The Strike Trilogy (28 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

I
n the diner in the mining town of Riggston, Orion stood from the counter and approached Scott’s table. The somehow-resurrected Scott was eating dinner and reading his newspaper, either unaware or ambivalent to Orion’s presence. While Orion searched for the right words in the impossible situation, he watched his old friend: Tobin’s father looked awful, with his dark hair unclean and his face gaunt, washed out, and grey. But, Orion thought, he appeared strangely young—as if he hadn’t aged in the past fifteen years.

“Scott?” Orion said, the word choking out of his mouth and hanging in the air.

Scott looked up, but shook his head and returned to his newspaper.

Orion was confused. He and Scott had been friends for nearly a hundred years. But there wasn’t even a flash of recognition. “Scott, it’s me,” the old man said. “Orion.”

Scott looked up again, this time focusing. He was apprehensive, but curious.   “I’m sorry?”

“What are you doing here, Scott?” Orion asked. He looked at Scott’s hands; they were bruised and battered, covered in soot and gnarled. “How is this possible?”

“I’m not Scott. Can I please just finish my meal?”

Orion’s mind was filled with a million, shouting thoughts. “Scott, don’t—don’t you…why did that waitress call you ‘Orion?’”

Scott pushed his chair away from the table and stood. He walked around Orion and toward the door.

“Susie, put it on my tab. Tell Lenny I’ll see him tomorrow.”

Scott walked out of the diner. Orion followed.

“Scott, I need to talk to you,” the old man said. Scott was walking away from him down the crowded, dark street. “Please. Just let me explain—I don’t know what—”

Scott suddenly turned around and grabbed Orion. He walked with the old man toward a building and slammed him against a wall.

“Are you one of them?” Scott growled, cocking his fist, his jaw clenched.

“One of who?” Orion asked, trying to remove Scott’s hand from his coat.

“The ones who have been looking for me,” Scott said, his eyes darting, his hands shaking. “The voices. Are you one of the voices?”

“No,” Orion said. “I don’t—”

Scott let go, but stepped closer to Orion. He was breaking down.

“Don’t mess with me,” Scott said, his voice cracking. He was furious, but also fragile, his eyes welling with tears. “Stop screwing with me. Get out of my head.”

“I’m not—I’m not, Scott...Don’t—don’t you know who I am?”

Scott studied Orion’s face. “You—your name’s Orion?”

“Yes.”

Scott began to cry.

“What’s my name?” he asked. “Please tell me my name.”

A short walk from the diner, Scott unlocked a door and led Orion into a small, filthy apartment in a tenement building in Riggston. The place looked like hell: the floor was littered with piles of dirty clothes and half-eaten food, and there was mold on the ceiling and cockroaches crawling on the broken-down furniture.

“This is where you live?” Orion asked.

“Yes,” Scott said, opening a closet and looking inside. He was twitching. “I think so.”

“Do you mind if I sit?”

Scott was now pacing. “Yeah, have a seat, wherever. Just make sure it’s where I can see you. Do you have the circle?”

“The circle...?” Orion looked to Scott; the confused man was breathing heavily, his eyes pinned open. “You can relax,” Orion said. “I’m not going to hurt you. I told you that.”

“Do you know where the circle is?”

“I don’t know what you are talking about. Just sit and talk with me. Go ahead.”

Scott sat down on a musty couch. Orion sat in a recliner across from him.

“How did you get here?” Orion asked. “How long have you been here?”

“I don’t…I don’t know. One day I was just here. I didn’t know who I was or what happened. I still don’t. And I can’t leave. They won’t let me.”

Orion thought it over. “Why did that lady call you Orion?”

“It’s the name I’ve been using. I know it’s not mine, but...it’s one of the only names I remember.”

“What are the other names you remember?” Orion asked.

“Catherine. And Tobin.”

Orion felt a lump growing in his throat. He did not know what to say. He looked at Scott, and Scott looked back at him.

“I have a son? A wife?”

Orion didn’t answer.

Scott looked away. He squinted at the floor. “Why can’t—sometimes I remember a life, but it doesn’t seem...who are you? I remember someone...”

