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Past Dues

by K9 Lupus

Darkness. All-encompassing darkness has become Dr. Howard Tolliver's world. At times he can make out the muffled voices of his captors discussing plans in a language unknown to him. The truck he's stashed away in treads over a speedbump much too quickly and he bashes his head hard against the truck's metal interior. Minutes drift into hours like this until, without notice, everything comes to a screeching halt.

The world is still dark as the truck doors open, a black hood shrouding Tolliver's face. He's forced out by one of the strange men with a gun pressed strongly between his shoulder blades. The man shouts instructions to him in the unfamiliar tongue, and seeing that he doesn't understand decides that shoving him out the truck is a more appropriate approach to get his point across. Tolliver stumbles forward out of the truck feeling solid concrete slam against his cheek as he lands hard against the ground. A second later the strange man with the gun hoists Tolliver back up onto his feet and shouts at him with more shoving urging him forward.

The pair enter and ride an elevator up high, impossibly high until it jostles to a stop at its destination. Tolliver is forced out of the elevator again by the man where he is promptly seated. The rope bound around his wrists are undone and a new pair of thick, stainless steel cable ties are securely fastened behind his back. When the light of day is finally reunited with Dr. Tolliver's eyes as his hood comes off, he turns to see his captor, a strong, tight-jawed man covered in dark tactical gear disappearing back towards the elevator and leaving him behind to whatever fate had in store for him.

Tolliver is left in the unyielding silence of his grim situation. The floor that he is on is still under construction, the outer walls consisting of bare metal framing and plywood. Tools are scattered about, the whole area is unnervingly quiet outside of the distant hum of the city traffic below. Ahead of him from his seated perch the expanse of the New York City skyline opens up before him, peppered with its countless outstretched fingers of colossal skyscrapers reaching up towards the sky.

He struggles with all his might in his restraints, but his frail, gangly husk of an aging body has no hope of loosening itself. All his struggling does is dig his bindings tighter into his flesh.

"So nice of you to have finally arrived. It's been far too long Dr. Tolliver." a deep voice bellowed from an opening which lead to another section of the floor.

"Whoever you are, we can work something out."

"Oh, I highly doubt that." Then from the neighboring junction appeared a monster. He was a hulking, goliath of a beast. His eyes were beady, solid black pools at either side of his face that was pressed out into a long, broad snout. His gills undulated with each heaving breath from his towering frame, whistling softly into the air. Extending out from behind him was a thick, muscular tail and he stood on two wide, webbed feet. His skin was an ashen gray with white running down his chest and around his mouth that framed the pink of his lips surrounding a cavernous maw. Neither fully human, nor animal, caught impossibly in the void between this strange creature made its approach towards Dr. Tolliver carrying a single, worn sack in one of his massive claw-tipped hands.

Panic seized all of Tolliver's logical faculties hostage as he feebly attempted to make sense of the great white shark horror before him.

"B...bbut you were..." Tolliver stammered.

"Dead? Surprise." the creature answered with a grin of satisfaction at Tolliver's recognition.

"Mr. Cantrell, I can't belie.."

"YOU WILL NOT SPEAK THAT NAME AGAIN!" the creature bellowed with a flash of rows of pointed teeth coming into view. "That person is gone now. You are speaking to Ravvik."

"How did you survive this whole time? With the cell replication rate induced by the serum you should have been dead years ago."

Ravvik dropped the sack in his hand, then crouched down until he was eye level with Tolliver. He was trying to keep himself from shaking as he saw his reflection bounced back at him in Ravvik's pitch-black eyes.

"Now that's not a nice thing to say to someone who's gone through all the time and effort to invite you over like this. I survived the same as any other person survives. I've done what I've needed to. I had to hide and skulk in the shadows. Food was always fun to track down. Sometimes I got creative with transportation. Turns out though that being a giant shark-man has its perks too. A lot of people will pay good money to have someone like me take care of all the dirty work for them."

"Mr. Can...Ravvik I mean, being a mercenary....that's not what you wanted when you first came to us all those years ago. It's a sham compared to what you could be doing. You were devoted and wanted to do good by everyone. You wanted to go above and beyond. That's why you were selected for the procedure in the first place. But this...it can't be true. It has to be a lie."

"A lie? You...all...lie! This is the truth!" Ravvik blared as he pounded his hands across his chest. "This is what reality looks like. You lied to me Doctor. The Army lied to me. Now it's time that past dues are paid." Ravvik tightened his wide, powerful fingers into a pair of curled fists, then relaxed them again regaining his composure.

