HOPELESS

By Stacey and Jo

PART 17:

John took a deep breath, coughed it out. Damn, the air was getting thin in there and the tunnel walls were dangerously caving in around them. His vision now blurred, his body still shielding Terry’s, he attempted to stop the bleeding from the man’s forehead. It was no use, though, and all his efforts were in vain; the gaping wound would definitely require stitches. John only prayed the two of them last long enough for Terry to get the medical attention he required.

“Hope! Hope! Where the hell are you?!” he called out, hoarsely. The darkness had now pretty much encompassed the entire tunnel, making it nearly impossible to see anything at all. All around him, John could hear the sound of people running and screaming, as if the battle in the slave compound were still happening outside the tunnel, the film continuing as their reality unraveled around them. 

This was taking way too long and John feared something must have gone terribly wrong on Hope’s last warp out of there. He was finding it increasingly difficult to breathe, his chest heavy as his lungs struggled for air. Damn Sid! He had to be behind this! He just prayed the nanotech hadn’t done anything to the others back at the safe house. He thought of Amber, how terribly worried she would be for him right now. She didn’t want him to go on this mission anyway, had nearly pleaded that he stay back at the safe house with her. Tears filled his eyes as he imagined never being able to hold her in his arms, kiss her sweet, inviting lips.

Taking one last deep breath, he tried to call out in the darkness. “H...H...Hope!” he gasped, then collapsed, lost in a fog of unconsciousness atop Terry.

Hope had left Lachlan and Marcus with Bud and Alex. The living room floor was getting terribly crowded and the two men were trying to move some of them to beds and couches.  Caroline was starting to come round, but both Generals and, of course, Cort were not. Lachlan had just been warped and should be waking up in a few moments. Marcus was already lifting his head.

Hope was in a hurry to get back to Terry and John, relieved they would be her last trip and then she could tend to her father. Again, completely in her unawareness, Sid stopped her. She had very little knowledge of her capabilities and so did not know how to avoid him, how to prevent his interference. She could have had she but known it. He was waiting there for her in the blue she must pass through, touched her, suspended her so that she would remain for as long as he desired.  No need for her to hurry back into Gladiator just because the film was coming apart at its seams. It would be far more interesting if John and Terry were a little...inconvenienced...than if she rescued them too quickly. Besides, if something untoward happened to them, it would be no great loss. There were too many of them now anyway.

Bud and Alex had gotten everyone who'd been warped settled in one place or another and were stationed on either side of the living room waiting for Terry and John to arrive. Dee was wiping Caroline's face with a cool cloth, looking over her shoulder, trying to see if Terry had returned. It seemed much longer now since Lachlan and Marcus had arrived. Bud looked at his watch, frowning across the room at Alex. "They should've been here by now, dammit!"

"You don't think...," Alex started, then stopped mid-sentence when he noticed the worried looks on Amber and Dee's faces.

"Don't even go there, Ross," Dee spat. "I'm already worried enough without you voicing your concerns." She looked over at Amber, who was bent down over Marcus, rubbing the canine's furry head. She looked as if she might break down any minute.

Lachlan roused, blinking, rubbing a hand over his eyes, looking around for the others. He was lying on a quilt on the floor of Bud's room. Sitting up, he found Cort on the bed, still quite out of it. Holding onto the walls for support, he wobbled out to the living room. "'Lo, Bud," he murmured. "I'm up."

"Good." Bud licked his lips. "How's Cort doing?"

"About the same. He was like that when I woke up in the tunnel, too. Hope back with Terry and John yet?"  He thought they might be in another room.

"No, not yet. We're still waiting. Any idea what might be taking so long?"

Suddenly Lachlan remembered the tunnel.  "Shit, Bud! With both Maximuses out of the movie, the whole thing was falling apart. We were still in the tunnel and it was cracking all around us."

Bud rubbed a palm roughly back and forth over his chin.  "How bad?"

"Really bad, Bud, really bad."  And Hope had warped into that. And she hadn't returned.

Bud jerked his head toward the room where the two Generals lay, one on the bed, the other on the cot. "You want to explain them?"

"I can do that in one word, Bud.  Sid.   He was in there. He knew.  He warped both the film Maximus and your, um, our Maximus several times it seems to keep them unconscious, lay them side by side so we wouldn't know which was who was what. The Praetorians were there. There wasn't time to wait. So Terry said to bring 'em both, said when they woke up, Hope could take the film one back in." His eyes met Bud's.  "But I'm not sure there's going to be anything left of the movie for him to be warped into."

Bud closed his eyes. Shit, shit, shit!!

