The Samantha Project (33 page)

“I don’t know. I guess if she really is my sister, I’ll be excited. I don’t have any family left now that my parents are gone. So it might be nice to have a sister.”

“You know your family doesn’t have to be blood relatives, Sam. Jack is totally my dad even though we’re not related.”

“I know. Dave was like family to me. Now I don’t even have him.”
 

Erik could sense the loss I felt. He let go of my hand and put his arm around me.

Jack burst through the door of his lab and I quickly moved away from Erik. Jack didn’t even notice. He was too focused on a printout of the results. “It’s a match. She’s your sister, Sam. And yes, she is an identical twin, just as I suspected.”

Both of them looked at me but I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t sure how I felt. The excitement I thought I would feel wasn’t there.
 

“Sam?” Erik said.

“Okay, so she’s my sister. We pretty much knew that would be the case. So now what?”

They stared at me again, expecting more of a reaction. When I didn’t respond, Jack gave up and moved on. “Well, we’re going to have to go get her and bring her here. She’s not safe at home or at school.”

“She’s home now,” Erik said. “She said it was early out day at school. She asked me to come over. I have her address here.” He pulled a piece of paper from his jeans pocket.

“Oh, now you remember this? That she invited you over?” I said under my breath, annoyed again at his lack of story-telling details.

“Then you two go get her. It won’t matter if she sees Sam now. They’ll meet soon enough anyway. I’ll get the serum to put her to sleep.” Jack walked back into the lab and came out with a syringe.

“You’ve got to be very careful when you get there, Erik. The place could have hidden surveillance. Leave Sam in the truck, just in case. We can’t risk her being seen. Sam, you’re only going in case something happens to Erik, got it? Let him take the lead on this.”

“Yeah, got it,” I said, not sold on the plan but willing to go along with it.

“Sam, when you get back I need to talk to you. I found some things in your genetic code. I’m not sure what to make of it just yet. It has some similarities to Erik’s, but yours is much more sophisticated. They put markers on the enhanced sections, so it’s much easier to see what they’ve done. Well, easier than Erik’s. It’s taken me years to figure out his sequencing and I’m still not done.”

“Okay,” I said, not wanting to think about what he meant. I could only handle one crisis at a time. Rescuing Brittany was already more than I wanted to deal with.

On the drive over to Brittany’s house, Erik went over his plan. He was mainly talking to himself. I was still trying to comprehend Jack’s story about Brittany being made to act as a human donor. The way that GlobalLife treated people was beyond inhumane. People were simply puppets to them. Lab experiments meant to get GlobalLife more power and more money, all while telling the world that their goal was to save lives and help the sick and the poor. The thought of it made me sick.
 

“Sam, are you listening? This is important.” Erik tapped my arm, startling me. “When I carry her out, you take off, got it? You do drive, right?”

“Yes, of course.”
 

“Okay, so just get us out of there and then you can pull over and I’ll drive. Because I’m guessing that you aren’t sure how to get back.” Erik had taken several turns down dirt roads, leaving me completely lost.

“We’re here,” he said, pulling up to a rusted-out double-wide trailer. It looked like it had been abandoned years ago. Tall, thick weeds surrounded all sides of it. The roof was badly dented, as if a tree had landed on it years before. The trailer was in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road, with fields of tall grass and half-dead trees on each side.

“They actually live here?”
 

Erik didn’t hear me. He was too busy hiding the syringe. “Move over here, in the driver’s seat. Keys are in the ignition. And get ready. This shouldn’t take long.”

Erik went to the door. Brittany answered. I ducked down so she couldn’t see me. She leaned against the door as Erik talked. Her cheerleader uniform had been replaced with a short, tight denim skirt and a bright pink tank top that barely covered the cleavage she had created with a padded push-up bra.
 

Brittany put her arms around Erik and pulled him inside. I felt sick at the thought of her touching him. Even if she was my sister, I hated having her anywhere near Erik. As the minutes rolled by, I got more and more anxious. What was taking so long? More minutes went by. She didn’t invite him over here to talk, I thought, so what were they doing in there? I tried not to think about it, but I couldn’t help imagining Brittany all over Erik.

