CROSS-X

The night sky was aglow with bright little stars. While the moon sat around them like the fattest kid on the class. The road seemed lonely, but the loud noises from the engine made this voidness looked like a tea party. The foliages whirled left and right as if they were dancing. The moon and the bright stars acted like they're some kind of stage lighting. The stage was the road and the dancers were me, Jerry, and this moving heavy tin.

Centuries ago the pirates would signed their map with an X to locate the hidden treasures on a certain island. It occurred to me to think if the Croos-X that Ghost said before somehow resembling something treasury. Was it?

"Where're we going?"

"Cross-X, Mrs. Hope."

"What is it? Another, The Sanctuary?"

"No. It's the last facility under that old bastard supervision. You'd like it."

"Why? Why'd we go there?"

"You've seen what happened back there, Mrs. Hope. It's horrible. We believe you'll figured out something in there."

"Like what?"

"Yea, like uhmm, i, i don't know. Maybe a pill that cure a vicious virus that could turn a human into a braindead scum."

"There's no such a drug, Jerry. On top of that, we don't really know if those people were infected by a virus or not."

"Yea, yea, i know, Mrs. Hope. That's what we're going to find out. There's a cooler box under the back seat. It's the package that was stolen two weeks ago and we snatched them back."

"What is it?"

"Boss said it's probably the reason why a human turned into a morally declined animal. So if we get into the lab and you're doing your nerdy stuffs, we gonna get the answer."

"Jerry, if it was really a virus, why didn't you turned into one of those maniacs? Look, i haven't heard the whole story about what's really happening. I think you should tell me now."

"Ait, but i can't tell you everything. I believe you understand, Mrs. Hope. Unless i get the admission from boss, the only thing i can tell you is what's happening two weeks ago on this island."

"What admission? Do you mean, permission? Carry on, Jerry."

"Ait, my bad Mrs. Hope. I'm just trying to sound smart like you. So, uhmm, two weeks ago we were dispatched by the HQ into this island to kick some assess. But a stupid ass dummy dropped the stolen box and he broke couple of weird small tube glass that contain some kind of liquid. To be honest, it was because of me. I'm the one who shot him on the leg and he fell."

"What it has to do with this mess? If those ampules contained, let's make-believe a virus, from the logical perspective, it should be only the apexes and the robbers that possibly infected by this whatever liquid you said and not the whole island."

"Well, Mrs. Hope. We engaged the operation in the middle of the village. There's a warehouse where those dummies are hiding. Three days after the raid, the village turned into hell. It looked exactly like what happened in the city outskirt."

"I see. So that's why you suspect the broken ampules that caused all of these troubles. Anyhow, we haven't known if this virus transmitted through air or a direct contact. I'll find out what's inside that mysterious ampules of yours."

"That's what i'm talking Mrs. Hope. Tighten your seatbelt, we'll going fast."

It's all dark and the gate closed tightly. This place looked like an old abandoned cemetery. It's empty and cold. Jerry took the box and we walked around to find the way in. We checked the intercom just to realize the power was cut out completely. We went to the back entrance, it's quite a long strode. I could tell the size of this facility probably the same size of two football fields. When we reached the back gate, i screamed like an owl and hide behind Jerry.

He gave me the box and took his pistol. Jerry walked in an hasten manner into the broken gate. There's a big hole with splatter of bloods around it. What made me scream was the dead bodies laying there without heads. Who could have done this? A monster? A maniac? A Psychopath? Zombies? Jerry beckoned me. He got inside through the hole. I followed him uncertainty. This was the second scream. I stepped on something soft and smelled really bad. I didn't look at it and took a long step away. Bloods all over my shoes. My Lord gracious, i'd rather die than knowing what just i stepped on.

We reached the main building. I knew it won't be easy to get into this high tech building without passed all the security tests. Let alone the lack of electricity, we need some kind of authority to enter this facility. We didn't stop there, instead, we got into the security room to get the authorization by utilizing my biometric data. Easy to say. The problem was, we need electricity. Not only to power these biometric tools, but the entire facility.

"Where's your gun, Mrs. Hope?"

"Here, i got it. Why?"

"I want you to stay low in this room. Do not leave or open the door if it wasn't me. Okay, Mrs. Hope?"

"W, where're you going?"

"Don't worry, Mrs. Hope. It won't be long," he directed his flashlight to the wall. There's a map. "Bingo! There's our generator room."

All of sudden this room turned into a dark abyss. He left me alone. I crouched between chairs and tables like a newly adopted kitten. A revolting smell from my shoes punched my guts out. It gagged me. I closed my mouth with handkerchief and looked up. It helped lessen the putrid smell.

Now it's more than thirty minutes, no sign of Jerry. All i heard just a gust on the floor and a ticking sound from a wall clock. Where are you, Jerry? It's creepy down here, i thought.

I might be wrong, but i heard something from the outside. I wasn't sure, it sounded like a grumble or a metal thingy dragged on floor. I peeked slowly from between the tables. By the window, i could see silhouette of a person walked around. Was it Jerry?

"Jerry?" i called.

He didn't answer. Somehow the grumble voice and the metal clatter was getting loud. The shadows getting bigger. Which meant he run toward me. I raised my gun while screamed and about to pull the trigger. Out of blue the lights turned on. A woman AI voice echoed in this security room. My hands trembled. What was that? I kept aiming the gun to the window. Inside my head i imagined he jumped from the window and crushed my head with the metal thing he brought. Out of sudden the door opened.

I screamed at the top of my lung and pulled the trigger twice. The first bullet hit the door and the other one hit the ceiling.

"Woawoawoa! Hey! Mrs. Hope, stop it! It's me!"

I put the pistol on the table and closed the door.

"I, i, i'm soryy Jerry, i almost hit you."

"What's happening? You look pale, Mrs. Hope?"

"T, there's, there is something lurking outside, Jerry."

"No. I don't see nothing, Mrs. Hope. Ait, stop wasting time, now get into that tube. We have bigger thing to worry in our hand."

Jerry's right. We had to get the authorization to enter the main building. If only i had my ID Card, we could just past the main entrance without these annoying biometrics tests. As i stood inside the tube, my head filled with tons of questions.

What really happened at the back gate? Why those poor people were headless? Who did that? Why did he chopped their head? And, where're their head? Did the killer took their head and made them all into wall decorations? Or soups?

More of it, who was that mysterious silhouette outside the security room? Was it a human? What's that metal sound? Why did he grumbling like a demon?

What's more important, what's inside this box? Was it really a virus? Was it really the root of all the madnesses on this island?

Dear, God. Help me.