April 25th, 2007

Life has resumed at the Republic Plaza. A few days have passed since the meeting at the park. Jack’s out of the hospital. It’s a fact that confuses me, but I can do nothing but accept it. So what if the blast had looked like it caused fatal injuries if I was staring at him here, looking fully unharmed on the job?

The only thing that would make sense would be that this wasn’t just a few days after...but more than anything I knew that. I couldn’t speak to the source of that knowledge—it had just felt like it was innate knowledge within me.

The lab we were standing in housed the gigantic ship I had originally woken up on. I find the group all assembled around the suspended vessel. I’m shocked to see my father still around after his talk about the east. Although, from how he’s crossing his arms even I can tell it’s weighing on his mind. Something wrong must have gone wrong in his plan.

I don’t remember going out East...I wonder. Did he leave without me? Where would I have gone? My memories of this time were...foggy at best.

“So, what's this big ship for?” David’s voice pulls me out of my thoughts like they’ve harpooned me from myself.

“It was found just before it sank in the Atlantic Ocean.” Jack began, staring up at the vessel. “Word has it that it was a supply ship from Japan sailing toward somewhere on the east coast.”

My father rubs his forehead and lets out a sound of mild confusion. “Okay, that’s great. What’s it doing here?”

“Another project, it seems,” David said.

Jack turns to David and gives him a firm nod. It’s...crazy looking at him here compared to a year in advance. He looked like he had aged five years in that time. While he didn’t have that extreme firmness that concerned me, there was...something under the surface. I don’t quite enjoy being in his presence, even if he can’t know I’m here.

“Word from up high said it was stocked with weapons meant to arm a resistance force somewhere in Deep California. That obviously wouldn't do, so it was taken down and salvaged. Valhart didn't want word of it getting out to the public because he didn't want to alert them of the existence of the resistance force. Sometime by the end of the year we're supposed to take this thing and re-purpose it for whatever they have in mind for it,” Jack explains.

“I mean, we have until the end of the year, right? It’s not like we need to worry about it now,” Jay said.

“We aren't worrying about it.” Jack said, his tone is curt. “Period.”

“Well, we’re going to have to at some point,” David scratches at the back of his head. “Great responsibility and all.”

“No, you seem to misunderstand,” Jack said, and he turns to David. “This ship is going to sit here, and we are not going to remove focus from the Radical-9.”

“Uh,” Jay began. “If the President—”

“Fuck the President.”

This got all their attention immediately. I took a few steps back to watch the scene unfurl from a better angle.

“It’s a waste of time. And seeing as we’re all going to be trapped here for the next who knows how long working our asses off, I would much prefer working on projects that yield actual results.”

“Jack, you know that’s not going to fly,” My father gave an irritated look back.

“Lot of things that shouldn’t fly do around here, Daniels. Or is it just the things you don’t care about? What part of blowing me up was in the guidelines?”

My father had no response. Jack has a much easier punch to pull with the situation with his daughter. I thought about that anger that must have coursed through him and conflicting feelings were doubling inside me.

“Interpersonal relationships aren’t left up to guidelines, Jack. But everything that happened inside that chamber stopped being of my volition as soon as you picked up those flasks.”

A horrid look crosses Jack’s face. “You put me in there. You’re project lead. This catastrophe was your fault.”

“Jack, Greg, let’s—” Jay tries to stop the ensuing argument, but neither man is hearing any of it.

“We signed up individually for the risks this job has. We each individually took an oath before signing on. Any one of us had the opportunity to duck out at any time. Anything between you and those elements remains so. Don’t pin your guilt on me.”

“You from the start have done nothing but belittle my intelligence and exclude me,” Jack said, now stepping closer to my father.

“Jack, I suggest you not-” David begins.

“Suggest nothing, David.” Jack growls. “We’re going to continue the work here. We’re all part of this, you’re right,” he gets a real nasty look in his dark eyes. “We’re going to fucking get back in there, and we’re not going to stop. We’re not going to let anything distract us,” he turns to my father, “Unless there’s someone else’s kid here you want dead? Hm? That’d sure show us for being different, right?”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Jay said, stepping in between the both of them. First he looks to my father, “Chill off upstairs, okay?” My father walks a few paces out of sight. My focus is full on Jack. As Jay turns to him I can see the holes he’s digging into him with his stare. “I think you need some time off to recover from your accident...you know…get some proper rest and get in the right headspace.”

