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Chapter 18
Kylan walked slowly through the halls, one arm by his side and one cradling the elbow of the other. Walking from the light of one window to the next made his mind image that the time in between in shadow and light did not exist. His mind kept wandering back to what Wade had said only moments ago. Had he heard that right? 'He couldn't possibly have said that name...'
He stopped at one of the windows and looked outside to the dull gray light of the moon surrounded by tepid clouds. Somehow, something reminded him of that night in the barn. 'Maybe it's the moon tonight?' he wondered.
He shook his head and mentally chided himself, remembering that this moon wasn't his. He kept walking, feeling the warmth flush over his face remembering how Blaine had felt against his bare skin. The sensation of bare, moist skin sliding slowly over his own...
Kylan hugged his arms across his chest tightly, and picked up the pace. 'Where the hell did he go?' he wondered, passing through the halls of the silent compound. He stopped when he arrived at the training simulation room that Tanessa ran. Kylan's mind wandered slowly into the past, until a blinking red light caught his attention. There was someone in the tanks. 'At this hour?' he thought, curiously, as he looked around at the tanks.
Sitting down on the control chair he toggled up the screens. "The safety?" his eyes snapped open, staring at the angry red warning message that appeared on the screen. 'What the hell? What the hell happened to the warning alarm?' he wondered as he reached up and pulled down the nearest floating control panel.
The displays from the various training grounds sprang to life on the screens as Kylan studied each one quickly, his pulse racing. If someone was in one of the training tanks without the safety.... Kylan pushed the thought aside and kept searching, "Why the hell isn't this piece of shit telling me which one's being used?" he growled as he flicked through the various tanks readouts.
Finally, he switched to camera-based surveillance from inside the tanks themselves. One by one the monitors flickered to life.
Wait a second? All of the training tanks are active? Each one showed the same tired scene; a dusty town made from mud and plaster. The buildings reached up several stories, atop cramped streets.
Was this just one tank or were all of them running this simulation?
Kylan's eye caught a flicker of movement, a glint of metal. Sparks flashed abruptly then were gone. Kylan's pulse quickened as he tried to adjust the cameras in one of the tanks to catch sight of what the hell was going on.
As the camera panned out, Kylan's breath caught, his mouth agape. There, in the courtyard, stood two figures each staring at the other with weapons drawn. What the hell is...?
Kylan zoomed in on the one man, "What the fuck?" he gaped, "It's....me?" His brow furrowed, "There's no way...Does he hate my ass that much?" he muttered, panning over to Wade's tired form, resting against a large, bladed weapon that Kylan was unable to recognize.
Wait! Shit he's bleeding.... Kylan looked back over to the other man; blond hair rustling in the dusty simulated breeze.
No. It wasn't him. Something about the man didn't look right. The bone structure of the face was slightly different and the eyes were a different shade altogether. But the resemblance........
He couldn't help but recall Selly's words. 'Didn't she say something about four of us?' he wondered.
The men were talking, saying something, but Kylan couldn't make it out. He turned and tried to find the floating panel with the volume adjustments on it. When he located it, he saw it, too, had a furiously blinking alarm light beside the readout.
Kylan's mind flashed back to the day when he, Wade, Tanessa and Hank were talking, and the safety alarm had sounded. 'Hadn't Tanessa said something about getting the safety replaced?' he wondered, pawing at the side panel, 'Hadn't it failed back then?' Something smelled like stale shit; there was no way that the replacement safety would have failed so quickly, much less without sounding a fucking loud-ass alarm in the process.
Kylan looked back at the volume control, shocked. "You've got to be joking," he muttered, after trying to adjust the volume with no luck. Surely, something as important as the safeties alarm wouldn't be regulated and routed through the same system as the volume control on the tank cams?
"Shit," Kylan muttered, cupping one hand over his mouth reflexively and sitting back hard on the seat. The cushions wheezed for a second under his weight as he glanced back up at the readouts and visual displays.
The blond man, who looked nearly identical to him, stared at the cam briefly and smirked. Kylan lunged forward, "Why that smug...!" his jaw clenched, and he slammed a fist onto the panel as the other man dove forward at Wade, the long blade he carried shining in the simulated heat and dust.
'Was this man real, and accessing the system remotely?' he wondered, 'Was he in the building, in one of the tanks? If so then where was the suspended body?' Kylan shook his head; there were too many unanswered questions.
He stopped and stared at the controls, feeling impotent, and frustrated. The cam in the tank where Wade was fighting for his life was following along with the action. With each lunge and twist of the attacker's blade, the camera moved and shifted and even changed location to keep up with the action.
