Derailed - 16. Fight or Flight

Derailed

Chapter 15

Fight or Flight

“There. That should be about it… looks almost good as new.”

“It’s too tight!” Bruiser kept fumbling with the reassembled collar. It was incredible how well Mark was able to piece it back together. It wasn’t perfect, but as long as no one examined it too closely, it should go unnoticed. It had to; everything depended on Bruiser unknowingly having use of his powers.

“It’s not supposed to be comfortable. Just, whatever you do, don’t mess with it. If it falls apart the plan will be a bust.” Meanwhile, Mark was now trying his best to fit into the dead soldier’s uniform as I was trying to dress the dead body in Mark's discarded clothing, which was next to impossible; this man weighed a ton and Mark's clothing was about two sizes too small.

I was still fumbling with the pants, trying to get them to zip, when the familiar whop whop whop announced the raven approaching outside. I could see the dust and debris of the street begin to pick up as it began its descent.

“Forget it! We don’t have time!” Mark yelled as he grabbed up the rifle. Panicking, I flipped the guy over onto his front, hoping that the lab coat would hide most of everything. ‘Now for the gross part,’ I thought, as I used my fingers and smeared a good amount of blood from the man’s head wound onto the side of my face and leaned myself up against the wall, closed my eyes and began praying silently that everything went smoothly.

I heard the raven grow louder and louder as it finally landed outside, followed by loud footsteps. “About time you guys showed up! You know how long I’ve been waiting here?” Mark complained as the footsteps slowed down.

“What the hell’d you expect? There were twice as many of the damn freaks as we thought. I heard that there were even a few of them living in the damn tower, of all places! Couldn’t believe it until I heard it on the news.”

“Hey, what’s up with him?” I felt a strong tug at my shoulder. I held my breath and tried my best to seem as lifeless as possible.

“Fucker snuck up and attacked me from behind after what I had to do to the other one. He’s alive, just unconscious I think.”

“Whatever, it don’t matter. He'll be dead soon enough anyways.” I felt cold metal close around my neck so tight I almost gasped out and blew our cover; it was a miracle I didn’t. ‘Bruiser wasn’t kidding when he said it’s tight.’ I felt a hard tug on my arm as I was actually dragged across the ground. The rough surface of the ground caused a new fresh layer of scrapes and scratches down my chest. Nevertheless, I just closed my eyes, gritted my teeth and bared it.

A second later, I felt myself being lifted into the air and thrown onto a cold smooth metal surface. “Why the hell can’t we at least be taken by truck? I hate flying.” It was Bruiser's voice giving me the signal to let me know that I was aboard the hull of the raven.

“You're the only freak I know that bitches about how they're taken.” It was the same voice of the man who dragged me onto the ship. As soon as we made our move, I was going to find some kind of special way to deal with him, I swore it.

“Wow, there's no real lack of intelligence on this plane, is there?” Bruiser said in as sarcastic a tone as he could manage; his next signal to inform me that Mark was aboard.

“I swear to god, if you don’t shut your god damn mouth I'll kill ya now and save the taxpayers the money!” Bruiser kept his mouth shut after that, which was fine; I knew all I needed to know. I could heard a few silent sobs and every now and then I would hear a couple of people cry out, which only meant that we weren’t alone, whether that helped us or hurt us would depend on how dirty whoever was onboard with us were willing to get their hands. Until now, it had both shocked and angered me at how few were willing to fight back. Even now, when we're being rounded up like cattle for the slaughter.

A moment later, I felt strong rapid vibrations as the engine roared to life. After what felt like hours, the raven finally began to lift off into the air and my stomach gave a slight lurch from the motion. “So where are we headed?” It was Mark's voice, which gave me relief. Just having him there put me at ease, knowing that his cover was still intact.

“Times Square, of all places.”

“Times Square? What the hell for?”

“How the hell should I know? Our orders were to bring the last of 'em to Time Square. I don’t question my damn orders, I just follow 'em, and if you wanna make something of yourself, I suggest you do the same.”

We rode a few more moments in silence when I felt the slight pressure of a boot pressing down on my hand and my heart gave a jump as I got the last signal from Mark to get ready to act. I opened my eyes and began scanning the vessel and sure enough, there it was. Mark had leaned a rifle up against a seat a few feet in front of me. I held my breath, closed my eyes again, and waited for the next and final signal.

