Masked

by RB Stutz

  Sara was just about to speak when there was a loud crash in the hallway just outside the room. We looked up to the open doorway and saw Alex pulling himself up from the floor, using the open doorframe for support.

  “I’m okay, I’m okay!” he said as he got back onto his feet.

  “You should probably stay lying down for a little while longer, until the sedative has completely worn off.” I said.

  “I’m okay. I just need to steady myself,” he said.

  “Do you remember what happened?” I asked.

  “I remember enough. Rachael shot me and pushed me off the roof. I’m just glad I was unconscious before I hit the ground. That would have hurt.”

  “Yeah, you were a mess.”

  “Well, I see we made it to the lake house. I’m starving. I’m going to head downstairs to get something to eat. We’ll catch up later, when you two are finished up here.” The last part he said with a grin, and stumbled out of sight.

  A few seconds later there was some cursing and another series of crashes from down the hall, near the stairs.

  Sara smiled. “It’s a good thing he’s nearly indestructible. So where we?”

  “I think you were about to help make sense of all this,” I said.

  “Well, here’s everything,” Sara started.

  “You’ve probably already figured this out but our abilities and memory loss aren’t a result of some manufactured super virus. We were never dying and then miraculously saved by the good people at Titan. Everything they told us was a lie, they did this to us. They stole us from whatever life we had, changed us and removed any memory we had of who we were. We were to be the first in an army of super soldiers created for Titan to control absolutely.”

  One of the first things I’d done once free from the HUB was to try and gather information on the virus they’d told us about. It didn’t take me long to realize that, as Sara had just said, there never was a super virus that killed thousands.

  “Titan isn’t a secret research arm of the military, there’s no secret terrorist government out there trying to overthrow the US government. It’s just Titan, growing an army of super soldiers to take control for itself,” Sara continued.

  “So why even go through the whole charade. If they have the ability to control us with the chip they implanted, why feed us all the stories? Why not just activate the chip right away?” I asked.

  “The chip works by interacting directly with the brain and the person they control can only do what the person’s brain already knows how to do. With just the raw power of those they control, without spending the time to teach them how to control and use that power, it is just destructive. They thought they could trick us into entering their training program just long enough to learn the skills they wanted us to know and then have control of us before we became the wiser.

  “Some of us had our reservations about what they told us, but they did have us. We all believed their tale. We were all cooperating and if they hadn’t taken me that night, we’d all probably be agents of Titan right now.

  “After I got back to my room that night, I went into the bathroom to get ready to head to bed. I’d just brushed my teeth and was turning towards the room when, with a start, I noticed Emily standing there. I hadn’t heard her come in and she was acting really strange.

  “She asked how my evening went and I told her it went well. She headed towards the toilets, passing me as I was leaving. The moment we passed each other, she turned and injected me with something before I had a chance to react. It was a sedative. A few seconds later everything was dark.”

  My body tensed as anger rushed through me. I knew at least one of the people I’d thought were friends had betrayed Sara that night, but now I knew who it was, I knew who to direct my anger towards. Sara seemed to sense my change in emotion and was able to move her hand, although weakly, to my face. Her touch was calming.

  “I know. She betrayed all of us. She never was one of us. She was there to watch, keep tabs on us,” Sara said.

  I tried to suppress the anger, to push back the venom that coursed through me.

  “I’m not sure how long I was out, but eventually the sedative wore off. I woke in the room you found me in, completely empty, strapped to a bed. I laid there for quite a while until eventually Dr. Roberts came in. I tried to ask what was going on, why they had me strapped to a bed. She didn’t answer but instead asked how I was feeling. I swore some and asked again what the hell was going on.

  “Dr. Roberts asked how long I’d been exhibiting telekinetic abilities. I was taken aback by the question. How could she have known about that? Was that the reason I’d been taken?

  “I tried to blow off her question by acting like I had no idea what she was talking about. It didn’t work. She told me I could cooperate with their tests or not, but cooperation would be less painful. Either way, they’d find what they were looking for. I chose the path of non-cooperation and it was, as it turned out, painful.

  “I’m not sure what it was exactly they did to me, but it was excruciating. You came in only an hour or two into it. I saw them sedate you and take you away and I was so scared. I thought they were going to kill you. The tests lasted for several hours and I eventually passed out, my body exhausted from the procedures.”

  Feelings of my failure that day, the regret I’d felt every day since, returned. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t able to do more.”

  Sara moved her hand back to my face. “There was nothing more you could have done. It was amazing you were able to make it to me; that you came for me. There were too many of them. None of us could have done more.”

  Logically, I knew what she said was true but still, I wasn’t able to save her that day. That fact would never change.

  “So how did we get out of there?” I asked.

  “Well, like you, I have no memory of getting out of the HUB. When I awoke, I was lying on a bed in a motel room with Alex sitting next to me. Apparently, I’d been unconscious for almost two days. Once I was back to a state of full consciousness, Alex explained what had happened.

