“What is going on Captain, what is all that?”
“This is why I had requested the sergeant to stop collecting more blood. It’s a blood bruise. I took a sample and was attempting to analyze it.”
“Well, what does it mean?”
“His cells are attacking each other. I don’t know why and without certain tests I couldn’t start to explain how this is possible. Once again, this is a scientific anomaly. Colonel, for some reason, the recent loss of blood is causing a violent altercation between the mutated cells in his body, and the normal cells.”
“I’m not following.”
“It means this boy will die if you keep taking his blood.”
“Captain, that’s impossible. Maybe it’s just an iron deficiency, have you checked his iron?”
“His iron is fine. Look Colonel, I can’t explain the why, I can just tell you what’s happening to his body. It’s over; we need to stop until I can figure out what’s happening.”
“We don’t have time for this shit Captain. Look it’s a blood bruise, probably a deficiency, iron, magnesium, whatever, but maybe we just take it slow.”
“Colonel, you’re not listening, there is no deficiency, this is not normal, and we need to stop before this kid dies.”
“Well Captain, you said it yourself, you have no idea what it is. So, unless you can hand me some sort of explanation to what’s going on, then we proceed with the plan.”
“Excuse me sir?”
“Dominguez continue on, but just take a vial every hour.” Posey instructed.
“Colonel, are you even listening to me? He’s going to die; his body is not agreeing to the sudden loss of blood and his cells are engaging in a civil war beneath his skin. Please tell me that means something to you.”
Col. Posey slammed his hand down on the table. Quiet filled the room quickly as the colonel peered towards Rey. “I don’t think we’re on the same page here Captain. I thought I was conveying myself rather clear at the onset of this entire proceeding. This is about winning this war, about using whatever resources at our expense for the common good. Please tell me that means something to you?”
“I can’t let you do this. Please, let me figure this out, and I’ll get you what you want.”
“You are smitten over this boy, aren’t you? You have been ever since you two were introduced. You’re probably making this shit up because you’ve grown quite fond of this boy.”
“That is ridiculous Colonel. Just give me -”
“No, I think you’re done here Captain. You are dismissed.” Col. Posey suggested.
“God damn it Colonel. Don’t do this. Give me some more time with the kid. I’ll figure it out.” Before Rey could continue, Col. Posey pulled out his side arm and pointed it at the Captain’s forehead. Sgt. Dominguez’s eyes grew wide and stood there frozen, unsure of what to do.
“Captain get the fuck out of this room before I end up killing you where you stand.”
“You’re not going to get away with this.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that Captain.” Posey began to smirk before peering over towards the frozen sergeant.
“Sgt. Dominguez, please get me my blood now.”
“Yes sir.” Hope stood up while still shaking. She cautiously moved towards Creed’s bedside and started filling up another vial of blood. The colonel kept his firearm steadily pointed straight at the captain’s forehead while she slowly made her way towards the door.
“Oh, and Captain, you are fully relieved of your duties here at Sky Harbor. You have thirty minutes to collect your belongings and get off my base.” Col. Posey addressed.
Without even responding, Rey opened the door while keeping her eyes locked on the colonel. She briefly looked over at Creed as a tear started streaming down her face. Rey felt totally helpless leaving the room and was unsure of what to do at this point. The whole situation had officially turned ugly and the captain wasn’t sure if Creed could survive much longer. Regardless she knew she would have to figure something out rather quick. As long as she was alive, there was hope for Creed.
After Rey left the room, the colonel turned his attention towards Sgt. Dominguez who was anxiously preparing more vials.
“We’re not going to have any problems are we, Sergeant?”
“No sir, no problems” Dominguez answered.
“Good. Get me another ten vials of blood. Once you are done, call me on my cell and I’ll have someone come and fetch them.”
“Sir, I thought you said one vial every hour?”
“And I thought you said there we’re not going to have any problems.”
“No, sorry sir.”
Creed lay lifelessly on the table but garnered enough energy to mumble something. Sgt. Dominguez looked over at the young teen struggling to keep his eyes open. Col. Posey put his gun back in his holster and moved closer towards Creed. The teen’s irises suddenly moved and locked on with the colonel’s eyes.
“Sorry about this Creed. If I knew there was another way to go about this, I would. I just can’t risk my men and this whole operation we got going on here. I’m sure you’d understand if you were in my position.”
Just then, Creed’s arms began to shake erratically. He was eagerly attempting to free his arms from the restraints by raising them violently into the air. Creed simply prayed for just enough strength to tear through the cuffs to grab onto the colonel’s neck. A debilitating squeeze and this seemingly hopeless situation would be over. The strength that he had conveyed recently would be more than enough to crush the colonel’s neck and spine. Creed suddenly felt even weaker as Sgt. Dominguez injected more diazepam into his drip. The young teen laid back and rested his arms.
“You know what? From here on out, increase the milligrams in his diazepam drip, I don’t want any chance of this kid getting his strength back at all. If he gets free, it will be the end of us all.” Col. Posey instructed.
