Derek looked around the dark and damp abandoned house.
He covered the windows with heavy cloth so it would maintain the appearance of
being unoccupied. The only source of light he could risk was a small candle in
the main room. “I can’t wait to be somewhere I can turn on a fucking light.”
He left the house and headed for the railroad tracks
leading to his parents’ home. The old line crossed the road less than a hundred
yards from the hideout. As he stood on the tracks, he stopped and looked around
to make sure he was alone. When the coast was clear, he didn’t follow the rail
line. Instead, he continued along the road toward Jennifer’s house.
Derek knew if Joshua discovered his relationship with
her he would do everything in his power to end it. Joshua had a master plan to
wreak havoc as an unstoppable team. They’d need to be light on their feet and
able to travel anywhere at any time. They couldn’t tolerate being held back by
anyone without their abilities. Once they eliminated the ones that could stand
in their way, they planned on moving freely to satisfy their urge without fear
of discovery or interruption. It was Joshua’s plan, but never Derek’s.
He needed to appease Joshua by agreeing to partner with
the sociopath. He wanted his revenge on the people who destroyed his life as
much as Joshua. When Jennifer convinced him there was hope of a way out,
everything changed. He knew Joshua wouldn’t allow him to be with her. He knew
he’d take her life to end the relationship and regain control of him.
As he approached Jennifer’s house, he could see the deck
illuminated with Tiki torches and candles. He could hear the music and see her
dancing. He passed over his foxhole, crossed the creek, and slowly made his way
to the first stair leading up to the deck.
Joshua maintained a safe distance while following Derek.
He crept down the path and noticed the hole Derek used as cover for watching
the house. He looked across the yard from the creek bed and watched as the two
embraced. He knew he had been betrayed.
Derek sat holding her hand and talking with her for
nearly two hours. Joshua sat motionless replaying in his head how he was going
to kill her. He refused to let a simple woman drive a wedge between his
fantasies of ultimate domination and the only person who could help him achieve
it.
His anger rose to an apex as he watched them embrace
again and hold a passionate kiss long enough for him to realize where Derek’s
loyalties truly lay. Derek turned away from her and started back towards the
woods. Joshua silently moved farther down the creek bed to avoid detection. He
watched her extinguish the lights and music as Derek assumed his post for the
night in his foxhole. Joshua moved quietly back into the thick brush and took a
position less than fifty yards away from the traitor. For the remainder of the
night, he stared coldly at Derek, who never took his eyes off her house.
As dawn began to push back the cover of night, Joshua
made his way back to their hideout and waited for Derek to return. He sat alone
in the dark room trying to subdue his anger. He didn’t want to tip his hand that
he was aware of the relationship. Instead, he focused on the pleasure he would
obtain snuffing the life out of the woman jeopardizing everything. After
sitting alone for three hours, he heard footsteps approaching the front door. Derek
was home.
“An uneventful evening?” asked Joshua from his chair in
the corner of the room.
“Very,” replied Derek, taking a seat across from him. “I
have to admit I nearly ran into the house when I started smelling my mother’s
fried chicken. Good Lord, that woman can cook. I can’t tell you the last time I
sat at her table and ate a home-cooked meal.”
“Are you going back tonight?”
“Not to my parents’,” said Derek, “I’m gonna grab a
couple hours of sleep and then head to my sister’s place. She lives further
away, so I’ll probably head out as soon as I wake up.”
“Sleep well, my friend.”
*****
Paul walked slowly down the hallway leading to Colonel
Brown’s office. He breathed deeply as he entered the last place on earth he wanted
to be. Standing in front of the Colonel, Paul was silent while his boss
finished a phone conversation.
“Enjoy your vacation?” asked Colonel Brown.
“It was no vacation, sir,” replied Paul. “It was pretty
much hell on earth where they kept us.”
“Oh, no, son,” said Colonel Brown, walking up to the
nervous team leader. “You have absolutely no idea what hell on earth feels
like. But I’ll make you feel it if you screw up again.”
“I won’t, sir.”
