The End is Never Final

Voices ahead, voices behind and a dead end. Lucas Wolenczak rolls back his eyes. Today, he mentally decides, is so not his day. In the last few hours, he almost drowned, almost lost it and now, he has managed to do the impossible: he had lost Tony. How the hell do you lose a grown man, he thinks, especially when he was right beside you? He shakes his head and keeps moving. Put one foot in front of the other, come on you’ve been doing this most of your life, and he has, but walking has never been so hard. He has to think about each fall of each soggy running shoe. It’s monotonous and monotony is something that he never really could handle.

He slips and falls face first, unlaced shoe tipping him almost completely into Crocker’s lap. He stares into Crocker’s glazed eyes and thoughts wander back to the Moon Pool. Under the heat of his stares, Crocker’s cold body warms and loosens. Gazing into the eyes of his founder, he first winks and then his mouth opens to speak.

“Tim says hello, Lucas-boy.” One hand reaches out to grasp his arm and he backs away, crawling pathetically away from the body, mind screaming for aid, “We all do.”

Forcing himself to his feet, part of him oddly thankful that O’Neil hadn’t felt the urge to talk as well, he walks. One foot in front of the other, under the supervision of the Security Chief’s bloodied grin.