It felt strange to be moderately free.
I was plain old me, trying to keep the panic at bay. This was a very bad idea. And all I had to do was take the police to Galgort - if I ever found it again. To make matters worse, the moment I'd signed the contract and gotten out, Jack was already standing nervously in the lobby.
I faced him, a grimace of embarrassment coursing through me as he stood, a large smile dawning his cheeks. No sooner had I been given the all-clear by Martin, he rushed over and enveloped me into a gigantic, unwanted bear hug.
He squeezed me tightly, crushing my damaged ribs into oblivion.
"Help!" I wheezed.
Thankfully, Martin was on hand to break us apart. He stepped his miniature self between us and stamped down with all his might on Jack's foot in a successful attempt to make him release me.
"You will not endanger our informant!" he stated firmly, pointing a finger at the reddening Jack as he stepped away from me. "We need him!"
When he'd reached a safe distance from Martin, his grin returned.
"Wipe that smile off ya face!" I scolded Jack angrily. I wasn't in the mood for his cheek right now, I was trying to figure a way out of this mess. The police had roped me into a dangerous mission, one a seventeen-year-old, cake-loving kid shouldn't be doing. If I'd had respectable parents and grew up in a nice suburban household, perhaps all this wouldn't have even started in the first place.
"Oh, little bro! What's gotten into you?"
"I don't fancy hanging around here any longer than I have to. Let's just go, okay?" I replied sulkily, my idealistic past running away from me as I replaced it with my reality.
I walked past Martin and snatched the wrapped sandwich and police tracking phone from his outstretched hand in one fluid sweep. I muttered thanks to him before heading past a nodding Jack. Somehow, as I strolled past him, he managed to wrap his arm around my shoulder and walk me confidently out of the police headquarters like he'd done it a thousand times before. A strange, peculiar feeling washed over me. It made me glad to see him again.
"So, what do we have to do?"
"Break into Galgort Medical Lab," I said without looking up from the cheese sandwich I was unwrapping.
I felt him nod in thought beside me.
"In any means, we can," I added, my mouth now full of bread and cheese.
"Right..."
I swallowed. "I'm just kidding. Do you still have your pass though? Could be handy."
Jack looked down at me. "I think so, but it's possible they canceled it."
"Maybe they didn't?"
"I highly doubt that."
"But it's possible. Maybe they think I escaped and kidnapped you?" I said, shrugging my shoulders.
He frowned down at me, raising an eyebrow. "Would you believe it if a teenager as careless as you managed to kidnap a somewhat violent older man?"
"No, I guess not," I said, more than a little disappointed.
"Right."
We continued down the footpath.
"So, how else are we gonna get in?" I asked tentatively.
"Who cares!? We're free, aren't we? We could just dump the trackers on a balloon and run off."
"I don't think that's quite how it works, Jack. Besides, we're criminals now and running from this will only make things ten times worse."
"Whoever said anything about running?" A sly grin moved across his lips as he motioned to an old war memorial tank sitting on a patch of grass on the corner of the street. "By any means necessary, right?"
"There's no way that'd even run."
"Wanna bet?"
"Yep, ten bucks."
Amused, I watched as Jack jumped the rope and ran over to the camouflaged tank. He clambered on top of it and began to fiddle with the hatch as I scanned the street in bemusement.
A greying lady strolled passed on the other side of the road. She pushed a trolley full of yellow blocks with one hand and wore a green eco-friendly Woolworths shopping bag across her back, full turtle shell style.
"Vegan cheese!" she called out. "Come and get your vegan cheese!"
"Vegan cheese?" I murmured, my face screwing up in disgust as I ate the last piece of my own real cheese sandwich. "How gross."
I turned back to Jack, smiling at him as he gave a short wave from the aging vehicle.
"Vegan cheese?"
"Fuck!" I yelped out in surprise, jumping back ten feet.
The little lady placed a tattered gloved hand on my forearm and grinned, making me retract from her grip. "Me name's Magpie, like the bird, but you can call me Maggie. Want some vegan cheese?"
She beamed, her teeth yellowing, no doubt from her diet of all-natural vegan cheese.
"N-no, I think I'll pass. Thanks."
"Ya sure? I've got plenty to spare!" she laughed, bobbing up and down in excitement. "Save the planet ya know. This stuff's rich in calcium."
I frowned down at her. "How can it be? There's no milk in it."
She waggled her finger in my face. "Ahhh! That's where you're wrong, young laddie!"
