Post by silent.lullaby on Sept 11, 2009 14:22:17 GMT -5
Boot Camp For Terribly Twisted Teens [Chapter 41] Dead Either Way
The problem was the heads of the Carlin institute, Janet, and a man named Philip were in a deadlock over one little detail.
“We are not murdering children!” Janet screeched at Philip.
“We can’t capture them!” Philip argued back. “I don’t like it any more than you do Janet, but it’s impractical. If we try to keep them alive, if we try to capture them we’ll probably all become captured and Kennedy will continue this. There won’t be a war because Kennedy will have won!”
“They’re just kids,” Janet replied weakly.
“I know,” Philip responded sounding exhausted. “We are out of options though. We can’t capture them all. Even if we do, we don’t know if we can take out the chip, or what damages we could do to the hosts brain if we did.” Philip rubbed his temple, “they’re dead either way.”
“You don’t know that,” Rick argued. I would put my faith with him any day.
“We do this smart,” Philip said before looking over at a watery eyed Janet. “You know I’m right.” Janet nodded.
They set an attack date. Three days from now. Guns would be arriving tomorrow. Everyone was already studying schematics of the Kennedy building. I photocopied it when no one was paying attention and put it back before anyone realized it was missing. I wasn’t going on a mission where the goal, the best outcome, was my friends dying at my hands, or the hands of another member of Carlin institute.
Back in the large shared bedroom, I found I was the last one in. Cory was out with mom doing grocery shopping and I was grateful. Hawkeye was fuming to Rick about the plan. Anna was right there with him, though she was tearful, especially about her former roommate J.C. “They can’t be serious!” She cried.
“They are,” I replied stepping into the circle that had formed. Some standing, some pacing and some sitting on the edges of beds. Hawkeye, Rick, Liam, Nick, Anna, Mary, and Daniel turned to look at me. “They are going to kill our friends, they have every intention of it.”
“And they want us to help,” Mary said sounding sickened to her core about it.
“That’s why we are going to hit Kennedy first,” I replied. I pulled out the schematics, “we have the map. We know where Kennedy is. And we have the intentions of getting our friends out alive. I honestly don’t even care at this point if Kennedy goes down for what they’ve done. At least not right now. I want my friends back. I want them safe and with those damned chips gone. We’ve got to do something.”
The door opened and everyone jumped and turned around. Cory stood there with a bag in his hand and a cell phone in the other. “Um... I have chips.”
Cory came over to me and passed me the phone. “Dad was coming to get you out you know. He missed having you home, he thought you’d be better the entire sobering up experience. He got you a new phone as a welcome home present, programmed in all your old numbers too.”
“When did you get this?”
“Mom and I went to visit Dad. He’s still confused. Worried. He wanted to come with us, but mom insisted he was safer there, away from us.” Cory looked up at me, “we really that dangerous?”
I sighed. “It’s a nice phone,” I said changing the subject.
Cory sat on the bed beside Daniel and popped open a bag of All Dressed chips and tipped it toward Daniel. “Your favourite.”
Daniel laughed lightly, “I almost forgot.” He took a giant handful.
I flipped open the phone, the conversation of our plans dying, no one wanted to take along a ten year old kid no matter how fast he may be. I flipped through the list of contacts before I found Tori. I paused on it. She’d been my best friend since forever. I took a deep breath, and despite my fear of her hating me, of her text messages I’d received at Kennedy, I still wanted to confide in her. Talk to her. Admit exactly what I am. Maybe because I trusted her with my life. Maybe because I knew I was going on a crazy mission that could get me killed and I wanted her to know the truth.
She didn’t pick up and the voice mail kicked in. I debated on leaving a message and when the beep kicked on, I still hadn’t made my decision but words started spurting from my mouth. “Tori! It’s Claire. Look I know you hate me, but I couldn’t phone or text while at the boot camp... and it’s confession time. Tori... this is going to sound crazy.” I rubbed my temples. “Tori I’m a necromancer, I can talk to the dead, command them, I can even do some crazy stuff with shadows. My life has become a complete mess. I finally seen my mom, she’s like me- not crazy. I escaped Kennedy, not the boot camp, but the labs. They were going to experiment on us or something. They have some of the friends I met at the camp. They have them... brainwashed and I’m going on this crazy mission to help them and I... I might not come back. It’s something I have to do. Liam is here too. Controls ice, weird huh. Daniel’s awake, and he and Cory are both gifted too. I’m with friends, and family... I... I just wanted to tell you... admit, finally what I am. And I wanted to tell you I love you, you’re the best. We’ve been through a lot together, and... I just didn’t want my life to end with out you knowing... anyways... I’ve got to go. Please, don’t hate me.” The recording clicked to end of space and I sighed and hung up. God I rambled a lot.
Cory fell asleep pretty quickly and we older kids sat at the far end of the room in a circle whispering plans. We’d strike before the adults. We’d save our friends. We just had to.
