Red-Line: The Shift (Volume One)

by J. T. Bishop

  “Leroy is here,” he said. Both Ramsey and Hannah looked at him when thirty seconds later, they heard the garage door rumble.

  “How does he do that?” Hannah asked Ramsey.

  Ramsey glanced at Declan. “Don’t be too impressed. It’s one of his many annoying traits.”

  Declan made a half smile. “You’re just mad because I could always tell when you were up to no good.”

  “No,” replied Ramsey, “I was mad because you always snitched on me.”

  “Yeah, well, it was an easy way to piss you off.”

  “It was pretty effective at pissing my mom off, too.”

  Declan stopped smiling. “You and your mom always fought, as I recall. But what mother and son doesn’t, huh?”

  Ramsey poked at his uneaten eggs. “I haven’t spoken to my mom in three years. What do you think?”

  “And whose fault is that?” Declan asked.

  Ramsey set his jaw and debated his retort, but was interrupted when Leroy opened the back door.

  “Well, looks like one big, happy family,” he said as he entered the kitchen.

  Hannah looked at both brothers and addressed Leroy. “You got here just in time.”

  Leroy walked over to the table, whose male occupants remained quiet, pulled out a chair and sat down. “Don’t all say hello at once.”

  Declan spoke first. “Leroy. How are you?”

  “Good, Dec. And you?” he asked, looking at Declan and then Ramsey.

  Before he could answer, Ramsey spoke. “You know Declan, Leroy. Not much has changed, has it?” The brothers exchanged stony stares.

  Leroy took stock of the situation and surmised that a change of subject was needed. He eyed the new occupant at the table. “You must be Hannah.”

  She smiled. “And you must be Sampson Leroy. Nice to meet you.” She raised her hand to his and shook it. “You’re friends with these two?” she asked, nodding her head at the other two at the table.

  Leroy smirked. “Only when I have to be. The rest of the time I find them both to be a pain in the ass.”

  Hannah grinned. “I get that.”

  Both Ramsey and Declan ignored them.

  “How’s Sarah?’ asked Leroy.

  Hannah took that question, looking just as eager to change the subject. “She’s pretty sick. She’s very weak and has been running a consistent fever. She’s occasionally lucid, but mostly she’s semi-conscious or even delirious. Unfortunately, there’s not much we can do until this phase passes.” She looked toward the bedroom and then at Ramsey. “I’m going to look in on her.” She stood and left the table.

  Ramsey finally shifted in his seat and appeared to shake off his mood. “Thanks,” he said to Hannah as she walked away. He turned toward Leroy and asked, “What did you find out?”

  It was Leroy’s turn to look uncomfortable. “We’ll get to that in a minute. How about you get me up to speed. What have you guys been up to these past two days? You haven’t been watching sappy movies and eating junk food, I hope?”

  “No,” said Ramsey, sitting back in his seat. “But we did a séance and channeled dead relatives. You missed out. By the way, we spoke to your great-grandmother, and she disapproves of the shaved head.”

  Leroy didn’t miss a beat. “Yeah, well, my wife likes it, so Great-Grandma can get over it.”

  Declan observed the banter between his brother and Leroy. “You two haven’t changed.”

  Ramsey addressed Declan but didn’t look at him. “Nope, we haven’t.” He paused. “It’s one relationship that doesn’t cause me pain, for which I am eternally grateful.”

  “Can I quote you on that Sherlock?” asked Leroy, smiling.

  “Absolutely not. And if you do, I’ll deny it,” replied Ramsey.

  Declan said nothing.

  Hannah reappeared and sat back down.

  “How is she?” asked Ramsey.

  “Same. She’s sleeping.” She brought the group’s attention back to the main subject. “As much as I am enjoying this male bonding, or not bonding, as the case may be, can we discuss what happened last night?”

  Leroy turned serious. “What happened last night?”

  “Two men in a car,” said Declan. “Across the street, watching the house. I tried to get a closer look, but they took off before I got a chance.”

  “What the hell? Why didn’t you call me?”

  “There was nothing you could do. They weren’t an immediate danger.”

  “But will they be?’”

