by Laura Mae
He pulled her away with a concerned smile, “Syd, what’s going on?”
“I’m just so happy to see you guys,” Sydona squeaked. Her father wiped tears off her face that couldn’t seem to stop flowing.
As she grabbed her mother’s hand, in order to touch them both, she heard the slight sound of helicopter propellers growing louder and louder. Her heart pounded with each whip of the propellers, and she wasn’t sure why, but it meant something very bad.
“We need to leave! Now!” She seized her dad’s hand, smashing the coffee cup on the floor. The sunlight that once burst through the windows became black, and it looked as if a tornado formed out of thin air. The helicopter landed in their front yard that was covered in dead, yellow grass, and men in white coats poured out by the dozens. Sydona clasped both of her parents’ hands even tighter and sprinted to the backyard. Suddenly she felt as if she were on a conveyor belt that was leading to the front yard, right to the helicopter. Tears blurred her vision and the back door seemed to be rotting away and getting further from her reach.
Looking down at her empty hands, she panicked and wondered when her parents had let go of her. She searched for them frantically as the house fell apart. She saw them in the front yard, fighting off the army of men. Soon, the men had caught up to her and tackled her to the ground. She felt every scratch, kick, and grab. Unable to defend herself, she could not stop them from taking her away in the van with her parents. Everything went black.
As darkness took over, she prayed that when she opened her eyes she would be awake. But once her eyes decided it was safe to open, she found herself rolling down a white hallway on a cart with blinding florescent lights on the ceiling. She tilted her head to the side and saw the men in white coats pushing her cart. She instantly panicked. Struggling to move, she felt her hands and feet strapped down and a bright white sheet covering her body. Her head was the only part of her that could move freely. Doors lined the hallway. Most of the doors were opened wide, and she could see people in the rooms clear as day. She heard every single sound in the strange place: screaming, blood curdling screaming, electric tools, metal things dropping, pounding, thumping, and crying. It all echoed through the hall and into her small ears. She wanted to cover them up, but her hands were still bound. Then, all at once, it stopped. She feared she had gone deaf.
She was rolled into a big white room. They positioned her to where she could see her parents strapped to devices on the the wall. She felt sickened to see all the wires being hooked up to both of them but more traumatized to see them sliced open. Their eyes had been removed, and it bloodied their faces and bodies. There was so much blood; Sydona swore their skins had been turned inside out. They were still conscious according to the machines they were hooked up to, and Sydona wanted to scream, but no sound came out. She then saw another man wearing a sterile white coat walk in, but he seemed different than anyone else she saw so far. He wielded a butcher's knife and smiled menacingly at her.
“Hello, Sydona. This will only hurt a little.”
He removed the sheet from her body, and she saw herself in the same state as her parents. She could see her heart pumping as fast as a mouse, and her face turned white. The man with the knife stood over her, aiming the knife right at her eyes, and she began to scream. Her screaming made no sound, but it didn’t matter. She screamed until she could hear herself, and her voice slowly came back to her lungs.
~~~~~~~
“Syd!” Raoul yelled in her face until her eyes forced open.
She sat up quickly with a fast beating heart and sweat dripping down her face. The crying she had done in the dream transformed to real life tears and had soaked the comforter below. Silas stood by the edge of the truck with a worrisome look. Her face flushed with the idea of her screaming randomly in the middle of a forest, scaring the daylights out of Raoul. Silas and Raoul seemed to be the only ones there, so Giovonna and Willow were probably out hunting still. The shadows didn’t change very much, and the sun shone brightly. Once again, she lacked sleep.
“Bad dream?” Raoul asked as he stood on the side of the truck bed.
She nodded and took a deep breath, not really wanting to revisit the nightmare. But she spoke up softly and Raoul and Silas leaned in to listen. “I was back home and a kid again. Mom and dad were there and--it felt so real…” She held back tears. “Mom looked like an angel, and dad was same old dad with his coffee. And then--it changed. The sky turned black, and men in white came bursting into the house. It felt like hundreds... They took them away and--took me, too. I...” She stopped to cry. She sobbed harder than she ever had before.
