Sixteen (ON HOLD)

3.1 Please

Troy sat on the edge of his hospital bed, surrounded by his parents and a small team of curious doctors who were busy arguing about the possible causes of his miraculous recovery. The boy mostly looked down at his hands, folded neatly in his lap. Every so often he would nod or shake his head at various cues, but for the most part his mind was occupied by other things. Mostly, he was busy listening to the intermittent status updates from the rest of his team, currently hiding in the hospital basement. The final one he had received had been most distressing, “the Men in Black are here, there is no time, we must leave at once.” The others would come for him, he was to sit tight and continue pretending to be human, to be Troy Harrison, as best he could.

Sitting tight was proving to be difficult for him though, he didn’t like the small exam room or the strangers constantly touching him and asking him questions he didn’t know how to respond to. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out that his strength and reflexes far surpassed the humans he encountered. When he had first woken up, panic and fear, two emotions he had little experience with, consumed him. He trashed about wildly if anyone came near his bed, sending one doctor flying across the room. The activity in the room went stone silent. It had taken only seconds for Troy to calm himself and come to terms with his situation. His body relaxed even though his mind zipped about connecting all the fragmented pieces together. Slowly the shell shocked doctors went back to work, this time lowering their voices and moving gingerly around the boy as if he were a bomb ready to explode at any moment.  He realized he would have to attempt to rein in some of that power or else simple actions could cause harm to these fragile beings.

He knew the others would come for him before leaving as they said they would, they needed him in order to get back home eventually. Troy knew where the transmitter for their only communication device was. They would need to take the communication device to the transmitter in order to activate the mechanism they used for transport, and he was the only one of them that knew where either device was.

“I would like to get dressed now,” Troy said quietly. What he really wanted was to be left alone.

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Kate was still contemplating the stupidity of her decisions so far when she noticed Cole lift his head and stare off into the distance.

“What is it Cole,” she thought.

“Footsteps. Someone's coming.” Cole protectively stepped in front of the girls.

Kate wrapped an arm around Sadie once more. Several long and quiet moments passed as they waited, braced for the worse. “Where did you see them Sadie?”

“Outside. They were rounding up the big group of people standing around out there and sending them away. There were four of them.”

Kate thought quickly about possible scenarios but it didn’t seem fathomable that the men they were so afraid of would have had time to enter the hospital, interact with the police and now be inches away from finding them. She had been wrong about so much up to this point though, she wasn’t about to take any more chances.

“Only one set of footsteps,” Cole thought, not taking his eyes off the direction of the noise.

The yellow beam of a flashlight spilled across the floor just outside their row of filling cabinets. Heavy footsteps, growing louder, approached.

Kate felt her heart pounding in her chest and nearly let out a tiny scream when David Sellers stepped into view. Quickly recognizing him, she felt her body relax. Immediately her anxiety started to fade and tears sprung to her tired eyes. She realized, with more than a small amount of shock, that she was happy to see him. Quick short flashes of memory danced in front of her; ice cream melting and dripping down a cone held by a chubby toddler hand, this man sweeping her into his arms and holding her up in the air as they twirled and twirled in circles. Her lips involuntarily spread into a wide smile, a genuinely human smile. It was the smile David had been waiting for, the one that made her look like his little girl.

“Careful,” warned Cole, “those are the human memories you’re seeing, your host’s emotions you feel. Don’t let it confuse you.”

“I’ve been looking everywhere for you Kate! What are you all doing in the basement?” Sellers pushed past Cole and took his daughter’s hand. She let him.

“Daddy,” Kate whispered. Cole threw her a warning glance.

Sellers looked at each of the kids. Their faces were sullen; their bodies tense like they were ready to take flight at any sudden movement. Sadie was shivering, her eyes red and swollen.

“What’s wrong?”

Kate and Cole started to argue back and forth about the risks and benefits of enlisting this man’s help. Their private wordless battle going unnoticed by Sellers who stood waiting for an answer.

“They want to hurt us,” Sadie cried out, taking the choice out of her friend’s hands. “Don’t let them take us away!”

“Everyone here is trying to help you Sadie, calm down and tell me what’s going on.”

“She’s right,” Kate spoke up, “about them wanting to hurt us. You can’t let them in, don’t let them get to us.” She paused, then added, “please Daddy.”

“Who? Does this have to do with where you’ve been all this time? Did someone take you away, hurt you? You need to tell me sweetheart, or I can’t help you.”

Kate took a deep breath, then answered, “The Men in Black.”

Sellers shook his head. “Who’s that Katie, who are the men in black?”

“They’ve come for us before,” said Sadie. “They always come, men in black suits. They drive black vehicles with dark tinted windows. They’re here now.”

The description built itself up in Seller’s mind. “Are you talking about the FBI? Of course they’re here, we called them.”

Sadie gasped and backed away, her hand covering her mouth in horror. Kate dropped his hand.

“Why would you do that,” Cole growled from behind him. His fists started to tighten.

Sellers blinked slowly, looking at each of the girls, trying to figure out what the hell was going on.

“Why are you afraid of the FBI? Have you done something wrong?” The possibilities started to pile up rapidly in his mind. The thought that his daughter had committed some sort of crime and was in hiding all this time had never crossed his worried mind in all this time until now.

“He doesn’t understand what he's done. He doesn’t know who they really are.” Kate silently reasoned with Cole, trying to talk him out of the violence he was contemplating.

“Come on guys, let me get you back upstairs. We’ll find an open room in another part of the ward, further away from the others. I promise not to lead anyone to you until I have this straightened out.”

Despite Cole’s protests to the contrary, the girls started to follow Sellers out into the hallway. He shoved his hands in his pockets and reluctantly kept in step behind him.

“Trusting him is a very bad idea,” thought Cole. Although this time he purposefully kept that thought to himself.

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