The Only

Chapter Fourteen - Karl

Karl belched loudly and plopped himself onto a rolling stool. His stomach was distended and full. Never in his life had he eaten so much. He tried to stop but just couldn't, especially after the way the group stared at him after Neima announced he was the one who would find a cure. Food seemed to be the only distraction.

The lab was dark and quiet. The coolness of being slightly underground soaked into him like a refreshing rain. He belched again and dragged himself and the stool over to the cabinet to locate some sodium bicarbonate. He had to do something to ease the uncomfortable bloating.

Searching the lab, he was unable to locate a drinking glass, but a large beaker on the top shelf sufficed. The mixture fizzed and foamed, spitting out little drips on the counter. He gulped it down and allowed the liquid to drop down and break up the massive gas bubble that had grown in his abdomen.

Karl let out an enormous burp and wiped his mouth. Relief at last.

How could those Mutare eat so much at one time? They were savages in how they attacked the food. And the way they looked at him, as if he were a piece of meat they could pounce upon. Especially that woman, Yasmin. She managed to chomp on her food and stare at him. It was unnerving.

All the talk about Creators and The Way reminded him of the long, drawn-out sermons his grandmother would take him to. The Lutheran church wasn't quite as sanctimonious. Of course, Karl didn't pay that much attention. The idea of a superior being controlling the ways of the universe was completely ridiculous, and was completely contradictory to science. As far as Karl was concerned, religion inspired hypocrisy. Tonight's dinner made that apparent.

The aggression and depravity at dinner was the exact opposite of the piety demonstrated by the group when they finally got to eat. Neima had mentioned it was metabolic. Something to do with them retaining the transformation for so long that when they returned to human shape it left them ravenous.

That's probably why Yasmin gave that painful sounding squeal. Her lateral hypothalamus was releasing the message that she was starving. At least, that is what would happen in a normal human being. It was a guess. Karl never guessed. He worked from and on learned facts. He needed more information.

The Mutare differed in appearance. Not just in coloring but in body structure. They were all tall and lanky, yet Hamza exuded strength. So did Yasmin. What was it about them that seemed so peculiar? Karl couldn't decipher it. The Mutare were an attractive race, but there was something else, something unusual. Then again, everyone in the castle was unusual.

He had to get back to work. The reports of the virus increasing in intensity were highlighted during the meeting. China was now completely in chaos; the market crashed, propelling the world's economy into a massive tailspin. South America was in a panic, sending a wave of refugees through the continent up through Nicaragua to Mexico. But Mexico, as well as the entire West Coast of the U.S., was barely hanging on.

The world was coming apart, and the challenge was explaining to the Experiments that this was not a sickness that humans would recover from. Alexandra didn't have a chance once the virus was injected. No human did, and it was still unknown how the virus spread among humans. It was unstoppable. At the rate it was progressing, it was just a matter of time before it mutated even further and would start to bring down Experiments.

Once he got a blood sample from the Mutare, he would have what he needed to make a true analysis. Karl pushed himself over to the other side of the table and powered up his computer. He needed to examine more of the data on the virus and find a link. If the virus was indeed based upon Experiment biology, then that was the key to the cure.