She caught Silas’s face in the midst of the tears, and he looked as if he was on the verge of tears, too. Silas caressed her knee and nodded slightly. Revenge. Anger. Remorse. Disbelief. Hate. And now, scared. She understood now. And Silas knew she understood where he came from. Although, this didn’t make her feel any better. If anything, it made her feel embarrassed.
“Can I be alone please?” she said.
Raoul didn’t move because he knew that she didn’t really want to be alone. And he was right, she didn’t want him to leave. Mostly, she didn’t want Silas to see her so vulnerable. He respected her request and walked away from the truck. Grabbing a couple blankets to make a softer pillow, Sydona lay back down and wiped her face with another one. Only a minute later she felt the truck bounce as if someone sat down inside it. The middle tiny window opened up between the bed and the front seats.
“Did you know butterflies used to be plump, fat, ugly worms?” Silas asked her after several minutes.
Sydona scoffed. “Silas… please. Not now.”
“I mean, they are born, and they are these little fat worms that just crawl around and eat all day long. For months, or I guess years for them, they just eat and eat and eat and try to avoid being eaten. Like, it must really suck to live as a caterpillar.”
“What’s happening right now?” She furrowed her eyebrows at Raoul who just shrugged back at her.
Silas continued. “But then, something happens. These dumb little worms have this brilliant dream. A dream of making a cocoon bed for themselves. They stay in that bed for days, just thinking what it would be like to not be a dumb little worm who does nothing in the world. And thinks real hard what it would be like to fly. To have wings and go anywhere they want and not be limited to where they can go. To pollinate flowers and make more flowers and make the world a more beautiful place. To wonder what you might look like when you wake up. Are you going to be a purple butterfly or an orange one or yellow? You could be anything.”
“Silas...” Sydona said then looked up and saw him upside down, looking at her through the window.
“What? You told me about your dream, so I told you mine,” he said with a wink and a grin.
Sydona couldn’t hold back a full smile. “Are you saying I’m a butterfly?”
“I’m saying--don’t let a silly dream hold you back,” he said.
Sydona’s heart skipped a beat. Even with his shaggy hair and dirty appearance, she somehow found him attractive. The smile he liked to show off wore on her, and she enjoyed the feeling. As she lay there, staring up at him, he blankly stared at something next to her. She could tell he was deep in thought, and she waited for the next thing that would come out of his mouth.
“I’ll go with you.” He spoke just above a whisper.
His answer was not what she expected. He didn’t seem excited or afraid, just average. Almost like he felt guilty for not going. But he said yes, which meant they had their ride.
“You’ll go?” Raoul said excitedly.
Silas nodded at Raoul and hopped out of the car to face Sydona.
“Are you sure?” Sydona asked and sat back up.
“Yeah. You need my big strong male muscles to take this place on. I couldn’t deprive you of something so essential.” He posed and kissed his arm muscles hiding under his loose jacket.
Sydona gazed into his eyes with seriousne
ss, knowing he only used humor to hide his true feelings. He reminded her a lot of Raoul who always joked in serious moments.
Silas sighed. “You’re right. I can’t just stay here and do nothing. I would be as useful as this truck here, growing rust.”
Sydona smiled. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, yeah. We’re gonna be spending a lot of time together, and I only ask one thing of you.” His voice got louder and more confident. “Don’t you go falling in love with me, okay?”
Sydona held back a smile and felt her cheeks grow rosy. “Okay.”
“I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen!” Raoul burst between them and gave Silas the stink eye.
Just then, they heard Giovonna and Willow laughing as they walked back to the camp. Willow carried all the kills: rabbit, squirrel, and a small fox. Giovonna hardly limped at all as she joined the rest of the group.
“Look what I got, Syd!” She pointed to the animals in Willow’s grip as she proudly held them up.
