Human Batteries

~~~~~Chapter 8~~~~~

~~~~~Chapter 8~~~~~
Daltin is half carrying half dragging a smaller kid with red hair, who looks like he was dragged behind a truck through a gravel parking lot.
He"s helping get the kid to the medical wing when he catches sight of me.
A spark in his eyes, he barrels toward me and gives me a bear hug, lifting my feet off the ground. Joy and relief fill me, my eyes blur with tears. I hug his neck. He pulls back and grabs my shoulders.
"You're okay."
"I'm fine. You, on the other hand, look like hell." He smiles.
"Yeah, you're fine. Where's mom?" He asks looking around. I hug him around the waist and sniffle. I squeeze my eyes closed, but I don't say anything. Daltin's face goes slack.
"No," he says. "Someone got you out. Why didn't they get her?" He forrows his eyebrows, and shakes his head.
"I was waiting for her when... -it's my fault! I should have made her come with me right away." I say, my voice cracking.
"Kat, stop it! It was not your fault. You got out, that's what matters," he says. I look at him. He seems different in a way. He's not the little boy I grew up with. He's becoming a man. Which is kind of weird for for me.
Then some nurses usher us back to the medical wing.
They fix up Daltin with bandages, and a few stitches. In about half an hour, he is all cleaned up. Ian approaches Daltin and I, as I'm getting Daltin to sip on some water.
"Daltin, it is good to see you back. You saved Arthur's life," Ian says with a friendly smile.
"It's good to be back, sir," says Daltin with a nod.
"Please, call me Ian. I think we're on a first name basis," Ian says raising his eyebrows at us. I grin and nod.
"Well, he recovered some information for us. If you two will follow me please," Ian says. He leads us through a small maze of hallways before we reach a meeting room with a projector on the back wall. Alex, Tess, and a few others are already around the meeting table. I sit in between Alex and Daltin as they do a little dude nod at each other. Guys always have the best communication skills.
"Thanks to Daltin and our previous team, we have more info on our problem," says Tess while standing beside the projector. "We now understand more about how their power machines work." A blue print pops up on the projector. It's a horizontal cylinder, the top half is glass and the bottom is black. It's large enough to fit a person inside.
"The Ants are using a chemical and the help of this machine, to create and funnel the energy out of a human host. I know what you're thinking. 'How is this possible'.But it's true. When this new chemical reacts with the human body, it can create a large mass of energy. They plan on using us as living batteries to power their community. This device simply extracts the energy from the subjects. We need even more information however. All their plans, info, blue prints, sorce, everything, is protected by a code. Luckily, we found a young girl in Nevada who is gifted with computers. She has volunteered to come down to help us crack into their systems. But why I really gathered you here is because, you would make the perfect team. All of you have heart, and guts. And you will blend in anywhere, keeping suspicions down. We need a good team young team like that. Alex, you're the oldest, would you do the honors of leading?" She asks with a smile. Everyone looks at Alex. He looks a bit nervous, but he hides it well.
"No," he says. "Thanks, but no." Tess frowns.
"I know you would do a fantastic job." Alex shakes his head.
"Well, Daltin is second oldest. So what do you think?" Tess says raising her eyebrows at Daltin. Daltin straightens up.
"Sure," he says. "Thank you."
"Fabulous. Well, this team needs to go get themselves a new member. Talk to your leader to find out what you can do to help. You will leave at dawn, Dixon will be your pilot. Dismissed," says Tess with a smile of satisfaction. Everyone except Alex, Daltin, and me in the room. I lean forward in my seat.
"What the- ugh," I say. "There's only three of us." Daltin stands up.
"I think she wants us to find other people to add. Like that girl in Nevada. We should start there."

Later that night, after dinner, I explore some back hallways of the underground bunker. Most of them are dark, with dim lights spaced along the dirt walls. The air is cool as I walk through the abandoned halls. I can't sleep, so I might as well take a look around.
