Enhanced

by Cosca, Paul

  Jarod looks just as out of place as his tiny farm; he greets me in leather sandals, a t-shirt, and cargo shorts. He looks like he’d be more at home on a surfboard than on a John Deere. But he makes a very good cup of tea, so the trip is immediately deemed a success.

  JAROD: There’s a thing you gotta understand. A real important thing. Fact numero uno, you know? You gotta understand that the government is not stupid. Yeah, there are stupid congressmen and stupid presidents and all that. But the government itself, the organization, like...government with a capital “G”...the Government is not stupid. They are smarter, more cunning, and way more ruthless than anything you’ll find in the private sector. When companies go to war, they try to buy each other out. When the Government goes to war, they send nukes. So in knowing that, it makes a lot of sense that they have Enhanced people working at all levels of the government. Every government department you’ve ever heard of has Enhanced people working for them. And for every department you’ve heard of, there’s at least one more you haven’t. And there’s probably even more Enhanced working at those. The United States Government is the single largest employer of Enhanced people in the entire world. If there’s someone

  out there with a really serious Enhancement, I bet they’ve been vetted by the big “G” at some point. You’ve been to the Smithsonian, right? They’ve got a waygate right in the lobby. Another recruitment tool.

  And another thing: along with ruthless and smart, there’s nobody more paranoid than the Government. Super, super paranoid. The craziest conspiracy theorist isn’t half as paranoid as the big “G”. Nobody has the kind of contingency plans the Government does. I’m talking...stuff that’s just downright fiction. Stuff that could never happen in a million years, the government has a plan for it. Zombie apocalypse? Bet your ass they got a plan. Because really, what’s fiction? Fiction is just something that hasn’t happened yet. On April 30th, 1977, aliens were just fiction. Then it became history.

  I got introduced to the whole world when I was just seventeen. I didn’t have a damn clue what I wanted to do with my life. I worked at a grocery store, which obviously wasn’t going to turn into a career, and I was dating a girl named Daisy who had the most amazing set of hips but dryer lint in between her ears. As my high school career was coming to a close, I was quickly realizing that I had zilch in the way of plans.

  There was a CIA recruiter who came to the campus to answer questions and stuff, and on a whim I decided to go see him. I don’t really know now if it was actually a whim...I’m guessing anyone who was Enhanced in the kind of ways I am probably felt that same kind of whim. But whatever it was, I ended up in an office with him. Howard...looked like an accountant. I almost wanted to see his ID when he told me he was the guy from the Agency. He looked more like a turtle than a CIA op, you know? That kind of guy.

  He didn’t give me an interview so much as a test. And at the time I thought he was nuts, because the test made no sense at all. All I did was sit there and pick a number between one and ten. Then one and a hundred.

  Then a thousand. Then a million. The whole thing took about a minute, then he handed me his card and said he wanted to give me a job. They’d pay for housing and even pay for me to go to school. I’d be making more than my folks ever made so...hell yeah I went. Weird or not, I couldn’t say no.

  Man, I was so excited to work in Washington D.C. I made a big list of all the sights I wanted to see. Bought some good summer clothes because I heard it was hot there. Told all my friends that I’d be rubbing elbows with the president. Then I got on the plane and found myself in Denver. Denver...not much like Washington D.C.

  We ended up in a compound way way up in the mountains. We were pretty far away from civilization, but they had pretty much anything you’d need right there. Restaurants and a grocery store. They even had a movie theatre. It was the listening post for the CIA. And when I say listening...that’s pretty much what I mean. This is where they gathered Enhanced people who they call “sensitive”. You might call us mind readers, but that’s not really what it’s about. I can’t just sit here and figure out what you’re thinking all the time. But if I really concentrated, I could probably figure out what was playing on the local hard rock station without turning on the radio. It’s all about waves, man.

