The Beginning Of Rain In December (10 page)

“Yes, in the glove compartment,” the woman automatically stated not taking her eyes off the road.

Rain nodded while taking off her lab coat. “Good, don’t be scared, I won’t hurt you, just get to Altoona, Pennsylvania. Quickly.”

The woman nodded, as Rain searched her thoughts, she was single, was traveling to Chicago to visit with her family. “Call your family and tell them you will be a day late and to not worry, you want to take the scenic route,” Rain commanded.

She watched as the woman picked up the phone, called her mother and did exactly as told. “Very good,” Rain said.

The drive to Pennsylvania was short, less than four hours, she directed the woman to the small parcel of land that Rain had brought more than five years ago. She stopped the woman in front of the No Trespassing sign. Barbwire surrounded the heavily thicketed forest. It was just two in the afternoon. “Wait here, do not answer your phone.”

The woman nodded, her hands gripped upon the steering wheel, staring straight forward. Rain walked through a small path, off the main entrance, she knew this place had brought this land, along with four other parcels of land throughout the country five years ago. She had felt foolish, paranoid and suspicious for doing so, yet the urge would not go away. She had picked five spots within the country and each spot contained an emergency kit. She checked each parcel of land yearly, making sure that it was not disturbed.

The shovel that she had hidden in a rotted tree was still there. She pulled it out, shaking the spiders and ants off. She then walked less than a half a mile and between two great oak trees she started digging. It did not take her long to unearth her kit, she shook out the duffle bag, opened it up and the large plastic bag, inside the plastic bag was a large backpack. She pulled out her supplies, counting her money; she had $50,000, clothing, thermal underwear, hygiene, gun, knife, mace, water bottles, emergency food and fake ids. She changed clothes, buried the doctors outfit back in the dirt, changed into jeans, boots, a sweater and all weather insulated coat. There were matches, thermal blanket and hand and feet warmers within the jacket. She placed everything back inside and made her way back to the driver, opening the door.

“Take me to Altoona at the nearest car dealership. There you will continue on your trip to visit your family.” She pulled out five hundred dollars and placed it in the woman’s glove compartment. “This money is a gift from an old friend. Fill up your tank. You will not remember me, do you understand?” Rain commanded.

“Yes.”

“Good.”

The woman dropped her off at a used car dealership and drove away immediately. Rain turned towards the dealership, it looked shady, small and dingy.

“I need a car,” she said to a salesman who was standing outside smoking a cigarette. “A good car, with low mileage. I have cash. Don’t ask any questions.”

He nodded, stubbing out his cigarette. He led her to a gray four door Toyota sedan. She searched his memory for faults regarding the car and found none. The sign said $5999. “No paperwork, do you understand. I pay you cash and you hand me the title and registration.”

He nodded, going dumbly into his office while she knelt down and counted out $6000. Within five minutes he was back, a business envelope in his hand. “Good,” she said and handed him the money. “You will not remember me,” she said and pulled out the keys in the envelope, perusing the title, searching his thoughts to know its legitimacy. “When I leave this lot you will only remember that you sold the car to a nice, elderly lady. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” the salesman said.

“Good,” Rain said. “You may go back inside.”

She got in the car, warming it up, it smelled clean, freshly detailed, it started smoothly with a cd player, an electronic system. Within fifteen minutes of entering the parking lot she was driving away.

Before she reached the main highway, she pulled over at a gas station, brought two baseball caps and some glasses and food, staples paying with cash and keeping her face averted away from the security camera, using her hand to pretend an itch upon her check, over her eyes. When she went back to the car, she pulled around back and violently threw up in the bushes, her headache was worse than it had ever been. She had stayed it off during the periods where she had to force herself into others minds. She took three Excedrin migraine pills she’d also picked up from the station, gulped down water and laid her head upon the cool of the steering wheel, breathing in slowly.

“Go, Rain, it’s time to go,” she said as her headache receded somewhat after five minutes of deep breathing and closed eyes. She took out the mouthwash, gargled and spit it out, trying to get her bearings, her head feeling as if it was going to explode.

Pulling back onto the road, she quickly made her way onto the main highway, her hat pulled low, the heat turned on, soft classical music playing, anything to lull away the headache. She did not stop until nearly four hundred miles later when she was forced to fill up the rapidly emptying tank of the Toyota. Taking a bathroom break, she got some more food and headed back onto the road. Not knowing exactly where she was going, only knowing that she had to get as far as possible from Lebna, the doctors…that facility.

Nearly eight hundred miles later she stopped at a Howard Johnson, just on the outskirts of Memphis. She paid cash for the room, locked the door, laid her gun on the nightstand next to her and fell into a dreamless sleep.

Rain blinked back gritty eyes, lifting up the hotel clock next to her, the read led lights stated 3:30, from the airy lightness of the room she guessed it was afternoon. She picked up the phone and pressed the operator button.

“Front desk,” a light, feminine voice stated.

“Hi, could you give me the date?”

“Certainly, it’s Friday, December 24, one day before Christmas,” the hotel receptionist stated.

“Okay, thanks,” Rain said.

“You are welcome and Merry Christmas,” the receptionist stated before hanging up.

Rain had been asleep for nearly forty eight hours; however, upon awakening she felt refreshed, light. She’d put nearly a thousand miles between her and that facility, the doctors, but knew she would have to travel further before settling down somewhere, or even leaving the country.

As she undressed her mind went over the details of the past week, the tests, meeting her grandfather, Enlai.

