Chapter 258: Chapter 257 - Subject 56
Frankenstein stood up.
"Easier to show you."
Iyisha looked at the door, then back at him. The door opened automatically with a soft hiss. She stayed still for a second before following him out.
The two soldiers moved behind her immediately.
"Where’s my sister?" she asked.
"One thing at a time."
"No." Iyisha stopped walking. "I won’t follow you until you tell me. Where is Cena?"
The soldiers stopped behind her. Frankenstein kept walking for two more steps before he paused. He turned his head slightly, not enough to fully face her.
"You are alive because I allowed it," he said.
Iyisha’s jaw tightened.
"You are walking freely because I allowed it. You are asking questions because I allowed it." He turned around then, his face calm behind the glasses. "Do not mistake that for control."
Her hands curled at her sides.
"I can have them drag you through this hallway," he continued. "I can sedate you. I can put you back behind the glass and show your sister to you through a camera feed."
Iyisha’s throat moved.
Frankenstein stepped closer.
"But I would rather talk like a normal person."
Iyisha stared at him.
"So walk," he said.
For a second, she did not move.
Then one soldier shifted his rifle.
Iyisha looked at the gun, then back at Frankenstein. Her breathing shook once before she forced her feet forward.
Frankenstein turned away.
They walked deeper into the lab. The lights above them stayed bright and white, reflecting off the metal walls until everything looked cold. Machines hummed behind the walls. Doors slid open before Frankenstein even touched them.
Iyisha slowed as another hallway opened ahead.
More glass rooms.
More corridors.
They never even reached this part when they broke inside before. The lab stretched deeper underground than they thought.
Frankenstein stopped in front of a glass cell.
Iyisha swallowed and stepped closer.
A twitcher slammed itself against the glass immediately.
Her body jerked back.
The thing kept throwing itself forward over and over. Its fingers scratched hard against the surface while its jaw snapped wildly. Blood smeared down the glass from where it kept smashing its mouth.
"This is Subject 56," Frankenstein said, looking at her instead of the creature. "We tried to help with his evolution, but he still failed." His voice carried disappointment more than horror.
Iyisha stared at him. "What do you mean helped?"
"As I said, there are many people with DNA compatible with the virus." Frankenstein adjusted his glasses calmly. "Not everyone succeeds."
Iyisha looked back at the twitcher. The thing’s movements were violent and wrong. Its body twitched so hard its shoulders jerked unnaturally every few seconds.
Her throat tightened.
"So twitchers are the ones who failed?"
"Bingo," Frankenstein said with a small smile like he had won a game.
Iyisha stared at him in disbelief.
The twitcher hit the glass again.
She slowly lifted her trembling hand toward it.
Alive.
This man was still alive inside.
Like her.
Like when she turned.
Her lips trembled.
"Why are you doing this?" she screamed, tears suddenly running down her face.
The soldiers immediately raised their rifles toward her.
Frankenstein lifted one hand slightly without looking back. "Lower them."
The guns lowered.
Iyisha looked at him sharply. "You’re saying that like you don’t enjoy this."
Frankenstein turned toward the twitcher inside the cell.
"Don’t you?"
He walked closer to the glass.
"His name is Victor Yang," he said quietly. "Only child of Arnold and Jessica Yang."
Iyisha’s lips parted, but no sound came out.
Frankenstein looked at her. "Every life is as important as ours. That is why we record their names. That is why we keep their histories. That is why we do not pretend they were nothing before they became this."
Victor slammed into the glass again.
Iyisha flinched.
"These subjects will help us survive," Frankenstein said.
Iyisha shook her head slowly. "Is the life of these people not the same as the ones you’re pretending to save?"
Frankenstein said nothing.
"Don’t talk like you are a fucking savior." Her voice broke lower. "Because you are not. You are the devil."
He nodded once.
"If I need to be, then I will."
Iyisha stared at him.
"And I think you understand that more than you want to admit."
Her face tightened.
"I’m not like you," she said.
But her voice dropped before the words fully left her mouth.
Frankenstein saw it. He did not smile.
Iyisha looked away from him and back at Victor. The twitcher’s eyes jerked wildly behind the glass. His mouth kept opening and closing like something inside him was still trying to speak.
