CHAPTER TWENTY TWO - THE ESCAPE
Sammy stared glumly at the screen in front of him. He was back slaving away for the Gerai and he was startled at his own progress. He hadn’t realised how many of the codes he had actually cracked already.
He tried to avoid glancing over to where Paul and Kevin were working on a computer console a few metres away, but inside he was willing them to hurry up. Paul had said that he could blow the system out which would erase everything Sammy had achieved for the Gerai and it would buy them some more time. They were running out of time at the moment. Sammy was almost done.
Heather was also watching his progress intently. She kept coming over to him and resting her hands on his shoulders or trailing them down his back. As much as Sammy told himself that he should revile the touch of a Gerai, he couldn’t help but enjoy the soft touch on some deep level. She was attractive, very attractive if he were to be honest. It was only her cold attitude that made him much less interested, that and the fact that he had a girlfriend and that he had promised not to get fond of Heather in any way.
‘I’m crazy. She’s an ice queen…’
“You’re working hard today,” Heather commented from behind him.
Sammy nodded. “If I like the person then I always work hard. It makes them pleased.”
“Are you saying that you like the Gerai?” Heather asked, an eyebrow raised slightly.
Sammy shrugged. “You’re holding my brother hostage.” He paused slightly and his fingers stopped tapping on the keys. He slowly turned to Heather on the turning chair.
“What is it?” she asked.
Sammy gulped slightly, unsure of how to ask what he wanted so much. “I-I know I’m not allowed to see B, but I’m worried about him. Can you find out how’s he doing? Maybe let me write him a note or something? He’s my little brother…” he trailed off and then turned back to the screen, not wanting Heather to see his eyes.
She leaned close to him and placed a hand upon his shoulder. “You’ve been working hard and you’re helping us a great deal. I will see what I can do, but Marlowe is in charge of your brother and he’s very possessive over his subjects.”
Sammy’s mouth ran dry. “Subjects?” he gasped. His eyes flickered closed and he remember B’s tears when he had rescued him from the experiments of the Gerai the first time. “Experiments.” B had countless scars upon his arms from vaccination marks and he would never talk about them. The nightmares still haunted him today.
“I will see what I can do.” For a moment, Heather’s voice became soft. “But I know he will not let you see B. I might be able to find out what they’re doing to him. I believe that he’s trying to create a vaccine for the virus.”
“How can he use B though?” Sammy asked. “B is just a kid.”
“He has a cure in his bloodstream,” Heather replied simply.
Sammy turned back to her. “A cure?” His eyes closed as he remembered how sick B had been… but he would be okay. Sammy had been sure that Marlowe had infected him with a virus or something, but B had a cure. He smiled and his eyes stared gratefully up at Heather. “If you can just find out if he’s okay… if he’s well. You said you wouldn’t kill him, but I want to know how he is.”
Heather nodded. “I’ll try, but I have little to do with Marlowe. I’m sure I can find something though.”
Sammy smiled. “Thank you.” He stared at her for a moment, allowing his eyes to linger upon hers longer than was absolutely necessary. He still had to go along with Paul’s plan and that meant dropping a few, seductive hints to Heather. He slowly turned back to the computer keys.
“Can I ask you something?” Sammy asked. “Why did you join the Gerai?” He was curious. The Gerai were highly sexist and had little place for women in the high ranks so it was unusually for Heather to rise so high, unless she had doen the same things Sammy was about to do and get a little more ‘friendly’ to get what was needed.
“My father was a high ranking officer,” she replied simply.
“Okay,” Sammy said. That made sense. A lot of people might not have agreed with the Gerai goal and objectives but the extremist would have raised their children to the same beliefs. He and B had been on the resistance side because Brian had joined them… and then of course B had become a wanted object by the Gerai.
He tapped at the keys and then there was a bang. Sammy jumped in his seat and watched as Heather swung her laser out to stare about them. The computer screen light flickered off and smoke began to pour from the system.
He fought the urge not to smile. Paul and Kevin had done it, They’d blown out the system at last. He heard Heather and the other guards shouting orders at one another. Sammy tried to look annoyed and shocked, but inside he was grinning.
‘Thank you Paul,’ he said silently.
They had a little more time to escape now.
