Chapter Eleven

There are points in life when you have to pause and wonder why you are the one experiencing them right at that moment in time. Ha! Time. Such an important word, but something that can be so subjective. What is time?

A soft breeze wafted through the field, blowing the flowers' long stems back and forth as Audrina and I continued to plan our next move. I told her more about talking with my mother. She agreed that Dr. Marie James seemed too real to be a dream, a figment of my imagination, or even a ghost.

Our plan included first finding Samuel and the rest of the team. Then my mother. She was somewhere, and I now felt, she was probably closer than we had ever thought.

Audrina looked over at me. "There is a place Samuel and I have been working on for the past few years. No one on the team knows about it, so it should be safe. Shall we go there?"

"Where is it?" I could see a vast area of white in her thoughts. It looked like snow.

"Hold on," Audrina said as she stood.

Before I could utter another word, she grabbed my hand and we were both on the Jump Line.

In a flash, the soft vapors of the line disappeared and we were standing inside some sort of cave, with large icicles hanging down from the ceiling. I took a deep breath. The cold air stung my lungs.

"Where are we?" A cloud of steam left my mouth with each word.

"We are up in the Northern Sector, in a place now known as Quadrant One."

"I've never heard of any place called Quadrant One."

"It started a few years ago, when we were looking for you. The war was slowly destroying all the land. Samuel knew we needed another way to identify certain areas of the planet, so he divided them up into Quadrants. It allowed us to be more strategic on where we had been and where we were going, as well as where we had spotted normals or soldiers."

"Okay, why did you visit here?"

"Because of the cold. We couldn't be tracked up here. We found our signal was too weak. It became the perfect hiding spot when we wanted to get away from the rest of the team." A sly smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. Then she turned and headed farther back into the cave.

Large sheets of ice covered part of the floor, making it difficult to walk down the narrow pathway. I could feel my bottom lip shiver from the cold.

"A few more steps, Esa. I promise, you will be warm soon."

Suddenly, the cave opened up into a large room with a bright blue pool of water in the center. Somewhere near the top of the cavern, a section of rock was missing, allowing natural light to fill the area.

"Wow, it's beautiful," I said, staring at the blue abyss that lay below us. The water was crystal clear and perfectly still.

"I know. It is amazing. It's also freezing cold, so don't fall in, because I am not going after you," Audrina said in a distant voice. She continued to walk several steps ahead.

My teeth chattered even more. "Are we almost there? I'm not sure how much more of the cold my body can take."

"Come over here, Esa," Audrina said, turning into another smaller cave.

After three or four steps we reached a large steel door. She swiped her hand in the air and a small screen appeared. A pale light shone onto Audrina's face. It looked like some sort of facial recognition device. A moment later, the lock clicked open.

Audrina pulled open the door and we stumbled inside, trying to get out of the cold. I wasn't sure what to expect on the other side, but for some reason, I knew I could trust Audrina. We were in this together. She was my teammate, my family.

One by one, lights illuminated the space.

"Hold on, Esa. Give it a few seconds," she said, walking off.

Several large couches were set in the middle of the room, alongside a long table that instantly turned into a fire pit.

"What is this place?" I continued to look around as I crossed to the fire. It felt good to hold my hands up to the hot flames.

"Samuel and I started to build it two years ago. He knew our place would eventually be compromised and he wanted to have a back-up. Slowly, and very quietly, we began acquiring stuff to make it a fully functional space. I think Samuel knew it was someone on the team who was providing information to Troy. He didn't want to trust anyone. We have been calling it Station One, but really it could go by any name."

"This place is amazing." I stood in awe at the idea that they had planned something so elaborate. "Station One. Okay."

"I know. It has been fun sneaking away to come here, undetected."

A screen on the far wall came to life, and a familiar robot came into view.

"Good to see you arrived safely. I am bringing up the interior temperature."

"LUX?" I said, surprised to see her.

Audrina laughed. "It's not LUX. This is a different version. Esa, meet LUX-2. She looks similar to the previous version, so that, when we need her, no one will be able to tell the difference, but Samuel knows how to tell if it's LUX or this model."

LUX-2 looked back at both of us, expressionless. "Captain Samuel James asked me to make him aware of your arrival. Do I have your permission to send him the alert?"

Audrina stopped in her tracks. "LUX-2, was he operating in distress when he asked you to make that request? Was Paul with him?"

"Yes, General Lyons was standing beside him."

