Teh heh heh. This thing isn't quite dead yet… Thanks to Totbrf, and Rachel. I needed a reminder to continue this, it had fallen to the back burner. Thank you for your motivation and encouragement!
And I likely have some continuity errors or something in this… I don't remember everything that's happened so far, so if anyone notices a mistake or something, please don't hesitate to point it out.
I disclaim again.
Riley
I wanted to loose myself in the passing landscape.
I remembered being driven across the American West eighteen years ago in my parents' minivan. Staring out the open window, we'd just taken off from the campground on the way to the Bighorn Mountains, the sun had just risen. Gleaming off the dew settled like treasure across the plains, foothills in the distance. I couldn't keep my eyes open, Dad had woken me up far too early. I didn't care about getting to the mountains, at least not at that moment. My sleeping bag would have been a fine place to spend the next week. But there, leaning against the car window, watching Montana crawl by lit up by the new sun, well, that was okay. And then I saw those bodies of galloping wilderness, black manes flying out behind them, sunlight setting their already golden fur aflame. Mustangs, and I laughed. Not in delight but in disbelief. I hadn't even known mustangs still existed in the wild, and this scene was just too classic to take it like it was.
But it had been beautiful.
If all the world could have seen it. If all the world could have been like that, beauty and wilderness and freedom all the time.
Right now, though, rumbling down Bear Creek Road, here I was again, stuck in the back of another vehicle, watching a different and less romantic landscape creep by, sans mustangs. I could have still lost myself in the light. Were it not for the past few days.
How nice would it have been to just never have gotten started with the damned headaches, not ended up in that clinic, not met the Blackwells or Jeremy, not been kidnapped… how the hell had the Chinese Man found us in the first place, anyways? Why couldn't we have just gotten the mission over with and been done with it?
It wasn't exactly the type of mission to just get over with, like that. It was a little too big. But what kind of higher being would let this kind of thing happen? Sure, while I was in the mood to wallow in self-pity, why had it all happened to me? Cluster headaches, concussions, collapsing burning buildings, kidnapped, tortured, starved, brainwashed… woe is me. I hated myself for not getting up. Couldn't I just stand on my own two feet? It'd been tough, sure, but I had to get up. I couldn't just lay here in the backseat and expect people to take care of me.
And what the hell was going on with the Chinese Man and Ben? What was I doing? What was wrong with me? I didn't know. I missed Ben. I wanted to tell him that I was relieved to see him alive and once again being with him gave me a strange and inappropriate inkling of a sensation of hope. But I couldn't say it. I couldn't even say it to myself. Because I'd tell myself, Ben doesn't care.
Idiot. Obviously Ben cared. He cared like a mother, he wanted to hover over me and make sure I was alright and put his own mind at ease because he couldn't stand the thought of me being miserable. Why was I pushing him away?
Why was my life like a soap opera now?
And why was I letting the Chinese Man in on things while I put up a barrier in front of Ben?
Why did I even care… I wished this was a dream. Maybe I'd wake up soon. I could only hope. I didn't want to think about anything anymore. Anything. If that stupid pain in my side and my feet and my elbow would just let me sleep, or the misery let me alone. Where did that feeling even come from? Sure, it sucked, everything sucked. But we were either going to die or we'd pull through and that would be that. But this stupid sense of anger and misery and self-loathing and loneliness wouldn't go away, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I couldn't dismiss it.
Kind of like if a polar bear was sitting on you. A small one, so it didn't quite kill you. You'd have no idea where it came from but you sure as heck wouldn't be able to get rid of it.
Grateful that I didn't actually have a polar bear on my head, I snorted.
Chinese Man
My eyes darted to the rearview mirror for a moment, wondering what Riley was snorting at. I couldn't see his face in the mirror, but Ben glanced backwards, questioning.
"What?" asked Riley.
"What were you laughing at?"
"There is," said Riley, with a scholarly air, "no polar bear on my head. And, Ben, for that, I am grateful." I felt a stab of worry in my chest – was there something wrong with him? Had we accidently broken him? Had he lost it? But Ben was smiling now. He gave a little chuckle.
