Chapter 3: Defiance
~ Fade in to a dusty highway coasting out of the state of Wyoming. A shiny and sleek car continues to speed along at a fast pace towards the horizon. On the radio, a loud song can be heard which adds more tension to the whole situation.~
"And I still...Haven't found...What I'm looking for..
I still...Haven't found...What I'm looking for.." U2 loudly blares on the radio.
In the driver's seat sits a young woman with bleach-blonde hair. Her appearance is that of someone who looks to have not slept in days. She swerves down the road, nervously biting her nails to the beat of the song.
"Stevie, is it possible I left something out?" Lorna Longley mutters to herself.
"Where or where could you be Stevie? ...What's wrong with me? Why do I feel this way, so driven to find you...My Stevie...Where are you...Where have you gone!?" Lorna remarks with concern.
Lorna is unable to think straight to properly reflect on the events she had escaped. Trent was dead, all her friends had driven off a cliff and Steve looked aloof. Lost even...Like he wasn't sure of himself. Somehow, Lorna had gotten out of Cradle Bay and while her eyes no longer glowed red with conviction...she had suffered a post-traumatic relapse into an earlier state of her self-image.
She was no longer certain of who she was, and why she had to find Steve.
"Where am I?" Lorna stated with forlorn abandon.
Images of prior events began to splinter across her mind like a thousand shards of glass. It was almost surreal. Then, without warning she recalled the event from the car crash more than ten years ago. She had been on the road in Cradle Bay that night.
((Flashback)) "Hey Chugg, you going to come to the prom next month? I heard Samantha's been really wanting to see you..." Lorna remarked.
"I'm not too worried about it. Sure, yeah I'll go. When has ol' Chugg never gone for a photo op." Chugg replied.
"Did you order chocolate or mocoa yogurt? I got it right here for ya babe." Chugg insisted.
"Yah, I mean it's just things have been kind of hard since moving here...My mom isn't talking to me much anymore after losing her designer job. I'll take a mocoa Chugg, what ya take me for?" Lorna vented.
"But anyway...Stuff's been changing." Lorna vented. "It'll get better Lorna...I promise ya." Chugg said with a shrug.
"Yah I mean, I suppose...What the hell!? Why's that light going off near the Yogurt Shoppe!?" Lorna shrieked in shock. "EDWARD!" Lorna shouted in alarm.
Just then, a large car carrying four teenagers pulled out of the Cradle Bay yogurt shoppe. The driver was drunk and on the passenger side was Edward Murrow. Ed had been Lorna's best friend since moving to the bay, they had always spent a lot of time together. Sometimes it bothered Chugg who was Lorna's boyfriend. But today was different. Lorna looked on in horror as the car the four were in burst into a ball of flames, right as it collided with an oldsmobile. The elderly woman inside also burst into flames creating one of the most ugly drunk-driving accidents in all of Cradle Bay's short history. Several teams came to put out the fires, but nobody survived that night. Lorna was shaken to the point of being in abject terror.
She looked over at Chugg with eyes that could only scream a desparate plea for help, and at the time he provided that. The car accident was an absolute disaster. Each of the bodies were disfigured beyond belief and Edward's funeral was shortly thereafter. The police in the town insisted they bring in someone smart who could get the drunk-driving under control, and ensure no further explosive incidents happened by instilling a curfew. What they didn't expect is that it would bring in Dr. Caldicott, a scientist with an impressive resume dating back to his time served at the University of New York. Shortly after Lorna saw everyone change, as the youth were brought into his program one by one. This morning was when Lorna and Chugg met at the Yogurt Shoppe, in memory of their four friends. It would be their final normal rendesvous.
"I know that you really liked him...Edward I mean." Chugg announced.
"He was my best friend..He was even teaching me German. I could never have passed the mid-term without his help! He showed me how to vivisect a frog. I can't believe he's gone.." Lorna stated with regret.
"We all liked him, Lorna..." Chugg sighed. "But sometimes...We have to move on and be bigger. My coach says it's called "Be the Ball." You know, I mean we all got to learn what we want." Chugg declared. "And then we got to go out and take it..I'm sorry for your loss." he paused.
"I'm sorry too..." Lorna said with a resigned look.
"I've been enrolled into Caldicott's program for enlightenment. Tomorrow, I'll be brand new. Just remember Lorna, everything we do..We do because of somebody." Chugg insisted.
