There was but one way: Forward. But Vera didn't want to. Breathless she was stuck in the tunnel, hoping that Whitmore wouldn't discover her and listening to the events taking place in the cave. She would have given anything to be able to intervene and help the children right at this moment...

Of course Whitmore had not come alone. Over all the commotion and the screams of the children trying to escape from the criminals Vera found out that at least Sykes was there, too. She was able to hear some quick movement and the sound of steel brushing over cloth that sent cold shivers down her back. All those sounds she perceived made her imagine quite well what was going on. It sounded like Vanna and Thor were putting up a fight. Taylor on the other hand yelling all the time that Jenny was not to be touched wouldn't be such a serious obstacle to overcome for the criminals. Shortly after that it got awfully quiet in the cave, apart from silent moaning of the children. Vera imagined what happened now: Johnson had entered the cave.

"Look here, boss!" Whitmore called out with his droning voice. "Can it be that this is the brat we know?"

He must have caught Vanna, Vera thought by herself, biting her lip. He ought to have noticed the similarity between her and Vanna, too.  But after a brief moment of silence Johnson answered: "You need to get your eyes checked, Whitmore. That's in no way the girl from last night."

"She's not?" Whitmore asked disbelieving. But Sykes' scoffing snort showed that she had realized it, too, that it wasn't Vera. Or she just agreed with her leader. "I could've sworn..."

"Let's look at it this way: She has been here" Johnson cut him off. "You, girl, what's your name?"

"Vanna" she answered sullenly, confirming Vera's assumption.

Again there was silence, and Vera wouldn't dare to move. She had arrived at a turn in the tunnel, so with a little bit of luck she wouldn't be spotted even if someone looked directly into it. On the other hand, Vera's luck had been unreliable lately in her opinion.

"Vanna, you look similar to a girl we are missing" Johnson explained in that calm and down-to-earth voice that Vera knew of him. "Maybe you know of her or have even seen her."

It was quiet again for some time. Unbearably quiet, as Vera felt. Her heart was beating so loudly that she feared it could be heard outside the tunnel. "No" Vanna answered eventually. "I've seen no one."

Vera took a breath in relief. But this relief was short-lived. "I know that you're lying, Vanna." Johnson's voice had not changed a bit from the calmness. But now she felt this undercurrent of a thread again that she had felt during her first encounter with him. "That's not a noble attitude. And you know how I can tell?" There was no answer until he talked again after several seconds. "Those candy bars and ration packs... and the bottle of fruit juice on your table. I have seen all these things before."

"We found those things" Vanna defended herself and tried to sound as innocent as possible.

"Found them?" Johnson's voice now carried a hint of sarcasm. "How fortunate. But you haven't come across a twelve year old girl carrying these things, have you? How about you, young man?"

It was impossible to know whom Johnson was talking to. Vera hoped that it was not Thor. After the fight she had had with him she wasn't sure at all that he would keep quiet. And Taylor... He would do anything to protect his sister. As soon as they threatened Jenny he would spill everything.

It was Thor who finally gave the answer. An answer that surprised Vera immensely: "No, we haven't. We only found some backpack standing around out there. We took everything we could carry from it and ran, leaving the rest. We don't know whose it is."

"Where was that?" Johnson inquired. Any sign of friendliness had disappeared from his voice.

Thor's answer came promptly. "Out in the woods." It sounded convincing. Vera was impressed.

"Boss!" Whitmore suddenly stepped in. "Forget this brat! We've got other things to take care of."

"He's right" Skyes agreed to him. "Let's just finish this kindergarten off and be on our way."

The next thing Vera heard was a loud yell of anger coming from Thor, followed by more commotion. But it ended apruptly with a loud slapping sound and a painful cry of the boy. Vera assumed that his face had just met Whitmore's bulky paws. After all he had already proven his enjoyment of beating up boys on Jesper. The riot stopped very quickly after that. "We better tie this boy up" Whitmore suggested. "So that can't happen again."

"You tie them all up!" Johnson ordered. "So none of them can get any funny ideas. But as for the matter of finishing off, we will stick to the deal we have. So you two won't do anything stupid either."

"Got that" Sykes mumbled grumpily. The children started to protest, but Whitmore's threads of more beatings silenced them. Vera only heard quiet weeping from Jenny, interrupted by a cry of pain which made her feel for the girl. It was so mean and disgusting doing this to a little child. The others groaned in pain, too, as Sykes was taking care of them. Vera couldn't help but think that this tattooed scoundrel loved doing this.

After approximately another minute she was done with it. Another sharp order came from Johnson to take the children into the tunnels, which apparently happened afterwards. The children's moaning and groaning as well as Jenny weeping heartbreakingly departed out of Vera's earshot range until nothing could be heard anymore. But she held her breath once more and listened as long as she could. She didn't trust it. If someone was still remaining in the cave, only waiting for her to give herself away...

Apparently there was no one left. Vera would have loved to crawl back and follow the children to help them. But that was senseless and, as she had to admit, dumb. What could she hope to accomplish against the three of them? Especially unarmed? The only chance she saw to help them was to get help, as Vera realized. So there was but one way left: Forward.

The sun had already risen again as she crawled past the big metal sheet to the outside and threw her backpack on the ground before her. The fresh breeze of air was pleasing her to no end, but she had other things to worry about right now. She liked Vanna's idea best: If she went back to the crash site she had the best chances of being found by members of the academy. Those people would be able to come with her and save the children. At least one of them was bound to carry a decent laser with him, even if it was just a stun weapon...

As she turned around she looked right into the muzzle of such a weapon. Only this model wasn't designed to stun.

"Hands up!"

