Apoptosis

Syndrome

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A deadly new virus has completely infected nearly all of Metropolis’ inhabitants. 97% of those infected die by means of a gruesome and terrifying suicide, leaving the remaining 3% to fend for themselves in the quickly quarantined city. Those fortunate enough to survive Bloody Monday lose everything but gain strange and miraculous powers in return.

Among those who are left behind are a delinquent gangster, a pessimistic athlete, and an amnesiac teenager who can’t seem to shake the thought that he may hold the secret of Bloody Monday. As chaos erupts within Metropolis, they witness insane homicidal survivors, a biological nightmare, and a military conspiracy. Though their paths rarely cross, these three unknowingly affect each other with each and every decision in their struggle to survive in a power-hungry, monster infested city.


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The chapters are intentionally made in a chronologically incorrect manner. This is to suit the writing style of the author of the original story to whom this new story is a tribute of.

This story is a joint project between Dyslexia:// and Geoff.L, so the writing style within different chapters may not exactly match each other despite our best efforts. Dyslexia:// writes the Darius and Serene storyline while Geoff.L writes the storyline involving the amnesiac boy.

There is profanity within some, if not all, chapters. You have been warned.

We will somehow find a better way of posting these chapters up. Somehow.

Got some ideas for us? We are still open to some ideas so post them up here.

Special Thanks to: thewrongvine for beta-reading this :p

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Name: ???
Age: Unknown, from body structure he is 16.
He wakes up in a hospital with no memories of his past. He doesn’t know his name, nor is he familiar with the explosion at the orphanage house that had left him with a broken arm and a large concussion. He experiences disillusions and sometimes questions his own sanity.

Name: Darius Truemen
Age: 16
Constantly getting into trouble at school, Darius is infamous at his school where he is well-known for his skateboarding skills, his crazy blond American hair, and his acts of vandalism though mainly for the latter. He seems to recognize the amnesiac boy somewhere in the past. He is an orphan since his parents had been brutally murdered by a criminal who was later caught and executed.

Name: Serene Evanna
Age: 15
A rising athletic star, Serene has done and practically mastered every sport you can possibly think of and more. She’s also a tomboy, acting tough and not very feminine as opposed to every girl around her. Her father disappeared off the face of the earth as soon as she was born and her mother was killed in a subway accident a few years ago, leaving her orphaned.

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3 Hours before Bloody Monday - Darius and Serene

Charlie fell on the cold wet cement hard before struggling to get up and away from me. My shadow had completely covered him; the dim streetlight behind me barely illuminated the desperate expression on his face. I stepped closer to him, the sounds of my step echoed out into the desolate alleyway as the man whimpered and crawled away from me. Not that it helped him at all. I picked him up by his white collar and held his face a few centimetres away from mine.

“Where is Professor Hector?” I asked him again in a low tone. Charlie’s dark eyes grew as big as his nose; he definitely knew something about the professor.

“N-no! I don’t k-know w-who that is!” A car passed by the alleyway, its headlight lit up every droplet of sweat that laced Charlie’s face. I had enough of this interrogation crap, we didn’t have that much time left. I slammed him into the wall beside us, making sure I didn’t knock his breath out, hard enough to make him cringe in pain.

“Don’t bullshit me. You know your pal Dunstan?” The feeble man’s lips quivered in fear before he nodded slowly, “Yea? Well he ratted out on you. He told me where to find you and that you know who Hector is and where he’s at. Don’t make this any harder than it needs to be.”

Charlie’s eyes searched frantically around me for something, I tightened my grip on his clothes and raised him up even higher and his eyes refocused onto mine. “I don’t- He’s...” He swallowed hard before continuing, “H-he’s at the First C-Cross H-Hospital.” Pathetic. Even the scrawny guys down at the Square were harder than him.

I looked deep into his wide eyes, finding no traces of a lie within them. But just to be sure, “You’re not lying now are you?” He shook his head frantically, his breath ragged and irregular, “Are you?”

His lips quivered once more before he opened his mouth to speak, his voice merely a whisper. “No.” I stared at him hard, letting loose the grip I had around his collar and letting him drop onto the hard cement. I turned to the end of the alleyway, calling out to Serene who was barely revealed from the darkness only by a small faintly glowing blue vial in her hands.

“I heard it.” She brushed her blonde hair away from her eyes, “Come on. We’ve got what we came here for. Let’s go.” As she turned, I couldn’t help but see faint traces of tears which had slid down her cheeks. I guess she was taking Eugene’s death a lot more seriously then I have. To be honest, I’ve never even seen her like this before. I found myself remembering that underneath all of the cynicism and sarcasm she is actually a girl.

Holy crap, that was probably the corniest shit I’ve said in my entire life. I would never be caught dead saying that out loud.​

I followed Serene as she led the way back to the police car we had stolen a few moments ago through countless damp alleys. The West Wing of Metropolis is the oldest, most outdated section of the city and because of the budget costs for the other parts of the city, there were very few streetlights in the back streets. That didn’t help the fact that it was a very dark night. Even the moon was completely covered by dark clouds. Like Eugene had said, ‘The Earth was preparing for the worst by simply dissipating into the darkness’. A slight chill ran through my back, the one familiar feeling that I always had whenever things were about to go to shit.

The radio in the cruiser still sounded pretty silent, so they still haven’t realized that we had escaped and that we had what they were looking for. At least Eugene got that part right, if nothing else. It would’ve been so much easier if he had just told us where exactly this ‘Professor Hector’ person is. But no, he had to go all martyr on us and ‘selflessly’ die for us, leaving us with this crazy ass thing to do for him.

