The Love of His Life - Chapter 1

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Chapter One

Fortunately for Chloe the guard had filled the tank of the Mustang. She didn't have to worry about running out of gas anytime soon as she pushed the car hard, getting away from the Facility as fast as she could. She didn't know the terrain; she didn't know the curves in the road but that didn't stop her from putting the pedal to the floor and driving as fast as she could force the car to go. As far as she was concerned it was better to die in a fiery car crash than go back to the Facility.

Fortunately curves were few and far between. The road was straight for miles on end before gently bending in places. Chloe found it strange that there were no signs on the road to tell her where she was, the speed limit, or how far she was from the next town, lodging, or gas station. There weren't even any signs that warned of which way the road would curve on the few instances the pavement deviated from the ruler-straight, level path it cut through endless expanses of flat land.  

There was only blackness when Chloe dared to look away from the road to glance in the rearview mirror. It was like that for over half an hour and Chloe knew something was wrong with the scenario. It couldn't be this easy to escape the Facility. They had to be letting her go deliberately. The question was why?

Have I even escaped? Is this just some mind game they're playing with me now?

It occurred to Chloe that she could actually be in the Facility at that moment, dreaming under some hallucinogenic drug that she'd made an escape when in fact she was tied to an exam table.

She began to doubt her own theories when she saw headlights behind her. They were only pinpricks in the dark at first. Chloe floored the pedal even harder, pushing the car past a hundred miles per hour. She had a strange sensation of floating in the driver's seat.

Pain in her side reminded her she was wounded. She reached down and pressed a hand to her side. It was sticky with gelled blood but there was something there -- a small lump. The wound she'd sustained escaping through the gate had healed around something that was poking out of her side. 

It was a tiny wire.

Disgust and fear coursed through her stomach. She tried to pull on it but the thing wouldn't come out. It was connected to something larger under her skin. It was an implant that she hadn't even known she'd had.

That explained the lack of a helicopter to chase her down. They wouldn't need to track her from the air when she had a beacon to guide them right to her.

Miles raced by under the car. Chloe needed to get somewhere to look at the thing in her side. She needed to try to take it out.

As dawn came upon the horizon there was a distinctively jagged edge in the center. Skyscrapers. She was coming upon a city. The first road sign she'd seen since leaving the Facility said she was approaching Gotham. Chloe's heart began to pound with hope and dread. What if she didn't make it? What if she got this close and they caught her?

*****

The Mustang gave up the ghost about a quarter mile from the city limits. Chloe pulled off on the side of the road while traffic zoomed by. She looked down at her side. A black wire poked through her skin. It looked jagged and torn from where it had gotten caught on the gate.

The glove compartment held only a few items, none of them useful for cutting out an implant. There was a pack of gum, a wallet, an iPod without earbuds, and the owner's manual to the car. Chloe flipped open the wallet. There was a card with the Lexcorp logo on it. A driver's license identified the owner of the Mustang as Gerald Meray. He was thirty-two years old and had an address in Gotham city. She remembered her uncle blowing Gerald's brains out.

"I'm sorry, Gerald. I never wanted to get you killed."

There was a rumpled fifty dollar bill in the wallet. Chloe took it, slammed the glove compartment and got out of the car. She took off jogging toward the city.

The sound of screeching tires came loud behind her. Chloe spun around and saw two black Hummers sliding to a stop. The doors flew open and her uncle slid out of the passenger side of the first truck. 

"Chloe! Get back here!"

"You'll have to shoot me in the back!"

She picked up the pace, controlled her breathing so she didn't panic and then tear off too quickly and wearing herself out before she had a chance to get away. She doubted they'd risk shooting her in the back since they could hit her in the heart.

Though the morning rush hour had gone traffic wasn't thin. Chloe darted in and out of traffic, causing cars to swerve to avoid hitting her. They slammed their horns, making them blare angrily. Curses flew but she ignored them and kept running. 

"Chloe!"

Oh shit. Lois.

