The Hunt: The Oakmont Saga, Book 2

“Subject 32145, wake up, now,” I heard the command.

“What’s wrong?” another voice asked, sounding oddly desperate.

“We have no idea, sir. No telepath has ever emitted that kind of a burst aura. There’s no precedent for it, and frankly, we don’t know what to make of it,” the first voice said.

“Did the meter get the data?” the second voice asked, the one that almost sounded desperate.

“It’s not designed to read that kind of energy, sir,” the first voice replied.

“Why not? The research team is supposed to know how to research these subjects. How is it that a telepath can emit an energy signature that you can’t record?” the second voice demanded.

“Because this telepath didn’t emit telepathic energy,” the first voice said.

“Are you telling me that those abilities that’ve been explained as highly complex projections, might be real?” the second voice said, which I was pretty sure was the Headmaster.

“Sir, I’m a scientist, so I must say no. What I can say definitively is that the energy emitted is different than normal telepathic energy,” he said.

“Well, find out what it is, before we have any trouble,” he said, and I heard a door close a moment later.

“Doctor, can I have a moment with her?” I heard a familiar voice ask. I had no idea how long it had been since the Headmaster left, as everything was a little fuzzy to me right then.

“Melanie, can you hear me?” the man asked, a short while later. I lifted my right hand a little, which was the side the man was on. Slowly opening my eyes made no difference. The daggers stabbed them anyway.

“Good. I thought you could probably hear. Listen, you need to hone your strength. You are by far the most powerful telepath to ever come through here, but you are inexperienced and vulnerable. I wanted you to show me your strength so I could have an idea how to train you, but I do understand why you don’t trust me,” he said and paused. “What really impressed me, was how you managed to mask your strength and still put that much into your assault. However, you need to learn how to make your shield seamless, and at the same time, attack. Your attack was poor and stumbling. In short, you need training. I won’t ask you to show your strength again, but let me work with you. If you don’t learn better control, you won’t escape again,” he said, shocking me. He paused, probably giving me time to let his words sink in.

“Yes, I want to help you escape,” he said, very quietly.

“What you don’t understand is that I absolutely believe in the program, but I also believe that not every subject of the experiment should be a part of it. You are one such subject. Regardless how strong you are and how amazing your abilities, you don’t belong here.”

“By the way, whatever happened with your psychic burst, you’re the first student affected by it to regain consciousness. I only recovered because I was ready for it, and I’m still in a great deal of pain.”

“We will begin private training sessions in the afternoon, as your schedule permits, and assuming you’re willing,” he added, before I heard the door close. I assumed that meant that he had left, but I couldn’t be sure. I also couldn’t be sure he was truly trying to help me. This may have just been another attempt to figure me out.

Once he left, I thought about his offer and what he said. I also thought about what he didn’t say. One of the things he noticeably left out was, there were those that did belong in the program. Maybe Aliyah’s older sister was one of those.

It suddenly dawned on me, my telepathy was still available to me. He hadn’t turned it back off. Without any thought, I did what I had been yearning to do since he first removed the block. I let my tentacles free, stretching those invisible muscles, although still masking my strength. The pain hit immediately, but it was manageable, even if excruciating. Pain was something I had learned to deal with, but being cramped up was something entirely different.

“If you are up to it, you can return to your room,” a voice said. I hadn’t realized anyone had come in, so lost in my figurative stretching as I was, and my temporary blindness.

When I finally regained enough of my vision to make out the walls, and most obstacles, I left the hospital area. It was a long, slow walk back to my room, my stomach rebelling with every step. Not sure how I managed it, I made it back without emptying my empty stomach onto the floor.

Entering my room, I layed down, wanting more than anything to sleep. Since returning to Oakmont, I always wanted to sleep. I didn’t know why, though, but this was much more profound.

“Yes, ma’am,” I heard, as someone knocked on the door. Obviously, one of my roommates answered it.

“I need Subject 32145,” the voice said.

“Melanie,” Emily called.

“The proper name is Subject 32145. Any other name will be punished,” the voice stated.

“Yes, ma’am,” Emily replied.

Standing up very slowly, I saw Mrs. Trulin. Although I had a tiny amount of anxiety at seeing her, there wasn’t much emotion in me, not that there was ever a lot. My uniform had become very wrinkled, and I had to look awful, but I didn’t care.

She didn’t say another word, instead leading me to an empty classroom. When we got there, she closed the door behind us and motioned for me to sit down. She sat in a desk as well, but just looked at me for a while.

“Subject 32145, I’m sorry for all the suffering you’ve been through, but it really is in the name of science. It’ll help not only our country, but mankind,” she began. I just looked at her. I wouldn’t have spoken, even if I could have. What she just said was evil.

After another long pause, she continued, “I’ve been instructed to try and counsel you. I understand that you’re nonverbal. Did it happen before your capture, during or after?” She then put a pad and a pen on the desk in front of me.

I only glanced at it before looking back up at her. My desire not to speak to her would also include not writing to her. What made her think that I had changed?

“To get better, you need to talk,” she said, to which I almost laughed. The irony was incredible. Mrs. Wilde had said the same thing to me many times during my first time at Oakmont. Since then, I had talked about it, and I hadn’t gotten better. In fact, I had gotten worse.

“Why would I talk?” I wrote, unable to stop myself.

“So we can help you get better,” she replied instantly.

“This program is the problem. To help me get better, let me go home and stop hunting me,” I told her, very deliberately not pointing a finger at her. She looked at my reply for quite a while and I thought maybe she might actually agree with me until she spoke.

“You are the property of the United States Government, and more specifically, this program. Your home is here, or wherever we say it is,” she finally said, dashing my hopes that she could possibly be sympathetic. I should’ve known better, considering my history with her.

