thank you for your reviews and follows! this chapter will be setting up future events :)
enjoy, ~phoenix
-oOo-
"I don't know what to do."
Carlos is sitting on the hood of his car, holding his head in his hands. He's been sitting in silence for hours now, watching the sun sink lower and lower towards the horizon, trying to ignore the voices floating out of the inside of the car.
"I. Don't. Know. What. To. Do," he says again, slower, feeling the terror of those words completely sink in. He is the man with the plan, the scientist, the guideline-following, Scientific Method, Step-1-Step-2 kind of guy and he doesn't have a clue where to even begin.
"Oh, my god. Oh, my god." He runs a frantic hand through his hair, remembering everything about Cecil's interruption with frightening and terrible accuracy.
Carlos… please…
Cecil is counting on him.
"But I was counting on you!" Carlos shouts in frustration, jumping off the hood. "You're the activist here! You're supposed to know what to do!"
The desert swallows up his words. He paces back and forth in front of the car, his mind racing at a million miles an hour. The radio drifts hauntingly through the air. He has kept it on in the vague chance that Cecil will make another appearance, but he knows it's too much to hope for. Nobody at StrexCorp will let that happen again, not unless Cecil is completely and totally… persuaded.
Brainwashed.
Carlos shudders and shakes his head. No, no, no. That won't happen. That will not happen.
He closes his eyes.
He takes a slow breath.
He needs to think about this logically. He has a problem, and there is always - always - a solution.
But this isn't science. He can't approach it like it's an experiment because this is Cecil, it's Cecil, and -
He takes another, slower breath.
Panic won't help anyone. Especially not Cecil.
But the sounds are still replaying in his head - the sounds of thuds and cracks and the crunching of bone.
The sound of Cecil screaming in pain.
It's a constant loop in his head and it won't leave - he knows that it won't ever leave - until he can find him. Until he can save him.
He sits on the hood of his car and tunes in to the sound of the radio drifting out of the car.
...efficiency rates are up 100 percent from last week. Reported wastes are down by 50 percent. The Greater Desert Bluffs Metropolitan Area is doing an outstanding job this week! Keep it up, employees. In sponsored news...
Carlos can't listen to Kevin's voice for more than a few moments. He gets up again and starts to pace.
He's there in the stifling desert silence for a few more minutes before he hears something - a low rumbling from far away. He looks around before seeing a cloud of dust appear on the horizon, heading towards him. He stumbles back towards his car and wonders if he should run.
But as it gets closer, he's able to see it's some kind of black car. It's not yellow, it's not a helicopter, and it's coming from the middle of the desert, not from Night Vale. It can't be StrexCorp. So he stops and waits, still warily positioned halfway into his own car.
The sleek, dark car draws closer and pulls to a stop while still a few dozen yards away. Carlos waits by the door of his own car as a girl jumps out of the driver's seat. She is wearing jeans and a tight black shirt, dark ponytail swishing behind her back and sunglasses obscuring her eyes.
She holds a hand up and takes a few steps forward. "You're Carlos?" she asks warily, removing her sunglasses to reveal a pair of warm brown eyes. Her forehead is drawn together in concern.
"Yes," Carlos says carefully, still ready to jump in the car if this is a trap. "Who are you?"
Her shoulders slump in relief. "We've been waiting for you," she says. "We need you to come with us."
Carlos gives a clipped laugh. "Yeah, right," he says, narrowing his eyes. "For all I know, you're one of StrexCorp."
She bites her lip. "I know that this seems… sketchy. But you can trust us. I promise."
"How do I know for sure?" Carlos asks warily as a man in a black shirt and dark sunglasses gets out of the passenger side.
The girl lowers her chin. "You don't know for sure. But we're your only chance of finding Cecil."
Carlos stills. He swallows.
"Come with us," says the man in a deep voice. He opens the door to the backseat and motions quickly.
Carlos takes a cautious step forward. And another.
The girl smiles warmly. "Get in. We'll explain on the way," she says, opening the door and hopping into the driver's seat. The man returns to the passenger side, and Carlos is left with the open door and a choice.
He inhales and tries to figure out their game. The car is behind him, the radio still softly playing. It's when he hears Kevin's words float through the air -
"Until next time, Desert Bluffs…"
He gets in the car.
-oOo-
"Tamika Flynn was a hero. She was also not the only one aware of what was happening in Night Vale," explains the girl who now has a name - Viola. "We're called the Rift, and we're stationed in the mountains."
"I thought mountains didn't exist," Carlos says numbly, echoing what used to be Cecil's most adamant argument.
