We travel around the outskirts of the city. Over the last hundred years, we’ve yet to discover pods residing in cities. If they take over any already existing habitations, they’re remote. They know they’re being hunted.
Interestingly, they haven’t made a single attack against monsters that we know about since we destroyed their facilities. They focus on hunting humans, but only those in small camps. I’m sure there are a lot of questions we should be asking, butwe know that by keeping them trapped within the technology-stripped human world, they’re crippled. Theycan’tresume what they’d been working on.
However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t working on something. They definitely are. I think we all know that they’re not killing the humans outright. They’re taking them alive.
Which isn’t a good thing.
I wonder if that means they have technology we’re unaware of. Are they making further progress than we know? A hundred years is a long time—plenty of time to make some advances. Are the pods that we find and exterminate nothing but distractions to keep us busy?
Do they have a way to access the monster world, which is still brimming with technology, and we’re just fooling ourselves?
It takes us an hour to find them. They’re closer to the city than I would have expected. As we approach, I can see why they’re so close. There’s what had likely once been a garage. A place where people took their vehicles to get worked on. There’s smoke coming out of a chimney that isn’t original to the building.
The smoke has a foul smell that makes my stomach churn. Rainer coughs and pulls his shirt up over his nose.
“Is that burning flesh?” Drystan asks, his face scrunched.
We don’t answer. I’m pretty sure it is.
The sounds coming from the garage are quiet but steady. I hear the grinding of a saw. The muffled sounds of… screaming. We get closer, keeping as hidden as we can, which is proving difficult since the garage is surrounded by open space.
It’s a good spot to occupy. It’s not easy to sneak up on them. We’re as close as we can get without being spotted, which is still more than a dozen yards off.
“What are they doing?” Rainer asks.
I shake my head. From this distance, it’s impossible to tell. Impossible to see. All we have to go on is the constant movement of bodies, the smell of burning flesh, and the muffled screams that carry to us every few minutes. Other sounds come and go. Something that sounds like a manual saw. Maybe the sound of an axe slamming into a block of wood. There’s a grinding sound, something against metal.
“I don’t like this,” Drystan says.
I glance over at him. His eyes are always a deep, dark red. That’s the one part of him that never seems to change. Even now, that red remains, but the rest of his eyes has turned very dark. His skin has turned dark and foggy yet translucent in some places.
The reason he’s been dubbed a “soul” is because of this right here. When his skin turns transparent, we don’t see his skeleton, muscles, organs, or anything else. We see straight through him as if he’s a ghost.
I know for a fact that he bleeds. I know he has a heartbeat. I can feel his bones when I touch him. So the fact that he becomes transparent is unique to him as a monster.
The Silence scientists made a mistake when they started leaving the genetic code of the experiments wide open. It meant that they could become whatever they needed to be—not just when it came to genitals and fun shit but also when it came to defense.
They thought they were making the ultimate weapon, which, I suppose, they succeeded at. Drystan and other teko like him are weapons the world has never seen. Especially now that he’s not kept in a state of terror.
Now that he has control over his life, he doesn’t cower in a corner when he’s faced with pods. Not as he once did as a small child. He is what they made him. He is the monster they should fear.
“Think you can handle doing some reconwithoutengaging?” Keary asks him. “Or should I go?”
Drystan’s gaze remains locked, and he doesn’t respond for a minute. “You should go.”
Keary nods, then he kisses Drystan’s cheek and steps into a bright ray of sunlight. Rainer’s eyes widen in surprise.
“Woah,” he says.
I grip his hand and take Drystan’s too. He didn’t react at all to Keary kissing him, which means he’s already on his way to exploding right here and now. And not in a fun way.
“Come on,” I urge them, gently tugging on their hands. Rainer lets me pull him, though Drystan is very reluctant. “Look at me, Drys.”
Drystan takes a deep breath but eventually turns his gaze to mine. “You’ll get your chance. But we need you to be aware of your surroundings and not get caught up in your anger. Can you do that, or do you need to sit out?”
He scowls at me, but I know he’s thinking about it. He’s always very aware of his mental state. “I don’t know,” he answers eventually. “I’ll decide when Keary comes back.”
I pet his cheek softly, over and over. Rainer, probably taking note of what I’m doing, begins petting Drystan’s hair. At first, Drystan doesn’t notice either of us. I know when he does though. He’s caught between bemusement and glee.
