Star Never Wished Upon

They were a unit of little, genetically engineered soldiers, and that was all they knew. They had no real understanding that their lives were not normal, the thought of anything different or better had never occurred to them—they just followed their orders. But they did have an understanding that life was not good to them at times; failure to follow orders meant punishment, often painful, and doctors visited torture upon them to study reactions and healing time. But what else was there?

At was only after Jack had started seizing and was taken away that things started to change for them. They were under close scrutiny to see if any others also showed signs of seizures—signs that the young X5s were desperate to hide. For Max, ever the insomniac, had gone prowling and discovered the doctors cutting poor Jack up; and Lydecker was just standing there, watching and drinking his cup of coffee. No one wanted to share Jack’s fate, so any sign of tremors was carefully hidden.

When Ben became increasingly desperate to believe in the Blue Lady, and Max’s seizures were becoming harder to hide, Zack, as unit leader, made decision. They were getting out of there.

Max halted when she got to the road. This was enemy territory now. She had to be careful or she would be caught. Her heart thudded in her chest, beating out a mantra in the back of her mind: I hope Jondy got away; I hope Zack got away; I hope the others got away. She hated the fact that they were separated, but part of her could see Zack’s point. But she couldn’t think of that now—she had to concentrate on making it ahead of the TAC unit that was on her tail.

She blinked as headlights from a car suddenly blinded her. Unlike the proverbial deer caught in the headlights, she did not freeze. Rather she sprang back and dropped to the ground, hoping against hope that she had not been seen. No such luck, the car pulled up right along side her, and the front passenger door opened.

“Get in. Hurry!” the woman named Hannah frantically whispered. Her eyes kept darting from Max to the road.

Max was suspicious, to say the least. She had been taught to be that way. But Hannah seemed sincere, and there no denying that a car could get her further away from there than she could on her own. Besides, if Hannah showed any signs of betrayal, she could make short work of her and escape again, no problem. So Max tried to relax as she hunkered down out of sight, the sound of a man singing in a gentle voice the only noise filling the car. She recognised the tune as something Lexie Dennison would hum when taking her notes.

Syl stopped for a minute to catch her breath. X5s were designed to be faster and stronger than the ordinary human, but even they had their limits. She had lost track of Krit somewhere along the way, but she dared not go back for him. If he had gotten caught there was no sense risking her capture as well. It wasn’t like she’d really be able to free him—she knew that the TAC soldiers were just as likely to kill her on sight as capture her.

It was the logical decision, it was the rational one; but even as she made it her heart rebelled. One thing that Lydecker had taught them was to never abandon your unit; and that’s what she felt like she was doing. She felt that way when Zack told them to split up; like Max, she had protested the decision. But she also understood the logic of it: split up, go in different directions, if you get caught you can’t reveal where the others are. Realising this did not make it any easier.

She cocked her head to one side, using her enhanced hearing to pick up any sounds of pursuit. She couldn’t hear any sign of a TAC team—which was good—but she heard something that was potentially just as dangerous: motor vehicles. There must be a road nearby, or worse, all terrain vehicles. No time to waste regretting decisions made, it was done; now she had to survive. So Syl picked a direction and ran again, unconsciously humming a tune that Lexie Dennison did when taking notes.

Lexie Dennison sighed as she looked out the window on the landing. She had the dreadful feeling that she had put them in danger—Brad, his parents, the Fitzgeralds; all of them. She had long thought what Manticore was doing to these kids was wrong, but she was powerless to stop it. That’s why she couldn’t leave Krit and Zane out there when she found them, they deserved the best chance they could get. So she had Brad pick them up, knowing that it would practically be a death sentence on his head. But then again, just driving her home the night the X5s chose to escape had already done that—Lydecker was not one to take chances.

She sighed again. It was one thing for Brad to unwittingly become involved, his life endangered; it was quite another to deliberately spill all of Manticore’s secrets to his parents, aunt and uncle. But Jennifer Sheridan was an astute woman; she knew something was up when they came in, and Lexie had to ask to spend the night. When Krit and Zane were discovered, the game was up. One good thing was that Manticore had no idea the Fitzgeralds were even there—they had dropped in on a surprise visit on their way back to LA. If they left early enough in the morning, Manticore need never know they were even there—Lexie was banking on Manticore having enough to do that night not to post guards at the Sheridans’ place. That’s what Michael and Anna Fitzgerald’s plan was—to leave early in the morning, and take Zane with them. Anna decided that the boys deserved a chance at a normal life, and only regretted not being able to take Krit as well. If only Krit could be that lucky!

Lexie jumped when she felt warm arms encircle her from behind, and relaxed again when she realised it was just Brad. “You seem tense,” he commented.

“Can you blame me?” she turned to look at her boyfriend. “I’ve put you all in danger—you, your parents, possibly even your aunt and uncle.”

“Shh,” Brad kissed the tip of her nose. “Mum, Dad, Uncle Mike, Aunt Anna, they chose to listen. They wanted to know—they could’ve heeded your warning that it was too dangerous. And Mum’s still talking about adopting Krit.”

Lexie shook her head frantically. “It’s way too dangerous. If Lydecker were to find out…”

“I know, but we need to do something. We can’t just leave him, Mum won’t stand for it.”

Something in his voice made her frown. “What are you thinking?”

