I don't know N'Sync, nor do I know that much about them, so excuse me if I make any mistakes or imply anything about them which isn't true. This is all a product of my imagination, and shouldn't be taken literally. Also, if it is illegal for you to read this, wherever you are, then don't cos you might get in trouble, and who knows? The karma might just come back and bite me in the butt for some reason! Without further ado, please enjoy my new story...'Human, all too human'.
Human, All Too Human - Part 5
"Where am I?" Mark asked, seeing nothing but darkness.
"Area 19." A man's voice answered. The blindfold was removed, revealing a brightly lit laboratory.
"Where?"
"Area 19." The man answered again. Mark's hands were fastened down somehow, and he was sat on a chair. He couldn't see the man if he twisted his head from side to side.
"Where's that?"
"That information is classified."
"What? How did I get here? Who are you?" Mark asked, getting impatient, and scared.
"That information is all classified." The man had a southern drawl, and Mark guessed from his voice that he was at least middle-aged, maybe older.
"So what am I doing here?" Mark asked, trying to turn around.
"There is no point in trying to look around, I am not in the room with you. You have bought here to finish your work, your grant contract requires that you complete a certain number of federal work-hours in order to pay off your grant. You are here to do so." The voice explained slowly.
"But I just asked for a transfer!"
"You've got one, you are now assigned to Area 19 for the next three weeks. If you finish the primary project sooner, you may leave sooner. You will not leave until it is finished." A click, and then there was silence. Mark's hands were suddenly released, and he could stand up, though his legs ached. Looking around, he realised the lab was a mock-up of his lab in Florida, though he could still be in Florida, he doubted it. All he remembered was falling asleep. Josh had said goodbye as he had to go back to Orlando, and they were both doing ok, and then he woke up here, in a rather uncomfortable position.
"Aaaah!" Mark shouted, and flung his arm out knocking over half the beakers and test-tubes on his desk.
"Please don't do that, just get on with your work." Mark looked around, then remembered the voice wasn't in there with him. Then he noticed the semi-completed equation on the blackboard. They had copied it exactly from the one in his own lab.
"What if I don't work?" Mark shouted.
"Does Sacred Heart Care Home mean anything to you, Professor Carey?" Mark shivered unconsciously. The voice was so, mean, so malicious. He was terrified.
"You wouldn't, you couldn't..." Mark broke off.
"We would and we can, Professor Carey. Now please, work. If you need anything at all, just ask." The voice clicked off again. Mark looked towards the complex equations on the board, and started to cry. The equations were easy from the point he'd got to, he could be finished in a day. But he didn't want to. It was too much, he collapsed to the floor and started to sob.
"I can't. I can't." Mark banged his hand against the floor, as tears rolled down his face. He felt the rough dust on the floor scratch against his face as he tried to push himself up. Mark managed to crawl over to the desk, and crouched with his back against it and his face in his hands as his shoulders shook convulsively. Sobs rang out through the lab.
"That's weird." Charlie remarked. "Professor Carey's supposed to be back today." She looked at her watch again, and realised that he was now 25 minutes late. Looking around, only ten people now remained in the lecture theatre. Since Professor Carey's absence, and the pathetic presence of the substitute, the class numbers had dwindled. The substitute entered, and started his pathetic excuse for a lecture. Finally, the bell rung and the class filed out, barely able to keep their eyes open. Charlie ran to the closest open space and pulled out her cell phone. She rung Justin.
"Hello?" Justin's voice came over as a whisper.
"Justin?"
"Yes?"
"What's wrong? Why are you whispering?"
"Cos I'm in a meeting." Justin said quietly.
"Oh god! I'm sorry! I forgot! I'll call you back later!" Charlie hung up quickly, and sat around for the next hour, hoping Justin wouldn't be too long. Shortly before lunch, her phone rang.
"Justin?"
"Yes, I'm out the meeting now, how are you?"
"I'm okay, how are you?"
"Doing great." Justin said happily. "So what's up?"
"Well, I meant to ask, is JC with you?" Charlie said.
"Err... yeah?" Justin said apprehensively.
"Could I speak to him?" Charlie could practically hear Justin sulk and his shoulders slump over the phone. "We can talk afterwards, I just need to ask him something, about Mark."
"Oh, okay." Justin's sulkiness seemed at least partly abated. He handed the phone to JC.
"Hello?"
"JC?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah? What's up Charlie?"
"Um, well, I don't want to sound rude... but you know how Mark missed lectures a couple of times, the first time after the date with you, and the second time, well, you know..." Charlie trailed off.
