Marcus closes his eyes. He’s upset thinking about his future and what he’ll be driven to do in order to survive. He recalls how Cadence craved the power and the energy so badly while under Level 6’s control. She had no problem taking lives to survive. Then again, he was the one who drove the knife in her back to save Maverick. Maybe they were all killers, if that’s what it took to avoid death.
Maverick is reading Marcus’s thoughts, and a deep sadness washes over him. “I remember back at home, the agent told Cadence she’d live forever. So as long as you feed on life forces, you won’t age? But you and Kren had to have aged, otherwise you’d still be little babies or something.”
Marcus works at placing a block up in his mind. He’s doing a good job at it. Some thoughts should remain private.
I believe that’s why they would have killed Kren and me first. We were growing older and more powerful, but the others they had created weren’t aging at all. They stayed exactly the same from the moment they were turned. Using children, they felt, could be a better weapon. No one would deny a child entrance into a home, and a child is so innocent and unsuspecting. As Kren and I aged, we became more difficult to control. But the others, Level 6 could control them very easily.
“A super army made up of little kids.” Maverick’s stomach turned. “Children of the Corn.”
I didn’t know what corn had to do with BEKs, but I knew better than to ask.
Since Kren and I continued to age and grow stronger, they didn’t know what to do with us. Level 6 wanted our powers, but their control over us continued to wane. They thought maybe we could be used for other purposes, so they tested the limits of our abilities. Kren grew more restless each day. He knew the only way we’d survive was to escape, but the facility was impossible to break free of.
“But, you did escape. How?” Maverick asks.
Marcus’s interest surfaces. He wants to know, too.
Without going into great detail, I shorten my story. Mother died, and one of the scientists had grown to love her. She made him promise to save us, so he unlocked all the doors and cut the power to the building. By doing this, however, he unleashed all the experiments in the facility. When we left, we were not only afraid of battling the armed guards. We needed to avoid some of the other…things that had been kept under lock and key.
“Like what?” Marcus can’t help but recall the “Frankenwarrior” he had seen during his time at a Level 6 facility. His lower lip trembled, and his large dark eyes widened.
There was…The Dogs.
Maverick lets out a curt laugh. “Sounds adorable.”
They were not ordinary dogs. They were giant hybrids of some kind that ate their prey by tearing them limb from limb. They were huge and vicious. Their legs were longer than what you’d expect in proportion to their bodies. I only ever saw them in the minds of the soldiers, but they scared Kren and me. They had the ability to track your scent for miles.
“Sounds kinda cool, but terrifying,” Marcus says in an effort to pull himself out of his depression.
There were other experiments, but we didn’t catch the scientists’ thoughts about them very often. No one around us knew anything much beyond what happened at our location. It was all very secretive and compartmentalized, even among themselves.
“Shiitake. I can’t imagine what they would have done to me had they kept me in that place,” Marcus says. “I guess we’d better be thankful for the fact we are free. Makes me rethink this entire plan of trying to take them down. I’d rather die than go back to such a hell-hole.”
“It won’t come to that,” Maverick says. “People need to know what Level 6 is doing. If we bring it out into the open, they’ll be answering to the people. The government can’t get away with doing illegal and unethical things .”
“I still don’t remember exactly where they brought me.” Marcus asks me, “Do you know where you were kept?”
We were kept in the desert in New Mexico. When we escaped, we tried to go as far away as possible so they couldn’t track us.
“And that’s how you ended up in Florida,” Maverick says.
But, now, knowing they have a facility here in the mountains of Georgia, makes me think they have places all over.
They both ponder my theory for a moment.
“You guys can’t blame me for having second thoughts about all of this,” Marcus finally says. “I remember the Frankenwarrior being kept by Level 6. I’ve never been so freaked out in my life. Something like that could easily have shredded those poor souls up in the cabin and tore up our car’s engine.”