The man - Kyle - laughs, a low, rumbling sound. "Precisely."
He doesn't know how exactly they get there, but one moment they're driving through a night-shaded desert and the next they're in some kind of bunker. He blinks and looks around dazedly, catching the grins flickering across Viola and Kyle's faces. Furrowing his brow and trying not to think about it, Carlos reminds himself that nothing in Night Vale makes sense, and there was no reason that this should, either.
"We'll take you straight to Raene. She'll be able to fill you in," Kyle says as they pass dozens of people manning equipment and carrying weapons. The bunker seems to be vast and full of people; Carlos is taken aback at the size of it all.
"Look," he says slowly, "look, I'm not really interested in - in helping head up a full-fledged revolution or anything. I just want Cecil back."
Viola purses her lips. "I understand that, Carlos, I really do," she says, "but they're becoming the same thing."
Carlos takes a deep breath and leans back in his seat. "Awesome."
Throngs of people pass them on all sides, all wearing a standard uniform of jeans and black t-shirts. Carlos is acutely aware that some of them are staring at him with their mouths open in astonishment. Even worse, others are staring at him with a strange mix of fear and pity in their eyes.
It makes him wonder what they know.
They reach the very back of the massive bunker, where a door waits - a solid oak door with a brass knob. Viola parks the car, and she and Kyle climb out. Carlos takes a steadying breath before following them.
They push through the door to enter a large, silent room. Viola and Kyle stop before a large oak desk.
"Raene," Kyle says respectfully, "we found him."
"Oh, wonderful," comes a young voice. "You guys are the best. Okay, let me see him. You two can head out. Thank you so much."
Viola and Kyle nod and leave Carlos alone. He approaches the desk carefully.
A girl even younger than Viola jumps off a swivelling leather chair and walks around the desk, beaming and stretching out a hand. "Raene," she introduces herself as she shakes his hand vigorously, green eyes sparkling. "Leader of the Rift. And, yes, before you ask - I am pretty young to be leading a revolution."
Carlos laughs a little, relaxing slightly. "Yeah, I have to say, this… all of this… is something of a surprise."
Raene nods, looking around her office. There are bookshelves stretching to the ceiling stuffed full of books. "I was in the Summer Reading Program with Tamika, you know," she says, nodding as Carlos widens his eyes in surprise. "Oh yes. And we both knew what was happening. Or what was going to happen, I suppose. But we had different approaches to the problem, Tamika and I…" her forehead pinches together as her eyes keep scanning the book-laden walls. "She did her very best. She did what she thought was right. But she should have known that a frontal assault on StrexCorp wouldn't have worked, she must have known what she was -" she stops and closes her eyes, takes a deep breath. Carlos leans against the desk and watches her with interest.
"While Tamika has been building her group of militants, I've been slowly putting together this operation," Raene continues after a slight pause. "We've been infiltrating StrexCorp - very, very slowly, but surely. We have people in the inside, now, reporting back to us regularly. We've even hacked into their security camera feed."
Carlos gives a start at this. "Their camera feed?"
Raene turns her gaze to him. Her eyes are filled with sympathy. "Yeah," she says softly, "yeah, and I know what you're thinking, but I don't think…" she shakes her head and glances at the ground.
"Have you seen him?" Carlos asks quietly.
She nods but doesn't look at him.
"Can you show me?"
Raene bites her lip. "I can. And I won't stop you from seeing, if you want to. But I don't think… I don't think you should see."
"What does that mean?" Carlos asks, trying to force back the panic rising up in his throat.
Raene doesn't answer for a long moment. "We want to get Cecil back," she says finally. "And I'm very sure you want him back more than anyone else. But showing you what we're seeing isn't… isn't going to help."
"I haven't seen him in three weeks," Carlos says, struggling to keep his voice from breaking. "The last thing I've heard from him is… is the radio broadcast." The words send a visible wince through her. "Please, I need to know that he's there. That… that he's still alive."
Raene swallows and nods slowly. "I understand. I don't like it, but trust me - I understand." She moves towards her desk, where she pulls out a laptop and motions him closer. "I'll show you some of what we have."
Carlos moves to her side as she opens her laptop and pulls up a set of files. She scans through it until she selects a randomly-numbered file.
"We sorted through our video feeds and put this together," she mumbles distractedly as a passcode system pops up. She enters in a complicated combination of symbols. It unlocks, and a video pops up.
It's the radio station - Carlos recognizes it immediately.
"This is after the radio broadcast you heard earlier," Raene explains. "We've already spliced together what we found."
"Play it," Carlos says, surprised to hear his voice come out shaky and unsure.
