Appearances

James walked down the white tiled hall toward the main office. The sound of his footsteps was even and measured; methodical. As he walked James mechanically looked over the checklist on the clipboard in his right hand. He was thorough by nature and habit, and it pleased him to see that every task on his daily list had been completed successfully. A slight frown wrinkled his forehead and the echo of his footsteps moved down the hall without him. True, his list was completed, but there was something else…
Philip’s project! Philip had been out sick for two weeks straight and James was in charge of making notes in his absence. And now he was behind schedule. For James, getting behind usually marked the beginning of a bad day. Turning on his heel he moved back the way he came, spotless lab coat swirling behind him and the sound of his passing rushing to catch up.
When he reached the end of the hall he swiped his pass card through the required slot next to the laboratory door. A red light turned green, the lock clicked open and he stepped into the sterile environment that was his second home. This was an even longer hall with individual labs on either side. As the door automatically closed behind him he waited for the lights to turn on. Odd, normally they came on as soon as the door opened. He waved the clipboard in the darkness around him, but nothing happened. The air exchange seemed to be having issues as well, for the great ducts above his head were silent. Well, this wasn’t the first time power had gone out at the facility, and it wouldn’t be the last. James reached for the penlight attached to the pocket protector of his lab coat. With its puny shaft of light probing a path in front of him he headed for the maintenance room and the main circuit switch that he hoped would fix the problem.
Without warning his feet flew up over his head and he crashed to the floor. He heard his penlight as it made contact with the ceiling, then the floor, and then went out. Great. It really was a bad day. James scrambled to his feet, reaching for his cell phone as he considered the slippery substance that caused his not so graceful maneuver and now soiled his favorite work jacket. It was some sort of liquid, but viscous, and it carried a strong odor. Phone in hand he opened it to light the display. The liquid was red. With revulsion he wiped the phone screen on his chest. Wonderful. It would take weeks and several washings to get the smell of hydraulic fluid from his clothes, and he was supposed to take his wife to the park tonight. Oh well. She would understand. James smiled as he thought of his beautiful wife. Alice always understood.
He checked the time on his phone and quickened his pace. In a few steps he reached the maintenance room and moved inside to the main breaker switch. Putting the phone away he felt around until he grasped the lever with both hands and lifted. The lights came on and the air exchange system started with a loud clunk. The experiments they ran here required so much energy that if the main power was overdrawn and threw the breaker (this happened regularly), the standby system only delivered power to the experiments themselves, leaving the rest of the facility in darkness. James tried to remember the last time the power went out after the staff was gone for the night and left their work in a stable condition but drew a blank.
Ordinarily he would grab a handful of shop towels and wipe up the mess down the hall, but tonight he had no time. That, and he was more than a little peeved at whichever operator didn’t clean up after himself. The forklift they used was old and required constant care, but that was no excuse for leaving a puddle of that size without wiping it up. Lazy louts! Let them deal with it in the morning. Strange how he didn’t notice on the way out though; he must have been too involved with his checklist.
Leaving the maintenance room behind and with a hurried, yet still methodical stride he was soon inside the lab that required his return. Philip’s lab was almost divided into two rooms by a wall that reached three quarters of the way across. One side contained the project; machines humming, instruments beeping occasionally, and various gases bubbling through multicolored solutions. On the side of the room where James entered, data was being collected and recorded. Computer monitors scrolled through endless streams of numbers, notes were written on neat piles of paper placed on top of filing cabinets, and- what was that?
From the other side of the lab came the unmistakable sound of something shuffling around the project. Instantly alert, James backed toward the door. No one but himself should be in here. The labs had been empty when he left to submit the daily report, and as far as he knew there wasn’t another soul in the entire facility. Besides, to get to this lab whoever or whatever was in here would have walked right past him in the hall on his way out unless they came in through the loading bay; in which case they would need staff clearance to open the door, and he was the only staff member on duty that day.
Something was definitely out of place.
As he groped behind his back for the door handle, his sleeve brushed the top sheet from a stack of papers on the nearest filing cabinet. The paper remained airborne for a surprising amount of time before landing on the floor where it slid noisily for several feet before coming to rest on the tile. The shuffling stopped. Today was not a good day at all.
James held his breath as quick footsteps approached his side of the lab, and then- “James Hansen?”
“Philip?”
The man who appeared around the end of the wall ten feet away wore a white lab coat identical to his own (minus the hydraulic fluid), and seemed to be just as shaken as James felt. His pent up breath left his lungs in a great whoosh of air and he gasped with relief, “Holy blazes! You scared me half to death. Philip, what on earth are you doing here; I thought you were still sick?”
“I was. Er, I am still a little, but I thought of some adjustments that would really help the project along. I was sure you’d already be gone for the day, so I came myself. I‘m in a hurry to get back to the Missus, so I used the back way to get in. Sorry I gave you such a start, but you had me going for a second there too.”
James grinned. “Ha! Reminds me of the time back at school when Howard faked a zombie and cornered us in the med lab with those cadavers.”
Philip laughed at the memory. “No no. That was way worse! Good times, those. Well I did what I came to do; you ready to go home?”
“Sure thing. As long as you made notes on the day’s findings. That’s what I was coming back to do.”
“Oh, right. Sorry you had to look after that while I’ve been down. Yeah I made some notes just before you came in.”
James couldn’t help but notice that Philip kept squinting his eyes as though he couldn’t focus correctly through his glasses. Ol’ Phil must be really sick, he thought. Philip always wore his dark rimmed, thick lens glasses. They were a part of him.
Leaving the lab they chatted like the best friends they were and walked to the main office together. Along the way James had to keep reminding himself of his friend’s illness; he was acting just a bit odd and he couldn’t quite put his finger on what was different.
James finished his report and took his lab coat off. En route to hang it up he looked at the large clock on the wall.
“Oh blast! Ten minutes late already and I still haven’t left work. Can today even get any worse?”
“What’s the rush?” Philip was behind him and sounded worried.
“Alice and I were going to have dinner together then go for a walk in the park. There’s a full moon tonight you know, and they’re predicting meteor showers. Alice really gets into that stuff.” With one last glance around the office to be sure everything was in its place James headed for the door and then paused, “Hey, aren’t you going out the back?”
Philip was only a step away and it was hardly the work of an instant to insert the tranquilizer needle hidden in his hand into the base of James’ neck. His body went almost instantly limp, and Philip struggled to support his weight before he hit the floor. Ducking down, Philip laid James over his shoulders and placed his glasses in his pocket as he staggered back down the hall. “Of course I’m going out the back, but I should probably mention this; you’re coming with me.”
Things can always get worse.


