Dad grabbed me by the hand, which, strangely enough, felt like someone grabbing me by the hand, and I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror as we walked to the door. Man, I got tall all of a sudden… can’t really see my face through this wig and hoodie, though… I had to put all my mental energy into getting my legs and arms to move, but I could feel it getting easier with each step, as if they were learning how to move on their own. As he reached to move the chair away from the door, I said, Dad, what…”
“Shhh, not now, Lukey,” he hissed, and pulled the door open. There were three big men in black suits at the door, along with Dr. Torres. “My apologies, gentlemen, my niece and I had to make one last visit before… well, you understand.”
Dr. Torres and the men all wore stern expressions. “Yes, of course, but I’m afraid these men have some questions for you, Dr. Taylor. If you’ll just walk this way.”
Oh no, that doesn’t sound good… I looked at dad, and I thought it strange that he appeared to be counting under his breath. There was a loud pop! from the far corner of the room where dad had left the cases; flames leapt out of them, and Dr. Torres and the three men rushed into the room, shouting and frantically looking for the fire extinguisher. Dad grabbed my hand again and we hustled down the hall; when we reached the end, we went through a large metal door that said “Stairs” on it. Once inside we sprinted down the gray metal stairwell, which was harshly lit by uncovered overhead florescent bulbs. Moving quickly was almost impossible for me at first, but after a few steps it was as if my body got the idea and started moving fast. I mean, really fast. I passed dad up and was at the bottom of three flights of stairs before he was halfway down. How did that happen? Dad called down to me, “Hold it there, we need to make sure no one is waiting for us on the other side of the door before we go out. I’m sorry, Lukey, but we’re in a little bit of trouble and we need to be extra cautious.”
“But dad, why…”
“I’ll explain everything when we’re safe, I promise.” Dad had reached the bottom of the stairs, breathing heavily, his face covered in sweat. He opened the heavy steel door just a crack, put his eye up to the gap, and after a moment said, “I think the coast is clear. The diversion I set seems to have pulled everyone from their security up to the third floor, so I think we are good to go. Take your hoodie off and just act like it’s a normal day; we don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves if we can help it.” I took the sweatshirt off and hadn’t noticed that the shirt dad put on me had a white unicorn on it, with a rainbow coming out of the cartoon unicorn’s horn. “Dad, don’t you think you went a little overboard with the girl clothes?”
“Not now, Lukey… ok, yes, maybe I did. Quiet now, act normal.” He pulled on a black cap with an orange “SF” on the front, put on some sunglasses, and we strolled out of the stairwell as if we were taking a walk through the park.
Dad took my hand and we sauntered toward the front of the hospital, while fire alarms blared from everywhere. As we approached the main entrance, I noticed people sitting on the floor and on every seat, dozens of them, and most of them appeared… well, they were dirty, like they had been sleeping outdoors, and many had backpacks or other bags or sacks with them. Most appeared alone, but there were some whole families as well.
“Dad, what are all these people doing here?” I whispered, not wanting to insult anyone.
He looked down for a moment, a pained expression clouding his face. “I’m sorry, Lukey, your… your mom and I tried to shelter you from the problems of the world, but it was like this before… before the accident, and it’s gotten progressively worse over the past five years. I’ll explain it all if we are able to get out of here without getting stopped,” he murmured in reply.
We were about thirty meters from the entrance, and as if right on cue, I noticed a tall man with a black suit and sunglasses just inside the sliding glass doors. He clearly saw us as well and was watching with great interest while talking quickly into his wrist. Dad steered me hurriedly through a door to the right into what appeared to be an office of some kind. The man in the suit was moving in our direction as we entered the office, but before he reached us dad again barred the door with a chair. The office was empty and dark, and it occurred to me that the hospital staff had probably evacuated because of the fire alarm that continued blasting its high-pitched wail. There was a deep whump! on the office door. I glanced at the clock on the wall: it was now just after midnight.
