JOURNEY THROUGH THE WITHERED

CHAPTER I
HENRI
The metallic orb floated just in front of Henri’s face, bobbing up and
down, illuminating the small, cramped room which reflected back walls of
rusted metal. The dust scattered on the floor, irritating his nose. On Henri’s
side, the table was empty except for a flower vase and a couple of
notebooks. They were journals he had to write on every day. On the
doctor’s side were a bunch of complex buttons and levers that Henri lost
the interest to figure out. Dr. Fritrei sat before him, his eyes stern and
serious.

Henri bit his fingernail. Dr. Fritrei was the exact doctor who saved him
years ago when he was three, infected with Mortitis – a viral infection that
corroded blood vessels. With the pleads of his mother, Henri, who was at
the Third Stage of the infection, was given intensive treatment. A syringe
every six hours and daily surveillance even weeks after he was treated.

‘I guess nothing really changed,’ Henri thought, gripping with him the
security that the doctor couldn’t read his mind.

“You know why you have to do this.” Dr. Fritrei said, fiddling with his
thumbs.

Henri looked down. After several weeks of observation, intensive

training and practical “internship” (which consisted of following the doctors
and soldiers into highly irradiated places, forests with deadly animals, cities
infested with the infected, etc.), he was given the task to visit the Withered
and pick up some possible specimens for the scientists – people who were
just like him. The Withered was nothing more than a slang for a highly
scorched region down in Central America stretching as far as Bolivia – a
lifeless and gray desert of cracked streets, dilapidated buildings and
infected people. No one who visited the area had ever come back… no one
normal, anyway.

Henri didn’t say anything, although he couldn’t decline.

“Why does it have to be today?” He asked.

“There is no other time.” The doctor shifted in his seat, “We are in
need of another specimen.”

He was talking about what they called “mutants.” People who

survived the immense radiation and, for some reason, gained some
peculiar abilities. People like Henri. The doctors wanted to find out what
was so special in them, why they were able to withstand the heat and
radiation.

“What about Tobias?”

“Good idea.” The doctor said, snapping his fingers. “I’ll have him
accompany you.”

Henri sighed, disappointed that the doctor misunderstood him. Tobias

was one of the five specimens that the doctor claimed to have. He was the
only specimen that Henri ever met.

The doctor pressed a button which ringed like a door bell. “Call in
Tobias.”
 The doors immediately opened. Tobias walked in, his stature a little
bit short for an average sixteen year old. He was a year younger than
Henri. His brown, curly hair contrasted with the other’s straight, black hair
that jutted messily out his skull.

“You’ll be accompanying Henri in his mission.” The doctor said. “Find

the other mutants and bring them to me.”

Tobias nodded. He walked over to Henri and grabbed his hand.

“Okay.”

“This is not what I meant.” Henri said, unbothered by the younger

boy.

“Henri, it would’ve been nice to negotiate about the options but we’re
really short-handed here.” The doctor said. “We need to stop the virus from
spreading.”

“What if we die?”

“You won’t.” The doctor said, avoiding the question. It was clear that
there was something that he wouldn’t say. Henri refrained from “digging in.”
He figured that he was too tired to use his abilities.

The doctor stood up, and gestured to them. He walked to the side of
the room and led them through a hatchet down by the corner. Under the
room was a small, observation laboratory.

Metal scraps scattered the floor. Nine large holo-vision sets floated
on one side of the room. They displayed some parts of the city. Henri
couldn’t remember its name. The streets ran through, molten and cracked,
bodies sewn within metal pipes, cracked cements and toppled down
buildings. The northern part of the city was still partly submerged under a
couple feet of water. The eastern part was teeming with the infected. Their
clothes were torn and tattered, soaked with blood and water. Wounds ran
down their skin, bruises and bumps distorting the gray and red tints of their
body. They were like a mob of zombies walking around.

“It’s a mess.” Tobias said.

“This is the situation.” The doctor replied, “This is why we need you.
Imagine if we could give these people a cure.”

“No more deaths.” Henri said. “Do you promise that?”

“I promise.” The doctor said.

Henri sighed, clenching Tobias’ hand tighter. “Okay. We’ll do it.”

The doctor smiled.

‘Things are falling right into place.’ Henri heard the doctor think.

-#-

Dr. Tara drove them down the city. She was a tall woman, probably
around her thirties or forties. She had her brown hair kept in a bun. Though
she looked nice, Henri liked to think of her as some sort of bad-ass who
could randomly whip out a gun when the time called for it.

She led her car into the entrance of a fortified building. Soldiers
guarded the area fiercely, holding close with them their phasers. A bullet
from one of these could vaporize a thick portion of skin, leaving it open with
the blood vessels and all.

“So far, so good.” He said. “Are you afraid?”

 “Eh.” Tobias said.

“Heh, same.”

The car jolted to a stop right at the back of the building.

“We’re here.” Tara said. “Come with me.”

She led them into the building, down a couple hallways decorated
with hung pictures of people who have probably died. At the very end of the
hall was an elevator. She pressed the buttons for the highest floor.

The Transpoint Zone.

 CHAPTER 2
TOBIAS
Tobias came out of the Transpoint dizzy and confused. His mind was
spinning in circles. Just three seconds ago, Henri pressed a big red button
on a panel in the Transpoint room – a small, elevator like room with gray
walls scraped through with rust – and his whole world suddenly turned
black. For a split second, he lost consciousness, and then the next, he
woke up thousands of miles away from where they started. He pulled off
the straps that wound him to the wall, curled down and immediately
vomited. Teleportation devices always made him nauseous.

“Are you okay?” Henri said.

Tobias nodded. Though he couldn’t say anything, his mouth was still
shivering from the coldness of the air.

Henri helped him stand up. Together they walked out the Transpoint
into a large, dark room. It was some sort of facility, littered with test tubes,
wires and IV tubes. Somewhere across, the floor tiles caved in into a large
hole with a rope hanging down. The door before this was locked, the metal
splitting it weaving into each other like it was fused by some sort of welding
device, a chain was tied on both their handles and a chair lied slanted on it
for good measure.

“Tara said to go through this hole.” Henri said. “You wanna go first?”

Tobias nodded. He wasn’t much of a talkative person.

He walked towards the whole and sled through the rope. Henri
followed after.
 Tobias landed on a wet floor. The water reached up his ankle,
shallowly waving with the breeze of the wind. Henri led the way. A couple
feet forward, there was an opening that led up to the world above.
Shattered pieces of wood peaked through – it probably served as a closing
before.

“Wait.” Tobias said, breaking the silence of their footsteps. “If that’s
open, doesn’t it mean…”

A croaking moan answered his question. Both of them looked

backwards. Limping towards them, two men, their eyes half open, their jaw
leaning to the side clearly broken. Bloodstains dotted throughout their hair,
their clothes were a splash of pink