CHAPTER THIRTY THREE - RETURNING MEMORY
“Marlowe!”
B screamed in furious betrayal as he ran down the corridors. He heart was pounding so hard that he felt dizzy and sick from the powerful adrenaline that flooded his body, but he was determined to keep on running. He had to find Marlowe. Marlowe had to pay for what he had made B do.
He had known who B would find down there. He had known that B would recognise that blonde hair and those blue eyes. He shuddered slightly. His head ached and he was aware of strange images in his mind that he couldn’t understand.
“Hey BumbleB! Come here!”
Arms were wrapping about him and there was a child’s laughter as he was picked up and swung around in the warm air of the sun. He was held so tightly that he had no fear of ever falling. These arms would not let him go.
Tears burned at B’s eyes. He didn’t understand. He couldn’t suddenly remember things, but how could he remember them now when before is mind had been empty? And why did he feel sick again?
He remembered the feeling as he had plunged the knife into the older man’s chest. He could still hear the shudder and groan of the body and hear the hissing as the blood escaped the wound and splashed onto the ground. Looking into those green eyes he had seen them cloud as death began to stalk his prey and the strange look of unbelief that had dazzled them before he’d slumped forward limply.
His hands curled into fists and he roughly pushed all the images in his mind away and sealed them out of a sight behind a thick door of forgetfulness. He didn’t want to remember anymore. He didn’t want to remember who he was.
He felt a wave of rage quivering as it crashed against his soul. His brother had left him. Suddenly he remembered. He remembered being alone in a broken room and screaming for help, but his brother had not come. He had been in this base the entire time. He had even taken control of part of it and yet he had not come and rescued B when he had been so confused and lonely.
Something was cutting into his hand and he felt blood trickling warmly over his fingers. Glancing down he realised that he still held the knife he had used and that his fingers had closed about the blade so that he had sliced his hand. He gripped it in determination, enjoying the pain and the relief that spilled out of him as the blood flowed. Next time he would not miss his target. His ‘brother’ was going to die.
“I don’t have a brother,” B whispered firmly. “Not anymore. There’s only me.” And he would take care of himself from now on, but before finishing with his brother, he had to deal with a lying and treacherous scientist.
B smiled cruelly to himself. He would be free after this. He flung the blade up into the air and, with the power of his mind, he caught it again mid air with an invisible force and then hurled it so hard at the wall that the blade sunk a few inches into it and stood stopped there. Nothing could stop him now. Marlowe had created him and now he would see what his creation could do. And then his brother would pay the price of abandoning him. He brushed away the tears that pricked at his eyes with his blood covered hands, smearing his cheeks with the warm substance at the same time. His brother was not the only one who was going to pay. He could suddenly remember someone else who he had called for help, but who had not come. Was he inside of this place as well? He had to be somewhere here and he was going to die as well. Anyone who had ever hurt B was going to be hurt themselves. Everyone was going to pay for what they had done to him.
He pounded the buttons in the elevator as the doors thundered closed and tapped his fingers impatiently against the wall as he waited for it to arrive at the correct floor. He knew where Marlowe’s office was. Finally the doors slid open and B found himself face to face with two Gerai guards with guns pointed at him.
“You there,” one of them said gruffly. “Have the rebels been taken care of?”
B eyed them both malevolently. One of them was grinning and in a sudden rush of hatred, he realised that they had known as well. They had known that he would be angry when he had seen his brother. They had hoped that his anger would cause him to kill all the rebels and then that be the end of their problem. They had been using him and manipulating him.
“Bastards,” he spat. His eyes narrowed and then he flung out his arms. Immediately both guards were flung backwards under the force of his powers and then he stared intently at their throats. At once they began to gasp and choke as they spluttered madly for breath. B smiled as he watched them writhe on the ground in pain. He saw the skin of their faces paling and then turning a curious shade of purple. Their eyes practically bulged out of their sockets in horror and the skin about their neck was rippling and convulsing. B chuckled at the sight and then the guards slumped to the ground, their eyes still open and gaping as they stared at the shadowy visitor of death in fear.
B wiped his hands down his jacket to try and clear the sticky blood that still covered them and then he began to walk slowly and deliberately down the corridor towards Marlowe’s office. He didn’t feel the urge to run anymore. He wanted to be slow and painful. His fingernails delved into the palms of his clammy hands.
