Chasing a Familiar Shadow

by Aman Gupta

  “You’re a hard man to reach,” said Bill as he walked by.

  “Yet you found me, clearly I have scope for improvement,” said Vik, stopping in his tracks.

  Bill smirked. Vik gave a fake smile.

  “Karen tells me you found something unique in Orange Town. Old River was a bust,” said Bill. “I thought you weren’t interested in helping us.”

  “I helped because I wanted to, not because it was expected of me,” said Vik.

  “Fair enough,” said Bill.

  Bill was scratching his finger, which was causing Vik a lot of grief in unwanted distractions.

  “Why not wear it? The ring?” asked Vik.

  “So the perp across me doesn’t take me lightly. If they figure out you got someone you care about, they’ll own you in a heartbeat,” said Bill.

  “That’s the smartest thing you’ve said since you’ve arrived,” said Vik.

  Bill smiled.

  “Guess your wife did see something in you,” said Vik. “Congratulate her for me, will you? She caught a smart one.”

  Vik walked past Bill, as he realized what Vik was referring to. Bill let his guard down for a second, and Vik got him to confess his lie about being single. Bill knew Vik didn’t care about it.

  “So did your wife,” said Bill.

  “Maybe not. She married me,” said Vik, before turning the corner.

  He saw the lights were turned on inside the lab, through the window. He went inside the lab without knocking. Karen had put on earplugs to cut out the noise. She was looking at the hand that Vik had hidden away in the lab, through the microscope. When she looked up, Vik was standing in front of her, only a feet away. She was startled. She took off the earplugs.

  “Where did you find it?” asked Vik.

  “You should’ve done a better job of hiding it,” said Karen.

  “You could’ve asked first,” said Vik. “And aren’t you going to ask about it?”

  “Ask about what?” asked Karen.

  “About Troy’s body,” said Vik.

  “Troy? Oh yeah! You left the Alpha’s body in Orange Town?” said Karen, slightly angry.

  Vik walked backwards, stepping away. Karen told her she was disappointed in him, but Vik told her to get over it. He remained reticent to her minor rant that followed, where she accused him of being duplicitous.

  “You didn’t, did you?” said Karen, after calming down. “I know that look.”

  “No, I didn’t,” said Vik.

  “Where is it?” asked Karen. “Where’s the body?”

  “Gone. I left it alone for a few minutes, and when I returned, it was gone,” said Vik.

  “You mean he wasn’t…” said Karen.

  “Dead? Yeah, most probably not,” said Vik.

  Vik noticed the ring wasn’t glowing anymore. He attributed it to decay of the hand.

  “We shot him multiple times. He was supposed to die,” said Karen.

  “Guess your mysterious creatures are immune to bullets,” said Vik.

  “Interesting. How did you kill yours?” asked Karen.

  “Who says I did? Maybe he got up after we left,” said Vik.

  “Have you seen them under the microscope?” asked Karen.

  “Yes. I didn’t eat for an entire day,” said Vik.

  “How many of them are out there?” asked Karen.

  “I don’t know. Maybe a 100,000. Probably more,” said Vik.

  Karen went silent for a few seconds. Vik noticed her look. Having come to terms with her worst fears hit her harder than she expected. He felt she realized she had picked a fight much bigger than her.

  “Who told you all this?” asked Karen.

  “A friend,” said Vik.

  “Which friend?” asked Karen.

  “This is the part where I don’t answer you,” said Vik. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some confidential work to do. I’ll need you to leave the lab for the day. Keep the key.”

  “Okay,” said Karen.

  Karen took off the gloves and headed to the door.

  “You knew he was alive, didn’t you? Troy?” asked Karen. “That’s why you didn’t want us to carry him.”

  “I hadn’t ruled it out, but I was more worried that his friends might come looking for you,” said Vik. “Seemed like an unnecessary risk.”

  “See you later,” said Karen.

  She opened the door when Vik interrupted.

