Patient Zero: Messiah of Thorns

Chapter 2

Nico quickened his pace through the haunting darkness of Chicago. Every breath felt heavy, creating a thin vapor that immediately mixed with the scarlet spore fog in the air. The cracked asphalt beneath his boots felt rough, sending waves of pain to his back, which was still throbbing after the fatal incident at the mall. A different kind of exhaustion crept in, as if it wasn't just his body being drained, but also another part of himself—his memories—threatened to fade away.

“Sarah, can you still hear me?” Nico pressed the radio button on his left shoulder. His voice was broken by the sound of his own rapid breathing.

Static crackled sharply before Sarah’s voice replied from the other side of the device. “Nico! Thank God you’re still alive! Your signal cut out during the explosion! What happened back there?”

“I’m almost at the crash site,” Nico answered as he leaped over the wreckage of an overturned container truck. A pungent odor hit his nose. “The smell... I don’t know how to describe it, Sarah. Like a flower shop being burned along with a pile of corpses. Sweet, but it makes me want to vomit.”

“Nico, listen to me carefully!” Sarah’s voice rose an octave, filled with concern. “That industrial area is a red zone! The spore concentration is ten times higher than where you were! If your respirator filter can’t handle it, you’ll turn into a plant in ten minutes! Get back now!”

“I need what’s inside that plane, Sarah,” Nico paused for a moment. His eyes stared at the orange glow devouring an old warehouse where the plane was lodged. Through the flames, he saw the Aegis Pharma logo clearly displayed on the broken wing. That cursed company. “I see the Aegis Pharma logo on the wing. You know what that means to me.”

“Aegis Pharma? They’re the ones who turned you into a monster, Nico! They took your humanity! Why would you even go there?!”

“That’s exactly why!” Nico snapped quietly, his voice filled with a burning rage. “If anyone has an antidote or at least a stronger mutation suppressant, it’s them. I don’t care what I become, as long as those Aegis Pharma people feel my thorns in their throats. Or at least, I find a way to control this before I forget who I am by tomorrow morning.”

There was a long silence on the radio. “I... I understand. But if you don’t report back in five minutes, I’ll assume you’ve become part of their ecosystem. Be careful, Nico.”

“Five minutes. I’ll hold you to that,” Nico turned off his radio, cutting the contact.

He crawled toward the tilted open hatch of the plane. Three crew members crawled out with jerky movements impossible for a living human. They were no longer a respectable research crew. Scarlet petals bloomed from their eye sockets, emitting a yellow glow that pulsed in the darkness. They were Bloomers, a newer and faster version.

“Graaaagh!” One of the crew members, whose uniform was already torn to shreds, lunged with elongated claws.

Nico didn’t want to waste his mutation energy excessively. Every time that power rose, he felt a part of himself being eroded. He swung his modified pipe wrench with brutal, precise movements. The sharp teeth crudely welded onto the side of the wrench glinted ominously.

Prak!

The heavy serrated metal slammed into the crewman’s temple, crushing his skull and spraying a sickeningly sweet fluid right onto Nico’s boots. “Die, Aegis Pharma scum!” Nico didn’t stop. He spun, striking the second crewman’s chest until the sound of breaking ribs echoed, and snapped the third one’s neck with a single jolt of his wrench.

“Sorry, friends. You haven’t been people since this plane went down,” Nico whispered, his breath hitching behind his mask. He felt a familiar muscle ache, but also a strange drowsiness, as if his brain were being pulled into a fog. This was the side effect of the fight, the price he always paid.

Suddenly, a piercing scream broke the silence from inside the smoky cabin. “Help! Anyone... help! I’m pinned!”

Nico flinched. That was a human voice. A voice that still held emotion and fear. Without a second thought, he crawled into the tilted cabin. Black smoke billowed, blocking his vision, but his ears caught the sound of severe coughing. He knew the risks, but something inside him—the remnants of his humanity—refused to ignore the call.

“Where are you? Answer me!” Nico shouted.

“Over here... in the back... help!”

Nico crawled past piles of destroyed seats. Behind a cracked glass partition, he saw a woman pinned under a heavy instrument panel. Her white lab coat was already stained with blood and ash. She was an Aegis Pharma scientist, just like the bastards who had taken his life. Yet, she was also a dying human.

