Indiscernible shouted words echoed around him, but he couldn't put them together or make sense of what was going on.
He felt unusually cold and realized he was lying on his back.
His eyelids were stuck shut, so he worked them open by wiggling the muscles around his eye sockets. A terrible bright blue light flashed in Quinn’s eyes and a searing pain blasted through his sixteen-year-old body as it inexplicably convulsed. He couldn't see what happened, but he thought he had just been electrocuted. He felt hot and unusually agitated, like the time his finger slipped against the metal prong of a plug as he pushed it into the wall; electricity surged through his hand and left his fingers feeling numb and tingly at the same time.
Someone on his left—or so he thought—shouted loudly.
Suddenly, his back spasmed and arched upward as his body reacted to another blast of hot pain tearing across his chest. This time, his eyes popped open and he saw white lights in front…no, above him. At the same time, his lungs filled with air and his heart pounded in his chest.
“He’s back,” someone said.
Then, as mysteriously as he had awoken, everything went black.
❖
The morning sun warmed and dried the beach sand as the ocean pulled away and approached low tide. Overhead, seagulls chirped and rode the rising thermals as they hunted for crabs and other low-surf delectables to feast on. Too many humans had fed bread and other foods to the scavengers, and as such, the birds tolerated the presence of humans on their beach far too well.
Quinn, lying on his back, propped himself up on his elbows and looked around Ogunquit Beach. To his left, morning joggers made their way up and down the beach. Older couples passed through their section of the beach, either hand in hand or chasing after one another as they joked and laughed. A young gay couple had set up their beach umbrella about twenty feet from him, and one of them applied sunscreen to their skin while the other found suitable music to play on their portable speaker. Behind him, the wave-ravaged sand dunes hosted tall grasses and nesting birds like the brown and white piping plover and the white and black least tern.
Quinn looked to his right and smiled. His boyfriend, Keegan, lay next to him on their shared, multi-colored beach blanket. He was napping on his stomach; an intentionally placed T-shirt draped over his head kept it from burning in the hot sun. The sunscreen on his back and legs glistened in the sunlight and made Quinn smile.
You're so damn sexy, he thought. I’ll never know what I did to get you to notice me, but I’m so happy you did.
An odd itch on his left arm drew his attention away from Keegan. When he tried to move his right hand to scratch his arm, he couldn’t lift it from the beach blanket. Panic set in when he realized he couldn’t move his ankles or his left hand either. They seemed to be restrained, but he couldn’t tell how. A sharp prick in his left shoulder made him cry out.
“Keegan! Help me.”
His boyfriend didn’t move. Instead, the beach faded away into blackness.
Keegan, please…
❖
Quinn’s throat felt dry and scratchy again. Through his closed eyelids, the bright white light he saw told him the sun was probably overhead, and he had fallen asleep on the beach.
Crap. Did I put on enough sunscreen?
He tried to raise his hand to shield his eyes, but something held his hand in place. He realized his wrists, ankles, and now his torso were still tied down.
What the heck?
He blinked in the bright sunlight and opened his eyes, only to discover the bright afternoon sunlight came from a window to his right. He attempted to clear his throat but had no saliva to wet his mouth. He looked down and saw he was wearing a hospital gown. White hospital sheets covered him to his stomach and the bed rails of his hospital bed were both raised.
“What?” he said in soft surprise, his scratchy voice barely above a whisper.
“You awake?” a familiar but also scratchy voice to his left asked. Quinn’s head snapped left to look for the voice, but instead he saw the foot of an identical hospital bed on the other side of a beige curtain he wanted to pull back, but couldn’t. The voice belonged to Blake Hargreaves, his best friend.
“I just called for Nadia. She’ll be here in a second.” Blake’s voice sounded just as hoarse as his own.
“Who?”
“The nurse.”
“Where are we?”
“The hospital.”
“Why?”
“We got sick or something after we left that cave-thing we discovered, remember? I woke up about an hour ago. Don’t say too much about the cave-thing though, the armed guards are just outside the door.”
“The who?”
Quinn remained confused as the golden-oak stained door on the other side of the room opened and a black Dominican woman in purple scrubs popped in. Her hair was tightly braided in rows from front to back and finished in a low bun at the base of her skull, just above the back of her neck.
“He’s awake,” Blake said.
“Oooh, this is good news, Mister Blake,” a strong, accented voice said. She walked toward the foot of Quinn’s bed and stopped, regarding him with a wide smile.
“Can you untie me now, please?” Blake asked.
“Greetings, Mister Quinn,” the nurse said, ignoring Blake’s question. She looked Quinn up and down, her face serious for a moment. Then she looked at something over his head and smiled again.
He looked up and saw a massive monitor over his head, displaying his vitals and other information.
“You are a very lucky healthy young man today,” she said, eyes darting across the monitor. “I am glad to see you have improved.”
“Can you pull the curtain back, please?” Blake asked, his voice still scratchy.
“Yes, I can do that for you, Mister Blake.” She pushed the curtain back toward the wall, removing the obstructed view between them. Quinn made eye contact with his best friend, who lifted his head from his pillow and winked at him.
