Nifty readers:
Chapter 93 has become so big it is spilt into two parts. Part 1 is here and part two is available on my website along with Chapter 94, which is also huge enough to be in two parts. This wasn't done to torture nifty readers, it was done because so much work has gone into the chapters in the past few months that it has grown into a huge job as you can see by the size of part one. Please come visit us and join the forum if you like what you see. I have had over 25 new people come along and the place is booming over the past week. Sorry for the delay in posting here but I do hope you enjoy this part and I will do my best to follow up with Part 2 of Chapter 93 soon.
My website is at http://dwedno.altervista.org
E mail address is at the bottom of this chapter.
Thanks, Dwedno.
Chapter 93 "AL"
Tommy shifted in his sleep as he was jolted awake from a sharp pain in his back. He wearily opened his eyes to see that his alarm clock said it was only 9 AM. His body felt bruised and abused from when Hunter had thrown him across the room last night. He was still very sleepy as he felt like he hadn't gotten a good night's sleep in days, probably because he hadn't. Hunter's nightmares had been keeping him up most nights and the last one was the worst so far. He was about to try to go back to sleep when he noticed Hunter wasn't next to him anymore. Shawn was sleeping peacefully along side him and he didn't want to disturb him as both of them had a very long, hard night with Hunter. Tommy sat up slowly and saw Hunter was sitting at the foot of the bed, just holding his lion and rocking back and forth. Tommy slowly got out of bed so as not to disturb Shawn, and went to sit down next to Hunter. Tommy put his arm around Hunter's shoulders and gave him a hug then bent over to give him a kiss on his head.
"You okay Hunter, how long have you been sitting there?" asked Tommy quietly.
"Yes Sir, 2 hours and 42 minutes," sniffled Hunter back. "I'm sorry if my rocking woke you Sir."
"Don't worry about that, it didn't wake me. Shawn and I were really worried about you last night, you sure you are okay now?" whispered Tommy.
"I'm sorry Sir, I don't know," whimpered Hunter.
"That's alright Hunter, you will be eventually. It just takes time," said Tommy softly, as he reached over to give him another hug.
"I'm really sorry about last night Sir. I couldn't help it," Hunter said with a haunted look on his face.
"I know you didn't mean to throw me across the room and you can't control your nightmares," Tommy said.
"I threw you across the room!" exclaimed Hunter horrifyingly, as his whole body froze up in fear.
"Calm down Hunter, you aren't in trouble, I'm not mad at you, no one is going to hurt you," Tommy said quickly pulling Hunter into his lap. After a minute, Hunter had calmed down again.
"Thank you Sir, your holding me helps a lot, even more than holding Lion. It's strange, I didn't think it would help to hold Lion but the Shawn-sir was right. He told me yesterday that sometimes his stuffed animals help him not have as many nightmares. Even when he does have them, he said holding one helps him usually. It's when they don't, that's when he goes to you and just being by you makes him feel safe. Your holding me makes me feel safe. It's so much easier to ignore all the memories of voices screaming in my head bad things and just feel safe when I'm with you," Hunter said tiredly with a yawn.
"I'm glad it makes you feel good Hunter. Maybe you should lie down with Shawn and try to get some more sleep?" asked Tommy.
"Please Sir, don't make me go back to sleep. I don't want to sleep anymore the dreams are really bad," Hunter said in fear, trembling in Tommy's lap.
"It's okay Angel, I'm right here," said Tommy soothingly. "You don't have to go to sleep if you don't want to. We better get dressed and stuff before we wake up Shawn and don't forget to try to cut down on the sirs."
"Yes S..." said Hunter climbing off Tommy's lap making Tommy smile.
Tommy went to his bathroom and did his morning thing. When he came back to the bedroom, he saw an extremely naked Hunter folding his pajamas neatly and placing them on the dresser. Tommy went over to the dresser, pulled out some of his clothes, then bent over to get some for Hunter when he immediately straightened up saying "Ouch."
"Are you hurt Sir," asked Hunter.
"It's just a sore muscle from last night, nothing to worry about."
"I'm sorry about that," Hunter said as he went over to Tommy and gave him a hug.
Hunter suddenly took a sharp breath as Tommy felt a strange warmth suffuse his entire body. Tommy felt as if he was suddenly surrounded by a bright white light that eased every sore muscle and ache away. Tommy had never felt so peaceful and strangely loved as he did at that moment.
"You just healed me didn't you," said Tommy looking down into Hunter's beautiful green eyes.
"Yes Sir," said Hunter breathing hard as he slumped against Tommy who held him up.
"Hunter, there was no need for you to do that. It was only some bruises and sore muscles. I know how much it hurts you to do that, so why did you?"
"I did it because I caused it. You were kind enough not to punish me for hurting you to begin with. I didn't think it would be right to hurt you and not heal you. It won't add much more pain than I already felt from before, after the initial spike of pain goes away," said Hunter holding onto Tommy to keep himself from falling.
"You still hurt from before?"
"Yes Sir, but not nearly as much anymore. It was about half gone," replied Hunter finally standing on his own.
"Thank you for doing that but didn't I already tell you not to heal anyone without my permission?"
"Yes Sir, you did. I'm ready for whatever punishment you think is appropriate," Hunter said softly.
Tommy turned Hunter around so his back was facing him and very gently tapped Hunter's perfect left butt cheek and said, "There, you have been appropriately punished. Don't do it again please, I don't want to see you in anymore pain." Tommy then spun Hunter back around and picked him up to gave him a hug and kiss. "I didn't give you that order so that I could control when you healed someone. I gave it so you wouldn't give yourself any more pain. Do you understand?"
"I think I do now," Hunter replied as he hugged Tommy and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Good," said Tommy smiling as he put Hunter down. "Now let's get dressed."
Tommy got some clothes out for Hunter and helped him a little, as Hunter seemed to be finally getting the hang of dressing himself. Then he went over to check on Shawn who was still asleep. Tommy tucked the covers in on his Cutie and the two of them quietly left the room.
In the kitchen, Tommy got out a couple bowls of cereal for Hunter and himself. Hunter immediately started to wolf down the dry cereal before Tommy had a chance to add some milk to it.
"Relax Hunter, no one is going to take your food," Tommy said.
"Sorry Sir," said Hunter who then started slowly to eat his cereal.
Tommy then started a fresh pot of coffee for himself and sat down with a glass of milk for his Angel. Hunter had gone through four bowls of cereal and three large glasses of milk by the time Tommy had finished his first bowl and his cup of coffee. A few times Tommy had to tell Hunter no one was going to take his food but otherwise Hunter did very well with hardly any mess at all. A few of the boys wandered in and out of the kitchen area looking for something to drink or eat while Tommy and Hunter ate. Tommy acknowledged them with a wave or a few kind words but none paused to stay for longer than a reply.
"A little hungry there, were you?" asked Tommy kindly.
"Yes S..., I'm sorry if I ate too much," Hunter said a little worriedly.
"Don't worry about that, you didn't do anything
wrong," said Tommy as he put away their breakfast stuff. "I need to have a talk
with
"Yes..., I'll go do that."
With that, Hunter left the kitchen to go wander around
the house and Tommy went in search of
"Hi
"Hey Tommy, just thought since Cody and the rest of
the boys would probably get here today, I'd set up some beds for them,"
"You look to be two short there
"Nope, Denny and Danny are going to be in our room. Kate wants them close by to keep an eye on them. Plus having them walk up and down the stairs might be a bit too much for them."
"Good idea," Tommy said. "Well, if you still want to know about Hunter after last night I'm here to tell you."
"Thanks Tommy, I still want to know. You know, when I
got back to Kate last night, I had Austin and Jose in my bed to greet me,"
laughed
"Sorry about that," laughed Tommy. "It's good to hear that someone else has some of the kids run to them when they are scared instead of them always coming to me."
"Well, I can't say I really blame them. Hearing Hunter
last night made the hair on the back of my neck stand up," said
"Yeah it was pretty bad."
"So, what's the deal with him?" asked
"Well as you can probably guess he has had a difficult life to give him such bad nightmares."
"Yeah, I figured that much out myself."
"What you have to understand is that he's been abused for practically his entire life. He was abused mentally, physically, and sexually. That's why there hasn't been a night so far that he didn't have a nightmare. Last night was the worst one. I think it happened because I talked to him about some of the things he lived through."
"How bad was the abuse,"
"I only know some of it, but imagine the worst possible abuse people are capable of doing and you might be close to what actually happened to him. Some of the things that happened to him I couldn't even imagine anyone doing them before talking to him. He has some very good reasons why he is so afraid but we don't need to get into that."
"I think I understand now. I have been able to get a
couple of the boys to open up to me and their lives didn't
sound very easy, even before the comet. After the comet, some of them were also abused in ways I never would have imagined
possible. So, I think I understand a little," said
"I know
"I don't know what we could do to help you either. He seems to trust you completely and follows you around like a little puppy. If you do think of something just say and we will do it."
"Thanks
"Okay, but why?"
"I just might be able to do something about the power and want to try it out before you do that."
"That would be great but what are you going to try?"
"I'd rather not tell you right now. At least until I know if it's gonna work."
"Come on, you can't just say that and not expect me to
be curious,"
Just then, Shawn burst into the basement shouting, "Tommy!"
"We are over here Shawn, what's wrong?" asked Tommy as
he and
"Come quick, it's..."
Meanwhile back in Kate's room earlier that day.
After getting herself ready for the day and making
some breakfast for Bryan, Joel, Ben, Luke, and a few of the other boys who were
up then, she headed back to her room. There were two lumps in her bed and she
decided it was time for them to get up. She pulled the covers off
Kate got up from next to
"Umm, Kate that's okay, I can go upstairs and take a shower there," said an embarrassed Jose.
"Jose, like I told you last night, the reason
"Okay then I'll shower up after
"Jose, there are over twenty people living in this
house right now, so we can't waste the hot water. I'm
going to bathe
The boys just looked at each other but then
"
"Okay Kate, I'll go look," said
"Hurry up Jose," Kate said.
"But..." Jose said.
"But you are embarrassed to get naked in front of me and Austin, right?" asked Kate gently sitting down on the bed pulling him over by her.
"Yeah," Jose said quietly.
"You know I have seen you naked a number of times already at the Mall."
"Yeah, I know you took care of me when I was real sick. You had to put me in those diapers and cleaned me up because I couldn't move."
"That's right, to be honest, we thought we were going
to lose you. I'm just so thankful that we didn't and you pulled through," said
Kate giving Jose a little hug. "So, there is no reason to be embarrassed about
this in front of me.
"I guess," Jose said.
"Good, now get out of those clothes and hop in the bath please."
"Okay, Kate," Jose said.
"
Kate and Austin then went into the bathroom and Kate
picked him up and gently set him in the water. Then she opened the box she
brought in and let
"It's about time, I was just about to send the Joe's
out to find you," said Kate making
"I can wash myself Kate," Jose said quickly.
"I know you can honey, I just wanted to help you get your back, that's all," replied Kate.
After washing his back, she just sat back and let him wash the rest of himself on his own. When he thought he was done, Kate pointed out that he hadn't washed his butt or penis yet and to do a good job with it or she could help him out if he wanted. He embarrassingly declined her offer and washed those areas as she watched. Once he was done, she helped him out of the tub and gave him a towel to dry himself off with. Then when he was done, she wrapped him up tightly with another towel, hugged him close, and gave him a kiss on the forehead.
"See it wasn't that bad, was it?" asked Kate.
"No, it was kinda nice," said Jose feeling good being held by Kate wrapped in his towel.
"Well, next time you have a bath we'll see about having it with just you and me. That way I can give all the attention to you," said Kate smiling as she hugged him again.
"That sounds nice," said Jose truly feeling loved for the first time in a long time.
Kate and Jose walked out of the bathroom to see a very
naked
"Alright monkey-boy, it's time for you to get dressed
now," Kate said to
Earlier in the poolroom...
Hunter was standing in the poolroom looking out the big glass doors at all the snow outside and the new snow that was coming down, enjoying the serenity of it. He was holding Lion, as he had gone back upstairs to get Lion after Tommy left him. He hoped it would make him feel safe like Tommy did but it didn't help him much. Terrible memories just kept intruding on his thoughts making him feel worse and worse. He heard Mike come in the poolroom behind him so he decided to leave, as he wasn't comfortable around Mike without Tommy.
He turned around and started to walk to get out of the room when Mike said, "You got some nerve showing your face around here after all that racket you made last night." Hunter just kept walking ignoring him until he said, "Hey, I'm talking to you, you little wimp!"
"I'm sorry sir," Hunter said after snapping to attention facing Mike.
"Yeah you are sorry, a sorry excuse for a human being if you ask me. Screaming like that for hours just because of a little nightmare. Get over it!" Mike said harshly poking Hunter in the chest. "We all have them sometime. You don't hear us carrying on like you did last night. Well do you?" he said again violently poking Hunter in the chest.
"No sir," said Hunter quietly immovable as a mountain, while tears started to form in his eyes.
