Newbreed

Baptism.

Deep within the silent forest, the body of a woman lies in front of Xess and Dora. The target’s Tracer had separated from her wrist, now sitting in pool of blood. As Xess lets go of the dead body’s feet, he proceeds to look at his Tracer to check the status of the Hunt. As expected, the timer has fully stopped at 58 minutes, signaling the end of Hunt #3.

“It’s over”, mutters Xess to himself.

On the other side of the body, Dora stands with the blood-dripping saw in hand. She seems agitated, breathing as if she just ran a marathon. As the sweat covers most of her face, she stares at the body of the woman she just killed. It is difficult for Xess to guess what Dora is thinking, which prompts him to approach the silent Dora. Nevertheless, as soon as he starts to approach.

“Hey, hey!”, yells Xess.

Dora loses all consciousness and starts falling down. Xess notices and quickly catches her before her head hits the ground, “Dora! What happened? What’s wrong?”, calls Xess without receiving any sort of answer from her, “Dora, answer me! What’s going on?”. Xess opens one of Dora’s eyelids to see if there is any reaction, but it was clear then that Dora was not responding. “She’s got pulse, it must have been the stress. I’ve got no choice but to carry her back”, thinks Xess before placing Dora on his back. Before he makes his way back, he stares at the body of the woman left behind.

“…”

Xess scans the area of the execution. The severed head. The blood-pool. The saw. And finally, the Tracer. This last item is the one that catches Xess’s most attention. Xess’s mind is taken back to that fateful first hunt, specifically the moment he was stabbing Reese.

“At that moment… It also…” thinks Xess.

He recalls the moment when Reese’s Tracer fell off his wrist seconds after he had stopped struggling.

“What could it mean…?”, continues Xess while still staring at the woman’s Tracer.

After thinking it over for a few moments, he proceeds to leave the area towards the facility with Dora on his back. The slow walk back started calm, with a silent environment with the Hunt over. Nevertheless, this soon changed as he got closer to the facility. Voices of different participants are heard close by and while Xess does not pay any attention to them, eventually he can make out some of the words.

“I-I-I-I can’t take this SHIT anymore! We were minutes away from having to- to sacrifice someone!”

“Call the others NOW! He is having a panic attack!”

“My legs are shaking I can’t… that was too close… I just can’t…”

Cries. Panic. Sorrow. These are some of the feelings Xess can perceive from the rest of the participants. Yet, he does not change his pace and eventually finds some participants laying around the same route he is taking. Some of these participants are vomiting next to a tree. Others are crying as hard as they can. As they all eventually see Xess walk by with Dora on his back, he starts to feel them. He never takes his eyes away from the road ahead of him, but he can feel the stares coming from these participants.

“…”

Hatred. Rejection. Resentment. Xess can feel all of them like a set of knives stabbing his back. The road has turned silent, but there is no lack of words being spoken to Xess right this instant. The atmosphere is clearly covered in an invisible cloud of hostility that Xess is willing to tolerate.

“…”

A completely silent Xess leaves these participants behind and finally reaches the facility’s entrance. There, as he climbs the hill to the door, he is approached by a boy whose name he does not know.

“If you are going to try and hit me, at least let me get this girl off my back. She has nothing to do with it”, says Xess as the boy approaches.

“Sorry to disappoint, but sadly I take no part in the grudge held against you, Xess”, replies the boy, “I am actually here for her”, says the boy as he points to Dora.

Xess glances back at the unconscious Dora for a split second and replies, “Then you must be—“.

“Her brother, precisely”, replies the boy completing Xess’s initial thought, “The name is ‘Dantes’, I’m surprised she mentioned our relation at all”, says the boy calling himself “Dantes” as he extends his hand in greeting gesture.

Xess shakes his hand replying, “It seems she thought highly enough of me for a change”, all the while thinking about a question Xess himself asked Cross while reading the results of Hunt #2.

“He’s the one who killed one of the targets from Hunt 2…”, thinks Xess to himself. After immediately identifying him, he continues his original thought to Dantes, “I can understand your relationship being a sensitive topic in this kind of environment”.

“I trust her. She must have had her reasons”, replies Dantes looking straight at Xess with a demeanor very few people had in the facility, “Do you mind carrying her back towards her room? I’ll show you the way”, asks Dantes.

“Sure”, says Xess in agreement.

