Chapter 18: The Compound
ALMOST TWO WEEKS to the day after Doc stopped administering the drugs keeping him in a coma, Jared woke up. He was all alone in some sort of creepy whitewashed room, and there were tubes coming out of him everywhere. For a moment, he wondered if he had been abducted by aliens. He couldn’t remember ever seeing such a place. Scared and trying hard not to panic, he sat up quickly. The room spun around him, causing disorientation as he laid back down. Wherever he was, it couldn’t be good. He racked his brain trying to think of where he could be or how he had gotten there.
Concentrating hard on his last good memory made his head throb. He grabbed it with both hands and tried not to yell out from the pain. He could handle pain. He’d dealt with more than his fair share his entire life. Even though his dad was long gone, the damage that man had caused remained alive within him.
Shit, he thought. I’m going to be late for work. How much work have I already missed?
He depended on his job as a logger. It provided enough food for him to survive. Looking at how thin and pale his arms were, he feared he’d been in this place, whatever it was, for a while, and that caused him to panic.
Griffon Maynor had taken a chance on him giving him that job. He couldn’t let him down, and he couldn’t afford to lose it. He had been trying hard to learn everything he could. He was just grateful for the opportunity.
For a guy like Jared Hastings, opportunities were few and far between. He couldn’t screw this one up. He had to prove to himself and the town of Wythel that he was strong enough, no, good enough, to be a part of it. Maybe he’d never hold his head up high or be comfortable making direct eye contact with people, but he knew he was stronger than they all saw him. He was a survivor, and he’d prove that to all of them.
What his parents had done to him wasn’t his fault. It was a constant reminder he gave himself, though getting past it was difficult. The fall of the United States left him a young teenage orphan, but he’d made it. He was a man now, and he took his responsibilities seriously. He just had to find a way out of that place and get back to work. He wasn’t sure what he was going to tell Griffon, but he’d figure something out. One step at a time.
He sat up again, much slower this time. A wave of nausea hit him, but the room didn’t spin quite as out of control. He carefully pealed back the tape on his arms, exposing tubes inserted into him. They were freaking him out, but he pulled them out slowly until he was fully disconnected from the machine.
There were no windows in the room, only one door. He heard a noise beyond the door and glanced around for a place to hide or at least something to protect himself with. He found nothing. He pulled back the covers and leapt from the bed. His body swayed, and he collapsed to the floor.
Confused, he checked himself over, and that’s when he saw it. He scrambled backwards until his back hit the wall. He felt his leg, not wanting to believe what his eyes were seeing. Just below his knee, there was nothing. It was gone. His breathing increased quickly; he knew he was hyperventilating. The edges of his consciousness darkened as the room faded to black.
Ash heard a noise coming from Jared’s room. When she entered, the bed was empty, and his IV lines were dangling. She looked around the room frantically and found him passed out on the floor on the other side of the bed.
“Jared,” she yelled, then stuck her head out the door to the hallway and screamed for Doc to come help.
Clearly Jared had woken up, but she needed help getting him back into bed. Ash vowed not to leave him alone again. As they lifted him back onto the bed, he jolted.
Scrambling up the bed into a fetal position he demanded to know who they were and what they had done to him.
“Who are you people? What do you want with me?” he yelled.
Ash stole a look at Doc but stopped him when he started to explain.
“Jared,” she said calmly, “You’re at the clinic. There was an, um, accident. It’s me, Ashlyn. We aren’t going to hurt you. I need you to tell me the last thing you remember.”
He looked back and forth between the two, trying to gauge if they were trustworthy of not. He knew what a doctor was. He just couldn’t remember ever seeing one in person. Even as a small child, his mother refused to take him to the doctor. Not when he broke his arm. Not when his father smashed his rib cage hard enough to puncture a lung. She’d always say, “The doctors will hurt you and take you away from me.”
A part of him understood she was more concerned about herself than him, but it had still left him with a deep mistrust of doctors.
“I was leaving the house for work. That’s the last thing I remember.”
They both looked at each other with uncertainty that had him ready to try and bolt again.
“Where do you work, lad?” The doctor asked.
“I work in logging. I’m a climber. Does Griffon Maynor know I’m here? How long have I even been here? I can’t lose that job.”
