The Wolf Experiments
Chapter 7

But Sultan had not reacted to the news of the secret room the way she wanted. She had expected him to collect the hastily drawn blueprint of the secret room and its secret compartment and act on it. Maybe then they would have some closure.

But Sultan had instead withdrawn and disappeared for a long stretch of time. It seemed to Alex like he was actively running away from the truth now that it was staring him in the face. His actions both annoyed and hurt her feelings. She waited as the season changed and the nights grew hot, humid, and uncomfortable. Still, he stayed away. It was as if he waited for something to happen. Perhaps she waited for something, too—as if they were all waiting for something to happen. In her dreams, the dark highway never ended. The more she learned about her past, the more pain it awakened.

One cold night, she paced around her room. The big screen was playing an old late 2000s Marvel Studios superhero flick with the volume turned down. She did not pay it any heed even while the caped heroes flew around on screen in carefully selected blue and red patterned costumes.

The window was open and Amandas had crawled out on his usual night walk. She stared out of the window at the bulbous and solemn moon as the millions of stars twinkled all around it. At first, there was only the bright moon and twinkling stars, but then, in the distance, a low rumble sounded like thunder. Amandas whined at the sound and the more she listened the more she realized it was not an approaching storm even though the trees had begun to sway.

As she focused, her heart beat heavily in her chest and the growing wind sent her hair cascading around her shoulders. Whatever was out there was coming fast. It had to be Pretorius approaching with some inexplicably immense army. She could feel it. Old aches cruised up her legs and spine, reminding Alex that she would never fully heal. She fell to her knees only to push herself upright again a few minutes later. The world shifted around her and still she moved forward, shaking her head at an alarm screaming in the distance. A new sound drew her eyes upward where a meteor streaked across the night. A bright flag of orange swept the clouds in its wake, and a burst of smoke covered the moon. As it drew closer, she realized it was a ship.

The vessel careened as she watched, crashing into the trees. A wall of fire exploded to the sky as it started to skid, and a deafening noise of breaking glass and metal erupted all about. The hull of the ship screeched and scraped across the forest floor, gutting and burrowing into the soft, damp ground. Finally, the nose tipped down, and the craft was still.

Without stopping to think, Alex ran forward. She covered the distance to the downed ship in record time. Half of its hull was on fire and she made the mistake of trying to push the door open. The flesh of her palm was stung by the scalding heat. She drew back and broke off a limb off a tree near her. She hit it against the door and it broke off. She saw a huge branch that had obviously been torn off the tree smoldering at her feet. She lifted it up with considerable strain on her muscles and slammed it against the door. Embers sparked in front of her eyes but the door of the ship caved in. Hot air blew out into her face and she could smell the ashes as her eyelids were scorched off. She stepped into the smoke filled interior of the ship and was faced with four bodies. The cabin was burning, electrical equipment cracking and popping, but she went in anyway looking for survivors.

Something, the faint suggestion of a sound, caused Alex to turn instinctively into a side room. There, a hammock swung gently from the ceiling at the far end, a body twisted in the ropes. One pale hand hung free. Almost overcome now by the thick smoke, Alex used her shirt to cover her nose. Wrapping her arms around the being’s chest, she pulled him free and dragged the limp body toward the door and out into the fresh air, away from the wreckage.

As she lay on the ground, pulling oxygen into her seared lungs, the ship exploded. Instinctively she tried to protect them both from the flying debris. The noise of the explosion so close to her ears momentarily deafened her. Her vision was obscured by a thick cloud of smoke and she coughed. She could almost feel the hot smoke in her lungs. A voice was screaming close to her ears but she could not hear a thing. She whirled around but she was disoriented.

Her face was stung by a slap and instantly, her senses returned. She looked up at the stern face of Hawk glaring back at her. Go,” he shouted. “The river. Get to the river.”

The forest around them blazed as she struggled to run, to reach the safety of the water. And still, in some dim corner of her mind she tried to understand what had just happened, what she had done, and why. Just before she lost consciousness, she heard the long, mournful cry of a wolf in the distance.

When she woke up, a white ceiling stared back at her. She tried to turn around to get a better view of her surroundings and she instantly regretted the decision. Hot pain lanced through her head and she sank back to the bed with a groan. It was the hospital all over again.

“Relax, Alex. You’ve been through a lot. It took a lot of courage to go into that burning ship,” Andy said. “It’s a miracle that anyone survived.”

