Operation Poisson

New York, July 2006

Jake Harding groaned as Sharia told them about the fundraising activity for the day. Sharia was a huge, black lady with jet black hair braided across her heads and big brown eyes. She had a round, kind face and spoke in a high, piercing voice. She was a caretaker at the orphanage that Jake lived at and although she was usually the one to break the news of chores, jobs and other tedious tasks Jake quite liked her.

Jake had curly brown hair that came down to the middle of his neck, an extremely curvy mouth lined with braces and always had a cool calm look on his face. At six foot he was a little over the average height for a fifteen year old. He leaned over to his best friend Callum, a Scottish-Irish mix with short blonde hair and tanned skin, and whispered, ‘I hate this stupid fundraising scheme. I mean its great helping the orphanage and all but we aren’t really making that much difference. Fifteen kids running around the beach for two hours with collection tins trying to squeeze a few dollars out of people aren’t going to make more then seventy-five bucks.’

‘Well,’ he replied, ‘at least we get to go to the beach.’

‘Take away the collection tins and add a surfboard and this would be an awesome Sunday night.’

Jake parents had died in a car accident when he was five years old and he had no family members whatsoever. He had been the only child of an only child. Both his grandparents on his mothers side had died long ago and his grandfather on his father’s side had died well before his parents did. All that was left was his grandma on his father’s side

But she was way to sick to look after him. His parents Will had left everything to him so the authorities had put it all away safely and sent him here. The Will also stated that Jake was not to be taken into the hands of another family so that’s why he’d been sent to Saint Mary’s Non-Adoption Child Orphanage.

Sharia finished talking to them and led them outside to a white mini-van. They all hopped in as usual and Sharia drove them down to the beach.

The van pulled on the side of the road and the fifteen orphans jumped out the sides. They ran around the back and Sharia handed out tins with small slots in the top. Jake was in the second highest group in the orphanage. There was, ages one to four, five to eight, nine to twelve, thirteen to fifteen and sixteen to eighteen so Jake and Callum were at the top of the second last group and due to move up the next year.

Each group had their own sleeping quarters and lounge area but all groups ate together, with the exception of the youngest group who had to be specially fed.

Jake and Callum went down to the sand and started to look around. Jake saw a big bellied man and walked over him, ‘Hello, would you like to donate to the orphanage?’

‘No. Go away child.’

Jake walked off; he was used to this kind of abuse. A short old lady was walking up from the sand with her bag and towel. Great, thought Jake, old ladies always donate. He walked up and offered her the tin.

‘Oh,’ she said.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a few coins. She dropped them into the slot smiled.

‘Thanks,’ said Jake.

Jake looked out to the ocean. He saw the cool blue water gently coming into shore. With a quick glance to check no one was watching, Jake ran down to the water and slipped off his thongs. He knew that he wasn’t allowed into the water, but the air was so hot and the water was so cool.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Callum from behind.

Jake whipped his head around, ‘Shhh.’

‘I bet you I can get more money than you!’ grinned Callum.

‘You’re on!’

They both sprinted away from the water looking for donors. One and a half hours and seven dollars and seventy five cents later Jake was sitting in the back of the van on their way home. Callum had won the bet earning whopping nine dollars. He had also collected the most money out of everyone so he got to have a seven minute shower instead of a five minute one and extra gravy on his lamb chops.

The next day, after school, was surfer’s club. Kids, of all age, from the orphanage would be taken down to the beach to have a surf. Jake and Callum always went, along with some younger kids.

They arrived at the beach and Jake pulled his smooth surfboard out of the back of the van. He laid it down on the ground and pulled out a stick of wax. He smeared it all over the board and then carried it down to the water with Callum by his side.

Jake was wearing his favourite, white Billabong boardies and Callum had his red Quicksilver ones. They both wore white rashies with Saint Mary’s Non-Adoption Child Orphanage.

Jake walked out until the water was up to his waist and then got on to his board. He floated over the first wave and kept paddling out. He went over another few waves before seeing one he liked. Callum had the same idea and they both paddled as fast as they could. The wave loomed over them and they were pushed forward. Jake stood up and surfed in the barrel. The water sprayed into his face and he flicked back his long hair. As he looked up at the wave he realised that it was absolutely huge.

Suddenly, without any warning, the wave crashed down on top of him; its sheer weight smashed Jake down into the water. But it didn’t stop there. The water pushed him further underwater, whipping him around. His lungs screamed for air, and his head hurt like crazy. The wave was still pushing him down and his head smashed into the sand at the bottom of the ocean. His whole head bent forward and he heard a crack followed by a severe stinging pain. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. Like a monster ripping at the tendons in his neck, shredding them to pieces and then stamping on them. Jake used his arms to paddle to the surface and he held his head straight. He feared that he had broken his neck and had heard stories of people who had moved their heads after breaking their necks and had done more damage to themselves.

