Disclaimer: The TV show Dark Angel, all of the characters that appeared on it (Max, Zack, Jondy, etc.), and everything else that has to do with the show belong to their respective owners, not to me. No money is being made off of this fic. I only own the original characters (Elle/X5-164, etc.).
Chapter 28: Jeff (X6-941)
I had to admit, I was definitely feeling a sense of relief as we reached our barracks at the end of the day. The last few weeks have been so chaotic for me and I was really looking forward to it settling down a bit and getting back into some kind of a routine. Between going on the original mission to Poland, getting ambushed and my unit almost completely slaughtered right out from underneath me, then getting rescued several days later by Becky and everybody, finding out that I'd been transferred to her unit, and then going back to Seattle for a day to get my things before coming back here to Wyoming for good…I need a breather.
My unit is really something interesting. Definitely in a good way, though. It's interesting to be part of something so close. Brothers and sisters…I'd never really thought of that before, at least not consciously. And names! I actually have a name now. I chose the name Jeff. I like it. 111 decided to call himself Christian. Names, brothers and sisters, an extended family even with that X5 unit…it's overwhelming.
But as wonderful as my new family is, I can't forget my old one. Yesterday, my last night in my old cell back in Seattle, I had a horrible nightmare of what had happened back in Poland. I kept seeing everybody go down one after the other, even Wes, Christian, Layla, and Ralph. The laughter of those enemy transgenics as they dragged me away and the disembodied voices of my fallen unit mates as they begged for help…I consider waking up in a cold sweat a notch better than waking up in a cold sweat and screaming bloody murder. What felt the worst was how I couldn't shake it off how real it had all felt immediately afterwards, even though I knew that wasn't how things had played out. Ralph and Layla hadn't even been in the building with us, I had managed to tell Wes to get out to get Ralph, which he successfully did, and I'd been knocked out cold after Wes had gotten away and 646 had gone down. Yeah, I was kind of relieved to leave Seattle early this morning.
I showered and changed into some sleep wear and climbed into my bunk and waited patiently for lights out, but when they did I couldn't fall asleep. It wasn't that I wasn't used to sleeping in a room with a bunch of other people. I'd slept in these very barracks for those two or so days after we'd gotten back to the States instead of in the guest barracks with Alec, Biggs, Sasha, and the rest of Unit 3 and P2-400 and it's not as if I'd forgotten what it was like before they'd moved me into my own cell five years ago when I was ten. I don't know, maybe it's just moving in nerves. Don't look at me.
I lay quietly for about twenty minutes or so before I finally gave up and got back out of my bunk. I looked over and saw that everybody was asleep, even Wes and Karen. I silently got dressed and slipped out of the barracks and walked around until I found an empty classroom. I sat down in a desk and sighed and looked out of one of the windows. Man, do I need to calm down and get it together. There's no way that I'll be able to be this nervous for too long before I burn out and take a day trip to that wonderful place known as Psy Ops.
"Hey. You couldn't sleep?"
I turned my head at the soft voice that had spoken. It was Becky. She does look like an angel, even with her hair a little bit messy from lying in her bunk. I managed a smile. "I guess Karen and Kevin weren't kidding after all. You must really have radar or something."
Becky returned my smile. "No, I was cheating a little bit. Wes was only faking sleep. I mean, he was trying, but he wasn't actually sleeping. I woke up when you closed the barracks door and when I asked what was going on, Wes told me that you'd left. I thought I would follow you and make sure that you're okay."
"Thanks," I said. "That's cool of you."
"Are you okay?" Becky asked.
"I don't know," I said. "I couldn't get to sleep. I don't know if it's because of moving in kind of nerves or the nightmare that I had last night in Seattle or what."
"You had a nightmare?" Becky asked. "I'm sorry, Jeff."
"It scared the hell out of me," I said. "I don't get it. I survived those three months of Psy Ops back in '09. You'd think that would have toughened me up to the point where I could take anything and everything. Then again, I had nightmares for almost a month afterwards then."
