She shook her head, fresh tears flowing. “Rex, my career be damned, I wanted us to be together. I wanted the world to know about us because you are a good person. You’ve saved and improved so many lives. None of my work would have been possible if you hadn’t laid the foundation. It’s why you need to believe me when I say this. You aren’t stealing my work. I’m giving it to you.”
Stunned, Martin responded the only way he could. “I love you, Jessica.”
“I love you, Rex.”
They sobbed even harder than before as they fell into each other’s arms. They intermittently kissed and quivered for a few moments.
“Time’s up, doctors.” Dr. Thompson stepped next to the couple as a guard wheeled in a stretcher. He opened his hand toward it. “Dr. Campbell. Please.”
Martin held her hand as she laid down. They cried hard on the way to the cryo-lab, and he wheeled her to the prepping station.
“Don’t waste any more time, Dr. Martin.” Thompson commanded. “Give her the sedative.”
Like a zombie, he got the IV started and dialed up the right drug and dosage. He looked her in the eye and deliberately moved his finger toward the button. “I’m sorry, Jessica. You were the partner I needed, but I wasn’t the one you deserved.”
She let go an involuntary breathy laugh in between her sobs. “You are who I’ve always needed. I’m glad it’s you. None of us deserve this. I love you, Rex.”
Unable to speak, he gave the subtlest wink, and a tear fell from his eye.
“Dr. Martin,” Thompson insisted.
He pushed the button, then stood paralyzed.
Campbell puckered her lips, about to say something, but the fast-acting sedative had dulled her senses. She was out.
The life washed from Martin’s face. He timidly turned to Thompson, who nodded back for him to proceed with Campbell’s preparation.
Amanda and Campbell’s frozen bodies were in place in the neural transfer lab. A red-faced Martin entered and went straight for the computer terminal. He checked the status of the lab, its programs, and the neural disposal routines which Thompson had implemented. All reports came back positive.
Thompson eyed the monitor from behind Martin. “Please begin the transfer procedure.”
Martin nodded at the staff, and they scowled first, then nodded, confirming they were ready. He lifted his finger above the green button, hesitating as he’d done even with the mice. His arm hovered there, frozen in space for several moments. He wished upon everything that it was all just a bad dream from which he could awaken.
Thompson’s patience dissipated immediately. “Dr. Martin, proceed.”
Martin’s hand started to shake, continuing to stall.
“Doctor!”
Martin heard the mechanical clicks of a gun behind him. His mind went blank and time slowed down. His finger came down on the button, and the lab came to life. Martin’s heart broke more and more. The program window. The progress bar. The muted sounds of the equipment. Knives into his chest.
But on cue, Martin’s eyes closed, and his head floated up. In his guilty, grieving state, he longed for something, anything to take away the anguish. But he quickly remembered that in the new lab, there would be no music. No orchestra. Nothing to make this heart-wrenching procedure any more bearable.
Ready to open his eyes, he was stunned when the sweet intro to a gentle piece filled the room. It was reminiscent of Johann Strauss’s “The Blue Danube Waltz.” Martin could feel himself entering a numb daze as the melody picked up, and he did nothing to stop it. More surprising yet, he felt his mind release all the angst and sorrow from the day. His thoughts hopped pleasantly from happy note to happy note. It was as if the soul-crushing experience of condemning his lover had never happened. Everything was going to be okay. It was all just a nightmare. He would wake up, shaken from the melancholic thoughts, but he’d be lying in bed next to Jessica. They’d be together. They’d spend the rest of their lives together.
But then, the song took a turn. The tender melody slowly winded down to nothing. The silence was painfully defining. Quietly, different music started to play and got louder and louder. Instead of an entire orchestra, it was just three instruments—the deep pounding of a bass drum, the dying moans of a standup bass, and the skin-crawling high-pitch of a violin.
Shocked, Dr. Martin finally opened his eyes and peered over his shoulder. Thompson was gone. When he looked back at the procedure floor, everyone was gone. His eyes darted through the lab, desperately trying to figure out what was happening. Something in the far corner caught his eye.
There!
It was his musicians, and they were playing their instruments of sorrow.
Rail-thin, fiery-red imps with dagger teeth were smiling the most demented sneers as they used the devil’s music to wage war on Martin.
Pounding and strumming. Strumming and pounding.
They took their satanical rage out on their musical equipment, spewing agony at Martin.
Desperately, he cupped his ears, but the noise only got louder as he felt something hot and wet on his hands. He looked, and they were covered in a deep purple blood. A metallic aroma filled his nose.
He glared at the wicked creatures. They stood in unison. The instruments shockingly played themselves louder than ever as the demons made their way to Martin. They revealed razor-sharp claws and pointed them toward his chest, right at his heart. Step by step, they got closer and closer. Closer and closer.
They finally made contact with his skin, and Martin sighed in relief. As terrified as he was, he wanted more than anything for them to put him out of his misery. He could feel that the tips of their arrow-like fingers were ready to pierce through and end his life. Martin exhaled his fears and accepted his fate. The end was near. He was at peace.
A voice from behind brought Dr. Martin back to reality.
