Delusional Read online

  I couldn’t stare directly at him and the pain on his face, but I glanced around him with a glossed-over look in my eyes. “I know, I know.” I held his warm hand loosely. “But we don’t need her anymore. We don’t need any of them.” I held up the universal access driver and smiled.

  “What is that?” He looked at it puzzled.

  “Ethan,” the excitement was bubbling out of me, despite the fear being locked deeper inside me, “We can finally do it!” I grabbed both his arms and began to shake them jubilantly.

  “We can finally get our memories back, and maybe even our families too!” I wrapped my arms around him needing someone to brace me before I fell from the rush of emotions.

  “Wait, Natalie.” He didn’t know whether to hug me back or not, so he just stood there stiff. “What’s going on?”

  It took a few minutes for me to calm down from the excitement, but I told him the plan, and everything else Justin said.

  “Wow.” He could barely move on the bench that we were both seated on. His face was frozen with shock. “Wow.”

  “I know, it’s crazy. I mean, do you think it will really work? Should we trust this guy?”

  Ethan exhaled, and his eyes followed the graceful falling of an orange leaf from the branch of an oak tree all the way down to the ground. “Yes,” He smiled. “Yes, of course. Natalie, what do we have to lose? We have to take this opportunity. It could be our only chance ever.”

  “You’re right.” I hugged him again, but this time he wrapped his arms around me tightly. “We can do this.”

  He kissed me on the cheek with his soft, delicate lips and ran his hand through my hair. “Natalie,” He was so happy there were tears in his eyes. “We are going to get our lives back—together.”

  For the longest time, we both sat admiring each other, looks of excitement and hope on both our faces. The cool autumn breeze was cold enough to send wisps of crisp air into my lungs, but warm enough to be out in short sleeves. Through the gap in between the main brick building, and the smaller circular one next to it, the skyline of Manhattan, and the choppy water were visible.

  “Let’s go.” I said standing up just as Ethan was leaning in to kiss me.

  “Go where?”

  “To the weapons storage room. We mine as well go while Danielle is still distracted.”

  He stood up and sighed. “Fair point.”

  The weapons storage room was located at the far corner of the island. It was only a one story tall brick building, but it was fairly wide and stretched many yards back. At the top stood Danielle’s fleet of about a dozen helicopters, but there was also another entire building dedicated to the storage of Danielle’s air force.

  “Think we will get caught?” Ethan eyed me nervously as we both approached the door. “What if she has security cameras in there, or motion sensors?”

  I slowed my pace down, hesitating to walk any further. “Crap, I don’t know.” I looked at the digital key pad next to the door handle. “I mean, hopefully not. There is already a super complex code to get in, she probably doesn’t need any more security then that.”

  “You better hope so. Cause if not….”

  I put my hand on the door handle and began to enter the code on my ICL before Ethan could say anything else that would convince me that it was a bad idea. Please work. Please work. My palms were sweating, and my fingers were trembling by the time I got to the end of the 32-digit code and pressed enter.

  Access granted. The message flashed in all green on the key pad and the door magically opened. “Yes!” I pumped my fist and high-fived Ethan. We both stepped inside, and the door clanked shut behind us. Whether it was from the adrenaline coursing in my veins, or the surprisingly hot temperature of the room, beads of sweat began to collect on the sides of my face.

  “Woah.” The word came out of my mouth subconsciously, as both Ethan and I stared in awe at the rows upon rows of warehouse shelves that were full of every type of weapon, and ammunition in the world. The black shelves seemed to stretch on forever, full of guns, knives, and body armor. My eyes frantically searched around for a video camera along the gray walls of the storage room, but none were in sight.

  “Alright,” Ethan said. “Let’s get this Plasma Slicer.”

  He started walking toward the melee weapons section, which consisted of dozens of knives, machetes, and spears. Walking past the sharp knives, whose blades glowed in the light, caused a chilling sensation to run down my spine. I stared in horror at hundreds of guns and knives. I could just imagine all the lives lost at the hands of these weapons, the countless memories that have been evaporated for good, and that very thought was sickening.

