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Chapter 22 – Lights Out

Chapter 22 – Lights Out

[Location: Decontamination Depot t3rm1nu5 - Aboard the Elysian Fields]

The door creaked a bit as Charlie pulled it open, allowing soft light to creep inside. At first glance it appeared to be a small space—most likely a closet or a small storage area. The metallic smell of warm electronics met him and he noticed numerous miniature L.E.D.s blinking randomly on the wall to his left.

Through the soft light, he realized there was a dark figure silently crouched on the floor in the back of the space. The darkness of the room hid the person’s identity, but Charlie definitely knew it was a human because he could see the body slightly expand and contract as it inhaled and exhaled.

Charlie slowly walked through the doorway. He raised his gun in front of him and rested his finger on the edge of the metal trigger. He cleared his throat. “Jack, dude…come on outta there. Are ya hurt?”

The dark figure replied to Charlie in a low and gravelly voice, “Yeah, it’s me…Jack Ford, the commander of the Elysian Fields Transport Ship. And who may I ask are you?”

Charlie’s head jerked back and his face wrinkled. “Who am I? What da ya mean? It’s me. Charlie. Charlie Kennedy. Remember? The goof that runs this dilapidated decontamination depot.” He bent his finger slightly around the trigger and held his breath as his feet moved involuntarily.

Jack stood from his crouch and the soft glow of the L.E.D.s illuminated the side of his face. “Ahh…I see. So you’re not one of my men.”

Charlie shook his head as his face wrinkled more, the level of tension causing his body to numb.

What the hell is wrong with this guy?

“No. Like I said, you know me. I run this depot...remember?”

Jack inched forward from the shadows to where Charlie could see him. He held his hands together in front of him and stared at Charlie through the darkness. He did not speak.

After a few seconds, Jack’s hands dropped to his sides, all of the color drained from his face, and his body began to spasm. His eyes opened wide and rolled toward the back of his head where only the whites could be seen. A slight moan erupted from his open mouth as the spasms increased in intensity.

Charlie stepped back a little and continued to train is gun on Jack. He squinted and his mouth hung open as he watched.

What the fuck?

The spasms came to an abrupt halt as Jack’s head fell to one side while his body began to awkwardly lean to the other. Charlie stepped back farther while Jack’s body bowed and then crumbled to the floor.

Charlie slid his firearm into its holster and bent down to help him. Through the faint light, he could see that Jack’s eyes were closed and he guessed he was unconscious. He rolled Jack on his back and checked for a pulse.

He ain’t dead.

Charlie quickly maneuvered himself on his knees to a position where he could cradle Jack’s head and neck in his hands, alternating tapping the sides of Jack’s face.

“Jack? Jack! Buddy…wake up.” He paused to look for any sign of life. “Come on. Man. Wake up!”

Charlie jumped as Jack’s body produced one last violent spasm and his dilated eyes popped wide open. His body became ridged and his lower jaw pushed its way open. Charlie held his breath as his heart ached from the abuse.

He screamed only inches from Jack’s colorless face, “Don’t you fuckin’ die on me! You hear me?”

Jack gulped a huge breath of air as life returned to his eyes. Then he exhaled and coughed a few times, blinking as the color in his face slowly returned. Charlie lowered his head and closed his eyes, thanking God that Jack seemed to have made it through the seizure.

Charlie helped Jack lift himself to a seated position. “You okay? Can you hear me?” Jack nodded, inhaling and exhaling heavily and trying to recuperate. Charlie placed his hands on Jack’s shoulders to keep him steady. “What the hell was that all about?”

Jack began to lift himself from the floor and gestured to Charlie. “Lemme up.”

Charlie helped Jack get to his feet and leaned over to get a better look at his face. He was happy to see Jack glance at him with a normal expression and a slight smile. “What the heck happened? How’d you get stuck in there?”

