The World of Hope

by Parker Fentress

  Anthony rushed up to the door, trying not to wake the neighboring tenants.

  Barney wore a serious look on her face and brushed passed Anthony back into his apartment.

  “Hey,” Anthony said, “It’s nice to see you.”

  He tried to fit in awkwardly to see her in such dismay.

  Barney started to speak firm, “Anthony, I know what you did!”

  Anthony acted confused, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  Barney retorted back, “everything in that email you sent either was wrong or was filled with misleading information. My team has been on the hunt for several weeks. We travel, we fly, we spend thousands of dollars each week, using your intel from observations sent by other operatives. Either you hand over the email with all of the operatives’ observations you used to make the report, or I turn you in for fraud.”

  Anthony was shaken by this, “I have no idea what you are talking about, and even if I did have the operative observations anymore, I wouldn’t be able to give it to you based on my testimony of confidentiality. Only the general can request to see it, and even if he did he would have to spend the next two months trying to find the only deleted copy in the server room in the Congo.”

  Barney forced a sigh, “Anthony. All you do is lie. You lie to good people, and you lie to me. You never make it happen. There was something between us and you let it die. I’m not letting myself feel like this anymore. I am lost, and before I fall in love I need to do something right for this country and for the agency. You were the man of my dreams and you barely ever considered how I felt. We are done, and if you can't make changes to that report, then I never want to see you again. This has come too far, and I can't believe you would let one night of drinking get to your head to send a foolish report like that, and now you’ve been promoted to the lead at The Agency. It’s bullshit Anthony, it’s total bullshit.”

  Anthony bounced back, waking up by being startled from the poke to the shoulder. His anxiety had unleashed, but Luis and Tommy had finally found Anthony.

  Luis said out loud, “Where did everyone go?”

  22

  Anthony stood with a cold rag over his face while standing outside the car. He was shaking his head repeatedly as if he had just been released from a nightmare. I worried that something definitely went wrong.

  I asked him, “Anthony, where have you been?”

  He continued to shake his head so I asked again, “Where have you been? Where did you go? What happened back at the house? Everyone just disappeared and now we are all back.”

  He took the rag off his face after dampening his skin. “Luis, I don’t know. I can't remember, and it doesn’t help when everyone is freaking out bombarding me with questions. I literally don’t know. I was standing in the house one moment monitoring the camera feeds having jammed them to see where Sam had gone, she disappeared from the feed and then I don’t know. I just don’t. I had a terrifying dream and woke up on this bench out here in the middle of nowhere.”

  Anthony sighed and pressed the damp towel back onto his burned skin.

  I thought about Tommy’s doubt and the mistrust we should’ve had for Anthony.

  I said, “well, we all don’t know either. First Sam disappeared, Tommy came out of the house disoriented, you just disappeared out of nowhere. It’s been two days. Two days, and now you show up and have no explanation. Sam was found walking along the road in a preprogrammed way and hasn’t said a word or moved since we got her.”

  A loud eerie buzzing noise came from inside my head. It got louder, louder and then so loud that I put my hands over my ears. I saw Tommy jump out of the car, saying something but I couldn’t hear. I started to collapse on the ground until the sound finally went away.

  “Luis, what is wrong? Are you okay?” Tommy asked frantically.

  I remarked, “we need to get going. I don’t know what is going on. I am so anxious and angry. I want answers, and if you Anthony can't say something to make me believe that this wasn’t all one giant fucking set up, then you’re out. Then if Sam talks and she says you did something to her, you are seriously going to die. I will kill you, Anthony if it means putting a knife in you in the middle of this giant desert.”

  Tommy looked over at me and started to get excited that I had finally started to doubt Anthony.

  Anthony replied, “I swear, I had nothing to do with this. I did everything right and want to fix all of this. I don’t know what more we could do than just go to Dunshop all together and just find Dr. Kolash. We need to stop waiting around and let Unity catch on and know too much before we even had a chance to make the plans happen. Whatever happened, it was far above just the Military Police. This is something from higher up in the government. It’s got to be.”

  I grew agitated, “Anthony, I don’t know how to tell you this. We don’t trust you. We have literally no reason to trust you. You’ve been here all along, telling us you’re here to help, you have access to government technology, you know more than them, you can help us. What have you done so far to help us than lead us in a blind circle right back into the city? We can't stay out here. This is mine and Tommy’s only chance to even stay anywhere for a moment without even being anywhere near a motel which is now burned down to the ground. We find you in the middle of nowhere, all that it looks like to me is you got a bad sunburn, and now Sam is in some strange psychosis. Explain all that to me without using the words “a higher government did this” because I don’t believe a single word you are saying.”

  Anthony became stone faced, he clenched his fists and said very sternly, “Luis, if I was going to put you all in danger, I would have done so long ago, you would all be locked up, beaten and dead by now or prancing around the Dunshop flowers. Why would I lead you in a circle, beat Sam, and then walk myself out into the middle of nowhere and let myself burn? I work in an office. I always have. Not once have I ever operated out in the field, never have I ever gone close to being a soldier for a government I never once stood for. You have to believe me. What are you going to do without me? Like you said, I told you I had access, I have the ability to know things before Unity does, and I can help us get to Dunshop and get this done, and at the end of the day if you find out I am lying to you, then just kill me. Just kill me in my sleep. Just put a knife through my throat in the middle of this car ride. I don’t care. We can't just separate and name blame when we have to work together to solve this.”

