As soon as she left the room, she turned to see four men coming up the stairs. She knew those outfits, they were guards from the facility.
“Shit!” she said and launched herself over the metal banister in front of her; she landed on the ground and began to run. The men were in pursuit, quickly moving down the staircase. They were firing their guns at her. She took cover behind a pillar by the motel office as bullets flew past her. She took the backpack off her back and loaded a gun and began firing back. She struck two of the guards, then she stopped firing. They had taken cover behind pillars as well. Suddenly she heard a sound she knew well. It was a grenade tapping the pavement. As it rolled towards her, she looked to the motel office and dove through its glass window just as the grenade went off. The explosion broke the remainder of the windows and shook the whole office. The man inside had been knocked to the floor. He looked dead. Marie shook her head trying to re-establish herself, assessed her surroundings and heard the remaining two men approaching. Unfortunately she had lost her gun in the commotion. She had no weapons, her backpack was somewhere in the office, she had been able to grab it before she dove through the window, but lost it once she fell through the window. She concealed herself under the debris of the front desk, got a grip on a large piece of wood in her right hand and steadied herself. The two men approached, guns drawn. She waited until they were almost right on top of her, then emerged from the pile and grabbed the guard to her left’s gun, aiming it towards the man to her right. She fired the gun into his chest, then struck the other guard with the wood in the back of the head knocking him to the ground. She took his gun and examined it, then threw it across the room. At that moment she spotted her backpack in the front corner of the room, walked over and picked it up. She got out one of her knives, walked back to the barely conscious guard, stood him up and pushed him against the wall. She gave him a swift upper cut kick to his genitals. He slumped to the ground moaning in pain, grabbing his crotch as tears of pain began to run down his face. Marie knew it was time to send her pursuers a message. She laid down on the floor next to him on her stomach and propped herself up on her forearms. She looked him directly in his face. He looked to her.
“Hi, we haven’t met but you were apparently here to ‘get me back’. Well, that’s not going to happen; however, I do need to keep you alive because I need you to take a message back to your bosses. Can you do that for me?”
“Fuck you” he moaned back to her.
She took her knife and pointed it directly at his crotch.
“Now I can either leave your manhood for the most part in-tact and you verbally relay a message or I can cut it off feed it to you and pin a note to your chest, your choice.”
“Ok ok” he pleaded back.
“You tell your boss if he wants me back he can come and get me himself.” Marie said with a smile. The man continued to moan, “That’s a good boy” she said tapping him on the head. She stood herself up and brushed off the debris and placed her knife back in her backpack, zipped it up and strapped it back to her back and calmly walked out.
Frederick arrived on the scene of the motel several hours later.
“Sir, we have a survivor this time,” Several guards were on scene and Frederick had just arrived on the scene of the motel. Frederick made his way to the guard Marie left alive who was now leaning against the wall,
“So I take it she got away?”
“Yes sir, I’m sorry” the guard replied his voice was coarse from the pain.
“And you’re alive, because?” Frederick asked, pulling his gun from its holster on his hip and pointing it at the guard’s face.
The guard threw up his hands, “She wanted me to tell you something.”
“And what is that?” Frederick took a step closer to the guard with his gun still drawn.
The guard took a deep breath, “You aren’t going to like it but she said if you want her you will have to come and get her yourself.”
Frederick’s face turned red with anger as he fired his gun hitting the guard directly between the eyes, his head falling back against the wall. “Clean this shit up” Frederick walked away, gun still drawn in his hand.
Frederick drove immediately back to the facility to bring an update to the rest of the ‘management’. The room was silent. They had lost three in a twenty four hour period, one of which was one of them.
“Do we actually need her alive?” Bruce asked with anger in his voice. Bruce had lost all compassion for Marie, she had cost him too much.
“Yes she has to be alive to be tested. I can’t complete the research without a pulse,” Jones nervously replied
“So I can put her in a comma and you can still get what you need?” Frederick asked with a grin.
“Sounds good to me,” Bruce replied.
Jones took a gulp, “Yes but she has to be alive so we can see how the cells are re-generating and at what pace.”
“You know we would have some data if you hadn’t killed the only fucking person to witness her in action,” Henry yelled at Frederick.
“He died for his failure to capture her. I was not aware we were in the business of letting such failure exist in this company,” Frederick replied.
“Are you fucking kidding me? This whole dam program has been a failure and has cost us a god dam fortune and we have nothing to show for it but a bunch of dead fucking bodies,” Henry barked back.
“It has not been a failure. We have one success. We just have to get it back and when we do we can figure this out and more than make our money back. Now calm down Henry.” Ivan calmly reassured the group. “She apparently wants you, Frederick, so you should be the one to go after her. She may reveal herself in an effort to get your attention.”
“Agreed. How do you suggest I find her? I doubt she will go back to the motel.”
Jones raised his hand.
“Do you have something to add?” Frederick asked.
“Does she know Justin gave her and Michael up? If not, we could use him to get in touch with her.” Jones nervously replied.
