Remember More

Chapter 18

REMEMBER MORE

CHAPTER 18

John and Yan arrived at around one in the morning, local time. There had been a delay due to some rare, impending weather pattern, so they had to circle around in the air for an extra hour or so. As helpful as he always was, Mike had called ahead and managed to find them a set of rooms in a hotel, just a few minutes from the airport, not too far away. By the time they got there, the air had turned chilly, the clouds had rolled in and it looked like it was going to rain. Yan said so to the man helping them with their bags to their room.

The man had laughed. No, ma'am. It never rains in Nazca.

After putting his things away, John lumbered over and into Yan's room. Yan had run out to the local, all night burger place and got them something to eat. While she was chowing down on her sandwich, John had left his on the table nearby and hadn't touched it. Instead, he was poring over a map, planning out where they were going to go the next day, as soon as the sun came up and what they were going to see. Meanwhile, lightning flashed in the distance now and then but there was no sound of thunder.

Yan put her burger down for a second, still chewing. "Sir, this is actually pretty good." She picked up a French fry. "And the fries are amazing!"

John's eyes drifted away from the map. He turned and stared out the window.

Yan shrugged and put the fry in her mouth.

She laughed. "Ha! I remember one time…" She giggled. "…we were at a café somewhere, a bunch of us from school and Jonas put this French fry on his lip and tried to balance it there and…"

John winced. He closed his eyes.

And though he was facing the window, Yan saw what he did in the reflection of it and she stopped. She bit her tongue. She shrugged her shoulders. "Sorry…"

John shook his head.

Reaching out to the small, foam container nearby, he laid his hand on top of it and left it there, covering it.

Yan swallowed the last of her French fry. "I'm sure he's fine, sir."

John nodded. He cleared his throat.

Yan noticed that he had started to do that a lot. "We're going to find him."

"I know, I know. Thanks, Yan. I know. It's like we said." He took his hand off the box. His fingers trembled. He stared at the container.

~~~

Before they got here, Yan had suggested that perhaps they should hand off the ears to Mike for safekeeping, but John had refused. They were already too far gone for re-attachment anyway, so he just wanted to keep them with him. For what? Yan had asked. John didn't really say. He just wanted to keep them.

Fine. But Yan had insisted so they had sprayed them down with a preservative because they were starting to smell.

They had also discussed the situation up to this point and decided it was now clear what had happened to Jonas. He never took off on his own that very first night. He was kidnapped. And now, he was in real, immediate danger. The ears proved it. But why? Well, that was obvious. Because Jonas had taken the serum and now he remembers all about the past and human history and mankind and how they had interacted with the Others when they had been here on Earth. Just like John, Jonas must remember all the ancient sites and what the Others had left behind there, like in Egypt and Easter Island and now here, on the plains of Nazca. And they were holding him, keeping him prisoner. They were forcing him to take them to these places and finding and collecting these artefacts. And if he didn't help them, they would torture him, hurting him like they were so obviously doing at this very moment.