FicWad

There was a sound, a pop and a hiss like a soda can being cracked open. My eyes fluttered open but the world refused to come into focus. I struggled hard against the sudden vertigo that washed over me. Cool hands touched my forehead. “Just relax. Don’t fight. We’re here to help.” The world went black.

I don’t know how much time passed, but soon I awoke to the beeping of machines. I opened my eyes more slowly this time. The room came into focus slowly. Stark white walls, a hospital bed, white curtains draw tightly around the bed. I tried to move my hands but my body felt drugged and stupid. I closed my eyes but willed myself to stay awake. I needed to think.
Voices from the other side of the curtain.
“The BSAA tried to shoot them down over South America. Her transport pod was badly damaged. The crew did what they could, but they had to focus on keeping the plane in the air. I’m sorry, Mr. Way. I don’t know what to tell you. She’ll either wake up or she won’t. Her EEG looked good considering, but we really can’t judge what the low oxygen levels did to her brain.”
It was too much work to stay awake.

That beeping was so annoying. That was the first thing I thought. I need a drink, was the second thing. I turned my head to the side.
“Water?” I croaked out through cracked lips.
“Sam? Sam, did you say something?”
“Water.” I forced my eyes open and I saw at first just the blurry outline of a man with longish bushy hair. “Ray. You’re here. Sorry about your family.”
Ray didn’t answer me, he sprinted from the room yelling for both the doctor and Gerard.
I fought hard against the waves of darkness that threatened to swallow me up. I fought as hard as I could, but I lost the battle and darkness overtook me once more.

When my eyes opened again, it was for the first time like waking from a normal sleep. I felt sore and tired like I’d slept too much. A nurse was at my side this time, but her back was turned to me.
“Where am I?” My voice was barely above a whisper but the nurse jumped as if a gunshot had sounded in the room. She turned to me, and I noticed the white and red Umbrella logo on the label of her uniform.

“You’re in the hospital dear.” she said kindly. “Let me just get the doctor. He can explain more.”
She left the room quickly, hurrying on silent feet. That logo on her uniform bothered me. Something about it....I knew the name of the company and that they owned the school I went to, but what was it that filled me with so much dread?
In a flash my brain became working quickly. Images, mostly of reports and the armed guards who had escorted me. I suddenly remembered everything. I also recognized that this was my chance to be free and more importantly to protect my friends.

When the doctor came in, flanked by both Frank and Gerard, I smiled politely at them all. I didn’t acknowledge my friends any more than I did the staff that followed.
“Well, young lady, you gave us all quick a scare. Welcome back.” He picked up the chart from the end of my bed. “Can you tell me your name?”

I stared blankly towards the corner of the room, as if I were trying hard to remember.
“No, sorry.” I said shaking my head. Gerard gasped, and Frank grabbed his shoulder as if to hold him back. “That seems like something I should know though. Why can’t I remember?” I tried to sound panicky.

“Just take it easy. These things happen. You were deprived of oxygen for a long time.” He made notes in my chart.
“But, I’ll remember, won’t I?” I sounded like I was about to cry. It wasn’t an act. The look of shock and dismay on Gerard’s face made me want to scream and throw myself at him, beg him to forgive me for lying.
“Just relax, you’ll remember it just takes time. Why don’t you have a nice visit with your friends and we’ll check back in the morning and see how you’re doing.” He patted my hand and left the room, nurse in tow.

The boys seemed too stunned to move. “So, you two are my friends?” I asked tentatively. Frank stepped forward first, ushering Gerard into the chair next to my bed.
“That’s right. We’ve been friends for a long time. We’ve been very worried about you.” I had to stop myself from laughing. He sounded like he was talking to a particularly dumb child. “We’ve been by your side since the moment they told us that you were here.”

