Delusional Read online

  An ear-piercing scream gurgled up from inside me and echoed throughout the small room as I felt my body being lowered slowly. The warm water molded around my skin and seemed harmless at first. But then the heat melted the icy layer around my skin and caused the numbness in my body to subside. I felt the pain of what felt like thousands of needles poking through every one of my pores all over my body. I squirmed, in a desperate attempt to escape the anguish that sliced at my nerves. Each little stab of pain in my body was another nerve being snapped in half by the deadly combination of warmth and cold.

  The water sloshed around in the tub I was in, creating colossal waves that poured over the edges and out on to the floor. I felt a warm hand firmly grasp my wrist and clamp something around my index finger. Then there was a sharp prick on my arm, and I felt a clear tube dig into my skin as fluid pumped into my body.

  It didn’t take long for me to relax, the anxiety in my brain seemingly disappearing as I looked around at the crowd of doctors and nurses that stood around perplexed and in a panic. The warm water seeped into my skin, its warmth stretching out my muscles and airing out my lungs. I allowed my body to sink further into the liquid, despite a thin ominous film of darkness covering the surface.

  Maybe these people aren’t that bad. I sighed, settling into the bath beneath me. Maybe these people are here to help.

  But then I felt a hand grip the back of my head, and a mask forcefully shoved up against my face. For a second, I stuttered, wanting to fight back, but then I felt the thick gas flood my lungs and invade my brain. Within seconds, the will in my body fleeted, and my eyes closed as I drifted off into the blackness.

  Chapter 18

  The world so suddenly came to color around me that I had to blink to clear out the haziness.

  The first thing I noticed was that my wrists and ankles were tied up. The second thing I noticed was the deafening roar of the crowd of hundreds of people screaming. I wriggled dumbly, probably looking ridiculous to the hundreds who were below. Where am I, and what is happening?

  I looked around frantically, my brain completely disoriented from my body. I was dangling about fifteen feet above the ground, the cold wind picking up my hair and whipping it in my face. Even though my brain still was having troubling processing my surroundings, my body sensed an overwhelming amount of danger. Below there was an arch of hundreds of mangled bones, each one poking out in an awkward manner that gave it the perception of knifes. The bones were bleached white, and had the appearance of antlers, but they were buried in a sea of darkness that enveloped the town.

  I shuddered. The corybantic screams of the crowd were only growing louder and louder, keeping in tempo with the rapidly increasing intensity of my heart’s beating. What’s happening?

  The blackness was a being of its own. It hung over the sky, suffocated the peaks of the mountains, and fell to the earth in a dark haze. The darkness had a peculiar way about it. In its inauspicious way, it slowly creeped up on the small wooden stores, constructed to make it look like we were in a wild west town, and casted a shadow upon the people, that made their faces look that much more menacing.

  We were situated at the center of a small, rustic, but oddly modern town. Encasing everything were the smooth white peaks of the mountains, and at the base of the mountains were hundreds of buildings: some taller and made from glass or wood, and some short like the dozens of shops lining the snow-laden streets that jetted out from the mass of people. I took a deep breath, watching the aura of the lights emanate off the many buildings and slowly cut into the night sky, wondering if their small flicker could turn the night to day again.

  There was another gust of arctic wind, and I heard it rustling the needles of the pine trees around us, knocking the many inches of snow off its branches, before I felt its icy grip. There was a loud cough, and my eyes darted to the left of me, where Ethan stood bound by his wrists and ankles to the two large beams that were staked into the ground.

  What are they going to do to us? Adrenaline began coursing through my body at the sight of the dozens of guns being held proudly in the air, and some were aimed directly at us. This is just a nightmare. I tried to calm my body down that was on the verge of hyperventilating. This can’t be real.

  But when I looked around at the screaming people, smelled the heaviness in the air, and felt the cold chill sinking into my bones, I knew that it couldn’t be anything but reality.

  The frantic hollering of the people caused all their words to jumble up into a gargled, cacophony in my ears. But soon enough, like my vision, their words became clear and formed an angry chant.

