CHAPTER FORTY THREE - FALLING
B was screaming as he stared at the moaning body that lie crumpled on the ground before him. Blood was beginning to trickle over the tiles. He could hear Sammy and Marlowe’s silence but all he could do was scream.
And suddenly the power came to him and stretched easily from his fingertips like the way water flows through a river. The laser in Marlowe’s hands gave a shrieking pop as it bust into a ball of flames. There was a noise like an apple exploding and the stench of charred meat that delve fingers of nausea deeply into his stomach. Marlowe was shrieking in horrified pain as he stared at the bloody stumps on the ends of his arms. His hands had been destroyed along with the laser. His squeal were like an enraged animal and he frantically flung himself at the corridor walls as if he could somehow kill himself and stop everything around him.
B ignored him as he leant down beside his father’s body. His eyes were dry, seemingly unable to absorb what he was seeing before him. He didn’t want to cry. Crying would be admitting to what he was seeing. His father was nothing like the way B remembered him in his memories. Now he had a burning hole sizzling in his chest with a cloying stench of fabric and flesh as it glued together. His face was grey and his eyes were almost bulging from their sunken sockets. Pink and white froth was gathering at his lips. B ignored his revulsion at the macabre sight and reached out and firmly grasped one of the cold hands. It was damp and didn’t seem able to grip B back.
“I’m going to fall aren’t I?” his father murmured.
B was beginning to shiver and a rasping noise came from his own throat. His eyes still could not cry but his throat was trying to. He grabbed the hand. He would stop him from falling. There had to be a way. He opened his mouth but it was dry and his tongue appeared to have become lost somewhere.
“Are you all right?” his father asked. His eyes weren’t focusing upon B at all. They seemed to be somewhere else as they rolled in his head.
“I-I’m fine,” B replied. Physically he was but now he could feel floods sweeping across his mind to drown him.
His father looked confused. He did not even seem able to see B, but he recognised the voice. “BB?” He frowned and turned his head as if he were searching for him.
B lowered his head, staring at the wound. The blast had been devastating. The laser must have been on the highest setting. He gulped and wrenched his eyes away from it. He wanted to see his father’s face, not his internal organs.
“I’m here,” he said softly. “So’s Sammy.” He looked briefly over his shoulder and saw Sammy painfully trying to crawl towards them. Marlowe had fallen to the floor in a corner and was whimpering and gibbering like a trapped ape.
His father’s eyes flickered about him. “I’m going to fall,” he said, his words not seeming to be directed at B, but somebody else. His eyes flickered closed. “B, I’m sorry,” his father said faintly, now clearly talking to him. “I’m so sorry.” His face crumpled. He looked like he wanted to cry but he didn’t’ seem to have the energy to create the tears anymore.
B was shivering hard and violently. Another memory was coming back to him, one that he couldn’t ignore any longer. He saw himself and his father in the corridor. He saw them fighting. He heard his father screaming. “You don’t have to be. I’m the one who’s sorry.” His voice shook as much as his body. He wanted it to be Marlowe that he’d attacked. But he knew it wasn’t now… He began to cry for both of them. Slow tears ran down his face, cooling his skin.
“I don’t want you to fall,” his father murmured. “I-I…”
B sobbed slightly and held the hand. “I’m not falling. I’m okay. I’m alive and I remember you.” He remembered everything now. He lived and he knew what was true and what wasn’t. His father had never abandoned him. Even now he never truly would.
“I won’t let him fall,” Sammy added.
His face crumpled. His eyes were dry but creased as they tried to free the tears. “It hurts.” His eyes stared straight at B’s. “If I let go, will you hate me?” he asked.
B stared down at his body. It was heaving in pain and his father’s voice was husky as his body tried to die. He shook his head numbly. He couldn’t hold on to him. He watched as his father groaned in pain. Blood trickled slowly and incessantly, like sand in an hourglass. “Never. I love you. You’re my father.”
Sammy was beside them both now, his own face almost as pale as their father’s, but not holding the same waxy gleam that reminded B of a doll or a model. B reached out with his other hand, searching for Sammy’s and clutching it hard.
Bri’s eyes were vacant, unable to see anything around them. He seemed to be trying to stare up at B and Sammy though. The froth oozed out and he began to choke slightly. His hand gripped at B’s painfully as convulsions shook his body. He tried to open his mouth to say something in reply to B but only a gargle came out. Instead he forced his lips to smile and then his eyes closed. His hand still held B’s.
B was gasping. He watched the rise and fall of Bri’s chest and he began to whimper. Sammy gently wrapped him in his arms, but B could not allow himself to turn limp in his brother’s grasp. He watched the chest rise again and…
“Bri! Bri!”
