“Fine. Is there an application I need to fill out?”
He grinned. “That won’t be necessary. When’s your next shift at the hotel?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
“Great. Finish that and then let them know you won’t be back. Walk here, and we’ll pick you up around four PM.”
I shrugged and nodded. “Should I pack a bag or something?”
He shook his head as he stood up. “We’ll provide everything. Now, I must get to my next appointment, but we’ll see you tomorrow.” He put a few dollars onto the table even though he hadn’t ordered anything.
I was grateful. “Thanks! See you then.” I watched him leave, and my vision flickered again before going dark.
Like before, I suddenly became aware of my consciousness and my eyes fluttered to see. Before I could, I was met by the voice of another man.
“Jab. Jab. Hook. Jab. Jab. Hook. Remember to breathe, people!”
Shaking my head, I came to in a room with padded floors. A woman in front of me had a red boxing helmet on. She was ducking and dodging something fierce when I finally realized it was my fists she was avoiding as I carried out the orders of the commanding voice. I kept swinging faster and faster until I finally cracked the woman in the jaw.
“Ow, dammit, Nat!”
The instructor came up next to us, scowling. “Don’t get angry, Alexis. Get better.” He turned his head and spoke louder. “Now, class, work in some kicks.”
Alexis spit on the matt and exhaled hard. “Fine. Come get it, Nat!”
Her taunts seemed almost silly since she always had trouble keeping up with me. Nonetheless, I was motivated to hurt her. I began throwing my best stuff at Alexis, and to her credit, she did better than usual. My confidence was growing with every move, and it gave me a sense of satisfaction that I had previously never known. We went back and forth for several minutes, and the more kicks and punches I threw, the more gratification I received. At one point, I sent two rapid-fire punches at her chest, and she evaded them fluidly. Her only problem was that she moved into the exact spot for me to roundhouse her on the side of her head.
Thud!
She flipped over onto the mat. “Ah!”
Even I was stunned by the force behind my kick, and I quickly knelt by her side. “Oh no, Lex! Are you alright?”
She was still reeling when the instructor said it was her turn to take the offensive. “Switch positions!”
I waved him over, and he came right up to my ear and whispered, “Finish her.”
I squinted in disbelief as I turned to him. “Finish her? What on Earth…”
He nodded and continued speaking lowly. “She’s weak. You’re strong. Finish her.”
I looked down at Alexis who hadn’t stopped writhing, and no part of me wanted to hurt her any more than I already had. I shook my head slightly. “No. She’s hurt.”
The instructor stood up tall and shouted, “For insubordination, drop down and give me fifty, recruit.”
Like second nature, I hit the mat to appease him. As I repeatedly pushed the ground away from my chest, my mind began to wander. When I had shown up six months prior, I was of average build and had very little muscle. Back then, I couldn’t do a single pushup. But that number had steadily climbed while I trained. Still, the most I’d ever done was thirty-five, so I knew I’d likely fail what he was asking of me. I was able to reach thirty-seven, but then I collapsed.
The instructor leaned in to speak breathily. “We’re going to talk to Frank. Get back in place.”
I felt like his threat should have terrified me, but I felt bad for Alexis more than anything. She finally stood up, holding her head, and walked next to me. Her pupils were dilated. “Are we done yet?”
She was woozy, so I held her as the instructor closed out the session.
“Ross, Ed, and Natalie. You have completed the requirements for hand-to-hand combat. Give them a round of applause.”
The rest of the class obliged for a moment.
He continued, “They’ll be moving up to close-combat weapons and firearms, and then they’ll be certified members. For the rest of you…get better. Class dismissed.”
We all funneled out of the room together, and the instructor made eye contact with me from across the room. He motioned for me to stay with a stern look on his face.
“Sean, I can explain. She was…”
His face softened. “There’s no need. You passed.”
I shrugged. “Passed what?”
“I wanted to see if you’d blindly follow my instructions, and you didn’t. You questioned me without hesitation.”
My befuddlement turned to shock. “But you asked me to kill a friend.”
“Yes. We want you to be free thinkers even under duress.”
I couldn’t stop my head from shaking. “What if I had killed her? What then?”
“You would have failed the test. We would have made you clean up the mess to teach you a lesson. But none of that matters since you passed. Let’s go see Frank now.”
I broke eye contact and took a deep breath. “Okay.”
We exited the training room into a long, narrow concrete hallway. The walls were barren save for a few bizarre posters. Each one was a different hi-res picture of the face of the man from the truck stop. The eight-pointed star insignia was on his forehead, and there were various lines below him.
Every infection is a crime against humanity.
Infected control the world, but they cannot control a pure human.
The only good infected is a dead infected.
As much as the place felt like home, the posters were always a bit off to me. But I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what bothered me about them. We proceeded for a couple minutes through the hallway, long enough for the sweat on my clothes to dry, then took one step up into a large common space. The floors were made of bloodwood with a few dark rugs perfectly spacing the area. A lounge area had three leather couches with the same number of coffee tables that had big books on them. There were several post-modern paintings on the walls with various geometric patterns. It was then that I realized that for all I had seen of the place, it was missing something. It didn’t have a single window. I shook off the thought just as we happened upon several doors that all seemed to lead to other big rooms of some kind.
