Escape with My Heart

II. Satisfied and Empty Inside

Josh found her at home after the incident. He knew that he hadn't exactly been the best brother in the world recently and he had no real excuse for his behavior either. He was ashamed to admit that he couldn't actually recall the last time he and Maddy had been together for more than five minutes at a time. However unintentionally, he had been pulling slowly away from his socially awkward sister in order to spend more time with his friends and his girlfriend.

The growing distance between them was his own fault and today he regretted it more than ever with everything in him. He only had a few of the details of what happened today and not one had come from his sister, so he wasn't sure he could trust what he knew. He had been hearing whispers all day long—people he barely tolerated looking at him and laughing to themselves. He imagined this was what his sister felt like all the time, small and singled out, but the way everyone was acting worried him.

Josh had been in the locker room after gym class when someone finally let slip what was going on. His back was to the three boys who chatted among themselves, unaware of who he was and why this particular conversation should be censored around him like everyone else had been doing. He stilled the moment he heard the hateful words uttered by his classmates, his hands shaking with fury and fear as he listened silently for a few moments.

"The freak is finally gone!" someone whispered smugly with a snigger.

"Someone finally broke her?"

"I heard she was crying," another boy laughed. "Like some baby crying for its mommy."

"You should have seen her run, man. It was awesome!" the first one told them. "Her knight in shining armor completely wrecked her. I doubt she'll show her face again anytime soon."

"Maybe she finally took a hint!"

It could have been about anyone. He knew at least twelve people in his own classes lone that were referred to as freaks or losers to most people. He actually prayed it was someone else, but he could feel it in his heart that they were talking about his sister. He knew they were talking about the single most incredible person in this thrice damned school—the one they treated worse than dirt because they were intimidated by her intelligence and her compassion, because even they knew she was extraordinary and they could never mount to half of her.

Maddy made most scholars look like uneducated apes. She could leave this school and go to college if she wanted to. She retained knowledge better than he could memorize songs, better than anyone he knew could learn anything. He could go to her with a question about almost anything and she could give him answers in such intricate detail that it made his head feel like it would explode from so much information. She was so damn smart and she was tortured because of it. It made him sick that someone so special was treated so horribly, that his own sister feared coming to a place she once dreamed about.

Josh slammed his locker door shut in a fit of rage, spinning in place to round on the group of despicable boys. Two of them appeared to recognize him and began frantically tugging at the sleeve of their friend, but the other apparently failed to notice the intensity in his approach as he crowded them.

"Do you know what happened?" He asked tightly, controlling his voice as best as he could.

"Yeah man!" the blond, the one who started the whole conversation, spoke up enthusiastically, ignorant of how his friends were trying to get him to stop talking. "Some guy set the freak up big time! He was being all nice to her and shit for months, playing the hero and pretending to like her. I was actually fooled for a long time too, but then earlier, he and his friends dumped a garbage can over her heard in the lunchroom! You should have seen it, it was epic—" His grating chatter was cut off abruptly as a fist collided with his face.

Josh had never been known for violence before. He was average enough, but his last growth spurt had made him look a lot more slim and gangly than before. He worked out with simple routines that gave him some definition, but not very often. His father had even taught him how to throw a proper punch, but all of the instructions simply fled his mind in his fury. His hand ached something terrible from punching all three of those assholes, throwing all of his weight into it. They had attempted to retaliate, though he was quicker and managed to walk away with only a small taste of blood in his mound.

Nothing could compare to the pain he felt in his heart for his sister though. He would endure it all if it meant she was alright.

Maddy was usually so strong. She took shit from everyone, including the teachers who were supposed to protect her, and never once let any of them know just how much it hurt her. He had been called names before and it had stung enough that he had strived to avoid placing himself into such positions. His sister did not have that option—she could not stifle her whole personality and underwent torment every day because of it.

Josh knew how much it hurt her, although she had become adept at hiding it from even him. He often dealt with the aftermath of the cruel games people played with her, but she held her head high and put on a smile so their parents remained as ignorant as possible. Knowing that those sick bastards—the ones who tried to break her down every day, who sent her the notes she horrifying notes he had discovered she had to throw away every day—they finally got to her and it scared him beyond words.