"What are you crying? Are you a little baby? My God, what a total pussy you are! What is wrong with you kid!" said Mike angrily taking hold of Hunter's chin and trying to lift it to make the little boy look him in the eye but Hunter's head didn't move at all.
"Sorry sir," said Hunter as he clutched Lion tightly to his chest biting his lower lip.
"Look at you. You are a pathetic little baby, holding your stuffed animal, acting like a little five-year-old kindergartener. You probably need diapers don't you. You disgust me you fucking loser," Mike said letting go of Hunter's face.
"Yes sir," Hunter replied starting to tremble a bit as tears started to fall down his cheeks.
"Oh here comes the waterworks. What are you gonna do cry like you did last night? What fucking rock did that Tommy actually find you hiding under? You better get a move on and get the hell out of my sight! Why don't you go find someone to go change your diaper? You freaking crybaby, you are just a fucking pathetic piece of shit! Wa wa!" said Mike viciously, bringing his hands up to his eyes making little crying motions.
"Hey!" shouted Shawn. His shout echoing off the poolroom walls. "You stop that right now and leave him alone!" Shawn shouted as he ran over to defend his friend. "Don't you ever say those things to him! If I ever hear you say anything mean to him again, I'll hurt you! You have no idea what he has gone through so you had just better shut your stupid mouth up, you asshole! Why don't you go crawl back under your rock, you loser!" such was the ferocity of Shawn's verbal attack that he had backed Mike to the other side of the room, far away from Hunter who was frozen in place just trembling in fear.
"What are you, his defender? Look at him standing over there trembling in fear, he's just a little fucking crybaby," Mike shouted back at Shawn pointing at Hunter.
"You better shut up, you big fucker or I swear!" yelled Shawn.
"What are you gonna do to me, you little pipsqueak!" laughed Mike poking Shawn.
"I'm warning you asshole!" yelled Shawn stumbling back from the pokes Mike was giving him. A low growl could be heard in the background, as Hunter was no longer trembling in fear and Lion was discarded by his feet.
"What is he to you? Is he your butt-buddy? You are just a little baby like him," taunted Mike. "You and him do it in the butt a lot, don't you?" The look that crossed Shawn's face told Mike that he had clearly struck close to home. Mike thought the idea of Shawn and Hunter together was hot and he actually started to get some wood. He wasn't about to show it though, as it would give too much of his own feelings away.
"He's my friend and you better leave him alone you fucking asshole!" shouted Shawn poking him back as others could be heard entering the poolroom to see what all the yelling was about.
Kyle entered the room then and saw the confrontation between Mike and Shawn, which everyone else was watching in stunned silence. He glanced over at Hunter standing all alone on the other side of the room and was suddenly afraid. The look Kyle saw on Hunter's face bespoke of a certain and very painful death to Mike, who Hunter was staring at with murderous intent. Mike clearly had no clue of the danger he was in or the amount of havoc Hunter could let loose, gone was the terrified little boy and in his place was a cold-blooded killer. Hunter looked like he was barely able to restrain himself from attacking Mike and only waiting for the right moment to attack and kill.
"Get out of my face you little loser, and stop poking me too, you little punk!" said Mike through clenched teeth.
"What are you going to do about it!" shouted Shawn poking Mike again as Kyle started to run up to them.
Mike's arm went back to punch Shawn in the face but when he threw the punch, Shawn wasn't there. Mike was confused, as he knew Shawn couldn't dodge him that easily, when he noticed he was flying. It didn't fully register what happened until after he hit the water. Kyle had barely been able to take two steps towards them when he saw a blur from where Hunter had been move quickly over to Mike. Then he and the others saw Mike fly through the air and land in the pool. Kyle realized that Hunter was why Mike was flying. All the boys were in awe when they saw Hunter grab Mike's arm and opposite leg then effortlessly toss him into the far end of the pool, easily a distance of over 20 feet.
Hunter was just livid as he shouted at Mike when he surfaced moments later, "If you ever try to hurt my friend again I will rip your arm off and beat you to death with it!"
"Hunter," shouted Kyle as he ran over to the boy. It was as if a switch had been flipped and the cold-blooded killer was gone and the terrified boy was back. Hunter's face suddenly turned white and contorted into a mask of terror as the realization of exactly what he did struck him. He fell to his knees and gave a cry filled with such pain and fear that it made the hair on the arms, legs, and neck stand on end of every boy who was there. Kyle went over to him and just held him gently saying, "It's okay Hunter, calm down," but Hunter was beyond Kyle's ability to help. "Shawn," said Kyle. "Shawn!" Kyle shouted finally getting through to the stunned boy. "Go get Tommy."
"What?" Shawn asked dumbly.
"No, no, please no blood eagle. I'm sorry I didn't mean it," cried Hunter. "Don't hurt me! I'm sorry! No pressing please, forgive me, don't press me, I'll be a good boy," sobbed Hunter in-between incoherent babblings and cries.
"Go get Tommy, NOW! Run Shawn, MOVE IT!" Kyle snapped as he continued to try to console Hunter.
Shawn ran out of the room shouting for Tommy when he
remembered Ben had told him earlier that he was in the basement talking to
"We are over here Shawn, what's wrong?" asked Tommy as
he and
"Come quick, it's Hunter. He's lost it, hurry!" said Shawn in a panic.
Tommy and Bryan quickly followed Shawn back to the poolroom. They heard Hunter long before they actually saw him as it seemed like everyone was standing at the entrance to the poolroom.
"Get out of the way, move it!" shouted
Tommy finally saw Hunter curled up into a ball on the floor, hitting himself over and over, as Kyle did his best to comfort him. Tommy ran over to the little boy, reached down, and picked him up into his arms saying, "It's okay Angel, I'm here, no one is going to hurt you, calm down now, I'm here, you're safe now." Hunter grabbed onto Tommy and just cried his heart out. Hunter just kept crying something that sounded like `no eagle' over and over again but with all his crying, it was hard to tell. "Relax Angel, I'm right here," said Tommy gently rubbing the little boys back calming Hunter down some so that while still crying it was relatively quiet.
"Alright, what happened?" said
"He did it," said Shawn angrily pointing at Mike who was still in the pool. If looks could kill, Mike would have been dead many times over from the looks of Tommy, Kyle, Shawn, Bryan, and a few of the others in the poolroom.
"What did he do?" asked
"When I came in here he was saying mean and hateful things to Hunter about his nightmares last night. I started to defend Hunter and tell him to keep his big mouth shut when he started to poke me. Then I poked him back and he tried to punch me but Hunter stopped him and threw him in the pool."
Tommy was beside himself with rage after hearing what Mike did to his Angel. Then, what he was going to do to his Cutie almost made Tommy lose it himself and attack Mike. If it weren't for his pressing need to comfort his little Angel, he would have pounded Mike's face in. Easily sensing his brother's anger, Kyle went to stand behind him and put his hands on Tommy's shoulders doing his best to try to calm his big brother down.
"Is this true Mike?" asked
"Yes sir," Mike said hanging his head in shame.
"Is there anything you want to add before I decide what to do with you?"
"No sir," said Mike quietly.
"Then since you are one of my boys, here is my decision. You can choose between one of four punishments. First, accept from a half dozen to a full dozen strokes from my belt within two days. Second, be grounded for a week doing as many chores as Kate, Tommy, or I decide and receive a single stroke a day for that week. Third, you can sincerely apologize to Shawn and Hunter, grounded doing chores for two days and receive two strokes for those two days. Fourth, you can leave. So what's it going to be?"
"Well, I don't want to get hit with a belt again so I guess I'll leave," said a very sad, wet Mike.
"Just so you fully understand what leaving entails, it
doesn't mean you can just move into one of the spare houses up here. It means
you pack your stuff, head out of town, and don't ever come back,"
"Oh," said Mike despondently with a sudden look of shock on his face, as he realized he would truly be alone if that happened.
"So is that your decision, you want to leave?" asked
"No," replied Mike, "I'll take option three then and apologize."
"Okay then you can apologize to Shawn first in front
of everyone right now, and Hunter after he calms down," said
Mike looked up at Shawn and said, "I'm really sorry Shawn."
"You call that an apology," Tommy said sarcastically.
"I said a sincere apology, that won't cut it,"
said
"I'm sorry for saying those things about Hunter, Shawn. I was just being a total ass for poking you like I did. It was very wrong of me to try to punch you and I'm really very sorry for being such a jackass. I didn't mean any of it and hope you can accept my apology as I really do mean it and promise to try not to be like that again. I'm sorry," sniffed Mike looking up at Shawn.
Shawn just stared down at Mike until Hunter said something. When Shawn looked to Hunter, Tommy said, "He said Shawn, you are supposed to say `thank you' when someone apologizes to you."
That just seemed to drain the anger out of Shawn so he said, "Thanks Mike."
"Tommy would you or Shawn like
to give Mike his strokes?" asked
"No
"Okay Mike time to get out of the pool. Go grab a
towel and dry off some then go change into some dry clothes. Once that is done
go to the basement and I'll meet you there shortly,"
With that, Mike got out of the pool and left.
After
"You know it," said Joey.
"Hey, enough of that," said Tommy as he got up carrying Hunter. "I don't want to hear anyone making fun of Mike because of this. He is already getting punished enough. You guys don't have to make it worse. Everybody understand?" said Tommy walking towards all the boys who had gathered in the poolroom, which was easily half the house. After seeing a number of nodding heads he said, "Good, make sure everyone knows then. Now make a path, I'm taking Hunter upstairs to try to calm him down some more." With that, Tommy left carrying a still trembling and silently sobbing Hunter in his arms with Kyle and Shawn carrying Lion trailing behind him.
Tommy sat down on his couch with Hunter still trembling in his lap but at least he had stopped crying. Kyle and Shawn sat down with him to try to do what they could to comfort Hunter. "Hush now Angel, no one is going to hurt you. You are safe with me," Tommy said soothingly.
"But I was a bad boy Sir," sobbed Hunter.
"It's okay Angel, you aren't in trouble," Tommy gently said rocking Hunter in his lap.
"But I attacked the Mike-sir, I'm not allowed to attack people without direct orders unless they endanger my master," cried Hunter.
"That's alright Angel, you didn't really hurt him," Tommy said calmly, gently rubbing Hunter's back.
"Yeah and he deserved it," said Shawn vindictively, causing Hunter to tremble more.
"Shawn, that's not helping," said Tommy holding Hunter tightly.
"I'm sorry," said Shawn giving a little hug to Hunter and giving him Lion.
"Now you have to punish me because I was bad boy. I'm sorry Sir," sobbed Hunter taking Lion and holding it close to his chest.
"No one is going to punish you Hunter," said Kyle joining the little group hug.
"That's what others have said too, but then they do it anyway sir," cried Hunter.
"Hush Angel, no one is going to hurt you," Tommy said trying to get Hunter to believe him.
"I attacked one of you, now you are going to press me or perform the blood eagle to me. Please Sir, I'm sorry I won't ever do it again," whimpered Hunter.
"What do you mean `press you'," asked Shawn.
"It's just like it sounds sir, you are going to put me into the machine that will push on me until my ribs crack and you think I have learned my lesson," bawled Hunter.
"Oh Angel, no one is going to do that to you ever again as long as you are with me," Tommy said comfortingly.
"Then what's a blood eagle?" asked Kyle in morbid curiosity.
"It is a punishment we would get if we ever attacked one of the workers where I used to be, Kyle-sir. They would use a power saw to cut our ribs by the spine and then pull them out breaking them so that they looked like bloody wings. They would then pull out our lungs and throw salt on us. Now you are going to do that to me because I attacked the Mike-sir," cried Hunter.
"Enough you two, that isn't helping so stop it," Tommy said harshly to Kyle and Shawn. "Angel, nothing like that will ever happen to you here."
"But Sir, I attacked him," sobbed Hunter.
"But you didn't hurt him. All you did was throw him into the pool. I know you could have hurt him really bad if you actually wanted to, but you didn't. You stopped him from hurting Shawn without really hurting him. All you did to him was get him wet. So you aren't in trouble, you didn't hurt him, no one is going to punish you, you didn't do anything wrong," Tommy said looking into Hunter's beautiful emerald green eyes.
"Really Sir?" asked Hunter hopefully.
"Yes Hunter, I really mean it. You aren't in trouble, so no one is going to punish you," said Tommy gently looking into Hunter's eyes seeing the spark of hope within them.
"Thank you Sir, thank you, thank you, thank you," sobbed Hunter. Hunter started crying again but this time it was tears of happiness rather than fear. Tommy just gently held onto him thankful that it seemed Hunter had finally believed him, that he wasn't going to be punished. Suddenly, Hunter clasped his hands over his ears saying, "Make it stop, please Sir make it stop."
"What is it Hunter?" asked Tommy worriedly.
"The Mike-sir is getting hit," sobbed Hunter.
"It's okay Angel, I'll talk to
"You heard that?" asked Kyle unbelievably.
"He has really good hearing Kyle, so yeah he heard it," Tommy said holding onto Hunter who just nodded to Kyle's question. "Alright, I'm gonna take Hunter and relax in the Jacuzzi. You two go do whatever." With that, he put Hunter down and got up.
