Prototype

Reggie returned to NexGen alone – or so she thought. She sent Nathan with the files from the mental hospital and the evidence Ron Thompson provided them with so he could start an official investigation.

She believed herself to be prepared for what she was walking into, but as soon as she entered the door, Shelby’s face came up, she began to speak, and then she was replaced with static.

“Looks like you and I aren’t together for this,” Reggie told Shelby out loud.

She regretted parting from Nathan now. In such a short time, she developed a bond with him; he was her partner.

But Nathan and Paul were not far behind her; Nathan even requested that Ron give the information to the police and FBI sooner than he originally planned on.

Reggie stole inside NexGen carefully. She unholstered her weapon and ascended the stairs trying to remain as quiet as possible. The silence surrounding her was deafening, and she never did anything without Shelby before. She doesn’t have a reliable partner now.

As quickly as she was sure she heard a sound, a painful sensation covered the back of her skull. An instant exhaustion took her and put her to sleep.

Granat tossed a fire extinguisher down and looked at Reggie’s crumbled form.

“Good to have you home,” he said. He bent next to her and lovingly caressed her hair and trailed his hand down her back.

All of this was hard enough on him already. But progress before emotions, he vowed that a long time ago. She put everything in jeopardy, and now they would have to work together to put things right.

* * *

Reggie’s eyes opened to the silence and blackness of the room. Her back arched, the back of her skull throbbed from her injury. Once she got to her feet, she rolled her shoulders to relieve some of the tension. Her shoulder burned with pain from her removing the microchip. She checked her holster to find she was unarmed.

The room was pitch black. The sink in the room was leaking, and the noise was interfering with Reggie’s abilities to focus on her other surroundings. She moved forward slowly, trying to mentally silence the water dripping.

She could hear small insects climbing up the walls.

She focused her senses on a window next to her where some light was filtering through. The scenario she was dealing with was very different from anything she ever experienced before; a brisk rain was falling from the sky. Reggie was sure she was still in NexGen, though; she was positive she was on the testing floor, being tested with a holographic background.

She noticed a window, and quickly moved to it, pushing it open. She slid out the window, despite its tight fit. She came out, standing up under a street light on the bottom of a stone staircase; leading up to what could be an alley.

She stepped up the steep stone staircase. There was also an eerie graveyard standing to the left of where Reggie was standing, and the rest looked like the streets of an abandoned, destroyed city.

Lightning flashed across the night sky.

A voice came from the air, startling Reggie with sheer volume.

“At last you’re awake!” The voice belonged to Granat.

“What is all this about?” Reggie asked him loudly, not sure where he could see her from.

“You turned my plans on their side far too early, my dear, so now I have to see how your experience outside influenced your decision making. There are two kinds of weapons for this training exercise: the mind and strength.”

His voice was gone, leaving Reggie in the rain. Granat was watching her from the safety of another floor, the one below her, while his monitors surveyed her every movement. His priceless research now reached a legitimate scenario before it would be used for what it was originally intended.

Finally, Reggie would have to face another being just like her; she would have to face an earlier project, Sample Theta.

Reggie edged forward, seeing one building with the glass of the door completely smashed in. The building was a gun shop, opened strategically for Reggie to utilize. She moved inside cautiously, stepping carefully over the glass and walking into the dark room with only a single light bulb offering her light. She was listening to all her surroundings, expecting something to jump out at her at any second.

There were no weapons or ammunition in the room, except one, lying on a table next to a hammer. It was a small pistol with one full magazine next to it. She placed the magazine into the well, removed the manual safety, and let the slide go forward.

As soon as she was armed, she felt as if something rushed past Reggie’s back. She could hear it moving, and waited for it to stop moving so she would be able to evaluate what she was in the presence of. Whatever it was, Reggie was fairly certain it was a fellow human; she turned quickly enough to see it was armed.

The lights changed, and they flickered too swiftly for Reggie to adjust to the changes. Someone moved forward and delivered two quick kicks to Reggie’s stomach. Reggie tried to recover and fire, but she heard the round hit the concrete wall.

