Chapter 4: Meeting a Phsyco

"We should probably keep moving if we don't want Multivision to come at us so quickly." suggested Adam and I nodded. "But first, we should do something about your ankle. What about a hospital?" he asked and I shook my head. "No, they know I've been shot and they'll probably look there first." he sighed. "Well, then what do we do about it?" I shrugged. "Nothing at the moment. Our first objective is to get as far away from them as we can. Where are we anyways?" I asked looking around. "A park in New York." replied Adam. "All these years and I never knew what state we were in." i shook my head in shame and started limping forward.

It was silent as we walked out of the park but he started talking again. "So do you know anything about the outside world?" he didn't look at me so I returned the favor. "Of course I do. I use my iPod to search up images and things like that. Wikipedia is also a good source of information." we started to walk on sidewalk walking through a neighborhood. "What's Wikipedia?" he wondered out loud. "It's this site that tells you almost everything about almost everything. That's how I learn about parks, trees, houses, and just regular normal things. I just type in any word that pops into my head." I shrugged. "Do you know what cars are then?" I shook my head. "Do you wanna see what they are?" he asked sounding anxious. "Sure why not?"

I followed him out of the neighborhood faster than the pace we were pacing at.

"Do you even watch TV?" he asked. "What's a TV?" I answered the question by asking a question. "Never mind."

When the line of houses ended we came on this street that looked like it extended forever towards the east and west with these big things zooming by loudly. I covered my ears and he laughed. "These are cars?" I asked and he nodded. "These sure are noisy. I can't believe these were ever created." I took my hands away from my ears and scowled at the cars. "Well you see, they transport people to another place so they don't have to walk and it’s faster especially if they want to go somewhere far." I coughed a couple times. "This is horrible. Can't you smell that? Gross!"

Something over came the smell of what ever the cars were making and made me turn towards the neighborhood. "What is it?" asked Adam but I shushed him and took a deep breath. One of the houses started blinking a bright florescent yellow color making me gasp. "What is it now?" Adam rolled his eyes. "Don't you see that house," I pointed at it. "It's blinking! You don't see it?" he shook his head. "Come on!"

As I limped down the hill over to the house that was blinking Adam said, "Has your ankle gone to your head?" I frowned towards the ants that were trailing on the sidewalk. "No, wait, maybe I don't know right now. But I know where we're staying for the night." I smiled as I bit my lip and dragged my forsaken ankle as a burden growing like a tumor on my leg.

When we climbed the steps to the house I said, "Play along with me. I know how to buy us in." He raised his eye brow toward me. "How do you know we'll get in." he asked questioning my abilities. "I don't know. I feel that they're good people that wouldn't turn away a girl with a bleeding ankle with a piece of metal stuck between the bones." My finger pressed the light red glowing button that I took as a doorbell.

A kind middle aged lady opened the door with a smile. "Yes? May I help you young kids?" she asked with her voice ringing like a wedding bell.

"Hello ma'am, do you know where we can stay for the night?" I asked with urgency in my tone.

"What ever for?" she opened the door a little more. Her hair was a golden gray that was bundled up on top of her head. Wrinkles were forming on the corners of her lips and she wore a light purple apron that looked like black leggings resided behind it. She wore a long sleeve calm pink shirt that screamed "NICE PERSON HERE TO HELP!"

"Well my brother and I, we were abandoned by our parents because they couldn't take care of us anymore. We have been walking around for days and just need to freshen up before we leave."

"What are in those backpacks then?" she asked with her voice squeaking with curiosity.

"We- well. They are.." I stuttered trying to figure out what to say.

"Our parents left us with backpacks of empty bean cans. They surely are sickening." Piped up Adam and I sighed internally.

"Oh dear! What happened to you ankle?" she said worriedly.

"When we were trying to find a place to stay, these mean people shooed us off with a gun and got her ankle real bad." said Adam and I was tempted to smile towards him as a thank you but couldn't.

"Maybe you kids should stay here for the night. I can fix up her ankle just before dinner. It will be no problem." she chirped.

"Oh thank you!" I exclaimed and she led us into a nice large house that looked cozy but it wasn't as big as the mansion I was living in.

