The Sleeper Cells: A Terrorism Story

Chapter 17: Lindsey's Not Lindsey Anymore

"Mika, I'm sorry. I know you two were—" Owen leans into Mika.

"Nothing. We were nothing. I couldn't stand his power-hungry snarl. He was constantly either at our heels or on our toes. Yeah, we were working together at the beginning, but he was just like the other two we had to turn on from my original group. I'm glad he's gone."

"I think it's better for all of us," Owen says after a needed break of silence.

Lindsey collapses to the ground and curls into a ball next to a tree. It draws everyone's attention to her, but I can tell she isn't doing it on purpose. The topic of conversation switches to Mika and Owen.

"What happened to you three?" Kennedy asks.

Owen takes a deep breath and walks to Mika's side, "It's a lot. And we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for her," he rubs his hand through his blonde hair, "we heard the gunfire and saw the bullets hitting the ground around us. We thought the best thing to do would be run into the woods. We took off running as fast as we could. We didn't even have time to think. We just ran."

Mika rubs her shoulder still dripping from their swim, "I even had to throw my bag. It was just too heavy and weighing me down. Lindsey did the same thing. We climbed a tree and hoped they would just run past us."

Owen continues his story, "and they did at first. Then, Lindsey slipped and dangled from her tree. They ran back and pointed their guns at her. They laughed like sharks circling prey. Lindsey just dangled there like a piñata. She didn't even try to save herself. Then, I knew I had two guns in my bag. I threw one to Mika."

"I grabbed it and we lit those sleepers up. They couldn't see where we were. They turned their guns away from Lindsey and tried to find us. But, it was too late for them... Honestly, I'm surprised we missed her." Mika lowers her voice, "she just let herself go numb. She fell to the ground, and started crying."

Owen points at Lindsey, "she's broken. She's done. But the sleepers... one got away. He scared us to death. We had no idea if he would come back, and if he did, with who? With what? I hopped down and helped Lindsey back into her tree. On my way down, I scratched my wrist pretty bad and it was bleeding. I'm fine though."

"We waited in that tree forever. We didn't touch those dead bodies either. And now that I think about it, we probably should have moved them. We waited until this morning to get down and run to the river and swim as fast as we could." Mika says as she takes off her raincoat and ties it around her waist.

"We had no idea if you had left or not," Owen says.

"We wouldn't leave you three. Caspian, yeah. He wanted to leave," I say as I grab Owen's shoulder.

"Thank you for staying," he utters.

"Please don't thank us. We're family now," Kennedy smiles, "you're all I have. Why would I leave?"

Without Lindsey, we all hug and I can feel it. This is it. We're going to make it.

"We should leave. We don't have too far to go. That border is getting closer and closer," Kris says as he hands me my bag.
Mika runs to Caspian's bag and puts it on her back.

I look behind me to Lindsey. Her face is hidden by her blonde, straw-like hair. She's shaking like a strung guitar string. Her trembling arm reaches to Kennedy's bag laying next her. She searches through the bag's compartments until she finds what she's looking for. She stops as soon as she feels it, without ever breaking her emotionless glaze behind her hair.

"Lindsey, we're leaving. It's time to go," I tell her. I can't stop my voice from shaking. Everyone's anxious. Everyone's watching. What is she doing?

She doesn't even twitch to acknowledge me. Kneeling down and leaning close to her, I ask, "you ready?"

Lindsey gasps for air and flips her hair behind her head. Her face is haunting. We haven't looked at her long enough to notice the traumatic decent of her emotion. She's spiraled out of control. Her outside appearance is finally matching her on the inside. It's not like she's seen a ghost. She is a ghost.

Her eyes are trapped by red, beaten bruises. Veins run to her pupils from every corner of her eye. Her chapped lips quiver in sync with her shaking head, back and forth. A tear falling down her face follows the wet path on her cheek where many tears have fallen before.

She grabs the ground and forms a fist, clutching around the saturated dirt and grass. She finally shows what she was holding in the bag; she pulls a knife out. The weight of the knife pivots her arm down. She squeezes the handle tighter. I lean away from her. What is she about to do? Come for me? For the others? No.

She raises it uncomfortably close to her own neck. She finally raises her eyes to mine. Still red. Still tears racing down her face. Owen was right. She is broken. She's not Lindsey anymore.