Hybrids: A New Species

A loud bang comes from the door. It shakes the house a bit. Cole quickly stands up and draws his black pistol. He shakes, not sure what to expect to come through the door. Another bang comes from the door. Then there’s a gunshot, which makes Cole flinch. He pulls the hammer back on the gun, finger ready on the trigger. Rick lays back a little, hoping Cole can handle whatever comes through the door.

The door handle begins rattling; someone is trying to open it. Then, it stops and there’s silence.

Cole expects another sound but there’s nothing. Unexpectedly, there’s a knock at the door. Cole steadily walks around the couch, gun still aimed to the door. He bites his lip; the suspension is mind numbing. Another knock.

Who’s knocking?

“Hey uh Cole? Can you open the door?" It’s Ben’s voice from the other side.

Cole releases a sigh of relief.

He withdraws his gun and walks to the door. He unlocks the two locks and opens it. When he opens it, Cole flinches from the sight of Ben. He’s covered in blood and his eyes. His eyes are different. They’re yellow with thin black pupils. Cole steps back, not taking his stare off of him. Ben walks in and closes the door behind him.

“What?” Ben say as he wipes blood from his forehead.

“Ben, wh- what’s wrong with your eyes?” Cole stutters.

“What the hell are you talking about” Ben says.

Cole points to a small mirror hanging by the front door.

“Look for yourself.”

Ben turns around to look in the mirror. His own appearance shocks himself. He carefully inspects his new eyes.

“What? What happen to my eyes?” Ben shockingly says.

He looks back to Cole, looking for answers.

“Why the hell do my eyes look like this Cole?”

“Look like what?” Rick says as he sits himself up to look at Ben.

The old man’s expression becomes appalling when he sees Ben’s new eyes. Despite Ben being covered entirely in Fallen blood and guts, they’re all startled by this subtle transformation.

“When did this happen?” Cole questions, getting nearer to Ben.

Ben moves his head back a bit, feeling uncomfortable how close Cole is.

“Stand still Ben.” Cole tells him as he pushes his glasses in.

“Your eyes look like a snake.” Rick says from the couch.

Cole takes a closer look into Ben’s eyes.

“A snake for sure, but it seems mixed. Mixed with a feline.”

“I really don’t care what kind of animal it is Cole. Why are they like this?” Ben complains.

He rubs his eyes as if he’s trying to change them back.

“Has your vision altered? What do you see when I do this?” Cole starts waving his hand in front of Ben.

“Hey stop that! That really fre-” Ben stops mid-sentence. “Woah.”

Cole’s hand moves quickly but then slowly as it passes by Ben’s peripheral vision. Ben steps back a bit and Cole stops waving his hand.

“How did that appear?” Cole asks.

“Weird. It was normal but then everything slowed down and it went to normal again.”

“As I thought!” Cole excitedly says. “Remember when I told you Dr. Mori used the cells from other animals to create his cure?”

“Uh ya.” Ben says still a bit dazed from the strange reaction of his slowed vision.

“Well, he combined it with our human biology and tried to make them compatible. Animals like cats, and reptiles. This must be a side effect!” Cole explains, overwhelmed by his mentor’s genius.

“Side effect?! You’re telling me this is permanent?! What else is going to happen to me? Am I going to grow a damn tail too?” Ben says in a panic.

“It might be permanent. Here sit down on the couch please.” Cole tells him.

Ben walks over to the couch Rick is laying at and sits next to him. He is panting, freaked out by this new change. Rick examines Ben,

“Is going to happen to me as well?”

“Let’s hope not.” Ben answers.

Rick chuckles. “I’d trade a new set of eyes if it meant I wouldn’t turn.”

Cole kneels in front of Ben, “Ya Ben, these eyes are the least of your worries.”

Cole grabs a small flashlight from his pocket and point it to Ben’s eyes. The light makes Ben recoil.

“Hold still Ben. Just slow your breathing and let me take a look.” Cole orders.

Ben closes his eyes and slows his breathing. He counts to three, eyes still closed. He stops panting like a dog and his breathing becomes steady.

“Okay, I’m calm.” Ben says.

He opens his eyes. Cole drops his flashlight and falls back in astonish. Cole’s expression scares Ben.

“What?! What happen this time? They change color or something? Did I grow scales?” Ben says, touching his face.

Cole shakes his head in confusion.

“But how?” he says.

Rick looks at Ben, “Let me see.”

Ben turns to look at him. Ben’s new eyes have disappeared and become their normal plain brown ones.

Rick tilts his head. “They look normal to me.”