“I really didn’t want to hear that,” said Colonel Brown,
standing with his arms crossed only a few inches away from Paul’s face. “I
should’ve left you and your team to rot in your cells, but I need you here.”
“My team is ready, sir.”
“Explain to me again why they let you just walk out of
there? If it were me, I would’ve buried you out in the desert.”
“I believe that was the original plan,” said Paul,
trying to stay calm. “But after what happened to the doc and his men, the guy
running the show had had enough. He’s worried about a federal investigation and
losing his business. More killing would’ve brought more attention. I think he’s
done helping Ryan.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” replied Colonel Brown. “I did
some digging, and those two have been friends for over fifteen years. I imagine
both of them are pissed right now. They’re probably looking to come here and
get some answers and a little revenge. It’ll be the end of Ryan’s career and
Steve’s company if they do, but it was my intention to force them to make
mistakes. Coming here would be one of those mistakes.”
“Where do you need my team, sir?” asked Paul, attempting
to change the subject.
“You and your guys are going to be on the perimeter.
Alex is running the show and volunteered you to be the initial line of defense
against an assault. He figures, even if you do screw up again, they’ll waste
bullets and time chewing through your men first.”
“We’ll be ready,” said Paul. “They won’t get by us. My
guys and I are looking for a little payback.”
“So are they.”
*****
Four large SUVs were parked outside a small airplane
hangar at a private airstrip twenty miles from Bar Harbor, Maine. Ryan, Dallas,
Steve, and his men were checking their gear and going over the final details of
the assault on the lab.
“Still no word from Derek?” asked Dallas.
“Not yet,” answered Ryan. “He has a few hours left to
decide. We’re moving forward as if he’s not going to show.”
“You know, I can’t really blame him,” said Steve. “We
did a lousy job trying to protect Kristina. I don’t imagine he has very much
confidence in our ability to protect Jennifer.”
“We can’t worry about it now,” said Ryan. “We need to
take this one step at a time, and the first step is shutting down the Colonel.”
“In order to do that, we have to get past Alex,” said Dallas.
“Any ideas?”
“He’s not bulletproof,” said Ryan. “None of them are.
I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but if they have no idea we’re there, it
won’t be as hard. We focus on quietly finding him first. After he’s
incapacitated, we can go loud on the rest of the troops.”
“The lab will be practically empty tonight except for
the security force,” said Steve. “Even if there’s a skeleton crew of employees,
they’ll be easily distinguishable in their white coats. I handpicked my guys.
They’re some of the best in the world. I don’t see us racking up a civilian
body count.”
“Good,” said Ryan. “Being a Friday night will also help
us. Everything shuts down in there on the weekends. As far as Alex, our eyes on
the inside should pinpoint his location for us. The Colonel may be the head of
the snake, but Alex is his fangs. We eliminate him and the rest of the security
force will fold.”
“What about the Colonel?” asked Dallas.
“I’ll be taking him,” said Ryan. “I need him alive. At
least long enough to answer some questions.”
*****
Derek lay in his bed staring at the ceiling for nearly two
hours. He had no intentions of falling asleep with Joshua in the next room.
Knowing he was so close to Jennifer made him nauseous, but he had to control
his level of distress and fear. Joshua was highly sensitive to any fluctuation
in his level of anxiety. Thinking about bringing the nightmare to an end helped
him ease his mind. How it was going to end was still a slight mystery. He had
no other option at that point but to trust Ryan.
He looked at his watch and realized it was nearly time
to leave. The plane waiting for him at the airport wouldn’t be there much
longer. He walked out to the living room and discovered Joshua sitting in the
same dark corner.
“Good morning, princess,” greeted Joshua.
“Do you ever sleep?” asked Derek.
“I slept like a baby right here in this chair. How was
your nap?
“I could use a few more hours, but I feel pretty good. I
need to get moving, though. What are your plans today?”
“Funny you should mention that,” replied Joshua. “I’ve
been sitting here thinking about what you’re doing.”
“What am I doing?” asked Derek.
