by P. S. Power
Taking a deep breath, Brian smiled at her and made a blubbery sound with his lips, getting her to grin a little.
"Yeah, I'm pretty much already dead. The rest of this is just about what I can get done before I buy it and how many people I can help, if any..." He waited for her reaction, which was a single shrug of the shoulders.
The tiny face went suddenly serious, but not dark.
"That pretty much describes everyone I know, Brian. It's always about doing what you can, as best you can, until you die. Everything else is just an illusion." She unbuckled herself, hoped up, leaned in and kissed him on the cheek, aiming for a place that wasn't too messed up still, then scurried away back to where the others sat.
Lancaster looked at him, a strange expression Brian didn't know how to read, worried, like he expected Brian to break or at least whine about what the girl had said. Instead he smiled at the man, getting a baffled look in return.
Brian looked at the small girl, who'd gone back to wiggling again, some of the movements too fast for him to follow, even as she sat firmly in her seat. Doctor Tull watched him, also looking concerned, so he raised his eyebrows and smiled a bit bigger, then gave her a small wave.
"She's right, of course. Death does come for everyone. I've even heard that in a movie or two I think. I was making it into some big deal in my head earlier, but... yeah. Everyone dies and it could come at any time. The only difference is that I have a rough time schedule. OK, lesson learned, schooled by the fourteen-year-old girl, don't get all caught up in my own bullshit."
Lancaster just grunted and passed him a copy of guns and ammo, suggesting he read it until they landed. The rest of the flight went by almost silently. Brian didn't even worry about dying again. He realized he didn't have time for that any more.
2
They landed at about four o'clock local time, somewhere in Montana they told him. It wasn't a secret location or anything, but the names just didn't mean anything to him in this area, so his brain filled in that they were in the middle of the state and left the idea alone. It didn't really make a difference anyway. Brian would go where the problem was, when it happened. The rest of the time he'd be here. Good enough.
The place had an almost deserted feeling, desolate and lonely. Most of it flat, with rolling hills toward what he thought of as the back, away from what looked like the main gate. A fence ran all the way around the perimeter, looking foreboding. For a second Brian wondered if they were just putting him in prison after all, but Bridget ran over and took his arm before he could dwell on the idea.
"Don't worry, the fence is just to keep out reporters and protesters, not that we've ever had protesters out here. Too far away from anything to make it worthwhile. Reporters come out about once a month, trying to get something cool on camera, Prime flying around or trying to get shots of one of the others, the uglies, so they can talk about how evil we all are. The top there looks all dangerous, but it's just concertina wire, not razor ribbon. You can just climb it if you want. The guards will hassle you if you take too long though and make you climb back and forth until you can do it right. They get bored I think." She dragged him along, since neither of them had luggage. Brian wondered if they should help the others with theirs, but no one asked or got more than a single small bag from the closet up front.
The girl pulled him by the arm toward a small building, a dark brown one that looked a bit like something the national park service might use to house rangers. It has a sloped roof that stuck out past the edge of the building by several feet and a cement walkway all the way around it. The feeling was primitive, not five star hotel at all. Brian looked at Lancaster as he walked up and shrugged at the man, not really being concerned, just wondering what the situation would turn out to be. Maybe this was the welcoming center or something.
Lancaster walked through the door, followed by Bridget and the other agent, with him and Doctor Tull in the rear. Both of the men kept a covert eye on the tiny girl rather than him, as if they expected her to do something - like run for the fence. Inside it was a little like a hotel lobby, with light brown carpet, short pile with lighter flecks in it. There were also elevators all over, the doors a golden brown that looked halfway friendly at least. The space inside looked bigger than the outside, a lot bigger. Brian noticed that part of it sunk into the ground, a ramp rather than stairs, and extended back, making the whole space about eight times larger than it looked like outside.
Bridget ran forward and pushed the nearest elevator button which only had a down arrow.
