Scott's face turned to steel and his body went rigid, "Scott?" I pressed.
He scooted out of the bed, grabbing a pair of boxers and slipping them on before standing and pacing in front of the bed. He stopped, looked at me, and then continued pacing.
"Scott?" I repeated.
I wrapped the sheet around me and stood, facing him. He looked at me again then shook his head, "I can't…" His eyes bore into mine, "I wish I could, I really do. But I can't."
My eyes narrowed, "Can't what, Scott?" He looked away. "Can't what?" I closed my eyes and took a deep breath; there was only one thing he hated talking about. "Your past."
He nodded slightly, "Yes." He admitted softly.
"Oh." I backed off and sat down on the edge of the bed, thinking for a second before looking up at him. Our eyes met, "Zane? Or that fire you were in?"
Something flashed in Scott's eyes when I mentioned the fire. He glared into me, pushing my back to the wall, "How do you know about that?" he shook me hard. "Who told you?" He yelled.
I tried to say something but I couldn't, for the first time in over a year I was scared of what Scott might be able to do. I'd heard about the 'bar-coded freaks' at parties, before. They were supposedly super strong inhumane creatures. I thought they were just urban legends, but maybe I was wrong. I realized he was still shaking me and finally I gurgled out, "Scott, stop!"
His eyes were the things on fire at that moment; he calmed a bit but asked me again, still pressing my back against the wall, "How do you know about a fire?"
I blinked, trying to calm my fear; "I-I…" I think Scott realized that I was petrified at that moment and he loosened his grip and let me go, stepping back to give me some distance. His eyes still bore into me.
"Kat," he demanded.
I swallowed, "I only know it because of you." His face contorted in confusion; "You talk in your sleep sometimes." His face drained of color. "I heard you screaming about a fire. For Zane to get you out. Seems I was right."
Scott shook his head. "No one can know about that. No one."
"All I know is a name, Scott," I offered.
"That's too much, as far as I'm concerned," he spat.
It was my turn to get angry. "Now that's not even close to being fair! I've told you about my life. Told you about how I was abused, how I was prostituted. I trusted you with that, and you can't even trust me with someone who is so important and sacred that I can't even know his fucking name?"
Scott looked away, "Kat, I can't risk it. It's too dangerous. If anyone found out..."
"Then no one will find out." I insisted.
He ran a hand through his hair, "I don't know if I…I've kept it a secret for so long. I can't just, but god, I've wanted to tell you." I thought he was going to rip his hair out he was so frazzled. "There have been times...I wanted to tell you everything. I want to now, but…I…" He faltered.
I walked to him, cupping his chin in my hands, "Scott, what ever this secret is, it's going to eat you alive. It is eating you alive. You can trust me, I promise. It will stay between you and me." I assured him.
He took a deep breath and started pacing again, "I shouldn't be telling you this. It's dangerous information that I shouldn't even know. I was just a screwed up kid that got caught." He looked at me, "It could mean both our lives if this got out." I nodded and sank to the bed as he continued with a far away look in his eyes. "Zane." He paused and I wasn't sure if he was going to keep going, "He was my best friend and the closest thing I've ever had as a father. He took me in when I had no where to go. When I was 13 I ran away from home because my shit-faced father almost killed me. I don't even remember what I had done. But he came home drunk again and he started yelling and beat the shit out of me. He even used a base ball bat." His eyes were hard; "I dragged myself away from my home after he passed out. Eventually I could walk with a slight limp and bum money or food from people. When I healed even more I learned how to lift things when I needed food or money to buy food.
A few months and states later I found myself in Georgia, passing by this old garage. There was this silver shiny thing by the door that looked like it was worth some money. I didn't know it at the time, but it was a muffler. I walked over and grabbed it. My hand had barely touched the thing when someone caught me from behind. I tried to run, but he had a hold of me so good there was no way I was going anywhere. He whispered that he was going to cut off my hand for even thinking about jacking the muffler from him. I was so scared I about pissed my pants.
The guy dragged me into the garage and sat me down at a table. He told me to stay where I was and went to another room. I was scared so shitless he could have been gone for hours and my ass would have stayed glued to the seat. The guy came back and I got a good look at him. He looked a couple years older than I am now, strong build; my dad would have said he had the build of a football player. His hair was pulled back into a ponytail with something that looked like a piece of leather and a crazy smile was on his face. I'd never seen so white of teeth in my life. Because of his slightly darkened skin they shone like the sun.
