IRIS

[smile]

“Lizzie? Lizzie! Where are you Lizzie?” I scream. The rest of us were all asleep on a patch of grass when we heard a scream. We all awoke to find Lizzie missing! We are by the road and I can’t find out what happened. For all we know she could be lost, or worse, injured. I just need to keep looking.

Maybe she went closer to the road. But we agreed to stay together. I walk closer to the road and see a broken part of the road. It is to the left a bit. I know that it could have been made from a car, but I’m hoping it was from Lizzie.

If it was, then she must be badly injured to have made that broken spot. I start running. When I am directly in front of the spot, I start down the hill. I’m going as fast as I can go. After about five minutes, I spot a dark figure lying in the middle of a clearing.

The grass around the figure is stained red. I’m pretty sure that’s Lizzie. I push myself into a sprint. As I reach the clearing, I can tell that it is, in fact, Lizzie. She seems to have blacked out. There is blood everywhere! I look her over and see that her left ankle is swollen and gushing blood from a large gash that circles her ankle. There is a large, dark welt forming on the side of her ankle. I need to get help for her, and quick. I take my radio out of my bag. We were looking to see what Nigel gave us and found six radios. I turn mine on.

“Found her! I need some help! She is badly hurt and unconscious!” I say into the radio with urgency.

“Ok, where are you?” Comes the static reply.

I reply with instructions on how to get here. I put my radio back into my bag. All I must do it wait. I hope they get here soon. Ten minutes later, the whole group appears in the clearing.

“Thank goodness! I was beginning to think that you got lost!” I exclaim. They hurry over to where I am sitting by Lizzie.

“What happened?” Asks Skylar. He is the closest to Lizzie and is frightened at what he sees.

“I have no idea. I found her like this.” I say sadly. I wish I knew what happened.

“We need to get her back to camp.” Says Jonah.

“How do we help her? We have no medical care. There is none in the bag Nigel gave us either!” Says Anneke worriedly. I think about this. Since the base Nigel is at can’t be far, does that mean there is a city nearby? Let’s hope so…I don’t know what we will do if there isn’t. I take a deep breath and help the boys lift Lizzie up. The boys choose to carry her.

I help by mapping out where to go. When we make it back to the road, we pause. Where do we go? I think it was to the right, since we were facing the way cars are traveling when we got dropped off.

“Let’s go to the right.” I voice. There seems like there is nothing except for trees and road, with the occasional car. We travel that way for what seems like forever. The sun is getting higher in the sky. We are all sweating when we finally see a building come into view.

It is the NSTT base. But…no other buildings in sight. Of course. Nigel once told me that he oversaw the medical stuff if we ever got hurt or if one of the members of the NSTT got hurt. HE COULD HELP LIZZIE! It’s our only option! Lizzie’s ankle is still gushing blood. Wait! Ugg. Why hadn’t I thought to do this before? I bunch up the bottom section of my shirt and rip it off. I rip it into even more into strips. This is a key survival skill that I learned when I went hunting with my dad. My chest tightens from the memory. I push it aside.

“Hey, guys stop a minute.” I say. They pause and look back at me. They are confused. When Felicity sees the strips of cloth in my hand, she nods. I walk over to the boys.

“Can I have someone lift her ankle?” I call out to the girls who are watching. They both come over.

“Okay, Anneke, can you gently lift her ankle? And Felicity go to the other side and when the strip gets to your side wrap it back to my side. Anneke wait for me to tell you to lift it.” They get into position.
I take a deep breath.

“Now.” I say. Anneke gently lifts Lizzie’s ankle gently. Felicity and I work together to wrap her ankle tightly. I step back. Once I’m satisfied, I help Anneke set her ankle into a comfortable spot.

“Okay, I guess we should bring her to Nigel. We might need to be prepared to fight them, though.” I say.

“Iris, can’t we get our powers back while we are there?” Skylar asks me. I think about this. That could work! But how will we get Lizzie inside? That will be very difficult with all the security. Ugg. This is a death wish, but we need help, badly. I don’t know what else to do.

So, we need to go. I sigh. We needed to get there eventually, so why not now? I just need to focus on getting Lizzie back to full health. The boys start walking with Lizzie. I am walking in front of the group, leading the way. The boys are behind me, carrying Lizzie, and Felicity and Anneke bring up the rear. We travel for about five more minutes until we reach the NSTT base. We stop at the gate.

“Are we going in through the front door?” Asks Jonah.

“It’s our only option.” I reply sadly, “The only windows are the ones upstairs and that is a super far climb that would be impossible with Lizzie.” I look at the door that is just beyond the gate we are standing at. There are probably cameras everywhere. I wouldn’t be surprised If they already know we are here.

“Let’s go.” I say. The gate is open a bit. I slide it open. I have never been so glad that all their doors and gates have been made to be completely silent when opened or closed. Once the gate is open, I motion for everyone to follow me inside.