  “Once Matthew and Batton realized you were gone, they ordered the rest of them back into their rooms and left the training area. Having realized you were going after me, Alex started to work on his own way out.

  “Even though they’d been ordered to their rooms, there was nobody in the training area making sure they obeyed. Alex began searching around for some way out. He said he figured out you must have used the PTD to get past the main door, but Matthew and Batton had confiscated theirs before they left.

  “If you remember, the section of the HUB housing our training area also had space for storage. Those doors were always locked to us. At some point, Alex was next to one of those doors, the one at the end of the short hallway towards the back end of the training hall, when it clicked open. Surprised, he jumped back and a few seconds later a woman he’d never seen before walked through; Laura.

  “She told Alex that they didn’t have much time and if he wanted to save his friends he would have to come with her right then. Having no better option, he trusted her and went with her through the door. It turns out Laura knew of a small access tunnel that ran underneath the facility. As she and Alex headed through the tunnel she explained you had been captured trying to get to me and we were being held in separate detention rooms in the medical section.

  “Laura used to work for Titan and she still had contacts at the HUB. When she found out what they were going to do with us, she came back to help. She had all the knowledge and access codes needed to get us out. Since we were both unconscious, they each had to carry one of us. Alex had me and Laura you.”

  I raised my eyebrows at that. Sara saw my expression and explained.

  “She’s like us. She had no problem carrying you out of there.”

  I nodded. “How did she ever get away in the first place? It doesn’t seem they would have made an exception for her and just let her go.”

  “Yeah, Alex and I have both
asked her that and she has never really given us an answer. She’s helped us so much that we’ve never pushed her on it. I assume she has a good reason to not tell us,” Sara explained and continued.

  “Laura and Alex were able to get us out of the facility but not before Titan noticed we were gone. Laura gave Alex a GPS with coordinates to a truck parked just a few miles away. She had another vehicle parked in a different location. The plan was to split up in order to throw off any pursuit by Titan and meet back up at the second set of coordinates in the GPS. Alex made it to the truck without any problem. He drove us to the second set of coordinates, which was the motel, and waited.

  “Laura wasn’t as fortunate. The team Titan sent out only caught the trail of Laura. She was pursued through the woods and realized she wasn’t going to make it to her vehicle and, while carrying you, there wasn’t much she could do to defend either of you. She decided to put you down under cover and out of sight from the search team. Once she did that, she was able to draw them away from where you were hidden. It took her a long time before she was able to shake them and come back to where she’d left you, but you were gone.

  “Alex and I waited and waited for Laura to return with you. When she finally showed up she was alone. She explained what happened and that she’d been searching the area ever since for you.

  “We could only see two possibilities. Either the Titan team found you or you’d woken and wandered off on your own. Before, it would have been easy for Laura to confirm whether or not Titan had you again, but after helping us escape, the communication she had with the inside was gone.

  “We could only hope you had made it away on your own and that we’d eventually find you. We never…” she paused. “I never stopped looking for you. I’ve never stopped loving you.”

  She moved in closer.

  “I know,” I said and kissed her forehead.

  We laid for a few moments silent, holding each other.

  “So what have you been doing all of this time? Have you been here in Seattle?” I asked.

  “We’ve spent most of our time here in the Seattle area. Laura has her hands in several business ventures and has the resources to keep us hidden from Titan. She also has more personal pursuits that we’ve been assisting her with.

  “That seems like quite a heavy plate for someone so young.”

  “Yeah, I think she’s older than she looks. I can’t say that for sure, but that’s the way she presents herself.”

  Who was Laura? What was her game?

  Sara continued “Laura explained that for over thirty years Titan performed experiments involving the manipulation of human DNA. Most of those experiments took place in doctors’ offices scattered throughout the Pacific Northwest. During that time, they altered thousands of children under the guise of normal prenatal procedures, while still in the womb.

  “The effects of the procedures began emerging over the last several years, abilities seeming to manifest at some point during puberty. When abilities manifest, these people have no idea why. In most cases they feel isolated, different from everyone else. Without proper guidance and help, their abilities can turn destructive to themselves and others. You saw some of that with Peter and his followers. All of those he controlled were looking for someone just like him to give them answers, a purpose.

  “Laura has devoted herself to finding these people, people like us and helping them live life productively with what they’ve been given. Alex and I along with others have been helping her. She’s helped many kids to understand what they have and how to live with it and there is so much more work left to go.

  “The situation with Peter was the worst we’ve seen so far. As you know, he had absolute control over them. I can’t imagine how it will be for his followers to recover from an experience like that, from doing the things he had them do. I just hope we can find those poor people again and help them.”

  I shuttered at the thought of my short experience of being controlled by Peter.

  “What did you do with Peter and the two others?” I asked.

