Undisclosed (32 page)

Travis placed a hand against a wall in an attempt to steady himself as another wave of dizziness hit him like a flood. Everything before him duplicated and blurred. His body now felt as if was being torn apart from the inside, like a thousand knives cutting his internal organs. He screamed out a release of agony and rage. Staggering forward, sliding his hand along the dividing wall as a support, he felt his hatred for Kaine reach the boiling point. Another quick look to see the time he had left only added to his terror. Less than fifty minutes. He collapsed to his knees, his head falling forward. Droplets of blood appeared below him. He lifted his hand below his head and he stared as they splashed against his hand. He reached up to find his nose bleeding. The effects of the serum were in the final stages. He was so caught up in the shock he didn’t hear the sliding doors part up ahead.

“Travis.”

The voice?
He turned his head forward. His breathing had become deep heaves; the lights blurred the vision of what was before him. And then it immediately came back into focus. Standing before him. No, it was impossible. It couldn’t be. He shook his head, squeezing his eyes tight; it had to be the effects of the serum. He opened them. The figure was still there.

“Will?”

Travis couldn’t believe what he was seeing. He hauled himself up, leaving his bloody handprint smeared against the side of the wall.

“No—you’re dead.”

“I nearly died,” he said. “I was brought here and Kaine healed me.”

“No, this is just another lie.” He began hyperventilating, gasping for even a smidgen of air. Sweat trickled down his face as he lifted his gun towards Will in tormented rage. His vision of Will tripled with everything around him becoming like a hall of mirrors. His and Will’s reflections in the windows multiplied. He tried desperately to steady his aim with his muscles straining and his sense of balance becoming worse. More figures appeared beside him laughing—Deagan and Kaine with Billy and Seth behind them holding Jayde and his father.

“TRAVIS!” his father screamed out.

Keeping the gun still on Will, Travis reached into his pocket with the other hand and grabbed an ED5, clicking and tossing it ahead of him. After the flash he started to shoot but it was futile. A final attempt and then he blacked out.

Chapter Thirty-Two

The frigid water slapped Travis back into consciousness. A quick gasp of air and then spluttering as he breathed in the water that had hit his face. He coughed it out.

“Wakey, wakey,” Billy yelled, holding the now empty bucket in one hand.

Deagan grabbed him by the hair and lifted up his soaked head. “Can’t have you dying on us yet, Marshall. The main event is just about to begin.”

Travis had been hoisted up, his arms outstretched and shackled. Two of Kaine’s men came rushing in, panting and looking distraught.

“The other’s not there, sir.”

“Well, find him. He’s only one guy, for God sake.”

Unable to lift his head more than a few inches, Travis gazed around the room, taking note of where he was. He saw a sign that indicated they were now on level 2. Below him the others stood on a steel grated balcony that overlooked a vast subterranean tunnel full of thousands of human cryo pod chambers hanging in tiers, one above the next, extending back into the cavernous darkness. Steel catwalks wound their way around the hollowed-out rock and treacherous abyss below. Watchers were positioned standing on guard in various locations. He could just make out Jayde and his father standing off to his right.

Travis’s breathing had become deadly shallow; barely clinging to life, he was unable to muster even a word without feeling pain. All he could do was listen helplessly as Kaine spoke.

“You don’t know how long I have waited for this day. How many Watchers gave their lives in order to see us rise from the ashes that we were thrown into. No more will humanity continue to be imprisoned, powerless, confused and without direction, like lambs without a shepherd,” he said. “No, I will lead them.”

“Control them, you mean.” Jayde sneered in contempt.

He laughed. “You Guardians are a dying breed. You’ve fallen so far from those who originally came. Now you barely resemble them. Your kind once struck fear into the hearts of Watchers. Even with all your power you’re an embarrassment.”

He walked over to Travis, whose body hung limp. “He may be ordinary, but nonetheless he had courage, even if it was foolish.” He paused. “Pity, I could have used someone like him.”

