Episode 11 | No Family Left Behind Part 3
#11 of GNCR X - ZodiA WavE Pt. 1
Oliver and Ruth Brown, two brothers on their way to visit their father, discover a grim truth about the nature of reality.
Details: The outbreak begins.
Outbreak Arc ends, making room for Part 1's endgame.
Episode 11: No Family Left Behind Part 3.
My dad was always a drag. Ever since that autism diagnosis, he acted like he was in a sea chimp cage, and I was the chimp trying to bite my way in. Why? Because some model or something said that vaccines cause autism, and that somehow means that I'm a dysfunctional mess.
I wasn't, by the way. Yeah, I didn't interact with other kids, I was pretty sensitive to touch, and I always thought outside the box, but... so what? I never understood why dad hated me over that, it just meant I was a little more high-maintenance as a kid. Needless to say, at an early age I needed to learn to take care of myself, and avoid contact with Wade as much as possible.
Not only was he just... stressful to be around, but the guy actively tried setting me off, thinking that would help "treat" my autism. He knew I hated being touched, and it felt like the more that time went on, he gave less and less of a damn. Sometimes I wonder if he actually cared about that.
At least my mom, Lucy, actually tried to help. One day, she'd come up with a way for me to relieve stress, and I'm pretty sure this was just a "me" thing, but she realized that rolling her pearl necklaces in my hand helped calm me down. So, one day she got me a pair that I could keep all to myself, and I was the happiest little camper after that.
Then came Bring Your Son to Work Day at Hermes Medical.
On the bright side, I met my best friend that day, Ruth.
On the downside, it was the first actual EPISODE I ever had.
The whole time, I actually enjoyed talking to Ruth. He wasn't dragging me all over the place like WADE was all day, he didn't go on and on about my disability like it was a crutch, it just felt nice not being treated like an insane person for a change.
RUTH: You know, I'm kinda curious about something.
HOLDEN: Hm?
I looked up from my deck of cards. We were both seated on the bed in Wade's office, our dads were whispering about something. Couldn't hear much, but Dr. Brown did slip up and say something about gorgons.
RUTH: What're the pearls for? Saw you holding them sometimes. Something important or...?
HOLDEN: OH! That? It's nothing, just works better for me than a stress ball!
WADE: I'm sorry, WHAT?!
HOLDEN: Um, yeah, mom didn't tell you-?
WADE: She most certainly did NOT!
*STOMP*
*STOMP*
WADE: Hand 'em over.
JAY: I don't think you need to take them away from him-
WADE: Oh, EXCUSE ME for bein' mad that my son's makin' his case WORSE!
HOLDEN: Dad, please, it actually helps, I'm just feeling stressed out-
Without warning, he grabbed the arm I held the pearls on. His grip was so hard that I was getting stretch marks, my wrist briefly spasmed from the spontaneity of it. No matter how hard I tried, his hand just wouldn't budge, it was almost locked in place.
It didn't take too long for me to hyperventilate, flailing and desperately trying to free my arm from his grip, and my fist clenched so he couldn't take them away.
WADE: I swear, why'd your mother even try? I told her not to-
HOLDEN: BECAUSE SHE CARES MORE THAN YOU EVER WILL! LET GO ALREADY!
WADE: YOU WATCH YER TONE, YOUNG MAN!
HOLDEN: FUCK YOU!
*SMACK*
RUTH: ...
JAY: ...
WADE: You gonna shut up now?
Stunned, speechless, and with a red mark on my face, all I could do was nod. Wade opened up my fist and yanked the pearls out, pocketing them.
WADE: Hmph, you're quick. Sure you didn't just want some attention?
JAY: Wade, you just hit your own kid-
WADE: Aw, c'mon, you one o' those pussies who think it's "abuse"? It builds character!
HOLDEN: I... hate you. I swear to Christ, one day, I'll bite your goddamn ear off- OOMPH!
He pulled me off the bed, and kneed me in the stomach, knocking me to the side.
RUTH: HOLDEN! Holden are you alright?
WADE: Heh, what'd I tell ya Jay? Boy's already goin' through a rebellious phase...! Jay?
JAY: What the hell is wrong with you?
WADE: Tch, you know dang well at this point.
Wade always liked talking big about beating me when I yelled back, but then whenever it got so bad that I needed medical attention, suddenly I had to keep quiet about it.
Almost like he knew he was a monster.
TOM: HEY! HE'S OVER HERE! Come on Dr. Johnson, don't quit on me now...
*SHHHCKCKCKCK*
*CRICK*
???: *groans*
TOM: James? JAMES! Are you in there?
???: T-t... Tom...?
TOM: Oh thank god, keep pushing, he's almost out-
JAMES: K-kill me...
TOM: What?
