Gabriel expected the result, but he couldn’t help himself. He was trying to see if the doctor really was the Reptile, or if the Reptile was the doctor. He clung to his delusion for only one reason at this point. The scars from his altercation with the Reptiles remained. When he looked at them, he could feel the claws. The day he woke up changed his life forever and remained clear no matter what drugs dulled his senses.
“Did I say something wrong?” Gabriel asked before the orderly could remove him from the doctor’s office.
The doctor now standing impatiently replied, “No, Gabriel. This is a safe place. You know that. You can tell me anything you like.” The doctor displayed a caring glance at his rival.
Now Gabriel was headed back to the lounge. He knew the way. If he could feel his body well enough to walk, he could get there without assistance.
A whisper came into his ear, “You said the wrong thing. Looks like you’re gonna be here for a while.”
Through the human in the conclusion, he could sense the Reptile. They had control over almost everyone in the building.
Gabriel hadn’t felt a real emotion since his adventure began. His lifeless body nearly slumped over in the chair. “Am I insane?” he asked himself more and more frequently. He became aware of a reoccurring tickle on the tip of his nose, and noticed his jaw was completely numb. Drool trickled down his chin.
Nearly out of hope, Gabriel retreated into his own mind. He was shocked to find an area of his brain he had not noticed before. It was separate from the rest of the receptors, although connected to his memories. It was a room within a room. No more life appeared in his physical eyes.
Into a pure white reality, Gabriel entered through a door that had no weight. It closed behind him sealing the path in brilliant blue/white to resemble the rest of the area that had no viewable end. He was himself there, clothed in comfortable white fabric.
“I must be dead,” he said aloud, his voice echoing into the endless expanse.
Chapter 10: The White Room
For the first time since the day he encountered the beasts, Gabriel felt like himself. Inside the white room, his thoughts were clear. He rejoiced despite a feeling he was also quite lost. A deep breath here, while not really a deep breath, was as close as he’d been since he was in his element among the open sky amount North Dakota’s abundant wildlife. He was elated. The medications no longer frustrated him.
He laughed, “I must be dead,” he repeated hoping for a response.
Slowly, the man walked about the endless expanse. There appeared to be no end to the white room. Walls gave way to open spaces filled with white light. The air was electric. Alive somehow.
Then a reply, “You are not dead,” Gabriel.
He recognized the signature. The tone. The purpose. It was them. The extraterrestrials. Suddenly, he realized where he was.
“You created this place,” he was startled.
Although there was no response, he knew the answer. This was the space within himself that the extraterrestrials had provided. This was his place to go to get away from the madness of the real world that still affected his real body.
Gabriel lay down on a floor that was something of a mixture of glass and plastic. Incomprehensible white light seemed to create the entire expanse, though it did not hurt his eyes.
“Do I even have eyes?” he laughed again. “Do I have any senses here at all? Amazing.”
He somehow knew the beings helping him were pleased he had found the place. He delighted in it. For so long he was helpless. Trapped by the walls and hemmed in by the medications he was forced to ingest. Now he was free of all that.
Then his fears returned as if they were eternally a part of him. “But what if I really am crazy and the voices of whatever are just coming from me?”
There was no response this time. He felt he had betrayed himself.
“Hmmmm,” he looked around as he lay there in his own mind. “It’s fascinating.”
And he was standing, without any exertion. He had been lifted to his feet and now paced slowly about the space.
He concluded, “It doesn’t matter. I’m not in that place with those terrible people as far as I can tell.”
No time. No limit to how far Gabriel could walk or run. Eternally comfortable. For two thousand, one hundred, and fifteen paces he had ran at one point, never becoming tired or winded. He could even fly in this place. No matter how far he climbed, he was only feet from landing on the ground. The only thing he couldn’t do, and he tried considerably, was bring elements of the outside world into the one where he was now.
“This place is awesome,” he decided. Then in the recesses of his mind within a mind he became aware that he could not stay there forever, even if it seemed like he already had. He didn’t know nor did he want to find out if he could return to the outside world, but he believed it was probably possible.
“Don’t even think about that, Gabe,” he demanded in his new environment.
“So,” he debated, “Here I am in a place made of white light. Before this, I was in some kind of hospital. Who am I kidding?” he added, “It was some kind of torture facility. Now, as far as I can recall, before that I was with some type of extraterrestrials on a ship. This place, I believe, is their doing. Of course, who can forget the Reptoids that hunted me with evil mind powers.” He had to laugh to himself. “What kind of a world do we live in?”
Finally, he thought to himself, “So, what do I do now? I can’t stay here forever. Or, can I?” he wondered. “No, if I’m right about all this, then this place will fade when my body dies.”
“So what do I do now?” he turned over in his head. “What’s my next move?”
Gabriel did not want to admit the answer, but he knew it was inevitable. “I have to find out the truth,” he admitted. “I have to go back. It’s the only way to move forward. I have to find the beasts. So I know the truth even if they kill me and eat my flesh. Death might be preferable to anything else at this point. I can’t run anymore.”
