by Nate Johnson
.o0o.
Marla scooted in close to the warm body next to her and moaned in pure contentment. Opening her eyes, she looked at Nolan’s sleeping face and felt a rush of happiness sweep through her. He was so damn cute. The sharp angles of his chin showed a faint stubble, his hair hung over his eyes making her want to run her fingers through it and push it back.
It was crazy, but even with the whole kidnapping thing, this had to be the happiest time of her entire life. Snuggling back into the crock of his arm she closed her eyes and breathed in his scent sending a tingle down her legs.
She wondered how his injuries were doing. The guards had brought them ointment and new clothes last night. She had spread the ointment on his wounds and then gone into the bathroom to change into the jeans and t-shirt then washed out their clothes. His shirt had been unsalvageable, but the jeans had been semi-OK.
When she came back into the room, Nolan was snoring. The sheets bunched up around his waist. She had made the bed over him then cleaned up the rest of the room. After only fifteen minutes she was done and looking for the next thing. Somehow she ended up curled next to Nolan again.
He began to stir after a gentle poke in the ribs. Opening his eyes, he looked at Marla and smiled then pulled her tight for a bear hug. Taking a deep breath, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and started towards the bathroom.
“Nolan,” Marla gasped, “Your back!”
“What?” Nolan asked, twisting to try and look over his shoulder.
“It’s almost healed; the cuts and stuff are gone. There’s only thin lines. Your legs, too,” Marla said, leaning over to run a hand over his smooth back. Nolan smiled and flexed his shoulders and pumped his legs up and down, proving to himself that everything worked. Laughing to himself he went into the bathroom.
Coming out fully dressed and looking normal, Marla found it hard to believe that yesterday ever happened, the terrible wounds, the humiliating mind reading. All of it seemed in the past. Nolan looked at her, and she felt all gooey inside.
He held her stare for a moment then grunted in pain and doubled over. He reached out and tried to catch himself as he fell to his knees. Looking up at her his eyes begged for help then rolled back into his head showing nothing but white. Marla screamed and rushed to his side as he tumbled to the floor.
.o0o.
The visions were back, stronger than ever. The vertical screen with the bluish tint. The creature had been let out of his prison and was stalking down a hallway. His long claws clicked on the hardwood floor as his short back legs and long front legs worked in a weird kind of symphony to move the un-gangly beast along. The alien creature reached the front door and looked over its shoulder back at the observer, the gray man, Mr. Cheevers.
The vision blocked out all other noise and Nolan couldn’t get his barriers up high enough to stop it. All he could see was the creature’s thoughts. He couldn’t change his thoughts. In fact, he’d lost all control.
Looking down he saw the observers gray hand reach out and open the front door. The four-legged monster sprang from the house, across the porch, and onto the lawn. He/It/She made a beeline for the forest and lake area.
Nolan swallowed hard and was able to pull back enough to know that he was having these visions. He was able to view the view and know the difference. He was seeing what Cheevers saw and wasn’t there himself. Able to breathe again he rolled onto his side and brought his knees up to his chest.
The pain was growing, a tightening vice that threatened to crush his mind. The urge to flee, to escape the pain grew with every breath he took, but he needed to know more. This was his opportunity to learn. Bearing down, Nolan concentrated, memorizing every detail.
As he watched, Cheevers’ mind started to wander. Nolan noticed how singled minded he seemed to be. His thoughts lasted longer and traveled in a linear direction much more than a human’s. It was one more thing adding to the alien feeling whenever his was inside Cheever's mind.
Now he was thinking of home, imagining standing before an audience of high officials in an outside auditorium. The world had that dark blue overlay that made everything look like twilight, (the time, not the movie). Six officials, the Greack, Cheevers thought, sat in stony silence behind a huge iron table. Each of their bulbous heads looked even more alien than normal in the blue haze, but Cheevers recognized them as normal and didn’t register the difference.
Cheevers sighed as he contemplated the audience. “We have it, the value you seek,” he said, bowing at the waist. The group of distinguished men smiled and nodded for him to continue. Standing up straight. “I have found a Thought Reader, here on earth. A human that can pass our thoughts almost as well as our trusted Zorks, in fact, he is even better, testing so far shows 100% accuracy without drift or redundancy.” Several of the group sat up straighter and leaned forward. What is more. Neither I or the Zork can read him.
Each member of the council sat forward. Their eager expressions showing their interest.
“Only one?” the alien on the far right asked?
“So far, though I am sure there must be more. I believe it is enough to justify initial colonization.”
The group seemed to freeze in place and then melt into a blue mist to be replaced with a vision of the creature romping across the field baying at the silvery moon of earth.
Nolan realized that Cheevers left his wondering thought and returned to the here and now and was watching the animal.
The guy had obviously been thinking about the report he would make when he returned to his home planet and been interrupted by the deep mournful bay.
Cheevers smiled to himself. This would make his career, an alternate source of Thought Readers to replace the endangered Zork. A small colony of Dre-Ats to scour the earth and retrieve any additional Thought Readers and return them to Dre-At to serve the council and military complex. There should be more than enough.