  The training was really simple, all about opening up perception. They sit you in a room...kinda like an interrogation room with a one-way mirror. You get a comfortable chair, some paper, and a pen. And then you just write down whatever pops into your head. I know, that doesn’t really seem like anything. But when you’re Enhanced like I am, you start to figure out which thoughts are yours and which aren’t. You know, there’s plenty of shopping lists or the song that’s stuck in your head or...sexual fantasies or whatever. There’s lots of stuff that’s already there...then you’ll find a new thought. If you didn’t know better, you’d just think it was in your head all along. But soon you can identify them. Those thoughts...they have a different feeling. It’s

  almost like they’re a different color. Like it shines in a way the others don’t. So you identify it...then you can start to see them more and more. Maybe that song in your head is actually from a radio station. Maybe that random joke is actually coming from a guy down the hall. So the training was all about identifying these foreign thoughts and opening up to receive them.

  And man, this was a seriously sweet gig at first. I just sat in a nice chair for six hours, then I went home and did whatever I wanted to. Watched a lot of movies. Ate real good food. What wasn’t to love, you know? Ah, but that was just the training. See, once training is done, they give you the big contract. If you’re good enough, they want to keep you. So I didn’t see the harm in signing up for five years. But then I saw The Box.

  It’s officially called the SDU. Sensory Deprivation Unit. And it sounds just like it is, man. Once the training was over, I upgraded to a comfier chair, but from then on I had to wear The Box. The Box fits over your head and on your shoulders. Custom fit. A soft pad completely blocks your eyes. Custom molded earplugs block all sound. It even blocks off your mouth and nose, and pipes in a really high mix oxygen directly into your nose. You want to get yourself a serious case of claustrophobia for the rest of your life, spend a few minutes in The Box. It got easier...but it never felt okay. Not ever, man.

  I hated it...but I understood it. When you’re completely blocked off from sight and sound and everything, your mind expands so much. It’s like you can feel it blooming. It’s so much bigger...so much more powerful than you think. Just five minutes in there and you feel like you’re a completely different person. After a few hours, I felt like I could do anything. I know that mine isn’t the most powerful Enhancement around, but I could pick up amazing things while I was in The Box. I’m talkin’ radio transmissions from around the world. Russia and China, man. I couldn’t translate, obviously, I was just there to monitor it all. Just listen.

  Did you know that radio waves never stop? Never. We send it out there and if it gets through the atmosphere, it just keeps going and going. Some radio broadcast from the 30s will probably reach a planet with intelligent life long before any rocket of ours ever does. Sometimes in The Box I’d catch snatches of stuff...and I could swear that they were broadcasts from decades before. Maybe not, but it was something to think about.

  Okay, so 1977. I’d been with the agency a good long while at that point. The first time I heard that voice...it took everything inside me not to respond. That was way against the rules. But that voice was so warm...it was the kindest, most inviting thing I’d ever heard. I wanted to reach out...wanted to tell it that I was here, that it wasn’t alone. I almost broke down and answered when someone else did it for me. Just a few words at first. And then it hit me that I probably wasn’t even equipped to answer. I’m pretty decent, but this required pushing those thoughts all the way through...space? God, I can barely understand that kind of power. I really wish I could have met him, man. Just to experience that kind of thin
g first hand.

  I wrote down all of their conversations. They were becoming friends, if you can believe it. Or at least he thought so. That voice...that voice from the other side...I would have done anything for it. Listen, I worked for the CIA for a decade. I understand subliminal messages and all that. There was definitely something beneath that voice...but I still would have done anything for it. Thank god it wasn’t me making those kinds of decisions. Because I would have done the exact same thing, man. I really would have.

  We knew the time was getting close. They were talking every day, and we were monitoring the conversations. They were making plans for crossing over, and the gears were turning on the government side. And that’s saying something. I talk about the government with a capital “G”, but that doesn’t mean they work together very often. Hell, they barely talk. It’s not like the FBI sits down with the CIA to drink coffee and talk about boys. These are

  organizations that are, at best, civil and silent, and at worst, hostile. But the CIA spilled the beans and I was told there was some serious military hardware moved to a base near Chicago. Just in case. Good thing, huh?

