CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR - REACHING A GOAL
Brian carefully and quietly moved through the undergrowth that surrounded him. He was nervous and the sounds of dried leaves beneath his feet help his confidence much. Anybody could hear him and it was almost impossible to move silently. The thing that worried him most though, was the fact that his scanner was telling him that three people were hunting him. It was obvious what they were doing. Every time he moved they kept circling so that they kept behind him.
But who was it? Friend or foe? Howie or Gerai?
He was determined to do this though. He would show everybody that he wasn’t as clueless about this time as they all thought. He had battled the Gerai before and he knew that you had to be careful. Bri had trusted him to wander off alone and he would not disappoint him by getting himself captured. Besides, he had to get Howie and the others to help Bri as soon as possible. He did not like the idea of Bri wandering around that Gerai base alone. It was dangerous.
He stared intently at his scanner. They were still following him, but at least they hadn’t fired at him yet. They must have their own scanners, he knew that from the precise way they were following him. They also had to know that Brian had one of his own from the way he kept evading them. Why didn’t they just fire at him? They wouldn’t be giving away positions or anything because he already knew where they were!
Brian stopped for a moment. This cold go on all day and he didn’t have time to mess about while each of them decided whether to shoot or not. He glanced about him until he spotted a tall tree with thick branches only a few feet from the ground. He slipped the scanner safely into his pocket and jumped up to grab hold of the first branch, wincing as every muscle in his body protested at the vigorous movement. He grunted and pulled himself up, but he felt his heavy rucksack weighing heavily upon his shoulders.
He wriggled about until he was sat more safely upon the branch and then pulled the bag from his shoulders. He swung it by the straps and then tossed it a few feet away from the tree before he turned his egad upwards to see where he could climb to next. There was another branch looming above him that was easy to reach so he started with that one and then began to use other branches like steps as he sought to climb higher until he was almost completely concealed by the foliage of the tree. He rubbed his aching arms and then pulled out his scanner and the laser Bri had given to him. Balancing the scanner in the fork of a branch in front of him, he loaded the gun ready in case his followers were Gerai.
His eyes intently watched the approaching dots of the hunters and he noticed that they were walking much more slowly now, conscious of the fact that he had stopped and had probably set a trap for them. Brian’s arm trembled ever so slightly as he held the laser, but he took a deep breath until he had steadied himself slightly.
“Show yourselves,” he murmured to himself as he saw that they had halted within twelve metres of his position.
He tilted his head so that he could see the direction they would come from through a tiny gap in the thick green leaves that covered the branches and then pushed the tip of his laser through it so that he would have a clear shot. He watched the scanner and watched as two dots began to approach again while one stayed behind.
Brian bit his lip as he heard the faint rustle of crackling leaves. He smiled slightly. Even professional and trained fighters could not appear to move silently through the woods either. He stared at the gap and watched as two figures crept out from the shelter of some thick bushes. Brian tilted his head again and frowned. He couldn’t tell who they were from his height. He could see their clothes but he wasn’t sure if they were Gerai or not?
One of them immediately rushed over to Brian’s fallen bag and began to stare about it, as if expecting to see its owner crouched nearby waiting for them to find. Ha, Brian wasn’t that stupid! He’d made sure he’d placed his bag away from his tree so that they wouldn’t find him immediately.
The second was more cautious and he held his weapon in front of him, ready to fire. He glanced at a scanner in his hand and then looked above him at the trees. Of course, the scanners gave readouts of approximate height locations as well. They would know that he had climbed up somewhere.
“All right,” the second called. “We know you know we’ve been following you. We want to know who you are and if you’re a friend or not.” He was facing a bushy tree next to Brian’s, obviously assuming that this was where their foe was hiding.
Brian gulped slightly, his hand still resting on the trigger of his own laser. He could easily shoot both of them from here before they could retaliate, but that wouldn’t be very good if they were the people he was looking for. His mouth had turned dry. How did he tell? They weren’t in Gerai uniform but didn’t the Gerai wear different clothes when they were hiding out somewhere?
“Gerai spy,” the second muttered to the first.