I heard Mark let out a loud fake sneeze, after which Bruiser chimed in and began phase two.

“Hey how much longer is this damn flight going to be, I really gotta pee!”

“What did I tell you about shutting your damn mouth kid? If you gotta pee so bad then piss your damn pants! Better you do it now than later anyways.”

“Ya know what? I think you’re jealous; you’re jealous ‘cause I’ve got a power and you don’t. All you got is a loud fucking mouth.”

“Like I would be jealous of you, a freak of nature? You and your entire species are nothing but a bunch of monsters. Besides, as long as you got that collar on, you ain't got no power; you just a powerless animal, a dog with no bite.”

“Yeah well come over here and see what kind of bite this dog has then.”

“Fine have it your way, kid, if you won’t shut up, I’ll just have to do it for ya.” I felt the man stand up from his seat and step over me to get to Bruiser. ‘Here we go!’

My eyes shot open as soon as his back was to me, I sprung up and grabbed the rifle. I spun around to see the man reach out to grab Bruiser, which he realized was a mistake before he even had a chance to react. The moment he stuck his hand out, Bruiser grabbed ahold of it and with a sickening ‘Crunch!’ every bone was crushed.

Everything afterward happened fast. The moment the man pulled his crushed hand back, Bruiser broke free of the handcuffs as if they were nothing. All the man could do was watch in horror, as this animal broke free of its chains.

“Woof woof!” Bruiser barked with a grin, and landed a high kick squarely in his chest. The impact alone was probably enough to do the man in. He hit the far side of the hull and fell crumpled on the floor. I was sure the kick from Bruiser broke most, if not all, the bones in his chest.

I got up against the wall beside the hull door, out of sight of any who might come through. Sure enough, a split second later one of the other grunts from earlier came through to check on the noise. The moment he came into sight I brought the butt of the rifle down hard over his head, and just like the one before him, he dropped instantly.

Mark got to work right away examining every inch of the hull for the source of the collars' depowering effect. While Mark did that, Bruiser and I began to undo the handcuffs of the other captives, who were still in a state of shock.

“You're here to help us?” an old woman had asked as I undid her hands.

“Yeah, something like that. We’re going to try to take control of the craft.”

“I can help you. I’ve never been much of one for violence, but I’ll do whatever I can to help you fight back.” I was taken aback from the offer; this woman had to be in her seventies at least and she was the first one to offer assistance.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure we can manage this one by ourselves, just try to keep your head down, okay?”

Don’t patronize me! I may be old, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to go down without even trying.” She didn’t even give me a chance to respond when she reaches down and grabbed the gun left by the second grunt...

“Me and my son will help, too,” said a man who looked to be about in his thirties. Behind him was a kid about Bruiser's age who just nodded.

"Well right now, I need everyone to spread out and look for something that might be connected to the collars. We’re not going to do much good if we have all our abilities disabled."

“I can tell you.” It was the boy who had volunteered with his father. "These things don’t work on my power; if anything, it was made stronger.” He stuck his finger out in the air and began moving it as if he were tracing something invisible in the air. After a second, his hand stopped and he pointed up at a screened panel on the celling. “There, it’s there, that’s where the signal is coming from.”

“Are you sure?” Mark said, as he reached up, trying to unscrew it.

“Uh huh, that’s where I see the signals coming from.”

“Wait! You see the signals?” Mark asked, as he got the first of the screws undone.

“Yep. I can see any and all signals, like cell phones and electronic signals.” A moment later Mark was finally able to get the panel undone, and, sure enough, inside was a small satellite-like transmitter.

“Ok, watch the doors; this is going to take a few moments.” He reached in and placed his hand on the base of the transmitter, closed his eye and began focusing.

Bruiser freed the last of the captives and I took my spot back by the door. “What the hell is going on back there is everything under control?” It was a voice coming in over the intercom. I had to think of a response soon before they sent anymore back.

“Everything’s fine we just had a bit of a scuffle, but the situation is under control.”

“What is your code level?” I had no idea what she was talking about and I began thinking of a million different responses. However, nothing I came up with was of any use. “I repeat, what is your code level?”

