The Bloodless (5 page)
As Justice and his colleagues made their final adjustments and got into their places, he could not help but wonder why there were representatives from a weapons company at this trial. It did not make any sense other than the fact that they believed they would be able to make weapons out of this research. Since that was their business, what else could there be? However, Justice did not see how something like this could be made into a weapon, or what harm this research could even bring about.
“Dr. Justice,” Alexander said as they were just about ready to start, “why don’t you explain to everybody what we’re doing here before you get everything underway?” A large crowd had gathered inside the laboratory’s observation deck. This was not an event to be missed.
“Sure,” said Justice. “First, I think we all know why we’re here. Organic reanimation has only ever existed within the pages of science fiction. Today we plan to bring it into the world of scientific fact. Our hypotheses have been tested on multiple smaller organisms like plants, mice, and we’ve even successfully reanimated a canine. This is the first of many trials that will involve human beings, a highly complex organism. However, the physiology and the fundamentals remain the same.
“The point that gets tricky with human beings is the reclamation of the soul. While no proof exists of other animals having souls, the evidence for the human soul is overwhelming and based well in reality. This is why there is a need for many trials, we need to be sure the process works and that the original soul can be retrieved. The procedure is divided into two phases: The first is the reanimation of the dead cells themselves and the second phase is the reacquisition of the subject’s soul through a séance.”
There were some looks among the observatory deck crowd and even between Vladimir and his people. Abigail Crist looked the most suspicious, as though Justice was a shoddy scientist. Justice seemed to understand the impact his last statement had on the spectators, “I realize that doesn’t sound very scientific. However, when you’ve spent as much time as me verifying the existence of souls, these once ill thought of practices, séances for example, begin to look more and more legitimate. I assure you, the procedure we utilize is perfectly capable of attaining our desired outcomes.”
Justice’s last statement was not completely true. While his research was solid and thoroughly tested, his methods for soul retrieval were more or less a crap shoot. The procedure could easily recapture a soul to be housed within the reanimated subject, but it was not always the original soul. The process was like shooting a load of buck shot through a pinhole and expecting a pellet you marked to make it through. Of course, he didn’t know all of this prior to the trials, but the results would show themselves soon enough.
“Now,” Justice began, “if everyone is ready we can get started.” He smiled at his audience and set about making final adjustments. “Jack, you ready?” And when Jack nodded, “Okay, bring in Subject 05142100-101.” An auxiliary door towards the back of the lab opened up and two white coat assistants wheeled in a gurney with a body on top of it covered with a white sheet. The gurney was positioned in the center of the room under a spectrum of lights. The sheet was removed to reveal an elderly man whose body was in unremarkable condition.
“Subject is male, aged 126 years. Subject’s life functions ceased due to stroke that led to cardiac arrest,” Justice explained to the room and the spectators in the observatory deck. He then went to work connecting the man’s body to a few different machines and making some small adjustments to his position under the lights. “Body was donated in accordance to the subject’s last will and testament. Overall physical condition is at a nominal level and the organs, save the brain, have been reported to be in average condition. No signs of any major diseases.
“As you can see,” Justice said turning to his audience, “there is no presence of a pulse or any indications of brain activity. Since that has been verified, we will now initiate the reanimation process.” He went and positioned himself behind a large control console and started manipulating the surface. The lights in the laboratory dimmed and a low hum whirred into life and steadily grew louder like the slow rumble of a building storm.
“Might as well give ‘em a show, eh?” Jack whispered to Justice. Justice smirked but did not respond.
Small electrical discharges zipped through the cords attached to the subject causing random muscles to twitch involuntarily. Justice looked on from behind the console and the way the light fell on his face made him look a bit mad but still in control. He pressed a few more buttons and what was now a loud roar filling the room leveled off to a reasonable growl. The lights above the old man started to flicker and then burst on. The lights went off and on in a very structured sequence, focusing light energy on certain parts of the body at precise intervals.
The sequence suddenly sped up and judging by the reaction of both Justice and Jack, this was not a planned step. Jack rushed over to the control console and started yelling unintelligibly into Justice’s ear. The noise in the room grew louder and louder and as the noise peaked an alarm blared overhead. Justice motioned and yelled for everyone to evacuate the room but no one could hear what he was saying. However, once the room began to vibrate violently they took the hint and hurried out of the laboratory.
