The Hunt: The Oakmont Saga, Book 2

After dinner that night, which was very chaotic, we went to a second living room, where a large TV was mounted on the wall. Everyone was watching one of those talent shows, and they were really into it. When one of the acts ended, they cheered loudly, along with the television audience.

What I noticed very quickly was that everyone in the house was young, the oldest being maybe seventeen. The exception of course was Grandpa, who couldn’t have been older than thirty, if he was that old, which I seriously doubted. This was the weirdest experience I’d ever had, and I’d experienced some weird things in my life.

Something else was very obvious. There was alcohol out among the kids, and what I was pretty sure was different drugs. Amazingly, none of them touched my addiction response, so I was safe for the moment.

We all sat down, people moving to let all of us in. I’d taken my jacket off long ago, and was wearing a blue plaid skirt with dark blue tights, similar to the outfit that Mr. Ciansa had given me so long ago. I had liked that outfit so much, I’d maintained some version of it ever since. Of course, the tights were a bad choice, considering how hot it was.

There were a lot of kids trying to sit on this couch, not to mention the other one, so we were packed in pretty tight. I ended up on Gabriel’s lap, with Eliana on mine. Ben sat on Aliyah’s lap, and she managed to sit directly on the couch.

As everyone watched the program, my energy usage of the past couple of days caught up with me and I was asleep very quickly. Unfortunately, I would have been happier staying awake.

As I returned to awareness, I saw several people in a conference room, one of them being Headmaster Raughlin. “We have the subjects on the run,” he was saying.

“Do you know where they are?” another man asked.

“Yes, they’re in a drug house in New Orleans,” he replied.

“With the addiction noted in subject 32145, should she be allowed to remain there?” a woman asked.

“I think she is safe for the moment. She is being closely monitored and we will have our targets soon,” the Headmaster replied.

“So your plan is on track?” the female voice asked.

“Yes, it is. It’s going exactly as I want it to,” he said.

“Very good,” the first male voice then said.

“Give us a full update,” the second male voice commanded.

“Subject 32145 had been presumed dormant, or possibly inoperable, after the incident in Alaska. However, she is fully functional, and likely has been from the beginning, or very shortly thereafter. Subject 32023 is unchanged,” he replied.

“What of Subjects 33743 and 33744?” the male voice asked.

“They are young and not awakened yet, or so we presume at this point,” the Headmaster replied. I knew who they were talking about, regardless of whether they referred to them as numbers or not.

“We’ll have them when they get to Savannah, and will begin training and research once we transfer them back here,” the Headmaster continued.

“Very good,” the first male voice responded.

I woke up, shaking and sweating. Someone was shaking me, in addition to my shaking. Somewhat coming to my senses, I jumped up, dislodging Eliana from my lap, and ran to the room we were staying in, curling up in the corner, shivering and in a cold sweat.

“Mel, what’s wrong?” Aliyah asked, as Gabe and several others came running in behind her.

“Nothing. I had a bad dream again,” I replied.

“About the doctors?” she asked. Knowing I couldn’t say anything out loud, I sent a probe to her, less gently than I meant to, and showed her what I saw.

“Is it real?” she asked, using her mouth, a flash of pain on her face from my somewhat rough intrusion. Several of the kids looked curiously at her question, but no one said anything.

“It’s like the dreams I had back at the school,” I replied.

“Then they know where we are?” she kind of asked, a look of worry on her face. I nodded to her.

Using my mind, I looked at Aliyah and spoke, but not with my mouth. We need to do something they can’t anticipate. We need to keep them from finding us. I think we can’t go where your Dad told us to go, I told her. She nodded agreement, without saying a word.

“Gabe, can you get us out of the city right now?” I asked, looking up at him. I was still curled up and shivering in the corner, but my voice was strong and determined now.

“Yeah, I guess so, but Grandpa has a ride for you to Savannah. It’s all arranged,” he replied.

“We need to get going now,” I told him, deliberately leaving out our change of destination. There was someone in the group of kids that was watching us, and I didn’t want to give them any easy information.

“Let’s go,” he said, without any further thought.

“We need to be unseen. The people that are after us know where we are,” I told him.

“They can’t. No one knows about this place,” he argued.

“Yes, they do,” I said, my tone firm.

He stared at me for a little while before sticking his hand out to me. I grabbed it and he pulled me up, and using more strength than he intended, into him. We stood like that a moment before I broke the spell, reaching down and picking up my pack. We walked back downstairs, leaving all of the spectators curious what was happening.

“Brandon, can you give us a ride?” Gabe asked a much larger boy that was sitting on the couch, watching TV.

“I’m busy,” the boy replied.

“C’mon,” Gabe pleaded.