“Success! Staff, prep Mr. Guerrero and his host for the next procedure. I’m going to check on the world’s first human neural transfer subject!” Dr. Thompson quipped as he stepped down the stair. He looked over his shoulder. “Dr. Martin! You’re a pioneer!”
Martin stared at the computer screen, motionless for several moments. His heart fluttered painfully. He was physically unable to look down at the lab floor. Instead, he drifted out of the lab, back to the locker room where he’d last sat with Jessica. He could still smell her scent in the room. He curled up in the corner and wept.
“I’m so sorry this happened to you.”
Chapter 9:
You Got Some Explaining to Do
“I’m so sorry this happened to you.” I tried in vain to console Lucy while we drank coffee at the diner. “Your dad told me what a bad spot he put you in.”
She took a sip, shook her head, and cleared her throat. She croaked, “Sorrys don’t get you shit. Now, I have a lot of damn questions! First, how the hell did you find me? No one knew about that PO box but Mom.”
I thought through all the different stories I could tell, but her guard was up, so they’d have to be good. “It was a freak coincidence. I was helping a buddy move out of an old apartment, and he stumbled on a removable panel on the wall. There, I found this letter.” I pulled it from my pocket, flattened it on the table, and inched it over to her.
“I read it three times, and I was damn sure I knew it was your family.”
She eyed the old paper, and her expression softened. “But how in the hell did you know Dad? You look younger than me.”
I responded confidently. “Your dad and I pissed off the same guy around the same time. We both ended up at county together. We were there for about a year.”
She gasped. “Dad was in jail?”
I nodded. “Yeah, sorry. I thought you knew. Anyway, we got to talking one day, and at first, we both thought the other was a hired thug by the guy we’d crossed. We both kept each other at arm’s length
until one day he said something to me. Something about fearing for his family—you guys—and I connected the dots. We looked out for each other up until…” She’d been leaning in and looking more lost as I talked, so I paused when I realized that she had no idea what had happened. “You don’t know, do you?”
She twitched her head to the side. “Mom said he got mixed up with the wrong people. She said we should never even look him up because it was dangerous.”
As much as I wanted her to know the truth, I couldn’t even bring myself to say it. I sipped my bland coffee to stall a bit as I tried to figure out what to tell her. “It’s not a happy ending.”
“Tell me, dammit!”
“Well, one day when I had my back turned, he took a shiv to the gut. As bad as it seemed, I’m pretty sure he went quick.”
She wheezed hard, and her face went pale before being overtaken by a coughing fit. I stood up to help, but she waved me off. She crammed her hand into her pocket and ripped out the inhaler. She shoved it into her mouth, took two deep breaths, and was able to calm herself quickly. “It’s such bullshit. All my memories of him were so great. I actually remember the day I first met him at the bus station. It was crazy.”
She seemed weathered to the point where hearing that her dad had been murdered hardly phased her. She continued to gather herself, then proceeded with her interrogation. “Why do you look so young?”
“I got in early on one of those mind migration things. I’m actually almost twenty years older than the body I’m in. They did a bio-cast of my face when I was younger. I get it touched up every couple of years.” Based on the way she was staring at me, I anticipated her next inquiry. “The eye was a side effect of the procedure.”
She squinted and scowled at me like I was a freak, though I expected more. “I’ve heard bad things about those procedures, but my lungs are shot. They expensive?”
I had to put that thought out of her mind. “I had to save for ten years. And you really need to explore all your options before considering it.”
She mulled it over and took another sip of her coffee.
I seized the opportunity to take my turn probing. “Where’d you learn to fight like that?”
“Oh, that.” She cleared her throat. “I ended up on the street, and a group recruited me. Or so I thought. They housed me, fed me, and trained me. Then, I found out it was those damn PMU bastards all along. They asked me to walk the streets…looking for people like you to harass. Said it was payback for all they’d done for me. I split as soon as I could, but they found me. I’ve paid them five-hundred credits a month for the last five years.”
“I can put a stop to that.”
She waved me off. “No. I’m done getting favors from strangers.”
It was obvious that I needed to establish credibility. “Look. I didn’t think much of it, but family was all Charlie would talk about. He told me about your mom, your brother, and you. He told me about your favorite toy drone. He said you always buzzed it in his ear, and it annoyed him. But he missed it. He said he was the luckiest man in the world to have such a great family. But he said he’d pissed it all away. He was certain you all had been killed. What happened?”
Lucy eyed me for a moment, then sighed. “Mom had called it ‘Dad’s backup plan’ or something. She said his condition could put us in danger, so he paid to have us protected. I was young, but I remember a lot of it. I’d always slept shitty, hooked to a ventilator. That morning had been one of my worst nights. After many hours, I’d finally gotten to sleep, and suddenly, I’m jolted wide awake by banging on the balcony door. Against doctor’s orders, I sat up, scared to death. I heard Mom running down the hallway, coughing. Once she was in the living room, she yelled. ‘Who the hell are you? What do you want?’”
