Arcadia : The Hidden Child

Chapter 4

The food had just been dropped off when the door opened and Ty walked in confused and then immediately relieved when he saw us.
I ran over to give him a hug.  "Are you ok?" I pushed him away and looked at his face and arms.
He laughed, "Yes, I'm fine," he lowered his voice, "but the Director is pissed right now.  That guy said he was taking me too."
"Taking you?" I interrupted.
"I don't know, I guess here with you."
"We don't have long though."
"What do you mean?" Cash said.
"He said something about moving us in an hour or so."
"Moving us to where?" I asked, but Cash seemed to already know.
I looked at Cash, "Want to tell us what is going on?"
"I don't know."
"Cash-"
The door opened and Damian stood there looking at us.  "Good, I am glad you have your friend back.  Eat up, we have much to discuss when you are done." He closed the door again.
That was odd.  I walked over and tried to open the door but it was locked.
"What are we going to do?" I asked.
"I'm going to eat." Ty said walking over to the food, "I haven't eaten all day and you know I am a nervous eater."
My stomach growled to remind me to eat.  "Fine, we will eat but then we will put together a plan."
"Deal." Ty said picking up a handful of fries and shoving them into his mouth.
I couldn't help but smile.  I would take these few minutes to compose myself and relax because who knows what the rest of the night had in store for us. 
Close to an hour later the television turned on by itself and the Director's face was on it. 
I set my fork down on the table and watched, this had to be good, I thought sarcastically as a knot formed in my stomach.
"Good evening.  As many of you have heard throughout the day, we were attacked early this morning.  One of our central food storage houses was bombed and destroyed.  The faceless cowards also stole hundreds of pounds of food from our second storage house." She looked straight into the camera, as if she was staring through it at me, her words laced with venom.  "It is as a result of these two things that brings me sorrow to deliver this next piece of news," she paused to readjust herself, "we will have to cut food rations for the next two months for everyone, as the shortage caused by the events that occurred this morning have set us back quite a bit."
"You have got to be kidding me.  There is more than enough food." I threw my plate across the room.  "We need to get out of here."
"I know," Cash said, his tone more serious that I was used too.  I felt like he was agreeing with me but for a different reason.  I looked in his direction and there was something he wasn't telling me, something bad.  Why would he keep it from me?
"Cash," I said matter-of-factly.
The door opened.
Are you kidding me? I thought irritated.
"Let's go," the first guard said.  I hadn't seen him before.
I looked at Cash, who nodded.  Not that I needed his permission, I just didn't need to fight him also.
I was closest to the door and Ty and Cash were right behind me seconds later.
"I don't want any trouble from any of you." The guard said leading us down the hall to an outer set of doors.
"No promises." I quipped.
"Araleigh," Cash said in a scolding tone.
I snapped my neck to look at him and he shook his head slightly.
What was his deal?  Something was definitely off and I wanted to know.
"Where are you taking us?" Cash asked.
"Damian wants to meet with you." The guard pushed open a set of doors that led to a field in the middle of all the buildings.  There were members of the Authority moving around, holding papers and devices, not paying any attention to us.
"What does he want?"
"He didn't tell us."
The other guard turned around, "Stop asking questions." 
We moved into the building closest to us.  The halls were a lot darker as there was less light and fewer rooms.  There were random outbursts of people screaming out in pain which made my spine tingle.
"Where are we?"
"This is where all the rule-breakers go." The guard said, chuckling.
Cash grabbed my arm gently and I turned to look at him.  He shook his head and then nodded towards Ty who was obviously nervous.
I grabbed his arm and he looked at me confused.
We passed through an opening that led into a large room, like an old hangar of some sort.  I couldn't help but look around at the size of the room and wonder what they stored in here.  The opposite end of the room was open and I could see trees out in the distance.
"Don't think about it," one of the guards said looking at me.  "We are almost to his office."
I looked up ahead and saw a door on the left with a light shining beneath the door.
There was a noise behind us that grabbed our attention and we all stopped and turned to look.
"Let's keep moving." The guard said irritated but we didn't move.
There was a large group of people being shuffled through the door, with guards leading them.
"Who are they?"
"None of your concern," they snapped.  "Let's go." He said louder with a hint of anxiety in his voice.
