Fourth Birth: The Oakmont Saga, Book 1

I woke up, my head feeling like a nail sitting on an anvil, with the blacksmith pounding away on me. Opening my eyes, I couldn’t see anything. The sharp pain, like glass stabbing into them, assaulted my eyes anyway. Tears rolled down my cheeks from the agony of it.

“Aliyah, are you there?” I managed to ask, my voice raw and pained. I heard a slight moan not far from me, but nothing else.

My hand was still gripping the packs, and I realized it was cramping, now that my senses were beginning to work again. Releasing my grip, I flexed my hand a bit, before slowly reaching into the side pocket where I put the little lantern. Luckily, the pack I reached into was mine. I wasn’t sure where in her pack Aliyah had put her lantern.

I slowly opened the cover, allowing my eyes to adjust a little before totally blinding myself. With that done, I moved over to Aliyah to see how bad she was. Her skin looked pale in the poor light, but she was breathing, which was good. There was a small pool of blood by her head, but the wound seemed to have sealed up. There really wasn’t much I could do for her at this point since there was no bleeding to stop and I wasn’t a doctor.

I had no idea how to replenish her blood, but I knew she was going to need water, and she’d need to eat. Some foods could help more than others, but I had no idea which ones. As I was thinking about what I could do for Aliyah, I began taking stock of our situation. We were moving in some vehicle, and shining the lantern around, it looked like we were probably inside the trailer of a big truck.

With that bit of added information, I began looking at the many boxes stacked all over. There were a lot of boxes with food type labels. It looked like we were with a lot of boxes for either a grocery store or a drug store, considering there were a lot of pain relievers and cold drugs. Then I came upon a box with a name I knew, Fred Meyer.

Continuing to look, I found a box with dried fruit and trail mix in it. Although I was kind of tired of trail mix, it’d fill our stomachs and might help Aliyah. I also found a stack of bottled water, nicely wrapped up with plastic. I got the knife from my pack and broke into the plastic just enough to pull out a couple of water bottles. Going back to the box with the trail mix, I carefully opened the box, grabbed a bag of it and broke it open.

As gently as I could, I lifted Aliyah’s head up a little and poured some water into her mouth. She swallowed it easily, so I poured some more. Within a few minutes of this, she was sitting against the wall of the trailer, putting small amounts of trail mix into her mouth and washing it down with water. She was very weak, but she was functioning again.

During all of this, I felt like everything was crashing in on me. I was sweating and shaking and couldn’t stay focused real good on what I was doing. I managed to get the job done, in spite of all of that, but I felt horrible. It almost seemed like there were things, just out of sight, about to jump out and hurt me. I jumped at the slightest sound as the truck continued down the road, and there were a lot of sounds. In addition, there were memories slipping away from me and even though I had no idea what they were, I could tell they were there, just out of reach.

“Do you know where we are?” she asked, once she was done eating.

“Nope. We’re in the back of a tractor-trailer, but I don’t know where we are or where we’re going.”

“It’s gotta be better than where we were,” she replied, and I nodded agreement.

We talked for a bit and then both nodded off during the ride. I wasn’t sure how long we slept or how long we’d been in the back of the truck, but I woke up when the truck lurched to a stop. My guess was that we were at a warehouse or maybe a store and they were backing up to the loading dock to unload the truck.

“Aliyah,” I said, shaking her at the same time.

“What?” she mumbled, still half asleep.

“I think they’re about to open this trailer. We need to hide,” I told her.

Her eyes popped completely open and she sat up, obviously regretting her quick movement immediately. She put her hands on her head and leaned forward a little.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, just a head rush. Moved too fast.”

I grabbed her hand and helped her up, each of us grabbing our packs as we went. There was nothing we could do about the dried blood on the floor, so we headed to the front of the trailer to see if there was any place we could hide.

At the front of the trailer were two large stacks of folded up cardboard boxes, nicely wrapped in plastic. A perfect hiding place was between them and the front wall, as long as they didn’t take those out as well. There was just enough space for us, with our packs. If we were older, or bigger, it wouldn’t have been possible. Either God planned for this, or we just got lucky, and I generally didn’t believe in luck, unless it was bad.

Only a few minutes after getting nicely hidden, the doors opened and light poured in. The truck then backed a little further and thudded against the loading dock, plunging us back into darkness. Only a moment later, a sliding door went up, returning light to the inside of the trailer. There were several male voices talking about removing the stuff, giving instructions to the one that was going to be doing that.

