Numbers

Days turned into weeks, and weeks blurred together in the old house. Rose became a whirlwind of decoration and cleaning forcing everyone to do their share. She soon made the house brand new but the same boards still creaked with too much weight placed on them. The same old smells came from the kitchen as Cynthia prepared meal after meal with startling perfection and after given permission Luke ran out to shop for everyone. Or shop in the fact that everything his touched seemed to somehow become as invisible as his arm. Within hours he came back hulling bundle after bundle of clothes from the van and we all had more clothes then we knew what to do with.

Life in the house became something of a routine and everyone had their job. Rose sorted through boxes in the basement to see if anything could be used and then the space was converted into two rooms for Gab and the officer. Cynthia was in charge of all of the food and preparing meals, when she was not cooking she was looking up possible meal options. Gab and the officer were set to painting and re-hanging all the doors of the house, while Paul and I was in charge of peeling off the wall paper, sanding, priming, and then repainting all of the rooms. Luke, on the other hand, was in charge of getting all of these things. And I must admit…no matter how bad I felt about stealing I couldn’t begin to express the relief I felt when I realized there would be no paper trail to lead anyone here.

But we couldn’t go on like this. We couldn’t continue to go on like nothing happened to us all. We couldn’t hide in that house and steal supplies for the rest of our lives. I couldn’t do that. Every night I was haunted by the nameless man, and every night I woke up to find Paul’s comforting arms around me. I knew nothing but time could sooth those wounds…but I couldn’t just sit around and wait any longer.

One night Cynthia had cooked another wonderful meal and we were all sitting about the living room devouring it. Some sat on the floor while others sat comfortably on the old sofas and chairs around the coffee table. Everyone showed signs of their activity during the day. Paul and I had both sawdust and paint in the crevices of out clothing, Rose was covered in dust from head to toe, Gab and the officer had white paint up to their elbows, and Cynthia had her hair up and her sweat outfit was rolled up to expose both her arms and her legs. Luke was the only one who seemed to look presentable to the outside world. We ate our food in silence; the only sound was our chewing mouths.

Finally I couldn’t stand it anymore. I set my plate on the coffee table and pondered. What was the best way to begin this conversation? How could I bring up such a terrible thing again just as everything was falling into place? I took a deep breath, “We have to talk,” I started and met everyone’s eyes as I did so.

“Honey,” Luke said over a mouth full of food, “if this is about you and Paul, you can forget it. Everyone knows, it’s not a secret.”

I blushed while others snickered about me. Paul put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed reassuringly, “Thanks for that,” I murmured, “but that wasn’t what I was going to say. We have to talk about what we’re going to do…about the institute.”

Uncomfortable silence filled the room. Paul slowly removed his hand from my shoulder and I tried not to shudder under the action. Others slowly stopped chewing and lowered their plates to put their full attention on me. I controlled my breathing a waited for the worst. “Go back,” Cynthia demanded, “After everything that happened you want to go back to that insane asylum?”

“We can’t let them continue with these experiments,” I said as calmly as I could manage, “Just because all of you managed to escape doesn’t mean that they are exactly back to phase one. There were notes, data that was inputted into computers everyday! We even had a special staff member whose whole job was just to input data. It doesn’t stop with you guys, it only just begins. We have to stop this…or do you all just want to wait for the black helicopters to appear?”

Some of them flushed, I had hoped I wasn’t the only one who had thought this through but even Gab blushed with this new information. Paul was the only one that cleared his throat, “It makes sense,” he rasped, “I don’t like it anymore than any of you but they have to stop. We have to stop them.”

“They really had phases,” Rose asked, still looking rather pale, “That sounds like a bad horror movie…”

Luke chuckled, “I was thinking those black helicopters sounded like one of those weird James Bond movies. Not that I don’t adore me some Daniel Craig but…”

“Can we focus please,” Cynthia broke in with an unusually strained voice, “I can’t stand the thought of someone else waking up on those damn metal slabs!”