Both head into the bedroom hallway in the facility, as Dantes shows Xess the room where Dora stays in. Xess gently proceeds to leave her on one of the beds.

“I appreciate you carrying her back all the way from the forest. Most would have just left her there”, says Dantes as he fixes the pillows underneath her sister’s head.

“She fell unconscious as soon as she…”, says Xess not wanting to complete that sentence.

“Hunted the target, right?”, asks Dantes as he continues to tend to his sister.

“Not even a minute went by… she just stood there, watching the woman’s corpse and all of a sudden…”, says Xess as he notices that Dantes turns to look at him, “Did it happen to you, as well? When you killed yours?”, asks Xess.

Dantes does not answer immediately. He walks towards the room’s door, looks around the hall noticing most participants are heading back and closes it. When he does, he says, “Yes, it happened to me as well.”

“…”, Xess stays silent.

“Nevertheless, in my case that is hardly a sign of any sort of foul play”, says Dantes as he approaches Xess a few steps.

“How come?”, asks a confused Xess.

“Never mind about that... Do you recall what happened with you after Reese?”, asks Dantes.

“What I recall...”, says Xess before pausing and taking his eyes away from Dantes, “Is sitting on top of Reese’s body for what it felt like forever, not knowing what to do next… All that time… since the very first moment we stepped foot in that forest… there was only one thing I could only focus on”.

Xess turns to look at Dora as if he is looking at a reflection of himself and continues, “After that… I just woke up staring at an unknown ceiling”, says Xess as he turns to look at his Tracer. Noticing this, Dantes proceeds to sit down on the other bed while glancing at his sister.

“There is something else going on around here”, says Dantes.

“You think so too, huh?”, replies Xess while looking back at Dantes.

“Obviously I have yet to determine what it is, but, ever since I woke up I’ve had these odd feeling that I haven’t been myself”, says Dantes while now staring at the Tracer, “There is something else going on with these Tracers…”, he concludes.

“Your sister will probably tell you when she wakes up so I might as well…”, says Xess as he grabs his knuckles, “I hit a tree, not even with all my strength, and I brought it down…”

“…”, Dantes remains silent listening to Xess closely.

“Even saying it right now, I can’t believe how ridiculous it sounds”, Xess chuckles as he says these words. Dantes does not react to Xess’s comment at all. He gets up from the bed and heads over to his sister. He checks up on her touching her forehead and says, “Xess, I will say this out of gratitude for taking care of Dora”, as he turns around to face Xess once again. “Whatever it is that you believe is going on inside of you…”, says Dantes looking straight at Xess with a considerably changed demeanor, “You better learn how to control it, because you will need it sooner than you think…”.

“…”, Xess remains silent.

“And I don’t mean just against Hunts’s targets”, concludes Dantes.

After this statement, Xess immediately understands the warning Dantes is giving him. Believing he does not need to hear anything else, Xess proceeds to leave the room, “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind”, he says. Before does, however, Xess stops at the door and says, “I’ll check on her while you’re gone during the Hunt”.

“Xess…”, says Dantes, “Surviving is what we all do. Whether we are stuck in here, or living mundane lives. Some are better equipped than others, but no one is exempt from it. Even those who take their own lives believe it is the best way to cope with their own struggles. The targets. The others participants... You… We all struggle in an endless attempt to find peace… Yet, it is not what we achieve, but how we do it that brings us true peace. Perception is the foundation for our peace… If you truly want to make it out of here alive…”

“…”, with doorknob in hand, Xess waits for Dantes to finish his comment.

“Then harness that which gives you the greatest chance of obtaining it…”, Dantes concludes.

A few seconds later, Xess leaves the room and closes the door. He slowly walks back towards his own room, with Dantes’s words running rampant on his mind. It is in this moment when Xess recalls when Dora had told him that her brother was special. Originally considering it a family-biased comment, Xess now believes a few minutes with Dantes was all Dantes needed to see right through him. It was impressive, to say the least. Finally, Xess silently arrives to his room. He carefully closes the door and sits down on the edge of his bed. The room is dark with much noise outside. He stares down at the floor without moving an inch, loosing himself in thought for a very long time.

A day later, Hunt #4 was carried out with no mayor differences that the other three. All targets were hunted, while Xess’s cluster from Hunt #3 were included in those who did not participate. A day after that, it was time for Hunt #5. With a timer of 4 hours and 3 targets, unlike the previous two times, Xess runs out towards the forest not caring about who their cluster teammates are.

