CHAPTER THREE (PART SEVEN) - BRIAN Kevin chose to try to sleep over by the table, while Nick choose to sleep beside the couch Brian was on, he sat on the floor and pulled his legs to his chest. He didn’t care if he was hiding, his hand hurt and he was terrified out of his mind, resting his chin on his arms Nick watched as Howie dragged a blanket and pillow across the room and headed to the computer consol where A.J. sat, typing something, the monitors behind him were still running, but he paid no mind to them. Kinda redundant since everyone was either dead or gone. Howie dropped the blanket in front of it, and looked at A.J. “I’m crashing here.” He said simply pointing. A.J. just shrugged as Howie disappeared from sight as he sat on the floor, sitting down on the pillow and pulling the blanket over himself, Howie sat there with the blanket over his head like a monk. He watched as Kevin lay staring at the ceiling, the gun still in his hands, the lights had all but turned off, save for the ones coming from the computer station. The robot sat off in the shadows humming and clicking its finger softly, Howie looked over and saw the glowing green computer information on its face. Silence domed the room, A.J. reached out and flipped open the mini computer, he pulled out a wire and plugged it into the one of the connection out lets. He typed something and the computer beeped softly. A.J. waited as music suddenly filled his ears, only he could hear it, he grinned as the rock and roll played. Howie sat there for a moment, he couldn’t sleep, not yet at lest. He frowned and pulled the blanket off his head and looked off to the shadows where the robot was. He looked around to make sure everyone was still where they were before calling out softly. “Hey! R2!” He whispered, the robot stopped humming and clicking its fingers. Howie crocked his finger at it, signaling it to come. “Come here!” He whispered, the robot looked around as if they were being supervised, before tromping to his feet and walking over. )))Hum?((( It asked looming over Howie, Howie quickly scrambled to his feet. “I got an idea!” He whispered and pushed the robot towards the stairs that led up to the computer consol. )))What idea?((( It asked. “Sssssshhhhhh!” Howie hissed and pushed it forward, it tripped up the first step as Howie made it stop, it turned around just as Howie shoved it to the floor. )))Yaaaaaaa!((( It yelped crashing against the wall, and to the floor, the sound of metal slamming against metal ringing out loud and clear. A.J. jolted and looked over to the side confused as Howie tried to make the robot be quite, although he was laughing softly. “Sorry!” He whispered at the indigent robot. Kevin had looked up and saw Howie wildly trying to be quite and only seceding in being even more loud, even Nick peered out from his hiding place. Kevin grinned and laid his head back down, Nick leaned back as Howie quickly reached behind the robots flat face and felt around for a couple wires. A.J. turned slightly and pressed a button, before turning back around. “Hey! What the hell are you doing!?” A.J. whispered. “I have an idea!” Howie answered tugging at a couple wires. )))Ow!((( “Sorry!” Howie pulled out a red cord, kneeling next to a panel he dug his fingers into the outline and pulled open a little compartment. “What idea is this?” A.J. asked pulling out the wire that fed him music. As Howie jammed the wire into the computer wall, the robot sat on the step timidly. Its fingers clicked nervously. “I figured, who ever programmed this guy, had to have used their access codes to power it up to, if I can get the computer to run a full sweep of its memory banks and programming units it can scan the codes and find a user. It can tell us who’s been here. And maybe why they did this.” Howie said pushing the robots shoulder so he could reach for a cord behind its back. “What if someone stole the codes and gives us the wrong person?” A.J. asked though was intrigued by the idea. “They can’t, in order to specially program robots they need two codes, a password-“ “And a retinal scan to see if their rank is high enough for special use of a robot.” A.J finished nodding, remembering. Howie nodded and pulled out a thick black cord, looking over the compartment Howie found an outlet and plugged it in. He turned to A.J. and opened his mouth to ask him if he would start the scanning program but he already anticipated his request. “Uh, on it!” He said turning to the computer and typing. Howie looked at the robot, “Okay, this won’t hurt.” He assured, he paused for a second. “At lest I don’t think it will, then again I’m not a robot so I wouldn’t know.” He grinned as the robot looked at him aghast. )))Wow!