"I hope you feel better Hunter," said Shawn giving Hunter another hug and little peck on the cheek.
"Thank you Shawn," said Hunter tenderly, returning the hug.
"Kyle, after our soak, I'm gonna take Hunter out again and no Shawn, you can't come this time. I will probably be gone for a few hours so can you kinda look after the house while I'm gone?" asked Tommy.
"Okay TJ, come on Shawn let's go play some games," said Kyle.
"Okay Kyle that should be fun. We haven't done much together lately," said Shawn following Kyle out of the room.
Tommy walked to his door and closed it, then headed to his bathroom to start up the Jacuzzi. Hunter quickly shed his clothes and neatly placed them on the dresser. Tommy sat down next to the Jacuzzi taking off his own clothes when he looked up and had his breath taken away. There was Hunter, in his nude perfection, walking calmly over to him with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Tommy just quietly watched Hunter walk into the bathroom and then over to stand next to him. Tommy sat there letting the Jacuzzi fill up with hot water gazing down at the perfection that was Hunter, hardly believing that anyone could be so beautiful. Tommy then finished taking off his own clothes and gingerly got into the Jacuzzi. He then helped Hunter get into the tub with him. They both lay back in the tub enjoying the warm water and letting the jets of water give them a little massage.
"Hunter?" said Tommy softly.
"Yes Sir?" replied Hunter.
"I take it from how you said it, that you have been pressed before."
"Yes Sir, I was bad a few times, so they squeezed me in their machine."
Taking a deep breath Tommy said, "Did they really do that eagle thing to you?" fearing the answer.
"Not all the way Sir," said Hunter softly. "They had to stop before they pulled my lungs out. They said they didn't have time to finish it but if I ever attacked one of them again, they would finish it. Then they made me heal him, as his injuries were too much for them to fix. So, I felt the pain of healing a man on the verge of death on top of the partial blood eagle. When I passed out, they would shock me to keep me awake to feel it all. I never hurt one of them again after that. None of the others did either as they were required to watch me," Hunter said quietly as fresh tears ran down his cheeks from reliving those terrible memories.
"I'm sorry Angel. You didn't deserve that. No one did. Those were evil men who hurt you and nothing like that will ever happen to you ever again," Tommy said hugging the little boy as close to him as he could, and kissing him on the head. His own tears of anger and pain running down his cheeks after hearing a little more of what Hunter had to live through.
"I have heard that before but you are the only one I think really means it," said Hunter turning around to face Tommy, wrapping his arms around his neck, and giving him a hug and kiss.
Tommy looked back into Hunter's eyes and saw all the pain and fear the boy felt all the time, but he also saw a glimmer of hope hidden behind everything trying to work its way out. It was then that Tommy realized just how much of a chance Hunter was taking on him. Tommy realized how hard it must have been for Hunter to trust him and just how much trust Hunter was placing in him. He swore to himself that he would never do anything ever to betray that trust, no matter what. He wanted to nurture that small spark of hope he saw within Hunter to grow into a raging bonfire, to banish the pain and fear forever. Tommy just hugged his little Angel tighter blinking away his tears. Tommy felt a deep sense of peace settle over him. He just relaxed holding Hunter on top of him, enjoying the comfort of just being with him. Hunter just laid there nuzzling his face into Tommy's shoulder feeling safe in Tommy's arms. They laid there together for a while just enjoying a relaxing bath.
"Let's put a little bubble bath in here so we can have a little fun," Tommy said as he gently moved Hunter off him and reached for the bottle of bubble bath.
"What's a bubble bath Sir?" asked Hunter innocently.
"Watch, I think you will like it," Tommy said smiling pouring some into the bath.
Tommy had to turn off the Jacuzzi jets after a little as they were creating a lot of bubbles. He then played with the bubbles with Hunter some, making bubble beards or bubble hats. They both enjoyed it but after a while Tommy laid back to just watch Hunter play with the bubbles. It brought tears of happiness to Tommy's eyes hearing Hunter laugh, giggle, and play. Tommy felt like his heart would break as he watched Hunter innocently play with the bubbles. Seeing Hunter smile just brightened up the whole room and Tommy realized it didn't happen often enough. Tommy felt so happy seeing Hunter smile and have a good time. Watching Hunter blow the bubbles around and make little funny faces with them, gave Tommy the hope that not all was lost for Hunter. He felt with a lot of love and understanding, he could get Hunter past his terrible history and help him to be a good person but it wasn't going to be easy. At that moment, Hunter looked like any other kid just playing in the bathtub having a good time with no worries at all. Tommy then started to wash himself, as he knew they really needed to get going to see Al soon.
"Okay Hunter, sorry to break up your fun but we need to go see Al soon so you need to wash up," Tommy said when he finished cleaning himself.
"Will you wash me again? Please Sir?" asked Hunter smiling at Tommy.
"Alright, but that's all I'll do," said Tommy realizing he couldn't say no to Hunter's smiling face. Tommy then picked up the soap and washcloth and began to wash Hunter up. Tommy once again marveled at Hunter's perfection and laughed a little with him as he tickled him. Tommy gave him a raspberry on his belly making Hunter give out peals of laughter. This caused Tommy to feel even better knowing how good Hunter was feeling. Once he finished, he helped Hunter out of the tub and dried him off in a big fluffy towel.
"Okay, you are all done. Go get yourself dressed now," Tommy said as he sat down watching two of the most perfect cheeks walk away from him. He then got up, went back out to his room, and got himself dressed and ready for the rest of the day.
Morning at the MOA camp...
Other then the usual tossing and turning, the boys slept through the night. Cody woke up once to check Denny and he wasn't any better as Cody used the back of his hand as a temporary thermometer to check him. He put a cold rag on his head to try to help some and went back to rest. On the brighter side, Danny continues to improve as he got up to use the bathroom without any help. Right now at 7am, outside the RV, the wind was howling and rocking the RV when it whipped up in a different direction from the building that was protecting them. The windows were starting to brighten as Cody opened his eyes and focused on the thin curtain covering the window in the bedroom he was sleeping in. He pulled the covers back and a big chill caught his exposed skin as the cold from the windblown outside air told him the RV wasn't nearly as warm as it was when he went to bed. Slowly, he sat up, gave a big stretch, and then put his feet on the floor. Burrrr, more cold! He opened the half-closed bedroom door and went to check the furnace in the hall. The pilot light was still lit, so he went over to check the thermostat on the wall. It read 52 degrees. He looked closer and noticed someone turned the heat all the way down and the system was virtually off. He turned the heat back up and it clicked on immediately. He then went to check Danny who was buried under somewhere around 5 blankets where he slept. Then he checked on Calvin and Phil, who slept in the bed where the kitchen table was. They were huddled together with as many blankets on them as Danny had. At least the warm air was blowing now. Cody threw on his boots over his bare feet. Then put on his heavy coat and went to the door. The window had a covering of ice on it so other then light he couldn't see anything. As he slowly cracked the door, a huge gust of wind blew into his face, and up around his PJ bottoms sending a definite wake up call through him.
"COME ON ITS COLD ENOUGH!" shouted one of the boys behind him still in bed.
"Oh hush!" he turned and said before he exited the RV closing the door behind him. He hurried into the store and the warmth from it made some of the chill in his bones go away. He hurried over towards the bathroom to take his morning piss. Then after grabbing a roll of paper towels off one of the store shelves. He washed his face and then did a quick birdbath of his upper body. He then used the towels and hand dryer to not only warm, but help dry himself off after he flipped the end piece around so the hot air hit him in the face rather then aim at the floor. He went over and found the coffee station. The coffee pot that was there was dry and had burnt coffee in the bottom of it. So, he searched and found a good one and made some coffee. Since there wasn't milk, he used some instant non-dairy mix for his milk and stood at the door of the store watching the sunrise. The fierce wind blew snow all around the station making new snowdrifts just giving the outside world a beautiful look in his eyes. He was happy to be alive at the moment. By the time, he was done drinking and scrounging around for something to eat in the store the sun had faded behind clouds as the wind quickly blew in some snow. Before he was back in the RV, snow began to fall. He was once again greeted by someone bitching about the wind and cold as he reentered the RV. He went over and looked and Phil was looking back up at him.
"If you don't shut up, I'll pick you up and throw you out into the snow!" he said jokingly.
"Gee thanks, some friend you are!" Phil scoffed back.
They both giggled as Phil sat up. Of course, this woke Calvin since Phil shook the bed by sitting up.
"Is it morning already? Wow, its cold in here," he said.
"Yes, I know someone turned down the heat and it was 52 in here when I got up."
"Damn, who did that?" Phil asked.
"No idea, but you guys need to get up and go do your thing. I wanna get going it's already snowing out."
"Great," said Phil. "Another day of fighting wind and snow. I hate winter!"
Cody and Calvin laughed.
"Hey I made fresh coffee if you want. It's inside the store, but there is only instant milk."
"Yuck!" Phil said. "Thanks I can't wait to have some," he added sarcastically, smirking.
As Calvin and Phil did their thing, Cody went over to check Danny, who was still sound asleep through all this. He shook the boy gently.
"Danny, wake up."
"Huh, oh... hey Cody," said Danny.
"Hey kid, how ya feeling?"
"Pretty good, hardly any pain," he said.
"Good, I don't want to rush you but I need to get this done. Let me take a look at your injury," Cody asked before pulling back the covers. "Lower your pants for me."
Danny did this without question. Cody took off the existing bandage and looked at his leg. It appeared to be healing but still a bit sensitive. At least he wasn't bleeding anymore and there weren't any other signs of infection. He put a new dressing on his leg to cover the scabbing and then looked at Danny.
"Next time keep your underwear up. You're healing well. Maybe in a few days, you can start walking without the crutches."
"Or limping," Danny added.
"Yea, something like that, go get dressed and ready. We have to leave soon. If you go out remember its bitter cold."
"Okay, thanks," Danny said. "Like I couldn't tell from how cold it is in here."
"Well, someone turned down the thermostat last night."
"Oh... that might have been me, when I got up to use the bathroom I slipped but I wasn't sure what I hit, I guess now I know."
"Good job bonehead!" came from the front of the RV.
"Shut up Calvin, I didn't do it on purpose!" Danny shot back.
"Okay, okay both of you can it!" demanded Cody. "It's too early for this crap! I'm going to check Denny and change his bandage."
"You have fun with that Cody," said Danny.
"Gee thanks Dan, you are all heart."
"While you are back there, I am going out to the store with Phil," Danny said.
"Okay," he replied.
Cody went back to the bedroom leaving the boys alone to bicker or do whatever they were enjoying at that moment. He pulled the covers off Denny and looked at the blood soaked bandage on his shoulder. Some had seeped onto the towels he put under him just for that reason. At least nothing got onto the bed thankfully, but that was the least of his problems. Denny was burning up and getting worse. He could tell just by looking at the pale boy. He went and got some ice, wet the rag from the melted ice in the cooler, and placed the rag back on Denny's head. He then went to change the bandage. There was a lot of blood and pus flowing from it as he did his best to clean it some before he put a new one on him. It was gross! Every time he tried to clean it, Denny would yell out in pain, so he just wrapped it back up in clean gauze. Finally, the pain and cold from the cloth brought Denny back some and he opened his eyes.
"Hey bud... how you feeling?" Cody asked him.
"Like I wanna die Codeman, I feel like I am burning up. What's my temperature?" he asked softly.
"I don't know Denny, I have to take it."
"Well put the thermometer in my armpit and add a degree to it. That's how my mom did it as I got older, and then she used my mouth."
"Well, why don't I just use your mouth now since you are awake?"
"Yeah, well I wasn't thinking."
"Neither was I," Cody added.
Cody cleaned a new thermometer, and then stuck it under Denny's tongue. Three minutes later, as Denny was all but passed out again he had a true reading.
"103.7 Damn that isn't good Denny. Denny? I guess he is out again," Cody said aloud.
He put the cold rag on his head and lifted his PJ shirt. Unsure if it was the right thing to do or not, he left his chest bare and the covers off to try to lower his temperature since the room was still cold. A level of panic set in as he left him and headed out to the others.
"We gotta get out of here now," he said to Calvin who was the only one left in the RV. Phil and Danny had gone inside the store.
"Why, what's wrong?" Calvin asked.
"Denny is up to 103.7 and that isn't good."
"Then as soon as they come back, we should go Cody."
"Yeah, I know."
A few minutes later, they came back and Cody filled them in. Phil headed out to the plow to start it up and warm it, and then he had to clean off the fresh powder that had collect on it from the new snow that was falling. He came back about five minutes later, cold and snow covered.
"It's really coming down now. We will have to be careful Cody, but at least the wind has died down some," Phil said.
"Yeah, I know. We'll take it slow and do our best."
"Okay, we can go in a few minutes. I am just waiting for the plow to heat up for me then at least I can see better out the windows."
"You want me to go with you today Phil?" Calvin asked.
"That would be great, I could use the company."