Josh searched the entire school for his sister. He knew all of her usual hideaways, such as the library and the small alcove in the art room that no one ever really went into to. She usually went there and called him if it was a really bad day. His search was not limited to those places though and he scoured each floor and classroom, interrupting ongoing classes without remorse, until it became apparent that Maddy was nowhere to be found on school premises. So he left the building without another thought. He would probably get into trouble… he probably already was for assaulting his fellow students anyway though. Considering the damn faculty never did anything to keep people from assaulting and harassing his sister, he didn't really give a shit.

It took him twenty minutes to get home. Josh cried when he found her.

Maddy was sitting on the floor of the bathroom when he entered, her dark hair tousled and soaking wet from a shower. She was only wearing a small towel around her and he sucked in a horrified breath at what he saw. She usually wore long sleeved shirts, but now that her shoulders were bare, she had bruises littering her skin that varied in a disturbing array of colors and that was only from the one side he could see. She was staring blankly at the wall in front of her. He was terrified, because in her hand was an empty bottle from his mother's emergency medical kit.

"Maddy," Josh breathed out, his voice strained as he fell to his knees beside her. She looked up at him and his heart completely shattered at the helpless look on her face. He wrapped his arms around her carefully, unsure if he would hurt her with all of the bruises she had, but he needed to hold her. He had to make sure she was real, to feel her tremble in his arms and bury her face into his neck. He could feel warm tears against his skin and released a choked sob of his own.

Maddy cried for what seemed like hours. In reality he only let it go on for a few moments. He was still all too aware of the situation and he needed to know. He should have called for an ambulance the moment he saw her, but he was too shaken at first to even search for a phone. The bottle in her hand was empty though. He knew their mother kept everything well stocked in case of emergencies, so there was a very large possibility that… that Maddy had… He needed to know how many his sister took to end her pain so he could inform the paramedics. He steeled himself for the worst, swallowing as he found his nerve.

Josh pulled away from her with great reluctance, cupping her face as he stared into her tearstained eyes. "Maddy… how many did you take?" he pleaded urgently. She sniffed a bit, her nose running as she cried, but she only frowned at him in confusion. He swallowed several times, trying to say the words through his own tears. "The pills Maddy—the pills, how many of them did you take?

Maddy released a watery laugh as realization flashed over her features. Her laugh was void of any humor despite her efforts and it worried him even more until she shook her head. She smiled thinly and handed him the bottle without a word, gesturing to the label stretched around it.

Acetaminophen: take two every four to six hours as needed for pain.

"Two?" Josh read out loud, scarcely hoping to believe it. He gave her a serious look, searching her face for any hint of deceit. "Is that all you took? Just two?"

Maddy nodded slowly in answer, gently touching the center of her chest with a grimace. He could see the traces of another faint bruise on her skin there, though it looked nowhere near as bad as any of the others. She seemed to hurt there the most though. The coil in his stomach loosened only a fraction as he processed the information. His sister had tried to end her pain, but only the physical pain. She hadn't tried to… He collapsed beside her, carefully wrapping an arm around her.

"Oh, thank God." He whispered against her hair.

For hours neither of them could find the will to move from that spot and they just sat there, their tears finally drying as they tried to calm down. She finally fell sleep against him around the time that schools would be getting out and he carried her to their shared room and tucked her into the covers of his own bed before crawling in beside her. She rarely did this on her own anymore. It was his fault that she felt the need to stay away, but right now he was the one who needed to draw comfort from her.

Josh held her close and just breathed in the scent of her hair as he broke down. "I love you, Maddy…" he whispered into the crown of her head, vowing to himself that no one would ever do this to her again, would never make her feel like this. If something like this happened again… he swallowed as he realized that next time, there might be no misunderstanding.

It could be real and Maddy would be gone.

Maddy forced him to swear that he would keep it all quiet the next time they woke up. He swore to secrecy in reluctance, unable to deny her when she looked up at him with red eyes and a heart wrenching expression, but only after he finally got her to explain what happened in her own words. Her explanation left him reeling and seething and his sister said nothing else after that for the rest of the night. He let her sleep in his bed more for his sake than just hers, mind lost in a haze of betrayal and infuriation, but it was all overpowered by the need to keep her safe in his arms.

Josh covered with their parents, citing that she was sick. It was not exactly difficult to face, because after all of the crying she had done, she was congested and her nose was bright red. Even their bother believed the lie and she was a highly gifted doctor, but it could have been more to the fact that Maddy never lied about anything so they had no reason to suspect.

Both of their parents just assumed that Maddy's sudden silence was due to a sore throat. Josh knew otherwise and he almost wished they would see through the lies and confront him about it. He wanted to keep his sister safe, but she made it rather difficult by omitting just how badly she was treated.