"The hell-?" Kylan blinked, checking the controls-his fingers flying over the projected-light keyboard furiously. Surely that couldn't be real.
But nothing.
He was locked out.
He stared at the controls for another moment before resigning himself to watching the action from above. Watching and praying, unable to do anything. Only able to bear witness to the battle going on below.
He looked around and found the tank in question. Wade's mostly naked body was suspended in the translucent fluid with various large sections of machinery, reaching down from the ceiling, strapped onto his body.
Kylan could only watch as a long, fresh striation lanced up Wade's suspended body-Wade's, sleek and slender frame jerked in pain as the red line began weeping blood into the tank's fluid. Even with the fluid's unique healing properties, Wade would slowly bleed to death at this rate.
Kylan bit his lip and looked back to the monitor and to his imposter's smarmy grin. "Wade..." he whispered.
Allan towered over his lover's prone form and lunged forward, his blade eager to taste tender, young meat. With no time to spare, Wade managed to vault backwards, but not quite fast enough; the tip of Allan's sword had already skimmed over Wade's, now exposed, torso, leaving a fresh trail of red droplets over the sand. The desiccated simulated sand greedily drank in the liquid of Wade's suffering.
Wade landed in a crouch near the side of a nearby wall, his tonfas raised protectively to cover to now bleeding forearms. Reflexively, one arm reached down to press against the fresh wound.
Allan stopped and flicked his hand over the length of the sword, gathering up the crimson fluid on his fingertips. "Mmm," he sighed, licking the blood free from his fingers. "Even here you still taste fantastic."
"Bastard!" Wade spat a mixture of blood and saliva at the other man. "Still not playing fair, are you?"
"Heh," the other man laughed. "Playing fair, Wade? What's that?"
Wade steeled himself and pounced forward, his weapons slicing through the exposed side of Allan's torso.
Instead of falling back, Allan batted Wade aside almost effortlessly. "Hmm," he muttered, looking down at the wound. Even as he looked, the wound was already closing. With one quick wrench, he pulled the weapon free and tossed it aside. The bladed weapon hit the dirt, kicking up dust as it slid out of range.
Wade narrowed his eyes, gazing after the fallen weapon. He was having trouble breathing; it took him longer than he could afford to get back to his feet. He had felt something break when he had hit the ground and rolled. Sand now covered his wounds, clinging to the blood like little parasites eager to feed.
"Seems like you've been busy," Wade said, leaning forward, his one remaining weapon held out protectively.
"Why lover," Allan smiled, cocking his head to the side, "whatever do you mean?" His blade lashed out before Wade battled it back. The sound of ringing metal filled the area.
Wade tried his best to sneer, "It really was you that I saw when I was training in here before."
Allan just smirked and continued to circle the other man, sword raised and unwavering.
"You took out the safety back then, just to fuck with me."
Allan thrust the sword forward, only inches from Wade's face before Wade moved out of the way. "Now, now, love," he smiled. "If we had gotten the pesky safety disabled sooner, we could have saved this whole farce."
"Farce?" Wade asked, lashing out with the tonfa, but missing the other man entirely. His reflexes were slowed and he was struggling to stay alert. He was running low on strength, and had only enough left in him for one last surprise strike. His bare and bloody torso was heaved with each breath.
"Oh lover," Allan asked, his eyes spoke of a hollow concern. "Looks like your little so-called 'miraculous healing' bullshit isn't so miraculous, is it?"
"Fuck y-" Wade started but Allan had already moved. In mere seconds he had batted the tonfa out of Wade's hand. Allan's larger body spun effortlessly, landing a swift kick into Wade's chest, sending him sprawling up against the mud and plaster wall.
Wade opened his eyes to the sight of the tip of Allan's sword just inches from his face. He desperately wanted to sink into the wall right at that moment and vanish forever.
"Game over, Wade," Allan smiled, seemingly towering over him. "It took far too long to get you, but we always get what we want."
"....Wha...?"
"You had lost from the beginning. You just didn't know it yet," Allan smiled and kept talking, but Wade could no longer hear him.
A million images and thoughts flooded through his mind. The trips to the outer planets, all the boring and useless descriptions of the plane that he now called home. He remembered as the spherical transport melted around him, how the suit had crumbled on the descent to the planet. None of it made one fucking bit of sense.
Unless. 'Was it all really a farce?' he thought.
In an instant Wade had shifted down and brought his left leg up to the side of the blade in a sweeping crescent. Before Allan could register what was happening, Wade had already made his move.
