It was midnight. Several men in white coats were observing the status of the samples on the large room below. Various machines and computers were used to maintain and monitor every sample in the room directly below.
The main control room overlooked a larger room full of glass chambers with kids inside. Each glass chamber listed the age of the boy and each had a ticking timer. Some showed hours, while others already indicated a few days.
It was clear that those which had more days and hours looked sicklier than the ones with shorter times. Those who exceeded five days were even showing signs of rotting arms and legs.
"Interesting. Chamber 5-O is clearly resisting the drug." The head scientist looked intently at the displayed status of the boy.
"That child was taken from the Maldives right?" He asked his subordinates.
"Yes. Is it because of the radiation levels there?" His assistant suggested.
"Probably. But we have three other samples which were born there. And none of them have that!"
"Should we report it to the boss?"
"It's the Unlocking." Seeker suddenly interrupted.
The two scientists were surprised at Seeker presence but lost the capability to scream as their throat were no longer attached to their heads.
Seeker was drenched in blood. Cliff stood beside him but had a cleaner attire since he used guns.
Kristine felt as if her stomach continued to clenched at the grotesque display of murders that these two teens did on the way to this room.
"Sickening. So this is how they created it." An angry look once again surfaced on Seeker's face.
Kristine and Cliff watched silently. Cliff had long observed that Seeker wasn't his usual playful self. There was a spark of rage on his face. After having spent so long with him, and trained to the death with him, Cliff knew that the Seeker tonight was vastly different from the Seeker before.
Kristine soon noticed the poor rotting youths on the screen and gasped.
"The Plague of Locust." Seeker started to operate the complex computers before him and observed the status of the children.
"The Plague of Locust?" Kristine wondered.
"As the war against the Aragarians began, this chemical warfare slowly made its debut. Those affected would slowly decay to the point that most of the person body part would rot. It was a painful and gruesome disease. The enemy used locust to carry and spread this disease across the world. Hence its name, the Plague of Locust."
"How many did it kill?"
"It couldn't kill. Rather it was designed not to kill."
"Why would they develop a drug that couldn't kill?"
"Simple. This drug was made to weaken all opposing countries. It weakened our armies in two ways. First, though it couldn't kill, it greatly weakened our offensive power. As for the second reason, it explains why they chose to test it on children." Seeker asked.
Cliff suddenly confirmed that what Seeker said was true. He gazed at the several chambers and not one were adults.
"How cruel…" Kristine was shocked. Especially after carefully observing the rotting bodies of the kids as displayed on the computer. They seemed to be constantly crying in pain. Scratching their arms as pus and blood would come out. Still, despite the wounds, the kids would continue to scratch it drenching their arms with blood.
"Because of this plague, it forced us to use up a lot of our medical provisions. There were very few fatalities from these diseases. With constant treatment, it would almost be impossible to die. But that was the point." Seeker continued to read various reports on the computer.
"They were bleeding us dry. We would continually expend our resources to provide medical support…" Kristine realized the Aragarian's plot.
"But why kids?" Cliff couldn't help but be shocked at the brutality. It made his guilty heart grew lighter. Perhaps massacring those soldiers wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"Because of their immune system. If the virus manages to cause this decay for a long time without killing these kids, then the drug is successful. It seems that the development is still in the earlier stages. Over a hundred fatalities according to this report." Seeker grimly reported.
"A hundred kids…?" Kristine was shocked.
Cliff stared at the various kids in the chamber.
"They're as old as my younger brother.' Cliff clenched his fist in anger.
"Cliff, secure this building. Massacre everyone. No exemptions."
"My pleasure." Cliff walked out angrily. He readied his handguns and dashed off to eliminate everyone in this den of evil.
"Now do you understand why we have to kill?" Seeker asked Kristine coldly.
"How did we ever survive this…?" Kristine asked as tears fell down her eyes.
"This plague actually brought more blessings than curses." Seeker smiled.
"A blessing?"
"You see, the Unlocking is a very expensive and dangerous procedure. The success ratio was 1 in 30. But when this plague happened, we could finally identify who had the potential to be Unlocked." Seeker smiled.
"How?"
"Do you know that Meryl and Lynd just began their physical training a few days ago?" Seeker smiled.
"What?" Kristine was confused at the sudden shift of topics.
"The Unlocking has a tremendous impact on one physical body. For some reason, an Unlocked brain would also 'awaken' the cells of a person. They have faster regeneration, faster muscle development, and would therefore easily make them physically formidable. That is why, Lynd, Meryl, and Cliff could easily pull off killing enemies bigger and stronger than them even though they only started training a few days ago."
Seeker selected three chambers from the list and had it displayed on the screen.
"In other words, those who manage to show significant resistance towards this plague had the mental fortitude and potential to be Unlocked." Seeker smiled as he stared lovingly at the three kids on the screen.
As these three kids continued to lay on their chambers with a helpless and depressed expression, three other kids were showing the exact opposite of this.
In a mansion at the edge of a hill, on the outskirts of the city, three kids were huddled up in their room as they continued to play on their respective handheld console.
