- WhiteBird -

- Chapter Three - Awaken

Fear. Fear?

Is that what he was feeling? No. Perhaps he sensed it.

He felt the fear. Heard it. It clawed at his mind like a sharp rush of adrenaline, pushing against his conscience, awakening him.

He had been restless for some time. Always feeling out of place, the ground uneven.. a door ajar...

Where was this fear coming from? And why was car aware of whoever was scared.

Car? No that wasn't it.

It was something else.

Kar? Yes. There was a K. Not a C. He was remembering.

Slowly it came back to him, like the creeping of a spider through his mind. He'd been sleeping for so long, he had almost forgotten who he was.

A wallet. What about a wallet? It had been lost.

Someone was searching for that wallet, and a man stood just outside the door.

Yes, Kar thought. No.. not Kar either. Something was missing.

He felt the hand reach to his door, full of anger and intent with harm. Inside sat the source of the fear, though he seemed distracted.

That same man he had felt before, lurking on the edge of his conscience.

He locked the doors.

It wasn't Kar.. no, it was something else.

What was he missing?

He felt shock and panic, and for the first time in a little more than a year, he felt his amber colored scanner swish back and fourth, and the world came back to him in a crushing wave.

The sky was a grey blue, hazy with the heat of the day. The cement boiled below his tires, a rocky stovetop cooking cars. Dry grassy fields stood beside him, alive with the steamy wind, and every sound came rushing in, a great big wall crashing down upon him.

The boy sat inside him, frightened of whoever was trying to get inside, scared, stunned, but still brave.

It took a moment for him to regain his senses. He was so disoriented, lost as he fought to think clearly once again.

He was in south Texas, if his gps still worked. Yes. Definitely Texas, though he wasn't sure how he'd gotten there.

What was the boys name?

The boy had owned him for at least a year now. How did he know that? He wasn't sure.

He felt himself move, and quickly he realized they were leaving.

Leaving the intersection.

Silence crept into his mind, hushing all attempts to remember fully. He tried desperately to break free of the mental pillow choking him.

He knew it. It was there.

For moments longer he fought for the information, fought his memories. It was a heated battle, leaving him feeling weak and drowsy.

Another few minutes passed in a drunken haze, and then, as if the fog had been sucked up by some big machine, his mind cleared, until everything became a crisp image.

He'd been out for a long time, inactivated, for a couple of years.

He now belonged to a boy, 20, named Casey Long.

Casey had owned him for just under a year, and he longed dearly to get away from his hometown.

He had a mission. An objective. It was a secret, because Casey wasn't supposed to know. She'd had pleaded that he took care of him secretly, discreetly, until it became necessary to tell him his secret.

His secret? He was Casey's protector. From what? Well that still seemed a little fuzzy. He had been deactivated for much longer than intended.

And then it again came to him, another sharp zing, and then a memory. It was Karr.

His name was Karr.