Lara walked over to the woman and took her by the hands. “We will help you. Give us some time to decide how to best help you, okay?”
The woman nodded, smiled and I was thankful Lara was there to comfort her because I didn’t really know how to calm her down.
“We should be going back to the building,” the man indicated. “If not, they will start looking for us. They allow each couple to walk about a bit and get some fresh air and it was our turn. We are so glad we found you and thank you for coming here to help us.”
After the couple had left I turned to Sam and Lara. “We need to get these couples out of here.”
“I agree, but we need to come up with a plan,” Sam signed. “I didn’t come prepared to deal with so many armed men.”
I really was getting frustrated with Sam. Then, what the heck did you come prepared for?
We then heard a gunshot and it came from the hangar-like building and, as all of us looked in that direction, I, without thinking, jumped to my feet and started running towards the building.
FOURTEEN
I didn’t hear anyone beside me and guessed Sam and Lara had decided to stay back and watch which made sense because they probably thought I had gone crazy or something.
I reached the hangar-like building, crouched near one of the windows and glanced back, but couldn’t see either Sam or Lara. So much for the great Resistance and their fight against the Council. What a group of cowards?
I looked through the window, saw all the couples seated on the ground in the center and noticed they were surrounded by four armed men wearing military uniforms, which looked similar to those I had seen on Josh and his men back in Thomson.
Next to one of the armed men was a man’s body lying motionless on the floor and I saw a pool of blood next to him. The rest of the group of couples were hugging each other and I knew they must be terrified.
Were they going to kill each parent one by one? I decided I wasn’t going to wait to find out and needed to do something.
Then I saw all four armed men point their guns, all the parents stood up and I realized they were being moved into a glass room near the back wall. After all the parents were pushed inside the room, the glass door was closed and one of the armed men went to a corner of the building and pressed some kind of button on the wall.
It took me only a few seconds to realize the armed men were going to kill all the parents inside the glass room as I began to see some kind of green gas start to enter the room from the ceiling pipes. The men inside the glass room began pounding on the glass door and I saw the women began to sob as a few of them fell to the ground. How could people do this to these innocent parents? What kind of monster was Dr Liverfield? I couldn’t let this happen and decided it was time to put into practice all the learning I had been doing back at the Resistance building. It was now or never and I felt something rising in me.
I opened the window next to me and uttered the word “fall down” in the direction of the four armed men. As if on cue like in some kind of show each of the four armed men fell back first onto the ground and upon impact I realized they were all knocked out. Inside the glass room, the men stopped the pounding briefly once they saw their captors were lying motionless on the ground, but then started up again in an even more frantic way.
I, then, said the word “break” forcefully in the direction of the door to the glass room. Initially, nothing happened, but then cracks began appearing on the glass, itself, and, as the men stepped back from the door, it shattered into pieces and all the couples rushed out. One of the men went to the panel and pressed the button to switch off the green gas.
Most of the couples were now standing around still hugging each other while some of the men approached the bodies of armed men, took their weapons away and starting tying them up and dragging them towards the wall.
I was glad I was able to say those few words, which helped save the parents, but I still couldn’t believe the raw power behind those words. Somehow whatever Dr Liverfield and the process had done to me had not only given me back my speaking ability, but I also had some added power behind it, which allowed me to do physical things.
As I was about to think what to do next, Sam and Lara reached my position. I hoped my face didn’t give away my disappointment in their delay.
Sam looked inside. “What happened here?”
I told them the details minus the part of me releasing words to set the parents free as I didn’t want them to know this part of my ability.
Sam continued. “Let’s go inside.”
FIFTEEN
I followed Sam and Lara into the building and, as we walked in, some of the parents saw us, and began cowering in fear while a few of the men holding the weapons pointed them in our direction.
“We are here to help you!” Sam signed after which he raised his hands and we did the same.
The couple we had spoken to earlier recognized us, told the others about their encounter with us, and the parents calmed down and began looking around what to do.
One man holding a weapon approached us. “I wished you had been here earlier.”
“I understand, but we only got information about this place recently,” Sam motioned. “Do you remember where they brought you from?”
“I am sorry I cannot remember because most of us were taken to a place blindfolded after we arrived in Vinder,” the man motioned. “From that point onwards we were always inside a building and we weren’t allowed to go outside at all.”
“Did you arrive in Vinder by train?” I motioned.
“No, we came to Vinder by bus,” the man indicated.
