"Was his involvement voluntary? Or was that also a lie?"
"I didn't lie, Dad. And yes, they made out like it was completely voluntary, but..."
"But what, Kathleen? I need to know what's going on here and what we need to do to help Deron."
"It might be nothing. It's just the way they approached me. They didn't call or come to the house. I was out driving around, looking for Deron when they sort of pulled me over. I didn't really think much of it at the time. I mean, it was strange, and I knew that it was strange, but once I talked with them, I just didn't think about that part of it anymore."
Charlie turned without saying anything and headed for the door.
"Dad, where are you going?"
"To find Deron," he said. As he walked toward the door, the house phone rang. He stopped and turned around. Kathleen stood where she was, staring at him.
“You should get that. It could be about Deron.”
Kathleen said, “Answer phone. Speaker,” and the call came to life. “Hello?” she said.
“Ms. Young?” asked a voice she didn’t recognize.
“Yes. Who’s calling?”
“My name is Dr. Fielding. I’m the director of the research and therapy center that your son was a patient at until just a short while ago. Would he happen to be at home now?”
“No, he’s not. Why wouldn’t he still be there?”
“Apparently he was dissatisfied with some aspect of the program. Or maybe it was something as simple as teenage love. A young woman left the facility with him. Neither of them bothered with standard departure protocols, and they’ve both interrupted their therapy, which could result in them experiencing adverse side effects from the sudden cessation of their medication. It’s important that they return to the facility at once. Has he contacted you?”
“I haven’t seen him or heard from him since he left for school a few days ago.” She was about to ask what medications Deron was on. She hadn’t consented to any medicating.
“I didn’t want to alarm you before, but Deron was involved in a serious assault shortly after his admission. We were going to leave it as a private matter as long as he remained in the program, but his sudden departure changes everything. Charges will be filed against him unless he returns immediately.”
“Was Deron hurt?” Kathleen wrung her hands. Charlie glared at the wall speaker.
“Deron was fine. It was his victim who needed stitches. But as I said, we were willing to forgive and forget in the interest of helping Deron and proceeding with his therapy. But if he’s out of the program, then I’m afraid to say that his behavior was just that of the criminal we hoped to prevent him from becoming. And he’ll have to be treated accordingly, which means he will likely be charged with attempted murder. I hope I’ve made it clear how important it is that he return at once. Do you appreciate the seriousness of the situation we have here, Ms. Young?”
“Yes. Yes, I do. But I’m telling you, he’s not here. I haven’t seen him or heard from him.”
“If you do, please bring him here, or call me at this number and we’ll arrange for transportation. If I don’t hear back from you before tomorrow, Deron will be a fugitive from the law. When he’s caught, and he will be caught, his life will be as good as over. Good night, Ms. Young.”
The line went dead and Kathleen heard the front door click shut. Charlie was gone.
Thirty-eight
When Deron heard someone yelling at him and yanking on his leg, he pulled the weapon out of his pocket, aimed it at the man and fired. The man continued pulling but appeared a little nauseous. Deron looked at the weapon while holding on to the vent shaft with one hand. He saw five dots of gradually increasing size. The smallest dot was glowing. He let go of the shaft and quickly touched the largest dot, then aimed and pressed the trigger again. The man fell to the ground instantly. Another man entered the room and Deron shot him too with the same result.
He crawled up into the shaft and went to the left, the direction Jacey had gone. When he rounded the first corner, he found her there waiting for him. He was surprised. He thought she’d have continued without him. He started to tell her what had just happened – how he might’ve just killed two people, but she cut him off, saying they didn’t have time. They had to go.
They crawled through the ventilation system as fast as they could. They made two random turns and then at the next juncture, Jacey suggested they split up so it would be harder to track them by sound, and to improve the chances that at least one of them would make it out.
Deron didn’t like the fact that it also meant one of them could find the exterior vent they were seeking while the other continued searching in vain. But he couldn’t refute her reasoning, and they had no time to debate strategy.
They went in opposite directions and Deron found that another benefit of their separation was his ability to go much faster than when she’d been in front of him. Ungoverned by her lead, he crawled like a toddler in a death race, only slowing to make turns, then increasing again to a speed that he would have found comical to watch under other circumstances.
At first he could hear the metallic pounding their knees made as they traveled, and then there was only the sound of his own knees and palms rapidly striking the metal shaft like pistons. By the time his knees began to hurt and he was entertaining thoughts of taking a break, he turned into a shaft with a slowly revolving fan blade at the end. On the other side of it he saw a square room with white walls and glowing digital numbers on several panels.
He stopped the slowly turning blade with his shoe and maneuvered himself safely around it and dropped several feet to the floor. There was a low ceiling, but it was high enough for him to run to the door without having to duck. The door was unlocked. He pulled it open and felt his stomach drop as he sucked in his breath. On the other side of the door there was open air and a long drop to the street below. A narrow path ran alongside the exterior wall of the room he’d just exited, ending at the corner of the room.