“You’ll bother me all night if I don’t, won’t you?” Brandon replied, to which Gabe vigorously nodded his head. “Alright, let’s go. This is boring, anyway,” he said, standing up slowly and stretching as he did.

We all went outside, and Brandon got in a large, old car. It was in decent shape, though. We all piled in the back seat, and even though there were five of us back there, it was plenty big enough.

“Why are these people after you?” Gabe asked me quietly, as we pulled out of the driveway. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to tell him, and there were a couple of reasons for my reluctance. First, I didn’t want to put him in danger by knowing about us, but also, I was afraid he wouldn’t like me anymore if he knew how much of a freak I was. Why did I care, though? Although I didn’t know the answer to that, I knew that I did.

“You don’t have to answer,” he said, when I didn’t answer fast enough.

“No, it’s not that. I’m scared,” I admitted, a moment later.

“Of what?” he asked.

“If I tell you, it’ll put you in danger. But I’m also scared you’ll be afraid of me and want to run away from me,” I told him, looking down at my hands kneading in my lap.

“Well, nothing good ever comes without risk,” he replied. After a moment, he said, “I hope you think I’m good.” He sounded unsure and maybe a little shy. Why was he shy, since everyone at the house talked about his past girlfriends as if there’d been a lot of them?

“You are, but,” I began, but he cut me off.

“I know you think I’ve had a lot of girlfriends and all, but the truth is, I’ve never had one. They just think I have, because I find girls in trouble and try and help them,” he told me.

“I can read minds and do other things. I’m a government experiment,” I blurted out, although I kept it to a whisper. He stared at me for a long time, and I was getting scared. I knew it was too much to believe and if he did believe it, it’d be enough to terrify him. It’d terrify any normal person.

“That is so cool,” he finally said, surprising me.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah. How cool would it be to be able to read someone’s mind?” he replied.

“It’s not as cool as you think. It’s an invasion of their mind, and it’s wrong. It’s like looking in on them when they’re in the bathroom, or something like that,” I tried to explain.

“I hadn’t thought about it like that,” he admitted.

“The people that are after us run a training program to turn us into weapons. They teach us that we’re supposed to always read people’s minds, and that it’s our duty,” I said, tears beginning to form in my eyes, thinking about the program again. He gently wiped them away, which felt like an electric shock to me.

“Why do you like me? You haven’t known me for a day yet,” I asked.

“Because you’re pretty and nice and seem smart. What’s not to like?” he asked. Although I never thought of myself as any of those things, it was odd to hear him say it. I’d had adults, like Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Renault tell me that, but I never believed them, not really. But Gabe saying it to me meant something more than they could ever do.

I laid my head on his shoulder and enjoyed the ride. “Where are we going?” Brandon finally asked, after we’d been driving for a while and the city was getting a lot thinner.

“How far can you take us?” Aliyah asked.

“As far as this tank of gas will go. Farther if you can get me more gas,” he replied.

“Can you take us to St. Louis?” I asked.

“Yeah, I guess. Never been there,” he said and pressed the gas pedal a little farther down. The car surged forward as he added power.

Several hours later, all of us asleep, the car came to a stop. I woke up as it did and looked outside. My island had a new guest, and I kind of liked having him there.

Putting the dream aside, I saw that we were in a gas station, beside the gas pumps. I sat up, thankfully not waking Gabe up, and reached into my pocket for some money. I had never moved the change into the baggie, so I had quite a bit in my pocket.

Giving most of it to Brandon before he even asked, I sat back for a moment. Then I realized I needed to go to the bathroom. I climbed out, trying to be as quiet as possible, hoping I didn’t wake anyone up.

“Are you alright?” I asked Brandon, before I headed to the store.

“Yeah. I’m good,” he said. I went in and did my business quickly, grabbing some chips and drinks for everyone as well.

“You’re good for him,” Brandon said, as I walked back.

“Huh?” I asked.

“He talks big, and puts on a good act but he’s actually very shy. I’ve known him his whole life, and I’ve never seen him like this,” he said.

“Like what?” I asked, still not sure what he meant.

“Happy,” was the one word reply.

That single word hit me hard. Tears started pouring from my eyes, and I dropped my bag of snacks. “What?” Brandon asked, worried.

“I’m going to have to leave him when we get to St. Louis and I don’t want to hurt him,” I told Brandon.

“Why will you have to leave him?” he asked.

“Because,” was all I could say.

“That’s not a reason,” Brandon replied. “God, I never thought I’d say that,” he mumbled, with an almost disgusted expression. I kind of smiled at his comment, but the smile only lasted a moment.

“You have a pretty smile,” he said.

“Thank you,” I replied, shocked by his complement.

“Why are you going to leave us?” Brandon asked again.

“Because, where we’re going is dangerous,” I told him.

“We’re drug runners. Everything we do is dangerous,” he told me.

“Are you addicted to them?” I asked.

