We ate in almost complete silence as everyone devoured every bite of food on the table. Normally after eating a meal half that size I would feel sick to my stomach for a few hours, but it all felt just right.
We left the diner and headed in different directions.
A small shop that we passed had pay as you go cell phones in the window. Ronnie bought two of them and paid in cash. He opened the packaging and turned on the phone, it had half a battery.
“To keep up with the time and next time we have to separate, each group can take one.” He set the phone’s clock with the shop’s clock.
The school was a whole six block walk from the diner. We arrived just a few moments after roll would have been submitted for the first class. We walked up the grass to the front entrance of the school.
Every morning, the first class of the day took roll call and sent it down to the front office. This file would be on the receptionist’s computer and she would have to input the information into each student’s personal file. I spent a semester working in the office, for credit. The principal thought that it would be good for me to be away from other students and working with adults. He thought that I was mature for my age and that is why I didn’t have many friends outside of the other orphans.
“Check the file.” Ronnie whispered as he walked up to the receptionist and started to talk to her about something I couldn’t quite hear, and then she escorted him to the back to where the principal’s office was, I took my chance.
I opened the file on the computer and searched for room two ninety nine. When I found it, I searched for my name. I slid my finger down the screen and there I was. I moved my finger over to status.
Present
I had been present every day that week, according to the file, Monday through Friday. I closed the file, logged off of the computer, and left the office.
I snuck down the hallway trying my best to avoid the cameras. I went up the stairwell and into the second floor hallway. I slowly raised my eyes to the bottom level of the window on the classroom’s door.
Some girl was sitting in my spot. I had never seen her before in my life. She was similar to me but there were some differences. Her hair was shorter, for one. She could have been a cousin of mine.
I went back downstairs where Ronnie waited outside pacing around the entrance.
“The principal wasn’t in.” He said as I walked up.
“Yeah, well I was.” I said in a huff.
“What do you mean?”
“I was counted present in the system, so I went up stairs, and sure enough there was some girl sitting in my seat.” I ran my fingers through my hair.
“Did she look like you?” He placed a sturdy hand on my shoulder.
“Not really, I don’t know, Kind of.” I was really starting to freak out.
We waited around for gym classes to start. Ronnie’s second class was in gym, with me and Josh. Josh always gave me a hard time in that class.
We snuck in and hid under the bleachers. The class filled in from the showers; the students wore uniforms. A guy that looked similar to Ronnie came from the locker room followed by Josh.
“Hey Ronnie!” Josh acted as if he were friends with Ronnie. They gave each other a friendly man hug.
The other me came out of the girl’s locker room and met Josh halfway across the gym. Josh wrapped his arm around her waist.
“Show some self-respect and get away from that pig.” I growled through my teeth.
She didn’t, she pulled herself closer and she kissed him, and not a friendly kiss either a loving embrace.
The coach had to break them apart.
I wanted to puke.
I held my stomach and turned to Ronnie, "Let’s get out of this twilight zone hell before I vomit.” I hissed.
He nodded and we slipped out through the back door. I couldn’t believe what I had just seen. It was horrible. It was awful. Above all it was WRONG.
We hightailed it back to where the orphanage was but we stopped before we got there. We ducked into a bookstore and acted like we were browsing. There were two cops checking out the truck that we had left parked on the curb next to the empty plot of land. One of the cops was a state trooper.
“What the hell are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know.” Ronnie opened a book on how to hypnotize women. I gave him a nasty look. "I just picked up a random book.”
I looked back out of the window, as a tow truck backed up to the stolen truck. The guy that was hooking our truck up, furious, he knew that the owner wasn’t going to show up to pay the tow bill. Town policy was if you get towed you pay.
“Are you two going to buy anything or are you just going to stare out of my window?” a woman asked as she sorted through books on her counter.
Ronnie purchased a guide book on the area and as soon as the cops were gone, we bolted from the store to find the others.
We met the others at the diner. Kenny’s hands were full of groceries. They were heading back from the market.
We walked back to the empty plot. We took cover in the woods behind where the house used to sit.
“Where is the truck?” Rachel noticed it was gone first.
“It got towed.”
We sat in quiet and then it hit me like a ton of bricks.
I jumped up and ran off into the woods.
I ran deeper into the woods. Ronnie followed yelling for me to come back but I couldn’t. I knew this was the last thing left to prove that we had been here.
I looked for the clearing and there it was, small with a huge oak growing at the center. The leaves made a perfect roof to keep the weather at bay. When we had our first real summer here after all four of us had arrived we had spent hours in this clearing.
The old woman never came out here. I looked at the trunk closely and it looked just as it had when we had all carved our names into the bark all those years ago.
Our names; Ronnie, Kenny, Sandy, Grace around the word Friends
I ran my fingers across the grooves that we had made with Ronnie’s pocket knife; a small relief flooded over my body. Some point in the reality that I could remember, still existed and it made a world of difference.
There was something I could now ground myself to.
“What the hell are you doing?” Ronnie was out of breath. He leaned on his knees.
“Finding proof I was not losing my mind. I had to know that it had been real.” I said turning away from the tree.
“Give me one of the phones.” I asked holding out my hand.
Ronnie took the phone from his pocket and handed it over. I opened the camera application and snapped a picture of the carving. With a smile, I turned to leave the clearing wiping a tear of joy from my eye.
When we returned to the others, I showed them the picture Sandy and Kenny both smiled, as happy as I had been to see the old tree.
“We need to come up with a plan.” I opened my mouth to continue but the old oak in the woods was blown to pieces. The aircraft responsible slowly hovered around where we stood. Spot lights switched on and shown into our faces.
“I wonder who this could be.” Ronnie said sarcastically as we all grouped closer together.
Chapter 8: Vanish
The aircraft, the likes of which I’d never seen before, touched down in front of where we stood. Just behind the cockpit window was an unmistakable Aurora Corporation logo pressed into the metal hull. The side door slid open with a pneumatic hiss. A dozen armed guards marched from the passenger compartment and surrounded our group.
Two other men walked out onto the grass, one wearing camouflage pants, and a bullet proof vest. The other, a perfectly pressed suit, his hair was slicked black, the grease shown in the moonlight. It was the man that had spoken up the second time Dr. Cid forced me to use my abilities.