Outview (29 page)

Held tight, in the bottle

Upon that ocean of colors and dreams

So hot, from too many hands

Changing sharp things

Over and over again

It is history

It is a dream

It is life, dear friend

Humor the butterflies

Whose path is lined with death

Whose whisper is only heard

Within a silence

Deep in the core of a forest

For that magic,

Sustained involuntarily

Is the essence--

Or the beat,

Yes, the raucous sensual love

My friend,

That is the stamp you must stain

Upon this land

That is the print you must

Leave upon the faces

Of all of us innocently moving

Toward whatever light is brighter

And you, the chosen one?

Perhaps, take my hand

I am empty and I will not hesitate

To open to this velocity--

This fresh start,

This embrace.

Sleep came easy.

40

Sunday, September 28

The heat woke me. I jolted up panicked,
thinking the house was on fire. While shaking off sleep, the warning hit me. We
were in danger. I grabbed my backpack and pulled on shoes in one motion while
lunging toward Tanya’s bedroom. “Tanya, wake up!” I snatched her sneakers.

“What? Huh?”

“We have to go. Right now.”

“Why?” she asked, following me.

“Someone’s out there. Let’s go.”

“I don’t have shoes,” she said, as we went
out the back door.

“Here.” I pushed them into her hands as we sprinted
across the yard toward the river. The sun wasn’t up, but the sky was beginning
to lighten.

“This is Federal Agent Fitts. Stop or I’ll
shoot!”

“Tanya, go, go,” I whispered, turning to
face Sanford Fitts. My night vision was still adjusting, and all I could see
was his silhouetted figure. “You won’t shoot,” I yelled, taking off after
Tanya.

“Damn it,” I heard him say, then footsteps.
Fitts was a trained agent; he could catch us.

I found Tanya on the second switchback; she
had stopped to put on her shoes. The trail was steep, but she knew it well and
I could see in the dark. Moving as fast as we dared, we were on the third
switchback when she asked, “Where are we going?”

“To the river.”

“Then where?” she asked.

“I don’t know. How far along the river can
we go?”

“The trail ends where we went today. We’ll
be trapped.”

Before I had time to consider our
predicament, Fitts crashed down on us from above. He was on top of me, and I
could feel his strength. We went over the edge locked together, rolling and
smashing through brush, tumbling onto an outcropping of rocks. I managed to
separate myself from him and stiffly got to my feet. I was bleeding in several
places, battered and bruised, but nothing was broken. I looked down on the creature
who had murdered my father, face down in the scrub but slowly beginning to get
up. I kicked him hard in his ribs.

“Oooff!” he cried out.

“You killed my dad, you bastard!” I
screamed, kicking him again and again. “I’ll kill you!” I shouted, out of control,
looking for a rock to smash on his head.

“Nate,” Tanya’s voice, pained and weak,
called from somewhere below us. “Help me, help.”

I had no choice but to leave Fitts. But, I
figured, he was in no shape to go anywhere, “I’ll be back,” I spit, landed a
last kick on his neck, knocking his DHS hat off, then raced down toward Tanya’s
voice.

I found her tangled in a fir tree. When I
tried to move her it was obvious by the screams that at least one leg was
broken. Rubbing my hands together, I began to heal her leg, but there wasn’t
going to be time. Instead, I concentrated on making a Lusan healing globe. The
instant I moved it across her leg she cried in painful relief. I heard other
agents’ voices above us. They had found Fitts. My vengeance was denied, but
more critical at that moment was escaping. Their voices went silent. They were
moving down toward us. Tanya was a long way from being healed.

“Can you move?” I whispered.

“I don’t think so.”

“They’re coming. We have to move.”

“Leave me. It’s okay, Nate, you go.”

I pulled her up, supporting her weight with
her arm around my neck. She screamed, but I kept pushing towards the water.
They were near. I looked back and saw two men; Fitts must still be down. They
were very close now. I still had the Lusan I’d been healing Tanya with. We were
almost to the river. They’d be able to grab us any second. Obviously, their
orders were to take me alive, or I’d already be dead. I pushed Tanya into the
water as gently as I could. She screeched loudly. I turned and threw the Lusan
at the agents. There was a flash, dirt and rock flying . . . and screams. I
didn’t wait to see.

I dove in after Tanya. The current had us
both. Her head was above the surface, and the cold water was hopefully cutting
her pain. I forgot all my aches. Still, the cold would become an enemy. After a
few minutes, the rapids eased some and I could get to her, working us over to
the other side. It took forever to navigate the rocks, but it got shallow
enough that I could pull her out onto the opposite bank. There was no way to
know how far down we’d come, easily a mile. If the agents survived, and Fitts must
have, it would be tough for them to find us before morning. I hoped so anyway.

Tanya was in bad shape. Her teeth were
chattering; she tried to speak but wasn’t making any sense. I was shaking,
freezing, and wet. The exertion and fear left me unable to make another Lusan.
Somehow we stumbled forward. The bank was flat here and after a few dozen
excruciating steps we almost fell into someone’s tent. A guy came out ready for
a fight, but his flashlight revealed trauma victims who were no threat. We were
in a large campground along the river. I’m not sure what happened next, but
somehow people got us into a car and soon we were at the hospital in Grants
Pass. The sun was coming up.