Very soon after the voices left, I heard the sound of a machine approaching, most likely a forklift. Although it was foolish of me, I stuck my head out just enough to see what was going on. Sure enough, a forklift was moving into the trailer and getting the first stack of stuff. There was a very skinny man sitting on it with earphones, probably just for protection, and a bright yellow vest with reflective strips on it.

The lights on the forklift almost blinded me, but as I looked at him I clearly saw his eyes dart toward me. I quickly pulled back, praying that he didn’t see me, but I was pretty sure he saw something. Why else would he have suddenly looked my way?

“I think I was seen,” I whispered to Aliyah. She looked at me, with a curious expression.

Why’d you look out there she said to my mind.

I was curious I replied, not sure why I didn’t talk to her that way in the first place.

We’re telepaths, silly she said, which made me feel really stupid.

After a while, all of the stuff was taken out, except the flattened cardboard we were hidden behind. The roll down warehouse door was closed and complete darkness returned. I knew better than to turn on the lantern though.

How long do we wait Aliyah asked.

I don’t know, but we need to get out of here I replied. I felt her give a mental nod of agreement.

Continuing to wait, both of us were surprised when the door opened back up and a voice called out, “Come out where we can see you. We know you’re back there.”

I guess we’re caught she said to my mind.

Should we come out? I can probably knock them out.

Do you know for sure you aren’t hurting them somehow?

No I admitted.

Don’t do it then she said and I agreed.

“You have until the count of three before I send the cops in,” the voice called. My nerves were already on edge, and now I was being forced out into some completely unknown fate. This could be worse than the school, for all I knew.

“Mel, it’s okay. Let me deal with this and you relax,” she said, speaking with her mouth and not her mind. I nodded agreement and she helped me get my pack on before putting hers on. She then took my hand and led me out from behind the stacks of cardboard.

“It’s just two little girls,” the skinny man from the forklift exclaimed. “There’s a lot of blood on them,” he added, lifting his finger toward Aliyah.

“I can see that, Jeb,” the older and heavier man replied. I didn’t know there was blood on me.

He was wearing a similar bright yellow vest and had ear protectors lying around his neck. He looked both of us over for a minute and then stepped forward. I instinctively stepped back, and my mind started engaging to attack. Aliyah squeezed my hand and I stopped myself from drawing in the energy, but I didn’t relax.

He obviously saw me tense and stopped. “You girls probably aren’t in any trouble, but we need to find out what’s going on here. Why’re you in the back of this truck and where’d you come from?”

“We were being chased and I’m not sure how we got back here,” Aliyah said.

“If you were being chased, then I’ll go call the cops. They can help you,” he said, and started to turn around.

“They’ll give us to the people that were chasing us,” she said, and he stopped.

Why was she telling them this? If they even believed it, she’d encourage them to give us to the cops. We were obviously running from the authorities.

“So you girls are running from the law,” he stated.

“Not exactly,” she said. I wasn’t sure what she was doing, but I didn’t think it was working.

“We were part of a secret government program that was doing experiments on us. We escaped and are trying to get home. If you give us to the cops, they’ll just send us back,” she told him. There was no way he was going to believe that. No one in their right mind would.

“You could try telling me the truth, you know,” he said, confirming my belief.

“I am sir,” she replied.

“Mel, show him, but be gentle,” she instructed me.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, it’s our only chance, and I don’t know how.”

Without any more thought, I sent images of the attack at the Gardner’s house into his mind. Nothing more than that, but that should’ve been enough. I tried to be as gentle as I could, but when I was done, he was on his knees grabbing his head.

“I’m sorry. I tried to be gentle, but it’s not easy,” I said to him, my sudden crying straining my voice. I was terrified that I’d somehow messed up his mind, or maybe worse. He didn’t seem to hear me and I dropped to my knees, tears streaming from my face. As soon as my words ended though, he jumped up and ran off, screaming. The skinny man was left there, clearly not sure what to do.

“Listen,” he finally said, coming to his senses as Aliyah helped get me back on my feet.

“There’s nothing I can do to help you, but if I turn my back, you can leave by the door beside the trailer. I won’t say anything because I won’t know anything. I wouldn’t advise going there, since I’m telling you about it, but there’s a homeless shelter a couple blocks away, straight down the road as you leave the warehouse. They might ask some questions, but I don’t think they’ll report you,” he said.

