Chapter Forty-Three

Aaron

Aaron reaches up, puts his hand around the back of his neck, and holds it there. For some reason, he was expecting to be in a lot of pain when he woke up, but he’s not. He feels way different though. He wonders how long he must’ve been out, and whatever they gave him to wake him up is a little intense.

He looks down at the clean epoxied concrete floor having no idea how he got there. He looks up this time, expecting to be in a hospital, but the place doesn’t look quite right, it’s too dim. A bad feeling starts to wash over him, and maybe he’s suffered some kind of brain trauma or something. After all, he’s having difficulty speaking properly. It’s getting better though, with his voice getting a little clearer with each try. This time, it’s stern.

“What… happened?” When he recognizes Valerie there with him, he at least knows he’s safe, and going to be alright.

When it becomes apparent to her that he’s trying to say her name, she rushes down to him and holds his head in her hands. She lifts his face to hers and helps him look into her tearful eyes. He shifts over onto the side of his thigh and stares up at her. He looks deep into her eyes and says her name again. This time he nearly gets it right. She looks up at Marco, hoping he’ll have something encouraging to say.

“It’s going to take some time Valerie, he’s doing just fine.”

Evan only stands there in utter shock. It seems he had not truly grasped the concept that they were actually bringing Aaron back from the dead for real. “Marco, I think you can take it from me that you brought the man back.”

Over the next hour, his recovery goes fairly smoothly. With some help, he’s able to get up and even start standing on his own. He only has to reach for the back of a chair a couple of times to steady himself. He’s mainly focused on clearing up his speech first. He keeps trying to ask them what happened, but to his frustration, they’re not giving him any avoiding answering him directly. He keeps noticing Marco raising his eyebrows at Valerie. The two of them are keeping something from him. He may be a little foggy right now, but he’s not stupid.

He looks at the other three and then focuses on Marco specifically. His voices is raised a little this time and his brows are turned down. “How… bad… is… it… Marco?”

They all stare at him blankly again. The other shorter old man who is with them glances deliberately to his right, prompting him to look in that direction. He almost gasps when he notices the tilting work station for the first time. He’s never seen the AMF work station himself before, but Five and Arma have described it to him well enough. He sits down and looks at both of his hands up close, puts them down on his knees, and then looks the rest of himself over briefly.

With a sigh, he looks up at them and nods his head. “I guess it was really bad then, huh.” He blows a breath out of his puffed-up cheeks, a bit taken aback by it all. “I guess you guys really did it, you brought me back.” He takes another deep breath, puts his hands on his knees, and looks up at them. “What’ve I gotten myself into?”

Marco gets everyone’s attention with a harrumph. “The finishing room is no place to welcome a man back from the dead. I say we get a move on it.”

Evan is burned out and quickly voices his agreement. “Thanks for coming on out again, but I must retire for the night. Please, all of you, come and see me again when you have the chance, or soon after I die someday.” He is joking though. “Valerie, let me know how things are going. Aaron, I would like to get to know you sometime, now that you’re back. Best of luck till then my friend.”

Before the three of them head out, Valerie has him walk with her into the back. While they look for a shirt, some boots, and a hairpiece for him, he works on his balance. He used to always just wear a plain large shirt size, but now his shoulders stretch the hell out of an extra-large. His chest is so big now, his chin touches it when he looks down all the way. The strangest thing though is how natural his body feels, even though it’s so different. By the time they make it to the parking lot, he feels like seeing what his frame can do.

Together they all head to his apartment, to meet back up with Five and Arma. He rides with Valerie in her truck while Marco follows behind in his fancy old car. On the way there, he starts to remember things, like driving her truck.

“Valerie… What happened to Five? Did you find her? Is she alright?”

“Why are you asking about Five, and now? Do you remember what happened?” he looks at her as if he’s not in the mood to be side-stepped again. “Yeah, she’s fine, she’ll be waiting for us in your apartment, with Arma.”

“They killed me, Valerie. They ganged up on me, kicked the shit outta me, and then shot me, right there in Ray’s fucking back yard. I died.” He pauses, thinking of what all happened.

“Where was Mikel? Did you find him, was he a part of that?”

“No, his truck was there, but I never saw him. How’d I end up here? Who found me?”

Valerie looks over at him, not sure quite what to tell him. She’s still wondering how much he remembers. She doesn’t feel like he remembers her worth a damn. She was imagining he would be more grateful or at least have something to say to her, like that he still loves her. She knows she might be a little selfish for thinking that way, but she’s been through a lot.

He’s been talking to her like she might as well be Marco or pretty much anyone else. He said he was in love with her, and that’s all she’s thought about for the last two weeks.

“Arma brought you in, I didn’t even know what happened until, like noon, the next day”

“Arma… she brought me back.”

It’s not even a question. He’s looking out the window, thinking of their last moments together. He knew Arma was worth her salt. Before he starts in on the hundreds of questions he needs to ask her, he stops himself and decides to let things be until the time is right. He’s not going to burden her with that so immediately.

