The Search for Artemis (The Chronicles of Landon Wicker) (7 page)

“What are you saying, doctor?” the suited man asked.

“What I’m saying is that, consistently, subjects have only ever been able to reach a lifting capacity of thirty-five times their body weight, at a maximum. Physics shouldn’t allow for anything more than that, so what you’re seeing here should be impossible. His body should have compressed into itself from the pressure.”

Moments later, the door to the observation room opened and Dr. Márquez entered.

“We’re ready. She should be entering the room momentarily,” Dr. Márquez said as he walked up to the glass. “Ah yes, here she is now.”

Beyond the glass, Sofia Petrovanya entered the examination room and shut the door.

“Sofia? What are you doing here?” Landon asked. He started to blush, embarrassed by the medical clothes he wore.

“I requested to do this for you,” Sofia replied. “I told you before you got in the car with me that I’d answer your questions. It’s now time to answer some of them.” As she spoke, she walked over to the small table next to the gurney and picked up the vial of milky liquid. “This substance has the ability to draw out memories. In particular, the memory of the night you’ve forgotten.”

“God, she’s good,” Dr. Dodgson said under his breath as he and the other observers watched Sofia convince Landon to lie back in the gurney and let her strap him down with the leather restraints. They also watched as she drew the milky white compound into the large syringe and comforted Landon as she injected it into his arm.

“I’ll come back once you’ve awakened. Don’t worry, everything will be fine,” Sofia said as Landon dozed off into a drug-induced slumber. He was unconscious by the time Sofia left the examination room.

In the observation room, the three doctors and the suited man stood there, silently waiting for some sign that Landon was reacting to Dr. Dodgson’s compound. They didn’t even pay attention to Sofia as she entered the room and joined the men along the glass.

“Anything yet?” she asked.

“No, nothing. The anesthetic seems to have taken effect, so it should be any minute now. When the compound begins to react with the brain you’ll see a spike in his heart rate on this monitor.” Dr. Dodgson pointed to a monitor on the console next to him but never took his gaze off Landon lying unconscious in the examination room.

Mere seconds later a loud beeping sound began to fill the silent observation room. The pulse of it continued to elevate until it sounded somewhat like Morse code. They all stared in anticipation, waiting to see what was in store. Suddenly, Landon’s entire body stiffened, his back arched and his head sprung backwards.

“Is this supposed to happen?” the suited man asked.

“Well sir, we have no precedent for this reaction. His heart rate appears to be within the safe range, but the paralytic should have removed any bodily reaction,” Dr. Dodgson replied with an obvious tremor in his voice.

As the observers continued to stare into the examination room, they watched the gurney began to shake. The small metal table, the half-empty vial, and the syringe lifted into the air, and a strange noise began to emanate from the walls. It groaned as if metal was buckling under pressure.

“Are we safe in here?” Dr. Márquez asked as he erratically shifted his head left and right, following the creaking sounds.

“This glass is twelve inches thick and it’s reinforced by high grade steel. We should be completely safe,” Dr. Longfellow answered. Following his response, another roaring sound of buckling metal reverberated through the room, which caused him to crouch down. “We should be,” he added tremulously.

Sofia and the suited man stood unfazed. They watched unaffected as the objects in Room 132 spun vigorously around. They gazed intently as Landon’s body lifted a few inches off the gurney, only held down by the leather straps. They stayed focus as the walls sounded as if they were going to crash in upon them. They paid no attention to the cracking of the monitors in the observation room or to Dr. Dodgson’s cup of coffee as it floated off the console.

The doctors, however, scrambled around the room. Dr. Dodgson feverishly typed things into different computers, attempting to complete his actions before the screens cracked and went black. Dr. Márquez ran back and forth between the glass and the door, trying to decide whether he wanted to stay any longer, and Dr. Longfellow rapidly wrote on a clipboard, that was until his glasses floated off his face and he began to chase them around the small room. All of the doctors let out a little gasping scream as they rose a few inches off the ground, one by one. Even still, Sofia and the suited man remained calm and collected.

After a few seconds of floating, Sofia and the suited man noticed Landon’s body go limp and fall back onto the gurney. Instantly, all of them dropped back to their feet and the objects coursing through the air dropped to the ground. The syringe, however, was lodged into the large pane of glass, and cracks snaked outward from its impact point.

“I have
never
in my
life
seen something like that!” Dr. Dodgson ran around the observation room in a frenzy, pushing buttons and clicking switches. “That was insane!”

“Completely safe,” Dr. Márquez said sarcastically between pants. “Look at the state of this place! Look at the glass! This place isn’t
safe!
” Perched on the edge of a full-blown panic attack, his voice got higher and higher with every sentence.

“Interesting,” the suited man said, finally turning away from the glass. “Inform Dr. Wells that I’d like him to pay special attention to this one, and I want to remain constantly updated on his progress. What’s his name again?”

“Yes, sir. Of course, sir. Landon Wicker, that’s his name,” Dr. Longfellow said as he cleaned his cracked glasses on his lab coat. Without responding, the suited man strolled out of the observation room.

“I should get in there. He’ll be waking soon, and he shouldn’t have to be alone after that,” Sofia said. She seemed disturbed by the terrible display of power.

• • • • •

Sofia stood by Landon’s side for about ten minutes before he began to stir. Once he opened his eyes, he lay there emotionless, staring blankly into Sofia’s face, almost as if he was looking past her. Tears welled up in his eyes and fell down the side of his face, but Landon didn’t pay any attention to it. He was numb.

Sofia placed her hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort him with her soft touch, but Landon didn’t respond. He merely continued to stare at her. Water streamed over his temples and disappeared in his hair.

“Landon, it’s okay.” Sofia spoke reassuringly. She didn’t need him to tell her what he saw. “It was an accident. You had no control.” As she spoke, she delicately removed the restraints that still held Landon on the gurney.