What was going on?
The group of people moved closer to us, there had to be close to a hundred people shuffling in a group.
"Now." The guard was nervous and grabbed Cash's arm to pull him, but Cash twisted and moved out of it, knocking the guard to to ground.  It all happened so fast I didn't know what to do. 
"Let's go!" Cash shouted pulling us towards the crowd.
"Whaaaa-" I started.
"Blend." He said quiet enough so that only we could hear.
The group of people were close enough to us that within seconds we filtered into the crowd.  They were all shuffling together, almost pushing the people in front of them, some looked like they had been kept in a closet for days if not weeks, and smelled like it too, while others looked cleaner. 
I looked back at the way we came and the guard was standing up, batting the other guard away in frustration.  He angrily flew his hand in the air, obviously signaling for him to find us.  I turned my head away, I didn't want to make eye contact and had fortunately made my way just passed the center of the group. 
I looked up and noticed that Cash and Ty weren't beside me, panic raced through me.  I  turned around to see if they were behind me and someone pushed me to keep me moving, then a guard on the opposite side of the way I came held a stun gun in the air and told me to keep moving.  I had to find them, I had no idea where we were going, but I felt like I was riding in a current that I couldn't stop. 
A moment later I saw Cash's head bobbing up and down ahead of me.  How could I get to him and where was Ty?  These people were moving fast and tight and I couldn't see anyway to move through them without drawing attention to myself.  I tried to quickly steal a glance behind me to see if I could find Ty without being caught by the guard. 
I turned and was face-to-face with a man who was battered and bruised and whose skin was brown with dirt.  I looked him in his eyes and there was nothing there, it was as if his light was gone, like he was a robot moving without thought or intention.  What had they done to these poor people and what were they about to do?
I turned back around and continued to move, the crowd now shifting around a corner.  There was a soft flickering glow on the wall up ahead that caught my attention.  I turned the corner seconds later and realized what was causing it.  I recognized it from ten years ago and I will never forget it again.  It was a portal, a blue light at least eight feet tall and five feet wide, the surprise caused me to stop moving if only for an instant before the crowd continued to push me forward again.  I turned behind me one last time to see if I could find Ty and made eye contact with the guard that was transporting us.  He saw me and yelled out and started pushing his way through the crowd to get to me, knocking people down and pushing them out of the way.  My heart started to pound and I, too, began to push people out of the way to get away from him, moving me closer and closer to the blue light, the portal, once again being forced into the light.  Flashbacks of that night all those years ago came rushing back to me.  What would I find on the other side of this portal?  Would it be the same place?  I don't know what was waiting for me on the other side, but I had to hope it was better than this and Cash didn't seem worried.  He continued moving forward without hesitation.
He must have heard some of the commotion that me and guard were causing and turned to look at me.  He nodded his head toward the portal and I nodded in understanding, "Ty", I mouthed.
He quickly scanned the crowd and then nodded ahead to his left.  Ty was looking around confused and then saw Cash.  He tried to make his way towards him, but couldn't get through the crowd.  Relief passed through me, but was quickly replaced by the fear of the approaching guard.
I looked back and saw that he was still at least five rows behind me, fortunately the crowd up ahead had slowed down some and the people behind me where trying to push up so they were really tight.  However, as we kept being pushed forward the crowd in front of us was starting to get tighter because they were stopping at the edge, not wanting to go through.  I looked behind me again and the guard was inching his way closer.  I tried hard and started pushing myself through the people at the same time the guard by the portal picked up a stun wand and started shocking people if they stood at the portal too long.  The crowd in front of us started moving again as Ty disappeared through the portal, followed by Cash moments later.  I was getting closer and I pushed harder, which at this point seemed a little easier as people were trying to avoid going into the portal. I stepped through and that warm feeling passed over my body, the same feeling I had experienced all those years ago.  There was a brief darkness that was quickly replaced with hustle and bustle of people coming through the portal and figuring out where they were.  There were more guards with stun wands moving people along, like animals in a field. 
I looked around, frantic, trying to find where Ty and Cash had gone and saw Cash standing off to the side with Ty.  I made my way over to him, "The guard was chasing me, we have to get out of here."
