Hwy 87

The satisfaction of leaving everything to the fire pleased her. As if every sorrow and pain went up in flames. But that wasn’t the reality. She had the plans for an antidote that will allow for synthetic organ regeneration . The right tissue sample will allow her to bring back peoples loved one’s what’s left from their remains of their death and those severely injured from the war. Including her son. Even though Beta always knew it was too late.

The helicopter approached the rooftop of Donahue’s and sent a gust of debris and flames swirling about Beta as it lowered. Dom bursts the staircase door kicking it off its hinges. She attempts to climb the rope let down by the helicopter, but Dom aims with Eryn’s engraved 9mm and sways as they pull the trigger. She started to feel a quick shock graze her leg before the thunder of pain voyaged throughout and was released from the helicopter. So, she jumped and stumbled to the roof. Beta dragged herself up from the piping hot floor and her eyes met with Dom’s while keeping Sergio V’s head close cautiously approaching them. This was going to earn her a nice load of TU’s and a ticket to the golden gates of Lakken Sky after all.

“Darling, I hope your timing is as good as your aim, or are you shooting blanks”, Beta said with a grimace smirk.

“Don’t worry babe, this time I won’t miss”, Dom said, steadying Wolph’s engraved 9mm.

A vision of Dom’s mother in the same fatigues flashed over Beta as she was looking at Dom, “You know, you look vaguely familiar.” She approached them and continued. “Yes, you served back in 3005. I remember that scar on your chest. I will never forget my patients. Bullet to the brain.” She gestures a gun pointed to her temple. “they told me it was your own father serving for the Rogue Rykers Coalition Party on the opposing side. You probably don’t remember considering the surgery I did on you. He later was captured and beaten until he soiled himself. Fitting for someone who would hurt their own child.”

Dom winced as a dull sharp pain shot through their head like a soundless ringing snare, “Aghhh!” Letting out a piercing scream, they fall to the ground holding the side of their temples with their hand while still clenching the gun.

“Poor thing. And to think I took pity on you saving you from the wrath of your Father. When ‘Reta was too preoccupied with her newly funded ‘toys’, I was doing the grunt work of attempting to save lives. Yours being one of them. You were only 17 years old when you were conscripted and best of your rank. The mayor of Tryterrah ordered us to keep any soldiers for selective experiments and evaluations. That’s how we developed people like Wolph and my new specimen Mwako.”

Dom looked up at her in a blurry haze paralyzed by the pain, “Re-telling my shit-show of a family history isn’t gonna buy you time, Beta.”

“But aren’t you a little bit curious to know what happened to your mother?”

Dom clenched their teeth.

“Aw. Have I struck a nerve?” She turned to Sergio’s head as if to ask him. “Should I tell them? … No, they wouldn’t want to know that—”

“Spit it out.” Dom said as they pointed the gun back at her head but they were so sure if she even uttered their name, they would empty their mags into her skull.

Beta raised her hand in front of the gun, “Your Ma-Ren is alive. —”

The building began to quake under them. Beta slapped the gun out of her face as Dom shot at her, and the bullet took a chunk out of her neck, and she dropped to the ground.

“Enough lies! No one is coming for you. You're gonna die here!”, Dom yelled.

“No love! You are! At least she won’t have to witness what a corp. pansy you’ve become!”

