Chapter 28

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Archer glass returned to the command center with Victor and Mateo. He swiped his thumbprint, entered his pin code, and followed through with the retinal scan, and with a hiss and whoosh, the door slide aside and allowed the Head Scientist back in the bustling environment. 

Michael and his team were huddled together, sharing formulas and mixing chemicals to meet the sadistic boss's demands. The other departments worked according to what they had been ordered to do. 

As soon as the trio entered the space, Vivian looked up from her computer, but instead of zoning in on the Head Scientist, her eyes locked on Mateo's image. The soldier noticed her gaze. Vivian's jumped just slightly at the eyes contact. Mateo seeing this, gulped while his fingers tightened around his gun, as he bit down on his teeth and looked away from her, breaking the visual contact. 

Confused by her own actions, Vivian blinked and lowered her eyes in order to gather her wits. Her heart had excited itself a little too much just by the unexpected eye contact. Mentally shaking her head and calling herself foolish, Vivian pretended to focus back on the white document on her computer screen, just to give herself time for the shameful yet excited blush to disappear from around her neck. When Vivian no longer felt a heat burning the skin of her neck, Vivian gulped and blinked, and decided to lift her eyes again. 

By the time the secretary had the chance to look back up, the head scientist was making way to Manson, a twenty-two year old Moshe with a gift for computers and cyber security. The lanky boy had bony elbows and a head full of black, curly locks. His black square-rimmed glasses reshaped his long nose, and crushed his nostrils. He was flatter than a pressed plantain, and when standing, his coworkers feared that he may one day just fold over himself. 

Archer walked up to Manson and disturbed his gaze from the latest swimsuit models in the virtual magazine he browsed through. 

"Turn them on." Archer ordered, while Vivian carefully approached him with her clipboard and pen at the ready. 

Across the room, Mateo was sitting with Victor. He held his gun, and yet his eyes couldn't stop searching for Vivian's image every five seconds. He watched her closely as she approached Archer glass. As usual, she clutched her clipboard over her cleavage, and stood tall and straight. Her blonde hair was pulled back in a ponytail behind her skull, exposing the fair skin of her neck, which was now slightly red, and Mateo assumed hot to the touch. Her glasses added to her confidence and beauty, and Mateo realized that he was now obsessing and choking his gun all at once. 

Blinking, and remembering Vivian's threat, Mateo straightened himself on his seat and cleared his throat, before deciding to turn his eyes to the virtual game of solitaire Victor had begun playing on his watch. 

"Um, them...?" Manson demanded with sticky, artificial sugar-coated fingertips and multiple teeth cavities.

"The tracking chips we implanted on the subjects before the trial began," Archer clarified, "turn them on." 

The Head Scientist's words had Vivian running cold and stiff all at once. Her fingers tightened around the clipboard and pen, so much so, the blood gathered beneath her nailbeds. 

Manson leaned back in his chair and grabbed a bag of chewy candy. 

He placed a stretchy red and green transparent worm in between his teeth and chewed with a loose jaw before replying casually, "No offense pops, but that's kind of reckless."  

"Reckless?" Archer echoed while raising an eyebrow at the young man's detestable behavior. 

"Well yeah." Manson replied, before downing three gulps from an opened soda can, then licking his tongue over the crevice of his upper right molars to remove a piece of gummy worm stuck between his teeth and cheeks.

He smacked his lips and burped into his left fist before continuing, "Remember last time we tested them? The Subjects' brains fried on and they died right then and there." 

Mason's recount had Vivian's nerves trembling beneath her muscles with rage. 

"Yes, but you were tasked with making the necessary modifications." Archer pointed in return. 

His bald scalp was once again running pink with growing anger, at the young employee's nonchalance and glutton-driven habits. 

Mason opened his hands while licking another crevice in between his cavity-riddled molars, and carelessly testing the back support on his black swivel chair by pushing against the spring over and over again. 

"We never tested them after the modifications," Mason said, "the shock might paralyze them, or even kill them." 

Archer's face morphed into his signature scowl, then he leaned down and forward towards Mason's face. Mason's flat form pushed as far back against the chair's backing as possible, while bringing his fingertips together and holding eyes contact with the Head Scientist. 

