Читать книгу Black Riders - Samuel I Sinclair - Страница 6

Chapter 1

Work to Be Done

1

Night was falling over the city of Norrian, the capital city of the New World. Though the sun had set, many still had work left. But there was only one man whose work held true importance, or at least, to him, it did. His official title was Royal Guard Assistant First-Class Doctor Flinch. He had a private business he conducted when he wasn’t needed by the royal guards just like today.

His last client left as the sun had begun to set, and once they had, he began preparing to leave as well. These preparations were part of his daily routine, but it still took him more than half the sun’s setting time to finish. After finishing his organization and putting the new files in his system, he was ready to depart. He locked his file room and then the main entrance before stepping outside.

I believe this shall be an exciting evening, he thought to himself as he stepped into the street.

It was The Time of the Changing Leaves, and he loved it. The leaves in the city parks were turning beautiful colors, and there was a slight chill in the air, with or without the wind. Both gave him a relaxed feeling as he walked from his office to the northern monorail station. He could have hired a coach to speed him to the station in less than ten minutes, but he preferred to make the twenty-eight-minute walk through the brisk night. When it wasn’t raining, that was.

He walked without incident as he passed common folk, just as he did at almost this exact time every day, and did not look at them with pointed curiosity. He did find himself wondering, as he so often did, what went on in their funny little heads. This thought plagued his mind as he passed the dark alleyways that were said to hold ravenous hybrids that escaped containment. In the years following The True War, mankind’s geneticists had found ways to form hybrids by combining humans with specific animal genes. He himself had been trying to make two such breakthroughs.

Quickly, he freed his mind from the plaguing thoughts and started thinking about the genes that were placed into unborn infants to make them live longer, be immune to certain diseases, or have fewer birth defects. In an instant, he felt bored with this notion. He began thinking instead about the genetically-engineered foods that were made to give people more vitamins and nutrients. But that wasn’t very interesting either, so he started thinking about his hobby of genetically crossbreeding plant species to breed beautiful flowers. And since he loved this most of all, he kept his mind on it the rest of the walk to the station.

2

Before he realized how much time had passed, he saw he had arrived at the entrance of the North Business District Cradle and could hear one of the women announcing the arrival of one of the monorails. He stepped into the station building and walked up the stairs. There was a line but not too terribly long. And yet it still put him in a slightly livid state, but he didn’t let it show. He waited his turn, and when the soldier came to him, he was greeted with a smile, and he smiled back.

“Any lunatics today, Doctor?” the soldier asked.

“I cannot say,” the doctor replied.

“One day you will.”

“Perhaps.”

The soldier laughed at this, but the doctor kept a serious look on his face.

“May I get on the Black?” the doctor proposed in an exhausted tone. “People need sleep, you know.”

“And I need money for drinks,” the soldier responded in a business tone. “So I have to inspect you.”

The doctor sighed and raised his arms. The soldier patted him and searched him and his briefcase for weapons but found none.

“As always, you passed.” The soldier happily noted, and this ended their ritual.

The doctor didn’t look at the soldier or say anything. He only walked onto the monorail and selected a seat. Seven minutes later, with all passengers and cargo loaded, the doors to the monorail closed, and a woman’s voice rang over the speaker.

“Attention, passengers of the Black Monorail, we are heading from Norrian North Business Districts to Norrian East Resident Districts. This trip shall take a total of twenty-two minutes, and we ask that you remain stationary while the monorail is in motion. Thank you.”

The doctor paid little attention to this. His mind was set on a prize that for him was par excellence. And if he could have it, then he would feel like the greatest success the world had ever seen. But to accomplish this feat, he needed several things to happen, and he needed them to happen very soon. Yet taking his experiences into account and how his luck had played out throughout his years, they wouldn’t. But anything is possible, he thought. This and several other thoughts relating to this turned round his head when he felt the jerking of the monorail as it came to a stop. Again, the woman made an announcement over the speakers as the doors opened, but he paid no attention to it as he stepped into the cradle.

He walked from the cradle, out into the moonlit night. Once outside he turned right and began to walk through the city streets at a decent pace. He passed the streets along the cobblestone pathways, looking at the trees along the route he had taken. Upon reaching the entrance of Rose Park, he noticed a dirty beggar woman sitting on one side of the archway gate. He stopped to get a better look at her.