“Never touch the stuff. Grandpa won’t let any of his kids touch it, and if we do, he kicks us out. Most of the kids at the house aren’t his kids,” Brandon said and I was shocked by that.

“This is different. These people have a lot of power. They’re able to use the military and police to try and catch us. They can watch any security camera anywhere,” I told him, knowing I had to convince him that we were bad news.

“Little girl, my brother is happy because of you, even though he barely knows you. I won’t take that away from him, and I’ll break anyone that tries to,” Brandon said, looking at me with an intensity I’d rarely seen in anyone. “Do you like him?” he suddenly asked, which I nodded to.

“So what’s the problem?” he then asked.

“I don’t want him, or you, or anyone else, to get hurt or killed because of us, because of me,” I said.

“Don’t worry about us. We can take care of ourselves,” he insisted, certain of his own ability. I wasn’t though. I knew what my enemies could, and would do. Not only that, I didn’t want the added responsibility. I already had enough.

“If they catch you, you’ll wish you were dead,” I said, as I returned to the car. Once inside, I wiped the tears from my face, as Gabe woke up.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“Nothing,” I replied.

“You don’t like to talk much, do you?” Gabriel asked, a little smile playing on his lips. I barely shook my head, and remained silent. He laughed a little at me, although I hadn’t intended to be funny.

“I think you need to get away from me,” I told him, not sure why I was doing this after what Brandon had said.

“What do you mean?” he asked, his face full of shock and maybe pain. “You don’t like me?” Gabriel stated, his voice cracking a little.

“No, I do like you, which is why I think you need to get away from me,” I tried to explain, but I knew I was messing it all up. “God, why does my life have to be so screwed up!?” I said to the ceiling, wanting to scream it as loud as I could.

“Your life hasn’t been messed up. You don’t know what messed up is?” he said, which suddenly brought forth anger like I hadn’t felt in a long time. My vision instantly became red tinted and I was beginning to lose focus. I knew it was only a moment before I felt that ‘click’, which would begin a massively painful fall into a very deep pit.

“Mel, calm down,” I heard Aliyah say, both in my mind and with her mouth. She then did that little tickling thing, which for the first time, I actually ignored. She did it again, but this time grabbed my shoulders and I barely managed to regain a little control, thanks to her.

“Gabe, I know you don’t know her, but she’s been through a lot. She’s been abused really badly and experimented on. When she gets really angry, she has these attacks, kind of, which can hurt everyone around her, but the pain she feels is way worse,” Aliyah informed him. Her words brought back memories I’d managed to put aside, and I started shaking again. God, I was getting messed up all over again.

“You chose the worst one of us,” I mumbled, through my shaking and tears.

“No, I didn’t,” he said, putting an arm around me and holding me. I felt like I should do everything in my power to resist him, but I didn’t want to. I liked the feeling of him being beside me, holding me. I liked...him.

It was only a moment later that Brandon got back in the car and we were driving down the highway again. The remainder of the drive was a blur, as I went in and out of sleep, having nightmares whenever my eyes closed. They were mostly about me betraying Gabriel, because I knew I needed to. There were no more nice dreams about my island.

Sister Eleanor’s example was weighing heavily on my mind, as we drove. She had chosen a path that allowed her to live peacefully, with no entanglements. She also didn’t have to worry about her children getting the curse. I wasn’t Catholic, but that path was becoming more and more appealing, the more I thought about it.

“You were having bad dreams again,” Gabe said when I opened my eyes, somewhere along the highway. I’d gone to sleep and hadn’t realized I was.

I nodded, but didn’t say a word. “What were they about?” he asked. I shook my head, but again didn’t say anything. Tears came out of my eyes though.

“You were having bad dreams about me,” he said, although there was a hint of a question in it. I turned away from him, knowing he’d see the truth in my eyes. “I wish I could have the powers you have, so I could understand what you’re going through.”

I turned back to him, with heat in my eyes, the tears still flowing. “No you don’t. I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy,” I said, more forcefully than I probably should have.

With effort, I calmed myself down and looked up into his green eyes. I hadn’t realized they were green until that moment, and I couldn’t say what I was about to. Instead, I simply laid my head on his shoulder and cried softly, to myself. “You deserve better than me,” I whispered.

I had no idea where we were, the next time I woke up, but we were stopped again.

“Aliyah,” I quietly called out.

“Yeah,” she replied immediately.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“I know we’re near St. Louis, but I don’t know where,” she told me. In my mind I heard her ask, Are they going with us, or not? I didn’t answer for a while. My heart and my mind were in a fight and I didn’t know what to say.

“I don’t know,” I finally said, out loud.

Without changing how she was talking to me, she then said, We need to decide, because the time to decide is now.

I don’t know what to do, I admitted.

