The Reincarnation

Ralph Bishop ran out of the building like a scalded dog. Screw the bodyguards, he thought.

As soon as he felt he was far enough away from the Lab, he opened his briefcase. He was twenty feet inside the security fence.

A row of buttons, perfectly labeled, greeted him. He found the one that read “Cryonics Lab.” It was yellow. He pushed it.

Nothing happened – or so it seemed. Bishop knew the system was in place. A lethal gas should have filled the facility by now. Everyone should have been dead. Yet, he could still see people moving about. Those...things are not dead, Bishop thought. They are not alive either, he reasoned.

He looked down into his briefcase again. Under a protective cover there was another button, this one red, also labeled “Cryonics Lab.” Bishop convinced himself that the building was disposable. He congratulated himself on his forethought in getting the security system into place in time, and also on always putting all the Church’s main computers in demolition-proof rooms. I am still in control, he thought as he pushed the red button.

The building erupted. Shrapnel flew in the gust. Bishop stared in momentary awe. Watching the fallout, he scrambled back, up to the fence.

The building was ablaze. Bishop heard a voice from behind him.

“You may be worth more alive than dead.”

Bishop heard the sound of metal bending. Turning, he saw a gaping hole in the fence.

“Give me that briefcase,” a man demanded, while another grabbed Bishop by the elbows.

“This might come in handy,” the first man said, smiling and looking inside the briefcase. “Looks like Judgement Day has come a little earlier than you expected.” He turned to the second man. “Put him in the van. Maybe we can get him to answer for his sins.”

Bishop looked at the men as they dragged him through the hole they had cut in the fence and put him in their van, his mind fastidiously turning their thumbprint-size sketches into flesh.

The razor wire lining the top of the security fence was slicing into his flesh, and Victor Grey could smell his blood. He was nearly clear of the silver coils when the blast from the Lab exploding had him reeling, arms spinning as he fell. He heard an audible crunch as his face slammed into the ground. The smell of blood filled his head as his crushed nose blared in agony.

Glancing toward the remains of the building through moist eyes – the pain setting off the tears – he was now glad he had gotten out, glad he had finally reached the limit of what he was willing to endure. The freakshow the Church had on parade blocked the only exit, and the thought of Johnny Rotten’s inhuman grip around him again was too much.

He turned, eyes now blinded by wet dollops of pain, and saw Ralph Bishop being pushed unceremoniously into a van. The world was prismatic through his drenched eyes, and he could see streaks of rainbow in between flashes of red.

He felt the heat from the blaze at his back, and loped away from it. His legs like stilts at first, eventually they understood his commands, and he was at a full run in moments, his mind filtering through the pain to listen to its own command: Get the Hell out of here.

David woke up from an explosive noise. He tried to determine if he felt John’s presence, and felt the same way he did after the quarry – he wasn’t sure. He looked out of the window of the Bug. The Lab was in flames.

“Oh my God! What’s happening?” he cried at Donna and Laura, running to them.

“The bastards,” Laura said.

“Look at the gate. What are they doing here?” David saw a van drive through the security gate. He couldn’t believe what was written on the side of it. It read In These Times.

“Looks like the Church isn’t going to be able to keep this one quiet,” Donna said.

Laura pointed. “Look over there.”

“Is that Ralph Bishop?” David recognized him from the magazine Donna had given him. “What’s he doing here?”

“I don’t know, but he’s probably regretting his decision to come right about now. I recognize a few of those people. They’ve probably been following Bishop around for a long time, waiting for him to slip up. They’re the ones I told you about. The Eco-Assassins.”

“Jesus,” Laura said, looking back to the gate. “Look at them.”

More Others were coming in through the gate. They seemed confused, but ran into the building nonetheless. It reminded David of the hornets. Flying into their nest even though it would surely destroy them.