CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT - SAMMY'S CHOICE
It hadn’t taken Brian long to make his way down to the valley before, but it seemed to be taking an eternity to return to the location of the Gerai base. His breaths were deep and wheezy and his feet had filled with the heaviness of dread to make it difficult to walk.
He had refused to be left behind. He was the only one who could locate Bri quickly and his life would depend upon how fats they could reach him. Brian had desperately stretched out with his mind since he had felt his twin’s pain but he couldn’t find anything. He had tried to speak with him but it was useless. Maybe they were too far apart… he had tried to reassure himself with such thoughts but he still could not fight the nausea that squatted in his stomach.
Howie’s friend Gerard led the way and following him closely were the seven other men and women Howie had chosen to come along. Brian and Howie were bringing up the rear as Howie had refused to let Brian go in front in case anything happened to him.
“Darren is going to kill me for letting you come,” Howie said. “And he’s right. You’re putting yourself and everything in danger just by being here.”
“I’ll be okay,” Brian replied determinedly. He no longer feared the Gerai or what they could do to him. He barely even thought about them as they neared the base or how they would get into the place. All he was aware of was the strong desire and need to find Bri.
“Hey!” Gerard called uncertainly from the front. “Hey, D? We got company. Patrol guards it looks like!”
Howie’s head snapped up. “Brian, get down,” he ordered.
They were just coming to the top of the slope now that led to the grassy, bumpy field of the base. Looking ahead Brian’s eyes widened as he saw several people looking down on them from the very top of the hill.
“Brian!” Howie hissed.
Brian nodded and quickly threw himself down to the ground, pressing his hands and body close to the mud. He had only just changed out of his former filthy clothes and now it looked as if the ones Howie had leant him wouldn’t last long either.
His heart beat, a slow, deep beat that sounded like the roll of an ominous drum as Brian waited to see what would happen. He could feel his mind shuddering in his skull as he thought about Bri. He’d had a constant companion ever since he had arrived in this time. Even when he had been alone, he had been aware of Bri’s presence in this time. He had never realised how comforting that was until it was gone.
His eyes drifted up to look at the hill. All ten members of their little group were now pressed to the ground in case the strangers started to fire their weapons. His hands were digging into the muddy grass in frustration. There was no time for this. He had to get to Bri now!
‘Where are you?’ His thoughts reached out in vain. He couldn’t find him. Usually if he concentrated he could find a part of his mind that wasn’t his own. Now he could only grasp emptiness.
He had to be unconscious. He had to be. Brian’s mind would not allow him to think of death. Already he could feel his mind breaking at that thought. You were never meant to see how you died. He didn’t know if his mind could take that.
He heard Howie and Gerard trying to plan their next move. There were four people standing on the hill looking down at them and they were in the dominant position. They had Brian, Howie and the others pinned.
Why couldn’t it be easy just for once? Everything that could have gone wrong had gone wrong on the journey here and now Brian was beginning to see how futile and rash his actions were. He couldn’t just march in their and find Bri. The place would be crawling with Gerai. He closed his eyes as he felt his entire body sagging. Now he knew why Howie had not brought a bigger group with them. They would have enough trouble trying to sneak just one or two people in without the Gerai seeing them.
He opened his eyes again and then gasped slightly. Another two people had joined the four on the hill, and then another eight. More and more people were gathering atop the hill. How could they have an army waiting for them?
“Shit,” Gerard swore. “We’re in trouble.”
“We have to head back to the trees. We control that entire forest in the valley and we can battle them on our own ground,” Howie murmured in response.
Brian gritted his teeth and felt his stubby fingernails digging into the palms of his hands. There wasn’t time! Every moment he was aware that he couldn’t feel Bri anymore. Now it wasn’t just B and Sammy in danger, but his older self as well. He was sick of waiting and worrying. He couldn’t go back to Howie’s forest base. He would break down into insanity if he did.
“We have to get in there!” Brian hissed back. “There has to be a w - ”
“How?” Gerard snapped. “We don’t know what’s happened in there! Bri could be dead for all we know and we could be throwing our lives away because of that!”