Everything had been fine before he had been done to that room and saw his brother. He’d had no memories, but he’d been satisfied with that. He had allowed anger and rage to rule his body freely, but now his strength seemed to be draining as he realised that he could remember. His brother’s face seemed to have finally unlocked the door that had been closed for so long, but B didn’t want it opening. He didn’t want to remember in case it was too painful. He knew there were some dark things in past and he didn’t want to face them. There was also something else. A part of his mind was screaming as he thought of that green eyed man dying on the floor. He didn’t want to remember him in case he regretted what he had done.
He noticed four other Gerai in the next corridor. One of them was a heavily built man with greying hair and his eyes were drawn to B the moment he saw him. He smiled nervously as he strode forwards to meet him. B frowned slightly and stood sill as he waited for the man to approach him. He didn’t recognise him at all, but that was hardly surprising. He hadn’t really come into contact with any Gerai except for Marlowe and the others he had murdered.
“B?” the man asked. “I thought you’d return to Marlowe’s office. I’m commander Logan. I control this base. Marlowe has been very good at keeping you from me but I think it’s time I met you and spoke with you.”
B peered around him at the three other guards who were waiting outside Marlowe’s office. “What’s going on?” he asked.
Logan sighed. “Marlowe doesn’t really want anyone to talk to you at all. He’s been keeping you to himself, but I wanted to meet you. He doesn’t know I’m speaking with you and I have the guards there to make sure he doesn’t come out of his office and interrupt us.”
B folded his arms impatiently, but made sure that Logan did not see the blood on his hands. He was uncomfortable with this man. All B wanted to do was now was to kill Marlowe and his brother and then get out of here. He glared hard at Logan. So, this was the man that was in charge here? He was nothing compared to B.
“Marlowe says you work for us now,” Logan said. He smiled. “You’ve made a good choice, especially to help us destroy the resistance and - ” He gasped as B suddenly reached out a hand and clasped the man about his throat.
“I work for nobody,” he hissed. It was incredible how easily the man’s neck snapped. Just like a twig and it even made a similar sound.
Immediately B heard the clicking of loading lasers and he released Logan and turned to the other three guards. Before they could fire he had already raised a hand and the lasers in the guards’ hands were yanked away and thrown down the corridor. He smiled as he saw them exchanging nervous looks with one another and then he pulled his own laser from his belt and fired it. He concentrated on the beam as it spurted from the gun and watched as it turned purple under the rage and power of his own abilities. A single blast sent all three men crumpling to the ground in a burnt and smouldering wreck. He glared at them and threw the laser ruthlessly aside. How dare these people think that he belonged to them?
He stared at Logan’s broken body on the ground and spat at the commander. This was the miserable man who Marlowe worked for. It was partly Logan’s fault that B had become so confused like this.
They had changed him. Before this he knew there had been a time when he felt normal, but that was gone now. All that was here was rage, violence and the rotting feeling of betrayal. Everyone had betrayed him.
He slowly walked towards Marlowe’s door and concentrated hard upon it. The metal creaked before being wrenched away from the doorframe and B stepped forwards. “Marlowe!” he screamed as he glared at the scientist who was seated at his desk, completely oblivious to the murders that had just taken place outside of his own door.
“B!” Marlowe gasped in surprise. His eyes darted about the room nervously and B realised that the scientist was already afraid. He laughed inside. He had not even begun yet.
“You knew,” he hissed. “You knew who I would find down there!”
Marlwoe gulped slightly, but stayed sitting in his chair. “I-I didn’t think you would remember him anymore! I thought you’d forgotten!”
“Liar!” B screamed and the scientist and his chair were pushed back against the wall by invisible hands as B’s fury was flung at them. “You knew! You knew I’d be angry and you wanted to take advantage of that! You wanted me to be so angry that I would kill everyone done there!”
Marlowe gasped and his face paled. “I didn’t plan that at all! I didn’t think you would remember anymore!”
“Well I do remember now!” B sobbed and tears began to stream down his cheeks. “I remember my brother looking after me and I calling for him and him not being there! I even know that I have a father now as well! I remember and I don’t want to! Make them go away!” He didn’t want this burden of pain crushing his body. He was a new person now. He was strong, but that strength was beginning to disappear as he cried. He knew something had been taken from him. Marlowe had mentally raped him and taken away any shred of dignity.
Marlowe scrabbled frantically at a drawer, his hands were trembling and his voice shook. “I can give you another injection perhaps,” he gabbled. “It might repress them again.”
B’s head jerked up and his eyes narrowed and then he gasped in fear as the memories hit him, almost as if someone were beating him about the head with a huge stick. He was tied down. He was only little, only a child. He screamed and someone clapped a hand over his mouth. He was being held down as he cried and struggled while the doctors tried to push the needle into his arm.