Dee and Amber both looked up and stopped what they were doing. "What do you mean the whole thing was falling apart?!" Amber wailed. "How could this be? Bud, Dee? You said he'd be safe! You said John would come back here unharmed in no time at all... simple in and out... this doesn't sound good... not at all! You've got to do something! Anything! We can't just leave him there to... to...," she began to weep uncontrollably, her hands covering her face as she buried it in Bud's shoulder.

At the same time, Dee had begun to sob as well, her tear-streaked face buried in the towel she had been wiping Caroline's face with.

Alex sat and watched, horror-struck at the idea that John, Terry and Hope were now all trapped in Gladiator with no way to return. Visions of film disintegrating - their images trapped inside forever, filled his mind. How could Sid do that to them? How could he be so cruel? he wondered silently.

Sid wanted to see for himself what was happening to the end of Gladiator, so he warped there, leaving Hope in some sort of suspended animation in the blue.  He arrived near the Colosseum, enjoying the sight of its walls tumbling down, of people screaming and running. Even the palace itself was cracking, falling in huge chunks.  For a moment he thought of warping Commodus into the living room of the safe house, but let the urge pass. After all, he could handle the villainy quite well enough all by himself.

It was hard now to even tell where the tunnel was...or had been, as the case may be.  He waved his hands in mock desperation, crying, "Buried alive! Buried alive!" in a shrill little voice.  Then in his own deep one, added, "Tsk, tsk, tsk."  None of this really mattered, though. A DVD could be popped in its slot and there Maximus would be, fingering the blasted wheat again.  Only THIS copy, well, this copy would contain the crushed bodies of a couple of wayward characters from other films.

He decided enough time had passed and went back to where he'd left Hope, circling around her, eyeing her with a critical eye. She had done what they had asked of her, knowing it would be against his wishes. Was the pull of humanity really that strong?  For a while he considered sucking all the blue out of her, leaving her here in nowhere for the rest of, well, forever.  Then he thought of filling her so full of blue that...well, no, that would obviously kill her. He didn't think he was ready for that, not yet, not quite yet. She was a disappointment, to be sure, but she might also be an interesting piece on his chessboard. Perhaps he'd merely release her for now, see what happened.

Hope found herself in a pitch black pocket of air.  Feeling around with her hands, she discovered tumbled rocks, the air so filled with dust that breathing was hard.  Had she misjudged, on this last trip had she ended up elsewhere?  No, the tunnel had begun to crack when she was there last. This must be the result.  But she'd only been gone seconds. How could all this have happened so quickly?

"Uncle Terry!" she called. "Uncle John!"

Everything was silent but for the occasional tumble of a small, loosened rock.  She coughed, then coughed again, her hands still groping in the darkness.  Finally her hand found the back of someone's head. From the length of hair, she knew it was John. She pulled on him and he rolled a bit sideways. Her hands then found Terry.  Touching his face, her fingers came away wet and sticky.  Clutching John's upper arm and Terry's shoulder, she warped back to the safe house, arriving in a tumbled cloud of dust and small rocks. 

When they all suddenly appeared in the safe house, there was an overall sigh of relief from the room, and everyone all rushed up to them, all talking at once. The first thing everyone wanted

to know was what had happened, and they all began questioning Hope.

"What took so long this time, Hope?" Bud asked, quickly squatting beside Terry, examining his wound.

"Long?"  She had no idea what he meant.  "I was even faster this trip, Uncle Bud, because I knew they were in danger."

"Hope, you've been gone nearly 20 minutes!"

Her mouth dropped open. "No, I couldn't have....I was just there and back...as quickly as I could."

Bud heaved a bit sigh.  Sid was up to his tricks, obviously, new tricks they'd never experienced before. "Don't worry about it, Hope. Sid...Blue...obviously delayed you."

"Blue?  I didn't see him, Bud!"

"He likes it that way, Hope."  He pulled out his cell to call Canfield.  "Hey, Doc, need you at the safe house again. Yeah. Right away. Terry's going to need stitches. Need you to check on some others, too. Yeah, yeah. I know. But get here, ok. We're up to our necks in bodies right now."

Amber, of course, rushed to John's side - dust covered his hair and face as his limp form lay sprawled on the floor in front of her. She was still crying, though now relieved that he was back and seemingly okay, other than the fact that he was still, of course, unconscious from the warp. Alex retrieved a wet towel for her to wipe the dirt and dust from John's face, and she sat there doing so, pausing every so often to hug him and whisper in his ear how he was going to be okay and how much she loved him.

