Fourth Birth: The Oakmont Saga, Book 1

“Melanie,” I heard, making me slowly wake up, something I really didn’t want to do. Someone was shaking me too. At least I thought someone was. I knew I was shaking, but I couldn’t feel anyone touching me. Before I even opened my eyes, I cringed back against the wall behind me, vibrating badly. I felt horrible, like I was underwater and out of breath but couldn’t reach the surface, only it was much worse than that.

Opening my eyes, I saw Aliyah looking down at me, her hand on my shoulder. I looked around real fast, scared one of the doctors was here and this was another trick. Mr. Ciansa was there too. “Mel, are you okay?”

Everything hit me at once, all the pain I just went through. I tried to curl up, not sure I even moved. “Daddy,” I whimpered, unable to make my mind work. I started crying uncontrollably. I couldn’t stop it and the good feeling was gone, which was making it worse.

As they tried to come close, I cringed as hard as I could into the corner. I didn’t trust them. I thought they might be the doctor’s putting fake images into my mind again.

“Mel, what happened?” the person that looked like Mr. Ciansa said, sitting on the bed beside me.

“Get away,” I screamed, trying to get away from him, although I was in the corner. Amazingly, even through the incredible headache I had, I pulled enough energy to teleport again. Of course, I blacked out as soon as I did.

When I woke up again, I was on the floor, with Mr. Ciansa still sitting on the bed and Aliyah looking at me with a very worried expression.

“Melanie, you need to leave before they find you again,” he said, but very careful not to come toward me this time. That reached into my addled brain like nothing else could have, bringing me back from the edge of insanity. Looking up at Aliyah and then at Mr. Ciansa, I knew I needed to do something. I was having trouble remembering what it was, though.

I tried to sit up, but I couldn’t get my limbs to work and I felt really tired, although tired wasn’t exactly right, or enough to describe what I felt. “I can’t move,” I said through my sobs and convulsions, not sure if they were even able to hear me. My throat was raw and dry and I had no energy. My head was pounding really bad, as well.

He very carefully came toward me, seeming to be looking for any panic in me. When he finally got close enough, he sat beside me and slowly lifted the tape from the IV still attached to me, then pulled the little tube out. Using only his finger, he pushed the spot until it stopped bleeding. I flinched at his touch, but I was in absolute terror at him removing the IV, knowing I couldn’t get any more orange soda without it.

With the IV out, he carefully removed the tape from my face, and pulled the tube out of my throat. I gagged a little, but managed not to throw up.

“Aliyah, get her dressed and then I’ll carry her. Hopefully, she’ll recover by the time we get to the end of the tunnel,” he said, and left the room. Aliyah then slowly got me dressed, a piece at a time, since she had to do all the work. I was completely lifeless in my body. Using my eyes to look around, I thought we were in our room but I wasn’t sure.

Once she was done getting me dressed, she called for Mr. Ciansa and he came and picked me up. I cringed inside at being touched, but I was so listless right then, there was nothing I could do to resist. He carried me to the basement, into the utility tunnel under the school and its entire length. By the time we got to the end, I could tell he was a tiny bit tired.

About halfway along, I started feeling my upper body and by the time we got to the metal door, I could feel my legs again. I was shaking really bad, though. He sat me on the top step leading to the door and I attempted to stand up. Not very stable, I almost fell down, but I thought I could manage it.

“This isn’t good,” he said, watching me.

“I’ll be alright,” I told him.

“No, you can’t hike like that. What did they do to you?”

Terror took over, even thinking about what they did. I started shaking worse, unable to stop myself and slid down the wall, curling back into a ball. After a little while, I forced the panic down, with them looking at me with horror on their faces. I managed to stand back up, but it was a struggle..

“They injected stuff in me and did…things,” I said, my shaking getting worse thinking about it, or maybe because of straining my muscles. I had to answer his questions, though, as I was too scared of what would happen if I didn’t.

“I don’t know what they put in it, but the last thing they did was put me in some kind of tank with a weird liquid in it. It made me numb all over and then they turned the lights off. I couldn’t feel anything and then I started seeing things and people tried to do bad things to me. I dreamed I was using my curse to fight them and then Aliyah was waking me up,” I told him.

