Shifters

Chapter 39

WILL

The vehicle bumped along the rutted, rocky roads. Paths, rather. We had been driving for over an hour and a half. Luke kept muttering complaints, while Thea sat silently staring out the window. However, I could tell from her unfocused eyes that she wasn't seeing the scenery, but rather was absorbed by her thoughts. She seemed to get more and more tense as the time dragged by. I was exhausted, but too uncomfortable and too wary to sleep.

"Do you think we'll join them?" Luke whispered.

"I don't know," I replied. What were we going to do? Could we trust them? For all we knew, they could be some undercover government workers. Ren could easily have lied to us all. Even if they seemed good and real, would we join them, or just wait on the off chance that the Facility was still intact? Was it a good thing if it was?

I reached up and felt around the device in my head. "Ren," I said, and she turned around, "can you take these out of our heads?"

Ren silently examined the device in Thea's head. "I'm not a doctor," she said, "but we have some very skilled surgeons. There's a good chance, but I can't promise. It could be somehow attached to your brain, and removal could mean irreparable brain damage."

"That's a pleasant thought," Luke said, trying to hide his anxiety with humor. "I volunteer Will as guinea pig."

"I volunteer Luke," Thea said, still facing the window. I hadn't known she was even hearing the conversation at all.

"How could you! I thought we were friends!" Luke gasped.

"Hypocrite," Thea fired back.

I almost smiled.

"Almost there," Evelyn called from the front. "Fifteen minutes."

"Thank goodness," Luke sighed.

Ren shook her head and leaned forward to whisper something to Patrick. I saw Thea's face turn slightly in their direction. I wondered if she could hear.

"The wheels...round and round..." Luke trailed off, his brow furrowing.

"What's that?" I asked.

"A song. M-my dad taught it to me. When I was little," Luke said. "The wheels on... I can't remember." He seemed deeply affected by this. I could understand. You never know when this little piece of a memory will come back to you, and then when you can't remember the rest, when you can't remember this time with your parents... It feels like you've disappointed them by forgetting them. No matter how silly and trivial the thing might seem, it gains a certain level of significance.

"The wheels on the bus," Thea whispered, turning to face us. "It's 'The Wheels on the Bus.'"

Luke stared at her, then slowly smiled and began to nod. "The wheels on the bus go round and round," he half-sang, half-mumbled.

"Round and round...," Thea joined in.

I frowned and looked out the window. My parents...

"Are you okay, Will?" Thea asked hesitantly, noticing my silence. "Did your... Did your parents teach you the song?"

"No," I said. "I don't think so, at least. I have no memory of it." I frowned. Was it better to have a tiny sliver of a memory, or no memory at all? Had my parents taught it to me and I'd simply forgotten it all?

Thea gave me a sympathetic glance. "It's hard," she said gently, but didn't elaborate. She didn't need to; we all understood.

"It's been so long," Luke said quietly, the look on his face one I'd rarely seen there.

Thea sighed. "Well, we're like family now, right? Our parents can never be replaced, but...the family still grows." She gave a weak smile.

"Yeah," I said, and Luke nodded his agreement.

~~~

The vehicle inched through a section of especially deep forest. The road narrowed but became smoother, and as the trees became more sparse the gravel turned to pavement, and we found ourselves in a large parking lot in front of an old warehouse.

Thea took in a sharp breath, gazing at the massive, rusting steel-and-wood structure. I suppose it was kind of small on warehouse standards, but still impressively large.

"Here we are," Evelyn said cheerily, parking the vehicle in a row of other identical vehicles. She pulled out her keys and pushed open her door. "Please follow me inside," she instructed.

The rest of us scrambled out, taking in our surroundings.

"Well..." I said slowly.

Luke shrugged. Thea was looking calculatingly at the warehouse.

Evelyn, Patrick, and Ren began to walk briskly towards the warehouse, and the three of us followed right behind.

There were two guards on each side of the massive front double doors, four in total. Evelyn, Patrick, and Ren each said something quietly to them. I couldn't make out the words—if they even were words; they could've made up nonsense passwords.

The guards nodded and one of them knocked a particular rhythm against a door. There was a clang, and a rusty squeak, and then one of the big warehouse doors opened.

My eyes widened as we entered the warehouse. The ceiling was very high, rising up dozens of feet above us. It looked like the rebel group had constructed a row of closed-in rooms along one side wall of the warehouse, and a row of open cubicles on the other side. On top of the ceilings of the closed-off rooms, accessible by multiple ladders along the wall, was a row of bunks. I gasped at the height of the upper bunks. The front part of the center of the room was empty, and seemed to be some place where people would gather to hear announcements or eat. In the back was some sort of martial arts training or workout area, complete with mats and ringed with workout equipment.

We were immediately swarmed by people, all wearing black. One dark-haired man with a white stripe down the sleeve of his shirt pushed forward and addressed Ren.

"These are the recruits here for screening?" he asked in a deep, rumbling voice.

"Yes, sir," Ren replied.

The man's dark eyes scanned us, narrowing in contemplation. He was very tall, six feet or very close. He was overall quite intimidating, but I refused to let my nerves show. "Their testing will begin immediately. If you will please come with me. Your first session will be together." He immediately turned and walked quickly towards the first closed-in room.

"Go on," urged Ren. "We can't go with you."

Thea led the way, and Luke and I fell into step just behind her. The man held open the door for us and entered last, shutting the door with the clear click of a lock.