They’ll be in danger if they go with us, but I think they might need to be with us, too,”she said, which didn’t help me at all. Let’s keep them with us for now and see what happens, she suggested. I liked that, if for no other reason than it kept me from having to decide for a little longer. It also allowed me to keep Gabe around as well, and I was getting stronger feelings for him the longer he was around.

We need to get rid of them, I said, that last realization deciding everything for me. As much as I cared for him, they needed to get away from us, before I couldn’t resist any longer. This was for their safety, and I knew it. My happiness meant nothing in this, and Gabe would find another girl one day. That thought brought fresh tears, which I stopped. I couldn’t allow myself to be weak now.

“Where’s Brandon?” I asked.

“He went inside,” she said.

“Quietly wake the kids up, and let’s get out of here,” I told her. A few minutes later, we were all out of the car, with our packs secured.

“All of you cross the road and go into the trees. I’ll catch up in a minute,” I said, Aliyah looking at me with a knowing, small smile.

I leaned in and kissed Gabriel on the cheek, very gently, my tears further wetting his face. As I stood up, Brandon was standing there looking at us. “I can’t stop you, but I wish you’d let us stick around,” he said.

“You might get killed with us. Or worse, you might get caught by the people that are after us,” I said.

“Where we were yesterday, we’ll probably be dead within a few years anyway. You might give us our only chance to escape that, and do something good,” he said.

I looked over at Aliyah near the trees, hoping for some support, but she was just standing there, silently. She wasn’t even in my mind and I was pretty sure it was deliberate. She believed this was a decision I had to make. She really was the leader, but she did it so subtly it wasn’t obvious. Since I met her, she’d always been watching over me, gently guiding me and keeping me safe. I hadn’t completely realized how much, until that moment.

“I can’t put him in that much danger,” I tried to explain, but I really wanted to let them stay.

“He’s already in that much danger,” Brandon argued.

“No,” I said, firmly ending any further debate. Brandon looked down, shuffling his feet.

“I was afraid you’d see it that way,” he replied. That reply told me he had done something...

“What did you do, Brandon?” I asked.

“What he should have done the first time he saw you,” he replied. I then heard the sound of a helicopter and a lot of cars.

“You have no idea what you’ve done,” I said. My anger was suddenly building at a furious pace. I was tired of being chased, and I absolutely hated being betrayed.

“Gabe!” I screamed. “Run away as fast as you can!”

“Aliyah, get the kids away and shield all of them,” I yelled to her. Without any comment, she started moving the kids further away. Gabe ran, but paused to look back at me. I couldn’t worry about him anymore, though.

“What are you doing?” Brandon asked.

“Why aren’t you running, like your friends?” he then asked, when I didn’t reply to his first question.

“Because they aren’t my friends. They’re my family, and I’m going to protect them, just like you tried to do for your brother. I suggest you run away,” I warned him, my voice very calm and almost quiet.

He looked at me and seemed to see something there that terrified him. He ran, although he didn’t seem to understand why.

As the helicopter flew overhead, it circled a couple of times then started hovering, slowly sliding a little in the air. The wind from its blades was kicking up dust and swirling my hair around.

I was waiting for it to get in the perfect spot, although I was no real judge of that. As four different SUVs sped into the area, slamming on the breaks and a bunch of people filing out, I unleashed my mind. Grabbing a tremendous flow of energy, I focused, seeking that magic place I knew was there.

Aliyah, protect Gabe and Brandon, I called out to Aliyah with my mind. I thought she replied, but I was too focused on what I was doing to really notice.

It took a moment of feeling in the earth, sifting through the ground and the concrete above it. I was looking for something I knew about, but had no real understanding of...and then I found it. It wasn’t what I had expected, though. There were four different tanks, and I sent my tendrils of power into each one. As my fingers of energy were in place, I released my own version of hell.

The energy sped into the gas tanks below the ground and there was a brief pause, as if the world had completely stopped for a moment. I felt the pause, as a dead silence permeated the area for the briefest second. Then, the entire world erupted into one massive fireball. It was probably four, in reality, but they all combined into a single column of flame, with a mushroom top of billowing fire and smoke.

I saw the helicopter completely overtaken by the massive tower of flame climbing into the sky. All of the SUVs were consumed by the flames boiling outward. I was hurled into the air as I saw all of that and my world was engulfed in blackness.

I woke up feeling pain in every inch of my body. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked into Gabe’s face. I thought I was seeing an angel. There were tears on his face, along with some red spots and some black smudges.

“Aliyah, did you protect them?” I asked, although I didn’t see her.

“Yeah,” she replied, from somewhere above me.

“Thank you,” I whispered, and went back into the blackness.

When my eyes opened the next time, I was in a room somewhere, on a bed. It looked like a hotel room, but I wasn’t sure. “Where am I?” I asked. I felt someone sit beside me and saw Gabe when I turned to look. By the look on his face, I could tell that something was wrong.

