Delusional Read online

  “This is our Stealth Force Team, and in the back room we have some medical robots and people trained on our Urgent Care Team.” Jacob wasted no time with introductions, the aircraft taking off before I had even sat down. I stumbled before I finally sat down, glancing at the team of about five people who all appeared to be older than me, but still pretty young and in very good shape.

  All of them nodded at both me and Antonio, none of them taking the time to introduce themselves individually, but I had already met most of them. My eyes first connected with the brown eyes of Colton, and an angry, sick feeling rumbled in my stomach. He’s the biggest player at this entire place. I was all for people trying to have fun, but doing it at the expense of everyone around you was just wrong. Most stopped caring about their morals and the future right after the Great Crash, and since then everyone had been stuck in a mad dash to escape their minds for as long as possible. At Camp Camel, people would sell food and other goods to willing drug dealers, while giving themselves away to anyone for free, and although the environment was more controlled at the White Knights, up until last night when hope actually became a word with meaning, I could tell things were the same.

  I sighed, looking away from Colton’s warm eyes, pushing the memory of his awful, arrogant flirting out of my mind. Nothing gives him the right to just assume. Nothing warranted him getting angry at me just because I didn’t want to be with him. I wonder what he would think if he knew I was telling the truth about my age and not just lying to deny him lightly.

  I looked up at the blue sky above, the walls and ceiling showing a perfect view of the outside from the interior, despite being black on the exterior. With no one seeming to be willing to talk, and the threat that the government could blow up our helicopter and send us falling to our deaths at any moment, I decided it would be best if I stared up at the blue in the sky and tried to hold on to what was left of it before it all fell apart. These could be my last living moments.

  There was an odd rush of adrenaline that coursed through me at the thought that I could somehow be cheating the system. Before I agreed to go on the trip, and pretty much just accompany the Stealth Forces Team in the aircraft as they embarked on the mission, Jacob warned me that the military drones could shoot down our helicopter, but that he also had taken all necessary precautions to ensure that all defense mechanisms lining the fifty-mile radius outside of Area 51 were shut down.

  Why would anyone go through so much trouble just to save three lives? Jacob claimed that now that they had shut down Protocol 00 that it was even more important to get Natalie, Hunter, and Ethan because they could be used as the figureheads of the White Knights. But after a failed trip to the Grand Canyon National Village, multiple talks with Danielle, and now this move that would almost undoubtedly kill us, I wondered if there was a deeper motive behind getting them. He looks so worried. I watched as he paced back and forth, refusing to move his gaze from the ground beneath him. Why would he do something that he was so afraid of ending everything? Why would he come on a trip that could easily kill him?

  All my questions echoed in my head, but my mouth stayed frozen shut. It wasn’t worth it for me to shatter what was such a beautiful silence. Instead, I pondered the thoughts quietly, deciding in the end that no matter what his reason was, all that mattered was that I was getting the most important people in the world to me back. I found it easier to get lost in the moment, and let time pass by even faster by watching the clouds that moved by in hazy, white blurs above. The massive swathe of blue around us and green mountains flew by so fast that the earth beneath us seemed to have an almost seamless transition from rolling green, mountainous peaks, to a rocky, brown desert.

  We were moving so fast that by the time we started to slow down, as we approached Area 51, the sun seemed to have barely moved in the sky above as the afternoon brightness of its rays began to set in. Even inside the helicopter, the tension had seemed to suck all the life out of the air, leaving me with a dry, stale taste in my mouth.

  “It’s time.” Jacob uttered the two words with a determined, emotionless look on his face that hid all the anxiety beneath it.

  At his command, Lauren, Colton, and Anastasia, who carried machine guns almost as big as them, stood up as the door to enter the aircraft slid open. The helicopter was quickly hovering closer and closer to the ground, and with every foot that we got closer to touching down inside Area 51, my heart began to beat faster. Without looking close enough, it appeared as if they were just jumping down into the middle of the desert, but my eyes soon registered the massive, megastructure surrounded by metal barbed walls on all four sides, and the gray, metal latch that was directly below us.

  This place is insane. The size of the cooling towers of a nuclear reactor, which I knew very well from living inside one, didn’t even compare to the magnitude of the scale the massive hangar was built on. I swallowed a scream as they jumped down onto the dirt just feet below and departed into what would be an inevitable suicide mission in the eyes of everyone, except Jacob. The plan was for us to fly out of the compound as Anastasia, Colton, and Lauren infiltrated the bottom areas of the compound and retrieved Hunter, Ethan, and Natalie, which would be made possible by Jacob tracking their progress through cameras in their ICLs and tracking live feeds of the security team from Area 51. He then would give them specific instructions on what to do in real time, and since he somehow managed to bypass the security of Area 51 and hack into it in a matter of days when he had ben trying for years, he could thwart guards away from them and open up locked passages that would help them escape.

  It was quite a risky and elaborate proposition, and his only backup plan was, if all else failed, flying back to the compound before they got out and sending in the rest of the Stealth Force Team, and even himself if needed. And even if we did retrieve them successfully from the compound without anyone dying, which would be nearly impossible, there was a chance that their minds would already be corrupted beyond repair, but despite knowing the awful ways of the government, that was a risk Jacob was willing to take.