He dropped into the seat across from me and demanded my hand. I shook my head but then finally offered it to him. He pulled out a big knife and held it in one hand while the other clasped my wrist. My eyes widened and I think I did piss my pants.
He raised the knife; his eyes locked on mine and slammed it down. I made my eyes stay open and demanded my body not flinch but for a moment I wasn't sure if my hand was still there or if I had fainted, but when I glanced at the table I saw that the blade and gone right between two of my fingers and into the table. Didn't even shave skin off." He held up his hand and I nodded, "Anyway, the guy just laughed and let go of my hand, assuring me that I'd be too chicken to try and steal anything from 'Good Ole Zane' again.
I tried to be tough and defiant but he saw through me. I left that day with more respect for that guy than I'd ever had for anyone in my life. Even when my dad would beat me, I'd never been afraid. I wasn't afraid of anything, except of this mysterious Zane.
The next day I went back to the garage and tried to lift the muffler he'd put back by the door. I wasn't about to let anyone tell me what I could and couldn't do. Just like before, he came out of no where, hauled me into the same room, plunk the knife down between my fingers, and then tell me to leave. I did, and then came back the next day, and the next day. Finally, after the routine Zane told me that if I was going to keep wasting his time, I might as well waste it by sticking around to work. That started our friendship. I sort of took up residence there with him.
He had an apartment over the garage and then one day, he asked me if I wanted to come up for dinner or something like that. I wasn't worried that he was going to try anything because, let me tell you, girls would walk by his shop and there was just something about him that made them walk right in and throw themselves at him. Once some chick was getting her minivan fixed and had kids in the car and asked him if he wanted to run upstairs for a quickie. He loved it when they stroked his ego like that, but mostly he'd just fix up their car, take the payment. And either tell them to get lost or come back when Jr. and the kids weren't around. Then there were sometimes he'd grin and say that he wasn't available, but I was." Scott's lips curved into a smile and he let out a breath, "Anyways, I think he finally realized that I wasn't living anywhere and one day after we ate we ended up hanging out till real late and he let me sleep on his couch. Within a few days, I was officially living with him."
"He taught me about cars and bikes and anything else that was fixable. He taught me everything I'm passing onto you."
I smiled up at Scott, and nodded, "He sounds like a great guy."
"Yeah," I heard him add; my head cocked as I the story over in my head.
I furrowed my brow, "I mean, that's great and everything, but what does it have to do with the barcode or the life threatening?"
I was pretty sure Scott had hoped I had forgotten about that and would just be satisfied with what he had shared. I admit, it had almost worked, but I just stared at him patiently waiting. A pained look passed through Scott's eyes, "Zane had a barcode on the back of his neck. As we got closer I found out things about him, more so I noticed things about him. He could move faster than anything I'd ever seen. And he seemed to know things before they happened. Said he could hear things and all. One day I saw his barcode on accident and asked him about it."
"He just smiled and told me he was a government project. A super soldier boy that had escaped and that was his tracking device. I didn't believe him, but then a couple months later, some guy showed up in the shop and told him he had to leave because some guy named Lydecker was in town and was onto him. Zane immediately grabbed a duffel back out of a closet and started throwing stuff into it."
"Before the guy had come in, Zane mentioned that he'd heard something and then told me to hide. I trusted him and did as I'd been told and had been hiding in a back room listening and suddenly I had to sneeze. When I did the guy who'd come to visit was on me like white on rice. He had me raised in the air; my back pinned against a wall, holding me only by the throat. The next thing I knew I had been dropped in a heap and Zane and this guy were fighting at speeds I'd never though any human could possibly achieve."
"After a few seconds Zane threw the guy across the room and told me to get out of there. I shook my head and told him I was staying, but he insisted that I leave. I stood my ground and told him that I wasn't going to bail on my friend. Zane said he appreciated that, but I had to leave before it was too late. By that time the guy had gotten up and was headed for Zane again. Zane yelled at him and told him to stop, that he would take care of it."
"He took me into another room and told me to hide out for a while and then he'd be back in a few months. He told me to keep his shop running because he had to disappear for a while."
