"His Son"
by: iluvaqt@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: As per default chapter.
iluvaqt's Notes: I'm picking this chapter to bits, before I give myself an even bigger headache, I'll let you guys be the judge of it. Sorry it was a while coming, a lot's happened in the past two weeks. Be sure to check out The Barcode Awards (see my Profile for the URL - ff.net won't allow it here) it's Lexie's baby and a wonderful idea.


Chapter 4 -
Sunday, November 22nd 2020
Early afternoon,
On the road in Idaho

As the SUV progressed along the unsealed road, Jondy felt every bump and slide. The snow was falling steadily outside and she consciously adjusted Leo's hat and blanket. He didn't even stir as she gently pulled the material over his ears. She never took for granted how blessed she was. Leo was a perfect child. So his parents had been designed to be beautiful, but she seriously doubted Manticore had ever factored humor, sweetness and purity into their grand scheme.

Checking the map over Krit's shoulder, Jondy noted that they weren't far now. Krit had called by cellular phone to let the Walkers know that they were running behind time. When they'd passed though the last town, they'd put the tire chains on. The snowplough had stopped on the outskirts of town. From the town to on, only rural traffic used the road - farmer's with their trucks and four-wheelers. In some areas the snow was at least four inches thick. It had knocked back their E.T.A by a good hour.

Jondy looked up to see Syl watching her in the mirror. She smiled, trying to seem relaxed and comfortable. Even though, on the inside, she was anything but. From Syl's reassuring smile, Jondy knew she hadn't fooled anyone. Turning away, she pretended to study the scenery passing by.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a dark shadow move amongst the trees. It was only for a second because when she searched for it, it was gone. It wasn't a person. It was the wrong shape. And it wasn't a cow or a deer, she was sure she hadn't seen any legs. She shivered involuntarily. Everything outside was shrouded in a white haze, and it reminded her of a place she wished she could forget. A place they escaped one winter, in the dead of the night.

February 2009
Gillette, Wyoming

The sound of shattering glass mingled with blaring sirens. A momentary stab of fear gripped her body as she fell and realized what they had just done. She barely gave her surroundings a second glance as she hurried after their leader. There was no turning back now. She didn't even want to think about what sort of punishment the Colonel would order if they got caught. Disobedience was not tolerated. Re-indoctrination and solitary always followed. An image flashed before her eyes, Eva standing in front of Max, holding a gun pointed toward the light. A single shot rang out and her sister fell lifeless to the ground. Blinking away the memory, she noticed Max falter. Running back, she quickly helped her sister up. When Max straightened, Jondy let her go and quickly hurried after the others.

The tree cover was sparse and Jondy could hear the sounds of helicopter rotor blades starting up. They had to get to the parameter and fast. In a small clearing, she found her siblings. They were all crouched behind a fallen tree trunk. She was happy to see Max was already there. She allowed a small smile to touch her lips. It was short lived as Zack, their appointed leader, immediately summoned their attention.

Zack paired them off. He then instructed them to scatter and go to ground. Silently, they started to break away in pairs, until only Zack, Max and herself remained. Zack told her to take Max, escape and then separate. Jondy nodded in understanding. When she looked at Max, her sister shook her head.

Jondy was surprised at Max's defiance of Zack's order. Didn't she understand that what he said was for their survival? Zack repeated his order with a stern frown. This time Max didn't give him a response at all. Jondy decided it was up to her to put an end to her siblings' attempt at a showdown. There was no time for arguments. Dragging Max by the arm, she started running for the cover of the trees ahead.

At first, Max had resisted and Jondy had kept a first grip on her arm, but after they hit the brush, Max started running ahead. It wasn't long before they reached the perimeter fence. Jumping toward it, Jondy started climbing as fast as her body would allow. Behind, she heard men gathering. Not slowing, she dared them to stop her. She wasn't going back without a fight, the thought of escaping was so strong, that her nerves rippled with the excitement. They'd have to kill her before she'd go back.

Jondy knew she could take at least two of them on her own, and if Max helped, they could take four between them. For a moment, Jondy felt a prickle of apprehension shoot through her. Her finger hold slipped for just a split second as she felt the light of a TAC rifle on her back, and then it was gone. There was a grunt and scuffle before the sound of electricity crackled in the air, and then there was a thud. She didn't wait to listen for more. Reaching the top of the wire fence, she jumped to the ground on the other side, and took off running the moment her feet met the snow.