“Sorry, I worried you. I don’t know what happened.” This was true. I only had a few foggy memories of people talking about what had happened to me. “So, ummh what do I call you?”
I felt my heart tear in half when I asked that. I knew it had to be hard for them to hear.
“I’m Frank, and this is Gerard. You other friends Ray and Mikey are in the waiting room.”
I nodded. “I’d like to meet them.” I didn’t know what else to say. It was so hard not to grab them both and hug them tightly.
“They’ll come by later. Are you feeling okay? I mean besides not being able to remember.”
I nodded. “Just tired, but I don’t want to sleep. You know? I feel like that’s all I’ve done lately.”
He nodded. Things got very awkward. None of us knew what to say. I didn’t know what I could say that wouldn’t make this harder on them.
Frank reached out and grabbed my hand. He held it gently in his.
“It’ll be okay, I promise.” I squeezed his hand, but had to turn my head away from him. I cried silently.
“Give us a minute, Frank.”
It seemed like it had been forever since I’d last heard Gerard’s voice. It was both soothing and heartbreaking. He took my hand in his.
“Look at me, Sam.” I wanted to turn to him, but protecting them was more important.
I felt the bed sink as he sat next to me. He let go of my hand and took my face in his hands, turning it gently so I was looking at him. “I know you don’t remember this, but I once told you it was us against the world. I meant it then and I mean it now.” He brushed a tear off my cheek.
“And if I never remember?”
“Then we go on from here. You don’t remember now, but I love you. If you can’t remember that, then I’ll try my hardest to show you what it was that made you fall in love with me.”
“I think I see it already.” I whispered through my tears.

I was put through a battery of tests before they’d let me leave. An MRI, another EEG, as well as psychological, and intelligence testing. All the test came back normal. The official diagnosis they gave was Complete Focal Retrograde Amnesia brought on by psychological trauma and prolonged exposure to an extremely low oxygen environment. They sent me back to school.

I didn’t have to pretend to be surprised by what I found there. In the months since we’d left for our summer in Antarctica, Better Living Industries had changed the whole culture of the area. What used to just another city, better than most in a lot ways, was now an abomination. Drugs of all kinds were available from vending machines, as were laser blasters. The city had been flooded with refugees. The population had doubled, at least. Makeshift shelters and abandoned vehicles lined the streets. Food was scarce, clean water even more difficult to find, except at The Umbrella Academy.

The school remained mostly unchanged. We lost about fifty students in The Disaster. Most students had lost someone, family members, friends from the town where they grew up, or friends from school. Black armbands were so common on campus that the few of us who hadn’t lost anyone were seen as an aberration.
My family never tried to contact me. I only knew they were still alive because the hospital had called them, they had no interest in my condition.

I waited a few days before actively responding when they used my name. Every once in a while, I’d ignore a teacher when they called on me to reinforce my ‘amnesia’. I smiled and nodded when people talked about things we’d done together, and laughed at jokes that had grown old long ago.

Ray was really struggling. He’d lost his whole family. When his grades started slipping, I began stealing his homework at dinner time and slipping it into his backpack at breakfast. He had to have noticed, but we never talked about it.
One night I found him sitting on the bleachers near the running track. He just sat there, staring blankly off into space. I sat beside him. I had no words of comfort, but I wanted him to know that I was there if he wanted to talk. Ray had never really been much of a talker even before The Disaster.

“It just hurts, you know?” I nodded. I didn’t really know his pain, but I knew what it was like for pain to eat you up inside.
“You once told me that music was the place to get lost in. It would heal my pain and sooth my soul. Why don’t you make some music, Ray? I know you have it in you to make something amazing, and maybe it’ll help.”
He looked at me shocked. “You remember that, Sam?”
I hugged him so I could whisper into his ear. “Ray, I remember everything, and I need help.”
He hugged me tightly and whispered. “I’ll do what I can, Sam.”
“Make the music, Ray. Let it out, everyone needs it right now.” I said after we hugged.

That night was a turning point, not only for Ray and myself but for the other guys too. Ray did just what I suggested. He went to his room that night and started playing, he even roughed out a few songs. Gerard offered to help. We’d always known that he was a good writer, but we also discovered that he could sing too. They formed a band, and they were amazing. They called themselves My Chemical Romance, Mikey thought that up. They started playing in dive bars around Battery City. I went to every show.

