Parallels (18/24)
By Emma Pentland
The man had followed the group back to camp. He had watched the entire scene. Thinking back, he recognized the girl, the one who passed out. He rubbed the back of his head, remembering what she had done to him. She had returned to the place of his greatest triumph and she had brought him new victims.
It would soon be his time for revenge.
***
"I think we should watch the chip before Anastasia wakes up." Morgan suggested.
"Wait a minute Martin, how many people are we going to let see this thing?" Walman pointed out. "I mean, I'd be upset if a few people knew something I didn't want them to. I'd be even angrier if everyone sat and watched it like an old movie."
"I'll tell you one thing, I'd be happy just to hear about it from someone who saw it," Baines replied. Several others agreed.
"I want to see it," Luke said. "Me too," Julia said. Within a few minutes, it was decided that only Yale, Danziger, Alonzo, Molly, Luke and Julia would watch whatever was on the chip. It took Yale only half an hour to set up the equipment.
"Are we ready?" Julia asked nervously. As much as she wanted to know what was wrong with her sister, she was almost afraid of what she would find.
"Yeah Doc," Danziger confirmed. He reached into the metal box that Julia had retrieved for the recorder. "Okay, everyone who isn't sure about watching this leave now." He warned everyone.
A few unsure looks passed among the small gathering, but each knew that somehow this was important. Danziger shrugged his shoulders and hooked up the recorder to the monitor. He looked around one last time. Julia nodded her head and Danziger turned it on.
The first image was of a group of four boys running around the valley that the Eden Crew was now in. "Hey people, smile!" The camera holder yelled to the boys. Three did as they were told and they waved and played to the camera.
"Mosi! Come on, please!" The instructions were given out again as a small Japanese boy refused to cooperate.
"Why do you want to film us?" The boy yelled back. "I just figured out how to use this thing. I'm playing with it," The voice Julia finally identified as a little girl's.
The little boy smiled finally and joined in the antics with the other three children. "Paul!" Mosi scolded, "You should film you and the other two triplets!"
"We are *not* triplets."
Another little boy spoke up. "Well the three of you sure *act* like it!"
The scene instantly changed in a bad film cut. The camera holder was back at the embankment. She could be heard giving soft instructions about how to use the recorder. Finally the other person became frustrated and told the girl to just go with everybody else.
"Come on Pauline!" A little girl with long brown hair called up the embankment. The girl beckoned over to another girl with similar hair. Julia gasped as she realized the second girl was Anastasia.
"What is it Julia?" Alonzo instantly responded to the Doctor's reaction.
"That's Anna and the other one," Julia pointed to the screen and the first little girl, "I think is Nikki. The camera person is the one Mary thought Anna was, Pauline."
The camera holder finally entered the shot. Julia now understood what Mosi had meant. Pauline, Anastasia and Nikki did look somewhat alike. They even performed similar antics for the camera.
"Forward it a bit," Alonzo suggested. Yale programmed the computer to show regular intervals. In half an hour, the small group had watched the children grow healthier and decidedly larger. From the information, the first recording had been made a little over a month after the arrival of the children. Julia cherished the tape more than the rest. It was the doctor's chance to see some of the years of Anna's life that she had missed.
"It's all pretty much the same." Luke said. "Hold on," Yale said, obviously intending to say something more. After a moment of fiddling with the switches on the recorder, he continued. "This should be near the end of the recordings."
"Paul...eene," A voice tried to pronounce. "That's right. I'm Pauline and you are?" The little girl was leading the question.
The audience finally had their first view of the person Pauline was talking to.
"Mary," Danziger and the young Mary on film said at the same time. "Mary is it?" Pauline repeated on the tape. There was a cut to in the recording. Suddenly the small viewing audience was looking at a full shot of the makeshift camp. The camera had been placed on one of the ledges on the rock, its lens pointing down, giving full view of the camp. The group of children were all huddled together, whispering. A man with long blond hair patrolled them like they were a group of prisoners.
"It's a Council jacket," Molly whispered. She turned to the rest in the small audience. "The Council killed the first group."
