Chapter Four
Walls of Stone
Jaden’s feet pounded the soggy ground as his blood burned within his veins, his muscles searing with each successive stride as he raced through the forest, avoiding thick tree trunks the best he could in the blinding downpour.
He couldn’t let anything slow him down.
It was chasing him.
He was back here again, in this dense and dark forest with some horrible thing bearing down upon him without mercy, gaining on him. With his limbs aching and his chest heaving, Jaden spotted the distant cabin he knew would be there just a few hundred feet ahead.
After scrambling up the faded and peeling painted steps, Jaden reached the cabin’s door and fumbled to turn the doorknob.
Locked.
No matter how furiously he tried to turn the knob the metal would not budge. And then something warm, something alive, breathed onto Jaden’s neck.
It was behind him.
It always caught him in the end. He could never escape it; never find shelter from the storm or the monster while the warm glow of the cabin’s fireplace could be seen through a window inches in front of his face. So it was time then, yet again, to turn around, like he had every other time he found himself in the midst of this reoccurring nightmare, and see what was standing behind him.
Tired of running, tired of being scared of whatever was hunting him in his dreams for as far back as he could remember, Jaden wheeled around to look at whatever had been chasing him face to face, screaming “Get away!” when—
“Jaden?
Ugh.
He felt dizzy. Disoriented. Sounds drifted in and out of his mind like an ebbing tide of sensory confusion. He couldn’t tell if he was awake or still dreaming—or somewhere in between.
“Jaden,” said a soft voice, “wake up.”
Why couldn’t he ever see who was chasing him?
“Get…away,” he mumbled, his head woozy and aching with the rhythm of his heartbeat.
And then suddenly, inexplicably, a pair of vivid green eyes glared out at Jaden from the distant darkness. Eyes that were new to the nightmare—but eyes he was somehow certain that he had seen before. Something was different.
“No, get away…”
“Its okay, Jaden. We’re okay now,” said a soft, distinctly female voice beside him through the mist of his mind. But the eyes grew closer, more menacing as they seemed to move not for Jaden, but someone to his left.
“No! Leave her alone!”
“Jaden,” said a low growling voice like a beacon of clarity through the haze, “you’re safe. Open your eyes.”
It was dark.
There was a low lull of tires traveling across a bumpy bridge and the distant sound of harmonious music flowing in and out. Cool sweat trickled down Jaden’s forehead and onto his temples. He squinted to try and make sense of the obscure figure leaning over him. He tried to rise up off of some carpeted surface but a piercing pain at the back of his head demanded he remain put.
“Jaden, can you hear me?”
The soft voice reminded Jaden of, of—his head pounded with each pulsating beat, making it hard for him to remember that the voice sounded like someone very pretty—and blonde.
“Ugh, Gwen? Where am I? Is Merrick, is he—”
“I’m still in one piece, kid.” Merrick’s gritty voice seemed to come from all directions. Jaden eyes rolled when he tried to look around the interior of the vehicle. Exhaustion engulfed him, sleep beckoned.
The sweet encapsulating release of slipping away into—
“Jaden,” Gwen said, “can you open your eyes for me?”
His eyelids felt like they were lacquered with liquid steel and sealed shut. A sudden click of what could only have been an overhead light sent a white sting glaring down, multiplying the pain at the back of his head.
“It’s bright—hurts,” he said.
“I’m sorry, but I need you to open your eyes,” she said. “Jaden, I have to wake you up every few hours because you probably have a concussion. I’m sorry but it’s necessary.”
“My pupils disagree.”
Merrick chuckled and Jaden could almost feel Gwen’s wonderfully soothing smile stretch across her face. The familiar, inviting scent of lavender let him know she was close.
Maybe the concussion was worth it.
“Well, we know your conscious and sarcastic, at least,” she said, “so open your eyes and then you can go back to sleep for a few hours, all right?”
He groaned, prying his eyes open in what required a surprising amount of effort. A blinding sea of light and haze saturated everything. His eyes tried to adjust to the bright light from the overhead bulb but he could just vaguely make out two chairs or front seats, yes, front seats, and a faint blue-green glow from what appeared to be a dashboard. A fuzzy Merrick drove and Gwen knelt beside Jaden, peering over him.
She blocked the light as she leaned in to check his forehead. He couldn’t thank her enough for blocking the light.
The interior of the car was charcoal black and—
Gwen’s chilly fingers squeezed his chin and she moved out from underneath the light. Everything went white again.
“Hey now,” he said.
“Jaden, can you follow my hands?”
He squinted, waiting for his eyes to adjust. She had a tiny scar on the bottom of her right index finger.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Do you remember what happened?”
“Um, not really.”
“Well, do you remember the lamp post?”
The sudden metallic slam and subsequent white flash into darkness came screaming back. “Absolutely,” he said.