At the door, I try the handle. Locked. There is a scanner to the left. Ugg. Now what? I hear a noise coming from behind us. I plant my feet, ready to fight.

Nigel appears out of the trees. He looks different. I could barely recognize him. He has a baggy shirt on that is covered with dirt. He has on worn jeans. He has dirt on his face. I walk over to him. What happened?

“Nigel?” I ask. He didn’t seem to see me before now.

“Iris? Is that you?” He asks in a voice slightly above a whisper.

“Yes.” I answer.

“What are you doing here?” He asks urgently.

“We need your help. Medical help.” I say urgently.

“What do you mean?” He asks. I step aside and motion for Skylar and Jonah to bring Lizzie over to us. Nigel frowns when he sees her.

“What happened?” Is all he says.

“We don't know. She disappeared this morning, and then we found her like this.” I say, trying not to cry.

“She hasn’t woken up since we found her early this morning.” Says Felicity quietly. His frown deepens.

“Are you able to help her?” Anneke wonders. He lets out a heavy sigh.

“I can’t.” He says. He starts to walk away. We all start screaming at him.

“No!” Screams Skylar.

“Please!” Yells Felicity

“Why not?!” Shouts Jonah

“There’s no other way!” Cries Anneke

“Do it for me!” I shriek

He pauses at the last one. I am crying from desperation. He looks at me with sad eyes.

“I…I just can’t.” He finally says.

“WHY!? WHY NOT?! WHAT ARE YOU NOT TELLING ME?!” I storm. I’m pleading with him to tell me the truth. What is he hiding? Tears are streaming down my face. He lowers his head in defeat.

“I…I’m not exactly free anymore.” Is all that he says. My brow creases in confusion.

“What do you mean?”

“I was forced to become their…”

“Their…” I encourage him to go on.

“Slave.” He finishes. I gasp. Why? How? My thoughts are a blur. I’m about to ask him how this happened, but he gives me a look that says that he doesn’t want to talk about it. So, I don’t.

“Well, Lizzie still needs help.” I say instead. He frowns. His face is scrunched up in concentration.

“I…might have someone I can bring her to.” He sighs. I let out a breath with relief. Thank goodness!

“How?” I ask

“When?” questions Skylar at the same time as I asked my question. Nigel smiles at us.

“I can get you on your way tonight. It might take a while to get there. I need to check and see where in the world he is at the moment. You will see him at the latest, in two days.” I really hope that it won’t take that long. I glance over at Lizzie. Why hasn’t she woken up? Shouldn’t she at least have woken up? It’s just a cut, isn’t it? We really need to get moving.

“Follow me to the pickup place. He will meet us there, just let me give him a call.” Nigel is saying. We wait as Nigel pulls out a small phone. He flips it open and dials a number.

“Can you meet me at the waterway? I have some children that I know in need of help.” He listens for a bit.

“Yes. Tonight? Yes. Ok, thank you. It is greatly appreciated.” He flips the phone closed and returns it to his pocket.

“Follow me, kids.” We all follow him as he disappears back into the forest. I’m confused. We just came from there. Didn’t he say we were meeting him by a waterway?

I shrug it off and focus on not tripping over any fallen trees. It doesn’t take long to get to the meeting place. We stop at the opening of a small cave. Definitely not what I was picturing, not a waterway. We all stand there, wondering how long it would be for this mysterious person to get here.

The ground starts to shake. Rocks are bouncing into the air. I brace myself for the cave to collapse. It doesn’t. Something emerges from the inside of the cave. A train. Sort of. It looks like a train mixed with a bus. It’s on tracks but is completely covered with a roof.

I look down and see that the tracks stop right in front of me. The train doesn’t slow down. I’m afraid it will crash into us. It jerks to a stop right in front of me. My heart is in my throat. I stumble back a few steps. An ancient-looking man gingerly steps out of the train.

He slowly climbs down the stairs. When he finally makes it to the bottom, he looks at all of us. I feel nervous. It’s like he is deciding if we are worth the risk. He walks unsteadily towards Nigel. He is super tall compared to Nigel. Which is surprising for an old man. He leans down and whispers something to Nigel. Nigel smiles and nods. The old man starts limping towards the train.

We stand there, not moving. Nigel motions for us to follow him in. The boys pick up Lizzie. They struggle to get her into the train. With a lot of strain and navigation (on my part), we finally get her up there. They lay her across a couple of seats. I sit across from her, keeping an eye on her. I want to make sure that she doesn’t fall off of the seat.

It worries me that she hasn’t woken up yet. This isn’t supposed to happen. The train lurches as it pulls into reverse. The train travels backwards into the cave. With traveling only, a minute or two, the old man turns the train so that it is facing forwards. The train travels into the depths of the cave.