“Ok, Lukey, we have to find a way out of here… let’s see if there is a window or door to the outside anywhere…” We dashed around the front of the office but there was no way out, so we went back into the room at the rear, behind a counter and swinging half-door.
“Dad, why is that man after us? Why are we trying to get away from him?”
Before he had a chance to reply, I noticed a restroom behind the second room, and ran in; there, in the back of the restroom, above the toilet, was a small window. “Lukey, do you think you can get through there?” dad asked, an edge of panic in his voice.
“I think so, but how about you?”
“Oh, I’ll get through, don’t worry. Ready?”
Without waiting for an answer, dad grabbed a large stapler from one of the desks and smashed it against the window. On the third blow, the window shattered, and his hand was sliced by a piece of falling glass, blood splattering the toilet. He grimaced in pain and grunted, “Ok, Lukey, here we go…” He lifted me up to the high window and pushed me through. I felt chunks of glass slicing through my new body, but it didn’t hurt, and it didn’t hurt when I landed on my backside on the concrete sidewalk outside the window either. I looked at my hands and arms; no cuts, no blood, nothing. Now that’s weird… dad better explain what’s going on quick or I’m going to explode from curiosity… and why hasn’t that voice in my head said anything else?
Dad tumbled out the window, shouting “Run! To the left, toward the park across the street… Hand me your hoodie, I have to wrap up my hand so I don’t leave a trail of blood for them to follow. Go!”
We sprinted across the street, and in the background the man in the suit was shouting at us to stop; he had made his way into the office, but was too big to get through the window. Suddenly I heard a loud pop, and something struck me hard in the back; it knocked me forward, but again whatever was in me that was balancing me kept me from falling over, and I continued to run. Within moments we were out of sight of the window, and dad was speaking frantically into his earpiece microphone. We were running through the heavily forested park when a small black car careened across the grass, skidding to a stop in front of us. The rear door flew open, and dad screamed, “Get in!”
We dove into the rear seat as the car sped off, tumbling us about as it twisted around trees and then out of the far side of the park and onto the freeway. “Dad, this is like some kind of crazy movie or something! What’s happening?”
“We’ve got to get away, Lukey, but I have a plan. Hang on! Thanks for the quick pick up, Minh, now to drop-off one!”
The lady in the driver’s seat held up her right thumb in response and sped down the freeway at what felt like a high rate. “Lukey, this is one of my associates, Minh Houng. She helped me with some of the… technology issues, let’s call them.”
I managed a glance at Ms. Houng as we careened down the freeway, and she was sneaking peeks at me in the rearview mirror every chance she got as well. She had stalk-straight, jet black hair, almost cartoonishly messy, and appeared tall and very slim, although it was hard to tell for sure while being thrown from side to side in the backseat. “So, John, all is working?” she asked in heavily accented English.
Dad turned to me, grinning mildly, and said, “Yes… yes, I think we did good. Thank you, Minh, I couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Well, is not over yet, so hold on, here is exit…”
We flew off the freeway, took a quick turn and came to a skidding stop under an overpass. Another small car was stopped directly in fr
ont of us, this one a faded tan color; dad grabbed my hand and we bolted from the black car and tumbled into the rear seat of the tan car. The driver peeled out and flew down the road before we had even closed the door. I looked back at the small black car, and Ms. Houng was pulling off a coating from her car to reveal that it was actually white. Wow, that was smart… they had this whole thing planned…
Our new car made several quick turns down neighborhood streets before slowing to a normal pace. “Keep your heads down and hang on to your knickers, mates, I reckon I’ll have you dags clear soon. That was some hard yakka, but you made it, eh? Good on ya!” said the man driving, as he slapped his thigh in delight.
He had a huge bush of black hair, dark brown skin, and was startlingly thin. He also had a strange accent I wasn’t familiar with, and appeared to be about dad’s age, although it was hard to tell for sure. He was wearing worn out cargo shorts, tall work boots, and a short-sleeved, army green shirt with the name “Pedro” embroidered on the left front pocket. “Dad, what did he say?” I whispered, not wanting to take the chance of insulting our driver.
