Chp. 47 “Deep Conversations”
The emotional turmoil was beginning to get to be too much, and as I watched Avery sleep I couldn’t help but feel it grow even more. My chest was aching, and even though it had only been an entire 48 hours, I still felt shocked that this had happened. I didn’t understand, and the doctors tried explaining the possibilities, but the more they explained the more confused and depressed I became.
They blamed it on the vaccine, and that Avery had been sick before that, that she had a weakened immune system. They told me she could’ve come into contact with someone who had it in the mall, and instantly my mind referred back to the two boys.
The photo booth, the bathroom, the food courts… there were just too many possibilities.
We were so close to the Bureau, so close to safety, and then she caught it just days before. I held my head in my hands as I listened to her breathing. Everything she did now made me worry, the weird breathing, the flinches in her sleep, the joint spasms. It had only been two days and I was already losing my mind.
I heard a slight knock on the sealed door on the far end of the room, it had a window but I had currently closed the blinds on it to give us some privacy. Avery was only allowed outside this room when she had a suit on, and she claimed it made her look fat so she refused to put it on. She didn’t want to feel like some manifestation of a walking disease, so she confided in this little room instead.
I typed in the security code to open the door and I saw Max and Gage, who were not allowed inside to see Avery. They both looked extremely worried, but I couldn’t help but notice Max’s electric blue eyes that seemed to hold a bit more sympathy than yesterday, as if this situation was wearing on him.
He sighed, fidgeting with his hands, “How is she doing?”
I shrugged nonchalantly, trying to push the negative thoughts away, “She’s just taking a nap. They’ve been giving her this medicine that makes her sleepy. It’s supposed to kick-start her immune system or something.”
Max peered inside before I let the door shut behind me, hearing the familiar click of the lock and the hum of the room sealing off again. I swallowed, feeling the lump in my throat grow from the looks that these two boys were giving me. I knew they were worried about her, and I knew that they were worried about me.
I was just grateful they hadn’t caught the disease too.
If I had to save not one but three of my friends… I would’ve already lost my mind.
“Roger’s been having us go through training, it’s a good workout, and you could really use a good stress-reliever.”
I was in no mood to deal with working out, plus I had just given more blood to Henson. They hadn’t located the hormone they needed but they seemed more enthusiastic today, which was apparently a good sign.
Maybe they were getting close.
Max rubbed my arm, “C’mon, it’ll feel good. I promise.”
Gage rubbed the back of his head, “I’m going grab a bite to eat and shower, you two go without me.”
The elevator brought us to our destination shortly, and I had to admit, the facility was pretty extreme and complex. I had never toured the third floor, but considering it was labeled Training/ Preparation Sector, I figured it had to be some type of physical and mental training. This place was built to support super-natural people who were running from the government and needed a place to stay. It was also a place that housed hundreds of agents, doctors, and people like Max and I.
They had to build to please, right?
Max and I passed a couple of people talking and helping out with body equipment but I just followed him like a zombie. I wasn’t really here, I was thinking of other things, simply trying to keep my mind off of Avery.
Then Max’s voice pulled me out of my daydream, “When my dad died, I always felt like I was never going to recover.”
I looked at him oddly, not expecting that sentence to come out of him. His dad had died over a year ago, and even though Max and I were best friends, he always told me he never liked to talk about it. I figured it was just easier for him that way, and he never liked talking about his feelings.
Until today, apparently.
He sat on an empty workout bench, and I joined him, waiting for him to continue.
“It feels like a whole part of you is being ripped out of your chest, like you can’t breathe and everything in your life just gets ten times harder. I never got to tell my dad bye, or that I loved him. It was just one day I was in a rush to school you know, and I grabbed a granola bar and ran straight out the door without telling him I loved him. He was sitting there, at the table drinking his usual morning coffee and reading the news, I could’ve simply told him, given him a hug, or something, but I didn’t.”
I could tell he was struggling with this, and I placed a hand on his back. He was fighting tears, and I continued to watch him try to swallow away that lump in his throat, the one that stings because you’re trying so hard to hold back the tears. I whispered, “Max…”
“He was the only one that ever made me feel normal, I mean my mom or Gage never rejected me, you know, but they weren’t like me. My dad was like me, same power and everything…”
He looked down at the cold, cement ground and seemed to continue to struggle with whatever he was trying to get at. I didn’t want to stop him, I had never heard this before, and I had always wanted Max to open up to me. He had always been very guarded even though he was the most care-free person I knew.