He felt his feet touch on the sand and he started walking. After the twenty most painful steps he would ever take, Jake sat down on the beach and called out for help. Quickly Brad, his surfing instructor, rushed over to him and said, ‘What happened?’

‘I was surfing the wave and suddenly it crashed down on me,’ said Jake still holding his neck. ‘I was chucked underwater and my head smashed on the bottom. It bent forwards and I think it might be broken.’

‘Okay, I’ll call an ambu-’ Brad suddenly stopped speaking.

‘Brad?’ said Jake looking up at him.

Brad’s was looking out to the water. He was looking at a body, floating face down in blood red water. The owner of the body was wearing a white rashi and white boardies.

Callum.

Brad sprinted to the water and dived in. He quickly swam out to Callum using powerful freestyle arms. When he reached him, he turned Callum over so he could breathe if he was still alive. Then he swam him back to shore with Callum in his arms. Life guards wearing their red and gold uniform rushed over to the scene. Callum was laid down on the ground and the life guards turned his head. Water gushed out of his mouth and splattered on the sand. A large red gash ran along the side of his neck and blood was spewing out of it making the sand go a dark maroon colour. The wound was covered with a bandage and the life guards gave Callum mouth to mouth resuscitation.

Three breaths.

Wait.

Three breaths.

Wait.

Three breaths.

Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

‘Argh!’ Callum suddenly sat up and drew in a huge breath of air but quickly fell back down again at the severe pain in his neck. The bandage was dark red and leaking blood at a rapid rate. If this kept up, Callum would die within the next few minutes.

‘Argh!’ yelled Callum. ‘My neck! My neck! Stop it hurting! Argh!’

‘Grab him a stretcher!’ yelled one of the lifeguards. ‘And call an ambulance!’

Two of them ran off to get a stretcher from the storage shed. Three lifeguards remained around Callum and they were trying desperately to stop the bleeding. Callum’s face was extremely pale and his lips were going a dark purple. The two men arrived back carrying a hand held stretcher. They laid it down on the ground next to Callum and helped to lift him on it. Once Callum was safely on the stretcher they lifted it up and began carrying it away.

From his spot on the sand about five meters away, Jake breathed a sigh of relief. He watched as the lifeguards carried Callum away. They were almost at the ambulance when they suddenly stopped and put down the stretcher.

Jake frowned and got up, regardless of the pain he was inflicting to himself.

He got up and ran over to Callum who was on the ground again. Jake could see his body shaking violently. The life guards around him were trying to hold him down but his body was shaking extremely hard. Two men and a woman leapt out of the back doors of the ambulance and rushed over to the scene.

They knelt down next to Callum and started to take the normal procedures. The ambulance staff were talking frantically to each other in medical talk that Jake could not understand. One of them pulled out a needle and jabbed it into Callum’s arm and after a few seconds, his body went limp. One of the life guards, who had now moved back to let the professionals take over, walked over to Jake and looked down at him, ‘Are you alright?’

‘No,’ replied Jake, ‘I think I might have broken my neck.’

Brad came over and stood next to Jake, ‘Hey, I’m in charge here. This is Jake. He thinks he might have broken his neck and I was tending to him when I saw Callum.

‘Okay,’ said the man, ‘where are you guys from?’

‘Saint Mary’s Non-Adoption Child Orphanage,’ replied Brad.

‘Okay,’ said the man again, ‘do you know what happened?’

‘Well these guys were surfing and I saw this huge wave come up out of the ocean and land on top of both of them,’ said Brad.

‘Thanks. Can we take a look at Jake?’

‘Sure,’ said Jake from the ground, ‘my neck hurts like crazy.’

Back over at the ambulance Callum was getting lifted into the ambulance and Jake asked, ‘Will I have to go to hospital?’

‘Depends on what the situation with your neck is,’ said the man as he bent over to have a look.

He moved Jake’s neck around murmuring to himself and then nodded his head, ‘It’s definitely broken.’

He turned his head back to the ambulance and called out, ‘Can we get another stretcher over here?’

Another two men rushed over with a stretcher and they loaded Jake onto it. He was carried over to the ambulance and put in the back next to Callum. A woman and a man jumped in with them and then shut the doors behind them. A few seconds later, the ambulance started and headed off towards the hospital.

‘So,’ asked the woman with a smile on her face, ‘what’s your name?’

‘Jake.’

‘And do you know this person?’ she asked pointing to Callum.

