The Hunt: The Oakmont Saga, Book 2

“Are you ready for your moment of fame?” Raphe asked Aliyah, sitting on the bed fidgeting with her hair.

Raphe and Gabe had both insisted on making her as pretty and innocent looking as possible, even getting her a very nice outfit, complete with a ribbon for her hair and a little makeup. Raphe had insisted on keeping the makeup simple, otherwise she’d have looked made up. She was wearing a casual dress that was light grey with lavender trim. It had a small, pretty lavender bow at the vee in the neckline and no sleeves. It was pleated on the sides, and had cloth that formed a cover over the shoulders, that had white piping on the bottom edge. Although she had resisted, unlike Mel would have, she had pale purple leggings on, and patent leather shoes.

“I guess I am,” she replied, after a lengthy pause.

“Let’s go,” Raphe urged, gently taking her by the hand and helping her up.

They all left the hotel room, the two younger kids as cute and innocent looking as Aliyah, if not more so. It would be assumed they were considering their age as compared to hers, but she definitely had the image pretty solidly built.

They walked the couple of blocks to the Snohomish County Corrections building, what anyone else would call the jail. As they rounded the corner from Pacific Avenue onto Oakes, Aliyah came to an immediate halt.

“I can’t do this,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper and shaky, as she saw the television crews and all of the people. A few tears seeped out of the corners of her eyes, seeing what was a little further down the road.

“If you want to save your parents, then you have to,” Raphe said, not keeping his voice quiet or even nice. He was to the point and firm, almost cruel in his delivery. It took a nudge on her back to get her moving again, and then hesitantly.

“Just remember what you wrote to say. Just see the words in front of you, nothing else, and you will be good,” he assured her, once she was finally moving again. His hispanic accent had deepened as he spoke, betraying his calm demeanor.

When she got to the courtyard in front of the building, what she had thought was a throng, was multiplied. In addition, there was a platform erected, kind of like a stage, complete with a podium. There were several official looking people standing on the platform, all looking like they were waiting for something. As she looked closer, the people on the stage all looked like law enforcement of some kind, and from her limited experience, she’d have bet they were FBI.

As she walked toward the platform, Raphe and Gabe melted into the crowd. Ben and Eliana stayed with her, each holding one of her hands, Ben on her right and Eliana on her left. They were the only thing that allowed her the strength to make the walk, which felt like a death march to her.

“Are you Aliyah Draper?” a man asked as she paused for a group of people to walk past. The man was dressed in a button up green shirt, with khaki pants on and he was holding some kind of recorder in his hands. He looked rather young, but Aliyah wasn’t paying enough attention to notice how old, or anything else about him.

“Yes, sir,” she replied.

“Can I ask you a few questions before you go up there?” She was on the verge of running, before another man walked up.

“Jerry, you know the rules. If you violate them again, you’ll lose your credentials,” the new man said. This man was much older, his hair being mostly gray, with some darker hair mixed in. Just like all of the people on the stage, he was wearing a suit and had a badge hanging around his neck. Now that she was a lot closer, she could tell he was wearing a bulletproof vest as well.

“Aliyah Draper?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” she said, yet again.

“Then I must assume that these two are Benjamin Brager and Eliana Draper. Please follow me, if you would. Everyone is ready to hear your story, especially us. By the way, I am agent John Samson with the Seattle Field office of the FBI. Your story made its way to us and we have an interest in hearing what you have to say, although we would have preferred it to have been a lot less public,” he said with an ironic smile. “We considered stopping this show, but decided that would only make it look like we were hiding something,” he said, his ironic smile changing a little. It definitely looked as if he was kind of smiling, but not completely.

He waited for a reply, but not getting one, he motioned for the kids to follow. Aliyah didn’t need much urging to get out of the crowd. Although she’d never had the issues with people that Melanie had, she was feeling very claustrophobic at that moment.

“Are you ready, young lady?” the FBI agent asked, once they were on the platform. Aliyah nodded, not able to speak at that moment.

“Friends of the press, thank you for coming out on this chilly morning. As you are aware, an interesting story made it to you, and to us, concerning the parents of these children. As the story goes, there are other adults involved, but that is unknown at this moment. Anyway, up here with me is Aliyah Draper, Benjamin Brager and Eliana Draper,” he said, motioning with his hand as he introduced each of the children.

