The Brother

Chapter Ten

They climbed up the stairs and Jace saw that the portion of the stairs they had covered was already dimming its light. They were now on the top of the stairs when Jonathan said, “Let’s get you a nice dinner.”

They were now sitting on the gray couch after replacing it over the trap door and waiting for the food to arrive. Both of them remained silent for around five minutes.

“Isn’t it possible for someone to enter the room and find the trapdoor when you are downstairs?” said Jace.

“You didn’t notice the aquarium over there?” asked Jonathan and pointed to the aquarium which was placed on a table next to the bookshelf. This table was just a wooden slab placed on a statue of wolves, which for some reason, wasn’t in gold.

“The food is here.” called out a voice from outside the room.

“Come in.” said Jonathan and the door swung open.

Two men, both dressed in black suits entered with a tray on each hand. The four trays were placed and they were out in an instant. The first tray had two plates of something pink in colour. It had a layer of powdered sugar on it. The plate next to it contained something that was yellow and semisolid similar to what Jayram had served him. It was arranged in a bowl with a silver spoon placed next to it. The other two trays contained glasses of what appeared to be chocolate milkshakes. One in each of them.

Jace’s hunger took the better of him as he downed the food in front of him in an instant and looked up to his brother who was just halfway through his share.

“Do you want more?” asked Jonathan.

“No. I’ll just wash my hands and come back in less than a minute.” said Jace and headed off in the direction of Jonathan’s desk and pressed the button to enter his brother’s room.

Looking at his brother, Jonathan realized what he had missed for the past seven years and smiled.

Jace returned to his brother to find him standing next to the door. “We going out?” he asked.

“Yup. To Wesley. He’ll be pissed if we’re late.” said Jonathan. “It’s already six. We have to be there at six - thirty”

“Alright.”

They stood in front of a large building which was similar to the one in which his brother stayed. The designs were certainly identical, but this looked much smaller. Only ten stories high, while the other was seventy.

Jonathan seemed to have read his brother’s mind as he said, “Don’t let the looks deceive you. There’s more than a hundred floors below the surface.”

“Why?”

“Mad scientists.”

“I guess that’s self explanatory.” said Jace and followed his brother.  

Jace did not find anything attractive in this building. Everything was dull looking. It was probably because everything was a shade of gray. The walls were dark gray. The floor and the ceiling were made of a slightly lighter version. The desk behind which a red headed obese man sat was also gray.

“Why is everything so gray? Is that the symbol of science?” asked Jace.

“Believe me, brother. I’ve been asking that question to everyone around me for seven years.” said Jonathan. “No one knows the reason.”

Looking at the Chief of Council, the man behind the desk, who was dressed in blue, quickly stood up as a sign of respect.

“It’s alright. I’m here to meet Wesley.” said Jonathan before the security guard opened his mouth to greet.

Jace followed Jonathan to a door placed on the left wall. He opened it and saw an elevator. “We don’t have that black ball…” began Jace.

“I’ve got a golden one. I’m awesome.” said Jonathan as he stuffed it into the hole and said “Wesley”.

The elevator started to move downwards and its speed made Jace feel like he was about to float. He turned to look at his brother who seemed to be daydreaming.

“We’re here”, said Jonathan and took a step forward as soon as the elevator came to a halt.”This is Wesley.”

“Who? There’s too many people here. You’ve got to be a little more specific. Try pointing” said Jace.

“No, you i***t. This floor is Wesley. All the experiments that are personally sanctioned by the Chief or the Council are performed here.”

“But Alby said that there were two scientists, Stryke and Wesley. And you referred to Wesley as a he.”

“That was what the Council said to the public. If the people knew about the experiments performed here, they would go on a hunger strike to shut this place down. So they came up with a story of two scientists.”said Jonathan. “Some of it is true. But I’ll tell you the full story later.”

“I’ve got myself a bedtime story.” said Jace and noticed a woman come toward them. She was a fair woman with white hair, green eyes and a sturdy look to her face. There was something about her face that told Jace that he was unwelcome.

“Good evening ,Alba” said Jonathan with a smile.

“Good evening, sir. I see you have a visitor.” she said and turned to Jace.”I’m Alba. I’m the head of the Wesley department.”

“I’m Jace.”

“He’s my brother.” said Jonathan and looking at the raised eyebrow of Alba, he added,”It’s a long story.”

“I’m just glad that you’re on time.” she said.

“Send my brother to the sim room and show him a few clips of the battle. He’s feeling a bit brave today. Meanwhile, I’ll be in your office. We have a few things to discuss..” said Jonathan.

“In a minute.” she said and watched the Chief of Council walk towards her office. She turned to Jace who was just looking at her colleagues who were busy with their researched.”The sim room is where we simulate the effects of any experiments we conduct.”

“You guys don’t have guinea pigs to experiment on?” said Jace.

“No. Why would we harm those poor things?” said Alba with a disturbed look on her face.

Maybe then, you would’ve known that your serum can create zombies. - Jace thought as he was led through dozens of scientists, who were all wearing white and had masks on their face, till they were standing in front of a door which was also gray.

“Why the gray?” he asked, hoping that the head of Wesley may have an answer to that question. But she just waved off the question and gestured for him to enter the room.

Jace entered the room and couldn’t see anything. It was too dark. He turned back to see that the only source of light was coming from the other room. At least it was coming from the other room until Alba mouthed “Enjoy” and closed the door. The click of the sound made him shudder as if he were feeling cold.

Jace was always uncomfortable with dark rooms. He would always try to run away from the possibility of having to stay in the dark any longer than necessary. Things didn’t get any better as he heard the sound of an animal snarling.

He looked around to see what was going on. He lost his sense of direction and didn’t know where the door was.He closed his eyes and took a deep breathe. Jon wouldn’t leave me in this place if it were dangerous - Jace thought and tried to calm himself. He could see the inside of his eye turn faint red and realized that there was light in the room.

He quickly opened his eyes and saw a man, wearing the soldier’s uniform that was worn by his brother in the photograph, hold a g*n in front of him. Jace followed the direction the g*n was pointing at and saw another man. His clothes were ripped and his right ear, was missing. In its place, Jace could see dry blood. That must be the undead guy - Jace thought as he realized that this was a video clip being shown.

The undead guy had a smile on his face as he said, “You killed my friend yesterday. I saw it and I couldn’t so anything. Today, I get revenge.”

“You guys have friends? I thought you people ate each other. Sorry. I thought you freaks ate each other.” said the soldier a bit nervously.

Why doesn’t this man just shut up and shoot the thing? He’s bad at this talking part.

Jace looked around him and then realized why. This attack was planned. He saw that the two men were standing in a circle of the undead which was having a diameter of fifty meter. They were all holding guns.

“That’s where you come in. We haven’t had food for a few days now. And we’re all waiting for the chance to eat the person who killed our friend.” said the earless undead and looked up at his companion standing behind the soldier. “Krunal. It’s dinner time.”

The undead who was addressed as Krunal fired his g*n and the soldier was on his knees. Holding his hamstring with his hands as he swore under his breath. All the members of the circle pushed the guns to their back and hurried towards the injured soldier.

The earless undead was the first to reach and used his nails to rip open the chest of the soldier who gave out a scream which indicated the pain he was suffering. He put his hand into the body of the now dead soldier and took out his heart. “Revenge is sweet” he said and took a bite of it as blood spurted out of the heart.