He felt her chilly palms on both sides of his face, tilting his head to each side. She hesitated. Very gently, she lifted his head off of what felt like a balled-up cotton sweater. She looked worried, craning to look at the very top of his head.
“Oh, good, I don’t see any more blood,” she said.
“Blood?”
“Nevermind that,” Gwen said, her cool fingertips brushing the hair off his forehead, placing the back of her palm against his skin.
“Gwen?”
“Yes?”
“That light’s still really bright.”
“Oh, sorry.” She turned and flicked the light off. “Better?”
He nodded, finally able to look around without squinting. The glowing headlights extending out of the front of the vehicle revealed dark trees on both sides of the large automobile, some kind of bluish evergreens, casting a faint light back into the cab of what appeared to be a sport utility vehicle.
Despite being able to see again, the absence of the bright light made Jaden feel tired again, the wooziness growing until he could no longer fight against the unstoppable pull of sleep. He managed to get one question out before his eyes closed.
“So what happened?”
“We’re not exactly sure, kid,” Merrick said, as Jaden’s eyes felt heavier, “but you did well.”
Jaden smiled, trying to stay awake to ask more questions.
“Get some rest,” Gwen said, “I’ll wake you up in three hours to check on you, all right?”
“Mmmm.”
The soft feel of down and comfy cotton sheets enveloped him.
He was in his bedroom, but not the one in his mother’s new house. He was lying in an old bedroom; one he couldn’t quite place. But it was definitely his. He recognized the superhero sheets and matching comforter. Before Jaden could look around and get a good grip on where he was the bedroom door creaked open and a sliver of light cascaded onto his face. A large shadow stood in the doorway.
He couldn’t believe it.
“Dad?” said Jaden’s voice only much higher pitched, like he would have sounded if he were a very young child. The shadow crept over to Jaden’s bedside, making no noise.
“Shh,” said his father, “I’m just checking on you.”
Jaden stirred in his bed and looked up into his father’s face, still shadowed by the hall light.
“I want you to know how much I love you, Jaden,” his father said, “and how special you are. Will you promise me to always remember that, Jaden? Can you do that for daddy?”
Jaden nodded, wondering why his dad was talking so weird in the middle of the night while also trying to comprehend what he was seeing. Was this a dream? Or something else?
“Be strong, son.”
Jaden felt his father’s hand rustle his hair and remain on Jaden’s head, like some warm pillow of reassurance until he fell back asleep. Dream, memory, fantasy, whatever it was felt like it was the last time Jaden ever saw his father alive.
The crunch of compressed gravel and the rumble of tires struggling over potholes jostled Jaden out of his sleep.
“How did they get there so fast, Merrick?” Gwen said.
“I’m not sure,” he said, “none of this makes any sense. They’re normally stationed far apart throughout the regions. It was as if—no, surely not.”
“And,” Gwen continued, “and that was a lot more than just the Killing Squad. I’ve never seen so many of them assembled like that before.” Jaden’s eyes fluttered, catching Gwen looking down at him before his eyelids shut.
“I haven’t either, at least not in a few years,” Merrick said. “I don’t like it. It makes me wonder what they know that we don’t.”
A long pause of silence filled the cab of the car.
“I should wake him back up. It’s been almost three hours. Jaden…Jaden, I’m sorry but it’s time to wakeup for a bit.”
Jaden opened his eyes a little easier this time and found that he had not moved at all. And neither had Gwen; she still knelt right beside him.
“Why aren’t you buckled?” he said, his strength and clarity returning despite still feeling sleepy.
“You sound like Merrick,” she said with a smile. “I wasn’t going to leave you back here to roll around or hit your head.” She turned towards Merrick, “Isn’t that right?”
“Don’t push it,” Merrick said, his tone paternal but amused.
Jaden’s eyelids felt heavy again despite the dawn creeping faintly up over the horizon, brightening the night sky. Maybe just one more little nap.
“Well, thanks,” he said, “but you…” his words faded along with his wakefulness.
“Whoa, wait,” she said, “stay awake for just a little bit longer, okay? What’s your eye color?”
“What? Why?”
“Just answer, all right?”
“Gray,” he said, “but most people just say light blue. But I usually don’t correct them so whichever—”
“And where were you born?”
“Huh? Excelsior Springs, Missouri.”
“Good,” she said, “Do you feel any better?”
“No. I’m still tired. And my head still hurts.”
“I bet it does,” Merrick said, looking over his shoulder at Jaden. “You took a good hit.”
Jaden half-smiled and Merrick turned his attention back to the road.
“Hey, Merrick?” Jaden said.
“Yeah?”
“Who were those people?”
Gwen peered out of the window and Merrick hesitated.
“Now’s still not the time, kid. But don’t worry, the answers are coming.”
“Go back to sleep,” Gwen said, “You need to get your rest.”
“We’re safe, though, right?”
