Prologue

"The Choices We Make"

I'm spinning out of control
Out of control
I'm spinning out of control
Out of control
Where should I go?
What should I do?
I don't understand what you want from me
Cause I don't know
If I can trust you
I don't understand what you want from me

"Out Of Control" by Hoobastank

Inside downtown Boston Metro Hospital two young innocent boys had been handed a very cruel fate and they now helplessly fought for their lives because of it. Zack and Cody Martin were only twelve years old and they had done nothing more to deserve this than be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but it had been unavoidable and there was no use trying to blame anyone. How could they have avoided going to school where the outbreak of a deadly new strain of the flu virus had occurred upon its grounds?

It took a few days for the manifesting symptoms to be recognized for what they truly were, and by then it was too late. By the time Zack and his twin brother had been taken to the hospital there were already over a dozen students and school faculty infected with the virus and only then was the entire campus put under quarantine. The CDC and local health agencies were working overtime to contain the virus and keep it from spreading. So far they had been successful, but the damage was already done and now the twins lie in their hospital beds slowly dying.

Cody was passed out, but he was far from sleeping peacefully. He had only fallen asleep from pure exhaustion because the extreme pain that he was in had been keeping him awake. The doctor in charge of them had deemed it too dangerous to give them any kind of painkillers and so they suffered through the entire ordeal.

Zack was awake however, his eyes half open staring at the folds in his bed sheets as he tried to ignore his own pain. His airways were filling with mucus, making it harder and harder for him to breathe. Despite the tubes stuck in his nostrils supplying him with fresh oxygen, each painful breath was becoming more and more labored with each wheezing sound corresponding to the slow rise and fall of his chest. He was also well aware that his blood cells and immune system were being obliterated by the infection inside of him, littering his veins and arteries with debris which were slowing choking off the supply of blood running through his body. His blood pressure was slowly rising and his skin growing paler as less and less blood and vital fluids were delivered to where it needed to go. The deadly new flu virus was tearing him apart from the inside and the debris and wreckage of the battle was piling up and choking the life out of him.

There were many things that people think about when they're close to death and for Zachary Martin it was no different. His fear of death made him jump around from memory to memory and analyze his actions trying to figure out if he'd made the right choices in his life and had been a good person. He wasn't so sure about his short time spent living at the Tipton Hotel with his mother and brother, causing all kinds of mayhem and trouble in his wildly exuberant youth. All of his pranks were just about a boy being a boy weren't they? Most of his fear was not really about death, but where he'd go after he passed away from this world. Was he a good enough person to go to a good place with Cody or would he be cast down into hell with the rest of the evil?

Glancing around the room since he was thinking of his family, Zack looked at Cody who was still asleep although he was tossing and turning in his pain induced nightmares becoming entangled in the white hospital sheets. At the far end of the isolation room where the brothers were quarantined was a sealed entrance and next to it a small observation area with a window looking in upon them. Zack knew that they had just been checked on by the medical staff and so there was no on in the room now and only one person looking in on them from the window. He gave his mother a small smile, though he wasn't sure if she saw it, and he yearned to be held by her right now as odd as that sounded. Normally he was trying to get away from her affection and become more independent, but right now he was afraid and powerless and the only thing that had ever made him feel better when he was like that was her.

Carey Martin stood quietly behind the glass window that separated her from her twin sons. She wanted nothing more than to be with them right now, holding their hands and telling them that everything would be alright even though she knew that that was a lie. Everything would not be alright. At only twelve years old Zack and Cody had been handed a cruel fate when they contracted a deadly new strain of the flu virus at their middle school which was now closed until further notice. The doctors in charge and a representative from the CDC called it a terminal illness. There was no vaccine. There was no cure. No hope…

"Have you thought about my offer?" The Strange Man asked her, seeming to appear out of thin air and pulling her out of her concerned thoughts. Carey didn't know his name, but the nickname that she had given him seemed fitting enough.

"You want to offer me a contract that you won't give me the details to. I don't even know what I'm agreeing to..." Carey said staring into the isolation room where her sons rested and slowly died. Cody was passed out, but Zack's eyes were only half closed. Half open, Carey corrected herself trying to be optimistic. She was trying to think of everything as a glass half full, not empty. Zack's eyes passed from her, to Strange and then he tilted his head to look at his sleeping brother beside him. When he looked back at her there was nothing in his eyes except love and complete trust in her.

"Then I shall give you the details you seek...You may want to sit down." Strange paused for a minute waiting for her to sit, but when she refused he continued. "At three forty pm, two days from now, your sons will hold each others hands and exchange a few words of comfort in a short break from their delirium when they realize that the end is near. Seventeen minutes later at three fifty seven Zack will have to watch his twin brother stop breathing. Four minutes later at four oh one Zack follows Cody into death. If you accept my contract Zack and Cody will be coming home from school with nothing more worrisome than their homework at four o'clock two days from now..."

"What kind of choice do you think this is? Of course I have to accept!" Carey cried in exasperation. She'd known that the boys didn't have long to live, but for Strange to tell her the exact time of their deaths made her want to grab onto any possibility, any chance or way to save them that much more quickly. She felt like time was bearing down on her and if she didn't do something quick, she would lose her sons forever.

