The Sinister Shadows [Prequel to White Noise]

1. A Chance to be a Saviour

Stark white. I was surrounded by it. The walls, the roof, the linoleum floor, the lab coats of the people around me, the blank projector screen at the front of the room. I blinked; the white was covered with deep, crimson blood. I saw my father standing before the blood splattered projector screen, half the flesh of his scolded face peeling away to reveal a burnt, charcoaled skull. The rest of his body was red and black and blistered, burns swirling between the blemishes. He reached towards me, trying to force himself to step forward as fire ignited at his feet, spreading up his legs—NO. I flinched, scrunching my eyes closed. When I opened them, I was once again surrounded by stark white walls, and my father was gone.

Eli placed his hand on my shoulder lightly. “Codi, are you sure you’re okay to be here? I-I’m sure they’ll understand if you can’t handle—”

I shrugged off his touch. “I don’t have a choice, Eli. If it’s my sanity or the human race, I’m going to pick the human race.”

“Screw the human race.” Eli said a little too loudly. “You should be back in Nottingham, where Doctor Walters can keep a close eye on you. You said it yourself, Codi, you’re not ready to be back out in society.” He reminded me, before adding softly, “Especially not in American society.”

I turned and faced my brother. “I also said that I needed to do this to regain a little normalcy in my life.” I snapped.

“Saving the world isn’t exactly normal, Codi.”

“My job is.” I said harshly, gaining some worried looks from the seven other scientists in the room, sitting around the table with us. I ignored them, turning to the front of the room once more. I was glad to see my father wasn’t there again. “The population had already halved, Eli. I’m not leaving three billion more people to die simply because of something that happened to me in the War.”

“Something?” Eli asked exasperatedly. “You were in the hospital for six months and you still have severe anxiety and an unstable level of PTSD. You should still be under watchful observation.”

“And now I’m moving on with my life.” I told him. “Like Doctor Walters said I should.”

“Somehow, I don’t think this is what he had in mind.” Eli muttered under his breath. His eyes travelled around the room, taking in the other scientists the UN found alive. Eight, including me. One of the most popular war strategies was to attack any laboratories the different Governments had set up, stopping countries from gaining the upper hand with new scientific inventions.

At the beginning of the War, I had worked in one of England’s scientific set-ups, working with biologists on biological agents I was in charge of determining whether the biological weapons they created would impact on the genes of the offspring of any surviving soldiers. Even in the middle of the War, England was still thinking avidly about the future. They didn’t want any faults in the future generations because of the War. One day, when I was travelling to the laboratory, I got a message through the interface. The laboratory had been bombed. There were no survivors. After that, my family and I were forced into hiding. Luckily for Eli and I, they never discovered my identity when we were captured by the Americans.

“Look at them.” Eli said through gritted teeth. “Any of them could be responsible for their deaths.” Our parents’ deaths, he meant.

“I could be responsible.” I pointed out. “There’s no use pinning the blame on anyone. The War is over. They’re dead. We’re alive. And so, we move on with our lives. And if that means saving the human race, I will damn well save the human race, whether my parents are a part of it or not.”