The Powered People

Chapter 23

Nolan was chased right into the infirmary and cornered in the surgery room. The whole first floor was completely desolate. Not a soul in sight. Which sadly meant no one to hear him scream when Macabre finally caught up to him.

Nolan had never been in the surgery room, but he'd already been told everything that needed to be known.

"It's nothing, just the place for injuries...and autopsies," he'd been explained. Macabre almost stopped at the doorway of the room. Her eyes dotted around the linoleum room as if she was recalling a thousand memories from that room alone. But before she sank too deep into her thoughts, she was shocked again.

Fired up and in pain, she lunged at Nolan, who dodged her and slammed against the metal wall. But Macabre picked herself up and jumped on him again, pinning him against the patient table. Her teeth sharpened into fangs. He noticed her pupils taking up her face once again. Anxiously, he tried to grab anything he could reach.

Luckily, he didn't have to. A ball of water hit Macabre right in the head, knocking her off of him. Nolan sighed in relief and quickly rolled onto his stomach to face the doorway. Standing outside the room with a bubble in her right hand was Evian.

She cracked a smile. "Hey."

Nolan almost exclaimed in relief just at the sight of her.

"Was Mack giving you trouble?" Evian jokes. Almost unable to speak, Nolan nodded. With a smirk, Evian tossed a bubble right at Macabre's foot. The bubble engulfed just her right foot. Concentrating so hard that veins stuck out of her forehead, she pulled back her hand. Macabre was dragged across the linoleum floor.

Macabre wildly struggled against the pull. She clawed the floor and shouted like an animal. Once she was close enough, Evian ripped a machine-thingy off the wall and prepared to chuck it at Mack's face.

"Wait, don't kill her!" Nolan yelled, hopping to his feet.

"I don't plan to!" Evian yelled back, tossing the metal thing at Macabre's head. Instinctively, Mack caught it and threw it back at Evian. She dodged out of the way and landed on the patient table. Evian was slammed on her back, so she gripped the sides of the table and tried to kick upwards at Mack. Evian's feet hit Mack in the gut, knocking her backward.

"I don't even think I could!" Evian continued as she crawled off the table and Tried to reach for a sink in the corner of the room. But Macabre lunged over the table and grabbed a scalpel off the side table. Before Evian could reach the sink, Macabre jumped at her and pinned Evian against the wall.

Macabre tried to simultaneously restrained Evian's arms and tried to force the scalpel at Evian throat. Evian's eyes kept dotting from Mack to the sink, knowing that if she just got her arms free she could manipulate the water to shoot right at them. But Mack kept persisting with great effort no matter how much Evian struggled. So Evian simply struggled harder, knowing that it was freedom or death.

Suddenly, Mack's hand stopped. The scalpel was just about an inch away from Evian's throat. She glanced from the blade to Mack. Mack's eyes were filled with guilt. Her fingers trembled. Her jaw slightly hung open as she panted. It was like for a moment, Mack realized what she'd done. Evian raised an eyebrow at Mack. She couldn't help but pity Mack. A centimeter at a time, Mack moved her scalpel away from Evian's neck.

Nolan ripped Macabre off of his sister. But Macabre didn't even struggle against him. She slowly backed away from the siblings, panting and softly shaking her head. Evian put a hand on Nolan's shoulder as the two stared at her. Evian was a little confused, but Nolan knew what was going on. Macabre gripped the handle of the scalpel as her breaths tightened. She was anticipating. She tried to stomp away, but another shock was triggered in her neck.

Macabre yelled out in pain, but it didn't put her back in a trance. She keeled over, heaving as veins popped out of her neck. She shook her head wildly, clutching her neck.

"No more," she grumbled, her eyes glistening and sweat dripping down her face. "No more."

Nolan gestured towards her, but Macabre glared at him so hard he jumped back.

Macabre stood up straight and rolled her shoulders back. She stared Nolan right in the face and raised the scalpel to her passion-filled eyes. Her pinky trembled only slightly.

"NO MORE!" Macabre shouted. With that, she stabbed the scalpel into her throat and ran it across her neck.

Right before she fell to the ground, Macabre had a look on her face she'd never worn before. Her eyes rolled back, her mouth hung open, but Evian noticed an odd expression that she'd almost never seen on Mack. It was like for a second all the suffering was over. It was a look of...relief.

And with that, she was gone.

Taiga had been stomping throughout the whole building, ice-ing anyone who got in her way. Hell, she would go after anyone who turned an eye to her. Taking out people one by one, she found herself on the first floor of the lab. She stomped around in disgust, thinking about all the people that were tormented in those halls. She should've frozen the whole placed and watched it crumble to pieces, but she was distracted by a whimper.

Taiga's first thought was that it could be the cry of a powered child, so she rushed towards what sounded like the source. Her shoes clanked against the metal floors, the sound echoing through the halls. She stopped right in front of what looked like an infirmary. Inside was a row of just about six identical cots, leading up to a metal door.

As she walked through the room, the smallest things disturbed her. Small, faded drops of blood stained the walls and floors surrounded the cots. Thin Blankets were torn and scattered all over the floor. In the corner was a broken prescription bottle with no pills in sight. Her nose stuck up as she cringed. She focused ahead and saw the door at the end of the room loosely hanging open. In that room was the source of the whimpering.

Taiga ran right in to see Nolan weeping on the floor in Evian's arms. Confused, she scanned the room to find a corpse just a foot away from her. She jumped back and tried to block her view of it with her hand. She was able to catch a glimpse of a slit throat, black hair, a scalpel, and...Macabre!

"Oh my God, what happened?" Taiga exclaimed, still not looking at Macabre's dead body.

"Mack, she...she killed," Evian breathed, unable to finish her own sentence. Taiga could piece together the story from there. Macabre had gone against her code. She'd resisted enough to rip the control-chip right out of her throat. Oh, that poor girl. Another brick in the wall for the low-life, kid-killing...

Taiga's train of thought was cut off by Evian letting go of Nolan and standing up. Dead serious, Nolan sprang up and stomped right over to the metal sink in the corner of the room.

"What's going-" Taiga turned around to see a guard right behind her. Before Taiga could act, Nolan had exploded the sink in the corner, spewing springs of water everywhere.