The Zia'n Legacy

Chapter 7

Chapter 7

         “Drai, what do you want in your sandwich?”

         “I told you not to order me one, I’m not hungry,” said Drai, before slamming back another glass of luminous green alcohol.

         “You need to calm down a little with that stuff, mate.”

         “No, Kale. What I need to do is find the fucker that killed my best friend!”

Kale watched as Drai placed the glass down on the counter and raised his eyes to meet his friend’s. His face was washed out, pale, and huge bags hung underneath each sunken eye. A rough layer of stubble covered the normally smooth skin of his chin. His eyes were red and bloodshot from lack of sleep.

         “Something dead, at any rate. I did not like whatever we had at that last place. It was still bloody wriggling. Quite disconcerting.”

         “It’s lettuce. The computer says it can’t synth any turkey for some reason.”

         “Lettuce. Dead lettuce. Sounds... tasty.”

Kale decided against ordering food, instead hailing the barman for another round of Apsorz, shouting over the music bombarding him from every direction.

         “This is the last drink, Drai. We’re going home, and you’re getting some sleep. You look awful.”

         “I want to stay here. I hate the place, and this fucking monotonous drone, but there are people here. I... I can’t sleep, Kale. I keep seeing Rhiad’s dead eyes staring up at me through a puddle of blood.”

Kale sighed, putting his arm around his friend’s shoulder, pulling him closer. The scent of alcohol hung heavy around him, infused with the smoke and sweat from throng of bodies in the club in which they found themselves. The music attacked his ears in a never-ending wave, the bass thudding through the floor straight into his body. He took his glass again and brought it to his lips. Emptying it in one gulp, he slid it along the counter towards barman. The flickering strobe lights from the dance floor glinted on the glass, the sheen of alcohol coating the surface shimmering under the multi-coloured light onslaught.

         “Drai, listen to me, now,” said Kale, turning the man to face him, looking straight into his eyes. “It was not your fault, ok? It wasn’t. There was nothing we could have done.”

         “But we could have tried! We did nothing Kale. Nothing,” his voice was empty, hollow.

         “It’s hard to fight back when you’re unconscious. We’re just lucky the medical systems detected whatever the hell that was they injected us with after they took us down.”

* * * * *

Drai fought to open his eyes. The smallest glimmer of light his hit pupils and sent searing pain rocketing through his head. His hands flew to his face, more pain firing down the nerves in his back and arms. He tried to sit up, but pain forced him back to the floor.

         “What the...”

He shielded his eyes from the light, blinking against the pain it caused. Drai squinted, and tried to look around without moving a single muscle in his body. He was unsuccessful, and grunted in agony as a twinge from his neck hit. Peering out from between his fingers he saw the ceiling of the main hall, lighting panels dimmed a midnight red.

         “Kale? You here?” he rasped, realising his throat too, was excruciatingly painful.

Hearing a cough from behind him, he breathed a shallow sigh of relief. His arms dropped to his sides, eyes screwed tightly shut, causing pain like a knife being dragged across the skin of his biceps.

         “Ungh.”

         “My thoughts exactly,” said Drai, once again to the feeling of his throat being stamped on.

         “Drai, keep your voice down... Your shouting is killing my head,” coughed Kale.

         “I’m barely breathing, let alone shouting.”

         “God, why does my entire body feel like it’s been lashed by a laser-whip? And where are we?”

Jamming his jaw shut, Drai pushed with his arm, rolling over on to his chest with a cry of pain. The hall was silent, and yet his ears throbbed. The dim red light was doing no better for his eyes as he eventually opened them to see his friend lying prone on the floor a few feet away. Every muscle flex as he inched his way towards Kale pushed another hiss through his teeth. Spots of purple light pirouetted in his vision as he tried desperately not to pass out from the pain.

Kale was lying crumpled on the floor. Drai saw his face contort in pain as the bigger man pushed himself up on his elbows. His eyes flicked left and right, only now noticing the bodies lying around them. Blood slicked the floor in patches and spatters, and there were bullet holes everywhere. He turned his attention back to his friend for now, pulling himself to sit next to Kale.

         “We didn’t go out last night, did we?”

         “No,” said Kale, teeth gritted.

         “Fuck. I was hoping this was some kind of alcohol-induced, bitch of a hangover.”

         “There tend to be less corpses in hangovers, Drai.”

Drai laughed and regretted it in an instant. Thousands of spear tips stabbed into his lungs and barbed wire raked through his throat. He pulled himself up further, tucking his knees against his chest. His head lolled forward and he kept his eyes shut in a vain attempt to stop his head pounding. The coppery smell of stale blood and dead bodies invaded his nostrils and he choked back a deep breath.

