First of Her Kind Part 11

Adam’s eyes flew open, and she was momentarily blinded by the exam light over head. Her mouth was dry and lips so chapped that they were sticking together. The room felt freezing cold and she realized she was only covered by a thin sheet drenched in sweat.

“Adam?”

Adam looked over to see a very tired Dr. Sheridan was staring at her with concern.

“I saw mom,” the words left Adam before the clarity of her waking state had really reached her.

“What?” Dr. Sheridan said. “You saw… you know.”

Adam couldn’t shake the fog in her head.

“I’m cold,” she pulled the sheet up to her neck.

Dr. Sheridan pulled his lab coat off and laid it over top of her before looking he in the eye.

“Adam, so you remember?”

“No, not really,” Adam shook her head. “I saw mom. She talked to me. She…” Clarity started to return to her. “She said she loved me, that I was the best of both of you.”

“She wasn’t wrong there,” Dr. Sheridan sighed. “So, you know who I am now?”

Adam nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me from the beginning?”

“It’s unclear weather when we bring someone back if we actually bring that person back,”

Dr. Sheridan explained. “I didn’t want to force or influence you to become my Adam if that wasn’t who you actually are. And, I have to say, until now it has been unclear.”

“What do you mean?” Adam asked.

“You’ve been reserved, almost secretive most this time,” Dr. Sheridan said. “When you tore into me for performing a hysterectomy, and negotiating for yourself and the other experiments. That, that was was my Adam.”

“Can I get dressed?” Adam asked awkwardly.

Dr. Sheridan nodded and stood up. He stepped out for a moment and Adam slid off the table grabbing the clothes sitting on a chair in the corner and dressed quickly. She tapped on the door and sat back on the table. Dr. Sheridan came back in and returned to his stool.

They sat in awkward silence for a time before Dr. Sheridan spoke.

“After losing your mother, you and her work were all I had left,” Dr. Sheridan said. “When you died, I couldn’t live with it. I had the means. I pulled some strings to get your body sent here.”

“Strings?” Adam asked.

“Made a deal,” Dr. Sheridan admitted. “Your mother would hate me for it. Promised our military funders that I’d produce a certain kind of tech for them in exchange for your body and them looking the other direction about the ethical implications of what I’ve done.” He met her gaze. “I’d do it all again just for a chance to get you back.”

“To get your Adam back,” Adam said.

“I… I didn’t mean to imply…” Dr. Sheridan looked down again. “It’s such a nuanced thing.” He shook his head. “Take Lucian for example. His psyche profile doesn’t look anything like his military psyche profile. But, if I didn’t know better, I’d swear the issue we have with his leg prosthetic is psychosomatic. His brain rejects it, so his body rejects it. But, as far as we can tell, he doesn’t remember the trauma of his death, so why would he be rejecting the leg. The best we’ve come up with is that somehow, on a cellular level, his body remembers the trauma. IF the body remembers, then is he the body. And, if he doesn’t and never will remember, maybe the man he was is truly gone.”

“You thought a lot about this a lot?” Adam asked.

“I’ve been working at this for a long time,” Dr. Sheridan shrugged.

Adam nodded in understanding. Dr. Sheridan sighed and looked up at her again.

“So, you still don’t remember me then?”

Adam shook her head.

“It’s okay,” Dr. Sheridan said. “You’d be the first.”

Adam couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. Knowing that Lucian had retrieved all his memories would be a triumph for Dr. Sheridan. But, she couldn’t betray Lucian, especially now.

She and Dr. Sheridan talked awkwardly for a while longer about him being her father and her history.

“What are you guys going to do about Evander?” Adam finally asked.

“Well, it’s hard to know if he’s going to do something like this again or if he acted on an instinct that he didn’t know was wrong,” Dr. Sheridan said. “It seems like Lucian’s theory was right. I guess we never really had an excuse to have ‘the talk’ with the guys. Evander had to be taught everything from scratch. I guess we should have thought about eventualities like these.”

