Chapter 42
Cabin life
"You Found Me"- The Fray
Kyle (POV)
We arrived at the cabin in the early hours of the morning. Jessi immediately started organizing and setting up whatever was in the backpack Foss gave us. Nathan stood off to the side observing Jessi and trying his best to stay out of her way. I stepped outside onto the porch of the cabin to get a little fresh air and a moment to myself.
I sat on the old warn down wooden bench and gazed up at the sky. It was still pretty dark out: the sun wouldn't be making an appearance for another hour or so. We were in the middle of nowhere so the stars were quiet visible without the light pollution that the city provided. This was my favorite time of day, the stillness of my surroundings and the peace it brought, created a sense of optimism as the beginning of a new day lingered in the morning air. This was the time of day where I felt that everything that plagued my mind simply didn't matter anymore. Even just for a moment I was able to escape from it all.
I rested my eyes for a moment, and listened to the sounds of the woods that engulfed the cabin. I slowed my breathing letting everything go, all the worries that had built up over the last four months didn't matter in that instant. And just as quickly as that simplicity had come it was interrupted.
"Kyle," Jessi whispered from the doorway off of the kitchen to the porch where I sat.
"Hmm?" I mumbled without opening my eyes.
"Everything is all set up; I figured you and Nathan could bunk together, there are only two bedrooms. I'll move up to the loft when Foss gets here. Nathan found some books that seem to be holding his interest... Why don't you go lay down for a couple of hours?" she suggested.
"I'm fine; I just needed some fresh air." To be honest I wouldn't mind stretching out in a bed, but I didn't want to leave Jessi to have to look after Nathan.
"Kyle, your senses are down, which usually only happens if you've gone days without sleeping." The bad part about Jessi was that she could not only see through my white lies but she also sensed my body's needs. Being apart for so long it was weird to get used to again. "At least go and rest, you don't have to sleep but rest will do you good."
It was also strange having to get used to this side of Jessi—a more rational and in some sense caring side of her.
"Only for an hour," I gave in, standing up and walking past her through the kitchen and down the small hall to the bedroom on the right.
I saw that my black duffle bag had been tossed onto the bottom bunk, while Nathan's sat on the top bunk. I moved the bag to the floor and stretched out on the bed, not bothering to move the blankets. I folded my arms across my chest, and stared at the bunk above me. The bed was cramped compared to the bed I shared with Amanda; it felt odd lying in a bed without her next to me. As I lay there, my thoughts wandered to the events that had played out in the last four months.
FLASHBACK:
"When…How did…How did you find all this out?" Amanda asked, a loss for words, after I had explained to her that Latnok had started the experiments again, and had used Adam and Grace's DNA.
"Christopher came to me with the information a few months ago, just before the wedding. I wasn't able to tell Kyle until recently," Foss told her as I shifted in my seat at the kitchen table in our apartment.
"And how was Latnok planning on involving you it this?" she asked me as she stirred her tea.
"Christopher said that they already have one child created. They were planning on me teaching him everything I know how to do, then eventually becoming his competition, until they felt he knew enough for them to begin experimenting with cloning him," I explained.
"And they just expected you to do this willingly?" I could hear the frustration in her voice.
"That's why they've wanted Christopher to get close to me. That's also why for the last month we've been making it look like their plan is working." I turned in my chair, so that I could face her more properly and took her hand in mine.
"So what are we going to do?" She was somewhat calmer.
I look over at Foss, across the table, and he took the subtle hint that he should explain. "We're going to wait a few months before we start anything. In the mean time, Kyle and I feel that you and Declan should train with me, at least learn basic self defense maneuvers, just in case. Once the time comes that Kyle and I make any move to take down Latnok, everyone will have to stay low for a while after."
"What exactly are you two planning on doing?"
I stood up from the table and leaned on the counter. This was the part of the plan that I resented the most.