“Thank you,” Aliyah replied, leading me by the hand, out of the trailer and the warehouse.

As we were walking away, the warehouse door opened with a couple of men yelling at us, not in a mean way, but wanting us to come back. They started running after us, but Aliyah turned to face them with the most serious look I’d ever seen from her. They suddenly stopped, that telltale purple flash telling me that they had hit a wall, just not one they were expecting.

We turned around and walked away, Aliyah leading me by the hand, like a lost little girl, which I guess I was. I wasn’t sure if she maintained the wall or not, or if so, for how long after we left. I could tell not far from there that she was exhausted. That little trick took a lot out of her. There was also a small trickle of blood coming from her nose too. I don’t want to think of how bad off I’d have been if I’d have attempted something like that.

“I don’t know how you do this all the time. The pain is killing me,” she said.

“Guess I’m getting used to it,” I replied.

We walked a bit further, not saying anything else, which was fine with me. I was still wrestling with the thought of having fried that man’s mind.

Just like the skinny man said, we came to the shelter a short distance from the warehouse. The shelter wasn’t much more than a warehouse itself. We walked in without anyone really noticing us. An old man mumbled something, then said, “There’s empty beds down the side,” and pointed toward a wall.

Aliyah led me by the hand, as I was still having trouble focusing on anything and she seemed to know it. Just as we put our packs on a cot, a woman walked up, looked us up and down then motioned for us to sit, which we did. I had no problem sitting down right then.

“What are two pretty girls like you doing here?” she asked.

“We need a place to sleep tonight,” Aliyah replied.

“I get that, but how is it that you’re here at all? You look a little too nicely dressed for this place, in spite of the blood on your coat,” she said.

“We were told we could come here and wouldn’t be turned away,” Aliyah said, lying a little and not saying the other thing the skinny man said.

“That’s true, but I’m concerned about two young and pretty girls coming here in the middle of the night, wearing very nice looking coats and snowpants, and with a lot of dried blood on both. By the way, there hasn’t been enough snow here for that kind of clothing in longer than I’ve lived here. So, what’s your story?” she asked. My memory couldn’t dredge up when I’d gotten our snow gear, much less put it on, and I hadn’t even realized I was wearing it.

“I’m sorry we came,” Aliyah replied, and started to get up. The woman gently, but forcefully pushed her back down.

I almost lashed out at the woman, but I couldn’t seem to grab my power right then. The room almost seemed to be spinning. “I…need…a toilet,” I managed to get out.

The woman very rapidly pulled a pot over and held it under my chin. As soon as it was there, I threw up very noisily into the pot. When I was done, she started wiping my mouth with a warm, damp cloth. Aside from throwing up, I was shaking like a leaf and sweating very badly.

“What’s your name?” she asked me, with a very kind voice.

“M...Faith,” I replied, deciding at the last moment to give my middle name, rather than my first name. I thought it might keep Aliyah and me a little safer.

She looked at me for a moment and said, “Faith. That’s a very nice name. Do you truly know what it means?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied, still not feeling too good, but the room wasn’t spinning as bad as it had been.

“Do you have faith?”

“Yes, ma’am,” I replied.

“Well, even the best can find themselves in bad situations and do things they shouldn’t,” she said, seeming to be looking me over a bit more. “What drugs have you been taking?” she asked, and suddenly I knew why she was asking about my faith and that last comment about doing bad things. She thought I was a druggy.

“I didn’t take drugs. They were given to me by the doctors.” There was a quick flash of surprise that quickly disappeared behind a mask of suspicion. She probably dealt with a lot of people on drugs and heard all kinds of lies.

“What drugs…did they give you?” This time, I couldn’t really read her expression.

“They gave me something called SHD. It’s supposed to make me reach my potential a lot faster. I think it also makes me tell them what they want to know.”

“I’ve never heard of that one,” she remarked.

“The nice woman who helped us after we escaped told me that I had heroin, cocaine and amobarbital in me. She said there were other things too, but she didn’t know what.”

“Good Lord!” the woman exclaimed.

“I need it again.” I sounded pathetic, even to myself. Not only that, with my admission, I started crying again.

“I know you feel that way, but I promise it does get better, once you get past the withdrawal.”

“It keeps getting worse, not better.”

“How long since your last hit?” I was confused, not knowing what a hit was, then understanding came.