"Hey, the fact that not only have you kept your rank but most importantly have stayed sane since X5 Unit 7 tried to cut loose from here says a lot about how tough you are," Becky said. "I remember when they had finally stopped on me way back when and they brought all of us X6 commanding officers as well as the other X5 C.O.s minus 333 into the infirmary to make sure that we were okay physically. The other X6 commanding officers at the time 193, 595, 487, 614, 097, 550, and 838 were all just completely freaked out. I mean, I won't lie. I was happy beyond happy that the ordeal was over and that the torture was done and yeah, I also had nightmares for a good while afterwards just like you did. But the other guys were so traumatized that I was surprised that some of them were able to function at all, much less get through a day of training at Manticore. I remember that 614 from Unit 5 and 550 from Unit 7 were having such a hard time dealing with it that they got sent back to Psy Ops within weeks after being released from their 'precautionary' stay."
I nodded. I could easily recall the time when I had been released from Psy Ops all those years ago. "It was worse for the X6s back in Seattle. 224 and I had held ourselves together for the most part like you did, but four of the other X6 C.O.s were as bad as you said the rest of the guys here were and 102, the commanding officer of Unit 1 at the time had to spend an additional six weeks because he was being so combative in there and I never even saw the commanding officer of Unit 6 again ever. I heard later that she'd been so traumatized by the deal that she just…" I snapped my fingers to emphasize my point. "…mentally withdrew completely and they weren't able to bring her back to herself so they ended up having her killed and her organs harvested."
Becky shuddered, partly from sympathy and part from disgust. I could read her eyes pretty well. "Jesus. I thought that they were monsters here."
"Don't feel too bad. I bet that they are," I remarked.
"The night after Wes, Ralph, and Layla had arrived here, I had a doozy of a nightmare," Becky said. "It had still only been a week at that point since Kyle had been killed on the mission that he'd gone on and I was still reeling from that. I was out in the woods somewhere, Kyle was right next to me, and I guess we were moving in towards our target when all of a sudden these two…I don't know, I guess they could have been considered monsters. They appeared to be human in shape though they were at least seven feet tall and absolutely huge. Anyway, two of them grabbed me and held me back and another two grabbed Kyle and the…the ones that had gotten me held me back and forced me to watch as the other two…well, let's just say that they did to Kyle was very much like what I later discovered those sadistic bastard enemy scientists and doctors had done to your brother 520. Then they laughed and I saw one of them take out this machete and raise it up like he was going to stab me right in my heart with it and I woke up right before the blade would have gotten me."
My eyes widened. "Holy shit."
"Yeah, that pretty much summed up how I was feeling when I woke up from that," Becky agreed. She shivered and I walked over to her and tentatively put a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me and got up and hugged me. I could feel how tense she was and I'm pretty sure she could tell the same about me. Were we a mess or what?
"I'm sorry," I said.
"I feel bad for you," Becky said. She managed a smile. "But thank you for the support, Jeff. It really does mean a lot to me."
"Anytime," I said. "You are—we're in this together now." I couldn't bring myself to say the word 'sister.' It didn't feel quite right.
"We sure are," Becky said. We gave each other another small smile before we left the classroom and walked back to our barracks. We'd just gotten to our door before we heard the sound of muffled screaming and gasping and we immediately rushed inside and over to where Ralph had just woken up from a nightmare of her own. Becky pulled Ralph into a hug. "Hey, sis. It's okay. We're here."
"It…Jeff, Becky, it was so horrible," Ralph sobbed.
"Don't worry," I assured her. Becky let go of Ralph and I pulled her into a hug of my own. "It's going to be okay."
"They—they just slaughtered us," Ralph cried.
"Not all of us," I said. "Don't worry about it, Ralph. They can't do that anymore. I won't let anybody hurt you or any of us anymore if I can help it. I promise." I definitely promise, little sister.
TBC