“Just say something!” Bruiser said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Um… our code level is… 1?” I held my breath awaiting a response. Each second that passes felt more like an hour, when finally the voice on the intercom came through.

“Very well soldier if you have any more issues, call for help.” I let out a sigh of relief as the intercom click off.

“CAMERON! LOOK OUT!” a bullet whizzed past my head and missed Mark by a matter of inches as I jumped out of the line of fire. Another soldier busted through the door, his gun already raised and aimed at Mark, who was still in his trance. At this point pure adrenalin took over and I sprung back up to my feet.

Before he ever got the chance to pull the trigger, again, I grabbed his wrist and with as much pressure as possible, I slammed my palm into his elbow, which gave way and snapped backwards. Before he even responded to the pain, I thrust my palm hard up into his nose. He made no sound and instead stood there for a moment dead on his feet before falling back.

“EVERYONE GET DOWN!” I screamed as I slammed the door shut again. Down the hall I could see a number of troops, guns in hand, making their way towards us.

I felt the collar around my neck loosen and fall off and an instant later Mark broke his trance, just as the first of the bullets started to fly, one of them hitting him in the shoulder. He dropped to his knees before pushing himself off to the side.

An instant later a blast of some kind of blue fire-like energy blasted back, landing square in the chest of the first soldier to arrive. He was flung back several feet, colliding into the others behind him. I took the brief moment to make my way over to Mark, who's right shoulder was oozing blood.

“I’m fine! We’ve got to get to the cockpit! We don’t have much time left!” He shoved me away as he staggered to his feet. Another of the blue energy balls was sent flying from behind us as an alarm began sounding and the red light from earlier began flashing. I fired my rifle down the hall at the group of soldiers who began shooting back, but the bullets were stopped midflight as if they were losing all momentum by the time they reach us. I looked back to see the man from earlier holding the side of his head.

“Let’s go! I got us covered!” Realizing our advantage, we did a full man press and began rushing our way forward. Realizing the uselessness of their bullets, the two remaining troops dropped their guns and ran back to the cockpit. By the time we had reached it, the steel door had been locked and bolted shut. But it was of no use to them, as Bruiser made his way up to the front and with three quick shoulder presses, the door flew off its hinges. The only ones left in the cockpit were the turn-tail troops and the pilot.

“Sorry, we know how you guys had plans to take us to our deaths and everything, but we kinda got other things to do,” Bruiser said as they raised their hands in surrender.

‘Holy shit, it actually worked!’ I thought to myself as the three were led back as our captives now.

Mark sat down at the pilot’s seat. He was still holding his shoulder and wincing every time he moved it. He would need to have it dealt with soon. “Are you sure you can fly this thing?” one of the passengers asked.

“I’m not sure, but we’ll just have to find out, I guess,” Mark said, and he grabbed ahold of the handle and pulled up slightly. The raven tilted back and forth slightly causing everyone to shift and lose his or her balance. Mark soon re-leveled it, and before long, we began moving forward.

“So now what? How do we find Corbin and Adrian?”

“I’m not sure. Originally, I was going to use the scanner, but in order to disable the collars I had to disable it as well. However, with any luck, they will have made their way to the spot where Tim sent his message. I think that would be our best place to look.”

“But how will we know if they’re in there?”

“Actually, we may have that covered. Before they left, Corbin and Adrian both took a dose of my nanodroids. They put out a small micro-signal.” I immediately picked up on what he was saying and found the boy and his father staring out a window. After explaining the situation, both of them agreed to let the boy, whose name I found out was Joshua, help us locate them.

“Ok, like I said, we just need to look for a signal that’s different than all the others.” Joshua nodded his head and began looking out over the city as we made our way towards Tim’s last location.

It was an old rundown brick building, a little ways out from the tower, in a part of the city that had been almost completely abandoned except for a few bums who had taken to settling there.

“Ok any sign of them?” Mark asked, and once again, the boy closed his eyes and began tracing his finger in the air.

“Well there are some signals in there, but they’re all the same as all the other ones I’ve seen. None that are different.” Mark and I let out a collective sigh as it looked like our chances of finding them were growing slimmer.

