A Mission Remembered

by Tanner Froreich

  I watched the truck and cars drive a little way further into the garage before stopping at some distance from the door I had come out of. I slowly followed the path of the semi, always remaining in the shadows. I wasn’t sure why, but I had a feeling I needed to remain as stealthy as possible. The doors this truck had stopped near had the words Labs written on the walls above them.

  Agents poured out of the other vehicles. They all looked like they had been to No Man’s Land and back. Some walked to certain vehicles and pulled injured comrades from them. Those who were injured were taken to other parts of the base. Then I saw them – two stretchers with white cloth draped over them. I started worrying that the person I was supposed to remember was under one of those coverings..

  I almost stepped out of the shadows to inquire about the two cadavers. The back doors of the semi had been flung open and a prisoner was pulled out on his own stretcher. The sound of labored breathing could be heard across the garage, like the sound of a large animal. That’s when I saw him. The sight of the beast didn’t spark any memories, but it did stir very deep, very powerful emotions. Hate, fear, defeat, and loss burned through my heart like wildfire. It took every ounce of willpower I had to not be overrun by my grief and wrath.

  Pushing past the waves of emotions, I focused on taking in everything I saw. Being restrained, the huge hairy figure breathed slowly. I couldn’t tell if he was awake or not, but if the injuries of the agents were an indicator, he was most likely unconscious, as they couldn’t have brought him in otherwise. By the length of the stretcher, the thing had to have been seven feet or so at his full height. He appeared to be covered in dark brown fur. Even the face was absolutely covered aside from where his eyes were.

  My first thought was to think that IODINE had caught a Sasquatch on steroids, but I knew better. I didn’t know how, but I knew this thing, this man. How do I know it’s a man? I thought. I couldn’t explain how I knew him, but the surges of emotions told me I did. If I could get a few words with him, maybe he could explain who I was. I stepped out of the shadows to ask how I could speak with the prisoner. My instincts didn’t think it was a good idea, but I had to.

  I should’ve listened to my instincts. As soon as I stepped out, agents drew their weapons at me. Thinking it would help me, I started shouting “Calcium!” but I might have of well insulted their mothers because they opened fire. I easily dodged and sidestepped their bullets. I dived behind an ATV and then used my speed to run so fast, it seemed as if I disappeared. Realizing I would have to find another way to get an audience with this man, I ran back into the living areas of the facility. I was back in my apartment before the alarms went off.

  As I closed the door, the alarms went off. Rufus, who was still watching TV, said, “What did you do this time?”

  Chapter 11

  Face to Face

  T he night was too short. I spent most of it tossing and turning, thinking about the day’s events. I wondered what trials this new mission would bring, and what I would do when it was finished. I was tempted to just leave this place, as I knew I could get out and they would never be able to catch me, but it was here that I had the best chance of learning about my past. Before I had headed to bed, I had tried to search my name on the computer, but Rufus was sitting watching TV behind me. I wondered if the guy ever slept. Several times in the night I tried to sneak out but even when Rufus was passed out on the couch, someone else was up. I felt like they were guarding the computer knowing I wanted to get to it.

  I wasn’t sure if receiving that note from Mr. Phillips was much of a blessing anymore. That thing I saw; I remembered him. I couldn’t remember anything other than the fact that I recognized him, and all the repercussions associated with it. That irritated more than anything else. Even if I could run from IODINE, I had to figure out who that man was.

  Even when exhaustion overtook me, I couldn’t stay asleep. As soon as I drifted from consciousness, I would encounter that same cursed room with that door, and the young woman behind it. Every time, I would awake in a cold sweat and repeat the process.

  Five a.m. came all too soon. When the alarm went off I wasn’t even asleep. Ethan came into my room and declared, “Time to get up Wallace; you're not going to be late for breakfast again. We can’t save food for you this time.”

