We could bottle the infused water and send it through the post or via courier. But that water would only go so far. And it wasn’t like we had facilities for manufacturing.
I was out of ideas. I knew we had to find a way but my mind was spinning out of control. A full night’s sleep would have helped, so would some reassurance that everything would be okay. But nobody could promise that.
Suddenly, the phone rang, pulling me from my panic. This time, Hayden checked the caller ID. He held it up. “Recognize the number?”
It was Rob’s. I nodded, held out my hand and he passed it to me. “I was starting to think you weren’t going to call,” I said by way of greeting.
“Soda pop, you should have known better,” Rob replied. Just hearing his voice made me feel a hundred times better. “So what’s this I hear about you causing more trouble?”
We could banter later. Right now, there were lives at stake. Out of everyone, he would understand the curtness. “I need to see you. I have evidence you have to read. And we need to do it now.”
“Okay, where are you?”
I panicked for a moment. If I gave him the camp address, he could turn us in. We could all be hauled off back to jail before nightfall.
But it was Rob I was talking to. He had never turned me in before when I was a wanted alien. I had to make the leap of faith now too. So far they’d worked out for me. “At a place called Camp Holloway. Can you come straight away? Alone?”
“Sure, it’s a nice day for a drive. I’m leaving now.” He hung up. I could imagine him putting on his suit jacket as he headed out of his office. Hopefully he wouldn’t be telling anyone where he was going on the way out.
Otherwise, we were all as good as dead.
CHAPTER 18
Nobody was happy when I told them Rob was on his way. Those that thought I was a traitor made it clear I was making a mistake. Those that knew me better showed the fear in their eyes although they said nothing.
Garrick was the only one on my side. He tried to calm them down, speak out about Rob’s character, but nobody wanted to listen. Their terror at the thought of one of the authorities coming out to their safe haven yelled louder than anything we could say.
To compromise, Hayden offered to take everyone for a drive and hide until Rob left. While inconvenient, it was an offer they couldn’t refuse.
So an hour before Rob was due to arrive, they all piled into the vans. It was a tight squeeze with way more bodies than seats, but they packed in and left. Garrick and my parents only went after I insisted. I didn’t want to take any chances with them.
I was completely alone in Camp Holloway. The place was spectacularly eerie with nobody around. It was like the ghosts of all the campfire stories that had been told there were milling around, interested in what I was doing. I swore I saw several of them out of the corner of my eye.
Lochie’s watch was ticking courageously on my wrist. It reminded me of him, making me imagine he was there with me. He always gave me strength and that was exactly what I needed right then. I focused on the dial, watching the hands move like they were the most important things in the world.
A car pulled up at the side of the camp. It wasn’t Rob’s. My eyes darted around, searching for a hiding spot. Someone must have discovered where we were. Maybe they were monitoring his calls, maybe Rob had told them. This wasn’t good.
I ducked into the kitchen, the only place I could think of. At the very least there was a door to the outside, I could make a run for it into the forest. I wouldn’t be able to get too far in my prison-weakened state, but I would try.
Hiding behind the bench, all I could hear was footsteps from the intruder and my own heart beating. They didn’t move in sync, giving me a sinking feeling that all this had been a terrible idea. And I didn’t have anyone else to blame except for myself.
“Amery? Hello? Amery?”
Rob. It was Rob. I wanted to melt onto the floor in a puddle of relief.
I stood. “I’m in the kitchen. That’s not your car.”
He burst through the doors with a smile on his face. It was definitely Rob, the same man I saw as another father sometimes. I’d certainly known him my entire life. “Do you think I’m stupid driving a Department car here? They’d be able to track it. That sweet ride belongs to the senile old woman that lives across from me. She won’t miss it.”
A whole new flush of relief rushed through me as I ran in for a hug. Not only had Rob shown up, he was also still protecting me. It was more than I could have asked for.
When he released me, we sat at the kitchen bench on industrial grade stools. He sighed. “So you better tell me what you’ve been up to. Considering you should be in jail right now, I’d say there’s a lot to catch up on.”
I told him everything. And I meant everything. The tests on me, the jail escape, the healing we’d done, what the Originals had orchestrated, and what we needed to do now. Rob listened intently as I gave him the complete report, just like he had done every year since I could talk for myself.
It helped to have Hayden’s evidence to show him. While he hadn’t been completely happy to leave it with me, Hayden did trust me. “If you trust this guy, then I trust him too,” he had said. Still, we kept it a secret between ourselves. His friends wouldn’t have been so great with the whole thing.
When it was over, Rob threw the piece of paper he was holding onto the table between us. “How did we miss this? How could we let the Originals do this?”
“We didn’t know what their real intentions were, we couldn’t have seen it coming,” I said, almost defensively. Surely it couldn’t have been up to us to anticipate genocide.
“No, I don’t mean that. I mean the Department. We’re trained to look for terrorists. But we missed this and now tens of thousands of people have died already.” Rob got up and started pacing. His angry footsteps thudded heavily on the concrete floor. “Are you sure there are no side effects to this healing? Nothing that can be more harmful?”
