The God Hunters
Page 36
I nodded. I was to be a lab rat. Thanks for everything. “And if I say no?”
This time he looked at me, met my gaze, his eyes two hard stones. “Best case scenario? You’ll be hunted down, killed, and your body cut into pieces for study. Worst? You’ll be held in the labs where they can do whatever they want.”
Epilogue
I was alone in my house. Had been for the last two months. Really alone. In fact, I was surprised how alone I was. Kat was gone. She'd left the same day I'd been put under house arrest by Finney.
I thought back, recalling our last conversation. I'd gotten home. I was ready to "piss tacks" as my Grandmother used to say. I could feel Kat but she was withdrawn. She’d dug herself a deep hole inside me and was staying there. Like she was hiding. Then we got the call. A door appeared in my living room and Meeta stepped through. I gestured for her not to speak. My house was bugged after all. She’d just laughed.
“Honestly Nicholas. Do you really think I can’t fool this primitive technology?” she'd asked, smiling. She had a nice smile. I liked her for that. She lived a life of servitude but was still able to smile. Being around her had taught me a certain degree of acceptance. I considered it a valuable lesson.
“What's up?” I asked, happy to see someone I actually liked.
Meeta sighed. “I'm here for Kat. It's time for us to leave.”
I felt my jaw drop. For some reason this news was unexpected. Kat was leaving? I felt her rise to the surface. She seemed tired.
“The hunt is over. I‘m recalled for debriefing. They‘ll want to verify what they know. They‘ll want to punish. This hunt was a troubling one, for them as well as me.”
I nodded. “It didn’t go well but I'm not sure how it could have gone any better. At least there was justice in the end. Kailex paid for what he did.”
“I‘m supposed to return with video of Kailex’s death. I don’t have that. For that and other things, I‘ll suffer.”
“What other things?” I asked.
Suddenly my world changed and I was back inside. Kat stood across from me. “Oh Nicholas,” she began, stepping up and giving me a soft kiss on the lips that lingered for a moment. “I will miss you. You were everything I'd hoped.”
Then bang, I was back in my living room while the room swirled around me. I dropped to a knee, so dizzy I felt sick. Meeta also staggered but recovered far quicker than I.
“Good bye Nick,” she said, but it wasn't Meeta who‘d spoken. Then she’d stepped back into SHIP and the portal vanished. That was the last I'd heard from her. She was gone and I was alone, really alone. I hadn’t felt this cut off from everything in a long time. It didn't feel good.
◆◆◆
Two months and so far my only visitors had been doctors. They haven't done anything truly awful yet. Just taken gallons of blood and hooked me up to machines that make funny noises. They talk a lot amongst themselves and want me to go with them to the labs where they can do more, but so far I’ve said no. As long as it’s up to me I’m not going. The white coats aren’t happy with that. Science types. I don’t like them. I‘ve the feeling they'll stop asking soon. Once that happens, it wouldn’t be long before I end up just living there, for convenience sake. I don’t think I’d like that. Lab rats don’t have much of a say in what happens to them.
Occasionally, my phone rings and some voice at the other end asks me something personal only I would know. I think it’s their way of checking to see if I‘m still me. Lately I've started telling them to "fuck off". I wonder how long they’ll stand for that. Bad lab rat. Time to bring it in so the real fun can begin.
My boots were laced up. Walker was out there somewhere. For a while I'd hoped she'd come back. But she hadn’t. She’d left a note. Must have stopped by on her mad dash to get away. It was short and to the point. In our fight with Kailex she'd given too much. Had let her Beast out too far. She was still running the show, mostly, but was afraid of what she might do if she stayed. So she'd left and wasn’t sure if she could ever come back.
Well, I'd given her enough time. I put my coat on and moved swiftly to the back of the house. All the lights were off except for the tiny blue ones twinkling on the device Meeta had left with me. She’d said it would convince the surveillance devices in the house that things were normal and just peachy. Since I was leaving, I thought that was just fine. I slipped out a back window, dropped to the ground. Just another shadow against the house. There was human surveillance of course. I could feel them. In fact, I knew exactly where they were but I wasn’t worried. They were just sheep. Laughing I ducked into the woods, stealing just a little energy from each as I past. They were tasty but I hadn’t time to stop. Somewhere out there was Walker and I needed to find her.
The End
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