I hope all of you had fun reading this, as I had fun writing this. Had a wonderful Christmas and New Year? Mine's simple and nice...
Disclaimer: This story eventually leads to homosexual relationships. It also MAY contain violence.
Think my English sucks? Tell me at mask4truth@yahoo.com.au
I believe I have a long way to go, and honest comments will escalate me toward English perfection. Just for the record, I'm also writing another story, but it's medieval fantasy and is about friendships instead of homosexual relationships.
The Unveiling Chapter 7
We found ourselves hiding out in an apartment just outside of 'Target Beta' a day after our soldier-in-captive spilled the information we wanted. Apparently he knew about a 'brown-haired beauty who was found near Point Zero' because he was a part of the team that took her to 'Target Beta'. We couldn't find out more about the woman, apart from the fact she fits Jean's profile, though there wasn't exactly enough about the woman to fill out half of any profile. However, we did managed ourselves the whereabouts of Target Beta (really, Point Zero and Target Beta? Have some originality.) from the poor soldier. Unfortunately, he knew absolutely nothing of Jase.
We, or at least I, learnt a lot about the people who claimed to be of an off-worldly nature. They were definitely human, possessing similar virtues and culture. They do not welcome the prospects of death - like us, or most of us anyway - and were disgusted by the notion of swallowing a piece of their own flesh. Apparently, as that soldier had demonstrated, they were not over-zealous and completely loyal to their cause any more they were to their own lives. Very unlike Feristel and Pagahar. But what they all had in common was their accents and gestures. I was pretty sure I had never heard that accent before. Neither had Jon or Kevin, I noted, when they asked me where did I think he had originated from.
Before leaving for the rescue mission, we debated among ourselves on what we should do with the soldier. Lil' Lily and Irene thought that we should let him go. Gary and Dean immediately protested and said we should leave him tied up in the apartment. Then Kevin and Jon said it would be kinder to put a bullet through his brains than to dehydrate him. Simon, Terry and Jay seemed impassive, or perhaps uncomfortable by the whole exchange. Uncomfortable and dread was what I was feeling.
"So?" Kevin had said quite aggressively.
At first I was waiting for the person Kevin had addressed to reply, before realizing - from the stares I got from everyone - that I was the person Kevin had aggressively addressed. "So?" I repeated stupidly.
"What do you think we should do?" He waved passionately at the girls. "They think letting him go won't endanger us," then he proceeded to rudely point at Dean and Gary. "And they think that leaving him here to die is more kindly than to kill him right away," more rude pointing at Simon, Jay and Terry. "And they don't even care!"
"Kev," Jon said timidly. No doubt with the intention of calming him down.
"What do you think, Tony?" Kevin ignored Jon. "We'll play votes now - there's now two for each proposal."
"Uh.." was all I said. I knew what he meant - since I was the only one who hadn't expressed an opinion, my 'vote' would be 'the' decision.
"I'm sure you understand the situation fully to agree with Jon and I," continued Kevin.
"Kev," Jon said again, more urgently this time. Keep it up, Jon, I thought. Usually it was Jase or Jean who could calm him down.
"Killing him now is the most human thing to do - we definitely can't starve and thirst him by leaving him alive, right?" again, Kevin ignored Jon. Then again, he was probably too 'passionate' at the moment to even hear a gun shot.
"Kev!" This time Jon grabbed him by his shoulders and shook him. I was shocked at that - nobody touched Kevin like that. Before Kevin could say anything however, Jon spoke again. "He's awake."
We all turned our gazes to the room the soldier was in. Jon was the last who entered that room today - why hadn't he told us he was awake? Jon raised his hands defensively and shook his head at Kevin when he saw me looking, as if saying he had no idea Kevin would be so loud. Then I knew what to do.
"I say," I spoke out finally, which earned me the attention of everybody. "We let 'him' decide for himself."