Nolan’s face blanched, and he moaned.
In the vision, Cheevers had humans chained to the iron table at the feet of his high council. The humans looked dazed and listless. As if they knew their life was over.
Pushing with everything he had, Nolan was able to put his barriers back in place. His eyes returned to their normal position and focused on Marla. Keep focused on her he told himself.
“We have to get out of here, we have to stop him,” Nolan said in a faint whisper. Marla reached out and held his shoulder. Her forehead narrowed in concern and worry. Steadily his breathing and heartbeat returned to normal as he fought to keep the barriers in place.
“What happened, what’s going on?” she said.
“Cheevers, he plans to colonize the earth and take ‘Thought readers’ back as slaves. He wants to chain me to a table and serve the council, reading the minds of all those who come before it. To live out my life as their slave.” Nolan said with a shudder.
Marla gasped and put her hand to her mouth. “I thought you couldn’t read him from down here?”
“It is his creature, his beast. It acts as a transmitter. A lot more force. I’m not reading Cheevers' so much as reading his pet reading him.”
“How can we get out of here,” she asked. Looking around the room for any help. Nolan shook his head, as lost as her. Suddenly his eyes lit up, and he smiled.
“I have an idea. But I need you to hide in the bathroom until I’m done. Then we can both get out of here.” He said, putting a hand on each of her shoulders and pleading with her with his eyes.
He walked over to the coffee table, picked it up over his head, and smashed it to the ground. Bending over the results, he pried one of the legs from the table. The wood let out a creaking groan as he pulled and twisted it away from the screw holding it in place. Picking it up by the narrow end, he swung it over his head like a club. Bringing it down into his open palm he smiled from ear to ear.
“What is your plan,” Marla demanded, putting her hands on her hips and staring him down. She refused to be ignored.
�
��If I lower my barriers, I can probably pick up when the next guards are going to arrive, I should have a minute or two of warning and can get in place to take them out as they come through the door.”
Marla glared back at him, “That’s your plan? And let me get this right. You want me to hide in the bathroom while you pull off this macho feat of manhood? Are you completely crazy, or just an idiot?” she said, her hands going up in the air as she looked to the heavens for some kind of guidance in dealing with this dunce.
“Marla, listen, I know what I’m doing. I need to make sure you’re out of the way so I can concentrate,” he said, exasperated at her refusal to see things his way. Turning away, he moved the rest of the broken table out of the way so it wouldn’t be seen when they came through the door.
She reached out and spun him around.
“You listen here Nolan Reed, I won’t put up with this shit. We do this together or not at all. I’m not going to let you go off and be all macho while I wait around and get ready to wash your wounds for you, I’m not that kind of girl, and I won’t go through that again.”
He looked down at her, fighting hard not to smile, she was such a little thing but was ready to tear into him. He remembered her trying to attack the guard in the van. Maybe she could be helpful.
There was only one minor problem, lowering his barriers enough to read through the door might make her open to him. He told her of his concern and watched her face turn white.
Squaring her shoulders she looking him in the eye, “I can take it,” she said.
Laughing, he shook his head and stood next to the door. He placed an ear to the wooden portal. “Okay, get behind me and stay out of my way.”
Marla hugged the wall behind him and tried not to disturb him. The last thing she wanted to do was draw attention to herself. As she leaned her shoulder against the wall, she looked at the back of his head. He needs a haircut she thought, I wonder if he’d let me cut it for him.
“You can cut my hair anytime,” Nolan said.
Marla squeaked in frustration. She had forgotten, it was impossible. Sighing, she accepted that it was going to happen.
Nolan worked on scanning the outside, finally falling into the habit of opening up for one second, conducting a quick scan and then shutting down again, all before he picked up too much of Marla.
Being inside her thoughts was addicting. He liked the way her thoughts felt. Soft and fleeting. They were a comfort and so enlightening. She wasn’t as much a lady as she projected, nor without flaws. But she was much harder to herself than she should be.
Fighting to control himself, he pulled away from her thoughts and returned to focusing outside the door.
After only a short time he picked up something. A sense of anger at an ex-wife. Once he heard it, he was able to tune into the thoughts.
The man was pissed about having to pull a double shift. He had to call his ex-wife and back out of taking the kids for dinner on his scheduled Wednesday. He hated having to ask her for anything, the bitch took most of his money for child support, and she gave him a hard time about working too much and not thinking about the kids. Mexico or maybe Costa Rica was sounding better and better every day.
Nolan turned his head and picked up his partner. The man was carrying a tray of food for the prisoners. Don’t know what they did to end up here but the girl was something else. I’d like to bend her over an……
Nolan pulled his mind away, he clenched his fist around the club and looked forward to pounding the man into a pulp.
As the men got closer, he looked back at Marla and nodded his head indicating for her to get ready.
A small soft click in the lock confirmed he had been right. Holding the club above his head, he waited. The ex-husband opened the door and held it for the food carrier to enter. Neither had a gun, only Billy clubs, and mace.
He hesitated a moment. It felt wrong to be hitting people without them knowing what was going on. But as he held back, food carrier had another sickening thought about Marla.