“By the way,” Serene muttered as she hopped into the car, “when did you learn how to drive?”
I looked at the unfamiliar steering wheel and sighed.
“Around 5 seconds after we stole this.” I replied while starting up the car. I could barely see Serene giving me an incredulous look, but decided against saying anything about it. We didn’t have any time to joke around, and that’s serious if it was coming from me. Serene took out the map as I drove onto Central Street, the street that ran through the center of the entire Metropolis. I found out very quickly that it was probably the stupidest thing I’ve done up to date.

“Attention all units.” The radio crackled as Serene turned up the volume. This was when I pulled up into the main street. “There is a stolen police car marked Kay Seven that may have been stolen by those who perpetrated the Eugene House fire incident. They are considered armed and extremely dangerous. Pursue and apprehend on sight. Use of lethal force is authorized!” Serene and I gave an ‘Oh shit.’ look at each other before Serene frantically searched the map for routes.

Armed and dangerous? That’s definitely one way to put it...” I muttered under my breath, “We’ll just have to stay low and get to the hospital. Where is it again?” I tried to sound calm but you know how hard that was? The entire police department wanted our collective asses and now they get to fire guns at us. Shit!

“Thought you and your gang knew this city inside out... It’s in-” Just as Serene was about to say something, the radio crackled up again.

“This is an update from the higher-ups!” The voice sounded even more urgent and strained compared to last time, “Do NOT shoot! They have an object of Biohazard Level 4! They are now the most wanted in Metropolis. Kill on sight, but make damn sure that you only hit the occupants of the vehicles and nothing else!”

Just as the radio abruptly cut off, I saw the large televisions that were plastered on the sides of the large skyscrapers suddenly change from showing the city news to showing large glowing faces of me and Serene with the words ‘Public Enemy - Heavily Armed and Dangerous - Please Contact 911 if Spotted’ in bright red letters underneath. I stepped on the gas and accelerated even faster, the lights from the cars blurred right past me as I tried to keep us unseen.

“Congratulations. We’ve just made national television.” I heard Serene quip sarcastically, I was too stunned by how evil they made my grin look to even utter a word. Did I really look like that?

Remember how I said that going onto Central Street was possibly the most retarded thing I’ve ever done in my entire life? It sort of went like this:
Joe the Taxi-man, or whatever the hell his actual name is, had just finished staring at the large ‘wanted’ picture that is my publicity stunt glaring out from the television when he decided to look to his right where I was conveniently stuck there in the freakin’ Central Street traffic. After looking back and forth between the television and me about fifteen times, he rolled down his window and then shouted “THEY’RE BOTH HERE!”

But it wasn’t just Joe the Taxi-man, there was like fifty freaking people all around me. Central Street is the most overcrowded street in all of Metropolis, so it wasn’t long until someone shouted “Hey! They’re right there!” and then everyone froze completely still. It was so silent that the voice from the television was the only thing you could hear for miles around. At first, a few people started slowly backing away from us but then someone started screaming and everyone started scrambling for their lives. Cars were quickly driven away or were abandoned completely. In about twenty seconds everyone had either hid inside the buildings at the side of the street or had ran away all together.

It wasn’t surprising at all when the radio started crackling yet again, but this time with frantic voices shouting at each other. “I see them! Central Street! Unit K5 and N3 follow me!” I heard sirens go off behind me. There was like, five police cruisers charging right at us.

Shit. Shit. SHIT! I stomped on the gas pedal and the force of the car accelerating to 250 kilometres per hour threw my head back against the headrest.

“Serene, where the hell is this hospital?!” I felt heat rush up to my head. It was so freakin’ hard to swerve past abandoned cars and squeeze through little spaces in between them. Hearing the buzz of a large helicopter suddenly rushing overhead of us didn’t help with the stress at all. The helicopter turned around and a very bright light blinded me for a second.

“Turn to your right!” Serene yelled out, the map covering most of the windshield. Why the hell don’t cop cars have GPS?! I swore as I tore off the map and barely dodged a cruiser speeding right towards us. The wheels screeched as I pulled off a perfect drift and drove right into the next street. A loud bang echoed in the street and it took me a few seconds to realize that our windshield had shattered; some moron shot at us.

“Idiot! Watch your fire!” The radio spat out, “Shoot only if you can hit them! Don’t hit anything else!”

Suddenly, the helicopter above us suddenly opened fire on the car. I felt a bullet graze my arm and time slowed down to a sprawling crawl. I looked down at my wound, seeing fresh red blood trickle out of the wound made me feel nauseated. Ever since Eugene gave us that strange shot, I’ve felt weird every time I saw blood. I could felt my energy drain away, like it seeped through the wound; looking up at the windshield back then felt like it was the hardest thing I had ever done.

A hand slowly grabbed my shoulder firmly, but as I turned expecting to see Serene I instead saw a mutilated face. The eyeballs were hanging off of their sockets, the face itself was all blown up like a balloon and the cheeks were gone, revealing a bloody smile.

“Crap.” I managed to say as I looked out from the windshield. The entire city was replaced with smouldering ruins. All of the brightly lit buildings and the skyscrapers had crumbled away. There were corpses everywhere, distorted and smashed up just like the figure that sat beside me. A single red sun stood on top of the wreckage, giving everything an eerie red glow. I coughed as the stench of blood overcame me, but this wasn’t new to me at all. I felt the mutilated body sitting beside me in the car shake my shoulder once again, and I gave it a reassuring nod. I couldn’t make out its expression but it turned and faced the carnage standing in front of me, I think my message came through.

