Blood Sisters
Chapter 4

It was 7:27 am and Bernie Johnsonwas making his rounds in FSDF Pod 3. These mutants made his stomachchurn. They are unnatural, an affront against God Bernie oftenthought. A Southern Baptist from a proud black Mississippi family, COJohnson knew what a sinner was. Homosexuals, Jews, Liberals, and notthe least of all these damned freaks.

CO Johnson was at the cell doorof Victor Davos, PXT-336, and saw that he was still in his bed.Bernie grabbed his shock-stick with his large hand and pounded on thecell bars. A buzzing like a fly in a bug zapper was heard along withthe ring of the club on the metal bars. “Shower and BREAK-fast timeDavos, you know your 'posed to be up and at the bars now, lets gobefore I have to learn you one!” Bernie's Mississippi drawl didnot rouse Victor and the big CO hit the bars harder, the shock-sticksending a charge up and down the metal this time. “Davos, up Isaid!”. Still he lay there. Bernie growled and shouted over to theCO station in the center of the pod “I need an entry squad overhere, cell 12” he looked back over at Davos' still form in the bed.“You've had it now Davos, I am gonna beat your skull in”.

A few minutes later, three guardsjoined him in heavy gear and they entered the cell. They found VictorDavos unresponsive, no pulse, no breathing. All the guards knewVictor's profile, how he apparently couldn't be killed, but there wasnothing about him just being dead like this. “This has gotta be atrick” Bernie said with annoyance, but rules were rules.“All-right, haul his ass to the infirmary, all three of ya go andkeep a close eye on 'im”. Bernie cursed under his breath as theyquickly shackled Davos and carried him off to the docs. Berniedecided to forget hitting the code blue alarm that would alert themedical staff. I hope he really is dead he thought.

Theprison doctors and nurses were sitting at a table in the staff officelike they did every morning, yawning through rounds over lousycoffee. The guards came rushing in with the dead man. The staff cameto life and did what they were trained to do, CPR, breathing mask,shocking his heart back to life... Eventually they got life signsfrom Davos, but he remained unresponsive. His EEG showed no brainactivity. To all appearances, Victor was in a coma, probably braindead. The nurses cleaned him up and set him up on life support. Davoshad no known next of kin to contact, no known lawyer either since healways represented himself. So he would have to lay there while anoutside medical board were consulted to make his end-of-lifedecisions. Perhaps TheDead Man is really dead this time theythought. Inside his head, Davos Muerte smiled.

Victor waited three days feigninghis vegetative state. He willed himself not to move, not to breathe,to barely even think. He would only get to pull this trick once, soit had to work. His nose started to itch, his muscles cramped up inprotest from being held still for hours on end. Victor had tosuppress the gag reflex from the tube down his throat, which alsohurt like a son-of-a-bitch.

The droning, repetitive, beepingof the heart monitor was like Chinese water torture to his ears. Thetaste in his throat was like wet hay and the smell was worse. Best ofall, he was being fed through a tube and crapping into a bag. He evenstarted to think being dead, really dead, was better then this; butVictor had a will of iron, and it held.

Davos knew he only had so longbefore the medical committee decided to pull the plug and hisopportunity would be lost. He wasn't sure he could survive beingcremated, and if they did an autopsy... well, he didn't think hecould lay still for that either.

Victor's patience eventually paidoff. On the third night of his self-induced coma, the weary CO onovertime decided to take a break and left him unattended. Victor knewwhere the cameras in the infirmary were. He also knew this was anolder part of the prison overdue for renovation, not as secure as therest of Shay's Mountain.

Disentanglinghimself from his life-support and quickly disabling the medicalalarm, Victor carefully picked his way across the room, keeping outof the camera's view, palming some improvised tools along the way.The Dead Man thought Ifthey are sampling my blood, they should be sampling the other inmatesas well... here's hoping.Davos awkwardly picked the lock to the med-lab with two paperclips,cursing under his breath for how long it was taking him. Finally itclicked open and he crept inside. As he suspected, there was nocamera in the lab. Victor moved over to the cold storage unit. Insidehe found his treasure; dozens of blood samples in neat little darkred rows of Pyrex.

Victor knew exactly which one hewas looking for... and was grateful that someone was meticulousenough to put the vials in alphabetical order. He pulled out the 'M'rack, grabbed a vial and returned to his bed as quick as cautionallowed. With a shark smile The Dead Man quickly poured half of theblood into the guards coffee thermos, then steeling himself he drankthe rest of the foul tasting stuff himself.

