My muscles had started to ache and my bones had begun to creak unnaturally, though I didn’t let that stop me from doing as I was told and slipping into the passenger seat, tossing the bag onto the backseat as I did so.
“I saw Tony in there…” I said, struggling to keep my eyes open as Hugo threw the car into reverse and peeled out of the driveway at full speed, the weak seals around the windscreens and doorframes squealing as they struggled to keep out the toxic air, “I… I had to put him down…”
I think my body may have been knocking me out so that I didn’t do any more damage, which was probably for the best, I couldn’t really be trusted with it.
“Figured as much, guy dropped off the grid, and there are only so many places Code Jumpers can go.” Hugo said coldly, “Try to stay awake, would you? It’s gonna be hard enough getting you on a plane as it is.”
As much as I wanted to, the choice didn’t really seem to be up to me. I was drifting away, and there wasn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it.
“Dick!” Hugo barked before punching me in the chest so hard I think he might’ve actually cracked a rib which, unsurprisingly, brought me back to life with a jolt and a cough, “Stay awake, open that glove compartment.”
“Can’t you just let me die in peace?” I choked out as I did as I was told, revealing a passport, some kind of package, and a small revolver.
“You’re not gonna die, you’re just gonna… eh, you might die, but let’s hope for the best, shall we?”
“Why is all this shit in my car?” I asked, completely ignoring everything Hugo had just said, “Have you been screwing with my car?”
“Screwing with? No. Keeping it stocked and ready should the shit ever hit the fan? You bet your sweet ass I have.” Hugo half-heartedly laughed while looking between the road and the rearview mirror, “The hardest part was scaring off all those prospective buyers.”
“Scaring of- I’ve been trying to sell this car for… for… Argh, I should’ve left you behind.”
“Ah,” Hugo replied with a knowing grin, “but aren’t you glad you didn’t?”
“Sell the car or leave you for the cops?”
Hugo thought on that for a few seconds, then shrugged, “Either, both. Doesn’t matter, all that matters is that you stay awake and pull all that crap out.”
“Including the gun?”
“Especially the gun.”
The cops weren’t following us, and to my knowledge we weren’t going to find any roaming gangs in the Valley, but I went ahead and gave Hugo the gun, leading to a rather interesting discovery.
“Yep…” I groaned as I clutched the shoulder that I’d barged the woman over with, “I uh, I think I’ve dislocated my shoulder.”
“Heh, in all likelihood, yeah.” Hugo scoffed, struggling to check the pistol’s cylinder at the same time as watching the road, “What inspired you to go all superhero kung-fu on the dicks?”
“You, you freakin’ dipshit. How’d you manage to get yourself tackled?”
“You did!” Hugo laughed.
“Yeah, but I’m rockin’ the prosthetic from Hell.” I chuckled back before pausing for a moment as a thought crossed my mind, “Do you think it’ll be a problem when we go through customs?”
Hugo smiled and shook his head, “Don’t worry, we aren’t goin’ through customs. Open that package, there should be a phone in there.”
“Should be?” I asked as I struggled to tear the yellow packaging paper with one hand.
“Yeah, should be.” Hugo replied after carefully placing the revolver on the dashboard, obscuring his view of the mostly broken speedometer, “I get high a lot, sometimes I move stuff I’m not s’posed to, just unwr-ugh, let me do it.”
“Hey!” I barked as Hugo snatched the mostly unwrapped package from my hands, “Not my fault you decided to wrap it up.”
“I had to, made sure I knew whether or not it had been opened.”
“But you jus-”
“I know what I said,” Hugo snapped before tearing the rest of the packaging and opening the small black box that he had hidden away in there, “how’re you holding up, still feelin’ the need for a nap?”
“No,” I mumbled, “but I’m pretty sure that the second I move I’m gonna pass out from pain.”
“Yeah, that wouldn’t surprise me. I’ll make sure they get you a wheelchair when we get to the airport.”