Jack shakes his head, “No, I’m not going home. You think I want to be there now?”

Jay looks at him and takes in a deep breath. “I know how hard this must all be, but it isn’t right for you to drown yourself here.”

Jack stares at Jay with a contemptuous look. A glass canister beside him flies across the room and smashes into the wall, shattering onto the floor below with a loud noise.

“I’m. Not...going...home.”

Even my father stops pacing and turns his gaze toward the broken canister, and then over toward Jack. I stare at the impossible—he wasn’t looking at Jack when it happened, but I was. He didn’t even touch it when it flew. It just...did. All by itself.

That accident...why my father was so scared of Jack. Was this what he was talking about? What he had such paranoid feelings about? Why was he still here if so?

The questions are eating away at me. I want to scream at him and tell him to get me away from this situation as fast he can. Get me away from this danger. I fall to my knees and know it’s only going to get worse from here. My dad’s dead after all.

Jack’s breathing heavy as he takes in every look one by one. His eyes traveling down the length of the room and finally finishing at my father. “Stop staring at me and get back to work!” He screams it and stomps out of the room, the others moving out of his way as he passes. In one fell swoop, there was a new lead on the project. He slams the door behind him and I’m brought toward him, out of the room with the others. Jack continues down the hall a few paces before nearly falling against the wall.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

He holds himself up and leans against it, taking some of the weight off of his legs. He holds his hands up to his face and I notice the discoloration in them. They almost looked blue.

He rolls up his shirt sleeves and I can see that the veins in his arms are almost popping out of his skin. The sight of it almost makes me vomit. The skin on his arms looks similarly discolored. I see sweat bead down his forehead and onto the bridge of his nose. He's shaking and breathing heavier than when he was being confronted. The sweat was pouring down him now.

“What...is happening? What did that stuff do to me?”

He looks past his hands towards a framed picture on the wall. It seems to be a portrait of a previous space crew that worked in the building. He seems to be shaking more, and I can see the portrait shaking on the wall. It falls to the floor and I hear a voice from beyond the cold steel door.

“Jack! You might want to come here, and fast!”

Jack turns around to look at the portrait on the ground before looking back towards the door. “W-What?” He calls out, strained. He rasps as he tries to lick his lips, they’re drier than a desert. He stands shakily to his feet, shifting to the door. He reaches down to move the handle but the door opens as he does and he comes face to face with David. The two almost collide.

“What is it?” Jack asked. Some color returns to his face, and David seems to not notice the change as he begins talking immediately.

“Well, you do know of the map we have of this building, right?” David said, almost strained himself.

“Yeah, the digital real-time one on our tablets, what about it?”

“Well, Mason just pinged me. He was out checking something he noticed—fucker wouldn’t tell me what it is unless it came of something...and what do you know, it did. There’s a section of the building that was encrypted inside of the original file. It was basically like a digital band-aid was used to cover the existence of a room up on the thirty-eighth floor,” David explains.

“But we're on the thirty-ninth floor,” Jack said.

“Yeah, so there's this small room on basically every floor above the thirtieth floor. They're usually some sort of service room for use by staff. You know, excess generator rooms, storage, and other things like that.”

“Yeah, and?” He was having a hard time imagining why it was so important that he needed to know this immediately.

“And there isn't anything listed on the thirty-eighth floor for that area, it's almost as if it was skipped over or erased.”

“Well, I've walked through every floor of this building once and did recall that one of them didn't have a door where I thought it would be.”

“Yeah, but this encrypted section that Jay found was an update log, he found that at one point there was a room in that very location.”

“Okay, and?” Jack asked, his interest shows, finally.

“And we all said that it might support us not trusting Valhart,” David said. “There's something there that we're not supposed to know, something they had to cover up last minute.”

“Dave, I never said I didn't trust Valhart,” Jay said.

David turns around, “Jay, please, important business. Adults are talking.”

“So, you propose that we go and check out this mysterious room?” Jack asked.

“I do very so support that idea,” David said, gripping the tablet with enthusiasm.

Jay turns his head to my father and quietly whispers, “What the hell is up with him?”

His answer was a shrug, and it got me curious too. I knew David acted a whole lot more kiss-ass- y in the coming time, but was it something really so sudden? I would have to keep this in mind...or...was that wise? Was it wise to worry about something like that now? I almost forgot about my situation back...out there.