The hospital roof collapses along with Beta and the head plummets to the 8th floor, “Augghhhhh!”

~~~

Some moments passed as Beta woke to a hazy gleam of light from the moon light and the building creaked and croaked adorning the odd silence amongst the crackling inferno. A sonification tinnitus syphoned through her head. Beta had lost their temporarily lost her hearing and blood was pouring out of her ear and neck. She tears her already tattered silken pencil skirt and wraps it around her neck to compress the bleeding and began to clean herself up. Suddenly she felt a steady vibration under her resonated heavy footsteps or could it be the building collapsing. Beta scurried to the wall behind a big slab of erect concrete that fell from the upper floors, squatting behind the debris. Everyone should be dead already. Surely, no one survived that. ‘Unless they are any creation of mine.’ She thought. Faint patter up the stairs grew louder and closer. Wolph popped their head out in the hall from the staircase. “Dom?” They whispered to themselves.

Beta crept and shifted over behind a towering filing cabinet and peaked around it. Wolph slowly stride through the floor in search for any sign of life. As their back was turned Beta quickly clicked into the staircase and slipped pass them. Wolph snapped their head around in hearing the pattering sounds to Beta’s heels, “Beta!!!” Large thundering footsteps followed after her. She kicked off her heels and started to descend in a hesitant frenzy. Pain shot through Beta’s leg and she lost her footing midway through as she tumbled as the building quaked followed by a loud crash. A puff of smoke and debris filled the staircase. She started to cough puffs of smoke like a centenarian smoker. The quake stopped and then heard another voice in the distance. Julli yelled “Woooolph!”

‘Who’s that?’ Beta pondered. ‘I need to get out of here’. After she had maneuvered though the maze of destruction, Beta managed to walk out with an inch of her life. Her experiment was minced meat and had nothing to show for it. Beta could still develop a prototype from the brain matter of Sergio V by way of artificial gene synthesis. She would still have to find Sergio’s head to sample any non-perishables to bring back to the lab. The staircase was closed off and the only way out was down. She made her way down the stairs to the first floor to see if there was another way. Once at the first floor, the ceiling caved in the foyer to the emergency room and revealed some glowing lime green viscous liquid on the rubble. Could it be from Sergio’s container? Possibly. Could it be contaminated with foreign DNA from deceased staff members, most likely.

Beta searched though the desks, drawers, cabinets and found a few empty vials. She scooped the liquid into the small containers with caution. At this point anything would be better to present to the Investors in Lakken Sky than her dick in her hands. If she backed out of their deal she would have to pay with her head on a platter. She bottled it up and ran out of the burning building through the front entrance. A puff of smoke followed her out and she inhaled the fresh air coughing her lungs out. Sirens blared in the distance. A bystander couple stopped Beta and asked if she’s okay. “Don’t touch me.” Beta said discreetly slipping the vials into her pocket.

“Wait! You should wait for assistance!” One of the guys said holding her arm.

Beta grabbed the man and twisted his wrist then broke it off, sending it behind her to the fire. Beta smiled at the other guy, “Fetch.”

“Fuckin’ psychopath!” The man yelled tending to his partner. She took off as the Tryterrah Ambulance and Police arrived behind her.

Beta ran a few blocks before going into a local shop and got a change of clothes. She shrilled at the hanging garments as they didn’t align with her gaudy taste, but it will have to do for now. Beta was now dressed in a dark blue hoodie, a white snapback and a reflective mirrored jacket draped over her shoulders and dark sunglasses with dark grey distressed jeans and white sneakers. The store clerk came behind her and pulled off the jacket holding it up to Beta gesturing her to put it on. She snatched it out of his hands, pulled it back over her shoulders and wired him some funds. The store clerk was shocked after finding out what displayed across his retinas that not only did Beta only overpay but that she was on the wanted list and paid the same amount as the bounty on her head. “Thanks for the threads, darling.” Beta said winking to the clerk. The clerk smiled, “Yes! Yes! Anytime!”

She hailed a cab and plugged into it wiring a virus to the cab’s software rewriting all it’s data and installing a route to her base outside the city. The cab driver took off driving at a steady pace. Sirens blared closer and a firetruck raced by. Then three police cruisers followed but the last one slowed down and made a U-turn. They eased in behind them and merged into lane beside them until they both halted at the red light. Beta slouched into the backseat, curling the hoodie over her head as the police glanced into the cab. The light turned green, and the cop car sped off. “Besa’ama Weleti!” (‘Holy Mother—‘) she exclaimed and slapped her hands like someone’s offended Habesha Auntie.

The cab made a turn at the next light and they journeyed to the neglected and forgotten run down warehouse that stood 20 stories tall. The cab whirled into the basement as the dust and asbestos swallowed them into darkness. Beta unplugged from the unit and exited the cab. She walked through a tangerine painted door, and she scanned the fob unlocking to reveal and flickering corridor with a freight elevator at the end. She headed towards it and opened the dusty orange steel cage and shut it behind her. Twenty floors listed on the dusty panel. Beta opened it and keyed in her code on the touch pad and scanned her fingerprint. “Denied.” She rubbed her smutty fingers from the fire and scanned again. “Access granted.” The elevator began to move upwards. Beta opened another compartment under the panel and pulled out a trauma kit to address her wounds. By the time she was done, the elevator came to a stop. The door opened and she stepped into her loft. Liqueur red strip the white marble floors leading to a corridor, books arched over it against the wall. Ivory pillars adorned every corner. Gold drapes lined the black out windows. As she headed down the corridor and slipped off her clothes, eager to get out of it. Beta scanned her biometrics and opened a metal door that emitted fluorescent lights on entry. The console began to beep with a drone notification. Beta accepted it and opened the window to let the drone in. It darted to the charging station and began playing the message.

