Trellis Read online

  D stared at him, her heart heavy, her eyes unblinking. She finally breathed out the air in her lungs and sunk in to the realization that everything he said was true. The corners of her mouth finally creased into a small smile.

  She answered him with sarcasm “I did let you weirdos in to my loft.”

  Colin smiled back at her, “Weirdo? We aren’t the weirdo that stored live ammo in her stove.”

  Jase walked up handing a pair of binoculars to Colin and goaded, “If you two are done with your not-so-Hallmark moment over here we are going to head topside.”

  Colin smiled wryly at him and asked D, “You can still read and change Jase’s mind right?”

  “Yep.” She answered smiling at Jase.

  “Good, I think he would like to go for a swim… Topside…”

  Jase narrowed his eyes at the two of them, “Youuu wouldn’t.”

  D smiled as she screwed the cap off her water bottle and took a sip, “Maybe I would, maybe I wouldn’t.”

  Jase walked off shaking his head as he hissed, “I’m done with you two. Keep your mind out of mine.”

  Colin and D smiled at one another in amusement.

  The comradery she was finding herself in was something she liked, and to her surprise. Pushing people away had become a kneejerk reaction. Finding these men seemed like a dream in her parched, impersonal life. They were cracking her hard exterior that she built and fortified with quick judgements. The fear of getting emotionally hurt, or being sent back to Trellis was her reality and being hurt on the island would be more than emotional pain. Had she found people that wouldn’t hurt her? Had she found something that Dr. Salvaggi had tried hard to keep her from? A family… Maybe what she found would break her cryptic existence…

  Everything was going as planned. The first island on the detailed search map they came to was a no-go. Once they were standing on the top deck looking at the mountainous range she knew right away this wasn’t her island. This was not what they were looking for. She shook her head no and began the climb back down the platform to the submarine hull so they could continue their quest.

  Island after island, D was crushed each time she climbed out on the observation deck. Her disappointment was palpable by the men and they could feel her mood sink further into isolation.

  Colin placed his hand on her shoulder and whispered, “We knew it wouldn’t be easy. We may not find it on this trip. We will find it though.”

  D took a deep breath and climbed back down the ladder into the submarine’s hull to wait for the next island on Colin’s carefully marked map.

  After a while, Rip announced they were coming up on island number eight on the map. Hours had passed since they had looked at the last island and D was not hopeful this one would be any different. As she climbed those yellow steel rungs to the observation deck, her eyes glimpsed a beach. A familiar beach. Could she be seeing things? Maybe her mind was playing tricks on her? She stood on the top of the submarine hull silent for some time, and then finally whispered, “This is it.”

  “Are you sure, D?” Colin asked as he looked through his binoculars at the island. He then tried handing the binoculars to D and she shook her head no.

  “I don’t need to see it closer. We have arrived at Trellis.”

  The heaviness at what sat before them weighted her down like a ship’s anchor to the bottom of the sea floor and she wasn’t sure if it was fear of stepping on to the island that was taking hold or the realization of coming face to face with Salvaggi that weighted her down. She could feel the heat of her tears being blown by the sea breeze. She wiped them away quickly, not wanting the men to see her break she quickly moved down the ladder turning her back to them.

  The unit quickly dressed in their black Kevlar and geared up for the trek to the compound. D was the only one that did not grab a weapon. She saw no need for them unless there were animals on the island, and she knew there wasn’t. She had even tried to talk the guys out of taking weapons. Her reason was simple, the guard she made kill himself with his own weapon, she didn’t want the men to meet a similar fate with Zombie guy, that was if he had the same ability as she did now.

