by Andrew Peed
The receptionist frowned and pressed a button under the counter, unlocking the door.
I waited for a good ten minutes before I went through the motions in the bathroom so that it seemed like I had really used the facilities. I walked out, made sure that the receptionist wasn’t looking before quickly leaving the ER.
I walked in the shadows back to the break area door. It was still empty so I held the card next to the panel. There was a small beep and the lock clicked. I opened the glass door and slipped inside.
I wished I had kept my phone, I needed a flashlight. I crept along the walls. The whole wing of the hospital was empty. I looked into a room thinking that I would find a patient room, but it was empty. I walked slowly and as quiet as I could until I found an employee locker room.
I opened a few of the lockers until I found a doctor’s coat that fit me without looking ridiculous and grabbed a stethoscope. I put it around my neck and closed the coat. The coat brought back memories of the Aurora facility and the smell wasn’t helping. Memories that I didn’t know that I had, but considering that we were in that godforsaken place for over a month and I only remembered a few days, who knows what I could have repressed.
I went back out into the hallway and found the nearest nurse’s station, as empty as the hallways; the whole wing of the hospital seemed to have been shutdown. I got onto the computer and looked for patient listings. There were no John or Jane Does.
The Aurora Corporation logo flashed all over the screen. Rage flashed when T realized the hospital was enemy territory.
I began to look for things out of the ordinary and I came across two people who were on a floor of the hospital alone. I assumed that would have to be them.
Steven and Heather Smith, which should have stuck out as bad as Doe, were alone on the Fourth floor of the hospital. That made it easy; all I have to do is get them to the roof.
I put the computer back the way I found it and left the nurse’s station for the stairs. I checked the door on the stairwell for an alarm. There wasn’t one so I headed up.
I stopped before exiting on the fourth floor and took a deep breath.
“Act like you own the place.” I told myself, trying to calm down.
I opened the door to see a long hallway with doors down each side. The last door at the end of the hallway was guarded by two police officers.
I had found Ryder and Vanish.
Chapter 33: Shock
I walked straight down the hallway to the guarded door. The police officer on the right moved into my path and held up his hand, “You are not supposed to be up here.” He said when I was close enough.
“The doctor went home for an emergency; they brought me in to take over for the night.” I said as convincingly as I could, but I could already tell they weren’t going to buy my act.
“Do you have your ID badge?” he asked crossing his arms over his chest.
I rummaged in my pocket and felt the nurse’s badge. I didn’t use it because it would only destroy my ruse.
“I must have left it down stairs.” I said flashing my friendliest smile.
“Well when you go and get it I will let you in.” he said turning his hip to flash his gun.
“It’s down on the first floor I just need to take a few notes, and make sure they are sleeping well.” I said making a big show of everything.
“And once you get your badge you can do just that. I’m tired of you nosy reporters trying to get in here.” He said playfully punching the other officer in the shoulder.
“I do have to say, she is the best looking imposter of the day.” The other officer said grinning ear to ear.
The two men stopped joking in instantly and both pulled their guns. I threw up my hands and dropped to the ground. A rain of bullet fire peppered the two men in front of me. I covered my head.
When the bullets stopped, I opened my eyes to see the two police officers both dead. The wall behind them was Swiss cheese and covered in blood.
I took a deep breath and shot to my feet spinning to look at the murderers. I didn’t think, I held out my arms and blasted a flame down the hall taking out no less than a dozen Saber soldiers that lined both sides of the hallway. Behind them at the other end of the hallway, leading the group, was someone that I thought I would never see again.
Jolt.
My flames whirled around him and dissipated. He stood unshaken with a nasty grin on his face. There was something different about him. Bolts of energy randomly arched from his body to the walls surrounding him. His eyes were glowing blue, and when he opened his mouth to speak his teeth were the same color as his eyes; bolts of energy arching from his lower jaw to his upper.
“Fancy running into you here.” He said taking a step forward and examining his soldiers.
“You should be dead.” I said trying not to panic.
“Funny thing, there is a chunk missing. I don’t remember much after our last encounter but I really don’t care. I have a mission.” He said walking a few steps closer, checking another of his soldiers.
“I don’t want to fight.” I said taking a steady step backward towards the door.
He looked up at me and smiled, “It seems that you have done a good job of taking these guys out.” He paused. “Version three Sabers, so disappointing. They really need to get these things worked out. You’d think heat resistance would be at the top of the list.” He added. “You said that I should be dead. I do remember a blast from, what is it you call him?”
“Arch.” I growled.
“Yes, Arch.” He said pointing at me absent mindedly, “I woke up later in a lab. I don’t know what they were sticking me with but I don’t care. I feel so powerful.” As he said the last word he opened his hands and shot a few bolts of lightning from his palms.
“Well isn’t that good for you.” I was backed into the wall.
“It’s a shame that you don’t want to fight. I’ll just have to kill you and the two you are guarding in there.” He nodded towards the door.
