The MMEP Part 1 In The City

The MMEP. The Monster Making Experimental Project. Called mep by the younger workers for short. It was an illegal society, which is what made Clarabella Spencer love it. Clara was a quester, the person that reined in the rough monsters that weren’t ready for unleashing on the Heroes' Corporation.

She loved her job, she was issued a gun and everything! She got to see lots of different top secret monsters, learn their weaknesses and strengths, and get to go up to the surface once in a while, even!

Or at least… She used to. Nowadays, the grown ups seemed more hushed, not letting Clara and the other searchers step out of the property line. They were also really strict about curfew. That made Clara’s late-night kitchen raids increasingly difficult.

One night, she chose to confer about this with her fellow questers, Clark, Sasha, Samantha Adam, Ashley, Baird, and Bandit. They were not only her roommates, but her friends. “Why do you think they're stopping us?” Baird asked. He was one of the more eager, bloodthirsty questers.

Ashley picked at a hangnail, “Dunno. Maybe they’re preparing a new monster or something.”

Samantha’s ears perked up at that idea. She was more of the geekier quester, with long, dark hair, mahogany brown skin and a white shirt with a pink flower patterned kimono over it for some reason.

Sasha nervously readjusted her colllar, “My mom mentioned something during lunch, something called the Grotesquery. Maybe it’s that? It sounds like a really gross monster with all its intestines showing.”

“Ewwww!” all the other questers, apart from Clark and Baird, yelled in unison. Sasha shrugged, “Or maybe not.” Sasha was the youngest quester, a petite girl with flowing black hair usually tied up in a high ponytail. She typically wore a red parka over a blue shirt. Sasha looked about ten but was actually around twelve.

“So what if it’s gross?” Baird cracked his knuckles, “We’ve fought plenty of gross things. Remember the old Fake Face?”

Clara shuddered at the memory of the repulsive thing flashing its claws at her, its face changing continuously, “I do not need to remember that.”

Remember F-A-C-E-L-E-S-S Z-O-M-B-I-E? Clark signed, he was deaf and mute, so he usually got by by reading lips and signing. He was a tall, thick wall of complete silence. He only even signed when necessary.

Bandit gagged. She had kept quiet for most of the conversation. She was a smart, thin, tall, and agile girl, of very few words. She tucked strands of her choppy auburn hair that was in a pixie cut, although some strands were slightly longer back. “Gross,” Bandit reminded the group.

“Anyway,” Clara intervened, “I think a new monster is a possibility.”

“Yeah, but I saw something earlier during-” Sasha started, but was abruptly cut off by the wail of a siren. The group got up. It was a bombing.

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The questers poured out into the hallway. Panicked people were running around. The Heroes’ Corporation had bombed them a few times, but judging from the duration of the ringing, there had at least been eighteen bombs.

Everyone headed for the bunkers, but something caught Clara’s eye. Two lab managers were discussing. She had been around Clark enough to get into the habit of lip-reading whenever he was mouthing things because his arms were injured.

Inside help. One of them was saying.

Who? The other one asked.

Clara was swept away in a tidal wave of scared people. Her temples were throbbing. Inside help. Who would betray the MMEP in confidence they would survive once their betrayal was known? The converesers were Howard Payne and Orchard Low. Two nobodies Clara had never paid much attention to until then.

“Clara? Clara! Come on!” Ashley yelled. Samantha grabbed Clara’s wrist and dragged her towards the bunker doors. Clara started to run with her friends into the bunker. They shouldered their way through the ground. Occasionally, Clara dragged her hands to the handle of her gun in the holster just to make sure it was still there. Inside help.

Once everybody had gotten in, the doors slammed shut. Everyone went to their assigned spaces from the last bombing. Dorms went together. Clara reached into her bunker bunk’s mattress and pulled out her spare gun. She sighed with relief. The traitor had not had the sense to search through the bunker before giving information.

“We have just checked and all the bunker supplies have been stolen,” said the head maker, Crassus Plinth. Clara’s heart filled with dread. So the traitor had searched the bunker for supplies, just not her mattress. Clark tapped her arm. You read P-A-Y-N-E and L-O-W’s lips? Actually, it was just somewhere along those lines, the literal signs were YOU READ P-A-Y-N-E L-O-W LIPS?

Clara nodded. The others looked at her curiously. She quickly explained in signs as well as talking. After her brief explanation, the rest of the team looked pretty shook up, apart from Clark, who rarely showed any emotion. “Sasha, what were you saying earlier?” Bandit asked.

