Hunting The Dark Side

Chapter 6: The Unexplainable

Dominic ran ahead, it was dark in the corridors now with the alarms active, luckily he was used to working in the dark; it was also lucky that he knew this facility like the back of his hand. He ran as fast as his legs could take him, he noticed a scientist ahead so he skids to a stop in front of her, “Hey, do me a favour please, there are two men at the door, Jackson and Leo are their name, tell security they are with me and then tell them to take them to Dr Lincoln ok?” He spoke so fast he wondered if the scientist understood what he was saying.

The scientist stopped startled a little, looking at the young woman in Dominic’s arms, then nods, “Yes, of course, I’ll get right to it.”

The scientist ran in the direction of the security room and Dominic runs down a long corridor, after passing a three doors on the left and four on the right, he knocked on the fifth door on he right then barges in. “Lincoln, I need your help.”

“Dominic? What is it? Who is this?”

He lays her on the spare bed, “This is Sapphire, she and her brothers were helping me on the family case when her house got invaded by zombies, you have to use this cure you have been making.”

“Let me take a blood test first then to see how far gone she is.” Dr Lincoln says, getting a syringe out of a draw, sliding the protective layer on the needle, realisation dawned on him, “Wait a minute, you told these people about zombies and about what we do? You know the rules Dominic! You are skating on thin ice.”

Dominic paces back and forth. “Don’t start with me Lincoln, you don’t understand what it is like out there, there are very few of us out there and they are bringing new people in who s**t themselves, these people have experience! Just do whatever you have to do, but you have to save her, her brothers will be here soon after they get through security.”

Lincoln starts to draws some of Sapphire’s blood, he could see that the change was happening just by looking at it, but he puts it under the microscope. “You brought strangers to the facilities? You could compromise everything, if this gets out!” He glances up from the microscope, watching Dominic pace back and forth for a short while before questioning. “Why are you pacing? You never pace over patients.”

Dominic stops pacing to look at Lincoln, “I told you; she knows of the dark side, not just zombies, she lives a normal life on the boarder of the dark and light side. There something about her, the way she zones out, you know she is thinking but you wonder what she is thinking, because she is so unpredictable, she always surprises me; she is incredible. You didn’t see her out there, you didn’t see how she took control of the situation.” He starts to pace again.

Lincoln looks at him, watching the way he was pacing back and forth, “you like her? Why? You just met her, you don’t know her”

“Stop watching me and help her, I told you there is something about her, she is so humane but she moves so elegantly and the way she shoots, and in her room she has this awesome secret room thing. Makes me feel like I belong, tells me there is more to this world than just zombies. I don’t have to hide things from her, I don’t need to try avoid the subject of what I work as. I can be myself around her.” He answers, brushing his hand through his hair, as he stops pacing and looks at Sapphire. “Hang on in there Sapphire, we got you.” He gently brushes her hair out of her face.

Sapphire lay on the bed, she felt paralyzed, she couldn’t move, she couldn’t speak, which at the moment she was thankful of. The pain was excruciating, her body was screaming in pain, it started at the shoulder where she was first bit, then it spread, down her arm, then when it reached her heart, it spread around her whole body within minutes, her organs were slowly shutting down one by one, starting with the smaller organs, kidneys, intestines, then getting to the more important ones, stomach, lungs. In her mind she was screaming in pain, but it wasn’t escaping her lips.

Why isn’t anyone doing anything? Why won’t this pain stop, will someone do something? I don’t want to be a zombie; I don’t want to be a flesh eater.

Give me the darn cure already, I am obviously not immune.

* * *

Jackson and Leo sigh, “Where the hell is this security guard?” Jackson questions getting impatient, tapping his feet on the ground, he shook the gate angrily.

“I don’t know; I mean how can we trust this Dominic guy?” Leo asks.

Jackson looked at him bewildered by the question, he hadn’t thought of that, Sapphire trusted him so he automatically trusted him, he trusted his sister’s judgement. “Sapphire trusts him, if she trusts him I trust him, and he is helping her now isn’t he?”

