Chapter 5

 

Chapter 5

     Nervous butterflies were jumbled and tangled, scraping against my empty stomach. Who was “Boss” to the traitors and how did he think I could help? With 93 and 57 positioned close behind me, I felt pressured to go in. I couldn’t stand here, rooted to the floor to ponder silently about who or what was waiting for me behind this lead obstruction longer; any credit I might have received for retaining courage during my forced captivity began to flutter away as the two watched me stand, unsure of how to move.

            The wintry air passed smoothly through my nose, deep into my lungs.

            All right then.” I turned to smile at both of them, “Well, I’ll... I’ll see you both later then.”

“Yes, of course, Miss,” replied 57.

I hesitated.

“I can just go in, right?”

“Whenever you are ready, Miss,” 57 said. His sapphire eyes, flecked with lighter sky blue sparks, gave me a strange at-home comfort.

Oh come on, I told myself, this meeting can’t end up with me dead or anything.

My hair, still partially damp from my recent shower, fell silently over my shoulders as I leaned forward and grasped the handle. I caught 57’s gaze once again then pushed down on the metal handle.

The room that had been waiting for me since earlier this morning was a decent sized office/lounge. Centered in the back of the room was a modern, wire desk with a Mac computer and mouse. The rolling chair behind it looked perfect for sitting relaxed for hours of work or a short rest.

The lighting was perfect and not in any way oppressive. Lamps with shades hanging over them were placed throughout the room on various pieces of furniture. There were two new and expensive looking sofas, a lounge chair, a coffee table, and a flat screen television.

Sitting on one of the red couches was a young man, no more than four years older than me. His caramel skin was taught over his toned muscles and his thick, dark hair was about one inch in length, curled naturally into tight swirls. He was dressed in expensive working clothes. An expression between and a smile and a straight face was playing across his mouth. When the man saw me enter, he rose and walked towards me.  

I decided to show him I wasn’t afraid, I could handle this.

“Hello sir,” I stuck my hand out in front of me. “My name is Jennifer, but you probably already know that. This your office?”

He seemed surprised by my forwardness for a moment but then his eyebrows lowered, as if he just realized something. The smile widened as he shook my hand, hard.

“Nice meeting you, Miss Jennifer. I imagine you have many questions for me. Let me try and answer some before you fire away. My name’s T7780, but I used to be D. See, we don’t have names in " Oh wait, you already know all of this, don’t you.”

And I did indeed. “Yes sir, people in the Crew are ranked differently; The Pure Bloods, the Full Bloods, the Half Bloods, and the Lessers. Pure Bloods keep their name, Full Bloods have a letter, Half Bloods have a number, and Lessers have both a number and a letter. Since your name was “D”, that means you were a full.”

“Haha, not bad, Jennifer,” he said. “Seems you’ve learned most of what we in the Crew have when we were growing up all in a short week. Shall I test you?” he asked rhetorically.

“If you wish,” I answered, even if the question wasn’t directed at me. “But, please don’t expect me to know absolutely everything about the Crew.” I replied.

“Well, a young woman with your talent, how couldn’t you?” 80 questioned.

With my “talent”? What in the world is he talking about?

“Besides,” he continued, “a certain Pure Blood told me that you know more than just an overview of us.”

             My eyes narrowed as I tried to deduct who could have informed 80 of this. There were only two Pure Bloods that served under the Origin, Quijano and his brother K88. They were brothers, but that did nothing to stop them attempting to kill the other, both for their own choices. Since they were basically second in command under the Origin, those greedy for power would target anyone who called themselves a Pure. So, they hid their identities, Quijano becoming a Full Blood, Q, and K88 becoming a lesser. I never learned his real name. It must have been Q who told D. I knew he had been captured by the Traitors not two weeks ago, and last I heard, he was still in a facility much like this one. I had only chatted with K88 once, and it wasn’t much of a conversation, it was more of a scare-the-hell-out-of-a-teenage-girl talk.

I met 80’s eyes. “So, Q told you that?” I asked, almost one hundred percent sure I was correct.

A smile perked up from the corner of his mouth. “Why don’t we sit down first, Jennifer?” 80 motioned towards the red couch on the right. I nodded and settled down on the edge of the cushion, my hand resting on the arm of the sofa.

I kept his gaze and jutted my chin forward slightly to indicate that I still desired an answer to my inquiry. A corner of his lip was still raised in amusement.

After a few more seconds, he decided to answer me.

“Well, yes, he did.” 80 readjusted himself on the sofa opposite of me.

“What about the whole, erasing his memory treatment? Wouldn’t he forget before he even told you? Last time I talked with him, he couldn’t even remember his name.” When Quijano decided he was going to bring down the Crew once and for all, he knew he would have to dispose of his brother to ensure the organization's demise. The best way for K88 to keep his brother from seeking easy assistance was to call him a traitor, anyone who helped him would be killed. Q sought help from the traitors, other former Crew members who had been tagged as traitors for aiming to leave or cause any distress among the ranks, at their headquarters.

Instead of offering help, he was thrown into a cell and struggled to survive as drugs were forced into him. The drugs were meant to make Quijano virtually a mechanical fighter. They were originally created in World War II for Special Forces fighter, but when new treatments were generated that wouldn't produce the fatal side effects as the original had, all files on the subject were destroyed and all facilities guarding the drugs became more penetrable. The Crew could easily gather the drug and they now seemed to be using it to their advantage, especially the Traitors.