  “They will be, yes.”

  “Then we need to get you all out of here. Take you some place safe.” Leroy reached for his phone.

  “We can’t do that,” said Declan.

  “Why not?”

  “Because there is no place safe.”

  The statement caught them all by surprise.

  “What do you mean?” Ramsey asked.

  Declan’s tone was grim. “Because there’s nowhere for her to hide.”

  Ramsey and Leroy exchanged glances but stayed quiet, so Hannah asked the obvious question. “Why not?”

  She waited as the men around her silently debated the answer. “Is it because she’s a Red-Line?” she asked. That got their attention.

  “How do you know about that?” Ramsey asked.

  “I saw the mark. It’s on her back, beneath her shoulder blade.”

  “Told ya,” said Declan in Ramsey’s direction.

  “Already?” Leroy asked.

  Ramsey wanted final confirmation. “You’re sure?”

  “It’s pretty apparent. I wasn’t positive at first. Thought it was a scar, but last night it had deepened in color, and she winced when I touched it. It’s a red mark for sure. Just like our gray ones.” She watched everyone’s varied reactions and surmised their obvious concern. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to say anything. This will stay within these walls.”

  They all watched her, as if judging her truthfulness. Apparently she passed the test, because they all relaxed their postures and returned to the subject.

  “Is that why we can’t move her?” Ramsey asked Declan.

  “Probably. It’s like she’s broadcasting a signal right now, and if someone knows the frequency, then they can find her.”

  “But who knows the frequency, other than us?” asked Leroy.

  “I don’t know, Leroy. That’s the question. I could pick up her signal, but only because I’ve met her and only within a certain range. I get the feeling…”

  “What?” asked Ramsey.

  “There’s something else about those men.”

  “What is it?”

  “I’ve never felt anything like it before. Their signature was different. It was strange.”

  “Strange, how?” asked Leroy.

  “I’m not sure how to describe it. Like fog; very ethereal. It was hard to grasp.”

  “And they mean us harm?” asked Hannah.

  “Their singular purpose is to retrieve Sarah. If we let them have her, they won’t hurt us, but if we get in the way…”

  “Why do they want her?” Ramsey asked.

  “That, I can’t answer.”

  Leroy listened and cautiously replied, “I might have some insight into that.”

  They all looked at him. “So spill it,” said Ramsey. “What’s got you on edge?”

  Leroy sighed. “Arnuff is dead.”

  “What?” asked Ramsey and Declan.

  “Who’s Arnuff?” asked Hannah.

  Leroy wasn’t finished, though. “And Emerson is ill. They don’t know if he’ll survive.”

  “What the hell?” asked Ramsey.

  “Who’s Emerson?” asked Hannah, still confused.

  “What’s going on, Leroy?” Declan asked.

  Leroy leaned forward and put his elbows on the table. “When I left here two days ago, I went to the council magistrate to request a Gathering. I figured at this point, somebody had to know something. I was told no, that the councilors were not available. Well, I didn’t
accept that. I started making the rounds and calling them directly. It got their attention, and Morgana contacted me. I met her yesterday and spoke with her.”

  “How is it that Morgana is always in the middle of it?” Ramsey asked.

  “I’ll get to that. But for right now, she divulged to me that the Council is in disarray. They’ve only just recently been made aware of Sarah’s existence, and the few who kept it under wraps have some explaining to do. Since their Connection meeting with Morgana a few days ago, they have been in disagreement as to how to handle this situation. Morgana asserted her influence at the beginning and got you assigned even without the Council’s full agreement or knowledge of the complete truth. When she says her butt’s on the line, she’s telling the truth.”

  “So what’s your point, Leroy?” asked Ramsey.

  “My point is that the Council has more to do with this than we realize.”

  “How? Only a few of them even knew about Sarah.”

  “They may not have all known about her specifically until now, but they know about how she came to be. How do you think Sarah even exists? You think she came out of thin air?” Leroy asked as he sat back in his chair. He let that question sink in.

  “How does she exist? How is it possible?” asked Hannah. “The Red-Lines died years ago.”

