I woke up on the ballroom floor. Lindsey was sitting over me with a concerned look on her face. The world around me begins to fade back into clarity and a breath whooshes through my system. “Oh thank god,” I spurted out. “I was worried that it wouldn’t ever end-” and then I felt a cold air roll through the ship. It settled like the temperature of death. Lindsey’s face started to fracture and broke apart—the corpse’s face revealing itself underneath. Her left eye rolled back in its socket and then fell to the floor. I opened my eyes open wide and the corpse was still grappling me—I could see Lindsey out of the corner of my eye as she pierced the corpse’s back with her lance.

I felt warmth return to my body as soon as his hands left my face. I took in a deep breath and felt like my sight had come back to me after becoming blind.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

“How long was I out?” I asked. “It felt like a few minutes at most...maybe ten?”

“Ten? Seconds, maybe. It touched you and then I stabbed it. I missed it the first time, yeah, but I got it on the second strike.”

“Huh...it definitely did not feel like it was that short.”

“Well, here, take my hand and let’s continue toward the captain’s quarters.” She offered her hand. I took it and eased myself up.

“Right.”

We continued past the tables and past the repeating intercom, ceaselessly speaking and repeating.

“You two okay?” Jay asked.

“All good. Just got spooked by a vision—going to chalk it up to Jack trying to distract us.”

“Okay, we’re going to keep going. You might face some difficulty climbing stairs as we continue upward—I’d suggest doing so as early as you can.”

“You got it.” I said.

At the rear of the ballroom stood the grand staircase which looked as ornate as the rest of the ballroom. Glazed wood carvings adorned the railings. I could tell they were a dark wood of high value. We climbed the stairs—which definitely did become tougher as each step felt very reminiscent to my climbing of my staircase back at my house. I placed the feeling at our increasing altitude and less on a mysterious sickness within my heart. The staircase continued up three floors and ended with a singular metal door that looked to be sealed shut. I tried the knob, expecting it to reject us, but it opened without any effort.

We walked inside and saw a dozen computers lining the rear edge of the room. “Think we found the Captain’s room, Jay.” I said.

“Okay, what do you see?”

“Can’t you see us?” Lindsey asked.

“Not looking at the screens at the moment,” he said. “At least—the screens that would show you.”

“Oh right, the avatar would have to be here, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Okay, I see a whole bunch of computers. It definitely looks like a captain’s room.”

“Your sarcasm is noted and politely, but firmly disregarded,” Jay said.

“Your sarcasm is noted and politely...” I said under my breath. “Computers, most of em look broken on a second look.”

“Are all of them? Is there anything you can glean?”

“Give me a second,” I said, walking closer to the computers. The only one that looked like to have survived was on the far end. I bent down and tapped a key on the keyboard. The monitor clung to life—although all that appeared on the screen was a black screen with a single line of green text.

“RADICAL-9”

I hit the enter key and two more lines appeared underneath.

“PARENTS”

“CHILDREN”

“Got some files on Radical-9 it looks like? Organized into two folders, Parents and Children.”

“Parents and…?” Lindsey started.

“Long story,” I said.

“Get as much info as you can,” Jay said. “That could be vital.”

“Radical-9 was that chemical poisoning, right?”

“Long story,” I repeated.

“Okay, okay. I’ll ask at a better time.”

“Thanks,” I said. Clicking on the “Parents” folder. More text popped up underneath.

[https://imgur.com/a/PwKC0yb][https://imgur.com/a/PwKC0yb]

“Woah…this…I think this is listing all of the people involved with this?” I asked.

“Involved? How do you mean involved?” Lindsey asked.

“What is showing?” Jay asked.

I read him off the list as he listened intently.

“I see. So this must be a physical manifestation of his thought process. He’s categorized the affected individuals of Radical-9 and is actively thinking of their current whereabouts what seems like at all times.”

“All times?” I asked.

“If I were him and were responsible for the experiments that involved so many people I’m not surprised they’re on his mind.”

“So many of them are dead,” Lindsey said.

“And my parents are on here...both of them...”

“I am unsure if your mother is on there because she has the condition. It’s possible he’s just got her tracked because of her relations. She never stepped foot in the Republic Plaza as far as I know.”

“Who are some of the rest of these people? Lorr.? Karen, Tracy, Luna, Pam? I don’t recognize these names.” I said.

“Karen was my wife’s name.” Jay said. “She, like your mother, never stepped foot in the Republic Plaza. She passed in 2014 to cancer.”

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” Lindsey said.

“Thank you,” Jay said. “Lorraine was Gregory’s wife. She worked on the east coast—we actually had a branch over there working on similar projects. Radical-9 wasn’t one of the ones of that branch.”

“And Gregory...” I said.

“Right, you’re not Jen. You didn’t see him. He was one of the scientists on our side—he was one of the bravest men I had known. He passed in 2013...the events that Jen foresaw in her dreams where I had taken my last stand against Jack. Gregory and Mason left in 2009 after the initial accident—I didn’t have that luxury with Jack becoming stronger.”

“And the last ones?”

“Luna was Mason’s wife. I don’t actually know all that much about her—Mason as it stood was the newest transfer from the east coast. When he left after the Radical-9 Incident he went back east. Pam...she was Jack’s first wife. Those two were closer than two peas in a pod. I’ve seen her a few times in pictures with him and they looked so happy. She had two daughters with Jack. Jen was the younger of the two. Unfortunately, the elder, Megan, died when Radical-9 was released back in 2008.”

“She died!?” I asked.

“Her reaction was fatal. It was too much for her. After the accident, Jack and Pam split almost immediately.”

“And Tracy...” I said.

