A Beast with a Smile
Chapter 7 (Scavenger): A Deal With No Clear Winner

I sprinted out of what was left of the children’s ward. I had to cross the cafeteria to get to where Atom had taken Scarlett. Unfortunately, this meant sprinting across a giant glass window room. On the other side lay an army’s worth of men. I’m sure they would love to see their target be in such a vulnerable place.

I could teleport, but my body felt drained after throwing sixty men into a bloody firework. I reached a pillar just before the cafeteria and front entrance. A few trucks had pulled up, each carrying around forty soldiers each. I’m sure Atom called in plenty more after what happened in the children’s ward.

I had no other option but sprinting to the urgent care portion of the hospital. I had to get there before more reinforcements arrive. I took one step out from behind the pillar and heard a bullet ricochet off of the ground in front of me. I ducked behind the corner as the firing began.

The glass shattered, and the room was covered in gun fire. These were not the same type of soldiers from before; they were just regular roid freaks. Atom only hires the best soldiers, but the worst humans that our kind has to offer.

The pillar began to degrade from the gun fire. I began to worry, but the gun fire stopped. There was silence for thirty seconds when the intercom made a beep, beep, beep and played a little jingle before Atom’s voice called out, “Come on boy. I don’t have all day. My men won’t shoot at you anymore. Just get over here so we can...talk.”

I wasn’t sure if I could trust the man who has spent all day trying to kill me. I stuck my foot out and nothing happened. I followed with my legs, then torso, and then everything else.

I looked out the window to see a line of men filling every space that the parking lot could hold; around two hundred men stood outside. I was halfway to the door when I noticed the red dots all over my body. They had their guns fixed on me and their little red light followed me the entire time I walked. I reached the door and opened it. I walked in and checked for traps.

The receptionist in green overalls smiled at me and said, “Hi, my name is Cathy. How can I help you on this beautiful day?”

I didn’t know how she could be so calm after hearing the amount of gun fire that’s been going on.

“Um, douche bag with a girl and a weird glowing gun? Which way did he go?” I asked.

“Oh, Mr. Atom is just down that hallway in the room with the red door,” she said with a smile.

I looked at the hallway she pointed at. It was tight, barely big enough to fit a wheelchair. The hospital was old and not even the constant renovations Atom added to the place could hide its obvious age. The wood floors were new, but the walls and ceiling were still the original. I never understood why only the floors were replaced. Maybe Atom loves to see run down dirty walls and cracked ceiling tiles.

The red door was at the end of the skinny hallway. There were four doors before the red door and each one had its own color: blue, black, yellow, and green.

I was half way down the hallway when I heard Tyler screaming bloody murder. I sprinted to the door and kicked it open. The bang from the door was louder than I expected. I looked around and saw my dad sitting in a chair looking at me with the most helpless eyes. His face was grim and filled with defeat. Scarlett sat next to him; her eyes were red and her cheeks shiny from the tears. Both of the chairs were pulled up close to the hospital bed.

Tyler’s bed was covered in blood. From head to toe there wasn’t a spot of white left. My eyes snapped to the smoke coming from Atom’s gun. He stood there smiling at the hole that devastated the wall next to me.

“That was just a warning shot. I suggest you make your next move wisely. I’d hate to see one of your loved ones take a bullet,” he said, smiling with every word.

Tyler screamed in pain. The bed shook and squeaked, nearly falling apart.

“What’s...what’s wrong with him? I thought I only broke a few bones.”

“No. You did a lot more than that. The bones that you broke turned to dust. His arm had nothing but white powder leaking out of it. I had to do something…drastic in order to save my boy.”

Scarlett and my dad were both horrified by what was on the bed.

“Go on. Look at him. See what you have done to my child.”

I walked closer to the bed. My heart was racing and every bone in my body shook. I looked at the elephant in the room and wished I hadn’t. Tyler’s arm was no longer flesh, it was metal. A full robotic arm was connected to his shoulder.

“I had to put my most advanced technology into him to save his life. You ruined my little boy. You ruined his life. Now I’m going to ruin yours.”

He lifted up his gun and fired towards my dad and Scarlett. I reached out my hand and focused on the bullet, stopping it a few inches away from Scarlett’s head. Scarlett did not flinch; she was zombie like. She had a facial expression, but it was more of a daze than thoughts.

“What did you do to her?” I screamed.

Atom laughed, “Oh, my dear boy. You don’t even realize what’s going on. Why do you think I can shoot up the woods and no one bats an eye? Why I can destroy an entire hospital and march my army into town and no one thinks anything of it? This whole town is under my control. I can get away with everything because everyone is mine.”

