by Andy Kaiser
Eena yanked me out of the room.
“Get back here!” Talia screamed at us.
Eena and I ran down the hallway. We weren't even halfway down before Talia stumbled out of the office. She held herself up by the doorframe for a moment, and seemed to gather her energy. Then she pushed off the door and came pounding towards us.
I looked at Eena. Whatever emotions had slammed through her while watching the video were gone, squeezed away for another time. She was focused, intense and moving fast.
I also noticed Eena was carrying something. Talia's box. I had completely forgotten about it.
Eena saw me looking and flashed me a desperate smile. I just focused on running as fast as I could.
Eena and I hit the double front doors to Nyhill Industries. They didn't open. I kicked at the tall, dark glass windows. Nothing happened apart from a dull thud. We both pushed on the latches together, but the handles themselves didn't move. They were locked. Jammed.
Or Talia was holding them closed.
She wasn't running any more. She was walking toward us. She held a jet injector in each hand. One each for Eena and me. I didn't know what they'd do to us, but I knew it wouldn't be good.
Talia moved slowly now, almost casually, as if she was concentrating on something else. She was looking at the doors. If she was holding them closed with her dreaming power, maybe we could escape while she was distracted. Though we couldn't escape without actually opening the doors. Not good.
I tried to relax and focus. I faced Talia. Like before, I reached out with the tentacles and pushed.
I could feel my strength reaching outside of my body, into the space between Talia and me. Then came a very weird sensation. I could see Talia's own power. The strange grayscale view appeared around me, the same as when I ran blinded through the forest, the same as when I used the dreaming to look around the building.
I saw the true hidden reality. Talia's dreaming power clustered around her like a huge ball, a squirming mass of thick, translucent worms. A long tendril extended from the mass and wrapped itself around the building doors like an unbreakable, undulating chain. The invisible wind I'd noticed before was now hurricane force – I couldn't feel it, but I could sense it. My gray vision wavered like a heat mirage, and even Talia's short choppy hair was whipped around by whatever power had suddenly appeared around all of us.
I traced Talia's long tendril and found where it held the door latches closed. It was massively strong, but I tried to move it anyway, tried to use my own dreaming power to pull away the monstrous grip.
Talia sensed it. She attacked me with another huge tendril that came literally out of nowhere. She swept out my legs and I slammed to the ground. In a lightning-fast strike, Talia lashed out again with another tendril. It grabbed me by the neck and forced me against the wall. I could barely breathe.
Talia flicked out with her hand and threw a jet injector toward me. I mentally knocked it aside with a weak tentacle slap, but Talia used her own tendril to catch the injector and push it towards my neck.
I pushed back with my own tentacle. Even though Talia was working on three different things at once, I was no match for her strength and the injector slid through the air, getting closer and closer.
“Eena,” I gasped. “Help.”
She was trying to open the doors, still with no luck. She slammed her shoulder into the glass again and again. She was too small, too light and she was starting to panic.
“Let me out get me out I can't be here help me help me help me Tyler please-”
She looked over at me with terror in her eyes.
I squeezed my eyes closed in pain and despair.
As if time was slowed-down, I again saw the almost-frozen gray world: Talia had one tendril around my neck. Another had secured itself around the double front doors. A third tendril shoved the jet injector inevitably towards my neck. I pushed back weakly, but I was no match for Talia's strength.
I saw Eena as she used her own dreaming power to push against the front doors. Her tendrils were bigger than mine, but smaller than Talia's. Her long brown hair - now looking like a faded gray in my dreaming-sight - whipped around in the invisible gale.
I tried to help. I reached out feebly with my remaining power.
Something changed.
Eena sensed it and turned to stare at me. We both realized that when I helped her, her own strength grew. A lot.
We could combine our powers.
My realization was instant. Our eyes met and I knew Eena felt it, too.
“This is just pathetic,” Talia said. She advanced on the both of us. She pushed the jet injector even closer to my neck. It shook in the air only centimeters away from my skin.
Talia looked at Eena and grew even angrier.
“You were the last experiment. You were supposed to be our success.”
I could tell this was personal. Talia's voice rose and the injector in front of me brushed against my jugular.
She screamed at Eena, “You were supposed to be the best!”
I flinched back from her pure rage.
“I'm not the best,” Eena said, and looked at me. “But we are.”
Eena stood tall as she and I combined our powers and pushed at the building doors. There was a metallic shriek. Behind her, the two huge windows in both doors shattered explosively.
My ears lit up with pain from the sound. Talia screamed. With my dreaming-sight, I saw the tentacle she'd been using on the door get ripped away, torn apart by the sudden violence. The invisible wind threw the pieces out of view almost immediately.
Thousands of glass shards sprayed everywhere, and I braced myself against the razor storm. Talia's deadly mental grip around my neck and chest faded away. The jet injector next to my neck wobbled in the air, then fell.
I scrambled to my feet and stared at the wreckage.
There was a sudden creepy silence, punctuated only by the crunch of me walking over broken glass. The front entrance looked like a dump truck had smashed through it.
Talia was down.