Although my emotions had been very numb, my anger suddenly blossomed inside me. “I’m no one’s property and I have nothing else to say to you,” I wrote, almost ripping the paper as I wrote. I didn’t want to have another attack that soon after the last, so I forced myself to calm down.

“You are the creation of an experiment, just like me. We’re not our own person, no matter how much you wish it were otherwise,” she said, actually looking a little sad at her words.

“Mel...Subject 32145, they will have no problem terminating you if you prove to be a liability,” she told me. She looked down at that point, looking almost ashamed. Finally she looked back up at me, and I saw an intensity in her eyes that could not be faked. “You may not believe it, but I really do care about you and I don’t want to see that happen,” she said, a little moisture forming in her eyes.

“I would prefer to die than be a slave,” I wrote. Before I let the pad go, I grabbed it back and added, “Slavery is illegal in this country as is human experimentation without consent.”

She didn’t reply to my final reply and there was nothing else said by her after that. Instead, she simply stared at me for another 30 minutes. I wasn’t sure if she was mad or didn’t know what to say to me. Finally, she stood up and walked out, without saying another word. I waited another ten minutes before I too left.

When I got back to my room, the other girls didn’t even acknowledge me. It was very obvious that they were deliberately avoiding me. What I didn’t know was, why were they suddenly avoiding me, and so pointedly?

There was also the possibility I was just losing my mind. They were working on their schoolwork, after all.

Oh well, I had more serious concerns. Without thinking about it, I attempted to reach into my telepathy. It was as if there was a wall there, although I could feel it alive and functioning. The block was back on, and I’d missed it happening somehow. What intrigued me though, was that I could feel my other powers as well, and they didn’t seem to be blocked.

I tentatively reached into that pool of energy and very gently took some energy into my mind. There was no resistance, much to my surprise. Then, using that energy, I felt around my pencil, not allowing it to move, just exploring. With my mind, I could feel every little curve, the little dents in the wood, the metal holding the eraser and the eraser itself. I could even feel the bits of graphite embedded within the eraser, from earlier use.

I’d never actually felt things like this before, and didn’t know I could feel the tiny little details like I was doing. It was an incredible awakening as I did that.

Without any doubt that I could do it, I slightly lifted the pencil. I didn’t want my roommates to see, since I was pretty sure they’d have to report anything they saw me do, especially Chelsea.

I was so excited at my discovery, I was smiling when I got up a short time later to get dinner. No one sat at the table with me as I ate, not even my roommates. It was a lot like my previous time here, but without Aliyah. As I thought about it, this had to be what it had been like for Aliyah before I came.

Suddenly, an idea struck me. Having lost all appetite, I returned my tray, with my mostly uneaten meal. I went back to my room, as fast as I could manage, and almost jumped onto my bed, I was so anxious. I was pretty sure the other girls wouldn’t come back until they had to, so I reasoned that I had at least an hour and a half to do what my mind had come up with.

I layed down, making sure I was as comfortable as possible and also that I wouldn’t fall off the bed. Then, I closed my eyes and reached out with my mind, but instead of going out into the area around me, and into the school, I dove into my own head. Something else that was different about this, was that I was using my telekinetic power, rather than my telepathy.

At first, it was so bizarre. Being in your own head was the weirdest thing possible. I had no idea what I was doing, which made it even worse. It took a couple of minutes to get my probe into my skull. When I finally did it, it was as if it jumped through and I had to strain to stop from diving into my brain. I could actually sense my brain matter. It felt soft and squishy, although I didn’t really press on it.

I gently moved all over my brain, feeling and sensing, using all of my will to ignore the reflexive impulse to get out of my head and also to puke. Using that will, I went all the way around. The entire time, I somehow managed to avoid the spot where the device was. Finally, knowing that was the object of this exercise, I went to it.

It was like a vitamin capsule, but with little wires sticking out into various places in my brain. None of the wires were very long, but they probably didn’t need to be. There was one thicker wire that went straight down into my brain.

How had they managed this in that living room, with no real operating room or the equipment for such an operation? That totally baffled me, considering they were messing with my brain. Then it really and truly dawned on me. They didn’t care if they messed up. I was expendable.

However, they had gotten lucky and it worked perfectly, as far as I could tell. Knowing that I could have died, and very easily, I was almost shaking. I managed to calm myself down pretty quickly, though, since I still had a job to do.

Returning my attention to the little capsule, I gently touched one of the little wires. As soon as my mind touched it, there was pain unlike anything I’d ever felt before, and I’d suffered a lot of pain in my life.

“They would not come,” Raphe said, when Aliyah got up the next morning.

“Why not?” she asked.

“They did not think a drug dealer turning himself in was big enough news. Tomorrow, I will try something different. Do you know what you will do to make them listen?”

“Why don’t you tell them the truth. There are twelve people being held without any charges being filed and they’re being held in solitary confinement. A child of one of the couples will be there to speak about how wrong it is that her Mom and Dad are in prison for no reason,” she suggested.

“I guess I could do that,” he replied, and then put his hand to his chin and began rubbing it. “Actually, that will work very good. People love to see innocent children fighting for a good cause, and they also like to see the corrupt authorities called out. I think we can get them with that, but your brother and sister will also have to be there and talk. Their cuteness will help you with the TV people.”

Raphe left to make the phone calls, leaving Aliyah, Gabe, Ben and Eliana in the room. The two younger kids had been regularly entertaining themselves with TV, which was working amazingly well. Aliyah guessed it was probably because they got to watch it so rarely. Eventually, that novelty would wear off though. Would they be ready to move on, when it did?