Chloe darted out in front of an old red truck that had a bale of hay in the back of it. The woman driving swerved to avoid Chloe and slammed on the brakes. Their eyes met for the briefest moment before the truck fishtailed. 

Chloe dared a glance back. Lois had jumped atop a stopped car just as the red truck plowed into where she'd been standing seconds ago. There was no anger in Lois's eyes, however, as she ran over the car and leapt lithely to the ground to give chase.

"You can't run, Chloe! None of us can!"

Maybe we can't but I'm gonna give it my best shot.

Chloe decided to stop looking back. There was nothing behind her but misery. Chloe turned away from her cousin and took off running at full speed. She'd run until she died if she had to.

*****

The streets were packed with commuters and tourists alike. The weather was hot. The sky was a rich azure unmarred by a single cloud. Sweat poured down Chloe's body. She squinted to see in the sun. She felt sick from the stabbing pain in her side.

She pressed on despite it all.

One street blurred into another as Chloe ran. She dodged through people, knocked more than a few of them over, and came within a hair's breadth of being run over by yellow taxis at least three times before Lois's weight slammed into her, knocking her into an alley. She rolled smoothly to her feet and looked around.

The alley was a dead end. How ironic.

Chloe turned to face her cousin.

"I won't go back," Chloe panted.

Lois bent over to catch her breath. "Damn you're fast. I'm your trainer and you gave me a run for my money. I'm proud of you."

"Go to hell, Lois."

Lois sighed. "Come on now, Chloe. I'm not your enemy."

Despite her difficulty breathing, Chloe burst into mirthless laughter. "You've been a part of this from day one! You were there the night Sam murdered my father. You helped take me away from my home. You've helped in their experiments for God's sake! You've got the nerve to say you're not my enemy?"

"I see it differently. I couldn't have stopped Dad but I did comfort you as best I could. I've jumped through hoops all these years to keep you as safe as I can."

"I used to think you were a victim of Sam's madness the same as I was. Now I see you're just like him."

Lois swallowed hard. There was anger -- and guilt -- on her face. "I asked to come get you so I can protect you, Chloe. Dad would shoot you out of spite. Or worse, he could set Lucy on you."

Just hearing her other cousin's name sent a chill through Chloe. Lucy was the most vicious psychopath Chloe had ever seen, and she'd encountered plenty during her years at the Facility.

"No more stalling. It ends now one way or another."

Chloe threw the first punch. Lois dodged it easily enough but punching her wasn't what Chloe had in mind. She just needed to get Lois maneuvered around so she wasn't blocking the entrance to the alley. 

The fight was fast and added more bruises and pain to those already on Chloe's body. She didn't care. She could weather the storm until she could get Lois out of the way.

Chloe fell back from a solid punch to the jaw that left her seeing stars. She rolled to the ground and kicked Lois's feet out from under her. When Lois went down Chloe scrambled to her feet and took off for the exit. She only got a few steps before Lois wrapped an arm around her neck. Chloe saw the syringe a second later.

Three young men walked by and spotted them in the alley. 

"Don't," Lois said. "They're innocent. You'll only get them hurt. Remember what happened to Gerry."

"Gerry wasn't innocent. He was trying to keep me in," Chloe said. She grabbed at Lois's wrist, holding the syringe at bay. Lois was strong. Chloe couldn't hold her off much longer.

"Help! Please, help me! She's crazy!"

The men looked at one another for a second, decided they could handle one woman, and then ran toward them. They didn't know how wrong they were to think they could take Lois down easily. She didn't need them to knock Lois out, however: She just needed a delay long enough to get lost in the crowded streets of the city until she could find a way to dig the tracking device out.

"Damn it, Chloe," Lois said. Her arm loosened on Chloe's neck when two of the men came to pry her off.

When the fight with them began, Chloe wrested herself free of Lois's grip and took off out of the alley and deeper into the heart of the city.

*****

The butcher's shop had a beautiful collection of knives. Of course they were all lightly contaminated with germs from raw meat but Chloe didn't have time to be picky. She grabbed a paring knife from the table and, without hesitation, sliced her side open. She felt dizzy at once as she grabbed onto the small metal device in her side and yanked it out.

