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Voyager: Chapter 9

"What do you mean he's gone?" The smoker, yelled at me, bits of black spittle flying about. He seemed to have lost all forms of personal hygiene after things went downhill. Sure, there weren't any showers around, but even a basic rag bath would do him good and he needed a toothbrush as well, or maybe a drill to get the gunk out from his teeth.

Dana took me down to meet the others. Like promised, they took her word and didn't just shoot me right on sight. The first person we came across was her brother, Tom. He was sort of lanky, but his intelligence more than made up for it. He ended up spouting what I would call gibberish, but he called it formalities. He wore cargo pants and a zipped up grey sweater that sported a tears, but was generally in good shape.

Then there was his polar opposite, Carlos, the smoker. Beer belly, tobacco stained teeth and some sort of stench that had eluded me upstairs. While Tom seemed to be a nice enough fellow to compliment his sister, Carlos' first words to me were, "Who the fuck are you?" His clothing were just as flattering as his teeth, flannel with holes. He claimed to be ex-military, but if that was true then it must have been before I was born because people don't turn into what he was in any short amount of time.

The boss of their group was Susan. Not Susan, but Suzaaaan. She was definitely military. Wore a red Beret that sported a big red one on its front and had nothing on but grey digital camo with another red patch on her shoulder. I wasn't good with ranks, but I believe the maple leaf on her other shoulder meant she was a Major. She was somewhere in between Tom and Carlos in terms of friendliness. She didn't talk to me, instead she went right to Dana for answers.

She told Susan what I told her. I knew Crane and had been with him until recently. That got their attention and soon enough we were all around one of the plant pots with a fire now burning inside of it. I told them everything, from when Crane saved me to when he vanished. They clung onto every word, except Dana who busied herself with a piece of canned meat she was cooking over the fire with a metal kebab.

"Like I said. Once everything cleared up, he was gone. I don't know what happened, but I think he was caught" I tried to sound sorry that they came too late. They were obviously disappointed with the news I gave them.

"This complicates things." Susan took off her beret and ran her fingers through her short cropped hair.

"Why exactly do you need him?" I asked for the umpteenth time.

"Well." Tom spoke first. "We came from a small communications facility that the government had set up in case of a disaster. It's built to be nearly indestructible and capable of off planet communications even if everything else fails." He looked over at Susan and frowned. "Should we tell him everything?"

"Sure. Not like the damn aliens don't already know about it. Been sending wave after wave of those freaks at it."

"Collectors." I muttered and they looked at me.

"What was that?" Carlos asked and pulled out a cigarette from his shirt pocket.

"It's what Crane and I called them, because they collect us." I paused and everyone was quiet while they thought it over.

"Sure, whatever." Carlos had a now cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth and each time he spoke, small puffs of smoke would flow out of his mouth and nose.

"As I was saying." Tom continued. "We've just managed to get all of the damaged systems repaired and just recently made contact with military." I listened intently, eager to hear where the hell those ships had been.

"We got in contact with an admiral who told us that Crane was probably the most capable man in all of New York and would be an invaluable assets for any Earth based operations that may occur in the future. We were also told that he was most likely in possession of a loud gun, so when we heard gunshots echoing across the entire city, we had to investigate."

"Where is the military now?" I desperately asked.

"Mars." Dana said and pulled the piece of cooked meat to her mouth and sniffed it. "I overheard you guys. Didn't that admiral guy say the ships were all at Mars?" She bit into the food, but the look on her face showed that it wasn't what she expected.

"Yeah." Tom confirmed. "Supposedly, the aliens never got a good foothold on the red planet and the military was able to retake the planet easily. Other than that they're now protecting the planet, that's all we know right now."

"Why aren't they coming here?" I nearly shouted. The anger had suddenly spiked up in me. Only if they had just come to liberate us, all of this would have been over so long ago.

Each of them looked at each other and gave their own little shrugs.

They didn't know. I sulked into my chair thinking that we were just going to die here. We had been abandoned to a fate more terrible than any I could imagine.

It was later decided amongst the others that the need to search for survivors was just as important as finding just one person. I was asked if I wanted to go back to the communications center with them, it was an offer I hastily accepted. I hated being alone. When life was normal, I grew accustomed to being alone most of the time, but now it was something that meant safety.

