Last Chance (6 page)

“You boys stay here and don’t answer the door if anyone knocks. Just stay in your room and pretend that no one is here.”

The boys, again perplexed, decided not to question April this time and responded simply, “OK.”

April grabbed her things and made her way to the building elevator. She was determined to find out what Sam knew and what he had told Keith Kellington. As the numbers on the elevator panel slowly counted down from nine, she prepared a plan of how she would approach Sam. Should she come right at him and demand answers? Should she act scared of the situation and hope that he calmed her down with information? She pondered her move and concluded that there was only one surefire way to ensure success. Sadly, it was the one thing she didn’t want to do.

April reached the bottom floor and made her way to the front of the building. Various security teams were still walking around the area, taking notes and pictures as they went. She saw Sam, alone, in the office. Sector 37 had not issued a replacement for his recently deceased partner. She took a couple of deep breaths and opened the door to the office. As their eyes met, she hurled herself toward him, grabbed him around the neck, and planted a huge kiss on his unsuspecting lips.

She slowly pulled away from him. “Thank god you’re all right! I had heard that a security lead from our building had been killed and I just thought the worst.”

Sam, shocked by the outpouring of emotion, but with a big smile on his face, responded, “I’m fine. It was Brett.” A look of confusion overtook Sam. “I didn’t know you cared so much about me.”

April walked around the office and acted as if she was embarrassed. “What do you mean, you didn’t know that I cared so much? I would think it would be obvious that I care about you. I’ve been giving you hints that I’m attracted to you for months now.”

Sam, with an even bigger smile on his face, said, “I never thought you had any feelings for me, other than a passing acknowledgement of my existence. I mean, I’ve always thought you were great.”

April moved in toward Sam again and gave him another kiss. “Well, now you know I think you’re great, too.”

Sam and April discussed their mutual feelings for each other for the next twenty minutes as April looked for an opportunity to find out what had happened.

“I just can’t believe someone was murdered here last night. Do you know what happened?”

Sam ducked his head and moaned, “The investigation teams are still working on what actually happened.”

April took Sam’s hand. “Don’t you know what happened? I mean you were here when it happened, right? I’m sure the investigators have given you an idea of what went on.”

Sam pulled back from April and said, “Look, I can’t go in to what I’ve been told or what I’ve heard. This is an ongoing investigation, and to be perfectly honest, they have people here from Sector 1 looking at it. I don’t want to get in trouble with anyone from Sector 1.”

April mulled over her next move carefully. She didn’t want Sam to think she was pumping him for information, but she also determined that this was her best chance to find out what he knew. She went with the guilt approach. “Wow, I can’t believe that I actually threw my emotions and my feelings on the table with you and now you just shut me out. If we are going to make something work with us, you have to trust me. I don’t know what is going on in my own neighborhood, people are dying, and the one person that I thought would put my mind at rest doesn’t even trust me enough to tell me what he knows.”

April began to make her way to the door to leave and turned around one last time. “I guess I was wrong about you.”

Sam jumped to his feet and pleaded, “Wait, don’t go! I’m sorry. You’re right. If I can’t trust you, then who can I trust? Please, come back in.”

April slowly turned toward Sam and walked back into the office. They both sat down at his desk, and he told her the details of his meeting with Mr. Kellington.

“This guy that my supervisor knows, Keith Kellington, shows up here while some sector investigators are going through the warehouse. He wants me to go with him to the primary security headquarters for questioning. I’m thinking that it won’t be a big deal because I really don’t know that much, beyond calling in for backup last night. Brett and I saw this bright light coming from one of the warehouse’s windows about eleven, and it needed to be checked out.”

Sam took a sip of coffee from the cup on his desk, moved to the office window, and pointed to the warehouse. “We couldn’t see anything but the light coming from that window. Since the building is supposed to be shut down at night, I wanted a security team to make sure someone wasn’t in there that shouldn’t be.”

Sam moved back to the desk and sat down. “The team arrived within five minutes of the call and came by the office to let us know that they were going up. Brett wanted to go with them, so I told him that he could. I thought it would be some good on-the-job training.”

April asked, “When did you know that Brett had been killed?”

“Well, that’s just it; the entire security team came back down after a couple of hours of sweeping the building, and they didn’t find anything out of the ordinary. The room that the light was coming from was empty. The problem was that Brett wanted to go back into the warehouse after the rest of the team left. He kept saying that he thought they missed something. I got tired of listening to him so I told him to go take another look if he wanted to, and he did.”

Sam began to get emotional as he started to realize that his decision played a part in Brett’s death. April caressed Sam’s hand. “It’s OK. You can tell me.”