“Gerard!” Howie reprimanded. “Take it easy! Brian, we have to go back. We can’t fight them or - ” He paused and gowned as he stared at the hill.
Brian followed his gaze. A couple of people on the hill had started to jump up and down and wave their arms at them.
“What the hell?” Gerard muttered.
Even more people had gathered on the hill and they were all jumping on the spot and calling out in gleeful cries. One of them jumped down and began to run towards them.
“They’re our people!” Howie gasped suddenly as he jumped to his own feet. “They’re not Gerai!”
All of the other team members were slowly stumbling to their feet and staring at the assembled group on the hill with puzzlement. Brian stood beside Howie and his hand trembled as he held it up to his eyes to cut out the sun as he stared at the man coming towards them. It was a tall man with dark hair and a broad smile upon his face. For a brief moment Brian felt his heart jump inside of him. Kevin?
No, this wasn’t Kevin. There was a slight resemblance in size and hair but this man was a little stockier and not as handsome as his older cousin. It didn’t batter down Brian’s hope though. His eyes darted frantically along the rows of people on the hill. Was Kevin there? Were these the prisoners from the base? His hands had turned clammy as he clasped them to him.
“Sammy. B,” he murmured. His body had turned numb. Finally he would know.
“Guys!” the man called out excitedly as he skidded down the hill to land in front of them. “I knew you weren’t Gerai!”
“Paul!” Gerard cried, his eyes widening slightly. “Paul, I thought you were dead!”
The newcomer, Paul, turned to stare at Gerard, not having spotted him before. He smiled and then reached out to give his friend an embrace. “Gerard, I’m glad to see you buddy! I missed your ugly face!”
Brian stared at them and then back at the people on the hill. He was almost afraid to speak. He had spent so long building his hopes but now he didn’t know if his heart would survive if they turned out to be in vain. “Who are these people?” he asked softly. His voice was quiet, not daring to be hopeful.
Paul turned his attention to Brian and he saw the man’s eyes flicker in recognition. Everybody in this time seemed to know who Brian was and this man was no different. He watched the man’s eyes closely and felt his heart almost die inside of him as he saw the sad light in Paul’s eyes. A terrible, cold pain was slowly crumpling into his stomach and leaving him breathless, almost as if someone were reaching a clawed hand into his chest and tearing away his soul.
“Brian,” he whispered. “Am I right?”
Brian nodded slowly. His voice was dry. “You’re the prisoners from the base they told us about?” He stayed quite still, not daring to move in case he somehow ruined everything.
Paul had pulled away from his friend and was chewing on his lips nervously. He nodded. “Yeah, we were all being held by the Gerai.”
Brian couldn’t ask anything more. He could see the look in Paul’s eyes. It was making the pain in his chest tighter and hotter until it felt as if his next breath would be his last. He looked away from the older man, knowing that he was a coward for doing so.
“Kevin’s dead,” Paul said quietly.
Brian heard the gasp from Howie’s mouth and Brian held a hand up to his face. “Oh God…” he murmured. His knees were shaking as if they might break an sending him crumpling to the floor any moment.
“Sammy and B?” Howie asked quickly, managing to squeeze out the question that Brian couldn’t even think about anymore.
Brian stared up at Paul, begging for there to be some hope left. He had to have something to cling onto now otherwise he knew that his mind would float away in a rain cloud of tears and agony.
“They’re alive,” Paul said quickly.
Brian felt his chest fill with air that soaked into his body to leave a cold, clammy relief inside his body. He closed his eyes and felt the water building up behind them. He smiled. For the first time in a long while he smiled. “Where are they?” There was hope left.
“B was being held somewhere else and Sammy refused to leave without him. While the rest of us escaped, he went back for B. I said I was going to help him as soon as I got the rest of the prisoners to safety. We could never have gotten out if it wasn’t for him. He’s a hero and no doubt about it.”
Brian’s chest was swelling with pride, but at the same moment it was conflicting with the delicate bubble of despair that inflating in his mouth. Kevin. Kevin was gone. His mind had turned numb, not knowing whether to rejoice B and Sammy’s lives or mourn for his cousin. He found himself unable to say or do anything.
