Barcode: Cavern of Youth (27 page)

Seth wipes his face with his entire arm and Carmen walks over to comfort him. She whispers, “I’m really sorry. I didn’t know how much you cared for her.”

“She’s like a mom, okay?”

That’s when it hits me. I’m not the only one that benefits from Hayley’s affection.

“Seth. Seriously,” I mutter while angling my head towards the ceiling, “sorry.”

“Why’d you want to get in here so badly?”

“To check out these dangerous creatures you’re always bragging about!”

Seth’s entire demeanor turns dark as he warns, “You think this is a joke.”

“No. I believe you.”

“Then, you’ll believe me when I say they’re dangerous.” Seth stands up and walks towards the elevator. “You’ll stay away from them at all cost. Though you can’t escape, make sure you don’t try; if anyone leaves this underground facility illegally, the entire thing explodes without warning. That’s how serious they are.” He attempts to make a dramatic exit, by activating the elevator and leaving us on the floor, but it doesn’t move. Laughing, he rubs his head and says, “I forgot, you could reprogram everything from here. We have to leave together.”

Carmen walks onto the elevator as I take a seat at the control panel’s swivel chair. “Did you create them?” I know the answer from Nevaeh, but I need him to open up before digging deeper.

He sighs and sits on the floor. “Yes. They’re a different breed of liminal beings, something my family and I helped revolutionize. Everyone gives credit to the Walker family, but we’re advanced in this area as well. The only problem, our creatures normally turn evil.” Seth adjusts his glasses. “I tried to counter that by experimenting on more advanced DNA.”

“Monkeys. They have a higher intelligence. You wanted to teach them about right and wrong.”

“Exactly! I started seven years ago. But the first few I made seem to have brought the others. I created four or five, max. But in one year, they began flooding my facility on their own. It was like they’d appear from nowhere; not as infants, but fully grown creatures.”

“Could they come from a different dimension?”

“It’s likely, but there’s more to it. They remind me of people I’ve met. They have personalities and gifts. But worst of all, their fighting can put gladiators to shame. If they were to escape, they’d take over the world.”

“I think there’s a really old movie about that.”

Seth laughs. He’s seen it as well. “They’re broken down into four families. Helpers are small and good at using their hands. They’re the first few I created. They can’t use technology for some reason. It’s as though devices don’t acknowledge their existence.” That must be Nevaeh. “The second group to appear were Thinkers. They can use technology and are decent at sparring. They’re like demigods. Then, there’s the Humans. I call them that because, if they take over, they’ll erase us. They’re our size and they fight well.”

“What about the last group?”

“
The Two
. They’re the grandaddies of all the beasts. The tiger one gave me the scar on my back and the lion helped seal me back up. I have a truce with all the others. I won’t blow the building if they remain below the fiftieth floor. But if anyone ventures to the top, I’ll kill them. I expect everyone to follow those instructions except The Two.”

“Beasts don’t make deals with mice, huh?”

“Something like that.” Seth removes his phone and only looks at the time displayed on the front screen. He shoves it back in his pocket and softly says, “The upper floors are dedicated to researching solutions for my brain. Ten floors up is my surgery room. I need to get there
soon
.”

Still processing the information, I walk towards the others and load on the elevator. We zip to the top and appear in a narrow hallway with blue tinted glass doors.

Seth leads us through a maze, voice activating each barrier. We make a right after three doors and travel through what feels like a labyrinth of twists and turns of nothing but white walls with abstract art lining them. I notice a familiar cubism design and assume that Seth is the artist of these hallways. Two minutes later, we arrive in front of a counter with a middle aged, incredibly attractive woman with pink hair. She’s wearing an all white uniform and a red plus sign across her chest.

“Doctor Pena! Welcome home.”

“I’m scheduled to have brain surgery,” he glances at the digital calender displayed behind her, “one week ago. Can you please alert the others to join me in the operating room?”

“Yes sir. By the way, whatever you’re doing with your research is working. You sound much more coherent today.”

“You’ll have to excuse me, Maggie. I won’t be returning to normal anytime soon. This is very temporary.”