"How?"
"This stuff's rich with nutrients!"
"It's vegan cheese!" I exasperated. "Vegan. Cheese!"
She wavered her hand at me. "But you don't know that."
"Look, Lady–"
"Maggie."
I sighed. "Maggie. I just got interrogated by the police, I don't need a lesson on vegan cheese from some stranger too."
"I ain't no stranger mate," she reassured me, nodding her head so the grey wisps clouding her scalp waved like floating feathers. "Everyone knows me! Blimey! They all think I'm nuts!" she tapped her nose. "But I tell ya, if ya know what's good for ya, you'll keep away from them scientists."
"How–"
That's as far as I got. Out of nowhere, a pistol, black and shiny compared to the stack of supposedly nutritional vegan cheese, was drawn from inside her coat pocket and pointed straight at my shoulder.
"I knew it! You're one of them! Now you listen to me boy! If ya want ta live–"
And that's as far as she got. A loud explosion left our ears ringing, the tank on fire and Jack running back towards us Tom Cruise style. Magpie jumped out of her skin. Her finger pressed down on the trigger. A bullet splattered itself permanently into my shoulder.
I fell, rather slowly, to the ground, watching as blood oozed from the new wound. When the old war tank finally exploded, shrapnel flew over us, melting Maggie's trolley of supposedly vegan cheese.
"Whelp," I muttered to myself as my eyelids began to get heavy. "At least they'll be no more vegan cheese."
***
My body felt heavy. Too heavy. I moaned, feeling a burning sensation light up my shoulder like fire until it reached my neck. Sweat drenched the rest of my body as I lay strewn between a coffin of pillows.
Was I dead? Could Butch Green be once and for all really dead?
"Butch? Hey! Butch?"
Nope.
I groaned.
"Butch, buddy, wake up!"
Jack's repetitive voice slowly made a path into the depths of my brain. I forced my heavy eyelids to open and was met with a very concerned looking Jack. He peered down at me; his deep brown eyes boring into the identical replicates that were mine. I felt the sweat run down my face, irritating my skin. Was I still in the land of the living?
"Is he okay?" a voice I didn't recognize came through the haze. It was sweet, like a copper butterfly, and in a strange way, it fluttered through my brain just the same.
"You owe me ten bucks," I said groggily, pushing my head further into a pillow in an attempt to get comfy.
Jack chuckled. "I think so. Maggie said the wound was only enough to knock you out, and it doesn't appear to be septic yet either. Just a grazing in other words."
"Yet?"
An elegant hand placed itself on Jack's shoulder as a mop of wavy brown hair fell over Jack's broad shoulder.
"Here," the sweet voice said, handing Jack a glass filled with smooth liquid as I closed my eyes.
A cold splash fell on my face, making me sit upright in searing pain. I screamed at it, then at Jack for causing such a reaction from me. Both the anonymous girl and Jack stared back, wide-eyed and fearful.
"What the fuck!? What the fuck is happening!?"
"Woah! Slow down there Butch," Jack divulged, holding his hands out defensively. "You were shot."
My breaths became rapid as I looked between the pair of them.
Jack followed my gaze intently, realizing I was more than confused about the whole situation. He cocked his head towards her. "This is Hailey."
"You look like you just came back from hell," she said.
"Hi to you too," I muttered, holding my shoulder and wincing as I slumped back into the pile of pillows. "What is this? Where am I?"
"You're safe. For now," Jack answered.
"Oh, here dearie," a familiar voice said as they rounded the corner.
I gulped down the bile that rose. But it was too late and I emptied it out onto the carpet.
"That was good carpet ya know laddie!" the voice said. The fowl expression on her face made me throw up a second time. God knows why, but the vegan cheese lady who'd dubbed herself Magpie, strolled into the room with a plateful of, you guessed it, fucking vegan cheese.
"What the fuck! What the actual fuck?" I backed into the couch cushions, groaning in pain and trying to engulf myself further into them, despite the searing pain in my shoulder. "What the hell is going on!?"
"Butch, calm the fuck down. You're injured and you're stressing your body out!"
"Since when were you ever concerned in my welfare!?"
Jack reached forward, his hands pressing into my bare chest. "Since I've nearly lost you for a second time."
I glanced at him, the features of his face strangely calming. His eyes were the right kind of softness, and his jaw quivered ever so slightly with concern. When did he become so caring?
"What the fuck is going on!?"