Terry pulled into the gate of a large farm five hours later. Several minutes after driving on the small road, he stopped in front of a large two-story house. Standing on the porch were a man and a woman dressed in elegant clothing. Both had gray hair and a pleasant smile on their aging faces.
"This is where we get off," Terry said in his gravelly voice.
"Come on," I said loudly and after a brief look over their shoulders, they quickly stood up and started walking off the bus. When we got off the bus, we huddled together for warmth. The man gave us another smile before he walked down the stairs to join us.
"Hello everybody," the man said as he stopped in front of us. "I'm Karl, and that's my wife Mary," he said, pointing at the woman still standing on the porch. There were some footsteps and an eighteen-year-old boy walked out onto the porch and stopped beside Mary. "That's Erik; he's a red. I know what you guys are capable of, even you, Kylie.
"That's good," I replied, folding my arms across my chest.
Karl seemed to notice the sarcasm and continued talking. "Who's hungry?" he asked. Breakfast is ready inside." He pointed back at the house, and the kids looked at me for a moment. The kids all looked at me and when I nodded, they walked in. While I was walking past Karl, he turned and began walking alongside me into the house.
I heard several kids running down the stairs and into a room whose contents I could not see as I walked up the stairs to the porch. A little girl who was running down the stairs noticed the twelve kids who appeared on her porch. "Helga, I'll explain in a second," Karl said, nodding. Helga turned and continued on her original path, obviously confused.
The kids looked at me again and I waved them in. "Who are they?" I questioned as I walked into the house.
"Kids, I've helped," he said, looking into what appeared to be a dining room. There were thirteen kids who I didn't know inside the room, and as we joined them they looked at us awkwardly. In an effort to break the awkwardness, Karl clapped his hands and stepped forward. "I have pancakes for everyone to eat if they want to."
Jack and Philip looked at me before they used their powers to pick up pancakes and levitate them over to them. They silently started eating, while the rest of us just stared at each other. The two boys seemed to realize that we weren't moving forward to get food, so they used their powers to get more pancakes and hand them out.
"Thanks," I told them, and the kids started eating their food. As everyone started talking amongst themselves, I turned to Karl and asked, "Why are you doing this?" His face gave away his shock, "It's a blunt question, but I want to know why. Why are you risking so much to help us?"
"How much did Azia say to you about me?" he asked, looking down at his hands.
"She told me that you lost all your grandchildren except one, and she is in a camp. She also said that you weren't planning to hand us over," I answered, and he nodded.
Karl sighed, and even without my powers I knew what I said was right. Instead of wallowing in his memories, he said "I couldn't help her, so I am helping you. Eat your pancake, I have something I have to do." I nodded and he turned around to head out the door. As he walked out of the room, I walked over to Anita, Emily, and Grace and sat down next to them.
Thirty minutes later, Karl walked back into the room and called for everyone's attention. The talking quieted as everyone looked over to the old man. "Kids from Phoenix, go upstairs and pick out your beds and get some clothes. Kids who aren't from Phoenix, stay here, we need to talk about something." No one moved and Karl gave us a harsh look. The Phoenix kids quickly stood up to walk out of the room.
We ran into Mary immediately in the entryway, and she silently made her way up the stairs. Everyone gave me a look and when I nodded, they walked up the stairs after her. "We have plans to expand," Mary said as the last of the kids walked up the stairs, "for now you will have to share a room. Girls are in those rooms," she pointed at the other side of the landing. "Boys are on this side of the landing. You can take any bed that doesn't have sheets on it."
Sarah and the three girls looked at me again and I led them to the farthest room from the landing. There were five bunk beds pushed against the walls and for some reason, there was only one bed that had sheets on it. "You guys want to sleep in here?" I asked and everyone nodded. "Wonder where we can get sheets and new clothes?"
"You can find them in the laundry room," a young voice said. I turned around and saw a young white girl, with curly hair standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. "Name's Anissa, blue. Don't have to question what you are," she said as she walked into the room and sat down on her bed.
"Kylie," I said, "I'm an orange." I quickly introduced everyone else, and she nodded as I introduced everyone.
She pointed at the two dressers in the room and said "don't use the top two drawers."
"Thanks," Sarah said, and she sat back on the bed she had picked.
"What can you do?" Anissa asked, leaning against the wall. "We don't have any oranges here."
"I can control people and see people's memories," I explained. "Anyway, what can everyone do? I only know what Eric can do."
"There are two reds, two yellows, a green, three blues, two purples, and three pinks, there was another pink here for a while, but she left," Annisa explained. Footsteps interrupted her and Mary walked into the room.
"There are some clothes downstairs if you want them," Mary said.
