Chapter 46: Chapter 46: Specter of death

Norman handed out the rest of the poison bottles, the other two men grabbing them like they were dying of thirst and didn’t care what was in them. It was a bit terrifying how much these men just wanted things to end.

Seeing as Norman had limited time to conduct this experiment, he split the three into their own test groups. The first one would be getting the healing potion after half an hour. The second after an hour and the third just before they were forced to leave.

Now, these tests weren’t perfect, and it might result in all three dying because Norman couldn’t exactly recreate how Toby had changed. Ideally, Norman would bleed them like what happened with Toby.

“Won’t work, boyo,” the gron said as Norman pulled out a knife. “Field slows cell death, and speeds up the healing of any external injuries.”

“Won’t that counteract the poison?” Norman frowned, hoping he hadn’t just wasted his time.

“No. It only affects external issues. But there are other devices that will try to fight off the internal damage.” The man grunted in pain but smiled, his teeth coated in blood. “They don’t seem up to the challenge though.”

“…that’s good, I guess.” Norman shook his head, this whole situation was a bit surreal.

He checked his phone. It was nearing time to get the first gron to take the healing potion. He headed back over to the man who still looked rather stoic, even if Norman could see him shaking in pain from the poison.

Norman held out a small vial of potion, this stuff was made from his blood and not jorik blood. He wasn’t sure if that would affect the outcome but Norman was fully committed to getting rid of his reliance on the jorik blood.

“This will cause a reaction with the poison.” Norman saw a distrustful look pass the gron’s face and he quickly clarified, “It won’t heal you or stop the poison. If I am right, this will make you undead.”

“Undead? What’s that?”

“Um, dead but not. It’s a bit hard to explain. You will end up like my silent friend over there.”

The man looked over to where Toby was standing. “Seems alive to me, I think I’ll pass.”

Norman was afraid something like this might happen. He needed to convince this man to take the potion.

“Toby, come here for a sec.”

“Why?” Toby asked in suspicion.

“Do you want me to find a cure or not?”

Grudgingly, Toby walked over. Without warning, Norman grabbed his arm and sliced it open.

Toby looked at him like he wanted to slap Norman, but he didn’t say anything. Then Norman repeated the process with his own arm, being a bit more cautious not to cut too deeply.

“You see, we are not the same. Toby is undead, his bodily functions have stopped but his mind still functions.”

After that explanation, Norman handed Toby another small vial of healing potion and he took one himself. He had plenty of the potion on hand.

“Will it get me out of here?”

“If it works, your bodily functions will appear to be dead. I don’t know what the gron do after that, I assume they dispose of your body like every other one.”

“And if it doesn’t work?”

Norman shrugged, “then you just die. Kind of a win-win in your case.”

“Fine, give it to me. I pray you are wrong, but getting out of here and living as an undead is preferable to staying locked up and used for only my knowledge.”

The man downed the potion, this time grimacing. “Tastes like someone shoved dirty metal in my mouth.”

“Sorry about that. I can’t control the flavor.” It was partially true. It seemed like the flavor changed depending on what blood was used in its creation. Not that either was a very tasty combination. Norman preferred the coppery tang of human blood to the taste of old gym socks that the jorik blood gave to the potions.

The two hours flew by quite quickly, and Norman administered the rest of the potions to the other gron, just finishing up a few minutes early so they could leave before the gron watching the camera returned from his lunch. Unfortunately, the process wasn’t a quick one and Norman would not be able to stick around for it to finish. He would need to rely on the President for any further information.

As the elevator opened, Norman saw the President waiting inside with a big smile on his face. “I take it things went well?”

“Everything seemed to go as I predicted. I won’t know for some time though. Can you route their bodies to my room?” If they died, he wanted to be able to take them for further study to see why the tests had failed.

“I should be able to swing that. I want to thank you for helping with this delicate situation. You may not yet realize it but you did a good thing.”

“What about your people, won’t they be irate that their only former presidents are all dead?”

“No. It wouldn’t be the first time we have lost all of our past knowledge. It will shake up our society for a bit, and might actually get some gron to think instead of just going through the motions. Either way, it is a good thing.”

“And what’s your plan if this test works and I am able to turn you into an undead?”

The President chuckled. “Well, since I will be immune to all prosecution, it will be time for me to step out of the shadows and actively mess with stuff. If any of the other presidents survive this process, I imagine they will join me in causing as much tomfoolery as possible.”

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“Well, I wish you luck.”

“Oh,” the President snapped his fingers, “Before I forget, do either of you know these two?”

The President handed one of the gron tablets over only this time it was visible.

