Work Text:
2118
by Lopaka Tanu
There were people around him, but he couldn't make out their faces. Everything he saw seemed to be surrounded by a white glow, making it almost...ethereal he believed was the right word. This made him smile.
It wasn't that he couldn't see them, he just didn't want to. There were too many, so many that it made his head hurt. He liked sinking in to his own world here. No one was real, and everything was just a dream.
He could still hear here.
The light around him seemed to hum to him. Nothing angelic like in those old tv shows could be heard. It was almost like the world itself was producing the music. There was just this deep, continuous hum that filled the background.
Everyone else ignored it because it was always there. Not him, he still heard it.
Still, others produced more sounds. When he sat between the support pillars, it was like they vibrated. He could hear it as if water was constantly flowing through them. That was his favorite place to sit. After all, it wasn't like he had anything else to do.
One of the figures suddenly stopped in front of him. Kyle knew who it was before the hand stopped in front of his face. He reached out and caught Shawn's fingers before they snapped. Looking up, the ethereal light slid away as he met his cousin's sad expression. "What happened?" Or, at least he hoped that's how it sounded.
Shawn started to open his mouth. Catching sight of Kyle made him pause halfway. Closing his eyes, he reached in to his jumpsuit pocket and pulled out a pad and pencil. After taking back his hand, he scribbled down a note for Kyle.
Accepting the note, Kyle held it up so he could see it in the dim overhead lights. Everything seemed to be duller after being in the ethereal light. That was funny, because the ethereal light never hurt his eyes. What he saw took the humor out of the situation fast. "No."
Shawn's hand went to Kyle's shoulder. Squeezing it, he tried to get Kyle to look at him.
Kyle quickly knocked it away. There was no way in hell he was going to let them poke and prod him. He wasn't a lab monkey! He told his cousin as much. Rising from the floor, he used the column beside him to hold him up.
Moving to block his path, Shawn gave his cousin an imploring expression. It was obvious he wanted Kyle to do this. "Please," he slowly mouthed.
But it wasn't going to happen. Pushing off, Kyle walked around the other teen and stalked off towards their bunks. The cochlear implant wasn't a choice he could live with. He was deaf, that's all there was to it.
~~~~~~~~~
She was eight. Kyle didn't know her name, but she was eight. Watching her skip between the beds made his stomach growl. Her jerky movements only served to increase his growing nausea. Closing his eyes, Kyle took a deep breath.
If someone touched his forehead, he thought he probably would feel a little warm to the touch. Whatever they had injected him with during the last physical wasn't settling well with his system.
Across the aisle that separated their bunks, Shawn was watching Kyle in return. His own skin was clammy in appearance. He tried to smile at his cousin when he caught him watching, but Shawn couldn't summon the strength.
Raising a finger to his arm, Kyle used his thumb to look like the plunger on a needle. He pressed down to indicate an injection to Shawn.
Getting it, Shawn nodded. He thought it was the injection too.
As a strong wave of nausea rolled through him, Kyle closed his eyes again. He laid back on the bed. Dropping an arm over his eyes, he tried to will his stomach to settle.
They had said the shots were immunizations that everyone was getting. He didn't doubt it, but that didn't mean he had to like it. Since all forty-four hundred of them were going to be sick, he hoped they staggered the groups who got them. It put some at risk for infection, but it was easier to handle a few hundred sick people at once than four thousand.
Groaning, Kyle wished he could hear it so that he wasn't too loud. Last time he had been sick from too many immunity shots was when he went to Mexico for spring break last... when he was sixteen. He had spent three days puking his guts up. It hadn't been as bad as when he got down there.
Who spent their spring break building houses for the poor? His mother, that's who. Remembering that made his head hurt worse.
~~~~~~~~~~
By the time a note came for Kyle to take his first official interview, his cousin had already been to four of them. Hell, Shawn was already signed up for a support group. Of all the things to have survived the last three years since their abduction, therapy was not something he was happy about.
At least the interrogation room was slightly more pleasant than the one his dad used to work in. Then again, Kyle had only been in that one once. That had been on a tour. At least this one had a water cooler.
Sipping from his paper cup, Kyle stared at the man sitting behind the interrogation table. He was talking, had been for the past five minutes. Every so often, Kyle nodded his head. Whatever he was going on about, it was obvious he liked the sound of his own voice.
Another thing that was obvious? He was too stupid to read Kyle's medical file.
