I quietly wondered what the red pill Hunter and Ethan took evoked on their minds. Did it disable the protection that the blue pill brought them? Or did it somehow bypass that security and unleash a new hell upon their minds?
The helicopter eventually landed in the middle of a rundown neighborhood, and from there we took a self-driving car to the airport. As we passed through the streets of Las Vegas, I couldn’t help but notice the dozens upon dozens of casinos which were all rusted and deteriorating. The entire main strip was completely abandoned and crawling with homeless people and trash. Pieces of glass littered the streets, along with sediment from the rotting skyscrapers. The air smelled distinctively of filth, combined with a thick scent of musty water. The city looked like it had gotten hit with a nuke or something, because everything appeared dead. It looked in many ways like my insides. Everything was broken and falling apart, and there were so many people on the side of the streets and walking about, that it was hard to tell what was happening amidst the madness. All the buildings, along with the fractured, grime-covered streets, looked to be giving away to the hardships that the earth had put them through. And the cracked, neon signs beneath the layers of clouds above, were only a constant reminder of how shattered the world truly was.
The car eventually came to a stop in front of a large airport, that had grown familiar to me. We all exited the car and began to walk down to the terminal, which I had been to dozens of times. My dad left me here. I remembered the look of desperation and terror beneath the calmness that he always tried to portray to me. I could vaguely see the film of tears coat his eyes, as he waved to me one last time before walking through security, and exiting my life, forever.
It took all the strength I had in me, to prevent myself from breaking down right in the middle of the old, decaying airport, as we made our way through security and toward the gate for our plane. I could feel Danielle’s eyes glaring at me several times, as she adjusted the newfound hat on her head and the dark black shades covering up her eyes. For once, she finally wore clothing that covered half her body, seemingly dedicated to the practice of hiding herself amongst an airport that was almost empty.
I pressed my finger on the biometric scanner that stood at the entrance to the gate of the airplane, and took a deep breath as I prepared to set off on a journey that would inevitably end in my death or the revival of my old life and happiness. I felt a sadness course through me as I watched Hunter and Ethan walk down the gate toward the aircraft with no awareness of the hell that they were about to meet. They had no idea what was happening; they had no idea that all of this was about to end.
They deserve to know! I looked back at Danielle, feeling a sudden urge to scream something out at her, as she stared at us walking away from her with an empty look to her black eyes. I could tell that the emotions of excitement and madness were at a standstill with the disgust and pain inside of her. I could tell, even if she didn’t show it, that watching us walk away from her, watching us walk toward our deaths, hurt her.
I finally exhaled, slowly letting out some of the energy pent up inside of me. I had to be careful not to rupture the cover over my mind that prevented all the emotions of anger, insanity, fear, and sadness from inundating the slight bit of hope that I had somehow managed to erect inside of me.
I entered the old, huge aircraft. The seats were dangerously close together, and the roof appeared so close overhead that it could cave in on us at any moment. By the looks of it, the plane had to have been made in the early 2000s, which was the standard generation for most aircraft in the aviation world. The new high-tech aircrafts that were manufactured today, were all reserved for the ultra-rich and President Ash himself.
I sat down and let my apprehension and fear marinate inside of me into a putrid sauce that would poison any meat it was doused upon. The sounds of the engine turning on whizzed in my ears, as the aircraft soon began to zoom down the runway. I couldn’t help but notice that everyone was wearing outfits identical to ours, and they all had the same blank, lifeless expressions as they stared at the seat in front of them. The whole plane ride, there was no talking, no moving, and practically no breathing. The eerie silence flooded my brain, and only added another vile ingredient to the cloudy stew of emotions that was brewing inside my mind.
It was much easier than I expected to just completely block out your surroundings and stare straight forward, entirely oblivious to the reality that we were about to face. I let this state of dull mindedness reside over me for what felt like hours, until the sounds of the wheels of the plane making impact with the ground shook me out of my coma-like trance.
“Welcome to Area 51!” Danielle’s voice boomed in the small nodule placed in my ear, and echoed in my brain.
I wondered whether she was able to communicate with my brain directly through her computer. Either way, the sound of her sinister, yet elated voice sent an icy feeling that all my nerves simultaneously reacted to. My entire body froze with paranoia and shock, as I became forced to come to terms with the fact that this was really happening. I felt like I wanted to scream, as I awoke from the dream playing out in my mind and returned to the hellish reality of the real world.
Despite all the horrible thoughts and emotions raging through me, I decided in my delusional, truly desperate state to focus on the one glimmer of hope that resided behind the layers and layers of darkness coating my mind. I let the determination and hunger inside of me drive some of the anxiety away from the forefront of my mind, and allowed it to carry my feet and mind forward as I moved down the narrow aisle, leading to the exit of the aircraft.
I grasped Hunter’s tense shoulder, suddenly feeling all the emotions inside of me threatening to collapse my body from within. I took one step forward, beginning to make my way down the stairs that led to the runway that stretched for miles around us, and there it was in front of me: Area 51. I closed my eyes, not wanting to begin processing the hell that had finally presented itself in front of me.
Time to get my life back, or time for it to all end. Time to be happy once and for all, or time to be buried with the darkness―forever.