Okay, so you look fine, but…
“Why am I tied up?” Quinn asked, his hoarse voice betraying panic.
“You were restrained for your safety when you were brought into the hospital.”
“Why?”
She stopped looking at Blake’s monitor and met Quinn’s gaze. “My name is Nadia Nyongo. I have been your primary day nurse.”
“Have been? How long have I…have we…been here? And, why are we tied up?” Quinn watched as Blake plopped his head back on his pillow.
“That is not for me to tell you.” Nadia discreetly rolled her eyes to Quinn’s left, and he looked at the door. Two armed, muscular-looking guards in black clothes—who looked like they could be in the military—stared back at him. Each held some kind of rifle in their hands.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
“When Doctor Madison comes in, she will tell you what you need to know.”
“I want to see my parents.”
“Please, wait for the doctor, Mister Quinn,” Nadia said. “I will tell her you are awake. She will tell you what you need to know.”
“But I just want to…”
“Please, Mister Quinn,” Nadia interrupted, raising her hands in surrender. “Let me get the doctor.”
Quinn took a deep breath and glared at Nadia as she walked out of the room and shut the door behind her.
“Where the hell are we?” Quinn asked, looking at Blake.
“Fuck if I know. They told me I’d have to wait for you wake up. But the doctor’s sorta cute, so there’s that. Do you have to pee yet?”
“No, why?”
“Oh, well I did when I woke up. They made me use the duck.”
“The what?” Quinn looked at his friend quizzically.
“That plastic thing,” Blake said, nodding his head toward the portable men’s urinal hanging on the side of his right railing. Quinn didn’t see one hanging from his bed rail.
“Oh. Did you see those guards?”
; “Yep.”
“We’re in some kind of special wing of the hospital, I bet,” Quinn said. His mouth finally started to make saliva and he swallowed. “Like a secure wing or something.”
Blake chuckled. “We watch too much T.V.”
“We have to be! We’re being guarded. Do you know anything about what’s going on?” Quinn asked his best friend.
“All I know is we’re still in Rangeley. The doctor popped in about a half-hour ago, but she told me she would talk with both of us when you woke up. And then, there’s the guards, the creepy guy in the black suit, and Nadia. And the nurse who helped me pee, who you’ll probably think is cute.”
Quinn chuckled. He knew at some point he’d have to pee, but he couldn’t imagine why they wouldn’t let him use the toilet. “So, you don’t know why we’re tied up?”
“They said it’s for our safety.”
“Uh-huh,” Quinn said, staring at the leather and cloth restraints on his wrists.
Someone knocked at the door and it opened. A middle-aged, brown-haired woman of modest height and weight, wearing heels that clacked on the laminate tile floor, a blue dress, and a white doctor’s coat entered the room. A stethoscope hung from her neck, and a blue pen jutted out of her coat’s right breast pocket. The words Rangeley Medical were embroidered on the left side of the jacket, but her ID badge—clipped to the lapel of the coat—had flipped backwards, preventing Quinn from seeing her name.
Nadia followed her into the room.
“Hi, Quinn. Glad to see you’re awake.”
“Finally, we can get some answers,” Blake said. Quinn looked at his best friend with curiosity. Usually, Blake’s short temper caused him to fly off the handle in anger, but Quinn felt more impatient than his friend seemed. Maybe whatever was in the IV bags they were hooked up to mellowed him out.
“Why are we here?” Quinn asked. “What’s going on?”
The doctor smiled. “I’m sure you both have lots of questions. My name is Doctor Amy Madison. I’ve been in charge of your care since you arrived on Sunday.”
“What day is it?”
“Today is Thursday. Do you boys know where you were this weekend?”
We’ve been here almost all week?
Blake answered the doctor. “Yeah, we were camping with his family at the Wood Lakes Campground on Quimby Pond.”
Dr. Madison studied him for a moment and nodded. “That’s right. At some point on Sunday morning, you were found by campers or hikers outside the campground. Both of you were unconscious and were transported here by ambulance. Shortly after you arrived at the hospital’s emergency room, you both went into cardiac arrest. We were able to resuscitate you, but it wasn’t easy. When your hearts stopped, we had to defibrillate you. The first time, something unusual happened.”
“Like?” Quinn asked. The emergency room?
“Oddly, you both went into cardiac arrest within seconds of each other. Two different sets of emergency room doctors worked on each of you. That's a miracle in itself given the time of day and the small staff we have here. Two different sets of equipment were used to defibrillate and save your lives.”
What the hell happened to us?
“That doesn't sound strange,” Blake commented. “I mean, outside of why we’re here and all.”
“This is where it becomes unusual. As a complete coincidence, the decision to jumpstart your hearts was made at nearly the same moment, again, by two different doctors in two different rooms. One of those doctors was me. Nurses charged the defibrillators simultaneously, and by random happenstance the other doctor and I called the same countdown. When the defibrillators fired, a bright blast of energy exploded between the two of you.”
Quinn and Blake looked at each other, and then looked back at the doctor.