“Aliyah, we need to get her to a hospital,” he seemed to insist.

“If we do, then they’ll have her, and us,” she argued.

“She’ll die, if she doesn’t,” he replied.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. Gabe looked up, probably at Aliyah, as if there was something he didn’t want to say.

I started to get up, but couldn’t move, pain exploding through me as I tried. I almost blacked out from it. “What’s wrong?” I asked, feeling panic setting in.

“There’s a piece of metal that went into you when the explosion happened. We’re not sure, but we think it’s all the way through you,” Aliyah replied, moving into my field of vision.

“Aliyah, take the kids and find someplace to hide. I wish I could tell you where, but I can’t,” I said, looking at her with an intensity even I could feel.

“Gabe,” I began, my voice catching as I started. “Would you take me to the hospital, please?” I asked.

“Of course,” he replied.

“Where’s Brandon?” I asked.

“We don’t know,” Gabe said, looking worried.

“I know he didn’t die,” Aliyah told me, before I could ask. I was thinking I might know where he was, or at least, why he wasn’t with us, but I wasn’t going to tell Gabe.

“Actually, I have a better idea,” I began, the wheels in my head beginning to turn at a furious pace.

“All of you run and hide, see if you can get back to Alaska. They won’t expect that. I’ll use the hotel phone to call an ambulance,” I said.

“Someone needs to stay with you,” Gabe started to say, but I stopped him by squeezing his hand, which was holding mine.

“Gabe, if they find out you’re aware of us, they’ll never let you out of whatever prison they put you in,” I told him.

“She’s right,” Aliyah added.

“Give me the phone,” I insisted. As he set the phone beside me, I looked at Aliyah.

“Get the stuff and the journal out of my pack, along with Dad’s files. They can’t have that stuff. Take the money and the cell phone too. You might need them,” I said, trying to think of anything I might be forgetting.

“How will we find you?” Gabe asked.

“You won’t,” I replied, after a long and awkward silence, tears forming in my eyes.

“Get out of here, now. The longer I wait to get help, the more damage might be done to me,” I told them.

Gabe very reluctantly let go of my hand, and only did so when Aliyah almost had to pry it loose. He finally let go though, and they all left. I picked up the phone and called 9-1-1, likely sealing my fate to a life of torture and experimentation...on me.

An agonizing thirty minutes later, there was a team of medical people around me, moving me to one of their gurneys. “What happened?” one of them asked, as a fresh wave of pain shot through me at their efforts.

“I don’t remember,” I replied, breathing heavily, once they were done. They had examined my neck and back before moving me, but it was obvious that I’d already been moved earlier.

“How can you not remember a piece of metal sticking into you?” the man said, humor in his voice. I knew he was trying to lighten the mood, and at the same time find out how I got injured, but I also knew I couldn’t give him anything.

“I was at a gas station. It exploded and I woke up here, like this,” I told him.

The entire team stopped momentarily and looked at me. “You were there?” one of them asked.

“I don’t know where I was. I don’t remember much,” I told them, which was kind of the truth.

“That doesn’t surprise me, considering the force of that blast,” a female paramedic at my feet exclaimed.

“Is there any chance I can avoid being seen on any cameras?” I asked, rather lamely. The woman at my feet looked at me oddly, but didn’t say anything.

“The first thing that’s going to happen is you are going to be taken to a hospital for treatment. Once your condition is stable, the hospital and local law enforcement will try and figure out who you are, and where you belong,” a different person replied.

“If the government finds out I’m here, they’ll take me away,” I said, kind of softly.

“Are you in the care of the state?” the woman asked.

“No. The government wants me, though, and they’ll come get me if they find me,” I replied. I knew what I was saying sounded crazy, but I couldn’t come up with a better way of saying it. I was still a good deal unsettled by what had happened, including my apparent breakup with my almost possible boyfriend.

“Why would they do something like that, unless you’re under the care of the state?” the woman asked, smiling at me.

“Because I can read minds,” I told her. She smiled at me, no doubt not believing me.

“Aside from you thinking I’m making this up, or possibly crazy, you’re thinking of how I look a little like your baby girl, Alexis, but my hair is lighter and straighter. She’s small like me, though, and her face is a tiny bit rounder, but our skin color is the same...and she has green eyes. You think my eyes are very unusual, but pretty,” I told her, tapping into her mind.

She stopped dead at my words, everyone else having to stop as well, since she was at the head of the gurney. “How do you know that?”

“I told you, I can read minds. I’m a government experiment that escaped and I don’t want to go back. They do bad things to us,” I told her.