Josh was not certain this was a secret he could keep..

Josh returned home the next day after school with a notice of academic suspension for the next three days. His knuckles were all torn and bloody and his mouth was split open, but he felt a grim satisfaction that Logan Reed had to be airlifted from school and hospitalized with a broken jaw and internal bleeding. His father ranted about assault charges and lawyers and his mother looked at him with disappointment, but he could care less about any of that.

Maddy returned to school within a week of the incident. She was resigned and hopeless and still as quiet as a grave. She had not spoken for a whole seven days and it was so unlike her that he would do anything to hear an explanation on some scientific fact that lasted for over an hour just to hear the sound of her voice. He felt lost without it.

Once the suspension period was over, Josh skipped two of his classes on his first day back to escort his sister to hers. He glared at anyone who so much looked at her, threatening them his presence. By the end of the day, the school body had effectively received the message. Word had spread about his assault and no one was willing to tempt fat to cross him, especially not since Reed was still in the hospital.

A month passed quietly; too quietly.

Maddy never said a word. She had become increasingly withdrawn as each day went by and usually only answered direct questions with shakes or nods of her head. Her behavior was more obvious now that she could not fake an illness and their parents were growing worried. Josh managed to dissuade them or distract them whenever they tried to talk to her about it.

No one went near her at school though. Everyone avoided her entirely. Although the situation was still far from ideal, it was certainly better than before.

Logan reed refused to press charges or to identify Josh as the attacker, despite the fact that all it would take to have him arrested was a simple yes or no answer. He refused to even look at Josh during the several meetings between their respective parents, looking more guilt ridden and remorseful than upset about his own pitiful condition. He transferred to a new school a month later and Josh would be all too happy if he never had to see him again.

Good riddance.

Josh had to admit that all of the disappointed frowns from his mother, the angry tirades from his father and even the emotional negotiations with the lawyers and the Reed family meant nothing to him. Not compared to the sight of the slight, barely noticeable smile his sister gave him once the dust had finally settled. She smiled at him that night when they crawled into bed and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you…" she whispered to him, speaking for the first time after an entire month of silence. It was the sweetest sound he had heard in a long time.

Josh was unable to stop from crying again and begged for her to stop turning him into such a crybaby. It was ruining his macho image. She only giggled softly and allowed him to hold her throughout the night. He had his sister back. He would never let anything else happen to her again... not if he could stop it.

No one would touch her.

Maddy was slowly beginning to come back to herself. She was still more reserved now. She kept her head down and her mouth shut for the most part and it was a startling contrast compared to her usual rapid fire of comments and facts. She just… didn't feel like talking much anymore. She rarely spoke unless spoken to first, not even at home, but she was working on it.

Moving passed this metal blockade she had developed was proving more difficult in practice than in thought. She was trying though, so that had to count for something.

Josh tried constantly to cheer her up and she loved him for it. He watched movies and documentaries with her that she had always loved but knew he loathed. He told some of the most obnoxious and ridiculous jokes in order to elicit a smile out of her. He put on plays with Zoe like they used to do, using dramatic voices and costumes. He even began subscribing for the monthly issues of the science magazines she liked to read.

It was nice and she enjoyed every effort. She liked when he would just sit with her and absently pick at the strings of his guitar while she studied the best though.

Music had a certain healing quality to it.

Maddy was currently curled up on the couch for such an afternoon, just reading the magazine on her plexpad while her brother played his guitar. She came across the advertisement again, the one about the contest for change to go to Terra Nova. She was actually a bit surprised to see it was still there, having forgotten all about it after her own failed attempts to solving it months ago. She had never encountered a puzzle so difficult to solve that she abandoned it entirely before. Usually she could at least get the gist of it, but she barely even understood what this one pertained to and nothing seemed to make any sense.

It was confusing and aggravating, but Maddy realized the deadline was swiftly approaching. She decided that it couldn't hurt to give it another try. If anything, she could use the distraction.

Population Control had paid their house a visit.

Maddy had barely spotted them on her way home from school one day. She knew they could have just as easily been going anywhere, but the fact it seemed they had been stationed outside of the apartment building for days now seemed like too much of a coincidence to ignore. She warned her parents immediately and within hours they had taken the necessary precautions to hide any trace of Zoe from the house while their father smuggled her out.