Silence fell on the group again, but this time it was an ashamed silence instead of a shocked silence. I looked around but no one was looking at each other. They all looked down at their plates or at a wall, no one made a move to say something. I opened my mouth but the officer broke in before I had a chance to say anything, “What do you expect us to do? Just run in there with no plan and no weapons and just fit the people with guns? I’m not a doctor or anything but I’m pretty sure that’s suicide.”

“I’m not suggesting any of that,” I murmured, “all I’m saying is that we have to be prepared for them to find us…frankly I’m surprised they haven’t already. All I’m saying is we should strike first before they strike us.”

“With what exactly,” Cynthia glared in my direction, “I don’t know about you but I didn’t exactly see any guns in your grandmother’s basement.”

“We already have weapons,” she just looked at me, more confused than startled I would say, “look around you! Look at what you can do! Paul can shoot fire from his hand, Cynthia can attack people with her strength and animalistic instincts, and Rose can use her energy field to not only render their technology useless but can also attack individual people with it. You are weapons.”

Once the words were out of my mouth I wondered why I didn’t see it before. Hadn’t this been what we had asked ourselves in the early days of the experiments? Hadn’t we asked if we could make human soldiers? Soldiers that could be indestructible? Why hadn’t I realized it from the beginning? But then again there was also the question about the alien DNA, why keep only six bodies alive to test these DNA strands? Or had the others truly been failures on a scale that I wasn’t aware of? Could these seven hold some kind of key to why only certain stands of DNA worked and others didn’t?

I marveled at the possibilities, I wondered at what this could mean, but most of all I worried about why no one had come looking. “I hadn’t thought about it like that,” Luke murmured from where he sat with his plate now held forgotten in his hands.

“None of us did,” Gab said in a voice filled with despair, he met my gaze and immediately I knew he was thinking the same thing. Why haven’t they found us yet?

“We need a plan,” Rose said, more frightened then anything but her voice was still firm, “now.”

The others nodded in agreement, all but Paul who starred on just listening. “So what do you suggest,” the officer said leaning forward in anticipation.

I sighed, “I had hoped we could work that out together.”

Gab nodded and eyed the rest of the group, “We could probably do that.”

“Olivia,” Paul murmured, “what is this really about?”

The room fell silent, I slowly turned to face him, “what?”

“What is this really about,” he repeated looking me square in the eye with a look of worry painted on his face.

I gulped, “Just what I said. They need to be stopped.”

“But why must we be the ones to do it,” he asked angrier then I had ever seen him before, “Why can’t we go to the people who are supposed to protect us and let them deal with it.”

“I wouldn’t work,” I countered, “You know that, you’re the one who agreed with me on that point.”

“But that was before you-“

He stopped. I felt my eyes grow wide as I realized what he was about to say. I felt my cheeks flush and my mouth hang open in horror. Someone cleared their throat, “We can go…if you need a moment,” I thought it was Luke but I didn’t stick around to find out.

I jumped up and hurried out of the room towards the kitchen. I didn’t have a good reason for heading in that direction besides that fact that it had a back door which I quickly escaped through when a burst of exclamation followed my out of the room. The warm night air danced on my skin as I took many deep breaths. I would not let that man come into my thoughts again. I would not let the images flash through my mind. I would not let tears fall. I would just stand there and breathe and look at the trees surrounding the house. I would stay peaceful, if a little hurt at what Paul had implied and I would walk back into the house once I knew for such how I was going to react.

I heard the door from the kitchen open and shut. I didn’t have to look to know that Paul had followed me out. I hugged myself to keep from shaking, but I didn’t turn to him. I just continued to stare at the scenery before me. We stood for a long while like that. No saying anything, just looking at the night, just listening to the night time creatures make their night time sounds. “I…” he broke the silence, “I shouldn’t have said that. I know I shouldn’t have, but I can’t help feel like he had something to do with it.”

