FEBRUARY 27th, 2022
JEN III
It was hard to place Denver in my head while I only heard about it second-hand. It was enough of a local legend what happened there that it gave us all something to talk about but never investigate too fully. I heard about Denver, almost everyone had. Entire streets burned, bodies littered the streets. Some have said that some of the bodies have been undisturbed, so there they lie, rotting in the street.
“You doing okay?” Jake asked, putting an arm around me, pulling me away from the heap of metal.
“Y-Yeah, I’m going to be fine…” I said.
“We can go back,” he suggested.
“No, I’m going to be fine. I just…want to know, is there any other place like this? Any other city hit this hard?” I asked, looking up at the destruction in front of me.
Rubble covered the ground—stone and brick of what used to be infrastructure. Large crater-like clusters were mixed in between the piles of trash. There was a thick haze that clings to the atmosphere, it is like I can taste the despair in the air. Not many of the buildings were left standing; only one or two skyscrapers remain, and they are heavily hit—like cavities in a tooth they’ve been ruptured.
“As far as I know there aren’t any as bad as Denver. Don’t get me wrong, though. There are some pretty bad places. I think I remember hearing San Francisco isn’t doing too well, Almost all of Florida as well. It’s not really centralized in one specific place.”
“Oh, do you think we’ll be able to find anything here?” I asked.
“I don’t know, I guess the only way to find out is to get to searching. The computer said Raffle Place, correct?” He asked.
I nodded.
“Okay, let’s see if we can’t find something that helps us find this place, huh?” We began walking, broken streetlights and bent street signs greeted us as we passed. There were a few fissures in the ground separating parts of the road. To the left I saw the fallen sign of a vendor, it lied there, angled on the ground from the building it was once attached to and hung proudly. Jake turned his head and then offered his hand, “Don’t want to get lost here…especially now,” he said, winking. I took it. It felt cold, almost frozen.
We climbed over a chunk of wall that had collapsed from a building to our right. Up and over. There was a fissure in the ground between us and the other side of the road. Jake made the jump first, bending down when he landed. He let out a small sound, but then I saw him flash a thumbs up. I nodded back and bent my legs and took off—landing just beside him and nearly taking him down to the ground with the dismount.
“Ow, maybe next time try landing a little further to the left,” he said, grabbing at his side.
“Sorry,” I said. I moved to my feet and looked above me—I saw the first of the skyscrapers—heavily damaged with broken and busted up windows. It wore abandonment like a coat, though it looked like it wasn’t going to come falling down anytime soon. There was a large fence about ten feet up surrounding the entire perimeter. I turned to look at it and then back at Jake.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m just a little stuffy is all,” he said, but not before letting out a hoarse cough; it sounded full of phlegm.
“That doesn’t sound fine.”
“It’s just a thing, nothing to worry about. It comes and goes,” he said.
“Come on, I know you, and I know that. This isn’t that. What’s up?” I asked.
“What?”
“Your cough, it’s not good, and I’ve never heard you cough like that. This isn’t something that just comes and goes, what’s up?”
He looked as if he was about to make an excuse, but then stopped himself, “I’m scared.”
“Why?” I asked.
“I’ve been trying to forget it, maybe in the slightest of hopes that ignoring it will make it go away, but it won’t. It’s here to stay and I can’t do anything about it...Vitiligo…isn’t the only thing wrong with me,” he said. “Recent development, but it’s not good. Severe case of C.O.P.D.”
“I don’t know what that is,” I said.
“Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder. It’s made it very difficult to breathe at times and my lungs are slowly decaying. There isn’t a cure, especially with the medical field these days. I’m so scared of the consequences…”
I placed my hand on his cheek and it was wet with tears.
“Jake, I am so sorry, but you should know you can tell me about these things. It’s too much to take on alone.”
He sniffed and cleared his throat. “I’ve been a lousy best friend, haven’t I?”
“What? No, of course not. You’re here—you’re helping me on this crazy ass mission to save Andy. That’s reckless for all the right reasons.”
