Dawn of a New Era

Chapter 2- Look What the Cat Dragged In

As I was rounding the corner to get to my office I heard a groaning coming from the alley way beside me. My first thought was that somebody was having fun in there, but it continued and I could make out a small voice that said, “Help…”

I carefully maneuvered my way through the litter in the alley while the yelps for help got more evident. When I neared the end of the alleyway a person came into my sights with Perfects surrounding him. “Leave him alone!” I yelled. The Perfects turned around and they ran off, snarling obscenities.

The man groaned and lay on his side, beaten, bloody, and broken. The Perfects must’ve been trying to experiment. “You know I would ask you if you’re okay, but obviously you aren’t.”

The man gave a short chuckle and reached his arm up, looking for something to grab onto. “You going to help me or not?” his raspy voice asked.

I grabbed his arm and pulled him up. “Of course I am; now come on and we’ll go get you cleaned up.”

The man nodded and said, “Are you one of them?”

“No, not at all, I would never be one of them. I’m a scientist and a doctor.

“Well scientist, I’m a mechanist.”

He and I set off down the alleyway at a hobble, him wincing every step. “Sorry about this– ah, I didn’t catch your name.”

The mechanist paused for a minute, breathing heavily. “My name is Eric, Eric Malborn.”

We set off again, a block away from my work. “You can make it can’t you Eric?”

He groaned and leaned against me; by now he was bleeding profusely, bruises forming on every part of his body. “Yeah, I’ll make it. So what’s your name scientist?”

I spoke softly, while opening the door to my work, creeping in silently with him. “My name is Dawn, Dawn Bringar.”

A few people in the business peeked out of their offices, gasping as they overlooked Eric. “Don’t tell the boss anything about this.” I growled, glaring at each of them in turn.

The all nodded and went back to work. One young girl came up and handed me the first aid kit. “Thank you, now run along now.” I brought Eric into my office, setting him down in a chair.

He sat there, exhausted. “Why can’t your boss known that I’m here?”

I set out the needles and antiseptic. “He doesn’t believe in allowing outsiders.”

Eric nodded and continued again. “If you’re a scientist why don’t you have some super medical equipment that can heal this with one swipe? All these surgeries every miraculously has without dying and no scars afterward, why?”

I strung the needle and began attending to his face; he hissed as I swiped his face with antiseptic. “Sorry, and to answer your question it’s because this is a more ‘old-school’ doctorate program. We specialize in finding a certain cure of sorts with old medicines. I can’t elaborate further than that.”

“Why though? Why is this company so strict? I’ve seen the delivery trucks stop here and I’ve made most of the equipment here, so why is this so strict?”

The needle pierced through Eric’s skin, him wincing as I pulled the thread through, closing the cut partially. “I’m not the person to tell you all of this.” I punctured his skin once more, dragging it back through. “What we do here isn’t for the weak stomached or narrow minded.”

Eric glared at me from his swollen eye. “Tell me then why you’re talking circles around me.”

I pulled the needle through once last time, pulling the cut fully closed. He still had a few minor cuts and bruises, but they would go away in time. “I told you, I cannot tell you. Now before I regret helping you, let me bandage your cuts.”

He groaned, frustrated and mumbled just loud enough for me to hear, “Stubborn as a mule.”

I laughed and wrapped his arms up, now noticing how many more lacerations he had. “Hey, um Eric, I’ll need you to take your shirt off,” I said, heat rising to my cheeks.

Eric snickered and began removing his shirt, shuddering as it pulled on the cuts. “The ladies always want to get me naked.” He said cockily.

“Sure they do…” The rag I had soaked with antiseptic rubbed his skin and Eric hissed. Cocky man, he deserves this, I thought. The cuts on his chest were making x’s this way and that, marking him as the Perfects play toy of the day. The Perfects were going to try an operation on Eric in an alleyway with no morphine or painkillers. This poor man, he had so much happen to him in such a short time.

My hand rested on his chest as I looked him over, seeing if there was any more that I had to do. Eric’s rugged beard and shaggy hair obviously hadn’t been cut or trimmed in a while, yet they suited him. He had a few scars scattered on his shoulder blades that stretched down onto his back too. On the way here I noticed that his hands were calloused, probably from his mechanist job, and that his build was lean and muscular. Eric most likely got that from lifting parts all day and working every day to earn a living.

His gruff voiced pierced the air, “Dawn are you going to finish or are you going to stare at me all day?”

“Uh, uh,” I stammered, meeting his stone gaze, “I’m done now…”

Eric’s gaze stayed on me a for a few long seconds. It was as if his chocolate brown orbs were looking into my very soul, lingering over all my secrets. “Who are you exactly Ms. Dawn Bringar?”

I circled around and sat at my desk, leaning back in my chair. “There’s nothing to know about me, I’m nobody special. I’m just a doctor and a scientist working with a few others to make the world a better place.”

