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Ravagerrr
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 Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2006 8:54 pm Post subject: Chapter 2: Leaving the Past Behind |
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:biggrin: Pillbox - Chapter 2
Leaving the Past Behind
Images from his childhood flashed before him.
His mother, with her firm voice, reminding him to tie his shoes, stop jumping on the bed, stop watching tv and come eat with the rest of them, reminding him to do his homework, giving wise counsel regarding his highschool sweethearts, and gently requesting that he remember to call her every once in a while.
His father, wrestling with him on the living room floor, assuring him that someday he would be even stronger than his old man, doling out punishment for failing to complete his homework, arguing with him about how late he had been out and how he had broken this rule or that, and hugging him just after basic, telling him, with a tear in his father's eye, that he was proud of his son.
His sister, always wanting to be a part of the things he was doing, always asking him questions to the point of being a nuissance, stealing his toys and hiding them for her amusement, quick to show off the pictures from the family album of his bare naked bottom to the girls he brought home in high school, struggling to get off the drugs and turning to him for help.
He loved these people, his family. Sgt Mack was, for a moment, not a Sergeant, but a man, just a man. He remembered everything, all the wargames, all the desire, his friends and the support they gave. While gazing into the eyes of this strange wheelchair ridden man who offered him a new life at the expense of the one he already had lived, he went through an inventory of all that he had experienced. And he found, that everything he had ever done had led to this moment, and this decision.
Legs. To walk again! Oh god, this man is offering me LEGS! And purpose! The possibility of release from his prison of despair clashed mightily with the reality of the required sacrifice. A thought flickered through his head: If Adam had been asked to give up his legs for a meaningful existance, rather than a rib, would he have?
"Ok, Mr Blake, you have my attention. But I am not yet convinced. How do I know that you aren't..." "Pulling my leg" is what he was going to say. Realizing this, he tapered off.
"What, SGT? You don't trust my offer to be real? It's not as if I can't see why you would have doubt. Nobody in the surface world, a term we use where I work, has any understanding of the work my colleagues and I do. Much of it is based on technologies noone has even dreamed of yet, much less proven possible. Of course you would doubt me. But I promise you this much, if you survive the procedures, you will walk again. You will run again. You will be capable of things beyond what you could imagine. And you will continue to serve your country. From what I'm told, that is what you wish, is it not?"
"Y-yeah, but I'm not going to turn my back on my life and forget everything and everyone in my past for something I don't understand... what kind of 'top secret' thing is this?"
"To be honest with you, SGT Mack, I can tell you very little at this point. You can understand that can't you? If I explain the world I live in and you refuse to become a part of it, you could go on to expose it to this," extending his arms to the world beyond the tent. "to all these sleeping people out here who would not be able to handle the truth. Then where would we be SGT? We would need to do anything necessary to maintain our secrecy... I think you understand my meaning."
"So that's it huh? You just want me to say yay or nay based on nothing more than your offer of giving me my legs back?"
"Who said anything about giving you YOUR legs back? I said you would walk, you would run, I might add even more, but I never said it would be with YOUR legs..."
"What, so this is some 'virtual' reality kind of Bullcrap? Why don't you just go to hell then Mr. Blake... I'm sure we'll see each other again someday."
"Oh, I see... Yes I suppose you could have taken it as such... No, SGT, I do not mean virtual. I do not mean imaginary. I insinuate no tricks of the mind. This is real, hard science at the cutting edge, so to speak, and we need someone hard, strong, dedicated, and honorable to prove that it can really be done. We are here, not just because you begged for a solution, and yes, you did beg I might add, but because we need someone just like you. Why did you join the Army Mr Blake?"
"To serve my country, be the best I can be, yada yada yada, all that sh**!"
"Do you not feel like being all you can be anymore James? Do you not want to protect those who need protecting, to ensure that people like your sister won't go up in a nuclear flash of light someday?"
"Well, of course I do... ever since I was a little boy I've dreamed of making a difference."
"Making a difference? Making a DIFFERENCE?!? THAT's why you joined the Army?!? Son, the Army USES you to make the differences IT wants to make... sure we trust its all for the best but who really KNOWS?"
"Huh?" SGT Mack was beggining to feel a bit lost as to where this was going.
"What I am offering you would empower you far beyond any legs, would give you something the Army, for all its hollow promises to its soldiers could never give you more than the illusion of...
I offer you the power to make a difference!"
SGT Mack, propped on his arm, took a moment of silence to consider this further.
In his mind's eye, he saw himself balancing on a fence, having struggled to climb to its top, focused on the goal of crossing, but now wondering if the crossing was in his interests at all.
Then the wind blew wobbling him closer to the edge and he looked behind him to see the landscape from which he was attempting to flee.
It was dark, foreboding. Lightning bolts streaked from lightless cloud to jagged rocks, illuminating a lifeless expanse of stained wreckage.
Turning he could see towering expanses of majestic peaks, eagles soaring on the winds and wheat fields bearing food for a million souls, his original destination, which he had felt to be out of his reach forever, but something was missing... people.
Looking behind him, into the suffering lands, he saw those he loved, saw them suffering in the misery of his own design, suffering with him if he were to stay.
Looking down upon his torn appendages, the answer was clear. In fact he wondered why he even hesitated.
"I cannot serve my country. I cannot serve anyone I love. I cannot be any good to this world at all. I cannot, if I remain like this. You have offered me a solution. I think you're full of crap. You ask me to give up all that I have left to live for to get back all I once did. I don't wish to give any of that up. I don't want to live without my family and friends. However, I would only end up pulling them into my despair. For them, and for me, I agree to you're proposal. But I still think you're full of crap!"
