CHAPTER TWO - RETURN TO BASE
His mind wondered in a dark sea of oblivious unconsciousness and strange images and lights danced before his closed eyes, visible only to sealed orbs, tight in sleep. The colours were faded and yet bright at the same time and everything was constantly changing like the hues of a glimmering flame in a black night.
He was trying to run but it was as if he was stuck in mud. Everything was sluggish and slow. When he tried to scream, barely anything came out of his mouth but a faint whisper of some inaudible words that were swept away as quickly as they arrived. He forced his jaw to drop a second time and he tried again to scream for help, but only ended up trembling in frustration as no sound but whispering was made.
Lights danced about him and now he was sitting on cold, burnt grass, thoughts of screaming now erased form his mind as the situation changed. The air was thick and grey, but it did not bother him as he lie on his tummy staring up at the dead trees that towered above him. It was nice here with no fear or worries. He smiled and rolled onto his back to stare up at the sky, but it was blackened out with a grotesque mass of red burns that gaped and leered as they dripped blood onto his upturned face to contaminate him with its malevolent nature.
He was on his feet and flying away now and everything passed in a blur but he was being followed. Wherever he went he was followed. Wherever he hid, he was found. He was trapped like a caged animal dashing around and around a tiny pen while the careless child relentlessly chased him with a stick, preparing to laugh and tear him apart to see what was inside.
No matter what, he was caught. He could not run forever. The prey can only outsmart the determined and patient hunter for so long before he becomes weary and clumsy…
The flames danced… orange, red, yellow… all mingling to form dangerous, yet such beautiful, lights that would confound and burn and consume within seconds once they had caught their vicious hold.
He wanted to flee but he was too tired. He was tired of fighting and tired of hiding. He wanted to be free…
He rolled onto his back in defeat and let his pursuer bear down upon him to rip him apart for the item he desired. Oblivion was better than this torturous hunt which he could never win.
*********************
“How is he?” Darren asked gently.
Brian glanced up, shocked that he had not heard the quiet footsteps behind him. He rubbed his eyes, weary from concentrating upon B’s limp form and willing him to get better, before he turned to face his dark haired, elder friend.
“Restless, but Nick thinks he’s going to be okay,” he said softly.
“And what about you? You’re supposed to be resting,” Darren added as his eyes drifted over to the empty bed at the other side of the medical centre. “You almost didn’t make it here.”
“I’m fine,” Brian replied stubbornly. He had lived through the most hazardous conditions imaginable in the Gerai mines and he would be damned if he couldn’t live through a fire. It was nothing when he thought of some of the situations that had threatened his life before.
His tired hand clasped B’s upon the bed, squeezing the fingers gently as if he could somehow drag him back to consciousness. He hated to see him so still. “How are the others?”
Darren sighed as he sat down beside Brian. “We lost three people on the way to the base and a further six when we arrived here.”
“Children?” His voice was clam, not betraying his saturated heart of emotion that pounded within him. He should be used to such facts by now having seen terrible things in his time, but still he could not carve a new solid heart from stone that would not crack under such thoughts.
“I’m afraid so. The smoke did its job. We lost some of the elderly as well.” Darren leaned over and gently pushed B’s messy fringe back from his forehead. “The young like this are the ones who seem to be okay. I hear Sammy’s fine as well?”
Brian nodded, still clasping B’s hand close to him. “He’s resting and Lori is taking care of him. He wanted to stay here, but I told him to get some sleep.”
“And so should you. He’s going to be fine.”
“His breathing will be permanently damaged,” Brian replied quietly. “He may have problems breathing in smoke in the future or in doing anything too exertive.” B had not gotten away lightly in the blaze… Brian knew that Nick and the others were surprised that B had even pulled through. Only a few months ago he had almost been burnt in a different fire.
“I’m sorry.”
Brian bowed his head. He had tried so hard to make a new life for Sammy and B. He had taken them away from this base to give them a proper home in a village, but now it had been ruined. It had been pleasant at first until he realised the difference between himself and B. Brian was not the same as he once had been and B knew this immediately…. It killed Brian’s heart when he saw the sadness in the boy’s eyes when he looked at him sometimes.
“Why should a kid go through this? Everything the world has it throws at him,” Brian said softly. For once it had looked as if B could live a life, but now it had been snatched away again.
“It’s not been an easy life for him,” Darren commented. “Not for any of us, but you’re right when you say this one suffers the most.”
“He’s so vulnerable and I try to help him but…”
“But what?”
Brian laughed slightly, being forced to laugh or to cry. “We don’t get along too good.”
Darren frowned. “But things were fine with them both when they… rescued you.”
“Yeah, things were great then, but everything’s so different. I remember coming from 2002 to save them… to B that was only a short time ago but to me it was eighteen years. I’ve changed since then. I’m not the father B wants anymore. He wants the younger me who he was so close to.”
“What about Sammy?” the older asked as he leaned his head in his hands.
“Sammy’s fine. He realised I was different but he accepts that. Maybe it’s because he saw me grow up a little bit when he was younger. I’m more like the father he remembers losing.”
“It’s bound to be difficult.”
“I never thought it would be this difficult though,” Brian confessed. He glanced down at B’s hands and sighed as he shook his head. “I don’t know what went so wrong. I always thought we would be a happy family.”
“Give it time, Bri.”
“I love him…” He fiddled with the fingers. “And Sammy.”
“They love you as well,” Darren replied gently. “It’s difficult for B though. He’s had such a hard life, something that no one can truly understand. He can be difficult sometimes.”