Pain, so severe it made her sick, shot through Chloe's side. She discarded the tracking device and flushed it down the sink. 

She expected the pain to go away but it only got worse. Something was wrong. She shouldn't hurt this badly from such a small wound.

Had the device been connected to organs in her body? Were there other devices it had been linked to and now she'd disrupted the circuit?

She had to get out of there. They would definitely check the last stationary place the device had sent a signal from. If that was the only one, and she sincerely hoped it was, then Chloe didn't have long before the bad guys came after her.

She'd barely made it a block before her legs felt so rubbery she thought she'd pass out. People gave her strange looks but continued on. That was the sad truth and the beauty all in one about a big city: a lack of compassion when you needed it and anonymity when it counted most.

There would be no knights, white or otherwise, to come to her rescue.

Chloe ducked into another alley and leaned against the wall for support. She was dying. She could feel it. She'd been poisoned when she took the tracking device out.

There was a dumpster close by. Using the last of her strength, Chloe hauled herself over and into it, pulled as many garbage bags over her as her hands could move, and then gave into the darkness he'd sank into so many times before.

*****

She tasted hamburger.

Chloe spat the cold, greasy remains of someone's lunch and opened her eyes. She could see nothing, not even the hand in front of her face. 

She reached for her side. The wound was gone. When she sat up she felt like the world moved around her. She held still until the sensation passed and then pushed on the plastic cover of the dumpster. 

Yellow light arced a dome across the sky. Traffic was sparse on the street outside. Chloe listened. There were voices close by. A whore made a deal with a man before she rounded the corner with him, tucking money into her bra. The woman had makeup on an inch thick and barely enough clothes to cover her skinny body. She saw Chloe climbing out of the bin.

"Good grief, girl, you look like hell."

So do you.

"Thanks," Chloe replied dryly.

"You okay?"

"She's crawling out of a dumpster. She look okay to you?" the john with her said.

"I didn't ask you, did I?"

Chloe landed on her feet but sank to the ground. She needed food. She had to eat after coming back. She had to eat a lot to regain her strength.

"Here," the woman said, digging into her bra. 

"Hey, what about me?" the man with her asked.

"You'll get what you paid for, don't worry."

"I can't take your money."

"Sure you can. It's easy. Here."

The woman's face puckered up at the smell coming off Chloe when she pressed a $20 into her palm. Up close Chloe could see the woman was in her late forties.

"You look too healthy…basically…to be strung out so I know you'll get something to eat with this. Go to 2527 West 52^nd street and ask for Hazel. Tell her Rita sent you. She'll know what to do."

"Thanks. I won't forget this."

Rita winked at her. "Yes you will. Now go on."

Her legs were stronger than they were when she'd climbed into the dumpster but her head was throbbing and she was still dizzy. Chloe made her way out of the alley but turned to look back at Rita. The woman was undoing the man's pants and getting down on her knees. 

Chloe moved on.

*****

The address the woman gave her was a dive. It had to be a crack house. Women who were obviously in Rita's circle came in and out of the building. She approached the first woman she saw. 

"Is Hazel here?"

The woman backed away and pointedly waved a hand in front of her nose. "Christ… Hang on." 

She looked back to the open door and yelled. "Hazel! Somebody here for ya!"

A woman in her mid-sixties appeared in the door a few moments later. If Rita's make-up had been thick…

"Christ, Bonnie. You'll wake the dead yellin' like that. Who the hell are you?" she asked, looking at Chloe.

"Rita sent me."

Hazel rolled her eyes. "Oh, God. Okay, come in. Shit…"

Chloe walked through the darkened doorway. The inside of the building smelled like cheap perfume and pot. 

"Can you even make it up a flight of steps?"

"Yeah."

It took a lot out of her but she followed Hazel up to the third floor. Candles set in coffee cans lit the way up. Hazel opened the first door across from the stairs. Inside were more candles and three cats all lounging on ratty furniture.

"We ain't got lights but the water's running. It's cold but it'll do the job. For the love of Pete, take a bath. I'll bring you some clothes. The towel is pretty clean. I only used it twice."

