…then he jerked awake, strapped to a chair in a medical room with a wide array of monitors and aluminum walls surrounding him.

  What happened?

  “Evangelos…” said a grumbling voice that snapped Evan to his senses. He was here. The silver backed behemoth that was Krow. The purifier stood no more than a dead body’s length away. Evan noted this, so that there’d be space when the goliath came crashing down.

  “How…” Evan muttered.

  “Tranquilizers. They can produce memory gaps. Mostly pointless, they make interrogation harder. Prefer to eliminate the hostile instead. But you… are a special case,” he said.

  Things came back to Evan in pieces. The original plan had failed. Evan and his companions had infiltrated the ship, but it did not take long for the Feds to find them. They had half expected as much, but they had also hoped for more time to find Krow or the Governor before being surrounded. Getting captured had seemed unavoidable in this flying fortress. So, his team had formed a new plan: get captured on purpose. There was little chance that they would have made it through the onslaught of soldiers, drones, and hardened security points themselves. No, better to be arrested and brought close than to eat a dozen bullets. Now, Evan was directly across from his target – far easier than if they’d committed to fighting their way here. Not to mention how exhausted they would have been. This way Evan had his full energy. He just needed to shake off this groggy feeling from the tranqs, make sure his companions weren’t in harm’s way, and then he’d deal the killing blow to the beast called, Joseph Krow.

  It was other worldly to be so close to the purifier again. They’d not been this distance since Hazard Station.

  Two selves battled inside of Evan. One wanted to cower, and the other who wanted to kill.

  The corner of Krow’s lips twitched, and his oscillating pupils zoomed and scanned Evan. “Meandering creature. Destructive as cancer,” he growled.

  Evan smiled. “Very grumpy. Out of bananas?”

  Krow smirked. “Humor. An odd juxtaposition, considering your position. Maybe you forget reality,” he directed his eyes to something besides Evan.

  It was a motionless Blink. A black device was strapped around her head that covered the top half of her face – a virtual reality headset. A collar looped around her neck and pulsed with a blue light.

  What is he doing to her? Evan steadied himself, anger and fear manifesting within him again. He had to be in control if he was going to best Krow.

  “Let’s keep our heads about us,” the purifier said.

  Evan ground his teeth. “What did you put around her neck?”

  “A precaution. If she leaves the room, it will explode. If you attempt to remove it, it will explode. No more teleporting. No more running. No more hiding.” He pointed to Evan. “Do not worry, you were not forgotten.”

  Evan could barely make it out from his peripherals, but he felt the cold metal, and heard the faint coo of its machinery. Could he remove it with his powers fast enough? Maybe. But he doubted Krow would rely on this trick if he wasn’t certain, it was checkmate.

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  Evan asked, “Why don’t you kill us? What’s the point of going through all this?”

  The purifier’s jaw set with a hungering grin. “To prove a point.”

  “What point?”

  “Humans are meaningless to Afflicted.”

  “We are human, you sick –.”

  “Did I say,” Krow stepped closer to Evan, and closer still, until his burning breath was on him, “you were not? You are a mammal. You exhibit the traits of humans. But there is something… additional to you, and your kind. Cancer. Leprosy. An infection is on you. I smell it. I see it. I look at you, and I look at a disease. A disease that kills. Evangelos was born human, but Evangelos became sick. Sickness needs a cure, and I am it.” He stood straight, his head a few inches from the ceiling. “I can kill you. But I want more. I want to eradicate this virus, in any, in all, in every form. I need the source, and Evangelos will lead me to it.”

  Evan spat at Krow’s feet. “Sorry, hope you don’t catch my sickness.”

  Krow raised what would have been an eyebrow if such hair was there. “I cannot gain the Affliction, and I cannot give it to others. Only descendants of the infected can spread it to their kin. Only by lineage, genetics, a chain of birth. That is my point. Afflicted will put themselves above anyone, everyone, if it means survival. Cancer, using a host. Afflicted, using the Federation – a nation that had given you everything – spat on, when it showed mercy.”

  “What mercy? Rounding up kids, putting them in torture prisons, experimenting on them until they shriveled up? Squashing a man’s head for nothing?” Evan said.

  “Zachary Stenson, D5-1002. Kenneth Doleson Jr., B2-1843. One was a traitor, a killer. The second could give back to the Federation, but… Spat. On. It.” Saliva dribbled from Krow’s lips, plinking against his armor’s collar. “Evangelos Hendricks Junior, B3-1984. Killer of many. Free men, civil servants… friends and family. A murderer, from the day you were taken by your Affliction.”

  “You don’t know anything about me.”

  Krow simply recited, “Kegan White, Alondra Vass, John Paul, and Nessa Hu.”

  Those names, which Evan had never heard, stopped him cold.

  “Hazard Station. They had a mission of protection, and you murdered them. You spilt their blood, never having known their names, never knowing their families. There were others, I could name them. You traded your life for theirs. For their kids. They wouldn’t have killed you or your friend, but they would have protected us from you. You could have contributed. But you killed. That is what you are. That is what the Afflicted are. You cannot choose, can never learn. Your kind never accepts the truth and continues to be selfish. There is no safety while your genetics continue to infect us. You will never care for a non-Afflicted the way you do for yourselves, never feel true remorse, never repent. Do not say you would. If you were ever sorry, you would not have run that day I came for you. If you were sorry, you would have given yourself over. You would have spared the lives of everyone who died in Hazard Station. You would have spared the lives of Dogma Isle, and the lives of your putrid city of corruption. You would have spared Kenneth, and your mother Laura… But you didn’t. So, I will not spare you.” Krow cracked his neck and stomped toward the exit.

  Evan yelled after the purifier, the guilt welling up in him. “Then kill me already. If I’m so evil, why don’t you kill me? I won’t tell you about my friends, I’ll never give them up. I love them, and I hate you, and everything you stand for. You’re scared, that’s all you are. Scared of something you don’t understand and can’t control. You’re just afraid that you’ll be obsolete, that you’ll be powerless one day, that you’ll be the one rounded up and killed for being different. Guess what? You didn’t even try to understand us. You didn’t try to give us a chance. It was easier to make us your enemy than to learn how to love us. You’re sick.”

  Krow stopped for a moment and turned his head. “I will kill you. But not yet. You are a trial, a final test.”

  “Test for who?”

  “Soon.” With that, the monster left.

  Before Evan could say or do anything further, a hissing noise came from his above his head, and he was swept into darkness once again.

  MARCH 21st at 10:02am CST.

  REMINDER - These chapters were written a long time ago, but never fit into the main story.

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  PS. Milestone 3: If we get to 30 ratings (8 more), 60 Favorites (12 more), 12 reviews (4 more), or 250 followers - I will release the most voted bonus chapter! (Poll on Norton (part 2)).

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