Allan's eyes grew wide with horror as Wade's exposed flesh made contact with his body. A hissing sound escaped from Allan's bubbling skin as Wade pressed their bodies together in a bear-like hug.
"Gaaah!" Allan hissed, breaking Wade's grasp and stumbling back. He wiped the discolored sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. Allan's chest was open and bubbling, the black fabric was gone and holes began slowly eating into his body.
"Looks like you're starting to think clearly," Allan smirked again, struggling to hide his uncertainty, "for the first time."
Wade shrugged. His body was screaming, but his mind was clear. "Who'd have thought that little trick would work in the tank?"
Allan spat a yellowish fluid to the side, "Don't think that it'll-"
Wade didn't wait for him to finish, but lunged forward, his fingertips swung past only inches from Allan's face as the man leaped out of the way, just in time.
"Hmm. I wonder how long you can go on," Allan asked, trying to claw parts of the spreading holes in his chest together with his left hand. It would almost have looked amusing to Wade to see the other man trying to hook his fingers through once whole flesh and pull it together, if it hadn't been so heart breaking.
"Funny," Wade replied, once more leaping forward only to have Allan dodge out of the way again. "I was about to ask you that question myself."
"You're losing a lot of blood there lover," Allan smiled a crooked smile of pearly white teeth.
"Always the charmer, aren't you?" Wade said, blinking quickly as he tried to fight off the fuzziness encroaching on his mind.
"Even to the end," Allan tried to smile, the growth of the holes slowing. It looked possible that he would be able to get them closed in a few moments.
"I knew you never loved me," it was now Wade's turn to smirk, "You never even saw what was going on."
Allan jumped out of the way, taking slightly longer to react this time. "What are you babbling about, Wade?" he asked, "Are you done so soon?"
"I'm just getting warmed up, lover," Wade spat the word out as he finally managed to connect with Allan's arm. "It's you who's finished."
"Gaaah!" Allan yelled, slipping out of the grip. Instead of running, the larger man planted his foot and transferred his weight, sending another crushing kick right into Wade's ribs.
Again, something cracked.
By the time Wade's body stopped rolling, he could already feel the other man's presence above him. He looked up and squinted into the full glare of the artificial sunset.
"Now," Allan smiled, as another sword shimmered into existence in his hand, "what exactly didn't I see?"
Wade rolled over, blood smeared over his lips; dying them a deeper shade of crimson. "Didn't you ever wonder how Corrigan got there so fast?"
Allan's hand faltered, "What the fuck are you talking about?"
"Didn't you ever wonder why he was hanging around the base so much?" Wade smiled, squinting in the light. "How did he get there so fast that night when everything fell apart? He was such a high ranking officer," Wade pressed on, "Didn't you ever wonder why he came to our neck of the woods so often?"
Allan's eyes grew wide with shocked surprise.
"That's right, baby," Wade said slowly, laughing weakly. "Besides, he was better than you, to boot."
"You and that-that...old man?" Allan laughed. "He wasn't anything near your type. He-"
"He was so much more of a man than you ever were," Wade sneered. "Especially in one vital department."
"You're lying."
Wade pressed on. "That alone was enough to keep me feeding at the trough."
"That's a lie," Allan said, his voice was losing volume. "You're not... you weren't like that."
"How would you know?" Wade replied. "You were so busy in the field that you could have dropped dead and I wouldn't have even noticed."
Allan's eyes cleared for a second and his sword shook in his hand. "That's a lie.." he repeated. "I loved you. I-"
Before Allan could react, Wade had closed the gap and grasped the other man around the waist. Standing on the tips of his toes, he sealed the deal with a kiss.
The hissing of blistered flesh filled the air as the sword's metal hit the dusty, parched earth with a cacophonous tinking sound. Allan dropped to his knees, his eyes brimming with tears. "It's not true," he said, shaking his head as the clear tear droplets whisked away the diseased yellow. He looked over at Wade with pleading eyes, "Please," he gasped. "Please."
Wade stood above his lover, his own tears joining Allan's. He cupped his old lover's face and lightly brushed the matted blond locks away from his face with one hand. This time, however, the skin did not blister at his touch. Further down, Allan's body was slowly dissolving into a gross parody of a surrealist painting.
"You asshat," Wade nodded, smiling sadly down at his old flame. "Of course it was all a lie. How could I ever... I mean...." Wade choked back another laugh with more tears.
Allan too tried to laugh as Wade hugged his body tight against the shorter man's chest. "Why...Why was he around so often, then?" he asked.
Wade clenched his eyes tightly shut. "This can't be happening," he sobbed. "I can't lose you twice."