“A sensory deprivation tank. Unless there was something else in the IV, the effects should wear off pretty quick. I’m going to make a phone call. You have 30 seconds and no more,” he said, dialing a phone number, then placing the phone against my ear. I didn’t tell him that there was something else in the IV, and I wanted it really bad.

“Hello?” I heard my Daddy’s voice say. I broke down, unable to say anything. I fell to my knees again, crying uncontrollably.

“Randy, this is Collie. I have Mel here and she’s really messed up. I’m trying to get her out of here, but you need to come get her. She’ll be going to the Gardner’s,” he said.

He put the phone back to my ear. “Daddy,” I managed to say through my sobbing.

“Sweetheart, I’m coming to get you,” he said.

“Stay away from me! Don’t ever come near me again!” I yelled.

Mr. Ciansa hung the phone up, without any warning and returned it to his pocket. He then looked at me with what I thought was sympathy, but a firmness as well. He didn’t say anything about what I said, though.

“Are you sure you can do this, Mel?” he asked. I nodded that I could, but didn’t say anything as I stood back up, forcing myself to be steady. He nodded back and stepped away a little.

“Aliyah, help her get into her snow gear, please,” he asked, but in a commanding way. Aliyah did as instructed, Mr. Ciansa helping here and there, as Aliyah wasn’t very familiar with snow gear. Aliyah then got into hers, once done with me.

After looking at me for a minute, he said, “We don’t have much choice, if we want this to work. Just do the best you can. There’s a camp not far from here, if you follow the trail in the snow. Get to it and then rest for a little while, but not long. You need to keep moving. I’ll try and give you as long a head start as I can, but can’t promise much. Good luck, girls,” then turned around and walked back into the school.

Trying to get my legs working, I led the way out the door, heading into the snow. Slowly, the feeling returned and my legs started working better. The last day, or however long it’d been had taken a toll on me though. By the time we made it to his camp, I was totally exhausted. I felt completely wrung out and the feeling of not having the orange stuff was like the world was ending.

His camp was a white army looking tent that blended very well with the deep snow on the ground. When we went in, it was amazingly warm inside and there was plenty of food, along with two pairs of snowshoes, obviously meant for us. They were definitely too small for Mr. Ciansa.

I collapsed on one of the two cots in the tent, barely able to move. Aliyah got me a cup of coffee, putting more sugar than I would have liked, but I drank it willingly. She also handed me some of the dried food, which included an odd assortment of fruit, nuts and meat. I thought there might have been dried veggies in it as well. It tasted amazingly good and I ate a lot of it.

Both of us knew we needed to keep moving, so I forced myself up, my legs feeling a little stronger than they had when we started. I put on my snowshoes, showing Aliyah how to do hers and we headed out.

As soon as we left the immediate perimeter of the camp, the snow got really deep. The snowshoes were the only thing allowing us to make any progress, but even that was slow.

Aliyah quickly figured out how to walk through the snow with them. She wasn’t very skilled, but she was able to do it. Of course, I wasn’t that skilled. The skill would come with experience though, which it looked like we’d definitely get.

The hike was like a bad dream. I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, over and over. It was all I could manage. No other thought was possible for me.

I was sweating badly, which worried me more than them finding us. Though that did worry me, freezing to death out there worried me more and my sweating increased the chance of hypothermia. I had visions of them finding my dead, purple, frozen body buried in the snow. My Momma and Daddy would have no idea what happened to me, probably told some lie by those people.

Those thoughts kept going over and over in my mind, along with the images of James doing things to me and then the doctors doing worse things to me. I was amazed that James was no longer as bad a nightmare as the doctors were. I knew I was shaking as we were hiking, but there was nothing I could do to stop the images in my mind. I also couldn’t help the dark thoughts I had, some urging me to go back to the school. At least there, I could get the orange stuff again.

Sometimes, it was everything I could do to stop myself from turning around and going back, just to get that good feeling again. Life was too hard without it. As screwed up as my life was, it made me feel good again, if I had ever felt good before.

The only thing that kept me going forward was Aliyah. I didn’t want the doctors getting her, so I kept going, fighting the growing urge that was so powerful. Tears were pouring from my eyes most of the hike. I tried not to cry, but I couldn’t stop it. The tears just kept falling, turning to little ice drops as they fell. They were pretty, which made me cry more, knowing that there was no beauty left in my miserable, pathetic life.