  “Kill them! Kill them! Kill them! Kill them!” Their cry filled the night sky and reverberated off my ear drums in unison. The pandemonium surrounded me and infested the air. The sound of a helicopter buzzed up ahead, and to my dismay it had a camera at the top that was scanning the town, and the logo for some news station was embroidered on its body.

  Ethan and I both glanced at each other quickly, both our eyes meeting each other with looks of fear and shock. There were hundreds of people hollering, their clean-shaven, and augmented faces, contorting with anger. All their guns were raised and loaded in defense to protect their territory that we apparently had trespassed on. They fed off each other’s emotions, each person a spark that helped to ignite the fire of rage that was waiting to be unleashed upon us.

  Directly above my head smoke billowed into the sky in light puffs that evaporated into the darkness. The heat of the fire below was slowly beginning to rise and roast the skin on my feet. I started to sweat, the cold droplets running down my face as I struggled desperately against the rope’s grasp. Someone must have poured more fuel into the fire, and the flames erupted behind me, making a deep sizzling sound. I could feel the jaws of the hungry flames getting ready to crunch down on me, and the steam was getting ready to melt my skin, boil my insides, and reduce me to a pile of ash.

  My heart raced in my chest, as my body froze, succumbing to the heat. The chants suddenly stopped as the crowd cried for more and begged for our deaths.

  Dulce! My eyes scanned the area. Where is she? Then every hair stood up on my body as I realized that the flames could have already devoured her. No! No! No! My mind screamed as my entire body shook violently in a last second attempt to escape.

  I watched as a man stood on a podium just in front of the arch of bones and held up a bugle of sorts. He pressed it up against his mouth, and a loud melodic sound emanated from its bell causing the whole crowd to fall silent. For a few seconds, the only sounds were the sizzling embers of the fire that popped, and the thumping of my heart.

  But then the tall, well-dressed man spoke with a passionate voice. “Hello, fellow citizens of Jackson, Wyoming. Today, or tonight I should say, we found ourselves a bit of a predicament.” He paused and glared at us. “Yesterday, just at the break of dusk Natalie Parker, Ethan Blaine, and another unnamed girl were found at our great city’s wall. They were in poor condition each with severe frostbite, the beginning stages of hypothermia, and extremely malnourished. Now, by the grace of our own hearts we healed them of their immediate ailments and took them into our city, instead of shooting these delinquents on the spot. But that is where all of our kindness ends.”

  He paused, and the crowd whistled and cheered at his speech. “Now, now, don’t get too excited.” He looked back and smiled at us. “We now are in possession of the two most wanted criminals in the whole country, maybe even the entire world. These two people single-handedly destroyed the mind control program and destroyed the peace and balance that holds this country together! And now the very foundations of our constitution have crumbled, and our great country is falling apart!

  “They must have thought they were helping the world, they must have thought they were freeing millions from the shackles of the government, but instead they have put them at mercy of this cruel world. They effectively destroyed all our lives! They took away everything that we had, and now they threaten to upheaval t
he very government that gave it all to us in the first place!” The screams from the crowd were growing louder and louder as my own suspicions of my worthlessness were only being validated.

  “These two despicable humans, embody what true ignorance is, and their ignorance has demolished our lives and swiftly taken away our control. So now it’s our turn.” The chants started once again and were accompanied by dozens of bullets being shot into the night sky. “But people we can’t do this in an inhumane way, we can’t so mercilessly burn their lives at this hereby stake. That’s why we called upon our fellow government, our entrusted leaders, to dispose of these criminals, and that’s why we will entrust our government in restoring peace and justice to the land!”

  Emphatic cries roared from the crowd, as the hungry beast was starting to become satisfied. “We shall let the Common Order forever rule over the land! And we shall eradicate everyone who stands in the way of making it happen.”

  At the close of his speech, he heroically bowed and stepped off the podium only to be absorbed by the cheers of the crowd. I could feel the fire stop advancing, the flames brushing up against my back, but it failed to protrude any deeper into my skin.