Not a smart move.
Nolan reacted without thinking, and brought the club down on the man’s head, then immediately brought a fist to the ex-husband’s throat. The sicko dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes dropped from a counter top.
Fighting to maintain control of the tray, the food carrier stepped back trying to close the door. His eyes went to his partner on the floor then back to Nolan. Unable to believe what he was seeing, he gasped for air and tried to pull the door shut as he scuttled backward out of the room.
Nolan jumped and caught the door before it could slam shut. His fingers caught between door and jam. Screaming as the pain shot up his arm, he slipped his other hand in and pulled it back open just as the guard let go.
The door flew open slamming into the wall. The man’s eyes grew to the size of bowling balls as he thought about how much trouble he was in now. He’d never get a chance at the girl now. His last thought was that it was a table leg on the way to his head, and it was going to hurt.
Nolan pulled the limp body into the room, taking the keys and both Billy clubs. The two men were out cold. Holding Marla by the arm, he hurried her out of the room and quietly shut the door behind them.
Looking up and down the hallway, Nolan scanned, searching in every direction. The only thing he got back was a fuzzy haze from the men on the floor and the soft feeling of subtle admiration from Marla. He quickly blocked it out, but not before his chest puffed up a little and his shoulder straightened in pride.
Gently grabbing her arm, he pulled her towards the elevator. The door opened immediately with a ding. Nolan hit the lobby button with the end of his table leg club.
The elevator ascended as if it had all the time in the world. He kept scanning, looking for any sign of the guards. He would occasionally pick up some noise as they passed a floor but when they reached the lobby everything was quiet. Nolan couldn’t believe how quiet it was. No thoughts. He lowered every barrier to try and see around corners. Nothing except Marla, she was worried about being discovered and thought briefly about how nice it was to be holding his hand. She liked the roughness of his skin against hers.
Holding her hand, they ran across the lobby to the entrance way glass doors.
Nolan yanked on the door and almost pulled his arm out of its socket.
Damn, they were locked in. He studied the glass. He could break it with is table leg club. Maybe. But they’d probably set off a gazillion alarms.
It couldn’t be helped. They needed to get out, now. Pulling the makeshift club above his head, he took a deep breath and prepared to swing.
Marla reached up to stop his arm. Looking at him, she shook her head and then reached over and undid the deadbolt.
“It’s meant to keep people out, not in,” she said with a chuckle.
Nolan slammed his barriers back into place. He didn’t want to read what she thought of the idiot standing next to her. Besides, the giant smirk on her face pretty much told him what she thought.
Pulling the door open they raced outside and across the parking lot into the forest.
They stopped as they reached the trees and looked back. Both of them holding their breaths as they waited for some kind of pursuit. But nothing happened. Crickets chirped. The wind ruffled the pine trees, but no one came charging from the bunker.
“That went better than I thought it would,” Nolan said.
“Especially the front door part,” Marla said with a laugh.
Nolan had a sickening feeling that she was going to tease him about that for the next fifty years.
Chapter Eleven
Nolan couldn’t read animals thoughts, but he could tell when they were around and their general attitude toward life in general and him in particular. A quick scan showed him the forest was clear of any beasties.
The moon peeked out from behind the clouds to lite the path. They had only gone a few feet into the trees when a root jumped out and tripped him. Letting go of Marla’s hand, he
tucked his neck and rolled over, coming up on his knees. Looking back he smiled to let her know he was all right.
“Smooth eh?”
Holding a hand to her mouth, Marla giggled and helped him up. They started down the trail again, walking this time.
“Where are we going?” Marla hissed.
“We’ve got to get to his house. If he gets away we’re screwed,” Nolan said.
Marla squealed and pressed imaginary brakes and pulled him to look at her. “No, we need to get to a phone and call my mom, call the police.”
Nolan shook his head and looked at her in shock.
“They’d never believe us, come on think about it. If I walked into the police station and said, there was an alien in an old Victorian house by the lake. And I know this because I can read his mind. In addition, they took us to a secret hideout in the forest where they beat me senseless, oh but, they magically healed my wounds. Oh yeah, they’re going to drop everything and run right out and arrest him.”
Nolan chuckled. “Oh, by the way, I was locked up in a hotel room with the most beautiful girl in the world and didn’t take advantage of the situation.”
Marla looked back at him in shock. “Nolan, we have to go home, my mom is going out of her mind. I know she is. We have to tell them what happened.”
Nolan shook his head in disbelief.
“Marla, we can’t. They’ll have me under a microscope within hours. Do you have any idea what they would want to do with somebody like me?” He shuddered as a chill traveled up his spine when he thought of spending the rest of his life in a laboratory. Laboratories had become his least favorite place, and he would prefer to never visit one again.
He could see academics in white coats, carrying clipboards watching his every move. Being pricked and prodded while performing party tricks. No way was he allowing that to happen to him.
“We just escaped one hell, no way am I going back.
Marla let out a long, loud sigh of frustration and stared out the window. Taking a deep breath, she addressed Nolan like he was a little kid afraid to ride the Ferris Wheel.