“So, what are we going to do with him?”

“We’re going to be keeping him in observation for a while to make sure he gets how things work,” Dr. Sheridan said. “Essentially, he’s getting a social etiquette lesson over the next few weeks at least. And, Emily wants to make sure you’re okay before forcing you to live with him.”

“A few weeks?” Adam asked. “In one of those cubes like I woke up in?”

“Yeah,” Dr. Sheridan nodded. “It seems harsh, but, I think it’s necessary.”

Adam nodded slowly, understanding, even if she didn’t completely agree.

Once she was done talking to the doctor, Adam rushed out to find Lucian. She was relieved to find he was already alone in the rec room, working on one of his projects. She sat down next to him.

“Something just happened,” she whispered to him. “I had a dream of some kind. Like, my mom implanted a secret message…”

“Shut up!” Lucian hissed and looked around.

“What?” Adam looked around.

Lucian lowered his voice even more, “she activated you?”

“Yes?” Adam said.

“Tonight, I’ll meet you in your room after everyone goes to bed,” Lucian said. “We don’t talk about this anywhere someone might hear.”

Adam nodded and started to stand up.

“Are you okay?” Lucian looked up at her.

“I’m honestly not sure,” Adam said. “I’m more worried about Evander than anything else right now. I don’t think he understood what he was doing wasn’t right and it seems like he’s getting punished for it.”

“I think they should lock him up and throw away the key,” Lucian shrugged. “He’s a liability with no feelings and no conscience.”

“He’s what Dr. Sheridan made him,” Adam said. “We all are to an extent.”

She started to leave.

“Hey, Adam,” Lucian said awkwardly.

“Yeah?”

“It would appear that the pheromone is coming through sweat,” Lucian said.

Adam realized her skin was still clammy and her hair was sticking to her neck and face. She looked back at Lucian who was awkwardly avoiding eye contact.

“Is it… bad?”

“Bad?” Lucian said. “As in, overpowering and intense, yes.”

“I was jogging before Evander attacked me,” Adam observed.

“So?”

“So, I was sweating,” Adam said.

Lucian nodded thoughtfully, “so, he was getting a massive dose of it.”

“Exactly,” Adam started to sit down again.

Lucian stopped her. “You need to go shower.”

“Is it really that bad?”

“It is,” Lucian said. “And, it’s having a certain effect on me that is making it very hard to talk to you. I’ll say it again, you need to shower.”

Adam smiled awkwardly and made her way out of the room. She ran into Emily on her way back to her room.

“Hey,” Emily said. “I was just looking for you.”

“I gotta shower,” Adam said.

“What,” Emily followed behind her.

“And, I’m going to need a really good antiperspirant,” Adam added. “A really good one. Should help reduce future incidents.”

“How?” Emily asked.

“The pheromones come through my sweat,” Adam explained. “Lucian helped me make the connection. I think it made him uncomfortable.”

They stepped in to Adam’s room. Emily chuckled and sat on the bed.

“Gave poor Lucian a woody, huh?”

Adam stopped short, she understood the turn of phrase instantly and she felt her cheek flush a little.

“And he didn’t appreciate it?” Emily asked.

“I don’t think so,” Adam said as she started to undress. “He doesn’t see me as a sexual or romantic interest. And, Evander…”

“Evander sees people as what they present to him,” Emily said. “You smelled like a…. well, from his animalistic perspective, a female in heat.”

“Exactly,” Adam agreed as she stepped into the bathroom.

Emily leaned against the wall outside the door.

“And, how are you feeling about that?” Emily asked.

Adam thought for a moment about the events of the previous night. She could almost feel Evander’s hands around her wrists.

“It was terrifying,” she began, “I knew exactly what he wanted and I knew I had to fight it. No matter how bad the fight got, or hurt,” she absent mindedly rubbed her arm where the weight machine had cut her, “if I didn’t let him get what he wanted, it would be okay.”

