MHX: Geneseo – The Forgotten

Chapter 4

Laura, surrounded by the mutant children, tried to remain positive. She had to get to the bottom of this mystery. Terre bolted into the crowd, rudely shoving the younger children aside. "This old one doesn't belong here." He announced, as the kids silenced. They had been chatting pleasantly among themselves, and a few began conversations with Laura.

What was that about standing up to a bully that Mike Trent's father had taught him? Laura's lips curled upward in a confident sneer. "You don't even know me!" She protested loudly. "I thought that you all might be in some kind of trouble." Laura added.

"Well, we're not!" Strife Havoc bellowed. "You can go away." Laura glanced at the crowd. "Is that what you all want? If you don't want to talk, I can leave right now." She challenged. About half of the kids grumbled. Laura's slightly sharper hearing picked up a few comments.

'Who does he think he is?' One girl had said. 'He's not the boss of me'. An older boy commented. There was definitely some insurrection brewing, Laura silently observed. "Why don't you put it to a vote?" She offered the crowd, but was met only with blank stares.

"What's that mean?" A tall, slender blonde girl of about fifteen asked. "What's your name?" Laura inquired. "Erin, but my nickname is Cyber." Cyber? Laura made a mental note of that. This could give her an inroad to a conversation. Did the kids have access to the Internet?

"It means that all of you that want me to leave, raise your hand." Laura posed, hands on her shapely hips. "Don't listen to her." Terre barked. "What are you afraid of?" Laura threw down her gauntlet. "Nothing." Terre snorted. "Then, I ask again…how many of you would like me to go?" About seven or eight of the kids complied, raising a hand.

"Okay, fair enough." Laura snickered. "Now how many want me to stay and have a look around?" A majority of the children's hands went up. "It's settled. I'll walk around your home for a while." Laura was thoroughly pleased with herself, introducing the kids to Democracy.

"Yay!" Robert cheered. "Would anyone like to show me around?" Laura breathlessly awaited a brave young volunteer. A girl with reddish blonde hair stepped forward. She looked to be around thirteen or fourteen. "I will." She stood tall and confident. "My name is Blaze."

Laura smiled brightly, and extended a wary hand, and she took it. Blaze sounded like a dangerous girl to mess with, she mused. This would call for some powerful diplomacy. "Thank you Blaze. As I mentioned, my name is Laura. Does anyone else want to walk me around?"

There were a few moments of awkward silence. "I will." A handsome young boy with dark brown hair volunteered. "My name is Shadow." Laura nodded. "Great. Thanks. Where should we go first?" Laura was still being cheerfully cordial. "We can show you the kitchen." Blaze offered. "We're heading there for lunch anyway."

"Very well. Lead on." Laura followed Blaze and Shadow towards the far end of the central courtyard. The rest of the kids, with the exclusion of Terre, Strife, Bear, and Chase, fell in behind them in a roughly organized line. The kids had some structure, at least, Laura observed.

To this point, Laura still hadn't seen any adults, which unnerved her. Could the youngsters have been telling the truth? Had all of the adults died from a disease?
Since Laura had ingested the Loracite, years ago, the raven-haired beauty had never been ill. That could change if she encountered some virus or bacteria that remained in Geneseo.

Blaze and Shadow guided Laura into a large metal building, about the size of an Army barracks. It had begun to rust, and smelled foul, but not quite as bad as Laura had feared. It was, in fact, a cafeteria, left over from the village's prior residents.

The vending machines were emptied and damaged, and appeared to be several years old. The tables were grungy and crooked, but seemed to be sufficient for the kids to eat on. The chairs were standard issue metal assembly style. A few had been broken or had fallen apart.

Laura considered this new twist: Assuming that the children's parents had died or abandoned them for whatever reason, they'd managed to organize a loosely structured society on their own. Yet, something besides the cafeteria didn't smell right. The children would've been able to fend for themselves as far as water went, but who would buy or cook the food for them?

The kids lined up as if they were in some type of school. The weather beaten counter still held several plastic food trays. Two of the older girls named Mira and Nikki had taken it upon themselves to serve the food. Laura didn't need to eat, but she investigated the line all the same.

The food was standard cafeteria fare: lunchmeat sandwiches, potato chips, carrots, fruit, and a small ice cream desert. This told Laura a lot. The kids were being taken care of by someone, and they had some form of refrigeration available to them. Bunsen burners could be used to heat the warm food. Laura spotted some piled neatly in a corner.

The children were here by design, and someone knew about it, Laura postulated. Perhaps someone had decided to use the kids as a social experiment, though to her that seemed pointless. Laura loitered around the cafeteria, taking nothing but a small bottle of water. After the youngsters ate, Blaze and Shadow resumed their impromptu tour.