‘Yep,’ replied Jake, ‘that’s my best friend Callum.’

‘Okay,’ she said. ‘I’m going to give you some anesthetic now and you’re going to fall asleep so you don’t move your neck and out it out of place. Is that okay?’

‘Yeah sure,’ said Jake happy to be relieved of the pain in his neck.

She reached into a wall mounted cupboard and pulled out a face mask. She put the face mask over his nose and mouth before touching a few buttons. Jake instantly could smell the sterile smell that all hospitals had but it was soon forgotten as he drifted off into a very deep sleep.

He awoke a few hours later in a bed. He was in a small room with white painted walls. There was a curtain drawn across the left side of him cutting off what was in the rest of the room. The sheets had been pulled over him tightly and he was sweating. He tried to turn his head to look at the room he was lying in but realized he couldn’t because of the neck brace that he was wearing.

Neck brace?

Why do I need a neck brace, he thought?

Then he remembered the day’s events. He remembered the big wave that had come crashing down on top of him. He remembered being swirled around in the strong currents of the water unable to breath. He could almost taste the seawater that had been rushing into his mouth and down into his lungs. And then he remembered walking out of the water and talking to the ambulance man, then being loaded into the ambulance. Then he couldn’t remember anything at all. He tried as hard as he could but couldn’t recall the events that had happened after being loaded into the ambulance.

It was then that he became aware of the woman sitting at the end of his bed. She was smiling at him and said, ‘Welcome back.’

‘Where am I?’ asked Jake.

‘You are at Saint John of God’s hospital in the intensive care unit,’ she replied.

‘What’s your name?’ asked Jake.

‘Linda,’ was the reply. ‘You friend is here as well.’

Jake remembered Callum and pictured the blood spilling out of his neck.

Almost instinctively Jake asked, ‘Is he alright?’

Yes, yes he’s fine but he’s still under the affect of anesthetic.’

Jake realized that the room was quite light and he asked, ‘What time is it?’

‘It’s nine ‘o’ clock, Tuesday morning,’ replied Linda.

‘Nine ‘o’ clock!!!’ yelled Jake. ‘I left the beach at about five-thirty last night.’

‘You did,’ said Linda, ‘and I’m going to tell you everything that’s happened since then.’

‘Okay,’ replied Jake uneasily.

‘Well, last night you and a bunch of other boys were down at the beach surfing. A big wave came and it crashed on top of you and Callum. Callum’s neck was smashed against a reef and a large gash was opened up causing a huge amount of blood loss. You, when the wave smashed, were driven into the bottom of the water and your head hit the sand and bent in a funny way. At the scene, most of the attention was given to Callum who had the most obvious problem, but later on you were found out to have a broken neck.’

‘Yes, I remember that,’ said Jake.

‘You two were both whisked away to the hospital and on the way you were put under a tranquilizer. When you arrived here Callum was taken in for surgery to seal up the wound in his neck. Unfortunately for him, when the doctors examined him, they found that poisonous fungi had been growing on the section of the reef that he had cut his neck open on. The surgeon removed any section of the fungi that had been lodged into his neck and sealed the wound up.

You were taken up for an examination. The doctor in charge found out that your break was a rather serious one. The broken bone had bent in such a way that it had crushed the spinal cord cutting off some of the communication of messages from the brain to other parts of the body.’

‘But I remember being able to swim out of the water and walk over to Callum.’

‘That’s because the nerves hadn’t been fully cut off. Had you done nothing about it, you would probably not be able to walk again.’

‘Wow!’

‘So now you have two bolts in your neck as well as a small steel plate,’ finished Linda.

‘So what happens now, will I have to have anymore operations?’

‘Nope, none at all. Not to do with your neck at least.’

‘And how long will I be at this hospital?’

‘Probably one month but you’ll still have to wear the neck brace.’

‘Ohhhhhhhhhhh,’ came a noise from the other side of the curtain.

Linda got up and pulled back the curtain to reveal Callum lying in his bed. He had his eyes open but appeared to be in pain of some sort.

‘Where am I?’ he asked.

‘You are at Saint John of God’s hospital in the intensive care unit,’ replied Linda. ‘Last night, you had you neck torn open and we had to operate on it. You now have twelve stitches in your neck.’

‘The last thing I remember was being crushed by a huge wave,’ said Callum. ‘What happened after that?’

‘Jake will tell you,’ she said as she winked at him.

Linda walked out of the room and closed the door behind her.

For the remainder of the day, Jake and Callum talked about the events that had happened and watched several TV shows on the mini TV that was attached to the roof.