Kyle wished his father was around. This douche wouldn't have lasted five minutes under his command. As it was, just mocking him was getting boring fast. He must have sighed because the guy got a put upon expression on his face.
Staring at Kyle, he raised an eyebrow.
It took a moment for Kyle to realize that the idiot had asked him a question. The absurdity of it made him snort and roll his eyes.
The agent narrowed his eyes and leaned a little towards Kyle. He seemed to swell a little in his chair, posture instantly becoming hostile. When Kyle didn't so much as blink, he leaned forward some more. Before he could do anything else the door to the room opened.
Out of boredom, Kyle glanced over just to see who it was.
It was another man in a suit. This one was dark blue, it matched his hair and seemed to bring out the color of his eyes. Obviously he had a little money to spend and liked to look good. Walking in to the room, his attention went immediately to Kyle. He smiled as he spoke.
The first agent reacted like he had been hit. Rising up from the table, he pointed a finger at Kyle.
Whatever he had said got the second agent's attention. He face the second agent and said two words.
Kyle knew those words without even having to read the man's lips.
The moment they registered with the first agent, his face went slack. Looking back to Kyle, he said something. He sighed when he got no response. His snapped shut. Adjusting his tie, he stepped away from the table and marched out.
Snickering, Kyle closed his eyes. He did a little dance in his seat that ended with flipping off the camera behind the agent. It was childish to say the least, but he felt like doing victory dance. Any time he could make these people's lives a little miserable was a good day.
While Kyle had done that, the new Agent had set a metal briefcase on the interrogation table. After cracking open the top flaps, he pulled out two thin laptops. Activating them, he brought something up before smiling. He turned one to face Kyle with a quirk of his lips.
Curious about this new development, Kyle sat up in his chair. It wasn't anything special. A chat window took up most of the screen. The first entry was a question.
"How are you feeling today?"
Kyle raised an eyebrow. He had to admit, he was impressed. With only a slight hesitation, he reached out and typed up a response. "Bored."
This made the man snicker. He glanced over his shoulder at the camera, then back to Kyle. Unbuttoning his jacket, he sat down in the chair vacated by the previous agent.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Kyle fired off a question of his own. "How is my father?"
Seeing this, the man met Kyle's gaze for a moment. His hands went quickly to his keyboard. He finished typing and hit the enter key. "Your father is fine. He's just unable to attend this interview because of protocol."
That made Kyle roll his eyes. "I know that. He was lucky Mr. Ryland allowed him to interview my cousin Shawn."
The man raised an eyebrow. "You know Dennis?"
"Yeah. My dad worked for him before." Kyle left it at that. Let him find out for himself how. Besides, there were other more important things to discuss. "When can we go home?"
"A decision hasn't been made about that." The agent was surprised when Kyle snapped the laptop shut.
Standing up, Kyle clenched his jaw. He pointed at himself, then to the door. "I want out," he tried to say. Whatever he really said must have been clear enough though.
Sighing, the agent looked down. After a moment, he glanced up to see Kyle still glaring at him. With a shrug, he indicated the door.
It wasn't what he had wanted, but Kyle would take it. He went straight for the door. Kyle knew this would only last a short time. The next time he was called, it would be for an actual interrogation. He didn't care.
~~~~~~~~~~
Two weeks. That was how long they had been in quarantine according to the news ticker on NNHN. What it meant for everyone, Kyle didn't care. Shawn had been allowed to see his father four times now, and Kyle hadn't been once. That was what mattered in here.
People were worried about their families. A few of them got word from the outside via highly censored mail. Those that didn't have any, didn't so much worry as sit around and mourn. Richard was one of those. He and Shawn spent a lot of time together.
That is, when he and Lily weren't.
Shawn thought it was sweet. Kyle couldn't care less. Since he couldn't hear a word they said, people tended to ignore him. That left him a lot of time on his hands, time to do with what he pleased.
Lately, that meant watching Television. His record was fifteen hours of scrolling headlines with two pee breaks. Right now, he probably knew more about the world outside than some of the agents who worked here.
Someone sat down beside him. Kyle could tell by the smell it was that crazy girl again. She thought the human body smelled good as it was. Something about natural, he couldn't remember. He had crumpled up her note halfway through.
Leaning away from her, he managed to keep from breaking his attention. A piece of paper appeared in his face. He started to knock her hand away until he saw that it was an official note. Taking it, he tried to breathe through his mouth. That only made her smell have taste and nearly gagged him.