  Leroy leaned back in, carrying the weight of the information he held. “You all know the history of the Red-Lines? How they disappeared?’

  Declan answered that. “Near as I can remember being told, about sixty, maybe seventy years ago, they all began to die off with no explanation. Some believed the accident had something to do with it. It happened only a few months before, I think.”

  “The accident?” asked Hannah.

  “Yes,” said Leroy. “Not long after the Roswell incident, we had a craft go down as well. Luckily, it was undetected except by us. Our people reached the ship, but found only the captain, a woman by the name of Varalika, on board. She was dead. The manifest showed she carried cargo, but there was nothing on board. They found only her mirror.”

  “Is this the Eudoran Mirror we’ve heard about?” asked Ramsey.

  “Apparently.”

  “So it does exist?” asked Declan, surprised.

  “Yes, it does. And they’ve been trying to read it ever since, but no one has been able to.”

  “Wait a minute. Please explain this to me. A mirror?” asked Hannah.

  Declan jumped in again. “Red-Lines, because of their advanced abilities, frequently used mirrors as communication devices. They were able to encode information on them that was unreadable to anyone other than another Red-Line. They could designate certain people to unlock the message. Back when we traveled to and from our planet, it was an easy way to carry information without having to worry about discovery. If it got lost or got into the wrong hands, then it couldn’t be read by another. It would appear as just an ordinary mirror to a human.”

  Leroy looked impressed. “Someone’s up on his Eudoran history.”

  Declan smiled. “Dad’s a big history buff. He taught me a lot.”

  “Lucky for you,” said Ramsey to Declan, but then he returned his attention to Leroy. “So what does this have to do with Sarah?”

  “Let me finish,” said Leroy. “After that ship crashed, we never received communication from Eudora again. For obvious reasons, we never initiated communication with our host planet, because the risk of detection was too great. We always waited for them to contact us. But after the crash, that was it. We never heard from them, nor has a ship ever returned.”

  “And how does that matter now?” asked Ramsey.

  “Because there was something on that ship that was vital to our survival. Something we were waiting for and never received. It’s the reason the Red-Lines died off not long after.”

  “And what was that?” asked Hannah.

  Leroy looked pensive. “A serum,” he said.

  “A what?” asked Ramsey.

  “Serum,” repeated Leroy. “The way Morgana explained it, in order to survive, Red-Lines born and raised on Earth received a serum after birth. As they got older and it was time for their Shift, they would return to Eudora, where they could receive the necessary assistance and care they required. Afterwards, they could choose to return to Earth if they wished. If they did, they were required to take the serum again. If Red-Lines born on Eudora chose to move to Earth after their Shift, then they too required the serum. Red-Lines’ sensitivities made them all very susceptible to Earth’s harsh atmosphere and lower frequencies. The serum helped their bodies to adapt. Without it, they would survive for only a short period of time.”

  “So they died because they didn’t have the serum?” asked Declan.

  “Yes and no,” said Leroy.

  “What do you mean?” asked Ramsey.

  “It’s wasn’t them waiting on the serum. It was us.”

  “What? Us?” asked Declan. “You mean Gray-Lines?”

  “Exactly.”

  “But we don’t take a serum,” said Ramsey.

  “You have. We all have,” said Leroy.

  “Since when?” asked Ramsey.

  “Since always. We all need it. Not just the Red-Lines. When that ship went down, it was our serum, for us, which was lost. Not the Reds’.”

  Ramsey tried to follow Leroy’s explanation, with little success. “What does that mean?”

  “In a nutshell, both Red and Gray-Lines require a serum in order to survive on this planet. But it’s not the same serum. We require a less potent variety and a smaller dosage. Reds required stronger stuff. When our supply was lost and it was apparent no more was coming, and because Grays didn’t know there was a serum to lose, the Reds relinquished their remaining supply to us. By adapting that serum to our needs and by combining it with our remaining supplies and rationing, we’ve been able to survive as long as we have.”

  Ramsey’s confusion began to clear. “We’re still taking this serum?”

  “When?” asked Declan. “How?”

  “During your check-ins,” Hannah answered, finally speaking up.