Night fell and Jake got up for the first time in a while to go to the toilet. He walked into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He was looking quite ragged. His face was a mess, with his hair flying out in all directions. He splashed his face with water feeling the past events wash off him. He had had a day of relaxing and now he felt much better. The orphanage had been contacted and Sharia was coming to visit him and Callum the next day. Jake went to the toilet and then got back into his bed. He stifled a yawn and bid Callum goodnight. He fell asleep only seconds after his head hit the pillow.

Jake awoke the next morning to the scraping sound of metal on metal. He stirred and opened his eyes to see a young man with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes taking a scalpel out of its case. He was wearing a long white coat and had a name badge attached to his pocket. Jake tried to read it but his eyes were too blurred. The man saw Jake open his eyes and quickly put down the scalpel on a near by metal trolley.

‘Good morning,’ said the man with a smile. ‘I’m Doctor Belious.’

Jake didn’t reply he was too busy looking at the room he was in. It was different from the one he had fallen asleep in. This room was about the same size but there was no curtain across the middle. There was just a solid wall with a door in it probably leading to a bathroom. The door on the other side of the room was open and Jake could see into the hallway. It was painted white were as at St John of God’s Hospital, the hallway had been painted blue.

‘Where am I?’ asked Jake.

Belious smiled as if he had been expecting the question, ‘Don’t worry,’ he said, ‘St John of God’s Hospital was forced to evacuate last night because of a power failure.’

‘Don’t they have backup power in hospital’s?’ asked Jake.

‘That failed as well,’ replied Belious. ‘We aren’t sure why yet, but we have people looking into that. You were moved to this hospital as well as your friend Callum.’

‘Is he alright?’ asked Jake sitting up in bed.

‘Yes, he’s fine,’ he’s in the room next to you.

‘Good,’ said Jake.

And with that, Belious walked out of the room leaving Jake by himself.

Jake thought about Belious, he seemed nice, almost too nice. Almost too perfect; if that was possible.

Jake deiced to get up and explore the new hospital. He got off his bed and walked out the door as well as he could with a neck brace on. He found himself in a long white corridor lined with doors. At one end was a door that presumably led to the reception and at the other end was an open area with lots of chairs and a few doors that led into offices. He walked to the area and saw a sign: “Common Area”. Three kids that looked about his age were sitting on some of the chairs talking to each other but otherwise the room was deserted. Jake looked at the injury’s of the kids: One had neck burns and had a bandage wrapped around it, another had a neck brace like Jake and the last one had a big fluffy bandage around his entire neck with a drip running into it.

All neck injuries, thought Jake, strange.

He walked over to them and sat down, ‘Hey, I’m Jake.’

The kid with neck burns turned around. He had dark blonde hair and a round face with fat lips, ‘Hey, I’m Taylor.’

‘We gotta go,’ said one of the other kids to Taylor.

‘Okay, see you later,’ replied Taylor.

He turned back to Jake and asked, ‘So, why are you here?’

‘The hospital I was at had a power failure and I had to be moved here,’ replied Jake. “What about you?’

‘My hospital burnt down.’

‘Really,’ replied Jake in amazement.

‘A lot of stuff happens without the public getting to know,’ stated Taylor.

‘Yeah.’

‘Damn, here comes The Vulture,’ said Taylor looking behind Jake.

‘The what?’

‘The Vulture,’ said Taylor, ‘he’s really Doctor Vulmere but everyone calls him The Vulture because he hunts you and tells you that you have an operation coming up.’

‘Operation!’ laughed Jake, ‘I don’t have to worry about that. The doctor at my other hospital said I didn’t have to have any more.’

The Vulture had jet black hair, thin lips and a straight nose. He was tall and skinny and it seemed like he could kill a man without any regret. It looked like if you touched his heart with even the gentleness of a fairy that it would shatter into a thousand pieces from being so cold.

He reached the Common Area and held up his clipboard.

‘Jake Harding,’ he read in a stone cold voice.

Jake opened his mouth in protest but The Vulture put a finger to his lips.

‘Come with me now,’ he said sternly.

There was something in his voice that made Jake follow him. As he left Taylor whispered, ‘Good luck.’

The Vulture led Jake to a door on the right side of the room. He opened the door and they found them selves in a large room painted all white like the other room sof the hospital.

Jake saw Belious putting on a face mask up the back at the room. He was looking at some medical tools on a rack and checking them for the operation.

Around the room was an array of machines with digital readings being displayed and on the left of the room was a large water tank.

The Vulture led Jake over to the bed in the middle and another surgeon walked over to remove his neck brace. Jake felt it slide off his neck and suddenly, his neck was like jelly. His head flopped forward only to be caught and put upright be the surgeon.

