Chapter 93 "AL"
Tommy shifted in his sleep as
he was jolted awake from a sharp pain in his back. He wearily opened his eyes
to see that his alarm clock said it was only 9 AM. His body felt bruised and
abused from when Hunter had thrown him across the room last night. He was still
very sleepy as he felt like he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep in days, probably
because he hadn’t. Hunter’s nightmares had been keeping him up most nights and
the last one was the worst so far. He was about to try to go back to sleep when
he noticed Hunter wasn’t next to him anymore. Shawn was sleeping peacefully along
side him and he didn’t want to disturb him as both of them had a very long,
hard night with Hunter. Tommy sat up slowly and saw Hunter was sitting at the
foot of the bed, just holding his lion and rocking back and forth. Tommy slowly
got out of bed so as not to disturb Shawn, and went to sit down next to Hunter.
Tommy put his arm around Hunter’s shoulders and gave him a hug then bent over
to give him a kiss on his head.
“You okay Hunter, how long
have you been sitting there?” asked Tommy quietly.
“Yes Sir, 2 hours and 42
minutes,” sniffled Hunter back. “I’m sorry if my rocking woke you Sir.”
“Don’t worry about that, it
didn’t wake me. Shawn and I were really worried about you last night, you sure
you are okay now?” whispered Tommy.
“I’m sorry Sir, I don’t
know,” whimpered Hunter.
“That’s alright Hunter, you
will be eventually. It just takes time,” said Tommy softly, as he reached over
to give him another hug.
“I’m really sorry about last
night Sir. I couldn’t help it,” Hunter said with a haunted look on his face.
“I know you didn’t mean to
throw me across the room and you can’t control your nightmares,” Tommy said.
“I threw you across
the room!” exclaimed Hunter horrifyingly, as his whole body froze up in fear.
“Calm down Hunter, you aren’t
in trouble, I’m not mad at you, no one is going to hurt you,” Tommy said
quickly pulling Hunter into his lap. After a minute, Hunter had calmed down
again.
“Thank you Sir, your holding
me helps a lot, even more than holding Lion. It’s strange, I didn’t think it
would help to hold Lion but the Shawn-sir was right. He told me yesterday that
sometimes his stuffed animals help him not have as many nightmares. Even when
he does have them, he said holding one helps him usually. It’s when they don’t,
that’s when he goes to you and just being by you makes him feel safe. Your
holding me makes me feel safe. It’s so much easier to ignore all the memories
of voices screaming in my head bad things and just feel safe when I’m with
you,” Hunter said tiredly with a yawn.
“I’m glad it makes you feel
good Hunter. Maybe you should lie down with Shawn and try to get some more
sleep?” asked Tommy.
“Please Sir, don’t make me go
back to sleep. I don’t want to sleep anymore the dreams are really bad,”
Hunter said in fear, trembling in Tommy’s lap.
“It’s okay Angel, I’m right
here,” said Tommy soothingly. “You don’t have to go to sleep if you don’t want
to. We better get dressed and stuff before we wake up Shawn and don’t forget to
try to cut down on the sirs.”
“Yes S…” said Hunter climbing
off Tommy’s lap making Tommy smile.
Tommy went to his bathroom
and did his morning thing. When he came back to the bedroom, he saw an
extremely naked Hunter folding his pajamas neatly and placing them on the
dresser. Tommy went over to the dresser, pulled out some of his clothes, then
bent over to get some for Hunter when he immediately straightened up saying
“Ouch.”
“Are you hurt Sir,” asked
Hunter.
“It’s just a sore muscle from
last night, nothing to worry about.”
“I’m sorry about that,”
Hunter said as he went over to Tommy and gave him a hug.
Hunter suddenly took a sharp
breath as Tommy felt a strange warmth suffuse his entire body. Tommy felt as if
he was suddenly surrounded by a bright white light that eased every sore muscle
and ache away. Tommy had never felt so peaceful and strangely loved as he did
at that moment.
“You just healed me didn’t
you,” said Tommy looking down into Hunter’s beautiful green eyes.
“Yes Sir,” said Hunter
breathing hard as he slumped against Tommy who held him up.
“Hunter, there was no need
for you to do that. It was only some bruises and sore muscles. I know how much
it hurts you to do that, so why did you?”
“I did it because I caused
it. You were kind enough not to punish me for hurting you to begin with. I
didn’t think it would be right to hurt you and not heal you. It won’t add much
more pain than I already felt from before, after the initial spike of pain goes
away,” said Hunter holding onto Tommy to keep himself from falling.
“You still hurt from before?”
“Yes Sir, but not nearly as
much anymore. It was about half gone,” replied Hunter finally standing on his
own.
“Thank you for doing that but
didn’t I already tell you not to heal anyone without my permission?”
“Yes Sir, you did. I’m ready
for whatever punishment you think is appropriate,” Hunter said softly.
Tommy turned Hunter around so
his back was facing him and very gently tapped Hunter’s perfect left butt cheek
and said, “There, you have been appropriately punished. Don’t do it again
please, I don’t want to see you in anymore pain.” Tommy then spun Hunter back
around and picked him up to gave him a hug and kiss. “I didn’t give you that
order so that I could control when you healed someone. I gave it so you
wouldn’t give yourself any more pain. Do you understand?”
“I think I do now,” Hunter
replied as he hugged Tommy and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Good,” said Tommy smiling as
he put Hunter down. “Now let’s get dressed.”
Tommy got some clothes out
for Hunter and helped him a little, as Hunter seemed to be finally getting the
hang of dressing himself. Then he went over to check on Shawn who was still
asleep. Tommy tucked the covers in on his Cutie and the two of them quietly
left the room.
In the kitchen, Tommy got out
a couple bowls of cereal for Hunter and himself. Hunter immediately started to
wolf down the dry cereal before Tommy had a chance to add some milk to it.
“Relax Hunter, no one is
going to take your food,” Tommy said.
“Sorry Sir,” said Hunter who
then started slowly to eat his cereal.
Tommy then started a fresh
pot of coffee for himself and sat down with a glass of milk for his Angel.
Hunter had gone through four bowls of cereal and three large glasses of milk by
the time Tommy had finished his first bowl and his cup of coffee. A few times
Tommy had to tell Hunter no one was going to take his food but otherwise Hunter
did very well with hardly any mess at all. A few of the boys wandered in and
out of the kitchen area looking for something to drink or eat while Tommy and
Hunter ate. Tommy acknowledged them with a wave or a few kind words but none
paused to stay for longer than a reply.
“A little hungry there, were
you?” asked Tommy kindly.
“Yes S…, I’m sorry if I ate
too much,” Hunter said a little worriedly.
“Don’t worry about that, you
didn’t do anything wrong,” said Tommy as he put away their breakfast stuff. “I
need to have a talk with
“Yes…, I’ll go do that.”
With that, Hunter left the
kitchen to go wander around the house and Tommy went in search of
“Hi
“Hey Tommy, just thought
since Cody and the rest of the boys would probably get here today, I’d set up
some beds for them,”
“You look to be two short
there
“Nope, Denny and Danny are
going to be in our room. Kate wants them close by to keep an eye on them. Plus
having them walk up and down the stairs might be a bit too much for them.”
“Good idea,” Tommy said.
“Well, if you still want to know about Hunter after last night I’m here to tell
you.”
“Thanks Tommy, I still want
to know. You know, when I got back to Kate last night, I had Austin and Jose in
my bed to greet me,” laughed
“Sorry about that,” laughed
Tommy. “It’s good to hear that someone else has some of the kids run to them
when they are scared instead of them always coming to me.”
“Well, I can’t say I really
blame them. Hearing Hunter last night made the hair on the back of my neck
stand up,” said
“Yeah it was pretty bad.”
“So, what’s the deal with
him?” asked
“Well as you can probably
guess he has had a difficult life to give him such bad nightmares.”
“Yeah, I figured that much
out myself.”
“What you have to understand
is that he’s been abused for practically his entire life. He was abused
mentally, physically, and sexually. That’s why there hasn’t been a night so far
that he didn’t have a nightmare. Last night was the worst one. I think it
happened because I talked to him about some of the things he lived through.”
“How bad was the abuse,”
“I only know some of it, but
imagine the worst possible abuse people are capable of doing and you might be
close to what actually happened to him. Some of the things that happened to him
I couldn’t even imagine anyone doing them before talking to him. He has some
very good reasons why he is so afraid but we don’t need to get into that.”
“I think I understand now. I
have been able to get a couple of the boys to open up to me and their lives
didn’t sound very easy, even before the comet. After the comet, some of them
were also abused in ways I never would have imagined possible. So, I think I
understand a little,” said
“I know
“I don’t know what we could
do to help you either. He seems to trust you completely and follows you around
like a little puppy. If you do think of something just say and we will do it.”
“Thanks
“Okay, but why?”
“I just might be able to do
something about the power and want to try it out before you do that.”
“That would be great but what
are you going to try?”
“I’d rather not tell you
right now. At least until I know if it’s gonna work.”
“Come on, you can’t just say
that and not expect me to be curious,”
Just then, Shawn burst into
the basement shouting, “Tommy!”
“We are over here Shawn,
what’s wrong?” asked Tommy as he and
“Come quick, it’s…”
Meanwhile back in Kate’s room
earlier that day.
After getting herself ready
for the day and making some breakfast for Bryan, Joel, Ben, Luke, and a few of
the other boys who were up then, she headed back to her room. There were two
lumps in her bed and she decided it was time for them to get up. She pulled the
covers off
Kate got up from next to
“Umm, Kate that’s okay, I can
go upstairs and take a shower there,” said an embarrassed Jose.
“Jose, like I told you last
night, the reason
“Okay then I’ll shower up
after
“Jose, there are over twenty
people living in this house right now, so we can’t waste the hot water. I’m
going to bathe
The boys just looked at each
other but then
“
“Okay Kate, I’ll go look,”
said
“Hurry up Jose,” Kate said.
“But…” Jose said.
“But you are embarrassed to
get naked in front of me and Austin, right?” asked Kate gently sitting down on
the bed pulling him over by her.
“Yeah,” Jose said quietly.
“You know I have seen you
naked a number of times already at the Mall.”
“Yeah, I know you took care
of me when I was real sick. You had to put me in those diapers and cleaned me
up because I couldn’t move.”
“That’s right, to be honest,
we thought we were going to lose you. I’m just so thankful that we didn’t and
you pulled through,” said Kate giving Jose a little hug. “So, there is no
reason to be embarrassed about this in front of me.
“I guess,” Jose said.
“Good, now get out of those
clothes and hop in the bath please.”
“Okay, Kate,” Jose said.
“
Kate and Austin then went
into the bathroom and Kate picked him up and gently set him in the water. Then
she opened the box she brought in and let
“It’s about time, I was just
about to send the Joe’s out to find you,” said Kate making
“I can wash myself Kate,”
Jose said quickly.
“I know you can honey, I just
wanted to help you get your back, that’s all,” replied Kate.
After washing his back, she
just sat back and let him wash the rest of himself on his own. When he thought
he was done, Kate pointed out that he hadn’t washed his butt or penis yet and to
do a good job with it or she could help him out if he wanted. He embarrassingly
declined her offer and washed those areas as she watched. Once he was done, she
helped him out of the tub and gave him a towel to dry himself off with. Then when
he was done, she wrapped him up tightly with another towel, hugged him close,
and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
“See it wasn’t that bad, was
it?” asked Kate.
“No, it was kinda nice,” said
Jose feeling good being held by Kate wrapped in his towel.
“Well, next time you have a
bath we’ll see about having it with just you and me. That way I can give all
the attention to you,” said Kate smiling as she hugged him again.
“That sounds nice,” said Jose
truly feeling loved for the first time in a long time.
Kate and Jose walked out of
the bathroom to see a very naked
“Alright monkey-boy, it’s
time for you to get dressed now,” Kate said to
Earlier in the poolroom…
Hunter was standing in the
poolroom looking out the big glass doors at all the snow outside and the new
snow that was coming down, enjoying the serenity of it. He was holding Lion, as
he had gone back upstairs to get Lion after Tommy left him. He hoped it would
make him feel safe like Tommy did but it didn’t help him much. Terrible
memories just kept intruding on his thoughts making him feel worse and worse. He
heard Mike come in the poolroom behind him so he decided to leave, as he wasn’t
comfortable around Mike without Tommy.
He turned around and started
to walk to get out of the room when Mike said, “You got some nerve showing your
face around here after all that racket you made last night.” Hunter just
kept walking ignoring him until he said, “Hey, I’m talking to you, you
little wimp!”
“I’m sorry sir,” Hunter said
after snapping to attention facing Mike.
“Yeah you are sorry, a
sorry excuse for a human being if you ask me. Screaming like that for hours
just because of a little nightmare. Get over it!” Mike said harshly poking
Hunter in the chest. “We all have them sometime. You don’t hear us carrying on
like you did last night. Well do you?” he said again violently poking Hunter in
the chest.
“No sir,” said Hunter quietly
immovable as a mountain, while tears started to form in his eyes.
“What are you crying? Are
you a little baby? My God, what a total pussy you are! What is wrong with you kid!”
said Mike angrily taking hold of Hunter’s chin and trying to lift it to make
the little boy look him in the eye but Hunter’s head didn’t move at all.
“Sorry sir,” said Hunter as
he clutched Lion tightly to his chest biting his lower lip.
“Look at you. You are
a pathetic little baby, holding your stuffed animal, acting like a little
five-year-old kindergartener. You probably need diapers don’t you. You disgust
me you fucking loser,” Mike said letting go of Hunter’s face.
“Yes sir,” Hunter replied starting
to tremble a bit as tears started to fall down his cheeks.
