The Dark Rift: Redemption (8 page)

Chuck caught up with the Gypsum guards easily. He could hear them ahead and stayed in the shadows as he followed. For a few minutes, he considered killing them all, but dismissed the idea. After all, he didn’t really know where the train would take him. What if it stopped? How would he ever know where he was? No, there would be time enough to take care of Gypsum later. For now, he needed to focus on finding someone who could tell him where Jodie was.

The Gypsum guards finally finished loading the train car and got in, closing the door behind them. Now was his chance. Chuck slid along the tunnel wall, careful to keep himself hidden from anyone who might look out the back window. He remembered the way the train cars bucked and clanged as they left the platform and knew that would be his chance.

He waited. He’d have to time it just right. A gentle humming, gradually increasing in intensity, filled the tunnel as the engine started. Chuck crouched into a sprinter's position. As the train jerked forward, clanging toward the electromagnetic field that would silently support it, Chuck made his move. He burst out of his hiding place, covering several hundred feet in a few seconds and jumped, landing on the back deck of the train car. His body hit the side of the car with a loud clatter.

He knew he’d made a louder announcement of his arrival than he'd intended, so slipped over the edge of the rail, out of sight, clinging to the bottom of the train car. The back door opened and Chuck could see the combat boots on the deck above him as a Gypsum guard stepped outside.

“Nothin’ here,” the guard said to someone inside. “We musta jumped a rail for a minute.”

“Yeah, well, get back in here,” another guard said. “Jason’s just about to set the bomb off.”

The guard turned around and went back inside.

Chuck stayed in his hiding spot, just to make sure no one was waiting for him to appear. A memory flashed in his mind. “I was on a train like this. I … I died on a train like this.” He could see Jodie shaking him, asking him to wake up. He heard her crying. Then, he remembered that she had been crying for him. He almost couldn't believe it. She must have cared about him. He recalled nothing else after the sound of her crying until he woke up on the tracks, changed forever.

The door opened again and a hand reached out. Chuck could see the small metal box with the antenna being held by one of the Gypsum guards, who reached over with his other hand and flipped a switch on top of the box. He watched as the guard went back inside the train car.

They were careening through the tunnel at a furious pace, blurring the blue safety lamps mounted on the ceiling into a stream of light. Chuck pulled himself onto the back deck and watched as they picked up speed. For a moment, he thought he saw something in the darkness. Thinking it was just his imagination, he reached up to rub his eyes, and winced in pain, not remembering the strength of his fingers or the fact that he had no eyelids. “Ouch, that hurt,” he said. His vision was blurred at first, but then he saw clearly what he thought was only in his mind.

Hundreds, maybe thousands of those things were following the train. The insect things, the results of experiments gone altogether wrong, the things that killed everything in sight were running after the train and gaining ground. He felt the deck railing bending beneath his hand and relaxed his grip a little, hoping the train would go faster very soon.

The voices of the guards inside caught his attention and Chuck turned his head to hear what they were saying.

“I didn’t hear nothin’. Maybe it didn’t go off at all,” a guard said.

“Well, maybe it did and all this rock just muffled the noise,” the guard with the gruff voice said.

Guess again, Chuck thought, looking back at the horde behind him.

"Either way, we can’t do anything about it now," the guard said. "Gypsum’s gonna blow the whole thing when we get back, anyway. They’re sendin’ a train car fulla C4 right into the middle of those fuckers.”

“Nothin’ like deep fried insects,” Billy said. “Um, um, finger lickin’ good.”

“Billy, for the last time, shut your mouth before I shut it for you,” one of the other guards barked.

Chuck looked back at the creatures pursuing him. They were losing ground, but were still following at an incredible pace. Their bodies seemed as diverse as the bodies of real insects. It was as if Gypsum had taken insect DNA and shaken it up in a jar, resulting in a million combinations of winged and multi-legged creatures, each a lethal force.

