Ch. 6 Alexis's in Wonderland
By
UCSBdad
Disclaimer: Castle? No, not me. Rating: M, sometimes. Time: Shortly after Four of a Kind
Chapter 6. The Heart of Darkness
"It's not the right Alexis." Castle said as he carried the drunk and unconscious woman off of the red square. Luckily, Becks had had a spare shirt in her saddlebag, so Castle didn't have to be embarrassed by carrying an unconscious and topless Alexis around.
"You're sure?" Metford said, disappointed.
"This one knew Beckett, as a lawyer admittedly, but Castle the math whiz never met a Kate. She isn't the one."
"Dammit!" Metford growled. "We'll take care of her." He gestured for two men in scrubs to take Alexis from Rick.
"Wait. What are you going to do with her?" He demanded.
"We'll keep her sedated and send her back to her New York. When she wakes up, she'll think she went to someplace in her own US and was very, very drunk."
"Suppose she remembers seeing her father and Kate and they weren't there?"
"Then she'll think she was really drunk. What did you want to do with her?" Metford snapped.
Rick gave Alexis up.
"You five get some food and some sleep. You'll be getting viral briefings tomorrow for a really tough mission the day after." Metford said as he walked away.
Rick and Kate sat together eating dinner. Their three friends were elsewhere. "I'm wondering what kind of a father Rick Castle is in all of the universes. The first Alexis we rescued was sexually abused and this one was some kind of party girl. What's next?"
Kate took his hand. "You're responsible for exactly one Alexis Castle. And, the most recent Alexis was thrilled to see you. Obviously, she loved you."
"Yeah, and she loved dancing topless in front of a bar full of bikers. Some father that Castle is."
"She has a mother you know. Maybe divorce laws are different in her universe. Maybe the mom always gets the kids and Meredith got Alexis. That Alexis looked like she had a lot of Meredith in her."
He shook his head. "Jesus. Alexis as raised by Meredith? Way to make me feel better."
She leaned over and kissed him lightly. "The part to make you feel better was when I said that you were only responsible for your own Alexis. No matter what happens to all of the Alexis's in all of the universes, you aren't at fault."
"Then why do I feel so lousy?"
"Because you're a very good man."
"This good man could use a hot shower. Would you care to join me?"
"I thought you'd never ask."
When they all came out for breakfast the next morning, they found Metford and a medic waiting for them. "Time for an injection." Metford said cheerfully.
After they were injected they ate breakfast and absorbed the information from the viruses.
"Jesus Christ!" Castle said. "This is out of 2001."
"I never understood that movie." Becks said.
"The book explained it a lot better." Kate said.
Rodgers looked around the table. "So, a million years ago, more or less, maybe a lot more or a lot less, just as mankind was beginning to get intelligent, aliens came to an Earth, just this one Earth, and made all of the other animals' brains, bigger, more complex and smarter?"
"Smarter relatively." Kate said. "A wolf with a better brain is smarter than his ancestor wolves and smarter than, say, alien improved rats, who didn't have much of a brain to begin with."
"But they never got as smart as humans." Becks said.
"No. They just ate humans into extinction." Simone added.
"And all they got were bigger brains. They never got an erect posture, freeing their forelegs to become hands, they never developed opposable thumbs so they could grasp things, they never developed much in the way of tools. They never managed to be what humans are. Or could have been." Rodgers finished.
"They're dangerous enough." Castle said.
"Dolphins may be as smart as humans, maybe smarter, but they have no way of changing their environment like we do." Becks added.
Rodgers looked at a sheaf of maps and satellite images in front of him. "This Alexis' kidnappers took a boat up the Mississippi River, except that doesn't look like any Mississippi River I ever saw. The mouths of the river are damned near to Texas."
Simone answered that one for him. "I can answer that one. Rivers are dynamic things. They cut away their banks and change their courses. Most of our Mississippi River had been subject to flood control projects and levees. You can drive up river or down river from the Big Easy and see nothing but concrete banks on the river."
"And they have no idea where the next Alexis is?" Kate asked.
"They know whoever took her went up the river, but they can't find them. Apparently their high tech gear has a flaw."
"So we just go up the river and look? Does anyone here have any idea how long the Mississippi is? How many tributaries it has? We could be there forever." Rodgers grumped.
"We have no choice." Castle told them.
They were interrupted by Metford and another medic carrying the usual hypodermic needles and vials of the virus. "Time for another shot." He said cheerfully.
"What for?" Castle asked.