“Beta, the Investors from QC Financial are waiting on your findings for Project RegenSynth. They said you have one week to present your finals or else they will have to pull their funding. Please advise how we should proceed.”

Beta tapped the record button on the drone, “Adam, tell them I will have it ready by tonight. I will be sending over my findings soon.” She downloaded her manuscript to the device before it got up and zipped through the lab and out the window. Another notification beeped on the console, this was an email showcasing the attendees to the annual gala of Synmanitarian Advancement and Humanitarian Aid (SAH Aid or SAHA). Greta was on this list as a nominee. ‘Lakken Foundation Presents the Genetic Society of Lakken Sky Medal to Greta.’ Notifications are only sent to pre-qualifying invitees. Beta had bypassed their system a year ago to display herself on their current exclusive guestlist.

Beta placed the vial in the centrifuge and began tom work. The large container attached to the console began to fill with a viscous effervescence of purple liquid. Parts began to clot and conjoin in a ball that grew at high velocity form, shaping into a familiar. Delitescent delight crept over Beta’s face as she began to conceptualize the plan to get rid of Greta. A photograph of her late wife and their son whom she lost to the war. The lamp light glistened over its frame, catching Beta’s attention.

Her wife’s altruistic eyes felt like they were haunting her, judging her. Playing their frivolous fight over and over in her head before the draft came knocking on their door.

‘Please, Faizah. I know you hate me right now but can we focus. They will be here any minute.’

‘You give your life to them and you know they are the ones that started this mess. Now you agree to work for the very same Sheitans that are drafting our son! I don’t know what you’re on but won’t let them take him away from us.’ Faizah frantically finished up packing their essentials into a knapsack.

Beta opened the safe and pulled out an envelope addressed to Faizah, ‘Open it when you are alone. Instructions are inside. Now, I will keep Habte safe. I swear on my Uma’s grave. But if you and Habte get out of this alive, get far away from here as you can.’

Beta held Faizah as she wept.

A brunt knock exploded upon the door, ‘Lakken Military National! OPEN UP!’ Their son, Habte, hid under the bed whilst Faizah grabbed the plasma shotgun in the closet near the front door. Beta pulled Faizah in and embraced her and kissed upon her hands, ‘Whatever happens, I will always love you an nupseh. I’m sorry for everything.’

Habte clung to the carpet sliding deeper under the bed. The door busted open, and soldiers raided the home. Faizah let out a shot at a Sargent and he fell to his death. Another soldier struck her with the butt of his stock that rendered her unconscious. Habte yelled ‘No! Amma!’ Another soldier approached the bed and flipped it over. Beta stepped in front of her son, ‘What’s the saying? Weak men create hard times? Either way, I hope your impotence doesn’t reflect to poorly on your superiors.’ She sassed as she clutched at the surgical blade in her pocket. A soldier grabbed Beta by the shoulder, and she sliced up his arm cutting into major arteries. They aimed at her and their son. ‘Wait…’ said another ranked officer as he stepped from behind the others. ‘Lower your weapons. We need them alive. Take Habte Qidist to the truck. Dr. Qidist is needed in Medical Bay on the frontlines with Dr. K.’ They grabbed Habte as he kicked and screamed and Beta hurled explicits and threats until they sedated her. ‘Sir, what about the other one?’

‘Throw that bitch in van and take her to the factory so we can put her to use.’ They let out a grotesque cackle that resembled abandoned hyenas in the night. It was the last time they had seen each other until she was positioned at a prison camp.

She knew about Beta’s plans with the regeneration antidote. Before she was pulled apart from her family, Beta had showed her the hidden safe in their home with a capsule of a printed code with encrypted data on the research the Tryterrah Opposition was after. Then years later at Beta’s posting at the prison camp, she receives her wife’s limp body at her clinic. Her assistant askes if she knows the prisoner and she send her to get her tools. The assistant leaves the room and Beta hurls over her wife’s body and started to voicelessly bawl. Grasping at her tattered sleeve. Embracing her wrist. Until she realized a small lump over the muscle between her thumb and index finger. Beta pulled out a small scalpel and made an incision. It was her pill containing her research that she had asked her to take with her should they have to ever leave the home. Beta pocketed the pill and burned the wound shut. She took some samples of her blood and hid it in her coat. Her wife’s eyes were still open with terror staring back at Beta as if to tell a tale of lost years to outrun time. She closed her eyes and wiped her face, tucking her loose henna amber curls behind her ears before kissing her forehead.

Beta stared harmed at the photograph. Her chest tightened as she clutched to the picture into her. As if she could time travel to the days when life was simpler, and they bickered over the mundane and made-up kisses when they all came home. She placed it in the drawer sulking over that memory and many others like it. Her fingers lingered in the far corners of the drawer. She flipped open the false compartment and took out the vile of blood labeled “My Nupseh”. Her Heart. The form was almost complete, and Beta knew what she had to do.