After Sam took another sip of his coffee, he continued, “He hadn’t come back and had been gone for two hours, so I called up the sweep team again.” Sam wiped his eyes. “This time, they found Brett, dead, in the same room that the light had come from.”

“Do you know how he died?”

Sam got up from his seat again and looked out the window. “I really don’t know. They won’t show me his body and no one will tell me anything beyond he’s dead. My own supervisor still thinks it may have been an accident, but I don’t think people from Sector 1 show up to investigate accidents.”

April got up from her seat and joined Sam at the window. “I’m so sorry that you had to go through all that.” April paused for a minute and asked, “What happened at sector headquarters?”

“We get to headquarters and I go through the whole explanation that I just told you with that Mr. Kellington. He really didn’t say much while I was going through it all, but he did the strangest thing once I got done.”

April asked, “What did he do?”

“He asked me to hold this rock that was sitting on his office table, so I did. He just sat there for a minute, didn’t say a word, and stared at me. All of a sudden, he gets up, tells me to put the rock back down on his desk, and that he appreciated my honesty. He directed me back to the transport to come back to the post. My supervisor was waiting for me, and we left a few minutes later.”

Sam went on to tell April that there was more to the man from Sector 1 than met the eye. “I thought he was kind of strange to be honest. That crazy accent; I could barely understand what he was saying. Then he would say something as clear as me or you would say it. It’s like he was doing it on purpose.”

April hoped that Sam had told her everything and asked a final question. “So, you didn’t hear any explanation of what might have happened?”

Sam paused for a moment. “I didn’t hear any explanations about what may have happened, but I did overhear one of the investigators tell Mr. Kellington that they had some surveillance video that he needed to see.”

April asked, “What kind of video was it?”

Sam took April’s hand and began to hug her. “I’m not sure exactly, but it sounded like there was someone in your building last night that was watching the lights in the warehouse at the same time that we saw them. It must have been pretty good video because one of the investigators said that they should have a positive ID within the hour.”

Panic gripped April as she determined that the investigators had surveillance of her boys watching the warehouse. She pulled away from Sam and asked, “What do you think they’ll do next?”

Sam cocked his head to the side and explained, “I would imagine the person they saw in the video will be getting a visit from the investigation team pretty soon.”

April began to make her way back to the door as Sam walked after her. “Look, Sam, I am so glad that you’re OK and I’m so happy that we both know what we’re feeling for each other, but I really need to go check on the boys. We’ll have plenty of time to continue our talk tomorrow.”

Sam rushed to April’s side and asked, “Can I have one more kiss before you go?”

April responded, “Of course you can,” and proceeded to give Sam a deep and passionate good-bye kiss. As she walked out of the office she turned and said, “I’ll see you soon.”

Sam responded, “Absolutely!”

Once April had cleared the security post and the investigators on the street, she ran back to the elevator, jumped in, and selected nine. The numbers couldn’t light up fast enough as she tried to calm down and determine what she needed to do next. The daylight was gone from Sector 37 and she knew that it was now or never to save her boys.

Chapter 5

room 1313

The door flew open to the apartment and April began to grab some old bags stored in her closet. Both Matthew and Connor came into her room with looks of dread. They had never seen April look so flustered.

“So what did you find out from Sam?” asked Matthew.

April stopped her mad dash of pulling bags from her closet. “I need both of you to take a bag and get some clothes together. We need to get out of here as fast as we can.”

Connor asked, “Why do we have to leave? Are we in trouble?”

April, tears welling up in her eyes, pleaded, “Please, just do as I say. I’ll explain everything later.”

Before another word could be spoken, there was a knock on the door. April put her finger to her lips and signaled the boys to be quiet.

Another knock at the door, and this time they heard a voice demand, “Sector security! Please open the door or we will open it for you!”

April knew that the security team would be in the apartment in mere moments. “Wait just a second; I need to put some clothes on.” April turned to the boys and ordered, “No matter what they ask, do not admit that you saw anything last night. Do you understand me?”

Both boys replied, “Yes, ma’am.”

April told the boys to stay in her room until she called for them. Before she left, she pulled what looked like a keychain from her dresser drawer and tapped it with her finger. She slid the keychain into her pocket, dried the tears from her face, and made her way to the front door.

April had her hand on the doorknob, composed herself, and cracked open the door. To her surprise, she recognized the face of Keith Kellington. Mr. Kellington was flanked by four security team members, all of whom were large, intimidating men.

As he panned down the length of her body, a wry grin appeared. “You April 14561?”

April backed away from the door and replied to the Sector 1 detective, “Yes, sir, I am.”

“That’s good.” He breezed past April and made his way into the small living room of the apartment, Southern twang in full affect.

April asked, “Can I help you gentlemen with something?”