“He didn’t,” I heard myself snap back. I didn’t mean for it to sound as rough as it did but I couldn’t take the words back once they were out of my mouth, “I was thinking about Julianne. I was thinking she would stop at nothing to have everyone back in the God forsaken place. I was thinking that-“

I clamped my jaw shut. I wasn’t going to say it. I wouldn’t let myself say it. “And here I was being an ass,” Paul murmured behind me, “I’m sorry…for what it’s worth it is a good idea…even if I don’t know how we’re going to pull it off.”

“I don’t know either,” I said turning back to him, “but we can’t just stay here and wait for them to find us. We’ve wasted enough time as it is…don’t tell Rose I said that.”

Paul smiled, “My lips are sealed.”

I didn’t have any idea how we were going to do this. I didn’t know how to shut down an entire institute’s operations and walk out alive. I didn’t even know where to start. When Paul and I walked back into the room glances were exchanged but no one commented about my abrupt departure. Instead I sat down and listened to the continued conversation.

“There has to be something that they rely on,” The officer was explaining, “Something that their whole experiment thrives on. We weren’t it, I get that, but an operation doesn’t just come out of thin air.”

“He’s right,” Gab said grimly, “These things usually take months or even years to plan out. Someone had to have gotten the idea somehow.”

“Julianne,” I muttered, everyone turned to me and I shrugged, “Who else could it have been? Tony might be another supervisor but he’s not the one pushing for all this. He’s just a figure head…it’s Julianne you should focus all of your energy on.”

The officer nodded, “She’s the one who approached me before…before all of this happened.”

“Okay,” Rose said slowly, “So we know its Julianne. But what are we going to do? Are we going to kidnap her, put her in the basement, and torture her until she says she’s sorry? Wouldn’t people come looking for her?”

“Yeah that’s the only thing wrong with that plan,” Cynthia said rolling her eyes.

“What would you suggest, then?”

Cynthia shrugged, “Heck if I know.”

“You must be like the worst help ever,” Luke mused leaning back against the sofa, “What about the stuff they injected us with? Shouldn’t we look into that? I mean wasn’t that what the whole thing was about anyway? Seeing if they could make a ‘better human race’ or something?”

Every tensed and looked at him. He lifted one pristine eyebrow in question, “Three doctors and I’m the only one that thought of this? Oh honeys, you need to go get your money back.”

“Is he right,” Gab turned to me and asked, “Do you know anything about the secret injections?”

I hesitated, which I shouldn’t have done. Cynthia jumped up, “You knew? You knew and you did nothing?”

“No,” I exclaimed, “I didn’t know what they were injecting. I knew that secret experiments were being preformed that were being kept off the record, I knew only certain pieces of the puzzle…”

I paused and bit my lip. “But,” Rose coached me along.

“But,” I admitted reluctantly, “That last day in the institute I came upon a lab. It was a lab that was filled with scanning equipment and computers and rocks-“

“Rocks?” Gab asked leaning forward.

“You mean we were injected with some kind of rock formula,” Luke squeaked, “Oh! No amount of loufa scrubbing s going to make me fell clean again.”

“Yes rocks,” I answered Gab first, “but they were actually…meteorites. And no Luke you weren’t injected with rock formula you were injected with trace elements of foreign DNA found on those meteorites.”

“Doesn’t make me feel any better,” he murmured, shifting about by the sofa.

“Why wouldn’t they be able to go and get some other meteorites from a different secret government institute,” Rose asked, “Wouldn’t all of these meteorites have the same trace amount of DNA?”

“No,” I said with a little less confidence, “First of all, the meteorites would have been given to the institute for a specific purpose and they would have to explain the need for more. Second, if they do end up explaining their need to the government I don’t think they would be too fond of the idea of human experiments.”

“Touché,” the officer muttered.

“So…our plan is to destroy the rocks,” Cynthia asked quietly.

“It’s as good a plan as any,” Paul murmured.

“Then here’s a question,” she continued, “how do we get to them? And then how do we destroy them without leaving any ‘trace evidence’ ourselves? I don’t know about you but I don’t remember any one ever smashing a rock to extinction, do you?”