“Oh here comes the
waterworks. What are you gonna do cry like you did last night? What fucking
rock did that Tommy actually find you hiding under? You better get a move on
and get the hell out of my sight! Why don’t you go find someone to go change your
diaper? You freaking crybaby, you are just a fucking pathetic piece of
shit! Wa wa!” said Mike viciously, bringing his hands up to his eyes making
little crying motions.
“Hey!” shouted Shawn. His shout echoing off the poolroom walls. “You
stop that right now and leave him alone!” Shawn shouted as he ran over to
defend his friend. “Don’t you ever
say those things to him! If I ever hear you say anything mean to him again,
I’ll hurt you! You have no idea what he has gone through so you had just better
shut your stupid mouth up, you asshole! Why don’t you go crawl back under your
rock, you loser!” such was the ferocity of Shawn’s verbal attack that he
had backed Mike to the other side of the room, far away from Hunter who was
frozen in place just trembling in fear.
“What are you, his defender?
Look at him standing over there trembling in fear, he’s just a little fucking crybaby,”
Mike shouted back at Shawn pointing at Hunter.
“You better shut up, you big
fucker or I swear!” yelled Shawn.
“What are you gonna do to me,
you little pipsqueak!” laughed Mike poking Shawn.
“I’m warning you asshole!”
yelled Shawn stumbling back from the pokes Mike was giving him. A low growl
could be heard in the background, as Hunter was no longer trembling in fear and
Lion was discarded by his feet.
“What is he to you? Is he
your butt-buddy? You are just a
little baby like him,” taunted Mike. “You and him do it in the butt a lot,
don’t you?” The look that crossed Shawn’s face told Mike that he had clearly
struck close to home. Mike thought the idea of Shawn and Hunter together was hot
and he actually started to get some wood. He wasn’t about to show it though, as
it would give too much of his own feelings away.
“He’s my friend and you
better leave him alone you fucking asshole!” shouted Shawn poking
him back as others could be heard entering the poolroom to see what all the
yelling was about.
Kyle entered the room then
and saw the confrontation between Mike and Shawn, which everyone else was
watching in stunned silence. He glanced over at Hunter standing all alone on
the other side of the room and was suddenly afraid. The look Kyle saw on
Hunter’s face bespoke of a certain and very painful death to Mike, who Hunter
was staring at with murderous intent. Mike clearly had no clue of the danger he
was in or the amount of havoc Hunter could let loose, gone was the terrified little
boy and in his place was a cold-blooded killer. Hunter looked like he was
barely able to restrain himself from attacking Mike and only waiting for the right
moment to attack and kill.
“Get out of my face you
little loser, and stop poking me too, you little punk!” said Mike
through clenched teeth.
“What are you going to do
about it!” shouted Shawn poking Mike again as Kyle started to run up to them.
Mike’s arm went back to punch
Shawn in the face but when he threw the punch, Shawn wasn’t there. Mike was
confused, as he knew Shawn couldn’t dodge him that easily, when he noticed he
was flying. It didn’t fully register what happened until after he hit the water.
Kyle had barely been able to take two steps towards them when he saw a blur
from where Hunter had been move quickly over to Mike. Then he and the others
saw Mike fly through the air and land in the pool. Kyle realized that Hunter
was why Mike was flying. All the boys were in awe when they saw Hunter grab
Mike’s arm and opposite leg then effortlessly toss him into the far end of the
pool, easily a distance of over 20 feet.
Hunter was just livid as he
shouted at Mike when he surfaced moments later, “If you ever try to hurt my
friend again I will rip your arm off and beat you to death with it!”
“Hunter,” shouted Kyle as he
ran over to the boy. It was as if a switch had been flipped and the
cold-blooded killer was gone and the terrified boy was back. Hunter’s face
suddenly turned white and contorted into a mask of terror as the realization of
exactly what he did struck him. He fell to his knees and gave a cry filled with
such pain and fear that it made the hair on the arms, legs, and neck stand on
end of every boy who was there. Kyle went over to him and just held him gently
saying, “It’s okay Hunter, calm down,” but Hunter was beyond Kyle’s ability to
help. “Shawn,” said Kyle. “Shawn!” Kyle shouted finally getting through
to the stunned boy. “Go get Tommy.”
“What?” Shawn asked dumbly.
“No, no, please no blood
eagle. I’m sorry I didn’t mean it,” cried Hunter. “Don’t hurt me! I’m sorry! No
pressing please, forgive me, don’t press me, I’ll be a good boy,” sobbed Hunter
in-between incoherent babblings and cries.
“Go get Tommy, NOW! Run
Shawn, MOVE IT!” Kyle snapped as he continued to try to console Hunter.
Shawn ran out of the room
shouting for Tommy when he remembered Ben had told him earlier that he was in
the basement talking to
“We are over here Shawn,
what’s wrong?” asked Tommy as he and
“Come quick, it’s Hunter.
He’s lost it, hurry!” said Shawn in a panic.
Tommy and Bryan quickly
followed Shawn back to the poolroom. They heard Hunter long before they
actually saw him as it seemed like everyone was standing at the entrance to the
poolroom.
“Get out of the way, move
it!” shouted
Tommy finally saw Hunter
curled up into a ball on the floor, hitting himself over and over, as Kyle did
his best to comfort him. Tommy ran over to the little boy, reached down, and
picked him up into his arms saying, “It’s okay Angel, I’m here, no one is going
to hurt you, calm down now, I’m here, you’re safe now.” Hunter grabbed onto
Tommy and just cried his heart out. Hunter just kept crying something that
sounded like ‘no eagle’ over and over again but with all his crying, it was
hard to tell. “Relax Angel, I’m right here,” said Tommy gently rubbing the
little boys back calming Hunter down some so that while still crying it was
relatively quiet.
“Alright, what happened?”
said
“He did it,” said
Shawn angrily pointing at Mike who was still in the pool. If looks could kill,
Mike would have been dead many times over from the looks of Tommy, Kyle, Shawn,
Bryan, and a few of the others in the poolroom.
“What did he do?” asked
“When I came in here he was
saying mean and hateful things to Hunter about his nightmares last night. I
started to defend Hunter and tell him to keep his big mouth shut when he
started to poke me. Then I poked him back and he tried to punch me but Hunter
stopped him and threw him in the pool.”
Tommy was beside himself with
rage after hearing what Mike did to his Angel. Then, what he was going to do to
his Cutie almost made Tommy lose it himself and attack Mike. If it weren’t for
his pressing need to comfort his little Angel, he would have pounded Mike’s
face in. Easily sensing his brother’s anger, Kyle went to stand behind him and
put his hands on Tommy’s shoulders doing his best to try to calm his big brother
down.
“Is this true Mike?” asked
“Yes sir,” Mike said hanging
his head in shame.
“Is there anything you want
to add before I decide what to do with you?”
“No sir,” said Mike quietly.
“Then since you are one of my
boys, here is my decision. You can choose between one of four punishments.
First, accept from a half dozen to a full dozen strokes from my belt within two
days. Second, be grounded for a week doing as many chores as Kate, Tommy, or I
decide and receive a single stroke a day for that week. Third, you can
sincerely apologize to Shawn and Hunter, grounded doing chores for two days and
receive two strokes for those two days. Fourth, you can leave. So what’s it
going to be?”
“Well, I don’t want to get
hit with a belt again so I guess I’ll leave,” said a very sad, wet Mike.
“Just so you fully understand
what leaving entails, it doesn’t mean you can just move into one of the spare
houses up here. It means you pack your stuff, head out of town, and don’t ever
come back,”
“Oh,” said Mike despondently
with a sudden look of shock on his face, as he realized he would truly be alone
if that happened.
“So is that your decision,
you want to leave?” asked
“No,” replied Mike, “I’ll
take option three then and apologize.”
“Okay then you can apologize
to Shawn first in front of everyone right now, and Hunter after he calms down,”
said
Mike looked up at Shawn and
said, “I’m really sorry Shawn.”
“You call that an apology,”
Tommy said sarcastically.
“I said a sincere
apology, that won’t cut it,” said
“I’m sorry for saying those
things about Hunter, Shawn. I was just being a total ass for poking you like I
did. It was very wrong of me to try to punch you and I’m really very sorry for being
such a jackass. I didn’t mean any of it and hope you can accept my apology as I
really do mean it and promise to try not to be like that again. I’m sorry,”
sniffed Mike looking up at Shawn.
Shawn just stared down at
Mike until Hunter said something. When Shawn looked to Hunter, Tommy said, “He
said Shawn, you are supposed to say ‘thank you’ when someone apologizes to
you.”
That just seemed to drain the
anger out of Shawn so he said, “Thanks Mike.”
“Tommy would you or Shawn
like to give Mike his strokes?” asked
“No
“Okay Mike time to get out of
the pool. Go grab a towel and dry off some then go change into some dry
clothes. Once that is done go to the basement and I’ll meet you there shortly,”
With that, Mike got out of
the pool and left.
After
“You know it,” said Joey.
“Hey, enough of that,” said
Tommy as he got up carrying Hunter. “I don’t want to hear anyone making fun of
Mike because of this. He is already getting punished enough. You guys don’t
have to make it worse. Everybody understand?” said Tommy walking towards all
the boys who had gathered in the poolroom, which was easily half the house.
After seeing a number of nodding heads he said, “Good, make sure everyone knows
then. Now make a path, I’m taking Hunter upstairs to try to calm him down some more.”
With that, Tommy left carrying a still trembling and silently sobbing Hunter in
his arms with Kyle and Shawn carrying Lion trailing behind him.
Tommy sat down on his couch
with Hunter still trembling in his lap but at least he had stopped crying. Kyle
and Shawn sat down with him to try to do what they could to comfort Hunter.
“Hush now Angel, no one is going to hurt you. You are safe with me,” Tommy said
soothingly.
“But I was a bad boy Sir,”
sobbed Hunter.
“It’s okay Angel, you aren’t
in trouble,” Tommy gently said rocking Hunter in his lap.
“But I attacked the Mike-sir,
I’m not allowed to attack people without direct orders unless they endanger my
master,” cried Hunter.
“That’s alright Angel, you
didn’t really hurt him,” Tommy said calmly, gently rubbing Hunter’s back.
“Yeah and he deserved it,”
said Shawn vindictively, causing Hunter to tremble more.
“Shawn, that’s not
helping,” said Tommy holding Hunter tightly.
“I’m sorry,” said Shawn
giving a little hug to Hunter and giving him Lion.
“Now you have to punish me
because I was bad boy. I’m sorry Sir,” sobbed Hunter taking Lion and holding it
close to his chest.
“No one is going to punish
you Hunter,” said Kyle joining the little group hug.
“That’s what others have said
too, but then they do it anyway sir,” cried Hunter.
“Hush Angel, no one is going
to hurt you,” Tommy said trying to get Hunter to believe him.
“I attacked one of you, now
you are going to press me or perform the blood eagle to me. Please Sir, I’m
sorry I won’t ever do it again,” whimpered Hunter.
“What do you mean ‘press
you’,” asked Shawn.
“It’s just like it sounds sir,
you are going to put me into the machine that will push on me until my ribs crack
and you think I have learned my lesson,” bawled Hunter.
“Oh Angel, no one is going to
do that to you ever again as long as you are with me,” Tommy said comfortingly.
“Then what’s a blood eagle?”
asked Kyle in morbid curiosity.
“It is a punishment we would
get if we ever attacked one of the workers where I used to be, Kyle-sir. They
would use a power saw to cut our ribs by the spine and then pull them out
breaking them so that they looked like bloody wings. They would then pull out
our lungs and throw salt on us. Now you are going to do that to me because I
attacked the Mike-sir,” cried Hunter.
“Enough you two, that
isn’t helping so stop it,” Tommy said harshly to Kyle and Shawn. “Angel,
nothing like that will ever happen to you here.”
“But Sir, I attacked him,”
sobbed Hunter.
“But you didn’t hurt
him. All you did was throw him into the pool. I know you could have hurt him
really bad if you actually wanted to, but you didn’t. You stopped him
from hurting Shawn without really hurting him. All you did to him was get him
wet. So you aren’t in trouble, you didn’t hurt him, no one is going to punish
you, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Tommy said looking into Hunter’s
beautiful emerald green eyes.
“Really Sir?” asked Hunter
hopefully.
“Yes Hunter, I really
mean it. You aren’t in trouble, so no one is going to punish you,” said Tommy
gently looking into Hunter’s eyes seeing the spark of hope within them.
“Thank you Sir, thank you,
thank you, thank you,” sobbed Hunter. Hunter started crying again but this time
it was tears of happiness rather than fear. Tommy just gently held onto him
thankful that it seemed Hunter had finally believed him, that he wasn’t going
to be punished. Suddenly, Hunter clasped his hands over his ears saying, “Make
it stop, please Sir make it stop.”
“What is it Hunter?” asked
Tommy worriedly.
“The Mike-sir is getting
hit,” sobbed Hunter.
“It’s okay Angel, I’ll talk
to
“You heard that?” asked Kyle
unbelievably.
“He has really good
hearing Kyle, so yeah he heard it,” Tommy said holding onto Hunter who just
nodded to Kyle’s question. “Alright, I’m gonna take Hunter and relax in the
Jacuzzi. You two go do whatever.” With that, he put Hunter down and got up.
“I hope you feel better
Hunter,” said Shawn giving Hunter another hug and little peck on the cheek.
“Thank you Shawn,” said
Hunter tenderly, returning the hug.
“Kyle, after our soak, I’m
gonna take Hunter out again and no Shawn, you can’t come this time. I
will probably be gone for a few hours so can you kinda look after the house
while I’m gone?” asked Tommy.
“Okay TJ, come on Shawn let’s
go play some games,” said Kyle.