There was another man in the room. He was lying on one of the other hospital beds. He was an albino. That was the man she had risked her life to save. Shakily Alex sat up, Andy reaching out to steady her as she eased off the thin mattress and went to the light-skinned stranger. Somehow, he looked familiar as if she knew him. It didn’t make sense.

“He seems quite alright,” Andy said.

At the sound of his voice, the stranger’s eyes shot open and he gasped for air. Alex knew what images burst into his mind as she had some experience with reliving the past. She knew the man was trapped in his nightmare, the ship plummeting, flames engulfing the cabin, fingers flying over a console struggling to gain control as the ground loomed closer. As if in response to some unspoken cue, the stranger suddenly reached for her hand. Alex stumbled backward, sliding against the wall and out into the corridor where she came to rest on the cold, metal floor just as Hawk turned the corner.

He asked. “Can I help you up?”

When she waved him on, he seemed aggravated which immediately made her feel like a trip to Nick’s cabin. But she decided against it, rising when Eric appeared and followed him back into the medical suite. The stranger had fallen back into a deep sleep. Hours passed and Alex sat beside his bed keeping a silent vigil. Sometimes she held his hand while other times she moved to the medical bed next to his for a nap.

She had her meals in the hospital room, right next to the stranger. Then she drifted off to sleep. The feel of something touching her cheek woke her up. She bolted upright to look nervously around the room. The stranger stood beside her. Alarmed, she took a step back. He held out his hand, obviously trying to communicate.

“Whoa,” said a voice from behind her. It was Eric. “It’s okay, Alex,” he said, moving to her side. “He’s been awake for some time. We didn’t wake you because you needed the rest.”

Amandas lazily raised his head and sensing no danger, went right back to sleep. The wolf’s relaxed attitude diffused her anger. If he was comfortable with the stranger, there was no reason she shouldn’t be.

Eric said, “We’ve been attempting to communicate. Not sure if it’s a language barrier or something else. I brought him some food, but he hasn’t touched it.”

The stranger watched as she plucked a potato fry from his plate and popped it into her mouth. After a moment’s hesitation, he did the same.

“Well, we didn’t try that,” Eric laughed. “I’ll go replace Andy.”

The stranger seemed to have little interest in the others, his eyes only briefly leaving her face. Once Eric was gone, he reached for her hand. He was tall and delicate, containing a pleasant, angelic quality. Andy stepped into the room. With a final look at the stranger and after a nod from Andy, she escaped to her quiet apartment. It was dark outside and no sooner had she closed the door behind her than a heavy rap sounded on the glass. It was Sultan.

“Is your astronaut alive?”

She nodded.

“The others got there at almost the same time I did. All I saw was how strange he looks.”

A sudden knock at the door interrupted them.

Snorting in irritation, Sultan stepped away from the light. “I’ll replace you later,” he said, and disappeared into the night.

When she opened the door, Hawk stepped inside. He was obviously excited and got right to the point. “Did he say anything to you?”

Her shoulders moved into a shrug.

“Eric and Andy sensed he was attempting to communicate with you.”

She nodded.

“If anyone can break the language barrier, I know you can.”

Alex dropped onto the couch and brought her knees to her chin. Her hair fell into her eyes, the weight of this new task bearing down on her. She wanted to figure out her own problems, not someone else’s.

“Andy and Nick transferred the wreckage to a location about two hundred miles away from our perimeter. If anyone is looking for it, they won’t replace us,” Hawk went on, before noticing her on the couch. “Hey, are you all right?”

She nodded quickly, keeping her focus on Amandas who pawed at the carpet. She tried to ignore Hawk’s brilliant smile, the way his mood lightened when he spoke to her.

“I’m not sure I believe you, but I’ll leave it alone for now. Anyway, Andy drew his blood to run some tests—to make some sense of his abnormalities. It’s more than just albinism.” He motioned for her to follow him. “I do have a reason for being here. Our new friend is reluctant to leave the clinic and move to the room we prepared for him. Think you can help?”

Without protest, she swept through the empty corridor, listening to the sound of her feet echoing across the walls. The central condenser hummed and rattled loudly today. Someone should service that, she thought to herself. She reached the clinic and beckoned to the stranger. He had no trouble understanding the seemingly universal motion. Moving again, she was aware of his constant eyes, the way he matched her stride and swing of her arms. Hawk led them to the new quarters, looking back occasionally to see that all was well.