"You preyed upon me. I wanted to serve my country and do my part to keep us safe. When I was first selected as a candidate for the enhancement project, I remember all too well the rush that coursed through me after that first injection. I got stronger by the day, just as you had said. It was addicting, intoxicating to feel that strong. My times in the water were meeting, then exceeding every record set before. Being a member of the Special Forces was in my grasp. But then all of that was stolen from me as I started to turn into this. Those dreaded weeks where I had to watch my body morph and dissolve as a result of what you had called an unanticipated side effect!"

Tolliver traveled back years in his memory to recall the anguish on the young man's face as he would stare for hours on end at himself in the mirror, desperately trying to will back the changes that were already too late to stop.

"Ravvik, the data showed that the changes were to be minor at best. But then the strain mutated and caused this to happen to. I'm sorry that it wasn't what you wanted it to be, but you knew there was a risk in the procedure."

Ravvik narrowed his eyes and Tolliver paused to choose his next words carefully.

"You have to understand. This was all General Martin's doing. He's the one who orchestrated all of this. The experiments weren't meant to go as far as they did. He kept wanting to see further results once the serum started to mutate within the host. The division was pressured from financial backers to show something that would wow the higher-ups. We were told that if we didn't comply that we'd be let go with no possibility of work elsewhere from working on such a confidential project.

I was scared by all of that pressure. I didn't want to continue being involved in the project once I knew what was going on, but what could I do? I left all of that behind a few years ago once I retired. They kept asking for me to stay, but I couldn't anymore. I wanted peace. Not secrets or underhandedness. I'm not your enemy here. Over all of these years, I was as much a pawn as you."

Ravvik snarled in disgust and knocked over Tolliver's seat with a powerful kick. Tolliver pivoted his shoulder in time to soak up the blow and groaned as a sharp pain radiated out from the impact. Then with minuscule effort Ravvik righted Tolliver's seat with a single hand and pushed him closer to the open maw of the unfinished room.

"As much as I?! You do not even know what you still have. You are still human. You have a life to go back to. You had a choice back then. You chose silence and compliance. I was the one who was deceived and look what it has cost me!"

"Listen, I....Iiii...I could help you." Tolliver muttered, his eyes flying wildly from side to side as he searched for a solution out of his predicament. "If we find the general then we can make him find a way to reverse the procedure for you. I could even operate remotely from a different location to do research for you in the meantime. The general controls everything. If we find him we can get your old body back."

Ravvik quietly picked up the sack at this feet and rummaged its contents for a moment before finding what he was searching for. Then Tolliver nearly gagged as Ravvik dropped the wrinkled remains of a severed human hand upon his lap, complete with a West Point ring of gold and onyx with a blazing blue sapphire nestled at its core.

"Already visited him." Ravvik coldly added before Tolliver shimmied his legs to fling off the amputated limb.

"He wasn't as interesting to talk to like you have been. Our conversation consisted of him throwing expletives at me and saying that he was going to grind me up to make tuna for his next sandwich. Each time he spoke when I didn't give him permission I cut off one of his limbs. He stopped talking before I got to the fourth."

Then to Tolliver's complete bewilderment, Ravvik smiled, a genuine smile spread wide across his terrifying face.

"You know Doctor, I should really be thanking you. Our little chat here has been enlightening. Through your utter and complete negligence for any scrap of human decency or morals you've helped shape me into what I am today. And for that I am grateful."

Ravvik circled Tolliver with the slow, purposeful steps of a predator assessing its prey. He could feel the heat of Ravvik's breath coat the back of his neck, his body trembling as a building growl thundered in his ears. Then with a swift motion of Ravvik's hand cutting through the air the deed was done. The clang of metal bounced throughout the room as Tolliver's bindings gave way, and once realizing he was still alive, Tolliver brought his arms forward to only find shallow grooves cut into his wrists from where he had struggled against his bindings.

"Control is what creates power Doctor. Control is what leads to order. As much as my physical appearances might give the impression otherwise, I'm not some raging beast lost to instincts below me. I'm so much more than that now."

Tolliver, now free of his restraints contemplated making a dash for the elevator or the descending stairwell. Eight, maybe ten seconds is all he needed to get some distance. Ravvik could close the gap in half the time or less. A sign above the stairwell showed a yellow arrow pointing down to Floor 149. It was going to be making a break for the elevator or nothing.