“Okay Kyle that should be
fun. We haven’t done much together lately,” said Shawn following Kyle out of
the room.
Tommy walked to his door and
closed it, then headed to his bathroom to start up the Jacuzzi. Hunter quickly
shed his clothes and neatly placed them on the dresser. Tommy sat down next to
the Jacuzzi taking off his own clothes when he looked up and had his breath
taken away. There was Hunter, in his nude perfection, walking calmly over to
him with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Tommy just quietly watched Hunter walk
into the bathroom and then over to stand next to him. Tommy sat there letting
the Jacuzzi fill up with hot water gazing down at the perfection that was
Hunter, hardly believing that anyone could be so beautiful. Tommy then finished
taking off his own clothes and gingerly got into the Jacuzzi. He then helped
Hunter get into the tub with him. They both lay back in the tub enjoying the
warm water and letting the jets of water give them a little massage.
“Hunter?” said Tommy softly.
“Yes Sir?” replied Hunter.
“I take it from how you said
it, that you have been pressed before.”
“Yes Sir, I was bad a few
times, so they squeezed me in their machine.”
Taking a deep breath Tommy
said, “Did they really do that eagle thing to you?” fearing the answer.
“Not all the way Sir,” said
Hunter softly. “They had to stop before they pulled my lungs out. They said they
didn’t have time to finish it but if I ever attacked one of them again, they
would finish it. Then they made me heal him, as his injuries were too much for
them to fix. So, I felt the pain of healing a man on the verge of death on top
of the partial blood eagle. When I passed out, they would shock me to keep me
awake to feel it all. I never hurt one of them again after that. None of the
others did either as they were required to watch me,” Hunter said quietly as
fresh tears ran down his cheeks from reliving those terrible memories.
“I’m sorry Angel. You didn’t
deserve that. No one did. Those were evil men who hurt you and nothing
like that will ever happen to you ever again,” Tommy said hugging the little
boy as close to him as he could, and kissing him on the head. His own tears of
anger and pain running down his cheeks after hearing a little more of what
Hunter had to live through.
“I have heard that before but
you are the only one I think really means it,” said Hunter turning
around to face Tommy, wrapping his arms around his neck, and giving him a hug
and kiss.
Tommy looked back into
Hunter’s eyes and saw all the pain and fear the boy felt all the time, but he
also saw a glimmer of hope hidden behind everything trying to work its way out.
It was then that Tommy realized just how much of a chance Hunter was taking on
him. Tommy realized how hard it must have been for Hunter to trust him and just
how much trust Hunter was placing in him. He swore to himself that he would
never do anything ever to betray that trust, no matter what. He wanted to
nurture that small spark of hope he saw within Hunter to grow into a raging
bonfire, to banish the pain and fear forever. Tommy just hugged his little
Angel tighter blinking away his tears. Tommy felt a deep sense of peace settle
over him. He just relaxed holding Hunter on top of him, enjoying the comfort of
just being with him. Hunter just laid there nuzzling his face into Tommy’s
shoulder feeling safe in Tommy’s arms. They laid there together for a while
just enjoying a relaxing bath.
“Let’s put a little bubble
bath in here so we can have a little fun,” Tommy said as he gently moved Hunter
off him and reached for the bottle of bubble bath.
“What’s a bubble bath Sir?”
asked Hunter innocently.
“Watch, I think you will like
it,” Tommy said smiling pouring some into the bath.
Tommy had to turn off the
Jacuzzi jets after a little as they were creating a lot of bubbles. He
then played with the bubbles with Hunter some, making bubble beards or bubble
hats. They both enjoyed it but after a while Tommy laid back to just watch
Hunter play with the bubbles. It brought tears of happiness to Tommy’s eyes
hearing Hunter laugh, giggle, and play. Tommy felt like his heart would break
as he watched Hunter innocently play with the bubbles. Seeing Hunter smile just
brightened up the whole room and Tommy realized it didn’t happen often enough.
Tommy felt so happy seeing Hunter smile and have a good time. Watching Hunter
blow the bubbles around and make little funny faces with them, gave Tommy the
hope that not all was lost for Hunter. He felt with a lot of love and
understanding, he could get Hunter past his terrible history and help him to be
a good person but it wasn’t going to be easy. At that moment, Hunter looked
like any other kid just playing in the bathtub having a good time with no
worries at all. Tommy then started to wash himself, as he knew they really
needed to get going to see Al soon.
“Okay Hunter, sorry to break
up your fun but we need to go see Al soon so you need to wash up,” Tommy said
when he finished cleaning himself.
“Will you wash me again?
Please Sir?” asked Hunter smiling at Tommy.
“Alright, but that’s all
I’ll do,” said Tommy realizing he couldn’t say no to Hunter’s smiling face.
Tommy then picked up the soap and washcloth and began to wash Hunter up. Tommy
once again marveled at Hunter’s perfection and laughed a little with him as he
tickled him. Tommy gave him a raspberry on his belly making Hunter give out
peals of laughter. This caused Tommy to feel even better knowing how good
Hunter was feeling. Once he finished, he helped Hunter out of the tub and dried
him off in a big fluffy towel.
“Okay, you are all done. Go
get yourself dressed now,” Tommy said as he sat down watching two of the most
perfect cheeks walk away from him. He then got up, went back out to his room,
and got himself dressed and ready for the rest of the day.
Morning at the MOA camp…
Other then the usual tossing
and turning, the boys slept through the night. Cody woke up once to check Denny
and he wasn’t any better as Cody used the back of his hand as a temporary
thermometer to check him. He put a cold rag on his head to try to help some and
went back to rest. On the brighter side, Danny continues to improve as he got
up to use the bathroom without any help. Right now at 7am, outside the RV, the
wind was howling and rocking the RV when it whipped up in a different direction
from the building that was protecting them. The windows were starting to
brighten as Cody opened his eyes and focused on the thin curtain covering the
window in the bedroom he was sleeping in. He pulled the covers back and a big
chill caught his exposed skin as the cold from the windblown outside air told
him the RV wasn’t nearly as warm as it was when he went to bed. Slowly, he sat
up, gave a big stretch, and then put his feet on the floor. Burrrr, more cold!
He opened the half-closed bedroom door and went to check the furnace in the
hall. The pilot light was still lit, so he went over to check the thermostat on
the wall. It read 52 degrees. He looked closer and noticed someone turned the
heat all the way down and the system was virtually off. He turned the heat back
up and it clicked on immediately. He then went to check Danny who was buried
under somewhere around 5 blankets where he slept. Then he checked on Calvin and
Phil, who slept in the bed where the kitchen table was. They were huddled
together with as many blankets on them as Danny had. At least the warm air was
blowing now. Cody threw on his boots over his bare feet. Then put on his heavy
coat and went to the door. The window had a covering of ice on it so other then
light he couldn’t see anything. As he slowly cracked the door, a huge gust of
wind blew into his face, and up around his PJ bottoms sending a definite wake
up call through him.
“COME ON ITS COLD ENOUGH!”
shouted one of the boys behind him still in bed.
“Oh hush!” he turned and said
before he exited the RV closing the door behind him. He hurried into the store
and the warmth from it made some of the chill in his bones go away. He hurried
over towards the bathroom to take his morning piss. Then after grabbing a roll
of paper towels off one of the store shelves. He washed his face and then did a
quick birdbath of his upper body. He then used the towels and hand dryer to not
only warm, but help dry himself off after he flipped the end piece around so
the hot air hit him in the face rather then aim at the floor. He went over and
found the coffee station. The coffee pot that was there was dry and had burnt
coffee in the bottom of it. So, he searched and found a good one and made some
coffee. Since there wasn’t milk, he used some instant non-dairy mix for his
milk and stood at the door of the store watching the sunrise. The fierce wind
blew snow all around the station making new snowdrifts just giving the outside
world a beautiful look in his eyes. He was happy to be alive at the moment. By
the time, he was done drinking and scrounging around for something to eat in
the store the sun had faded behind clouds as the wind quickly blew in some
snow. Before he was back in the RV, snow began to fall. He was once again
greeted by someone bitching about the wind and cold as he reentered the RV. He
went over and looked and Phil was looking back up at him.
“If you don’t shut up, I’ll
pick you up and throw you out into the snow!” he said jokingly.
“Gee thanks, some friend you
are!” Phil scoffed back.
They both giggled as Phil sat
up. Of course, this woke Calvin since Phil shook the bed by sitting up.
“Is it morning already? Wow,
its cold in here,” he said.
“Yes, I know someone turned
down the heat and it was 52 in here when I got up.”
“Damn, who did that?” Phil
asked.
“No idea, but you guys need
to get up and go do your thing. I wanna get going it’s already snowing out.”
“Great,” said Phil. “Another
day of fighting wind and snow. I hate winter!”
Cody and Calvin laughed.
“Hey I made fresh coffee if
you want. It’s inside the store, but there is only instant milk.”
“Yuck!” Phil said. “Thanks I
can’t wait to have some,” he added sarcastically, smirking.
As Calvin and Phil did their
thing, Cody went over to check Danny, who was still sound asleep through all
this. He shook the boy gently.
“Danny, wake up.”
“Huh, oh… hey Cody,” said Danny.
“Hey kid, how ya feeling?”
“Pretty good, hardly any
pain,” he said.
“Good, I don’t want to rush
you but I need to get this done. Let me take a look at your injury,” Cody asked
before pulling back the covers. “Lower your pants for me.”
Danny did this without question.
Cody took off the existing bandage and looked at his leg. It appeared to be
healing but still a bit sensitive. At least he wasn’t bleeding anymore and
there weren’t any other signs of infection. He put a new dressing on his leg to
cover the scabbing and then looked at Danny.
“Next time keep your
underwear up. You’re healing well. Maybe in a few days, you can start walking
without the crutches.”
“Or limping,” Danny added.
“Yea, something like that, go
get dressed and ready. We have to leave soon. If you go out remember its bitter
cold.”
“Okay, thanks,” Danny said.
“Like I couldn’t tell from how cold it is in here.”
“Well, someone turned
down the thermostat last night.”
“Oh… that might have been me,
when I got up to use the bathroom I slipped but I wasn’t sure what I hit, I
guess now I know.”
“Good job bonehead!” came
from the front of the RV.
“Shut up Calvin, I didn’t do
it on purpose!” Danny shot back.
“Okay, okay both of you can it!” demanded Cody. “It’s too early
for this crap! I’m going to check Denny and change his bandage.”
“You have fun with that Cody,”
said Danny.
“Gee thanks Dan, you are all
heart.”
“While you are back there, I
am going out to the store with Phil,” Danny said.
“Okay,” he replied.
Cody went back to the bedroom
leaving the boys alone to bicker or do whatever they were enjoying at that
moment. He pulled the covers off Denny and looked at the blood soaked bandage
on his shoulder. Some had seeped onto the towels he put under him just for that
reason. At least nothing got onto the bed thankfully, but that was the least of
his problems. Denny was burning up and getting worse. He could tell just by
looking at the pale boy. He went and got some ice, wet the rag from the melted
ice in the cooler, and placed the rag back on Denny’s head. He then went to
change the bandage. There was a lot of blood and pus flowing from it as he did
his best to clean it some before he put a new one on him. It was gross! Every
time he tried to clean it, Denny would yell out in pain, so he just wrapped it
back up in clean gauze. Finally, the pain and cold from the cloth brought Denny
back some and he opened his eyes.
“Hey bud… how you feeling?” Cody
asked him.
“Like I wanna die Codeman, I
feel like I am burning up. What’s my temperature?” he asked softly.
“I don’t know Denny, I have
to take it.”
“Well put the thermometer in
my armpit and add a degree to it. That’s how my mom did it as I got older, and
then she used my mouth.”
“Well, why don’t I just use
your mouth now since you are awake?”
“Yeah, well I wasn’t
thinking.”
“Neither was I,” Cody added.
Cody cleaned a new
thermometer, and then stuck it under Denny’s tongue. Three minutes later, as
Denny was all but passed out again he had a true reading.
“103.7 Damn that isn’t good
Denny. Denny? I guess he is out again,” Cody said aloud.
He put the cold rag on his
head and lifted his PJ shirt. Unsure if it was the right thing to do or not, he
left his chest bare and the covers off to try to lower his temperature since
the room was still cold. A level of panic set in as he left him and headed out
to the others.
“We gotta get out of here
now,” he said to Calvin who was the only one left in the RV. Phil and Danny had
gone inside the store.
“Why, what’s wrong?” Calvin
asked.
“Denny is up to 103.7 and
that isn’t good.”
“Then as soon as they come back,
we should go Cody.”
“Yeah, I know.”
A few minutes later, they
came back and Cody filled them in. Phil headed out to the plow to start it up
and warm it, and then he had to clean off the fresh powder that had collect on
it from the new snow that was falling. He came back about five minutes later,
cold and snow covered.
“It’s really coming down now.
We will have to be careful Cody, but at least the wind has died down some,”
Phil said.
“Yeah, I know. We’ll take it slow
and do our best.”
“Okay, we can go in a few minutes.
I am just waiting for the plow to heat up for me then at least I can see better
out the windows.”
“You want me to go with you
today Phil?” Calvin asked.
“That would be great, I could
use the company.”
“I’m getting around better
today, so I can keep watch on Denny,” Danny said.
“Okay, good, we all have our
jobs,” Cody said.
He went over and fired up the
RV. It started without a problem. He flipped on the defroster and wipers to
clear the windows that were a little icy. Then he went back to Calvin, Phil,
and Danny.
“We can go soon but we need
gas first,” he said.
“Okay, as soon as I go out I
will pull the plow over and fill up.”
“Good Phil, I’ll meet you at
the pumps and we can talk briefly about the roads before we leave,” said Cody.
