Nick Webster

The Chase

            The cop also took after us but kept his distance.  I was holding on to dear life afraid she was going to crash the vehicle.  There weren’t a lot of cars on the road right now – not like there was in the other town when Nikki first helped rescue me.  That was helpful for us, so Nikki could more easily turn corners without causing a crash.  There were a few people walking around on the sidewalks, and they all stared at us.  I wished I could just be them.  I wished I could just be normal and live my life.  It’s so frustrating.  Why can’t we just be normal?

            Nikki turned a few corners but eventually made a turn so that we were driving right along a river.  Oh no… a river.  She had said that bodies of water could be a quick escape.  She was going to have us jump in the river.  I couldn’t believe it.

            Nikki’s eyes were concentrated on either the road ahead of us, the fence alongside us, or the cop behind us.  Maybe I could just bail right here?  Maybe I could just jump out of the car and make it on my own.  While the thought crossed my mind, I knew that my best chances of survival were to stay with this crazy person.  She had strong knowledge of the area, she knew how to survive on her own, and she had a plan.  The only thing I had was the will to live, but I don’t think that would be enough.

            Nikki looked for a weakness in the fence alongside the road.  There was fencing alongside the whole river except for building who used the river for transporting whatever they needed to move.  It didn’t look like we could drive into the inside of the fencing.  The front gates looked locked up.

            Right before we had to turn around the large building, there was a gate with a ramp that led toward the water.  The gate was locked up, but the lock looked rusty.  I think Nikki noticed this and tried her luck.  If all else failed, we could hop out and climb the fence.  That’s assuming the cop wouldn’t shoot us if he could.

            Nikki positioned the car as far away from the fence side of the road as possible.  She wanted to avoid a sharp turn where she would lose momentum.  She turned the car slowly toward the fence at an angle.  She yelled, “Take off that seat belt after we hit this fence but before we hit water!”

            Oh, boy. Here we go.

            The car hit the fence and relatively easily went through the gate even with the lock.  It did some damage to the front of the car, but that wasn’t important anyway.  This car was about to be at the bottom of the river soon.

            We both took off our seatbelt before the car hit water.  She made sure to unlock the car too.  She quickly said, “Jump out when I jump out and then find me underwater but don’t surface right away!”  We had less than three seconds to react.  The fence wasn’t that far away from the water.

            The car hit started to nosedive toward the water.  It felt like it was all in slow motion.  I could see the water right before it hit the windshield.  It was surreal.

            The car slowly sank while we were still in the car.  Nikki said, “Open your door a little bit to let water in, so we sink faster.  I’m going to roll down the windows.” 

            She was surprisingly calm.  I tried to look as calm as I could, but I was screaming on the inside.  I looked back at the cop.  He was out of his vehicle and talking on his radio while looking directly at us.  He didn’t jump in after us, though.  I’m not sure why.  It seemed like we were sitting ducks out here.  Maybe he’s heard about what we did to the other cops, and he was not going to risk his life without backup.  I’m sure they’re calling us extremely dangerous.  Well, we did kill those cops plus and several scientists, so they’re probably right.  I don’t want to hurt anybody anymore.  I just want to escape and live a normal life.  Whatever a “normal life” was.  I know a normal life wasn’t what we were doing right now.

            The vehicle started to sink faster.  I looked at Nikki one more time before she gave me a head nod to jump out of the vehicle.  I opened the door further and then started swimming away from the car.

            It was really hard to swim away from the car.  The water kept pulling me back into the sinking car.  I kept at it, though.  I’m not sure how she did it, but Nikki escaped from her side of the car and found me while I was still struggling to exit the vehicle.  She grabbed my hand and helped swim us underwater in some direction.  I had no clue which direction we were going anymore.  We swam for several moments, and we finally stopped while we were still underwater.

            She gave me a hand gesture, but I couldn’t tell exactly what she was gesturing.  She went above water, so I followed her.  She quietly explained that we would need to swim down the river but only put our mouths above the water instead of our entire heads.  That was going to make it tough.  If we were to emerge both of our heads above water, the cop would likely see us and probably try to kill us.  We both took several deep breaths before we went back underwater.