“Then he was gone, just like that, and I never got to tell him bye, or that I loved him. I had lost my best friend. But you know how I stayed holding on for so long Andy?”
I just looked into his blue eyes that were rimming with water. I could tell he was trying so hard to just hold them back, but I wanted him to cry, I wanted him to find some closure. I wanted him to talk about it with me, because I knew this whole situation had messed him up since day one.
I just wasn’t sure what exactly had brought it up.
I answered, “What Max?”
“You. You were the one that kept me holding on and fighting to stay above water. I couldn’t tell you how happy I was the day I found out you had powers just like me. I didn’t feel like a freak anymore, I didn’t feel like an outcast, I actually felt normal, and you became my best friend. And when my dad died I knew you couldn’t replace him, but you tried, and you tried hard for me, and we had barely had been friends that long.”
I smiled weakly, feeling my own tears start to emerge from my eyes. I felt all of the emotions I had been bottling up inside for the last couple weeks, ranging from the stress of meeting my real mom, finding out my dad was dead, and the chase on the highway. I felt the stress of hearing and seeing how this disease was spreading, and how they needed me to help cure it. I felt the sadness and the pain as I remembered when I had been shot, knowing it could’ve been one of my friends and they would’ve died because of me. And most of all I felt the sadness about Avery, and how I had tried suffocating the depression of her catching the BD3 disease, and how I was slowly going to lose her. There were so many things that were bottled up inside my heart, and at this very moment here with Max, I finally released all of it, and so did he.
He sobbed silently into his shirt, trying to stop the tears but I knew he couldn’t, not now that they’ve already started. I released my own sorrows, trying to comfort him and keep myself together at the same time, knowing we were both finding some sort of release. Max and I had been through hell together, it was what made our friendship strong, and I never completely understood it, but I didn’t need to.
We just worked well together.
After he re-composed himself he mumbled, “What I’m trying to say is, no matter what happens with Avery. Whether they find a cure or not, I’m going to be there for you, and we’re going to come out of this strong ok? And we’re going to save the world regardless, like we always talked about. More you than me though.”
I laughed then, along with him, and I knew I would never find anyone quite like Max, and I saw that as a good thing. He was a special kind of resilient, and he was strong, and although he was goofy and lazy, he knew exactly how to get the best out of me.
He always did.
Then suddenly, I heard a loud noise exit Max’s stomach and I grinned in laughter, trying to wipe the excess tears from my eyes. I spoke, “Someone’s hungry I’m guessing?”
He shook his head, “When am I not hungry, Andy?”
I shrugged, “Beats me, go eat, I’m going see if Avery’s woken up yet.”
He nodded as we walked to the elevator again, and he stepped into a separate one this time, allowing us to go our separate ways. He smiled weakly, “Good talk.”
I nodded, feeling an aching sensation that made me feel like I was still human. Although I was still sad, I knew Max was right. I knew we were going to come out of this strong, and no matter what the outcome was, we were going to fight like hell till the end.
That’s just the kind of people we were.
I stepped back into the familiar Lab that I had practically lived in the last two days and made my way back to the hall where Avery’s room was. Then, passing a room where a door was slightly ajar, I picked up on a conversation that was going on inside.
The male’s voice was faint, “Are you sure that’s a good proposition? I mean it’s a fairly broad claim that you can’t back up with much evidence.”
The urgency in his voice was the first thing that caught my attention, so I stopped immediately, staying out of sight. I listened carefully for the other voice that this man was talking too.
“It has to be, the evidence is here in the microscope. It’s the exact same Grey, the strands… it’s just stronger. Much, much stronger.”
I soon recognized the other voice, and it was none other than the Doctor Henson himself. He was talking to one of his other colleagues, but it seemed like he was the only one seeing the logic in his own claim.
“But why Henson, that’s the question you have to answer.”
There was a slight pause, and I peeked through the crack to see Henson and whoever the other dude was standing there over a large microscope. Henson was giving his friend a hard look, and then he muttered his last sentence.
“You and I both know the real reason. It’s been their motive for years.”
Then I heard footsteps approaching me, and I rushed off back down the hall to Avery’s room. I punched in the security code quickly, scolding myself for not having heard the last part of their conversation.
There was something weird going on, and I was going to find out soon, no matter how much sneaking around I had to do to figure it out.