I was confused at first, why didn't he want the rescue team to help? It wasn't until they lifted that chunk of roof up that I noticed it.
There must've been megatons of debris dropped on James' legs. They were completely crushed to dust, with not a single trace of solid limbs left, just a red blood puddle accumulating underneath.
JAMES: Please... kill me.
DOROTHY: WAIT! NUBI! You're not allowed in this sector of the facility! If we don't head back you'll-
ANUBIS: I don't give a fuck. I need to know, where the hell is Zero-?!
Nubi stopped in his tracks. From behind, I could just hear these quiet, barely contained sobs. Before us was EGO, the colossal gorgon, lying dead over a nearby mountain. It was covered in burn marks from several missile attacks and bombs. It was dead, as far as we knew, anyway.
Past us went a stretcher, with two paramedics carrying Dr. Johnson. His legs seemed to have been crudely torn off, covered in bandages that just barely stopped the bleeding.
DOROTHY: What the hell happened here?
TOM: Failure.
NUBI: ...?!
Nubi stared at Tom as the two crossed paths, eyes widened like he'd seen the face of God.
NUBI: It was- it- YOU DID THIS?!
TOM: *sigh* No, Anubis, I was merely sent to gather data for VD. Normally, any data would be a success, but this? The cost that it came with, I count that as a complete failure. I'm... I'm sorry.
He left to go see James, but not before giving Nubi a light pat on the shoulder.
TOM: Your brother deserved better. You all did.
ANUBIS: Then why are you doing what they're telling you? Why are you working for fucking murderers?
TOM: If we rebel, we're dead, with no one to spread the word. Even if someone blows the whistle, either no one will believe them, or worse, they'll believe The Order's story shifting the blame. We can't win, and they know it.
ANUBIS: And you call yourself my doppelganger...
TOM: One day you'll understand, nothing's ever that simple.
Letting those words sink in, Tom left us there.
DOROTHY: Come on, Nubi. Let's get somewhere safer.
I needed a breather after that.
After Wade took me in as his personal fuckboy, he had me in a collar chained to the bed. My phone was destroyed, so I couldn't call for help OR the police, and I knew no one would believe me without any solid proof.
Shame doesn't even begin to describe what I felt during this time. I was being forced to cheat on my wife, neglect my kids, and ignore my whole family, just because this guy wanted to live out his "hot reptile sex slave" fantasy. I'd always shudder at the thought of how long he was thinking this. Of the few times we'd interacted, how often was this guy ogling at me?
These thoughts looped in my head, even as I was tugging on the bed with all my strength. It happens with the monotonous life that Wade put me in; which I MIGHT have not minded if, for one, I didn't already belong to Daisy, and going off of that, if I had a fucking CHOICE.
Again, once I'd pulled the bed enough that I could reach the desk, I first took a seat and collected myself. Didn't help that Wade had me stuffed in this hazmat suit. At first, I thought it was some kind of substitute for a gimp suit (a poor one at that), but I figured out pretty quickly that it was to add weight to me. He planned ahead to make escaping more of a chore.
JAY: Okay... remember dude, only a few seconds. That bastard could come back at any moment, you need to hurry up and find some dirt.
Yeah, if this guy was gonna blackmail me with my job and my race, I wasn't gonna pull any punches either. The plan was simple: grab the most believable skeletons in Wade's closet, put them in this pneumatic tube the contractors installed, send them to [REDACTED] while he's on his way back from a meeting, and let Wade know that you don't fuck with the Browns. I'm sure Daisy and the kids would be proud.
That said, it took me a bit to find anything. The issue was that, as far as I knew, everything Wade was doing involved these alien gorgon things. Fact is, [REDACTED] was top brass in this operation, so I needed something completely separate from our research to get Wade caught.
I WOULD have gone with some photos Wade took of me, but they were all squarely of me, no shark to be seen. The director would just think I decided to send him some dick pics.
Once all the free drawers were looked at, zero incriminating photos found, I let out a frustrated sigh. Not because I doubted there was anything left, no, it's because the only drawer left was locked. My only option was to try and lockpick it with my horn.
Getting myself in the most uncomfortable mix of crouching and twisting possible, I stuck the tip of my left horn into the keyhole, and got to fiddling around. If I remembered correctly from Daisy's delinquent phase, the trick was to nudge very specific ticks out of the way, doing the key's job for it.
The entire time, I was scared of accidentally getting my horn stuck (in a way that borders on the titular), 'specially from the pain in the scalp that it was whenever I accidentally tugged.
*CLICK*
JAY: Nailed it!
After painfully repeating my steps to get the horn out, I stood and cracked into the drawer's contents. At first I was disappointed, nothing but folders. I was about to close again until I looked into the labels. The other archives had stuff like "GV-TEST003," or "CV-RSCH045." Very technical things, but these... these were different. "Hide," "Shred," "Burn." Things Wade planned on erasing.