The new apartment caught her off guard, and the small, windowless space made her feel acutely claustrophobic. The walls were blue, the carpet was white, and the kitchen had a black tiled floor. She turned to Hawk, realizing they planned to lock the man inside this pleasant prison cell. Hawk took her arm as if to steer her back out. She wrenched it free from his grasp and pointed to the stranger.

“It’s only temporary,” Hawk explained. “Nick is on his way and then we’ll discuss what actions should be taken.” He reached for her again and she pushed his hand away. But she did walk out, flushing in anger when the stranger began to beat his fists against the closed door.

“Leave it alone for now,” Hawk said gently. “Nick will be here soon.”

She belligerently slid down the wall to sit on the floor with her arms crossed in a way to express she would not move if her life depended on it. Hawk frowned. She was disappointed in him and gave him a look that plainly said so. He, of all people, should understand what it felt like to be a stranger far from home. And he’d duped her into incarcerating the visitor! That made her furious. Hawk looked hurt at her obvious displeasure. As if sensing her presence, the pounding on the other side of the door stopped.

Alex was still standing sentry at the hallway when footsteps echoed on the hard floor. She heard Nick’s voice moments before she saw him. Nick’s face was grim when he spotted her standing by the door.

“I told you she’d still be here,” Hawk said.

“My decision depends largely on you,” Nick said. “We believe the stranger has no malicious intent, and we will offer him sanctuary. But understand that for now, until we can communicate with him, he’s on probation and he will be watched. Hawk says you’re the best person to do that and I agree with him.”

With that, he pulled her to the security keypad and taught her the code. When she had the numbers memorized, she nodded.

“Hawk and Eric almost have me convinced the stranger is peaceful,” he said. “I’m still a little skeptical. Regardless, the wolf will keep you safe. Even if we told you to stay away, you wouldn’t, would you?”

She met his eyes and shook her head, managing to look a little embarrassed at the admission. His gaze softened and a smile crooked the corners of his mouth. “That’s what I thought. In a few days, we’ll see about moving him to a less secure apartment. He must have an escort outside of this room. Understand?”

She nodded.

“Will you be all right?” Hawk’s voice was alluring, whether he meant it to be or not.

Alex nodded again, pointedly looking at the wolf. Hawk had already forgiven her earlier outburst and perhaps that made him a better person than her. She was not so quick to forgive. When they left, she opened the door to replace the stranger staring at her. Amandas promptly rolled on his back, paddled his feet in the air, and put them both at ease with his playfulness.

The newcomer lifted his hand to her face, causing her to lean away with narrowed eyes. Neither of them moved, but something in his expression told her he meant her no harm. He studied her carefully, lifting her hand to study her palm. Some people put stock into reading the lines and she wasn’t sure if that was what he was trying to do. Her nose suddenly started to tingle and she abruptly broke contact. The floor wavered under her feet, sending her stumbling into the hall for air. The stranger did not follow, but she thought he called her name just before she closed the door. What was wrong with her?

Alex went to the river later in the evening. The sun was already going down over the horizon and Amandas was off running in the distance. Very soon, she heard the sound of a powerful stallion bearing down on her location. She skipped stones over the surface of the water while she waited for Sultan to join her.

Without preamble he said, “I’ve wanted to talk with you about a delicate matter. I know the arrival of the stranger has made things harder for you, so if this isn’t a good time, tell me.”

She snorted. Her imagination could wreak havoc with a statement like that.

He continued. “I had a chance to read through those journals you gave me and make sense of it all. I’ve also spoken to Andy about what he knows and we both realize now that somehow, you must have been here before in that lab—that maybe you were born here. I have an idea that you might already know some of this and that you wanted to tell me about it a few weeks ago.”

A soft breeze stirred the water and caressed her skin. She tried not to be angry about the secrecy surrounding the valley. Surely, that was ending now.

“In his notes, the doctor writes about creating a mutation capable of having some resistance to the radiation. That’s why he experimented with humans and wolves, replaceing success by altering genetic codes and injecting his formula into different species.”

Her heart skipped at this revelation. She looked at Amandas running in circles in the distance and then at her reflection over the surface of the water. Surely there was a connection. She focused on the flower-covered meadow, anything to take away the horror away from Sultan’s revelation.

“When he came back, the way he talked to you, the way he tried to take you—I knew then, that you were one of those children.”