Leo chuckled without amusement, “That is what he says he is doing, he said they do research, that means experiments doesn’t it? He could be doing that right now.” He hated it that his brother was in this state over her, the youngest, the one he always seemed to care about even though she left.

Jackson shakes the gate again, “Hey let us through!” he yells at the top of his voice, just as two security guards walk around the corner.

They open the gate by entering a pin into a panel next to the door then each guard slam both Jackson and Leo into the wall. “Who are you? How do you know of this place and who else knows about this place?”

Jackson grunts, he should have expected this, I need to get to Sapphire, she needs me. “My sister is here, someone named Dominic brought us here, now I respectfully ask you to release us before I make you, because I have to see my sister right now.”

“Is that a threat boy?” the guard that pinned Jackson questioned.

Jackson lost it, his head flung back his head collided with the guards and he spun 180 degrees to punch the guard in his face breaking his nose and also knocking him out. He takes a gun out and points it to the second guard. “You will take me to see a Doctor Lincoln. Oh and you will realise my brother too.”

The guard glares at Jackson but realises Leo, “He is this way.” He leads them down the corridor. Jackson looks through all the windows of the doors as they pass in case he was taking them the wrong way. “You know if you just let us in to see our sister this would never have happened, I mean you must have security cameras in here which means you would have saw us come in together, myself, my brother and Dominic with my sister in his arms.”

At the fifth door on the right the guard stop, “This is Doctor Lincolns room, this is where you will find your sister if she is with Dominic.”

Jackson opens the door and walks inside, then when he sees Dominic he puts his gun away.

Dominic’s eyes grew wide when he saw Jackson had to draw his gun but he didn’t say anything. Leo shuts the door behind them. “What bastards they were.”

They were in quite a dark room with lights on the side of the walls that were dimmed a little. There were containers all around them, and lots of cupboards, with ingredients which would make the medication that would stop the change. Leo and Jackson looked around a bit. Leo saw some liquids boiling and leant in to smell it when someone shouted, “What are you doing? Who are you?”

Dominic walked to the doctor and said quite calmly, “it’s ok Doctor Lincoln, this is Jackson and Leo, the people I told you about, Sapphire is their sister.”

The doctor looked at Jackson and walked up to him. “How come you and your brother aren’t so scared and shaken?” he said while he looked at Sapphire blood again to see how much time he had to try and save her.

Dominic started to speak. “I told you they know…” he stopped as he watched Jackson, he looked so lost.

Jackson walked over and looked down at Sapphire, knowing there wasn’t as much time as he liked left, then he looked at the doctor and answered the question, “We are not scared because we face more than just zombies, we face all of the supernatural creatures alive or the dead, we were brought up in a family that hunted, so we took over, it is our job now. To kill the supernatural.” Jackson paused, gulped then tried to take a steady breath, “Do you think you will be able to cure her?”

The doctor looked at Jackson, confused. “All the supernatural alive or the dead? There are more than just zombies? And I don’t know if I can cure her, it looks like she is starting to turn already.”

Jackson rolled his eyes. “Yes, there are more than zombies, there are ghosts, demons, vampires, werewolves; everything you think is just myths is real except maybe dragon’s no one I know or have known has ever seen a dragon.” Then Jackson gulped, “Already changing? But it’s only been thirty minutes, it normally takes a day!” As Jackson was complaining Sapphire was mumbling something that no one could understand.

Sapphire was mumbling away, all Jackson could understand was “…Jackson…Dominic…don’t...let…me…turn” and she said other stuff that Jackson could not understand, they were hoping it wasn’t anything important. The doctor started to examine her again, to see how much she had changed she was after the past 10 minutes. Jackson was so scared for his little sister, it must be agonizing for her, he just hoped that it would all be over soon, she would be human; he wouldn’t be able to kill his sister or even let anyone else kill her if she changed. He wouldn’t know what to do at all.

