Fervor (11 page)

“
I wasn’t suggesting that he knew, Fiona,”
the smaller girl explained
. “I was just saying that they are using him as their eyes, to observe without being here. They have been using all of us in some way, you included. That makes me think that the experiment isn’t about our gifts necessarily, although they play a part in it. I think that it’s all about the connection. That’s the common factor, except for with the Controls.”

“
That still doesn’t explain why they would choose children for this, and just up and leave us. What happens as we grow up? What happens as we become adults?”
Fiona demanded.

Sam hadn’t considered that at all, but it was clear that it had the older girl worried. Then it hit Sam that he hadn’t been thinking about it because he hadn’t actually been growing. He hadn’t experienced any physical changes, aside from his deafness, since he had woken up Connected. Normally that wouldn’t have been something surprising for him. He often grew in spurts, and he had gone a few months at a time before with no signs of any change, but now that he thought about it, it had been the better part of a year, and none of them had changed physically in any way. That wasn’t just unusual, it was clearly contrived.

“
Stasis!”
the small boy gasped, his grey eyes widening.

“
What?”
Fiona asked, but Sarah remained silent. She had been following Sam’s thoughts as he had jumped from one conclusion to another, and she already knew what he meant by that.

“
You don’t have to worry about what happens when we grow up, Fiona, because we’re not going to – at least, not until whoever has organized this decides otherwise. That’s what Francis meant by stasis,”
Sam stated, a little shaken by this discovery.

“
What? You’re kidding. What would make you say that? Why would they do that to us, too?”

The older girl had seemed upset at the idea of an island filled with children growing up alone, but the notion that they wouldn’t be aging physically at all made her frantic. Sam shrugged.

“
None of us have gotten any bigger, and some of you Bigs should be starting to change in other ways. It’s not happening. Haven’t you noticed? Sarah and are the same size that we were when all of this started. You Bigs don’t seem to have changed at all either. I have no idea why they would force this on us, as well as everything else. The older we get, the more complicated things are, and they want to keep things simple perhaps? Or maybe they see us as being easier to manipulate this way, easier to control. Francis probably knows why.”

Fiona’s face had reddened with anger, and her hands, that rested on the tabletop, were trembling.

“
How can they do this to us? It’s one thing to make us their experimental guinea pigs, play with our environment, and mess with our minds, but I don’t want to stay this way forever!”

The push was completely random and out of control. Sam had not realized that Fiona could project her thoughts with such force, as weak as she was within the connection. He grabbed her hand and quickly threw his thoughts over her own, dissolving his walls and restoring them over Fiona, in order to try to restrain her.

“
Shhh!”
he hissed.
“Do you want everyone in the connection to hear you? You were shouting loud enough and erratically enough that even Francis might have heard you, wherever he is right now. You have to calm down. If they realize that we’ve figured some of these things out, there’s no telling what they’ll do to us.”

After she had settled down a little, Sam let go of her.

“
Nobody said that they are going to keep us this way forever. Experiments usually come to an end eventually, and we have no idea if any of this is permanent. What we have to figure out now is exactly what they want from us, because the sooner we give it to them, the sooner they’ll end this. That or we have to find a way to sabotage this without making it obvious that we were the ones who did it. Otherwise, we have no way of guessing how long this will last...it could be years.”

Sam saw Sarah and Fiona start.

“
The front door,”
Fiona told him. She hesitated, reaching out through the connection.
“It’s Nathan. I think he heard some of that part, when I overreacted. I’ll have to head him off and come up with something to distract him. He doesn’t need to be involved in all this mess, and if they really are using him as a tool to observe us, letting him in on what we know might let them know, too. I’ll handle this.”

Without wasting any more time, she disappeared through the kitchen door.

Sam had stood when she had mentioned that it was their Watcher returning. He dropped back into his seat, far too disturbed by the pieces of the puzzle that they were starting to uncover. After a couple of seconds, he glanced back over at Sarah. She was sitting quietly in her chair, small, thin, and pale. He could see that she was crying again, even though she had blocked this fact out in the connection.

“
It’ll be okay, Sarah. Nathan doesn’t pry, and she’ll find some way to divert his attention. We won’t get caught.”

“
That’s not what is bothering me. I don’t want to stay this way. I’m blind and I’m one of the smallest of the Littles. I’m completely helpless without the rest of you. Fiona thinks that this isn’t fair, but she doesn’t know the half of it. She’s practically normal, and she’s a Big,”
the waif-like girl lamented.
“She could get by without any of us if she had to. The only other person that could make that claim is Royce. This is cruel, Sam. What they’ve done to us is so cruel.”

“
I’m sorry, Sarah,”
Sam replied soothingly, trying to keep his thoughts as gentle as he could manage
. “I’m sure they believe that they have good reason for what they’ve done, but I don’t think that this was the right way to go about it. I promise you that I’ll never let you down. If you ever need me, all you have to do is call, and I’ll try to get to you, no matter where I am. You’ll never have to knock with me. I mean that. Remember – special friends.”
He reached out and put his hand on hers.

Sarah smiled at him through her tears, staring vacantly in his general direction.

“
I won’t forget…special friends.”

* - * - *

Francis had been back for five days when there was a storm that struck Fervor. The six housemates had been holed up in their home for two days waiting for it to pass. Nathan was fidgety the entire time, pacing from one end of the house to the other, and everyone else mostly tried hard to stay out of each others’ way.

