Exposing ELE (ELE Series #3) (18 page)

“She's coming to,” Tony tells me.

I look back at her and find her stirring. Tony helps the woman sit up. I move from Alec's side so that I can be right in front of her. I look into her eyes. “Are you okay?” It’s a silly question and I realize it only after I’ve already asked it.
Of course she’s not okay. Her eyes go wide and she doesn't answer me. “We are here to help you. You’re safe now.” She starts looking around wildly. I grab her chin and force her to look into my eyes. “You will calm down and follow our orders. We are going to get you out of here. Do you know who put you here?”

Her eyes don't glaze over as they should when I use compulsion. Instead, she looks much more freaked out. She jerks her head out of my grip and I look at her stunned. I was able to fend off some of Zack's compulsion back when he used it. I assumed that was because I had the same gift and I was able to manipulate it in a way to make sure it didn't fully work on me. But her eyes aren't hazel like that of someone who can use compulsion.

I try to open up my mind to hear what she's thinking. Tony eyes me when he sees my eyes turn green. I don't hear anything though. It's like her mind is completely clear of all thoughts. I try to feel her emotions and I feel nothing. Nothing is working on her. How bizarre.

Tony takes over in trying to calm the woman down now that she's looking at me like I'm completely nuts. “We aren't going to hurt you. If you want us to help you get out of here alive, you will have to follow our directions. Do you want to?” He adds again, “Get out of here alive?”

She thinks about it for a second before nodding her head. Finally, she speaks and her voice is hoarse. “Yes.”

“What's your name?” he asks.

“Jennifer,” she says.

“Okay, Jennifer. I'm Tony, this is Alec, and this is Willow. We are all going to help get you out of here. First, is there anything you can tell me about why you are here, why they put those collars on you?” he asks.

“No, we don't know anything. We just know that the one who did this is looking for someone,” she says.

My stomach flips and my hands shake.

Tony's eyes find mine before he continues. “Okay, thank you. You are safe. When we run into another group, we will hand you off to them and they will get you out of here. For the meantime, stay close to us.” We all stand up. Tony holds out his hand and helps her to her feet.

Curiosity has me asking the next question. “What powers do you have?”

She gives me a look that tells me she doesn't trust me. Then she shakes her head. “I don't know. I saw the ones who had... special abilities, out at the mountain. Then when those men took me to the prison with the others they pulled me aside and questioned me. They kept trying to get me to tell them what I could do, what my powers were. I don't know what powers they are talking about.”

“Have your eyes always been grey then?” I ask.

Her eyes bug open and her hands instinctually reach up to her eyes. Great, I freaked her out. Tony steps in and puts his hand on her shoulder. “It’ll be okay. Don't worry about it. We have all had changes in our eye color. We will look into it further when we are all out of here safe. Okay?”

She looks torn between wanting to comply and listen to Tony and wanting to run far away from us freaks. She finally nods.

We take that as a cue to start moving again. Thankfully, we haven't run into any guards even though it seems like we were there helping this woman for several minutes.

We walk down the new row of dead corn. I draw my pistol back out as I hear someone around the corner. I turn to Jennifer with my finger over my mouth, telling her to stay silent. She nods and then I turn myself invisible. I take a chance by peeking around the corner. I let out a sigh of relief and let go of my invisibility when I see another one of our teams. I gesture them to us. This team is invisible, but I can still see them.

I whisper to them, “I've found someone. You need to get her out of here. Will you take her out to the team on the perimeter before you continue your search?”

“Yes ma’am,” a guy with yellow eyes says.

“Do you remember your way back?” I ask them.

“Yes ma’am,” he says.

“Good,” I say. I turn to find Tony at my side. “You talk to her,” I tell him, since Jennifer obviously warmed up to him a lot more than me. I don't know the best way to tell her that she's going to need to trust some people she can't see. I wonder if their gift of invisibility will even work. I think about Alec healing her. That worked, yet nothing I tried did. How weird.

I overhear Tony whispering to her, “You can trust these people. I know that you can't see them but if you can trust them, they can turn you invisible so nobody can see you. They can get you out of here.”

Jennifer looks around and doesn't see anyone. I can tell by her expressions that she's freaking out.

“Can you let her see you?” I ask the team.

They let go of their invisibility, and when Jennifer spots them, her eyes widen. Then realization sets in and she says to Tony, “Thank you. I’ll go with them.”

“Good. They’ll keep you safe,” he tells her.

She walks towards the group. An older woman with purple eyes smiles sweetly and then holds her hand out. Jennifer accepts it. I watch as they slowly turn invisible.

I can see them all as usual, so when Tony says aloud, “It's not working. She's not turning invisible.” I realize it didn't work.

I think about it for a moment. How was Alec able to use his gift? Then I walk up to Jennifer. I tell her, “I know you have no reason to trust me. But, if you can just trust these people, they can help get you out of here. If they can turn you invisible it would be much easier to get you to safety. I think though, that something is keeping you from allowing their gifts to work. I think it's a matter of trust. You have to open up and trust them.”

Jennifer looks from me to the older woman at her side. She closes her eyes and takes a few deep breaths. I watch as her eyes open and she looks down and examines her hands and then her arms. Her eyes are wide with awe.

Tony tells me, “It worked. Good job, Willow.”

“No, you did a great job calming her down. Thank you, Tony. I don't know what I'd do without you.”

He gives me a smoldering look that tells me he feels the same way towards me.

Alec is standing to my other side. He gives me a strange look. I'm sure Tony and my awkward silences must seem extremely weird since he doesn't know we talk to each other with our minds. The three of us turn our attention to the team as they leave. Then we start moving again.