“Wait! I see one that I don’t recognize; it’s really small, but it’s a different color from all the other ones. I’ve never seen them that color before.” Both mine and Mark’s optimism was resurrected. Joshua put his hand down to his side and a worried expression came over his face. “I think your friends are really tired.” Before we could ask what he meant by that, he bounded off to find his dad. After quite a bit of finagling, Mark had finally managed a rough improvised landing in the street outside the building.

“So you guys think they’re really in there?” Bruiser said, as he met up with Mark and me by the hull bay doors.

“Bruiser, we need you to stay here with the raven,” Mark said. By the sound of his voice he was getting weaker and I knew his shoulder wound was only getting worse. He had managed to wrap it up and stop the bleeding with a first aid kit we found in the supply unit, but it was a temporary fix at best.

“No way! I’m not staying here; you guys said I could come with you.”

“And you did, but you also promised that you would do exactly as we said. We need you to stay here with the other passengers. Should anything go wrong, you’re the best protection they have.” The small ego boost was all Bruiser needed and he reluctantly agreed to stay behind while Mark and I investigated.

The front door of the building had been broken into, which only further confirmed that they were there, or at least had been there recently. It was dark inside, which made it almost impossible to see. Mark dug out the flashlight and began looking for more signs of their presence when he found the staircase.

“Look. There are footprints in the dust on the stairs. Also there are none leading down. I think it’s safe to say we found ‘em.” I bolted my way for the stairs with Mark following up behind me. I couldn’t believe we had actually managed to locate them. The stairs were almost worse than that ones from earlier, and this time it was Mark’s turn to slow down as he leaned over and grabbed his shoulder.

“Go on, I’ll catch up in a minute.” I debated waiting when he reassured me he’d be fine and I continued my way upward. It was another seven flights before I made it to the top floor and the footprints lead down a hallway into the room on the far end.

“Corbin! Adrian! If you here? Answer me!” But I got no response as I ran down to the end of the hall. The door was open a crack and from inside. I could see the soft glow of a light. I swung it open and my heart gave a leap. There in front of me were all three of them, Adrian, Corbin, and Tim.

“Cameron!?” Corbin looked bewildered to see me. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I came with Mark and Bruiser, we’re here to save you.” I walked over to pat him on the back, but he took a quick step back. He almost looked as if he was upset to see me. “Corbin, is something wrong?” He didn’t answer and instead looked down at his feet.

“You should leave now. Get Mark and Bruiser and go home now.”

“What… no! There is no way in hell I’m leaving without you, not after everything we’ve been through!” But it did no good; something about the look on his face made me feel like I was the last person on earth he wanted to see right now.

“Adrian, would you try to talk some damn sense into him?” But I seemed to get only the same look out of him as well. My heart had fallen into my stomach and I was almost in tears at this point. After all we had gone through, and all we had done to find them, here they were and they didn’t want to be rescued.

“I agree with Corbin. I think it would be best if you left now.” I refused to believe what was happening; there was something I wasn’t being told and I insisted on finding out.

“What the hell is going on?” Once again, I was just answered with silence and dodgy looks. Finally, after a long pause, Corbin finally spoke up.

“We were discussing with Tim the best and safest way to turn ourselves in, all of us.”

The moment the words left his mouth, I became dizzy and felt as though I might throw up. There’s no way! There was no way he said what I just heard. However, no matter how many times I denied it, the words were still there stinging me.

“WHY THE HELL WOULD WE TURN ORSELVES IN? DO YOU REALIZE WHAT THE HELL YOU’RE SAYING? THEY WANT TO FUCKING KILL US!”

“Cameron, you have to understand, we’ve started a losing battle. We don’t have a prayer’s chance in hell of winning.”

“Corbin’s right, Cameron. You’ve been out there; you’ve see what it’s like.” It was Tim’s turn to speak now, but with each word he spoke, I only felt an anger in my chest grow and grow. Somehow I knew he had convinced them of this.

“I can’t believe you guys are actually giving up after everything we’ve fought for! You want to just throw it all away.” My fists were clenched almost to the point of bleeding and my eyes began stinging as they filled with tears. “I'M NOT FUCKING BUYING IT!” The glass from the windows behind Tim rattled as I screamed out, half pleading, half full-out demanding.

At that moment, Mark finally made his way up the stairs and burst through the door, no doubt curious about the screaming. He took only one look at me and he knew right away something was not right.