Raene's hand pauses for a long moment before she presses play.
The video is fixed on the door outside the broadcasting room. There is a shout and a thud and suddenly the door flies open. Carlos inhales sharply. There are two guards with eyes black as coal, dressed in a bright yellow uniform and dragging a form in between them.
It's Cecil.
It's Cecil, and oh, my God, what have they done to him?
He is limp, his head hanging loosely on his chest, and he is more vulnerable than Carlos has ever seen him, more vulnerable than Carlos should have ever seen him -
The guards throw Cecil to the ground. His head hits the cement floor with a crack, and Carlos doesn't want to watch but he does. The guards smile sickeningly, their teeth sharp and pointed. Cecil is unresponsive on the ground.
"It's not as fun when he's not awake," grumbles one of them as he leans down to grab Cecil's arm again, yanking him up. The other guard grunts in agreement as he secures Cecil's other side. They take off down the hallway, Cecil's feet dragging behind them.
The camera angle switches and shows them walking down the hallway towards the entrance. It catches a better view of Cecil's face, and Carlos has to close his eyes for a second, because there are gashes all over his face, and he's not moving, and he looks so hurt -
The camera switches again to show the guards slinging him roughly into the back of a yellow StrexCorp van. They climb into the car and drive away.
The video stream cuts to the van arriving at a place Carlos has never seen. "StrexCorp HQ," Raene explains quickly as the guards get out of the car, open the back of the van and jump in. There is a shout and a scuffle. Raene is saying something else, but Carlos isn't really paying attention to her - he's paying attention to the guards shoving a newly-awake Cecil out of the van, Cecil who's moving and struggling against them. He's paying attention as the guards force him, face-first, into the pavement. He watches as one guard holds Cecil down and the other kicks him in the side, making Cecil curl in on himself - watches as the same guard drives his foot into Cecil's gut and his chest and his head until Cecil finally falls still.
Carlos struggles to breathe. There's something suddenly constricting his throat. His eyes are burning, but no tears come. The guards pick Cecil up again and drag him inside.
Raene stops the video.
Carlos looks at her. "Keep playing it."
"No," she says firmly, meeting his gaze. "You've seen him. I don't want you to see any more."
"Why not?" Carlos manages. The sound of his own voice, choked and raw, answers his question for him. He looks down as Raene slowly closes her laptop.
"They have Cecil in one of their inner cells. It's going to take some work to infiltrate their building that thoroughly," Raene says. "We're going to have to train you, it'll take some -"
"That'll take too much time," Carlos interrupts her roughly.
Raene narrows her eyes at him. "It'll take time, but it's our best option."
"No, that's good enough. Let's just do it. Let's just go." Carlos starts pacing, running a desperate hand through his hair. "We can attack them. You guys have the gunpower, we can blast our way in and save him and get out and -"
"That's stupid," Raene snaps, cutting him off. "I am not going to jeopardize our entire operation for one man, especially when we can - "
"We can't leave him in there!" Carlos yells, clenching his fists at his sides.
"We can until we have a plan," Raene replies firmly.
"You don't understand," Carlos shouts, glaring at her. "You don't understand what it's like to see that happening to someone - to someone you love -"
"Don't even try me," Raene snaps, this time low and dangerous.
Carlos stops in his tracks. He narrows his eyes. "What does that mean?"
Her eyes flash with something much too dark for anyone, let alone a girl so young, to have behind their eyes. She turns away from him and opens her laptop again without a word. There is a file saved on her desktop, . She opens it up.
Two guards, nearly identical in every way to the ones holding Cecil, are standing over a young boy no more than sixteen. His face is terrified, he is holding one hand in front of his face, there are bloody gashes all along his arms, and his ankle is bent in a way that is terribly wrong. Carlos looks at Raene to see her looking away, biting back tears.
And he's understanding a lot more now.
He closes the laptop for her.
"His name is.. was… Cody," Raene bites, angrily swiping tears away from her face. "I don't know where he is. I don't even know if he's alive. And I'm putting Cecil in front of him, I'm…" she stops and wipes ferociously at her eyes. "So don't you dare tell me I'm not saving Cecil fast enough. We're going to help you, Carlos, because we know what Cecil means to everyone, especially you. And we know what he can do. But I will not tolerate your attitude. And I will not tolerate your condescension."
She looks him in the eye. "Are we clear?"
Carlos nods slowly. "...yeah. Yeah, we're clear."
Raene holds out a hand. Carlos takes it.
And they understand each other.
-oOo-
this chapter is still setting up some more exciting, future events, but I hope you still enjoyed it.
reviews are fuel for writers :)
~phoenix