Hey guys, bet you didn't expect to hear from me again so soon!
I'm so grateful to see that people are still taking the time to read and review on my story - so thank you all so much!
I'm going away for a few days now to see a friend, so I won't be able to start writing again until next week. But I will try and get the next chapter posted up by next weekend!
Enjoy this one!
xxx
Lucas:
I'd forgotten what a shit hole the future was. A heavy black mask was clamped across my face, filtering in the dirty air. Smog encased the earth, hid the blue sky from us. There was no colour other than the many shades of brown. Instantly I missed the vivid colours of the land I had come from.
When we had come through the fracture, there had been a whole new army to greet us. My old employers had built a high tech secure facility around their end of the fracture. Instantly I had been escorted down to the cells, being deemed a threat. I wasn't sure what they thought I was going to do, but I appreciated their concern. It made me feel that I still had some credibility.
For hours I had been left alone in the cell I had been thrown in. It gave me time to dwell on what had become of Terra Nova. I knew by then that the mines Hooper had set up around Terra Nova would have detonated. I supposed Terra Nova no longer existed. I wondered if anyone had managed to survive. Deep down, despite knowing she was gone, I still hoped that maybe, somehow, she had escaped.
But I knew it was impossible. The only consolation I had was that I knew it would have been quick. She wouldn't have felt pain. The mines would have simply wiped her out, not giving her chance to feel any hurt.
Snivelling miserably, I buried my head in my hands. I thought about the last time I had ever seen her; that final kiss before we had parted ways. My grief-stricken heart began splintering, shards stabbing through my chest. For the first time in so many years, I felt tears begin to trickle down my face.
But just as I allowed my sadness to creep over me, I was disturbed. The door to my cell was roughly pushed open. I kept my head down, not wanting the enemy to see my moment of weakness. But then I felt hands on my shoulders and I was heaved up to my feet.
"Lucas Taylor." A voice said. I looked across at the man who stood before me. He wore the emblem of the Phoenix Group, and yet I did not recognise him. "There's someone who would like to see you."
He glanced at the two soldiers who stood either side of me, holding onto my arms. Then he tilted his head back out the cell, signalling them to follow him. I was hauled out from my prison, dragged along the floor. But I hardly protested. No longer did I care what fate had in store for me. They could have been leading me to my death and I wouldn't have cared. In fact, I relished in the thought that my pain would be over.
I was led into a large room. In the centre was a long, mahogany dining table that seemed so out of place. Eight chairs surrounded the table. Elaborate paintings hung on the stone walls and a cabinet filled with various bottles of alcohol stood centrally on the back wall. A man, with his back facing me, stood before the cabinet comparing two bottles of whiskey.
"Sir. Lucas Taylor is here." The lead soldier announced.
The man straightened up, but didn't turn around.
"Sit him down." He commanded. I was escorted to the end chair of the table that was closest to me. The two soldiers that clung to my arms shoved me. One handcuffed my left hand to the chair, leaving my right free. Frowning, I tugged at the cuff, testing its strength. "You can leave us now."
"Sir, is that wise?" The soldier protested.
"Leave us!" He hissed, still keeping his back to us. "I wish to have a private chat with an old friend."
I frowned at that statement and focused my attention completely on the man. He was tall and broad with the stance of a nobleman. His black hair was greying and yet he still sounded strong.
"Yes sir."
I watched as the three soldiers that had led me to the room retreated hurriedly. Then my attention turned back to the man. He replaced one of the bottles in his hand back inside the liquor cabinet. Gently, he closed the glass door before slowly turning around.
Whatever was left of my shattered heart completely sunk in my chest. A knot formed in my stomach and I thought I was going to vomit. Of all the names and faces that had been running through my mind, his hand not been one of them.
Prowling closer toward, an animalistic smile formed on his face. The familiar black, lifeless eyes stared across at me, a look of bemusement filling them. They scanned across me, taking in each and every detail.
"Lucas Taylor." He greeted. "What a pleasure to be seeing you again."
My nose twitched in disgust as I looked at the man who had murdered my mother.
"Caine." I spat.
He turned his stare away from me and focused on the two glasses on the table. Rage stormed through me and I felt myself tense as I prepared to lunge at him. I imagined my hands around his throat, slowly sucking the life from him. I thought I'd probably stop at the last possible moment, leaving him just enough alive to feel the pain as I kicked the shit out of him.
"It must have been over ten years since I last saw you." He remarked evenly as he unscrewed the cap of the bottle.
Glowering, I clenched my fists.
"Twelve years." I snarled.
He sent me a smirk.
"I hadn't realised you'd been counting." He commented.
He brought the bottle up to his nose and breathed in the scent. I could see the pleasure in his eyes. Then I watched as he tipped the golden liquid into the glasses. He filled them a quarter of the way up before placing the lid back on the bottle.
Glaring, I watched as he crept closer toward me, carrying a glass. He smiled at me as he placed the glass in front of me. It took everything I had not to punch him with my free hand. But somehow, I managed to remain composed. He sat in the chair opposite me, at the head position at the other end of the table. He regarded me again as he traced his forefinger around the rim of the glass before him.
"You've changed." He observed. "You look grown up." My nostrils flared as I breathed heavily. A hateful revenge was building within me. All I could see was him abusing my mother's lifeless body. A red mist was beginning to gather; I could feel myself losing control. "The jungle did you good. You're a man now."
"You're still the same vermin you always have been."
He chuckled at me, increasing my fury. I watched as he took a sip from his glass, if eyes never leaving mine.
"How's your father?" He questioned, placing the glass back on the table.
"Dead." I replied shortly.
The General arched a brow.
"Did you kill him?" He asked.