I'm about to go right and keep going in circles, but some thing to the left that catches my eye. A dull metal door at the end of the hall. I approach it to find that it's already cracked open. I can hear the humming of machines inside. Carefully, I poke my head inside, then walk in. It would be pitch black, if it weren't for the moonlight streaming in from a hole in the ceiling. I can tell the room is full of equitement, it's all too dark to see any of it. So I go to the ladder leading to the hole in the ceiling, and start to climb.
I climb through a small tunnel of packed dirt for about ten feet, which engages some claustrifobia in me. When I reach the top the space around me opens up into the Arizona night sky. I almost fall back inside when I see somebody sitting about twenty feet away. I almost go back and leave them, but I know who it is. It's Alex. Maybe I should just leave him alone. I barely know him anyway. But I think we could both use a friend.
"Hey, mind if I join you?" I ask in a small voice. He jumps, and whips his head around.
"Sorry," I say. "It's just me." I step out of the hole, and walk over and sit beside him on the ground. He avoids eye contact, and stares up at the stars instead.
We sit for while, enjoying the warm air, the night sky, and a time out from all the messed up crap.
"Do you think there's something bigger out there, like God and stuff?" Alex asks me, catching me off guard.
"Yeah. I believe so," I reply still looking at the stars.
"Then why do people do all the horrible things they do? If He has the power, why doesn't He stop them?"
"He could, but He wants us to make our decisions. We have free will. Otherwise, we would all be the same, like robots," I say leaning back on my hands. "And human nature is just weird and a little messed up some times. There's a monster inside, and sometimes it wins. Why? What do you think?"
"I think-" he pauses and ducks his head. "I don't know actually."
"You've got time to think about it," I say with a small smile. "Is that why you came out here? To think."
"I don't like being down there. It reminds me of bad memories."
I don't say anything back, because I don't know what to say. So I just give a small nod.
"So your brother said we're good to go in the morning?"
"Yeah, by the way, why didn't you want to be the leader? You don't like to be in the spotlight?"
"I just know I'd suck at it. I've never had a role model, so I can't be one."
"You wouldn't suck at it. I think you would do great, and so did Tess," I pause, wondering if I should venture down this road or not.
"I grew up without a dad too, if that's what you mean."
"Uh, well, I never met my dad. But my mom was messed up. She would would literally forget about me." He bites his lip and picks at his fingernails.
"You don't have to talk if don't want to."
"No, it's just I realized I've never told any one about it before. Her boyfriend was a monster. He was a crazy control freak. Wouldn't let her leave the house, not that she really cared. He was always angry, and aggressive." He stares down in front of him. "He would hit her. And me."
The thought breaks my heart. I can't imagine a little kid, forgotten then beaten.
"A few years ago when I came home from school he was more angry than usual. The house was a complete wreck, a-and I couldn't stand it anymore. So I hit him back. It didn't hurt him, of course, it just made him more mad. I tryed to get my mom to leave with me, but she wouldn't come. So I-I just left. I left her there." He looks away. "That's not a leader, that's a coward."
"At least you tryed. You can't help someone who doesn't want it."
He just shakes his head.
"What good son would leave his mom to get beat up?" he sounds angry at himself now. "I could have stayed convinced her we had to go. But I just left her. I left her there with that monster." his voice goes from angry to sad.
I don't know what to say to him. There's nothing I could say to make anything better. It sucks to have a sucky life. No amount of "I'm sorry", can change anthing.
"You can't take blame for that. It's not on you." I pause and get him to look at me. His eyes are wild and full of anger, and sadness.
"Trust me, I mean it. You're not a bad person." I say raising my eyebrows. He sighs and looks back up at the stars.
"I want to thank you for making me stop when I got shot back in Montana. If I was by my self, I would have waited a while. But no one has ever really cared about my well being. That's the only reason I cooperated, 'cause trust me, I can be a lot more stubborn than you," he says with a sly grin on his face.
"No you're not. I'm more stubborn. I wouldn't have gotten back in car until you agreed." I say crossing my arms.
"Well, then I would have shoved you in the trunk."
"No, you wouldn't. You couldn't even if wanted to." He chuckles and shakes his head.
"Ha, you didn't deny it." I say with a smile.
We sit in silence for about another hour, until I go back to my cot inside. For the first time in the past few nights, I sleep peacefully.