The Anomaly Project

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

NOAH

The darkness is heavier than usual. Already, there's a different feel to this dream. It's darker, more ominous. Whatever I'm going to see, it's not going to be good.

I hear voices before the darkness rises. Muffled voices; I can't hear exactly what they're saying. But as the scene comes into view, the sound adjusts as well, becomes sharper, and I can now understand every word.

Desmond Forrester sits in his office, resting his knit fingers on the top of his desk. He's listening intently, his face deceptively mild. The scene pulls back to reveal a guard that I don't recognize standing before Forrester, explaining something.

"...refuse to turn themselves over, sir," the guard is saying. He shifts on his feet, obviously nervous. "The camera feed tells us that the twins are still with the group."

"Of course they are," Forrester sighs. "I suppose the Banniks and Absents aren't enough."

"What do you propose, sir?"

Forrester leans back in his chair. "We may have to take more drastic measures if they insist on staying away from here."

"Drastic measures, sir?"

The guard looks reasonably worried. I don't blame him, knowing Forrester. He's extremely unpredictable.

Forrester lifts an eyebrow. "Bring Wade in here. I need to discuss our next move with the both of you."

The scene and their voices fade away, and the darkness falls back over me.

As always, I jolt awake with a racing pulse and clammy skin. I try to slow my breathing. Luckily, I didn't wake anyone else. The others all sleep peacefully around me.

I think about waking Autumn to tell her about this vision. This one really is important – Forrester is planning to take "drastic measures" to get the two of us to turn ourselves over to him. And that cannot mean anything good for our friends. But I don't want to wake her up in the middle of the night and hit her with news like this.

I drop my head back down onto my pillow and close my eyes, hoping desperately that my visions won't plague me any more tonight. Before I know it, Autumn is shaking my shoulder, telling me to get up. I expect her to tease me for sleeping in longer than her, but she just says, "Colton almost has breakfast ready. You should get dressed."

There's been a significant change in Autumn ever since she came back from the trip. She's quieter, more serious. Less prone to crack jokes and be sarcastic. Frankly, I'm worried about her.

I slide into a seat between Autumn and Tessa at the campfire. Breakfast is passed around. Usually I'm starving in the morning, but today I'm picking at my food. I can't stop thinking about my vision.

Autumn edges closer to me. Are you okay?

By way of answering, I sigh and put my plate on the ground, looking around at everyone. "I have something I need to tell you guys."

All eyes turn to me. No going back now.

"Look," I begin, "I've been having these... dreams." I hesitate, unsure of what to say next.

Autumn frowns. "News flash, bro. Normally, people have dreams. This isn't exactly unusual."

"No, these are unusual dreams," I protest. "They're more like... visions."

"Visions?" David leans forward. "You mean, visions of the future?"

I shake my head. "Not the future, exactly. It's more like I can see things happening at the same time, but in a different place. Does that make sense?"