  C’mon, please work. For what felt like forever, but was probably just under an hour, everyone sat in silence. I had to refrain from the urge of biting all my nails off as I restlessly sat there, feeling anxious because all I could do was sit there, not being able to control anything except my thoughts.

  “They are on their way back.” Jacob’s eyes were still trained on his ICLs, his eyelids almost unmoving since Lauren, Colton, and Anastasia had left. “They have Ethan and Natalie.”

  I sat forward, rocking back and forth in my seat, Antonio trying to rub a hand on my back to comfort me, but it was useless. I forced my mind to be numb to all excitement or disappointment brought by Jacob’s words. They could all be dead. We could all be dead, or everyone could live. It means nothing.

  Each second passed with an aching pound in my head, which only increased with the erratic movements of Jacob pacing around the helicopter, movements that reached their zenith the moment that Colton, who returned first, appeared in the opening of the helicopter that had traveled back to the same location we dropped them off in.

  In his arms he held a motionless, lanky body that I soon recognized as Ethan, who was covered in blood and bullet wounds.

  “Get him back to Rae.” Jacob glared at the shocked, mortified look on my face as the body of someone I loved was carted away from me before I even got to say hello. “He will be okay. It's just important we stop the bleeding now.”

  Maybe this was a mistake. I closed my eyes, wondering if this was too much for me to handle. I can’t be here to witness them die. I can’t be here to witness everything left of my life fall apart.

  Colton emerged from the back and shot me and then Antonio a look before ripping his shirt off, clearly trying to show off, before he put a new one on that wasn’t covered in blood and sweat. I wanted to scream and interrogate him and ask him how he could even look at me after allowing that to happen to Ethan, until I realized that his i
njuries were caused by the same man and regime that had destroyed so much in my life.

  Jacob looked to be on the verge of a panic attack before the door slid open again with Natalie and Lauren, along with one of his advisers that he had sent to open the escape tunnel, sprinting into the aircraft. The shock and excitement at seeing her beautiful face and body fully intact caused the tears to spill out of me. Jacob muttered something to Natalie, but his words turned into muffled jargon in my mind as all the emotions I had been holding back since the explosion at Camp Camel came raging out of me.

  “I missed you so much.” The words sputtered out of my mouth, and I wish that I could have said more and told her how I never wanted to lose her or anyone else again, but instead I wrapped my arms around her, hoping to communicate everything in the warmth that I tried to infuse into her tense, shaking body.

  But none of that emotion was reciprocated. When I looked into her eyes, instead of seeing the colorful, lively, ecstatic expression on her face, I saw a blank stare as she glanced at me like I was a stranger to her.

  She’s gone too. The tears streaming down my face shifted from pure happiness to pure anger and despair as I stared at the last thing in my life that I held on to from my past slip away. She was just like my parents, just like my brother, just like my old life and dreams, just like everything I struggled to escape from the pain of the past that haunted me.

  I held on to her even tighter, before sighing and finally giving up on trying.

  It’s all over. I have to move on. I can’t ever go back.

  I closed my eyes, and through the sadness and regret I promised myself to never try and piece my broken past back together and vowed to create a new life, a life where everything I lost would be nothing but a distant memory buried in a casket hundreds of feet beneath the earth. And there was nothing left for me to do but burn all those shattered pieces into unrecognizable piles of ash.

  Delusional

  Natalie

  Chapter 1

  I opened my eyes in a daze. Tubes were scattered all over my body flowing with weird colored liquids. The smell of dry blood and antiseptics permeated the air. The noises of the medical instruments operating on me, the people chatting around me, and the hypnotic beeping coming from a machine behind me all mixed in my head to create a cacophony of sound.

  Where am I? Who are they? And what are they doing to me?

  I instinctively pushed my body upwards to break free from the restraints strapped around the ghostly pale cot I was in. The cold, frail sheets scraped my body sending a chill down my spine.

  I need out. I need my family.

  The people in their white lab coats and turquoise colored uniforms peered on at me menacingly. I flailed up and down on the cot, instantly warding the attention of everyone in the room. A light suddenly hovered over my head blinding me as someone grabbed my arm and dug a syringe deep into my skin sending me drifting back into my dreams.

  ***

  I awoke to the sudden squeaking of the rubber wheels against the slick floor as the cot came to a halt. Two meaty hands picked me up by my arms and forcefully pushed me out of the cot.

  I moved my brittle, dehydrated left leg forward, but instantly I started to feel like Jell-O as bone by bone my body came crashing down on to the floor. I still felt like I was asleep after having laid motionless on that cot for who knows how long.

  “Get up!” The guard yelled his wide nostrils flaring as he peered down at me with an abhorrent glare.

  I hastily got up, my body still feeling numb from all the pain killers. I peered down at my arms and legs scattered with wounds and bandages; every single hair on my body stood straight as I stepped forward.

