Chapter 2

They had travelled for four hours in quiet whispering debate on heading to Doctor E or heading straight for the gang holding the women. Beau had won by insisting they needed help and some men at the hospital might be able to help them in the fight.

Beau walked with Rider as they scouted the city streets amongst the looters and assholes that ran around fucking with women and children that were still alive or alone.

A large blue chested man carrying a naked girl screaming ran almost past them with no care on his face. He ignored them but Rider stepped in his way and punched the man in the throat. The man gagged almost dropping the girl but Beau caught her. She yelled and smacked his chest and face fighting Beau now.

“Get your fucking hands off me. Get off me monster! GET OFF ME!” She yelled.

She screamed and stopped attacking him as her hands hurt from striking him. She then took off running.

Rider kicked the man in the crutch sending him down to the ground and glared at him as the man stared up at him in fear. Rider’s eyes sparked with blue lightning.

“What the fucks your deal? It’s the end of world asshole. Who-” He said or started to say but Rider suddenly smiled down at him making him go silent.

“Wrong asshole. This isn’t the end of the fucking world. It’s just another day in New York City. Get the fuck over yourself because if you live past tomorrow you’ll have to answer to somebody for your bullshit or you can pay right now.” Rider said with hint of something intentional in his voice.

“Fuck you. I’m going home.” The man said and took off running.

“I see you in the street again. I’ll fuck you up asshole.” Rider yelled after him.

Beau stared at him. The man was just as crazy as the freak that had taken the girl away. He didn’t say though.

Rider sighed. “I know what your thinking Beau and your right. I am crazy.” He said.

Beau looked up at the blue sky and sparks of lightning that seemed to flash at bolts of red lightning and knew that the world he had grown up was gone forever. “What kind of world is this place?” He asked.

Rider turned to Beau with normal dark eyes. “Your going to need some clothes and a wet bath. There’s a makeshift hospital down the block. Doc E will give you some clothes. She’ll need some help. I’ll meet you down there in a couple of hours. I need to have a look around the city to see if anyone needs help. Go to the hospital and find out fit and any man with hunting or military experience or hell anyone would be willing to help us. Do your best.” He said before bending down into a crutch.

Beau backed away as red and white lightning gathered around Rider’s legs. A rumbling started in the ground beneigh his feet and sound thunder was heard. Rider roared in rage and then launched himself up high like a rocket taking off from earth until he was over the city hovering for a few seconds and the he took off transforming into a beam of electrical energy and raw power.

Beau stared in shock. “Holy shit.” He said and then heard a gun going off nearby and feet running. He cursed and hurried off in the to the hospital at a run.

He ran fighting the pain that spiked up his legs with every step but he kept going putting the pain out of his mind as he concentrated on the place that was just up ahead of him. It was strange though he felt like he was moving fast until he finally arrived at the guarded entrance of the hospital. Two tall men with shot guns and knives met him.

Beau came to a dead stop and made them jump back in alarm. He held up his hands as they raised their weapons with looks of fear on their faces.

“Hello. I’m a friend of Rider. He told me the way to get here. I was wondering if I could see Doctor E please.” Beau said.

The hospital was a chaotic place with people on makeshit beds and varying people with mutated bodies. A woman with short black hair and a lab jacket on was moving around beds looking at patients talking with them and then treating who she could. Occasionally her eyes glowed. Her gaze fell on Beau. She went over to him frowning stopping once to bend down at a box picked out a green hoodie.

She got to him throwing it to him as her eyes glowed brightly and her eyes scanned his body. “Your stabilised for the most part. Tonight you’ll need a wheel chair but for now I need you to help out around the hospital until Rider gets back for something for you to do.”

“Excuse me but who the hell are you?” Beau asked.

“Eva but you can call me Doctor E. Who are you?”

“Beau Lucas. Are you a real doctor?”

Doctor E frowned at him. “Yes. I work at John Hopkins. I was on vacation when the alien dropped down on us. Please. I know your going through some issues right but there are people dying around us and they need your help. Listen your body is stable right now. There’s nothing more I can do to help you. I could use your help though with-“

“Nothing to do to help me? I can’t even feel my legs for Christ’s sake. I’m not staying like this. You have to help me.” Beau said.

E stared at him. “Yes you are. Your body has been graphed with a bone sample of the alien into your spine. You are changed forever and the legs that you have right now are a product of your brain and energy making prosthetic legs. Your legs are gone. In time you will learn how to make better legs or make due with your condition but it won’t be the same. You can spend the next couple of years drowning in fear and self-pity but Rider and many others are worse off then you are. His heart will explode and he will die before he turns fifty years or with in the next year. You. You will live several more decades then me. My condition will worsen and I will have a brain bleed before I turn forty four if I can’t change my situation. I have a sixty-six possible success rate of doing so. Is that all you need to know?”

Beau stared at her knowing she wasn’t lying spinning him a story. “How do you know all that? Can you see the future?” He asked cautiously.

E shook her head. “Of course not. It’s not magic it’s a mutation brought on by the alien’s radiation. I can scan your body and make an analysis on what will happen to you as your mutation increases over time and I’m never wrong. Go sit with that little girl over there and make sure she doesn’t open her eyes or take off her sunglasses while I treat her mother.” She said turning in the direction of the girl that lay on the makeshift bed trying to take off her sunglasses.