  Colin’s frigid expression seemed to grow more serious than D thought it could have. She watched him laboriously go over each strap and button on his gear, weapons check, down to his shoelaces on his boots, and then back up his body systematically examining everything that was on his persons. Then he eyed each of the men’s gear and then over to D whom he noticed was watching him go through his old familiar combat-ready routine. When their eyes met their gaze locked, he finally nodded at her and she nodded once back at him in respect. She wanted to run to him and hide in his braveness, away from the submarine, the world, and her past life on the island. Now she was voluntarily going to come face to face with the evilness that awaited them.

  Colin cleared his throat and spoke solidly, “Time to meet this looming enemy at its point of origin. Whatever is in your mind, dump it and focus on keeping your eyes and ears,” then he quickly added towards D’s direction, “Brain-wave thoughts. Be ready, be on guard and remember we are there to take an assessment and then regroup for further directives.”

  D noticed her palms were getting sweaty, she wiped them surreptitiously on her pants hoping the men didn’t see what she had done. Suddenly the tub of the submarine was closing in on her and she wanted out to fresh air. She pushed her way towards the men and was the first on the ladder to climb out. The men took her quick action as impatience to get to Dr. Salvaggi. This was far from the case, her nerviness was the leading force behind her movement at the moment.

  Soon, their boots would be on that sandy beach, the small boat would land and she wasn’t sure what the outcome would be, nor would she allow herself to daydream about a happy ending. The only thing she wanted was for Dr. Salvaggi to stop doing what he was doing to innocent people. People he created for his mad-lab.

  No one had uttered a word since the team left the submarine. The mood was serious and somber. The closer they moved to the beach Colin reached in a black bag and handed them all tan mirrored sunglasses. The glasses let plenty of light in and illuminated what they were looking at through the lenses but that wasn’t their sole purpose. These glasses covered up large areas of their faces to make them undetectable by face-recognition cameras in case one of their profiles were captured. The glasses hid key areas on their faces that could be used as identifying bone structures. They all knew what technology was used to help in identifying suspects and how little the computer recognition programs needed to find a person of interest. Maybe a high placed cheekbone or broad full lips on a strong jawline. The weren’t chancing being caught on camera. Next, they placed sandy colored stocking caps on their heads. Everyone but D, that was.

  D mused to herself, “I want to be seen by every camera that will capture my image. I want Dr. Salvaggi to know I have my own army. Of course, he would think that I had manipulated everyone to help me because that is how his mind works. That is exactly how the doctor gets his way. I rose above his standards and I am now standing levels above him at this point. I will stop him.” She breathed deeply.

  D knew the place where the boat was going to land on the shore was near where Treeny had met a horrible end. Treeny’s blood mingled in that sand, and D kept picturing her death over and over again only making her more resolute in stopping the doctor.

  By the time they reached shore no one was speaking, anticipating what they would be sneaking into, had them on high guard. Only looks of uncertainty exchanged between the unlikely assemble of mercenaries. Soon they were trekking through the soft sand towards the high fence surrounding the compound. Something was different. Something was not right in D’s thoughts. The guard’s posts sounded empty. As they moved closer, they could tell no one was manning the posts, likewise the entire compound looked abandoned.

  “Is this an ambush?” Sloan snapped.

  “No,” D answered. “I hear no brain patterns.”

  “Spr
ead out,” Colin ordered. “We need in that fence. Find a way in.”

  Harper decided to scale the fence and open it from the guard shack. The men slowly moved around looking for anyone that was left behind to ensnare them.

  “One o’clock is clear,” Jase gruffly announced.

  “Three o’clock is clear,” Colin affirmed.

  “Six o’clock and all is well,” Sloan added.

  “Nine o’clock is neat and tidy,” Harper thundered.

  “And eleven o’clock is brain-wave free.” D whispered but loud enough for the men to hear. She observed the swing set that Dr. Salvaggi had placed there for her, the swing slowly moving in the island breeze. She wondered if he had used that swing for a new clone. Someone he replaced her with when she left. Another, clone he called his child. She shook the memory and questions out of her thoughts and refocused on the task in front of them.