Zoe was given to their grandparents and would be hidden with them and their uncle out of town in the same remote safe house she had been born in. It would be good for her to be around other people for a while too, with cousins her own age. She would only be gone a few days or perhaps a week, just until this mess cleared over and no one would be the wiser.

As anticipated, the population officers came knocking specifically on their door only two days after that. It had been a surprisingly peaceful visit, so unlike the many stories of where the officers would ransack houses within minutes in search of children. This visit was calm and the inspectors took their time and had all been very courteous.

Maddy thought that perhaps their kinder attitude was due to the fact that her mother had graciously let them into the apartment. She offered them drinks and told them to take as long as they needed to, because they had nothing to hide. Her father had been downright pleasant throughout the whole inspection, joking around with the population officers as if they were his buddies from his own precinct. Maddy and Josh had simply milled around their room doing homework and playing guitar respectively as the officers calmly searched the house.

Thirty minutes later the officers wished them all a good day before departing and everyone nearly broke down in relief. It could have been worse, so much worse than that. They were very lucky to have the time to prepare for such an encounter.

Maddy knew that had she not seen them outside days before they actually came, they would have been caught unawares and Zoe would have been found. She hated to think what could have happened, because she knew her father never would have stood by and just let it happen. He had a bit of a temper when it came to protecting his family and she could easily imagine him assaulting one of the officers and being imprisoned.

It could have broken her family apart.

Maddy and Josh overheard their parents talking that night, their voices carrying through the quiet apartment. They were worrying and speculating on just how much longer they could all continue like this. Most families had enough of a hard time in this economy with only one child let alone three of them. Many never even had to know the struggles they went through, especially not what might happen if the police came to take one of them away.

Just to be certain they were in the clear, it was decided that Zoe would stay way for at least two weeks. It was just a short term plan. Population Control may have been pleasant and amiable during their previous visit, but they could still be watching the house for now.

Zoe was though… for now. It was unrealistic to not expect there to be a next time or several more after that even. As Zoe grew older, it would only become more difficult to conceal her. She was growing quickly and would soon crave companionship beyond her own family, an education more than what they could teach her in secret, love and other things they alone could not provide. She could not love her entire life in solitude; eventually she would have to make herself known.

There was no plan for the future.

Everyone was a bit subdued the following weeks.

Zoe would be gone for at least three more days yet and her absence was sorely felt by all of them. It just felt wrong not to see her face waiting at home every day, her gapped tooth smile begging to watch old cartoons or to read books. This deep, hollow chasm her absence created in their hearts was just a small taste of what it would feel like if Population Control discovered her next time.

Maddy knew it was a long shot to win that contest, but she felt desperation beginning to take hold. Terra Nova truly was the only hope her family had at staying together now. No one from the recruiting office seemed to be terribly interested in her mother, despite her qualifications as one of the top physician in her field.

The equation was solved to the best of her ability and once the submission was sent off, she prayed for a miracle to happen. It was hard to stay positive, knowing her chances. She had no idea if she had even come close to solving it, but at least she had finally figured out what she was trying to elucidate. It had taken her several long hours into the night before Maddy realized that the equation pertained to the time fracture itself.

Hope Plaza had never released the intricacies of the project to the general project before, so it was only understandable that she had been so confused by it before. Although in hindsight, considering the prize for finishing the formula was a one way trip through the portal, it should have been obvious. Once she was able to think of the equation in that context, it all made much more sense even though it was nothing but a theory. She was able to go back and rewrite a majority of her previous attempts until she came to one she was satisfied with.

From what Maddy had been able to gather with her research on the subject, the time fracture had always been there—invisible and inactive, but there. The story was well known to everyone, how scientists accidently discovered the time fracture during a lightning storm. They did not make it out of some time machine, but it was a natural occurrence. From then on the largest particle accelerator in the world had been built in order to expand the fracture, to dilate it into a portal so they could send matter through. They turned it into a doorway for people to simply walk through, although one issue they had encountered was that the portal only went one way. Another was that radio contact could only be established between the two sides when the portal was open.

It was all very confusing and quantum physics were extremely difficult to theorize let alone put into action, but Maddy believed she had developed a basic understanding of how everything worked. If her mathematical theorems were correct, the formula she had submitted could be very important if it actually worked. It was a way to communicate through the time fracture without the use of the channeled energy from the particle accelerator to open it.

Essentially, in theory, the formula in the puzzle could create a way to connect the past and the present via video and radio waves without shutting down entire cities to fire up the machine to open the portal. It took a lot of power to generate the circumstances necessary, enough that Hope Plaza could only afford to do it once every year. If it worked like she thought it did, that meant it could save millions of dollars in expenses and constant communication could be maintained between both sides.