Mr. Kellington replied, “Yes, y’all can, ma’am.” Keith Kellington pulled out a small slip of paper and read it. “Connor 24612 and Matthew 25871; I need to ask ‘em a few questions about what they saw last night.”

April positioned herself between Mr. Kellington and the door to her bedroom, “I don’t think the boys know anything about what happened last night. I’m not even sure what happened.”

Mr. Kellington smirked. “Now, ma’am, you can either go get those two boys yourself, or I’ll make you get ‘em. It’s your choice.”

April cowered back and flashed a quick smile to the detective as she turned her head to her bedroom door and called out, “Boys, please come out here.”

Both of the boys emerged from the bedroom, as they tried to avoid eye contact with the team of security personnel that looked them over. April put her arms around both of the boys. “Boys, this nice detective needs to ask you a few questions, so make sure you tell him everything you know.”

Mr. Kellington thanked April and made his first comments to the boys. “I want you to be honest with me, young men, and if you are, this’ll be real simple for the both of y’all. You understand me?” The boys both replied, “Yes, sir.”

“We have video that shows both of y’all lookin’ out your bedroom winduh around eleven p.m. last night. There were reported light refractions occurring in the warehouse right across from your winduh. Did y’all see those light refractions?”

The boys tried not to make eye contact with Mr. Kellington and looked at each other. Connor motioned to Matthew to speak up. Matthew cleared his throat and answered, “Well, sir, I’m not sure who you saw on that surveillance tape, but it couldn’t have been us.”

Connor jumped in. “We were already asleep at ten, and we know the rules about being out of bed after hours.”

Mr. Kellington walked closer to the boys, a foot from each of them, and confronted the obvious with a firm and adjusted voice, no accent. “You are not answering my question boys. I don’t care when you went to sleep and I don’t care that you know the rules of the sector. I care that you were both up at eleven p.m. last night and that you saw the occurrence of light from that window.”

Mr. Kellington made his way into the boys’ room and pointed at the exact warehouse window where the boys saw the mysterious bald man the night before.

“In fact, this is the perfect spot to see what occurred last night; not a tree in sight. The light must have been blinding coming through this window.”

Connor sucked back some air and found some courage. “We didn’t see anything, sir; honest.”

Matthew shook his head in agreement. “That’s right, sir. We must have just missed it. We are really heavy sleepers.”

Mr. Kellington bopped his head up and down and began to lick his teeth with his mouth closed. His accent returned. “I tell y’all what boys, Why don’t you go on back into the bedroom. I need to have a private talk with, Ms. April, right?”

“Yes, sir.” The boys walked to April’s room but looked back to her multiple times before they got there. Mr. Kellington instructed the rest of the team to leave him for a minute with April, and he closed the boys’ bedroom door behind them.

April began to speak to the detective, but only got out, “Sir, I really think that my boys—”

“Stop talking and don’t move a muscle.” At that moment April became motionless, like an old statue. She stood prone to Mr. Kellington. She strained to move any muscle in her body—a finger, a toe, even blink her eyes—but she couldn’t. The only muscle that was working in her entire body was her mind and it raced with fear and terror as the detective looked her over.

Mr. Kellington took his finger and placed it on April’s forehead. “It is so frustrating, isn’t it? You want to move, you want to push me away, but you can’t.”

A quick chuckle left Keith Kellington’s mouth. “But I can.” Mr. Kellington pushed on April’s forehead and she fell backward onto one of the boys’ beds. The bed broke her fall, but she was still in a stonelike state as she stared up at Mr. Kellington. He stood over her and spoke in the same sadistic tone she had heard after the boys had lied to him.

“It’s strange, but you remind me of someone I used to know quite well. Funny how a look can jog an old memory.” Mr. Kellington walked to the side of the bed and went down to one knee; his mouth was just clear of April’s ear. He spoke in a volume just louder than a whisper. It was unnerving to April.

“I have thousands and thousands of memories in my head. I take them as I need them and never have a second thought about it. I could take your memories and those of your boys and make them mine in a matter of seconds if I wanted to. In fact, I could take a lot more than memories.”

A small tear began to develop in the right eye of April 14561, and it slowly made its way down the side of her cheek. Mr. Kellington rose from his knee and spoke, as if to the air. “You may move.”

April regained control of her body. She could move her arms, legs, and fingers. She blinked and wiped the tear from her face. She began to stand when Mr. Kellington stopped her progress.

“Now, we do not condone using these types of controls on our younger population. The Supreme Leader has decided that it’s not good to introduce young people to these types of realities until they have been properly taught to respect authority. We will only use them in the case of security or as a last resort.”

