It had been a few days since the attack on the facility. I was temporarily sent home while the government sorted out the mess. With half of the building blown off it wouldn’t do much good to start hunting down the experiments before we had a place to store them, we’d find them eventually anyway. I was able to sleep for about 4 hours before my phone rang, it was time to hunt down the escapees.
Myself and the three other hunters that had helped look for Mimic were all called in, we were given a short list of the experiments that had escaped. To my dismay, Dahlia was in fact on the list. She couldn’t move on her own, so it was clear she was with another one of the experiments, which one though I had no clue. I tried flipping through the pages to see if the man I had seen with Mimic was on the list, but he wasn’t.
We were able to find about half of the 20 escapees within the first day. Some of the experiments just stand out a bit too much, and with no one to help them on the outside they are just sitting ducks.
There were still 11 at large though, Dahlia of course among those. I kept hoping every time we found a new lead, that they would be the one carrying Dahlia, but unfortunately that was not the case.
After doing a quick sweep of the nearby city with no new results, we were all sent home to rest. The government would go through cameras and contact us if they found anything. They were also calling in reinforcements after the attack, trying to find out who orchestrated it.
There was absolutely no way I was going home with a killer doll stalking me though. Instead I made sure that I wasn’t being followed, I parked my car on a random street, and found a small motel.
It was a crappy run-down place, but that oddly made me feel safer. I slept with my lethal gun in hand, and my tranq gun nearby. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep much, but it would only be worse for me if Dahlia did come, and I was too exhausted to fight back.
The night went by with no incidences though. I was called early in the morning once again; it turns out two experiments had been spotted together, they had stolen a car and were on route to leave the city. The people back at the facility would slow them down as much as possible with stoplights. They wanted me and another one of the hunters to meet up and follow them, they could possibly lead us to more of the escaped.
I was able to quickly meet up with one of the hunters from before, he was probably mid 30’s, so he had probably been doing this much longer than I had. Luckily, we were able to catch sight of the stolen vehicle just before it left town. Despite knowing they had been slowed down, it seemed too easy.
The car began taking backroads, and eventually pulled in to an old cabin. Despite us being the only car behind it most of the time, it didn’t seem to show any unusual behavior as to suggest it knew we were following it.
The other hunter pulled over a short distance from the cabin, and he began to ready himself. I pulled out my phone, this was obviously a trap, I thought that maybe I could call backup, but the other hunter stopped me.
“Listen kid, I’ve been at this a long time. I know this is probably a trap, but do you really think they are going to send anyone to help us? We’re on our own, and you can either help me, or sit out here and wait. I’m going in.”
“Well then, after you I suppose.” I replied coldly. I knew he was probably right thought, the government didn’t care much about us, they would probably have just scolded me and asked what I was waiting for. So I began to gear up as well, death might be favorable compared to whatever Dahlia wanted to do with me.
The other hunter and I exited the vehicle and made our way as sneakily as is possible in daylight. Once we made it to the door, the hunter gave a countdown of 3 before throwing some sort of grenade through the front window. It exploded in to gas, quickly filling the home. I couldn’t help but wonder why I had never gotten access to these grenades before.
After the gas had mostly dispersed, we covered our noses with our shirts and went inside. We instantly found one of the experiments unconscious on the floor. If I remember correctly her codename was Trauma. By touching someone, she could force them to see their worst nightmares. I guess since water-boarding is too inhumane she must be the solution.
The other hunter began to make his way over to her, and he began restraining her, while I watched his back. He was almost done, when everything went black.
When I came to, I saw the other hunter was tied to a chair in front of me, he was still unconscious. I then looked down to see I was in the same situation, I was firmly tied down to a chair.
“Ah, you’re finally awake.” A male voice to my side said.
I turned to look. It was the man from before, the one that had walked through the wall. He was also sat in a chair, but he wasn’t tied up, I doubt any sort of bindings could hold him anyway. On his lap sat a doll, the doll had a hood pulled up just enough to cover its eyes. The man began to speak again.
“It’s actually a bit funny, last time we met I gave you someone tied up in a chair, and now you yourself are tied up.”
“What do you want?” I replied. Not in the mood for any games, not that I had much choice.