Alone, he dives into the forest in the middle of a very dark night. He runs as hard as he can, leaving everyone behind with tremendous speed. The night lacks light, which makes it almost impossible to look for anyone in this forest. The ground is wet from the rain that had fallen during the day, making the terrain a complex one to traverse. Regardless of all of these circumstances, Xess is determined to go at it alone. Using the Tracer map, he could see his cluster going after him, but the only thing going through Xess’s mind is to find a target.

Xess’s eyes show absolute focus, recalling his expression during his attack on Reese and when he took down the tree. It seems Xess is determined to fight this Hunt by himself. As drops of rain start once again, Xess has now traversed a large portion of the forest at a speed most would consider not human. With 3 hours and 28 mins left, Xess reaches a pond in a section previously outside the scope of the Hunts. He immediately stops.

“…!”, Xess notices someone drinking from the pond. He can hear him speak to himself.

“How can this pond be pure? I haven’t seen such vast amount of water this clean!”, says the person, an older man, at the pond as he continues to drink. Xess immediately identifies him as a target, however, the target notices Xess as well. The rain starts to pick up strength.

“Wha—What are you doing here? How could you be this far into the forest this quick!?”, says the person as he stands from the pond with a very large knife in hand and shocked to see Xess arrive, “Please, here me out! I can explain why I am here”.

Xess’s expression is filled with determination and hostility. As the drops of rain continue to fall harder, he approaches the man with no hesitation whatsoever. The old man steps back, intimidated by Xess’s demeanor showing his knife in hopes of it being a deterrent, “IF YOU GET ANY CLOSER I WILL HURT YOU!! I WON’T HESITATE!!”, exclaims the target stepping back from Xess. Nevertheless, he continues his pace and reaches the target. Xess’s eyes show the most murderous expression he has ever shown. With absolute conviction, Xess evades the targets attempt to stab him, taking the knife away while hitting him on the face into the ground. The rains falls down hard on the forest.

“Ughh!! Ple— Ple— Please, don’t… Please… I—I—I—don’t want to be here!”, says the target while on the floor bleeding from his mouth. Xess, however, has heard these words before. Now, it seems they are just noises that have no meeting to him, “Hey! No—No—what are you—”, says the target before being interrupted by a stab on the stomach by Xess.

“AAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHH!!!!!!!!!”, screams the target in absolute agony. His struggles are futile as Xess, although much younger, has unnatural human strength. Xess stabs the target a couple more times when he suddenly decides to throw the knife away and start pummeling the target with punches to his face one after another. Each strike seems to hit harder than the previous one. It is clear that there are strong emotions driving each and every single strike from Xess. The target’s face gets absolutely disfigured. Nevertheless, in the middle of this act, he feels it.

“Aghh…!!!!”, exclaims Xess as he turns around and notices the very same knife he threw being used against him, as he gets stabbed on the back. He immediately turns around and sees a woman stepping back, extremely shocked the stab did not do the damage she thought it might. At this point, Xess had realized that his body had changed. He did not know what. He did not know how. But it was certain, the stab did not hurt as much as it should.

“Wha—What in the world—?, asks the woman who Xess also identifies as a target.

A silent Xess removes the knife from his back, and with the same murderous intent he had before jumps towards the woman, both hitting the ground in the process.

“Aghh!!”, exclaims Xess once again as he gets stabbed one more time, but this time on the leg as the woman had another blade hidden. The woman seems to have baited him successfully, as she proceeds to turn Xess over and place herself on top of him. She gets closer to his face and says with a defiant tone, “You may have the eyes of a murderer, but you lack experience, darling. Why do you think I am in this place, anyway?”

The woman grabs the knife and stabs Xess one more time on the left shoulder, making him bleed heavily.

“I don’t know what you are, but you won’t be using that shoulder for a while now—“, says the woman before getting interrupted by Xess. Amazingly, with the target still on top of him, Xess uses his right hand and grabs the woman by the throat and starts choking her. Out of desperation the woman grabs the knife from Xess’s shoulder and stabs Xess several more times on the right one, however, Xess does not let go.

“Y-Y-You… w-w-on’t… get… me!! Let… go!”, says the target as she struggles to breathe.

Xess’s expression shows he is completely determined to never let go of the target until she dies.

