A Touch of Memory and Revenge

The man rushed into the house, heading straight for his bedroom. They had to leave the house right now. He had to take his family somewhere safe. He burst into his room startling his wife who was laying down on the bed tutoring his son, their son, Mikael.

He paused looking at both of them and for the first time since he overheard the unsettling conversation between mouse and the unidentified man, he felt the reality of the situation. He had a family- a pregnant wife and a son. If what he heard was really true, then they were already coming for him. His resolve was set, they had to leave the house right now.

“Honey, what’s wrong?, You startled me!”, his wife exclaimed after seeing his disheveled state. She placed her right hand to her chest, using her left hand to gently rub her stomach.

He shook his head at her, a sign that this was not for their son’s ears. He was sure that she got the message clearly.

Johan flicked his gaze briefly to his son before facing her again, “Park everything that’s necessary, we are leaving … this minute”, he told her rushing to his wardrobe and throwing it open.

His wife stood up from the bed as she walked over to him. She placed a hand on his shoulders to stop him but he shrugged her hand off.

Not looking at her, he said. “Go and park Mikael's things. We’re leaving Stockholm”, he ordered with a tone of finality in his voice leaving no room for argument, but instead of doing what she was commanded to do, she turned to look at her son.

“Mikael, do you want to play Scrabble?”, she asked the child feigning excitement.

Mikael jumped on the bed clapping his hands, “Yes momma, I want to… play..scra..bb.le”, he stuttered; his three years old brain finding it difficult to pronounce the word.

She smiled at his attempt to pronounce the word, lifting him off the bed and placing him on the floor. The boy ran out of the room to the living room to find the board game.

She turned to her husband, “Now, tell me what’s going on, Johan?”. She asked him.

Johan paused what he was doing to regard her with an exasperated look. The more time they spent here talking, the more danger they were putting themselves in.

“We are in danger Lisa, the experiment has been sabotage and we need to leave immediately. Mouse is after the experiment files, the higher ups has been in on this for so long. We cannot stay here any longer”, he told her turning around to gather the documents on the table.

She pursed her lips. If mouse was truly after the experiment records, then he would stop at nothing to get it since he worked for the System and she knew how deadly they can be. “How did you even know about this, that is if it’s true”, she asked her husband.

Her husband sighed. Time was crucial right now, “park your things and then we’ll talk on the way honey”, he assured her.

Lisa nodded her head running out of the room to do as instructed. No harm was coming to any of her family members, not while she was still breathing.

Mouse has been the leading figure in the clinical trial for years. He was the front man who took orders from the top and relayed information back to them. One thing mouse was not, was a disloyal person. Everyone knew that the system was working behind him and if there was anything that mouse was loyal to, it was the System. Irrespective of their years working together, if an was given that he should end the lives of everyone involved in the clinical trial, then mouse was going to do exactly just that.

Johan pressed a button under the table leading to the hidden basement. Only his wife knew about the secret basement; that he had a lab here at home and perhaps mouse; who probably must have Discovered that he was keeping the vials containing the secret formula that the System wanted in the basement.

He waited as the doors slide open revealing a staircase leading to the basement. He quickly descended the stairs running over to the vault on the wall. He still had experiments that he was carrying out on the table but now was not the time to be concerned about that. He could continue with his research elsewhere when they were safe.

When he got to the vault, he punched in his secret code and waited for the AI to scan his fingerprints as he watched it click open. He gently carried out the test tube rack filled with vials containing a blue substance.

This experiment has been his life for over ten years. He had been approached by mouse when he was giving a clinical seminar on human cloning and enhancement; mouse happened to be in attendance at that time.

Mouse had offered him the financial support that he needed at that time to carry out the experiment and after four years, they made a remarkable breakthrough; seven years later, they could procreate a human from an artificial womb and speed up the rate of growth. The side effects were tremendous, the human acquired a super power that made it invisible and immortal, and there were still abilities that they were yet to explore.

If the vials should fall into the hands of the System, Johan feared what would remain of them. The mafia could do more harm than good with the ability to create humans with special abilities. He shuddered at that thought.

“This is my hard work for years, I’m not going to let anyone steal my work to cause havoc”, Johan whispered. Only God knew what mouse and the higher ups whose identities were still unknown; they called themselves the System, wanted to do with the army they were planning on recreating.

Johan gently transferred the vials into another case, shutting it gently. He ran over to his computer copying the files and gathering the papers in front of the computer. He threw the papers into a bag and unplugged the flash drive that looked like a mini car toy.

Johan looked around the room one last time before grabbing the vial case and climbing the stairs back to his room.

The contents of the vials should not be made known to an organization as evil as the System . Johan was going to make sure that he destroyed it along with everything that contained records of the experiment but for now, he needed his family far away from the system. He grabbed the last thing that was worth something in the room and walked out.

Lisa was still throwing clothes inside a bag in front of her. She reached to grab one of his son’s toys only for it to be snatched out of her hands.

He threw it away, “We don’t need this where we are going to.” He told her zipping the bag. “Lets go!”.

Lisa carried the bag leaving the room and making her way to the parlor. Mikael was already in his father’s arms mumbling words to him. He was too young to understand the situation or what was going on. She was aware of how dangerous the experiment her husband was carrying out was, but she didn’t think that it would cost her not only her home, but her life, her family.

She hurriedly followed him out of the house and prayed that at least they come out of this alive. Her hands moved to her protruding stomach unconsciously.

Her heart was racing, “Be calm little one, everything is going to be okay. Your daddy is going to take us somewhere safe”, she whispered hoping that he was hearing her.

“Lisa get in!” , Johan bellowed tucking his son into his car seat and buckling it. Lisa entered into the front seat and he wasted no time in driving them out of the driveway into the road.

They were going to leave Stockholm this night and then lay low before flying out of the country the next day.

“Momma, where are we going?”, Mikael asked from the back seat.

Lisa closed her eyes tightly to stop the pool of tears that was threatening to flow out, her heart very heavy and not being able to respond to her son. She brought a hand to her mouth to suppress the cry that wanted to escape her lips.

Johan saw his wife struggling to reply, “we are going to see the Lion guard, you love it right?, it’s your favorite”, he replied staring at his son through the rear mirror. The boy looked excited at the mention of his favorite movie.

“Yay!” , Mikael squealed clapping his hands in excitement.

Johan’s lips curved upwards in a sad smile. For the sake of his son and his pregnant wife, he prayed that they were safe.

They drove for minutes in silence and he thought that Mikael was already asleep until he heard the boy’s voice.

“when are we getting there daddy?”, Mikael enquired.

They have been driving for long and it takes a lesser time to get to the mov