“Not the smart ones.”
“No, but that’s why I like you.”
He smiled and paused for a moment, gathering himself together. “Thanks.”
“That’s why you have to tell me things like this…do you know how long...” I couldn’t find myself able to finish the question. It seemed like such a simply awful thing to ask.
“My doctor said that survival rates for those in my shoes drop to 50% after two years, and it’s been a few months since then.”
“Months...” I said. “I...are you sure there isn’t anything we can do about it?”
“Discover a new cure maybe,” he said and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I don’t remember the last time I did that so I’d have to dust off the old kit to try.”
I hit him. “This is not the time to joke about it!”
He shrugged. “I dunno. Helps keep my mind from being scared of it I guess. I can’t really change what is.”
I softened. “Fuck.”
He looked up at me, “You don’t swear ever,” he said, more incredulous than anything else.
“I’m sorry, for hitting you, and for your health…and dragging you out here.”
He shook his head. “I dragged you. Don’t blame yourself. I still make my own choices. And we’re going to finish what we started here—I just...I guess I just needed a second to come to terms with it.”
“Come here you idiot,” I said and braced him in a hug. We held tight and together we both turned to the building—the object of our journey. I saw “Republic Plaza” hanging sadly from the front of the entrance.
“I…I think that might be our destination,” he said. “That is the tallest building in all of Colorado, even after all of this mess, and I think that is the building that Jack Adata worked in.”
“Do you think anything will be in there?” I asked.
“I don’t know, there looks like there’s about thirty stories that remain in that thing,” he said. “I guess there was near fifty back before...well, you know.”
“I am not going up that high alone.”
“Right, the height thing.”
Jake found out about my fear of heights when we were in fifth grade and I got myself stuck on my roof during the winter. The snowfall was absolutely horrendous that in one particular spot it actually reached the bottom corner of my roof. Of course, as an adventurous ten year old would I decided to climb up, not until afterwards the snowbank I’d used as a makeshift ladder had collapsed among itself. I don’t believe it was well packed snow at all, enough only to support my little body once. Jake had been driven over to hang out by his father and I started having a panic attack. It took Jake’s father to manage to coax me off of the roof, I wasn’t moving for anything.
“Well, we’ll check the first few floors, and if we don’t find anything we’ll bail, okay?”
“What if we do find something?” I asked.
“Then I’ll sweep through the higher floors to see if anything else of importance is there,” he said.
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“You aren’t doing that.”
“You don’t have to come, I wouldn’t be up there for long,” he said.
“And what if something happened to you? I wouldn’t know and you’d be screwed. No, you’re not going up there,” I said. “And that’s final.”
I walked up to the gate. It was a cold black metal that was too thick between the bars for me to fit through. It looked similar to those made for prison cells, except for the shine of the moonlight that casted off of them. The top of the gate was much too high for me to reach.
“Do you think you could could get up there if I gave you a boost?” Jake asked.
“Yeah, I think so.”
He nodded and then cupped his palms over one another, “Just use me to get up and over, and see if you can’t unlock the gate from the other side,” he said.
“Okay,” I stepped into his hands and reached up trying to make it to the top. “Come on…almost there. Almost…got it!” I said in quieted relief. I struggled to pull myself up, taking short breaths. I got my head above and then my elbows. It took one quick heave and I lifted my entire body over the side. I dropped to the ground and jogged over toward the gate doors. I saw the thick chain that kept it tightly locked was held together by a huge padlock on my end. I couldn’t seem to find anyway to unlock it without the key.
“I don’t know if you can get in this way,” I said.
“Okay, don’t worry, I’ll find some way inside, sit right there, I’m going to go check around the perimeter of the building, see if there are any weak links,” he said.
“Okay,” I said.
“And Jen?”
I turned to face him, looking into his eyes, “Yes?”
“If anything goes wrong, I want you to tell me, okay? If you get hurt we can call this whole thing off and I can call my dad,” he said.
