Path of Ranger: Volume 1 (25 page)

Yet, the shock about a new haircut wasn’t the biggest surprise. Just as he managed to open his eyes, he saw that breathing mask. It wasn’t made of plastic, but of glass, and it was transparent. It contained a red gas in it, which JB was breathing with. The big guy got intimidated by that. He was going to take it off, but eyes got blinded. He tightened his eyes as hard as he could. The pain went lower. He couldn’t believe at first that just a room’s illumination might be so painful. Maybe that was the reason why someone had covered him with the bandage.

“You’re lucky, you know? You’re a big guy. If someone else would have been in your place…” a male voice sounded from another side of the room.

It was a familiar accent, a Californian. JB supposed that the stranger just came into the room, since he hadn’t seen anybody around in those few seconds of his vision.

“Who’s there?” the patient asked. He tried to get up, but couldn’t.

“Oh, you’ve managed to restart the sensibility. Wow! That’s impressive. Less work for me,” the stranger said cheerfully.

There appeared to be some lack of clarity in the man’s voice, he was chewing. Then crust added to that symphony.

“Who are you? Why da fuck am I strapped?”

“My name is Mark Gibson. I’m a doctor. And you’re not a prisoner. This is for your sake. So you wouldn’t interrupt a reparative process.”

“Say what? My body is burning in pain! What process are you talking about?” JB tried to yell, but the mask and constant growth in sensitivity wouldn’t let him. His voice lowered.

“A ‘reparative’ process. Your healing.”

“Whatever…”

“You probably don't remember much, right? Huh, that’s interesting…” then a mechanical click sounded. “The patient shows a memory loss after the accident.”

“Damn! You’re lucky that I can’t move, or you wouldn’t mock me!” JB shouted and instantly felt another burst of pain. “Damn!” He coughed.

“Are you a gangster or something?” Gibson wondered. “Look, considering what happened to you, you have to see yourself as the luckiest man in the world. You’re still breathing, right?”

Then a new sound came from the doctor’s side, a food crust. JB couldn’t go on without asking.

“What do you have there? A ham sandwich?”

“A turkey one, actually. We’re on the island. Where would I get ham here?”

“Where did you get a turkey?” JB responded in the same sarcastic manner. “Still sounds good. Got any for me?”

“An appetite… That soon? How interesting!” the doctor mumbled when chewing. “It’s too early for you. I can tell you a neat story, though. About that guy. Interested?”

“Okay, Doc. Let’s hear it,” JB said quietly now. He finally accepted the superiority of his host.

With those words heard, Mark came closer. It sounded like he put aside some paperwork and sat down on a rolling chair. He moved even closer to Jerry, took off his glasses, which he carelessly laid right on the patient’s chest.

“The thing is, Jerry…”

“JB,” the gangster corrected him. “How do you know my name?”

“I went through your stuff. The wallet, fake iPhone…”

“Wait what?!”

“It’s an island, not much to do here… What do you expect?”

“Fair enough,” JB agreed. “How did you find out that it wasn’t genuine?” he wondered about his phone then. “Didn’t you touch a silent mode switch?”

“What? No.”

A few seconds of silence followed. JB couldn’t tell just by hearing what was going on. It seemed like the doctor wrote down something.

“That’s good,” JB exhaled with relief. “You don’t touch that button.” Gibson didn’t respond. “So, sup with that story, Doc?”

“The thing is… How should I put this? Two weeks ago you were attacked near one of the mines?” the doctor continued. “When I found you, you were messed up badly. Your chest was torn, most of the ribs were broken, dislocation in the left shoulder… And that’s not mentioning all those countless cuts. You had lost about sixty percent of your blood. The chances of your survival were one to…” the doctor lingered in thinking. “No, from a medical standpoint, you shouldn’t have survived. And I think I have an idea what saved you.”

“What’s that?”

It started to come back to JB, what had happened to him that day.

“Here we’ve come to the part when I start asking questions. At first, I supposed that you’d got here with others, on the plane. But then I found something interesting,” this words gave Jerry an idea of what Mark was talking about. “So, the first question. If you’re one of the passengers of the flight ‘one oh seven,' why didn’t you go along with the others, to the shore? And a second question. How did you manage to carry a loaded ‘Desert Eagle’ firearm onto the plane? And why did you need to?” Gibson’s voice became serious, the good doctor’s playfulness vanished.

JB realized that his life was in hands of the man whom he couldn’t even see, so the answers had to be right. He decided to be honest.

“Let me start with the ‘gun question,' Doc. A few minutes ago you asked me if I was a gangster. The answer is: kind of. Let’s put it this way. I used to have a solid business back in LA a year ago. Then I had some problems. I stayed in Ukraine for a while, laying low, you know. But then, I decided to come back to the United States. And there are lots of people who wish me dead. The point is, I don’t even visit the can without that gun around.”

“Uhuh, let’s say so. That doesn’t answer the question. How did you manage to bring it on the plane?”

“I bribed the Chief of Security at the airport.”

“Okay, continue.”

“About the first question. Why not go with others? The reason was: I gained consciousness too late. While searching, they probably had taken me for dead. So I was left behind there, with stiffs. A few days after I managed to reach them, found out where they were… Still, I’m not a good person, and the crowd ain’t my thing.”

“I see,” Gibson’s tone went softer. “The thing is, JB… I have seen a tattoo on your back, two letters, ‘JB.’ I can call you that, right?”

“What? I told you to call me that myself… Never mind, go on.”

“What was I saying? Oh, right,” Gibson sounded lost for a second. “This island is not a regular one. Strange things are going on around here. Things that aren’t meant to be revealed to the public. But some people would want to get to these things. Do you get what I’m talking about?”

