A Human Element

by Donna Galanti

  She shoved him harder, but he pulled her back and forced her to look at him. "Listen to me, Laura. I thought for so long love just imprisoned you. Through you, I found it doesn't. It sets you free. I was in a prison of my own making for so long. Don't send me back there, please? I have nothing, and no one to go back to."

  Ben gripped her shoulders, waiting for a response. She opened her mouth to speak when they heard a car drive up.

  Ben grabbed the gun and ran to the front door, Laura close behind him. She gasped when Mr. B and Felix stepped out of a car, and ran out the door ahead of Ben.

  "Mr. B!" She hugged him. He hugged her back with a strong grip. "You're well and so strong."

  "Because of you, my dear." He held her at arm's length to get a better look at her. "Thank you for healing me."

  "I'm glad it worked. It's been so long since I tried."

  Felix stood beside them, silent.

  Ben crossed his arms. "And how is it you're here with Mr. Barrens?"

  Felix stepped closer, towering over them all. His eyebrows bushed out so thick he appeared to be scowling down at them. Ben looked like a lion ready to spring, moving back and forth on each foot, but Felix remained still, a patient man it seemed who could wait for hours on a mission without moving a muscle or blinking an eye. No one spoke and the silence grew awkward.

  "He picked me up at the hospital." Jim jumped in, looking back and forth between them. "He knew Laura healed me and he knew I had to get back here, right, Felix?"

  Felix nodded. "Yes, Jim has something here to show us that might help us. Might."

  Jim just smiled and motioned them to follow him to his work shed nearby. All four of them entered the work shed and Jim pulled the chain light on to see. He moved a table aside in the middle and bent down on one knee. Felix bent with him and together they pulled up boards to reveal a set of stairs below.

  "It's my stash," Jim explained. "When the government came in to clean up the crash site and buy out everyone's cabins, I was suspicious of their explanations and motives. When they started pressuring me to leave, I decided I need to protect myself. Just in case. I've got a few of everything. Rifles, handguns. Nothing black market. All legal, of course. I do carry a license for it. I just never used it, except to practice. At one point, years ago, I had them hidden all over the cabin in various places."

  Felix moved carefully down the steps, through the small opening, and handed guns to Jim and Ben. They placed them on the floor. Laura stood motionless, transfixed in place. She shivered as the wind blew in. The sky grew darker as it turned to afternoon.

  "Mr. B, what the hell were you planning, a coup? Jesus, look at this stockade. I had no idea."

  Eighteen guns spread out before them. Jim pointed at his stash.

  "I've got Glocks, Smith & Wesson, Colts and Winchesters. Remington style Derringers. Take your pick from single shot pistols to semi-automatic rifles, although for our purposes I think a semi-automatic or double action revolver would work."

  "I agree," Felix said. "We need immediate action without reloading." He picked up a rifle and peered through its finder. "We need a good long-range rifle, too. You never know. I was trained as a sharpshooter. I can set a post and wait for hours. This Browning is a good one. I've used it before."

  "And was it successful, Felix?" Laura frowned at them as they picked over the inventory.

  "What do you mean?"

  "Did you kill with it?"

  "Yes. Of course. Many times."

  Laura just shook her head. "I appreciate all this, Mr. B, but I can't use a gun."

  "No worries, Laura, we'll use them for you. They're for your protection and ours."

  Ben held up a .357 Magnum. "We do need protection."

  "Yes," agreed Felix. "X-10 is closing in. Let's move this to the cabin and plan. We only have a few hours."

  They carried the guns into the house along with ammunition for each and the men each chose a few.

  Jim threw together some quick pasta and sauce as they planned. "I'm starving," he explained. "I feel so youthful and need to eat!" He winked at Laura, in high spirits. She sensed he felt this was his last hurrah and his chance to protect her.

  "We all need energy." Felix stared at Laura. She nodded and took a bowl too. She felt lightheaded from not eating most of the day. Ben grabbed one and sat down on a stool in the cramped kitchen with everyone. He twirled his spaghetti and shared a glance with Laura.