The first man shook his head as he rummaged through Brian’s rucksack. “I don’t think so. This isn’t Gerai equipment.”
Brian drummed his fingers along his laser. Should he show himself or were they trying to trick him? But surely if they were Gerai then they would have fired at him? The Gerai certainly never seemed to waste time asking questions until after they had taken prisoners.
Carefully he moved further along the branch, but kept his laser close to his chest with his finger against the trigger. He aimed it at the two men and then cleared his throat nervously. “Who are you?” he demanded. He kept his voice firm, making sure that his nervousness did not show. He had to appear to be in control of this situation.
The second man immediately aimed his own weapon up at Brian’s tree as his head jerked towards him at the sound of the voice. He frowned slightly. “You look familiar. Is that… Brian?”
Brian did not move. He still had to be careful and just because this person knew him, or rather knew Bri, it didn’t mean that they were a friend. The Gerai knew him by appearance as well. “Who are you?” Brian asked. “How do I know you’re not a Gerai?”
“We’re not. We’re with a team stationed here. We’ve been spying on the Gerai,” the second man replied as he lowered his laser. “My name is Scott.”
Brian tilted his head to get a clearer view of Scott. He didn’t look like a Gerai, but he knew how devious they could be. “Are you with Howie?”
“Dorough? Yes, he’s down in our camp.”
Brian smiled, at last believing that he was safe with allies. He swung his laser over his shoulder and then began to clamber down the tree, careful not to slip and fall.
“You are Brian aren’t you?” Scott asked. He looked puzzled. “You look a little - ”
Brian glanced down at himself in confusion, not understanding why Scott was staring at him so strangely, and then he remembered. They were used to seeing Bri now and he looked much different. There was an age gap of almost twenty years between them and Brian did not share his twin’s faded and wearied appearance. “Oh,” he said. “Yeah, I can explain that. It’s a long story, but I have to speak with Howie first. It’s important.”
**********************************
“Bri? What happened to you? You look almost like - ”
Brian shook his head at Howie’s confused face. “I’m not Brian, or at least not the Brian you’re used to now.”
Scott had led Brian through the wilderness of the valley to a concealed campsite which had been full of resistance members from various bases. A small twinge had tweaked Brian’s side as he’d stared at the gathering army that was going to eliminate the last Gerai base in the country. It was so close to being over… but the worst might still be waiting for him.
Howie had been seated upon a make shift bench talking with several other men and women when Scott had brought him over. Initially Howie had been ecstatic to see him but now his large eyes were veiled with confusion and concern. His face wore a frown and Brian could have sworn that his lip trembled ever so slightly.
Before Brian could explain his presence, Howie had cut him off. “Yes I know. You’re from the past. Darren sent me a message to tell me what had happened. He said you’d been kidnapped by the Gerai and that Bri’s team had gone missing and then - ”
“I escaped and I ran into Bri and Nick. They didn’t want to turn back so I went with them. Nick was hurt so we left him in Josphin’s village.”
Howie nodded his head. “I know, I know. Josphin sent a message to Darren and then Darren told me to keep an eye out for you and Bri. We were getting worried about you both! It’s been days since anybody heard anything and Darren has been going crazy! He’s furious that Bri took you with him! Speaking of which, where is - ?”
“Bri’s all right, or at least he was last time I saw him.” Brian’s eyes flickered closed for a brief instant. He knew Bri was okay. He would know if he had been hurt or killed. They were connected and that meant that Brian would know if his counterpart was in trouble and needed help.
“What’s wrong?” Howie asked, seeing the dark worry clouding Brian’s face. “What’s he gone and done now?”
Brian sighed. “He’s gone to find a way into the Gerai base.”
Howie’s eyes widened. “What?” he asked.