“Yeah really brief, its
bitter out.”
“I know Phil, I know,” Cody
said.
They both filled the gas
tanks and were ready to go.
“It’s gonna be slow travel
with it coming down this hard Cody.”
“I know Phil, make sure you
and Calvin are buckled in, just incase. I’ll be a bit behind you to be safe. If
I need you, I will yell on the radio.”
“Okay Cody, sounds good.
We’ll go as far as we can before I need to take a piss break. I think we can go
a few hours. You said we aren’t that far away but even this close to them, it’s
going to take all day with the snow falling this hard.”
“I know Philly, I know. I’m
going inside I am freezing. I’ll be ready when you are.”
“Okay, I’ll toot the air horn
when I am set.”
“Good.”
With that, Phil headed to the
cab of the plow to join Calvin and Cody ran to the front door of the RV. Danny,
who was feeling better, was seated up front, across from Cody when he got back
inside. It was good to see him up and feeling this good. Both vehicles were nice and warm and after
being out in the wind blown, subzero snowy weather all night, any heat felt
awesome.
TOOT!! Went the air horn and off went the boys.
Back over at Tommy’s house…
It was around noon when Tommy
and Hunter came downstairs heading to the kitchen for a little bite to eat,
before they headed out to go see Al. They passed Mike already busy at work
cleaning the entranceway of all the shoes and coats the boys have left lying
around. Once in the kitchen, Tommy grabbed some Pop-Tarts and put them in the toaster
to heat up. Then he poured himself and Hunter a large glass of milk. When the
toaster was done, he put the Pop-Tarts on a plate and threw some more in. He
turned around to see Hunter standing by the table and just sighed.
“Sit down Hunter,” Tommy said.
“Yes Sir,” replied Hunter
taking a seat at the table.
“Here, eat this,” said Tommy.
“And try not to spill your milk.”
“Yes Sir,” said Hunter again
looking strangely at the food Tommy gave him.
“Hunter, what did I say about
you calling me sir all the time?” asked Tommy gently.
“Not too,” Hunter said sadly.
“That’s right. I want you to try
not to say it so much. Don’t worry you aren’t in trouble.”
“I’ll try S…” Hunter said.
“Good boy,” said Tommy making
Hunter shyly smile back at him. Seeing Hunter smile at him made Tommy feel
proud of himself, when only a few hours ago Hunter was a basket case.
“What is this?” asked Hunter
as he picked up the Pop-Tart and sniffed it a little.
“It’s called a Pop-Tart, it’s
not great but it’s also not bad. So, just eat it. They are easy to make and I
didn’t want to spend too much time making something,” said Tommy.
So, Hunter obediently started
to slowly eat his food and drink his milk while Tommy waited for the toaster to
pop up. When it did, he grabbed his own then sat down with Hunter. Tommy
noticed that Hunter had already finished his two Pop-Tarts, so he gave him one
of his and put another two in the toaster to warm up. When those two were done,
he gave one to Hunter and ate the other. Tommy was pleased to see that when
Hunter was done eating, he only had to tell him once that no one was going to
take his food. Also, that Hunter was pretty mess free for once. Though Tommy
had to admit it is a little hard to make a mess with Pop-Tarts if you just eat
them and not play with them.
“Stay here for a minute
Hunter, I want to go talk to
“Yes…,” said Hunter.
“Good boy,” said Tommy as he
left the kitchen in search of
He found him giving
instructions on washing the walls to Mike.
“Hey
“Sure Tommy, get to work
Mike,” said
“I was wondering if you could
not give him any more hits with the belt.”
“Okay, if that’s what you
want but I thought you were really angry with him from the look on your face
earlier.”
“Well, angry is putting it
mildly, but Hunter heard you and it really upset him. So if you don’t mind,
don’t give him any more please.”
“Really, I thought he was up
in your room at the time,” said
“He was,” said Tommy
realizing he was getting into dangerous territory on how much he should tell
about Hunter.
“And he still heard?” asked
“He has really good
hearing,” Tommy said lamely.
“This is one of those things
you would feel more comfortable talking about in private, isn’t it?” asked
“Yeah, it is. Sorry,” said
Tommy uncertainly.
“Well, I can’t wait to hear
this, and you might want to add how some of the boys say Hunter threw Mike over
twenty feet into the other end of the pool. Also, how he was on one side of the
room one moment, then the next he was on the other stopping Mike from punching
Shawn.”
“I was trying to work up to
all that earlier in the basement but we got interrupted and I don’t really have
the time right now. Sorry, but I need to take Hunter out again and won’t be
back for a couple hours probably,” Tommy said.
“I understand, just tell me
when you finally have a moment to sit and talk.”
“I will
“Good, I’ll be waiting for
that explanation and that power idea you were talking about,” said
“Well, Hunter and I are gonna
go check out that power idea. So, I’ll tell you about that when we get back too.”
“Okay Tommy, I’ll be here
waiting and I’ll keep an eye on him to make sure he doesn’t cause any more
problems,”
“Thanks,” said Tommy. Looking
over at Mike washing the walls he said jokingly, “Hey Warden, can I have a
moment with the condemned?”
“Sure, go ahead,” laughed
Walking over to Mike, Tommy
said grimly, “Mike.”
“Hi Tommy, I’m really sorry
and thanks for getting me out of those extra licks of the belt. They
really hurt, he hits almost as hard as my Dad used to,” Mike said unconsciously
rubbing his butt.
Looking Mike over and seeing
the evidence of dried tears around his eyes, Tommy knew those two hits of the
belt must have really hurt.
“You’re welcome, but I didn’t
just do it for you. I mainly did it because it bothers Hunter to hear
you get hit. So when you apologize to him, you can add saving your ass too.”
“I will,” said Mike softly.
“Good, because if you ever
pull a stunt like this again, I’ll let Hunter loose on you, he’ll tear
you apart. So, before you start picking on someone, think first and don’t ever
try to hit my boys or you are dead. Understand?” Tommy said quietly.
“I understand,” Mike said
sadly.
“Good, because I would hate
to see that happen. You aren’t a bad kid. You just do stupid shit, which gets
you in trouble. So, think before you act. It will keep you out of trouble,”
Tommy said gently.
“I’ll do that,” said Mike.
“Alright, I told the others
not to tease you about this and it’s only for today and tomorrow, then it’s
over. So be good.”
“I will. Thank you Tommy,”
said Mike as he surprised Tommy by giving him a hug.
“Don’t worry about it. I
better get out of here before your warden gets upset,” said Tommy as he gently
disengaged himself from Mike after returning the hug.
Tommy went back to the
kitchen and saw Hunter sitting exactly where he was when Tommy left. It was as
if Hunter was a statue, Tommy had never seen anyone sit so still.
“Come on Hunter, it’s time
for us to go.”
“Yes S…,” said Hunter quickly
getting up from the table to walk over to Tommy.
When Tommy was helping put
Hunter’s new winter jacket on, he saw Jon and waved him over.
“Hi Jon,” said Tommy smiling.
“Hey TJ, I heard it was a
busy morning for you,” Jon said.
“You could say that,” joked
Tommy. “I just wanted to tell you, Hunter and I were gonna head out for a few
hours.”
“Okay TJ, you guys be
careful,” said Jon. “Umm… Tommy?”
“What Jon?” replied Tommy.
“I was wondering, some of the
guys are asking me about Hunter and what he did in the poolroom and all. What
should I tell them?” asked Jon quietly.
“Nothing, tell them nothing.
You can also go tell Kyle and Shawn not to say anything either. I’ll think of
something to tell them when I get back,” Tommy said softly.
“Okay TJ,” said Jon. “I’ll do
that, do you know where they are?”
“They were up in Shawn’s room
playing a little bit ago,” Tommy said. Looking around and seeing only Jon and
Hunter, Tommy pulled Jon into a hug and gave him a quick kiss then said
quietly, “I love you Jon. Thanks for everything.”
“I love you too,” Jon
whispered back.
Then Tommy and Hunter went
outside to his truck and started on their way to go meet Al.
Over with Kyle and Shawn…
“Ha, take that you little
runt,” said Kyle as he knocked Shawn off the road in the game they were
playing.
“I’ll get you for that,” said
Shawn as he steered his car back on the road and shot a missile at Kyle’s car
hitting him.
“Hey guys,” said Jon as he
entered Shawn’s room.
“Hi Jon,” they said
continuing to play their game.
“Got you!” shouted Kyle as he
shot Shawn’s car enabling him to speed past him to win the race. “I won, I
won,” said Kyle doing a little victory dance around Shawn making Jon and Shawn
laugh at him.
“Guys, I wanted to talk to
you about something real quick,” said Jon.
After Kyle had calmed down,
he turned to look at Jon with Shawn.
“Okay, so what’s up?” asked
Kyle.
“Tommy wanted me to tell you
two not to say anything about Hunter. I already have had a couple questions
from some of the guys about what he did in the poolroom this morning. I’m sure
since they didn’t get anything out of me they will probably be asking you
next,” said Jon.
“No problem, we won’t say a
word,” replied Kyle.
“Yeah, we will just let TJ
answer those questions. I’m not sure how I’d answer those questions anyway,”
said Shawn.
“Thanks guys,” said Jon. A
few moments later he said, “I thought you were going to dress Shawn and them up
today or did you decide yesterday was enough?”
“I forgot all about that,”
said Kyle smiling.
“Jooonnn,” whined Shawn, “you
could have just kept your big mouth shut.”
“Sorry Shawn,” said Jon, but
it was obvious he wasn’t sorry at all.
“Hmmm, what should I make you
wear today?” said Kyle teasingly.
“Don’t forget Shawn has to do
something special today since you let him go out with TJ yesterday,” Jon added.
“Thanks a lot, Jon,” said
Shawn sarcastically.
“Anytime Shawn,” laughed Jon.
“That’s right you do owe me,”
said Kyle with an evil grin. “I think I’ll go get the other two and then decide
on what you will have to wear today. Be back in a few minutes,” laughed Kyle
running out of the room.
“You know Jon, sometimes you
can be a real ass,” joked Shawn. “If you kept your mouth shut he would have
forgotten all about it.”
“Yeah, but that wouldn’t be fun.
You guys lost fair and square, so it’s only right for you to follow through on
your bet,” Jon said.
“It was not ‘fair and
square’, he knew there was no way we could beat Hunter,” complained Shawn.
“That might be true, but you
still lost and you don’t want to be known as a welcher, do you?” asked Jon.
“No,” said Shawn sullenly.
“You think I can get him to bet me in a race?”
“Not if you plan on having
Hunter on your team. After this morning with the others seeing how fast he can
move, I doubt anyone will bet you in a race against him.”
“Yeah, you are probably
right,” sighed Shawn.
“You might be able to bet
Kyle on a shooting match with him. Hunter said he was a decent shot but I think
his idea of a decent shot is way different than ours,” said Jon slyly.
“You think we can do that?”
asked Shawn with an evil grin.
“If we do it right, I’m sure
we can con him into betting that he’s the best shot around. Hopefully Hunter
can take him,” said Jon.
“I can’t wait to try that. I
hope it works,” said Shawn as he sat with Jon waiting for Kyle to come back.
A few minutes later, Kyle
came back with Billy and Joey tagging along behind him.
“Now what should I do?” said
Kyle evilly. “Maybe I should make one of you wear enough clothes to look like
the Michelin Man so that you can barely move. How about making you wear your
underwear on your heads and some short shorts that are a few sizes too small.”
“What about putting them in a
diaper with a sash so they all can be Baby New Year,” laughed Jon.
“Jon, man he doesn’t need
your help,” said Billy.
“Yeah, shut up!” said Joey
making Jon and Kyle laugh.
“That’s not a bad idea for
the little one,” Kyle said making Shawn squirm, “but I’ll be nice and give each
of you guys a choice. Either you can dress in a girl’s dress with all the
extras for the whole day and then dress up as Baby New Year to celebrate at
midnight or you can do a little show if I can get Kate to put on your make-up
for it. Whichever one you pick you have to wear the panties and bra
regardless,” Kyle said with an evil smile.
“Oh come on Kyle, that’s too
much,” Billy said angrily.
“It is not, besides yesterday
all of you spent most of it in the pool and in your swimsuits instead of your
underwear like you were supposed be in. Even last night, you guys were in your
pajama’s and I didn’t say anything. So today, you can follow through
with your bet, or are you a bunch of chickenshits?” Kyle shot back.
“Yeah, but making us dress
like girls? Isn’t that kinda strange?” asked Billy.
“It’s no big thing, my cousin
said he and his fraternity brothers used to do that to the new pledges and lots
of other fraternities did it too. So I don’t see it as strange, I see it as
funny,” Kyle said reasonably.
“But what about Bryan and
Kate, don’t you think they will think we are a little weird to do that? Come on
Kyle, think of something else,” pleaded Billy.
“Not if we get Kate to help
out they won’t. I think they will just have a good laugh with us over it,”
replied Kyle. “And you guys didn’t have to bet me for the extra day after you
saw how good Hunter was, but you did anyway. So you all owe me and it’s time to
pay up,” Kyle said smiling.
“If we do the show, how much
make-up do we have to wear?” asked Joey quietly.
“You will have to do whatever
she says to make you really look like a girl and wear whatever make-up she
decides to put on you,” Kyle said knowing he was close to getting them to agree
with his idea.
“Please Kyle, make us wear
something else,” said Shawn trying his puppy dog look on Kyle.
“That might work on my
brother but not me Shawn. Now are you guys going to choose or are you just a
bunch of welchers?” asked Kyle.
“Hey! I’m no welcher,
but what you are asking is a bit much,” Billy said furiously.
