A strange voice answered me, an older female who seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite place her. “This is for your own good, Olivia, and for the good of mankind.”
“I don’t want this!” I screamed as loud as I could. My voice seemed to echo but no one came for me. The other doctors watched me with a strange curiosity. “Help me,” My voice begged as I whispered up at the woman, begging for her to release me.
“We are helping you,” she assured me. “Helping everyone. You have a gift we want to share with the world,” she explained. “You are special, Olivia, but you don’t have to be. You can be like everyone else if you let us study you.”
“Do I get a choice?” Did I have any other options?
She stared at me, pausing for a moment contemplating how to answer me. “No,” she was honest and I closed my eyes, feeling a single tear slide down my cheek.
“Please,” I begged. “Please save me.”
“We’re saving humanity,” she assured me. “Is that not worth fighting for?”
“Not at the stake of killing a life!” I shouted at her.
The woman smiled at me, walking over toward the table reaching for a scalpel. “We’re not killing you, darling.”
My eyes widened in horror as I realized what she intended to do. “Please, no. I’ll do anything. Anything but let you cut me open!” I wasn’t an animal to be dissected or an experiment. I was human. Could they not see that?
“Just like you did for Joshua?” She narrowed her eyes.
“What do you mean?” I didn’t understand. I shook my head violently trying to break free. “Tell me! What did you do with him? Where is he? Joshua!” I screamed as loud as my voice could take, cracking and I felt myself breaking down. I tried not to cry, wanted to be strong but my resolve was quickly crumbling.
“You did it to him,” she remarked, slowly removing her mask to show me her face. I gasped in horror, recognizing the woman as I jolted awake.
“You okay?” Joshua glanced at me. Sweat caked my body. I shivered from the reminder of my dream, relieved to see him sitting beside me. It had felt so incredibly real.
“Just glad to be awake.” I shifted uncomfortably beside him, not wanting to talk about my dream.
“That bad?” He guessed, shooting me a sideways glance as he continued to drive. I turned toward the window beside me, seeing dry ground and cacti surrounding us. Earlier in our trek I’d felt we had been in the middle of nowhere. This was truly it. “Do you remember the first time we met?” he asked.
I was grateful for the sudden change of subject. “We were five, right?” I glanced at him as he focused on the road.
Joshua shook his head. “We met at school when we were five and became friends, but that wasn’t the first time you and I met.”
That surprised me. I knew our parents had been friends, but I didn’t remember meeting him before our first year in school together. “I guess I don’t,” I confessed. Much of my childhood felt like a blur. After my father died, I tried to memorize every detail of every part of my life. So much when I was younger faded.
Joshua smiled. “Then I’ll remind you,” he said. “My mom had taken me to the park to play. It was supposed to be for the older kids who attended school there, but she insisted I have some time outside of the house,” Joshua paused. “I remember I was three because she was pregnant with Jacqueline. It’s the only memory I have of my sister,” he admitted.
I reached out, found his hand and gave it a squeeze. “When did you see me?” I was curious.
Joshua smiled. “I was playing in the sand, making a mess. I remember glancing up at the time and you were walking with your mom on the outskirts of the park. You kept peeking over at me. It looked like you were jealous, like you wanted to play. Your mom took your hand and wouldn’t let you come over.”
I shook my head in disagreement. “You may have seen me, but that’s not the first time we met,” I reminded him.
“Not true,” Joshua smiled. “You don’t remember?” He was perplexed. “I suppose we were both young.” He didn’t dwell on it. “You broke free of your mom’s grasp and came running over to the sandbox. I remember you asked me if we could play together.”
“I did?” I tried to remember, but I couldn’t. It sounded like something I would do.
Joshua laughed. “We built a sandcastle together at the playground. Though it looked more like an ant hill.” His eyes twinkled. “I realized in that moment that you were the most beautiful girl I had ever seen.”
“You were three!” I laughed rolling my eyes. “You’re making that up! Besides,” I smirked, “In your first three years you hadn’t seen that many girls.”
Joshua smiled. “Well. it hasn’t changed. You’re still the most beautiful.”
My heart fluttered, and already I felt slightly better. The dream began to fade. I was grateful Joshua knew how to take my mind off painful moments.
He squeezed my hand. “You want to tell me about that nightmare you had?”
He always had a way of getting things out of me. I shifted anxiously in my seat. “I dreamt the doctors wanted to cut me open and study me.” I felt my stomach lurch just thinking about it. “The worst part of all of it, the woman doing it was my mother.”
Joshua paused for a second thinking over what I said. “You know, it was just a dream. Your mother would never intentionally hurt you,” Joshua reminded me. “Everything she’s done, even lying to you, was to protect you.”
I nodded faintly, not saying anything at first. “I know,” I breathed, staring out the window beside me. “It just hurts. Knowing I’ll never see her again and then that dream.” I sighed. “I guess I’m still mad at her.” It was an honest answer. She had lied to me all my life about where I came from. I knew she thought she’d done so in my best interest, but clearly it hadn’t been.
“Maybe your mind is trying to tell you something,” he suggested, trying to rationalize what I’d dreamt.
“Probably. Like I’m afraid of losing you,” I muttered beneath my breath.
Joshua glanced at me briefly, before he focused his attention on the road. “What’s that?”
“Nothing,” I couldn’t voice it again. I felt like we’d been on such rocky ground last week. Things were better now, okay in fact. I didn’t want to risk it. “It’s just a little frightening to think someone might want to cut me open or study me because I’m different.”
“You know I won’t let that happen.” I knew he’d do anything in his power to protect me. I also knew I would do anything I could to stop those from hurting Joshua as well. “Olivia?”
“I know.” I reached for his hand and grasped it in mine. A moment later I dropped his hold, resting my hands in my lap. “How much longer until we reach the next town?” I hoped our arrival wouldn’t cause any trouble, but I knew if anyone discovered our identities, the same thing could happen that had in Haven.
“Not sure.” He gestured toward the backseat. “The map is in the pack. Can you grab it?”
I reached behind me, pulling the pack in the front seat, and unzipped it. Careful not to let it fly away, I grabbed the map and reviewed it intently. “I’d say with the rate we’re going, maybe another eight hours?” It felt like an eternity, but I knew it’d pass too quickly. The calm and tranquil moments we felt would be fleeting as we faced the rebel city.