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 story...'Human, all too human'.
Human, All Too Human -- Part 6
Josh woke up the following morning feeling terrible. He had tossed and turned for half the night, with images of Mark's lifeless body in a ditch somewhere, or maybe he was somewhere Josh hadn't thought of, maybe he had another home or something, and he was sitting in his kitchen having taken another bottle of pills, and he was dead anyway. Josh couldn't control his own thoughts. Terrible images of Mark lying dead somewhere carried on flashing through his mind and he was terrified. During the night he had heard a bang somewhere in the house, and that woke him up too, but he figured that it must have just been a creaky house. Josh slowly washed and got dressed in the same clothes he had on yesterday, a pair of jeans and a hooded sweatshirt. Slowly trudging down the stairs, Josh saw the front door was open! He ran to it, and saw that the chain on the door had prevented it from coming open anymore, but in the gap Josh thought he saw a coat, but more importantly, there was an arm in the coat! Josh pulled open the door, and Mark's body slumped inwards. Josh almost screamed, vomited and laughed all at the same time. He almost fell over in his anxiety to check whether Mark was alive or not. Josh pushed his hands against Mark's neck, and felt a faint throb every couple of seconds. Mark was still alive... barely.
Josh phoned 911 and an ambulance was there very quickly. He carried on begging the operator to tell him what to do, what he could do, but the woman on the end was no help at all, and just told him to keep Mark warm and there was little else he could do until the paramedics arrived. Putting Mark onto the ambulance, they refused to allow Josh to get in with him, so Josh watched helplessly as the ambulance swerved around the corner and disappeared. Steeling himself, he ran to his own car after shutting Mark's door and wrenched it open. Jumping in, he revved the engines and shot out of Mark's road and was on the ambulance's tail in no time. He followed the ambulance as the siren's blared and they were soon approaching the hospital. The ambulance stopped outside the emergency room, while Josh pulled around to a staff parking space nearby. He knew he'd probably get towed, or at least get a ticket, but he didn't care. He ran into the emergency room.
"Hey, I'm looking for a guy named Mark Carey, he was just brought in, he's unconscious?"
"And are you a relative."
"No, but I'm listed as next of kin."
"Hold on a moment sir." The nurse behind the counter ran to a couple of doctors and pointed Josh out, then looked around for a second, reading off a clipboard. A couple of other stretchers were run in from ambulances while Josh was standing there.
"They're just running some tests sir, I'm afraid you're going to have to wait over there. Is there any relative we can contact."
"Only his mother, and she's got Alzheimer's, she's in a care home." The nurse nodded, and went back to her station. Josh released a sigh and sat back in the chair she'd pointed out to him. He pulled out his cell phone and dialled Justin's number.
"Hello? Josh?" Justin answered groggily.
"Justin, he turned up."
"What? Who? Mark?" Justin was clearly excited by the news, and Josh could just picture him sitting up in bed. Josh heard a murmuring in the background. Justin was with someone.
"Yeah, I was over at his house and he just turned up this morning on the doorstep. He was unconscious and I phoned for an ambulance. I'm at the hospital now."
"Ok, we'll be right there."
"Just, you don't have to do that. I'll be fine, I just wanted to let you know where I was, don't worry, I'll keep you updated." There was a moment of silence. "Just?"
"Josh. Do you really believe that I'm just gonna sit here and let you sit at the hospital alone?"
"Just, do you realise how much trouble it's gonna be, you coming in here? You'll get mobbed! At least I can sit here quietly."
"Yeah well, they might give us a little more attention and look after us a little bit better if there are more of us there, I'm coming."
"Fine." Josh smiled subconsciously, he wanted Justin there. "I'll see you later."
"See you soon." Justin replied, and hung up. "Charlie?" He turned to see her lying with her hair splayed out in every direction on the pillow. Her auburn hair hung halfway down her spine when she stood up and was now covering most of the pillow and her face. Justin pulled the hair out of her face and smiled as she blinked her eyes open. She smiled softly as Justin greeted her good morning. "Josh found Mark." Charlie's eyes blinked open all of a sudden. "Josh was at Mark's house this morning and he found Mark on his own doorstep." Charlie sat up. "I'm going over to see Josh now." Charlie nodded and stifled a yawn.
