Ben, Therese and Kara drove through night and day, trading off the driving, and stopping as little as possible. Finally as they reached their destination, Therese guided Ben to a small medical office building off the main road. “He’s here, inside, by himself.” said Therese.
Ben pulled the car around, and parked far from the office Dr. Macarthur was at. They walked carefully, until they reached the office door, then Ben donkey kicked it open, spun, and rushed in with his pistol. Ben found one occupant, grabbed him, shoved him across the room, and slammed him into a wall.
“Don’t move if you want to live, I’m just going to check you for weapons.” Ben told the man and began frisking him, the search coming up clean.
“Hello, Doctor Macarthur, it’s me, Therese, the little girl you put some kind of implant in.” said Therese. The doctor froze, feeling both ashamed and proud of his work, but definitely in shock at her presence because Therese was supposed to be dead. Therese was in pain from her gunshot wounds which were still healing, but she was glad she could walk towards the man.
“Hi, help me.” The doctor pleaded.
“I need you to remove this from my head, its purpose is over, yours will be too if you don’t cooperate.” said Therese with a cool flat affect, pointing at the implant.
“If you hurt me, I can’t remove the implant, there is a trick to it to remove the fiber wires intact.” Dr. Macarthur said, and then fell back as Ben hit him again.
“I’ll wait for you to heal, I have the rest of your life.” said Ben.
“What did you put in my head?” Therese asked, she still had tears flowing down her face, saddened angry, and disbelief.
“It is a synthetic device that is passively powered by radio waves, it was designed to stimulate your brain, you were a part of a study, to enhance people’s minds to make them smarter, it didn’t work, and in your case, it caused or worsened your schizophrenia.” Macarthur said, struggling to his feet and trying to stay out of punch range from Ben.
“But all the brain scans I had, why didn’t anyone find it?” Therese asked.
“It is designed to look like a benign cyst under imaging, however recent improvements in the quality of imaging caused the government to order a recall.” said Macarthur.
“Recall? I’m not a car part. When did you put it in me?” asked Therese.
“When you were little, you had head trauma from falling out of a tree, they took you to the trauma hospital, and we were doing the study then.” Macarthur explained.
“This is for making it my fault!” said Kara as she began striking Macarthur over and over. Ben finally grabbed Kara and pulled her back.
“We need him to fix Therese.” Ben explained, but it took Kara a long time to cool her rage.
“I would have given it back.” Therese promised with tears in her eyes.
“This department doesn’t work like that, they are more interested in covering their trail. I can take it out, I have done it before, they will never know, you are already dead to them.” pleaded Macarthur.
“I knew there was something put in my head. I remember being in a room and an old man in the corner, and you all were talking about the implant in my head. I didn’t know if it was real, but it seemed real.” said Therese.
“The local doctor at the hospital tended to go light on the anesthesia, a few years ago he was silenced forever. The old man, he’s dead from a heart attack, he was the project director. I am sorry, we only did this initially to help people, the cold war never ended and we feared China had their own program. It did work for some people, but if you check the news a lot of successful young people recently met their demise too.” said Dr. Macarthur.
“You knew you had an implant, why didn’t you tell me?” Kara asked Therese.
“Because, no one ever, on the history of this planet has believed someone with schizophrenia when they said the government put an implant in them.” said Therese. Kara shrugged her shoulders; she couldn’t argue that.
“And what do you want?” Ben asked Macarthur.
“I want to live. Even bad people want to live.” said Macarthur. He was desperate and scared so that was the most honest answer he ever gave.
“If you remove it, you may live.” said Therese, speaking for the group.
“If you remove us, one of the Ben’s will cease to exist, there is only one” a voice said to Therese.
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“Just sit in this chair and lean forward.” said Macarthur, sliding his office chair to Therese.
“If we go, Peter becomes a rabbit again.” A voice said to Therese.
“Will Peter still be here, when this is gone? I need to know he is real.” said Therese. She had a full frown and was scared.
“If you kill yourself, the Ben’s both live and Peter doesn’t become a rabbit.” The voices yelled to Therese.
Ben cried in anger, and took Therese and squeezed her, but kept an eye on Macarthur. “I promise, your boyfriend is real.” Ben reassured her. “If you hurt her, I will torture you for days until I am tired of you begging me to kill you.” Ben told Macarthur, who believed Ben 100%.
Therese leaned forward and held her face in her hands. Kara leaned forward and held Therese.
“I will need to get a scalpel, tweezers, gauze and antiseptic from the cabinet.” Dr. Macarthur told Ben.
Ben leveled his 1911, the safety was off, but his finger was to the side of the trigger. “Don’t get stupid, I’m faster than you and I am better than you.” said Ben.
“I won’t.” said Macarthur, taking the items he listed out of the cabinet and shutting it. The doctor walked behind Therese, “I don’t have anything to numb it, but I’ll be quick.” He said.
“Just take this thing out of me.” Therese begged.