It was all a bit outlandish though.

Maddy was probably wrong in her theories. Hope Plaza had been trying to fide a way to communicate with Terra Nova without opening the portal ever since the first man, Commander Nathaniel Taylor, had been sent through over seven years ago. If the scientists had already found the way, then it would have been announced. They wouldn't hold the results, give out half of their discovery for anyone to see and then hold a contest to see who could match it… would they?

No. No, it was impossible. No one had ever even come close to bridging the gap between realities before. Maddy was only sixteen-years-old—how could she even hope to compare to the millions of experienced scientists who had likely entered this contest as well? It was a nice dream, one that she certainly prayed for, but it was unrealistic.

Maddy would never win…

Maddy felt a bit nauseous and dizzy. The pain in her chest was akin to something heavy weighing down and creating too much pressure, preventing her from getting enough oxygen. She had been coughing all day long during her classes, so much that her teacher had given her detention for disturbing his class. She'd barely had enough energy to even just sit there at all, let alone argue the unfairness of it, so she took the undeserved punishment without complaint. She had already been to see the nurse, but the woman had been too busy with a bunch of boys who had gotten into a fight to really bother more than a once over with her.

By the time she had begun the long walk home, Maddy was completely out of breath and her chest was aching worse than ever before. She rubbed gently over her sore chest as she trudged up the apartment stairway. She hoped she had not managed to pick up a virus of some kind, because she had a test in the morning that she had been studying all week for.

Maddy struggled to the top of the stairs, severely out of breath and barely to continue down the hallway. She forced herself to move anyway and braced herself against the door when she finally reached it, just breathing to try and recover. She coughed again, the pressure in her chest now hurting almost like someone was searing the inside of her lungs with a branding iron. She had been sick in the past, though never anything like this—she hoped her mother wouldn't overreact when she found out.

Unlocking the door with a shaky hand, Maddy entered the apartment. Her mother was at the table with a plexpad in her hand and Zoe beside her when she walked into the kitchen. She tried to smile at them, listening as her mother uttered a quiet greeting, but Maddy could say nothing in reply before she coughed again. She covered her mouth with one hand, coughing again and again and again. She continued to choke on air, panic rising within her as she found herself unable to stop.

Maddy bent over with a grimace, a bit of dizziness starting to blur her vision. Her eyes watered as she choked, her lungs burning as if they were actually lit ablaze. Her mother hurried to her side when it became apparent that she couldn't stop coughing, rubbing her back and whispering instructions in soothing words, but nothing helped. Her voice was distant even, barely understandable over the hacking noises.

It took several minutes before the chokes began to abate and by then she tasted something coppery and metallic on her tongue while she tried to calm down from the fit. She breathed through her nose in long, unsteady breaths just as her mother instructed.

"Are you alright, sweetheart?"

Maddy swallowed the odd taste while she slowly shook her head. She still felt dizzy, the edges of her vision obscuring more now even though the fit had ceased. She felt something wet against the palm of her hand and her stomach churned when she identified it as a red, viscous substance. Blood… she was coughing blood. She tasted it and could see long drips all the way down her arm, could see small splatters all over the floor below her.

"Mom…" she croaked uncertainly, distantly hearing the older woman gasp as she too noticed. Her mother looked completely horror stricken, arms curling round her as she finally lost all sense of equilibrium.

Jim Shannon always considered himself a strong man. He was a detective who worked in the narcotics division, so he had to be strong otherwise he would crumble against some of the criminals he had to face. He only had one weakness… and that was his family. He wasn't ashamed to admit that. He could even admit that he had cried during the birth of each of his children and that he worried constantly about their safety and happiness. He was a father, their father, and he loved them all more than anything in this world.

He had never felt so helpless before.

No one in the entire building would tell him anything either. He had been waiting here for over five hours and still all he knew was that his baby girl had been hospitalized because something was wrong with her lungs. His wife told him that she had stopped breathing during the ten minutes it took to get her to the emergency room. Elisabeth was wearing hospital scrubs because her own clothing had been painted red with splatters of blood.

… Blood their daughter had been drowning in.

Maddy looked so unlike herself right now, so abnormally pale. She had inherited the same golden complexion that her mother possessed, though right now she was white as a sheet. She had tubes and wires obscuring most of her face, one thick tube lodged down her slender throat and several small nodes attached to her barely moving chest. She was hardly recognizable now and he swallowed thickly as he reached out to touch her still hand.