“What about the Gera in the base?” Howie asked quickly.
“Sam hacked the computer and allowed us to lock most of them in various rooms and sections of the base, but there’s still quite a few fighting for it. They’re finished though. There’s not enough of them to fight back. We can take the base now if we hurry before they get the computer back up, though I doubt they’ll manage it. That kid of yours Brian knew what he was doing.”
Brian smiled weakly and he stared back up at the prisoners, as if he would see B and Sammy running towards him any minute. But they weren’t there. They were still in that base with the Gerai. An awful memory of a similar situation was fluttering across his mind’s eyes. He remembered last time they had been locked and alone in a base. He remembered almost losing B in a fire. He didn’t know what was happening in there now.
He froze slightly, his thoughts suddenly viciously pulled from B and Sammy. Something entered his mind for a moment. He would usually have just thought it a random thought, but he knew it was something much more important than that. It had brought with it a slight flicker of pain, a ghost of that which he had felt just before he had told Howie they had to leave. “Bri,” he whispered to himself. He sharply turned back to Paul. “Have you seen my twin?” he blurted.
Paul’s brow creased in confusion. “What?”
“His twin. There’s two of them,” Howie explained. “This Brian here is from the past. He arrived just after B went missing. The one from our time somehow got into that Gerai base and went looking for you all. Have you seen him?”
Paul was still staring at Brian in puzzlement. He shook his head. “No. No I haven’t seen him or heard anything about him.”
Brian screwed his hands up into fists. It was always his family that remained in trouble when others were safe. When they’d thought the war to be over before on his last visit here, B and Sammy had remained in danger while the others rejoiced. Now it was all of them and history was repeating itself.
“I’ve got to find him,” he said as he turned to Howie. “I’ve got to go in there. I’m the only one who can find him.” Once he was in that base he knew that his instincts would guide him somehow to his dear friend’s side. He knew he could save him… he had to believe that he could.
“It’s dangerous. There’s still Gerai. We lost a few people in there on the way out,” Paul explained.
Brian pulled the laser he had slung over his back and charged it, a defiant look on his face. “I don’t care. If they run into me then there’ll be trouble for them.”
“We’re all going in there,” Howie said. “We let you go alone once, Brian and you remember damn well what happened then. I’m not letting you go alone. We have to take that base and get rid of the last Gerai. Once the base is ours, this whole thing will be over for good.”
Brian nodded and gripped his laser tightly in his hands. “Let’s get going then,” he said. He was still exhausted. He’d hardly had time for any rest while at Howie’s base and his stomach was still gnawing and begging for food and water. That would all have to wait thought. He’d stopped too many times on the way here and he wasn’t going to rest again until his mission was complete.
Howie nodded and turned to one of his men. “Kale, take the freed prisoners back to our forest camp and then send messages to Darren and all the other nearby bases to tell them the news. Also I want you to dispatch more men to this base. We know the way in from the surveys we made yesterday. We’ll squash the Gerai with numbers.”
Kale smiled and nodded. He was a young man, probably only a little older than B. Brian smiled. It would be a relief for everything to have this last battle over with so that they could lead normal lives. It would be nice to see B able to live something other than the sheltered and semi existence he had endured for so long.
“I’ll tell my friends on the hill what’s happening,” Paul said. “I’m coming with you back in and I’m sure one or two of the others might come. A lot of them just want to go home though. They’ve been through a lot and some people have been locked in that base as Gerai slaves for months.”
“No one has to go back inside who doesn’t want to,” Howie assured him.
Brian ran a hand over his laser as they all started back up the hill. Adrenaline surged powerfully through his body to bring life to his muscles and fatigued limbs. He was tired, but he had one last thing to do before he could succumb to rest
********************************
Sammy carefully stalked the corridors of the base, his laser held out in front of him in case he came across any Gerai. He’d already encountered several and been forced to shoot them, but from what he could see of the base and the troops he knew that the place was over. The Gerai’s plan had failed. They were too unorganised now and most of them, apparently, were running for their lives to escape. The younger members of the Gerai especially were keen to escape after having heard about the resistance’s break out.