“I have to say,” Emily said. “You gave him a righteous ass whooping. I don’t think taking Lucian’s titanium foot to the head did him many favor’s either.”

Adam started the water in the shower. “It seems like everyone thinks I should be far worse affected by this than I really think I am. What could have happened didn’t happen. I was able to defend myself. I think I should feel safer than ever before now that I know what I’m capable of.”

“That is…” Emily turned around and looked through the door. “I wish I had a mind like yours, you know?”

“Why?” Adam asked.

“I…” Emily looked down. “It’s just a very brave way of thinking.”

“Thank you?” Adam said unsurely before stepping into the shower.

“How are we feeling about Evander?” Emily asked.

Adam sighed, “I’m worried about him.”

“Worried?” Emily scoffed. “Why?”

“It seems like he’s being punished,” Adam said. “It’s not his fault he was created this way and no one told him about morality.”

“Evander doesn’t see isolation as punishment,” Emily said. “He doesn’t miss us when he’s alone and he doesn’t miss solitude when he’s with us. Every situation to him is just a fact of life.”

Adam sighed, running her hands over her wet hair. “Does he have to be in there so long?”

“I’ll try to get a good read on him,” Emily said. “If I think he can behave himself, I’ll advise Dr. Sheridan that he can be let out.”

Adam couldn’t help but think about what her mom had said in her dream. She had a month and, for some reason she couldn’t explain, she wanted to be sure she got a chance to talk to him before. She had no idea what she could possibly say, but she felt as if she needed to say something.

Evander sat in his cell, his head cradled in his hands. The horrified look on Adam’s face flashing through his mind. In his chest, his heart beat as if it were going to explode and an aching rose from the center and into his throat. A plate of food sat on the table in front of him, growing cold. Though he knew he should be ravenous, given how much healing his body had done, he could not bring himself to eat. Then there was the dream. All this time, he’d never had a dream. Who was that woman? Was she talking to him? In a fit of rage and frustration he slammed his hand down on the metal table top. In his blind rage, his fist slipped off the end and was gouged by the corner. He winced and looked down at the gash. He expected to see blue sparks of electricity and silver fibers. Instead, his own flesh seemed to regrow like fabric being woven by an invisible loom. He stared wide eyed at his hand for a long moment.

“Evander?”

Evander looked up to see Emily staring at him through the glass.

“M-my hand,” Evander said. “It healed itself. Not my nanites. Something’s… I-I don’t know… different.”

“Evander,” Emily hissed, opening the cell door.

She rushed over and looked at him closely, examining his face.

He met her gaze, “she was absolutely terrified of me,” he sobbed.

“Oh, my god,” Emily whispered. “You feeling.”

Adam was nearly asleep when she heard a tap at the door. She felt her heart skip a beat as she heard the door knob rattle slightly.

“It’s me,” she heard Lucian’s voice through the door.

Adam slipped out of bed and unlocked the door. Lucian slipped in quietly and shut and locked the door behind him.

“If you got a message from your mom, we only have a month left,” he said. “I was going to try to ease you in to all this but, I guess we’re diving right in.”

“What are you talking about?” Adam asked.

“Okay,” Lucian sat down on the bed. “It was a few years after I woke up. I started snooping around. Getting into things I shouldn’t. The doc’s failed experiments I think. So many mangled bodies. It triggered something in me, some kind of post traumatic episode. In my head, it was like I was living my death over and over again in slow motion. In the real world, I wandered back to my bed somehow, and didn’t wake up for three weeks. The doc had me hooked up to all sorts of machines. Some how your mom hacked through into my nuero-chips. Told me what’s really going on. I’ve been able to send her information whenever I get hooked up to the computers. Memories and stuff like that.”

“Information on what?”

“What the military has turned this project into,” Lucian said. “Can you guess why Evander has a special curriculum?”

Adam shrugged and shook her head.

“He’s super strong,” Lucian said. “Has super healing. He’s a blank slate, practically programmable.”