All of us disbanded, and got into our separate beds. Laying there I found my thoughts drifting like a boat on the sea, no paddles, just drifting. I thought of the shy Scott, little Hiro and him helping me in class, I thought the tough guy Thayne with the heart of gold. Nina who took care of me when I first came to Kennedy Boot Camp. Robyn who saved my life when I could have drown.
My mind shifted and thought of the first day I met Leon. “Leon Kane,” I could hear his deep voice clear as day in my head, I could see him reaching his hand through the bars of the banister and I remember doing the same, “nice to meet you, mind if I call you Claire?” I smiled faintly at the memory, my heart fluttering. I had it bad for him, and as much as my mind had been filled up with so much, and my body had been stressing and everything in my life had moved so fast I hadn’t even really realized how much I liked him.
My thoughts were interrupted by a phone call.
A frantic voice.
I dashed out of the room and down the stairs keeping the phone to my ear. I grabbed a set of keys with an alarm and once outside pressed the unlock button. A car to my left beeped twice and lights flashed.
I dashed to the car and shoved the keys in the ignition. Driving couldn’t be that hard... right? I’d played car video games with Cory before. It had to be a lot like that right? I pulled the gearshift from park to drive and stomped on the gas, wheels screeched and I denied my instinct to slam on the brakes.
“Calm down, I’ll be there soon.” I listened for a moment as I turned out of the Carlin institute. “No, just stay where you are. I’ll be there soon.”
I turned on the cars high beams and drove over the speed limit through the snow. I went to put my phone in the glove box and inside was a black gun. “Keep calm Claire,” I whispered to myself. I threw in my phone and shut the box. It was surprisingly comforting to see the weapon there... or would have been had this not been my mothers car.
I kept driving till I hit a familiar road and turned down an even more familiar street. I pulled into the driveway and stepped out. Out of the house came Tori. “Holy shit! Holy shit!” She ran over to me and hugged me so tight I thought she might make the stitches in my back pop.
I held her close and murmured comfort into her ear. I pulled back eventually and looked at my friend. Tears were pouring down her beautiful face. “Tori, what happened?”
“I-I was out at a party,” she gasped for air, the sobs destroying her. “When I came home, they were dead. My parents are dead.”
I stared at her for a moment struck with the truth. “I’m so sorry.” Tears were now welling in my eyes but I knew I had to stay strong.
Tori looked at me staring at the burns, she touched my black hair. “Apparently there is more to your story than your message.” I nodded. “What if whoever did this comes back?”
“You said you were like me.” I interrupted.
She stepped back and put her hand up, jolts of white lightning jumped from fingertip to fingertip. “Not exactly.
And in and instant, I knew who had attacked Tori’s house. Who had killed her parents, and who would be back just like Tori feared. “Get in the car, we need to go. Now.”
The problem was the heads of the Carlin institute, Janet, and a man named Philip were in a deadlock over one little detail.
“We are not murdering children!” Janet screeched at Philip.
“We can’t capture them!” Philip argued back. “I don’t like it any more than you do Janet, but it’s impractical. If we try to keep them alive, if we try to capture them we’ll probably all become captured and Kennedy will continue this. There won’t be a war because Kennedy will have won!”
“They’re just kids,” Janet replied weakly.
“I know,” Philip responded sounding exhausted. “We are out of options though. We can’t capture them all. Even if we do, we don’t know if we can take out the chip, or what damages we could do to the hosts brain if we did.” Philip rubbed his temple, “they’re dead either way.”
“You don’t know that,” Rick argued. I would put my faith with him any day.
“We do this smart,” Philip said before looking over at a watery eyed Janet. “You know I’m right.” Janet nodded.
They set an attack date. Three days from now. Guns would be arriving tomorrow. Everyone was already studying schematics of the Kennedy building. I photocopied it when no one was paying attention and put it back before anyone realized it was missing. I wasn’t going on a mission where the goal, the best outcome, was my friends dying at my hands, or the hands of another member of Carlin institute.
Back in the large shared bedroom, I found I was the last one in. Cory was out with mom doing grocery shopping and I was grateful. Hawkeye was fuming to Rick about the plan. Anna was right there with him, though she was tearful, especially about her former roommate J.C. “They can’t be serious!” She cried.
“They are,” I replied stepping into the circle that had formed. Some standing, some pacing and some sitting on the edges of beds. Hawkeye, Rick, Liam, Nick, Anna, Mary, and Daniel turned to look at me. “They are going to kill our friends, they have every intention of it.”
“And they want us to help,” Mary said sounding sickened to her core about it.
“That’s why we are going to hit Kennedy first,” I replied. I pulled out the schematics, “we have the map. We know where Kennedy is. And we have the intentions of getting our friends out alive. I honestly don’t even care at this point if Kennedy goes down for what they’ve done. At least not right now. I want my friends back. I want them safe and with those damned chips gone. We’ve got to do something.”
The door opened and everyone jumped and turned around. Cory stood there with a bag in his hand and a cell phone in the other. “Um... I have chips.”
Cory came over to me and passed me the phone. “Dad was coming to get you out you know. He missed having you home, he thought you’d be better the entire sobering up experience. He got you a new phone as a welcome home present, programmed in all your old numbers too.”