         “You have any idea what happened, Kale?” he said, reaching up to massage the back of his aching neck.

         “If I knew that, I’d probably know who these people were... Either way, take that as a no.”

Kale pushed himself up from his elbows to sit next to his friend. There were bloody stains on his face. Drai noticed an enflamed red welt on the side of his neck. It had a dark point in its centre and a rivulet of blood had dried leaking down Kale’s neck. Drai reached over and brushed his fingers over it. Kale flinched back, gasping.

         “Did you have that last ni-- actually, how long have we been out?”

         “Stop asking me questions,” said Kale with a grimace. “And no, my neck was fine whenever I last checked.”

         “It looks like a bite or an injection, or... something.” Drai arched his neck. “Do I have one?”

With a groan, Kale turned his body to face his friend, the pain of movement obvious on his weathered features. His skin was pasty and drained of all colour, shining with a layer of sweat. Drai rested his hand on the floor, pushing his collar away from his neck with the other. He leaned towards Kale and arched his neck.

         “Well?” said Drai, wincing as fresh bouts of fire seethed along his nerves.

Drai saw Kale squint through the gloom at the side of his neck. The bigger man reached up and pushed his hair from his face with a grunt, then moved his hand to Drai’s neck.

         “Yeah, you have one too. Does it hurt?”

Drai bit his lip as Kale skimmed a fingertip over the bump.

         “Like a motherfucker. Please do not do that again.”

Only then did Drai bring his head up from between his knees. He turned from side to side, glancing around the room. The scream pierced through the silence like a bullet crack as Drai jerked forward. His entire body racked in pain, he forced himself toward what he saw.

         “Oh god no! Kale, no!”

Through the ringing pain screaming through his head, Drai heard his friend say something behind him but it didn’t register. He was intent on getting to the body lying sprawled in a crimson mess before him. He fought back the overwhelming urge to pass out as a kaleidoscope of colours and blurs flashed across his vision. Gasping and gulping air, he wrapped his arms around the body, pulling it tight against his chest. He felt a hand on his back, as Kale moved beside him.

         “Drai, what-“

He heard Kale’s words cut off sharply and felt tears start to well up in his eyes. He brushed the matted hair away from the man’s face.

         “Oh no... Rhiad,” breathed Kale.

Kale crawled up and grasped an arm around Drai’s shoulders. Drai dropped his head down, clutching Rhiad’s body against his own as he let out a long cry. Kale collapsed against Rhiad’s chest, wrapping his arms around the body. Both men lay in the middle of the gruesome scene and held their dead friend, each lost in a world of pain and hurt.

* * * * *

         “You’ve finished your last drink, we’re going. I don’t think they’re coming.”

         “Kale, can we stay for a while, please?” Drai asked, his face solemn and pleading.

Kale sighed and grasped his friend’s shoulder, leaning in close to be heard over the raucous noise that still pounded through the club.

         “Alright, but no more drink. It won’t help, you know. You can’t drown away the memories. Rhiad’s gone Drai, and you need to come to terms with that.”

         “How can you be so bloody heartless Kale?! He was your friend too; don’t you give a damn that someone painted his brains all over our floor?” Drai’s voice was raised against the noise, but still held a tremble of distress.

Kale squeezed his shoulder, downing the last of his own drink.

         “Of course I do, Drai. Of course I do...” his voice tailed off as his eyes dropped to the floor. “But there’s nothing we can do about it now, except find the man who did this and seek vindication for our friend. Until then, we need to keep our heads clear. We haven’t been contracted for a while, and that’s not likely to change tonight if you’re paralytic...”

Drai almost managed a chuckle, before biting back a sudden choke of emotion. The club was getting more crowded, with droves of people arriving and few leaving, filling the place from wall to wall. Kale looked over his shoulder, scanning his eyes over the dance floor behind him, the lights blinding from every angle and the music almost deafening. His eye landed on a woman leaning against one of the many pillars in the room, her hair cascading over her shoulders and down her chest while she too looked over the thronging crowd. Their eyes met for a split second before the woman pirouetted away into the mass of bodies, leaving Kale staring at empty space.

Just as he turned back to the counter, one of the monitors high above the bar flashed to life. He rested both elbows on the rough wood and read as a news report scrolled down the screen on one of the public info channels.

Detectives are on the scene again tonight as another ‘preternatural’ murder has been committed. One of the victims, a local entrepreneur, was held suspended against the ceiling of his home tonight as his family were executed in front of him. The security video clearly shows the man pinned against the ceiling with no visible means of support as the ‘preternatural’ shoots his wife and two children far below him. With the man still held immobile, the family safe was raided. It was then that the forth and final murder of the night was committed.

