Radical-9

Intermission XIII:

MARCH 25^th, 2013

10:30 AM

“Jennifer, cover your mouth, don't breathe in the smoke,” Greg says, rushing through.

I listen to him and cover my mouth with my small hand. He kicks in the door to the stairwell and they begin heading down the stairs. They've only got to clear two floors now. I know that they make it out, I mean, I'm still alive, and Greg shows up in another of my dreams, so I know that we make it out of this building okay, but there is a part of me that cannot stop worrying. I feel nervous as we descend down the stairs.

We make it to the ground floor and then we are sprinting through the main lobby. Fire consumes different parts of the desks and floor. We break through and the sun beams down on us as I turn my head back to see the entirety of the Republic Plaza as we exit. I can see the second floor, the windows are busted through and same goes for the third floor. The city sprawls out for miles, it seems to be entirely empty. Out front lies a shoddy looking baby-food green colored car. It is very small, and Greg opens the back door, pushing for my younger self to sit in.

Greg runs to the back and flips open the trunk with his free hand. Inside lies a booster seat beside a spare wheel. He grabs it and yanks it out. He looks to the child he is holding, he seems to be sleeping.

“How the hell could you sleep through all of this?” Greg whispers.

He quickly puts his hand to the child, checking for a pulse, and he breathes a breath of relief when he finds it. He continues with the booster seat and sets it in the back seat, setting it up. After, he straps in Sam.

“Where is my dad?” I ask.

“You're dad is out for the time being, things are okay though. Things are going to be okay,” Greg says.

“Okay, where is Gavvy?” I ask.

“Gavin is with his mother, we're actually going to see him,” Greg says, closing Sam's door and walking around to buckle in my younger self. I take the opportunity to slide into the car beside the both of them. I move right through Greg and my younger self as I am completely invisible to them.

“Is Gavvy going to play with me?” I ask.

“I'm sure he'd love to play with you. It's going to be his fifteenth birthday soon. He'd definitely want his best buddy to be there to celebrate with him,” Greg says.

“Yay!” I say, a sort of excitement I hadn't heard in my voice in awhile peeks out.

Greg moves back around to the driver's side and sits inside, buckling himself in. He throws the keys into the engine and powers the small hunk of metal to life. A loud boom rings out as he pulls out, and I turn around to look at the Republic Plaza through the back window. A large chunk is taken out of the top few floors, just how I see them later on.

“Be safe, Jay,” Greg whispers.

“What was that?” I ask.

“It wasn't anything,” Greg says. He pulls out into the street and begins driving.

He keeps on driving for another fifteen minutes, we've made it onto the highway, all by ourselves on the five lane highway, we're all sitting in complete silence. I couldn't even contribute to a conversation if I'd wanted to. Sam is still fast asleep, the child is as restful as ever.

My mind flashes back, Jay had called me Jack's daughter. I must've lost it in the moment. It's just now come back and I look at myself and then to Sam...that means we're related. If the other people who worked for Adata had their kids in, then it makes sense why I was there with Sam, because we're related. But then how did I end up being adopted?

On the other side of the highway I can see a single car driving the opposite way on the other side of the divider. It is the first car I'd seen on the entire trip. It's a slick black that's very sharp looking. It looks like if you'd been run over by it you'd sooner be skewered than flattened. I can see Greg begin to sense up as it gets closer and closer, he seems to be just as wary about the car as I am. He pulls into the rightmost lane, keeping a second eye on the black machine.

The other car moves into it's leftmost lane and it seems to duck down as if a puma would. It then launches itself upward and barrel rolls over the divider and lands with a spin in our side just behind us. I can feel my heart beginning to race, Jay begins to drive faster, and even faster until the poor little car reaches its limit. The car behind begins its hot pursuit, speeding up faster than this dingy thing could ever do. It pulls up right behind and nudges it once.

“What's happening?” I ask.

“We're going to be okay, you're going to be okay,” Greg says.

The car approaches one more time, I cannot see through the windshield of the car, it seems to be tinted, almost like a one way mirror. It lurches down one more time. This time, it spins itself sideways before it launches up, spinning twice before clearing our car. It lands right in front of the small car and our car smashes into its back. We begin spinning out and we end up crashing into the wall.

I see Greg's head slam into the steering wheel, my younger self slams forward, the seat belt keeping me there. The car seems to wrap itself to the wall, I cannot turn to see Sam, but I'd already seen him last time, so I don't need to check on how he is doing. The familiar smell of burning rubber and smoke begins to pervade the area. I crawl my way out of the car, smoke begins piling out of the front of the car. I don't know much about cars, but I would take a guess and say that means something bad.