  Colin ordered the men to spread out, and search for remaining remnants of Trellis, and to meet back in thirty. He walked behind D and announced he would be staying with her.

  Colin walked along looking the courtyard over, he had a sudden sense of familiarity. Flashes of a young dark haired girl flashed through his mind. D had noticed that Colin was not keeping up with her pace, in fact she had noticed he had stopped moving altogether. He stood motionless looking in the direction of the lone swing that was swaying in the distance.

  “Do you see something,” D asked as she looked in the direction he was staring.

  He slowly shook his head no.

  “What is it?” She asked.

  “I don’t know. Its familiar… Kind of… Stupid, right?” He answered not breaking eye contact with the swing.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know… It’s like I have… dreamed about this place.”

  “Like---- déjà vu?” D asked frozen, the words barely audible. Tears welled in her dark eyes and the weight she was feeling came crashing back on her taking her breath in one swoop.

  “Yeah… Déjà vu.”

  D knew what that meant to her but didn’t want to dive into the meaning. Maybe it was nothing but she had a deep belief that it wasn’t a past dream. She knew deep down the reason she couldn’t read his thoughts now, he was a product of Trellis.

  Colin kept his gaze on the swing trying hard to make sense of a past vision. He was mystified in a daze and D knew he was trying hard to place the swing in to a memory that fit in his world. The world he knew now. She knew he wouldn’t be able to, though. She knew the déjà vu he was having was of a past life that had been wiped from his memory.

  “Come on, we don’t have time to discuss this now. Get your head back in the game.” D commanded as she walked towards the entry and pushed open the door powerfully trying to break the memories hold on both of them. Colin shook his head as if he was trying to shake the thought of the recognition of that swing set out of his thoughts then proceeded to follow D through the door.

  D had noticed right away there had been new additions to the familiar corridors. The TV monitors hanging from the ceiling were definitely new. They seemed to have been placed in every hallway they saw. Had Dr. Salvaggi added a new element to his brainwashing technique?

  As they walked room from room they could tell whomever left the island did so in a hurry. They knew someone was coming and didn’t have time to dismantle everything. Did they realize that after the Fort Knox debacle that D would hunt them down? That maybe sending Zombie guy to retrieve her was the wrong thing to do? D was impressed that she would set this kind of alarm and fear in Dr. Salvaggi to make him retreat.

  “Why? Why would they leave so quickly?” Colin muttered.

  “They knew after they sent that Zombie guy to Fort Knox that I would be coming for them. They knew…” She stepped over a pile of broken glass beakers and opened up the door to once what was Dr. Salvaggi’s office. Completely empty except the desk and chairs. A chair she had sat in many times. She walked around the desk and looked out the window to the beach in the distance.

  Colin wasn’t sure what she was thinking or what was going through her mind, he just knew she wasn’t speaking at all and perhaps not even taking a breath. Normally, he would be fine with silence but he wanted more detail about this place.

  D broke her stare from Treeny’s beach, the beach where they had landed. D turned to leave the office and heavy memory behind. Colin followed silently her down the dark passage to a large room filled with oval shaped canisters. They lined the walls and in the darkness looked eerie. Colin knew this was where they grew the clones. He had never stopped to wonder how they were created, perhaps he knew and didn’t want his mind to wonder over the barbarity of the process. They were grown from a petri dish apparently, placed in the cylinder filled room to grow.

  ‘Sickening. This poor girl hadn’t made any of this up. It was all the truth,’ he thought.

  He shined his flashlight on D lighting her path as she walked.

  D walked along the row of the oval shaped containers, touching them lightly as she went. When she had reached the end she turned to Colin and softly sighed, “They aren’t here. They got away.”

  Colin shined his flashlight one more time around the dark room and noticed a table in the corner with something placed on top. It looked like a laptop and a military dress jacket, a heavily decorated military dress jacket.

  “What is that?” Colin asked, his expression leery.