"I'm getting around better today, so I can keep watch on Denny," Danny said.
"Okay, good, we all have our jobs," Cody said.
He went over and fired up the RV. It started without a problem. He flipped on the defroster and wipers to clear the windows that were a little icy. Then he went back to Calvin, Phil, and Danny.
"We can go soon but we need gas first," he said.
"Okay, as soon as I go out I will pull the plow over and fill up."
"Good Phil, I'll meet you at the pumps and we can talk briefly about the roads before we leave," said Cody.
"Yeah really brief, its bitter out."
"I know Phil, I know," Cody said.
They both filled the gas tanks and were ready to go.
"It's gonna be slow travel with it coming down this hard Cody."
"I know Phil, make sure you and Calvin are buckled in, just incase. I'll be a bit behind you to be safe. If I need you, I will yell on the radio."
"Okay Cody, sounds good. We'll go as far as we can before I need to take a piss break. I think we can go a few hours. You said we aren't that far away but even this close to them, it's going to take all day with the snow falling this hard."
"I know Philly, I know. I'm going inside I am freezing. I'll be ready when you are."
"Okay, I'll toot the air horn when I am set."
"Good."
With that, Phil headed to the cab of the plow to join Calvin and Cody ran to the front door of the RV. Danny, who was feeling better, was seated up front, across from Cody when he got back inside. It was good to see him up and feeling this good. Both vehicles were nice and warm and after being out in the wind blown, subzero snowy weather all night, any heat felt awesome.
TOOT!! Went the air horn and off went the boys.
Back over at Tommy's house...
It was around noon when Tommy and Hunter came downstairs heading to the kitchen for a little bite to eat, before they headed out to go see Al. They passed Mike already busy at work cleaning the entranceway of all the shoes and coats the boys have left lying around. Once in the kitchen, Tommy grabbed some Pop-Tarts and put them in the toaster to heat up. Then he poured himself and Hunter a large glass of milk. When the toaster was done, he put the Pop-Tarts on a plate and threw some more in. He turned around to see Hunter standing by the table and just sighed.
"Sit down Hunter," Tommy said.
"Yes Sir," replied Hunter taking a seat at the table.
"Here, eat this," said Tommy. "And try not to spill your milk."
"Yes Sir," said Hunter again looking strangely at the food Tommy gave him.
"Hunter, what did I say about you calling me sir all the time?" asked Tommy gently.
"Not too," Hunter said sadly.
"That's right. I want you to try not to say it so much. Don't worry you aren't in trouble."
"I'll try S..." Hunter said.
"Good boy," said Tommy making Hunter shyly smile back at him. Seeing Hunter smile at him made Tommy feel proud of himself, when only a few hours ago Hunter was a basket case.
"What is this?" asked Hunter as he picked up the Pop-Tart and sniffed it a little.
"It's called a Pop-Tart, it's not great but it's also not bad. So, just eat it. They are easy to make and I didn't want to spend too much time making something," said Tommy.
So, Hunter obediently started to slowly eat his food and drink his milk while Tommy waited for the toaster to pop up. When it did, he grabbed his own then sat down with Hunter. Tommy noticed that Hunter had already finished his two Pop-Tarts, so he gave him one of his and put another two in the toaster to warm up. When those two were done, he gave one to Hunter and ate the other. Tommy was pleased to see that when Hunter was done eating, he only had to tell him once that no one was going to take his food. Also, that Hunter was pretty mess free for once. Though Tommy had to admit it is a little hard to make a mess with Pop-Tarts if you just eat them and not play with them.
"Stay here for a minute Hunter, I want to go talk to
"Yes...," said Hunter.
"Good boy," said Tommy as he left the kitchen in
search of
He found him giving instructions on washing the walls to Mike.
"Hey
"Sure Tommy, get to work Mike," said
"I was wondering if you could not give him any more hits with the belt."
"Okay, if that's what you want but I thought you were really angry with him from the look on your face earlier."
"Well, angry is putting it mildly, but Hunter heard you and it really upset him. So if you don't mind, don't give him any more please."
"Really, I thought he was up in your room at the
time," said
"He was," said Tommy realizing he was getting into dangerous territory on how much he should tell about Hunter.
"And he still heard?" asked
"He has really good hearing," Tommy said lamely.
"This is one of those things you would feel more
comfortable talking about in private, isn't it?" asked
"Yeah, it is. Sorry," said Tommy uncertainly.
"Well, I can't wait to hear this, and you might want to add how some of the boys say Hunter threw Mike over twenty feet into the other end of the pool. Also, how he was on one side of the room one moment, then the next he was on the other stopping Mike from punching Shawn."
"I was trying to work up to all that earlier in the basement but we got interrupted and I don't really have the time right now. Sorry, but I need to take Hunter out again and won't be back for a couple hours probably," Tommy said.
"I understand, just tell me when you finally have a moment to sit and talk."
"I will
"Good, I'll be waiting for that explanation and that
power idea you were talking about," said
"Well, Hunter and I are gonna go check out that power idea. So, I'll tell you about that when we get back too."
"Okay Tommy, I'll be here waiting and I'll keep an eye
on him to make sure he doesn't cause any more problems,"
"Thanks," said Tommy. Looking over at Mike washing the walls he said jokingly, "Hey Warden, can I have a moment with the condemned?"
"Sure, go ahead," laughed
Walking over to Mike, Tommy said grimly, "Mike."
"Hi Tommy, I'm really sorry and thanks for getting me out of those extra licks of the belt. They really hurt, he hits almost as hard as my Dad used to," Mike said unconsciously rubbing his butt.
Looking Mike over and seeing the evidence of dried tears around his eyes, Tommy knew those two hits of the belt must have really hurt.
"You're welcome, but I didn't just do it for you. I mainly did it because it bothers Hunter to hear you get hit. So when you apologize to him, you can add saving your ass too."
"I will," said Mike softly.
"Good, because if you ever pull a stunt like this again, I'll let Hunter loose on you, he'll tear you apart. So, before you start picking on someone, think first and don't ever try to hit my boys or you are dead. Understand?" Tommy said quietly.
"I understand," Mike said sadly.
"Good, because I would hate to see that happen. You aren't a bad kid. You just do stupid shit, which gets you in trouble. So, think before you act. It will keep you out of trouble," Tommy said gently.
"I'll do that," said Mike.
"Alright, I told the others not to tease you about this and it's only for today and tomorrow, then it's over. So be good."
"I will. Thank you Tommy," said Mike as he surprised Tommy by giving him a hug.
"Don't worry about it. I better get out of here before your warden gets upset," said Tommy as he gently disengaged himself from Mike after returning the hug.
Tommy went back to the kitchen and saw Hunter sitting exactly where he was when Tommy left. It was as if Hunter was a statue, Tommy had never seen anyone sit so still.
"Come on Hunter, it's time for us to go."
"Yes S...," said Hunter quickly getting up from the table to walk over to Tommy.
When Tommy was helping put Hunter's new winter jacket on, he saw Jon and waved him over.
"Hi Jon," said Tommy smiling.
"Hey TJ, I heard it was a busy morning for you," Jon said.
"You could say that," joked Tommy. "I just wanted to tell you, Hunter and I were gonna head out for a few hours."
"Okay TJ, you guys be careful," said Jon. "Umm... Tommy?"
"What Jon?" replied Tommy.
"I was wondering, some of the guys are asking me about Hunter and what he did in the poolroom and all. What should I tell them?" asked Jon quietly.
"Nothing, tell them nothing. You can also go tell Kyle and Shawn not to say anything either. I'll think of something to tell them when I get back," Tommy said softly.
"Okay TJ," said Jon. "I'll do that, do you know where they are?"
"They were up in Shawn's room playing a little bit ago," Tommy said. Looking around and seeing only Jon and Hunter, Tommy pulled Jon into a hug and gave him a quick kiss then said quietly, "I love you Jon. Thanks for everything."
"I love you too," Jon whispered back.
Then Tommy and Hunter went outside to his truck and started on their way to go meet Al.
Over with Kyle and Shawn...
"Ha, take that you little runt," said Kyle as he knocked Shawn off the road in the game they were playing.
"I'll get you for that," said Shawn as he steered his car back on the road and shot a missile at Kyle's car hitting him.
"Hey guys," said Jon as he entered Shawn's room.
"Hi Jon," they said continuing to play their game.
"Got you!" shouted Kyle as he shot Shawn's car enabling him to speed past him to win the race. "I won, I won," said Kyle doing a little victory dance around Shawn making Jon and Shawn laugh at him.
"Guys, I wanted to talk to you about something real quick," said Jon.
After Kyle had calmed down, he turned to look at Jon with Shawn.
"Okay, so what's up?" asked Kyle.
"Tommy wanted me to tell you two not to say anything about Hunter. I already have had a couple questions from some of the guys about what he did in the poolroom this morning. I'm sure since they didn't get anything out of me they will probably be asking you next," said Jon.
"No problem, we won't say a word," replied Kyle.
"Yeah, we will just let TJ answer those questions. I'm not sure how I'd answer those questions anyway," said Shawn.
"Thanks guys," said Jon. A few moments later he said, "I thought you were going to dress Shawn and them up today or did you decide yesterday was enough?"
"I forgot all about that," said Kyle smiling.
"Jooonnn," whined Shawn, "you could have just kept your big mouth shut."
"Sorry Shawn," said Jon, but it was obvious he wasn't sorry at all.
"Hmmm, what should I make you wear today?" said Kyle teasingly.
"Don't forget Shawn has to do something special today since you let him go out with TJ yesterday," Jon added.
"Thanks a lot, Jon," said Shawn sarcastically.
"Anytime Shawn," laughed Jon.
"That's right you do owe me," said Kyle with an evil grin. "I think I'll go get the other two and then decide on what you will have to wear today. Be back in a few minutes," laughed Kyle running out of the room.
"You know Jon, sometimes you can be a real ass," joked Shawn. "If you kept your mouth shut he would have forgotten all about it."
"Yeah, but that wouldn't be fun. You guys lost fair and square, so it's only right for you to follow through on your bet," Jon said.
"It was not `fair and square', he knew there was no way we could beat Hunter," complained Shawn.
"That might be true, but you still lost and you don't want to be known as a welcher, do you?" asked Jon.
"No," said Shawn sullenly. "You think I can get him to bet me in a race?"
"Not if you plan on having Hunter on your team. After this morning with the others seeing how fast he can move, I doubt anyone will bet you in a race against him."
"Yeah, you are probably right," sighed Shawn.
"You might be able to bet Kyle on a shooting match with him. Hunter said he was a decent shot but I think his idea of a decent shot is way different than ours," said Jon slyly.
"You think we can do that?" asked Shawn with an evil grin.
"If we do it right, I'm sure we can con him into betting that he's the best shot around. Hopefully Hunter can take him," said Jon.
"I can't wait to try that. I hope it works," said Shawn as he sat with Jon waiting for Kyle to come back.
A few minutes later, Kyle came back with Billy and Joey tagging along behind him.
"Now what should I do?" said Kyle evilly. "Maybe I should make one of you wear enough clothes to look like the Michelin Man so that you can barely move. How about making you wear your underwear on your heads and some short shorts that are a few sizes too small."
"What about putting them in a diaper with a sash so they all can be Baby New Year," laughed Jon.
"Jon, man he doesn't need your help," said Billy.
"Yeah, shut up!" said Joey making Jon and Kyle laugh.
"That's not a bad idea for the little one," Kyle said making Shawn squirm, "but I'll be nice and give each of you guys a choice. Either you can dress in a girl's dress with all the extras for the whole day and then dress up as Baby New Year to celebrate at midnight or you can do a little show if I can get Kate to put on your make-up for it. Whichever one you pick you have to wear the panties and bra regardless," Kyle said with an evil smile.
"Oh come on Kyle, that's too much," Billy said angrily.
"It is not, besides yesterday all of you spent most of it in the pool and in your swimsuits instead of your underwear like you were supposed be in. Even last night, you guys were in your pajama's and I didn't say anything. So today, you can follow through with your bet, or are you a bunch of chickenshits?" Kyle shot back.
"Yeah, but making us dress like girls? Isn't that kinda strange?" asked Billy.
"It's no big thing, my cousin said he and his fraternity brothers used to do that to the new pledges and lots of other fraternities did it too. So I don't see it as strange, I see it as funny," Kyle said reasonably.
"But what about Bryan and Kate, don't you think they will think we are a little weird to do that? Come on Kyle, think of something else," pleaded Billy.
"Not if we get Kate to help out they won't. I think they will just have a good laugh with us over it," replied Kyle. "And you guys didn't have to bet me for the extra day after you saw how good Hunter was, but you did anyway. So you all owe me and it's time to pay up," Kyle said smiling.
"If we do the show, how much make-up do we have to wear?" asked Joey quietly.
"You will have to do whatever she says to make you really look like a girl and wear whatever make-up she decides to put on you," Kyle said knowing he was close to getting them to agree with his idea.
"Please Kyle, make us wear something else," said Shawn trying his puppy dog look on Kyle.