"I told you." I whispered and Adam held his hands up in defeat. "Okay, okay."

She led us into a living room that consisted of a couch, an arm chair, two little coffee tables, a flat screen TV, and a hook that held a black backpack similar to the one I was carrying. She signaled us to sit on the couch and wait.

I sat next to Adam on the couch and watched the lady turn the corner into what looked like the kitchen. "So how does it feel to be out of that wretched home of yours?" asked Adam taking me by surprise. I looked at him and then looked at my feet. “Well, it’s not what I expected. I guess it’s…kinda…its.” I couldn’t find the words to describe this feeling inside of me that now was getting noticed but I didn’t even get to finish because when I looked up I saw someone peeking at us behind a wall that led to a hall. I didn’t look at her directly, but just in the corner of my eyes. I couldn’t tell if she was watching us with curiosity or anger. I couldn’t even tell how old she looked but I definitely knew that it wasn’t the nice woman who let us in. From what I could see, she had long dark hair like a gypsy’s wearing a long sleeve dark blue shirt as if her and that older woman shared the same wardrobe. She wore dark skinny jeans that looked worn but loved to the last thread.

Suddenly, I began feeling…weak and vulnerable to anything that would hurt me. I stared forward feeling quite sleepy as my eyes started running down on me.

“Zinc? Are you okay?” Adam asked looking at me but I didn’t move…actually, I couldn’t.

My muscles tensed and the pain in my ankle amplified making my eyes squeeze shut as I hissed in pain softly.

“Zinc, what’s the matter?” he asked terrified.

“Would you…stop worrying about me…I’m fine.” I breathed talking slowly.

My head slowly turned to the right giving me a clear view of the girl who looked…scared. She looked to be about in her late or middle teens but with that expression on her, it made her look…five years younger.

I felt it. I felt her invisible hands reach inside my head and body out of trembling fear. She was doing something to me. She was trying…to figure out who I was and my truth of why I was really there. I felt it. I felt it all.

She was rummaging through my thoughts. She was cruising through my memories. She was trying to compare me to a bad person to see if I really was who I said I was. She probably found out that I wasn’t and went further into me.

I turned my head back where it was and didn’t notice that Adam was still talking directly to me.

“…make sure.” I caught the last of it but still stared blankly in front of me feeling her dig deeper and deeper making me feel uncomfortable making everything inside me ache.

I watched as all the past things I saw and heard today played over again. She watched those memories closely before going way too deep as if she touched my eardrum.

She triggered a memory that wasn’t supposed to be remembered and made my head hurt bad as if I had slammed it on concrete.

I held my head and hissed in pain yelling. “Stop it! Stop it now!” I was bent over having my chest almost touch my legs. She didn’t stop. She wouldn’t stop. From that point, I couldn’t see what she was looking at. It was as if they were forbidden to be seen by me. “Stop it I said. I said stop it!” I yelled and raised my chest to look at the girl who looked more terrified than before. “Please…stop.” I was almost crying with tears filling my eyes and my voice had went soft and almost silenced from the pain that was going everywhere in my body. I just couldn’t handle all that pain at once. I was too young. My body wouldn’t be able to hold that much pain without slipping into unconsciousness.

I decided to stand up, which probably was stupid, but she wouldn’t stop. I walked over to the hall and she stayed in her position staring at me.

“Plea…se st…op.” I begged looking at her as solemnly as I could but she didn’t change anything.

I lost feeling in my legs and dropped to my knees putting my hand down on the carpet so I wouldn’t fall completely forward.

“Zinc!” Adam yelled and rushed to my side. “It’s…her Adam. She’s not…nor…mal.” I squeezed the words out of my mouth before I lost feeling in my arms and fell completely forward anyways feeling my chin hit the carpet.

She let go and I yelled feeling all the pain explode in me at once but subsided in about three seconds leaving my in my heavy air all alone it seemed like.

I slowly rolled over to my back seeing Adam looked down on me really scared. He said something but everything wasn’t clear. I felt like I was on some foreign planet with a different language spoken around me. I didn’t know what to do.

