The Pendants and the Mystery of the Wozniak Five Part I

by Stephanie Steele

  Valie studied the license. It was her picture, the same picture on her actual license, but the name said Jennifer Forester.

  "What are these for?" Valie asked, holding the license out to Phaedra.

  "Traveling. However you decide to do it, plane or train. You'll need an I.D."

  “I hate the name Ingrid,” Maddy complained, shoving her new license into her little purse. “Such a retched name.”

  No one was paying attention to her. Trent showed Valie his I.D. “Weird, right?” He whispered, “How'd they get our pictures?”

  Valie shrugged.

  “Only $1,000?” Maddy asked, “That's it?”

  “Inconspicuous guys. That's the key here.” Phaedra answered, she then turned to Carson and gave him a hug, wished him luck, and then she was gone.

  The four of them stood in somewhat of a circle, standing together, looking from one person to the next. It was in that moment that they each had accepted that they were The Wozniak Five and they only had each other. No matter how much they didn't want to believe it, no matter how unreal it seemed, they knew.

  Phaedra had said there was a price to pay for the bodies they had. Valie couldn't figure out what that meant. Aside from the rapid rate that their bodies apparently healed, Carson said that he was strong; it didn't take much effort on his part to play football so well. Trent was fast, he'd always been fast. Valie always had good reflexes and could hold her breath for seven minutes. Maddy said she was able to speak three different languages and that she, too, was able to hold her breath for a long time, but those just seemed like things that anyone could have. Aside from the rapid healing rate, none of them really knew if those were abilities they had because of who they were or just because they had them.

  The four of them decided to sleep in the cabin that night and start out in the morning. Valie had been watching Maddy suspiciously. She seemed very careful not to touch anyone or anything. When she sat on the couch, it was always on the edge, so her legs would only touch the fabric of her dress. At one point, she brought her hands to her head, saying she was prone to migraines and she stepped outside for about 15 minutes. The light was hurting her eyes...apparently.

  Carson didn't say much after Phaedra left. He mostly kept to himself and Valie did her best to assure Trent that they would find their pendants and everything would be okay. After that, Valie started to wish that someone was there to reassure her.

  She eventually drifted off to sleep, resting her head on Trent's shoulder.

  The next morning they all woke up to Maddy. Little, incessant, persistent, energized Maddy.

  When Valie opened her eyes, there was Maddy's face; she was poking Valie in the shoulder with her little finger.

  “Psst! Hey! Wake up!” She hissed. Valie gave her a mean look and waved her away. Maddy then did the same thing to Trent, then Carson.

  "It's time to get up!" She announced. Valie hated her happy energy, only because she felt like she could sleep for a few more hours.

  They all slowly came to life; Valie tried to shake off her sleepiness. As she sat up, she instantly felt sick as she replayed the last 24 hours in her head. Valie was trying as hard as she could to put it out of her head. She didn't want to cry anymore. She sat on the couch, rubbing her eyes and thought about the day to come, wondering where they would end up. She turned her attention to Maddy; she was wiping her arms and legs down with hand sanitizer that she carried in the little purse. It didn't take Valie long to pick up on the fact that Maddy had a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder. She kept complaining about how being in the dress from the day before was “absolutely disgusting," plus she was allergic to dust, so she kept sneezing. Apparently, it was worse in the morning. It went sneeze, sneeze, inhaler, complain, complain, sneeze, sneeze, complain. Repeat.

  Valie thought she faked a few of the sneezes, but she wasn't judging--she cried over...well, pretty much anything.

  Valie went into the little bathroom in the cabin, which had a toilet, small sink, and a small mirror. Valie stared at her reflection, using the sleeve of her shirt to wipe a thin layer of dust off the mirror. Immediately she wished she hadn't. Her skin looked even paler than normal and her eyelids had puffed out from all of the crying. She took her hair down, ran her fingers through it and put it back in a ponytail. Then splashed her face with cold water and rinsed out her mouth. She'd never gone a single morning without brushing her teeth and suddenly it seemed very important.