Chapter 21
There was a part of me that already felt like I was dead. Maybe it was the monotonous gray that seemed to suffocate my vision. Or maybe it was the mind-numbing fear that bubbled up from inside of me the second that my eyes connected with the thousands of soldiers and fleet of military jets. Or it also could have been the blistering heat that hit my face and instantly caused sweat to seep out of my pores.
Holy shit. I exhaled, staring out at the most immense building that my eyes had ever laid upon in my entire life. It was an enormous, gargantuan-sized hangar, and in fact that description doesn’t even do it justice. There was no doubt that you could fit an entire country underneath the towering gray canopy. Dozens, maybe even hundreds of fighter jets, bombers, and weird, space-ship-looking aircraft were positioned underneath the metal, slanted gray roof, which was so high above the earth that it appeared as if clouds could practically form inside of the building. The massive gray wall surrounded the two large openings at either ends of the hangar that seemingly stretched on for miles in each direction.
I shuddered, as I hastily looked behind the line of people who were marching toward the center of the hangar like a horde of ants. Damn, how the hell are we supposed to get out of here? Lining the perimeter of the complex was an impenetrable gray wall, that had an electrified barbed wire running across the top of it and turrets placed sporadically along it. The wall was seemingly impossible to scale, and even more daunting was the challenge of surviving the fifty-foot jump down into the dessert that surrounded the compound. Oh, that’s right. The paranoia coursing through my veins instantly caused the fear inside of me to solidify. We aren’t supposed to escape. We are supposed to die.
“Just follow the people to the loading dock, which will take you to the research facilities underneath the floor of the compound.” Danielle’s voice chimed in my head, and I still couldn�
�t figure out whether she was able to somehow communicate with us using our ICLs, or whether she was communicating directly with our brains.
I trained my eyes forward, trying to ignore the madness bustling around us. As we began to move deeper within the hangar, the roar of the jet engines only grew louder. The people were frantically moving around the aircrafts, as if they were preparing for something, maybe even the ongoing conflict that President Ash began with the Chinese.
The controlled chaos ensuing around me didn’t help to calm the uncontrolled insanity taking place inside my brain. The omnipresent, dull gray began to numb my eyes and cause my mind to freak out from the anxiety coursing through me. My body was repulsed at the monotone world around me. The tiny hairs in my ears were done with being vibrated from the same, dizzying clank of my heels against the gray pavement below. My eyes were done looking at the high ceilings and massive metal walls all doused in the same lonely, depressing color that seemed to bleed off the landscape.
“You have reached the main loading dock.” I could almost see the evil glimmer in Danielle’s eyes as her cheery voice boomed in my head.
Great. I looked around nervously at the people who’d begun to disperse across the glass, circular platform that we were all standing on. They all moved robotically to form some weird hexagonal formation, which Hunter and Ethan somehow seamlessly fitted into. I shuffled my feet awkwardly, and attempted to stare forward mindlessly, trying to blend into the crowd of freaks that were all around me. All the people had an identical blank expression strewn across their faces, and the same purposeful, yet rigid movements of their bodies. Nothing looked natural, in fact, there was even a part of their tense bodies that seemed to be suppressing the energy.
The platform suddenly began to lower beneath the gray pavement all around us, and before I knew it, my view of the massive, gray sea of hell that was Area 51, became blocked by the cement that encased the glass, elevator-like platform. I gulped, suddenly feeling my eyes start to burn from staring forward for too long. I didn’t even know how most of these people didn’t have tears constantly streaming down their face from having their eyes glued open incessantly.
“Hunter,” I whispered, forcefully shaking his stiff arm. He stood right next to me with his eyes trained forward, like a soldier taking commands from a general. In response to my touch, he only jerked his arm madly in attempt to shake me off of him. It was almost like the second my fingers came into contact with his soft skin, his body had an allergic reaction.
“Hunter,” I whispered again, this time a little louder. I clawed desperately up against his body, hopelessly trying to bring his numb muscles back to life. My eyes frantically looked around, the silence driving me mad. The only sound that could be heard was the low rumble of the people breathing, which was an unnerving thing to hear.
I had never felt more alone and hopeless in my life. I suddenly felt an urge to scream, as the anguish inside of me wanted to leap up out of my throat. I didn’t have to worry about Danielle killing me anymore. She had already handed that job off to the dozens of government pawns that surrounded me.
What if they notice me? I could feel the terror shoot through my veins, piercing through the cloud of hallucinogenic hope that had managed to swath over my mind. There’s no escaping this. I could feel my body shake as I looked at the cement that was whizzing by us, and peered up at the light on the surface that penetrated through the darkness hundreds of feet above our heads. We were entering deeper into the earth than I ever had before; so deep, that I could feel the smoke emanating from hell further beneath us, which caused the air to become practically unbreathable.
I’m trapped. I glanced around hastily, somehow hoping that with my eyes I could shatter the glass continuum that separated my happiness from flooding my mind.
I felt the churning feeling in my stomach finally return to normal as the platform stopped moving downward, and doors opened up on all four sides. People instantly began to flow out the doors, not even waiting a second to take a breath from the mind-numbing ride down to hell.