“Justice,” Jack yelled, “we have to get out of here, the system isn’t stable!”
“But I don’t understand what went wrong!”
“No time to understand, we’ll figure it out after our asses are booted to the curb!”
“No,” Justice refused to move, “I can stabilize it, probably just a faulty calculation in one of the light sequences!”
“That’s ridiculous! The calibration of the entire system is off!”
“I can fix it,” Justice reiterated but Jack did not hear him and started pulling on Justice’s coat. Finally Justice started to see that it was a lost cause and reluctantly started to follow Jack out of the lab. “Wait,” he yelled as they neared the doors. Justice tore away from Jack’s grip and rushed back over to the console. “I can do a manual power reset and everything should restore to a default status!” Jack tried to stop him but Justice was too quick. Once back at the controls Justice began manipulating the surface as quickly as he could.
“This oughta do it,” he yelled and pressed one last button, but that last button proved to be one too many. As soon as he touched the button on the screen a giant arc of electricity jumped from the console and lifted Justice into the air and threw him back, slamming him hard against the opposite wall. After he slid to the ground everything in the lab went back to normal and all the lights returned to their default settings.
Jack rushed over to where Justice’s body laid sprawled over the floor, smoke issuing from his ears. It might’ve been comical if blood was not also gushing from his ears and eyes. “Justice,” Jack yelled in vain. Jack put his fingers to Justice’s neck to check for a pulse and held them there for a few minutes, much longer than it takes to find a pulse. “DANIEL!”
CHAPTER 3
The Dead Shall Inherit the Earth
Justice woke up in the hospital anchored to a slew of machines. His memory was spottier than a college student who went on a booze fueled bender to celebrate the end of another mediocre semester. He looked around the room to find that he was alone but there must have been cameras on him because a few moments later a man in a white lab coat walked into the room. The doctor picked up the chart hanging on the end of Justice’s bed and looked it over.
“Welcome back,” the man said.
“What happened?” Justice asked trying to move. To his surprise he found it wasn’t that painful to move his body. “Have I been out long?”
“A few days,” the doctor said. He put the chart back in the holder, “we had you in a medically induced coma. You hit your head pretty hard.”
“Damn,” Justice said rubbing a hand over his eyes, “I had the craziest dreams.”
The door to the room opened again and in walked Jack Strayer who was looking majorly relieved. “Justice,” he said happily, “you gave us quite a scare!”
“Did I?”
“You sure did. Head trauma like yours is always scary, even if recovery is assured.”
Justice, now sitting up fully, rubbed his eyes and looked around the room, still looking slightly confused. “Did I die?” he asked.
“Close,” Jack said with a nervous grin, “but you know dying ain’t no easy task these days.”
“Weird,” Justice said, “I had the most vivid dream that I was dead for three days and you brought me back to life.”
“That is some dream,” Jack said, “but we’ll chalk that one up to the morphine-LSD drip we gave you. How do you feel?”
Justice moved his arms, stretched his hands, wiggled his toes, and rolled his head on his shoulders. “I feel fine,” he said.
The doctor smiled, “We thought you would. You’re free to go anytime.”
With that, Justice was discharged from the hospital and from there he traveled up the elevator straight to his office. GoD Labs had a couple floors of the main building designated as an infirmary that ended up becoming one of the best hospitals in the region and it made sense since a lot of the experiments happening within the building had the potential to cause bodily harm to the scientists performing them. This was not the first time someone was injured during a demonstration and it certainly would not be the last. As he walked across the floor to his office, the other workers greeted and welcomed him back. Some people stared in wonder at him but Justice could not quite figure out why. Had they never seen someone who had been in a medically induced coma before?
Inside of his office there were all kinds of presents and gifts wishing him a speedy recovery. It was the traditional thing to do still even though almost all recoveries those days, especially in that hospital, were speedy ones. Justice walked around his office and stood in front of his windows taking everything in. He felt quite different. He seemed to have a greater sense of appreciation for all things, which was odd but he assumed that’s what happens when someone is put into a coma, even a medically induced one. He did not know any better, it was his first coma after all. But he felt almost healthier than he had before the accident, perhaps even a bit stronger.
