| Dad kissed the top of my head and nearly choked me in a gentle hug. � And exactly what are these for?� he inquired, picking at the bandages. Mom slapped his hand away. � She was whipped between camps. Sixty lashes. She counted them as they were delivered.� Dad�s hold on me tightened some and a deep growl rose from his chest. Mom realized her mistake and quickly rectified it by forcing him to look at her and saying, � Don�t you even dare, do you hear me? You�ll just get yourself killed!� I wriggled until I was loose and stumbled to my feet. � We have to get away from here before they come looking for us. The rain will only help us so much.� � And just where do you think you�re going?� Dad demanded, standing as well. � You can�t go ten feet without tripping.� � Well what do you suggest I do? Fly?!� With that, he scooped me up and carried me. He frowned and bounced me slightly, then looked down at me and said, � It�s like carrying a feather. You don�t weigh anything.� � Starvation does that,� Mom put in, turning to check my pulse. � Don�t let her walk at all. She couldn�t support a snail�s weight right now, let alone her own.� I groaned in disbelief and covered my eyes with an arm. � On a scale of one to ten on the wuss factor, I rate a twelve.� Dad chuckled. � Yeah, but look at it my way. You�re Princess Wuss.� � Oh Dad!� I batted at his chest and he laughed. We tossed light insults back and forth at each other for half the trip. For the other half I snuggled against his warm body and slept. Once at the tunnel that led to the underground, Dad woke me with a kiss on the tip of my nose. � I figured you wanted to see your mother�s reaction to seeing Emily again.� I nodded a thanks and kept half my attention on Mom. Once we had passed through several testing areas and guard hideaways, we entered into an area with seven tunnels to follow. Uncle Skinner led the group down the third one from the left and we soon exited into a community chamber of sorts. Little Will and Sam ecstatically greeted us and Emily just watched from afar. Mom gave the kids hugs and kisses and did quick checks on them, but they were totally unhurt. Once we got rid of the aliens, they would have no scars to remind them of the struggle for freedom. All that would prompt them was their bar code and their memories. Then Mom looked around and spotted Emily in the corner. � Oh my God, Emily . . .� � Yeah?� � Come here.� She did so and Mom stood still and silent, looking her hybrid daughter up and down. � You�re so . . . big.� Emily giggled. � Well it�s good to know that one of us changed!� Aurora Resistance Faction Aurora, Utah Thursday, November 15, 2001 1:01 P.M. It had been five weeks since we�d escaped from Fort Defiance. I�ve nearly recovered from my �ordeal�, as the family likes to put it, and after some testing it was found that somewhere along the line--maybe in the hospital or maybe because I�d been beaten so viciously between camps--the embryo had died and my body had already begun decomposing and recycling the thing. So now I was more alien than ever. As for Emily, she said she�d been hit in the stomach with the butt of an automatic rifle and she�d felt something inside her burst. After some tests a week or two before I reached Mom in Fort Defiance, it was clearly revealed that the blow had ruptured the amniotic sac and the embryo had died. Aunt Sam had taken her outside almost immediately and, far from the underground so that it wouldn�t be found if they were, had induced labor and buried the stillborn. Emily admits to feeling a little sad about it, but she also adds that having a child that she hadn�t consented to bearing did not appeal to her. � I guess . . .� she trails thoughtfully as we sit out for guard duty in the middle of the night. � I guess it�s one of those mother things. You didn�t want it, but it was part of you and when you see that part of you dead and being buried, it just feels like you�re burying part of yourself.� So neither of us has an alien baby to care for, which is good because I wouldn�t know what to do about the thing if I didn�t kill it first. Unlike Emily, I didn�t feel sad. I was pissed. My body is my body and nobody touches it without my permission. That�s the rule and everybody up until the aliens followed it. I suppose I would�ve felt the same as her if I�d been in her position and experienced what she had, but for the time being I couldn�t relate. I commiserated for her sake; I�d seen plenty of mothers in my time crying over dead infants to have a pretty good idea of what it was like. � I agree. But I think the problem isn�t seeing it get buried, it�s whether or not you can get over it and move on afterward. I�ve seen women who hang onto their dead children and obsess about it.� � Like Mom?� � No. Mom didn�t obsess. She was just reminded a lot. I�m talking about the women who actually pretend their children are still alive because they won�t believe they�re dead. Mom never did that. She just thought about you and cried when she thought no one was looking.� � Is that what it�s like in your world?� I nod. � It�s exactly like that. People have no hope and they try to hold onto the material instead of look for the spiritual.� � How did you and Will make it?� I shake my head. � Will pretty much raised me. He took me out and made me watch the people even though he knew it hurt me and said, �Don�t be like this. You weren�t born to let the world pass you by while you have your self-pity session.� It�s an image that has stuck with me since then. It�s why I don�t let my own handicaps slow me down.� � That�s why you kept going even though you were beaten so badly?� I laugh quietly as I nod again. � Mom calls it elephant skin and attributes it in part to Dad�s thick skull and his lack of care for the condition of himself if someone else is involved, both of which she�s positive I inherited from him. She may just be right, but I always put it to what Will showed me.� � Do you want to go back?� � No.� � Not even to help?� � It�s too late to help. Will and I were too young to start a resistance with some family and friends. The aliens have completely taken over there and there are no factions like here. Besides, even if we wanted to we couldn�t go back because we don�t know how to build the portal. It was built for us by friends and they never gave us the plans for it.� <--Division 9 Division 11--> |