When I realized the sun was beginning to go down, I stopped Aliyah and looked for a place for a shelter, my brain thankfully working enough for that. In the shade of a large fir type tree, we cleared an area of all snow, using branches to sweep. After digging it to the bare ground, I covered that with as much soft type stuff as we could find, mostly fir boughs.

Looking around only a little, we found some large branches, almost logs, and with Aliyah’s help lashed them together with one particularly big one being our center pole. I was incredibly grateful for the winter survival shelter training Daddy taught us girls in AHG.

Once I had the frame built, with a lot of smaller logs making the ribs of the shelter, I threw a tarp over the frame and then we covered it with fir branches and piled lots of snow on top of that. Looking in my pack, I found a couple of clear trash bags and filled them with snow for a door.

We dug another hole and placed our packs in it, covering it just enough to hide the packs, not that they needed to be hidden since they were white. That done, I slid into our new shelter. Aliyah looked doubtful, but she followed my lead and crawled in. Pulling the bag of snow, completely covering the entrance, I turned on the little lantern I got from my pack and we ate a little bit of our trail mix, washing it down with some of the water we had. Done with that, we both went to sleep pretty fast, tired from a very difficult day. My sleep was very restless, but I thought I managed to keep from waking Aliyah up. At least, I hoped I did.

The next morning, I woke up first since I wasn’t sleeping well anyway. Too many bad memories added on top of the ones I already had. I had nightmares of doctors doing bad things, many were images I got from that sick doctor’s mind. Many were creations of my own twisted mind.

Tears were running down my cheeks again, even though I didn’t feel like I was crying or upset. If anything, I was very agitated and restless and feeling angry for some reason. I was also worried that they might be behind any tree around us, ready to jump out and grab us. As usual when I cried, my nose was running, and I was sweating, despite it being cold. Again, the sweat added to my anxiety, images of me getting hypothermia running through my mind. My twisted brain was spinning one bad possibility after another, my feeling of this being a disaster growing with every second.

Knowing we needed to get going, and hoping we weren’t about to be ambushed, I listened very intently before I pushed the snow bag slightly and then listened some more. There was absolute silence outside. It almost seemed too quiet which increased my nervousness, but we were in a snow covered region with no people around for miles so I guessed it was alright. It had to be.

Pushing the bag the rest of the way from the shelter entrance, I slowly looked outside to make sure everything was clear, even though we’d already be discovered if someone was out there. There wasn’t any sign of anyone out there, so I slid out of the shelter.

Grabbing my pack from under the snow, I reached into it and grabbed the trail mix, throwing a handful into my mouth as soon as I got the baggie open. I handed it over to Aliyah, letting her get some semblance of breakfast. We both washed it down with a little water and helped each other get our packs on.

I almost forgot the tarp, but as we were about to hike out, I reached into the shelter and pulled the tarp out. Aliyah helped me fold it and then she tucked it into my pack. I then repeated the process with the plastic bag we’d used as a door and we headed out.

Looking at my compass, I pointed us west and we started hiking again. I felt stronger than I did the day before, even though I was a little sore from that.

We stopped at what I thought was about noon and ate some more of the trail mix and washed it down with our water. Once done, we refilled the bottle with a little snow and put them back inside our coats, like Mr. Ciansa told us to do.

My body was struggling with the weight of my pack through this, but I was forcing myself to keep going. There was nothing else I could do, other than go back. That thought was getting more and more appealing to me, but Aliyah’s presence kept me from doing it. I had to get her to safety first, then I could go back and get the orange soda again.

While taking this short break, I looked back the way we came and saw a clear trail from our hiking. That was not good. We were giving them a nice trail to follow. I wondered if we could hide it by dragging a branch behind us as we walked.

Pulling out some rope, I cut off two six foot lengths, or what I thought was about six feet and found a couple of fir boughs. I tied one to each of us and we started moving again.

As we walked, I looked behind us at our trail. Although I could still see it, it was much more difficult to see without specifically looking and being close to it. There was only so much we could do though, so I didn’t worry about it anymore. By the end of our second day, we still hadn’t seen a highway. Mr. Ciansa said we should have made the highway during the second day. At least that was what I thought I remembered.