“Nice try,” whatever it was said as Reggie’s round landed on the wall next to its head. He moved toward her again and grabbed her, to throw her through a glass window.

Reggie folded for the impact and changed his action into her diving through the window. She landed with a roll and stood up quickly.

Glass was in her hair and her clothes when she stood up, her left shoulder was sliced by the glass as well, the warm blood dripped down onto her skin. She stood up, moved off balance for a moment from the pain she was experiencing. Her eyes quickly adjusted to the lighting, just in time for her to see the thing jump through the window and land near her.

She took a quick but careful aim and pulled the trigger. She watched the being land on its back. Once it landed, she could look at it with more of an analytical mind. She could see it wasn’t human, at least not now. It was clearly similar to her; she could see the Xi symbol tattooed on its bicep.

“You managed to defeat one!” Granat’s voice rang through the air again. “Not bad, not bad at all. He was a failed experiment anyway… wait till you encounter the more successful ones.”

The lighting of the entire place changed to several shades darker. Reggie held her bleeding shoulder; a piece of glass was stuck in her shoulder. She needed to pull it out before she continued. She took a moment to remove the glass and began to move forward, holding the pistol with her.

Reggie was designed specifically for this, but she was feeling a new sensation she was unfamiliar with. Her body was hot but in a cold sweat, her heart was racing, and time seemed to slow down for her. She was feeling sheer terror.

* * *

She moved forward, aiming her weapon for anything that may jump out and attempt to scare her. In an alley, she saw something dark sprinting. She lifted her gun, but the shadow was already gone. She kept the weapon ready as she walked down the alley quietly.

There was a single small room on her left, she peered in around the corner to see the whole room covered in blood, and a man resting on his side, blood covering his fingers and up the wall, as his cold grasp was to the wall. His white shirt was soaked; he was cold to the touch. Reggie rolled him on his back, seeing his body torn in two.

Something massive attacked him, perhaps from the inside out. She felt his skin; his time of death was several hours ago. The blood was still dripping, though it was also cold. She touched her fingertips to it, feeling the coagulation. She bent next to the fallen man again and felt his injury, feeling how fresh it was.

The skin was split only recently, as the blood coagulated elsewhere. She moved the skin aside and felt on the inside, feeling around for the vital organs. His injuries didn’t display cause of death; shock. He’d been terrified, went into shock and then was “torn out” as the image appeared. She could feel that some of his lung was missing, and the back half of his heart was also gone.

“What in the world did you do to piss Granat off?” Reggie asked the corpse.

“That was someone who worked for me who didn’t agree with what I was doing. His name was Dr. Malcolm; I caught him trying to go to the police two days ago,” Granat answered her. “You were created for great things; people like him would only slow you down.”

“Like Phil,” Reggie mentioned.

“Who?” Granat asked.

No one was real to him, she realized. Just an expendable asset.

After Granat’s voice clicked out again, another noise startled Reggie into standing up. The sound was definitely glass shattering from a far distance, then the sound of gunfire. Reggie could feel something coming. She moved sideways and watched a bullet land on the wall next to her head.

Before Reggie recovered, something came running toward her. It impacted her stomach. She was braced for the impact this time; she grabbed his leg and knocked him to the ground. He was faster than the one previously, almost faster than her, but faltering in its logic. Reggie felt her adrenaline on high alert; her senses were so much more aware of everything then they were before. She sensed the aroma from the atmosphere, and suddenly grew aware of her strength increasing.

The person returned to its feet and tried again, moving with cat-like agility. It used Reggie’s chest as a brace as it leapt into the air and drew a weapon. It fired once, hitting Reggie in the side and he landed.

In shock from the pain, Reggie landed on one knee and stood up again and took aim at the being she could barely recognize as human. She moved her finger to the trigger and squeezed it five times, feeling the bucking steel in her hands. The creature dodged the bullets while Reggie fired until the weapon discharged the last round. The slide was locked back from the empty magazine.

She looked at the unloaded weapon for a moment, and began to wonder what death was going to feel like.