"I'll come with you." Charlie smiled at him, and they both climbed out of bed.
"We expect him to wake up soon sir, but the thing is, we need to ask you some questions. You say you just found him?" Josh was concerned about the presence of the police officer standing behind the doctor talking to him.
"Yes. He was just there on his doorstep when I woke up this morning."
"And what were you doing in his house?" The officer asked.
"Please." The doctor interrupted. "The thing is, Mr. Chasez, we've found traces of certain...substances in Mr. Carey's bloodstream."
"What kind of substances?"
"Well, illegal ones mostly, and some that we just can't identify. Chemicals which probably shouldn't have been introduced into the bloodstream. All I can say is, it's lucky Mr. Carey was a very healthy individual, a person with a weak heart, or a remotely infected immune system would have been killed by some of the drugs in his system."
"I have no idea what Mark would have taken, or possibly had put into his body. Mark's been missing for about a week now, and I don't know where he's been, you'll have to ask him." Josh said quietly.
"Will you be staying around the area?" The policeman asked him. Josh nodded and sat down in the chair he'd been in for the last hour. They were just leaving him alone when Justin and Charlie walked in.
"Just!" Josh said as he ran up to Justin and put his arms around him. "They say Mark has drugs in his system, some they can't even identify."
"But how? I mean, Mark didn't take drugs did he?"
"No, I mean, I don't think so. We're just gonna have to wait till he wakes up." Josh said sadly, and sat down. Justin sat down next to him, making sure his coat came up to cover his chin and his hat hid the top of his head. Charlie sat down next to him and he took her hand in his while he tried to comfort Josh.
"I just feel so fucking useless sitting here, doing nothing." Justin knew that Josh was prone to melodramatics, but he only swore when he was getting upset.
"Josh calm down, there's nothing we can do...we just have to wait for him to wake up, if the doctors really have no idea what it is his system, then it could be a while..." Justin trailed off as a male nurse came down the corridor and stopped in front of Josh.
"Mr. Chasez?" The nurse hesitated. Josh looked up, and the nurse's mouth went slightly slack, on recognising Josh. But Josh took it the wrong way.
"What's wrong? What's happened? Where is Mark?" Josh suddenly went almost hysterical.
"Josh calm down!" Justin stood up to tell Josh to calm himself before someone noticed them.
"Oh my God! You're Justin Timberlake!" The nurse said, a little too loudly.
"I wish you hadn't done that." Justin said looking at the nurse with a pained expression on his face. Over the nurse's shoulder, Justin could see about ten to fifteen girls slowly approaching their group. As he stuck his head out to look though, he realised that was also the wrong thing to do, and the group started coming quicker and quicker, getting louder and louder and larger and larger each time he dared to look. Finally, he took off himself, grabbing Charlie's hand. Josh realised what was going on very quickly, and despite his near hysterical state realised that he wasn't exactly going to be left alone if they saw him too, so he ran with Justin. They headed through the ER and turned left before running into a side room quickly. Josh slammed the door behind him and got out the way of the window. He could see at an angle out the window and saw the gaggle fly past. He was slightly out of breath and he noticed Justin and Charlie standing, leaning against a wall. Then he saw who else was in the room.
"Mark!"
"Josh." Mark answered with a croaky voice. "The nurse said he was just coming to get you."
"Oh shit, we just ran from a gang of girls chasing Justin." Mark looked over at Justin who was blushing a deep red colour. He turned back to Josh.
"I hear I've got you to thank again for getting me into this place?" Mark asked Josh with a slight smile on his face. Josh nodded.
"Mark, what happened? Where have you been? The doctor said they found drugs in your blood, what's going on?" Josh got quiet as he trailed off. Mark looked over at Justin and Charlie, realising they were waiting for something too.
"Err... guys, would you wait outside a sec?" Josh asked the two younger people.
"But Josh..." Justin started in a whiny tone, not wanting to go outside to the girls again.
"Yeah sure." Charlie said quickly. Holding Justin's hand, she stuck her head out the door, checking the coast was clear, and they ran out to find another hiding place.
