The Undergrad

by Mela NoLeuca

CHAPTER FIVE

   Ethan's POV

  Strapped and unarmed, you can consider me vulnerable as a sitting duck. But I'm not weak.

  There I was lying down on a gurney in a highly secured medical room with Agent Craw to my right and the annoying girl to my left. Craw hasn't stirred yet, maybe that was because the concentration of the NIES was lower in his blood compared to mind, increasing my metabolism and therefore shortening the duration of the sedative.

  I waited for the last bits of the drug to wear out as I began conjuring up a plan to escape this facility. It would have been easier if the girl hadn't risen yet from her sleep because now her annoying, shrill voice was becoming the reason to my headache.

  "Shh!" I hissed. Goddamn I couldn't take it anymore. She was like this banshee that was stuck on replay to forever rape my ears.

  I thought that did the trick but it only made her talk faster, "Keep it down!" I grounded out.

  "Help! I've been kidnapped! Oh my God I'm kidnapped," she began mumbling to herself like a chipmunk high on sugar. Could someone just knock her out for me? Please?

  The lights turned on. Finally. That seemed to shut her up for good. I craned my neck as hard as I could until I saw a doctor talking to the annoying girl. Oh, she's blonde. Don't hate me for being discriminate or anything but seeing that she's blonde kind of helped me understand her a little more.

  While they were getting comfortable having their little chitchat, I turned to see Craw, hoping he was awake. He barely was, I needed him to be alert and conscious if we were both going to survive this one. This wasn't our first near-death experience, but this was my first time to be held hostage.

  I knew why they needed me. The only reason ERA is in war with ARC is because of the NIES that was injected into me. Of course ARC was being all unprofessional about it and clearly needed to have it back, it was annoying.

  "Craw," I whispered low. It was discreet enough for the two to completely miss out but it was loud enough if you had the serum into your system. They polish out our senses, so there was even a point where you could hear, see, taste and feel everything so distinctly it was disturbing. I developed a sense of selective focus that took a lot of work throughout the years, and it has been paying off lately.

  "Craw," I try again. This time his blue eyes darted knowingly at me. I nodded slightly and so did he. Back in the academy they taught us so many basic tactics should we ever stumble into a tight situation. These were one of those scenarios we were prepared for.

  I turned to look back at the enemy; he was sitting on the banshee's bed facing my way, babbling useless crap to the girl. Judging from his facial structure and all too familiar built, I could easily tell that he was the exact same man that helped me find Craw and the Target. I hate it when people lie to me. Good thing I reserved myself to give him the benefit of doubt. To think that there were some good men just lost in ARC, I knew I should have known better that this was all a trap.

  "Oh shut the fuck up! I can't believe you'd stoop down to something as low as this," I demanded his attention.

  It went well because now he was sauntering towards me with a pathetic smile on his face. I gave him an idea on how I wanted to kill him off with just the IV pole next to me. And he didn't even seem disturbed as he went through a boring monologue that I don't even give a shit about.

  I just kept him talking to me, trying to play along with his witty come backs even if it sickened me. Craw managed to work his way around the leather strap that kept his hands flat on his thighs. He was now loosening himself and carefully tested how far his body has recovered. I took this all in with just my peripheral vision.

  The guy who I was talking to was wearing a white doctor-like coat with Portley stitched onto his breast pocket. I found that stupid. Was he seriously giving away personal information to his captives? Whatever, I might consider hunting him down in the future. I told him that just to give Craw enough time to recover. I saw him give me a nod, but at the same time... Oh shit. Was she seriously trying to make a run for it?

  I was considering dragging her along until she was safe somewhere with her family again. I weighed my sense of Moral Issues--shit, this was almost too funny. Because one moment she was limping towards the door and the next thing I knew she disappeared. She obviously fell face first; to top it off her ass was occasionally poking through the gap of the white gown! I didn't even know what was funnier.

  I caught myself almost smiling from the hilarity when I saw the doctor trying to stifle from a laugh.