"What happened to those guys who were killed that day, was due to somebody else. We can stop it once and for all now. All we got to do is follow what Caldicott tells us." Chugg shrugged.
"I don't get all this Chugg and I don't like fretting over Eddie like this...I just don't know.." Lorna sighed.
"You will in less than six hours, Lorna...You'll know then. We'll all be better for it." Chugg said.
~Revert to Present Day~
"We all got to learn what we want.." Chugg's words echoed in her mind.
"What did he mean by that...? What was he telling me?" Lorna wondered aloud.
The truth is always something more uncomfortable than the lie. The true nature of the situation being that Caldicott had brainwashed Chugg, and all of them to forget what emotion was so things like Edward simply no longer matter. His smiles were superficial parsings in the wind, his dreams were spent snowflakes and the idea that Lorna would travel to Europe to meet his aunt was just a fleeting make-believe dream. These things were unimportant in the larger scheme of Blue Ribbon based society.
Facing into that terrifying reality was too much for Lorna to bear, however. So she told herself lies, that it was just Chugg's way of creating a special surprise for her when he came back. And the more lies she told herself the better she felt about how the group had abandoned the truth, ending in Chugg's death.
"Oh, Edward...I remember what you told me. That if I could just be strong I'd find my place. I already know my place...It's with stevie. Oh stevie..." Lorna surmised.
"My stevie, my favorite favorite stevie where are you? I need you!" Lorna exclaimed at a picture of Steve Clark she petted on her dashboard. "I need you now..more than ever. Bad...Wrong...Am I wrong to feel this...I'm bad...I'm ashamed...I need you, steve." Lorna muttered into the wind. "And when I find you...Don't ever leave!" she shouted.
~ Revert to City of Chicago. Downtown, business district. The air is cold and damp and the hour is five a.m. eastern standard. Rachel Wagner paces back and forth. ~
"I can't believe this...Steve never showed up. What has he done, has he left me!?" Rachel wondered.
It was already early morning. By all accounts, Steve should have been there at least nine hours ago meeting her here at the Fair. The Fair Grounds were cold and damp and the gates were locked tight, with the front entrance closed. She had spent time on the Ferris Wheel earlier, just collecting each of her thoughts. Laura had dropped her off. They had a terrific conversation which left her wondering about Steve's behavior.
((Nine hours earlier.)) "I don't know Laura, I mean Jen just says she'll pick us all up in her car. If we go to the game I don't think we need your folks' car." Rachel remarked.
"Besides, it's been like four years since we had a Cubs game here...I can make sure my friends are taken care of. Sheesh." Rachel continued.
"Yea but Rach, I'm just sayin'. Chicago is a busy place and I was just pointing out I got a back-up plan for us if Jen doesn't pull it off. I'm sure she's coming." Laura insisted.
"It's just her friend I'm worried about, it's not like every week you have a fashion expo for versace." Laura piped up.
"Don't worry about it, I was all thinking the same. No matter what, I mean the stadium's not that far. We'll just ask ronni and take off a few hours early." Rachel stated with conviction.
"Besides, how else are we gonna get treated to apple fritters and cotton candy?" Rachel mused to her friend. "Front row tickets to the world series? I'm up for that...Lets make it a girl's night out!" Rachel teased.
"Haha yea, I mean it's our oyster!" Laura laughed. "Hey Rachel, isn't this the place where Steve was set to meet you?" Laura declared.
"Well...yeah it is. I don't get it either." Rachel replied.
The fair-grounds was empty besides nine or ten tourists. Steve was nowhere to be found and it was already half past eleven. The pair decided to stay there at the Ferris wheel for a few hours, taking turns as they rode it like a horse. Mostly they talked about shopping for clothes, but a few stories from Rachel's childhood broke up the scripted conversations. But when Laura left and went home, Rachel stayed behind.
All night she had waited, asking why didn't Steve call her? "Look at how late it is...He should have called by now! This is totally not like Steve. I wonder if he's in trouble?" Rachel repeated to herself. For now all she could do is ponder it in silence.
~ Fade to downtown Chicago, the South Heights by the freeway. Lindsay, Caleb and UV are standing in the arcade talking among themselves about the day to day. They've been there since seven o'clock the day before. ~
"And then, well like, he totally ran his skateboard off the rail in this half-pipe twist!" Lindsay said in a mocking manner.