"So... what happened?"
"Work."
"What? What do you mean work?" Josh snapped.
"The military, they took me to a secret base somewhere, Area 19. They made me finish the project." Mark said softly.
"The bomb?"
"Yeah." Mark said quietly, he felt his throat tighten slightly and his lip quiver, but he refused to cry in front of Josh yet again.
"Oh my God, and you've been there for the last week? How did they capture you? How did they make you finish it?"
"I'm guessing they drugged me and just transported me there. They finished it by threatening me. They were gonna kill my Mom. I couldn't... I didn't want to lose the only person who cares about me Josh, even if she doesn't remember me." He said softly. Josh stayed quiet. Mark sighed, and rolled over from his semi-sitting position, so that he was lying on his side facing away from Josh.
"I care about you Mark. I was scared when you went missing. I went to see your Mom. She thinks you're mad at her by the way, because she couldn't remember your name. The reason I found you was cos I went to your house the night before, I tried to find something, anything to help me find you. Mark, I can't believe the army did that to you, I'm so sorry. But, I can see why you did it." Josh said to the figure who refused to turn back to him.
"I can't!" Mark started. "It was completely stupid and immoral and unethical, and everything else. Man, I'm so dumb. I'm risking millions of lives to save my Mom's life. How fucking selfish am I? I'm probably going down in history now as the guy who destroyed the world order!" Mark was holding back a sob, but not very well.
"Mark, listen to yourself! You knew when you were working on this bomb that was what you were making, you knew that one of the results of the project was going to be a bomb, but you wanted to finish the project, but you've changed now? Because they kidnapped you? What's the truth Mark, why are you getting like this?"
"Because you made me feel like this, ok?" Mark shouted turning around to face Josh, his face finally creasing with tears running down his cheeks. "I never thought about any fucking ethical implications, then you came along and I realised that there are more important things in life than getting your name on the front of Scientific America or the Scientific Journal. I've put myself and everyone else at risk cos I was so fucking careless and selfish."
"At least you admit it. What do you want to do about it?"
"There's nothing I can do."
"Why did you get on the project in the first place? It wasn't just glory was it?" Josh asked.
"No, the military persuaded me." Mark was consciously trying to slow his breathing, but it was ragged.
"How? How did they persuade you?" Josh asked, his voice soft, trying to calm Mark.
"They showed me, pictures, photographs of installations in the Middle East and Korea and even Africa where there were nuclear weapons, pointing right at America." Mark swallowed. "I've still got them, if you want to see them. Maybe that will make you understand!" Mark said hopefully, turning back to Josh.
"I doubt it Mark." Josh said, sitting on the side of the bed Mark was facing. "I doubt it, but I still feel something for you. You're no longer involved with this project are you?." Mark shook his head.
"No."
"Then I'd like to think of you as a friend. I always said if you got out of the project, then I would think of you as a friend."
"But I didn't get out of it! They made me finish it!"
"But you wouldn't have, if you felt you had any choice, right?" Josh asked with a small smile on his face. Mark shook his head.
"I guess not." Josh smiled, and hugged Mark around the shoulders.
"Do you mind if we come in?" Josh heard from the door, and standing there were Justin and Charlie, both looking a little out of breath. "It's just, we've been running around for the last twenty minutes, and we could really do with a break. Sorry if we're interrupting something."
"You're not, I think we were just about done." Josh said, smiling gently at Mark. Mark smiled back, smiling genuinely for the first time in weeks.
"Mr. Carey, my name is detective Rampling of the drug squad. We need to ask you some questions, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask your guests to leave." The police officer entered the room and the guests filed out, casting worried glances at Mark, who had an almost exasperated expression on his face. Josh, Justin and Charlie stood outside for about two minutes before the door opened again and a slightly stunned looking detective walked out. The three of them looked into the room, and saw Mark sitting comfortably on the bed. They filed back in.
"What happened?" Josh asked first.
"Well, nothing, why?" Mark asked, seemingly confused.
"Well, he had questions to ask, about the drugs in your blood, right?"
