Prototype ( Part IV )

There were around five men at my front porch, and I noticed many more walking around, or standing and talking, in the distance behind them.
“Are there any adults in the house?” The man in the middle of the group asked. I could barely see his face behind the plastic mask. I could certainly see his frown, that’s for sure!
“No…not right now.” I mumbled as I checked out what he was holding in his gloved,left hand. It appeared to be a GPS-type thing…some high-tech gear.
“Please step aside, we need to come in.” He said as he shoved us aside and just walked in the house. We all looked at each other and began to follow them, when out of nowhere, a very tall man in a suit placed himself between us and them. He told us to stay put. The men that were inside the house came back about ten minutes later, but to us it seemed like at least 20 minutes had gone by. The same man who spoke before, spoke again. “I don’t think all of you live here. Which one of you is the daughter of Steven Levine?”
I was so scared that I actually stalled. I looked around and my friends all looked at me. They were scared too. “I am.” I said with a jittery voice.
He made a hand gesture by pointing to Ethan, Josh and Chloe and then outside the house. Two of the guys with him grabbed their arms and pulled them outside.
“Hey!” Ethan cried out. “Get off me!”
The man who held his arm turned to him and said, “Don’t try to fight me. Come with me so I can take you home. If you fight me, I will sedate you.”
Ethan just stared at him shocked and then looked back at me as he was taken away. I know he was trying to tell me something through his stare…but I really wasn’t sure what it was. I had never seen him look so scared before. Actually, we were really just a bunch of teenagers. We never took anything quite so seriously. Our lives together were always full of games and the usual teenage drama of who likes who now…
“What is your name?” The “speaking” man asked me.
“Chelsea Levine.”
“Chelsea, we stopped your parents earlier tonight. We searched them and let them go. We had hoped that they had come home, as they said they would. But, obviously they haven’t come home. We are going to be watching your house very closely.” He paused and put his right hand on my shoulder. “You should not be scared. You haven’t done anything wrong. We don’t think they have either. This is a matter of national security. We can’t let people wander around right now. Everything has to be done according to protocol, understand?” He continued, “That means, that we have to follow the rules. It’s very important.”
Another man walked in and whispered something to him.
“Chelsea, I have to go now. Stay in the house.” Just as the man said this, he walked away shutting the door behind him.

Okay, this is when I began to grow up a little. I mean, I had left most of the worrying up to the “grown-ups” all day, but now I was all by myself. I was on my own, and there was a ‘matter of national security’ going on just outside my front door. I kneeled where I stood and cried. Well, actually I wailed. I finally stopped long enough to pull myself together enough to go and blow my nose and wet my face. I walked into the downstairs bathroom and as I dried my face, I stared at my big bulgy eyes. I actually worried about what I looked like for a couple of seconds. Then I realized how little a worry that was and started to sob. I contained myself again and went upstairs to bed.

Then I woke up like this. I began to notice a humming sound like an air conditioner, but deeper sounding. I didn’t know what this feeling was on my thigh…it was a really deep and dull pain. I rubbed my thigh, but it made it hurt more…like a bruise. A huge light shone and blinded me as a door opened. I felt hands grab me and I squinted to see. Everything was blurred. I had a metallic taste in my mouth and my tongue was very dry. I couldn’t scream or say much, just whine a bit. As my feet were dragged, I realized that my feet were bare, then I noticed I was wearing a hospital gown, or something like it. My blurred vision didn’t allow me to see details. I couldn’t see the people…just their silhouettes, but with a bit of grayish color. Their heads seemed big for their bodies. I tried hard to concentrate on getting focus in my eyesight. I looked around me and saw white everywhere. Suddenly a door slid open and shut behind us. I was picked up from my legs by others there and placed on a cold plastic type of table. I felt a sharp pain on my thigh and then realized it was a shot or something like it.