"Haha, that is gnarly, gnarly as I've ever heard girl." Caleb said with a hazy grin. Caleb was a bright guy, a skater who was Lindsay's age from the neighboring Chinatown District. He wore a bright neon shirt, glow-puff glasses and a non-descript hoodie. His demeanor was that of someone who heavily attended Greenday concerts, and played a lot of Mortal Kombat for someone of a mixed spanish heritage. Right now Caleb's attention was on the arcade machine nearby.
"Oh...Damn that was such a cheap shot! Caleb, man oh man...Where'd you pick up the moves my liberace?" UV said with a shocked look. He could only stare in open defeat.
"Ha ha...Bro you need to polish up on your Mortal Kombat! I won, fair & square!" Caleb boasts. He collects another sixty-five big ones in his hand on the down-low.
Caleb has been rocking UV ever since the three started hanging out at the arcade. While Lindsay has been discussing the finer things from eleventh grade gymnastics, Caleb has been beating the dead horse about such things as the BMX finals. The big deal to all the skater afciandos of the area. There was always a competition being held.
BMX and things such as the Skatewalk championship, were the talk of the town to these guys. Everyone in the area including the hipsters and punks, were quite obssessed with both the lingo and the fashion. Caleb in particular had won a trophy.
"Niiiiice...I may not be Tony Hawk, but what can I say Linds...I got the moves!" Caleb excitedly exclaimed as he pulled off a three-sixty in ten seconds on the game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. UV was literally turning white in embarrassment.
"And anyway. so yeah...I totally think Gordan Barschier is going to win the City Skatewalk this year Caleb. The guy was like, four for five at the finals!" Lindsay blasted in the crowd.
"And he literally drew the whole crowd in that lolly...I mean did you see it, did you see the re-runs on MTV recently!? Better than "The Real World." " Lindsay exclaims.
"It's like, they know this stuff off the back of their hand..." she insisted.
"Well they do, but that sort don't embarrass me. If they want to challenge the king, they need to get in line." Caleb grimaced.
"To be honest I don't know if any of 'em could challenge you...After that move you pulled? Whooosh! Way over my head" Lindsay replied with veracity.
"Makes me remember the days Gavin and I would pull a few half-pipes on the Verve..." UV remarked sullenly. "Too bad he never got to see it on video.."
"I just wish he could have, I dunno...Said goodbye." UV remarked with remorse.
"Hey UV, don't worry about it...You guys are my best friends here! I'm tellin 'ya, if Gavin knew what you turned out to be UV he'd feel threatened by it..." Lindsay stated.
"Maybe even a little jealous because wow UV...you sure shocked us..." Lindsay boasts.
"You turned out to be quite a surprise I must admit, comrade...Good work." Caleb said.
"Night is young my liberace, the night is young..." UV chuckles as he collects a hundred. Scores for Tony Hawk Pro Skater display UV's win streak in the top seven.
"So why do ya think Gavin ever ran out on you, UV?" Caleb asked.
"I think he got sick of me crimping his style...After all, I'm like a diff. level of meth head and I don't totally bum out at the sight of a challenge.." UV cringed.
He remembered the night Gavin ran out on UV after he announced his intent to crash a Blue Ribbon stag party. It was too confrontational, wasn't Gavin's style. But it ended with the entire party being closed down and moved six miles north..so UV was no stranger to controversy. This was before Dr. Caldicott even became a household name.
"So you don't think you'll ever forget..." Lindsay chimed in.
"Girly, there's no face I forget...And no deed that gets to go un-recognized...either." UV says with a grimace.
"(Chuckle) Let's hope Gavin appreciates your morbid humor too!" Caleb snarks.
~ Sky fades to dark. It is five o'clock in the morning. Chicago Eastern Heights are rife with loud music and rifle fire across the drenched black sky. Inside the ROTC training camp for Chicago East, things have recently been off to a rocking start. ~
Two large guards stand at the perimeter fence as Sgt. James Danver's car barrels into the camp. One of the guards is on the tower looking out over the tryouts region. Three to five army seargents are running drills with various cadets over the tires.
First Officer O'Grady has shuffled inward out to the crowd. He managed to sneak by security, shooting one guard in the head. Another had looked at him the wrong way as he ran by the cameras, so he broke his neck like a twig. Then O'Grady went in the base's communications room and wiped out the camera feed. He was already deep inside the base now, studying for the entrance exam.
