Numbers

The next day we were all in a different van. Having left the stolen one in the patch of woods by the house before we left, we had crawled into this new one the James had provided only an hour before we left. We sat in silence. James drove and Gab sat next to him in the passenger’s seat, while the rest of us had climbed in the back. Yet no one said anything, we were just thinking over the plan in our head. The ride seemed to stretch out for hours at a time but it was really only minutes.

No one had gotten any sleep during the past night. No one had dared fall asleep because there had been too much to do. Luke had run about the house like an insane person, throwing certain clothes into bags, which I had no idea where he found those, and laying out certain peoples outfits so they would be dressed ‘appropriately’ for today. James had spent most of the previous night on his cell phone, talking to, I assumed, his co-workers back in DC. Paul and I had worked on figuring out a way to carry the meteorites out of the institute, the only thing the plan didn’t specify on. While Rose, Gab, and Drew did various tasks about the house, whether it was helping Luke or cleaning or doing something else that needed to be done. Truthfully I think people were just too scared to sleep.

I was afraid I would be back in that room again. I was afraid of waking up screaming again. I was afraid the nameless man would invade my dreams and make me remember. But I had to focus now. I had to remember why we were doing this. I bit my tongue and waited, half of me wished James would drive faster. The other half of me was thankful that he took his time on the highway and groaned when we finally pulled off the main road and headed toward the cold institute building.

James pulled the car into the parking lot and parked the van. We all sat there for a moment before James turned to us, “everyone good with the plan,” he asked in a casual voice.

Everyone nodded solemnly. “Good,” he said nodding, “Then let’s get on with it.”

James opened his door and got out in one quick motion. Cynthia, who was sitting by the back seat door, placed the earbudds in her ears, adjusted her mini shirt, and threw open the back door. James was waiting with a grim expression on his face, I saw Cynthia scowl at him before she slammed the back door closed.

Through the window we all watched in silence as James escorted Cynthia to the front doors of the institute. They both looked grim as they approached the doors, one had an obvious scowl on her face while the other walked mostly expressionless. Then they disappeared through the sliding glass doors. Everything was going as planned…so far.

“Time to go,” Gab announced from the front of the car, he opened his door and jumped up while the rest of us followed suit.

As casually as we could we walked toward the front doors. Slowly make our way to the front; I could just make out James talking to the receptionist who stood smiling at him from behind the desk. Cynthia was slouching, looking around annoyed and playing her part a little too well for comfort.

The doors opened as we got even closer to the front and James’ voice floated out to us, “…stupid kids huh? I mean, I guess you can’t even take your eyes off them, ya know what I mean?”

The girl giggled, “I believe I do.”

James nodded, apparently the girl didn’t see him slowly draw his weapon, “I mean all these kids running around, someday they’re going to get themselves hurt.”

The girl grinned and nodded, “I completely-“

James moved so fast I couldn’t follow his motion. One minute he was lounging against the front desk and the next minute he was holding the barrel of his gun and frowning down at the unconscious receptionist. “Remind me to never get you mad,” I murmured as we finally entered the lobby.

“Remind me never to go with him when he starts flirting,” Cynthia whined, “I thought I was going to be sick.”

“What did you expect me to do,” James asked her, “punch her in the nose on sight?”

“That might have been kinder,” Paul whispered for my ears only, I smiled.

“Are we going to stand here and talk until they find us or are we going to move?” the officer snapped eyeing the empty lobby with some uneasiness.

James nodded, “Right…get into…umm costume?”

No one said anything but we all sprang into action. I ran around the front desk, pulling open the drawers until I found the one I was looking for. Stacked neatly in the one of the desks many draws was a pile of nice white lab coats, I grinned and grabbed one slamming the drawer with a little more force then was probably necessary. I looked at the others as I shrugged into the coat; Paul was stripping down to reveal the guard uniform that Luke had improvised out of what we had had in the house. Surprisingly he didn’t look that far off. Cynthia was still leaning against the front desk but now see eyed the entrance to the institute hallway wearily with a gun firmly in her grip. I kinda of regretted that James had felt the need to bring more than one gun…almost. Luke stripped down to reveal his white gown and Gab was right there with him. They looked each other up and down wearily but said nothing; I knew they were going to be uncomfortable pretending to be what they once were. I took a deep breath then turned to James, “Ready for this?”