At the end of the space was the largest of the rooms, and we walked right in. It was decorated similarly to the common area, complete with two identical couches off to one side. In the back was an extremely large painting canvas, and a man in black, presumably Frank, knelt with his back to us. He must not have realized we’d entered as he stood up and flung one arm toward the white board in front of him followed by his other arm. Two red streaks sprayed from his hands and splatted on the canvas making a big red, runny X.
Sean cleared his throat to alert Frank of our presence.
Without turning around, he greeted us. “Hello. Please have a seat.”
We followed his instruction and headed for the couches. He walked to the corner of the room where there was a large bowl and started dipping his hands in and out to clean off the paint. As he did, he spoke loudly, filling the room. “Sean told me that you’re top of your class, Natalie. Maybe our best student ever.”
I was about to give affirmation when Sean responded. “She’ll be in weapons in a couple days, and she already passed the ‘free thinkers’ test just a few moments ago.”
Frank nodded and grabbed a towel next to the bowl. He dried his hands. “Impressive. Sean, you can leave us now. Please shut the door on your way out.”
Sean didn’t flinch as he got up and wandered the way we had come in. He pulled the door closed as he left.
Frank put the now-red towel down and walked toward me. I noticed his dry hands had been strained from the paint as he made his way to the couch, and he sat down u
ncomfortably close and put his arm around me.
“I knew it. Something told me you had promise in that truck stop. Others might have seen you as trailer trash, but I…I saw a caterpillar waiting to cocoon into a butterfly. What do you think, Natalie? Have we given you everything you need to thrive here?”
What a creep! The thought stayed confined in my mind. Instead, against my instincts, I nodded and said, “Yes, Frank. I’d still be cleaning rooms today had you not rescued me. Now, I feel like I can take on the world.”
He snickered. “Fortunately for the world, you don’t have to. I want to tell you about the jobs we do, the way we finance our entire operation. Would you like to know, Natalie?”
I replied emphatically, “Yes!”
He inhaled deeply. “We find people who are of impure body, and we deliver them to the proper authorities.”
I tilted my head. “Like bounty hunters? Do we help the cops?”
He grinned through a frown. “Bounty hunters of sorts, but we do not work with the police. No, think of us as a cleaning agent for the city. We remove those who put us at risk of becoming impure. It’s a simple scale. Anyone who is more than fifty-percent impure must be flushed out and delivered to those who will process them.”
His words were carefully chosen, and it made me nervous. If that weren’t bad enough, he began caressing my neck.
“You see, Natalie, I envision you leading a team of other talented individuals to carry out these jobs. How does that sound? Do you want to be in charge?”
“Yes, Frank. I do. When would I—”
He put his finger to my lips, shushing me like a jerk. “I have to say ‘Simons says.’ Do you know how to get me to say that?”
I shook my head.
“You’ll have to pass one last test.” He leaned in with his lips puckered.
I wanted to scream. Instead, I did just the opposite by leaning in to kiss him back. As I inched closer, the urge to jump out of my own skin was strong, and when I closed my eyes, everything disappeared.
I awakened, already walking down a dark hallway. Frank was next to me, and it all seemed strange. For some reason, I knew we were on a job, but it felt like it was impromptu. I knew nothing about it, and the fact that Frank had accompanied me was also odd. It was rare that he got his hands dirty. There were doors with numbers on them lining the corridor, and it was deadly quiet. It almost seemed like the place was deserted, and looking ahead, the walk appeared endless. About twenty feet in front of us on the right was an opening in the wall. It supplied the only light that could be seen in the whole place. As we walked past, I peered in. There was an old-fashioned ice maker and vending machine that still accepted physical money. But what struck me as odd was the back wall. It was barren, and although I’d never been to this place before, I thought I remembered some kind of writing there. After a few seconds, I shook off the feeling and we continued to the end of the hallway. Upon arriving, there were two doors on the left and two on the right. We stopped.
“How many impures in the hotel?” I whispered.
He replied softly, “This job’s a little different. There’s thirty-two filthy ones here.”
My eyes became wide in disbelief. “That’s almost three times more than we’ve ever moved. We don’t need backup?”
He put his hand on my shoulder. “They’re all very weak, but they’re still contagious. We’re here for containment, not transportation.”
I was confused. “Containment?”
He nodded. “Yes. We must contain their infection to this building.” He tilted his head. “Do you trust me, Natalie?”
A scowl forced itself onto my face. “Of course.”
“Good. Simon says do as you’re told. And Natalie…”
We made eye-contact in the dim light.
“Yes?”
“…you hold a special place in my heart. After tonight, we should take our relationship to the next level.”
The horror that should have overcome me instead manifested as extreme flattery. Before I could think any more about it, he leaned in and kissed me. I reciprocated willingly, and his mouth tasted bizarrely salty.
Gross!
He pulled away. “Put on your mask.”