“I’m not real sure, but it took us three days to get from the school to the Gardner’s, and we were there for almost a day. We were then in the back of a truck for a while, but I don’t know how long.”

“So it could be as little as four or five days,” she said, obviously thinking.

“The heroin withdrawal would be almost complete by now, the cocaine should be coming to an end, but the amobarbital could last as long as a month.”

“Is that stuff why I’m having trouble remembering things?”

“I’ve never heard of memory issues with any of those, but I suppose it’s possible. I’m definitely not a doctor,” she replied.

“How long have you been using that stuff,” she asked, focusing on me again. “And did you also take it,” she asked Aliyah, turning to face her.

“They had her for about a week, and I’ve never taken it,” Aliyah replied. “They were giving her shots of something else the whole time she was there, but I don’t know what that was,” she added.

“Do you know what that other stuff was,” she asked me.

“No, ma’am, but it made me feel really weird and I got really angry really easy when they were giving it to me,” I told her.

“Do you know why they gave you the different drugs they gave you,” she asked, after a bit of a pause.

“The early stuff, no. The SHD they said would bring me to my full potential a lot faster. I think it made me give them information I didn’t want to also, but I’m not sure. I was really out of it during that time,” I replied, memories of it coming up and scaring me all over again.

I felt a hand rubbing my back, and opened my eyes, not even realizing I had closed them. I was curled over, hugging my knees and rocking back and forth. Tears were flowing down my cheeks.

“Who did this to you?”

“The government doctors,” Aliyah said, seeming to know I couldn’t answer. My emotions were too messed up right then for me to say anything.

“Would you be willing to have a few tests done, to see just what’s in your system?” Unable to talk, I nodded that I’d do it. “Alright, I know a doctor that works with us a lot. He likes to help people that want to recover from drug addiction. I think you could use his help.”

Anger welled up in me, with a fierceness that surprised me, and scared me. “I don’t want to recover! I want the stuff again. I don’t care what it’ll do to me.” I said, my voice still raised, but not screaming anymore.

I imagined everyone around was looking at me now, but I didn’t care. I needed that stuff, and I was becoming desperate, but I also knew I couldn’t go back to the school to get it. Mrs. Wilde pretty much told me that when I talked to her. She could have had me back, if she hadn’t said that, but she lost her best opportunity to recapture me.

“I’ll do your tests, so he can find out what they did to me, but I won’t try and ‘recover’ from this. I don’t want to recover, I want to find a way to feel good again,” I told her, looking into her eyes, my voice calm and quiet.

“Sweetheart, I promise that it’ll get better,” she said, stoking my anger even more.

“No, it won’t. My life sucks and all I care about anymore is getting her to safety and feeling good again,” I replied, barely managing to keep my voice under control.

As those words left my mouth, a massively intense pain erupted in my head. I thought I screamed, but it was all blotted out by the pain. Blackness took me and I gave in to it. I’d been here many times, even though the pain had never been this bad before, something I thought almost every time.

When I woke up, Aliyah was asleep beside me and the woman that was talking to me was sitting in a chair beside the bed. She looked a little sick to me for some reason.

“What happened?” she asked, sounding a little woozy. Could that have actually affected her? If so, I had to get out of here, and fast. I suddenly realized that it was eerily silent. The TV was off and the radio in the far corner was silent. Several digital clocks were off as well. What just happened?

I heard from the back of the shelter, “The microwave’s fried. It’s not working anymore.” This was weird.

“Aliyah,” I said, shaking her, feeling a little desperate.

“Sweetheart, she’s just asleep. Let her rest,” the woman said, but she didn’t seem to be completely functional herself.

Aliyah opened her eyes and sat up, blood pouring out of her nose when she did. I grabbed the rag the woman used to wipe me and cleaned the blood from Aliyah, also checking her ears. Of course, there was blood there as well, which I cleaned up.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” I told her, in a near whisper.

“Why?” she asked, also groggy looking.

“We’ve just got to go,” I replied, desperation creeping into my voice.

“Okay,” she said, getting more alert rather quickly at my tone.

The woman made a half hearted attempt to stop us, but she wasn’t in any condition to truly do anything. Of course, we weren’t much better.