Already I was confused. If he was willing to leave evo experiments and my nudes out in the open... what the hell was so bad, he needed to burn it?
The moment that I saw what was in these documents, I knew this was it. I was done.
Wade could wave his authority, or Hadron's trust all he wanted, but I wasn't gonna let him control me, and I sure as hell wouldn't stand for what he was hiding. Once my shift ended that day, I was going straight to the police. He wasn't getting away with this!
I could only hope my family could forgive me, for what it took for me to finally say enough is enough.
My blood dropped in temperature, as the door slid open, the sounds of people screaming bloody murder outside.
It was Wade, he had Holden with him. The little guy was staring into nothing, catatonic.
Nubi had just had his blood test for the day, and I was checking his results. He looked to the side, stoic as ever, but I couldn't really blame him. To find out what the last of his family turned into, I couldn't even imagine...
DOROTHY: I know what it's like, Anubis.
ANUBIS: Bullshit.
DOROTHY: I'm serious. I- I've lost people I care about too, to disease, to ignorance, to greed.
ANUBIS: You still have your brother, that other terrier, Templeton was it?
DOROTHY: I used to have five other siblings: Arthur, Eve, George, Atticus, and John. Before they all died from the flu, along with my parents. Temp and I were the last ones standing.
ANUBIS: "Were?"
DOROTHY: He's- he's dying. They found a tumor in his brain recently, but, we can't afford the treatment he needs, not at the stage we caught it. As far as I know, my last brother only has a few months left.
ANUBIS: ...
DOROTHY: As for the rest... my parents were fans of this televangelist, Papa Peluche, or some horse apples like that. He did the same song and dance as the rest of them, talk about how you don't need any kind of medicine for anything, you just need to pray your life away, or pay for the minuscule chance to go up and get healed. 'course, since they're all staged, we never got picked. In the end, after our family was driven into debt, they all died from the flu without ever getting a vaccine or medicine.
ANUBIS: So why are you working here? All this lab's doing is making a virus.
DOROTHY: You think it was always like that? We're called Hermes Medical for a reason, or at least we WERE. The company was one about making vaccines and prosthetics available to anyone who needed them, no matter the budget. We lived and died by four words: "No Family Left Behind."
ANUBIS: "No Family Left Behind..."
DOROTHY: That's why I joined, I wanted to help develop stronger vaccines than ever, so that no one had to die like my family again, but... as time goes on, it feels like it's getting harder.
My hands clutched onto the edge of the table, nails almost digging into the plastic in frustration.
DOROTHY: This goddamn conspiracy about vaccines, more and more people are getting suckered into it. SO MUCH SO, that now our fucking bosses and the GOVERNMENT are falling for it. No, not just them, but an entire intergalactic empire?! I just- I know what you're going through Nubi. I know the anger you have, I know how much you want to tear these bastards' heads off, and I'm just as frustrated that we can't! This is why I'm making the vaccines anyway, even without Wade's approval. This lunatic is going to end the world over politics, and he needs to be stopped!
ANUBIS: Huh, always wondered about that. Wait.
DOROTHY: What?
ANUBIS: Out in the hall, isn't that Wade's kid?
DOROTHY: ...?!
ANUBIS: You know, if Wade's not here, we might be able to help him. Know if the vaccine works yet?
DOROTHY: Yeah I uh, tested it on you, remember?
ANUBIS: ...
DOROTHY: *sigh* So yeah, we could actually do this. We can do this! We could-
ANUBIS: Don't get any ideas. This changes nothing.
DOROTHY: R-right. Right. But still, thanks for listening, Nubi. Now? Time to live up to this company's name.
There he sat, James, emptily looking to the distance, his legs completely amputated, resting on a wheelchair. I sat next to him, trying my best to give moral support. Never been good at that, but I thought I could try, it was the least I could do after blaming myself for this.
TOM: I'm so sorry, James. If you didn't take my place, this- *sob* this wouldn't have happened-
JAMES: Please stop.
TOM: Huh?
He reached his arm up to brush my hair aside.
JAMES: I did what I did, because I didn't want you to get hurt. It's that simple. You guys know me, I like things simple.
TOM: *sniff* You know nothing's ever that easy.
JAMES: Not everything, no. That's why I just mean my life.
TOM: And because of me, it's now ruined.
JAMES: Calm down dude. I'll get through this.
TOM: ...
*SHLD*
WADE: James, got a moment?
In came Wade, with his son right by him. The boy looked dead inside, like all the will to live had drained from him. As for Wade? It wasn't any kind of emotion, just emptiness.
JAMES: Oh, uh, sure thing Mr. Ryan. Hey Tom, think you could uh-
TOM: Right... right.