Fiona was the exception. After her discussion with the Littles, she was more determined than ever to try to lure more information out of Francis. Despite her best efforts, he seemed distracted and aloof, sometimes ignoring her to watch Nathan pace, and to follow Royce and Sam with his eyes when either of them emerged from their rooms for any amount of time. It was clear that the brooding Teller had something else on his mind, and while disappointed that Francis refused to oblige her, Fiona went to great effort not to let this disappointment show.

Sam was thrilled the following morning when the clouds rolled away and the sun came out. He had been starting to feel almost as antsy as Nathan, and while he had tried escaping the confines of his room more than once, Royce had always seemed to be there, making him feel as uncomfortable as ever.

Once Fiona had given up on pressing Francis for something to add to what they had already gotten from him, the blond boy had pulled their Control aside and had begun having a rather lengthy conversation with him. It was clear that none of the others in the house were welcome to participate in this discussion, and anytime anyone had even suggested that they might want to approach them, Royce had given that person a menacing stare and the person guilty of intruding had quickly backed off.

The first thing the young Finder did, once free to leave the house, was race down to the beach. Storms always left the potential of particularly good pickings on the shore, and Sam did not need Fiona’s help when he was beach-combing. After days cooped up with a small crowd, he longed desperately for some time by himself.

Grateful for the warm weather, the fresh air, and the smell of the ocean as he inhaled deeply, he jogged happily along the damp sand, dodging the occasional rock and patches of slippery seaweed. Most of what he found on the way was junk, the odd empty bottle, an old buoy, or a tattered piece of rope, but he still had hope. Something inside him told him that he was going to find something completely unexpected that day.

Sam paused from time to time as he moved farther and farther along the beach, straying a fair distance away from their house. He had not intended to go as far as he did, but the compulsion to seek things out was very powerful in him that morning, to the point where it was impossible for him to resist. He dug up a couple of intriguing seashells that he thought Sarah might like, rinsing them off in the tidal pools that could be found sporadically along the long stretches of sand.

He finally arrived at a point where he was fairly certain he had gone farther than he should. He suspected he was about to move outside of the area that Nathan normally patrolled, and something about that felt wrong to him. He would have normally obeyed his instincts, too, if he had not noticed something that piqued his interest to a greater degree than he could willingly ignore. It was small and bright orange, and he could see it wedged between two rocks several feet from where he stood. Treading cautiously, he responded to impulse and made his way over to the small container.

Sam tried to pull the small wax-sealed box free, but the rocks that held it prisoner refused to yield their treasure. The small boy clawed at it, but the outer surface of the box was smooth, damp and slippery, and continuously slid out of his grasp. He spent a few frustrating moments worrying at his find, tugging at it and trying to wiggle it free. Pausing to see if he could come up with a better approach, Sam noticed some movement that he had not been aware of moments before. He peered over the boulders before him and spotted Royce, but the Control was not alone, and Sam did not recognize any of the Bigs gathered there with him.

The small boy ducked quickly back behind the rocks again, nervous that the black-haired Big might spot him and take issue with the fact that Sam was spying on him, even though that was not why the Finder was there. After crouching there for several seconds, his heart pounding and his breath coming in small gasps, he saw no sign of Royce. Sam assumed that he had not been seen, and began to relax again. Once his mind had cleared a little and he was no longer governed by fear, he set about trying to dislodge the orange box again. Much to his satisfaction, his find began to finally yield to all of his prying and a few moments later he clutched the small box in his hand. In fact, he was sitting in the sand staring at his prize, trying to figure out exactly how to open the sealed container when a shadow suddenly blocked out the sun.

Sam glanced up, puzzled, and was horrified to see not only Royce standing over him, but the group of Bigs that he had been consorting with hovering closely behind him.

Spurred by his own terror, Sam scrabbled backwards in the sand, almost dropping his newest find in the process. Before Royce had the chance to react, the small boy leapt to his feet, thrusting the small box deep into his pocket, he dashed away as fast as his short legs would allow. The Control sprinted after him, closely followed by the other strange Bigs. Sam could not help but think that he had stumbled upon something that nobody had been supposed to see, especially not him. He felt the thrum of feet pounding against the sand behind him, and a quick peek over his shoulder was enough to let him know that the black-haired boy was gaining on him. He would catch up to him soon, and if that happened, Sam was sure that the results would be less than pleasant.

It was at that point that Sam decided he had little choice but to call out for help in the connection. He did not have much time left to spare, which meant that there would not be any room for formalities. He figured that this situation might qualify as an emergency based on what Francis had told him about the Directives. He would not be knocking to make contact. In fact, when Sam did encounter Nathan, Fiona, and Sarah in the connection, those closest to him and yet still disturbingly far away, he pushed as hard as he possibly could, allowing fear to reinforce his thoughts.

“
Help me!”

Nathan was the first to respond.

“
On my way, little buddy. Hang in there.”
The thought was brief but firm, and Sam was thankful just to feel the larger boy’s mind.

Fiona was the second to offer him some comforting words.

“
We’re coming, too. I’m bringing Sarah to you. We’ll get there as fast as we can.”
She was not as close as Nathan, but her contact was just as temporary.