Visions

By Starseeker

Part 3

More of Visions! My computer's been messing up lately, and I've been a little busy moving my new site...but I have some free time now. I hope you like this part. It'll start getting more exciting from here, I hope. Sorry if the spelling's bad, but my spelling check is messed up and I did the best I could on my own. I would love comments, okay? Send them to Starseeker__1@hotmail.com please! I'll try to get part 4 up soon!

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In the previous part:

Alyssa became more suspicious of Trei as school wore on, and after the day was done, her suspicions were justified. After Alyssa got off of her bus, she started to walk the block to her home like she always did. But it was then that she realized that she was being followed, by none other than Trei. He showed her a parked car that she hadn't noticed before, and explained that the people in it were following him, and possibly Alyssa, too.

Trei grabbed Alyssa's arm and started running. While they ran, Trei explained everything he knew about the Yeerks to her, and that there was a secret organization called Stryfer who was bent on the destruction of the Yeerks. Alyssa didn't believe him at first, but her mind changed when they opened fire. Alyssa paniced but Trei shot down the two Controllers, and explained that he was looking for her the whole time that he was at her school. Trei and Alyssa both belonged to a Yeerk organization that bred warriors, but both were kidnapped by Stryfer. Alyssa was set free, but Trei was trained by Stryfer to become an elite soldier of the organization. It was also revealed that Alyssa has an older brother, a soldier in the Yeerk military.

Trei tells Alyssa that she can never go back to her home again. And that's where the real journey begins.

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"What do we do now?" Words that would ultimately change my life. It's amazing how five meaningless words can define the rest of your life. Kind of scary, actually. But not as scary as what was waiting for me.

"The base," Trei stated calmly.

"Base?" I inquired. Trei sighed.

"I'm going to take you to the base. Stryfer headquarters... we have to do some training," he explained. He was acting so...so calm. How could he be like that after what just happened?

"How are we going to get there?" I looked around. We were in a clean, suburban neighborhood. Nothing was out of place, except for us and the bodies of the dead Yeerks on the ground.

"We're going to borrow their car."

"Oh, okay...what?! First you kill them, and then you steal their friggin' car?! Are you insane?! Can you even drive?" He got into the driver's seat of the black car and opened the door to the passenger side. I reluctantly got in and repeated my last question. "So can you drive or not?" Trei shrugged.

"I guess we'll have to find out."

"Help," I whimpered quietly. I couldn't believe myself. For all I know, he could have escaped from a mental ward a month ago and was just claiming to know all this stuff. Was he crazy? Was I crazy? Maybe both of us were. But as soon as he stepped on the gas and the car went speeding down the road, I knew I was leaving my life behind.

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An hour later we were in a moderately rural...um, place. It didn't seem to belong to any city, and I didn't think that anyone really owned it. On both sides of the small, one-lane road was flat land. No buildings were in sight.

"So where's this base? Are we close?"

"It should be around here," Trei said. I looked around.

"I don't see it," I told him. "All I see is land...and road."

"You don't think they would be dumb enough to put an anti-Yeerk base above ground, do you? That would be...well, crazy."

"Yeah, like I haven't seen anything crazy today," I mumbled. Trei glared at me silently. Suddenly the car spun off of the road and into a ditch. I was flung into the door. Trei threw his door open and got out. I did the same.

"We have to walk from here," he explained. "Just follow me." I nodded and did what he told me to. I won't give details as to where we went, but after a long walk we arrived at, well, a place that looked just about the same as everything else I had seen there. But there was a small grove of trees nearby.

"Is this it?" I asked.

"Almost," Trei answered. It was clear to me that he didn't want to talk, and I got quiet. We stood there for a while, like we were waiting for something that just wouldn't come. Then the ground in front of us began to lift up, a hatch opening under it. I jumped back as my feet were caught on the edge of the rising ground.

Soon, the hatch was open enough for us to walk in. Trei went inside first, but I was hesitant to follow. He looked at me then disappeared from my view. I looked around for a minute, half expecting a Yeerk to pop out of the trees and attack me. Suddenly feeling a chill run down my back, I ran inside and the hatch closed behind me.

What was inside was straight out of a science fiction movie. A lot of people in lab coats, machinery that I had never seen -and most likely never heard of- before, plenty of doors in the room, stuff like that. The room was dimly lit, and fairly quiet. The stillness of the room surprised me for the amount of people there. They all stopped and looked at us.

I fiddled with the strap of my bookbag, which I surprisingly still had, even after the chase. I felt awkward with all the people staring silently at Trei and me. Finally, someone started walking towards us.

She was farely tall, with dark red hair and probably brown eyes. It's not exactly easy to tell what color people's eyes are with the distance factor that we had. Dim light doesn't help, either. The woman looked at me, and then smiled at Trei.

"I see you've brought someone back with you, young Trei," she said. He nodded.

"This is Alyssa. Alyssa, this is the head of our base, Professor Idia." She shook my hand.

"Nice to see you again, Alyssa."

"Um...yeah, same here I think," I muttered. Professor Idia gave Trei a questioning look.

"She's been living as a civilian since you brought her away from the Yeerks," Trei explained.