“Nope. Not a clue…”

“This secrets are important. So I supposed that…”

JB interrupted Mark when he finally caught the drift.

“Do you think that I’m some kind of spy? That I’m here for your secrets?”

“Yes.”

“What is that special about this island anyway?” JB wondered.

“I have no idea. They just told me so, when I got here. I didn’t argue,” Gibson confessed.

JB didn’t care much either, so he took that explanation on faith and didn't dig deeper.

“Yet, you’ve healed me, when you could’ve just let me die.”

“And here we’ve come to the main subject,” an uncertainty was felt in the Doc’s voice.

“What subject?”

“Your treatment. There were some complications,” a paper rustle sounded. Seemed like Gibson picked up his notes. “Tell me, would you? Did anyone from your family have any major physiological anomalies or defections?”

“Major? Not that I’m aware of. But, I don’t know much about my family. That’s a long story.”

“Okay, then. Have you ever been going through chemo? Or been exposed to radiation, maybe? Or have you been taken experimental drugs?”

“No. Unless…”

“Unless what?”

“It depends on the kind of drugs.”

“Street drugs doesn’t count.”

“No, then not,” JB said confidently. “If only… Unless… No.”

When those questions had been answered Doc pulled out something out of his pocket. Jerry heard a click.

“The subject’s body is a perfect recipient for the influence of the substance.”

Then a click sounded again.

“Da fu… Are you recording me, Doc?” JB wondered.

“Just taking notes. Please, try to remember your last actions before the creature attacked you.”

“Let’s see…” JB strained his brain to call back the memories of that evening. “I was walking down the road, then I came to a statue of some creature, a mine… I found sand there. The weird red, glowing grains.”

“Glowing? How did it glow? Did you touch it?”

“Yeah, I picked up some. It reddened in my hand. Then I was attacked by that thing. That’s it, nothing after.”

“So I was right…” Doc muttered.

“Right about what?”

“I’ve already told you that it’s not a regular island. This is the only place where we’ve encountered this element yet. That sand that you found. We’ve called it ‘gibsonium.'"

“Of course, Dr. Gibson, how else could you have called it?” JB smirked.

“Hey! I found it first. And it needed a name, so I did give it mine,” Gibson was making an argument as he felt a bit uncomfortable. He wanted to change a subject. “Well, it’s not important. The important part is that it was the first time when gibsonium had shown such a reaction on touching a living organism.”

“Yeah, I’m kinda not getting any of this. Let’s get back to discussing its name, okay?” JB smiled again, it couldn’t be seen because of the mask, though. Yet Doc caught the tone.

“A sense of humor is a good sign. Let me explain. This element is not like the ones that you may find in the periodic table. It’s like... Hyper-conductive.”

“Like copper? For electricity?” JB asked, seriously this time.

“Not like copper. Conductive for life energy,” Mark answered. “You see, JB, every being has in its possession of a certain amount life energy. Most of the people call it a soul. Such a source of life may exist anywhere in time or space. It can be represented by many forms. Everything around us is divided into matter and energy. Energy itself is a force that brings matter together. It’s the universe’s juice. Energy can be thermal, mechanical, electrical, et cetera. But energy can’t exist by itself, it needs a container to be held in. This is matter’s function. But matter, just as energy, takes many forms as well. And each of these forms is correspondent to a certain types of energy. Are you still with me?”

“Yeah, we are walking batteries… Matter, energy… Why not… So if that thing rescued me, why don’t we call it ‘JBium’ or something?” even if JB was joking around, the Doc’s words actually interested him.

“So here is what I am leading to. We can’t just take the kinematic energy of running water to put it into a living creature for its strength to be refilled. Or I should say that we couldn’t. Gibsonium is a material that theoretically can conduct any type of energy. Moreover, it absorbs the energy, takes it from anything it touches. I’ve seen it kill people by one touch. That’s why I’m so interested in your case. Before I met you, I had seen gibsonium as exclusively a consumer, but not a provider. You must be wondering how you survived while the monster was tearing you apart. It was gibsonium. Those grains, which you held, were your life source at the moment, it made your organism tick when it should’ve shut down.”

“So the red air in the mask is…” JB implied.

“Yes, oxygen enriched with gibsonium. I don’t know why that thing has chosen you to be a recipient of its energy. Whether it’s because of your physiology or your soul. The fact is – it likes you very much.”

A silence stayed for a few seconds. JB had a lot to process.

“Had all this been built just so you people had a chance to dig up some shiny sand, which you knew nothing about?”

“This research center was established more than thirty years ago. Back then nobody had any idea about this substance’s existence. I discovered it not that long ago.”

“Uhuh… So what you’re saying is that you lil’ bastards are running secret experiments here? You have your own ‘Area Fifty-One’ here, damn guys,” the gangster went harder to provoke Gibson.

“Exactly! What?” the doctor responded at once. Then he thought it through. “Actually, I’m not aware of all of the research that was conducted here. I get to deal just with the consequences.”

“That thing that attacked me…” JB suggested.

“Yes, one of those consequences. For the last five years, I’ve been the only scientist here.”

“What about those creatures? Were they made artificially?”

“Kind of, mutants, to be precise. The island is full of them. They are strong, smart, and very violent.”

“Wait, Doc. Was gibsonium involved in those monsters’ creation? You’re using it to heal me, so may I become like that?” JB worried.

“Don’t be ridiculous. The monsters were made monsters. Gibsonium had nothing to do with that. Besides, it takes life, not changes it. If even the smallest grain of the substance gets in touch with any of that creature, eventually it will drain the life out of it.”

“Okay, go on.”

“You, on the other hand, are a different case. The material shares its energy with you. How many times should I explain it to you?” Gibson went all smug with those comments. “But, since you’ve mentioned it… There are some changes in you.”