  Everyone remained quiet. Whether it had been all the energy we expelled within the past time together, or whether it was the lack of trust we all had for one another, no one felt like talking.

  I finally said, “You know what. Forget all of this. You can come along, but it doesn’t mean we don’t feel you in some way have contributed to our downfall.”

  I got back into the car and shut the door. Tommy did too, and we sat in the car waiting to see if Anthony would get in.

  Moments later, he finally did. He popped the door open. It made a swish noise, and then it shut. Tommy reinitiated the self-driving program, and the car lifted up and went off.

  Tommy swiveled around in his seat, “we need to go to Dunshop. We can't wait. I've been thinking, it's not like we can just go back into the city and find a place to stay. We just need to go and do it. It’s not as if the fence is heavily guarded, and if we all go together we can have Anthony jam the feeds again, see if that even really happens and go from there.”

  I replied, “I agree.”

  Anthony spoke up, “let’s just do it, I'm tired of all this and want to get it done.”

  I smiled oddly because I realized how everyone shared the same feeling.

  Sam still sat in her seat, she had her arms wrapped around her legs and didn’t move.

  I put my hand on her head and tried to see if she would respond.

  “Sam?” I asked.

  Her arms twitched and she began to move, she made a grunting noise like she was about to say something.

  I yelled, “Sam!”
Right at her face and shook her shoulders.

  I kept yelling for her to wake up. She fell over in the seat and began to spit up white foam as if she were a rabid dog.

  Tommy said, “Luis, pick her up or roll her over into the recovery position like we learned in health.”

  Urgently, I went to roll her over on her side, and then right over his clean plush carpet, she vomited.

  Tommy in disgust, “oh fuck, did she really just do that?”

  I shook my head at his comment.

  As if something had pulled her into the light, her eyes rolled open and looked up and over having wiped her eyes with her dirty sleeve.

  I spoke frantically, “Sam? Are you awake?”

  “Yes, Jesus! Shit guys, how long have I been out?” she asked.

  I didn’t even know how to answer, so I let Tommy, “Sam? What is it you do remember?”

  “I don’t know. I feel as if I have lost time and was unconscious for a long time. Don’t you think Tommy?” she said sarcastically.

  He rolled his eyes, and she still lay looking back up instead of over. Like her skin had just turned a pale green color. She looked very sickly and threw up once more.

  Sam put her arm up as I closed in to help make sure she didn’t fall over. She was strong, and I knew that, so I let myself go for one second.

  Anthony then said in the middle of a catastrophe, “we need to keep going. Even if she is going to lay in here as we go and get Kolash, we need to. There is no time to wait, I thought we agreed to get moving and do this together?”

  I replied angrily, “we agreed by our terms, not yours. We will move on ours, not yours, clear?”

  He looked out the front window instead of the back and tried not to care that we were in fact wasting time. I knew that the car couldn’t and wouldn’t be stopped, or it shouldn’t be, and if it did, I wouldn’t be sure how to even get myself to accept we did literally and utterly nothing to help save her except sit and wait for her to command what we can and cannot do to help her.

  “Tommy, we need to get moving. Put this thing back in drive, we will let her go on and purge. I hope she comes back and realizes what occurred so we would know what it was that made her so sick.” I said.

  Tommy nodded his head and tensely pressed the buttons in the combination to get us floating along.

  I sat there, helplessly, as Sam continued to vomit. I asked her if she was hungry, thirsty, in need of anything and she always puked, over and over again the familiar black liquid would come flowing out of her mouth onto the carpet.

  Most people would assume, if it’s black, it was either bad food or some strange virus had finally eaten its way within a person's liver. Not in this case. I recognized the potent bile that came from Sam’s mouth. I recognized the consistency, the pure dark color, the symptoms. She was withdrawing just as I had too.

  Ideas swirled inside my head. It could have been anything but nothing added up, I am still confused. Nothing made sense. Anthony seemed unaffected, perhaps if he did inject her, left her to die, and then placed himself in the middle of nowhere. He could have then knocked Tommy out in the house, gotten by Mae, and then attacked Sam because he thought perhaps it was her slowing us down.

  I didn’t let it stop me. I had to say something but I didn’t let it budge. Who knew if Anthony was to be trusted, but I didn’t care. I knew that if anyone wanted all of us or one of us dead, we’d all have paid for it long ago.

  I said softly, “I think they drugged her. Whatever it was, it was the same substance that they injected me with on KS. I noticed they did it through an arm cuff through the time I was there until the time Earth found me on one of the alien ships.”