“Are you suddenly worried?” I asked.
“Safe, I’m being safe.”
“Well then, that’s good. We could use a bit more of that,” I said.
He nodded and then was out of sight, vanishing into the darkness. I felt my head turning slightly toward the Republic Plaza, as if by some magnetic force. Something was calling me inside. But Jake said not to go in, we would go in together. That was the safe thing to do. Yet…there was something strong—stronger than I could handle beckon me inside. It felt like it was pulling on my brain—pulling me closer. I couldn’t help but walk, almost as if it was not my own feet guiding me in.
The doors stuck shut behind me. They were sliding doors that must have run on some sort of electrical circuit that no longer worked. I had to pry open the door myself. I had to. There was something about this building that drew me inside it—its little voice caressing my brain and then squeezing it tight.
“Come inside, you know you want to.”
I was surrounded by darkness. If I squint hard enough I could almost see the outline of broken furniture. The black tiled floor stretched in both directions down some ways, meeting the asylum-white walls around. Debris littered various parts of the floor, papers and pottery scatter the floor, I have to step around some of the broken pottery on the way in.
On the opposite side of the entryway was a receptionist desk—most of it was hard wood built into the wall behind it, leaving only a small partition for workers to exit and enter. On the front side of the desk were some drawers which had stacks of loose leaf sheets of paper. I took out a stack and held it up into the light to see what is on it. They were simple memos: “Meeting with Mr. Radica — 3:00 pm,” and a small check mark next to it. Underneath that was: “Meeting with Mr. Adata — 3:30 pm.”
Adata. That was the moment when I knew I couldn’t just leave here even though every single fiber in my being was screaming to run. This was the right place. He was here. That stupid game was made here...in this dump.
And then I froze. They were here, but weren’t any longer. The chance that I would find anything that could help just dropped dramatically, I knew that in my heart. Surely they haven’t just recently left this building? It must have been when it was destroyed that they evacuated—or shortly before. Why couldn’t they have just gotten caught in the blast and spared Andy this awful—no. NO thinking like that. Not even in these circumstances should I think that these people deserved to be caught in something like that. That would put me at their level.
Seeing the memo had both lifted my spirits and dropped them in one fell swoop. I stood there holding it in my hands as I heard a loud thump above me. My muscles tenses up, my thoughts immediately jumped to the idea of the building crashing on top of me, leaving me underneath the rubble, crushed and flattened. But then I heard footsteps. They were muffled, but after the first set I heard the second more clearly. Someone was definitely above me. Jake must’ve found a way in through the second floor, however he had managed that. Now, only to regroup and scope this place out more thoroughly together.
I grabbed the sheet of paper again, folding it and tucking it away. I headed to the far east end of the building, in the distance I could see the dusty remnant of the sign for stairs. I passed a cylindrical-paned elevator. I didn’t dare even attempt it. I could assume that it must run through the same electrical circuit as the front doors so they wouldn’t open easily, much less be safe even if they did.
There was a scanner to the side of the door, but the lock was disengaged since it wasn’t receiving power. Inside the stairs corkscrewed up the side of the building and the stairwell was hosted in its own little tower in the east-most sector of the building.
The first floor was much different. The little plaque I’d seen on the door said “Research & Development.” I exited to a very long, narrow hallway that extended out equally both left and right. They both met at the end and made a conjoined path that led onward. I took a right down the path and called out for Jake.
The first door I passed opened to an empty room—inside looked like some sort of lab, tables scattered around the floor, and the floor that was covered by tables— the rest was covered by papers and broken glass. I couldn’t open the door all the way. A cabinet had fallen over and blocked the door. I turned out and headed left. There was a doorway much like the one on the other side of the hall. One of them led into a larger, rectangular laboratory. Inside I could see the door had been blown in. It lied on the ground in front of the doorway. It was bigger than the one that had been blocked off. Large machines of unknown use sat alongside the walls. They looked like they belonged in a science fiction movie. The room dipped down in the middle and then back up near the back.
