Hold on guys, I'm hoping the ride will get a bit smoother. I have reasons for everything I've done, though the last few chapters haven't turned out the way I wanted them to do. I'm getting them back on track. Thanks for the reviews Honest, MacGaulyver, Peacexfreedom, Kaylee, Kristie and Phantomgirl96 and I totally don't mind the honesty as I want to get better with the writing anyway.
~Tessa
Asleep
Chapter 9
Hidden in the Badlands by Six, Rex had only taken two mouthfuls of that soda before he'd hit the floor, the soda can rolling from his fist. The soda had gone down his throat like muddy water. Maybe his nanites were wondering, Did Six have to put enough tranquilliser into it to down an elephant?
His muscles sleepily jerked as he lay on the cave floor. His heart began to pound so uncomfortably hard that he felt it in his sleep and it reverberated into his dreams, changed ever so carefully into a mechanical sound, as distant as the ocean. A beep.
The next beep sounded a little closer. The beep after that even closer. The next one rang in his ears.
His eyelids struggled to lift, and then as bright light peered through the cracks between his eyelashes, he groaned aloud and closed them again.
"Six? Did you see—"
"Holiday, I think he's—" they shut up at the same time. A hand touched his cheek. "Rex? You back with us?"
Their voices faded out again.
He sighed, felt the breath shudder through his lungs, it felt like his chest rattled with the effort. He tried again to open his eyes, but there was too much light. "Light," he croaked.
"Six? Turn the lights down," Holiday said quickly, Rex heard the hushed footsteps acutely, and then how the darkness entered his closed eyes.
He tried again to open his eyes.
Holiday was leaning over him, her eyes deep with concern. Six stood behind her, his shades off, his eyes trained on Rex. "Welcome back," he said quietly, finally.
Rex felt the corners of his lips tug. Slowly he tried to sit up, first Holiday moved to stop him but Six shook his head. "The stitches should hold," he spoke like he had experience. Instead he touched one of the buttons and Rex felt the bed beneath him raise at the head until he was nearly sitting down. He pulled a face at Six. "Hey, I can…" he tried to straighten up then yelped and fell back, a wave of exhaustion moving through him. For a moment his whole body was awake and panicky. He sank back into the pillow.
"Take it slow, Rex," Holiday encouraged. Rex surprised himself by yawning, and then slowly looked first down at himself. He was in one of the hospital beds, and looking up, saw the line of beds and recognised that he must be in the infirmary. There were a few too many machines around him, and he reached out and touched the clip on his finger, its wire trailing to a heart monitor while another tube led to an IV drip. He raised an eyebrow, and his nanites kinda sparked at his emotion, one of the machines beeped warningly.
"Nuh uh, no blowing up my equipment, Rex," Holiday laughed and turned off the heart monitor, then took the clip off Rex's finger. Her eyes were shadowed with sleeplessness but bright with joy as she looked at Rex. He felt a lump in his throat as he saw that emotion in her eyes.
"How long have I been out, doc?" Rex realised he was shirtless. He actually pushed back the covers slightly to check he at least had some pants on. Phew, he did. No repeat of that Swarm incident thank you…he couldn't miss the dressing taped to his abdomen, and the bandage over that, wrapped around his waist. He tentatively touched it with a fingertip. Holiday made a small unhappy sound. Six said nothing.
"What happened?" Rex said finally.
"You've been unconscious for a while," Holiday said quietly. "You received internal injuries, Rex."
"You fell onto a picket fence."
"Well, were thrown actually—" Holiday interjected. Now Rex remembered the last fight he'd had, with Six by his side. He'd been so confident he could take it on, on his own.
Then the slug whipped the tail end of its body around and slammed it into Rex, sweeping him into the air.
Like a dream, Rex saw the droplets trickle from his arms. How can it scream while moving? he thought, saw the flash of white but not what they meant. Felt his body bow with impact. Something—
"I got skewered like a kebab on a PICKET FENCE?" the idea revolted Rex. But he remembered things now, the moment he'd looked out of the window when he'd first woken up in that room that couldn't be his, with the wooden bed, the curtains at the window…
Suburbia…a street. White picket fence. A garden…
Pain rushed through him for a split second, his mouth was already opening to scream, and then the pain was gone before he could have even sunk to his knees. He sat down on the bed anyway, feeling lightheaded enough to put his head between his knees for a whole minute.
The moment he'd saved that man and his wife during curfew…
His dreams were brief, bright green trees waving in winds above white picket fences, the chopping of helicopter blades, the bang of something against his chest, banging like a set of drums. Six! He felt like screaming.
"How long was I out?" he asked finally.
"A couple of days," Six shrugged.
"He means four days, seventeen hours, eight minutes and he's probably been counting the seconds," Holiday interpreted. Rex smiled. "Thanks guys…for holding on for me."
"It was touch and go for a long time," Six admitted. His eyes were almost angry. "Holiday had to resuscitate you at one point. You completely crashed."
"That was probably cos I electrocuted myself," Rex muttered. Like a dream he remembered back in the school in that…dream world? Alternate world? Wherever he'd been, the moment he'd thrust the rusty javelin into the fuse box and electrocuted himself and the janitor.
"You what?"
"I think I'm hoping it's just a dream…you two haven't gone rogue and left Providence, pretending that I'm your son, right?"
They both stared at him, utterly dumbstruck.
"Never mind, just a hallucination," Rex said. "That's cool. And…there weren't any janitors inexplicably electrocuted recently, right?" They were the only two people apart from Noah that he trusted enough to admit his felony to. Holiday and Six looked even more nonplussed.