“Yes sir.” Sgt. Dominguez complied and began filling another vial of blood before she eventually noticed something odd lying on the floor. As soon as the vial was filled, she placed it to the side and then crouched over towards the floor. Col. Posey took notice of the young sergeant bending towards the ground.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know.” Hope replied.
Dominguez picked the unique object off the floor and held it close so she could try to identify what it was. Before she could gather a mere impression to what it might be, another similar object fell to the floor, directly below Creed’s arm that was stretched out. Hope grabbed Creed’s arms and immediately gasped.
“Well, what is it?” Col. Posey asked.
“Look.”
Col. Posey walked over to the sergeant’s side while she held his arm up for the colonel to inspect. Falling to the ground were pieces of Creed’s skin, descending from his arm. The colonel happened to notice a few patches of the boy’s skin was missing, and a few more bruises around the boy’s arm. “What in God’s name?”
“What is going on Colonel?”
“I don’t know.”
“Have you ever seen anything like this before?”
“No Sergeant, I don’t think anyone has.”
“Well, what do we do?”
“I don’t know, but his body is obviously deteriorating rather quickly. Collect as many vials as you can before all hell breaks loose. I’ll get someone up here to help you if I can.”
“Wait, you want me to keep going? I’m not sure if I can do this.”
“You’re going to do it Sergeant. Or you’re going to find a new career awfully fast, do you hear me?” The colonel assured.
“Yes sir.”
“Good, now I’ll be back. Just get me that blood.” Col. Posey abruptly stormed out of the room. Dominguez stood there shaking momentarily as a couple more pieces of Creed’s skin began falling off. The sergeant quickly gathered herself mentally and emotionally before turning back around to collect more blood. The sergeant figured the quicker she completed
this ghastly task, the quicker she could leave. What she didn’t realize however; was that the colonel’s vile insistence on retrieving the blood wouldn’t stop, even after the next ten vials. Sgt. Dominguez didn’t know it just yet, but Col. Posey had already made up his mind that they were in this for the long run, and that there was no going back. The damage was done, and the teenager was more than likely going to die. At this point, the colonel was no longer thinking of Creed as an actual human being. He was now an object that was going to help the country win the war.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
Later that evening, Genesis had eventually made her way back to the airport. She searched out her brother and Creed’s parents around the same spot they had been camped out at.
“Sis. You made it back.” Kuruk yelled out and immediately ran towards his sister once he spotted her coming up the parking garage.
“Kuruk!” Genesis yelled out. She started to break into tears as soon as she saw her brother standing there. Genesis squeezed onto her brother tighter than normal; unwilling to let him go.
“Hey, what’s going on? Where’s Creed?” Kuruk asked.
“They have him.”
“Who’s got him?”
“The Army. They found us, they showed up with guns, started making threats, I don’t know what they’re going to do.”
“Shit, how did they find you guys?”
“I don’t know. They just showed up at the reservation, firing their weapons, intimidating everyone. It was all chaos.”
“Bastards.”
“We have to find him Kuruk, we have to.”
“Okay, well how the hell do you suppose we do that?”
“I don’t know. I just know that he’s in there somewhere, and he’s all alone, he has nobody, and I have no idea what they’re going do to him.”
“Alright, alright, calm down. We’ll figure it out. It’s not going to be easy, but we’ll figure something out.” Kuruk reached out and hugged his little sister again, trying to give her a little comfort after he noticed she was shaking. “How much money do you have?” He asked.
“What?” Genesis inquired. Kuruk was thinking of a plan but in all honesty had no clue what they were going to do. There were Army personnel literally swarming the entire airport.
“Genesis?” A familiar voice was shouting out from the other side of the parking garage. Both Kuruk and Genesis peered over and noticed Dolores; Creed’s mother walking towards them. They noticed Creed’s father tailing right behind her. “Is that you? Oh my god.” Mrs. O’Connor reached out her arms and embraced the anxious siblings. Dolores began feeling a bit more relieved as she hugged them both there in the moonlight. “Genesis, what’s going on? Where’s Creed? I thought he was with you?”
“They took him.”
“What? Who took him?”
“The Army.”
“Wait, they said that you escaped and ran away? They asked us where we thought you might be. So, what exactly is going on?”
“Look, there’s something you should know.” Genesis began.
“Well hold on honey, let’s go back to our cots. We can talk over there. Get you some water, you look parched.”
The rattled group made their way to their assigned cots and sat down, facing each other. Mrs. O’Connor grabbed a water bottle and handed it to Genesis.
“Thanks.”
“Now, what’s going on sweetheart?” Dolores repeated.
“There’s something I need to tell you – about Creed.”
“Wait, no. I already told them.” Kuruk interrupted.
“You told them what?”
“About Creed’s, ugh – abilities.”
“So, it’s really true?” Dolores further inquired.
“Yes. It’s true.”
“Jesus Christ. Our son is a superhero.” Creed’s dad blurted out.
“Oh, get a hold of yourself.” Dolores retorted. “And how long did you guys know about this anyway?”