  “Keep it close to your heart, okay? Don’t think it’s the right time to involve others,” said Vik.

  “Yes,” said Karen. “I also have to figure out what to do with this information. I just can’t sit on it.”

  She walked out of the lab. Vik had a feeling of déjà vu, even though he never had this conversation in his life.

  When Karen left, Vik locked the lab from the inside and crawled down to the secret room through the hidden closet. He grabbed an empty bag from the shelf and filled it with guns and ammunition. The screen played Vik’s message about the war, while he grabbed grenades and pressure bombs. While listening to the message, he reminisced the day he had recorded it.

  Only a year had gone by since 1/1 when he was sitting at a restaurant alone, somewhere south. He still went by Jay at that time. The diner was shabby and old after it had survived multiple earthquakes during the attacks. The florescent light above the bar was flickering incessantly. Every time he would look at it, the flickering would stop for a second before continuing again. He asked the bartender about it, who said the light was working fine a few hours ago. To ignore the seizure-inducing lights, he changed his seat and sat on the only table where the light wasn’t directly visible. The seat was wet, so he grabbed a tissue from the box on the table. While he was wiping the seat, he looked at the tissue. Strange lines were partially visible on the tissue. As he wiped away more, the lines became clearer and sharper. He could see they weren’t mere lines, but letters of the English alphabet. He could only make out three letters – OSH. He tossed away the tissue paper, which had almost dissolved in his hand, and grabbed another one. When he was done wiping, he sat down and threw the tissue paper towards the trash can, narrowly missing it.

  He went there and picked it up. Blinded by the flickering light, he put the tissue up in front of his face. He saw something written on the tissue. He carefully unrolled it with both hands and saw it against the light. A sense of shock engulfed his body, and a current of fear ran through their veins.

  ‘HI JAY, IT’S JOSH. I NEED YOU.’

  He threw the tissue in the trash and went back to the seat. His hands were shaking when he picked up a glass of water. He grabbed the tissue box and hurtled past the bartender, before stopping and turning around.

  “Where did you get this?” asked Jay, showing the box of tissues.

  “No idea, I thought it was yours. We don’t carry these,” said the bartender as his eyes rolled to a tissue box kept on the bar table.

  Jay looked around, but no one else was in the restaurant.

  “You looking for someone?” asked the bartender.

  “No, not really. Do you have any cameras in here?” asked Jay.

  “None that are working,” said the bartender. “There have been glitches for weeks.”

  “I need to go,” said Jay.

  “Go where?” asked the bartender.

  “Somewhere, it can’t see me,” said Jay.

  “You got a bad girlfriend? I had one too. Had to fake my death to get away,” said the bartender.

  “Thank you,” said Jay and headed out the door.

  He threw away the box, flipped his jacket inside out, put on his cap, and walked up to a nearby gathering of refugees who were lining up for their daily rationed groceries. He spotted a couple of cameras through the corner of his eyes. He switched caps with the person next to him, got down on his knees, and crawled away, finally disappearing in the crowd in the nearby camp.

  Exiting the crowd on the opposite end, he headed to a nearby park past the roadside tents, where
he had stashed his laptop and other essential supplies near the dead fountain. Looking around, he went across the street. After making sure no one was around him, he removed a fake brick on the wall of an old storage house, and took out a packet. He looked inside and saw a red chip, glittering like gold. Suddenly he felt someone was approaching him. He put the chip in his pocket and turned around to confront and run.

  “Hey,” said Tim, a ten year old kid who worked in the same building as Jay.

  Jay breathed a sigh of relief.

  “You and your little friends scared me,” said Jay.

  “We were going to ride our bikes. Do you want to join us?” asked Tim.

  “No,” said Jay. “Tim, would he come here for a minute?”

  He took Tim away from his three friends.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Tim.

  “I’m going away for a while,” said Jay.

  “Going where?” asked Tim.

  “It’s best you don’t know,” said Jay. “You might not see me again.”

  “It’s happening again, isn’t it?” asked Tim.