“Look, someone with a fucking brain in this place.” Henry laughed.
Jones nervously smiled
“Even if she knows he gave them up, we can still use him to get to her. He’s useless to us at this point. I’m pretty sure he is high on something all the time so it wouldn’t matter if she killed him and it would set her up perfectly for an ambush,” Ivan replied. “Bruce work with Frederick to set it up.”
“Gladly” Bruce replied.
“Then you are all dismissed.” Ivan replied
Justin had fallen apart after giving up Michael and Marie. He had no joy left. He had sunken deeper and deeper into depression and had found refuge in drugs, heroin to be more specific. The needles never bothered him since he had spent his whole childhood getting two injections a day. It was almost comforting to stick a needle in his arm. Getting them was easy for him, the management had been allowing him off the grounds more and more or they just weren’t paying any attention to him anymore. He was physically a mess and was not helpful in any way. He had a small haven in a run-down apartment in nearby Los Angeles where he would go to get high. It truly was a dump. All he had was a stain covered mattress and an old brown leather chair full of rips and tears. He didn’t need much, he only went there to escape physically and mentally from everything, even though he would spend days at a time in a drug induced daze.
“Are you sure he is here?” Frederick asked Bruce as they approached the rundown apartment complex.
“If he isn’t at the facility then he is here.” Bruce replied, as they approached the door of the apartment.
”Shall we knock.” Frederick said with a chuckle as he knocked on the door.
“Go the fuck away!” Justin yelled from the inside of the apartment.
“See, he’s here.” Bruce said as he kicked in the door. There was Justin slumped in the leather chair. He didn’t even look up.
“So am I late getting back?” Justin said
with a laugh. He was slurring his words, his filthy blonde hair was askew and his face was unshaven and a mess. Needle marks riddled his left arm.
“You’re pathetic,” Bruce said as he walked over and pulled Justin from the chair and threw him on the floor.
Justin just laid on the floor, eyes barely opened, ‘What do you want from me?” He moaned.
“Time for you to be useful again.” Frederick said with a smile.
“Well I am always at your service,” Justin said rolling over to his knees hanging his head and placing his hands out in front of him with his palms up.
“I want to know how you were communicating with them.” Frederick said to him, lifting Justin’s head and looking him in the eye.
“Why they’re dead,” Justin replied
“Because Michael’s dead, but she isn’t and she has cost us a lot and it’s time to bring her in before she does us in.” Bruce replied.
“So I get to help you hunt her down. Lucky me” Justin said sarcastically.
“Look, you dumb shit, she is the reason all of this has happened and now she is killing your friends so you are going to help us or you can watch all of your friends die one by one at her hand until she eventually decides to kill you too.” Bruce yelled at him.
“How did you communicate with them?” Frederick asked again impatiently.
Justin laughed, “How do you think? It’s called social media dummy, you all never checked that, I guess that level of ‘technology’ was beyond all of you.”
“What?!” Bruce yelled.
“Um yah you all gave us freaking computers and never bothered to see what we were doing on them. I mean yah we were watching porn but come on it’s a great way to stay in touch. You all were soo concerned about the doctor giving me messages you didn’t even care how I was getting the messages to Michael, just where he was,” Justin said as he fell over and passed out.
Bruce just rubbed his head, “Well, what do we do with him now?”
“Drag his ass back,” Frederick replied.
Bruce walked over to Justin’s unconscious body and kicked him. “Get up. We are going back.”
“Yay,” Justin moaned.
Bruce and Frederick took Justin back to the facility and straight to Ivan’s office.
“You look like shit.” Henry laughed pointing to Justin.
“You look great too,” Justin replied.
“Sit” Ivan ordered.
Bruce shoved Justin into one of the leather chairs.
Frederick threw a tablet to Justin, “Get on and contact her and tell her to meet you.”
Justin was rubbing his eyes, “It doesn’t work like that.”
Frederick got red in the face, “How does it work then?”
“It’s a code and there is no telling if she is even checking it anymore. It was Michael who was checking.”
“Just fucking do it, you’re wasting time.” Henry ordered.
“Fine, it’s simple, I put up a picture of the beach or something and put the number of days and minutes till my ‘vacation’. They are coordinates days to latitude and minutes to longitude to where a message has been left for them.”
“How did you get the messages to the locations?” Ivan asked.
“Guards are bribable”
“I don’t care, now send her to your apartment.” Frederick replied.
“Why?” Justin replied going in and out of consciousness.
Bruce slapped Justin in the face. “Wake up, you know why. Now do it!” Bruce yelled.
“Fine whatever” Justin replied, as he logged into his account and posted a picture of New York City and the coordinates of his apartment and hit post. ”Ok now what?”
“Now we take you back to your filthy hole and we wait.” Frederick said, pulling Justin from his chair to his feet.
