Superhero by Victor Methos Page A

up and walked over to William, sliding past him. “Tell ya one thing, though: ain’t no cop safe in this town.”
     

 
    CHAPTER 18
     
     
    “OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE.”
    The world was a hazy, green gelatin. When he opened his eyes the gelatin seeped into them but didn’t cause pain. It took several minutes for Jack to adjust enough to understand that his eyes were open. That he wasn’t dreaming. The colors were duller. That was the answer to Descartes’s question of how one could possibly know if one was dreaming or awake: the colors in a dream are much brighter. So bright that they almost hurt.
    Jack attempted to move his hands and a shock of joy and confusion went through him as he found he was able to. He attempted to move his toes and could too, but the movement felt different than that of his hands. It felt almost like they moved too quickly and easily, with almost no effort on his part.
    He turned his head to the left and to the right. He could see through the gelatin. The place was unfamiliar but masses of machines were set up along the bare stone walls. Monitors flickered blue in darkness. Above a door on the far side of the room a red light blinked.
    Jack brought his hand up and pushed on the transparent encasement around him. Thick glass. He began pushing more. Then he began striking. Suddenly he felt claustrophobic. Like the gelatin could seep through the oxygen mask that was strapped to his face and fill his lungs. He kicked frantically at the encasement and heard a loud crack. He continued to kick and punch and the sound of glass cracking filled his ears as the lights in the room came on and he saw movement outside.
    A tightening pressure came over his lungs as the top of the encasement was removed and he was pulled out and into the air. He ripped off the mask and inhaled air deep into his lungs. The mechanism wrapped around his waist was crushing the air out of him and Jack twisted his body away from it and slipped out. He fell to the floor and lay on his side, coughing.
    The smell of orange blossoms filled his nostrils as he heard a soft, female voice say, “Jack, you are just fine. Please relax. I will explain everything to you.”
     
     
    Jack was helped to his feet and into a chair. As he coughed, he caught glimpses of the room around him. It was clearly a laboratory, but not like any he’d seen. Another container of the green gelatin was across the room and then darkness after that.
    A woman in pajamas stood before him, her short black hair perfectly sculpted though it was clear she had been asleep. She handed him a glass of water. His throat felt like it was on fire and he gulped it down.
    “Another,” he said, his voice grainy from disuse. He had forgotten what it felt like to speak.
    “You probably shouldn’t—”
    “Another.”
    After three more glasses, his stomach hurt and he vomited the water over the bare cement of the laboratory.
    “I was saying you probably shouldn’t drink so fast.” The female sat down on a chair across from him. “How are you feeling?”
    “Where…where am I?”
    “You’re safe.”
    “Where?”
    “You’re in Nevada. Inside a military installation.”
    “Nevada?” he said, out of breath. “Why am I here?”
    “You are here because your so-called family decided that you were to die. I used every favor I had to get you out and bring you here. How do your legs feel?”
    “Fi—” He looked down to the unfamiliar clumps of sculpted metal protruding from his knees. They were formed in the shape of human muscle and bone and appeared almost like someone had spray-painted silver and black over a human leg. He lifted one and let it drop. He could feel the bottom of it, but the sound told him it was metal.
    “Where are my legs?”
    “I couldn’t save them. I’m sorry. Agamemnon crushed them beyond repair and you underwent amputation at the hospital. If, perhaps, I could have brought you here first…but anyway. You’ll find those quite satisfactory.