Occasionally some piece of debris or some trash like a rusty nail would fall and slowly rip through the car’s hood, flying sluggishly close to my body but it didn’t matter. I’ve already figured out that while I’m here, nothing could hurt me which included the disguised helicopter bullets. This was just an illusion that would last a few fleeting seconds.
The street had changed. Instead of being near the center of the city, I found myself at the edge of Metropolis. A large fence surrounded the entire city. There were sandbag pits behind the fences along with a bunch of faceless soldiers, machine guns at hand; in front of them was a pile of broken dead bodies. A massacre would be a fucking understatement. The ground was nothing but freakin’ blood-stained cement.

I watched a little seven year old stumble desperately towards the fence. She was crying and wailing the entire time she did and the soldiers started yelling at the girl, telling her to back off but she kept running towards them. I yelled at the soldiers as they raised their weapons, telling them to stop but they simply opened fire. Her body slid like two metres after it hit the dusty ground and the soldiers looked like nothing had happened at all. One of them even shot the body again just to make sure that the girl was dead. A little girl was instantly killed without hesitation right before my eyes.

My heart pounded and seared in burning pain, I clutched at it as the pain spread outwards engulfing my entire body.

“Watch out!”​

I heard Serene scream out and as I looked up I saw another teenager walking cluelessly in the middle of the road. I recognized that guy! But there wasn’t time to dwell on that. I veered to the left hard, apparently too hard as our police cruiser caught an edge and began rolling on its side before careening into a wall. The crash sent shards of glass flying all over me and crushed the back side of the car, making it impossible to open the doors. I struggled through the air-bag that inflated into my face and managed to crawl out of the wreckage through the window.

“Freakin’ hell! Did you see that guy’s face?! I swear it was-” I stopped mid-sentence as I saw Serene pull herself out of the car. In her scratched up hands were the remains of the shattered vial. “Did it... Did it break?!” She tried to avoid staring at her hands and looked back up at me. Her look only reconfirmed what I already knew. The glowing blue gas had completely dispersed into the air; it was only a matter of time now.

Crap. That wasn’t supposed to happen! Now what?!​

The helicopter suddenly emerged from behind one of the skyscrapers. Its blinding white spotlight caused me to squint and several not-very-happy looking soldiers jumped out of several army trucks holding their guns up and telling us to get down on our knees with our hands up.

A couple of them came up to me and Serene, guns still aiming at our heads, and searched the wreckage behind us for something. As they did, another man stepped right to us. I tried to look up to see his face but there were soldiers pinning me down to the ground.

“So, these are the two?” His voice sounded rough. I could smell the cigarette that he held in between his fingers as he spoke. “These two little kids managed to get away? I thought the explosion got them all.”

“Sir, the plan was most likely leaked beforehand as there is at least one more survivor. There was only one confirmed body at the site.” The soldier pinning my left shoulder down reported, but that didn’t prevent me from giving him ‘the finger’.

“That doesn’t matter. We’ve got the ones with the sample. Where is it?” The soldiers behind us who were searching the car all ominously said that they couldn’t find it. “Are you people stupid? It’s obviously on the kids.” He bent down close enough so that I could see his face. His eyes bore holes into mine and I realized that his dark eyes belonged not to a human being, but a murderer. The very same type of eyes that man had when he killed my parents. If that man just leaned forward just a bit more, he would be sporting that hat up his ass. The man took the cigarette out of his mouth and blew smoke all over my face, “Where is it, Darius?”

I was pissed. I fucking hated running, was against the whole entire plan from the very beginning. If I’m going down, I’m going down dragging as many of these ‘tards as I can. I spat at his face and felt a dangerous smile creep across my mine.

“It’s everywhere, colonel.”

6 Hours after Bloody Monday - Amnesiac and Michiko

I felt something sharp cut against my bruised arm as I tried to crawl underneath a fallen cement pillar separating me from the light coming from a small hole at the other end of what used to be my room. From what I could tell, it looked like the explosion had caused sections of the roof to cave in on top of the second floor where my room was. The force from it had ripped the piece of cloth that held my arm in a sling and smashed my cast into pieces, but strangely enough it felt like the arm was never broken at all. I was thankful for this because I found very quickly that it was practically impossible to actually sift through the rubble with just one arm.

The hole was within an arm’s length away now. I could already feel the cool wind flowing around my hand as I finally pulled myself out of the rubble. I sat there, on top of the two-story pile of debris, gaping at the entire city. The force from the blast had shattered most of the skyscraper windows and overturned numerous cars that littered the streets. One of the Tri-Towers far off in the distance had buckled over and was now leaning on another Tower, was that someone falling off the tower in the distance?

I shivered from the chilly breeze than ran through the barren streets, the events from last night were hard to even believe. But they were real. Too real. Ironic really, the reality I’ve sought for was a reality that I now wanted to simply be a dream. I heard some of the debris shuffle around in the hole behind me and a soot-covered arm shot out from the darkness. I grabbed it and hoisted a soot-covered figure out of the tunnel. At first, I couldn’t recognize Michiko but her short shoulder-long hair and her dark brown eyes gave it away.

