Chapter 3

Jen watched, out the back window, as they drove out of the area. From her position of being partially propped up she could see out the back easily.

"Do we have any idea where we want to go?" asked Matt from the driver's seat.

"I've been thinking about that. A few years ago I inherited some land from a great aunt that passed on. I never changed the title over to my name, so we should head there. It's in California."

"Jason, we can't go to anywhere near there. These people know everything there is to know about us," Jen said, "They'll be waiting for us. We need someplace that they won't expect us to go to."

"They don't know anything about me. It might give us some time to get organized. My grandfather has a sister that has some property in Maine. We could go there. Then if we had too we could try to cross over into Canada," supplied Matt.

The three companions were quiet as they thought of how and if it would work.

"As good as that sounds I think it wouldn't take long for them to figure it out, as I'm sure someone has started a background check on anyone that had come into contact with Jen. Maine is too many days away, anyhow. If we could get there tomorrow, we might have a day before they came after us there. We need something that they might not look at too closely, because it's just too far out there for them to think about," added Jason.

Again Jen, Mat and Jason were quiet, as they tried to think of places to go. Jen kept watch out the back windows, looking for anything or anyone that looked out of place. From where she was, she couldn't see anything, yet. But she knew eventually someone would try to follow them.

"Well, it might be a long shot but I might have an idea," Jason chimed in, "When I was in high school, I knew a kid that, for some reason or other, we rubbed each other the wrong way. I remember once that someone said his old man got this big place in Texas. I remember he hated it, as his dad was going to be gone for several months, and most likely wouldn't be there to toss his weight around, to get the kid out of all the trouble he was in."

"That would be someplace I would never think to look. The property of a childhood enemy," replied Matt.

"If I remember right he never left the town we grew up in. Let me make a call," Jason started fishing out one of the other cell phones.

"Are you sure the phones are untraceable?" Jen asked.

"Joe got them new for me, just before we left. I only call once and keep it down to less than three minutes. Jen I know the drill even better than you do." Jason said with a chuckle.

Jen smiled then winced as Matt hit a bump.

"I know, but as you used to say, it's better to question than get your head blown off because you didn't check something."

"True, and we are working ... or I should say ... we should consider ourselves behind enemy lines and in hostile territory. I'll look over the phone before I put the battery in."

"Jason, check the charger too. Remember that time I put that little bug in it, so that we wouldn't be anywhere near when that shit head used it?"

"Good idea."

Jason checked everything and then called a number that for some reason, he had memorized but then could never get out of his head, just like an overplayed song on the radio comes and never seems to go away. There was some interesting talk as the two old high school enemies conversed.

"You were never this friendly in school, or after, unless you needed something. So what is it? And don't waste my time making up some dumb assed story," Robert Daggy said to the man he had hated in school, and after, for so many years.

"Ok, let me ask you this. What was your biggest bitch in school?"

"What? My hate of government bullshit and their involvement in too many things. That hasn't changed, and I have fucking proof of some really good shit, too. Why? You got some more shit for me?"

"I got some shit that will make you do handstands and back flips."

"Really? You? Mister GI 'gung ho' Joe? What'd they kick you out for fucking some dike bitch or something?" Robert said as he tried to figure out if this was on the up-and-up or a trap.

"First, I won't tell you over the phone. Too many ways to listen in. Second, when I see you, I will hit you for that remark. A friend of mine was kicked out of the Corps, and now they're after her and me. We need a place to hide out. I remembered your dad got that big place in Texas and I was wondering if there might be a place down there to stash us for a bit."

Jason waited to see if he just got them all killed or if he found a place.

"Jason, are you on the level. I mean this isn't a joke."

"Robert, we may have hated each other, but I never lied to you. Hell, I never lied to anyone back then."

Robert became quiet. He had the feeling that this was big, really big, so in a very quiet voice, "Head down to the boarder of Texas and Louisiana. Call me back. I'll give you directions from there. And call me at 555-5678. I'll tell you where to meet me, and I'll take you to a good spot. It's well hidden, and hard as hell to get to."