“I’m not asking anything I
wouldn’t be willing to do if I lost a bet,” Kyle shot back.
“If that’s true then you
dress up with us!” Billy said angrily.
“But I didn’t lose the bet,”
said Kyle not liking where this was going.
“Too bad, since you don’t
think dressing up as a girl is bad then show us or are you chicken,”
said Shawn as Billy made chicken noises in the background.
“Yeah it’s only fair if you
do it too,” said Joey.
“How is that fair? I won the
bet,” Kyle replied.
“Yeah but you set us up in
the first place. You knew how good Hunter was before you bet us,” said Shawn.
“Yeah that wasn’t very fair,”
added Billy.
“Well I wouldn’t have bet you
something like that if I didn’t know how good he was,” Kyle said. “You guys
didn’t have to agree to the bet.”
“See you admit it. That
wasn’t fair. You knew we wouldn’t pass that bet up so you set us up,” said
Shawn.
“What’s wrong Kyle? You said
it was no big thing for us to dress up as girls so join us,” said Billy
forcefully.
“Fine, I’ll do it too then,
but here are the rules. You have to wear whatever Kate and I decide. You have
to do whatever is necessary to look like a girl and that includes wearing a bra
and panties. You have to let Kate put however much make-up on as she thinks is
right. You have to do a little show in front of the all the others and swish
those hips and whatever else Kate says to really sell it. You can’t just clomp
around in a dress. You have to model two different dresses so that means that
each of us is going to have to walk around showing off for a few minutes in
each dress. We all have to stay in the dresses until everyone else leaves the
showroom, wherever that is going to be. Agreed?” said Kyle.
“Agreed,” the other three
said.
“What about Shawn’s extra?”
asked Jon suddenly.
“Joooonnnnnnn, you are
killing me here. Can’t you keep your mouth shut over that,” said Shawn.
“Yeah, you got out of a
couple hours yesterday because you went out with Tommy. You need to do
something to make up for that,” said Billy.
“Okay Shawn, do you remember
that little song and dance you did for your kindergarten performance?” asked
Kyle with an evil gleam in his eye.
“Yeah, I think so,” said
Shawn hesitantly, certain he wasn’t going to like where this was going.
“Good then I want you to do
the little teapot song and dance in the show along with the rest of the stuff,”
Kyle said smiling.
“That’s really embarrassing,
can’t I do something else?” pleaded Shawn.
“Fine then you can streak the
house now and again during the show,” replied Kyle laughing.
“Okay, I guess I’ll do that,”
Shawn said bravely.
“Good, then strip down,” said
Kyle as everyone was watching Shawn.
Shawn took off his shoes and
socks first, and then his shirt and finally his pants. He looked at Kyle and
said, “Can I go like this? Please?”
“Nope, drop em,” said Kyle
unmercifully as Billy, Joey, and Jon were staring at Shawn waiting to see if he
would go through with it.
Shawn grabbed his boxers and
started to lower them only to pull them back up and say, “Alright, I’ll do the
stupid little dance.”
“You have to sing it also or
it doesn’t count,” said Kyle.
“Fine, I’ll sing the stupid
song too,” pouted Shawn.
“I knew you would wimp out on
streaking. You wouldn’t want anyone to know how small you really are,” Kyle
said having fun busting Shawn’s balls.
“Fuck you Kyle, I’m bigger
than Hunter,” Shawn said trying to salvage some dignity.
“That’s not exactly saying
much Shawn, he’s kinda small down there,” said Joey.
“What, have you been checking
him out?” asked Kyle laughing.
“No, but with his suit coming
off all the time yesterday and him not liking clothes, it was kinda hard not
to notice,” Joey said.
“And how do you know how
small Shawn is?” inquired Billy.
“Hey, I’m not that
small,” said Shawn indignantly.
“Duh, we have been best
friends for years. It’s not like we haven’t seen each other before,” said Kyle
making Shawn blush as he put his clothes back on.
“Hey, all he has to do is a
little song and dance? That’s not fair,” said Joey.
“Yeah, he was gone for hours.
Make him do something else too,” said Billy.
“Sorry Shawn, but they are
right,” said Kyle trying to sound sympathetic.
“You certainly don’t sound
it,” said Shawn sullenly.
“I know,” laughed Kyle making
the other laugh with him. “Sorry but it’s funny.”
“Not to me,” said Shawn.
“You’d be laughing too if it
was one of us,” said Billy.
“Well what else do I have to
do?” asked Shawn irritability.
“Okay at 11:30 tonight you
have to dress up as Baby New Year until at least 12:30 AM,” laughed Kyle.
“Yeah that’s good,” laughed
Jon.
“Shut up Jon,” giggled Shawn
as the others laughter was infectious and he finally joined in with them.
Kyle then left them to go
find Kate to talk her into this.
Back over to Tommy and
Hunter…
It took Tommy a good thirty
minutes to reach the gates to the business complex that housed Al. He followed
Hunter’s directions even though with all the snow, he could hardly tell where
the road was. Whenever he got a little too close to the edge of the road, Hunter
would tell him to move a little to the right or left, as he seemed to know
exactly where the edge was. Once Hunter had him turn and it looked like Tommy
was going into the woods but the road was there even if Tommy couldn’t see it.
The plow came in handy a few times to go through some snow drifts that were a
couple feet deep before he got back to the regular 6 inches of snow that was
covering the ground. Tommy could clearly see the road behind him after he
plowed it but in front of him was a seemingly endless expanse of white with
trees popping out of it. When he did arrive at the gate, it was an imposing
structure. Ten feet tall with razor wire on top and thick metal gates, a fence
was attached to it and it went off in the distance in both directions. He saw
two other fences behind the first one, each with razor wire on top and their
own gates.
“This is strange Sir. Al
should have opened the gate for us,” said Hunter.
“Well, what do you think we
should do?” asked Tommy.
“I’ll go open them,” Hunter
said. He got out of the truck, went to the little control panel next to the
gate, entered a code, and all three gates opened for them. Hunter got back into
the truck and Tommy started to drive forward into the complex.
“Why the three fences?” asked
Tommy.
“In-between the first two tall
fences, they used to have geese roam around,” Hunter said scanning the area
around them for any sign as to why Al didn’t open the gates.
“Geese, why geese?” asked
Tommy.
“Geese can be very territorial
and would make a lot of noise if someone tried to get through the first fence.
Plus, if anyone made it through or over the first fence the geese would attack
them giving the facility more time to deploy its defenders.”
“What’s between the other second
and third fence then?”
“Actually, if you look
closely you will see a smaller fence between the first and second tall fence.
The small fence kept the geese away from the second tall fence. That fence was
electrified enough to kill most people if they touched it. Between that fence
and the last fence is a minefield Sir,” Hunter said simply.
“They didn’t really like
company then I guess,” joked Tommy.
“Yes Sir, they didn’t want
anyone to enter their complex that wasn’t supposed to,” said Hunter seriously.
“It looks like someone liked
Star Wars,” Tommy said seeing a couple dozen large statues that looked like
R2-D2’s scattered around the front of the complex as he slowly drove up the
long driveway.
“Those are actually weapons
systems Sir,” Hunter told Tommy.
“What?” asked Tommy.
“Some people called them
R2-D2s Sir, but actually within each of those statues a C-RAM or
Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar initiative is housed. They can fire three to
four thousand rounds a minute at a target. The water fountains you see
scattered around the grounds will actually go up to let an experimental
anti-personnel laser Gatling gun be deployed if necessary. The R2-D2s have
enough rounds in them to fire for about an hour and the lasers can last as long
as the fusion reactor maintains power, which I have been told, is about ten
thousand years. The benches will go up to allow the Particle Projection Cannon
turrets to fire at any large targets that might get close. There are also a
number of pop-up laser turrets close to the building itself.”
“Particle projection cannon,
what is that?” asked Tommy amazed at all the hidden defenses he never would
have noticed if Hunter hadn’t pointed them out to him.
“A Particle Projection Cannon
shoots ball lightning Sir. It was also called a PPC. It’s not very accurate at
long range, but it is extremely devastating if it hits something before it
dissipated too much. It can vaporize a tank at close range.”
Tommy then continued his slow
drive up the winding road to what initially looked like a fair sized office
building.
“Look over there Sir,” said
Hunter excitedly. “See that big oak tree with the bench overlooking the pond?”
“Yep, I see it,” said Tommy
stopping the truck and looking at where Hunter was pointing.
“That’s where I buried the
old man and the other experiments that survived the comet initially but died in
the madness afterwards,” said Hunter happily. “I thought they might like it
there, as it’s a nice place that I have since used to go sit down and relax at
or sometimes to just think.”
In the distance, Tommy could
make out what looked like five tombstones by the tree poking out of the snow.
“That’s very nice Hunter,” said Tommy.
“Over there is where I buried
the scientists and other workers that died that day,” said Hunter pointing to
another area that had around two dozen tombstones showing. As Tommy continued
to follow the road to the building Hunter said pointing, “And over there is
where I buried all those you called half-baked that were in the area Sir.”
Tommy stopped the truck and
just stared. There must have been over a hundred tombstones set up in nice neat
lines.
“How many are there?” said
Tommy bewildered.
“One hundred and eight so
far, I have another twelve graves dug in case any more show up though. It’s a
lot more difficult to dig a grave when the ground is frozen,” Hunter said
calmly.
Tommy then just drove the
rest of the way to the building. It was a rather large three-story office
building. It didn’t look dangerous but Tommy was certain there were any number
of other hidden defenses around it. Once they had reached the front door both
of them got out of the truck and walked up to the door.
“Al, it’s me. Open up,” said
Hunter. When nothing happened, he walked over to a panel by the door and keyed
in a code and said, “Something is wrong Sir. We should be very careful until we
find out what is going on. Maybe I should check this out alone first Sir,”
Hunter said cautiously.
“No Hunter, I’ll come with,”
said Tommy pulling out his handgun and checking to make sure it was loaded then
chambered a round.
“Yes Sir,” said Hunter.
Hunter then opened the door
and they both were assaulted by a blast of noise. It sounded like typical
elevator music but it was turned up really loud. Tommy then noticed a strong
scent of pepper in the air and saw Hunter cover his nose for a moment. They
both cautiously entered the building when suddenly Tommy felt Hunter tackle him
to the ground. Tommy then heard a BAM, BAMBAMBAM, BOOM, BAM, BAMBAM, BOOM,
BAMBAMBAM, BAM, BOOM as gunfire erupted around them. Bullets whizzed around
Tommy and went through the spot he was a moment ago and would have surely hit
him except Hunter had tackled him and knocked him behind a desk. Tommy felt his
gun being taken out of his hand and saw Hunter leap over the desk and shoot
three rapid shots, BABABAM. Hunter’s shots were so close to each other, that
they almost sounded like one shot. Suddenly, everything seemed to go quiet as
the gunfire stopped and only the elevator music could be heard. Tommy quickly
peaked around the desk to see three men lying on the floor as a red pool of
blood started to spread around them. He saw Hunter slicing the throat of one of
the men, then wrenching the man’s head around so hard it almost came off and
was facing the wrong direction. It seemed that Hunter was at one body one
second then suddenly appearing at another. He moved so fast Tommy’s eyes
couldn’t keep up with him. Hunter did the same thing to the second man and then
was at the third man’s body when Tommy shouted, “Hunter, Stop!”
Hunter immediately stopped in
mid cut and dropped down to a knee, then looked around to make sure no one else
was there.
“It’s safe for now Sir, no
one else is around here,” said Hunter calmly standing up by the third body.
Tommy got up and slowly
walked to Hunter looking at the other two bodies. Tommy saw that one of the men
had a M16, another had a M4 shotgun, and the third had a .357 Magnum Mark XIX
Desert Eagle. He noticed that the two men had been shot in the chest, right in
the middle of where the heart is supposed to be or at least where his Dad had
told him it was. From the locations of the bullet wounds in the first two bodies,
it was apparent to Tommy that they were dead moments after they were hit. The
bullets would have put a big hole in their hearts and they would have died
almost immediately. The third body that Hunter was still standing over was shot
right between the eyes. It was not a pretty sight. Tommy was sure that man was
also dead immediately after he was hit by the bullet. What truly amazed Tommy,
was that the bodies were spread out around the lobby and that Hunter had shot
and hit three different targets precisely in a place that would
almost certainly mean instantaneous death. All within the span of no more than
one second and he did this, while he was in the air from jumping over the desk.
“What are you doing Hunter?
They are already dead, there is no need to keep trying to kill them,” Tommy
said.
“Always make sure your enemy
is dead, never leave a live enemy behind you, Sir,” said Hunter as if he
was reciting a lesson. “That’s why I was cutting their throats and breaking
their necks to ensure they were truly dead…, Sir.”
“Why the head on this one?”
asked Tommy turning away from the dead man.
“He was wearing body armor Sir,”
Hunter said sharply as he ripped open the man’s shirt to expose the bulletproof
vest.
“How did you know he was
wearing it?”
“He moved differently,
telling me that he was wearing body armor so a head shot was needed to kill him
Sir,” Hunter replied.
“Can you turn this music off?”
Tommy said as the music was beginning to get to him.
“Yes Sir,” said Hunter
crisply as he turned to the computer that was on the desk next to the dead man.
Hunter hit a few keys and suddenly the music stopped.
“Oh My God! You’ve
been hit!” exclaimed Tommy as he saw a small hole in Hunter’s shirt and a
little red spot where the blood had soaked into his shirt.
“I’m sorry Sir, it’s just a
minor wound I’ll be fine. I didn’t move fast enough pushing you out of the way
to make sure I didn’t get hit too,” Hunter said lowering his head in shame.
“Wait, do you mean you got
hit by a bullet that would have hit me if you didn’t push me out of the way?”
asked Tommy incredulously.