Sasha stopped chewing her nails to talk. “I saw someone that I’ve never seen here before.” Everyone exchanged glances. Although Sasha was the youngest, the rest were brought here when they were around ten or twelve, while she was born at the MMEP base. She knew the place and people inside out. (Maybe not the inside of all people though, but Sasha was excellent at reading people.)

“A tall, brunette boy, blue eyes. Pale skin,” Sasha described, “looked about seventeen, but you never know.” Adam’s eyebrows knitted together. He also never talked much, but he was brought here when he was seven and Sasha was just born. “I cannot remember anyone of that description.”

“If there was a newcomer, Crassus would have told us,” Samantha said.

“Maybe it’s because there has been chaos. When Clara joined, Crassus didn’t announce it until the next day,” Bandit suggested.

Adam fidgeted, “But how do we know this guy’s not a spy?”

Well we don’t know. That’s the problem, stupid. Clark signed.

“Hey!” Adam protested.

“Come on. You call stupid an insult?” Baird challenged.

Ashley sighed, “Here we go again.”

The boys were just getting at it with their argument when the notice speakers rang, “Ladies and Gentlemen! We are-AAAARRGHH!!!” The announcement was sharply cut off, followed by much grunting, shuffling, and cussing. “EVACUATE!” yelled an unfamiliar voice, distinctively male, “EVACUATE! I SAID EVACUATE!! THE BOMBS ARE GONNA-” Another interruption.

Of a crater being blasted into the ceiling of the bunker by an incoming bomb.

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Chaos. That was the only way Clara could describe what happened next. People were screaming and shoving for the doors. Crassus seemed to be having trouble regaining control. Clara, Bandit, Adam, Sasha and Clark had the sense to climb through the HQ’s wide and vast underground network of tunnels. There were entrances everywhere.

Ashley, Samantha and Baird unfortunately had not had enough sense nor time to climb in through the little hole before some other bombs came through into the bunker. Despite Bandit and Sasha’s protests, Adam, Clark and Clara sealed the hole. “What about our friends?!” Sasha yelled.

They’re dead, there is nothing we can do about it. Clark signed. Despite being unable to vocalize, he could be a great comforter. Sasha pounded on the entrance, screaming and sobbing. Bandit’s shoulders quaked with silent tears. Adam just sat quietly.

Clara personally felt like shutting her ears, bringing up the walls and screaming. But she knew she needed to be strong. She took inventory. She was still holding the spare gun, her main one was in its holster, she had a candy bar in one pocket, her ID in the other, and a knife in her belt.

She asked everybody else to pool their things out as well. In total they had six guns, two candy bars, four crackers, the extreme array of knives in Bandit’s jacket, Clara’s twin blades plus blowgun and Adam’s backpack, which he carried everywhere. It had a med kit, a pack of dried fruit, another pack of beef jerky, a spare change of clothes for each person, a jacket and eight tightly rolled up sleeping bags. He had carried it around in case of an emergency questing situation.

“This will last us a week if we stay in here and ration carefully,” Sasha decided.

“Wait. Aren’t there Hunchbacks in the tunnel?” Adam asked.

“As far as I remember…” Bandit muttered.

“They would kill us for sure. They killed an entire maker group before escaping into the tunnels, didn’t they? They can smell living people if I’m correct.” Clara remarked.

Yes, Yes and yes. Clark signed in a not very reassuring way.

“Let’s find another way out then,” Bandit told the group, standing up.

Okay. But how do we know H-U-N-C-H-B-A-C-K-S won’t kill us? Clark questioned.

“Yeah. They’re all over the tunnel,” Adam pointed out.

Clark scowled and turned to face Adam, Stop hiding behind me. I cannot read your lips if you are out of my sight line. Adam repeated the question in front of Clark in sign language as well as speech. Yes. Adam is right. Clark signed.

Just then, a Hunchback made its appearance. Like its name, it had a hunched back, grayish, baggy reptilian skin over bones and a huge, never-closing mouth filled with three entire rows of razor sharp teeth, and fangs that stretched over the thing's jaw.

Clara pulled out her gun and shot three rounds at the monster’s heart. It fell to the ground, dead. Just to make sure, Bandit drove one of her curved knives into its bald head. She pulled out the knife, which was now covered with Hunchback brains.

“Gross!” Bandit complained. Clara gagged and Sasha looked away, cringing. Adam and Clark quickly shoved the supplies into Adam’s bag and slung it over his shoulders. Come on. We need to go or more will arrive. Clark urged the girls, who were now taking turns to kick the dead body to assure it was dead.