“What are you saying? Everyone is brainwashed?”

“Yes, every human in this small town is brainwashed. I give them directions. I can get rid of memories as well as add them… everyone but you.”

My heart sank. I knew something was wrong with the citizens, how quickly they would move on from a tragedy. It was all Atom controlling them, but I was never affected. Does that make me not human or is it one of my powers that blocks it?

“How do you brainwash them?”

“That is for me to know and for you to forget.”

“Why does it not affect me?”

“I told you. It only affects humans. Clearly you don’t understand what you are,” he exclaimed with a sneer.

“You can’t honestly expect me to believe that I’m not human? I’m flesh and bone just like you and everyone in this room.”

Atom’s smile did not fade. His gaze never left mine, but his gun was still readied in his hand.

“I seem to have forgotten the part where humans can teleport and move objects with their minds. I fail to see how a human can create an identical clone and can light their blood on fire. You may look human, but we both know you’re a monster. A monster that is very good at killing is very profitable.”

He is right, I am a monster. I have killed without remorse or sympathy. All I have done is cause destruction and death.

“What are you proposing?”

“I propose nothing but salvation. You come work for me and train your abilities to make you the ultimate weapon.”

He pulled up a chair and sat down next to his son’s bed.

“What about here? You can’t just erase all of my existence from this town.”

“Do you not understand brain washing? These people do and think whatever I tell them to. If I told them to jump off a cliff they would learn how to fly. Getting rid of the most hated person in town will be easy. I turned them against you when I realized the brainwashing didn’t affect you. With the push of a button you’re gone. Poof from all existence in Harrison, New Mexico.”

“And if I refuse this offer?”

He pointed his fingers at my two loved ones and mimed a pistol movement, “I kill everyone in this town until you die of sorrow.”

“Aren’t you scared of me? You saw what happened to all your men. The ones from the pond are lucky to be alive and the ones from the children’s ward are nothing but a puddle of blood.”

His face darkened. He was not scared of me, he showed no fear.

“You may be a monster, but I am the devil. If there’s anyone who should be scared of it’s the monster’s master.”

“How do you know so much about me? How did you know what I was before today?” I asked, trying to not meet his beating eyes.

“It was easy. You never reacted to the brainwashing and had a very suspicious birth. You see, when I moved here it was days after the meteor shower. I saw an opportunity to test some of my less legal experiments. I learned every detail of the two hundred and twenty people in this town. Everyone but lucky twenty-one, Freddy Sims, the mystery child that just appeared out of nowhere, as if he fell out of the sky. I decided to have my team look at the area where you were found, and we found something that would advance my research centuries ahead of schedule. We found a substance that we call Alpha-serum, since it changes genes, and it was spilling out of meteor craters all around the town. When it is heated, it becomes a bright yellow serum that advances brain operations and raises the IQ beyond humanly possible. We then began to realize that this serum can affect humans that have come into direct contact by giving them superhuman abilities. I’ve spent the past decade experimenting and enhancing this serum. I have created a team of genetically enhanced soldiers. Unfortunately, the serum works best in children, the younger the better. The adults that survived the trials gained superhuman traits, but either lost their powers or their lives soon after. The children maintain their abilities for much longer; the younger they are the more powerful and longer their abilities last. As they have aged with regular doses of Alpha-serum they have maintained their powers from weeks to months to years without a dosage of Alpha-serum.”

“Why are you telling me all of this?” I asked.

“Because over the many years that I have been watching you I have never given you a dosage of Alpha-serum. You have had your powers since you were born. You are the key to unlocking unlimited power.”

Atom stood up from his chair and grabbed my arms, “I have created a team of superpowered soldiers. They are waiting for a leader. That leader is you, Freddy Sims.”

Every hair on my body stood up. My hands were shaking. A little part of me always knew that I was different, but I never imagined I would be something else. I can do amazing, yet destructive things with my powers.

Atom cannot be trusted with this type of power; he would destroy the world, and no one could ever stop him.

“If I go with you, you will never touch these two again. You’ll get Scarlett into the college of her dreams and pay for it in full. You’ll make sure she never has to worry about money ever again.”

Atom smiled and nodded in agreement.

“Is that all?” he asked.

“No. Far from it. You will also provide for my dad and donate a generous check in his name, so he never has to work again.”

He nodded again.

“If we are going to do this, we are going to do it my way. No war lords or death of innocents.”