  The conversation stopped at her reply. “And what do you know about it?” asked Leroy.

  Ramsey and Declan wondered the same.

  Hannah’s face paled, as if questioning how much to reveal. “I learned a few things when I attended the conference a few years ago regarding community health issues. It’s where I met Morgana.”

  “Something tells me you didn’t talk about bad eating habits or lack of sleep,” said Ramsey.

  “No, we did not. We learned about the impending health crisis facing each of us.”

  “And what crisis is that?” asked Declan.

  “The one where we all die due to lack of serum.”

  Nobody knew what to say as they tried to understand Hannah’s revelation. “Slow down a bit,” said Ramsey, holding up his hand. “You mind enlightening us? I’m still dealing with the fact that we’ve been taking a serum without our knowledge.”

  “Me too,” said Declan. “You gave it to us during our check-ins?”

  Eudorans checked in every year with a local Community Culture officer. It was a required visit, to ensure that their existence on Earth continued to exist smoothly and peacefully. It was a common practice initiated for every Community that existed on a host planet. It allowed the Community member the chance to discuss any concerns or ask any questions they needed addressed. If any Eudoran needed to meet outside of the annual visit, they could request it. The meetings assisted mostly with adaptation issues for newer arrivals or, for those who’d lived on Earth longer, issues regarding raising children or marrying into the human species. They were a helpful way to reconnect to their culture without fear of discovery. This had become the main reason for the meetings in recent years. Although all Eudorans knew that living on a host planet meant that they might never return home, they had learned that in order to survive away from their planet for long periods, it was necessary to reconnect at regular inter
vals with the sole purpose of reestablishing their roots. Even though they had never visited their place of origin, it was a way to still feel connected to it.

  “Yes,” said Hannah, “it was distributed to each Gray-Line. During my early training, I worked in that area, distributing the serum. At the time, I didn’t realize that’s what I was administering.” She crossed her arms. “It was easy enough to do. If you remember, it was called a skin test, similar to a human tuberculosis test, where we lightly scraped you with a dull blade. We told you it was a routine check, just measuring your body’s acclimation to Earth by retrieving some skin cells and testing them. After you were scraped, we rubbed a topical ointment on the area. You were actually absorbing a serum.”

  Declan’s jaw dropped. “How did they get away with this? Why not tell us?”

  Hannah said nothing because she didn’t know what to say.

  “And this is why the Reds died? They sacrificed themselves?” asked Ramsey.

  “Yes,” said Leroy.

  “How noble of them.”

  “I should say so.”

  “Wait a minute,” Ramsey asked. “Go back a second. How can there be two Red-Lines on the Council? How did they survive?”

  “They’re the only two that did. Somehow, they were able to adapt.”

  “Who are they?” asked Hannah.

  “One of them was Arnuff, who died last week. He was eighty-five, but in good health. They found him unconscious at his home. He died soon after. They have no apparent cause of death.”

  “And Emerson?” asked Ramsey.

  “They found him collapsed and unconscious, but he’s still alive. He turned eighty-two this year.”

  “So,” Declan said, “the two last living Red-Lines succumb to illness or death just as a new one is about to emerge. Coincidence?”

  “Unlikely,” declared Ramsey, “but let’s get back to this ‘we’re dying’ thing.” He looked at Hannah. “You mind explaining that one? I don’t know about you, but I feel perfectly healthy.”

  “Me too,” Declan interjected. “Why do we need a serum?”

  Before Hannah could answer, Leroy rescued her from explaining. “To answer that, you have to go back to the beginning,” he said. “Eudorans wanted to study this planet, but before they could start, they had to send a test group to ensure our compatibility. They lasted three months before they all returned, horribly ill. It was apparent that Earth was a bit too toxic for us, so they designed a serum. It worked perfectly, except for one problem. Taking the serum affected the next test group. Their awareness of Earth’s effect on their senses caused them to overcompensate. They became too sensitive, trying to ward off any toxins or negative energy, and they returned as well, unable to handle the assault on their senses. So they tried a third test group. They gave them the serum, but didn’t tell them. It worked beautifully. And here we are.”