"I don't want to know, Riley." And when Ben turned around he was still smiling and I had to assume that this was some personal thing passing between them.
I had felt bad about taking Ben's place for a moment back there. I hadn't meant to, it had just happened. I'd noticed the way Ben had watched us as we sat there under the pinion pine, he probably thought we were going to run off and open an organic veggie stand, the way we were acting. Totally inappropriate, given the past few days. But it wasn't what happened during those days that stuck with us. It lingered but stronger than that was this issue of the future of the human race, a rather important topic to consider. And at the moment we were bonded by that possibility, by the future we could bring together.
Riley certainly wasn't going to make any decisions for me, though. He didn't know what was going on. It was up to me. What were we going to do? We couldn't just stall forever. We'd stalled enough as it was. I needed to make some decision.
So the options were to either bring Riley back to Cleveland and continue the way I'd originally been doing things… which wouldn't work. All that I'd done since we escaped wouldn't let me do that now. I'd saved Riley, taken care of him, had discussions with him about the future. Going back to brainwashing him seemed… crude. I'd feel like a dirty sock tossed in the gutter. If I decided to go ahead and try to recruit his help I'd have to do it a different way. I'd have to first convince myself that it was the right thing to do, then I'd have to find a way to convince him to allow the operation to follow through. And we may be able to find a different hacker to help us if Riley didn't comply, but it would take a while.
If we didn't do that, we could sit here and wait for Tomas and the others to initiate the emergency plan, and expect something terrible to happen to the entire human race, ourselves included, in the next few days. Or, we could go try and foil their plan. My plan? No, not exactly. I'd helped come up with it but I wasn't the keystone behind everything. I had no idea who was behind everything. But if we decided to take action against this operation, we'd need Riley, and if Riley complied, we'd be able to discontinue everything safely, if Riley indeed possessed those kinds of 'crazy skills', as I suppose they called them.
Man, Bear Creek Road was a lot longer than I'd remembered it being. I pulled the car up to the intersection with the interstate. And paused.
A lot of this banked on Riley complying. How was he doing in his current position? Was he malleable now, would he bend to what I wanted, or was he hardened now to the point of indestructible will? Or would he break if I put pressure on him?
I needed to make the decision first. Make a decision. Take a stance. I can't be on both sides of the fences, now.
Had to stop this.
Okay. That is what I felt. The most, anyways. Killing everyone like this didn't seem right. And it would happen if nothing was done. Now or within the next few years, it didn't matter, it would happen if I didn't do something. I'd regret the loss of what could have been, but I'd regret even more the means it took to get there.
So we had to do something.
I turned west.
Oh, I wavered on the fence still. But I'd pretend for my own sake, push the other side away, try to fall to the side. Gravity wasn't quite working.
"We're going back to Cleveland."
Ben
"Why?"
"To foil my plan."
"Oh." I didn't know what question to ask first.
"How are we foiling what plan?"
"We are going to attempt to foil the plan I helped set into motion to wipe out the human race. Both of them."
"Both of them?"
"Yes, the long-term one and the one for emergencies, which we can only hope hasn't been started yet."
"And… how?"
"Riley." I sighed. Not Riley again. I glanced into the backseat. Riley was sitting up and listening.
"Riley, you're going to need to do some serious hacking. We need to somehow get back to Cleveland without being noticed and you'll need to do your best to destroy a bunch of online files."
"Um."
"In a very particular order, too, it's going to be a bit like juggling eggs."
"Ah. And-"
"What is the plan?" I asked.
"Which one?"
"For us, how can we do that?"
"Say guys, you-"
"It'll have to be carefully done, this is a very guarded organization."
"Hey!" Riley was trying to hand me something from the backseat. I took it and almost dropped it. The cell phone was vibrating.
"Oh," I said. I almost opened it, but the Chinese Man's hand whipped from the wheel and snatched it from my hands, muttering something about why Riley had his cell phone in the first place. He didn't open it, just stared at the screen.
"It's Crandon!" he exclaimed.
"Who?" I asked.
"Oh, that guy you conked," said Riley.
"Yeah, that one. What… he woke up already." The Chinese Man still didn't open the phone, just held it. Eventually it stopped ringing, but a moment later a little red light started blinking off the top of the shiny black phone.