Alex knew it was all true and it made her feel uglier than ever. What would become of her future? How could she ever fall in love? Have kids? Her thoughts altered slightly off course when the stallion dropped his head over her shoulder and nibbled at her hair and it reminded Alex that she still wanted to clarify her strange mistake regarding Sultan and his horse. Grabbing a thick stick, she penciled into the dirt, thought you and the stallion were the same.

“The same,” he repeated and at first seemed at a loss. “Do you mean to say that you thought I could shift forms?”

Alex nodded.

He scratched his head, “That would be something, wouldn’t it? I’m not sure how that got tangled up in your head but sorry about that.”

Alex thumped her chest with her finger and pointed to Sultan. When he still didn’t understand her wordless communication, she grabbed the stick and dug it into the ground again to ask if he was like her.

“My disfigurement is not from gene manipulation. Radiation exposure while in the womb gave me some unique looking birth defects. People stared at me so badly as a child that my parents forced me to remain indoors for all my childhood. I was homeschooled. As a young adult barely out of my teens, I went for cosmetic repair but the doctor only made it worse. Nick found me wandering through Barcelona and brought me here.” Sultan watched the struggle play out over her features and said gently, “I’m so sorry. That’s probably not what you wanted to hear. I’m sure it might have been easier if I was a victim of someone’s research, too.”

No! It could not be. His words burned in her ears as she made her way back to the complex.

.

She went back to see the albino astronaut in his cell later that day. The stranger waited patiently as she opened the door and eased onto his couch. Any contact seemed an appropriate move toward discovery for them both and it certainly helped Alex to socialize a little more. She wasn’t accustomed to people touching her and this stranger seemed to rely on certain gestures to communicate. When he took her hand, she wasn’t surprised but still fought the urge to pull away. She struggled a moment, and his grip held. Unspoken questions flared in her mind. He looked tall and thin in his jeans and black turtleneck—strikingly pale.

“Alex.” His voice was a soft, rich tenor. He placed a finger against his own chest. “Adrian.”

He touched his fingers to his lips and then pointed to her, giving a slight shake of his head. It seemed ironic how fast he figured everything out while it took the others so much longer. Now, he knew her name and she knew his. He hesitantly put pressure against her temples and when she pulled away, he nodded as if deciding to go about things in a different manner.

“Please,” he said slowly.

Sultan had called him an astronaut. Maybe he was some kind of doctor or psychiatrist. Leaning closer, he looked into her eyes and pressed his hand gently on her throat. When she didn’t fight his touch, his fingers gently palpated her windpipe. The soft edges of panic began to strengthen a prickly hold and she held her breath until she just couldn’t stand it anymore, yanking her body sideways to escape.

“Alex,” he whispered with large, innocent eyes.

She couldn’t pretend anymore that everything was fine and his ability to see past all that made her head pound. He went to the kitchen and returned with a damp napkin to dab away the blood dripping from her nose. She was exhausted and struggling with a sense of alarm, an indistinguishable panic that she might reveal too much if she stayed much longer. But the thoughts playing across her face seemed so transparent it was as if she had spoken her fears.

“Again?” he asked.

Partly he was testing her, and partly it was something else. She held her breath again, freezing in place as if he was some kind of predator and if she was still, he might not see her. She wasn’t afraid of him but her sixth sense indicated that there was something different about him. More than just his albinism. She wished she could figure out why he seemed so familiar. Something about his pale skin and the way he wore his hair. He blinked. Then she blinked and was gone.

She had fallen asleep, or lost consciousness, with her head bowed heavily onto her chest. Her neck now felt stiff and cramped. A blanket covered her body, and the stranger sat near, watching her. Amandas chewed calmly on a bone, and as her head pounded with an excruciating pain, the sound grated and jarred her ears.

“Water?” Adrian asked.

Alex sipped from a glass he offered, feeling the soothing liquid trickle down her tight throat. She wanted to take everything back—pretend that he hadn’t witnessed her weak response to anxiety with nosebleeds and blackouts but no road led there anymore. It was too late. She cleared the phlegm from her esophagus, embarrassed. Setting the glass aside, she sprang off the couch, escaping into the dimly lit corridor. Amanda skidded against her heels, his bone scraping the back of her thigh. In transit to nowhere, she altered her course and headed to the commons. Hunger bore through her stomach in a sudden, astonishing way.

Eric and Hawk were having dinner and both looked up with surprise as she entered. She scanned the menu on the digital screen. Nothing looked good.

“I checked on our new friend today,” Eric said. “It’s strange, but I think I disappointed him in some way.”

“Maybe he was hoping that you were Alex,” Hawk said smiling.

