Switched and Fears

by Shannon Rieger

  I ran as more robotic alarms sounded. Through the dining room window, I noticed a robotic insect which stood guard on the back porch of the house next door.

  I pounded down the back-porch steps and crossed the lawn as a sound behind me suggested another insect was on my tail. I made it to the trees just as an electric shock penetrated my body. I fell with a fierce knock in the head. My eyelids were heavy. I blacked out just as someone with brown boots and cuffs in his hands approached. The sirens wailed. Voices.

  My ears caught commotion and I opened my heavy lids. A fight had exploded. A series of punches and shoves. Hands grasped at my underarms and my feet dragged against the grass. I called out. I watched as men fought against one another.

  “Go!”

  A car door.

  Shoved inside.

  Backseat of a car.

  The door slammed.

  Two men ran from the yard.

  An engine ignited.

  My body felt raw.

  Burned.

  The pain unbearable.

  Jaxson's face stared from beyond the back window of the car, his eyes full of alarm, as the driver sped away.

  The darkness choked me.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I woke in a lumpy bed with torn, itchy sheets with fire in my veins. I closed my eyes. “I can’t!”

  “She’s awake!” Amber called out. “Mom!”

  In my groggy state, I said the first word that came to mind. “Jaxson?”

  “Oh, Saige. You will be in pain for a couple more days. Try not to move too much. Here, drink this.”

  Someone helped me to a semi-seated position, and I took a few short sips of the water.

  “Where’s Jaxson?”

  “He’s…he’s not here.”

  “What happened? How did I make it back here?”

  “We got information that you had gone to see your husband. Someone was watching the house. We would have told you it was a bad idea to go there.”

  “In fact, we did tell you that you shouldn’t be going anywhere to visit people that the other Saige knew,” Amber said, and crossed her arms.

  “I’m sorry. I just thought it was safer for you if I…”

  “You can’t take off like that!” Amber shouted.

  Ruby hushed her. “Look, we are not upset that we need to help you. I don’t want you to do this alone. I don’t want you to leave again. Understood?”

  I averted my eyes.

  “You don’t have to worry.”

  I sat up a little straighter. “Yes, I do. Those robotic bugs, the little ones, they crawl around listening for my voice. We can’t talk out loud. Either I whisper or I write the information down. At least when we are inside one of your safehouses.”

  Nods.

  “Jaxson told me to get out of the house,” I said. “Where is he?”

  “That’s what the stories tell us. He stayed behind. Let you run. Then the robotic insects were set out to search for you.”

  “Listen, there’s something I didn’t tell you. And it’ll make you mad, but you should be angry with me. You should be.”

  “What is it?”

  I whispered, “When we were in your ‘nature house’, as Amber calls it, Sky-Guy brought me one of those little spy bugs and dropped it on the floor. I smashed it to smithereens. That’s gotta be how they learned where I was. What if I had been in the house when those creatures swarmed. What if they connected you guys with me? You could be added to the target criteria if we are not careful.”

  “So, that’s why you left?”

  “Yes,” I told Amber. “I wanted to protect you guys.”

  Amber’s eyes filled with tears.

  “I am sorry that I left. I just needed to know…”

  “I get it,” Ruby said. “You wanted to protect us and you needed answers. But you need to be truthful with us. If you don’t, that’s what is going to get us hurt.”

  “Yes.”

  “Agreed!” Amber said.

  “You ask for the truth. And here is what I have come to understand. The swarms that attacked me in the forest came because of one of those little bug spies. Sky-Guy brought one to me in the nature home. I didn’t think it had the capability to tell others where I was. But they do. That’s why I left. I had brought the swarms to me and I don’t know how to stop them.”

  “Meryk isn’t angry at Jaxson. After Meryk got you away from the scene, we learned from our informant that Jaxson made up a story that you took off on him.”

  “Yep, you hit him over the head and ran away!”