  I spotted Ethan staring perplexed at a weapon on the shelf, before picking it up. “This is it,” He looked at its visibly sharp but translucent blade, and slick, black handle, “It’s labeled right here. The Plasma Slicer.”

  Ethan held its long blade in both his hands, and stared at it with amazement, before all hell broke loose. Out of nowhere, lights started flashing everywhere and a deafening beeping noise ringed in my ears. Oh shit. My first reaction was to run away as fast as possible. We’re caught. We’re dead.

  There was a sharp bang and the knife went skidding across the floor, as Ethan stared at his now empty, shaking hands in shock. My heart pounded so loud and fast I was afraid it would explode out of my chest. I ran around in circles madly, not knowing whether to sprint out the door, or try to hide in the corner.

  Ethan picked up the knife, and with his shaking hands, he shoved it into his pockets. “Let’s put the bullet proof suits on under our clothes!” Ethan hollered over the incessant ringing. “We’ve got nothing to lose!”

  I ran over to him; my whole body was shaking and on the verge of collapsing. Up above I could hear the roar, of what sounded like airplane engines hovering above, and with their force they caused the whole room to rumble. My legs vibrated, and the ground began to quake and with each passing seismic wave, it seemed dozens more guns and knives would go flying wildly off the shelves.

  “Just rip your clothes off!” He bellowed over the cacophony of sounds and handed me a surprisingly thin, black jumpsuit. “Don’t worry I won’t look!”

  Well I knew well enough that his statement was an utter lie, but to be honest, in that moment I didn’t even care as I stripped down in a frenzy to my undergarments. My only thoughts were, what is happening? And, is the world ending? I threw on the black jumpsuit and slid my clothes on over it as we both began to dash out of the storage room.

  “Go! Go! Go!” Ethan screamed.

  He opened the door, revealing the true chaos that was taking place outside, as the first bombs began to drop. I watched in slow motion as the first bomb fell, almost gracefully, from the hatch in the massive aircraft that loomed above, nearly casting a shadow on the entire island. Its pointed head fell with blinding speed, but instead of piercing through the roof of the main building, it exploded on impact into a fiery ball of death and destruction.

  Run! Run! Run! My legs began to move frantically, and all-around people were running in a mad dash toward the helicopter pad on top of the building we were at. Hundreds of people were sprinting for their lives, away from the carnage and fire behind them, and desperately trying to jump into a helicopter to safety. After the deafening boom of the explosion, my ears became numb to the screams of agony as another round of bombs dropped from three smaller planes that quickly swooped down over the island.

  I grabbed Ethan, who stood paralyzed with shock and horror, as I made a futile bolt at reaching salvation. I gritted my teeth as I climbed up the ladder to the roof, the wind from the dozen helicopters trying to take off simultaneously nearly knocking the hair right off my head. I quickly glanced back at all the people bolting madly towards the helicopters and realized that not all of them were going to make it, in fact, none of them were.

  I made it to the top of the roof and felt someone forcefully grab my arm whose strong grip could be mistaken for no other than
Justin and yank me into the helicopter just before it was about to take off. C’mon, go! The voice inside my head screamed, as Ethan hopped into the helicopter at the last minute, and we began to hover above the destruction below.

  For a moment, everything seemed to stop. Everyone on the helicopter was silent and unmoving, and from behind the windows, the sounds of the mayhem below were oppressed. Even the ringing in my ears went silent for a moment as another deadly round of bombs fell upon the island. With this last round of bombs, every building laid completely decimated, and dozens of bodies went flying in scattered pieces into the air.

  It was a blood fest. Tears streamed down my face, and the colors orange, red, and yellow flooded my eyes, practically singeing themselves permanently into my vision. I watched as the few sole survivors left behind on the helicopter pad, waved desperately as the fire engulfed them and the hundreds of others that never made it that far. The whole island, along with the buildings, and trees became swallowed in the wrath of the fire.

