smoldering bodies. He then looks at the girl. She nods to him as she looks down at the flames burning. Knowing what he has to do, he puts his hands out and concentrates. This time, his arms turn blue. It starts at the back of the arm and moves up towards his fingertips. Second by second, they get brighter and brighter blue until snow flies out of his hands and covers the two bodies. When the flames are extinguished, he stops and turns to the girl. She looks at his arms, which show signs of frost bite and lays her hands on him once again. A warm glow comes from her hands and once again, he returns to normal.

    The little boy walks over to the bodies and kicks the closest one. "Bad man." he says as he gives it another kick. As he does this, two other children show up. One comes through the wall, a black haired girl. Her jet black hair is past her shoulders and completely straight. It is parted down the middle. Her body looks almost transparent. Slowly, she becomes whole as she stops in the middle of the room. She also looks at the bodies. But unlike the other two, she sees the spirits of the two men as they rise up from the bodies and float upwards. One of the men looks at her and says "Why?" She turns away and pretends not to hear him.

    The last child is an Hispanic boy. He comes out of a glowing hole that he quickly shuts with a flick of his wrist. The blonde girl looks at him and says "Get rid of the bodies." He nods and creates another flaming hole. He moves it over towards the bodies and steps in the hole as he pushes it past the bodies. Within seconds, they are pulled into the hole and it closes up.

    On the other side of the hole, is a strange world. It is full of rocks with strange plants on them. The sound of scurrying is heard as large bug like creatures climb from holes in the rocks. The creatures have hundreds of legs like a centipede. Each one has two large pincers on the front. The boy looks at them and runs over and creates a new hole. He quickly jumps into it and disappears. As soon as he disappears, the bugs run over and grab the bodies and grab them with their pincers and pull them back into their holes. In seconds, there is no trace of the bodies.

    As he returns to the room, the children are all standing in a circle, talking. The blonde girl who goes by the name, Healer, is calling a meeting. She is the oldest and the leader of the small group. She gets her name from the label that was on her cell and on her uniform. The kids all wear matching blue jumpsuits that each have a patch on them that says their code name. The boy with the ability to send flames or frost is named Temp, which is short for Temperature. The girl who came through the wall is named Spirit. Lastly, the boy who made the flaming hole is named Phase.

    Healer looks at the three younger kids and says "The adults will be coming again. We cannot keep fighting them. We must leave." The other kids look at her with shocked looks on their faces. This place has always been their home. They were created here and they expected to live here the rest of their lives. None of them have ever seen the outside world.

    Temp speaks up "Where will we go? What will we eat?" The other kids nod in agreement. They are used to someone feeding them, clothing them and taking care of all their needs. And they had a computer who talked to them and taught them everything they know. She was simply known as Mother and she is the one who sang to them, taught them to speak, to read and how to use their powers. For all they knew, she was their mother. But she was damaged in the commotion and now they do not know what to do. They waited down here in hope that she would wake up and help them, but it is becoming evident that she is not going to wake up. And with the food supply running out, they need to go someplace else.

    Looking down at the ground, Healer answers the best she can. "I do not know. But there must be someplace we can go." Phase looks at them as he says "I can phase us to wherever you want." She smiles and nods. "Thanks, but you need to know where we are going to get us there." He nods in agreement. He does need to make a mental picture of the place in order to phase there. He also does not know what kind of distance he can travel. He has never gone more than a room away. Healer then looks at Spirit and says "I need you to scout ahead and figure out how to get out of here." She nods as a sad look comes over her face. While she has the powers of a ghost with the ability to become invisible, fly and phase through solid objects, they come at a price. Whenever she is using her spirit powers, she enters the spirit realm and she can see and be seen by the dead. It is quite scary as there are spirits and demons all over the place. She takes a deep breath and starts to become transparent. She then flies through the walls. As she leaves, Healer looks at the other two and says "Let's rest. We may need our strength later."

Silent Jury © 2006-2009 Tom Zjaba