“Not long at all. He was afraid of anyone finding out about it. He was nervous about it all and tried to just keep it to himself. That is, until the bombings. And all he was doing was trying to protect me.”
“So, someone must’ve said something about it to the Army?”
“Yes. That’s why they asked for him to go in the first place. They apparently attempted to persuade him into giving them a demonstration. He refused, so that’s why they came for me. It was all a ploy. As soon as they had me in the back hangar, they pointed a gun at me. Creed lost it after that; he unarmed one of the officer’s, threw a truck at another. He grabbed me and we flew off. We initially decided to go over to my house but figured they’d find out where I live. So, we decided to visit my grandmother at the reservation. Last night, they found us and started shooting their guns and intimidating everyone until Creed gave himself up. And he did, he just gave himself up. He knew that they’d come after you guys if he didn’t do what they wanted.”
Dolores just realized a startling divination as she listened to Genesis’ testimony.
“Oh my God, I told them.”
“You told them what?”
“The Major said you guys had run away and that you were in danger. I didn’t know what was going on and so I just mentioned that you had a grandma who lived at the reservation. I’m sorry Genesis. I knew something was up, but I was just worried about you guys.”
“It’s okay, you didn’t know.” Creed’s dad tried to empathize with his wife. The entire situation was feeling more like a movie. Everyone involved was hoping they’d just wake up already, and realize it was all just a dream.
“Well, now what?” Genesis asked.
Mr. O’Connor began grazing his hand across his unshaven chin. “Well, we can start by asking them what the hell is going on.”
“What’s that going to do? Didn’t you just hear Genesis? Does it sound like they’re going to just give him up if we ask politely?”
“What do you suggest then Dolores?”
“Leave it up to us. I might have a plan.” Genesis insisted.
“What? No, I won’t allow it, you’re just kids, I’m not going to let you guys get involved.” Mr. O’Connor insisted.
“With all due respect sir, we’re already pretty involved.”
“Yes, but we’re his parents, and I couldn’t deal with the consequences if anything happened to you as well.”
“I’m not asking for your permission sir.” Genesis boldly stated.
“Alright, now hold on a second. He’s my son, let me just talk to them okay? I’m sure they don’t want a public relations crisis over all of this.” Mr. O’Connor announced as he got up and began walking over to one of the soldiers that was standing there by the entrance of the parking garage.
“Excuse me. I need to speak with Col. Posey.” Creed’s father demanded.
“Right now?”
“Yes of course right now, it’s an emergency.”
“Sir, I’m sure it can wait until morning, it’s late and I’m sure the colonel is busy right now.” The young soldier remarked.
“No, you don’t understand, you guys have my son, and I want to speak with him. We’ve been through this before. I demand to see my son now, you tell The colonel I want to speak with him. This young lady over here –” Mr. O’Connor turned towards their assigned cots and noticed the siblings were gone.
“Sir?” The private asked.
Creed’s father turned back towards the private and dropped his shoulders, fearing the worst.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Kuruk and Genesis made their way down garage’s stairs and eventually ended up outside by the watch tower. Most of the Army’s planes and equipment were placed beyond terminal four, leaving the first three concourses mainly secluded. Kuruk went out beyond the concourse wall and peered out into the distance. After a few seconds he turned his back towards his sister and motioned for her to join him. The two of them slowly crept around the back of the building and paused once they got to the end of the wall.
They both glanced around the corner to make sure no one was around before running the empty distance between the two buildings. They moved on until they eventually made it to the back side of concourse four. As soon as Kuruk and Genesis hit the wall they could start to hear chatter between a few of the soldiers.
“Damn it.” Kuruk exclaimed.
“What’s wrong?”
“Now comes the fun part.”
“Can’t you just distract them somehow?”
“How do you suggest we pull that off? Unless you’re willing to flash them, I got nothing.”
“That’s out of the question.”
“Yeah that’s what I thought. So, then we wait.”
Genesis sighed before relaxing her body against the side of the building. Kuruk stood there studying the outlay of the concourse while also attempting to take head counts of the soldiers that were patrolling the area. He noticed that against the building was a large stair case that appeared to be an entry point into the airport.
“There.” Kuruk was pointing towards the staircase, past the soldiers lounging outside before looking around one more time to make sure he didn’t miss anybody.
“That’s where we‘re going. It looks like it might lead us inside where we need to go. There are only two guys out there right now, so we should be able to sneak down this wall, keep in the shadows and just move quickly.”
“You really think this is going to work?”
“We’re about to find out.”
Genesis just shrugged her shoulder. Her brother focused his attention down the length of the wall towards the main building, taking one last glance before they made a move.
“Alright, let’s go.” Kuruk took off with Genesis on his tail. They made their way down the long wall and thanks to the moon’s current position; they were able to stay directly in the dark shadows. The same two soldiers that were positioned right outside were currently standing against a large Army truck. The siblings finally made it to the end of the building. They both squatted there and once again waited.
Goodbye Sky Harbor Page 16