A scowl found its habitation mated down my expression as I rubberneck at the long aisle that didn't seem to cease, with my steps rambling behind Agent Alice. The only sound creaking through the air was the noise of our feet tapping against the tiled floor as we swerved through the hallway.
It was just 6 am when Mr Berlin called me to the academy, and I understood someone was there to take me to the agency. Grace had arrived in time, almost as if monitoring me.
I had thought the agency was located in an entirely distinct location, but that didn't explain me walking behind Agent Alice at a part of the academy building that was devoid of human activities. Silence consolidated our midst, however, I didn't feel the need to break it when the female in front of me hadn't darted my way since we stepped out of Mr Berlin's office. I respected her aim for quietness.
We reached the end of the hallway and to an elevator which appeared abandoned. Yet, I watched as she brought out a card and placed it on the scanner of the elevator, and automatically -and incredibly- it opened after card recognition and a thumbprint.
The desire to possess something like that steered through me.
Entering after her, the metal doors closed. The walls enveloped our existence as the elevator plummeted down, to a basement, maybe.
After what seemed like hours due to the silence encompassing me, I heard the ding sound, and abruptly the metal doors unfurled.
The floor we arrived at was dim, but I could make out faint voices, paper ruffling and footsteps coming probably behind doors, office doors. I walked behind Agent Alice with little knowledge of where I was. I was thankful she wasn't on heel today, to prevent the torture of hearing the clicks of the heels all the way down here since only silence seemed to have chaperoned us. Her professional attire, however, held a flicker of polish.
We ambled through an open door at a distance, and I was surprised at the number of people inside the room and stunned at the number of pictures on the wall with markings and strings as my eyes wandered; it was the bat-infected case displayed. The people seemed to be arguing but in low tones amongst themselves. But they all wavered when they saw me -probably my trainee attire- as their gazes contorted.
I saw Agent Miles amongst the people. And Director Donald.
Director Donald broke the silence, steering his head as he motioned to me. "This is Agent Quinn, the newest member of this operation."
Then introductions surfaced.
Everybody here had different fields they specialized in. Then I understood that most of them were under the Counterterrorism Division and the Science and Technology branch, just different units underneath it.
A female walked into the room, which didn't seem to die down the already busy space as she deviated towards the Director. She tilted to him and spoke softly, just for him to hear. But I heard it.
"Agents from the Intelligence Branch are here with news concerning the bat virus." She whispered softly. Then he said back to her.
"Collect the information,"
"They stated it needs your signature and approval first,"
The director's eyes roamed across the room before falling back to the female beside him. "I'll be there." The female nodded, walking off. And he followed not long after, tossing a nod to Alice as he strides away.
I had never been in a room filled with agents before, and working with them to solve a case sounds like a dream come true. Unless it doesn't look like a dream to me at this moment. More like a nightmare fantasy. A nightmare one doesn't wake up from.
My gaze slid off the agents and wavered to the wall with pictures and strings. I didn't need to be up close to it to see it evidently, because from the position I could. I saw pictures of dead victims, and people undergoing mutation who were shot in the head or neck. Killed in sight. As I examined further, I realized how different my transformation was from them. My eyes wandered to a body that looked freshly killed on the wall, her face held strings of dried transparent veins and her opened hollow eyes held emptiness. It wasn't hollow just because of the death, but because of what she was changing to.
It was frankly different. My claws weren't completely raven like the pictures neither were my eyes void with concaveed depths, and my neck wasn't slanted. It almost made me feel like I wasn't truly bitten, but transforming naturally. Which wasn't possible.
My eyes fell on another picture. A figure standing at a distance at the time the picture of a dead infected policeman was taken but was captured by the camera unknowingly. The face wasn't recognizable, nor was the red gleam in the eyes, but I noticed the red gleam and the lengthy female wavy hair.
"[Subject's location identified.]"
"Huh?" I said softly, almost tilting my head to know what spoke to me, but then realized it was the server. I had almost forgotten about the server.
"[Protect subject from harm.]"
"What?" I simply didn't understand.
"Is there a problem?" Agent Alice asked, speaking to me for the first time that morning. She was standing away from me, but her eyes were on me, staring at me as if trying to see my soul. Or the woven venom in the pit of my stomach.
"No." I carefully replied. My eyes shifted from her, trailing back to the unidentified female on the wall that I was to protect. But that's a suspect that needs to be exterminated. And I can't possibly try to protect someone whose first instinct was to kill and sink fangs. Besides, guns don't affect them, so she'll be safe even while standing inside of the agenc-
"-kill them. Its antibacterial properties help tarnish and corrode these bat-infected people." A new guy from a department I couldn't remember said minutes after entering the room.
He'd been speaking and I hadn't been paying attention to him, until currently. "These subjects were tested," He pointed to four pictures on the table, which I hadn't acknowledged until now. One of the pictures was identical to what I was looking at on the wall. "Fine silver with millesimal fineness of 999 toiled more effectively." He pointed to the picture where the unidentified girl was standing from afar but their concentration was on the dying policeman and pointed at the same image which seemed to have been taken hours later, which didn't have the lurking figure.
The pictures left me stunned. The one with the strange girl from afar shows the policeman dying in the scene after recently being shot with a silver bullet and the drastic transformation eight hours later in the second picture. It ate up the dead man and turned him into bones.
The fellow resumed speaking as the others listened. "But fine silver is very soft and malleable; hardness and durability isn't its virtue. So, these additional two pictures show the uses of sterling silver. The silver contains 7.5% copper, which helps with these qualities."
I observed the four images and noted the difference. Fine silver was indeed more effective.
Another fellow, probably from the same department as the speaking guy, spoke up this time. "For effective killing, the fine silver will be utilized. But it will be clotted with a thin layer of another metal to improve the bullet's hardness." He said, his eyes meandering across the team.
"Has it been experimented on already transformed targets?" Alice asked, her arms tucked and her solemn eyes down at the pictures. "If it takes eight hours to eat the transforming one up, then I suppose it takes a day to eat up the already transformed."
"Yes, it takes twenty-five hours to eat them up when the bullet meets the skull, but thirty hours if it's the body. But once shot, it propels them from moving and immobile till they decay." The first guy reacted.
I could see the relief washing down their faces at this realization. I wanted to be glad as well, relieved like the others but I couldn't. This only presented to me how my life was destined to end. A fine bullet buried in my skull.
"[Subject proximity alert!]"
"[Subject is two miles away from the agency.]"
The fuck?
I couldn't eliminate the frown from showcasing between my brows and the annoyance dancing on my expression. I felt a headache coming up.
I couldn't help but wonder who was dying today with a pending silver bullet up the brain. Me or the subject?