Taste of Freedom | Pretender Fanfic

“Your bus should be arriving in just under an hour,” the lady behind the ticket counter explained. “Would you still like to book it?”

Jarod paused to consider. This early into the initial stages of his escape, the difference of an hour could be detrimental. Especially when he was still so close to the Centre’s home field. Only a few hours west of Blue Cove, he probably shouldn’t take any unnecessary risks.

Then again, it’d been six hours since he broke out and there was no sign of sweepers on his trail. Either they were still hunting much closer to home, or they’d already expanded their search to start scanning airports and train stations. Whichever the case, they obviously didn’t know his current location and weren’t likely to just appear out of nowhere. He was probably safe for the time being.

“That’ll be fine,” he assured her, sliding the cash across the counter.

While he waited for her to finish printing out the ticket, Jarod let his eyes fall shut for a moment, wishing he could do something about the headache that had been slowly building since he’d first walked in. His eyes had only ever known the dim lighting of the Centre’s sub levels. Compared to that, the overhead lights in the bus terminal were like spotlights burning through him.

It was only one out of many complications he hadn’t been able to plan for when arranging his escape. Maybe if he’d given himself more time he would have been able to work on slowly acclimating his body so the sudden exposure to the noises, smells, and other sensory inputs of the outside world weren’t such a shock to his system. But with only a week to set things up, Jarod simply hadn’t had the time to fully prepare.

Still, he wasn’t doing too bad. Six hours and the Centre apparently had no clue where he was. He might not have made it far in miles, but he was still free and had made the first major steps towards maintaining that freedom.

Todd had kindly driven Jarod as far as Arlington. Getting that unexpected head start was a literal life saver.

After being dropped off, Jarod had immediately sought out a department store that hadn’t yet closed for the night. He hated to waste any of the money Todd had given him, but he knew he’d stick out too much in the Centre issued clothing he was wearing. His new outfit of jeans and a t-shirt would make it much easier to blend into a crowd.

The next stop had been an internet cafe. Apparently no one on Sub Level 5 had thought to change the Centre’s logins or security codes after his escape. That was a good thing for him; he’d been prepared to hack his way into the system, but slipping in under the radar was certainly preferable. A quick search through the recent inter office communications had armed him with quite a fair amount of valuable intel. At least enough to plan his next few moves.

With six hours on the clock, Jarod had finally arrived at the bus terminal to enact the first stage of his journey away from the Centre — away from the only home he’d ever known.

He’d decided to purchase a ticket to Richmond for a start. The plan was to continue hopping from one bus route to the next until he hit South Carolina. Once there, he’d have to get his hands on a computer so he could get access to some Centre funds. After three decades of free work, he figured they at least owed him the cost of a plane ticket and some new clothes.

Taking a plane while still so close to home seemed too risky, which is why he’d opted for this more indirect route. The Centre was sure to be monitoring all the nearby airports. There were probably sweeper teams being dispatched to all the airports in or near Delaware right at that moment. Jarod was gambling on the fact that they’d be unable to do the same for buses. There were a lot more bus terminals than airports, and even the Centre didn’t have the kind of manpower to watch them all.

His first instinct was to head straight for Cincinnati. According to the records at the Centre, that was where his parents’ graves were located. Unfortunately, he was afraid that Sydney would easily make the same conclusion. No one else at the Centre had enough of a heart to associate Jarod with something as natural and human as a family. But Sydney did. He was the only one who’d ever seen Jarod as a real person, and that might prove fatal to his escape attempt now.

So his plan for the moment was to head down the coast and plant a false trail for them to follow towards Florida. He could double back as soon as he was sure they were on the wrong track.

This initial segment of his escape was terrifying and a little overwhelming, but he had to admit it was exhilarating too. He was pitting his skills and intellect against the people who had given them to him. And he was winning.