  “No, it can’t happen again. But I just need to make sure,” said Jay.

  “Take us with you. Me and my friends. We are not children. We might look 10, but we are much smarter than that,” said Tim.

  “No, I can’t be responsible for you and your friends. Listen, you know the place where you and I first met?” asked Jay.

  “Yeah, the bench near the lake,” said Tim.

  “Underneath that bench, is a bag. It has some money and an address for a place where you and your friends will be safe. Head there immediately. Don’t trust anyone, except your gut,” said Jay.

  “Why can’t you come with us?” asked Tim.

  “I can’t. Not yet,” said Jay.

  “You’re abandoning us because we’re kids. I get that. But I’ll look for you when my friends don’t need me to look after them. I’ll come looking for you,” said Tim.

  “I hope to see you too, someday,” said Jay.

  They had tears in their eyes as Jay got down on his knees to hug Tim.

  “How will I find you?” asked Tim.

  “Just a minute,” said Jay.

  He took his laptop and went behind the dumpster. He came back a few minutes later with a flash drive in his hands.

  “When you’re ready, see the video,” said Jay. “Not a day before.”

  “It has your location?” asked Tim.

  “Something far more important,” said Jay. “Don’t let the existence of this video consume you, though. You and your friends need to look after each other, okay?”

  “I promise,” said Tim.

  “Bye, Timmy,” said Jay.

  “Bye, Jay,” said Tim.

  Jay got up, waved to Tim’s friends, and left with his backpack. Tim put the flash drive in his pocket and went the other way with his friends.

  A few seconds later, he turned around to catch a last glimpse of Jay, but couldn’t see anyone.

  Karen tried to enter into the lab but saw it was locked. Emma was exiting Eric’s room when she saw Karen.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Emma.

  “It’s locked,” said Karen.

  “Don’t you have the key?” asked Emma.

  “He already left?” said Karen as she took out the key from her jacket.

  “Who?” asked Emma.

  “Vik,” said Karen.

  “When did you see him?” asked Emma as she entered into the lab after Karen.

  “A few minutes ago,” said Karen.

  Emma saw the table that hid the secret closet entrance had been moved and realized that Vik was inside the secret room. She didn’t want Karen to know about it, so she pretended to have seen Vik near the parking lot. Karen mentioned she had forgotten her case files and started picking up the files. Emma helped her to speed things up.

  “I guess I’ll just work here,” said Karen.

  “No, you can’t,” said Emma, hastily.

  “Why?” asked Karen.

  “Um…That would invite a lot of visitors in the lab that may even lead to meetings, which Vik won’t like. He doesn’t like people disturbing him in his place of work,” said Emma.

  “I suppose you are right. If everything that’s going on, we need to take some time to get some clarity,” said Karen.

  “What’s going on?” asked Emma. “You just said with everything going on. I thought we had hit a dead end.”

  “Yeah..we have. I meant that only,” said Karen, and grabbed her files from Emma.

  “You coming?” asked Karen.

  Emma discreetly dropped her pen that rolled under the cabinets.

  “Yeah, let me just get my pen,” said Emma. “Don’t worry, I’ll catch up and lock the lab.”

  “Okay,” said Karen.

  Around five minutes later, Vik crawled out of the hidden closet with a bag. He was surprised to see Emma sitting on the chair.

  “Hey,” said Vik as he stood up. “How long have you been sitting here?”

  “Five minutes. Maybe more,” said Emma.

  “Why?” asked Vik.

  “Why were you in there?” asked Emma as she looked at the bag. “What’s in the bag?”

  “Just some usual stuff,” said Vik.

  “Can I see it?” asked Emma.

  “Why?” asked Vik.

  “I’m curious,” said Emma.

  “Curiosity is dangerous. It makes us do irrational things,” said Vik.

  “You’re hiding something,” said Emma. “You know where she is, don’t you? Katie?”

  “I had a hunch before you jinxed it,” said Vik as he put down the bag on the table.