"You have to learn how to manage your ride. Once you've had your shots, we'll take you to it."
As they walked to the red square, the virus prepared them for what they'd find.
"A Pibber!" Rodgers said, excitedly.
"The Apocalypse Now boat." Castle said.
"A what?" Simone asked.
"A Patrol Boat, River. Pibber. They used them in Vietnam and they even had some more modern ones on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in Iraq when I was there."
The boat was small but well armed. In its 32 foot length it carried two M2 .50 caliber machine guns in a rotating tub in the bow, another .50 at the stern and two 7.62 mm M 240 machine guns on each side.
Rodgers found a ladder leading to the deck of the boat and quickly climbed up. The others followed him.
"There should be a complete selection of small arms with it." Rodgers said.
Metford nodded. "There are two M4 carbines with a 40mm grenade launcher mounted under the barrel, five heavier M14 rifles, also with an under mounted grenade launcher, two 12 gauge shotguns, five .45 caliber pistols, from an Earth that manufactured a slightly different version of your M 1911A1 pistol, and a .50 caliber rifle. That is based on your M16, but larger of course. The .50 caliber rifle round is not quite as powerful as the machine gun rounds. There are also two boxes of grenades, and explosives, plus flares. We have also provided you with night vision devices and some drone aircraft for reconnaissance."
"What kind of engine?" Castle asked.
"We've replaced the original diesels with a fuel cell driven engine. It's much, much quieter. Plus, we've put food, water, medical supplies and armored vests and helmets on the boat. Oh, and individual radios."
Rodgers smiled. "Crew on these were usually four men and we have five. I figure we'll have one in the cockpit, one on the front fifties, one on the back and one each on the side machine guns."
Castle had no doubt that Rodgers intended to be in command, which he accepted.
As Castle walked around, he realized he understood the functioning of every piece of equipment on the boat. On a whim, he picked up a pistol and field stripped it, then reassembled it. "I'll be damned." He muttered.
Having spent several hours going over the boat, they returned to their quarters for lunch and continued to go over everything that Metford had, which wasn't much. Castle wondered how they'd ever find this Alexis.
The next morning, they found themselves at the mouth of the river an Earth where humans had never flourished. As Castle expected, Rodgers took command and was in the cockpit. Kate crewed the forward machine guns and Becks the one on the stern. Simone and Castle were at the two machine guns in the middle of the boat. Their flak jackets, and the boat's armor, were made of a ceramic like substance that was both much lighter and much stronger than anything their home Earths had.
As they went up the river, Rodgers launched one of the aerial drones. Castle could see the drone's video feed on the computer screen in the cockpit.
"To the left, coming up." Rodgers said.
Castle was on the left, so he swung around to look. Up ahead, in about the middle of the mile-wide river was an island. "Jesus." Castle muttered. "Look at them."
The wooded island had a dozen or more large cat like creatures on it. Big cats. Very big cats.
"Enhanced mountain lions?" Simone guessed.
"Do you want me to give them a burst?" Castle asked, pointing his weapon at the cats and taking aim.
"No." Rodgers replied. "They're no danger to us and we shouldn't waste ammo. And our quarry might hear the weapons fire."
Castle was just as glad not to have had to shoot, but the way the big cats had looked at them scared him. "They have big heads, big brains."
"And no machine guns." Simone replied.
As they went up river, they saw more and more animals along the river banks, including a huge bear standing in the river fishing while her cubs waited patiently on shore for dinner.
"They aren't just smart, they're big. Momma bear back there is as big as a Kodiak, maybe bigger. " Castle said. "They didn't tell us that."
"Do you want to go back without this Alexis?" Becks said.
Castle just shook his head.
Before nightfall, they found a nice wide spot in the river and anchored. The food was some variation of MREs, but everyone seemed happy to eat them. Castle had a beef stew which was passable, but wasn't up to the standards of Simone's restaurant in Nawlins. Rodgers and Becks, having lived on MRE's and prison food, respectively, had no complaints.
Sundown came early, causing Castle to wonder if this was the local winter. No one knew. Rodgers set up a schedule for guard duty. Rick and Kate snuggled under a light blanket and went to sleep.
Sometime in the night, Rick was woken by a distinct thump on the side of the boat. He looked up to see an alligator trying to pull himself up and onto the boat. He grabbed his pistol and fired into the beast. It flopped back into the water and when Castle stood up he could see that the boat was surrounded by 'gators.