He wondered if Mr Parker or Raines would appreciate the irony there — they’d have a much easier time catching Jarod if they hadn’t done such a thorough job ensuring his abilities were honed to their full potential. He wondered how the Triumvirate would feel about the whole thing.

“Will that be everything?” the lady at the booking desk asked.

“Yes, thank you,” Jarod said, accepting his ticket from her. “Do you know where I can get some food before the bus leaves?”

She pointed off to the left. “There’s a gift shop and convenience store down that way. Should be able to get snacks for the trip there.”

“Thank you.”

Jarod stuffed his ticket into his pocket and glanced around the semi-crowded terminal. He could see the waiting area ahead, rows of seats filled with people who looked like they’d rather be home in bed. Beyond that was the glowing sign marking the shop she had referred to.

He slung his duffel bag over his shoulder and headed off. The stolen DSAs within the bag made their presence known as a steady weight against his back. An uneasy glance at the bag reassured him they were still safely tucked away inside. He knew it was irrational, there was no way anyone would know what the DSAs were even if they could somehow see through the bag, but that did nothing to ease the self-consciousness running along his spine.

The shop was thankfully mostly empty, leaving him to browse the shelves to his heart’s content.

Walking up and down the narrow aisles, he realized he had no clue what to grab. There were so many packages of food, all so vastly different from each other.

He recognized the names on some of the packages, but he had no tastes in his head to associate with any of them. How was he supposed to decide when he didnt know what any of them were?

The medical staff at the Centre had always made a fuss whenever there was any change to Jarod’s diet, repeatedly impressing on both him and Sydney the importance of maintaining a strict balanced nutritional plan. But none of these food items on the shelves even remotely resembled the stuff he ate there.

Of course, he had a basic understanding of what nutritional requirements the human body had, but that information wasn’t much help here. It would take too much time to sift through all of them and read the ingredients list on each one.

A wave of helplessness washed over him. Only six hours into his newfound freedom and he was already stymied by food of all things. For as long as he could remember, there had always been someone else to provide his meals — someone to decide what he ate and when and how much. Someone always told him when it was time to sleep and what activities he would be engaging in each day. No matter what it might be, there was always someone else there to handle it.

For the first time ever, Jarod was in complete control of his life… and only now realizing that he’d never been taught how to take care of himself.

Resting his forehead on the top of the shelf, Jarod took a deep steadying breath.

It’s going to be okay, he told himself.

This was just the first of what would surely be a long line of obstacles in establishing his own life. He’d figure it out. After a week — and thirty-three years — of dreaming about this, he wasn’t about to give up and run back to the Centre after less than a day.

Standing up straight, Jarod pushed down the anxiety trying to drown him. He could figure out the practical logistics of food later. For now, all he really needed was something to keep him from starving until he got to Richmond. A few snacks for the bus ride should be easy enough to handle.

In the end, the decision was practically made for him. What it really came down to was finances. The only money he had on him was what had been left of Todd’s gift after purchasing his bus ticket and outfit. And he knew he’d need to keep most of that for hotel expenses when he got to his next jumping off point. He didn’t know what a normal cost was for food, but the very large price tags on the pitifully small packages put them well outside his budget. Thus, he ended up at a small stand labelled “candy” out of necessity. The packs were smaller, but so were the prices.

There was a wide variety on display. Dozens of little bags with bright colors and the most nonsensical names he’d ever seen. Most were also adorned with small cartoon mascots, which certainly added to the appeal, but did nothing to further clarify what the food inside might taste like.

Jarod grabbed a random handful of the bags and dropped them on the check out counter. After a moment of thought, he added a pair of sunglasses to the pile. If the bus terminal’s overhead lighting was enough to give him a headache, he could only imagine how it’d feel once the sun finally came up.

Armed with the plastic bag filled with his purchases — his only possessions aside from the duffel bag of stolen DSAs— Jarod settled onto one of the hard plastic seats to wait for the bus.

With nothing else to do, he began sifting through the packages of food. Cookies, jelly beans, popcorn… none of it meant a thing to him. It all looked very interesting, though.