“I don’t think so. It’s been almost three days since we healed Lochie and he’s doing really well. He’s not showing any signs of harm.”
“You risked your boyfriend to act as a guinea pig? You must trust this Senph woman.”
I wanted to laugh but it wasn’t the right moment. “I had no choice at the time. Lochie was about… he wasn’t good. If we didn’t do something, he would have… gone.” Memories of that moment involuntarily flashed into my mind. It still made my body shake at the thought of seeing Lochie like that, of thinking he had died.
Rob nodded with understanding. “There have been reports on people making miraculous recoveries in Portview over the last twenty-four hours. A team was sent to investigate, they put them through tests to see how they did it.”
So our infused water was working. Thank goodness for that. I had thought it might have all been for nothing. There had been zero reports about it on the news.
“So where do we go from here?” He asked, staring at me intently. I was hoping he would have all the answers. I guessed even Special Agent Robert Bower, who was like a superhero in my eyes, had his limitations.
“We need to get all the healers dispatched so they can infuse water everywhere,” I replied.
“How many are there?”
“I have eight in my group. If we release all the aliens from prisons, there will be more. But they won’t come forward to heal humans if they are being mistreated by them.” I thought of the guards at the prison and a shudder ran down my spine. So many Truconians were still living in those conditions.
“It’s going to be hard convincing my colleagues to move swiftly on this,” Rob warned. At least he had stopped pacing.
“It’s going to cost lives if we wait.”
A slow smile spread across his face, making him look so much younger than he usually did. “I said it will be hard, not that I couldn’t do it. I’ll have them all released by morning. You’re going to have to convince them to work with us.”
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p; “Are they going to be safe? You won’t let them get locked up again?” If it were up to Rob alone, I wouldn’t have worried. But even superheroes had bosses and so many things were outside of his control.
“With this evidence? No chance. Every member of the Originals is going to take their place in those cells.”
I rushed at him, almost bowling him over with another hug attack. Demanding to speak with Rob had been a good decision, definitely the right thing to do. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it, soda pop.”
He gathered all the evidence and I walked with him to his borrowed car. There was just one thing more I needed to know. “What’s Krom doing with all this going on? Why isn’t he defending us?”
Rob laughed heartily. “Krom is in prison too. And trust me, he’s giving the guards a rough time. I don’t know how many prisoner transfer requests they’ve filed on him.”
It was somewhat comforting to know Krom wasn’t sitting in his luxurious house while the rest of his people suffered. And I had to admit, the thought of him being in jail did create a funny image in my head.
Rob calmed down as he climbed into his car. “He’ll be out overnight too, no doubt ready to take all the credit for this.”
A thought struck me suddenly, a solution to a problem. “You need him to speak with all the Truconians. He will be able to convince the healers to help. Despite what we think of him, they actually look up to him as their leader. He’ll be able to get through to them better than anyone else.”
“How do I convince him to help?” Rob asked. “I’m sure he won’t feel like inspiring help for humans.”
Whatever I personally felt about Krom, there was one thing I couldn’t deny – he was a leader. He had successfully liaised with Earth for at least seventeen years prior to his arrival. That took skill, patience, and a whole lot of other good traits.
“Tell him he needs to lead his people. That they need him right now, they need a purpose. Healing the humans will give them that purpose,” I replied. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it was all I had.
Rob disappeared down the drive, swallowed up by a line of trees around the curve. It still felt lonely there by myself, but there was something else now – a sense of moving forward. Rob would stay true to his word, he had to.
I called Hayden with Caden’s borrowed phone and let him know everyone could come back. I filled them in on the progress after they had returned and settled down. Nobody was as confident about Rob’s ability as I was. Not even Garrick. As it turned out, I was still completely alone.
While the others discussed the merits of getting someone from the Department involved, I went to bed. For the first time in a long time, I could actually sleep with hope in my heart. I fell fast asleep immediately.
I didn’t even dream. Or if I did, none of them remained in my memory. Before long, something was tickling my cheek, pulling me out of my sleep. Even with my eyes closed, I could feel the sun creeping in. It was probably morning which meant I had to get up and face the reality of putting all my trust in Rob. It was either going to be a great day, or a horrible one where my whole world came crashing down around me. Again.
But something was still tickling my cheek. Or, more accurately, caressing it. The thought of a giant spider was enough to get me to open my eyes.
Lochie.
His gorgeous face was staring down at me, smiling. Which meant that perhaps I was dreaming after all. “Lochie?”
His too-thin mouth smiled, creating creases that were never there before. But his dimples still were. “Hey, Jones. I got tired of waiting for you to wake up. It’s so boring here.”
He was sitting on the edge of my bed, everyone else gone from the bunks. I sat up and shifted so he had more room. His body still seemed too fragile to be moving. “What are you doing here? You should be resting. It’s a long drive.”
“I feel fantastic, so don’t worry about me. And how could I not be here? It’s where you are. I could only stay away for so long.” His hand found mine and intertwined our fingers.
I leaned across and gave him a kiss. Just a quick one, because I still wasn’t sure he was as well as he thought he was. “This is going to be all over soon.”