"Well what does that have to do with Mar.." Danziger's attention flew back to the screen when a shot echoed from the small tinny speakers. The little Japanese boy from the beginning was wounded. The other children started fleeing like scared rabbits into the woods, but they were all quickly gunned down. Julia tried to pick out Anastasia, and spotted her in the far corner of the screen. On one side of her sister, Pauline was quickly killed.
"Stop, rewind," Julia ordered. "What is it?" Alonzo asked, squinting at the screen to try and see what Julia did.
Yale backed up the recording a bit. He slowed it down and searched for what Julia saw.
In slow motion, the small group watched the children be gunned down. From Danziger's estimate there must have been at least three other men that were wandering in and out of the shot.
"Watch this. In the corner," Julia instructed. She pointed to her sister. "There's Anna, the one with the red backpack. She doesn't get shot, she just falls down, and she pulls Nikki with her."
"With that many children, the law of averages would leave at least a couple alive after the first round," Yale analyzed.
A voice behind the camera spoke. "You start packing up their stuff." A man's voice ordered the blond man. "We need a couple to take back to Riley." The sound of several pairs of footsteps could be heard wondering back into the forest. The blond man started going from body to body, checking to see that everyone was dead. When the man stopped in front of Rosemary's body, the then-teenager stirred. There was a minor wound on her shoulder. The blond man pulled a pistol from his belt and pointed it at the girl.
"Hey!" The young Anastasia was sitting up, trying to draw the man's attention away from Rosemary. It worked as Anastasia jumped up and took off towards the river. The blond man chased her to the river's edge. Julia gasped as Anastasia tripped on one of the rocks. The younger version of the doctor's sister tried to crawl to the water, but the blond man grabbed one of her feet. Anna was kicking and flailing, but instead of shooting her, the man pushed her into the water. Reaching his hand down, he held her there, all that could be seen from the camera's point of view were arms and legs desperately trying to pull the body up for air. Suddenly, the commotion stopped, and the man, assuming Anna had drowned turned back to the corpses.
To his surprise, Nikki started moving as Rosemary managed to crawled out of the shot, *probably into the cave* Julia sumised. It was the only part of the camp not caught by the camera for the recorder lay a top the entrance. The man ran to Nikki and knelt in front of the girl. "Aren't you the pretty one," the man hissed, barely loud enough for the camera to pick up.
"Oh God," Julia whispered realizing what the man was doing. He pulled a knife out from his boot and flashed it in front of Nikki's face. The little girl screamed loudly, casing the man to fall back in surprise.
"Look," Luke said. The young Anastasia pulled herself quietly out of the water. She saw the blond man and Nikki and hurriedly dumped out the contents of her backpack. Anna selected a large rock and put it into her backpack. Anastasia seemed to concentrate only on the blond man, like an animal that was hunting. The man was recovering from the shock of the scream and grabbed Nikki, pulling the knife up above her chest, giving the girl a moment to realize that she was going to die.
That was when Anastasia reached them, in one fluid movement, Julia's sister swung down her backpack, hitting the blond man squarely on the head. The almost inhuman force behind the strike caused the man to fall forward, landing on Nikki's small body. Nikki started screaming again and wriggled out from under the body. Anastasia hit the man twice more and he stopped fighting. Anna's back was to the recorder, but when she turned around, the little girl was covered in blood. Nikki was still screaming, equally covered. Rosemary came back into the shot and froze in terror at the sight of the only two people left alive.
The young Anastasia did not even seem to mourn the loss of the rest of the group. She may have been the one left standing, but Anna seemed dead inside. "Help me move them Rosemary," Anastasia ordered.
"M-move them," the older girl repeated. "We'll put them in the cave," Anastasia had to yell over Nikki's screaming. "SHUT UP!" Anna yelled at her, "Do you want them to come back!" She pulled Nikki to her feet, looking like she was going to slug her. In shock, Nikki stopped screaming. Anastasia then looked up towards the recorder. "Rosemary, turn that off." Anna demanded. "Pauline sure put it in the right place," Anastasia mused as she grabbed a body and started luggin it out of the shot.