  "Robyn," he said, "I already told you you're too sedated to attempt an escape, try again later when it wears off."

   So that was her name. Robin? Strange, I'm guessing her parents must have an obsession with those blue birds. And birds were annoying especially in the morning. I could almost see the similarities between the bird and this banshee.

  Maybe the girl helped us out with distracting Portley. Now it was easier for Craw to break free from all those contraptions connected to him. He grabbed his IV pole and swung it at Portley.

  He jumped away from me amateurishly. This was going to be easy. I broke off from my contraptions as well and grabbed my IV pole. I knew it seemed to lack originality, but let me tell you what; desperate times call for desperate measures.

  I was mildly surprised when he at least knew how to defend himself with just the metal chart he had with him. He even cut Craw across the torso with the blunt edge of the metal. I mentally cringed at the pain my colleague was under, but who cares, at least he had the NIES to clean that up for him.

  Somehow his back up filed in and snuck up on us just as we managed to step out of the room. I was beginning to wonder now if I shouldn't have gone back in to carry the girl with us because that kind of slowed us down. Like I’ve said before, a second too late is a second too dangerous.

  Armed men garbed in white uniform eyed our every move carefully as they pointed their rifles while Portley recomposed himself. The hall was just as white as the patients room that you could easily be fooled into thinking that you were in a hospital. I was trying to take in as much as I could and weighed my options.

  Craw and I could easily escape this place even with this girl on our back. Or, we could try and blow up this facility for good. I glanced at Craw. He seemed to have an idea of my thoughts and slowly shook his head. Okay maybe we can blow this place up next time.

  "Beautiful," Portley said, dabbing a string of blood trailing down the corner of his mouth. "Amazing how my father's work made you. You should thank him for that,"

  We both kept quiet. Maybe he might slip and give us additional information that we might need. He of course mentioned about the Target we were after, we later learned its name: The Rubrix. It was designed to manipulate the NIES from the outside since the serum was basically billions of nanobots running through our system. I appreciated the ingenuity, but also realized that if they were fixed on my brain and other vital organs he can kill hundreds of our men back in ERA or he had the potential to control us to his liking.

  He said he just wanted to 'borrow' us if he was right and actually tried to ask us politely, then he tried again, we were still not convinced until I finally decided to play along. Craw didn't question me. We were trained like this. Even if he was my superior, ranks didn't matter to us since we both knew how often I beat him in chess.

  Strangely enough, Portley gave us a quick tour to his 'mansion'; his men protested, suggesting that he didn't have to, but this guy didn't listen to them. Maybe he was the mastermind. He did mention that his father was the one who created the NIES.

  The ARC lived up to its name. Amalgamated Research Constitution, their fields of expertise ranged from insects to plant, machine to robots and other broader categories; I could've sworn they covered everything known in this planet. They had laboratories according to each division, rooms of computers and even field researchers who were assigned to venture out.

  The whole building was so pristinely white it reminded me of an enlarged Ap
ple Store. The structure of this building was cylindrical and judging by how the sun peered through the roofless center, these guys might be working under solar power. All departmental offices had their own floor and all of them rounded the walls of the building. The center was just a big circular gap. I glanced down but I guessed we were too high up for me to see the bottom.

  How were we going to escape this place? The glass elevator that we stepped into was so wide that all twenty-four of us could fit in the vast space; Portley, Craw, Robyn the twenty armed men and I. We descended to the bottom where I caught a glimpse of an enormous carpark with wheeled machines before we dove deeper down. Below that carpark was an empty white large foyer.

  Two armed men cuffed each of our wrists with metal rings before old men garbed in white robes, like Portley's, stuck circular stickers to our body: one each for the sides of our forehead, two at the back for each lung, three to mark the electrical conductivity of our heart and others scattered to where our pulses were palpable. Then, they gave us pants, thank goodness.

