Spaced Out

by Korissa Allen

  I feel all of the color drain from my face. I want to thrash out at him for even mentioning that idea, but the more uncivilized I become, the less chance I have of getting out of here alive, with my family and friends.

  The walkie-talkie around his belt crackles to life, and he steps out of the cell to answer the call. He comes back a few minutes later, checking his watch. “Sorry, that was my boss. He needs me downstairs now. Besides, I’m guessing you need some time to process this information. Tell you what, I’m going to go talk to some of my supervisors about enlisting you for my army. I think you would be perfect!” He opens the door, winks, and briskly walks out, leaving the door ajar.

  It occurs to me that Rowan must take his orders from Chris, and if Chris knows who I am, he might want me on their “force” even more than I thought they would. If only my mother were on our side and not brainwashed by him.

  Rowan and Chris are complete opposites. Rowan is friendly and not extremely bright. I think that he would be a really nice and fun person if he didn’t work for the Corps. But then again, Kelton worked for them too, and he turned out fine, at least, as far as I know.

  Chris, on the other hand, is strict and firm and has no emotion. His laugh might sound like nails on a chalkboard, if he knew how to laugh. I guess I can see why he chose to work as the Corps’ first-in-command. His personality is just as appealing as the company he works for. I wonder if Chris brainwashed Rowan to get him to work here, and his personality would make them seem like an organization that wanted to help people, not kill for fun and brainwash innocent people.

  I’m about to drift off to sleep, hoping it would make things go slower, and maybe imagine my family one last time, but I’m awoken by something. Or, to be more accurate, someone. Someone I know well. I have to blink a few times to make sure I’m not dreaming again, but I’m not. He stands right in front of me, the overhead light illuminating his face. I whisper his name, but he’s already unlocking the chains around my hands and feet. I bring my hands in front of my face and examine them really closely. His hands wrap around mine and he pulls me to my feet.

  “How did you escape?” I manage.

  “Max and David found me,” Kelton says. “They said they knew my screams all too well, but I think they saw me in one of the cameras. Anyway, we have to go. They knew my cell was unlocked, so they could be here any minute.” I look at his gleaming eyes and find actual fear behind them. I can’t tell if he’s worried we might be caught or he’s still reliving the nightmares from the cell, or both. I’ve never truly seen him afraid before, but it scares me more than it should. I try to calm myself by wrapping my arms around his neck. He wraps his arms around my waist. It reminds me of when I used to hug my father when he came home from work.

  He pulls away a few seconds later. “What was that for?”

  “I’ll tell you later,” I say. “We have to go right now. Rowan said that he’ll be back soon, and I can only imagine what would happen if he found out you escaped.” He grabs my hand and pulls me down a row of cells, each one with a heavy metal door in front of it.

  “Do you know which cell my father and Kyle are in?” I purposefully leave out Daniel’s name, because even though it was just a scenario, it doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen some day. Kelton looks at me funnily as if he just smelled something awful.

  “Yes,” he says wearily. “And Daniel?”

  “Did I forget about someone,” I ask. “Oh well, I guess we can get him too.”

  Kelton stops running, which makes me jerk forward a little. “What did you see in that cell that had to do with Daniel?” He asks the question accusingly, and I cross my arms and scowl.

  “Nothing, just him introducing Callie to me,” I spit.

  “Who’s Callie?”

  “The girl that Daniel faked his death for. She was really rude and uptight about everything. It made me sick the way she clung on to him. But she can have him, I found someone better anyway.” I wink at him, and a smile creeps onto his face. “Anyways, we should probably get going.” He nods and we take off running again.

  Kelton stops in front of a cell and pulls out a ring of cards around his belt loop. He selects one of the cards and slides it through a slot next to the door. The door opens with a hiss, and I push it open further to see who’s inside. The cell looks just like mine did, except it holds my brother instead of me. I run over to him and wrap my arms around him, pulling him close to me. He doesn’t move, and I can barely feel his breaths against my neck. I pull away and find his eyes open and his body limp. A tear rolls down my cheek as I recall what he looked like in my dream. I look away, at the blurry ground, before I stand up and sob into Kelton’s shoulder.

