Date: Sat, 25 Dec 2004 19:51:39 +1100 (EST)
From: Masked Truth <mask4truth@yahoo.com.au>
Subject: The Unveiling, Chapter 6, "Gay, Scifi/Fantasy"

Heiya, thanks again for the emails - it's good to know that there are
people who enjoyed this story. I'll tell you something else about myself -
I'm a University undergraduate in Melbourne. No, I'm not studying
literature (I think that's obvious enough), but an 'Engineering and
Science' combined degree. However, I have considerable interest in English
Literature and Music, though am not talented in those.

It'll be nice if you drop me a message at mask4truth@yahoo.com.au

Merry Lil' Christmas everybody!

Disclaimer: This story eventually leads to homosexual relationships - possibly
graphic. Underaged should beware of the unintentional conditioning and should
only return when aged adequately and is able to resist the mild conditioning.

	*	*	*

The Unveiling Chapter 6

	*	*	*

	With a cloth in my hand, I gave 'Reliever' a last polishing
swipe. I had just got hold of a book with a silly title: 'Maintain Your Gun
or Your Life'. It stressed on the importance of cleaning and maintaining
our modern day weapons, and instructed in detail on how to do so. Usually I
wouldn't care, but Simon had went out to look for fresh batteries nearly
three hours ago - our radio recently died while we were trying to contact
our friends - and I had nothing else to do.  We need the radio to find our
friends.

	I looked around the apartment again. After we got separated, Simon
insisted we stay clear of 'Point Zero' in case those armies had decided to
search every building in that area. Apparently it was his 'instincts' that
warned him. And I thought only women had that.

	The apartment was low-cost, but the particular unit we were in was
surprisingly well furnished. It had a computer with a broadband Internet
connection and a piano against a wall. But unlike Dean, I was not a hacker and
was unable to use the Internet without the risk of revealing our position. I
couldn't play the piano either because the city was so damned quiet; playing the
piano would have the equivalent effect of setting off firecrackers to the open
sky.

	I had nothing to do. I had already showered, napped for twenty minutes
twice and cleaned my gun five times. Most of my time was spent pacing around the
front door, wondering if Simon was coming back soon. Was it really that
difficult to find the right batteries? And if he does find the batteries, will
our friends answer us this time? Why hadn't they answered us today and yesterday
when we called? We even had our radio on since last night - they didn't even
contact us once. A hundred and twelve point two was the decided frequency; had
Lil' Lily got it wrong?

	Maybe I should shower again - a hot shower this time - to take my mind
off matters. I had been in the cycle of worrying unhelpfully and trying to
distract myself from worrying ever since Simon left three hours ago. It was
funny that three hours could feel so long.

	Just as I was about to enter the bathroom, I heard the long awaited
secret door-knock code. I quickly returned to the living room.

	"I'm back," said Simon as he closed the door behind him.

	I crossed my arms. "Took your time. I was beginning to think that you
went all the way to Myers."

	He took out a pack of batteries from his pocket and sat on the sofa. "I
did."

	I looked up in surprise. "You're not kidding," I said and slowly sat
opposite him. "On foot?"

	He snorted. "What do you think?"

	"Well, it's been three hours - guess you did walk."

	"I trust my feet more than any car or bike. Vehicles make too much
noise."

	I raised my eyebrow at him. That statement seemed strange. "You sounded
like you've been doing this for years."

	He hesitated and put his head down. "I had."

	I was bewildered. "You what?"

	"I didn't tell you guys - I was in juvenile rehabilitation before I
joined church." There was shame in his voice.

	I only sat there still, watching him. I had no idea what to say or do.

	"I had committed every kind of thievery - burglary, robbing,
pickpocketting, con, shoplifting, car-theft... you name it," he told me, his
voice weary. Without looking up, he continued, "I'd done it for all my life,
until they caught me four years ago."

	"Si," I spoke up. "We don't care about your past. I mean we do, but it
won't change how we feel about you."

	He looked up at me. His eyes was hard instead of teary or shameful.
"Even if you knew that I used to hate you guys?"

	I wasn't expecting that. "What- Why?"