Landon sat up, turned his face away from Sofia and cleared the tears from his face.

“Landon, please, look at me. Please,” Sofia said. Her voice sounded gentle and pleading. Landon took a quick breath in through his nose and then turned his body around to face Sofia, who looked at him with large, compassionate eyes.

“Landon, we can help you. That is why I brought you here. Yes, what happened is a great tragedy, but you’re special. Even if you don’t believe it now, you have a gift, and we can teach you how to use it—control it. There are hundreds of other kids around your age who have come to us with the same abilities, and we teach them to master their skills, so that things like what happened to you don’t ever happen again. We can protect you. If you choose to stay, we can make everything right. The police will stop looking for you, and you’ll be free to live a happy life after you’ve learned what you need to know. Now, will you stay? You said you wanted to know what was happening to you, and we can show you. What do you say?”

Sofia’s words were the only comfort Landon had against the torturous memory he just endured. Her voice was soft, and he didn’t comprehend everything she said. His mind reeled from the experience, and he still felt a bit groggy from the anesthetic. Landon just nodded. He never spoke a word; all his did was lightly nod,
Yes
.

“Excellent, Landon,” Sofia replied. “Trust me, you’ll find yourself here.”

With the help of Sofia, Landon lifted himself up and stepped onto the debris-covered floor of the examination room. He then proceeded out into the medical wing hallway. Sofia walked beside him, welcoming him to the Gymnasium.

ORIENTATION

Sofia escorted Landon into a small room. It was simple and sterile with a bed covered in white linens and a small white table with a single chair pushed under it.

“Landon, you’ll be staying here tonight. Tomorrow morning, after you’ve rested, there will be another session where you’ll get a few more questions answered. Think of it as an orientation. . . . Also, Dr. Márquez was telling me that you have a severely bruised shoulder, so we are going to have someone treat that for you tonight before you go to bed to help with the pain. . . . And I will get you some dinner too.”

Sofia explained all of this with generous pauses, allowing Landon an opportunity for questions or comments, but he didn’t make a sound. He looked like a zombie. His arms limply lay at his sides, and he blankly stared at the ground.

She led him over to the bed, where he curled up in a familiar and comforting fetal position atop the sheets, turned away from the door and his guide. She stood beside him for a while, looking down on the broken boy she had collected.

This was the worst case she’d experienced since her time at the company. She was the Collector. It was her job to acquire the subjects after their apocratusis and bring them to the Gymnasium. It was also her job to make them comfortable and convince them to stay. Each time she received a dossier on her target detailing their background. She knew their name, age, appearance, family history, school grades, and even their favorite food. But there were always gaps in the file. She didn’t know the exact events that triggered Landon’s apocratusis, but she’d seen pictures and a detailed report documenting the scene afterward. It was terrible to see. He was the sixty-fourth subject she’d collected and the sixty-fourth she’d convinced to attend the Gymnasium, but something was different about him. He was the first she feared would only find his gifts weren’t gifts at all.

Before turning to leave the room, she gently placed her hand on Landon’s arm, but he just lay there.

“Oh, and I’ll get you some new clothes too. . . . Don’t worry. I’ll take care of you,” Sofia said as she shut the door.

Landon was alone in the room.

• • • • •

At nine in the morning, Sofia knocked on the door to the small medical quarters where Landon stayed. When he didn’t respond, she hesitantly opened the door to find him lying in the same position from when she left him the night before. He hadn’t even pulled the covers of the bed over himself to stay warm. Next to a tray of untouched dinner she brought him the previous evening and a stack of new clothes, she set a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast and a glass of orange juice. She circled around to the other side of the bed, expecting to wake Landon, only to find him with his eyes wide open, staring off into the blank white wall. Had he slept at all?

“Good morning, Landon. I need you to get up and get ready for today. I’ll be back in forty-five minutes to take you to the orientation room,” Sofia said. Landon didn’t reply, but he did look at her, and that was all she needed to know that he’d heard and understood.

After she left the room, it took Landon another ten minutes before he moved an inch. He had little desire to go anywhere or do anything. He’d much rather just stay in that room until he died and could be free from the terrible memory, but he knew anything was better than sulking in the medical wing all day. And maybe the planned activities would get his mind off things. As he rose to his feet, his face winced. His shoulder felt sore and stiff even though Dr. Longfellow treated it the night before. Over the next half hour, Landon cleaned up and put on the clothes they provided: a new pair of dark denim jeans, a solid red t-shirt, and a brand new pair of white sneakers. As he sat at the table, waiting for Sofia to return, he stared at the plate of food.

The night before, he never even paid attention to the orderly as she brought him his dinner. At the time, he hadn’t eaten in over twenty-four hours and his stomach rumbled loudly when he smelled the hot food sitting on the table, but he had no appetite. The mere idea of eating had nauseated him. Now, true to form, his stomach began to resound with boisterous guttural gurgles and grumbles, and Landon couldn’t resist his abdomen’s command.

As Landon brought a piece of crisp bacon toward his mouth, the smell transported him back to his first day of school when he was five years old. After his mom got him ready, she sat Landon down at the kitchen table and laughed as Landon excitedly talked about all the things he was anticipating. All the while, the smell of bacon frying on the stove consumed the air. As he thought about it, he realized it was one of the few memories he had of her where she seemed truly happy.

With the first bite, Landon thought he was in heaven. As he chewed, he couldn’t help but let out a soft groan of pleasure. Afterward, his stomach paid no mind to his current emotional state. Instead, it drove him toward the plate, causing him to ravenously consume ever last morsel of food and drink the orange juice dry. If Sofia hadn’t knocked on the door, Landon would have moved over to the plate of cold food from the night before and devoured it just as fast.