Zoey was half expecting her home to swarming with police officers. There was nothing out of the ordinary, in fact, except for a familiar white car parked outside. She couldn’t help but roll her eyes a little. It was only a matter of time before she showed up. It was a long ride home, and Zoey was too tired to care. Quietly unlocking the door, Zoey stepped into the house.
She could hear voices coming from the family room and walked almost soundlessly towards them. There, sitting together like old friends, were her parents, Rick Daring, and Sara.
Sara sat poised and refined as always. Her short, dark hair flapped as her head turned; grey strands danced downward over her green eyes. She wore her modest white jumpsuit with the rolled up sleeves and leggings, revealing the dark tegarei that covered her body except for her head and fingertips.
Rick Daring, well dressed as ever, wore a dark navy suit with a striped shirt and a red tie. The suit did little to hide his broad shoulders and trim physique. On display was his trademark disarming smile and sparkling blue eyes.
“Hello, Zoey,” said Sara. “We were just talking about you.” Zoey’s parents immediately got up and greeted her with warm, affectionate hugs.
“I was just telling your parents about your apprenticeship with me over the last five years. It was wrong of me to ask you to keep it a secret, given my high-profile status.”
“That must have been what’s been bothering you these last couple days,” said Harold.
“To think that you were working at a high ranking corporation, and you let us think that you were slumming around,” said Alice.
“Really, Mother, I -”
“And I assure you that my credentials are sound, and my associate can back everything I’ve told you,” continued Sara. “Your daughter is a very creative and enthusiastic person, but as hardworking as she is, I insisted on giving her a break.”
“We had a previous engagement nearby,” said Daring. “So, we thought we would drop in, if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all, though we would have appreciated a little forewarning,” said Alice. “Now, we see where Elizabeth gets it from.”
Harold nudged Zoey. “Well, don’t you have anything to say to your boss?”
“Well,” started Zoey. “That is, this is a surprise, and I just got back myself from… From a trip, and I just need a moment, to put away my things and gather my thoughts.” Flustered, Zoey started backing away towards the stairs.
“Don’t mind them,” said Alice. “We can entertain them while you get dressed into something more appropriate. Dinner won’t be ready for another twenty minutes anyway.”
“Dinner?”
“Yes, it would be rude not to feed them, don’t you think?”
Zoey trudged up the stairs; her head still spinning from everything that’s happened to her in the last 24 hours. I’m going to have dinner with my parents and Sara? I think I prefer being Zeitgeist’s slave. How can my life become any more upside down? She walked into her bedroom and found a man standing in it.
The man was no stranger to her. His dark hair was slicked back, and a small stubble was growing on his youthful face. He wore a green shirt with a tan tie and an olive sweater vest over top. His name was Maximilian Sebastian Orwell Maddock Jr., but everyone just called him “Junior.”
“Oh, hey,” he said. “I wasn’t, you know, spying or anything. Sara told me to wait outside, but I just climbed in through your window. I wanted to see you, that you’re okay.”
Zoey rushed over and hugged Junior. She was trembling in his arms. “You okay?” he asked.
“God, I can’t even tell you what I’ve just been through,” she replied. “It all seemed so strange, like a fading dream.” She suddenly broke their embrace. “Just wait a moment, I have to do something. I’ll be right back.”
Zoey left her room and walked over to her parents’ room. Her parents were too distracted by their guests, and it was a perfect time for Zoey slip back the gun undetected.
She walked into her parents’ room, reaching for the gun in her backpack. Her heart started to race as she realized the gun wasn’t in the bag. She had it with her when she was escaping the underground facility. She had it when she ran into the two police officers.
Her mind tried to retrace her steps. Did she have it when she rode the elevator up? What if the police have it? What if they’re dusting it for prints, and then come and arrest her, or worse, her parents?
“Looking for this?” Zoey turned to see Sara framed in the doorway, handing Zoey her parents’ gun.
Zoey took the gun from Sara. “How did you get this?” she asked before the realization kicked in. “No! Don’t tell me!”
“Yes?”
“Don’t tell me that you were that police woman!”
“Yes, Daring and I. I’m afraid you dropped that when you were trying to tackle us.”
Zoey looked skeptically at Sara for a moment, before quietly replacing the gun where she had found it.
“Did you find your closure?” asked Sara.
“Thank you for coming all this way and lying to my parents, but I’m going to tell them the truth at dinner. I promised myself that I would.”
“I’m sorry. I thought I was helping.”
“I need a ride, that’s all. I’m not going back,” said Zoey. “I don’t need the kidnappings and the death threats anymore. I can’t handle it like you, Sara.”
“I’m not some adrenaline junkie. Daring and I do this, because we have to.”
“What’s to show for all the years we’ve been doing it? All of them are back on the streets again or worse, re-elected.”
“That doesn’t matter. I only care about the people who need our help. Someone has to help them.”
“That’s fine. That’s what you believe in, Sara. But I don’t think that’s what I believe in. The fact is I still don’t know what I believe in or what my life is for. Hours ago, I was pointing a gun at the man who ruined my life, and I don’t know if it made a difference at all.”
“Zeitgeist is in our custody now, Zoey. He’ll never bother you again.”
“Really? Where is he?”
