The man in gray grabbed Sam by the collar, and dragged him carelessly over to the hover. He dropped the trapped Finder roughly in the dirt at the base of the vehicle and disappeared inside it. He emerged again a few moments later with a third device, and hurried over to where his companion still lay prone on the ground beside Nathan. It was likely some sort of fixing device, Sam guessed, to heal the damage that the Watcher had caused. From all appearances, Sam and Nathan were doomed.
But the man in gray never got the opportunity to use the device to rouse his cohort. The sudden flurry of activity that followed caught Sam as much by surprise as it did the unsuspecting stranger. While his view was somewhat obscured, Sam was fairly certain that Elliot had not come rushing into the clearing, nor would the burly man necessarily be that effective on his own since the intruder in gray had been wary after the first attack and had been watching for a second. He had perhaps been anticipating that the technician might interfere again, or perhaps there would be trouble from the rogue Teller or Control from Sam and Nathan’s house-family, but he was not ready to take on a group of five full-grown adults. He managed to stop one of them with his device before he was swarmed and overwhelmed by the four others.
Sam wanted to know what exactly was going on but found himself closing his eyes and cowering away from the scene as much as his restricted position would allow, trying desperately to bring up his walls as quickly as possible in order to block out the assault of anger, resentment, and even hatred that flared from the four Controls still able to act. In a fury, they wrenched the entrapment device from the man’s hands while forcing him to the ground. The events that happened next left Sam with nightmares and was something he wished that he had never had to live through. The enraged mob of Controls, with Royce in the lead, beat the man savagely, bashing at the man with the otherwise non-injurious weapon that they had torn from his hands. The man’s screams were blood-curdling, and Sam would have willingly submitted to being deaf again if he could have avoided hearing them, but he wasn’t even able to cover his ears. He could sense Nathan’s discomfort as well, horrified by the violence going on inches away from where he was forced to stand.
Sam shivered as the beating continued, until the man finally went silent. The Controls had used the opportunity to take vengeance on the scholars for everything that had been done to them, losing a piece of their humanity while they exhausted their frustrations and outrage on this symbol of their oppressors. The others had stopped when it was clear that the man had been overpowered and had no fight left in him, but Royce had been especially driven, mercilessly dealing the man blow after blow despite the intruder’s pleas for him to stop. The stranger had not been that far off when he had suggested that they little more than wild animals. Sam wondered what would have happened if Royce had had free reign to take out his frustrations on him when the Control had attributed him with the blame for his circumstances.
Things went very quiet after the man’s screams had stopped, and Sam lay there helplessly, wondering what to expect next. He heard Sarah emerge from the bushes, sniffling and dazed.
“I can’t fix them,” she murmured over and over again, staring at the fallen men. “I can’t fix them.”
Nathan was struggling futilely to escape his binds, but none of his efforts proved successful.
That was when Elliot and Fiona arrived. Elliot gathered up the devices that the men had been using and activated them to release Angela, Nathan, and Sam from their restraints. He then took the fixing tool that was now lying in the dirt and examined the men.
“I can help this one,” he said quietly, gesturing at the man that had succumbed to Nathan’s attack. “But the other one is beyond saving. We’ll have to dispose of the body.”
He did not ask for an explanation or some recounting of the grim details. The blood spatter and the drawn faces spoke volumes.
Elliot first entrapped the unconscious man in one of the stranger’s own energy nets, and then the technician set about using the healing device on him. While he was doing this, Nathan and Fiona had shuffled Sarah away, leading her from the frightful scene and taking her back to Elliot’s hover.
Sam sat at the base of the hover in the clearing, still trying to make sense of it all. It was just another case of everything going wrong, and as per usual, the scholars had been at the root of it. He was worried that this would change things and make it worse for them while they were on the run. What did this mean for Royce? What did this mean for Elliot?