With that, all of us entered the room the soldier was in and gave him the choice between a bullet in his head or left tied up to thirst and starve in that apartment. He chose the latter without even a thought, as if unwilling to let go of any chance of survival.
"Don't worry," I assured the soldier and the girls. "I'll make sure they know he's here - once we got Jean and Jase and ourselves someplace safe."
I could tell the soldier was mightily confused by the whole thing. Well, that was about what had happened before we came here - Target Beta.
Simon and Lil' Lily were both out surveying the base. I was surprised when Simon told me that Lil' Lily had the makings of a 'scout'. A sneaky scout, that is. I knew that she had quiet feet and was composed in difficult situations and all, but to do what Simon had been doing? Dean, Gary and Irene were on a quest of finding a cable or phone line into Target Beta - apparently Dean had the ability to hack into their database from that. Jay and Terry were under Kevin's intensive military training; lessons that include the 'proper' ways of killing barehanded, with a knife, or with a rifle. Strangely, he also taught them about army tactics, which reason had eluded me. Surely the twelve of us - when we get back Jean and Jase - can't be considered as an army?
That leaves Jon and me in the kitchen, not really doing anything productive. It seemed that Jon had taken over Jean's role in trying to figure out the mystery of the whole thing. He looked painfully attractive - like Jean - when he crunched his forehead and eyes in an obviously painful thinking.
"You don't have to do that, you know," I said finally after watching him for almost an hour.
He looked up in surprise, as if he had already forgotten I was there. Perhaps he did. "What?"
"You know, what Jean usually does," I leaned back in my chair and looked out the window. I wasn't trying to be dramatic, I was only looking out of the window because I couldn't stand looking into his eyes. "Ever since she's gone, you've been trying to replace her."
"Am not," Jon denied. "Just because I've been doing what she does, it doesn't mean I'm trying to be her." There was firmness and hurt in his voice. But not defense.
I turned to look at Jon again. He had gone back to studying the charts he made. Really, from the look on both Jon and Jean's face, I was mystified by the amount of stress a human can tolerate. "Then what is it?" I insisted like an annoying fly that you long to swat. "We've been friends for six years man. That's longer than anyone in the band - except for Jean."
He looked up again, this time with a contemplating look. "I'm surprised, Tony. Are we good friends suddenly?" He smiled wryly. "For most of the six years I've known you, you've spent your time looking every else but me. What is it that you hate on my face, Tony?"
Surprised was to say the least of what I had felt. I instinctively looked away when his eyes locked on mine, but returned to lock our eyes again, just to satisfy Jon. "I don't hate your face," I stated.
"Most people treat me that way. If they don't avoid my face, they stare at it," Jon continued. "I'm used to it, Tony. But I'm just disappointed that being six years of friends had not changed anything. It's my eyes, isn't it?"
Yes it was - his eyes were enchanting, like emeralds with the depth of the deepest and most mystical sea. "Partly," I said, which was true. "You're too good-looking for your own good. Guys would only end up envious, and I had girls confiding that they felt as if they had cheated on their boyfriends by just looking at you." That was completely true too.
"So it's my fault that I'm 'good-looking', is it?" he shot back quietly. >From the tone of his voice, Jon must have had this argument before. With whom? "It's not like I have parents to blame, do I?"
Ouch. Sensitive topic. "Look, Jon, I'm just saying that there's nothing hateful on your face," I tried to steer the topic away from his parents. Jon had always been sensitive about his parents - or the lack of. He was from the 'House of Hope' orphanage before we met. Jon had done so well in sports that he got himself a scholarship to Melbourne. "If anything, people like what they see on your face." A little too much, I thought to myself.
He seemed to think on that for a while. While Kevin was loud when angry or frustrated, Jon was quiet. "Jean was like that when we first met too, but she no longer is," he said. "She said the rest will 'improve' too, eventually." Ah, I thought. He must have had this argument with Jean before. "But I'm not buying it, Tony."
"Why?"
"Because I don't see people avoiding your face. Or Jase's. Gary and Jay aren't bad looking either."