He moved back over to the control panel and began turning and pressing on the touchpad screen. Chambers began to move like an assembly line.

“Soon, they will remember.”

With his head pounding it took all of Travis’s strength to turn his head. Twisting his arm in his shackle he could see he had only twelve minutes remaining.

On top of a white cloth spread across a steel table to his left, Kaine retrieved the two serums, identical except for their numbers: 225 and 231. He gazed at them and then turned to Scott, holding them up.

“One destroys, the other liberates. Both untested,” he said. “I would ask you which one is which, but after the stunt you’ve pulled—you’ll have to forgive my mistrust.”

Scott hadn’t taken his eyes off his sons; tears streamed down his face. He looked at Kaine with disgust.

“Why don’t you inject yourself and find out.”

Kaine laughed. “Will, step over here.”

Without any hesitation Will obeyed him.

“No,” Scott cried.

“Like I said, Scott, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”

He took serum 231, the one given to him by Wesley, and handed it to Will.

“Inject it into yourself.”

“Will, Will … NO!”

Will lifted the serum.

Travis strained his head up. “STOP,” he said. “I’ll do it.”

“Ah, see.” Harlan looked at Jayde. “I told you the boy had courage.”

Deagan snickered.

“I’ll be dead in minutes. If it’s the wrong one, I die anyway, and if it’s …. Well, you have my DNA. Just don’t hurt them.”

Kaine thought about it for a moment. His eyes narrowed while his head bobbed side to side as if he doing a mental equation.

“Well, that’s settles it then,” he said with absolution. “Will, inject your brother.”

Deagan grinned from ear to ear as Will walked over to his brother. Travis looked into Will’s eyes. It had been so long since he had seen him last. How ironic that it could end at the hands of his own brother. Will lifted the serum to Travis’s neck

“When did you become their lap dog?” Travis said.

For a split second, Will’s eyes met Travis’s and in that moment Travis could have sworn he saw his eyes well up.

“Will, no.” Scott groaned a feeble attempt to change his mind.

Kaine scowled. “Do it.”

No longer waiting, Will jabbed it into Travis’s neck. As if a million bees had stung him, Travis body convulsed. He thrashed around, his outstretched arms becoming rigid as though he had been pumped with an overdose of adrenaline. Seconds passed. Jayde turned away and began to cry as blood began to pour from his nose. Travis gave Will one last look. His brother stood with his back turned to Kaine and the others as Travis saw a tear streak down his cheek. He appeared to be struggling to regain the reins from whatever was controlling him. Travis let out a painful cry and dropped his head. Then his body went limp and lifeless.

* * * * *

Jayde looked up just as a tremor shook the catwalk. Its shaking was similar to a mild earthquake. Kaine and the others looked at each other and then ….

“Fire in the hole, douchebags.”

A canister hit the platform, rolled between Harlan’s legs and then let out a loud bang followed by smoke.

Across the room on the elevator platform, Ryan was standing kitted out in military gear, harnessed to a repelling rope. Beside him was Ty and then another figure landed with a thud beside them.

Mason.

Chaos erupted as both sides charged. Mason sent balls of fire hurtling towards them, while Ty showered them in rocks. Ryan began firing a submachine gun as if he had fired one all his life. Billy and Seth charged them, sending back a flurry of attacks and energy blows that warped the air into ripples.

Kaine grabbed Deagan’s arm.

“Get Will and the serum out of here.”

“No.”

“Training is over, son. Whatever happens, you must maintain the lineage of our kind. No matter what happens, promise me you will.”

Deagan grabbed Will just as smoke billowed up below them and equipment began exploding. The entire steel balcony shifted and partially collapsed beneath them, coming to rest at a dangerous angle. Kaine fell backwards, catching hold of the side with one hand and hanging precariously over the dark abyss.

“Father,” Deagan cried out.

