"Anamnesis" Chapter Five

Anamnesis ©
Chapter Five
By Fiction Writer #13
( nosex, plot, sci-fi, paranormal)

The night air hung heavy and thick under the motionless trees. Crickets, chirping in numbers too large to comprehend, filled the forest with a cacophony of sound. All was still. Even the passage of the crescent moon above seemed stalled in the oppressive heat and humidity left over from the long gone day before.

Through the brush, the overgrown ivy, and sticker bushes, two dark figures moved in near silence. Just ahead of them loomed an unnatural structure in this wilderness. They duck, sidestep, and pick their way ahead, avoiding the dry crunch of the leaves and twigs beneath their feet, but never deviating from their goal.

Two figures, moving as one, a team. One taller than the other, but not by much. Soon they emerge at the edge of a clearing that surrounds a building out in the middle of nowhere. It's a little cooler here, a slight breeze blowing off the lake reaches past the clearing and brushes the crouched figures shrouded in darkness. They wait a moment, making sure that they have not been discovered. Listening. Ears straining over the din of insects.

Quickly now, they move half crouched over the bare dirt and gravel path to the door of the building. They press their bodies to the wall, hiding in the deeper shadows of the eaves, out of the barely there moonlight. Again they listen. The distant hoot of an owl puts them even further on edge. They have one shot at this and they know it.

The taller of the two nods to the other. It's now or never. The door’s handle turns smoothly. It's unlocked, just as they expected. Quickly now, once again, they move through the open doorway and inside, closing the door silently behind them. The taller one leads, the shorter follows as they both move deeper into the structure.

It doesn't take long before they find what they are looking for. Their goal, what all of this sneaking and running was all about, lay before them. The moonlight, once their enemy, is now their friend as it pours through the window and illuminates the room. There it is.

Feathers explode into the air, erupting from the bed before the two figures. The short one lowers his weapon and moves forward to inspect the damage caused by the three silenced rounds. The covers are drawn back.

The taller one moves in to see what could have caused his subordinate to break protocol, and what he sees causes him to react instantly. His hand moves to the side of his face, fingers press into the device implanted in the hinge of his jaw, activating it. "Alpha Team, target A is loose, repeat, target A is loose."

There is a moment of nervous silence before a tinny voice speaks directly into the eardrum of both the men standing in the empty bedroom of Robbie Davis. "Bravo Team, target B is loose, target B is loose."

'Damn it, ' thinks the taller man, 'it's all going to hell. Where the fuck are they? Did someone tip them off?'

There is a slight crackle in his ear before a new voice speaks. "Charlie Team, target C acquired and eliminated, target D is loose."

'Two out of four...' Tall man grits his teeth. 'This isn't good. The primary and secondary targets need to be located ASAP.'

His fingers press into his jaw again, "All teams, fan out, search the house. Find them."

The tall man held out hope that they would be found. If the father had been in the basement, then maybe, just maybe, the children were still here and the mission could still be saved. As the eight men, in teams of two, moved through the home, it became clear that their goal of clean, quick, and quiet would not be met this night.

"Damn it!" The tall man moved into the living room and joined the rest of his waiting team. "This was supposed to be a simple operation. For Christ's sake, they're fucking civvies!" He paced between them before pulling the black hood from his head. "Where the fuck are they?"

"Sir." One of the identically dressed men stepped forward. "We've just received word from Echo Team. They've swept the woods and found two sets of tracks."

"Not good, Sir. They led out to the small garage near the main road. The car is missing."

"Sir," the other man spoke again, "Echo Team did check, it was there twenty minutes ago when they made their final pass."

"Alright." Tall man calmed down a little. "That means that they couldn't have gone very far." He pressed the point on his jaw again. "All teams, all teams, listen up. Primary and Secondary targets are on the move. They are twenty minutes out and have acquired a vehicle. The vehicle is a blue 2004 Honda Civic, New York tags, license plate Wun Tree Kilo Lima Mike Too Siks. Locate and eliminate."

A chorus of "Yes Sir!" filled his head before all those assembled in the living room cleared out. Only the tall man remained behind in the empty house. He paced around, stopping momentarily to view some of the family pictures hanging from the walls. He had never had a family before. No mother, no father. Just his team. It had always been, just his team. They were the only family he ever needed or wanted.

'How could this have happened?' he wondered as he pulled a small canister from his belt. 'We've planned this thing for over a week. Watched them for two months beforehand. Our surveillance was complete and total coverage. That fucking car hasn't been moved in almost a year.'

He placed the canister in the center of the room on a coffee table and moved to the front door. 'Why? Why tonight, of all fucking nights, did those two kids decide to go for a joy ride?'

