| Over the next two weeks we travelled back down into the United States and to a check-in station at Great Falls in Montana. From there we were put on a train that took us to Pavillion, Wyoming, and let off in a general, pre-camp camp. Families and groups of total strangers stuck together in small packs and tried not to be noticed by the aliens, who gave them different jobs. Will and I were the most alert, most observant of the family. Mom and Dad were too scared to do that job, so we did. And whenever aliens walked by we turned our eyes down and bowed our heads, knowing that they�d see anything else as a challenge. Little Will and Sam stayed near Mom and Dad, who regained their scattered thoughts over the months we were kept in the general camp and accepted Will�s and my help gratefully. � Mommy,� little Sam calmly asked once when a screaming child was torn from its parents and thrown onto a train, � what if that happens to us?� Mom didn�t bother lying and telling her it wouldn�t happen. � Don�t fight. If you do what they want and don�t fight, they�ll leave you alone.� She looked down at little Sam and brushed at the child�s hair. � You�re so small they won�t want you or Will right away. They�ll put you somewhere where you do little jobs and then when you�re older they�ll move you to another camp where you�ll do bigger jobs.� Dad nodded. � Don�t worry about getting out. Mel, Emily, Mommy or me, or maybe even all of us, will come and get you.� Little Sam nodded. � Okay.� Echo Slave Camp Echo, Utah Tuesday, August 14, 2001 7:52 P.M. I fingered the bar code identification at the back of my jaw that had been branded there nearly a month ago. They�d done something to me. Ever since they�d run their tests I�d felt invaded. Soiled. Violated. I was now in the Echo Slave Camp in Utah, a camp only for teenage girls. Every night the soldiers would pick one or two girls and disappear into small, one-room bunkers where the girls were raped repeatedly until morning. Fortunately, or maybe suspiciously, I was never chosen. I say this because I had been checked out by several of the soldiers, but then they looked at their list and saw something that made them change their mind. I ran into another girl who was experiencing the same mystery while getting the slop they call soup (luckily my digestive system accepts alien food and keeps me healthy--most girls eat it and their body only takes time to retrieve the nutrients before making her puke). We sat down before introducing ourselves. � Samantha. Call me Sam.� � Emily. Call me Emily.� I frowned. Emily? I know there are a lot of girls named Emily, but this girl looked familiar. Mom had a picture of a daughter she never knew she had and her name was Emily. This Emily and the one in the picture looked a lot alike and I couldn�t help prying. � Emily . . .?� � Sims.� I reeled back in surprise. � Are you okay?� I sat forward. � Yes, I�m fine. Just surprised. When you were really little, like three, do you remember a woman with short red hair and blue eyes?� � Yes . . .� � That was my mom.� � She said she was my mother.� � She is.� � Who are you?� � Samantha Emily Mulder. Mom named me after Dad�s sister and you.� She frowned. � But . . . you�re older than me.� � To make a long story short, I�m from the future. Look---� � . . . Mulder . . .?� I shut up and let her think. � . . . Fox Mulder?� I nodded. � That�s my dad.� � They weren�t married then, were they?� � No.� She gasped. � That�s so weird! I never said much to him, but the whole time I just kind of accepted him as a father figure. So we�re sisters, aren�t we?� � Half-sisters, if nothing else.� It was something in this Hell on Earth. So we eventually resumed our talk about our relief from being picked on. � It must be something about us,� Emily stated, finishing off the rest of her soup. She glanced around, then said in a low voice, � I�m a hybrid. They probably want me to study for stamina or stress or something.� We took our bowls up to the wash counter and then headed to the bunkhouses. Luckily, we were in the same house and room. Her bed was under mine (how could I have not noticed her until now?) in a far corner of the room and once they checked to make sure we were all in bed, I slid silently to the floor and sat there so we could talk. � I�m not exactly a hybrid,� I told her, � but since Mom and Dad were both abducted, alien DNA is really strong in me. More than in normal people. I also exhibit a lot of hybrid characteristics. My blood is red, but it�s faintly poisonous. I can run longer and faster than humans. In general I consider myself a hybrid, but Mom and Dad insist that I�m human.� � Well you are. I am, in the very loosest sense of the word. We�re just . . . different. And that�s what makes us what we are.� She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, then around at the rest of the room. � But that doesn�t explain why we�re being left alone.� � I�m not sure I want to know,� I answered honestly. � It can�t be good. Not that I want to be raped every month, but it would mean that nobody had something planned for me.� � Agreed.� We heard steps come down the hall and I quickly scrambled up into my bed as the door opened. Two soldiers came in and each drug a screaming girl from her bed and out the door. As the girls around us shuddered and sobbed, I leaned down from my bunk to Emily�s. � If that�s the case, then maybe we can get out of here if we suck up enough.� She nodded. � I�m with you.� <--Division 1 Division 3--> |