After he finally managed to motivate himself briefly out of the stupor that he found himself in, Sam got to his feet and followed in the same direction as Nathan, Fiona, and Sarah, willing himself not to look behind him. He would have to put all of this behind him, as they all would. He only hoped that when he left Fervor, he could somehow leave all of this, too.
New Beginnings
Sam stumbled across the beach toward the marred-looking hover, his mind dazed and his heart numb. He stared at the vehicle with some reservation as he approached it. Getting into the hover and leaving Fervor represented an end to everything Sam had ever known – his only reality – and a leap into something frighteningly new. His feet felt like lead weights with each step. Sam was beginning to understand why Francis would have rather faced punishment than go with them. He wanted his freedom but was definitely afraid of the unknown.
Nathan met Sam at the door, looking him over carefully, the Watcher’s face demonstrating great concern.
“Are you okay? Did they hurt you, little buddy?”
Sam shook his head as Nathan checked him for a second time. The Finder felt like he was somehow lagging a few seconds behind the rest of the world. He had a few scrapes and bruises from being tossed into the dirt, but they seemed meaningless after what had happened to the investigators. The sounds of their cries seemed to be repetitively echoing through his mind.
Sam was tired and cold, even though the sun was shining brightly and he and Sarah had barely just risen for the day. He wanted to curl up in a corner and go to sleep, pretending that none of this had ever happened. It certainly was not what Sam had been expecting when he had awoken that morning. He wondered where he would be waking up the next day.
Nathan ushered Sam into the hover and guided him into the seat next to Sarah’s. She trembled like a leaf and was slouching in the chair, staring wordlessly at the chair back in front of her. Her dark eyes had a glassy and vacant look to them. Sam edged closer to her, trying ineffectively to get her attention and put his hand on hers, both offering and seeking comfort. She did not respond, neither flinching away nor accepting the gesture. She did, however sigh very quietly.
Nathan joined Fiona at the front of the hover, sitting next to her and draping his arm across her shoulders. She leaned into him, and Sam wondered why he had not really noticed their attachment before the incident with Francis. The two thought quietly to one another through the connection, but not behind closed walls as they usually tended to do. Sam did not pay much attention to what they were saying, still lost in a bit of a mental fog, but he did pick up the occasional words like ‘fugitive’, ‘safe-house’, and ‘coordinates.’
Nathan glanced back at the Littles every now and then as they sat talking and waiting for Elliot to rejoin them. He also gave Sam an encouraging smile from time to time, even though the Watcher’s eyes were sad. Sam could tell that Fiona was anxious to leave by the way she twitched in her chair and eyed the exit, but they did not want to leave without Elliot.
There was a fair delay before the technician appeared at the door of the hover, but he did not enter. Instead, he stood back and allowed four of the Controls to start clambering into the seats at the rear of the vehicle – all of them but Royce. They were going to the mainland too, apparently, Sam considered in his fog. He hadn’t been expecting that since there had been no discussion of the Controls joining them at all. In fact, Sam had just assumed that they were going to be staying behind on Fervor when Elliot and his house-family left.
Eight seats, Sam thought numbly. Eight seats. Even as muddled as his thoughts were, he could still do basic arithmetic. With the five Controls, Nathan, Fiona, Sarah, Elliot, and himself, there were ten. That was two people too many. He stared at Elliot without voicing the question, as Paul, Anthony, Angela, and Katrina each took a seat. Nathan and Fiona looked equally confused, and no longer fairly at ease.
“What’s going on?” Nathan demanded. “What are they doing here? We won’t all fit in here.”
Elliot did not respond to this at first. He slid in between the seats, the fixing device in hand, and drew up next to the unresponsive Sarah. He took her small chin in his large hand and searched her face with worried eyes, then activated the device. Within a few moments she stopped shuddering and relaxed, leaning forward into him and gradually dozing off into a light sleep.