He broke the sticker seal and flipped it open. It was a confirmation for his next appointment. So, they were using dirty people to do their dirty work.
Crumpling it up, he threw it over his shoulder. So what.
~~~~~~~~~~
Kyle pulled the baloney off his bread to examine it. He was almost pretty sure it wasn't pork. The texture and flavor were a little off. May be it was kosher beef. There were a few Jews and Muslims, it would make sense. As it was, the meat tasted bad enough that he was no longer interested.
Dropping it on his tray, he slapped his bread back together. He took another bite of the sandwich and went back to watching the television. There was nothing interesting happening in the world lately, so he had seen most of the news already.
Beside him, Shawn was sitting with Richard again. They were playing a game of cards. Whatever it was held no interest for Kyle. They had to talk to play it.
When the commercials came on the television, Kyle let his eyes roll to the ceiling. The lack of mental stimulation was slowly driving him crazy. As it was, he had the feeling he'd be a jibbering idiot by the end of the month. That wasn't so bad. It'd give him something to do at least.
Smiling, Kyle felt the world slowly fade away. He must have been more bored than he had thought. The light began to make everything glow. Beside him, Shawn and Richard became indistinct shadows in the light.
Then the humming started.
Closing his eyes, Kyle emersed himself in the thrill of hearing something. He found himself humming back to it. The more he did, the louder it seemed to grow. Shadows of figures seemed to come to him the louder he got.
By the time he was near shouting, there were so many figures he couldn't see past them. One of them reached out to him. Slowly, it caressed his face.
Kyle wondered why he didn't stop, but found himself unable. He clenched his eyes shut to drive out the light. If he concentrated hard enough it might make sense. Words slowly drifted over his ears.
There was something them. It was a message. Someone was talking to him.
Opening his eyes, he found himself no longer surrounded by light. He was no longer in the quarantined zone either. The people from the zone were there, though. In fact, it was Lily who now stood caressing his face.
Smiling at him, she ran a thumb over his cheek. "Welcome back, Kyle."
Kyle stared at her in pure amazement. "I heard you." It was true, he had heard her say the words.
"Of course you heard me." She gave his cheek another caress, then released him. Stepping back, she gestured at the figures to either side of her. "You can hear all of us."
"How is that possible?" Looking over their heads, he found a metal wall. Attached to it was a walkway high up. People stood on it, backlit by dim wall lamps. "Where are we?"
Richard stepped forward. The benevolent smile on his face was different than his normal sad smile. "We are not whom we appear to be, Kyle."
Something clicked in Kyle's head. "You're the people who did this to me."
"We are." Richard laced his fingers in front of him. "We have been waiting for you to make contact. There is so much you need to know."
"Waiting for me?" Kyle looked down at himself. He was in what appeared to be a pair of blue pajama bottoms and a gray tshirt. "This isn't what I was wearing."
"It was when you were here with us." Stepping away from the group, Lily came around to his side. She knelt by the bed he was sitting on. Placing a hand on his knee, she gave it a reassuring squeeze. "Kyle. We have a message you must take back to your people."
"Yes." Kyle found himself agreeing without even thinking about it. A part of him felt a little alarmed at how quickly he responded to these people. He knew they weren't his friends. This was also probably all just an illusion they had created in his mind to make him comfortable. "What do you want me to say?"
"That's a good boy." Placing her forehead to his, Lily gave him a hug. "An important change is about to begin. It is imperative that they let it happen, that it be fostered and allowed to grow unimpeded. For the sake of the future of the human race."
"Is that why you took us?" Folding his hands in his lap, Kyle found himself strangely comforted by her touch. It was almost familiar.
"Yes. We needed people of the era to be that change. That is where you come in." She pushed the hair off his face and smiled at him. "You will facilitate communications between us and your people."
Kyle reached up and pushed his hair back over his forehead. "And if I refuse?"
Tweeking his nose, she pushed it back off his face. "You won't."
The noise of the world began to grow again. The humming started out deafening this time. It reached a maximum crescendo then faded away quickly, taking with it the light. Then he was left staring at the television again.
The commercials were still on as he blinked to clear his vision. Glancing over to his right, Kyle found Richard and Shawn playing cards. Lily was no where in sight.
A shiver went down his spine.
THE END..............................