As I left, I could see James covering his face in his hands.
JAMES: What is it?
WADE: Well I heard about what happened, and just wanted to make sure my favorite researcher was alright!
JAMES: ... are you happy now, Mr. Ryan? The test was a failure, five whole floors were leveled, and I lost my legs. No point in going home to surf when I don't have any legs!
WADE: James, Jimmy, buddy, we do prosthetics too! We can handle it-
JAMES: We DID do prosthetics, before you defunded them so we could work on "improving" the virus. Just like you did to vaccines, except worse, because for SOME reason, you also got everyone in the sector fired!
WADE: THEY WERE HERETICS PLAYIN' WITH THE RACE LADDER!
JAMES: What the hell does that have to do with anything?
WADE: Hybrids either stay lowraces like we're at now, or they become gorgons. We are NOT, in any way, allowed to become cybernetics! Understand?! We are HADRON'S people, and we are gonna ABIDE by his laws!
I rolled up to the bastard, looking him dead in those black eyes of his. I'd had it.
JAMES: Fuck. Hadron.
With a speed I couldn't even register, he swung his arm at me, and all I felt was a pinch to my temple, then my brain. Wade had stabbed me with the Gorgon Virus shot.
JAMES: W-why...?
He leaned into my side, whispering something in my ear.
WADE: Feedin' you to the birds would take too long. And besides, The Order is Absolute.
The last thing I saw before seeing nothing but darkness, as the liquid filled my brain, was Holden breaking out of Wade's grasp and running away.
Breath growing heavier, blood turning colder, jolts of electricity coursing through my veins, as my chroman tried to stabilize. These are the core symptoms of the Gorgon Virus.
I laid there, slowly dying, completely naked. In front of me was another jackal like me, he had most of my suit on, and was now attaching my tail ornament.
ANUBIS: Thank you, Tom. I'm... I'm sorry I couldn't save you on time.
TOM: Tch, no worries, a-already cheated death *wince* once today.
ANUBIS: Right.
TOM: NGH! B-besides... think- think of this as an extra life.
ANUBIS: Extra life?
TOM: You- have my clothes... my looks, my voice *GAG* even my ID now. You're me... and I'm you.
ANUBIS: ... goodbye Tom. I promise, one way or another, I'll end this here.
TOM: Y-yeah. Goodbye... Tom.
Another tentacle leaped from my side over to Tom. Just barely, I was able to grab it. Seemed my new form's physique was kicking in, especially as this long, inevo grin forced itself into my face. My eyelids also started morphing into these slits, looking like prison bars for the eyes.
TOM: H-hurry... d-don't know- how- long til evo no more...
TOM: *nod*
He ran off, hopefully off to freedom, away from all this chaos, this nightmare.
Wade held me in an embrace, cradling Holden between us like he was our child. So much ran through my head.
Pity for this child caught in all of this, fear at all of the screams in the halls, and shame in myself for not fighting back still.
WADE: Jay, did I ever tell you, how much I truly cherish you?
JAY: No, because you don't. You're just fucking using me... and I swear, once I send these photos to [REDACTED], you're done.
WADE: Yeah... that ain't happenin'. See, I ain't tryin' to convince you of anythin'.
JAY: ...?! Then- then what-?!
*STAB*
I felt a sharp pain pierce my chest. A syringe, pumping liquid straight into my circulatory system.
WADE: These evo feelings, they just won't do!
JAY: *COUGH* You- *WHEEZE* You- Why-
WADE: You know damn well why. I can't have any of this leave this lab. I'll start over, make the virus stronger, and this time, I'm making the whole world my test subject.
JAY: ...!!! No- NO! I WON'T- LET- YOU-!
He turned to leave, still carrying Holden.
I dropped to the floor, losing all balance. All across my body were vibrations and electricity. My eyes felt ready to explode and implode at the same time, and I felt nothing but agony in my arms. My tail split into pieces, each one thickening into tentacles.
My ribcage... popped out of my chest, ripping it and the suit open, blood pouring all across the floor, as I saw it turn into black mud.
All I saw was red, and out the doorway, Wade leaving out the door.
JAY: G-GET BACK-HHHH-HERE! I'M NOT FUCKING DONE WITH YOU!
HAZMAT: (Kill him.)
JAY: Wade...
HAZMAT: (Kill him.)
JAY: Waaaade...
HAZMAT: (Kill him!)
JAY: WADE!
HAZMAT: (KILL HIM!)
JAY/HAZMAT: WWWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GULLIVER: You ready for the end, oni?
CYRIUS: No, none of us are, not even you.
GULLIVER: Heh, maybe. But either way, whoever wins, I look forward to the outcome! In all of its bloody glory!
TO BE ContinueD
NEXT TIME: THE CHAMBER ARC BEGINS.