The Dark Rift: Redemption (26 page)

Chuck slipped his facemask and goggles on, and opened the door a crack. Ahead, he could see the hallway was empty. The plastic curtain hung to the right, obscuring the view beyond. He opened the door wider, slipped through, and closed it behind him as quietly as he could. The murmur of voices echoed on the other side of the plastic, coming from workers in yellow suits milling around the ship. After pulling the curtain back, he watched them doing what appeared to be fueling operations. They must be almost ready. I'm running out of time, he thought.

He slipped past the curtain and skirted the edge of the room, trying to stay out of sight. Counting the people he could see, he found there were five workers.

“When are they bringing the passengers?” someone asked.

“They said 0800,” a man answered. “We need to get the medical transport ready.”

“I'll prep the oxygen tanks,” another man said, pushing a button on the side of the ship. A ramp lowered to the ground slowly. Once it was completely down, the man walked up it into the back of the ship. Chuck crept up to the ramp and followed him inside.

At the top of the ramp, he found himself in a cargo area, filled with palettes of boxes and metal containers, each with an LED display panel on the front. A light on the panel glowed green and a temperature reading was illuminated in each. All of the containers he could see registered negative seventeen degrees Celsius. That's pretty cold, Chuck thought. He ran the numbers through his head. Zero degrees Fahrenheit. Not able to control his curiosity, he flipped the lid to one of the containers and opened the top. A loud beeping was emitted from the container. Must be an alarm of some kind, he thought, quickly shutting the lid, but not before he saw the test tubes lined up in a Styrofoam rack. Each had the name of a person and a date stamped on a label.

Chuck heard the sound of footsteps coming his way. He secured the latch on the container and stepped behind a stack of boxes, out of view.

“I swear, I heard one of the alarms go off,” a man's voice said.

“I didn't hear anything," another man said. “You're sure you weren't imagining it? We've been working some long hours. You're probably just getting punchy.”

The footsteps came closer and stopped, just on the other side of the boxes. Chuck heard someone sigh.

“Yeah, I guess so,” the man said. "Nothing here.”

Chuck reached around the box and grabbed the man by the neck, pulling him into the corner where he hid. The man struggled desperately to get away. Chuck made a signal for him to be quiet, but the man kept squirming and he had no choice but to silence him. The bones in the man's neck made a dull sound as they snapped. He gently placed the body on the floor.

“Carl?” the other man called out. "Where'd you get to?”

Chuck estimated that the man was about five feet away, on the other side of the boxes. Wanting to get Mei out of the ship with as little disruption as possible, he knew it was important not to take the chance of the man alerting anyone else to his presence.

“Yeah, over here,” Chuck said, trying to sound like the man he'd killed. “Come and take a look at this.” He pushed himself flat against the boxes and waited. A few seconds later, the man appeared, his head peeking around the corner. Chuck grabbed him and pulled him close, clamping his hand over the man's mouth. He could see the man's eyes grow very large as he looked down at Carl lying on the floor.

“Now, you're going to be very quiet, do you understand?” Chuck said.

The man breathed through his nose rapidly, his eyes darting back and forth between Chuck and the body on the floor.

"Nod if you understand," Chuck said.

The man nodded. Sweat poured off of his beet red face.

“I'm going to ask you some questions and you're going to answer me. Understand?”

The man continued to nod.

“If I don't like your answers, you'll end up like your friend. Now you know the rules,” Chuck said. He slowly removed his hand from the man's mouth.

"Where is Mei?" Chuck asked.

The man's eyes grew large again and he started to shake and whimper quietly.

“I'll give you one more chance. Mei, the Asian woman who you people kidnapped. Where is she?”

“G..g..g..gone," the man stammered. "She's gone already. They took her.”

Chuck tightened his grip on the man. “Gone where, exactly?”

“You know,” the man said, pointing up. “Up there. Where we're all going.”

“I don't believe you,” Chuck said, gripping the man around the neck. “Try it again. Last chance. Where is Mei?”

The man breathed raggedly through his constricted airway. He started to claw at Chuck's hand and Chuck released the pressure slightly.

"They took her already. This ship is just for supplies. And the genetics team. Whoever's left."

Chuck felt it seeping into him. The realization that Hana had lied to him. And, he'd left Jodie, Gypsum's prized source of DNA, alone in her hands. "When did they take her?"

"It was yesterday. She's been gone since yesterday morning," the man said.

"What are they doing to her? Tell me," he growled into the man's face.

The man turned his face to the side, a stream of snot flowing from his nose. "Nothing right now. She's in cryostat. You know, frozen."

"You're lying to me, aren't you?" Chuck asked, digging his fingers into the man's arm. "I heard one of those people out there talking about the medical transport and getting oxygen tanks ready. Who is that for, if it's not Mei?"

The man's eyes grew larger again and he tried to squirm out of Chuck's grip. As his mouth opened, a scream escaping, Chuck clamped his hand down and spun the man's head violently to the side. The man went limp in his arms and Chuck tossed his body to the side, next to the other man.

"Time to see if I can find someone to tell me the truth," Chuck said.

* * *

Fester finished his dinner and sat by the campfire, watching the flames dance across the dry wood. From where he sat, he could see a glow from a distant town in the eastern sky, over the mountains beyond. To the west, everything was dark as black ink. He'd noticed another thing, too. Other than a group of fighter jets that he'd seen earlier, there were no other planes flying.

The sky was clear and overflowing with stars, the Milky Way galaxy hovering overhead like a heavy mass of cotton. He wanted to feel joy at the sight, but Fester could only find rage as he looked at the darkened center of the galaxy. That's where his father had told him the Gypsum people wanted to go. The dark rift.