Knowing something like the…Frankenwarrior is on the loose, we cannot just walk away now. If there is a way to stop it, we need to do it. Level 6 was creating abominations all the time, and since Kren and I could only pick up mental pieces here and there, I do not have any idea what we are up against out here.
“You think maybe the Frankenbeast got loose? Maybe escaped like you did?” Maverick asks me.
It is possible. Or maybe they let it go on purpose.
Before either of them can respond to my revelation, we all sense the same thing at the same time. Someone has entered into our mental range, and they’re watching us.
5
MAVERICK
I GRAB THE gun out of my waistband and race into the woods. Darkness encompasses every inch of the forest, making it difficult to see anything clearly. A movement in my periphery catches my eye and I swing around, pointing the pistol toward the sound.
Marcus, whom I had no idea was standing right next to me, hits the gun out of my hand. “What are you doing? You want every agent to know where we are?”
There’s no time to argue. I take off running in the direction I think I had seen the shadow. I can barely feel the mind of someone, but I can’t read it. Either I’m too stressed to concentrate, or the person lurking in the woods is capable of psychic self-defense. The heavy foliage thickens all around me, and various branches slice across my arms and legs as I speed through the forest. Something darts off to my left, and I change directions to follow.
Marcus and Astid’s thoughts are out of my range. My heartbeat bashes against my ribcage. Now I’m getting absolutely nothing from the mind I was tracking. I have no choice but to stop and try to focus my brain. My own breathing is the only thing I can hear, and I do my best to try to calm myself. But it’s no use. The person has escaped, and I can’t sense anyone but Marcus and Astid who are now closing in. I take a few steps towards them, but I trip on a rock…no, it’s not a rock. I reach down and pull up a pair of binoculars.
Marcus’s thoughts come to me more clearly. Mav-Man, where the heck are you?
I feel him. He’s this way. Astid projects her message to me and Marcus. That was the stupidest thing you’ve done, Maverick. You’re going to get us all killed out here.
Guilt etches its way inside me. With the adrenaline evaporating, now I feel burning pain in my legs. Sweat drips down my forehead into my eyes, stinging them. I’m still winded, so I slump against a big tree to catch my breath.
Damn straight! Marcus says.
They both glare at me when they emerge from the dark forest to find me. I tell them, “Someone was very interested in us.” I hold up the pair of binoculars. “Did either of you get a chance to pluck any thoughts from this person before they bolted?”
“You can’t just run off,” Marcus says, ignoring my question. “We’re a team, man. We do this together. Even Han Solo didn’t go…solo.”
What if that thing followed us here? He could have ripped you apart faster than it took Marcus and I to find you. Astid crosses her arms. We are both weak, since we have not consumed a life force. In this state, we are vulnerable.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I wanted to know who was watching us.” I reach up with my empty hand, and Marcus helps me to my feet with one tug.
Astid’s angry thoughts flow into my head. Maverick, we aren’t dealing with amateurs here. Level 6 agents are ruthless, and
they are all from the military. Marcus and I have both been at their mercy, and we’d prefer not to ever be in that situation again. We want to end them as much as you do, but we need to be smart about it.
“Whoever it was is long gone by now.” Marcus leads the way through the woods, back to our campsite. “But no, I wasn’t able to get anything from our spy. Nothing.” The light of our small fire comes into view.
I turn to Astid, and even in the darkness, I can see her shake her head.
The fire has died down a bit, and I take a seat right next to it. “You’re both right. That was a stupid, impulsive move. I shouldn’t have darted off after whoever it was, but don’t you think it’s weird we couldn’t read him?”
Whoever was watching us is probably not Level 6, Astid mentally says. Otherwise, we’d be surrounded by agents right now.
“True,” I say. “But why couldn’t any of us read his mind?”
The temperature drops, and a sharp breeze blows by us. I shiver.
“Man, as many things that I’ve experienced these last couple months, nothing surprises me anymore. It could be a leprechaun or mole man for all I know.” Marcus thinks about sleeping. He’s tired, frustrated, but really wants the leprechaun theory to pan out.
