“The eyes they grow, they’re the closest to a cure as anyone has come. People like me, those of us who are immune, seem to have some kind of mutation in our eyes that doesn’t allow the chemicals to affect us. Breathing can still be detrimental, but from what we’ve learned, the effects of exposure from air or even ingestion are minimal—and take a long time to present themselves. It’s when they get absorbed through the eyes that rapid damage occurs—it’s why you see so much deterioration there. It’s why the blindness usually long predates fatality.”
David closed his eyes and rubbed them gently through his lids with his fingertips. “So, Calvin made me immune?”
“As close to immune as you can get, at least. He would have known your natural body would probably be affected if you spent too much time in The Green Zones. I should have figured he’d do something like that.”
“Something like what?” a voice boomed from behind them.
Rosa and David turned to face the voice.
“Calvin!” Rosa shouted. The great man stood at the edge of the bridge, his arm wrapped around Bethany. They looked rough, dirty and scratched up—but otherwise unharmed. Rosa ran to Calvin and he took his arm from Bethany, lifting Rosa from the ground up in a powerful hug.
“Hello, David,” said Bethany. “I see you made it here, after all.”
“That I did,” David shook her calloused hand. “And you’re here too. We thought the worst.”
“Well, we did run into a few snags in the plan,” Calvin said. “But there’s no way we’d let the mission fail that easily.”
“Care to finally let me in on what this whole mission is?” David asked.
Calvin reached out his hand and clamped it down on David’s shoulder. “Sorry, my boy. We can’t do that—not yet. But we can fill you in on what happened at the house and how we managed to get back to Chicago.”
FORTY-ONE
NATURE CALLS
“As you launched, alarms started ringing, and we knew everything had gone to hell,” said Calvin. Back inside, the four of them sat at the circle of fake log benches where the children previously had class. A few of them scampered in the playground above, but most had returned earlier to the great hall to join their families for dinner. The lights of Garfield started to turn on as night fell, signaling the end of a day and time for a meal and some night-time socializing before bedtime.
“It was the core. It must have been unstable. It started a meltdown,” Bethany said.
“Once we confirmed you were off, we high-tailed it out of there,” Calvin added. “We made it out. Hopped on the bikes and zipped out as fast as we could. Barely made it to a safe distance, but we were clear when the thing blew.”
“Well, I was clear. Calvin … not quite. The shockwave from the blast got him. Knocked him and his bike hard, and him not wearing a helmet … well, he got a concussion and went unconscious. I stuck with him, and a few hours later he came to. To play it safe, we decided to spend the night in the woods and wait to travel again at morning. Maybe see if there was anything we could salvage from the house.”
“That night, the place lit up like a birthday cake. A few slidecars flew in, searchlights blaring, scanning the area for anything they could pick up. We were far enough out they had no chance of finding us, but by the next morning a secondary contingent came in, dropping off a squad of geeks to do some on-foot recon.”
“Honestly, I’d never seen anything quite like it,” Bethany said. “They weren’t soldiers—not all of them. At least half the contingent were eggheads. Those modded jobs with the pale skin. Decked out in khaki shorts and short-sleeved safari shirts, they looked like they were walking on birch twig stilts, their legs so thin and white. While the grunts secured the place, these guys worked much more methodically. Pulling out instruments, taking readings. I have no idea what they were looking for, I’ve never seen techies so far outside the city before.”
“We kept our distance, but still stayed close enough to do some recon of our own. What we saw was bizarre. Like these guys had never experienced the outdoors before. At first you could see their hesitancy, stepping gingerly in the wreckage of the blast zone, but after a few hours they started to venture farther out, into the woods. Their faces when they first touched the bark of a tree, they looked like children. Complete and utter awe. They separated into a few smaller groups, examining the plants, taking measurements. Photos. Records.