“No,” he said simply, “But I don’t see myself getting ready in the near future either.”

I nodded. Rose had slipping into another white lab coat and the officer had shrugged into a suit jacket, there was a slight bulged where his wings were tightly tucked against his body but there was nothing we could do about that, suddenly we were ready. I gulped, turning to Cynthia, “Don’t get yourself killed.”

She nodded, not taking her eyes off of the door, “Right back at ya.”

With that we went into the mouth of the beast. The hallway was silent as always, the only sound that echoed back to my ears was the sound of our heels hitting the tiles. We went around corners, down various hallways until finally the old sound of humming electricity filled my ears. I slowed my pace just a little so I could peer into my old lab, staff that I didn’t recognize worked imputing data into the computers, working on filling out files, I forced myself to keep walking but my heart skipped a beat. Julianne had done it again; she had gotten rid of another group of staff members. I tried to quiet my anger, I tried to stop my hands from shaking but they wouldn’t listen. I felt Paul put a reassuring hand on my shoulder for a second before he quickly stood back into his position. I took a deep breath and turned around the corner towards the metal room.

I refused to think about those days. I refused to picture the nameless man with his forceful nature and wandering hands. I refused my mind to go down that path. But I couldn’t help the old emotions that resurfaced just seeing that almost forgotten hallway. My feet led me like it was instinct to go back. I body remembered the way no matter how much my mind didn’t want it to. We turned the last corner and I froze in midstride.

“How could you not find them, you poor excuse for a scientist,” snapped Julianne who stood outside the meteorite lab glaring up at the nameless man, “I bet you didn’t even go to MIT, you pathetic weasel, otherwise I would have the poor little Doctor dead and buried and my bodies would be back by now.”

“You asked me to track down her family members,” the nameless man growled back, “I tracked them all down and they haven’t seen head or tail of her since she got this job at the bloody institute! If you would let me control the search I would have already found her.”

I back traced my steps as quietly as I could. My breath came in pants as I leaned against the wall as the others gathered around me. I closed my eyes and wished to be anywhere else. Why did things not have to go smoothly, I asked myself, why did Julianne and the nameless man have to appear at the last second like all the stupid bad guys in bad horror films?

“That’s her,” James asked in a whisper, I nodded slowly allowing myself to open my eyes. My eye immediately found Paul, he knew. I gulped and grabbed his sleeve before he could move to do anything reckless.

“We have to get those rocks,” Gab murmured frustrated, “But we can’t just shoot them that could raise an alarm.”

“Thank you captain obvious, you win the most obvious observation award,” Luke muttered, rolling his eyes.

“And I believe they’re meteorites,” James whispered while Gab rolled his eyes.

“Great…two smart mouths.”

I could still hear Julianne and the nameless man arguing around the corner. There had to be a way to get them away from the door. There had to be a way to get them out of the hallway. I chewed my lip as I pondered, there had to be a way. “Don’t even think about it,” James growled into my ear.

I jumped and glared at him, “think what?”

“I know that look,” he said readying his gun, “And you’re about to do something stupid.”

I blushed, I hadn’t figured out what I was going to do yet, but it probably would have been stupid nevertheless. That didn’t mean I liked people knowing what I was going to do before I did! I scowled at James but before I spoke he dashed around the corner, “So you get to do something stupid,” I growled to myself before peeking around the corner.

“Hold it right there, FBI,” James shouted pointing his gun at Julianne and the nameless man.

Their conversation stopped and they slowly turned towards James. Julianne slowly smiled, “It seemed Tony was right,” she purred, “The good Doctor would give me all that I need.”

I felt my insides freeze, I felt the blood drain from my face, but I didn’t look away from what was happening before me. “Andrew,” Julianne motion to the man, “take care of him, we have a Doctor to find.”