He stopped talking and threw himself at me. Bolts of lightning streaked behind him. I was just barely able to move out of the path of his fist. He put a huge hole in the wall.
I got up off the ground and tackled him with all my weight but it did nothing but put him off balance. He balled his fist and punched me in the stomach sending me flying into the ceiling. I succumbed to gravity, and slammed face first into the ground.
He spit blood onto the ground and wiped his mouth.
“Not bad.” He said.
I pulled myself up off the ground, my ribs were killing me. I balled my fist and ignited it into yellow flames. I punched him in the face and fired a ball of flame into his head. This time when I attacked I knocked him onto the ground.
He stood shaking the pain from his face. His skin charred from the flames. He was angry; my attack had touched a nerve. I took a few steps back, but he didn’t use a physical attack. He slammed his hands together and spread them causing a ball of energy to charge in between them.
I had nowhere to go. When he threw the ball, it collided with my chest and slammed me into the wall. Holding me there for what felt like forever, I could feel the energy from the attack coursing through my body.
Again I fell to the ground.
“You are so weak!” he yelled as I screamed in agony.
I took a few deep breaths and pushed past the pain. I pushed myself up on my fists and then I stood. My muscles were tensing with the residual energy.
“Is that the best you can do?” I was barely able to get the words out of my mouth.
He slammed his hands together again but I took the opportunity. I threw a quick ball of plasma at him. Timing everything perfectly, I ran as fast as I could right behind the ball of pulsating flame. When the attack hit him, I tackled him with all of my momentum.
We crashed through outer wall and fell the four stories onto a parked car below. Jolt took the bulk of the impact.
I rolled myself off of him and fell two fee
t down onto the ground.
He wasn’t moving but he was breathing.
I slowly pushed myself up; I quickly realized that my left arm was broken so I kept my weight on my other arm. I walked over to the building and into the ER door this time with my arm hurt for real. I placed my hand on the door and melted the lock with a little heat.
No one tried to stop me. The receptionist stood but quickly sat right back down in her chair.
I got into the elevator. The nurse that I’d stolen the ID badge from was standing next to me. I reached into my pocket and gingerly pulled her badge out and handed it to her.
“Sorry.”
She took it and nodded. Then she took a small step away from me.
Back on the top floor, I looked down through the fresh hole in the wall at the still unconscious body of Jolt. He had not moved.
I found an abandoned stretcher and pulled to Vanish and Ryder’s room.
Ryder was unconscious but his machines were active. Vanish was strapped to a table with a gag in her mouth. I took out the gag.
“Are you alright?” I asked undoing the bindings. I worked slowly, holding my injured arm to my body.
“I wouldn’t tell them who we are and I was making a scene.” She rubbed her wrists.
“I’ve got a ride waiting on the roof; help me get him onto the stretcher.” I pulled the stretcher over next to Ryder’s bed.
We gently lifted him and placed him down on the stretcher. He was out; an explosion wouldn’t have woken him.
We pushed Ryder to the elevator and when the door closed I pressed the roof button. The elevator moved up slowly.
The doors opened to an empty helipad.
Chuck was not waiting like I had instructed.
Chapter 34: Invisible
“I thought you had a ride?” Vanish asked, tired and weak.
“He is supposed to be here.” I said limping out onto the helipad. There was no sign of Chuck. I walked over to the edge to check on Jolt and to my horror, he was gone. Only a smashed car remained where he had landed.
When I turned around, the air in the center of the helipad began to shimmer and slowly the aircraft began to reappear.
Vanish pushed Ryder out of the elevator and onto the occupied helipad. The back door of the aircraft opened and Chuck walked out onto the helipad with us.
“I thought the stealth package wasn’t working.” I asked Chuck as he grabbed a hold of Ryder’s stretcher and pulled it into the passenger bay.
“Your father was farther along than his notes let on, he often left break advancements out until he was happy with the finished product. While I was flying to the helipad, I hit a small patch of turbulence that caused me to bump the stealth controls. It took me a moment to deactivate the stealth and the computer wouldn’t let me open the door until I deactivated the stealth system. I apologize.” He explained as he strapped Ryder down.
“We don’t have time for apologies. I don’t know where Jolt is; we need to get out of here.” I said sitting down and instructing Vanish to do the same. We both strapped into the seats and I gave Chuck the thumbs up.
He closed the rear door and climbed up the ladder into the cockpit. He flawlessly lifted the aircraft up off of the roof and began to take us away from the building.
The back of the aircraft shifted violently to one side.
“I guess this is Jolt.” Chuck yelled down from the cockpit. A holographic projection of the outside of the aircraft appeared in front of where Vanish and I sat. Jolt clung onto the wing.
Chuck dropped the left side of the aircraft suddenly making my stomach jump up into my throat. The maneuver caused Jolt to lose his grip and fall. He grabbed a tree branch on his way down and slammed into the ground.
Once Chuck regained our altitude and had gotten us back on course, we all took a breath of relief.
“Could you take us to Eastcroft instead of heading back to the lake house?”
“Yes ma’am.”