"These games are awesome! They even beat the games that we had at home!" The youngest was a boy of ten years. He had a happy smile as he continued to control his avatar run across the grassy fields in order to catch more monsters.
"Yeah. If only we got this much earlier! Just look at all the versions they have out here!" The middle child was a cute girl of 12 years of age and was endowed in what could only be explained as a princess outfit.
"Papa said that he can make a lot of money if he sells these games back home." The eldest was laid back boy who just reached his teens.
"Kids!" A shout was heard downstairs.
"It's dinner time!' The mother lovingly cried.
"Oh great! I wonder what country we get to try today?" The middle child excitedly walked down still holding on to the game console.
"I wonder if Papa's home." The youngest followed.
Several chefs stood at the side as the waiters served the array of dishes from all over the world.
"Oh! Italian!" The eldest excitedly ran and sat at his usual position.
"Mom! Can I have Japanese?" The youngest begged.
"You heard my son." The woman turned to the chefs at the side.
Suddenly, a small glass cylinder was thrown right in the middle of the large dining hall. An immense pressure paralyzed everyone.
Meryl coldly walked towards the table. Tears continued to fall from her eyes. Blood dripped down her dress as she walked towards the center. She carried a glass blade which was also dripping with blood.
Everyone could only look in shock at the raging steps of the girl. They couldn't scream as the deathly piercing pressure made them unable to breathe.
"Hello. Sorry for dropping in unexpectedly." Charles suddenly greeted.
"We just had to visit your house after finding your little operation down the mountain. Impressive operation by the way. I counted about 300 organs harvested tonight! I wonder what the monthly quota is." A sweet smile on Charles face appeared but a deep growing rage and disgust hid behind it.
"Your dad's home." Meryl then rummaged the white sack she carried and took out Feltrick's head.
"I just had to take him along to show you what we've done to him after witnessing what you've been up to." Meryl was smiling as she placed the head right at the center of the table.
Everyone else around the house was already killed off by Charles. He silently shot the heads of everyone other than the Aragarians in front of them.
The middle child had already fainted upon seeing the head of her father. The two others were trembling in fear. The wife could only stare in disbelief.
"Cruel? Not as cruel as you. We probably look like livestock to you guys." Meryl slowly pressed the blade towards the right chest of the eldest child.
Meryl was not hasty in her push. She slowly and smoothly pressed.
It was as if it delighted her to feel the blade penetrate through the skin, tissues and finally the heart.
It took around five long seconds until the sword pierced through the back of the boy. The boy was gasping and struggling at first. But his life slowly dwindled until he couldn't struggle anymore.
The trembling mother couldn't shout in horror but tears were falling down her eyes. She tried to slowly reach for her children but couldn't.
Meryl slashed off the head of the middle child as it did not please her to slowly kill someone who already fainted. The youngest, however, experienced the same thing his brother did.
Even Arthur had to turn around when Meryl started to slowly torture the mother.
"Sorry Arthur. Seeker's orders." Charles patted Arthur's back who looked disappointed at the deaths of the family.
"You alright Meryl?"
Meryl remained silent. She sat down and stared at the lifeless bodies of the once happy family.
"Don't think about the dead. Think of how many we saved." Arthur comforted.
There was silence in the room. Tonight was just a surprise. Seeker was the first to report his findings and now Meryl's team witnessed a nauseating scene of kids and adults slowly dying as their organs were harvested.
"Were they reserving this for their own army?" Meryl suddenly broke the silence.
"No. If Seeker's story is correct, and they never planned to participate in the war but have us kill each other, then this family was harvesting organs and blood for their own pockets. Feltrick was probably planning on selling these organs towards the allied countries when the war starts." Arthur said coldly.
"So, his reason for that massacre was so that he can make money during the war?" Meryl started to slowly sob.
Soon she started to cry.
The horrors she saw today weighed heavily upon her heart. The guilt of murder no longer remained but was replaced with a sense of guilt that she could have saved him.
A small boy was tied on a complex machine when they arrived. Meryl did her best to reach him, but it was too late. The boy died as the machine drained its blood. Everyone in the building who conducted the harvesting of organs was brutally murdered by Meryl.
Her anger was not easily satisfied as she saw hundreds of adults and kids in the mix. Charles later calculated that there were over three hundred bodies in that room whose organs were harvested.
Meryl couldn't help but remember the clear look that little boy gave her. Her Unlocking made her capture that moment accurately. And Meryl could have saved him if she was stronger.
Meryl sat on the chair with no intention of moving.
Tonight, she killed plenty. But her enemy clearly massacred more.
Amidst the silence of the room, Charles phone began to ring.
Charles quickly answered
"Zeek?"
"Charles. Head for Lynd's location." Seeker commanded immediately.
"Is he alright?" Charles was surprised.
"No. He went berserk and lost it." Seeker spoke grimly.
"Was he shot?" Charles immediately signaled everyone to rush out. Meryl awoke from her stupor and immediately followed.
"Worse. I think he broke through and reached Inhuman!"