"Thanks," Grace said, and Mary smiled at her. She stood up and started walking out of the door. Everyone started following her out of the room. Anissa walked in front of the line and led us down the staircase and into the room that was off the kitchen. In the room, there was only one washing machine and dryer, with shelves lining the wall across from the washer and dryer. The shelves were overflowing with sheets and clothes.
"Why did Karl ask you guys to stay behind earlier?" Grace asked as she started looking for clothes she liked.
"Because he didn't tell us earlier that you were coming and he wanted to stay he would have to spend less time with us because he has to help you guys," Anissa said as Emily pointed at the sheets she wanted. As Anissa nodded, she grabbed the requested sheets using her powers.
"What is there to do?" I asked as I grabbed some clothes.
"We can read, write, and play basketball. Mary teaches when she can find the material," Anissa answered as I realized we all had the clothes and sheets we wanted. "We mostly practice our powers."
"Are there any science books?" Grace asked as we walked up the stairs. "Can I read them?" Anissa nodded and I looked over at her, and Grace quickly responded, "I like your lessons, but I want to learn more than the basics."
"We can definitely check it out when we are finished putting up our new clothes," I answered, a little offended. I looked over at Anissa and Sarah and I saw their confused faces. "When we were at Phoenix, I convinced O'Neal to give us pencils and notebooks."
Both nodded and Sarah asked, "can I join you?"
"Yeah sure," I answered as I arranged my things on my bed. After looking at them for a second, I picked the clothes that I wanted to wear and placed them away from the others. After that, I picked them up and placed them in the drawers underneath Anissa. I then walked over to my bed and put the sheets onto it. As I waited for everyone else to finish, I changed my clothes.
"Come on," I said as everyone finished changing their clothes and setting everything up. Everyone followed her down the stairs and into the garage, which was on our side of the house. Instead of a room to hold cars, it had been made into a classroom and a library. Shelves lined the room, with a chalkboard on the wall by the door. A desk sat in front of it, with classroom-like seats in the middle of the room. The garage door had nothing on it.
"What are you going to do?" Sarah asked as everyone sat down at the desks.
"Since Grace claimed that she wanted to learn something other than the alphabet," I said and she winced. "Then I'm going to do chemistry." I walked over to one of the shelves and found a book on the very subject I was about to teach.
"Where did you learn that?" Sarah asked as I walked to the front of the room.
"When my parents sent me away, they gave me plenty of books. There was a large selection in the room I hid out in," I said as I sat down at the desk.
"How old were you?" Anissa asked.
"I was fifteen," I said, looking at the book. "There wasn't a lot to do."
"Is that why you are so good at your powers?" Anita asked and I nodded, and I started talking. Forty minutes later, Karl walked into the room.
"What's going on here?" Karl asked, looking around the room.
"Teaching them chemistry," I said, and he nodded.
"Okay," Karl said, and he nodded before he walked out of the room. I smiled and shook my head.
After a week, we realized that no one was pursuing us. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. On the morning of day eight, I was sitting by the pool with my class of kids who were listening to me intentionally. As I was wrapping up the lesson, Karl walked over to us with Sarah and Sam.
When I saw his face, I announced, "kids how about you go inside and help Mary clean the house?" They seemed to notice the tension and quickly stood and walked inside. "What's going on?" I asked when the kids were far enough away.
"I'm gathering the kids by those trees out front," Karl said and I nodded. I stood up and walked with them to the front of the house. No one bothered talking as we walked down the steps and the short distance between the front door and the trees.
"What's going on?" I asked as we joined the other kids who were above sixteen years old.
"Some of you know that I've always said that I wanted to help others," Karl started.
"But you always said that we couldn't because of something," Luke said and Karl nodded with a sigh.
"We were trying to find a safe way to remove the kids, without anyone noticing us and coming after us," Karl explained. "Which we have now."
"What's changed?" Sam asked, and I saw electricity at his fingertips. "We've been asking for years, and now you have a plan?"
"I've had a plan mostly," Karl said, "but the main thing is that the Phoenix kids managed to escape with only one person from that camp knowing they got out."
"Someone is going to notice eventually," I said, as I folded my arms across my chest. "People in charge aren't going to like this plan."
"That's why we need to strike hard and fast," Karl said. "I already have some buildings set up that we can use. If we get a bunch of kids who are on the outside first. Then attack the camps hard and fast."
"You have a town?" Lincoln asked suspiciously. Everyone looked suspicious at him.
"I had some builders build a few houses a while ago," Karl said and that got everyone's anger back up. "Okay, I've been trying to do this for a while, but I haven't had anyone to do it."
"Despite them not knowing anything about this," Sarah said. "Your plan is to rescue as many kids as you can, and then what? What do we do after that?"
