The Hunt: The Oakmont Saga, Book 2

I woke up to someone lightly shaking me, as if they were nervous to touch me. Opening my eyes, I saw a little girl standing over me, her incredibly long red hair hanging in front of her tied in a pair of nice braids. She had a private school uniform on, mostly consisting of dark reds in the plaid. She also had the cutest splay of freckles across her nose and cheeks. There weren’t an enormous number of them, like some people, but the perfect amount to make it incredibly cute. She couldn’t have been more than maybe eight years old, looking at her.

“You aren’t supposed to be here,” she said, with a deep southern accent. Although I was used to the accent from Aliyah, this girl’s was deeper and somehow different.

“Where am I?” I asked.

“In the supply closet,” she replied, as if I should have known that.

“I mean, what city?” I asked.

“Buh-luck-see, Missippi,” she replied, not saying the second set of esses in the state name.

Before I could ask her anything else, she bolted out the door closing it behind her. Certain we were about to have visitors, I woke everyone up quickly and quietly. “Get your packs on,” I commanded.

We were up and ready to leave within minutes, but it wasn’t fast enough. As I opened the door, there were six women standing there, obviously about to open it. The look of shock on their faces indicated that they were surprised by our sudden attempt to depart, and maybe even our presence there.

All of the women were nuns, or at least they were wearing the clothing that I thought nuns wore. They were all varying ages, the youngest looking probably in her twenties and the oldest of the younger five maybe in her thirties or forties. Then there was the oldest of them. She looked like she could have been seventy or eighty, although she stood perfectly straight, as if she was holding a book on her head and trying to keep it there. She looked very stern, and mean.

There was no way we could run, not with Ben and Eliana as well. I didn’t feel right doing anything to these people’s minds, since I still didn’t know what effect I was really having on people when I attacked them. These people hadn’t done anything to us, and I couldn’t do anything to them...at least not yet.

“I’m sorry for coming in here uninvited, but we needed a safe place to sleep last night. We’ll just leave now, so you can continue with your day,” I said, cringing at my own words, knowing how stupid I sounded.

“Stop right there, young lady,” the oldest of the women said. “You are obviously runaways, but from where?” she asked. There was no accent with her.

I looked over at Aliyah, wondering what her thoughts were. We hadn’t connected today. She gave a slight nod, I hoped indicating that I should be honest, because that was exactly what I was going to do.

“Anchorage, Alaska,” I replied. The shock on all of their faces was immediate, even the old woman.

“You must be lying,” she then said, quickly recovering her wit.

“I don’t care if you believe me, but we’re from Alaska and we’re trying to get to family in Georgia,” I said, trying to be respectful, but getting a little impatient.

“You will not speak to me in that tone, young lady,” she said, her nose rising a little into the air, a clearly superior look about her.

“Aliyah, we need to go,” I said out loud.

“Okay,” she replied.

“You are going nowhere,” the old woman replied. “The police should be here momentarily,” she added, after looking at me with a smile on her face.

That last statement settled it. We had to leave. “Mel, let me do it,” Aliyah said, before I could do anything. I simply nodded, and I saw her probes go out to all of the women. A second later, all but one fell to the floor, unconscious. The one that still stood was the youngest of them, and she was shocked speechless.

I looked over at Aliyah, curious why she didn’t knock her out, and she shrugged her shoulders. “She resisted,” Aliyah said, to my unasked question.

“Ma’am, we didn’t mean to cause trouble, but we’re running from the government. I don’t like telling someone to lie, but if they find out you’ve seen us, you’ll be locked up for the rest of your life. We can do things they want to control, and they consider it top secret or something,” I informed her. She nodded, very nervously, but remained silent.

“Could you give us directions to the bus station?” I asked, a little nervously.