He fell back slightly and shook his head. “No,” he whispered. “No needles. Not again.” He closed his eyes. He was still that terrified child and he glanced about him and then buried himself in the corner of the room, curling himself up into a tiny ball. “Leave me alone!” he begged.
“B?” Marlowe asked, watching as the boy cowered in the wall. “What’s wrong?”
“I remember!” he sobbed as he covered his face with his hands. “I remember being a child. I remember people hurting me! Why do I remember? I didn’t before so why now?” His skin was quivering and he was writhing as his stomach forced itself to eject the day’s contents. He heaved as he was violently sick upon the floor. He felt weak.
“Your memories are returning,” Marlowe murmured. “It was only temporary.” He covered his face with a hand. “How could I have been foolish enough to think this was permanent? You do have the antidote in your bloodstream after all.”
“What are you talking about?” B whispered.
Marlowe gulped again. He was still staring at B fearfully, his eyes watching him carefully for any signs of violence. “You were sick and you lost your memories. I thought the memory loss was permanent but now your memories are returning.”
B held a hand to his head. He could feel his skull aching as if it were bruised or broken. His mind was slowly inflating with hot air to leave him dizzy and disorientated. He could feel random images entering his mind and in a way they were all familiar but they still frightened him. He didn’t want them. He had a new life. He had a new life of power and strength.
“I don’t want to remember!” he screamed.
Marlowe tentatively rose from his seat and crossed to B. “It’s all right. I can take care of you,” he whispered as he knelt down beside him.
B raised his head and stared at Marlowe, then frowned. He shook his head and then scrabbled to his feet. “No,” he hissed. “No! You did this to me!” He remembered. He was lying down again and he was restrained, but this time he was no child. Marlowe had strapped him down and then the needles had punctured his skin and he had screamed as burning substances ran riot through his bloodstream. “I don’t want you anywhere near me! I don’t need anybody else!” There was only him. He couldn’t trust anybody else.
“B, I - ” Marlowe tried to explain as he was backing away but his voice caught in his throat.
B stared at him in hatred. Marlowe had destroyed him in the first place. Marlowe had done this to him. He raised his hand and then watched as Marlowe screamed and clutched at his stomach.
“B, what are you doing?” he gabbled in between gasps of pain.
“You manipulated me. You destroyed me. You think I’m normal anymore?” B yelled. He was something entirely different now. Marlowe had tortured him until he had cracked. “I can’t let you get away with what you did to me.”
“I didn’t abandon you like your family did though!” Marlowe cried.
B gave a scream of rage and Marlowe was hurled backwards against the wall with his arms stretched out so that he could no longer clutched at his stomach in pain. Instead he writhed and shook while screaming madly.
“You manipulated me! You wanted to create a slave but instead you have created an enemy. I will never obey you, Marolowe. I am above you and you do not control me! As for my family, I will deal with them in my own time! I don’t need you, I don’t need anybody! I am leaving!”
Marlowe’s face was twisted and contorted with pain and his legs flailed out as he tried to free himself from B’s power. “B, you can’t!” he gasped. “We need you! The experiments are not yet complete!”
“You think I give a fuck about your sick experiments?” B snapped. “I am not a guinea pig!” Why did they think they owned him? Nobody had any power over him anymore, not even his own memories that stabbed at his mind. He pressed a hand to his face again. His head hurt so much as he felt memories bubbling along the surface. For days he had struggled to remember but could recall nothing, but now everything was rising at him like vicious predators and he did not want them anymore.
Marlowe slumped to the floor as B finally released him. He couldn’t concentrate anymore. Tears screamed down his face. Why had his family abandoned him? He wanted to run to them, but another part of him, the new, stronger him was determined that they must be punished. He couldn’t be weak. He didn’t need them…
“I hate you, I hate you…” he murmured, picturing his brother in his mind. He had felt fine until he had seen him. He had been angry with everyone but he had not felt confused like this and he had not been under such a vicious attack by his own memories. He could see his brother holding him and he could see himself as a child running into his brother’s arms, but he refused to do that now. His brother had abandoned him. His father had as well and they would both pay for that. They would.
He raised his head and then frowned as he noticed that Marlowe had gone. The door to the office was wide open. “Coward,” he whispered. “I’ll kill you as well,” he spluttered through a sob.
He wiped his eyes on the back of his hand and breathed deeply. He needed control. He would not crack the next time he saw his brother and he would not give in to his memories. His family had abandoned him. They didn’t love him and they didn’t deserve his sympathy.
It still didn’t stop him crying from confusion though.