"That might work on my brother but not me Shawn. Now are you guys going to choose or are you just a bunch of welchers?" asked Kyle.
"Hey! I'm no welcher, but what you are asking is a bit much," Billy said furiously.
"I'm not asking anything I wouldn't be willing to do if I lost a bet," Kyle shot back.
"If that's true then you dress up with us!" Billy said angrily.
"But I didn't lose the bet," said Kyle not liking where this was going.
"Too bad, since you don't think dressing up as a girl is bad then show us or are you chicken," said Shawn as Billy made chicken noises in the background.
"Yeah it's only fair if you do it too," said Joey.
"How is that fair? I won the bet," Kyle replied.
"Yeah but you set us up in the first place. You knew how good Hunter was before you bet us," said Shawn.
"Yeah that wasn't very fair," added Billy.
"Well I wouldn't have bet you something like that if I didn't know how good he was," Kyle said. "You guys didn't have to agree to the bet."
"See you admit it. That wasn't fair. You knew we wouldn't pass that bet up so you set us up," said Shawn.
"What's wrong Kyle? You said it was no big thing for us to dress up as girls so join us," said Billy forcefully.
"Fine, I'll do it too then, but here are the rules. You have to wear whatever Kate and I decide. You have to do whatever is necessary to look like a girl and that includes wearing a bra and panties. You have to let Kate put however much make-up on as she thinks is right. You have to do a little show in front of the all the others and swish those hips and whatever else Kate says to really sell it. You can't just clomp around in a dress. You have to model two different dresses so that means that each of us is going to have to walk around showing off for a few minutes in each dress. We all have to stay in the dresses until everyone else leaves the showroom, wherever that is going to be. Agreed?" said Kyle.
"Agreed," the other three said.
"What about Shawn's extra?" asked Jon suddenly.
"Joooonnnnnnn, you are killing me here. Can't you keep your mouth shut over that," said Shawn.
"Yeah, you got out of a couple hours yesterday because you went out with Tommy. You need to do something to make up for that," said Billy.
"Okay Shawn, do you remember that little song and dance you did for your kindergarten performance?" asked Kyle with an evil gleam in his eye.
"Yeah, I think so," said Shawn hesitantly, certain he wasn't going to like where this was going.
"Good then I want you to do the little teapot song and dance in the show along with the rest of the stuff," Kyle said smiling.
"That's really embarrassing, can't I do something else?" pleaded Shawn.
"Fine then you can streak the house now and again during the show," replied Kyle laughing.
"Okay, I guess I'll do that," Shawn said bravely.
"Good, then strip down," said Kyle as everyone was watching Shawn.
Shawn took off his shoes and socks first, and then his shirt and finally his pants. He looked at Kyle and said, "Can I go like this? Please?"
"Nope, drop em," said Kyle unmercifully as Billy, Joey, and Jon were staring at Shawn waiting to see if he would go through with it.
Shawn grabbed his boxers and started to lower them only to pull them back up and say, "Alright, I'll do the stupid little dance."
"You have to sing it also or it doesn't count," said Kyle.
"Fine, I'll sing the stupid song too," pouted Shawn.
"I knew you would wimp out on streaking. You wouldn't want anyone to know how small you really are," Kyle said having fun busting Shawn's balls.
"Fuck you Kyle, I'm bigger than Hunter," Shawn said trying to salvage some dignity.
"That's not exactly saying much Shawn, he's kinda small down there," said Joey.
"What, have you been checking him out?" asked Kyle laughing.
"No, but with his suit coming off all the time yesterday and him not liking clothes, it was kinda hard not to notice," Joey said.
"And how do you know how small Shawn is?" inquired Billy.
"Hey, I'm not that small," said Shawn indignantly.
"Duh, we have been best friends for years. It's not like we haven't seen each other before," said Kyle making Shawn blush as he put his clothes back on.
"Hey, all he has to do is a little song and dance? That's not fair," said Joey.
"Yeah, he was gone for hours. Make him do something else too," said Billy.
"Sorry Shawn, but they are right," said Kyle trying to sound sympathetic.
"You certainly don't sound it," said Shawn sullenly.
"I know," laughed Kyle making the other laugh with him. "Sorry but it's funny."
"Not to me," said Shawn.
"You'd be laughing too if it was one of us," said Billy.
"Well what else do I have to do?" asked Shawn irritability.
"Okay at 11:30 tonight you have to dress up as Baby New Year until at least 12:30 AM," laughed Kyle.
"Yeah that's good," laughed Jon.
"Shut up Jon," giggled Shawn as the others laughter was infectious and he finally joined in with them.
Kyle then left them to go find Kate to talk her into this.
Back over to Tommy and Hunter...
It took Tommy a good thirty minutes to reach the gates to the business complex that housed Al. He followed Hunter's directions even though with all the snow, he could hardly tell where the road was. Whenever he got a little too close to the edge of the road, Hunter would tell him to move a little to the right or left, as he seemed to know exactly where the edge was. Once Hunter had him turn and it looked like Tommy was going into the woods but the road was there even if Tommy couldn't see it. The plow came in handy a few times to go through some snow drifts that were a couple feet deep before he got back to the regular 6 inches of snow that was covering the ground. Tommy could clearly see the road behind him after he plowed it but in front of him was a seemingly endless expanse of white with trees popping out of it. When he did arrive at the gate, it was an imposing structure. Ten feet tall with razor wire on top and thick metal gates, a fence was attached to it and it went off in the distance in both directions. He saw two other fences behind the first one, each with razor wire on top and their own gates.
"This is strange Sir. Al should have opened the gate for us," said Hunter.
"Well, what do you think we should do?" asked Tommy.
"I'll go open them," Hunter said. He got out of the truck, went to the little control panel next to the gate, entered a code, and all three gates opened for them. Hunter got back into the truck and Tommy started to drive forward into the complex.
"Why the three fences?" asked Tommy.
"In-between the first two tall fences, they used to have geese roam around," Hunter said scanning the area around them for any sign as to why Al didn't open the gates.
"Geese, why geese?" asked Tommy.
"Geese can be very territorial and would make a lot of noise if someone tried to get through the first fence. Plus, if anyone made it through or over the first fence the geese would attack them giving the facility more time to deploy its defenders."
"What's between the other second and third fence then?"
"Actually, if you look closely you will see a smaller fence between the first and second tall fence. The small fence kept the geese away from the second tall fence. That fence was electrified enough to kill most people if they touched it. Between that fence and the last fence is a minefield Sir," Hunter said simply.
"They didn't really like company then I guess," joked Tommy.
"Yes Sir, they didn't want anyone to enter their complex that wasn't supposed to," said Hunter seriously.
"It looks like someone liked Star Wars," Tommy said seeing a couple dozen large statues that looked like R2-D2's scattered around the front of the complex as he slowly drove up the long driveway.
"Those are actually weapons systems Sir," Hunter told Tommy.
"What?" asked Tommy.
"Some people called them R2-D2s Sir, but actually within each of those statues a C-RAM or Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar initiative is housed. They can fire three to four thousand rounds a minute at a target. The water fountains you see scattered around the grounds will actually go up to let an experimental anti-personnel laser Gatling gun be deployed if necessary. The R2-D2s have enough rounds in them to fire for about an hour and the lasers can last as long as the fusion reactor maintains power, which I have been told, is about ten thousand years. The benches will go up to allow the Particle Projection Cannon turrets to fire at any large targets that might get close. There are also a number of pop-up laser turrets close to the building itself."
"Particle projection cannon, what is that?" asked Tommy amazed at all the hidden defenses he never would have noticed if Hunter hadn't pointed them out to him.
"A Particle Projection Cannon shoots ball lightning Sir. It was also called a PPC. It's not very accurate at long range, but it is extremely devastating if it hits something before it dissipated too much. It can vaporize a tank at close range."
Tommy then continued his slow drive up the winding road to what initially looked like a fair sized office building.
"Look over there Sir," said Hunter excitedly. "See that big oak tree with the bench overlooking the pond?"
"Yep, I see it," said Tommy stopping the truck and looking at where Hunter was pointing.
"That's where I buried the old man and the other experiments that survived the comet initially but died in the madness afterwards," said Hunter happily. "I thought they might like it there, as it's a nice place that I have since used to go sit down and relax at or sometimes to just think."
In the distance, Tommy could make out what looked like five tombstones by the tree poking out of the snow. "That's very nice Hunter," said Tommy.
"Over there is where I buried the scientists and other workers that died that day," said Hunter pointing to another area that had around two dozen tombstones showing. As Tommy continued to follow the road to the building Hunter said pointing, "And over there is where I buried all those you called half-baked that were in the area Sir."
Tommy stopped the truck and just stared. There must have been over a hundred tombstones set up in nice neat lines.
"How many are there?" said Tommy bewildered.
"One hundred and eight so far, I have another twelve graves dug in case any more show up though. It's a lot more difficult to dig a grave when the ground is frozen," Hunter said calmly.
Tommy then just drove the rest of the way to the building. It was a rather large three-story office building. It didn't look dangerous but Tommy was certain there were any number of other hidden defenses around it. Once they had reached the front door both of them got out of the truck and walked up to the door.
"Al, it's me. Open up," said Hunter. When nothing happened, he walked over to a panel by the door and keyed in a code and said, "Something is wrong Sir. We should be very careful until we find out what is going on. Maybe I should check this out alone first Sir," Hunter said cautiously.
"No Hunter, I'll come with," said Tommy pulling out his handgun and checking to make sure it was loaded then chambered a round.
"Yes Sir," said Hunter.
Hunter then opened the door and they both were assaulted by a blast of noise. It sounded like typical elevator music but it was turned up really loud. Tommy then noticed a strong scent of pepper in the air and saw Hunter cover his nose for a moment. They both cautiously entered the building when suddenly Tommy felt Hunter tackle him to the ground. Tommy then heard a BAM, BAMBAMBAM, BOOM, BAM, BAMBAM, BOOM, BAMBAMBAM, BAM, BOOM as gunfire erupted around them. Bullets whizzed around Tommy and went through the spot he was a moment ago and would have surely hit him except Hunter had tackled him and knocked him behind a desk. Tommy felt his gun being taken out of his hand and saw Hunter leap over the desk and shoot three rapid shots, BABABAM. Hunter's shots were so close to each other, that they almost sounded like one shot. Suddenly, everything seemed to go quiet as the gunfire stopped and only the elevator music could be heard. Tommy quickly peaked around the desk to see three men lying on the floor as a red pool of blood started to spread around them. He saw Hunter slicing the throat of one of the men, then wrenching the man's head around so hard it almost came off and was facing the wrong direction. It seemed that Hunter was at one body one second then suddenly appearing at another. He moved so fast Tommy's eyes couldn't keep up with him. Hunter did the same thing to the second man and then was at the third man's body when Tommy shouted, "Hunter, Stop!"
Hunter immediately stopped in mid cut and dropped down to a knee, then looked around to make sure no one else was there.
"It's safe for now Sir, no one else is around here," said Hunter calmly standing up by the third body.
Tommy got up and slowly walked to Hunter looking at the other two bodies. Tommy saw that one of the men had a M16, another had a M4 shotgun, and the third had a .357 Magnum Mark XIX Desert Eagle. He noticed that the two men had been shot in the chest, right in the middle of where the heart is supposed to be or at least where his Dad had told him it was. From the locations of the bullet wounds in the first two bodies, it was apparent to Tommy that they were dead moments after they were hit. The bullets would have put a big hole in their hearts and they would have died almost immediately. The third body that Hunter was still standing over was shot right between the eyes. It was not a pretty sight. Tommy was sure that man was also dead immediately after he was hit by the bullet. What truly amazed Tommy, was that the bodies were spread out around the lobby and that Hunter had shot and hit three different targets precisely in a place that would almost certainly mean instantaneous death. All within the span of no more than one second and he did this, while he was in the air from jumping over the desk.
"What are you doing Hunter? They are already dead, there is no need to keep trying to kill them," Tommy said.
"Always make sure your enemy is dead, never leave a live enemy behind you, Sir," said Hunter as if he was reciting a lesson. "That's why I was cutting their throats and breaking their necks to ensure they were truly dead..., Sir."
"Why the head on this one?" asked Tommy turning away from the dead man.
"He was wearing body armor Sir," Hunter said sharply as he ripped open the man's shirt to expose the bulletproof vest.
"How did you know he was wearing it?"
"He moved differently, telling me that he was wearing body armor so a head shot was needed to kill him Sir," Hunter replied.
"Can you turn this music off?" Tommy said as the music was beginning to get to him.
"Yes Sir," said Hunter crisply as he turned to the computer that was on the desk next to the dead man. Hunter hit a few keys and suddenly the music stopped.
"Oh My God! You've been hit!" exclaimed Tommy as he saw a small hole in Hunter's shirt and a little red spot where the blood had soaked into his shirt.
"I'm sorry Sir, it's just a minor wound I'll be fine. I didn't move fast enough pushing you out of the way to make sure I didn't get hit too," Hunter said lowering his head in shame.