*************************************
B growled in frustration as he yanked hard on the ropes that bound his arms and kept him restrained. He couldn’t remember what fed the fury deep inside of his chest, but his whole body throbbed with it. He hated them for keeping him here. He hated them for tying him up like some worthless animal.
The lab about him was empty and had been since he had woken up but there was a twisted face within his mind that made him want to scream whenever he saw it. Light brown hair, blue eyes… Marlowe. The word was like poison to his muddled mind.
He wanted to get out of here. There was a burning desire to run as far away as he could. He had to find the two people he had lost. There was a smiling blonde face in his mind that he loved, but he couldn’t understand why that man had not come for him yet. Why hadn’t his brother come for him?
And then there was Brian.
‘Let me out! Let me out!’
He viciously pulled on the ropes. He didn’t want to stay here. He didn’t belong here and he didn’t know what would happen to him if he stayed. Why couldn’t he remember anything properly? Every time he thought about the faces in his mind, he knew that he should know more about them but there was blankness.
Well, if they weren’t going to come and find him then B would find them and demand to know why they had left him here. Why was the only person he saw Marlowe? The one man he knew he despised the most was the one he saw and remembered most about.
He clenched his fists together and screamed as he pulled. He could feel rope ripping into his wrists and burning his skin, but he didn’t care. He screamed again and pulled down again, expecting his head to crack any moment as it furrowed in concentration.
Suddenly the roped snapped. B gasped and breathed deeply as sweat dribbled down his face and he smiled in satisfaction as he sat up. He stared down at the ropes that dangled like dead snakes from his arms and then gave a frustrated roar as he began to yank and pull them away before throwing them violently to the ground. He leant down and began to pull at the ropes that bound his legs before throwing them viciously at a line of bottles on a shelf and smiling as a few of them toppled and smashed to the ground.
He stared about the lab and his eyes alighted on the rack of needles to his left. He staggered over to them and picked one of them up to stare at the needle like point. His eyes flickered closed and suddenly he could hear himself screaming as the needles were plunged into his skin.
He threw the needles to the ground and backed away clutching his arms. He stared wildly about the lab and his eyes drilled into every part of it. This was Marlowe’s lab. This was his prison.
He caught sight of the metal door and he gave a faint cry as he dashed towards it. It refused to move when he approached and he thumped his hands upon it in anger and then he began to kick it.
“Let me out!” he screamed as he hit the door hard, brushing his hands in the process. He turned his head to see the blinking panel that had been installed into the doorframe and he banged his hand upon that, but it merely bleeped angrily at him. He screamed in rage and then threw both of his fists into it, as if he could threaten it into letting him go. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be a prisoner. “Sammy!” he screamed. “Father! Let me out! Why won’t you come for me? Why have you left me here? Why!” With each question he thumped his hands upon the panel and then he fell to the floor, angry tears streaming from his eyes.
He pressed his hands against his head as he tried to remember. Sammy… his brother. His sweet brother… he knew that, but nothing else. Sammy was his brother and B knew he loved him more than anything, but he couldn’t understand why. He couldn’t remember spending any time with him, he couldn’t remember anything… and he couldn’t remember why Sammy had left him here.
And then Brian… Brian was his father, but short of that B didn’t know anything about him. Every time he tried to remember what he looked like he got a muddled picture of Marlowe. He vaguely began to wonder if they had looked similar because that was all he could see now.
“Why have you left me here with him?” he whispered. He stared at the door. “Why won’t you answer me!” he screamed hatefully. “You bastards, I hate you! I hate you!”
They’d left him here, they’d abandoned him. They’d left him with Marlowe. Or maybe they were dead…
He began to cry. They were all he had. Marlowe, Brian and Sammy… that was all he remembered. They were his only connections with life.
His hands trembled as they began to wind about one another. He wanted to scream in anger. He wanted to cry of depression. He couldn’t understand what was wrong. His mind was a wreck as if it had been torn to pieces and now all he had to think with were tattered shreds of sanity.
He pulled his knees to his chest and rested his head upon them as he began to sob. “What’s wrong with me? Why won’t you come? What made you leave me? Are you dead?” he cried miserably.
He thought of never seeing them again and then something cold seemed to pierce into his chest causing him to sob again.