((( It said straightening up as the computer started running the program, it began scanning, in essence its brain. “Feel weird?” Howie asked. )))Yeah!((( It exclaimed, it giggled. )))I kinda like it!((( Howie grinned and sat down next to it, after settling he looked at A.J. who turned to look at the two. “I think this will be a while.” He said, “It’s running a thro scan.” Howie shrugged, “I can wait, not like I’ll be going to sleep for a while.” A.J. shrugged, was up to him. Howie shifted as A.J. typed something, he watched for a minute before breaking the silence. “So,” He began, A.J. looked at him, Howie shrugged. “Lookin forward to getting out of here?” “What are you joking?” A.J. asked, he paused then shrugged. “Aw, so and so.” He admitted. Howie looked at him surprised. “Really! Why?” A.J. shrugged again. “Well, I’ve been here my whole life. What the hell am I gonna do on Earth? I’ve only got training for this station. What will I do? Maintenance?” A.J. shuddered and Howie grinned. “But with this thing running around, I am more then glad to hop a ride back!” “Well, you said so yourself, your smarter then anyone alive, hell, you practically built a large portion of this station, maybe you can help built another one and work there.” Howie suggested. “Pipe dream!” A.J. sang out and they both grinned. Silence settled once again, Howie fidgeted, he wanted to ask him a question but wasn’t sure how to ask it exactly. He took a chance. “Why did your parents bring you here?” He blurted out, A.J. looked at him really surprised. “I mean, what were they thinking? Were they blind? Didn’t they see what kind of place this was?” A.J. thought for a moment, he hadn’t talked about his parents to anyone, so he didn’t have a problem talking about them now as Howie had feared. “Actually, it was my father who brought me here, from what I remember of them, my mother and him were divorced. They were in a custody battle when one of the head people in charge of the project for developing this station came to him saying my intelligence was just what they were looking for.” A.J. paused then grinned imaging the look on Howie’s face when he told him the next part. “Then they bought me from my father.” He told him and got an even better horrified look then he originally thought from Howie. “HE DID WHAT!?” Howie exclaimed a little more loudly then intended. “Sssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!” A.J. hissed and Howie instantly covered his mouth looking around to see if he had woken anybody up, but nobody moved. A.J. started laughing to himself as Howie glared at him. “Are you joking! Tell me your joking! Cause if you are that’s sick man! Really really sick!” Howie said disgusted. “I’m not kidding, he really did!” A.J. insisted, “As far as I know, he didn’t tell my mother.” Howie stared at him horrified. “But-but!” He sputtered. “Doesn’t that make you the slightest bit angry!?” Howie demanded as the robot listened, clicking its fingers. “Human’s aren’t supposed to buy one another you know!” “I know that!” A.J. said insulted, “But what the hell was supposed to do? I was five!” Okay, Howie gave him that. When you’re a kid you listen to your parents and do whatever they say, they were your parents, the people you depend on. Whatever they said, was always true, they never lied to you. Yeah right. A.J. grinned at Howie, “Don’t sweat it man! I don’t!” Howie shook his head disgusted, “People.” Was all he said. A.J. nodded. “Yeah.” He agreed, they grinned at each other and gave each other a high five. The robot clicked its fingers. ```( )``` An hour latter Nick sat still awake, he couldn’t tell if Kevin was awake, but Howie was sleeping now, he was still leaning against the wall next to the robot which looked like it could have been sleeping to. Its flat face only let out a bleep of green light like a heart monitor every few seconds. It lay like a rag doll against the wall, Howie leaned against it, the pillow on the robots shoulder. A.J. and Howie had talked for a while, but now that he was asleep A.J. was listening to the music he had gathered along the years of being here and had stored in the system, he sat with his eyes closed bobbing his head to the rhythm. Nick raised his hand up and looked at it, it still throbbed and hurt like hell, blood had seeped through it at a steady pace and Nick had had to replace the make shift bandage three times already, using material from the blanket he had gotten. He sighed and dropped his hand, he looked forward and his thoughts drifted. He was afraid to sleep, his power was completely unpredictable and asleep, he was afraid of what would happen with his mind so open. Though it did help him out sometimes, like it had in the hall, he didn’t like the fact that it had nearly turned