  “Did they buy it?” Something in Ruby’s tone suggested there was more to the story. At her pause, I urged, “Did they buy it?”

  “Yes. At first.”

  “What happened?”

  Meryk stepped into the room. His sudden appearance startled me. “Listen, Saige. When the robotic insects found you—”

  “The Spy Guys!” Amber corrected. That softened the tone of the room.

  “Yes, they took you down with an electrical shock. Men were upon you in seconds. Jaxson had a hand in preventing them from taking you away. I think he stalled them, and allowed me to pick you up and run.”

  “You were in the car.” I tried to remember more.

  “Yes, I took you out of there. But Jaxson…”

  “What happened to Jaxson?”

  He remained silent.

  Ruby added, “They investigated and learned that he helped you at the scene. Our informant said that they learned that Jaxson helped you get away. He let the cat out of the bag to help you.”

  “Let what cat out of the bag?” Amber asked.

  “Ruby means that Jaxson has been caught because I made the mistake and came out of hiding.”

  “You couldn’t have ever hidden long enough, Saige. Those insects were stationed on every porch. Every street. Every corner. Every garbage can and garage and shed. Every roof. You weren’t getting out of there.”

  “No need to go door to door. They knew I would, eventually, come out of my hiding spot to escape at some point.”

  “They had you cornered.”

  “But I shouldn’t have been there in the first place.”

  “That’s true,” Meryk said.

  “How in the world did you get me out of there? You risked your life—” I tried to stand up but they shushed me. “You are still risking your life—”

  “A phone call was placed to the facility. My informant messaged me and I knew that I would likely be too late.”

  “Jaxson was right. Her husband had gone upstairs to call the police. Where is Jaxson? In jail?”

  “They have had him tied up in the town square for two days now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It’s torture. Tied up. No food or water. Left to die.”

  “We have to…” I tried to get up, but the pain flared.

  “We are trying to get him out. We haven’t been able to get close.”

  “He’ll just die of starvation and dehydration?”

  “They are hoping to draw you out. You are the most wanted individual of all time.”

  “And I did nothing wrong.”

  “I guess in your case, it doesn’t matter. They want you captured.”

  A tear fell down my cheek and into my ear. I didn’t even try to wipe it. The energy it took to raise my hand wasn’t worth it.

  “Don’t cry, Saige. We will think of something.” Ruby touched my hand.

  “We need to get him out of there. How do we do that? What can we do?”

  “They have those insects stationed everywhere.”

  I looked at the ceiling and thought. “Your person on the inside. Does he have a way to help Jaxson?”

  “I can’t ask them to do that. I just can’t.”

  To her husband, Ruby said, “Meryk, to be truthful, it may be time to pull him out of there. They will be watching closely.”

  “I feel like I have no control over anything.” I rubbed my face.

  Amber a
dded, “You kind of don’t…you gotta let my mom and dad run the show. They know people. You don’t know people. You have to lay low. Stop putting yourself in harm’s way. The robotic insect in the forest. Now you visited that man and honestly, I can’t believe that Daddy found you in time. You are very lucky.”

  I looked up at the ceiling. I felt Sky-Guy lick my hand. To lighten the mood, I said, “Amber, stop licking my hand.”

  She burst out into belly laughs, and fell to the floor.

  I sighed. “I know it’ll be dangerous…I know they are looking for me and that they won’t stop until they have searched every inch. But we have to do something to save Jaxson. I need to go home…and Jaxson will have to come with me.”

  “You don’t even know if you could bring Jaxson,” Ruby said.

  “Or if he wants to…” Amber said, holding her stomach.

  “I don’t know why he wouldn’t want to escape the madness of this world.” I bit my lip. “No offense.”

  “No offense?” Amber giggled. “How could we not find that offensive?” She shoved my arm with her hand.

  I smiled at her and Sky-Guy let me pet him.

  “I have to try. I can’t stay here. The real Saige, the one hiding in my world, needs to come and suffer the consequences of her actions. I want to go home.”