“Before they get started, I have no idea what they are about to reveal, other than the base charge that their parents are being held illegally. And before you ask, the FBI has no prior knowledge of these allegations. One of you kindly sent me a text this morning informing me of this, otherwise I wouldn’t be here at all. Now, without further delay, Aliyah, please tell these good people what it is you want to tell them,” he said, stepping away from the podium and the microphone.

This reminded Aliyah of one of those things where a politician would speak, and this whole setup looked way to prepared for this sudden story she was about to give. How had they managed to put this together so quickly?

Putting those thoughts aside, she stepped up to the microphone. The FBI man helped her adjust it, so it was closer to her face.

“Hello, my name is Aliyah Draper,” she said, her voice shaky and nervous. That realization only made it worse for her and she couldn’t stop the moisture forming in her eyes and the trembling of her hands.

“I need to begin with a short story,” she said, her eyes darting all over the large group, “to help you understand why my parents have been arrested. When my father was in the army, he got hurt really bad and was sent to a hospital in Montana called Oakmont. You won’t find it on any map, but it’s hidden in the woods a little north of Whitefish. When they got him there, along with my uncle, his wounds were treated but he was also given an experimental serum which would give his children certain abilities that humans hadn’t had before. He was unconscious when this stuff was given to him, so he didn’t know anything about it. It did some kind of change to his DNA so his children would be different,” she continued, her voice still trembling but getting more confident as she spoke, the pieces of paper before her mind’s eye.

“The Oakmont program is a top secret program, even to most of the government. They get the kids born from anyone that got the serum and put us in this special school and they don’t let us out until we’ve been trained and brainwashed. My best friend is Melanie. Melanie and me escaped about two years ago and went to her house in Alaska, hoping her Daddy could keep us safe. After we escaped, we found out something really awesome. We’re cousins. Her Momma and my Daddy are brother and sister. We’ve been living in Alaska for two years, just trying to live our lives. Unfortunately, we weren’t as safe as we thought. A couple weeks ago, the people from the program came to our house and arrested our parents and anyone else that had ever seen us. Those people, along with our parents, are being held in tiny little rooms inside this jail, all by themselves. They haven’t been charged with any crimes, because they haven’t done anything wrong, other than trying to live as free Americans and raise their kids...us. I’m just a kid, but I’m pretty sure that’s illegal,” she said, almost yelling the last part.

“What right do they have to imprison them like that, or kidnap us and do crazy, evil experiments on us? We’re just kids. We didn’t ask for this and we didn’t ask to be a part of their stupid experiment!” she yelled, tears pouring out of her eyes by then. She took a moment to calm herself back down and continued.

“In case you’re wondering why Melanie isn’t with us, it’s because they have her again. After they arrested our parents, we ran. Us four kids, that is. We managed to make it to New Orleans, where the FBI found us, but somehow we escaped them, thanks to some friends we made there. Those friends helped us get to St. Louis, where Melanie was badly hurt by an explosion at a gas station, when an FBI helicopter and a bunch of FBI people came to get us. We lost her for a while in St. Louis after the explosion and I thought my best friend...my cousin…my sister...was dead,”she said and broke down, unable to stop herself from crying as her emotions took over.

It took a little while, but she claimed herself down, and continued. “We managed to find her again, but she really was almost dying from the hole in her stomach, right about here,” she said, pointing to about where on her body it would have been. She was playing up the young girl image, like a professional actor. It bothered her, but she knew she had to do it.

“A piece of metal had stuck into her. Some really good people there found her after the explosion and helped her, but now I’m really worried they’re going to be arrested like my parents and her parents, just for trying to help a kid. We couldn’t wait to find out, though, so we ran again. We made it out of St. Louis, not really sure where to go. We were just trying to get away from the people that were after us, but we didn’t know who was good and who wasn’t, so we couldn’t trust anyone. The only people that were willing to help us and not betray us were people you’d call criminals. They are drug dealers, but they helped us and didn’t turn us in. We’d be captured, or maybe dead, if it wasn’t for them,” she said, the tears still running down her face, as she looked toward the ground for a little while.