"Ok, but if you fuck me over, I will rip off your dick and shove it so far up your ass that it will look like your tongue is sticking out of your mouth."

"Look we both have a lot at stake here. I'll tell you everything when I see you."

"Ok. It should take us about three days to get there. We have to travel slow, we have injured with us, so we're taking it easy."

"I'll expect your call. But if I say 'that last hurricane was fun', turn around and get the hell out of the area. Ok?"

"Understood."

Jason ended the call and disabled the phone. Then he looked at the two people with him.

"We have a possible place. We'll head that way and see what happens."

Matt and Jen agreed.

"You know, I hate to say this, but don't you think it's about time I knew the full story. I know I'm in over my head, now, but at least toss me a log to hang on to," Matt requested after a long stretch of quiet.

Jen looked at Jason who nodded his head so she began. Matt listened as he drove and tried to understand what was going on. But to him, it made no sense what so ever.

"I think the only thing I can think of to say, is, 'wow'. Although I just don't understand most of it. To me it just seems that either someone really high up, messed up, and you and your team are his way out of it; or maybe one of your missions wasn't what you thought it was, and because of it, you were exposed to something or saw something. You might not even know it was the key to something else, that's even bigger than anyone could imagine."

Jen and Jason had been looking at each other for most of the time that Matt had been talking and the first part had occurred to them, but the second hadn't. Jen and Jason ran over all the missions in their minds that they had been on, and nothing jumped out at them.

Jen's mind flashed pictures of all the places and events she had been a part of when a whisper in her mind said, 'lab'.

It was the last big mission that she and her team had been on. Jason, Jonny and she had entered what was supposed to be a secret base that had called in an attack, and the survivors needed extraction. Only they found that the base was nearly deserted, with just a few bodies. What was strange, was the amount of coded lab papers. When the team had called in that there were no survivors, they were told to retrieve all the papers they could, but to try to limit their exposure to them, if possible. For Jen, that didn't matter. She would remember everything, anyway. Of course, she kept that to herself.

"Jen, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Jen got to thinking really hard about it. There were still a few things that she had yet to really go into about the last few days. The dreams being the biggest item.

"Jason, when I first called you, and you wanted to get the guys, do you remember what I said?" Jen asked.

This caught Jason off guard and made him think. "You said something about Jonny being in trouble and in Bethesda. I just assumed you had contacted him, too, or had talked to him another way."

"Jason, I had a dream. In that dream I was able to talk to Jonny. That's when he told me what was going on with him."

"Jen, you were hurt, your mind was trying to make you feel better, and not think about it."

"Jason, there's more. During some of those dreams when I was not talking to Jonny ... shit this is going to sound so X-files ... but I was able to touch the minds of others in such a way that I knew what they were thinking of, at the time. I ... I was able to see what that person was looking at, too."

"Jen..."

"Jason, when you came into the hospital, you asked a raven haired receptionist for the information to find me. Then she went over to another person, and that person went to talk to the sheriff, yes?"

"Yes, I did."

"I saw you through her eyes. And I heard you having a little talk with the sheriff."

"Now, really, Jen this is getting too much." Jason was getting more and more worried that maybe what he needed to do was to take Jen and head over to Bethesda and have her looked at too.

"Jason, when the sheriff came up to you, he said, 'Excuse me, can I help you?' Then you replied, 'I'm looking for a friend of mine. I was told she was hurt, and needed some help.' To which he asked, 'And you are?' You came back with, 'Colonel Jason Waters, Marine Corps, Retired. My friend's name is Jennifer Gregory.' He smiled slightly, then said, 'I'm Joe Baxley, the sheriff of this little town. I'm very glad to see you, Colonel. Semper Fi.' You looked a bit shocked, but relieved, and then said, 'Hoorah!', and, 'Can we move to some place a bit quieter, and you can bring me up to speed on what's going on?'