I was breathing heavily but even though I couldn’t hear Adams voice, I heard the girl’s voice. “You have a deep past. Thank you for letting me watch.” she had a smirking tone in her voice. I had no choice, I thought as I looked all the way up seeing the girl standing before me. It looked like she was smiling at me but friendly. “You seem nice.” she said but it seemed to be coming from my mind. She was a Reacher.

Some how I knew that, but I think the reason why I knew that was because she put the name in my head. That sneak.

The more I breathed, the more everything cleared up. The more I thought about leaving, the more I felt like I needed to stay. The more I thought about her power, the more I felt like I was trapped.

“Zinc, can you move?” asked Adam kneeling next to me looking straight at me but I looked away and moved my hand so I could get up in the sitting position. I pushed off and grunted while I moved up. Once I was sitting up I took a deep breath and shook everything off by wagging my new colored hair everywhere.

“I’m fine. Whoa was that new.” I sighed and laughed rubbing the back of my head.

“What exactly happened?’ asked Adam and I looked at my feet imagining the girl’s expression if I told him. Who knew, maybe she could hurt me again.

“Well…I just kinda got a little headache. I guess it’s from the pain in my ankle plus everything that has happened today. It’s nothing to worry about really.” I smiled at him to secure the idea that nothing had happened to me.

“Ah, here we go. Come with me into the bathroom please.” The nice old woman came into the living room with a soft smile on her face looking at me. “You young man can stay and here and relax. She’ll be just fine with me, I can assure you that.” she said and he looked hesitant at first but sighed and gave in. “Yes ma’am.” he said and went back onto the couch. As for me, I stood up and limped after the woman who went down the hallway that no longer held the girl that was once there before but wasn’t anymore.

She opened a door and led me to a nice looking bathroom that looked peaceful and similar to the one I had back at home.

Home?

Could I even call it that anymore? Could I even call that robotic prison my true home when I knew that nobody there actually loved me, but wanted me to stay there like a stupid zoo animal with no future but to have peanuts thrown at it, a home?

The thought of a familiar bathroom looking like the old one at my house made my stomach churn with hate and regret. But did I really regret running away, or was it not killing that man when I had the chance?

Could I even kill him? I couldn’t even hurt a human and those robots didn’t count because they weren’t human. But how did I know that all of them inside weren’t just robots controlled by something bigger than me and them. What if they were super robots that came from another planet and have plans to destroy the world by capturing innocent people one at the time and kill them like a fly trap and they were the spider.

I looked around seeing a tub with a shower head that looked like it could be pulled out. There were two sinks beside each other but with just very little space between them with a soap dispenser built into the wall. The toilet was just plain white with a fancy looking handle and the toilet paper roll was hanging off the side of the sink that closed the toilet into the far corner. There was a long rectangular mirror above the two sinks that held my reflection and boy did I look a mess.

“You can sit on the toilet seat so I can get a good look at your foot.” the nice lady said so I did as I was instructed.

Ever so carefully, she lifted my foot and inspected it. She looked real close and I tried my best to ignore the pain and the fact that this position was odd.

“Well, seems to me the bullet didn’t get to far so it will be easier to get it out than I thought but there will still be pain just to let you know. I am a surged…or was, so I am good with these things. I’ll just get my tools out of the bathroom cupboard under the sink so sit tight for a moment.”

Tools? I thought as she walked away to the sink and opened the cupboard reaching in and pulling out a medium sized see-through light blue case that looked like it held a bunch of silver instruments.

“A surgeon? I’ve heard of those before. They help people by stitching wounds right?” This question looked like it surprised her but she smiled as she opened the case.

“Yes and we even do more than that. Sometimes we can take things out of people’s bodies and replace them with something new. For instance, if a kidney had failed to do its job and the person needed a new one, we could open the body, take that one out, and put a new one in.” she explained as she was choosing from large looking scissors and some other weird looking things.

“That sounds like it hurts a lot though. I feel bad for the people who have to go through that.” I sighed in amazement.

“Well, we usually put them to sleep so they don’t feel anything but I guess they would be sore when they would wake up.” She picked a weird looking instrument that looked like a large version of tweezers.

“So where do the kidneys come from?” I asked blinking at such a shiny but large instrument that probably would help to pull the bullet out.