"You never really lost me the first time," Allan said slowly. "Even when I was a part of them, I was still watching you. You know full well they can't deal with strong emotions. Deep shit like this doesn't sit well with them."
Wade sniffled and swallowed hard before he spoke. "I know," he said. "That's why I had to lie to you. Corrigan and I were blood, actually."
Allan nearly choked as he laughed. Wade eased Allan to the ground. "Now I know you're lying," he smiled.
Wade shook his head. "No. It's true." He tried to smile through the tears. "We weren't on speaking terms for years. I suppose that's why he was hanging around. To try to make up for the past."
"What happened?"
"It's not important," Wade replied. "None of it's important, anymore." Wade looked up to the sky in time to see a wash of white and blue pixels descending down the length of the room.
Allan must have noticed it too, "Looks like our time is nearly up, love," he tried to smile. By now there was next to none of him left save for an impossible looking silhouette, and most of his face. But soon it too would start to fade.
"Someone must have started the emergency shutdown," Wade said, almost to himself.
"Wade. I," Allan started, "I never meant for this to happen."
Wade tried to laugh and cry all at once, "Idiot," he said finally. "No one meant for this to happen."
"We were supposed to make it through this. Together," Allan replied quietly.
The hand that Wade was holding was starting to dissolve. Wade watched the little pieces of white light that seemed to spill out of the other man with an ache in his soul. "I know," he said finally.
"Looks like I won't be able to make good on my promise to stand beside you," he looked over at Wade with those eyes that Wade remembered. "I always kept an eye on you, love."
The white and blue wash was getting closer by the second. Wade resented the dancing, flickering, and falling lights with every fiber of his being. He clenched his eyes shut; two tear drops falling on the other man. "We...." He was desperately trying to hold it together, "We never made that promise, Allan."
What was left of Allan's features were calm and his eyes looked still, "It was implied," he smiled. "It was always there," Allan looked up, "If I can. I'll...I'll watch over you."
"I'm so sorry."
He smiled that warm smile, "No. I'm happy that it was you who ended this nightmare. I could always see you, but never touch you. Never wrap you in my arms." Allan had shut his eyes now.
"Allan?" Wade asked, he was openly sobbing now.
"I held out for as long as I could. Until I had to come after you," he said slowly, "I... I never wanted to-" his voice trailed off.
"Don't leave me," Wade sobbed, as his old lover was nearly gone.
"Make sure he treats you well," he almost whispered. After a moment's silence Allan pressed on, there was so little of him left that it seemed impossible. "Wade?" he asked.
Wade sniffed, trying to hold himself together. He could feel the wash of white and blue brush against his back and the feeling of liquid rushing around him. He fought to stay in this fleeting dream, if only for a moment longer. "I...I'm here Allan. I won't leave you."
"You have to," he replied, his voice was somehow different. Almost distant.
"Why?"
"Because," Allan pressed on, "because they're already here...."
Wade's eyes snapped open. He could feel himself kneeling but his eyes were covered in a kind of film. Someone was shaking him, but his mind was desperate to retreat; to hold onto a feeling that he couldn't quite catch, like a dream right before you wake up. Once you wake up, it's gone. Forever.
".....Wade!" a masculine voice called out, bursting through the murky fog.
Wade tried to turn his head toward the voice, but everything felt like it was moving in slow motion.
"....Oh god!....." the voice continued, but he could only catch bits and pieces. "....Hang on.............going to give......"
Wade felt something cold against his neck, then a sharp pain. "Shit," he swore, reaching a large paw up to the side of his neck; only it wasn't a paw, it was his hand.
Everything felt fuzzy.
Wade reached his hand back and stared as half of the world seemed to lurch forward, meeting the rest of it that it had seemed to have lagged behind. He looked up, Kylan was standing over him, dripping wet and carrying some sort of med-kit.
"Are you...Are you with me, Wade?" he asked.
"Allan?" he replied weekly.
Kylan knelt down near the other man and looked into his eyes. "No. Just me, I'm afraid."
Wade swallowed hard, "Sorry," he said.
"Don't worry about it," the other man replied. "I had to shut down the simulation manually from the inside."
"Is... is that why you're all wet?"
Kylan nearly blushed as he tapped his finger against a clear syringe that he was preparing, "Actually, I had to get into the tank to put on a coagulant on your wounds or you'd be as good as dead by now." He stopped, and jammed the needle into the side of Wade's shoulder.
"Ow!" the dark haired man sucked in a deep, quick breath. "What's with that shit?" he asked.
"Sorry," Kylan replied. "With the emergency manual shut down, the necessary chemicals are not handled automatically by the training machine. I had to give them to you the old fashioned way."