“The road just in front of the school is Youngham. Go right on that and then left on Benachi. At the end of that go right on West Howard and follow it for a long way until you get to Reynoir. The station is about a block to the left on Reynoir. Before you leave, go to the cafeteria and get some breakfast. The staff will feed you and won’t ask questions. May God guide you kids,” she said.

I was about to agree, but then remembered the police. “We’ll be caught by the police, but thank you,” I replied.

“We haven’t called the police yet,” she said, with a wink and a smile. I was a little surprised that a nun had lied to us.

“Thank you, ma’am,” I replied, truly grateful for her guidance and prayer, along with the information. “Let’s go,” I said, and Aliyah and the kids followed me out.

We went to the cafeteria and got a nice hot breakfast. Just as she told us, no one asked us any questions and didn’t ask us for any money to pay for it. None of the kids in the cafeteria asked us any hard to answer questions either, although some kids came and sat with us.

“What’s your name?” a girl asked me, as she sat beside me. Looking at her, I recognized the girl from earlier.

“Melanie,” I replied, not asking hers in return.

“Mine’s Sadie,” she offered anyway.

Neither of us said anything for a few minutes as we ate our food, which was pretty good. “How’d you not know where you were?” she asked, once her plate was cleaned, and it was truly cleaned.

“It’s a long story,” I told her, earning a very curious expression from her.

A bell rang, which brought a disappointed frown from my new friend. “Well, I gotta go. I do hope to see you at lunch so we can talk more,” she said, smiling broadly at me. Before I knew what was happening, she hugged me tightly.

“You’re nice. I like you, even if you don’t like me,” she said. I had no idea what to say and she left before I could have replied anyway.

“Did you enjoy your breakfast?” I heard, all of us jumping and spinning around at the same time.

“Yes, ma’am,” Aliyah replied first. It was the youngest of the nuns.

“Very good. Now, where are you kids planning to go?”

“We can’t tell you,” Aliyah said, having taken the lead, which I was perfectly fine with.

“I didn’t think you would, but I wanted to ask. I’m willing to help you,” she told us, looking at me, even though Aliyah was the leader now.

“You don’t want to be seen with us,” I told her, since she was looking at me.

“You’ll get in a lot of trouble,” Aliyah added when she didn’t immediately reply, to which she simply smiled. Something wasn’t right here, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

Not sure why, I reached out to her mind and found a wall. She was shielded...which meant, she was a telepath...which meant she was part of the program.

My shields slammed in place immediately, and her smile widened. “You should have done that when I wasn’t knocked out by your attack,” she said. I had no idea what to say or do, but I was about to launch everything I had at her.

“Please don’t attack me. I’m certain you could take me down in a heartbeat, if you tried,” she said.

“Who are you?” I asked.

“I am Sister Eleanor, of the Sisters of Mercy,” she replied, inclining her head slightly.

“So, you really are a nun?” Aliyah asked.

“Yes, I really am a nun,” she said.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions, but I can’t answer them all. I was in the program, but managed to escape. I’m dead to them,” she told us.

“You aren’t going to turn us in?” I asked, afraid that she was going to do exactly that. She only shook her head.

“What they are doing borders on evil. I swore that if I ever saw anyone from the program I would run as far and fast as I could. I didn’t expect to see four young kids, though. God truly works in mysterious ways. He obviously has other plans for me. What I don’t understand is how I didn’t sense you,” she said, looking very curious.

Of course, Aliyah and I were also curious, both at her question and why she asked the question. “I’m guessing that you’re also curious, looking at your expressions. First, let’s go someplace that we are less likely to be interrupted.”

We followed her to a classroom, where she indicated that we should all sit down. As we sat in desks, she also sat in a desk. I knew about little psychological tricks that adults played on kids, and I suspected that this was one, but I thought she might actually be sincere.

“I don’t know how much they told you or how much you learned about ‘us’, but different telepaths sometimes have strengths in only certain skills. Not all do, but some do. Some are specialized,” she began.

“Like Megan back at Oakmont,” Aliyah blurted out.