“I told you, Dahlia here was coming to pick you up, but instead you came to see her yourself, how sweet of you!” The man said.
“Did you really miss me that much?” Dahlia finally spoke up.
“Can you just kill me already, or do whatever you’re going to do with me?” I responded.
“I told you, I let the bad ones live, and you have been quite bad recently. Killing that poor man Jack, it was a bit fast, but I’m sure you still enjoyed it.” Dahlia said mocking me.
“I just did what I was told, he knew what he signed up for.”
“Yes, he did. The rest of us are not so fortunate. All of our lives were turned in to games by the government, the only difference between us, is that you had a choice, the rest of the experiments and myself never had the luxury of knowing what we were getting in to.” Dahlia said.
“So what, you want to overthrow the government, expose them or something?” I questioned.
Dahlia began to laugh.
“Hehehehehe, heavens no. They are far too powerful for that, and there are too few of us to even think about challenging them, I simply don’t care enough about something like that. No, I simply wanted you.”
“What do you want from me? I may have done terrible things, but I’m still nothing like you.” I replied.
“Maybe not yet, but you will be soon enough.”
After she said this two new people entered the room, they were both wearing lab coats. One held a syringe, and once he reached me he plunged it in to my arm, releasing the fluids. Once again the world went black.
I awoke again to find myself looking at two bodies. One was the other hunter, the other was mine. Both had a bullet hole in the head.
How was this possible? Am I dead? Then how am I still seeing this. I quickly looked down at myself fearing the worst.
I wasn’t trapped in a doll, I still appeared to be human. I touched my face and the rest of my body, I still felt solid, and I was still capable of picking things up, but why was my body seemingly dead on the floor?
“It’s incredible isn’t it? It looks exactly like you, even down to the fingerprints. One of the experiments abilities. The other one isn’t a replica though, he’s quite dead, and done in with your gun by the way.” This came from the voice of the ghost-like man from before.
“What did you do to me?” I asked, I knew they had to have done something to me.
The man simply shrugged.
“Nothing, it seems as if your body rejected the serum they had planned for you.”
Rejected? Well, at least that was one thing to be happy about. Although I was still stuck in a room with one of my captors, as well as a dead body and the replica of my own dead body.
“What now then?” I asked, even though I wasn’t sure I’d get a direct answer.
“Since the serum didn’t work, Dahlia has one last plan for you.”
As he said this, the door once more opened. Dahlia was brought back in to the room by Trauma, this time with no hood.
I was no longer tied up, but I knew there was still no way for me to escape yet. So I stood still as Trauma approached me with Dahlia in hand.
Once Trauma stood directly in front of me, I crouched down and looked directly in to Dahlia’s eyes, I wouldn’t fight fate.
What I saw in those eyes was pure evil, I saw countless wars, murders, deaths, suicides, it seemed to be endless tragedy.
I didn’t lose control of myself though, instead I quickly reached for the lighter that I had been hiding in my shoe ever since I knew Dahlia had escaped. I flicked it almost instantly and held it to Dahlia’s dress. She went up in a blaze.
There was no stopping the fire, Trauma and the strange man desperately tried to stop it, but it was as if Dahlia had been soaked in gasoline. I took a second to smile, before sprinting out the door.
I saw several people on my way out of the house, but none of them seemed concerned with me, they all were trying to get to the room with Dahlia. I knew the whole cabin would be alight soon, so I just needed to get out.
Once I made it outside I quickly ran to where the hunter’s car had been parked, it was surprisingly still there, they hadn’t moved it yet, but he still had the key. So, I smashed the window and hot-wired the car as quickly as possible, and I sped off.
By the time I drove by, the fire in the cabin was massive. I almost hoped that all those inside would die, but they had all been under Dahlia’s control, it’s possible there were some good people among them. I let the though die instead, as I continued to move forward.
I’ve been hiding out ever since that day. I know writing this only puts me in more danger, but this story needed to be put out there. It’s almost guaranteed the government will read this, and perhaps they will send someone after me, but I don’t care anymore.
I won’t be a puppet to anyone, not the government, and not a psychotic doll. I’m officially done hunting down the government’s mistakes.
---
Credits
Comments