The Tower

I clench my teeth and my hand instinctively goes to the throbbing pain in my side. My fingertips become wet and sticky with blood as I paw over the wound.  The safe-house isn’t far from me but I’m not sure I can get there without being seen. If there is even anyone around to see. The strange green lights used by the enemy were circling the dark streets not more than five minutes before. It’s almost completely black now, save for the faint illumination of the waning crescent above, casting cloud-veiled light on the desolate streets of the city. It’s times like this I wish I had those night vision goggles that I used to see in movies. It’s a pipe dream at this point.

There is a storm coming, I know, because the icy wind has begun slapping my face in a punishing manner. I crouch between large bushes and a concrete building, scanning my surroundings.  Screeching howls echo around me as the tall skyscrapers funnel the wind’s force through the streets. The windows of the towers all dark, devoid of human life.

I shift my weight hoping to relieve some of the pressure off my increasingly aching ankle. I replay my stupidity in my mind like a blooper real, where I took the the wrong turn and almost ran out in front of the the bars of green light that had been scanning the alley I had run down. I dropped to the ground fast, my small size working in my favour as I rolled under what was left of a truck to avoid being seen. It was quick thinking, and any other time I would have patted myself on the back for the ninja-like moves, but when I crawled out and stood up on the other side I ended up rolling my ankle on some broken pavement. Then I tripped right into a piece of metal sticking out the side of the truck. The ankle is just bruised from what I can tell, and my unexpected impalement didn’t go very deep, but infection can be deadly and it’s not like there’s running hospitals just waiting to take people. I’d be lucky to find clean bandages if it wasn’t for the safe-house.

The wind rustles debris around me and a crumpled ball of paper skips towards my boot. I slam my hand down to stop it from getting away. I un-crumple it, but it’s too dark to make out the writing so I tuck it into my back pocket. I take a deep breath before springing up. I dart into the street, crossing over to the wall of buildings on the other side. I try to move as quick and quietly as possible, until I’m up against the building. I slip between two buildings and shimmy my way until I reach the door. My heart is pounding, but I make it inside and down to the basement, through the utility room and through the hidden door leading down another set of stairs and a hallway where the entrance to the safe-house is. It's comprised of a main room, a storage room and a small bathroom. It's not much, but it's safe.

“You’re alive,” Anna exclaims softly as I enter the dimly lit room. 

“It was touch and go for a moment” I reply.

“Scanners?” Jonah enters from the back room carrying a jug of water for the dispenser.  

“Yeah. Those strange green lights again. I don’t think they saw me. I stayed hidden until I thought it was safe to go.” I limp towards the table and chairs. It’s good to sit.

“Dax, you’re hurt.” Anna looks at me, her dark eyes full of concern. “What happened?”

“Just some bad luck trying to avoid being seen.”  And stupidity, my stupidity. 

 “Let me grab the kit.”  

The next thing I know telling my story while Anna is examining my wound up close with a flashlight.  

“It’s not too bad, just a stitch or two and you will be okay, barring that it doesn’t get infected.” Anna says while she pours hydrogen peroxide into the wound. She threads the needle with ease and pokes it into my skin.

I wince in pain but Anna doesn’t flinch. She’s seen worse. She was a nurse before the arrival, and she’s seen some pretty gruesome stuff since. 

 “Were you able to get to the building on 4th?” Jonah pulls up the chair across from me, sunken eyes searching my face for some sort of hope. Hope that I can’t provide.  

I nod. “It was a waste of time. There wasn’t anything left in the way of supplies, just a bunch of office crap. I noticed something though. They removed the bodies again. The ones outside Henry's Diner. They’re gone, they’re just gone.”

Anna snips the thread on her patchwork. “What do you suppose they do with them?” She smooths over the freshly applied bandage and meets my eyes.

I shrug. I can’t even let myself think about that. Just then I remember the the piece of paper that I tucked into my back pocket. “But I found this.”

I smooth out the paper and turn it towards the light of the lantern on the table.

THE DOGS HAVE MADE A DISCOVERY. THE PRINCESS IS IN THE TOWER AND MUST BE RESCUED.  

“What do you think this means? Jonah pushes his grey hair back from his eyes as he takes the paper from me. His aged face looks perplexed and intrigued.  

For the next two hours we try to puzzle it out. Anna points out that the paper looks clean, and not very weathered so she figures it must have been written very recent. Jonah insists its code for something. But where did it come from? It was so windy when I found it. The paper could have been blowing for blocks before it reached me.  Who was it meant for? Did someone toss it or lose it?

