Cold War: Saved By the Bell

Chapter 4

"Kuzmin!" He heard himself hiss.

"Just as clueless as your father."

"You killed him!"

"You should know..."

"Liar!" He heard his own sobs ring louder and heavier.

"Anthony..." Elena, his sister called for him. For a moment she sounded like the child he grew up with.

"Shut. Up!" He winced, the mental toll taking a great deal out of him. "Get away from her!"

"Thomas..." Park mumbled.

"No!"

"What have I done?!" He vividly remembers collapsing to the ground, finding the two most important people in his life... dead. He lived it over and over again for the past 80 years. Each time was slower than before. He couldn't sleep anymore. He didn't desire to, no matter how tired he was. But sometimes his body didn't care about his feelings and sent him into a dark spiraling state of unconsciousness.  

2065
Specialist HQ

He jumped awake, sitting straight up. Tears swelled his eyes and made his cheeks sticky. He felt sick. His head shot towards the door as it reverberated a beat of someones's fist.

"Get ready. You've got five minutes." Outrider said, before they could exchange any sort of formal greetings. She handed him a set of clothes. Anthony shook his head and closed the door behind him. He hadn't realized his body was drenched in cold sweat until he unfolded his uniform. He had no time to shower. Drying off with a towel would have to do for now.

"What are we doing today?" He walked alongside outrider, dawning a brown pair of combat pants followed by a brown and black leather vest. His sleeves seemed to be a dark green leather material as well. The gloves and helmet were something to get accustomed to. His gloves looked that of false robotic hands, and the grey metallic helmet looked something out of a fantasy. This kind of tech never seemed to disappoint to amaze him.

"Different room today, right next to the sim. This is our combat training center. We used to have multiple AI's to train with before the outbreak but now we only have HAM and, ourselves." She explained as the door slid open. "Oh and you won't need your headgear for this." She ushered for him to press the button on his ear piece. He did so, retracting the protective armor around his skull.

The room was lined with a glossy grey coat and the floor was a tough navy blue surface. Lights illuminated from the floor.

"Before I teach you anything, I wanna see what you already know." She said closing the door behind him, separating the two.

"And who's the unlucky soul?" Anthony teased as he stretched his arms.

He didn't notice Spectre stalking him until he appeared from his active camo, striking him across the face. Being stunned with robotic limbs hurt ten times worse than natural human hands ever could.

He fumbled backwards into the wall. Spectre marched towards him, pinning him there. His hand clenched around Anthony's windpipe his other around his bicep.

"Wow... makes me wonder how you got that strong grip." He chuckled through tights breaths. Spectre head butt him, disorienting him further as he tossed him to the ground. Anthony skidded across the rough surface on his side. He was quick to his feet, realizing he had his cybercore.

He used his own active camo to temporarily disappear. Spectre stood still in the center of the room. The silence was loud. The two stood quietly, Anthony stalking, Spectre patiently waiting.

He almost succeeded at getting a jump on him, however Spectre heard the slightest breathe from his adrenaline filled body from behind and knocked the sharp blade from his possession followed by a kick to the stomach, causing his camo to fade.

Anthony dodged more blows that Spectre threw at him. As he did, he analyzed the being's fighting style with every kick and punch. If he couldn't defend himself with what he had been taught, then perhaps he could shock his practice partner by sending everything right back to him.

He used his cybercore to enhance the speed of his kicks and jabs, making it more difficult for Spectre to follow. He aimed his boot towards Spectre's knee, an attempt to collapse it. The ominous figure blocked by tackling Anthony to the ground and picking him back up to his feet, only to pick him up by the throat and slam him once more. Spectre raised him in the air to do it once more. This time Anthony reached his arms over the back of the enemy's shoulders and around the head. As they reached the hard flooring he made sure that Spectre's skull went first. A loid thud rang.

"What's your head made of?!" Anthony reached for his blade before he turned Spectre over, skywards. His knee was in the other's bicep as his other hand held Spectre's forearm.

Just inches before Anthony's blade reached the figure's throat, Outrider saw a a quick glimpse of a blue blade activate and disappear as quickly as it came.

As Anthony collpased, Spectre pushed him off of him and Outrider rushed in, alarmed. "What the hell?! You weren't supposed to kill him!" She shouted at Spectre.

"He'll live." Spectre wiped Anthony's blood off his helmet, watching as she leaned the younger man against the wall.

"What...." Anthony gently placed his fingers in the hole that was in his abdomen. You could see right through a small ridged blade shaped gap in his body, burn markings outlining it. He was weak with his speech, and his face, pale.

"Stay calm." Outrider tried to keep him from freaking out. Her eyes gazed down to his wound when she was nearly taken aback. "How... that's not possible."

"What?" He groaned.

"Your wound."

He began to steady his breathing and he felt a strange sensation in the injury under his bloody palm. Suddenly the bleeding paused and there was no more wound. Its as if it had never happened.

"Told you." Spectre chimed in.

Anthony rose to his feet. "What did you do to me?!" He panicked looking at his palm and back at his abdomen.

"I don't know. I don't think we did this, Commander." Outrider answered.

Samantha quickly made her way into the room after Spectre had alerted her of the miraculous event. She told the others to go about their day as she led him to a lab. His heart began to race.

"I'm-  I can't go in there." He grabbed her wrist as she laid her hand on the hand print pad.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to hurt you like that Adler did. We want to help you become the best version of yourself, Anthony." She assured him. They both held each other's gaze. She could see him slightly trembling.

"Ok." He let go of her.

They had punctured his flesh with incisions of different sizes. They were gracious enough to give him a numbing agent to disguise the pain. They took samples of his blood to follow. After a few hours everything was done.

"What do you remember before your friends put you under the ice?" She asked him as he laid on the medical bed.

"It was.. cold. I remember feeling a sharp pain everywhere. There was a small tube in my arm. They didn't tell me how painful it was going to be. An orange fluid came rushing into my body via the tube. And it felt like... my body was set ablaze. I'm not sure why they didn't tell me about that part or what it was. I just assumed it was part of the process."

"It wasn't. It's a serum. During the first Cold War, the USSR was in development of attempting to design a serum capable of making their soldiers practically unkillable. They wanted an elite army of these men. So they began experimenting and thats when they began to create these zombies. However back then their numbers were so few it was easy to control. But the failed serums were kept on a shelf for whatever reason. And just recently when Perseus started experimenting, they discovered these other viles and wanted them for themselves. Because they were flawed, they of course led to the outbreak whenever the human trials were ran."

"Am I a zombie..?" He was afraid to ask.

"No. Your just the world's first successful trial."