The Harmony Divide- Never Alone

by Dominick Gerard

  Pockets of flame still burned some of the corpses. Christine walked back into the hallway to gather the other extinguisher. She was happy for a reprieve from the carnage. She leaned against a wall, pressing her forehead into the cool surface. What was happening here? Why were those people so brutally murdered?

  The perception of this situation only affecting her and Jenn was shattered. Those people, their families would be devastated. She thought of the helpless children this terrible tragedy would leave without a loving parent for the rest of their lives. She thought of the dream she had earlier with the children playing happily. Hot tears ran down her cheeks. She wiped them away and tried to think about the job at hand.

  The second extinguisher was where she left it a few paces down the hall. It was smaller and lighter than the first one and Christine hoped it would be enough to douse the rest of the fire. As she walked back into the conference room, she screamed. A figure in a stark black uniform stood with his back to her, surveying the pile of bodies.

  The shape of the figure appeared to be male, tall and very muscular. The base layer of the matte-black body armor looked like it was in one piece, but there were small gaps in some of the joints between the larger armored pieces. A side-arm peeked out from a hip holster on the soldier’s belt, while two wicked looking swords lay in wait on his back, forming a menacing X, as if they predicted Christine’s imminent end.

  The soldier turned at the sound of her scream. His flat-faced, featureless helmet made him seem more machine than human. Christine hurled the fire extinguisher at him as he pointed his gun at her. He staggered back, dodging the makeshift weapon, which gave her just enough time to turn and sprint out of the room.

  Christine

  Christine bolted out of the room, pure instinct taking over. The soldier’s heavy boots pounded after her. Several hasty paces later, she realized she had no idea where she was. This hallway was foreign. Christine had no idea how to get to a safe place where she might hide from the soldier. She looked over her shoulder to see if she could double back and get to a familiar place, but the soldier was running at her full speed with his weapon drawn.

  Was there a way out from here? A place to hide? Chest heaving, she stopped at an office door, jiggling the handle violently. Locked. Two bullets hit the door, the impacts leaving small holes near where her hand had been. Sprinting off again, she heard a few more bullets whizz by her head. She ducked as she ran, trying to move in a zig zag so she was more difficult to hit. A hallway ahead split off to the left and she zoomed down it, knocking a trash can to the floor as she went. Maybe spilling its contents would slow the soldier down. It was all Christine could do at the moment.

  She tripped, her heart skipping a beat in anticipation of the fall that could be her demise, but adrenaline kept her feet under her. A shower of bullets rained down, nipping at her heels.

  Too close. Way too close, she thought as her legs and lungs burned from exertion.

  The firing stopped as Christine made an abrupt turn into a hallway on her right. She was creating some space between her and her attacker. There was no time to look back and check his progress, nor could she stomach the sight of how close behind her death lingered. Terrifying images of her burned corpse on top of the pile of bodies in the grisly room flashed through her mind. If the soldier caught up, she’d be next.

  The end of the hallway seemed miles away, as if one stride covered barely any distance. It was like the most horrible dream come to life. Tears welled in Christine’s eyes as she wondered how long she could keep sprinting at this pace. The soldier was sure to catch up soon. Her life couldn’t end yet. She still had to help Jenn and regain her memories. She put on a final burst of speed, determined to out run death.

  She reached the end of the hallway and turned left as quickly as she could, clipping her shoulder on the edge of the wall. Relief flooded her system at the sight of the kitchen she’d had lunch in earlier. At least her life wouldn’t cease at a dead end.

  She made it to the door and threw herself through it, skidding to a stop as she searched frantically for the best hiding place.

  There were no closets, but the large cabinets under the sink might work. She ran over, crouched down, and opened the doors. It was a tight squeeze, but Christine folded herself into the smallest ball she could and shut the doors. Cleaning supplies dug into her back, but she dared not move as she heard pounding footsteps enter the room. The footsteps continued loudly for a few more seconds, but faded as the soldier continued on his pursuit. After a moment, they were gone.

