LifeWild

As night falls, Arthur notices the breeze has not yet died down. The wind is not especially strong, but it will make pinpointing exact directions and distances by smell harder for him than on a calm night. It is not the darkest of nights, there is some moonlight highlighted by quite a few stars. He is happy about that, since he will have to rely more on his sight than he usually would.

He thinks about Haley. He is so happy to have her in his arms, a large part of him wishes he could stay in this position longer.

It is time to get going, he has been stalling for several minutes now. He senses everything is about to change and he doesn’t want it to. They decided this is the best time to go in since the only person there will be James, but there could be others. Occasionally, the other technicians would come in at night for various reasons. Plus, since he has escaped, the technicians might have changed many things he would not know about. He also worries about what will happen with Haley after they free the others. Will she see all of them and look at them as monsters or freaks? Will he not seem special to her anymore? Will she realize she can never have a normal life with him and want to leave? Is it possible for him to be in love with her? He is not sure, it is not something he was ever taught about or raised to feel, but it seems like love. Her familiar scent is definitely an unanswered question, but above all, he knows he wants to be with her always and the idea she might not causes his chest to ache. He is less afraid of getting forced back into the Compound than he is of losing her. He is dumbfounded at this idea. Love is supposed to be such a miraculous gift it baffles him to realize it comes with so much fear and uncertainty.

“Are you okay, Arthur?” Haley’s words are spoken with the light whisper of a person barely awake. “You’re trembling. Are you cold?”

He becomes aware of his own body and he is indeed shaking. He was so immersed in his own thoughts and fears he did not even notice her waking up. He is not sure what to say. He can’t tell her he believes he is in love with her and he is trembling at the possibility of losing her. She might not feel the same way. He is envious of the rest of the world; love could not possibly be this difficult for regular people. He wishes he was normal so he would know what to do.

“I must be getting anxious.” He decides to leave that conversation for a time when he has more answers.

“Is it time?” She starts to get up. “I’m ready if you are.”

“Alright then, I’ll lead. Stay close behind and be ready for anything. I will protect you at all costs, but if something should happen to me...”

“Arthur, you are going to be fine, I know it.” She wraps her arms around his chest, and looks up at his face. “After all, how could I continue my new breaking and entering career without you by my side?” She gives him a wink and a sly smile.

If there was any doubt in his mind before, it is gone now. He feels his heart racing as a chill runs through his body. He is now one-hundred percent sure he is in love with her.

He smiles back at her, a wider smile than he has ever smiled before.

“We’d better get started then.” He begins walking toward the Compound. “It can’t be a career unless you’ve done it at least once!”

She lets out a laugh and walks quickly to catch up to Arthur.

He sees the clearing up ahead and signals her to stop. He has been trying to use his nose to gather information, but the breeze is still making it difficult. The usual smells of the Compound fill his nostrils, but he is not able to get any specifics. He signals Haley to follow as he begins walking again, moving slowly and deliberately and making very little noise. Haley tries her best to follow his footsteps, but the length of his stride forces her to step out of them occasionally.

They reach the fence and he looks for the gate. He figures it will be the easiest place to force an entry. Upon reaching the gate, he discovers it unlocked and not even latched properly. The gate is never open unless one of the technicians is coming or going. He finds this very strange. He opens the gate carefully and they enter.

They stick to the shadows as much as possible as they cut across the courtyard. They are about halfway to the main doors when Arthur hears a sound coming from the forest. He signals Haley to be still and aligns himself between where she is standing and the origin of the sound. He cannot smell what it is. They both remain silent and still for a long minute. He does not hear anything else from that direction, so he begins walking again.

They reach the main door a few moments later. Arthur grabs the door handle and readies himself to slam his shoulder against the body of the door. He is extremely surprised when the handle turns and the door swings open. Between the gate and now the door, he is sure this has to be a trap. The technicians must have expected him to return eventually and are waiting to recapture him. Some of them must be waiting in the trees. That has to be the noise he heard. He decides he will have a better chance at taking them one on one in the main hallways than he will out in the forest, so he signals them to go inside. He latches the door from the inside, hoping the sound of the technicians unlocking it will give them advanced warning they are coming.