One group came across a little trickle of a stream, and when they met it they froze, staring as the water bubbled by. Then, the strangest thing happened. They both took a seat on a fallen pine, pulled their shoes and socks off their paper-white feet and stepped gingerly into the creek. There they stood, for what must have been at least a half hour—doing nothing but standing there, experiencing what it was like to stand immersed in the flow of nature. One of them reached down into the water and came back with a frog in his hand. Then they began to laugh. It was the first real sound I could make out from them since they landed. Yeah, they’d been talking, but it was a low, silent discussion of few words—nothing I could make out. But this laugh, the shrillness of it broke through the forest. Like a toddler experiencing the simple joys of a game of peek-a-boo. Pure. The birds scattered in the trees at the break in nature’s own silence, and the others joined in. Laughing with glee as the feathered beasts took to the air and formed up into a retreating flock.”
“We stuck around and watched for a while, but it was so strange,” Bethany said. “After an hour or two it was obvious they weren’t leaving any time soon, so we figured we should start moving. We considered taking the bikes, but out there the sound would travel. Completely unsafe. We even thought of walking them until we were out of earshot, but in that terrain it was impossible—so we set out on foot.”
“And that’s about it. We’ve just been walking. Walking and camping. Grabbing food where we can. It’s been a trek. Thank God for Indianapolis. We were pretty much scraping by on berries, squirrel meat and water by the time we got there. Met up with an Organic settlement and refueled. We tried getting word out to let you know we were okay and were on our way, but their comms were down. Guess they’ve been down for a while. Pure colony like that, they don’t put much of a priority on working tech.”
David and Rosa listened as the two told their story, nodding from time to time to show they were listening. They waited until they completed recounting their travels. And then David asked the question that had been gnawing at his brain ever since the day he met Rosa.
“Guys, I have to ask. Why am I here? Rosa told me she made me. She told me there’s some mission. I admit I had a bit of a tough time processing everything, but I’m accepting things as being what they are,” David said. “But now I need to know why I’m here. Why you made me. What the hell the point of bringing me into existence is all about.”
“How much has Rosa told you? About before?”
Bethany held up her hand, shushing Calvin. “Calvin, we can’t. Whatever she told him, it can’t be any more than she knows herself.
“I’m sorry Rosa,” she said, “but you know as well as I do we wouldn’t keep these secrets if we didn’t have to.”
“She’s right. They have a reason for secrets.” Rosa nodded and placed her hand on David’s knee. “But isn’t it time to maybe expand the circle of trust?” she asked, directing the question to Calvin.
“Sorry, but now we’re here and David’s safe. Bethany’s right. We have to stick to the protocol. The mission, even if delayed, remains on track. Now it’s time to rest and regroup; then we can move on to phase three.”
“Phase three?” asked David. “What’s phase three?”
“Phase three is the part where you find out why you’re here and what your real purpose is in all of this,” Bethany’s brows furrowed, and David could swear she was on the verge of tears. “In a few days, you’ll learn everything—I promise. But for now, it’s not safe. Not with you still being in the position you’re in. Just believe us when we tell you,
” she leaned in, and whispered quietly in David’s ear, “right now, you’re the most important man in the world.”
FORTY-TWO
EXTRACTION
“Ghost is dead. His lifeline went dead twenty minutes ago.” David and Rosa were eating breakfast in the great hall when Parm burst in with the news.
“He didn’t look too good when I saw him,” said David, through a mouthful of banana.
Parm took a seat at the table across from them, and continued, “No. He didn’t die. At least not from sickness. Richards just told me. His vitals were stable, then they started to skyrocket, then boom—flatlined.”
“Do we have eyes?” Rosa threw her spoon back in her bowl of granola and pushed her seat back as she arose. Parm stood again also, and the two of them ran off to the labs with David following close behind.
“No eyes. You know he asked us to stop surveillance. We respected those wishes. No one, other than David here, has even seen him in the last few months.”
Rosa swore. “Then what happened? Richards, you have anything?”