He wondered about Chuck and whether he'd gotten far enough inside the installation to do any damage yet. Fester had fully expected to see a mushroom cloud rising from the desert by now, signaling that Gypsum was destroyed. He was afraid that Chuck and Jodie had run into trouble and wished he was there to help them. Surely, another gun would help Jodie accomplish her mission, which seemed to involve blowing the place to bits.

Noah’s mom sat down by him on the ground next to the fire. “It’s beautiful out here with all the stars, isn’t it?” she asked.

He wondered how she could so easily set aside her feelings and acknowledge beauty, after everything they’d been through. A raised purple bruise occupied the space under her left eye, yet she smiled as she looked up. Fester found himself unable to stop trembling as he thought of his mother, her face a mass of purple bruises, her hair matted with blood.

Noah’s mom slipped her arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. “We’ll get through this, Fester. Do you want to talk about anything?”

He let her hold him and buried his face in the space under her chin, like he used to do with his own mother, remembering his mother calling it “the safe spot,” where he could hide from everything bad in the world. Only, she’d been wrong and the bad things in the world had taken her life. Feeling his anger returning, Fester pulled away from Noah’s mom and wiped his face. “No . . . thanks,” he said.

“You should come in now and get some sleep,” Noah’s mom said. “I think Noah’s already sacked out. From the sound of the snoring, Nick and Evan are, too.”

Fester found himself on the verge of telling her what he wanted to do, but stopped. She would never let him go. “I wanna sit by the fire a while longer,” he said.

She looked at him, seeming to search his face. “Okay, but if anyone comes by, you wake us up immediately. And, you’ll need to douse the fire before you come to bed.”

“Okay,” Fester said, wishing he wasn’t so tired, too.

She stood. “I would stay up with you, but I’m exhausted and we’ve got another long day ahead of us. Are you sure you’re going to be okay out here by yourself?”

Fester nodded. “Yeah, I just want to be alone.”

Reaching down and touching his cheek, Noah’s mom said, “Okay, but don’t stay up too long.”

***

Jodie traced her finger along the map, heading toward what Hana told her was the chemical storage wing. Hana followed, pushing the med cart in front of her. Jodie turned to look at her, feeling dizzy. She stopped and reached out to steady herself against the wall.

“Are you okay?” Hana asked.

Jodie wondered if what she was feeling was normal for the virus that was in her system, but something didn’t seem altogether right. She felt herself starting to black out, the hallway lights slowly going dim, her body losing control. She slid along the wall, falling to her knees, remembering the pills she’d popped in her mouth without even asking what they were. The pills Hana had given her. “Chuck,” she called out, the last thing she could say before her mouth went numb.

Hands reached out to her. “What did you give me?” Jodie asked, not recognizing her own voice, her words slurred and incoherent. A stream of saliva flowed out of her mouth and ran across her cheek as she was placed on a gurney. Jodie looked up, seeing only masked faces. She wanted to fight them, to run away, but couldn’t move. She tried to keep her eyes open as Hana came into her view.

“Don’t worry, Jodie. They’ll take good care of you,” Hana said.

Jodie wanted to scream, but it was too late. She was completely paralyzed.

“Is Wending on the transport yet?” Hana asked.

“Yeah. He took out two guards,” a man’s voice said. “They’re just about to sedate him.”

Jodie tried to call out Chuck’s name again, but couldn’t.

“Let’s get her down there,” Hana said. “We need to get moving.”

The hallway passed by in a blur as Jodie felt herself being pushed on the gurney. Six men in yellow hazmat suits walked ahead and Hana walked beside her. She couldn’t turn her head to see who was following, but from the sounds of their murmured conversations, she thought at least a half a dozen people were behind her, too. Probably the whole genetics team, but where were they taking her? And what was going to happen to Chuck? Would they be able to capture him, as strong as he was?

Helpless to do anything other than worry, Jodie tried to see if she could feel anything in her arms and legs. Nothing but a tingling sensation in her feet, so far. Whatever Hana had given her was keeping her very drowsy. Added to the exhaustion she already felt, and had suffered from for days, the chemicals in her blood stream were difficult to battle. She held onto a slim hope that Chuck would fare better.

* * *

Evan stretched out on the couch, his feet cramped at one end and his head pushed against the wall next to the tiny bathroom. As he woke, he couldn’t remember where he was, until the light streaming in the side window shined in his eyes. The smell of stale food permeated the couch he lay on. He was in the camper, listening to gentle breathing coming from the bed in the back. Nick and Christy were curled up together on the bed, Nick's feet hanging off the end. He could see Noah’s arm dangling over the side of the bunk bed. The bottom bunk was empty, not slept in.

Slowly, Evan blinked his eyes and looked at the empty bed. Fester had not come in from the campfire last night. He sat up abruptly, his body letting him know that he was too old for all of this. Rubbing his aching shoulder and trying to get his bearings, Evan shifted to look out the window.

Dew glistened in the morning light on the grass around the camper. A blackened spot on the gravel remained where the fire had been extinguished. Fester was nowhere to be seen. Evan slipped on his shoes and went outside, closing the door behind him quietly. He held his hands close to the burnt out fire. All the warmth was gone. The fire had likely been put out hours ago.

The sun peeked over the mountaintop just as Evan turned the corner to the front of the store, startling a raccoon, which scampered off into the woods dragging what looked like a candy bar. Obviously, the wildlife wasn't going to be denied a meal, compliments of the convenience store owner. Evan strained to see in the store window. When he got to the door, he stopped and looked inside. "Fester, boy, are you in there?" he called.

The morning remained silent, save for the birds calling in the trees and the constant rustle of squirrels in the underbrush. Evan cursed himself for not keeping a better eye on Fester. He'd considered leaving in the night himself, not wanting to abandon Jodie to Gypsum.