All American Rejects (Users #3) (10 page)

Even worse than the fate he may currently be subject to, Barber could clearly make out the image of Alaric, standing off to the side, with a grimace painted on his face. Barber wasn't sure why, and he didn't much care. As far as he was concerned, Alaric was a traitorous piece of shit, and he wished there wasn't an inescapably thick sheet a glass between them, so he could give Alaric a good reason to have a sour face. Barber wanted nothing more than to carve a permanent frown on the brutes face with one of his spikes, upside-down Joker style. That would definitely make him smile, and he did smirk a little at the thought, as well as the vision of what Carter would do to Alaric when he got his hands on him next.

Barber was confident that Carter would come for him. He knew the man was as tenacious as they come; he would never give up fighting. Carter would lay his life on the line for Barber and Ryker, but would he get there in time? Barber didn't even know how much time they had left. Any second now the scientist in the bleach white lab coat could come back and drain Barber of his powers, and every last drop of life. He sincerely hoped that Carter was on his way.

******

Carter heard a voice coming from far away. Someone was calling his name, but it was like the voice was somehow muffled. The world was rocking beneath him as if he was on a train ride. He tried to lift his eye lids, but they were too heavy. It was like there were weights attached to them to keep his eyes closed.

Then he heard a sharp smack and felt a sting across his face. He instantly snapped up to a sitting position, his eyes going wide.

"Barber!" he screamed.

"Calm down," Evan said kneeling over him.

"Did you just slap me?" Carter asked.

"You wouldn't wake up," Evan said plainly, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't think I could even move you ten feet right now, and we need to get the fuck outta here."

The faint sound of emergency sirens could be heard in the distance.

"Where are Barber and Ryker?" Carter asked frantically swiveling his head like an owl; looking all around him for any sign of his companions.

"Gone," Evan answered. "Along with the All Americans. They took Barber and Ryker, and fled."

"We've gotta go," Carter said. "Now. Help me to my feet."

Evan put Carter's arm over his shoulder and slowly lifted Carter to his feet. Everything hurt. Carter's entire body was one giant ache. He had to brace himself against Evan just to keep from falling over.

"They really did a number on me," Carter said observing his own poor physical state.

He really wished he had his pills at that moment, or any pills for that matter. He would take just about anything at this point, anything to dull his senses.

"We need to find a new hiding spot, and fast. You need to rest," Evan said.

"No time. We have to go after them, now."

Carter turned his head, observing their surroundings, and found multiple spots of blood splattered across the grass. He wondered how much of it was his. Judging by the cuts and bruises on his face and body, he assumed a fair amount of it was. With the abandoned house all but demolished, and the red stains of blood that covered the ground, the place looked like a battlefield from some long forgotten war, and he and Evan were the wounded survivors. The last remnants of a beaten army, left to pick up the pieces.

"We have to find Barber and Ryker," Carter said. "And I know exactly where Alaric has taken them."

"Yeah, I know too," Evan said. "But that doesn't change anything. You're not in any kind of fighting shape. In fact, another fight like that and I think you'll end up dead."

Carter puffed out his chest and pushed away from Evan to stand on his own. He tested his weight against his legs and managed to limp a few short steps.

"It doesn't matter," Carter said.

"Are you crazy? Look at you!" Evan said pointing out the obvious, "You can barely walk...Also, you're naked."

Carter looked down at his exposed junk.

"Grab my shoes. All that matters now is saving Barber and Ryker," Carter said. "If Ryker and Barber possess the last of the User powers they need to complete their mission, then I want to make sure they never extract their powers, or at least do everything within my power to stop them. I cannot allow those bastards to complete their User collection. Beyond everything else, it's the principal of the thing. "

"They'll be watching for us," Evan said.

"I would expect nothing less," Carter said intently.

"And if we are too late?" Even questioned.

"If we are too late?" Carter had not even bothered to think of such things, and paused to consider it carefully for a moment. "Well then we fight anyways, we fight to destroy whatever technology they have created to perform such heinous acts, or whatever research they have, even if only for the pure satisfaction of fucking up their plans.