  She sensed he wished he was still alone with her. She looked away from Ben. She loved him but, with a heavy heart, she couldn't stay with him, even if they survived this. She had to find a way to remove herself from him and the others. She had to face her brother alone. All their guns in the world wouldn't end this. Ben continued to stare at her and it made her heart ache. It felt like ages ago he made love to her here, when in fact it was just last night.

  "Where is he now?" Ben turned toward Felix.

  "X-10 has reached a few miles below the Catskills. He'll be here by nightfall."

  They all looked around the table at one another.

  "Tell us what to do."

  Felix placed his massive hands on the table and began to set a plan in place of where they each should post and how the scenario could go. Ben and Mr. B worked back and forth with him as he explained. Laura said nothing. Her head felt thick and heavy. Their voices were muffled and far away, a combined cacophony of nothingness. None of this was relevant. She had to get away from this talk. They were all going to die and she had to prevent it from happening.

  She stood up in the midst of their jumbled voices, startling them. All three men stopped talking. "I have to go rest for a bit."

  Ben stood up and touched her arm. "Are you okay? Is the headache back?"

  She nodded, unable to speak and lie to him. Felix just stared at her. Did he know she was lying? Mr. B came to her side and put his hand under her elbow.

  "Let me help you to the loft. I feel fifty years younger."

  Laura took his help, clutching her head as if in great pain. She sensed Ben watching them walk away.

  Jim and Laura reached the loft ladder and he helped her up. "You've done so much for me. Let me at least take care of you now. Although, my soup would be a disaster. I never could make soup well. It ends up an insipid calamity of glop."

  Laura gazed at his white hair and wrinkled face and laughed out loud. His blue eyes shone with excitement and his back stood tall and straight for the first time in years.

  "Maybe your soup is a disaster—"

  "An abhorrence. A botched fare. A putrid disease. A pot of decay bound to cause botulism, boils, dysentery, atrophy, dyspepsia, and maladies of squeamish sorts."

  "—but you make a good friend."

  "Bah, not so good. Too old to be much good."

  "I don't even know what dyspepsia is."

  "Just indigestion. Like me. That's what I give you, most likely."

  She gripped his hand and kissed his rough cheek. "Never. A guardian angel you are."

  He stopped smiling and grasped her hand back. "That wouldn't be me. That would be the two men in the kitchen, honey. And they both love you. In different ways. I can tell."

  She just shook her head and let go of his hand to climb the ladder. "Thanks, Mr. B. For everything. I'll never forget all you've done." She looked down at him from the top. "I love you."

  "I love you too, Laura."

  Then she climbed up the ladder. She looked back down at the top. Mr. B still watched her. She waved at him before turning away.

  It was goodbye.

  CHAPTER 31

  The leftover spaghetti sat hardening in the stove pot and empty dishes sat strewn across the kitchen table amidst Jim's guns. Each one of them had chosen several different guns based on their plan. They decided holding down the cabin was their best defense. Felix would post himself at the screened-in porch and Jim would be in the great room. Ben would be upstairs with Laura, where he could scan the woods from the sliding doors at the balcony. If they ha
d to make a run for it, it would be a short drop to the ground below.

  "Mr. Barrens, I wish you would reconsider leaving," Ben said, putting his hand on the elderly man's shoulder next to him. "Take your Jeep and get as far away from here as possible. You've just recovered from pneumonia and I don't want to risk your life. We all know how this may end."

  "Never." Jim snorted. "Laura is a daughter to me. I love her and I would die to protect her. Besides, this is my house and I'm going to defend who's in it. Do you think I'm afraid of dying? I'm almost ninety years old. What other excitement in my life could ever top this?" He grinned at Ben.

  Felix nodded while filling his shotgun with shells. "We welcome your help. Just know we must take X-10 down first before he attacks us with his mind powers. Be ready to fire. We have a small window of opportunity to do so. His body is as vulnerable as yours. Bullets will kill him. But it must be enough to take him down so he doesn't have time to heal himself."

