Splitter

It was almost midday. Soon the cycle would start again. His forehead was already shiny with beads of sweat that trailed down into shallow riverlets to the tip of his nose and dripped onto the paperwork in front of him. He wiped at the splash of water smearing it across the semi-dried ink while still writing with his other hand.

The itching had already begun at the peak of his scalp just like it had done over the last three times at seemingly random times during the 36 hours since he had drank the vile concoction. He felt the top of his head with his left hand while he continued writing with his right. There was a split there now. It was starting. His body convulsed as the drug in his body took effect and began to change him.

Doctor Ferris Balder, theoretical scientist, not commonly found to be testing his own theories with physical experiments, found himself to be doing just that and it had worked! However, it had not worked in the way he had expected.

The itching became a tearing and he felt his face split directly down the middle. His left hand explored the area where his nose should have been; it was in two halves, no longer one single nose. Each half began to grow skin and cartilage to become two separate wholes. The rest of the two seperated faces grew more skin, lips, a new eye, hair and an ear until there were two heads.

Balder had spent the last seven months researching the idea of being able to regrow organs from the damaged hosts body so that there would be no need for organ donations and then no risk of organ rejection. He had finally been able to find limited success from his own calcualtions as well as the biology team that had undertaken physical experiements using rats. The doctor had looked over the results from each experiment and had finally been sure that this last serum would be the answer to every surgeon’s and waiting organ transplant recipient’s dreams.

Doctor Balder collapsed to the floor, not because of shock or because he could not cope with the changes occuring within his body but because he had successfully split himself in to two.

The body on the left went further into spasm as more parts of the body on the right were formed. The half that lay on the other side of the chair, with the right hand still gripping the pen, moved in an almost identical way while the new skin, bones and ligaments grew at an impossible rate to make him a whole person.

Moments later the two men that were once one, stood. They looked over at the other identical men that had also experienced the same process. Now there were 16 people in the room and they were all him. As one, the doctors shook their heads and said quietly, ‘We’re going to need a bigger room.’

Heart

The unashamedly trinket adorned home had an ancient lived in smell of old things. Not stale nor dusty however, the opposite in fact; it was spotless and tidy. There were no sounds emanating from anywhere inside; he had taken the time to make sure of that and listen for at least a minute once he had broken in. He also knew that no one had come or gone once the old woman had been taken away.

The source of his knowledge had come only a few days past, after overhearing her neighbours talking near an ambulance – there was always an opportunity if he just kept his eyes and ears open – they had said that she had phoned for help complaining of a tightness in her chest and shortness of breath.

This had given him absolute freedom to search through her home for anything of value. It had been easy to force the back door open, he had pushed with his shoulder only a few times before hearing a cracking of the dry worn timber.

He walked casually into a room that looked as if it were being used as an office. Papers were piled neatly on the desk but were oddly covered in a heavy dust. A picture of the old woman and a man – possibly her deceased husband – also sat on the desk.

One desk drawer was slightly ajar. He peered inside and was amazed to see loose change and notes stuffed inside. It was so full that the drawer jammed when he tried to open it, but he persisted until it shot open and then he began filling his pockets. Then a noise! He looked up and saw that a closet door had creaked opened on unoiled hinges. It was dark in there. He crept forward to investigate and possibly discover if it was a cat or rodent that was hiding within.

A white face poked out from the dark shadows and growled. The face was human and of an old man.

The thief stumbled backwards into the work desk too stunned to do anything but stare dumbly. The old man leapt from the closet with frothy saliva spitting out as he spoke with unintelligible words. His eyes were frightfully haunted and his stare was equally horrifying.

Cold hands clasped about the thief’s throat, then pressure until a crack sounded, followed by another, then finally a sickening crunch. The old white-faced man released his grip and let the body fall to the ground with a thump, then walked slowly back to the closet with his head drooped as if tired. Once inside the closet he closed the door so that he was again in darkness.

Mend

White clothing, needles injecting, hospital equipment, people lying on surgical beds.

The doctor wrote with a green pen on his clipboard, notes referring to test subjects, details relating to vile W-7.06.

The clipboard lowered from the doctors view revealing a man lying on a hospital bed dressed in a white gown with pale blue stripes. He was awake and alert with sensors taped to his head and body.

Early thirties male, weight at approximately 80 kilograms, height 180 centimetres, Caucasian, and was noted down on his clipboard as fit and healthy.

Red swelling had appeared on the surface of his arm around the break but the bone had not broken through the skin. The patient appeared a little nervous but calm enough to receive the procedure.

Presently the patients concentration was on the lights above him, it was possible he had not been informed of why he was here and so was confused, but that was of no concern to the doctor. Slowly the patient lowered his eyes from the bright lights and saw that a doctor had arrived at the end of his hospital bed.

‘Everything looks good here Mr Tyson, soon we will begin the procedure with an injection that will slowly send the serum around your body,’ the doctor with the clipboard explained with a comforting smile. ‘Just sit back and relax, it won’t last too long, I promise.’

The patient nodded, ‘Thanks doc.’ He was nervous but smiled back anyway.

The patient breathed in deeply before letting his breath out again and appeared quite relaxed afterwards. A young female doctor dressed in a business suit with a white overcoat administered the injection while smiling to her patient, she then wiped the needle mark with a white cotton ball. She looked back at the doctor, nodded and left for another room.

Sweat began to drip from the patients face as his heart rate increased to over 100 beats per minute. His calm demeanor disappeared. Rivulets of sweat rolled down and onto the blue hospital pillowcase darkening the fabric.

Suddenly the patients arm cracked and squeaked under the skin. A startled expression crossed the patients features as he looked up into the doctor’s eyes, then back down at his arm. They could both see movement under the skin as repairs took place. The patient looked as though he was about to ask an urgent question, but then dizziness swept in, his eyes rolled upwards and he fainted. Only the rise and fall of his chest disputed the possibility that death had swept in to take his life away.

The doctor’s probing fingers moved over the patients arm, he felt skin, muscles, tendons, and then deeper: bones; all in tact. Nothing was out of the ordinary. He quickly scribbled something on his clipboard and walked away satisfied with the results of the new drug.

Commitment

Lee clawed at the hands that held his head down and so received a knock to the back of the head as his reward. He tried to call out but instead breathed in water.

Lee’s body shook as he gagged. His head was then suddenly pulled up.

He coughed up the water from his lungs and said, ‘Oh god, oh god, oh god.’ Then threw up water from his stomach.

Karr, who was behind him, let go, causing him to fall to the floor. Lee lay on the ground while his body convulsed, putting his three fingered left hand to his face – the other two had been cut off. His right hand had been crushed with a hammer – he knew he would never have use of that hand ever again.

Lee had been in the military for over 12 years and had completed six tours, this was the first time he had been captured.

Karr picked up Lee’s semi-naked body and dragged it to the next room where the fire pit smouldered. Lee didn’t know if he could take any more pain. They were going to kill him, that was for certain, it was just a matter of when.

‘The clock’s ticking, my friend,’ the man in the shadows said. ‘If you can’t tell me where the next attack will come from, Karr will have to kill you.’

Lee said nothing.

The hot iron came towards him.

He closed his eyes as tight as they would go.