“He’s the perfect soldier,” Adam said, realization gripping her. “Dr. Sheridan traded Evander for me?”

“Worse,” Lucian said. “He traded an army of Evanders for you. Your mom wants to shut it down, for good before they can be deployed. We don’t think the army has the science. They’re counting on the doc and this place to produce them. Why do you think there’s only three of us, but a giant warehouse in the back.”

“Show me,” Adam said.

“I will,” Lucian promised. “It might take me a couple days. Gotta line things up just right. It’s like a maze through there once you get past the clinic.”

“Fine,” Adam said. “I want to see it.”

Lucian’s expression softened a little. “How you doing any ways?”

“I think I’m okay,” Adam said.

“The way your heart raced when I knocked on the door says otherwise,” Lucian said. “Super hearing.” He pointed at his ears after noticing Adam’s blank stare.

“Right,” Adam nodded. “Maybe I’m still a little shaken.”

Lucian reached over and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. He stood up and looked at her.

“I have to plan things just right so I can show you what you need to see,” he said. “In the meantime, we don’t talk about this in the open.

Adam nodded in agreement. As Lucian left, she slid back under the sheets. Staring up at the ceiling, she sighed deeply trying to shake the buzz of adrenaline in her chest.

Lucian seemed to stick extra close to Adam over the next few days. She couldn’t help but notice that the staff also seemed to be treating her like she was fragile. “How are you doing?” was replaced by “are you okay?” and they were always offering small favors.

“I feel like a child,” Adam complained to Lucian over lunch.

“Not everyone is as well adjusted as you seem to be,” Lucian said. “I don’t think most people would find it as easy as you to rationalize their way out of the trauma of a situation like that. That kind of thing can mess with a person for a long time.”

“Nothing actually happened to me though, besides a fight,” Adam said.

“And that’s what makes you different from a lot of people,” Lucian said.

Emily walked in just then and started pouring herself a cup of coffee. She cleared her throat and leaned against the counter.

“So, it seems Jessie and Dr. Sheridan have a big meeting in town tomorrow,” she said. “And, Benjamin is taking a couple days to see family out of state. I trust you two won’t be too much trouble.”

“Of course not,” Lucian said. “Are you still working on that paper of yours? Getting close to publishing it aren’t you?”

Emily nodded, “been working hard on it. I’ll be in the rec room working if you two need anything.”

With that, she dismissed herself. Lucian gave Adam a pointed look.

“After breakfast tomorrow,” he said. “Wear dark clothes.”

The next morning, Adam selected dark jeans and a black long sleeve shirt. Lucian waited at the table for her as Jessie and Dr. Sheridan poured themselves to-go cups of coffee and made their way out to a waiting car. She sat across from Lucian accepting a plate of waffles. They ate in silence while Emily finished her breakfast.

“I’m going to go get to work,” Emily said. “You two don’t get yourselves into too much trouble.”

With that she stood up, put her plate in the sink and headed for the rec room. Adam waited until she was sure she was gone.

“Now?”

“I do want to finish eating,” Lucian said with a sly smile.

Adam begrudgingly finished her breakfast and set her plate in the sink. As she waited, for Lucian, she heard a strange noise. A security camera mounted on the wall above the door whirred as the green light underneath it clicked off.

Lucian stood up, taking care of his plate and taking one last swig of coffee.

“Come on,” he led the way back to the lab door. “Stay low.”

He punched a code in to the panel beside the door and crouched down as they made their way into the white hallway. At the end of the hall, there was what appeared to be an office door. Adam was surprised to find herself standing in a strange warehouse, boxes and crates were stacked near the walls creating makeshift isles and alleyways.

“This way,” Lucian whispered.

They hurried along the wall, to the bottom of a set of metal stairs. Lucian led the way up.