We made our way out and onto the streets of whatever city we were in, realizing we couldn’t go into any shelters. I should have expected them to ask questions, regardless what the skinny guy thought. We were two young girls, clearly on the run. They had to ask questions, and just as likely, had to turn us in. I should have thought of that, but I wasn’t thinking clearly. I was now, but I had no idea how long it was going to last.

Dragging Aliyah by the hand, I led her away from the shelter, hoping it would be a while before the woman got her senses and called the police. I had no idea where to go though.

After a while of walking, we came to a motel that didn’t have many cars in the parking lot. We sat on a metal rail not far away and watched it for a little while, then slowly we walked toward the far end of the building. Thankfully, it was one of those motels with the doors on the outside, so walking through wasn’t that suspicious.

We went to the room on the end and I scanned inside to see if anyone was in there. It was empty, thankfully. I then sent a small probe into the lock, hoping to pick it like I did the lock in the old lab and the storage room doors at the school. Nothing happened. It was an electronic lock and I couldn’t figure it out.

“Let me try. Show me what you do,” Aliyah said, seeing my failure. I quickly sent the images to her of what I’d done in the past and she slipped her mind into the lock. In only a couple of seconds, I saw the light over the door handle turn green and she opened the door. I was stunned at her success.

“How’d you do that?”

“It was easy. You were just looking at it wrong,” she told me and sent images of what she did. Unfortunately, they made no sense to me.

Letting it go, we went into the room and set our packs on one of the two beds. We both stripped out of our school uniforms, which we’d been wearing way too long. I wished I could just leave them there, but they’d be like a large very bright sign to the people looking for us.

Aliyah looked very weak and exhausted, so I helped her change and get into bed. With Aliyah in bed, asleep before I was gone more than a few steps, I took her coat to the bathroom, where I tried to clean the blood off of it.

Using the little bar of soap left by the hotel, I managed to get most of it out, but there was still a small stain. Oh well, there was nothing I could do.

As I looked in the mirror, I saw quite a bit of dried blood on my face and in my hair. I looked horrible, aside from the haunted look in my face. I thought I was looking thinner, almost skeletal too. There was nothing I could do about that either.

I cleaned the blood off my face, my ears and neck and out of my hair. Once done, an incredible desire for the orange stuff came over me and I started shaking badly.

Not really knowing what I was doing, or where I was going, I left the room and walked toward the houses nearby. It wasn’t long before I saw a very nice car parked, with a couple people standing outside talking. They swapped something and then one of them left.

I’d heard a little about drug deals, but I really didn’t have any understanding of them. I was pretty sure that this looked like one, though.

My desperation overcame my caution and I walked up to the man, who was about to get in the car. Seeing me coming, he stopped and stared at me, obviously curious why a kid was walking over to him, that late at night.

“Are you a drug dealer?” The man laughed and opened his car door, not bothering to answer my question. “I need cocaine, heroin and amobarbital” I told him as he was starting the car.

“Kid, even if I did sell, and I’m not saying I do, I wouldn’t sell to you.”

“Please,” I begged. He stared at me for quite a while.

“Get in,” he finally said.

Going to the other side of the car, I got in and closed the door. He fumbled with a couple of switches on his car, then drove off. “I don’t believe in selling to kids, but you look desperate. But I won’t sell to a kid so anyone can see,” he told me, as he was driving.

The man pulled out his cell phone, after a moment, saying, “Hey, I have a young girl with me wanting some stuff. Let’s make sure we’ve got what she needs,” he said, and ended the call.

After driving for a while, he pulled into a garage and got out as he turned the car off. I was scared of being alone with him, but my need for the drugs overrode my fear. Entering the main house from the garage, I was surprised to see a well-dressed woman inside.

“Jonathan, who have you here?” the woman asked, and walked over to me. I didn’t even pay attention to any details of the woman, my interest only in getting the drugs I needed.

“She asked me to sell her some stuff,” he said, making the woman raise an eyebrow at him.

“How interesting,” the woman replied, after her initial reaction.

“I told her I don’t sell to kids, which is true, but she looked so desperate, I decided to bring her here.”

The woman put an arm around me and led me to a leather sofa and sat me down. “What’s your name?”

“Faith,” I replied, barely remembering to use my middle name, rather than my first.

“That’s a pretty name.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” I respectfully replied, but was getting anxious for the drugs.

My anxiety had to be obvious to them, as I was sweating very badly and I was certain I was beginning to shake. I couldn’t keep my eyes focused on anything, my vision jumping from one thing to the next so fast I was beginning to get dizzy.