As Kate ran through the cockpit to man the forward guns, Rick fired his machine gun down into the seething mass of 'gators just feet away from him. He heard Simone's weapon begin to fire, then Becks' weapon fire and finally he could hear Kate firing.
"Dammit!" Rodgers screamed. "There's a solid mass of the damned things all around us. I can't get going."
Suddenly Castle heard Becks scream. He turned and saw her being dragged off the boat by one foot. Just as she was about to go overboard, she grabbed onto the gun mount for her machine gun and held on for dear life. Castle yelled to Simone to try to cover both sides of the boat, grabbed an M14 and ran to the stern.
He snaked his arm around Becks' waist and pulled her back. The 'gator pulled on her booted foot as well, pulling them both back. Castle grabbed onto the gun mount, and pulled Becks back. He managed to get the arm he had around her waist to the gun mount and held on tight with one hand. He tried to fire the heavy machine gun at the 'gator, but found that the barrel hit Becks before he could bring it to bear. He began firing his rifle at the 'gator, but with the movement of the boat, the 'gator pulling on him and Becks, plus firing a rifle one handed, he was missing as often as he was hitting the 'gator. And he didn't seem to be hitting any vital spots.
Castle got help from an unexpected source. The wounded 'gator attracted the attention of another 'gator who attacked the wounded 'gator. Becks was suddenly free and the two of them fell back in a tangle of arms and legs.
"My gun!" She screamed. "Kill the damned things."
With the adrenaline still pumping in him, Castle left Becks, not bothering to see if she was badly injured. He fired down into a mass of 'gators swarming around the boat. Short bursts. Take careful aim. Pick your targets. Went through his mind. He saw a lane opening, free of 'gators, behind the boat. "Put it in reverse!" He screamed to Rodgers.
The boat moved slowly backwards, then sped up. In a minute they were out of the mass of 'gators who seemed to be milling around and then dispersing slowly.
Castle ran up to Becks who had taken over his machine gun. She was still firing at the distant 'gators and yelling, "Die, damn you. Die. I'll kill all of you. I killed you once, I'll do it again."
"Cease firing." He yelled in her ear. No response. She kept firing.
He pulled her hand off of the trigger. The firing stopped and she looked up at him. "I can't kill all of them. There are too many. I can't touch them."
Castle nodded. "I need to see your foot."
Becks stared at him blankly.
"Your foot." That was Kate, holding a medical kit.
Becks nodded and looked at her foot. "My foot. Yeah."
Castle slowly took her boot off, expecting to find a mass of blood and mangled flesh. Surprisingly, there were two puncture wounds in the foot. Bad enough, but less than he had expected. He examined the boot while Kate treated the wounds.
"The boot has some kind of a plate in the sole. Armor, I guess. The 'gator must have bit down on the side of your foot, which was sideways in his mouth, and couldn't bite all the way down. Lucky, I guess."
Becks nodded, then turned to Rick. "Thanks. I'd be dead if you hadn't come."
"One thing I've learned, "Kate said, bandaging her foot, "is that my husband will do anything for a Kate Beckett."
Castle thought that Kate had emphasized the word "husband". She was marking her territory.
They moved several miles down-river and stopped again, but no one got much sleep for the rest of that night.
When the sun rose, they ate breakfast, the five of them sitting back to back so they could scan the river for danger.
Becks spoke. "Castle, I'm sorry. I went a little off my rocker back there with the alligators. I really do need to thank you. I'd be dead if it wasn't for you. I owe you big time, it's just that you're so much like that other Castle, and yet you're nothing like him."
"You don't owe me a thing, Becks."
"My life has been a giant pile of crap since I was nineteen. My mom was murdered, Dad turned into a drunk, I became a cop and after three years I had to give up trying to solve her case… I really hated myself for being such a failure." Becks began to cry.
"We know. " Kate said softly. "We both know."
Becks smiled at Kate. "And then I met this guy and he was fun and good to me and for me and he helped catch the bastard that killed my mom. And then he dumped me. He moved on and my heart was broken. But I killed Bracken anyway. And all of my friends and family dumped me, too. Kate Beckett the crazy, rogue cop who killed the man who would be our best President ever. My dad went back to the bottle and I was in prison for the rest of my life. And then I meet you people, and I almost think that maybe I'll get a new eye and a new life and maybe, just maybe, things will be better."
"Things will get better, Becks." Simone said. "I was as big a mess as you were once, and then I met Rick and Kate and I've never been happier. All we have to do is find our own Rick Castles."