“Did you hear anyone else while we were getting out?” Michiko shyly asked. I silently shook my head and she sighed as she brushed the dust off of her hospital clothes. I could feel a twinge of annoyance creeping up within me, but I suppressed it as I turned away and surveyed the streets. There was no one in sight. Nothing broke the unnatural silence save the countless crackles from broken electric wires. I somehow recalled that Metropolis was also known to be called the Electric Kingdom because literally everything and anything in it ran off of electricity, which included cars and the subway. I took a mental note to be careful around live wires if I was going to be near them... Speaking of which, what was I going to do now?

I glanced downwards around where I stood and noticed a sort of steep ramp made up of rubble that led from where I was to the ground. That would be my way off of this I guess, but where would I go? I had no home, no family or friends... Rather, I couldn’t really remember them, not that they remembered me either since none of them even bothered to see if I was all right when I was sent to the hospital. Maybe I didn’t have any parents, I was found inside an orphanage after all. As for friends, I never liked being near people in the first place. Never have, never will.

A deep, rumbling crack echoed out from the hollow streets and I saw a skyscraper in the distance slowly crumble away in a large cloud of dust that reached all the way up into the smoky dark sky. Of course, I wasn’t surprised at all.
“...Wow... I hope no one was in that.” I heard Michiko remark. No really? I rolled my eyes and kept the sarcastic response in my head, finally deciding that this wasn’t the best place to be at the moment. First off, I need some clothes other than the rags the hospital forced me to wear. Then I would need supplies like food and...

“So, uhm... Do you have any ideas on what we should do?” We? She’s not honestly expecting to stick by me the whole entire time is she? I looked at her expectant face cautiously, travelling with someone in this type of situation would be safer... but she doesn’t look that reliable at all. First off, I don’t remember much of the city anymore so she might come useful there, but she looks like the type of girl who is afraid of spiders, let alone a destroyed city with bodies lying here and there. Speaking of which, the streets was covered with bodies. Most of them died from jumping off the skyscrapers seeing how their limbs were bent up in odd directions, some were crushed underneath cars, I could even see one in the distance that had a small knife protruding out of his neck. I guessed people killed themselves in the most readily available way possible.

An exploding gas station down the street convinced me that travelling with Michiko might be more beneficial than travelling alone. Hell, we might be the only two left alive in this section of the city. Why the hell would they put a freaking goddamn geothermal power-plant right in the middle of the city?! The quake had done some considerable damage to the buildings around it, some of the skyscrapers were either leaning on each other or had crumbled away all together, the air itself was filled with smoke and dust. I turned back to Michiko and shrugged, “Staying here would be bad.”

Michiko looked relieved and smiled a bit but it quickly turned into a frown, “I want to see if my mom and sister are all right. They live further away from the power-plant so they should be all right.”

I nodded in acknowledgement, but there was something off. I mean, it has been at least five or six hours after the power plant had exploded and I still haven’t heard anything from anyone. Shouldn’t there be rescue teams or something? Helicopters? Firetrucks? Yet, nothing showed up. Something is definitely wrong here.

“So uhm... Do you remember anything yet?” Michiko asked curiously, as we finally touched the ground. The stench of blood was overwhelming and I almost gagged from the thick coppery smell. Michiko however, seemed completely oblivious to the smell.

“No.” I replied back to her, hoping she could notice from my tone that I don’t really want to talk right now but she missed the hint.

“Well... I can’t just call you ‘Hey’ or something, even if you can’t remember your own name, make one up for yourself.” I was about to reply ‘No’ when I heard someone... a woman maybe, faintly crying from around the corner of the building. Michiko was still going at it, continuing to make up names for me until I clamped my hand around her mouth and ‘Shhh’d’ her.

She gave me a questioning look with her dark brown eyes but then she heard it too. I put a finger up to my lips, the universal signal for ‘be quiet’ and let go of her mouth, before we crept towards the source of the sound. The wailing was definitely feminine in nature, and it was echoing out from beyond the darkness that shrouded the end of the stairs of a subway station. Great, let’s go into a nice pitch black hole with creepy crying coming out of it, there’s definitely nothing wrong with that. By the time I had decided that there was no chance in hell that I was going down there, Michiko was already making her way down the stairs.

“What. Are. You. Doing?!” I whispered quickly in a hushed voice as to not have the person with the creepy wailing hear me, “You seriously want to go into... into that?” Michiko gave me an incredulous look in reply.

“That person might need help!” She said indignantly, “Of course I’m going! You’re coming too!”

“Why the hell am I coming?” I retorted back, “I’m not going to-”

“You’re just scared.” She stated quietly before carefully continuing down into the darkness of the underground subway station, leaving me alone to think of some sort of rebuttal.

Damn.​

Against all of my common sense and the voice in my head screaming at me to just back out all together, I called out to her and followed her towards the source of the wailing.

The subway station was pitch black, the overhanging lights were flickering in sync, but only once every few seconds. What I saw every few seconds wasn’t pretty at all. In a corner was a large heap of charred corpses with smoke still wafting out of the bodies, the bodies were utterly indistinguishable. When we passed the pile and went near the ticket booth we saw blood and purple chunks of flesh that was splattered all over the glass windows with the occasional clean bullet hole. Michiko grew more and more cautious with every dead mutilated corpse we passed by on our way towards the high-pitched crying, until we came to the subway loading zone.

Oh god, the subway loading zone. The easiest way to die here was to jump right in front of the subway, and from the... mess, I’m pretty sure everyone else thought the same thing. The Metropolis Bullet-Rail is one of the world’s fastest automated subway system ever, being hit by one of the trains not only would instantly kill you but would also tear your body apart apparently. I nearly tripped over a separated arm in one of the short lapses of darkness when all of the lights went off. When the lights lazily flickered back on, I saw laying in front of me a head that was smashed in so badly that the face was no longer there. Behind it was numerous twisted and mangled bodies, the thick sick coppery metallic smell of blood made me threw up on the spot.