"Let's just hope for your sake, that doesn't happen." Archer threatened so calmly, Vivian almost missed it. 

"Threats, I love it." Manson shook his head, then he looked at Vivian who appeared indifferent to his behavior, and he winked her way. 

Archer seeing this huffed through his nostrils and straightened his spine. 

"And don't call me pops." He added over his shoulder. 

"You got it boss man." Mason snapped. 

Then, turning in his swivel chair, Manson's sticky fingers began typing codes and sequences on his screen. As he did this, Archer stood behind his chair, looming over Mason's giraffe-like frame and stature like rain clouds threatening a sunny day. Vivian stood a few steps behind Archer. She glared at the Head Scientist's spine and occipital skull, her form almost vibrating in her frozen posture, like atoms packed in a solid form. 

Across the room, Mateo soon forgot Victor's solitaire game, and against his better judgement, his eyes were once again trained in Vivian's direction. He noticed the stiffness in her shoulder blades, along with the back muscles of her lower leg. He saw her fingers practically denting the wooden clipboard against her chest, and he could tell that something was wrong. But would or could he ask her about it? Mateo breathed out dejectedly, and answered his own question. He wouldn't. Accusations of harassment on his record would have great repercussions on his career as a general, and that was a risk Mateo didn't plan on taking. 

Needing a distraction from this dilemma, Mateo stood and headed to the command center's break room. His departure was missed by both the Head Scientist and the secretary who now made him feel as if he should tiptoe anywhere within a 50 mile radius of her. The last thing Mateo needed was being accused of a crime he didn't commit. Closing the door behind himself, Mateo headed to the sink and washed his hands, and splashed cold water on his face. Then, retrieving a pack of strawberry wafers from a cabinet and a can of root bear, Mateo pulled out a chair and sat on the solid round table. The soldier snacked on his processed meal, and stared blankly at the wall, looking for anything to distract him from this sudden interest he had developed in Vivian, the desire to know more about her, and the urge to befriend her. 

 Back in the command center, Mason was still typing at lightning fast speeds, and only taking intermittent breaks to gulp down his now room temperature orange soda. 

"What's taking so long?" Archer pressured. 

"Two hands boss man, just two hands." Mason answered, not caring that Archer could practically have his precious brains blown out on his keyboard in seconds. 

"Would you like to work with only one?" Archer then demanded. 

"Only if you're okay with getting the results at a much later time." Mason bit back, though his voice lacked edge and bitterness in comparison to the Head Scientist. 

Archer grinded his teeth at the Moshe's calm demeanor. His head and neck flushed red, and Vivian folded her lips inward to keep herself from smiling. 

"Water." Archer snapped his fingers towards Vivian. 

The secretary perked up and turned on her beige high heels and headed to the break room.

As soon as Vivian opened the door, she came face to face with Mateo who appeared as if he was about to open to door himself. The soldier instantly stepped back, as if Vivian's pores emitted strands of the black plague. Vivian pursed her lips forward and exhaled angrily at Mateo's actions, and as soon she crossed two steps through the doorframe, Mateo side-stepped her and walked out of the break room without a word. 

Vivian rolled her eyes and breathed. She knew the threat of accusing him for harassment was a bit harsh, and but it wasn't fair for Mateo to take it o the extreme and treat her as if she was one of the freak steroid-induced zombies from the Head Scientist's failed project. Retrieving the water bottle, Vivian walked out of the break room and reached Archer just in time for Mason to access all seven chips of the escaped subjects. Once ready, he typed in the four-digit code required, and clicked the green confirm button, then he leaned back in his chair and waited.

Archer watched Mason's casual stance, where he once again bounced against the chair's backing, while resting the back of his curly scalp against his intertwined twig-like fingers, and the Head Scientist felt like wringing the Moshe's neck with just one hand. 

"Well what are you waiting for?" Archer pressed. 

"Trust the process boss man." Mason simply replied.

Archer wanted to bite and swallow his own tongue in anguish, and yet he could do nothing but loom over the skinny man. 