“Great! Will be plenty for you three,” Sydona said with slight sarcasm.
“I tried looking for not meat things like mushrooms or berries, but I wasn’t sure what would kill you or not,” Giovonna said with a shrug.
“I probably could’ve told you, but that’s okay. Silas has enough for me for now,” she said and exited the truck.
Willow got busy adding wood to the dying fire and began to skin the animals. Glancing at the sun, Sydona assumed it was about noon. Her mind began to wander back to its original track and getting to Eagle Lake as soon as possible. Just as she was ready to tell the girls the good news, Raoul spat it out.
“Silas is coming with us!”
“Really? That’s great!” Giovonna jumped up and hugged Silas, catching him off guard.
“Good! That means we should prolly start headin’ out soon, huh?” Willow informed as she put the fox on a metal skewer.
“Yes. I want to leave in the next hour or two. Whenever we’re done eating and pack stuff up. Still gonna be a long drive,” Sydona said as she grabbed more food from Silas’s stash.
“What changed your mind?” Giovonna asked and then took a swig of water.
“Oh ya know… I realized that I need to be a part of something bigger. Instead of bumming out here, eating rodents. Squirrel gets really old after a while,” Silas said truthfully.
“Glad you’re coming along, Sil. Okay if I call ya Sil?” Willow asked as she devoured more jerky.
“No.” Silas laughed.
The group finished eating and talking about life, taking their minds off of the road ahead. Raoul bragged about all the embarrassing stories involving Sydona, and she couldn’t make him stop. If she thought crying in front of a stranger was embarrassing, the story about her sleepwalking naked and wandering into the parking lot of a mall was just the tip of the iceberg. Her and Raoul were homeless at the time, and it was the middle of summer. He said her unconscious mind wanted to find a lake to jump in. The fact that he didn’t try to wake her up for a while was new information to her and made her slightly upset. Instead of chasing him around the fire like a child, she buried her face in one of her shirts.
The fun soon came to an end, and they began to pack up all of their belongings. They took as much food as they could, and with the extra space in the bin, Silas hid things inside it. Most of the blankets were stored in it to make room for whoever sat in the back. Willow made a point to sit up front with Silas so that she could help navigate since she had more experience. And with Willow upfront, there was no room for anyone in the middle, which meant Giovonna sat in the back with Sydona and Raoul. She kept one of the blankets with her, so she could try to sleep on the way.
Silas slammed the gate of the truck bed shut, making the girls jump. She caught his gaze as he made his way to the front. From the corner of her eye, she could see Giovonna with a big goofy smile.
“What’s that about?” Giovonna whispered as she leaned in closer.
“What? Nothing…” Sydona shook her head and made herself comfortable in the corner of the bed.
“Yeah huh. I saw the look you gave him.” Giovonna jabbed her knee.
“Stop it. There was no look ,” Sydona mumbled and avoided eye contact.
Raoul and Giovonna burst into laughter as they exchanged nods and eye wiggling.
Sydona rolled her eyes and lay down in the truck to try catching up on her sleep. Silas pulled away from the campsite, and they were finally on their way to Oregon.
Chapter Twelve
The sun was beginning to set when she finally woke up. Most of the ride she could hear Giovonna and Raoul talking away. She was glad that Raoul got along with her. They practically had the same level of maturity, and Giovonna could handle his energy. As she fully awoke, she listened to Giovonna talk about her school friends she missed. She wasn’t sure if she would ever see them again. Sydona knew that the few friends she had, like Annie, she wasn’t sure she would see again either. Her stomach churned thinking about Annie’s son, Joseph, whom she always admired. Every parent wished for a kid as sweet and kind as Joseph. She never realized how much she missed that little kid. She wanted to get their whole plan over with, so she could see him again. The last time she saw Joseph was when they were in Mayfield, and they stopped the bounty hunter. She hoped they were okay. As she wondered how the NFA treated people who interfered with their work, her eyes turned brown. Annie seemed intelligent and most likely drove away once they were out of town.