“Jonathan, why don’t you get this young lady what she needs?” the woman suggested, making me think I was finally going to get the object of my desires. The man left through a hallway behind us, his shoes clicking on the tile floor.

“What’s your name?” the woman asked.

“Melanie,” I said without thinking. I realized my mistake as soon as it was made, but it was too late.

“What school do you go to, Melanie? It’s obviously a private school, seeing your uniform,” she said, surprising me. I thought I’d changed out of it.

I was scared to answer her question, knowing I couldn’t tell her the truth, but unable to come up with anything else. Rather than answer, I just sat there with my hands in my lap, kneading together nervously.

“We won’t hurt you, I promise. We only want to help you,” she said, but her words didn’t make me feel better. In fact, I was getting worried. Something wasn’t right here, but with my sluggish mind, I couldn’t put the pieces together.

A few moments later, I heard the man returning thanks to his shoes clicking on the tile floor, but it sounded like there was someone else with him, maybe more than one person. When he finally appeared, there were three people with him, and one was a cop.

Although my mind wasn’t working as well as it should have been, I knew this was bad. Before I could jump up, the woman’s arms were around me, holding me. “We’re going to help you,” she said, in a soothing voice, but it didn’t soothe me at all. In fact, it was making me mad.

“I don’t want help!” I screamed, struggling with her. I was stronger than she expected, thanks to all of the training at Oakmont, but I was still a little kid and she was a fully grown adult. Part of the benefit of being a kid though, was that I was more flexible and agile than she was, so I was able to slip out of her grip. As soon as I was on my feet, I darted across the room toward the garage door, only wanting to escape.

The cop cut me off and I launched a kick to his face as he bent down to catch me, an actual benefit to being short. My foot connected with a bone jarring impact, almost knocking me down. The cop did go down, much to my surprise. As he hit the ground, he started getting his arms under him immediately, but Mr. Braun’s training actually kicked in and I jumped on him with my elbow in his back, his head bouncing as he smacked back onto the tile floor. This was not something that I felt good about, or thought I would ever be able to do. Mr. Braun had trained me well, in the time I was at Oakmont, much better than I ever thought possible. I was just as cruel as they wanted me to be.

As I got back to my feet, the well-dressed man and woman were stunned by what happened, along with the other two adults. However, their shock was short lived and they began coming toward me together, clearly not underestimating me this time. I sent a probe into all of their minds, at the same time. This was again something I’d never done before. At least, I didn’t think I had.

At first, I managed to stop them in their tracks, digging into the man’s mind for where I had been. Finding what I wanted, I sent energy through the probes. My intention was to knock them out, but since I really didn’t know what I was doing, I wasn’t sure if I succeeded, or if I killed them instead. What I was sure of was that they wouldn’t bother me again. In my escape from them, I didn’t even think to grab his drugs.

It took me over two hours to finally make it back to the motel where Aliyah was. He had driven further than I thought and my ankle was hurting really bad from the kick. I also slowed myself down, trying to hide from everyone, scared and paranoid of what they would do to me if anyone got me.

As I reached for the door, the realization came that I couldn’t pick the lock. Aliyah had done that, not me. I was stuck outside. In my desperation and stupidity, I had trapped myself.

Suddenly a thought came to me. In a moment of clarity, I wondered if I could move the bolt to open the door, rather than work on the lock itself. Sending my mind into the door handle, I did just that, amazed that it actually worked.

Finally, I went to bed myself, knowing I felt horrible and I was completely exhausted as well. I didn’t even bother changing into my nightgown, unlike Aliyah. Not long after I laid down, I was asleep and had many more and new nightmares.

“Chief, we have two different police reports about two girls near Seattle. One is at a warehouse where two girls were found in the back of a trailer last night. Not much there, other than a fairly vague description of our girls and one of the men claiming the girl put thoughts in his head. There was also something about an invisible purple wall, but that was almost gibberish. The second is of a homeless shelter not far from there that had two girls show up last night. They match the description of our two girls, and the description is pretty good, sir,” a soldier sitting in front of a computer said over his shoulder.

“Do they have any more information?” Stone asked the man.