“He’s in the truck of our car, armless and legless. If he turns evidence that will cripple the Cabal, he’ll spend the rest of his unnaturally long life on an isolated planet doing experiments on nonliving things.”
“He should be rotting in jail. He ransacked my brain, not to mention all the others he wronged. For Christ’s sake, he murdered my friends.”
“Zeitgeist has a trump card. His life is being prolonged by an unknown procedure. If Richard or I bring him to any civilized court, the first thing they will do is cut him open and discover the source of his supposed immortality.”
Sara’s green eyes burrowed deeply into Zoey as she continued, “This would seriously ruin the balance of life on any planet, causing catastrophic overpopulation, to name the least. We had to make a deal with him, so that no one else can find out about his process.”
“Why does this all sound so familiar? Why are you so pessimistic when it comes to other people? You don’t think they can be as saintly as you are?”
“Don’t trifle with me, Zoey,” said Sara, an edge to her voice. “I know what other people are capable of, because I have looked into the darkness of my own hearts. I know that other people would be tempted, because frankly I would be tempted.”
“Fair enough. But I don’t want to have anything more to do with any of this. I just need you to take me out there one more time.”
“To run away again?”
“No. Before I got dragged into all this again, I was helping Kintu, and now she probably thinks you got me killed in one of your hair-brained plans.”
“Hair-brained?” asked Sara. “That hurts, really it does. And Kintu knows me better than that. Right?”
Zoey didn’t reply.
“That thing on Rylon IV doesn’t count.” Sara sighed. “Then, what will you do afterwards?”
“Probably hitch a ride back here. I still don’t know what to do, who I am. I looked into the eyes of the devil himself, and I don’t know what I’m going to do, Sara.”
“I have faith in you. No matter what you decide.”
“Even if it ends in prostitution and drug smuggling?”
“Don’t make me bring your mother up here,” said Sara, fighting off a smile. Then, suddenly, the smile was gone. “Does Junior know?”
Junior sat on Zoey’s bed, quietly waiting for her return. His thoughts, once about his recent adventure with Daring and Sara, now focused on Zoey and the happiness he felt being with her. Being a linguist, he could tell her in a million different ways, but why did he hesitate?
“Max?” He turned to watch Zoey enter the room. She sat down next to him.
“Is everything all right?” he asked.
“Yes, well, no, probably not. It’s just so sudden, all of this. My head’s spinning. I feel like I was just put through a test, and I don’t know if I passed or failed.”
“It sounds like you’ve been around Sara too long. So much for getting away from all this. There’s nothing to worry about now. We got Zeitgeist. He won’t hurt anyone anymore.”
“Don’t make promises you can’t keep. Sara told me he’ll live a long but isolated life. Maybe I should have shot him when I had the chance.”
“Zoey, you don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Skip the sermon for a moment. That guy killed my friend and did a lot worse to me. Don’t I have the right to take his life after everything he did to me?”
“Then why didn’t you?”
“I don’t know. When I looked at him, on that slab, all my anger evaporated, and I was filled with sadness. I guess I pitied him. He thought of himself as this great figure, but he wasn’t even capable of the most basic human emotions, except greed.”
“Sara would be proud of you. We all are. Compassion is a rare treat to see these days.”
“Then, why do I feel so bad?”
“I don’t know. Maybe you made the wrong decision?”
“Oh, thanks for that! I thought you were suppose to make me feel better.”
Junior shrugged. “Sara’s the philosophical one. I’m just good with words.”
“Look, Max, I’m going back to Imitatia. Why not come back with me? Just for a month or so?”
“I thought you were coming back with us, to the Institute.”
“No, I left Kintu in the lurch, and I owe her to come back and finish what I started. Then, I’m probably coming back to Earth.”
“Here? Why?”
“Even after all I’ve been through, I don’t know what I want to do, but I don’t want to live the life you guys are living, from adventure to adventure. I think being here will help me figure things out, and, God help me, I love my parents and miss them terribly.”
“I understand, Zoey,” started Junior.
“I hear a ‘but’ coming up,” interrupted Zoey. She placed a finger to his lips. “So, why don’t we just leave it at that?”
“Elizabeth!” came her mother’s voice from the base of the stairs. “You’re keeping your guests waiting! It’s dinner time!”
Zoey looked at Junior’s forlorn face. “Are you sure you don’t want to join us? There’s always room for one more.”
“No, thanks. I think I’ll just slip out your window while you all are eating. See you around.”
“Goodbye.” Zoey’s chest swelled as she turned from him and made her way downstairs. She forced herself to take deep breaths as she slowly walked down step by step. It was the only thing keeping her from breaking down.
No, not now. It’s supposed to be a happy occasion.
Zoey smiled as she greeted Sara and Daring and led them to the dining room. They sat down at a round table with her parents, and they sat in silence as Alice said grace. Then, they passed the food around, and for a moment, Zoey forgot herself, smiled warmly, and spoke openly.
She told those gathered around her about the last five years of her life. She told her parents about Zeitgeist, Sara, the Brilliant 5, and all the sights and terrors she had experienced.
When she was finished, they were only empty plates and full stomachs. Zoey simply sat there and waited for her parents to say something.
Click here to read the final chapter
Written by J M Emmons. The story and all characters are copyrighted by J M Emmons.
No comments:
Post a Comment