He smiled and held out his hand, “You’ve got yourself a deal.”

I shook his hand, “Can you release them from their mind control, so I can say goodbye?”

He nodded and made a phone call, “Release Archer and Sims from the BW.”

He looked at me, “You have five minutes I’ll give you some privacy.”

I was shocked by that.

“What? I have a son too, barley no thanks to you.”

He walked out of the room and closed the door. I turned around to face my dad and best friend.

My dad had already come out of his daze and was giving me a disappointed look, “What did you do? Don’t you know you just signed a deal with the devil? He will use you for your gifts and he will use them for evil.”

I hugged him, “Trust me. It’s the best for everyone if I go with him. I... I murdered people. They might have been bad, but it was merciless destruction. I didn’t even think about who they were or if they deserved it. I lost all control. I gave into my anger, but I still did it every time.”

He held me tighter, “I love you, son. Yes, you did something terrible and those bad choices will be on your mind for the rest of your life, but you can’t let them weigh you down. You can’t let those thoughts make you think that there isn’t good left. You got knocked down and instead of lying there making the same bad decision over and over again, you need to stand up and fight. Atom expects you to stay down and keep murdering senselessly, but you have to stop before there’s no good left in you. No one needs to die, and you should always be the one trying to protect those in danger even if they don’t deserve saving. Remember that Freddy. You can’t let the darkness consume you.”

With every word, tears ran down my face, “I love you too, Dad. I promise that I’m going to use my powers for good. How did you know about my abilities?”

He smiled at me, “A parent knows their child. I always knew you were special. The slime that covered your body was also an indicator that I should keep an eye out for more extraordinary occasions.”

I smiled at him and hugged him as tight as I could.

“You were the greatest thing to ever happen to me. Be a good boy.”

His eyes could no longer hold back the water. When the dam broke it left my shoulder wet with tears.

He gently pushed me back, “There’s someone else who needs a goodbye,” he pointed at the red eyed sniffling girl that I called my best-friend.

She ran over and hugged me the second I turned around.

“You idiot. Where do you think you’re going? We both know that you can’t survive without me to protect you.”

She wiped away the tears and sniffled. Seeing her like this broke my heart, but it made me remember the first day I met her.

“Do you remember the first day we met?” I managed to choke out.

“Yeah in the sandbox at the park, when we were five. You always wanted to wear your blanket like a cape and the bigger kids were making fun of you.”

“They were calling me names and were trying to rip it off of my neck, but they couldn’t because this really brave girl stood in the way, armed with a plastic shovel and bucket.”

She smiled and wiped the tears from her eyes, “And I believe that little girl got pushed down into the sand,” she said, trying to hide her face in my shirt.

“Yes, she was pushed into the sand, but the second they took their eyes off of her they regretted it, didn’t they? Because one definitely took a bucket to the head and the other got a kick in the shin. Both fell to the ground and you yelled at them to stop bullying me.”

More tears ran out of my eyes, “Ever since that day I vowed to protect you and keep you from any pain. All of these years of me protecting you and you protecting me have only made this goodbye harder. But I need to tell you something I…”

She kissed me and the whole world stopped, “I love you too.”

The heat in my blood came back; my whole body felt warm and I began to glow brighter than a Christmas tree. The light flowed like a vine over Scarlett, wrapping her up like a snake about to eat its prey.

“Scavenger, what’s going on?”

I smiled, but I was still speechless from the kiss. The light vine grew brighter. The beautiful white light was blinding, but I could feel Scarlett. We were connected. I could feel her thoughts and emotions in the back of my mind.

I felt her body repairing itself. The rest of the bullet was pushed out of her skin and hit the floor with a clink and the wound was replaced with fresh skin, freeing her of a nasty scar. The cuts around her face were healed, the bruises on her body faded, her bones grew stronger and harder than diamonds, and everything that could be wrong was healed.

Although she was physically healed, nothing will heal the psychological damage of me leaving. The light dimmed, and the vine retracted. The second I saw her face I couldn’t help but hear the cliché 80s song about knowing what love is playing in my head.

“Scavenger? What in the world just happened?”

“My way of saying I love you,” I said with a smile.

She ran over and hugged me, “I don’t want to say goodbye. Promise me you won’t let him change you. Don’t kill anymore, save more than you destroy you clumsy idiot, and of course never stop loving me.”

Her and my dad both regained their dazed state and sat back down in their chairs.

“I love you, both. I’ll do you both proud... that’s a promise.”

I wiped the tears and walked out the door.