scripted reality (jay halstead / upstead / one chicago (cast))

chapter 3

I looked out over the dusty emptiness of the valley. Then I exchanged a quick glance with Mouse. He moved forward, covering me while I dragged the injured girl behind a rock. She was bleeding heavily, so I ripped a piece of clothing and tied it around her leg. She was barely ten years old. I picked her up. We had to get her to the infirmary. Quickly.

Bullets fired at me from the other side of our hideout caught me off guard. I dropped to the floor in a split second, protecting the girl with my own body while at the same time getting my rifle ready to fire back. How did they manage to circle us?

"You alright, Jay?" Mouse shouted, ducking next to me. I nodded, although I felt a sharp pain where I was hit. I couldn't tell if the bullet had gone through, and I couldn't be bothered to check either. "There's too many of them," I screamed.

I woke up drenched in sweat. It took me a second to realize that it was just a nightmare, and another moment to acknowledge that while I had been hoping I would wake up in my own bed to find I had been dreaming this past day, I was still in Jay Halstead's bedroom. What the hell was this nightmare though? Wasn't it enough that the whole world seemed destined to tell me I was Jay Halstead? Did I really have to dream as if I was this guy now too?

I knew my mind was playing tricks on me, but it fucked with my head more than I would have liked to admit. I noticed Jay's phone buzz on the nightstand and didn't bother to look at the caller ID before I picked up. "We got a problem," Tracy said on the other end. I ran a hand through my hair still wet from sweat and pushed my blanket away. "Last time I checked we had more than one."

Although I couldn't see Tracy, I could tell she was rolling her eyes. "The police commissioner called Jason," she informed me. "They want Intelligence on some top priority serial killer case." I took a deep breath. In all the confusion and worry the day before, we hadn't once considered that someone might ask Intelligence to work a case. But it was the most elite unit around, so what did we expect? We should have known this would happen. What were we supposed to do now? Keep acting like nothing was wrong? We weren't police.

"I'll text you the address," Tracy added when I failed to reply. I didn't like where this was going. Not at all. We couldn't just pretend to be Intelligence and start investigating a top priority case as if we were. But for now, I seemed to have no other choice than to get up and see what the day would bring. Maybe everything would look a lot different once I got to wherever that murder happened. Maybe we would finally find out what was going on, maybe they would tell us this was all a joke. I sighed. "See you there," I said.

I arrived at the scene the same time Tracy did. Once I got out of the truck, I handed her a cup of coffee while taking a sip from the other. An officer held up the yellow tape for us when we passed and entered the crime scene. Coming towards us, Lisseth looked at me in disbelief. "Day two of being a Chicago police officer, and you keep convincing me you really are Jay Halstead." I glanced at her, slightly puzzled. I had no idea what she was talking about. She rolled her eyes. "If Jay Halstead won't bring me coffee, at least Jesse Lee Soffer could." She let out a sarcastic laugh. "And don't tell me it's a habit."

I was startled for a moment. The more I reflected on things, the more they confused me. I had no idea what had driven me to bring coffee for Tracy, I didn't even know what made me walk into that coffee shop around the corner in the first place. How did I know it was there? What made me go inside? And why did it seem like the owner knew me? Why did everything feel so incredibly familiar? I hadn't wasted a single thought on what I was doing when I got coffee for Tracy and myself.

With a sigh, I tried to clear my head. First the nightmare, then the coffee. This was too fucked up; it didn't make any sense. What the hell had we gotten ourselves into?