“F-u—ck---- y-o----uuuu”, mutters the target as Xess is able to differentiate the tears being shed by the target with respect to the abundant rain drops on her face. Were those tears of sadness? Tears of desperation? Tears of disappointment? Xess does not want to know, nor does he seem to care. While he bleeds from four different places, he continues to choke the woman. The other target seems to have died near the pond. Meanwhile, the woman desperately tries to release herself from the choke, as she tries to pull Xess’s hand open with both her hands. Nevertheless, she cannot match his strength. Finally, after a long struggle, the target passes away and her Tracer falls to the ground.

Xess throws the body to the side and stays on the ground for a while. As the rain continues to fall, the injuries seem to be catching up to him. Xess feels his heartbeat going strong as he tries to catch his breath. He then looks at his Tracer and sees there is still one target missing, meaning the Hunt is not over. Immediately after reading this, Xess tries to get up but fails. Staring up at the falling rain, he notices the raindrops are dark colored, to the point they could be considered black.

“Has the rain… always been… like this? Ah, that’s right… I can’t recall…”, Xess thinks to himself in complete fatigue.

It is in this instant when he notices a shadow standing a few feet behind him. Xess tries his best to look amidst the falling rain. As the person approaches, it becomes clear to him that it is the third and final target. Nevertheless, Xess is too tired to even react.

“I… have… to… survive…”, mutters Xess as he falls unconscious. It is in this moment when his mind goes back to a place he has gone before.

…

…

…

“Welcome back”, says the hooded Ego, sitting down on the same side of the stream as before. Xess quickly realizes he is back at the empty field with the scarlet stream separating him from Ego. To this event, he is confused as to how he got here; a familiar feeling, for sure.

“I… can’t really tell what that means”, replies Xess who is clearly lost as to why he is back at the other end of the stream facing Ego, “I recall, I was… drowning? This strange voice was speaking to me…”

“What did this voice say?”, asks Ego.

“It made no sense. Something about extinction? How long was all of this?”, replies Xess.

“I’m afraid the concept of time does not apply here as you understand it”, says Ego once again without moving from his same sitting position, “What else do you remember?”, Ego asks.

“As I was falling, there was this sort of… flare I could see—like some sort of light– it was subtle, but in the middle of that pitch darkness I could feel it get hotter as I went down”, says Xess looking down on the calm stream in front of him, “I assume you won’t tell me”, replies Xess as he attempts to recall the events.

“The Fall”, replies Ego.

“Hmm?”, asks Xess as he clearly does not know what Ego means.

“Human subconscious is the driving force of their evolution route. It alone has the power to determine how your DNA gets rewritten, how your cells will behave, and how your body will change. Each human mind is unique. Depending on your subconscious, your evolution will either promote or oppose your own survival. No one can’t escape their subconscious.”, says Ego before

“You mean… Destiny.”, replies Xess as he now looks straight at Ego.

Ego smiles slightly and says, “Calling it “Lev” is more accurate”.

“Lev? What is that?”, asks a confused Xess. Regardless, Ego ignores his question and proceeds to explain.

“The Fall is the rarest—and most desirable– route of evolution”, says Ego as Xess listens closely, “It seats in the exact middle of the spectrum; it can either be magnificent or fatal for that particular human. Depending on how you control the surrounding environment, it is the only route than can be pushed over to one side… or the other”.

“And I have that route…?”, asks Xess as he notices the stream moving once again. The ripples are familiar to Xess, as they are the same before the stream erupted in front of him the previous time.

“You must have noticed by now, I assume”, says Ego as he moves his head slightly down towards the stream.

“Yes. You mean the distance between us”, replies Xess in with confidence, “It is as you said”, Xess concludes.

“It is time. You know what to do now”, says Ego as the stream erupts out of nowhere and rises creating a wall between him and Xess. Unlike the last time, this scenario is familiar to Xess. He seems to have accepted the situation he is in and sees no other way around other than compliance. Unable to know what is happening to his real body on the ‘other side’, he feels there is nothing else to do other than comply with the rules of this ‘world’. Thus, Xess gets up and stares at the rising stream with no expression whatsoever. The only sound Xess could hear was that of the stream calling out to him to enter once again, unclear on what continues to lie on the other side.

“So be it”, mutters Xess to himself before finally stepping inside the stream.