After some time passed, Jack walked in and cleared his throat to catch Justice’s attention. “You still here?” Jack asked politely.
Justice turned around and smiled at Jack as he walked towards him. “I noticed there’s nothing here from Mr. Jefferson,” he said, skirting Jack’s question.
“Naw, but that’s what I am here to deliver,” Jack responded, smiling back. Justice looked quizzically at him because Jack was not carrying anything. “He said to give you as much time off as you need and not to hurry back if you don’t want to.”
Justice couldn’t keep a note of disdain out of his laugh, “That’s quite generous of him.”
“Whaddya expect,” Jack said, the smile faltering on his face.
“A little something extra for starters,” Justice said, slightly annoyed, “I’m about to make that guy richer than any man needs to be. I suffer a major head wound in the process of breaking ground science has only ever dreamed of before and his gift to me is extra time off that I was entitled to anyway?” Justice walked over and stood behind his desk and examined a few of the gifts that adorned it. “I mean, I know the guy’s a complete sociopath, hell bent on hording all the money in the known universe, but for fuck’s sake I’m a human bei- you know what,” Justice said, trying to calm himself down, “forget it, I don’t need the extra days. Let’s get back to work.”
“Justice,” Jack said, “take some time off, you need it.”
“I feel fine, I don’t need any extra time. Let’s get back to work like obedient little sycophants,” Justice seethed. “It’s what our glorious leader would want, right?”
“Are you sure?” Jack asked tentatively.
“Yeah, it’s fine,” Justice responded, attempting to scale his anger back. “I feel fine.”
“Okay man,” Jack said softly, “we’ll pick up where we left off.”
“Still on the first subject?” Justice asked as he threw his lab coat on. He followed Jack out of the office and the two headed towards the main lab.
“No, we’re on 103 now.”
“What happened?”
“The first and second ones failed. We suspect it was an issue with the gamma stimulation process but we’ve recalibrated everything so it should be back on track,” Jack explained as they reached the lab doors.
“You did one without me?”
“Boss’ orders,” Jack sighed.
“Right, heaven forbid a couple days pass without any work in a lab taking place,” Justice said as he sat down behind the main console. Jack did not respond to this, instead he awkwardly avoided looking at Justice. “Okay people, let’s do this,” Justice said to the room at large. “Bring in subject zero five - wait, what’s the day?” Everybody looked around at each other at a complete loss on how to respond. “Nobody knows the date?” Justice asked bemused.
“Oh,” Jack said, “it’s the 20th. Come on guys, let’s pay attention,” he added in an attempt to reprimand the other employees.
“The 20th?” Justice asked doing the math in his head. “Was I really out six days?” Jack nodded slowly. Justice thought for a couple more moments, “Wow,” he finally said, “that must’ve been a helluva head wound!”
Jack laughed nervously, “Indeed it was Justice.”
“Well, no point in dwelling,” Justice said as he booted up his workstation. “Bring in subject 05202100-103.” A gurney topped with an elderly man was rolled into the lab and placed under the gamma sequencing array. “Subject is male, aged 114 years. Subject’s life ceased due to natural causes. We are recording this, right?” Justice asked as an afterthought. Jack nodded. “Good. This is much easier without an audience.”
“There’s an audience,” Jack said and when Justice looked at him he pointed up. Sure enough, there was a small crowd gathered in the observation deck looking down upon the proceedings.
Justice did not recognize any of them, “So there are. Sorry, you’ll have to excuse me, my mind’s a little fuzzy. Head wound,” he joked, pointing to his head. The people in the observation deck laughed. “Okay, let’s get back to it. Subject, natural causes,” Justice muttered, “ah yes. Body once again donated willingly as noted in the deceased’s last will and testament. No major disease during life and organs, bones, et cetera are reportedly in good condition. Everything seems to be in order here and we should be able to proceed. Now Jack, you did say everything was sorted out with the gamma array?”
“Yes, I have been assured that the sequence will run smoothly this time.”
“Great,” Justice said and he began to manipulate the screen in front of him. “Commencing in five, four, three, two, one.” Justice hit a big red “Execute” button on his screen. That same low hum from before started up again but this time it remained much more controlled. Suddenly walls emerged from the floor and enclosed the subject within them. “That’s new,” Justice commented.