She shot Hawk a look of pure fury. He grinned openly, raising his hands in surrender.

“I’m not sure,” Eric responded without noticing the nearby exchange. “I think he was attempting to communicate. He put his fingers to my temple as if he expected something to happen.”

“He did the same thing to me. I thought maybe it was a greeting.”

“He is human, isn’t he?”

“Of course,” Hawk answered. “Even in our advanced society, people replace obscure places to live and practice their beliefs in peace.”

“What about his eyes? Maybe he belongs to a cult or something.”

“Just because someone looks different, or has a unique way of interpreting the world, doesn’t mean we should jump to conclusions about them.”

Although she heard them talking, her mind was far away from the conversation. There were things she still needed to know, things only Sultan could tell her. Quickly swallowing the last bite of her snack, she stood abruptly and walked away.

“Hey!” Eric called out after her, “Was it something we said?”

Alex was too wrapped up in her own thoughts to answer.

At the barn, she turned Rebel into the corral and pulled herself onto his back. Nick stopped forking manure and leaned heavily on a shovel.

“No saddle or bridle today,” Nick commented, grinning. “That’s fascinating and questionable.”

Concealing her anxiousness, she waved and smiled warmly. In truth, being outside under the golden glow of the clouds did give her a feeling of well-being. Her legs were stronger now. The months in the wheelchair were far from her mind, those days when she had to rebuild her body. She had learned so much since then, and now, she had more questions than ever before. What would she do about the convoluted connections? It was driving her insane.

Sultan always seemed to know when she searched for him, and today, he waited patiently beside two large boulders. He patted a place against his side for her to sit, a place where his large frame would block most of the gusting wind. Rebel galloped away as soon as she freed him.

“How is our new friend?” Sultan asked. “Is he learning the language?”

She nodded.

“Does he know about me?”

She shook her head.

“How are the others treating him?”

She had no way to answer that and after a minute Sultan rephrased his question. “Is he going to be with them, or with us?”

The way he segregated himself from the others pained her, and honestly, she was just as different as he was and had no idea what to do about it. She dug her toe in the dirt and pushed it around. Was there anything more frustrating than expecting a sixteen year old to know all the answers?

Sultan lifted her chin with his thick finger. “Did I say something wrong?”

How could she explain that she wanted all this separation to end? That she refused to put Adrian in the “with us” category, although she already had, because it meant she was starting to hold herself apart as well. A sudden blast of air rained tiny pebbles down on their heads. Sultan brushed them out of her hair.

“Let me take you home. I think it may storm and you seem conflicted. Maybe it isn’t a good day to talk.”

A short while later, she climbed through her window feeling sad and vulnerable. After Sultan galloped away on his stallion, a noise in the room alerted her that someone was there. She made her way to her bedroom until a voice behind her said:

“It’s remarkable, isn’t it?

The sound made her jump and she instinctively reached for the dagger by her waist. She turned around to see that it was Hawk sitting on her couch. Only Andy had the code to her apartment. Why did Hawk think she would be alright with him overriding her code and letting himself into her apartment? She frowned at him to express her displeasure but he seemed not to notice or even if he did, he did not acknowledge it. He continued.

“Nick is willing to move Adrian into his permanent quarters. Can you help?

She took off her coat and tossed it on the kitchen table.

“Adrian is speaking in short, broken sentences, and Nick believes there’s no danger now. Adrian mentioned how you have helped him to learn our language, which is fascinating, under the circumstances. How did you manage that without speaking?”

He suppressed a smile as she shrugged her shoulders.

“Well, you’re a great help to us, Alex. I don’t know what we would do without you,” he said. “When you’re ready, help Adrian move. His new quarters are just a little farther down the corridor. I’ll leave the door open.”

Her philosophy about such things was that there was no time like the present. Three minutes later, she entered Adrian’s comfortable cell and found him ready. As they walked, she tuned out his probing gaze by counting the lights over their heads and avoiding the lines on the floor. Still, the hair prickled on the back of her neck. His new quarters were much like her own, but decorated in green and white. It faced the same direction as her apartment.

He glanced over the room with only mild interest. “You aren’t like the others. I don’t understand how or why but you juggle a number of complicated thoughts and you seem quite alone—self-inflicted, I think.”

Alex indicated her interest in what he was saying, dropping comfortably into a chair.