Chuck mulled over the idea in his head. This must be what Gypsum had wanted. To create a kind of creature designed for only one thing. Killing. But why would they want to do such a horrible thing? And, why was he different? For a moment, Chuck let himself hope that he might not meet the same end as the creatures he’d read about in the files. Maybe, just maybe, he wouldn’t end up like them or the things chasing the train. He continued watching the horde until they fell out of sight as the train picked up even more speed. Chuck realized he’d better hang on. The ride was just beginning.

* * *

“You know I hate you, don’t you?” Bonnie screamed. “What you did … you almost killed us, for God’s sake.” Bonnie backed away from her husband, shielding her son behind her.

"Mom, what are you talking about?” Tim asked, his voice shaking with emotion.

“Bonnie, you’re scaring him. Can’t you see that?” David said, moving toward her.

Bonnie backed into the corner, pushing Tim behind her. “Don’t you come any closer. You’ve done enough damage for one lifetime.”

“Bonnie, just let me explain. I need to tell you what’s going on,” David said.

“I know everything I need to know. You blew up all those people in the tunnel. Your men … they were going to kill Noah. They hurt Mei. How do you explain those things?” Bonnie tried to hold back the tears. She didn’t want to give David the satisfaction of seeing her cry. “You’re a monster.”

David backed away and sat down in a chair on the other side of the room. “None of you would even be alive if I hadn’t intervened. You have to believe me. We’re going to get out of here. All of us.”

“Mom, why don’t we sit down,” Tim said, tugging at her hand and pulling her toward a chair.

Bonnie sat next to her son and pulled him closer to her. “Thank you, Tim.” She looked over at David, feeling a mixture of pity and anger toward him. She wanted to believe he had an explanation for all of this, but how could she possibly believe him after all he'd done. “Okay, I’m listening.” She wondered what kind of story he would try to concoct to get back into her good graces.

“I had to come back here,” David said. “You don’t understand. Gypsum . . . what Evan thinks he knows about Gypsum, it’s all wrong. There’s a reason that those people had to die. They’re not what you thought they were. Everything I did --” David stood and began to pace. “Everything I did, I did to keep you safe. I love you both. You have to try to understand.”

Bonnie sighed. “Understand what, David? Understand that everything I thought you were has been a lie? Is that what you want me to understand?” Bonnie felt the impact of her own words. Their entire life together had been built around fabrications about his job, his work, where he went every day, what he did. All of it one big lie.

“Most of them, well, they weren’t people anymore, Bonnie. They were alien, some of them clones, some hybrids. The program started out so different. Fifty nations, all working to establish a cooperative relationship with an alien civilization.”

Bonnie felt herself slip into a kind of manic state. She started to laugh. “Aliens? Did you say aliens? Well, now I think I’ve heard it all. Why don’t you just let me and Tim go and you can continue with your science fiction fantasy all by yourself.”

“It’s not a fantasy. It . . . the program was supposed to benefit humanity. Cure disease, create energy sources never known to exist before. But then they started taking people against their will. Taking their DNA. Helen . . . Jodie’s mother . . . was trying to create a super soldier for the military. There were thousands of trials. The aliens couldn’t survive here without human DNA, so she developed hybrids.”

David stared at the floor. “Helen finally perfected the super soldier. It took her years. She devoted her entire life to creating this thing, but it turned on her and started destroying the lab. It killed seven men before it could be contained. It was indestructible, made of an impenetrable alloy given to us by the aliens. She finally had to kill it with a virus that attacked its human DNA.”

David stopped and rubbed his eyes. He sat in the chair again, looking defeated. “She only created enough of the virus to kill the thing. All of the concoctions she made in her laboratory . . . all of them were released into the tunnels when the explosion happened. Everyone from Gypsum who was still down there was exposed. Whoever was still alive, at least. If anyone was exposed to the super soldier formula, they'll have become one and we don't know how to kill them. That’s why I had my men go into the tunnels and retrieve whatever records they could find. Maybe we can find Helen’s formula.”