I sighed, “Well that was the other problem. Since we got out the meteorites have to be under more security. They can’t think I was blind as to walk by them and not see them at all.”

Paul was the only person who nodded, one of the only people in that room who actually understood fully what I was saying. He was the only one who knew about my captivity in that metal room still, and I wanted to keep it that way for as long as I could. I ignored the questioning stares and pressed on, “We’ll have to sneak our way in and take the rock to destroy later.”

“Well that shouldn’t be too hard,” Cynthia mused sarcastically, “we just have to break into a secret government facility, steal one of the more protected things in the said facility, and get out without any one realizing we’re there even though they’ll already be expecting us to be there. Oh yeah, that should be easy as pie.”

“I hate to say it but I’m with sun shine on this one,” Luke groaned, “We have no idea how to even begin to get into there. How do you expect us to get in there unseen?”

It was my turn to raise an eyebrow over at Luke, “I was hoping we could rely on your expertise. After all you were the one going on about how we all could use haircuts.”

Luke’s expression went from one of complete confusion to complete delight, “Ohmygod you don’t really mean-? Ohmygod you do!” he practically squealed in delight.

Cynthia looked from me to Luke with a contemplated look, until it dawned on her what we were saying. She paled and looked to me with wide pleading eyes, but I could only smile back. She wouldn’t like her part in all of this…if she agreed to do it that is. But she was going to have to give in to Luke, we all were.

“Am I correct in assuming that you have a plan as to how to get into the institute too?” the officer asked.

I shrugged, “I have an idea of what we can do. But we all have to change the way we look, not just the girls. Remember the staff studied all of you. They know all of your scars not to mention most of your other information. They can identify you if it comes to it, so we have to blend in.”

“If you really want us to blend in you should give us all a lobotomy and a white coat,” the officer said snidely.

“Not all of them are…were…like that. Not all of them believed whatever the institute told them but this is tha way it is,” I countered refusing to get angry again, “We have to deal with it…and we have to do this. We have to do this for the others that this could happen to. Think of all the people that this could effect-“

“Yeah we got it,” the officer leaned back and sighed, “it doesn’t mean I have to like walking into the mouth of the dragon.”

We sat in silence for a matter of minutes. It seemed to take us all a moment to take it all in. In the matter of one evening we had decided that we had to change our identities, break into the institution, steal the meteorites and then keep them away from a large, not to mention secret, government organization. I was having trouble taking it all in and I was the one that came up with the damned plan. The silence stretched on but the more and more I thought about it…the more and more I was certain of one thing. This was the right thing to do, Julianne had to be stopped, but what happens if we fail in stopping her?

We had no proof this was going on, we had nothing but accusations and eye witness testimony which was useless in the eyes of the law. We couldn’t start pointing fingers unless we could back ourselves up. But how in the world were we supposed to get this evidence? What happened if we didn’t make it out of the institution? Who would stop this madness then? Or would it be stopped? If we failed to get out of that institute with the evidence we needed or the meteors, for that matter, would this madness continue to go on simply because no one wanted to believe what was happening? Would Julianne win just because of that? I couldn’t let that happen.

As soon as the thought was in my mind I knew it was true. I could not let Julianne win; I could not let her continue these inhumane experiments any longer. I had made my decision whether everyone else had or not. Someone cleared their throat, I couldn’t see who it was but it pulled me out of my own thoughts, “So,” Rose mused, still staring off into space herself, “When do we start this whole ‘new identities’ thing?”

“As soon as possible would probably be best,” uttered Gab, not really looking at anything either, he seemed not really there.

I nodded in agreement, not that anyone was really looking at me to see it. Everyone got up but still no one spoke, one by one they took their plates to the kitchen and then turned to their rooms. It was eerily silent when they climbed or descended to their rooms. I didn’t know if they went to think about the plan or if they were in shock because of what this meant. It meant that their world is still unsafe, their world that they thought was peaceful and kind turned out to be a lie.

