Radioactive: Chapter One

Radioactive

Chapter One

~Haunted Houses and Monsters~

Part One

A scream echoed throughout the rock fortress. Electric sparks flickered as a man overlooked from a balcony. He wore a lab coat and black gloves. Thick black goggles covered his eyes as he smiled widely at the screaming withering creature below. He was tall. The man was at least six feet or so. He tapped his black booted foot on the ground as if waiting patiently for something to happen. One of the assistants below looked up at him with a question in his eyes. The man nodded and the assistant went back to work. The creature screamed in pain.

“Just hold on one more minute. It will all be over soon,” the man smiled.

He bit his lip to contain himself. To him, the creature below was a work of art and it was only moments from completion.

“We have completed the last procedure, Doctor,” one of the assistants said.

The Doctor walked down some steps and walked over to slab where the creature lay breathing heavily. Scaled arms were chained to the slab. The Doctor brushed his hand on the creature’s scaled face. He hushed the animal on the slab.

“Shh, shh,” the Doctor smiled, “It’s all over now. The pain is all over.”

The creatures green reptilian eyes looked at the Doctor with some affection even after the torturous procedure. It tried to speak but the Doctor placed a finger over its mouth.

“You’re beautiful,” the Doctor whispered, “You’ll be free soon. Free to cause all the havoc you want.”

A fanged smile spread across the creatures face. A forked tongue, long and snakelike, slithered out of its mouth.

“Yes, Doctor,” came a hoarse whisper.

~§~

Kaiba pulled the car over across the street from a large house. He eyed the home carefully with his perceptive brown eyes. With one hand he brushed a few strands of his brown hair out of his eyes.

The house was old and weather worn; just like the ones horror stories were made from. The front porch had a swing that swayed in the wind giving off a horrible sound every so often when you least expected it. The house creaked and groaned from old age. No one had lived in it for years but was now the center of several disappearances as of late.

Kaiba looked at the house a moment longer before stepping out of the car. His black appearance was normal: black shirt and pants. Instead of his usual black coat he wore a white and grey one. He closed the car door behind him. The passenger door on the other side opened and closed right after his.

The android Kiri, his loyal companion, stepped around the car carrying a silver briefcase. She stood by Kaiba’s side; the wind blew some of her short black hair into her purple eyes. Her sleeveless purple kimono top looked new and unwrinkled and her black heels clicked on the ground with confidence as she walked. Kaiba barely gave her a second glance. She was like his shadow. He was used to her following him where ever he went.

Kiri looked down the way they came, down the hill they had just driven up. There was no one in site. Not a surprise, considering that there were a string of missing people spanning the last couple of weeks. The disappearances were unnatural and alerted the Tower computers of a possible threat. The missing people didn’t even have anything in common be it age, gender or places; it all appeared random. Even the computers weren’t sure exactly what was going on only that it couldn’t all be coincidence. Because of the mysterious nature of the mission Kaiba’s father, Sirius Galaxy, sent his son personally to see what was going on.

Both Kaiba and Kiri were part of an elite team of Fixers. Their job description was simple enough: Fix whatever the Tower needed fixing, including assassinations to media control. Fortunately, assassinations were a rare extreme. Usually they worked alone or with a partner. Only in rare cases does one see more than two Fixers on a case. This was a usual mission, no need for more support.

“Are we in the right place?” Kaiba asked, “The center of the disappearances?”

Kiri nodded, “3434 Sycamore Lane.”

“Hmm,” Kaiba looked around, “what a dump. Surprised the police didn’t check here first.”

“Rumors of a murderous ghost,” Kiri provided background information.

“Ghosts aren’t logical, therefore they don’t exist,” Kaiba shrugged off the superstitious idea.

Kiri turned to look at him, “What makes you say that?”

“Think of the world we live in. If there is a better place after death, why stick around here?” he left the question in the air and walked toward the house.

Kiri herself didn’t believe in ghosts but acknowledged Kaiba had made a good point. She looked at the house. Even though she didn’t believe in ghosts she couldn’t shake the feeling that someone or something was watching her.

“Are you going to stand there daydreaming all day?” Kaiba called over his shoulder.

Kiri noticed he was already across the street. She hurried to join him, carrying the briefcase. Together they climbed the two steps onto the large porch and stood at the door. Kaiba reached for the doorknob. The door opened easily and he walked in.

The inside of the house was in total disarray. They walked into a wide open room. A staircase ahead of them was half decayed and destroyed. Any furniture that was in the main room was covered in white sheets or was knocked over and broken. The sheets had holes in them from years of hungry moths. Sunlight peaked through the holes in the ceiling. Birds looked down at them as they hopped from support beam to support beam.

“Report,” Kaiba stated as he glanced at a watch on his wrist.

“Complete scan incomplete,” Kiri answered, “First and second floor clear of any dangers.”

Kaiba sighed, “I guess it will be faster to look on foot.”

He started walking through the house. Kiri rolled her eyes before following him. She changed her setting from normal to investigative. Her vision changed to a clear green, highlighting red anything that appeared out of place or curious.