  She remained as still as she could, thankful for the makeshift mask she still wore which stifled the sound of her rapid breathing. The fear that the soldier would find her was overwhelming in the near complete darkness of the cabinet. Chemical fumes from the cleaning supplies mingled with the sweet oxygen filling her lungs, burning her throat. Her left side was pressed tightly against the plumbing and she feared the pipes would bust if more pressure was applied. The cabinet walls threatened to close in on her, claustrophobia pulling at her senses and increasing her panic.

  What would Jenn do right now? Where’s that magic now? Not really magic - she would say - just science we don’t understand. The thoughts gave her no comfort.

  Minutes passed that felt like hours as Christine hid. Her body began to ache but she couldn’t move. Whether from fear or caution she didn’t know. The soldier needed to be as far away as possible before she made any sounds.

  She tilted her head left in an attempt to relieve some pressure on her aching neck. When she did so she felt something above her head shift. It was a drawer. As quietly as she could, Christine reached her hand around the back side of it. She felt over a row of spoons and forks, then the sharp point of a knife. Pinching the metal between her fingers, she pulled it over the edge of the drawer, and held it at the ready.

  There likely wasn’t much she could do with a kitchen knife against an armed soldier but she felt at least a little better with some kind of weapon in her hands. Would anything be able to take the soldier down? The figures she’d seen earlier on the other side of the light wall flashed into her mind. They were probably soldiers, too. The thought made her shudder, her breath coming in small gasps. Christine was going to die today, she was sure of it.

  A heavy boot came crashing through the cabinet door directly in front of her. The wood splintered and Christine screamed as the boot collided with her awkwardly contorted body. Light flooded the compartment, blinding Christine. The soldier reached in, grabbed her by the hair, and began to pull her through the hole. Dropping the knife, she grabbed ahold of his hands and tried to lift herself towards him so her hair wouldn’t rip out. He pulled her so hard, her waist got stuck in the hole and pulled the broken cabinet door from its hinges. Christine screamed in pain as he pulled her free and dropped her to the floor in a heap of broken wood shards.

  The dropped knife lay just beside her. She grabbed it and jabbed as hard as she could at the soldier’s leg. Somehow, she caught the small space between two armor plates, but the knife stopped short as it hit the thick base layer. Christine lost hold of the knife and it bounded away across the floor, the metal clanging dully.

  The soldier hit her hard across the face with the back of his hand. Her head whipped to the side as she fell to the floor and her eyes lost focus. The soldier paused for a moment, then calmly placed a boot over her throat. He held her there, pressing harder and harder as she started to choke. Christine swung her arms and legs wildly in a futile attempt to free herself. Her efforts didn’t seem to faze the huge man, as if she was no stronger than an ant under his boot.

  I’m going to die! I’m so sorry, Jenn! she thought as her arms, too weak to move anymore, hit the floor with a thump. With a last gasp for air that didn’t come, she laid still on the floor, unconscious.

  The soldier removed his boot from Christine’s throat. He picked her up like a rag doll and placed a device in the middle of her chest. Tiny needles dug into her skin to secure it.
The device flickered to life, a small display screen lighting up. Lines fluctuated on the monitor at first, but, after a few moments, it began to show a slow and steady rhythmic pattern. A heartbeat. The soldier was indifferent. He put her over his shoulder and began to carry her back to his interrogation room and the lovely pile he had created.

  Jenn

  “Ah!” Jenn cried out and jumped as she saw a face appear out of nowhere behind her in the mirror. She quickly turned around to see who it was, but of course, it was Christine. Who else would it be? She rolled her eyes. “Goodness, Christine! Don’t do that to me!”

  Christine’s hands shot up to her throat as if to pry off some invisible force choking her. Her breath was shallow, panic and fear plain on her face. Jenn rushed over to grab her, but stopped short.

  “Okay, calm down,” Jenn said in a soothing voice. “You’re alive. Your heart is beating. You’re going to survive this. Look…” she gestured to the changed scenery around them, “you’re in a dream. You can’t be harmed here. You’re safe. Good. That’s good. I’m here with you. You’re not alone.”

