Herculean

Κεφάλαιο V Μέρος IV

On the third level, we split up to cover more ground.

Signs indicated the upstairs wings of Four Days had been designated to research and patient management. Each discovery was more alarming than the next.

Bedrooms on the upper floors were minuscule and missing their mattresses, the beds little more than shabby cots. Cramped, bleak even without without the fire's aid, these rooms were less furnished than the rooms on the ground floor. The Facility was looking less and less like a hospital and more like a prison.

In a particularly bleak room, I stooped beside a cot equipped with manacles. The dirty, rusted loops of metal were cool in my hands. 

"This place has the mark of death," said Eros, entering the room, his solemn expression darker than the evil that had marked this place. "The patients were Fae--and damned if they weren't afraid for their lives. Imagine, monsters in fear of humans."

Wherever we go, our life force leaves vibrations behind–echoes that powerful gods like Eros can reveal like memories.

Eros touched the wall with a golden fingertip. From floor to ceiling, his divine light spread across the room in waves. Gold dust shimmering on the air like perpetual rain, a picture developed–a stark, yellow memory called to life.

"Please. No more tests."

A young girl in a plain, pressed uniform lay chained to the cot, shivering from fear, cold, or both. Our gazes seemed to lock. I rose slowly to my feet, disturbed by the sight of her sunken skin and the hollows beneath her dead eyes.

"I'm dying." She stared at me, pleading. "I need to rest."

A figure burst from my chest–a person had walked right through me. He wore the long white robes of a physician; a surgeon's mask covered his face. The physician raised a syringe eye-level, testing the fluid...

"Why are you doing this to us?"

"You're an abomination. You all are."

The girl screamed as the physician advanced. Fists clenched, shoulders heaving, I watched, helpless with anger, as the physician descended on the girl. She cried out, legs flailing on the cot as she struggled in vain. Little by little, her kicks grew weaker... until they stopped completely.

The attendant straightened, studying the now full syringe as the girl lay dead on the cot, glassy eyes staring into space. Numbed by the tragedy, I walked to the foot of the cot, swallowing the rage and sadness. 

"Results?" A tall, broad-broad shouldered figure had entered the room. Muscular and well-developed, he looked powerful in his tailored suit. Hands folded behind his back, he approached the physician in expectation.

The physician lowered his mask, revealing a sallow, unpleasant face. "We recovered more DNA. Yet after repeated attempts, the test subject wasn't strong enough. I'm sorry, General."

Kreon's shoulders lifted as he sighed. "The stronger the blood the stronger the beast. Keep searching the Village until we find the right candidate." He glanced into space, consumed by his own dark thoughts. "We'll kill them all if we have to."

The vision ceased.

I paced the room, feeling boxed in and caged, like the Fae that Kreon kept as prisoners.

"Kidnappings. Experimentation. Murder." I stopped short, rounding on Eros, lashing him with my angry words. "And they calls us beasts. Where does Kreon's madness end?"

"It ends with us. Focus your anger and put it to him. Maybe this will help us stop the general."

Using the toe of his black Ferragamos, Eros nudged the manila box at his feet. "Found this stashed in one of the rooms. I think they're hospital records--evidence. Marty's gone, but whatever's in this box could be just as useful."