"Yes, and we defend the towns as best as we can," Karl said, though no one seemed to like that idea.
"We'll help," Luke replied, "but how are we going to find the camps and all of the kids who are living on the outside of the camps?"
"I have an idea," Lincoln said, and I looked over at him to see that Ezra was grabbing his briefcase. Ezra picked it up and opened the briefcase. To my surprise, Ezra pulled out a modified white noise machine. After a brief moment of not understanding what was going on, everyone from Phoenix started screaming at Ezra. Instead of answering he pressed a button and released a loud burst of white noise.
When I came to, I saw Lincoln and Ezra staring at the small screen of the device. "What was that for?" I asked, and he only smiled at me.
"What was that?" Luke asked, and Ezra walked a few steps to stand behind me.
"That was a modified version of calm control that O'Neal sent over with us," Ezra clarifies. He leaned over my shoulder and showed me the screen. There was a small map with different colored dots instead of anything written. When I looked at the map and the kids around me, I noticed that it was being resuspended by someone.
"That's amazing," I said as Ezra moved to show Sarah and Sam.
"Yeah," Lincoln said proudly.
"So, what are we supposed to do?" Luke asked after seeing the screen, "drive around blasting the thing, and see what happens? That isn't suspicious at all. It definitely won't get us attacked by angry tribes." His comment got several stares from others in the group. "I got attacked and almost handed to the PSF's after I ran into an angry yellow tribe." My eyebrows raised into my forehead.
"We're trying to find them all," Karl said reassuringly. "While we do that, I want you guys to do something for me."
"What?" I asked as he started to stare at me.
"We need to find adults that want to help us," Karl said, and winced back as if he was expecting the wrong reaction.
"What?" Sarah screamed and everyone leaned back.
"We need adults here," Karl said. "Kylie is doing an amazing job at teaching the kids, but she's only one person. She can't teach thousands of kids on her own. We also need registered physicians and child therapists. Most of the people that I want to bring in are already on standby."
"How many people do you have in mind?" I asked before anyone else could. Though I didn't like it, there was some sense in what he was saying.
"A few thousand," Karl said. "Who likes kids and wants to help."
"What do you want us to do about them?" I asked, and I felt several eyes on me.
"I want you to check their memories and see if they have done anything unethical in their past, while the rest of you show off your powers and get them used to being around psi. If you don't like them, we don't have to keep them," Karl said.
"Let's at least try," I said and put my head in my hand. "I mean we do need a lot of help."
"Fine," Sam said, though he wasn't happy about it.
"Good," Karl said happily. "Let's head over and meet some of the people I want you to meet." I looked at him and he stepped back.
That afternoon, while the other kids were exploring one of the towns that Karl had built. I was sitting in front of an elderly woman who was the grandmother of an inmate in Thurmond. "Angela, right?" I asked her and she nodded. "I'm about to ask you some questions and check your memories, you know that right."
"I know," she said. "I just want to see my granddaughter again." I smiled.
"Have you ever committed a crime?" I asked, looking at the first question on the list as I slowly entered her mind.
"I have not," she answered in a steady bland voice.
"Who turned in your granddaughter?" I asked.
"My daughter," she said in the same bland voice. "I threw her out of my house after that."
"What are you offering to do for the sake of the PSI?" I asked.
"I was a child psychologist before everything," Angela said. "I was hoping to practice here." I nodded and after a few more questions, I pulled out of her mind, and she looked around confused. "Are you intending to ask me any questions?"
"I already did," I answered. "When I use my powers, people's consciousness disappears. It's a protection mechanism. It allows anyone I use my powers to answer my questions honestly." She nodded. "You're probably going to have a headache, but one of the purples can remove it."
"Can they heal arthritis?" Angela asked and I looked up from my list to look at her. "I have arthritis in my hands, and I was hoping they might do it so that I could have more freedom."
"I can ask them, but it might be a while," I answered honestly, and she nodded. "Do you mind sending in the next person?"
"Of course, I can," she said as she stood up. As she walked out the door, I composed myself and prepared for the next person. There was a woman named Suzie who wanted to be reunited with her sister.
That night everyone moved into one of the towns called Haven. There were several streets of stores and a town hall, which was surrounded by several blocks of identical houses. The houses had four bedrooms, a laundry room, kitchen, dining room, and living room.
The kids seemed excited about getting their house, and as they walked around the house, Grace said, "I've never had my own bedroom." I looked at her weirdly before I looked at Emily, who shrugged simply. All three girls walked into their own rooms before I walked into my own bedroom. Since I had so few things to unpack, I was done in five minutes. As I looked around the house, I saw several kids outside laughing and playing around and I felt a surge of joy.