Radical-9

Endgame

February 27^th, 2022

3:38 pm

I can’t see anything. I haven’t been able to for a while now. It feels like I’ve been put into the world’s detention center, being held until I’m fit to be placed back into society. Little did I know that I had lived the crisis on the windowpane in space. My eyes open slowly and all I see is light, intense light that is pure white and does not allow any darkness near. My head shifts and the helmet that had been on my head for so long falls onto the floor, the screen cracks. My eyes adjust after a minute or two and I see a tiled ceiling. I can feel my heart beating, but why? It is the only sound that bothers to alert me of its presence.

I sit up, but then I instantly regret it. My body aches something terrible and all of my muscles are weak due to complete atrophy. I have trouble breathing for a moment and then I look to my side and see that I’m plugged in to various medical equipment. My thoughts return to me in short bursts. I hardly remember what had happened at the end, but somehow I had survived the whole ordeal and made it out of the game no less.

“The star of the show awakens,” a voice rings out.

I look up to see a middle aged man in the doorway. He wears a somewhat casual brown suit with matching slacks. His gloomy gray eyes seem to contradict his entire personality. I recognize the voice as Jay Rein’s.

“J-Jay,” I say, out of breath.

“Now now, calm down. Your body isn’t quite used to being used. You’ve been lying in this bed for about a week straight,” he says.

“Jack...what happened?”

“I managed to insert the security override and got your ass out of there right before you got blown to smithereens.”

“What about...him?”

“I...don’t know. I doubt he could have survived the blast.”

“And the other players?” I ask.

“They’ve been safely removed from the game. After I ejected you out of there I found the program that disabled the log out feature and promptly removed it.”

“I need to...save my sister,” I say, slowly.

“Hold on there, you aren’t going anywhere, not in your condition.”

“Or I'm right here,” I hear.

“Huh?”

Jen walks in behind Jay and smiles, “Good afternoon, doofus,” she says.

“It's good to see you,” I say.

“It's a shame what happened to Sam, though,” she says.

“He seemed to care more about his other daughter more than him,” I say.

“Meg? Yeah...she was his first daughter. She'd be your half sister, Jen, considering she had a different mom.”

“Do you know who my mom was?” Jen asks.

“I knew a name. I guess she worked part time on the eastern branch of our sector, but not much else. Her name was Pamella Foster,” he says.

“I remember seeing that name on the computer screen,” I say, resting my head against the pillow.

“Yeah, that was an index on those who had Radical-9 inside of their system.”

“And I'm going to assume that Radical-9 is way more than just this super liquid that Jen first described it to me as,” I say.

“You would be correct,” Jay says.

“Well, you can tell the story in the car, because we're going on a road trip,” I say, swinging my legs over the bedside. Everything continues to ache.

“Andy, you're way too weak to get up and move yet,” Jen says.

“I'm getting out of this bed, I'm going to live life out here. First thing's first is we're going to go find Lindsey, she's going to be in some run-down apartment in Castle Rock,” I say.

“Do you know how many places are run down in Castle Rock?” Jay asks.

“We'll search each and every one. The ones closest to Monument are our first task because I made a promise, and that promise was that I was going to find her once we got out,” I say.

Jay takes in a deep breath, “Okay, okay. We can make the detour, but we'll need to hurry,” Jay says.

“Wait, detour? Where were you planning on going first?” I ask.

“We were going to go check on Mom, and then Jay got a message from someone he wants us to meet,” Jen says.

“Oh, fuck. Yeah, we need to check on her first, she's closest,” I say. “And who is this someone?”

“Another one of the children that was on the computer screen that I sent to you, another of those who has Radical-9 flowing through their bloodstream.”

“All right, I need to hear the highs and the lows on Radical-9, Jen, help me get out of this bed, please,” I say.

She nods and helps me to my feet. Standing is difficult, but I get the hang of it again. I carry a much different weight here than back in Elysium. We walk out of the room, my body slowly getting more used to being in use again, but not quite there. Out front I can see a bright red car sitting out on the pavement.