“About that…” I groaned as I turned my neck and something in my lower back did something ripping-like, “how exactly are we going to avoid customs?”
“Like this.” Hugo said with a smile before pulling the outdated cellphone from the box and turning it on, an action that, thanks to the old tech, was going to take a while, “Oh come on…”
Eventually the phone let out a happy little tone and Hugo was free to punch in the number, something that made me exceedingly nervous as we drove through streets and industrial areas at breakneck speed.
“Reg!” Hugo exclaimed happily, “Hey, I need a-ha, yeah, no, it has been a long time, but listen I need… Heh, no I’m not out of the country, look, I need a favor. Yeah, I know it… I get tha… Dude, you owe me. Alright? Alright? Okay, good, meet you there in… three minutes, tops.”
“Who’s Reg?” I asked with a weak laugh, “Is he your boyfriend?”
“No, and shut up, the less you speak from now on the better.” Hugo said before grabbing the passport from my lap, “Belay that, where are we going?”
“Hmm?”
“Destination, you’re the man with the cash and we need a place to go, and I’m not exactly in the headspace to make that kind of decision. Preferably somewhere that doesn’t extradite…”
“Somewhere that doesn’t have cyberterrorism as a crime?” I scoffed as best as I could, “Dude, we can just… Heh, let’s go to Sweden…”
“Sweden? Okay, black guy in Sweden definitely won’t stand out. You got anywhere specific in mind?”
“Switzerland.” I replied with a sort of drunk confidence.
“Al-alright… That’s a… that’s an entirely different country, but Switzerland, I can do Switzerland. Hold on, we’re almost there.”
By that I figured he meant that we were another couple of minutes out from the airport, or perhaps almost Switzerland, I was pretty out of it, but instead I blinked and suddenly the car was parked in front of a fence.
I may have passed out for a bit there, but it was easier for me to believe that Hugo had been deceptive about how far we had to go on our journey.
“Qui-Hugo?” I awkwardly stammered out as I noticed that my partner-in-crime wasn’t in the driver’s seat, “Hugo?”
I wasn’t sure why I’d asked for Quinn, probably had something to do with the fact that I hadn’t stopped thinking about her since I’d gotten out of Re.Gen. That had gotten pushed to the back of my brain though, along with any sort of mental defrag that I needed to do following the tussle.
Suddenly my door opened and someone with big hands went to work undoing my belt before scooping me up under my armpits.
“And this guy knows you’re leavin’ the country, yeah?” a deep-voiced man asked as he pulled me out, “This isn’t some kinda bachelor party gag, right?”
“Just help me get him on the plane already,” Hugo snapped before catching me under my knees and helping to carry me, “the longer we’re out here the harder it’s gonna be to take care of him.”
“Well if you’d given me more than two minutes notice we could’ve had a doctor out here.” the guy who had my arms scolded, “I can still call an-”
“No. Reg, we can’t have anyone knowin’ we’re taking off, alright? It’s a damn miracle we haven’t been caught yet…”
“Where’s my wheelchair?” I moaned.
“He couldn’t get one out here.”
“Hey, don’t pin this on me,” Reg barked, “you didn’t tell me you needed a wheelchair, I promise he didn’t tell me about no wheelchair.”
I did my best to try and pat one of
Reg’s arms, but instead I just kind of flapped like a recently concussed pigeon, “All good… Hugo has a habit of makin’ shit up…”
“And you have a habit of getting yourself really badly hurt.” Hugo chuckled as we started going up a set of stairs and entered the passenger area of a sleek private jet, “Help me get him into his seat then go and get the bag.”
“Oh yes massa,” Reg replied snippily before delicately placing me in my chair, “and may I, say may I fetch you some o’ that sweet iced tea?”
“Don’t start with that shit, please? Just… go get the bags, alright? I need to see if there’s anything I can do for him.”
Reg, who, judging from his uniform, was a pilot, scoffed and left the plane, muttering about something or other while Hugo looked between my eyes with an odd amount of seriousness considering he was still wearing his kimono.
