Hybrid: Project Vigil Read online

  John examined load of jeep. Everything there was real and dangerous: FGM-148 Javelins, explosives, land mines. It looked like these guys were preparing for something big. Both Gillian and John agreed to setup explosives around jeep to slow down any other patrols or search parties. They hid dead bodies under the vehicle so no one can see them from above. By the time they finished that all it was nearly sunset, John reached his hand to help Gillian stand: “Let's go find someplace to rest. Somewhere safe...or at least safer than here. They walked in silence, they had to change direction many times to avoid being followed. Soon darkness covered their advance and they started to look for shelter.

  _____________

  Corporal Tarkovsky patrolled near ridge line, his task was to kill any hybrids coming around. Strange thing was that there was no one else, only him and pale rocks. Few hours ago he lost contact with two other patrols which meant he was the only one in this area. But entire day no hybrid came through. He was starting to tell himself: “This is weird man, really weird.” Something moved on edge of his vision, it looked like human. He ran after it after several minutes of search he found a girl trapped in a chasm, only way out was around him. He aimed, she turned around. “You should be two.” Tarkovsky asked carefully. Gillian replied in amusing tone: “Yes we should.” Corporals words were cut off as gloved hand covered his mouth and razor-sharp blade cut his throat spilling large amount of blood.

  “His face was priceless.” Smiled Gillian: “They always follow me and then realize that I'm alone. This one is fifth in last two hours it's obvious that they were expecting us, shame we had to kill them.”

  John cleaned his knife urgently, James used to say: "'Nothin' is worse that dirty blade Stump.” John couldn't remember why is James always calling him Stump. James had name for everyone for example he called Gillian Rose, maybe because she likes roses. While looking for shelter John talked to her: “You never liked all this war stuff did you? Nah, why am I asking I know you. You don't like it, I wish you could be somewhere else, with your family, painting, playing piano, meeting with friends.” Gillian couldn't resist smile: “And where do you wish to be?“ John raised his rifle: “Wherever humanity needs me to be.“ Before Gillian answered he spoke again: “I think I found a cave for us, hang on...Yeah it's okay.” They spent ten minutes setting up camp for next two weeks. Unfortunately they couldn’t risk open fire so they had to survive freezing dessert night only with help of sleeping bags. Rest of night was silent, they were too tired to talk, it was amazing that they managed to keep watch four hours each until morning...

  Chapter 3 – Deception

  John woke up in a nice cave with good view of valley. Night was quiet except from wind and animals. Reports from other teams were fine, just few hostiles.

  "What do we have for breakfast?" Asked Gillian who just woke up. John was trying to open vacuum packed army meal, but his numb fingers were unable of doing so.

  "Appears to be baked beans with tomato sauce, but it won't open. I can't even pull trigger right now.''

  ''Right now you don't need to shoot anything.'' Gillian sighed. Then she opened pack for him and grabbed his hands in warm grip: “Warm enough?”

  Some kind of warrior instinct flashed through John's muscles. Some sort of memory from past, urge to free his hands from hers. He needed to focus his entire mind to ignore it.

  “Yes, much better.” John was confused, nothing like this happened before. Maybe he has too much adrenaline in his blood. Their cave was small, just about half the size of their cell. Entrance was practically invisible from distance.

  No matter what people think army meals are delicious, but fresh food will be always better.

  John watched beautiful sunrise, soon Gillian joined him in front of cave entrance. She looked really serious, she always looked serious after waking up. She had nightmares every night. John knew it, even if she refused to tell him. He was watching her entire night, shivering, talking from sleep, calling his name. John decided to ask her about dreams later.

  First light touched her unusually colored hair, reddish brown near roots with black ends. She had smooth, pale skin now partially covered with dust. Her eyes changed color rapidly, she could do that thanks to the cornea implant, sometimes it was very funny.

  “I think it'll rain.“ Announced Gillian.

  “I totally agree with your assumption.“ Reacted John. This short dialogue was absolutely irrelevant. Meteorological data projected on their retinal HUD so they both knew that there was a storm coming. This was used just to keep some communication between them during long hours of doing nothing. They could see thick dark clouds slowly getting closer.

  Light flashed in the clouds. First drop created small wet crater in desert dust. Wall of falling water soon convinced them to seek shelter in their cave. Rain tried everything to get inside but cave remained dry. Accompanied by hum of rain they talked. Nothing unusual at all, but one question disturbed John's mind long years after this.

  “What do you feel when you kill someone?“ Gillian often asked questions like this.

  “Hard to say, I've never killed someone I know. But when I kill guard I feel...nothing, recoil maybe. You already killed few people, so why do you ask?” John wanted to maintain normal tone, but he sounded little annoyed.

  Gillian turned her eyes away like into great distance. “I just wanted to know if I have same feelings like you. I hate myself for killing people. It's horrible thing, I don't understand how can you take it so easy. What they did to you John?" Now she sounded angry.

  John had no reasonable answers left.