He couldn’t believe there was nothing to keep a person from walking through that door and falling off the edge. The path presumably led to a way down, but who would want to walk on it? Maybe they used some kind of safety line when they had to service the intake shaft room. Not having that luxury himself, Deron fought his fear of heights and hugged the wall as he walked its length and turned the corner. There he saw a half-tube safety ladder against the side of the building.
When he reached the bottom of the ladder, he looked around quickly. Jacey was nowhere in sight and he had no idea if she’d need to stumble onto the same room he’d found, or if there were possibly others. Whatever her odds were, he couldn’t possibly wait around to find out if she was going to make it or not.
He ran across the asphalt toward a retaining wall with bushes planted in the elevated earth. Behind the bushes was a chain link fence with barbed razor wire at the top. Deron squeezed between two bushes and climbed the fence. At the top he carefully placed his hands between the evenly spaced razors and carefully lifted one leg over, then the other. He’d made it without hurting himself at all. As he climbed down the other side, he felt something tug at him. His shirt had caught on a razor and cut through it, releasing its grip as he descended.
When he reached the ground, he looked to his right and saw lights from the traffic on the boulevard a hundred yards away.
And now he was free and he was running. But he didn’t know where to go. He couldn’t go home. That was obvious. His next thought was that he could go to Charlie’s. There was no way his grandfather would turn him away. But the people looking for him would know that, so Charlie’s was out. Where else could he go? He didn’t know anyone else in town well enough to ask them to let him use their house as a hideout.
Then he thought of Michelle. Once upon a time, she’d have done anything for him. Back when they were best friends, which felt like a lifetime ago. He wondered what she’d do if he showed up at her house now. He was not only the social outcast wh
o wasn’t good enough for her new friends, he was also the guy who had been removed from the school by eeks.
He reached the front of the building he’d been running beside and turned right, away from the facility he’d just escaped. He crossed the parking lot just to get further distance between him and Fielding’s goons but he still didn’t know where he was going to go. Being adjacent to the rehabilitation center was too close for comfort so he started to cross the boulevard when he heard sirens approaching.
He turned back to the building, thankful that whatever business was they did here, it was closed this time of night. A police cruiser and an EEC patrol car raced past him and came to a stop a few doors down where a drone was aiming its spotlight at something on the ground. Deron creeped closer, keeping himself hidden while trying to get a better look at what was going on.
Two men were lying on the ground next to an outdoor table on the patio of a fast-food restaurant. A young woman was sitting at the table with two unfinished meals in front of her. The light from the drone aimed down at the men and a blue light pulsed below the camera. When the officers got out of their vehicles, one of them dismissed the drone. Its spotlight went off, and the red light dimmed out. A moment later the two men began to stir at the same time a news drone arrived on the scene with its red light on, broadcasting live.
Deron was relieved that the patrol drone and the police were not after him but he didn’t want to draw attention to himself by crossing the boulevard so close to them. Especially not with a cop drone so nearby. The rehabilitation facility might’ve sent an alert out to law enforcement to be on the lookout for him and Jacey. Having crept to the end of the building, he was now close enough to hear what was going on with the people at the restaurant.
The man and woman who had been eating were dating each other. But the woman had also been secretly dating the other man. When he found out, he came to the restaurant and assaulted the other man. Several other patrons sent emergency alert signals with their comms thus summoning the nearest police drone to stop the fight by disabling both men with its sub-sonic frequency until police and equality officers arrived.
The man who started the fight was handcuffed and being placed into the back of the police cruiser. The other man turned his back to the police and put his hands on the back of his head, waiting to be arrested also. But an equality officer told the woman to get up from the table and put her hands behind her head.
“But I didn’t do anything. I wasn’t involved in the fight,” she protested.
“If it wasn’t for you there would have been no fight, and one of these men would not be losing his citizenship privilege,” the EEC officer named Hernandez said.
“I didn’t make Chuck attack Paul. How is that my fault?”
Hernandez looked at her with a weary gaze. They always had to explain the obvious to people. “You led each man to believe he was dating you exclusively, did you not?
“I didn’t mean to get involved with Chuck. It’s complicated.”
“No,” Hernandez said, “It’s not complicated. You deceived them. You denied them their rights to equality in a relationship. Charles is responsible for the crime of assault, but you laid the foundation that made his crime possible. Without your deception, these men would have never met each other, nor ended up in custody. You’re under arrest.”
Deron stayed hidden until all three of them were hauled away and the police drone resumed its patrol elsewhere. He ran across the boulevard and into the neighborhood on the other side. He wasn’t sure where he was headed yet, other than away from where he’d started. Having no other options, he found himself mentally mapping out a route to Michelle’s house.
His only concern was to not be spotted by any drones. He wasn’t chipped, so they couldn’t scan him, and they couldn’t use facial recognition unless they were in front of him, so he needed to look like an average citizen while trying to avoid their cameras. If he appeared normal, maybe they wouldn’t come down for a closer look.