  Not knowing if I would have time to pack before I was scheduled to leave tomorrow, as soon as Ethan stepped out of the room, I used my speed to pack what little clothing I had, including my new suit. Before placing the mask into the bag, I looked at the eyes again. Their red tint gave me a haunting feeling. I didn’t like them at all, and I would request that the agency change them.

  I was about to place the mask in the bag, but my head exploded with piercing pain. As I screamed, I fell against the wall clenching my hand to my head. The pain was excruciating. Instantly, I was on my back in that room with the door without a handle. Scripture was still scattered across the walls. The pain didn’t subside in the least. I managed get up, but I only could stumble around the chamber.

  If not in pain, I would’ve been shocked, because I fell through a wall and that’s when they started. I saw memories flash before me: a young woman, terrified and scared, and the same woman unconscious and bleeding in a burning car. I heard the roar of deep, sinister laughter.

  My head felt like it was going to split when another vision revealed itself before my eyes. It was foggy and distorted, but I could see an older man standing before a crowd with his hands chained. He shouted, “God’s Speed!” and then in a flash, I saw a guillotine blade fall. In another flash, I saw a shadowy figure standing over me. It was dark and raining and I couldn’t make out any details of the figure. The pain kept me from recognizing anything other than the red eyes. As the lightning flashed, the figure sprang towards me, but I was pulled from the scene before I could see anything else.

  Other things passed through my mind, but the pain was so intense I couldn’t think about them. I had no sense of the real world around me. When I was capable of self-awareness again, I found myself strapped to a medical stretcher and in a room filled with medical supplies and equipment. My clothes were on a chair in the corner, and I was wearing a hospital gown. I had an IV in my arm, and I could feel the cold fluid as it entered my bloodstream. My arm wasn’t the only thing cold though, I felt cold. I wondered what temperature the room was at.

  Something didn’t feel right. I felt mentally out of it and I didn’t like it. I felt like I was sedated, and I figured that was what the IV thing was. I didn’t need that in my system, so I reached for the injection sight but was restrained by the straps. My movement must have triggered something because a machine started beeping and a doctor in a white coat came in.

  He pushed a button that ended the alarm. “How are you feeling Wallace?”

  For a moment I was going to correct him but remembered I couldn’t. “I-fel fine. I-I cat think right.” I was surprised at my inability to speak straight.

  The doctor nodded. “Yes, those are the drugs. You were flailing about with no control over your body. Do you remember what happened?”

  I shook my head as the man removed the IV from my arm. I could remember very little about what I saw, only the pain. I asked, “Where am I? What time is it?”

  The doctor pulled up a chair next to the bed and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “You're in the infirmary, Agent. One of your roommates found you and called for help. That’s when we brought you here. Currently, you’ve been here for four hours. We still need to run some tests to figure out what happened to you. I assume it has something to do with what Mindsweeper did to you.”

  “How do you know about that?” I questioned.

  He laughed. “Cause Wall, being a doctor, I can get any information I need. I even am one of two people who is allowed to know the agent’s real names. You know, in case I need to know family medical history.”

  That caught my attention. Maybe he could tell me something about my family. “Do you know
about my family?”

  He paused his ranting and looked like he was going to say something, but he stopped at the last moment. “No, I didn’t need to for your condition.” He was lying to me, just like everyone else.

  “Well, I did have my mind wiped and would like to rebuild some of those memories. Could you possibly retrieve some of my documents and let me know?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry Wall, that would take a while to get. Without a good reason, it’s just not possible.”

  I sighed. “Well then, can I go?”

  The doctor chuckled again. “No, oh no, we still need to do a brain scan to see what went wrong. If you're not well, we can’t risk deploying you into the field.”

  He got up and walked out of the room. I looked down at the restraints that he never took off. Apparently, IODINE was scared I was going to run off like a stray dog. At least I had the sedative IV removed, and though I still felt a little off balanced, I could feel the medication draining out of my system. It wasn’t long before the doctor came back with some nurses. The bed I was on must have been on a track because I heard something click and the bed began rolling out of the room without anyone pushing it.