Dad chuckled, and then the driver started chuckling, and within a few moments they were both laughing like madmen. I thought it was all unbearably strange, and I needed some answers. When he was finally calm enough to speak, dad said, “Lukey, say hello to Dr. Benji Walker. He’s a bit hard to understand for you because he’s from Australia. He’s an aboriginal. One of the few aboriginal scientists. He built your main power source.”
“My… my what?”
Dad chuckled again. “Oh, there’s so much to tell you, Lukey. Just hang tight, as soon as we get to the lab, I’ll explain everything.”
Dr. Walker was watching me excitedly in the rearview mirror, his black eyes shining and his wide, flat nose flaring wildly. “Crikey, John, it really worked, eh? What a beauty! Everything’s on line, no worries?”
Dad turned to me, smiling through tears. “Yes, I think so. Against all odds, here is my boy.”
3
W e continued to cruise around for another hour or so, just to make sure we weren’t being followed. During that time, I got to know Dr. Walker better, mainly because he never stopped talking. “Crikey, John, you realize what this means? Why, your boy there, oh, sorry, mate, didn’t mean to talk about you like you’re not here, anyway, what a little ripper, eh? Not done yet, though… we’ve got to get this one to Straya, get lost in the bush. Only way to stay safe in this world, eh? Give ‘im a chance to get used to his body and all the tech. You realize you’re one of one, eh? Crikey! I mean, I knew it would work, of course, but to see it in the flesh… oh, hang on, got to make a U-ie…”
We were tossed about once again as Dr. Walker spun the car around in the middle of the street, proceeding hurriedly in the opposite direction. “Anyway, little Luke not so little anymore, eh? What does he know so far, John?”
“Well, not much. I didn’t have time to explain any of it to him yet, but when we get to the lab, we’ll go over everything in depth. Thanks, Benji. Without you, this would never have worked. I owe you so much… I’ll never be able to repay.”
“Ah, come on, mate, it was a bit of fun, that’s all. I mean, it was heaps of work, but we learned a lot too, eh? We’ve got to stick together, it’s the only way for us to survive these days… oh, by the way, Luke, you are to call me Benji. None of this “doctor” business with me, eh?”
“O… ok, Benji. Dad, when we were running back there, after going through the window, something hit me in the back. It hurt a little bit, but I think its ok. Can you check it?”
Dad looked at me, and his eyes narrowed with worry. “It hurt? You felt it as pain?”
“Well, yeah, but just a little bit… it doesn’t hurt now, though.”
Dad and Benji made eye contact through the rearview mirror, and slowly broke out into beaming smiles. “Oi, mate, better than expected, or at least faster than expected, eh?” said Benji.
“Oh, yes, I was concerned about that part of the programming, but to work that quickly… well, it’s better than I could have hoped for. Turn around, let me see your back, Lukey.”
I twisted around in my seat and turned my back toward dad. He pulled my shirt in the back, and I glanced at the rearview mirror, which was in the right position for me to see that he was putting his finger through a hole in my shirt. He pulled it up a bit to check my back, and there was a small, black spot in the middle that appeared to be dented in just a bit.
“Bloody ‘ell!” Benji cried. “That mongrel shot our boy? That’s bad, mate. They’re more desperate than we thought.”
“Wait, he shot me? What… why… I didn’t really get shot, did I? Wouldn’t I be dead or something?”
Dad patted me on the head, then pulled me into a full hug. “A normal person probably would be, but not you. Not my Lukey. We’re almost to the lab, I’ll explain everything when we get there.” He had tears in his eyes again, and I thought how strange all of this was.
Benji began laughing, and snorted, “I just noticed the disguise… don’t know why I didn’t see it before, I guess I was busy up here bein’ a hoon. ‘S a good one, John, he looks like a right cute Shiela!”