  He doesn’t ask for a while, but eventually he can’t wait any longer. “Kyle’s going to be okay, you know that?” he assures me. “He’s in one of the simulations that you and I were in, except there’s no emotion, so maybe he’s seeing the beginning of his dream. I’ve heard you don’t show much emotion on the outside until the middle to end.”

  “He was in one of my hallucinations,” I blurt out. “Except that it wasn’t futuristic. It was the past. It was from when my mother took him to get the Procedure. His face was blank and slack and his eyes open but not seeing anything. He looked like he did after he ate the bread, except younger and less frightening.”

  Kelton nods at me thoughtfully, contemplating what he should say next. “Was I in one of your hallucinations?” he asks me. I nod. “What was it about?”

  “You walked in my cell,” I begin. “You asked me to rate my pain, and I told you I was an eleven. You told me that was good. I asked you how you escaped, but before you could answer, someone, I didn’t see who, came up behind you and stabbed you in the heart. You crumpled to the ground and blood started pooling around you. I screamed until I woke up and realized I was just hallucinating. It felt so real, though.”

  “Yeah, they’re designed to target your worst fears and make you imagine them,” he says. “It’s actually a pretty genius way to torture your enemies. I would give them more credit, but they’ve been using it against the people I care about most. I’m so sorry. This is all my fault. I should’ve been protecting you more. If you want, I can go find your father and Daniel and you can stay here with Kyle until he wakes up.”

  I nod in agreement, and he shows me how to unlock the chains around his ankles and hands.

  “I’ll be back soon,” he says. “If he wakes up before I get back, come and look for me.” He runs out of the cell and to the right. I watch him run for a while until I hear Kyle scream. I whip around, finding him trying to clutch at his neck. I start to pull his hands off his neck, but I realize that he’s doing it for a reason. He screams again, but this time, his face turns blue. He closes his eyes and starts throwing up blood and saliva, but his screaming still continues. Finally, after what seems like too long, his eyes open. He blinks a few times, adjusting to the sudden source of light. His gaze lands on me, and he screams.

  “Kyle,” I shout at him, trying to raise my voice over his. “Kyle! It’s me, Zandrea, your sister. I’m not going to hurt you.” He stops screaming and begins panting to slow his heart rate. “I’m going to get you out of here, okay.” I unlock the chains, just like Kelton showed me how to do. He rubs his hands where the cuffs were and starts crying.

  “You were dead,” he says to me. “Everyone was. It was all my fault, too. I was brainwashed to think that you were the enemy. You told me to stay strong, and I did, but it was too late. I also had to kill Mother because Chris said I had to.” He starts sobbing, so I wrap my arms around him. He buries his face into my shirt and cries until the tears stop flowing. Kyle wipes his eyes and stands. “How did you get in here?”

  “Kelton unlocked my cell and we found yours,” I say calmly, like it was no big deal. “His friends Max and David heard him and helped him get out. We have to go find him.” Kyle and I start down the corridor until we find an open room. No one is inside, but it looks like it was used rec
ently.

  Kyle runs ahead as I examine the room. It looks the same as all of the others, but the chains start a little higher up. This room is meant for taller people, like my father. The thought scares me, so I keep running to catch up to Kyle, who is stopped in front of a doorway. He’s hugging someone, my father, their cheeks stained with tears. I join the group hug, and my father pulls me close to his side.

  “I thought I would never see you two again,” he says. “I’m glad I was wrong.” A smile crawls onto my father’s face, one I haven’t seen since I was little, the smile that reads: everything is going to be alright, nothing can hurt us. I saw the smile when he would embrace my mother after a long day at work. It made me realize that nothing can separate our family, not the Corps, and definitely not Chris.

  “Father,” I begin. He looks at me expectantly. “Let’s go home.” His smile grows bigger, and he pulls me even closer to him.