  “Where,” D asked and she followed the light, walking cautiously to the chair. “I don’t know.” Picking up the jacket and looking it over. Immediately she knew the XXXL dress jacket was one she had seen many times with all the military pins adorning it, the jacket belonged to Peter Coughlin. Colin reached down and pressed the power button on the laptop and a video began of Dr. Salvaggi sitting in a chair in this same dreadful room, and a creepy shaved headed guy standing behind him.

  “That is the Doctor and the Zombie guy from Fort Knox,” D mumbled watching the screen intently.

  When Dr. Salvaggi began talking in his deep accent a chill shuddered through D, something she remembered too well. Colin and D could hear the Doctor’s voice echo out in the hallway and she knew right away what the televisions had been placed there for now. This recording was playing all over the island and she knew her team was witnessing it as well. Her mood grew morose as Colin’s senses heightened thinking this could be an ambush in the making as he scanned the large room once more with the flashlight. To be truthful all the men were thinking the same where they were watching.

  “D, you are probably wondering where we went. We waited for you to come back. We waited a long time, D, so tremendously long. You have become a liability for the Trellis Project now. You were my greatest work and I wanted you to succeed in the advancement of Trellis and do well for us, but you turned your back on your family, D. I am going to place a number up on the screen, when you are ready to come home you can call it, or if you have people with you, they can call and we will give them a million dollar reward.” The television screen flashed a phone number.

  Then in the Doctor’s classic tortuous style, a familiar scene began to play in front of her eyes. A scene she had only played in her nightmares, a scene she wished never happened although if given the opportunity she wasn’t sure it wouldn’t play out the exact same way. It was of particularly poor recording quality, the beach scene where she had ran and fell at Treeny’s side in the sand. The shaky zooming in and out. How D had leaned over Treeny’s body listening for a brain thought, trying to hear a heartbeat. The realization that D had blood all over her and turning her anger on the guard that had pulled the trigger. The intense anger on her face as she mentally fought with the guard and then won. He lost his life and she won revenge. The guard falling to the ground and the video revealing D’s steadfast contempt for the guard scourged on her twisted face. The scene played right there in front of her eyes, more vivid than any nightmare she had ever had about that day. The camera jerking and focusing in on D’s fa
cial expressions as if the video recording was planned before D ever left the building that day to save Treeny.

  The screen changed back to the crazy Doctor and he continued, “I want the people you are with to see what you are capable of, the trial of your emotional maturity that day was lacking. The assessment a fail. The wild irregular gene that allows for freewill, was your undoing, it was my mistake really. I don’t blame you, D. We need to reprogram your,” he coughed, “sensitivities, weaknesses… You are almost eighteen, you need to come home.”

  D shuddered at the inclination of being in the doctor’s medical lab again. She couldn’t fathom the experiments and reprogramming she was sure Dr. Salvaggi had been thinking about completing on her since she left the island and how much time he had to think about perfecting those brutalizing measures.

  Then as if what the Doctor had already shown wasn’t enough, he continued his cryptic tormenting rampage. “We have been incredibly busy since you have been gone. There is someone I want you to meet. Someone without your mulish freewill defect. See, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t remove the human freewill. But with more rigorous sequencing of behavior we can suppress this defect as exhibited in the newer version, the better version.”

  D and Colin thought for sure Salvaggi would introduce the Zombie guy now, he didn’t.

  “E, please come here and stand beside me,” he softly ordered someone that was out of the view of the camera. The young girl that appeared and stood next to the Doctor looked like a younger version of D. An exact replica.

  D’s eyes widen, her heart raced, and both Colin and D’s mouths fell open slightly in confusion.

  Then Zombie guy left the frame of the picture, when he returned he was rolling an occupied chair in view of the camera. The occupied seat contained Peter Coughlin tied up, his mouth taped shut. Dr. Salvaggi left the view of the camera taking with him Peter Coughlin’s military dress jacket.