They had been paranoid about monsters faking death since they had fought some of the Actors. Devious beasts that faked death and pretended to be weak but were actually able to show massive signs of strength. They even looked like real people.

The five trudged down the winding tunnels. They occasionally came across dead ends, and often came across Hunchbacks, but managed to take care of those problems quickly. They carried on until they found an entrance that wasn’t blocked by rubble.

They opened the trapdoor to find a tall, brown-haired boy looking down at them. “What are you doing here? I thought there were no survivors.”

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Clara realized that this was the strange new boy Sasha had seen in the morning. She jumped to her feet and held her gun out, pointing it at him. Bandit must have realized too, because she dual-wielded knives and pointed them at the back of his head. Sasha also pointed her gun, and the boys got into a classic fighting stance.

The brunette raised his hands into the air, “Hey, I just want to talk! My name is Brendan, and I’m a spy for Crassus. I came here today to give him my report when the bombings started.”

Clara glowered at him, “How do we know you’re not lying?”

“That was me on the announcement,” Brendan told her.

Clark frowned, What announcement?

Sasha explained and signed along for Clark’s benefit. Clark’s frown deepened and seemed to think. Let’s trust him. He said eventually. The group put their weapons down. Clara assessed where they were. They were in the comms room, by the looks of it. Brendan collected wires and plugs from the control board.

“What are you doing?” Adam asked. Brendan took the things and started to assemble them.

“I’m making a flashlight,” he explained, plugging an LED light into one of the sockets. He wrenched the battery out of the speaker and inserted it into a jumble of wires. He attached a switch to the wire contraption and flipped the lights on and off.

“There,” Brendan said, satisfied.

“Interesting,” Adam said, examining the contraption, “How will you handle the overheating though?” Brendan pulled a pair of raven black leather gloves out of his pockets in answer. The stockier boy nodded in appreciation.

Bandit coughed, her question was obvious, Are we going? Sasha asked the same question with her eyes. “Let’s get outta the compound. The city will be safer,”Clara nodded and gestured to the two geeks to follow her out of the door. When they exited, they found rubble and ceiling plaster everywhere. Also, the scent of blood and monsters.

“Stay high alert and silent,” Bandit ordered the group. The rest nodded, if monsters found them, they could get in trouble. Clara handed Brendan a gun. His eyes widened, “I’ve never used one before,” he told her.

“You can learn,” Adam called over his shoulder. Brendan took the firearm and held it firmly at his side. “I’m not shooting people though,” He insisted.

“There’s no need to do that,” Sasha assured.

The group forged on to the nearest entrance. They clambered out of the compound. Huh. Easier than I thought. Clark signed. Clara silently agreed. Then a ratman crawled out of the hole they came out of. Ratmen were like gigantic humanoid rats with bulbous noses and exaggerated features.

Brendan fired, but he recoiled at the bang and missed by an inch. Bandit threw a knife into its chest, Sasha shot it, and Adam marched over and snapped its neck, retrieving Bandit’s knife as well.

Bandit wiped the muck off and put it back into her jacket breast pocket. Clara stomped over and connected her combat boots with its face. Brendan turned red at his uselessness. “Wait! Shouldn’t we change in case the HC finds us in our uniform?” Ashley asked.

“Yeah, we might raise some eyebrows,” Clara agreed.

“I have spare clothes. Do you?” Brendan asked.

“Yeah. I always have them in my pack,” Adam told him.

“Sensible,” Brendan approved.

They all took extra clothes and took turns changing behind what might have been a door before the bombings to Bandit found. Clara went last and wore beige slacks and a too-snug olive green t-shirt. But she noticed that she wasn’t the only person in discomfort, Sasha’s cobalt blue sweatshirt sleeves reached her knees, and her jeans were rolled up three times.

Once everyone had changed, they set out to the city.

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Clara helped everyone hide their weapons. Adam hid his backpack inside his baggy hoodie. Bandit’s massive assortment of knives had always been hidden in her jacket. Sasha’s jeans had at least thirty pockets for them to hide MMEP badges and identification necklaces. Brendan's clothes had a few interior pockets and a lot of exterior ones.

Once they reached the gates to the city, they managed to sneak past the guards with an excellent plan. Clara and Sasha pretended to run from a “monster” who were actually Clark, Adam, Bandit, Brendan and Sasha hidden under huge pieces and lairs of fabric, mud, branches, leaves, and bark.