Brian realised that his hands had begun to trembled as he remembered everything that had led Bri to such desperate actions. “He was worried about B and Sammy. We know that B has had experiments done on him and that he’s been infected with the virus. We were both worried about him and - ”
“But that was stupid of him to let you go wandering off on your own! Do you know what the consequences would be if anything happened to you? What Bri did was completely - ”
“But we didn’t have the time to waste! You said yourself that we’ve taken long enough to get here and we both know that it could have been too long! We don’t know what’s happened to them and we’ve both been worried sick!” Tears had started to stream down Brian’s face as he remembered another awful reason for Bri’s hastiness. B had been losing his memories. He might not even remember his family…
His legs began to shake and his stomach was lurching inside of him. Before he had focused everything he had into the gruelling journey, but now that was over the pain, the misery and the memories all came crowding in to crush him. He remembered how sick B had been in his own time and how small and vulnerable he had looked in his confusion as he tried to reconcile his life.
“Hey, calm down,” Howie said softly. “You’re exhausted and you need rest.
He tried to push Brian to sit down but Brian shook his head and kept his legs rigid, refusing to rest in case he fell asleep. There was no time to rest. They had to settle this now or Brian might die of his own emotions. The wait and suspense were pressing upon him until he could hardly breathe anymore. They had to end this. Brian had to see what had happened.
“No, we have to go after Bri.” Brian’s voice shook with tears as he spoke. He was tired, but he would not rest. “You have enough people here and you’ve been watching the Gerai long enough so you must know something!”
“We can’t act too quickly or too rashly,” Howie explained gently. “These gerai are ruthless. We don’t want them to kill their prisoners and they will out of spite if we try and storm the place. Several days ago they brought a man and killed him on the plain and left his body there for us to find. It was one of their prisoners and they did it as an example to us.”
Brian covered his face with his hands as he thought of Sammy. B was important to the Gerai but what about Sammy? Anything could be happening to him in that Gerai hell.
“You must be able to do something!” Brian gasped. Bri wouldn’t be able to get B, Sammy, Kevin and the other prisoners out of there alone. He would need Howie’s help.
“We were planning on sending in a small group tomorrow to infiltrate the base. We’ve managed to get a good idea of how many Gerai there are and if we can free the prisoners, then we’ll outnumber them easily. But we don’t know how many prisoners are in there anymore. There’s no saying how many they’ve killed. I’m sorry I don’t have any good news.”
Brian raised his head to the sky. Had they been too late? His body felt numb and worn. Staring at his filthy hands he hardly recognised himself anymore. How could he ever be the same again if he returned to his own time knowing that the future held nothing but death for his family?
He slowly sunk to the ground and rubbed his face with a hand. He didn’t know how to hold everything in anymore. He couldn’t stop the tears from falling. “We were too late.”
*****************************
Bri crawled through the damp grass on his belly, wary in case the Gerai were watching him. He knew that they must have surveillance of some kind surrounding their base to keep watch over trespassers and to make sure that they weren’t being attacked. He just hoped that they hadn’t noticed Brian hurrying away.
But they didn’t really want him anyway did they? Killing him would cause any amount of unforeseen circumstances and neither side in this war wanted that. Bri and his life had had a profound impact already on this future and changing that could change everything. His eyes closed slightly. He had never imagined in his youth that his life would turn out like this. Everything had been so simple twenty years ago. This world now was like a new dimension or a parallel universe. It was completely alien to the world of the past.
And he was more heavily involved than he would ever have guessed. Fate had selected him and his family to take part and he had no choice but to follow that hand into this game.
“B,” he whispered under his breath as he reflected upon the melancholy lie of his youngest son. He had been through so much, so much more than anybody should ever have to cope with. He deserved a better life and he would have it once the Gerai were finished with. He tried not to think about the memory loss. It had been burning in the back of his mind ever since he heard about it and now it was threatening to char him completely. He couldn’t give in yet though, not while he was this close and not while there was still hope. B had to remember. Surely B could not have forgotten him?
‘He’ll be okay. He’ll be fine,’ he told himself defiantly. He had to be…
He glanced down at his scanner. These were the coordinates he knew the base to be at, but the scanner showed him nothing. It had not registered any life signs since Brian had passed out of range twenty minutes ago and it certainly did not read the presence of any base.
“How do I get into this place?” he muttered. He sighed in frustration and lowered his head. This was what had taken them so long in the first place, trying to find an entrance to this cursed base. How was he supposed to do it alone?