his hand to mulch. As he continued to gaze forward, he didn’t notice right away, Brian, shifting a little. Letting out a soft moan that got Nick’s attention, he looked over surprised as Brian’s head moved from side to side as he slowly woke up. Nick straightened up and looked around wildly as Brian continued to wake, what should he do? Wake up Kevin or somebody, but before he could decide Brian’s eyes fluttered open and he blinked. He felt confused as he lifted his head, Nick leaned back a little wide eyed as Brian looked up at him and blinked a couple times. “Uh………..hi!” Nick said for lack of anything else to say. “Hi?” Brian echoed back, sounding like he didn’t recognize Nick, as a matter of fact, he didn’t look like he really didn’t recognize him. “Um, I’m Nick, do you remember?” He asked hopefully. Brain stared at him for a minute before blinking, suddenly it all came back, the monster, the plan to leave, and everything. With a small groan Brian rubbed the side of his face. “Yeah, I remember now.” He said but not sounding happy about it, Nick couldn’t exactly blame him either. Looking around Brian then looked at Nick puzzled. “Where are we?” “Oh, we got to the safe house, which I guess is this place.” Nick shrugged. As Brian looked around, he sat up and instantly found that he couldn’t breath, wheezing and groaning he lay back down. “Hey! Are you alright!?” Nick asked panicked. “Yeah,” Brian muttered after a moment. “I think so.” Even though his chest ached he still felt a lot better then he had when he had first woken up, he felt a little stronger. “Do you know what happened?” Nick asked. Brian stared at him blankly, “Happened?” Nick just stared at him, it finally registered what he was talking about. “Oh! You mean out in the hall when you, Howie and Kevin left?” Nick nodded. “I don’t know, all a sudden there was this heat in my chest, felt like the inside was burning up, litterly.” Brian shuddered remembering, “I couldn’t breath or do anything. Next thing I know A.J.’s slammed into the other wall and the heat is gone. I don’t remember what happened after that.” “Cause ya passed out.” Nick informed him. “Great.” Brian muttered and Nick grinned. Brian looked around once more confused. “What are we doing?” He asked. “We are trying to sleep.” Nick said as a matter of fact. “For some, it is working more then others.” “Weren’t we gonna try to contact someone?” Brian asked. “Were gonna do that after we sleep some.” Nick said nodding. Brian really didn’t understand that little bit of logic but decided not to ask. Silence ensued as Nick shifted uncomfortably, Brian laid his head on his pillow for a moment. A thought suddenly struck Nick and he almost hit himself, it was so simple! Here they were trying to access the files that would tell them what project Brian was transferred to when they could have just asked him! “Hey!” Nick said tapping Brian’s head, Brian opened his eyes and looked up. “What?” “What project, were you transferred to?” Nick whispered, Brian stared at him in disbelief. “What!?” “What project, were you transferred to?” Nick repeated patiently. “You stared off in the Labyrinth one, then they transferred to another one that locked in the files. What one was it?” Brian stared at him then thought for a moment, what project had it been? Hell if he knew! It not like they came to you and said, “Alright, now you’ve passed the survival test with flying colors and with so impressed with it were going to put you in a different project because we feel you’ll do a lot better there, if that’s okay with you of course.” “I don’t know,” He finally said thoughtfully, “It was something medical. They usually kept me in the cryogenic’s room after they took me out of the labyrinth, would doing something with electricity that involved shocking my heart, something about the problems with it they decided to try different treatments on. It was only after a year did they find a hole in my heart that they tried even more procedures, it got so bad, I think I died a few times before they brought me back.” Brian said softly. “Jesus Christ!” Nick exclaimed horrified and awed at the same time that Brian could have with stood that and gotten out with his sanity still intact. “You shouldn’t swear.” Brian warned, Nick fumed. “Who the hell cares if I swear! After being in this goddamn station for so freakin long, I think we’ve earned a little time to mouth off! God!” Nick stopped when he realized that he had just started swearing in every other sentence, Brian shoved his face into the pillow to keep from laughing out loud. Nick glared at him as Brian’s shoulder’s shook. “Shut up!” He said for some reason feeling stupid, Brian just laughed harder. Nick sat there fuming as Brian’s laughter