"Left a message, look," I said, pointing. He finally flipped the phone open and pressed a few buttons, held the phone out. He'd put it on speaker. I hadn't even known you could do that with cell phones. There was a beep, then Crandon's voice.
"Um…. Hi… " He sounded as if he'd just woken up, kind of groggy and speech slurred. "So I just… woke up a few minutes ago next to some dead cops… heard some sirens coming, went over a hill, I'm hiding out here… somewhere… I don't remember what happened, I think me and you were going to get the car? The car is gone but I guess someone knocked me out because I've got blood on my head and a bruise. Wondered if you were still alive, I guess…" His voice drifted off for a moment. He coughed. "So anyways… yeah, if you get this, call me back, I'm really confused… I don't really remember where we are and I can't see Briggs. Um… bye."
The Chinese Man flipped shut his phone and shoved it in his pocket. He sighed. I couldn't help but be curious.
"Who's Crandon?"
"Someone who worked for me. I had to knock him out to steal this car. I feel kind of bad for him. I hope I didn't damage him too bad."
"Such compassion," I said, before I had a chance to stop myself. Stinging remarks had no place in a situation like this. It had begun to seem like things may loosen up a bit between the Chinese Man and I, why had I said that? But he didn't seem to have heard. He stared absently, or apparently absently, on the road ahead of him.
"How long's it gonna take to get back to Cleveland?" I asked.
"I don't know, maybe an hour."
"What do we do when we get there?"
"We're going to park about a mile from the library, stop somewhere and get some proper clothes and food, then we'll keep an eye on things while Riley sneaks into the library, accesses the basement files, picks up SQ7R, locks himself into the-"
"Wait a sec, isn't that Ben's job? I'm supposed to be the one keeping watch while Ben sneaks around and steals things." Riley almost sounded like his old whiney self.
"I'm not sure how we're going to handle this without being caught yet," the Chinese Man said, "but I'd be too recognizable to go waltzing into that building. We've got people in there and I don't know if they know what's going on yet. Ben, you might be too recognizable too." Riley sputtered.
"What, and I'm not? You think I can handle doing all that and not get caught? I have no idea how to-"
"Just the bones, Riley, just the bones. We'll work out a real plan, don't worry."
"Don't worry. Ha. I'll stop worrying if you'll stop breathing." I watched Riley cross his arms grumpily, then wince in pain and cradle his elbow. Again, the instinct to find out what was wrong with it bubbled up inside of me but I said nothing. I couldn't help but wonder if Blackwell would be able to do anything about it. Blackwell would have probably been able to do something about his elbow, his feet, his head, and any other weird injuries he was hiding. And if Blackwell wasn't able to make Riley reveal his secrets, Century would have been able to, either using her practical charm or simply because Riley wouldn't want to offend a nice old lady.
"So when we get to the library we'll scope things out. Riley, I'll give you a key and directions to the basement. There shouldn't be anyone down there right now, I hope, so when-"
"You hope? What if you're wrong? What if there's someone down there waiting to shank the first person that comes waltzing down the stairs?" The Chinese Man paused after hearing Riley's questions.
"Ok, you're right, that's too big of a risk."
"Why do we need those SQ whatever files anyways?" asked Riley.
"They have the stuff you're going to need to be able to hack into our network and… and do whatever we need to do."
"Why can't you just get in yourself, it's your network."
"No-one but the biggest wigs can get into the network."
"You're not the biggest wig?"
"No, definitely not. There are bigger people behind this."
"And you don't know what to do once I potentially hack into the network?"
"I don't know what's in there. I mean I can probably figure it out once I see it all but I have no idea what we'll run into." Silence descended on our party like a big blanket made out of clichés and overused metaphors. It occurred to me how dangerous this operation was going to be. It seemed to be the only way to go about things at the moment but it had so many risks, so many 'ifs'. So many doubts. And yet, it was the only thing we could do at the moment, apparently. At least we were trying to get at the root of the problem, not skirt around it, troubleshooting. Here we went. Kind of like ramming one's spaceship into a comet approaching Earth, hoping it will knock the giant rock off-course enough to have it avoid impact. No matter that we'd all die in the process.
