Compartmentalization (Part 20.5)

Part 20.5 All’s Well That Ends

“ARE YOU AND JOSH OKAY?!” Dan yelled over the loud helicopter blades.
“WHAT?!” Maxwell yelled back, despite being a foot away from Dan.
“I SAID, ARE YOU AND JOSH OKAY?!”
“I CAN’T HEAR YOU!”
“HERE, LET’S WALK OVER HERE A LITTLE BIT AND SEE IF THAT MAKES THINGS BETTER!” Dan grabs Maxwell and begins to walk on the other side of the platform.
“WAIT, JUST SHUT OFF THE HELICOPTER!” Maxwell yelled, while standing his ground.
“WHAT? I MEAN, WE COULD JUST GO NOW AND TALK WHEN WE GET BACK!”
Maxwell again doesn’t hear him and just makes a slashing motion across his neck to tell Dan to cut it off. Dan shrugs his shoulders and walks in the helicopter to tell Kate to shut off the engine.

The big, black cargo helicopter was a tight fit for the black platform. Even when it landed on the far left side, it took up a fourth of the available space out there in the middle of the ocean. Maxwell had been pacing back and forth waiting for rescue, for how long, he did not know. Josh was unconscious and had not moved from his spot for some time.

“Well, I was going to wait until we got back, but as long as we are here, what in the hell happened? Where is Smoker? And how the hell did you all get here?” Dan asked with his hands on his hips.
Maxwell looked at Dan with a face of exhaustion and confusion, “There was a helicopter and J. was here, but Josh activated something and there is no trace of him left. And I have been looking,” Maxwell said.
“‘Activated something?’” Dan inquired.
“Some sort of ‘auto-neutralize’ thing, I think it was a security system, or a trap, or something. I was told this was some sort of ‘secret facility’ but before J. could set up, Josh yelled something, he told me to lie completely flat, and we sunk into these grates. Then flames erupted above us. Whatever the material used to make this platform protected us.”
“Hmmm. It feels just like a normal, metal black grate,” Dan stamps his foot on the platform, “Are you sure it protected Josh?”
“The flames were so hot that if Josh was even a tiny bit unprotected, he would probably been erased like everything else. He seems to still be breathing.”
“You have any idea what the purpose of this place is?” Dan said while looking around the plain looking black grates of the platform.
“If I had to guess, it looks like an execution platform to me,” Maxwell answered.
“I was told to report anything I found to the UWG right away; price for borrowing their helicopter I suppose. I am going to tell everyone else they can go outside and stretch their legs a bit,” Dan said while going back to the helicopter.

Dan walks to the helicopter and calls over Ken to check up on Josh. Ken muttered something about not really being a doctor, but he checks the pulse and examines Josh for any injuries anyway.

“BRO!” Max ran out of the helicopter as soon as Dan let him, “You okay?!”
“Yes. A little shaken, but yes, I’m fine,” Maxwell said
“Oh, thank god,” Max said and hugged Maxwell. Max wrapped his arms around Maxwell tight, while Maxwell just patted Max on the back a few times with one hand.
“What happened to everybody?” Max asked.
Exhausted by the prospect that he would have to think of a good way to explain the inexplicable thing that just happened again, Maxwell just responded, “I have no real idea.”