"The whole thing's really underground. You're good with that right? Not claustrophobic or anything? Well, that doesn't matter, cause you'll get used to it anyway. There are fifteen levels. Well twenty really, but were not supposed to know about the secret basement labs..." She grinned at the agents. The one that Brian hadn't met yet shook his head and muttered about urban legends.
The elevator opened and everyone piled in, Brian pushed into a corner by the girl who leaned against him in a way that would have been really cool if she'd been even four years older, but left him feeling a little uncomfortable in the current situation. She kept explaining everything, a running stream of consciousness monologue, but one that held a lot of information, so Brian made a point of trying to pay attention.
"First floor is the snob department. It's where Prime and the first team all live. They have the best food, so if you want a treat, sneak in there. It isn't really their private facility, so don't let them tell you differently. The next three floors are boring, administrative stuff and where they keep the president and senators when they come to visit, if they don't want to just stay in town.
"Floor five is my stop. Where all the cool people - team two - are. Room seven by the way, in case you ever want to visit..." She pressed against him tightly for a moment. "After that are the three hospital floors, then your floor, nine. Team three lives there. They're... all right. A little different, but not bad for the most part. Just watch out for Christian, she'll totally nark you out. She can't help reading our minds, but she'll report it if you want to sneak out or something."
Lancaster put a single hand on the girl's shoulders as she growled, thinking of some past wrong Brian guessed. She recovered herself in about five seconds and took a breath.
"After that the next three floors are all boring again. Labs and technical junk that no one really cares about and some of the living spaces for non-operatives that work here. Fourteen and fifteen are the gyms. You probably won't need fifteen, unless you can shoot lasers from your feet or something you haven't mentioned? Otherwise just stick to fourteen with all the normal folk like me that run and lift weights to work out, not destroy small planets. Well... I have a work out on fifteen sometimes too, but that's just the obstacle course and some of the machines, the really cool stuff...Carl, the trainer there? He's the best. He'll let you try anything if you want."
They reached five then and Bridget reminded him that she was in room seven and made him repeat it twice, much to everyone else's amusement. She would have gone for more, but he assured her he really didn't forget numbers. It was pretty much the truth even. That left him in the elevator with Lancaster and Doc Tull, who got off when the door opened on the ninth floor.
The doctor shook his hand cradling his right in both of hers, and told him that they'd probably meet later in the week, if it could safely be arranged. Soon regardless. Then she walked through a door about fifteen feet from the elevator. Lancaster asked him to wait there and walked quickly down the hall himself, going past the door to a glass front room about thirty yards down on the left. It had glass, but it wasn't clear, so heavily frosted that it couldn't be seen through at all. All about image then? Give an open office feeling without really being visible at all? Sneaky.
He looked at the carpet, a mottled blue, the tight kind that hotels liked to use because it lasted so long. The walls were a nice cream-colored wallpaper which made the whole place look expensive, a faint pattern to the paper, raised just
a tiny bit it looked like to him. Hard to tell without touching it, but rubbing the walls seemed pushy somehow.
Brian just waited instead.
After a few moments something jostled his left arm a bit and he looked over, not seeing anything there at all. Then felt it again as soon as he looked away. Something had a hold on his arm, just above the elbow. He reached over with his right hand and felt as best he could, fingers clumsy, discovering it seemed to be a hand.
A soft voice came to him, almost silent in a weird way, "Can you hear me?"
It sounded really far away, like someone calling out across a big open field. It had a hollow feeling to it, and he wasn't absolutely certain he'd really heard it at all. Given the nature of the place, Brian figured he may as well answer. He doubted that looking sane would help him here much anyway.
"Hi? I think I can kind of hear you... it's really faint. Um, I'm Brian..." He listened carefully, the hand on his arm meant they were still around, and might try to talk again.
