Coger

Chapter Seven

Christian stood with his arms crossed watching a spider in a large pod crawl around the room.

"Luckily, the doors are right enough to where she can't get out no matter how small she gets," David stood next to him, "What have you figured out from this one?"

"She goes by She-Zoo," Christian sighed, "Her name is Molly Doss though. I assume she has the nickname she does because she can transform into any animal. Besides that...nothing else."

"So the anti-serum worked or it didn't?" David asked.

"It delayed her ability to use her powers for about half an hour. After that, it wore off, and she became a hippo to get out of the chair we had her in," Christian shook his head, "I'm not touching anyone unless I have to. It hurts too much."

"Did you ask her where it is then touch her, though?"

"Yeah, and all I got was 'Keep it to yourself. He's in your head.'"

The two moved down to the next pod where Old Man Lura sat quietly against the back wall, "What about him?"

Christian sighed, "He keeps his thoughts closed pretty well too. He won't give up where the lab is or how many people The Brain has involved. We just know that next time, we don't need to use the anti-serum on him."

"How come?" David took a sip from a large tea he had in his hand.

"He has no power," Christian frowned, "He just knows how to use his hands, and he works very well with his surroundings. He calls himself 'The Handyman'. He's basically The Brain's version of Rob."

They stood in silence for a moment.

"How's Heather?" Christian asked.

David kept to himself for a moment before saying, "She's seen better days."

"What's the final report?"

David tried walking away before Christian grabbed his arm. David thought, "You don't want to know."

"Yes I do!" Christian yelled in pain.

David sighed, "Follow me."

*****

They arrived at a corridor that looked almost identical to the training and holding hallway except all of the pods were lit with a heavy blue lighting.

David and Christian walked to Pod 13 where Marian was standing over Heather whose face was wrapped completely except for her nose.

"What's going on?" Christian squinted.

"She's had as much treatment as we can give her," David frowned,"What's done is done." He left.

Christian stood and watched as Marian unwrapped Heather. The horrific scars began to show. The left side of her face had been completely peeled away, revealing all of her facial muscles and teeth. Some bone was even visible. The most noticeable feature, however, was the black matter that sat in the socket where her left eye had been.

Marian handed her a mirror. After taking a slow look at herself, she frowned and hurled the mirror at the wall, shattering it immediately.

"Hey honey," Christian turned to see Sharon wearing a hospital gown and exiting a pod two doors down.

"Sharon!" He hurried over to her, "How are you?"

"I'm getting better," she smiled. Her neck was being held up by a neckbrace, "How are you?"

"I'm fine," he frowned and looked back towards Heather's pod.

"That wasn't your fault," Sharon turned his head back to look at her. He heard her think, "You know it. I know it."

"How do you know?"

"A small world, CULT is." She laughed a little before wincing in pain.

"David didn't mean to do that, you know?"

She smiled and nodded, "Let's just say he's come by a couple times to apologize."

"Everyday, I assume?"

"Every...damn...day," she smiled and grabbed his hand before quickly letting go as he dropped to a knee, "Sorry. I keep forgetting."

"It's okay," he stood up.

"Do you mind helping me to the cafeteria?" She asked him.

"Are you allowed to leave?"

"I'm too old for them to tell me no," she laughed as they headed out of the medical ward.

*****

Sharon sat across from Christian. He frowned as he watched her attempt to eat, but with every bite, she shed a tear. He looked down at his hamburger and threw it down onto the plate in front of him.

"It's just going to take some getting used to," she said.

"Will you ever heal completely?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Who knows?"

He frowned as the doors to the cafeteria were kicked open. He looked to his right as Heather bolted toward him and tackled him to the floor. "You're a dead man!" Her thoughts screamed.

Josh and Scott had been eating nearby and jumped up to pull her off.

"This is your fault!" She screamed as she pulled herself away from the two holding her back. She stood her ground for a moment as what looked to be blood dripped from her left jawbone, "Never do I do anything for you ever again!" She stormed out.

*****

After helping Sharon back to her medical pod, Christian ran into David. "I heard what happened in the cafeteria! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Christian nodded.

"I was worried!"

"Why?" Christian shrugged his shoulders, "She's too weak to do any major damage right now."

"Really?" David hurried off towards the holding pods. Christian followed as David's tone suggested that there had been an incident.

They both arrived at Old Man Lura's holding pod where Jonathan and Rob stood next to a chair.

In the chair: Old Man Lura...he had been tied up with restraints and stabbed multiple times in the face with a syringe that was still sticking out of his left eyeball.

"He's dead," David confirmed what Christian had thought.

He entered the room and walked closer to the body. He realized that the only side of the face that had been attacked was the left side.

"Go check her room," David said.

Christian slowly exited the room and headed down the hallway before looking into Heather's window and seeing seered room.

"What happened?"

"She pulled the light fixtures down and set the room on fire," David closed his eyes for a moment, "Do you know what that symbol on the back wall means?"

Christian looked closely to see an image written in blood. It was an 'E' placed in the middle of a 'V'.

"Evade." He said

"Evade?"

Christian nodded. "Her nickname was 'Evade'. The letter stand for 'Evade'."

David looked down, "I guess that names means a whole lot more now than it ever did."