Turning her face back toward the crowd, she resumed, “Somewhere in South Dakota, I think the town was called Piedmont, they found us again. They’ve been watching us on any security cameras that are around, so it’s almost impossible to escape them for long. Melanie knew there was no way for all of us to escape, and she was badly injured, so she allowed herself to get caught so we could escape. I don’t know how long she kept them chasing her before they caught her, but I know she tried. That’s just the way she is,” Aliyah said, her voice beginning to break again.

Struggling to get control again, she looked back at the audience and continued, “We decided that the only way to stop the constant running was to tell all of you the truth, tell everyone what they’re doing to us, what they’ve done to us. Melanie and I are telepaths. We can read your minds, if we want to, but we hate doing it. It’s wrong, but they teach us that we should do it all the time and always be invading people’s privacy. They want us to be spies, or something. We can also do other things that the people of the program don’t really know about, even though I think they’re beginning to guess,” she said, and could see the doubt in the eyes in front of her. Several had started bending down to get their bags.

As easily as waving her hand, she sent probes out, stopping every single person that was packing. She actually did make a motion with her hands, as if the motion was required to perform the action. Raphe had suggested that when she told him she was going to do something to prove what she could do.

They fought a moment before looking at her with a look of near terror on their faces. Not knowing what else to do, she reached into that pool of energy. With the energy flowing into her, she lifted the four trash cans arrayed around the courtyard, again with a wave of her hands. She floated them toward where she was, keeping them low enough that the reporters had unrestricted access to touch them. No one could stop their flight though, as her mind was much more powerful, and she used almost no energy doing what she had just done.

“We didn’t ask for this and we shouldn’t be looked at as property because of what they did to us. We aren’t their property, or some tool to be used. We don’t want to be their weapon, or spy, or whatever. We’re people, just like you and we want to be free to live our lives, just like you!” she exclaimed, finishing in a near shout, her cheeks soaked from the large amount of tears that were still flowing.

Before she could say another word, several hands had grabbed her and were whisking her, Ben and Eliana away. It happened so fast she didn’t realize where they were going until they were inside the jail building.

Several people started to remove their belongings, but Aliyah very effectively stopped that. She never said a word, and amazingly, no one said anything to her when they couldn’t touch their packs.

They were then taken into a room that looked a lot like what she’d seen on TV, where the criminals were interrogated. Several chairs were quickly brought in for each of them, with a few other chairs on the other side of the table.

“Aliyah, we had a warrant to recover you kids prior to coming here. We allowed this press conference, as from our perspective, there was no harm in it. If anything, we thought it might help, since you were reported to us as children in need of rescue. Now we aren’t so sure. First, how did you get from Alaska to New Orleans?”

“We flew on an airplane.”

“The information we have says that the airport was closely monitored.”

“There are lots of planes in Alaska,” she said, avoiding the truth. Agent Samson stared at her for a moment before proceeding, and she knew he could tell she was being evasive.

“Alright, the operation in New Orleans went fairly smoothly, and although they weren’t able to recover you, there was nothing of concern there. St. Louis is another matter, though. Can you tell me what happened at that convenience store?” he asked.

“No sir. All I know is that Melanie knew people were coming and she told us to run. Then the place exploded and she was nearly killed,” Aliyah replied.

“And you know nothing other than that?”

“Melanie was ready to sacrifice herself for us there, just like she did in South Dakota. That’s all I know, sir,” she said.

“Do you know how many people died at that store?”

“No, sir,” she replied.

“Sixteen agents outside the store. A father and his two children and the store attendant, inside the store. In all, twenty people,” he informed her. Tears formed in her eyes, thinking about what Melanie must be going through. She had no doubt that Melanie probably knew, which would explain her more erratic behavior just before she left them.

“I think you do know something, or why would you be crying over the news?”

“Because innocent people died and because Melanie will think she caused it and she’ll be dying inside because of it. She already beats herself up over things she can’t control, and people being hurt really hurts her,” she told him. He looked at her for a while, but didn’t say anything else and didn’t ask anymore questions during that period.

“Did you know she was finally caught in Piedmont, South Dakota?” She nodded her head, since she did know.

“We have been given no information as to the details of her recovery, but there are some odd happenings during that time period. Oh, and she eluded us for a little more than two days before the people from this program of yours found her. I thought you might like to know that,” he informed her.