But thoughts of Enlai and her purported pregnancy was too much to comprehend, at least now. How could her body already reveal its pregnancy when they had just had sex? It made no sense to her rational mind. Could her body be so transformed, so genetically altered that what she had thought reality was no longer such?

Getting in the shower, she scrubbed herself from head to toe, intent on losing herself within a new city, of hiding, of never allowing another to get close, of never being found again. She couldn’t afford it, not again. The one man she had trusted, Enlai, had betrayed her into the government.

After she finished her ablutions, she got dressed again in her clothes, knowing she’d have to buy some more, but she meant to keep it light, until she found a place to settle. She packed up her items, making sure she wiped everything down with Clorox wipes that she had picked up or touched, left the room and checked out.

She didn’t care where she drove, only that she put as many miles as possible away from the East Coast as she studied a map of the United States while eating a burger from McDonald’s.

“I might as well close my eyes and point,” she decided and did just that, turning the map around a few times, before pointing to a spot. When she opened them, there was no excitement, no joy, nothing. “Santé Fe, New Mexico, there it is then,” she said, drinking from bottled water.

The trip to Santé Fe from Memphis was a little over one thousand miles. She knew she could drive it in a day, but decided to sleep overnight at a hotel when she was halfway there. Before checking in, she stopped at a department store and brought one week’s worth of clothes for cool, desert weather and some personal effects.

At the hotel, she once again slept into an exhaustive slumber, ignoring the fact that it was Christmas, that she was alone and on the run, that she would not be spending it with Belle and her family as she had every year for five years. This Christmas she could not afford to think useless or pitiful thoughts.

When she finally reached Santé Fe, she drove around first; she had never been to the city and admired its adobe style buildings and homes, the charming downtown square with the many vendors selling jewelry and different wares.

She picked up a paper, brought a laptop computer, drove through a drive thru for dinner and checked in at a bed and breakfast, paying cash for the week stay while she attempted to find more permanent housing. The owners, an elderly Native American couple were sweet and gave her many different brochures for tourist attractions.

After thanking them she locked and bolted herself in her room, checking out the exits and pulled her gun out, opening up the laptop while sitting in bed and munching on French fries.

“Alright, apartment first, then job,” she said and started searching online. The apartments seemed plentiful, she found one with twenty four hour security and less than $1000 a month. But instead of looking for a job, she lay down, closing her eyes and thought of Enlai.

The headache began instantly as she searched for him, remembering his smile, the greenness of his eyes, the deep timbre of his voice. It took her a long while more than an hour, but she found him, in a car, traveling with Snow. They were no longer in America, the car’s driver side was on the right, the scenery through Enlai’s eyes was of London, and he was just leaving the American Embassy.

“Have they heard from her?” Snow was asking as Enlai gave him a curt look.

“You know they have not and they will not.” Enlai bit out angrily. “They won’t be able to find her, she will make sure of that.”

“Enlai, it is for the best,” Song returned.

“What is for the best, brother? That John lied to me, Lebna, and told me that no harm would come to her? That she was free to come and go as she pleased? How is this for the best? Damn, John.”

“Do not blame yourself.”

“How can I not?”

“Because you had to follow orders. The chief exec ordered you…us here without delay. We thought Lebna was to be trusted, we thought our boss was to be trusted.”

Enlai cursed fiercely, his knuckles upon the steering wheel tight fisted. “I should have known better. Now, she will think…she will think that I planned this, that I set her up.”

“What does it matter what she thinks?”

“It matters.” Enlai said.

“She is gone.”

“They will stop at nothing to haunt her down. I will not let that happen.”
“Enlai, you are too close to this. Your emotions are involved. She is government property, her DNA can save millions. You and she must realize this.”

“She is no man’s property,” Enlai bit out. “She is free to do whatever she damn well wishes,” he said.

“Get over it, Enlai, or else you will be destroyed by those whom we work for.”

“You are my brother, Song,” Enlai said. “And I would do well to heed your warning, but on this I cannot. So you can either get the hell out of my way or you can back me up.”

Rain left Enlai and his brother before falling into an exhaustive sleep. When she woke, she found him again, this time easier, he was in bed, by himself, sleep, in a dimly lit hotel room.

Enlai,
she thought,
please, Enlai
.

He woke, sitting up, instantly reaching for his gun. “Who is there?” He said.

Rain attempted something she had not before as Enlai sat up in bed with one fluid movement, the muscles upon his abdomen rippling with power, searching the room. She thought of her image, her form, sitting in bed next to him, until his eyes grew wide, his breathing shallow, fast.

“Can you see me?” She asked, in the room with him, sitting next to him. Her form was shadowy, he moved as to touch her, his fingers going through air.

“How? How are you doing this?” He asked in amazement. “Am I dreaming?”

“No, you aren’t dreaming. I don’t know how I am doing this. I don’t know why all this…power began or how. I just think of something and it happens. I just wanted to be with you. For a moment, it hurts my head so much, I won’t be able to stay long. I thought you had betrayed me, Enlai.”

“Never Rain.”

“What happened that day?”

“When they took you inside the room, we received notification from the President we were wanted immediately for debriefing in Washington and then to London, to search for your grandmothers associates any type of information, records. I heard through an inside contact what occurred at the facility. That was not supposed to happen, Rain.”

“Did they tell you, give you the information for my test results?”

He paused. “ Yes.”

“All of them?”

“Are you pregnant, Rain?”