Blaze was talkative, but guarded, while Shadow seemed content to follow them around. Laura learned a few more items about the children, like where they slept, read books, drew pictures, or simply played. Blaze had revealed nothing substantial to her.

The whole complex was built along the lines of a factory slash school laboratory compound. The scientific wing of the area was moldy and unkempt. The children seemed to purposely avoid that section. The ruined labs had deteriorated faster than the rest of the complex.

The tour went on for a few minutes, when near the edge of town, she saw something that made her hair stand on end: A graveyard. Blaze seemed to go out of her way to ignore the burial ground. Laura decided to call her on it. "Blaze, who is buried up on that hill?"

Blaze shrugged, playing it off. "Our parents, I suppose." Laura gulped as her fears might become realized. "You don't know? Can I take a look?" Blaze stopped, and gave Laura an absent stare. "I don't care. Go ahead." She said as Shadow backed away from them a few feet.

Laura walked up the hill and examined the grave markers. The markers were simply cut wooden planks, roughly in the shape of a cross. Each intersection of the cross bore a person's name. That was it, just one name, without any details about their life.

Laura gasped and desperately tried to reach Tim on the cell phone again. The result was the same, a buzzing sound and an error message. "Spyros, Segal, Lundquist, Flaherty, O'Keefe." Laura read the names aloud. There were no dates of birth or death, and no first names. This was wrong, all wrong, Laura thought sourly.

Laura quickly counted about fifty-three grave markers. She also assumed that a few had been knocked down or removed. There were at least four holes in the ground where a marker likely once stood. This alone proved nothing, but Laura found it quite disturbing.

She retreated back down the hill to a patiently waiting Blaze. Shadow had wandered away, but was still within their field of vision. "Blaze, do you remember your parents?" Laura hit her with the hard question. "No, not really. We were all young when they died." Blaze answered, with a decided lack of emotion or interest.

"All of your parents died at the same time?" Laura reached for a conclusion. "Pretty much." Blaze responded absently. "Terre and Strife said that one winter everyone's parents got sick and died. We never bothered to discuss it. Its not as if we can, like, do anything about it."

"Do you recall any children dying, or stories about some that survived?" Laura continued to grill the pretty teen. "No. We've never had any kids that died." Blaze reddened, clearly uncomfortable with this line of questioning. "How old are you exactly?" Laura prodded as Blaze paled a bit.

"I guess I'm like thirteen." Blaze replied calmly. "Terre has a calendar on the wall in his room with all of our birthdays on it." Laura's eyes narrowed. Now we're getting somewhere, she thought dryly. "Can I see it?" Blaze shook her head. "No. He won't let anyone in his room, not even us." Laura couldn't push the teen any further. Blaze already became nervous and unsteady.

Laura was left on her own to figure out this conundrum. If Blaze was thirteen, and Terre and Strife were a bit older, say fifteen to sixteen, that would put Geneseo on the map around 1992. That could give Tim a starting point, along with the grave marker names.

"Thanks Blaze, is that all there is to see?" Laura probed as Shadow closed back in on them. "Yep. Pretty much. There's supposed to be like, an underground area below the town, but no one knows where the entrance is to like, check it out. Terre says that might be where the disease is."

Laura shuddered. This told her two more things, neither of which was very promising. Either Terre was lying, or he knew more about Geneseo than he'd been letting on. Also, it stands to reason, taken on the kid's word, that a disease, possibly genetic, or even some form of biological warfare could be involved. Shadow had literally vanished from their sight.

Laura felt a chill ride up her spine. "Blaze, did you see where Shadow went?" The teen shrugged. "He does that all the time." Laura gaped at her. "Does what, disappear?" Blaze nodded. "Yes. That's why we call him Shadow. He hangs around and then vanishes, reappearing later."

"Shadow can disappear?" Laura was skeptical. "Yep. Like he's usually cool about it, but every once in a while he gets moody." Blaze criticized. Laura liked this line of thinking even less. Could Shadow be an unstable genetic mutant? Terre and Strife certainly seemed mean and aggressive as well. Laura steeled her resolve. "Blaze, what can you do?"

"Oh, my power?" Blaze smirked. "I can control fire. Wanna see?" The pretty teen whipped out a match and lit it. In seconds, she'd somehow manipulated the flame to increase its size exponentially, creating a sort of baseball-sized glob of fire. Laura was horrified.

"Cool, huh?" Blaze was proud of her destructive ability. She concentrated on the fireball for a moment, and reduced its size back onto the match head, blowing it out. "We all have like, some kind of neat power." Blaze boasted as Laura paled. Her nightmare had just begun.