Mind Over Matter

11- HE'S A MYSTERY

April 24, 2034
New Orleans, Louisiana
9:15 p.m.

*JUSTIN*

There was no sign of him, nothing, nada, zilch. It was as if he had vanished off the face of the Earth.

We watched as Jason shielded us in some kind of a force field like bubble. We watched as he grabbed the guy, flinging him away from us. We watched as the countdown to the bombs stopped. And we watched as Jason and the man went tumbling out of the hole in the wall from the force of the explosion. The blue bubble surrounding us vanished, allowing me to move and I sprang up to my feet, racing to get to the wall, racing to get to Jason.

Just as I as was looking down to scan the street below, looking for any hope of survival, a bright light erupted out of the sky in front of me. I backed up a little, shielding my face as the helicopter began to circle the building. Unmarked black humvees skirted to a stop in the streets below. About twenty or so men banked up out of nowhere, surrounding the building as I watched them gather up a body at the corner of the southwest wall. His body was smoking and his clothes were ripped to where only his pants remained, but he looked unharmed. His long blonde hair hung across his face.

Jason.

They threw him into the back of one of the humvees as a man I recognized all too well stepped out of the passenger side, staring up the building, taking in the damage and locking eyes with me at the same time. He smirked as he glanced from me to the body of Jason, and then back again. He held up a small,black square looking thing and held it to his mouth. There was a screech, and then his voice boomed loudly, coming from some speaker nearby.

"Hello, Justin," Ezekiel grimaced. "We meet again. I told you we would. You may not believe me, but I told you, Justin. You and Jason. I warned you what would happen. Take a look around you, boy. You're fighting a lost cause. We have your blonde warrior. You have no idea the battle that you are involving yourself in. You are a victim in this, here only because of him." He gestured towards the unconscious Jason. "Give up this endeavor and I promise to spare you."

I felt a tug at my sleeve and turned to see Troy attempting to pull me in the direction of him and Max. I shrugged his arm off.

"Justin," Max hissed, gesturing to the front door of Jason's penthouse. "Let's go. We have to go."

I was in disbelief. "What?" I hissed back. "We aren't going anywhere. Not without Jason."

Max bowed his head sadly. "Unfortunately, there is nothing we can do for Jason....not yet. We have to go. It is a losing battle if we stay here."

"But, Jason......" I trailed off.

Troy seemed to understand Max, because he walked over and put his hand on my shoulder, squeezing gently. "Justin, we will help Jason. But there is nothing we can do right now. Without him, we are outmatched and outgunned. We need to regroup and figure out our next plan of attack, which involves helping Jason. It's suicide to stay here."

I sighed heavily. I knew he was right. I knew Max was right. I just didn't want to admit because it would make it seem like we failed, and I didn't like that.

I shook my head. "You're right. Let's get going."

****************************************

We had managed to make it through the entirety of the building without alerting any soldiers or drawing attention to ourselves, which was quite a miracle. Jason's car, the Mercedes Benz SL400, was right where we had left it in the alleyway, the black finished work seeming to gleam under the moonlight, as if it were eager to get the hell out of New Orleans l.

We let Troy get behind the wheel, as Max didn't want to and I had no idea how to drive. The car started up smoothly, the wheels smoking as it soon peeled away from the building, the blinking lights and piercing sounds drifting further away from us. I leaned forward from my place in the backseat.

"I'm assuming we have a plan to rescue Jason?" I deadpanned.

Max sighed, turning his head to glance at me. I scoffed at that. Did he really think that I would just drop this? What was this man smoking? Seriously.

"Yes, Justin. We will help Jason, but like I keep saying, we need to strategize. We can't just go in guns blazing."

I pouted a little. "I understand and I'm sorry if I'm getting aggravating with this. I just can't settle on the fact that we just left Jason to fend for himself. God knows what those sick people have in store for him. He wouldn't have left any one of us if the roles were reversed."

I said with finality in my voice, looking dead at Max. There was something about him that was really starting to bother me. I didn't say anything to anyone, but it had started when Jason introduced him to me. And the fact that he was so quick to dismiss Jason when it was because of Jason that we even made it out of there alive. I don't know, maybe I was just reading too much into the situation, but it felt very suspect to me, this whole situation to begin with. How did he know where Jason was? Why did he not seem as surprised that the soldiers showed up at the hotel room?

I shook my head at my racing thoughts. One thing at a time. Troy noticed me out of the rear-view mirror and chuckled, turning the wheel on the Benz, the car turning left down a street called Hamilton. "I don't want to leave him either, Justin. But you gotta admit, none of us can fight like Jason, we aren't strong like Jason, we aren't fast like him. We aren't Jason."

I bit my lip. "But I'm sure you can understand where I'm coming from. You of all people, Troy. You have been his best friend since he was seven, is he really okay by himself?"

Troy glanced at me again in the mirror, and then his gaze focused back on the road. He nodded his head. "Jason's always been the lone wolf type of guy, he's been taking care of himself all these years, even before I met him as a kid. I've never known the whole story of his childhood. I just know he was in foster care."

"Really?"

Troy nodded again. "He's never told me, like really told me. I figured it had to be bad, so I never pried. I thought he would tell me when he was ready, but he never did."

I sat back in my seat, the landscapes flying by as the car climbed to eighty miles per hour on the deserted night highway. Jason McCann really was a mystery. He was shielded with his thoughts and feelings, yet he was an open book. He was talkative, yet the silent type at the same time. He was calm, yet he could erupt like a volcano at any time. He was unpredictable, you would never have just one or the other with him.

"But to answer your question," Troy continued, yanking me out of my thoughts, "Yes I do. If anyone could handle themselves, it would be Jason."

But at that point it was too late. There was nothing that was going to ease my mind on the subject. Guilt. Guilt had overtaken my body like I had been shot in the heart and the feeling was quickly spreading. This was my fault, all of it. If I had just went somewhere instead of trying to find Jason, then the government would have never came, Esekeil would have never attacked the hotel room and captured Jason. He would not be in some demented laboratory, being stabbed, prodded and experimented on. I was the one that had asked him for help, and him being the sweet man that he was, did everything to keep me safe.

I was more determined than ever to rescue Jason. He didn't deserve to be in there and I wasn't going to let him rot longer than he had to. My pull to him was unmistakable and now I'm finding out that it wasn't mere coincidence that we met. It was fate. And I wasn't about to abandoned the only man that has ever shown me love in all my crappy years of living. If Max didn't come up with a plan soon, then I would go find him myself.

I leaned my head against the cool window, glancing out at the darkened desert.

Hold on, Jason. I'm coming!