CHAPTER 6

February 13th, 2008

I see Jay and my father back at the park I had seen them at a year prior. This place seems to be their meet-up of sorts. I wonder why I'm seeing events I never saw first-hand. Maybe it relates to how Micah said that this was a gift?

"Jay, I can't do it anymore," my father calls out, focusing me in on them.

"I know, I know. We need to do something."

"He's changed, Jay. There isn't any defending his actions anymore."

"Yes, I know. I only did because of how you treated Jack, you know?"

"I was an asshole and wrong and all of that stuff, I get that, but that doesn't excuse the danger we're in now, the danger our families are in."

Jay nods his head and looks up, "His abilities are growing, changing him more every day."

"Not for the better, it seems. He's so much more angry now, and those outbursts of his can really hurt someone."

"He looks a bit tired too," Jay says.

"Are you worried for his sleep patterns, Jay? At a time like this?"

"No, not in that sense. I meant his body. It just seems tired from holding it all in, you know? He looks like he's had years added onto him."

"Yeah, I see that."

"In just ten months he's enhanced his telekinetic ability. That kind of power on a human body takes a toll, you know?"

"Yeah," my father says.

"There's...something else I need to tell you," Jay begins.

"What is it?"

"I've been meaning to say it for a while now, but the time hasn't really been kind to us. I've been seeing...things lately in my dreams."

"We all see things in our dreams, Jay."

"I think these are more than dreams is what I'm getting at. They're becoming more frequent and more detailed every night."

"Well, okay, what do you see?"

"Terrible things, Greg. I hear screaming and I see bloodshed. One of the big ones is that I see you and Lorraine being..."

"Being...?"

"Being brutally murdered by Jack. I don't see the context but I see her body burning and I see you with bullets in your head."

"Oh. Well Jay, like I said, it's just a dream," my father says.

Jay shakes his head, "I'm not sure that they are. Greg, we've both seen Jack do the impossible when he got that Radical-9 in his system. What if...he wasn't the only one?"

"You're implying that maybe the initial explosion wasn't enough to spread to just Jack?"

"I think it's more than an implication. I mean, we opened that door to get him out of there, we were so worried about getting everybody out of there we didn't really stop and think about what was actually spreading."

"The doctors didn't know what it was," my father says.

"Right, which makes sense because half of the stuff in it isn't even from this planet. But I managed to get a blood sample from Jack the other day."

"What?"

"I asked, no need to worry, told him I was going to study it to see how much stronger he was getting, he seemed to like that idea. But anyway, I compared that to what I remember what his sample looked like when this all went down."

"And?"

"I have reason to believe that this Radical-9 is radioactive," Jay says.

"If that's correct then that is bad," my father says.

"Very. But it's weird."

"Weird how?"

"So, in it's purest form, the liquid that exploded all over Jack and gave him those burns are fully and wholly radioactive. The mixture caused it to also turn into a gas which spread out through the building, also radioactive."

"Yeah, I know how this stuff works, Jay."

"That's not the part that's weird, what's weird is that when it entered Jack's body it sort of attached itself to his innards like a parasite."

"But parasites need to have some form of life, do they not?"

"Yeah, that's why I said some form of. It seems that this stuff is more mysterious than we thought. It's completely bonded to his DNA."

"So, if this stuff possibly got into the air after we opened the door..."

"It could have spread to everyone in that building. Thankfully I don't think it had enough time to get outside before the lock-down."

"And that means Gavin too, fuck," my father runs his hands through his hair and takes in a deep breath.

"Yes, unfortunately I do believe that the children are in a similar situation."

"Okay, but then why would Jack be the only one to exhibit these...powers? His telekinesis?" my father asks.

"Well, it's possible he had the greatest amount of contamination considering that he was right there, and I think it might be more than telekinesis, I think that he might have a healing factor. He recovered from his burns to the point where it doesn't even look like he had them faster than anyone ever expected."

"I guess that makes sense. I don't like the sound of it, but it makes sense."

"I do think you should leave, take Gavin and get him away while you can."

"And what about you and Karen?"

"I can't move her long term. She's in the middle of her chemotherapy and I don't know if we'll be able to afford that if I don't stay."

"Yeah, but what if something happens to you here?"

"I'll get through it, plus, I'm going try and convince Mason and Dave to leave also."

"Good luck with Dave. He's so far up Jack's ass I don't even think he's his own person anymore."

"I'm going to try. Elena and Andy deserve to be away from all of this. And if Dave doesn't want to leave then I'm going to go straight to her. If you wait a day I can have Mason accompany you guys. I was going to ask him to come here, but he's actually busy with Jack at the moment. I think they're working on building some sort of pod-like machine."

"Yeah, I can wait up for him. I'm going to swing by the apartment before I head into work. I have some things I need to take care of anyhow," my father says.