  I wasn’t even working when it happened. And I’m glad for that, because I might have had an aneurysm or something. I mean it. I didn’t need to feel that any more strongly than I did. I was actually shopping on base, holding a little basket full of groceries when all of a sudden it felt like my brain was pushing its way out my ears. Like a vacuum, you know? I fell down right in the dairy aisle and almost passed out. That was telekinetic energy on a level that I can’t even comprehend. It scarred the universe.

  I left the Agency not too long after that happened. And it wasn’t because I didn’t enjoy the job; even though The Box was pretty awful, I felt like I was doing good work. And the pay was incredible. But I kept on coming back to that day...and that man. Synapse. He became a monster that day. He...well, he was responsible for maybe the worst thing that ever happened in this country. But I know...I know I would have done it. I would have followed that voice right down to hell. I would have done exactly what he did if I was able to. Even knowing how it all ended up, I still know I wouldn’t have been able to change it. And because I knew that, I knew I had to leave.

  We’re back outside, and the sun is close to setting. The goose is now sitting on the hood of my car.

  I decided I wanted to get away. Start over, you know? I took all the money I made and got myself a piece of land. Picked up a few animals. And I’ve been here ever since. Look at it. This is one of those rare places that’s so flat that the horizon is pretty much just the curve of the earth. After years in The Box, I needed the sky above me. I can’t hear all those waves as well anymore...but I’ll take sight over hearing any day.

  March 15th , 1998

  The snow has stopped, but dark clouds still hover over us. Jackson looks like he has aged a year in the past two hours. He looks so incredibly tired, but I know he needs to finish.

  JACKSON: I’m sorry, man...I know I ain’t special or nothin’. There’s lots of folks whose lives was wrecked that day. Thousands of folks who didn’t even make it. So I ain’t nothin’ special...but that was the very worst day in my whole life.

  It felt like the air was vibrating. Like it was pushing and pulling. Like my breath was trying to crawl right out of my lungs. We was all watching that spot, and it got bigger and darker. All around it, the sky was bright blue. But right there, it was completely black, man. It was outer space, I think. And for one second, everything seemed to stop. Nobody moved or made a sound. Then everyone was screaming.

  I didn’t really know what I was seeing right away. My eyes could see it, but my brain was totally shut off to it. My first thought was...is it an octopus? A squid? Synapse had given us that picture in our heads, but it was nothin’ like this at all. The first thing that came out of the hole in the sky was tentacles. Hundreds of ‘em. Big ones and little ones. Some of those tentacles must have been fifty feet long or more. They were grey, and all of ‘em were squirmin’ and throbbin’. Made you wanna throw up, and some people did.

  The damn thing just kept on comin’ man. Bigger than a truck. Bigger than a city bus. Bigger than a fuckin’ airplane. It must have been 300 feet, maybe more. It was this big, grey and black tube connected to all those tentacles. And jesus, man...it was floating. It was one thing to see Synapse do its thing...but this monster was as big as a fuckin’ whale. Can you imagine a thing that big just floatin’ like a cloud? I thought I was just gonna go crazy right there, ‘cause that’s not a thing that exists. How are you supposed to

  react to a thing that ain’t supposed to exist?

  It didn’t do nothin’ for a few seconds...just floated there. Then there was a...sound? Feeling? I couldn’t tell if it was in my ears or in my head, but it was everywhere. Windows was blowin’ out, and I could feel the weight of all that pressure pushin’ me down. There was folks gettin’ knocked down and dragged down the street by it. By the...thought? Man, was that really all it was, this thing thinking?

  I shook it off and looked around...there’d been this real pretty girl next to me before it all happened, and I remember thinking about how much she looked like Sally, but there’s wasn’t nothin’ left of her but blood. It was rainin’ glass all around us. Glass from the tower, and a big piece had cut her right in half. T grabbed me and dragged me off the stage.

  There was people running...I saw a guy get trampled and I couldn’t do nothing but run right over the top of him. There was another one of those...thoughts. Blasts. Whatever they was. I heard what I thought was an explosion...but it was the tower. You’ve seen pictures of it, right? It was beautiful. stretched up as far as you could see, man. But that second blast knocked the top half right off. The dark tower was falling. And when it hit, chunks of it was flying everywhere. A big cloud of dust was following us up the street. I lost sight of T, and I never did see him after that.