Terrence O'Grady was shocked at how easy it was to pass the standardized test. He flew past his trials on the rope bridge with flying colors. Now they were getting ready for the tire obstacle course, which would have him dodging and weaving gunfire. He glanced towards an unexpected audience in the guest's awning about three flights to the left. Melinda and her friends were there. Even a number of his best friends from the Shonshanki grill were there, as was a sharply dressed man in an army uniform.
O'Grady couldn't help but smirk. His moment had arrived, and all eyes were on him. One of the men in the guest's awning was taking photos of him. It appeared to be the one in the army uniform. This was all a part of some test, at least that is what gave O'Grady the confidence to smile for the camera. The man continued to zoom in close.
Mr. Strong snapped pictures of the ROTC training with a casual grin. He was enjoying this part of the assignment more than usual.
"Yes sir, that's correct. He is in our sights." Martin Strong replied. "The prototype appears to be working just fine-That is correct, sir. I will document the results." Strong insisted.
"Good. I want to know everything that happens with O'Grady at the camp. And Martin, you keep a close eye on his friend there..James Danvers. Keep a distance, but offer to answer any questions he might have. Do you understand me?" Drake curtly states through his phone.
"Perfectly, sir." Strong insists. "I won't let him out of our sight this time." he replies coldly over the speaker.
"Ensure that you don't...As a new couple of recruits will be joining the program soon." Drake spuriously reinforces.
"And these will not be cadets, this time. Are we ready doctor?" Drake pines away from his phone. "Can we expect superior results this time?" Drake continues.
"Most certainly. I'll have to dose them both up with several different metaemphetamenes to counter-act the slippage." Dr. John Yates announces.
"I'll do whatever is needed, sir. Over and out." Strong replies in the phone.
"Well for the first time it feels quite good to play master of the universe." Col. Drake speaks in a forced and abrupt fashion.
"And this time there will only be the promise of more funding..The only concern thus far is in our current model for the chip." Dr. Meryl Walters brazenly declares.
"I'm not sure what you refer to. What is the concern, Meryl?" Col. Drake responds.
Two army generals enter the room. Mike Fairbanks and John Hashano. John pipes up in a more exploratory and curious tone.
"Hello there. Is this the place where we can get outfitted with high-rise transmitters that will make our Line of Sight fire become one to one during Search and Rescue missions?" John exclaims.
"I'd like to dodge bullets." Mike bursts aloud. "Or be able to fly zero-visibility missions where I can target enemy forces at will, either one does it for me." Mike sneers. "After everything O'Grady claimed this was...We'd like to get some assurances." John beams.
"Oh it's everything you have heard about, and more gentlemen. You'll be able to conduct Line of Sight, but also Seek and Destroy missions." Dr. Walters remarks.
"Most importantly, your sense of pain will be minimized to...nearly neglible levels of discomfort." Dr. Walters continues.
"And when you wake up, it will be like everything else was the dream." Dr. John Yates mockingly insinuates. "Meet the machine which will surpass your maker. Guards, strap their legs and arms into the chair. Make our guests more comfortable." Yates chides.
Two guards take John and Mike and secure them into the chairs at gun-point. They sedate them both with a large steel needle. The hydraulic circular saw begins spinning at a dizzying rate of speed, cutting into each skull with the precision of a surgeon. A flat modified microchip is then quietly locked into place through a tube.
"Be Beyond. Only You Will Win. Achieve Everything." the machine repeats.
"I always love to hear that sound of nature taking its course. Now Dr. Walters, what was this concern you so adamantly spoke earlier?" Col. Drake chastises from the control tower.
"The micro chip is not yet ready for full-service deployment...There's been a slight complication." Meryl states as she nods towards Gen. Marvin Strick.
"The current chip is unable to withstand high-intensity shock waves from blasts. Such as chopper blasts. But a break through is soon to come in this arena. Professor Gavin Strick will be able to modify the chip for external combat." Marvin stated.
"Professor, you say? I thought Gavin Strick was killed.." Col. Drake replied.
"Oh no, he's very much alive. In fact his role is now larger than life...in the coming transition to our school of thought." Marvin drly retorted.
"Colonel, I believe this development will interest you greatly." Walters bemuses.