She used her hands to gesture explosion and tapped her chest. “You each discharged a bright white light from the center of your torso when the paddles tried to restart your heart. From my perspective, it traveled through the wall separating you. We don't know what it was or why it happened, but it did not happen the second time, when we finally managed to restart your hearts at slightly different moments.”
“So, why does my throat hurt?” Quinn asked. His brain struggled to process what sounded like a scene from a science fiction medical thriller.
“We had to intubate you to help you breathe. We can’t explain why, but you both had a hard time breathing. That shouldn’t have been the case in two sixteen-year-old boys. Incidentally, the tubes came out this morning. That’s why your voices sound a little scratchy, and your throats might be a little sore. You were hooked up to life support.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Blake exclaimed.
“I wish I was.”
“So where are my parents?” Quinn asked.
“Both sets of parents are in town, but they’re not allowed to see you yet. You’ve been isolated for study.”
“Why?” the boys asked simultaneously.
“Well, the exploding white light for starters. Then, strange things happened while you were unconscious. Quinn, things around you moved on their own. Blake, the temperature on your side of the room inexplicably fluctuated between cold and hot.”
“We reached out to the Wilhelm Reich Museum to see if anything odd was going on…”
“The what?” Blake asked, looking at Quinn.
“I’ve never heard of that either,” Quinn commented.
“It’s a home that’s been converted to a museum. It’s also home to the Orgone Energy Institute. The campground you were staying at is about a mile east of the museum.”
Quinn became suspicious of the story. “Why would you reach out to a museum?”
“Well, they uh…”
“Thank you, Doctor Madison, that will be enough,” a man in a black suit standing in the doorway said.
That must be the creepy Blake mentioned.
Dr. Madison turned her head and nodded at the man. Then she smiled at Blake and Quinn. “Just rest up and cooperate, and we’ll have you out of here in no time.” She winked and stepped back.
Cooperate?
Nadia nodded her head. She walked around the bed and set Quinn’s call button within reach of his hand. “You can press this if you need anything, okay Mister Quinn?”
“I need my dads,” Quinn said, glaring at the nurse and the doctor.
“Very soon, I promise,” Nadia responded. Then, she winked at him and followed the doctor out of the room.
The man in the suit stepped into their room and shut the door behind him. He pulled a chair from the side of the room, set it between their beds, unbuttoned his jacket, and sat down.
Quinn studied his face. It was youthful, but firm—full of responsibility and stress. The man’s medium-length, black hair was parted from the left and styled with a shiny hair gel. Although the man had shaved, Quinn could see the stubble of a mustache, soul patch, and chin strap beard. His face structure had sharp features like a male model and Quinn felt oddly smitten with the handsome man, even though his instincts warned him to be cautious.
“Gentlemen, it’s good to see you…awake.”
“Who are you?” Blake asked.
“My name is Victor Kraze. I represent a concerned group of individuals who are interested in what happened to you this weekend.”
“Are you responsible for keeping our parents away from us?”
“Yes, I am,” he said flatly, nodding.
“Why? Do they know we’re awake?”
“When Dr. Madison called us, it became critical to place you in isolated observation. Your situation is…unique. And yes, your parents have been informed of your progress. They know you’ve regained consciousness. Quinn, your dads were obviously already here in Rangeley. Blake, your parents arrived on Monday, I believe.”
“They didn’t even come up on Sunday when this happened?” Blake asked softly. Quinn sensed his friend’s disappointment with his parent’s apathy.
“I’m not sure you
r parents could have made the trip, Blake,” Victor said.
“Right,” Blake said softly.
Quinn sighed. Blake’s parents were alcoholics and they were probably half-in-the-bag when they got the call. “Do they know we’re tied up like prisoners or crazy people?” he asked.
Victor slightly tilted his head to the left. “I’m not at liberty to say right now. How about we make a deal? You give me something I want, and I’ll give you something you want.”
Quinn and Blake looked at each other, confused.
“What do you want?” Quinn asked. “This feels like a superhero cartoon where you play out to be the villain in disguise.”
Victor smirked. “Then, it's a good thing I don't have evil super powers”—he leaned forward—“or do I?” His face became serious again and he sat back. “Information. I want you to tell me everything you did this weekend, beginning with waking up on Friday morning.”
“That’s it?” Blake asked.
“That’s it.” Victor answered, smiling. “Pretty easy, right?”
“Who do you work for again?” Quinn asked, hoping to catch Victor off-guard.
The corner of Victor’s lip curled upward before he answered. “I represent a concerned group of individuals who are interested in what happened to you this past weekend at the campground and here at the hospital.”
Right.
Quinn, accepting defeat, looked at Blake and shrugged. The boys proceeded to tell Victor what he wanted to know.
1-2 | Junior Year at Portsmouth High
Quinn
QUINN BLINKED HIS BLUE EYES in the morning light and yawned. He stretched and then rolled over, refusing to get up despite the bright sunlight shining in his eyes. It was probably seven o’clock, but he didn’t care. The fact that school started before Labor Day sucked, but the number of snow days in New Hampshire forced the school system to expand the school year on the front and back ends.
A knock at the door startled him. “Time to get up, son,” one of his dads said through the closed door. It was Aren, whom he called Daddio.
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