“She could read people very easily without using much energy,” I said, and Aliyah nodded.

“That’s a useful talent,” the nun said.

“She was very weak though,” Aliyah added.

“She was given a talent but with a cost, which seems to be how it usually works,” she explained.

“When a telepath has a very strong talent, such as Megan, there seems to always be a cost. My talent is the ability to sense other telepaths, but I can’t read thoughts at all and my shields are very weak,” she told us. As she said that, Aliyah looked over at me with a look that was like she had figured something out.

“Remember I said it seemed like you were holding some kind of shield around us, and you were using a lot of energy?” she asked me. I nodded that I did. “You’ve somehow masked us from being seen. I think you did it to hide us from regular people but it has also masked us from telepaths.”

“I didn’t do anything,” I said.

“Not intentionally, but I think you did. It’s kind of like when you first came to Oakmont and almost no one could read you. I couldn’t even sense you. But this is a little different. You can actually shield us from being seen,” she said, getting excited at her theory, which I thought had some serious flaws in it.

“I can’t sense any of you, but I know you’re telepaths, at least you two,” she said.

“They aren’t,” I said, indicating Eliana and Ben, “but we are.”

“Are they related?” she asked, although it was obvious that Eliana was related to Aliyah, and I suspected that Ben and I looked a lot alike as well. I nodded, knowing Ben already was. We had even been training him, as much as we were able to, while running across the country. “Then they will be.”

“I’ve never heard of a talent like that, and I thought that I knew them all. I had graduated from the program, after all. Very interesting,” she mused. “What else can you do that they obviously want?”

“Nothing special,” I replied.

“By the way, I have another talent. Although it’s probably related to reading minds, I can’t get actual thoughts. What I can do is tell, without a doubt, when someone is not being honest.”

“What is interesting is that even though you have some kind of shield blocking me from sensing you, I can still tell you aren’t being completely honest with me. I do understand, considering who you’re running from, so I won’t push for answers. Not only that, if they do get me, I can’t tell what I don’t know.”

“Now that we all know who we are, I truly want to help you. You want to take the bus to somewhere. I’m willing to purchase the tickets, since I’m sure they’re monitoring for you. They aren’t watching for me any longer. I can take you to the bus station and purchase the tickets for you so you aren’t seen. At least it’ll reduce the chances of you being seen,” she offered.

“That’s very nice of you, but why are you willing to help us? You’ll be risking everything to do this,” Aliyah asked.

“Because it’s the right thing to do. Not only that, I owe them,” she added, the last part under her breath. I heard it, though.

Aliyah nodded very slightly to me, indicating that she was willing to accept her help. At least, that’s how I took her nod. Neither of us were willing to link, with her being a telepath. Although she said she couldn’t read, we weren’t sure and an established connection was vulnerable. I had benefited from that too many times.

“Okay, we’ll accept your help,” we both agreed.

“Good!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “Where is it you intend on going?” I still didn’t trust her for some reason, so I wasn’t going to let her know our true destination, but I did need to get in the general vicinity.

“I was thinking you would buy the tickets to Atlanta,” I replied.

“Big city. Okay, we’ll go to the station and I’ll purchase the tickets for you.”

“Since I’m paranoid, I’d like to have Eliana and Ben also purchase tickets to other places. It might throw them off our trail, if they find out about this,” I told her.

She thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “Where will they buy tickets to?”

“It doesn’t matter. Most of the tickets will be false trails, which is what matters,” I replied.

“That’s smart,” she conceded, and I almost thought I saw a hint of irritation when I didn’t tell her the extra destinations. I really was getting paranoid.

Well, even if there was no reason to be concerned, it was better to be safe than sorry. What she didn’t know was that her tickets were one of the false trails, which would keep us safer, if she wasn’t being honest with us. I was trying to word my responses so she couldn’t tell I was lying. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but I really didn’t trust her.