He opened the door and walked out into the dark night. 'No. It's too much of a coincidence. Someone tipped them off. Someone knew that we were coming.' Down the driveway sat a jet black car, the driver side door open and waiting for him.

'Jonathan.' He slid behind the wheel and the door hissed shut on its own. 'It has to be Jonathan.' The black car moved silently in reverse before swinging around to face the long dark road leading out of the forest and onto the main road. 'No more hiding. I'll show that fucker who the mistake was, once and for all.'

The black car drives away into the night. Ahead is only darkness, but behind a sudden flash of light illuminates the forest. The blast is silent but the ground beneath the car shakes. The Davis home is engulfed in a brilliant white sphere of light, and then it is gone, and with it the bodies of Helen and Stanley. Nothing is left as the light fades back into night. No trace. Just a crater where it used to be. The lake rushes in to fill that empty space, and soon, all evidence that there had ever been a home in the woods is gone for good.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this." Robbie leaned back in his seat as the blue car turned off of the dirt road and hit the first paved street they had been on since leaving the garage. "How can you even see anything?"

"Relax, baby bro." Stephanie clicked a button and the headlights blazed into the night. "I had to keep them off so that Mom and Dad didn't see us leaving. We're home free now!"

Rob smiled at his sister's excitement, but inside he felt that their escape wouldn't remain this easy. "They're going to be pissed when they wake up and we're not there."

"Hey, it was your idea." Steph made a right turn and headed towards the highway.

"It may have been my idea, but you're the one stealing the car," Rob laughed. "How do you know how to drive?"

"I just do. It's not that hard, maybe later I'll let you take over," Steph giggled "This is fun."

The car moved smoothly down the road and made a soft right leading up the on ramp to the highway. They easily merged with the light traffic of three am and accelerated towards their goal, away from the place they had always believed was home. Had they looked back, they would have seen a bright light flare up on the horizon before darkness returned. Home was gone, and Robbie suddenly felt a chill.

Tall man drove his car at a speed that most would deem reckless down the winding forest road. The exterior of the black car had no lights to guide it, but within it's shell shone a veritable Christmas display. Tall man confidently manned the controls of his vehicle, more like the inside of a stealth fighter than any car being produced out of Detroit, Germany, or Japan.

"Do we have them yet?" tall man asked out loud. He was alone as he drove, but his team was out there somewhere, searching.

"The graviton blast may have interfered with it, or possibly damaged the transmitter. We hope to have it back shortly."

Tall man kicked himself. 'Damn it. If I hadn't been so pissed about missing them, I would have held off on detonating it.'

Once more the cabin filled with silence despite the high speed of the car. 'Stupid mistake. I can't allow stupid mistakes. Not now.' Tall man pressed the thumb button on the steering wheel, engaging the computers auto-drive system. A double tap against his jaw opened up communications with the Mobile Command Center, code named MC², an otherwise ordinary looking tractor trailer truck cruising down the highway a few miles from tall man's current location.

"Copy MC²." Another double tap closed the two way com system. Tall man flipped the switch to regain control of the car from the computer. "You can run, but you can't hide." His foot pressed even harder on the accelerator.

The siblings drove on in silence for a few miles. The initial adrenaline boost of the escape and theft was winding down, leaving them both feeling the effects of the little sleep that they had managed to get.

"Yeah. Who else would?" Rob turned to look at his sister as she drove. Every once and a while the headlights of traffic moving in the opposite direction illuminated her face; her creamy skin seeming to glow as the harsh light poured in and made her squint to see ahead.

"Well..." She squinted as some idiot with high beams passed by. "They might call the cops."

"I left them a note," Rob confessed. "I didn't tell them where we were going, but I did let them know that we weren't kidnapped."

"That's cool. I didn't leave one." Steph sighed. "I think they might call the cops about the stolen car."

"Well, if not the car..." Steph made a wincing face, "... then maybe they'll notice the credit cards and cash are missing."

"You stole money too?" Rob's eyes grew big in the darkness. "They're gonna kill us, Steph!"

"They have to catch us first." Steph laughed wickedly, but stopped when she caught the scared look on her brother's face. "Look, Robbie. We're going to need money, right? I figured we can use the credit cards until they figure out they're missing, and then use the cash."

Rob shook his head. "The second we use one of those cards they'll know exactly where we've been."

"Now how do you know that?" Steph looked briefly away from the road to look at Rob.

"I read books, Steph, not just porn like you." Steph made a sour face at him. "The cops can find out instantly when you use a credit or ATM card. Same thing with phone calls, so don't call home unless you absolutely have to. We should also ditch this car as soon as possible and find another one."

