Chapter Fourteen

We were suddenly standing in a different room —one full of large glass plates that looked to be computer screens. It was the same room where I had talked to Samuel and first met Theo.

"What is this place?" I asked.

"This is my lab. It's the area where I am able to track the entire team, as well as monitor any normals we might need to remove and bring here."

"What does that mean?"

"I like to make sure we are only taking humans who are set to die. Usually, we move in just as their life is over. It may be one of the reasons you jumped to that car accident."

"You mean, I may have been trying to grab one of the passengers just as they were about to die?"

"I had thought it was a possibility for a few minutes, but now that I'm hearing there are ripples in time around the car accident, I don't think so. It was just a convenient cover-up for whoever put you in 2007."

"What year are we in now?" I asked Samuel. My hands were shaking. I had been to so many different places in time, I was beginning to lose a sense of reality for what year I should actually be in right at this moment.

Everything inside of me felt alive. The energy within my body felt strong. So much had happened. How was I supposed to process everything? I needed to calm it down. I had finally learned how to control the electricity, but in this state, I knew I was unpredictable.

I turned my hand over and stared at my palm. A thin line of electricity danced in the middle, as if waiting for some sort of release. I had never seen my power at this level. It had to be because I was around the others. It was this place, this year, that was causing the energy inside my body to rage.

"It's 2105, Esa. Our primary year. The actual year we are supposed to be in right now. In just a few minutes the others will follow," he said as he slid his hand over several of the glass panels.

The robot with pink hair—LUX—appeared on the far wall. "The team is about to land."

"Is everyone accounted for, and have you done an initial body scan, to make sure they aren't bringing anything back with them?" Samuel asked, placing his hands on his hips as he talked to LUX. "I don't want Paul to try anything by sending one of his moles on the Line."

"Yes," LUX responded in a monotone voice. "I have scanned everyone. All clear."

"What about Captain Esa James?"

"She was scanned as you both landed. Clear."

"Thank you, LUX."

Samuel stared at one of his monitors. LUX quickly disappeared from the far wall, but a new set of images of the team popped up on the screens.

As Samuel continued to look at the various monitors, Gave suddenly appeared, then Audrina, and finally Theo. He looked completely comfortable, sitting at the very end of the couch, with a slight smirk on his face, almost as if he were a kid in a candy shop who had managed to take a handful of the sugary dessert.

I shot Theo a glare. "Why are you smiling?"

"Whoa! I'm not smiling at you." Theo threw his hands into the air. "I was laughing at something Gave said just before we jumped. Chill out. Every now and then we are allowed to have fun to help relieve some of the tension."

"What is going on?" I moved toward to him.

He looked back at me. "Sorry. I'm not entirely sure what you mean?"

"Is that really your answer? Why don't you tell me how we ended up at OnyxFive?"

Theo glanced over at my brother and then back at me. "Maybe you should ask Samuel. He is the one who thought it was a good idea. Besides, we needed a distraction for Paul. It was part of the plan, to give Audrina and her team time to look for Luther. We didn't want to tell you since it would be your first meeting with him."

"What? You idiot. Don't ever keep me in the dark again." Anger ignited inside of me. It took everything I had to turn away so they couldn't see how mad I was. "Why couldn't you two just tell me part of the plan?"

"Because we needed to see how Paul would respond to your return," Samuel said from the other side of the room. "We had to know what he would do to you, what he would say."

"Why do you need to know anything about Paul?"

"Esa, none of us could ever figure out how you disappeared. Then we found out you had left on your own. We still continued to search for you. At one point, we thought you were dead. And then just a few weeks ago, we found out you were alive and that you had no memory. It's a lot for us to take in as well. Now I need to find out who put you back in the twenty-first century," Samuel responded.

"Do you think it was Paul?" I asked, wondering myself what happened on that day three years ago. "He gives me the creeps."

"I'm not sure. But, yes, I've often wondered if Paul had something to do with your disappearance. He's definitely a prime suspect, but he is also our father," Samuel said.

"Samuel, were you also trying to see how I would respond to Paul?" Something told me he wanted to verify my story.

It took several awkward seconds, but finally he answered. "Yes."

"Samuel, I'm not lying. I have no clue what happened to me."