Looking around, I told every one of them something that I couldn’t have known without going into their minds. Several of them looked a little white in the face, but the woman was looking very intense. Without going into her mind, I had no idea what she was thinking, and I wasn’t going to invade her privacy again.

“You know what all of us are thinking?” she asked, as that thought was going through my mind.

“I could, but I don’t. I think it’s wrong, unless I have a really big need to. They train us to go into people’s minds all the time, and I don’t like doing it,” I said.

“So, why did the gas station explode?” she asked. I knew she had asked me that before, but that was before they knew what I was capable of.

“Because they were after me and I didn’t want to be caught,” I said.

“People were killed in that explosion,” she said.

“I know,” I replied, truly upset that I had to do it, tears seeping out of my eyes at her words and my reply.

“How did you do it?” she asked.

“You don’t want to know,” I told her, but I could see that she wasn’t going to drop it that easily.

“I’m a top secret government experiment. If I tell you too much, they’ll lock you up for the rest of your life,” I tried to tell her.

“This is America. They don’t do that,” one of the men said, speaking with a hispanic accent. I was sick and tired of being told that they wouldn’t do something like that. My anger flared up inside me, kind of like the fireball at the gas station.

Clenching my jaws and my eyes shut, I breathed very slowly, like I’d been taught so long ago. Barely managing to get some control of it, I opened my eyes back up, and unclenched my jaws. They could tell that his comment had made me mad, but none of them said anything.

“I’m going to do something to you that is different than anything you’ve ever experienced. Don’t freak out,” I told them.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I sent a probe into every one of them. I tried to be gentle as I made the connection. As soon as it was made, I showed them what had been done to me by the doctors...the experiments...the torture. Once I was done, most of them were paler than they had been earlier, and they were medical professionals. “Don’t tell me they won’t do it,” I said, my anger coming out in my voice.

Amazingly, none of them ran away, which I actually expected to happen. Unfortunately, that little effort, combined with the explosion and probably the use of my shields, finished me off. I had no energy left and I knew it. My head was about to explode with the pain, and I was pretty sure I was bleeding from the usual places, since the man to my right began wiping those places. “I need to sleep,” I managed to get out, just before I lost consciousness again.

As I was dropping back into oblivion, it occurred to me that I’d just told these people, complete strangers, all about me, and about the program. I’d just put them at risk, for no good reason.

When I woke up next, the ambulance was stopped and I was being taken out of it. “Listen, we’ve all talked about this and we’re going to try and find an ER doc that will keep this quiet. We know someone in the records department that might be willing to help on that side, but we’ll see. I can’t make any promises, but we’re going to try,” the hispanic man said to me.

“I shouldn’t have told you about me. Now you’re all in danger, and I’m sorry, but thank you,” I replied, and went back to sleep, knowing there was nothing I could do if I was seen or they turned me in.

The next time I woke up, I was in a regular looking hospital room, with two nurses doing whatever it was that they did. There was also a doctor in the room, working at a computer.

“I see you’ve returned to the world of the living,” the doctor said with a smile. “Here’s the deal. You were pierced by a piece of metal, pretty much a rod, and it went all the way through, but stopped before it exited. In all honesty, the entire thing is a miracle. It missed all of your internal organs, but you did lose a lot of blood. We’ve stitched you up, so there’s no more danger for you, as long as you take it easy,” he said.

“Thank you, doctor,” I replied.

“Now, I need to get your name and see if we can find your parents,” he said.

“I can’t tell you,” I said, very softly. I was debating whether to continue what I’d begun with the EMTs. Although they had said they were going to try and help me, it was obvious that the doctor wasn’t.

“Can you remember?” he asked, to which I nodded. “Then I need to know.”

“If I tell you, they’ll come for me,” I told him, deciding to be resistant, at least for the time being.

“We want them to come for you.” he continued.

“No, the government will come for me. They already arrested my parents to try and get me,” I informed him.

“If they arrested your parents, then they did so because you were at risk. They only want what’s best for you,” he tried to explain to me. He totally didn’t get it, though.

He looked up at me for a minute, staring at me but not saying a word. “Nurses, would you please leave for a moment, so I can talk to our patient? There seems to be a trust issue here,” he said. Both nurses looked a little confused by the request, but they walked out.

“I truly do need to know your name, but I’ll put a false name in the computer,” he said.

“You don’t want to know my name. The less you know about me the safer you are,” I tried to explain to him.

He looked at me with one of those adult expressions that said he knew better than me. “Ok, but I warned you. My name is Melanie Brager and I’m from Eagle River, Alaska. I’m a top secret government experiment that can read your mind, if I want. I’ve escaped and I don’t want to go back,” I told him, tired of playing the games.

“The EMTs told me something about that, but they can be a little crazy sometimes,” he said.