"It's not funny, Steph." Rob looked out the window. "If Mom ever gets her hands on us after doing this, what you went through in the basement will be like a vacation by comparison."

Steph's smile disappeared. "Okay, so what else do you have in that brain of yours?"

Rob continued looking out the window at the blur of passing trees in the night. "Lots, but let's just keep driving for now. I have a weird feeling."

"I don't know." Rob put his head against the glass of the window. I felt cool against his hot skin. "I feel like they're already after us for some reason."

"Well, we've got the car," she smirked, "so I think we have a good head start."

Had Rob decided to cast his eyes away from the trees and towards the heavens, he may have noticed that something above them was blocking out the stars. The white twinkling lights of the night sky first shimmered then seemingly blinked out of existence as the wedged shaped aircraft hovered directly overhead, gliding silently only a few feet above the tree line, matching the speed of the car perfectly.

The pilot's hands never left the flight controls as he maneuvered into position over the highway. Instead, his left pupil's movements guide a cursor around on a tiny screen positioned a mere inch from his left eye. His right eye gazed into a second miniature screen, this one displaying all of his flight information as well as giving him a complete view of everything outside of his craft.

Aurora had no windows, but thanks to real time computer rendering and composite imaging, it had no blind spots either. No matter in which direction the pilot looked, he could see what was outside. Different views were at his beck and call should he need them, all he had to do was speak their name. Infra-red, night vision, 3d rendered and animated topographical maps... you name it and it was available.

At the moment his left eye was busy looking straight down at the hood of the blue car containing the heat signatures of two humans, one male passenger, one female driving. The targeting cursor moved into position and locked itself on the hood of the car.

The pilot's right eye saw the world rushing to meet him head on as if it were high noon outside. It offered him an unobstructed view of the highway stretching out straight for at least another ten miles. Traffic was light, but still too crowded to take any action against his target.

"Free left view." As the pilot spoke the image before his left eye blinked and changed to join what his right eye had been seeing. The image on the left was shifted slightly further than the right one giving him a more natural three dimensional view of the world outside.

"This is Aurora One to Black Wolf, I have located the targets," the pilot spoke from within the eerily quiet cockpit. Aurora's propulsion system was like no other. Silent running, vertical take-off and landing capability, top speeds reaching Mach 4.5, it could stop on a dime and turn at right angles, making the inertial dampening system an absolute life saver.

The pilot waited as the image of the car was transmitted to the MC²before being sent to Black Wolf, who had just turned onto the same highway a few miles back.

"Black Wolf to Aurora One, ID confirmed. Verify location and civilian presence."

"North bound route 553, passing exit 37b. Target is not clear, repeat target is not in the clear."

"Roger Aurora One. Continue pursuit and do not engage, repeat, do not engage."

'No shit, ' thought the pilot, 'like I'd risk that.' At no time was Aurora to risk being seen by civilians, it was the first rule the pilot had been drilled with. "Roger that Black Wolf, pursuit only."

The pilot turned on his beacon then concentrated on flying smoothly. His job was done for now. 'What a waste of technology, ' he thought to himself. 'I could erase them both right now if I wanted to.'

Run, Robbie. They're after you. You have to run. Oh no! They're here! They can see you! You have to hide! Hide, Robbie! Hiiiii... !

"... iiide!" Robbie snapped upright in his seat, his heart beating a mile a minute.

"Rob!" Stephanie swerved wildly before regaining control "What the fuck, Rob! You scared the shit out of me."

"I... I..." Rob took a moment to clear his head, to figure out exactly where he was. "I was... asleep."

"No shit. You were snoring." Steph shook her head. "Must have been some dream to wake up screaming like that."

"Yeah." The details of the dream had already started to fade away, just as the foggy condensation left by Rob's resting head was now shrinking on the window. "I... I don't know..."

"Don't know what?" Steph asked as she changed lanes to avoid a slow moving pick-up.

"I... I think she was trying to warn me about something, but... I can't remember what it was," Rob half whispered.

"Yeah." Rob rubbed his temples as the beginnings of another headache started. Though the details of the dream had now fully left his memory, his heart still raced, and he felt a full on panic building. "Something's really wrong, Steph."

"Oh, come on you big baby," Steph snickered, "you had a nightmare, get over it."

"No Steph." Rob began looking around wildly, for what he didn't know "This is different. Something is... chasing us."

"Knock it off, Steph. I'm serious." Rob knelt on his seat and faced backwards, his eyes darting among the thin traffic behind them. "They're out there, I know it."

"Who's out there?" Steph stopped smiling and glanced up at her rear view mirror, "Mom and Dad?"

"No. Someone else." Rob could feel his palms sweating as he gripped the head rest tightly. "And they're getting closer. Really fast."