She inspected my foot again and as she closed in on my ankle with the tweezers she said; “Well, when some people die, their family donates some organs to the hospital to help those in need, as long as the reason that they died wasn’t because of that part.”

She dug deep in my wound making me cringe and close my eyes while biting my lower lip. I hissed in pain as I felt something being ripped out of my ankle. “Ow!” I whined and held my foot as the blood started to flow again. “Ow! Gosh that hurt! I have no idea why pain was invented in the first place.” I whined again as she grabbed a fluffy white towel and wrapped it around my ankle. She put pressure on it making it hurt worse but I had to trust the lady.

“Well sometimes when we feel pain, it is the only proof we have of something that is real.”

I whined again in pain and said, “Well I don’t want this pain to be real. It hurts really bad.”

“When I’m finished, I’ll give you pain killers.”

“”Do you mean you’re not done?” I blinked at her.

“I still have to stitch it up if you don’t want any more blood to escape.”

“Will that hurt too?”

“I’m afraid so but we’ll keep talking to distract you from the pain. Okay? Is there anything you want to discuss?” She went into her tool box and looked like she was going to thread something together because she took out a needle and what looked like black string.

“Actually yes, who was that girl that was there?”

She leaned in and poked the needle under my skin threading it and poking the other side of the wound. “She’s my daughter. Her name is Makenzie. She usually is very shy and terrified which is because she was abused as a child. I’m not her real Mother. You see, she ran away from home when she was about your age and came to my house. Ever since then I have been taking care of her. She really doesn’t like strangers.” She poked my skin several times and pulled having the thread like thing pull both side of my skin together. She cut the end and put her tools away. “All finished.” she said and I smiled brightly. “Really?” I asked and she nodded.

I hopped of the toilet and stood on one foot giving my injured ankle less pressure and so it wouldn’t hurt.

“You have to be more careful next time. If you get hurt again, I won’t be there to help.” She scolded lightly but I nodded like a puppy who knew it did something wrong and was sorry for it. “Now, let’s go get you some pain killers and I’ll serve my famous chili.” She said happily and I limped out after her.

When we entered the living room I saw that Makenzie and Adam were talking to each other but he turned to me and smiled. “Are you okay now?” he asked and I nodded wiggling my foot taking no mind to Makenzie who was staring at Adam. “Yup! It only hurt a little but not as much as I thought. If I over exaggerated I would have said that I was going to die, but I didn’t over exaggerate so I’m good now.” I said with pride and hopped on my one foot.

“Well then, let me take you into the kitchen and get you medicated.” I followed the woman while Adam and Makenzie stayed behind. She rummaged in another cupboard that was just above her head and took out a little container of small white circular things. She took out two of them and put them in my hand. She got me a glass of water and put it in my other hand. I just stood there staring at the pills blankly. “Well, aren’t you going to take them?” she asked and I looked up at her. “What do I do with them exactly?” I asked clueless. “Really?” she asked and I just looked at her like I had no idea. “Well, you put the pills in your mouth but don’t swallow and when you drink your water, they’ll go down with the water and in a couple of hours your pain will have lowered.” I smiled and popped them into my mouth. They had no taste which was odd. I put a sip of water in my mouth and swallowed it. The things weren’t in my mouth anymore. They probably went down with the water.

“You okay?” asked the lady and I realized that I looked outrageously confused. “Oh, I’m fine. I just never had these before. Will they really stop the pain?” I asked and put the water down on the counter. “More or less. Okay everybody! Come and sit at the table!” She shouted the last part to get the other two’s attention and they appeared by the table when we walked out of the kitchen. Now that I thought about it, I smelled something really delicious that I have never smelled before. I smiled and sat down in a chair next to Adam and the lady. We all sat at a round brown table so Makenzie ended up in front of me.

Bowls of beans and cheese with this white topping was placed in front of us and I was tempted to dig my spoon in but was afraid about not liking it and spoiling my dinner. After everyone had already eaten a spoonful I sat there with my hands under the table looking at the food. After I saw that everyone else seemed to like it, I took a hand out and grabbed my spoon. I dipped it in what was called chili and put it in my mouth. Almost immediately I shrieked and spit the chili out back into my bowl.