The main building is fairly dark. The only light is coming from the moon and stars through the windows up near the ceiling. Arthur looks around and is surprised once again. The room is virtually empty. The large main room used to have a large table and chairs, lab equipment all over counters in the back of the room, several computer stations and lots of little things like files and papers of all kinds. Also, there was always a van parked by one of the garage doors. It is all gone now. He is hard pressed to find any logic behind this discovery. If it is a trap, perhaps this is where the ambush is supposed to take place and the technicians did not want him to be able to wreak havoc with the equipment. If not, he does not know how to explain what he sees. It’s not like they could just pack up and leave. He doesn’t think so, anyway.

He and Haley carefully make their way towards the door to the stairwell that leads downstairs. Arthur is constantly checking for sounds or smells that might indicate a trap.

They reach the stairwell door and discover it is already ajar. Arthur is starting to doubt this is any kind of trap. He has been able to smell all of the familiar smells inside the building, but they are faint and not fresh. He cannot figure out why, but he gets the feeling they are not going to find anyone here. He does not want it to be true, though, because he is not sure what they would do next.

As he leads Haley down the stairwell, their surroundings become darker and darker. At the bottom of the stairs, it is nearly pitch black. Arthur feels the walls until he finds the light switch he was looking for. He flips the switch and they hear the ting and humming sound of the fluorescent lights as they flicker and come to life. They are at the end of at least one hundred feet of white hallway accented only by metal doors every twenty feet or so. Arthur quickly runs up the stairs and shuts the stairwell door and locks it before coming back down to the hallway.

“I am pretty sure that this place is empty, Haley.” He sounds confused. “We can look around, but I haven’t smelled anything or heard a sound since we have been here.”

“We should probably make sure,” her voice also confused. “Plus, maybe we will find something to give us some information about what happened.”

They begin to search the rooms one by one and find each one in identical condition -- empty. Each room is completely stripped of all furniture and anything else identifiable. Even plumbing fixtures have been removed and the pipes sealed off at floor level. He tells her what each room is, or was, but it seems a little silly when each room looks like the last. The only room looking slightly different is his training room and only because it has a rather large hole in one wall and black soot stains running above the hole and onto the ceiling.

“We might as well get out of here, there is no one here and nothing useful to find.” His voice clearly showing his disappointment.

“I’m sorry Arthur.” She wants to be able to make things better somehow, but, in truth, she has no idea what they are going to do now. Still, she wants to try to cheer him up. “At least I was able to get an idea of the conditions you grew up in. Now we are equal, I showed you my room, and now you’ve shown me yours.”

He smiles at her attempt to soothe him.

“It didn’t change much either.” He adds as a joke. “Picture that room with a small bed, a lovely public toilet and a few other minor items and you’ve got it.”

“It sounds just like a room I read about in Dungeon Masters Quarterly.” She jokes. “It was said to be the newest thing in rooms to hold people against their will.”

He decides to go along with her.

“My room was a runner up to that room. Thanks for bringing up such a painful memory.”

She gives him her best smile and grabs his hand.

“Let’s leave this place and find somewhere to figure out what to do next. There is obviously nothing to help us here.”

They walk back down the hallway and up the stairway. When they reach the top, Arthur ambles down to turn off the lights in the hallway and returns a few seconds later. He unlocks the stairwell door and they traverse across the warehouse floor with only the lights of the night to guide them. Upon reaching the main doorway, he unlocks it and they step out into the night.

The night is slightly darker than it was when they entered the building. The breeze has brought in a scattering of clouds obscuring some of the stars. They begin to cross the open area and move toward the gate when Arthur hears another noise out in the trees. It is similar to the sound he heard before, only louder, so he thinks whatever is making the noise is closer now. He begins to think defensively and tries to ascertain what his options are at the moment. He is not sure what is making the noise or what its intentions are, but he knows his first priority is to protect Haley from any possible harm. He decides if it turns out to be any type of threat, he will grab her into his arms and run as fast as he can in the other direction.