The last thing the small audience saw was a close up, of Rosemary as she leaned over the camera to turn it off.
Sitting quietly, no one knew what to say as static came on the screen. Molly was softly crying, trying not to let anyone see her. Julia was close to tears.
"She made me move them you know." They turned to see Rosemary standing behind them. The woman was shifting her weight nervously from foot to foot. "Sh-she made me. We put them all in the cave and Anna blowed it up. She said it were some of the things in our ship that blowed it up." Her stilted and sometimes incorrect language tired its best to explain.
"What happened to the man?" Luke asked. "Us put him in there too."
"Julia exchanged a worried look with Luke. "Thank you Rosemary, would you go check on Anna?" the doctor asked, wanting the woman to leave the tent. Rosemary did as she was asked and Julia turned back tot he expectant faces. "I know I wasn't in there long, but there was no man in that cave. All the corpses were children." Julia blurted out.
"How would he have survived?" "I don't know, I think he might have dug himself out, like we dug up the grave this afternoon." Julia suggested. "Maybe he found his group again."
"Who's going to tell Anna?" Luke pointed out. After a moment's thought, he decided, "I think it should be me and Julia. If that's okay?"
"Yeah," Julia replied. "He couldn't have lived long, his injuries looked to severe, but head injuries tend to bleed profusely. There could easily have been a mistake."
Yale unplugged the recorder from the monitor. "We learned nothing useful."
The full impact of the thought hit Julia and Luke, but they said nothing.
"Hey, maybe Mary can explain everything. the one thing we haven't done is demand answers from her yet." Danziger suggested.
"She didn't seem to willing before," Alonzo stated, his protective side kicking in.
"I'm with Danziger. Maybe before we didn't ask the right questions." Julia was not at all interested in dealing with Alonzo's clear affection for Mary.
"I, I really don't want to know anymore." Molly brusquely said and quickly departed from the tent.
The others stayed. "I'll get Mary," Alonzo said, not noticing the flash of annoyance on Julia's face. He left and a few minutes later arrived back, leading Mary. The woman was clearly nervous as she met the expectant eyes of the small group.
"Mary," Yale started softly, trying to make the woman feel comfortable. "We want to know about the time you spent with Anastasia when she was little."
"Don't remember much." Mary looked around at everyone and swallowed. "I-I remember Pauline. She kind."
"Do you know what happened to Pauline?" Julia demanded, she did not care for the woman's feelings.
Taken aback for a minute, Mary replied, "She is dead. Don't know why. She dead and..."
"Do you know anything about the men that killed her?" Julia cut her off.
"Men killed her?" Mary repeated, obviously surprised. "I did not know. Was it the men we sent?"
"Who did you send Mary?" Yale asked, trying to prevent any more of Julia's interrogation.
"When we see child, we saw adult. The tribe here did not see grown up with children. We told the grown ups where to find children in the dreamplane."
Julia let out a short breath of shock. She understood Anastasia's anger at Mary. Mary had sent to Anna's first group the people that killed them. Julia ran her hands through her hair.
"Terrians thought adults were looking for children." Mary suddenly had a realization of her own. "Terrians never told me." The fact seemed to upset her as she suddenly stood up and walked around. "Terrians never told me they die. Why?" She pleaded with the small group, as if they had the answer.
"I don't know," Alonzo told the woman, trying to calm her. "Do you know anything the Terrians did to help Anastasia?" Julia cut in.
"She doesn't know anything." With the help of Rosemary, Anastasia made her way into the tent. Luke got up to help her to a seat. "Back off," she hissed at him. "Why would she know? She didn't even know what she did. Mary stuck around until she could see them coming in the distance, then she sunk back into the ground like a common rodent." Anastasia finally did sit down, taking shallow breaths, obviously still suffering.
"I-I did not know," Mary tried to explain herself. "Of course you didn't. These people didn't know either, but they managed to find out didn't they." Anna snapped back. "You shut up." An sad look passed across her face. "At first I didn't believe Rosemary. I didn't think you would do this." She looked up at Rosemary. "I'm so sorry Rosemary."