We built another shelter, Aliyah helping a lot more now that she had an idea what I was doing. This one was a little smaller, since we weren’t able to find branches as large as we did the first night. We repeated the entire process of the previous night without any issues.

As with the previous night, this night didn’t provide me much rest. My nightmares weren’t getting any better with time away from there. If anything, they were getting worse.

When morning came, my eyes felt like I had sand in them and I was having trouble concentrating. I wanted the orange stuff really bad and I knew I couldn’t get it until I went back, which was getting harder and harder to resist.

Hoping I’d improve as the day went on, we left our camp the same as the day before. I pointed us west again and we continued hiking. By the end of our third day out, I was really getting worried. There was no sign of a highway, and I was sure we should have found it by then. In addition, it was like I was walking in a fog. The only solid goal I had now was to get Aliyah to safety so I could go back for more of the orange stuff. That was all I lived for.

Not only was I getting worried, but I was beginning to feel very shaky and I thought I was beginning to see things. I was almost desperate to get the orange stuff and I thought it might be the reason for my weird feelings.

We made our shelter again, doing what was almost becoming a routine in only our third night. Aliyah hadn’t made one suggestion or complaint, not even about sleeping in the snow. We’d barely spoken since we left. Of course, we were so focused on making progress there really wasn’t any time or energy to be wasted on talking. Luckily, she wasn’t there for the conversation with Mr. Ciansa, so I didn’t think she realized I was worried about us not seeing a highway.

Something changed on our third night out, though. I didn’t know why I noticed, but I felt a lot warmer than I had been. By the following morning, I knew what was different and that we might have a problem. Pushing the snow bags out of the entrance, I was dusted with snow that had collected on the top. Without any thought of checking for noise, I confirmed my suspicion. It was snowing very heavy outside, and the snow was almost piled up to the top of the bag.

I shook Aliyah awake, with her protesting. “Aliyah, we need to get going as soon as possible. It’s snowing.”

“Cool!” she exclaimed, coming fully awake, excited about the prospect of snow.

“No, not cool,” I corrected her. “That’s going to make hiking very difficult for us. It’s coming down very heavy too, so we should probably tie a rope to each other so we don’t get lost.”

She looked outside, finally opening her eyes and they got wide. She was like a little kid seeing snow for the first time. Thinking of her southern accent, I realized she might actually be seeing it for the first time.

We quickly ate a little trail mix and drank some water, before packing our stuff and heading out, refilling our water bottle again before we did. Tied off to each other, using one of the six foot lengths of rope from our effort to hide our tracks, I pointed us west again. I didn’t know when it started snowing, but a lot of snow had fallen and what we walked through was deep and soft.

As we continued hiking, I looked at the compass constantly to make sure we were headed west. I had no idea what time it was when we climbed a small rise and found ourselves on a road. This had to be the highway. Something good had finally happened, I hoped.

Ignoring Mr. Ciansa’s instructions, I turned us left, or was that the way he told us to go? I couldn’t remember now. Regardless, I couldn’t go home, no matter what Mr. Ciansa thought. I was certain these people could find us if they really wanted to and that would put my family in danger.

With the storm, I stayed on the road, hoping there weren’t search parties out in this. Everything was gray and I could barely tell where anything was. It was a lot like the tank I was in. I could barely feel anything, or see anything or hear anything. Images started coming out of the grey swirl in front of me, and I started flinching at them.

I thought I heard a noise and peered into the greyness to see a strange light headed towards us. It slowed as it approached. Terror shot into me and I prepared to attack. Aliyah tapped my shoulder, sending a fresh wave of panic through me. She lowered her face protection and yelled, “It’s okay. It’s an older man and he’s just worried about us.”

A truck stopped and someone in overalls with a flannel coat stepped out. “Get in,” a clearly male voice yelled. Although I didn’t want to go with him, I followed Aliyah’s lead. We were in danger in this kind of storm and I knew it. So we put our packs in the back of the cab and climbed in.

“Well, I’ll just bring you to the house until the storm blows over. Hopefully you won’t try and kill us or something,” the man said with a clearly southern accent. What was it with me finding southern accents in places so far from the south?