“Exactly! How?!” Cole questions, standing up.

Ben’s expression lights up. “What? Really?” Ben stands up and runs to the mirror.

He’s relieved that his eyes have changed back.

“This is strange. I’m going to have to study this. Maybe if we-” Cole is cut off when he notices Rick suddenly roll off the couch and hit the ground, cringing in pain and coughing blood.

Ben stops admiring his normal eyes in the mirror and runs to Rick.

“Shit! Ben we need to give him the cure now!” Cole yells.

Rick moans in pain, holding his shoulder; there’s blood on his beard and he becomes extremely pale.

The door to a room swings open. Ben is carrying Rick in his arms. Across the door, there’s a dusty queen size bed across the entrance against a wall. Left of the bed, a boarded-up window with rays of the setting sun shines through the cracks. The room has a few posters of favorite television shows and funny pictures. Ben lays Rick down on the bed and Cole comes in behind them with the first aid kit. Rick is sweating profoundly, coughing blood, and has become pale. Cole clears up the mess on a nightstand and places the first aid box on it.

“Just hold on Rick.” Cole tells him as he searches through the first aid box. Rick is breathing severely, with his eyes closed. Cole keeps digging through the metal box, pulling bandages, and ointments.

“Shit. I can’t find it!” Cole says in panic.

“What are you looking for?” Ben asks.

“A syringe! There should be one in here!” Cole explains as he begins looking around the floor, hoping there’s one somewhere.

Confused, Ben begins looking with Cole.

“Why do we need a syringe? Don’t you have the cure somewhere? Like a sample or something?”

Cole stops looking for a moment and rubs his temple.

“No, Ben I don’t! Dr. Mori only made one dose and he used it on himself. Turning him into that thing!”

“He only made one?! How the hell are we supposed to give Rick the cure?!” Ben inquiries.

“Blood.”

“Blood?”

“I’d figure that’s how we do this. You were cured after eating a part of Dr. Mori. His blood is what cured you. Well I assume at least.” Cole explains.

“So by giving him my blood, it will cure him?” Ben asks.

“Yes.”

Cole continues digging through the messy room, moving papers, trash, and clothes around, still looking for a syringe. Rick groans loudly, causing Cole to stop for a moment.

“Dammit! Where the hell is it?” Cole mutters to himself. Ben stops looking for a moment and turns his attention to Rick. He doesn’t have much time until the virus fully takes over his body and kills him. Cole keeps frantically looking, while Ben just stands there. Thinking.

Suddenly, like a light bulb flickering on, Ben gets an idea.

“Forget the syringe Cole.” Ben says.

Cole stops, “What? Why?”

Ben draws his onyx blade with the dark wooden handle.

“If my blood is what he’ll need then so be it.”

“Wait what are you doing?” Cole says.

Ben walks over to the bed and sits on it. What he does next surprises Cole. Ben makes a cut on the palm of his right hand with the knife. His crimson red blood oozes from the cut. Ben lays the knife down on the nightstand and arranges his bloody hand over Rick’s mouth.

“Drink it Rick. It’ll save you.”

Rick slowly opens his eyes. His eyes meet with Ben’s. He begins to drink the blood coming from Ben’s hand. It flows into him. He doesn’t even flinch at the taste of iron blood. Ben removes his hand and grabs some gauze from the first aid kit left on the nightstand. Ben wraps his hand as he steps away from the bed. Rick licks the blood from his lips.

“Will it work?” Cole worriedly asks.

“I don’t know, but it’s better than doing nothing.”

Rick’s breathing began to settle, but then, it stops. Rick’s body becomes stiff and he stops breathing.

Cole runs up to Rick’s body,

“Shit!” he yells. “No no no no no! So close!”

Cole is kneeling next to the bed. There’s silence, neither him nor Ben say a word.

“Cole, we tried. But we weren’t quick enough.” Ben says.

Cole shakes his head with disappointment. He wanted to cure Rick.

“I know. I just. I just feel like I failed him. Rick counted on us to save him.” Cole explains.

He stands up and draws his small hunting knife.

“I feel responsible for this. I’ll do it.”

Cole leans over Rick, knife up and ready to destroy the brain.

“Sorry Rick.” Cole mutters.

