Chapter 13

We all woke up. No one was murdered in the middle of the night. Or experimented on further. When I open my eyes it’s because I’m cold. The blanket that Dr. Garner had given me for the night must have shifted while I was sleeping. And, sure enough, there it is… In someone’s hand. 

            “God. It is her,” a voice whispers above me. “She looks just like her mother.”

            “I told you, Moore. It’s really her,” says Dr. Garner’s voice.

            “What’s goin’ on,” I mumble sleepily.

            Two men were standing above me. One is Dr. Garner, the other is a stranger. “You better wake the others, Leesha.”

            I sit up and stretch. “What time is it?” I ask, “I was thinking of letting them sleep in. It was kinda a rough night.” I glare at him during the last sentence.

            Garner sighs, “I know, Leesha. But this is important. You need to wake them.” I do as I’m told, barely able to restrain my own sigh. Once we are all awake, more or less, Garner introduces the other man. “This is Captain Moore. He is going to be your mentor in weaponry, convert operations, and other survival skills.”

            Instantly, we all begin talking at once. “Whoa, whoa!” I say amid the chaos. “We’re not even sure if we can trust you. Never mind this guy. ‘Captain’? Of what?”

            Garner starts talking but is interrupted by Captain Moore. “Good,” he says to me, “I agree. We’ve given you no reason to trust us, so you shouldn’t trust us. Not yet.” Well that wasn’t what I was expecting. I’m about to say something about his comment when he continues. “You can only trust each other.”

            “Speaking of which,” Garner adds, “We need to find the other three, obviously. Luckily, we have more information on them. Not much, but enough to go on. We know their names. And the state the live in. but not their address.”

            “Well it’s better than what we had.” I say, “When do we leave?”

            “DO you really think this is a good idea?” Ian whispers in my ear. “You don’t trust them do you?”

            “No, I don’t trust them. But they have information. And the sooner we can find the others, the sooner we can�"“

            “�"Save the world?” Ian asks a twinkle in his eye.

            “I was going to say go home and actually have beds and showers, but sure.  Either way, it’ll go faster if we let them lead for a bit.”

 

 

            There’s hours of preparation to leave and then Captain Moore told us it’s time for our first lesson. We use a ladder to climb up to the trap door. Then we walk for a while, eventually coming to a secluded meadow.

            An hour later, I’m sore all over. By the other’s faces and the way they’re clutching body parts, it seems like I’m not the only one. “What I wouldn’t do for a chocolate bar right now.” I mumble.

            “Don’t. Don’t even talk about that, I’m dying on the inside from lack of chocolate as it is without you talking about it.” Alina moans in despair.

            Cole chuckles and asks, “Are all girls chocolate addicts?”

            “Pretty much. We basically need it to survive. So if you ever don’t know what to get a girl for a present… you can never go wrong with chocolate. Especially Lindt Truffles.” My mouth begins to water. We defiantly need to switch topics. Yes, I know I’m the one that brought it up.

            “I’ll definitely keep that in mind.” He says solemnly. Which causes me to crack up. You can tell I’m tired. Soon we’re all laughing hysterically. We all need some sleep.

I’m at that stage where you’re so tired you’re hyper. You know the one I’m talking about? Anyway I hop on Alina’s back, as if I’m four and she’s giving me a piggyback ride. “On ward my trusty steed!”

“Get off you moron!” Alina says spinning in circles trying to get me off. But I stubbornly hold on yelling “Whoa girl. Easy now.” And soon she’s smirking. She starts to play along, neighing and running along the path towards the underground house. The boys run along beside us, laughing too.

We are intercepted by a green van. I have a momentary panic attack before realizing that its Garner in the drivers seat. Something about him made me trust him despite what my better judgment tells me and what he did to us. I hope that my trusting him won’t end to my, or anyone else’s, destruction. That wouldn’t be good. Being destructed doesn’t sound fun.

“Where to?” I ask the doctor as I hopped in the van and buckled myself in.

“The closest address is in Rhode Island.”

I groan, “That’s hours of driving.” And before he can cut in I continue, “Stuck. In a van. With two boys, a psychic, a doctor, and a guard. Yah, sounds like a blast.” The doctor chuckles a bit.

“Sounds like an adventure.” He winks at me. As if I wanted any more adventure in my lifetime. This statement earns him a teenage girl sigh and so I reward him. And he has the nerve to laugh at my pain.

And so we drive off. I look out the window until the forest disappears and then I drift off to a world where everything is okay.

 

 

My eyes opened slowly and we saw that we were no longer in the peaceful back roads, but in a large city. It didn’t take me long to work out that it was New York City. The signs and store names helped. Like NYC Deli, real original.

As buildings flashed by, I realized that there was a conversation going on in the front seat. I look around to see if anyone else is listening and may be able to fill me in. Cole was fast asleep with his head against the window behind me. Ian’s nose was in a book and a canon could go off next to him without him noticing. Alina had headphones in and was listening to music other than the stuff from the 18^th century that was playing on the radio. What I wouldn’t do for my IPod right now.

“She should know…” Garners voice says. Instantly I realize that I’m not meant to hear this conversation and pretend to be still asleep. But I’m still listening. If there’s something I don’t know, I need to. Because it’s not my old life where I can live in innocence and never know the dangerous truth and be happy. It’s not plain curiosity that drives me. And it’s not only my neck on the line now.

“I don’t know how to tell her,” Moore replies after a pause to consider Garner’s input. “She’ll know about him as soon as find him. And there is no point telling her about me. Not until he is here.” There is another pause, “What did you tell her, Garner?”

“The truth. But not the whole truth.” Moore sighed with relief. “But I think she should know. And she should hear it from you.”  My fast-beating heart misses a pulse. I’m not sure if the conversation will continue now. The silence stretches for what seems for forever. Finally Moore opens his mouth to speak and closes it before he says a word. And I know that’s the end. My questions will be left unanswered, for now. 

Reviews

[Odayin]

*soft whistle* that's a lot of words that I've read. Thirteen chapters plus a prologue later, I can finally tell you what i think.

Overall, I like the storyline. You have an all around set of characters that allows the story to revolve around and still have a good feel. Everyone is different, which is great because the reader will like some things about a character and some thongs about others, and this allows them to choose favorites.
The storyline itself has a good sense of mystery to it and and you can feel the potential it gives. Nicely done.
Your writing itself it's great: you have good details and descriptions but your real strength is really in your character development (like I said). The story has many comical moments, realistic conversations (hard to do), and a great diversity of attitudes and almos a sense of people saying what youve always wished you could say.

You highly improved in skills as the story went on, I felt a lot of changes and I actually began to enjoy it. You've always had great ideas, but now you can be great at portraying them too.

I can't wait to see what happens next, keep it up Brooklyn.