"Once we've extracted the child and he is safe… Kyle will take care of wiping all information that they have stored on their data base. I'll have no choice but to take care of the facility. It's the only way to ensure Kyle's and the rest of the family's safety."
END OF FLASHBACK:
I found the fatigue of my body being to overpower my mind, before I knew it I had drifted off to sleep. When I awoke I waited for a moment to open my eyes, I let my body slowly wake up first. Eventually when I brought myself to open my eyes, the sun was pouring in through the shades over the single window in the bedroom. It must have been late in the afternoon given the sun's position. I sat up and stretched, careful not to hit my head on the bunk above me. My joints popped and my muscles felt like rubber bands that had been stretched a little too far.
When I left the bedroom I found that Nathan was still in the living room, where Jessi had set everything up. He had made it through half of the books that covered the wall to floor book shelves.
"Hello, Nathan," I acknowledged as I sat beside him on the couch.
He glanced up at me from his book carefully. "Hello…Ky-le." I guess reading these books had helped him a little with his conversational skills. He was getting the hang of it faster than I had.
"Are you hungry?" I asked, rubbing my stomach, hoping it would help him understand.
His eye brows knit together in confusion.
"Do you want to eat food?" I tried, but he still didn't understand.
I took his book and set it on the coffee table amongst all that other books and stood up and motioned for him to follow me into the kitchen. Before we made the trip out to the cabin we stopped in town for food to stock the kitchen. Jessi was sitting at the table, working on some project.
I opened the fridge and took out two vanilla yogurts. I handed him one and showed him how to open it before snatching two spoons from the drawer. I began to eat my yogurt and soon enough he understood what I was doing.
"This is eating," I explained. "People usually eat food three times a day: breakfast, lunch, and dinner." I was trying my best to keep things really simple.
He finished the yogurt and seemed to understand the concept of food, for the most part at least. I took him back to his books and let him continue reading the encyclopedia he was working on before I had interrupted him.
"What are you working on?" I questioned, sitting down across from Jessi at the table.
"Foss wanted me to make sure that we're keeping up with our training schedules. He also wants us to start training Nathan," she explained, peering up from her laptop.
"Shouldn't Nathan work on basic social and behavioral concepts?" I pointed out, not wanting to push Nathan too fast.
"He's already read through four of the five volumes of the encyclopedia in the last 3 hours. At this rate he'll have read through all the 175 books in that living room by tomorrow afternoon. He's picking up on things at an alarming rate. Way faster than you or I did," she reminded me.
"Have you had a chance to go through any of the information we were able to copy from Latnok about the experiment," I asked out of curiosity.
"I've only glanced at it, from what I've gathered they altered the fluid a little to help expand his intelligence level. I can only imagine what he will be capable of."
As she spoke I peered into the living room where Nathan was busy at work reading. I didn't think any of us really knew what we were getting ourselves into. I could only hope that our influence would make him better off than the influence Latnok was planning on providing.
ONE WEEK LATER:
Nathan was now able to make conversation, though his grammar was that of a ten year old. The fact that he was picking up on things so quickly intrigued both Jessi and I. The concept of daily patterns was starting to sink in for him. Things like sleeping, eating, bathing he seemed to understand the necessity of.
It was 7:30 in the morning and Jessi had already had us out on a ten mile run. As we were finishing the last quarter mile, I noticed Foss's truck parked behind the Jeep.
"Glad to see you're keeping up with training," he greeted as he grabbed his backpack from the truck.
"Nathan, you remember that this is Tom Foss, right?" I wanted to clarify which people were for Nathan's benefit.
"Foss," he repeated, nodding slightly.
"Right, it's good to see you're making progress," Foss noted as we all found our way inside.
We fell into our morning routine that consisted of Jessi and me making breakfast while Nathan showered, than Nathan would set the table while Jessi showered, than it was finally my turn to shower after breakfast. Most of our physical training took place before breakfast. Between breakfast and lunch Jessi and I worked on teaching Nathan our 'special' talents. The rest of the day was spent doing whatever we felt like doing. Usually Nathan and I would spend time together while Jessi researched.