He settled on a small, brightly colored pack labelled with three simple letters: PEZ.

It contained a stack of tiny colorful tablets. They didn’t look too different from some of the supplements he’d been given at the Centre. According to the package, though, these tablets were certainly not filled with any vitamins or essential minerals. That was fine with Jarod. He was sure one unhealthy meal wouldn’t kill him.

He carefully placed one of the tiny capsules on his tongue and waited.

It was hard and sweet and a little bit chalky. He bit down experimentally. A burst of flavor exploded on his tongue. It was unlike anything he’d ever tasted before.

His eyes widened in delight. Upending the pack, he shook out a bunch more of the colorful treats. He tossed them into his mouth and happily crunched down on them. To his surprise, he discovered that each one of the colors had a distinctly different flavor to them.

He’d never tasted so much before. The “optimized nutritional supplement” — as Sydney generally called it — that he’d eaten at the Centre had been mostly devoid of flavor. He hadn’t disliked it necessarily, but it didn’t come close to these little colorful tablets either.

PEZ was good, he decided.

“That’s not how you do it,” a tiny voice piped up from beside him.

Jarod glanced over at the neighboring seat in surprise. There was a little girl perched there, a stubborn tilt to her jaw that instantly reminded him of Parker.

“I’m sorry?”

“The PEZ,” she said. “You don’t eat it like that.”

Jarod shifted self-consciously in his seat. “You don’t?”

She shook her head. “You’ve never had PEZ before?”

“No,” he admitted. Curiosity winning out over pride, he asked, “Can you show me?”

She held up what appeared to be a small plastic toy clenched in her fist. It looked pretty basic, with a narrow stem and a top shaped like some kind of animal. Popping back the top, she extracted one of the PEZ tablets from inside.

Jarod was intrigued. “May I try?”

The little girl shrugged and handed it over.

He flipped open the top as she had demonstrated and a grin broke across his face as one of the little tablets appeared. It was the yellow kind, which he’d already decided was his favorite flavor. He carefully pulled it out and popped it into his mouth.

He looked back over at the toy’s owner. “Why?” he asked curiously.

“I don’t know. Because it’s fun?”

Well, that was hard to argue. It was a lot of fun. At the Centre, he hadn’t been allowed to do things simply for fun.

“Do you know where I can get one?”

The girl stared at him with obvious confusion. “You can keep it. I’ve got a bunch more at home.”

Jarod glanced down at the little plastic toy in his hand and back at the girl. “Really?”

“Sure,” she said with a shrug. Hopping up from her seat, she trotted off to presumably rejoin her parents.

Jarod stared at his new acquisition for several long moments. A… gift? He’d only ever received one gift before, the snow globe from Sydney over twenty years ago. It was currently tucked into his duffel bag — the one thing other than the DSAs that he’d decided to bring with him.

He held it close, quietly nibbling his way through the contents as he waited for the bus to arrive. By the time the announcement came over the loudspeakers, he’d finished off the first round of PEZ and had reloaded it with his own pack from the convenience store. He waved a goodbye to the little girl as he grabbed his bags and ran for the bus.

Jarod stowed his duffel bag in the overhead compartment and settled into his seat with a mix of emotions swirling through his head.

Almost seven hours of freedom and counting.

He curled up against the side of the bus and stared out the window as they pulled away, even though there was little to see in the predawn darkness. In his hand, he clutched the PEZ dispenser. The first thing that was really his, and untainted by memories of the Centre.

Jarod snatched another of the colorful tablets from the dispenser. Maybe it wasn’t the healthiest food in the world, but it was his first and it was good.

The outside world was a lot more noisy and overwhelming than he could have predicted. Honestly, it was a little bit terrifying. But that was okay. He had a feeling he was going to do just fine.

Thank you for reading! If you would like to contact the author, please visit my tumblr or dreamwidth.