Jim was startled by just how cold she felt. He drew her small hand into his and cradled it gently, eyes watching her chest—it moved up and down slowly as the machine breathed for her. He felt so out of his element, wanting to help her in any way he could, but he could only wait and watch. He brushed a finger against her inner wrist and pushed down, the sluggish pulse and the beeping of the heart monitor his only assurance that he was not looking at a corpse.

It hurt so much to see her like this.

Hours passed in agonized silence as they waited for the test results to come back. His wife was sitting across from him on the other side of the bed. Elisabeth had her eyes glued to the breathing device, constantly watching her vitals for any changes at all. Josh was at home watching Zoe, trying to keep her entertained and from asking questions, but he was messaging anxiously for updates on Maddy's condition every few minutes.

After what felt like an eternity the doctor finally returned with the test results. Jim barely understood half of what the man was saying. He heard it all as if listening from a distance, his frown becoming more pronounced as certain words jumped out at him—rebreather malfunctioned… acute respiratory distress… lung failure… hemorrhaged… low oxygen… life support.

Everything was a meaningless mess all jumbled inside of his head. His own unease only increased, especially as his wife grew more and more distressed from everything the doctor was telling them about the situation. She was a doctor herself and understood the terminology that just went over his head and made him feel numb. She knew what was wrong.

Elisabeth snatched the plexpad containing their daughter's medical file right out of the doctor's hand before he could even finish explaining. Her fingers slid across the screen in a frantic rhythm as she overlooked the results herself. It took her all of two minutes to read it and then the device fell to the floor with a loud clatter as she turned and buried her face into his chest. His wife fell apart in his arms and her reaction was all too telling.

Jim clutched her close as the doctor expressed his condolences and cited that he would be back to discuss options at a later time before giving them some privacy. Neither of them even acknowledged him as he closed the door behind him. They were too lost in their own turmoil to even notice.

They stood there in silence, listening avidly to the humming of the machinery… which was the only thing that was keeping their little girl alive at the moment.

Maddy was released from the intensive care unit after two months on a mechanical ventilator with supplemental oxygen to breathe for her. She still had to be watched very carefully the entire time and in another part of the hospital after that in another oxygen rich atmosphere to help heal her incredibly weakened lungs. Her doctors were worried about fluids building up in her lungs, so they monitored her critically.

Josh had been coming to visit her every chance he got and he was nice enough to keep her updated on what was going on outside of the hospital. He made a point to come by every day and today he brought some news she had some mixed feelings about. He said that population control had done another sweep of the apartment, due to an anonymous tip from someone within the complex.

Zoe had successfully been hidden within a small compartment in the walls of their apartment by the time they arrived, but thankfully they only glanced inside before moving on to the next module. It had been a very close call, especially since Josh had been the only other person in the house, but they had survived it… again.

Everything just seemed to be getting worse and worse, that small reprieve of the past few months nothing more than a distant memory already. Maddy knew that her hospital bill would be incredibly high and was only continuing to gather more fees the longer she stayed. Her mother had a decent salary as one of the chief surgeons and her father likewise had moderate income, but she knew it would not be enough to last forever. She had already been treated longer than they could afford.

Maddy knew her parents were trying to hide their own worries from her, but she could see it etched on their faces every time they came to visit her. They had spent money they didn't have in order to keep her alive and now they had to spend even more to keep her that way.

… Perhaps it would have been better for her family if she had just died.

Elisabeth was accustomed to receiving devastating and shocking news. She had to learn some disheartening test results daily in her profession and deliver the prognosis to the distraught families of her patients. She had never really had to be on the other side of that door though, waiting anxiously to find out the fate of a loved one, until her daughter arrived home choking on her own blood.

It took a lot to shake her; she had to keep a calm persona even under duress. She had relocated appendages without blinking, waded wrist-deep in blood and human innards and had even done autopsies on cadavers before… but she had crumbled entirely the day she discovered her daughter's illness. She had treated patients for it in the past and it very rarely ended on good terms. She never really thought that it would happen to her own family. She never really realized just how bad everything had become until the day Maddy came home coughing up blood though.

