Flying to the Light

by Elyse Salpeter

  Day 2, Tuesday afternoon

  The van was bouncing wildly, and Madeline Anderson was scared beyond reason. Kidnapped at gunpoint and learning Herrington had found out what they had done was the worst-case scenario she had been briefed on. To be attacked in such a public venue was nothing she had been prepared for. The assailants had been rough with them, and she could feel stickiness on her face where the butt of a gun had hit her temple. She tried to move her hands, but the ropes were so tight her fingers had become numb. She couldn’t see or speak because of the blindfold and gag and had no way to call out to Gary.

  The vehicle came to a sudden halt and she was herded out, grabbed by her hair and pushed across a hard surface. She heard the faraway sounds of small engines, wondering if they were at an airport. When they moved her up a flight of stairs and bound her into a chair, she knew at once where they were going. Somewhere far. To a place where Herrington could talk to them. She knew his ways and knew what that meant. He was nothing unless he had a syringe with some excruciating liquid in his hands as his weapon.

  They flew for hours. Someone untied her once for a bathroom break and some water, but they kept her blindfold on so she couldn’t see Gary. She figured they were on their way to California to Herrington’s home base. That was where Marta was. It was all the man thought about these days. Served him right. It was one of his own diseases which had gotten her sick.

  Maddy remembered meeting Marta while she and Gary were training with Herrington. She was a small spit of a girl with a coldness about her, which made Maddy wince when she came near, as if she’d get frostbite if she touched her. Rumors abounded about the crimes Marta committed before she worked for Herrington, but the man adored her and would do anything for her. And had.

  She and Gary had lived on a few different islands while they trained. Michael had been born on a private island near Vanuatu, where Herrington housed one of his larger laboratories, and she and Gary had begun their research on light therapy there, always with the concentration and side experiments on the afterlife happening in the background. Michael had been so confused when they finally returned to the States, wanting to know why there wasn’t an ocean in his backyard. It was one of the reasons they’d built the pool.

  Maddy steeled herself for how bad things could get. She felt the plane land and when the door opened she was pulled roughly to her feet and down the staircase, into a vehicle, and thrown like garbage onto the floor, which she assumed was a van as there was enough room for her to lie down. Someone was thrown next to her, their bodies pressed together and she knew it was Gary. She just contented herself to lie next to him until they got to their destination.

  The vehicle drove for another lengthy amount of time, before doors opened and she was ushered into a building and down a hall, the tile floor cold on her bare feet. A door opened and again she was thrown onto the floor. She heard another person drop to the ground next to her and then the doors slammed shut. She rolled herself over to the stranger till she bumped into him, feeling her husband and simply lay next to him, waiting. She smelled the salt of the ocean, and knew they were close to Herrington. All his labs were near the ocean. It was only a matter of time before she found out what he was going to do with them.

  Chapter Eleven

  Three days later…

  Maddy closed her eyes and felt her body quickly slipping away. Herrington stormed into the room and shook her savagely, causing her to scream in agony as he yanked her chained wrists. “Get up, Maddy. There’s no sleep for you until you answer my questions.” He turned to his interrogator, a huge, dark imposing man towering over six and a half feet tall.

  The interrogator leaned in. “I’ll give you another chance to answer the question, Madeline. Where’s the boy? We know you had a tracking device on him, but the signal is no longer responding. Who do you have on the inside working with you? Who removed it?”

  “I keep telling you. I don’t know where he is or how to find him. And no one is working with us,” she cried.

  Herrington smiled, and it was pure evil. He nodded his head in Gary’s direction and Maddy cringed, her chest tightening so much she could barely breathe. They had been abusing Gary for the past three days, beating him, hoping if they tortured her husband, she’d finally give them the information they needed, but what he wanted was Danny and she and Gary were both prepared to die rather than hand over their son to this monster.

  She stared at her husband, now passed out on the floor, but they were going to revive him again soon. The smelling salts were stacked like children’s blocks next to him.

