Remember More

Chapter 12

"Sir, I know I shouldn't disturb you right now…"

John remained still. His forehead was covered in sweat. Don't concentrate…don't concentrate…

The voices were almost on them. She could hear them down the tunnel, just beyond that first turn at a crossroad not a hundred yards from where they were. Yan glanced down. She turned off her flashlight completely. "Sir…"

John was getting through. He could feel it. He almost had it. He was fiddling with the lock on the door. Jiggling it around. Come on…open…!

"Sir…"

John swallowed. He was breathing faster. Open…!

"Sir…"

John licked his lips. …open…dammit!

"Sir…"

"Yan!" He popped his eyes open. They were wide. They were circles. "Stop saying 'sir'!"

He froze.

Solid.

Like a block of ice. He blinked.

Yan furrowed her brows at him. It was barely a whisper. "Um…should I call you 'professor' then?"

John could see.

He could really see.

In the dark, without a single flicker of light. And the pain was gone. And the blocked-ness. All of it. All gone.

It had come in an instant. The door was open. And now he could see…

Yan leaned in closer. "Sir…I mean…professor, are you feeling all right?"

Drenched in sweat and still breathing fast, John was all smiles and wide eyes. He was looking everywhere at once and taking it all in.

It was like swathes of colours and hues were now rushing in at him from all sides. He was caught up in an ocean of reds and greens and blues and waves crashed all about him. Everything was visible at once and all at once. But not overwhelming. It was detailed and organized and clear. If anything, it was like looking at things through a super infrared camera but better. Loads better. Kind of like if he had night goggles on. Night vision, then. Except this was much more clean. More precise. More focused.

He blinked a few times. As he became more used to it and had a better feel for what he was looking at, he could tell where all the walls were. And then the walls beyond those. And the objects there and structures and passages. So now he could see through things. Like with heat vision. Well, heat and night vision combined, then.

~~~

"Sir?" Yan reached out and touched him on the arm. Without the benefit of what he had gone through, Yan was still totally blind in the dark. "I…"

The voices.

At the crossroad. The two whipped their heads around.

Now they could see the men's flashlights. They flickered and flashed.

Yan zipped around and got behind John's chair. She got ready to shove it down the tunnel and away.

"Wait!" John waved his hand at her.

Yan paused. "What…?"

John could see the men clearly. Yan could not. Though the men were still a hundred yards away, somehow, John could focus his eyes and see them as if he was standing inches away from their faces.

Yan leaned in closer. "Sir…"

John nodded at her. "It's okay. They're going the other way. They're headed in the other direction."

Yan squinted her eyes down the tunnel at the men. "How can you tell?"

John shook his head. "I…"

John's cell phone rang.

John and Yan glared at John's pocket. They glared at each other. Peering out over to the men down the tunnel, they could see the company had come to a halt.

Now they were coming back toward them. Even Yan could see it this time.

Their eyes met again.

"Sir!" Yan shot out her hand, grabbed the phone from his pocket and turned it off.

John was looking back. He could see the men coming. He scanned all around.

Yan scuttled back behind the wheelchair.

John happened to look up.

Yan went to push.

"Stop!"

Yan rolled her eyes. "Now what?!"

John pointed up. At the ceiling. "This way!"

"Huh?!"

"Come on!" John jabbed at the ceiling again. He gestured for her to get on his wheelchair.

Without thinking, Yan climbed up to stand on the wheelchair's armrests. She felt along the ceiling but felt nothing but smooth stone.

The men were getting closer. Sixty yards.

"You got it?" John stared upward with his mouth open.

"Hang on…!" Yan cursed.

Even closer. Fifty yards.

There! She found it!

It was a straight line, not a crack, but a cut in the stone and so fine and perfect, you would've needed a magnifying glass to see it in bright daylight.

"You got it?"

"Hang on, I said…sir!"

Yan got a feel for it. She squared herself under it and anticipated the worst and it was, but though the stone tile was heavy, she could just manage it and lifted it, sliding it out of its pre-set, square position. She heaved on it some more and shoved it over to one side, like it was a panel in one of those drop-down ceilings you'd find in a room in most office buildings.

She clambered up.

"Yan!"

She twisted around from above and reached down through the opening, dangling her arms. "Come on, then!"

John reached up as far as his legs of lead would allow.

Yan gripped him by the forearms and heaved. "Ungh…!" She lifted him up and onto the edge of the opening. Grabbing him in several places that were not so lady-like, she yanked on her boss until he was clear of the gap. She replaced the tile. Now they were plunged into total darkness again. They listened.

Ten more seconds and the men were upon them.

And though Yan was in the dark again, John could see like it was day. He could see the men coming to a stop beneath them, exactly where the two of them had been but a moment before. He could see them through the solid stone.

The men stopped where they were for a second, standing around the wheelchair in a circle. There were eight of them. They examined the chair. They checked the walls in the immediate area. They checked the floor. All in all, it took them a good fifteen, twenty minutes and they discussed it amongst themselves, but in the end, they gave up. They had to. There was nothing to be found. Except the wheelchair.

Taking the contraption with them, the men began leaving the tunnel and headed back outside.

After they had gone and Yan could tell because the voices had stopped, she let out a long sigh.

John laid his head down on the stone to rest.

She reached out to touch his arm. "You're still here, right?"

John smiled. It was interesting, because he could open his eyes or close them right now and it didn't make any difference. "Yeah, I'm still here." He turned to her. "Thank you…by the way."

She scoffed. She fumbled out her flashlight and turned it on. It was still sputtering. She turned to him. "So, what do we do now?"

John took his time but he sat up. "That's easy. Now we keep going."