Her mind drifted back to Eagle Lake as trees whizzed by at sixty miles per hour. Then, she sat up.
“Hey!” Sydona yelled up to Silas through the tiny window. “I think we should stop soon.”
“Why? Do you have to pee?” he yelled back.
“Ew, no. We need to talk about stuff,” Sydona said and rolled her eyes.
“What kind of stuff?” he asked flamboyantly.
“Oh, just pull over!”
Silas pulled over to the side of the rocky road, kicking up white dust. Willow pulled out the map of Eagle Lake that she got from the train station and flattened it out on the hood of the rusty red truck. The park seemed pretty large according to the streets nearby, but for being a park named after a lake, the lake wasn’t really that large. There only seemed to be one entrance with a small booth that was probably for park fees or information. There were big hills on the west side behind a much larger building labeled as the visitors’ center.
“What do you suppose they use that building for?” Sydona pointed to the largest building on the map.
“Maybe that’s where we’re all held?” Giovonna guessed.
“Ya think? Doesn’t seem like it would be that big,” Willow said.
“Yeah, I’m thinking it’s used for the experiments and maybe where the doctors go. Set up like a temporary blood drive,” said Sydona.
“Do you think they are using the entire park?” Silas asked.
“I think so. Would be kinda strange to be doing experiments only a few feet from a kid on a swing,” Sydona said matter-of-factly.
“Well that would imply that the park is small. Why couldn’t they be doing their experiments on this side of the lake only and still have a functioning kids park on the other side?” Silas retorted with the same attitude.
“Yeah, I agree with Sydona,” Raoul said, standing on the map and looking at it more intently. “Why would they choose this location if they are using half? I mean, I think they would either use the entire thing or find a more remote location.”
Silas shrugged in defeat and then nodded his head.
“Well, all I really care about is where John Malik is. He’s in charge of everything,” Sydona said more seriously.
“Do ya think he’s actually there, though? He may be in charge, but who knows if he will be there when we arrive. If he’s smart, he will be operatin’ remotely or somethin’,” Willow said.
Sydona pondered on this for a moment. Maybe she was right; he might not even be there. It wouldn’t make the trip useles
s because she still hoped to find her parents and end the camp for good. But seeing him and putting him to an end would be the cherry on top.
Willow finally spoke up. “I say we head there after dark, maybe even midnight.”
The group nodded in agreement.
“We head for the cabin first; I have a feelin’ that’s where all the action is. Possibly where Dr. Malik is too,” she said.
They nodded again.
“What if there are guards?” Giovonna asked.
“We take them out,” Sydona said while putting up her hair in a ponytail.
“What if there’s a bunch of them?” Willow asked.
“And it causes a ruckus, and we get caught?” Silas added. Sydona glared at him.
They stood around the truck thinking of what to do in every circumstance.
“I got an idea!” Willow yelled. “Just be yourselves.”
“What, fliers?” Giovonna asked.
“Willow, that’s suicide,” Raoul said.
“Hear me out, y’all. I can act as a hunter and put y’all in the back of Silas’s truck and pretend like I’m there to turn ya over. Once we get inside: bam! We catch ‘em all off guard and rally everyone up. It’s a perfect plan!” Willow waved her arms around and stomped her feet with excitement.
“Will we need to be tied up or something, too?” Giovonna said worriedly.
Willow frowned a bit at Giovonna’s reaction. “Yeah, prolly a good ide’r. Gotta make it look legit.”
“What about our weapons?” Sydona asked softly.
“You got your knife; you can have that under your shirt. I doubt they will pat ya down if it looks like I captured you. I woulda got rid of all that stuff. I can make your knot looser, so when the time comes, you can break from it and cut Silas and Giovonna free. Their weapons will be under blankets behind them in the truck. The crossbow for Giovonna and, uh, Silas’s wit?”