He drove for awhile on what I had to assume was the highway I had been looking for before pulling off onto a road I couldn’t even see. Of course, everything looked the same to me, and I was still having trouble seeing things coming out of the gray swirling snow. My mind was very sluggish and I was having a lot of difficulty telling what was real and what wasn’t. I was sweating very badly and I knew I was shaking.

Not far off the main road, he pulled into a carport. It was the first thing I could clearly make out, since I got up that morning, which brought something solid to my very messed up mind. “You two grab your things and go on inside. I’ll follow you in with the groceries.”

Grabbing our packs, we headed to the door and waited for the man to join us, which he did a moment later carrying several canvas sacks filled with groceries. “Not sure why she had to have this stuff when a storm like this breaks, but that’s women for you,” he said, obviously not realizing we were girls. Our clothes wouldn’t have given it away, I supposed, since they were completely white. Thinking back on it, I was amazed he was even able to see us in the storm.

When we got inside, a smell like heaven hit my nose. “Take off your winter gear and just set your stuff in the mud room there,” he instructed us. Then, “Hope you’re hungry. Ma’s made a really nice vegetable beef soup, and we have plenty.”

Aliyah started stripping off her winter gear, me just standing there, almost frozen. I was scared and numb inside.

Once she got her stuff off, she came over and started helping me, seeming to realize I was having problems. I now noticed that my clothes underneath were soaked. We had worn school uniforms thanks to the rush we were in to get out, never having a chance to change into better clothes for the winter weather.

The man came back in as Aliyah was almost done stripping me out of my snow gear. “Dear Lord in Heaven. You’re just a couple of little girls. What in the world were you doing out in that storm?”

“We were headed to Whitefish. That’s where I was told to go,” I told him, knowing it wasn’t exactly right, since we were headed north and I thought Whitefish was south.

“Who told you to go out in this weather?” he asked, sounding concerned. For some reason, I was having trouble coming up with an answer and Aliyah wasn’t paying attention to him, focusing on me and finishing the chore of helping me strip my winter gear off.

I guess the man decided he wasn’t going to get an answer and walked back into what looked like the kitchen. “Ma, we have guests for dinner,” he shouted when he got in there.

Aliyah and I went into the kitchen and he pointed us to chairs at the table in the middle of the room. Sitting down, I felt like a zombie. My eyes were heavy and my brain was sluggish. I was still seeing things appear out of nowhere at the corners of my vision, and I was jumpy.

A moment later, the woman who I assumed was “Ma” came in heading straight to the stove, where she picked up a long spoon and stirred the contents of the simmering pot. Once satisfied, she turned and did a double take when she saw us. “What are a couple of young girls doing out on a night like this?” she asked, repeating the question the man asked.

“We were headed to Whitefish,” I replied. I seemed to repeat my answers a lot, for some reason.

“They didn’t say why they were headed there, though,” he added, letting me know he still had that one outstanding question.

“We were headed for a small side road before Whitefish that doesn’t have a name. We’re looking for the Gardner’s,” I told them. I noticed them glance at each other in an odd way.

“Why’re ya lookin for ’em?” the woman asked. Not only did she sound guarded, she looked guarded.. I wasn’t sure why I had that impression, but I did.

“Mr. Cage told me to,” I replied.

“Mr. Cage?” the man asked stressing Mister with laughter in his voice.

The woman was laughing too, but managed to say, “It’s so refreshing to see polite kids these days.”

“Well, if Cage sent you, you’re in the right place. We’re the Gardner’s,” the woman told us, making my heart sink. I wanted to go somewhere else, and was just telling them that because I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“I’m Pa and she’s Ma. That keeps things simple and easy to remember for you.”

“Why did he send two young girls to us, wearing private school uniforms?” Ma asked, still with that guarded impression.

“He helped us escape the school and said we should get to Daddy, and all we had to do was get to you and everything else would be okay, but I don’t wanna go to Daddy.”

“That man puts us in more sticky spots than a three year old with an ice cream cone in summer. So, he helps two girls escape the school, probably blowing his cover. Why would he do that,” she asked.

“He said he owed Daddy and this would start paying him back a little,” I replied, although I wasn’t sure if she was expecting an answer, now that I thought about it. I couldn’t stop myself from answering, though.

“You’ve mentioned your Daddy twice now. Who’s your Daddy,” she asked.