Kaiba brought out a computerized notebook from his inner coat pocket and wrote something in the glass pages. He put it back and looked at Kiri.

“You check this floor and the upstairs. I’ll take a look at the basement,” Kaiba commanded.

“Sure,” Kiri nodded, “I’ll monitor you movements.”

“Not necessary,” Kaiba muttered, “By the way this house is falling apart, no one’s been in here for years. This honestly feels like a waste of my time. Make the sweep quick. The sooner we’re done here, the sooner I can get some real work done.”

“Whatever you say,” Kiri said

Kaiba left for the basement leaving Kiri in the main hall. She waited until she couldn’t visually see Kaiba anymore before she walked around the first floor. Kiri set down the briefcase and began walking around the floor. With one long candle like finger, Kiri touched an old desk. The dust was thick, making the surface of the desk almost white. She brought her finger closer to her face as she analyzed the contents of the dust. It was the usual; trace amounts of human skin and hair, pollen, mold, fungi, particles of wool, and of course rat feces.

She looked up at the ceiling. There was a hole in the ceiling that was larger than some of the others. Something on the screen glowed red near the opening. Kiri started walking up the stairs but stopped suddenly. After a quick scan, it revealed that the staircase wasn’t the most reliable route.

Kiri transferred some of her power to her legs. She crouched and jumped in the air. With a loud thud, she landed on the upper balcony, the staircase behind her. She waited a moment before moving as the house settled once again. Kiri stood up and walked under the ray of light caused by the whole in the ceiling. A small piece of cloth hung from a sharp piece of wood. The cloth was stained with blood. Looking on the floor was a smeared blood puddle heading off away from where Kiri stood. She knelt down. A compartment in her upper right arm opened with a hissing sound. She pulled out a sterile cotton swab and took a sample of blood, placed the swab in a container and placed the container back in her arm. The compartment closed leaving no trace that it was ever there. It would take a while for the DNA results to come back. She then stood up and followed the trail.

In the stairway down to the basement, Kaiba felt the impact of Kiri’s jump. Dust and small pieces of debris fell on and around him. He coughed and covered his mouth with his coat. For a moment, he looked up at the ceiling as if Kiri could see his annoyed expression. Slowly, he made his way down the stairs. When the dust finally settled again he muttered something under his breath and reached into his coat. He pulled out a small flashlight and looked around.

The basement looked like the rest of the house: in need of attention. It was cold and dark. Mold grew on the walls and on the furniture that was left. Kaiba kept his mouth and nose covered. He aimed his flashlight to a wall. Kaiba took a step back. A claw mark stretched from one side of the wall to the other. Kaiba walked closer to get a better look. Something shimmered in one of the long scratch marks. It was like a scale in nature, round and shiny. Kaiba brought out a pair of tweezers and placed the small object in a glass vial and ceiled it.

He had just placed it in an inner coat pocket when he turned his flashlight to the shadows suddenly. A previously shadowed area of the basement was now illuminated. Kaiba’s eyes scanned the area carefully. He knew he had felt something watching him from that corner but whatever it had been was faster than he was. Suspiciously, Kaiba continued on with his exploration.

He walked down a small hallway. As he reached the end, here was a dark blood trail going from one room to another across the hall. Kaiba directed his flashlight into the first room then the second. He flashed behind him once more. He though he saw something move suddenly at the last minute. Kaiba stood there a moment looking, waiting, and watching. Convinced that it was his mind playing tricks on him he entered the first room.

This room was more lit than the rest of the basement because of a large crack in the basement ceiling. Blood was all over the floor. Kaiba even saw a hand print or two in the gruesome mix. He slapped on a pair of latex gloves and reached in his pocket for his tweezers and several vials that he might need. He picked out a painted nail from the mess and put it away. Kaiba also found a hair follicle and put it away for further analysis later. He also took several blood samples from different areas of the blood pool. After storing the blood samples in a small case attached to his belt and storing the others in his coat, he looked up at the gaping hole. From what he could tell, it was one of the off lying rooms from the main room. He shrugged, deciding to let Kiri handle the first and second floor.

Kaiba started to head over to the other room. His flashlight illuminated the door for a moment as if to frighten anything that might or might not be there. In the hallway, he looked one last time down the hallway. There was nothing there, not even a glimpse. Felling relatively confident, Kaiba entered the other room. The blood trail ended up leading to another hole. On the other side of the room was a gap in the concrete and soil.

“Wonderful. This house was built over an air pocket. Only a matter of time before the whole place gets swallowed up by the earth,” his spoke to himself.

He was somewhat surprised he was talking allowed to himself. Even more surprised that it seemed to calm some nerves that he was having. He looked over the edge and into the hole. It was pitch black. Not even the light of his flashlight could show him what was in store. He breathed heavily through his mouth. One last time he looked behind. There was just no shaking that someone or thing, was watching him closely. There was nothing there of course. Satisfied he stepped into the hole and fell to the unknown level below.