"No."
He smirked then.
"Died being a hero I imagine." He held up his glass. "I believe a toast is in order then. To the late Commander Nathanial Taylor. A loving father and an even more loving husband." In that moment, I snapped. As Caine finished off the whiskey that was in his glass, I pounced up to my feet and went to go and kill him. But I was locked in place. My hand was attached to the chair and the chair seemed to be stuck. It wouldn't budge, no matter how much I tried to pull it along with me. Caine sneered at my attempts. "Sit back down Lucas. I'm not interested in having to kill you." He gestured lazily back at the chair and waited until I had sat back down to speak again. "Good boy." He praised, making me feel like a child. My teeth gritted together, tension locking my body, as I observed him pour himself another drink. "They told me about the deal you had made. You'd work for them, destroy Terra Nova if they brought me here and allowed you to kill me." He grinned across at me, baring his pointed yellow teeth. "I'm grateful that you thought of me."
"I will kill you."
Caine shrugged a shoulder slightly, not looking bothered at all.
"Perhaps I will kill you first. Maybe then you can be reunited with your dear father and sweet mother." My breathing shook as he mentioned my mother. Caine chuckled, the sound echoing around the room. "But I think you want that. I can see it in your eyes; you've been broken. I suppose death would seem like a mercy to you." Joy shone in his eyes. "So I won't end your life Lucas. Instead I will keep you alive so you can feel every bit of pain and hatred for the rest of your pitiful life." He slammed his fist on the table then. "That is what you get for thinking you can beat me!" He snapped.
Lifting my chin confidently, I glared across at the General.
"I will beat you. For as long as you keep me alive, I will keep fighting against you." I announced.
Caine smirked.
"Perhaps at first you will. But I think after time you'll just crumble away. There is so much guilt inside of you that it will destroy you, Lucas. After all, if it wasn't for you your mother would still be alive. Your father would have been happier, everyone would have been happier with her instead of you." Grief filled me then, crippling me entirely. "Then of course there's the girl." My attention snapped back up to Caine. "What was her name? Oh yes...Skye." Agony stormed through me when he said her name. "Skye Alexandria Tate." Caine stared at his glass of whiskey, circling the rim with his fingers once more. "She was very beautiful, wasn't she?" His black eyes lifted back up to meet mine. "I can see why you feel in love with her."
My breathing was laboured; it felt like my lungs were being squeezed.
"How do you know about her?" I breathed.
Caine grinned.
"Do you want to know a little secret Lucas?" He asked. He leant forward, his eyes gleaming with euphoria. "Skye never existed." He announced. I frowned confusedly then. Caine shook his head. "None of it existed. Not Terra Nova, not the dinosaurs, not the portal. Nothing."
My frown deepened.
"Yes it did." I mumbled.
Of course Skye existed. I could remember her so clearly. My beautiful, mad Bucket.
Caine chuckled before shaking his head again.
"No Lucas. It was all just a test, something I created to see how you would survive in such conditions." A fog of confusion descended upon my mind then. I knew he must have been lying; I knew Skye was real. He couldn't have made up something as perfect as her. "You never left Somalia. Daddy never came to save you." Caine laughed at me then. "You didn't really think Terra Nova existed did you? A fracture in time that leads back to a prehistoric era? That only happens in fiction. None if it ever existed." He smirked. "I thought you were supposed to be smart. I thought you would have been able to work that out for yourself."
I looked desperately around then at the four stone walls. Was I still in Somalia? I couldn't have been. Skye was real. I'd met her. She'd shot me. We'd fallen in love. She was my whole world. There was no way she couldn't have existed. I couldn't have imagined her up, no one could have.
"I don't believe you."
Caine chuckled.
"Yet you doubt yourself, don't you? You know it was all too good to be true." His eyes flicked over to the wall on his right then for the briefest of moments before he focused back on me. "What if I told you your mother was next door." I snapped my attention to the wall then. "I only made you think she had died. I needed you to push yourself; I knew the death of your mother would give you that spark."
I stared at the wall, wondering if she really was there. Once upon a time, I would have given anything for the smallest bit of hope that my mother had somehow survived. Yet if I accepted that she was there, I'd also have to accept that my beautiful Skye never existed.
"My mother's dead." I remarked after a few silent minutes. I turned wearily back to look at Caine. "And Skye is very much real."
Caine smiled at me.
"So you'd choose this Skye over your own mother? Pity. No one ever seems to love your mother enough to choose her."
A snarl rippled through me and for a moment I had become one of the beasts from the Badlands. I jumped up to my feet and lunged for the General. But again, my bound wrist kept me from him. Instead I grabbed hold of the glass of whiskey in front of me and hurled it across at Caine. He had to duck to avoid it. The sound of shattering glass pierced the air as Caine got to his feet.
Shock filled his face that I had nearly hit him, and yet amusement still flooded his eyes. He pulled a gun out from a holster around his waist and aimed it at me. I continued tugging at the handcuff that bound me, trying to get free. He shouted but I couldn't understand the words he said. Instead I violently growled as I tried to break off the arm of the chair.
Then suddenly I felt hands grab me from behind. Pain registered in the back of my neck as something sharp broke my skin. Instantly my body felt heavy and I could feel I was collapsing down to the ground. Blackness was obscuring my vision and I started being dragged toward unconsciousness.
As I sunk onto the ground, Caine approached me. He stood over me, sneering down. Although I longed to punch him, I couldn't get my body to work. It was like my muscles were all turning to lead, keeping me from moving. My body had become a crypt that I was trapped in.
"I'll tell your mother you send your regards." Caine remarked, his voice sounding distant.
Then I was gone, the darkness taking over.