Dee, likewise, had immediately rushed over to Terry, pressing a wet towel on the wide cut on his forehead, trying to get the bleeding to stop. At first, she couldn't tell exactly where the blood was coming from, as there was now so much of it covering his face, neck and shoulders. Tears still continued to streak down her face as she sat tending to him, praying he'd wake up.

Caroline, now fully awake, kept going back and forth between the cot and the bed where the two Maximuses lay. Why couldn't she tell? She ought to be able to tell...shouldn't she?  Well, when they woke up, it would be evident. All she had to do was wait. She recalled all the key words her Maximus had said to her there when he first arrived so she'd know who he was. Her lips curved in a slight smile. Yes, it would be all right then.

Lachlan, concerned for Hope because she seemed upset when Bud told her how long her last trip had taken, had helped her to her feet, guiding her off to the side of the living room so Terry and John could be tended to.  "How could...how could....?" she kept saying over and over.

"Shhhh, Luv," he soothed, touching her cheek.  "It's over now. You got them, got them both, got us all.  You've been incredibly brave, you know."

She quieted, looking up at him with large eyes.  "I was worried about you," he continued, "this last time when I knew you were warping into so much danger.  I...I didn't want... never to see you again."

"I could never not be with you, Odd, not now."

Tipping her chin with his fingers, he kissed her, ever so lightly, ever so gently.  "Do you think you could call me Lachlan...now?"

A strangled moan came from a bedroom. "Daddy!" she cried, pulling away and sprinting through the door.  Cort was propped up just a little on an elbow, absolutely green around his mouth.  She grabbed a trash can, holding it out for him, and he threw up until he felt like his toes had come up through his intestines and there was nothing of him left.  He lay back then, an arm flung across his eyes, just trying to breathe while his stomach muscles screamed silently. 

"We're not doing this again, Daddy...ever," she said.  "Never."

Without moving his arm, he sighed, "Never say never, Hope.  There always seems to be some new reason."  Then his breathing slowed and he drifted off into exhausted sleep.

John suddenly began coughing and slowly opened his eyes. They were red and still stung from all the dust in the tunnel, but he could make out the features of the tear-streaked face smiling down on him. Amber. Hope had done it; she'd made it back and warped him and Terry to the safe house. He tried to speak Amber's name, but instead, began having a coughing fit. His throat, chest and lungs hurt like hell, as did the rest of him.

"John, oh John," Amber moaned. "Please, sweetheart, don't try to talk. Just lie back and rest quietly."

He managed a smile, held out his arms to her, pulled her down on him in an embrace and held her there - stroking her hair and showering her face with soft kisses.

Dee had managed to get the bleeding on Terry's forehead to slow its flow, though he was still unconscious. She kept a vigil at his side, whispering in his ear, hoping he'd hear her voice and wake up. 

Alex stood close by, watching her tend Terry's wounds, wishing there were something he could do. It was all so surreal to him and his mind couldn't help but take him back to his time spent in the war. He'd witnessed so much death and destruction...so much loss...so many innocent lives taken. Finally, he had to turn away, collapsed in the recliner, his hands covering his face as he prayed this would all just somehow end and he'd wake up back home...back where he belonged. As shitty as his life had become there, it was still a hell of a lot easier than this one.

Bud answered the knock on the door. "Canfield! Glad you got here so quickly, doc."  He led the NanoCorp doctor into the living room, holding out a hand rather helplessly at the scene.  "You see," he shrugged, "and there are more in the bedrooms."

Canfield knelt beside Terry as Dee moved away just enough to make room for him.  "You're right , Bud, definitely needs stitches." He moved to open his bag, adding, "If he doesn't come around soon, he's going to the hospital for an MRI.  Should have one either way, you know."

 

After he and Bud got Terry up onto the couch, he cleaned the wound with antiseptic then neatly stitched it closed, covering it with a white bandage. 

"Thank-you, doctor," Dee told him, relieved that at least the wound on Terry's head had been attended to. "I'll watch over him, see that he gets to one." She sat down on the edge of the couch, praying Terry would wake up soon.

Then Canfield turned his attentions to John, who had many bruises and small abrasions, none large enough to require stitches. He cleaned them, though, and told the man to get plenty of rest the next couple of days, to let him know if the coughing persisted.

"Thanks, doc," John replied, stifling another cough. "Owe ya one. Though, with the way things have been going, I seriously doubt I'll be able to get much rest around here."

"John," Amber said, her brow knit, "promise me you'll do exactly what the doc says. You're lucky to be alive!"

He let out a sigh, smiled at her, "I promise, sweetheart. No more adventure for me... for a while, anyway." Though in his mind, he knew there was probably no getting around it, if Sid had anything more say in the matter.