  Anthony spoke up, “it seems like a similar side effect of C82. We or they, The Agency, discovered the chemical in high traces of all the individuals they recouped during the Mother Ship invasion. Since the chemical was to be documented in all Foreign Customs and Re-entry required that an actual name is decided for it. When they ran the chemical samples in the lab, they first noticed the dark black color. Something that for a liquid color would never be found on earth in any organic substance. Then they noticed when placed in a vat of bacteria, the liquid chemical at the cellular level would expand and corrupt all living tissues until it too was the same. They named it Strain C82, identified as an extreme Nano-Weapon for Torture. The C is for the first letter of the scientist name, and 82 stands for odd lipid combinations present.”

  I pitched in, “this shit, it did nothing to me. It barely made me lose control of myself until I stopped having it. When I had it pumped through my veins for so long, it was as if everything to me were grey, but I was still able to function. When I withdrew, it was odd because the withdrawing occurred in staggered stages all like a debilitating disease.”

  Anthony then came back in, “when I saw these people, documented and then name in effect of C82, all scientists became aware that these people would die. The fact you lived so long is rare, they must’ve allowed your body tissues to become used to the C82 presence, that even when they increased it you too still lived like an evolved and adapted organism. C82 doesn’t harm you, you see. It is used to take over and control the mind. See things they want to see, and experience reality in alternate ways. We learned that C82 wasn’t just a chemical they injected for fun to make you feel enslaved, they inject you with it to make you feel crazy. They do this to gain entry into your mind, bring your family here but change everything about them, see things, cruel things, that make you change your mind or break it. If they dosed her with a super high amount just to let her react to it, this is them trying to send us a message. A clear message the war is still on.”

  I remarked, “well, let's not be so pessimistic. I just want to let this all pass, in high hopes, she’ll be better soon, she will.”

  In interrupting my and Anthony’s heartbreaking and heartfelt moments, Tommy said sternly amazed by the large gates, “we are here!”

  I asked, “where?”

  As if never having been to Dunshop.

  Tommy asked, “this is Dunshop?”

  We all glared at the large gold gates, the white marble, and pretty entry mounds of Honey Suckle flowers.

  I said observantly, “look at all those flowers. That is what this place is about, and they are worshiped as gods. You guys will be crazed when meeting someone here. Don’t trust anyone, not the Night Walkers or the All Mighty Dunshop followers. The followers who are highly devoted to take their own life due to the craze they face with the addiction to the honeysuckles. It’s as if they are all smoking meth, and losing their minds, but you never know when they try to claim someone else’s life like your own until they do, and then you’re screwed and either die or get stuck there together.”

  As if my mood had changed, we finally were getting somewhere. Sam was still slumped over, back to being unconscious or sleeping or whatever we all let her go to and focused on drawing up a plan to gaining entry into the Great City of Dunshop.

  23

  We waited a few moments before we got out of the car.

  I asked, “I am guessing we are just going to leave her here?”

  Tommy defensively responded, “well what are we going to do? You want to carry her into this place and then carry her out? I’m not, neither is he? Let's just get this done.”

  I wondered why he was such an ass, but I knew inside that it was only because he was tired and disappointed, we even found both Sam and Anthony.

  Tommy pressed the open button for the door and then got out.

  I followed along last in line and after Anthony left.

  Anthony remarked, “the car is well hidden. I don’t think we need to worry about it. We just need a good exit plan if something goes wrong.”

  I looked back at the car as we walked along the seldom-used path to the gates of Dunshop. The track that the Pod used to run along had been lowered down on the ground to prevent anyone from even using it.

  Dunshop’s entrance was smartly put in a loca
tion no one would ever go. On the far outside of the city, right under a vast mountain range, and discreetly inserted into the base of a valley where the great city sat in the plains.

  Anthony spoke, “we need to wrap these scarves around our heads. I know Luis says what he experienced, but it is quite possible that his exposure to the C82 allowed him to inhale the Honey Suckle smell and not become entwined in the environment like everyone else there. The deal is guys, if one of us starts to get a scent of the smell, we can’t turn back and save them. Do something stupid and get into the crossfire of the Devout, keep moving but don’t ask for help.”

  Tommy and I nodded, and I looked back at the car, “I sure hope that she stays safe.”

  “We will be back in no time,” Anthony said.

  As we walked closer and closer to the gates, I began to notice an almost silent hum of some kind of thing. The hum got louder, and louder, to the point that it vibrated the ground we walked on.

  Anthony looked back and began to pace faster.

  “What do you think that is?” Tommy asked.

  Anthony replied, “I don’t know, but we need to get moving.”

  As we approached the gates, not more than ten feet in front of us, Tommy began to hold the scarf closer to his face.

  I didn’t bother.

  A figure came from behind the wall. They were in a white robe, with gold edged lining. In a soft voice, they asked, “what brings you to the All-Mighty City of Dunshop?”

  Anthony looked behind and saw the group of Secret Police on hoverbikes.

  He quickly replied, “we know someone in here. We need to see them. Please let us in.”

  The figure replied speaking as if fresh ginger had been applied to their vocal cords, dripping with honey like their lips were to poise us, “one can enter only with purpose, and if that is your purpose than suit yourself. Find meaning and purpose, good travels, travelers.”