  ”I don't know. Maybe I was turned into killing machine. But I think I can live normal life if they ever let us out. I wonder where they took us from.” He inhaled slowly, dry desert atmosphere mixed with storm water filled his lungs. “If we want to know who we are, we need to know who we were.“

  They stayed silent for next eight hours. They even ate their lunch away from each other. I was weird, two young people, alone in the wild and not talking to each other. Storm wasn't about to end any soon. Before nightfall it was raining more than few hours ago, John declined idea to patrol outside. Water could damage his rifle or cause a mudslide. No one would be out in this rain not even those trying to kill them. John brought his sleeping bag closer to cave entrance to guard during night and to maintain some empty space between him and Gillian. Best way to calm her down was to leave her alone for some time.

  It could take few minutes or several weeks, time depends on food served in mess hall.

  Till midnight nothing outside moved, thermo vision was clear, no sounds except torrents of water rushing down the slope. Flashes of light from lightning created strange silhouettes and shadows of rocks. John himself looked like a rock motionless, silent, his gun prepared to unleash deadly wall of armor-piercing bullets. Hypothalamus implant could prevent falling asleep for few days and putting John into state of sleep with normal awareness.

  Something moved inside the cave. Gillian was obviously shifting her position closer to John. Every moment she was closer and she was up to something because her movement was confident. Sneaky and careful but confident. She sat next to him and slowly leaned against him.

  "You should know I'm not mad at you,” Gillian began: “But sometimes you look like you are collapsing into yourself, fading in front of me.

  John had to admit his mind often drifted away from reality, from blood and violence.

  “I'll stay with you, whatever happens I'll be there."

  “I know you will, don't worry about me I won't disappear in my mind, you always remind me to stay.”

  Her hand slowly moved to his right palm.

  “You want to link our Systems, don't you? Asked John calmly already knowing the answer.

  “Yes, I want. I will worry about you less.

  “You are aware of what Caroline said about it.“

  “Yes, we shouldn't try it because it wasn't planned feature of System and it may be dangerous and no one is
absolutely sure about what it might do to us.”

  “You forgot to say that guy who created this system feature went mad afterwards.“ Added John swiftly.

  “Are you afraid John?“

  “No, just making sure you're aware of everything.”

  “I don't care what happens, I just want to do it.”

  “Then let's do it.”

  Their hands moved closer and closer. A moment before they touched a blue spark of light jumped between them. Then they were flushed into moving world of colors, numbers and shapes, project scientists called this The Hybrid Sub-reality. It served as System base. Hybrids could access it easily, scientists needed tons of hardware to get in. Process window appeared:

  >Uplink status: Established

  >Connection: Subject.Omega-Gillian #7530#

  >Synchronizing...

  >Synched...proceeding...

  >Core programming: Adjusted

  >Memory: Balanced

  >Link: Connected

  >Testing...100%

  >Systems linked...0 Errors detected

  >Required actions: 1

  >Proceeding...

  >Data transfer: Commencing

  >/

  Series of pictures, movies, feelings and sounds played in John's head. It took him few moments before he realized he's watching Gillian's memories. And she probably watched his. He saw their first conversation, their first mission together. John could see what she saw, feel what she felt. They fell asleep, that sometimes happened after entering into

  Sub-reality. And so they slept not knowing what will happen next day...

  ________________

  John woke up hearing gun fire. Tom's voice sounded over radio,

  “We're under attack!!”

  Gillian slowly opened her eyes.

  “What's going on?”

  “They are here,“ said John “Ready to show them no mercy?”

  She hasn't said anything, just took her gun, armed it and crawled out of the cave.

  John pressed the comm button: “Every armed squad put suppressing fire on those hostiles attacking Dragon 1-1. Everyone else withdraw to extraction point and call for evac.“

  “John there are...“

  loud “thud“ interrupted Tom's words. John knew what that means.

  He jumped out of cave and looked through sniper rifle scope.

  “Tom is hit!“

  Meanwhile Gillian fired bullet after bullet.

  “Get him out of there we will cover you.“

  John found his target. He held breath, aimed and slowly pulled the trigger. Soldier's head exploded, his comrade next to him had only few seconds before Death claimed him too.

  Suddenly a column of white smoke shot to the sky. John turned his rifle to trucks on the road 1,5 miles away. There were enemies preparing to fire another Javelin missile.

  First missile arched through air aiming for Dragon 1-1.

  When it hit the ground it sent large chunks of rock flying. John checked Tactical Status Display on his HUD, Dragon 1-1 was marked as Lost.

  “They are dead.” He told Gillian, but somehow he said it through their connection.

  “What are we going to do?” Her question hung in the air.

  “Tell everyone to run.”

  John tried to contact others but there was nothing but static. Soldiers near trucks prepared another Javelin missile. Wild idea crossed John's mind. He put his hand on Gillian's arm.

  “Go, find others and go to extraction point.”

  “What do you want to do?“

  “Buy you some time.“

  “How you want to do that?!“ She insisted.

