He sprinted away, not daring to look back, his footsteps echoing down the hallway like distant gunshots. He just had to get to the back stairway and down to his office on the second floor, where David was working on the formula. He had to get their before they did.
He had worked on the formula with David for two days straight. 26 hours to be precise when without realizing it he passed out while using the microscope. Next thing he knew, he awoke in his lab chair covered in an assortment of long white coats.
"Sorry," David said to him as he looked up from his work. "We have no blankets. I had to make due with what have."
"You ever sleep Dr. Banner?" He asked as he stood up & stretched the tiredness away from his body.
"If this formula works," David answered, "I'll have plenty of time for sleep."
It was then that he told David that he had to get out of the office for a while. Go up to the sixth floor to the snack room & grab a Coke. Maybe step out onto the balcony to get some fresh air. The sights & sounds of an area can get to a man after a while & as he discovered, so can the smells.
On the way up to the sixth level he waited for the elevator. Safe as it was, it belonged in a museum. It took forever to go from the bottom level to the second level. Then it took forever for the doors to open. Forever for the doors to close. Forever to go from level two to level six. Everything about that antiquated device took forever.
As he grabbed a snickers & a coke out of the refrigerator he reached into his pocket & took out the $1 to pay for the items. He put it into the cup & opened up the screen door as he took a deep breath of fresh air stepping onto the balcony.
He looked out over the city as he observed the people down below. It wasn't a real busy night but there was enough going on to describe. A group of teenagers, a mixture of boys & girls walked down the street teasing one another as they headed to the late night screening. A couple walked hand in hand. Another man seemed to be lost within his thoughts, almost as if he were walking to the theme of a song written for his entrance.
As he observed these people he thought of David. Of how David for the past 15 years of his life had wandered from town to town. He thought of David as his friend that he had known for the past three weeks & he thought of himself as David's friend but he wondered how much truth there was to that thought. It wasn't a doubt of David & it wasn't a doubt of himself, but how does one define a friendship of someone they'll only know a short while? He thought that in a way David's grace is that he never has to see a friendship come to a bitter end. He never has to discover what it's like to have a friend stab you in the back. To have a friend turn his back on you. To discover that someone you called one of the best, wasn't even one at all. In a way he envied David for that. Yet on the same hand he knew David would never know what "life long" meant in relation to friendship either. They spoke about it once.
"Something usually happens." David explained to him. "I turn into the Hulk, cause an incident & then I have to disappear."
"Do you go into bars much?" He asked.
"No." David laughed. "Bars aren't a good environment when you have a disorder like mine. Liquor & turning into a big green monster don't mix."
"I meant for women."
"Oh." David laughed again. "no."
"Sorry" He said thinking he might have embarrassed him. "I just can't help but think that going for 15 years without a woman....sheesh, it's like prison."
"My life has been a lot like prison." David laughed again, only this time it was forced.
The two looked at one another as neither knew what to say. He twiddled his thumbs as he looked off into the distance.
"Her name was Laura."
"Who's name was Laura?" He asked.
"My wife." David's eyes swelled with tears. "It's how I got like this to begin with."
He listened intently as David told him the story of how he had been involved in a car accident with his wife. While he escaped she lay trapped inside. He tried as hard as he could, with all of his strength, exhausting himself but he could not get her out. The car exploded & she died.
"I don't understand how that led to you turning into the Hulk." He was puzzled, wanting to hear more.
"I had known of incidents where people get insane amounts of strength in order to do something that they couldn't other wise." David answered. "A 105 pound woman lifting a car off of her husband. A man diving 42 feet to the bottom of a pond & holding his breath to close to three minutes to save a cat...to save his cat."
David lost himself within his own thoughts, as if he weren't there talking to him, but instead back at the car watching it burn with his wife inside.
"And I couldn't save my wife."