“S-shit!” I swore, spitting out the last traces of chime and barf from my mouth. “That’s it, I’m out.” I didn’t even stop to hear Michiko’s reply, this was just too freaky, too creepy, too unnatural.

Before Michiko could say anything, a sudden shrill shriek reverberated from one of the darker, unlit corners of the loading zone stopping me dead in my tracks. The hair on the back of my neck tingled from the eerie howl. It was a cry of utter joy, Michiko and I shot a glance at each other before carefully stepping closer to the hunched over figure in the darkness. As we silently crept towards her, for the figure was obviously of a woman’s, I realized her back was turned towards us.

“I’ve found you honey! I’m so, so, so sorry! I’ll never let you out of my eyes again!” I saw a little bundle wrapped with a soft light blue blanket in the woman’s hands, she was cradling it gently. We were no more than two metres away from the woman when Michiko finally asked, “Are you ok?”

The woman didn’t turn back to face us but instead kept cuddling the soft little bundle, “Now I am. Now we are.” She corrected herself, “I thought I lost my baby but I’ve found him now! Oh it was so scary, everyone jumped onto the rails, I nearly fell in myself! I dropped my baby and... and...” She trailed off, lost in thought.

It was my turn to ask questions now, “So, people in the subway also killed themselves?”

The woman turned back a bit, “Also? You mean, this happened somewhere else?”

Michiko shot me a knowing glance, “Yea,” I nodded, “from as far as I can see, a lot of people in the city killed themselves.”

“We should leave.” Michiko added in softly.

“Yes, yes... We should.” The woman said as the subway station lights flickered on again. “My baby finally fell asleep, you can hear his soft snores...” She giggled quietly to herself. She slowly got up and...

Was that... blood seeping out of the bundle?​

A slight uneasiness came over me. “Your baby... is sleeping?” I repeated, more of a statement then a question. The woman nodded eagerly.

“He’s snoring just like an angel, can’t you hear him?” The only sound I heard was the small crackles of electricity and the soft howling of the wind coming from the subway entrance.

Michiko’s warm smile lit up even more, “Can I see him please? I like babies!” The woman smiled and motioned for Michiko to come over.

“Er, Michiko...” Before I could stop her, she ran over to the woman like any other girly fourteen year old would and looked expectantly as the woman slowly unravelled the bundle. Michiko’s excited smile turned into a frown of concern when she finally noticed the small blotches of blood that stood out from the light blue blanket. I watched as the bundle came undone.

And a man’s head rolled out, hitting the floor with a sickening splat.​

Michiko screamed, shocking the woman a bit. Michiko slowly backed away from the woman towards me, pale and shaking from shock. The woman looked from the blood-soaked blanket in her hands to the head that laid on the floor to us. Her expression turned from shock, to fear, and then finally to anger.

“What... what happened to my baby?” She threw the blanket to the floor, “Where did you go?!” She was screaming frantically as she looked around the dimly lit death-filled station. Her gaze fell on Michiko, who had backed into me and had held my hand tightly as if she didn’t believe I was here.
The woman slowly stepped towards me, “You! You’ve taken him away!” Her pace quickened, this time it was my turn to back away slowly. My heart started to pound and I felt my stomach tighten. “Where did you take him to? GIVE HIM BACK!” She screamed and now lunged for my throat.

Holy shit! I tightened my grip on Michiko’s hand and ran. Michiko didn’t even resist as I towed her away from... from... that crazy woman. I could hear her footsteps gaining up on us as I made it to the stairs.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?!”​

I could hear her screech loudly, as if she was right behind me. I tore up the stairs, fighting the urge to look back as I made it halfway up. Whatever this woman was, she’s completely lost her humanity.

I’LL KILL YOU!”​

I felt my hand that held Michiko’s being suddenly pulled back. I turned to look to see Michiko being pulled back by the woman, and her face...
Her face was completely distorted in her fit of rage, but what made my heart leap was her eyes. Her eyes were completely dark save the glowing yellow pupils. A strange dark pattern was slowly spreading across her face, just like the doctor’s face before he impaled his head with multiple syringes when he committed suicide in front of me. The warm, gentle features of the woman’s face were completely gone, contorted into an expression of unmeasureable anger and rage. I did the only thing I could, punched her right in the face and sent her rolling down the cement stairs.

She cackled insanely as her body bounced down the stairs, I could hear bones being broken as she landed in a heap back down in the darkness of the subway station.

I’’LL GET YOU! HAHAHA! I’LL FIND YOU! YOU’LL BE SORRY FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO MY BABY!”​

Her scream echoed out from the dark entrance followed by another fit of distorted, crazed laughter as I dragged Michiko behind me and collapsed onto the hard, unforgiving cement floor. Michiko finally broke down and started to cry softly somewhere near me, but I paid no attention to her. I still heard the woman’s crazed laughter and her promises to kill me echoing in my ears.
We were safe, for now. I stared at the dust-filled sky until a small ray of light punctured through the smoke and shone directly at my face. As I raised my hand to block the sudden glare, I’ve noticed something on my hand.

I sat up and raised my sleeve.

My arm was slowly growing a strange black pattern.​

15 Hours before Bloody Monday - Amnesiac and Michiko

15 Hours Before Bloody Monday
Amnesiac

"He's... He's awake! Doctor! He's awake!"