  After a few seconds, Christine pulled her hands away from her throat and nodded to let Jenn know she understood she was now in a dream. Her breathing had slowed, but her eyes were still wide with fear.

  “Why didn’t you help me get away from him?” Christine asked. Her expression was pained. Her voice unsteady.

  Jenn paused. “If I hadn’t helped you find those fire hydrants, you’d be burning in a pile right now with a slit throat.” She shrugged. “He didn’t kill you, so, he’s going to interrogate you. He thinks you may have information the others might not have had. Listen, I was there with you. I know everything that happened and it was terrifying, but we will not let this man defeat us. I am extremely limited in what I can do for you right now. You need my help, but I can only help you here in the dream. Please, trust me and we’ll get through this together. I promise.”

  “How do you know he will interrogate me? And... why? I don’t know anything! What does he want from me?” Hysteria creeped into the edges of Christine’s voice, and Jenn knew her presence was the only thing keeping the woman from a full-on panic attack.

  Ignoring her question, Jenn walked back to stand in front of the mirror. A tube of lip gloss floated up to her hand. She deftly plucked it out of the air and began applying it to her lips.

  “I need to change,” she said, grabbing her bag and entering the single stall in the bathroom.

  Christine threw up her hands. “How did you know those things? …And why are you a teenager now?”

  “I’m actually only little younger than you are, but, again, my age is irrelevant. What is relevant is what I’m going to show you in a few minutes.” Jenn placed each piece of clothing she removed on the edge of the stall wall, then took a swim suit from her bag and put it on. She liked this suit and looked forward to seeing what Christine thought of it. She paused, chuckling internally. Christine was quickly becoming someone she actually cared about. Given the circumstances, she didn’t know what to think about that fact. There was no way to ignore it. They were in this together, so Jenn would make the best of things.

  “This is all just unbelievable! Jenn, what you can do is impossible!”

  Though Christine’s voice was shrill and accusatory, Jenn knew she didn’t mean to be harsh. She couldn’t imagine the frustration and fear Christine was experiencing, but she hoped what she was about to show her would help. After all, when Christine went back to reality, she was in for a rather unpleasant experience.

  Jenn was going to need to speed things up if her plan was to work. Getting captured had always been a possibility, but, now, she would have to rely on nothing but Christine’s resiliency and tolerance to pain. Christine could deal with it. If anyone knew that, Jenn did. Christine’s memories proved it, but would she believe in herself?

  “Most people would think I’m impossible, but here I am. One thing I hope you will soon understand is that, at times, there may appear to be a large gap between what logic tells you is possible and what actually is possible, but that’s simply because you don’t have enough information yet. Remember, what is considered real can be subjective and based on one’s available information.” Jenn finished getting dressed as she spoke.

  She opened the stall door and walked out in front of Christine, dressed in a navy-blue one-piece swimsuit. “How do I look?”

  “You’re a 6. Maybe a 7.” Christine said with a straight face.

  Jenn laughed. “You sure know how to build somebody’s confidence, don’t you?” She grew serious, looking Christine directly in the eyes. “Now, listen carefully. This is extremely important. I’m going to step out that door and things are going to change. You need to see this memory as I remember it. That means we won’t be able to communicate until it’s over. You’re just going to stand around and watch. I may skip over some stuff to save time, but I’ll get the important stuff. Think of it like a recording. Do you understand?”

  “I understand, but I still don’t know why you can’t tell me exactly what’s going on.”

  Jenn shrugged and pointed a finger at Christine’s head. “I already told you. You won’t let me. Seriously, this would be a lot easier if your brain wasn’t so…” She gestured her hands in the motion of an explosion, making a booming sound to help illustrate her point. “… screwed up. Your subconscious mind is preventing you from processing the information. All your memories are still in your brain… every single thing, but your mind - you - aren’t ready for them, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t blame you. That’s the best I can explain it. It may sound corny to you, but you’ll know when you’re ready to remember.”