Scott stood and walked to a cabinet. He opened a drawer and rummaged through it, searching through hundreds of sheets of yellowed paper. He found the piece he was looking for, and handed it to Orion.

Orion looked at the paper; it was a pencil drawing. It showed a young Orion: he was about twenty-five years old, and wearing his superhero costume, with a mask over his eyes. Scott always loved to draw.

Orion stared at the sketch. His eyes filled with tears. He looked up at Scott, trying to keep it together.

Scott was staring back at him. There was a new openness in his eyes, a recognition. “I remember him,” Scott said, pointing at the drawing. “Is that you?”

Scott walked back to the drawer, rummaged through it, and then retrieved another sheet of paper. He handed the second sheet to Orion.

It was another pencil drawing, this time of both Scott and Orion. They were in their teens and at high school, smiling and laughing.

“Sometimes I remember…” Scott said. “I remember having a friend.”

Orion looked up at Scott, trying not to blink.

“Yes, that’s me,” Orion said, his voice cracking. “I’m your friend. Always.”

Scott’s face fell. His eyebrows drooped.

“I need...” he said, his mouth quivering. “I need...”

Orion stood up and embraced Scott. Scott fell against him, exhausted and weeping.

“Help me,” he said. “Help me.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

I
n the living room of Adrianna’s house, Tobin was sitting near the fire and keeping his feet warm. Adrianna was standing in the doorway, looking into the kitchen. Keplar and Junior were still sitting at the table, looking over the blueprints of Rigel’s pyramid.

“Are they really gonna stay up all night?” she asked.

“Yeah, probably. I think they’re keeping an eye out. For, you know, bad guys. Or whatever.”

“They’re keeping an eye on me, that’s what they are doing. They can go to bed, you know. So can you. You don’t have to worry about me.”

Adrianna walked into the living room and sat down on a couch. She picked up a book from a nearby table.

“What are you reading?” Tobin asked.

“Something I picked up while I was on Earth.”

Adrianna showed Tobin the book. It was a paperback collection of superhero comic books.

“It’s actually really good,” she said.

Tobin laughed. “I would think you’d have enough of that stuff in your real life.”

“It’s interesting to see it from a different point of view, I guess.” She put the book down and sighed. “Honestly, I just can’t sleep. Not with all this going on. I was hoping to find something to take my mind off of everything.”

“I know. I tried to close my eyes for a little while, but my mind just won’t stop. I wish we could just get out of here for a little while.”

“Me too. But we can’t go anywhere without the risk of being seen.”

“I did have one idea,” Tobin said.

“Oh yeah? What’s that?”

The boy grinned. “Didn’t I hear you say something about a hot spring near here?”

Three minutes later, Adrianna was standing at the edge of the lake-sized hot spring that rested in a cliff near her house. As she held her arms across her chest, shivering, she looked up at the rock-lined waterfall that flowed into the spring from higher up the mountain.

“He can’t be serious,” she said to herself.

“Woo-hoooooooooo!” Tobin yelled, running along the top of the waterfall. When he reached the edge of the rocks, he leapt into the air. “Cannonball!” he bellowed, curling his body into a ball and wrapping his arms around his legs. As he splashed into the hot spring, he sent a spray of water into the air, and an explosion of mist into the sky.

Adrianna laughed as Tobin returned to the surface, his body steaming as he burst through the water.

“Wow!” he said. “That was amazing!”

“You’re insane, you know that?” Adrianna told him. “No wonder why Rigel wants to kill you. You’re insane.”

“This feels great! Come on, come in, come in!”

“No way, I’m freezing out here already.”

“Uh, yeah, that’s why I’m in here, in the unbelievably amazing warm water.”

“What am I supposed to wear?”

“I don’t know, who cares. Just jump in in your clothes. That’s what I did. Just take off your boots.”

“Okay.” She shook her head and leaned over, unlacing her boots. “This is so stupid, what am I…I don’t know why I’m doing this. I’m gonna kill you if I get frostbite or something.”

“Just get in, come on. Quit your complaining.” Tobin watched as Adrianna took off her boots and dipped her toes in the water.