Ben saunters out of the helicopter as if nothing had happened. With his hands in his white pants, he walks over to Max.
“That’s right!” Max remembered, “You owe me an apology!”
“For what?” Maxwell responds indignantly.
“For disrespecting Ben and I!”
“What in the world are you talking about?”
“For throwing me out because of our relationship!”
“‘Throwing you out’? Throwing you out of what?! I just made you have to stop pretending you cared about your job! When you parade around with your boyfriend, who doesn’t have any sort of clearance at all for any the information that is critical for anti-assassination, take him to meetings, et cetera, you can’t expect there to be no kind of repercussion! There are rules!”
“Oh yeah!? Then what about...”
Maxwell interrupted, “I just went through a kidnapping, a possible execution or murder, or whatever it was, and I have been completely traumatized, and this is when you hit me with this?!”
“We’re not leaving until we get our apology!”
“Fine,” said Maxwell, though he thought that ultimatum was funny since they couldn’t go anywhere right now anyway, “I am sorry Max. I am sorry Ben. I am sorry I let professionalism get in the way of your feelings.”
“Thank you! See?” Max said to Ben, “I told you!” and started to walk back to the helicopter.
Ben walked over to Maxwell and in a low voice said, “Uh, sorry about this. I just thought he needed to stand up to you, but, yeah.”
“Its okay,” Maxwell also said in a low voice, “Max has always been like this.”
“You coming?” Max yelled to Ben.
“Naw, I’m gonna stretch out a bit,” Ben said.
“Okay. Call me if you need anything.”

Back in the helicopter, Dan was busy talking to UWG representatives in the cockpit, while Kate and Gwen were busy taking off the robot suit that Gwen put on earlier.

“I can’t believe I didn’t get to use this at all,” Gwen said as she was standing completely still as if she was a statue.
“Better safe than sorry,” Kate said while she was taking off a shoulder piece of the suit.
Gwen began to look sad.
“Aw, don’t take it too bad Gwen. Nobody got to really do anything. There will always be next time!” Kate said cheerfully.
“No. I am not down about it, it is just so incredibly hot,” Gwen said as sweat dripped down her face and then started to breath a little more audibly.
“I guess that means the cooling system is finally offline. I shut off the power to this thing, but I’ll try to get you out of there as fast as I can,” Kate saw Max enter the helicopter, “Yo Max, can you get Gwen a bottle of water?”
“Oh sure,” Max said, “Where can I get some?”
“Just in that cooler over there.”
Maxwell hands Kate a bottle of water and she opens it and helps Gwen drink it, for she can’t move with the powered-off suit on.
“By the way, I could’ve sworn I brought more clothes when I went to the hotel,” Max said as he was looking through his luggage, “Did anyone see anybody going through my stuff?”
“No idea,” Kate said. Right as she said it, she finally gets the upper body part of the RA suit off and now Gwen can move a bit on her own. Gwen picks up the bottle of water and drinks whatever is left.
“What did we expect that we decided to use this suit anyway?” Gwen asked.
“I thought it was just because you wanted to try it on,” Kate said in amusement.
“No, I mean, did we expect the entire Smoker guild to attack us?”
“I don’t think we had a real reasonable reason why, I am not sure if any of us really knew what to expect, so we prepared for the worse.”
Gwen thought about this, as she was helping Kate get the rest of the armor off. She wondered what other decisions they had made that were only made out of fear. She was wondering if maybe that is why she was here in the first place.

Outside, Ken is standing by Josh with his hands in his white blazer pockets.
“He is definitely alive,” Ken said to Maxwell, who seemed to be deep in thought, looking out into the ocean, “but lord knows if he is really okay.”
“I have a feeling that the UWG wouldn’t be too happy if he was dead,” Maxwell said with his hand on his chin.
“If he lives through this, is he going to be part of the team?”
“If he has all his faculties intact, I don’t see why not.”
“I am no Sherlock Holmes, but it looks like he managed to manipulate and murder his old friend, without leaving any evidence. Do you think that is such a good idea?”
“I see what you are saying, but I would argue that if Josh does that to his friends, imagine what he could do to his enemies.”
“So what, are you saying that we are screwed either way?”
“I am saying that if I am going to suffer some horrific fate, I rather do it thinking I was trying to do a better job and potentially help someone than naively thinking I was safe.”
“Don’t say I never warned you.”

Maxwell and Ken circled around and was joined by Dan, Kate, Gwen, Ben and then finally Max.

