Peter Clines - Ex-Communication

“It does,” agreed Connolly, “but it doesn’t stop it. And it doesn’t do anything to halt rigor mortis, evaporation, or basic wear and tear. I would’ve said she’s been dead for a month at most. And a pretty gentle month.”

“What are you implying, doctor?” asked Stealth.

“Just that I’m probably going to want to do a lot more tests after all this blood work’s done. If that’s okay.” She glanced through the window at the dead girl. “With everyone.”

Stealth nodded once.

The two doctors left the heroes standing at the window.

“So,” said St. George. “Now what do we do?”

“We interrogate it,” said the cloaked woman. “Captain Freedom, you are the most familiar with Madelyn Sorensen. Would you be able to confirm its identity?”

The huge officer straightened up and his face got hard. “That depends on what type of interrogation you’re asking me to do, ma’am. I won’t hurt a teenage girl.”

“For the moment, a verbal interrogation should suffice. If you are satisfied with the results, there would be no need to go further.”

One of the guards in the room, Cook, glanced at the dead girl. She smiled at him. “Hey,” she said. “I’m Maddy.”

He ignored her. “You think if she turns out to be an ex they might let us have her?”

His partner followed his gaze. “For what?”

Cook shrugged. “She’s not that messed up. Can’t touch her but she’s still fun to look at.”

“Hey, creeper,” snapped Madelyn. She glared at him. “I’m right here, y’know.”

“Shut up, corpse girl,” Cook said. He leveled his rifle at her. Her eyes went wide.

“That’s enough of that,” said Freedom. He stepped through the door and made the room look small. He walked over to Madelyn and gave Cook a hard stare. “You can wait outside, gentlemen.”

Cook opened his mouth to speak but thought better of it. The other guard cleared his throat. “Stealth’ll have our heads if we leave our posts.”

“Your dedication is admirable,” said Stealth from the doorway. “Wait outside as the captain instructed.”

She made no move to get out of their way. The two guards turned sideways and pressed themselves against the wall to get out of the room without touching her. Once they were gone, she walked in the rest of the way. St. George followed her in.

“I apologize for that, ma’am,” Freedom told Madelyn. “There’s no reason for them to be speaking like that to you.”

Her eyes flitted from St. George to Stealth and up to Freedom. “It’s no biggie,” she said. “I’ve heard worse in gym class.”

“I’m still sorry.” He reached over to her and pulled the straps open. She stretched her arms out and flexed her wrists.

They’d cleaned Madelyn up, even though she still wore the inner layer of her ragged outfit. Her slim body had started to fill out with the shape of maturity, but she couldn’t’ve weighed more than a hundred pounds. Her skin was the dusty gray of the long deceased. She had her mother’s dark, wavy hair, and it brushed her shoulder blades. Freedom recognized the shape of Dr. Sorensen’s eyes, even though they were pale and cloudy.

She stared at him for a moment. “Are you Captain Freedom?”

Something twinged in his chest. He paused, half crouched into the other chair. “Yes, ma’am. How did you know?”

“Dad told me about you. I know he wasn’t supposed to, but he was really excited and proud of how you guys turned out. Especially you.” She smiled. Her teeth were bright and flawless. “I like your coat.”

“Thank you.” Freedom spread his duster and settled into the chair. It creaked under his bulk but held him. He glanced back at Stealth and St. George. The hero stood by the door. The cloaked woman had settled behind Freedom, near the window. “And your father is …?”

“Emil Sorensen,” Madelyn said. Her thin brows furrowed up. “He’s the doctor out at Project Krypton. Your military base, right?”

Freedom nodded again. “How do you know about that?”

She raised an eyebrow at him. It let more of the light hit her pale eyes. “Because you guys flew me and Mom out there to meet him.”

“When was that?”

“Just a few …” She closed her eyes for a moment. “It was July of 2009,” she said. “We got on the plane late on the twenty-sixth, landed in Arizona a little before noon on the twenty-seventh.”

“Okay.”

“Why are you asking me all this?”

“We need to make sure you are who you say you are, ma’am.”

“Is this what St. George was talking about? You think there’s someone else talking through me or something?”

“More or less,” Freedom said. He paused for a moment and studied the girl’s face again. The twinge grew to a small knot. “Do you remember what happened after you landed?”

She nodded. “Some of Dad’s soldiers … your soldiers, I guess … picked us up at the airport. There were exes there. They shot most of them, and the noise really freaked Mom out. One of the guards was bit, but I couldn’t tell how bad it was and nobody wanted to say. Then they got us into a big armored jeep-thing and we headed for the base.”

“It’s called a Guardian,” said Freedom.

“Okay, cool. So, we were driving along. I remember we could see the base up ahead. Mom was relieved and I was excited to see Dad and his new lab. And then …”

“Yes?”

“Then the guy driving the jee—the Guardian—shut it off. He turned the key and said the gas tank was empty, even though the gauge said it had half a tank. The woman in charge, Sergeant Washington, she said it was empty, too. I thought it was some kind of joke, just to see if they could make us scream or something. Then there were some explosions, and the exes were trying to get into the car. Their teeth were super loud. And all the soldiers kept saying there wasn’t any gas, and they were serious . They really thought it was empty. So they were calling for help and me and Mom were freaking out and begging them to start the car back up and then one of the soldiers started freaking out and …”

She stared past Freedom to St. George. Her hands crawled toward each other and knotted together.

The memories crawled through Freedom’s mind. The team had been brainwashed by Agent Smith and his mind-control powers. They’d looked at the gauge, seen empty, and believed it. One of the soldiers, Adams, decided it was better to try running through hundreds of exes to reach the gate. He’d dragged Madelyn with him and they’d both been torn apart right in front of Dr. Sorensen. The whole team had died.

He’d never been sure why Smith had done it. Maybe it had been to punish the doctor or keep him in line. Or maybe Smith had done it just because he could.

Freedom brushed the thoughts away. He took a slow breath to help cover the pause. “And then?” he prompted.

“I don’t remember,” she said. Her fingers shifted in their knot. “I think that’s when I died.”

“Do you have any idea how this happened to you? Why you came back with your mind intact?”

She shook her head. “Nope.”

Freedom set his hands on the table. They looked massive across from hers. “Do you know what your mother’s name was?”

“Eva.”

“Do you know what year—”

“Wait,” said Madelyn. Her eyes got huge. “What do you mean, was?”

Freedom’s chair creaked again. The knot by his heart caught fire. He glanced over at St. George, then studied the tabletop for a moment. His voice dropped a few decibels, but it still rumbled in his huge chest. “I regret to inform you, ma’am,” he said, “but your mother died with you in the Guardian attack.”