Previous Episode 

Next Episode

                “Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill . . .”

William Golding, Lord of the Flies

                Outside the room, I realize we’re not in the church any more. As Morcean walks determinedly down the hallway, I rush to keep up with him. Around him, the rich red carpeting runs right up the wall to the wooden paneling that echoes all the sound in strange ways, leaving the place awkward and disorientating.

                With a turn, he panes down another hall and the sheer size of the establishment becomes a bit clearer. We pass doors that are closed and electric lamps on the walls that are shaped like candlesticks, while the throbbing I’m aware of slowly turns into music.

                “I commandeered this place from the governor when we lost contact with the Ever-After Project.” Morcean says as he stalks down the hall, as I almost have to run to keep up with him. I can’t put my finger on it, but as I stare at him walking, it’s clear he’s not quite human. “He maintained that everything was under control, but I had to explain that such a statement did not include us.”

                “Where are you taking me?” I venture to ask.

                Morcean looks over his shoulder as he walks. “I want to make it a little clear just how much trouble you’re in.”

                “I woke up in a research lab in a giant glass bottle on the other side of the country that’s full of flesh-eating zombies and vampires.” I say, unsure where the nerve’s coming from. “What in the world could you possibly show me?”

                Morcean pushes through a pair of white doors, a grand light showering in on me. As I step through to follow him, I realize I’m on a balcony, overlooking a large ballroom. Gold-plated floors and elaborately painted walls capture the Victorian design. Candles and black lights fill the room as all the people look up at us. They look at Morcean with respect. They look at me with hunger.

                “We’ve found 28 vampires so far.” Morcean says, turning to the stairwell on his left that I didn’t notice. He starts down with rapid steps as I once again rush to follow. I can’t stop looking over to my right, at the people dressed in gothic and neo-gothic clothes, all their fashionable eyes locked on me. “We think they may be as many as thirty or forty more in each of the other bio-domes.” He stops at the foot of the stairs, looking up at me. “Can you imagine? Almost two hundred and fifty vampires?”

                I stand over him, swallowing hard. But then it hits me.

                I look down at him, my face going cold. “Two hundred and . . . how many bio-domes are there?”

                He smiles like a shark befriending a dolphin. “Six at last count.”

                Morcean spins away, as I teeter there on the last steps, unable to process that idea. Six bio-domes, like tiny worlds inside glass and steel. That seems impossible.

                When I look up, there’s a girl standing just inches in front of me. With shoulder-length blonde hair, she’s dressed in an old-world style white dress that has silver streaks across it in an arcane pattern. “Hello, pretty-pretty.” She says, her cat-like eyes captivating me. Steps up towards me as I stumble back away from her. “Want to come back to my room?” She asks, moving closer towards me. I step back again, almost falling over on the step behind me. Her erotic mouth looms before me like a tiger’s bared teeth. “I’ll seduce your reflection out of the mirror so it can slit your throat while you sleep, so I can lick your naked Adam’s apple like a clitoris.”

                “How about me?”

                I glance around to see another girl. She looks semi-Asian with blue hair and a skin-tight latex top above a flared pair of bell-bottom pants and a chain connecting her lip piercing with her ear ring. “I’ll let you sit between me and my two girl-slaves. They can rape each other’s mouths on you while I eat your wiggling tongue.”

                “Ahem.”

                The two girls scatter back as Morcean comes back to the steps. The girls quickly part, leaving me with an ashen-white face. “Get up.” He commands. “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll give you to them.”

                I shove myself off the stairs and start after Morcean. I look around at the people that fill the room, seeing their eyes move in unison as I walk through the room. Men and women alike all stand up, their lion-like eyes never leaving sight of me.

                Morcean leads me through another door, into another hallway. Unlike the others, this hallway is plain steel and concrete. There are no decorations, while the ever-present smell of construction materials and tar fill my lungs. And as we walk, I realize it.

                It’s gunpowder.

                The throbbing that was music was gun fire. Morcean leads me down a narrow, shoulder-width hallway, to a pair of doors that square off against each other while the hallway extends onward into infinity. He steps through the right doorway, away from the sound of a variety of guns firing.

                We enter a large room that’s all cement bricks and steel. There’s a metal cage over in the far corner that has an old black man inside, working a variety of metal crates while a modern-looking dumbwaiter waits patiently behind him.

                “This is where we and our servants train.” Morcean says, looking at the firing range off to my right. It’s less than fifteen yards, but the white mannequins as the far end look almost human. We’re going to be ready for whatever may come.”

                “Servants?” I say.

                “Do you know what the Ever-After Project was?” Morcean asks, walking over to the steel cage. The man inside the cage puts down the large book he’s reading and looks up. As Morcean approaches, he holds out a large, boxy matte-black pistol. “It was an experiment in human engineering. The purpose was to produce a new type of human.”

                The vampire walks to the firing range, lining up in front of one of the targets. “Each bio-dome had a different layout, a different feel. Bio-dome 4 was designed as a kind of pastoral, rural ‘Country Roads’ kind of place; where as this place was designed as a major metropolitan city.” He holds up the gun, squeezing the trigger once.

                The explosion of noise isn’t as bad as I would have thought, but when the mannequin’s head simply vaporizes, I start to panic.

                “Each bio-dome had a lab that was working on different sides of the project.” He explains, checking the gun in his hand. “The lab here, well, we weren’t able to figure out any of the stuff.” He looks at me. “But since you’re from bio-dome 4, and from Argent labs, then that must mean you know a great deal more.”

                “But I’m not from Argent labs.” I plead, hoping Morcean’ll believe me. “I’m not. I’m not part of the Ever-After project. I never even heard of the Ever-After Project before a few days ago. Morcean, please, you’ve got to believe me.”

                “I don’t have to do a damn thing.” He says. “Except get the information out of you.”

                I have no idea where they came from, but suddenly there are two of his large goons by my shoulders. Before I can move, they both grab my arms and yank me up. Not forward. Not off me feet. They literally pull me off the ground. Too stunned to even speak, they carry me over to the front of the shooting range.

                “You see, Sam.” Morcean says, again checking the chamber of his pistol. “I want the answers to just a few simple questions.” Before I can even move, he fires a shot. It whizzes past my head, coming within just a few inches of my hair. I nearly lose it right there.

“I want to know what the Ever-After is up to with us and why we haven’t heard from them.” He says, just before leveling the gun again. The shot hits near my feet, knocking up a chunk of the flooring. I look at the two goons, but they’re standing away from me, watching my every move.

                “I want to know why the internal clocks for the computer system for bio-dome 3 and bio-dome 4 are off by well over six months.” He says. This time, the shot grazes my ear. I can’t tell if I’m bleeding and I’m too scared to check.

                “And I want to know,” He says, leveling the gun directly at me. I can see down its barrel.

                He’s going to kill me.

                “What,” He says, his low voice ringing in my ears. “Is project 525?”

Next Episode