Johnson replied, “Yeah. We can’t have unauthorized pendants in the compound. We removed them from their necks until one of you can take them back permanently.”
Matthew tapped the glass of the window and said, “I gave them the pendants so they would survive the trip through the rorimite tunnel. They might need them to heal from the trip.”
Walter replied, “We didn’t see any major physical problems with them. They’ll be fine.”
Johnson pointed to a door just to the side of the window. “We can go inside and talk to them, if you want.”
April started to walk to the door, but Walter moved to block her way.
“I don’t have any problem with letting you and the boys go in and talk with the girl and boy, but…”
Matthew shot a glare at Walter, who immediately corrected himself.
“I mean Amanda and Steven.” He looked for approval from Matthew before continuing. “But we have something important to take care of first. I need that attribute charm from Matthew.”
Matthew looked to his mother and put his hand over his Hathmec. Walter went on, “We have to trust each other here, April. I will copy the charm over to all of you after it has been transferred to me. I promise you.” He took April’s hand and added, “I have never done anything to make you doubt me, and I won’t start now.”
“What about Amanda and Steven?” Matthew asked. “We can’t send them back.”
Connor added, “Yeah. We went through too much to save them. We can’t just send them back to be killed.”
Walter released April’s hand and said, “You didn’t understand what I was saying, Connor. I’m not going to send them back to 1984. I have another idea that will help everyone. You have to trust me.”
For Connor, trusting anyone was an issue, but with Walter Wainright it had become next to impossible.
April approached Matthew and took his hand. She walked him over to the other end of the hall and talked to him. “We have to let go of things to move forward. I think this is one of those times.”
“I don’t know if I trust Walter anymore, Mom. I mean, what if he takes the charm and then kills Amanda and Steven? The charm is the only leverage we have.”
“We can’t think like that,” April replied. “If we can’t trust Walter, then we have nothing to fight for anyway.”
She picked the Hathmec up from around Matthew’s neck and said, “I think it’s time we show a little trust and see what happens.”
Matthew walked back to the other end of the hall where Connor waited to see what he had decided. Matthew gazed into Walter’s eyes and thought to himself, “I give this to you.”
The yellow glow of the attribute charm filled the hallway for a few brief moments and floated from Matthew’s Hathmec to the Hathmec worn by Walter Wainright. Walter could feel the power run from the pendant through his body. He felt strong and connected to everyone in the hallway. He basked in the feeling briefly before collecting himself and coming back to the moment.
The attribute copies that had been around the necks of April and Connor had vanished. Once Matthew turned his charm over to Walter, all copies went with it. The Chance family was down to just their health charms. April looked to Walter, expecting him to copy the attribute, as he had promised.
Walter scanned the hallway and hesitated. Connor yelled, “I knew it! You’re not gonna copy the charm to us.”
Walter smirked and looked to Agent Johnson. “Johnson, I want you to take April and her sons…”
Walter hesitated for another moment before completing his thought. “Take April and her sons into the infirmary to see Amanda and Steven. I now copy the attribute charm to all of you.”
Within seconds, everyone in the hall felt a rush of energy. They looked down to their Hathmec pendants and saw the sharp yellow reflection of the attribute charm. Walter had kept his promise, and with that, a small bit of trust was renewed in Matthew and April.
Walter hugged April as she entered the infirmary. She returned the gesture and motioned for the boys to follow her. Walter told April that he wanted to speak to each of them after they were done with the Curry kids. “I want to speak to each of you one on one. I need to know exactly what happened while you were in 1984.”
Matthew and Connor both apologized to Agent Johnson, Matthew a bit more sincerely than Connor. “I’m sorry I threw you like that.”
Johnson replied, “I shouldn’t have grabbed Connor. I’m sorry. It’s good that you protect your family.”
The boys and April entered the infirmary and approached the beds where Amanda and Steven lay. The nurses were about to bring them out of their sleep, and they wanted to be right there when they woke up.
April whispered to the boys, “I think we did the right thing. I knew we could count on him.”
Matthew replied, “I guess we just overreacted.”
“I still have a bad feeling about this,” Connor grumbled.
Johnson left the room and found Walter standing in the corner, watching the Chance family through the window. He had told Agent Addison and the other three men to head back to their quarters.
“Well, Walter, what do we do now? If you send those kids back to 1984, we’ll have a mutiny on our hands.”
Walter replied, “I need to talk to the girl, Amanda, as soon as possible. I have an idea, but I need to make sure of something first.”
“What do you need to make sure of?”
“Oh…love, Mr. Johnson,” Walter said with a grin. “Love is something that can’t be quantified. It can only be expressed.” He turned from the window and started walking down the hall. “I think we may have an asset that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. Perhaps bringing those kids back here was just what we needed.”
With that, Walter entered the elevator and headed back up to the main floor of the compound. Johnson stayed behind and watched the Chance family as Amanda and Steven started to come to.
Chapter 4
QUESTION OF THE DAY
The infirmary was a cold place, devoid of color and expression. The health charm kept most of Walter’s team from ever needing to visit this particular room. It was used to help people who were not a part of Walter’s team or those that were being vetted into the group by Agent Johnson.