I was surprised to hear that. Did he just suggest that I was in the same 'league' as him and Jase? "Well, Jase is... good-looking in the Aussie way," I nearly put an extremely emphasized 'very' before the 'good-looking', but I bit it back. "But you're different. In case you haven't noticed, green eyes and dark tan are kind of a rarity in Melbourne." I grinned at him.
By the look on his face, I knew he wasn't buying it. Jon had the brown hair and accent of an Australian, and would've looked like one if it weren't for his too-dark tan and outrageously-green eyes. Italians and Chinese can have a good tan - and there were heaps of them in Melbourne - but who had that kind of green eyes in Australia? His face shape seemed to attribute to Mediterranean; since for some reason, before he speaks, people sometimes mistake him for an Iraqi. That was actually the main reason why Jon got stares from people. The Iraqi-Australian affair hasn't exactly been a pleasant one. The not-so-recent Bali bombing, suicide planes on the twin tower, and the Iraqi-American war were still clearly etched in our minds. Melbournians had always been expressive with their opinions.
But no way I would tell him that.
"What about you?" he asked. "I don't care what the others think, only my friends."
I sighed inwardly with relief. I could answer this one with full honesty, at least. "A little envious, maybe," I stood up and walked to the refrigerator. "But mostly, I just feel uncomfortable staring at an overly- attractive face. I'm sure you noticed I rarely stare at Jase or Jean, or Lil' Lily?"
I threw him a can of beer and took one for myself. By the time I got back, Jon was already drinking. "Funny that Jean doesn't think so," Jon said as I sat down opposite him. "She obviously found you the most attractive among all of us."
"Me? What, between Frankenstein and the Phantom of the Opera?" I tried to quip. What was he getting at?
"Funny, Tony," he said without even smiling. We were silent for a while. "Look, I'm just saying, if you think of her the same way she does you, then you'd better take good care of her."
I understood then - I don't think anyone could be more dense than I, actually. Jon had fancied Jean. And he thinks Jean fancied me.
"Dean, are you 'really' sure?"
He looked annoyed. I supposed I was annoying. "Trust me - or at least Gary and Irene if not me."
"Okay," I said, about the fourth time. "Everyone ready?"
Affirmations around the room.
"Let's go!"
Dean and Gary ran around the sides of Target Beta; they were to replace the video surveillance signal with a looped signal, and cut off the power supply of Target Beta on our word (via the radio). Lil' Lily and Simon climbed up the 'lesser side' of Target Beta; taking the role as our sneaky scouts, with Lil' Lily carrying the other radio. They were meant to clear the rear entrance for Jon and I; in which the four of us will then go straight to Jean and take her with us. Kevin, Jay and Terry were our 'exit securers'; which meant they will keep the rear exit clear for us, once we got Jean.
We knew the interior of Target Beta because Dean, Gary and Irene somehow managed to obtain the surveillance viewing within the building. Dean the hacker, Gary the video-camera technician/video-editing fanatic, and Irene the nearly graduated architect student. At first I wondered what can an odd combination of professionals accomplish together. Turned out that creativity has no limits. Irene had identified the video surveillance main cable even though it was cleverly concealed. Then Gary somehow managed to stream the data from the cable into the laptop... without the usually needed equipments. Finally, Dean decrypted the data into many separate video surveillance, in which they put together into a rough map of Target Beta. Better yet, one of their cameras was viewing Jean. She was very much alive and healthy.
About five minutes, Simon had said to wait for him and Lil' Lily while they unlock the back door. Their base was surprisingly undermanned - most of their security depended on cameras - which made sneaking in and around a lot easier. Jon sat by the back door patiently while I paced around it. I wondered if Jean might know where Jase is. If not, then we would have no idea of what might have happened to him. He may be dead...
I shook my head. I hated this. I hated not being able to busy myself in anything else. I hated waiting. I hated worrying.