“I’ll just have to get as far as I can,” he said aloud. “But, not yet. Not now,” he thought. His mind continued, “If I’m right about all this and not completely insane, they will tell me when I should leave if they really do exist.”
Chapter 11: Destiny Awaits
It had been weeks since Gabriel showed any signs that his regression was improving. A kind nurse, Eleanor, had taken pity him, and she eventually convinced Dr. Fidell that Gabriel could leave the facility for short trips outdoors. With the high doses of antipsychotics the doctor was prescribing, there was little chance Gabriel could get out of his chair let alone walk away.
Fall was blowing in from the north, and the trees were beginning to change on the sprawling front lawn. Eleanor was concerned that Gabriel was not wearing the proper clothing for this particular early evening stroll. She thought maybe she would cut this one short.
“It only takes a few minutes to get back inside,” she decided. “A little more fresh air might do him good.” She spoke to Gabriel, still so distant and removed from reality, the nurse had to continually wipe the saliva from his drooling mouth. “A little more, right?” she said as she bent to caress his face with the cloth. For anyone else, she might not have cared enough to go to this much effort. There were just too many patients suffering from the same problems in Dr. Fidell’s mad experiment.
Eleanor was beginning to give up on the man. When winter arrived, she would probably go back to her old routine remaining only true to her list of chores and not her heart. She squatted in front of the man and attempted to get his attention, “Gabriel! Gabriel! Can you hear me?”
Still nothing. Gabriel eyes were fixed upon nothing. The muscles in his face were limp. More drool dripped down.
Then, a loud crash came from the nearby parking lot. A horn deployed incessantly drawing the nurse’s attention.
“Oh my god!” she gasped. She quickly tried to form a solution. Maybe someone else would go and help.” Then she re
alized the staff had been slashed a week before due to budget shortfalls. The horn wailed at her, but it would be nearly impossible to navigate the distance to the parking lot. Grass threatened the wheel chair’s stability. She took another look at Gabriel and made a quick decision. “You’re not going anywhere,” she told him.
Eleanor left Gabriel by himself on the front walkway of the hospital and went to try to help who ever it was that had crashed in the parking lot, activating the horn.
Inside Gabriel’s mind, he was sitting in the lotus position waiting patiently. He would not go unless he got a signal. Otherwise, there was no need. For without a signal, he would conclude that he really was insane. In that case, there was no need to go back to pointless discussions with Dr. Fidell. At least in the white room, he could think clearly.
A distant voice finally spoke to him, “It’s time. You must go. There won’t be another chance.”
Gabriel opened his eyes, and he was himself again. His head ached. His neck was sore. His legs were asleep, and his hand trembled when he tried to lift it. The first thing he realized was that drool covered his chin. Instinctually, his arm came up to wipe away the liquid. Despite the drugs and time he had spent away from his body, he was determined to get up. He had to get out. He was outside where the bars on the windows offered no resistance to his will power.
“Get up,” he mustered under his breath.
His foot came loose of the stirrup and hit the ground with dedication. When he pushed himself up, he nearly fell over. The wheel chair had not been put into the lock position. His weak body fell back into the device. Looking over the side of the chair, he saw the brake and pulled it. Once again he felt for the ground. And once again, he pushed himself up shakily. He fell immediately, but rolled onto the front grass.
“At least I’m moving,” he joked to himself as he turned over and over on the grass traveling ten or more feet downhill. When he came to a halt, he reached for the sod, pulling himself away from the building. Always pulling away from the building.
“Get up,” a thought not his own entered his brain.
With all his strength exerted into a failing biological system, Gabriel pushed toward the clouds. Suddenly, he left his body entirely. There he was two feet behind himself watching and still controlling his limbs as they quaked against the weight of his limitations. From where he was looking on, he saw how much weight he had lost during his stay in the facility. The noise of the horn grew more vivid, and he glanced back toward the sound. Eleanor had returned, and she saw the patient attempting to escape. She gasped, and ran for help.
“Gabriel,” a voice called out, “You are capable of more than you are aware. Get up. Run.”
Like a puppet master, Gabriel hoisted his hands and feet from behind his own physical self. Not feeling the pain, but realizing the instability, the man quickly learned to manipulate the awkward self in front of him into a standing position. The head, his head, still tilted slightly forward. The torso wobbly. Gabriel commanded his body to move forward.
At first the puppet before him was unsteady, but gradually Gabriel learned to control the movements. One foot forward. Then another. After a short while, he was walking and gaining confidence in his new found ability. Another look back revealed two orderlies gaining on him. In a few minutes, they would be on him. He garnered all his muster, and no matter if his face hit the dirt, he decided to give it his all. In moments, he was running like the wind. There he rode behind his faithful steed using all his concentration to avoid the small rocks and holes that might threaten his escape. The portly orderlies soon gave up, unable to go on at the treacherous pace. They gasped for air and looked at each other in astonishment. Then they turned to report back to the hospital. Gabriel kept running. With each foothold, he became more adept at steering his speeding body.
Leaping five or six feet at a time as he descended to a distant road, his country spread before him. He was on the outskirts of town. He knew where he was. Cutting right perpendicular to the road, he sped down gradually to a stream that wound underneath a bridge connecting the only street within miles. In the distance, he saw flashing lights approaching.