  I was tripping, falling, runnin’ down the street tryin’ to get as far away as I could. I was maybe twenty blocks away, thinking I was far enough, thinkin’ I’d actually gotten away. But about five stories up on the building I was leaning against, that fuckin’ thing crashed right through the wall. All I could see up there was tentacles and some of its...face, I guess. Debris was fallin’ all round me. I took a brick in the shoulder and that shit still hurts when the weather gets cold.

  For a second, I didn’t do nothin’ but stand there. This was death...this was insanity, man. And I probably would have stood there and

  waited for that thing to eat me, but I got shoved real hard from behind and fell down. When I looked back, I thought maybe I really had gone crazy, ‘cause there was no way that Johnny J was standin’ there, man. But then he yelled up at that thing and the ringin’ in my ears told me it was really him.

  The thing was gettin’ closer to Johnny and he yelled again. Fuck, man. I heard Johnny when he was pretty loud, but that was at a whole other level. And I think he actually hurt that thing, ‘cause it stopped and made this kind of shrieking, twisted metal kind of noise. I was trying to drag myself over, thinking I was gonna help Johnny, but I looked up, and the thing already had its tentacles all over him. It was trying to pull Johnny apart at the seams.

  It was paying attention to him, but it’s...it’s eye was right over me. Just a few feet up. I was trying to find something I could use to hurt it, and the only thing nearby was a fire hydrant. I grabbed onto it and hoped somethin’ would happen. Either it was gonna do what I wanted it to do, or it was gonna explode and kill me too. And right then, I was okay either way. But it did what I wanted; the caps on the hydrant busted off and there was boiling water shootin’ right up at that ugly fucker. Right in its eye. And I don’t care if you’re normal Joe or a fuckin’ alien from outer space: boilin’ water in the eye is no joke. It shrieked real loud and let go of Johnny. I knew that was the only shot I was gonna get.

  Johnny J saved my ass, so there was no way I was gonna leave him behind. Even if I couldn’t save
his life, I couldn’t live with myself if I left him there to get eaten or some shit. I picked him up...fuck man. I’m sorry.

  Jackson wipes his face with the back of gloves. He takes a deep breath.

  When I picked him up, I knew it was pretty bad. One of his arms was gone, just bits of muscle and bone hangin’ out of his sleeve, and I didn’t think his leg was hangin’ on by much either. He was bleedin’ like crazy, but I couldn’t just let him lay there and die, man. I couldn’t. I guess that ugly

  mother fucker must have decided we wasn’t worth the trouble, ‘cause it didn’t bother us no more. I just put my head down and I ran as fast as I could go, dragging him with me.

  I only got four or five blocks away when I heard the rumble of an engine. Somethin’ comin’ in fast. I looked up just in time to see a plane, like one of those fighter jets, flying right between the buildings, going’ back the way we came. I knew I needed to find somewhere to hide out while the cavalry did their shit.

  When the jets took that fucker down, it’s last...thought, I guess. It leveled everything in a ten block radius. I was right on the edge of it, and I still had to dig my way out a little. Man...that was over 4000 people. Those was people with lives and families and...then they was nothin’. They turned into nothin’ but rubble and junk. Pieces. You break a person down far enough, they ain’t nothin’ but junk.

  AFTERMATH

  Excerpts from “The Enhanced Vigilantes Act”, authored by Donald Solaris and presented to the senate on May 16th, 1977.

  “The most fundamental rights that are presented to us in the documents that build the framework of this nation are those of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Though the courageous and forward-thinking men who built that framework could never have anticipated the kind of threats and challenges that we now face, they left us with the tools to combat these threats and trusted that we would use those tools to protect this country. As elected officials, it is our sworn duty to protect the citizens of our great nation, so using our legislative powers, we must enact safeguards that will ensure that no force is allowed to infringe on the most basic rights of the citizenry.”