After one more row of dead corn, we land in the overgrown thorny bushes. I remember hating this section when I was younger. If you lean into them, the thorns prick your skin all over. It's quite uncomfortable. I wonder if I imagined that they were worse than they truly are when I was a kid. I reach my hand out and touch a leaf. “Ouch!” I yell in my head. I examine my finger. There is a pinprick of blood. Yeah, I still hate these things, I think to myself as I put my finger in my mouth.

Unlike the openings in the rows of corn, these overgrown prickly bushes provide no visibility through them. We make our way quietly down one row and come to a fork in the path. I go with my gut and decide to take the left trail. I assume it would be the best path to lead towards the center of the maze. We start walking and, up ahead, I catch a glimpse of another one of our groups. They are huddled at the end of the row around a figure on the ground.

“They must have found another one,” Alec whispers. He starts moving quickly towards them since now we can tell that this is Connor and Claire's group. They are teamed up with Josh, the guy who I tricked into telling me where the prison was.

“We pulled him from the bushes,” Claire tells me when I reach them.

I look down to see a boy around thirteen or so lying on the ground looking dazed. His eyes are the same color gold as Marya's are. The collar is already off of him. His neck looks worse than Jennifer's. I wonder if he had an allergic reaction to something on the collar, or in the medication, because his face and neck all the way down to his arms is covered in a light red rash. I kneel down to inspect it further and realize that it's not a rash. There are dozens of small scrapes and cuts, probably from the bushes.

Anger at whoever would do this to a kid starts to ebb away at my calm. “Can you help him?” I ask Alec.

Alec nods his head. Not concerned at all about what happened a few minutes ago when he healed Jennifer, he places his hands over the boy's neck. I watch as the tiny scrapes heal up. When the little puncture marks start closing and fading slightly, I put my hand on Alec's shoulder.

“I think he's good, you can stop,” I tell him.

Alec lets go. “I didn't feel the same thing this time. It was there in the background but it was nowhere near as strong as with the girl.”

That's strange, but a good strange. I'm glad it didn't affect Alec the same way.

We wait for a moment until the boy starts coming to. Like Jennifer, he starts freaking out. He scoots back from us so fast that we can't stop him from running his back into the bushes. He winces in pain and has no choice but to move forward again. Although there is the worry inside me that says he won't be susceptible to my powers, I still attempt to help him. First, I use my emotion ability to make him feel calm. He noticeably relaxes.

I let out the breath I'd been holding and move towards him so that he can see my eyes. I use my compulsion. “You are safe. We are going to help you. What's your name?”

“John,” he says as his eyes glaze over, submitting to my abilities.

“Nice to meet you, John. I'm Willow. These are my friends.” I gesture behind me. “We’re going to get you out of here. First, can you tell me anything about why you’re here? Do you know who did this to you?”

“I don't know who did this. I was with the others in the building. Then early this morning some guy came in looking all pissed off. He looked at all of our eyes and then singled me out. He jerked me up and put the collar on so fast that I didn't know what to do. He dragged me out here and left me. I thought I was going to get away. Then something started stabbing at my neck. I felt sick and fell into the bushes. That was the last thing I remembered.”

“Why would they have dragged him all the way out here though?”
I wonder.

“Bait,” Tony says.

I ignore him because I know he's right. “I'm sorry that this has happened to you, John. What about the others? You said you were in the building with the others.”

John nods his head. “Yes, there are a lot of us; in a building somewhere down there.” He points towards the middle of the maze where the old buildings are incorporated.

“Are they all in one room? Are they being medicated?” I ask, hoping he can answer the question.

“Yes, we were all in a large room. I was pretty out of it back there so I assume everyone was. It wasn't as bad as when he put that collar on me. That was crazy. At least with the other stuff I still knew I existed. Out here, I thought I was lost forever. I was sure I was as good as dead,” he answers honestly. The calming sensation I washed over him must be working because nobody who went through something like this would be able to answer without totally losing it. I personally want to lose it just hearing what happened to him.

“Thank you. Your information has been very helpful,” I tell him. “We are going to get you to safety now.” I reach my hand out and help the boy up.

I ask Josh, Connor, and Claire to get him to the team on the perimeter. They don't seem happy about my orders, but I don't care. Part of me knows that things are about to get really bad, really quick. I can't help but feeling better, knowing some of my friends are outside of this maze. I give Connor and Claire a hug before they head out with Josh and John in tow.

When we’re alone again, with only Tony and Alec, we start moving.

“Do you find it strange that we haven't run into a single guard?” Alec wonders aloud.

“Yes, it is odd. I don't like it,” Tony says eyeing me out of the corner of his eye. “What I really don't like is the convenience we've had in saving both Jennifer and John. Also, I don't think it's a coincidence that last night Marya was rescued and this morning they replace her with someone that has the same eye color.”

Ice runs up my spine. “I thought of that too.” I just wished I knew exactly why. For what purpose... none of this makes much sense. I get the sneaking suspicion though that it will all add up to some huge diabolical plan.
The key is to crack the code before Zack, or whoever’s in charge, figures out we know.

We keep walking, following the row of bushes. We make a few turns and, eventually, I see the dilapidated buildings come into view. The windows of the old buildings have been broken out here and there. The paint is peeling and some boards are hanging by their last nail. We walk out of the row of bushes into a large open space. Nobody is in sight! This is absolutely not right.

Tony puts his arm out, keeping me from walking further. We stop and listen. I hear a high-pitch scream coming from inside the building and start running.

“Wait!” Tony yells after me. I can hear him on my heels. I turn to see him next to me. Alec is way far behind without the strength of speed on his side. I consider stopping but then Candy, Jake, and another guy with purple eyes step out from the bushes. He’ll be safe with them. At least he's not alone.