"Then you moved outside and Arnie, Matt's grandfather, met you out there. Now if that was just a dream, you tell me so. We'll turn this van around, and head for the naval hospital. If those were the exact words you used, you tell me."

As Jason sat thinking of what everything could mean. Matt was remembering himself sitting next to Jen while she slept but she would murmur in her sleep like she was talking to someone.

"Jen, do you know if you have any ... I think my grandma would call them 'special gifts' in your family?" asked Matt.

"Special gifts, like what recipes or something like that?" Jen replied.

"No. Ok, this is in keeping with your 'X-files' idea, but I'm talking about ESP type stuff. This area is rich with old people talking about how this granny or that one always knew something or could do something. Most of it was clairvoyance, but sometimes there was some telekinesis. Anyway, is there a history of anything like that in your family?"

Jen really had to think back to when she lived with her natural grandparents. Then she remembered that her grandmother was telling her about grandpa's mom being 'gifted', and was always a local favorite at the yearly carnival as the fortuneteller. She always got it right, and whatever she foretold, came true.

"Yes. My great-grandmother on my mom's side was gifted. But what does that have to do with this."

"This is just a guess, and you could call it one of my childish X-files ideas; but what if while on one or more of your missions, you were exposed to something. A something that someone was trying to develop, to enhance the areas of the brain that might contain or control those kinds of gifts. You said that your other teammate is even now being held and is being tested. Or as I remember you saying when you called Jason that your friend was a lab rat."

"Matt it just sounds like you're reaching, but for some strange reason I believe what you're saying is possible. I think I even know which mission it was that might have started all this," stated Jason, "The three of us went in, and Jen had the most contact with the shit that was in there. But I know I don't have anything like ESP in my family, and I've never had any strange dreams or the like."

"Your gifts may not be mental in nature. It could be something completely different," Jen said. "I read some books about it when I was in high school. Damn I wish we could go to my place. I know I have some books there, but we don't dare. That's the first place these guys will look. Hell they may have had someone watching for me, for all I know."

The van hit a set of small bumps that made Jen cry out.

"Sorry, Jen. Some of these roads are going to be bad. I'm planning on taking the back roads all the way to Alabama, if I can," said Matt.

"That's ok. I just think the meds are wearing off and I'm going to need some more. Plus I think we need to find a rest stop soon. Without that damn pee tube in I need to go."

"There aren't any on this road but I might be able to find something."

"Jen if you have to go I'll get the..." Jason said with a slight smile.

"Oh, Jason, not that," Jen whined.

"It's that or a tree. I don't want you moving around that much," Jason said.

He started looking for what he wanted, while chuckling. He found it faster than Matt could find a place for them to stop.

That was how it went for the rest of the day. The three would only stop to run to a tree, or to hit a drive-through for some food ... when they came to a place that had food. As night fell they crossed the state line on some back roads, but kept going. Jason had taken a good rest on the floor of the van though he groaned from the kinks that came from his age.

"I think, I'm getting too old for this shit."

"Well, I told you there was room on this gurney for the both of us but you didn't want to. Hell I could sit down there, just as well as I could be laying up here," Jen said with a smile, "and it's not like it would be the first time we shared a bed."

Matt, who was listening, swerved just a bit as his mind jumped to the wrong conclusion. Jason started chuckling all over again.

"Jen, will you stop teasing that poor boy. Matt, she's kidding. When it happened we were freezing our asses off, hiding under a wet log. Jonny and Mark were there, too. By the way, where are we?" Jason asked.

"You guys ... Jen, you're a pain, you know that!" Matt started.

"No, I'm not, I'm stoned. I get silly when I'm stoned. Morphine is soooo good," Jen said with a giggle, interrupting Matt.

Snickering, Matt continued, "And as far as where we are, we're in Kentucky. I'm not sure what town's closest though."

"Ok, when you find a good place, pull over. I'll take the wheel, and we'll just drive all night. I'll use the main highways, though, as I don't know the back roads like you do."