  After fully prepping us, they placed us together in one room with glass for walls while they tied the girl and one of them slung her on his shoulder.

  "You think they could hear us?" I turned to face Craw as I watched Portley observe us intently. His four researchers were tapping things in a holographic screen that popped up from the glass wall while his twenty soldiers lined the wall behind him, blocking the elevator, which was our only way out.

  "Most probably," He rolled his shoulders.

  "You saw what I saw?"

  "Basically everything you took in," He smiled softly, "Tango Delta one-nineteen?"

  I smiled, "definitely."

  I ran to him and he knelt down, interlocking his fingers as I stepped on his palms. He gave me a boost and I rolled in the air, using the momentum as I willed the bots to concentrate to my feet. I kicked through the glass and it shattered like powder before taking down as much enemies as I could. Craw ran for the girl and some guns while I gathered more, letting a rain of bullets from keeping them isolated from more backup.

  Portley was a tough one; he staggered to his feet, barely surviving the bullets.

  I smirked, "it was nice knowing you,"

  I headed for the elevator where Craw was waiting for me. He had the girl slung on his shoulder and even kept her dignity when he folded the gown over the gap on her back to hide her ass cheeks. I winked at him then turned to watch the elevator doors close.

  Shit. Was that Portley with a gun pointed at me? Something knocked the air from my lungs as I was thrown to the side. The doors closed as I took in deep steady breaths.

  "Jesus Craw!" I saw him supine on the ground, "Why the hell'd you do that you asshole!"

  I saw the morbid gap between his forehead as blood stained the white marble floor. I pushed the girl far so that she didn't have to have his blood on her and so that she could stop screaming. Why didn’t they plaster duct tape over her mouth? They already had her wrists and ankles cuffed, why not go for the whole package, right?

  Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! I gingerly lifted Craw's head and grabbed his cheeks. His eyes were already dull and his pulse was already gone. "Come on man! Use your fucking NIES! Don't leave me like this, man!"

  I'm not sure if the nanobots can fix this. But fuck! Oh fuck! The elevator was blinking red; thank goodness it stopped at the carpark. They were coming.

  "Don't leave me man! What do I tell Agent Green? Shit Michael... Don't..." I dropped my head. Who am I kidding? He was gone forever.

  The rage that surged through my vision got me plowing through the white-armed men. I grabbed the girl. Craw must have had a reason for deciding to bring her. I grabbed an armful of firearms that Craw had slung over his shoulders and then the girl who was thrashing against my hold, at least she was conscious. I stepped into some random car that wasn't fucking white, dumped all the rifles at the back and shot through her cuffs so she could move freely.

  "Drive or fucking kill these bastards!" I roared into her face just so that she would shut up. I was in so much spite that I needed to kill as much. She was driving around in circles, running over soldiers filing in. I commanded her to drive straight through where they came from and soon enough we were out in the open.

  I couldn't think anymore as I gunned more and more down until I ran out of bullets. I dove back in the car, grabbed one rifle sitting in the back seat.

  "What's happening?" she shrieked.

  "Keep driving!" I poked through the window and resumed fucking murdering anyone who was trying to gain on us. I decorated everything with bullets that moved towards us and only moved on to the next once they crash and or explode.

  I was giving them no mercy. They didn't fucking need any.

  My brain was programmed to see blood. I can't believe it! I can't and won't and never will believe how that fucking Portley shot a bullet through Craw. And Craw was such an asshole! Why the hell did he have to take the fucking bullet for me! This is bullshit. Everything is fucking bullshit!

  I've lost everyone. Everyone! My mom who I've never heard of, my dad who died in their hands, my brother because of the stupid experiment and now Craw... Fucking Craw. They had to take the only man who was closest to me... The only family I had left. No. There was still Green. His wife. You remember her? She was the one I was talking to while I was headed for the University. I forgot to mention about her, but she was Agent Green.

  Oh shit. How will I even break it to her? I'm sorry Emily. I let you down. I can't even imagine the look on her face when I tell her.