Jack awkwardly walked into the hallway, rubbing the back of his head. He winced. “Ouch!” He closed his eyes and his face froze. After a few seconds, he relaxed his features, blinked a few times, and coughed. “Man…the top of my head…feels like it’s ready to explode.” He cleared his throat and spat on the floor. “Well, let me tell you…” He paused for a few seconds, coughed, and then cleared his throat again. “Ruben had figured out a way to extract the video images from the RAM board. He had run out of alligator clips and he needed one more to finish the job. I remembered seeing a bag of them in the flight control electronics subpanel area.” He pointed toward the darkened space. “That small space provides rear access to our flight control equipment.” He paused for a second, lowered the hand that had been rubbing his head, and inspected it for any signs of blood. Then he put it back on his head and continued to rub. “So I headed into the subpanel area and once I’m in there…it’s lights out.”

Charlie stared at Jack. “What do you mean?”

Jack chuckled a little. “Well… somebody clocked me from behind. When I woke up I was in complete darkness. I had to use my fingers to tell if my eyes were open. For a few seconds, I thought I might be dead, but then I began to feel the pain in my head and knew I wasn’t.” Jack chuckled again. “I guess I kinda lost it then. Darkness can be pretty terrifying. I found the door and started pounding on it to see if I could break out or at least get Ruben to come and help me. Next thing I know, I’m on the floor and you’re helping me get up.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if one or both of your hands are broken; you were pounding on that freakin’ door like a crazy man.”

Jack glanced down at his hands and opened and closed his fists a few times. “No worries… they’re fine.”

“Let me see your head. You might have a concussion. You had some kinda convulsion or seizure or something. Scared the living crap outta me. Musta been from the hit you took; it goofed up your head for a while and you were floppin’ all over the floor.” Charlie tried to look at the back of Jack’s head for any sign of bruises or bleeding.

Jack quickly pulled away from Charlie. “Don’t worry about it. I’m fine.”

Charlie persisted. “I can patch you up if—”

Jack moved farther away so he couldn’t see the wound and barked, “I said…don’t worry about it.”

Charlie pulled back, surprised by Jack’s tone but continued his questioning. “It was Salsbury, right? He was the one that clocked you?”

Jack shook his head. “I’ve got no idea. One minute I’m digging for a pack of alligator clips and the next minute I wake up in total darkness.” Jack, still rubbing the back of his head, nodded toward the electronic lab. “Is Ruben in the lab? Ask him if he saw anything…he might know.”

Charlie put his hands on his hips and exhaled. “Well, if Ruben saw something he isn’t gonna be telling us about it.” He looked down at the floor, closed his eyes, and was silent.

Jack’s mouth fell open and his eyes filled with disbelief as he looked down the hallway and choked out the single word, through a cracked voice. “Ruben?” Then he looked back at Charlie as the edges of his mouth rolled downward as he spoke through a sob. “Is he…dead?”

Charlie shook his head. “Looks like you got off easy…just a bang on the head.” Charlie nodded toward the lab. “Somebody choked the life outta him.”

Jack leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He gagged, placed one hand on his stomach, and covered his mouth with the other to keep from vomiting. “He was just a kid. Outta the four knuckle heads in the crew, he and I got along the best.” Tears welled in Jack’s eyes as he gagged again. “He was like my little brother.” Jack moved from the wall, opened his eyes, and staggered to the doorway of the electronics lab. He wiped the tears from his cheeks with his fingers, paused for a second to take a deep breath, and then walked in.

Charlie stood silently thinking, his own stomach ready to let loose.

If this guy’s the killer, he deserves an Academy Award because he’s acting completely surprised and his grief appears one hundred percent genuine.

Charlie could hear Jack crying and decided to give him a few minutes alone with Ruben. Seeing one of your companions dead is a terrifying sight—Charlie had firsthand experience with this type of situation.

After a few minutes, Charlie walked into the lab. “Sorry pal, but we need to get some answers. Have you seen Salsbury?”

Jack stepped away from Ruben’s corpse, blinked his red eyes, sniffled, and lifted his chin. “I haven’t see Salsbury since we ate. What was that, three, four, five hours ago?”

Charlie’s voice took on a serious tone as he stared at Jack. “You realize that he did this, don’t you?” Charlie paused. “He killed Jozef, Roy, and now Ruben. We gotta to stop him.”