“Go out the door to your immediate left.” Danielle had coughed a bit in between her words. Just hearing her voice provided me with extra motivation to somehow find a way to escape this place, not only with my life, but with my happiness as well.
I followed Hunter and Ethan, who despite being mind-controlled, had a superior sense of direction. I walked on with my aching feet into the longest hallway that I had ever seen. The end of the hallway seemed to lay beyond the horizon due to the endless amount of gray that covered the landscape and invaded my eyes. Posters of President Ash and other government figures adorned the wall in uniform order. Some posters even had candles surrounding them, which caused them to appear like sacred shrines for the cult of America that worshipped the government like it was a religion and President Ash, a god.
“Hunter.” My voice had grown to normal volume. I could practically hear Danielle seething at the other end of the phone from the sound of me talking. “Ethan.” I tugged on his shoulder, which felt bony even beneath his suit.
There was still too many people around to start yelling. Even just the sound of talking carried down the hallway for hundreds of yards. I felt some eyes begin to peer at me cautiously, waiting to observe my next move and see if I was a freak like them or not.
To distract my eyes from the mind-lulling gray that seemed to be synonymous with Area 51, I started to gaze over the map that appeared on the corner of my ICL. The compound looked to be absolutely massive, with multiple levels underneath ground, and hundreds upon hundreds of rooms designated for special testing. I could feel the memories pull at my mind, threatening to drag me back into the land of mental insanity. Everywhere, even the gray concrete enveloping me, seemed to be teeming with new life, when I imagined that my dad most likely walked these same hallways.
The air seemed to have a new energy as I took a deep breath, trying to cherish the same thin air that had inevitably coursed through my dad’s lungs. This is where he went to work each week for years. I thought back to the sadness that would always overcome me when I would watch him leave on the airplane to a place that I imagined to be a lovely, fantasy-like realm. But in reality, each and every day, my dad slaved away in a mind-numbing hell. The air was restricting, and the smell of chemicals and mold permeated the air, which caused my heart to pound incessantly. It was almost like if I spent too much time in this place, I’d become one of the mindless zombies that frequents America, due to the succumbing energy of the place eventually taking you over.
“Turn right down this hallway,” Danielle commanded, and Hunter and Ethan mindlessly followed. It was painful to watch their two bodies, which I knew so well, be devoid of their minds. It was like watching a tree bare of its leaves, sway gently with the winter wind. They were missing all their life and splendor, and in that hopeless moment, it appeared as if they would never get it back.
The new hallway that we turned down was identical to the last, but the end of this one was actually visible before the hazy, gray horizon. It appeared as if there was another glass, circular platform, that inevitably led even deeper into the depths of hell.
I let my eyes follow the people into the many rooms they were turning into, each one marked with a heavy, metal door that closed it off from the outside world. I can’t even imagine what goes on in there. I pushed from my mind the horrid images of innocent people gruesomely being experimented on, as a round of terrified screams pierced through my ears. I shuddered, suddenly coming to the realization that those screams could very well be coming from someone in my family.
What if it’s my brother? I let a memory of his young, innocent face flood my mind, and I could feel a scream get caught in my throat as I imagined him residing in this ugly, dreadful place. No. I looked forward, adamantly denying the inevitable, adamantly denying that my family, the people I loved, had been put through even more pain and torture than I had.
I have to get them back. I let my eyes wander bac
k to the map on my ICL, attempting to absorb myself into anything besides the soporific, mind-numbing gray. I desperately tried to look for where my family could be, and how I could break them out. On the bottom floor of the compound, there was a massive room called the Protocol 00 Data Center, which was inevitably the mind control computer. Next to it, there appeared to be several corridors that led to the Psychiatric Wards, where my family would most likely be.
There was a chill that went down my spine the second I thought of the word. It made me think about mental hospitals, and the horrific experiments that the government performed on people in the cleansing facilities. My family is in there. My legs twitched slightly as I walked, my entire body trying to deny reality. They went through hell for all these years. I let my eyes run over the countless number of cell numbers that took up almost the entire bottom level of the compound. Everyone the government took away from the world was here. Practically everyone who took the blue pill was here.
How will I possibly be able to find them? Just glancing at the map was enough of a daunting task, but actually trying to make my way through the labyrinth of hallways would be nearly impossible. Should I just go now? I felt my legs begin to bound toward the platform in front of us with even more intensity. I was so eager and so desperate to garner some of the former happiness in my life back, that I could feel my muscles shake with emotion as I walked forward. Should I just forget about trying to shut down the mind control program and get my family back?
I looked behind me at Hunter and Ethan, who were continuing to charge forward at a consistent pace. They looked like two wind-up toys; their muscles were tense, and expressions emotionless, as they walked forward, unwavering. In that moment, especially after glancing into Hunter’s blank, lifeless eyes, I realized there was no way that I would be able to convince them to come with me until after we’d shut down the mind-control program. I can’t go alone. I could just imagine the regret that I would have to live the rest of my life with if I lost my two best friends, who also, in their hearts, desperately wanted their families back.
Control Freakz Page 30