Changes (10 page)

Shit!
He almost screamed out loud. He didn’t, but it was close. Seeing them, he backed away from the door, ducked out of sight of the window and held his breaths. He didn’t want them to see him and instantly, he felt terrified that they did. Believing that, his heart skipped, and then raced. He went to his knees, and sighed.
Now what do I do?
He looked around and looked back down the hallway behind him. Everything still seemed quiet. Everything looked dark. No one was obviously there. No one was aware of him either. Seeing it, hearing it, he breathed.

They’re guarding him. They must be looking for him. That’s why they’re blocking the hallway. I can’t let them see me. But I have to find him. How the hell am I going to do that now?
He thought about maybe going into the labs anyway.
I’m not allowed in there. No, I can’t do that.
He thought about asking the two guards what was going on.
I already know that. Pat told me. It’s in the logs.
He did see it written in the daily paperwork. He had to do something, but for the life of him, he didn’t have a clue as to what that was.
I’m going to have to come back later. I have more tours. Maybe by then, they’ll be gone?
That sounded like a good idea, so he went with it. He didn’t have a choice.

He turned from the double doors and made his way down the hallway, ducking under the windows of the doors as he went. When he was clear of them, he stood back straight, left and continued his tour.

He continued on now with an extra sense of caution in his heart. Three different times, he came upon uniformed lab security guards at different points in the building. Each of them seemed to be blocking the exits. Each one of them smiled to him as he made it by them. No one spoke and no one said a word. He took every opportunity not to look them in the eyes. He almost felt guilty. He felt confused. He didn’t, and couldn’t, take the chance to think.

When he made it back to the counter, he sat back down with a heavy heart. He stared at the computer, but stared at nothing. He just waited for his second tour, but until then, he looked at the screens, and watched several uniformed guards walking around the outside of the building. Seeing them, and waiting, it gave him the time to think.
Maybe I shouldn’t even try to find him. I should just keep to my routine. Leave it alone.
That sounded like a good idea, but still, he knew he liked him.
I don’t seem to have that many friends. He seems all right.
That too made sense.
What the hell Jimmy, you just met him. He works here. It’s none of your business.
He nodded and sighed.
There’s something going on around here. It feels dangerous. It revolves around him. It surrounds Collins.
He nodded again, and huffed hot air. He felt heavy, and his thoughts felt winded. To be honest with himself, he didn’t feel that Collins was a threat.
He doesn’t seem dangerous. He’s nice. He seems gentle. He treats me fine.
He seemed real. He seemed almost authentic. Nothing about him seemed right with the conversation that he overheard. There was something else going on, he was sure of that much now. When the clock hit one, he stood up and began his second tour.

He made his way through the building, and finished the tour in almost record time. Each one of the armed guards that he met on his first tour, were all still there. Each of them smiled at him as he passed by them. When he finished it, he returned to the counter, sat back down, and again he waited. The night went by in a seamless string of movement. Soon two o‘clock came, so he stood back up, and clipped the radio to his belt. He took the wand, and pushed in the chair.

“Hey there?” a woman’s voice echoed around the glass, so much so, it almost startled him with its subtleness. 

He looked up, and watched Rachel walk down the stairs and come towards him.

“Hi?” He turned to her, and straightened his tie. “Long night?” he asked her with a full smile. With his thoughts still on Collins, it never dawned on him how clear his voice sounded to her. He almost sounded natural. He almost sounded like everyone else did. It made him relax and it made him feel calm, and he never realized why he was. He would have been very proud of himself if he were.

“Yes it has been.” Rachel smiled as she came to the opposite side of the counter. “How’s your night been?” She placed her bag to the top of the counter and sighed.

Jimmy nodded. “Okay. It’s been a long night.” His smile widened.

She also nodded. “I have a favor to ask.” She sounded almost demur and that made her give him a slight and playful shrug.

God is she so beautiful.
He blushed. “Anything.”

“Would you mind walking me to my car again?”

Boy does she look so pure.
“I would love to.”

“Great. With everything that’s happening around here, I wouldn’t know what to do without you here?” She took her bag back into her right hand, and stepped away from the counter towards the center of the lobby.

Hearing her only caused all of the blood in his body to rush to his face. He left the counter and joined her at the doors. There, he reached for the door handle and opened the left one to her with a gracious stride. He always believed that being a gentleman was the key to his life, and he liked the fact that she waited for him to do it.

“I really appreciate this Jim.” She pulled her bag over her left shoulder.

“Jimmy please.” He smiled.

“Sure. Jimmy.” Seeing that he looked much more relaxed tonight, she decided to ask some normal, friendly questions. “How do you like working here so far?” She walked outside to the sidewalk, stopped there, and waited for him to join her.

“It’s not bad.” He followed her out onto the sidewalk, and shrugged. He had other things on his mind. “With all of this going on, I can’t blame you for wanting company?” He heard his voice and couldn’t believe what he sounded like. He sounded so normal. He sounded so strong. He liked the feeling, and all that he heard, and couldn’t believe that it was him saying it.
What’s so different?
He didn’t know, but he also didn’t care, but just enjoyed it.

She nodded, still smiling. “Everything seems like a mess.” She stopped off the curb to the lot. “Do you know what all of this is about?” A security patrol car just left the parking lot, went around the side of the building on their right, and disappeared. With its dark blue color and bright yellow stripe down the side of it, no one could have missed it.

“I don’t know much.” He shook his head. “I guess something got out.”

“Really? Did they say what?”

He shook his head, and shrugged his shoulders strongly. He, quite frankly, didn’t know anything at all. “No. I don’t know.”

“Well that would explain a lot?” She began moving again, and started out to her car on the other side of the vans. She hated that they were always there. They blocked the view of her car.