Wherever the hell out there even is.

Sure, it was cathartic getting to see this all play out, but what good would it actually do if I go back to...there, and end up getting piked or shot or, well, anything really.

I realized my inner conundrum, how much of a hypocrite I really was. I realize I had been so desperate for answers I believed that they would be the last thing to satisfy me before my inevitable demise. And now that I’m starting to learn...I desire yet more. I always desire more, and know that will never not be true. Even if I find the answers to everything I will keep desiring more. Was that desire what my father sought to satiate by becoming a member of this scientific team?

I wonder, if I had an opportunity like this to uncover the absolute unknown...would I take the same path? Would I end in the same place? Would I was such a dangerous question.

“Right, well, I do think we should check out this mysterious room,” Jack said as he looks towards the others. “If you wish to come and join us, feel free. Let's go Dave.”

David nods, I see the others follow him out of the room.

“Does anybody here know anything about who was using this space before we were contracted?” Jack asked.

“Not a clue,” Jay answers. “I was the first one here.”

“Well then, it looks like we might get a clue.”

I watch them as they walk outside of the room and into the hallway, following the path that I had previously taken when I'd woken up.

They walk past the spot where Grace was shot, and instantly a massive wave of guilt floods my system. Now without the overbearing feeling of being shit on constantly I have an opportunity to think on how I have been acting. Stupid...so stupid. There’s no way I’d get a chance to do anything like my father did...not with how I acted.

Jesus Christ...I actually left her to die. I know what I thought when doing it, but I honestly thought because I was going to die it didn’t really matter—their lives didn’t really matter.

Of course they mattered.

In the end, my lack of care is what brought me the suffering I so despised. Maybe I really am dead, and this is some sort of purgatory where I learn just how much of a piece of shit I’ve been before I get cast down to hell.

They walk down the slope and I see the spot in which the door to the Incinerator room had been. Now there rests only a solid wall.

“Well, we've got a wall, what does that do for us?” my father asked.

“Hold on one second,” Jack said. He walks up to the wall and presses his face up against it, knocking his fist on it twice. “It is hollow back there...”

“Well, alright, so what do we do with that information?”

Just then I hear a noise, I'm sure they do as well as the focus is then diverted towards the wall. It sounds like the wall is tearing itself apart from the inside.

It's then I see Jack's hand vibrating against the wall, shaking and spasming as it tears itself open, the concrete wall shifting inside of itself and crumpling away.

“Jack what the hell is happening?” Mason asked.

He doesn't answer, he only continues as the wall reveals itself completely, the torn away concrete falls to the ground around them. Just past it is the hallway that I'd seen previously.

“Well, what are you waiting for? We've got some secrets to unfold,” he said, walking inside.

“Jack, that was...” David begins, stepping inside.

“Something new, I know. I guess being thrown into the locked chamber with the Radical-9 did me some good, huh?” He said almost monotone.

“I don't like the sound of this,” Jay whispers to my father.

“I don't like the sound of you not moving,” Jack bellows out.

“Right,” Jay said, shooting a look over to my father who only seems to nod in response.

Down the hallway they enter the Incinerator room, and there I can see the skeleton of the girl that had passed away from the fire. It lies ominously on the ground as if it screams for help.

“What the hell is this?” David asked, stepping into the room.

“It looks like a reason to doubt the good President, huh?” Jack asked, looking around the room. “It seems chunks of rock from Mars aren't the only things that have been tested on here.” He points to the jets. “Those are incinerators.”

“So whomever this skeleton belonged to was burned alive?” David asked.

“Yes,” Jack said. “They died a most gruesome death it seems, all this covered up, most likely.”

“That's awful,” David said.

“Yes...it is quite tragic, What do you suppose we do about it?” My father asked.

“Well, we can create a huge door warning of the existence of this room, that's the first thing,” David said.

“And then we work to complete our research on Radical-9,” Jack said. “...without the aid of Valhart. From this point on you fall into rank under me, understand?”

“I still don't think that's a good idea,” Jay said.

“You will, in time. Don't worry Jay, together we're going to show that Valhart that we're not one to be afraid of, we're not just disposable scientists who can be swept under a rug!”

I can feel the tension in the room as I feel the unease slide over me. Somewhere out in the real world I can feel a throbbing pain in my leg. Pain draws me back to my body.

Draws me back to the darkness.