“Spare a coin, sir?” the woman begged. “Just one, to help save the life of a miserable woman.”

Having had his better look at her, he made his decision. From his studies, he knew she might have been pretty once, but she hadn’t cleaned herself in at least a week and had likely sold everything she had for some sort of drug. This was evident from the stench of the dirt and rot flowing from her mouth and body. He took notice of her position, her legs spread outward, and realized she likely had resorted to selling her body to pay for her drugs.

“I won’t give you a single coin,” the doctor said. She looked as though she was going to cry. He smiled. “I intend to give you a bed and a meal instead.”

She looked at him, and tears began to flow down her face.

“Thank you, sir. Thank you!”

“It is my pleasure to help those in need, miss. Now, please follow me.”

He waited for her to stand and grab the bag she had at her side. When she did, they began to walk nearly side by side. He led her through the park and down one of the adjacent alleyways. When he reached the other side, he turned right and walked down the street marked Lyons Boulevard. He soon made a right, two lefts, three and four blocks down, another right a block down, and finally, reached his home on Colossus Way.

“Here we are, my dear,” he said as he reached into his pocket for his keys.

She looked fearfully from him to the building and back at him as he put his key into the lock.

“Where are we now, sir?” she asked with great fear in her voice. “I’ve never been in this part of the city.”

“This is my humble domicile.” He smiled at her, and her fear began to disappear. “It isn’t much, but it is home, and I wouldn’t change it even for a palace. Now please come inside, and I shall get you something to eat and a warm bed.”

“I should like that very much.”

The doctor chuckled a slight bit as he opened the door to the building, and they entered.

3

The doctor’s home was larger inside than the woman had expected. It consisted of an open concept kitchen, dining, and living room; an in-home office, a downstairs powder room, and an upstairs that likely held a few standard-sized bedchambers and a bathroom. The most surprising thing about it was that it was completely updated. It had a woodburning fireplace and was lit by torchlight instead of electricity. This was a little shocking because of the high-quality look of the home, but with the expenses of electricity or personal generators, it wasn’t very surprising.

“Make yourself comfortable while I prepare tonight’s feast,” the doctor called as he put his briefcase down and built a fire. When it was lit, he moved into the kitchen to cook.

The woman moved slowly, carefully, through the living room until she found a leather chair and sat in it. It was the most comfortable she had been in at least a month. She didn’t realize it at first, but she unintentionally became drowsy and quickly fell asleep by the fire.

The doctor woke her up two hours later in a location she didn’t recognize.

4

She was too tired to take notice of the room she was in until she felt a shock run through her body. This shock brought her back to full consciousness, and her body tried to jerk but was unable to. She looked down at her body and saw that she was wearing some strange collar and was fully naked.

“Good evening, miss,” a slightly higher-pitched and more childish voice uttered from beside her. “Have any pleasant dreams?”

She turned her head and saw someone with features like the man who had been so kind to her before sitting beside her on the back side of a chair. This man wasn’t wearing a jacket or long-sleeve shirt on his upper body, only an undershirt. His entire visible body, other than his head, was covered in tattoos. He was also not wearing glasses and had long blond hair instead of short black hair.

“What is going on?” she asked nervously. The New Man smiled sinisterly and laughed. “Why have you done this?” she pleaded. When she asked this, he winced and covered his ears.

“Shut up now or I’ll gag you and commence my work now!”

She shut her mouth as fast as she possibly could.

“Now, normally, I like to play with my meal before I commence with it, but should you continue to bother me as you do, I will have no reason to have such fun.”

She still looked confused and terrified, even more so upon hearing this statement.

“Perhaps an explanation and introductions are needed. My name is Izac Killian, and from the look I had in your bag, you are Anna Woodlaine. Now that introductions are over, let me explain my purpose. You are here for donation and experimentation.”

“What? Where am I?”

“Our personal laboratory,” Izac bragged and waved his hand across his body to display the room.

Anna looked along its path and saw she was in what looked like an abandoned medical room.

“What kind of laboratory?”

“We are trying to grow Guardians and Silk Weavers.”

The look of confusion stayed on Anna’s face.

