ADAM

 

Tuesday January 7 - 0521 MST

 

 

The fifty dollars I'd been given turned out to be enough to get me a set of sweats from the truck stop's store and two double cheeseburgers with a large order of fries. A change of clothes, a full belly, and a trip through the showers made me feel like a new man. It's amazing how simple things like that can make a difference.

My cuts had also all healed up and most of the bruising had vanished already. This was in part due to one of the other side effects of the Change. I healed really fast. But despite all that something nagged at me.

No one seemed to realize that anything was wrong. I figured the truckers and travelers would all be complaining about the interstate being blocked off, but I saw people coming and going like it had never even happened. Tim had left the local news on the TV and even that seemed off. Not a single mention of anything odd.

Then I saw it. The date on the weather report read January seventh. I nearly coughed up my soda through my nose. That couldn't possibly be right. Maybe it was an April Fools joke because it was April first. But then I checked the newsstand.

All the papers had the same date. Had I been gone that long? What was I doing in all that time? Did I end up in some alternate Earth?

I needed to calm down and think about all this rationally. So I sat back down at the counter and mulled it over while the pretty girl on the screen told me what I could expect from the weather later in the day.

When I first went into the dome of light that was Taob's realm I remembered the radios stopped working. At least when we tried to talk with the outside world. Our people back at the CTTC figured out that it was because there was some weird time distortion going on inside Taob's prison. That would explain it.

It was times like these I was glad for being a comic book nerd. Normal people wouldn't even think to try and explain it that way, let alone believe it. If I really had been gone that long and I wasn't in an alternative Earth then I would need to contact Colonel Sterling and let him know I was still alive. The trouble was I didn't have his number and it wasn't like the phone book would have a listing for Secret Government Operation That Fights Demons.

"Hey, watch it!" Coffee spilled over the rim of the mug of the customer seated next to me at the counter. Tim was refilling the man's cup and was too preoccupied to notice that he needed to stop pouring. His face had gone pale and his eyes were as wide as the saucers that came with the coffee cups. I followed his gaze to the glass front of the truck stop's diner just in time to see the door swing shut on the tail end of a tactical stack of four men geared out in SWAT gear.

They scurried out of view behind a row of booths and several bewildered diners. Several more armed men were covering behind cars, trucks, and concrete structural supports out in the fueling area.

It was obvious why they were here. There weren't any terrorists or robbers in the truck stop. But there was me. I grabbed Dominus by the barrel from where it was leaning against the wall and then vaulted over the counter top where I huddled in a low crouch.

When the counter wasn't blown apart with gun fire I got real quiet and listened. The black uniformed men were herding the diners and staff out of the restaurant. They were preparing for a firefight. That got me worried.

See, if they were police then someone would have talked me into surrendering. These guys were ready to rumble. I didn't recognize any of the voices so that ruled out Alpha team. My guts knotted up at the only remaining possibility.

Hazard Black.

Those were the unidentified mercenaries that had a keen interest in all things mystical and had some serious hardware to back up their ambition. There was no telling what they wanted with me or what they would do to me once I was in their custody. I had to escape before it came to that.

I slung Dominus over my back and crawled on all fours through the swinging door that led into the kitchen. A waitress nearly tripped over me as she walked out with a tray covered in chicken fried steaks. There was a cook in there that was about to yell at me for coming into his kitchen, but then his eyes caught the barrel of the fifty caliber carbine hanging on my back. He got really quiet then.

"Where's the back door?"

He pointed a shaky finger to his right, at a narrow hallway between a closet and a walk-in refrigerator. I squeezed past the cook and through the hallway nearly kicking over a mop bucket filled with soapy water. The fire exit was unlocked and despite the warning written on it, there was no alarm that sounded when I forced my way through.

The parking lot was bathed in the orange glow of high efficiency lighting. Scattered cars, RVs, and tractor trailers littered the acre sized lot. I ran straight towards the back fence, my most direct means of losing my pursuers.

And straight into the muzzles of two rifles.

Two men in black tactical gear stepped out from behind a car to block my path, their guns leveled at my chest. SWAT was emblazoned on their chest rigs in huge, white block lettering.

"Drop the gun! Drop the gun!"

Their chorus was joined by two more men who had been in hiding behind me. They weren't going to stop until I put Dominus on the asphalt. I slowly brought my rifle off my shoulder as if I was complying but I was mentally running scenarios through my head. My reactions were fast enough that I could probably shoot the two in front, but I couldn't see the two behind. Still, that might be enough for me to get away. I took a deep breath and imagined myself taking the shots. There was only one chance to get this right.

Then one of the two in front of me lowered his rifle and took a step towards me.

"Adam? Is that you?"

That stopped me cold. I had no idea how this guy knew me. But then he slid the goggles from his eyes up onto his helmet. He was noticeably shorter than the others. Though he'd grown a short beard since I'd last seen him I recognized the youthful features of one of my teammates.

"Jay? What's going on? Why is everyone acting like I'm an exo?"

Jay's features softened, like he'd just had some heavy burden removed. His buddies on the other hand still had their sights set on me. But at least they'd stopped shouting at me.

"I'll explain everything, but first I need you to answer some questions for me."

Jay then asked me what the model and year of my first car was and the third digit of a secret PIN. This was all information I'd provided in case I was ever captured by an enemy. The rescuers would use it to make sure I was the real deal and not some plant. When I'd answered the questions correctly the others relaxed noticeably.

The man next to Jay activated his radio. "Iron Shack this is Shadow One-Zero. We have confirmation. This is Adam. I say again, we have Adam."

I could only imagine what the operations center back at Dugway must have sounded like. If this wasn't some weird alternate reality, then they must have been worried about me. And now I was back.

Jay held out a hand for me. "Welcome back, buddy. It must feel good to be home after being gone so long."

And that was just it. It had only been a few hours since I last saw everyone. I wasn't gone long at all.