by Utley, Todd
“Hey come on, what’s up? I thought we had an understanding that you were going to get something good that would make Glitch happy, and what about my freedom; I mean our freedom, all of us. It depends on doing a good job so this psycho doesn’t punch our number and pop our heads, right?”
Toby turned the temperature selector on his coke to ice, popped the safety tab, flipped out the straw, and took a long drink.
“Well this is how I see it. I think the Kerrington’s are just about the nicest people on the planet. I think they are honest hard-working people that deserve everything they have and I believe when Cyrus is done with them he will kill them all and won’t even have a second thought about it. I figured I would string ole Cyrus and that scrawny little Glitch along as long as possible. I’m having a great time hanging out with the Kerrington’s, I’m eating good and golfing at an awesome club. By the way I pared four holes today because in my prior life I was a really good golfer. So basically I think we should just enjoy this whole ride as long as possible because when Cyrus is done with each of us he’s going to kill us.”
“When you think about it he already has, he killed all of us off in our actual lives and has ruined any future we might have in those situations. I mean come on, Cheyenne over here has a husband out there that won’t wait on her to come back from the dead forever, soon he will accept the fact that it doesn’t matter if the whole thing is a government conspiracy or not, she aint comin back man!”
Cheyenne gasped and put her hand over her mouth.
Toby paused and looked at her.
“You’re such a lovely lady and I really like you, but you’re going to have to accept this, I’m sorry. This is the hard truth for all of us.” Todd was getting agitated.
“Don’t say that to her! That’s hurtful. You know she loves Vince! And Vince love’s her! This is just crap Toby, don’t say these things!”
Toby and Cheyenne were both a little surprised at Todd’s sharp reaction.
“You’re right Todd.”
“I’m sorry Cheyenne, it is possible that you and Vince could be reunited some day. I was being insensitive.”
Cheyenne and Todd looked at each other and then Todd looked at the floor. He couldn’t look at her, he knew it wasn’t likely at all, he just didn’t want to see her hurting.
“Look you guys, I don’t want to live like this, but I don’t want to die like this either,” said Toby.
“I just figured that if I string things out by not giving Glitch too much, and give him just enough that he believes he’s making progress, then I can prolong the inevitable for the Kerrington’s and for us too.”
Todd leaned back and crossed his arms and looked out the window.
“So you really think Cyrus will kill all of us?” He said. Toby leaned forward and set his coke down on the coffee table.
“Yes I do. In fact I can’t see any reason why he wouldn’t. From the pure logic point of view on which he operates, he would have to kill us. Anything less would be foolish. Besides, like I said before, he has already killed us. All of our friends and relatives believe we’re dead and have moved on, to the world we’re dead. Even if we all escaped tomorrow how could we rebuild our old lives?”
“You have a point I guess,” Todd said, “but what else can we do?” Toby sensed an opportunity in the tone of his voice. He took a chance and decided to just lay it out.
“Well, what if I told you that this old man has a plan? It’s a plan that would only work if everyone in this room right here were all in one hundred percent.”
Toby could feel Cheyenne glaring at him but he didn’t look at her, he was focused only on Todd.
“Why are you only looking at me man? Why not look at her?”
“Because I’ve always been very good at reading people and I think She’s a yes and I know I’m a yes, so the vote comes down to you and that’s how I see it.”
Toby looked at Cheyenne.
“Am I right?”
Cheyenne looked at Todd. He was looking at her waiting for her answer. She was a little bit perturbed at Toby right now but she knew they were running out of time and she saw what he was trying to do.
“Well, I guess if it was up to me, I would always be looking for a way out. I don’t ever see myself being loyal to Cyrus. I mean, come on, he has bombs in our heads. We’re not employees, we’re just prisoners in our own bodies.”
Todd crossed his arms again and looked out the window.
“I don’t know, I would like my freedom too but Cyrus has done a lot for me.”
Toby realized just then that Todd’s situation was different from his or Cheyenne’s. He must have agreed to this.
“You know, we’re all in this together and something just dawned on me. You know our history but we don’t know yours, what’s your story? We’re all friends here, aren’t we? You can tell us.”
Todd jumped up.
“I need a beer, anyone else want one?”
“Yeah I’ll take one,” said Cheyenne.
Toby was never much of a beer drinker, but he figured if drinking a beer with Todd would get him to tell his story, then fine.
“Sure, I’ll have one too, thanks.”
Todd went into the kitchen and brought back three beers and passed them out.
“All right, so you want my story? Okay, but you’re probably not gonna like it, it’s kind of depressing.”
“Try us,” said Toby.
“Okay, well, my parents died in the pandemic like so many others. I ended up in an orphanage that was overwhelmed with homeless children just like me. We were being quickly placed in foster homes or adopted out to pretty much anyone that would take us and with very little if any paperwork or background checks. Sometimes a small donation from a family would do and there would be no paperwork at all, especially if you had any history of trouble.”
People wanted to take us in but mostly for the government checks they would receive as compensation. The staff was simply overwhelmed and had little choice in the matter. I was about six years old I guess and I went to a family that had an abusive father, well not toward us kids so much but more toward the mother.