  She stood there staring at her insipid reflection. A muffled shout snapped her back, it sounded like Carson. She pulled open the door.

  “What's going on?!” Valie asked in a panic. Maddy was standing at the open front door.

  “Trent bolted.” She said casually.

  “What!” Valie pushed past her, down the path she could see Carson running. Valie rushed out after them.

  “Where are you going?!” Maddy called behind her. “Don't leave me here alone!”

  Valie ran as fast as she could, her arms pumping at her sides, but Carson was fast.

  “Stop!” Valie screamed. She could see Carson lunge forward and then he was down.

  He was wrestling Trent to the ground. Valie slid to a halt once she got to them. Carson had Trent pinned underneath him.

  “What's going on?! Get off of him!” Valie pulled at Carson's arm.

  Trent was trying to wriggle away from Carson; his long arms were flailing under Carson’s much heftier frame.

  “Stop, dude! Stop!” Carson yelled, keeping him to the ground.

  “Get off of him, Carson!”

  Carson looked up at Valie, “He tried running!”

  “You're hurting him! Get off!” Valie shoved Carson. It didn't do much, but he gave Trent another push down and stood up.

  “Fine! I could give a damn!” Carson kicked some dirt towards Valie. “Let him leave then! That's on you.” He stalked away and Valie helped Trent to his feet.

  “Trent what were you thinking?”

  Trent took his arm away from her. “I was thinking...that this is such bull, Valie! I don't want to be here!”

  Valie looked at him worriedly, “I don't want to be here either.”

  “Then let's just leave! Let's just go back home!”

  Valie didn't know what to say. Her cousin looked so desperate.

  “Trent...”

  “No! No, no, no, no!” Trent waved his arms, “No! Come on, Valie! Seriously?!”

  He was escalating and Valie only stood back.

  “No! This isn't happening! This cannot be happening! My dad would never, he would never...”

  Then, he started to cry. “Valie?”

  “It's going to be okay,” she said softly.

  “How do you know that?”

  She paused and looked at their surroundings. The woods didn't seem so scary in the sunlight. The fall foliage was beautiful--there were hundreds of trees with leaves ready to fall, the green was still clinging, but orange and brown colors had started to surface. The sun was pushing through the leaves and rays of sunshine brought the woods to calm, serene life.

  Valie took her cousin's hand. “It's going to be okay,” she repeated. “Nothing bad is going to happen to us...I promise.”

  Trent grudgingly accepted that and they went back. Valie had always had the ability to comfort her cousin, he had always trusted her.

  Once back in the cabin, Carson had no bones about showing his anger and annoyance with Trent. He shot him a few dirty looks and asked him how he could have done something so stupid. It wasn’t helping the tension that had been constant from the very beginning.

  Not long after Trent's flee for freedom, the four of them started back down the path to get to the blazer that Phaedra had left for them.

  They walked in a line with Carson leading. No one spoke, but the silence wasn't peaceful. It was awkward and uncomfortable to each of them.

  The blazer was old with a few rust spots and a shade of dark blue.

  “I'll be sitting in the front; I have to k
eep at least a foot away from all of your germ-ridden bodies.” Maddy giggled, but Valie could tell that she was serious.

  Valie and Trent got into the back and as Valie buckled her seat belt, she wondered, if Phaedra left them a car, how did she get home? She tossed that thought back onto the pile of mounting questions she had.

  Carson had decided that they were going to drive to the library in the nearby town. Maddy asked him how he would know where to go, but he didn't answer her. Phaedra said that they were to follow the signs, but what did that mean? The library was as good of a start as any, Valie guessed.

  Valie had wanted to talk to Lewis. He knew things. She silently berated herself for not paying more attention to him when he had been talking about The Wozniak Five, but how was she supposed to know that that information could potentially be a lifeline for her? As much as she wanted to talk to him, she knew she couldn't. The thought of simply calling him brought the whole horrid scene from the night before flooding back. Her screams rang in her ears. She could hear the screeching tires and the men's voice, it came so suddenly and vividly that Valie covered her ears.