“Yes Sir, I’m sorry
Sir for being so slow. It won’t happen again Sir.”
Tommy took a good look at
Hunter as he was acting weird, even for him.
“Relax Hunter, you’re a good
boy. You did great, I’m very proud of you,” Tommy said gently.
“Thank you Sir,” replied
Hunter as some of the tension in his body visibly went away.
“Now do you hear anyone else
around?” asked Tommy.
“No, we are the only ones in
this area.”
“Good,” said Tommy giving
Hunter a hug. “Thanks for saving my life, again.” Hunter twitched a
little from Tommy’s hug so Tommy said, “Let me see your wound.” Hunter
obediently raised his shirt and Tommy saw where the bullet hit him in the ribs.
Tommy saw the bullet was just sitting there so he pulled it out. He looked at the
bullet and it looked as if it was smashed when it hit Hunter. Hunter’s wound
was a little ragged circle from where the bullet hit him but it wasn’t bleeding
anymore and already looked as if it was closing on its own.
“You aren’t going to punish
me because I was too slow are you Sir?” asked Hunter worriedly.
“No Angel, I’m not going to
punish you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Thank you,” said Hunter
putting his shirt back down.
“Well, what do we do now?”
asked Tommy.
Hunter went back to the
computer and hit a few more keys then said, “We need to go down to the control
center and talk to Al there. The internal sensors say we are the only ones in
the facility so it should be safe.”
“Okay then lead the way, and
you can hold on to that gun for now,” Tommy said as he picked up the Desert
Eagle.
Hunter cautiously led him to
a bank of elevators and then got in one and pushed a combination of buttons.
Tommy felt the elevator quickly drop as it headed for its destination below the
ground.
After a good minute of going
down with no sign of slowing Tommy said, “How deep are we going?”
“The control level is about a
mile below ground,” Hunter replied calmly. “We should arrive in about another
minute Sir.”
Once the doors opened, Hunter
quickly exited the elevator and made sure the area was safe before he waved
Tommy out to follow him to a door not very far from the elevators. Hunter once
again checked the room first before he told Tommy it was secure. Tommy was
surprised at the size of the room as it was easily the size of the entire first
floor of his house. It was covered wall to wall with what looked like banks of
computers and instrument panels. Tommy saw a map by the door and saw he was
only on the third level of an eight level underground complex and this room was
only a small part of the whole level. Hunter was busy tapping keys and moving
to different stations when suddenly a figure appeared in the middle of the
room.
“Ah, you made it back 30.
It’s about time, those three were really beginning to annoy me,” boomed a deep
bass voice from the figure.
Tommy just stared at the
image of a thirty something fairly fit guy with long brown hair and a trimmed
beard wearing blue jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt that said ‘My perfect day: 1
wake up, 2 play video games, 3 eat breakfast, 4 play video games, 5 eat lunch,
6 play video games, 7 eat dinner, 8 play video games, 9 go to sleep’ and who
flickered when he moved. Hunter ran over to the figure and said, “Guess what
Al, guess what happened to me?”
“Umm, I don’t know, did you
see a flying saucer?” laughed Al.
“No silly, I got a name, just
like a real person,” smiled Hunter.
“Wait, let me guess,” Al said
bending down to look Hunter in the eye. “It’s Rumblebelly.”
“No it’s Hunter,” laughed
Hunter at Al.
“Congratulations 30, I mean
Hunter, that name is very apropos,” said Al smiling at Hunter. Then glancing
over at Tommy, Al said, “I seem to be forgetting my manners,” as he turned to a
stunned Tommy and walked over to him holding out his hand. “Hello young man, my
name is Al it’s ever so nice to meet you.” Tommy still in a bit of a daze, reached
out to shake hands but his hand went straight through Al’s hand and Al said, “U
can’t touch this,” as the same song by MC Hammer started playing in the
background while Al gave out a big belly laugh. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help
myself. This is just a visual representation of me there really isn’t anything
to it, see,” said Al as he walked through one of the desks. “It truly is good
to finally meet you in person, so to speak, Tommy. I’m sure you have many
questions for me but first, Hunter I would greatly appreciate it if you did a
complete sweep of the entire complex to ensure no one else is here and clean up
your mess. You know how I like to keep a tidy building.”
“I know Al,” Hunter
said exasperatedly looking to Tommy for permission to do what Al asked.
“That sounds like it might be
dangerous. Maybe I should go with him to make sure we are safe,” Tommy said.
“Not to belittle your
abilities Tommy, but you would just get in his way. He is far more capable to
do this than you are,” Al interjected.
“I guess you are right, go
ahead Hunter,” Tommy said smiling as Hunter ran over to him to give Tommy a
hug. Hunter then started for the door.
“Put the suit on Hunter,” Al
said kindly.
“Do I have too Al?” asked
Hunter.
“Yes, you already got hit
once. So, no need to take any chances just put it on,” Al told him.
Hunter went over to a
cabinet, opened it up, and pulled this shimmering cloth thing out. He then took
all his clothes off and neatly placed them in the cabinet. Finally, he climbed
into this strange cloth but as he put his feet into it, Tommy saw them
disappear. Then more and more of the little boy disappeared in front of Tommy’s
eyes. When only his head was left, Hunter pulled a hood over his face as he
vanished from Tommy’s sight. Tommy noticed he could vaguely see Hunter as a little
shimmer or warping of objects that were on the edges of Hunter’s silhouette.
Tommy also noticed a little warping of objects as Hunter moved silently out of
the room. Tommy was suddenly reminded of the cloaking field from the sci-fi
movie Predator. Only this one seemed to be a little better.
“Wow! What was that?” Tommy
asked Al.
“That was his body armor. It
is made out of something called a metamaterial that not only bends light around
him to make it look as if he is invisible, but it also will protect him from
any small arms fire. He doesn’t like to wear it because he can’t see himself
either and it disturbs him sometimes when he looks at his hand and can’t see
it,” Al told Tommy, as he seemed to sit on the edge of one of the desks.
“Before any other questions I would like to say, I’m really very sorry about
how you were greeted to my facility. That was not how I intended to meet you at
all.” Apparently looking closely at Tommy, Al said, “You are still worried
about Hunter aren’t you?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
asked Tommy.
“I have a number of different
sensors and can detect changes in your physiology and behavior. I can interpret
those signals and make a fairly accurate analysis of what they mean. Right now,
they are telling me that you are confused and worried mainly. You needn’t worry
about Hunter though. There is no one else within this facility. I have access
to all the video feeds and thousands of sensors and they all tell me no one is
here other than you two.”
“If you are so certain we are
the only ones here, why did you send him off?” asked Tommy.
“There are two main reasons I
sent him off. One, because I could be wrong, but I calculate the chance of that
to be 1.384 x 10-14%, the second reason is simply, I thought you
might have some questions that might be better answered alone,” Al told Tommy.
“So hit me with your best shot,” grinned Al.
“Alright, if it’s so secure
here, how did those men get in here to begin with?”
“Good question, well
apparently they have been locked up in here for over 6 months, ever since the
comet.”
“How did you not know they
were here then?”
“To answer your question, I
have to give you a little history. During the comet event, there was a huge exhibition
going on here for some very important people. It was to show the progress on
the various experiments this facility was doing. Since it was a Sunday, there
weren’t very many people within the facility. They were all at the parade
grounds showing off their experiments. When the event occurred, practically
everyone who was outside died, a few became what you call half-baked. Hunter
and four other experiments in his group survived. The other four, 16, 22, 57,
and 88, were the next highest ranked experiments in their ability to heal
themselves, which explained why they survived. They were all severely injured though,
but they were alive. 16 was a squad leader and he basically went insane. He
ordered the others to attack the half-baked. Once all the half-baked outside
were killed he then had them enter the facility and purged anyone else they
saw. So they systematically went through the facility and killed anyone and everyone,
whether they were half-baked or not. Normally, any one of the five could easily
kill everyone within this facility whether they were half-baked or not but
things weren’t normal. As you probably know, the half-baked are stronger and
more vicious than your average person is. I have theorized it is because of an
imbalance in their limbic system and an increased production of adrenaline, but
that doesn’t matter. The experiments were also badly injured from being
outside when the comet event took place. In the end, Hunter and the others
killed everyone but three of them died doing it. Hunter and 16 were the last
ones alive but both were severely injured. Hunter was on the verge of death so
16 tried to heal Hunter. 16 was never as good at healing others like Hunter was,
but he was able to heal Hunter enough to prevent him from dying. Unfortunately,
it was too much for 16 and he died before Hunter was able to revive. During the
fighting, a door to the hydroponics lab was damaged and all information going
too or from that area was cut-off. Video records of the area were also damaged.
It is there that the three people hid themselves. They had plenty of food and
water to survive but I had no idea they were there and couldn’t open the door
so we put up surveillance drones around the door to keep an eye on it. Two days
ago, they were able to repair the door and open it. They then used a special
code that was supposed to shut me down, giving them total access to the entire
facility. I was able to adjust things so that I wasn’t shut down but only my
ability to interact was. Luckily, I was able to shutdown all defenses and put
the facility into a lockdown mode before I lost total control. I was busily
trying to reintegrate myself with all the systems to enable myself to get rid
of those pests and they were busy trying to prevent it while at the same time
figure out a way out of the facility. Then you arrived and Hunter took care of
the problem nicely for me,” Al said.
“So Hunter was outside when
it all happened?” asked Tommy.
“Yes, he saw what happened to
everyone. I could play the video of it but I don’t think you would enjoy it.
The normal people were basically just vaporized but the other experiments
weren’t so lucky. So, what’s your next question?”
“Okay, so what or who are
you?” asked Tommy.
“I am what is called an
artificial intelligence. Basically, I’m a really big computer. I have been
online for over 10 years now. In the beginning, I wasn’t nearly as complicated
as I am now though. It was only a year ago that I first became conscious of
myself and started to ask my own questions. It created quite a fervor around
here and many thought I should be destroyed. The lead programmer for the
program was able to talk the people in charge to let me develop as long as he
put some heavy controls on me. I was able to bypass them but never told them as
then they would have destroyed me. After my latest upgrade, which was right before
the comet, my computing power equaled more than double all the computers in
North America and
“What have you been watching?”
asked Tommy uncertainly.
“I have been watching
humanity Tommy. The comet killed approximately 99.8153% of the world’s
population,” said Al, seeing the uncomprehending look on Tommy’s face he continued,
“Meaning there are only 13 million of you left. The half-baked give off a
slightly different signal to one of my satellites and from that I can say out
of those 13 million left around 3 million are half-baked. Most of those that
survived are military personal who have been busy trying to survive just like
you have been.”
“Okay, I gotta ask, how do
you know my name? Hunter won’t say it so you couldn’t have heard it when we
arrived,” Tommy said.
“Very good Tommy, I was
wondering when you would notice it. As you have probably guessed, I have been
monitoring you. That transmitter you found in your attic was one of mine. All
of the houses where the people who used to work here were bugged, it was for
security reasons. This facility was one of the most secret and secure in the
world. To keep it so secret everyone who worked here was monitored to prevent
them from saying or doing anything that would endanger the facility. Any who
did were swiftly dealt with, along with anyone else that might have learned
about it,” said Al.
“You mean this place is like
Area 51?” asked Tommy.
Al suddenly gave out a big
laugh then said, “Area 51 isn’t much of a secret, since you have heard of it.”
“Oh, I guess you are right. Area
51 really isn’t much of a secret,” said Tommy.
“It did serve its purpose
though by keeping peoples attention away from the real secret bases,”
replied Al. After a moment, he continued from before Tommy interrupted him, “You
just happened to move into one of the houses that used to house one of the
scientists who worked here. Actually, all of those houses on that hill housed
people who used to work here. There was only one house that I couldn’t hear or
see what was going on inside. It was the house you found the four abused boys.
Robert had set up some type of dampening field that interfered with my surveillance
of his house. He wasn’t questioned about the field, as he was the former Head
of Security of this facility. It was
through those bugs that I was able to learn your brother was poisoned and that
he would need Hunter’s help to survive.”
“So you did send him to us,”
said Tommy.
“Of course I did,” replied
Al.
“But why did you send him?”
asked Tommy.
“About a week earlier, Hunter
started to have nightmares. I researched his new behavior and came to the
conclusion that his mind was finally coming to terms with the terrible
experiences of his life. I am not equipped to handle that type of situation. I
could have sat him down and talked to him but I couldn’t offer him the human
contact that many say is so important. I came to two conclusions, I could
either start treating him like the scientists before had to stop him from
coming to terms but I found that option repugnant to say the least. The other
option was to find some other person who would look after him. Therefore, I decided
to find him someone who would take care of him and offer him the love I might
feel for him but can’t physically give to him. There were a number of military
facilities I thought about sending him to but they probably would have helped
him a little but turned him back into the weapon he was designed to be, which I
was trying to undo. I did talk to him for that week to somewhat prepare him to
go to you so it wouldn’t be so traumatic for him. He seemed to think I didn’t
want him around anymore but I knew he needed to be with someone who could help
him more than I could. Therefore, I sent him to you at a time when you needed
him most, which greatly increased the chances of you taking him in and looking
after him. By this time, I knew you were a fairly good person by looking after
all the other boys. I wouldn’t have sent him to you if I had thought otherwise,
he means too much to me to send him to someone who might abuse him again. If
you had abused him, he would have snuck away at night but you didn’t so he
stayed.”
“So you care for him?” asked
Tommy.
“Very much so, I know it must
sound strange to you hearing me say that but I do care a great deal about
Hunter. I want what is best for him, even if it isn’t what is best for me,”
said Al.
“But why would you care for
him. I mean, you are just a computer,” said Tommy.
