Eek! I'm extremely excited about writing this now!
---Leaving off from the last post---
Inserted Chapter: Meeting Rose. (This is not the chapter that I get into Rose's story.)
Sam paced around the waiting room in the institution. Rose had woken up over an hour ago, but they had failed to tell him that tests were needed to not only check to see if she was okay, but also if Sam was really a relation. If not, she was to go back to the freeze that she came from and Sam was to forget about it immediately. "Or else," Dr. Graeden had said, raising an eyebrow menacingly.
He hated to think what that cryogenic freezer must have been like, and how it must have felt, waking up 150 years after you went to sleep. Or did you sleep? Sam didn't know, but the thought of it made him pray that his blood was right.
When Dr. Brinkman, Dr. Graeden's former student and co-founder of several research companies came out of the examination room, he smiled at Sam.
"She's all yours, and in perfect condition. We think she may be a little dazed from the time between being injected with the sleeping aid to waking up, but she should be fine after a few days."
"Thanks," Sam said gratefully. "Can... Can I go in?"
He laughed and nodded, watching the anxious boy race to the door then stop.
"What's wrong?"
Sam hesitated. "I don't... What if she doesn't like me, and is scared or something?"
"Then you send her back to us."
"Oh." He said, appalled that they'd actually do that to another human being just because someone else didn't like them. "Okay."
Trying to act confident, he stepped through the door, into an empty office except for a small girl, lying flat on her back, as still as death.
For a moment, he thought she was dead.
"Rose?" He whispered.
At the sound of his voice her eyes flew open and she sat up and stared at him.
"Oh, uh, hi, Rose. I'm Samuel, but you can call me Sam. I'm your great-great... Well, I guess I'm your brother now."
She sighed and closed her eyes again.
"What's wrong?"
"My name isn't Rose."
Her voice, rough and high pitched from having kept quiet scared him. Apparently, she had made the conscious choice not to talk, unless he was imagining it.
"How is your name not Rose?"
"Sam called me Rachel." she explained, her blue eyes reaching up to meet Sam's green one's, staring at her in shock.
"I... I called you Rachel?"
At that, she smiled like the little girl she was. "No, silly. Samantha. She was on The Island with me." Her face turned quickly grave. "Please don't tell them that." She whispered. "They'd hurt Sam."
Sam sat down on the metal examination table next to her and hugged her. "Hey, it's okay. I won't tell anyone, I promise."
She breathed in, and looked up at him in horror.
"You're one of them."
He couldn't deny the accusation, but it felt almost unfair for her to be scared of him just because he worked for The Dashdale Research Institution. So what, his colleagues were nasty, rude, and hateful? It didn't mean he was.
But to Rachel, it did. The antiseptic smell hung from these people like a cologne sprayed too strongly, and to her, it meant danger and mistrust.
"Rachel... I'm not one of the bad guys here."
"You," She said, a four year olds accusation stinging her voice. "You put me in that thing and kept me away from my mommy and daddy, and now you want me to let you take me home."
"Rach, listen, please." Rachel was silenced by the use of her nickname. "I promise you with all of me that nothing will happen to you. I'm the one that got you out of that place, and I swear to you that I didn't put you in it. That was one hundred and fifty years ago."
Rachel, unlike a normal four year old, was much smarter than she let on. She understood things way above her age level, but hadn't let on until now.
"I'm not stupid. I know you're a lab person."
"Yes, but I'm not here to test you or anything. Please believe me."
Rachel groaned and nodded. "Okay, but you have to promise me one thing."
"Anything."
"Work as hard as you can to get Sam out, okay?"
The statement startled Sam, as he'd thought that when Dr. Graeden said there wasn't anymore. Now, looking back, he realized she had been tricky enough not to admit or deny it.
Without thinking of the consequences, he nodded. "I'll do it."
She grinned widely, and jumped off of the table.
"Lead the way, brother."
After escorting Rachel home, he drove back to work and resolved to talk to Dr. Graeden. She wouldn't be the easiest person to try and persuade to let him see, but if he proved that he was interested sincerely in the program, there wouldn't be a way that she could keep him out. She was a very proud woman, and liked to show things off.
Now, Sam was going to use that mannerism to his advantage.
When Sam walked into the lab, Dr. Graeden was standing over a body of a little boy.
"Doctor?"
She jumped and turned around quickly, her face enraged. "Why are you in here? I told you that I didn't want you to ever interrupt me in any type of research I was doing, especially if you have no business doing it."
"Is this one of the kids?"
Too late, Sam realized he wasn't supposed to know. Luckily, Dr. Graeden didn't seem to notice, but kept fixing him with a glare. "Yes, in fact, this child has been frozen for the same time period as your Rose."
"And he's...?"
"His name is Colton. His closest blood relative died a year after he did, leaving no children to pass him on to. We've got to unfreeze him, test him, and most likely euthanize him."
Horrified by the idea, he interrupted quickly. "Could I take him?"
Dr. Graeden laughed. "No, no. Only blood relatives can. But it will be a good idea to do an autopsy on him to see what kinds of effects the freezing has on him."
Sam tried to hide his terror as the doctor looked at the boy lovingly.
"He could save us, you know. It's not all bad." She sighed and nodded. "Well, since you already know, would you like to see the other subjects before you go home for the night?"
Chapter Three: Fight for the Lose.