Did I really think we were all going to die? No… I still had a sliver of hope.
I felt a pang of loneliness. I wanted to talk to my parents, I wanted to talk to Abi. I wanted to see their faces and explain things to them, what was going on. At the same time I wanted to avoid them at all costs, let them remain in the dark.
Man, I couldn't think about them. Too distracting. They'd linger in my head and I wouldn't be able to think about anything but them, now at a moment I'd have to focus on not getting caught.
Hey, I wouldn't have too much to worry about. I had a disguise. I stared down at the tie-dye hat in my hands. It had worked once. Maybe it would work again.
Chinese Man
The drive down Bear Creek Road seemed longer than the drive west back to Cleveland. It was driven in silence. Riley fell asleep in the back, or appeared to be sleeping. Ben stared out the window. Mostly I tried to think about what we were going to do, or perhaps come up with an alternate plan, as our current one wasn't so much of a plan as a shot in the dark.
My mind was exhausted. It wanted to think about too many things at once, and I just wanted to not think at all.
I wondered about Ben for a while. I felt like I almost knew Riley pretty well, I knew we had some sort of weird bond between us. But I didn't know Ben at all. I knew he cared about Riley and he was smart, but that was it. He was a huge mystery to me. I could trust him as long as I continued to lean the way he wanted me to. I knew he didn't trust me in the least, though. I wished that wasn't the case but I supposed it was the nature of the beast.
I whiled away the remaining forty-five minutes of the drive worrying about what all could possibly go wrong when we arrived at the library to pick up the files. If all else failed we could fight our way in, knock anyone out that got in our way, and then… what, expect security to just leave us be then? We'd have to find some computer that was compatible with our uses. The one in the library basement and the one underneath the Cleveland Co-Op were the only two I knew of.
First things first, though.
We passed the sign that announced Cleveland (pop. 700) coming up quickly. I pulled into the first gas station I saw, keeping an eye out for any familiar looking cars in the parking lot or anywhere else. Gas station food was not, I knew, ideal for starving people, but it would have to do. I didn't want to waste time going to a restaurant, and the car needed some gas.
Ten bucks and three gallons of gas later I shoved a twenty at Ben.
"Ben, here. Pay for the gas and get some food for you and Riley. I think you'll be less suspicious. Make it quick." Ben exited the car and, looking around suspiciously, walked into the gas station, with one backward glance at us. He was still holding his hat in one hand.
"Where are we?" asked Riley from the backseat. I turned around and glanced at him. He was sitting up.
"Cleveland. Ben's in there getting gas and some foot."
"Hmmm. I love gas and food."
"How are you feeling?"
"How do you think I'm feeling? I feel like a house fell on me. I'm hungry. Where's Ben?"
"In the gas station, I just told you that. Are you ok?"
"No, you plank, I feel like a house fell on me, are you ok?" Riley apparently wasn't a morning person.
"My wallet is drying up, I hope I have enough to get you some shoes at least."
"Can't we just go back to that place where you brainwashed me and get me back my Converse? And my jacket?"
"We're not going back there, it's too risky."
"Man, I saw you take out that Briggs guy, can't you just give that other guy that lived in the basement with me a little Chinese what-for?"
"Kill Tomas?" I laughed. As much as the idea didn't repulse me as much as it probably should have, it still dwelt in the realm of 'impossible'.
"I wouldn't stand a chance against Tomas." Riley fell silent in the back seat. I hoped we wouldn't end up back under the Co-Op, but the possibility wasn't absent. If the library didn't work out, that was our last option.
Ben came out of the gas station carrying a small bag in one hand, hat in the other. He got back into the car and I started it up. He took out a cling-wrapped sandwich from the bag and handed it back to Riley, who groaned.
"Don't worry," said Ben, "These don't have tomatoes on them, I checked."
"Oh good."
We drove another block down the road and came to an obscure little clothing shop that I hoped had shoes in it. I hated to park the car right on the street but there were no public lots around here. We'd have to make it quick.
"Why do we even need to do this?" whined Riley. "I don't need shoes. I'm not going to be crossing beds of hot coals, am I? If we're going to accidently get caught while attempting to hack into their network let's just get it over with."