He looked about the lab and then his eyes narrowed. Something had been done to him in here which had caused him to become like this. Something had been done inside of this room… Marlowe was the cause of everything.
He stood up and then slowly crossed to the nearest worktop, which had been littered with bottles and test tubes and discs of information. He stared at them and then reached out and picked out a single piece of paper amid the jumble that was Marlowe’s work.
Date: 15-09-2024
I have extracted several blood samples from the subject and using the drugs Mellereall + Jesruptinion I believe have discovered a vaccine, or I least have the basis for creating one. One which will also mean that the patient will not have to suffer the same distressing effects as my subject.
As for my subject, I have been using serapropaine and lesthamine to aid his memory loss. Drugs seem highly effective and progress has definitely been made.
Side effects of drugs/virus on patient: severe anxiety, paranoia, metal deterioration and violent tendencies seem to be increasing. Another interesting thing to note is a great increase in physical strength.
B clenched his fist and slowly crushed the piece of paper. Marlowe had taken his memories from him. Marlowe had screwed his head…
He screamed and suddenly swung his arm across the worktop, knocking everything to the ground. He grabbed the metal test tube rack and threw it at a shelf of bottles. He grabbed vials, bottles, anything breakable, and hurled them all at the walls, screaming and swearing at his mental image of Marlowe as he did so.
He grabbed microscopes, books, sculptures and boxes and threw them about the lab, watching as everything smashed and tinkled about him. He swung his arms out across shelves and worktops, screaming as glass speared his hands but not caring so long as he succeeded in destroying everything about him.
Marlowe had taken them away from him. Marlowe was the reason he could barely remember the faces of his own family anymore. “Fuck you Marlowe! Fuck you to hell! I hope you fucking die!” he screamed as he collapsed in the centre of the lab, everything around him now in pieces. He sobbed as he covered his face with his blood stained hands and then he leaned back against one of the legs of the table.
He froze and then stared up to see the hard table that had become his prison and his torture chamber. He ran a hand down one of the metal legs that was screwed down to the floor and then he slowly stood up. He stared down at the slab that he had been tied down to and for a moment he ran a hand over it and then he grabbed the edge of the table and heaved. He grunted as he yanked at the table, anger burning in him as he remembered the pain and suffering induced by Marlowe. He screamed and then suddenly the table was ripped from the ground. B gasped and then pushed, watching as it clattered onto the floor and crushed everything that wasn’t already broken.
He gasped and doubled over slightly as his chest heaved with deep, heavy breaths. His eyes glared at the destruction of the lab and a thick wave of satisfaction descended upon his body. He smiled and then looked at the door again. Marlowe’s work was destroyed, but now he had to escape and find Sammy and Brian. He had to find out why they had lost him and why they meant so much to him.
He stared at the door and then ran up to it and thumped it as he screamed in rage. He wouldn’t be held her any longer. He turned about him and then grabbed a pole from the mess of the lab. He swung it about his shoulders and then smashed it into the panel beside the door, watching as it gave a weak splutter of sparks and a few half hearted bleeps.
He kicked the door and then jerked in surprise as it suddenly sprang open. He smiled and then he saw the guard with the laser on the opposite side. The man immediately raised his weapon at B. “Get back in there,” he ordered. “You’re not to leave the lab.”
B narrowed his eyes and his blood soaked fingers curled themselves into fists. He stared down at the gun and then in a single move he had grabbed it and wrenched it from the man’s hands. “I’m not your prisoner!” he screamed as he fired the gun at the man’s head.
The man did not even have time to give a strangled gasp of fear as the laser light split open his face.
B knew he should have been bothered about what he had just seen, but he wasn’t. Inside he was trembling with anger and rage and all the people who had kept him tied to that table.
He stepped over the desecrated corpse and then quietly slipped off into the empty corridor, his eyes searching in case he saw any other guards that tried to stop him.
He had to get out and then he would find Sammy and Brian and demand an explanation as to why they didn’t come to rescue him. It seemed like he had been here for months… maybe he had. He didn’t know anything anymore.
He snuck down into the next corridor, trying to dredge up any weak memories that might allow him to escape from this maze, but the corridors were totally unfamiliar and he frowned slightly as he turned again and then he ran into another guard.
Luckily for B they were more shocked to see him then he was to see them.