“As safe as anyone can be right now,” she said.
Just before Jaden slipped away again he felt obligated to get one last thing out.
“Gwen, buckle up.”
When he awoke everything was quiet. The air was damp and still and the low lull tires crunching gravel was gone. Jaden couldn’t hear anything—or anyone.
A close clicking noise broke the stillness and he opened his eyes, seeing a very large arched ceiling overhead except something was odd about it. Jaden moved his eyes across the top of the enclosure, examining the room and he could find no seams or vents or fans. All he saw was cold hard rock.
This wasn’t a ceiling at all.
“Where am I?” he wondered aloud, his throat dry and scratchy.
“Agh,” said a high-pitched male voice, dropping something metallic with a clatter.
Jaden turned to see a very thin and bespectacled middle-aged man bend down to pick up his pen and clipboard off of the stone floor, clutching his chest.
“You nearly gave me a heart attack, Jaden,” the bespectacled man said, situating his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose.
“Oh, sorry. Do I know you?”
“Well clearly not if you’re asking me that,” the man said, chuckling to himself. Jaden could only muster a polite smile as he couldn’t tell which was hurting him worse, his splitting headache or such a corny joke.
“Right then,” the man said, “now concerning your first question, you are at our hidden stronghold inside Shoshone National Forest along the Wind River Mountain Range in Wyoming. Well to be even more precise, you are in the Wind River Range.”
“Uh-huh.” Jaden had no idea where Shoshone National Forest was. “And, who are you, again, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“Ah, right,” replied the thin man, “my name is Percival Thane. I’m a member of the Assembly, which is to say I’m a friend of Merrick and Gwen’s. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”
At the sound of Merrick and Gwen’s names Jaden suddenly remembered the uncanny ability they seemed to have at hearing his thoughts, which naturally caused Jaden to wonder if Percival could hear his thoughts or somehow sense his uneasiness. After all, if he really was a friend of theirs then surely he could do something amazing and miraculous as well. He waited for a moment, half-expecting Percival to say, ‘Of course I can hear your thoughts.’
But Percival said nothing.
Jaden leaned back in the uncomfortable bed, relieved. “Hi, Percival,” he said. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
Percival grinned and clicked his pen three times.
“Um, Percival,” Jaden said, rubbing his throat, “can I have some water?”
“Absolutely,” Percival said, making some checkmarks before setting the clipboard down on a polished metallic counter and walking over to a miniature black refrigerator on the other side of the cozy room, returning to Jaden with a bottle of water in hand.
Jaden tried to unfurl his fingers to take the water, forgetting about his bruised knuckles and scraped hands, when a fresh stab of pain at trying to spread his fingers forced a sharp cry out of him.
Percival was clearly startled and clutched his chest again. “I’ll just set it at your side,” Percival said.
“Thanks.”
Jaden slowly unfurled his hand and then gingerly balled his fingers into a loose fist, testing the damage his hands had incurred and the amount of pain the action would elicit, which was a slow and swollen ache Jaden had never experienced.
Percival sat down on a small stool topped with black leather beside the metallic counter. He picked the clipboard back up and scribbled some more notes. Jaden’s eyes drifted away from the small stool to the large stone walls.
Where was he? This didn’t look like a normal hospital.
The entire room was arched stone, like a cozy rounded cave. Directly across from him was a massive wall of cut lumber, closing off the front of the room. A nice wooden door with a small glass window shaped like a diamond was situated in the middle.
The room reminded him of a rustic cabin instead of a medical center. Various metallic objects and medical instruments populated the stone cove. A white board that Jaden knew was used for reading x-ray stills was to his right and he noticed an IV apparatus pushed up against the wall on the other side. He must have been in some kind of makeshift medical ward at some ranger’s office.
Percival stood up and shuffled towards Jaden.
“Other than my hands and some slight stiffness in my back I really do feel all right,” Jaden said. “A little woozy and I’ve got one monster of a headache but all in all I think I’m okay.”
At trying to sit up more in his bed to prove this the muscles in Jaden’s shoulders and thighs felt somehow waterlogged with soreness and his joints rigid, like he had just run a marathon with zero preparation.
“As far as I can tell,” Percival said, looking over the chart, “it looks like you had a minor concussion and severe blunt trauma to your hands. Which is quite incredible considering what Merrick and Gwen told me about what happened.”
“Are they here?” Jaden said, craning his neck towards the small window at the door as fast as his aching neck muscles would allow.
“Of course,” Percival said. “I sent Gwen away about two hours ago to get some sleep. She sat in that chair by the corner all morning and nearly all afternoon before I had to force her to get some rest and stop looking over my shoulder.”
Jaden smiled. That sounded like her.
“And Merrick,” Percival said, “well he’s not real big on checking in on people but he did stop by after bringing you here, even after I told him that you would be fine.”