He wasn’t in the habit of talking so much, especially to strangers, but he was freaking out.
“What year is it?” Doc asked him.
“Huh? How the hell should I know?” Jared asked. No one really kept up with that sort of thing anymore, did they?
“How about, how old are you then?”
“I’m seventeen, sir.”
Ash gasped and then started to cry. “You’re twenty, Jared. Three years gone, Doc? He doesn’t remember anything?” She was on the verge of hysterics herself. “Jared, look at me. Look at me. It’s Ash. You have to remember. Tell me you remember.”
Jared looked at her in total confusion. “I’ve never seen you before. Ever. I never forget a face. I’ve never seen either of you before.”
Doc escorted Ash out of the room. Jared could hear their hushed whispers through the crack left in the door.
“I know it’s hard, lass, but you can’t rush these things. We knew memory loss was a possibility. Pushing him to remember isn’t going to help anything. His brain needs time to heal.”
A commotion beyond them had Jared straining to hear more. He didn’t understand what was happening.
“Charlie, he’s awake, but you can’t see him right now.”
“Like hell I can’t,” a strange male voice boomed.
“He doesn’t remember anything, Charlie. He didn’t recognize me. He’s not going to recognize you.” Ash said.
Another female gasped, and Jared heard crying. Why would anyone be crying for him? He wondered. Nothing made any sense at all.
A well-groomed man in jeans and a sweatshirt barged into the room with protests at his back.
“Jared?” Charlie said, stopping and staring at his brother-in-law looking so small and frail in a tight fetal position in the corner of the bed. “How you feeling, man?”
“Who are you?” Jared demanded. “Why am I here? What did you do to my leg?”
He was in complete survival mode. He needed answers but he wouldn’t show fear to his captors. He shut off his emotions entirely and just focused on getting the information he needed to escape and survive.
“I’m Charlie Jenkins,” the man said with tears in his eyes. “You were injured. Badly. We didn’t think you’d survive. You really don’t remember anything?”
“I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
Sam ran into the room and hugged Charlie. Jared cringed just watching them. He always hated personal contact, probably because it always seemed to come in the form of pain. They both looked very upset. Sam was crying when she finally looked at him.
“We was so scared you weren’t gonna make it,” she said in a classic southern drawl. “You may not remember, but there’s a lot of us been praying and worrying and waiting for you to wake up.”
“How long have I been out?” He asked them.
“Almost four months,” Ash said, entering the room again and wiping her eyes.
Doc followed her. “You have some brain trauma, son. By my estimates you’ve lost about three years of your memories. And nothing the rest of you do or say is going to speed up their return. You need to back off and give him some space. I know you’re terribly worried for your friend,” he said speaking to the others. The surprise on Jared’s face to hear him refer to these people as his friends. His? It would have been laughable in any other setting. Jared Hastings didn’t have friends. “But,” Doc continued, “you’re only going to confuse the shit out of him by giving him too much, too soon. He needs time to absorb what happened.”
“What exactly did happen?” Jared asked.
“Heli …” Sam started, but the man with her cut her off.
“You remember the AMAN?” he asked.
“Of course, I know who the AMAN are, and if I don’t get that order filled today, all hell is going to break lose with them. I need to get out of here. Feels like some sort of twilight zone.”
Charlie nodded. “There was an AMAN attack, Jared. You were shot multiple times, and you cracked your head pretty hard on the way down. You’ve been in a coma for the last four months. It’s a miracle you’re alive at all.”
“Four months?” Jared yelled as the room began to spin again and darkness took over once again.
He wasn’t sure how long he was out, but he began to hear faded whispers that grew louder as his eyes began to flutter open.
“I’m not leaving, Doc. I don’t care if he doesn’t remember. I do. Holly’s not here to care for him. The squad all have jobs now. No one can be one hundred percent dedicated to his care. I’ve already asked Charlie to make the arrangements. We’ll move him to the bunker until he is back on his feet. He’ll be more comfortable recovering there.”
“Karen, he doesn’t even know what the bunker is. That happened almost two years after his last memory. You’re gonna scare the life out of the boy.”
“No, I won’t. He’s strong, Doc. He’s a survivor, and he’ll survive this. He has to, because I can’t lose Jared, too.”
