After ages, I have a man in my life who I can call a friend. I’ve had colleagues, bosses, subordinates, but I have not had a friend since the time I was working to be a pro-body builder. I get to spend a lot of time with my new friend because he happens to be part of my mission. Turns out, the scientist, or “Fewton” as I call him(after his favorite scientist, Isaac Newton), is a pretty affable fellow. He takes time to open up, but once he does, he’s pretty much like your average 4am friend. He still isn’t satisfied with the nickname he came up with for me – “Brawny”. And we just hang around all the time, even when he’s working. I even gave him a tiny pinup label for his lab coat that said “Dr. Fewton”, telling him “Trust me, you Need this”. He laughed and said “Oh wow, you gave me a whole new identity. How will I ever match That? I suck at giving gifts”. I chuckled and told him not to worry about it. He’s sweet in his own way. He even setup a mini-lab of sorts in the basement of the house. I moved my workout equipment around to make room for him. Its an oddly satisfying feeling, working out while he’s working on the side. And he is so engaging! It’s a breath of fresh air in an otherwise monotonous job. Often, I am cooling down from my workout and he’s telling me about what he’s working on. He always pokes me with this silly “You won’t understand shit, Brawny” or “What are you, Einstein?”, EVERY time. But he comes around after my brow furrows long enough. He explains patiently like you would to a 5 yr old. He uses a lot of big words but then when he explains, it all seems simple enough. He’s working on some regenerative serum for the Armed forces healthcare facilities. Last night we talked some more about his work and I must admit, I surprised him a little. Since he had explained things so well to me, I guess I was able to remember almost all of it and shared an idea about the same to him. He couldn’t keep his stupid grin off his face. When I wished him goodnight today, he replied “Good Night, BReinstien”.
We were mid lunch when the sirens started blaring. The next few minutes were a frenzy of feet on the floor leading to the exit. Dr. F literally cannot run to save his life. The man has zero stamina. I took him by hand and matched his pace with mine. When we got out of the building someone filled us in about the situation. Apparently, one of the scientists had an accident. Nobody had the details. Fewton looked at me and I saw fear in his eyes. I have never seen him afraid before. It was surreal. I asked him “Is there something you know that I should know?” He had barely opened his mouth when we all heard it. An inhuman roar, followed by the sound of concrete grinding against itself. I threw Fewton over my shoulder and ran, shouting instructions to everyone gathered. We managed to put a few hundred feet between us and the building that was now, part rubble. The air was thick with dust among other things and visibility was falling. It was quiet for a few seconds before I heard the all too familiar sounds. Boots scurrying. A heavy armored vehicle approaching. The sound of the boots was replaced by gunfire in a matter of seconds. The roar only got louder. Before we could react, something large and heavy emerged out of the haze and landed with a loud thud, barely a few feet from us and the ground shook, knocking us onto our backs. Green and HUGE. Its anatomy was of a bulky man, but IT, was anything but human. It seemed to stare at us before leaping off again and not a moment too soon. A hail of bullets followed it mid-air which might just be coming at us if it were still on the ground. I saw Fewton lying on his chest, looking at the freaky green thing and for some reason shouted hoarsely “Blues”. The whole incident was an intense short movie with a climax more mysterious than a cliffhanger. We were asked to rush to our homes immediately and stay indoors. I drove Fewton back to the house. I tried talking to him but he didn’t say a word back. We didn’t have a proper meal for dinner. Mac and cheese with a bottle of wine seemed like a better choice. Fewton turned on the news and there were reports about the incident but they didn’t know what to report. They focused on showing low quality images of the creature, possibly gathered from some teen’s cell phone and made an almost comical feature out of the incident. They even nicknamed the bulky creature, calling it “Hulk”. Fewton turned it off soon after. At night as I lay in bed in silence, I heard him sobbing through the walls.