They reach the gate and he ushers her through all the while making sure to keep watch for anything unusual. He feels half blind not being able to use his sense of smell right now.

They have only walked a few steps away from the gate when it happens. Arthur sees a blur of motion coming from the direction he was hearing the noises, but it is too dark to make out exactly what it is. It is coming at them incredibly fast! He realizes instantly that he could never outrun it, especially carrying Haley and the packs, so he adopts a new strategy of protecting her. First, he puts himself between the attacker and Haley, throws down the bags and directly faces it.

“Haley! Something’s coming! Stay behind me, and if I look like I am in trouble, run!” He hopes his warning sounds urgent enough that she will take it seriously.

“I won’t leave you, Arthur!” She tries to sound as confident as possible even though she is not sure what is happening.

Her words are not heard. As she is speaking them, Arthur is moving into an aggressive stance and is growling so loudly, it is practically a roar. At the same instant, the fast moving object hits him like a train! Arthur is swept backwards but manages to roll with the attacker in a manner moving both of them away from her. Haley stumbles back and falls onto her backside anyway from the shock of what is happening. The attacker is making some kind of howling shriek like a chaotic frenzy of sounds that she cannot figure out.

“Arthur! Arthur! Arthur! Arthur!” The attacker’s voice is still a shriek, but now clearly screaming Arthur’s name.

Arthur has pinned the shrieking blur down and within the time it takes Haley to inhale, he has stopped growling and is looking not only much more calm, but he is actually smiling.

“Oh, Arthur, I’m so glad to see you I thought you were gone forever or dead or that maybe they had recaptured you or worse I don’t know what is worse than those things but I was worried anyway I never thought I’d see you again I’ve been so lonely everyone’s gone I’m scared It’s so good to see you Arthur!” The shriek has turned into words spoken almost too rapidly to be understood.

Haley figures out from Arthur’s description who is speaking.

“Jasele?” Haley asks, but is sure of the answer. She has had a chance to look at her more closely for a few moments and she is just as Arthur described.

Arthur lifts his hands off of the woman’s shoulders. She slides out, stands up and faces Haley in one rapid, fluid motion. She is quickly within six inches of Haley and stands there studying her.

Haley is amazed by what she sees. She thought this would be semi-normal after all of the time she has been around Arthur, but it seems brand new again. She is more beautiful than she imagined from Arthur’s description. She is taller than Haley by at least six inches and she is thin, but very muscular, especially in her thighs and torso area. Her hair is a brownish-orange that blends into the color of her skin, which has kind of a copper colored tone to it, mixing well with her freckles, which are a slightly darker brown. Haley thinks it is interesting that her freckles are not on her neck or chest, or on the undersides of her arms. It looks to her like she has no freckles on her whole chest or stomach, but her tank top covers the area so she cannot be sure. She is breathing rather heavily and her face is very flushed, but she seems to be calming down more and more each second. Haley is especially taken with her face. She has a smallish face with a petite straight nose and cute little lips. She has piercing dark brown eyes set in darkened eye sockets. Haley thinks they do not look so bad, she just looks overly tired.

Haley wonders if the girl in front of her has been analyzing her this entire time as well. She is still standing uncommonly close, so close that her heavy breathing has warmed the area around Haley’s face almost to the point of discomfort. She clearly doesn’t see Haley as a threat.

“Yes, I’m Jasele. How do you know who I am? Who are you? Are you with Arthur? You smell familiar. Are you from another Compound?” Her words are still coming quickly, but at a much more normal pace than before.

Before Haley has a chance to answer any of her questions, Arthur steps up to them to explain.

“It’s so good to see you again, Jasele,” he begins. “This is Haley. We found each other a few days ago and she is helping me find all of you. I guess I should say was helping, though. We thought you would all be here and we were going to help you escape, but the place looks abandoned.”