“I’m not sure if I should tell you,” I replied, now realizing I’d said too much. It was hard not to simply say it, but I managed to resist.

“We work with Cage. If you trusted him, you can trust us,” Pa said.

Knowing that Mr. Ciansa, or Cage, or whatever his name was, put us into their care, I really didn’t have any choice, especially with what I’d already said. Not only that, I was trained to reply with the truth, and I knew it. “Randall Brager.”

There was a noticeable pause before they stopped staring at me. “You’re Randall Brager’s child,” Ma finally asked.

“Yes, ma’am.” The look on their faces was really shocking to me. They were completely surprised, and almost looked scared.

“Alright, Pa. We have a job to do. Call Hank and get him over here as soon as the storm lets up.”

He looked at her for a minute before responding. “Are you sure?” he asked, uncertainty threading his words.

“Yeah, we need his help.”

“I don’t want to go to Daddy,” I repeated, making them stop talking and look at me.

“Why, honey?” Ma asked.

“Because I don’t want him to come for me. I don’t want to ever go home again,” I told her, as if it was obvious.

“Why wouldn’t you want to see your Daddy again?” she asked, pushing for more information. With the training from the doctor’s I couldn’t stop answering, though.

“Because I’m dangerous.” They both laughed at me, which made my anger flare up amazingly fast and violently. They had no idea what I was capable of. For that matter, I wasn’t sure what I was capable of, and right then I didn’t seem to have total control over myself, which made me that much more dangerous.

Just before I knew I was about to have an attack, Aliyah put her hand on my shoulder. “Mel, breathe slowly and calm down,” she said, very gently. Not only did she say it with her mouth, but also with her mind.

While Aliyah calmed me back down, Ma got up and headed to the kitchen counter, picking up the phone and dialing a number. I tuned out the beginning of the phone call, but I heard, “Could you come over as soon as the storm lets up?” I hoped the person she called could be trusted, but it was too late now unless we left before they got there. The problem was, this might be Aliyah’s best chance. I had to take it.

She hung up the phone, then pulled out dishes, setting them on the table. Once she was done, she picked up the bowls one at a time and filled each one with soup before placing them back on the table. It looked and smelled incredible, and my stomach started growling very loudly.

“Ma, I think these girls are hungry,” Pa said.

“I reckon so, hearing their stomachs,” she replied, smiling. Sitting back at the table, she was about to start eating, but I put my hands together and started a very quiet blessing for my food and these nice people that were going to help us. I didn’t want to force my faith on them, but I appreciated their respect for me saying my prayer.

We ate the soup, which tasted wonderful. I was sure my incredible hunger helped improve the taste, but it really was good. By the time we were done with supper, I was barely able to keep my head up. Something was bad wrong with me, but I didn’t know what it was. I did know I wanted the orange stuff really bad. That was always there.

“Pa, I’m going to get these girls ready for bed. Would you clean up?”

“Sure thing, Ma.”

We grabbed our packs and she showed us to a bedroom with a very nice looking bed. Of course, a spot on the floor would have looked nice right then. She didn’t let us get ready for bed, much to my disappointment.

“You girls need a bath.” Digging into the pack, we found some clean underclothes, and amazingly, nightgowns as well.

Aliyah went first, at my insistence. When she came out, I headed in and turned the water very hot. I got through my normal routine, scrubbing as hard as I could, for as long as my hands would let me before they started cramping. I was sitting with my knees pulled up rocking slightly when I heard Aliyah, “Mel, let’s go to bed.” Pulling myself out of my thoughts, not that there were really any thoughts, I got up and dried off, then put my night clothes on.

Ma Gardner put us both in the same bed, which was kind of nice until I woke up the first few times sweating and shaking, scared I was going to wake Aliyah up. I’d been having a nightmare, as if I had anything else. Going back to sleep, I immediately went back into the nightmare, like I’d never left it.

“Doctor, we need to take some more samples,” a woman in a doctor’s coat said, holding a horrible looking device above my stomach. I realized I was strapped down to the table and couldn’t move. Terror coursed through me and I started to scream. The woman brought the device to my stomach and what looked like a drill was spinning on the tip of it.

I fought as hard as I could to slide away, but with the straps holding me I couldn’t move. As the device was about to touch my shoulder, there was a flash of purple and it bounced away. She tried again and again, every time being blocked by the purple flashes.