It was an eye opening experience, one that frightened her irrevocably and forced her to see the truth. The world had deteriorated beyond repair without her truly taking notice and people were dying because of it. Elisabeth had become absolutely terrified in the past weeks that Maddy would simply become another statistic, just another young victim succumbing to the poisonous air of humanity's own making. They had did this, every generation adding more and more to the destruction of their own species, of everything… and soon there would be nothing left. She feared her daughter would stop breathing again, that her weak lungs would fail again or her heart would give out from malnourishment.

Keeping Maddy alive had been her only goal for the last few months, ever since she first became ill. She had called in many favors in order to have her daughter seen by specialists and to have the best medical treatment possible available to her. She had not been thinking about the expenses at the time… only about improving Maddy's chances of survival. There was nothing beyond that.

Nothing else had mattered.

It was now three months later and Maddy was finally stable enough to be released from the hospital. She was stable if not completely healthy… and if her circumstances didn't change within the next few years, Maddy would likely have to become dependent on medication for the rest of her life. That was only assuming if she stayed in perfect health. Even developing a cold could be deadly to her, because it had the potential of becoming pneumonia… and her immune system was already weakened and she was underweight and anemic… Elisabeth what would happen when she was removed from the filtered air environment of the hospital.

Before this incident Elisabeth could have afforded to move her family into a hyperbaric dome—an oxygen rich environment—but that was before the oxygen therapy and the long stay at the hospital. Elisabeth and Jim had been discussing their options for a while now, wondering just how they could possibly pay off the enormous medical bill they had received. Prescriptions, a new state of the art rebreather and a new air filter to create a completely sterile environment within the apartment they could barely afford to keep any longer… every penny added up considerably.

Elisabeth was incredibly grateful to her parents and brother for helping with the treatment costs. Maddy would not have been strong enough to breathe on her own had they not donated to covered the amount as best they could for as long as possible. Even with her family pitching in, with relatives and friends sending what they could to help them make payments, she and Jim had been forced to take more and more shifts at work to try and cover the rising fees. Josh had begun to search for a job of his own to help, but she feared that even that would not be enough.

None of it would ever be enough, not to pay back what they owed and to survive at the same time. She had never been so desperate before, so helpless to help her family. Elisabeth prayed for the first time since her childhood. She prayed every night for a miracle, for a way for them all to get through all of this somehow. And today… today she got one.

Elisabeth had been speaking with the finance people at the hospital, trying to work through a better payment plan to ease the situation enough so they could afford groceries. She had not understood what the financial assistant was saying at first. She thought she misheard what they were trying to inform her of.

Never before had Elisabeth been so taken aback before. She had sat there for a few moments as the words sunk in and the next thing she knew she was being roused by smelling salts after fainting. She had been overwhelmed by the news and after confirming another time, grabbed everyone she saw in a tight hug, wondering who… before this day, her faith in humanity had been teetering on the edge of a knife, slowly tipping away into almost nothing… but now it felt completely renewed. She cried on the way home, eager to tell the news to her family.

An anonymous donor had paid their medical bills in full.

It was May now.

Nothing had gotten worse and Maddy was well on the way to recovery. She would always have problems with her lungs, but at least now her family could afford to buy both her medication and their living expenses. She could be content with that. She only wished she knew what kind soul had taken enough pity on their situation to pay such a large amount to ensure her survival. No one seemed to know the identity of whoever paid her medical bills, but it was the greatest gift anyone could have given her family.

Each passing day Maddy could feel her strength returning to her. Her health only just continued to improve and she felt better than she had in years with the aide of her new medications and the cleaner air in the apartment. Due to her slow recovery rate, she had also not attended school in the past few months, but she had never been more at peace. No classmates to ridicule her, no disagreeable teachers to punish her… She pursued her education in the comfort of her own home. It was just her and the work. Maybe one day she would return to a classroom, but for now she was pacified with learning on her own.

Maddy could not even find it in her to be terribly disappointed when she heard no announcement for a winner of the contest she entered. She had known her chances at winning were slight to begin with. Even though she had been hoping against all odds that she would win, she was satisfied for now because everything seemed to be working itself out. She could always try again next year if they held another contest. And she knew her parents would be entering the next lottery… there was always the chance that her mother might be recruited for Terra Nova also, even though they had not been interested this year. Only time would tell. For now everything was okay.

It was still not a long term plan… but it was all they had.

Everything changed on a Monday afternoon.

Zoe was hidden safely within her secret compartment in the wall when the knock on the door came. They had been expecting it because Josh had overheard some strangers mention their apartment number only moments before downstairs. They only had a few minutes to prepare, but they had been planning for this. No trace of the child could be found and Zoe knew that it was time to play the quiet game. Still… Maddy was having difficulty trying to control the rampant pace of her heart. She sat on the couch and tried to appear as if nothing was wrong, but her bother must have noticed the glint of worry in her eyes.