"Ah," Wade replied, rubbing his neck. He looked down at his wounds and saw some sort of white sealant applied to the long scrapes and gouges. His mind looped back to each of the blows that Allan had inflicted with the slashing bite of his blade.
"Who was that guy?"
Wade looked around a little too quickly, causing his head to swim. "Sorry?" he said finally.
"The blond guy in the simulation," Kylan replied, "he looked so much like me it was kind of creepy. Was that Allan?"
Wade looked down, "He was someone from long ago," he said, his matted hair shielding his eyes.
"Was he real?"
Wade nodded, "I...I think so."
"This can't happen," Kylan fell back on his haunches.
"What do you mean?"
"Well," Kylan began, "For one thing he was infected right?"
Wade looked away again, "Yeah," he replied, "yeah he was."
"This is bad, Wade," Kylan said, getting to his feet and bending down to offer Wade a hand. "They shouldn't be able to get in here."
Grasping the offered hand, Wade suddenly became aware that he was only wearing a small pouch-like piece of underwear-and it was getting tighter by the second.
Thankfully, Kylan didn't seem to notice. He was already pulling Wade forward by the hand up to the side ladder and out of the tank. When they dropped down to the cold and sterile floor below, Wade stumbled and fell.
"Shit," he swore.
At once he felt Kylan's strong, warm hands helping him up. "Let me give you a hand with that," Kylan smiled, his face close, almost too close, to Wade's.
"Uuugh," Wade said, only able to manage a nod in return. Wade placed one arm over Kylan as both men struggled through the training room.
"Shouldn't we warn the others?" Wade asked, as they reached the end of the training tanks.
Kylan's hand stopped on the door. "I..." he started, "I already tried. Something must be wrong."
Wade's eyes grew wide. The realization was coming too late. His epiphany in the training tank was coming back to him as he whispered Allan's last words, "They're already here," he said as the door swung slowly open.
Kylan turned back, "What did you say?" he asked. The hallway just beyond was deserted. The light above was flickering and sputtering as they passed.
"...I" Wade began.
Before Wade could explain, a partially obscured figure moved around in the darkness just ahead of them.
He stopped.
Kylan turned to Wade, gently trying to pull him forward. "What is it?"
Wade's jaw tightened, "Just now...I-"
Suddenly, someone rounded the corner, just as the light cut out. Kylan moved in front of the other man, blocking Wade with his larger frame.
"Wade? Officer Jones?" A startled and weary looking O'Nassi asked, gaping back at them, "Wh...What are you two doing here?"
She looked down at Wade, "Why....Why are you?" she asked, blushing. She shook her head, confused. "You're hurt!" she said finally.
"Well, I..." Wade's voice trailed off but it was actually Kylan who stepped up to the plate.
Wade watched as Kylan started talking, replying to O'Nassi's incessant questions. 'We don't have time for this,' Wade thought but stopped, a soft nagging voice was once more tugging at him. It was true that he hadn't seen her for a long time, but something was wrong; her eyes didn't look right. 'Is it just a lack of sleep?' he wondered, 'or something more?'
"I'm...I'm just so happy to see someone else," she was saying to Kylan, "You're the first two that I've seen all night. I... I was so worried."
Kylan looked away, lost in thought. "This isn't good," he said finally. "We need to find the others, and set up communication with the mainland right away. Something doesn't feel right." His eyes looked serious and hardened as he spoke.
O'Nassi nodded quickly, "But I... I already tried the communications grid from my room..." she paused as if nervous to keep talking, "it seems to be out."
"Hmm, that's not good."
She reached forward as if to shake Kylan's hand. "Come on," she said quickly, "let's see if we can get into the officer's building and use their equipment. Something there should-" Wade pulled Kylan back at the last second.
"Wade?" Kylan asked, startled, looking back at him.
Without warning, Wade turned and hurled the Kylan out of the way as O'Nassi-or what was once O'Nassi-bloated up before erupting in a mixture of black and silver striations of loose flesh, and interlacing liquid metal. It reached forward, splaying out in a starburst shape that looked like a huge living net, or massive, mutant squid.
Although he had managed to push Kylan out of the way, he wasn't sure if it was far enough. Wade's eyes were wide and strained as he looked over at Kylan.
"Wade!" he heard Kylan yell, as his mind seemed to ebb away like water rushing down a drain.
************************************************************************ Author's Note:
The last few chapters should be up soon. Hopefully about a week or so apart as they've all been mostly written.
Thanks again go out to Kane for fantastic editing,
Cheers,
Gene