“Jack’s second...I won’t say wife. They never married, but he did have two children with her. They were twins—a boy, Samuel, and a girl, Sarah.”

“Samuel...I saw him here...or maybe a memory of him in here.”

“My information ends around this point. Samuel died in testing...Jack was growing madder by the day. Those of us that remained—let’s just say there were a lot of tests run.”

“That’s two children...dead because of Radical-9.” I said.

“Go and check the other folder,” Jay said. “Let’s see what his current list looks like.

“Got it.” I said, not knowing if I really wanted to see how many children this man had ruined. As I clicked on the option the computer screen started to glitch—I banged on the side and the monitor lost its color. The text read back in black-and-white.

[https://imgur.com/hAoIeO9]

I recited the information back to Jay.

“Two Greggs boys? I don’t...recall anybody with that surname.”

“Maybe he was doing things even behind your back?” I asked.

“It’s more than likely, but to read he killed two boys—children—and not even made a show of it...is unsettling to say the least.”

“What’s this here with...Gavin? Prime World—Failure?”

“I’m unaware of the terminology.” Jay said. “Gavin is the only son of Gregory and Lorraine. He was one of the oldest boys during the 2008 incident. He’d be...five years older than you, Andrew.”

“Where is he now?”

“It’s...complicated,” Jay said.

“Long story?”

“Mhm.”

“It says Jen here is in Elysium...” I said, changing the subject.

“Yes, that’s probably because we were able to fool him into believing such.

“And then Kate and John...wait...Rein?”

“Yes, that's my boy,” Jay said. “He’s in New York being raised by a couple of people that I trust. I sent him away after he was born so he would not be subject to the Radical-9 tests...after the initial test.”

“You let him test on your son?!” I asked.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Jay said. “Jack at this point had been growing stronger for five years. Any disagreement could have led to my death—much less his death. For some reason or other he decided not to chase him after I sent him off—that’s one thing about Jack. When he gets focused on something he hyper focuses on it. My son no longer became his interests.”

“Because other children were,” Lindsey said.

“Yes...”

“And this Kate?” Lindsey asked.

“She’s Mason’s daughter. She was the oldest out of all of you during the 2008 incident—about seven years your elder if I recall right. She left with her father back to the east coast. I don’t recall what happened to them after that.”

“So...mostly dead or vanished,” I said.

“I’d like to find them—once we get you out of here. That has been my goal. To reunite those that had been poisoned—been infected.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I don’t have any guarantees, but if Jack is able to grow stronger after being infected with Radical-9, it’s entirely possible that gathering us together could increase our own strength—we could take Jack down and...I don’t know, try and fix things around here? People of immense power don’t always have to become maniacs.”

“People of immense power...is that what you think of us?”

“I think...that we all have the potential for immense power.”

“All of this sounds kind of crazy...” Lindsey said. “Not that you’re lying or anything. It’s just...I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”

“Then we were doing our job well,” Jay said. “Until we let Jack get his way, that is. I have a lot to atone for—things that I had to do under coercion, but that I did nonetheless. One of the ways that I think I can do to make things better is to try to save as many people as I can.”

“I think I fully understand what you’re about, Jay, and I want to say that I feel the same way you do.”

“You don’t have to just because I said. You can be angry at me—I’m part of the reason why things are so bad.”

“I can’t blame you for things that you have done,” I said. “Sure, things sucked then, but it was before my time—before the time I could really do anything about it. All I can do is make things around me better—just like you said. If you’re in it to stop people from dying and from others of abusing their power, then I want to help in any way I can.”

“You are the best parts of your father,” Jay said. “I know your memories of him might not be the greatest, but he was a good man. A good man that, like us all, made a lot of poor mistakes. I wish you could have seen him before then. Hell, I wish he could see you now.”

“Best I can do is the best I can be,” I said. “If he’s looking I hope he’s smiling, but that’s all I can really do.”

“I’m just about finished on my end,” Jay said. “I’d suggest you hold onto something firm as things are going to get really bumpy from this point on.”

“Hey Jay?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

“Y-You’re welcome, Andrew.”

I looked to Lindsey and nodded to her—we both grabbed at the metal railing by our side.

“That’s really brave of you,” she said. “To volunteer yourself like that.”

“I think it was more metaphorical,” I said. “But I was serious about it.”

“I...want to do something like that too.”

I looked to her—her eyes seemed to be burning inside. “Yeah, outside of here I’m pretty much a nothing...I’m not going to have anything to return to except for a...a corpse to wake up to. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about how I’m going to react to that—sitting right in the same room with that and I don’t think I’ll ever be really prepared until I see it.”

“Oh Jesus,” I said. “I didn’t even think of that.”

“I didn’t say because I didn’t want to make it real. I felt if I didn’t say it, it wouldn’t happen. But it will. I don’t want anybody else to have to face the reality that I am going to have to.”

“If anything that’s the brave thing. I couldn’t imagine…”

“I wonder...” she said, piquing my attention. “If you and Jay are going to start this freedom fighting gang...would you have room for one more metaphorical member?”

“I think that would be just fine,” I said. “I think we’re all going to have to do a lot of rebuilding after all of this is over.”

The ship suddenly stabilized. I felt wobbly after having gotten used to the endless back and forth.

“Uh...Jay, I thought you said it was going to get bumpier?” I asked.

“It...should have.”

“This is the opposite of that,” Lindsey said.

“This isn’t me.”

“God damn it,” I said.

There was a figure that formed out of bright azure crystal out of the corner of my eye. It solidified and faded to the first face I saw in this world. Klein walked out and gave me one of his grins.

“Well hey there, Dex! You look like you could use a hand!” He turned to Lindsey, “Or...should I give it to you?”