A short, stocky man with a crew cut rose from the station opposite Sam. “Nothing, Rosa. Just like that, he spiked and was out.”
“How long ago was this?”
“Ten—maybe fifteen minutes ago.”
“Why are you only telling me now then?” Rosa’s voice was rising. David had only seen Rosa this worried once before—weeks ago, right after he arrived and The Consumers staged their raid.
“Parm, go make sure the doors are secured. David, go find Bethany and Calvin. Richards, be ready to sound the alarms, we’re on lockdown.”
David’s heart raced. Whatever was happening, Rosa knew something he didn’t—and it scared him. “What’s going on, Rosa?”
“David!” she commanded. “Go find Calvin and Bethany and tell them to hurry back—"
A loud explosion rocked the compound. From the sound of it, the explosion came from the front entrance. David looked at Rosa. Her face went pale.
“Oh my God, they’re here!” Rosa shouted. “Richards—the alarms! Now!”
“Who’s here?” asked David. “Are The Consumers back?”
Rosa shook her head vigorously. “No. I don’t think so. I think this is something much, much worse.”
David took off, leaving Rosa behind in the lab. He raced through the children’s area, aroid house and sugar shack, and back into the main gardens just off the entrance. Smoke and flames poured through the doors leading to the entryway. Whatever happened, happened there. He kept moving, slipping into the Fern room. Calvin and Bethany had been spending most of their time there since arriving the night before, laying out plans in a makeshift command center.
“David, get out of here!” Calvin shouted as David entered the room. “You need to go someplace safe!”
“It’s too late for that,” Bethany yelled over the blaring of the alarms. “Get to the back. Take cover. Hide in the ferns. Don’t let them find you!”
Bethany pulled a pistol from her side. Calvin picked up a stunshot from the rack of guns in their station and threw it to David. “It’ll only give you one shot per charge, but it’ll knock out anyone who comes your way.” He took a rifle for himself.
Apart from being so near the entrance, the Fern Room worked rather well as a hiding space. It boasted the thickest growth of any of the rooms—mostly because unlike the others it was purely decorative. The citizens of Garfield used the space for meditation and mental wellness: the closest thing to a park that the confines of the glass walls could provide. David took the stunshot and ran along the path around the pond, past the spot where he first met Rosa, and climbed through the foliage into the very back corner of the room. He hunched down, gulping in deep breaths of the rich earthy air, as he did what he could to hide from whatever was coming.
Shots rang out. Screams. Buzzes of stunshots. Commands to search the area. “Find David. We are to retrieve him at all costs,” a voice shouted. “And round up a few clear-eyes while you’re at it!”
More shots, the sound of boots on concrete. Screams.
“Room’s clear,” said another voice.
“Search it,” commanded the first.
What was he going to do? What happened to Bethany and Calvin? Who the hell was after him? He searched through the breaks in the foliage, desperate to find a new, better hiding place. They were sure to find him where he was.
The pond. Go to the pond and slip down to the depths. No. Not deep enough. They’ll see him. Play dead. Face down in the mud. Look like a casualty and let them move on.
The footsteps closed in. The people searching the room at the edge of the pond. By his and Rosa’s bench.
“Anybody here? David? We’re here to pull you out!” the man’s voice echoed off the glass ceiling. “Just bring us David Sparks. We know you have him. By order of The Reconstruction, bring him out and let him come back with us, and we’ll leave. He’s all we need.”
All they need? Pull him out? Of course. The Reconstruction still thought he was working for them. Something happened. While he was gone. The suppressor. When they put it in, it hadn’t only blocked the memories—it also killed his data uplinks. Rosa told him this far out they wouldn’t be able to pull any dataset uploads, but they must have been keeping an eye on his vitals. They’d been keeping tabs on him to make sure he was safe—that wherever he was, he was still alive, retrieving data. They hadn’t known where he was. Location signals didn’t work this far out from civilization, and the GPS satellites had died decades ago.