Adrian closed the door and continued. “Meeting people beyond my own network of acquaintances have given me clarity about my values and my spiritual life. Thirty years ago, we were a religious movement blessed with a tolerant leader. Our major goal was to cultivate a healthy future. We united around the concepts and interpretations we believed were necessary to change the world and ourselves. Unfortunately, there were those among us who twisted our purpose. A new obedience demanded we ban the old language, outlaw reading and writing. I was, however, rebellious,” he said smiling. “As a teenager, I sought to learn things that were forbidden. Now, thanks to you, I am learning more.”

His words deepened the growing camaraderie between them and later, they went to the commissary to stock Adrian’s new kitchen.

As they returned with their arms full of boxes he said, “Where do you live? Will you show me?”

Once again, he followed not unlike her wolf that was strangely absent again. Her apartment was vacant so often that it always looked clean and tidy. When she opened the door, Adrian crossed the room to look out her window. Then, his gaze scanned the area until he found her crutches propped in the corner.

“You have survived a terrible injury, and yet, you’re healing and progress is hindered in some way. I was a physician, of sorts, and helped people cope with many different levels and layers of pain. I think in a way you do this too. But it is growing late. May I see you tomorrow?”

She nodded. He smiled politely before leaving the room. For Alex, life had certainly taken an interesting turn, in fact an almost unbelievable one. Glancing at the clock, it seemed too early to call it a day and found herself drawn to the lower levels. Amandas was still gone. She wondered if he had a girlfriend and left the window ajar. He would know where to replace her.

As she returned to the underground, she made a final decision to replace out what happened in her past—all the gory details. After avoiding the levels with the worst water damage, Alex ventured through the nauseating stench and ankle deep muck, stumbling from time to time on hidden obstacles. A thick coating of greenish-brown slime covered much of the furniture and bubbled up from the putrid bottom. She found a filing cabinet, pulled up a chair, and meticulously sorted through the material above the water line. A strange, metallic groan rumbled far below her feet, only to repeat itself a short while later. The sound made Alex uneasy. She carefully slid from the chair, stepping back into the rancid water. The clamor was growing alarmingly loud, and reminded her of a vehicle striking a guardrail, metal screaming on metal. She quickly slid a few interesting documents into a plastic waterproof bag, which she tucked into the back of her jeans.

The floor vibrated beneath her feet and then without warning, collapsed under her. She flailed her hands, searching for something to hold to, her fingers slipping over broken wires and slick, rusted pipes. Without a sound, she plummeted ten or fifteen feet to the level below, landing with a splash. Instinctively she covered her head as debris rained down.

Miraculously Alex had landed on her feet but fell when something struck her. A filing cabinet came to rest across her hips and a large steel beam pinned her down at the shoulders. Alex tried to wrestle her hands free, but a sharp pain left her gasping for breath. The cold water continued to wash into her mouth as she spit and sputtered. Blackness loomed close from the blow to her skull, and her temple throbbed wickedly. She could not lose consciousness now! Grabbing a broken segment of pipe, she beat it on the nearby wall for what seemed like an eternity. Then, she decided to rest a bit. Her body felt hypothermic; her mind sluggish. Hours passed. Her tongue felt pasty, dry, and swollen. When something slithered across her throat, she recoiled in horror, gasping. She had the worst luck of anyone she knew.

Footsteps pounded the floor above, and a beam of light hit her face as if projected from heaven.

“Alex!” Sultan cried, leaping down to cradle her head with one hand while frantically pulling at the steel beam. He looked appraisingly into her eyes. Apparently he was satisfied that she wouldn’t pass out. “I have to let go of your head and use both hands to move this. I need you to hold your head up and be ready to move when I push it clear. Are you ready?”

When she nodded, he shifted his weight and began to lift the beam. A small wave of water cascaded across her face and filled her nose. She gulped and snorted, coughing the foul liquid from her mouth. She managed to keep her head up until Sultan freed her.

“Can you move?” he asked.

“Wait. Don’t move,” a voice called down.

Sultan leaped against the wall as a second beam of light filtered down.

“It’s okay,” the voice said. “You don’t have to hide from me. Alex is my friend, too.”

Adrian dropped down, and Alex noticed how the light refracted from his eyes, like a cat. He extended his hand to Sultan. “You have nothing to fear from me.”

Sultan extended his large hand. “I’m Sultan.”

Adrian turned to Alex, running his hands over her arms and legs looking for injuries. She looked and him expectantly, waiting for the “all clear”.