  Meryk nodded. “I know. I just don’t know how to get you back to your home. Your husband had no answers?”

  “No. He knew nothing. He thought I was his wife.”

  “Well, at least you didn’t tell him the truth.”

  I paused. “I tried to find out if he knew how his wife pulled it off.”

  Meryk leaned back into his chair. “Saige, you told him that you were not his wife?”

  I nodded and bit my bottom lip.

  “When they question him, he will tell them the truth.”

  “So?”

  “Our only saving grace was that they thought that they had erased your memory of your old home. You were pretending not to know. Now they know you remember your world. Worst than that, they know that there are two of you and that a crime has been committed.” Meryk paced. “They must know the truth about Jaxson’s role in your escape. That’s why they have Jaxson. They are going to try to draw you out.”

  “We have to do something,” I said.

  “You keep saying that…”

  “You must know that I won’t stop saying it.”

  “The only reason they have not thrown Jaxson in a cell already is because they need him to draw you out. They will be watching all the streets leading to him. Those robotic insects will be patrolling. We might not be able to even go into town at all.”

  “What if we replace Jaxson with something else. Use his scent…make them think he’s still there.” Amber shrugged.

  “What do you mean, Amber?”

  “I mean, sew up some stupid dummy—Mom, you can sew, can’t you? You made me that weird Hallowe’en costume that year—and then we can rub Jaxson gunk all over it and then replace Jaxson with the dummy once we rescue him. They will stupidly watch the dummy forever.”

  I grimaced at the word ‘gunk’. “Where shall we get Jaxson ‘gunk’?” I stuck my tongue out at her.

  She laughed heartedly again. “Don’t you know where to get gunk?”

  “Ah, no.”

  She rolled on the floor, and then she got hiccups from laughing so hard. Ruby said that as a baby she got the hiccups all the time from laughing so hard. She reminisced about how often that used to happen.

  To try to be more serious as her parents stared at me, I asked, “Do people check on him?” I glanced at Amber. “If the robotic insects are the only ones guarding, then maybe we could do something like that.”

  Ruby ran the plan over in her mind. Out loud, she said, “Sew a dummy? In which world could that possibly work?”

  I shrugged.

  “We will fail miserably,” Meryk said.

  “We fail if we don’t try…I can’t let Jaxson die. Not when he saved my life more than once.”

  Meryk frowned.

  “I can’t keep running. They will catch up, eventually. I can’t just hide all of my life.”

  “I will talk to my network. We need a way to rid us of the insects. “I know a guy who is brilliant with computers. I will check with him but we may have to do something to shut those robotic insects down…but no promises.””

  With every passing minute, Jaxson was dying. I felt like that lonely wolf in a cage, pacing and waiting.

  Ruby made dinner. Amber came back to the room after completing her homework and leaned over my shoulder. “What are you drinking?”

  “Your mom made me a tea.”

  “Want some Amber?” Ruby asked.

  “Um, okay.” She shrugged. “I walked past Jaxson today, Saige.”

  “What did you just say?” Ruby said, rushing to the table to stare down at her daughter.

  “I wanted to check it out. There was a huge crowd. Watching. Kind of sick if you ask me. People threw garbage at him. And that gave me an idea.”

  “What idea?” I asked, but Ruby was still on the ‘that was dangerous of you’ and crossed her arms.

  “Well, I know you are worried that he isn’t getting water… So, I threw water at him. He even opened his mouth as I tossed it.” She grinned, proudly, at me. “The bugs can’t tell that I am doing anything wrong. Everyone was throwing stuff at him. I threw grapes into his mouth for a long time while hiding in some tall flowers.”

  “I can’t believe you did that!” Ruby sat.

  “Thank you,” I said. Ruby scowled at me. “I mean, she is buying us some time. And those insects…they aren’t that smart. I would bet that we could switch Jaxson right under their robotic noses.”