Those were the first few words I could make out as the bright white ceiling lights overhead circled around each other until my vision focused them into one. The nurse whom the voice belonged to sounded surprised, scared even, when she yelled out. I tried to turn my head to look around me, but I quickly found out that my head was securely strapped down to the bed I was laying on and gave up trying to force my head out of the harness. It was then that I was aware of multiple footsteps approaching me from behind. I heard a door open and suddenly there were voices, I could tell there were three people, including the nurse from before.

"Not now, officer, he's heavily injured and requires my immediate attention." A rough voice said with a thick heavy German accent.

"B-but sir! The fire! The explosion! He might know something!"

"No. You brought him here to me instead of a public hospital for a reason, for immediate treatment. I don't want any patients dying on me, English." A flashlight suddenly beamed into my face, causing me to squint. The sudden change in luminosity made me unable to make out the faces of the people towering over me. At first, I could make out only the thick-rimmed glasses that the doctor was wearing. I shifted my view and slowly focused on the man standing beside him who was trying to persuade him into talking with me. From the flash of his badge and the stereotypical hat, it was easy enough to deduce that this was some sort of cop. An explosion, a policeman, me in a hospital... Easy to conclude what had happened.

"...telling you sir, this is a very high-profile case. An explosion in a house? The only thing that could set an explosion that big off is a leaking gas furnace which they didn't have or a bomb which is impossible." What explosion? Where was it? Where was I?

"So?" The doctor said gruffly. He placed the flashlight away and put his hand on my neck, feeling my pulse. I almost recoiled from his touch instinctively. What's going on around here?

"That's the thing!" The policeman took off his hat and rubbed his short dark hair, "They didn't have any gas furnaces but the higher-ups blamed it on a gas leak that ignited and then the case was closed! How could you have a gas explosion without any gas?! Someone might be paying off the authorities, to hide something much more... grander. You know the cases of the disappearances? Twenty-one teenagers gone without a trace! All of the cases I've done that seem related to those disappearances are all hushed up by political intervention! Which is why you are not to tell anyone about him." The policeman pointed at me to emphasize his point.

The doctor turned to him and sighed, "You sure know how to talk a lot, English. Too noisy." He unfastened the straps that held my body down, "Five minutes. Then I need to check up on him. He's suffered a massive blunt blow to the head, one that would usually kill someone along with internal bleeding in one of his lungs and had a ruptured spleen. I am honestly quite surprised that he woke up at all even after I've treated him. I expected him to be a vegetable for the rest of his life, where did you find him anyways?" The doctor carefully helped me sit up and folded up the bed so that it was like a chair.

"In the cellar, there was a metal door so it absorbed most of the force before the explosion got to him. We found a body too, though hardly recognizable anymore. I believe it was the owner of the orphanage, but I can't say for sure." The nurse pushed over a chair to the policeman, "Ah, thank you. All right..." He cracked his knuckles before sitting down on the chair and taking out a pen and a notepad, "Let's start with the usual stuff. Name's Gregor, Gregor Kregsmen. Yours?"

"What happened to me?" I asked instead, it was best to act dumb first, I could get more information on what was happening. I coughed, my voice sounded alien to even myself. Like it didn't belong to me. My tongue felt like leather, my throat was parched. It took me two tries to choke those words out.

"You were found in an orphanage that looked like it was just bombed by six pounds of C4. Look, I need your help. I need to find out who's at the bottom of this; it might even be connected to a larger series of cases which I need to crack. First, I need your name."

I could tell he was hiding something, his expression looked a bit too frantic and a bit too desperate for this to be just a regular interrogation. "Oh, my name is..." I started off instinctively, but suddenly trailed off. My name? I closed my mouth and tried to scan through my memories. Nothing came through and I could see the doctor frown slightly before I opened my mouth again, "I... don't know." I shrugged, feeling a bit frustrated. Why can't I remember my name? Who am I?

"You. Have. Got. To. Be. Kidding!" Gregor accented each word separately and face palmed, "Doc, did he suffer from memory loss?"

"He"s suffered a massive blow to the head," the doctor repeated with a hint of sarcasm in his voice, "and was out for three hours with absolutely zero conscious brain activity. Of course there would be something wrong with him, English."

Gregor sighed before starting to rummage through his bag for something. "Of course he would, my only lead and it happens to be a kid with absolutely no memories..." He pulled out some photos and held each of them up in front of my face one by one. "Recognize this guy?" He showed me a brown-haired scowling teenager wearing a black and red headband and a chain around his neck. "He's Darius Truemen, parents were killed by a mass murderer nicknamed Rippin' Jack. He lived in the orphanage you were found in, remember anything?" I shook my head. Why? Was I supposed to know the guy? He looked like the type of people who would pick up fights for kicks. Someone I wouldn't associate myself with usually... How'd I know that?

He moved on to the next photo, this time it showed a picture of a teenage girl with long white-blond hair that went to her shoulders wearing an earring on one of her ears. "This one's Serene Evans, poor girl had her father disappear soon after they had moved to Metropolis while her mother died in a subway accident. She also lived in the same orphanage. Anything coming back to you?" I still shook my head. I felt nothing, absolutely nothing, not even a twinge of any recognition that I had known any of this.

The policeman continued on, taking out a larger picture this time. It showed a large mansion that almost looked like an old castle with the words "Eugene's Refuge" inscribed in a metal plate plastered above the large wooden double doors. "How about this? This was the orphanage that you were found in. Do you remember anything about it?"