“Alex, how are you?” he asked. “You should be going into shock but seem quite normal under the circumstances.”

She tried to reflect how much better she already felt. Sultan and Adrian cleared the wreckage and lifted Alex to her feet.

Adrian quickly looked around. “This is a nasty place. Terrible things happened here. I can feel it. The walls cry out with an echo of distant screams.”

“It’s true,” Sultan said. “Will you help us? Can you help her?”

Adrian paused and turned to look at him.

“She could speak once,” Sultan added.

“I will certainly try. There is much that needs to be done first.”

“But you are a doctor?”

“I was a doctor,” he said, “when being one meant something.”

“It means something now,” Sultan said, his voice breaking. He stepped away and clenched his fist.

Adrian said, “We will need to replace a better way to communicate.”

Her mind retracted a little although she heard them say her name a few more times. She tested the strength of her legs with a hesitant step. It hurt. The pain cleared her senses a little, bringing things back into sharp focus.

Adrian said, “It will require a level of honesty that I think she will be uncomfortable with, is that right Alex?”

Blinking, Alex wished she had overheard the rest of the conversation or at least the sentence beforehand. When she didn’t acknowledge the question, Sultan sighed.

Reaching out, Adrian took her hand to lead her over a pile of debris and said, “It is a matter of focus but she projects herself quite well.”

Alex took another shaky step. The room shifted, and she steadied herself against a wall.

Sultan looked more closely at the back of her skull. “You’ve taken a nasty knock to the head. Andy will need to look at that.”

Reaching back, her fingers danced over the swelling but it didn’t seem severe enough to see anyone about it.

The journey back to her apartment felt too long when it really wasn’t, and Adrian stayed with her after Sultan left. Remembering the documents, she took them out of the protective bag and slid them across the table to Adrian.

He studied her face, trying to figure her out. Spreading the documents across the table, he gazed at them for a few minutes before he spoke again. “The others care for you. Why don’t you ask them for help?”

She shrugged.

“Isolation is a tricky thing. Sometimes even when the situation changes, we still live in our self-induced prisons.” Reaching across the table, he patted her hand encouragingly. “It seems fate has brought all of us here together, as if we have a common, greater purpose. My prison has dramatically changed.”

Sometimes if Alex took a step back, her unpredictable, crazy world overwhelmed her. She liked having friends and somehow it felt new—as if she hadn’t had friends before. Moreover, she had discovered the twisted circumstances that riddled her body with genetic tampering and mutation. It was enough to sway the steadiest mind with its nightmarish qualities and puzzling questions. Adrian’s focus narrowed again, his strange purple-blue eyes vociferous and unrelenting. Perhaps feeling she needed to assimilate some of his statements, he bowed his head a little and let himself out.

The stinky grunge clogged the drain of the shower, and it took several washings to dismiss the putrid smell. She dried her hair carefully, avoiding the painful knot weeping from the back of her head. She changed into a new pair of jeans and a black, cotton shirt before making her way to the laboratory.

Andy had disassembled his medical interface. Parts were stack in several places. “I’m just short of throwing this blasted device through the window,” he said. “You look a little pale today. Do you feel all right?”

She shook her head and guided his hand to the knot on the back of her head.

“Did you fall?”

She nodded slowly.

“Have a seat and I’ll take a closer look. Do you feel dizzy or nauseous?”

Alex spent an hour with him while he subjected her to a few painless tests, and then reported with satisfaction that she suffered only a mild concussion. Andy gave her some helpful advice, and she went away so he could work.

The following evening, she stepped outside her apartment to see Adrian pacing anxiously.

“I’m plagued with sleeplessness,” he said. “My mind is a revolving door of the things I have learned, and the things that I do not yet know. I have so many questions.”

Somehow, it made her feel better to know that other people had trouble sleeping, too. She waited for him to come inside, watching as his gaze moved to the window. It was dark, and the wind pushed against the glass.

“If you would allow me to take a little more of your time, I thought we might work on a method of communication.”

She dropped to the couch, clutching a pillow within her hands. Regardless of the fact that she needed to learn all she could in order to heal, the process was painful.

Digging into the messenger bag he brought with him, he pulled out a spiral notebook and a pencil. Both seemed strangely out of place in a world that was digital. It felt like stepping backward in time about a hundred years.

He said, “Let’s start with having you write exactly what problems you want to solve.”

She stared into his eyes and was suddenly afraid of sharing the truth.

He smiled gently. “You’re strong. I promise that I won’t break you.”

