Euphrasia

Centuries ago a secret society, bent on the idea of a world inhabited only by them and those of their choosing, quietly formed and began to lay the foundations that their chosen predecessors would build upon for generations to come. Eventually they proclaimed themselves the Elite Intelligence Leaders of Earth's Reform or EILERs. Only the very highest of society's high class and those viewed to be absolute genius within the proper academic fields were deemed worthy of recruitment consideration. Those candidates were thinned further using stricter scrutinies until only those found perfect were cleared to be approached. With members dedicating their entire lives to their sacred cause the EILERs swiftly and silently put into place everything ruled necessary to create the world they so feverishly sought. For decades enormous laboratories, safe houses, storage facilities, and highways connecting them were installed deep beneath Earth's surface in preparation of the day their dreams could be realized. Years before humanity could develope infantile suspicions, EILERs had developed things far beyond their capacity to fathom. Genetically engineered beasts known as Wolgarears, Fawldorees, War Baralin, Crocazurphin, all programmed to obey the EILERs. Any human wanted for entertainment or servitude purposes would be lab produced, pre-progammed specimens of chosen design. The different countries, states, providences, even the plant itself would cease to exist by their former names as with only one controlling factor any needs for such divisions were rendered extinct. This new playground for the true deserving rule would be known only as Euphrasia, the perfect combination of EILER humor and truth, as this Utopia would come about through their unique form of euthanasia for euphoric gains.

Many would like to believe this only science fiction, perhaps at worst the ramblings of some conspiracy theorist who's mind has finally completely broke; for Remainders, the last surviving non-EILERs, however, Euphrasia has been their new reality for the greater part of eight years now and, despite it's spelling, they all understand it's pronounced hell.

Rag-tag groups of Remainders had banded together in mostly small numbers since the EILERs launched their first wave. Many were hunted down and killed by the various beasts that now prowled on land, in the sky, and by waterways alike. Others starved or succumbed to the elements, diseases, or effects of nuclear and chemical fallout. Some couldn't be defined as surviving, their minds had snapped leaving them barely more than wild beasts themselves. Others just disappeared into what wilderness was left, content with existing however long they may have so long as they lived and died on their own terms. 

Sure some fought back but to no avail, most fought and squabbled amongst each other handling the EILERs work for them. 

A very rare few had proved themselves quiet the intolerable nuisance; as had been the case for Alina's band of misfits. Had been was, of course, the key phrase of that statement.

Alina came back to semi- consciousness in panic and an agony like she'd never known trying in spite of it to bolt upright and intensifying the terror as she realized she was immobilized. Hot tears sprang to her eyes but with effort she blinked them away and staved off the flow. They could take her life but not with the satisfaction of breaking her first. Physical pain is only temporary no matter how bad, she told herself, the phrase fast becoming an inner mantra even as the fog settled back in fading her out.

"Alina?Aaaaliiiinnnnaaa? ALINA!"

That final snapping of her name, sharp as a slap, brought her to the surface enough to at least cut her eyes in the direction of it's origin.

"Ah, yes, atta girl. Unfortunately, instead of just putting you down like the repulsive vermin you are I need you alive and conscious for at least a bit longer. Alina dear, don't do that, focus." Someone was talking and snapping fingers in her face, and again she fought to understand. 

"Fine, I'll give you the antivenin, though I'd much rather you suffer through. Pay attention damn it, you'll be coming out of it rather fast once this traverses your veins a time or two."

A pinch, then a feeling like being forcefully yanked from watery depths. Alina gasped and nearly wretched.

"Don't you dare!" A man, thin and balding, thick glasses, stood over her with such an extreme hatred in his eyes he could be no other than an EILER. Fear gripped her hard again and this time, as the agony faded away, she knew she should have fought to stay inside the fog instead.

This was it, the end. He knew it and knew it wasn't going to come easy. His could only hope the others had gotten away safely somehow. He was long overdue on the other side of life, he was good with dying, but getting one of them killed? Unacceptable. They should've been ten times more cautious, years of successful raids on EILER buildings had made them stupidly confident and bought them their send off this time. Hagan mentally checked his body for injuries, rating severity, while attempting to appear still lost in unconsciousness. Nothing noteworthy internally, he focused on what his senses, with the exception of sight, could tell him about his external surroundings.

Lux somehow made it to the rendezvous point before collapsing to his knees, then over onto his side. Gone, they were gone, the only family he'd known for the last five horrendous years now just names on an already too long list. 

His mind replayed that last heart wrenching sight before he'd finally forced himself to follow logic and run. Alina leaping from the roof, attempting retreat, nearly making it but being brutally seized in the air by a Fawldoree, it's lethal, venom soaked talons piecing deep into her back. Her scream before the beast disappeared back inside the compound with her would haunt him forever. He knew the risk he was taking every second past the set limit of ten minutes but leaving was like confirming them dead.

