The Regeneration Project

~9~

Risa—

"What is it Aspen, what's wrong?" I plead as he continues to throw furniture and other inanimate objects forcefully against the door forming an impressive barricade. Don't get me wrong, whatever knocked on the door has got me terrified too, I don't want to know what is out there. But there is something more than fear in his eyes; he looks like he just saw a ghost.

"Risa, I don't have time to explain right now and I'm not really sure what is going on myself, but whatever is out there, I can promise you we probably do not want to see it." Aspen says rapidly through strained breaths from the weight of the desk he is currently carrying over to the door.

"Does this mean you want my help making a wall of...stuff?" I ask.

"Yes Risa, that would seem to be helpful right now all things considered."

We worked like this side by side for all of ten minutes, taking every possible movable item from the room and stacking it against the door. As I step back to admire what we've done, it looks to me to be more of a stack of junk ready to topple at a moments notice than an impenetrable wall of doom. 

"That doesn't look to safe." I observe, "Now will you tell me what this is all about?"

"You know that knock we heard?" he asks.

"Yes, of course I do, I'm not deaf you know." I say exasperated.

"Well that pattern of how that knock was, is one I have heard many times before. It may be a coincidence, but I don't think so considering all the weird stuff going on around here lately. My cousin, Nick, he used that pattern every time he would come over here. But the thing is..." he said and trailed off with a look of complete horror covering his entire face.

"The thing is..." I prompted.

"Sorry, yes, the thing is, I watched him die three years ago. There is absolutely no way he is alive."

"I wouldn't say anything isn't a possibility in our situation." I observed.

"Risa, I watched him get run over by a hovertrain and be incinerated by the thrusters and gravometric field underneath of it. There is no way he is alive. I mean, we never found a body because he was burned down to nothing, but why would someone fake his death? There is no reason to. He lived a happy life, with a good family, and was a model citizen. It just doesn't add up."

"I wouldn't doubt anything after what has already happened," I say, "Especially not after what the SST has said and done so far. Maybe they knew they would need him in the future with this so they faked his death. But who says this isn't all just a complete coincidence? I mean, whatever is out there is probably something we don't want to see regardless, but it most likely is not your cousin."

"Who would know that long ago that this was going to happen though? You and me, alone in this nation, and everything that has happened up to this point. Who would know that I would react this way to that knock? I just don't understand. These people would have had to have watched us for at least three years prior to this and potentially our whole lives. Who would do this? The more that things keep happening, the less I am believing that this is all an accident. I mean what are the chances of us being here together, and then potentially my cousin that I watched die. This seems more like an elaborate plan by the minute."

"I don't know, but what I do know is I don't really want to see what's on the other side of that door regardless of what it its. If it was sent by whoever put us here, I want nothing to do with it."

Just then, we heard the door into the apartment being thrown open and feet cross the floor to the door of the room we were in. "Great..." I mumbled, "Now it's in the house. Just great."

"Is there another way out of this house than the door?" Aspen asked as he frantically ran around the room looking for other possible exits.

"Not that I know of." I walked around the room trying to help in his efforts but came up empty-handed. 

I heard Aspen scream and turned around to see what happened and I stopped dead in my tracks. The door was partially pried open and there was a hand in the opening pointing a gun in my direction. 

"Get down!" He yelled and tackled me to the floor. That's when the shots started firing.