Fortunately for us the guards seemed a little preoccupied with getting people to move out of the way.
"What is this place?" Ty asked looking around in wonder.
"This is where I came years ago." I looked up at the same dancing lights in the sky, "At least I think."  It was odd that I didn't feel scared, rather that I felt like I was home.  I glanced at Cash and he seemed as unaffected as I was about being here.
"Hey!" One of the guards shouted, "Go through those doors for processing."  He said pointing to a set of doors in front of us.
I hadn't noticed, but we were standing in a large open arena, with walls and doors around us.
"Let's go, I don't want to make a scene," Cash said half pulling, half leading us to the set of doors the guard pointed too.  "We will figure something out."
We walked through the doors and there were more people standing there with a guard directing people where to go.  "Are we being sorted?" I looked around the room, it was all metal with long halls going off in different directions.
"Looks like it," Cash said looking around.
The guard looked at Ty and Cash and waved them over to the right, saying something in another language.  He then looked at me and mumbled something waving me to a group on the left.
"Cash!" I yelled out, as I was being led opposite of them.
One of the guards grabbed my arm and I spun out of it and pinned him on the ground.  I don't think he was expecting me to react the way I did because when he stood up he looked like he wanted to come after me, but the guard stopped him and redirected me to go stand with Ty and Cash.
"Are you ok?" Ty asked.
"I am now."  I looked around, patting my hands on my shirt.
"It looks to be some sort of camp," Cash said looking around.
He grabbed my arm, "Let's go this way." Ty followed as we were moving to the side of a building.
"So you are telling me that the director is sending people from Earth to wherever this is as punishment?"  It was starting to make sense now, the people that were arrested but never seen or heard from again were being sent here, but why?  My mind was firing on all cylinders right now as everything started to line up and make sense, but also created a lot more questions.  If she was sending people here, what did that mean?  Did she have some sort of arrangement with this planet? How long had she had it?  What was the arrangement?
"Looks like it." Cash said, looking around, his mind preoccupied.
"There are no doors on the his hallway.  How are we going to get out of here?  I feel like we are venturing further into the lion's mouth." Ty said, concerned. It was obvious that he felt uneasy about where we were.
"Agreed," I said, feeling the walls.  They were smooth and cold to the touch and the halls were dimly lit.  I turned and saw more people, equally confused behind us.
"Come on, let's keep walking." Cash said.
"I am glad you seem to know where you are going," I joked.
He looked at me with a scowl.
We continued walking and a few minutes later the hall opened into a large dome shaped room.  There were people talking in various groups around the room, some looking excited, while most looked very concerned.  Looking around the room, I noticed there were no guards here.
"What is this place?" I asked.
"I don't know," Ty said.
"It's a common room." Cash said matter of factly.
"What the hell is a common room and how do you know what this is?" I snapped, probably more aggressively than intended.
"Let's go this way," he said pulling me to the side and not answering any questions.  "There has to be an access door somewhere in here, they wouldn't send us all the way down here to send us back again."
"They wouldn't," I quipped.
He ignored me, clearly in some zone right now.
"There are no doors," I said.
"None that you can see," he responded.
"So your idea is to find an invisible door?" Ty said mockingly.
"Yes."  He began to rub his hands along the wall.  "Stay close, we don't want to draw a lot of attention to ourselves when we slip out."
"You are just going to leave all of these people here?" I asked shocked.
"Yes," he said without inflection. "They are not my concern, you are my concern, my priority."
"Way to make me feel good," Ty joked.
Cash looked at him and shrugged.
What was happening now?  Something in Cash had changed, long gone was the guy who didn't take life seriously and was just along for the ride.  This guy was laser focused and had a priority, me, which made me feel a little uncomfortable.  Completely opposite of what Cash appeared to feel, he seemed to be comfortable here, probably the most comfortable I had ever seen him feel.  I don't know if it was in this situation or what, but it was odd, not bad, but just different than what I was used to.
We continued moving along the wall gathering a few wary glances from others who must have quickly dismissed us as unstable and confused in this environment because they quickly went back to what they were discussing with their group. 
"Got it," Cash said, sliding his hand along the wall, now in the back of the room, opposite of where we had walked into.  He moved his hand below a flashing red dot and pushed in causing a thin rectangular panel to slowly protruded from the wall. 