“Stay low,” he whispered again as they made their way across the cat walk towards the center of the warehouse where several plastic structures stood. Inside the structures, people in white suits worked diligently over mangled cadavers. Adam felt her stomach churning as she realized that there were at least twenty of the sterile tents, each of which appeared to be in use. Lucian led the way towards one of the side walls. Beneath them, a door banged open and a man rolled a gurney with a black bag atop it out of a storage container. At the other end of the warehouse was a room. Down another set of steps, they snuck around some boxes and through the door. Bodies laid on shelf-like beds, monitoring equipment hanging beside all of them. Respirators hissed and machines buzzed, forcing life into the cadavers. Adam was shocked into stillness. To her dismay, one of the bodies opened his eyes as the door clicked shut. His body remained motionless, but his cold gaze met hers. For a long moment, Adam stared into the man’s blue eyes. They seemed completely empty, like a doll or a stuffed animal.

“Adam,” Lucian hissed. “C’mon.”

Adam gasped, startled out her thoughts.

“Trust me,” Lucian whispered. “You can’t do anything for them now.”

Adam nodded and followed him through the door on the other side of the room. She was almost sure she had seen the worst there was to see, but to her dismay, she was greeted by rows and rows of metal cells with glass fronts, each occupied by a person dressed in olive drab tee shirts and pants. As they made their way up another cat walk, Adam noticed that most of them simply sat stiffly on the edges of their cots. A few paced back and forth. Towards the end of the room, a group of cells sat apart from the rest, the doors covered by blue curtains. From inside, shouts, screams and banging erupted as if the inhabitants were all feral animals.

“Sometimes,” Lucian whispered, “some of them wake up in a sort of fight or flight state. They’re like wild animals.”

“They sound terrified,” Adam observed.

“I don’t know if they are capable of feeling that,” Lucian said. “Come on. This is a whirlwind tour, not a full lecture.”

Over and down to ground level again, they entered yet another section of the warehouse. This one was open at the other end and day light shone through. Lucian grabbed Adam’s hand and led her around behind and between crates, boxes and storage containers. Men were shouting orders. As Adam peered over the boxes, she was surprised to see that Evander was standing in front of a group of people dressed in military uniforms barking orders and pointing. The people in front of him shouted out in the affirmative and moved towards the storage containers.

Adam and Lucian ducked down further. Adam’s felt a catching sensation in her chest as a shadow loomed over them. She risked peering up to see Evander standing over them, staring back down at her. He leaned forward slowly and rested his hands on the box in front of them.

“Stay absolutely silent,” he whispered, “go back through the barracks.” He nodded towards a door on the other side of the room.

He lifted the lid on the box in front of him and began extracting and assembling a rifle from inside it.

Lucian gave Adam’s sleeve a tug. Adam followed behind him, careful to stay low. She risked a glance back at Evander. He was watching her, but to her surprise, he averted his gaze the second their eyes met.

The barracks were a narrow room with bunk beds lining one wall and tables lining the other. At the end, of the room was another door leading to what appeared to be a clinic of some kind. The clinic led back to the hall outside the lab rooms and offices. Adam practically sprinted the last few feet to the door, pushing her way past Lucian.

Back in the residence, she collapsed into a chair at the kitchen table and buried her face in her hands.

“I didn’t expect we’d run into Evander like that, I’m sorry,” Lucian said.

“What?” Adam looked up at him. “No, that’s not- it’s everything else. All of them. They’re all…”

“They’re all already dead,” Lucian said. “They’re no more than machines walking around in what used to be humans.”

“Is that what you believe Evander is?” Adam asked, a little taken aback by Lucian’s coldness.

“It’s what I tell myself,” Lucian said a little more softly. “I don’t know what your mother plans to do to this place, but I don’t think those guys get out of here alive.”

“Not even….”

“Not even Evander,” Lucian said. “They’re the technology that the military wants to abuse. It all has to be destroyed. They all have to be destroyed.”

The noise of the camera clicking back on drew both of their attention. Lucian discretely pressed a finger to his lips and went to the coffee pot, refilling his cup that still sat on the counter.

Adam felt a weight in her stomach like never before. What fate did her mother have in store for Evander and the others like him.