“When did you get this?”
“Mom and I went to visit Dad. He’s still confused. Worried. He wanted to come with us, but mom insisted he was safer there, away from us.” Cory looked up at me, “we really that dangerous?”
I sighed. “It’s a nice phone,” I said changing the subject.
Cory sat on the bed beside Daniel and popped open a bag of All Dressed chips and tipped it toward Daniel. “Your favourite.”
Daniel laughed lightly, “I almost forgot.” He took a giant handful.
I flipped open the phone, the conversation of our plans dying, no one wanted to take along a ten year old kid no matter how fast he may be. I flipped through the list of contacts before I found Tori. I paused on it. She’d been my best friend since forever. I took a deep breath, and despite my fear of her hating me, of her text messages I’d received at Kennedy, I still wanted to confide in her. Talk to her. Admit exactly what I am. Maybe because I trusted her with my life. Maybe because I knew I was going on a crazy mission that could get me killed and I wanted her to know the truth.
She didn’t pick up and the voice mail kicked in. I debated on leaving a message and when the beep kicked on, I still hadn’t made my decision but words started spurting from my mouth. “Tori! It’s Claire. Look I know you hate me, but I couldn’t phone or text while at the boot camp... and it’s confession time. Tori... this is going to sound crazy.” I rubbed my temples. “Tori I’m a necromancer, I can talk to the dead, command them, I can even do some crazy stuff with shadows. My life has become a complete mess. I finally seen my mom, she’s like me- not crazy. I escaped Kennedy, not the boot camp, but the labs. They were going to experiment on us or something. They have some of the friends I met at the camp. They have them... brainwashed and I’m going on this crazy mission to help them and I... I might not come back. It’s something I have to do. Liam is here too. Controls ice, weird huh. Daniel’s awake, and he and Cory are both gifted too. I’m with friends, and family... I... I just wanted to tell you... admit, finally what I am. And I wanted to tell you I love you, you’re the best. We’ve been through a lot together, and... I just didn’t want my life to end with out you knowing... anyways... I’ve got to go. Please, don’t hate me.” The recording clicked to end of space and I sighed and hung up. God I rambled a lot.
Cory fell asleep pretty quickly and we older kids sat at the far end of the room in a circle whispering plans. We’d strike before the adults. We’d save our friends. We just had to.
All of us disbanded, and got into our separate beds. Laying there I found my thoughts drifting like a boat on the sea, no paddles, just drifting. I thought of the shy Scott, little Hiro and him helping me in class, I thought the tough guy Thayne with the heart of gold. Nina who took care of me when I first came to Kennedy Boot Camp. Robyn who saved my life when I could have drown.
My mind shifted and thought of the first day I met Leon. “Leon Kane,” I could hear his deep voice clear as day in my head, I could see him reaching his hand through the bars of the banister and I remember doing the same, “nice to meet you, mind if I call you Claire?” I smiled faintly at the memory, my heart fluttering. I had it bad for him, and as much as my mind had been filled up with so much, and my body had been stressing and everything in my life had moved so fast I hadn’t even really realized how much I liked him.
My thoughts were interrupted by a phone call.
A frantic voice.
I dashed out of the room and down the stairs keeping the phone to my ear. I grabbed a set of keys with an alarm and once outside pressed the unlock button. A car to my left beeped twice and lights flashed.
I dashed to the car and shoved the keys in the ignition. Driving couldn’t be that hard... right? I’d played car video games with Cory before. It had to be a lot like that right? I pulled the gearshift from park to drive and stomped on the gas, wheels screeched and I denied my instinct to slam on the brakes.
“Calm down, I’ll be there soon.” I listened for a moment as I turned out of the Carlin institute. “No, just stay where you are. I’ll be there soon.”
I turned on the cars high beams and drove over the speed limit through the snow. I went to put my phone in the glove box and inside was a black gun. “Keep calm Claire,” I whispered to myself. I threw in my phone and shut the box. It was surprisingly comforting to see the weapon there... or would have been had this not been my mothers car.
I kept driving till I hit a familiar road and turned down an even more familiar street. I pulled into the driveway and stepped out. Out of the house came Tori. “Holy shit! Holy shit!” She ran over to me and hugged me so tight I thought she might make the stitches in my back pop.
I held her close and murmured comfort into her ear. I pulled back eventually and looked at my friend. Tears were pouring down her beautiful face. “Tori, what happened?”
“I-I was out at a party,” she gasped for air, the sobs destroying her. “When I came home, they were dead. My parents are dead.”
I stared at her for a moment struck with the truth. “I’m so sorry.” Tears were now welling in my eyes but I knew I had to stay strong.
Tori looked at me staring at the burns, she touched my black hair. “Apparently there is more to your story than your message.” I nodded. “What if whoever did this comes back?”
“You said you were like me.” I interrupted.
She stepped back and put her hand up, jolts of white lightning jumped from fingertip to fingertip. “Not exactly.
And in and instant, I knew who had attacked Tori’s house. Who had killed her parents, and who would be back just like Tori feared. “Get in the car, we need to go. Now.”