"You obviously don't have access, what are you doing?"
"Protecting you and getting us out of here," he said bluntly, squatting on the ground to get a better look inside the box.  He began moving his fingers around the tiny orbs that were shooting out small lasers, changing their direction, like he had done this a thousand times before.  I couldn't help but watch in utter bewilderment.  I looked at Ty to see if he was seeing this but he was standing behind Cash like he was instinctively trying to block him from on-lookers.  "There we go," he said finishing up, "That should do it."  A second later the red dot stopped flashing and lit green and he pushed the panel back in.  "Let's go," he tapped Ty on the shoulder and then grabbed my arm.  The wall slid open to reveal a door so we quickly moved through and shut it back.
"Now what? Since you seem to have all the answers," I said, slightly irritated that I had no idea what was going on and coming to the slow realization that maybe I didn't know everything about my best friend that I thought I did. 
"Not now."
My eyebrows shot up in surprise.
He must have realized how that came off because he corrected, "I will explain it all to you when we are out of here and you are safe."
A little better, I guess. 
This hall had doors on it, a few jutting off, "What about these doors?"
"No, probably rack rooms, we are looking for another hidden door."
He will explain it later I reminded myself.
"Why are all of these doors hidden?"
"I can't answer that." He said quickly running his hand over the wall.
"Can we help?" Ty asked.
"Just keep an eye out for anyone coming."
"Ok," we said in unison.  I felt useless right now. I looked around, it was just another long hall, this place seemed to be made up of long halls that seemed to go nowhere.
"Here it is." The light flashed red again, so he exposed the panel and started working quickly to move the lasers around.  Moments later it flashed green and the door opened.  He tucked the panel back into the wall and we went through the door.
This room looked different than everywhere else.  It looked nicer, larger, like it was the main meeting space for the guards.  There were meeting rooms on the right and a table down the way on the left next to a little kitchen area.
"Looks like we are in their main quarters so keep a look out." Cash said quickly moving down the right side of the wall, peaking in the windows on the oversized doors.
Cash swiped his hand on the pad by one of the doors. "Here."-
"Va! Ubi nar qi tou lumbabi!" There were two guards who had just entered at the end of the hall.
"In here quick!" Cash shouted.
We walked through the door.  I thought we were going to be walking into another room, but we were outside.  The smell was foul and there was dirt of some sort under our feet.  It was not very light and I had no idea what time of day it was.  I looked in the sky and there were a few  dancing lights, but not many.  I looked over at Cash who was climbing on a sort of vehicle.
"Climb on," he shouted.
"You can't be serious.  Do you know how to drive this thing?" It was some sort of large oval shaped vehicle with no wheels, no top, no sides.  It looked like an oversized hover board.
"I'm willing to try! The guards are coming!" He turned to look at us.  "If I get it moving, hold on tight.  I wrapped my arms around his waist and Ty wrapped his around mine.  Cash started randomly pushing buttons on what looked to be the control pad and lights started to shine.  "I don't know if this is the best idea," Ty said cautiously.
I turned to look at him, "This is the only idea right now.  The guards are coming and I'm sure they have called in more.  We are on their territory right now, so again, this is our only option.  Hopefully Cash can get this thing up and not kill us."
"I would never," Cash turned around and flashed his bright smile. Seconds later the vehicle was rising slowly into the air, and at the perfect timing as the door flung open and five guards came rushing out yelling at us. 
Cash slowly turned the vehicle to face away from the door and then he accelerated.  The vehicle jerked a little, enough to scare us, but he seemed to get it under control.  I saw the other guards run over to the other two vehicles and jump on them.  They had them up in the air a lot faster than Cash did. 
"Cash they are coming after us."
"No problem."
"Ok," I said hesitantly looking behind us.  "Because they are getting closer," I added.  "Can this thing go any faster?"
With that, Cash twisted the handle and we started to quickly pick up speed and height. I looked below us and my stomach got queasy for just a second.
"Where are we going?"
"I don't know right now, just trying to get away from them."
Cash started touching the display again and some symbols appeared on the screen, he started randomly punching them and turned the vehicle almost ninety degrees and accelerated and climbed higher after taking a quick glance behind him.