The fierce way she said that last sentence made Jared shiver. It reminded him of a mama bear protecting her cub, and she was talking about him. Nothing could have shocked him more. He wanted to see her, to put a face to the voice, but he didn’t dare open his eyes as they continued speaking.
“Ash can come up and stay with us if he requires twenty-four hour care. Alexis Sawyer has already volunteered to learn whatever she can to help out. With the twins in school now, she has free time and is looking for work.”
“Transporting him up that mountain is not going to be easy, especially on him, Karen. He’s lost the leg, making even the physical aspect of it difficult. When his memories begin to come back, it’s going to be hard on him. I saw the look in his eyes. He’s that awkward victim everyone talks about. He’s not our Jared.”
“He will always be our Jared,” she said, ending the discussion.
Doc left, but Jared knew the woman stayed. He could feel her presence. She walked over to the bed as he pretended to sleep. Another skill of survival he had mastered at a very young age.
The woman walked around his bed and stopped. She ruffled his hair, which he thought felt longer than he remembered. Then she bent down and kissed his forehead. Both forms of intimate contact set him on edge, and he fought not to push her away. He wanted answers and he didn’t feel like they were being entirely honest with him.
“Dear Lord,” the woman started, and he realized she was praying. Didn’t she know that was illegal? She was going to get the both of them killed. “Thank you for hearing our prayers and bringing Jared back to us. Please continue to strengthen his body and heal his mind. Watch over Holly, wherever she may be. Keep her safe and bring her home to us. Thank you for the many blessings you’ve bestowed upon us all. In Jesus’s holy name I pray, Amen.”
He couldn’t help it. His eyes had opened during her prayer as he stared at her in awe. This woman was praying for him. Risking her life for him. Why? And who was Holly? There was this feeling of familiarity every time he heard her name, but he couldn’t put his finger on why.
“Why are you praying for me? Don’t you know how dangerous that is? Why would you risk that … for me?” he asked softly.
She smiled down on him through her tears and something else he couldn’t quite place in her eyes.
“It’s good to hear your voice again. You had me very worried.”
“I’ve never seen you before,” he said. “Why would you worry about me?”
“I know it’s hard to comprehend right now, and I pray your memories are restored in full. It would be sad to think you’ll go through life without them forever. I know life has never been easy on you, but things did change for you Jared. There’s a lot of people who love and care about you. I’m only one of them.”
The shock on his face was evident. It was too much to take in. She had to have the wrong man. No one cared about him. No one had ever cared about him.
“Would you like to hear the story of how we met? I’ve made arrangements to have you moved, and it may help a little with the shock when that happens.”
“Okay,” he said. He wasn’t used to physical contact, or even eye contact, but he was mesmerized by this woman and couldn’t stop himself from staring while she talked. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to mind.
“About a year or so ago, you befriended my daughter, Holly. Oh, we know now the two of you were up to no good. I’ll save those details for another time. Just know that you were very close, and you cared a lot for my little girl.”
He tried to picture it. Why had he befriended a little girl? She told him she’d tell him another time, but he couldn’t fathom any reason why a child would take his interest, though he supposed since children were so much more open and excepting that perhaps it did make a little sense. People around Wythel that had grown up knowing him certainly wouldn’t have befriended him. He thought it would be nice to have a friend, even if she was just a kid.
“You were with Holly the day the AMAN attacked. You fought against them.”
“Is that how I got shot? The guy that was here, he told me I was shot several times.”
Her eyes, filled with tears. “No, not that time. You were not injured, but my husband, he was,” she stopped and wiped her eyes, “he was killed that day. You stayed with us in the bunker where I’m from. I’ll be taking you back there soon. Charlie is making the arrangements as we speak.”
“I have a house ma’am, and honestly nothing you are telling me is making any sense.”
“I know, it’s hard to comprehend. I didn’t know you before Holly. I’ve heard the stories, and I can see glimpses of that scared little boy now, but you have to understand, she changed you. You aren’t that person anymore, and your friends and family, they are used to you being strong, protective, a leader.”
Jared snorted as he laughed. “Lady, now I know you have me confused for someone else.”
“There is so much more to you than you even realize, Jared Hastings. I pray someday you remember that.”
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