I turned to Vanish who hung her head, “What happened?” I asked. I wanted to know where they had disappeared to for a half an hour.
“I don’t really know how to describe what happened. I remember there being a lot of bright white lights and cold. I couldn’t really make out anything. My vision was blurred the whole time.” She didn’t look up.
“Well whatever happened, I’m glad to have you both back and in one piece. What did the doctors do to treat his gunshot?” I nodded towards Ryder.
“He was taken to several surgeries but I don’t think they accomplished anything. Silence never seemed to get any better. Everything they tried, they could not get the wound to heal. I hope that Doctor Z will be able to do something.” She wiped tears from her cheeks.
“I’m sure that Doctor Z will have the answer. I’m sure he is going to be just fine.” I hid my worry, I wasn’t sure if he would be able to do anything.
I watched Ryder as he rocked back and forth with the motion of the aircraft.
“Grace, we are nearing Eastcroft. I think that you should try and call their traffic control and request permission for landing.” Chuck announced, “I could land in stealth.”
“No need, I’m sure they will let us land.” I said.
“Go ahead whenever you‘re ready.”
“Eastcroft this is Sear, requesting permission to land immediately.”
“All air traffic has been halted; please proceed to another landing area.” said a man from the control tower.
“Please find Acumen; I assure you that he will let us land.” I said with desperation.
The line was dead for a few moments, “Please state reason for requesting permission to land.” The man said.
I was quickly becoming irritated.
“There are three injured people and we need to land now. Silence and Vanish need medical attention.” I practically yelled at the man in the tower.
“Permission granted.” said Sam over the line.
Chuck set the aircraft down softly near the hanger. I unbuckled my safety belt and stood, shaky from my injuries. I helped Chuck unbuckle Ryder from the aircraft. He opened the rear door and pushed the stretcher out onto the tarmac.
“I found someone.”
Sam’s face lit up with the sight of Ryder.
~//~
I sat in the lobby of the clinic.
I was alone and in pain. My head was killing me and I could only imagine what was coming from Alice when I got back home.
Ryder was in with Doctor Z and Vanish had been escorted home by Hothead. He was so happy to see Vanish that he almost crushed me.
Sam joined me in the lobby, “It’s going to be a while but the good doctor is optimistic.”
“That’s good.” I said exhausted.
“How did you find them?” He sat down in a chair across from me, “And what happened?”
“My father helped me find him, well a holographic representation of him. I gained access to his computer system and used some of the technology that he left behind.” I rubbed my face.
“What happened when you found them?”
“When I got to the hospital, everything was going great until a squad of Sabers and Jolt showed up. Jolt was pretty worked up on killing us.” I shifted gently in the chair.
“Is he dead?”
“No, he is not. It took everything that I had just to knock him out. I had to push him out of the fourth floor of a building.” I shook my head.
“I’m glad you did what you did. You understand that I can’t condone what happened, but I’m glad. The others are on their way here.” He got up out of his chair and gazed out of a nearby window.
“I understand.”
“Grace, I don’t know what is going to happen next. We have had close calls before, but…” he sighed deeply, “Nothing like this before.”
Just before I was able to doze off, the room filled with Ronnie, Sandy, Rachel, and Kenny. They were all excited to see me.
“Hey guys.” I said awkwardly.
There was a mumble of greetings and they all sat around me.
“Why didn’t you come and get us to help you?” Ronnie demanded.
“I didn’t want to waste any time and if I had, Jolt would have gotten there before me.” I explained. “Vanish and Silence wouldn’t have had a chance.”
“I’m just glad that you are back!” Sandy grabbed my good hand and squeezed.
Chapter 35: Lock Down
The first place I went after returning to my father’s house was to see Alice. She scanned my injuries with a sour look on her face the whole time.
“Four broken ribs, arm broken in two places, and the same shoulder dislocated. You have dozens of cuts and too many bruises to count. Were you hit by a truck?” She fumed throwing her arms into the air.
“No, I jumped off a building.” I smirked
Alice stopped what she was doing and looked at me to see if I was being honest; “You are as bad as your father!” she steamed.
“What? I did.” I shrugged, but quickly realized that shrugging was painful.
“Well lucky for you I can fix most of this.” She grabbed my shoulder and swiftly pushed it back into place with a small pop sound. I yelled in agony but she rubbed a light blue gel onto the shoulder removing all the pain. “Quiet you baby.”
“What is that?”
“Pain killer.” She set the jar down and went after a small electronic device about the size of her palm.
“You couldn’t have given me that before you popped my arm back into place?”
“Would you have learned anything?” she turned the device on and began to wave it over my arm in slow, smooth motions.
“I suppose not.” I winced, “What is that?” I pointed at the device.
“This will fuse your bones and skin, but they will still be weak for a short time. You are going to have to avoid base jumping for a few days. Unfortunately it won’t work on your ribs.” She explained, moving to the second break in my arm.
She wrapped my rips and sent me on my way.
I went up to my room. I cleaned up as quickly and gently as I could.