The Touch

Chapter 33 - Dr Martins

I didn't care what happened to me now. Let them take me. Let them torture me. I no longer cared. They had taken Slade from me so what was there left to live for?.

The Government had won. The churches had won. The CWT and the people with the Touch had lost.

As the van sped away from the farm house I managed to take one more glance back and I saw Theon run out to the front porch.

Poor Theon. Betrayed by the woman he loved and his best friend killed in front of him.

I can't help you now. I'm sorry.

As I turned back towards the front seat I caught a glimpse of myself in the rear vision mirror and gasped. My eyes were no longer the brown colour they had always been, they had changed to the bright blue that I had seen as a child in my grandmother's mirror. But it was different as instead of just shining when I touched her wrist they were shining permanently now.

I could see the Watchers seated around me becoming uncomfortable and I knew what it was. They had never seen what I did with Slade ever before, in fact I had never seen or heard of it before either.

Let them be scared of me, I thought. Let them be afraid of what they saw. What good did it do anyway? It hadn't worked and I was now on my way to being a human lab rat for the Government. Let them kill me like they did Marlena Gael and her family. Let them take my eyes like they did with Blind Bird. I no longer cared.

As I thought to Marlena's diary I wondered if she had written about this. I wished that I had taken the time to read it. But I hadn't out of respect for Jeffrey as I wanted him to give me permission to read it first. Now I wished that I had read it so I could know how the story ended.

Slade's death was the only thing on my mind now and mine couldn't come soon enough.

 We had been driving for what seemed like an eternity but was actually about eight hours. I had drifted off for a couple of hours as exhaustion had overcome me.

Now that it was light outside I looked around the car more and could see a largely built man in the front seat along with a woman. There was another man beside me who had short dark hair and looked to be in his early 40's. As I turned and looked out the back window I saw two armoured SUV's following us, one of which Tori was in.

The countryside that we are passing by was mostly farming properties with herds of cows and sheep grazing in the meadow. We drove through the odd small town once every couple of hours but they were nothing more than a bottle shop and a few food stores.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

The Watcher beside me just looked straight ahead.

"How much longer till we get there?"

I could see the Watcher next to me become uncomfortable and shift his position.

The driver in the front looked at me in the rear vision mirror then answered "Not long now".

"Where are we going?" I repeated.

But no one answered and they continued to look ahead.

I thought about Slade and what Theon and his father must be going through. I wasn't even sure whether Jeffrey would be awake by now and part of me hoped that he also didn't make it. I knew hearing that his son had been killed would probably make him wish that he was also as after Slade's mother had been killed he still had Slade to look after and love. Now he had nothing.

The car turned left into a sealed private road in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. I could see a large stone structure coming up on the left and as we got closer I could see it was a stone wall with the words on a large metal sign which read "Westridge Institute of Science and Research".