Not even Paul stayed with me. He shot me a glance and smiled before he climbed the stairs to our room but he looked frightened too. Everyone looked frightened and I was getting a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I slowly stood and took my plate to the kitchen, leaving it in the pile with the others. And I grabbed the phone that had been sitting useless on the kitchen counter.

I tentatively held it to my ear, sure enough a dial tone sounded on the other end. I was going to have to ask Rose how she had figured that out, shaking off the thought I quickly dialed a number. I wasn’t sure this was going to work; actually I was pretty certain it wasn’t going to work but I had to try.

The phone rang, it seemed to take an eternity for someone to finally pick up on the other line but they did finally answer the phone. “Hello,” said a man’s voice, “Agent Holm speaking.”

“Hey James,” I laughed into the receiver, “its Olivia Van Doran.”

“As in bug-lover Ollie,” came the amused retort.

“That would be me. How have you been James? It’s been a while I think.”

“I’ll say, about a year or so. Hey are you still in Georgia?”

I tried not to flinch, “Yeah, yeah still here. How about you? I assume you got that position at the FIB you were dying for.”

James laughed, it felt good to hear someone laugh goodheartedly, “Heck yeah I did! They were practically dying for me to join up back in the day! Do you remember when they sent someone to pound on my dorm room door to get me to apply?”

“You and I remember that day very differently,” I murmured.

“Well that’s how it happened! They practically broke down my door and now I’m working my own desk over here.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Hey Ollie why are you calling so late? And for that matter why are you calling at all?” then his tone grew worried, “You’re not going to show up on one of my wanted posters are you?”

“I hope not,” I said honestly, “Hey where are you stationed?”

“Nice subject change, Doc,” he muttered sarcastically, “I’m currently in Virginia. Why?”

I took a deep breath, “I need a favor.”

There was silence on the other end of the line. I held my breath and waited for the worst. “I won’t do this again, Ollie. You can’t-“

“No!” I snapped feeling my cheek grow bright red as I remembered waking up next to him on more than one occasion, “I mean…that’s not the favor, James. I’m asking you as a professional to help me…as an agent.”

“What could you possibly need from me? The only time I used to get these phone calls were when you were lonely and-“

“You know what,” I snapped, my anger growing by the moment, “Never mind, I knew this was a bad idea. You never could grow up not even for the three hours it took you to take a midterm!”

“This is just like you Ollie,” James growled back at me, very different from the jock I remembered back a few years ago, “You always thought you knew better then everyone. Well one day you’re going to meet someone who’s a hell of a lot smarter then you and you’re not going to know what to do with yourself!”

My breath caught in my throat. I couldn’t tell him how right he was. I couldn’t admit it to James. James was just a guy, just a normal jock that wanted to make a difference. Kinda like I was just a girl that wanted to make a difference. It’s weird how our two similar dreams led to two very different paths. “How fast can you get down here,” I croaked into the receiver.

“Jesus, Ollie, what did you do?”

“Please, James, if you won’t come then look something up.”

Silence, then there was paper shuffling, “What is it?”

“Look up anything you have on the Bram Institute here in Georgia. Also look up anything you might have on a Doctor Julianne O. Dante.”

“What am I looking for?”

I didn’t know how to explain it. How do you explain something that is impossible over the phone to someone who thinks you of sound mind? I sighed, “Just do it…you can reach me at this number,” I didn’t say bye; I didn’t end the conversation in any formal way. I just simply set the receiver down and walked out of the room.

I didn’t go up to bed. I couldn’t face Paul yet, not yet. Instead I sat there and hoped James would do as I asked. I sat there and wished he would find something in those files. I hoped that the next time he called he would tell me that he was on his way and that I didn’t have to worry. But somewhere deep inside of me I knew that it wasn’t going to happen. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it could never happen. So eventually I just sat there, on the sofa in the middle of the living room from my happy past, and stared at nothing.