Chapter 15
Marie had been on the move since the incident at the motel; she had no direction but she knew. She had to get as far away as possible, she figured she would travel south and maybe go to Mexico. She had money so she could travel and with cash it was very easy to move by the bus systems. She had been struggling to believe what had happened in the past several days, but she was driven to survive. Michael wouldn’t have wanted her to give up or give in to them. Eventually, she found herself in Phoenix, Arizona and there she decided she needed to acquire a disposable cell phone with internet access. She couldn’t believe that Justin had given them up and if he had he had to have been tortured or something. He would never willingly hurt either of them. She had to see if he had left them any messages, maybe he needed her help. Marie located a local drug store and was able to purchase one without any fuss and quickly made her way to the bus station. She immediately opened it and plugged it in to the wall in the bus station bathroom. She opened up the internet and logged into her account. She let out a sigh, there it was a destination for Justin’s newest ‘vacation’ and coordinates. He did need her or at the least he needed to get some information to her. She couldn’t let herself believe anything else. Justin was the last piece of her past, she was clinging to hope that he was still on her side. She decoded the location and realized it was a spot in Los Angeles. She made her way from the bathroom to the ticket counter and purchased a one way ticket to Los Angeles.
“So we are just going to sit here until she maybe shows up?” Justin asked as they entered his apartment.
“No, you are going to sit here and wait for her and when she shows up you are going to stall her until I arrive,” Frederick replied, shoving Justin into his leather chair. “See, eyes on you,” Frederick said as he installed a small camera above the door frame of the apartment.
“Ok, big brother, whatever you say.” Justin replied with a laugh.
“How are you still high?” Frederick asked.
“Sometimes the pain is worse than any high so you just get high on it.” Justin replied, barely able to hold his head up.
“That makes no sense. Just stay put” Frederick replied as he walked out the door.
Justin sank down into the chair, glanced around the room looking for his stash. He figured if he was going to die at least it would be better to be too high to care. He found it under his mattress, and laid down on the mattress as he drew up a nice strong dose of heroin. He tapped the needle then stuck it in his arm and half pushed the plunger down. Justin felt the room spin. He knew that feeling and everything went black.
Marie took the long bus trip from Phoenix to Los Angeles. She was alone with her thoughts again and that never brought her peace. She just kept thinking of the life she had lost, her life with her son and with Michael. She could never see happiness happening for her again, just her own survival and for that she could only think, why? Why was she fighting so hard for survival what did she have to live for? The tears had returned, tears of pain a pain that she couldn’t ignore. She felt like a little girl again, the loss and the anguish of her entire life. She felt weak and could only hold herself as no one was there to hold her anymore, no one to help make the pain go away. She wanted to give up to just get off the bus and give herself up to them or end her own life. But it caught her eye again, that little ring, still barely clinging to her finger. The stone was gone but the band remained. She just couldn’t bring herself to remove it. If she gave up everything she and Michael had fought for, their freedom, their son’s freedom, would have been for nothing. She had to avenge them she had to stop them for hurting anyone else ever again. She wiped the tears from her face as the bus pulled into the Los Angeles station. She composed herself and placed her backpack back on her back and climbed down from the bus. The station was busy and she knew she could easily move around without being noticed. Big cities she was finding were easier to hide herself, the more people in the crowd the less likely she would stand out, especially since she was still wearing that black leather outfit covered with the now clean grey hoodie. She hadn’t bothered to find new clothing, the leather was growing on her and she found it easy to move around in. She felt
confident in it and that confidence gave her strength. She made her way through the busy bus terminal and started to make her way towards the coordinates Justin had left her; it wasn’t too far from the bus terminal so she figured she would just make the walk. As she slowly started to make her way through the crowded streets of Los Angeles, however as she walked she felt her pace quicken. Large groups made her uncomfortable. She liked them for them being able to hide her but the large groups of people were nothing she was familiar with in her life growing up in the facility. As she found her way through the city the streets got dirtier and the neighborhood’s rougher as she moved to the coordinates Justin had sent her.
Twenty minutes later, she finally arrived at the apartment complex. She slowly made her way to apartment 10B were the coordinates landed. She stood in front of the door and took a deep breath. She hadn’t seen Justin in well over a year and she never knew what had become of him. She knew what Austin had told her and what she had seen on Austin’s face and in his voice but she had no way to know if Justin had gone the same way.
Marie reached out and turned the door knob and the door slowly opened. She felt her heart drop. There he was unconscious on a filthy mattress. She rushed to him,
“Please wake up” she begged.
Justin slowly opened his eyes, “I’m sorry I’m soo sorry.” He replied barely able to hold his head up.
“What have they done to you?” she felt herself beginning to tear up. She tried to lift his head. She barely recognized him, he was a shadow of the man she remembered. He mumbled something but she couldn’t understand him, “You poor thing” she cried as she brushed his messy hair from his face.
“I’m sorry” he let out again.
“For what?” Marie replied
“For this” He reached up and stabbed her in the neck with a needle. Marie felt a surge of pain in her neck. She turned her head to see Frederick walking into the room. Her head started to spin and she felt herself losing her vision and the world go black as she hit the floor.
Marie (Teumessian Trilogy Book 1) Page 9