            We started swimming under water again.  The water was so cold.  Back when we were at the house, Nikki told me it was the summer, and the weather around here would be nice for another month or so before it started to become really cold.  We would eventually need to acquire clothes for warmth, and we would always need to be in shelter.  Our bodies wouldn’t be able to stand the cold temperatures when the winter came.  This popped into my mind while we were swimming.  It scared me because I didn’t know how we were going to survive in the winter.  This water already seemed really cold, but I guess this is nothing compared to what we were going to experience in a few months.  Still, I trusted that Nikki had a plan of us.  She’s been reliable thus far even despite all we’ve faced.

            We swam for about 10 minutes.  I was getting tired, and the most tiring part of it all was the fact that I couldn’t get much air at once.  We continued to pause and take breaths while being almost completely underwater.  I also really wanted to know what the game plan was.  Before I could say anything, however, Nikki stopped and pulled me all the way above water.  Not all the way, but just enough so that our heads were above water.

            We were a long way away from the city in the middle of the river.  The river had a slow flow in one direction, and we started flowing down the river now that we were paused.  It wasn’t very fast, though.  We both looked back.  It was hard to see but there were several people and several cop cars back where we left the car.  Nikki said, “They’re likely going to spot us with our heads popped out now.  We’ll need to move quickly.”

            “What’s the plan?” I asked.

            She responded, “We’re going to swim over there.”  She looked and pointed to the other side of the river.  There was an island where we were heading.  “We’ll need to figure out a game plan.  That island is uninhabited.  We’ll have to stay there for the time being, but we can’t stay long.  They’re going to catch us if we stay in one place too long.  I’ll explain more when we get there.  Catch your breath some more – we’re going underwater again.”  So, she didn’t have a plan.  That wasn’t good to hear.

            I let out a sigh and then took a couple of deep breaths.  We both starting swimming under water again.

            It was another about 10 or 15 minutes of swimming before we arrived at the shore.  When we arrived there, I gasped for air.  It was so tough swimming all the way across the river.  My body wasn’t used to all this physical activity, and I had been swimming like my life depended on it. 

            The air was cold, and I started shivering.  Nikki was also cold, wet, and shivering but not as much as I was.  She said, “Come on, we have to see if there’s some type of food available on this island.  If we don’t eat, we’re not going to survive very long on this island.”

 ***************************************

             We walked around the island for a couple of hours.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t find anything that was edible.  It was now the afternoon, and we were both hungry.

            “Nikki, what are we going to do?” I asked in a calm manner.  While I was calm on the outside, I was somewhat panicked on the inside.  In fact, I was uneasy during this entire time.  Just thinking about our situation, it was difficult to see if we were even going to survive.  We were stranded on an island with no food, and we were being hunted by the Russian government and their police force.

            “Come on, lazy,” she said.  “If you want food, you have to work for it.”  She picked up a small branch off the ground that was near a tree, and then we walked back down to the water.

            Nikki found a rock near the shore.  She started carving the branch on one edge.  “What are you doing?” I asked.

            “Making a kop'ye,” she said.

            I didn’t know what that word meant.  “What is that?”

            “It’s what is going to help us catch food,” she said.

            She kept carving the branch until it was sharp on one side.  Without saying anything else, she jumped back into the river.  It was very shallow, so she wasn’t underwater yet.

            “What are you doing?” I yelled.

            “You’ll see!” she yelled without turning back around.

            Eventually, she was in the deeper part of the river where she could submerge under the water.  I didn’t know what to do, so I just sat down on the shore.  Waiting and watching.  My clothes were almost completely dry by this time.  I’m glad it was her rather than me that was back in the water.

            Several minutes had passed, and I didn’t even see her head surface.  I wasn’t too worried; she clearly knew what she was doing.  I just started playing with some of the rocks, sand, and twigs on the ground.  What else was I going to do?

            Finally, after another 10 or 15 minutes, she suddenly popped out of the water.  She had in her hand one lifeless fish and a fish still freshly attached to the ‘kop'ye.’  I had a surprised look on my face without even knowing it because she almost immediately yelled, “You didn’t think I could get us food, did you?”

