-CHAPTER TWO: Reunion-
Ding Dong! "Welcome to the end of the line. Please enjoy your stay."
I awoke with a start at the voice that sounded over the intercom. What the fuck did that mean? Am I about to die "again"? I looked outside to see that the sky was bright red and there was a tornado in the distance, rapidly coming towards the moving train.
"Oh-SHIT!" I yelled.
I got up and ran down the aisle. I was extremely confused to the absence of others. When I first got on the train, it was full of people commuting towards Philadelphia. Where the hell is everyone? I thought. My question was answered when I opened the door towards the car in front of the one I was originally sitting in.
I saw dozens of people walking as a group towards the next car when I shouted: "Hey! What the fuck is going on here!"
At the same time, they all stopped, turned to face me, and smirked. My eyes widened with horror as I realized that they all had the same face, and...they are a certain person, too.
"What...the...fuck..." I said, "I fucking killed you!"
"Yes you did," they all said at once, "but you didn't kill me in your mind."
I tripped on something and I fell on my ass. I started to crawl away from the Kravchenkos while they all started to reach for a grenade on their strap.
"No..." I voiced, "don't you do it, you mother fuckers!"
They all chuckled while pulling the pin on all of their grenades. I picked myself off of the ground and started to run the other direction. I went through around 3 doorways until I feel the train lift up from the tracks. I turned back around and I slid back towards the criminals in mute horror as I was hopeless against gravity. I clenched my eyes tight as I felt the train tilt more up as I fell towards them. I almost landed on top of the first Kravchenko when another sound filled my thoughts and my ears.
Ding Dong! "Welcome to the Philadelphia Train Station. Please enjoy your visit."
I awoke with a loud gasp at the calm voice that sounded over the intercom. I panted hard as I put my head back onto the head rest. 'It was just a dream, Frank.' I kept telling myself. 'It was just a dream.' It took me around a minute to regain my barrings as I looked out the window.
I have arrived in my hometown. I haven't been here for thirty years, apparently. When I stepped out of the train, I looked around, and I noticed that this city had definitely changed. The cool night air felt nice against my skin. What seemed like a city slowly evolving into a dense urban environment had finally achieved this and then some with bright neon lights littering the landscape.
It looked-foreign to me. It didn't look like home, but it sure as hell felt like it. I could still feel the air that greeted me when I came back for the holidays three decades ago. It felt-comforting, in a way. Then I wondered about my parents. Are they still alive? Where are they now? How are they doing without me? I wanted to try and find them after I have gone to see "an old friend-that-I-haven't-seen-for-a-while" at this super secret base or whatever. I hope that Miles meant the secret military office that they had here.
I've been to it in the sixties. You had to say a special password at a desk at the tourist information center, then the clerk would escort you to the entrance. Would it still work after all this time? I had to find out. I called a taxi and I got in.
"Hello, sir." the driver greeted me with a friendly voice. "Where would I be taking ya?"
"The tourist information center." I replied.
The driver chuckled. "New here, huh?"
"Umm..." I tilted my head from side to side. "...you could say that."
"Well, I recommend going to a lot of the restaurants here, instead of resorting to only supermarkets. Philly is the home of a lot of top quality foods, you know."
"Alright. Thank you."
I enjoyed a nice quiet ride towards my destination. I pushed a button on the side of the car door, and that makes the window open. I was shocked at how new it was to me, until I remembered that they have had this technology since the early forties. I had successfully just made myself feel stupid.
When I had arrived at the center 5 minutes later, I had given the driver 10 dollars, effectively paying for the ride and his tip. He waved to me as he was driving away, and I was thankful for his friendliness. I turned back around and pushed open the double doors leading into the lobby of the place.
"Hel-" the woman started, "Hello...how may I help you?" She started to look at me seductively, but I just rolled my eyes. She looked like she was in her late twenties, and she was pretty, but not my type.
"Umm...alpha delta one-niner?" I said.
Her face then brightened and pressed a couple of buttons out of view and then she pointed to the elevator. "We haven't used that code since the seventies, but I'll let you pass. Just open the control panel in the elevator and type in zero-three-nine-one and it'll take you into the lobby of the office."
Well, that was easy... "Thank you." I said, and I walked into the elevator, typed in the numbers, and descended into the depths of the center. As I got to the pre-determined floor, I exited the elevator. What I saw was many tightly organized cubicles with men mostly in white dress shirts with black ties working and discussing about stuff on the computers.