“Really?” I shake my head.
“As if you’ve never wanted to meet a tiny green man with a pot o’gold.” Marcus pictures a cartoon version, animated, hopping around a small rainbow.
Now I have a craving for marshmallow cereal. But at least their anger with me has dissipated.
I think he needs some sleep. We all do, really. Astid says.
“One of us needs to keep watch to make sure we don’t have any more surprise visitors,” I say. I reach into my waistband, but there’s no gun. Marcus clears his throat. He waves my dad’s pistol up in the air.
Seems to me you’re the one with the most energy at the moment. Astid yawns. You need to promise us you won’t dart off again. If someone comes into our range, you wake us up immediately.
I say, “Okay. I’ll take first watch, and then I’ll wake Marcus after three hours or so.”
“Seriously, Mav-Man, if someone comes, you wake us first,” Marcus says.
“Agreed.” I hold my hand out towards him. “Will you give me the gun back?”
Maybe Marcus should keep it tonight, Astid says.
She’s worried I’ll go haywire again and start shooting at shadows. It’s not worth it to argue with them.
Astid and Marcus share a blanket to allow me to keep a blanket all to myself. I add several large branches to the fire and sit as near to it as I can to absorb its warmth. Astid was right, I’m so wired-up, and I won’t be sleepy for at least a couple hours. The sounds of crickets echo off the stone boulder, amplifying their chirping. Then again, maybe Level 6 created man-eating giant insects and let them loose to find us. Flesh eating gnats would be right up their alley.
I’m glad Marcus has fallen asleep, so he’s not able to read that thought. He’d panic for sure.
Astid sleeps like the dead, as usual. She either doesn’t need to breathe, or her breaths are so slight, I can’t see her chest moving up and down like a normal person. I concentrate on the night noises, searching my mind as far into the darkness as I’m able. The binoculars I found are on the ground, so out of boredom, I pick them up.
These must have been expensive. Instead of being made of metal, these are made of a hard rubber. I peer through them, and all I can see is darkness. My index finger brushes against two soft buttons on the side, so I press one of them. A little green light comes on, and I put the binoculars up to my eyes again, but this time, I can see the trees. Night vision! I search the woods, and despite everything being various shades of green, the image is sharp. Everything is outlined in black. Even in the pitch black of night in the forest, with these babies, our stalker obviously saw us clearly from a distance.
Keeping my eyes on the eye cups, I stand up and move around, taking in all the fine details of the trees surrounding our campsite. Amazing. I do a long sweep of the forest, searching for any sign of life, but I find none.
I take them off and move closer to the fire. My thoughts are my own tonight, and I appreciate the fact I don’t have to share them with Marcus or Astid. She was right…I don’t know what it’s like to be in the kind of hell Level 6 put them in. Being born and brought up inside a lab must have been pure horror, but what Marcus has gone through seems worse. He had a normal life. And now that’s all gone. Taken from him. Even with a pair of sunglasses covering his big black eyes, he can’t even go to McDonald’s without freaking people out.
Kids being snatched right off the street…brings a chill to my bones thinking about it. All those missing child posters strung up all over with families not knowing what happened to them is a nightmare no one should ever endure. Maybe it’s best they don’t know their missing kid might be a Black-Eyed Kid.
My thoughts turn to Dad. He’s out there wondering if I’m alive or dead, not knowing what’s happened to me after Mom’s death. Is he still looking for me? Or did he give up and fly home? What’s happened to Mom’s house? And of course there’s Lisa. I’m tempted to call her to see how she’s doing, but with no way to recharge the phone, I’m not sure how much longer the battery will last. The last time I used it, I had told Jennings where we were going. He told me to be safe, and that was the end of it. It’s best if I don’t talk to Lisa at this point anyway. I can’t risk putting her in any more danger. The more distance between us, the safer she is.