Jack clenched his jaw, his eyes narrowed and he spit out the words, “Stop him? Hell, I want to kill that rat bastard. If he wanted to get rid of us all, why didn’t he just do it during the trip? Why wait until now?”

Charlie shrugged. “How the hell do I know? Who knows the logic of a crazy man?” Charlie paused for a second and began to walk toward the hallway. “We need to search the ship to see if he’s still onboard. If he’s not, we’re gonna have to search the depot.”

Jack stood tall. “There is no way in hell I’m not gonna make it home to my wife.” He gazed into the distance. “I only have a few months left with Elixer and then I’ll be transferred down to Mars. We’re gonna start a family.” He ground his teeth and his brow darkened and pulled forward, half way over his eyes. “Come on. We need to finish this now.”

Charlie stepped back a bit, surprised by the look on Jack’s face as it went through a metamorphosis of a friendly guy from Kansas to an angry man seeking revenge.

“We both have to be loaded for bear. We have an extra suit of battle armor downstairs that’ll fit you. You already have a side arm but we need to get you a pulse rifle too. We can’t go into this half-assed. We have to be ready to put this guy down.” Jack slammed his fist on the work bench.

Jack and Charlie meticulously searched each and every space of the Elysian Fields but did not replace Salsbury. Jack went to the arms locker and found Charlie a suit of battle armor. The two men realized that Salsbury was somewhere in the depot and they were going to have to dig him out from the maze of equipment in the plant.

They headed back to the lab to make a decision as to what they were going to do with Ruben’s body. After a couple minutes of silent mourning, Jack said a few prayers. Charlie knew they couldn’t leave Ruben’s body in the electronics lab, so they decided to put it into another shipping container and went to replace one.

The silence gave Charlie some time to think.

Our plan is sound. We’ll cover this place and drag him out. Salbury’s the one. Jack’s acting weird—maybe that thump on the head loosened a screw or something—but I don’t think he’s a killer. And McCormick? The idea that he had somehow escaped from his pod, committed the murders, and then returned to his cell defies logic. How could he have gotten out? How could he have committed the murders and not have a drop of blood on him? Even though he’s a fuckin’ convicted mass murderer, following that scenario just doesn’t make sense. But Salsbury…that makes all the sense in the world. He hated Jozef like no tomorrow. It could have easily pushed him to the point of murder. And killing Roy and Ruben wasn’t premeditated, it was a follow up to try and get rid of the evidence.

Charlie and Tom carefully placed Ruben’s body inside the container and closed the cover. Charlie yanked on the ratcheting tie downs to secure the plastic tightly around the shipping container and they began to push it into the cargo pod. Jack didn’t say a word the entire time.

Charlie huffed and dusted his hands.

But one thing still doesn’t make sense. When I met Tom pushing the cart with the repulsor, why didn’t he try to kill me as well? He acted like he was completely out of the loop as to what was going on.

A playground bully always picks on the small, the weak, or somebody he knows won’t fight back. So maybe he knew that I would fight back…and fight back hard. Maybe he felt it just wasn’t worth the effort, so he let me go. But he wasn’t afraid to throw down with Jozef…man…this makes no sense.

He didn’t like that this part of the story didn’t seem completely logical. It held some water, but he was stretching pretty far to make it work. He shuffled through other possibilities, but none of them came close.

And what’s up with Jack? Was he really hit in the head? Was he really attacked or did he fabricate the whole thing? He never let me see the bruise on his head…but there must be a reason he was floppin’ around on the floor.

Charlie stroked his chin and tilted his brow.

Maybe he locked himself in the subpanel area to misdirect any ideas that he’s the killer? Maybe he’s throwing suspicion toward Tom. Not one of his men? What the…Tom said he had leadership issues. And we still haven’t found Jozef’s side arm.

In Charlie’s calculating mind he ranked the suspects as Tom most likely, with Jack much lower on the list and McCormick a far distant last. He figured he would work with Jack to search the depot and replace Tom, but he would be watching him closely so he himself wouldn’t end up being the next murder victim.