  Traveling through the infirmary, I saw some of the men who had come in yesterday. Some were wired to life-support systems while others were recovering well. We passed a hallway with a directional sign labeled “Morgue,” and as we passed I saw three more stretchers draped with white cloths. I assumed they were agents who had died from their injuries. What was that creature that it was capable of so much damage? I couldn’t imagine what the area looked like after they finally brought it down.

  I was brought into a room where they finally removed my restraints. The room was separated into pieces. Half of the room consisted entirely of a large machine and the other half had computers that I assumed were used to read the data. They had me lay on a table where they performed a scan of my head. When they didn’t find anything with the first test, they re-ran the scan. They ran the scan about four more times before they finally reached their conclusion.

  Back in the hospital-like room, the doctor told me that there didn’t appear to be anything wrong with me. He showed me the scans and compared them to scans of a normal brain. He couldn’t figure out what had caused me to freak out. I didn’t know what to think, something Mindsweeper did to me definitely left a lasting effect, but the doctor couldn’t find out what. That is, if they were even telling me the truth, as I hadn’t had good experiences with IODINE personnel sharing the entire story. I wondered if my rapid healing abilities were able to fix whatever was mentally wrong before the doctors were able to scan my head. I just didn’t know.

  The doctor told me that there was nothing that would prevent him from letting me be deployed, but he wanted to keep me under medical observation until then, just in case I had another episode. Before he left I was scared he would put the restraints back on me, but he never even looked at them again.

  After a while of doing nothing, there was a knock on the door. Mr. Phillips came in. Removing his black and blue scarf from his neck, he said, “I hear there were complications with what Mindsweeper did to you.”

  “It was just a headache.” I shivered as I thought about the things I saw.

  He pulled up a chair. “Are you sure it was just a headache?”

  I could still envision that menace dressed in shadow, feel the fire from the car, and hear that unearthly laughter. I buried the thoughts though. “No, it was something else. Something worse. It was like every painful emotion and memory tried to break through at one point. So much so fast, that I couldn’t make anything of any of it.”

  Mr. Phillips nodded. “That’s brutal.”

  “What am I supposed to do? I have all these emotions, but no reason for them.”

  He cleared his throat and pulled a pyramid-shaped object from his pocket. He set it inconspicuously on the edge of the bed and pressed the top spire. The edges glowed light blue and a faint static sound filled the room. “We both know what you need to do.”

  “Trust God.”

  “Yes, my brother. Think about all that He has brought you through. Even when Mindsweeper tried to erase every piece of God from your head, you still remember Him. It’s as it was said in John 10:28 ‘And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.’ God has preserved you Wallace.”

  I smiled at the comforting thought. I had considered that same verse. “Hey, do you have access to a Bible?”

  He nodded and pulled his phone out and opened a Bible app, which I could assume was hidden. He read Psalm 91.

  The two verses that stood out to me were verses 2 and 14. “I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.” “Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name.”

  When he finished, I said, “Thank you, Mr. Phillips.”

  He put the phone away. “Please, call me Derek.” He snatched up the pyramid device and added, “I have one more thing. You didn’t get this from me.”

  He handed me an old magazine. Before I could thank him, he was gone. It was a science journal, and I was intrigued by the cover story.

  It was an article about the discovery of a persevered skeleton of Carcharocles megalodon by a young paleontologist named Stephen Fredrick. Though the discovery that helped with determining the look of the extinct shark was interesting, I was more concerned with the paleontologist who discovered it. I was surprised to see a facial resemblance between the man in the picture and myself. The article was published about twenty-three years ago so the man must have been close to my age at the time of the article. At the end of the article, there was a brief footnote about the paleontologist. “Stephen has a master’s in Geological Sciences and is pursuing his paleontological doctorate from Berkeley University. Currently, he lives in Greenleaf, California with his wife, Lillian, and his son, Arphaxad.”

