Chapter 8
Texas USA: Sons Of The Rose Base
Arnold Patton:
Arnold Patton was a disgruntled FBI agent who found a neuralyzer similar to the MIB movies when he raided the cult of Lesbian Kidnappers, the cult Tina was in. He perfected it and created a cult of his own. The cult he called Sons Of The Rose. It was led by a council. Members of the council were descendants of a serial rapist who plagued London in the 1980's. He had wanted to recruit Allen to join the cult since he like Arnold was a grandson. Allen had declined to join. Thus, when Arnold heard Allen had come by with a female he was overjoyed. The joy soon turned into intrigue when he discovered it was Tina. With Tina at the base, it confirmed she was responsible for the worldwide power outage.
Tina told the members who were there her story of attempted revenge. It was quite remarkable how far she went to try and get it. Arnold and the rest of the members listened attentively as she detailed going after various people named Melinda Warren. Then she told about how she restored data of a clone. The tale continued to grow as she explained how she used a sample of Melinda's DNA she and Molly had saved. Tina managed to create a machine/human hybrid. The Melinda Tina created was as close to the original as she could get. Yet the Melinda hybrid did something Tina totally didn't expect. It was able to fight back. Tina had tried to destroy what she had created to finish her revenge, but something even worse happened. She had imported anything related to Melinda that she could find, including her son and nephew along with their DNA. Her nephew was a serial rapist who called himself The Hunter. The Melinda hybrid went after The Hunter's DNA and absorbed it. Tina managed to get Allen's DNA away from being absorbed but couldn't stop the hybrid from taking The Hunter's. In short, the nightmare that was unleashed upon the world was a hybrid human and computer program composed of two people attracted to electricity. And she needed help to destroy it.
"Ok," Arnold said "Who has options? We need to destroy a computer program that's also a living organism."
"The time machine is working now," the tech guy Mike said.
"Ah so Tina could go back in time and stop herself from doing this," Arnold thought aloud.
"One problem with that," Tina said. "If I saw myself before this happened I would be convinced that it was Melinda messing with me and try to kill my future self. That goes for anyone else too trying to stop me by the way. It's too dangerous to try it that way."
"Another problem with that," Mike said. "You can't directly change the past like that. It's going to create a paradox. If Tina doesn't create the nightmare, she won't use our time machine. And if she doesn't use our time machine, she can't go back into the past to stop herself. As soon as she came back to the present the paradox would undo her trip. It would be like she never left at all and nothing will have changed."
"Ok so we can't do that option then. Any other ideas?" Arnold asked.
"What if we used the time machine to take Melinda's sister who is also The Hunter's mother from the past? That would interest both parts of the nightmare I think. We could lure it with her and then kill it somehow." Allen said.
"That's getting somewhere Allen. I like it," Arnold opined. "How do we kill this thing?"
"I tried to give it a computer virus, but it had no effect." Tina explained.
"If it's a sentient creature and a computer program, then we'll have to give it a deadly virus from both areas. Human and computer," Danny, another grandson of the London serial rapist observed.
"Great! Doc what virus should we use?"
Dr. Ortiz thought for a moment. "It would have to be something that no one has been exposed to for years but also something we can give our people a vaccine. I don't think we'll be able to expose the nightmare without exposing us as well."
"Get back to me on that. Mike, get with Tina to come up with a computer virus. Let's hope that by exposing the nightmare thing to both types of viruses simultaneously it will be destroyed."
"Smallpox." Dr. Ortiz said. "The last known case of smallpox was in 1977. No one alive now would have any kind of immunity for it."
"That was quick! Well done!" Arnold praised. "Where can we get smallpox?"
"There's two laboratories in the world which contain a sample of the smallpox virus. One in Russia and another at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The CDC probably has vaccine doses available for smallpox too in the off chance of an outbreak."
"So we need to break into the CDC in Atlanta then?" Tina asked.
