Cries of the Children(115)

She was led to a large windowless room. There was an oval table down its center, surrounded by black chairs. She saw Rachel and Eric sitting with a young boy between them. A dark-haired child swiveled in another chair, her back to Samantha. But it was the trio standing at the back of the room that caught her attention. She was sorry to see Barbara here, because it meant her friend had been caught. She saw now that the other child was Lorraine, swinging back and forth in her chair and pouting. But she ignored them and called to the child who meant most to her.

“Julie!” she cried.

Julie turned away from Wil and Barbara and ran the length of the room in just a few strides. Samantha caught her in open arms and hugged her fiercely.

“Oh, it’s so good to see you!” she cried.

“Samantha!” Julie said.

Samantha pulled back and looked at her.

“Are you okay, sweetie?” she asked. “Did they hurt you?”

Are you another like me?

Julie frowned, staring at her. She had heard Samantha’s words.

I . . . I don’t know who we are.

Samantha gasped at the sound of Julie’s voice in her mind. Why hadn’t she been able to hear her before? Was this what Rachel had meant by “feeling” Steven’s presence?

Barbara and Wil had joined them.

“She seems okay,” Wil said. “I understand they’ve been treated decently, other than being locked up.”

“Being locked up cuts out the ‘decently’ part, in my opinion,” Barbara said.

Samantha stood up, keeping an arm around Julie. She looked at Wil, seeing him differently than she had when she’d thought they were of similar origins. The feelings of love and affection still stirred within her, but now there were doubts about the “rightness” of those emotions.

She didn’t have time to dwell on it. Julie was tugging at her sleeve.

“Come meet my friends,” she said.

Samantha went to the table.

“You must be Steven,” she said to the young black boy.

“Hello, Samantha,” Steven said politely.

“We were reunited with him after we were caught,” Rachel said, not revealing news about the room she’d found.

She wanted to correct him, but stopped herself. If she was the only one who knew of their true nature, they might become as upset by the truth as she had been; as she still was.

“Hi, Samantha,” Lorraine drawled. “They caught us.”

“Yeah,” Barbara said. “We didn’t get as far as Haybrook’s back door. I’m glad, too. The creeps that pointed guns at us and brought us back here were nasty SOB’s. I’m glad Gordy wasn’t involved.”

Samantha gazed into Lorraine’s eyes and realized now where their gray-green irises had come from. Her eyes were meant to be lapis-colored, like Marty’s. When she had been changed, a little of the original tint had remained, showing through the green of her “new” eyes.

Lorraine was definitely one of her own kind. But how had that change taken place?

“Samantha, what’s going on here?” Wil asked gently, as if he had read her mind. “When you saw that . . . thing down there, you acted as if you’d finally remembered something.”

Samantha turned on him. “Don’t call him a thing! He’s a child! A sentient being with as much right to respect as any of us!”

Wil’s eyebrows went up, and he backed up a step.

“You’re right,” he said. “Of all people, I should be open-minded. I’ve certainly seen enough in my life.”

Will you be open-minded about me?

What about us?

She looked around at the others. That hadn’t been Julie, but she couldn’t decide who had spoken to her.

“Please, Samantha,” Wil said. “Tell me what you remember. Does it have something to do with that crash? With the yellow house?”

Samantha nodded. It would be okay to reveal that much, for now. But then again, what if someone was listening?

“Are we being monitored?” she asked.

“Probably,” Wil said. “But I checked everywhere and can’t locate a bug. I think you’ll be okay if you whisper.”

Samantha lowered her voice and began her story. If they were bugged, it didn’t matter. She was not telling all she knew.

“Gordy was right,” she said. “I am a survivor of a . . . shipwreck. I traveled through the water to land in a pod like the one we saw in Marty’s room.”

Rachel gasped. Wil turned to her.

“Do you know something about that?”

“We found a whole room full of them,” she said. “Behind a secret panel.”

“They’re kept in metal crates,” Eric said. “About thirty. When we broke into the room, it set off a silent alarm. That’s how they caught us.”