Genomorph

Chapter 13

CHAPTER 13

“Brandi?” Arnie asked quietly as he after he closed the door of the truck. He did not really expect an answer, certain the girl had just promised to meet him here to placate his concerns.

“I’m here, Arnie,” Brandi’s voice said softly from the sleeper.

Arnie smiled and put the truck in gear. Once they were out of town and headed east towards the interstate Brandi emerged from the sleeper.

“Are you ok?” Arnie asked as Brandi settled into the passenger seat.

“I’m fine see?” Brandi said, lifting her t-shirt to show him the bandages. There was not a trace of blood to be seen and as she removed the gauze there was no evidence she had ever been shot.

“I guess you have a lot of questions.” Brandi said.

“I guess I do.” Arnie said quietly. “I cain’t deny what I seen with my own eyes but dammit Brandi that stuff jest ain’t possible! God A’mighty there ain’t even any blood on them bandages!”

“Will you let me explain? At least, as best I can?”

Arnie nodded slowly.

“I wasn’t always like this. I guess you could say I’m an experiment. I won’t go into all the details, because most of it doesn’t matter and the less you know the less trouble it can get you into. I was designed, created, to be a weapon basically. And there were people that wanted me to be a tool, they wanted to use me.

“So I ran. You’ve seen some of what I can do, and I used those abilities to escape. All I want to do is find out who I am now. To find out if there is anything even remotely human left in me.”

Arnie was silent for a long time. Then he let out a long sigh and ran his hand through his thick red hair.

“Like I said, I cain’t argue with what I seen,” Arnie said at last. “And yo story makes as much sense as anything else.”

Arnie was silent for some time as he drove. When he finally looked over at Brandi, he could see that she was on the verge of tears.

“Did they do this to you ‘gainst yo will?” He asked her.

“No, not exactly,” Brandi replied. She was trying to withhold as much of the truth as possible without actually lying to her friend. “I was wounded, very badly wounded, and the procedure was supposed to make me whole again. But something went wrong. It made me whole ... and a whole lot more. That’s when the ... others ... government types ... stepped in.”

“Sounds like them ole men in black,” Arnie grumbled. “I drive through the so’west a lot. Been to Roswell a few times. I heard them stories. Prob’ly some kind’o alien stuff they found. Hell, I bet they even knew what was gonna happen all along!”

“Hell, mighta even been that stuff they found in Iraq,” Arnie mumbled.

Brandi looked at Arnie with shock. “What stuff, Arnie?”

“Stuff from some bunker in the desert, northwest o Baghdad. Buncha weird, shiny boxes,” Arnie told her. “We flew in with some lady doctor to this place a bunch’o SEALs had secured.”

“Oh my God, you were there…” Brandi whispered, her body beginning to shake. How, of all the truckers on the road, had she happened to crawl into the sleeper of this one? It was like there was someone watching over her…guiding her. Suddenly Brandi flashed to the memory of that night, the driver of the hummer stumbling as he ran for the C-130. His helmet came off and as he rose Brandon saw that he had red hair.

“But I never saw your face….”

“We got hit by a whole company of Iraqis by surprise,” Arnie continued, having missed Brandi’s words. “The hummer I was drivin’ got the engine taken out by an RPG and the gunner got fragged. We all woulda been toast, too, but that SEAL commander climbed up in there, told me to run for the plane and then he jes’ tore into them Iraqis and held ‘em off till the gunships showed up. They were jes’ comin’ in when an RPG hit the hummer square on, blew him right out the top. Nearly took both his legs off, God A’mighty he was a mess….”

Arnie’s eyes widened and he turned to stare at Brandi. “You said you was hurt bad, no, you said you was wounded … and that you weren’t always like this .…”

“That’s right Arnie, until a few months ago I was a man,” Brandi said softly. “I used to be Brandon Anderson.”

She told him the rest of the story then, and Arnie listened in silence. After she finished her tale, Brandi lit a cigarette and regarded the big trucker, waiting for him to speak.

“I shoulda stayed,” the big man said at last, his voice breaking. “Mebbe I coulda got the hummer to crank. I shouldn’ta run.”

Brandi reached out and grasped one of his big hands.

“No!” She cried, feeling the sting of tears in her eyes. “I saw you down there firing, Arnie. You did stay, until I ordered you to leave. You couldn’t have done anything more.”

“I was ready to die that night you know,” she told him, after a long silence. “I was not ready to live with a broken body. When I was given the chance to be healed, I knew that I would do whatever it took. I just never expected this.”

“Well, they say the Lord works in mysterious ways,” Arnie said. “I’m not much of a religious man, but I gotta believe, Brandi, that there was a reason for this. And I figger someone out there is watchin’ over you.”

“I don’t know about that,” Brandi said. “But I do thank God it was your truck I snuck into.”