Canfield followed Bud into the room where Cort was.  "He's sleepin' now,  doc," Lachlan explained. "Just chundered his guts."

"Well, that's the best for him, then. Let him sleep."  They moved on to the other bedroom where even Canfield, used to NanoCorp strangeness, sucked in a breath at the sight of the two lying there. "You've brought two of him?"  He turned, giving Bud a sharp glance. "You know that's never been done, that we have no idea of the consequences of that?"

"It was necessary, doc," Bud said stiffly.  "Conditions were there was no way around doing it."

The doctor examined both men, then straightened with a sigh.  "I cannot tell which was the one who was already familiar with the outside world. Which...."

"We don't know, either," Bud replied. "They'll have to wake up and tell us."  He knew the shock the film Maximus would be facing. At least one of them had already made his adjustments.

"Well, they are both profoundly unconscious. What happened that...?"

"Sid, Canfield.  Our CEO happened."

Canfield shook his head.  "Might have known.  Well, just keep an eye on them.  One of them is especially going to need a lot of adjustment when he wakes."

"What now, Bud?" Alex asked, rising from his chair where he'd been quietly observing the scene. "I mean, we've got Hope and Caroline back now... so, what now?" He was concerned that he'd not only lost his job, but most likely his apartment, and after a couple nights ago, he probably lost any hopes of a relationship with Gayle, too. He was just ready for things to get back to normal - whatever that might be in this crazy, mixed-up world he found himself thrust into against his will.

"I'd say John and Amber can go home when they're up to it."  Bud looked over at the two of them. "OK?"  Then he watched Dee hovering over Terry.  "Terry we'll have to see if he comes round shortly, see what he has to say about what he wants done.  Cort will stay here. Lachlan, well, we can let Lachlan decide at this point.  Hope'll probably stay with her Dad."  He sighed. "Then there's the two Generals. That's another of our waiting games.  Hopefully we can get the one who belongs in the movie warped back in before it all falls apart." He narrowed his eyes, "Then there's you, Ross.  What should I do with...you?"

"Seeing how this crazy ride I've got caught up in with all of you has cost me a job and a place to live, and most likely a girl," Alex told him, tilting his head to the side, "I'd say you kinda owe me. Might even put in a good word for me down at the paper... and with Gayle...," he grinned, cocking an eyebrow. "Whaddya say? Help a brother out?"

"Job?  Ross, do you think any of us have a job these days?  Terry, maybe, sorta.  I guess he's still the acting CEO of...of a corporation that's blown to smithereens.  John was chief of security for a place that's not there any more.  Caroline owns a house out in the country, makes a living painting portraits, but she hasn't done much of that of late, now has she?  We've got ourselves two, count 'em two, Roman Generals and I ain't seen many want ads for them in the paper recently.  Cort owns that place out near Caroline's, but he doesn't have any real 'job'.  And then there's me, Ross. I scoop up people off the floor when I'm not being scooped up myself. That's about it."
 

Alex sat for a moment, staring into Bud's eyes. Shit. The man was right. This was a complete mess - one that he knew deep down he hadda stick around and help clean up, though, for the life of him, he had no idea how they were going to go about doing that. He stood up, paced around a bit, then turned back to Bud. "We can't just sit here and do... nothing, though. We gotta have money, we gotta eat. You think Terry will wanna rebuild NanoCorp? Start over... without Sid, of course. At least that way, we'd have the means to fight him... have all the tools at our disposal."

"Somehow, I doubt Terry will want anything to do with NanoCorp anymore, Ross," Dee spoke up. "He's the one who blew it up in the first place, remember? Can't see where he'd be very eager to go and rebuild, or, that if for some reason he did, Sid would be very willing to just let him take it over. No, as soon as Terry's able, we're going home. We'll figure out what to do from there. I've had enough of Sid and all his crap for this lifetime, that's for sure."

"Same here," John said weakly, managing to prop himself up on his elbows, "but we can't just leave Bud holding the bag, either, Dee. There's that little matter of the two Generals to sort out, remember? No way Terry's gonna just want to drop everything and walk away, as tempting as it all sounds. No, we stick together on this – ‘til the end, ‘til it's done. You know as well as I do that Sid won't just let us walk away. He doesn't work like that."

"So, for now, it seems, we just... wait. That it?" Alex asked, rubbing his chin.

"We wait, " Bud affirmed, looking down at the unmoving Terry.  He chewed his lip. Perhaps one of the Generals would rouse soon and they could at least tend to that, which would reduce their numbers by one.  One less mouth to feed.  He wondered how much he had left in his bank account?  They were almost out of food.

DIRECTLY CONTINUED AS "DECIMUS MERIDIUS"

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