I walk to the other car across the highway, it too took a big hit from the collision and is on fire, but only on one side of it, the passenger's side. It's almost a little too controlled.

The windows had broken in the crash, and I can peek in to see that in the passenger seat is a middle aged woman burning. Of course, he isn't the main focus, because in the driver's seat is Jack Adata. There is not a scratch on him, the fire seems totally repellent to his body. He looks like he's taking a Sunday stroll, not being in a car crash. He turns to face the burning woman and shakes his head, a smile on his face.

“Lorraine, Lorraine. Now what ever will your son think of you when you do such stupid things? How could you not tell me you and Greg were coming to visit?” He waits, as if the corpse is going to answer him. “Oh, what a shame indeed, and now look what you've forced me to do. Kill a mother, and now I have to go kill a father, I hope that this was worth orphaning your son.”

He bends over and kisses her cheek, the fire backs away from her body as he approaches, and returns when he backs away.

I turn back to our car, I see the window on the driver's side shatter and Greg's leg pops through. He must've woken. I run back, this is about when the last memory ended, maybe I can see how this ends.

Greg crawls through the window, he is bleeding from his forehead where he slammed into the wheel, and there are cuts and bruises alongside the rest of his body. He stumbles over to the back window on Sam's side and thrusts his elbow into it once. The door is so bent in it isn't going to be opening anytime soon. Sam's lucky none of it seemed to pierce his fragile little body. I can hear his screams from out here, he's definitely woken up.

Greg thrusts again, making a crack in the window, and then a third time breaks the glass. Back at the other car the door opens with ease and Jack steps out, brushing off his coat from any dirt or grime. He takes out a deep breath and pulls out a large revolver from his holster underneath his jacket. He walks at a leisurely pace towards Greg.

I turn back towards him and begin screaming out, “Turn around! He's got a gun!” I hope that somehow, someway he'll be able to hear me and change his fate.

Jack gets closer as Greg peeks his head inside to unbuckle Sam from the booster seat. Jack reaches him and presses the butt of the gun against the back of Greg's head. He cocks it and then smiles a devilish grin that would probably terrify even the devil.

He pulls the trigger and Greg slumps over as his blood and brain bits splatter all over Sam and my younger self. The gunshot rings out and I remember it as the explosion I'd heard from the last dream, what I'd thought was the car blowing up.

Greg's body falls fully to the ground, his hand no longer supporting him up onto the broken car door. As his body hits the ground Jack holsters his gun and grabs out both Sam and Me, but without even reaching a single hand into the car. It seems to be some sort of mistake, he shouldn't be able to do that, to lift us without touching us, but I can see it as clear as day. He lifts us through the window and holds us in the air outside of the car, crossing his arms as if waiting for something.

That something must be the police, as when the siren begins to sound in the distance he cracks a smile. Both Sam and I are crying, two sets of incessant noises that ring out, but Jack doesn't seem to care.

Actually scratch that, doesn't seem is a little bit too generous for him. He doesn't care.

In the distance I can see the flashing red and blue lights. They approach, coming closer and closer until they come until a slow and steady stop. Jack walks over to the car, both Sam and my younger self floating behind him, still crying their little hearts out. The police car door opens, and out steps Jake's father in full police uniform. I can tell he is much younger, but he still looks just like his son.

I hate him. I cannot decide who I hate more at the moment, either him or Jack.

“Nice work, Carroway. Your response time was phenomenal,” Jack says.

He bows his head, “It was certainly a pleasure sir.”

“Keep this up and you'll definitely earn that promotion you've been working for,” Jack says.

He bows his head again, and like the lapdog that he is, he opens up the door for Jack to enter. Jack seems pleased enough with it. He walks over and pushes Sam and my younger self into the back seats with his mind.

“Carroway, I have another favor for you,” Jack says, sitting into the passenger's seat.

“Yes sir?”

“The girl, find a place to put her. Adoption, side of the road, whatever you feel like. I don't need her anymore, and I really have had enough bloodshed for one day,” he says.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes, I do believe so. I only need the boy.”

“Your will be done,” He says as he steps into the drivers seat and begins to drive away. I stand there on the highway, two burning cars and two dead parents. Whoever this Gavin is, I'm assuming Greg and Lorraine's son, he's now going to be alone. I feel like I should feel worse than I do for him, the way Greg made it sound it was like we were best friends, even if we were nearly ten years apart.

But I don't remember any of this. Not a single bit of it. It is one thing to see yourself go through all of these events, but it is another entirely to actually remember them.

I guess it is maybe because it was so much my mind couldn't handle processing it so it made me forget.

Or maybe my father made me forget, I mean, who knows what else he can do?

The world around me begins to dip into grays and melt away, my sight begins fading, and it all goes black.