She was a sweet lady but sometimes she said too much. If she could have just bit her tongue a little more she might have been all right but he made it hard to be quiet. He was such an idiot that no one could tolerate him. He was on something, wasn’t alcohol, I don’t really know what it was but whenever he ran out of it he got violent.
Sometimes at night they would fight and he would knock her around a bit. It bothered me but I had always tolerated it because he never really hurt her too bad. One night when I was about fourteen or fifteen it got especially bad. He was different that night and he was roughing her up pretty good. One of my little siblings that was also adopted, this little girl named Liz, got in the way and said, “Stop hurting my mommy.” He called her a little meddling bitch, and then he slapped her so hard that she fell back and rolled down the stairs. The fall broke her leg.
When I came out of my room to see what was going on he was heading down the stairs yelling at her telling her he would really give her something to cry about. Something inside me snapped, I went back into my room and got my ball bat. I came out with it and he was just getting to the bottom of the stairs where Liz lay with a broken leg and I thought he was going to kill her.
The adrenaline kicked in and I came hauling down the stairs wielding that bat. I was a rather big kid for my age and he knew when he saw me coming he was in for it. He tried to run out the back but he didn’t make it, looking back on it, I wish he had and never came back. I beat him to death with that bat in the kitchen just inside the back door.
When I finally stopped hitting him, the whole family was standing in the kitchen looking at me. I didn’t really intend to kill him but I was afraid to stop hitting him. I thought they would turn me in but Mother walked over and gently took the bloody bat from my hands. She just hugged me and said “Thank you.” Then all my siblings gathered ar
ound me and hugged me and they all said “thank you.” Little Liz saw the whole thing from where she lay at the bottom of the stairs still writhing in pain. I went back to her and carefully picked her up in my arms. Her little leg was broken in two places. She was sobbing and shaking from the pain. She said, “Thank you Todd, you saved me from him. You’re my hero, I love you so much!” The poor little thing had never known anything other than yelling and fighting and violence, it broke my heart.
We got her out to the car and I drove her and her mother to the hospital. I wasn’t really old enough to drive but I had driven many times already when he was too messed up to get us home. The doctors put a cast on her little leg and they said it would heal just fine.
When her mother and I got home I didn’t know what to expect. I thought I might have to call the police and turn myself in. I went into the kitchen and he was gone, the blood was gone, and everything was cleaned up, the whole house was neat and clean and all the kids were watching TV and eating poPCorn like nothing happened.
I went out to the back yard and all the kids followed me without saying a word. There was a man-sized patch of freshly turned topsoil out there with rocks all around it in a nice oval. We all just stood there and looked at it and then I looked at the next oldest girl standing right by me, her name was Viola. She looked at me and said, “We’re planting some flowers here tomorrow, we hoped you wouldn’t mind. Since you’re the man of the house now, I guess we should’ve asked first.”
It was obvious that the old devil was under that pile of dirt in a shallow grave. I don’t know how they got him out there, I guess they all just worked together and dragged him out the back door and buried him. I looked at her and I said, “Sure, flowers are nice.”
We all went back inside and watched TV and ate poPCorn until bedtime. The next day they walked down to the store and got several packets of seeds and planted a bunch of flowers out there over him, the kind that comes up every year. We never spoke of it again. He was on disability basically due to his drug habit, and he didn’t have any family that we knew of so no one missed him. His checks just kept coming.
A year later I heard a man yelling at his wife on my walk home from the grocery. She ran out of the house to get away from him and ran right past me. As she did I saw she had a black eye that looked to be a few days old and her nose was bleeding. Seeing that brought back all those bad memories. He came blasting out the front door screaming profanities at her while in hot pursuit. He was obviously very drunk so as he came past me I tripped him and watched him plant his face right into the sidewalk.
It took him a while to get up and when he did his face was busted up real bad and his nose was sideways, a real bloody mess. He called me something and took a drunken swing at me then fell down again and passed out. I laughed at him and then I stepped over him and went on home.
The next day when I got up and went outside there were two officers waiting for me. They arrested me on suspicion for the murder of this man. I told them my story and I was pretty sure that he wasn’t dead when I left the scene. Later when they showed me the photos he had a big knife sticking out of his back. I guess his wife or someone else that really hated him must have stuck him with it after I went on my way.
There were some people that saw what I did to him and they knew where I lived so I was the best suspect. They had no real evidence and since I was under aged I got assault charges that stuck instead of murder and I ended up in Juvenile detention for a five-year stay. About a year into it I got an offer from Slade. Well not him in person, instead it was one of the guards. He approached me and two other boys there. He said if we wanted our freedom to meet him just outside the maintenance room at 1:00 a.m.
Two of us showed up and he escorted us out to a van and put bags over our heads. He took us to what is now the compound. At that time it was still being converted into what it is now. He took us into a room where we met Glitch. Glitch offered us a deal from Cyrus, ten years of service in exchange for our freedom from Juvy plus two million in untraceable cash at the completion of our service. After that we would be set free and never required to do anything for him again.