Still muted and soft, he heard it again, it sounded like a girl's voice. "You can hear me? Oh awesome! Thank god, someone I can finally talk to, it has just been so long... I'm Penny, invisible obviously. First mode social anxiety. I can handle people one on one like this, mainly, or crowds if they don't know I'm there. No one's ever been able to talk to me since this happened! It's been years..."
Brian, not knowing what else to do, patted her hand with his own awkwardly.
"Nice to meet you, Penny. So they tell me I'm going to be on team three, are you?"
"Yeah! Oh cool. Maybe we can partner up, or anyway, be friends? Look here comes Jason and Lancaster. He's cute. Well... both of them are, but Lancaster's just hot, don't you think?"
Brian just shrugged. He hadn't thought about it. The guy looked hard... tough, and not like someone to face in a fight or even over a hand of poker, but good looking? How would he know about attractiveness in men?
A man dressed in an outfit not too different than what Brian wore, except the shirt said team three on it, not IPB, walked toward them holding a pair of shoes in his left hand. He had his right hand extended.
"Jason Montrose, call me Jason. I'm the trainer for team three. Agent Lancaster told me your situation, about how we need to train you to exhaustion and basically over-train you for the time being. Today we won't do anything fancy, but I'd like you to put in some miles on the track. Run, jog, walk, crawl if you have to, between now and when you think you're ready for bed. I'll be down to help you with that, but I need to talk to the agent first. He says you're motivated and willing to work, even at the level we have to push you... which is impressive. If that's the case all you really need is to get some training. Can you find the track do you think? It's on fourteen, it runs around the outside. Here, wear these instead of those canoes. Christian called and told me to have them ready for you, ten regular?" He handed the running shoes over, they were blue and white, name brand but not the nicest kind. Brian took off Lancaster's shoes right there and put the new ones on without waiting. The others stood waiting and Jason steadied him when he started to fall over at one point.
The dark haired trainer looked at him and smiled. "This could be a while. I don't see anyone that can take you down, but..." He looked around the hall empty except for them.
A tug on Brian's arm came, followed by a laugh. "Tell him I'll do it. I want to see the look on his face," Penny told him.
"Uh, Penny said to tell you she'd take me? I mean, if that's all right." Brian didn't know what the rules were about things like this yet. Did he have to follow orders like at a job all the time now, or were things mainly suggestions? Or some of both?
Penny laughed, her hand jerking on his arm a little as she did it, since Jason's mouth kept opening and closing like a fish.
The man, brown hair about collar length, brown eyes wide, stared at Brian. "You can talk to her? She's here? Seriously? That's great! If we weren't about to put you through hell constantly for the next several months, I'd make her your training partner. You know what? I may do it anyway. I'm pretty sure she dodges out half the time right now, and this way you'll be able to tell me if she's around or not. Mwa-ha-ha..." The laugh was accompanied by the guy rubbing his hands together. It seemed funny to Brian but Penny made a rude sounding noise.
"I always go to my work outs! Just because he can't see me doing them is no reason for him to doubt me. Hmph." Her voice sounded cheerful enough, so Brian didn't think it would be a real problem.
Telling him they should get started, Penny pulled him toward the elevator and pushed the button. Jason and Lancaster turned and walked away once they saw he was going in the right direction. When the doors opened, Brian saw a huge figure, looking almost like a suit of armor, or a little like an insect's shell, a flat face with a breathing hole or something similar in it and two small antennae sticking out the top like horns with a tiny ball at the end of each. Penny moved him by the arm, carefully putting Brian between her and the intimidating giant. The large form looked at him and stepped to the side, making room.
Brian didn't know what the protocol was here, so he decided to introduce himself and hope that it wouldn't be considered too pushy.
"Hi! I'm Brian, um, new guy on team three?" He held out his hand. The large being in front of him didn't move for a while, ten seconds passed, his hand still sticking out, at about fifteen he started to feel a little stupid, but the person put their hand out, it felt hard, but warm to his touch.