"Esa, I know, but we also have a right to confirm your story," Samuel said matter-of-factly. "I'm just trying to figure out what happened to my sister, and whether or not you know more then you are telling us or, since your memory is gone, if there is something others can tell us. Lives are at stake. I can't risk having a traitor among our group. It's too risky."

"Did anyone see Luther?" Theo asked, changing the subject. "I was stuck briefly in a room that Paul tried to keep me locked in. It had some sort of shield that did something to my medallion and I couldn't use it to jump. Finally, one of his people walked in and I was able to escape, but I didn't feel Luther at OnyxFive. I haven't felt him on the Line. He's still missing."

"Me either," Audrina responded. "I don't know where that lug went to this time. I told you he was trouble, Theo. He can't ever seem to listen." She gave an angry grunt before sinking back into the couch. "This time, he has royally pissed me off. We need to take action."

Samuel took a deep breath. "Aud, you say that every time he goes missing."

"I know," she retorted. "And, every time, you guys ignore me, but this time I'm serious. We've been a little too forgiving of him. We all know he's a part of this team, but does he realize that? He needs to let us know when he is going to do a solo mission. It's time for us to take away some of his privileges. I feel like we spend half of our time searching for him."

Samuel turned to one of the monitors. "LUX, any idea where Luther is right now?"

"No. I have searched this year and can't seem to find him," LUX responded. "It looks like he may have taken off his watch."

"I'm going to kill him," Audrina threw her arms up in the air in frustration. "He is seriously annoying."

"Okay. LUX, any odd blips on your radar that might indicate Luther is moving through time?" Samuel asked. "Or any distress calls?"

"My apologies. No, I haven't seen anything that would indicate Luther is jumping or in distress."

"I'm going back to OnyxFive to see if I can find him. There are a few rooms I want to check out. Maybe we can't feel his energy because he's trapped somewhere inside the facility, or captured," Theo said. "He could be in a room like I was being held in that has some sort of device to scramble energy fields, making it hard to detect if he has one of us."

"Stop. Theo, take Samuel with you. There's no reason for you to go alone," Audrina said.

He looked annoyed by her recommendation that would force him to change his plans, but she glared back at Theo, holding her ground.

Finally, she said through gritted teeth, "We need to travel in pairs right now. Too many people are watching us, waiting for us to separate. We're becoming too vulnerable lately. I've noticed it more and more when I'm out making deliveries. The normals are looking at us differently. They know how much money they could make by capturing one of us."

Samuel looked back and forth between Theo and Audrina. "Fine. Let's go, Theo. By the way, what year are we going again?"

"We'll stay in our primary year. I want to go back and see if we missed anything."

"All right." Samuel tapped on the shiny silver disk. We all watched as they disappeared on their search through time for someone named Luther.

"Wait...." I heard myself say, then trailed off into silence. My heart was numb from both of them being gone. The room felt very empty.

Finally, Gave got up from the couch. "Esa, don't worry, they'll be back before you know it. Samuel and Theo are two of our strongest jumpers. They'll be fine."

Audrina rose and walked over to me. "Yeah, Samuel and Theo always come back. They are very strong together. Esa, you are the only one who has ever jumped and not come back to us. Even Luther eventually comes back; although, I wished he wouldn't. As far as I'm concerned, he can stay gone."

I stared at Audrina, confused.

"Paul and Troy are both evil, but they need us. Hurting us doesn't do anything for them. Capturing us for good is what they are trying to accomplish, but they haven't been able to do so. They are able to get ahold of us for a few minutes and then we're gone. Paul is a little closer to figuring out how we move through time, but Troy isn't quite as savvy."

"I've come face to face with Paul. He is... interesting," I clenched my fists as I remembered his face coming close to mine.

Audrina took a step back. "That's right. So, how was your meeting with Paul?"

"It was horrible. He had some weird contraptions on our hands that wouldn't let us move."

Audrina cocked her head to the side. "What kind of contraptions?"

"I don't know, but somehow Samuel was able to do something that caused them to shut off," I responded, looking down at my hands. I too had wondered about those devices and what Samuel had done to get them to fall off the tables.