Without warning the back door flung open and Simon and Lil' Lily were there. Five minutes. I gave an impressed look to Simon. I had no idea he literally meant it.
"Punctual, aren't you?" Jon remarked as we entered Target Beta.
Simon ignored it and motioned for us to follow him. Everytime we entered a new corridor or room, Simon would scout ahead while Lil' Lily would watch the previous rooms. They were amazingly effective, as if they were professionals. I wondered if I should tell them that; I wasn't sure if they would take it as a compliment. There were several times when Simon had to pick the lock on the door with an elaborate-looking tool which looked a lot more like a torturing device. Where had he got it from, though, I wondered. Unless he always had it?
When we arrived at Jean's door, Lil' Lily leaned into the door to whisper to Jean, while Simon worked on the lock. She thought it was best that Jean knew who was coming through, just in case Jean was particularly violent (as we had seen in the cameras) that moment.
Everything was going to plan. In a moment we could find out what happened to Jase too. Unless...
Simon pushed the door open.
Jean was not there.
We looked at each other. Lil' Lily pulled out the radio from her belt and spoke into it. "She's not here."
There was a few seconds delay before a reply came. "You sure you got the right room?" said Gary.
"Damn sure. I remembered how her room looked like." I flinched at Lil' Lily's cursing.
"But how? She was there half an hour ago."
"How would I know? Look, can you find Jean again? Quickly?"
"Uh," this time it was Dean's voice. "Not when we're looping the camera signal, L. If you guys had given me a day at least, I might have been able to write a program to do that."
I cursed under my breath. So how are we able to find her? Suddenly Simon made a hand signal to Lil' Lily which I didn't recognize. I saw her tense up, but she recovered so quickly it was as if she never tense up. With the lightning speed that I was beginning to get used to, she turned off the radio and tucked in under her belt. It was then I heard the footsteps. Simon urgently motioned us to follow Lil' Lily, while he stayed back to lock Jean's door with the lockpick. Locking must have been a lot simpler than unlocking, because as soon as Lil' Lily led us into the room we had come from earlier, Simon joined us.
"Wait," Jon suddenly said and stopped.
Simon looked like he was about to knock his head when I noticed I was no longer hearing footsteps. Then, we heard the unmistaken sound of the door unlocking and pushed open. I was tempted to see if Jean was there.
There was silence at first, then we heard the soldier's panicked voice. "Griffon, she's not in the cell."
Jon immediately grinned and whispered fondly. "I knew she would escape."
Annoyed, though I couldn't help feeling the fondness as well, I whispered back. "But how on Earth can we find her now?"
"That doesn't matter now -" Simon snapped angrily - "Now 'we' are in deep fucking shit."
The three of us were surprised by Simon's sudden display of emotion. Unlike Kevin (or Jase), he gives the impression that he has no emotion.
"The prisoner had escaped," we heard a voice from the soldier's radio. "All soldiers are required to search. Be on full alert - she's lethal."
I found myself wondering if that was Feristel's voice. The soldier had addressed the other 'Griffon' earlier.
"Go!" Lil' Lily whispered urgently, which broke me out of my stupid, cursed, stupor. We ran after Simon and wove between corridors and rooms so quickly that I barely had the time to register where we were. Simon suddenly pulled us into a small room - which I immediately realized was a janitor closet.
"This is so cliche," I muttered, referring to the fact we're hiding in a janitor closet.
"It works," Simon said dangerously. We could hear soldiers walking past us.
"How far are we from the back door?" Jon asked.
"Just down that corridor and two more rooms."
"We can't stay here," I whispered to Simon. "Very soon they'll search in here."
"So you suggest we run down the corridor?" Simon replied sarcastically. He was in a strangely foul mood.
"I've got a different idea. L, can you get Dean to cut the power?"
Lil' Lily nodded. But Simon protested. "Irene said this building would most probably have a backup generator."
"Yes, and we'll have a few seconds of darkness and possibly confused soldiers to our advantage."