The voice was almost as hysterical as Marlowe’s had been. Somebody else dashed crazily from around the corner and flung himself down beside Bri. B gasped in fear and pulled his hand away from his father’s and grabbed Sammy who pulled him away instinctively.
The newcomer was screaming as he shook Bri, as if he was merely trying to rouse him from slumber. B blinked at him. He knew that face. It was identical to his father’s.
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Brian felt the shot him. Bri had been well ahead and out of sight but Brian had felt it. Something hard smacked into his own chest and he was flung back against the wall before he tottered and stumbled to the floor screaming as pain ripped at him. He felt Bri’s mind frantically seizing at his own, like a drowning man fighting for the vital line to save them. It hurt Brian terribly though when Bri tried to climb aboard. He couldn’t hold him. It was like trying to hold freezing ice that was tearing the skin from your hands in an agony that was slowly trying to envelop every part of you.
Brian couldn’t let him go though, he hung on tight as ever. He was aware that he was about to lose something, and he feared that his sanity might go be lost with it. He screamed by himself in the corridor, but he couldn’t see it any longer. He was somewhere else in his mind. There was no drowning man. There was no ice. There was a cavern wall that Brian remembered. It was the same one he had once climbed down to save B’s life. Now he was at the top of it and Bri was dangling from the wall, the rocks ripping at his hands and turning them into a bloody mess. Brian had held of a rope that had torn into his own palms. Bri was clutching it frantically, but his weight was pulling Brian over with him.
“Bri, hang on!” Brian yelled as he tugged at the rope. It didn’t move at all. No matter how much eh pulled he couldn’t bring Bri back to the top. All he could was was prolong the fall. “Hang on!” he sobbed.
“I’m going to fall aren’t I?” Bri murmured from below.
Brian shook his head fiercely. “No, I can’t let you. We’ve come to far! You’re a part of me! Hold on!”
Bri gasped. His bloody hands were grabbing the rope where he hung like a weight made of lead. He kicked his feet against the wall. But it was suddenly as smooth as glass and he couldn’t grip it at all. He tried to pull himself up a little. Brian screamed. It felt like his entire body would be torn apart if Bri pulled on the rope again.
“Are you all right?” Bri screamed in concern.
Brian nodded. “I’m fine!” he lied. “Keep climbing!”
Bri was frowning below him. He looked about him and then looked at the top of the cliff. He turned and twisted on the rope. Brian screamed again as the strands tore at his fingers. He couldn’t hold it if Bri kept moving.
“BB?” Bri asked in confusion.
“What?” Brian replied. He stared about him. “B?” B wasn’t here in their minds. “Bri, please keep climbing! I can save you, I know I can!”
Bri stared up at Brian and his face had taken on a new expression that Brian had never seen before. There was no hope there. “I’m going to fall,” he said softly.
“No, you can’t! I won’t let you!” Brian yelled. He grabbed the rope even tighter, but groaned in agony as it hurt so much. It pulled at every part of him. His fete were sliding towards the edge the harder he tried to pull Bri back up.
“B, I’m sorry. I‘m so sorry,” Bri whispered. Tears were rolling down his pale cheeks.
Brian tried to pull on the rope once more. His feet slid so close to the edge that he yelped in fear as he almost fell. He yanked on the rope and squealed. Why couldn’t he pull him up? All he could do was hold on…
“I don’t want you to fall,” Bri called up to him. “I-I…”
“I won’t!” Brian replied venomously. “Now pull yourself up!”
“It hurts,” Bri whimpered. Blood covered the rope. He slipped slightly.
“Bri!” Brian yelled.
Bri wasn’t looking at him anymore. “If I let go, will you hate me?” His voice was so soft. He almost wasn’t talking to him anymore.
“Yes, I will!” Brian passionately screamed. “I’m not letting you fall! Bri! Please!” His hands were almost rubbed raw to the bone. There was blood everywhere. His mind felt heavy. It felt like it was going to splinter any moment.
Bri stared up at him and then looked down.
Brian shook his head. “If you fall, I’ll come after you,” he vowed. “It’s a long fall and I’ll catch you before you hit the bottom.” He’d follow and drag him to the top of the precipice somehow.
Bri stared up at him and then shook his head. Then he let go.
“BRI!” he screamed.
He was dragged back. He stumbled away from the cliff and fell to the floor as he stumbled back. He hit the ground.