“Oh my god, it’s not even that warm,” she said, wading in, her arms across her chest. “I’m seriously gonna kill you, I really am.”

“Just come in deeper and dunk your head. It’s way warmer in here than out there, I guarantee it.”

Adrianna lowered her chest into the water, then held her nose and dunked her head. When she reemerged, she flung her hair back, whipping it into the air before letting it fall onto her back.

Tobin stared at her as she adjusted her hair behind her ears. “Oh my god, this is actually happening,” he whispered to himself.

“I cannot believe I am doing this right now,” Adrianna said, smiling and shaking her head as she waded to Tobin.

“Doesn’t it feel great?”

“Yeah, it does. But when it’s time to get out and we freeze half-to-death walking back to the house, I’m still gonna beat the crap out of you.”

“Don’t be such a wuss,” Tobin said with a grin. “I thought you were some kind of tough, ruthless chick.”

“I am. And that’s exactly what I’m going to show you once we get out of here.”

Tobin laughed and splashed Adrianna, and she laughed and splashed him back.

Inside Adrianna’s house, Keplar and Junior could see the hot spring from the kitchen window, which was overlooking the cliff.

“Let the kid have fun,” Junior said with a laugh. “No one’s gonna hurt him.”

Keplar looked out at the hot spring with a disapproving scowl. “I don’t get how you two are so welcoming to this...whatever she is. I still don’t trust her. She was at one time helping the two people trying to kill us, in case you forgot.”

Junior grabbed two beers from the fridge. “She says she’s not anymore, and even if she was, she wouldn’t do anything now. We’re right up here.” He handed one of the beers to Keplar. “Not to mention I set up all my scanners in the woods to go off the second anyone comes near. Believe me, if we’re in danger, we’ll know. Just relax.”

Keplar took a sip from his beer. “I am, I am. I just…worry about him.”

Junior laughed. “Why are you watching him like a hawk? I think he can take care of himself, you know.”

“I know. But I just owe it to him, that’s all. With everything that’s happened, that’s the least I can do.”

“What do you mean?”

Keplar thought it over. “You know how, years ago, Orion was training me and Rigel to be superheroes?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, when Rigel broke Vincent free from prison…I helped him. I helped Rigel reawaken Vincent, fifteen years ago, when I was a kid.”

Junior was surprised. “You did? Why?”

Keplar stared at the label on his beer. “Orion’s wife…she got sick. The old dude was devastated, and so was I. She was like a mother to me. And Rigel told me that if I helped him break someone free from jail, this person could bring her back. So I listened, and helped. And that person we broke out of prison turned out to be Vincent, who couldn’t bring Orion’s wife back, obviously. That part was a lie. It was all a lie. But Vincent was free, he almost destroyed the damn Earth, and Tobin’s father died because of it.

“So that’s why I gotta watch over the kid. Because it’s my fault his dad is dead.”

“How old were you when this happened?”

“Twelve.”

“So you were a damn kid, and Rigel was what, eighteen or something?”

“Something like that.”

“This guy you looked up to, this older guy you thought was your friend, told you a lie, tricked you, something terrible happened, and you think it was your fault?”

“If it wasn’t for me, none of it woulda happened in the first place. Rigel never woulda found the prison, and Vincent never woulda been freed.”

Junior shook his head. “You didn’t free Vincent, Keplar. Rigel did. You’re gonna beat yourself up over something that happened when you were a kid? Fifteen years ago? You were twelve damn years old. You didn’t know what you were doing—you thought you were doing something great. It wasn’t your fault—it was Rigel’s. The son of a bremshaw lied to you, when you thought he was your friend.”

“Doesn’t change the fact that Scott isn’t here anymore. That Tobin doesn’t have a dad.”

“Does Tobin know all of this?”

“Yeah. I told him a while ago.”

“And what’d he think?”

“He was upset, but he didn’t care about my part. He said he knew that I was just a kid, that I didn’t know what I was doing. That it wasn’t my fault.”