With a flurry of johnnieass-crack and stale white sheets Victor did his best to appearcomatose and back on the life-support. He doubted the guard wouldnotice the disabled alarms and the fact that the tubes were no longergoing down his throat. Fortunately the oxygen mask made that parteasier. The Dead Man closed his eyes and waited.

Several minutes passed before theguard returned with doughnuts from the break room. Just as planned hewarmed up his coffee, drinking in Victor's key to freedom. Theminutes ticked by until Victor finally felt the presence in his headhe had been waiting for. “Hello Michaela” Davos thought. Hesensed a moment of surprise from her strange mind. “Who is this?!”Michaela demanded telepathically. “I am the person that is going toget us out of here, but only if you can swallow that pride of yoursand do what I say” Victor could feel her annoyance heating up hisbrain.

“Speak” the vampiress thought. Davos decided not tocorrect her and said “I know your abilities Michaela and...” thevampire grabbed his mind in a telepathic grip “how do you know melittle man?!”. Cringing, the dead man thought back “I am justthat good, I make it my business to know, now lay off and listen”.He wondered at the power the vampire derived from her mix of bloodand bio-mutant energy. Michaela relaxed her hold “continue”.“Listen” Davos continued. “In a few minutes your going to feelcontact with the brain of a CO who I have poisoned with your blood.Use the control you then gain over him to assist me in getting to youand getting you out of your cell. Once I am there I will tell you therest of the plan”. Michaela sneered into his mind and thought “whydon't I just take control of you now, rip what I need to know fromyour head and leave you a drooling idiot on the floor?”. Victorsmiled “I am older then even you, my dear blue lady, and I knowsome tricks of my own. Don't underestimate my will. You might be ableto take control of me enough physically to force me to be yourpuppet, but taking control of my thoughts will be considerably moredifficult. I doubt we have time for that, now just do as I say and wewill both be out of here in minutes”. Michaela growled low “fine”.

It took longer for the guard tosuccumb then expected, the coffee and the doughnut must have slowedthings down. Eventually the vampire had him. The Dead Man and thepuppet guard made their way to Michaela's cell, disabled the femaleguards at the door and let themselves in.

Michaela had her puppet free herfrom behind the security wall and she stepped menacingly towardsVictor. He spoke quickly as he backed away from her “Okay listendoll, I know that you have no special movement abilities, I mean youcan run faster then a mundane I am sure, but not fast enough to runaway from D-Day's Special Marshal team and the US Army that will beright on our heels. and I sure as hell can't.”

Michaela telepathically grabbedVictor's brain and held him still, coming so close to him that hecould practically feel her. His body started screaming in response inboth terror and insatiable desire. Victor panted “We just have toget to one other cell and we can get out of here... just think of itmy murderous friend... my brains, and... your... well, all the thingsyou can do, we can get out of here, get revenge on whoever you want,help each other... we wont get captured again I swear...”

Victor was starting to losecontrol, the seductive quality of the vampiress, her blood raging inhis veins, her supernatural beauty so close to him, he started tosweat. He managed to force out “Listen, please lady, don't make mebeg... I have a plan, I know who captured you and locked you up inhere... I know how to kill her...” Michaela released him and Davosdropped to the floor. Michaela narrowed her ruby eyes at the dead man“You know how she can be killed?” Victor nodded.

“Finethen Dead Man wehave an agreement, betray me at your peril. I know about youas well. I may not be able to kill you, but I can still drink all theblood from your body that I want and you wont die.” Her voice wasfull of icy menace. “If you don't want to spend eternity in my winecellar, you had better be able to do as you say”. Victorsuppressed a chill, wiped his brow and got to his feet. Before hecould collect himself Michaela grew claws and killed all three of theguards, dragging the dead women into the room then taking a fewseconds to fill up on the blood of the male guard... Michaela scrapedher tongue under her fangs and licked his blood from her drippinglips, her eyes closed and mouth open in bone-chilling ecstasy. Thevampiress gasped in delight, then her eyes snapped over at Victorfilled with lust from the kill. The Dead Man was revolted at hisdesire.