When James finally opened his eyes, he had no clue where he was and his mind seemed incapable of grasping any but the most basic of thoughts. He blinked sluggishly as the last rays of sunlight caught him in the face. Averting his eyes to the right, he saw he was on the edge of some sort of woodland clearing probably forty yards across and circular in shape. He also saw a bundle in the middle of the clearing that he was unable to identify. It was about the size of a person, but too misshapen to be human. The earth was very much disturbed where the bundle lay, as though a herd of wild cattle had been grazing there earlier. As his vision cleared, some of the mist that clouded his brain seemed to lift as well, and he realized with a start that he was tied- no, chained- to a chair, his head seemed to be the only part of his body not secured by heavy iron links.
With a grunt of dismay he fought to gain his feet but succeeded only in rattling his chains. Something stirred behind him and a deep voice said, “He’s coming around now. Bring Howard.”
Footsteps moved swiftly away and silence ruled the clearing again. He turned his head to the left and then back again to the right but was unable to discern the source of the voice or the destination of the footsteps. Why was the name Howard significant? It stirred some memory deep in the back of his mind, but he didn’t realize what it was until footsteps approached through the trees and brought a man to stand directly in front of him. It was only then, as he stared stupidly up at the man and recognized Phil’s identical twin brother that recent events returned to his mind and the situation began to make sense.
“Howard?! That must have been you back at the lab. I haven’t seen you for so long I forgot how good you are at being Philip. Speaking of the little devil, where is he? I’m going to kill him! I can’t even imagine him letting you use his pass card just to prank me. That’s worth his job, you know. Good one. This has got to be your most elaborate scheme so far, and that’s saying quite a bit. Can you remove these ridiculous chains now?”
Howard answered grimly, but satisfaction was evident in his voice, “It is my most elaborate scheme so far, isn’t it. Thanks for noticing. But you haven’t seen anything yet! The chains stay.” Howard looked over James’ head and barked at someone behind him, “Matthew! Thomas!” Howard stepped to one side to allow a pair of hulking men with assault rifles on their backs to drag another bundle of chain on a chair and place it where he had been standing. It was the last person in the world James expected to see.
It was his wife.
“Alice?! How did they rope you into this? I can’t believe you went along with it; I thought you hated Howard’s pranks?!”
Howard ignored this outburst and spoke to Alice, “Perhaps you should explain to your husband what our purpose is tonight. Tell him what we want.”
James stared in astonishment as one of the bodybuilders next to her pulled a horrendous amount of gauze from her mouth. Alice coughed and spluttered, gasping for air as the last of the gag was removed. Her eyes were red and puffy from crying, and even in the dimness of twilight her face looked as though it had been in a terrible bar fight. Alice didn’t even go to bars. “Alice, what happened to you? Did these men do this? What is Howard talking about?”
Alice nodded even as words came gushing out of her, tumbling over one another in their rush to be heard.
“James! I’m so glad you’re okay, I was so worried about you but you’re alive, you’re alive! It was awful; they made me watch what they did to Philip and it was terrible! I keep seeing it over and over in my mind and I can still hear it. They wouldn’t cover my ears and I can hear the screams, his screaming was so loud, so horrible; it didn't even sound human! And then they said Philip didn’t have it and I don’t even know what they were talking about so they said they were going to get you and I was so afraid, so frightened they would do to you what they did to him. Oh James!” Alice was now sobbing uncontrollably and her words became incoherent.
James was in shock. What was going on? Howard was the twin brother of his best friend in all the world. And there were the pitiful remains of Philip in the center of the clearing. The very bundle that he dismissed as just a thing was all that was left of his friend It was too grotesque even to look at, now he knew what it was.
“But how? Why would anyone- why?”
“As you can see, Jimmy, this is no prank. You might even say this is life and death serious for your lovely wife and yourself. Philip didn’t believe me. For the sake of Alice I’m hoping you don’t make the same mistake. We want you to tell us where the serum is and who has used it so far.”
Twilight was fading fast; full night would soon be upon them.
“Which serum? We’ve developed dozens of them in those labs, you know that Howard! As for who has used them, it's well into the thousands by now; probably the tens of thousands or even millions! We have cured several types of cancer, multiple sclerosis, and even made advances against Alzheimer’s disease. The formulas we create improve us, they make us better! We test those serums on ourselves and our families first, so we know their effects firsthand and our products can be perfect when they reach the public; you can buy most of them anywhere in the world. What do you want from me