"Thanks," Chloe said, genuinely grateful for the chance at a shower.

"Yeah, sure."

The shower was cold but Chloe couldn't care less. The soap smelled good and got the grime out of her hair and off her skin. When she emerged she saw more candles had been lit. Rita handed Chloe a pair of panties, some jeans, and flip-flops to cover her feet. A thin red shirt finished off the slum-chic ensemble. 

"I ain't got a bra to give you. We ain't big on those around here. Why tie down the goods, you know what I mean?"

Chloe smiled. "Yeah."

"At least you don't smell. I'm just gonna burn those clothes. I don't think you can wash that kind of stink out of them."

"Probably not," Chloe agreed.

"Sit down. Tell me one thing. Maybe two. You escape from a crazy house? Cause these look like hospital clothes and I don't think you're a nurse."

"Nope. I stole those things," Chloe lied.

Hazel nodded. "You on the run from the cops?"

"Yes," Chloe said.

"All right. If you're under the radar, trying to avoid the police, you can't stay here. The cops know what we are but we ain't got no trouble with 'em. We lay low and they let us be most of the time."

"That's understandable."

"I ain't kickin' you out tonight. You look like you been through hell. I'm an old whore but I ain't mean. You can sleep on the couch but tomorrow morning you have to scoot. Got me?"

"I got ya."

"I got peanut butter and crackers and some warm soda."

"Sounds like heaven."

"You're awfully agreeable to be as young as you are."

"Trust me, I'm happy to be out."

"You lookin' for  a fix?"

"I'm not addicted to anything. Not even cigarettes."

"You sound like a good girl. Weird that a good girl is on the run from the cops. Listen, I been in the slammer a few times myself. I know what ya mean about being out. "

*****

Chloe listened to the sounds of the night in Hazel's home-sweet-hovel. Women conducted business all night, sometimes waking Chloe from the light sleep she'd fallen into. Hazel was a night owl. She didn't sleep but she sat at the window, watching life on the street below while she chain-smoked cigarettes. Chloe wondered if she was keeping a lookout for the cops. 

That was strangely comforting.

Around three a.m. Chloe got up.

"Ain't nobody I don't know comin' or goin'," Hazel said.

"I want to get an early start," Chloe explained. "I'd rather travel as much as possible in the dark."

Hazel nodded. "You know you can run but the arm of the law is real long. They'll get ya someday, doll."

"They'll get my corpse if it comes to that. They won't get me."

Hazel lifted an eyebrow and correspondingly lifted a bottle of beer. "Here's to hopin' you're on the run for a long time if that's the case."

She handed Chloe an envelope.

"What's this?"

"Runnin' money and a fake ID I had made up for ya. It's a passable fake. Not a driver's license but a statie. Get on a bus, girl, and go as far as the money will take ya. Do what you gotta do to keep runnin."

"How did you get an ID made so fast? Why would you do that for a stranger?"

"None of your business about the ID and I'm helping you because of Rita. I owe her big."

"I may never be able to pay you back, Hazel."

"I learned a long time ago that you can only give money. No such thing as a loan on the streets. Once it leaves your hand it never finds its way back. I ain't lookin' to get it back anyway. Just get as far from Gotham as you can."

Chloe felt a rush of gratitude and affection for the old woman. She reached out and hugged Hazel.

"Maybe try to find your parents. They can help."

Chloe looked into Hazel's eyes. "My parents are dead."

Hazel nodded. "That aint' a surprise. The bus station is three blocks east from here. If the cops come askin' for ya, I never saw ya, doll."

Hazel's smile was pretty. Chloe saw a little of the young woman she'd once been shine through. 

"I'll never forget this, Hazel. Swear to God."

The fake ID said her name was Carrie Beatrice Finlay. She smiled. She'd always liked the name Beatrice.

There was $200 in the envelope. Chloe kept back the $50 she'd taken from the dead guards' wallet and used most of the money from Hazel to get a ticket to some backwater town called Smallville.

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