An injection had been administered to both Amanda and Steven just before April, Matthew, and Connor entered the room. The Chance family watched as they both struggled for consciousness, their eyelids twitching against the bright glow of fluorescent lights overhead.
April hurried to Steven’s bedside. She wanted to make sure that he saw a familiar face as soon as he came to. Waking to a dull and sterile place like the infirmary would be a scary proposition for anyone, but for a nine-year-old who had just survived what Steven had been through, it could be too much.
Connor and Matthew positioned themselves around Amanda’s bed. Connor sat to her side so that she could still see Steven’s bed, and Matthew paced back and forth at the foot. She began to open her eyelids as the light seeped into her pupils. It took a few moments for the images of the room to take shape. A monitor, a hanging light, and the familiar figures of the Chance family came into focus. Connor broke the silence.
“Welcome to 2185. We hope you enjoy your stay.” Waking to a bit of sarcasm wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but it did remind Amanda of her current situation.
Matthew asked, “How are you feeling? Do you want something to drink? What do you remember?”
Amanda cleared her throat before she replied.
“I remember everything. I was really hoping all of this was a dream, but no such luck.” She moved her head from side to side and then slowly sat up in the bed. “I feel pretty good, just a little sore.”
Connor grabbed a cup of water and handed it to Amanda. “When you don’t have the health charm, you don’t heal quite so fast.”
Amanda reached to her chest but couldn’t feel the pendant that Matthew had copied for her back in 1984. “I guess the guys in charge here
didn’t think I needed a necklace.”
Matthew walked to the wall at the end of the room and reclaimed the two pendants Walter had removed from the Curry kids. Each pendant was pulling itself toward the former cheerleader and her brother. It was all that Matthew could do just to keep them from flying out of his hands.
“Here, put this back on. It will make you feel better.”
Amanda took the chain and placed it around her neck. A calming sensation flowed through her blood and throughout her body. Amanda closed her eyes and with just a bit of southern twang said, “I’m feeling better already.”
Matthew handed the other pendant to his mother, who placed it around Steven’s neck. He was just starting to wake up and saw April’s face before any other. She smiled at the young boy and he returned the gesture. April asked, “Do you know who I am?”
“You’re Matthew’s mom.”
She nodded her head and asked, “Do you know where you are?”
The young boy looked around the room and asked, “Is this the future? I wanna see the flying cars.”
April giggled and grabbed the boy’s hand. “I don’t know about any flying cars, but I’ll see what I can do.”
Amanda got up from her bed and stood beside her brother.
“It’s not quite the futuristic look I had imagined.”
Connor jumped to Amanda’s side and replied, “This is just a stupid room in Walter’s command center. Everything outside of this is really something to look at.”
Rolling his eyes, Matthew said, “Are you kidding? There’s nothing outside of this room that can match anything we saw back in Travis.”
April helped Steven out of his bed and took him by the hand. “How about we show Amanda and Steven around the compound? We can show them Walter’s room, with all of the artifacts. They’ll probably know what most of them are.”
Amanda stopped April’s progress and said, “I’m all about a good tour and everything, but I’m more curious to know what we’re going to do next. What’s gonna happen to Steven and me? Has your great leader decided what we’re gonna do?”
April could hear the concern in Amanda’s voice. It was scary not knowing what was going to happen. In reality, though, April didn’t know what was going to happen to any of them. She and the boys had just accomplished a very difficult task, but the job wasn’t done. Walter had more in store for them, and she herself wanted to know what was to come as much as anyone.
“I’m not sure just yet, Amanda. He’s talking with his team, and I’m sure they’ll have a plan soon. Just try to stay patient for now.”
April walked to the door of the infirmary and attempted to open it, with no success. “It’s locked.”
April banged on the door and called for someone to open it.
“Open the door, please! We need the door opened, please!”
Matthew and Connor had had a bad feeling before coming into the infirmary. This wasn’t helping their lack of trust in Walter, since there was no reason for the door to be locked. It was an infirmary. People should be coming in and out of it at will.
April could hear the sound of a lock being adjusted on the outside, and the door swung open. There stood Agent Marco, muscles protruding from his green, military-grade shirt. Marco was a man of few words, but he did respond to April in his own dry, matter-of-fact fashion.
“Walter wants everyone to stay here for now. Please stop banging on the door.”
April bristled. “That’s not acceptable. We are not prisoners here. We are all part of the same team.”
Connor added, “Maybe I should break the door down. Can we leave then?”
With a smirk, Marco replied, “You could take the strength of everyone in this room and everyone here in the hall, and you still wouldn’t put a dent in this door. We’ll let you out soon.”
“Is this because of us?” Amanda asked. “They don’t want me and Steven to see anything—or maybe they don’t trust us.”
Matthew approached the one-way window at the front of the room. He had looked upon Amanda and Steven when he was on the other side of it, but he couldn’t see a thing from inside the infirmary. His distrust of Walter grew by the minute, and he began to second-guess himself. Maybe he shouldn’t have turned over the attribute charm to Walter after all.