“You said it’s likely Manticore’s going to kill me anyway, just for being out there tonight, right?”

She nodded reluctantly. “That’s what Lydecker told me. He may change his mind, but I doubt it.”

“Well, if I can somehow cheat death and make it look like they have killed me, I can go on the lam with Krit. Then he won’t be alone.”

“I don’t know,” Lexie was doubtful. “Krit may not trust you enough to go with you, for one thing. And it’s awfully chancy; how will you know when you’ve been targeted?”

“How do you think they’re likely to do it?” Brad asked.

“Probably a car bomb when you’ve dropped me home. Cars blow up; it looks like an accident, especially if you slide into an embankment. You’ve done that before.”

“Well, we can put it off until tomorrow, at least. You keep clothes at Megan’s in case you need to stay off base overnight, so you don’t have to go home until after school at the earliest.”

“What good’s that gonna do?”

“It gives us time to think. We can ask Krit what he thinks in the morning. In the meantime, I think we should try and get some sleep. Staying up fretting isn’t going to help us any. Think about that old Bryan Adams song.”

“Huh?” Lexie blinked. “What Bryan Adams song?”

“The one about the star. You know… ‘Everybody wants to be winner. Everybody has a dream. We all need a shining star when things ain’t what they seem’.”

Smiling, she sang along with him. “ ‘So tonight we’re gonna wish upon a star we never wished upon before’.”

Zane growled in frustration as his classmates laughed at yet another gaffe he had managed to make. He never thought that fitting in in the ‘real’ world would be so hard. Even his teacher couldn’t see how someone as obviously smart as he was could be so thick at times. Only his foster sister Anita Fitzgerald looked at him sympathetically; but she, like the rest of the family, knew exactly where he came from. It wasn’t that easy to explain away some of his little mistakes.

Mr Lance shushed the class and got the lesson back on track, but all Zane wanted was to get out of there. He knew from experience, though, that running out just added fuel to the fire. He just had to grit his teeth and bear it.

Anita leaned across the aisle. “Don’t worry, Zane, you’re getting there.”

“Yeah,” he muttered back. “Some day I’m gonna fit in just fine. All I have to do is wish upon a star, like that old song said.”

Krit sighed as he and Brad trudged along. They had lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle since the escape in February 09. They had to be really careful for the first few months, because a teenager and a kid alone in the world tended to raise a few eyebrows. Anytime somebody in authority asked too many questions, they moved on, scared that Lydecker may find them. Which could cause suspicions in itself. One thing that the Pulse did was make it easier for them in that respect—nobody asked too many questions when a young man and his kid brother drifted into town.

Things were strained between him and Brad at first. It was hard for both of them to leave everything they knew and go on the lam, and that was without the pressure of a secret government agency on their tail. Krit was not even sure how far he could trust this stranger, not really being inclined to trust anyone; all he knew was that Brad had given up a lot to protect him. The nomadic lifestyle only made it worse.

But it also brought them closer together, having to depend on only one another. Little by little trust developed, and after a while they were like real brothers. Brad told Krit stories about ‘real’ life, the kind of life that by necessity they couldn’t have. The Pulse threw the world upside down, and nothing was the same anymore. Wishing for a normal life did not get you anywhere.

“Do you think things will ever be normal again?” an 11-year-old Krit asked one day.

“What’s normal?” Brad countered. “For me, normal was home, school, Lexie. For you it was drills and tests. Normal is a relative term, and right now it’s drifting from place to place, trying to find a home.”

“Tell me about it,” Krit sat down on an overturned milk crate to take a gulp of water. “Think we’ll ever settle down in a real home?”

The older man shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe if I can find a decent enough job somewhere. That’s the real trick these days.”

“The threat of Lydecker and Manticore really doesn’t help there. Maybe we should split up. You could settle down then.”

“Hey!” Brad whirled around and took the transgenic by the shoulders. “That’s enough of that. I’ve told you before, I’m not gonna leave you on your own. Besides, I’d miss you if you weren’t around. Who else would I tease?”

Krit smiled. “I just feel bad sometimes. Your parents were killed, you gave up so much…”

“I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t wanted to. Manticore would’ve killed us all with that explosion if we hadn’t left. Someday we’ll make it.”

“Yeah, someday.”

“You just have to hold onto the dream. Remember that old Bryan Adams song Lexie liked?”

“Which one? ‘Star’?”

“That’s the one. ‘Everybody has a dream’.” Brad sang, slightly off key. “ ‘We all need a shining star when things ain’t that they seem’.”

Krit joined in. “ ‘So tonight we’re gonna wish upon a star // we never wished upon before. Gotta get where you’re headed for’.”

Lexie Dennison had just about had enough with Manticore. What they had been doing to the children growing up there all those years was bad enough. She got to see the results of the experiments daily with the X5’s remaining after the escape, and the future series. But the techniques employed to ‘reindoctrinate’ Brin and Zack after they were recaptured were nothing short of barbaric, even for Manticore. Lexie knew she would not be able to handle working there for much longer.

She secretly applauded Zack and Max (at least she thought it was Max) when they eluded the trap Lydecker had set for them. The kids deserved every chance they could get. The Eyes Only message gave her hope, too. It told her that Zane, Krit, Syl, Tinga, and Jondy at least were still doing okay. It also gave her hope that they would all be free of Manticore some day.