…

…

…

Back at the forest in the middle of the night, the rain continues to fall with tremendous strength. In this instant, the third target – a male – is on top of the unconscious Xess. With the bodies of the other two targets around, the third target is grabbing Xess’s neck with his left hand and plunges the knife directly at his chest in an attempt to kill him.

“!!!???”, the target reacts as Xess raises his left hand and intercepts the knife, getting completely stabbed on it. However, he is able to stop the attack. Blood gets on the eyes of the target who quickly uses his left hand to clean it off his face, “FUCK! I THOUGHT YOU WERE FAINTED!”, says the target in a state of stress.

Xess’s hand moved, but there is no indication that he is actually conscious at all. It is in this moment that the targets notices that the hand Xess used to protect himself is surrounded in a scarlet color. The target, confused, takes the knife out and gets away from Xess who still lies on the ground.

“What… what the fuck is this? What is this CRAP!!”, thinks the target to himself with anger and heavy breathing. Xess’s hand continues to be surrounded in this scarlet aura.

“How in the world did he move? THIS WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO GO LIKE THIS!!”, exclaims the target with knife in hand. Then, suddenly, something starts to feel off to the target.

“What— Am I… getting drowsy?”, thinks the target as his vision starts to get clouded at a very fast pace. With Xess’s blood on his hand, he scratches his eyes by reflexes. However, this proves futile, “What the fuck is going on?”. After a few seconds, the target’s vision goes from blurry to pitch black.

“My… MY EYES!! MY EYES!! WHAT IS HAPPENING!? WHAT THE HELL!! FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!!!”, exclaims the target in total desperation, “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!”, screams the target in pain as his eyes start to burn. This situation forces the target to drop the knife and run towards the pond. As he feels the water on the ground in dives his head inside and out.

“WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING!!? THEIR FUCKING BURNING!!”, screams the desperate target as he feels the water has done nothing. As the burn gets worse, he starts to feel his left hand burning as well, “HUHH!!? MY HAND!! OH, NO, NO, NO, NO!! WHAT IS THIS!!? GET IT OFF ME!!”. Now blinded, he cannot see what is happening to his left hand, but the sensation is the same. As he feels the burn increase, he starts to notice that he cannot feel any of his fingers. Unbeknownst to him, all the fingers on his left hand have burnt out, with the rest of his hand following suit.

“NOOOOO!! FORGIVE ME PLEASE!! I JUST DID AS I WAS TOLDD!! PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME LIVE!! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!!!!”, the blind target screams of agony, as he falls to the ground in desperation. It is in this moment when Xess wakes up.

“What—Who is…?”, mumbles Xess to himself as he wakes up, “Where…?”, all of a sudden Xess realizes he is still in the middle of the hunt and immediately looks around for the target. Xess notices him rolling over the ground screaming in absolute pain; but above all else, he notices something even stranger.

“Is that… steam emitting from his body?”, asks Xess to himself as he sees a scarlet smoke coming from the target’s face and left hand, “What is-- ?”, in that moment, Xess notices that his own entire body is surrounded in the same scarlet color. He crawls away thinking he, too, was being harmed by it. However, seconds after, he notices his pain has not varied at all. He examines is injured body and then the target’s.

“AGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! DAMN IT!! DAMN IT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”, screams the target in absolute pain. However, as soon as his left hand burns out, the Tracer on that arm falls to the ground and the entire arm explodes afterwards. The explosions sends the target into the pond, killing him on the spot. Xess is absolutely shocked by this event, making the falling rain the last remaining sound in the area.

“The Tracer…”, thinks Xess to himself as his own Tracer logs the target’s elimination, finally ending the Hunt. Xess looks at his own hand once again. The scarlet aura leaves his body and rises up towards the sky. His eyes follow it until it disappears from sight. Still laying on the ground, Xess examines the area once more. He sees all three of the dead bodies scattered around and recalls Dantes’s.

“Then harness that which gives you the greatest chance of obtaining it…”

Just then, Xess starts to laugh quietly. His expression drastically changes to that of a madman. Eventually, this same laugh turns louder for a while. He continues like this until his consciousness betrays him once again, fainting from all the fatigue and injury. Moments later, as Xess fell unconscious, a girl walks into the area. She approaches Xess and stares at him in the middle of the rain. Looking down on him, she speaks.

“Sorrow has many faces. Isn’t that right… “stranger”?”

Chapter 05 – Newbreed: END

to be continued…