April sat down on the end of one of the beds. She was surprised at the way Walter was acting toward herself and the boys. They had risked everything to help him, and this is how he repaid them? Locking them into a room was not what she had expected.
The boys stewed around the room for over thirty minutes. Amanda watched the boys as they tried to develop a plan of escape. It was almost comical.
“Maybe we fake an illness, and when they open the door, we take ’em down,” Matthew said.
“They can see what we’re doing from the other side of the glass,” Connor replied. “How are we gonna surprise anybody?”
Matthew agreed it was a bad idea, and Connor suggested a different plan.
“How about I take all of the strength we have in the room and use it to throw you through the glass window?”
“Wouldn’t it be easier to throw a chair or bed frame?” Matthew asked.
“It would be more fun to see you go flying through the window,” replied Connor. “They’d never expect that!”
Moments later, a quick knock sounded at the door. Agent Johnson walked in and said, “Ok, everything looks good. Who’s hungry?”
April approached him and asked, “What do you mean, everything’s ok? Why are we locked in here?”
Grinning, Johnson replied, “Calm down. Walter needed to make sure that Amanda and Steven weren’t carrying any diseases from 1984 before he could let them walk around the compound. We would all be fine because of the health charm, but the general population couldn’t handle the introduction of a new disease.”
He looked to everyone in the room and added, “He was just being safe. He’s very smart like that.”
Matthew felt bad that he had doubted Walter to such an extent. The explanation from Johnson made perfect sense. Connor, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure. Connor still had a nagging feeling that something just wasn’t right about Walter Wainright. His doubts had only grown since they had returned from 1984. But he decided to keep his doubts to himself for now.
Johnson rubbed Steven’s head playfully and said, “It looks like this young man is feeling better. I bet you could eat a whole tray of grub, couldn’t you?”
Steven smiled and said, “What’s grub?”
Amanda laughed and said, “He means food.”
Steven perked up. “I sure could. Can we all get something to eat, Amanda?”
Amanda agreed with her brother. “I could use a little food, too. A shower wouldn’t kill me either.”
Johnson shook his head in approval and motioned for Amanda and Steven to follow him.
“I will take these two down to the food hall and show them around while you three have your debriefs with Walter.”
“Debriefs? What do you mean?” asked Connor.
“Just head down to the end of the hall. Addie is down there and she’ll lead you to Walter’s office. He wants to have a quick session with each of you.”
Johnson walked out the door with Amanda and Steven in tow and said, “He just needs to know exactly what happened while you were there. It’s very important to the next phase of our plans.”
With a glance back at Matthew and Connor, Amanda hollered, “I guess we’ll see you in a little while?”
Johnson answered for them. “Oh, yeah, they’ll catch up to us once they’re done with Walter.”
Resigned, April said, “Let’s just get it over with. Follow me.”
April led the boys to the end of the hall as Johnson had instructed. Addie was there, leaning against the wall near the door of an unmarked office. She looked up from a computer monitor and caught April’s eye. She wore a pointed, ear-to-ear grin.
“He wants to talk to you first. The boys can stay ou
t here with me.”
She opened the door, and April walked past her, just grazing the side of her arm. Addie pulled the door closed, making sure she heard the sound of the latch clicking into place. Setting the small computer monitor on a table and standing in front of the door, she proceeded to ask the boys a few questions.
“Your mom seems a little overwhelmed. Is she ok?”
Matthew glanced at Connor before he answered. “She’s fine. She’s been through a lot the last few weeks.”
“Yeah, I’m sure she has.” Addie replied.
She straightened her coat and combed through her hair with her fingers before she turned to Connor. The coat seemed out of place considering the temperature in the compound, but she had no plans of removing it. The boys were a bit distracted by her overall appearance. They didn’t want to mess with her, but they couldn’t help but be attracted to the black-haired beauty.
“Did anything else happen during your trip that we need to know about, besides bringing back the girl and boy?”
Connor tried to avoid eye contact with this trusted ally of Walter Wainright’s and replied without hesitation. “No, everything else went to plan.”
Addie lowered her head and picked up the small computer tablet at her side. “You two can sit over there for now. Walter will let us know when he needs you.”
The boys took a seat against the far wall, across from the office, and waited for their turn with Walter. With Addie in earshot, they didn’t speak for fear of saying something they shouldn’t.
April entered the office and was amazed at how well everything was organized. Books covered the walls, and boxes were stacked in order of size along the walkway to Walter’s desk. He sat behind it with an approachable grin and welcomed April to take a seat.
April obliged without hesitation. Walter began by saying he was being very cautious with Amanda and Steven, further explaining that his reason for conducting some blood tests was to make sure they did not have diseases that could potentially cause problems in 2185.
“We are protected here, but many of the diseases that have been eradicated over the last one hundred years were still quite prevalent in the 1980s. Anything that was potentially an airborne contaminant couldn’t be released into the air of our time.”
Last Chance Volume 2 - The Legend of the Hathmec: Planting the Seed Page 5