“Hey. That’s my outfit! When did he get my outfit?” Max said confusedly.
“I think he found it in our hotel room,” Ben said in a deadpan.
“He could’ve told me.”
“He could’ve told us a lot of things,” Kate remarked.
“Is he alive?” asked Gwen.
“You don’t think he is in a coma, do you?” Ken said.
“Alright,” Dan grunted as he headed back towards the helicopter and got a bottle of water and a towel. Dan then walks back and kneels next to Josh. He begins to take small handfuls of water into one hand and starts splashing Josh in the face.
“What are you doing?” Maxwell asked.
“I don’t see anyone else trying anything,” Dan retorted.

Whether it was coincidence or not, after a minute of splashing Josh’s face and drying it. Josh opens his eyes.

“Josh, are you okay?” Dan asked.
“I, I am not sure yet,” Josh said shakily.
Josh began to stand up. He faltered a little bit, and Maxwell and Dan helped him to stand.
“Are you sure he should be standing? He may need to lay down,” Ken said.
“No, I’m okay. I just, have a bit of a headache,” Josh said as he held his head in one hand.

Everyone was silent, waiting for Josh to make a move. He continued to hold his head in his hand, as he stood there. By this time, everyone had gotten used to the fact that Josh frequently zoned out, and lost himself in thought. They all waited patiently for him to process whatever he was thinking about.

“I remember!” Josh proclaimed, “You’re Maxwell, and you’re Dan, and You’re Kate and Ken, and...Gwen! And then you two are Max and Ben! I remember!” Josh said ecstatically.
“That’s good, Josh, that’s good,” Dan said trying to calm him down.
“I am Josh Stimpleton, and I remember everything!”
“This is good. I am happy for you, but I need you to tell me what exactly happened here,” Dan said as if he was talking to a child.
“I,” Josh paused, “Oh crap. I guess don’t remember everything. Huh.”
“Are you sure you don’t have an inkling of what this place is?”
“I think...I think this place was where I took both U. Smoker and Jordan, but, I don’t remember why. Though, where is Jordan?”
“We don’t know, but if Maxwell’s story is anything to go by, you activated something and the whole platform erupted in flames. I doubt anything survived other than you and Maxwell.”
“Just like in my dream,” Josh said and got lost in thought again, “I did it. I did it! After all these years of secrets, I can finally live my life again!” Josh said, filled with joy. Everyone else just seemed relieved that he was alive and breathing. Dan walked back to the helicopter, and Ken, Kate, Gwen, Ben, and Max stayed around Josh. They asked several questions in which the only answer Josh could give was “I’m not sure.”

“I do have one question,” Josh said after being asked so many questions he didn’t know the answers to, “I remember Ben saying that ‘my destiny would destroy me.’ What did you mean by that?”
“Oh that? That is just a quote from a movie,” Ben said as if he assumed everyone knew what he was talking about.
“Seriously? Whenever I ask you to do that ‘premonition’ thing, you just get a line from some movie?” Max said, confused.
“We watched it together, it was a cheesy B-movie called ‘Deadly Prophecy,” Ben answered.
“Well, Josh, I think that means you are going to be okay!” Ben said as he patted Josh on the back.

A weight lifted off of Josh’s shoulders. He felt for the first time that maybe things are going to be okay after all.

Maxwell slinked off and watched the sun starting to slowly make its descent into the horizon. The colors just starting to change into a orange-yellow hue. He felt the saltwater hit his face as the ocean below was starting to get choppy. Maxwell felt it was picturesque. Something troubled Maxwell though. It troubled him how easily Josh was able to take what must of been years of work, agony, and planning, and stuff it inside some compartment in his head. Josh didn’t remember, but it was still somewhere in his brain, ready to be plucked out if the situation arises. Maxwell thought maybe there is something enviable in how in control Josh seems to be of his brain, but it unnerved him how proficient Josh was at it. There was something machine-like and cold to the unconscious control Josh had, Maxwell thought. Maxwell then decided he was much too tired for such thoughts and resigned to think about it once he got some sleep.

Everyone got in the helicopter and Kate started the engine. The large cargo helicopter started its two blades and lifted into the air, leaving only a lonely black square in the middle of the ocean.