The nameless man, Andrew, cracked his knuckles in his horrifyingly familiar why. I shook my head as I watched James fire again and again, but the bullets did not stop that man from advancing. So much for not raising an alarm. The smoke from the gun filled my nose and blocked my vision, but I could tell the man was about to get James. I was about to run out but Rose was faster. She threw one of her force fields at the man and he went flying backwards.

I heard Julianne smile with delight; I don’t think I had ever heard her laugh. I slowly came out from behind the corner but Paul held me back before I could go too far. “I knew you wouldn’t be too far behind,” Julianne snarled from down the hall.

The heels from her shoes echoed about the hall as she walked closer. I looked to James who seemed to be fumbling with his clip; I rolled my eyes at the irony and forced my glare back to Julianne. “It was so nice of you to bring me back my bodies,” she smiled at me, something was different in her eyes but I could quite put my finger on it, “it’s too bad you’re not going to be saying with us much longer.”

I heard the click of the clip sliding into place, I saw Rose form an electrical vortex between her fingers, and I was pushed back behind Paul’s arm as a ball of fire appeared above his palm. Somehow I didn’t feel comforted under Julianne’s gaze. “it’s over,” James said, pointing his gun at Julianne, “Give it up Doctor, just give us the meteorites and we can walk out of here peacefully.”

“Peacefully,” Julianne barked a laugh, “Do you really think I am going to go with you to your little Capitol. Do you really think I’m going to go to your jail and be tried by your people? Do you think I’m going to stand for that shit? I created life in what was dead! And I will be rewarded for it! I am above all of you!”

“Oh honey,” said the open space behind Julianne’s head, “you be bat shit crazy now aren’t you?”

Julianne jumped and turned but before she could back a sound a loud crack rang out through the hallway. Then Luke appeared holding a rather large rock and looking at all of us like we had just lost our minds, “If you want to get the rocks without anybody seeing you…you should have just asked the invisible guy.”

I peered around him and looked at the nameless man, who also lay on the floor unconscious with a curiously large gash on his forehead. I nodded, James tried to keep from laughing, “That works,” he chuckled, “holy shit,” and then he burst into fits of laughter.

Rose let her vortex disappear, Paul let his fire out, and the officer relaxed his tense muscles as we regarded the unconscious figures about us. Within seconds we were all laughing. Our laughter echoed down the halls and bounced off the tiles back to our ears but be laughed until tears ran down our cheeks. “James,” I panted, trying to calm myself down, “call your people. We have to get some rocks,” I chuckled again as I turned towards the lab.

I heard James continue chuckling as he pulled out his cell phone and dial while I followed Luke into the lab where he had gotten the meteor he held in his hand. The doors opened and the scanners were still going, the meteors were on the metal table with machines all about them, just like it had been when I had first stepped into the lab all those weeks ago. With the two of us we gathered all the meteors in the room in no time and put them in a filing box. One we got to the hall again James and the officer had the two unconscious victims handcuffed and leaning against the wall. “They just entered the building,” James told me as I set my box down beside Julianne.

“Already?”

“What did you think I was doing last night? Talking to my nonexistent girlfriend?”

I rolled my eyes as a large commotion came from within the wall of the institute, “Everyone out,” someone bellowed, “You are all under arrest for suspicion of terrorism!”

Gab lifted an eyebrow, “Shouldn’t that be the other way around…’you are all arrested for suspicion of terrorism, everybody out’? That sounds better.”

“I wouldn’t let the big man catch you saying that,” James murmured, kneeling to inspect the contents of the filing boxes.

Just then a man in a suit that matched James’ almost comically came striding around the corner, “There you are Jefferson! I’ve been looking over this entire godforsaken place for you!”

“You only just got in,” James exclaimed jumping up to shake the man’s hand.

“Like that makes a god damned difference, what have we here?”

“The people I told you about,” he motioned to me, “This is Ollie.”

The man gave me a toothy grin, “oh, you’re Ollie.”