"Oh, that sums things up for me. So I guess you'll be wanting to do a little training?" Trei nodded solemnly and looked at me. I shrugged indifferently. Hey, I couldn't go back to my life anyways. Why not?

"You ought to know that we're not exactly known for being lenient," Professor Idia told me. "You may have to work hard to become your best. Emotional tactics, though, are our main goal. Are you okay with that?" I silently pondered my options, which weren't too many. This could be the rest of my life that they were offering. If I chose the wrong answer, my life could get seriously screwed.

"Y- yes ma'am," I said at last, my throat suddenly feeling very dry. What if I really wasn't cut out for it? What if I couldn't handle this training? There were so many 'what if' questions in my mind that I felt I would have collapsed if they were actual weight on my shoulders. Professor Idia nodded.

"Good. Trei? Show her where she'll be staying." Trei nodded.

"Come with me," he ordered. I picked up my bookbag, which I had unconsciously thrown on the floor, and follwed him.

He led me through a few different halls. They were all starting to look the same before he came to a closed door. Opening it, I saw about six more doors, two on each wall. He pointed to one that had the number '03' on it.

"That's your room," Trei told me. I nodded and pushed down on the metal door handle. The door slowly slid outward. I stepped back as the door swung in a wide arc and looked inside. It was small, with only a plain bed, a desk, and two other doors. I walked in and put my bookbag on the cold tile floor. Slowly, I opened one of the two other doors inside. It was a closet. I opened the other. A bathroom.

It was nice, in its own way. Quiet. It looked like no one had lived there for a while. But I didn't mind. I looked back at Trei.

"Professor Idia wants to talk to you in a few minutes," he told me. Then he walked away, and I was left alone.

"I'll just have to get used to this, I guess," I mumbled. I took another look around my new room. There was a small intercom in the top corner. They'd probably call me on it if I was needed. There were no windows in the room. It would be impossible to put them there, though, since the building was underground.

The white flourescent light in the ceiling gave the room a kind of eerie look. Almost everything in it was white. Or silver-colored. The doors were all made of metal, the walls of the rooms and halls were white, same as the lights and the tiled floors. It was kind of creepy.

I remembered what Trei told me and left the room, walking back through the hallways. I counted three halls, and then I was back in the main room. Professor Idia was standing there.

"So?" she asked.

"So what?"

"Do you think you can live?" From the slight smile on her face, I could tell that the question was only halfway serious.

"I guess I can manage," I responded with a shrug.

"Okay then." She paused for a minute. "Is there anything else you think you'll need?"

"Well, I'd feel comfortable if I had some of my clothes here," I said. Then remembered my mother. "And my mom could stand to know that I haven't died or anything. I mean, with my dad gone, and my brother dead..." It was true. My parents had been a happily married couple until my younger brother had died. Then they didn't have him to break up their fights by having a fit any more, and they decided to split.

"Alyssa, I can agree to the first part. But no one can know that you're here, it's too dangerous. For you, for us, your family... and for the world."

"Could I at least-"

"No." I sighed. "But we can arrange for you to pick up a few of your things, if you'd like. I don't want any of my trainees feeling reluctant to do this. You have to put your heart into it." Professor Idia smiled a little. I could tell that I was going to like her. But as for the rest of the situation...I didn't know.

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It was night. Somewhere around 11:15. I was usually asleep by that time. Instead I was on my way to my house to practically steal stuff. My mom would probably be out looking for me, most likely worried to death. Or she might have been out having a drink. It didn't matter, as long as the house was empty. To my relief, when we got to my house no one was there.

Professor Idia and Trei were the only others who came with me. I nodded to them and quietly stepped out of the truck we had driven. I slowly went to my window and was glad that we only had a one-story house. Quietly I slid the window open, because my mother never had the sense to lock it and I never remembered to. It came open easily.

I threw my now-empty bookbag into the room and climbed inside. The room was dark. I sighed and started piling up some stuff that I knew I'd need. Sneakers, jeans, my jacket, a few shirts. Essential clothes in general. There wasn't very much. I wasn't one to obsess about clothes. I did grab my hairbrush and a few hair ties, though.

There was still room in my bookbag. I ran to my dresser and grabbed my pictures. Most were of my family, but I had a few pictures of me and my friends, and other stuff. I stuffed them into my bag and remembered that I had some money in a drawer somewhere. I went through my top drawer until I found it: all of the money I had saved up for two years by doing chores, odd jobs, and babysitting. I don't know why I wanted it, but I did.

I took another look around my room and saw a pad of paper on my dresser. It went against everything I should have been doing, but I scribbled a short note on the top sheet.

"Mom," it said, "You know I love you. And I always will. I'm sorry that I have to be saying this, but I have to leave. I don't know for how long, but I promise that I'll come back...when I can. Don't worry about me, I'll find ways to let you know that I'm alright. We may not talk for a while, but know that this is the best thing I could do, for myself, for you...for the entire human race. Once everything blows over, I'll come home and tell you everything. For now, I love you.

-Love, Alyssa"

I forced tears back as I wrote and put the note where I was sure my mom would see it. Then, finally, I zipped up my bookbag and carefully dropped it on the ground outside. I climbed back out through the window and closed it. Getting back in the truck and leaving my home, I knew that this was it. This was my new life.

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To be continued...