The cold night air whooshed past her face and she could hear her sister behind her. Max was close at her heels and it gave her comfort to know that she wasn't alone. The frostiness of the snow started to bite into her bare skin. Her toes were beginning to feel stiff and sore. Biting her lip, Jondy continued on with determination.

A sharp crack and a splash, cause her to freeze in her tracks. Running back, she fell to her knees and peered into the gaping hole in the ice. The murky water was quickly freezing over, and her eyes desperately scanned the surface. Hoping at any moment her sister's head would appear.

"Max," she screamed. With each passing millisecond, fear built in her gut. She felt it tearing shreds off her composed control. She could hear the sound of rotor blades getting closer and closer, and snowmobiles were less than a hundred meters away. 'Run,' her instinct ordered. 'Run, or they'll find you.' She knew they'd be upon them in a matter of seconds. She had to decide quickly. Getting to her feet, she gave one last look at the hole. It had seemed like an eternity had passed since she first heard the splash. With a feeling of lead settling in her heart, she turned away from the crack in the ice. With all her strength, she ordered her limbs to move.

She was barely a few feet away when a spotlight from a helicopter came down on her. Despite wanting to know if they found Max, Jondy didn't stop. She never once looked back. The sound of gunfire boomed against her eardrums. Bullets riddled the snow and the trees on either side of her. Hot on her tail were about three snowmobiles, she could feel the heat of their lights on her back. Ahead she saw the forest. It was dense and dark. It called out its shelter and safety. If she could push herself harder, just for a little longer…

The snowmobiles stopped, the space between the trees was too narrow for them to follow. More gunfire sailed by and she flinched at how close they had come to hitting her. There was no place for her to escape. It was time for her to maneuver out of the line of fire. She had to lose them. With them on foot, she had a chance. She could easily out run them. If she got far enough ahead, the dogs would take longer to find her trail.

Plunging into the forest, her feet were soon pierced by the rocks and broken branches on the forest bed. Ignoring the pain, she continued on, almost forgetting the deep chill setting into her blood. The dense canopy overhead blocked out most of the moonlight and she realized that the helicopter was circling back. They'd lost her. Slowing a little, she listened. She could hear voices. TAC soldiers. They were distant. Their voices were carried to her on the slight breeze that whistled through the trees. Crouching low, she crept through the darkness.

All night she pressed on. Moving south, following the stars. She kept on running until she slipped on a rock and fell, sliding down an embankment. She stopped with a thud. Water rushed over her left arm and its winter cold felt like thousands of knives, piercing her skin. She gasped, the icy water zapping her back into reality. The hours of running had made her weary and her limbs ached. Her muscles felt like they were cramped, and even as she sat up and pulled her arm out of the water, the nerves in her back cried out in protest.

Jondy reached behind and touched her fingertips to the thin material of her gown. It was sticky wet. She was bleeding. She lifted her gown and the cold air hit her skin, sending waves of mind numbing sensations through her body. Fingering her back, she felt the welts that her fall had caused. They were only minor, but they had to be cleansed. Scanning along each side of the river, she spotted a small inlet. On closer inspection, there was a path that led from the waters edge and up over the embankment. Moving slowly and staying hidden among the trees and shrubs, she peeked into the clearing where the path led. There was a small old log cabin. There was no smoke from the chimney, and no light from within, so she approached it.

Searching around, she noted that nobody had been there in quite some time. There were cobwebs in the doorframe and windows, and she couldn't find any fresh tracks close by. That night, she'd stayed at the cabin. She had taken a bucket of water from the river, had a little to drink and used the rest to clean her cuts.

Exploring the tiny cabin, she found a handmade wood trunk. It was aged, unpolished and rough, like the cabin walls. In a trunk, she found an old pair of boots, a woolen jumper, a flashlight and first aid kit. After patching up, she pulled on the woolen jumper and discarded her torn bloodstained gown. The boots where several sizes too big, but the clean pair of socks stuffed in one of them, she did take. They came up past her knees once she pulled them on. She thought for a moment about what she should do with her gown. The dogs would pick up her scent if she burnt it. And she didn't have anything she could use to dig a hole deep enough to bury it. When morning came, she rolled her gown into a tight wad, and she stuffed it and her newly acquired socks into the sleeves of her jumper. She was in for another chilly morning, and the socks were going to come in handy.