"I suppose I may need to buy that lab on the second floor after all." Yates declares.
~ Revert to the ROTC training camp in east Chicago. The troop of new recruits prepare to pass the entrance exam. ~
"I can't believe it...I've been running for thirty minutes, my head is going to explode." Danvers winces.
Heeef...Puff...Huff...Wheeze... ((How can I be so tired? What did I do last night...))
"Hey pal, you might want to move it or lose it." O'Grady laughs as he shoves Danvers out of the way during his sixth full run of the obstacle course. This is the fifth time in a row he has passed his partner James, who has not managed to complete it once.
"I looked at the scores and that's...That's impossible for O'Grady to get that good." Danvers cooly reassures himself. "Something here is off, off with this whole thing." Danvers insists. ((Could it be what Steve taught him is real? The chips...?))
Right now, all officer Danvers could think about was finishing the course. Then the chopper training. If a chip was the cause of all this, maybe he'd have to get the shot too. He couldn't imagine how anything in the last twenty-four hours made sense. It was now more obvious than before that O'Grady was drugged. Whether a chip ever existed or not, it was impossible for any normal officer to have done as well as he did.
"Not normal...((Huff)) Got to move...Going to lose my place in the exam...I'll come in tenth position at this rate." Danvers snapped to himself. "Got to hurry." he winced.
Up ahead, O'Grady hopped into an attack chopper. Usually it took more than six separate classes before a recruit would even board a chopper. But here was O'Grady in the pilot seat the same day, firing off live rounds of sniper fire. He had toasted over 30,000 points in the target sessions. No one had ever seen anything like this before. But most people at the base were not sure that they desired to, either.
"I can't even surpass 5000 points, O'Grady...What the hell do they have you on!?" his colleague officer Sanders shouted.
"Magic sauce, my good friend. We all deserve a dose of magic sauce in our lives. After the trials are over, I invite you to take a taste of my magic sauce for yourselves." O'Grady boasted with a dead-locked sneer.
"Man after all of that, I think I'd take anything you ask!" Sanders retorted.
"After all of that effort... (Pant) I think I'd take some as well." Danvers stated.
Steve watches from outside the base with a hint of concern. Explosions are heard all the way across the street.
"((Sigh)) I tried to tell you, James. He's not your friend anymore." Steve muttered.
"James, he's not your friend! HE WAS MICRO-CHIPPED! That isn't really O'Grady!" Steve yelled almost certain that Danvers heard his faint voice over the shouts.
"He's not my friend..? Maybe that guy was right...Who is he now?" Danvers quietly remarked to himself. "If I don't trust him..who can I trust?" James continued.
~ Two miles away from the East Heights, the Fair Ground lights are dimly lit. It's seven o'clock in the morning. Steve had rushed away from the army camp to get to the fair as fast as he could. Finally he pulled in to the empty lot where Rachel awaits.~
"Rachel...Rachel! I'm sorry...It's been a really long night. (Sigh) I didn't keep my promise about taking you to the fair this time...Because I think..." Steve studders.
"(Yawn) You didn't even call Steve, gddamn...And...you never came!" Rachel chides.
"What is it Steve? You look concerned..I was here all night waiting for you. What is wrong? Why didn't you ever show up?! We planned this for a year." Rachel shouted.
"I think something has followed us, all of us...I think that Lindsay was right." Steve said in a hesitant unassuming look.
"But...blue ribbons have been dead for years...She was probably just seeing things.." Rachel stated reassuringly.
"No Rachel...She wasn't..It was not a blue ribbon...I'm certain it was something else...the experiments they did Rachel? They are continuing...It's all still going on." Steve said concerned.
"Most importantly...I can tell it has to do with Allen, and I just don't like it." Steve remarked brazenly.
"If that's true...maybe it is a copycat gang...I mean, who could bring that here!?" Rachel stated.
"It's not as if they brought it here, Rachel...I think it's more like...What did they bring forward that was already here? If they've been here all along, it makes sense..." Steve stated.
"I'm not paranoid...I just know the disturbing behavior is happening again Rachel. I have to get to the source of it. I have to stop it...for Allen's sake." Steve exclaimed.
"If any of it's true, and you ain't paranoid...Then I'll help you. Lets get out of here." Rachel said as they both hopped in the car. "It's time for answers!" Rachel yelled.