He was in the corridor again. The precipice, the rope and the burns were gone. He was gasping. Tears covered his sweaty face. He could feel Bri falling away from him. He was falling. He had to catch him…
He stumbled to his fete and then began to run. Bri hadn’t been that far ahead of him. He should be able to catch him up. He could save him somehow. He could…
He flung himself around the corner and then he saw them all. B and Sammy were beside his fallen comrade. He screamed again, his lungs still hoarse from the screaming by the cliff as he saw the body. There was blood and there was the smell of death, but Bri hadn’t fallen yet.
He fell down beside Bri and grabbed the front of his shirt, ignoring the chest wound. “Bri! Bri!” he sobbed. Tears ran down his face as he grabbed hold of his dear friend. He saw B and Sammy backing away from him, but at the moment his mind could only focus on one thing, the fact that a part that had joined him not so long ago was now about to be lost.
“Bri!” he wept.
And he was away from the Gerai base once again. He was in the caverns only this time they were both hanging over a cliff on a single rope that was beginning to snap. Bri was just below him and he reached down and grabbed his arms. “Bri, I won’t let you!”
“Let me go!” Bri sobbed. “We’ll both fall if you don’t let go!”
Brian shook his head. He was only holding the rope by one hand, the other clasped Bri. He could feel it burning his hand and he knew that any second they’d both go tumbling into the darkness. “I can’t, you’re my friend.”
“We were never supposed to exist like this. We were never supposed to be friends, but something went wrong. We’re joined now and it has to break otherwise we’ll both die. You’re falling!”
“I don’t care!”
“Well I do! And so does B! Let me go!”
Bri tried to let go of Brian’s hand but Brian refused to give up. It couldn’t end like this. He couldn’t think straight anymore. He felt dizzy…
“You’re going to fall!” Bri screamed. “B, catch him!”
The rope squeaked. Bri wrenched his hands from Brian’s. Identical blue eyes gazed at one another. Bri mouthed a goodbye and then he fell.
Brian felt the rope break but before he could fall after his twin he felt arms around him. His eyes closed and then when he opened them he was back in the base staring up at the ceiling. He turned his head and found that he was in B’s arms.
“Are you okay?” B’s voice shook. “You were both screaming about falling and…”
Brian blinked. He was in the base. Where had the cavern gone? He was suddenly aware of something much worse missing. A part of his mind. Loneliness was crumpling around him, suffocating him. He had nothing to lean on anymore. There was nothing at all, nothing even bedded in his unconscious. He was alone. He sobbed slightly and turned his head. Bri lie quite still, his eyes closed and his head tilted on one side.
“I don’t understand,” B whispered. His little voice trembled.
“It’s okay,” Sammy said. “Dad told me about this before. There’s two of them. You must be from the past or something?”
“Or future?” B said, his voice barely audible. He stared at the body, as if he could believe that Bri could come back somehow.
Brian shook his head. He felt cold and he couldn’t move. “Past,” he mumbled. He lowered his head and began to cry. He clutched at B who held him back. His mind recoiled over and over inside of his skull. He was numb and cold, terribly cold like he were out in December’s snow.
“He’s in shock,” Sammy said. He pressed a hand against Brian’s shoulder. “We have to get out of here now.” Sammy eyes were red and miserable as he grabbed hold of Brian’s hands and pulled him to his feet unsteadily. Brian resisted only a moment before Sammy pulled him more violently. Brian leaned against him crying.
“I feel empty,” he whispered.
Sammy held him for a moment and Brian felt no resentment or fear in his embrace. There was nothing to show him that he was inferior to Bri.
B softly tapped him on the shoulder. His green eyes were wide and wet but he wasn’t crying. “I’m glad you let him go,” he whispered. “I didn’t like seeing him in pain.” His lips trembled as he spoke.
Brian looked at him. B had been through so much to have a father and now… They both stared at each other and then at once they moved to embrace one another. B fell into Brian’s arms crying silent tears. Brian tried to swallow his own even though he sobbed for his missing part.
“Take me home,” B begged. “I want to go home.”
Brian turned his head towards Sammy, who nodded. Sammy placed an arm about Brian’s shoulders and all three of them turned back towards the corridor, away from the death that struck all of them.
“B!” Marlowe shrieked suddenly. “You can’ leave me here!” he wailed, trembling in pain as blood ran from his stumps. “Please!”
There was a cold look in B’s eyes as he turned briefly to the scientist. He opened his mouth as if he were about to say something and then changed his mind and said nothing. He turned back and took Brian’s arm. Brian saw Sammy smile at his brother.
Holding on to one another they turned away. Brian tried not to scream like he wanted to. He wanted to curl up in his own corner and rock himself to death, but he had Sammy and B either side of him to stop him. He had them to ease loneliness.
Marlowe could only scream to himself as they left.