Etched In Stone

Chapter Fifteen

The confines of sleep were broken by a sharp knock on his door.

The split second for him to register a sound in the room was just enough time for Saren to crash through the door, tossing a heavy bag onto his bed and startling him fully awake.

"What the hell?" He gasps, bolting up into a sitting position as the bag collides with his face. He drags a hand across his eyes quickly in an attempt to make himself feel more awake.

"Up you get, Jake." Saren orders. Her hands are placed on her hips and a smirk tugs at her lips. "There's clothes and stuff in that bag. Get dressed and come downstairs in ten minutes. We'll be leaving soon."

"Leaving?" Jake repeats blearily, "What time even is it?"

She consults her watch, "It's just after six. And we're going on a little trip. I'll explain once we get there."

He waits until she leaves the room and stands up, stretching his arms up over his head and yawning.

He opened the bag she'd tossed on him and pulled out clothes, holding them out in front of him carefully. Instead of Ian's borrowed clothes, these were new - black, straight trousers, that were rough like jeans but not as stiff as denim, a dark blue, V-necked t-shirt. A dark grey jacket with a stiff collar and cuffed sleeves. They were nice. And they were easy to move in. Which made him wonder if he was up at this insane hour so that they could put him through a new kind of insane training.

When he's downstairs, Serena is standing in the hallway near the front door. She looks up as his footsteps descend the steps and she smiles, a real smile instead of her usual half one. It flattens into the half as he moves towards her, the corner of her mouth just tugged upwards.

"Hey," he says quietly, "It's good to see you. See you up, I mean. You feeling any better?"

She nods and smiles that smile again, brushing hair behind her ear almost nervously. "Yeah, I'm a lot better."

"That's good to hear."

"Okay," Saren breaks the quiet with a loud call, "Everyone out. It's gonna take us a while to get there."

The six of them all spill out of the door, all clutching backpacks hung loosely on their shoulders. They were like a bizarre family - a really mismatched, close in age family. And missing the parents. Unless you counted Ian and Saren.

They all piled into the van that Ian and Saren had driven him here in a fortnight ago after they'd rescued him from Alpha, just barely managing to fit all of them in. And then the engine roared to life and they started driving.

- - - - - -

He hadn't been wrong about the training theory.

Ian drove for what felt like hours, and in those hours, the seemingly isolated place he'd been living in suddenly seemed as busy and bustling New York - the further they drove, the more tangled and wild the trees became, the more twisted the roads, the less people. He'd rested his head against the window with his eyes closed for most of the journey, too tired to make conversation or do much else. Chris and Claudine chattered away as per usual, Ian and Saren exchanged the occasional quiet word - only Serena stayed as quiet as he was.

He snuck a glance at her a couple of times, and every time, she was staring down at her hands in her lap. After a while, he figured she was doing the same thing, looking at him while he wasn't.

Eventually, Ian turned down a narrow lane and slowed the van to a stop.

"Are we here?" Jake asked, looking around him carefully. It still didn't seem like much. Just countryside - not any civilisation for miles.

"This is it." Ian nodded in confirmation and pulled open the van door. Everyone followed suit, mounting backpacks onto their backs or clutching them in their hands. Ian started to lead them, as if he knew where he was going.

He lead them all through a sparse copse of trees that were barely just scattered here and there at first, but as they walked further, the trees become thicker and more close together, and soon they were picking their way through the lush undergrowth of a large forest. It looked as if no one had been here for years, apart from animals; theirs were the only human footprints that had passed through recently, as far as he could tell. The overhanging branches were low - he had to duck to avoid some of them.

They came out into a clearing now, in the very middle of the forest, still circled by trees.

And Jake saw the last thing that he expected to be brought here for.

Standing right in front of him, turning to watch the group as they approached, were a cluster of other people.