  “Uh…that was a little better.” Christine rolled her eyes. “Nothing cryptic or mysterious about that explanation. It all makes sense now.”

  Jenn bristled a little at the sarcasm. She was really doing everything she could. “I’ve never tried to be cryptic or mysterious. That’s all your fault. Your brain must be trained again on a lot of things. In this case, the journey is what matters. We can’t skip ahead to the end or…” She demonstrated an explosion again, but this time she did it much bigger and acted like her hands were airplanes crashing to the ground in great balls of fire. “We don’t want that. What we want is this.” This time she raised her hands in front of her with her fingers spread and slowly pressed them together so each interlocked with another. “You see?”

  Christine smirked. “You’re enjoying yourself, aren’t you? Okay, okay, I trust the cryptic and mysterious magic woman in my head. What do we do now and why are you so fidgety?”

  “Fidgety? I never fidget. I’m just excited. Now, you go grab some popcorn and watch what happens. After this, you’re going to wake up to some really bad stuff, unfortunately. He’s going to try to get information out of you, but you can’t tell him anything we’ve talked about, like the ‘magic’, and certainly nothing about the vault.”

  Christine raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t tell me much. What could he possibly get out of me?”

  “Not much, but probably enough to realize the vault is the only thing they need to worry about. I was afraid this kind of thing would happen, and that’s part of the reason I wouldn’t have told you more about the vault, even if I could. Now, we’ve got to get going. You’re going to be knocked out for a while, but not forever. Remember, when you wake: you’re never alone and you’re much, much stronger than you think.” Jenn desperately wanted to hug Christine, but turned to walk swiftly from the room instead.

  “Hey…” Christine paused, thinking over her words. “You look nice, very nice and… thank you.”

  Jenn looked back with her customary bright smile and nodded her head in acknowledgment, winking. She turned around and opened the door.

  Christine

  The scene changed and Christine found herself outdoors. She was standing in the well trimmed grass by a large in-ground pool in what looked like the backyard of a colonial style mansion. The y
ard was fenced in by a tall wrought iron fence with intricate details and spiked tops. Inside the fence the landscaping was lush and tidy. The ground around the pool was covered with polished white tile - likely marble or some other expensive material Christine couldn’t identify - which receded like a long ramp into the shallow end of the pool. There was a high diving board on the opposite end.

  The orange rays of the setting sun reflected off the blue pool water, but the heat of the day still lay like a blanket over everything. Christine counted 14 people in and around the pool. Three young couples floated near each other, chatting idly. There were six young men playing a game of volleyball, splashing around wildly and acting like fools. Christine rolled her eyes and continued to scan her surroundings.

  There were two young ladies lying down on lounge chairs next to each other with sunglasses on. They didn’t move or talk. Christine looked up to the dying sun and back to them. A lot of good this light would do them. What was the point of lazing around and burning your skin? One adjusted herself and turned over to lay on her stomach. The other tipped up her sunglasses to check out the group of boys playing volleyball in the pool. Her expression said she wasn’t interested in what was going on, but she looked their way several times as Christine watched.

  A pool house stood adjacent to the main house. It looked big enough to hold a large family itself. Jenn emerged from it wearing the navy blue swimsuit and a smile. She was a couple of inches taller than Christine now. She was pretty in a girl next door sort of way. Her smile was her most attractive feature. It was infectious and Christine found herself smiling without realizing it.

  Jenn threw her bag in a chair, jogged to the pool, and launched herself into the air. Her cannon ball made a large splash on impact, spraying the boys playing volleyball with a wall of water. Christine laughed, a bit shocked by Jenn’s behavior. Was she always so brazen? Some of the boys covered their faces or dived away to avoid the splash. One boy didn’t move at all, taking the splash right in the face with a huge smile. Jenn emerged from under the water directly in front of him and reached up to give him a quick kiss. The others laughed and told her she was crazy. Jenn just turned to them and said, “I want to play!” and made her way to one side of the net.