            I just dropped my jaw and started stuttering, “I… I…”

            “Oh, don’t even.  We’re not going hungry.  Not on my watch,” she said it with a big cocky grin.  I think she enjoyed the fact that she was so much better than me at everything.  She was more intelligent, quicker, wittier, and skilled than I am.  She has had a month and a half head start on the world, but it still seems like a world of a difference between the two of us.  I would surely be lost without her.

            She ran to the shore and tossed the lifeless fish to me.  “We’ll need to remove some of the parts of the fish before we eat them.”  We started walking back inland.  We found a bigger rock, and she put her fish on top of the rock.  She grabbed another rock and started chipping away at the top of the fish.  There were sharp parts of the fish.  It took her a few minutes, but when she finished, she took a big bite out of the bottom of the fish.  I just watched.  The fish looked hard to chew.

            “You know,” she started to say while still chewing, “Once you get past the outside, the inside is pretty good.”  She looked like she wanted to spit it out.

            I followed her lead and put my fish on the rock.  I started chipping away like she did.  She also said, “You know, these are supposed to be cooked.  They taste better that way.”

            I just kept chipping away at the fish without reacting to what she said.  I knew it was going to be gross.  When we stayed at the home, our food needed to be prepared, and it tasted good – no, it tasted delicious.

            When I finally finished chipping away at the fish, I just looked at it.  Nikki was still trying to eat her fish.  I could tell she was struggling, but she tried not to show it.  “Eat up,” she said.  “You’ll need your strength.”

            I closed my eyes for the first bite.  The outside of the fish was hard and rough but juicy at the same time.  I grunted a little bit when the fish hit my stomach.

            Nikki giggled.  “You’re going to have to get used to meals like this.  It could be all we have for a while.”

            She was right.  I should just be happy that I have something to eat.

            I both dreadfully and gratefully ate the rest of the fish.  We both didn’t eat the head and bones and tossed them aside.

            For the next several hours, Nikki taught me more words.  There were still a lot of words that I had to learn.  I wanted to learn more about Nikki too.  What did she do before she helped rescue me?  Life was probably lonely for her, but honestly, I probably slowing her down.  She seems fully capable without me.  So, I simply asked her, “What did you do before you helped me out?”

            She paused and seemingly ignored the question at first.  After a few moments, she looked at me and said, “Waiting for you.”  She didn’t say anything after that.

            I was somewhat confused.  “Well, you had to preoccupy your time with something.  You know the language well, you’re knowledgeable about the area, and you look like you’ve sharpened your hand-to-hand combat skills.  Or was all that natural?”

            She again dodged the question.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  She gave me somewhat of a look, but I’m not sure what she was trying to tell me.

            At this point, we were walking around and looking for anything that might be useful to us.  Nikki was also playing around, and she would randomly throw rocks or kick things on the ground.  I think she was bored.

            I was a little impatient.  “Look, if you don’t want to talk, just say so.”

            She didn’t respond.  At least right away.  “There’s something special about you,” she finally said.

            What did she mean?  “I don’t understand.”

            Once again, she paused.  She asked, “Do you trust me?”

            I was thrown off by the question.  “Yeah, I guess.”  I didn’t really know what to say.  I trusted her, but her question was just so off base.

            “You guess?” she asked.

            “Yeah, I mean, you’re really the only person I know… certainly the only person who has been on my side,” I said.

            “What did you think of me when you first saw me?” she asked.

            I was supposed to be asking her questions – not the other way around! “Umm… I don’t know.”  I was becoming more and more impatient as she continued to ask these questions.

            I think she could tell, so she cut right to the chase.  “I think we share a special bond.  I’m not sure why or how.  When I first saw you, you were in an incubation tube.  There was something…” she looked for the right words to use and continued, “different about you.”  She turned to me to draw eye contact when she finished that sentence.

            I looked into her eyes searching for meaning to her words.  I looked to see if there was more than what she was actually saying out loud.  After a few moments, I slowly and carefully asked, “What do you mean?”

            She looked away again, “I don’t know.”