“Exactly.” Junior leaned forward. “The kid doesn’t hold it against you—you’re his friend, the kid friggin’ idolizes you, I can tell. He isn’t killing himself over it, so you shouldn’t, either. You were twelve, Keplar. You can’t let things that happened to you when you were a kid follow you your whole life. A guy will lose himself doing that, he’ll eat himself up till there’s nothing left.”

Keplar stared at the kitchen table.

“Now let’s finish our damn beers,” Junior said, “and figure out how we’re gonna kick the damn brains in of this red giant and his buddies.”

Down on the cliff, Tobin and Adrianna were still swimming in the hot spring.

“Can you touch the bottom?” Tobin asked.

“I’m not sure. Can you?”

“Yeah, watch.”

Tobin dunked underwater, then swam back up.

“See? Let’s see who can stay under the longest.”

Adrianna laughed. “You’re like a little kid.”

“Oh, gee, thanks.”

“No, it’s great. I love it. It’s hilarious.”

“I’m just trying to have some fun. I haven’t really had the chance to in the last couple weeks.”

“Why not?” Adrianna teased. “Don’t you have any friends?”

Tobin laughed. “I have friends. I just haven’t…really seen them lately. I don’t know. Things are weird right now.”

Adrianna smirked. “Get used to it.”

“What do you mean?”

“How old are you?” she asked.

“Twenty-five.”

Adrianna shot him a look.

“Twenty-three.”

She still didn’t believe it.

“Nineteen,” Tobin said. “I am…almost nineteen. In a year I will be nineteen. Why, how old are you?”

Adrianna smiled. “Twenty-one.”

“Oh, wow!” Tobin said sarcastically. “Twenty-one! Wow, you’re so much older and wiser than me!”

She laughed. “No, I’ve just been exactly where you are. Once you graduate high school, everything changes. The people you thought were your friends suddenly aren’t your friends anymore.”

“That’s not true.”

“Sure it is. And it’s nobody’s fault—everyone just gets older: you change, you grow up, and you become different people. Maybe you no longer like the same things, you no longer have the same sense of humor. Or maybe you just move away and meet new, interesting friends, and then you don’t have room anymore for the old ones. That’s what happens, Tobin.”

“Not with friends like mine.”

“
Exactly
with friends like yours. Are you really the same person you were even a year ago?”

“Yeah.”

“Really? You were a superhero a year ago? Look at how much your life has changed already. And soon your friends’ lives are gonna change, too. And then you’ll all go to different colleges, and suddenly you’ll realize it’s been weeks since you even spoke to them. And the next time you do speak to them, it’ll be different. Like they’re a stranger, or a memory.”

“It’s just what happens, Tobin. And the harder you try and hold onto them, the more they slip through your fingers.”

Tobin looked at Adrianna, thinking.

“Wow,” he said after a moment. “You’re depressing.”

She laughed. “I’m just trying to explain it to you, that’s all. So you aren’t shell-shocked when it happens. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

She grinned and splashed him in the face. He splashed her back.

“I didn’t cry. I’ll save that for later, when I’m all alone and friendless.”

She laughed again, then arched her head up toward the kitchen window. “You think they can see us up there?”

Tobin looked at the window. “I don’t know. Why?”

“Come here.”

Adrianna took Tobin’s hand and led him into a cave behind the waterfall.

“What’s back here?” Tobin said, looking at the rocks around him.

“You think they can see us now?” Adrianna asked.

“No,” Tobin replied, “‘cuz all I can see is the backside of water. Why are we—”

Adrianna grabbed Tobin and kissed him, pulling him close, holding her body against his. He was shocked, but then quickly wrapped his mind around what was happening, and kissed her back. In the silence in the cave behind the waterfall, they kissed, with their arms around each other, their bodies pressed against each other. At this point in his life, Tobin had kissed four girls, but none of them with this passion, this intensity. With the other girls, it had always been quick and mostly awkward, with Tobin constantly wondering if he was doing the right thing. Now, though, he was barely thinking at all, and could only feel an incredible, emotional energy being shared between him and Adrianna. He pulled her closer into the waterfall, then parted from her and looked her in her eyes.

“Hi,” she said with a smile, embarrassed. “Was that okay?”

“Uh, yes.” He shook his head. “Wow, you’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”