Sixteen (ON HOLD)

5.1 Reunited

Cole walked alone down the deserted hospital corridors one by one, searching for anything that would lead him to Kate. The longer he searched for her, the less he found himself thinking about his other self, the now “alien” self. He thought about an older man, presumably his father, raising his fist at him, kicking him in the stomach, all when he was a small child. He didn’t like these memories but they flooded his head anyway. Cole Parks, the human self, was becoming more and more dominate.  

All of the exam rooms that once held familiar faces were dark and empty. The parents and hospital staff were evacuated, but where were the other kids like Cole? He came to larger room with double doors, the plaque on the wall said, “Children’s Emergency Clinic.” There were two large teddy bear cut-outs decorating the doors, one had red balloons in hand. A heavy chain rope was padlocked through the door handles.

With one swift chop Cole easily severed the chain on the doors. Then tipped the left hand side door open with the blade-end of this newly confiscated hatchet. The doors opened into a large waiting area. The lights were off. The room was incredibly dark. Cole realized it was because the windows were all shaded as well. He stepped a few feet inside and the lights flickered on automatically. The florescent bulbs took a moment to warm up and the room gradually went from dark to light.

The smell of blood and plastic filled his nose. It took him a moment to register what he was seeing before him; long black bags, stacked up neatly, row after row of them. On the other side of the room was a large white board, with sixteen numbered and named photographs taped to the surface. It reminded Cole of the board he had seen back at the police station, although he was certain this board had a rather different intent. Most of the photos were crossed out, Cole swallowed hard realizing what that had to mean.

Towards the end of the photos where faces he knew all too well. One photo was his own; one was Kate’s. They were not crossed out yet. Also not crossed out were the photos of Troy and Sadie. Then, one final photo at the bottom of the board; not crossed out but circled in red twice with a question mark next to it.  Cole walked closer to the photo and inspected it. A male, tall and clean cut with a fairly muscular build for a teenager, a lot like Troy. He was wearing a letterman’s jacket like Troy as well and written below the photo in neat block letters was the name “Colin Atwell.”  

Cole closed his eyes and tried to think back to that other time and place where he was someone different, where they were all lining up to volunteer for this last mission to a place called Earth. Everything was foggy at first but then something registered. For a moment he could clearly see the engineer and the medical officer, next in line after Alleyon and himself to choose host bodies, standing over the boys named Troy and Colin, making their selections. So, Colin was the mission’s medical advisor and it seemed he hadn’t been found yet, interesting.  Just as quickly Cole remembered Colin as an arrogant, micro-brained football player that he once caught trying to look up Kate’s cheerleading skirt during a school assembly he was forced to attend. One memory was clearly stronger to him than the other. Cole pulled the photo of Kate off the board, peeled the tap off and put the picture in his back pocket.

He then turned his attention to the black bags lining the other side of the room.  Each one had a number, fashioned out of white medical tape, which corresponded to one of the crossed out photos on the board. Cole walked up to the first bag, set his hatchet on the ground and kneeled down. He unzipped the bag, quickly, like peeling off a Band-Aid when you knew it was going to hurt.