Page 82 of Stray Omega

“Actually, I can’t take the credit. We merely stumbled across this substance by accident, but it seems to have been synthesized by someone inside the Quarantine Zone.”

Ark wondered what the vial contained, but he made sure not to let his curiosity show on his face.

“You see,” Toth went on. “A little over nine-months ago there was a bit of excitement involving a former employee of SynerGen. A woman by the name of Shelley Hines. The government wanted to bring her in for questioning, but she managed to escape with the help of an alpha who had apparently been keeping watch on her for some time. Naturally, we were curious as to how the alpha had managed to survive for months on end outside of the Zone. When we searched the alpha’s abandoned dwelling, we found this substance. It contains a variation of the same nanotech virus that is emitted by the Source.”

The doctor held the vial up and turned it in the light, admiring its liquid-chrome contents.

“You’re probably wondering,” Toth continued, “why we did not simply inject this substance into ordinary humans to create alphas, right?”

Actually, Ark had not been wondering that. In fact, he hadn’t understood half of what the doctor had said. He was just a simple alpha, and to him science and technology was nothing more than black magic. But Toth clearly enjoyed hearing himself speak, and the longer the arrogant bastard went on blabbering, the more time Ark had to come up with some kind of plan.

The alpha did not interrupt.

“Yes, well, whoever designed this nano-fluid did a clever job. While the stuff can be used to sustain an alpha away from the Source, it apparently cannot be used to induce the alpha mutation in an ordinary human. All of our attempts to do so have resulted in betas.”

Toth grinned.

“So, that’s where you come in, my friends. That’s why we need you to breed and provide us with an army of little alphas to do our bidding.” The doctor flashed a creepy wink in Embla’s direction. “Oh, and few little omegas too. That way we can keep our breeding program going for many generations to come.”

Ark felt a fiery rage welling up in his chest. It took a great effort of will to keep himself in check.

“And what if we refuse to breed?” Ark asked through gritted teeth.

“Oh, you won’t refuse.”

Dr. Toth snapped his fingers, and another figure entered the room. It was a naked shambling beta, a male, just like the ones they had encountered in the forest. Mechanical circuit boxes and wires protruded from the back of the thing’s pale, bald head. It was carrying a plain plastic tray with a rectangular metal box.

Toth noticed Ark eyeing the beta with disgust.

“Ah yes, you’ve already met some of our pet betas. As a matter of fact, you put a few of them out of commission from what I hear. No matter. They are expendable.”

Toth reached for the tray the beta was carrying and opened the rectangular box. He drew out a syringe and another vial, this one containing a perfectly clear fluid. It looked just like water, but Ark suspected it was something else. Toth inserted the needle through the vial’s rubber stopper and began to fill the syringe, all without stopping his lecture.

“Yes, the betas have served us well. In the past, SynerGen attempted sending ordinary humans into the Zone with protective suits to shield them from the contamination. Well, I’m sure you know how that worked out. Disastrously. The shielding was unreliable, and more often than not, the poor humans were mutated. Most of the time, they became brain-dead betas like this fellow here.”

Toth flicked the syringe to settle the air bubbles, then squirted a bit of fluid from the needle.

“We figured, why not bypass all of that rigamarole and just send betas into the Zone in the first place? We’ve replaced their useless zombie brains with circuit boards so that we can control them remotely from the safety of the city hive. Everything they see and hear is transmitted back to a computer in our labs. They are the perfect agents for infiltrating the Zone.”

Ark could hardly believe what he was hearing. The Outsiders were putting machines in betas’ heads and making them do their bidding inside the Zone?

The idea was unbelievably repulsive.

This Dr. Toth clearly had no morals at all.

“Anyway, to return to your question: what if you should refuse to breed? Well, allow me to show you why you won’t refuse…”

Toth moved toward Embla. The omega’s eyes widened at the sight of the gleaming needle dripping with fluid, and she trembled in her restraints.

“Stay away from her, you bastard!” Leros roared.

But there was nothing either of the alphas could do. Their restraints were far too strong. They had no choice but to watch helplessly as Toth injected the clear serum into a vein in the omega’s arm. Embla winced as the needle penetrated her flesh and the fluid went in.

When the syringe was empty, Toth withdrew the needle.

“See, that wasn’t so bad, now was it?”

He reached up and stroked the Embla’s cheek. The omega snarled and gnashed her teeth. Were it not for the metal band clamping her head in place, Toth would have lost those fingers, and Ark wished he could see that happen.

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