What was really going to happen was that Eliana and Ben were going to buy two separate groups of tickets, one to the real destination and one to a false location. I had been thinking about that situation for a while, and had worked it out. Aliyah and I would have to tamper with the ticket people, or they wouldn’t sell the tickets to two kids, but we’d done that before.

We all left the classroom and followed the nun to a van at the back of the school. She drove the short distance to the bus station and we did exactly as we had discussed.

Now I had to gamble. I sent a probe to Aliyah, Ben and Eliana. Eliana, don’t panic, but this is Melanie and I’m talking in your mind. Don’t speak out loud. If you want to reply, just imagine yourself saying what you want to say, and we’ll all hear it. Okay?

Okay, she replied, very tentatively.

Very good. You did excellent. I’m not sure if she really can’t sense us or not, or read minds, but for some reason I don’t trust her. This is what we’re going to do. Eliana, you’ll buy two different sets of tickets. One will be five tickets to Birmingham, Alabama. The second will be four tickets to Savannah Georgia. Got that?

Yeah, she replied, much more confidently.

I wasn’t sure how Eliana would react to having someone in her mind the first time, but she did wonderfully. Now for Ben. He’d had us in his mind several times, so this was nothing new to him.

Ben, you’ll buy four tickets to Miami Florida and five tickets to Charleston South Carolina. Got it?

Yeah, he replied.

Alright, Eliana, repeat your instructions.

I’m going to buy five tickets to Birmingham, Alabama and four tickets to Savannah, Georgia, she rattled off, quickly and confidently. I was so proud of her, I was sure it was transferring through the link.

Now you Ben.

Four tickets to Miami and five tickets to Charleston, he said quickly.

Very good, both of you. Now remember that when you get there. If you forget anything, just come up with a different destination quickly. The only one that really matters is Savannah, Georgia. That’s where we’re really going. Okay? I could sense a mental nod from both of them. I gently closed the connection and we got out of the van as she stopped.

As we were getting out, I handed each of them five hundred dollars, hoping that was enough. “Aliyah and I will make it so the ticket people will let you buy the tickets, because I’ll bet they won’t. Also, Aliyah and I will maintain a link to you, so if you have any trouble, just let us know,” I told them. They both nodded and headed off. I started to hand the nun some money, but she just shrugged it off and went inside.

Very quickly, I knew we had a small problem. The tickets cost more than I thought they would, and I had to take money to both of the kids. Eliana needed a little over $100 more and Ben needed $350. We were spending almost $1500, mostly on false trails. What no one knew was that Savannah wasn’t our destination either, at least not yet. I wanted to add in another false trail, just in case, and didn’t want the kids knowing so they couldn’t give it away. I really was becoming paranoid.

I went inside, money in my pocket and motioned for them to come to me. Once I handed them the money, they went back to the ticket counter and finished paying for them. When they returned, I handed Ben another $400, getting a curious frown from him and Aliyah. Oddly, the nun hadn’t returned yet, making it easier for me to do what I was about to do.

“Buy five tickets to Jacksonville, Florida,” I instructed him. He was obviously curious, but didn’t question me. When he returned, I filed all of the tickets in the pocket of the jacket that was way too hot, considering we were in the deep south. Of course, everyone else had thicker jackets on, but they weren’t used to Alaska weather. I was.

“Eliana, buy four tickets to New Orleans,” I told her, handing her $200. I didn’t think it could be very expensive, considering how close we were to New Orleans. Once they were both back, I added those tickets to my stash and put all of the remaining money in my other pocket. I’d put it in the baggie later.

All of the buses left at different times, and I wasn’t sure if I could pull this off, if the nun stuck around until we left. I had an idea for that that might work, but I wasn’t sure.

She finally returned and handed me the tickets, which I added to my collection. “Thank you,” I told her, truly thankful for her help, which I hoped was genuine.

“You’re welcome,” she said.