“Are you sure that it is safe for you to be here?” A low voice called out. There was a dark figure standing over a table on the right-hand side of the room. It was too dark to see any of his features clearly—the only light in the room came from a sliver of moonlight that cut in from a window on the far end, it is too dark to see any of his features clearly. I took a few steps closer and saw that he was wearing a white pinstripe suit, his hair was kept short and he was working on some electronic devices on the table.
“Are you him? Are you Adata?” I asked.
“No.” The man answered. Of course he isn’t, what was I thinking? What are the odds that- “I knew him, though,” the voice said. “How…if I may ask, do you know those names, I wonder?” he asked and turned around. I could see his eyes widen as he sees me, “Oh…I see. Okay, that explains it, at least a little bit,” he said, and smiled. What? What could that even mean? Maybe he thinks me of someone he knows? Looking at him now, he doesn’t look like anyone I know, big and long nose, small jawline, gray eyes that look eerily like thunder clouds one second, and then nice and puffy ones the next.
“Who are you, and what are you doing here?” I asked.
He turned back around to the desk and took some small pieces of a circuit into his hand, “Well, I guess I could very well ask you the same questions, but we’d both get to the same answer on why we’re here, no? You’re here because you wanted information on this whole Elysium incident, am I correct?”
“And you knew that…how?” I asked.
“Because I am here for very much of the same reason, my name is Jay Rein,” he said. “Your friend, he isn’t in here, is he?”
“How…”
He cocked his head towards the window to his right. I walked up to it slowly, keeping an eye on him beside me, there’s something about this man in white that is off. Outside the window I looked down to see the gate surrounding the building, right where I’d climbed over. So, he must’ve seen us when we were walking up. “So, you said you knew those two people, does that mean that you work for this Adata?”
“Worked, as in past tense. And I’m sorry, I’m afraid I didn’t catch your name,” Jay said.
“That’s because I didn’t say it.”
“Right, right. Well, if you really are here because of the Elysium incident then I hardly think you should have a reason to believe me to do you harm.”
“So, what are you doing here?”
Behind me I hear a faint sound, a siren blared in the distance. “H-Hold on,” I told him, turning to see police lights fade in on the back road, heading straight down. It pulled up to the gates and out stepped Jake into view.
“Your friend, are you sure that he is okay?” Jay asked, peeking out.
“What do you mean? His dad’s a police officer, probably called him because he couldn’t find a way in,” I said. “He probably got worried.”
Jake’s father stepped out of the car, his hands buried into the pockets of his coat. Jake spoke, of what I could not hear, but it was probably along the lines of “She’s in there and I need help getting in.” He pointed to the building. Mr. Carroway said something in return, not flinching, and then nodded his head to the car.
“Are you sure?” Jay asked.
Jake shook his head, turning to walk to the building, but his dad caught his arm, saying something, at which Jake broke free to run up to the gate. That’s it, I’m done here, I’m done I am-
“Hold on…I don’t think you want to go out there…” Jay said, stopping me in place. “Just wait one second, I don’t think your friend’s father is there because he called him.”
“What?”
“How could he have gotten here so quick if he’d just been called? Something’s not right.”
I turned back to the window, I saw Jake pounding on the gate, his back turned to his father, he was shaking his head still. Mr. Carroway took a step forward and lowered his head. He took a deep breath and then reached into his pocket, pulling out a gun, a small pistol.
“What’s…what’s he doing?”
A bang sounded out and I could feel my breath stop, the bullet caught in Jake’s gut, he fell to his knees—his hands still clutching the gate. Mr. Carroway walked over and picked Jake up, bringing him to the police car. He set him into the backseat, still moving, and sat in the driver's seat, heading off the way he had come.
“JAKE!” My legs lost the energy to support me. I slumped against the window—Jay rushed to keep me from falling fully. “No, get off of me! I could’ve stopped this, I could’ve left and everything would have been normal!” I screamed.