The screen changed to display a grainy greyscale image. Kale leaned over the bar, struggling to see the movement on the screen. He could barely make out the blurry shape of a man flailing against the ceiling as another figure stood below. This second figure suddenly jutted it's arms towards what must have been a window, sending the hovering man flying. Though the image was full of static, it was clear the man had broken through the window, disappearing from view. The screen cleared as more text streamed from the news report.

The tape shows the ‘preternatural’ swinging his arms in an arc, sending the helpless man flying through the air to smash through the window of his 28th floor apartment. The as yet unidentified criminal then proceeded to jump from the very same window leaving no trace as to his whereabouts.

Detective Gabriel had this to say at the scene:

         ”The video evidence definitely indicates that this atrocity was committed by a ‘preternatural’. The last victim was held in the air purely by the force of the perpetrator’s mind before being hurled through a window. So far, we have no leads on any possible suspects, but rest assured we are doing our utmost to identify and catch the man who did this.

This is yet again another incident that serves to illustrate the incredible danger these ‘preternaturals’ pose to our society. I have already spoken to a representative of the TCC here in Seventh City, and he asked me to read the following statement.

'This occurrence will only help strengthen support for the bill to outlaw all ‘preternaturals’ or anyone with genetic alterations. The bill is garnering more and more support from factions around the globe, and is soon up for review by the thirteen City leaders. If put into action, all ‘preternaturals’ will be required to turn themselves in, effective immediately.'”

Kale flicked his eyes sideways for a moment and saw Drai glaring up at the screen. His face was contorted in anger, with both his fists balled on the bar. The barman, who had stopped to read the report, turned around and cleared their last two glasses from the bar.

         “Fuckin’ right,” he spat, in Kale and Drai’s general direction. “Lock the mutants up, I say.”

This comment was complimented by a few jeers and hails from some men who had gathered in a group next to Kale and Drai, a few steps away.

The change in Drai’s temperament was almost imperceptible, but Kale knew the signs all too well and his hand shot out to grab Drai’s wrist.

         “Leave it Drai.”

         “Another shot,” said Drai to the barman through gritted teeth.

         “Take the advice of your friend, pal. You’ve had enough,” replied the barman, throwing both the glasses he held into a crate below the bar.

         “I said,” growled Drai, pushing himself up from his stool, “that I would like another drink. Now.”

Kale tightened his grip on Drai’s arm, trying to pull him back down, but he couldn’t fight the determination in the man. Drai leaned over the bar towards the tender, both hands planted on the counter. The barman matched Drai’s movement, facing him with his arms crossed over his chest.

         “Read my lips. I’m not giving you another drink. Sit down, or leave.” His voice was a raised shout, and even over the music it was full of harsh warning.

Kale watched his friend’s face, seeing the muscles in his jaw tighten as he yet again bit back a response. With another tug on his wrist, Drai sat back down glaring at the barman, who took the Apsorz and slammed it down between the bottles on the other side of the counter. The lights from the dance floor shone through the green liquid, sending vibrant floods of light over the mirror behind the bottles. With one last vicious look at the pair, the barman turned away to serve the group of men standing close by.

         “It’s not worth it mate,” said Kale, at last releasing the smaller man’s wrist.

         “Fucking ignorance... I could kill him,” Drai said, his voice low and barely heard above the music. “But all I want, is another... bloody... drink.”

Before Kale could stop him, Drai shot his arm out over the counter straight towards the bottle, eyes locked in a determined stare. The mirror behind the drinks shattered as the bottle trembled and flew towards Drai’s outstretched arm as if propelled by a rocket. It covered the gap between the counters in an instant and slammed into his hand. Drai shook his shoulders a little and uncapped the bottle, taking a big gulp.

         “Drai!” hissed Kale, glancing around with a new urgency.

The barman span round at the sound of the mirror breaking and gawped at the bottle in Drai’s hand.

         “What the hell’s going on here?!” he shouted, looking from the mirror to Kale to the bottle.

         “I just want a drink,” said Drai, meeting the man’s frantic stare.

The barman reached out and made a grab for the bottle. Drai jerked his glare down to the man’s wrist, brows furrowing together in a stare. The barman screamed as his arm locked in mid air, all his fingers tensing and straining against an invisible force. His face crippled into an anguished grimace and he dropped to his knees, crying out again. Drai idly looked from where the man’s arm was frozen above the bar and glanced at the barman.

         “I would like to finish my drink. Then we are leaving, alright?”

Kale looked over his friend’s shoulder and saw the five men to Drai’s right starting to turn and glance their way, one peering over the counter at the stricken barman.