He turned down another corridor and found two doors blocking his way. He placed his hand upon the panel and held his laser ready to fire as the doors softly whisked open. A long, dimly lit room stretched out before him. On either side were rows of beds and various desks covered in medical equipment.
The place was deserted. Sammy was about to turn and continue his search for B elsewhere when his eyes were drawn to the white body sheets that covered some of the beds. He froze and he felt sweat dribbling over his body. He could see medical quarantine suits hanging on the walls and see strange jars that covered the desk. This wasn’t a medical room as he had first assumed it to be. This was a science lab.
His hands were tightening upon his laser. He was thinking about B. He found his feet dragging him across to the nearest bed where a white sheet covered the body lying upon it. There was a scribbled note that had been pinned to the top of the sheet.
Experiment 203
Life Span: 9 Days
Drugs: Szichomene, Flleril, Lestzprmaine
Side Effects: Aggressive Behaviour, Memory Loss, Insanity
Sammy stared hard at the note, reading it again and again. The effects were terribly representative of how B had seemed. He moved along to the next body, which had been covered in a plastic body bag as well as a sheet.
Experiment 206
Life Span: 4 Days
Drugs: Lestzprmaine, Dioriride,
Side Effects: Blindness, Confusion, Suicidal
Sammy placed a hand over his eyes. Any one of these could have been B. He’d been luckier than Sammy had ever realised to survive under the hands of the Gerai. As a child he could have died so easily during their experiments but he had lived.
He glanced about the lab. It was very different to the one he had seen B in. B’s lab had been much cleaner, tidier and more private but this one would allow you to see what all the other ‘experiments’ were experiencing.
He moved across to the largest desk at the side of the room and saw that it was covered in piles of paperwork and various disks that held computer information. Sammy picked up one piece of paper and began to read, not understanding much of the technical or medical jargon that flashed before his eyes, but he understood enough to cause his body to shudder painfully. These bodies in this place were the bodies of some of the prisoners that had been taken. They had been using them for experiments into biological weapons.
Sammy could feel his eyes drowning slightly and his vision grew blurred. “Poor B,” he muttered. How could the Gerai do these terrible things? They were human, just like the people they tried to destroy and torture. He knew as he stared about the room that even though the Gerai were finished now there would be others like them. There would always be those members of the human race who sought to destroy and conquer. Human nature is always a violent thing.
He gently ran a finger of the small stack of computer discs beside a binder full of paperwork and then hurriedly began to pocket all of them. He looked beneath all of the paper that covered the desk, checking to make sure that he had all of the discs and computer chips that the Gerai had used to store data, and then he backed away from the desk and aimed his laser. With one simple blast the desk of work had become a smouldering heap. He fired once more, making sure that all the research was burnt beyond recovery and then smiled. He looked around at the bodies that covered the beds. “They won’t use you for anything else now,” he murmured to the restful dead.
And they wouldn’t use B either. He was going to find him before any of the Gerai had any smart ideas.
He turned on his heels and left the horror of the lab behind him. His strides were strong and determined as he walked. His hatred for the Gerai was a fierce fire that blazed inside to fuel him onwards and prepared him for his meeting with B. B wouldn’t listen to him easily, he had proved that by his behaviour in the work room where he had tried to attack him. This time Sammy wouldn’t stand for that. He’d looked after B since he was a baby. He had done everything from playing with him to disciplining him and when Sammy told him he was going home, B was going to come home.
The corridor was empty and the silence eerily reminded him of the dead in the lab. He couldn’t shake those sterile words that had graced the note on each body. ‘Experiment’, not patient or person. It was as if those people had not been human beings to the Gerai.
He turned another corner and headed onwards. He was tired and his throat ached with thirst but he was not planning to leave without B. The longer B remained in this place, the worse he would become. If Sammy was to have any chance of forcing him to remember everything then it would have to be done quickly before B became too angry to let anybody near him.