  “Just go!”

  Gillian started to move away from John. John pulled assault rifle closer to him. He breathed fast and hard, rivers of sweat poured down his face, his heart raced. It was closer and closer, the final second, moment of death, sacrifice, call it however you want. Then he stood up and pulled trigger. Goal wasn't to hit soldiers or trucks, they were out of range. He just wanted to attract their attention. Several soldiers pointed his direction. Then he noticed something horrible. Gillian was still standing there and watching him. There was no time to talk, missile was already in the air aiming for them. John grabbed her waist turned around and threw her as far as he could. Before he released her, John whispered in her ear.

  “I'm sorry.”

  John could feel pain through their connection, but he knew she is okay. Missile arched. He took a deep breath, pulled out his pistol. Another breath. John waited for missile to get closer, aimed and then tried his luck and fired. It exploded less than 20 feet away from him. Flames engulfed him, his body hit the ground then everything went dark.

  ___________________

  Meanwhile back at base...

  Doctor Caroline Blackburn sat behind her table enjoying glass of wine. There was no particular reason to celebrate, she just wanted to drink that wine she bought herself for birthday five years ago, last time she was out. Since then project proceeded so fast she couldn't. When she was about to pour fifth glass someone knocked at the door.

  “It's open.” She yelled.

  Young lab assistant Harper stepped inside.

  “My apologies doctor Blackburn, I don't want to interrupt, General Briggs wishes to talk to you.” He said. Caroline put wine bottle back to bottom drawer.

  “Damn general, I want to drink my wine right now. Instead I'll end up talking about government's expectations for next year. Harper! Have you brought those boxes from storage?“

  “Of course doctor. May I ask you something?“

  Caroline was putting her lab coat on. “Ask away!“

  “How much have you drank doctor?“

  “Not enough Harper, not enough.“

  She pushed him away from door and made her way to general's office, leaving Harper standing there confused. Caroline had to admit, she drank more than she should. It wasn't even evening.

  Caroline stormed through general's door.

  “You wanted to see me?“

  General lifted his sight from computer screen.

  “We've got a...doctor are you drunk?

  “I consumed large amount of alcohol but I don't consider myself drunk.”

  “I'm serious doctor. I appears that few our squads went rogue and attacked test subjects.”

  Caroline's mind examined that sentence very carefully.

  “You mean YOUR men are killing MY work?!“

  General sighed.

  “We have two K.I.A. and one M.I.A.”

  “In English general, please.“ Caroline demanded.

  “Two subjects are dead and one may be alive.“

  Caroline was now sure he is serious.

  “Which subjects?“ She asked fearing the worst.

  “Alpha and Delta are dead, John may be alive. They were hit with Javelin missile.“

  Caroline fell to nearby chair. Even if John was alive he would be crippled.

  “They called for evac, they will arrive in thirty minutes. I suggest your team should prepare.“

  Caroline took her phone. She selected Sanders in contact list, her hands were shaking when she tapped call button.

  “Sanders. You know what happened?“

  “Yes I know. We have prepared our equipment but we have no idea about damage done by flames and blast. Come see me near medical wing.“

  She unwillingly released the phone and let it fall.

  “Who is responsible?”

  She was just about to leave, but she decided to make general feel bad.

  “You know what? I don't want to know it! But I hope you know who did it. Otherwise you can be damn sure if John survives, he is going to kill you all. So you'll better find out who is behind it.”

  Then she closed door and walked away.

  Sanders was already waiting for her. Doctor David Sanders was tall, muscular surgeon in his early thirties. He just talked to cyber engineer and implant manufacturer. He looked worried and others looked interested. Car
oline waited for engineer and manufacturer to leave before she talked to Sanders.

  “I hope you know more than I do.“

  “Yes, we have received some information about damage done to John. His skin was burned over 80% of his body, his eyes are practically destroyed. Blast torn off his right arm and both legs bellow knee. We'll be lucky if he survives. And if he does, we've never encountered this kind of damage.”

  Caroline was trying to stay professional, however that was harder every second. However she had an idea how to solve Sanders's problem.

  “Do you remember Spectre?“

  “Yeah, strange stuff. You don't want to? Sanders shivered.

  “Yes. That's precisely what I want to do. Do we have schematics for it? Caroline put her hand on his shoulder

  “They are stored in our database. But, it would transform him into...something else. Implants of that size it could kill him. Caroline! Are you listening to me?“

  “No, David! There will be no discussion to this matter! I'm chief scientist of this project! That means I make the call."

  And I said that John gets Spectre implants.” Caroline shouted.

  After few seconds she continued in normal tone.

  “If someone is responsible for what happened to him it's us. Now we need to focus on getting him in one piece. “

  Sanders nodded and started walking away.

  “You're right. I'll send our order to manufacturing labs. By the way, Gillian...Gillian...she is going to need help. I think you should take care of her when they arrive.” Then he made his way to his office.