         “Enough,” said Kale, locking eyes with one of the men from the group, who stared back with his face set in an angry frown.

Drai sighed and looked away from the barman, who collapsed on the floor clutching his arm. After a few moments, the man pulled himself up and marched to the other end of the bar. Kale could just make out through the dim light, the man running some water over his arm. The group of men next to Drai slowly turned back to their own drinks, one or two throwing an occasional glance back over their shoulders.

* * * * *

Drai slumped back on the bed, clutching at his still throbbing head. The red glow of the emergency systems had gone to be replaced by the sharp white lights of the medical room. Drai kept his eyes scrunched shut, the light sending dull bouts of pain shooting through his head any time he dared open them. He stretched out on the bed, every bone in his spine aching as he moved against the hard surface. The ringing in his ears had died down, but still invaded his mind.

         “How’s it coming, Kale?”

         “It’s just finishing the synthesis now. The computer has matched this as the most probably antidote to whatever it was they spiked us with. It was some kind of modified memory serum with added tranquilliser effects. This solution should stop some of the pain.”

Drai rolled onto his side, watching Kale as he leaned against a console a few feet away. A hatch slid open on the front of a panel with a hiss. Kale picked up two capsules from the dispenser and turned to the table by his side, picking up a small metal syringe. Drai could still see the pain in Kale’s face that every movement brought, though he never made a sound. The big man staggered over to him, landing in the hard steel chair next to the bed with a heavy thump.

         “Ahhh god dammit,” he rasped, leaning forward, resting on his knees. “This next bit’s gonna hurt, mate.”

         “Can’t be any worse than how I feel right now. Give me the damn shot.”

Kale clipped one of the capsules into the syringe and pulled himself up from the chair. Drai rolled onto his back again with a small grunt. He tilted his head to the side, pulling his collar down to expose his neck. Kale laid his hand across Drai’s forehead, holding him still against the single foam pillow on the bed. He found the vein on Drai’s neck and rested the tip of the needle against his skin.

         “Take hold of something, hard.”

         “Oh come on Kale, how bad can it b-- aaarrggh! Son of a bitch!”

Drai sprang upright, a hand flying to his neck. It felt like boiling water flowing through his veins. The heat crept through his neck and inched its way down his chest.

         “The fuck is this stuff you’ve injected me with?!”

Kale sat back down in the chair and cradled his head in his hands. Drai heard him mumble something as warmth fused through his brain and overwhelmed his vision for a moment. The wave of pulsing heat moved through his body, melting the pain away as it went. He blinked a couple of times, expecting stabs of agony from the light but getting nothing other than a flat throbbing.

         “... scans the computer did earlier, the immobiliser they injected us with can be neutralised with this. You should start to feel the... feel the...” Kale coughed suddenly and lurched back in the chair. His hand grasped for the syringe as he choked and his body jerked again.

         “Kale!”

Drai swung his legs over the side of the bed and pushed himself upright. He grabbed the syringe and pressed the tip against Kale’s neck. When he clenched the trigger it clunked against the metal and offered no resistance at all. Drai stared at it in dismay before he remembered.

         “Empty! Kale, where’s the other capsule?”

Kale was gasping for breath, jaw opening and closing, biting the air as his fingers scrabbled at his throat. Drai threw his gaze around for the other capsule, panic smashing through his mind. He threw the pillow off the bed, spinning round to check the synth machine. He dropped to his knees and frantically scoured the floor and under the chair. Kale’s hand bashed his shoulder and he turned to stare at him. Kale pushed his hand towards Drai, his fist clenched so tightly shut his knuckles were white. Drai grabbed his hand and tried to pry his friend’s fingers open.

         “You gotta let go! Come on.”

He locked his one hand around Kale’s wrist and wrenched his fingers apart with the other. The tiny glass capsule fell away and spiralled toward the tiled floor. Drai jolted his eyes down and fixed the capsule in his gaze. The blue vial froze spinning in the air half an inch from shattering on the ground below. Drai scooped it up in his hand and picked up the syringe. He jammed the antidote in and stood up next to Kale. He didn’t have time for bedside manners, and yanked Kale’s head to the side, thrusting the needle against his neck. The blue vial emptied and Drai threw the syringe away, falling to his knees by his friend.

Kale bucked in the chair again, then his body fell back limp against the steel framework. After a few moments he reached out and grasped Drai’s shoulder.

         “Thank you."

Just then, the bright blue light of the comm. unit started flashing, accompanied by a shrill buzzing sound. Drai glanced away from Kale's panting form for a moment, trying to make out the text on the comm. screen.

         "Argh, what could it possibly be now?"