Chapter 170
Built To Run
John was concerned about Cameron and her recent behavior. Cameron was away from the base for several days now. He became worried. He asked John Henry to search for any gun battles or violent disturbances that may have occurred in the last few days. There were none, at least none that were reported.
"I have not found any." John Henry said.
John was still dissatisfied.
"Maybe there is something else." John said.
John Henry was aware that Cameron seemed to have a way of finding trouble when she wanted to. That was if it didn't find her first.
"I will check for any other 'events'." John Henry said.
John Henry searched for any other unusual events that may have occurred. He found something even more troubling.
"I think we have her." John Henry said. "You're not going to like it."
John seldom did.
"Spill it." John said. "We need to know where we stand."
John Henry reiterated to John the recent events that unfolded on Donner Pass. He went over all the details from the crew and witnesses who all told the same story. It appeared a teenage girl helped save over a hundred lives. It was done in a very unusual way with 'gifted' abilities.
"The report said the old man was assisted by a very strong girl named 'Allison'. It is believed she perished in the pile up that resulted." John Henry said. "She got him to safety and continued on her own 'alone'. He said she operated the locomotive like an 'Old Hogger'."
That sounded like Cameron to John.
"Let's hope she didn't perish." John said very worried.
John Henry set a response in motion.
"I have the corporate jet waiting for our arrival. We can fly to Lake Tahoe. That is the closest location to this activity. We can be there in just over an hour." John Henry said.
Holly and Bob arrived during the briefing.
"I am going too." Bob said.
"I am as well." Holly added.
John thought some extra muscle would be good. If Cameron was malfunctioning and thought she was 'Allison' again, she could do anything. He wanted to use caution.
"Get the base on alert and everyone on their toes." John said.
Soon everyone was there at the Command Center and wanted to go as well.
"We are not going to do THIS again." John said.
John remembered 'The Day Of Loss' where everyone went to help Cameron. They ended up with four dead, no, five dead, the baby too. He was not going to do a repeat performance of that event.
"Bob and Holly are going with me, that's it, no discussion." John said. "We don't know enough yet to go on."
John Henry asked John if he could go too. John wanted him to 'clean up' or bury as much as possible related to what Cameron did. He wanted to keep her out of the news and did not want any photos of her to show up anywhere.
They left the base and headed to Van Nuys Airport and took off in the waiting jet. There were no updates as they flew.
The plane landed fifty minutes later in Lake Tahoe.
Earlier:
The girl knew she needed to get away from the site of the train wreck. She could hear vehicle traffic above her. She climbed up the steep icy mountainside. She came across a road. A car passed by, it was oblivious to the carnage in the canyon below. There was a female driver. She watched the girl come over the railing from the cliff below. The car slowed and stopped.
"Are you OK?" The woman asked.
The girl looked around. She did not know where she was. There was a road and a lot of snow and ice. There was nothing else.
"I don't know. I'm lost." The girl said.
The woman looked the girl over. There were a lot of things that did not add up.
"Where is your coat?" The woman asked. "It is freezing outside."
The girl looked at her arms. They were bare.
"I don't know." The girl said.
The woman was dissatisfied with that response.
"Where are you trying to go?" The woman asked.
"I don't know." The girl said.
"Where did you come from?" The woman asked.
"I don't know." The girl said.
"How did you get here?" The woman asked.
"I don't know." The girl said.
The woman was very concerned about the girl. There was something else wrong.
"Get in. I will take you into Lake Tahoe." The woman said.
The woman noted the girl seemed to be in a daze.
The woman tried again for some answers. She was really worried 'something else' may have happened to the girl.
"What's your name? Why are you out in this weather alone?" The woman asked. "Did someone rap… 'assault' you?"
The girl looked down at her body.
"I don't know." The girl said.
The woman was worried and frustrated at this point.
"You don't know - what?" The woman asked.
The girl looked even more confused now.
"I don't know anything you just asked me. My name may be 'Allison'. I don't know." The girl said. "I just can't remember. Nothing is there. It's not clicking."
The woman touched the girl as she drove. She hoped there was no frostbite.
"You don't feel cold. You must not have been out too long. Did anyone 'touch' you?" The woman asked.
The girl looked down at her body again. She remembered someone previously 'touched' her before. She thought she wanted to be touched by them. It seemed like it was a long time ago. She could not remember who it was. Somehow it was the same person but they were older and younger at the same time.
"I want to go home." The girl said.
The woman hoped that was a 'break' she could work with. She was afraid the girl was assaulted and dumped to die in the cold. That happened up in the mountains sometimes.
"Where's that at?" The woman asked.
The girl tilted her head to the side slightly. She remembered where home was.
"The future…." The girl said.
The woman knew she needed to get this girl some medical attention. She seemed to be withdrawing into herself to 'survive'.
The girl looked straight ahead as the car drove. Her face was blank. Her eyes did not blink.
The woman was sure the girl must have been 'assaulted'. She could see how beautiful she was. It would be tempting for a trucker to try and put the grab on her. Maybe it was a group of college students or a rogue gang of bikers.
That blank look on the girls face was unnerving. It was the look of 'nothing' and 'death' at the same time.
The jet landed in Lake Tahoe without incident. There was a four wheel drive SUV waiting for them. John told the pilots to wait on standby and have the jet refueled and ready to fly. They said they would take care of everything.
John was in contact with John Henry and there was no new news. They decided to head for the derailment sight. There was a road above the tracks that paralleled them near that location. He might send Bob down to take a look at the wreckage. Parts of her endoskeleton may be scattered around the area.