"Okay. That's what I thought." Audrina glanced over at me and shook her head before turning back to the screen. "LUX-2, I'm sorry, but please go ahead and self-destruct."

"I understand. Three...two...one." LUX-2's screen went dark. As did the rest of the compound.

"Wait! What are you doing, Audrina? We need her."

"Esa, we've been compromised. Paul has probably already tried to hack into the system. We can't afford for him to find some way to trace any message LUX-2 might send. But Samuel will get a notification that 'LUX' is not operating. Trust me, he will know what that means. We've discussed this before. He and I are the only two who can make LUX, or LUX-2, become inoperable. He will know we are here."

"Okay, but do we have any other sort of computer system here that can operate this place?" I asked. "We won't have much time here if we can't turn the heater back on."

"Esa, get a grip," she said, her shoulder brushing mine as she moved. "We had no choice. If Paul finds us here, I'm out of options. This is the one place Samuel created so we could possibly be safe...and survive. Things are a little different now that Paul knows how to get on the Jump Line. We have to be extra cautious. Besides, Samuel will be able to reprogram a new variation of her at some point. We also have a special generator."

Just as the last word escaped her mouth, the lights and fire pit turned back on.

"Thank you," I said, looking around the, once again, well-lit structure.

I turned to the right just in time to see Samuel appear in the room, a serious look on his face. "Where have you guys been?"

Audrina let out a squeal of delight. "You made it! You figured out my message! I knew you would!"

"Yes, but where have the two of you been?" He strode over to me and Audrina, and as he drew closer, his expression turned into a scowl.

"Paul had us. He was running some sort of experiments," Audrina responded. She tried to wrap her arms around Samuel's neck, but he pulled away from her grasp.

"It's been over a month since we were attacked in the hallway. Are you telling me you've both been at OnyxFive since then and we couldn't find you inside the facility?" There was a questioning look on his face. It was almost as if he didn't believe us.

Both of our mouths dropped open.

"A month?" I asked. It didn't seem possible. The hallway attack had just happened; at least, that's how it seemed. Audrina and I hadn't been gone that long. I looked over at my brother. "There's no way we have been gone for a month. It feels like everything just happened the other day."

"It's been a month. Trust me," Samuel responded in a dry tone. "One very long month. Theo, Gave and I were able to get out and have been searching for both you ever since, but we couldn't track either of you. It was like when Esa disappeared the first time, only now it was both of you gone without a trace."

I held out my palm. "Paul did something to the electricity inside of our bodies. He's changing us."

Samuel rubbed his chin as he stared down at my hand. "Hmm. I'm obviously missing something. Why would he be altering your physical make-up?"

"He must be getting ready for something and hasn't fully told us his plans," I responded, looking back at him.

"Good point. Paul has obviously not been very truthful lately, and I intend to find out what is going on." He placed his hands on his hips. "He swore to me that he just wanted to do some standard testing on us, and that he hadn't intended what happened in the hallway...and I believed him."

"Where are the others?" Audrina asked, glancing over at the empty couch. It was almost as if she expected Theo and Gave to appear at any moment.

"I didn't tell them I thought I had found you. They are not aware of this place yet. We've been jumping through time non-stop trying to figure out what's going on, but the past few weeks have provided us with very little information. I guess it's time for me to get them and bring them here so we can discuss what we need to do next."

"Has the Hunter returned?" I asked Samuel.

"What are you talking about?" Samuel's eyebrows creased.

"The invisible thing that keeps attacking us."

"Oh. Got it. Yes, Gave and Theo have both had nasty run-ins with this so-called Hunter. Theo, thankfully, gave it a nice beating. We haven't seen it for the past week."

"What if it's waiting for you to bring Theo and Gave here so it can follow and attack all of us?"

"That could happen, but we can't fight or plan if we don't have the entire team, and now that you've mentioned OnyxFive, I want to make sure we steer clear of that place. It's no longer safe for us to be around Paul. Give me a few seconds; I'll be right back." Samuel disappeared.

Almost instantly, he returned with Theo and Gave by his side. Theo blinked several times when he saw Audrina and me standing off to the side of the room.

Before I could utter a word, he hastened toward me. He paused for several seconds, staring into my eyes. I could see anger and hurt. He must have thought I had disappeared again for good.

"Where have you guys been?" he demanded.

"Paul apparently had them," Samuel responded for us. "I'm really sorry, guys. I thought things had changed and I could trust him."

"I'm going to kill him." Theo seethed.

"I agree. We can in time, but not yet," Samuel said. "We need to focus on other things first."