Jesper's eyes were staring at her over the barrel of his gun. It was still the coy guy from last night standing before her, but the look in his eyes told her that he was dead serious about it. Vera also saw his index finger resting on the trigger. She couldn't tell whether he really wanted to shoot her or whether he was just never trained to do it correctly. But she didn't want to find out.

Slowly she raised her hands. "Is that OK?" she asked carefully. She wouldn't want to be on bad terms with Jesper.

For a short moment something flickered in Jesper's eyes. Something that reminded her of last night and the talk they had. "Yeah, that's OK" he answered. he appeared to be very insecure in this situation.

"So what are you going to do to me now?" Vera asked curiously. She looked around. "It's just the two of us here."

Jespers eyes widened in astonishment. "Are you suggesting that..."

He didn't need to finish that sentence for Vera to understand what he was talking about. She squinched up her face in disgust. "Yuck, no! That's icky!" Then she turned serious again. "But what are you planning to do?"

"I'll take you to the others" Jesper replied. "Johnson wasn't happy about you disappearing last night. My uncle got into lots of trouble about that."

And he had you pay for it. Vera looked at Jesper's face. Last night she had not had a chance to examine it more closely since it had been too dark for it. But the bruises covering his face were not all of longer time's past. "I'm sorry you had trouble because of me."

Again Jesper's eyes flickered, and his trigger finger relaxed visibly. "You have to come with me. Please!"

"I can't." Vera shook her head. "If it were just about me, that would be something entirely different. But I can't let you harm the other children."

Puzzled Jesper stared at her. "Other children?"

"Runaways" Vera explained. "They have helped me. I owe them."

"No!" This time it was Jesper who shook his head. "I have no choice. I must take you to Johnson."

She had had so high hopes for their chat from last night to be fruitful. But Jesper seemed to be in such a tight grip from his uncle that it was impossible to persuade him. "Please!" she begged him. She had to try at least. With every bit of her childlike charm she stared deep into his eyes. "Please, you have to let me go."

For the blink of an eye she seemed to succeed. Unsure of himself Jesper lowered the pistol a little, his gaze caught up in her eyes. But this moment passed, and he raised the weapon up to her face again. "Now, move!" The ordering tone didn't go well with Vera at all.

"If I don't" she cautiously asked, "will you really shoot me?"

Jesper's hesitation was unambiguous, but he gave his answer with all dedication: "If I have to..."

She had figured him out already. She cocked her head. "I don't think you will."

"I'm gonna do it, I will." Jesper's voice couldn't conceal his desperation, showing that he was way over his head in this. And that he would have preferred to be anywhere else.

So Vera lowered her hands and crossed her arms before her. "Then shoot!"

She wouldn't blink away from his gaze, ignoring the muzzle of the weapon right before her that started to shake harder. The trigger finger itched more and more, as if Jesper had trouble keeping himself under control. "Are you crazy?" he uttered. "Do you want to die?"

"No" Vera responded soberly. "Does it matter?"

Heartbeat by heartbeat she observed Jesper's face behind the weapon, wondering for one moment if was really going to do it. If he could bring up the courage to kill someone. And not just someone - maybe the only person in a long time that had been friendly towards him. He reminded her of Taylor - that boy, too, had to live with an uncle he couldn't really get along with. Only that Jesper had it a thousand times worse than him.

She decided to tell him one last thing: "If you do it, though... then please save the others! For you are one of them."

She watched Jesper's eyes fill up with tears, while the laser in his hand was shaking so badly, he might have missed her even at this short distance. Finally, with a long deep sigh, he put it down. "You're mean" he accused her.

Vera gave him a serious glance. "I meant everything I said."

"Jesper!" The call came from some distance, but still Vera could make out the penetrating female voice of Sykes with ease. Jesper before her turned pale. That was the last thing she needed right now.

"I need to go" Vera uttered and reached for her backpack. But Jesper grabbed her arm.

"I can't just let you walk like this." In panic he looked around if Sykes was already close enough to see them. Then he turned back to Vera. Saying something that she never would have expected:

"Hit me!"

Vera was baffled. "What?"

"You have to hit me." Jespers look got wild, his panic grew by the second. "It's the only way. Punch me as hard as you..."

He didn't finish the sentence. With full force Vera had smashed her fist under his lower jaw. This punch was hard enough for Jesper to topple over backwards and hit the ground. The weapon plunged out of his hand. But Vera, too, felt this punch. Ow, damn!  The pain went from her knuckles up her entire arm like a red hot blade was stuck into them. I will never hit anyone with a closed fist ever again. Never ever!

Then she grabbed her backpack and started running. Behind her she heard a yell: "Hey! Hold it!" But she ran as fast as she could, leaving Jesper behind. She didn't look back to see if someone followed her, she just kept running. She heard another yell from behind, but couldn't make it out right. Then she heard nothing besides her own breath and her beating heart.

Later on she didn't know how far she had run by this point or what direction she had taken. She ran until her breath was going so heavily like she had climbed the planet's highest mountain. She ran until her heart was beating as fast as a galloping horse. She ran until she saw dots flickering before her eyes and she became dizzy for the first time in a long period. But still she wouldn't stop. Her legs felt like jelly when she finally came to a halt, catching her breath in exhaustion. There she felt her headache coming back to her, with every heartbeat sending a pulse of pain through her skull. The dizzyness was still there, but much worse than before.

And then she saw the figure. A big figure dressed all in dark grey that had its back turned to her. Vera tried to look at this figure more closely, but the more she focused on it, the blurrier her vision became. She noticed how her hand which propped her up against the tree was trembling, and her blood swooshed inside her ears. And then it turned dark on her. She turned her eyes towards the sky. How can it get dark now? It's the middle of the day...

She couldn't even perceive herself falling to the ground anymore.