“You finally tied that thing up…” I chuckled, “or is it just really cold?”
Hugo smiled at that and took the opportunity to flop into the seat facing mine, “Glad to see you’ve still got your shitty sense of humor. How you feeling?”
It took me a few seconds to respond, not because I was falling asleep or anything, I just didn’t know, “Sore… I think… You?”
“Heh, yeah, I’m doin’ pretty well considering.” Hugo replied before looking over to the door, “Wondering why the cops didn’t catch up with us though. No offense, but there ain’t a chance in Hell that we got away, even with you beatin’ the crap outta them.”
“Maybe they wanted us to get away…”
“How’s that?”
I shrugged, tried to anyway, “Maybe this was their way of sayin’ thanks. Maybe they… Maybe there was some part of them that wanted us to get away after all was said and done… Why else wouldn’t they have cops watchin’ the door?”
“Gotcha crap,” Reg practically exclaimed as he boarded the plane again, preventing any sort of response from Hugo about my theory, “where do want this stuff?”
“Just dump it anywhere.” Hugo replied dismissively, showing that his interest was far more locked on what I was saying and doing.
“Alright,” Reg said before literally dropping everything at his feet and pushing a button by the entrance that made the stairs raise and the door shut, “you do know I’m gonna have to make a couple of stops, right? We ain’t exactly flyin’ to Arkansas.”
“Whatever, use your best judgment, alright? You have the list of airfields we can go to.”
“And what am I supposed to do about callsig-”
“Can you shut up?” Hugo finally snapped, “I need to keep an eye on my friend here, and you need to fly this plane out of here ASAFP.”
Reg gave Hugo a sour look for a few seconds before rolling his eyes, turning around, and going into the cabin.
A laugh that hurt pretty bad escaped me as Hugo turned back to regarding me with an almost scientific curiosity, “Why’re you so obsessed with lookin’ at me?”
“Remember that AR thing I was working on?” Hugo asked without losing the slightest bit of focus, “I’ve started finding more… everyday features.”
“Heh, and here I thought you just sat around gettin’ blazed all day every day.”
Hugo smiled at that before looking up the seatbelt sign which had just lit up, “Well, that did take up the majority of my time. Anyway, point is that I’m looking at you and a list of symptoms for a variety of problems that are associated with tearing and breaking everything in your body. Good news is I think you’re gonna be fine, bad news is you may have all the cancer if WebMD’s to be believed.”
I tried to smile, but my face refused to make the shape and I just sort of bared my teeth at Hugo. He seemed to catch my meaning though, and returned the gesture in kind.
“This is your captain speaking,” Reg announced through the speakers even though he could’ve just as easily left the door to the cabin open and talked, “as you can see the seatbelt sign has been turned on as we prepare for takeoff. I’d like to thank you all for choosing to-”
“Just get us up in the air!” Hugo shouted before getting up and helping me get my belt on, “That guy never did know when to shut up.”
I tried and failed to get out a witty response, instead my eyes decided that they needed a rest and slid shut involuntarily.
“I… Heh, I saved the world today…” I murmured as I started to drift off to sleep, “Did you know that?”
“Didn’t expect anything else from you.” Hugo replied with a sort of proud concern before clicking himself into his seat, “You gonna be okay ‘til we’re up in the air?”
“Probably?” I let out with a breath through my barely open lips, “I think I’m gonna need a doctor though…”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure we get to a doctor as soon as possible. You breathing okay?”
I’d all but lost the ability to talk, though I did managed to give Hugo a weak half-nod before the plane started to pick up speed and I was pinned to my seat.
I’d done it. Despite everything that stood in my way, despite all the challenges that faced me along the way, I had done it. I’d gotten away with years’ worth of bad deeds scot-free, I’d saved the Goddamn world, and I’d managed to rebalance the scales of karma in my favor at the same time.
There was still something inside me though, this weird sort of sinking feeling that told me there was something missing, that there was still work to do.
And then it hit me.
