Sixteen (ON HOLD)

5.3 That's What Friends Are For

Cole and Chief Tanner walked in an uneasy silence down the corridors of the hospital. Tanner had a shaky idea at best as to what direction everyone had fled to but it was enough to give them hope.

“I think Ginny and Dave went down that way, towards the operating rooms. I sent that drone in a black suite in the opposite direction.”

“I only care about Kate,” Cole interrupted. The hatchet hung down from Cole’s left hand, swinging back and forth slightly as he walked.

“I might be wrong about Cole. Psychopaths don’t generally fall in love.”

Cole flashed him a sinister look and stopped walking. “I already told you, I am Cole Parks now. And I never said I was in love with Kate.” He started walking again with renewed purpose.

“My mistake,” muttered the Chief. The last person he wanted to piss off right now was the new and physically improved Cole Parks, who could probably lop off his head with one swing of that hatchet, no problem.

A loud zapping sound raced down the hallway, followed by flickering lights and the smell of electricity. The two reluctant comrades looked at each other and then down the hall towards another large room locked up with multiple chains and padlocks. They approached the door with caution.

“Keeping in mind what they were hiding behind the last locked door, I almost hate to open it,” sighed Tanner.

“With the amount of chains and locks on this thing I’d say they aren’t trying to keep people out so much as keep something in,” Cole replied, yanking on the chains which bowed slightly but didn’t break. He took a step back and swung the hatchet once, it sliced through the multiple sets of the chains like butter. They slid over each other and through the door handles, landing in a silver pool on the floor. Cole slid them roughly away with his boot and yanked open the door.

Inside, the room was dark. Cole took one step through the door and stopped when Troy’s deep voice filled his head. The voice said, “Stop. Don’t come any closer. Don’t turn on the lights, just don’t move.”

“What is it son,” Tanner asked, not making any move what so ever to enter the room on his own.

Cole looked back over his shoulder. The hatred and anger Tanner had seen in his eyes before were gone. “It’s Troy. We need to cut the power, now.”

Without even asking why, Tanner got straight to work. He handed Cole a small keychain flashlight he carried with him, and left to find the breakers. With some degree of displeasure he realized he was starting to see himself and Cole as being on the same side of things.

Cole took the tiny flashlight and shined it into the center of the room. The floor was wet, the floor in the middle of the room dipped own slightly where the water pooled. Troy was seated on the floor, in about an inch of water, chains wrapped around his body. It wasn’t the chains holding him there though, it was the wiring attached to them, and all around him. Cole realized they were attached to the wiring coming down from the ceiling lights and were rigged to trip at the sense of any movement. One shock of electricity had paralyzed them back when they were running from the men in black, what this much voltage would do to Troy there was no telling.

Neither his human side nor his alien side liked Troy very much, but Cole kept in mind that he was running low on allies. “Where’s Kate?”

Troy’s head hung down, he was tired from the strain of holding still for so long. Without moving or speaking aloud he answered, “I think they took the girls to the operating rooms.”

Cole thought about the body bags with ripped up bodies inside and his stomach turned. His thoughts were pulled away by the sound of Troy choking back tears. His body quivered slightly, head still hanging down, eyes on the floor.