Suddenly the door of the trailer swung open and I saw Erik, “Open the door. Hurry.” He had Brittany in his arms and was racing back to the truck. He got in, still holding Brittany, who was completely knocked out.
 

I took off, driving fast along the dirt road, then turned onto the main gravel road. There were miles of open fields and no cars. Everything looked the same in all directions. “Okay, I don’t remember where to go from here. Should I pull over now?”

“Yeah, okay.” He put Brittany down between us. I checked the rear view mirror as I slowed down to pull over. I saw a glimmer of something in the mirror. I looked closer and saw something in the distance.

“What are you doing? Pull over.” Erik had his hand on the door, ready to jump out.

“There’s something back there. In the distance.” As it got closer, I could see it was a vehicle. A large one.
 

Erik opened his window and poked his head out to get a look. “It’s a black SUV. Shit! You never see cars on this road, especially ones like that. Drive, Sam. Drive fast!”

I slammed on the accelerator, keeping my eyes on the SUV.
 

“Sam, watch out!” Erik yelled. I looked up to find the truck veering off the road and heading for a large tree. I slammed on the brakes and the truck jerked to a stop. Brittany’s head dropped forward, hitting the dashboard. Erik grabbed her and held her floppy body tightly against his chest.
 

I drove back up on the road and then took off fast down the gravel path. Erik looked back again. “I’d say they’re at least a half mile away, but don’t slow down.” Like me, Erik had superior vision. He could see the SUV clearly from far off in the distance. “The windows are dark. I can’t see who’s driving it.”

“Can you see a license? Anything?”

“It’s got Texas plates.” He leaned his head out the window and tried to focus on the license plate numbers.
 

“It’s them, Erik. I know it is. I can feel it.” My heart was racing fast. I had the same feeling I’d had with the black sedan back in Minnesota.

“I know. I feel it, too,” Erik said, keeping his eyes on the SUV.

The road I was on started to break off with several country roads intersecting. “Erik, which one?” Before he could answer, a maplike image appeared in my head. It had a gridlike pattern. I could see one line lit up, and I immediately knew to turn right. A green light suddenly appeared on the road in front of me, as if telling me to stay on it.

“Erik, do you see that?” I pointed to the road.

“See what? Sam, I’m trying to get the numbers but you turned and now . . .”

“Look at the road. It’s glowing.” I looked over at him. He was still focused on locating the SUV.

“We lost ’em,” he said. “I’m almost positive they turned into Brittany’s place. We gotta get home.” Erik positioned himself forward again, still holding Brittany with one arm. “Hey, you took the right turn. Guess you were paying attention. Keep going and then turn left at the water tower up ahead.”

“Yeah, I know,” I said. The green line highlighting the road turned left, right by the water tower. “Erik, don’t you see the road? It’s got a bright green light over it. Look!”

“I don’t see anything, Sam. Just drive.”
 

“It’s like it’s telling me where to go. It’s incredible.”
 

Erik paid no attention, focusing on what might be following us. When we got back to the farmhouse, I kept quiet about what I had seen. There were too many other things to worry about.

We placed Brittany in the basement bedroom where I had been sleeping. She started to wake up shortly after we arrived.
 

“Mom? Why do I feel so tired? Mom?” Brittany put her hand to her head, likely feeling the effects of the dashboard. She opened her eyes slightly. “Where am I? Mom? What happened?”

Erik was sitting next to her on the bed. Jack and I stood behind him. “Brittany. It’s me, Erik. Remember? I came to your house. You weren’t feeling well. You got dizzy and hit your head. And then you blacked out.” Erik was either good at making up lies or had this planned all along.

“I did? Then why am I here? Where am I?” Brittany asked, looking around the room.

“You’re at my house. I didn’t think I should leave you at your house alone. After hitting your head and all.”

“Yeah, okay, thanks.” She lay back down on the bed, still holding her hand to her head. “Do you have some ice or something?”

“Sure.” He motioned for Jack to go get the ice. I remained quietly in the background. By the time the ice arrived, Brittany had fallen asleep again.

“It’s the sedative,” Jack explained. “It has different effects on people. Some people it knocks out for hours. Others go in and out of sleep.”