  “They’re being held at a small facility Laura owns on the outside of the city. Peter is being kept unconscious and locked up and the others awake but in detainment rooms. Laura has people keeping an eye on them.”

  “So, you’ve been busy,” I said.

  “You could say that. What about you?”

  I gave Sara the cliff notes version of my past year. I found it hard to talk about. What I’d done was a direct effect of how I thought I’d lost Sara. I was no more than a vigilante bent on making wrong doers pay. I hadn’t been primarily driven by feelings of concern for those needing my help but by the desire to punish those who would hurt others, those like the people I’d thought killed Sara, Alex and the others. The line was a fine one, but the truth was, I’d been walking on the wrong side of it.

  With everything that had happened recently, the whole mess at the truck stop, my failure to Wally and officer Raymond and having Sara back, the fog was lifted. I could see past the driving force of darkness and self-possessed despair.

  When I finished telling my tale, Sara didn’t say anything, just kissed me. It was a good kiss. In that moment it made everything better.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “I’m not really sure. I guess I thought you’d join us here.”

  I thought about that. While I could appreciate what Laura was doing and the work Alex and Sara were contributing, I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted. It was selfish, but what I really wanted was to take Sara away from all of that crap and live out the rest of our days in peace, just a normal quiet life. Maybe travel, see the world. Was that even possible though?

  What I was sure about was whatever I ended up doing; I wanted to be with Sara. I leaned down and kissed her forehead. “If this is where you’ll be, so will I.”

  She smiled and tried to move herself up to a seated position, using my arm for support. It seemed her strength was back as she was able to sit up on her own.

  “Well, I think Alex had the right idea when he headed downstairs. I’m starving,” I said.

  “Me too,” Sara agreed.

  As I started to get up, I realized I didn’t feel very fresh and Sara was probably just been being polite in not mentioning my odor. It had been a long dirty day and a shower sounded awesome. I told Sara I wanted to shower before heading down stairs.

  “I want to get cleaned up too, but you can have the shower first. Before I decide to get too active, I want to make sure I’m steady enough to not just fall over.”

  “Ok, I’ll see you in a few minutes,” I said and kissed her cheek as I got up.

  The room had its own bathroom attached and Laura had left me with a fresh change of clothes, jeans, blue t-shirt and a pair of black and white All-stars. It was going to feel so good to be clean. Eating was going to feel even better. When was the last time I’d eaten? Maybe at the club the night before?

  I stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind me. Compared to the other bathrooms I remembered seeing in my life, this one was a palace. Straight ahead was a large glass garden shower. I turned on the water and undressed while the temperature warmed. The warm water melted over me when I stepped in and at that moment, I thought the shower did win over eating. It felt so good, the sensation was so satisfying. I proceeded languidly to the task of washing myself.

  The water cleared the last of the shampoo from my eyes after I rinsed my hair when I saw Sara standing there, just on the other side of the glass. She was blurry at first and then focused as my lashes whisked away the remaining water. I noticed not only was she standing there, but she was standing there no longer wearing anything. Her perfect body there for me to see. Before, when we were at the HUB, we’d been together, but only in the dimly lit retreat we’d made for ourselves. I’d never seen her like that, never so fully. I’d never seen anything so beautiful. I was speechless.

  She smiled and with the flick of her wrist, the glass door slowly creaked open.

/>   “As it turns out I was feeling better than I thought and since I needed a shower as well …” she didn’t finish the words but stepped in and closed the door.

  I decided I was wrong. I hadn’t realized what I really needed. Hunger and the refreshing warmth of the water were not as important anymore.

  CHAPTER 27

  Our plan to join Alex in the kitchen was delayed some, but Sara and I eventually made it downstairs. As we approached the kitchen, I could hear the sound of crowds and over that an announcer.

  Alex was sitting on the central island work area with stacks of pizza boxes next to him, watching the large flat screen mounted on the wall “Hey there,” he said, waving with a slice in hand and his mouth full of pizza.

  I counted the boxes on the counter at fifteen.

  “Is there any left?” I was kidding, but wouldn’t have been too surprised if the answer was no.

  Alex motioned towards two of the stacks, each with five boxes. “The cupboards and fridge were bare so I made a pizza run. I guess Laura forgot to stock up.”

  “Did you pick up any beer while you were at it?” Sara asked.

  ”I brought the wrong ID. The clerk wouldn’t sale me any. I picked up a case of Coke though. Look in the fridge.”

  I went to the fridge “Do you want another?

  Alex drained the can he had. “Yep.”

  I got cans for the three of us.

  On one side of the kitchen island was a bar with three stools. Sara was already sitting and I went to sit next to her, giving Alex his Coke along the way.

  “I haven’t had pizza in a while. Good choice,” I said as I pulled the tab on my can.

  I took a long pull, put it down and dug into one of the boxes. Sara took her own box. I shoveled in slice after slice. The more I ate the more hungry I realized I was.