Forever Until Tomorrow (War Eternal Book 5) (6 page)

"I need to go," he said, coming to a stop. "It's important."

They were trying to stop him. Did that mean he was crazy, as he suspected?

"Why?"

"People will die if I don't."

"How do you know that?"

"The dreams."

"Have you taken your meds?"

"Yes. You're going to die, if you don't let me go."

She looked afraid of him then. She stepped back to get out of his reach. "Are you going to hurt me?"

"No. Not me. XENO-1. It was one ship. It isn't the only ship."

"What are you talking about?"

"They'll come. They'll kill us all."

She looked even more afraid. The stairwell door opened behind her and two security guards entered the hallway. They were big, but not in great shape.
 

"Reggie?" one of them said. Reggie remembered his name was Jeff. "Where are you going?"

"I'm leaving," he replied.

"He thinks there are aliens coming to get the XENO-1," the nurse said. "He told me we're all going to die."

Jeff didn't laugh. They were used to crazy talk. "It's okay, Reggie," he said. "It's the nightmares. Just a dream, my friend." He was smiling as he approached. "Why don't we head over to the cafeteria? We can get you a cookie and some milk. My grandmother always recommended it for nightmares, and it helped me."

Reggie didn't move. If he were crazy, he should just let them take him, shouldn't he? No. That wouldn't prove anything.
 

He took a step back. "I need to leave. You can't stop me."

"Look, Reggie, I've seen you exercise in your room at night, and I know you're in good shape, but if I have to stop you, I will."

"No, you won't," Reggie said. "Please, let me go. I don't want to hurt you."

Jeff looked sideways at his partner, who was slowly trying to circle behind Reggie. "We don't want to hurt you either, Reg. Come on, we'll have a drink and then you can try to get some rest."

Reggie looked at the nurse, and then at Jeff. He lowered his head. "Yeah. Maybe you're right," he said softly. "I'm just not feeling like myself tonight, I guess."

"That's okay, Reggie. It happens to the best of us." Jeff tilted his head, motioning to the other guard.
 

Reggie sighed. He didn't want to hurt anybody. Why wouldn't they just let him leave?

The guard reached for him. He came alive, shifting his weight as he caught the hand, pulling the guard off-balance before bringing his arm back and hitting him hard in the face with his elbow. The guard grunted and fell back, at the same time Jeff tried to wrap him in a subduing grab. Reggie ducked away from it, smacking Jeff's arms aside and punching him hard in the gut, spilling all of the wind from his diaphragm. Jeff doubled over as the nurse stepped aside.

"I'm sorry," Reggie said to her, stepping around the two guards. "Please, just let me leave. I have to find her."

"Find who?" the nurse asked.

"I don't know." He stepped past her, approaching the door.

"Reggie, wait," she said before he reached it. He wasn't sure why, but he turned back. She walked over to him. "There's a storage room on the ground floor. That's where they're keeping all of your personal effects. Everything you had on you when they found you, which wasn't much. Still, if you're going, you might want it."

"Thank you," he said. He hesitated for a few seconds, wondering if he should right before he did. "Am I crazy?"

The nurse smiled. "All of us are crazy, honey. The difference is in the degree. As for you, I'd say you're about average. You never gave me any trouble, so I'm going to miss you."

Reggie looked back at Jeff and the other guard. They were back on their feet, but not about to try again. They didn't get paid enough to be beaten up.
 

"Thank you," he said.

Then he left.

Nobody tried to stop him again as he made his way from the seventh floor to the lobby. He wandered the halls for a few minutes until he found the storage area the nurse told him about. A younger man was sitting behind a small desk, eyes moving left and right as he read something projected onto his glasses.

"Excuse me," Reggie said, getting his attention. The man shook and sat up straight.

"Oh. Jeez, man. You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry. My name is Reggie. I'm leaving. The nurse told me you could give me my things."

The man smiled. "I know who you are. Our famous patient. You've been here twenty years, and now you're leaving?"

"Yes."

"Just like that? At three in the morning?"

"I guess so. It's time." He paused. "I didn't know I was famous." For some reason, the comment bothered him.
 

"Just a figure of speech, man. Everybody in St. Mary's knows you, of course. The rest of the world? I doubt it." He laughed and got to his feet, taking off his glasses and dropping them on the desk. "Give me a sec; I'll get your effects."

"Thank you."

Reggie waited for the man to disappear before picking up the glasses and slipping them on. Immediately he could see a window over his left eye, where a flow of text was sitting. It moved depending on his eye position, allowing him to read seamlessly.

"Initial reports place the death toll at twenty-seven, including Vice President Nelson and the lead emissary from Iran, Sadeq Jannali. Three of the astronauts expected to be on the inaugural crew of the Dove were also injured, and may lose their chance to be part of the historic occasion if plans to proceed with the launch remain in place. Major Katherine Asher, United States Air Force, Ning Zhang, Chinese Space Administration, and Captain Vidal Pathi. United Earth Alliance President Amir-"

"Do you always help yourself to other people's stuff?" the orderly said, returning from the storage area with a small box.