“Well, can I go then?” Jaden said, trying to appear as if he could move normally and wasn’t desperate to plunge himself into a warm Jacuzzi tub.
“Nearly. I would like to ask you a few quick questions about what happened, is that all right?”
A flittering knock came from the other side of the wooden door and deep blue eyes beamed from behind the small diamond of glass. “Can I come in? You’re decent, right?” Gwen said, her voice muffled through the window.
He looked down to check if he was in a gown or not and was relieved to see that he was still wearing the faded jeans and t-shirt he had spent twenty minutes selecting for the dinner at his mom’s house with Gwen.
The dinner.
That felt like a lifetime ago.
“You can come in, Gwen,” Percival said, “but you’re going to end up in here yourself if you don’t go and get some rest, especially with all of the excitement and your asthma attack.”
Asthma. That’s why Gwen was struggling so much to breathe while they were running.
She entered, looking sheepishly at Percival before bounding over to Jaden’s bed, giving him a firm hug. “You’re okay?” she said, still squeezing him.
“I’m fine,” he said, wondering when she’d give up the death grip on his aching sides, “and you should have told me that you were asthmatic before we started sprinting down sidewalks.”
Gwen seemed to continue her lengthy embrace until she felt absolutely certain Jaden was okay. He didn’t mind. Once the first few seconds passed the pain seemed a small price to pay. After letting go of him she walked over to a cushy maroon and mahogany chair in the corner, scooting the chair across the stone floor over to Jaden’s bed.
“How’s my mom?” Jaden said.
“Merrick sent two sentries to watch over the house and they’ve reported no activity whatsoever,” Gwen said. “I think we got out before the Legion could trace the ripple back to the house.”
He didn’t understand what Gwen meant by a ripple, or anything else she said, but he really didn’t like the idea of not knowing who the people were that were sent to protect—
“Merrick sent Raeburn and Juliana, two very capable women in their twenties and in top shape to guard her. And your mom won’t even know they are there,” Gwen said. “You have nothing to worry about.”
And just like that he had to watch what thoughts he let enter his mind again. Wait, had she heard about the pain being worth it?
Wait, could she hear him now?
“So,” he said, trying to clear his head as fast as he could, “when can I go back and see her?”
Gwen and Percival eyed each other for a moment without saying anything.
“I can go see her, right?”
Gwen shook her head. “It’s too dangerous, for you and your mother.”
“But,” Percival said, in an obvious attempt to switch Jaden’s attention, “like I was saying, I only have a few more questions for you to answer and then we can all get on our way. After all, we’ve all got a very big day ahead of us tomorrow, don’t we?”
“I guess?” Jaden said, looking over to Gwen who seemed enamored by his bruised and battered knuckles. “What do you want to know?”
“Is your headache intensifying?”
“No.”
“Are you having difficulty focusing on anything?”
“Not really,” Jaden said, “I mean, my head definitely hurts but it’s not getting worse. And I can see just fine.”
“Excellent,” Percival said, scribbling more notes down, “and what about muscle soreness or fatigue?”
“Um, a little.”
Jade tried to move his limbs again as if it wasn’t an excruciating struggle.
Gwen glared at him.
“Okay, a lot. Like a mountain of soreness covered in a hurricane of aching. Is that better?”
She smiled and Percival waved his hand in a dismissive manner.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Percival said, thumbing through some papers in the clipboard, “that’s perfectly normal. Happens all the time”
“How so?” Jaden said. “I’ve never felt like this no matter what kind of exercising I’ve done. It feels like someone’s injected liquid concrete into my thighs and shoulders. How can this kind of soreness be normal?”
Percival looked up from the clipboard. “Your body is just struggling to recover and adapt, Jaden.”
“Recover and adapt to what?”
Percival hesitated, clearly surprised that Jaden had no clue about what he was talking about. “To what it shouldn’t be able to do.”
Percival returned to the clipboard and the imploring look for clarification that Jaden sent Gwen went unanswered.
“Now then, this is the last one, I promise” Percival continued, “are you experiencing any memory loss?”
Jaden paused, going through the peculiar events of the previous night in his head. The reoccurring nightmare of being chased in the forest. But then it changed to the green-eyed monster. That was something new. And unlike the thing hunting him through the forest, the green eyes didn’t want him but were going after some woman. And then his dad in the hallway. What if they were both memories and not dreams? Well either way he wasn’t forgetting things but rather remembering fresh new ones.
“I don’t think so,” he said. “I remember bits and pieces from last night: The woman in my mind and the cold, choking darkness I felt. I remember the running and those people with swords. I mean, how could I forget that? Who carries swords in this day and age? And then Gwen passed out and Merrick was in trouble. Then I, I got knocked out and—”
Jaden suddenly remembered what the very skinny man with the blade and all the other dark figures had said about not letting him escape.
“Gwen, why are all these people after me?”
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