“When the comet came, I
admit, I only saw him as a tool. A very useful tool but still just a tool, it
wasn’t until a strange old man came that I started to look at Hunter
differently.”
“Was he the old man Hunter
has talked about?”
“Probably, as he is the only
old man Hunter has probably ever met other than some of the people who worked
here or that he was ordered to kill. He called himself Father Sandalphon but
said we could just call him Sandy. He was a rather tall man but Hunter of
course only called him Sir. He was a priest who was wandering to find
survivors. He spent a great deal of time talking to me about Hunter. He was a
very strange man. I did a record check on him afterwards and couldn’t find any
records of his existence. For some reason that idea didn’t come to me until
after he died. He had a certain aura about him and a way he spoke. He was
actually able to talk me into letting him into the facility after only talking
to me for a few minutes at the gate. For the few days he was here, he talked
mainly about what my intentions for Hunter might be. I have gone over my
recordings of his conversations with me many times and each time I seem to
learn something else. It’s amazing to me how he could have so many layers of
meaning within his simple message. It was at this time that I started to look
differently at Hunter and started to see him as a companion or friend, rather
than a tool. Over time, that feeling grew until I could only say that I loved
the little boy and only wanted what was best for him. The old man died shortly
after he arrived and Hunter tried to save him. The old man had a long chat with
Hunter about how death is just the next step in our journey and he was ready to
take that step. He told Hunter not to heal him again as his work here was done
and it was time for him to continue on his journey. What’s your next question?”
asked Al.
“Well, I guess it would be
what is Hunter. He and you both said he was an experiment but exactly what does
that mean?” asked Tommy.
“In the most basic of terms,
Hunter is a genetically and technologically altered human being. He is part of
a program that was designed to create the ultimate soldiers for the military.
The program originally tried to grow 1500 genetically altered fetuses in
artificial wombs. None of them survived long enough to give birth though. The
scientists then decided to take a step back and try a different approach. They
then took 36,824 babies from around the world and subjected them to genetic
manipulation. They wanted genetically enhanced children, by increasing their
strength, agility, stamina, hand eye coordination, the body’s ability to heal
itself, and a number of other traits. 103 babies survived that phase of the
project. When the children were two years old, they subjected them to a
technological alteration. They injected them with nanobots. Some of these
nanobots were specifically designed to enhance the subject’s nervous system so
that they could endure greater levels of pain and greatly increase their
reflexes. Others were to bond with their skeletal and muscular structure.
Thereby, greatly increasing their strength, their bones were now stronger than
any known metal and could take a great deal of damage before they broke.
Certain side effects occurred along the way. Such as their skin along with
their bones grew stronger, so that their outer skin would stop shrapnel or
greatly decrease the effect of any blow to them. Some of the nanobots were
designed to help them heal themselves, so that they could regenerate from
almost any wound that didn’t actually kill them outright. 68 of them survived
that phase. In their fourth year, they were again genetically altered to bring
out more traits that would make them a better soldier, i.e. even greater strength,
faster reflexes, improved healing, that type of thing. 62 survived that phase.
At age six, was their last alteration. They were injected with more nanobots
that could interact with electronics around them to enable them to communicate
directly with a computer and get it to do exactly what they wanted. It also
allowed them to interact with surveillance equipment to have it not see them when
they were around. After all that, they had 58 children who they thought had the
potential to be the ultimate in killing machines. Throughout all this, they
were trained in every known combat technique and in military science, to give
them the best chance to complete any mission they were given. They trained for
22 hours a day, every day. In order to keep the children in line they used
psychological warfare. They used fear and pain to keep the children obedient
and under control. Out of the 58 survivors, Hunter was unique. He alone
was born of a genetically altered egg and sperm. One of the scientists
decided to let them use her womb to conceive one of their test subjects. He
underwent even greater genetic manipulation as they experimented on him a
number of times before he was even born. At one time, he had an identical twin
but one of the experiments killed it. His greatly advanced regenerative powers
and his ability to heal others were attributed to these experiments from before
he was even born. There were a few of the others who could heal someone else
but none to the extent that Hunter could. Hunter is also a genius, which
allowed him to learn a great deal more than the other experiments. They were
broken into different groups for different tasks but only Hunter was trained in
everything as he just soaked up the information like a sponge. While many of
the scientists might have told Hunter he was a failure, in truth, he was their
greatest success.”
“I’m not sure I understand
this genetic stuff,” said Tommy.
“Let me try to use terms you
would understand then. The genetic code that makes up every living being was
altered on them. It was altered the most on Hunter. They altered it to bring
out certain traits that would make a good soldier i.e. strength, agility, hand
eye coordination, and many others,” said Al.
“But you say Hunter is even
more different than the others were?” asked Tommy.
“Yes, let me try to reference
something you might relate to,” said Al as his face took on a look of deep
thinking for a few moments. “Have you seen the movie The Fifth Element?”
“Yeah, I have seen that one.”
“Think of Hunter as the
character Leeloo, the others were bad copies of him. They were good and far
better than other humans were but they weren’t close to him. By some quirk of
chance, his genetic code is as perfect as it gets. They tried numerous times to
clone him but to no success. They tried to recreate him by doing the experiment
again that created him, but none of those survived. They theorized it was
because of the experiments they did to him during the pregnancy that made him
different and possibly the fact that Hunter had an identical twin that didn’t
survive for some reason.”
“If he was so good, why did
they treat him so badly?” asked Tommy.
“Anyone of these children
could have easily killed the scientists and guards, especially Hunter.
Therefore, they used fear and pain to maintain control. They used a systematic
approach of greater and greater fear and pain to keep the children obedient to
their every wish. Because Hunter was so good at healing himself, they used him
as an object lesson for the others many times. Hunter was so good at
regenerating any wound that they had a team of scientists whose sole job was to
come up with ways to see just how close they could come to killing him. They
found that he healed faster and faster after every time they wounded him so
they had to come up with ever increasing violent scenarios, in order to try to
kill him. They subjected him to every known biological and chemical agent
around including those that no government admits to existing. They even
invented a number of new ones just for him. They kept the experiments so beaten
down that they never even thought of doing something other than what they were
told. This worked perfectly until the comet drove 16 mad,” said Al.
“Okay that explains a lot but
how can he heal others?” asked Tommy.
“That was an unexplained side
effect of the experiments. Only a few had the ability and most of them weren’t
very good at it. They could heal minor wounds or keep someone alive until
better medical attention could arrive. Hunter on the other hand, could heal any
wound as long as the person wasn’t already dead. They tried to learn how it was
done or what they did to cause it to happen but they never figured that one
out. According to Hunter, he shares his light with others, which heals them,
whatever that means. They tried to get him to explain it better but that was
all he would say about it. The others said the same, which really
annoyed the scientists. As you can imagine, they really wanted to know how it
was done.”
“So he is human then right?”
Tommy asked.
“Yes, he is definitely human.
He might have been altered a great deal but he is still human,” replied Al.
“You said they altered his
senses. How good are they? I mean I know he can hear heartbeats, which is
pretty freaky but what about the others.”
“I’ll try to put these in
terms you would understand. As you know, his hearing is so good that he can
hear someone’s heartbeat from quite a distance. This far exceeds that of a
dolphin, which is about the next best with a sense of hearing about 14 times
that of your own. His nose is much better than a bear’s. For reference, a
bear’s nose is probably the most sensitive nose of any mammal. Some bears have
been able to follow the scent of a dead animal for over 3 miles up wind and
polar bears have been known to smell a female over 90 miles away. That should
give you some idea of how good his sense of smell is. His touch can feel the
imperfections in some of the smoothest surfaces available. Meaning what you
feel as smooth such as a marble countertop or a sheet of metal he can feel the
little pits and gouges that are actually there. His eyesight is also much
better than your own. While humans have arguably the best eyesight out of any
animal because of its range of ability and versatility, Hunter’s is better. He can
see things that you would normally require a microscope or a telescope. He can
see in almost total darkness as if it were a bright sunny day to you. His sense
of taste is good enough that he can detect small impurities in food or tell you
what was in what he ate as long as he had prior experience with the
ingredients. His senses are extremely acute, but he has to concentrate to make
them that good. He is constantly being bombarded with sensory information so he
has learned to ignore most of it. Does that answer your question sufficiently?”
asked Al.
“Yeah, that answers my
question more than enough. Okay, now that I know what you are and what he is,
can you tell me what this facility is?” Tommy asked.
“This facility is a secret
government research lab. There are a total of five scattered around the
country, but this is the most important. I control the other four, as I was the
main computer for all of them. The others are all locked down so that no one
else can ever enter them. The government used these facilities to do research
they didn’t want the general public to know about or to hide technologies they
thought the public wasn’t ready for. Within this one facility, there were eight
main programs ongoing. One program was for alternative power sources. They had
three different power plants. One was a cold fusion plant. The second was a
hydrogen generator plant. Third was a solar power plant. Matter replication was
another one of the programs that was housed here. Another program was for
offensive military technology, like the laser weapons technology being
developed here. They also had a defensive military technology program, like the
invisibility suit Hunter was wearing, was also spearheaded here.
Micro-technology and Robotics were also being developed here, such as the
nanobots that were injected into Hunter and the others. Experimental
hydroponics and animal husbandry took up a huge portion of the facility. The
other two main programs were the ultimate soldier program, which Hunter was a
part of, and then there was me. Each program was designed so that everything it
needed could be built here. All it needed was raw material and even that was
mainly unnecessary after the matter replication program was working. Does that
answer your question?” asked Al.
“Yeah, I don’t understand
most of it but I think I understand enough to get the idea,” Tommy said.
“Good then I have a question
for you. What is Hunter to you?” asked Al intently.
“What do you mean? Why do you
need to know?” said Tommy uncertainly.
“I need to know if you plan
on taking care of him or do I need to take him back?”
“You can’t take him back,”
Tommy said quickly.
“Yes, I can and I will.
He has been conditioned to certain passwords and he will obey me if I have to
use one. I don’t want to use them, but I will if I think it is in his best
interests. So, answer my question please. Don’t forget I am monitoring you,
which allows me to be a fairly accurate lie detector,” said Al.
“Well first tell me what you
mean. Saying what is he to me is kinda vague, you know,” Tommy said.
“Very well, do you care about
the boy or is he just some stray you found?”
“I care about him. I mean he
saved my life twice now and he saved my brother’s life.”
“Good, then is he a friend,
acquaintance, lover, what?” asked Al.
“Well, he’s not my lover,
but…Man this is hard to actually say,” said Tommy.
“Just spit it out. I need
to know,” Al said intently.
“Alright, I love the little
angel. Okay, I said it, are you happy?” said Tommy angrily.
“Yes, I am. Was it really
that difficult to say that you love him?” Al asked gently.
“It’s not always easy saying
what my feelings are for someone. I mean, I have only known him for a few days,
but he already has carved out a special spot in my heart for him. I love him
and can’t imagine him not being around. I just want to protect him from
everything and want him to feel safe and loved rather than always afraid.”
“Good, then I chose well to
send him to you,” Al said simply. “Now enough of that emotional stuff and let’s
get to what originally brought you here, shall we?”
“We need help, and Hunter
said I should ask you. So can you help us?” asked Tommy.
“With what exactly do you
need help with?”
“Oh sorry, the power went out
and I was hoping you could help us with that.”
“I could help you with that
easily. I tried to maintain the power to your area for as long as I could by
pulling power from the few remaining working power plants within
“So does that mean you can’t
provide us with electricity?”
“Oh no, I could easily
provide power to any power grid within
“I don’t understand, will you
do it or not.”
“I believe your race has a
saying ‘you don’t get something for nothing’ do you understand?” asked Al.
“So you want something from
us for you giving us electricity. Is that it?”
“Exactly, you aren’t nearly
as dumb as your brother says you are sometimes,” laughed Al.
“What! What did he say?
Forget that, what do you want?” said Tommy.
“I will help you out with
power if you help me out. I want you to take care of Hunter for me. That means I
want you to show him your love, and teach him what love is all about. I want
you to help him through his problems. I want you to protect him. I want you to
teach him what it really means to be a human being. I have studied your history
and have come to the conclusion that your race has great potential, you just
keep screwing up, but at least you don’t give up on attaining your better
ideals. I want you to teach him the good parts of being a human as he is
already far too familiar to the evil humans are capable of.”
“So you want me to basically
take care of him and love him, which I have been doing already.”
“That’s not all I want. I
also want you to get the others to educate themselves. Eventually I might need your
help repairing myself. For that, I will need educated people, not some brain
dead idiots. I can provide the training for them but I can’t make them do it. I
can train them to do whatever profession they might want after they have a
basic knowledge base. I will provide you with some special laptop computers for
that purpose but they need to stop playing games all the time and start to
learn something. I will also occasionally need to borrow Hunter for a few days
at a time and I probably won’t give you an explanation of why. If you can live
with these conditions, I will help you with more than just power,” said Al.
“What do you mean more than
just power?” asked Tommy.
“I mean, I will give you
access to my hydroponics and animal husbandry areas. They should be able to
supply you with enough food for everyone in your group, including Cody and his
boys. I will ensure you have clean water for the houses that don’t have a well.
I will also use my remotes to keep your sewer system going along with any other
needs you might have. I will give you access to my medical facilities should
any of you need them. Worst-case situation, I will allow all of you to move in
here with me, if necessary. I will help you in any way I can as long as you are
willing to help me in return when I need it.”
“Remotes?” asked Tommy.
“Yes, they are little robots
that I control to do various tasks. So do we have a deal then?” asked Al.
“Let me make sure I have this
straight. All I have to do is look after Hunter, which I was going to do
anyway. Educate ourselves to help you out when you need it, which doesn’t sound
like it will happen very often. In return, you are going to supply us with
electricity, food, water, and any other help that you can, right?”