"Ravvik, have you ever stopped to think about what this path means or where it leads to? All this violence, all of this killing and hurting people. That's not who you have to be in this." Tolliver pleaded, hoping to reach some lingering vestige of his sensibilities.

"For twenty-three long years I've had you to thank for giving me the chance to think about what this all means. I will tell you that I've grown rather fond of this new body of mine. What I can accomplish now is so much more. Now there's no fear holding me back in a mission, and I get to go where the money flows. That is what fuels my new purpose.

Don't get me wrong though. I have valued my time here with you and I'll be needing a little something as payment."

With a snap of his jaws Ravvik sliced cleanly through the middle and ring fingers of Tolliver's hand, leaving two bloody stumps in his wake. Not allowing them the luxury of descending down into his belly he spit them out to the floor with a ding as Tolliver's gold wedding band rolled a short distance away. Tolliver's screams filled the room as he clutched at his mangled hand.

"I've spent this whole time thinking about what that sound was going to be like, but it was far better than I could have imagined."

Through clenched teeth, Tolliver looked up at Ravvik as a new wave of fear crept down his spine. "The general was right. You really are a monster now..."

"Oh, am I? It's the year 2125 Doctor. I think it's about time the future caught up to what I am. I'm not selfish, unlike you. Selfishness is the real monster here. What happened to me is something that should be shared. The experiment from all those years ago was just the beginning."

"What do you mean?" Tolliver inquired as the stem of bleeding at his hand finally began to slow.

"Dr. Tolliver, you've always thought too small. You wanted to help people with the procedure. I want to help people too. I want to help a lot of people see the things the way that I see things. I didn't bring you here to ask for your help. I didn't waste fuel and manpower to share a cup of tea. I brought you here to tie up loose, unnecessary ends. I don't need your help to reverse the procedure or recover the project data. We've already gotten that taken care of."

"We?"

Ravvik bellowed a hearty laugh that undulated the thick folds of his neck as his lips creased back to flash a toothy grin. Then with two claps of his hands, one by one a group of ten mutants like Ravvik entered the room through the open passageway. They were of various species; a tiger flexing his claws in their sheaths while a lioness flicked her tail out behind her. A wolf-like man was walking on all fours, scenting the air as he approached, while another man, a hawk shot him a piercing gaze before loosing a high-pitched cry. These among the other creatures that followed all approached Tolliver with a single, uninterrupted purpose radiating behind their scowls, growls, and tightly clenched hands. All were results of the same procedure Ravvik had undergone all those years ago.

"Impossible...the report said that all the other trials had been tracked down and killed. You were the only one that had escaped."

"You should know much better than I Dr. Tolliver that reports are quite fickle and subject to change. A whole new story can be written to best suit one's needs."

With a shocking realization, Tolliver cast eyes filled with awe and splashed with terror at Ravvik. "You saved them....and hid them this whole time."

"I did. I was there for them when your agency had cast them all aside. They're loyal to me and our shared purpose now."

"The bird over there. Do you remember him? The one who wanted to be the sharpest shooter in the force. He wanted eyes that could see any distance and you granted him his wish with your untested science. He overheard your plans with the other lead researchers one evening when most of the guards were off managing another of us who was racked with the pain of the change. You had aim to vivisect us right there on the tables you first gave us that serum! I couldn't allow that to happen once I knew our fate, and so I arranged for our escape and our eventual rescue from that place. You'll do well to think this all over now since you won't have that luxury in a few minutes.

Dr. Howard Tolliver, I don't need to kill you to get my revenge. I've made peace with my choice back then and the life it's led to now. But all of them? Not so much. Your little trip here today was for them."

With a wave of his hand Ravvik turned away and walked towards the opening of the floor, leaving the horde of anthropomorphic creatures left to their own devices as they tightened the circle around him. Now left with the only options of racing to the elevator or jumping, Tolliver sought out the one with at least a slim chance of success. He leapt from his chair and managed to shove aside the wolf who was still crouched on the ground and stumble his way over to the elevator. He pounded at the button with all his might and was relieved to hear the door open just seconds later.

However, he was greeted only to the clamping jaw of a crocodile slamming down around his arm through the elevator door as he was further immobilized by the elephant woman who accompanied him. The rest would have their turn now.

Back at the edge of the construction floor the heavy, metallic scent of freshly spilled blood wafted up into the air and greeted Ravvik's nose. He sat there at the edge of the modern world and contemplated all of the wondrous possibilities just ahead.

One step at a time. There's no need to rush this.