"Nothing."​

The policeman sighed and then turned back to the doctor. "Hey doc, you think you can fix him up or something? Please, he's my only lead."

"My name is Strauss, English. Arnold Strauss." The doctor said indignantly before he cleared his throat, "And there are never such things as total memory loss. Give him some time and it will slowly come back to him. In the mean time, your five minutes were up seven seconds ago." He tapped his watch, "You will have to excuse us and come back tomorrow."

"Go back there? Are you serious? I'm trying to uncover a conspiracy behind the government which has control to arrest me anytime, and you want me to go back to the police station? I mysteriously disappeared from the scene of the explosion and the police would have noticed by now that there is a resident of the Refuge that is missing. As soon as I get back there, I might conveniently disappear. Remember Professor James Hector? Yea, after he and Eugene broke off their contract with Krypton Medical Industries he mysteriously disappeared and Eugene's orphanage home was bombed. Coincidence? My ass."

Professor Hector?

I felt something pulse in my head, a searing pain engulfed my chest and I hissed in pain. I was shaking uncontrollably and my eyes couldn't focus on anything. What's-

"Woah! What's happening to him?!" The policeman yelled out as he jerked back away from me. Is he an enemy? No, he's not, his name is Gregor. He saved me from something, what was it? I need to tell him-

No, no, forget about that. Break his neck! It'll snap like a twig...

What? No, he's a friend-

Like a twig! His body will drop like a ragdoll, it'll be fun! Just give it a good squeeze!

I felt my thoughts being interrupted by something, it was like a mental wall sprung up whenever I tried to think properly. I coughed and felt a warm liquid trickle down my mouth before my body went into huge spasms.

"Tina, get over here!" Dr. Strauss said. No, wait! I need to find Doctor Hector! "He's convulsing and he's going into cardiac arrest! Get me..."

His voice was drowned out by a deafening silence when I started seeing purple dots floating around; I felt the room spin as my heavy eyelids slowly closed. I tried to get up, move my arm, do something but I felt powerless as I felt myself slip away...

________________________________________

5 Hours before Bloody Monday
Michiko

"...and I brought you your favorite! Caramel chocolate!" My mom took out three small bars of chocolate from her purse and waved them around as if she was trying to get me to reach for them. I couldn't help but smile at this, I was waaayyy too old for this but I appreciated this gesture. It was a nice change of pace from the monotony that is hospital life, everyone here acted like robots!

"Thanks, mom." I laughed a bit as I took the bars and immediately began ripping the gold foil wrapper off one of them.

"The doctor was talking to me and he said that you could be out as soon as next week if everything goes according to plan! Isn't that great?" My mom squeaked enthusiastically. "Of course, only if you think your chest doesn't hurt anymore!"

By chest, my mom means my ribcage. My older sister took me out for ice cream one night three weeks ago when a drunk driver swerved off the side of the road and slammed into the line-up. Four people died that day, I was one of the luckier ones. I would've been dead too if my sister didn't manage to pull me back a bit. I shivered at the recollection, my mom noticed my growing discomfort and quickly changed the subject.

"Oh, do you know who that is?" She asked, pointing to the person sleeping on the opposite end of the room. "I took a peek before coming into the room and he looked like he was strapped onto the bed so he wouldn't move. Almost like a convict in those prisoner movies!"

That boy only came in last night, with a policeman whispering to the doctor as they lifted him up and placed him onto the bed. The policeman must've thought I was asleep, because he started talking a bit louder after they strapped the boy to his bed.

"Listen, I forgot about this." Through the slits of my almost closed eyes I saw the policeman take out a small rectangular device, but I couldn't tell what it was. "It was found in the hand of a mutilated corpse that might've been Eugene's body, but it looks defunct."

The doctor took the device and turned it around, "It says 'To the boy, alone.', quite a strange way to address your own son even if he is adopted isn't it, English?"

"This case has too many loose ends. Can you please give this to him when he wakes up? It doesn't work when I try to turn it on but it looks fine. Maybe the kid can turn it on or something, might refresh his memories a bit. Please, I really need to wrap this up soon."

"Not a problem, but you need to start telling me things." The doctor placed the device on a small desk beside the boy, "One of them being your incentive for solving this case."

"It's my job, Strauss. I solve cases to be paid-" I saw the doctor raise an eyebrow and gave him an 'Oh really?' look, the policeman stopped and hesitated, clearing his throat before continuing, "All right, you know those missing teenagers I was talking about to the kid? Well my daughter's one of them. I was searching for her and the trail's gone cold every time I picked up a new clue. The government steps in and tapes up all of the evidence, it's like they're purposely blocking me from everything. Look, you don't know how much this means to me, just-"

"Michiko?"​

I blinked as my mom's concerned voice dragged me back to the present, "Are you all right?"

I nodded silently and she gave me a concerned smile, "Well, look at the time! I need to go now, but I'll definitely be back three days from now! I'll have you out by March!" I led my mom to the door, thanking her for the chocolates and promising her that I'll be all right no matter what happens.

"Get well soon!" She yelled as I slowly closed the door behind her. The door hit the desk beside the boy and the strange small rectangular device I saw earlier fell off and hit the floor. It sat there on the ground silently, but something told me I shouldn't pick it up. I saw a small label stuck on to the back of the device, on it were the words, "For the boy, alone."

Curiosity got the better of me. Ignoring the ominous aura that surrounded it, I knelt beside it and slowly picked up the small black box, turning it around in my hands as I brought it to my eyes. Just what was it?