The guards let the two in, and tried to catch the “monster” but failed. Later on the other five convinced the guards that they were running from the same “monster” and the other two had been a part of their party. They let them in and they rendezvoused at the entrance of the park that the questers knew very well from previous missions.

The group walked through the city, looking for a place to stay that wouldn’t cost any money. They walked across the crumbling sidewalk. There may have been a day when the concrete was fresh, but now, they had to play some kind of hopping game to get across the city.

Eventually, they found one of the closed-down homeless shelters. The shelters hardly operated anymore. The HC kept children most of the time, but it was unsafe to go there. Last year, Adam’s cover was blown. The HC now knew all his alter egos, but they didn't know any of their real identities.

“Okay. If we’re gonna be here, Adam needs another alter ego,” Brendan said, “And great timing, Crassus gave me it earlier so I could give it to him.” Brendan handed Adam a library card, a passport and a few other things with Adam’s face and the name “Jasker Reyes” stamped on it.

Sasha frowned, “My alter ego’s last name is also Reyes. Miranda Reyes.”

“Yep. Brother and sister,” Brendan informed.

“I’m going to use Riyanna Hood,” Clara decided.

You guys choose mine. Clark said.

“I’m going by my own name,” Brendan said, “They don’t know I’m working for MMEP.”

“Beatrice Gold, and Clark will be Sherlock Jacks,” Bandit selected.

Once they had decided, the group hid out a little longer and split a bit of the food between themselves. After they split the provisions, they decided to explore through the city a little further. Bandit chose to adopt some kind of friends group walking through the city disguise. "Wow, look at THAT Miranda!" She said loudly so that all the passing people could hear, pointing at a huge statue that looked new. "That wasn't here when we last came," Clara muttered in a low voice. "Your right, it's been built last week," Brendan explained.

Clara looked around the mossy street they were walking through. There was a footbridge just up ahead. She noticed there were no people on it. Brendan followed her gaze, "Yeah. People don't really go on it nowadays because it's been officially determined unsafe by the HC."

"Come on, Riyanna!" Bandit called.

"Coming, Beatrice!" Clara replied. She tugged Brendan and Clark along. Adam followed behind. Clara slowed down when she caught up with Bandit and Sasha. Clara lowered her head and whispered into Bandit's ear, "You know we can't stay here for long, right? Eventually we need to go back. Probably to the tunnels." Bandit nodded subtly in response.

"We should head back tonight. We only came here out of desperation," Sasha whispered

"I know," Clara admitted, "I should have given this more thought."

"It's okay, you were just trying to keep us all safe," Sasha assured.

That was just when a boy came jogging over to them, "Hey! How are you guys here? Did you escape too?" It was Baird.

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"Baird!" Sasha called. Baird reached them. He was in a dark green hoodie, black jeans and brown combat boots. "I'm so glad you guys are alive!" Baird said. Clark raised his index finger to his lips, Quiet. Baird nodded in response. Then his eyes settled onto Brendan, "Who's the new guy?" Baird asked.

Brendan stuck his hand out, "Brendan Gardner, pleased to meet you."

"Hi," Baird replied, shaking his hand.

"Baird, you butt! We thought you were dead!" Bandit scolded.

"Sorry about that. I hid in the lockers. I tried to get Ashley and Samantha to go in the other ones, but they couldn't hear me," Baird apologized.

"Still a butt," Bandit said adamantly.

Brendan coughed into his fist and pointed at the sky. The sun was starting to set. "Come on! We gotta get back to the compound!" Sasha whispered urgently. Clark nodded. The group headed to the gates. Clara had ensured them she had a plan. When they reached the doors, she went up to the guards. "Hey kid! You and your friends fine now?" One of them asked.

Clara took out her blowpipe and aimed it at him. "The MMEP," she shot the guard in the neck then turned to the other one, "Sends it's greetings." She shot the other guard before he could react. She motioned for Brendan to enter the security code. "Wait a sec," Brendan said, fumbling in his pockets, he took out a piece of paper and read through it, "972453," he muttered, dialing it in.

The doors clanked open and they passed through. Brendan shut the door then locked it again. Sasha, Adam, Clara, Clark, Baird, Bandit and Brendan headed to the wreckage of the compound. They crawled into the same trapdoor they used and into the same tunnel.

"We should be fine for now," Brendan reassured.

"Yeah, but now we're going to have to start getting used to the tunnels," Clara told him.

"Well, let's get going. Find a safer place to hang around," Baird said.

And the group forged down the tunnels, five not knowing the traitor was among them, and one continuously sending information to the HC by a secret microphone.