“They’ve been leaving over the last couple of days,” she explains, her voice and breathing back to normal. “I think they are done now, I haven’t seen anyone since around noon yesterday, until you arrived!”

This doesn’t make sense to Arthur at all.

“What happened here, Jasele? Why did everyone leave?”

“It started when you began destroying everything Arthur. I was in my training room, running the treadmill and there was a large crashing sound so loud it shook the walls. The technicians in my room looked startled and confused and ran out the door. I followed them. As I reached the doorway, there was more crashing and I heard you screaming my name, along with Penelope’s and Laila’s. I turned to look down the hallway and I saw you at the end of the hall surrounded by the technicians. They were all carrying their shock sticks and they started to hit you with them. At this point, Arthur, I would swear you had lost all control. You began thrashing around wildly. It seemed like you weren’t even aware of what was going on any more. The technicians in your way were knocked aside like they were made of paper. As soon as you were by all of them, you took off up the stairs and that was the last I saw of you.

“The rest of the compound started to go into shutdown mode. I was forced back into my training room and the technicians proceeded to lock up all the doors. Almost simultaneously, alarms started wailing everywhere. The fire evacuation systems were activated. All of our doors were unlocked and we were to head upstairs into the Compound yard and wait further instructions. As I headed down the hallway towards the stairs I saw the smoke coming from your training room. There had been a small electrical fire in the wall, but the technicians had already smothered it with fire retardant. It didn’t make any sense why we were being evacuated. When everyone was accounted for in the main yard, the technicians began arguing with each other. At first, they seemed to be pointing fingers everywhere, but within a matter of moments, they had turned on James.”

“What?” Arthur was visibly disturbed by that bit of news. “What happened to James?”

“Wait a second. I thought James was only there at night. Why was he there?” Haley asks.

Jasele gives Haley an impatient look and explains.

“Our training sessions are first thing in the morning. Since there is usually a lot of equipment setup and transferring, James stays until mid-morning to help with the transitions.”

“So what happened?” Arthur asks again with more urgency.

“While they were questioning him, James kept looking directly at us and then off to our left a little. We didn’t notice at first, but he continued to do so until we knew he was trying to give us a message. Penelope figured it out first. She followed his gaze and saw he was looking at us and then at the gate which you had broken open, Arthur. Penelope pulled us in close and told us she believed James was telling us this was our opportunity to escape. We all looked at each other and agreed. We looked back at James and started to sneak toward the gate. James began arguing loudly with the technicians and making grand gestures with his arms. They did not even notice us anymore. The four of us started running for the gate. A few of the twelve year olds noticed us and started for the gate also. Seven of us were out of the gate before the technicians noticed what was going on. They started running for the gate and we scattered. I ran as fast as I could, faster and longer than I ever had in my life. I ran until my chest felt like it was about to explode. When I could not run any longer, I hid behind some rocks and waited to catch my breath. I had never pushed my body that hard before. I felt like my body was a furnace and that my chest was on fire. I had wondered if I had pushed my body too far. I did finally manage to cool off and catch my breath after about twenty minutes. After I was able to rest, I began to panic. I had no idea where I was and I especially had no idea of what to do next. I didn’t even know where everyone else had run. I felt alone. Plus, the technicians were probably coming after all of us and I had no idea what they would do to us after trying to escape. I knew I didn’t want to find out.

“My next step was to remove the chip, I knew that. The technicians had used it to find me in the Compound more than once. Removing it was easier said than done, I found out. When I used my nail to cut into my skin, I almost stopped right there. It hurt more than I had expected. I was too scared to risk going back, though, so I kept going. The pain tripled when I had to dig into the muscle, but I managed to get it out and smash it with a rock. Even now, my arm still hurts.”

Arthur looked at her arm and observed that it was infected. She had obviously not been able to take care of it properly. He will have to clean it out later.

“I thought there was something we were supposed to do if we ever managed to escape,” Jasele continues, “but I could not remember what it was or if it was just my imagination. The only thing I could think to do was head back to the Compound and then I’d try to figure something out when I arrived.