That night, I had time to cool down and just converse with the others, except Carlos, he just fell right asleep with the butt of a cigarette in his mouth. The first topic I diverted the conversation was why Dana, a small girl, was wandering around the city with them. Their answer was just as ridiculous as it was amazing.

Supposedly, she had latent psionic abilities which she gained after she was turned into a Canis which sort of turned her into a walking radar dish. She had been on a school field trip to a museum of Natural History when it happened. People, who at first glance, looked normal, put on gas masks and dropped canisters that released the chemicals which turned nearly everyone around into Canis'.

Dana admitted that she should have noticed that the people looked as if "they had to poop real bad." But, we told her that it wasn't her fault since she was just in first grade at the time.

They learned of the abilities at the hospital. People who represented Hawthorne Medical, along with a wolf like Canis, came and ran tests. Although Tom, who had arrived at the hospital just minutes after his sister and had stayed for several days, tried to make them go away and stop their tests, they ran them anyways. After the tests, the Hawthorne people made them an offer. Dana would get a free high standard education while they ran tests on her and Tom was allowed to be with her since he was her legal guardian.

Dana began to develop quickly and was soon able to read other people's thoughts. It wasn't perfect since she would only get impressions of how the people felt, but that was how she knew I was hiding all along. She talked about how there were others there that could even move objects with their minds, but she had no idea if they made it. She and her brother had only survived because Tom had taken them out into the country side for afternoon to show her the nature preserve. After the attack, they had decided to come back to the city despite its obvious dangers. It was Dana who led them to the communication center where they met Susan and Carlos.

When I asked about their parents, I just got mumblings about abuse and how Tom had won legal guardianship from their parents soon after he got out of college and landed a safe job. I shouldn't have asked about something so personal that fast. In a sort of a pseudo apology, I shared my own story next, I didn't leave out any details.

The looks from them made me feel slightly guiltier since it was as if I was trying to one up them on the sob stories.

"What about you and Carlos, Susan?" I turned the woman who was eating something brown out of an MRE bag.

"Not much?" She spoke after swallowing what was in her mouth. "I was stationed at the comms post when all of this happened. Carlos had always been around. You know, that wannabe sort of type that would always try to hang out around military people." She looked over at the snoozing man to make sure he couldn't hear her insulting him. "Have no idea how he managed to survive the initial bombs that dropped, but when the smoke cleared, there he was and I just couldn't let a civvie stay out and die. As a soldier, we are supposed to protect the innocent."

"Are there others at this communications post?" I asked. It had been hinted, but somehow never actually said.

"Yeah." Dana immediately said. "There are tons of people there. We have a garden with tomatoes and broccoli, but don't eat broccoli since I don't like it."

"It sort of became a place for survivors to come up." Susan continued since my question had been directed at her. "Anyone who stumbled by or if one of our patrols came across someone, then we would bring them back. Once there, you get a job to make yourself useful and that's it. Got about thirty now."

It wasn't that many. I don't know what I was hoping for. An army? That would be ridiculous, but I did expect more than just thirty. I didn't voice that thought, it was still more than what I had been seeing previously.

Susan took first watch while the rest of us went to sleep. I dreamt of my wife and the night right after the nuclear attacks. I was woken up by Tom who had the watch before me and asked if I was all right. I noticed dampness on my cheeks and quickly wiped them away with a quick response about my dream. Tom, understood and left it at that.

I spent the rest of the night by the door watching for anything out there. I paid particular attention to the small red dot in the sky that slowly wandered from one horizon to another. Mars, it was where the only people who could save us were hiding out while we died. It was a silly thing to think, but I felt that it was fully justifiable. Susan had said it was a soldier's duty to protect the innocent. There were plenty of innocent people still here who needed to be protected. If they had just come, a lot of people would still be here, Crane would still be here.

What were those aliens doing to Crane? I hadn't seen any Canis collector or signs of them. If they weren't using his kind for their sick science projects, what were they going to use him for?

"Wake up." It was no more than a whisper in my ears, but it shook me from my unconsciousness like a slap, forcing me to open my eyes.

My head hurt, everything hurt and pulsed with each individual beat of my heart. I couldn't move either, shackles held me up as if I was about to be crucified. I might as well have been, I felt strange sensations on backs of my head, legs and arms. I looked over and saw that there were tubes going into me from those places. Some pumped out what looked like my blood and some pumped in a clear liquid that made the area around the tube feel cold.

Where am I?