“Guardians come from the belief that great beasts guard the gateway into the afterlife. The Great Doorkeepers to The Lower World, in other words. Bones of these great beasts are rumored to have been discovered, and we have acquired their DNA. With this and his high and powerful intellect, I know that we can create one or even a thousand. And you may not know this, but spider silk is stronger than any armor we can produce in this day and age. So if we can find a way to mass-produce silk, then The Leader will reward us heavily for our products.”

“So why have you restrained me? What do you want with me?” Anna almost bleated.

“We need something from you in order to grow my lovely children. As you likely know, you women possess eggs that turn into life. Yet as you go through your life, you lose eggs. So it is best that they are taken when you are young.”

“You are going to—”

“Extract your eggs?” Izac now sounded pleased and excited. “No, not me. He will. But don’t worry about that yet. We still have a little playtime to do first.”

Anna looked extremely terrified, but Izac could also see a look of confusion on her face. All he did in response to this was smile in a sadistic way down at her.

“If you asked, I would have gladly sold them to you at a cheap price!” Anna cried in a total panic.

Izac laughed at this. Anna didn’t like the laugh that came from him; it reminded her of her abusive husband and the corrupt guards he worked with.

“Why buy them when we can take them by force? You are in no position to argue.”

“But you seemed so kind—”

“It wasn’t me, you stupid bitch!” Izac yelled and suddenly slapped his hands over his mouth. His eyes darted around the room. Anna noticed, through the shine of the reflected torchlight, that one eye was green and the other was blue.

“We cannot say such words. We cannot say such words. We cannot say such words. Or else he knows his teachings didn’t sink in.” Izac began to repeat while rocking back and forth from heel to toe. This lasted for five repetitions, and then he turned his attention back to Anna. “Now, why don’t we both quit the chatter and prepare for the procedure.”

Izac’s tone was calm and devious. Anna imagined a cat hidden outside a mousehole, waiting for its prey.

“But, but—” Anna stuttered, “I’m not alone.”

This stunned Izac for a moment.

“You are a—” He paused a moment to let his multicolored eyes dart around the room. “A whore who sells her body for drugs. You won’t be missed by any. So who would come to your aid?”

Anna made no reply, but her eyes darted to her stomach.

“Don’t tell me. You are with child?” Izac asked hopefully, though Anna was more afraid that he was hoping she would be. Finally, she nodded. “Well, you cannot expect him to extract your eggs with a child developing inside you.”

A look of pure fear was plastered on Anna’s face as Izac stood and made his way to one of the drawer-lined walls. Upon reaching them, he opened the top drawer and pulled out a syringe, needle, and bottle. He then drew fluid from the bottle, into the syringe, and moved back to Anna’s side. She tried to struggle to free herself the whole time but to no avail. She then tried screaming for help. Izac looked angered but still kept his calm tone.

“Please shut up now and accept your fate, miss.”

“But my baby! What shall happen to my baby?”

“It shall be killed by this drug before or, perhaps, when you give birth to it.”

“No!”

“Just keep your trap shut or I’ll stitch it shut myself!” Izac shouted. “By the Shinigami, I cannot stand being nice to pitiful mortals for so long. How he does it day after day, I shall never know.”

“Who is he?”

Izac sneered sinisterly at her.

“You know what, I am in a quid pro quo mood right now, so I will tell you. But first, I’m getting my sewing kit.”

He then pushed away from the operating table, stood up, and walked to the cabinets directly to Anna’s left. He opened several of them until giving up and beginning to search the drawers. When he finally found what he was looking for, he brought it out, closed the drawer, and returned to Anna’s side.

“Now, let’s get the sewing done, miss. And don’t worry your pretty little head off one bit. I’ll set your collar to prohibit all movement, and you can still feel the lovely pain. Isn’t it just great?”

Anna began to scream and cry. She tried to struggle, but the collar around her neck restrained her movements. Izac then adjusted her collar via the knob on the side, and she then could only move her eyes but still feel everything that touched her body.

When her restraint was adjusted, Izac began his lunacy. He stitched her lips together, feeling the urge to talk to her the entire time.

“Don’t worry, miss. You are in good hands,” he assured her as he waved his arms in front of her permanently opened eyes as often as he could. “I did all this with my bare hands! Though my right hand is a little more challenged and slower than my left, it still does great work when needed.”