"Something coming." Rodgers said, pointing upwards.
"A bird?" Kate said, shading her eyes as she looked up.
"A damned big bird." Rodgers said, reaching for his rifle.
"He's diving." Castle yelled out.
"He's huge!" That was Becks,
"Everybody down!" Rodgers screamed.
He began firing at the plummeting bird. Kate drew her pistol and fired. Castle followed her by a split second. The monstrous bird turned away at the last second and flew off over the water, then flew in a circle around them. Simone fired a couple of machine gun bursts at the monster before he flew off.
"Bigger brains only, my ass!" Castle cried. "That thing was a big as a light plane. It was as big as this boat!" Castle stood up. Screaming. "Don't get off the boat. Don't get off the boat!"
Kate put her arms around her husband. "It's okay. You're not Chef and none of us is Captain Willard. We're not in Vietnam."
"I lost it, too, for a minute."
"Everybody reload." Rodgers barked. "We're headed back up river."
They ran up the river for the whole day, but found nothing until it was almost dark. "Hey! The drone sees something." Rodgers told them.
"What?" Everyone asked.
"There. Concertina wire. Somebody's put a hell of a lot of barbed wire out and those somebodies have to be who were looking for."
"How far away are they?"
Rodgers checked the feed from the drone. "A shade over six miles. " He moved the drone around the target area at varying altitudes until he was satisfied. "They're on an island, about a couple of hundred acres and covered with trees which gives them pretty good cover, but they don't seem to have made any effort to dig in. It looks like they have a big green tent in the middle of their barbed wire. I can also see what looks like some kind of a power source. I'd bet the barbed wire is electrified."
"How are we going to get past the wire?" Kate asked.
"They aren't expecting anything but the local animals. I think a couple of rounds from the grenade launcher will knock out their power source. And we have explosives to blast the wire apart."
"Any idea how many people are in there?" Castle asked.
"I get five heat signatures from the drone. So, Alexis and four guards. With surprise, we can take them."
Once it was dark, they sailed the boat to the island. On the south side of the island, they found a place to anchor within feet of the island that was screened by trees and bushes. There was a slight gap that allowed them to keep an eye on the camp without being seen.
Again, no one got much sleep that night.
They were all awake by dawn, but no one else was. They sat in the boat for another two hours until a man came out of the tent, walked to one side, unzipped his fly and peed.
"One man with an assault rifle. Looked like some kind of AK47 variant." Rodgers whispered.
Finally, four people walked out of the tent, three men and a woman. One other man had an assault rifle, the other only a pistol. The woman couldn't have been carrying a weapon except for those that nature or medicine had provided for her. She was blonde with very large boobs, and wore only bikini bottoms. She fired up a portable grill and began making breakfast.
"They're all outside?" Castle whispered.
"And if we shot now, we'll be shooting into the tent. We could kill Alexis." Rodgers said. "We'll wait."
"What about the woman?" Kate asked. "She doesn't look like a guard. More like entertainment."
"We'll see."
After breakfast the men stayed frustratingly close to the tent. Suddenly, the man with the pistol grabbed the woman. He slapped her hard across the face, and forced her to her knees. Then he undid his pants and forced his erection down her throat. When he was done, she stood up and spat. He slapped her again and she ran. The other men started laughing and chasing after her.
"They're away from the tent. Now!" Rodgers yelled.
A brief burst of machine gun fire knocked down the two with assault rifles, but didn't kill them. A bullet from Kate's rifle killed the men with the pistol and the other two died in a fusillade of shots. The woman was on the ground screaming.
"Castle." Rodgers said. "Use the stern fifty to knock out the generator, or whatever that is."
Castle ran back, aimed and pressed down on the butterfly triggers. The first burst hit the generator. He put another three burst into it to be sure.
"Looks good." Kate said.
"Becks, stay here and get ready to leave in a big hurry if we have to."
The four jumped out of the boat and ran to the wire. Rodgers tossed a large rock into the concertina wire. "If they were live, two wires hitting each other should have caused sparks." He pulled out a makeshift Bangalore torpedo and blew a hole in the wire.
As they ran through, the woman was still screaming, standing up with her hands in the air.
Kate said something to her in a language Castle thought must be Russian. The woman went along with Kate, her hands still in the air.
Entering the tent, they found Alexis sitting at a table, chained to a long metal spike driven into the ground. She smiled when she saw Rick and Kate. "Dad! Mom! I knew you'd find me." Alexis looked past them. "Is Grandpa with you?"