“Sorry.”

“No. I apologize for my future actions under the influence.”

She winks and giggles. “I don’t.”

“Anyway,” he shifts his weight nervously, “can you please see that my friends are taken care of? Show them to the waiting room.” Seth waves and walks through a wooden door with a small glass window that allows us to see who is passing by.

“Yes sir.”

Once he’s inside I proclaim, “No need to worry about us. He gave us the passwords for a reason. We’ll entertain ourselves in his game room on the seventeenth floor.” I point at Carmen. “I don’t know why she volunteered to wait for him.”

“The surgery only takes a few minutes, but do as you wish.” We turn around and take a few steps but stop when the clerk says, “Wow. Doctor Pena really has changed. He’s never allowed outsiders and I’d imagine he wouldn’t give them codes.”

I slowly continue walking away. Nearly halfway to the elevator, Carmen grabs my hand. “I hope you’re trying to find quality time with me, and not get into trouble.”

“Why would you want time with me?” I open my eyes fast enough to scare her. “I’m sure there are people you’d much rather be with.”

“I’m not sure what that means. You know I love you, though you seem to hate that word.”

“Probably because no one ever means it when they say it to
me,
” I mumble with such a low tone that she leans forward and tilts her head.

I continue through the hallway. This time, at a faster pace. Carmen follows delicately a few steps behind. “Did I do something wrong?”

Taking out my phone, I pull up an application that allows me to compare the frequency of my voice with others. The phrase I have recorded for Seth is, “You’re Kay? If that was your simple name all along, you could’ve just told me.”

Once the program initiates, I begin repeating the phrase constantly. I start with a baritone sound and allow my voice to increase in octaves until I match his pitch and inflection.

Using that sound, I open all of the doors leading to the elevators.

“Can we talk, papi? I think we’re fighting and I don’t know why?”

“We’re not.”

I scroll through my phone’s settings to access my hacking records. While flipping through various screens, I allow my cell to begin breaking into Seth’s system. I imagine he has precautions set up to defend against such a thing, so I limit my software to focus solely on the elevator.

When I need to practice my skills, I hack into Seth’s equipment around Dennis’ building. The nerd is so paranoid, he has security for his PlayStation XD. Unfortunately for him, no matter how smart someone is, their security will look similar in some way. Once I find records of his other equipment and upload that to my program, accessing the control panel will be a breeze.

“Got it,” I declare while pressing my finger against the panel. I remove my hand and reprogram the elevator to respond to my touch as well. Once everything is set, I press my thumb down again, but the elevator goes up one floor. “How did he get it to go down?”

Carmen sounds as though she’s in tears when answering, “He leans his thumb to the left while dragging it down slightly.”

I didn’t think it was so complex. She actually picked up on something I didn’t. While lowering the elevator, I listen to all the creatures on the floors above and below.

Once we make it an inch below the fiftieth floor, Carmen grabs my arm and removes it from the panel. “No!”

“You’re getting bold.”

“I’m a little stronger around you.”

“I guess you’ll be weak for the rest of your life.”

Three of her tears fall to the ground and she faintly cries, “Whatever I did, I’m sorry. I’ll make it up. I promise. Can we talk about it on
this
floor? We shouldn’t go messing around when Seth clearly said it’s dangerous below.”

“Stay here then,” I reply dispassionately. The gravity in my voice causes her to whimper.

She takes a step back and glues her hands to her thighs. She cowardly stammers, “I’ll be safest with you.”

I ride the elevator to the bottom floor, negative sixty-five. On my way there, I not only see several monkeys right in front of me, but I can hear them everywhere. I noticed them before I even entered the building. There are thousands on these few floors.

When the elevator finally stops, I convert Shiva into my signature gloves. As she sparks wildly, I know that she senses what I can see in the dark.

The room was probably something special in the past, but the walls have all been torn down and ripped to shreds.

At the end of the floor, nearly one thousand yards in the darkness, I see an ape that shouldn’t be considered an ape at all. He’s the same height I used to be, but much more muscular. His eyes are closed. His face resembles a tiger, and his fur is more like armor. Though it is connected to his flesh, it’s broken into sections for his most vulnerable body parts. Some areas of the gear resemble a tiger’s fur, but others are ape-like.