The treatments given to Q would enhance four of his five senses, all except touch so pain would not disable him. Along with that, they began to erase his memory so he would follow all commands issued to him without question or doubt.

I head learned all of this from Pyro, a twelve year old Full Blood who specialized in the medical field, but had lost contact with Q before I knew is he had survived the treatment or not.

Some people might settle for a cloudy explanation, but I was never finished until I had all of the facts and each one of the facts had been lined up.

80 studied me for a minute, probably contemplating how to answer or why I was asking the questions instead of him. Instead of replying, he changed the subject.

“You know... I don’t think you are grateful for the service we have done for you.” His blue-grey eyes peered into me, into my past.

“What?” I scoffed. “You call the hospitality you gave me last night a service?” I was exasperated. “I thought I’d been finished off by your man last night. What you should be giving me is an apology!”

80 shook his head slowly. “Now, Jennifer, I know you haven’t forgotten. We were the ones that saved your life, not the ones that destroyed it.” His voice was soft, but the truth was a fifty pound hammer.

I looked down, hurt. I didn’t want to remember what happened that night. My short nails clawed at the arm of the sofa. I couldn’t help myself; a tear worked its way out of my eye.

“Saved my life? You might have just killed me for what ‘service’ you did me. Why couldn’t you have come earlier?” My words were hot with anger. “Why didn’t you let me be killed? I wished I’d had died that night instead of them....” I sniffled as I looked up to try and prevent more tears from pouring out.

“We got to your family as fast as we could when K88’s men arrived....” 80 replied slowly.

I glared at him with pure hatred. “You didn’t and you know it, you b*****d. Don’t lie! Tell me WHY you let them be murdered inches in front of me! Why you let them...” I squeezed my eyelids together as tears now flew down my red face. I wanted to pound my fists at him, kick his stomach, scream with fury; anything to let me release my rage.

80 now seemed to regret ever bringing up the subject.

“How long were you watching me? How long did you wait until you decided to come after me? How long did you wait after you saw K88’s men come into my home? HOW LONG?” I was grinding my teeth and preparing a fist to strike him.

“Tell me now!” I screeched, “or I swear, I’ll never work with you!”

There was silence for a couple of moments.

“You are just like the rest of them,” my voice had lost some its hatred but was still wavering, a sheet of cloth in the wind. I watched my hands as they fumbled on my lap. “You like watching people murdered. Its fun to you too, isn’t it? A massacre is your Friday night party, isn’t it?” My eyes rose to meet his careful gaze. “You and your little band of traitors are just like K88.”

I wiped my nose, plastered with snot, with my weary arm. My eyes stared at the lead door. If I hadn’t thought it locked, I my legs would have carried me out that instant.

“You people don’t feel,” I continued. "You don’t sleep. This entire organization is just a killing spree; all you do is take the lives of someone’s friend, someone’s child.” I couldn’t meet his stone gray eyes.

When he spoke, his voice seemed to want to caress my back, to comfort me. “Jennifer, you should know this, since I’m a Full, my parents were killed right in front of me as well. It’s the way of the Crew. They cut off all those close connections to ensure our loyalty.”

What he said next sounded difficult for him to get out. “I thought if your family was taken from you... you wouldn’t want to go back... you’d want to get revenge. When K88’s men came, they weren’t aiming for just your family, they were going to kill you too, Jennifer. We did save you that night.”

“Well, you sure have a hell of a way of saving someone,” I said hotly.

Four seconds passed by like a bottle in an ocean. “Can I go back to my cell now?” I asked.

80 looked at me, then to door. “Of course. 657 and 793 will escort you back.”

I didn’t bother to shake 80’s hand as I departed. I didn’t even say goodbye. I sped to the door, pushed down the handle and walked straight out.

The second the door closed, I burst into tears. 57 was standing there, next to 93. He looked so comforting to hold, I couldn’t resist. My clattering heels took me a step forward and I took him into my arms. As he gradually put his muscular arms around me, I felt at home once again.

But, as I stood whimpering over 57’s shoulder, I saw an unfamiliar man, not from the United States I was sure, smirking at me.

It couldn’t be....

Author's Note

Please comment!

Reviews

[Jennifer Negri]

I have a few comments. You shifted at the beginning from first person to narrator, which is hard to follow:
Sitting on one of the red couches was a young man, no more than four years older than Jenny. His caramel skin was taught over his toned muscles and his thick, dark hair was about one inch in length, curled naturally into tight swirls. He was dressed in expensive working clothes. An expression between and a smile and a straight face was playing across his mouth. When the man saw me enter, he rose and walked towards me.
I decided to show him I wasn’t afraid, I could handle this.

There is a lot of exposition in this chapter. I feel that I get lost with all the information about the crew. Maybe reduce this information and allow this information to leak out as we read. Some of it would be interesting to have hidden for a long while.
I love the stuff about her family. I think it adds alot to the story and the organization. I feel it needs more time, What happened to them, what was her experience around it? How was she saved? These are the questions I'm asking, maybe you are planning to answer them later, but I'm very interested in what happened to her family.
Again, get descriptions in this chapter, I really think this is one of your strong suits.

[J.M]

This chapter was excellent as usual, I particularly like 57 who seems very sweet, and i'm intrigued to know what 80 wants from her. Nice work.