“You’re putting my real information in the computer, aren’t you?” I asked. He nodded, and I immediately stopped his hands from touching the keyboard. He fought, but he was no match for my mind. I couldn’t hold him long, though. That tiny little bit was killing me. My head felt like it was about to explode, again.

“Do you believe them now?” I asked, as he stopped fighting. As I released the hold on him, I almost passed out. He sat there staring at me, his mouth hanging open. He was trying to form words, but nothing would come out.

“It’s real,” he finally managed to say, to which I simply nodded.

“How?” he asked, once he seemed to get his mind functioning again.

“I can’t tell you that,” I replied. Although I actually knew how, at least to some degree, I couldn’t tell him. I was hoping my reply would be taken as I didn’t know, considering I was just a kid.

“No, you wouldn’t,” he said, which was what I expected and hoped for.

“I know it was genetic manipulation, though,” I told him, which he nodded at.

“Okay, what is your eye color?” he asked, sitting back at the computer.

“Are you putting my real name in there?”

“I think a little white lie won’t hurt, in this case,” he said, with a shaky smile.

“Your eyes are kind of odd. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen that combination before,” he said, looking intently at them.

“We’ll just put green, I guess,” he said, turning back to the keyboard.

“Hair, blonde. Height about 60 inches. Weight, 85 pounds.”

“Actually, I’m 59 inches, but the weight is right.”

“You’ve grown an inch, it seems, since your last measurement. The nurses measured you and you are definitely 60 inches. How old are you?” he asked, after a pause, and a smile.

“Almost thirteen.”

“A little small for your age,” he said, continuing to type.

“Your name is going to be Melanie Brickman, and you are going to be listed as 11 years old. I thought it’d be easier to use your real first name. You’re more likely to answer to it than a false name, and the age is about what you look like,” he said with a smile.

Once done with his work, he got up and went to the machine attached to me. He looked at several things and looked back at me. “You need to sleep, I think.”

“Nurse,” he called out.

“She needs to sleep. Let’s see what we can do to help her out. I think Propofol for the sleep and Fentanyl for the pain. Considering her size, a smaller does. Let’s start with point one milligrams of Propofol and let’s go a bit light on the Fentanyl. Say, 35 micrograms in a slow push, one time.” The nurse left and he turned to me, with a half smile.

“By the way, that is likely the first time I have ever entered all of that information myself. A nurse normally takes care of that for us doctors.” Smiling was not in my list of abilities, at that moment in time, so I just stared at him.

They both left and a few minutes later, the nurse returned with a syringe, which she injected into the IV connection. Watching her put the needle in the IV and inject medicine into it brought back a lot of memories, which caused an immediate reaction in me. Sweat broke out all over me, and I began shaking rather badly. It wasn’t like convulsions, but more like bad shivering.

“Doctor,” the nurse called out, as she placed a hand on my forehead.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as soon as he came in.

“I don’t know. When I injected the Propofol, she started shaking and broke out in a cold sweat,” the nurse informed him.

The doctor sat beside me, and my old habits returned in force. I tried to slide away from him, shaking even more as I did. “Melanie, what’s the matter?”

“Nothing,” I weakly said, through my rattling teeth.

“Then why are you shaking?” he asked.

I didn’t know what to say to him. I knew what I wanted, but I also knew he couldn’t give it to me.

My mind had gone into a hole though, and I told him. “I want the orange stuff,” I replied. He looked at me strangely for a little while.

“What orange stuff?” he asked, after that moment passed. He looked at the nurse, as he asked.

“SHD,” I said. He looked confused, when I answered.

“What is SHD, sweetheart?” he asked.

“I don’t know, but I know it has cocain, heroin and sodium amytal in it,” I replied. Now he looked truly shocked.

“How do...why...no,” he rambled, then shook himself.

“Did you administer the Fentanyl?” he asked the nurse.

“Not yet, doctor,” she replied.

“Don’t, then,” he said, to which she readily nodded agreement.

“Melanie, when was the last time that you had this stuff?” he then asked me.

“I think it was maybe two years ago, maybe three. I don’t remember,” I told him. Yet again, he looked shocked.

“You should be over any serious addiction by now. How long did you take it?” he asked.

“I don’t know. The doctors gave it to me when they had me,” I said.

“Are these the same doctors, or people, that are trying to get you?” he asked, to which I nodded.

Before I knew what he was doing, he had wrapped his arm around me and was holding me tightly. I wanted to escape, feeling a growing anxiety inside. But at the same time, his attempt to comfort me felt nice. Tears started flowing from my eyes, and the shaking turned into sobbing.

“I’m messed up,” I said, my stomach area hurting tremendously, as the sobs increased in strength.

“God, I wish I knew how to help you,” he said.

“They’ve tried, but I’m too messed up for help,” I told him.

“Who has tried?” he asked.

“Mom and Dad tried to get me help when I escaped, but they can’t help me. I’m lost,” I said.