It seemed like the secret train ride between Thomson and Vinder was something specific to my town.
“So, how did the glass door break?” Lara gestured. “Did someone hit it or something?”
“We are not sure either,” the man signalled. “It just sort of happened out of nowhere. It was amazing to watch because I thought for sure we were all dead. All I can say was that it was a miracle!”
Lara glanced at me, but said nothing and I wondered if she suspected I had something to do with it.
I saw a woman on the floor next to the bloody body of her husband, walked over to her and sat down near her.
She looked at me, her eyes overflowing with tears as I touched her face.
“I am so sorry for your loss,” I motioned taking hold of her hands.
“He just asked one of the guards for some water and they killed him on the spot,” the woman signed sobbing. “He wasn’t a threat to them.”
I then hugged her as she held me tightly and I tried my best to stay strong for her and guilt washed over me again as I wondered when would people stop dying because of who I was and what I could do.
As I glanced around I saw Sam and Lara were embroiled in an intense conversation with some of the parents and it seemed like they were discussing how to get the parents out of here. After a few minutes I saw the parents starting to follow Sam out of the building.
Lara turned to the woman next to me. “My friend Sam is going to take all of you to a safe place. Please follow them.”
“I can’t leave my husband’s body like this,” the woman signed starting to tear again. “We had only been married for two years. I don’t know what I will do without him now.”
I felt so much for this poor woman and knew it was my fault all this was happening.
Lara continued. “I understand, but we will help move the body somewhere okay? Right now it is really important you go with the other parents. You need to stay alive for your child’s sake.”
I tried to smile at the woman, but felt it was so fake.
The woman nodded, stood up and walked past us to join the last of the parents leaving the building.
Lara pulled out some dark cloth to cover the body.
“Where are they going?” I motioned.
“Sam is going to use the bus they were brought in to take them to a safe location outside of Vinder,” Lara
signalled. “It is a location run by the Resistance and where we have sent some children to before, but this will be the first time we are sending over parents and such a large group of them.”
“Will they be safe there?” I signed worried about these parents and especially the woman who had lost her husband.
“The journey there takes several hours, but the place is secure and out of the reach of the Council,” Lara motioned. “So far, it hasn’t been found by anyone.”
I was hopeful that these parents could find a new beginning there since I knew they would probably never meet their children again until Dr Liverfield could be stopped.
“Where do you think are their babies?” I signed.
“Most likely Dr Liverfield has changed the operations to have the babies raised by her people instead of the original parents,” Lara indicated. “They probably don’t want to take any more chances someone would say something like what happened in Thomson.”
“But why hold onto so many babies?” I gestured.
“I think Dr Liverfield is trying to create an army,” Lara motioned.
I looked stunned. “An army of what?”
“Of people who can speak like you, Marinette,” Lara highlighted. “The Resistance always believed this was the ultimate purpose behind Dr Liverfield starting the process many years ago. She doesn’t care about giving humankind back their voice. She only cares about power and this is her way of creating some sort of armed force which she can be in charge of.”
“Why does she need an army?” I motioned. “She is already the head of the Council.”
“In recent years Dr Liverfield has been questioned as to why the Council doesn’t rotate their head position more regularly,” Lara highlighted. “It is a matter of time before she will have to give up her head position at the Council. The army could be a way for her to have power outside the Council. In time to come, she could even use her personal army to overthrow the Council.”
I couldn’t believe the process, the purple liquid, the children and the parents being killed appeared to be all about one individual having more power and control.
“We have to stop her,” I signed.
“We will once you are able to speak and we are able to reveal her secret plans to Vinder,” Lara motioned. “You did a great job with the parents earlier and it looked like you had a natural connection to them. I could see how they listened to you.”
I nodded. “It was unexpected and something I didn’t really plan.”
Lara continued. “It is part of being a symbol of hope like we told you before. People will begin looking up to you and you need to be ready for it. It isn’t going to be easy, but as long as you know what to expect you will be fine.”
I understood that I needed to be a role model, but knew in my heart this wasn’t really what I wanted and I was still in a struggle as to what I wanted in the end. I was still clinging onto the hope of having my life back, but as each day passed by, I realized it was getting harder and harder for me to return to any kind of normal life again.
“How is your speaking progressing?” Lara signed. “Are you able to speak words now?”
“I am still practicing and learning,” I signaled. “I can mouth words, but the sound making part is still not there to go along with the words. I need some more time I think.”