Josh rubbed her back gently as they all waited, cringing when the knock finally sounded throughout the room. For a moment none of them could move. This would be the third time Population Control had paid their home a visit. They might do a more thorough search because of that, the kind whispered about by families that had been torn apart.

Maddy resisted the urge to flinch as her parents moved toward the door. Her mother was the one to open it. She was the one most likely to keep her cool in a crisis and she was nowhere near as threatening as her father. He could be cordial when he needed, but there was still something in his countenance that some people found intimidating. Her mother was more unassuming and gentle.

"Hello," her mother greeted brightly. "Can I help you?" Her voice ended with a hint of surprise and confusion and as she opened the door further, they all could see why.

The men outside their door did not belong to Population Control. They were in suits, not uniforms, all clean shaven and presentable. One man, the one in the front, was a bit portly—that in itself was very telling on the fact that he ate well. He had glasses resting precariously on the bridge of his nose as he swept the room curiously, seemingly searching for someone.

"Hello ma'am," the man greeted kindly, a wide smile spreading across his face. "May we speak to Ms. Madelyn Shannon, please?" His eyes finally came to rest upon Maddy as he said it, flashing with recognition. He already knew what she looked like, who she was, and she felt a momentary burst of panic at being singled out by this stranger.

Maddy stood from the couch, tense even as her brother moved to join her as she approached cautiously. His presence helped ground her and outwardly she displayed noting but curiosity, even though inside she was trembling. What did they want with her? She hadn't done anything wrong. She tried to remember that as her parents stepped aside so she could stop in front of the open door way. The man simply held out something for her to take, a wide smile on his face.

It was an envelope, her name written across the paper in elegant script with beautiful emerald ink.

Just seeing the paper was a shock, because paper was so rare and expensive. Her heart jolted when she took it in her hands, noting that this was much finer quality than the recycled papers she had. Her parents bought her a stationary on her birthday one year. It came with ten sheets of paper and ten envelopes. This put the recycled scraps she cherished to shame.

The envelope was thick, possibly some kind of parchment paper and her breath caught as she studied the seal on the back. It was from the Weaver Corporation… the same people who were sponsoring the contest in her science magazine. Her mind went utterly blank for a few minutes before it began working in overdrive—representatives from such a prestigious company would never travel into a residential neighborhood to simply deliver a letter thanking someone for participating… would they? Her mouth was dry and her eyes darted up to the man, hoping for some sign of confirmation. Could this be what she hoped it was?

"Open it," he encouraged gently, and there was something she couldn't place in his eyes. He seemed almost… pleased… as tremors ran through her hands as she moved to break the seal. She exhaled and dismissed the bit of apprehension she felt, pulling out the letter hidden within.

Dear Ms. Madelyn Shannon,

We here at the Weaver Corporation are pleased to inform you that…

Maddy could barely continue to read as her eyes began to sting. Her throat closed up and she drew in a shaking breath, the letter growing slack in her hands. She felt it being tugged away from her and absently listened as her father read it aloud for Josh and her mother to hear. She raised a trembling hand to cover her mouth and closing her eyes briefly as she let the words wash over her like they were some kind of cleansing rain.

Absolute joy and relief filled her heart as her brother caught her before she could collapse. She had done it. She… she really had. She won. Her body trembled uncontrollably and she released a weak, breathless laugh as her brother wrapped his arms around her to keep her steady. She clutched him close and buried her face into his neck, smiling and laughing through her tears. Her emotions were erratic, but beyond the disbelief and elation, she felt a hope that she had never truly allowed herself to feel before.

"You won some kind of contest, Maddy?" Her mother asked softly, confusion clouding her voice.

Maddy pulled away from her brother for a moment, turning to look at the older woman. "Yes." She reached out to grab her hand, smiling in complete happiness. "I won."

"What does it mean?" Her father asked cautiously, lowering the congratulations letter. "What is the prize?"

Maddy laughed a watery laugh and took the letter from him, holding it to her chest as if it were a precious object. She looked at her family, smiling at all of the various looks of confusion she was receiving. They were all saved. No more poisonous air, no more population laws, no more long months of hunger that could never be quite satisfied… they would all be safe and healthy from now on.

"… We are going to Terra Nova."