Brian said nothing in reply as he leaned his head against his and B’s clasped hands. He had missed out on so much of B’s life and he had been forced to abandon him when he returned to 2002. Twenty years ago to Brian… such a tiny time to B. He had forgotten so much during that time. Twenty years was a long time to keep a memory fresh, although he had tried harder than anything to keep them in his mind safe and protective from the erosive nature of time.
Darren patted him on the shoulder. “I’d get back to bed soon if I was you before Nick catches you. He was adamant that you got some rest. He was worried about you.”
“I’ll go soon,” Brian promised but knowing that he wouldn’t sleep until B had graced the world with his green eyes. He looked like death as he lie upon the cold bed with pale cheeks and gentle breaths. Brian needed to know that he would awaken from this terrible state which left his stomach numb and chest aching from worry.
He heard Darren begin to shuffle out of the medical centre and he glanced up to stare at the rocky ceiling for a moment. He had tried to take B away from this underground existence but now they had been pulled back.
“Darren?” he called, not turning his head from B.
“Yes?” H heard Darren’s footsteps halt at the far end of the medical centre.
He dampened his lips and gulped, almost not wanting to ask the question that burned his mind and threatened to fly from his mouth any moment. He couldn’t fight it. “The Gerai… are there more of them?”
Darren paused for a moment and Brian listened to the silence, feeling and sensing the unspoken danger of the Gerai. “A few.”
He closed his eyes. “Is B in danger?”
Again Darren paused before finally giving an answer. “He’ll be safe here, at this base, but I don’t advise you to move to another village.”
Brian turned to face him and saw Darren’s dark eyes staring at him, a strange shimmer there that radiated something Brian could not understand.
“What’s going on?”
At first it did not look as if Darren was going to be forthcoming with information, but then he pulled a chair from the side of the wall and sat down. He beckoned Brian to leave B’s bedside and pulled out a second chair for him.
Brian unclasped B’s fingers one by one and then neatly tucked the blanket over the boy’s chest to make sure he was warm. He smiled down at him as he fussed with the blanket. He rarely got to do this to him anymore. The air was normally too full of tension between them for Brian to do anything fatherly without causing an argument between the two of them. Sadly he sighed, wishing that things could have been different between them. B didn’t want him around. He was different to the other Brian B had met and he felt almost like an impostor sometimes… Even his friends felt the same way he felt sometimes. Sometimes his family like Kevin did…
He crossed over to Darren and sat down opposite him upon the metal chair. He kept his blue eyes upon the man as he sighed and ran a hand through his dark hair. Finally Darren clasped his hands upon his lap and his eyes met Brian’s.
“We’ve found another Gerai base.”
“What? I thought they were all destroyed by the virus?” Brian said, his stomach contorting in anguish as he found that something of the hive still remained.
Darren held up a hand to clam him. “It’s only a tiny base, a research facility – highly classified by the Gerai. It didn’t have much contact with other bases we think and there are no records of it in anything we took from the Gerai themselves. It was probably on a need to know basis only.” He took a deep breath. “We heard rumours about it a while ago. Other bases complained that certain members were going missing and there seemed to be a certain area where rogue Gerai were spotted. We’ve been collecting information about it ever since. I can show you - ”
“You knew about this?” Brian snapped, standing up and pushing the chair across the floor with a scrapping of metal upon stone.
Darren frowned and placed a finger to his lips. Brian froze as he saw a few patients stirring in their sleep, including B, as well as a raised doctor’s head. He coughed slightly and then returned to his seat. “Why didn’t you mention this?” he whispered harshly.
“We didn’t know much and we didn’t know there was going to be a problem like this! We haven’t even determined the exact location of the place yet!”
“Wouldn’t you notice a huge Gerai base on the ground?” he replied sarcastically.
“It’s underground, like this one,” Darren said, ignoring Brian’s tone. “It’s very secret and we’ve been ploughing through Gerai records from other bases for more information. We think they used a code word for it and we’ve been trying to gather information. We haven’t gotten very far, even with the help from other bases. We think there are some Gerai left in that base though.”
“How many? Are we saying we could be attacked again? I don’t think people can cope with another war!”
Darren shook his head. “We’re not talking a large number, but they are up to something… and it has something to do with B. They would never have risked an attack on a village like that unless they were desperate! We already have people following the Gerai back. They could easily have stayed hidden before springing a serious attack on a much larger town or base, but they chose a tiny village. They knew their secret would be out for certain once they revealed themselves. We weren’t even sure what to make of the information we already had before they showed themselves and attacked. We now see there is a possible threat.”
“A threat to B more like it?” Brian said as he folded his arms.
“I’m afraid so.”
Brian slowly digested what Darren had told him and his yes flickered over to the sleeping B. “Why’s he so important? What’s in that computer chip that they can use?”
“We don’t know. We’re studying records to try and find that out… and it will help once we know what the purpose of this base was. It’s not a fighting place, but more something for research.”
“How dangerous is this threat? To people in general, I mean?” Brian ask, thinking of everything hat they had accomplished.
“I don’t know,” Darren confessed. “But the Gerai are plotting something. People from other bases have gone missing. We don’t know if they were murdered or kidnapped. The people that are missing were smart from what I hear. Maybe the Gerai wanted something with them. I don’t know what the Gerai are up to, but they want that kid.” He nodded towards B. “They need him for their plans.”
Brian felt his fingers curl themselves into a fist. “They’re not getting him,” he promised. “I won’t let them take him ever.”