  “Ash! Ash! Ash! Ash!” Their chants rung in my ears, and I could feel my brain contorting at the words that filled my mouth with disgust. I couldn’t tell whether they were chanting to burn us to ashes or if it was just that they loved President Ash, but either way their words sent a crippling feeling throughout my body. I could feel my heart caving in, and my very conscious shriveling under the pressure, as I realized that maybe shutting down the mind control program was a bad thing. We truly are criminals.

  Jacob always told us how everyone despised President Ash, and that he just took from the people to feed his insatiable appetite for power. He told us that shutting down the mind control program was a good thing. He said that the Civil War was long-awaited, and that the loss of lives was worth it. But was it really?

  The chaos surrounding me was being drowned out by the cacophony of thoughts running through my mind. I am personally responsible for this. I felt the fire tickle my back again. The riots, the destruction, the thousands of deaths, the hundreds of lives in front of me that are destroyed, all of it and more are all my fault.

  I looked up as suddenly four, sleek, black helicopters began to appear out of the darkness. Their propellers spun madly, but somehow were silent. No. No. No. All the horrific images flooded my mind in an instant, as the people erupted into wild screams. I could even hear his soft, but nightmarish voice echo in my head, “Maybe we can fix you.”

  The crowd clawed at each other, running deliriously towards the clearing in the road, where the helicopters were landing, desperately trying to catch a view of their holy leader. My knees shuddered fervently, and my face froze, staring at the doors of the helicopters that were bound to open, and unleash death upon me.

  All four doors opened in unison and dozens of troops, with machine guns raised, began to rush into the crowd. “Back the hell up!” A lady emerged into the doorway and fired a pistol in the air as a warning sign. Dozens of the people stood with their guns raised paralyzed with shock, while dozens more ran away crying screams of terror that shook the paint off the buildings.

  Wait what? I looked onward at the havoc as the swarm of troops ran toward Ethan and me and the people dispersed into their lavish homes.

  “Get em’ down.” One of the soldiers shouted in a deep voice, and instantly a group of soldiers rushed below my feet and began untying the rope at my ankles.

  “Get away!” I screamed, tears pouring down my face. “I’d rather hell swallow me in its flames, than you take me!”

  The soldiers were unfazed by my screams, and still unmoving even when a group of men in the crowd began to fire rounds of bullets at them. Part of me wanted to laugh at the reaction of the men, who ran in fear, once they saw that each bullet ricocheted off their armor. But the other part of me began to cower at the men, who tore the rope off my ankles and began to raise their guns to shoot off the rope tied to the top of the wooden stakes.

  I winced as two shots were fired, hitting the rope perfectly, and causing me to free fall to the ground below. On one side fire rushed by me, while on the other the icy wind cut through my skin, and then right as I thought my spine was about to crush into smithereens upon hitting the ground, I felt the warm, strong arms of a group of soldiers catch me.

  Instead of putting me down, the huddle of five soldiers ran with my body in their arms. They gripped me tight, and I could feel the vibrations of their steps shake my insides and jumble the thoughts in my brain.

  I opened my eyes to their five faces that were stern with determination. He almost has me. I squirmed, just imagining the sick smile that would stretch across President Ash’s face at the sight of us. The adrenaline flowing through my body suddenly stopped.

  I can’t stop this. I looked up at the crescent moon that shined brightly through the clouds, and said goodbye to the world, for maybe the last time. I let my body soak up one last cold breeze, and let my lungs radiate in the fresh air in a grand finale of my existence.

  My body was planted softly down on the ground below, and I looked up slowly, scared of what was standing in front of me. I was terrified beyond comprehension that the inevitable was about to happen; mortified that when I opened my eyes I would be staring death right in its own face.

  My mind, eyes, and body froze with shock the second I saw her. She had thick, black hair, warm brown eyes, and her smile lit up the blackness around her. It wasn’t President Ash.

  It was his ex-wife.

  Chapter 19

  “Natalie Parker,” She smiled and held out a hand, “My, is it a pleasure to see you.”