I was helpless to his commands. I reached behind me, and my arm bumped into something hanging from my shoulders. The image of the biggest knife I’d ever seen popped into my head. Then, I forced my hand into my back pocket and pulled out a rubber mask. It covered my nose and mouth and had an air-filtration nozzle protruding from the bottom. I wondered why Frank didn’t do the same, but I seemed to remember that whatever the people had, he was immune.
“Stay out in the hallway. I’m going to flush out the able-bodied ones, and you can take ’em out. They might come from any of these doors.”
“Got it.”
He turned away and headed for the far door on the left. He reached over his shoulder and pulled out his weapon—a big knife like the one I pictured—and I followed suit reaching back and pulling out my massive blade. It was astounding. Its grip fit my hand perfectly as if it was custom-made. The blade was heavy and got wider near the tip, which it didn’t have much of. It was basically a short sword meant for hacking more than stabbing or cutting. Finally, its name popped in my head.
Machete.
Frank approached the door, picked up his foot, and kicked with force.
Crack!
He disappeared inside, and muffled screaming filled the quiet space. I heard a few repeated thuds, and I should have been mortified and nauseated. Instead, I was vigilantly waiting for anyone to appear. It wasn’t long before someone or something did. It was a wispy figure that had anything but a confident gait. It stumbled out into the hallway, saw me, and fell to its knees.
It wheezed out a plea for mercy. “Please. Don’t. Please. Don’t.”
It was a man in terrible shape, and it was likely he wouldn’t have much time even if we hadn’t shown up this night. Still, I should have wanted to help him, but I knew I wouldn’t.
This must be a nightmare! None of this can be real!
The thoughts were the only way that I could rationalize what I was about to do. I walked up to this suffering human being, lifted my hand with the machete as high as it would go, and tightened all my muscles. Using gravity, the weight of the blade, and all my force, I came down on an angle into the man’s neck and blood exploded everywhere. The man went lifeless and slumped over, and I didn’t even think twice about him.
I looked up for my next victim, and to my surprise, the door on the close right flew open. I could vaguely see a person with glasses holding something large and darting from the room down the hall. They weren’t very fast and had a muffled wheeze, so I knew I would catch them in no time. I lunged in their direction, my intentions set to deal with this person exactly how I had dealt with the man. Close in pursuit, I lifted my arm to slash them down. Before I could, they awkwardly dove onto the ground, keeping their back to me.
They screamed. “Don’t hurt my son!”
Her words hit me like a roundhouse kick from training. She was shielding her child. I thought hard and couldn’t recall ever moving children. Instead of killing her, all I could muster was a simple question through my mask. “What?”
“Please! He’s scheduled to get the cure tomorrow. Let him live his life.”
She wasn’t making any sense. “You’re lying! There is no cure!”
“There is! It’s why we came to the city. Please! I’m begging you.”
My arm dropped to my side, and I just stood there. She didn’t hesitate to pop up with her son in arms and run off. When I turned around, there were several more figures taking up the hallway, each clutching to something like the woman.
“More…children?”
Several of them droned at the same time. “Yes.”
I felt myself stepping ou
t of their way, and they all began to float past me to the best of their ability. Stunned, I walked back toward Frank’s room and more figures past me in the corridor. There must have been fifteen or twenty people total escaping while they could. With my eyes forward, Frank stepped back into the hall. His hair was slicked back. I knew he’d been covered in blood. He had his machete in one hand and something strange in the other. He began pressing the weird thing against his face as if he was eating it or drinking from it. As I got closer, my bewilderment turned into sheer terror.
“What…are you doing?”
Through his gnawing, he responded. “Getting my fill. It’s how I stay strong.”
His head turned to the other doors and then to the floor. He dropped the hunk of whatever he had been ravaging. “One impure contained? Are you bullshitting me?”
Anger bubbled up through my fear. “You never said anything about children. You never said anything about a cure.”
He smacked his lips. “Who told you to question me?”
“I never signed up to hurt kids.” I motioned around. “This is bullshit.”
“None of that matters.”
“Why?”
“Because I never said Simon Says!” He maniacally screamed as he jumped into action, dashing toward me with his machete in the air.
My instincts took over, and I sprinted right back at him with my blade in the air. But I realized quickly that he easily outweighed me by a hundred pounds, and it was obvious that I wouldn’t last long in a fight. Closing in, I made the briefest eye contact right before hunching down and diving at his legs.
Wham!
Our machetes flew, tinking down the hallway, and he screamed in agony as I rolled across the floor. The force from my shoulder had made his knee buckle in a way that could only have meant serious ligament damage. Unfortunately, I was left completely dazed as well. I saw stars and blinked rapidly, looking back into the dark hallway to see where he was, but my sight was failing me. His writhing was getting quieter as if he was crawling away, perhaps to another room. I was hoping that would buy me some time, because I was in no condition to escape. I tried desperately to think of the safest place to go. The room Frank had been in was closest to me, so I got up and stumbled in. I closed what was left of the door behind me. Before I could process what was around me, I slipped on the wet floor and thudded on the ground. Everything went black.
Between Two Minds: Revelation Page 19