  She had to continue the charade at all costs. Still, it wasn’t much of a charade. She really didn’t know where Michael and Danny were. And now the tracking device in Danny’s ear was, for some reason, not working. She was thankful for that. It meant, for the moment, they were safe.

  “So, you still don’t want to talk?” The interrogator turned to Herrington and the man nodded, taking a syringe from an aide behind him. “Do it.”

  Despite herself, Maddy started screaming, terrified of what was in that syringe. “Mr. Herrington, please, I don’t know where they are. I’m sorry for what we did, but please, spare my husband. He was only trying to protect the boys and me. I’ll tell you anything else, how Danny gets his powers, what the light is, what he can do. Just please don’t hurt Gary anymore,” she begged.

  Herrington ignored her pleas and handed the needle to the interrogator who walked over to Gary and plunged it into his arm. Gary woke up, screaming. Maddy started shrieking as loudly as Gary as she watched him writhing in pain, welts and boils erupting all over his body.

  They had been on the road for almost five hours. Michael had pulled over to buy a map, trying to avoid the most populated areas while they drove across the country. He would have loved this if they weren’t running for their lives.

  They didn’t stop that evening until Michael thought he was going to drop. He saw a sign for a twenty-five dollar per night room rate at a small roadside motel, so he decided to splurge and checked them in, rather than sleep in the car for the night. Though the beds were a bit hard and the room had a musty smell, they both fell asleep quickly.

  At three in the morning, Michael awoke to Danny crying in his sleep. He yelled, “Day, Day,” over and over again.

  His call for Father.

  Michael shook his brother awake and tried to calm him, telling him he was just having a nightmare.

  Danny trembled uncontrollably and kept glancing at the window.

  “Danny, what is it?” When Danny didn’t respond to him he took his brother’s chin in his hand and forced him to face him. “Everything is okay, you just had a bad dream. I’m here. Everything is okay.”

  Danny shook his head no. “It was Daddy,” he signed, crying. “The birds are coming for him.”

  “No, Daddy’s fine. You just had a bad dream.”

  Danny shook his head forcibly. “It wasn’t a dream. The birds are coming, and they’re coming here!”

  Michael rose to open the shades to show Danny nothing was there. “Trust me. It was just a nightmare, but I’ll check anyway. Look, see? No birds.”

  Michael shrieked and jumped back when he saw an enormous bird crouching right outside the window, and staring directly at him. It was a California Condor, the one bird he had spent a long time talking to his father about.

  Could it be? “Dad?” Michael asked hesitantly, taking a tentative step towards the window. He blinked once and, suddenly, the bird disappeared.

  Michael turned back at his brother who was crying uncontrollably. “See, I told you. It was Daddy. They’re hurting him.”

  “Oh, my God,” Michael said, running over to his brother and holding his shaking body. He tried to speak, but couldn’t think of anything to say, terrified of what was happening to his Dad. He glanced at the window again, but the condor was gone.

  Day 6 Saturday 2:00 p.m.

  Maddy screamed. “Stop, you’re killing him! Please!”
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br />   The guards ignored her and whipped her husband for the fourth time.

  “Please,” she said, tears streaming down her face. “I’ll tell you anything if you’ll stop hurting him.”

  The interrogator raised his hand to the guard to stop the lashing and stared at Herrington, who stood silently in the corner, tapping the wall with his jeweled fingers. Herrington squinted at her. “You’re hardly in a position to bargain.” He stormed over to Gary and grabbed the back of his head, yanking it up so Maddy could see his face. She screamed in anguish when she saw the welts across his cheeks, the whip marks down his bare chest.

  “Was it worth it to you? Did you think you could deceive me and never be found out? Now, unless you tell me what I want to know, you’ll be next,” he said, releasing Gary to his tortured misery, where he had passed out again. He then grabbed her face in his hands. “We wouldn’t want to ruin that pretty face of yours, too, would we?” He threw her to the floor. “Now tell me again about the accident and how Danny came to have his powers.”