She lay sprawled and limp on the ground. Her eyes were closed and her skin was pale, except for the uncountable small cuts on her face and arms from the explosive blast. She was still breathing.
Eena and I looked at each other, amazed and terrified at what we'd done. There was no way I could've been that strong without her. She couldn't have broken out without me. From that moment, she and I were a part of each other. We needed each other.
Eena and I turned and ran through the warped, broken doors.
Chapter 31
After running for only a few seconds, Eena cried out and fell. I whirled and came back to her. She was huddled on the ground, clutching at her feet. Her mouth formed a silent scream of pain.
She was still barefoot. We'd just run through a doorway of shattered glass. I looked behind and saw the three bloody footprints Eena had left before she'd collapsed to the ground.
Talia's box lay where Eena had just dropped it. I scooped it up. With the other arm I heaved Eena back to her feet. The second she stood she gasped, a sharp intake of excruciating pain. Her face went white and her legs gave out. She collapsed and pulled me down to the ground with her.
“Tyler!”
I had been bad with blood, but compared with everything that had happened, it didn't seem that horrible any more. I studied Eena's feet.
Both her feet were bleeding. A lot. The quick glance told me everything I needed to know. She'd stepped on broken glass and shards had sliced into her skin. Some were still there.
I thought about carrying her, but I knew I couldn't. I was weak, too weak from the fight and the lack of sleep. I felt like collapsing myself. I wasn't Zack.
At the thought of my brother, I looked around but didn't see him. I was too scared to call his name. If Talia was still unconscious on the other side of the entrance, I didn't want to help wake her up.
I took a couple of deep breaths and concentrated hard. I closed my eyes.
> I used the dreaming-sight, and I looked at her feet. I could see them clearly. They were little, and in my vision showed as pale white, smeared with dark blood. I gently probed with the tentacles and discovered the location of five shards of glass.
As carefully as I could, one by one, I used a tiny tentacle to reach behind each shard and push it out of her foot. Three in her left foot, two in the right. One shard was embedded deep.
Eena yelped in sudden pain as I tried to work out the shard. I gave her a moment and pushed again. I heard it clink to the ground.
I opened my eyes and looked at Eena. She smiled painfully at me, and we stared down as she wiggled her toes tentatively. Avoiding the bloody glass, holding my arm for support, she slowly stood up.
She winced.
“It's not as bad. It was worse when the glass was stuck in me.”
“You still need a doctor. Let's get out of here, and we'll try to get-”
“I still need you.”
She grabbed my shoulders and with both hands she pulled me towards her.
We stood very close, almost like we were dancing. She kissed me, and I kissed her back. Our breath mixed, and the touch of her lips felt incredible.
I didn't want to pull away. She didn't want to either. But, in unspoken agreement, we did.
We looked at each other, our faces so close, and for a long moment I lost myself in her dark eyes. It was very easy to do.
“Come on,” Eena whispered. “We've got to hurry.”
Chapter 32
At first, we just ran. We needed to get as far away from Nyhill Industries as fast as possible. We didn't care about where, just that it be as far away from that horrible place as we could get.
Adrenaline got us at least a mile. Then I started getting seriously tired. I tried to hide it, but ended up moving slower and slower and finally Eena noticed.
“Tyler! Are you okay?”
“Sure,” I gasped. I leaned against a tree. My hand pushed against a nasty cramp in my stomach. I slid down to the ground and sat, taking heaving breaths.
“We need to keep moving.”
“I can't go as fast as you,” I looked up at her, then down at her bloodied, dirty feet. I suddenly felt ashamed. If she could still move through such awful pain, then the least I could do was keep up with her and not slow her down. I pushed back against the tree and stood up again. I wobbled.
“Here,” she said. She put an arm securely around my waist. The shorter, smaller Eena propped me up enough to get me walking. After a while, we got into a good pace. It wasn't fast, but at least we were moving.
We walked and her head bumped against my shoulder. We found a good rhythm. We leaned into each other, and supported each other.
We didn't say much. We were concentrating on where we were going. There was no path to follow, so we had to squint into the dark night and pay attention enough to dodge branches, trees, bushes, stumps and the many other things Eena didn't want to step on. I flipped back and forth between using my eyes and the dreaming-sight. It didn't take much effort now to see in that gray world, but I was weak and on my last reserves of strength. Eventually, even that little effort became too much.
Eena heard the sound first. She stopped and I stumbled.
“What is it?” I said.
“Listen. You hear it?”
It was the sound of running water.
She pointed us towards the noise and we kept walking.
“If it's a river,” she said, “Maybe it empties into the lake. If we can find the lake, we can find Lone Wolf Lodge. Then we can leave and get far away from all of this.”
I looked up and blinked. I wasn't sure, but thought I saw the first touch of sunrise through the forest canopy. That was good. At least we'd be able to see where we were going.
We trudged along and the sound grew louder. It was definitely a river. I could almost smell it. The air seemed fresher.
“Eena?”
“Hmm?”
“How did you know my name? When we first met? How did you know who I was?”
She looked up at me, her eyes smiling.