Audrina nodded. "Interesting. I definitely want to hear more about your visit with Paul, but right now we need to focus on an order we just received as well as some items we need for our own house."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we need to go back to one of the earlier years, and try to get some food and supplies for the next few weeks. We've been running a little low lately. Do you want to come with us?" Audrina looked from me over to Gave.

"Esa, there is no food in this year. The war destroyed everything. There have been some attempts to grow things, but they always fail. This is what we do. We get food and other items for those left living in this crappy place," Gave said.

I shook my head. "Samuel mentioned something along those lines."

"We are the only six who can go back in time to find food. OnyxFive and NorthStar both have rations that will last them for a few more weeks, but after that there's nothing. It's one of the reasons the hunt for us has intensified. They need our team in order to survive. It's also why I think Samuel is so skeptical about your return."

"What year are we going to visit?"

Audrina paused. "1998. We will stop at a grocery store in that year and then we have a body that will be ready for pick-up after we're done getting food. Esa, the key is to get in and out undetected. We can't let any of them see us. It would cause a ripple in time."

"This body, is it a person who is just about to die?"

"Yes. It's someone we've been watching and we think no one will miss the body if we pull it," Audrina said. "We are very selective about which bodies we bring back here. They need to previously be healthy, but they also need to be someone who if we took the body wouldn't cause too much of an uproar. We generally only grab around three to four bodies a week."

"The key is we only take bodies we've verified," Gave said. "Got it?"

Samuel had told me about tracking and grabbing normals who had just died. It seemed so odd to know that someone might have just passed and we would be pulling their body into the future.

"The closer we pull them to their actual death, the more tissue and organs we can harvest here," Audrina continued.

"Samuel thinks that may have been what I was doing when I jumped to 2007."

"I thought about it, too, but I went back to check our records. If you were grabbing one of of the people in the cars, they definitely weren't on our list. All of the passengers in the two cars still had many years to live."

"Are they alive, now?" I asked.

"Yes, we went back and corrected that piece in time," Gave said. "They never even knew they had been dead."

"I wish I could remember more about what happened right before that accident," I said to both of them.

"I know. I'm sure it has to be frustrating," Audrina said. "We don't have much time, so why don't we focus on food right now? We can talk to Samuel about the accident later."

"Okay. I'll try not to get spotted," I responded.

Gave smiled. "Good. We'll help you."

Audrina stepped closer. "Esa, take this large bag. It will protect the food from radiation." She handed Gave a similar bag and then pulled at her medallion. "All right, let's go to 1998."

In seconds we were standing inside what looked like a grocery store. It was dark all around us. "Is it closed?"

"Yes," Gave said. "We have found that visiting stores while they are open makes things a little tough. People tend to spot us. It's something about our pale hair and skin that makes us stand out."

"Got it. Anything in particular we need?" I whispered, tugging at my pony tail.

"Just grab what you can. We need to fully restock, so we have extra rations in case of an attack," Gave said, quickly standing and striding over to one of the aisles. "We will also use half of whatever we grab to fulfill the order for the normals."

Adriana turned to me. "The key is not to take too many of one item. They can't know we were here."

"What about the alarm system?" I asked.

"I had LUX do a quick scan and she was able to shut it off," Gave whispered back. "She also shut off the cameras. We've got five minutes. Let's go."

The three of us rushed off in different directions, throwing various food items into the large bags.

"Four minutes!" Gave said loudly from somewhere in the store.

I had managed to find the cereal and soup aisle. I hardly read the labels as I threw the objects into my bag.

"Three minutes," Gave yelled as I continued to throw various boxes and plastic containers into the bag, dragging it behind me. I hadn't seen Gave or Audrina, so I figured they were doing a similar thing on another aisle.

"Thirty seconds," Gave finally said. "Meet at the register at the end of aisle five. I'll open the Jump Line."

My head snapped up as Gave finished his sentence—just in time to see a large brown dog charging straight for me down the aisle. The look on its face said it meant business and was not happy about us being in the store.

"Dog!" I yelled as I raced in the opposite direction. "You forgot about the dog!"