At one show a man came up behind me. “Keep facing forward. Don’t react.”
I tensed, but tried to do what he said. Friend or foe, doing what I was told was my best bet.
“Ray sent me. He said you needed help.”
“How do I know that I can trust you?”
“You can’t, but you can know that Ray trusts me. He said to tell you that, when you woke up from your coma, you told him you were sorry about his family.”
Ray and I had never discussed me waking up in the hospital when he was at my bedside. I nodded. “Good. Meet me at the Elm street Crash House, tonight after the show. Come alone.”
He was gone as quickly as he appeared. The band finished their set, and I went to meet them backstage.
“You guys were amazing!” I said, hugging Gerard. To be honest, I was scared. I’d never roamed Battery City at night and certainly not since the city had changed. I hugged Frank and then Mikey. When I hugged Ray, I took the chance to tell him what had happened. “Your friend found me tonight. I have to go to Elm street, cover for me.”
“They’re Killjoys.” He whispered back.
The guys were ravenous after the show. Ray suggest a pizza place just two blocks from where I had to go. I snuck away while the guys were eating and talking about the show.

I hurried down streets, thankful and terrified that the street was unlit. Elm street was known for being in the bad part of town even before The Disaster. Very few people were on the streets, and none paid attention to me. I spotted the building I was looking for halfway down the street. Next to the front door was a bit of graffiti, just a spider with a lightning bolt, it told me that I was in the right place.
I’d heard of the Killjoys of course. Officially they were a gang of miscreants responsible for causing trouble all around Battery City.
Unofficially, if one were to listen closely to the hushed murmurs that made up the background noise of every gathering of teenagers, they were a band of heroes determined to free Battery City and the world of Better Living Industries, whom they referred to as BLind. If Ray trusted them, I had to too. I couldn’t endanger my friends any longer.

I slipped through the door and entered a dimly lit room. The electricity to most homes had been cut off before I’d even arrived back in the United States, so I wasn’t surprised by this. What did surprise me was how clean it was. There were mattresses scattered all over the floors, but they were neatly arranged. Trash cans stood in each of the four corners of the room, and while a few were full, none overflowed. Some mattresses were occupied by sleeping people, others by people talking quietly to others nearby. It looked more like a slumber party than a crash house.

A man, tall and broad shouldered, with long brown hair and a beard stood up from the only chair in the room. He motioned me to follow him through a door in the back. I was surprised when he opened the door and bright light spilled from it. He held the door until I stepped through then shut it gently behind me. He sat down on a long red couch that had seen better days. Across from the couch was a long scarred wooden desk. Seated at the desk was a man. At least I think it was a man. He was dressed mostly in white, except for a blue motorcycle helmet on his head a black rollerskates on his feet.