“Nobody’s lost, angel,” he argued.

“I am, and I’m not an angel,” I said, as a huge yawn took me. I had no idea when it hit, but I was asleep shortly after that.

“What went wrong?” a male voice asked, as Headmaster Raughlin came into my view.

“We have no idea, sir,” the Headmaster replied. I knew I was having one of those dreams again, the ones that weren’t really a dream.

“What happened?” the female voice asked, the one I remembered from the last time I had one of those dreams.

“Madam chairman, we got a tip through the local police that the children were at a convenience store on the outskirts of St. Louis and dispatched a team from the St. Louis FBI field office. They utilized four vehicles and an air support helicopter. In all, sixteen agents. When they arrived, the fuel storage tanks ignited, resulting in a massive explosion that inundated the helicopter and all of the vehicles,” he reported.

“How many survivors?” the female voice asked.

“Of the FBI agents, none. There were four civilians in the store that were also killed in the blast,” he said.

“Of those four civilians, one was the store clerk, two children and the father of the children. Is that correct?” the first male voice asked.

“That is correct. We suspect that all of the subjects survived, but we can’t confirm that yet, although there was definitely blood from subject 32145 on the scene. She was injured, and it appears serious, but we don’t know with any certainty, and nothing has shown up on any hospital admissions or video feeds that match her,” he said.

“So, we have lost another sixteen agents, we have four civilian deaths and a great deal of property damage and you still have nothing to show for your efforts. All of that is in addition to the known twenty agents killed in Alaska, along with the eight scientists, plus a handful over the course of the initial chase,” a new male voice said. I recognized that voice, but couldn’t place it.

“Yes, sir,” Raughlin replied, actually looking uncomfortable.

“If you don’t secure those subjects quickly, things will have to change. And another thing, I don’t want to have to explain another incident like this St. Louis debacle,” yet another new voice said.

Another sixteen agents? What did they mean by that? I hadn’t killed anyone since the fight at the cabin. That still weighed heavily on me, and I now knew how many I had killed there. Now I had sixteen more deaths on my hands. What was much, much worse though, was that I had killed two kids now. I was a murderer. There were people that were going to be devastated at the loss of the kids, and their father. The FBI agents probably had families, and now those families were hurting, because of me. And there was also the store clerk. Too much senseless death, all because of me.

“What do we do?” Gabe asked, not used to the intrigues that they had faced. He had found Mel, but she was badly injured and in the hospital.

“We’ll do what we have to,” Aliyah replied, calm and composed. She was thinking of their options, and there were several.

Her initial thought was to do what Mel had told them to do, but the more she thought about that, the more she was resistant to that idea. They knew where Mel was, thanks to Gabe’s ingenuity, but she knew they’d take her away eventually. She also knew she couldn’t abandon her best friend, and sister, not to the fate that’d be waiting for her when the Oakmont people got her again.

What impressed her was that even though he didn’t know the things they went through and had to deal with, he knew how the city worked and was able to get in touch with its underworld. That was a very useful ability to have for a group of kids on the run.

“Gabe, can we find a safe place to hide out here in St. Louis? That’s more your area than mine,” she said, making her decision.

“Sure. Give me a little while to work it, but we’ll have a place soon,” he replied.

“We have money, if we need it,” she told him.

“Don’t mention that unless we have to,” he told her, a very serious expression there. Aliyah nodded understanding.

“See if you can find out anything more about Mel’s condition, too,” she added, as he was about to leave.

“You got it,” he said as he walked out. They were in a hotel for the moment, but they needed to find another place to stay, one that was less noticeable.

When Gabe returned quite a while later, he had a big grin on his face. “I assume you were successful,” she said.

“You could say that,” he replied, with a huge smile, one that said he was very proud of himself.

“We have a normal looking house in a nice neighborhood and Mel is in a regular room and is recovering. Apparently, she got really lucky and the metal didn’t damage anything really important,” he told her, which set her mind at ease, a lot. She could tell there was something else he was leaving out.

“I went to her room and saw her,” he finally said. Her anticipation was immense, wanting to know how her best friend was.

“Well,” she demanded, unable to restrain herself very long.

“She was asleep, and I couldn’t wake her up. Apparently, they gave her something to help her sleep,” he replied, and paused. “But then I found someone that could tell me what was going on. They think she could leave any day, as long as she’s very careful.”

“Find out when the best time is to get her out, and how we can do it,” she told him, to which he nodded.

“Let’s grab our stuff and get out of here,” he replied.

A short while later, they were in a the house which was just as he had described. There were people walking on the sidewalks, with children and dogs in tow. Everything looked normal, and peaceful. Aliyah prayed it would stay that way.

“I’ll be back, and let you know what I find out,” he said, as he headed out the front door.