“Why can we see the tablet?” Norman asked.

“Oh, I turned off the security feature.”

Norman glanced at the screen, going pale. It was a freeze frame of one man passing through customs. It wasn’t just any man though, this was Eugene.

“Well, that’s not good,” Toby commented.

The screen flicked to another individual, only it was a woman with thick brown hair.

“She looks familiar,” Norman stated.

Toby barked a laugh, “Wow, you can’t even remember the face of the woman you banged?”

“What!” Norman gave a second look at the woman. She had curves and a cute face. But Norman was sure he would remember someone like… oh. The girl from the club. He looked closer, picturing the girl wearing thick eyeliner and heavy makeup. “Shit, you’re right. Who is she?”

This time Toby doubled over in laughter. Norman had to wait until the man recovered enough to answer his question.

“Her name’s Brigette. She was the Mayor’s daughter. Not the one that went missing, but the one that took over.”

“Wait, she was the Mayor’s daughter?” Norman could only shake his head in surprise at that information but it didn’t really change anything for him. “Ok, I can understand why Eugene is here, but why would she come here? And how did you know to show us these two people’s pictures?”

The President took the tablet back. “These two came from the same teleporter you two arrived from. The big man arrived four days ago. And the girl arrived yesterday. Neither has gone to their assigned work locations so they got flagged to the Compliance Office. That piqued my interest, I thought they might be some more troublemakers I could work with. Then I worked out that they arrived from the same area and thought you might have some relationship. We don’t get many people from that zone.”

“The girl was picked up by the Compliance Office this morning and reprimanded to forced labor for a week for not doing her work. But the man has been able to avoid the Compliance Office and my attempts to locate him using the city's surveillance systems. I would really like to discover what magic the man was able to employ to do this.”

“That man is Eugene and he is likely here to kill us or capture me. It’s probably best not to approach him.” Norman figured Sin would have given up, seeing as nobody ever returned from this zone to Colorado. Norman knew why that was now, but still, it seemed like a waste to send someone like Eugene after them.

“We need to be more careful,” Toby spoke up. “Eugene is extremely dangerous. If Sin sent him out here, it was to finish a job. Eugene is Sin’s main fixer.” Seeing as Norman was giving Toby a blank look, he added, “he’s Sin’s go-to killer. So don’t expect him to show you any mercy this time around.”

“Oh… How can you be sure he’s here to kill me and not capture me?”

“I’m not. I’m just imagining what I would do in this scenario. And what I would do is send someone that I knew could get the job done but was not essential to my operations if things went south.”

“How very shrewd of you.” Toby just shrugged while Norman rubbed his face as he thought about this problem. He might need to speed up his plans to leave. But he was still missing some very important parts that he needed to figure out before that could happen.

“Another thing,” Toby added, “You should change your appearance. You stand out too much with your stupid outfit.”

“What? What's wrong with what I’m wearing?”

Toby rolled his eyes, “how many humans do you see walking around in a bloody apron, mirrored shades, dark shirt, shorts, and flip-flops? I think the only reason Eugene hasn’t found you already is due to how massive this city is. But it’s only a matter of time.”

Norman looked down at his clothing. It was true he was wearing that outfit. He hadn’t really taken the apron off since he started working in the corpse disposal department and it was covered in more than one unidentified stain from work. It was just so convenient to wear it all the time since he was experimenting so much lately.

He didn’t want to give the man any credit, but perhaps Toby was right. Norman did have a pretty unique look. Half mad scientist, half slacker.

“If you need new clothes, I can set you up with a tailor. Call it a bonus for the work you have done for me today. Speaking of that. Do you know when we can expect results from these tests?”

Norman pushed thoughts of Eugene squashing him like a bug out of his mind as he turned toward the President. “No later than tomorrow would be my guess.”

“Good, good.”

The elevator dinged and the doors opened. The President was the first to exit, he turned and addressed Norman. “I will be in touch and I will keep an eye out for this Eugene fellow.”

The Mayor flicked something on his phone and Norman’s phone buzzed. When Norman looked down at his phone it showed an address.

“Get whatever you want, the cost will be covered by me. Now I really must be off, I’m already behind schedule for today.” Without waiting for a reply, the President hurried out the front doors.

Toby wasn’t far behind the man. “I need to check on Anna and let her know about Eugene. You might want to figure out why Brigette is here. I doubt she came looking for me or Anna.”

“Wait? Why would she come looking for me?” Norman asked, but Toby didn’t answer as he too exited the building. “Dammit,” he muttered. He didn’t need added complications right now.

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