“It's called a ZX Hybrid, and boy oh boy, isn't it a beauty?” Jay asks.

“It looks nice, but isn't the main focus at hand,” I say.

“Right.”

“I think it'll be easiest to explain if you sit in shotgun, makes it so I have to turn my head around less while driving,” Jay says.

“All right, I can handle that,” I say.

We head down the steps and Jen helps me into the car. I sit inside and bring the seatbelt around and strap myself in. “Okay, now from the beginning, what are you a part of?”

Jay turns on the ignition and drives off onto the street. “We we’re sanctioned by the U.S. government to research diseases and cures for said diseases. That's how I started, at least. I was best friends with two of the other scientists I'd worked with before we ever joined up, Gregory Daniels and David Cress, your father,” Jay begins. “One thing leads to another and we began getting tasks of building complicated technological structures. Now, most of us didn't know jack squat about any of that, we were working with how life essentially breaks down, not any of this extra stuff. Jack knew a fair deal about it, though, so to keep our work we had to adapt, and we learned under Jack's tutelage. At this point he wasn't bad, not how he is now.”

“Did something happen to him that made him the way he is?” I ask.

“Yeah. We were assigned a new project, unlike any we've ever done before. It was after the discovery of two new elements. You might have seen their names on that computer screen, Lantrate and Dicoberene,” Jay explains.

“Yeah, I remember them.”

“Well, we were doing preliminary testing on them to see how they reacted with some other elements, and then it went haywire. Jack was the first to receive the blunt of it, and in the aftermath we had discovered something odd about Jack’s DNA, It had clung to his system like a parasite. It wasn't until later that we had found it in our own systems as well, us being myself, Greg, your father, and another scientist named Mason Radica.”

“And then what happened next?”

“He discovered his abilities. A few days after he had thrown one of the scalpels from the other side of the room right past my face without laying a single finger on it. He was developing the ability of psychokinesis. It was at this point that he discovered the possibilities with Radical-9. He continued the tests,” Jay says.

“On...who?”

“He started with his daughter, Meg. She was such a pretty girl, only nine at the time,” Jay says. “She died during the test, he tried injecting her with Radical-9 and it was too much for her. That was when he snapped.”

“So, afterwards he had forced you to continue the tests?”

Jay nods. “And then eventually we had grown sick of it. Greg, Mason, and I had all met, the three of us to stop Jack’s madness.

“And what about our father?” I ask.

“He...something happened with him, in his brain. I think the Radical-9 might have affected him worse than the rest of us, because after that day he was no longer the Dave that I knew.”

“And no immunities or vaccines were ever found for Radical-9, were they?” I ask.

“No, they were not. The government had found out about the virus, but it was too late. They had crumbled before they could even react. Luckily, that was as far as it got. “

“Radical-9, you had said it clung to our central nervous systems. What does it do to us long term?”

“That’s the thing, though. It is such a dangerous virus because it is so unpredictable. We have a minimal sample size, and so much more could happen, but based on what we know now the time when the symptoms occur vary for every infected patient. There is one symptom that is similar in every situation, though.”

“What would that be?”

“Those infected with Radical-9 suffer from extreme suicidal and homicidal tendencies,” Jay says with a straight face.

“Are you serious?”

“Yes, unfortunately. Every single case we’ve seen has led to the same result. The only difference is when it happens. I’ve seen people be totally fine for a long stretch of time before succumbing to the tendencies.”

“That’s…insane.”

“I don’t know what has happened in the other major countries of the world, I lost contact with some of my friends over there as soon as the government fell.”

“This is all like, really happening?” I ask.

“It’s already happened. If I saw this as the coming future I would’ve done anything to stop it. The regret I feel for being a part of this catastrophe is insurmountable.”

“So, what do we do next?”

“Once we meet up with the friend that I have we can organize a plan better then. He has first-hand experience with this whole ordeal and should have an idea on what to do,” Jay says.

“What's their name?”