"Okay," Evan conceded. "Well then, what's the plan?"

"There's only one plan," Carter said. "Time to kick some ass."

"And steal some clothes, of course," Evan said, addressing his companions still nude form.

"All I need is a pair of jeans and a hoodie."

Chapter 13

"I'm not doing this anymore," Alaric said, pacing back and forth across the lab. "I'm done being your errand boy."

"What are you on about?" Heath asked, not even bothering to look up from his chart.

"I'm done. No more. I'm not chasing down anymore Users for you," Alaric said.

"Well, you picked a hell of a time to get all self-righteous," Heath said, thoroughly amused with himself.

The over sized brute didn't even know when his own time was up. Heath was going to enjoy this. Maybe it was the way Barber kept staring at Alaric from within his glass prison, or maybe Alaric really had come to a moral line that he had crossed. Heath didn't care much either way. He had what he wanted and that was all that mattered.

"Why's that?" Alaric stopped his pacing and turned to look at him.

"Because, I no longer need you," Heath said with a smug grin. "We're done. I've got one of each User, so you can kindly show yourself the door."

Alaric's face went red with rage and he closed the distance between him and the Heath in a flash. Alaric snatched Heath by the neck and gave it a good squeeze, lifting him from his feet by his throat.

"How dare you talk to me like that!" Alaric's face was almost pressed against Heaths. "I could snap your little neck with a simple twist of my hand."

"But you won't. You kill me and the government doesn't get their new toys. They'll hunt you down like the dog you are," Heath said.

"Agh!" Alaric pushed Heath away and squeezed his fists in the air in front of him. Alaric spun and slammed both fists down on a table in the center of the room, snapping it in two. His rage seemingly play out, but not sated, he stomped toward the door.

"That's a good boy," Heath said under his breath.

"What'd you say to me?" Alaric asked from inside the doorway.

"Hm? Nothing, just talking to myself," Heath wisely said waving his pen hand in the air dismissively, and he went right back to his charts as if nothing had happened.

Alaric slammed the door behind him with such force, Heath thought the hinges may snap off, but he had other things on his mind that were of greater importance than that brute. He had surpassed his usefulness and Heath really felt he was no longer of any consequence

He walked over to the cylinder holding Barber, and smiled at the young man curled up in the fetal position inside the glass tube.

"Looks like its just you, me, and your friend over there," Heath said. "All I need is to remove your and Ryker's powers to complete my collection."

He knew that Barber couldn't hear him, but he was enjoying the confused look on his face nonetheless.

The room was dead silent for a brief moment before Heath heard a tap, tap, tap on a nearby door.

*****

"Knock, knock," Carter said as he finished rapping on the door opposite the one Alaric had just left through. "Anybody home?"

He swung open the door to find a singular occupant in a white lab coat, with a look of confusion on his face.

"What's this?" Heath demanded. "How did you get in here?"

Carter and Ryker made themselves at home invading the room without waiting for an invitation, which would most definitely not be extended, to enter the lab.

"Yeah, about that," Evan said, tossing what Heath assumed to be one of the guards electric stun batons to the floor. "Your security still sucks balls."

"What's this I just overheard about a collection?" Carter questioned. His hands were palms together in front of his chest with fingers spread wide.He pointed them at the doctor. "You collecting something in particular that
we
might be interested in?" He motioned to himself and then Evan.

Heath completely ignored his inquiry.

"Get out of my lab this instant. I have no use for you, either of you, especially in that state," Heath said, almost disgusted, as though he were addressing a substandard selection of a commodity to be bought and sold.

Carter couldn't really disagree with his assessment at that point, their downtrodden appearance left something to be desired. They were covered in bumps and bruises. Carter could feel the crusty blood that was clotted across the side of his face, most of it was probably his. He glanced over at Evan and cringed. If he looked half as bad as his shabby companion, they, no doubt, appeared to be quite the haggard pair. That only fed Carter's already intensely overheated internal thermometer.

