Chapter 6: What happened?

I hear the front door open. Maddy looks up as well. Well, Johnny's home. I kiss Maddy and begin to get up to go greet him.

Before I get up completely though, John walks through the doorway, and….and hits his head on the crossbeam. Wait a minute. Those doors are almost 7 feet tall.

I jump up and run over to him. He suddenly has grown almost 2 feet in height and his arms have gone from being soft and almost fatty, to now hard and muscled like mine. I look up and see his eyes have turned orange.

He opens his mouth, trying to speak, but only manages a grunt. His hair has turned black, along with his goatee except they've both gotten at least two inches longer.

His teeth have also become extremely pointed. He grasps my arm for support and I feel little pinpricks where his fingernails dig into my skin. His nails have gotten sharp too. And his skin….So cold and hard.

"John….Johnny, what the fuck happened? Are you ok?" Maddy hears this and comes over to the door. She looks up at John as he towers over both of us.

"...I-I-I'm….awake…." is all he says, then he drops to the floor. His face hits the corner of the table in the corner and I hear a small snap.

"Aw, shit, he just broke his nose. Help me get him to the couch." We manage to half lift, half drag him to the couch.

Maddy rests his head in her lap. She throws me her phone and I call 9-11.

The paramedics get here in less than 20 minutes. They pull out a bunch of needles and monitoring devices and try to poke them in him.

"Um, your friend has himself a very hard exterior it seems. Our needles can't penetrate the skin. It's too hard. Harder than steel. What happened?"

"You oughta ask him. We have no idea. He just came back like this…." I shake my head.

"Will he be ok?" Maddy asks anxiously. They answered that they didn't know. They've never seen anything like this before. Finally they take him to a research facility about an hour or two away..

"His entire genetic structure has been rebuilt." A scientist informs us. "He's now the perfect human- well he's the perfect being. His senses are in perfect harmony, he now has access to 100% of his brain capacity, meaning he has processing capabilities that rival that of a supercomputer, and his skin is harder than adamantium. His bones, while still extremely sturdy, are hollow, allowing him to achieve running speeds faster than Usain Bolt. His muscle mass has increased by 200% but is extremely compact. He has the ability to lift the same weight as a crane, maybe even more so. He truly has become harder, better, faster, and stronger than any human in the world." We look at him in disbelief.

"So he's not even human anymore?" Maddy asks with tears in her eyes.

"Not entirely. He certainly has human weaknesses, none of them physical mind you, and a humanoid body, but aside from that, no. He is not human anymore. We have no idea what he is. We have though, developed a name for his species. We've decided to call him 'Infelicibus' meaning 'unlucky' in Latin. He is extremely unlucky to have these certain abilities, as they cause his cellular structure to be undecaying, so, it looks like he will be immortal." The scientist adjusts his glasses.

"So, he's immortal. He'll live even when we are dead, and he can't kill himself because he's indestructible." I clench my fist and slam it against a table. The table snaps a bit and the scientists look at me indignantly.

I reply by giving the ones staring the finger. They huff and get back to work. Suddenly a beeping starts and John jerks around in his secured chair. His eyes fly open and he roars. He actually roars. It's deafening. I grab Maddy and pull her behind a table that flipped over from the force of the noise.

Glass shatters as he bellows. I look over and John rips the restraints from his wrists as if he were pulling tape off his hand. He stands and a scientist walks over to him, trying to calm him and get him to sit back down.

I lunge for the man, but a clawed hand pierces through his back. The scientist screams and goes limp. John whips his body into a wall, causing blood to splatter everywhere and cracks to form on the wall.

One scientist grabs a remote and presses a button. A glass tube descends around John.

"Don't worry, he won't be able to get out now." The woman assures us. I look back to the glass and see John pounding on it. He raises his hand and punches. His fist smashes through the glass. He rips it apart and sends the shards flying around like razor sharp projectiles. I watch as scientist after scientist falls to the ground, blood oozing from the backs of their skulls and their punctured spines.

Maddy goes to scream, but I put my hand over her mouth. I hold a finger to my lips. I peek around the upturned table and see John standing there, looking at the corpses of the scientists. The blood on his hands and face.

He suddenly turns and looks me in the eye. I whip back around the table and put my arms around Maddy.

The metal table we were hiding behind is thrown out of the way as if it weighed nothing. John sees us and stops.

He kneels down beside me and I look him in the eyes. He stares right back. Maddy starts crying.

He draws back and stands up. He looks at his hands.

"What did I just do?" I look at him speechless.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID I JUST DO?!" He roars. What little glass that wasn't broken breaks from the roar. Tears roll down his cheeks and hit the floor, mixing with the blood forming a pink liquid that oozes around his shoes.

John drops to his knees and grabs his head and roars again. Maddy looks up, sniffling. She sees him and bursts into another fit of tears. I do my best to calm her down, and walk over to John.

I put my hand on his shoulder. He whips his head around and slams me back into a wall, pinning me there by my neck.

"What. The. Fuck. Just. Happened." he asks slowly and quietly. I shake my head. He drops his arm.

"John….I….I'm sorry, man. I….I don't know what happened." I say, staring at the floor. I look up and he's over next to Maddy.

He's kneeled down and wrapped his arms around her.

"Shh….shh….I'm sorry you had to see that Madds. I'm okay now see? I'm perfectly fine and so are you. There, there…." He picks her up and walks over to me. He puts her in my arms and the ushers us out the door.

"What are you gonna do about all….that?" I nod to the lab.

He just pushes me towards my car. I look at him questioningly. He gestures for me to get into the car. I do so. I set Maddy down in the back so she can lie down.

Sirens sound in the distance. John walks back from the research facility. He slides across the hood of the car and slips in.

"Back to my house. Now." I don't argue or ask questions. I press the gas pedal and we go speeding down the highway.

"John….what happened….to you back there? You just lost it. I've never seen that happen to you before."

John tightens his grip on the door. It buckles under his newfound strength. Saying nothing, he looks behind us.

I look in the rear-view mirror and see some police cruisers gaining ground on us.

"Oh shit. I'm gonna pull over." John stops me. He pulls open the sun-roof. He stands up and looks outside, facing the police.

I hear an explosion. I look up and see John with his fingers pointed out like a pistol. He makes a pretend shot and one more crusier explodes, causing two more of them smash through the road-dividers and flip over.

Bullets whizz around our heads and I hear Maddy scream.

I stare in horror as John puts 2 more imaginary bullets into the remaining cruisers. They flip over and John takes one more shot.

The, whatever it is, pierces the gas tank and the cars explode. John drops back down into his seat.

"No witnesses." He says simply. I slam my foot down on the brakes. John looks at me in disbelief.

"What are you doing? We need to get back to my house. We're in grave danger. Maddy is in grave danger."

I look into the backseat and my eyes widen in shock. A blossom of blood had appeared on her abdomen. I jump out of the car and run around to the back seat.

"Madds! Madds! Stay with me! We're gonna get help. John! Step on it!" He's already strapping himself into the driver's seat. He grinds his foot into the gas pedal and we rocket forward.

"C'mon baby, stay with me…." I say with tears in my eyes.