Rise Of The Hunters - Chapter 69

“What?” everyone shouted at the same time.

“You must be mistaken!” insisted Gerald.

“I did not misspeak.” She raised her head up in indignation.

“But why would anyone do that? The fact that the vampires can’t stand our blood is the only reason any of us are alive!” exclaimed Gerald.

Xun was quiet, thinking hard. The fact that the blood wasn’t good for the vampires, is what started the war. They were trying to experiment with the humans to make the blood palatable. Those experiments are what caused the werewolves and mutated creatures. So what Gerald had just said, was wrong, but that didn’t mean the experimentation on babies was allowable.

“Do you want to know what happened down here, or not?” cautioned Xun’s dad as the old woman looked about to explode. Gerald quickly took the hint and backed off.

“I’m sorry if I was abrupt. The shock was a bit much for me.”

The old woman glared at him for a moment, before continuing.

“If the babies survived the antiviral shot, they would be placed in isolation so that the next round of testing could be conducted. In here,” she took them into the next room that had several cribs lined up in cubicles separated by glass.

“This was the hardest room to be in. Most of the babies that came into this room didn’t leave alive. There was always one crying.” Her voice was subdued and distance. Glancing around the room, it was as if she could still see the small forms laying in the cribs.

“What did they do to them?” asked Craig softly.

“They were injected with different viruses intended to prevent mutations from occurring when introduced by the vampires. They were trying to come up with another virus that worked against the vampires.”

“But, how…” Gerald’s voice trailed off as the horror of the situation became apparent.

The old woman nodded sadly then turned and left without another word.

They followed automatically, but their minds were stuck on the implications. If they were introduced to a virus that was intended to prevent mutation, that meant they were then introduced to the mutation compound to test the virus.

The next room was the room they had seen from above. These cribs were larger, and surrounded by medical equipment.

“How many?” trailed off Gerald. His face was pale with shock.

“Hundreds came through here. No more than six or seven at the time, but as one died, another showed up to replace it. Only a handful survived to the age of five. None survived past that, though when they left, they took four with them. One had just survived a new round of virus, and was bȧrėly a week old. The other three had been moved to this observation deck. There was a two-year-old and two four-year-olds.”

“That’s so sad. It never ceases to amaze me at the evils of man.” Craig looked around the room, then turned to leave. The others quickly followed, they no longer wanted to see anything else.

“If they were successful, it could have been the end of the vampires.” She didn’t sound very convincing as she trailed behind them.

“How did they find the babies?” asked Xun.

“I don’t know. Maybe they were stolen?” She returned to her cold tea and sat down.

“Not very likely. Mind if we look at your computer?” asked Gerald.

The old woman opened her mouth as if to argue, but stood up and moved aside instead.

Craig sat down and began typing away. Xun looked at his dad in confusion, but saw that he was watching the screen just like Gerald. They understood how it worked, but Xun did not. He looked around the room for a moment, to see if there was anything else to look at, but there was nothing. How did this old woman live here all this time by herself? How was she not crazy yet?

“They were moved about twelve years, no almost thirteen years ago. There’s a note here about how they were trying to avoid the spring flooding during the trip.” Craig continued typing.

Xun’s head whipped around. He was born around that time. A strange feeling was churning in his stomach.

“That name! That’s…” Gerald looked at his dad, then at him.

“Who?” asked Xun, stepping forward to look at the screen. It was his mom’s name.

“Xun,” began his dad, but he didn’t get a chance to continue.

“Xun! That’s the name of the newborn they took away! It was named for axion utilized nexus. I’m not sure exactly what that meant, but all the babies were named for the virus’ used on them.”

Xun closed his eyes. This was just a wild coincidence. There was no way he was an experiment. The old lady just said the babies never lived past the age of five. His mother was not the woman who had worked here, who said she was going to try and take one away when they were trying to move them…

He was breathing hard when he opened his eyes. They were all pointedly looking away.

“It says here, that they were going to move to another facility, but it doesn’t say where.” Craig typed a few more things.

“I found the case file, but it’s missing a lot of information.”

“That’s because all of the data on the child was taken with them when they left, and I didn’t get a chance to input it into the system.” She sounded tired.

“Ah! I found a location… that’s odd. It’s very close to the compound we just left.”

“But we would have seen it in our travels. I didn’t see anything like a base while we were there. The compound didn’t even have an undercity.” Gerald frowned at the screen.

“Dad,” Xun choked. He couldn’t ask him. The man he had always thought of as a father, who knew the truth, he couldn’t seem to get the words out.

“It’s true,” came the whispered response.