“It turns out I had run pretty far, over three miles. It was afternoon when I made it back. I decided to hide out in the forest and watch the compound for a while and see if I could come up with any ideas. By evening, the technicians had managed to bring back all three of the younger ones who had escaped and Timothy and Laila. They were not being gentle either. I am pretty sure that one of Laila’s legs was broken by the way she was limping and Timothy and the others had quite a few bruises on their bodies. Penelope was the only one that I hadn’t seen. I was hopeful, then, because I figured she would know what to do.”

Jasele voice falters with the last sentence. She pauses for a few moments. Her face pales and it appears she might be about to cry. She looks down toward the ground and takes a few deep breaths, the sound wavering at first, but becoming steadier with each inhalation.

“A few hours later, I had almost given up watching and was going to find a place to hide for the night when I heard Penelope. She was crying out and howling like I had never heard before. Her face was bleeding and so were her arms and hands. A couple of the technicians were nursing injuries as well. I was so glad to see she had held her own against them. They were the ones who had hurt her quite a few times before, Arthur.”

She looks directly at Arthur. Her face is one of sadness and pain. What she is about to say causes her to feel guilt and helplessness. She knows it will cause him pain, but she feels he should know.

“I think I am the only one she has ever told this to, but two of the technicians would go into her room right before they left for the evening. She told me they had done this seven times in the last year. They would strap her down and threaten to hit her with the shock sticks if she tried to fight or make any noise. They would do such bad things to her, Arthur. She only told me a few weeks ago. I asked her why she hadn’t told anyone sooner and she said she didn’t want to risk the rest of us getting hurt. I asked her what she meant and she told me she had made a bargain with the two technicians. She told them if they left the rest of us alone, she wouldn’t ever resist!”

Jasele’s eyes fill with tears. She moves toward a nearby rock and sits down, crossing her arms upon her legs and burying her head in them. She begins to sob softly.

Arthur rage is strong enough to smash his fist through a stone. As Jasele had been speaking, he had gone from feeling appalled to being nauseated to outright fury. He is remaining in control, mainly because there is no logical outlet for his anger at the moment, but if those technicians were anywhere near him right now, he does not know if he would be able to keep himself from ripping them apart. Each second he is finding himself more and more angry. He had felt all of them had already been through the worst the technicians could possibly put them through, but finding out what Penelope has had to endure puts him into a whole new category of furious. He decides when he finds them, and he will, nothing short of a miracle is going to save them from his retribution!

Haley puts her hand into Arthur’s and reaches her other hand up to his cheek. She is sickened by what Jasele has said and agrees fully with the rage Arthur is showing, but she knows no good can come from anger right now. They need to figure out a plan.

He feels her hand on his face and he looks into her eyes. He knows she is concerned for him and wants him to remain calm. He thinks about how patient she is with him and how each time she looks at him it sends a warm tingling sensation through his body. He wraps his free hand around her shoulders and pulls her close. He holds her tightly letting her warmth and scent drain the anger from his body. He would do anything for her.

They hold each other for several minutes, both of them using the other as a source of comfort and strength. It is a moment neither of them wants to end. It does however, when they become aware Jasele is standing right beside them with a look of confusion and curiosity.

Arthur is not sure how to explain. He is not even sure there is something to explain. He wants to say he believes he loves her, but he has no idea if Haley feels the same. Plus, is that something you announce? ‘Hey Jasele, this is Haley, I’m in love with her.’ He doesn’t think so. He needs to say something; Jasele’s eyes keep darting back and forth between them like she is demanding an explanation. Anything else would be easier than what he is trying to do right now.

Haley’s voice breaks the silence.

“Arthur has moments when he loses control due to certain emotional situations. It’s happened a few times since I’ve known him and it sounds like it happened the day he broke out of the compound. I’ve discovered my voice and touch are able to calm him down in those situations.” She smiles up at Arthur and winks. “Of course, I’ve kind of got a thing for him, so if you are the same way, Jasele, I’ll do what I can, but it won’t be as intimate.”