“Don’t move much!” Nico commanded. He approached the hot iron panel, steam rising from the metal surface.

The woman looked up, her green eyes widening in horror as she stared at Nico’s arm, which wasn't fully covered by his jacket. The pattern of bulging scarlet veins beneath his skin was clearly visible. “Your hand... those red veins... You... You’re one of them?”

“I’m your only hope of not being roasted alive in here,” Nico growled, his voice raspy. “Now shut up and hold on!”

Nico gripped the edge of the iron panel. He felt the heat burning through his leather gloves, but the pain was drowned out by adrenaline. He took a deep breath, focusing the strength into his arms, fighting the urge to just let it go.

“One... two... lift!”

Nico screamed, his arm muscles tensing until his scarlet veins glowed through the fabric of his clothes. The panel lifted with a screech of metal that hurt the ears, nearly tearing off its hinges. The woman groaned, pulling her badly injured legs out.

“Can you walk?” Nico asked shortly, no pleasantries.

“I... I don’t think so...”

“Damn it,” Nico grabbed the woman’s waist, pulling her close roughly. He didn’t have time to be gentle. Half-dragging her, he carried the woman out of the hatch just as the fuel tank in the plane’s wing exploded.

BOOM!

The explosion threw them both onto the cracked asphalt. Nico shielded the woman’s head with his body, feeling the heat wave lick his back. He panted, the smell of burnt hair and ozone filling his senses. His head throbbed, his vision spun. A name, or perhaps a memory, almost crossed his mind but was immediately swallowed by the fog of mutation.

“Are you okay?” Nico asked after the tremors subsided, his breath heavy.

The woman coughed violently, wiping blood from her lips. She stared at Nico with a strange intensity, as if looking at a terrifying miracle. “You... you saved me? Why?”

“I’m asking myself the same thing,” Nico wiped the blood off his cheek. “My name is Nico. You’re with Aegis Pharma, right? What’s your name?”

The woman was stunned, then tried to sit up straight despite her trembling legs. “My name is Elena. Elena Vance. I’m part of the pathogen research team.”

Nico snorted cynically. “Great. A mad scientist from the company that destroyed my city. Do you know what your corporation did to me, Elena?”

Elena didn’t respond with anger. Instead, she stared at the pattern of red veins on Nico’s neck, which were now starting to crawl upward, pulsing slowly. “Nico... listen to me. I recognize that pattern. Cellular synchronization, scarlet hemorrhaging beneath the epidermis... it’s impossible for someone who is still conscious. And most importantly, you show no signs of severe cognitive impairment.”

“What do you mean?” Nico frowned suspiciously. Cognitive impairment? He felt the fog in his brain, but he hadn't forgotten his name yet.

“I saw you in my father’s secret archives,” Elena whispered, her voice trembling between horror and wonder. “Subject 01. You are Patient Zero, reported dead in the riots five years ago. You shouldn’t exist, Nico.”

Nico’s world seemed to collapse faster than the buildings in Chicago. “Subject 01? Patient Zero? What are you talking about, lady?! I’m just a mechanic who got unlucky!” Rage and confusion flooded him. This was more than just a mutation. This was a conspiracy.

“You are the key to everything, Nico,” Elena gripped the sleeve of Nico’s jacket. Her gaze was now filled with determination. “You aren’t just a victim. You are the first host who managed to adapt. Without you, this world will never have any hope of recovery.”

Nico froze. Those words were heavier than the iron panel he had lifted earlier. Hope. Himself. The key to everything. He just felt like a walking threat. “Hope? I’m just a monster waiting for my time to bloom, Elena. I feel a part of me disappearing every time I use this power. Memories... they’re blurring.”

“Not if you come with me,” Elena replied firmly, her gaze demanding. But before Nico could react, her eyes closed and she fainted in Nico’s arms, her body going limp.

In the distance, the roars of hundreds of Bloomers were heard, greeting the plane’s explosion. Nico looked at Elena, then at the red Chicago sky. His mind raced, trying to process the information he had just received. “Patient Zero.” “Hope.” It was all contradictory to the monster he felt he was becoming. “Sarah, I think our plans have changed,” he whispered into the dead radio. “And I don’t like this change.”