B waved. “Hi,” and then he fired, smacking the man straight in the chest where the blast hastily drove into his gut.
B found something hot bubbling inside of him as he stared at the dead man at his feet. He smiled, somehow enjoying the revenge he was now having against those who had imprisoned him. He should have done this before. Breaking out had been easily enough. He couldn’t remember if he’d tried to escape before.
He shook his head slightly, he had a mission to accomplish. He had to find his family, the ones who he knew he loved so much. Something inside of him already began to crumble as he thought about them. He had to see them to remember them again… and he needed to know how B had come to be here. If they had abandoned him, then they would pay for it.
He smiled as he spotted metal doors ahead of him. They looked important so maybe they led out of this place. He began to hurry faster, desperate to get out of this place. Marlowe’s papers had spoken of drugs that caused memory loss and B knew that he was suffering from something like that because he knew nothing. He had a few images and scraps of information, but nothing else.
As for the violent tendencies, that was a load of shit. B didn’t think he was being violent. He probably would have smashed up Marlowe’s lab before if he’d been given the opportunity. He hated that man so much. He couldn’t particularly remember everything Marlowe had done to him, but the hatred was instinctual.
His mouth felt dry as he came closer to the doors. He didn’t care if afterwards he was lost in another alien landscape, all he wanted was to be away from the place that made him so angry and afraid…
“What do you think you’re doing out? Put the gun down, kid.”
B jumped as another man sprang around from a side corridor that B had not seen. He stared into his dark eyes and then he leapt forwards, intending to strike his head with the butt of the gun, but the guard stepped aside and then pressed his hand against a blue panel on the wall.
Immediately a droning alarm began to sound and the lights overhead began to flash. B turned around anxiously and his eyes widened as he saw a heavier sheet of metal beginning to slide down in front of the doors he had been heading to. They were trying to stop him from escaping!
“NO!” he screamed, his voice turning to a sob as he desperately ran for the door, dropping the laser to the ground as he did.
He reached it too late and a heavy chunk of metal had descended in front of the doors. He thumped it and kicked it and then banged his head against it as he began to cry in frustration.
“Dad, Sammy… help me,” he sobbed pitifully. “Why won’t you come? Please…” He slid down to his knees and covered his face with his hands. They weren’t going to come… they weren’t ever going to come. The love he cared for them was obviously not returned. They didn’t care about him.
The image of Sammy and Brian flashed into his mind. They were both laughing and smiling at him and B found his fingers screwing themselves up into fists. He began to gasp as heavy breaths shook his body and then he unclenched his fingers and instead turned them into claws before digging them into his face.
“Why don’t you come?” he screamed at the images. “Why didn’t you try harder to find me? I don’t want to stay here! Where are you?” He screamed, his voice hollow in his throat as tears clogged and clutched at his voice. “I hate you both! You don’t love me and I hate you!” He dug his nails into his face as he screamed and then he heard the running footsteps.
He turned his head and saw three men running towards him. On his left with a gun aimed at B was the guard who had initiated the alarm in the first place. At the fore front of the men was Marlowe.
“Get away from me!” B cried as he backed away. “Don’t come near me!”
Marlowe knelt down beside him but kept his distance slightly. He held out a hand to him. “B, B you’re confused. You need to sleep.”
B shook his head furiously and he banged upon the door. “Dad! Sammy!” he sobbed. “Help me…”
“They’re not coming,” Marlowe whispered. “B, I’m so sorry.”
“Fuck you,” B whispered, cringing away from the snaking hand. Marlowe had such a sweet voice but B could see beyond that. Every time he looked into the man’s eyes he was filled with fear and anger.
“B, you will return to the lab,” Marlowe ordered.
B smiled slightly, thinking of the damage he had there. “I destroyed it,” he laughed.
Marlowe raised an eyebrow. “Indeed?”
B glared at him, frustrated at the lack of reaction. He had wanted to hurt the scientists but Mralowe seemed completely casual about the lab. B turned away from him and pressed himself closer to the door. Gently he placed a hand upon the surface.
Marlowe shook his head. “You can’t get out.”
“Fuck you,” B said again. He banged upon the door and then screamed. “Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!” He leapt to his feet and flung himself at the two guards. He knocked them down and then began to scratch and kick at their faces, crying out in anger and rage and the unfairness about it all. He had almost escaped and they had stopped him. He punched one of them in the head and then in the stomach and then he fastened his hands about the throat of the second.