  “I will go back tomorrow. I will disguise myself as someone new just in case they are watching for duplicate visits. You’ll see, Mom. I will be a part of the rescue. I will be part of history.”

  Ruby shook her head.

  I told Amber, “I doubt you need to be so dramatic, Amber. You could get hurt. If what you say is true, I will ask your dad for some help. He has his own scouts. If we all take turns going to the courtyard to see Jaxson, it should not raise suspicion. If they see you again, it might. Stay away.”

  “Mom, you have said that the robots don’t really worry about children. They ignore them.”

  “For now, until they are programmed for the need to watch for children.”

  “I think your mom is right. Perhaps we should recruit different people so that it’s never the same person. Until we can save him. We can make notes of the insects’ behaviours.”

  “Jaxson will have to act weaker,” Amber said.

  “What do you mean, Dear?” Ruby said, just as the kettle began to boil.

  Sky-Guy came into the kitchen as if he wanted tea.

  “I mean, that if we are feeding him…and giving him water…he will need to pretend that he is, you know…weak and sick.”

  “Malnourished,” Ruby offered.

  “You know what else? I have a drone…” Amber said. “I traded it with a friend for a kiss.”

  “A kiss?!”

  “Don’t worry, Mom. It was a quick one. I needed the drone.” Ruby tugged at her hair. Her eyes were wide.

  “A what?” I asked.

  “A drone. A flying spectral. It records everything that it sees…from above, in a bird’s eye view.”

  “Well, that would come in handy,” I said.

  “And it records. We could listen in on the area…see if there are guards…see what they are saying. We could monitor their movements. Their breaks.”

  Ruby stirred the tea and then placed the cup in front of Amber. She said, “Perhaps we could tell everyone that you have fled, Saige. Spread rumours of a girl leaving. Call in from places where sightings could occur.”

  I nodded at Ruby. “Good idea.”

  “We could have people travel around a bit. You could have someone fishing at the lake…and then call in a si
ghting. And then further away…have someone sit and do something…hunting. Jogging. Blading. Anything. And call in a tip. We could direct the colony away from this area.”

  “Yeah, if Daddy can’t get his computer guy to drive the insects away, maybe we can do that.”

  “We could do both…” I said. “That’s a really good idea.”

  “I was thinking,” Ruby said, “You could even place items with your scent…along the way. Have those people use gloves to take the items in bags and drop the scent. Really prove that you are on the move. But all along we keep you here.”

  “Yes,” I said. I grinned at her. “Love it!”

  “You’d have to stay out of sight…even from everyone in this community,” Ruby warned. “Only Meryk, Amber and I can know you are here. No one else at all.”

  “How about Sky-Guy. Can he see me?” I grinned, and pet the cat as he tried to reach out to touch the tea bag string.

  A burst of laughter erupted the whispering. Amber thought I was funnier than anyone she had ever met.

  “Your dad will have trusted individuals who can be involved in this. I think a few ‘spot and drops’ one day, close by. Then a day later, one further. Two days later two more sightings. We have to be quick. Use that Spectral Mind ‘Do-Dad’ to help,” I said.

  “What’s a do-dad?”

  “A ‘whatchamacallit,” I said.

  Amber nodded. “I do love a ‘whatchamacallit’. You mean the drone?”

  “Yes, that. Use that to watch for a few days. Trace my scent away, and call in tips. In the meantime, we feed Jaxson. Sew up a doll. What do you think?”

  Nods.

  Meryk arrived, opening the door, watching the alleyway before engaging the lock. “My computer guy said that he isn’t sure that he can tap into the programming of the Pack. Suddenly, they have been taken off-line and their stations are being remotely controlled from somewhere. He just couldn’t find out from where. I don’t know if he will find the answers in time.”

  “We have been brainstorming. We have another idea.”

  “What’s your plan?” he asked.

  We filled him in. He nodded. “Worth a try. But I am not happy with Amber getting involved.”