Their Fragile Strength

There's a Monster in Our Midst

"Ughhh, my head!"

I groan as I sit up. My back aches and my neck does too. The worst of my pain however, is this radiating pounding in my head. I rub my temples and look around. It is very bright in my living room but as I walk into the kitchen, I discover it's even brighter in there.

Once I close the blinds to the windows over the sink, it is obvious my dishes were done and the sink washed out. I don't remember washing them but it doesn't seem particularly important at the moment.

Making my way back to the couch, I flip it over. I unzip the bottom and pull out the gym bag. Flipping the couch back upright I place the gym bag on top of it temporarily. I head to the bathroom, brush my teeth and grab a protein shake from the fridge before flying out my front door with gym bag in hand.

Stepping outside, the hair on my arms and neck stand up. Despite the mild wheather I feel goosebumps erupt across the surface of my skin.

Someone, somewhere close is watching me. I shiver and pull my lightweight jacket closer to me, tucking my chin in to detract attention from myself.

When I reach the end of Kenwood Drive, I duck into a breakfast cafe. After ordering a super complicated latte order, I loiter for a few minutes in hopes of evading curious eyes.

When I exit, I don't feel the chill indicating someone is watching me. I go into a deserted church parking lot and go to the back. I hug the side and go down. The building looks like it only has one floor but it has a basement which is not discernable to the casual observer. As I go down I lift a board with fake grass turf on it and go down a flight of stairs.

Since I replaced the cover it is a bit dark and I use my cell phone to light the way. Once inside the lower part of the church I follow a path that actually leads to the lower levels of the front of the church. I roll away a metal door before staring into a camera and waving. The wooden door just feet behind the metal one opens.

"This is a surprise."

Julian turns around to face an enormous room full on one side of organized bookshelves, tables brought together that hold countless computers, computer monitors as well as portable white boards and various scientific equipment.

The other side, while organized seems to be the personal living space of someone less type A. There was a loft bed with a desk underneath. There was also a hammock hanging from the loft as well as four more hammocks balanced between two walls in a staggered fashion resembling ladders. There were posters and potted plants as well as hanging plants. The colors of the walls, grey with thick blue stripes at the top and bottom was light yet masculine. All the furnishing were in varying shades of browns and dark wood.

Still looking around in wonder as I walk forward I don't see the little creature excitedly making its way towards me. When it gets on its hind legs and put its paws on me I startle and a scream escapes before I slap my hand across my mouth and grasp my chest to prevent my heart from feeling like it's escaping.

"Julian? What the hell is that...that thing?"

He turns around, "Pekaaaaa, freeze!"

Sure enough his pet freezes mid step and he looks to me as if to say "See?"

A little less rattled now I I glance down to see the cutest cat.

Looking closer, I realize it's not a cat. Or at least not an everyday cat.

"Is that...?"

"It's a fennec fox," he says before I finish.

"OH good, As long as it's not a rat," I utter less panicked.

I put my hand out and to my surprise it comes straight to me and let me scratch his head.

I make my way to the tables and lift my gym bag onto one. I pull out the samples and look at Julian.

"Sooooo, you can't freak out. Ok?"

He raises an eye and just stares at me. I try to collect my courage and then open the refrigerated portable cooler.

Julian leans in and when he sees what's in the cooler, he loses his cool demeanor.

He shakes his head and mutters under his breath as he quickly clears a couple tables and takes out a key ring. He disappears behind his loft bed and reappears with a high powered telescope in his hand.

A few minutes later he's got a whole lab setup. We analyze the tissues from the strangers bite mark. At some point I let him take charge since he was familiar with the equipment.

I go looking for some textbooks. I'm not familiar with how he has them sorted.

I knew he had this place here but i never made it past the metal doors before. I thought it was a rundown space he used to store his equipment. Never imagined it was some secret underground condo.

I pour over multiple books. Books identifying teethmarks, from canines to bears and bigger and bacteria and their more likely points of origin.

I run out of factual textbooks and start in some about mystical creatures. While reading of Vampires and Basilisks and other cold blooded magic creatures I hear something fall. I look up to see what Julian dropped however he is quickly trying to put the samples back. He pushes the table back into a corner and is trying to hide them. He flips a button and six monitor screens turn on.

He grabs a tablet and a moment later all the feed from the monitors were on his tablet and he turned the monitors off. He looks at me and mouths "Hide!" while doing hand gestures. I look for where to hide and run across the room to climb into his loft bed.

I peek over the edge and from my height I see two more monitors over the door splitting the dozens of images. Julian takes a few steps towards the door.. He seems to walk into the side of the the without opening it and he melts into the shadows and disappear. As I watch a partition comes down completely blocking my side of the room and the computers from where Julian disappeared.

My heart is pounding and I alternate between lying flat as I can to peeking over the bed rail. Every time I look I see the partition and nothing beyond.

After what feels like an eternity but most likely about twenty minutes the partition goes up and Julian comes back looking haggard.

"He wasn't human!"

I quickly climb down and run to him as he staggers forward.

"Who wasn't?" I ask urgently.

His eyes are glazed and he looks like he's seen a monster. He pushes his hand through his hair and I see scratch marks running down the length of his arm.

"Effee, he wasn't human. Something was wrong with that-that guy," he says frustrated. When his eyes meet mine, I see all the confusion and fear in them.

I don't know what to say or think. What could he possibly mean? Was the guy on steroids maybe?

No matter for now. I help him sit down and we clean his scratches. Each time I wiped them he winced. He kept staring at his arm like it was a snake and he was scared to get bit.

Once bandaged he quickly went to the samples. "Let's find out what someone doesn't want us to know."

He started separating slides and samples. Whatever he fought off outside, just made him that much more determined.

I went back to my textbooks. I come across a page with a picture. The picture looks exactly like the pictures from the articles I read about the bear attacks. And it dawned on me that they all look eerily similar to the leg of that agent we treated in the laboratory before the infection had gotten so bad.

I bookmark it with my finger and bring it to Julian. "Look!"

He moves aside from the telescopes and glances at the page. Once he sees what it is, he stops and takes a harder look.

"What the..." His sentence trails off.

He looks at his arm and he looks scared. He looks at me and then goes behind the loft again.

I realize I never thought to see what was back there. He comes back, thrusts something into my hands and says with resolve "If it comes to the point where, you know, I'm not me..."

I glance down and remove the cloth and gasp.

"Absolutely not happening, Julian. You can't really think I would do that"

He takes a deep breath and he says softly "You might have to. If I'm no longer me."

I'm still not exactly sure what we're talking about but if he's that scared...

I square my shoulders and grab the gun from him with purpose. Nodding I make sure the safety is on and put it in the band of my waist. He looks relieved. We both get to work.

A few hours later we can both confirm with certainty that the agent either wasn't human or the thing that bit him wasn't.