Her words cause both Jasele and Arthur to stare at her in astonishment. Jasele is finding it hard to disregard her entire upbringing with regards to regular people and how they are to be treated and how regular people will treat them. She finds Haley’s words more intriguing than upsetting.

Arthur, on the other hand, is shocked at her words. To him it sounds like she almost said what he wanted to hear from her. He wishes it had been more definite, but it is close enough to cause his heart to beat faster and send chills running through his body non-stop.

Haley decides the moment must still be a little awkward, especially for Jasele. She takes a step back from Arthur and turns to face her. She does not let go of his hand.

“Do you know why they left or where they were going, Jasele?”

She glances at the other two and down at their hands for a moment, still looking very curious, before answering.

“The technicians went out a few more times the next day to look for the two of us. After they gave up, the place was fairly quiet, at least until they started moving out. James left the day of the incident and hasn’t been back. I don’t know what happened to him or what we are supposed to do now. They could have taken them anywhere in the world.”

Arthur looks defeated. He was counting on everyone still being here. He hates to admit it, but Jasele is right, they are at a dead end.

Haley thinks back about something Jasele had said earlier.

“Didn’t you say you thought you were supposed to do something if you escaped, Jasele?”

“I thought James had told us something like that, but I can’t remember.”

“He did, Jasele!” Arthur seems enthusiastic. “I had forgotten. James told us a while back, if we ever managed to escape, he would help us! What was it he said?” He pauses to think. “Now I remember! He buried a small box beside one of the fence posts. It is supposed to have directions for us to find help.”

“That’s right!” Jasele is suddenly fidgeting in excitement. “We are supposed to look for the post with a metal band around the base. I’ll find it!”

She starts running before Arthur or Haley can react. Haley knows she is fast, but is amazed nonetheless. Jasele is sprinting to each post, slowing just enough to examine each one, before moving to the next. She stops at a post near the back of the Compound. They can barely see her in the dim light of the night sky, but it appears to them she is digging rapidly with her hands. She continues for about a minute before pausing to pull something out of the dirt. She brushes it off and runs back to the others.

Jasele hands the box to Arthur. He examines it, trying to figure out how it opens. It is quite small, about the size of a tissue box, and appears to be made of brass. There are no markings on the box, except for a seam running along one entire side. Arthur first tries lifting at the seam, but nothing happens. He looks the box over again, finding nothing new. He assumes it must be opened at the seam, so he tries sliding the side of the box. It slides open revealing a folded piece of paper, a scalpel, gauze and tape, a tube of antibiotic cream and a key.

Arthur takes out the paper and unfolds it. It is from James. He reads it to Haley and Jasele.

If you are reading this, you have hopefully figured out a way to escape the Compound. They will most likely be trying to find you, so you must follow my instructions as quickly as possible.

Arthur looks up at the other two and informs them the next part talks about removing the chip and how to clean the wound. He is reminded he needs to clean out Jasele’s arm.

He skips over the part about the chip and continues to read.

Once you have taken care of the chip, make your way to the airport in Gunnison, a town about 10 miles down the road from here. You can follow the road, but stay hidden as you travel. The airport is in the southern most part of town. Once you are there, find the terminal and go in around two in the afternoon. It will not be very busy then. Find the storage lockers by the baggage claim. The key in this box is the key to locker 48. Inside the locker you will find supplies and other necessary items, as well as further instructions. Good luck.

Arthur folds the paper and puts it back into the box.

“Well, what do you think?” He looks at each of them eagerly.

“We’ve come this far,” Haley begins, “I say we keep going and see if we can help the others.”

“We’ve got to try to save them.” Jasele answers, in agreement with Haley. “Besides, we’ve got nowhere else to go.”

Arthur looks pleased with their answers.

“It looks like we’re going to Gunnison! I’ll take care of Jasele’s arm, and then we’ll have some food and rest until morning. We’ll start off fresh when we wake up.”