"There is no way to outrun them."
"Don't worry about that right now.  I will find a way to get us out of here."
"Ok." It shocked me a little that the words coming out of my mouth had more trust than skepticism in it, I felt like he would get us out of this.  When I looked behind us I could hardly see the place we had come from anymore.  It was large building that seemed to be secluded in the middle of a desert.  Both of the vehicles chasing us pulled back and stopped, watching us.  What were they doing? Why were they giving up. "They stopped," I told Cash.
He glanced behind him to verify, "They are turning around."
"Why?" Ty asked.  It was his first time saying anything since we left.
"There's probably a tracker on this, they probably figured they would let us lead them to wherever we were going and they would bring guards to pick us up there."
"So then why are we doing that?"
"We aren't," he chuckled.  "But we do need to use it to get out of this area." He pointed up ahead, "If you can see up there, lights are flashing and are they are large buildings."
"The city." Ty said.
"We will get closer and then I will try to land this thing and we will find a place to rest."
No one really spoke the rest of the way to the city. I could tell when we were getting closer, there was more life beneath us, trees, waterfalls, vehicles, people, lights.  It felt... almost normal?
"Let's land here, hold on tight." We decelerated and started getting closer to the ground.
"There are a lot of trees in this area," Ty said.
"Yea we need the cover," I said.
Cash was randomly hitting the symbols on the screen again as we were getting closer to the ground.  There was a small opening up ahead where there were no trees he had to guide us through. He has surprisingly done a good job maneuvering this thing, but that was a tight spot.
We were getting closer and closer to the ground, "Cash..." I mumbled.
"I got this," he said reassuringly.
We dropped down closer and were not getting closer to the trees, "Ca...sh..."
"I got this."
We were now under the tree line and still going a little too fast.  "Cash!"
"I got this," he said as the vehicle dropped to the ground with a hard thud, bouncing us all in our seats.  "Ok I had enough of it."
"We are alive and that is all I can be thankful for," Ty said, extending his arm for a fist pound.
"Let's get out of here, who knows how far they are behind us." Cash said, not wasting any time ducking through the trees.
Ty and and followed behind him.  For a moment, I felt like I was home, running through the trees... it just felt right.
We moved through the trees for what felt like forever, I would occasionally see a light pass or hear the thud of music to remind me we were still close to the city.

The tree line broke and we were at the end of a street. 
"Now where too?" I asked.
"We need to find cover."
"There are some buildings up ahead," Ty offered.
"I feel like those would be too obvious." I said.
"You're probably right." Cash agreed.  "Let's stay against the tree line and follow it around.  See where it leads us."
We continued to walk, a few times we would hear a noise and duck into the tree line, but it ended up being nothing.  "Up ahead, I see a house." Cash said as we rounded a corner.  "I think we have walked far enough, let's see if anyone's home." He crept quietly to the edge of the house and peeked in the window while Ty and I stayed back.
He ran back over, "All seems to be good."
We quickly made our way to the front door.  It looked like there were only a few houses on this street and most of them were dark.  Were they abandoned?  I felt a little uneasy about all of this, but we did need to find cover and the sooner the better.  Hopefully if someone did come home, they would be easier to deal with than the Authority or whoever those people were that were following us.
We walked by the front entrance and I noticed there was a disabled lock pad, had Cash done that?  I was getting tired, and my mind was going to all sorts of places.  We walked in and shockingly it looked similar to homes on Earth, a kitchen, living room, bedrooms. 
"Something wrong?" Cash asked.
I looked at him, "No, I'm just tired."
"When I did a sweep of the place I found a bedroom upstairs."  Cash looked around, it seems to be earlier morning here, so we probably need to get some rest.  When we wake up we can put together a plan."
"What if whoever lives here comes home?" Ty asked looking around, rubbing his hand absentmindedly on the furniture.
I looked around trying to find any evidence that someone lived here, but I couldn't, there wasn't much here.  We walked in though the front door past the kitchen area and were now stopped in the dining area which opened into the living room.  There was a single couch against one of the gray walls and a small table in front of it.  The dining room had just one small table and four chairs and there was nothing but the basics in the kitchen.  The narrow hallway from the front door to the dining room had a thin hallway table, where Ty was currently standing, resting his hand.