As I sat three full mugs of coffee down on the table and Jessi joined the rest of us for breakfast. I asked Foss what he was able to find out after I had taken a few bites.
"Christopher is still trying to get some more information. I think the board members may be a little suspicious of him so I think he'll stay in Seattle. I think they're watching him the most and if he comes up here it will blow our cover," he explained, pouring milk into his coffee.
"How long are you expecting us to be out here?" Jessi was the first to ask the question we both were curious about.
"We'll have to plan that out. I'm expecting you both to be here for at least another two to three weeks." That meant that in total we would be here for at least a month.
Nathan sat quietly beside me as we continued talking. After breakfast was over and we had cleaned everything up Jessi and I worked with Nathan. We were trying to get him to manipulate the polarity of water. Foss was inside trying to make sense of the information we were able to collect from Latnok.
Later that night, after dinner, Foss found me on the porch. I must have had an "Amanda look" or else he wouldn't have brought it up.
"You should call her to check in," he said, handing me a beer. "You look like you could use one."
"It's too dangerous to call too often," I said taking the beer and popping the cap off the bottle.
"Last time you called her was in Seattle. I don't think a short phone call will hurt. It will give you both some peace of mind." He left the untraceable phone on the ledge of the railing before heading back into the cabin.
There were two rings before she answered. "Kyle!" It was a half whisper, half excited. Hearing her voice made me smile.
"Hey, I miss you," I admitted right away.
"I miss you too; it's so good to finally hear from you. Is everything okay?" she rambled a little.
"Everyone is fine, we got here…" I paused, I wasn't supposed to say where exactly we where. Not even to Amanda. "We made it here safe."
"That's good," she added.
"How are you guys? How's Brice handling everything?" I asked, knowing I wouldn't like the answer.
"Brice is doing alright; he's been spending a lot of time with Declan while Lori and I work. Lori seems to be getting bigger every day; I'm starting to wonder if she's carrying triplets or something," she joked, trying to keep things light.
We talked for another five minutes before having to go. It was pretty late for her and she had meetings the next morning. I sat down on that old bench again and was alone for a moment until Jessi came out and joined me.
"How is Amanda?" she asked, sitting beside me.
"She's hanging in there," I said.
"You hate being apart from her." It was more of a statement rather than a question.
"She's my wife; of course I hate having to be away from her." It came off harsher than I had intended. "I'm sorry Jessi, it's just everything is so screwed up. Right when things seem to be normal in my life, Latnok swoops right in."
"This is our life Kyle; this has always been our life." I was pacing a little while she stayed calm.
"But what happens when Amanda and I start to have more kids? Or when you settle down with…Elliot? We just uproot our families every time Latnok decides to toy with our lives." This was the first chance I really had to show how I truly felt about all this.
"Kyle, we're doing the best we can. I know it's frustrating but you just have to deal with it."
"I think I'm just going to go to be," I mumbled, taking a swig of my beer. "There's no use getting all worked up over this."
Nathan was already asleep in the top bunk when I came into the room. I took off my jeans and my tan waffle shirt, and crawled under the blanket in my white t-shirt and black boxer briefs. I stared up at the bunk above mine, wedging a photo of Amanda and Brice and I between a slat and the mattress. It was one that had been taken of us at the lake: Amanda and I had rolled up our pant legs and were walking along the shore. Brice was trying to do the same but thought the water was too cold so he made me hold him. Nicole had snapped the picture while we weren't paying any attention. We were all just smiling and enjoying ourselves.
AN: Hey everyone, hope you all enjoyed this chapter and it answered a few more questions. Just wanted to let you know that I posted a picture of what I think Nathan would look like. Check it out and let me know what you think! Can't wait to hear everyone's thoughts on the new chapter so comment away, it's always welcome!
Quick question though, would Nathan's last name be Balin or Trager?