When I stepped on the carpeted floor, I started to hear my name in a questionable factor and I got the office to quiet down from a very noisy environment. Everyone stared at me as if I'm some kind of alien and I had to admit, it kind of made me felt self-conscious. I saw two men in uniform grab me by the arms and led me down a hallway where there were more people staring. I looked to the ground, trying to contain my cool, or else I would be telling people to fuck off and go do their work.
I got shoved into what looked like an interrogation room; it was dark all around one table with a light dangling over it. It only had one seat next to it, which I guessed would be for me.
"Sit." one of the guards said to me. At least I wouldn't be shoved onto that as if I was an asshole...
I heard the door open, but I didn't bother looking up.
"I'm pretty sure this is the real deal." the guard said.
"He sure as hell looks like it." another voice said.
Wait. I know that voice.
The voice that was there when I met up with Mason again after around 5 years. The voice that was there when we took down a shit load of tanks in Vietnam. It could only belong to one person.
"Woods," he said, while walking into the light. "it's been a long time, old friend."
"Likewise, Hudson." I smirked.
He looked just like the Mr. Shades I knew thirty years ago, but had wrinkles and a gray fuzz with gray scruff. Of course he looked old and rugged, but at the same time, but he would always still be the tough, uptight Hudson.
Hudson never tore his gaze away from my face, as if he was studying me, searching for any emotion. I crossed my arms and kept a straight face while waiting for more words to appear from his lips.
"So," he started, "you must be wondering how you are still alive and all..."
"You think?" I answered, quite forcefully.
"Well, first I'll tell you about how you got out. I was searching around just for "appropriate usage of storage" in Baltimore's secret service files, and I found that there was a 'test' subject named Frank Woods in their containment facility. I had a meeting with Mason about you an-"
"Mason? Mason is here?"
"Er...yes...you can see him when I bring you up to speed on the matter at hand."
I felt my facial expression go from bored to extremely excited. I felt like a five-year-old boy wanting to have some candy. Hudson gave me a concerned look and then continued.
"Anyway, I had a meeting with him about your current status, and he was just as excited as you are now. He practically threw himself at the main computer system to try and hack into their systems to get you out of there, but I stopped him before he could mess up the keyboard."
This made me smirk. The bastard was like a brother to me. We always looked out for one another in critical times. He saved me once by shooting an NVA soldier with a Python that was about to stab me in the chest, and I saved him by...I guess you would get the idea by now.
"The only reason why you came out of the capsule is because I remotely opened it. Since you were in the heart of enemy territory, we were very worried that you wouldn't make it out alive. We finally eased our senses when we heard from our agent that he dropped you off at the station without a scratch."
This made my eyes widen. "Miles...was actually with you guys?"
"Yes."
"So that's why he helped me."
"That's why he knew your name. That's why he didn't attack you. That's why he obeyed your commands."
I was in deep thought. I scrunched my face at how lucky we both were for me not choosing to shoot him. But...
"How did I survive the grenade blast?" I asked, quite forcefully.
Hudson narrowed his eyes as he spoke. "Our sources back then said that Kravchenko actually had incendiary grenades instead of the common explosive grenade. Your skin was absolutely smoked, but our undercover 'Nam soldiers found you just in time, and worked on you to completely repair your skin cells. The Russians stole you from the secret facility and stuffed your unconscious body into an ice capsule and completely locked it up." He started to pace back and forth.
"The Americans stormed back into Russia and found you in another one of their facilities in '84, and they stole you and took you back to America. They put you in a facility in Baltimore and you were there ever since. They found out how to disable the lock in '91 and they basically had the power to wake you anytime they wanted...but they didn't."
"Do you know why?" Hudson just shook his head.
"That's the only thing we haven't found out about yet. But the only reason why we didn't go in there and just open you up is that the building that you were in was heavily guarded by our opposing forces called the Rebellion Forces Intelligence Agency, or RFIA for short. Since their defenses were very hard to penetrate, we decided to unleash the secret weapon within."
I gave him a questioning look as he deviated from my gaze.
"I know. It's cheesy," he said, as he looked back at my face, "but just stay with me here...We need to have tests made on you. We need to make sure you are stable and fit for duty again."
I shrugged. "You're the expert here." With that, I got up.
He led me out of the room and when I turned to my left, I saw...him, and he saw...me. We both couldn't believe that the other is actually standing in front of them. He was the first one to move towards me, and I moved towards him. I didn't reject his embrace when he finally reached my proximity.
"Woods," he said. "I-I can't believe it's actually you."
"Glad to see you too, Mason." I replied.
We held each other for a while, then we broke apart after we felt around 20 different pairs of eyes on us.
"Uhh- I should show you around."
"Yes, you should."
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