Her hand lifted halfway, then stopped.
"Wouldn’t putting him down be better for him?"
"Yes," Frankenstein said.
The answer came too fast.
Iyisha looked at him.
"Of course it would." He stepped closer to the glass. "But until the mind dies inside, we give them time to evolve."
Iyisha’s stomach turned.
Frankenstein looked at her. "I assume you remember the time you turned."
She did not answer.
Something cold moved through her spine.
For a second, the glass was gone. The hallway was gone. She remembered hunger first, then the sound of her own body moving when she had not told it to move. She remembered trying to stop her hands. Trying to close her mouth. Trying to scream Malcolm’s name from somewhere deep inside her skull while the virus dragged her forward like her body belonged to something else.
Her fingers trembled.
Frankenstein watched her hand.
"There it is," he said. "You do remember."
Iyisha forced her fingers into a fist. "Not enough."
"Enough."
Victor hit the glass again. His forehead left a dark smear this time.
Frankenstein did not look away from him. "You are a doctor yourself, Iyisha. You know what happens when one person dies and his organs save five more."
Her jaw clenched.
"That is different."
"Because the donor is dead?"
"Because they choose it."
Frankenstein finally turned to her. "Choice died with the apocalypse."
Iyisha’s eyes sharpened.
He continued calmly. "If a man’s heart can save another life, you call it medicine. If his blood saves ten, you call it sacrifice. If his body teaches us how to keep thousands alive, you call it evil."
"Because you put him there."
"Yes."
The word landed flat.
Iyisha stepped back.
Frankenstein held her stare. "I put him there. I recorded his name. I studied his failure. I will use what remains of him if it means the next compatible subject survives longer than he did."
Victor’s fingers dragged down the glass.
"And if that makes me the devil," Frankenstein said, "then at least the devil is still working."
She shook her head. "That is not enough reason to do this."
Frankenstein’s face did not change.
"No," he said quietly. "It is not."
Victor slammed against the glass again behind them. Blood spread wider across the surface.
Frankenstein started walking deeper into the corridor. Iyisha stayed still for a second before following him. The soldiers moved with them silently.
"Countries with high population densities have already recorded more than ten major mutations," Frankenstein said. "Not evolved humans. Environmental mutations."
Iyisha frowned.
"The virus adapts faster than we can erase it."
They stopped in front of another sealed room. This one had reinforced walls instead of glass. Thick metal doors. Airlock seals.
Frankenstein looked through the narrow window.
"One example are the bloaters."
Iyisha’s stomach tightened immediately.
"Those things originated near nuclear facilities," he continued. "Radiation destabilized infected tissue growth. Instead of decaying, the fungal structures continued mutating."
Iyisha remembered the swollen bodies inside abandoned buildings. The stretched skin. The black spores leaking from split flesh.
"At first they remained near the plants," Frankenstein said. "Now they are spreading."
Her fingers curled slowly.
Most bloaters stayed inside enclosed spaces where spores gathered heavily, but she remembered the ones outside too. The ones left swelling under heat and rain.
"With enough time," Frankenstein continued, "they will adapt to open-air dispersal."
Iyisha looked at him sharply.
"And when that happens?"
Frankenstein finally turned toward her.
"Then humanity dies."
The hallway fell silent except for the low hum of machines.
"We already tried to fight it," he said. "Cities were burned. Borders sealed. Entire infected zones bombed into the ground."
His eyes moved toward the reinforced room again.
"And we failed."
Iyisha’s jaw tightened. "So this is your answer? Experimenting on people?"
"My answer is survival."
Victor screamed faintly somewhere behind them.
Frankenstein looked back at her calmly.
"The virus is still evolving."
He stepped closer.
"And if it continues to evolve while humanity stays the same, then extinction is only a matter of time."
Iyisha stared at him.
"So we evolve too," Frankenstein said.
Iyisha wanted to scream at him again. Wanted to call him insane. A monster. Anything to crush the cold certainty in his voice.
But the image of the bloater outside the building flashed in her head.
The swollen body trembling under the rain.
The spores leaking slowly into the air.
She hated him.
Hated this place.
Hated the things he was saying.
But somewhere underneath all of it, something colder settled heavily inside her chest because what he said made sense.