Reggie took the glasses off. The man's return had taken him by surprise, but he refused to show it. "Sorry. It's been a while since I caught up with the outside world." He could still see the list of names in his head. His eyes kept going back to the first of them. Major Katherine Asher. The name itself didn't mean anything to him, but he had felt a stirring in his gut at seeing it. Was she the one he was supposed to find?

"Crazy, right? The attack on the UEA party. I can't imagine why anybody wouldn't want the Dove to fly. It's more than a starship, you know? It's a symbol of unity."

"I know."

The orderly held the box out to him. "It isn't much. We also have donated clothes for people who didn't come in with any, or lost them, or whatever. Follow me."

Reggie took the box from him. It was hardly big enough to hold anything important, and he wondered what could be inside. The box felt empty.

He trailed behind the orderly to a second room. It was filled with all sorts of clothes, organized by type and size.
 

"Help yourself," the man said.

"Thank you," Reggie replied. He picked up a pair of socks and underwear, an old pair of stained jeans, a t-shirt, and a sweater. He also found a pair of shoes that weren't too beat up. It wasn't much, but it would have to do.
 

"You can change back there," the orderly said.
 

Reggie changed his clothes and came back out.

"You've been in here for twenty years," the orderly said. "The world is pretty different now. Are you sure you want to go out there?"

Reggie tried to remember what the world was like. He couldn't. It didn't matter how much it had changed because he had so little to go on. "Yes."

"Okay, well, be safe." The man held out his hand. Reggie shook it. "Exit is that way."

"Thank you." He took a few steps before pausing and turning back to the orderly. "What city am I in?"
 

"St. Louis, Missouri."

"The launch party. Where was that?"

"New York, why?"

"Just curious. Thank you for your help."

"Yeah. Okay. See you, Reggie."

Reggie started walking again, down the long corridor leading to the exit. It was early morning, and not much was happening as he stepped outside and onto the sidewalk of a city street. He looked around, taking in the towers of steel and glass and the lights of advertisements hanging on boards arranged along the street. Lasers projected red or green light to help direct traffic while a single vehicle cruised by, its engine emitting a soft hum. The windows were heavily tinted, but there didn't appear to be anyone inside.

Money. He knew he would need some to get from Chicago to New York. He tried to remember his geography. For some reason, he had a vague notion of the two cities, and at the same time, he felt as though they weren't very familiar to him. Maybe he had grown up somewhere else.

He remembered the box then. It was taped closed, and he worked to tear it off and get it open. At first, he thought it was empty until he found a small card wedged into the corner. He dug it out with his fingernail and held it up to the light. It was five centimeters square, its use and purpose unclear to him.
 

Twenty years, and this was all that he owned?
 

Was he crazy? He still wasn't sure. Hearing voices was crazy. Thinking there was a connection between the attack on the UEA party and his own sudden motivation certainly pointed toward crazy. His lack of fear and a sense of calm confidence suggested otherwise.
 

Then again, wasn't the whole crux of insanity not knowing that you were insane?
 

He looked up and down the street again, trying to decide which direction to go. He had thought he might feel overwhelmed to be out of the hospital. He didn't. He felt a sense of purpose. After all of these years, he finally had a reason. A goal.
 

If that was crazy, he preferred it to the alternative.

Major Katherine Asher. The name meant something. He didn't know what.
 

He was going to find out.

"Kathy? Can you hear me? It's Michael. Kathy?"

Katherine didn't open her eyes. She could hear the voice, but she didn't want to respond to it. The beeps and tones of medical equipment surrounded it, and she had a feeling she knew what it meant.

She remembered being shot. She remembered the pain in her gut even though she couldn't feel it at the moment, the drugs keeping it at bay. She remembered the warm slick of blood on her fingers from the bullet that grazed her head.

What had the doctor said to her again?

Find Mitchell.
 

What did that mean?

Who was Mitchell?

Why had she said that?

"Kathy? I know you're awake. The machines don't lie."

Michael's voice irritated her. She refused to open her eyes. She didn't want to be a good little soldier and face the truth she knew was ahead of her.

She was injured, and out of the program.

Ever since they had announced the construction of the Dove, she had done nothing but dream of being on its first mission. Now it would never be more than a dream.

"Kathy," Michael said again.

"Leave me alone," Katherine whispered. She still didn't open her eyes.
 

"Come on, Kathy. For me?"

"No. I don't want to know."

"You're afraid you're out of the program, aren't you?" Yousefi said.

His voice made her stop pouting. She looked at him. "Sir?"

He was alive and in one piece. "You saved a lot of lives, Major," he said. "You're a hero. If the Dove has to wait for you, it will."

"Sir. How is your wife?"

Yousefi smiled. "She is well. We were lucky. So many weren't, Katherine. The AIT hit us hard, and where we least expected it."

"I thought the AIT were just a bunch of radical quacks."

"So did the UEA, which is why they caught us off-guard."

Katherine tried to sit up. She felt a pull at her side.

"Don't, Major. Give the patch a chance to do its work. Forty-eight hours at least."

"Patch?"

"The latest military medical treatment out of the XENO research labs. A surgeon pulled the bullet fragments. The patch will heal the wound in a couple of days."