I didn’t want to explain what I did with the guards and neither Sam nor Lara had asked about it either, which I found odd, but then again I could be overthinking this.
“Keep practicing because speaking is the key,” Lara highlighted. “When people see you speak things will start to change. They will start to have hope. Not to pressure you, but you need to move faster because Dr Liverfield, as you saw today, is also changing things quickly. She knows the longer you are out there outside of her control the higher the chances her process could be exposed and all her years of work destroyed.”
I understood the urgency, but I also felt I needed to remain in control of the situation and not become another pawn in everyone’s game of chess. While the Resistance was helping me I still didn’t know enough about them to know what else they were after.
I tried again to find more answers. “Have you been close to getting any evidence on the process itself?”
Based on her facial expression, Lara didn’t seem so happy to answer me. “A few times we were quite close, but in each of these cases our spies died and the evidence disappeared with them.”
If the Resistance had been fighting Dr Liverfield they should have by now made more progress, but it seemed like they were running in circles. I didn’t know whether to believe Lara or not, but I decided not to push it any further.
“We need to get back now,” Lara signed. “We have done our part here.”
“What about this body?” I motioned.
“Just leave it here,” Lara indicated. “I know I said I would do something proper to it, but honestly there isn’t anything we can do.”
“Can we at least bury him?” I gestured feeling a lot for the woman who had left it here with us so that we could handle her husband’s body in the right way.
“I will send someone to move the body later,” Lara signaled. “I don’t want to be here when Dr Liverfield’s people return. If they sent more people here now we would be outnumbered.”
I decided not to dwell on this further with Lara since I knew the danger was real, but her lack of compassion was unexpected, made me question the Resistance’s motives and somehow I felt Lara wasn’t going to send anyone to bury the woman’s husband’s body.
SIXTEEN
It had been a day since we had rescued those parents waiting to be terminated by Dr Liverfield’s men and I shut myself in the room to keep Lara away from asking me more questions and putting more pressure on me. For some reason I had an uneasy feeling about Lara ever since she had become a bit more aggressive in finding out about my learning progress.
I heard a knock and Lara entered the room. “How is it going?”
“I pretty much know how to say a sentence now,” I signed in the hope she would be happy and back off.
“Wow! Can you say something like right now?” Lara indicated excitedly.
I shrugged. “Oh, I meant I can mouth it, but I haven’t tried speaking it yet. Learning to speak isn’t as easy as it seems.”
“I understand,” Lara motioned.
I felt she was disappointed, but I didn’t want to let it get to me.
Lara continued. “The reason I came to see you is because I want you to meet someone powerful and special.”
My curiosity was aroused as to who this was.
“Actually, this person is someone in the Council and I will need you to wear some kind of disguise before we go to her office okay?” Lara gestured.
“Is it safe for me to travel and even meet anyone in the Council?” I signed. “I mean Dr Liverfield is the head of the Council. Won’t she have people watching out for me?”
“This person is on our side and has been supporting the Resistance secretly for years,” Lara indicated. “She will be delighted to meet you in person. You don’t have to worry about her. And I doubt Dr Liverfield would ever expect you to show up there.”
“So, what does she do?” I motioned.
“You will find out when you get there,” Lara highlighted. “We need to be careful as we go to meet her. Her offices are always patrolled by armed guards. Shall we leave in about fifteen minutes? We can meet at the front of the building and please make sure you don’t look like you.”
I began to get ready as Lara left me alone with my thoughts.
Was this some kind of trap I was walking into? I didn’t think so as it wouldn’t make any sense for the Resistance to hand me over to the Council after all they had done to help me escape from then. Yet, I still wasn’t sure what was going on here and my comfort level with Lara has really dropped over the last couple of days. The world of adults and their real intentions was getting harder and harder to understand and seriously
I was getting tired of all the mind games.
As I walked out to the front of the Resistance building Lara turned to me. “Wow! That is a pretty good disguise Marinette. If I didn’t know it was you, I wouldn’t have been able to guess at all.”
I grinned as I had gotten Claire to help me come up with a creative disguise, but I had no intention of letting Lara know this piece of information.
“Come on. The next bus will be arriving at the bus stop in a few minutes,” Lara signed. “We need to walk quickly.”
I followed Lara as we walked a few blocks until we reached a bus stop, and we were on time as the bus arrived a few seconds later.
Emerging Above the Silence Page 6