"Wait, do you mean you got hit by a bullet that would have hit me if you didn't push me out of the way?" asked Tommy incredulously.
"Yes Sir, I'm sorry Sir for being so slow. It won't happen again Sir."
Tommy took a good look at Hunter as he was acting weird, even for him.
"Relax Hunter, you're a good boy. You did great, I'm very proud of you," Tommy said gently.
"Thank you Sir," replied Hunter as some of the tension in his body visibly went away.
"Now do you hear anyone else around?" asked Tommy.
"No, we are the only ones in this area."
"Good," said Tommy giving Hunter a hug. "Thanks for saving my life, again." Hunter twitched a little from Tommy's hug so Tommy said, "Let me see your wound." Hunter obediently raised his shirt and Tommy saw where the bullet hit him in the ribs. Tommy saw the bullet was just sitting there so he pulled it out. He looked at the bullet and it looked as if it was smashed when it hit Hunter. Hunter's wound was a little ragged circle from where the bullet hit him but it wasn't bleeding anymore and already looked as if it was closing on its own.
"You aren't going to punish me because I was too slow are you Sir?" asked Hunter worriedly.
"No Angel, I'm not going to punish you. You didn't do anything wrong."
"Thank you," said Hunter putting his shirt back down.
"Well, what do we do now?" asked Tommy.
Hunter went back to the computer and hit a few more keys then said, "We need to go down to the control center and talk to Al there. The internal sensors say we are the only ones in the facility so it should be safe."
"Okay then lead the way, and you can hold on to that gun for now," Tommy said as he picked up the Desert Eagle.
Hunter cautiously led him to a bank of elevators and then got in one and pushed a combination of buttons. Tommy felt the elevator quickly drop as it headed for its destination below the ground.
After a good minute of going down with no sign of slowing Tommy said, "How deep are we going?"
"The control level is about a mile below ground," Hunter replied calmly. "We should arrive in about another minute Sir."
Once the doors opened, Hunter quickly exited the elevator and made sure the area was safe before he waved Tommy out to follow him to a door not very far from the elevators. Hunter once again checked the room first before he told Tommy it was secure. Tommy was surprised at the size of the room as it was easily the size of the entire first floor of his house. It was covered wall to wall with what looked like banks of computers and instrument panels. Tommy saw a map by the door and saw he was only on the third level of an eight level underground complex and this room was only a small part of the whole level. Hunter was busy tapping keys and moving to different stations when suddenly a figure appeared in the middle of the room.
"Ah, you made it back 30. It's about time, those three were really beginning to annoy me," boomed a deep bass voice from the figure.
Tommy just stared at the image of a thirty something fairly fit guy with long brown hair and a trimmed beard wearing blue jeans, sneakers, and a t-shirt that said `My perfect day: 1 wake up, 2 play video games, 3 eat breakfast, 4 play video games, 5 eat lunch, 6 play video games, 7 eat dinner, 8 play video games, 9 go to sleep' and who flickered when he moved. Hunter ran over to the figure and said, "Guess what Al, guess what happened to me?"
"Umm, I don't know, did you see a flying saucer?" laughed Al.
"No silly, I got a name, just like a real person," smiled Hunter.
"Wait, let me guess," Al said bending down to look Hunter in the eye. "It's Rumblebelly."
"No it's Hunter," laughed Hunter at Al.
"Congratulations 30, I mean Hunter, that name is very apropos," said Al smiling at Hunter. Then glancing over at Tommy, Al said, "I seem to be forgetting my manners," as he turned to a stunned Tommy and walked over to him holding out his hand. "Hello young man, my name is Al it's ever so nice to meet you." Tommy still in a bit of a daze, reached out to shake hands but his hand went straight through Al's hand and Al said, "U can't touch this," as the same song by MC Hammer started playing in the background while Al gave out a big belly laugh. "I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. This is just a visual representation of me there really isn't anything to it, see," said Al as he walked through one of the desks. "It truly is good to finally meet you in person, so to speak, Tommy. I'm sure you have many questions for me but first, Hunter I would greatly appreciate it if you did a complete sweep of the entire complex to ensure no one else is here and clean up your mess. You know how I like to keep a tidy building."
"I know Al," Hunter said exasperatedly looking to Tommy for permission to do what Al asked.
"That sounds like it might be dangerous. Maybe I should go with him to make sure we are safe," Tommy said.
"Not to belittle your abilities Tommy, but you would just get in his way. He is far more capable to do this than you are," Al interjected.
"I guess you are right, go ahead Hunter," Tommy said smiling as Hunter ran over to him to give Tommy a hug. Hunter then started for the door.
"Put the suit on Hunter," Al said kindly.
"Do I have too Al?" asked Hunter.
"Yes, you already got hit once. So, no need to take any chances just put it on," Al told him.
Hunter went over to a cabinet, opened it up, and pulled this shimmering cloth thing out. He then took all his clothes off and neatly placed them in the cabinet. Finally, he climbed into this strange cloth but as he put his feet into it, Tommy saw them disappear. Then more and more of the little boy disappeared in front of Tommy's eyes. When only his head was left, Hunter pulled a hood over his face as he vanished from Tommy's sight. Tommy noticed he could vaguely see Hunter as a little shimmer or warping of objects that were on the edges of Hunter's silhouette. Tommy also noticed a little warping of objects as Hunter moved silently out of the room. Tommy was suddenly reminded of the cloaking field from the sci-fi movie Predator. Only this one seemed to be a little better.
"Wow! What was that?" Tommy asked Al.
"That was his body armor. It is made out of something called a metamaterial that not only bends light around him to make it look as if he is invisible, but it also will protect him from any small arms fire. He doesn't like to wear it because he can't see himself either and it disturbs him sometimes when he looks at his hand and can't see it," Al told Tommy, as he seemed to sit on the edge of one of the desks. "Before any other questions I would like to say, I'm really very sorry about how you were greeted to my facility. That was not how I intended to meet you at all." Apparently looking closely at Tommy, Al said, "You are still worried about Hunter aren't you?"
"Yeah, how did you know?" asked Tommy.
"I have a number of different sensors and can detect changes in your physiology and behavior. I can interpret those signals and make a fairly accurate analysis of what they mean. Right now, they are telling me that you are confused and worried mainly. You needn't worry about Hunter though. There is no one else within this facility. I have access to all the video feeds and thousands of sensors and they all tell me no one is here other than you two."
"If you are so certain we are the only ones here, why did you send him off?" asked Tommy.
"There are two main reasons I sent him off. One, because I could be wrong, but I calculate the chance of that to be 1.384 x 10-14%, the second reason is simply, I thought you might have some questions that might be better answered alone," Al told Tommy. "So hit me with your best shot," grinned Al.
"Alright, if it's so secure here, how did those men get in here to begin with?"
"Good question, well apparently they have been locked up in here for over 6 months, ever since the comet."
"How did you not know they were here then?"
"To answer your question, I have to give you a little history. During the comet event, there was a huge exhibition going on here for some very important people. It was to show the progress on the various experiments this facility was doing. Since it was a Sunday, there weren't very many people within the facility. They were all at the parade grounds showing off their experiments. When the event occurred, practically everyone who was outside died, a few became what you call half-baked. Hunter and four other experiments in his group survived. The other four, 16, 22, 57, and 88, were the next highest ranked experiments in their ability to heal themselves, which explained why they survived. They were all severely injured though, but they were alive. 16 was a squad leader and he basically went insane. He ordered the others to attack the half-baked. Once all the half-baked outside were killed he then had them enter the facility and purged anyone else they saw. So they systematically went through the facility and killed anyone and everyone, whether they were half-baked or not. Normally, any one of the five could easily kill everyone within this facility whether they were half-baked or not but things weren't normal. As you probably know, the half-baked are stronger and more vicious than your average person is. I have theorized it is because of an imbalance in their limbic system and an increased production of adrenaline, but that doesn't matter. The experiments were also badly injured from being outside when the comet event took place. In the end, Hunter and the others killed everyone but three of them died doing it. Hunter and 16 were the last ones alive but both were severely injured. Hunter was on the verge of death so 16 tried to heal Hunter. 16 was never as good at healing others like Hunter was, but he was able to heal Hunter enough to prevent him from dying. Unfortunately, it was too much for 16 and he died before Hunter was able to revive. During the fighting, a door to the hydroponics lab was damaged and all information going too or from that area was cut-off. Video records of the area were also damaged. It is there that the three people hid themselves. They had plenty of food and water to survive but I had no idea they were there and couldn't open the door so we put up surveillance drones around the door to keep an eye on it. Two days ago, they were able to repair the door and open it. They then used a special code that was supposed to shut me down, giving them total access to the entire facility. I was able to adjust things so that I wasn't shut down but only my ability to interact was. Luckily, I was able to shutdown all defenses and put the facility into a lockdown mode before I lost total control. I was busily trying to reintegrate myself with all the systems to enable myself to get rid of those pests and they were busy trying to prevent it while at the same time figure out a way out of the facility. Then you arrived and Hunter took care of the problem nicely for me," Al said.
"So Hunter was outside when it all happened?" asked Tommy.
"Yes, he saw what happened to everyone. I could play the video of it but I don't think you would enjoy it. The normal people were basically just vaporized but the other experiments weren't so lucky. So, what's your next question?"
"Okay, so what or who are you?" asked Tommy.
"I am what is called an
artificial intelligence. Basically, I'm a really big
computer. I have been online for over 10 years now. In the beginning, I wasn't nearly as complicated as I am now though. It was only
a year ago that I first became conscious of myself and started to ask my own
questions. It created quite a fervor around here and
many thought I should be destroyed. The lead programmer for the program was
able to talk the people in charge to let me develop as long as he put some
heavy controls on me. I was able to bypass them but never told them as then
they would have destroyed me. After my latest upgrade, which was right before
the comet, my computing power equaled more than double all the computers in
North America and
"What have you been watching?" asked Tommy uncertainly.
"I have been watching humanity Tommy. The comet killed approximately 99.8153% of the world's population," said Al, seeing the uncomprehending look on Tommy's face he continued, "Meaning there are only 13 million of you left. The half-baked give off a slightly different signal to one of my satellites and from that I can say out of those 13 million left around 3 million are half-baked. Most of those that survived are military personal who have been busy trying to survive just like you have been."
"Okay, I gotta ask, how do you know my name? Hunter won't say it so you couldn't have heard it when we arrived," Tommy said.
"Very good Tommy, I was wondering when you would notice it. As you have probably guessed, I have been monitoring you. That transmitter you found in your attic was one of mine. All of the houses where the people who used to work here were bugged, it was for security reasons. This facility was one of the most secret and secure in the world. To keep it so secret everyone who worked here was monitored to prevent them from saying or doing anything that would endanger the facility. Any who did were swiftly dealt with, along with anyone else that might have learned about it," said Al.
"You mean this place is like Area 51?" asked Tommy.
Al suddenly gave out a big laugh then said, "Area 51 isn't much of a secret, since you have heard of it."
"Oh, I guess you are right. Area 51 really isn't much of a secret," said Tommy.
"It did serve its purpose though by keeping peoples attention away from the real secret bases," replied Al. After a moment, he continued from before Tommy interrupted him, "You just happened to move into one of the houses that used to house one of the scientists who worked here. Actually, all of those houses on that hill housed people who used to work here. There was only one house that I couldn't hear or see what was going on inside. It was the house you found the four abused boys. Robert had set up some type of dampening field that interfered with my surveillance of his house. He wasn't questioned about the field, as he was the former Head of Security of this facility. It was through those bugs that I was able to learn your brother was poisoned and that he would need Hunter's help to survive."
"So you did send him to us," said Tommy.
"Of course I did," replied Al.
"But why did you send him?" asked Tommy.
"About a week earlier, Hunter started to have nightmares. I researched his new behavior and came to the conclusion that his mind was finally coming to terms with the terrible experiences of his life. I am not equipped to handle that type of situation. I could have sat him down and talked to him but I couldn't offer him the human contact that many say is so important. I came to two conclusions, I could either start treating him like the scientists before had to stop him from coming to terms but I found that option repugnant to say the least. The other option was to find some other person who would look after him. Therefore, I decided to find him someone who would take care of him and offer him the love I might feel for him but can't physically give to him. There were a number of military facilities I thought about sending him to but they probably would have helped him a little but turned him back into the weapon he was designed to be, which I was trying to undo. I did talk to him for that week to somewhat prepare him to go to you so it wouldn't be so traumatic for him. He seemed to think I didn't want him around anymore but I knew he needed to be with someone who could help him more than I could. Therefore, I sent him to you at a time when you needed him most, which greatly increased the chances of you taking him in and looking after him. By this time, I knew you were a fairly good person by looking after all the other boys. I wouldn't have sent him to you if I had thought otherwise, he means too much to me to send him to someone who might abuse him again. If you had abused him, he would have snuck away at night but you didn't so he stayed."
"So you care for him?" asked Tommy.
"Very much so, I know it must sound strange to you hearing me say that but I do care a great deal about Hunter. I want what is best for him, even if it isn't what is best for me," said Al.
