- Text Size +

~ 26 ~

 

 A Fluke of Nature

 

 

Date: May 29th, 1999

Place: Philadelphia, Pa (9 days after the emergency landing)

 

 

+ Kevin +

 

 

I was feeling grateful. It was a nice change from the despair and hopelessness I had been feeling before AJ came into view. For the first time in a very long time, I started to think maybe we could actually do this.

Honestly, I never thought I’d see AJ, Nick or Howie ever again. As much as I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud, I had already come to terms with their deaths, secretly grieving in my own way late at night. Crying after I was sure Brian had fallen asleep. I was ready to start my new life here in this horrible place, doing whatever it took to just keep my cousin and me alive.

When AJ suddenly showed up, he brought both Brian and I back to life. The fact that he was alive and had survived on his own, gave me hope that we’d find Howie and Nick alive too. We’d all be able to move forward and find that guy Matt in New York. Everything was going to be fine.

My arm found its way around AJ’s shoulder. Now that we had found him, I never intended to let him or anyone else I loved, go.

He glanced over my way and smiled, but neither of us said a word. We were too busy listening in on our traveling companions’ conversation.

“There’s no way Clara and Randy would just leave.”

“They weren’t there Syd. Believe me, we looked everywhere.”

“It was burnt?”

Scott nodded at her and that’s when she knelt down, holding her hands to her ears as if a loud explosion had occurred. When AJ saw her reaction, he moved away from me and quickly knelt down beside his new friend.

“We’ll find them.” He said as he gently placed his hand on her back. “If we found Kevin and Brian, we can find your friends as well.”

She stayed down on her knees for a little while as a cool breeze came down from above, reminding us all that snow wouldn’t be too far behind. I was trying to be patient but part of me wanted to just pull this girl up and drag her along. The longer we waited, the less time we’d have to find Howie and Nick before nightfall.

Luckily she stood up shortly before I had to do any of that and with AJ holding her hand, we continued on.

“They have to be around here somewhere, right? I mean if AJ was here they have to be too.”

I looked over at Brian and nodded. It seemed like he had a new hope in his eyes as well. After AJ had filled us in on what he had been through after we were separated, we came to the conclusion that maybe Nick and Howie were in close proximity to him. It’s not like the explosion had blown any of us miles away. When the attack happened, we all went scurrying off in different directions. Maybe we were finally heading in the same one that they had. It was my hope they were together. If they weren’t together there was no way that Nick…

I’m not going there. I have to stay hopeful. I know Howie, and he would do whatever he could to keep Nick safe.

“Smoke.” I glanced over to where Scott was pointing. Off in the distance there was a large plume of smoke shooting up from the ground. The scene felt a little too familiar and not in a good way.

We all moved off the road and closer to the wooded area, ready to flee for cover if we needed to.

“Maybe Clara and Randy’s place was destroyed today.” Sydney whispered with a new sound of hope in her voice, funny how it seemed to be contagious. Now that we had found each other, we needed something even better to happen.

“Which means they’re right in front of us.” Scott sounded angry and determined. “Maybe we can actually take them.”

“Take them?”

Scott nodded at Brian, “Yeah, you know, a surprise attack.”

“Excuse me, but we’re not exactly attack ready.” AJ said, with a look or horror and disgust on his face.

Scott pulled a gun out from under his jacket, “Speak for yourself but if those bastards are in killing range, I’m going in.”

“You can’t do that!” I decided to step in.

“You wouldn’t be saying that if they had just killed your family, would you?”

When I looked at him, I saw the face of Charlie staring back at me. Charlie after telling us they had killed his fiancée. Charlie when he decided to go back and fight instead of run like a coward. I suddenly felt ashamed that we didn’t decide to go help the Epps family. That we just let them leave and go to their deaths. It seemed like maybe the only logical thing to do was try to fight the enemy.

“You’re right.”

I didn’t need to see the looks on AJ and Brian’s faces. I felt the stares.

“It’s possible they have Clara and Randy with them.” Scott said as he turned towards Sydney who had already taken out a gun of her own.

“What the fuck? Does everyone carry a fucking gun in this place?”

“If you want to live you do.”

It was a simple and logical answer and it also shut AJ up. Scott bent down and opened up the duffle bag we had loaded up before we left the house. He handed a gun to me and tried to give one to Brian who backed away from it as if it was a cobra. AJ hesitated briefly before taking one and eventually my cousin gave in and grabbed one as well.