            We didn’t say anything more about that.  I was somewhat timid, which kept me from asking any further on the subject.  I just don’t know what she was trying to say, but I felt too afraid to ask.  I eventually changed the subject back to what I wanted to know about.  “So, what did you do while I was still locked away?”

            She gave up on dodging the question.  “Nick, I’ve done some bad things.  Unforgiveable things.  You were right about the people living in that house.  I killed them in cold blood to steal their house and food.”

            She paused, but I didn’t know how to react.  Eventually, I just said, “Everyone can be forgiven.”  I didn’t know what else to say.

            She immediately remarked, “No… you don’t understand.”

            I was drawn back by her quick remark.  “Well… try me.”

            She again looked away.  “Maybe one day.”  No one said another for several minutes.  We kept walking, but Nikki finally answered the question.  “That house wasn’t even my first house.  I had stayed in two other places.  I stayed in that one the longest because it was the most remote place I could find while still staying close to you.”  She paused, but I knew she wasn’t done.  “I left one person alive.  She was a girl around our age.  But now she doesn’t have any parents, just like us.  I don’t know why.  I wanted her to know what it was like to be us.  I didn’t have bad intentions.  I just wanted someone I could relate to.  I thought I did the right thing, but then she cried and cried.  I was so confused.  I felt like I should hate myself for making her upset, but I didn’t know why I should feel that way.”

            This entire situation didn’t sound good.  I just stared into her eyes waiting for her to say something more.  Next, she was supposed to say that she knew it was wrong.  She was supposed to say that she saw the errors of her ways.  Why isn’t she saying anything?  She just stared back at me.  I felt a tear starting to form in my own eyes.  What did that mean?  I could feel for this other kid, but she couldn’t?

            Finally, I looked away.  “I’m glad you left her alive,” I said.  I couldn’t make eye contact right now.  What was I supposed to say right now?

            “Look, if it’s answers you want, it’s answers you’ll get.  I’m not proud of everything that I’ve done, but we’ve both faced challenges already, and we need to stick together,” she said.  Her words were more comforting now.  And she’s right.  We’ve both already done things we’re not proud of, but we’re also not in control of everything.  Other people are out to get us.  We’re just fighting for our freedom and our lives.

            Our eyes met again.  She inched her way closer to me.  “No matter what happens, we need to be there for each other.”  Nikki grabbed my hand.  “There’s a lot of bad people out there.  Can I trust that you will look out for me, and I for you?”

            My heart started racing.  A million thoughts flew through my head.  I didn’t know what to say.  I just stuttered like a stupid person, “I… I…”

            I couldn’t finish what I was going to say.  She jumped right in and said, “You don’t even need to say anything.”  She laid herself in my lap.  It was nice to have a friend, particularly someone like Nikki.  She always knew what she was doing.

 ***************************************

             Nightfall came several hours later.  We collected more food but didn’t really have a plan for a shelter.  It could get cold at night, so we gathered a lot of brush for blankets and found a spot that might keep us warm away from the night sky.

            “We’re going to need to sleep together to stay warm.  The nighttime can be very cold,” Nikki stated.  At this point, I wished we were back in that house.  We weren’t planning on staying on this island long-term, so I don’t think would need to build a shelter or anything.  Unfortunately, as we were collecting items and figuring out what we were going to figure out what we were going to do for the night, we found that most of the debris and wood on the island was too moist for a fire.  I’m not sure if either of us knew how to make a fire with the material anyway.  I didn’t ask her, but she didn’t make a fire, so I assumed she didn’t know.

            Instead, we started talking again.  For most of the day, Nikki had remained a relatively closed book until now.  We had small talked, as she doesn’t open up very easily.  However, she did start telling me about what she found after she escaped her prison cell.  “After I escaped, I went down another floor.  I found several others… like us.”

            My eyes started to grow wide.  The thought of the idea of others like us was exciting!  I wished I could meet them!  Did they need rescuing too?  I couldn’t wait to hear what else Nikki had to say.  “That’s great!  Tell me more!” I exclaimed.

