The Brother

Chapter Eleven

Jace was watching the twenty strong pack devour the poor man when he felt something warm on his left hand. He quickly looked down at his hand and saw a drop of blood. Jace was horrified when he realized that it was the dead soldier’s. I thought Jon said that I can’t touch these things. - he thought and stared at the hungry pack which was preoccupied with the body. They had worked their way through the ribs and the only thing that remained was the man’s spine.

“Any second thoughts?” said a voice.

Jace swore and turned around to see his brother standing right behind him. Looking at him had a calming sensation pass through him as he felt safe again. “You really scared me. I thought you said I can’t touch them, but I got the man’s blood on my hand” said Jace and raised his hand to show the drop of blood which had spread a little from its initial position.

“Well, this is the sim room. Here, you can touch things. You can even touch those creatures. They can feel you and they will attack you. But you won’t die because the sim room is designed to turn off automatically whenever it senses that you are hurt.”said Jon. “The worst thing that can happen is a scratch.”

“So this sim room is more advanced than yours?” said Jace.

“Well, yes. That’s a Sophisticated Media and Thought Demonstrator. I don’t like the name. So I ended up calling it the Pensive. Whereas this.” said Jonathan and pointed to the floor. “is the sim room. Designed for simulations necessary for training and experiments. No memories.”

“Sounds pretty cool.” said Jace and looking at his brother’s slightly disappointed expression, he quickly added, “But nothing is more cooler than replicating memories.”

Hearing this, a smile appeared on Jonathan’s face and he said, “Come with me. I’ve got something to show you.”

Jonathan led Jace through the cluster of scientists who seemed to be involved in a deep conversation.

“... telling you, we can teleport with this thing. I just need a bit of funding.” said one of them to the other.

“But, we can’t afford it! Half the Council’s treasury will have …”  the other man’s voice trailed off as they were out of earshot.

“That is Alba’s office” said Jonathan pointing to a door , which was again, gray in color.

Jace was getting annoyed with the gray. They approached the door, and on it was written, ‘Alba’ in black color.

“Are you the only person here with a surname?” asked Jace.

“Yes. They had a tough time understanding that both Jonathan and Cooper belong to me.” said Jonathan. “They used to call me Jonathan Cooper every time. Took me a whole year to convince these people to call me as Jonathan.”

“And now they call you ‘Sir’ and ‘Chief’”, said Jace and entered the room as Jonathan pushed the door open.

The room was just as Jace had expected it to be. Gray walls and gray floor. There was a gray table behind which Alba sat. The walls were bare. He noticed a red button on the desk at an arm’s length from Alba.

The button reminded Jace of the warning North Korea’s Kim Jong-un had given to America’s Donald Trump. “Is that going to fire a missile?” he whispered to his brother.

“NO! You’ll find out what it does.” said Jonathan and turned to Alba. “Let’s get this done quickly”

“Sure.” said Alba and pressed the red button in front of her. Jace heard a hissing sound and found the source to be the wall on his left. The wall had opened in front of him to reveal a room behind it.

Jace felt a sense of joy when he noticed that the walls of this extended portion were blue instead of gray. Finally some color thought Jace and entered the room after his brother. He looked around the room and saw weapons of all kind.

The first weapon that caught his attention was similar to a shotgun. But instead of having two barrels, it had five of varying lengths.”Why are they so different?” asked Jace.

“There are five different settings. The smallest barrel fires a bullet than petrifies people. So whoever gets shot ends up as a statue for at least an hour. There’s another one which makes you depressed. So when fired, all the sad memories start appearing in front of you. “ said Jonathan.

“So, you’ve got guns that can cause harm both physically and mentally?” said Jace. “I thought the undead were a little less alive than us. Does depression have an effect on them?”

“Well, yes. They maybe a little less alive. But they are alive. So, they’ll end up getting depressed.” said Jonathan. “But that’s not what we’re here for. Alba has something to show you.”

Jonathan turned towards Alba and she started moving towards a wall at the far end. The wall emitted a faint blue light. There was something hanging on the wall. Jace couldn’t see what it was. They went closer to the wall and Jace could see that there were was something black.

It was a cuboid with smooth edges and writings on it. It seemed to gleam under the faint blue light. Jace tried to make out what it was, but his brain drew a blank.  

“Pick it up.” prompted Jonathan. When his brother held it in his hand, he said “Ta-da”

“You’re a bit too early.” said Jace and added, “Again.”

“Well, just hold it straight and squeeze it.” said Jonathan unable to hold his excitement.

“Don’t tell me you designed this.” said Jace and squeezed the object in his palm with all his strength. He felt the portion of the object covered by his palm slightly change, as if moulding itself for a better grip. After a couple of seconds he freed his hands and he saw the writings emit a faint golden colour. And in an instant, both the ends elongated themselves and formed a shape which Jace immediately recognized.”A bow?”

It was a recurve bow of around 70 inches. The shape of the bow, allowed the user to shoot an arrow at a much faster speed than long bows.  

“Duh. Press the button again.” said Jonathan.

Jace pressed the button again and saw a bowstring appear from the uppermost end of the bow. The bowstring seemed to follow a certain path, as it went towards the lower end and connected itself. The black bow, with its gold writings now looked complete as Jace took a moment to register its beauty.

“Do I have to press it again for an arrow?” said Jace and pressed the button again. To his disappointment, the string retraced its path back to the top end and both the ends returned to their initial position, forming a black cuboid.

“No. You have to carry that around in a quiver. Also, there’s a scope, auto aim and a lot more features in this.” said Jonathan. “Do you want to try it out?”

“Of course.” said Jace. “When do I get a chance ?”

“Tomorrow” said Jonathan. “During training.”