He continued walking with her, side by side. “So what do you do here?”

“I’m one of the lead researchers.” She walked slowly.

He kept up with her stride for stride. “What are you researching?” he asked, and only after he did so, he regretted asking it. It was obviously none of his business.

“We’ve been looking into healing capabilities of a new drug we’ve been working on. It shows a lot of promise.” She smiled.

With the moonlight over them, she looked like she sparkled. Listening to her answer, he decided to ask further. “What does that have to do with Collins?”
What the hell, Jimmy?
He bowed his head. He was on his mind more than he originally thought he was.

“Who?” They reached the front of one of the vans and stopped.

“Collins.” His mind paused as his heart stopped. He wasn’t so sure if he should have mentioned the name, after all, they were looking for him. He already said that he didn’t see him. She worked there, so that meant that she might be looking for him too. That changed, when he thought about it further.
She didn’t recognize his name. If she didn’t, then she doesn’t know who he is.
So his heart started again.

“I’ve never heard of a Collins before?” She turned to him, and looked deeply in his eyes. She also shook her head to prove her point.

He looked at her and could see, even with the dim light around them, nothing but wonder in her eyes. And,
God what beautiful eyes she has.

“Does he work here?”

Hearing her, he felt confused as well. “He works in the back labs, two intersections from you.”

She turned and brought her head down.

He could see that she was thinking.

“There’s no one that works in that part of the building.” She brought her eyes back up to his. “That’s the area where we keep some of the animals that we used to do research on,” she paused again, “If that’s the area I’m thinking of?”

He shrugged, and now felt, more than ever, that he went too far. If she didn’t know about Collins, than
he
probably shouldn’t know about him either. “Maybe I got the name wrong.” He tried to think and had to pull himself out of the hole that he was obviously digging himself in to, and it made him have to backtrack some and fast. “I’ve met so many people here, that I’m having trouble remembering all of their names.” He laughed trying to show her that he was truly mistaken. He could only hope it worked.

She responded to everything with a nod. Everything he said did make some amount of sense. “Yeah, well, I can understand that?” She left it at that. She turned and headed across the front of the van, passed the second one, and made her way to the driver’s side of her car.

He sighed with relief as he followed her, watched her open the door, and sit behind the wheel.

“Thank you again for your company.” She started the engine.

“You’re welcome.” He smiled again with a flash, and watched her close the door. He then watched her slowly pull off, drive across the parking lot, and leave out onto the entrance road. He stood there, until she was gone.

That was close.
He felt himself relax. He couldn’t believe how far that almost went.
God Jimmy you are such an idiot!
He turned and started out across the front of the two vans.
Why did you say that?
He sighed as he crossed the parking lot and stepped up to the sidewalk.
You shouldn’t have said it. You’re so stupid sometimes. You should’ve know better.
He walked down the sidewalk, moving slowly. His mind rambled strongly as he headed for the door.
That’s it. I’m just going to do my job. Enough of this. I’m going to do my job and just go home.
He stopped as a sound came on the wind. It caught his attention instantly, and froze him place.
What the hell is that?
It sounded like someone called his name. The sound felt subtle, almost sounding like a whisper. With the crickets singing, it was hard to be sure, if he heard anything at all.

“Who’s there?” He turned to his left. Bushes, shrubs, and a few small trees were the only things there. They ran along the front of the building, and with them, it was hard to see anything at all within them. Shadows were everywhere, and nothing but darkness was everywhere with them.

“Jimmy?”

He heard it again. The sound came soft. He almost didn’t recognize it as words. However, he heard it, he was almost sure of it. “Who’s there?” He left the sidewalk, and moved towards the bushes and trees.

“Come here?”

There it is again.
“Collins?” He stepped on the lawn, and stepped to the bushes.
What the hell is he doing?
He stopped and strained to look. With the shadows, he couldn’t see anything. “Is that you?”
Who else would it be? Why is he hiding? What’s he doing?
It had to be him.

“Come here.”

The whisper came, and this time, the bushes shook some to his left. He walked to the sound, and to where he saw the flutter. He stepped closer, until he stopped in front of a small tree, only inches from him. The deep shadows behind it made it difficult to see anything there. “Collins? Is that you?” He bent down and tried to bring himself closer to the underbrush. Being this close to them, he did see something, or someone move.
It has to be him.
He was now sure of it. “Collins?” The movement was big enough to be a man. It was just so dark, and hard to see what or who it was.

Bending down, coming to the bottom of the bushes, something came out so quickly that he couldn’t react to it. All he saw was a mass of black, and something that could have only been fir. All he felt was a sharp pain flare through him like a thunderbolt. It clamped down hard on his left hand, and a shot of instant, piercing agony flew through his wrist. He pulled away from the bushes quickly, tripped some, and almost fell backwards, but didn‘t. Stumbling, he screamed out with the pain racing up his arm and up to his shoulder. He took his left hand into his right, backed away further, and looked to his wrist. Blood was everywhere. It covered him completely from fingertip to elbow. With it all, fear gripped him instantly. Whatever grabbed him, he could see that it did a world of damage to him. Seeing it, and feeling it, it was everything he knew.

With his heart pounding, he left the sidewalk, ran back to the front doors, and pulled them open quickly. He ran into the lobby, and looked to his wrist. The blood oozed out of everywhere. It ran down his arm, and dripped off his elbow.
Fuck me hard!
He could feel his panic also beginning to grow. His whole arm flared with heat. Numbness followed the hot. He looked around the room.
I’ve got to do something. I’ve got to do it now. I’m bleeding to death. What do I do? What the fuck do I?
He looked to the left of the counter, and looked to the men’s room plaque. He saw it and sighed.