  Emily Green was the woman Michael Craw fell in love with five years ago. And five years ago I hated her. I was always so jealous whenever I caught Michael making his moves on her. She had always been a threat to me. But eventually, she rubbed off on me. The next few years they eventually got married. The two of them were like my parents.

  She was initially Craw's Intel from the headquarters and was being trained to become mine. She was the best, and the General believed that I needed her. Together, the three of us were perfect, my assignments in the Academy differed from other noobs because I get to actually go out to the field and not just run through a simulation. I experienced getting shot and all those other things that could almost kill me.

  Technically she was the only family I had left now that her husband died.

  After nearly getting killed by the truck, thankfully I knew how to drift on the street, we crashed through a park, had the cops on our trail until we eventually lost them through the alleyways.

  There was a moment I decided to give up on this whiny girl along the way. I simply couldn't stand her going on and on. But if I did, I couldn't live with the fact that if she ever died, I'd have her blood on my hands. Craw would have risked his life for nothing, and I wouldn't want any of his efforts to go to waste.

  Maybe I should contact Green, tell her where we were and then we could probably find a place to stay for night. As we walked through a crowd I swiped a brown trench coat off a chair from a cafe and slung it over Robyn, I fished another for myself. We walked through a downtown bizarre and emerged with new clothes and shoes.

  The girl was going crazy, because she loved what I chose and when she found something better we'd have to go back in. It was pretty horrible when I caught myself shopping for her selfish wants when all I wanted was to just keep a low profile by having on normal clothes. I sternly reprimanded her to stop being childish.

  It was crazy when she began whining about: "Clothes! If you're just gonna steal them, at least steal the best!"

  "Look, don't talk me into these stupid things." I barked.

  She fell quiet when I reminded her about the situation we were in. I snagged a few wallets before tucking them into my pants. God, she's so annoying. At first we had another argument where she forced me to return a rich man's wallet. The second time I tried again she told the owner that he dropped it and that I was handing it back.

  I had to drag her again to a corner and articulate tha
t we needed money to buy food!

  "Do you have cash?"

  "No!" she protested, "But that is still wrong! The weight of Karma--"

  "Cannot feed you!" I cut her in, "nor can it save you from those people back there hunting you down! I'm not enjoying any of this like you think I am but we need the money! What difference would it make if I plucked wallets off men if I've been stealing clothes to satisfy your stupid clothes fetish!”

  Oh shit she was on the verge of tears. I can’t risk starting a scene in such a busy place. I sighed heavily then ran a hand down my face. Whatever. "Stay here or come with me, I don't care. I'm trying to survive until I can get help."

  I stalked off and she followed. I knew she was going to anyway; she had nowhere else to run. I yanked two fat wallets off a posh woman and another decorated with gold before heading for the payphone I spotted at the corner.

  I punched in a combination of numbers and clicked the switchhook rhythmically that said: ERA in Morse code. A dead tone first greeted me, soon I heard a series of faint 'clicks' it was another Morse code that asked for my serial number, and I keyed it in.

  Throughout the dead tone my sensitive ears picked up a tiny voice machine requesting me to state the purpose of my call. My wish was to report to the General of my whereabouts and the grave news of my late comrade. I also requested for a place to stay, along with equipment to arm myself before a chauffeur would come pick us up and send us back to the Head Quarters.

  At first I thought I heard the voice machine wrong. I asked to repeat what it just said. I needed at least three times of repetition before I slowly managed to digest what it just said:

  "I'm sorry Alpha Niner Zero One, but you have been relieved from your duties for serving the Elite Recombinant Agency. Using the location of this frequency, a prep team will be on your way for standard procedure. We apologize for any abrupt change in course. Thank you and have a nice day.”

  I slammed the handset on the payphone and dazed into the distance.

  “Well?” asked Robyn, walking towards me, “what’d they say?”

  “I’m fired.” I stated bluntly, “and I haven’t even graduated.”