“What happened?” asked the lady while I was fanning my mouth with my hand. “Ah! Nobody told me it was hot!” I almost shouted leaving them in laughter. “You might want to blow on the food before you eat it. Its very good hot.” suggested the old lady. I nodded and tried again but this time, blowing on my food before putting it into my mouth. “Wow! This is really good! I’m surprised I’ve never had this before.” I laughed and dug in for another spoonful. “You haven’t had a lot of things, have you?” Makenzie spoke this time making me look up at her. She had put her long brown hair in a neat ponytail to probably keep it out of her dinner. “Would you be surprised if I hadn’t?” I answered the question with a question while I laughed nervously. It was pretty silent for a couple minuets before the lady broke it.

“So what are your names if I might ask?” I looked at Adam and he nodded.

“I’m Zinc and this is Adam.”

“So where did you live?” asked Makenzie but I was pretty sure she already knew that so I scowled at her.

“We’re from around here actually. It didn’t take us long to get here.” butted Adam so I wouldn’t have to lie much.

“So what brought you here?” said Makenzie who was more interested than anything now that she was leaning in with her hands on her chin smirking. I thought about everything that happened and became angered. Somehow, I wanted to have my revenge on them. Somehow I wanted to kill them for containing me for my whole life. Somehow I wanted to scream at them for taking me away from my real family if I had a real one. I took a deep breath and stopped Adam from talking first.

“My parents ended up to be robotic jerks who only thought about themselves and nothing about me-er-us. We ran away.”

“I thought they couldn’t take care of you so they left you with backpacks full of empty bean cans?” piped the woman.

“Well, we had to say something so we could be brought in. If we told you we just ran away from out stupid parents, you surely would have turned us into the police so we could be taken back.” I said in the matter-of-factly.

“Now hold on! My Mom would never turn anybody into the police!” argued Makenzie.

“Well we didn’t know that and we still don’t know that now.” I said sort of pointing at her with my spoon and went in for another bite. She looked annoyed so it was my turn to smirk.

“So what was your real reason for running away?” asked Makenzie returning her smirk.

I narrowed my eyes at her and said, “Why would I tell such a thing to strangers. You know stranger danger, right?”

“I’m surprised you know what that is since you don’t know what anything else is.” she laughed and my nostrils flared.

“Sure I don’t know what a lot of things are but that doesn’t mean I’m stupid. I do learn at a collage level.” I leaned back in my chair and raised an eyebrow at her.

“Well at least I know what a TV is and cars in the matter of fact.” she smiled at me and soon I didn’t even notice that Adam and the lady were watching us like were the entertainment of the night.

“Well instead of watching these cars or TV’s, I crammed my time getting taught what you would never get the chance to do. I could take you to the ground faster than you could slap me in the face.” I laughed.

“Is that a challenge?” she raised her eyebrow.

“Well, I’m a good person, so I wouldn’t want to hurt you…unlike some people.” I shot her a sharp look and finished my bowl.

“Okay, first of all, I don’t hurt people and second of all, no one can hurt me so if you wanna go then…let’s go!” We looked angrily at each other not noticing that the other two were shaking their heads.

I was trying to restrain myself and I succeeded letting myself sip from my glass and look at her calmly. She had stood up and slammed her hands on the table startling the others but I didn’t flinch.

“Is there something wrong with you mood?” I asked putting my glass down looking at her.

“Well its not just me! You were angry a second ago!” she yelled.

“Yeah well unlike you, I can control things.” I said calmly as I could which just annoyed her.

“Well…you’re just-” she stopped and sighed slamming her butt back on her chair and shaking the table. I smiled and licked my spoon smirking.

After dinner we went back into the living room but with blankets and pillows where we were going to sleep. It looked dark outside so it was naturally time to go to sleep.

“You can sleep on the couch. I’ll sleep on the floor.” I said. “Are you sure?” Adam asked and I nodded.

I put my pillow on the floor and lied down waiting for it. Once the back of my head hit the pillow I heard an, “Aw man! Zinc you totally played me!” from Adam and I laughed. “Hey, I know a lumpy couch when I see one.” I snickered and turned over snuggling in the warm blanket.