  Although some things had seemed far-fetched, the one thing that Valie could readily accept was that there was someone who was after them. Had she not been kidnapped...her reaction probably would've been similar to Trent's.

  “Valie?” Trent asked, tugging at her arm. “Are you okay?”

  She uncovered her ears and nodded. “I'm fine.”

  In the car, everything felt weird and a little awkward to each of them. Outside of Trent and Valie, none of them knew each other and they'd all been connected and forced to go on this life-saving mission. Each of them kept to themselves during the car ride, Valie stared out of her window, Trent chewed on his fingernails and from what Valie could tell, Maddy looked to be filing her nails.

  A short time later, they rolled into a city. They had entered Milwaukee. Carson grumbled that they would need to maintain a low profile. It was “his city,” after all.

  Carson took them right to the library. Trent said he was going to stay in the vehicle to “keep an eye out in the parking lot.” Valie resisted this notion. She did not want to separate from her cousin, but she knew that he needed some time to be alone. He needed an attempt to handle it all in his own way. In Valie's experience, any time that Trent had a problem in his life, he would retreat, isolating himself to himself and try and get through it alone. It had just been his way.

  Valie looked at Trent as she got out of the car. He looked back at her and she could see that he was almost pleading with eyes for some time alone. So, she left, walking to the library with Carson and Maddy.

  It was a large library and looked like it had been recently remodeled. The floors were dark hardwood, there were rows and rows of books, obviously, and a generously sized computer lab, as well as lounge type chairs that looked tempting to Valie. She could've curled up and went back to sleep in one of those chairs, but extra sleep was not a part of her distorted reality at the moment.

  Maddy marched up to the counter where the librarian sat. Carson and Valie stood back. Carson was eying their surroundings.

  “We need to make this quick,” Carson whispered to no one in particular.

  Valie was about to tell him that she already knew that, but a sudden blood-curdling scream interrupted her.

  It was Maddy.

  Carson and Valie rushed to her side. She was standing at the counter with her hands on her chest.

  “What? What?” Carson looked from Maddy to the librarian.

  Maddy only pointed. There was a fat black cat nestled in a basket on the counter as Maddy continued to stand back and stare at it in horror.

  "Are you kidding me?" Valie hissed.

  Maddy looked at her, breathing heavily, "I was attacked by a cat once! The monster bit my finger; you can still see the scar!" She held her index finger up to Valie's face and Valie pushed her hand away.

  “So unreal,” Carson said, punching the air.

  "Stop being ridiculous!” Valie whispered harshly then turned towards the librarian. "We are looking for any books you might have on The Wozniak Five."

  The thin librarian had her gray hair tied tightly back in a bun. She frowned, "They're probably all checked out, people have been demanding them all week, something about some anniversary or something. Look in the science fiction section." She pointed to the end of the library.

  "I'll go," Maddy said pushing her way ahead of Carson and Valie. “I need to get far away from that cat anyway.”

  They let her go and waited in a circular room with floor to ceiling windows and several tall tables with stools around each one. The lighting was dim in that area, reminding Valie of a cafe' rather than a library.

  Valie gazed into the computer lab, where a few people sat on computers, typing away. She watched them, feeling jealous. Their lives were probably the same as yesterday, nothing really different. They could mindlessly click on their Facebook accounts or check their emails, knowing that after this, they could go home and their lives would be the same. Valie found herself staring at one girl in particular, she was young. She had an average face with white rimmed glasses that had purple rhinestones on the sides. She sat in front of the computer, smiling at the screen and typing, as if she didn't have a care in the world.

  Valie jumped when Maddy suddenly plopped a book down in front of her. Valie looked at it for a moment, and then looked at Maddy who was struggling to hoist herself up on the stool.

  "What's this?"

  "The last book," Maddy answered with a grunt as she finally settled herself onto the seat. "It's the last book they have on The Wozniak Five."

  Valie gave her a blank stare.

  "This is a big deal in the science community you know."

