But before Elena headed to the vehicle, she closed the distance between them and hugged him hard, hiding her face in his chest. “Thank you… thank you for bringing her back to me.”
“You need to thank Zandar for that, but you can leave the hugging just for me,” he stated, with so much possessiveness she raised her head to look at him, surprised. “Though, that can wait for later.”
Zandar was already inside the vehicle with the sleeping form of Alanna on his arms, and they hurried to take their places. They still had a long way before they finally reached freedom.
Alanna woke up at mid-afternoon. Not wanting to startle the little girl more than necessary, the minute Zandar felt her move in his arms, he asked Rafaroy to stop, to allow Elena to take her sister in her arms.
The little girl’s eyes flickered a few times as if she thought she was dreaming, before she let out a loud cry and opened her eyes wide.
“Elena… it’s really you… I’m not dreaming.”
Elena hugged her tight against her chest allowing her tears of happiness finally go down her cheeks. “I told you I would always find you, no matter what.”
Alanna hugged her back. “They said all of the people that had been captured by the Taucets had been freed and taken to Mirage, so, I decided to come out of our secret place to go there… but it was a lie…” she explained, sobbing.
“I know, sweetie, I know… but we’re together now, and that’s all that matters,” she comforted the girl.
“That place is nothing but a prisoner’s camp… I tried to escape, but they caught me before I was able to go very far…” she sobbed a bit more, showing all the adults around her, just how much she had suffered in the dreadful camp.
“You’re free now, sweetie, you’ll never go back…”
Slowly, the little girl calmed herself enough to look around her and see the huge cyborgs surrounding her sister.
“What…?”
“They’re friends, Rafaroy and Zandar,” Elena quickly assured her. “In fact, they were the ones that took you out of the camp,” she added.
Alanna frowned, as she looked at Rafaroy and then at Zandar, pointing at the last one. “I know you… you were at the camp. You used to tease me…”
Zandar shrugged, with a naughty grin on his face. “You seemed to need a bit of stimulus to go on… so I gave you one. I’m sure you were planning the moment you would kick me in the ass.”
At first, Elena had looked at Zandar, upset, but when she realized what he had done, she couldn’t but smile. He had given her sister a purpose in a dreadful existence.
“We can continue this tonight when we stop for the night,” Rafaroy suggested. “The sooner we’re out of here the better.”
They all agreed and soon they were on their way. Though at first, Alanna didn’t seem very comfortable traveling in Zandar’s arms, a few minutes later, when Elena peeked under Rafaroy’s arm, she had cuddled up against the powerful cyborg, as if she had been born to be there.
It was a strange thought, Elena knew that, but she couldn’t help feeling it.
That night, they stopped in a small clearing, deep in the woods. They were very far from Camp Mirage, and though none of the men seemed to be relaxed, Elena refused to believe they could be caught again. She had Alanna in her arms again, and no one was going to change that.
Rafaroy spent a few minutes helping Zandar to change the rest of his codes and deactivating those ones submitting him to the humans. When they were done, he went looking for a couple of rabbits for dinner. They still had some of the food Rafaroy had taken from Savannah’s place, but with two more people in the group, they would need a bit more food to complement that.
Elena took a seat with Alanna in her arms. They had so much to talk about, she didn’t know where to start.
“What happened after the attack?” she finally asked her sister.
“There was chaos everywhere. The teachers didn’t know what to do, so they tried to take the children out of school building and into the yard,” Alanna explained. “I remembered what you had told me, so, I escaped through the school’s back door into the woods, like we had discussed. It only took me a few minutes to get to the old mine and hide inside.”
Elena hugged her hard. “You were very brave.”
“I waited until nightfall, but you didn’t arrive. I thought about going back to town, but it was very dark, so I decided to spend the night where I was. I ate some of the food you had left for us there, and on the following morning, I went back to town,” she continued. “When I arrived, the soldiers were coming back. At first, I thought about going to meet them, but Captain Summers was leading the group, and I remembered you didn’t trust the man, so I waited to see what was going to happen.”
“And? What happened then?”
“They took the kids out of the Mayor’s house and forced them to get on a military truck. The small kids were crying for their parents, and all Captain Summers was able to say was there would be no more parents…” she sobbed.
Elena clenched her hands into fists wishing she could meet the old bastard face to face. The man was a pitiful excuse for a human being.
“When I saw them taking the children away, I was happy I hadn't shown myself. I went home, got more food and clothes and went back to the mine to wait for you,” the little girl continued explaining. “After a few days I went back into town and there were more people there, more soldiers but also other people I had never seen before. I heard some of them saying the soldiers had attacked the Taucets colonies and that all the people they had found there had been taken to Camp Mirage.”
There was so much anger in the little’s girl tone, Zandar couldn’t help smiling. He had been listening to her story and couldn’t help feeling a bit surprised by the girl’s courage. No wonder she had called his attention. She had more fire on her little finger than most people had in all of them.
“I shouldn’t have believed in them, but I was feeling so lonely… and they were saying people had been taken to this place called Mirage, so I came out of my hiding and allowed them to take me there,” she continued with her story. “But they lied. Not all people were there, you weren’t there, and when I decided to leave, they said I couldn’t, that I was now under the government’s custody. I was so furious, but they didn’t even listen. So, I tried to escape, but they caught me…”
“You were very brave. Were you able to see other people from back home? Johanna? Savannah?” Elena asked, hugging her sister a bit more.
“Yes, there were some people from back home. All the children were there, some were reunited with their families, but some didn’t, but I didn’t see Johanna or Savannah,” she replied with a slight frown, tilting her head to look at her sister. “What will happen now, Elena? We can’t run away for the rest of our lives.”
“We won’t, sweetie. We’ll find a safe place for us to live in, I promise.”
Rafaroy arrived, and soon they were cooking dinner and discussing how far they would be able to go with the MotorStorm, before it ran out of fuel.
“I believe it should be able to take us a fair distance tomorrow. Since it’s carrying more weight than it should, it’s consuming more fuel. Even so, it should take us far enough to put us just a few hours from the rendezvous point,” Rafaroy said, while he watched the rabbits roasting slowly.
“That would be great. My leg is getting better at full speed, but it was a hell of an injury,” Zandar explained with a grimace.
“What the hell happened to you, after all?” Rafaroy asked, turning to look at his friend.
“A sudden explosion at the colony. I wasn’t able to get out of the way of the flying wreckage, and a metal piece almost ripped off my leg.”
“Damn… that must have hurt…”
“It did… but what hurt me the most was knowing I was too hurt to even try to escape…” Zandar said, shaking his head. “How did you manage to escape, by the way?”
“Khajal was on the colony, with a human female. I bumped in with her, and after some persuasion and Khajal’s authorization she opened up my control system allowing me to change my codes,” he explained, smiling. “I was almost out of there when I met a couple of Taucets that made a hole in my back. After erasing them from the face of the planet, I managed to escape into the woods where Elena found me and helped me.”
“Lucky guy…”
That night after they finished eating, Elena tucked Alanna to sleep over some branches the men had cut off from a tree.
“What you say we go for a walk?” Rafaroy asked, with a naughty smile shining on his eyes.
“Alanna could wake up.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Zandar assured her. “I’ll take care of her.”
Elena looked at him, still not sure, but Rafaroy didn’t give her much choice. Taking her by the hand he tugged her after him, going deeper in the woods.
“I found a small creek not far from here, and I thought you might enjoy washing in it,” Rafaroy explained.
“Why didn’t you mention it before? We could have moved the camp closer to it.”