Lucy frowned. “I was terrified, but I also felt helpless. I grabbed Drony’s controller—my toy drone, as you know—and I flew him out to the living room. There were four masked men dressed in black. Only the balcony door and Mom stood between them and my brother and me. When I thought I was going to die, it was impossible to breathe. The ventilator started beeping fast and, through Drony, I could still hear the exact second the balcony slid open.”
My eyes widened as she continued.
“The men in black stormed the house. Gasping for air, I tried my best to keep up with Drony as one man ran down the hallway toward my room. I thought for sure it was all going to be over, but when he came in, he didn’t even look at me. He flung a bag from his shoulder, tore it open, and pulled out a portable battery. He went to work hooking up all my equipment to it and set it next to the bed, leaving the bag behind. He disappeared down the hallway toward my brother’s room, and another man flew in and began furiously grabbing clothes and toys. He crammed them into the black bag.”
She huffed. “They loaded Joey and me on mobile beds into a big black truck, and Mom followed. They drove for what felt like forever. Mom pleaded with the men that it was basically a death sentence, us leaving the city in our condition. They didn’t say a word. Mom told me my dad was a good man, but I must never look for him or bad things would happen. I was trying to wrap my head around Dad being dangerous when we finally stopped. The men ushered us out, and we were at a small house in the middle of nowhere. They handed Mom an envelope and drove off.”
She paused, and my curiosity got the best of me. “What was in the envelope?”
Lucy frowned but a confidence came over her. “Mom never said. I’m guessing it had to do with our new life. The house was off the net, but it had everything else we would need for months. Electricity. Food. Running water. And I shit you not, there was a six-foot smoke stack in the back yard that produced the same smog from the city to help with our condition. They had thought of everything.”
I couldn’t help but ask the obvious question. “What happened with your mom and Joey?”
The glow that had come over Lucy from talking about her family evaporated instantly. She looked away for several moments. “I thought we were screwed, but Mom was tough as nails as always. The same day we got settled, she scoured the local town for anyone who had medical experience. The next day, a nurse practitioner came to check our equipment and order our medicine. Better yet, she landed a job at a convenience store within a week. With a cough like hers, that was lucky.
“She worked part time since she couldn’t be away from Joey and me for long. After a couple weeks, she bought a clunker and was able to work longer shifts since she didn’t have to walk. Those first few months were wild, but somehow, we made it work. All of us even seemed to be getting better from the Lung. Joey woke up a few times, and he was the silly kid he’d always been. I started to get really excited for the future.
“Then, things took a turn. I don’t know if Mom ran out of money or what. Eventually, the Lung came back in all of us with a vengeance. I remember one thing being clear during that time. We wouldn’t survive much longer.”
Lucy took a couple labored breaths. “One day, it all went to hell. Joey was as bad as I’d ever seen him. Mom came home from work shaking something awful, coughing up blood. I was lucky to be having a good day, so when she told me to run to her job and call my grandparents, I was quick about it. I couldn’t run, but I walked the two miles as fast as I could.
“It was nice hearing Nana’s voice. They had been scared to death since we’d gone missing. I told them we didn’t have much time, and I told them the name of the convenience store. I described the area. The trip out had drained me, so it took me a while to get back. When I got home, I stood at the front door. Something made me think I shouldn’t go in, but I forced the door open.”
She flinched, and I couldn’t read her expression. It was then that I noticed I was sweating profusely. I’d been anxious the whole conversation, but as she described her family’s last moments, dread overcame me.
Finally, with a sigh, she uttered words that pierced through m
y heart. “They were both gone.”
My body seized up as chills ran up my spine and tears filled my eyes. I put my head down.
“Uh, Ryan, I know my story’s sad, but are you okay?”
I sat upright and wiped my face, trying to compose myself. “Sorry. Sorry. The way Charlie talked about his family…you guys, I had hoped for something better for them than a slow painful death by Spotted-Lung.”
She shook her head. “Death? No, that’s the worst part.” Lucy finally showed some real emotion, getting choked up. “I have no idea what happened to them. Mom had grabbed a few belongings and just left with Joey. I haven’t seen or heard from them since.”
Shit!
What if Sarah wasn’t coming home from work that day, but was running from the Padre’s goons? She would have sent Lucy out to call her folks because she knew she couldn’t save them all.
Lucy continued. “My parents abandoned me, and the only thing I had left to show for it was the receipt to a damn PO Box. I had to beg Nana and Papa to take me to it every weekend for two years. It was always empty. When the lease ran out on it, I got a job just to keep it in the family. I’d have things sent there from time to time, so it didn’t seem odd to the owner.
Marvin was the odd one.
She sighed. “But Nana and Papa were the only family I had left. They took real good care of me and eventually bought the cure for my lungs even though a lot of damage had already been done. Once I was cured, survivor’s guilt had me depressed though my teen years. I thought about ending it all, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. To this day, something inside of me just wants to live even if my life ain’t shit.”
I shook my head. “I’ll say it again, Lucy. I’m sorry for all of this. I wish I…I wish your father…everyone could have done better by you. Every kid deserves a good life, and that was stolen from you. The fact that you’re still living, no matter what that looks like, is amazing. I couldn’t be prouder.”
Between Two Minds: Revelation Page 15