The Note
Yeah, I’m the guy who found the body. Saw that dude walking a few minutes before, too. Man, he was … I don’t know. Hepped up on something, I hope. See a lot of them homeless guys wandering around downtown here though, talkin’ to themselves and stuff. But this dude, he was weird, man.
Okay, I was down here trying to get a fix, alright? I won’t deny it. Hell, the cops, they know me anyways, they’re cool with me, as long as I ain’t starting no trouble. I helped them out a couple of times, see? And they leave me alone most of the time.
Anyways, so I’m trying to score me a couple of lines, and this guy comes walking along, all bundled up in rags and stuff. Talking to himself too. But the stuff he was saying? Didn’t make sense. Most of the bums I hear talking to themselves, they be carrying on some kind of conversation you can’t hear all of. Saying stuff like “It wasn’t like that when I was a kid. I don’t care what you say.” Stuff like that, you know?
This dude though, he kept talking about how they was after him, and how he didn’t want to go back. That didn’t sound too strange; maybe the pigs was after him or something like that. Didn’t think nothing of it.
Then he said something like “They can keep their experiments; I don’t want anything to do with it anymore.” That caught my attention. I don’t know no cops that be running experiments on suspects or nothing. You know what it made me think of? Made me think of the Nazis and stuff. Like how they used to experiment on the Jews back in the war and everything. Just the way he said it, you know he wasn’t talking about some kind of “nice” experiment, like getting better gas mileage for a car or nothing.
So I follow him. Made me forget about scoring my hit, though damn do I need one now. I’ll save that for later though. Anyways, I follow him, but he doesn’t say nothing else. He looked over his shoulder at me and starts walking faster. I tried to talk to him. I says, “Hey man, you alright?” He just looked at me, nodded kinda, then took off. I backed off, you know? Ain’t my business. I learned that a long time ago; good way to wake up dead one day, to get into stuff that ain’t your concern, you know?
That’s when it gets really weird though, and I swear to you, I was trying to score a fix; I didn’t get it yet. I was straight when this happened.
But this dude, he turned a corner while I was still looking at him, and there was this big old flash of light, like bright blue electricity or something. I thought, damn, poor fool done walked into some kinda fence or something and fried himself. So I run down there, trying to be all good-Samaritan like, and get this: the dude wasn’t there. There wasn’t nothing there, just buildings and a couple of cars parked on the street, man. Nothing. Nothing all blacked out or anything, nothing looking all burnt or nothing man. Just a regular street in downtown El Paso, you know?
Yeah, I kinda freaked a little bit, and I took off running. Probably shouldn’t have, now that I think about it – some dude disappears, and a black guy’s running from the scene. That’s a damned good way to spend the night in county, you know? Anyways, I run, cause I don’t know if there’s something gonna come after me or not, and I end up at the park with the crocodile statues and the benches and everything.
One of the benches had some homeless guy layng on it, and I could tell by the raggedy old coat, it was the same dude. Somehow that dude got to the bench there and fell asleep before I did, even though I ran the whole damned way. And I may not be no Usain Bolt or whatever his name is, but I’m fast, you know? I can hold my own. Got myself away from the cops a couple of times, but this guy done got there before I did, got hisself comfortable, and crashed out.
I don’t really know why I walked up to him, I guess just to make sure it was the same dude and everything. But I did, and damn do I wish I would’ve just turned and ran the other way. The first thing I noticed was it didn’t look like the dude was breathing, and I’m like “Damn, man. Poor dude done had himself an OD or a heart attack or something.” But I got to make sure, you know? Cause I’m stupid like that. So I roll him over, and I just about shit myself.
The dude had no face. Just a big hole, man, all bloody and … ugh. And his jacket looked all caved in in the front, like it wasn’t just his face that got eaten up, but I didn’t touch it. No way, man. But when I rolled him over, his hand came out and there was a piece of paper in it. I tried to read it, but it didn’t make no sense to me. Here, this is what it said, maybe it means something to you:
EXPERIMENT 27543Alpha9
SUBJECT HAS DISPLAYED CAPABILITIES IN LINE WITH PREDICTED RESULTS. CONTROL GROUP WILL BE TERMINATED. SUBJECT’S MONITORING WILL BE ESCALATED UPON RECAPTURE. IF SUBJECT CANNOT BE RECAPTURED, SENTRIES HAVE ORDERS TO TERMINATE AND REMOVE EVIDENCE OF EXPERIMENT.
There, that’s the note. Make any sense to you? I mean, the words make sense and everything, I ain’t stupid, but I don’t know what the hell it means. Probably some Army crap over at Bliss.
Anyways, I had to call the cops, you know? Damn I didn’t want to, but this dude got himself eaten up bad, and I felt sorry for the guy. And besides, what if whatever was after him decided it was in the mood for a little dark meat? I mean, this wasn’t no regular gang-banger crap or nothing. Those guys just shoot you a couple of times and get on their way. This dude got himself eaten alive. Well, maybe he was dead before whatever it was got a hold of him, I don’t know. But if that was a gunshot, I gotta get me one of those puppies. See some dealer try to give me a bad cut then…
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