Chrissy sat shivering, her back pressed against the damp earth of the pit she dropped into. The ground had just opened up beneath her, swallowing her whole and closing behind her. The darkness so complete she may as well have squeezed her eyes shut. As absolute as it was, it didn't feel empty, and when the stench of rotting meat hit her nostrils followed by a warm, sickeningly wet tongue lapping slowly up one side of her face as if savoring the taste of her fear, Chrissy began to scream.

Rainer came to with blood running into his eyes, the stinging causing him to grab a fistful of the his shirt and use it to rub at his face forcefully. The night around him was deathly still but as he started to raise up a strong arm snaked around his throat dragging him backward.

"What do you want from me?"Alina found her voice as her captor dug through a desk compartment for who knew what.

"Hmm? Oh, not much really just keep breathing for now and when the time comes do really well with your part as the pitiful, helpless female so I can extract the information I need from your mate."

"From my...." She internalized the rest of her sentence. Mate? What mate? Did he mean one of the men in her crew? Had some one else survived?

"You're wasting your time and mine."

He casually stood and walked calmly to the table she was strapped on, looking down at her with an eerie smile before exploding into violent action and driving an old letter opener straight to the bone inches above her right knee.

Calm again, he watched her strain involuntarily against the straps, her high pitched scream fading into the keening of a wounded, terrified animal. 

"I don't believe I am, no. No I think something of that sort will be just the ticket." He smiled again, flicked the opener's protruding end and danced away as if enjoying some grand tune.

Checking the masterpiece they dared still title a watch, Harrington smiled again, what an exciting night, and oh, how he loved excitement. Now that the filthy little rodent was squirming in pain again, he had other business that should be delivered within the minute. Leaving the interrogation chamber and swiftly entering his temporary living quarters, he was not displeased with the timing of a thump at his door.

Rolf, his personal Wolgarear, sat patiently with his part of this mission balled up and shaking between his massive front paws.

"Very well, bring her in and place her on the cot." Carefully as a mother lion might her cub, the grizzly sized wolf, cougar, bear hybrid lifted it's living package and padded into the room doing exactly as he was told. As they always did. 

"Hmmm, very good, too long, too long indeed....hmmm. Thank you Rolf, see yourself to the male's holding area and await further instructions." He absentmindedly waved the beast off.

"Welcome home daughter." He strived to hit the perfect tone of disappointed, stern, yet relieved parent. "Let's hope the cleansing it's gonna take to rid the last seven years you've insisted on living as normal filth doesn't actually kill you before we can reunite as a proper family." Gently as possible he tightened the restraints on her wrists, ankles, and midsection. He'd let her rest as he worked on the disgusting bile that had somehow poisoned her mind and taken her from him long ago.

Having heard the muffled but still bloodcurdling scream, Hagan had to rethink the good of his previous prayers, he knew death could indeed be a great mercy. He didn't get long to chew on it as a Wolgarear entered, plucked him from his gurney as though he was a mere infant and trotted out into a corridor of sorts. Humiliating to say the least, dangling from the beast's mouth like a chew toy. He caught glimpse of a man, unmistakably an EILER, seconds before a hood slipped over his head and the trotting started again. 

He was soon roughly discarded onto a hard surface pulled upright into a sitting position and the hood was yanked free. 

A whip thin man in at least his early fifties stood towering over him, his expression inquisitive with a fist pressed to his lips, forehead furrowed above beady squinting eyes.

"Not even acceptable breeding stock, ah well, not the purpose anyhow, nothing lost. Come now look at me, really look so I know your fully aware."

"Fuck you, how's that for breeding stock you evil piece of shit."

"Not much intelligence either, speech is understandable though and that's all I need. Listen carefully I only say this once without consequence, I need to know how many little friends you brought with you and where to find the ones that may have managed to survive."

Slowed reaction time due to just regaining consciousness saved Blades from being flung across his shoulder and ending up with a broken neck. 

"Shush it tough guy, I didn't drag myself and your sorry ass out of that cluster fuck just to die from your lack of control."

"Fuck you, Blades." He managed to sputter out.

"You got a long way to go before that's a possibility Romeo, pull yourself together."

"How, bad...everyone..."

"Shush, listen. It's bad, worst we've ever got. Jeremy and Feist are dead, Chrissy and Lux are unaccounted but it's difficult to believe in a happy reunite at a rendezvous...."

"Alina?...Ha..Hag..."

She paused but then. "Taken." Causing him to strain to get up forcing her to muscle him around more. "No. Don't be stupid. We try to go in that only ends with all four dead and you know they may already be gone, breathing or not. We wait, we watch, long as we can. If we can we will do everything possible if we cannot we do not dishonor them by dying stupid."

She was right, he hated it but he'd preached those very concepts to them repeatedly for years, he and Hagan had.