Cole prepares to stab him, until unexpectedly, Rick’s body quickly sprouts up. Rick gasps. The sudden movement from Rick sends Cole flying back and he hits the wall. The knife flies out of his hand. Rick falls back down on the bed and his body begins shaking. He appears to be having a seizure. Cole watches in awe as the man he thought to be dead is vigorously pulsating. Ben has already drawn his gun but hasn’t shot yet. Ben watches Rick as well, to see what will happen. Rick suddenly begins howling in pain. It sounds agonizing. As Rick body pulsates, he clenches his chest, as if his heart is going to explode. The pain looks agonizing. Cole and Ben watch in horror as they see Rick go through this excruciating pain. As Rick experiences this agony, his eyes began changing. They go from their brown pigment to the yellow ones Ben had. Ben sees this and he realizes that the cure is working. Cole still sits on the floor, back against the wall, not taking his sight of Rick. Ben runs next to Rick,

“Fight it Rick! Fight it!”

Cole sees this and finally stands up.

“Ben! What’s happening?” Cole yells over Rick’s shouting.

Ben turns to Cole. “It’s the cure. It’s working but Rick has to fight the pain.”

“What?” Cole confusingly responds.

“I went through the exact same thing back at the camp.” Ben explains.

Rick’s shouting continues as he rolls around on the bed, wanting the pain to end. The scene continues as Ben and Cole silently watch. Wishing they could do something for Rick. Then, he stops. Rick’s eyes transition back to his normal brown ones, and they close. His body becomes motionless once more. Cole goes to the bed and stands next to Ben. Now they’re both looking over Rick, not saying a word. Cole lays his fingers on Rick’s neck to check his pulse. His expression grows uneasy. Cole removes his fingers from Rick’s neck.

“He’s dead.”

The room suddenly felt cold.

“What? No that can’t be.” Ben says in disbelief.

“I’m serious.” Cole gloomily replies.

“Check my pulse Cole. Maybe the cure makes you not have one?”

“Don’t be ridiculous Ben.”

“Just check it Cole!” Ben barks at him.

Cole flinches from the sudden remark, but he does what Ben says. He lays two fingers on Ben’s wrist.

“You have a pulse Ben.” Cole tells him, removing his fingers from Ben’s wrist.

Ben shakes his head.

“If only he fought the pain.” he mutters to himself.

Rick’s lifeless body lays still on the bed, filling the room with silence.

Ben and Cole stand on opposite with each other in the room.

They don’t say a word.

Cole begins repacking his first aid kit while Ben looks out the cracks of the boarded-up window. The sun is nearly set and night has arisen. There is no sign of the Fallen, but just the beautiful orange sun slowly descending behind the mountains. Ben thinks about his daughter. He used to watch the sunset with her from the window. It was one of the few pleasures in life that still existed.

“Let’s bury him tomorrow morning.” Ben says, breaking the silence. He walks to the nightstand by the bed and grabs his knife.

“This time I’ll do it Cole.” Ben says, looking at Rick’s pale body.

“Wait don’t!”

Cole stops Ben as he prepares to thrust the knife through Rick’s head.

“Don’t destroy the brain yet. I want to see if he comes back.”

Ben lowers his knife and gives Cole a confused expression.

“Of course, he’s going to come back. He’s dead.”

“We don’t know that exactly Ben. The cure was given to him; I just want to test something.”

“Exactly what are trying to test?” Ben says.

Cole walks to the end of the bed and grabs the crumbled up white sheet on the floor.

“I want to see if the cure killed the virus. If it did, then it will be easier for me to understand it more.”

Cole throws the sheet over Rick’s body.

“We’ll leave him in this room until tomorrow.”

Ben sheathes his blade.

“And what if he comes back in the middle of night?”

Cole takes his squared glasses off to clean them.

“We’ll tie him up.” He explains as he puts his glasses back on.

“Well I hope you know where to get some rope.” Ben points out. “Because I’m exhausted and ready to sleep.”

Ben walks out the room and Cole follows him out. They enter the living the room.

“I got some in my bag.” Cole says.

Ben throws himself on the couch and relaxes, taking his dirty brown boots off.

“Well you got this right?” Ben asks, relaxing himself.

It’s felt like weeks for Ben since he’s last relaxed.

Cole rolls his eyes, “Ya. It’s in the back of the truck.”

Still laying back on the long couch, Ben looks to Cole, “Be careful. If there’s any of the Fallen out there, come get me.” Ben speaks.

Cole looks out the window in the kitchen, the red Toyota truck is still out in the front yard.

“I don’t see anything out there. Besides it’s just right there out front.” Cole explains.

Ben tilts his head back and closes his eyes. “Fine than.” He says, ready to fall into slumber.

Cole walks to the front door, unlocking the two locks on the door. He steps out.