"Yeah..." Josh answered, his voice suddenly parched and croaky.
"Well, I was just wondering... did you say anything to Mark recently?"
"No!" Josh answered quickly. "I promise! I didn't say anything. I've been really supportive of him. He requested a transfer, and well, I was even considering asking him out again." Charlie's brow furrowed, as she thought over what had happened to Mark recently.
"Well, it's just, he's not here."
"What do you mean he's not there?"
"Well, he didn't show up for lectures this morning, the substitute's still here."
"Oh. Well, he might have decided to take another day off, he's only just out of the hospital you know, he might just be tired or something, and as there's already a substitute available, he might have thought it would be ok." Charlie considered that, then grudgingly agreed.
"I guess you're right, it just doesn't seem like Professor Carey to miss lectures just cos he was tired."
"Well, he has been through a lot recently." Charlie nodded, even though Josh couldn't see it. "Well, Justin's dancing up and down now, I guess he wants to speak to you. Listen if you're still worried in a couple of days, give me a call, I'll be down there this weekend anyway, and I'll come check on him. He has that guy visiting him from the hospital anyway every few hours, so if he's really in trouble then that guy will catch it." Charlie agreed. "Here's Justin." Justin took the phone back.
"Hey, so, how are you?" Justin asked, biting his bottom lip.
"You already asked that." Charlie giggled, and Justin joined in with his own chuckling.
"I miss you, I wanna come down and see you." Justin said in a giggly tone.
"I wish you could come down too, but I guess we're both stuck where we are. Next weekend though, I've got Friday off next week, so I could come up for a long weekend?" Charlie asked.
"That would be great! Next weekend, next weekend, umm, I've got a meeting Friday morning, but if you arrive around Friday lunchtime, we can have the rest of the weekend to ourselves."
"Sounds great." The two continued talking until Charlie's next class.
"I'm tired." Mark said out loud. A door opened to his left.
"Please walk through the door. There is a cot set up for you." Mark had been fed in this way whenever he said he was hungry, and now he was going to sleep in the small side room, attached to the laboratory. The blackboard had been filled many times over, as had the notebooks which had been supplied to him. Mark fell asleep.
The following morning, Mark only worked for two hours, then sat down on the floor. "What are you doing?" The voice asked.
"I'm finished." Mark replied grudgingly.
"What do you mean he's missing?" JC shouted down the phone. The hospital had rung him, the worker who was supposed to check on Mark every few hours had returned without being able to find him, JC was notified as his listed contact. "Wasn't someone supposed to check on him?"
"Yes sir, someone did check on him, they found him missing. We have to check all leads, and the police have started their search, we are required to call the listed contact in case Dr. Carey decided to turn up there." The hospital worker said.
"Well he hasn't!" JC was getting worried. What if Mark decided to try and kill himself again? He was hyperventilating.
"Sir, we're doing everything we can. We assure you that we will do our very best to find Dr. Carey."
"Yeah, thanks. Bye." JC hung up, he couldn't stand to talk to that person anymore. He sat down in his living room. Today was Friday, where could Mark possibly be? He was supposed to have started back at school today. He'd been released from hospital before, and he'd had a chance to recuperate. Josh had talked to him on Wednesday.
"Will this work?" The army colonel asked from Mark's side.
"Yes." Mark replied statically.
"Have you worked out the yield?"
"Yes, using a T-force weapon, an infinite yield is possible."
"What?"
"It's possible to start a reaction that won't stop." Mark replied.
"Well, obviously it will have to stop eventually." The colonel answered smugly.
"No, it won't. There is sufficient matter in space to support a T-force reaction, even in deep space, between star systems, there is between 10 and 20 atoms per cubic kilometre, that will support a reaction."
"You mean we could destroy everything?" The colonel asked incredulously.
"Yes."
"Oh God! What do we do?" Charlie asked. She'd been crying, but now Justin just had his arm wrapped around her shoulder as they sat on the couch together in the guys' beach house.
"There's nothing we can do. The police are looking, social services are checking out Mark's home, it's Saturday today, he's only been missing for at most 48 hours, so it's likely he's still ok, at least according to the hospital."
"Yeah, great, if they'd done their job, they wouldn't have lost him!" Justin said harshly.
"They can't keep their eye on every suicidal person Justin!" JC snapped back, bringing Charlie into a fresh round of tears. Justin glared at JC, who walked out onto the deck through the French doors. Joey came and laid a hand on Justin's shoulder. Justin looked up.