“Doc, how is she doing? Will you be able to help? How long does she have left?” Leo said, interrupting Jackson’s thoughts. As soon as Leo asked that question Jackson was listening and waiting for an answer. The doctor didn’t answer at all, he was just studying Sapphire carefully.

Jackson was getting angry because his little only sister was changing and he couldn’t even answer a simple question. “Well. are you going to answer him?”

That was when Dominic finally stepped in. “Jackson, calm down! You need to give him time.”

“Time, you want me to give him time, when my sister is lying there changing into something I usually hunt and you just want me to give him time! Are you going to be the one that kills her if she changes?” Jackson looks as Dominic waiting for an answer, and when he didn’t get the answer, “Yes, I thought not!”

Jackson was now furious and Dominic could see that and understood why Jackson was so angry and frustrated, he felt that way too. His mind went into thinking mode again. She is more important than she could ever know, she is important to her brothers, and....to me. “Doc, can you help Sapphire? Or are we too late?”

That got Jackson emotional and angry. “Don’t say that! She will get through this, I know she will!” Jackson had silent tears running down his face now. “Sapphire is stronger than all of you know, I’ve known her longest and I know she will get through this, so don’t say such ridiculous things!”

The doctor finally turned around, confused. “Something isn’t right here.”

Leo and Jackson frowned. “What do you mean something isn’t right?” they both say in harmony, confused, but Jackson felt hope build up.

“The symptoms of the changes are there but she isn’t changing, her body isn’t changing, it is very strange. I have never seen this happen before,” the doctor explained, extremely confused since he had never ever seen such a thing in his life.

Leo and Jackson looked at each other, and then Leo questioned, “So is that a good thing then?” Jackson both hoped the same thing, that it meant she wasn’t going to change, and if she didn’t change they wouldn’t have to kill her. He smiled a little bit.

Doctor Lincoln smiled a bit too. “I guess it is good but we will have to keep a close eye on her, just in case she suddenly changes.”

Jackson and Leo nodded. “Yes, we will keep an eye on her.”

The doctor looked at Jackson. “No, we will keep an eye on her here, it’s not safe to take her out there, and you could be risking everyone’s life.”

Jackson looked at the doctor, shocked and anger yet again building up inside. “We are not leaving her here! You will end up doing experiments on her and I do not want that! I know you lot, always tempted to do that type of stuff!” Leo looked at Jackson envious of his sister on how much he cared for her.

The doctor sighed and looked at Dominic. “Well…what do you think, Dominic? Do you think we should risk this or keep her here and see what is going on in Sapphire’s body to try and find out why she isn’t changing?”

Dominic looked at the doctor and then at Jackson to see his desperate face. He then glanced at Sapphire’s lifeless body. “They can take care of her; they do hunt these things too. They will know how to stop her if she changes.” Jackson nodded at Dominic to show that he as grateful that someone understood him.

“Thanks, Dominic, you’re a good man who makes good choices,” Leo said, in agreement in what Dominic just said because he knew Jackson wanted it.

Dominic smiled. “It’s ok, just keep a close eye on her, I don’t know what’s going on, I have never seen this happen before either, and if you don’t mind I would like to come over later to see how she is doing?”

“Yes, I know you don’t know what’s going on, but we can take care of her,” Jackson said, then paused. “Well, she didn’t know that, I am going to take care of her better, much better. Yeah, course you can come round later.”

Leo frowned on what he was hearing from Jackson. “How do you know that, she didn’t know we cared for her?” Leo said, confused. Why did Jackson want to take care of her so much? He has me, I am all he needs.

Jackson looked at Leo with sorrow in his eyes. “Because she told me what happened when we were getting trained, she got attacked more than us two put together; she just made something up to cover it up.”

Leo looked at Jackson, shocked. “You are kidding me, right?” Leo took a deep breath he was angry as she was an attention seeking b***h. “Why didn’t she tell us?” He questioned acting as if he cared to, though it made him sick to the stomach.

