Salvage

Seventeen - Part 1

November 25th

I am finally travelling back to Washington, though Agent R will remain to oversee the teams in place at the facility. There is hardly any research left behind this time, they were much more prepared. They even destroyed most of the computers and cameras in the building. We are still doing our due diligence and seeking every possible avenue of investigation. We managed to locate their escape tunnels, and it's as we suspected. More coyotes. None of the other trackers have become active, so they must have either found all of them, or are still blocking the signal in some way.

At the very least, the younger kids are safe. We recovered eleven from Subject Group W, as well as thirteen additional children who will be taken and cared for elsewhere. I am making W12 come home with me, though he wanted to stay and help search for the rest of Group W. I told him it was more important that he focus on his education, and help the children grow up, be their role model. I know as soon as they saw him and ran to him for comfort, he understood my point of view. But I also know... Losing someone like W13, even if it's only temporary, will be one of the hardest things he's had to go through. And that is saying a lot.

I must admit, not having W13 will be difficult for all of us. I have grown accustomed to his offensive sketches at every group meeting, and the children all idolize him. But I will not think of it as having lost him. Just as... temporarily misplaced. Corporate wants me to focus on caring for Group W, or those that remain, and establishing better security measures. It will take a lot of convincing, from both me and W12, to not have them shut us all down and send the kids into some safe place that's more like a prison than what we rescued them from.

However, I will never give up trying to locate W13. Until he is found, until all of them are found, I won't stop searching. I don't care if I have to use every vacation day and every dollar in my bank account chasing wild leads to nowhere. I will find him again. All of them.

Aurora closed her notebook with a thud, staring dreamily towards the front of the class. Dr. Antner was finally finished with the lesson, and the class was all rustling papers and zipping backpacks. It had only been a few days since she had returned, but things had already been returning to normal. She was back in classes. Her absences had all been explained away and she had plenty of makeup homework to do. Her boss understood what had happened. She had moved her meager belongings into her new apartment, and Tara, her new landlady, seemed really nice.

Still, it felt as if everything was different. It was like... Every moment of the day she spent studying all this frivolous, worthless stuff, was spent not doing something really important. Like finding Group W. Even Ros had been restless lately, making more jokes than usual about just leaving to join the circus.

She was hanging back in class because she didn't feel like talking with any of her fellow students. Today, the youngest from Group W were coming back, along with Adam, and Jane. They had all been resting and recovering for a few days, and were now finally being allowed to come back, under heavier security than before.

At last, she was the only one left in the classroom, and Dr. Antner was looking at her over his glasses impatiently, hand hovering by the light switch. So, she stood, swung her backpack over her shoulders, and jogged down the stairs and out the door.

As she rounded the corner, she shouldered into a solid body, and lifted her chin to meet the warm, smiling, hazel eyes of Adam. He looked clean, handsome, happy to see her.

"You," she said breathlessly, taking a step back against the wall. "What are you doing here?"

He followed her, leaning close and crossing his arms, eyes crinkled at the corners though his mouth was solemn. "Waiting for you."