I told a story that we’d been looking for
my lost dog when Tanya slipped and fell down the bank into the river. The nurse
said I was a hero for going in after her--crazy, but a hero. Aside from a few
gashes that only required bandages, I was pronounced good enough to see Tanya.

“Once you visit your friend, come on back,
we need you to stay until we reach your mother.” The nurse handed me my dry
clothes and shoes. “We’re not supposed to use the dryers for patients’ clothes,
but seeing how you’re a bona fide hero and all . . . ”

I high-fived her.

Tanya was going to be fine, too, although a
rather large cast would be on for six weeks along with crutches. “Don’t worry,
I’ll figure out how to heal broken bones way before that,” I promised her.

She smiled. “You better not stay, Nate.
They’ll probably look for you here.”

“I just wanted to see you first. I’m
leaving now.”

“Nate, how did they find my house?”

“I’ve been trying to figure that out
myself.”

“Do you think they’ll try to get me?”

“I don’t know. You’re not a relative, and
so far they’ve left my friends alone. They could have grabbed Amber, Kyle, or
Linh at any time. If I stay away from you, I think they might, too.”

“Where will you go?”

“I’ll figure something out. And don’t
worry, we’ll find Rose.”

“I heard you yelling at that man, the first
one who came after us. He killed your dad?”

“Yes.”

She squeezed my hand.

“He’s got Dustin and Rose, too. I wanted to
kill him. I was going to kill him. It feels horrible.”

“Don’t let it eat at you. He deserves it.
What about the other ones? What did you do to them?”

“I don’t know. They might be dead.”

“You better find a good place to hide.”

“I called Kyle, and he’s on his way. We’ll find
somewhere.” I’d given him a quick rundown of what happened and told him to come
alone.

“Thanks for saving me.”

“I’ll see you soon.” I hoped it was true. I
hurried to the hall, knowing it was possible Lightyear was already in the
building.

41

I was looking for an exit when I heard
Josh’s voice!

“Nate, how did you get here?” His shirt was
the color of a yellow highlighter.

“Some guys from a campground brought me.
How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t. Your mom has me listed as an
emergency contact. The hospital phoned me forty-five minutes ago. I drove
straight here. I’ve been trying to call you, but it keeps going to voice mail.”

“Wait, what are you talking about? My mom’s
here?”

“Isn’t that why you’re here?”

“No, a friend broke her leg.” He couldn’t
see the bandages under my clothes. “What’s wrong with Mom?”

“Oh Nate, you don’t know. God, I’m sorry.
She was in an accident.”

I couldn’t breathe. In that moment, I
questioned everything. Not Mom. It was all coming apart.

“Nate, are you okay? Here,” he moved me
into a chair.

Josh shouted to a nurse passing by, “Can
you get him some water?”

“Nathan, what happened?” she asked; it was
my nurse.

“Your mom’s okay,” Josh said. “She just
came out of surgery. I spoke with the doctor. He said he expects her to make a
full recovery.”

“When did it happen?” I finally managed.

The nurse went for water.

“On her way home from seeing you. Not far
from here she went off the interstate. No other vehicles involved.”

“Take me to her!”

“She’s not awake yet. As soon as they get
her into a room, we’ll go up there.”

Josh hugged me. I buried my face in his
shoulder. I was sobbing. The nurse set a cup of water on the window ledge and
draped a warm blanket over me. “Is he all right?”

Josh nodded.

“I’ll come back and check on him soon.”

Josh began talking calmly to me. I don’t
know what he said, nothing important, but soon he had me distracted enough that
my thoughts could connect and I stopped crying.

My nurse came back and gave directions to
my mom’s room. Mom’s face was badly swollen and cut. The seatbelt and airbag
saved her but there had been lots of flying glass.

“Mom?”

She opened her eyes. Almost a smile, but
the pain canceled it quick.

“Nate, sweetie.”

“I’m here, Mom,” I took her hand. Her eyes
closed.

It was five minutes before she woke up
again. In the meantime, a doctor had come in and told me she would, in fact,
live. It was hard to believe looking at her bloodied face, but he said she
could go home in two or three days.

I still had her hand when she said, “There
was this big light, I couldn’t see--”

“Headlights?”

“No. Driving fine, then blinded by big
flash of light right at me.”

Josh came into the room.

“We can talk about it later.” No one could
have convinced me that Lightyear wasn’t involved. They were trying to wipe my
family out of existence.

“You’ve needed some time off anyway,” Josh said
to her, smiling.

“If you’re here I must be dying.”

“No. The doctors guarantee a full
recovery.”

Kyle showed up. We left Mom with Josh and
went into the hall. “I asked for you at the nurses’ station, and they said you
were up here in your mom’s room. What happened to her?”

“She went off the road on her way home from
Tanya’s.”

“Was it Lightyear?”

“I can’t prove it, but I have no doubt.”

“You know you shouldn’t be here. They’re
going to figure it out pretty quick, if they haven’t already. Your mom, Tanya,
they put them here. They know you’ll come.”

“I can’t leave my mom.”

“Listen man, do you think your mom wants
you dead?”

I pushed him out of my way.

He grabbed my shoulder from behind. “I’ll
tell her everything that happened tonight. I’ll walk in there and tell her
agents are on their way to kill you and that you’re just going to wait for them
at her bed.”

I was furious, knowing he’d do it, knowing
he was right. I had to leave. Frustrated, I couldn’t even take care of my
mother.

“Damn it!” We started down the hall. Josh
called after us.