The night is cold and has completely consumed the sky. Cole looks around for any sign of the Fallen. It’s clear. Cole sighs and walks to the bed of the truck. He looks around in the bed of truck, trying to find his black duffel bag. He sees it to the left corner of the bed and walks around to the other side. He unzips it and looks through it. He has clothes, toilet paper, and a rope in the bag.

“Ah, found it.” He whispers to himself.

He zips the duffel bag and takes it out. Cole begins walking back, until suddenly his movement becomes impaired. He looks to the ground and Cole’s heart sinks. An old bony hand has clenched his ankle. An undead woman crawls out from under the truck and wails. Cole tries to kick the Fallen away, until a sharp pain strikes his leg and Cole falls to the ground.

The Fallen bites into Cole’s leg!

He yells in pain, and he kicks it in the head with his other foot. It releases its grip on Cole and moans in hunger. Cole draws his knife and immediately stabs it in the head.

It wails once more and dies.

“No no, this can’t be happening.” He panics.

Blood is gushing out from his leg. He feels the wound burning.

He stands up as quickly as he can, grabbing onto the wheels of the truck for support. He grabs the bag and limps back to the house. Cole rushes in and slams the door behind him. He locks the door and slides down to the floor, breathing heavily. The slamming door awakens Ben from his slumber.

Ben rubs his eyes,

“Damn, slam the door louder next time.” He annoyingly says.

Cole doesn’t say a word, instead he clenches his leg, groaning in pain.

Worried, Ben sits himself up on the couch.

“Cole? You okay.”

He stands up and sees that Cole’s leg is bleeding. He quickly runs to him.

“Woah what the hell happen?” Ben says inspecting his leg.

Cole catches his breath,

“I was bit.” He cries.

“Fuck.” Ben mutters.

He stands up and looks out the window in the kitchen.

“Are there anymore?”

Cole has the back of his head against the door, hand over the bloody wound on his leg and eyes closed.

“I don’t know.”

Ben goes to Cole and kneels next to him.

“How did this happen?”

Cole rolls up his black pants and gazes at it, its bleeding intensely.

“Fuck.” He tells himself.

“Cole, how did this happen?” Ben asks once more.

“It was under the fucking truck! It grabbed me and bit into my leg. I killed it.” Cole explains.

“Let me see it.”

Cole removes his hand away from the wound, gushes of dark red blood flows out.

“Shit that’s bad.” Ben mentions. “Come on, get up.”

Ben helps Cole stand up and takes him to the couch he was sitting at earlier. Cole sits down.

“I fucked up Ben.” Cole cries.

Ben walks in to the other room and comes back with the first aid kit. He grabs the plastic bottle of alcohol and pours some of it on the Cole’s leg.

“Fuck that hurts.” Cole yells in pain.

Ben begins cleaning it up with some cotton.

“This pain is nothing compared to what you’re going to feel later.”

Trying not to think of his current pain, Cole asks, “What do you mean?”

Ben wipes the blood away with more cotton and begins patching it up with some gauze.

“The cure. I’m going to give you my blood.”

Cole quickly shuts the idea down, “No Ben we can’t! It won’t work! Look what happen to Rick!”

“It was unfortunate what happened to Rick, but he was too weak to fight the pain.”

Cole looks away from Ben, trying not to think about the agonizing pain Rick went through.

“How do you know that Ben?” Cole asks.

“I been through what Rick has. That pain is the most unbearable sensation I’ve experienced.”

“How’s this supposed to help me.” Cole jokes, even though he’s terribly afraid of what’s to come.

Ben glares at Cole.

He has a stern look.

“I wanted to die. But something told to fight back. I don’t know why I did but I fought back. And I survived.”

Ben now has Cole’s attention, but the young man is frightened.

“I don’t know if I can do it Ben.” Cole whimpers.

“I know you can Cole! You’re tough! A guy who took a beating like you did the other day is tough.”

Cole smiles.

“I’ll be here for you Cole. You’ll make it through this.” Ben continues.

Cole reliefs an anxious sigh,

“Okay. Let’s do it.”

Ben stands up and unwraps the bandages around his hand. The cut wound he made is still fresh. Ben squeezes the sides of his hand and small amounts of blood begins to ooze from the cut.

“Are you ready Cole?” Ben asks.

Cole nods his head and lays back on the couch. He opens his mouth. Ben lays his hand onto Cole’s mouth, and drops of blood begin to go in. Ben squeezes his hand again, causing more blood to escape the cut. Cole drinks Ben’s blood. The irony taste passes his tongue and down his throat. He swallows, disgusted by the taste of blood. Ben steps away and Cole now lays there. Waiting for the agony to come. Cole suddenly clenches his chest and gasps for air. It has begun.