Beyond the Horizon

48. Monsters and Men

Shion basked in the glory of his reclaimed freedom. Lab Coat and Rikiga were the only ones who knew he and the other "Terminated" VCs still lived, so with the doctor under control and Rikiga as his ally, he had nothing to fear from taking a moment to breathe. But he knew that they would need to move soon, and do it quickly. Escaping from their cages was only step one, and Shion had no idea what obstacles lay between them and the true freedom they sought. He glanced between his friends' cells and found that all were awake and staring at either him or the man he had suspended on the ceiling of his former prison.

          "Holy shit," Rin whispered, echoing Rikiga's sentiments. They sat up from their bed and looked from Lab Coat wriggling impotently in the air to Shion. "He did it," he said to Hitomi, and then louder and faster to Aki, "Shion actually did it! I mean— I missed the whole thing! You couldn't have waited until I woke up?"

          Shion laughed, and suddenly the whole basement was rebounding with laughter, light, euphoric, and a little manic. The relief of success and impending freedom was intoxicating, but it also brought with it fresh anxieties.

          "Mr. Rikiga." Hitomi slipped off her cot and came against the glass. "Can you free the rest of us?"

          Rikiga chewed his lip, but mumbled something that sounded like an affirmative. He approached her cell and laid a hand on the holographic surface. The door to Hitomi's cage slid down, and Rikiga moved on to Aki's, then Rin's.

          Hitomi stepped out of the confines of her cage like a starstruck fawn emerging from the sheltered treeline into an open meadow. She stood outside the glass walls and moved no further, as though paralyzed to take any more initiative. Rin scuttled out like a ferret, furtive and energetic and eager to explore as much as possible. Aki remained as tranquil as ever. He wandered out of his cage and over to Shion as though he was given free range of the basement complex all the time. He stroked his long, wispy beard and studied the pinned Lab Coat, his dark eyes inscrutable.

          "He doesn't seem so fearsome when he's stuck up there," Aki murmured, his voice soft and plaintive as an autumn wind.

          "No," Shion agreed.

          For the first time, the doctor who haunted his dreams seemed like nothing more than a man. He looked exactly how he made Shion and his fellow superhumans feel: small, inconsequential, breakable. Shion hoped that the man was finally realizing his mistake in treating them like lab mice rather than human beings—though he didn't think Lab Coat was at all capable of feeling remorse.

          Hitomi and Rin joined Shion and Aki in staring down the nightmare that had kept them locked up and drugged in limbo. This was the moment to find peace, to recognize that the worst monsters were men and that they could be conquered.

          "You ready?" Rikiga said a moment later. "I can give the others something to help restore their abilities." The group turned to the man immediately at the mention of their powers. Rikiga shuffled from foot to foot and gestured toward the examination room.

          Even behind the closed door, Shion kept his hold on Lab Coat. He couldn't help but feel frightened of letting the man free of his mental grasp, even though he knew he was locked behind unbreakable glass and could no longer harm them. But as Rikiga bustled around the room, grabbing vials from the cabinets and syringes from drawers, Shion shifted the connection to Lab Coat to the back of his mind and tried to focus on a game plan.

          "What is that?" Hitomi asked, her voice fluttery. She drew away from Rikiga when he approached with a syringe filled with clear liquid.

          "It'll reverse the effects of the dampeners." Rikiga offered her a cautious smile. Hitomi didn't relax her rigid posture or draw nearer at this explanation. He rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. "Look, um, I know you're probably not keen on getting stuck again, and maybe you still don't really trust me, because I've been useless and I've never bothered to help you before. But, uh..." Rikiga cleared his throat and forced himself back on track. "But I'm helping you now. I helped Shion out, and you all, and I want you to succeed, otherwise I'm dead. So, yeah. I promise, after I inject this, you won't need any more. You'll be yourself again."