‘Lie down,’ said The Vulture in his ever-so-cold voice.

Jake got up onto the bed with the aid of the surgeon and lay down. The covers were put over him and he got comfortable. Belious walked over with a gas mask and put it over Jake’s nose and mouth, ‘Take some deep breathes.’

Jake breathed in deeply and felt consciousness slipping away from him.

Jake felt sick when he woke up at about 1 ‘o’ clock. Sick and dizzy. He rubbed his eyes, before quickly leaning over and vomiting on the floor. Doctor Belious walked in and said,’ ‘Oopsies. I’ll clean that up for you.’

He plucked a bag out of his coat pocket and bent down to clean up Jake’s vomit.

‘So, how do you feel?’ he asked.

‘I feel really sick and dizzy,’ replied Jake groggily.

‘I thought you would,’ said Belious nodding to himself.

He finished cleaning up the mess and stood up. He smiled briefly at Jake and left the room with the plastic bag in his hands.

Callum appeared at the doorway still wearing his bandage, ‘Hey.’

‘Hey, how are you going?’ asked Jake.

‘Not too bad. I heard you just had an operation.’

‘Yeah, I did, it’s been hell,’ said Jake. ‘Linda from St John of God’s said I wouldn’t have to have another one.’

‘Oh well.’

‘I need to get some fresh air,’ said Jake, ‘let’s go outside.’

Jake had his neck brace on and found it difficult to get up but he managed and they walked down the corridor.

‘So, have you met anyone else yet?’ asked Jake.

‘Yeah, one guy named Taylor. He seemed nice.’

‘I met him too, did he tell you about The Vulture?’

‘No,’ said Callum, ‘who’s that.’

But at that moment, they reached the door and Jake was cut off. The door was locked with a huge padlock, cutting off the exit of the building. Jake went up on his tippy-toes and looked out the small square window. What he saw amazed him: There was a fence, about ten metres from the door, topped with razor wire running all the way round the building. Directly in front of the door, was a gate in the fence, large enough to fit a truck through. Standing on guard next to the gate were two guards heavily armed with MetalStorms. MetalStorms didn’t use and mechanic parts to fire bullets, rather rapid electronic shocks. This allowed it to shoot up to 10 000 rounds per minute. They literally fired a storm of metal, hence the name. He swallowed and ducked down from the window. Callum had been looking too and he had also seen the guns.

‘What is this place?’ asked Callum.

‘I dunno, but something weird is going on,’ replied Jake.

‘Definitely,’ agreed Callum.

‘What I can’t understand is why I had to have another operation. Linda said that that was my only one I would have to have.’

‘I don’t know either but if I was you, I’d sleep with one eye open,’ replied Callum.

Suddenly, a loud bell rang out in the corridors. Doors all the way down the corridor flung open and starving kids burst out of them and began charging down the hallway to the common area.

‘Looks like lunch,’ said Jake.

They both walked down the corridor to the common area. They found that it had been transformed into a dining area of some sort. Tables were set up and to the right of the room, where the door to the operation theatre was, was a long silver bench that had a various selection of sandwiches. The kids were lining up in a row next to the bench. Jake looked at the line and realized that he could see a line of white bandages at around neck height.

Every kid in the line had a neck injury.

Jake leaned over to Callum and whispered, ‘Is this a hospital for only neck injuries.’

‘Looks like it, but Doctor Belious didn’t say anything about it.’

Jake went and joined the line followed by Callum. It took about two minutes for them to get to the front of the line. Doctor Belious was serving and Jake seized the opportunity to ask him about the hospital.

‘Is this hospital for neck injuries only?’ asked Jake.

Doctor Belious hesitated and looked up as if he was checking the kids. He wavered and then said cautiously, ‘Y-yes, yes it is.’

Jake frowned and leant over and picked up a ham and cheese sandwich and a glass of water. Callum did the same and they looked for somewhere to sit. Jake saw Taylor sitting down with his friends and headed over. He sat down and began to eat his lunch. He picked up the sand which and popped it hungrily into his mouth. The food was absolutely disgusting but Jake was starving. The cheese was plastic and the ham was nauseatingly old. He chewed a few times before swallowing. Jake winced as he took the next bite and Taylor spoke to him, ‘Doesn’t look like you’re enjoying that.’

‘Of course not,’ exclaimed Jake, ‘it’s absolutely disgusting!’

Jake was about to comment on the drink when he got a small tap on his shoulder. He turned around and found himself looking straight into the cold eyes of The Vulture. He held his deadly clipboard and read from it, ‘Jake Harding. You have an operation now.’