"Yes." Mark almost chuckled. "But, I work for the military." The three of them got confused expressions on their faces. "To help with things like administration and basic hierarchy in the bases, they give like, honorary military positions to scientists. Like if they're just lab assistants, they call them privates. If they're higher up, like I was, in charge of the most important project going on at any military base at the moment, then they give a higher title -- like colonel." Mark said with a smug expression on his face. "I just showed him my military ID in my wallet," Mark indicated his wallet on the nightstand. "And I told him he had no jurisdiction. He left after that." Mark smiled slightly.
"Damn, I could do with one of them, next time I get pulled over for speeding!" Justin said with a big grin on his face.
"Don't even think about it pretty boy." Mark said, everyone started laughing, and for the first time in several weeks, he felt like himself again -- before his Mom got sick, before he had to work for the military, when he was just Mark Carey. And he was really happy.
"Mark can go home today, so I thought I'd go pick him up at the hospital. Is that ok?" Josh said over the phone. He was talking to Lance -- they had work to do today, but he knew that Lance wouldn't mind.
"Yeah, I guess so Josh, but you can be back in Orlando by tomorrow, right?"
"Yeah, sure. I'll see you later alright scoop?"
"Yeah, bye man." They both hung up, and Josh sped up. He wanted to catch Mark before he got out the hospital and had a chance to call a cab. He was so far over the speed limit he was sure he didn't want to look at the speedometer. "Mark!" He shouted as he pulled up at the hospital. Mark had just been hailing a cab when he got there. He looked a lot better than he had two days before.
"Josh!" Mark looked at Josh with surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to come pick you up." Josh said, with a slightly hurt tone to his voice. Mark sounded almost accusing when he'd asked why Josh was there.
"I didn't mean it like that -- I meant, haven't you got recording today?"
"Yeah, well, I got out of it. I wanted to spend some time with you now you're out the hospital." Josh smiled and grabbed Mark's bag. He didn't have very much, just what Josh had picked up for him that first day. Josh hugged Mark as they moved away from the hospital.
"Thanks Josh." Josh smiled at him and they both climbed in.
"So... what do you want to do?" Mark asked as he threw the dirty clothes from his bag into the washing machine.
"I don't mind... talk?" Mark smiled slightly and turned around to turn on the machine.
"Ok, do you want something to drink?"
"No thanks." Josh seemed nervous about something. "I was wondering..."
"Yeah?" Mark asked expectantly.
"I was wondering if I could see those photos, you know, the ones you said the military gave you, the proof of nuclear weapons aimed at America..." Josh bit his lower lip. Mark nodded slightly, he was back again, three days ago, in the facility, and he felt miserable again. He sighed, remembering what he'd done. The thoughts washed through his head, and for a moment he felt like telling Josh he couldn't see them, after all, they were the entire reason he'd put the entire world at risk. He ran up the stairs, and pulled the brown envelope out of the slim box at the top of his closet. He walked back downstairs, and handed it to Josh, he felt tired and sat down next to him at the kitchen table. Josh pulled out the photos, and saw rocky terrains, presumably Iraq, or somewhere in the Middle East that showed nuclear weapons. It didn't tell you they were pointed at America, or even which compass direction they were pointing in. The next picture was of a port looking facility, taken from above, a satellite photo, and it said along the bottom -- `Pyongyang' Josh thought that was in North Korea... then he turned to the final picture. It showed a sparsely wooded area, and what looked like an abandoned airstrip.
"Where's this one?" Josh asked, as it had no writing on it.
"Oh, they said... I think, Mozambique or somewhere like that... somewhere in Africa -- apparently, someone like Saddam paid their government to let the Iraqis use their airfields." Josh nodded, then looked back at the photo. It didn't look like Africa. In fact, something felt wrong about it.
"I guess I'd better get going." Josh said quietly. They'd been talking in Mark's sitting room for about three hours now. Mark looked up, and saw Josh pulling on his coat.
"You could, you know, stay if you wanted to?" Mark said cautiously. Mark stood up and followed Josh towards the front door.