He was trying to brush off the feeling before, but the way Valerie is looking at him is making him nervous. It makes him worry about who and what he is now. He can now feel the difference from when he was human. He quietly sits in his seat, looking himself over, all while dragging up whatever memories he can. Everything comes back to him so quickly and clearly. It kind of feels like he’s on the outside looking in. It’s like his old memories have been carved in stone, set aside, and now he’s starting on a whole new slate.

After Valerie parks the truck in the garage, he gets out on his own, without needing any help. He’s still moving a bit rigidly when he walks but is getting better rather quickly. By the time they make it across the garage and to the elevator, his gait starts to smoothen out even more. He wants to take the stairs, for the practice, but she waits at the elevator regardless. He can tell she’s not really in the mood to climb seven floors. In all fairness, he’s not the one that’ll get tired doing it anyway.

When they enter the elevator, she practically corners him, standing close, and staring into his eyes. “Tell me what’s going through your mind, Aaron. You remember me right? You told Five and Arma that you wished you could come back, like them. What…” She stops and looks past him through the glass back of the elevator. The car is rising above the second floor and something in the main lobby has caught her attention.

One of the receptionists has a phone to their ear and is shooing a homeless person away out of the lobby. The individual is not just a regular derelict though, they are the other kind of gutter trash, a rat. She can tell by their clothes. This person is up to no good. She points behind Aaron, getting him to look.

“What’s a homeless person doing in the lobby? I’ve never seen this before. It looks like they are causing trouble.” He looks down at Valerie, who looks panicked, or maybe even ill.

“They’ve found us.”

On the sixth floor, the elevator dings and the doors open. A young man in a blue and green tracksuit is standing in the way of them getting out. He appears to be waiting to use the elevator. With his hands folded behind his back, he shuffles in without even giving them the courtesy of stepping out first. Assuming he is a new tenant, Valerie introduces the two of them to him. Despite the circumstances, she is still trying to be nice to the jerk.

While turning her way, with a smile, the man steps directly between the two of them. Immediately, with one of his forearms, he pins Valerie to the wall and rams a stun gun into her side. It turns her into quivering heap on the floor. In no more than a fraction of a second, the man spins back around and attacks him. He is completely taken off guard and startles when the Taser is jabbed into his ribs as well. The Taser has no effect on his polymer skin. The man’s eyes dart up at him in confusion.

He panics and hits the man away with a flailing backhand, sending him into the glass side of the elevator. The guy’s body breaks the thick reinforced class, bulging it out. There’s even a separate shatter point where his head hit too. Both the man and Valerie now lay motionless on the floor. That flood of wild panic that Five had told him about is starting to crash down on him. Like she had explained, it takes him over, but instead of wanting to bolt, a wave of alarming aggression follows.

With one arm, he quickly scoops Valerie up and slings her over his right shoulder. Knowing he’d better get the hell out of there, he turns down the right end of the hall and strides to his apartment door as quickly as he can stay upright.

He damn near pulls the carpet up when he screeches to a stop and then puts his other shoulder hard into the door frame. The door handle is locked when he reaches for it, driving his anxiety even higher. He almost breaks the door down just to get out of the hall, but he manages to hold his anxiety back just long enough to rifle through her purse and get the key he gave her.

When he barges in through the door, both Five and Arma jump to their feet. Arma has his knife drawn back and is ready to throw it at him.

“Stay back you son of a bitch, or I’ll make it look like I was only having fun last time!”

He dumps Valerie down on the couch and starts pawing at her, to see if she’ll wake up. “Some guy just attacked us in the elevator!” When he looks back up to Five and Arma, they look crazy out of their damn minds. “What the hell is going on around here?”

Five gasps and almost falls to the floor when she stumbles backward. “Oh! Oh my god! Aaron!”

Arma flips the knife end over end, catching the handle again, smirking at him. “Welcome back, Aaron. How does it feel? Now, where’d the bastard run off to?”

Five bolts over to him and wraps her arms around him as tightly as any robot ever could. With the side of her head pressed against his chest, she cries hysterically and babbles on as fast as she can. “I can’t believe you’re finally back. We’ve been waiting forever. I thought they were just lying, but it is you, you’re really here! Oh, I missed you so much! I was so scared I’d never see you again! Mikel said…”

He lays his hand on her head and hugs her tight enough to get her to quiet down for just a second. “I’m back Five, and for good now.”

She lets out a huge sigh and then takes another sharp breath before looking back up at him. He laughs when she wipes her face on his shirt, making it turn dark. She could hardly see him with such watery eyes. It makes her smile big too.

There’s a loud banging on the door, startling all of them upright. Arma rushes to the side of it and poises herself for hammering the knife down on whatever assholes dare comes in after them. She waits there, beckoning for him to open the door. The banging stops as soon as he grabs hold of the door handle. When he opens the door ever so slightly, Marco tries wedging himself in through the crack like a small mammal. He quickly opens the door for him, looks out into the hall, and then slams it shut again.

