SOLITARY WITNESS
"This is just great" Lucas exclaimed to himself as he trudged along the darkened
sidewalk with his hands buried deep in the pockets of his new jeans.
Ben Krieg had promised to met up with the teenager in a less than friendly side of town.
Lucas had been a little hesitant at first, especially given the reputation of neighbourhood.
Finally Ben had given a long drawn out speech about Lucas having no sense of adventure
and being unsocial and other such things. It was true, Lucas spent more time talking and
chatting to his friends on the webnex than talking to real people. As for spending time out
somewhere socialising, well that was almost unheard of when it came to Lucas.
Lucas had finally given in to Ben and promised to meet him at some dingy little side café
in the back street of town. The teenager had waited over an hour for his friend to show
and finally decided that Krieg would be a no-show.
The sky overhead suddenly looked dark and ominous and a few droplets of rain began to
fall as Lucas started to walk back towards the train station. It would be a good kilometre
walk before he would reach the subway tunnel and catch a connecting train back to
U.E.O. headquarters.
This was supposed to be his first day of shore leave after being out to sea on the SeaQuest
for 3 months. It could only promise to get better after today Lucas told himself.
The rain started to fall even heavier and Lucas started to look around the dark alleys and
deserted street for a place to shelter out of the rain.
Lucas suddenly saw a doorway leading to a large darkened room. He squeezed his lanky
frame through the narrow entrance and waited until his eyesight adjusted to the dark room.
He could hear things moving about on the floor but at the moment he couldn't see anything and
his mind didn't want to think about what might be responsible for the noises. Rats, mice or
something more sinister.
Slowly his eyes adjusted to the dark conditions and he squinted in the dim light that prevailed
to see what was in the room. The only thing revealed was a large number of crate boxes that
were stacked on top of one another.
There was nothing to indicate that anybody currently occupied the building he was sheltering
under, but just to be on the safe side Lucas sat himself on top of one of the wooden crates with
his presence being masked behind another row of stacked boxes. If anybody did come into the
building, he would be difficult to spot in the darkness.
The rain outside got harder and now could be heard battering the thin metal roof above and the
echo being sent downwards through the rest of the building.
Lucas didn't have his SeaQuest communicator with him so he could call back to the boat and
ask somebody to come get him. There wasn't a public pay phone anywhere for blocks and any
that were present probably didn't work anyway. He didn't even have his personal mobile phone
with him to call his dad back on the island and ask him to come and pick him up.
Basically he was stuck in the abandoned building until the rain eased up some and he tried the
trek to the subway again. It might be quite a while before that was possible without getting soaked,
so he just had to stay put for the time being.
The rain had been cold and now Lucas drew his knees up towards his chest in an effort to feign off
the feeling of coldness that was beginning to penetrate through his damp and soggy clothes. His
blond hair fell in messy clumps over his eyes and he found himself continually trying to brush it back
out of the way.
After about an hour of non-stop rain outside and nothing much to do inside but rub his cold hands
together and try ignoring the gnawing sounds he heard from the various inhabitants, Lucas's head
began to droop and without even really realising it, he found himself drifting off into a fitful doze.
Approximately twenty minutes later, Lucas awoke suddenly to the sounds of muffled voices coming
into the building from an alternate entrance from the opposite side to Lucas. Lucas didn't know
whether these people would be too happy to discover a unwelcome guest so he tried to squish himself
up against the crates and out of site as possible.
The next forty minutes of Lucas's life came in a blur. He saw many things and recognized faces that
he thought had come back to haunt him from his past. His breath was coming in raspy gasps as he
tried to tell him that what he was seeing and hearing wasn't true. There were a few faces and voices
that were strange and new to him. But there was one voice in particular that chilled him to the very
core. This was a voice and a face he had not seen in over five years. This was somebody who he
hoped a long time ago that he would never have the misfortune of coming into contact with again.
When he had gone aboard the SeaQuest he thought all the previous encounters were just bad memories
that would go away after time.
About an hour and a half later…………………
Lucas just sat on the cold concrete floor of an abandoned old factory. The man he'd come to know
as John Taylor was now dead. His blood covered everything including the floor and Lucas. The man's
life had just ebbed away slowly as the liquid ran out onto the floor.
Lucas just looked down at the vacant and unstaring eyes looking back at him. He barely knew this man.
This was somebody who he had a brief conversation with over the last five or ten minutes, and now, the
man was lying dead in his lap.
Lucas's thoughts were suddenly looked up at the sound of the huge rusty roller door to the factory opening up.
He shielded his eyes from the bright light of the torches from the police as they were pointed in his direction.
The only thing the police could see was a very pale and shocked looking teenager covered in blood with a
dead man laying at his feet. Even the boy's hands that he held up to shield his face were stained red.
"I didn't do it" Lucas managed to say in a barely audible whisper.
"Come with us son" came a low baritone voice of one of the policemen standing in front of him.
"I didn't do it" Lucas repeated as he felt two sets of hands pull him to his unsteady feet and half-walk,
half-carry him towards a waiting squad car.
The only words that kept going around in the boy's mind were the last ones that John Taylor had uttered
before his death:
"Don't turn your back on him Lucas. He'll get you too just like he got me. Watch yourself,
your not safe from him anymore."
ANOTHER BEGINNING I JUST HAD TO GET OUT OF MY HEAD FOR THE TIME BEING –
LOTS MORE TO COME.
IT ISN'T LAWRENCE EITHER – HE IS IN THIS ONE BUT ONLY HAS A MINOR ROLE.
IT ISN'T PAUL SANDERSON COME BACK FROM THE DEAD EITHER.
THIS IS A WHOLE NEW PLAYER TO THE GAME……………… ENJOY !!!!!!!!!!