This Mortal Coil by Logan Thomas Snyder

sloppy butcher than a doctor. In her hand, she clutched a scalpel of her own. “Alright, so what’s the plan?”
    “The plan is we find the others and get the fuck out of here, that’s what.”
    “That’s a good plan,” she agreed. “Let’s get to it.”
    They decided to keep going left, Willem walking point while Theresa watched their backs. Nearing the end of the hall, they heard a sudden rush of footsteps coming their way. Willem tightened his grip on the long-handled scalpel, steeling himself to strike as the source of the steps rounded the corner. The sudden appearance of a familiar face brought him up just short of burying the scalpel in the young man’s neck.
    “Lucas!”
    Head whipping around, Lucas nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of the scalpel. He breathed only slightly easier when he recognized Willem and Theresa behind it, though their gore-streaked coats and bodies remained cause for concern. “Holy shit , what happened to you guys?! Are you alright?”
    “We’re fine. What’s going on?”
    “When the pulse didn’t work on me they realized I wasn’t one of you. Something about the chips in your heads. They questioned me but I managed to convince them I was your hostage and just playing it cool, y’know, coyly leading you here, whatever. The point is, they left me unguarded in the operations centers, and when the guy turned his back on me, I clubbed him with a fire extinguisher. After that I managed to find a frequency out and send a distress call. That was a few minutes ago, so it shouldn’t be long now—”
    Before Lucas could finish, a section of the wall he had just run past exploded, collapsing inwardly with a rain of vaporized concrete and dust. A chorus of klaxons sounded as a heavily armed team of commandos stormed through the breach. The commandos ordered the three of them to their knees as a second and third team fanned out to secure the facility. Several minutes later the klaxons ceased. They had taken the operations center.
    With the facility secured, the lead man in charge stepped into the hall. Ringed by several large men in bulky armor with even larger weapons fanned in every direction, he introduced himself as Captain Bartholomew Swain. “So, which one of you called this mess in?”
    Lucas raised his hand.
    “Nice job, son,” Captain Swain said, clapping him on the shoulder. “We weren’t even aware this sector was still active after the Culling. You’re just lucky we had an extraction team nearby.” Looking from Lucas to Willem and Theresa, he added, “These the people you mentioned?”
    Lucas nodded. “Yeah, they’re with me.”
    “Alright, let’s get moving then! We’ve got a lot of debriefing ahead of us. And clothes. I expect you two will be wanting some clothes.” He eyed them warily, Theresa in particular.
    Hustling out of the building under heavy guard, Willem, Theresa, Lucas, and Captain Swain were ushered aboard a waiting helicopter. Across the yard, Joseph, Dr. Valda, and several others were being taken into custody.
    “What about the others?” Theresa asked the commando strapping her into her seat. “Are they still alive? What happened to them?”
    “I’m sorry, ma’am,” the commando said. As if on cue, several of his comrades emerged from the building in pairs, black body bags full of dead weight clutched between them. “We did everything in our power to revive them. They were just too far gone.”
    As terrible as the news was, the sight of all those body bags was even worse. Crestfallen, Theresa sank into her seat. She couldn’t help thinking of the others who had been freed from this mortal coil with equal measures pity and envy. They were monsters, each and every one of them, the perverse product of the human condition run amok. How she and Willem were supposed to reconcile the fact that they alone had survived, only to have to endure the horrible shared truth of their existence, she simply didn’t know.
    With the four of them