  I walk into the cell that contains Daniel. Kelton crouches on the floor next to him, waiting for him to wake up from his nightmare. He looks very calm, considering his worst fears are playing across his mind like a movie screen. His eyes flutter open a few minutes later, and he looks around the cell, blinking in the new source of light.

  “What’s going on?” He demands. I sit down next to Daniel. “How did you get out?”

  “Kelton helped me,” I say. “At least he would care enough.”

  “I would’ve too if I wasn’t chained up like a dog,” he retorts. “It’s not like there was much I could do.”

  “Kelton helped me,” I say again. “Why couldn’t you?”

  “In case you haven’t noticed,” he begins. “I’m sort of tied up. So maybe if you could stop treating me like your enemy, maybe I can stop feeling like one. At least I didn’t betray you.” His eyes flicker over to Kelton, hatred brewing underneath his blue irises.

  Kelton winces next to me. “You did, actually,” I say.

  “Not like he did,” Daniel fires back.

  “No, you’re right,” I say. “My best friend faked his death so he could go and spend the rest of his life with his girlfriend after he already proposed to his best friend. So yeah, you didn’t betray me like he did. What you did was much worse.” I pause, my voice dropping to a whisper. “And I will never be able to forgive you for it.” I stand up and walk out of the cell, tears threatening to slip down my face.

  Later, my father comes out of the cell and stands next to me, leaning against the wall. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I didn’t know how bad things have been with you and Daniel. I thought you were working things out.” He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes.

  We stand in silence for a while before I muster up the courage to ask him a question that’s been nagging at me since we first found him here. “Do you still love Mother?”

  The question must come as a surprise, because his eyelids fly open and he whips his head to look at me. “Of course,” he says, like the answer should have been obvious. “Why do you ask?”

  “I don’t know,” I say quietly. “Even though they weren’t together at the time, her boyfriend is the one who got you into this mess. It was his idea to bring you here.”

  “Well, I guess we should get back before anything else happens.” He smiles at me, and the warmth of his smile is enough to make me smile back. He pats my shoulder in a reassuring gesture and looks from me to where Kyle is in the cell.

  “He’s grown up a lot,” my father says. “And you’ve done a good job taking care of him.”

  “I haven’t done much,” I admit. “I think just being here has helped him to grow. You should have seen how scared he was to leave home.”

  “It is a lot to process,” he says. “But I think it was good for him, and you for that matter, to see the galaxy, get out of your comfort zone a little bit. It gives you a new perspective on things.”

  I nod, not really sure what else to say.

  Kelton, Kyle, and Daniel come out of the cell a few minutes later. Daniel looks tired until his eyes meet up with mine. He straightens up, trying to make himself look bigger and stronger than Kelton. I would start laughing, but I remember I’m still angry with him.

  I walk faster to join Kelton, who playfully slugs Kyle in the arm. “Kelton,” I say, and he turns around. “I need to talk to you.” He falls in step with me, leaving Kyle to walk with my father and Daniel. I begin discussing the conversation I had with Rowan. “He came into my cell and told me he wanted me to be a part of his army. He said I had enough skill for it.”

  “He actually thought you were going to help him? He must really be desperate,” Kelton replies.

  “Here’s the weird part: he left my cell open enough for me to escape. I was still locked up, but I probably could’ve got out of those chains if I wanted to. And the way he left, it just seemed too… setup. Like he was planning for his walkie-talkie to interrupt our conversation. And he winked at me, as if he was trying to tell me something.”

  “Yeah, probably that you’re beautiful and he would probably like to go out with you.”

  I shake my head. “That’s disgusting. He’s like twenty years older than me. And besides, he works for the Corps. Like I would date anyone from the Corps.” Kelton looks offended by this, and I remember that he used to work for them. “I didn’t mean it like that. And anyways, you were working undercover. That doesn’t count.” He smiles and does something I never saw coming. He kisses me. It’s like the dream I had, back when Kyle and I were trapped in the mirror hallway, except real. I feel Daniel’s eyes on the back of my head. This is my way of showing him I’ve moved on and don’t need him.