His beautiful blue eyes met mine. “I know. And then our lives are going to be so boring. What will we do with all that time?” He pretended to think it through intently. I could think of plenty of things we could do, certain he was thinking the same. Most of them didn’t involve clothing.
“We could read more,” I suggested, grinning like a fool.
Lochie nodded. “True. We could watch movies, take long walks on the beach. Or…”
“Or run away and forget the rest of the world exists?” I thought about the dream I had once, the one where we had run away together. It seemed very appealing then and I had to still agree now.
“Why, Jones, you are such a bad influence on me. Wait until my mother hears about this.”
I placed my free hand over his mouth. “Don’t even joke about it. Seriously. Your mother hates me enough as it is.”
He kissed my hand before I pulled it away. “Okay, okay, I’ll keep your secret. Now, you need to get up. There are plenty of people waiting for you out there.”
My brow wrinkled in confusion. “Who?”
“You’ll have to come and see, sleeping beauty. Let’s just say I didn’t come alone.” He smiled with that mischievous twinkle in his eye which instantly spiked my curiosity.
I didn’t even bother making sure I was presentable before following Lochie into the mess hall. Everyone else was already up, some enjoying the sunshine outside. Inside, all my parents were waiting for me, all four of them. Lola stood amongst them too.
They were the skinniest bunch of people I had ever seen. They were going to have to do a lot of talking to convince me they were well enough to be there.
I was quickly embraced into a group hug, their fragile frames even more apparent up close. There were elbows and knees everywhere. I wanted to scold them for coming so far, for even being out of bed at all, but I couldn’t. There wasn’t much to do except be grateful they were there.
Hayden caught my eye as he stood nearby. “Is there any news?”
“Not yet, I’m afraid,” he replied solemnly.
No news was definitely not good news. Rob had promised all the Truconians would be out of jail by now. It wasn’t hard to tell all the aliens at the camp were growing more concerned as the minutes ticked by.
“Breakfast is on,” Harmony called from the kitchen. Everyone started moving toward the back room, keen to eat. I took Lochie’s hand, lingering in the main room until everyone else had left.
“What’s wrong?” He asked, his eyes full of concern. I could think of at least a dozen things that were wrong but there was only one that occupied my mind right now.
“What about if Rob doesn’t come through? What do I tell everyone?”
He took both my hands in his. “Do you really think Rob would do that to you?”
I had thought Rob betrayed me once before. I was so shocked about it but it turned out he hadn’t. At that time, he was only pretending so he could really help me. After everything he had risked for me, despite the huge stakes, I did trust him.
“No,” I admitted, my gaze falling to our linked hands. He was gently caressing my skin with his thumb. It was ridiculous how much comfort I got out of that small movement.
“Then that’s your answer. Have a little faith, Jones.” He smiled and it sent a sea of warmth through me. “Now, come on, I’m starving.”
While we ate breakfast together as one big family, my stomach tied in even tighter knots. I needed to hear some news about the other Truconians but they weren’t reporting anything in the media. Hayden kept checking incessantly, but there was nothing.
Talk started to filter around that perhaps the Truconians in the camp should relocate somewhere else. Lochie had gone to great lengths to find Camp Holloway, and it was comfortable enough, but it was no
longer safe with Rob knowing about its existence. My words kept being drowned out by their fear.
I could understand where they were coming from so I wasn’t going to hold it against anyone for wanting to leave. They didn’t know Rob like I did and the instinct to survive was stronger than any other emotion they were experiencing.
At lunchtime, they started to pack up. The cabins were slowly tidied and closed as the vehicles were prepared for another journey. One of Hayden’s group knew of a commune that would take in strangers but the conditions wouldn’t be as good as at the camp.
The cars started leaving one by one, making Camp Holloway seem larger the emptier it grew. Before too long, it was just the few of us left.
Hayden had his van ready. “Are you sure you’re not going to come with us?”
I shook my head. “I need to stay in case Rob comes looking for me. It’s okay, I’ll be fine. You should protect the others, make sure they’re safe.”
“I feel terrible leaving you. We were in on the plan together.”
I placed a comforting hand on his arm, trying to convey more than I could with mere words. “We still are. This is just… a deviation. Go, before it starts getting dark.”
Hayden gave me one last look before wrapping me in a quick hug and leaving the camp. I could still see the conflict in him with each step he took.
“You should probably go home too,” I said to all my parents, Lochie, Garrick, and Lola – the last people left. “The authorities won’t hassle you.”
“Ha!” Adoptive Dad scoffed with a smile. “As if we’re leaving you here by yourself. If you’re in, we’re in.” He took a seat stubbornly, making a show of his refusal.
I looked at the other faces, determination in their eyes too. “Will any of you listen to reason or should I just save my breath?”
Lola patted me on the back. “Save your breath, girl. We’re not going anywhere. Are there snacks here? I could murder some chips.”
“There’s some in the kitchen,” Lochie said. “But they’re about three years out of date. Still taste okay though.” He shrugged as I shot him a look. Clearly, this group was uncontrollable. But I loved them anyway.
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