Jackson looked at Dominic then the doctor. “I’ll tell you when we get Sapphire home.” He nodded then walked out, Dominic walked them out, carrying Sapphire, as soon as Jackson got up the ladder Dominic lifted Sapphire up to the protective grasp of her brother, that took her to their car and drove her home.

Leo sighed heavily when his brother was up the ladder he turned around to say “thank you” as he was the polite brother, then climbed the ladders and headed to the car, where he found Jackson just laying against the car bonnet with his head hanging. Leo looked at Sapphire in the back seat of the car and walked up to Jackson and stood next to him. “This isn’t your fault bro; you didn’t know she was getting attacked.”

Jackson sighed then looked up at his brother. “I should have noticed something was wrong, I could have looked into it more to see if Sapphire was telling the truth but no, I just ignored it when there was evidence right in front of me!” Jackson said, annoyed with himself, then looked away in the distance into the darkness.

It took a while for Leo to understand what his brother was talking about, “You were a kid, you didn’t know what was going on, it was dad’s job to look after us all! It wasn’t your job to look after me and Sapphire; dad should have trained us all, not just me and you. Now come on, get in the car and we can talk about it when we get to Sapphire’s place.”

Jackson sighed then nodded, walking to the driver’s side and taking the keys out of his pocket. He got in the car and slammed the door with anger. Leo just looked at his stressed, angry and upset brother for a while then walked to the passenger side and got in the car. When they were both in the car, Jackson reversed out of the parking space and they both were silent as they headed back to their little sister’s house. Every so often Leo turned around to check on Sapphire to make sure that she wasn’t changing or acting abnormal. He sighed, upset, as he didn’t like to Sapphire getting all the attention like this and he didn’t like the way Sapphire made Jackson blamed himself for all of this when Leo knew it wasn’t Jackson’s fault.

Jackson just thought everything was his fault, his sister, dad. What could possibly be next? he thought as they drove into the street where his sister lived, parked up in the drive and sighs as he got out the car. When Jackson got out the car he opened the back seat door and picked up Sapphire and found the house keys in her coat pocket, chucking them to Leo so he could open the door. As Leo caught the keys he walked to the front door of Sapphire’s house and opened the front door and kept it open so Jackson could carry Sapphire through the door.

When Jackson got Sapphire through the door he carried her upstairs into her bedroom and placed her into her bed and put the duvet over her so she wouldn’t get cold. Jackson just stayed upstairs in Sapphire’s room looking out the window wondering what he had done wrong to deserve this, any of it, and definitely not Sapphire; she didn’t do anything bad, except protect herself when she had to, but that was it, she didn’t want to be a hunter so she didn’t become a hunter, instead she ended up being an amazing doctor. Tears ran down Jackson's face. Then he sighed deeply, leaning on the wall, and heard a beep. He frowned and looked at the wall to see a little code box. He frowned again and thought of what code Sapphire might use; he typed in a few codes, like her date of birth, dad’s death date, but it wasn’t any of those. He frowned more narrows his eyes as he saw little letters underneath the numbers and he wondered if it was his name, he typed that in the code box and it opened the wall up. Jackson smiled as he saw what it was.

He smiled muttering, “Wow, sis, always were cautious weren’t you, but I never knew you were this cautious!” He walked inside and saw many different types of guns, “So this is what you were talking about where Dominic would get a sniper huh?” He walked towards the gun rack, picking up some guns, then placed them back, he saw a few knives on the rack, he looked at them and frowned deeply, a lot of skill and detail went into each and every blade he picked up, it looked homemade. He looked back at his sister, “Did you make these, I wonder?” He walked to a sliding compartment and opened it and saw books, many different books, different colours, but when he looked closer they had years on it. Diaries?

Sapphire kept diaries when she was little, she must have kept them all, but why? He picked a random book up, which was just plain blue, he turned it to look at the front to see the date on one and it was 1985, which would make Sapphire six, which was when she was always alone in the house when the boys were always getting trained.

Just a little peak that is all, no harm in that.