What was Cameron doing here? John wondered. She disappeared several days ago and no one was able to track her. He was sure this was like a previous 'episode' she'd experienced. She must not remember who she was again.
John told John Henry to scrub or sanitize the reports as soon as they came in about any mention of Cameron or Allison. He only knew Cameron was capable of great destruction if she were pushed in the wrong direction. If she went on a rampage she could kill hundreds of people.
If John hadn't heard the reports that Cameron prevented the loss of lives, he might have thought she caused the derailment. Then again she still may have for some unknown reason. Maybe she was after a Gray or something and she did not want them to get away.
The woman was worried when the girl no longer responded to anything. Her eyes were closed now. She spotted an ambulance and flagged it down.
The ambulance attendant did not want to get involved at first. He thought it was a domestic dispute. The woman urged him to just take a look.
He did and the initial findings were not good.
"She is dead. She has no pulse, no heartbeat and is not breathing." The ambulance attendant said.
The woman looked at the girl still sitting in her car. That could not be right.
"But I was just talking to her a couple of minutes ago." The woman said.
The girl opened her eyes and looked around.
"What the Hell?" The ambulance attendant asked.
He was startled and shocked.
He quickly ushered the girl into the ambulance and headed for the local hospital.
The girl did not like all the attention. It bothered her that someone kept touching her.
The ambulance attendant worked frantically on the girl.
"How is she doing?" The driver asked as he glanced back.
The ambulance attendant was not sure. Her eyes were open and she seemed very upset.
"None of the machines are working. Everything shows she is still 'dead'." The ambulance attendant said.
The driver felt a little sad. The girl was a real beauty. What a waste.
"Maybe we lost her." The driver said.
The ambulance attendant could see she was still 'alive'.
"Dead people don't cry." The ambulance attendant said.
The girl did not like being confined.
"Let me out." The girl sobbed.
The girl looked around. She was frightened at the enclosed space and medical equipment. It reminded her of some evil place where she was at before. She only remembered bad things happened at that place. There was a lot of screaming and dead people. She could still hear the screams inside her mind. They were terrible.
John was about to contact John Henry when he contacted them.
"I received a report of someone jumping out of an ambulance. They are possibly named Allison." John Henry said.
John wanted everything to stay out of the 'news'.
"Scrub it." John said.
John Henry gave them the location. It was five miles from where they were. The incident happened an hour and five minutes ago.
"If she runs, she could be miles away from there by now in any direction." John Henry said. "I am on all traffic cameras and security feeds in the area. There are not a whole lot of them on the outskirts of town."
Bob and Holly tried to cheer John up. They reassured him they could handle any situation that arose. Holly kept looking at him with worried eyes. Bob drove.
Holly took John's hand.
John looked at her.
"I will fix this." Holly said. "I promise."
John wondered if there was still some 'Cameron' left on Holly's chip or it was her own real concern.
The girl ran from the ambulance and evaded any attempts from them to reacquire her. She passed through several back alleys and over a few fences. She spotted a group of fancy looking buildings. She headed towards those. The colored lights caught her attention.
She walked into one structure. It was a casino. The noises inside there intrigued her. She found a twenty dollar bill in her pocket. She sat at a 'Black Jack' table and soon won several thousand dollars and an audience to go along with it.
She wondered what kind of a game it was. She was able to know what all the cards were or would be. She was not really sure how. When she reached twenty thousand dollars after winning every hand she played, several men came out to 'talk' to her.
It seemed as if things were about to go from bad to worse.
John Henry contacted John's team again.
"I have her. She is in a casino and has been detained." John Henry said.
He quickly gave Bob the location.
John figured whatever happened was about to get worse.
"Scrub the footage, jam all cell and phone traffic." John said. "Jam radio traffic as well."
John knew this was about to go from worse to catastrophic.
The girl was highly agitated that some people interrupted her 'game'.
"Where are you taking me?" The girl asked.
They were now in an isolated area out of the public view.
A woman approached her and patted her down.
The girl did not like being touched. Only one person was allowed to touch her, she could not remember who.
"Get your hands off of me." The girl said.
The female finished her search anyway.
"There is nothing on her." The woman stated. "No phone, ID, keys or money."
The men went to lead the girl away.
The girl stopped.
"I don't want to go with you. I want to go back and play. It was fun to play." The girl said.
The girl turned and started to walk away.
One of the men quickly put handcuffs on her.
That was the 'last straw' for the girl.
She snapped the handcuffs instantly and then sent both men and the women flying in different directions.
One of the men drew a firearm. The girl reached over and snatched the pistol out of his hand. They all stopped and backed up. They watched as she held the snapped handcuff on each wrist with her fingers and tore the metal open. The girl pointed the gun at each of them. She could see they were terrified. She stuck the pistol behind her back.
She approached the two men first. They thought they could 'take her'. She slammed the two men together and sent the woman flying with a shove. All three were down and out.
The girl spotted some security cameras. She wanted to make a clean getaway. She decided to use a diversion to mask her escape route. She walked to the closest fire alarm and pulled it.
All Hell broke loose.
It's Like A Bomb
We see each other
Every single day
We never communicate
Even if words we say
I know what I think
I know what I feel
But as I look around
I don't know what is real
We can smile
We can laugh
As long as our feelings
Are bottled in a carafe
The emotions we hide
As to ourselves we lie
When the future awaits us
The limit is the sky
I may seem happy
Or even act calm
When my mind erupts
It's like a bomb
Nobody