“Gavin, Gavin Daniels,” Jay says.

“Wait...he's Greg's son, right?” Jen asks, breaking her silence.

“Yes, that is correct. Jack had killed both of his parents and he was sent to an orphanage. So he's got as much stake in this as you both do,” Jay says.

Jen directs Jay onto our street, I see our house pull closer and closer as he slows to a stop. I unbuckle my seatbelt and open the door, Jen is right beside me, holding me up as I stand out of the car onto the pavement.

“God it feels good to be out in the fresh air again,” I say, breathing it in. My right leg begins to cramp up, but I don’t let it stop me. We make it inside of the house, closing the door behind us. It looks the same as when I left it a week ago. “Hey Mom! Are you here? Mom?” I look around the living room and it is empty. I walk into the kitchen and my leg cramp strikes up again. I cringe slightly and continue my pace, Jen right at my side, she chastises me for going too fast. The kitchen is empty and looks unused except for one drawer being open. I walk over and shut it. It creaks loudly and doesn’t even stay shut. I turn around and move past the dining room and find my way to the staircase.

I begin jogging up the staircase, but my leg flares up and I miss a step and fall forward. I hear a crack and I believe I have broken my nose, as I taste blood seeping into my mouth. It hurts like a bitch, but I continue my way up the stairs. I turn the corner into the hallway and see that my doorway is open. A sense of sudden fear crawls across my spine. I slow my pace and the blood keeps running down from my nose.

“Mom? Are you here?” I call out.

“Mom?” Jen calls right after.

“Is her car still here?” I ask.

“Yeah, I saw it in the driveway,” she replies.

“What day is it?” I ask.

“Sunday.”

“She should still be here,” she says.

I walk up and reach my door, everything around me turns silent. I can feel the fear rising in my chest as I swing the door open. It moves back to reveal the hanging body of my mother. Her neck snapped from the end of a noose. I look upwards and see the noose had been hammered into the ceiling with a nail of some sort.

The blood drains from my face and I feel very cold. My mouth runs dry as I look at her body. It swings ever so slightly on the end of the rope and looks towards me. Her face is scarred and bloody. I notice a white slip of paper on my desk. I don't have to walk inside to see what's written on it, scrawled like a serial killer.

RADICAL NINE

My heart leaps into my throat and I let out a scream. I don’t hear it though. The only thing I can hear is the raspy voice of the creature back in Elysium cutting through into my mind.

“They’re all dead. Everyone is dead and you are alone.”

I’m not alone, but everyone certainly isn’t alive.

The first sound to return to me is a gasp from behind, I don’t have to look to know it is Jen.

“Oh. My. GOD!” She yells out.

I walk out of the house, fear propelling my body along, that and adrenaline. I can't. I can't do this. I can't watch this. Not now.

I'm out of my house and fall to my knees, putting my head against the ground and letting out a pained noise. Jay steps out of the car and helps me up, “What happened?”

“She's gone. She's gone,” I say, crying.

“It’s okay, you're going to be okay. Where's Jen?”

“I'm here,” she walks out, wiping tears out of her eyes.

“It's all my fault, I'm sorry Jen. I'm so sorry I'm so bad,” I say. “If I didn't get into that stupid game none of this would have happened,” I can't stop it now.

She walks over and puts a hand on my shoulder, “Listen. This isn't your fault, this is Jacks' fault. You hear me? He started all of this, and we blame no one but him,” she says. “Now, you saved a lot of people inside Elysium, much less even Lindsey. Now, we're going to go for a ride and go find her, okay? Because if I know anything I know that that girl loves you, Andy. She loves you and is waiting for you.”

I steady my breathing and nod, I think back to my promise to Lindsey and I take Jen in a big hug, “Thank you so much, thank you...”

“Are we all ready, then?” Jay asks.

I wipe my eyes and I nod. “I'm ready...it's like you said back in Elysium, Jen. I'm ready to take this fight back to him. We're going to make things right.”

I am a spark.

I am going to change this world.