  Ben turned to Felix. He had to ask him. "And just how do you see this day ending, Felix? Will we all make it?"

  "What I see before me, is not always the final outcome. Many variables can change it."

  "What a safe and vague answer that reveals nothing."

  "Do you really want the truth, Ben? What purpose would it serve?"

  "He's right," Jim interjected, still grinning. "I like surprises."

  Ben looked at Jim. "Even if it means your death?"

  Jim's smile faded and his voice softened. "If my death saves Laura, then yes."

  "But what if we could prevent that with knowledge Felix has? Change the course of events? Plan differently?"

  "My knowledge is limited, Ben," Felix said. "Once I see the final outcome is the desired result, I do not interfere. It could change the course of events leading to disaster and tragedy. We then leave the door open to that possibility and an unpredictable end. I don't want to be responsible for that, do you?"

  Ben shook his head. Felix looked down at his gun, checking the mechanisms. "Everything will work out," Felix said. "Trust me."

  Ben stared at Felix but he wouldn't look back up. Felix was lying, but Ben didn't push it. He sighed. Perhaps it was better not to know.

  "It's time." Felix stood up. He closed his eyes and gripped his gun. "X-10 approaches. He'll be at the lake within the hour." He opened his eyes and they bore into Ben's with glowing intensity. They gathered their guns and stood for a moment looking at one another. One old, one young, and one from another world.

  Jim put his hand on Ben's back. "Go to her. She needs you."

  Ben nodded and turned toward the loft. All was quiet but the screeching wind that rose around the cabin in fits. He headed up the loft ladder into the darkness of the bedroom above.

  "Laura, you okay? Your twin is coming, but I'm here. We're all here for you." He switched on the light to find the room empty. "Laura?"

  He rushed into the bathroom and then back to the bedroom where the curtain blew at the balcony door. He pushed it aside to see the door open a crack.

  Laura was gone.

  Laura ran down the mountain trail toward the lake. The cold wind buffeted against her. It tried to snake its way inside her clothes, but she remained snug inside many layers. The only other things she had on her were a flashlight and her wallet. She had listened to the men talking in the kitchen and moved as quick and quiet as possible to sneak away. The sliding glass door creaked as she had opened it, but they hadn't stop talking below. She took the opportunity then to jump from the balcony to the ground below.

  She had to go this alone. She hoped to draw her twin to the crash site. There they could meet face to face. Just the two of them. It was her destiny. No one else's. He sought her out all these years and killed those she loved. Her heart was still open though. Could she forgive him once seeing him? Could he accept her forgiveness? The idea seemed so ridiculous, but Laura had a small bit of hope she was right. She wanted to change their fate. It didn't have to end in bloodshed. She still believed everyone had something redeemable in them. No one had ever given her twin a chance. She wanted to.

  They came from the same mother, same father. They only had each other. Could she make him realize that or would he truly be the monster Felix said he was? Her twin had haunted her all of her life, killed those she loved in gruesome ways, yet she was willing to forgive him. Together they had the chance to make right from so much wrong, didn't they?

  If he accepted her.

  Laura ran faster, her mind spewing with bizarre thoughts and her heart full of pain from those she lost. She ran toward her brother who sought to kill her.

  "I'm losing my mind," she said to herself and the bare woods around her. She reached the crash site as dusk fell around her. She pulled out a flashlight from her pocket she had found in the nightstand drawer. She pushed aside the rusted fence and entered the site area. She stood on the edge of the small crater for a moment, looking down at the hole she had dug in the valley floor earlier. This would be where she might die today. If her twin wouldn't reason with her then she would have to kill him.

  She ached for her mother and father to be alive. All the years she could have had with them. And Moe and Renee. She felt the deep hollow within herself grow larger with despair. Their deaths had to be for a reason, even if it was as small as bringing her and her brother together no matter what he had done. She walked down the hill to the crater floor and the tunnel entrance.

  She would wait for him here.

  It would end where it all started.