“B!” Marlowe’s hands were upon his shoulders and B turned his head and stretched out a hand to seize Marlowe’s collar. Without any effort he lifted the man clear off his feet and flung him hard at the wall. “I fucking hate you!”
He stood up, away from the guards and began to approach Marlowe. “You experimented on me! You made me lose my memories! You took my family away from me!”
“Stand still!” a shaky voice ordered.
B turned and saw the one who had set off the alarm. He had a gun pointed at B’s head, but the man’s arms were trembling as he held it.
“NO!” Marlowe screamed. “Don’t kill him!”
For a moment the man’s eyes flickered towards Marlowe and B took the opportunity to leap upon him, elicitating a startled cry from the guard.
“You bought them to me!” B hissed menacingly. “You stopped me from getting away! Why won’t you let me go!” He’d grabbed the man’s face in his hand and then in one quick motion he snapped the man’s neck.
He saw the man’s eyes roll back and he dropped the limp body to the floor and then stared down coldly at him. He turned his eyes back to Marlowe. “Let me go,” he ordered.
Marlowe seemed to experience great pain as he picked his crumpled body up from the floor. He nodded to the two remaining guards to stand back and then limped a few steps over towards B. “B, I’m looking after you. I’m looking after you because your family won’t.”
B shook his head while he backed away. “Liar. You’re using drugs to wipe my memories!” He was trembling and twitching slightly as he curled himself up into a ball. His hands felt cold and he wanted to cry as he stared at the door. He wanted to see daylight… He wanted to be free from all this pain. He could find somewhere to live away from everyone… he could forget everything…
“You’ve been sick, B, very sick. I helped you to get better and I wanted your memories gone so that you wouldn’t remember the pain,” Marlowe said honestly.
B rubbed his arms as he began to shiver. “Sick?” he whispered.
“B, I’m looking after you.” The scientist crept a little closer.
B stared at him and then his eyes widened. Marlowe looked so much like Brian… Even more so now that he was so muddled up. He frowned slightly and shook his head. “You… you look like my dad,” he whispered. He tilted his head. The faces were almost identical… or maybe there were identical. He didn’t know anymore. Everything was fading so fast.
“B, come here,” Marlowe said softly as he opened up his arms.
B stared at him and stared at the arms. Something was wrong inside of hi mind. He wanted to believe that he had become muddled up and that he was accidentally mistaking Brian for Marlowe. The man before him had such a kind voice…
B shook his head. “No,” he whispered. “No.” he closed his eyes. “I want my dad and my brother.”
“B - ”
“No, I want my dad and my brother,” B repeated as he covered his ears to prevent himself from hearing Marlowe’s voice.
“Listen - ”
“Where are they?” B screamed. He flung his hand out in frustration and then suddenly Marlowe was suddenly picked up by an invisible force and hurled back against the wall.
B gasped and started down at his outstretched fingers. He hadn’t touched the scientist and yet he had felt something burning in his fingers and then Marlowe had hit the wall. He moved his fingers, as if expecting them to spring to life of their own accord.
He was aware of the two groaning guards pointing guns at him and Marlowe staring at him in utter shock.
B gulped and began to tremble. That wasn’t normal… What had he done? What was wrong with him? He hadn’t touched him! He had wanted the scientist to go away and then Marlowe had gone…
He glanced at the door and wondered. Maybe he could open it somehow…
But he had a headache and he suddenly felt tired. He sagged on the floor sleepily, tears streaming down his face. Everything had gone too far now… he didn’t even feel human. “What have you done to me?” he sobbed.
Mralowe crawled towards him. “B, let me look after you,” he said firmly.
Trembling, B raised his head and stared at him. He stared down at his hands but said nothing. He could almost believe that Marlowe was Brian. They looked so alike…
“BB,” Marlowe said.
The name. BB. It meant something. He stared at Marlowe in shock. “You… I… Uh… are you… my dad?” Was Marlowe Brian? Maybe that was why he was getting muddled up. Maybe that was why they looked the same, maybe they were the same.
Marlowe looked at him in shocked, but then his expression changed. He smiled.