"Lauren, I'm on team two. Nice to meet you." The voice almost made him jump, it sounded soft and pretty, not just like a youthful woman, but one that would probably be an excellent singer, if she wanted to be.
Brian turned and saw that the button for fourteen was already lit and the door closing.
"Oh! Sorry, I don't know if you two have met... the invisible woman here with us is Penny, also from team three. Penny, this is Lauren."
Lauren thought Brian might be joking with her at first, he could tell, mainly because she told him so. Penny hit one of the buttons on the panel, making it light up, then canceling it. The giant form chuckled and said "hi" gently, looking at the wrong place.
The doors opened into the gym, the whole thing one huge room with only a few thick support columns near the center, an off brown with some red mixed in. The track clearly visible behind them wrapping around the whole room. Inside the space was a baffling array of exercise equipment, some of it clearly not meant for normal strength people at all, being huge, with weights larger than cars, and piston looking things that attached to the floor.
"Well, Lauren, I've got to run myself into the ground now, if I can, or walk there, but I hope we get to chat sometime? For the next few months, I guess I'm pretty much going to be around here learning stuff and training, so I shouldn't be hard to find. Nice meeting you."
The woman, nearly nine foot tall and massive as she looked, seemed nice. She gave him a little wave that seemed a little sad though, as he turned away.
Brian told Penny that she didn't have to run with him, since he was just going to try and get around the track once, if he could, first.
"Good. I'll be lifting weights then and see if I can grab one of the ellipticals. I'll come over again when I'm done with my official work out, all right?" She squeezed his arm gently and patted him on the back. The contact surprised him a little, since they'd just met. Then again, if she hadn't been able to really talk to anyone for a while, maybe she just wanted him to like her? Or maybe that was just her way?
Starting slowly, he managed to get about half the way around the track before his trembling legs threatened to give out, even from the slow jog he used. He slowed down even more and finished the loop. It took a long time. Brian tried it again, keeping the very slow speed and managed a few more laps that way. Then he had to walk. He tried to keep his pace up. Three laps later he felt like he could maybe run another one, if moving just past a quick walk really counted as running. Maybe he could get away with calling it a jog?
&n
bsp; Brian had a strong suspicion that small children would have been lapping him and old people pointing and laughing at how slow he moved. Oh well, screw them anyway, he decided. If the mythical old people in his head weren't going to support his efforts they could go fuck themselves with their walkers.
He saw Lauren watching him as he struggled lamely around the track and waved, feeling a little embarrassed, being so out of shape when she was clearly lifting something around the weight of a small house, but didn't stop. He did grab a drink of water from a fountain quickly and then tried to keep going. After thirty minutes more he was down to walking, he couldn't get his legs to move faster than that anymore.
His stomach ached from having not eaten too... Brian shook his head, refusing to let that distract him.
Walk.
It didn't sound like a big deal, but it his legs shook from it already and it hadn't even been an hour. He made himself keep going. When he wanted to quit he remember Barbie Dorn and how he'd failed her. If he had to be in pain now to save the next one, then bring it on. He'd dealt with worse after all.
The track itself felt nice, a bouncy rubber underfoot, red-brown, a nice bright color with four lanes of traffic separated by fresh-looking white lines. No one else used it, so at least he didn't feel like everyone wanted him out of the way. The space was big inside the track, about twice what a football field looked like, maybe bigger. He didn't know what that meant for the track itself but he didn't think it was that much bigger than the one he'd ran on in high school.
Brian did know that in about two more laps, he'd have run or walked on this track more than he had the one at school during his four years there. Not a major feat really. Being as young as he was in school no one had expected much of him back then. Right now Brian kind of wished he'd done a little more.
He tried to jog again for a while, and barely made another lap. Then it went back to a walk, panting, right leg in particular burning, his feet sore already, like blisters were forming. His ankles ached to the bone, a feeling he'd grown used to over the past weeks from where the police had put the leg restraints. His wrists felt about the same and he wasn't even walking on them.