“No sir. Apparently, there was some kind of electronic burst that caused many of the people in the shelter to black out and fried a lot of the electronics. The report claims the girls slipped out while everyone was recovering. A woman that volunteers at the shelter described them and mentioned that one of the girls seemed like she was going through withdrawal, but she doesn’t know what drugs the girl was on. Apparently the girl in question told her she was on cocaine, heroin and a barbiturate,” the soldier replied. Based on what he had at this point, Stone knew these were their girls, but he wanted a little more before committing.

“You said the description is good. How good?” Stone asked.

“One girl was approximately 60 inches, with long, straight black hair and odd purple eyes. The other girl was about 54 inches with almost white, blonde hair. She said it actually looked almost pink and the eyes were described as an odd blue. Both girls are petite in build, with the taller being slightly thicker. Both girls were wearing cold weather gear and private school uniforms underneath. The colors match ours. There was a lot of blood on their clothes, as well,” the soldier replied.

“Those are our girls,” Stone stated, no more doubt in his mind. “How did they get to Seattle that fast?”

“They must have snuck into a trailer, sir, based on the report from the warehouse,” the soldier suggested.

“What’s around this homeless shelter? Where is it?”

“It’s on the edge of a warehouse district in Kent. The shelter is in a low income residential area that abuts the warehouses. No one knows where they went, or which direction they left in, sir,” the soldier said.

“You did an excellent job, Greene. Thank you,” Stone said, praising the young man, who beamed with pride at the praise.

Stone pulled on his radio as he walked away. “I need a team assembled ASAP. The targets are likely near Seattle,” he said. Once done with that command, he pulled out his phone and dialed the head doctor’s number.

“We have a solid lead on the girls,” he said, referring to them as people, unlike the doctor and his staff. That had always bothered him. The scientists didn’t even see them as people, or if they did, they didn’t care. He wasn’t sure which was worse.

“Yes, sir. We’re headed there as soon as I can get the team in the air,” he replied to the phone.

“I will sir. Out,” he said, and hung up.

“We found them, at least the vicinity they’re in,” he said, when Rebecca answered her door a minute later.

“Where are they?” she asked, excitement clear in her voice.

“They’re near Seattle. At least as of last night they were. Have you made a decision yet?”

“I’m going to follow your advice. Even if I never get to work with her, it’s time for me to move on, I think.”

“This might be your chance to get out then. Bring what you need for easy travel to the helipad as quickly as possible. The rest of your stuff will be shipped to your final destination, once that’s decided.”

Just before she closed the door, he said, “By the way, we lost the boy in Washington. We’re not sure how, but another agency wrested custody from us, and I lost a lot of good men in the operation.”

“Men were killed trying to get a boy?” That was new, and very much of concern.

“Yeah. The details are sketchy, but I was told he is amazingly good with a bow,” he said, then, “There’s one other item of interest about him. His father was administered the serum at the same time as Brager and Draper.”

Rebecca looked at him, her mouth slightly open. The prospect of there being another of these kids was mind blowing.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean he’s like them,” he said.

“But the coincidence is rather glaring,” she said, and he nodded. “How many people were administered the serum then?”

“Only the three, and we looked months on each side of that day. These three are it.”

“Thank God for that,” she said, and he nodded again. “I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

She then closed the door to pack and he headed to the helipad. Thirty minutes later, the helicopter was taking off toward the airfield, where the jet was already waiting.

Once they were in the air, Stone waved his lieutenant over. John Wu was of Asian descent, although Stone wasn’t sure what part of Asia, and he was a little short, but not grossly so. He had a very sharp mind, even if he sometimes had trouble thinking outside the box.

“Yes, sir,” the slightly younger man said as he approached.

“Please sit,” Stone said. “I brought you over to get your thoughts on how best to find the girls.”

“Sir, we should start looking in the immediate vicinity of the shelter the report came from,” he said.

“I initially thought that as well, and still think we should, just to cover our bases, but I strongly believe they’ll have tried to put distance between themselves and the shelter by now,” Stone replied.

“They’re two desperate girls, in a strange city, sir. Odds are they would try and find the closest shelter they could, especially if they’re recovering from one of those psychic bursts,” John remarked.

“With any other children, I would agree, but Melanie has been trained to think on her feet and to think strategically in situations where she’s been kidnapped. She views herself as having been kidnapped and she’s doing what she was trained to do. As for recovery time, she recovers amazingly fast, sometimes within minutes. No, I think she’s moved out of the immediate area, but I do agree we need to search that area, just in case,” Stone said.

