Chapter 6

“Well, I’ll be damned if I can find anything physically wrong with him. I still think it was the physical shock of seeing all the mayhem that was simply too much for him to bear. I think rest for a while will be all he needs.”

It was the first thing I heard, the first human voice that penetrated the dark mist that had enveloped my mind to protect me from the horror that I had seen. I wondered for an instant where I was and then I recalled the last sight I had seen and I cried, softly at first, so that no one noticed.

Another voice was asking something about whether I would ever fully recover and when they could ask me some questions. And then I heard another voice, much closer to me, a softer voice, a voice that I had heard before.

“Just leave him alone for now. He doesn’t know anything that will help us at this point. We missed them. It was my fault, I underrated them. We will get them, but not by torturing someone who just lost everything and came within inches of losing his own life trying to save one of us. Just leave him alone.”

Then I realized that the voice was that of Lyssa, and that she was standing right beside me. In fact, she was holding my hand. I realized that I hadn’t felt any of the rest of my body. It was only the motion of her hand in mine that I had felt.

Slowly I flexed my hand, feeling it close on hers, and I opened my eyes to get an idea of where I was and what damage I had done to myself in the helicopter and after I had blacked out.

Apparently my movement caused quite a stir, because Lyssa gasped as I gripped her hand and yelled for a doctor.

“You’re holding one.” I rasped, hearing my voice as though my larynx had been put through a meat grinder. I opened my eyes to find that I was in what appeared to be a sensory deprivation chamber with the top open and about seven sets of eyes staring at me from above.

Lyssa was there, holding my hand with one hand and wiping water from my face with her other hand. There were at least three doctors and two nurses and one person looking very uncomfortable dressed in some type of uniform with a lab coat thrown over the top.

I realized I was naked in front of all these people, but when I tried to move my free hand to cover myself, I saw there was a huge splint on my arm and shoulder. I couldn’t move it if I needed to.

“That’s where you were shot as you passed out,” one doctor stated, turning a valve and starting the slow process of draining the tank. One nurse took pity on me and covered me with a large towel. “The bullet grazed your humerus and may have bruised some nerves there. To speed the healing process, we immobilized you and kept you weightless in this tank while we allowed your arm to properly heal. You should get full use of your arm back in another week or so.”

“Another week?”, I asked myself. “Just how long was I out?”

Before I could ask my questions, two more people appeared. These two were larger men, dressed as orderlies, and they assisted me in getting out of the tank and into a robe. Everyone else dispersed while they helped me, except for Lyssa, who stayed by my side and only let go of my hand for a few seconds while I put on a white terry-cloth robe.

I took a moment to assess if what he had said was really true. All the rest of me looked rather healthy, and all my body parts seemed in working order except the afore-mentioned arm. I tried to flex my fingers but found that all I could do was barely wiggle the tips of my fingers.

Where I had been shot in the arm in the days leading up to the assault on my house, only a faint scar remained, suggesting I had been out for a while.

As feeling and sensation returned to the rest of my body, and the blood flowed to my brain, I realized that I had no idea where I was, how long I had been there, or what I was doing there.

“By now you are probably wondering where you are,” a voice from across the room said. A new person, one I had not seen before, stood in the doorway. He was dressed in a white lab coat over jeans and a polo. He seemed at ease in the room, clearly used to being in a position of authority. However, he was the only one at ease. His appearance seemed to put everyone on edge, and when he spoke, everyone, including Lyssa, turned and listened to what he was saying.

“Well Josh, you have created quite a controversy here in our little part of the world. You see, no one seems to know what we should do with you. Some say we should keep you here, others say we should brainwash you, and others are pissed off we ever got involved with you.”

He strolled over to me, watching me standing there in my white robe, and I wondered who he was that all these people would stop everything they were doing and listen to every word that he said as if it were the gospel. His eyes seemed to bore into mine as if he were trying to read my very thoughts.

Having not moved in some time, my legs were quickly fatiguing, and I realized I needed to sit down.

Lyssa noticed my discomfort and immediately signaled for a chair which appeared almost instantaneously. It wasn’t until then that I noticed Lyssa was standing without support or a brace, on a leg that had been shot clean through and shattered bone, only a few minutes before I was injured.

That was when I started to get really worried.

“Well, Josh,” the gentleman began again, “I’m afraid that we have to make some decisions rather quickly, for even as you sit here among us, I believe you are getting some idea why you are here and what the controversy is all about.”

I started to deny that I knew or wondered anything, but then I thought about the events of the past few weeks. There were the armed men trying to kill me, the old man who wanted to die, Jonathan who had been killed for researching the sample I sent him, and the unmistakable evidence of a completely healed Lyssa standing before me. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted answers.

But instead of saying anything, I just nodded.

“I think that you and I need to speak in private Josh,” he resumed, “So why don’t I get Lyssa to wheel you down the hallway to a more private room where we can talk away from all the hubbub here in the medical facility.”

I was at a loss, not knowing where I was or what was going on here. I knew there were people who were trying to kill me, and so far, the only person who seemed to trying to help me was Lyssa. If these people were associated with Lyssa, then perhaps I needed to find out what they had to say.

Lyssa rolled me down to a cluttered but very elegant old office where Lyssa and the gentleman assisted me onto a couch as he settled into a large, well-worn leather chair behind the desk.

“I guess I should introduce myself. I am Andre Townsend, director of this research institute and acting manager.” He started.

“And you are a very troubling individual, Mr. Joshua Campbell. I don’t think I will ever fully understand why Evirate chose you as his successor, but I think a large part of it is the tremendous resourcefulness you have shown over the last few weeks.”

“But that is another story, and I stray from my appointed task. Why don’t we begin this way? I would like you to consider the proposal that Lyssa presented to you. I really can’t go into any more detail than she did, but I fear that the stakes have risen somewhat since then. It appears there is a group that thinks you already know too much, and they want you eliminated. If you refuse our offer, I cannot assure you we will be able to protect you.”

“To be very clear, let me repeat Lyssa’s offer. I will tell you all about the pouch you found on Evirate’s body and why it is so important. In return, you must swear to me, upon penalty of death, that you will never reveal this secret to another human being. Further, you must be willing to give up everything to preserve the sanctity of this secret.”