ZArmy Story
Matthew Ryan Fischer
The lab was secret, the scientists and computer technicians were
brought in and they didn’t leave, their lives on the outside were erased. The
project was too big, it was too important. It was too underground and secret.
They weren’t on any official map, or any official funding list. The names of
the employees were classified and redacted and weren’t stored anywhere. It was
hard to tell if any of it was official or not. It was meant to be that way.
They were working on the future. They were going to create order and build one
system to monitor and control it all. There was too much at stake and too much
room for corruption and exploitation. There was no room for error or the
problems that public scrutiny could bring.
The bio engineers were working on DNA manipulations, on forced
evolution and controlled outcomes. It was their job to build a better human –
nanotech, biotech, or bacteria tech – whatever it took. They could build a
human from scratch if necessary. But the end result was to be the crowning
achievement of physical specimens – a perfect solider, both mentally and
physically. The occasional nameless bureaucrat arrived at odd times and took
tours of the facilities. They usually didn’t ask too many questions. They just
wanted to instill the fear of God into the science technicians.
They built machines and programmed programs. They took humanity
out of the equation. There was no need for it anymore. There would be no
questions or moral gray areas. The machines would do what they were programmed
to do, no matter what.
They built an army of super-soldiers, physically programmed as
killing machines, mentally programmed to follow orders no matter what. They
performed at peak potential, the mechanisms inside them able to control,
regenerate and intensify all possible human functions.
The lab worked around the clock, in shifts. People ate, slept and
worked. That was it. There was no time for anything else. Of, if there was, it
was incredibly well hidden and discrete. The world was at stake. There
shouldn’t have been a lot of time for anything else.
They were looking for cheap and easy soldiers. Expendable bodies
that no one would miss. No one back home to cry. No funerals. No coffins coming
home. A secret military force with no connections to anyone.
There were two projects, working in opposite directions on
opposite solutions, each in secret. It was a race to control the future of
military engagement.
One man didn’t like it. He saw the dangers where others only saw
the potential. He was a pessimist, who prided himself on always being prepared for
the worst, just in case. He was afraid of super powered freaks that couldn’t be
controlled. He was afraid of machines that would become their own masters.
He left, unable to condone either course of action. He was no fool
though. He made plans of his own. Plans to protect the world whether it knew it
needed protecting or not.
She knew a trick or two. She knew the dark side of things, the
unholy, and unnatural. He found her and funded a project of his own – they made
a deal, he made a promise with no idea of what the implications of it really
meant. He had no idea what he was getting into.
She warned him that what they were doing, what they were bringing
into the world was an ancient and dangerous evil. He foolishly believed that
she was in control. He foolishly believed that sometimes you had to fight fire
with an even bigger fire.
She resorted to the ‘Old Ways.’ She explained that the ‘Old Ways’
meant the dead ways.
“The dead ways are the best ways,” she told him. “No fuss or muss.
Just a little stimulation and they’re all yours.”
She knew the path of the necromancer and the bokor. She knew the
way of the dead. He wanted an army and she built him one.
“You’re in the ZArmy now!” he bellowed.
None of them responded. They were zombies. Zombies didn’t really
talk after all. He smiled. He didn’t care. He didn’t need responses. He didn’t
need them to talk or think or agree with him. He needed cold-blooded killing
machines of his own that followed orders and could be controlled, cold-blooded
killing machines that could be dropped on top of an enemy. Yes, they could do
that. And they would cause all sorts of hell when that happened.
The three-way war had officially begun and the world was going to
pay the price.
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