Simon thought about it for a while. "Alright, but all of you must promise to run quickly and silently. Keep running even if you're shot."
With that, Lil' Lily quickly told Dean our request. "Okay, give me a minute," was the reply.
My heart was thundering while waiting for the power to cut off. Again, we heard footsteps, only this time it stopped right outside our door. I cursed and pushed Lil' Lily behind us. The door flew open and we saw three armed soldier. They motioned us out, and bless Dean for his timing, the room turned black. I dashed down the corridor (blindly) as silently as I could, and when the lights came back on, I saw Jon beside me and Simon and Lil' Lily in front of us. We slipped into the room just in time to hear the soldiers firing their rifles. There was a soldier in this room, but Simon reached him and knocked him out before he could react.
Only one more room, then we would be free. We dashed into the next room - which fortunately had no soldier - and ran straight for the back door. When we opened the door Kevin and Terry were already there with their rifles ready. I wanted to ask about Jay but they pulled us behind them and told us to run back to the apartment.
"We'll cover you, just go!"
"What about you?"
"We'll eventually slip away, trust me," said Kevin.
Simon stepped up to Kevin. "Let me do it - I can lose them easier than anyone."
But Kevin almost violently pushed Simon back to us. "Get the fucking hell out of here, now!"
I nodded at Kevin and Terry, and pulled Simon with me. "Jon, L, let's go."
Simon resisted at first, but gave in when Lil' Lily put a hand on his shoulder. With darkness as our only cover, we ran for our lives towards the others.
"What happened to Jay?" asked Jon between his pants.
Nobody answered. We continued running until we met up with Dean and Gary. They gave us the 'what the hell happened' look.
"Jean escaped, the place's on full alert," I said quickly.
The six of us were then running toward the apartment Irene was in. None of us said anything for a while, then Simon asked Dean, "Did you see a lone soldier leaving?"
Earlier, Dean and Gary could see the front door from where they were. "There was one - you don't think that was Jean, do you?"
"If that's so, then we must quickly search the streets for her," Jon said, hopeful. We had arrived at the apartments and were now in the lift.
"She could be anywhere, Jon. Don't worry, she'll find us, that's for sure."
"How exactly?"
"One-one-two-point-two?" Lil' Lily asked in realization.
Simon nodded his head. When the lift door opened we dashed to our apartment and made our secret door-knock code.
Irene threw the door open almost immediately and tried to give us a hug, which we resisted. "This is not the time - we got to go now," I told her.
"Be quick - we might be able to catch her if we're fast enough," insisted Jon, who obviously hadn't given up the notion of finding Jean.
"Catch who?" said another female voice in the apartment. We turned our heads to that voice in surprise.
It was Jean, with Jay beside her.
We only gaped at her. "What the- dammit Jean, you beat us," I grinned at her. I felt like laughing with joy. "Okay, let's go get Kevin and Terry."
"No need for that, Tony," said a voice behind us. Kevin and Terry were standing behind us, both sweating profusely. "I told you to trust us. My military training was not all about fighting - we learned how to run too."
Later that day, after we had found another apartment, we learned that Jean had appeared at the back door of Target Beta a few minutes before we did, and Kevin sent Jay to accompany her to the apartments. Kevin had decided that it was impractical to inform Dean and Gary about that because it was only him and Terry left covering the back door (and Lil' Lily had told them to only use the radio as an emergency, as it might reveal our position). Honestly, I didn't find fault in Kevin's decision, but Jon didn't seem to think so.
Even later on, when we were done reuniting, I asked Jean about Jase.
She seemed surprised at first, then hesitant. "I wasn't sure at first, but I am now - I didn't know he was taken. I saw him, about two nights ago."
"Is he-" I felt a painful mixture of hope and dread.
"He was fine when I saw him," she said quickly. My face must have looked miserable.
"You know where he is?"
She hesitated again. "They had taken him to Point Zero two nights ago, I'm sorry."