Apex 2: Rise of the Super Soldiers (4 page)

The Military

The first thing Jack saw when he got home was the Humvie idling in his driveway.
That could mean only one thing: the military was here to abduct him and experiment on him, just like before. He considered running away but his mom was inside with the soldiers. If she was in trouble because of him, he had to save her.

He jammed his eyes shut and felt his molecules flutter. His equilibrium faltered as he phased out. He appeared at the top of the stairs inside the house.

He crouched down, ready for the attack, but he heard only laughter from downstairs. His mom was asking his would-be abductors how they liked their coffee.

Jack
tiptoed downstairs and opened the kitchen door with his powers at the ready just in case he needed to use them in a hurry. He could easily teleport the soldiers anywhere he wanted. He could make them appear instantly in the center of the Earth or in the deadly abyss of outer space. But none of that was necessary.

A kindly
looking man in his early fifties stepped forward with a smile on his face and held his hand out. “I’m Commander Watson. Pleased to meet you, Jack.”

A female soldier stood silently behind him, watching eagerly.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

Watson let his outstretched hand fall by his side. “We saw the news footage.
We know you saved those hikers. We know you and your friend Melanie were responsible for defeating the aliens and we’d like your help.”

Jack didn’t bother mentioning that his best friend had died helping him, even though he thought it was important that people should know what he’d sacrificed.

He leaned back against the countertop and asked, “What do you want?”

“We’re working on our defenses. Just because we thwarted the invasion doesn’t mean that we won. We’re worried that the invasion was just a first wave and that more are coming.”

Molly’s prophetic dream wherein she saw an evil alien leading his troops towards Earth for a second sweep was a fear others held to be true as well, because it was a logical conclusion. Maybe if he had the might of the U.S. military at his back, the prospect of a follow-up attack wouldn’t frighten him as much as it did.

“What do you need me to do?”

“We want to bring you in and hear your story. We need answers that only you might possess. We want to see what you can do. We want to run DNA tests to see if we can replicate whatever it was that changed you and Melanie. We want to put you in the same room as our alien captives to see how they react.”

Jack nodded.
The Commander was asking a lot but at least he was being forthcoming and honest about his intentions. “If you try anything suspicious you’ll regret it. The military has tried to screw me over before and it didn’t work out so well.”

“What do you mean?”

“When we first started to exhibit our abilities, we were quarantined and experimented on.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“Liar!”

“I’m not lying. We’ve lost so much since the invasion including our
previous intel. Some of it survives but most of it was lost in the mayhem and devastation. I had no idea that you were approached by the military in the past.”

Jack believed him
, despite his initial reservations. “Their tests didn’t work on us though. Our skin is too strong for needles. You can’t even take a scraping.”

Watson nodded and looked at Jack’s mom. “
Everything he does for us will be voluntary. Will you give us permission to work with your son?”

His mom looked at him for confirmation.
Her look was pained because the last time the military had gotten involved in their lives they’d been separated and Jack had feared her dead in all the confusion.

He nodded and said to Watson, “You’re wasting your time.”

“Maybe.”

“Where are we going?”

“A mountain bunker in Cheyenne.”

“
Oh God. Not another frickin’ mountain. Let me get my stuff.”

Into the Abyss

Jack watched from inside the Humvie as Watson gave over his clearance
badge to the armed guards outside the mountain bunker. When that was done, he drove right into the gaping hole in the mountain face. The heavy blast doors slowly closed behind them as they parked.

To his surprise, Melanie was already there waiting for him. He hadn’t realized that the military would go after her too
, although, in retrospect he should’ve figured they would.

He jumped out of the truck and she ran over and hugged him. “I tried to call but I was told not to bother.”

Jack didn’t want to admit that he hadn’t even considered calling her so he nodded, hoping she wouldn’t ask.

“They have Grey aliens held in this mountain. Did you know that?”

He didn’t know that because the public wasn’t privy to where the aliens were being held. He was a little surprised by it though. He had always thought they’d be executed for what they’d done.

He asked, “Did they tell you what they want from us?”

“They just want the full story.”

“I was told they’d run some tests too.”

“They can try. If they go too far they’ll regret it.”

Watson walked away from the truck and yelled over his shoulder, “Follow me.”

They chased after him, passing armed soldiers along the way. They walked through a door and then down a series of corridors until they got to a large office complex. Commander Watson led them to the largest one and let them inside. He took a seat behind the desk and bid they sit too.

“I want the whole story, from start to finish.”

Melanie looked at Jack and then said to Watson, “It all started when the alien artifact fell out of the sky. We chased it down and then it blasted us with a bluish mist. It knocked us unconscious and when we woke up the next day, we had changed.” She made certain to leave out the fact that the older couple, Molly and Dan, had found it with them and were equally affected by the alien mist because of their insistence in maintaining their privacy.

Watson asked, “Why would the aliens grant you the abilities to defeat them? That makes no sense.”

Jack had thought about that for a long time too and he had some theories. “Maybe different, opposing aliens gave us the abilities so we could defend ourselves against the attack. Or maybe a warring faction within the Grey population gave us the chance. Or maybe the mist wasn’t supposed to enhance us the way it did. What if it was supposed to poison us and it somehow backfired?”

Watson nodded and asked, “How many people were affected by the mist.

Melanie said quickly, “Me, Jack, and Scott. Scott didn’t survive the invasion.” Her voice pinched off at the end because of the frog in her throat.

“Where did the alien device land? I‘d like to bring it in to study it.”

“When we woke up the next day, it was gone. It was like it had vanished.”