"Think carefully Carey Martin. If you accept then their lives will be spared and they will grow up into fine gentlemen, but be warned that from this moment on they will work for me as long as they live." Strange replied, effortlessly avoiding her question and giving her nothing but a firm ultimatum. Not even his face displayed any hint as to what he meant, but the tone of voice he used told her that he was not lying.

"What kind of work?" She asked, trying to get any information out of him that she could because even though she was ready to fully agree, she knew that once she did he would probably never talk to her again.

"They will know, in time. It does not concern you though. Do you accept?" His tone made her instincts scream at her not to accept, that he was deceiving her in some way and that he didn't have her sons best interests in mind, merely what they could do for him.

"Yes…" The word spoken so softly felt so heavy and carried with it a deep sense of finality like there was no going back. She'd agreed to let him save her twins' lives, but it almost seemed like he was saving them for his own purposes. It was like she had said earlier…what kind of a choice was this?

"Then it is done. Enjoy the rest of your life with your sons Carey Martin."

Zack looked around as he heard the door to the quarantine room make a soft thudding noise as it closed behind the Strange Man. He was of average height, had short black hair that was lightly gelled back and light brown eyes. Nothing about him telegraphed that he was different from other men in their late twenties, he simply looked like a professional businessman dressed in a black monkey suit. Was he a doctor? Was he someone from the CDC come to tell them that there was hope?

"Who are you?" Zack asked as he tried to sit up, his voice was hoarse and very low. He coughed and felt a bit of mucus rise up his throat as his head started spinning from trying to sit up and only managed to prop himself up on his elbows. Strange reached over and dragged Cody's bed closer to Zack leaving a gap just big enough between them for him to stand in. It was a curious move and made Zack wonder at what Strange was doing, but he was not yet threatened by his actions.

"You are going to die Zachary," Strange said matter of factly, looking down upon him realizing that he was awake. Zack was feeling a little fresh after an obvious comment like that and decided to reply with a smart ass remark.

"No shit."

"You can't very well do all of the good work that I have planned if you both are dead. Your mother has given me your souls so therefore I can give you life, for a price," Strange continued, ignoring Zack's tone.

"What price?" He asked, not bothering to doubt that this man could give him and Cody their lives back. There was something different about him. Some strange feeling that he couldn't place. Strange untangled the sheets that were entwined around Cody's arms and upper body and then lifted his white hospital shirt up to his neck exposing the pale skin of his chest. Next he placed his right hand against his brother's chest and then closed his eyes. Seconds later Cody's eyes sprang open and wildly looked around the room before he loudly inhaled a deep breath. Cody's body nearly jumped up off of his bed before crashing back down and only when he lay still did Strange release him.

"You want to live don't you Zachary?" Strange asked, turning his back on Cody who was just now sitting up, breathing normally and looking around in confusion. Right before his very eyes Zack saw the color return to his brother's face. Strange held out his hand over Zack and waited, locking eyes with him. As a spasm of pain rolled through his body, Zack pulled his shirt up and Strange's hand lowered onto his chest like it had Cody's. There was nothing for a few seconds and then Zack suddenly felt like he'd just stepped into a shower so cold that it had stolen his breath and made him gasp for air. Already he could feel himself breathing easier and then an electrifying tingle raced through his body making him jump a little bit, almost like he'd had a defibrillator used on him.

As Strange let go of him and stepped back, Zack could feel himself becoming comfortably warm and felt the blood return to his ice cold fingertips and toes. He felt his strength returning, like one feels after a good meal, a shower and eight hours of rest. Zack felt fine, in fact he felt better than fine.

Zack looked up at Strange, a million questions on his mind, only to discover that he was nowhere to be found. The door to the quarantine room remained shut. Who was Strange and where had he vanished to? How had he vanished without a trace for that matter?

Zack and Cody came to stand facing each other. They didn't say a word, they just looked at their mirror images and a moment of understanding passed between them. Something had just happened to them. Something they couldn't explain. Something powerful. While they were both extremely grateful to be completely healthy again, they also knew that they weren't the same innocent troublemaking boys anymore. They were more than that now…

And so it came to be that the twins were soon released from isolation and given a clean bill of health. The medical staff were so happy that the boy's immune systems had completely fought off the virus, or so they believed anyway, and none of them seemed to find anything odd in their instant and complete recovery. They were largely left alone and allowed to return home and grow up into fine young gentlemen just as Strange had said they would, but there was always a nagging feeling in the back of both Zack and Cody's minds. It was a feeling that said that their ordeal was just beginning…

A/N: So there you have it folks. With In This Memory complete, I've started this story and I'm hoping that it will be just as good as my two big stories already completed. I had a hard time writing Carey's part after being so used to doing it from Zack or Cody's 3rd Person POV, so that is my only regret in the quality of the prologue.

Let me know how you liked my grim description of the boy's situation and their unexpected savior. Now the question is what work do the boys have to do and who is the Strange man?