"Yeah," said Ben, "I'm sure you'll thank us in a week when you don't have gangrene on your feet because those cuts didn't get infected."
"I don't need shoes! Come on, seriously. I can't go in there looking like this anyways and you guys sure as hell aren't going to leave me out here by myself."
I put the vehicle in park anyways, glancing behind me to make sure we weren't being followed.
Tomas's car was driving up the road towards us.
"Get out, get out, get out," I muttered to Ben and Riley, ushering them through the doors faster than they were going. Neither of them resisted or spoke, of which I was thankful – they must have caught the urgency on my face. I felt a moment of fleeting, hopeful self-doubt – Tomas couldn't have the only black Saab station wagon in Cleveland. But, upon second thought, yes, he probably did. Ben was yanking Riley out of the backseat and together we all entered the clothing store. I pushed them behind a rack of on-sale maternity shirts and ducked behind a shelf of colorful striped blouses. Had he seen us?
The black car slowed to a stop next to the car I'd parked. Tomas was behind the wheel and Crandon sat in the passenger seat, talking excitedly to Tomas and gesturing to the car. They were definitely about to park and get out.
"Go, go, back of the store," I whispered. We were starting to get funny looks from the two customers that inhabited the store but thankfully I couldn't see any sales clerks around. There was a door in the back that I prayed was unlocked – it was our only hope for evading Tomas and Crandon. I got to the door first, glancing behind me – they apparently hadn't found a parking spot yet – and grabbed the handle, turned it. It opened, to my (relative) delight, and I entered. Apparently a storage room, it was packed with shelves of boxes and piles of folded clothing, and had no apparent light switch.
Ben, dragging Riley, came through the doorway and just before I carefully shut the door I saw what must have been Crandon coming up the sidewalk from the right. Click.
"Isn't there a light switch?" asked Ben.
"Shhh, I didn't see one. Come this way," I said, and grabbed Ben by the shirtsleeve. If I remembered right it was a clear shot to the back of the room, then maybe we'd get lucky and find the secret magical passageway that led directly to the library basement.
It was hopeless.
Nonetheless I continued to lead Ben through the blackness and only bumped into the shelves once, surprising since I wasn't walking slowly, exactly. What if Crandon and Tomas were asking the customers if they'd seen us? If they opened the door to this room right now we'd be doomed. I had no backup stories at the moment.
I'd reached the back wall. I turned right and continued walking, and then joyously realized that I'd shoved my cell phone into my pocket. I took it out and opened it, aiming it into the darkness. It didn't illuminate much but at least I'd be able to see if I was about to run directly into something.
"Why," whispered Riley from behind me somewhere, "isn't there a light switch?"
"Shhh." Even if we'd found one it was in our best interests to keep it off.
My hand hit a doorknob.
I opened it, relieved it wasn't locked. Holding my cell phone out in front of me, I could see nothing of what was inside, except that there wasn't immediate danger of us falling down a flight of stairs. I ushered Ben and Riley into the room, then backed in myself. I slowly began pulling the door shut, but paused, thinking I'd heard a click on the other end of the room. Voices behind the door separating the storage room with the store. Just customers. I shut the door.
The one on the other end of the room opened. I shut my phone as quietly as I could, and whispered,
"Not a sound," in one of those voices so quiet it sounds like a breeze weaving through some terribly unmowed grass. I hoped they'd heard me. None of us moved.
I heard some very faint footsteps, hesitant, slow.
Briefly I was reminded of my childhood, hide-and-seek, how that nervous excitement had been there when you were hiding. How terrible it was to know that in this case if we were found we'd likely be killed.
Hmm… uncooked ending, if I do say so myself… another transition chapter. I have an idea of where I'm going but I didn't quite know how to get there. And I haven't gotten there yet. I'm hoping to type up one more chapter pretty quick-like, in the next two days, before I disappear until June. Until then I'll have a while to do some brainstorming and maybe think up an ending while trying not to get eaten by bears or contracting a fatal case of hypothermia. If I don't get that next chapter in , I hope you punks have a pleasant spring! Bork bork bork!