Love Among The Ruins-Chapter 94

CAINE’S P.O.V

The door opened to reveal another flight of stairs.

"I don’t know if we should go down," Joshua began, his voice shaky. "We don’t know what’s down there."

"Feel free to stay up and watch," I told him as I made my way towards the entrance. "Holler if you need us."

Nadine and I stepped down together. I made sure she was behind me at all times. The last thing I wanted was for us to face a surprise that we couldn’t get out of. Amy trailed behind and just when I thought Joshua would stay up, he murmured a curse under his breath and followed us.

I wasn’t sure how long we walked before we finally came to a room. It was so dark that I could barely see in front of me and the flashlights didn’t do much seeing as they were almost out of battery.

"Stay close," I whispered. "We need to be careful down here."

I intertwined my hand with Nadine’s and we walked further into the room. There was a desk right in front of us with a laptop bag on top of it. Papers were falling out of the bag and I made my way over. I recognized the writing- it belonged to Trent. I’d seen it enough times to know it by sight but most of his words didn’t make sense.

Day 1: Pain.

Day 2: Numbness

Day 14: Physical changes.

Day 100: Hard to control.

"What the fuck is this?" I asked aloud but I knew no one but Trent would have the answer.

I wasn’t exactly when I let go of Nadine’s hand. It must have been when I was rummaging through the papers. I was hoping for something- anything- that would explain what this room was.

"Guys," Amy began but I ignored her because I’d found something.

It was a polaroid and there was some writing behind it.

Experiment 103: Near perfection.

I turned it over and what I saw chilled my blood. The picture showed Trent, but it wasn’t him that I was concerned about, it was the tank directly behind him. It was large and filled with some kind of liquid. Inside was one of the creatures, it was hooked up to some wires. It was exactly like Nadine had explained. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

"Guys!" Nadine yelled out and I finally turned to her. "Look."

She was standing with Amy and they had their torch pointed at a large tank. It was smaller than the one in the picture, but inside was one of the monsters. Its eyes were closed, almost as if it were asleep.

"We need to get out of here, now," I whispered. I grabbed the papers, shoving them inside the bag. "They may not be asleep- they-"

I was cut off when the entire room lit up. I winced, shielding my eyes from the bright light. The bag dropped from my hand, as did the torch.

It took me a second to adjust to the light and when I did, my mouth fell open. There wasn’t just one container, there looked to be hundreds. Some were empty, some had monsters.

"Oh no," Amy whispered. "He made them?"

"I didn’t just make them, I control them." I took out my weapon instantly, looking around for Trent but he wasn’t here. "Put down the weapon, Caine. I’m not stupid enough to be there. Look up."

I did and right in front of me was a large screen. Trent’s face was plastered over that screen, a coy smile on his face. He looked exactly as I remembered but somehow, I didn’t recognize him at all. I’d known he was capable of terrible things but this?

"Why?" I asked. "Why make the monsters?"

"I didn’t intend for them to be monsters. The plan was always for the human race to evolve. We used to be top predators, I wanted that for us again. My creation is faster, stronger, deadlier. I turned us into the predators that we were meant to be."

"You experimented on people." It wasn’t a question but he nodded all the same. "You turned innocent people into monsters."

"I turned them into who they were meant to be."

"You turned them into monsters."

"That was never the intention. Every experiment has risks. Their bite was supposed to make you like them. It was supposed to turn us into them but it went wrong. It took the first person a week to turn and another week to die. How was I supposed to know that it didn’t work?"

"So what? You just set them all free?"

He shrugged. "Only a few at a time. They always come back here to rest."

"People have died!" Nadine screamed. "How dare you? Innocent people have died."

"I have only gotten rid of the weak and the cruel. I control who they kill. They don’t just kill at random. They don’t have a spectacular sense of smell or sharp eyes. It is the great purge, Nadine. Only the strong can survive."

I was disgusted to my bones. He was openly admitting to murdering people and he didn’t even seem remorseful.

"You’re a bastard," Joshua whispered. I was shocked to hear him speak. "I defended you. I fought for you."

"Fight for me again. "It is for the betterment of humanity. Think about it, we can rule the world."

"You’re sick."

Trent frowned, clearly not pleased with being called sick. "If I wanted you dead, you would’ve all been dead by now. I’ve been tracking your movements. I knew where you were at every given moment. You have Amy to thank for that."

"How?" I asked but he stayed silent.

"I offered you the chance to do the right thing, but you didn’t take it. Everything that happens now is on you."

He reached over to his side and placed something in front of the screen. It took me a second to realize what it was and by the time a did, an ear splitting scream filled the air.

Amy.

Trent didn’t even flinch. "This is what happens when you cross me."

I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. My eyes were fixed on the small skull that lay on his desk. It was picked clean, but I knew what it was. It was too small to belong to an adult.

"You’ll die for this," I promised but all he did was laugh as if he found the situation amusing.

"I hope you get out alive. It’ll be a shame for the game to end like this."

The screen went blank and I finally forced myself to turn to Amy. She was sobbing into Nadine’s shirt. Nadine’s eyes were red rimmed and filled with tears but she held them back, forcing herself not to cry.

"We have to go," I managed out. "He knows we’re here and we-"

A mechanic whirring filled the air. It was so loud I had to shut my hands over my ears to protect myself from the sound. It lasted a full minute before everywhere went silent again.

"What the hell just happened?" Joshua asked. "Did someone touch something?"

I didn’t get the chance to answer because behind Nadine, the monster in the glass opened its eyes.