“We have to wait around until our bus leaves, but you probably have classes to teach. Even if you don’t, if you stay here, it’ll be obvious you’re with us when they check the video. Right now, it would be hard to tell,” I explained, hoping that lame argument would work.

She seemed to think it over for a little while and then nodded. “You’re probably right.”

“Let me bless you, before I leave,” she offered.

“We’re not Catholic, though,” I said.

“But you believe in the Lord, don’t you?” she asked, which we all nodded to.

“Almighty and merciful God, who hast commissioned Thy angels to guide and protect us. Command them to be assiduous companions for these your children setting out, until their return; clothe them with the invisible protection of your angels; to keep them from all danger of collision, of fire, of explosion, of falls and bruises; and finally, having preserved them from all evil, and especially from sin, guide them to our heavenly home. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen,” she recited.

“Amen,” we all replied.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome, and I truly pray that you are safe and secure, wherever you end up. May God bless you children,” she said, then turned around and walked out.

“What’s up, Mel?” Aliyah asked, once Sister Eleanor left.

“I don’t know why, but I don’t trust her,” I replied.

“So, where are we going then?” she asked.

“I’m not really sure,” I admitted.

“So, any one of those could be a false trail?” she asked.

“Or, all of them,” I said, a small smile on my face. She gently bumped me, and I bumped her back, both of us giggling as we walked to the benches.

Looking at the different tickets, the bus to New Orleans was leaving the soonest, but did I want to go west, when I was really wanting to go east? It would probably throw them off when they finally figured out where we really went. That settled it. Our bus was leaving in 30 minutes.

“Sir, we’ve found no trace of them. They’ve simply vanished,” John told Raughlin, when he answered the call.

“They’re in Biloxi, Mississippi. Leave a cleanup team there to finish up and find out how they got out. Take the rest of your team and get to Biloxi as fast as possible. They’re leaving very soon,” Raughlin informed him.

John had no idea how Raughlin got that information, but he wasn’t about to question it. “Yes, sir.”

“You should start at the Greyhound station in Biloxi, although they’ll be gone by the time you arrive. I’ve contacted the FBI in Gulfport, but I doubt they’ll make it in time, either,” the Headmaster continued.

“Do you know their destination, sir?” John asked.

“I understand it to be Atlanta, but check the sales and see what you can find. They’re good at subterfuge,” he said.

“I understand, sir,” John said.

“Oh, one last thing. Only use tranq darts on the children,” he commanded and hung up.

Yet again, John was left baffled by the odd conversation with the Headmaster. If he had that kind of information available, probably from a source on the ground, why wasn’t he letting his chief of security have access to it? Although that question worried him, and irritated him, there was nothing he could do about it.

“Easely, get a cleanup team assembled. They’re to stay and determine how the children made it out. Everyone else is going to Mississippi. They’ve been spotted there,” he informed his second. Easely looked curious, and quite impressed.

“I take it you think these children have done well,” John said.

“Yes, sir,” Easely replied, honest as he always was.

“Remember what your purpose is,” John told him.

“I do, sir,” he said.

John was about to dismiss him, but had a sudden curiosity that he had to satisfy. “Why are you so impressed?”

“These children have managed to elude professional soldiers and hunters three times on this attempt, not to mention the original escape, sir. That’s incredibly impressive, and shows a level of planning and resiliency that isn’t common in children, even children coming through the program, sir,” he finished. John had to admit, Easely was right.

“Sir, might I make an observation, if you will?” Easely asked.

“Go ahead,” John said, curious at what he was thinking.

“I would be surprised if we find their exit from Biloxi very easily. I suspect they’ll have placed at least a couple of false trails,” he said.

“Thank you, Easely,” John said, effectively dismissing him.

“Yes, sir,” the man said, with a proper salute, and then left.

John had to admit, he was probably right. That girl was very good. Way better than a child her age should’ve been. His predecessor had failed to bring her in, but he was determined to succeed.