I realized that I still had the long blonde wig on, and quickly snatched it off my head. “That’s better… oh, wait, put it back on, mate. You looked better the other way ‘round.” Benji snorted with laughter again, slapping himself on the thigh.
We turned down a dark alley riddled with potholes, trash strewn everywhere, and pulled up to the back of a dilapidated building. A garage-sized door rolled up, allowing us to pull in and out of the alley. It was dark inside, but the headlights illuminated the interior enough to see that the inside did not match the outside; it appeared hospital-clean and orderly. The room appeared about twenty-five meters square, with cabinets and benches lining the walls to the left and right, and directly ahead was an elaborate bank of computers and other equipment that I didn’t recognize.
We got out, Benji hit a button on his key fob, and a bank of ceiling lights came on. There were tubes and lines running in all directions overhead, and several metallic tanks about a meter wide and maybe three meters tall in the right corner of the room. Many of the lines above ran into the top and sides of the tanks. The ceiling was very high, about six meters up. The walls, floor, and ceiling were all bare, unpainted concrete, and there were four large, round concrete columns running through the middle of the room from floor to ceiling. A row of windows ran the length of the wall opposite the alley, but they were about four meters from the floor; definitely too high to see through from outside without a tall ladder.
Dad came over and hugged me to his side. “I never thought I’d get to say this, but Lukey, welcome to the lab. Let’s go downstairs, I’ll show you the real lab.”
4
“W hat do you mean, the real lab?”
Dad and Benji made eye contact, sharing a secret smile. “This room is all for show, Lukey. We set it up in case the government comes snooping, which they undoubtedly have. We had to make it look convincing, and I think we did a pretty good job,” dad whispered.
I scanned the room again, and said, “Well, you fooled me, but I’m just a little kid. Well, not so little anymore, I guess, but I still feel like a little kid.”
Dad broke out in a wide grin and said, “If we can fool you, we can fool anyone. Shall we descend, Benji?”
Benji gazed up at the windows and hit another button on his key fob. The windows quickly transformed from clear to opaque. “Whoa, that was cool.”
Benji turned, his expression sour. “We were bloody drongos, mate. Should have done that the second we came through. I reckon I was just too rooted. We have to hope the coppers are choc a bloc with other hoons tonight.”
“Dad, what did he say?” I whispered.
Dad and Benji both chuckled again. “He said we were stupid for not screening those windows earlier, and he’s blaming it on being fatigued. He hopes the police, or other less obvious gov
ernment agents, are busy with other things at the moment.”
Benji made a comically exaggerated sigh of exasperation, and groaned, “Yeah, that’s what I said, mate. Don’t you understand English?”
“I don’t know what language you’re speaking, but I don’t think it’s English.”
Benji slapped his knee again. “What a ripper! I like this one, John. I say we keep ‘im.”
Dad put his arm around my shoulder and said, “Ok, but only if you say so. Let’s go below, we’ve got a lot to cover and not much time. If they’re not here now they will be soon, and we have to be ready for them.”
Suddenly the mood turned dead serious. “Fair dinkum,” grunted Benji. “Down we go.” He hit yet another button on his key fob, and a person-sized hole opened in the large column nearest to the metallic tanks. “Ok, mate, this is a one-person ride, but it’ll only take a sec.”
He stepped into a platform inside the column and the door slid shut. Once closed, it was completely invisible; it was impossible to tell that there was ever a door there. “Dad, are you going to tell me what’s going on pretty soon? Because I think I’m going to go crazy any second.”
Before he could answer, the door slid open again. “Just hang on, Lukey, when we get down below, I’ll explain everything. In you go, now.”
I was a little bit scared, but I stepped onto the small platform inside the column, immediately the door closed, and the bottom just seemed to drop out. I slid down at a slight angle, but soon the tunnel turned mostly horizontal. I slid that way for quite a distance, but finally it was as if I landed on a pillow of air, and there was Benji, slapping his knee once again. “Your eyes are big as saucers, mate! Come on, step on out so daddy can come down, too.”
Singular Page 2