#

In the forest, Jackson and the other subjects all waited mutely for the noise which startled them silent a few minutes earlier. Pressing an index finger to his lips in the faint light provided by the silver moon, Jackson signaled for the other subjects to remain quiet.  

Another twig cracked around the RV, then another. With each crushed leaf and broken twig, Valerie squeezed closer to Adina with her eyes closed. Matthew gulped, his eyes looking from one corner of the RV to the next. Khiran's eyes couldn't stay away from the RV's windows, while his twin took comfort from the feeling of Lauren's skin brushing against his as she too huddled close to the group. 

The sounds subsided outside for a few seconds. Adina's hair move faintly with the slight trembles which traveled through her cowering body. Jackson opened a hand to signal to the others to not move just yet, and they listened. 

The sound of cicadas melted in the background, as if a predator had silenced them all. Then a screech erupted just outside RV, followed by the noise of galloping sounds rushing away from the RV and the park. 

"I think it was a deer." Matthew noted in a soft whisper when the sound of crickets and cicadas suddenly filled the air around them. 

The other subjects exhaled audibly and in a choir.

"Yeah, I think so too." Adina murmured, before she winced and held her head, while releasing a groan of deep discomfort. 

"Adina?" Jackson called in caution, only to hear a similar sound erupt from Lauren, then the twins, Valerie, Matthew, and finally himself. 

The subjects held on to their heads, a sharp pain erupting at the very center of their brain, and referring to their spinal cords and limbs. A high-pitched note sounded through their eardrums and vibrated within the walls of their bony helmets. 

"Arrghh!" Jackson groaned, the pain causing him to become disoriented, as he fell to his knees and held onto his head. 

Matthew pressed his hands against his temples, while Khairo gritted and grinded his teeth. Adina hyperventilated, the pain burning through her neck muscles, and yet that wasn't the only reason for her to be spooked. With Valerie cradling next to her, Adina noticed a spot behind Valerie's right neck and shoulders, just below the base of her skull, shining bright red beneath her skin, and highlighting the tiny blood vessels which allowed Valerie's skin to have it's natural pinkish tinge. 

"There!" Manson pointed to his screen while sitting straight in his chair, as one by one, seven green dots began to pulse in a cluster, "that's them." 

Manson's boisterous announcement had the whole command center on attention. Sending his screen to the main viewing system, the Subjects' location was now online for all to see. 

"Are they dead?" Archer asked Mason. 

"I'm not sure. The chip is powered by the oxygen in their blood. If there's no oxygen, then there's no power." Mason explained. 

"Can you access their vitals through the chip?" Archer then demanded, his eyes not moving from the pulsing green dots on the screen. 

"Yeah, one second." Mason answered professionally, now pumped to see his handiwork functioning for all to see. 

Back in the RV, Adina touched the back of her neck and felt the warm spot where she assumed her light to be. Then looking around, even has her temples throbbed with pain, and the sounds of her breathing echoed loud enough in the chambers of her skull's bony cavities, Adina realized that they all had the bright red light in their necks, at the base of their necks. 

#

Archer approached the big screen with a stern mask settled on his brow. 

"What's taking so long Mason?" Archer demanded.

"Just give me a second." The Brainiac replied, his puffy brows which met at the center of his face with a thin line of dark hair now sweating slightly has his armpits pickled in excitement and his fingers typed away. 

Archer ignored Mason's words, now solely focused on what he could deduct from the image on his screen. 

"They stayed together," Archer hummed to himself, "clever little snakes." 

Manson accessed the data from the chips, which transmitted their heartrates, and oxygen intake levels. Then, zooming out from the cluster of dots to a much larger view of where the cluster of green dots flashed from, Mason mapped the geographical location of the Subject's current position without the Head Scientist needing to ask him. 

"Now turn on Frank's chip, along with his buddies." Archer commanded Manson. 

Mason nodded and began working on that order. The command center had now regained a pule of life and excitement at this new development. They crowded around the screen, whispering to each other, while Mason worked his magic. 

Archer smiled and licked the line his teeth made at their tip, "Michael, get back in that room with your patients," Archer then ordered, "we're going to try a little experiment." 

_________________________________________

Hello lovies!

Here is this week's first chapter and update.

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Lots of ❤❤❤

-Tania. 


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