"Well then, I suppose we shall see about that won't we?" Sydney extended his hand for a bargain shake, which SGT Mack firmly returned. "Welcome to the LRP, a super secret branch of the Army, the Limb Replacement Program."
Handing him a reef of order papers, he continued, "I can't tell you everything just yet, you have yet to be secured fully into the program. However I need to explain a few details and ask a few more questions. I will return in an hour. A nurse will be in to help you out of bed." Without much more than that for a goodbye, Sydney's wheelchair whirled to life, spinning in place and darting rapidly out the tent.
SGT Mack took a moment to look around the room once again at the horrible suffering surrounding him. How many of these people would get the same offer, he wondered.
The world exploded into a whirlwind of activity with nurses appearing at the tent flaps, dressing him in uniform, washing him, anesthyzing his leg stumps and placing him in a rudimentary wheelchair.
It all happened so fast he was a little dazed, so many weeks of inactivity had dulled his senses. One of the nurses, a pretty young blonde, wheeled him out into a sunlight so bright, he was blinded for more than a moment or two.
As soon as his eyes began to make out the silhouettes of the surrounding tents and people in motion, a roaringly loud, dark blot covered the sun. Sand stung his eyes and tore at his face, as the whirling beast came to land before him.
Men in uniform, their eyes covered with FBI style shades approached from the chopper. They silently took him from the hands of his nurse and pushed him to the side of the machine. He began to realize that he wasn't just seeing a silhouette of the chopper, but that its color was indeed jet black. Perhaps it was a converted Apache.
Once lifted inside, he was in awe of all the blinking lights and high tech gadgetry the interior was lined with. As the sides of the ship snapped into place, the bright light from the outside world was shut out of reach, allowing him to make out his surroundings further.
"Welcome to Mobile Headquarters #3, SGT Mack!" Surrounded by lights, control panels and levers, the image of Sydney Blake emerged from the darkness before him. "I hope we made an entrance to impress?"
"Yeah, I suppose... What is this?," Asked SGT Mack, gesturing all around him.
"I told you already... Oh, well, I suppose if you must know, it is the cutting edge in Gunships, a true scientific marvel. Most of the world doesn't know it exists, and if they have seen it, they probably figured it was little more than an Apache."
"Isn't it?"
Sydney shouted up to the black helmeted pilot behind James, "Stick man, when will we be in Washington?"
"Stick Man" replied over a speaker in the passenger bay, "should take us about 5 minutes to be out of sight sir."
"Good, Good..." replied Sydney, then returned, "and how long after that?"
"You don't know sir? How many times have we made this trip?" Stick Man seemed almost exasperated.
"I don't want to know for my benefit..."
"Oh, of course, sir, in that case, about 24.2 seconds sir."
SGT Mack's eyes bulged out of his head and his jaw dropped open as if to catch flies. "You're SH**ING ME! Nothing travels that fast! The atmosphere would tear anything apart at that speeds!"
"Of course it would," agreed Sydney, "Unless you are frictionless, and supported by an artificial internal environment... still you'd better pull that shoulder strap, there is a bit of a kick at first."
In awe SGT Mack pulled the strap from above his shoulder over to his hip, an audible click telling him he had secured it into position. "You said you needed to ask me a few questions?"
"Ah yes, now for the most important question of all... I was a bit misleading earlier, sorry about that but I needed to test you're resolve. True we haven't performed these procedures successfully yet, but truth be told, we haven't performed any of them yet."
"What?"
"Yes, its true, we're entering into this a bit unpracticed, but we're quite sure of the technologies..."
"Technologies, plural?"
"Yes, you see, we have a few ways designed to assist you, but they don't all work together and we'll need to know which proceedure you would like to have done."
"Well, what are my options?"
"Ok, I like this, little fear, just charging ahead! You're a perfect choice Sergeant!"
"Well?"
"Yes, of course, a basic rundown is all you need to know. We're very confident in each approach. They've all been thoroughly tested on animals and we can't wait to see the results with a human subject.
The first involves a low intrusion cybernetic method... we would replace your limbs with cybernetic ones, light, incredibly strong, and, unlike it's imitators in the mainstream world, as fast as, no faster, than your original legs, and equipped to the proverbial bone with gadgetry.
The second method is accomplished biologically... we would regrow your limbs. The side effect of this method is that we would be primering your body for the acceptance of far more biological enhancements... the sky is the limit at any rate.
And the Final method is a bit more drastic... we would replace your body entirely, keeping the brain intact, and mimicking your emotional fuctions within a complete cybernetic unit. I somewhat doubt you would like this choice as it would distance you far further from your humanity, though you may desire this as you must give up your past anyhow."
Sgt Mack felt sick to his stomach.
"Ok then, think it over Sergeant. If you want to back out, we can relegate you to a more administrative position."
"Like you?" Sydney's missing legs had not gone unnoticed.
"Yes... Like me" A flashing light indicated something of importance to Sydney. "Hold on Sergeant"
FLASH. A slight jolt inside the cabin was the only indication that the ship had accelerated, yet if someone were to have witnessed the ship's departure from the ground they would have thought that it had simply vanished, or that it had perhaps become a faint blurry line stretching into the west. At any rate, they had left Iraq, and SGT Mack had agreed to leave his life behind in the deserts there.
Which life should he embrace now?
Last edited by Ravagerrr on Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:12 am; edited 3 times in total
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