What if he looked like he was just getting some exercise? He wasn’t dressed as a jogger, but he could change that a little. He pulled his shirt up over his head without stopping and then tucked part of it into his waistband behind him. He still didn’t look like a typical jogger with his denim pants, but he was wearing running shoes and no shirt now, so that was at least a little bitter.
Deron slowed his pace to a casual jog. Not only did it look more innocent, he’d conserve energy. As he jogged, he contemplated how he’d gotten into this situation.
All I ever wanted was to be left alone. How did this happen to me?
He tried to remember what Dr. Fielding had said about why he had been chosen for this nightmare, but at the time, he hadn’t been paying full attention as the doctor rambled on about changing the world. Something about ridding society of criminals so people could be happy. It made no sense. Deron wasn’t a criminal. And being the loner that he was, he didn’t see how he could have possibly affect anyone else’s happiness.
He went to school. He read books. He wrote short stories. And he occasionally wrote love poems to Michelle that no one would ever know about; not even Michelle. He did his chores, and he watched TV once in a while. He led a pretty simple and boring life. He wasn’t a threat to anyone.
If he could change anything in his life, he’d want to live with his grandfather, and his ultimate dream was to marry Michelle. How could the government, or anyone else have concluded that he was a threat to society?
Deron cleared his mind as he reached the end of a cul-de-sac that terminated with a brick wall separating it from the boulevard on the other side. He stopped running as he reached the wall and bent over, putting his hands on his knees and taking deep breaths. He looked at the wall in front of him and wondered who would design something so stupid. Why didn’t they just leave the end of the street open so cars could drive through? Or at least leave an opening for pedestrians to get through. Maybe it was leftover from when police had to chase criminals in cars before they they had the ability to kill the engine wirelessly.
He walked to the wall and looked up. He judged that he could jump high enough to get a grip on the top. He looked behind him and was relieved to see that no one was coming after him and no one was outside who would remember seeing him scale the wall, which would probably be an unusual sight in this neighborhood.
He jumped up and grabbed the top of the wall and pulled himself up, swinging his left leg up, and then the rest of his body so that he was now lying on top of the wall. To his left, there was moderate traffic moving in both directions. He knew this looked suspicious and he needed to get down quickly and get on his way. But it felt so good to just lay there. He wanted to relax just a bit longer. He reminded himself that he was a fugitive now – and he didn’t have time for the luxury of relaxation. At least not until he reached Michelle’s house – and even then, nothing was certain. He didn’t know how she’d react to him showing up, and he’d have to keep her parents from finding out he was there.
He maneuvered himself around until he was hanging down on the other side of the wall. He looked down, and then let go, landing straight down on his feet. The impact stung his soles and jarred his bones. He waited for an opening in the traffic and tried to appear casual. Then he bolted to the other side of the four-lane boulevard and thanked god that the next street on his route was not walled off. He entered the next neighborhood and slowed his pace once again to make it look like he was out for an evening jog.
Thirty-nine
Squatting with his back against the corner where the wall of the house met the backyard fence, Drake watched the girl on the sidewalk cut across the lawn, heading for the house on his left. Shit. It had been perfect earlier when that house was completely dark. He had been safe here. But if this girl went into the …
Shit!
The light came on in the one room he hoped she wouldn’t go into. Now he’d end up stuck between houses until she left the room. Either that, or he’d have to get do
wn on the ground and crawl past her window like a sniper. He was fairly certain he didn’t have the strength to haul his body along with his elbows, and he really didn’t want to get all dirty either.
He couldn’t squat anymore because it was hurting his knees and his leg muscles were starting to spasm, so he sat on his ass in the sparse grass between the houses. He looked up at the window on his left. It also had venetian blinds, and they were raised halfway up the window. It suddenly occurred to him that he was looking at things the wrong way.
Rather than viewing this new development as trapping him between the houses, he could also see it as doubling his chances of seeing something good tonight. He silently stepped over to the wall of the other house, and now, ironically, he was hoping the coed who had stayed behind didn’t go into her roommate’s room and spot him looking in this other house.
The raised venetian blinds on the window gave him a clear view into the bedroom where he saw a beautiful, young brunette. The bag she had been carrying when he spotted her on the sidewalk was now sitting on her bed and she was removing items from it, admiring each of them as she placed them on her bed.
When the bag was empty, she stood there looking at several articles of clothing, smiling. She appeared to have made up her mind and selected one. She took off her top and threw it on the bed. Then she took off her bra and tossed it also.
Holy shit! Drake couldn’t believe his sudden turn of luck. All this time he’d spent waiting for one of the coeds to enter the bedroom, and now, a girl far better looking than either of them was standing several feet away from him, topless. She picked up a long-sleeved purple top with a wavy, rippling water pattern and pulled it down over her head. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled again. Then she yawned. She took the top back off, then gathered up the new clothes off the bed, made a stack and set them on top of her dresser.
2043 A.D. Page 17
