Alien Proliferation

turning.
    “Because I showed up less than two years ago, out of the blue, and they have no female hybrids to use for parts. They have plenty of leftovers or extras to make the guys who increased in importance in the last couple of years. A-Cs come in all the skin tones and body types humans do, after all. I mean, we went through the Parts Department on our way in, remember? If you’re cutting and pasting from almost two hundred options, it would make creating new male bodies reasonably simple. Maybe cutting them up while alive provides some horrible helpful oomph for this sort of mad scientist scheme. I really liked Amy’s dad better when I thought this whole thing was about money.”
    “And they want your child to power them.” Chuckie sounded furious. I was too horrified to feel all the fear and rage that knowledge gave me, but I felt plenty anyway.
    The one that looked like Jeff opened its mouth. “Please.” It got a lot of pain, suffering, and horror into that one syllable. I went back to the doorway. “Please.”
    I knew what they wanted me to do. But I couldn’t. They were made out of Wayne, and other guys just like him. They weren’t evil. They were our people, cut up and reattached and tortured. But they weren’t willingly trying to hurt anyone. “I can’t.”
    It reached both hands to me, in supplication. “Please. Make it stop.”
    I heard a voice in my mind. Where’s the fight in you when we need it?
    Christopher?
    Not really. In a way.
    Wayne?
    Yes. All. We’re all here. Kill us.
    I can’t. You can’t ask me to kill you, kill all of you in cold blood.
    You must. We won’t be able to fight the programming. Took too much from my, his, our memories.
    How?
    Drugged, helpless, memory probes. They know what he knows, so all weaknesses, strengths. The torture meant we couldn’t hide anything from the probes. Stop it before they condemn us to living hell.
    What’s above us, do you know or can you tell?
    Nothing that will be damaged. Help, please. Getting stronger every minute. Once started, can’t be stopped. Will be worse monsters than any superbeing. Don’t let them do this to us, don’t let them win.
    Wayne, I—
    Please! Don’t let me, us die in vain, or worse, live like this. Please . . . Commander.
    I looked around. “Oh, um, Chuckie? There’s a feed of Surcenthumain going into them.”
    “Wonderful. What are we doing to do?”
    I took a deep breath. When it came down to it, I had no choice. “Mister White? Please make sure Chuckie’s okay.” I leaped into the Room of the Hot Zombies before Chuckie could grab me.

 
    CHAPTER 82
     
    I COULD SEE LIGHTS START flashing. Risked a look over my shoulder—White was dragging Chuckie away. Good. Turned back. Apparently all the zombies were ready to go, just not as ready as the main three, because all the eyes opened and they all started to move toward me.
    Wanted out of the horror movie immediately. I ran to where the Jeff zombie had pointed. Yes, big bomb, ticking. I had about one minute from what the timer said. “What needs to be destroyed besides this room?”
    Whole thing. Bombs will not do it alone.
    “Mister White! You and Chuckie need to destroy the rest of the lab, all of it, and get out! And in less than thirty seconds. I’ll meet you elsewhere!”
    I looked around. Moved at the really fast hyperspeed and hoped that ACE was recovered, willing, and able to help me, though I couldn’t spare the focus to ask. My fast hyperspeed wasn’t graceful, but I was able to aim and hit, so to speak. Pulled all the tubes and wires out of the walls. All but the Jeff, Chuckie, and Christopher zombies stopped moving. A couple fell over. It had the potential to be comical, in about fifty years.
    Saw a small red lever tagged “Final Solution” in white letters. Figured this was what I was probably going for under the circumstances and hoped I wasn’t defusing the bomb somehow.
    Something that felt like a dead human hand touched me. I looked. The Jeff zombie had its arm around my waist. “Betting this isn’t good.”
    Hurry. Pull it.
    “I hope you know what you’re talking about.” I pulled the lever. A horrible sound started, like a car engine grinding but about a thousand times louder.
    Thank you for saving us. Take care of our people. Take care of my brothers.
    “Good Kitty,” the Jeff zombie said as it flung me through the door.
    I landed on Chuckie who just managed to catch me. “Can we go now?” he asked as he put me