“What going on? Cameron, why are you crying?” I couldn’t bring myself to look up from my feet at this point, as more and more tears began falling to the floor. I refused to believe; after all this, our leader, the one who was supposed to pull us through the hardest of times, was just going to give up the fight at its most critical moment.

“Why don’t you ask the cowards; let them explain it to you.”

“We’re trying to get Cameron to listen to reason,” Adrian answered.

“DON’T FUCKING LIE. YOU’RE GIVING UP!”

Mark looked as though he had been slapped across the face; he was in total disbelief, just as I was. “Wait, is this true? Are you actually giving up, Corbin?”

“If we keep fighting you know what will happen! Do you really want to sit back and have to watch everyone end up like Seth?”

“DON’T YOU EVER FUCKING SAY HIS NAME!” The glass window behind Tim now shattered into pieces. As my anger only continued to grow. “YOU SON OF BITCH, HE DIED FOR WHAT HE BELIEVED IN. A COWARD LIKE YOU WOULD NEVER UNDERSTAND!” Mark grabbed ahold of me and had to drag me to the floor to keep me from swinging at him.

“I'm sorry, Cameron, its time you faced reality and grew up!” I felt Marks grip loosen as he stood back up to his feet. He had almost a curious look on his face.

“It’s funny you should mention reality.” In the blink of an eye, Mark brought out the pistol. He aimed the pistol and sent a bullet straight past Tim’s head, missing him by less than an inch.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Tim screamed, rubbing his head, making sure everything was still intact.

“Drop the act or the next one’s in your fucking head!” It was probably the most intense I had ever seen Mark. I had no doubt in my mind he was serious. An eerie grin came across Tim’s lips as he began to laugh under his breath.

“You really are too fucking smart for you own damn good.” In a scene straight out of a horror movie, both Corbin and Adrian began to shimmer as if they were dissolving before my eyes. “Ya know, you really can’t blame me for this. I really did try to get you guys to leave before it was too late. You might have at least had a chance of escaping before then. Now I am afraid it’s too late.

“Where that hell are they!?!” I said, wanting now, more than ever, to rip his damn face off.

“Why, they’re right here. They’ve been here the whole time.” I looked down at my feet to see an unconscious Corbin and Adrian lying on the floor.

“So you’re a goddamn traitor after all,” Mark said in a low seething voice.

“No! That’s where you’re wrong! In order to be a traitor you have to be a part of the team to begin with, something I never was. I was never trusted with any of your team’s secrets, not even the location of the damn sanctuary. So forgive me if when it comes time to choose a side, I make the logical choice.”

“I should shoot you right now.”

“Ahh, come on, Mark, you and I both know that would accomplish nothing.”

“I don’t know… it might make me feel better.”

“Ah, but you see, if you shoot me now, then I’ll never be able to tell you what I learned about our friend Cameron here.” My attention, which had until now been taken over by Corbin and Adrian, was suddenly brought back into reality by the mention of my name. “Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about, Mark, we’ve both been doing some prying. We both know quite well what he capable of. It’s the reason you’ve kept such a close eye on him.”

“Mark, what’s he talking about?” He didn’t answer. Instead he kept the gun pointed directly at Tim, who was now pacing back and forth.

“You mean to say you haven’t told him anything? Shame on you, Mark! What kind of friend are you? What about the others? Do any of them know? Nah, of course not. That’s not your style. You see, Mark, you’re really no better than I am. We’re really both just a couple of liars, aren’t we?” I could see Mark was shaking and for the first time he looked as though he had no idea what to say or do. When finally he put his arm down and let the gun fall from his hand.

“I'm so sorry, Cameron, I should have told you as soon as I found out…” However, before he could finish the sentence a group of soldier burst through the door.

“HANDS UP NOW!” With no choices left, Mark and I both obeyed. Mark kept his eyes fixed on the floor, unable to look me in the eyes.

“Good work gentlemen; a second later and I would have been dead!” Tim snapped as he left the room.

A second later, a soldier came up behind Mark, and with the butt of his gun, knocked him unconscious. I reached out for him as he fell, but it was of no use, as soon as I moved, A heavy sharp pain spread across the back of my skull and I to faded to black.