  “I t-t-told you this already,” she stuttered, between sobs. “I was working on a light therapy technique with ultraviolet rays and something went wrong. The circuits overloaded, and I was knocked unconscious. I was pregnant with Danny at the time and he must have been affected. I’m telling you the truth. You must believe me.”

  He bent to her level and screeched into her face, spittle flying from his mouth. “If that’s the truth then why didn’t you or your husband report your theories to my men? Why didn’t you tell me your son could communicate with the dead? That was your mission. Why did you send falsified documents to me and create your own machine to escalate your son’s powers?” His eyes widened in comprehension. “Are you working for the United States government now? Of course you are.”

  “No, no, we’re not,” she cried. “I swear. If we were, they would have come after you years ago. We have enough information to have you locked up for your entire lifetime. I could have told them what you were doing, how many countries you’re holding hostage with your bio-agents. I never did that. We were just trying to protect our son. We still weren’t sure of his powers, and we didn’t want to turn over our findings until we knew everything. We didn’t want you to take him away from us. That’s the truth.”

  Herrington smirked. “Touching, but I think you’re lying. It was your duty to tell me everything, not just what you felt was important.”

  “Mr. Herrington. I can help you with Marta. I can tell you how to save her soul.”

  Herrington backhanded her and Maddy went flying into the wall behind her. “Don’t you ever speak of Marta in my presence again. Ever.”

  Blood gushing from a new head wound, Maddy glared at him, undaunted. “You were going to use my son to control people. To control their fates. You aren’t God.”

  Herrington glared at her, breathing hard. “Maybe not, but I’m close,” he whispered. He turned to leave the room, and then turned back. “You and Gary made a terrible mistake, one you’ll pay for with your lives at the end of this. You could have been the greatest of leaders in my emerging order, the King and Queen of the Light, so to speak. Instead, you’ll be dead and I’ll have your boys.”

  “Please, leave my children alone. You can try to recreate the accident. I’ll help you. You don’t need my children.”

  “Oh, but you’re wrong. I do need them. I’ve already tried to recreate the experiment, and it hasn’t worked. After an intense amount of testing, I’ll be able to find out what genetic characteristics are in your children. Who knows, maybe the power is in Michael, too, and he just doesn’t know it. Until we find them, you’ll stay here. Your house is gone, your children are gone, and as far as the United States is concerned, Madeline and Gary Anderson are traitors who sold themselves out for money. Their children are involved in the deaths of two innocent civilians and a five million dollar bounty has been put on their heads. Trust me, Maddy, they won’t be missing for very long.” He turned to leave the room.

  “Oh, by the way,” he said, tossing an object from outside into the room. “I thought you might want to have this.” The object landed at Maddy’s feet. She screamed at Herrington as he laughed and slammed the door shut behind him.

  The man had thrown Mr. Teddy at her feet.

  Chapter Twelve

  Day 6 Saturday 9:15 p.m.

  “Danny, we’ve got trouble.” The car inched slowly ahead toward the police roadblock. Flashing red strobe lights illuminated the interior of the car. They had been driving all day and Michael had wanted to get in as much mileage as possible before they stopped for the night. They were now somewhere outside of California, so close…

  “Hunker down and pretend you’re sleeping.”

  Danny immediately closed his eyes.

  Michael had a very bad feeling about this. He looked all of his seventeen years and since he only had his learner’s permit, he legally wasn’t allowed to drive this late outside of the New York tri-state area.

  He saw the car in front of him get waved along and there was no way he could turn around without being noticed.

  Michael slowly approached the policeman who shined a flashlight into the car.

  “What can I do for you, Officer?” he asked, rolling down his window.

  “Just routine checking,” he replied, scanning the flashlight through the car. “Who’s the kid?”