The sewing took just under seven minutes with extreme and exact care.

“Ah, there we are. All finished.”

He stood up and admired his work for a moment. It was, to his eyes, a beautiful masterpiece of stitches that kept her two lips from opening. He knew he could have just used the collar to keep her from moving, but he wanted to play with her.

“Now, for our quid pro quo. When I said he a few minutes ago, I was referring to my older brother, Adrian. He and I have a partnership where we try to complete the work I mentioned earlier, and there are other bonuses to our work as well.”

Izac smiled an envious smile as he looked down at Anna.

“You are so lucky to experience such glorious pain. Without pain, we can never transform into the true being we are meant to be. Unfortunately, most don’t last long enough to fully transform. I truly do hope that you will be one of the survivors that last several glorious nights.”

He injected her with the chemical and waited for it to take effect. He didn’t have to wait long. Her water broke almost instantly from the pure shock that was affecting her body.

“Wow, he must have mixed an extremely potent batch this time,” Izac squealed with glee.

Anna mumbled something through her lips. Izac’s response was a look of satisfaction. He smiled and waved goodbye to her.

5

Izac began to giggle and soon it grew into a chuckle and soon after he was rolling in an uncontrollable laughter. As he did this, his eyes tilted back into his head until only the whites were visible. His arms wrapped themselves around his body, embracing himself in a hug.

“I prepared her just as we needed!” Izac exclaimed through his laughter. “There was one complication, and we need to take care of it before we could proceed.”

Izac’s fit of laughter ceased, and then his position and eyes returned to normal. He then walked from his position to the counter and put the glasses sitting there back on.

“Well, it looks as though,” said the familiar voice of the kind man who had taken her in and started this nightmare absently, “Izac started to have fun before it was his time. A good spanking is in order, but I could never do more than scold him.”

“Oh! You’re in labor, aren’t you?” he said as his attention now focused on her body. “Then let’s get rid of that baby and get on with this extraction.”

The doctor, who she now knew was named Adrian, moved over to a full-size cabinet directly beside an unmarked door that led to more unimaginable terror. He brought out the tools he needed and returned to Anna’s side.

“Sorry for the delay. The evening isn’t young anymore, so we must move quickly.”

Anna tried to scream again as the doctor spread her legs and began to pull the child out. After a half hour of struggling and hard labor on the part of both Anna and the doctor, the baby was prematurely born.

6

“Congratulations,” the doctor said, panting slightly, “you now have a purpose again.”

The doctor smiled and threw the fetus to the left side of Anna’s head. She turned her eyes to the bloody small mass and realized with great despair that had this nightmare not started, she would have had a beautiful son.

“Well, while that was fun, it wasn’t the main course that I needed to satisfy our hunger. So let us begin.” This was a voice becoming the higher pitch of Izac Killian.

Adrian laughed hysterically. He laughed so hard he started to cough up phlegm, but Anna knew it wasn’t really him that was laughing. To stop the laughing, he slapped himself across the face and composed himself. He returned his bloodied tools to the cabinet where they came from and grabbed several more from around the room. When he returned to his position between Anna’s legs, he began to extract her eggs.

The collar prevented her from moving, but she felt every incision and movement through her body. She could say it was the second worst pain she had felt in her entire life; the first was having her baby murdered and discarded like trash. She decided to not focus on the pain she was feeling but on the baby boy now in the Upper World, waiting for his mother to take care of him.

His lovely dirty-blond hair combed nice and neat. Those striking hazel eyes. His gentle yet firm touch when he speaks. The fair and unblemished skin. The perfectly formed white teeth. And an intelligence that would make him the greatest scholar in history.

These thoughts she latched on to as she tried to close her eyes, not wanting to see her dead child. Finally, though the pain was excruciating and she craved death, she felt at peace.

The extraction took him deep into the early morning. Every egg was placed into a containment vessel and was ready to be stored in a cryogenic freezer in one of the adjacent rooms. When he extracted the final egg, he restored Anna to the form she had before the operation, with the addition of several surgical scars.

The sadistic portion of his mind, the personality of Izac, had listened to her cries as Adrian carved into her. To Izac’s disappointment, Anna had passed out soon after he was one-fifth completed. This only troubled him when he thought of the limited time he could spend before she blacked out each time he wanted to play.