Another turning. Another empty corridor. The place was like a monotonous maze, cold and artificial with none of the warm, rocky homeliness that Sammy liked about Darren’s base. These really did look like military base and Sammy could imagine the Gerai troops moving along them like mindless robots.
There was a body at the end of the corridor. Sammy paused for a moment. Paul and the others had not come this way so they couldn’t have shot anybody. Slowly he began to creep forward. There was a rising lump in his throat and he knew the moment he felt it that his stomach was about to lurch with painful nausea.
He could see a small form with sandy hair…
“B…” Sammy’s voice was barely above a whisper and it was filled with a sob. He tried to run, but his legs shook and felt heavy so that he almost fell forwards as he tried to move quicker.
He gulped to try and calm himself and then hurried forwards, but as he grew closer he knew that it wasn’t B, but the sight was still just as sickening.
“Dad!” he screeched. He fell down beside the fallen figure and clutched at the body desperately. “Dad,” he begged. “Dad, wake up! Please, wake up!”
The last time he had seen Bri, he had been in a coma. Now his heart was torn in two different directions. Bri was here which meant that he had survived and escaped from the coma, but now he was lying just as death like as Sammy had seen him before.
Sammy realised that his hands were wet and he glanced down to see the blood sticking to his fingers. He ran a hand over Bri’s body and cried out slightly as his hand felt the deep knife wound in his side. He pressed his clean hand against his face and then ran a finger down to his neck to search for a pulse.
“Dad?” he whispered, his finger frantically trying to find even the slightest flutter of a pulse. ‘Don’t die now. Not after all this.’
Bri had survived the coma. Sammy’s hands trembled as he touched him as if he couldn’t believe that what he was seeing wasn’t merely an hallucination.
Bri stirred slightly and he saw the eyelashes flicker. He lowered his head and breathed deeply in relief, but tears rolled down his cheeks. Bri’s face was so pale that he looked like a doll. Gently Sammy held him in his arms, trying to rub warmth and life back into his limbs. His hands were shaking so much that he could hardly touch him. His eyes stared at the bloody wound and he thought of Kevin and the horrible look that had appeared in the older man’s eyes as the jagged knife blade had plunged into his chest to pierce his heart. Sammy hadn’t even realised that B had landed a fatal blow on Kevin until Paul had told him. Sammy hadn’t even been with Kevin when he’d died. He hadn’t even said thank you for saving his life. If it hadn’t been for Kevin then that knife might have been in Sammy’s chest.
He sobbed slightly as he held Bri dearly to him. He wasn’t going to leave this time. “Dad… I’m here,” he whispered. “Just open your eyes.”
Bri had saved him more than once. Bri had wanted him when nobody else had. Bri had been there that day Sammy’s own true mother had abandoned him. Sammy could still remember the first time he had stared up into Bri’s face, even thought it was so long ago now.
Bri’s eyes flickered again and then his lips parted as he breathed out and gurgled slightly. Slowly his eyes opened to reveal his pale blue orbs. He blinked, his eyes staring at Sammy’s face.
“It’s me,” Sammy said to answer the unspoken question. He sniffed slightly, smiling as he saw the life in the eyes.
Bri leaned his head against Sammy. His eyes closed again and tears began to fall. “You’re safe,” he murmured. A hand weakly clutched at Sammy’s and Sammy gently grasped it within his own to reassure Bri that he was all right.
“What happened to you?” Sammy asked softly. “And what are you doing here all alone?” Bri had been in a coma. The same fact was spinning around Sammy’s head. Now somehow he was here in this base, but he couldn’t have come alone could he?
Bri struggled to sit up more in Sammy’s arms and he held a hand to his knife wound and groaned slightly. “I came looking for you. I went on ahead but the others are coming. Ow…” he moaned slightly as he clutched the wound.
“Keep still,” Sammy ordered as he began to tear part of his shirt away to make a bandage for Bri. As he saw the wound more closely, nausea seemed to rush into his throat. He froze and thought of B. “Who did this?” he whispered.
The moment he saw Bri’s eyes close again, Sammy felt his own body deflate. A chill had entered his body and he held Bri tighter to him.