Jake gaped and tried to retaliate but The Vulture had a firm grip on his arm. He allowed himself to be lifted out of his chair and was led to the benches where the food was served. They went behind the counter and through the same door that he had been through earlier that day. The same long and drab room lay behind it and Jake again saw Doctor Belious. Jake was beginning to dislike the man despite his previous thoughts of him. He was so perfect and always wore an evil sort of smirk. Jake noticed a few things that were different about the room: firstly, half the room had been curtained off and zapping noise could be heard from behind it. Secondly, Jake noticed that there was an array of needles with electrical cords snaking out from them. Several doctors were checking the needles and the other medical instruments.

‘What are those needl-’ started Jake.

But he didn’t get to finish as The Vulture clamped his hand over Jake’s mouth. Jake felt a needle jab into his arm and then consciousness slipped away from him.

When Jake awoke, it was nine thirty p.m. All the kids had gone back to their rooms to either go to sleep or watch TV. Jake was in his room tucked into his bed and his neck brace was firmly back in place. His eyelids were drooping and he tried to fight it for a while but eventually gave in and fell asleep.

The next morning, Jake was awoken by an annoying tapping sensation on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and looked up into the round face of Taylor standing next to Callum.

‘Wakey wakey!’

‘Ohhhh,’ moaned Jake as he rolled over to check the time.

It was seven-thirty in the morning yet from the sounds of laughter coming from other rooms, Jake could tell that it was the normal wake-up time around here. He pulled back his sheets and hopped out of bed. He was already wearing his clothes from the previous day and couldn’t be bothered to get changed.

‘Want to come over to my room for a bit?’ asked Taylor happily.

‘Yeah, sure,’ replied Callum enthusiastically.

‘Why not?’ shrugged Jake.

Jake rubbed his eyes and followed the other out the door and down the corridor. Callum was in room five so they pretty much just walked a few metres down the corridor from room seven where Jake was staying.

Callum led them into his room and jumped onto his bed. He lay down looking at the roof for a while and scratched at his bandage.

‘I wouldn’t scratch at that too much,’ said Taylor warningly. ‘You’ll only make it worse.’

‘I know, but it’s so itchy,’ replied Callum still scratching. ‘I think I might take it off for a second.’

‘I wouldn’t,’ said Jake.

‘I would,’ replied Callum.

And with that, he started to unwrap the bandage around his neck as if he was unrolling a cotton reel. He unwrapped the last bit and set the bandage down on the table. His wound looked horrible: the skin all around it was red from scratching and it had swollen up like a balloon. The wound itself had been stitched up and appeared to be healing.

It was then that Jake noticed them. There were two sets of them; one on each side of his neck. They were sort of like gills, long narrow slits that ran from under his chin to the back of his neck.

‘What the hell are they?’ yelled Jake pointing at the ‘gills’.

Taylor turned to look at them and recoiled in shock.

‘What?’ said Callum anxiously. ‘What about me?’

‘You have-’ Jake paused.

‘Gills,’ whispered Taylor.

The three of them sat there in awe. Taylor and Jake just staring at the slits in Callum’s neck and Callum just sitting there, trying to figure everything out.

It was Callum who moved first. He jumped off his bed and sprinted into his bathroom before looking at himself in the mirror. Jake and Taylor waited for it for about two second-

‘AAARRRGGGHHHH!!!’

Jake and Taylor ran into the bathroom to find Callum pointing at his ‘gills’ screaming his lungs out.

‘Oh my god!! What the hell are these things.’

Callum’s face was going red with screaming and Jake and Taylor came to his aid. They tried to calm him down but he was yelling and screaming as loud as he could. Jake made a grab but jumped away as Callum’s arm accidentally lashed out at him. Taylor managed to get a hold on him but he was writhing like a worm and slipped away like wet soap in the shower. He ran out of the bathroom and out into the corridor screaming. Jake followed him out and gave chase.

It wasn’t long before nurses and doctors started to burst out of rooms wondering what was going on. Doctor Belious came out of one of the offices that led into the Common Area. He saw Callum with his bandage off and immediately lent over to the wall and pressed a red button.

A siren went off and added to the noise of the crazy Callum screaming his head off. Doctor Belious ran over to Callum and grabbed him. He violently shook him causing him to momentarily pause his yelling.

‘Shut up!’ he yelled at Callum.

Callum did the opposite; he kept screaming, so Belious pulled out a needle and stuck it into Callum’s arm.

Within a few seconds, Callum’s screaming had died down and he lay slumped on the ground.

Jake and Taylor were pulled down to the ground and held there by two very strong looking guards that had previously been guarding the perimeter of the building. Their MetalStorms were strapped on their backs and the one holding down Jake unslung his and pointed it directly at Jake’s face. Jake breathed in deeply while looking down the barrel of one of the most sophisticated pieces of technology ever known to man; Taylor breathed that very same breath a few seconds later.