He crawled further through the grass ignoring the way his hands sunk into the soggy ground to leave them covered in mud and grime. He already looked a mess and he doubted if anything could make him look any worse. Only yesterday himself and Brian had come across a small stream but the dirt was so toughly engrained into their skin by now that it would be impossible to clean themselves without soap, besides their bedraggled appearances made a much better camouflage.
Juddering inside of him, his heart moved about his chest. Every moment he expected some kind of attack. They had to know he was here, or were they so confident about the concealed nature of their base that they didn’t need to fend off intruders? He shook his head. There had to be defences of some kind and Howie had said in a message to Darren that there were ground lasers that could be remotely operated.
Nervously Bri glanced about him. He could so far now and he did not intend to die just yet. His eyes flickered for a moment. By rights he should have been dead a long time ago. He should have died when that house came crumpling down upon his body. Somehow though he had survived. Fate had forced him to live on in those Gerai mines while those around him had died in mining accidents or of disease. He sometimes wandered if God himself had not helped him to survive so that he could fight this last battle to save B and Sammy for good. There’d be no more fear from the Gerai for either of them once this was over with. And Bri could also rest. He was tied of fighting.
He inched slowly along the ground, frustrated by his own cautious pace but he had to be careful. If he rushed now then everything could be a waste. B and Sammy were waiting for him and he couldn’t let them down.
Crawling along the ground he scrambled through a small patch of weeds and then frowned as his hand bumped against something hard and metallic. He glanced down and saw that a small metal cylinder was sticking out form the mud, concealed cunningly by the weeds. His eyes widened as he realised what he had found: a ground laser. “Shit!” he swore as he began to crawl away as fast as possible. “Shit, shit!”
Forgetting about crawling he leapt to his feet and began to dash back the way he had come, desperate to find some kind of cover. He flung himself behind a deadened tree and pressed himself close to the trunk. His breaths heaved through his tired body and his head spun from the adrenaline. He waited, waited for the whine of a laser blast.
He counted to sixty in his head and then frowned. Why hadn’t it gone off? He had been right on top of it, an easy target for the Gerai. He peered around the trunk and tried to spot the laser head, but it had been far too well hidden to be able to spot from a distance. He cautiously stepped out from his tree and frowned.
“What the?”
Had they mistaken him for his twin? But that didn’t explain it. A laser was capable of stunning a person as well. They could have knocked him down and then easily captured him without hurting or killing him. It didn’t make sense.
He jumped up and down and waved his arms. “Hey you bastards come and get me!” He scrambled back to the safety of the tree, but still there was reaction.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and then began to walk back towards the laser, his legs ready to run if there was any sign of movement from it. There was a scrunching sound form nearby and he gasped as he threw himself to the ground hard, his heart lurching and spinning wildly in his chest at the sound. After a moment he raised his head and rolled his eyes as he saw the blackbird that had landed nearby to peck at the ground.
“Stupid bird,” he muttered, feeling rather foolish for his dramatic actions.
He began to crawl again until he spotted the cluster of weeds. Carefully he approached it and then reached out with his hand to touch the laser head. He banged it and then pulled it, but still there was no reaction. Nobody was manning the outer defences at all.
He raised his head to the sky and a faint smile curved his lips. Something was happening inside of that base, something that had unsettles the Gerai and caused them to stop paying attention to the outside world.
“Sammy, Kevin,” he whispered. “B.”
They were doing something. They were fighting back. He should have known that they wouldn’t just sit and wait to be rescued.
“Hold on, I’m coming,” he said as he picked himself up again. Without the threat of hidden lasers he would be free to search for an entrance. Obviously the Gerai had other problems to worry about.
He smiled and then closed his eyes as he concentrated. He had to tell Brian about the lasers. It would be even easier than they had thought for Howie and his team to break into the base. They didn’t have to worry about weapons stopping them.
‘Something is happening in the Gerai base. Either the outside weapons have been disabled or nobody is manning them. I think Sammy and the others are fighting back. Tell Howie. Tell them it’s time to go.’
He took a deep breath and then set about searching for an entrance. It was time for him to come to the end of his mission. They were close now.