“Putting your eyes on people you care about. I’m
thinking maybe I should do the same.”
“Good for you,” said Derek. “It does help knowing for
sure they’re okay. Even if you can’t let them know you’re there, it helps.”
“I agree.”
“Who are you going to see? I didn’t know you had family
around here.”
“No, I don’t. But there is one woman in particular I’d
like to check in on. She’s an old friend I’ve always had a thing for.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, but don’t worry. I wouldn’t risk exposing myself
to talk to her or let her know I’m here. I know it would ruin everything we’ve
worked to achieve. I wouldn’t let anything or anyone come between you, me, and
our mission. I couldn’t do that to you.”
“I appreciate that, Joshua, I really do. I think you
should go see her. Who knows, when all this is over, you may have the chance to
tell her how you feel.”
“I seriously doubt that.”
“Never say never,” said Derek.
“You seem pretty optimistic today. Do you know something
I don’t?” asked Joshua.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You said when this is all over,” continued Joshua.
“This will never be over for us, Derek. Do you understand? There is no cure for
what they gave us. We’ll never be the men we were before they did this. The
sooner you come to grips with our reality, the sooner you can stop the
ridiculous dream of being normal again. It simply won’t happen.”
“We don’t know anything about what we are,” said Derek.
“We don’t know for sure if our condition is irreversible or permanent. We don’t
know if it’ll ease up over time or become more intense. The only thing we do
know is that we don’t want to be this way. After we make things right with the
assholes that started this, I have to keep looking for a way to get my life
back. Why is that so hard for you to understand?”
“Because it’s a fucking dream and nothing else,” said
Joshua, becoming angry.
It was exactly what Derek wanted. He wanted to get him
as angry as possible before he left.
“It’s not a dream,” said Derek. “It’s just hope. If I
lose that, I have absolutely nothing left. Nothing. I have to believe there’s
at least a chance. I don’t want to kill innocent women anymore. I don’t want to
accept I’m going to be a monster for the rest of my life. To me that’s not a
life worth living.”
“It’s not about accepting you’re a monster,” said
Joshua. “It’s about accepting the things you can’t change. And we can’t change
what happened to us. Peter and Richard had hope, and look what happened to
them. They were murdered by the same people who created us. We’re not the
monsters, they are. Damn it, Derek, you’re all I have left and I won’t let them
take you. I won’t let anyone take you. We deserve to live. It may not be the
life you hoped for, but at least it’s a life. If you hold on to that dream,
they’ll kill you for it. I’d rather live and fight than hope and die.”
“I’m with you, Joshua, I really am. We do need to fight.
We need to make sure they never do this again to anyone else. But after, I need
something to keep me going. I don’t know exactly what that’s going to be, but I
have a good idea.”
“I know you do,” said Joshua.
“You do?”
“Yeah, I do. But I also know, in the end, it’ll let you
down. The only thing we can rely on is each other. Nobody else on the planet
knows what we’ve been through. Nobody else on the planet will ever truly
understand us. They’ll always look at us as murderers. They could care less
about why we did it. Whether we wanted to or not is irrelevant. Someone has to
pay, and it’ll be us.”
With Joshua’s last statement, he didn’t need to push him
any further. For a brief moment, he actually felt sorry for him. The feeling
was quickly subdued when he thought about the inconceivably evil actions of a
man he once thought of as a friend.
“You’re probably right, Joshua. Our lives are never
going to be the same. Nothing we do or say will ever make them understand. If
it has to be you and me against the world, then so be it.”
“Make no mistake, it is you and me against the world.”
“Okay. I need to get going. I’ll make it a short night.
We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow. I’m looking forward to finally getting
my hands on those motherfuckers.”
Derek made it to the airport with less than an hour to
spare. The pilot of the aircraft notified Steve and Ryan that he was onboard.
It was late afternoon when Derek arrived at the airfield
in Maine. Ryan and Steve were the first to greet him when he walked into the
hangar housing the assault team. Dallas was asleep in a small office adjacent
to the building.