I sat as the plan floated through my head. I sat as the conversation with James and all the stupid decisions I made with him floated through my mind as well. Then I heard footsteps coming down the stairs. They were quiet, if I hadn’t just been sitting there I probably would have just ignored them or not heard them completely. But now I sat up straighter wondering who had decided to come down stairs after all that was said.

Luke came out of the hall way. He was startled when he caught my eye, “Oh! I thought you were with Paul!”

I shook my head, “I needed to clear my head before I went up.”

“Uh huh,” he mused as he plopped down on another chair, “So what’s up?”

“You’re the one that came down stairs, what’s up with you?”

“Oh…right,” Luke looked around uncertainly, “it’s just…well…I’m not sure how to say this.”

“Say what, exactly?”

He rolled his eyes, “If I knew how to say it would we really be having this conversation right now?”

I chuckled, “Probably not.”

“There! Check mate!” But then he just went back to musing, biting his lip and looking around paranoid, “it’s just…I don’t really want to go back there. I know it makes me sound…foolish, maybe…but every time I think about going there I clam up. And trust me that is not good for my skin…or my mood truthfully.”

I nodded, “I know. But I can’t…we can’t just stay here and wait for Julianne to find us.”

“Why do we have to stay here? We can go anywhere! Everyone is free of their prior restrictions, nothing is holding us back. We can go anywhere, do anything we want!”

“Officer Smith has two children, Cynthia has a mother, and I still have a life…kind of…but the point is what you call ‘prior restrictions’ were their lives. It’s not easy to just get up and move. Plus would you really feel safe knowing that Julianne was still carrying out the experiment?”

Luke sighed, “No. Not only could that woman really use a hair cut but she needs some therapy sprinkled about.”

I chuckled, “I hear ya. But we are the only people that can do anything about it and the law isn’t going to do anything.”

“How do you know useless you try?”

I looked away, “I- well I’m just assuming-“

“You didn’t!”

I paused, “Didn’t what?”

“You went to the police! That’s what you were doing for two weeks! They thought you were crazy and put you in the loony bin!”

My face flushed and my eyes grew wide, “Two weeks! Loony bin? What? No that’s not it at all!”

Luke sat back defeated, “Darn, I thought I had finally figured it out,” he muttered.

I opened and shut my mouth but no words came out to explain. I was too shocked by his guess that I couldn’t even get the true truth out. He saw my confusion and explained, “Everyone is trying to figure out what you were doing for the two weeks that that monster Julianne, I believe you said her name was, came in a tortured us with horrid questions. She even told us you were dead the day before you came to get us all out.”

That made sense. I thought back to the day I got them all out. Paul had been crying, he had been about to say something but…he had stopped himself. Cynthia had been shocked to see me…everyone had been shocked to see me. I was just too terrified to see what was going on around me that day. But it all fit, my face flushed. I could feel the blood leave my face ounce by ounce, “It was nothing like that,” I heard myself say, “I thought I could trust a friend but I don’t think anything is going to come out of it.”

“You have a friend that works with the law? And you contacted him during those two weeks and he still didn’t believe you?”

“No,” I croaked, “I just got off the phone with him…I don’t think he’s going to be any help.”

Luke made a sound that sounded like a groan, “So is he single?”

“What?”

“I’m just putting some feelers out,” he said innocently, “just because I was once dead doesn’t mean all of me stayed particularly…dead.”

My eyes grew wide, this conversation was going to leave me dizzy, “He’s straight…he’s definitely straight!”

“Like that matters,” Luke laughed, “I been known to turn a few my way in my time.”

I regarded Luke with a mixture of shock and amusement, “I’m going to bed now.”

Luke laughed as I stood and walked quickly towards the stairway, “Honey,” he called after me, I turned around, “Paul loves you. You know that right?”

That gave me pause. I didn’t answer him right away but he didn’t seem to need an answer, he smiled, “Yeah I thought you did. Have a good night Jodie,” with that he turned his back on me and picked up a fashion magazine that had been lying on the floor.