The top end of the box suddenly opened and a strong blue light shot out from it, forming the figure of an elderly man who stared at me. I got my answer then, it was a hologram player.

"If you are hearing this," a voice crackled out from the box, "then my worst fears have been confirmed. I should be dead and you should have not retained any previous memories. Your brain by now should have adapted to the changes and you should be fine physically, but mentally is an entirely different subject all together! Now, how are you feeling?"

The question was directed at me, for I was the one who activated the hologram player. I stayed silent, what should I do now? Wake up the strange boy? Shut it off? How do you shut one of these off? Maybe it was best if I didn't say anything at all and ignore it. I can tell the doctor that it fell off and-

"I feel like a train ran over me. Five times." I heard a hoarse voice reply. I looked up and I saw the boy awake, his head turned to me and the hologram. The hologram image of the man distorted and then re-appeared, facing the boy.

"Excellent. I knew you would say that, of course, you always say that when you feel generally unwell. Your personality should still remain intact after your memories have been cleared. Space on this recording device is very limited, so I was forced to leave out telling you who you are. But know this: you being alive and well means that within this day this entire city will meet its end. I've sacrificed a lot, including my life, to get you where you are right now. I don't have much recording time left, so listen carefully. If you start to feel tremors, stay under the reinforced door frame. It is the safest place to be in the hospital in the event of an earthquake."

"I don't understand any of this." The boy replied weakly to the projected man. You're not the only one confused here, I thought, but I kept silent through the entire conversation.

"I've predicted you would say that. Please, just stay alive, be smart and alert. I pray that you will be safe and sound, though I know better. If you feel lost or have no idea what to do next, head towards Krypton Medical Industries and look for a red metal door on the right when you enter, the password is 2052."

The projected man sighed and took off his heavy-rimmed glasses before staring at the boy, "I'm sorry to have left this to you and your brother and sister. I know that whatever I say will be worth nothing compared to what you will have to endure, but I had no choice. Stay safe."

With that, the projected image of the man distorted and was no more. I sat there on the ground, staring at the box as it crackled and sparked. Smoke started steaming out of the side vents as the boy rolled his head back and stared silently at the ceiling, leaving me alone to register the last two minutes of my life.

"Okay, I'm a bit freaked out now." I managed to say as I turned my gaze back to the smoking box, "He made it sound like the end of the world was coming. Is this some sort of joke?"

"What time is it?" The boy asked instead.

I glanced at the clock, "8:18 PM."

"In about three hours and forty minutes, we're gonna find out if this is really a joke or not."​
Comments and Criticism is appreciated, since this is actually worth some marks at school too :p.
 

Dyslexia://

New Member
Reaction score
13
Update List
March 25, 2010:
Thread created and story posted.​
Chapter: 3 Hours before Bloody Monday posted.​

May 27, 2010:
Chapter: 6 Hours after Bloody Monday posted.​

July 31, 2010:
Chapter: 15 Hours before Bloody Monday posted. [About freakin' time Geoff!]​
 

thewrongvine

The Evolved Panda Commandant
Reaction score
506
I already commented, too lazy to comment again :p

But it's awesome. Recommend.

~Hai-Bye-Vine~
 

thewrongvine

The Evolved Panda Commandant
Reaction score
506
Winner!
This story is like, so totally amazing. I cannot believe how like, insanely intense it is.

And I'm serious really. :)

~Hai-Bye-Vine~
 

Dyslexia://

New Member
Reaction score
13
Glad to see people like the story. It's not worth any marks now so we're a bit lazy now.

Ah crap, now it's my turn to finish up the next one...
 

iPeez

Hot food far all world wide!
Reaction score
166
Aaah... I have not been around here for ages! New design and everything, nice! Anyway on topic, and yes I know this is nekroing w/e: This story is awesome and if you ever get online again man please let me know if you published it as a PDF or handed it in as a school project or something :>

Should be read by everyone :D :thup:
 

Syndrome

You can change this now in User CP.
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126
To be honest, we have all the drafts done for the entire story... [Which was worth the marks. We got 110% don't ask how...]

...but it's Dyslexia's turn to finish the next chapter.

You actually made him get off his lazy ass haha :p He's working on it as we speak.

I personally hate the ending we made for this story because it's freaking sad. But...

Some questions of this story are:

- What happens to society if laws and reason were no longer applicable? [the lockdown]
- What happens to people interacting with others if insanity was literally contagious? Would they become paranoid and scared? Will they attack each other? Will they band together?
- What happens when those infected gradually develop powers in these circumstances? Will they abuse it? Use it to break out? How about those who aren't infected? Will they exploit those who have powers? Will they eradicate them in fear that the powers are too powerful?
--^ The powers described in the story are not like 'magic' or anything and can be explained through biological means. They also aren't perfect [as with mutations]. Most of these powers actually harm the user a lot, and have loads of limitations. They do not promote 'godmode' and are not invincible against weapons of war.

Worst comes to worse we'll just post the entire first draft. It's actually quite good as it is but there are parts where you rush-write just to get it over with which we want to rewrite.
 

iPeez

Hot food far all world wide!
Reaction score
166
Holy cow! :D greaaaat!
EDIT:

Could I create a PDF when you are satisfied with the story and all its chapters? Add a few illustrations, maybe some high contrast ones, like totaly white sparrows (thinking about the header on the main post of this thread)?
 

Syndrome

You can change this now in User CP.
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Haha feel free! I think we might upload PDF's instead of copy-pasting the next few chapters since we're running out of available characters on the 1st post...
The next chapter might be up as early as tonight if we get rolling!
 
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