The Vulture stepped out of an office and hit the red button. The siren stopped and there was a deadly silence.

‘Good morning ladies and gentlemen,’ said The Vulture softly.

Nobody spoke, they just watched The Vulture. He beckoned for the men holding down the three children to follow him into his office. Doctor Belious lifted up Callum and dragged into the room followed by Jake and Taylor.

The Vulture’s office was grand. The walls were made out of polished wood and the floor was covered with a thick carpet. It had a large teak wood desk in the middle that was polished to perfection, an absolutely huge leather armchair behind it and a plasma TV on the left wall. But the most striking feature was that the entire back wall was one big window that had a view out over a huge desert plain.

It was the first time Jake had actually properly seen out side the building and he wondered where exactly they were.

‘Lock them to the chairs,’ said The Vulture motioning towards three chairs to the side of the room. The three boys were roughly pushed over to them and forced to sit down. Their hands were then handcuffed behind them around the chair.

Doctor Belious gave Callum another needle and he woke up.

‘Argh!’

‘Lock the door,’ said The Vulture.

Doctor Belious walked over to the door and locked it with a key. He then passed the key to The Vulture who put it in a draw on his desk before looking up at the boys

‘Well, well, well,’ said the Vulture, ‘what do we have here?’

‘These boys all know about the project Xavier,’ said Doctor bilious to The Vulture.

Xavier must be his real name, thought Jake.

‘They must die then,’ said The Vulture simply.

He pulled out a pistol and leveled it at Callum’s head. Callum whimpered and The Vulture pulled the trigg-

‘WAIT!’ yelled Jake.

‘What?’ replied The Vulture angrily pointing the pistol at Jake.

‘What is this project about?’ said Jake playing for time while he thought of an escape plan.

‘Well, since you’re all going to die anyway… Project Poisson is a highly secret project that includes us uses you guys as test dummy’s,’ replied The Vulture putting down the pistol.

‘Who is ‘us’?’ asked Jake.

‘We are ASWI Human Biology Division Section 2.’

‘And the ASWI are?’ asked Jake.

The American Scientific Warfare Intelligence. We are the human biology division, which means that we deal with making weapons out of humans.’

‘And what about the Section 2?’

‘There are two sections of the human biology division: Section 1, Supernatural Occurrences and Section 2, Medical Research.’

Jake was fiddling around with his handcuffs trying to slip his hands out. He pulled really hard and it hurt his hand like crazy, but his anger at The Vulture helped him bear it.

‘Then what exactly are you doing to us?’ asked Taylor.

‘In a simplified format, when you were a fetus, you actually had gills to breathe. Those gills disappeared when you grew a little more but the DNA instructions inside you to put those gills on you are still in your body. You see, you have about 100,000 of those sets of instructions turned on, but you also have about 80,000 of them that are turned off.

‘In you operations, we have been electronically zapping those instructions and trying to turn them on. So far you three and one other kid are the only ones it’s worked on and it’s a shame that we have to kill you.’

While The Vulture had been talking Jake had gotten his right hand out of his handcuff and was trying to hide it from the guards. He looked over at Taylor who had also gotten his right hand out. Callum wasn’t having any luck as Doctor Belious had done his hand cuffs up extremely tight to avoid any chances of him escaping.

Jake looked over at the guards holding their MetalStorms. The guns were heavy so they had strapped them on their backs again. Jake tapped Taylor and put up three fingers behind his back. Then he put on finger down leaving two and then one.

They both jumped up from their seats and Jake swung his fist at Doctor Belious. Jake’s blow was stopped by Belious arm but Jake quickly threw another punch with his left arm and it hit Belious square in the temple. Belious crumpled to the ground and Jake and Taylor ran straight over to the guards. The first guard reached for his a second too slow; he received a swing from Jake’s handcuff in the middle of the face and staggered back. Callum had gotten the gist and had jumped with the chair still attached to his back. He spun around just in time as The Vulture had picked up his pistol and had started firing. He got off two shots, the first one missing by a metre or so and the second on plowing into the bottom of the chair causing the plastic to bend into Callum’s leg’s. But Callum had been running backwards and the chair legs, that were horizontal because Callum had bent over, rammed straight into The Vulture causing him to fall off his chair and drop his gun. The gun slid out of reach a couple of metres away. Callum ran around the desk only to find that The Vulture was quicker then he thought he was and was already up. He grabbed Callum’s leg and pulled hard causing him to fall backwards. He landed on all four legs of the chair but the backwards motion didn’t stop there. He kept going and landed on his back, with the back of his chair half cushioning his fall. Callum looked behind him and saw the pistol on the ground about twenty centimeters away from his outstretched hand. He shuffled his chair and got a hand to it just as The Vulture’s foot came slamming down on it. Callum yanked the gun away and as The Vulture had been on it, it also caused The Vulture to lose his balance and fall over again.

