Chapter 28: Confrontation

“Aliens?!?” Bill coughed out the coffee he had been drinking from his cube-shaped mug, surprised. It was unfortunate, considering he loved the drink.

Drake and General Rein were at Bill’s house, about a fifteen minutes’ trolley ride away from Drake’s. President Atkinson had assigned them the task of gathering a group of people for their mission of detaining Dr. Jillian Lazzie. They were to come back later to form the plan. The President was too busy with his duties to join them, and would also attract suspicion if he did.

Drake and Rein explained the situation.

“I see…” Bill was taking it surprisingly well. “So, you want to confront her. Alright, why don’t we just go to her lab with an army from the Defense Force or the Police? Well, maybe the police won’t cooperate, now that Smith was replaced…” he mumbled the last part.

Rein looked at Drake. Like father, like son. Drake had thought of the same plan earlier.

“We can’t just go up to her,” Drake explained. “She may have some supernatural abilities and allies. We need to think about who we can trust to work with, and how we can minimize risks in this operation.”

“Abilities…? Oh. Well, I didn’t think about that…” Bill responded. “It’s probably good to take precautionary measures. Hmmm…” he thought, “I can gather data on the city plan and Lazzie from the city Register. It ought to help to find a good place to take and then corner her. In the Meanwhile, you two find others. We should establish a taskforce.” Once again, he had the same train of thought as Drake.

What the… Do these two share a brain or something? Rein thought.

“Got it. Now, who else can help?” Drake said.

The three thought for a bit.

“Who else, huh?” Bill said. “If only your grandfather were here. He was an excellent strategist. Well, at least until toward the end of his life. In fact, he used to be in charge of-”

“Oy! Stay focused.” Drake said. “No getting the mood all sentimental.”

“Oh, right. I got distracted again,” his father realized. “Gotta focus. This is pretty important.”

“My dad gets distracted in his speech. He tends to go off on tangents,” Drake explained to the General.

One gets distracted thinking, and the other while talking. Is there any way they aren’t alike?

After a minute: “How about your friend, Steve?” Bill offered. “He is an assistant working in Dr. Lazzie’s team, right? He should know her fairly well, and he’s trustable. We can ask him for information about Jillian Lazzie that can help us. For example, we can ask about her habits like where she goes at various times during the day, and use that schedule to time our confrontation. He also has a good brain and understands people.”

“We don’t know if alien psychology is similar to Humans’, but let’s hope it is.” Rein said. They would be basing a lot of assumptions on it, but the risk of that would be up to Steve.

“Steve does feel like a good option. Let’s go to him next.” Drake said.

* * *

General Gunther Rein and Drake Vandigg were now in front of Steve’s apartment. His home was at the edge of the city, in a small block and on the second floor, about fifteen feet from the ground.

Drake knocked on the door. There was no reply. He tried the knob and found that it was unlocked. He opened the door.

“Excuse me? Steve?”

He and Rein entered. The inside of the apartment was dark, with the curtains closed.

“Hmmm.” Drake looked around and sat on the sofa in the living room. “He must not be home.”

A small gleam on the coffee table in front of Drake caught his eye. He touched it, only for it to reveal itself to be a button on a Tabel that was covering the coffee table.

“…This will be the journal of my experiences here.” It was Steve’s voice coming out of the speakers.

Oh, no! I don’t want to hear his diary. Drake was about to turn it off when he heard something peculiar:

“Day three of being on Earth: I landed on this planet two nights ago. I shot the virus liquid out of the cannon, and it spread across Earth. PVC’s plan has succeeded! The animals have all mutated and they’re eating humans!”

Huh?

General Rein joined him and they continued listening.

“It felt satisfying to watch the creatures kill the disgusting humans, but I needed to survive first. I tried to blend in by transforming into a human. I didn’t want to be stuck in that town with those dying humans, so I stole a vehicle called a car and tried to drive it to a nearby city. On the way, I was ambushed by an animal and had to hide on a nearby farm. Later, I found some human called Drake. Although I hate humans, I had to stick to him because it would help me survive. If a monster attacked, I could feed him to it. Plus, he knew the area…”

“What is this?” Drake skipped through the logs, confused.

“…I let the falling rubble hit Drake. Unfortunately, it didn’t kill him; it just knocked him out. It was then that I came up with a plan to use his unconscious body and my powers to escape on a helicopter…”

“…safe in this pathetic last ‘asylum’ of a city, I joined a group of scientists researching these ‘Mayhems’. I can direct their research now, with my knowledge of the virus…”

“…despite the strong political tensions between the two factions, I proposed the idea of going to the nearby SORS facility that PVC had hacked. And those fools actually accepted! If PVC finds out that the humans in this small city are uncovering their existence and plans, they may come and wipe them out. I’ll be on the Expedition and hope they do it while I’m away, if…”

“Hold on… Steve? There’s no way…!” Drake said with hesitation.

Rein stayed silent, evaluating this new information with a serious face.

The front door, which had been left ajar, opened halfway. A dark figure slowly walked into the apartment.

It stepped into some light filtering through the gap between the curtains near the balcony.

It was Steve.

“So you found out my secret…” he said slowly.

Rein saw in his hand a vial. He recognized it immediately: It was the extremely potent Blucteryhem that had disappeared from Dr. Lazzie’s lab.

Steve was wearing a grim, almost desperate expression. Rein calculated the distance between them as a bit over fifteen feet. He drew his sword.

“Hold on,” Drake spoke to both of them. “We can talk about this.”

His words didn’t reach Rein’s ears; he was focused on doing his duty, and everything he was thinking at the moment was on how to do so. He ran at Steve. Steve took a step back defensively. He gripped what was in his hands. Rein didn’t stop, running with full speed and concentration. Steve, with no other choice, instinctively raised his hand and gulped down the contents of the small glass bottle as fast he could.

Rein couldn’t make it in time to prevent it.

He rapidly reassessed his next course of action, immediately turned back, and ran toward the couch, where Drake was sitting, unable to comprehend the situation.

Meanwhile, Steve’s body started to mutate. Various body parts started growing out and darkening.

Rein grabbed Drake and ran to the balcony. Slumped over his shoulder, Drake watched, unmoving, as Steve transformed into a Mayhem.

There was a chill in the air as he grew and grew, breaking through the ceiling and walls. Rein jumped out of the balcony with his jetpack turned on. Steve continued to grow, demolishing nearby buildings until it became gargantuan.

It was the tallest Mayhem anyone had ever seen—taller even than the Gorilla, and this time, it was within the Walls!

MAYHEM ON EARTH: Volume 5. / End.