"Justin, be careful. Josh is taking this really hard. Remember? He was going to ask Mark out again? Maybe he was starting to feel something for Mark. This has to be really hard on him." Justin nodded slightly, and looked out through the French doors. He looked down at Charlie, who was looking up at him.
"Go on." She mouthed silently to him. He nodded, and walked outside to talk to Josh.
"I'm sorry bro'." He mumbled once he was about two feet behind JC. Josh didn't answer, and just kept his face looking out over the moonlit sea. Justin reached out and laid his hand on Josh's back. Almost immediately, Josh spun around, and grabbed hold of Justin around his chest. Josh rested his head against Justin's shoulder and cried, almost silently. Justin cradled Josh's head with one hand, and wrapped the other around his best friend. Josh stood there for ages, just crying into Justin.
NEWS FLASH
A tsunami has struck the coast of Southern California, Mexico and Hawaii. The cause of the disaster has been blamed on underwater tectonic plate movements. The tidal waves were in some cases over 50 feet in height, despite the fact that the source of the tectonic disturbance has been calculated as being over 2000 km from any of the areas struck. So far, no casualties have been reported, though it is estimated that 3000 people have been left homeless in Mexico and repairs to coastal resorts in Hawaii have been estimated at a cost of 50 million dollars.
"Do you still wish to quit? After you've seen how much power you can produce with your invention?" The voice asked Mark.
"Yes, I want to quit. Let me go home, please?"
Josh went to visit Mark's mother that Sunday. He explained to the nurse how Mark was missing, but also how Mark would've wanted him to come visit her as she gets upset when no one comes. The nurse let him through. "Hi Mrs. Carey." Josh said as he entered the room. Mark's mother had been reading a small, but thick, black book.
"Josh! I wasn't expecting you."
"You remember me?" Josh asked, not understanding how an Alzheimer's sufferer could possibly remember him after a couple of weeks when she couldn't remember her own son.
"Oh, well, I remember you, don't worry. Where's my son today?"
"Um...he, was busy again, um, testing something or other." Josh could hear his own voice crack.
"What is it?"
"Mark's, um... he's fine." Josh lied more convincingly. She nodded, and they talked for about an hour about different things. Mark had phoned last week, and it had been enough, but she was hoping he'd be along this week. Josh's eyes started watering up.
"What do you actually do?" Mrs. Carey asked.
"Pardon?" Josh asked, pursing his lips.
"I know you can sing, but what is your job, what do you do for a living?"
"I do... I sing. I mean. I'm a member of a band."
"Oh. Oh, that must be how the nurse knew you could sing."
"Yes, I think she recognised me." Josh said, fiddling with the hem of his shirt. Josh reached over, and picked up the magazine that was lying on the bed. "Scientific American?" Josh asked.
"Yes, incredibly enough, I can remember everything I learnt when I was a doctor." Mrs. Carey grinned. "I like to keep up with modern advances." She grinned wider.
"I guess that's where Mark got it from."
"Yes." She sighed.
"What's wrong?" Josh asked, frowning.
"Sometimes... sometimes, I wish Mark had been more... normal." Josh frowned.
"What do you mean? The gay thing?" Mrs. Carey shook her head.
"No, no, I know he could be happy with himself being gay, but because of what he's got up here." She pointed to her temple. "He's distanced from people. He was three years ahead of the other children when he was at school, he was taking degrees at colleges by the time most children were coming up to the final year of high school. He's isolated himself, and he thinks that's normal. I'm no psychologist, but I can see it. He does it even now, he isolates himself from the scientific community. When I was a doctor, I lectured, and I researched with my team, and we worked together always. But Mark comes up with radical theories, like one time, about six months ago, he was telling me how he planned on splitting sub-atoms, or something like that. He reckoned he could make more energy than any nuclear plant. It's that kind of theory which gets people kicked out of the scientific community."
"But... but Mark did it."
"What?"
"He split those sub-atomic things, he managed it."
"Oh." Mrs. Carey paused in thought for a long time. "Well, has he published it yet?"
"No, it's a military project, did he not tell you he works for the military?"
"No. I would say at a guess, he would know that I would be disappointed in him." Mrs. Carey pursed her lips and looked down at her lap. "I worked for the military in the 70s."
"I thought you were a doctor?"