“They won’t catch me,” he thought ducking under the bridge. “I know what to do.”
While a police car was passing overhead, Gabriel stripping off the dirty white garments. They offered too much contrast against the brown landscape. Reaching down into the cool water, he found clumps of mud like a surgeon operating microscopically from two feet behind his own physical form. He smoothed the mud around his face and extremities. When he had completed the task only minutes later, he uncovered a nearby clump of sod and buried the clothes beneath them. After another look to check on the authorities sure to be hot on his trail, he was off trotting down the brook splashing quietly in his bare feet. He knew the water was cold, but in his new role, the cold did not affect him. He steered his steaming body toward the darkening nearby woods. In the distance, dogs began barking ferociously.
Chapter 12: Dark Wood
A deep blue hung in the twilight air. Gabriel could tell the temperature was falling from the smoky exhales coming from his body. He was almost to the tree line when he saw flashlights in the distance a half-mile away.
“There’s no way they can see me,” he thought, his naked body covered in mud nearly matching the surrounding foliage perfectly.
Into the dark wood, Gabriel barely broke stride. He commanded his arms to block the twigs and branches to protect him as much as possible although he couldn’t feel the impacts.
He justified his flight, “I’m not going back there. I’ll die first.”
Die he might in that cold, dark place. It was the type of forest that gets a reputation as being haunted. Maybe it was. It didn’t matter. He was prepared for anything: zombies, ghosts, warlocks, trolls – Dr. Fidell had them all beat. The man behind the mask was as deplorable as the beasts that controlled him.
“I wonder if the doctor even knows, or if he knows and just doesn’t even care?” he asked himself as he launched his upper torso into the branches of one of the tall oak trees. He was amazed that there was no physical effort on his part. It was only the concentration of his mind that made the out-of-body maneuvering possible.
“This can’t be possible without them,” he glanced up to the sky then back to his body balancing on a thick outstretched tree limb.
The dogs were closing in. They had found his scent, and although they had to zigzag through the brook to recapture Gabriel’s smell, they would be on his location in a matter of minutes. With the precision of a master craftsman, Gabriel launched his thin frame through the air pushing off the branch moments after extending his body. He hit his mark, an adjacent oak with lingering branches some ten feet away. Hand over hand, he made his way toward the center of the tree and continued around the trunk to the other branches farther away from the approaching men and their dogs.
He used the same technique, climbing up into higher limbs and then jumping out to trees farther and farther away from the scent he left on the ground. By the time the men reached the wooded forest clomping into the brush, Gabriel was nearly one hundred feet from where his feet had last touched the ground. When he heard the twigs snapping under foot near the place he entered the woods, he stopped grappling and backed against the sycamore where he now stood.
“He’s over here,” he heard one of the men say in the distance. “Up this tree. The scent stops here.”
Gabriel heard commotion at the place where he vanished from the dogs’ noses.
“Where’d he go?” the man searched, “Where’d he go, boy?” The dog did not answer. Any noise from the men was subdued, and the only sounds that remained were footsteps crackling closer to the former prisoner.
From his vantage point, Gabriel watched the men approach shining flashlights aimlessly and fanning out in the thick brush. He remained focused on maintaining his still-life physical composure while simultaneously viewing all that occurred around him. A German Sheppa
rd passed directly under the escapee followed closely by an unknowable agent in dark blue armor. The only sounds that reached Gabriel were the dog’s panting. He could see its breath in the cool evening air although the ambient light in the forest was nearly gone entirely. The dog passed on, followed by its handler. For now, Gabriel was safe in his tree hideout.
As the group of hunters continued into the darkening woods, Gabriel relaxed himself, and he returned to his cold, stiffening body. Immediately, he sensed the beasts hone in on his position. He feared the heights upon which he perilously perched. The dogs began once again to bark and one of the men shined a flashlight directly into Gabriel’s eyes, although too far away for him to be seen.
“He’s over here,” the agent yelled.
Gabriel suppressed his instinct to become increasingly terrified. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath followed by a long, smooth exhale. Once again, he removed himself from his body. This time it wasn’t a jerking backwards but rather a smooth departure.
The men had regained ground toward Gabriel’s position, but were still twenty feet or more away on the ground shining flashlights aimlessly in all directions. The dogs stopped barking.
Another agent asked, “Where?”
The response came quickly, “I thought I saw something. I don’t know. Maybe a false positive.” The dogs struggled to find a scent, but without luck. Frustrated and fearful of being wrong, the agent continued, “Let’s fan out and continue the sweep. This spot’s dead, I guess.”
Gabriel was beginning to understand the power the extraterrestrials had bestowed on him. He could remove himself from the physical world, and when he did, the Reptoids could not find him.
“They must exist,” he thought. “How could I do all this without the power they gave me?”
The man in the tree struggled to hear the visitors from the sky to verify his ideas, but nothing came. He decided to let go of it, and when he did, he finally heard a response, “You had the power all along. We only awakened it in you.”
Anunnaki Volume One: Rise of the Warrior Page 5