Eric leaned forward and brushed a stray lock of hair behind my ear. He spoke softly, almost a whisper, “Oh, I doubt that. You are very special.”

He sat back down and stared at me. Something about this man was different, there was an air about him that set him apart from everybody else. I couldn’t place my finger on it. “What’s you story then Eric? Who exactly are you? Why did the Perfects try and do a surgery on you?” I queried, needing to know this vital information.

Eric paused, taken aback by my sudden question. Running a shaky hand through his hair, he began. “Well first off, as you know, my name is Eric Malborn. I’m 25 and I’m a mechanist. I make medical parts for companies like yours so I somewhat have an understanding of what you may or may not be doing. I’m not exactly from around here to say the least, but I’ve made a living here for myself. As for the ‘Perfects’ who attacked me in the alleyway I have no idea why they did so; never before have I been bothered by them. I was just making my way home through the back ways, nothing more than that, nothing less. The Perfects came up to me and started to beat me. I tried to fight back, I really did, but these men and women had incredible strength, it was impossible to beat them! If it wasn’t for you I guess I wouldn’t be here anymore…”

His head drooped and rested against the wall beside the chair. Eric looked quite pitiful and broken sitting there, bandaged. If I had used the new medicines the Newcomers recently gave us he would be perfectly fine with no scars or bruises left. I wasn’t allowed to use anything on Eric, I mean, it wouldn’t benefit him much anyways if I did; within the next 14 days he would have to take a serum and all the medicines previous uses would be taken away. “I’m sorry Eric that I can’t help you get any better than this.” I gave him a few painkillers and water. “This should help soothe the pain and relax the swelling.”

Eric took the pills slowly, leaning back, eyes closed. “Will you do me a favor Dawn?”

“Sure, what do you want?”

“Tell me what this place is all about; I swear I won’t tell…”

“Fine you stubborn man, I will. Just try and be open minded about this whole operation will you?”

Eric smiled tiredly at me. “Trust me; I won’t say anything until you’re done.”

“Tell me,” I began, “do you believe in aliens?”

He laughed, just as many others have done, and stared incredulously at me, “Are you serious?”

“I’m being completely serious about this Eric, so do you believe?”

“I believe that we aren’t the only ones in the universe, yeah, but aliens seem too harsh of a word.”

“You ready for a long story Eric?”

Eric sat back in his chair, “Aye ‘aye Captain.”

Then I began spilling out all the details. “Years ago, long before our time, a group of creatures came to Earth. They were labeled Newcomers, and according to the ones who were still around back then they were as kind as can be. Everybody trusted them, yet nobody exactly knew why. Maybe it was because the Newcomers offered protection and medical advancements, which were tremendously needed. The creatures, they had the cures for every cancer and new disease that popped up. It was as if the heavens had sent us a blessing!”

Eric nodded, taking it all in. “Please continue, this is fascinating.”

“This is the story before our time, why everyone is like this now. I don’t intend for it to be fascinating, only informative. To continue, as well as any ‘gifts’ come; there is an attached debt that we must repay. To concede with our genetic perfection, with the medical market failing drastically, only to be suddenly revived. Every decade have you noticed that there is suddenly a massive death toll?”

“There’s no way, that’s because of new diseases.”

I shook my head sadly. “No, it’s far from that. Based on the worlds’ reproductive rates, 75% or the population is wiped out; there’s no way around it. Not even the Imperfects can save themselves. It’s impossible to go against, but we have hope. If we can turn the whole world back to ‘normal’ then we’re safe and our contract with the Newcomers is null and void. The only problem is though, is that my team and I have approximately two weeks to mass produce a serum to distribute to the whole world. What we do here isn’t for the kind or faint-hearted. In order to find this cure we must experiment. On top here, it looks completely normal, but as you go further down that’s where you can see our past attempts.”

Eric gaped at me, open mouthed with his eyes wide. “So here you experiment on innocent people all to find one cure?”

“Not just one cure, the cure. Everybody here that we’ve ever experimented on isn’t innocent. They are death row criminals, they deserve this.”

“All for the sake of finding a cure that might not work?!”

“We have got to try or in two weeks the world as you know it will have a 75% wipeout. Your family, friends, and comrades could all die, just because of a contract!”

“Why did the Newcomers draw up a contract, what were their intentions?”

I smacked my hand down on the desk, rattling everything. “Nobody knows, not even the elderly who were around when it was signed. Maybe they did it for fun, maybe they wanted to ‘help’, but I don’t know. It’s part of my job to stop this and figure out why they did this to us.”

Eric was about to speak, but a patronized voice cut him off. “Spoken like a true member of my team Dawn, but I must say, look what the cat dragged in,” the owner of the voice said, looking pointedly at Eric.