He felt stupid now for having asked David such a trivial question. Maybe it's because he was still in his mid twenties. Nearly half David's age. To a 24 year old man going 15 months without getting laid was a nightmare. 15 years would be Hell. Yet it was clear that it wasn't something David even thought about. That wasn't what haunted him. What haunted him is that he felt that even though he did all he could to save his wife, that that had to have been something else. There just had to be.
"I started doing studies on what causes a person to be able to get this unexplained strength. This massive amount of energy and adrenaline." David continued to explain. "I figured there had to be a way to tap into this power. A way to be able to turn it on when it's needed. That's when I began to experiment with gamma radiation."
David told him all about the experiments & how everything went wrong. A lab fire. The death of his research partner Elaina & how he as the Hulk had been blamed for her death.
"Did you kill her?" He asked.
"I don't know." David answered. "I don't think I did."
"I don't think you did either."
---
The man sipped his Coke as he thought about the conversation that he & David had. It was less than a month ago but it felt longer. He sat out to help David if he could. He was a biology major. Graduated first in his class & he knew a ton about radiation. Most importantly he had keys to the Universities lab on the second floor. David had been dealing with this phenomenon for 15 years. Wandered throughout the entire state of California & ended up throughout the years walking, hitch hiking, a stowaway on trains, riding a bus & even walking to New York. Now he worked alongside a 24 year old in a small college in Indiana.
Would he finally be the one that helped David to find a cure? To rid him or at least help him be able to control the Hulk?
Slam!!
The noise startled him as he took a bite of his snickers. He looked down to see a car in the parking lot. One that he didn't recognize. Yet as four men got out of the car, he recognized one of them.
"McGee!"
Coke still in his hand, he darted back inside & made his way towards David.
David had told him all about Jack McGee. An investigative reporter that had chased him all over & damn near caught him on more than one occasion. He had avoided McGee for the past three months but knew sooner or later he'd catch up to him. He always did.
Three thoughts raced through his head faster than he raced down the stairs. Of course one of them was that he somehow had to get down four flights of stairs before McGee & then men he was with got through security & up one. He thought of how McGee offered a $10,000 reward & how he hated himself for it, but when David trusted him with that information he couldn't help but think of how much that kind of money would help his life. He was a college grad. A good job hadn't came yet, but the banks wanting their loan paid back had. He felt guilty that he even considered it. Thirdly, how in the Hell did McGee track him to the University? He hadn't turned into the Hulk since arriving in Upland. He had stayed low & spent most of his time at the University. He didn't interact with many besides him.
He flung upon the lab door so hard that when it came around the door handle put a hole in the wall.
"What's wrong?" David asked as he stood up in his chair.
"McGee."
David took a mere second to look down at his work. The formula that the two had been working on. The very formula that might help him to cure or control the rage within him lay on the table in front of him. It may be the only opportunity he would ever have.
"I'm sorry David." He said. "But you have to get out of here."
David ran to the window & looked out. "There's a police man guarding the door."
"They'll probably have one at the other door too."
"Where is the fire escape?"
"No!" He shouted. "That leads right to the front of the building."
The two began to panic as they knew it'd only be a matter of time before they heard McGee & crew coming.
Then the route of escape popped into his head.
"The Dumbwaiter." He said as he reached into his pocket & threw David his car keys. "Go down the Hall. You'll see the dumbwaiter. Crawl inside & take it to the basement. You'll see a crawl space for the piping. Take it. It leads to the front of my apartment."
David looked at him wondering how he knew of such a route.
"I discovered it back when I was was an undergrad." He laughed. "It's how I snuck in to study."
"Lucky for me you walked today."
There was no thank you. There was no goodbye. David took off on a dead sprint out of the room & headed towards the dumbwaiter. He knew that he'd never see David again.
A minute later McGee came into the room, two other men with him.
"David?" McGee said.
"No" He answered as he turned toward him.
"My name is Jack McGee" Jack said to him as he stuck out his hand. "I'm an investigative reporter with..."
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