Cash looked around, "When I walked through it appeared as if no one has been here for a while.  There are no pictures anywhere and no food to be seen."
Of course Cash would check for food, it was one of his favorite things.  "Ok."  I looked at Cash and then nodded.  "I agree.  Let's get some rest and when we wake we will make a plan."
Ty nodded and looked defeated, "Hey..."
"Yea?" We said in unison.
"Sorry about all of this."
"What are you talking about Ty?" I was confused.
"If I hadn't gotten caught, we wouldn't be here right now," he said grimly.
"Ty," I walked over to him and put my hands on his shoulders, "Don't feel sorry about anything.  You saved my life today, plus we are a team and this is our next great adventure." I said smiling.
"What has gotten in to you?" Ty asked, shaking his head confused.
"Seriously," Cash reiterated the confusion.
"I was trying the whole positivity thing out, it didn't feel right when I was doing it," I smiled.
Ty gave a low sigh, "I was worried about you for a minute.  You are not chipper and that is ok with me, I like you just the way you are, but please don't ever do that again." Ty said laughing.
"It must be the lack of sleep." I said trying and unsuccessfully holding back a yawn.
"Go upstairs, I got this." Cash offered
"No, it's fine.  I can sleep on the couch.  We all know you need a bed to sleep on," I mocked.
He shrugged his shoulders and without any argument, said, "Ok," and started making his way up the stairs.  For someone who prided himself in being this great fighter and told me stories of living out in the wild when he was younger, he was always eager to have the nicer things.  He was an interesting individual, and even more now since we've been here.  There was a lot we needed to talk about after we all got some rest.  I walked over to the couch, "Do you want to sleep up here?" I offered Ty.
He shook his head, "It's all you.  I don't think I could sleep, even if I wanted to."
"You need to get some rest."
"I know, but I would feel better if I was up, keeping a look out." He said pacing from window to window.
"Ty."
"I know," he batted the air between us. I needed to give him his space. This was his first time here, sure he had heard my stories, but it was different experiencing it.  It felt different for me because when I visited this place briefly ten years ago, it became all I thought about.  I knew it existed so I had already come to terms with that piece of it. I looked out the window, it felt different being back here... it felt good.
I wasn't going to push it.  I know how guilty he felt and there was nothing that I could say or do that would change that.  I needed to let him work this out for himself, and hopefully he would fall asleep on his own.
I moved over to the couch to lay on it, it was quiet small, smaller than I had initially thought.  For only a second I regretted giving the bed to Cash.
Cash.
I laid on the couch on my back and stared up at the ceiling with my hands on my stomach.  Cash had changed since we had been here.  No.  I corrected myself, he had changed when we were taken by the Authority.  He wasn't his usual aloof self, but more assertive, coordinated... protective.  Something had definitely changed with him and we were going to talk about it when we woke up and my head was more clear.  Right now, I feel like I am reading in to every little detail.  Yes, I agreed with myself, go to sleep.
It was dark, but I could feel the wind whipping through my hair and the cool air race across my face. 
I was running. 
Who was I running from?  Where was I running to?  Where was I?
I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was standing still.  I was at the edge of a cliff.  I could hear the water gushing loudly below, it was deafening.  I looked up.  The sky. 
I was on Arcadia.  The sky was alive with color dancing from blue to green to purple.
I heard a noise behind me.  They were going to get me.  My heart began to beat faster. 
I had to get away.
I had to jump.
I looked down.
I couldn't see the water, it was black.  What would I be jumping into?
Another sound. 
I had to go now.
No time to think.  Just jump.
I felt my body leave the ground.  I was falling.  A hand grabbed me.
No!!
They had me.
I was hanging off the ledge, my feet dangling, struggling to find any footing I could.  The edge of the cliff was slick as ice.  I was at the mercy of the person chasing me.  I looked up at them and I lost my breath and I could feel the darkness start to surround me.  
His eyes were bright piercing blue.
More darkness...
He was saying something.  I saw his lips moving, but I couldn't understand him.
Arcadian.  The same boy...
More darkness...