She leaned forward slightly, wishing again that her voice would come back. Things were so difficult sometimes. Those were the first words she wrote down.

“Good,” he said. “How much time has elapsed since you last spoke comfortably?”

With that, she wrote down her second goal, which was to regain her memory. At that, his gaze filled with sudden sharp understanding and he looked bitterly sad.

When he spoke again, his voice sounded raw. “Let’s backtrack a little before you write down any more goals. What is the first thing you do clearly remember?”

Alex wrote about waking in the hospital and then about the vivid reality of the wreck that presented itself in dreams—the truck plummeting off the cliff and the mysterious boy in the back seat with the white wolf. The pencil moved impossibly faster as if it could project months of mindless, silent suffering—the feeling that she had lost everything she loved, the haunting face of the mad doctor and the fact that he never seemed so far away. It was as if he wore a number of disguises—that overall, she knew he would always come for her until one of them was dead. Alex blinked and took a deep breath.

Adrian stood and paced about the room with his arms clasped behind his back; his wrists locked together. The wolf slept peacefully at her feet. Fifteen minutes elapsed and when it appeared Adrian still had much to think about, Alex moved to the couch and stretched out. There her mind descended into a collage of visions: a blood-soaked room, an axe, and the white wolf with raised hackles. The scene shifted and she saw herself imprisoned in a small cage where she spent cramped hours dreaming of running and playing. She saw the valley filled with trees and the rushing waters of the river. The stallion stood on the far shore screaming. Again, there was an axe. She picked it up. The doctor took it. The stallion faded. She swung the weapon. It careened out of her hands and skidded across the floor. The doctor’s smile faltered and he jabbed an infuser deep into her arm. A swirling mist enveloped her, trapping her in a pensive world where she lay between states of consciousness. The metal bars pushed against her skin. Something burned and voices cried out. An open door allowed the room to fill with light, and a tiny fist appeared before her face. It was her hand, but small, the hand of an infant. They handled her like an animal, clamping down her arms, and strapping her legs to a table. She began to wail. The wolves in the laboratory reacted to her howl.

A woman’s voice rose in terror, echoing across wet streets to a man running towards her. Red lights reflected from the pavement, blurring the panicked face of her husband. Her tears were lost in a drenching rain. She struggled to free herself from the arms that bound her, grappling with the men who attempted to take her.

A black van rumbled as automatic weapons fired, a flurry of shells sprinkling across the road. Her husband fell, but still he tried to reach her. He strained and crawled, one hand putting pressure against the gaping hole in his chest, the other reaching. A cruel moment allowed them to hope, their fingers nearly touching. Nick screamed, his voice rising above the loud sounds of the city.

The wolves called out, many voices blending to a single sound. Alex stood inside their circle, and they slowly enclosed her. Once she had been one of them, but the wolves all abandoned her, except for one. The white wolf. She bent to the ground, showing that she could be submissive, but still they drove her away. She refused to abandon her family—her brother, failing the final test. The pack stopped circling and surged forward. She fought a losing battle, and the man who orchestrated her failure stood back and whistled happily—whistled the haunting notes of his signature song.

Alex was hyperventilating when her dreams or visions or whatever they were finally cleared. Adrian held her wrists firmly, leaning over her. Alex leaped to her feet, darted to the bathroom, and slammed the door behind her. She looked into the mirror. Her pupils were narrow slits in a sea of flashing blue. She crumpled to the floor, wondering how long she could keep such horrors hidden. Adrian pushed the door open.

“It’s going to be alright, Alex.”

She shook her head, afraid to look at him now.

“Come,” he said. “Let me talk to you.”

Alex followed but avoided his touch, moving to the window to stare out the rising moon. The night felt too long.

“Why can you not embrace in yourself, what you have readily accepted in your friend, Sultan?”

It didn’t feel like she would ever have a normal life. No man would ever love her.

“You aren’t giving yourself a chance,” Adrian said. “How can you think that a man will never cherish you, when you’ve barely stepped away from your childhood?”

She turned when she realized he had answered her unspoken thought.

He tapped his head. “It’s impossible to explain but sometimes I hear what people are thinking. Not always. Might be something positive from radiation exposure.

“You are my friend, bound by life and circumstance. The road ahead will be a difficult for both of us. You can count on me and I already know that I can count on you.”

Tears rolled down her cheeks. She realized what a blessing it was that he had crashed landed in the valley. Slipping his hand into hers, Adrian smiled.