Without opening my eyes, I could tell that I'd been moved in the middle of the night. The sun was now beating down on me, and I could feel that my thumb, where I'd cut myself, was wrapped up in a thick, tropical leaf, slick with aloe.
Opening my eyes, I could see that my feet, also, were covered in aloe, and that I was laying on a mattress of leaves. There was a bowl of radishes and water next to me.
I sighed and rolled over to eat, but stopped, shocked. Evan was asleep a few feet away, his hair messed up, his eyes puffy. Apparently, he'd been up half of the night, waiting for me to wake up, and nursing me so I didn't die. The way my thumb hurt, I'm pretty sure infection would’ve been dangerous had it gone untreated. It made me sick to think of what my attempted slow-suicide would've been for Evan and the others.
I lay back down. Goddess, that was horrible of me to do. I couldn't believe that I had almost killed myself because of the grief over Rachel, causing the others to feel even more grief. Who knew what kind of chaos I'd already caused?
A pang of sorrow washed over me, and I walked down to the beach and sat on the fine-grained coast. The sound of the waves was soothing, and I found myself thinking back to when I was with my real family. Those eyes... They had to mean something, but what if it was something I didn't want to know about? What if I was dead, and death was just a dream that I was supposed to live in eternally?
I quickly removed that thought from my head. It was impossible that was the case, otherwise none of these people on this island with me would care this much for me.
I ran my toes through the cold water rushing up to meet me and sneezed. I'd picked up a cold from the stupid cave and the freezing cold temperature, which, obviously, was my own stupid fault.
“You’ll just get more sick if you do that. But if that’s what you’re going for…”
I pulled my feet in and curled up into a ball. “Sorry.”
Evan stood behind me, and wasn’t looking at me. “Yeah, well, it happens.”
I looked up at him. “No it doesn’t and you know it. You know I was upset and that I wasn’t exactly feeling like living at that point. You know that I went to that cave to do that. You knew everything, so don’t play stupid. Yell at me, scream, scold, whatever, but please, by the goddess, I’ve already had enough stupidity to last a freaking lifetime.”
He glanced at me and sat down. “Sam,”
“I know, okay. I know that I was completely insane, and I know if I killed my-“
“No,” he interrupted my rant. “That’s not what I was going to say.” He examined his hands thoroughly for the next few moments, then looked back up at me.
“Bradley’s gone, too. He… He vanished last night.”
As apprehension of this latest revelation dawned on me, I turned and stared at him.
"You have the necklace?"
Before he responded, I knew the answer. It was the only way he hadn't woken me up in that cove and demanded for me to help him that second. It was the only thing stopping him from chaining himself to Alice and I.
He nodded, resigned. I was mentally cursing myself for being so careless and stupid about the whole thing, but there was absolutley nothing I could do now. I pounded the sand angrily and stood up.
"Well, this is going to stop. Tonight, we all sleep close to one another."
"No," Evan countered, shaking his head. "If we do that, we scare the others."
"What if the others need to be scared? They need to know that they could be next!"
"No, Sam, they don't. They already know, sure, but they don't need to be afraid."
"Yes they do. Otherwise, they'll think that Rachel and Bradley are perfectly safe."
"Sam! Are you their mother? You don't know what they're thinking or feeling, and you've said it yourself! Don't tell me that you, of all people, are now thinking of safety."
"I'm all they have. I am the one that has watched over them, and if I need to think of safety to keep them on this island, then I will."
He shot me a look, then glanced from my finger to my face. "You couldn't be safe if you wished it, so don't go playing these stupid, fickle games with me, Samantha. I know what you want, and even if it kills you, you're still going to try and get it."
I snorted. "Oh, yeah? What then, Mr. psychic? I don't long for anything but-"
"But to get off of this island first."
I gawked at him. He couldn't be serious, and yet he was looking at me dead on, a hurt look on his face.
"I know it, Sam. I heard you talk about it in your sleep, and the way you were acting made it pretty obvious. You would rather leave all of us behind just to find out what your new life, new family, and maybe Rachel are like." He shook his head angrily, rage crossing his face. "Fine. Want to go! I don't care anymore. Just remember that when you go wherever you go, you're going to be waking up like you did on this beach; Lost and clueless and wishing you were back where you came from."
The blonde boy smirked weakly. "And hopefully, I won't be there to help you."
I could feel my insides convulsing as I watched him walk away.
"I do not," I told myself aloud, my voice carrying after the retreating figure pitifully. "want to be the first one off of the island."
Sighing, I sat back down on the beach and watched the waves roll off the coast. It had even sounded like a lie to me.
After what seemed like hours, my eyes red and tired, the sun had sunk below the horizon. My feet were cracked and chapped where they weren't bandaged and my thumb had long ago been rewrapped with a new leaf I'd foind on a nearby tree and some aloe I carried in a little pouch on my twine belt. I was alone, sorry, and feeling pretty pathetic.
Of course, that was when I finally went insane, and heard someone talking, the sound coming from the waves. It was weak and surprisingly gentle and in some ways, I guess it was almost to be expected.
"Hello, Samantha."
----
Whoa. I've almost posted everything I have... Only one chapter left!
Must... Write... More...
Sunday, October 29, 2006
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3 comments:
I really loved it, it was great!
Ahw. Thanks. :3
-L.
:) no problem :)
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