Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize from Dark Angel. Chapter 3: Reborn?

The next few days I spent in a dreamlike state. I didn't know what had happened or where I was. I had never been there before. But then everything came back slowly.

I saw myself dying. I saw myself like through the eyes of somebody else, as if I was a ghost who witnessed everything from the outside, as if it wasn't really me.

There I was, wearing green drill clothes, the blond hair shaven almost to the skin. I walked down a hallway of Manticore next to Zack. Everything was so gray there. Our unit was right behind us. The only sound that could be heard, was the echo of our firm steps. Then I realized where we were going: down into the basement, where the bad people were. I stopped, I didn't want to go there. Now I noticed that Lydecker was right in front of me. He turned to see what caused the holdup. He saw me, gave me the order to continue. That was, when Ben collapsed next to me. He had one of these attacks, some of us had since early childhood. He was shacking all over. I bent down to him and tried to calm him down. I took him in my arms. Lydecker ordered to leave him alone and continue. But I didn't. Ben, he needed help. Lydecker repeated his order. Noo. He said my number, repeated the order over again. I put Ben down gently and stood up to yell at him. Ben needed help. I advanced on Lydecker, but I didn't get far. Lydecker pulled out his gun. I saw him aiming at me. I was so surprised that I didn't move.

The shot rang in my ears. Then I saw myself wince, when the bullet hit me. And I saw myself falling to the ground in slow motion, when everything went black.

I was running. I was myself now and I could feel the snow under my feet and the wind on my skin. I was running through the woods, but they were bathed in this weird bright light, that blurred everything. That wasn't the sun. But what was it then? Everything jumped in and out of the shadows. I noticed the noise of a snowmobile ringing in my ears, almost deafening me. Now it was mixed with the roar of a waterfall.

A shot cut straight through all the noise. I could feel the bullet hit me. And I was falling again, longer and deeper than before. Somebody called my name. Was that Tinga? Or my imagination?

It was black again. And then I was in the hallway again, and in the woods. And images of Zack, giving orders with hand signals to us. Why was he in a nightgown out in the snow? I had not been next to him in the hallway. Something wasn't right here. I was in the woods again. The shot. Where did all this water come from?

During those days I laid down with fever, I got pretty much convinced, that I was dead.

When it finally subsided I started to take in my surroundings for the first time. That small room definitely didn't belong to Manticore. It had too much furniture and, although the walls where gray and naked, it seemed to be more comfortable than the casernes at Manticore. I was lying on a bed, with soft white sheets. I had never seen such a white in my life. Everything at Manticore seemed to be in a dull gray or brown. There was a tray of food and juice next to the bed. I suddenly noticed, how really thirsty I was and drank some of the juice. Wow that tasted good. Being dead didn't seem to be so bad. Except for that awful pain in my breast. Do dead people feel pain? I felt the bandages under my gown. They were right under my heart. The same spot where the bullet hit me in the dream. And suddenly I remembered everything that had happened. Eva's death. The breakout. I was on the run from Manticore. I was not dead. Another short glance around the room convinced me, that Lydecker had not gotten me yet. But I couldn't be very far from Manticore either. I had been almost dead, and not in a condition to travel very far. How had I gotten out of the river and into this place anyway?

My thoughts were interrupted by a door opening and a man entering the room. He seemed to be around forty years old and had brown hair in this short military haircut, I knew so well from Manticore.  Did he want to take me back? I tried to get out of bed in panic.

"Slowly does it. You shouldn't move too much. Your seam could burst," he said alarmed. His voice was deep and full, but didn't have the commanding tone Lydecker had. I watched the man closer. He wasn't the typical Manticore soldier. Maybe he had been a few years ago, but now he should really do something against the beginnings of a paunch he had. I relaxed a little, he didn't seem to be an immediate threat. He even smiled.

"It's nice to see that you're getting better. I started to get worried about you. You didn't want to wake up."

I didn't answer and just continued to stare at him. There were small signs of him getting nervous, but he talked on.

"Do you remember what happened? You got shot. Whoever did that only missed your heart by the quarter of an inch. I pulled you out of the river. If I hadn't seen you right away, you wouldn't have made it. Luckily the bullet went right through you, so I didn't have to pull it out and you're all fixed up now. As soon as you're better, I'll try to bring you away from here."

"Where is 'here'?" I asked, still not taking an eye of the man.

"In the basement of my house. They couldn't find you here. The room is hidden. But you're still very close to Manticore, so we'll need to take you away. You can't stay for long. It's not save. I know somebody, who could help you. I already called them."

I didn't like the thought of many people knowing, where I was. I frowned at the thought, that one of them would tip off Lydecker.

"Why do you help me? You work for them." I could see that from his clothes.

"When I joined the military, I wanted to defend my country in case of war. I never wanted to torture children. I still can't believe what they did to you kids. They actually shot at you," he said in horror and I felt, that he really didn't agree with Manticore tactics.

"What about the others. Do you know anything about them? Did they get away?" I wasn't in a condition to run away at the moment, so that was the next important question to worry about. Had anybody else made it out?

He nodded.

"Yes, the big bosses are furious at Colonel Lydecker, because twelve of you managed to escape."

Twelve, it shot through my head. But who? Zack? Tinga? They had almost gotten me. Had they managed to recapture her? Or did they shot her too. Was she...? I didn't want to end the sentence.

"Who, escaped? And what happened to the others?"

He took a list out of his pocket. I could distinguish numbers printed on the front. On the back of the paper was a shorter list of numbers, written with pencil.

"The others are back at Manticore, isolated. But not all of them. Some of them are dead."

Carefully I took the list. I started to scan the front page, because I knew the numbers on the back belonged to my killed comrades. I didn't want to look at that list, so I just read the first one.

On top of it was 599.

"Zack." My older brother, who had always taken care of me and usually managed to keep me out of trouble. He had made it, he got away.

"Tess, Zane, Max, Krit."

I continued through the list, being happy for all of my siblings who escaped, until I finally found the number of Tinga. I was relieved to see it. She was not dead. She had done the only thing right, and had not wasted time to look after me, when I had been shot. She had gotten away.

I looked over the list again. Something was missing. But what? Suddenly I noticed. My number wasn't on the list. Slowly I turned the paper, to look at the other list. It contained only four numbers. And there under the numbers of Tera, Kal and Ranec it was. 330410314652. My number.

According to this, I was dead.