“Shock,” the technician explained, his comments mostly directed at Nathan. “She’ll be okay now, physically, but you’ll still have to watch her. From what I understand from the research notes, Fixers don’t handle death well, especially not if they witness it firsthand. Francis gave her enough to deal with, with his trip to the High Barrens, and this pushed her far past her proper peace of mind. She shouldn’t have had to see that confrontation with the investigators. You make sure she doesn’t see any more of it once you get to the mainland. Shelter her. Keep her safe.”
Repeating an earlier sequence of events, Sam’s eager mind fought through the fuzziness to grasp what Elliot had just said. “Once you get to the mainland,” he had said, not: “Once we get to the mainland.” That could not be right. Sam recognized what that implied. He started shaking his head.
“N-no, he’s not coming with us. He’s saying that he’s not coming with us. You can’t let him do that, Nathan. No, he can’t do that. Make him come with us,” Sam stammered. Elliot hushed him.
“I think you may need a taste of this medicine too there, boy,” the technician said with a gentle laugh, and he targeted Sam next with the fixing device. The fog started to lift from his weary mind and the numbness in the rest of his body began to ease off as well. It did not change his awareness that Elliot had suggested he would not be accompanying them and it certainly did not change his resistance to the idea. If anything it prompted Sam to be even more defiant when faced with that truth.
“How are we supposed to manage without you? Why aren’t you going with us? When Sarah wakes up and you aren’t with us, she’ll be even more devastated. Why?” Sam demanded. “You can’t just throw us out there. We aren’t sure how things work on the mainland. We need you to help us adapt.”
Elliot leaned back with a sigh, looking tired and unhappy.
“Well, first of all, as your Watcher so perceptively observed, we won’t all fit in this hover, and secondly, I have friends on the mainland that will be ready to take you in and help you to figure things out. I briefed Nathan and Fiona on what to expect when you got there.”
“But you didn’t tell us that you wouldn’t be coming back with us,” Nathan objected. Sam already knew that. If the technician had suggested such a thing to the Watcher, he certainly would have let the Littles know. This was news to him as well.
Elliot shrugged.
“Your Control and I discussed this in great detail. He wanted to be able to get his friends off the island, and I wanted to see as many of you liberated as our resources would afford. This hover shouldn’t be leaving here with any empty seats, and I’m the best person to make sure that the others don’t either. I know that you’ve had your differences in the past, but Royce’s companions have a right to their freedom just as much as you do. I’m sure you can manage to get along for the time it takes to get from here to the mainland. Once you get there, you’ll be free to part ways, although personally, I think you would all be better off sticking together. No one else there will quite understand where you’re coming from and what you’ve been through.”
“But we don’t even know where we’re headed,” Sam protested. “Where will we be going, and how do we get there without you? We were depending on you.”
“I’m not leaving you high and dry, Sam. Give me more credit than that. You are going to a safe-house that was set up for latents on the mainland, the ones who were avoiding recruitment into the scholars’ experiments. The scholars have government support which meant that any known latent telepaths were being conscripted, like it or not. We won’t let anything like that happen to you. You’ll get new identities once you are there, and enough resources to start a new life, somewhere where they will be very unlikely to track you down. You don’t need me to get there, Sam, or to keep you safe. There will be many hands there to protect you, mostly people who lost family or friends to the scholars. They couldn’t help me when I was trying to get at the Languorite, it was too risky, but they can help you now. Besides, Nathan and Fiona know what to look for, and the coordinates are pre-programmed into the hover. They’ll make sure that you arrive safely,” the technician advised.
Now it was Fiona’s turn to object.
“You never told us that you wouldn’t be coming with us. It doesn’t make sense, Elliot. Helping us to escape Fervor, only to stay behind yourself? If it’s a question of space, why not leave one of us behind instead?”
She glanced at the Controls as she said this, and Sam realized that she actually meant one of them. From their expressions, they did not appreciate the suggestion.