Callum fired a shot into his handcuffs and they broke open. He then turned the gun on The Vulture and carefully got up from his chair to see Taylor and Jake fighting a viscous battle with the second guard.

Taylor was swinging at the guard with his loose handcuff with Jake doing the same from behind. The guard’s MetalStorm lay on the ground a few metres away, Jake had taken it off the man while he was distracted with Taylor. Callum could only watch as he was guarding The Vulture.

The guards finally got a blow in and it was directed at Taylor. Taylor fell to the ground just as gunfire erupted from the other side of the room. The guard that Jake had smashed first up with his handcuff had picked up the second guards MetalStorm and was firing from the ground. He was groggy and firing from a lower point with one hand so the shots all but two of the shots missed. One of the shots smashed into the other guards arm and sent it flying backwards to an obscure angle. But he didn’t feel the pain for long as another bullet hit him in the chest and he slumped to the ground.

Jake ran over to the guard that had been firing, jumped up into the air swinging his handcuff and landed on the guard’s chest knocking the wind out of him before smashing the handcuff into his face a second time, knocking him out again.

It was then, that Jake noticed that there was water on the floor.

What, thought Jake, water?

He looked over at the wall and realized that the bullets from the MetalStorm had actually gone through the wall and smashed open the water tank. Water was spraying through the tiny cracks at a rapid rate. Jake watched as a chunk about the size of a head came off the wall and more water poured through. The water level was at his waist now and still rising.

Jake dived under the water and swam over to the unconscious guard. He took a deep breath and-

Breath, Jake frowned, how could he possibly breathe under wat-

It hit him and he jumped up to the surface and yelled, ‘We can breathe!’

Callum looked over at Jake to try and understand what he was saying. The Vulture used the distraction to his advantage. He leapt up and tackled Callum under water making him drop the gun. Callum was still breathing because of his gills but The Vulture wasn’t. Callum held The Vulture down trying his best to knock him out from oxygen starvation, but The Vulture eventually got the better of him and leapt up taking a huge breath. The pistol was floating in the water a few metres away and Taylor made for it. He picked it up and started firing it at The Vulture. He hit him in the arm and The Vulture went under the surface in pain. Taylor waded through the choppy water to Callum and handed him the gun just before The Vulture surfaced.

‘Where’s your phone?’ yelled Callum pointing the gun at The Vulture.

‘You wouldn’t shoot me.’ said The Vulture, ‘You haven’t got the guts.’

‘Where’s your phone?’ yelled Callum again.

The Vulture did nothing so Jake started to search his pockets. He found The Vultures phone it his top pocket. It was a tad wet so he wiped it down before dialing 000.

‘Hello this is triple zero, which service would you like?’ said a lady’s voice.

‘Police please,’ said Jake.

The lady put him through to the police department and a man answered, ‘What’s the problem?’

‘We have been kidnapped and are at an unknown location in a hospital. We are safe for the moment, but we need to get out of here ASAP because the room is filling with water. But we can breathe under water.’

‘You can breathe under water!’

‘Just get here and we’ll explain later.’

‘I’ll trace the position of your phone and we will be there as soon as possible.’

‘Thank you,’ said Jake.

‘Goodbye.’

Epilogue

Ten back clad commandoes zip lined out of the black hawk helicopter. Each of them had M-16 rifles, Desert Eagle pistols and grenades.

The ten of them landed on the ground and surrounded the small white building covered by a camouflage awning in the middle of the hot desert.

‘Move in,’ came a voice through each of their headsets.

With M-16’s up, the commandoes moved in, smashing down the doors and walking inside the building. They all issued warning fire at the roof and all the nurses in the hallway ducked down for cover.

‘Careful, there are innocent children in the rooms.’

The commandoes ran to a door at the back of the building and kicked it down. Water gushed out but they didn’t seem to notice. In the room were three children, a dead guard and an unconscious guard, a doctor and a tall, thin man at gun point floating on the lowering water. The commandoes picked up the unconscious guard and the man at gunpoint and told the children to follow them out. They walked down the hallway letting all the children out from there rooms before leading them out the door into the helicopter via a rope ladder.

Once they were all in, the helicopter flew away into the distance and just left the white building to sort out its own problems.

No one saw any faces.

It was a covert mission.

How it should be.