After a very short lesson on how to hold, take the safety off and fire our guns, we were ready to go with ready being the over statement of the year. I was hoping that we wouldn’t need them.

We walked for about thirty minutes. As we got closer to the smoke, the smell became more prevalent. There had definitely been some kind of attack here; very similar to the one that had us all separate a few days ago.

It’s weird how it’s only been a few days since we haven’t been together, maybe two or three tops even though it felt like much longer than that. Time in this place is all off kilter. A day feels more like a week in this place. I wonder if it’s always been like that or if it only happened after they were attacked.

“By Canadians?”

“Huh?” AJ looked over at me confused.

“Are you guys sure it’s Canada that did all of this?”

“Who the hell else would it be?” Scott sounded annoyed and quickly reminded me that he didn’t know the truth. I’m sure the girl didn’t either. Sometimes I forget.

“True, it’s just that I still can’t seem to wrap my head around the fact that they did all of this.”

When AJ pulled us aside and told us what he had found out, I was in total shock. Of all the nations that could have done this, it turns out it was one of our own allies. I guess that saying keep your friends close and your enemies closer was really taken to heart by our northern friends.

Once again our little caravan came to a stop, “Do you hear that?”

“People”

Scott nodded at Brian who was holding his gun like a pair of scissors.

“Sounds like they are right around the bend in the road, are you guys ready?”

What a stupid question that was. Of course we weren’t ready.

We made our way closer to the wooded area and decided to walk behind the trees instead of blatantly out on the street, just in case there were more people than we could handle. In my estimation that would be one person, but Scott had more confidence in our abilities than that.

It took about another ten minutes before we rounded the bend in the road and saw the source of the smoke. There were two vans, one of them on its side and the other pretty smashed up. The smoke was rising out of the one that was rolled over.

It was hard to see from here how many people we were dealing with but it seemed like the bad guys were no longer there. In fact, from a certain angle it looked like one of them was…

“That’s impossible.” I made my way from behind the trees and everyone followed.

“Oh my God.” Sydney said as she started running towards the accident scene.

“Is that Charlie, and is he talking to…”

“Howie!” AJ finished Brian’s sentence as we picked up speed and headed for them both.

Sydney reached them first, grabbing an older lady and hugging her tightly. Charlie raised a gun to her and was about to shoot when AJ screamed, “No!”

I could see Howie squint when he heard the familiar voice and when he realized who had spoken, he started running towards us with Charlie and Don following close behind.

I could get used to these reunions.

He reached AJ first and grabbed him in a hug as Charlie and Don both came and shook mine and Brian’s hands.

“I thought you were dead.”

Charlie laughed at that, “So I’ve been told.”

Don smiled at me just as Howie pulled me into a hug, “I thought I would never see you guys again.” He had tears in his eyes, not very D like at all.

“Well here we are.” I said as I pulled away from him, giving Brian his turn.

“Were you guys all together this entire time?”

Don shook his head, “Your friends ran into trouble and luckily we were there to get him out.

Friends…

“Nick?” All three of us said at the same time.

“He’s back there with Clara and Randy.” Howie said pulling away from Brian and even though I wanted to breathe a huge sigh of relief, the way he looked made me intake instead of exhale. Something was wrong.

“Is he okay?” Brian asked, getting the same sense from Howie that I got.

“He’s been sick, really sick and then the crash…he doesn’t look so good.”

I found myself running towards the site of the crash with everyone close behind. Now that we were all finally together again, there had to be a happy outcome.

Larry, Alan, Sydney, Scott and another older man who I figured was this Randy person, were standing and looking down. I could only assume it was Nick and the older woman they were staring at. I made my way past them, giving a quick nod of my head to our old friends who had managed to survive whatever they went back to at the warehouse. I knelt beside Nick who just as Howie said, didn’t look so good.

His eyes were closed, his eyelids casting a slight blue paler along with his lips. His face was a very pale white except for his overly rosy cheeks. He had his head on Clara’s lap as she gently and lovingly pat his head. “He’s got a very high fever.” She said to me in a surprisingly soothing voice. I could instantly see why that girl was taken by her. I wanted to hug her myself and I didn’t even know her.

I grabbed Nick’s hand as my fellow band mates gathered around us.

“Holy shit, he looks like crap.”

Brian was kneeling beside me and took his friend’s other hand. “Nick, it’s Brian, can you hear me buddy?”