John only nodded, keeping any further thoughts to himself. “Melanie would try and find some place that’s relatively safe, with some token of security,” Stone thought out loud.

“That would possibly rule out abandoned buildings and houses, then,” John said.

“Most likely,” Stone agreed.

“Are there any places the girls might be able to hold up overnight, without too great a risk or concern of discovery, within a reasonable walk?” Rebecca asked.

“That depends on what you call reasonable,” Stone replied.

“From the report you told me, there was some sort of episode where many people were rendered unconscious. That sounds a lot like a psychic burst, although there has never been a case of one affecting non-telepaths before. However, she’s already exhibited skills and abilities that don’t fit the norm, not to mention the attack on your men in Whitefish,” Rebecca said.

“Where’re you going with this?” Stone asked.

“Think about it. If she had a psychic burst, even with her typical recovery time, there’s a good chance she wouldn’t have been in any condition to travel very far. Even if she did recover rapidly, I suspect Aliyah wouldn’t have been in very good shape in addition to her apparent blood loss, which would limit them,” she told him.

“I hadn’t thought of that. Glad you came along, and sorry for discounting your logic, John,” Stone said. John Wu nodded, but remained silent.

“You don’t deal with these kids every day. I do, and even though she’s anomalous, there’re still things that even she can’t get around. One is the after effects of a psychic burst, although she definitely recovers faster than any other telepath I’ve ever seen, she’s still suffering for a while after having them,” she said.

“How far would you expect them to be able to walk after one of her psychic bursts?” he asked.

“Although I can’t be certain, especially with her, I would estimate no further than a mile or two,” she replied.

“Let’s go with that assessment and limit our area to a radius of two and a half miles around the shelter. I don’t think she would’ve returned to the warehouses, not after a run in with grown men, so draw a line from the warehouse to the shelter and continue out from there. Find any buildings that might provide refuge to our girls, in a narrow arc around that line,” Stone commanded.

“Yes, sir,” John replied and headed to the back of the plane.

A few minutes later, John returned with a piece of paper and a map. He placed the map on the table in front of Stone and unfolded it. There were three red pointers stuck to the map, each labelled with a number.

“Sir, although there are many houses, and likely a number of abandoned houses in the area, I limited the search to what you instructed. These three buildings have the highest chance, I think, of being a good refuge for the girls. The least likely is this motel, although it’s the closest. It’s an old, somewhat run down place, but still perfectly functional and open for business. Standard electronic locks, like all hotels have these days. The next in the line is a small shelter, similar to the one they went to earlier,” he said, but was interrupted by Stone.

“I think you can rule out the shelter, after their experience with the last one. Melanie learns from her mistakes and she doesn’t want to answer questions, which I would bet led to her psychic burst,” Stone stated.

Nodding, John continued. “The last is an old mall. It’s still operating, but there aren’t many stores in it. It would provide plenty of hiding spots for them and a safe warm place to sleep,” John suggested.

“However, there would likely be at least one night security guard. If so, she would not stay there long, for fear of being found,” Stone said, his hand cupping his chin, and his index finger tapping his cheek.

“Sir, we have a new report that’s most likely one of the girls,” one of Stone’s men said, running up to them.

“What is it?” Stone asked.

“A young girl, they described as around eight or nine years old, possibly a little younger, approximately 54 inches with pale blond hair with red highlights and blue eyes, approached an undercover cop asking to buy several drugs. The drugs were listed as heroin, cocaine and amobarbital. He attempted to turn her over to Child Protective Services, but apparently she beat the crap out of the cop that was on the seen. She then did something to disable the undercover cop , the two social service workers and his wife, although the details of that are unknown. They said the girl’s name is Melanie,” the soldier said.

“Where did the undercover cop find her?” Stone asked, his attention riveted to the soldier now.

“Two blocks from the motel, and at a tangent to the line from the shelter,” the soldier replied.

“The motel then, sir?” John asked.

“Yes, I think so. It’s definitely our best choice right now, especially with this new report. Get word out to local authorities of these missing children. Don’t issue an amber alert, but let the police know we’re looking for them and to be careful, that the girls are very…nervous, even of police. Tell them that the girls were assaulted by someone in law enforcement. Try and word it in such a way that they only observe and report. I still believe we should have them look over all three locations, but the motel is clearly our focus,” Stone instructed.

“Yes, sir,” John said, his eyes lighting up with the forethought in the plan and how accurate it seemed to already be.