“B.”
“I knew it,” Sammy whispered. He remembered Paul’s words of waning. The Gerai had manipulated and tortured B so much that he was no longer the same person. There was no telling if they would even be able to find him again.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Bri babbled anxiously. “Sammy, he’s confused. He doesn’t know what he’s doing. It wasn’t his fault.”
A small spark of hope had ignited the flames again. Sammy looked down at his father again. “I know, I’ve seen him.”
Bri looked up at Sammy pleadingly. “Bring him back,” he begged. “Please, just bring him back. It’s not his fault. He’s just confused and frightened.”
Sammy sniffed again and wiped some of his tears with his bloody hand away. “I will,” he promised. “But I’ve got to get you out of here first.”
Bri was shaking his head. “No,” he replied. “No, no.” he pushed Sammy’s hands away. “Find B before it’s too late. Please. He can’t have been gone from here long. Just find him. I’ll be okay. The others are coming and they’ll find me.”
Sammy’s eyes drifted down the corridor. B could be anywhere nearby. He glanced back down at Bri, desperately wishing that he could split himself in half to be with both b and Bri. “I can’t leave you here.” He could feel Bri’s body trembling and convulsing slightly and the knife wound was deep. He didn’t want to leave him here in case the next time he came back he couldn’t waken him.
Bri struggled to sit up alone without Sammy’s support, stubbornly trying to prove that he was all right even though Sammy could clearly see that he wasn’t well. “The others are coming,” he repeated. “Brian will be here with Howie soon and he’ll know where to find me.”
Sammy shook his head. “How can you be so sure?”
“Brian,” Bri repeated. “He’s my younger self from the past. He’ll find me. We’re connected. Sammy, just go. Hurry.”
Sammy could feel that his eyes had grown wide. He didn’t understand the situation, but Bri’s hands were now pushing him away.
“Go. Go, before we lose him completely. I don’t want him to leave. He doesn’t mean to be violent.” His voice was quite, yet desperate and filled with tears.
Sammy held onto him, not wanting to let go. he closed his eyes. He was going to have to make a choice. If he didn’t go now then they might lose B forever. There was no saying what the boy would get up to. However if he left then Bri would be all alone and he didn’t look well.
Sammy lowered his head. He couldn’t choose between them. He remembered Kevin. Kevin had died alone. He should have had Sammy by his side.
“I can’t!” Sammy sobbed. He saw himself again lost and alone on the road as his mother drove away without him. He saw Bri saving him and adopting him. Then he saw B. B was his own little brother, his own little baby. He had a duty to protect him.
Bri was crouched on the floor still and he had hugged his knees to his chest as if he could somehow drown out the pain of his wound. He was rubbing his arms as well and Sammy could have sworn that he could see bruises on his arms. Had B caused them too?
“You have to go,” Bri repeated. “Because B needs you and I am asking you to go. No, I’m telling you to go.”
Sammy reached out and wrapped his arms tightly around Bri’s body, his tears falling onto his shoulders. He knew that this was it. He wouldn’t see him again. He sobbed as he buried his head in the warm fabric. “Dad… Thank you for everything.”
Bri smiled and held him dearly. He placed a hand on Sammy’s face. “You got so big,” he murmured. “And I’m so proud of you. Look after B for me.”
Sammy nodded. “I’ll find him and bring him home.” He clutched Bri’s hands hopefully. Maybe there was a small chance that things would still work out to a happily ever after. “Hold on, please. Just hold on.”
Bri smiled weakly at him. “I’m going to try.”
Sammy didn’t wipe his eyes. You’re never too old or too manly for tears or emotions. Emotions are a part of the human soul. He slowly stood up, a hand still resting upon Bri’s shoulder. They smiled at each other once more and then Sammy forced himself to turn around.
His fete felt heavy as he walked away and he was aware that Bri was watching him. He closed his eyes and his head lowered as he pushed himself forwards, determined not to look back. Bri had told him to leave him. Sammy had had the choice not to go. he’d had the choice between them and he’d chosen.
He left Bri behind and went to find B.