Jay nods his head. "Okay, I'm going to head in now, see you when you get in?"

"Yeah, stay safe, man."

"You too."

The vision changes, Jay dissipates into the void and the park around them melts into the apartment I lived in as a kid. My father is up and making his way through the small living room. He goes past the small CRT TV in the corner of the room putting on the jacket of his suit and straightening his tie.

I see as he walks past my old room and opens the door slightly, as if not to wake me inside. I see the younger me cuddled up underneath my sheets inside, this is me ten years ago, talk about surreal. I see a smile on my father's face as he closes the door quietly and grabs his cell phone off of the arm of the loveseat. He drops it into his pocket and takes a deep breath before walking to the other side of the room, opening the front door and stepping out.

I follow him as he makes his way out into the hallway and down the stairs. We used to live on the second floor of the apartment, so I had the basic course out of the building memorized.

My father walks out of the front door and begins walking towards the parking garage.

"Fancy place, huh Greg?" A voice calls out from behind.

My father turns and sees Jack leaning up against the wall of the building. He's got his suit all nice and pinned up, along with it he wears this weird sort of scowl. "Ah, Jack. I wasn't expecting to see you here. I don't believe I've ever told you where I lived?"

"You didn't, but you didn't need to."

My father stops fully and turns around to face him, "I don't understand Jack."

Jack laughs and walks up close to him, uncomfortably close. He puts his hands on my father's shoulders and gives him a look I can't quite describe with words. It looks like a laughing hyena crossed with a bear.

"I didn't expect you too, good friend. I couldn't expect that of you with how closed off your mind is."

My father backs off, letting Jack's arms fall to his side, "What the hell do you mean closed?"

"You are simple, Greg. In some cases that isn't bad, but in the work we're doing it isn't enough. We don't need simple, we don't need you. Don't bother coming into work today."

"Are you threatening me?"

"In some aspects, yes, I am. You see, I've been seeing things lately. Glimpses and snapshots of things not yet. It was all very confusing at first, you see, but to someone who's gone above simple I was able to figure it out."

"And what the hell did you figure out?" My father asks.

He has the same temper as I do, I can see that clearly within him. I almost miss him.

Jack grins, "My problem. At least, one of them. And that is you, Greg. You are one of my problems."

"You made me your problem by coming here, Jack," my father says.

Jack shakes his head, "No, no I did not, Greg. I came here because you are a problem. The good president didn't send me into that test chamber a year ago, Greg. That was you. You sent me in there and didn't care if I'd lived or died."

My father's anger lessens slightly, I can see the guilt in his eyes, "You're correct. I was-"

"Save it. I didn't come here to see you cry...at least, not in that way. No, I have to thank you! Because in some fucked up manner that is the moment that decided the rest of my life! And you're no longer going to be a part of it."

"What does that mean, Jack?"

"It means I am going to be generous. You know of my abilities, and you are going to leave this town, this city, even this state, now."

"You're insane," my father says.

"Almost dying does that to you."

"I'm not going."

"Well, I would have guessed you would have stood your ground. Listen, I understand your bravado. You're the head of a very prolific yet at the time secret band of scientists. I get the machismo, but honestly it's only going to get your kid killed."

"You're not touching Gavin."

"That's the best part. I don't need to. I can feel my grip around his throat right now, one tense of the mental muscle and your boy's neck is as good as snapped."

My father puts down his arms, he looks at Jack with less fight and more contempt.

"Now, you are going to leave right now, no packing, no saying good-bye, now. You are going to reach into your pocket and take out your cell phone and smash it."

"If I'm going I'm taking Gavin with me," my father says.

"Those aren't the terms of this negotiation, Greg. I would have thought you would have cared the littlest about his life, or is it the same as how you saw Megan?"

My father moves to argue, but even I can tell it isn't going to do any good.

"If you want your son to live, you will smash your cell phone and leave, now."

My father's face beads with sweat, "What should I do about money for the trip?"

Jack smiles a vicious smile, "You've got a nice suit on, improvise."

My father swallows hard as he reaches into his pocket, his hand shakes terribly.

"That's it, now smash it."

He does. He throws it against the ground, the flip phone bounces off of the concrete and flips into the air, spinning twice before it lands again. He goes down to reach for it to throw it again, but it lifts off the ground before he can get it.

Jack lifts it high into the air and flings it to the sky. I look up to see where it goes, but I lose it in the clouds of the cold morning.

"Now go." My father silently walks backward. I can see him eye the side of the apartment where my bedroom is. The vision begins to fade to black. I feel a heavy sort of weight in my heart as I process all of what just happened.

My father loved me. He didn't want to leave. Jack made him, My father made Jack. There are so many conflicting emotions of hate and love in my heart. The web of my life goes back to before I was even remotely aware of anything.

Everything is black.