April peered into the eyes of Mr. Kellington and a rush of anger flooded her system. She wondered,
Is he making a threat against my boys? Is there any way I can stop him from hurting them?

Mr. Kellington continued, “I did not read your mind because I don’t think you really know what happened here last night. If you don’t get what I need from your boys, believe me, I will.”

Mr. Kellington walked to the door of the bedroom, pointed to it, and made one final command, back to his Southern drawl. “You have one last chance, Ms. April. Now, you go into the other room and convince them boys to tell me everything they know.”

At that point, Mr. Kellington’s tone deepened and his voice rose to an alarming pitch.

“Or I will take both of those boys with me, run them through the ringer in Sector 1, and you will never see either one of them again!” Mr. Kellington walked back to the bed and calmly said, “I’m sure they would fit right in with the other inhabitants of the Mercury Camps.”

April was able to stand and with a lowered head said, “I’ll get them to tell you everything. If you promise not to take them away or put them through this, I’ll get them to tell you everything they know.”

Mr. Kellington stood toe to toe with April and raised his hand to her chin. He raised her head with his hand.

“Does a cat make a deal with a gutter rat? You’ll do it and then I’ll decide what happens next.”

April knew she had no other choice and replied, “Yes, sir.”

“By the way, how did you like that accent I was playing with? I found that one years and years ago. I like to bring it back up every so often. The rube that had it didn’t require it anymore.” April composed herself as Mr. Kellington looked at her with a menacing grin.

Matthew and Connor were alone in April’s bedroom. The security team waited just outside of the door, so the boys had to be quiet. Matthew, worried for April, asked Connor, “What do you think that man is going to do to her?”

“I don’t know, but she told us not to tell these guys anything, and that’s what we’re gonna do. Just keep our mouths shut.”

Matthew asked, “What if they do something to her? We’ll have to say something. Maybe we can make something up?”

Connor pondered for a minute. “Nothing is going to happen to us; stop being so dramatic. They won’t do anything to us or April as long as we stay consistent.” Connor walked to the bedroom window and stared out, “This whole idea that we are being controlled and that the government can just do anything to you that they want, it’s just talk, you’ll see.”

Matthew curled up in a ball on the bed. “I hope you’re right.”

Mr. Kellington had April in the living room and commanded one of his security team leaders to get the boys. The boys emerged and made their way toward April. Mr. Kellington announced to the room that April had something to say to Matthew and Connor. April approached the boys and leaned in between their two heads, so each boy had one ear to her mouth. She slowly rotated her head, in order to see all of her surroundings and whispered to both of the boys, “Run.”

April pulled away from the boys and lunged at the one security team member blocking the door and knocked him to the ground. She yelled, “Run!”

The boys took off toward the door and heard Mr. Kellington, in a loud, strong, monotone voice, “Stop at the door and do not move!”

For a moment, the boys did stop, but only for a moment. Matthew looked back through the open door and heard April scream, “Run, boys! Don’t stop!”

Mr. Kellington, amazed, looked down at April being picked up from the floor. Mr. Kellington exclaimed, “What the hell is going on here?”

Seconds later, a loud explosion rocked the building like a sonic blast from the past. Everyone rushed to the living room window. A transport was on fire in front of the building. There were screams coming from all directions. Things like this just didn’t happen in Sector 37.

Mr. Kellington ordered his men to go down to the street and help with the fire. “Take this woman to the holding location in Sector 37.” He also told one of them to follow the boys and get them back.

They made their way to the apartment door and four more security team members showed up. They had something for Mr. Kellington.

A large man, six feet eight inches tall, led this particular team and said to Mr. Kellington, “Sir, we caught these two boys trying to run from the building.”

Mr. Kellington looked into the hall and saw both Connor and Matthew standing there, no movement, just blank stares.

The large security team leader continued, “I’m a third-level team leader of Sector 37, so I forced them to tell me what they were running from.”

Mr. Kellington, a smile on his face, told the boys, “There is no running from me, boys. I always get the information that I need.”

“What is your name, third-level team leader from Sector 37?”

“My name is Johnson, sir.”

“Good job, Mr. Johnson. Do you think you can handle one more request for me?”

“Of course, sir. It would be an honor to serve you in any way that you need.”

Mr. Kellington told Johnson that his team needed to investigate the explosion, so he asked him and his team to lead the boys and their caretaker to the Sector 37 holding area.

“You have already done a wonderful job catching these boys. I can trust you to get them to the holding area, right?”

Johnson responded, “Absolutely, sir. I won’t let you down.”

Mr. Kellington signaled his men in the apartment to hand over April to Agent Johnson. “Now, Agent Johnson, I want you to be in complete control of these boys and their caretaker for the entire time you are transporting them. You can release them at the holding area and I can do my job from there.”