  X-10 stood at the bridge that crossed the waterfalls. He was here. The frigid water raced over the rocks beneath him, tumbling below into a swirling frenzy. It rushed along, carrying everything it took with it. He relished the moment. He could see Laura in his mind's eye. She waited for him and he was coming.

  He ripped off the old man's hat and coat and cast it aside, longing to be free in his movements. He yearned to be naked again as he had been all his life living in a solitary cell. The wind grabbed him with its cold tentacles, forcing its way through his shirt and pants, but he didn't notice. His blood pumped warm through his veins from running over miles of rocky hills and through dense woods.

  The route he had taken through the Catskill Mountains had been sparse with population. He congratulated himself on his stealth and ability to remain hidden. The government was after him, but they would never find him. He could live in the woods as long as he needed. He could follow them all the way into Canada if he had to, living off the land and its inhabitants.

  But first he had to take care of Laura. He sought her out his entire life. He had hated her from afar for so long he could think of no other way to perceive her except with hatred. He tried to recall when his hatred for her first grew, but he couldn't. Was it when he first discovered her existence through his powers, or later when he first sought her out? He remembered all the times Bjord taunted him about the girl and how she lived in a real home, with a family, even after X-10 had murdered her parents. Bjord continued to mock him with her existence from then on. For years he fueled X-10's hatred for her.

  A spark of confusion mixed with uncertainty crept into X-10 for the first time. Bits and pieces came back to him of things Bjord said about Laura that didn't ring true. Did Bjord really know about Laura's existence? Did Bjord create his hatred for her or did X-10 indeed hate her on his own? No, no! I do hate her. I must kill her. She got to live a life I never did! Stupid bitch. Not fair.

  He pressed his hands to his head forcing the uncomfortable thoughts away. She was so close. The time to kill her was now. Laura, the old man, and her lover were at the cabin, arming themselves against him.

  Her lover. Not fair. He'd had a lover once. Sabrina.

  She had folded him into her, offering him light, and beauty, and love.

  That one glorious night Sabrina had sunk her welcoming heat onto him, drawing him in slow. His muscles tightened as she rose up and down. He spiraled high above where he had always dwelled in darkness. Her nipple
s were the light pink of sky at dawn, a color he'd only known from a photo. He touched them and they stiffened at his rubbing. He pulled away, but she took his hands and placed them on her breasts.

  "Touch them like this, see? I like that, Charlie, do you?"

  He could only nod as ecstasy rose in his groin, a building heat. He was covered in her wet depths. He watched his body disappear over and over into her as she took him in. Her moans crashed over him and he held onto her pliant flesh.

  "Oh, Charlie, sweet Charlie."

  He was sweet Charlie. He reached up and stroked her hair. She arched her back and he ran his fingers along her throat. It pulsed with life and blood. She fell on his chest and they were pressed together like one piece of flesh. Was this the love that humans spoke about in books? It opened up his dark soul and filled in the black holes where emptiness resided.

  Her heart beat in sync with his.

  Thump-thump. Thump-thump.

  She pulled away from him then, a body of fluid lines, naked and lovely in its workings. She glided over him and he followed her rhythm.

  And then a great wave swelled within him where water had never been. Her body was the oasis that took away his parched existence. His pleasure mixed with an ancient urge.

  "Feel me, Charlie."

  And he did. She was all around him and he shot into her the only thing he could give. Light pulsed out from his fingertips and toes and mouth. Brilliance blazed around him. Or was it her radiant hair that filled his vision above with this light he couldn't contain? He grabbed on to her and held her tight, releasing a wild roar as he rocked deep inside her sweet flesh. Her mouth hung open, her eyes wide. Did she feel it too? He closed his eyes and fell back onto the scorched sand as the water receded.

  He had touched her as gently as she had touched him.

  And now he pushed her memory away.

  Had to push her away. It was too much to bear. Water filled his eyes now, a damning film. It spilled down his cheeks. It was painful. These human tears. This human pleasure led to so much pain. He would stick to killing for release.