Watson sighed and leaned back in his chair. “When you’re ready, would you mind showcasing your abilities for me? I’d like to see what you can do. Maybe the military can complement your powers.”

Jack said angrily, “We don’t work for the military. You presume too much, sir.” He said it to rock the Commander back on his heels. He was getting far too familiar with them and the last time that had happened, people died.

“If the aliens ever return, I bet you’ll decide to help us. Let’s just assume you’ll do the right thing, ok?”

Jack slumped in his seat. Watson was right. No matter how much he distrusted the military, he would side with them in a heartbeat if the situation required it.

Melanie asked, “Is there a wide
open place around here where we can show you.”

“Sure. Follow me.”

As they left the office in Watson’s wake, Jack whispered to Melanie, “Don’t show him too much. He might use it against us.”

Melanie kissed him on the cheek and said, “You worry too much. We’re on the same side.”

Jack couldn’t help but notice several soldiers turn their way as they followed Watson. And he could swear some of them had suspicious, fearful looks on their faces.

Proof

Watson led them into an unfinished cavernous room with water dripping from the rocky ceiling. Aside from the puddles and dim lighting, the room was empty.

Watson stepped back, leaned against the wall and said, “Whenever you’re ready, go for it.”

Melanie smirked and her brow wrinkled in concentration.
Her hands swelled with blood and shook uncontrollably.

She floated in the air as though suspended from strings. Then she started to fly around slowly, winking as she passed Watson, whose mouth had dropped open. She gently came to rest on her feet and said, “I can move things
, including my own body, but I can destroy them too. It feels like I’m moving one thing against itself, like pushing it from all sides.”

She rustled around inside her clutch purse and retrieved a compact. She tossed it in the air. It floated before her face and she strained as she concentrated. The mirror in the compact crackled and snapped and then the compact started to crumple into a plastic, smashed ball. When she was done, she held out her hand and allowed it to drop into it.

She tossed it to Watson but he dodged it like it was radioactive. He must have realized how cowardly he appeared because he quickly righted himself, bent down and picked it up.

Jack said, “Is that enough or do you need to see what I can do?”

“I’d like to see it with my own two eyes, if you’re up for it.”

Jack saw his surrounding flutter, phasing in and out. Then he vanished, appearing behind the door to the room. He opened it and stepped through, to Watson’s surprise.

But his surprise was short-lived. “What else can you do?”

Jack asked
incredulously, “Isn’t that enough?”

Watson shrugged as if he wasn’t as impressed as he had been with Melanie
.

Jack shook his head and concentrated on the rock wall behind Watson. He teleported a chunk as big as a car away, and Watson stumbled backwards into the newly created void. He caught himself in time to see the piece of rock get deposited instantaneously across the room.

Jack said, “I could’ve teleported that anywhere. I could’ve put it on the surface of the sun if I wanted.”

Watson’s face drained of color so much so that it was obvious even in the poor light. He said, “Ok, that’s enough.”

Any more would have been too much for the old man to handle.

“Let’s take a break. Then, if you’re up for it, I’d like to introduce you to our captives.”

Jack shuddered. Melanie’s mouth fell open. She said, “We didn’t agree to that. The last thing either of us want is to have to see one of those bastards again.”

Jack nodded in agreement.

Watson said, “That’s ok. But let me know if you change your minds. I think you can handle it. They’re no threat to us without their technology.”

The Other Shoe Drops

As they walked back to the office, Watson explained, “We’ve been trying to reverse engineer their technology but we’ve gotten nowhere with it. And they’re no help to us. It’s a shame because we’ve seen how the technology gave them an
unfair advantage over us. It would be nice to acquire it.”

Melanie remembered the technology. The aliens wore armored suits that enabled them to fly around like whizzing bullets and it protected them from harm while they wore it. The aliens who’d given themselves up to her a month ago had sloughed off their suits before surrendering. She was grateful they’d done
so because at the time, she wasn’t sure she could beat them.

Watson said as an aside, “You’ll be spending the night here. Your parents gave us their permission. I insisted that they refrain from telling you in advance. I apologize for that.”

Jack’s eyes turned to slits. “You can’t keep us here against our will. If you try, you’ll see what happens.”

Watson held his hands up defensively. “I just didn’t want to have to drive you back home in the middle of the night.”

Melanie snickered. “Don’t lie to us. We’re not fools. It’s no coincidence that you’re telling us this while we’re inside your mountain. If you’d told us earlier, we might’ve refused to come here.”

Jack interjected, “We’ll spend the night but that’s it. I promise you’ll never hold us if you try to keep us longer than
we want to be here.” He secretly hoped that he and Melanie would have no choice but to share a bed in a dark recess of the mountain, but that was the unformed, juvenile section of his brain motivating his decisions.

Watson seemed to relax. “Let’s take a ten minute break. You can get a snack or use the bathroom if you have to, and th
en we’ll go introduce you to the aliens.”

Two young soldiers walked by just then,
a male and female, giving them barely concealed sneers of disdain.

That surprised Jack. He’d assumed they’d be greeted as heroes. Instead they were regarded with suspicion.

Right before they were out of earshot, he heard the male say to his female companion under his breath, “Hey Sally, did you see the ass on that?” He was obviously referring to Melanie.

Sally snorted a derisive laugh.

That pissed Jack off. He considered teleporting both of them to the top of Mount Everest or dumping them in a shark infested ocean, but that wasn’t really his style. He only punished evil. But just this once, he’d like to make an exception. He realized he was being petty so he shrugged it off.