  “My brother. He fell asleep a little while ago. We’re on our way home from a family party. Is there something going on I should know about?”

  The officer ignored the question and instead took a whistle out of his pocket and blew on it. Loudly. The sound that screeched throughout the car was deafening, and Michael involuntarily put his hands to his ears. Danny, on the other hand, never stirred.

  “Your brother’s a sound sleeper,” the officer said, wryly.

  Michael didn’t like his tone.

  The policeman shined the light directly into Michael’s face and Michael knew exactly what was going on. Even here in the middle of nowhere, they were looking for them. His mind raced with indecision. Did he hit the gas and hope to outrun the police? That wasn’t likely. There was another cop car right up ahead and a line of cars behind him. He was trapped.

  The cop put his hand out. “Can I see some I.D.?”

  “Why? I haven’t done anything wrong.”

  The cop leaned into the car, his hands on the door. “Your I.D., kid. Right now. I have an idea you shouldn’t be driving around here this late at night.”

  Michael took out his driver’s license and resignedly handed it to the officer.

  The officer took one look at it and turned to Michael. “Out of the car, now.”

  He didn’t move.

  The cop pointed a finger in his face. “When an officer says to get out of your car, you do it. Move.”

  Michael opened his door and got out. Once outside, it went down fast. The officer grabbed him and threw him against the hood of the car, yelling at the other officers that he found them.

  Suddenly, four policemen joined them. Two of them held Michael while two others yanked open the passenger side door and grabbed Danny. Immediately, Danny started to scream, but they ignored his cries and carried him over to a police cruiser parked on the side of the road. They put him inside and slammed the door.

  Michael frantically tried to fight the cops, tried to break free. “Where are you taking my brother?”

  “Calm down, kid, or I’ll TASER you, you hear? Don’t worry about your brother. He’s going to be just fine. Now, let’s go.” One of the officers grabbed Michael and brought him over to another car. Within seconds, he was inside and was being driven off into the night.

  Michael pressed his face against the bulletproof glass, pounding the officers with questions. “Where are you taking me? Why are you doing this? You’re cops. You’re supposed to be the good guys.”

  The officer in the passenger seat turned on him haughtily. “Hey, Joe, our little killer is confused. He doesn’t und
erstand what’s happening to him. That’s just so sad, I could cry.” He pretended he was sobbing.

  “I’m not a killer,” Michael yelled. “You’re making a mistake. I demand you tell me where you’re taking me.”

  The officer whirled around and rammed his gun against the glass, causing Michael to jump back in fear. “You’re in no position to demand anything. The best thing you can do for yourself and your freak brother is not ask questions, but answer them. Maybe you’d care to start by telling us how he talks to dead people?”

  “I’m not going to tell you anything.” He leaned back against the seat and folded his arms across his chest stubbornly.

  “Hell, you don’t want to talk, fine with us,” Joe said. “It doesn’t matter what you say, neither of us will believe you anyway.” With that the officers faced forward and said no more for the next twenty minutes.

  They pulled up to a drab gray police station in the middle of the woods. It looked like a small courthouse, and they handcuffed Michael and ushered him inside. As he was hustled up the steps he was relieved to see the other officers taking Danny out of the back seat of the other police car. Michael could tell he had been crying, and his heart broke. Danny saw Michael and started to sob hysterically.

  “Can I please go to my brother? He’s just a little kid, and he’s frightened.”

  “Don’t worry. You’ll see him in a minute.” Joe brought Michael into the building and directed him down a long hallway and through a door marked Containment Area Ahead. Once inside the room, the hallway broke into three separate directions, left, right, and a staircase which led upstairs. The officer went up the steps and took Michael into a long room full of empty jail cells. He pushed him over to one on the left, unlocked his handcuffs, and shoved him inside.

  As the officer relocked the steel door, Michael ran up to the bars. “Please just answer this for me—why are you doing this? We’re just kids.”