“Melanie,! I heard Aliyah yelling at me, then the shocking pain started. Oh God, I hoped they didn’t have her too.

“I’m subject 32145! I promise I’m not Melanie anymore!” I screamed out.

“Melanie!” I heard again and light started coming into my eyes.

“I’m Subject 32145, I promise!’”, I yelled, tears streaming down my cheeks. Finally coming fully awake, I realized it was another bad dream and Aliyah was waking me up, yelling at me. I was soaking wet and shaky as my eyes opened.

The feeling of terror was still fresh. Not able to say anything, I curled up tight, my mind receding into the grey fog I was familiar with. I was shaking really bad and I couldn’t stop it.

I fought to get control of myself and managed to whisper, “I’m sorry.” That was when I noticed Ma Gardner sitting in a chair beside the bed. She looked very concerned.

“That’s alright dear. Would you like some tea? Maybe it’ll help you sleep better.”

“I don’t want to sleep anymore. It’s too scary,” I whispered. “I’d like the tea, though,” I said with a little more strength in my voice.

She nodded with a slight, but worried smile and got up, leaving the room. I heard some dishes clink in the kitchen and some whispering. Apparently, I woke the entire house up. Maybe when I screamed in my dream I did so in the real world too. That would explain why everyone was up.

A few minutes later, she came into the room with a steaming cup in her hands and set it on the small nightstand. She then got a couple extra pillows that had been stuffed under the bed and propped me up, handing me the cup when she was done. I sipped at it slowly, not sure what was in it. It was strong and had a weird taste, but it was very good.

As I slowly finished the tea, my eyes began getting heavy again. Much too heavy, much too fast, and I realized there must have been something else in the tea. Desperate, I tried to reach out to Aliyah. I’ve been drugged, I mentally shouted to her. I tried to jump out of bed, but I couldn’t seem to move. My body wasn’t responding. “God, help me!” I screamed before blackness took me.

“Where are the two girls?” the head of the Neuro-Research team asked, his anger evident in his voice.

“We haven’t found them, sir,” Headmaster Raughlin replied.

“You have a simple job and cannot seem to do it. By this point, we should at least have their bodies,” the doctor said, very condescending.

“Mr. Stone, update me with your efforts,” he then said, turning to look at Stone.

Stone, not a nervous man, was still not happy to be in the room with this man and his team. “We found the remains of three shelters. Assuming the girls constructed them, I must also assume that the girls survived the cold and made it to the highway. We have no idea which direction they may have travelled from there.”

“The natural instinct for a child is to return home. For 32145, that would be Alaska. Concentrate your efforts toward Canada and any local travel options. What about the janitor you suspect helped them?”

“No sign of him, sir. We strongly suspect he was an operative, but we don’t know for who.”

“Why would a covert operative blow his cover for two girls?” the doctor asked, looking as though he wasn’t asking anyone in the room and echoing a question Stone had also been asking.

“I can’t say sir. I can only give you what I know,” Stone replied.

There was a long and ominous pause before he continued. “Tell me why there’s so much missing information in this file,” he asked, sliding the file to the Headmaster.

“I don’t know, sir,” he replied, not even opening the Brager background check.

“Maybe you can tell me why a subject entered this facility with that much redacted material, then.”

“There was a need to get her here fast, considering the delays in finding her—,” he started to say.

“You allowed your short sighted desires to jeopardize a program that has been in operation for decades. You violated standard operating procedure that was in place for a reason. And then you lose that subject because you didn’t provide adequate security. You’ve possibly created a security nightmare for us, should that subject not be recovered.” The man stared at the Headmaster for a long time, making the older man start squirming noticeably under his gaze. Stone almost felt sorry for the Headmaster, but not quite.

“Although we need to study them, at this point I don’t care about finding those two subjects alive. Just find them and bring them in by whatever means are necessary. Have your men use tranquilizer darts, if possible, bullets if not. Your head will be on the block, should they not be found, and soon. Try to minimize civilian interference, but that is secondary to regaining custody of them,” the man said to Stone, standing up and walking out.

Stone paid no attention to the Headmaster as he left, although he was sure the Headmaster wanted to talk to him. He went straight to Rebecca’s classroom, not concerned with whether she had a class or not.