Eight miles south of Rob and Steph, moving at nearly one-hundred miles per hour, sped the black car. The man behind the wheel had no fear of being detected by any State Troopers who may have been hiding out of sight with a radar gun. No tracking system used by civilians could detect, let alone track, his sleek racing machine.

With no lights and no reflective surfaces, all they would have seen was a black streak as he went past. No sound either; the drive system had no moving parts to produce them. The wheels were nothing more than a clever ruse to trick the eye, and in fact, never touched the ground despite appearing to be rotating at a high rate of speed. The magnetic drive system, or MDS, held the vehicle aloft on a magnetic cushion, whilst a rapidly changing polarity drove it forward. Even the displaced air created by the cars forward movement had been taken into account by its designers. No dry leaves would be lifted by its passing, nor dust for that matter.

The black car was soon joined by four more of an identical design. They pulled in behind the lead car and formed a single file line with less than half a car length between them.

"When we reach the target, box and block. Let's get them this time. No mistakes."

The man code-named Black Wolf stole a glance down at the image on his console, the hood of a blue car being sent to him live from Aurora One.

'We got you,' he smiled to himself. 'No one, not even Jonathan, can help you now.'

"Rob, you have to calm down." Steph tried to concentrate on driving but her brother's nervous behavior was distracting. "Sit down and relax."

Rob, filled with fear and panic, couldn't stop scanning the road for signs of an imminent danger that he could not identify. "It's out there Steph, somewhere. I know it is."

"What?" Steph was getting pissed. "What's out there? Just sit down and stop freaking out!"

"I can't! They're here!" Rob's wild eyes fixed on his sister. "We have to hide!"

"Jesus, Rob! Hide from what?" she checked her rear view again. "There's nothing out there!"

"Get yourself under control or I'm gonna pull over and kick you the fuck out, Rob!"

"Fine!" Steph had had enough of his crazy paranoia. "You hide. I'll drive. Get down on the floor and close your eyes, then they, who ever they are, won't see you."

She wasn't being serious, only a small child would have believed that closing your eyes would render you invisible, so she was not only surprised but pleasantly amused when her brother crawled down onto the floor mat, curled up in a fetal ball, and closed his eyes to the world. With a tight lipped smile holding back her laughter, she listened as her sixteen year old brother softly chanted to himself.

"... I'm hiding... no one can see us... I'm hiding... no one can see us... I'm hiding... "

'Any second now,' he spoke to himself. 'Any second and we'll see their tail lights. Two minutes later, this whole mess will be over.'

He had been staring so hard that he didn't notice that what he was seeing had started to fade away. Already, the dark road beneath the fleeing vehicle could be seen. By the time he realized what was happening, it was too late, the car was gone.

"Sir, I..." The panic in the pilot's voice confirmed that he too had just become aware of the missing car. "Sir, I had them! The computer was locked!"

Black Wolf shook with rage, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the steering wheel as if it were the pilot’s neck. "Find them. Find them NOW!"

Black Wolf watched as the blinking light of Aurora One's beacon suddenly sped off down the highway at a high rate of speed.

"All teams, target is loose again. Alpha and Bravo, increase pursuit speed to match mine. Delta and Epsilon, hang back and cover the rear."

'Twenty years...' his eyes squinted and his lips snarled, 'twenty years working for the Council, and I've never failed a mission. I'm not going to start now.'

"JESUS!" Stephanie jumped in her seat as three black cars whipped past her window and sped off into the distance. "Did you see that? They don't even have their lights on! Assholes."

"I guess you didn't see, huh?" Steph shook her head and let out a yawn. "Yeah, you sleep, I'll drive. Then we'll switch. Good plan little bro."

Seeing him curled up and sleeping after that little episode made Steph wonder if he had ever really woken up in the first place. 'Must have been like sleep walking, or a night terror, ' she reasoned with herself on his earlier behavior. 'Poor little guy, thinks some girl is trying to help him in his dreams.'

The hum of the tires on the road began to lull her to sleep so she leaned down and flicked on the radio, being careful to turn down the volume first. An early morning news broadcast came through the speakers.

"... almost a month after the record breaking dust storm in the Australian outback and residents of Sydney are still cleaning up. The wind storm dumped nearly two feet of debris on the city and in some areas drifts have completely covered automobiles... the normally blue waters of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of New Zealand have been dyed red as the dust has settled... Meteorologist are still searching for an explanation for the sudden storm that sprang up with no warning and lasted for a record breaking forty days..."

Bored with the news, Steph switched channels and settled on one playing modern rock. It was going to be a long drive, but some of the excitement of being out on her own still lingered.