            “Yes, there were six others like us just one floor below.  I’m not sure if there were even more than that, but I couldn’t wait around to find out.  I was under some intense pressure with all the security that showed up,” she said.  “They were in chambers just like ours.  Four were boys and two were girls.  None of them were awake, though.  It was hard to tell how far along they were in their development.”

            “What do you mean?” I asked.

            “It took us years to grow and develop.  We both started as a single fertilized embryo.  They modified our DNA in our incubation chambers.  I’m still not sure of exactly how we were made or grew, but I know we were in the incubation chambers for years.  The others looked around our age or younger.”  She spoke with such wisdom and intelligence.  It was breathtaking just listening to her, and it was certainly exciting to hear this story.

            “That’s great! Where are they now?” I excited asked.

            That was apparently the wrong question.  Nikki looked away and gave out a deep breath.  “They’re no longer with us.”

            I didn’t understand.  “What do you mean?”

            Nikki couldn’t make eye contact with me.  Did I ask the wrong question?  She finally responded, “They killed them.  The scientists and security officers killed them when they realized they couldn’t control them.  In a way, I think I’m responsible for their deaths.  My escape meant they couldn’t control everyone.  They did the only thing they could to protect themselves.  Just think how many of them would die if more of us escaped?  We’re both not proud of what we did when we first escaped.  If everyone responded the same way when they first escaped…” she paused with sadness in her voice.  She continued, “I don’t blame them for taking them out.”

            I was speechless.  I was so excited about the prospect of seeing and talking to others just like us.  How could they?  Why did they?  I just couldn’t understand why they would bring us into the world only to take us out.  It just didn’t make any sense.

            We were both silent for a minute or two.  Nikki finally broke the silence.  “I think there are still others out there.  I don’t think our lab station was the only one out there.  I did some research on other facilities, but I haven’t identified specific places.”

            “Oh?  That would be great to meet them,” I said with less enthusiasm.  “For now, we should worry about making it off this island.”  I paused for a second and added, “alive.”

            “Yeah, you’re ri-.”  Suddenly, Nikki stopped in the middle of her sentence.  Why did she stop?

            “I’m what?” I asked.

            “Shhh,” she responded.  She paused for a moment and added, “Do you hear that?”

            Hear what?  I didn’t hear anything.  I waited a few moments.  “I don’t hear anything,” I stated.

            “Helicopters,” Nikki said.

            Right after she said that word, I could hear them too. It was now too dark to see the expression on her face, but I imagine she was probably panicked.  Well, at least I was starting to feel nervous.  “What do we do?” I asked.

            Nikki was silent for a moment.  “I’m not sure there’s much we can do,” she softly and quietly said.  “This was the one thing I was afraid of.  If they found us on the island before we could escape, we would be trapped.”

            “There’s got to be something we can do!” I exclaimed.  “We’re sitting ducks out here!”  Although I couldn’t see Nikki’s face very well, I could tell she was thinking of a plan.  “Surely you can think of something!”

            A few moments pass, and Nikki finally says, “We have a couple of options.  I’m not sure if they’re here for blood or here to capture us.  We could pretend to be wounded by attacking each other and hope they have mercy on a couple of wounded kids.  The second option is to simply hide and hope they don’t find us.  They will know we’ve at least been here, but they might think we’ve left the island already if we’re hidden well enough.  We risk them finding us and potentially killing us on sight.  I think straight up attacking them is the worst option.  They’re going to come with weapons, and if they believe that we’re the aggressors, they’ll shoot us where we stand.”

            I quickly responded, “Whatever you think is best for us, I’m in.”

            “Let’s try and hide it out.  Do not under any circumstances attack someone if they discover where you are hiding,” she said.

            “I understand.”

            Nikki continued, “I think the best chance of having at least one of us survive is if we hide in different parts of the island.”

            The thought of being separated from Nikki scared me.  I’ve been so dependent on her.  “I don’t want to be separated from you!  I’d rather die with you than risk leaving you alone with them!”

            “I know,” Nikki started to say.  She paused for a moment.  The helicopter noises were getting louder and louder.  “We’re running out of time anyway.  We need to find hiding places immediately.”