Kaine gestured with his head. “The serum.”

The serum fell off the table and rolled across the grated floor heading for the edge, but Deagan ignored it. He began pulling his father up.

“Get the serum, quick,” Scott screamed to Jayde.

Jayde dived for the serum, her hands still entangled by her shackles. The grated floor ripped her clothes as she raked across it. She caught it just as it was on the tip of the edge.

All around them rock was falling, explosions as chemical containers caught on fire and parts of the catwalk collapsed onto cryo chambers, smashing them into pieces. Bodies of the sedated or unconscious were crushed or dropped into the cavernous abyss below.

Jayde turned, expecting Deagan to be on her but he had gone. Instead, in his place was Kaine. About to attack her, he suddenly collapsed. Scott had come up from behind him and struck him on the head with a piece of steel that had broken from the catwalk.

“Quick, help me get him down.”

“Travis is dead.”

“No, there’s still time,” Scott insisted.

Jayde tapped a few buttons on the control panel and Travis dropped down. Scott took the 225 serum and went to insert it in him.

Jayde took hold of his arm. “What are you doing?”

“It was never either one, it was the combination of both.”

Scott jabbed it into his son’s neck and stood back. Complete disarray was occurring around them as they looked for any movement in him.

“Come on, Travis,” Scott said.

Still nothing. More time passed.

“Come on, son.”

There was no movement; his body lay still.

Jayde touched Scott’s arm.

“Scott, he’s gone.”

“No. No.”

Scott began performing CPR on him.

“C’mon, son, don’t you die on me. C’mon,” he screamed out.

His CPR turned into full fist thumps on his chest. Travis’s body jerked with each hit but no life could be seen.

“Wake up, son, wake up.” His voice got louder.

Jayde pulled him back.

“It’s no use. Please, Scott.”

Scott fell back, tears pouring down his face. Exhausted and out of breath. Jayde looked at Travis. Memories flooded in of when she had first seen him, the hospital, The Black Hole, the cemetery, their first kiss and then how they held each other beneath the rain. Her head dropped, gunfire ringing out around her, rocks cracking and flames flickering, and yet everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.

The next face she saw was Ryan’s. He’d made his way over, still sending out a series of rapid shots. He looked down and stopped firing. His eyes moved from her to Scott and then fell on Travis. Ty and Mason were still fighting on the catwalks against a number of Watchers.

Kaine was still on the floor not moving.

Just as you would imagine a man would react to being hit with a bolt of lightning, Travis jolted upright, inhaling a large lung of air. “HUarrhhh …” What little light was given off from the fluorescent lighting was almost blinding as he regained consciousness.

“Travis!” they yelled together.

It was hard to tell who reached him first as they all leaped towards him with catlike reflexes. Scott wrapped his arms around his son, pulling him into his neck. Travis was still trying to get his bearings. The sores and welts on his body had vanished; even his grazes and larger wounds were gone. Travis sat gazing up at their relieved expressions.

“You scared the crap out of me. Are you okay, son?”

Travis nodded.

“I’m so sorry I got you involved in all of this.”

With her hands still shackled, Jayde took hold of Travis’s hand and squeezed it tight. Looking over his dad’s shoulder he glanced up at her, still feeling dizzy. He gave her a smile and rubbed his thumb across the top of her hand.

Travis was pleased but surprised to see Ryan grinning beside her.

“Dude, you owe me big time. Huge!” Ryan said.

Jayde jumped to a catwalk below. “I need to get these off,” referring to her glowing shackles. “TY!” she shouted, making her way to him. Ryan followed, sending off a few more rounds at those that were remaining.

Scott released Travis and stood to his feet.

“We need to find Will before—” Scott let out a guttural cry.

Before Travis could speak, a sharp metal object came out the front of Scott’s chest and then withdrew. He collapsed. Travis screamed out, raising his arm instinctively in the direction of Kaine, who now came into focus behind Scott.