	"I never wanted to join your church, but the rehab guys put me there -
said that I had to join a stable community. I always thought you guys were
hypocrites - all of you were always so cheerful and confident," he answered and
took a deep breath. "But then I realized I was the hypocrite. I acted like your
friend when I wasn't."

	Was that why Simon was always so reserved? And that would explain
Simon's inhuman skill in stealth. Plus he had the steadiest hands I'd seen,
surpassing even Lil' Lily, our church's 'friendship-token designer' and 'gift-
card artist'.

	"I wanted to leave and never go back, but they wanted to see me serve in
the church. I was desperate to be free from them, so I did whatever they wanted
me to. Except I would never join the hospitality or teaching team, so I joined
the band instead."

	I remembered that. Two years ago, Simon joined us as a keyboarder. He
knew so little of the instrument that Lil' Lily had to spend extra hours after
band practices just to teach him. But he picked up very quickly.

	"And then the most unexpected thing happened - I became fond of my band
mates-" he looked right into my eyes - "you guys." Then for the first time, I
saw his eyes soften. "I owe a lot to you guys. And one to the rehab guys," he
smiled weakly. I had never seen this side of Simon in the two years I knew him..

	"Hey, Si, you weren't wrong about us being hypocrites you know," I told
him. "I don't think there is anyone in this world who's completely honest."

	He gave me an appraising look. "Even you?"

	I smiled. "Especially me."

	He nodded. "So.. what is it that you are not honest with?"

	"That.. is a secret."

	He only smiled. Then without saying anything else, he put the batteries
into the radio and switched it on. After checking that the frequency was
correct, he called into the radio. We waited for a minute. When we did not get
an answer, he called into the radio again. I sighed loudly. So it was still the
same - they were still not answering.

	"Why do you call it Reliever?" Simon asked me suddenly, eyeing my over-
polished pistol on the table.

	I wasn't sure what he meant. "Because... if I had to find a new name
every time I changed pistols, I would run out of ideas?" My first 'Reliever' was
taken when I was captive.

	"I mean, 'why Reliever', not 'why the same name'," he replied coyly.

	"Oh, that," I felt my face flushing. I gave the question some thought.
"Because it puts people to rest."

	He nodded. "I've killed people before."

	At first I thought he meant those soldiers, but then I realized he was
talking about his past. I quickly left my chair and sat beside him. As usual, I
couldn't say anything comforting like Jase, so I put an arm around his shoulders
instead.

	"I hated my gun. I never even thought about giving it a name," he smiled
grimly.

	"Si... Hey, I don't know the why's and how's, but when we were younger
we are hardly at fault. Please don't take this on yourself," I said softly. I
felt my heart aching with Simon's pain.

	"So you think what I did was forgivable?" he turned to me. I was
startled to see his eyes reddening.

	"Everything is forgivable. It depends on whether the person wants to
forgive or not," I squeezed his shoulders. "In your case, I'm sure you are
already forgiven by many. You only have to forgive yourself."

	He quickly turned away from me and stood up. "Sorry," he said and took
the radio. "Can I be alone?" he said, not really a question, and walked towards
the bedroom.

	"Si, I'll do the radio," I said quickly to him.

	He stopped at the bedroom door. "It's alright, I can do it. You go to
sleep Tony. You haven't had real sleep since 'Point Zero'," he said and went
into the bedroom.

	What Simon said was true, I only had short naps ever since we were
separated. But I couldn't stop worrying about them. How can I sleep? I looked at
the door Simon was behind. Did I say something wrong? He was very sudden and
insistent of being alone.

	Sighing softly, I returned to my own bedroom and laid on my bed. I had
already done everything there was to do in this apartment - maybe it was time to
get some real sleep, just as Simon had said. I trusted that Simon would wake me
up if he had found anything on the radio. After stretching my limbs, I closed my
eyes and prayed that everyone was alright.

	*	*	*

	The world had turned dark purple before my eyes. Looking down, I
realized that I was floating in midair, with the ground hundreds of feet beneath
me. Strangely, I was not trembling - I was usually afraid of heights. I looked
around, but I couldn't see my familiar city anywhere. Instead, I saw a beautiful
beach and a magnificent purple ocean. My eyes was transfixed at the purple
beauty as I let out a silent sigh.