Just fight it a little longer... focus...
Everything went black.

I sat straight up, my heart was pounding.  I looked around and saw Ty standing by the back door.
"I don't know what the sound was." Ty said.
"What are you talking about?" I asked confused.
"You said you heard something."
"I did?" 
"Yes.  You seemed very worried."
"Oh, it must have been my dream."
"I don't think so."
"You see something?"
"Not yet.  But I feel like we're being watched."
"What do you mean? 
"I have this feeling."  He walked to the front of the house.  "Something isn't right."
"What do you see?"  I asked, fully alert and standing by the back door looking out. "Have you gotten any sleep? Maybe you are delusional?"
"Run Araleigh!! Run!!"  Ty said.  A second later there was a crash at the front door.  I heard that familiar humming sound, the laser guns, they had found us, but how??  "I said run!!" Ty yelled through gritted teeth.
I opened the back door and there was someone standing there reaching for me.  I quickly thrust my hand in their chest and kicked their leg.  I started to run, but they grabbed my ankle and brought me down to the ground. 
I rolled over on my back and tried to kick the hand holding my ankle.
The man grunted and his grip loosened.
I managed to get back up and start to run, but within moments he was on top of me again.  He grabbed me and said something, but I spun around and kicked him in the stomach and as he was crunched over holding it I took my fist and hit him as hard as I could in the back.  He fell to the ground and I took off running again. 
I realized I had no idea where I was going, but I knew I just needed to get away and hide.  I ran for the trees, they had served me well in the past.
It was dark, but I could feel the wind whipping through my hair and the cool air race across my face. 
A chill went through me. 
Coincidence.
The man chasing me now, wasn't the same boy from my dreams, wasn't the same boy from all those years ago, it couldn't be,
Keep running.  I could hear him behind me.  Gaining. 
I ducked into the trees and slowed down a little.  They were like the ones on earth, but also different.  The trunks were smooth and the ground was wet and the smell was a combination of eggs and a sweet bitterness that was almost sickening.  My lungs began to hurt.  I wanted to lean up against a tree, but something told me not to touch them.  I continued walking and the smell seemed to have lessened. 
I turned a couple of times and couldn't hear the man behind me anymore.  Maybe he had given up.  I stopped for a moment.  Even though I had slowed my pace my lungs still ached for air and my head was starting to hurt.  Why was it so hard for me to breathe right now? My legs felt faint and I stumbled and fell into a tree.  I put my hand against it and waited for a moment, fighting through the, now intense, headache and nausea. 
What was happening to me?  I had to get out of here.
I stood back up and wiped the trees wetness off my hand onto my clothes, walking through the woods very slowly, listening to any noise that would tell me if I was alone.
That sound.
I stopped.
Water, gushing water.
I closed my eyes and when I opened them, I was standing still.  I was at the edge of a cliff.  I could hear the water gushing loudly below, it was deafening.  I looked up.  The sky. 
I was terrified to look up, but I did.  There was an opening in the trees and the sky was beautiful, it was dancing with all of the colors I remembered.
I slowly moved forward and noticed the floor beneath me stopped, I was at the edge of a cliff.  I slowly looked down.  Half expecting it, the blackness. I hesitated for a moment, knowing if I were to jump off, the man would grab me, because it happened in my dream.  Dream? Is that what it was?
Instead of jumping, I decided to wait for him.  I grabbed by head, the searing pain made everything blurry.  I could feel him getting closer, stalking me, like prey.  Was this the end?  I may almost feel grateful.  My lungs were burning, my head felt like there was someone taking a knife to it, my vision was unreliable, and the nausea was almost unbearable.
He came out of the woods on to the ledge I was standing on.  He was two arm lengths away and was wearing all black with something covering his face.  I instinctively took a step backwards, forgetting where I was standing.  The ground was slipping out from underneath me.  I saw him leap towards me and my arm instinctively reached out to grab his as the little piece of ground that was left, fell away.  My body hit the wall hard, knocking what little breath I had left in me, out. 
He started speaking to me, but I couldn't understand him.  The blackness was coming around me. 
He took his face mask off and that is when I saw them, those bright blue eyes staring at me.  Angry with me.
I felt him put the mask on my head and then I everything went black