When he got there, he knocked on the door and opened it without much pause. She did have a class, but it was of little concern to him. When she got to the door, she started to say something, but apparently the look on his face changed her mind. “Class, you’re dismissed. Work on the lesson and complete the assignment I gave you for tomorrow.”

As the class left, she closed the door and sat back at her desk, indicating a chair for him to take. “Tell me they’re alright.”

“We haven’t found them. However, I’m certain they’re alive, or at least they were. We found a couple of shelters, which were very nicely made. I should’ve known she’d know how to survive, considering what her father’s record implies,” he said, then changed subjects, “I’m not here for that, although it does involve her, or rather them. I’ve been instructed to bring them in by whatever means necessary, whether dead or alive. Civilians are a secondary consideration to regaining custody at this point.”

“Has it come to that?”

“Yes. Trasker is correctly worried that this could expose the program. I don’t know if I can carry out my orders, as they’ve been given, but I will as long as I can. I swore to do so, but I also swore a higher oath to uphold the Constitution and this is on the border of violating that greater oath. That aside, I suggest you exit the program, Rebecca. Retire or resign, whatever you feel you need to do, but get out,” he said, using her first name, something he had rarely done before.

“This is my life’s work,” she said, sounding desperate.

“If you stay, you may be brought up on charges. I don’t think this is going to end well,” he said, his face a display of tension and deep thought. There was more emotion displayed than she ever recalled seeing in him.

“Let me put my cards on the table for you. I’m not going to kill them to bring them in, no matter what my orders are. It’s also obvious to me that they had assistance leaving here, which means to bring them in is going to get messy. When I refuse that order, I’ll effectively be severing my employment. They’ll try and bring me down with the program, but I have enough data to protect myself and maybe you as well, but your history makes that much more difficult. I can’t guarantee your safety, if you stay.”

“You really think this is going to blow up,” she said, looking at him closely.

“Yes, I think it is a very strong possibility,” he replied, even though her statement was not a question.

“Where would I go?”

“Rebecca, before I give you my suggestion, I want you to know that I hold you in the deepest admiration. You are intelligent and beautiful and I should have told you that long ago.” The look on his face was more vulnerable than she thought he could ever have been.

Then it went away, like a switch had been flipped. “If you truly care about that girl, I would think you might find a position teaching exceptionally gifted children in Anchorage. There may soon be a need for someone with that particular skill. It would likely be in a homeschooling group, or coop or whatever they call them,” he said, and she thought there might actually be a hint of a smile there. “If you take that path, you should be prepared to work with a willful child that is likely above your level of knowledge, but you seem capable,” he said, his face still perfectly straight.

“How do I leave?”

“Just walk out. Give a separation notice, like with any job. You’ve had enough friction with the Headmaster lately to warrant it, with little suspicion being raised. Buy a ticket to wherever you wish to go. I feel certain you have enough savings to live comfortably for some time to come, if you want to, wherever you go.”

“This is a lot to think about.”

“I know, but you need to make your decision quickly. I believe the window for exiting is closing rapidly. There will likely be some that will be sacrificed as scapegoats, if this blows up. Don’t be one of them.” There was almost a tone of pleading in his voice, which more than anything else, decided it for her.

She leaned toward him and kissed his cheek. “Thank you, Stone,” she said, standing up. “We’ll speak more later. By the way, I expect you to visit me,” she said, as they walked out of her classroom.

Just before getting out of sight, he turned back and said, “Rebecca, for what it’s worth, if you pursue the career I just suggested, I suspect you’ll be given the opportunity to continue that research with what is likely the strongest telepath this program has ever created.”

He then turned and walked around the corner, leaving her to consider his words. She did that the entire distance to her apartment, and all through the day. By the next day, she was still considering what he said.

“Rudie, they’ve escaped. The news is all over the school,” John said, rather excitedly.

“Good for them, if they can survive long enough to get home,” Rudie replied.

“I overheard Stone and he thinks there’s a chance she won’t try to go home.”

“Where would she go?”

“He doesn’t know.”

“Let me know if you hear anything else.”

“By the way, I have no details, but the head docs got her for a while.”

“I can only hope they didn’t mess her up too bad.”

“Yeah,” John agreed.