I felt myself blush but Paul pulled me close to him in a protective way and the toothy grin vanished. The man cleared his throat before moving on, “Is the place clear?”

James shrugged, “Besides these two, it should be golden.”

The man glanced at the two bodies on the floor but then turned to me, “Was there any other supervisors I should know about?”

“Well there was Tony but-“

“Tony Heart? As in Anthony Heart?”

I eyed the man curiously, “Yeah…but he wasn’t really around a lot. He would just drop in sometimes to check on our progress…”

I trailed off once I noticed their expression, even James’ had lost the color in his face, “What?” I asked dreading the answer I was probably going to get.

“He’s on the FBI most wanted list,” James murmured but he turned to the other man, “Why the hell was his name not in the file, Richards?”

Richards looked mad, for a moment I thought he was going to whip out his gun just so he could shoot something, “How the hell should I know, Jefferson! I didn’t even think this damn institute was real until your girlfriend of here called you.”

“Hey,” I snapped, “I’m not-“

“So don’t you blame this on me,” Richards continued, “Now why don’t you get these experiments out of this place and back to DC where we can figure out how to fix them before people sue the US government for inappropriate experimentation.”

Richards started to walk away, well it was more like stompped away, but before he reached the corner Paul stepped toward him. “Hey,” he called after him, but Richards appeared to ignore him. I saw Paul shake with anger, suddenly a ball of fire appear above the palm of his hand and he threw it at the agent, “I said hey!”

The fire exploded right next to the agents head. Richard ducked and turned around, taking out his gun in one fluid motion, “What the hel-“

“We are not experiments,” Paul spat at Richards, “and we will not be treated as such, especially since we were the people who led you to the institute in the first place! You will treat us like individuals or we will walk out of here and you will never see us again! You got that?”

The agent looked at Paul with wide, frightened eyes, “wh-what did you-“

It was my turn to step forward, “We want to make a deal,” I snarled, “We’ll tell you what you want to know, but in exchange you will leave us the hell alone.”

I didn’t wait for Richards to answer. I walked away towards the lobby where we left Cynthia to guard the door. I heard the others following me but I didn’t look back to see the expressions on James and his bosses face. I imagined it was quite a sight and I held that image in my mind, grinning to myself. Paul took my hand as we walked down the hallways and finally out of our nightmare. I looked over at him and grinned. I was finally content, I was finally happy, my life was finally together. And my life would always be together with Paul by my side.

We waited outside while the agents and SWAT teams descended upon the institute. There seemed to be hundreds of people that stormed the halls and arrested anyone they came across. Scientists sat on the ground outside, guarded by a member of the SWAT team, until an agent could ‘sort through them’ as someone had put it. We all watched and waited; even Cynthia found us and cross examined us about what happened before someone went over to see about the scientists sitting about the parking lot.

“Luke did what,” Cynthia exclaimed, “Well I guess it was all of your guys fault for not thinking of it in the first place.”

“I have to say,” Luke was saying, “knocking people unconscious is totally not good for my morale…or anybody else’s to tell the truth.”

James’ came out of the building holding something between his hands and talking heatedly with Richards. I watched them as they argued, or at least I thought that’s what I thought they were doing, and I watched them as they parted ways. James came towards us as we hung out by the van we arrived here in and Richards stomped his way towards the scientists. I couldn’t help thinking that if he stomped any harder he might break his own feet. James handed me what was in his hands, “this is for you,” he murmured.

It was a CD case. I looked from James to the case before finally taking it from his grasp and turning it over in my hands. “What is this?”

James shrugged, “It was addressed to you,” he growled before he left to join Richards with the scientists. Something told me he had lost that fight.

I looked back at the case in my hands and opened it. On the CD was a post-it note writing in a neat hand. The note read: For Dr. Van Doran. I gulped and quickly closed the case to hide the note. It was Tony’s handwriting. I looked at the others who were still gathered around talking about all the heroic things that they had accomplished when we had left Cynthia at the front desk, most of which were completely false. I slowly slipped the CD case into the white coat’s giant pocket before I turned back to the others.