“I mean,” I said. “If you spied on me for a while, it's okay. I know you were trying to escape from Nyhill Industries.” I lifted Talia's small metal box. “So I understand if you did sneaky stuff to find out who I was. But I just have to know what you did to find out.”
“I didn't do anything,” she said. “I had just stolen a swimsuit from a clothesline outside a cabin. I saw you and went to the lake to meet you. Zack said your name, like a minute before I met you. I overheard.”
“Oh. So you were-”
“Don't worry, I returned the swimsuit.”
So much for an elaborate explanation.
We continued our stumbling walk. We were both terribly tired, but the sun was rising. I could actually see individual leaves blocking out some of the sky above us. There was a faint yellow near the horizon. It was getting much easier to see.
“I've got one more for you,” I said.
She smiled. “Okay, go.”
“Did you inject me with this power? Did you make it so I can dream?”
She didn't answer. She didn't look at me, but kept on moving.
I stopped walking, and that stopped her. She dropped her arm from my side and faced me.
“I have to know, Eena.”
She looked back up at me and again her eyes were hard.
“Yeah. I did. I stole some of the stuff Talia put into her test subjects.”
“Test subjects?”
“Like animals. Other people. Herself. Me.”
I got a chill. I didn't want to have anything in common with Talia. Unfortunately, she, Eena and I were linked together in a freaky, frightening way.
“You gave me this power,” I said flatly.
“Yes. I took one of those jet injectors with me. I used it on you when I hugged you that first night. I had to do it. I had to-”
“It's okay,” I said softly. I smiled at her to show I meant it, because I really did. She gave me a sad smile in return.
“How long does it last?” I asked. “Does the power wear out or something?”
“I don't know. I have no idea how it works. I just know I've always had it.”
“Well, I need to know. For me. There's got to be a way to find out. We could see a doctor. Or a scientist. Explain everything. They'd help us.”
“Yeah, right. And then they'd lock us in a room and study us for the rest of our lives.” She shuddered. “You don't want that. Never. Ever. Trust me.”
She was right, of course. There would be no way I'd ask her to take this to someone who had the power to help, because we couldn't trust anyone. Their methods of “protection” would just put Eena back in a cage as bad as what she'd just escaped from.
“There has to be some way to figure out how the dreaming works.” I didn't know if this power was temporary or permanent or if it would do other things to me. I couldn't let it go, because my life might depend on me finding out.
“I think only Talia knows. Or maybe some of the others at Nyhill Industries.”
“There are others?”
“Sure. I've counted four others since... Since I've been alive.”
We heard a rushing, gurgling noise just ahead. We walked through a break in the forest. It opened up and we saw a small river in front of us, streaming water from right to left.
“Yes!” Eena cried. She sat down on the riverbank and wiggled to the edge. She immediately put her injured feet into the water. She gave a sound of pure pleasure and collapsed on her back. Her feet dangled there and the water rushed over them.
I sat down next to her.
She put a hand over her eyes. Her face crumpled and she started to cry.
I was frozen for a moment, not knowing what I was supposed to do. Then I realized that 'supposed to' didn't really apply here. I knew what I wanted to do, and what she needed.
I held her. I wrapped her in a hug and she turned her body and leaned in
to me. I let her cry against me for a while. It was sad and almost made me feel like crying myself. But in a weird way, it also felt good, because I was there for her when she needed me.
Eventually her sobs slowed down and stopped. She wiped tears from her eyes.
“Thanks, Tyler,” she said. Her voice was really quiet.
She lay back again with her feet back in the flowing river. She closed her eyes. She didn't look as sad. She seemed to be getting sleepy.
I stared at the water. I reached in and hung my hands there for a while. It was cool and clear. Then I splashed water on my face and tried to scrub away the sweat and dirt I felt there.
I was incredibly thirsty and hungry. Painfully so.
I looked at the water. I knew I wasn't supposed to drink from any river – it could be contaminated and get me really sick. In this case, I decided to take a chance. It was either drink now, or figure out how to call an ambulance in the middle of nowhere, because I felt like I was about to pass out.
I took off my shoes and socks and walked awkwardly into the river. The bottom was clear and the water only came up to my knees. I leaned over, cupped both hands into the river and drank.
The cold water slid down my throat and landed heavily in my stomach. It was the best thing I'd ever tasted. I drank a lot more.
When I was done, I sat down next to Eena.
My head was fuzzy and my eyes wanted to close. I was really tired. Not pass-out woozy, but like I needed to sleep for a week. It made sense, since the sun was now poking through the trees, and I was on just a few hours of sleep for the last two days, and there had been just a little bit of excitement in the meantime.
I watched Eena for a while. I felt like I wanted to take care of her, to protect her.
Her eyes were closed. She was breathing heavily. Her feet still hung in the water. I gently lifted them out of the river and turned her slightly so she'd be more comfortable with her legs on the ground. As an afterthought, I took my socks and put them on her feet, thinking any protection was better than none.
She could use my shoes when we started walking again. I wish I'd thought of it earlier. She'd probably appreciate the offer. Or she might think it was incredibly disgusting. I looked forward to finding out.