They didn’t know—and their ignorance was the one thing David could use to save the people of Garfield. He stepped out from his hiding place and announced himself.
“Jeez guys, I thought you’d never get here,” he said. “Get me out of this place and take me home.”
Before he could react, one of the soldiers fired—hitting David in the head with a stunshot round. He fell to the floor, paralyzed. The other soldier took his jacket off and threw it over David, hiding and protecting him as they dragged him from the room. As they reached the other side of the pond, David saw Calvin and Bethany, their bodies still on the floor. A single red hole marked the center of Bethany’s forehead. Blood pooled around her lifeless body.
That’s how they knew. That’s how they knew. That’s how they knew. The thought repeated itself in his head as the rescue squad escorted David out of Garfield.
“Stop,” shouted a voice from behind.
Rosa stepped through the palms, holding her own gun, pointed directly at the man who held David’s arm. “Leave him here. He’s ours.”
David’s heart raced. He couldn’t let them hurt Rosa. Not his dear Rosa. He thought of Bethany, dead on the ground with a bullet in her head. Pictured Rosa’s face in place of Bethany’s.
“Stand down, Rosa,” he commanded. “I’m sorry, but I have to go back. I’m working with them and they’re here to take me home.”
Rosa’s jaw fell open and her eyes widened. She dropped the gun, and stood there in silence, staring at David.
“I’m sorry, Rosa,” he said as they turned to carry David outside to finalize their escape. “You’ll understand someday. I hope.”
David and the rest of the squadron piled into three slidecars and took off.
“You have to sleep,” a soldier shouted as he stuck a needle into David’s arm. “It’s the only way to wear off that stunshot. Otherwise you won’t be walking for a while, and when your body does start coming back, it’s gonna hurt like hell.”
David nodded and closed his eyes. Even with the shouting and celebrating going on around him, he couldn’t help but drift off. As his world turned to darkness, David could only make out one thing in the city below: the flames and smoke bellowing out of the hole that had been blown in the side of the only place he could call home.
FORTY-THREE
HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO
“But Missy and Aiden. You have responsibilities here. They’d be devastated if anything happened.”
Propped up against her pillow, Alice faced David in their bed, a queen-sized platform with a worn-out mattress and two depressions, the shape of full-grown adults, spaced out as far as their marriage. The ceiling fan above the room creaked slowly, his bare skin sprouting goosebumps at the combination of the tickling breeze and unspoken pleading of her wet, periwinkle eyes.
David moved closer and pulled the sheets up over the two of them. Placing his body next to hers, her bare shoulder met his and a familiar rush of energy flowed from her skin across the barrier into him, penetrating deeply and spreading through his body where they touched. Her body tensed reflexively at the contact, then relaxed as he spoke.
“I know, baby. And I’d never do anything that would risk hurting them … or you.” He paused, waiting for a response to his mention of their own relationship. Receiving none, he continued. “This isn’t about me though, you know that. It’s much bigger than me.”
“But why does it have to be you? You know what will happen if you are caught, David.”
“They already fired me, Alice. What else are they going to do?”
“This is the government you’re talking about, David. Finish out your week and leave it alone.” A tear seeped out of the corner of Alice’s eye, leaving a thin trail behind it as it trailed down her cheek. “Just leave it alone.”
David brushed the back of his hand against her cheek and wiped away the tear. Putting his arms around her, he pulled her close, nestled his head into her shoulder and kissed her softly on the neck. “I love you, Alice,” he whispered. “And I love our family. But I can’t let it go. Not this.”
The bedroom door swung open, and in ran Aiden, unannounced as usual. “Will someone snuggle with me?” he asked as he bounded onto the bed.
“I’ll be there in a minute,” Alice said, as she pushed David away.
“Are you crying Mommy?”
The Unfortunate Expiration of Mr David S Sparks Page 18