“Dallas” was the namestitched on the dead guard's uniform. Victor recognized the man, COMike Dallas. Now he was a bloody corpse on the ground, a waterfallfrom his stained red neck soaking his green uniform black. The brutaldisplay made The Dead Man wince, he was usually not around when theviolence from his plans occurred. He frowned, thinking well thesepeople knew the risk when they started cashing their paychecks.Even so, he sighed at the vampire “We might have needed one of themalive.” Michaela just looked at him scornfully, wiping the last ofMike's blood from her face with the back of her cold blue hand.Victor closed his eyes and shook his head. There was nothing to dobut let it go. Davos poked his hawkish face out the door to check thehall, then spoke over his shoulder at the vampire “We haven't gotmuch time left before all this is discovered. We need to free onemore person to get us out of here Michaela; we need to get to TheSilhouette”.

Silhouette was one of the youngergeneration of New Humans, it had become apparent over time that themutations that were creating them were getting more powerful. It wasonly 30 years ago or so that the first Omega mutations were born.That was when the government started to catalog the powers of the NewHumans, giving them a classification such as Alpha's, Beta's,Gamma's, Omega's etc. Then congress passed the National SecurityRegistration Act (NSRA), which was promptly signed into law. The NSRArequired that all 'powered, hyper-normal or mutated' individualsregister with the government and provide a tissue sample. This wasthe first legislation of its kind, and many other nations followedwith similar laws.

These suspensions of civilliberties were pushed through on a wave of public fear about theincreasingly powerful New Humans and a creative interpretation of theNational Security Act of 1947 which led to an expanded role of theDOD and the NSA in domestic security where mutated people wereinvolved. Many New Humans resisted and have refused to comply withthe NSRA, which has remained an issue to this day.

An FBI Special Operations officeinvestigates New Human activity, the DOD and NSA enforce nationalNSRA related policies, providing security and detainment facilities,such as Ft. Miles. The US Special Marshal team (USSM) tracks downconvicted New Humans at large, and other needs relating to anymutated person that is involved with the criminal justice system or aviolation of the NSRA.

Many New-Hums are considered tohave betrayed their own community by cooperating with this nonsense.Mutated humans with enhanced intelligence have created newtechnologies, such as the robotics genius who was known as TheBrigadier, Paul Desnoyers, who became the new D-Day. Paul was givencommand over the Special Marshals. An Air Force major and New Humanknown as Freedom Falcon created flying battle-suits for a specialunit of Blue Berets. A unknown, but likely mutated, person behind theM-Tech corporation has developed many advanced technologies, such asthe lightweight, but tough, bullet-resistant beta-cloth. M-Techprovides equipment to registered New Humans, and many non-militarylaw enforcement agencies to help them manage criminal hyper-normalactivity.

The Silhouette has amazing powersrelated to a mysterious, previously unknown dimension that is known colloquially as the Shadow Dimension, the Shadow Worldor simply Shadow. Victor reads anything and everything. Herecently read an article about some fringe String Theorists that haveclaimed the discovery of this shadow dimension could prove their takeon the Quantum Theory of Gravity, which only works mathematicallywith more then three dimensions. Other physicists have proposedso-called dark matter or dark energy theories in relation to thispreviously unknown aspect of space-time. In any case, The Silhouettecan jump in and out of shadows, manipulate shadows, even make themsolid. Most importantly for Victor and Michaela, The MidnightMistress could transport others to and from this Shadow Dimensionwith her.

Michaela left a train of deadguards, but two fugitive's luck held until they got to TheSilhouettes cell. The Dark Lady, like Michaela, was in a specialroom. It was lit with wrap-around low frequency red LED lights thatprevented any shadows from being cast in the room. The Silhouette hadthe slender body of a dancer, dark gray skin and straight, impossiblyblack chin length hair. Her luminous eyes glowed like soft moonlightwithout pupil or iris. Victor took a moment to look her over, likingher shape. He hit the intercom as Silhouette walked over to the thickpolarized glass containing her. Davos said “We need you to get usout of here Silhouette, I'll let you out if you get us out.” Silhouette did not even need to think about it. “You got itMuerte, open this wall and I will do the rest.” Davos hit therelease switch just as the general prison alarm started to sound. Hesmiled to himself “Not a moment to soon.” The Silhouette steppedinto the hallway just as the federal prison's anesthetic gas startedventing into the air. The lights in the hallway clicked off, aspecial precaution for this prisoner. Victor turned on the flashlighthe had obtained from a fallen guard. That made shadow enough.Silhouette reached out to them and The Terrible Trio slipped awayinto the darkness, and freedom.