PRESENT TIME
Specimen A lifts up Carl, and Carl looks back down to Specimen A’s leg. Should I ask? Carl opens his mouth to comment about the gash on Specimen A’s leg, but Specimen A beats him to the punch.
“My leg, huh?”
“Yeah, I was gonna ask, do you want some help with that? I was a trauma surgeon before, ya know”
“I would be okay with that.” Specimen A frowns, he knows Carl wants to say something. The blood continues to drip as Carl looks up at Specimen A’s mouth.
“Goddamn it, say what you want to say!”
“Was it that obvious?”
“You’re an idiot, you know that?”
“A perceptive idiot, were you consuming your own blood?”
“I was hungry” Specimen A says without sparing a beat, Carl looks at him again inquisitively.
“You enjoy it, don’t you?” Carl was now sure that this man, intelligent as he may be, was most definitely an animal beyond all reasonable doubt.
“Of course I do, you think I can’t find other sources of food? I can’t really explain it, there’s a specific flavor that’s… addictive” Specimen A stumbled to find the words. It was unexplainable.
“It’s not just because it’s a human is it?” Carl was now absorbed in the man behind Specimen A’s cannibalistic exterior. Carl’s amygdala had calmed and as the adrenaline wore off, he was functioning not on reptilian fight or flight, but his higher order thinking. The analysis running on Specimen A was not an open and shut case, this was a matter of cold, calculated interest.
“No, no it is not, there’s a certain flavor only if the meat is spiced with The Beast”
“Spiced with?”
“Hard to explain, it’s almost like a seasoning”
“Is it-”
“Would you please refrain from speaking for at least the next 5 minutes”
“Got it”
“That was 2 words when I wished for 0, let me think of a way to escape”
“My mouth is zipped”
“I CAN STILL EAT YOU GODDAMN IT!”
Carl snorted. Specimen A huffed. They both look at each other and burst into laughter. Specimen A stops and allows Carl to stitch up his leg wound, while he works, Specimen A muses, his eyes closed, neurons firing. He thinks through his past, the labyrinth like hospital had to have an exit that wasn’t boarded up.
“And here is the entrance” The director of the HUNTER program booms over the animated chatter of Specimen’s A-F. The door opened loudly with a whoosh of air. The sound deafened the area promptly as the Specimen’s looked on in fascination. The lab around them was filled to the brim with the stereotypical mad scientist pop culture expectations. The lab workers walked by with fervour, working, as it seemed, for days and nights on end. The bags under their eyes showing the only signs of tiredness. Minds clean and sharp. “Don’t you let them sleep doc?” Specimen A remembers commenting.
“Once the cure is created, you are all going to make history and they will have saved countless lives.” The director boomed. Specimen B looks at Specimen A and smiles.
“Hey man, my name is-”
“OH GOD WHAT THE HELL!” Specimen A shouts as a sharp stab by the needle shoots him out of his thoughts. The smile of Specimen B still haunts Specimen A. But he had not caught the disease, I had not let it get him.
“Sorry, sorry, we don’t really have any anesthetic, I had to close the wound any way I could” Carl stumbles, there was no need to make the cannibal angry.
“The entire floor smells like ethanol, are you sure there are no medical supplies that we can carry outside?”
“It’s been 2 years since this place was abandoned, do you really think the supplies are sterile or usable?”
“Good point, man” Specimen A stopped, do I know this man’s name?
“Wait, what’s your name?” Carl asks, hit by the same thought.
“Specimen A,” Specimen A softly said. He could not remember his own name for the life of him, 2 years had really taken a number on him.
“That’s not a name”
“It’s a name if I goddamn say it is” Specimen A was slightly irked, the man could not take him in any sort of physical confrontation, but seemed to be unable to pick the right fights.
“Good point, Specimen A, my name is Carl” Carl reaches his hand out for a shake.
“I’m not shaking your hand, Carl”
“Alright that’s fine. I do know a way out though” Specimen A says nonchalantly.
“Great, I’ve been dying for some fresh air” Carl shakes his head with a grin.
“As have I, and we can meet some new people”
“You mean eat?”
“Ahh yes, of course, pardon the mistake” They look at each other and laugh. As the overwhelming smell of ethanol and death hit their noses. The world was going to have to look out, as the only real evil lasts not in heaven or hell, but in man, and man itself.
CHECK BACK FOR PART 6 SOON!