While Brittany slept, Erik went upstairs with Jack to get his thoughts on the black SUV. I kept watch over Brittany. Getting a closer look at her, I could see my mom and dad in her. That made sense, of course. She was their daughter. But it was odd seeing the resemblance on her. People used to say I had my dad’s eyes or my mom’s smile, but I didn’t see it. Now, looking at Brittany, I knew what they meant. She was definitely a product of my—our—parents.
 

Brittany rubbed her eyes and moved onto her side. I looked upstairs, wishing Erik and Jack would hurry back.

“Uhhh, my head.” Brittany was waking up again. I didn’t know what to do. We hadn’t gone over what to tell her. “What am I doing here? And why does my head hurt so much?”

I handed her the ice bag that was next to the bed. “Erik brought you here, remember? You hit your head, so he brought you here to make sure you’re okay.”

“Oh yeah, I kinda remember that,” she said, pressing the ice against her forehead. She held her other arm over her eyes to shield them from the light. “And who are you again?”
 

I froze, unsure what to tell her. “I’m Erik’s—friend. I’m visiting from, um, California. Los Angeles.”

“That’s cool.” Her speech was slowed from the drugs. “L.A. Wow. I would loooove to go there. Movie stars. Hot guys everywhere. Great clothes. You’re sooo lucky.”

“Yeah,” I said, continuing with the story. “I like it there.”

“So you and Erik are friends? I don’t know hoooow you do it. I could never be friends with a guy that hot. I’d be like, all over him.”

“Erik? Yeah, he’s like a brother to me. We’re just friends.”
 

“Good. ’Cause I’m sick of my boyfriend. He treats me like crap. I like Erik. He seems nice. And he’s a great kisser.” She smiled to herself.

I wondered if she was lying. Had she really kissed him? And he kissed her back? That wasn’t part of the plan. How dare he? I was surging with jealousy even though I knew I shouldn’t be. Erik and I
were
just friends. I had made that clear to him. I just hadn’t convinced myself of that.

“Do you need more ice?”
 

Brittany sat up and took the ice bag from her head. “Here, take it. I don’t think it’s helping. I need aspirin or something.” She handed me the ice bag and finally opened her eyes. She did a double take when she saw me and then just stared.

“What’s going on here?” She bolted from the bed, still a little wobbly from the drugs. “Why do you look like me? Like, almost exactly like me? This is freaky. I’m gettin’ outta here.”

“No, wait. I can explain.” I tried to grab her, but she was already halfway up the stairs and ran right into Erik, followed by Jack.
 

“Brittany, we need to talk to you,” Erik said. “Go back downstairs.” Brittany started to push against him, but she got dizzy and started to fall. Erik held her up. “Okay. We need to get you to the sofa.” He guided her back down the stairs.

“I don’t wanna talk. I wanna get out of here!” Brittany tried to get up. Erik held her down.

“We’re gonna tell you some things that might sound really strange, but we need you to listen, okay?”

Erik sat next to Brittany as she kept her eyes on the staircase, which Jack was now blocking. Erik proceeded to tell Brittany that she was in danger. He told her about the black SUV headed to her house and how the people in it might be trying to kidnap her. He did a good job of not telling her too much about our connection with GlobalLife. After all, none of us knew if we could trust Brittany to keep her mouth shut if she happened to escape.

“So what’s
her
story?” Brittany looked over at me. “She looks like me, don’t you think? Just look at her. Do you see it?”

Erik looked at Jack to see if he wanted to take over. Jack nodded for him to go on. “Yeah, she does look like you. You were adopted, right?”

“Yes,” she said slowly. “Wait a minute. Are you saying we’re related? She’s my long-lost cousin or something?”

“No, she’s more than a cousin. She’s your sister. Your twin sister actually.”

Brittany looked at me again, then got up to take a closer look at my face. “No way. Now that I see her again, she doesn’t look that much like me. Just look at me and then look at her. Not to be mean or anything, but come on.” She used her hands to show off her body and then swept her long, straight hair around so it rested on one side of her shoulder. “This,” she pointed at herself again, “is nothing like that.” She pointed at me.
 

“Brittany, you may not see it, but you do look like her,” Jack said. “You’re practically identical.”