?!” James screamed the final sentence, hurling his question into the night sky and hoping against hope there would be someone to hear his desperation and save him from this nightmare.
“No one can hear you Jimmy, in case you were wondering. We are far, far away from any other people. Let me be blunt.” Howard stepped closer and put his face in front of James, “The man my friends and I serve is a great man. He has led us down dangerous paths and never once has he been wrong about anything. Through great tribulation we learned to trust him even above ourselves. He is a great man and we will do whatever he asks without a second thought or hesitation. So when this man tells us you have created the mark of the beast, the mark that will ruin the human race forever, believe me when I say we will stop at nothing until we have destroyed every last trace of it. Tell us what it is, Jimmy; what is the mark of the beast and how do we destroy it?”
Alice was looking at him with pleading eyes. “Please tell him. Whatever it is can’t possibly be worth our lives. If you know anything at all, please tell him.”
His heart went out to her. He wanted desperately to take her in his arms, tell her everything would be fine, and then go with her to a place far away and forget this night ever happened. But there was nothing he could do. Howard was obviously crazy; James recalled one of the last times he had seen him, Howard had gone on and on, ranting and raving about how the world was coming to an end but there was a man that could save the planet from apocalypse if only people would just listen to him and on and on and on. Philip was of the opinion that it was some sort of midlife crisis and Howard would soon snap out of it, but more than three years had gone by since then and it was beginning to look as though Philip’s prediction was more than slightly inaccurate. There was nothing to say.
When James refused to speak Howard straightened with a long sigh. His voice was heavy, “Dr. Jimmy Hansen, you are a great man. You were the best friend my brother could have ever had. I looked up to you and admired you my whole life. I wanted to use gentler methods to learn your secret, but orders are orders, and now I see he was right. Again. I wish it hadn’t come to this.” Shaking his head, Howard produced a large, shiny revolver and pointed it straight at Alice’s head.
James lost it. Howling like a mad beast he begged and pleaded, threatened and swore; and made promises they all knew he couldn’t keep. He would do anything if only they would allow him to take the bullet now aimed at his beloved Alice. James was in the middle of explaining he could show them all the mark of the beast, or anything else, for that matter, when the shock of the pistol shot silenced him mid word.
“Enough!” Howard roared as the sound of the shot died out into the trees. He stood with feet spread wide and pistol raised to the sky, it’s smoking barrel perfectly silhouetted against the rising moon. “You may be willing to take your secret to the grave, but can you let it take your wife to hers? Think, Jimmy!”
James looked at Alice and she looked back at him, deep into his eyes. They spoke the words as one, “I love you.”
The moon was over the trees now, and it bathed their little clearing in a silver, almost magical light. There was not a cloud to be seen, and those who took the time to look could see there was indeed a meteor shower tonight. All in all, it was breathtaking.
James began to see red. Raw power surged through his veins as he turned his gaze to Howard and stood. No mere chain could hold him now. “If your master had any knowledge of the Mark of the Beast, he would have sent you better prepared.” Alice howled savagely with him as they leaped together to the feast.
Perhaps today wasn’t such a bad day after all.

Impressum

Tag der Veröffentlichung: 03.02.2012

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