"I think we'd better save that for another night." Josh said to Mark as he reached the door. Mark hung back, about five feet behind Josh. Josh smiled slightly at the scared expression on Mark's face. He held out his hand, and Mark, looking shocked, reached out and took it. Josh pulled Mark towards him and kissed him. "Doesn't mean I can't look forward to it though." He rested his head against Mark's. "I'm glad you're home." He said before kissing Mark again. He turned and opened the door. Barely looking back, he climbed in his car and reversed out the driveway. Only when he was about to speed off did he look back towards the door and wave at Mark who was standing there with a slightly goofy grin on his face.
Josh climbed into bed and quickly fell asleep that night. His dreams came hard and fast.
He was lying in his back, looking up at the sky as the clouds flew past. The grass was soft underneath him and the sun was just right -- not too bright, but not overcast either. Suddenly above his head there was a face; it was his first girlfriend, when he was 16 -- her name was Vicky, and he really had thought that he was in love with her. "Come on, let's go through the woods." Vicky said with a big grin on her face. Josh knew what was coming -- the woods were, well, a place to go for teenagers interested in getting some heavy petting in, in Bowie. He stood up and she grabbed his hand as they ran into the woods and made their way through the undergrowth and pine trees to the far side, where they knew there was a private airfield and a couple of old shacks, but the whole place was abandoned, had been since the Second World War. They got to about ten yards from the clearing and stopped -- Josh sat with his back to the clearing, resting up against a tree. Vicky sat astride his lap and they started making out, their tongues down each others throats. Josh's hands crept around her hips and up to her waist, then a little higher, taking in the curve of her hips to her waist, then her ribs swelling out slightly, and then her breasts, oh those perky teenage breasts that made him hard at night! Suddenly there was a crash and what sounded like a pneumatic drill starting up. There were a lot of shouts really suddenly, and Josh wondered how the people who were making so much noise got so close without him hearing them. Vicky jumped from Josh's lap and quickly stood and rearranged herself.
"Where's that noise coming from?" Josh whispered to Vicky.
"I don't know. It sounds like it's coming from those shacks in the clearing -- but there shouldn't be anyone in there should there?"
"I don't think so, I never knew they belonged to anyone -- I wonder who it is? Shall we go and have a look?" He said with a smirk. She smiled back and holding hands again, they made their way to the clearing. Looking from behind a mulberry bush which provided plenty of cover, they watched as some men seemed to be constructing a chain-link fence. They were all big men, with close cropped hair and they appeared to be working very quickly. The two of them watched for maybe three-quarters of an hour and in that time, the fence was up most of the way around the airfield.
"Look!" Vicky said hoarsely -- they'd been whispering the whole time, and her throat was sore. Josh looked where she pointed and there was another guy with a load of signs which he was attaching to the fence with what looked like a giant stapler. `Property of U.S. government -- keep out' -- short and to the point.
"Hey! You kids! What do you think you're doing?" One of the burly construction workers had come up on the other side of the bush while the two were looking in the opposite direction. In an instant, the two of them were to their heels, making their way through the undergrowth, scratching themselves in the brambles and bushes and low hanging branches.
Josh woke up, slightly out of breath, but fell back onto the pillow and was asleep a few seconds later.
The next morning, Josh woke up and trudged down the stairs yawning. He went out and picked up the newspaper off his front porch before heading back inside. Josh made himself a breakfast of a large cup of coffee and went to sit on the terrace outside his kitchen. He opened the newspaper to the first page:
"Palmer Airbase, Fort Lauderdale, to close next Tuesday -- job losses expected." Josh almost spat out his coffee. The dream from the night before came back to him, the shacks, the position of the airfield, even the trees around it. He stood up, almost spilling his coffee and ran inside to the kitchen. Picking up the phone, he dialled Mark's number.
"Mark? We need to talk about one of those photos..."
End of Chapter 6 TBC...
Hey all, sorry it's taken me...six months to write this instalment, but basically, with On The Streets slowing down to a halt as well, what can I say, I've actually gone off boy band members. I don't even find Justin attractive, and I know everyone says he is... am I a freak or something? I will try to finish the next instalment of OTS for those who are interested, and I'm gonna try and round this story off, as it was only supposed to be about 8 chapters long from the start, anyway, hope to hear from some of you soon...James