"We've come to retrieve our friends," Carter said. "I believe you may have seen them, or have captured them in a sinister plot to build a super army for the government by sucking them dry of their powers...And life." He shot Heath a glare with the last statement. He put up both hands in fake surprise before pointing at the two occupied holding cells. "Ohp, look, there they are." Carter said with a cute smile and an inkling of sarcasm.

He walked over to the glass tube containing Ryker, leaned up against it casually with one foot up, and tapped on the glass backwards over his right shoulder, slightly glancing back at him. "You okay in there buddy?"

Ryker shrugged and pointed to his ears.

"He can't hear a word you're saying," Heath said.

"No shit?" Carter asked in a sarcastic tone.

"Enough of this bullshit," Evan said, tired of Carter and Heath's game. "Let them go, now!"

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Heath said plainly. "The thing is, they are the only ones of their kind and I need them to complete my series."

"Well, in that case, we'll just be taking them," Carter said, his facetious whimsy gone, he suddenly turned very dark, and he took a threatening step toward Heath.

"No, I don't think you will," Heath said, putting up a hand to stop Carter.

"And how exactly are you going to stop us?" Evan asked.

But Heath cackled maniacally and pulled out a syringe full of liquid. The barrel was full to the brim. Carter guessed that one more milliliter of fluid and the damn plunger would just fall out.

"You're going to dope us to death?" Carter asked. "No, thanks. I quit that shit a long time ago."

Again Heath laughed aloud. "This isn't for you, you fool. This is for me."

"I fail to see how you getting high is going to help you to stop us from taking our friends," Evan said.

"Ugh, you are quite the duo of insolent morons," Heath said. "Inside this syringe are the powers of over twenty Users, many of which were your friends. I believe you have seen what is left of them."

Carter and Evan looked to each other, knowing shit was about to go sideways.

"It's a compound of my own making. I may not have Ryker and Barber's powers yet, but I'm willing to bet that I've got enough powers in this little concoction to annihilate the pair of you." As he finished his statement with another insane cackle, Heath slammed the needle into his neck.

"Stop him!" Carter shouted and bolted toward Heath with an outstretched hand in an attempt to grab the needle, but it was too late, Heath jammed his finger down on the plunger and the liquid inside the syringe disappeared into his neck.

"Oh, shit," Evan said as Heath began to jerk wildly.

The scientist went into a fit, thrashing about, and slamming into cabinets and tables. Carter got too close, and Heath, in the midst of his wild outburst, threw an arm to his side, slamming Carter and sending him sailing through the air. Carter crashed sideways into one of the glass tubes and slumped to the floor.

"You okay?" Evan rushed over to help him.

"Yeah, I'm fine. The floor broke my fall," Carter said, pushing himself up to a seated position.

He rose to stand fully and straightened the sweatshirt Evan had stolen for him from a local department store.

"This is no time to fuck around," Evan said. "We're in deep shit." And Evan could not have been more right.

Carter gazed across the lab to where Heath was thrashing about, and the man's veins began to glow bright red. Carter and Evan could see his entire nervous system lit up like a Christmas tree. Light shot out of the man's eyes, mouth, and ears.

"He's going to explode!" Carter shouted. "Get down!"

Evan lifted a table from the ground with his Mover powers, flipped it on its side, and dropped it down between Heath and them. The radiating glow coming from Heath shone throughout the entire lab, blindingly so, and was quickly followed by a single flash that burst like the Sun. Even the darkest crevice could not escape illumination. It was so bright that colors faded away, replaced with a sheen of blazing white light.

And then it was gone. The room returned to normal. Carter blinked past the blotches that invaded his vision and peeked over the edge of the table to see if Heath had indeed exploded.

"Fuck," it was almost a whisper coming from Carter's mouth, which was left agape.

It was something to witness Carter even semi-speechless and Evan peered over the table edge to join his gaze, blinking rapidly in disbelief. Standing with his arms spread wide, a huge smile on his face, was Heath. The scientist blinked as well.