We decide to turn in. I lay on the uncomfortable cot feeling the hours pass, yawning profusely, but sleep is eluding me. The message confirmed what Campbell had said before he disappeared. There was other people still in the city. Could it be the help he was waiting for? Could the message be for him? From him? 

My thoughts drift to the night Campbell brought me here. I had been holed up in an apartment that wasn’t mine, hiding from the chaos when he found me and led me to his safe-house. Anna and Jonah were already here, they too had been found by Campbell. We stayed here for a few days, sharing fears, swapping stories, and trying to figure out what it all meant. One day Campbell told us he had an important mission and would be back within a few days. From our count it was going on three weeks now. There was only one thing to conclude. He was probably dead. Sad for him, sad for us. He was army. If he couldn’t make it out there what chance does a twenty year-old kid, an overweight nurse, and old man with a bum hip have out there, with those things? I shudder to think about it. One thing is certain, supplies won’t last forever and we need to move on. 

“One way in means one way out,” Jonah mutters from the next cot over.

He’s not wrong. Our hide-out isn’t perfect. We could easily be trapped in here.  

*  * *

“Dax? How bad is your pain? I found something for you to take.” Anna places her hand on my shoulder, nudging me awake.

“What time is it?” I ask hoarsely as Anna hands me a pill and glass of water.

“It’s almost noon. I keep thinking about my family. Did I ever tell you about that time back home in the Philippines when my brother was sick? It’s a funny story, you see…”

“I think I know what the tower is,” exclaims Jonah, interrupting Anna. “There is an apartment on Main, just around the corner from here, it’s called Royal Tower.

“We’re surrounded by sky-scrapers Jonah, it could be anything, Don’t you think we would have seen a sign by now? If there was anyone left to help? To rescue us?” Anna replied.

“How could we do that” Jonah demanded. “We’ve been down here for weeks. Heck, just a few short trips and Dax almost got himself killed! He didn’t have time to see anything.”

“I’m going back out again,” I declare.  

Despite Anna protesting at first we decide to make a plan. Jonah pulls out the map of the city and he traces his finger along the street where we are.  

“Now if you can go straight to Main in this direction, you will hit the tower as soon as you round the corner. The building is right here on this side,” Jonah says, tapping his finger on the location. “Right here.” 

“And what is he going to do when he gets there?” Anna interjects. “What if there is someone needing rescue? Dax is injured, like what is he going to do?”

“Do you suppose there was actual dogs discovering stuff? I mean…” I let my voice trail off. I know I sound like a stupid kid, but I’m probably their best chance at survival at this point. Either that or I’m about to get myself killed or taken. At any rate supplies are dwindling, it might be do or die, and I'd rather be doing than dying. Not waiting to starve in a basement.

As if reading my mind Jonah points to the back room, “We don’t have much left, it won’t last more than a few days. If we run out of food we can go a while, but we’ll run out of water much faster than that.”

"It’s decided then." I nod my head trying to reassure them, trying to reassure myself. "I will go to that building called the tower and see if there is anything useful for us. Or at least find a way to get out of here."

“Please come back Dax,” Anna pleads.

* * *

The streets are bathed in the late afternoon sun, the warm orange glow reflecting off the windows. The storm has passed, and there is only a faint breeze now. The roads are empty as usual, and quiet. No sign of the enemy. Or dogs for that matter.

A bird flies overhead and it occurs to me that I haven’t seen a bird in a long while. I ponder what kind of effect the events of the last five weeks could have had on them. My wandering thoughts are interrupted when I see something moving up ahead. I crouch down trying to stay still, hoping I’m not walking right into the enemy. I see a person up ahead, a man. A man wearing army fatigues. He’s moving with conviction, towards the same building I’m going. He’s only about twenty feet away.

“Campbell!” I call out in a loud whisper. “Campbell." 

The figure whips around to face me. It is Campbell! He brings his finger to his mouth to shush me, and then looks around to see if I had drawn attention to us. It’s still quiet all around us. I break into a limping jog to reach him. 

“Dax, what are you doing here? It’s dangerous.” Campbell’s eyes scan me over and then our surroundings.

“Campbell, you’re alive! Where have you been all this time?”

“Dax, what do you mean all this time?” Campbell replies in surprise. “I’ve only been gone a few hours.”

“You’ve been gone for almost three weeks!”

Campbell stops in his tracks and looks at me suspiciously. “Dax, I”m going to ask you something.”

I nod, “yes anything.”  

“Where are the rest of them?”

“Jonah and Anna?”

Campbell grabs me by the shoulders, shaking me hard, taking me by surprise. The wound in my side begins to pulsate, reminding me its there.