"I am. I'm a medical doctor, and I have a doctorate in Chemical Engineering." Josh nodded. "In the 70s, they were working on... well, I guess you'd call it germ warfare now, but at the time, they were using various chemicals to synthesise similar reactions in humans as the most deadly viruses. We succeeded, but the results were never published, and the chemicals were never used." Josh looked down at his lap. "We were scared Josh. The 60s and 70s for the scientific community were all about protecting ourselves. The whole country was scared, we were at war, and, well, we just wanted to do something. We're not soldiers, or politicians, but we still want to help. If that means doing something that some people might find... immoral, then so be it. We would never break the scientific ethics, but if there's just cause, we will use it." Josh just sighed. He was getting more and more torn over Mark.
"I should get going Mrs. Carey."
"Please call me Christina." Josh nodded.
"It was nice seeing you again."
"You too Josh."
Sitting in his driveway, Josh looked at the door to his house. He looked at his watch. "4 days." He paused, and looked up at his front door again. "Shit!" He shouted at the top of his voice as slammed his hand into the steering wheel. He put the car into gear and reversed out of his driveway, and drove right over to Mark's house. Last time he'd been there, he'd picked up a back door key so that he could get in if he needed to, so he walked around the side of the house and let himself in. Sitting down at the kitchen table, he looked around, for anything that might give him a clue about where Mark was. Did he say anything about going away again? Did he still seem remotely suicidal after the week in hospital? No. Josh shook his head. Mark had basically fully recovered. Josh and all the guys had spoken with Mark in hospital, and he seemed receptive. He was at least willing to only accept some of the blame, and he admitted that maybe suicide wasn't the best plan.
"Where are you Mark?" Josh mumbled to himself. He stood up, and walked through the kitchen and into the living room. The TV and table were covered in a fine layer of dust and Josh almost picked up a cloth and wiped them clean. Instead, he turned and made his way through the dining room. The table in there was also covered in dust. Walking up the stairs, Josh walked through the only door that was open, into Mark's bedroom. He looked out the window, and saw the driveway, the road and rows and rows of houses beyond. 'Hmm, suburbia.' Josh thought to himself. Turning, he saw Mark's dresser, and his bed. His bed, where he would lay every night, but he wasn't here. "This is all my fault." Josh started to blame himself. "This isn't fair!"
"When can I go home?" Mark asked, getting angry.
"When we're finished. You haven't shown us how to activate the full capabilities of the weapon."
"You can destroy a country with the weapon I've showed you how to make. The only thing I haven't shown you is the universal weapon, and there's no reason for that, you would never need it!" Mark reasoned. The four high-ranking army officials discussed this briefly in hushed tones, and turned back to Mark.
"You'll be returned home shortly." Mark nodded, and turned to leave. "Dr. Carey?" He turned back. "Are you sure you wouldn't rather continue working for our branch?" The army colonel rubbed his thumb against his fingers, suggesting monetary reward for Mark.
"No." Mark said firmly, he turned and left the room, slamming the door in the process. He turned down the corridor and back into his room. He had had it with compliance - he wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Mark lay back onto the army issue cot, and thought about everything that had happened, first the test that went wrong, well actually it didn't, it's just the results were not something he would've ever wanted. Then there was Josh, who was kind and comforted him even though he'd done such a horrible thing, but then Josh left, and Mark tried to kill himself. He spent the following week and a bit in hospital, and Josh actually visited him. Mark started to wonder where Josh was now, whether he was wondering where Mark was.
Josh laid down on Mark's bed, thinking over the last fortnight's events, and how much he wished Mark was here now, or at least he wished he knew if Mark was ok. So there they lay, far away from each other, yet both thinking about the same thing: each other.
End of Chapter 5
Ok, I'm sorry it was a little short, and I'm sorry it's been a while, and I'm sorry to all the people who read On The Streets that I haven't updated them together like I normally do, but I wanted to get this done. It is kind of a connecting chapter, and I hope it at least makes some sense - I know it's gotta lot of jumping back and forwards in it. Oh, and thanks for everyone who wrote to me about Streets and Human - I got over 50 emails in all, and I'm really, really sorry I missed replying to about three or four of them, but I checked all by accident in my hotmail inbox, and it deleted them before I had a chance to reply, sorry! Finally, I just want to ask everyone to email Writerboy, the author of JC's hitchhiker, to get him to start writing a new story - he's the greatest writer on the archive, and he should be writing! Come on man please!!!
I've just realised that I haven't sent this in yet, and I meant to send this chapter in a few days ago. So, basically I have now updated On The Streets at the same time, sorry!
P.S. Sorry this chapter is really, really short. I just realised just how short it is!