Alina squealed and thrashed about despite her every attempt not to as the bastard viciously twisted the object deeply embedded in her thigh. Hagan spewed a stream of obscenities and promises of brutal death and she desperately sucked in deep, unsteady breaths trying to prepare for the next assault.

"That does not pertain to a single question I asked you, I'm very disappointed in you." He disappeared behind his desk causing Alina to start shaking.

"Hagan keep your mouth shut, it don't matter!" She still managed through clenched teeth. He'd known pain and suffering, seemingly unbearable agony, but this... this was indescribable. 

"Hagan! Don't you fucking da..." The EILER son of a bitch cut her off mid sentence by grabbing her by her chin and pinching tightly. 

"It's a shame I need you making all those pretty screams, else and I'd sow that filthy mouth shut!" Releasing her with a shove he turned back to Hagan. "Now that I have your undivided attention..." He held an inconspicuous little silver instrument in front of him for Hagan to see but hidden from Alina's view. "Do you know what this is? What it's used for?"

Hagan's chest and throat began to tighten and burn as he worked desperately to keep down the churning stomach acid.

"No? Ah, well then, allow me to educate you." He towered over him again but leaned down til they were almost nose to nose. 

'Big mistake asshole.' Hagan had to suppress a grin, but then... "Rolf, should this pathetically stupid Remainder do anything to prove that nature, the girl automatically becomes your dinner and you are to take your time, really savor your meal." 

"You son of bitch, you sorry motherfucker I'll.."

"You'll shut up and listen to me only speaking when asked to or I'll cut my losses and he can have her now." 

As if to get in it's rathers the Wolgarear whined and chuffed from its place by the door. 

"Now, back to our lesson, this pretty little instrument here is simple yes but a must for any data extraction kit. You see you take this end like such, placing this part underneath the fingernail just so and press until you feel the resistance of the nailbed. Now, here's where technique is applied, some prefer to just cram it in and pop the nail loose all in one quick go. Myself, I say what a waste, no creativity. This is an art! I like to slowly work it back and forth, never really letting up pressure but not rushing the process either and my way you can get all the way to the base and pry loose the entire nail. None of that sloppy business."

Hagan trembled, his eyes closed tight enough to cause starbursts, his jaws ached from clenching his teeth, and his finger tips threatened to bite into his palms. "Please."

"I'm sorry what was that?"

"Please. Please don't."

"What? Use this? On her? I most certainly will without your intervention. I'm not the bad guy here really, you could stop it. You could end every bit of this, I just need a number and relative location. Pretty fair trade I believe." 

He stood back up straight and began backing toward Alina, twirling the damn thing between finger and thumb. "Going once...going twice...AND I'll count the silence as your choice. Negotiations are closed for this round folks." Turning, he latched onto one of Alina's fingers as she fought hard to get away. "The more you squirm the longer this takes. Your choice." Showing obvious surprise in his voice, he couldn't help but cruelly tease her as she stopped struggling. " Now see, there a good dumb c...." Now his eyes registered a very different surprise and he tried to straighten himself to full height, mouth gaping. Harrington Mathews Fellerock III fell dead without ever finishing that sentence. Alina's eyes widened with fear as she remembered the Wolgarear, Hagan already had his attention glued to the beast that still sat by the door calmly as though nothing had become of his owner. 

Chrissy went straight to quickly loosening Alina's restraints until she was satisfied Alina could finish the task, silently she stepped over her father and began loosening those on Hagan.

Alina and Hagan remained tense but stunned into a continued silence Chrissy finally broke. 

"I'd say search quickly but I'm not sure that would be smart, I've already gathered some supplies while I searched for a weapon and your whereabouts, they're waiting outside the door, can both of you manage walking out of here or..." She grinned devilishly, looking from one to the other for dramatic effect before walking over to the Wolgarear still sitting as calm and innocent as an oblivious puppy. Neither could hold back gasps of alarm as she put her face to it's and spoke something inaudible to them. The confusion only intensified as the Wolgarear stood up, nudged her chin almost in a loving like gesture and padded out the door where it stopped and glanced back as if to say "You guys coming or what?"

"Well? Walking or riding?"

"Walking." They declared in unison.

"Chrissy" Hagan started but she hushed him with a stop gesture.

"Earning everyone's trust was harder for me than anyone else in our group, why?"

"Because you're...." Quickly connecting the dots his astonishment only increased."That piece of work is?"

"Was, at one time, my father. Yes. Not for a very long time now and I feel nothing other than relief in saving you two and admitedly excitement for getting to reunite after all these years.... you see? Rolf was never his, he was created and programmed for me when my father was still convinced I'd delight in being an EILER." She smiled again brightly. 

"So, how you think our next raid is gonna go seeing as how we have our very own Wolgarear now?"