Arnold laughed "I'm an FBI agent. All I need to do is make a few phone calls. I'm sure once we finalize the plan and explain it they will gladly give it to us to stop this threat. Come, let's go to the time machine."
Allen stood in the time machine with a neuralyzer in hand just in case things went wonky. Mike pressed a few buttons after Allen provided the general information needed on when and where. Everything looked good to go. The machine whirred to life. A bright flash of light filled the room and Allen vanished. About 10 minutes later, the flash came back and Allen reappeared. He looked pretty sad and tired.
"She wouldn't do it," Allen said.
"What happened?" Arnold asked.
Allen just shook his head. He would not say anything further. Whatever happened in the past had affected Allen to his core. Arnold decided to not press further into the matter. There was probably someone else who could do this, but who?
"So the time machine worked?" Tina asked.
"Yes" Allen sadly said.
"Mike. Can I bring someone from the past just before they died?" Tina asked.
"If you can do that without changing history then yes. Otherwise if it did change history when you come back the person will disappear back into the past and it will be as if you never left at all."
"I can do it without changing history. I have a one second window to do this. Can you make this happen?"
"Why only one second?"
"Because she was on a video feed of the nuclear bomb explosion. The video feed cut out one second before the bomb exploded."
"Yeah that's doable. I can slow down the passage of time for you to do this in the past. I will place you in that one second time frame for ten minutes to give you time in case you don't appear right next to her. Touch her while you return and she will come back with you."
Tina stood where Allen did. For the first time in a long time, Tina had a genuine happy smile. She was filled with hope. Mike made the necessary adjustments. The time machine whirred to life. A bright flash of light filled the room and Tina vanished. Ten minutes later, Tina and her wife Molly appeared in another flash. Molly blinked in confusion and looked exhausted. Tina squealed with glee. She tightly hugged Molly.
"Ohmygosh I missed the hell out of you." Tina said. "It's been two years and I just saved you thanks to this time machine. It's going to take a while to explain what's happened..."
"Ok so if I have this right," Molly replied her head spinning with tons of information "Allen was manipulated and is now a good guy. You tried to get revenge and failed. Now a computer/human hybrid of Melinda Warren and The Hunter is loose in the world. There's a cult of men that took over our former cult base who you have asked for help in dealing with this threat."
"Yeah, we all live complicated and complex lives," Tina said.
"Molly would you be willing to administer the virus to the nightmare? I think Melinda and The Hunter would both be interested in you for the plan to work." Arnold remarked.
"NO!" Tina shouted. "I just got her back. I can't lose her again. Please..."
"You won't have to." Molly said. "Have you guys done anything with the giant neuralyzer outside of the base?"
The giant neuralyzer was something Melinda had originally designed but abandoned when she realized it would take up too much power. Molly and the prior cult leader had perfected Melinda's design. The device was designed to erase everyone's entire memory within 50 yards of the base. It was a last resort failsafe measure to get the cult out of trouble. The leader and second in command had sheets of paper with them to read after the device was activated for a quick memory restore. The plan would allow for any groups of people against the cult to be helpless while the leader and second in command worked to eliminate the threat. Unfortunately, it was used on Melinda Warren first. The usage of it alerted the FBI to raid the cult before it could be used again.
"No. The FBI didn't know what the hell the thing was. They were in the process of analyzing it before I caused them to forget about this place thanks to me perfecting the neuralyzer," Arnold explained.
"Then it's been charging for...how long did you say it's been again Tina?"
"Two years." Tina said.
"Since this thing is attracted to electricity, I can reroute the giant neuralyzer to be a beacon. It will emit so much energy that the nightmare will be attracted to it immediately like a moth to a flame. You don't need someone specific to attract it."
"I'll do it then" Dr. Ortiz said. "I'm the closest one qualified to handle the deadly disease. I think the higher ups in the government would be less nervous with a medical doctor handling it than the average person."
"Good. Mike you'll watch and send the virus to the nightmare as soon as Dr. Ortiz exposes it to smallpox. Alright people. We have a plan. Let's put it into action!"