  He grabbed his laptop. Emma quickly saw inside the bag before he snatched it from her hands.

  “Just leave me alone, would you?” said Vik.

  “Tell me where you are going,” said Emma.

  “No,” said Vik.

  “Why?” asked Emma.

  “Because I don’t need distractions. I need to save my daughter,” said Vik. “And I won’t let you or anyone else come in my way under the pretense of helping me.”

  “Fuck you,” said Emma, and walked out of there.

  “That was easy,” murmured Vik.

  He gave the room one last look before heading out. He wanted to give the keys back to Eric, but it wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have at that moment. He saw Adam and handed him the keys. He told him that he was going away for a little while, and hoped to be back soon. Adam felt Vik didn’t want him to ask any questions, so he just smiled and shook his hands. Vik smiled back and walked out of the precinct after hugging him.

  While driving to his house, Vik’s mind was debating whether to take the blue chip with him or not. He had no idea whether he would find Katie there, and he couldn’t afford to lose the chip for nothing. With little knowledge of the people behind the entire operation, the cons had started to outweigh the pros. The only pro he could think of was it could guarantee Katie’s freedom if he played his cards right. He reached his home as the sky lost its last ray of sunlight. He sat on the couch, thinking of ways to outsmart his enemy.

  He went down through the tunnels to the central hub under the square. He unlocked and locked the safe a dozen times, each time holding the blue chip in his hand before putting it back. After much thought, although he didn’t know if he would be able to hide it in time before getting caught by the enemy, he decided to take it with him.

  He grabbed a night vision goggle, some explosion marbles, and Spark Gloves to send a couple of charges of hundreds of volts of electricity through the other person’s body after rubbing his hands together. He smiled, thinking about the time Anthony Arnold nearly died after he made Vik test the gloves on him. He saw his runaway bag, which had old equipment like Zipline Gun, a couple of drones, and his old laptop from his days at Verati. He couldn’t get the drones to work, as the circuit was unresponsive. Running out of time, he left the drones and took the rest of the stuff with him. />
  He put all the stuff in his bag, along with the GPS device that he had borrowed from Emily. A few hours later, around 11 PM, he locked his home and left, leaving behind his phone hidden underneath the plant on the front porch. This time, he didn’t turn back as the structure behind him didn’t have anything worth coming back to, should he find Katie. After passing through the Morrow gate, he headed towards Fedric County. The alternate route suggested by Emily was nearly twice as long in the distance than the one that connected TS – 17 to TS – 19, but it was the only route that placed Vik in familiar territory as he was on the right side of the fence. Fence of Death as the media called it during the rebellious years of Tim Simmelman.

  Few miles outside Morrow, he felt someone was following him as he could see the lights in the rearview mirror every other minute. Numerous turns passed that perhaps led to different towns or places in the region, some habitable while some weren’t. Vik wasn’t driving too fast as the surroundings were pitch dark. The Moon wasn’t interested in offering its light of hope to mark the way. Neither were the street lights. The narrow car beams were all he had. The roads were tricky and curvy, with occasional bumps and massive potholes in the middle. The car never stopped chasing him. He accelerated his car against better judgement.

  Distracted by the rearview mirror, Vik understeered a sharp right turn and crashed into a tree after leapfrogging columns of bushes. His head was spinning as he made it out of the car. The damage to the car wasn’t massive, but it wouldn’t start after repeated attempts. He was pissed with himself, kicking the tires multiple times. He grabbed his bag and made it out of the bushes. TS – 17 was still hundreds of miles away. He knew he couldn’t hitch a ride, even if he could find one. No one sane enough would visit that place.

  He decided to walk back ten miles back to Morrow, gutted. He saw the same sedan approaching and hid in the bushes. The car passed him and stopped a few yards ahead, near the curve. He saw through the bushes that a woman stepped out of the car, looking at the tire tracks. Convinced that the car was indeed following him, he sneaked behind the woman through the bushes and grabbed her from behind while she was bent down to check the tire marks.