  I watched hundreds of people die right before my eyes, and everything go up in flames. The island is gone. Everything is gone. And it’s all because of me.

  They didn’t deserve it.

  None of them deserved it.

  I need revenge.

  Chapter 23

  A loud bang echoed in my ears, and I shook the terrible hallucinations that had enveloped my mind; it was a torturous cycle of watching a man with familiar brown eyes and a warm smile leave me forever, walking into a wall of cold mist over and over again for me to only follow him until my body began falling into a pit of nothingness. At the onslaught of the soundwaves pounding against my ears, my body jolted upright in bed, instinctively, as I glanced around for what it could be.

  The last thing I remember, I had fallen asleep underneath the comforters of a warm bed in the Retributioner compound off the coast of Boston. We safely survived the hour-long-flight north where we, along with the other survivors of the bombing, were told to go to sleep once we got to the log cabin-like compound. But when my eyes shoot open, I can’t help but feel like the world was falling apart around me again.

  “Ethan!” I shook his body next to me in a panic.

  I sprung forth from the covers and ran over to the window. Is it another explosion? My lungs heaved with every breath. I turned off the night setting on the window, and as the blackness covering the glass dissipated, I prepared to see a burst of fiery hell.

  “What are you doing?” Ethan said as he ran a hand through his messy hair.

  “Come here,” I whispered. My eyes grew wide at the sight of the chaos ensuing outside. But it wasn’t the type of chaos I had thought. Instead of bombs falling from the sky, and people running and screaming madly, there were dozens of helicopters and a number of larger aircrafts on the airstrip on the island, all with their lights flashing, and engines revving to take off.

  “Ethan…” My mouth hung open in shock, I could barely find the strength to utter the next words. Just about a hundred yards away I could see the dozens of wooden crates being lifted by machinery into the aircrafts like some sort of assembly line. It was pitch black outside, but with the light emanating from the many helicopters, it was clear enough to see the people scurrying around deliriously.

  “Shit.” Both our eyes met with wide panicked looks in them, and we both instantly knew what was happening.

  “We have to go.” I was talking so fast that my words were slurred together. The seer urgency in my voice, and in my body, was apparent in the frantic movement of my legs toward the door.

  Ethan stood paralyzed with shock, as his eyes stared unmoving out the window. “We have no time to waste!” I screamed. I began to twist the door handle with my wrist to open it, but it didn’t budge.

  “C’mon!” I gritted my teeth and wriggled the handle back and forth madly, hoping with my force to burst the lock open but to no avail.

  “Dammit!” Ethan jabbed his fist into the wall. “That son of a bitch!”

  “Try opening the window.” My voice was high-pitched and frantic, as I almost tripped over my own legs. I ran to the window at the opposite side of the small room, that just had a bed, bathroom, and small table. I tried ripping the metal lining the exterior of the window, but the window was frozen in place.

  “Crap!” I banged my fist against the window with all my might, but my hand bounced off pathetically. “What do we do?”

  “Natalie, wait!” Ethan looked at me, the fire back in his eyes, as he held up the sleek translucent blade of the Plasma Slicer. “This might actually work. Justin said it can cut through any material, so let’s try it.”

  Ethan held the black handle in his hand and began to slice away at the metal lining of the glass window. We both stood and watched in awe as the blade sliced through the glass in a smooth, elegant cut. With every movement, the blade cut through the glass effortlessly, and with no sound. Within a minute, to the wonderment and joy of my eyes, Ethan had finished cutting out the frame of the window, and with a gentle push, it fell to the ground.

  “What?” I stared at the tip of the blade that glowed ever so slightly in the moonlight. “How did it…what even…”

  “I have no clue,” Ethan slid the cover back onto the blade and put it in his pocket. “But it doesn’t matter, we have to go, now.”