"Crap. I didn't forget about the dog; I was hoping we wouldn't encounter one. Just keep running, Esa! They loved attack dogs in the nineties. Sorry," Gave said loudly through rapid breaths. I could tell he was running, too, as we all tried to grab a few more items while making our way to the meeting point.

When I rounded the corner, the blue vapors of the Jump Line greeted me. I threw my bag onto the line and thought about the year 2105. A moment later we were back in Samuel's lab. All three of us stared at one another, trying to catch our breaths.

Then Audrina began to giggle. "That was too close, but I think we were successful. I didn't see anyone."

"I agree," I said through deep breaths. "Do we do that often?"

Gave laughed. "Yeah, but I have to admit that was one of the more exciting missions."

"Why don't we just bring plants to 2105 that can grow new fruits and vegetables?" I asked.

"We do, but they keep dying," Audrina said. "We've tried all sorts of things, but the air outside is too bad for the normals."

"Normals?" I asked. I had heard that word several times now.

"Yeah, the regular humans, animals and plants," Audrina said. "We've survived because your mom did something to us to make us a higher quality. We can breathe the air outside, but the others can't without getting sick. There are some who are living in the deserts, and apparently their bodies have adjusted, but most are hiding out in the tunnels, trying to get away from the bad air."

"Do we have normals here at this house?"

"No," Gave said. "It's just us, and we're trying to keep it that way. But, trust me, we've had a few close calls where someone has found our hideout and tried to get inside."

"Okay. Leave your bags here. Let's go get the body," Audrina held up another similar looking bag.

"I'll stay back and wait for the rest of the team," Gave said. His comment caused Audrina to let out a laugh and then turned towards me.

"Gave doesn't like to pull bodies," she said.

"Don't listen to her Esa. There's just no need for all three of us to go. I'm sure the two of you can handle this mission."

"He's a wimp," Audrina responded as she opened up the Jump Line.

Instantly, we were standing in a forest area at the base of a large mountain. I looked up and noticed a large cliff area above us.

"Come back here," Audrina motioned behind a thick tree. "Any moment now we'll have our guy—"

Before she could utter the last words out of her mouth, a car came barreling over the side of the cliff landing within several feet of us, causing the ground to shake.

"Oh my God," I clasped my hand over my mouth.

"Let's go Esa. The car is about to blow," Audrina yelled. I watched as she ran to the driver's side door. Pulled out the bloodied man and dragged him back towards the tree line. She was putting the body inside one of the large bags just as we felt the explosion.

"Is he already dead?" I asked.

"Yes. Does he look like he's alive?" Audrina had a sour look on her face.

"I guess not."

"He's dead. Now let's get out of here," she said as we landed back at the house. The bag right next to us.

Theo, Samuel and another boy suddenly appeared on the couch across from us. "We found him," Theo said with an air of annoyance.

"Great," Audrina replied dryly. "Glad to see Luther is back with the group. We finally have all six of us together." Luther's eyes widened when he saw me. "Esa, is it really you? Did you finally decide to come home?"

"Uh, yes. You must be Luther."

Theo whispered something in Luther's ear, and Luther rose and walked over to me, giving me an odd look. "I never thought I would see you back here."

Audrina let out a long sigh. "I'm going down to my room. It's been a busy day." She got up from the couch and headed for the stairs.

Samuel watched her go and then his eyes narrowed in on me. "Esa, you should also get some rest. Your body is going to need extra sleep."

Looking around the room at the three other faces, it was obvious they all wanted me to leave. "Okay."

A break from all this craziness would be welcome. I walked down a staircase and headed to the room in which I'd slept not too long ago. Everything in the house now seemed a little more familiar. My room was the second door on the left.

I walked inside and took a deep breath as I thought about everything that had happened over the past few hours. It was unreal.

The main room consisted of a bed. There was a bathroom and another thing off to the side of the room. I quietly navigated myself around the room wondering more about my old self. Had this always been my room? Before I had a chance to settle, there was a soft knock on my bedroom door and Samuel entered.

"I'm glad to hear you went on a side-mission to get food. Our lives are driven by survival. It's a little different from what it was like three years ago. We didn't need to go back as often then, but now we do. Every day it is getting harder and harder. Paul and Troy are getting smarter, and their technology is better, but the Earth is getting worse. We don't have much time."