Fiction / Novel Excerpt
On the West end of Texas, nestled between two artificial, flat-topped hills, is a sprawling array of concrete buildings and underground laboratories. BFT zone-260 is the hidden pride of US defence, an ace tucked neatly into the folds of their military sleeves. Built without congressional knowledge, it forms the largest and most technologically advanced testing grounds for biological warheads in the US of A.
There are only two entry points to the main lab, an underground monstrosity aptly named The Womb. The front steel gates leading in from the desert is sentried by two AI chipped robots wielding heavy machine guns and only open after two layers of security measures (twelve-digit passwords and a magnetic keycard).
The back entrance is a bit more nondescript. At the lowest level of the main lab, which itself is a few hundred feet deep, lies a large cylindrical gate that opens to reveal darkness blacker than the void of space. The lead-walled tunnel descends half a hundred feet deeper into the earth then splits into three, narrow horizontal tunnels that open into separate isolated areas of Texas. The gate of the tunnel is invariably sealed tight, only to be used in the times of war and during the gravest of national emergencies.
Tonight, the heavy, quarter-ton gate lay discarded in a heap in a lonely corner of the room. It was T-minus four minutes until the cargo transfer.
Sergeant Briggs was apprehensive of the cargo. When he had been briefed about the biological warfare testing site he had mentally prepared himself for The Walking Dead or The Stand, not whatever the hell this was. He tried to tell himself that this was probably far safer than an invisible bacterium or a bone-dissolving enzyme; but that… thing in the clear plexiglass tub was just too unnerving.
The room was sparsely-lit and filled with blinking computers and huge overhanging tubes. Dead center of the large oblong room was a square container made of seven inch thick glass (not that it would offer any more protection than a single ply of tissue). The container was bubbling with a thick blue liquid that gave the impression of being densely carbonated. Wires protruding from the ceiling dug into the container providing a voltage of about negative fifteen thousand Volts which kept the solution stable. Well, more or less stable.
Floating inside was a human body.
Or at least, Briggs thought it was a human body. What it actually was was classified. It looked like a human body, like that kid from that cartoon Invincible. It was a lean male body, completely naked, and floating almost weightlessly. The man, if it was a man, looked to be around twenty-five years of age, very well built and healthy. No excess body fat, all muscles. His eyes were closed, his eyelids looked heavy yet almost transparent. His face was slack, lacking expression. His facial muscles seemed to be at a complete neutral.
What really got to Briggs was the complete lack of genitalia. That was the sole testament of him not being the product of nature.
Well, then, what in God’s name was he? At the briefing Briggs had simply been handed a file that ominously proclaimed: Biological Weapon of Mass Destruction in big foreboding letters, followed by the charming note:
Careful (!!!)
Lethal
All physical precautions negligible if subject awakens from chemical stasis and proves hostile.
All physical precautions negligible. Briggs thought bitterly. The biology nerds created fucking Superman or something.
“Are we ready?” A woman with her hair tied in a tight bun piped up from behind. Briggs turned sharply and beheld a bespectacled woman of about fifty.
“Dr. Coleman, I suppose?” Briggs offered her a hand.
The lead scientist shook it firmly and professionally.
“Sergeant Briggs, pleased to meet you,” she replied in a voice that was anything but pleased.
“Likewise.”
Dr. Francis Coleman looked at her watch, frowned, and started ordering folks around.
In two minutes the container had been strapped to a powerful portable generator and loaded onto an electrical trolley. Dr. Coleman walked briskly towards the elevators, the trolley following her automatically. Briggs and a couple of scientists brought up the rear. The hallways were dark and frosty. The container seemed to give off a ghoulish, blue glow. A few smiles and a cheering crowd and they could be the world’s most depressing parade.
Inside the dimly glowing container the bubbles faltered for a split second as the power switched from mains to generator. The body inside twitched slightly as if it were dreaming. The voltage smoothed over and the bubbling renewed. The enormous, unimaginable power rested easily again, as it had for billions of years.