Bonnie had no idea what to think. Either her husband had gone completely crazy or the rest of the world had. Could his story possibly be true? She stared at him, thinking he looked like such a sad character. “What was in this for you? Was it money or fame, or what?”

David looked at her, his expression softening into one of love. “What was in it for me?” He cleared his throat. “What was in it for me was a promise from Helen. A promise that you and Tim would never be touched by this. A promise that you’d never know about it . . . that no one would ever know what we’d been a part of. That,” he gestured with his upturned open hand at her and Tim, “that is what was in it for me.”

“That makes no sense, David,” Bonnie said. “Then why did you have us brought back here? Why not just leave us where we were?”

“Because you're only safe with me right now and I have to make them think I’m still part of their plan.” David stood up and crossed the room, kneeling at her feet.

She pulled her son closer to her, barricading him with her arms. “Don’t touch us, David.”

He cringed in front of her, looking stricken. The expression on his face made her want to trust him. She wanted to believe every word he had to say, but it was all so incredible. Bonnie loosened her grip on Tim slightly and willed her body to relax.

David wiped his face on his sleeve. “Bonnie, I’m begging you. You have to listen to me now. If something happens to me, you have to tell the others what to do.”

With those words, she felt herself start to give in. She was beginning to understand just how terrified he was of what could happen. “Okay,” she said.

David’s lip stopped trembling and he looked at her in surprise. “What?”

“I said, okay, David. I won’t ever forgive you for lying to me for all these years, but I believe you. So, give us the whole story. Tell your son what you’ve been doing with your life.” Looking at how pathetic her husband appeared, Bonnie found her bitterness fading rapidly. “Tell us how we can help.” She glanced over at Tim, who stared at his father, no emotion apparent on his face.

“I’m so sorry, Tim,” David said. “We’ll never have enough time for me to tell you how much.” David stood up and got the chair from the other side of the room. He brought it over, sitting it in front of Bonnie. “Okay, I’ll start at the beginning.”

* * *

Jodie felt as if every cell of her body were in pain. She had no idea where she was. Looking up, she saw the ceiling of what appeared to be a warehouse. Somewhere in the distance, a group of men were talking and laughing. The aroma of food drifted through the air and Jodie realized she was outrageously hungry and thirsty. She straightened her leg and her appetite disappeared as waves of nausea hit her hard. She breathed deeply, trying to keep from passing out. After a few minutes, the nausea passed and she tried to sit up slowly, wincing in pain.

Seeing herself, Jodie almost laughed, thinking she looked like she’d been through a meat grinder. She needed first aid. Looking around, she realized she was on top of a fire truck parked in the garage at the station. Not a bad place to be if you want a first aid kit, she thought. Jodie slid to the end of the deck and dropped down to the back step. She fought not to scream as she put her weight on her wounded leg. One step at a time, she lowered herself to the garage floor. She stopped and leaned against the truck for a moment, waiting for the dizziness to pass.

Jodie limped around the side of the truck and opened one of the panels, revealing hose connectors, axes and tools. She quietly closed the panel and opened the next, finding what she was looking for. The first aid kit. Something else, too. Bottled water. She shoved two bottles in each coat pocket, grabbed the kit and slid silently out the side door of the station.

Unlike the town she’d been in earlier, the streets here weren’t dark. Jodie realized she was exposed, out in the glow emanating from the fire station. The earthquake must not have damaged the power grid here, wherever was. She quickly made her way around the back of the building and sat down behind a dumpster, downing a bottle of water in one long swig.

She opened the first aid kit and shuffled through it until she found six small packages of painkillers. After tearing open two of the packages, Jodie washed down the tablets with a second bottle of water. Leaning against the dumpster, she thought of her father, hoping he was still alive, still able to be her dad. And she thought of Mei. Mei was strong. And smart. She'd figure out a way to keep everyone safe. Jodie pictured them and the rest of her new family of friends spending holidays together, laughing, finally rid of Gypsum.