“My crew, they were behind me and then it was just you. You’re one of them.” Campbell says fearfully, “you’re one of those things!” 

“Campbell stop, please let me go,” I plead. “I’m your friend, I’m Dax.”

Eyes wild, Campbell lets me go and pushes me back. I hit the pavement, landing on my ass.

“Campbell, wait,” I put my hand out but Campbell is already racing toward the tower. I guess Jonah was right, this is the place where I’m going to find something. I get to my feet and give chase, despite the tenderness I feel in my ankle.

Campbell flings open the door of the building and I enter in behind him. The lights are on. Surprisingly the building has electricity. 

Campbell takes the stairs and I follow. Floor two, floor three, four, reaching five. I huff and try to suck in breath as I grip the railing and pull myself up the steps. The wound on my side isn’t making it any easier for me, nor is my ankle. Floor six, floor eight. “Campbell, Campbell stop,” I call out, breathless, at the point of exhaustion. Every floor we take I ask myself why I’m following, what I hope to gain. I don’t know if it’s pointless but I keep pushing on, trailing Campbell by less than a flight. Finally we reach nineteen, the top floor.

Campbell pushes on the numbered door and disappears through. I reach the door and push it open. Late afternoon light washes over me as I enter. It’s a solarium, with a court-yard like feel enclosed in glass. There is a man sitting in the middle of the room. It’s Campbell. Wait - Campbell is standing in front of the man, and they’re identical.  Two Campbells! I stumble back in confusion.  

“What the fu…” says the Campbell I followed up the stairs.

“Campbell?” I stammer.

Both men look at me.

“Help me, “ says the Campbell on the ground. “He’s not me,”

“He’s not me!” Says the Campbell standing before him.

All of a sudden the room fills with that strange green light and the Campbell I followed here walks toward the source.

“What are you doing?” I cry out. We need to get out of here.”

I notice the Campbell on at the floor has his hands tied in front of him. He must be the real Campbell. I crouch down over him and reach for his ropes. “Can you move?” I can’t untie them but his feet are not tied so we can still make a break for it.

He doesn’t reply. He’s just staring at me now, his eyes slightly vacant. Panic sets in and I throw my gaze towards the door I had come through. I need to get out of here. I shake him hard. “Campbell we need to go,”

I tug on his arm, trying to pull him to his feet. “Campbell, please.”

The lights are getting brighter, and I start to feel light-headed. What is happening to me? The room begins to spin, and I feel myself losing my footing. My arms go straight out to my sides as I attempt to brace myself. “No, oh no,” I mumble as the room goes black.

I hear Anna humming softly as I open my eyes. I’m lying on my cot back at the safe-house. My shirt is off and Anna is tending my wound.

“How did I get here?” I try to sit up but my side gives off a stabbing pain. 

“Campbell brought you.” Anna says while gently forcing me back down. “He said you followed him into the Royal Tower in a strange mental state. Careful now, you popped a couple of stitches,”

The events at the tower come rushing back. “No Anna, Campbell is not what you think. Something is wrong.” I look around the room and realize we’re alone. 

“Anna, where is Jonah?” 

“He went with Campbell to retrieve something he left at the tower,”

“Anna, we got to get out of here, you don’t understand.” I force myself to sit up despite Anna’s objection.

Something feels wrong, so very wrong. “Anna, what were you going to tell me about your brother, back in the Philippines? Yesterday, before Jonah interrupted.” I search her face.

“Oh, I don’t know.” She meets my eyes with a vacant stare.

I bolt up from the cot. “You’re not Anna.”

“No, but you’re not Dax either.”

I feel my body break into a cold sweat. I run out of the safe-house, down the hall, up the stairs and out of the building. Outside is dark now but I see Campbell standing with Jonah. The green lights are visible down the street, maybe a few blocks down. There is a third figure. Jonah moves to the left and I see it now. It’s me, it’s a Dax look-alike! I gasp, then bring my hand to my mouth to stifle the scream I can feel bubbling up.  

“Dax,” Anna calls out from behind me.

With the sound of her voice all three men look in my direction.  

“That’s not me,” shouts the other Dax, pointing in at me. 

No, that’s not me I scream inside my head. Fear kicks me in the back and I begin to run away. Away from the green lights and the human copies. I don’t know how far I will get but I know I’m not stopping until I’m out of the city. “That wasn’t me,” I mutter to myself. “I’m Dax, the real Dax.”

The sky is clear, and the moon lights my way. I feel the wind pick up against my shirtless back, pushing me along. Somewhere, somehow, I will find a way to solve this. Somehow.