  Like a light turning on in my head, I realized that this man had to be my father! The only evidence I had for this was the resemblance and the dates that lined up perfectly. The name was odd, Arphaxad? Something deep within me clicked, I knew that was my name. It had to be. This place, Greenleaf, must be my home if they still lived there. I silently thanked God for the blessing Mr. Phillips had been to me.

  My thoughts were cut short by a sound so loud; it shook the entire base. It wasn’t the last time the building shook. With the sound of a wrecking ball, I heard walls cracking and breaking. The lights went dark and flashing emergency lights provided a little light to see. I leaped out of the bed and quickly put my real clothes on. The sound of concrete being turned to rubble was coming closer.

  I ran down the hallway and past the main infirmary, which was quickly being evacuated of its patients. I heard a deep guttural yell, which almost sounded like a roar. The sound of the roar triggered something in my head, which exploded with pain. I once again saw the young woman in the fire with the same roar I just heard. I endured the pain as I tried to make my way to the sound. As I pressed on, the pain diminished.

  I continued running through the Infirmary, and the sound of shattering rock continued to echo and shake the building. I entered a hallway and was running down it when the wall in front of me exploded with the sound of thunder. I was engulfed with a cloud of dust and heard a deep growl. Before I knew it, a large hand had grabbed me by the throat and pinned me against the wall. I gasped for breath as the dust began to settle and I saw my assailant's face.

  Covered with hair and signs of scars, his face was that of a man, not some wild creature, but his eyes blazed with the fury of a caged animal. It instinctively raised its hairy fist, but I swung my fist as fast as I could at the fold of his elbow, causing it to bend and loosen his grip. I gasped for breath, and I would probably have had a bruise in the shape of his hand if it wasn’t for my healing abilities.

  He stepped back, not sure what to
do, as he must have been caught off guard by the speed of my defense.

  “Blue Berry!” He spoke in astonishment. I wasn’t processing much of what was going on. I rushed him with my speed and began hitting him. “I’m not fighting you.” He didn’t even raise another hand against me. Apparently, my blows were not having any effect against his rock-hard skin. “I need your help, Arphaxad.”

  I stopped. How did he know my name! If the magazine hadn’t convinced me, this man did. I knew I recognized this man, but I didn’t know he knew me as well. “What? How do you know my name? Who are you!” I demanded.

  Confusion flooded his expressions. “You mean you don’t…” I yelled out in pain as my head felt like it was cracking.

  In even more confusion, he steadied me. “What’s wrong?” At that moment he let out a painful roar that almost burst my eardrums.

  I regained awareness as he turned around to face a large squad of agents, equipped with an entire array of weapons. On his shoulder was a sparking taser dart. He yelled again and charged the group. “Wait, stop!” I shouted, but he wasn’t listening. He continued running at the group, and one of the agents with a large weapon fired an electrified netting, which this brute tore off without any struggle. He was nearly upon them and I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to kill. I rocketed off so fast that I caused a sonic boom that shook the mountain again. I was able to move everyone out of the path of this man before he could harm them.

  The creature ran into the wall at the end of the hallway and kept running. The squad followed after him, the captain of which turned to me. “Thank you agent, but please stay out of this. This monster is anything but human.”

  They all disappeared into the blackness. I knew he was human; I could see it in his eyes. He was a man like any of the people in this building. I was pulled out of my thoughts as I heard the unearthly screams of men. Pushing myself past any residual pain I rushed into the room the men had run into, and found the creature tearing through them. I shouted at him, which caused him to pause briefly. At that moment, one of the agents took advantage of the opportunity and sidestepped into the proximity of the creature. With a swift movement, he placed the end of the barrel of his tranquilizer rifle to the creature’s leg and fired. The creature roared and backhanded the man across the room. He staggered for a moment, pulled the dart out, and then toppled to the ground.