Rosemary nervously smiled in response. "What am I supposed to do now?" Anastasia asked no one in particular. Out of habit she started playing with her necklace. Mary gasped, realizing what it was. Anastasia looked up at her. "That seems to be the general reaction around here since everyone started arriving."
"They gave you part of the planet. They made reparations, why you so angry?" Mary gasped.
"Do you seriously think that this little piece of rock is going to make my life better. It doesn't do much." Anastasia stared off, no longer acknowledging the other people in the tent.
"What does it do?" Danziger prodded. "Nothing that will get your precious Devon Adair back. You wasted too much time Danziger and it's all your fault." Anna sneered. "I don't want to be here anymore. Rosemary, help me out." The woman sprung into action, helping Anastasia out of the tent.
Julia just looked at Alonzo, the sadness clearly in her eyes. Mary left the tent hurriedly for her tent. Danziger just sat back, trying not to cry; Anastasia had been right, he had wasted too much time and he was the only one to blame. The mechanic quickly took leave for his own tent.
"I can't do this. Anna has to know," Julia got up to search for her sister with Luke and Alonzo on her heels. Rosemary and Anna had not gone far, Anastasia in constant need of rest. the tissue regenerator had a lot of work to do and it would be at least three days before she was healed. Anastasia and Rosemary had taken a rest on the outskirts of camp. Anna was sitting on a crate, her face buried in her hands out of exhaustion or distress, Julia was unsure of which. "Anastasia?" Julia whispered quietly. "We need to talk."
"Go away Jewel," Anastasia had no force behind her voice, the hatred she had felt earlier had melted in despair. Looking up at her sister the tears were obvious. "You saw what I did Jewel. That was the one thing I never wanted anyone to know."
"You had to do it," Luke assured her. "That really doesn't help you know," Anastasia said brusquely. "Do you have any idea how many times I told myself that, but when I look back I know I would do the same thing. I was only twelve, but even today I would do it again. It still would never have brought anyone back to me, but I would have done it anyway," she confessed.
"Anastasia, we don't need to talk about that if we don't want to." Julia soothed her. "We need to talk about the man."
"Then we *are* going to talk about it aren't we." "We need to know what happened to him." Julia looked at her sister in surprise. "What do you think, he died Julia. I thought you said we didn't need to talk about this."
"He wasn't there."
"What do you mean *he wasn't there*? Everyone was buried, I made sure of it." Anastasia blurted out.
"I was in the cave Anna. There was no body of a man there." Anastasia put her hand to her chest and slumped over. "Oh god," she breathed, "No he's not...he can't be, I.."
"Anastasia!" A breathless Alex rushed up to the small crowd. "They were all there."
"What was?"
"We have 18 pistols that we collected over the years. I went to put the one Nikki used back in it's place, but all 18 were there." Alex gasped.
Anastasia threw a panicked look at Alonzo. "Please tell me one of your weapons were missing."
Alonzo shook his head. "Walman checked on them this morning, he didn't say any were missing."
An unsubstantiated anger was behind Anna's voice when she spoke again. "Well we all know how well he keeps guard at night, maybe he neglected to check today."
"He checked. I was with him when he looked." Alonzo replied. On her own will power, Anastasia stood up and walked over to a tree that she used for support. She tried to talk again, but sobs stopped her. She was no longer angry at any of them. She slid down the side of the tree, drawing her knees up to her chest. Anna cried in mourning and partially terror. The entire situation had finally crashed in on her.
Luke sat beside Anastasia and wrapped his arms around her. He looked up at Julia and Alonzo ran off to tell the rest of the group. "I was so sure I had killed him." Anastasia sighed in despair. "I faked death twice that day, I guess he picked up on my trick."
***
The man could barely overhear what the others were saying. He had hidden himself in the trees away from the gathering. The only thing he did manage to understand was that they now knew he was alive. He smiled, this would only make his job more difficult, and he would have a greater satisfaction when he was finished.
End of Chapter XVIII
Chapter End Notes:
Okay I know this is getting long and I thank all who have stuck with it. Anyways, I think you know by now where to send all the comments, critisms and cute guys *wink* by now.
Emma Pentland
Emma Pentland