I’ve drifted towards him unknowingly. He was cleaning his area of the room, but seems to have noticed me.

“Kay,” Carmen yelps fearfully.

That snaps me out of my trance. After shaking off the cobwebs, I pace back towards her. “I need to program your finger to the panel. Put your thumb...”

Her face loses all its color as she backs into a wall.

I can hear it breathing over my head, feel its body heat on my back, and smell the scent of the beast. He actually took a shower and smells like a bar of soap.

My heart beats ferociously against my chest. Clenching my fists, I turn around at a snail’s pace. Seeing him up close seemed like a good idea on the floors above us. I think I’ve changed my mind. I finally understand why Seth was serious when warning me. I’ve never heard muscles this powerful.

The monster’s growl turns into a confused huff. He squats and inches closer until we’re nearly nose-to-nose. As he reveals his own eyes, I see a spectacular view of outer space. There’s no pupil, but one solid iris of stars and galaxies. The universe sparkling in his eyes is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.

This man-romance doesn’t last too long. I sense his hand moving. I duck swiftly, disappear into the darkness, and run in the opposite direction of Carmen.

My fighting senses are evolved enough to know when I’m about to die. The daggers on his nails shot towards my head so quickly, I could hardly see them.

I continue to the far end of the building to get him away from Carmen, but he wants to stop me from making it to the area he was previously working on. He jumps in front of me and I’m forced to make a sharp left.

The chase continues around the entire room without either of us throwing a punch. We’re both aware of each other’s speed and I can sense his power so there’s no need to strike unless absolutely necessary.

The brute backs me into a wall and smashes his body against mine.

He must weigh a ton, because my shoulder gets lodged into the MMIBS reinforced wall. Unfortunately, there’s no time to guess his diet. Beast-boy yanks me out and slams me into it once more.

Though he’s the size of a human, his hands are humungous. There’s no breaking out of his grip. He throws me around a bit more until he’s prepped to crack his knuckles on my jawbone.

As he continues beating me, the bandages inflict additional pain on my body. He seems disturbed by my laughter.

The ape kicks me in the chest. A heaving sound releases from my lungs but I motion for him to come at me again. “Let’s go buddy. I’m looking to get hurt here.” I spit my blood onto the floor. “You have to provide a better service.”

He lands a jab on my temple and tries to follow through with a cross, but I block it and apply an elbow between two of his ribs. Though my strikes can’t hurt as much as his, he sounds hungry, so I’m going for the weak areas.

The beast plants a superhuman punch on my chin and I’m spun around into the wall. He attacks my spine and I scream with delight, “Much better!” By now, my face and body are swollen and my limbs feel numb.

He backs away and rubs his knuckles. He’s out of breath.

“Now, it’s my turn.”

Twenty

Carmen’s fierce scream stops the gruesome and bloody fight that’s carried on for five minutes. I’m the first to fall on the ground and the creature follows.

We both lie stretched out with our arms spread widely, begging air to enter our lungs.

Struggling to catch my breath, I ask, “Man, why are we fighting?”

The ape tries to lift his head, but it crashes into the ground. His laugh contains a villainous sound that I enjoy. Between breaths he replies, “I thought you knew.”

I command my body to sit up and he does the same. His voice reminds me of Spencer’s, but with more bass. I may remind him of someone myself. Strange. But it’s something I just feel.

“You know Nevaeh?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t invest much thought into the answer. His attention is directed to my trembling company. With a simple hand gesture, he says, “I’m sorry to frighten you, love. You can take a seat next to Okodemah. I promise not to fight again as long as he doesn’t.”

Carmen stays frozen in place until I motion for her to join me. She removes a bottle of water from her pouch and holds some of the fluid in her mouth. Her lips shine brightly. They turn our section of the room a vibrant red.

Out of nowhere, she spits in my face.

“Oh come on!” The mist tingles on my skin as she takes another swig. The cuts close instantly and the swelling decreases immediately after.