  The guard put one hand on my back and launched me forward into the room in front of me. My body scraped against the floor causing the bandages to fall off my wounds. I looked up at him petrified as I curled up in a shell to protect me from the horrendous figure above. He was at least 6’ 5” with arms as big as chairs and muscles so huge that they seemed to swallow his neck. He had a dark, daunting face that would strike fear into the eyes of anyone that is unfortunate enough to have gazed upon it. He had big hands, a big nose, a fat lip, and, to top it all off, a shiny bald head on top. A single light silently peeked through the door casting an ominous shadow on his face.

  With his fists clenched and mouth spitting wildly, he said, “In twenty-four hours they will be here for you, until then don’t cause any trouble.”

  Without another word, he slammed the door shut, leaving me alone with the darkness. Even after he left an eerie coldness suffocated the air. My teeth trembled, and sickly goosebumps fringed my skin as the pure paranoia overcame me. I could just imagine one of the grisly guards appearing out of the darkness ready to kill me. The overwhelming presence of a greater evil stimulated all my senses. The short blonde hairs on my arms stood straight up as my heart raced at a deadly pace.

  I’m in Area 51. I’m in a jail cell left to rot. I’m now officially all alone.

  I couldn’t help but let the memories inundate my conscious. I thought back to the vibrant blue eyes and gorgeous face of Hunter. I remembered how his body fell to the floor, swamped in his own blood, before the mind control program shutdown along with all the hope in my life continuing onto brighter days. I remembered how Ethan, the one who would stop at nothing—even killing the people around him—in an attempt to get his life back, slipped away from my grip as the blistering pain from what must have been bullets entering my body numbed all my senses.

  I remembered how my family, the ones I had been trying to get back for years, were trapped in the same halls of Area 51 that I was undoubtedly in, and that we would all be awaiting the same fate of death at the hands of President Ash himself. I remembered how Danielle deliberately mind controlled Hunter and Ethan to get us to shut down Protocol 00, willingly sacrificing all of our lives to her cause, and as the nation began to rebel against her husband, I would have no choice but to surrender my life to the cause of freedom.

  Why does it have to end like this? I stood up and banged my fist against the wall, hoping that everything around me was merely the product of a nightmare, but doing so only caused me more pain as my knuckles began to drip with blood. I didn’t even know how to feel. I was so tired, that all my emotions culminated inside me into an indecipherable soupy, gray mixture.

  I stood pacing back and forth in the small, square room letting my thoughts towards President Ash, my thoughts towards Danielle, and my thoughts toward this wretched world we live in boil to a dangerously hot temperature. Life just isn’t fair, I thought finally starting to simmer down; life just isn’t fair.

  Before I could sit down and potentially fall asleep, there was a loud knock on the door.

  “Get up, now!” The asshole guard from before impetuously picked me up and tossed me across the room. The echo from his pit-bull-like snarl ringed in my ears, suffocating my thoughts.

  Well isn’t this just a great way to wake up.

  My light brown hair fell in loose strands out of the bun I had tied in an effort to get my messy, tangled hair off my shoulders. I got up as quick as I could, willing my tender bones and aching muscles to move.

  “C’mon hurry up.” The guard snapped spit spewing from his mouth onto my neck.

  I stood insolently, exerting just the fraction of power I had left at least brought me some sort of satisfaction. “I will walk at whatever pace I want to.”

  No one’s gonna tell me to do anything, for all I know this could be my last few moments on this earth. The anger on his face simmered until drops of sweat formed on his forehead. I wondered whether President Ash purposely had these freaks genetically engineered to have the patience of a hungry, cranky child and impulse-control of a puppy. His fists were clenched and vibrating with hatred. The stone cold, almost emotionless, look in his eyes let me know that I was going to regret even trying to open my mouth.

  “No, you won’t!” He screamed so loud I thought that the walls were
going to fall. “You will move at whatever speed I tell you to, so move faster!” He pushed me through the doorway with boundless force and my body tumbled down the hallway.

  “Ow!” I yelped grabbing my side. I looked up and immediately began scrambling backward in terror. He was running forward with a tempestuous look in his eyes. He began to smile with pure enjoyment as he lunged forward at me. He picked me up with one hand by my neck and held me high into the air. For what seemed like hours he just held me there squeezing all the life I had left out of me as he stared at me chuckling with a maniacal look in his eyes.

  The skin on my arms started to turn red and my head was a stick of dynamite ready to explode off my body. The entire time the psycho guard vented his anger out by choking me, I kept every muscle on my body frozen still. The hairs on my body stood straight up as my lungs, heart and brain were paralyzed with fear. Black started growing around the edges of my vision as I began gulping for air.

  Finally, he released his grip right before I was about to black out and fall like a rag doll onto the floor.

  “Ah.” I exhaled breathing in big gulps of the fresh, heavy underground air. But one look at the guard and I knew that I better get moving. I scrambled to my feet and began briskly walking down the infinitely long, gray hallway. Traumatized, I trucked on forward not looking back for anything in fear that I would trigger the bomb inside him to explode again.

  I heard the clanking of the guards’ shoes on the hard floors growing closer and closer, until they were right behind me. My entire body tensed as I prepared for him to sucker punch me or lunge forward and strangle me, but instead he softly grazed his hand over my shoulder in a fatherly way. He then patted me twice on the back in an almost empathetic gesture.