	I wanted to close my eyes and relax, but then I realized that I could
not close my eyes. Confused, I raised my hands to cover my eyes, and I realized
that I had no hands! I took a quick look down and found out that I had no body.
I calmed down at that - was I a spirit? Maybe I was dead. It wasn't too bad was
it? This purple world was magnificent and beautiful. I wouldn't mind staying
here forever.

	Jase.

	My eyes snapped open. Color filled my eyes again and I shut them quickly
to adjust to the bright light.

	"He.. he's awake," said Simon's voice.

	I looked over and saw him holding the radio to his mouth. Could it be...

	"Tony? Thank God!" said Lil' Lily's voice from the radio. "Simon had me
so worried - I told you he was only asleep!"

	"You weren't here - I practically threw him off the bed and poured iced
water on him, and he was still asleep!" Simon said defensively.

	That was when I noticed that I was beside the bed instead of on it, wet
from face to shoulders. But I was too happy to care. I took the radio from
Simon. "Lil' Lily? Where on Earth are you guys?"

	"We're in an apartment in Portsea - not sure what it's called," she
chirped happily. "It's good to hear from you, Tony."

	"And you too, Lil' Lily. What happened to you guys? We tried contacting
you for the past two days!"

	"Sorry 'bout that. We were under pursuit for quite a while. Actually we
shook them off quickly the first time, but our battery died."

	"Yours too?" Simon cut in. "Did you go to Myers for your batteries?"

	"No, we found a sound-hardware store in Portsea, and took our batteries
from there."

	I laughed. "Poor Simon walked all the way to Myers."

	"You don't mean 'city' Myers?" she laughed as well. "Well, actually that
may be better - the alarm system went off when we broke in. The armies were on
our backs right away. We got the batteries, but it took us much longer to shake
them off this time."

	"No wonder you guys took so long," I laughed. "It's a good thing you
guys got away. I can't believe Jean let you guys break in a shop like that
though - I thought she always had everything figured out."

	Lil' Lily hesitated a little. "Uh, Tony, actually there's something you
should know," she breathed deeply. "We only managed to escape because of Jean -
she provided the distraction for the armies when we found out they were checking
the warehouses."

	"Wait - you mean?"

	"Jean used herself as the distraction, Tony. She was captured. We tried
to stop her, but she'll hear nothing of it."

	Damn. I looked at Simon and realized that he was studying my face before
he turned away. "Is everyone okay?" I said into the radio.

	"Yes, thanks to Jean we were."

	"That's good to hear. Hey, pass me to Jase - we've got a rescue mission
to plan."

	There was only silence in the radio - no affirmation or anything. At
first I thought Lil' Lily had forgotten to affirm, and immediately passed the
radio to Jase. But as the silence dragged on, I began to wonder what was going
on.

	"Lil' Lily?" I asked again.

	"Hey Tony," said a man's voice. It wasn't Jase's.

	"Kevin? What's going on?"

	"Tony," he said cautiously. "We thought Jase was with you."

	*	*	*

	"You sure it's alright, Si?"

	"Of course - this isn't my first time, remember?" he replied quickly.

	Kevin stepped forward and gave Simon a quick hug. "Bro, you better take
care. Don't take up on heroics like him, okay?" he said, indicating me.

	"No promises on that," Simon said. We raised our eyebrows at him. "But
I'll try my best," he added quickly.

	This seemed to satisfy Kevin - he nodded at Simon. I watched Simon as he
walked out of the door without hesitation. This wouldn't need to happen if the
Internet was still working. Dean told us that they had stopped all Internet
services a day before Jean was captured, and because of that, we had no idea
where Jean was held captive. We didn't even know what happened to Jase. If he
was captured, we could only hope he was with Jean.

	So, how can we find out where they had placed Jean, I had asked them
yesterday, when we rejoined. Kevin immediately suggested that we interrogate the
enemy. That was what he would do in the army, he had said. We didn't have any
other option, so Simon volunteered to capture one of the soldiers. We all had
protested at once, but he had insisted that he was going with or without our
support. Not seeing a way out of that, we began to plan the kidnap. If Simon was
to do it, we had to make sure he does it right, at the right place, time and
circumstance.