He searched for a change in subject and was answered by his stomach rumbling hard enough to pull at the stitches. He grinned sheepishly. "Um, can I have something to eat?"
Holiday smiled and looked at Six. "Come to think of it, you haven't eaten either."
"Does that mean we can get pizza?" Rex interjected eagerly but Holiday shook her head and went to the phone, called through to the cafeteria. "Can someone bring over some food and drink for Agent Six and Rex? Half a burrito for Rex. Nothing spicy in it though, make it bland."
"Only half? And no peppers?" Rex demanded. "Now that's just cruel."
"Your body's still half asleep," Holiday said firmly. "All your systems are suppressed, it'll take them a while to wake up."
"And a whole burrito will totally wake them up," Rex said solemnly. "So would a quesadilla and some nachos. And some ice cream."
"Maybe I should just leave you on the drip," she smiled at him, hanging the phone back up.
"Okay, okay, half a plain burrito. Do I at least get visitor privileges?"
"Once I've run more tests." She grabbed a medical torch from her lab coat pocket and clicked it on, then gently held his eye open, shone the light briskly over his pupil, then did the same to his other eye, frowning slightly. "Not very good pupil reaction, Rex."
Then she pinched his arm hard. He blinked. "Hey! A bit of warning please…"
"That would be pointless to warn you," she said wryly. "Your reflexes are slow too. Almost like you're still half asleep."
"A few laps around the Petting Zoo will get you back into shape," Six said almost reassuringly.
"Thanks." Rex wrinkled his nose.
"It'll be okay," Holiday said quietly. "First step is waking up. That's the hard bit. After that it gets easier. You're lucky enough that your nanites have been keeping you alive, they worked to stem the bleeding otherwise…well, you'd be dead right now."
There was a knock on the door, and then a worker entered with a trolley of covered metal trays. "Three meals."
"I only ordered two," Holiday said wearily.
"Knight told me to get one for you too, Doctor."
Six made a small sound that could have been a laugh or he could have just been clearing his throat, as the orderly placed one of the trays on the table by Rex. Rex eagerly flicked off the lid then blinked at the greenery surrounding the half burrito. "What's the deal?"
"Knight requested that you be given the chance to catch up on your greens," the orderly said as blandly as possible.
Rex reached for the bin and Six kicked it away, then rose an eyebrow at him. "He's right, you know. I've seen you sneak your greens down to the petting zoo."
Rex made a face at him and bit into a piece of lettuce. "The things I do for you guys," he said through his mouthful, just to get that look of annoyance on Six's face. It made him grin.
Instead the man looked nearly…well, seriously scarily…just glad to see Rex alive. Wow, Rex thought impressed. I could sneak out of here and I bet he'd forget to punish me for it…midnight runs to taco shack, here I come!
He gulped down the lettuce, shoved another mouthful of the green stuff and a bit of tomato in, then rewarded himself with a bite of taco.
Six and Holiday didn't even seem to remember their own food. They just sat with him. He pushed away the empty plate and grinned. "Best burrito ever, guys. Compliments to the chef."
"Now you can get some rest," Holiday said.
"I've been asleep for ages!" Rex yelped.
"I'll let Noah visit you this evening if you obey the doc on this one," Six was already taking his phone out.
"Deal." They didn't shake hands on it, Six just turned and left the room. Holiday sat back down in the chair, looking amazingly peaceful. "It's so good to have you back, Rex."
"Good to be back," Rex meant it. Then his stomach lurched, he urgently leaned forward and threw up the burrito. He blinked at Holiday, mortally embarrassed, then slumped back into the pillows.
He distantly heard her start to yell, heard an alarm.
System purged. System restored.
Cold swept through him, for a moment he couldn't move and then he opened his eyes.
He was lying on the rock floor, in the dark, the light had burned out in its lamp. A sticky puddle of soda vomit lay fresh beside him. A scream burned up his throat and he clamped it back fiercely, stared at it venomously.
How could he have woken up and gone back to sleep again? He'd got drugged in this world and woken up back in his world, the world he needed to be his world, the one where he trusted Six and Holiday implicitly. Now...the tranquilliser that was in the soda, his body must have just thrown it up at the same moment he'd thrown up that damned burrito. I couldn't have just starved myself? he demanded of himself. Maybe if he'd not had that one burrito he'd still be awake...
Then he realised that he was alone in the dark. "Six?" he called out, there was a quiver in his voice and it echoed through the dark cavern. Nothing. he felt the scrunch of paper in his fist as he crawled away from the stain on the floor, and he sat against the wall, unfolding the note and he read it.
Rex,
I have gone to get Sandra back, but this is where our paths have to part. After everything that has happened, I know now that we will put you in more danger. A fresh start for you, a chance for you to change the view of EVOs is vital. You are a force for good, and I have been proud to teach you. I have to hope that other providence bases might see you as the vital asset that you are, will give you the chance to thrive and not to hide.
Always proud of every moment I've stood beside you,
Six.
Then there was another list of other Providence bases.
Bitterness welled up inside Rex, made all the more painful by how just moments ago he'd seen the Six he loved, watching him protectively.
This universe…this Six…he'd desert me because it's got too hard, Rex thought savagely. Fine.
But the hatred died too suddenly. Six had gone to rescue Holiday. No matter what, this universe Six loved Holiday enough to place her above everything else.
He could only be true to himself and as true to the Six and Holiday he knew.
Just avoid the picket fences, he thought wryly.
He walked to the cave entrance, zipped up his jacket and activated his Boogie Pack. The blades spun and he took off, soared high and fast towards the city. He had no idea where Providence base was, but there were soldiers in the city.
All he had to do was find them and get caught.