“By the way, your outfit and makeup were absolutely brilliant. The media ate it up, and your story was absolutely perfect,” he told her. She smiled slightly at the compliment.

“For what it’s worth, we will be looking into the allegations you made, including people being locked up without cause. Your claim that such activity isn’t legal is correct and we don’t take our responsibility lightly, especially when someone might be taking advantage of us.”

“They’ll try to get us from you,” she told him.

“They won’t succeed. We have jurisdiction, based on allegations of federal crimes, including kidnapping and wrongful imprisonment, among other crimes. You’re safe with us, for the moment,” he said with a smile.

“You claim you can read minds. Show me,” he said, after yet another long pause.

“I don’t like to. Like I said, it’s wrong,” she replied.

“Only if you do it uninvited. I invited you,” he said, still smiling.

Finally agreeing with his request, she made a show of closing her eyes and concentrating. Finally, she opened her eyes and looked at him. “Besides trying to sort the information you got from me, and you have doubts about my story, you are trying to figure out the oddity of a double murder and suicide in the vicinity of where Melanie was found,” she said, her eyes wide as she read that last piece.

“You weren’t supposed to know about that,” he stated.

“You told me to,” she began, but he held a hand up.

“I know, I told you to do it, so it’s my fault. We don’t know that there is a connection, but the coincidence is too great to ignore. Although a crime like that should be a local matter, the sheriff is grateful for our assistance, and we get to know if there is anything amiss,” he said.

“As for your claims, I have no reason to doubt you at this point, and every reason to believe you. That doesn’t mean we’ll win, but I will do everything in my power to protect you,” he promised.

“Thank you, sir,” she replied.

Before he could ask anymore questions, another agent came in and whispered in his ear. He looked up at the agent for a moment and then got up and walked out. A moment later he returned, with an odd look on his face.

“Your parents, and several other people are being held here, as you claimed. We’re trying to sort that out right now, but so far there is no apparent reason to hold them, other than the four agents standing guard over them.

“The Department of Defense has informed us that they have jurisdiction over you, as well. We’re starting proceedings to fight them, but you need to be aware that we may lose. That also involves all of the adults currently being detained. What may work in your favor is your press conference. I think they’re a bit unhappy that you’ve become public, as have your parents and their current situation,” he said, an ironic smile playing on his face.

“That really was the right path for you, even if it doesn’t work out in the end. Whatever happens, good luck,” he said, stood up and walked out.

“Ben, Eliana, you need the serum that Melanie and I took. There’s a problem with the one our Dads were given and it can kill us. This one seems to fix it, but it might hurt you too. I’m not sure if we’ll get a chance to give it to you later,” she told the younger kids. Both looked scared, but they didn’t seem too worried.

“You and Mel took it, right?” Ben asked, when he finally spoke. She nodded her head.

“Then we’ll take it too,” Eliana said, for both of them.

Aliyah took her pack off and took the four test tubes out. She removed the stoppers and handed the opened tubes to the two younger kids, one of each type. They both looked scared but both turned the test tubes into their mouths at the exact same time.

As the thick liquid oozed into their mouths, the door burst open and two men ran in. Aliyah instantly put up a shield, keeping them from coming any further into the room. The shock on their faces was incredible as they slammed into an invisible wall, which flashed a light purple as they hit it.

At that same moment, both kids eyes snapped shut and there was a gasp from them both. Their bodies became absolutely rigid as they slid out of their chairs, onto the floor. Aliyah was ready for that and eased them to the floor with her mind, wanting to also keep an eye on the FBI agents that had rushed in.

“What did you give them?” one of the men asked, and he looked desperate.

“A serum that the government created for us. We might not get another chance to give it to them., and it’s the only thing that will save their lives,” she explained.

“Aliyah, you should have let us examine it before you gave it to them. You have no idea what it might do,” Agent Samson said. She hadn’t noticed him walk in, she was so busy watching the kids. Of course, he was blocked by her force field, just like the other agents.

“You’re right, I don’t. But I do know what’ll happen if they don’t get it and I know what it did to me and Mel. And I don’t want to wait until the Oakmont people have us, or they might never get it. Not only that, I don’t want them to ever know how to make it.”