  “Um nice to meet you Ms. Walker.” I refused to shake her cold, bony hand, and instead peered around at the glass walls of the helicopter that gave us panoramic views of the mountains below. We were passing over miles upon miles of snow-covered landscape that jutted out of the earth at different inclines and altitudes.

  For a while I just sat there in shock, the screams and shouts of my body and mind drowning out Danielle’s incessant blabbering. Everything around me had enchanted me and put my mind under a spell that froze my body and ceased my brain’s ability to function. Even the opaque windows of the helicopter, that were somehow transparent on the inside, amazed me.

  “Natalie,” I heard Danielle’s voice boom in my ears, “Natalie.”

  My eyes darted in her direction, but I couldn’t bring my numb, tired lips the strength to open and utter out just a few words.

  “Yes.” I finally managed to mutter softly.

  She paused, staring deeply into my eyes. I was transfixed by the way she looked at me, befuddled that someone as famous as her, someone who appears on television almost every day, would take time out of her schedule to rescue us from President Ash.

  “It’s nice to see you again.” She emphasized that word, her shovels trying to chip away at me. “I remember when the three of you… well two of you showed up at my door. It feels so long ago, almost worlds away, when in reality it all happened just a matter of weeks ago.”

  “So, it’s true.” Ethan’s eyes were wide, and his muscles were tense with anticipation. “You knew us before our minds were wiped? You know about our past lives?”

  Danielle Walker is the head of the Retributioners. The heat of the moment was slowly melting the ice off my mind. I could feel the gears in my brain once again start to grind against each other. She can help us get our memories back. She can help us get our lives back.

  “Yes…” I could see Danielle’s eyes searching across Ethan’s body, but she was almost surprised about how empty he looked. “Both of you, and another boy named Hunter, who was lost in Area 51, showed up at my door one day. You all were looking for answers about your family. You wanted to know what happened to this country.”

  “Wait, family?” I questioned.

  “Yes, both your families…” Her face su
ddenly tightened up and lost its radiant glow. “Your families are both still in Area 51.” She ran a tense hand through her hair. Something about her response made me feel like we had somehow crossed a line with our questions.

  “They are alive though?” The question rolled off my lips compulsively.

  She paused, and her mouth contorted awkwardly. She seemingly was biting her tongue to hold back the answer. “Yes.” She finally muttered. “Yes, they are.”

  “So, can we get to them?” I questioned excitement fizzing up inside me. “Can we get our memories back?”

  Danielle smiled widely. Her white teeth hurt my eyes to look at. “Yes, of course you can.” Then she paused, “Let’s not focus on the past right now though. We have to look towards the future; everyone has to for us to succeed.”

  “Hold up.” Ethan put up a hand to stop her from continuing. “Before we move onto the future and lead a revolution, I have a few questions.”

  “Well then go ahead, don’t be shy.” Danielle smiled, biting her lip to hold back a remark.

  “Alright,” He sighed and looked down at the floor. His skin glowed in the moonlight, and he had to push hair out of his eyes before speaking. “So, I’ve always heard that everyone hates President Ash, and that he’s done nothing but control the American people. But, all those people in Jackson, they loved President Ash, and when we showed up at their town they wanted to return us back to him because they claim that we destroyed their lives.”

  Ethan abruptly stopped talking, and I waited for him to ask a question, but he had a way of demanding an answer from someone without asking for one.

  “Well,” Danielle sighed and glanced up at the moon above. “You see there is one thing about America that is often pushed under the floorboards. The rich have always controlled America. Way back in the days of the Founding Fathers the electoral college was created as a buffer between the presidency and the population to make sure that the most capable men of analyzing the situation could select the most appropriate and qualified president, or the rich people. In contemporary American politics, before the rise of President Ash, Super PACs funded by the ultra-rich of the nation influenced elections, and lobbyists paid by big corporations with special interests were hired to influence law makers. Today, with the rise of President Ash, has brought a new level of power to the rich.” The sudden disgust in her voice when talking about wealthy people almost made me forget that she is the wealthiest woman in the nation.