********************************
Sammy sobbed. Tars ran endlessly down his cheeks as he sat in front of a computer screen, but he could hardly see what he was working on anymore through the barrier of water that ran down his face. His hands trembled as they touched the keys and he stopped a moment to blink and rub his sore eyes.
‘I never abandoned you, B. I could never do that.’
But he had abandoned him. He had taken too long to rescue him. B had been tortured and he would never forgive Sammy for leaving him.
‘But it’s only been a week!’ his thoughts wailed. It felt like much longer than that, but it had only been a week and a half since they had arrived. Had it really been that short a time? It felt like he had been in this prison forever. They couldn’t have acted any sooner.
‘But I should have done something! I knew B was sick and I did nothing!’
But what could he have done?
And B was a mess. What had Marlowe done to him? What had the Gerai turned him into? He didn’t even seem to remember who anybody was. Did B even realise who he was anymore?
Sammy tapped away at the keys. He was close now. He was planning to cut power to all the decks where the Gerai still were. He had already locked down all of the weapon storage rooms so hopefully when they broke out, the Gerai would not be heavily armed.
“How’s it going?” a voice whispered softly.
Sammy caught sight of Paul’s reflection in the computer screen. “I’m almost done,” he replied monotonously. “The power should be cut in less than ten minutes.”
Paul sighed and Sammy watched as his eyes turned above him in despair. “Sam, you don’t have to do this. Let someone else do it while you rest. You’ve had a bad shock.”
“You think?” Sammy snapped, trying to hide his tears from Paul. “I am doing this myself, I won’t let anybody else do it. I’ve already waited this long to rescue B and I won’t wait any longer. I am going to rescue him.” He didn’t care what had happened to B, but he would make B remember everything and he would force him to remember that Sammy loved him to death.
“He’s gone,” Paul whispered. “I don’t know what the Gerai did to him, but he’s gone.”
“They’ve been manipulating! They stole him!” Sammy screamed as he turned on his chair. “He’s my baby brother and they stole him from me!” He broke off as he sobbed. He covered his face with his hands and Paul gently gripped his arms.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m so sorry. You can’t save him.”
“Yes I can!” Sammy replied venomously as he yanked his arms away. “I will not leave this base without him ever! I will make him remember. He has to come back with me and see dad. I can reach him, I know I can. I almost did when he came down here!”
“And then he tried to kill you! He wanted you dead!”
“He was confused!” B was not in his right mind, otherwise he would never have attacked Sammy and he would never have killed… Sammy sobbed again. He couldn’t bear to think about that at the moment. He had refused to look at the corner where Paul had placed Kevin’s body and covered it with a blanket to keep it hidden from sight. Kevin had done so much for Sammy and B. He had always been there and now he was gone. How could a life be extinguished so easily?
And it made Sammy more aware than ever of how precarious B’s life could be and it terrified him. It would be so easy for someone to kill him, either a Gerai or a member of the resistance, Paul had almost shot him after he had stabbed Kevin.
“I can reach him,” Sammy said determinedly. “And I will. He’s coming back with us if I have to knock him unconscious to do it. We can fix him up. It’s not his fault. Paul, he may be the only family I have left. My dad was in a coma when I got caught. I have to save him.” He kept repeating those words.
Paul opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again and shook his head. Sammy’s eyes narrowed as he turned back to his computer screen full of codes.
“You don’t think he can be saved do you? Well, I can do it. I know B loves me. He was crying when he left here. That’s a start. I’m not asking you to help me. I’ll do it by myself.”
“Hey,” Paul said sharply. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have come this far. I will help you if you want, but first I will make sure I get all of these people out of here. After that, if you want, I will help you look for your brother and we’ll see what we can do for him.”
Sammy smiled weakly. “Thank you.” He turned to Paul again and more tears were staining his cheeks. “I really appreciate that. Even though he did that to Kevin, I can’t stop loving him…” he sobbed and then took a deep breath. Paul placed a hand on his shoulder, but said nothing and Sammy was thankful the silence.
He let his fingers dance across the battered keys and then hesitated a moment before pressing one final key. “I’m done,” he said. “The power’s out on every deck except ours.” This was it, he had accomplished the task but was it too late? He just had hoped that there was a chance that B could be saved.
Paul grinned at him. “You’re a brilliant hacker. You truly are gifted.” He loaded his laser up. “All right, let’s get ready to go. We have to take the base and then we can all go home.”
Sammy smiled. He just had to hope that when he went home, he would have B with him. And maybe Brian would be there to greet them both.
‘I don’t care what it takes. I will not leave him here.’
B was going with Sammy whether he wanted to or not.