“What the hell did you just do Aaron?” There’s a guy all wadded up in the elevator, I know it was you! I didn’t see any other huge fuckers around here that could’ve done that!”

He points to Valerie on the couch. “That guy was a rat! Valerie said they… found us. What’s that supposed to mean? Why are rats looking for her Marco?”

Valerie is now just coming to. Her first words as she awakens are a groggy. “Ugh, what in the hell.” When her mind finally rewinds to what just happened, she throws herself off the couch, expecting to be in the back of a van, or something worse.

Marco hurries over to her and pushes one of her eyelids up with his thumb, checking her out. “You’re safe Valerie. You alright? Tell me, where’d they hit you?” He looks back at the rest of them. “Don’t worry, I already dealt with the guy you left back there. He’s still alive, at least he was when I left him.”

While Aaron stands there looking at Arma and Five, who is already back to hugging him again, he starts to remember more and more from his last night alive. That’s when he remembers it was Mikel who started it all.

Arma is standing alone from the others, with her hands on her hips, and most of her weight on one foot. She’s looking at Five as if a little embarrassed by her clinginess, but also appears to be waiting. He reaches out for her, motioning for her to come over to him. He slings his arm around the back of her neck and gives her a little smooch on the side of her forehead. He would never have dared to do such a thing before, but now, she doesn’t necessarily intimidate him as much anymore.

He can’t help but grin when her fire-colored eyes widen like a squirrely cat’s. “I owe you everything, Arma. I couldn’t even begin to tell you how much it means to me.”

Across the room, Valerie stares at him with a disheartened look. She’s upset that he hasn’t said anything like that to her yet, not even so much as thanks. As much as they loved one another, she expected him to at least be happy to see her again. He hasn’t said shit to her this whole time. She can only fight back her tears for so long. It’s unbearable to stand by while he continues to stare straight through her. She thought he wanted to come back for her.

Not wanting to draw attention to herself, she retreats into his bedroom away from everyone else, to cry alone. She just knew deep down that she wasn’t going to be able to have him back the way he was. The world is too cruel for such a thing. She always knew there was going to be a price to pay.

Aaron can hear her sobbing in the next room. He holds his palm out to the others when he turns to go to her. They all know to give the two of them some space for a moment. When he opens his door and closes it behind himself, he finds her sitting on the floor, on the other side of the bed. Her back is against the wall and her face is pressed to her knees. She has his old backpack scrunched up in her lap and she has the edges of it clenched in her hands.

He knows he’s supposed to be feeling something strong for her right now, but nothing is coming to him. All he can manage is to not act as wound up as he still is. The feeling of needing to tear something apart with his strength simply will not go away on its own. He knows he should say if something might be wrong, but right now is not the time for it. Revealing something like that would make her feel awful. Only after he hunches down next to her for a minute does she stop sobbing. She only peeks out from through her mess of hair at him when he lays a hand on her knee.

“Babe, I’m sorry. I uh… I know it’s been hard. You know, I just woke up like a couple of hours ago. So, this is kind of sudden for me, and a little hard to… I don’t know, wrap my head around. I don’t know how long it’s been for all of you, but you’ve probably had a lot to deal with.”

“You’ve been dead for almost two months Aaron! I saw it on the goddamn news the morning you disappeared, that’s how I found out! Fucking butcher fest out there, and, and I just knew it.” She starts sobbing again but does eventually slow her breathing down when he puts his other hand over hers and his lips on her head.

He figures it’ll be best to ask Arma about the details later. When he stands up, he pulls her with him, hugging her firmly against himself. He doesn’t feel romantic and has no idea what to say to her, but he wants her to feel that he’s there for her again. He strokes her hair back and lays his cheek across the top of her head. “I love you Valerie, and you won’t ever have to lose me again.”

She puts her hands on top of his shoulders and grasps at his shirt, taking another big breath and letting it out. He can feel the stress shedding right off of her as she sinks into him more. She’s still a bit shaky but is starting to calm down. When he looks down at her, she lifts her head off his chest and focuses on his face. She’s studying him closely now.

She kind of liked it when he looked a little older, she was used to it. “Is it really you Aaron?”

“I guess I thought I was myself when I woke up. I didn’t even know honestly. I feel like it was only yesterday”

He looks down at her with a puzzled expression. He was trying to not think about it, and wasn’t expecting her to be so forward about it, or ask so soon. He’s kind of shocked and left wondering if she can really tell the difference. Why else would she bring it up? He knows he probably doesn’t have anything resembling a heart anymore, but it feels like it just stopped for a second, something in his chest sure did. Maybe that’s why he can’t feel that breathless awe of love for her right now. Maybe real love died with the real him. It would be the cruelest of tricks. Death wouldn’t let him go without a fair trade.