CHAPTER FIFTEEN

        This was so not how all of this was meant to go down. When he first approached me, the plan really was quite simple. All I had to do was find a way to smuggle the explosive components into the medical research facility. Find somewhere discreet enough to assemble three bombs. And then get the hell out of dodge before I brushed my index finger across the remote detonator’s bright, red surface.

        Then, if everything had gone accordingly, the infected would’ve been eliminated. The neuro-toxin responsible for them would’ve been neutralized. My mother would’ve had a very different, yet equally massive, Public Relations nightmare on her hands. And I’d be living my best life as a new man somewhere deep down in the Catacombs. With Adrian by my side. Like I was promised.

        Unfortunately, though, everything did not go accordingly; and I’m not quite sure how or why either. All I remember is being ambushed. Hearing a loud bang. Seeing a flash of searing light. Feeling a wave of excruciating heat slam into my face and arms; and being thrown into a steel wall at breakneck speeds seconds before it crumpled inwards on itself, sealing me inside a world full of nothing but pure misery.

        For five full days and nights, I suffered. Then I was found, and eventually released. Though not before being immediately taken into custody; and transported to a very sterile environment with white tile. White walls. White cloth draping my arms and face.

        A perfect environment for a horrible experiment. At least that’s what a familiar creature by the name of General Haven-Thrall expressed to me right before he injected me with the very thing he tasked me with destroying. Yeah, shocking, I know.

        Right before the needle went into my arm, I wanted to smash it against the wall. Grab one of the glass shards off the floor, and ram it into the General’s jugular. But I couldn’t. An hour before the injection, one of his henchmen – a ghastly runt of a creature – snuck up on my bad side; and snuck a paralyzing muscle relaxer into my IV fluid. It was almost as if General Haven-Thrall knew I’d try to resist in some way; and he was very much right in thinking so.

        I’m no stranger to the neuro-toxin. I’d been secretly researching it for months. I knew it originated from a parasitic fungus. I knew it’d been infecting people through the station’s food supply. I knew my mother couldn’t possibly contain it no matter how hard she tried; and I knew I didn’t want to risk potential exposure.

        That’s why I agreed to the General’s plan in the first place. But the second after the needle came out of my arm, all that changed. For the first time in a long time, I felt… strong. Powerful almost. Like I could determine the fate of the entire station with just a flick of a finger; which, if I’m being perfectly honest, I think I’m fully capable of doing.

        Whether this is true or not, I simply do not know; and that’s probably for the best right now. Shortly after the injection, General Haven-Thrall had me placed inside a medically-induced coma.

        He said it had something to do with it being easier to monitor the healing and transformation processes this way. But that was three weeks ago. And I absolutely hate it.

        All I’ve been able to do since then is lie here in wait. Resting hour after hour. Day after day, and hoping beyond hope that someone will eventually come along, and finally set me free.

        When they do, they pick the absolute worst timing possible because it has to be right as I’m starting to drift off into the proverbial void. Allowing my mind to take me to a very different time and place with a much better person. My man – Adrian Mercer.