The Dead Planet Series: Exodus (Book 1)

by Drew Avera

  Chapter 13

  I left the palace and Pontiff White behind. His concern over how I was operating was a little off putting. I didn't regret our alliance, but at the same time I resented the idea that he might want to control me the same way that the Agency has been. That thought reminded me of the fact that I had not been notified by the Agency in about three days. My only interaction with them had been either fighting or alluding policemen ever since the first hit had been attempted on Kara. Was there a connection between that event and my contact with the Agency? My involvement would not have been known until several hours later when they followed Kara to Thom's apartment. This coincidence was peculiar to say the least.

  I pulled my communicator from my jacket pocket and I looked at the display. No messages were shown, just as I suspected. I could only assume that the break in communication was their way of effectively cutting me off. I was surprisingly not upset by this revelation. It was freeing for me to be out from under their control. The past few days had been a seemingly endless battle in my mind with human emotions going up against the programming I had received in training. It was still sketchy, but I seemed to have a larger pallet of emotion at my fingertips as well as an uncanny ability to control them unlike ever before. I didn't feel like an incomplete person anymore, and with my ability to control every facet of my emotions I almost felt like I was beyond human.

  I sneaked past the policeman that was still standing guard and I darted into the shadows of an alley across the street from the square. He had stood unmoving the entire time and I had kept my eye on him. As a rookie most policemen constantly move their heads side to side in an attempt to keep a constant assessment of the situations that they were in. That method slowly degraded over time as we became more confident in our abilities. He had been too young to have such a mastery over his perceptive skills like a twenty or thirty year veteran. Yet another peculiarity that I had experienced today. Things were not what they had seemed. This felt a little too easy.

  The walk back to my fathers condemned apartment was without incident. The moon and stars shown in the black sky as I was wrapped in the embrace of a silent city. I could hear my boots contact the pavement step by step as I walked. I routinely checked my communicator from time to time, nervous that I might receive a call from the Agency or from Kara telling me that something was wrong. A call that I would never receive.

  I turned a corner and could see the apartment in the distance. The hulking building was dark and dreary where it used to be full of life and future possibilities. I could barely remember that time now, so far in the past it seemed like another life. As I approached the door entering the apartment I could see that the door was ajar. I knew that I had closed it when I left, but it was possible that Thom had stepped out for a moment to get some air. I was cautious as I reached for the door, afraid of a million possible situations that awaited by eyes.

  I nudged the door open with my left hand and braced myself for a possible attack. The apartment was deathly quiet and the few items in view had been damaged and left out in the open for me to see. I crept in slowly with my gauntlet powered and ready to fire. The blue light from the sight illuminated the floor as I stepped over bits of broken glass and debris. I could see Thom's media device laying on the floor where it had been stomped by whoever had come into the apartment. There was no sign of Thom or Kara in the living room so I continued into the bedroom where Kara had been sleeping before. My eyes fell upon a body sprawled across the floor. The room was black and I could not make out who it was. My heart sank at the possibility of Kara laying there lifeless.

  I scrambled over to the body and shined the light to reveal Thom's bruised and bloody face. Whoever had done this had wanted him to live, it was a message left for me. What that message was I could only speculate, but it had something to do with Kara not being left dead inside the apartment. Whether or not she was alive now was the question that was hard set in my mind and how I was going to find her was the next question to pop up.

  I checked Thom's vital signs and could see that he was still breathing. That was the only good sign of my current situation. I pulled my communicator from my jacket and called for a medical crew to come save him. It was not the safest option considering the Agency was obviously trying to get to me, but now that they knew where we have been hiding, nowhere would be safe. I needed to save Thom's life and that was my first priority. If I could save him then maybe he would have information that could help lead me to Kara. It didn't matter if it was a setup, she was the only family I had left and I would die to save her if that is what it took. I could feel my heart race at the thought of not finding her. That fear birthed anger and the anger reignited the hatred that I felt for the Syndicate. I would find Kara and I would kill anyone who stood in my way.

  I stood up and walked around the room trying to find evidence that could lead me to Kara. The room was clean except for Thom and the mess strewn around the apartment. This was definitely a message from whoever had organized the hit, a hit that was looking more like abduction. The only blood that I could find was from Thom's wounds. As far as I could tell, Kara was either alive or she was killed at another location. I hoped against the latter.

  I could see flashing lights coming from outside and I went to the door to usher in the emergency medical personnel. They entered quietly and checked Thom's vital signs. They confirmed what I had already known, that he was indeed still alive. They put a brace around his neck and placed him on a board to carry him out to their emergency vehicle. The two men spoke in some medical terms that I did not understand, all while ignoring me completely. Maybe they were afraid because I was a policeman, or maybe because there was another policeman laying on the ground beaten almost to death. Either way it didn't bother me, I was used to being ignored for the most part. The only people who focused their attention on you completely were the ones you were about to kill. At that moment you were the god of their lives, they couldn't help but focus on you, and the blue beam pointed in their direction.

  The medical crew carried Thom out in a hurry to rush him to the hospital. "Would you like to ride with us, sir?" One of the men asked. The question caught me off guard.

  "No, thank you," I said sheepishly, embarrassed that I had been taken aback by the initial question. "I'll go to the hospital to see him once he wakes up. Here is my contact information."

  I handed the man a card with my name and communicator information. It was awkward handing someone a card in whom you were not about to carry out Agency business with. It was without burden that I handed it to him. He stuffed the card into his pocket and closed the door behind him just before the driver took off. The vehicle jetted away with a flash of lights and a blaring siren, leaving me behind at the apartment, alone to figure out exactly what had happened and where my sister had been taken. I ran my hand through my hair and exhaled in frustration. I didn't know exactly where to begin, but I was certain that once I found who was responsible for this that I would kill them. I fumbled around with my gauntlet and checked its charge.

  With nothing else to do or nowhere else to go I began walking. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I felt compelled to just walk and kill time until the hospital alerted me that Thom had awakened. I walked towards the shore to the south, pulled by the memories of being there with Kara and my father so many years ago. I hadn't felt it before, but being in my father’s old apartment had brought some long since forgotten memories back to the surface. Just another glimpse into the humanity I had left behind before the Agency. A humanity that I now found to be as pleasant and familiar as home.