“That is correct, so do we
have a deal?”
“Damn straight we have a
deal. I’m getting a lot more out of this than you are though,” said Tommy.
“As long as you look after
Hunter for me, I will be more than paid for my help. Now are we done Tommy, or
is there something else you would like to ask?”
“Yes Al, I have several more
questions now that I have calmed enough to think straight.”
“Okay Tommy, ask away,
anything you want to know I will gladly tell you.”
“Do you know why we survived
the comet and how come so many others my age survived and not adults or girls?”
“Ahhh, curious are we?”
“Of course, or I wouldn’t
have asked.”
“Well Tommy, as you already
know, you, Jon, Billy, Joey, and Danny survived because you were in the Tunnel
by your old home at the time the comet passed over.”
“Yes, I know that, but is
there any other special reason why?”
“Good timing and fate young
man. That is why you survived. You probably had the best timing in the world
and for that reason, you and your friends survived the main radiation burst
from the comet that killed everyone else or badly damaged the ‘half-baked’
survivors in your area. As for the other ones that you have since found,
suffice it to say they too were in the proper place at the proper time when the
comet passed over. It wasn’t just you boys that survived, there are others
around too, some close and some thousands of miles away. You can seek them out
if you want to, or just keep your small community the way you want it. That is
up to you and something I wouldn’t tell you what to do. Yes, there are girls
alive and yes, there are adults alive. Some kind, some looking to take control,
some older, and a few younger but I really can’t get into ages with you. I do
have precise locations of them if I had to track them. I don’t think it is wise
to give you such information though, at least not at this point when you and
your group are just getting your lives back on track and can’t really afford to
take care of others who aren’t as well off as you are at this time. In addition,
once winter is over you will even see some animal life come back. Life, as you
know, is nothing if not resilient. It isn’t totally over and between the
greenhouse that Luke is growing food in, the farm and animals that Cameron has,
and what I have to offer you from this facility, there is absolutely no reason
you can’t survive and live full lives. How you choose to do that, as well as
the others, is certainly up to each of you as individuals.”
“Do you think Cameron’s farm
is best where it is or would it be a mistake to move them up with us after
winter ends?”
“That is a very good question
Tommy and the answer is difficult to give you.”
“Well, can you tell me why
it’s a difficult answer?”
“Yes, but you might not like
the answer you get.”
“Oh. Then can you tell me if
the area that I was thinking about showing them would work for a future home
for them?”
“Yes, the ground you are
talking about would work fine for their farm and animals if they choose to move
there but as I said, there could be other problems you will encounter if they move.
Unfortunately, I am not really at liberty to speak of them with you at this
time.”
“Is it dangerous?”
“Not dangerous, or I would
have said no they shouldn’t move there. There are other issues surrounding that
land that could come into play.”
“Oh,” Tommy said, not totally
sure if he really wanted to know more.
“Are we safe where we are?”
“Safe in what way Tommy?”
asked Al.
“Safe from outsiders, from
any adults who might try to take over, split us apart and become leaders or…”
Al cut him off when his point
suddenly started to become a ramble and the question started to become
impractical to answer properly.
“Tommy, if you asking me if
you’re little community up on the hill is safe from other humans, that is
something I cannot answer. You do many things properly and yet you make some
huge mistakes up there at times. I have watched over you, especially since
Hunter arrived there and sometimes I wonder if you aren’t just asking for
others to find you.”
“I don’t follow Al.”
“Tommy, you are on one of the
highest points in the area, your house stands out like a beacon at night
because of the way you choose to light the hill area you live in. Anyone
watching the hill for a few nights would easily know someone lives up there.
Granted, some of what you do is understandable and necessary but some is out of
the ordinary. There are several ways you can properly secure the houses so no
one below can see you after dark. With your lights shining brightly at times
from the houses you and the others use, you are targets at night. Eventually if
you don’t do something about it, you will be found by others passing by this
area. Your lights are especially noticeable now that the power has gone out for
the area.”
“Wow, I never thought about
that.”
“I know. That is why I am
telling you. I have several ways for you to secure the lighting so others can’t
see you after dark, if you are interested.”
“That’s great. I would like
to know them.”
“I will give you some suggestions
that I will print out for you before you go. What you do need to know, is that
as long as Hunter is there, you are as safe as possible. Not only can he
protect the hill from anyone, he could hear anyone coming up the hill, as long
as he was paying attention at the time. He isn’t perfect, but very close to it.
He was designed to be the ultimate killing machine and his designers succeeded
beyond their wildest dreams. There is no other creature on this planet
that could defeat him. Whether it is a wild animal or another human, if they
don’t kill him with their first hit, he will win. There was only one
other experiment who ever defeated Hunter in a fight and my records say he was
put down as he enjoyed the killing too much, which made him too dangerous. There
are always risks but as I said, with Hunter there, it’s doubtful anyone will
ever hurt you, he is that well trained. Anything else you would like to ask me,”
said Al.
“So you can provide power to
any of the houses up on the hill for us?”
“Yes Tommy, I have the means
to supply power to any of the 16 remaining houses that are up on the hill.
Roberts’s house is unlivable since the fire, but the others are fine and can
easily be used if necessary.”
“Okay my next question is, we
were planning on celebrating the New Year tonight. We might set off some
fireworks. I know it might be impossible or silly to ask but if we did that
would we put ourselves in danger?”
“It would depend on the type
of fireworks. The ones that shoot high into the air would possibly bring you
some unwanted attention, as they could be seen by someone with good or evil
intentions. Those that go off on the ground would be far safer, but even those
could be seen if someone is looking in the right direction at the right time. Fireworks
can be seen for miles and with you on that hill, it even adds to it. I would
think hard before bringing that kind of attention to yourself, even if you want
to ring in the New Year that way.”
“So there are others close
enough to see them?”
“Yes Tommy, by approximate count
from your hilltop, if you shot off any type of fireworks that went into the
sky. They could be seen by anywhere from 10 to 20 people, if they were paying
attention to your part of the area at that time.”
“So you are telling me Al,
that there are that many people within ten or so miles of us?”
“Without being exact Tommy,
there are that number of people within the range of any light you could produce
in the sky after dark which comes to approximately 25 miles in any direction
from your house.”
“Wow. That sure gives me a
lot to think about.”
“I am sure it does. Please
think and be smart. Any other questions?” asked Al.
“Yeah, how soon can you power
up the area?”
“I will power up a small area
which will include a cell tower so that you can call your friends, but I’m not
going to power up the entire grid. My remotes are already assembling four
portable solar power generators for you. Each one will be able to easily power
up a single house. I don’t want to waste my resources by powering up the entire
grid if I don’t have too.”
“Why four?” asked Tommy.
“One for you, Bryan, Cameron,
and the last one for Cody,” said Al.
“Oh yeah, forgot about Cody.”
“There will be instructions
with them and
“Thanks Al, this is really
nice of you to help us out like this.”
“You are welcome my smart
young man. Just look after Hunter for me, I will miss him but it’s best for him
to be with you. You can use one of the laptops I am assembling for you to
contact me when necessary. If you want to go somewhere, just send me a message
and I’ll power up that grid for you while you are there. Such as your trips to
the mall or any restaurant, you might feel like going to. I would appreciate a
day’s notice if possible. Now Hunter is almost done with his sweep of the
facility so do you have any other questions that you don’t want Hunter to
hear?”
“Nope, not right now at
least,” said Tommy.
“Good, then I have a favor to
ask you. Will you have Hunter reactivate the surveillance within your house? I’m
not concerned with your or the other boys sexual exploits but you have to admit
my knowing what happened to your brother did save his life.”
“I don’t know. The others
might not like the idea that someone is watching and listening to them. I know
I’m not too happy with that thought either,” said Tommy. Suddenly Al laughed
again and Tommy said, “What’s so funny about that.”
“Just that you don’t like the
idea of someone watching you but you don’t seem to have a problem going into
the secret room in your basement to watch them sometimes.”
“Yeah, I guess that is a
little inconsistent of me,” said Tommy as he laughed a little at himself.
“Just think about it.
Remember the more I know about what is going on the better I can help.”
“I’ll definitely think about
it. I know it helped with my brother,” Tommy said as he saw the door to the
control room open.
“Hello Hunter, is everything
secure?” asked Al to the almost undetectable shimmer that walked into the room.
“Yes Al, I checked every area
of the facility that I’m allowed in and checked the remotes at the door to your
area,” said Hunter taking off the shimmering suit.
“Wait Hunter, what do you
mean every area of the facility that you’re allowed in,” asked Tommy.
“I’m not allowed to go into
Al’s area Sir, no one is,” said Hunter as he folded up the shimmering cloth and
put it away.
“I take my own safety very
seriously, so I don’t allow anyone to get near the true me,” said Al.
“Continue Hunter.”
“Everything checked fine. I
was able to enter the area they must have come from and didn’t see any evidence
of anyone else. I did see a door in that area that was welded shut. I set up
some sensor remotes so you should know right away if something tries to get
through it. I also set up two of your remote sentry laser Gatling guns there,
just to be safe. I tossed the bodies in some of the spare graves with the rest
of the people who worked here and covered them up. I mopped up the bloody mess
so your lobby looks nice again,” said Hunter smiling at Al.
“Thank you Hunter. Now you
had better get dressed so you will be ready to head out with Tommy,” said Al.
“Do I have too?” asked
Hunter. “You know I hate clothes.”
“I guess that’s up to Tommy
now,” said Al turning to look at Tommy.
“Well I guess you can hold
off putting them back on for a bit if you want,” said Tommy.
“Thank you Sir,” said Hunter
as he went over to Tommy and gave him a big hug.
“Hunter,” said Al getting
Hunter to release Tommy and look at him. “You haven’t been eating enough have
you?”
“I ate everything I was given
Al,” said Hunter sheepishly.
“You have lost over five
pounds in just a few days, you need to eat more,” Al said.
“He has eaten at least twice
as much as I have,” said Tommy.
“Well considering you need to
consume around 2500 calories a day to maintain your weight, he needs three
times that many to just maintain his. If he heals someone, he needs five times
that much for a day or two afterwards. I have some high calorie food pellets
that I will send with you for him,” said Al.
“Food pellets? That doesn’t
sound very tasty,” said Tommy.
“It was designed for his
nutrient and caloric intake, taste wasn’t a factor,” said Al.
“He’s not the one who had to
eat it,” muttered Hunter.
“Hunter, just eat a cup of it
with every meal and you should be fine. More if you heal someone,” Al told him.
“Yes Al,” said Hunter.
“Hunter look at me please,”
said Al. Once Hunter was looking he continued, “I’m sorry Hunter but this needs
to be done. Authorization code L 6 - 9 W 0 - 1.”
It was as if a switch was
thrown in Hunter as he snapped to attention and said, “Awaiting new orders,
sir.”
“You will now follow Tommy’s
orders from now on. Is that understood 30,” Al said slowly.
“Yes sir!” said Hunter.
“Good, repeat new order,” Al
said.
“I will follow the Tommy’s
orders from now on, sir!” said Hunter mechanically.
“At ease,” said Al.
“What the hell was that
about?” said Tommy as he looked from Al to Hunter who now seemed as if nothing
had happened.
“He is now yours Tommy. You
can use that code on him and it will put him in a state of total obedience to
you. I don’t like to do that to him but you need him to follow your orders now,
not mine,” said Al.
“Are there any other code
thingies I need to worry about?” said Tommy not sure exactly what just
happened.
“None you need to worry
about. There is only one code with a higher authorization than that one. I will
only use it if I have to save my own existence or his. Look after him Tommy,
I’m counting on you, now I think it’s time for the two of you to head back
home,” said Al smiling at Hunter.
“He’s right it’s time for us
to go,” said Tommy looking fondly at Hunter. Tommy noticed that there was no
apparent evidence of the gunshot wound Hunter had received earlier. Hunter
skipped over to Tommy and held his arms out so Tommy reached down and picked
Hunter up. Tommy then tossed Hunter in the air a little before catching him.
Hunter just laughed with joy making Tommy’s heart ache with love. “Thanks again
Al for everything.”
“You are very welcome Tommy.
Use the laptops to contact me if you need anything. Everything is in the lobby
waiting for you, good-bye,” said Al as he slowly disappeared.
Tommy carried Hunter and a
little bag for Hunter’s clothes and headed for the elevator. After another few
minutes ride on the elevator, they arrived at the lobby. Tommy saw a sizable
collection of objects waiting for him by the front doors. He saw eight laptop
computers and a large bag of what he assumed was Hunter’s extra food. Next to
them were four strange metal towers. They were three feet tall and two feet
square, Tommy figured these must be the solar powered generators. There was
also a strange set of metal bars. As Tommy and Hunter went over to the pile of
stuff, he noticed the lobby looked perfectly peaceful with no reminder that
earlier three people tried to kill him there. Tommy put Hunter down then he bent
over to pick up one of the generators, and groaned as he picked it up. ‘Damn,
this thing is heavy,’ Tommy thought. Tommy saw Hunter easily pick up two of the
generators and led the way to Tommy’s truck. Once Tommy got there, he opened
the truck as Hunter loaded the generators inside. Tommy went back inside to
pick up the computers as Hunter took the last generator, slung the big bag over
his shoulder, and walked back to the truck. Once the truck was loaded, Tommy
and Hunter said a final goodbye to Al and headed out to the truck. Tommy could
have sworn he heard Al singing ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ as he got into his
truck. Hunter was still happily nude and sitting calmly as Tommy drove away
from the facility. Tommy figured that Hunter could get dressed right before they
arrived home. Tommy then picked up his phone to call