"I remember the day he left. I remember how I curled up on his bed and cried. For the first time since I was a toddler I cried. For months after that I ran the shop. Just another 14 year old kid, trying to make a living. Then one day Zane came back. He looked like shit. He probably hadn't showered or slept for days on end. I remember that he walked in with his bag over his shoulder, gave me a curt nod then collapsed onto the bed. When he woke up he told me that he'd been on one hell of a trip. I nodded, knowing I wasn't to ask about it. Told him I understood having secrets."
"He had his crazy smile on in a heart beat and put his hand on my cheek, pretending to slap the punk out of me. It was a joke we had since the beginning." Scott got a far away look in his eyes again, "I smiled and asked if he noticed that my hair was longer. While he'd been gone I'd purposely grown it out and put it in a ponytail like his. I'd also done something else. When I turned around and lifted my ponytail I heard Zane gasp. 'Why did you do that?' he demanded. I didn't understand why he was angry. I told him I'd done it because I admired him and I wanted to show him I'd never bail on him. He told me I shouldn't have, and that he thought it was nice of me, but that I should get it removed. I refused and told him that it was my sign of loyalty. Zane didn't like it, but he didn't ask me to remove it again."
"Zane told me that he was going to have to go again. He only came back because he had promised that he would, but it was too dangerous for him to stay. I wanted to know what was so bad that he would take off and leave everything, but he just shook his head and said that he couldn't tell me what was going on. He wasn't going to have me killed because of what he was. That was when I realized that his little jokes about the government weren't really jokes. He was dead serious. I told him I was going to come with him. He gave me that grin and said there was no way I could keep up with him. I told him he might be right, but I would try."
"It was one of the few times that I had ever seen Zane really get serious. He said that he wanted me to come, he really did. It got lonely out on the road and that those few months that we had been living and working together were the best months of his life. I made a million promises and he gave me a million warnings, but in the end we took off together. We headed up to South Carolina for a while and then over to Kentucky and Tennessee. Sometimes I was his little brother and other times a younger cousin. We'd work at a garage for a couple of weeks, and then Zane would wake me up at midnight and say it was time to go."
"I learned what he had meant. As soon as you got comfortable somewhere, it was time to take off again. There wasn't time to start your own place or even make a single friend. Zane seemed different too. He was more watchful and severe. But then we headed to Florida and spent almost a month there and then the old Zane was back. I figured whatever was following him had lost our trail but then one day I had gone out to the beach and came home and Zane was shoving everything into his bag again. I almost tried to beg him to stay, but I had promised that I would never question if he said it was time to leave. I could stay, but he wouldn't be back."
"We ended up in Alabama at this seedy hotel after getting a pretty decent job at a garage. Actually, it was a lot nicer than some of the places that we had been sleeping in the last months. I woke up and he was sitting in a chair just staring at me. I asked him what was up and he just gave me the oddest look. "I finally understand Zack," he said. I guess he could see that I had no clue what he was talking about. "See, Zack would never be able to say it," Zane explained. "But I get him now. I know what it means to love someone so much that you have to let them go. To take yourself from them because you know that is the only way they're going to be able to live. It kills him. I get that now. But he'll do it, not because it's his job, but because he loves us that much."
My heart was slamming in my chest. I knew what he meant. He was leaving and this time he wasn't going to let me come." Scott fell silent, his eyes hard. To no one I heard him mutter, "Screw the love crap. Didn't he see that I loved him too?" before he looked back at me and continued, "I didn't like being on the run but I wanted to be with him. So if that was the only way then so be it. Before I could protest, Zane just smiled and told me to go back to sleep. He would be there in the morning and there was time to think about it. But I knew. He was going to make sure I was safe and had a good set up and then he was going to be out of there and there was nothing I could do about it.
A couple days later…" Scott's voice trailed off.
"What?" I asked curiously.
Scott shook his head, "A couple days later…" he tried again but faltered once more.
I stood, taking his hand. He squeezed it back. "I had gone to get us lunch. But when I walked into the shop…" he took a breath, "There were these guys surrounding Zane, I yelled for them to back off. I charged toward them and crashed into them, causing some of them to lose their balance. Zane and I fought them off and then he yelled at me to go. I heard guns being cocked outside and defiantly shook my head, insisting that I was loyal and immovable.