Present day,
Walker Ranch's private road

Jondy remembered the day she had spent walking in the river, making sure nobody could follow her. She'd walked till her legs refused to go any further. Stumbling out of the icy water and falling onto the riverbank, she had crawled over the smooth rocks and fallen half dazed, into the soft dirt. The gown she had kept, she used to wipe her legs dry. The socks had provided some warmth, and thawed her frozen legs.

Thinking back on the escape, it seemed only a short time ago. The fear, the pounding of her heart, the feeling of helplessness for Max, the numbness of her own body she'd grown accustomed to after those long hours in the unrelenting Gillette winter. They had never talked about it - the night of the escape. Syl had never brought it up outright. Sure they mentioned it in passing, as did they did, Manticore, but they never discussed it. Just the saying the name was enough. It was like an old wound. Everyone knew how you got it; the scare was there for all to see. There was no need to analyse or talk about it. It was a time best left buried in the past.

Jondy knew her siblings experiences where probably much like her own. Long months left in the dark, wondering, doubting, and feeling lost and alone. Until one day, just seemed different from the next and you woke up feeling that somehow you'd found a place to belong, and you were just like the next person - at least on the outside.

"We're here," Syl announced.

Her sister's voice broke though the dark reverie Jondy had slipped into, and she stretched, blinking away the images of her past. Leaning over, she smiled as she checked on Leo.

Syl parked the SUV, pulled up the handbrake and took the keys out of the ignition. She'd glanced at Jondy a few times during the trip over and she could hazard a guess at her sister's thoughts. It was the way she was looking at everything outside. The way Syl sometimes felt herself when she experienced the peak of winter in Idaho.

They were travelling at a good pace in a warm and dry cabin. When once they travelled bare foot through ankle deep snow, during a harsh Gillette winter. With a temperature of ten degrees above zero and nothing but a thin nightgown for warmth, it was amazing she could still open a freezer door without getting jitters.

She had read stories of interrogation methods, in which men were kept in freezers within an inch of death, then thawed out, only to be put back in. It had brought back chilling memories of the hours she and Zane had spent lying flat in the snow while hummers, helicopters and soldiers combed the area around them. It had been terrifying, how close they had come to getting dragged back to Manticore. Everything had happened so fast. They had no idea how many had survived the escape until years later.

There were just no words to describe the relief and joy she'd felt at seeing Krit again. When she'd walked into that bar in Boston, she wouldn't have believed fate would ever be that good to her.

She'd never been stupid enough to ask Zack where Krit was. It was amazing their big brother even divulged who and how many had made it. They were soldiers, he'd always reminded them. Their survival depended on them playing it smart and always staying more than one step ahead in the game. Emotions and sentimental values made you weak. And if there was one thing he praised Manticore for, it was for making them intelligent and physically strong. It's how they would survive.

After accidentally bumping into Krit and Studio 12 in Boston, there was no way Syl was going to let him slip out of her life again. Fortunately for her, he came without a fight. Seems he felt exactly the same way. Over the years, it hadn't been easy to find viable reasons as to why they were in close proximity to each other when Zack showed up. Fortunately, Krit's various jobs had him travelling most of the time. Between Boston and Idaho, he'd had a job as a truck driver for a national toy chain, a waterboy for the Iron Giants, a charter pilot for King Air and now, his current job with X Marks.

Their last three-way meeting was their raid on Manticore. Their brother hadn't even shown the slightest inclination that he knew there was anything between them. Syl knew they were good at playing 'yes, sir - kiss your ass, sir' soldiers. She would have been down right bummed had Zack figured out their secret. Not that he could have split them up. She would have told him where to stick it.

Reaching for her jacket in the backseat, Syl smiled broadly at Jondy. "Ready to make that first impression, sis?" she asked with a wink. "As always, you look perfect. We'll knock 'em out, Dee."

Jondy rolled her eyes. "I seriously hope it doesn't come to that."

Syl poked out her tongue and slouched back in her seat. Why did they always make her out to be a troublemaker? 'Maybe because you are,' her conscience yelled. Looking out through the windshield at the house, she saw a face appear in the window and quickly disappear again. "We've been made, time to face the music."