eventually faded away, he looked at Nick and grinned, traces of laughter still in his voice. “So what about you? What did they do to you? Last time I saw ya, you were hanging from that ring.” He said. “Did you ever manage to control your psychic power?” “No,” Nick said disgusted. “Still on again off again. I think the doctors there were both fascinated and annoyed by it.” “Yeah, didn’t take a lot to make em mad.” Brian said thinking and Nick nodded. “Especially the guards.” Nick added and Brian nodded that time. Brian suddenly yawned, he rubbed his head and looked at Nick. “Guess I’m tired to.” He said, “How about you?” Nick shook his head. “No way man. Not the slightest bit tired. But you mine as well get some sleep.” “Thanks for the permission.” Brian said grinning as he laid his head back down. “Shut up!” Brian laughed again as he closed his eyes. Nick sat back thinking, if they were doing medical experiments on Brian, what was the big deal? They had been doing medical experiments on Nick and hadn’t but a locking program on his files as far as he knew. What was the big deal? Nick rested his head in his arms as he thought, no way was he going to go to sleep tonight. No way. ```( )``` A.J. sat listening to the music, but it was getting boring. With everyone asleep there was no one to talk to, normally if he was board he would have talked to the A.I., but that was kinda pointless seeing as which it was off line. A.J. looked over at Brian and Nick, despite Nick’s dubious efforts to stay awake, he had lost the battle and had fallen asleep about an hour ago. A.J. looked back down and typed, his eyes looked at the small screen off to the side. The scanning program was still going, probably would be for another five hours. Great. Sighing, A.J. spun around in the chair to look at the monitors, mine as well watch some T.V., he thought, even if the cable here is crap. Empty hallway, after hallway flashed through the screens, A.J. watched them go by with a board and glazed expression. He felt like a night time security agent, the ones who just watched the monitors all night, course he had never seen one but still, it was what he felt like. Sighing again, A.J. started to spin around in the chair when a sudden bout of movement caught his eye on one of the monitors, pausing, not quite sure he had seen right, A.J. stared hard at a screen, reaching behind him, he groped around the consol and pressed a button, instantly the screens changed to show a huge picture from one of the camera’s. A.J.’s first thought had been that it was the creature, but the last thing he expected to come out one of the doors was him. A.J.’s jaw fell open. “Holy shit!” He whispered in disbelief, then his shock turned to annoyance, why the hell should he be so surprised? The guy was smarter then he was, if anyone on this station would be alive after the attack, it would be him. Watching him, A.J. saw him suddenly turn and limp away, off down the hall. He bolted up from his seat, the cord attached into the consol ripping out giving a small spark of protest, a small shock ran up A.J.’s arm but he didn’t notice. Making a fast choice A.J. whirled around and typed fast, he held his hand over the consol and the tube shot out. Entering the system, A.J. made sure that all camera signals came to him, the ones that showed movement aside from his own, that way he could track him. After doing so, the tube slid back in and A.J. quickly bounced down the steps, he couldn’t believe he was doing this, but this guy could solve all their problems. But he didn’t want to wake anyone else up, he was pretty damn sure he was the only one who could catch this guy. Silently sneaking over to Kevin, A.J. first made sure he was asleep before gently raising the major’s hand and trying to pry the gun out of it. Lucky Kevin stayed asleep, his hand fell limply away from the gun as A.J. grabbed it. Turning around A.J. went back to the door, he stopped in front of Howie and grabbed the extra clips from the pouch around his neck before reaching over and pressing a button that opened the door. It opened rather loudly and A.J. cringed, he looked around to make sure nobody would wake up, thank god they were heavy sleepers, as silently as he could, A.J. stalked out of the room, the door sliding shut behind him, locking it so that only he could get back in, A.J. looked around the empty hall, straightening up he turned and hurried off. Leaving the others asleep. ```( )``` “KEVIN!” Nick screamed in the older man’s ear. With a yelp, Kevin bolted upright and slammed into the glass tabletop. “OW! SHIT!” He screamed his hands flying to cover his head. “Nick! What the hell is wrong with you!?” He bellowed at the younger man flustered and seriously pissed