“My assistant, Show Pony.” He long haired man said.
“And you are?” I asked nervously.
“I’m Doctor Death Defying. I know who you are, but we don’t use our real names around here.”
I thought for a moment. I’d only ever had a few nicknames. “Call me Lady X.” I said.
“Well Lady X, what can I do to help you?” he asked, sitting back and resting on booted foot on his knee.
“I find myself in the position of,” I hesitated, “ Knowing too much. I realized it a few months ago. I’ve take a few steps to throw Umbrella off, but it won’t last. I know you mainly work against BLind, but I’m hoping you can help me anyways. My friends need to be protected.”
“Two things you need to know, X, one is we help anyone who asks for it, as long as they’re not an outright enemy. The second thing you need to know is, BLind and Umbrella are the same thing.”
The shock must have shown on my face, because he laughed before continuing.
“Years ago, after the Helium Wars, you don’t know about them do you? You grew up here in Battery City?”
I nodded.
“Well, you wouldn’t then, but anyways it’s not important. Umbrella got into a lot of trouble with the government. They were ordered to basically strip their company down to barebones operations. They appeared to, they formed the school here. But behind closed doors, they simply shunted their operations from one company to another. As time passed, they became two different branches of the same company. Umbrella started out with their B.O.W’s and viruses, while BLind worked on making drugs and weapons and other ways to control the population. They’re two fingers of the same hand, X.”
“I’ve worked in two of their outside labs, one in the Arkley Mountains and one in Antarctica.”
Doctor D whistled. “Not good, X. You work in the labs with their viruses?”
I nodded. “I even perfected a few that they found flawed. I didn’t really know what I was doing.”
“Of course you didn’t. That’s why they have the school. They’re looked for the greatest minds in the country, young minds so they could exploit them. The old dude, Spencer, had this crazy idea that the ultimate mind could be created by mixing the DNA of a genius with someone artistically creative.”
“I’ve read something along those lines in the handouts they give us at the beginning of each school year.”
“How many years you got left there?”
“Two.” I answered. “This year and one more after that.”
“Your friends that you want to protect, how much longer do they have?”
“For our mutual friend, and my boyfriend. This is their last year. The other two have the same as I do.”
“They wrapped up in the same shit you are?”
I shook my head, “No, they’ve all switched from science to arts. A few of them worked with me, but on much lesser projects. I don’t think they’re in danger from what they know.”
“You’re the danger to them.”
I nodded. My throat was too tight to speak.
“I’ll do what I can to help, but you’re the one that’s going to have to convince them.”
“Whatever it takes. I don’t care what happens to me in the end, they’re what matters.”
“I don’t plan to make you a martyr, X. I plan to make you a weapon.”
Of all the things I’d ever thought I’d be, a weapon was never one of them.
“You said you’ve taken steps to protect your friends? What have you done?”
“Besides pretending to have amnesia, I have copies of every project I’ve ever worked on for Umbrella. Complete data, not just the bits I worked on, but full plans, reports, schematics, testing results. I have more information in my possession than any single Umbrella computer has ever contained.”
He looked impressed. “How did you manage that?”
I shrugged. “I have my ways.”
“Good. So, who knows that you don't’ actually have amnesia?”
“You, Show Pony, and our mutual friend.”
“Jet Star knows?”
I shrugged. “If that’s what he’s called here, then yes. Jet Star is like my big brother. I slipped up while talking to him, and he’d already offered to get me help before my accident.”
“What happened in the accident?”
“I’m not really sure. We were all being sent home, in response to The Disaster. I was ordered to my lab, escorted by armed guards. The guards, I’m pretty sure they’re dead, but they told me that I was considered a valuable asset to Umbrella. I was ordered to complete a genome project and run a test simulation on the effects it would have on human test subjects. Just before I was finished a man named Albert Wesker showed up and demanded the results of my tests.” I shuddered just thinking about him. “He took the hard drive from my computer as soon as the tests were finished. I was escorted by my guards to the transportation bays. Before we got there, there was some kind of containment breech. The guard rushed me on to the transport, but they stayed behind to defend us. They bundled me into the transport pod. I don’t remember anything until they opened the pod in Battery City. My memories are sketchy for a while, but I remember a doctor telling G-my boyfriend that the BSAA had tried to shoot down my transport and my pod was damaged in the attack.”
He nodded. “The BSAA was a branch of the government who were sent out to take down the B.O.W’s Umbrella made. They were close to taking the whole corporation down when The Disaster happened. Most of them were wiped out.”
“You keep using that term. B.O.W’s. What does it mean?”
“Bio Organic Weapons, in short they’re monsters. Horrific creatures mutated by the viruses Umbrella is so fond of producing. That’s why they put students in the transport pods. It keeps them safe, and unconcious so they can load up their transport vehicles with B.O.Ws while they transport their next generation of scientists to and from wherever they decide they need them.”
“I’d wondered why, but I learned not to ask questions.”
“Smart girl, but we already knew that.”

He stood up and walked to the desk where Show Pony was seated. He tapped the man on the shoulder and without looking up Show Pony handed him a file. Doctor D handed the file to me. “This is our most comprehensive file on B.O.W’s.”

I looked through it quickly. “I saw the test projections on the viruses that caused these. They were considered failures.” I handed the files back to him. “The ones you really need to look out for are the ones they considered a success.”

“You provide us with the information you have already and anything you might come across, and I’ll see what I can do about getting your friends out of the country. Japan should be nice and safe.”

He tapped Show Pony on the shoulder again. Show Pony took the file and threw it into a drawer, then handed Doctor D something I couldn't’ quite see.

“Take this.” He dropped a small radio into my lap. “It’s set to WKIL 109 FMX. You can change it to any station, but if you hit this button,” He pointed to a small blue button on the side of the radio. “Or if an emergency transmission is sent out, it’ll tune automatically to WKIL. All of our messages are in code. Learn the lingo and learn it quickly. Every transmission is important.”
I nodded.
“Welcome to the Killjoys, Lady X.”