Maybe it’s not a great thing to have my thoughts to myself. They tend to wander to the worst possible places, and I’m unable to stop them. Marcus will never be able to go back to his family, and here I am worrying about my own life. I know we all have the right to feel sorry for ourselves, but I feel guilty thinking about my misfortunes when Astid and Marcus have it so much worse.
We’ve all lost so much because of Level 6, and I need to make sure they pay for it. I need to make sure what happened to all of us never happens to anyone else again. Most of all, I want revenge. My cheeks burn with rage.
I pick up the night vision binoculars. Just as Astid had said, the owner of these things can’t be Level 6, otherwise they’d have grabbed us by now. It certainly wasn’t another BEK, as I didn’t feel the unmistakable fear and hostility BEKs give off. But then again, I wonder if I’m now totally immune to it since I’ve been with Astid and Marcus for so long. No, it couldn’t have been a Black-Eyed Kid watching us, since he wouldn’t need night vision binoculars. I’m ruling out the monster that took out the family in the cabin and destroyed our car, because he wouldn’t have run from us. I’m pretty sure I’d be nothing more than a tasty snack for whatever that creature is.
I’m at a loss as to who the mystery stranger is, but one thing’s certain—he’ll be back.
6
ASTID
WITH THE EARLY morning light flooding the terrain, I expected to feel more at ease, but knowing Level 6 is nearby still makes the forest look as dangerous as it did last night. Broad daylight makes it harder for us to keep hidden. But I have a feeling the enemy already knows we are here.
Maverick and Marcus pack up the blankets and pull out granola bars for each of us. Marcus devours his quickly. He tries to hide his weariness by smiling widely, but I know how he feels. Despite getting some sleep last night, I still feel drained.
“I think our best bet is to head in the direction our intruder fled.” Maverick scans the woods and points northeast. “We can’t climb the huge ass cliff where the copter flew, but maybe the woods will lead us around.”
Marcus eyes my granola bar. “Are you going to eat that?”
“Dude, you can’t keep eating all her food. Maverick elbows Marcus’s shoulder. She needs the nutrition, too. Don’t be such a pig.”
The moment Maverick looks away, I break it in half and hand the larger piece to Marcus. He flashes me a gracious smile and shoves it in his mouth.
Let’s go then. N
o sense in wasting another minute. I grab one of the packs and fling it over my shoulder. Maverick, should we do what we did yesterday and allow you to go ahead of us in case we come across more agents?
Marcus grabs the backpack. “Yeah. We don’t want to tip them off.”
“I think that’s a good idea. Just stay far back away enough to not let them feel your vibe.” Maverick heads into the forest and we fall back a little ways. He turns to us and says, “When I stop, you stop.”
As soon as he’s a good distance in front of us, his anxiety worsens. He doesn’t want us to feel it, so he tries to block the nervousness from us, but he does a poor job of masking it. I try not to think about it so he’s not aware.
Should we head south now, around the cliff? I ask when we get far enough into the forest.
Maverick pauses, so Marcus and I follow suit. Instead of answering my question, he tells the both of us: I think I found our stalker’s footprints. Maverick mentally transmits what he’s seeing. Imbedded deep into the soft, wet earth are shoe imprints. It’s not any of ours, I’m positive.
Marcus sends us his thoughts. You’re about where you found the binoculars last night. Should we follow the tracks?
Yes. I’ll follow them. Maverick picks his pace up and heads southeast.
We walked for another two hours, but eventually, Maverick loses sight of the footprints.
Guys…it’s eerily quiet here. Maverick’s senses and emotions are on overdrive. Fear, anxiety, and confusion overtake his brain. The sounds of insects, birds, even the wind rustling the branches have stopped.
Maverick, I don’t think that’s a good sign. I pick up my pace and race towards him. Marcus reluctantly trails behind me.
A burst of terror takes my breath away, and I’m able to see what Maverick is staring it. My feet have stopped moving, but I force them to lift off the ground while fighting my hysteria.
Frankenmonster! Marcus races ahead of me to try to get to Maverick.
Black-Eyed Kids: The Complete Series Page 29