off. “A.J.’s gone!” Nick said urgently. Kevin, who had been ready to start screaming stopped in shock. “What’d you mean he’s gone?” He demanded sitting up even more, “He’s over there!” He pointed and then only realized A.J. wasn’t at the computer station anymore, Howie was though looking just as frantic. “Dude, he is gone!” Howie said pointing wildly. Kevin scrambled to his feet nearly knocking Nick over, he looked around. “Where did he go!?” He demanded storming over. “I haven’t the slightest idea! He did something weird to the camera system and I can’t get it to work!?” Howie said. “How long has he been gone!?” Kevin asked Nick, who hurried over. “Couple hours,” Howie said hesitantly, “Maybe a few more.” “Aw shit!” Kevin groaned, “He better not have jumped ship!” He said furiously clenching his fist. “You don’t think he’d do that do you?” Nick asked horrified. “No way!” Howie jumped in, everyone looked at him. “He wouldn’t do that! I talked to the guy last night, I don’t think he planned to leave us here.” “That’s just the problem Howie,” Kevin said, “We don’t know for sure.” Suddenly Kevin realized then that his gun was missing, quickly he started to franticly check his pockets. “What’s wrong?” Nick asked as Kevin searched wildly. “He took the gun! Son of a bitch took the gun!” Kevin said wildly, his head shot up suddenly panicked. “We still have the other one right!?” Howie nodded grimly, even to him, A.J. wasn’t scoring any points. “You don’t think the thing got him do you?” Brian suddenly asked quietly, sitting at the broken bar. Kevin looked at him surprised and shocked. “Brian!……your……..what?” Kevin cried unable to believe how fast things had just happened. “Remember what that thing said through Nick, I’ll be coming for a bite tonight?” Brian asked everyone fell silent remembering, well all except Nick who just looked confused. “You don’t think that it actually did do that do you?” Brian asked. “And took the gun with it?” Nick asked in disbelief. Kevin was pissed beyond words, he nodded agreeing. “Fine, now unless we find out that that thing ate him, then I’ll feel bad, until that time comes, were gonna have to assume that he left us here!” He snapped though not really wanting to believe it himself. He turned around as the robot stood on the steps clicking its fingers, the program had run and was now processing which would take fifteen minutes. Howie sighed and looked at the wall of screens, he did a double take when he saw a quick flash of someone walking around the corner. “Hey!” he shouted getting everyone’s attention. “I think I just saw A.J.!” “Where!?” Kevin demanded. Howie began typing, his eyes ran over the information that was displayed. He blinked surprised and stopped. “Uh……….he’s coming back!” he said. The door suddenly started beeping, everyone looked at it. “Correction, he’s here.” Brian said as Kevin walked around the computer station. “I’m gonna kill him!?” Kevin said through gritted teeth, as he stomped over to the door it opened up to reveal A.J. standing there, looking pretty damn pleased with himself. Anticipating the reaction he would get he quickly held up his hands. “Ah, ah ah!” He warned grinning making Kevin stop, as everyone opened their mouth’s to scream at him. “Let me save you the trouble here folks, no I did not abandon you, no I wasn’t going to leave you here, yes I know it was stupid to leave, and yes I have a damn good explanation.” He said still grinning. Kevin puffed up annoyed. “Well, since you have the explanation for everything here, why don’t you give it before I start screaming and killing you!” A.J. still grinned mischievously, he nodded as everyone looked at him puzzled, all except Kevin who was still furious. “I brought you all a present people!” he announced. “A present!?” Nick echoed in disbelief. A.J. nodded, “Yep! A very special present! A very special and rare present that only A.J. McLean can give you! I wish to present to you, the one, the only, the head doctor here who designed the experiments, built the station and ran it, got the funding and chose all his subjects!” Everyone exchanged confused looks, as A.J. turned to the side and reached out and grabbed something. “Get your ass in here!” He snapped at someone and pulled them through, to Kevin’s surprise, A.J. shoved a person into the room ruthlessly and wasn’t apologizing either. Kevin jumped back as the person fell to the floor in a painful heap, they lay there stunned for a moment before looking up slowly. Kevin stared at him as A.J. strolled into the room, the door sliding shut behind him. Holding out his hands as if presenting a special item, he gestured to the man bitterly who sat up rubbing his head. “Meet Breeden Azalazar.” BACK NEXT |
| Science And Madness |