  "So I've heard."

  "Some people think that The Wozniak Five will finally be revealed--if you sign into any chat room designated towards this topic, I'm sure they'll be lit up. I researched this my sophomore year."

  "People think that all of the sudden some scientist is going to tell the world who The Wozniak Five are and where they have been all these years just because it's been 18 years?"

  "Are you kidding? People have been dying for this anniversary! Do you know how incredible it is? People have been trying to re-create what Stan Wozniak and his team did all those years ago. No one has ever been able to come close to creating a human being like he did."

  Carson leaned forward, “Or maybe no one wanted to mess with fate like that. Our parents and Stan Wozniak...are monsters.”

  Maddy and Valie exchanged a glance and Carson's statement just sort of sat there for a moment.

  Valie cleared her throat and looked to Maddy. "It's actually not a bad idea, checking on chat rooms. Lewis, my..." Valie had to think how to finish, and felt a sting sadness, "Well, my friend Lewis was always talking about this type of stuff. I bet if we found one of the more popular chat rooms maybe we could learn something."

  "Not likely," Carson mumbled.

  "I think it's a brilliant idea," Maddy said defensively.

  "What do you expect to learn? Most of those kids or people on the internet are just swimming on rumors. They don't actually know anything. It's all going to be what's been taught in every middle school science class across America."

  "It's still not a bad idea," Valie said, "for one: what we learned in school is probably the most valid information we have. The four of us together don't know much...what could it hurt?"

  "Time." Carson said tiredly. "We don't have the time."

  "Here," Maddy jumped down from the stool. "I'll log onto a computer, see what I can find, and you two see if there's any information in this book," she instructed in her patronizing tone, as if Carson or Valie wouldn't be able to handle the daunting task of searching the internet. She was already gone before either of them could argue.

  Valie looked at the hefty book in front of her; it was the size of one of her textbooks from school. It had a plain cover and there was
no writing on the front, side, or back. The first three pages were blank; finally she turned to a page that simply said, "The Team of Stanley Wozniak," By: Emmett Benish. Valie turned to the first chapter and started reading.

  After the first couple of pages, Valie could see why it was the only book that wasn't checked out. The information was dull and redundant, not to mention, it was filled with grammatical errors. It contained information that Valie already knew. It was in large font and bold writing so the book would appear longer and it was written in the most boring way possible, using words that didn't seem to make sense in certain sentences. It talked about Stan Wozniak and his team members, mentioning them by first names only. Rory, Marnie, Hooper, Leon, Vincent, Ambrose, and Talia. Valie stared at the names. Leon and Marnie. Her mother and her uncle...they weren't even really related. Her mother had never been her mother, her uncle never her uncle. Was she even related to anyone?

  The book talked about the “team” in a distant way, not mentioning any personal facts. It was clear to her that the author didn't know anything beyond what was told to him, probably in school. Skimming through the pages, the author mentioned theories, quoting other books and quoting scientists throughout the years and then dissecting those statements.

  Valie slammed the book shut and sighed, then looked into the computer lab to see Maddy, typing feverishly away on the keyboard in front of her. Valie then looked at Carson; his head was down, with his fists clenched in front of him.

  “Are you sleeping?” Valie asked.

  He took a deep breath and brought his head up, “No.”

  She had a feeling that he was, but didn't say anything else about it. Were they really it? Valie wondered. Her, Carson, Maddy, Trent, and the guy that Phaedra had called Jackson. They were what astounded the world once? Valie had a hard time wrapping her head around that one. She struggled to find a prom date last year, Trent got shoved into lockers. There was nothing extraordinary about them, she thought. They were just a couple of teenagers in a small town in Wisconsin. While Maddy was certainly a...um, delight, she didn't seem that out of the ordinary. As for Carson, he was so stoic and quiet that it was really hard to tell anything about him. Valie wondered about Jackson, the one that ran from Phaedra. He was supposed to be the fifth one, but why did he run from Phaedra? Did he know about his pendant? Was he even alive?