Episode 54

Connor was in a swirling mist; the shadows and shapes were blurry and he couldn’t figure out which way was up.  He felt like he was falling, but he could feel the ground at his back—or was it a wall?  He couldn’t close his eyes.  It was so dark.

Something grabbed at him from out of the darkness, and he struck out with a punch, pushing it back.  His fist connected and it shrank back.

Light was coming.

A burning light was beyond his eyelids; he shielded his eyes with his arm and opened them.

Connor was lying on the ground, with someone coughing next to him.  He started to sit up, but pain shot through his side and he fell back with a groan and closed his eyes again, wincing.

His eyes wouldn’t obey him.  He couldn’t focus, and all he wanted to do was close them and sleep again to escape the pain.

“Ow…” came Miah’s voice, and he thought she was crying.  Had he hit her?

He opened his eyes and looked at her, and saw that she was rubbing her shoulder.  She coughed, “You sure pack quite a punch, Connor…”

He opened his mouth to apologize but his lips cracked and his voice wouldn’t cooperate.  Connor blinked to clear his vision and saw Ben with a hand on Miah’s shoulder.  Something sank inside him, seeing him, but he closed his eyes.  Does she deserve him? the voice echoed in his head.  He pushed it away.  I don't need to think about that right now.

“Hi.”  His was mouth dry.  He licked his lips, and looked around.  “Is there any water?”

Miah shook her head, and looked up and down the road.  “We haven’t seen a car come by in hours, and there’s no water or food.”

“But we have a plan,” Ben quipped.

“You have a plan,” he parried.

Ben glared at Connor, and he glared back.  “The plan is all in our best interests,” Ben explained, “and it’ll get us back to where we need to be.”

Connor looked at Miah’s worried face and wondered if it was in here best interest.  Or if she was interested at all.  “And where is that?”

He circled Connor, hands clasped behind his back as he spoke. “They obviously took Gail.  We need to find where they are in order to attack and destroy their research and cripple their progress, and we can rescue her at the same time.”

“But what about me?” Miah cried. “What could I possibly do in a fight?”

“I don’t know,” Ben admitted.

“She couldn’t do anything, Ben.”

“But we would need someone to find Gail,” Ben added.

“Just take her out of the equation, Ben—she doesn’t want to be in this anymore.”

“But…” Miah stalled.

“But what?”  Ben watched her face.  Connor found the look threatening.

Miah looked down.  “Can’t we just all go home?  Let the police deal with this.”  She looked at Connor, and he felt it was because she couldn’t stand to look at the one she was really speaking to.  “I mean, come on.  That’s what you all should have done in the first place.  I don’t want myself or either of you to almost get killed again.  Let’s just all go home; please.”

Connor sighed.  He pushed himself up slowly and sat facing Miah.  He was about to agree when Ben stomped his foot.

“No!  We can’t.  Miah, you don’t understand…  You see sometimes, you have to fight to fix what you know is wrong—this is our battle.  We started this.”

“Ben, I think she’s right,” he said warily.

He spun around and shouted to the nowhere surrounding them, “Is anyone here listening to me?”

Miah bit her lip and looked down, swallowing.  Connor knew she was going to fall apart.  “Ben, this isn’t about you.”

“Well it sure well isn’t about you, Connor,” he spat, turning to him.

He bit back the urge to hit him.  “It's about those freaks out there who thought they could trap us and use us for their experiments—they treated us no better than lab rats!  We tried to go up against them and only narrowly escaped.  And then they came after us while we were helplessly lost.  Ben, you’re a fool for thinking we could stand up to them.  The last time you tried that you were captured.   Don’t do it again. Miah’s right.  We should just leave this to the cops.”

Ben turned his back and stared out at the mountains and the valley.  “That won’t work, Connor.”  Turning to face them he stared at him.  “Are you for me or against me?”