  I smile as he pulls back and reaches for my hand. I can’t keep the smile off my face, not even when Kyle turns around and starts mimicking us. Kelton laughs, and so do I, making me feel more free than I have in weeks.

  The corridor that we’re in is very long and lit dimly. We don’t reach the end for a few minutes. Kelton pulls out his card loop and opens the door. Max and David wait outside for us, guns poised and ready to fire at will.

  “What took you guys so long?” David asks it like it was supposed to be a joke, but I don’t find it very funny.

  “Thanks for getting us out of there,” Kelton says. “Now, we all need to get to the main hangar, where we’ll find some kind of ship to get us back to Coreno. From there, we can head in our own directions. I know Zandrea, Kyle, their father, and Daniel live there. I have some friends who live there as well. Where are you guys heading?”

  “I’m heading to Xeltron with David,” Max says. “His sister lives there. And, from what we’ve heard, it seems to have the least amount of war there. Good luck on Coreno, it has the most fighting in the entire galaxy.”

  “Thanks,” Kelton says. “We’ll keep that in mind.”

  “So,” Daniel begins. “What’s the best way to get out of here?”

  “The hangar is on the first floor and about half a mile north of here,” David informs us. “The best way to get there would be to go the half mile up here, then take an elevator down to the first floor, and go from there. They might not have many ships, considering how many they have had to use for warfare, but the Corps have been planning this attack for several years. Hopefully they have enough ships left. Once we get there, stay put until Max and I find a ship we can use.”

  “Let’s go then,” I say. “I have to get back to my mother before she does something she’ll regret for the rest of her life.”

  We take off running in the direction David said we should go. We get there a little later, panting and sweating. The roar of the ships taking off shakes the ground. The vibration is enough to make my stomach hurt where the bullet pierced me. I lean against the wall until the vibrating stops.

  “You okay?” Daniel approaches me, looking defeated and tired.

  “Now you care?” I’m not letting my guard down with him for even a second. I’ve seen him do this kind of thing before, pretending to care so the person will open up to him. It’s a great gi
ft to have, especially when your job is to interrogate people. He has a specific tone of voice he reserves for times like this. He uses it when we get in fights, but this time is different. This time, I don’t have to come running back to him.

  “Look, I didn’t come over here to fight with you,” he says. “I seriously want to know if you’re okay. Even if you don’t think so, you’re still my best friend. That hasn’t changed, and will never change, for me anyway. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about Callie. I knew it would break you, and I couldn’t do that. I realized when Kelton kissed you that things were different between us, you had moved on. I hope someday you can at least forgive me.”

  He sounds so sincere that it almost kills me to keep pushing the subject, but there’s something I have to know. “Why did you propose to me if you were in love with Callie?”

  “I don’t know,” he answers. “I never really was in love with her like I was with you. Callie has liked me since we were young, we went to the same school and everything, but I never felt the same way. I knew you were falling for Kelton, so I decided to take drastic measures, like faking my death. I didn’t realize how much our relationship would be affected.”

  “Listen Daniel,” I begin. “If you had told me that there was someone else, before you proposed, I would have told you to be with her instead of me. Sure, it would have hurt for a while, but I could have got over it. Now, when I look at you, all I see is a liar, and I can’t trust you like I used to. Things change, nothing is ever going to be definite, and that’s why there’s such thing as risk. If there’s no risk, there’s no thrill. And now, there’s no us.”

  It kills me to talk to him the way I just did, especially after he apologized, but I have to hold my ground. If I don’t, he will reel me in like he does every time we get in a fight. He looks at the ground, probably contemplating what I said. He finally looks up at me, his eyes red with tears. I look away. One thing that hasn’t changed since I left home almost three weeks ago is my compassion for other people. My mother told me I get it from my father. He’s the kind of person that would help no matter what the circumstance. I can’t bring my eyes to his, no matter how hard I try. Part of me aches for him, because I understand what he’s going through. I know what it’s like, coming so close to something, only for it to be taken away. My eyes fill with tears, but I blink them away, not wanting to show weakness and defeat.