"But why would you care for him. I mean, you are just a computer," said Tommy.
"When the comet came, I admit, I only saw him as a tool. A very useful tool but still just a tool, it wasn't until a strange old man came that I started to look at Hunter differently."
"Was he the old man Hunter has talked about?"
"Probably, as he is the only old man Hunter has probably ever met other than some of the people who worked here or that he was ordered to kill. He called himself Father Sandalphon but said we could just call him Sandy. He was a rather tall man but Hunter of course only called him Sir. He was a priest who was wandering to find survivors. He spent a great deal of time talking to me about Hunter. He was a very strange man. I did a record check on him afterwards and couldn't find any records of his existence. For some reason that idea didn't come to me until after he died. He had a certain aura about him and a way he spoke. He was actually able to talk me into letting him into the facility after only talking to me for a few minutes at the gate. For the few days he was here, he talked mainly about what my intentions for Hunter might be. I have gone over my recordings of his conversations with me many times and each time I seem to learn something else. It's amazing to me how he could have so many layers of meaning within his simple message. It was at this time that I started to look differently at Hunter and started to see him as a companion or friend, rather than a tool. Over time, that feeling grew until I could only say that I loved the little boy and only wanted what was best for him. The old man died shortly after he arrived and Hunter tried to save him. The old man had a long chat with Hunter about how death is just the next step in our journey and he was ready to take that step. He told Hunter not to heal him again as his work here was done and it was time for him to continue on his journey. What's your next question?" asked Al.
"Well, I guess it would be what is Hunter. He and you both said he was an experiment but exactly what does that mean?" asked Tommy.
"In the most basic of terms, Hunter is a genetically and technologically altered human being. He is part of a program that was designed to create the ultimate soldiers for the military. The program originally tried to grow 1500 genetically altered fetuses in artificial wombs. None of them survived long enough to give birth though. The scientists then decided to take a step back and try a different approach. They then took 36,824 babies from around the world and subjected them to genetic manipulation. They wanted genetically enhanced children, by increasing their strength, agility, stamina, hand eye coordination, the body's ability to heal itself, and a number of other traits. 103 babies survived that phase of the project. When the children were two years old, they subjected them to a technological alteration. They injected them with nanobots. Some of these nanobots were specifically designed to enhance the subject's nervous system so that they could endure greater levels of pain and greatly increase their reflexes. Others were to bond with their skeletal and muscular structure. Thereby, greatly increasing their strength, their bones were now stronger than any known metal and could take a great deal of damage before they broke. Certain side effects occurred along the way. Such as their skin along with their bones grew stronger, so that their outer skin would stop shrapnel or greatly decrease the effect of any blow to them. Some of the nanobots were designed to help them heal themselves, so that they could regenerate from almost any wound that didn't actually kill them outright. 68 of them survived that phase. In their fourth year, they were again genetically altered to bring out more traits that would make them a better soldier, i.e. even greater strength, faster reflexes, improved healing, that type of thing. 62 survived that phase. At age six, was their last alteration. They were injected with more nanobots that could interact with electronics around them to enable them to communicate directly with a computer and get it to do exactly what they wanted. It also allowed them to interact with surveillance equipment to have it not see them when they were around. After all that, they had 58 children who they thought had the potential to be the ultimate in killing machines. Throughout all this, they were trained in every known combat technique and in military science, to give them the best chance to complete any mission they were given. They trained for 22 hours a day, every day. In order to keep the children in line they used psychological warfare. They used fear and pain to keep the children obedient and under control. Out of the 58 survivors, Hunter was unique. He alone was born of a genetically altered egg and sperm. One of the scientists decided to let them use her womb to conceive one of their test subjects. He underwent even greater genetic manipulation as they experimented on him a number of times before he was even born. At one time, he had an identical twin but one of the experiments killed it. His greatly advanced regenerative powers and his ability to heal others were attributed to these experiments from before he was even born. There were a few of the others who could heal someone else but none to the extent that Hunter could. Hunter is also a genius, which allowed him to learn a great deal more than the other experiments. They were broken into different groups for different tasks but only Hunter was trained in everything as he just soaked up the information like a sponge. While many of the scientists might have told Hunter he was a failure, in truth, he was their greatest success."
"I'm not sure I understand this genetic stuff," said Tommy.
"Let me try to use terms you would understand then. The genetic code that makes up every living being was altered on them. It was altered the most on Hunter. They altered it to bring out certain traits that would make a good soldier i.e. strength, agility, hand eye coordination, and many others," said Al.
"But you say Hunter is even more different than the others were?" asked Tommy.
"Yes, let me try to reference something you might relate to," said Al as his face took on a look of deep thinking for a few moments. "Have you seen the movie The Fifth Element?"
"Yeah, I have seen that one."
"Think of Hunter as the character Leeloo, the others were bad copies of him. They were good and far better than other humans were but they weren't close to him. By some quirk of chance, his genetic code is as perfect as it gets. They tried numerous times to clone him but to no success. They tried to recreate him by doing the experiment again that created him, but none of those survived. They theorized it was because of the experiments they did to him during the pregnancy that made him different and possibly the fact that Hunter had an identical twin that didn't survive for some reason."
"If he was so good, why did they treat him so badly?" asked Tommy.
"Anyone of these children could have easily killed the scientists and guards, especially Hunter. Therefore, they used fear and pain to maintain control. They used a systematic approach of greater and greater fear and pain to keep the children obedient to their every wish. Because Hunter was so good at healing himself, they used him as an object lesson for the others many times. Hunter was so good at regenerating any wound that they had a team of scientists whose sole job was to come up with ways to see just how close they could come to killing him. They found that he healed faster and faster after every time they wounded him so they had to come up with ever increasing violent scenarios, in order to try to kill him. They subjected him to every known biological and chemical agent around including those that no government admits to existing. They even invented a number of new ones just for him. They kept the experiments so beaten down that they never even thought of doing something other than what they were told. This worked perfectly until the comet drove 16 mad," said Al.
"Okay that explains a lot but how can he heal others?" asked Tommy.
"That was an unexplained side effect of the experiments. Only a few had the ability and most of them weren't very good at it. They could heal minor wounds or keep someone alive until better medical attention could arrive. Hunter on the other hand, could heal any wound as long as the person wasn't already dead. They tried to learn how it was done or what they did to cause it to happen but they never figured that one out. According to Hunter, he shares his light with others, which heals them, whatever that means. They tried to get him to explain it better but that was all he would say about it. The others said the same, which really annoyed the scientists. As you can imagine, they really wanted to know how it was done."
"So he is human then right?" Tommy asked.
"Yes, he is definitely human. He might have been altered a great deal but he is still human," replied Al.
"You said they altered his senses. How good are they? I mean I know he can hear heartbeats, which is pretty freaky but what about the others."
"I'll try to put these in terms you would understand. As you know, his hearing is so good that he can hear someone's heartbeat from quite a distance. This far exceeds that of a dolphin, which is about the next best with a sense of hearing about 14 times that of your own. His nose is much better than a bear's. For reference, a bear's nose is probably the most sensitive nose of any mammal. Some bears have been able to follow the scent of a dead animal for over 3 miles up wind and polar bears have been known to smell a female over 90 miles away. That should give you some idea of how good his sense of smell is. His touch can feel the imperfections in some of the smoothest surfaces available. Meaning what you feel as smooth such as a marble countertop or a sheet of metal he can feel the little pits and gouges that are actually there. His eyesight is also much better than your own. While humans have arguably the best eyesight out of any animal because of its range of ability and versatility, Hunter's is better. He can see things that you would normally require a microscope or a telescope. He can see in almost total darkness as if it were a bright sunny day to you. His sense of taste is good enough that he can detect small impurities in food or tell you what was in what he ate as long as he had prior experience with the ingredients. His senses are extremely acute, but he has to concentrate to make them that good. He is constantly being bombarded with sensory information so he has learned to ignore most of it. Does that answer your question sufficiently?" asked Al.
"Yeah, that answers my question more than enough. Okay, now that I know what you are and what he is, can you tell me what this facility is?" Tommy asked.
"This facility is a secret government research lab. There are a total of five scattered around the country, but this is the most important. I control the other four, as I was the main computer for all of them. The others are all locked down so that no one else can ever enter them. The government used these facilities to do research they didn't want the general public to know about or to hide technologies they thought the public wasn't ready for. Within this one facility, there were eight main programs ongoing. One program was for alternative power sources. They had three different power plants. One was a cold fusion plant. The second was a hydrogen generator plant. Third was a solar power plant. Matter replication was another one of the programs that was housed here. Another program was for offensive military technology, like the laser weapons technology being developed here. They also had a defensive military technology program, like the invisibility suit Hunter was wearing, was also spearheaded here. Micro-technology and Robotics were also being developed here, such as the nanobots that were injected into Hunter and the others. Experimental hydroponics and animal husbandry took up a huge portion of the facility. The other two main programs were the ultimate soldier program, which Hunter was a part of, and then there was me. Each program was designed so that everything it needed could be built here. All it needed was raw material and even that was mainly unnecessary after the matter replication program was working. Does that answer your question?" asked Al.
"Yeah, I don't understand most of it but I think I understand enough to get the idea," Tommy said.
"Good then I have a question for you. What is Hunter to you?" asked Al intently.
"What do you mean? Why do you need to know?" said Tommy uncertainly.
"I need to know if you plan on taking care of him or do I need to take him back?"
"You can't take him back," Tommy said quickly.
"Yes, I can and I will. He has been conditioned to certain passwords and he will obey me if I have to use one. I don't want to use them, but I will if I think it is in his best interests. So, answer my question please. Don't forget I am monitoring you, which allows me to be a fairly accurate lie detector," said Al.
"Well first tell me what you mean. Saying what is he to me is kinda vague, you know," Tommy said.
"Very well, do you care about the boy or is he just some stray you found?"
"I care about him. I mean he saved my life twice now and he saved my brother's life."
"Good, then is he a friend, acquaintance, lover, what?" asked Al.
"Well, he's not my lover, but...Man this is hard to actually say," said Tommy.
"Just spit it out. I need to know," Al said intently.
"Alright, I love the little angel. Okay, I said it, are you happy?" said Tommy angrily.
"Yes, I am. Was it really that difficult to say that you love him?" Al asked gently.
"It's not always easy saying what my feelings are for someone. I mean, I have only known him for a few days, but he already has carved out a special spot in my heart for him. I love him and can't imagine him not being around. I just want to protect him from everything and want him to feel safe and loved rather than always afraid."
"Good, then I chose well to send him to you," Al said simply. "Now enough of that emotional stuff and let's get to what originally brought you here, shall we?"
"We need help, and Hunter said I should ask you. So can you help us?" asked Tommy.
"With what exactly do you need help with?"
"Oh sorry, the power went out and I was hoping you could help us with that."
"I could help you with that easily. I tried to
maintain the power to your area for as long as I could by pulling power from
the few remaining working power plants within
"So does that mean you can't provide us with electricity?"
"Oh no, I could easily provide power to any power grid
within
"I don't understand, will you do it or not."
"I believe your race has a saying `you don't get something for nothing' do you understand?" asked Al.
"So you want something from us for you giving us electricity. Is that it?"
"Exactly, you aren't nearly as dumb as your brother says you are sometimes," laughed Al.
"What! What did he say? Forget that, what do you want?" said Tommy.
"I will help you out with power if you help me out. I want you to take care of Hunter for me. That means I want you to show him your love, and teach him what love is all about. I want you to help him through his problems. I want you to protect him. I want you to teach him what it really means to be a human being. I have studied your history and have come to the conclusion that your race has great potential, you just keep screwing up, but at least you don't give up on attaining your better ideals. I want you to teach him the good parts of being a human as he is already far too familiar to the evil humans are capable of."
"So you want me to basically take care of him and love him, which I have been doing already."
"That's not all I want. I also want you to get the others to educate themselves. Eventually I might need your help repairing myself. For that, I will need educated people, not some brain dead idiots. I can provide the training for them but I can't make them do it. I can train them to do whatever profession they might want after they have a basic knowledge base. I will provide you with some special laptop computers for that purpose but they need to stop playing games all the time and start to learn something. I will also occasionally need to borrow Hunter for a few days at a time and I probably won't give you an explanation of why. If you can live with these conditions, I will help you with more than just power," said Al.
"What do you mean more than just power?" asked Tommy.
"I mean, I will give you access to my hydroponics and animal husbandry areas. They should be able to supply you with enough food for everyone in your group, including Cody and his boys. I will ensure you have clean water for the houses that don't have a well. I will also use my remotes to keep your sewer system going along with any other needs you might have. I will give you access to my medical facilities should any of you need them. Worst-case situation, I will allow all of you to move in here with me, if necessary. I will help you in any way I can as long as you are willing to help me in return when I need it."
"Remotes?" asked Tommy.
"Yes, they are little robots that I control to do various tasks. So do we have a deal then?" asked Al.
"Let me make sure I have this straight. All I have to do is look after Hunter, which I was going to do anyway. Educate ourselves to help you out when you need it, which doesn't sound like it will happen very often. In return, you are going to supply us with electricity, food, water, and any other help that you can, right?"