  Both of us slipped on a pair shoes, the bullet-proof body suits, which were surprisingly thin and comfortable, already underneath our clothes. My hand gripped the Universal Access Driver that still was buried in my pocket. Ethan then pulled himself up onto the window sill first and prepared to jump.

  “Wait!” I looked at him, and the fiery look in his eyes, that rivaled the bright glow of the crescent moon above. “That’s a far way down are you sure—”

  “Natalie,” He looked at me with a stern, determined look in his eyes. “We have nothing to lose.” And just like that, before I could stop him, he sprung forward heroically into the night sky. For a moment, I thought he would transform into an eagle and begin to fly, but almost instantly his body began to succumb to the will of gravity and fall to the earth.

  I winced at the dull sound of his body making impact with the bush below and peered over the edge of the window nervously. “I’m fine. I’m fine.” Ethan pushed himself up and brushed the mangled twigs off him.

  I braced myself against the stone walls lining the edge of the window sill and pulled myself up. My entire body started to shiver at the first gust of the harsh wind. The air felt cold and evil, and the one story drop to the patch of bushes that were bare of leaves, looked like a one-thousand-foot plummet to my death. My legs started shaking, and my body screamed at my brain to stop, but the adrenaline inside me overcame the fear raging through my veins. All it took was one quick glance at the fleet of helicopters raring to take off, and the last of the wooden crates being loaded to surge my body forward into the night sky.

  I felt the cold air push up against my skin, and as fast as the sensation of my body free falling through the sky began it ended. I felt the sharp twigs poke at my back, as I slowly fell through the bushes and hit the ground in a thud. I looked up for a brief second, at the dozens of stars visible in the sea of blackness above, and I pulled myself up with one hand braced on the fallen glass window next to me.

  “Let’s go!” Ethan said starting to sprint towards the air strip ahead of us. The thick brush that lined the road leading to the trail, were rendered useless due to the cold. Our only cover was the blanket of darkness that surrounded us, as we ran through the middle of the forest towards the light ahead. The lines of hundreds of soldiers marching into the helicopters became visible, and the last few crates were being packed with rather large, white robots ahead.

  Multiple people were stationed with bright lights flashing in their hands, to direct the helicopters that were just beginning to take off. “Shit!” Ethan yelled above the roar of the engines and sounds of people yelling. We both stopped running and crouched down behind the trunk of a rather large pine tree,
located just at the edge of the air strip.

  “What are we going to do?” I had to yell so that he could hear me. My eyes grew wide at the sight of an armed guard stationed just in front of the crates that were being loaded one by one into the back of a large aircraft just ahead of us. There was no way that we could possibly sneak into one of the crates without him noticing. We had to create a distraction.

  “Follow my lead.” Ethan clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes ahead at the man who stood just in front of the last two crates that were yet to be packaged. I saw him subtly slip the cover off the knife in his hand and I looked at him with wide eyes.

  “No,” My voice shook. “That’s crazy stop.”

  Ethan grabbed my arm forcefully and glared at me with the familiar fire burning at the center of his eyes. “Follow my lead.”

  He moved quickly. His back was hunched over as he made his way to the back side of the crates, and I followed him, the adrenaline beginning to take over my body. White lights embedded into the pavement lit up the entire airstrip and illuminated the last of the soldiers making their way onto the aircrafts. I looked above at the few helicopters that had already taken off and begun their ascent into the darkness. All that guy needs to do is just glance in our direction, and we’re dead.

  I felt my body shiver with cold and the amount of fear coursing through me. But the adrenaline inside me pushed my body onward and kept the hope in my veins alive. I crouched down behind the cover of one of the last empty crates and looked at Ethan who peered over the top of it, with a look of pure determination in his eyes.

  “Rip a piece of orange tape off one of the crates and place it on this one.” He put his hand on the square wooden crates next to us. “I’ll be back in a minute.”