“Hugo?” I asked with what was left of my strength.
“Yeah?”
“You-ugh…” I groaned after failing to straighten up my neck and open my eyes, “you think you could help me with something when we land?”
“Anything.”
A smile managed to land on my face at that, “I need you to fix the zombies in my head…”
With that, my final few seconds of consciousness, I drifted away, my tongue lapping tiredly against my dry lips as nothing more than four simple words played out in my head over and over again.
‘See you soon.’
SIX MONTHS LATER...
“God yes…” I groaned into the donut-shaped pillow as I slipped closer to nirvana, Luka’s strong fingers sending tingles throughout my entire body as they worked deeper and deeper into my lower back.
“You seem to be feeling more today,” Luka said happily in his thick Swiss accent, “is your neck feeling stronger?”
In a lot of ways, that was a trick question, mostly due to the fact that while my neck was feeling stronger, I still couldn’t have anything heavier than a bottle of water anywhere near my neck or head.
“It’s getting there,” I finally responded with a deep, relaxing breath, “but I think we’re gonna need at least another two dozen sessions.”
Luka chuckled at that, as he did at most things I said or did that came anywhere close to humorous, “Whatever you say.”
I didn’t get much of a chance to return to my relaxed state of moaning and groaning before a cold breeze rushed over me, the door to the balcony having been opened and welcoming the sound of large feet on the heated tile floor.
“Not havin’ too much of a good time I trust?” Hugo asked after pulling the door closed, “You know we have to pay him extra if you ruin his towels.”
“Don’t listen to him,” I said with a laugh, “he’s just jealous that I get your magic fingers all to myself.”
“That’s only because I don’t like makin’ those noises with someone I ain’t in a relationship with.”
“Ah, a true romantic,” Luka joked before pushing some part of my spine with his palm that made me feel like I was going to fart and that it’d be totally okay if I did, “I’m almost finished if you want to start setting up.”
“No rush,” Hugo replied with a smile so large I could hear it in his voice, “I’m looking forward to the day when I can stop wheelin’ this lazy bastard around.”
“Like you wheel me around anywhere,” I scoffed before turning my head so
I could face Hugo, “that’s why I’ve got that Professor X chair, I’m not reliant on anyone.”
Hugo looked good as he sat in my wheelchair in his comfy white bathrobe. He’d packed on a few pounds since we’d gotten to Switzerland, sure, but he’d kept his hair and beard in check making him look less like a crazy hobo and more like a respectable businessman.
“Yeah, well still, it’s a bitch when we have to find an elevator ‘cause you can’t be stuffed with using the stairs.” Hugo said with a smile.
I’d gotten used to the occasional joke at my expense, which was a good sign according to my therapist, and I knew that they came from a good place. Hugo had been taking care of me since the second we landed, and he’d made sure not to leave my side for any reason, which was more than annoying when it came to trying to score, something that was actually surprisingly easier with a wheelchair.
‘No way,’ Hugo would always say after scaring off prospective lays, ‘doctors said that you can’t do any kinda strenuous exercise for at least ten months.’
It annoyed the everlasting shit out of me, and I legitimately felt like I was one bumpy sidewalk away from ruining my pants, but again, I was grateful to have him by my side.
“All done.” Luka declared with a clap, eliciting a depressed sound from me, which he quickly silenced with light slap on my ass, “Don’t be like that, any more and I doubt you’d ever get off this table.”
“Would that really be the worst thing in the world?”
Luka, who’d gotten pretty used to my occasional semi-suicidal and self-deprecating humor, simply let out an unamused clicking sound, grabbed his things, and headed for the door, “Bis morgen.”
“Ich spreche kein Deutsch.” I clumsily called after the handsome Swiss man before getting Hugo’s help to sit up, “I’m telling you man, I ain’t ever gonna learn how to speak German properly.”
“It’s not that hard once you get used to it,” Hugo replied with a grunt as he got me up into a seated position, “I was actually surprised at how similar the vocabulary is in terms of sentence structure.”
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