Hearing Brian’s voice made Nick open his eyes. Thank God to that. He seemed confused, “Am I dead or something?”

I could tell his eyes were searching for Howie who was standing directly behind me, “Nope Nicky, I told you we’d find them.”

He was shivering really badly and I found myself by instinct, taking off my jacket and placing it over him, “You’ll be okay Nick. We’re going to give you some medicine and you’ll be good as new. Does anything hurt?”

“Pretty much everything.” He said between shivers and huge swallows. I could tell he was having a hard time talking.

I looked him up and down, grateful that I didn’t seem to see any signs of bleeding or bones sticking out of places they shouldn’t be. I think the pain was just coming from the flu or whatever he had at the moment. “Did he break anything?” I asked Larry as if he was a doctor.

“I don’t believe so.”

“We need to talk.” That was Charlie who had that stern and serious look on his face that I had almost forgotten about.

“Okay,” I turned back to Nick, “I need to talk to Charlie, but I’ll be right back.”

Howie took my place as I followed Charlie away from everyone.

“What happened?”

Charlie shrugged, “I don’t know, we were following this group of military as they went street by street cleansing people.”

“Cleansing people?” I was horrified. I hadn’t heard that expression since history lessons about the Holocaust.

“We recognized Nick as they brought him into the car so we decided to attack them. We killed all of them, but one managed to escape. That’s why we can’t really stick around here that much longer. They’ll be back and they’ll bring reinforcements.”

“Nick needs medical attention. There must be somewhere we can bring him for help.”

Charlie sighed, “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Good, so you know of a place?”

“No, I mean I’m sure there are hospitals around here that operate secretly out of people’s houses, but it’s not going to help him.”

“I don’t understand…”

“He’s not sick, this is something else.”

I suddenly found myself angry. “Do you think he’s faking this or something?”

It’s weird that I was so flustered by this considering I was constantly accusing our youngest member of faking illness to get out of things. I guess it was different when a stranger did it though. Plus, you could clearly tell he wasn’t making this up. Nick was very sick, anyone could see it.

“No, nothing like that.”

“Then what?”

“It’s hard to explain.”

“Try.”

“Okay, remember when I told you that the four of you were killed?

“Uh yeah, how could I possibly forget that?”

“Well, Nick survived.”

“Okay…and?”

“And have you noticed that you haven’t really felt like 100% you since you’ve gotten here? Maybe you’ve acted weird and how you normally wouldn’t act?”

“Sometimes, but considering the circumstances we have been thrown into…”

“It’s more than that. You’re dealing with what I’d like to call a fluke of nature. What’s happening here is very unnatural and fate doesn’t much like it.”

“Please get to the point, Charlie.” I glanced over at my band mates feeling like I should be there and not listening to Charlie ramble on and on.

“You guys just by being here in this world have taken on the traits of your counterparts. They managed to meld with you even after they have died.”

“Okay, well I can understand that.”

“Nick is still alive…”

I can tell he was waiting for me to have an ‘Ah Ha!’ moment, but it never arrived so he continued.

“It is unnatural to have two of the same human being living on one plane at the same time. It’s a doppelganger effect. They are making each other sick. My guess is the real Nick, the one that is supposed to exist in this universe is as sick as this one is.”

“So you’re saying what, exactly?”

“We can give Nick medicine, try to keep his fever down but in the end it’s not going to help much.”

“You’re saying he’s not going to get better?”

“Yeah, that’s what I’m saying.”

I put my hands up to my face, suppressing the urge to scream in frustration. This was another friggin nightmare.

“Are you sure?”

“Nothing is certain; we’re dealing with something no one has ever dealt with before. There’s no documented proof of anything I’m saying.”

“So, you could be wrong then?”

He nodded, “I could be, but honestly, I’m pretty positive I’m right.”

“Well that’s just great. What the hell are we supposed to do?”

He took his gun from his back pocket and handed it to me, “We need to find the Nick Carter from this world and kill him. It’s the only way your Nick will survive.”

 

 

Chapter End Notes:

Hey guys! I have a question for you. Do you prefer longer chapters like the ones I have been posting, or shorter ones that happen more frequently? I only ask because I know I tend to stay away from long chapters to read but when they are short I blaze right through. For instance this could have easily been broken into two chapters instead of one longer one. Sorry to babble, just wanted some opinons. As always, thanks for reading and leaving me your thoughts on the story. :O)