“They are lying to you, kill yourself, don’t make Peter a rabbit again.” The voices yelled to Therese.
The doctor leaned forward, applied disinfectant, and made a small incision over a bump in Therese’s scalp. He sliced and blood flowed, then he pulled out a small clear lump beneath her skin. Therese shivered as she felt wires sliding under her skin and out the back of her head. Macarthur pulled the lump and thin clear threads followed, he set it on the desk. He took a couple of pads of gauze and pressed them on Therese’s scalp.
“How are you?” The doctor asked.
“The voices, they’re gone from my head.” Therese said, and then she threw up all over the floor. Ben leveled his pistol at the doctor. The voices echoed in her heart but were fainter. Therese refused to acknowledge that, she was just grateful they weren’t screaming in her ears.
“That’s normal.” The doctor told Ben, who looked upset from the vomiting. “Believe it or not, this device helped heal your brain a lot from the fall when you were little, I’m sorry for all the bad effects, but if we didn’t put it in, you would have been a lot worse.” The doctor finished.
“Why not just help people then? You could have took this out after she healed.” Ben asked the Doctor. Ben still wanted to kill the man very much so, and the doctor could tell.
“I got into this program to help people, but I’m sorry, the cost of research was high, and I made decisions and did bad things, but I kept telling myself it was for the greater good.” The doctor explained to Ben who looked at him with disgust. The doctor knew he was no less than a fly needing swatting to the man.
Therese stood up, she looked around. “Peter, he is still real, isn’t he?” asked Therese.
Kara hugged her, “Yes, your boyfriend is real.” said Kara. Therese cried happiness, she was worried that much of her lie was a lie, as the voices claimed. She never wanted to believe the voices but their constant interjection into her life had taken its toll.
Therese looked and saw Ben, then asked Kara, “Benjamin from my chemistry class is he still real?”
“He’s a dork, but yeah, he’s real.” said Kara, unsure why Therese was asking her, but figured it might be a side effect of the clear wires being pulled across her brain.
“Kara, Polaroid.” said Ben, taking Dr. Macarthur and manhandling him next to Therese. Kara took several pictures.
“What’s that for?” asked Dr. Macarthur.
“Insurance, if any of this ever comes back on us, you’ll be dead too.” Therese said, looking him coolly in the eyes.
“You’re going to let me live?” asked Dr. Macarthur.
“Yes, I’ll keep my word. You never know, maybe in a way, you saved the galaxy. Mercy is the mark of a great person.” said Therese, and then punched him in the face, breaking the doctor's nose open. “Guess I am just a good one.” said Therese, as blood ran down the doctor's face. Ben smiled and thought some people just needed punched. Therese took the bottle of alcohol and poured it across her hand to wash the doctor's blood off her skin. Therese then placed the implant in a ziplock bag and started walking out.
After Therese stepped back, Ben took a syringe and stuck it in the doctor's arm, and watched him collapse. “Don’t go looking for answers in the government, it is very Grey, they will kill the entire city to take her.” said the doctor to Ben before he passed out.
“Did you kill him?” asked Therese.
“No, but he’s addicted to heroin.” said Ben. Therese nodded, she knew he would need to be subdued so they could make their getaway.
Therese was amazed at the silence in her head and stepped on several cracks to see if the voices returned, they hated when she stepped on cracks. Without the implant, the medications in her worked better than ever. No voices said anything from in Therese’s head. Ben started the car and they headed down the highway.
“So what do you think about the implant?” Kara asked Therese.
“I think he told me the truth, they said I had an amazing recovery from a traumatic brain injury.” said Therese.
“Sorry about that.” said Kara.
“Apologonaut.” Therese teased, causing Kara to let a small smile out.
“If only you could go back and never get it.” said Kara.
“No, when you go back, this has to happen.” said Therese.
“Timeline alteration one – I never recover from the brain injury. Timeline alteration two, if we take it out after that, you and I end up falling apart forever over some petty bullshit instead of serious shit that is easier to get over. Timeline three – I never met Peter, I never get the job at the Cowffee shop, you never get Ben, and we are normal boring people until the end of the galaxy.” Therese added.
“I don’t like boring people.” said Ben, he was upset at the possibility of not having Therese or Kara, “Don’t screw with the timeline.” Ben finished.
“I wouldn’t bet you guys in the time lottery for anything. Now quit driving like an old lady, I have a boyfriend to go see.” said Therese. (And I hope he is not a rabbit) thought Therese. The voices in her heart were faint, she turned up the music and ignored them.
“Yes Ma’am, making the jump to lightspeed.” said Ben. Kara and Therese glared at him. “Sorry, I mean warp?” Ben said as Therese and Kara changed their frowns to smiles. The girls were eager to head home, but Therese told them they needed to stop at a truck stop ahead. Ben didn’t argue, he needed pie, and was glad when they finally stopped. The group grabbed a table and Ben ordered a whole apple pie.