	When Simon had told us that he knew how to knock any man unconscious
from behind, Kevin had wanted to go with him, reasoning that Simon was not
enough to carry an unconscious body. However, Simon had responded by saying in a
'not-so-tactful' way that anyone else who followed would end up alerting
soldiers from three hundred feet away. Besides, he had only planned to hide the
body and get someone else to carry the unconscious soldier when it was safe, he
had said.

	After a few hours, Simon was still not back. This worried us greatly,
but there was nothing we could do but keep waiting. While I was pacing at the
front door, I noticed Kevin was very pale.

	"Kev, What's the matter?" I asked him.

	He shook his head. "No... I just feel... guilty, and afraid, I guess."

	It was very unlike Kevin. So I pushed on, "About?"

	"I was the one who suggested the kidnap... what if Simon doesn't... you
know, come back," he replied.

	"Then we'll just have to try to capture another soldier and add Simon to
the 'rescue list'."

	He looked startled at that. Then he laughed softly, "You make me feel so
silly for worrying. You're right - as long as we're alive, we can always make
things better."

	I grinned at him.

	It was four hours since Simon had left when he finally returned. Kevin
immediately stood up and hugged him. To our surprise, Simon dragged an
unconscious man behind him.

	"I thought your plan was to get one of us to carry him?" Kevin frowned
at him.

	Simon shrugged. "At that time I didn't see any problem carrying him
myself. There wasn't anyone around."

	"No wonder you took so long," I grinned at him. "Have some rest, Si.
We'll take care of him."

	Simon nodded and walked in, only to be stopped again by everyone else. I
wondered how Simon had felt then - everyone was expressing their worry and
relief to him. Kevin had thrown the blue-clad soldier over his soldier and
hauled him to the bedroom. Jon and I followed him in.

	The three of us tied the soldier down on the chair with ropes. We had
found the ropes - that was used for boats - in the docks. When Kevin had double
checked that every knot was tight enough, he took a glass of cold water and
splashed it over the soldier's face. The soldier gave a jerk and opened his
eyes. When he saw us and realized that he was tied, his face paled.

	"You will tell us what we want to know," Kevin said and flipped open the
blade of his Swiss Army Knife.

	The soldier looked at the knife, but did not say anything. I couldn't
tell whether he was afraid or defiant.

	"You have two of our friends in captive - where are they?" Kevin
continued.

	Again, the soldier kept his silent. I didn't want to stay here any
longer to watch this, but I thought it was unfair that the burden was on Kevin
and Jon only. I watched as Jon walked up to the soldier and smacked the side of
his face with his fist.

	"You think we'll hesitate to hurt you? We'll cut the meat of you piece
by piece until you talk," Jon hissed dangerously. That was a part I never knew
existed in Jon.

	Kevin moved forward and put his blade at the man's ears. "Shall we start
with his ears?"

	"No," I said, hoping I had sounded as cold as them. "He needs to hear us
- we'll start with his toes, and work our way up."

	Kevin complied by bending down and sticking the blade between the man's
toes. The man jerked but did not say anything.

	"Shall I start?" asked Kevin.

	We had to do this. For Jean and Jase. "We'll start with a little flesh
from his toe - we have the whole night before we're done with one foot."

	Jon looked disappointed. "You mean we have to wait before I can cut off
his dick? I want to hear him scream."

	The man still kept quiet. Kevin must have sensed that there was no other
way, because in one quick movement, he cut out a piece of flesh from the man's
toe. That man moaned in pain.

	"See this?" Kevin asked the soldier, flaunting the pink piece of flesh
in front of his face. "Open your mouth."

	I felt myself going sick. I tried to keep my face hard however. Where
had Kevin got those ideas from? The man looked sick and clamped his mouth shut.
But Jon had walked behind him forced his jaw open. The man struggled against the
ropes as Kevin's hand hovered over his mouth.

	"Woa-kay woakay, wai'll twalk!" that man tried to blurt out with Jon's
hands on his jaws.

	Having heard him, Kevin put the meat away and Jon released him. They
looked at me and smiled when their backs were on the soldier. I wanted to smile
too, but the soldier was looking at me. Giving the soldier my hardest glare, I
asked, "So?".

	*	*	*