Chapter Ten

A wretched smell of something burning forced open my still heavy eyes. The early morning sun was now streaming through a nearby window. I stretched out on the small, narrow couch, taking in my surroundings. Someone had put a blanket over me at some point during the night.

Theo was lying on the floor. A small blanket barely covered his large, muscular body. It was hard not to stare at his peaceful facial expression as he lay there with his eyes closed. It made me wonder what sort of history we had together. I tried to get up from the couch without making any sounds that would wake him.

"Good morning, Esa."

Samuel's voice came from behind me. He was sitting in a small wooden chair near a table.

"What is that god-awful smell?" I asked, pinching my nose. It smelled like burning tires mixed with ammonia.

"Mary is working on something for us to take back to 2105. I'm not really sure what, but she swears it will be able to treat any cough. Just ignore the slight odor for now." Samuel waved away the matter.

"Slight? That's an understatement. It's horrible." The smell was making my eyes begin to water.

"Hey," Theo said opening his eyes and rising from his makeshift bed. "Did you guys sleep okay?"

"Yes." I shrugged. "I was more tired than I'd realized."

Samuel looked at me. "We need a lot of rest to be able to handle the Jump Line. You will probably be more tired over the next few days as your body adjusts. It's also one of the reasons we like to visit Mary. No one in the town nearby visits her, so it stays very quiet allowing us to get the sleep we need."

"Good to know. How long did I sleep for?"

"We all slept for a few hours," Samuel said. "I just got up a little bit ago."

"Oh, good... I guess." I rose from the couch and assessed my surroundings.

"Esa, we need to go back to our primary year pretty quickly—I'm not really sure how much travel your body will be able to take—but before we do, I want to make sure you understand what we're up against," Theo said, his tone authoritative. "The military isn't going to stop until they get us, especially the two of you."

"What is that supposed to mean? Why are they more focused on me and Samuel?"

"You two are particularly important because of your parents. Paul desperately wants both of you back at OnyxFive. There have been new rewards offered for someone to help capture both of you, as well as the rest of the team. The rewards have strict stipulations that you must be captured alive. The rest of the team doesn't have those requirements."

"Who is Paul, and why haven't you mentioned him before?"

"He's our father," Samuel responded. "Sorry, it's hard for me to remember what sort of information you know and what you don't."

A knock at the door made me still. "Who is it?" I looked over anxiously at Theo.

He walked to peek through a small hole, and chuckled. "Esa, it's time you met the other half of our group."

"Fine." I crossed my arms over my chest defiantly. "But I still want you to tell me more about Paul."

"Okay. Later."

He opened the front door and a beautiful, tall girl with almond-shaped eyes entered. Her silky white hair cascaded around her shoulders. She rushed over to hug Samuel.

"Hi guys. We finished the clean-up and additional recon." She glanced in my direction. "Hello Esa," she said, moving closer and looking me over from head to toe.

"How long have you guys been here?" The girl asked never taking her eyes off of me. It was as if she expected me to have some sort of response.

"We just got here last night," Theo said. "Soldiers found us as we were trying to get her a little more prepared."

The girl nodded and then, without warning, she wrapped her arms tightly around my waist. A jolt of energy ripped through my body, forcing me to jump back.

She laughed. "I've missed you, Esa. It's been tough being the only girl in this group of apes. I knew at some point you would come back to us. I just knew it..."

A silence washed over the room as we stared at one another.

Finally, Samuel spoke. "Esa, this is Audrina."

"Um, hello Audrina. It's nice to meet you," I responded.

Audrina's eyes narrowed and she turned away from me. "What is going on?"

Another boy suddenly entered the room. He was smaller, with platinum blond, almost white, hair, and almond-shaped eyes like Audrina's.

"Hey Esa," he said nonchalantly. "Good to see you again."

Silence hung in the air.

Finally, the newcomer cleared his throat. "Uh, it's me... Gave."

"Gabe?"

"No, Gave. G-A-V-E." Obviously, he had gotten this question before.

"Where's Luther?" Samuel asked as he looked around at the group. "I haven't seen him in a while."

"We've been trying to find him, but we don't know where he is," Audrina said with a huff as crossed her arms over her chest. "Theo, next time, Luther gets to go with you. I don't want him on my team anymore. He never listens. I'll take Samuel."

"Works for me," Samuel said. "You know me; I don't mind taking orders from a girl."

His comment made me blush. Obviously, Samuel and Audrina were more than just friends.

Still standing behind me, Theo squeezed my shoulders and broke the few seconds of silence that had overcome us. "Esa, this is the team."

Audrina laughed. "Theo, it's not like she doesn't know who we are. We've been friends for years."

I nodded, wishing there was something I could say. I wanted to remember them, but everything before the accident was still a blank. These two new people remained strangers to me.

"Did you guys find out anything else on why there were so many ripples in time around the car accident?" Theo asked.

"Yeah, we did," Gave said. "It looks like the accident happened at least twice. We didn't see anything else. There was that bright light, and then Esa appeared. It was weird. We tried to slow it down, but still couldn't see anything."

Gave looked over at me. "You looked pretty out of it when you were walking around. It was crazy seeing you look so lost."

"Yeah," Audrina echoed. "You were definitely not your normal self at that time. We tried to find more clues behind the bright light, but we couldn't find anything. It's really odd."

"I agree," Samuel looked lost in thought. "Something is not adding up."

"I'd love to sit around and chat some more, but we need to roll," Audrina said, looking over at Theo. "LUX was notified about some large items that are currently being requested on the market. It's a pretty long list. I'm not sure we'll be able to get everything, but this group apparently has some Intel they are willing to share with us in return."

"Fine. We'll split up again, but we all need to be more on our guard. NorthStar and OnyxFive are both increasing their searches and reward amounts for information on us," Theo said. "We've finally got the entire team back together and we need to keep it this way if we want to survive."

"Got it," the smaller boy, Gave, responded.

"Esa and Gave, you are both with me. Samuel, obviously you are going with Audrina, but be careful. We'll meet you in a few hours in our primary year. Samuel, do you think that's too long for Esa?"

"She should be fine, but if you notice she's having difficulty breathing then you need to get her back to my lab. We've subjected her body to a lot in a very short timeframe. I'm just not sure how much she can really handle right now."

"Okay." Theo nodded.

Audrina grabbed her medallion. Instantly, she and Samuel were gone.

"Why did they leave?" I asked.

Gave looked over at me. "When we're together our energy gets too strong. If we don't monitor it, we can cause electrical outages. So, we like to divide up, but coming back to Mary's house is a stable place. That, and usually Mary cooks for all of us and provides us with various medicines and potions we can't seem to find anywhere else."

"I heard that," Mary said, entering the living room and caressed his cheek. "All you guys do is eat and run."

"I know. It's just been a little busy lately." Gave offered Mary a sheepish look.

She patted him on the shoulder. "Pft. Just remember, I've known all of you for a while. Marie gave me permission to set you straight, if needed." Mary let out a little chuckle, and her dark eyes danced with laughter.

-dS