Zane grabbed my shoulders and told me that if I didn't go we'd both be dead. He told me to get as far away from the garage as possible. I kept shaking my head defiantly, but then an older man approached the door to our garage. He was talking into a walkie-talkie and as soon as Zane saw him his face paled. He suddenly shoved me down and covered me with his body as bullets riddled the building."
"When the bullets stopped Zane looked around the garage and grabbed a bottle of water, handed it to me, and told me to go hide in one of the car trunks. At that point I wasn't going to argue and I made my way to one of the cars. As I slipped in the trunk more bullets came and I watched as Zane scrambled for cover. I pulled the trunk closed, clutching the water jug to my chest and trusting that in a couple days Zane would be back to open it before I ran out. There were small enough holes in the bottom of the trunk that I could see the concrete floor beneath me. For hours on end I heard all sorts of noises. I heard gunshots, screams, yells. The car I was in even shook a few times as people were either rammed or thrown into it. Finally the noises died down. I heard a couple of men talking, saying that X5 – 377 was no longer on the premises and they were to destroy the building before moving out."
"My heart pounded in my chest. I knew that I had very little time before the building was going to be gone. As the thought crossed my mind I smelt smoke. So, I tried to kick open the trunk. I pounded and kicked as hard as I could to get out but it wouldn't budge. The smoke was traveling up through the holes of the trunk, it was getting hotter and hotter. I kept kicking. Praying that some how the trunk would pop open. The trunk was filled with smoke and I was on the verge of passing out suddenly the trunk burst open. I vaguely remember seeing the actual trunk covering flying across the room as Zane grabbed me and hauled ass through a window to the back."
"He set me down, my lungs sputtering and gasping for clean air. I looked up at him from the ground, I tried to talk but he put a hand up. I remember exactly what he said." Scott took a deep breath, "He said, 'Scott, buddy. I gotta ditch these guys, I gotta disappear again. But this time it's for good.' He looked away. I could tell he was struggling. 'Look, Scott. I can't have you coming with me either. You gotta get out of here. Get as far away as possible."
"I didn't understand. I asked him who the men were; I asked him why he had to go, why I couldn't go with him. He handed me a wad of cash and said, 'This should be enough to get you across the country. Go as far and as fast as you can. Canada or Mexico would be the best, but either way, get as far from here as you can.' I tried to say something, but he just shook his head and then gave a soft smile, 'You've been a good friend, Scott. A real good friend. I'll never forget you.'"
"I watched as he nodded at me and walked away. Finally I found words and called out to him, 'Zane!' he turned and looked my way. I ran towards him, 'Thanks.'"
"He looked a bit confused, 'For what?'"
"I glanced down for a second then looked him in the eye, 'I'll never forget you. And if you ever do need a friend. I'm pretty sure you'll be able to find me. You've showed me what it is to be a real man. A real father.' I held out my hand to him, as if to shake and depart but Zane grasped me in a hug. I hugged him back, for the second time I cried openly. He pulled back and put his hands on the sides of my face, 'Go, Scott' he cried, 'Run and never come back.'
He let go of me and ran off into the night, leaving me, tear stains on my face, our garage burning behind me. Then I went and did what he told me." Scott looked at me; "I stowed away on a cargo plane to California and made it here, as far away from the garage as I could go."
I didn't know what to say. I mean, what do you say to something like that? I stood and then sat back down on the couch, "So, did you ever figure out who the men were? Why they were after him?"
"No." Scott admitted. "I don't know anything except for the fact that they were out to kill my best friend some unknown reason. My best friend who could hear and see things miles away, who could jump onto a roof from ten feet below. My friend with a barcode on the back of his neck."
I nodded, not knowing what to do. After a moment I tentatively grabbed his hand and pulled him down next to me, "Thank you for telling me."
He nodded and I hugged him. I half expected him to pull away after a second, but he grabbed onto me, grasping me with what felt like desperation.
"I'm not going anywhere, Scott." I whispered, pulling us into a laying position and allowing him to hold onto me.
I heard him exhale a ragged breath before he kissed me softly, "I know." he whispered, his eyes closing tight as his arms tightened around me again.
And I know he'd kill me for seeing and now for telling, but I think even a couple tears slipped from his eyes.