“I’m guessing that this is another of those abilities they don’t really know about, and I’d also guess it might be a result of this stuff you just gave them,” he deduced, indicating the force field. She looked at him for a moment with a smile, but said nothing.

“How do they not know how to make it?”

“Because the man that created it destroyed all of the records for it, but left a few samples. These are the last,” she said, hoping Melanie had managed to hide or destroy what she had, as well as the journal.

“That stuff is invaluable!” he exclaimed, sounding just like the scientists that made the program what it was.

“You’re right, but our use for it is different. You’re thinking of it as a weapon, just like the scientists do. I just want to save their lives.”

“But we could have made more before using the last of it,” he argued.

“We don’t want there to be anymore. This stuff is evil and no one should be able to do the things we can do,” she said, amazingly calm considering how worked up she was at him and worried about Ben and Eliana. He remained silent for a while, knowing he wasn’t going to convince her, not that it mattered any longer. The serum had already been used. He did have the notion of pumping their stomachs, though.

“At least let us get a medical team in here to monitor them,” he pleaded.

“No,” was all she said.

“How long can you maintain this shield, or whatever it is?”

“Long enough that you can’t pump their stomachs to get it out of them,” she replied, reflecting his thoughts.

“That’s not what I meant, and this time I didn’t give you permission to read my mind.”

“I didn’t read your mind, but when our lives are on the line, we’ll do what we have to.”

“That’s fair, I suppose. But how did you know I thought that, if you didn’t read my mind?”

“It just makes sense that someone would think about that. Not only that, they did really horrible things to Melanie to try and get it out of her. I know what they put her through, hoping to get it out of her stomach.”

“Can you tell me?”

“She told me that they stuck things into her front and her back, wanting samples from her liver and kidneys. Then they put some device down her throat to try and get samples from her throat and her stomach. She told me how much it hurt when they did that, and how she could barely breathe. And that wasn’t the worst things they did to her when they had her,” she told him.

“And they have her again.” he stated, somewhat somberly.

“She gave herself up to save us knowing what they’d probably do to her,” Aliyah commented, tears blossoming in her eyes.

“That’s very brave,” he remarked.

“She’s a hero, but she’ll never see it,” Aliyah told him.

“You know, that’s the truest type of hero,” he told her, to which she smiled and nodded.

“I know things don’t look good for you, but there are a lot of people that are touched by your story, even if they don’t completely believe it,” he said.

“What do I have to do to prove that we’re real!?”

“Don’t worry about that. You’re public enough now that it’ll be hard, although not impossible, for them to make you disappear,” he explained.

After giving her some time to let that soak in, he smiled at her and said, “When they are ready, as well as you, we’ll move you to a more comfortable location. We have a safe house nearby.”

“I don’t know how long this will last,” she admitted.

“We have a medical team ready, in case you need them, and I promise they won’t pump their stomachs unless it’s deemed medically necessary to save their lives. Other than that, we’ll wait for you. Of course, we don’t really have a choice, do we?”

“Not really,” she replied, unable to stop herself from grinning.

Just as he was turning to leave, Ben stood up, a small trickle of blood running from his nose and both eyes. Although she didn’t see any, Aliyah suspected there was probably some in his ears as well.

He ran to her and flung his arms around her, holding her as tightly as she’d ever seen him give a hug, even to his parents. “That was scary. It hurt really bad and I saw a lot of scary things,” he said, as he sobbed into her.

“I know, but it’s over now,” she consoled him.

After a while, he finally let go and sat back in his chair. It took a lot longer for Eliana to wake up, and when she did, she looked as if she’d simply taken a long nap. Aliyah was thankful she had awoken when she did, as her energy usage was at its limits.

She had guessed she had just enough for one last thing. Just to ensure they couldn’t get samples from the test tubes, she grabbed the water cups and rinsed all four of the test tubes out, pouring the water down the drain in the floor, followed by the rest of the water. Agent Samson had a little smile on his face as he watched what she was doing. Finally done, she released the force field and almost fell down when she did. Agent Samson rushed in, when she started to fall, and grabbed her just before she hit the floor.

“At least I know there are limits to what you can do,” he half joked.

“Mel is much stronger than me,” she said, and then passed out, a little blood trickling out of her nose, and tiny rivulets forming in her eyes.