“Who said anything about staying behind? I’ll just be delaying my departure.” Elliot chuckled. “I have every intention of returning to the mainland at some point. I have access to not only one long distance hover but two, other than this one, now that the investigators have delivered me another one and one in perfect working condition at that. Between that hover, and the one at the High Barrens, that’s fifteen more children I can take with me – fifteen more children who would have been trapped on Fervor. I had planned on completing repairs on the hover that Sam had uncovered and seeking out another house-family to bring back to the mainland, but now that the scholars have kindly donated a second one, why stop there? Would you deny the others the same opportunity that I’ve helped you to obtain?”
Fiona turned away from him again, facing the front of the hover with a glum expression. Being a tad on the selfish side, Fiona would have been willing to deny others the opportunity to allay her fears. On the other hand, she could not argue with him and his decision based on that rationale, but she still did not like it.
Nathan gave her shoulder a squeeze in consolation. His eyes were warmer now, and less disappointed.
“They are bound to send more people after you when the first two don’t return,” the Watcher observed. “What then? They may send more next time, and if they figure out what happened to the first two investigators, they might not just stop at taking you prisoner. They’ll probably send an entire small army, and I would expect them to be better armed, with something other than those net devices.”
“If they want to send us more hovers, all the power to them – it may just prove to our advantage. I’ll be fine. By the time they realize that their investigators aren’t returning, I expect to be arranging a small army of my own. Royce says he has other contacts amongst the Controls, ones who are just as unhappy with their circumstances as he was. We’ll be going into hiding on the island, somewhere near the High Barrens most likely, and we’ll start organizing. Eventually, we should find ourselves with fifteen others who also want to leave Fervor, even if it happens to just be other Controls. I’m actually hoping to find at least one other house-family or two that are something like yours, and looking for answers.”
“We? Royce?” Nathan murmured.
Now Sam understood why Elliot had been spending so much time in conversation with the Control. They had been plotting this ever since Royce had returned to the house, aware of the existence of the second long distance hover at the High Barrens by that point. Sam suspected that Royce had approached Elliot about sending the Controls back to the ma
inland as well, and the plot had spawned from there. That was why they had been excluding the others from their talks.
“He’s willing to assist me, and as you mentioned before,” Elliot stated, glancing around the hover. “We won’t all fit in here. Royce volunteered to stay behind with me. He thinks that the scholars should not be allowed to benefit from what they’ve done on Fervor, and that my plans will help to prevent that, or at least, will allow us to reduce the effectiveness of what they are doing here. It may take several days before the departure of the Controls is even noticed, and our main obstacle will be the Tellers, rather than the scholars or their lackeys. Your Francis...he was an exception. The other Tellers won’t allow me to intercede so easily. Many of them are completely on board with what the scholars are doing. We’ll have the Languorite to help us fight back, but that doesn’t guarantee our success. It will be a matter of timing, and our ability to infiltrate. I’d hate to have to strip anyone else of their gifts, but with the Watchers, I don’t see how it could be avoided, and with the Tellers, well – if we don’t then we leave ourselves vulnerable to their whims, don’t we?”
“But Royce?” Nathan questioned, more than a hint of doubt in the tone of his voice.
Sam could hear the other Controls shifting uncomfortably in the back of the hover. This was an area of discord between his house-family and Royce’s friends, the appropriateness of this situation because of Royce’s involvement in particular. They had always supported Royce in his efforts. In a way, they had appointed him their unofficial leader. They were losing something in this arrangement as well by leaving him behind, and they weren’t particularly pleased about it.
“He and I have more in common than you would think, Nathan. Royce may have had a bad start, but that doesn’t guarantee him a bad future. I know that display back there may have you wondering how safe I am allying myself with him, but I can assure you that none of that animosity is directed at me – and it won’t be. He and I are on the same side, I would bet the Languorite on that. While I don’t condone what he did back there, I’m willing to turn a blind eye. I’ve been at the point where he is myself. I know exactly how he is feeling and how it can affect you responses,” the technician admitted.
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