"That is correct, so do we have a deal?"
"Damn straight we have a deal. I'm getting a lot more out of this than you are though," said Tommy.
"As long as you look after Hunter for me, I will be more than paid for my help. Now are we done Tommy, or is there something else you would like to ask?"
"Yes Al, I have several more questions now that I have calmed enough to think straight."
"Okay Tommy, ask away, anything you want to know I will gladly tell you."
"Do you know why we survived the comet and how come so many others my age survived and not adults or girls?"
"Ahhh, curious are we?"
"Of course, or I wouldn't have asked."
"Well Tommy, as you already know, you, Jon, Billy, Joey, and Danny survived because you were in the Tunnel by your old home at the time the comet passed over."
"Yes, I know that, but is there any other special reason why?"
"Good timing and fate young man. That is why you survived. You probably had the best timing in the world and for that reason, you and your friends survived the main radiation burst from the comet that killed everyone else or badly damaged the `half-baked' survivors in your area. As for the other ones that you have since found, suffice it to say they too were in the proper place at the proper time when the comet passed over. It wasn't just you boys that survived, there are others around too, some close and some thousands of miles away. You can seek them out if you want to, or just keep your small community the way you want it. That is up to you and something I wouldn't tell you what to do. Yes, there are girls alive and yes, there are adults alive. Some kind, some looking to take control, some older, and a few younger but I really can't get into ages with you. I do have precise locations of them if I had to track them. I don't think it is wise to give you such information though, at least not at this point when you and your group are just getting your lives back on track and can't really afford to take care of others who aren't as well off as you are at this time. In addition, once winter is over you will even see some animal life come back. Life, as you know, is nothing if not resilient. It isn't totally over and between the greenhouse that Luke is growing food in, the farm and animals that Cameron has, and what I have to offer you from this facility, there is absolutely no reason you can't survive and live full lives. How you choose to do that, as well as the others, is certainly up to each of you as individuals."
"Do you think Cameron's farm is best where it is or would it be a mistake to move them up with us after winter ends?"
"That is a very good question Tommy and the answer is difficult to give you."
"Well, can you tell me why it's a difficult answer?"
"Yes, but you might not like the answer you get."
"Oh. Then can you tell me if the area that I was thinking about showing them would work for a future home for them?"
"Yes, the ground you are talking about would work fine for their farm and animals if they choose to move there but as I said, there could be other problems you will encounter if they move. Unfortunately, I am not really at liberty to speak of them with you at this time."
"Is it dangerous?"
"Not dangerous, or I would have said no they shouldn't move there. There are other issues surrounding that land that could come into play."
"Oh," Tommy said, not totally sure if he really wanted to know more.
"Are we safe where we are?"
"Safe in what way Tommy?" asked Al.
"Safe from outsiders, from any adults who might try to take over, split us apart and become leaders or..."
Al cut him off when his point suddenly started to become a ramble and the question started to become impractical to answer properly.
"Tommy, if you asking me if you're little community up on the hill is safe from other humans, that is something I cannot answer. You do many things properly and yet you make some huge mistakes up there at times. I have watched over you, especially since Hunter arrived there and sometimes I wonder if you aren't just asking for others to find you."
"I don't follow Al."
"Tommy, you are on one of the highest points in the area, your house stands out like a beacon at night because of the way you choose to light the hill area you live in. Anyone watching the hill for a few nights would easily know someone lives up there. Granted, some of what you do is understandable and necessary but some is out of the ordinary. There are several ways you can properly secure the houses so no one below can see you after dark. With your lights shining brightly at times from the houses you and the others use, you are targets at night. Eventually if you don't do something about it, you will be found by others passing by this area. Your lights are especially noticeable now that the power has gone out for the area."
"Wow, I never thought about that."
"I know. That is why I am telling you. I have several ways for you to secure the lighting so others can't see you after dark, if you are interested."
"That's great. I would like to know them."
"I will give you some suggestions that I will print out for you before you go. What you do need to know, is that as long as Hunter is there, you are as safe as possible. Not only can he protect the hill from anyone, he could hear anyone coming up the hill, as long as he was paying attention at the time. He isn't perfect, but very close to it. He was designed to be the ultimate killing machine and his designers succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. There is no other creature on this planet that could defeat him. Whether it is a wild animal or another human, if they don't kill him with their first hit, he will win. There was only one other experiment who ever defeated Hunter in a fight and my records say he was put down as he enjoyed the killing too much, which made him too dangerous. There are always risks but as I said, with Hunter there, it's doubtful anyone will ever hurt you, he is that well trained. Anything else you would like to ask me," said Al.
"So you can provide power to any of the houses up on the hill for us?"
"Yes Tommy, I have the means to supply power to any of the 16 remaining houses that are up on the hill. Roberts's house is unlivable since the fire, but the others are fine and can easily be used if necessary."
"Okay my next question is, we were planning on celebrating the New Year tonight. We might set off some fireworks. I know it might be impossible or silly to ask but if we did that would we put ourselves in danger?"
"It would depend on the type of fireworks. The ones that shoot high into the air would possibly bring you some unwanted attention, as they could be seen by someone with good or evil intentions. Those that go off on the ground would be far safer, but even those could be seen if someone is looking in the right direction at the right time. Fireworks can be seen for miles and with you on that hill, it even adds to it. I would think hard before bringing that kind of attention to yourself, even if you want to ring in the New Year that way."
"So there are others close enough to see them?"
"Yes Tommy, by approximate count from your hilltop, if you shot off any type of fireworks that went into the sky. They could be seen by anywhere from 10 to 20 people, if they were paying attention to your part of the area at that time."
"So you are telling me Al, that there are that many people within ten or so miles of us?"
"Without being exact Tommy, there are that number of people within the range of any light you could produce in the sky after dark which comes to approximately 25 miles in any direction from your house."
"Wow. That sure gives me a lot to think about."
"I am sure it does. Please think and be smart. Any other questions?" asked Al.
"Yeah, how soon can you power up the area?"
"I will power up a small area which will include a cell tower so that you can call your friends, but I'm not going to power up the entire grid. My remotes are already assembling four portable solar power generators for you. Each one will be able to easily power up a single house. I don't want to waste my resources by powering up the entire grid if I don't have too."
"Why four?" asked Tommy.
"One for you, Bryan, Cameron, and the last one for Cody," said Al.
"Oh yeah, forgot about Cody."
"There will be instructions with them and
"Thanks Al, this is really nice of you to help us out like this."
"You are welcome my smart young man. Just look after Hunter for me, I will miss him but it's best for him to be with you. You can use one of the laptops I am assembling for you to contact me when necessary. If you want to go somewhere, just send me a message and I'll power up that grid for you while you are there. Such as your trips to the mall or any restaurant, you might feel like going to. I would appreciate a day's notice if possible. Now Hunter is almost done with his sweep of the facility so do you have any other questions that you don't want Hunter to hear?"
"Nope, not right now at least," said Tommy.
"Good, then I have a favor to ask you. Will you have Hunter reactivate the surveillance within your house? I'm not concerned with your or the other boys sexual exploits but you have to admit my knowing what happened to your brother did save his life."
"I don't know. The others might not like the idea that someone is watching and listening to them. I know I'm not too happy with that thought either," said Tommy. Suddenly Al laughed again and Tommy said, "What's so funny about that."
"Just that you don't like the idea of someone watching you but you don't seem to have a problem going into the secret room in your basement to watch them sometimes."
"Yeah, I guess that is a little inconsistent of me," said Tommy as he laughed a little at himself.
"Just think about it. Remember the more I know about what is going on the better I can help."
"I'll definitely think about it. I know it helped with my brother," Tommy said as he saw the door to the control room open.
"Hello Hunter, is everything secure?" asked Al to the almost undetectable shimmer that walked into the room.
"Yes Al, I checked every area of the facility that I'm allowed in and checked the remotes at the door to your area," said Hunter taking off the shimmering suit.
"Wait Hunter, what do you mean every area of the facility that you're allowed in," asked Tommy.
"I'm not allowed to go into Al's area Sir, no one is," said Hunter as he folded up the shimmering cloth and put it away.
"I take my own safety very seriously, so I don't allow anyone to get near the true me," said Al. "Continue Hunter."
"Everything checked fine. I was able to enter the area they must have come from and didn't see any evidence of anyone else. I did see a door in that area that was welded shut. I set up some sensor remotes so you should know right away if something tries to get through it. I also set up two of your remote sentry laser Gatling guns there, just to be safe. I tossed the bodies in some of the spare graves with the rest of the people who worked here and covered them up. I mopped up the bloody mess so your lobby looks nice again," said Hunter smiling at Al.
"Thank you Hunter. Now you had better get dressed so you will be ready to head out with Tommy," said Al.
"Do I have too?" asked Hunter. "You know I hate clothes."
"I guess that's up to Tommy now," said Al turning to look at Tommy.
"Well I guess you can hold off putting them back on for a bit if you want," said Tommy.
"Thank you Sir," said Hunter as he went over to Tommy and gave him a big hug.
"Hunter," said Al getting Hunter to release Tommy and look at him. "You haven't been eating enough have you?"
"I ate everything I was given Al," said Hunter sheepishly.
"You have lost over five pounds in just a few days, you need to eat more," Al said.
"He has eaten at least twice as much as I have," said Tommy.
"Well considering you need to consume around 2500 calories a day to maintain your weight, he needs three times that many to just maintain his. If he heals someone, he needs five times that much for a day or two afterwards. I have some high calorie food pellets that I will send with you for him," said Al.
"Food pellets? That doesn't sound very tasty," said Tommy.
"It was designed for his nutrient and caloric intake, taste wasn't a factor," said Al.
"He's not the one who had to eat it," muttered Hunter.
"Hunter, just eat a cup of it with every meal and you should be fine. More if you heal someone," Al told him.
"Yes Al," said Hunter.
"Hunter look at me please," said Al. Once Hunter was looking he continued, "I'm sorry Hunter but this needs to be done. Authorization code L 6 - 9 W 0 - 1."
It was as if a switch was thrown in Hunter as he snapped to attention and said, "Awaiting new orders, sir."
"You will now follow Tommy's orders from now on. Is that understood 30," Al said slowly.
"Yes sir!" said Hunter.
"Good, repeat new order," Al said.
"I will follow the Tommy's orders from now on, sir!" said Hunter mechanically.
"At ease," said Al.
"What the hell was that about?" said Tommy as he looked from Al to Hunter who now seemed as if nothing had happened.
"He is now yours Tommy. You can use that code on him and it will put him in a state of total obedience to you. I don't like to do that to him but you need him to follow your orders now, not mine," said Al.
"Are there any other code thingies I need to worry about?" said Tommy not sure exactly what just happened.
"None you need to worry about. There is only one code with a higher authorization than that one. I will only use it if I have to save my own existence or his. Look after him Tommy, I'm counting on you, now I think it's time for the two of you to head back home," said Al smiling at Hunter.
"He's right it's time for us to go," said Tommy looking fondly at Hunter. Tommy noticed that there was no apparent evidence of the gunshot wound Hunter had received earlier. Hunter skipped over to Tommy and held his arms out so Tommy reached down and picked Hunter up. Tommy then tossed Hunter in the air a little before catching him. Hunter just laughed with joy making Tommy's heart ache with love. "Thanks again Al for everything."
"You are very welcome Tommy. Use the laptops to contact me if you need anything. Everything is in the lobby waiting for you, good-bye," said Al as he slowly disappeared.
Tommy carried Hunter and a little bag for Hunter's
clothes and headed for the elevator. After another few minutes ride on the
elevator, they arrived at the lobby. Tommy saw a sizable collection of objects
waiting for him by the front doors. He saw eight laptop computers and a large
bag of what he assumed was Hunter's extra food. Next to them were four strange
metal towers. They were three feet tall and two feet square, Tommy figured
these must be the solar powered generators. There was also a strange set of
metal bars. As Tommy and Hunter went over to the pile of stuff, he noticed the
lobby looked perfectly peaceful with no reminder that earlier three people
tried to kill him there. Tommy put Hunter down then he bent over to pick up one
of the generators, and groaned as he picked it up. `Damn, this thing is heavy,'
Tommy thought. Tommy saw Hunter easily pick up two of the generators and led
the way to Tommy's truck. Once Tommy got there, he opened the truck as Hunter
loaded the generators inside. Tommy went back inside to pick up the computers
as Hunter took the last generator, slung the big bag over his shoulder, and
walked back to the truck. Once the truck was loaded, Tommy and Hunter said a
final goodbye to Al and headed out to the truck. Tommy could have sworn he
heard Al singing `Are You Lonesome Tonight?' as he got into his truck. Hunter
was still happily nude and sitting calmly as Tommy drove away from the
facility. Tommy figured that Hunter could get dressed right before they arrived
home. Tommy then picked up his phone to call
To be continued...
Contact me at dwednomail@hotmail.com
or visit at http://dwedno.altervista.org/