I now know that they used clones and faked our deaths in a fire at Juvy three months later. We both agreed to the deal and signed a little card that we have never seen since. Glitch took the cards and said he would return shortly. We waited for over an hour and then a woman came in and said that it would be a few more minutes and asked if we would like a coke or a coffee while we waited. We both took her up on her offer and she returned a few minutes later with our drinks.
That’s the last thing either of us remembered, and they obviously drugged our drinks. We both woke up the next morning in a hospital like area there in the compound, which is now Lab No. 1. We had bandages around our heads. We asked what had been done to us and they told us that they had installed a chip in our heads similar to the LifeTech chip to monitor our whereabouts.
It wasn’t until later that we learned the chips were actually cranial charges. If we ran off or disappeared or even disobeyed an order, Cyrus could simply terminate us and it would just look like we had a brain hemorrhage and died of natural causes. He also conveniently ruined our lifefile so that we couldn’t be restored even if someone did find us in time. They took us back to Juvy and three months later there was a fire in the night and we were whisked out the back and then to the compound to never be seen again.
I have never had much to go back to even if I did get free. I do think about little Liz and the rest of them from time to time but I don’t know if I would ever go back, probably best to stay away, especially considering they’re all witnesses to a murder that I committed. I was hoping to get my ten years in and get out with my two million but now I doubt it.
Cyrus gave us all nice things in the beginning but lately not so much. I mean I always have a little money in my pocket and I have wheels and I have a job but now I fear that when he’s done with us he will terminate us all. Not because he doesn’t want to pay us, but more because he doesn’t want to allow anyone out free that might develop a conscience and start talking. Money doesn’t mean anything to Cyrus, he only desires having it because it gives him power to bribe people. I was just young and naive at the time and didn’t know what I was getting into. So that’s my story and here I am.”
“Wow Todd, I’m so sorry that you’ve had such a hard time in life,” said Cheyenne. “I can see why you say that Cyrus has done so much for you. For a young man with nothing but bad luck, Cyrus and his offer of two million probably seemed like winning the lottery.”
“Yeah,” added Toby, “you never had much of a chance at a normal life. You really got railroaded from the beginning, but what you did for your adopted family was very brave. You probably saved their lives.”
“Maybe, I don’t know, I never saw them again after the day I was arrested. I hope they made it okay. Well now you know my story. Anyone want another beer?”
“Sure,” they both said in unison.
Todd went to the kitchen to get another round for all of them.
“Hey,” Toby said, “grab a bag of chips would ya?”
“Will do,” he hollered back from the kitchen.
Cheyenne leaned forward and whispered.
“What should we do, should we tell him?”
“Yeah, I think we should, follow my lead, okay?”
“All right.”
Todd was just coming back with the beers and a bag of potato chips.
“Thanks,” said Toby. Okay Todd, are you ready for a revelation?”
“Um, well, I guess so, what-cha got?”
“Well judging by the character you’ve displayed by saving little Liz and saving that poor woman on the way home from the grocery from her drunken husband, I can’t imagine you throwing me and Cheyenne here under the bus.”
“Of course not, if you guys are in some kind of trouble tell me. I’ll do anything I can to help.”
“Well here’s the thing big guy it is
n’t just us it’s Alice too and maybe a few others.”
“Oh, no. What’s going on?”
“Well before I say much more I have to tell you that if you help us it’s going to make Cyrus very angry at you and the rest of us and he will probably kill us all. If you do this you’re definitely not getting your two million. You see we have gotten ourselves into the same situation as little Liz did and now the big bully is gonna put a good beat down on us if we don’t get some help. What do you say, will you help us?”
Todd looked at Cheyenne, he had already realized earlier that day that he had strong feelings for her. He didn’t care that she still loved Vince and that Vince probably still loved her, in fact he admired it. It didn’t matter if she got back with Vince someday and if he himself ended up with another woman, he would always care for Cheyenne, they would always have that one special night.
As he looked at her now, he realized that his feelings for her and the way he felt about Toby and the Kerrington’s was more important than some lame deal he made with a criminal mad man as a naive youth. Glitch had sold him on the idea that society in general was bad and that Cyrus was going to free the oppressed just like him everywhere. “What a bunch of BS.”
While it was true he had gotten a bad deal, having been framed for killing that man on the sidewalk, there were plenty of Cyrus’s people that weren’t so innocent. When he was in Juvy he met plenty of people that were bad news, they really had committed the crimes they were serving time for and some even bragged that they had done much worse but hadn’t been caught for those things. He realized later that Cyrus was making deals with those people just the same as he did with him. Cyrus didn’t want to free the people that were oppressed by society unjustly, he just needed disposable soldiers that no one would care to miss later if he had to kill them to protect himself.
Todd was staring at the floor in deep thought. He snapped out of it and looked up at Toby.
“All right I’m in,” He said, “What kind of trouble are you guys in?” Toby let out a “yes! I knew that you were a good guy, I just knew it.” Toby jumped up and shook Todd’s hand.