“One of the engineers found that it would help keep everything contained within the sequencing stage,” Jack supplied.
“Give that guy a raise,” Justice said absentmindedly, his concentration still on his console. “Initiating gamma sequencing now,” and he hit an execute button on his screen. Again small jolts of electricity shot into the dead man’s body causing muscles to twitch at random. Then the lights above the body flash on and in that same structured and sequenced manner as before. This time nothing out of the ordinary, relative to what Justice was expecting, happened and the first phase achieved completion without incident.
All the lights then dimmed and Justice, Jack, and one of the other scientists circled around the body. The gurney was reassembled into a round table upon which the body, now showing signs of basic life functions, lay. Justice addressed the observers as six candles were placed upon the round surface, “Now we begin the séance. Please observe that the subject has gained a heartbeat and brain functions are slowly beginning to return. Neural networks are being reestablished and synapses are firing up once again. This is a crucial moment and the séance must be started as soon as possible lest we miss our opportunity.”
The three of them joined hands after the candles were lit and the lights in the room turned completely off. It was the third scientist that led the séance chant. “We call out now, to the souls that exist beyond our sight. We know, physically you are far from us, but we ask of you only one thing. Deliver to us the soul of this man who, in life, was named Merton Chaucer. His body is ready to receive that which was lost and taken from him.”
Nothing happened immediately, which was expected by this group. Justice took his hand away from Jack’s and used the communicator strapped to his wrist to remotely access his control terminal. He made a few movements and then something clicked on in the darkness. An electric buzz hummed to life that quickly turned into a soft static noise. “Since you have chosen to not cooperate with us,” Justice said, “we will deliver the soul to his body ourselves.”
The static noise gradually grew louder and suddenly glowing orbs began to illuminate and die as they raced back and forth across the lab. The darkness around the dim candle light seemed to swell and envelop everything in the room, even attempting to consume the flames. The temperature in the lab dropped rapidly and as Justice spoke, his words pushed misty breath from his mouth, “We reclaim this man’s soul in the name of science and so that he may once again be present in his loved ones’ lives as a physical entity.”
The process continued and as it did so, the room began to lightly vibrate, which seemed odd to Jack given the perplexed look that stole across his face. Soon disembodied voices echoed off the lab’s bare walls. “Keep… balance… all will perish… destruct… souls,” were just some of the snippets of speech that were heard rattling through the pitch black. A bright white light flared above the subject’s body for a few seconds before it appeared to be forced down into the body by an unseen force in the room.
On the monitors surrounding the body, life functions seemed to improve rapidly and the brain seemed to have been jump started as there was an influx of new activity. The room abruptly stopped vibrating and all the lights slowly illuminated back to their initial brightness. Everything was still, nobody moved and their collective breath was held. Justice continued to monitor vitals and brain activity. He waited a few more tensioned filled seconds before speaking.
“Vitals appear to be improving along with brain activity. Levels approaching nominal status,” he said as he struggled to keep the excitement out of his voice. However, he could not keep it out of his eyes. Justice walked over to the man and looked down at him. The man took in a deep, shuddering breath and began to writhe in agony. Justice looked scared and looked around at Jack for some answers.
“Let it pass,” Jack said reassuringly, “this is just the body and soul fusing.” However, Jack wasn’t actually sure why the man was yelling and screaming in apparent pain. He had a guess, obviously, but nothing more than that. Eventually the man did begin to calm down but it went on much longer than Jack had anticipated, but he kept Justice assured that it was just part of the process.
“Did you see this before?” Justice asked as the man’s screams deflated into soft moans, “in the previous two?”
“Yes,” Jack said right away, “but not to this extent.”
“Well,” Justice said, thinking deep, “perhaps this is what a successful reanimation actually looks like?”
“Could be,” Jack responded.
“I’ll see if I can rouse him,” Justice said. “Let’s see if he is who he’s supposed to be.” Justice reached a hand out and placed it gingerly on the man’s shoulder, as if he were afraid he might crumble into dust if he applied to much pressure. The man’s skin reacted right away to Justice’s touch and Justice pulled his hand back quickly as he was not expecting that type of reaction. “Merton Chaucer, can you hear me?” Justice asked quietly.