I woke up throwing up. Unlike before, Chloe was with me and holding my head. She looked pretty bad…and she looked even worse when I regained focus. She could hardly talk, so she whispered, “Don’t worry, your voice will come in a little while. It’s okay…I think the worst is over.”
I looked around and saw the gray walls, metal. The humming sound was still there. We both stayed close together for a long time. Little by little, as a few hours seemed to pass by, our voices came back. We had been whispering about our experience as it did. Basically, we both experienced the same thing. We could only assume that Ethan and Josh were in the same predicament.

My parents were searching the house for clues as to where I had vanished to.
“Steve…she wouldn’t have left on her own.” My mom told my dad when they were done. Henry, my uncle was with them. “If you want to, I can look for her friends. I know where one of them lives. I know Chloe’s dad. Maybe, being kids, they all snuck out together looking for adventures.”
“It’s too risky. They are watching.” My dad said.
“This is insane!” My mom yelled. “I want to know where my daughter is right now!” She opened the door and ran out to one of the men in suits. My dad and Henry ran after her.
“Sir!" She yelled at one of the men, who turned to her startled. "Where is my daughter? Have you seen where she went? Weren’t you here watching?” The man didn’t say anything. He took a step back and a couple other men came toward him and my parents.
“We are just trying to find our daughter…we aren’t mad at you or anything…” My dad stepped back as he told them that, and held my mom close to him.
“Come with us.” One of the men told them and began walking. My parents and Henry curiously followed. They reached a group of men and signaled my parents and Henry to stay back. One of the men walked up to another man in the group and said something to them. They both came to my parents.
“Mr. and Mrs. Levine…” the same man who spoke to me earlier said, “...so, we meet again, uhm?”
“Sir, we are looking for our daughter. We came home and can’t find her anywhere. We left her at home with a friend…” My dad began to say.
“Yes, a friend…” the man interrupted, “Mr. Levine, your daughter had one girlfriend and two boyfriends at your house. We asked the boys and girl to go home and told your daughter to stay inside the house. We assumed they did as we asked. We didn’t see anyone leave. Well…now, we do have infra-red and heat detectors to see in the dark…but perhaps we missed them.”
“So you don’t know where they are? Not even a clue?” Henry questioned.
“Are you trying to insinuate something, sir? You know, we have a federal security situation here, and comments like that from citizens can be scrutinized and investigated through any means necessary. I hope that you can appreciate my warning and heed your comments…”
My dad interrupted the man as his voice was sounding more threatening with each word he said, “Your warning is very much appreciated, sir…we will just go home and wait for the girls to come home.” He pushed my mom and Henry back toward the house. My parents and Henry looked at each other concerned as they walked back to the house. Meanwhile, the man in the suit asked for a secured phone from one of the men next to him.

Ethan and Josh were not where we thought they were at all. They had actually been taken home. Josh’s dad was very upset with Josh and actually hit him a couple times before Josh ran out the back door of his house. He, very carefully, went to Ethan’s house. Ethan’s mom, being her cool self, told them to be very careful about going back to my house.
“I don’t trust these guys. I mean, if terrorists were making a huge threat and this is like a huge code red thing…they wouldn’t be so harsh and cold. They are really cold, these guys. What if THEY are the terrorists? You know what I mean?” Ethan’s mom was very suspicious about the men in the suits.
“Mom,” Ethan assured her, “we are going to be super careful. We just want to be sure that Chelsea is safe.”

Josh and Ethan were sneaking from one house to another. They sneaked their way to my house. Even Josh, being the slacker that he was, was actually serious and focused. They got there just in time to see them coming out of my house with a container. The container looked like a huge silver bullet with tubes. It was laying on a cart and being wheeled into one of their vans.
“Ethan, what is that?” Josh whispered to him.
“I don’t know…” He signaled for Josh to follow him. As the men closed the front door, Ethan and Josh went into my house through the back door. The house was dark, but Ethan used his key ring flashlight to get them around the rooms as they called for me. I wasn’t in the house. They went upstairs to my room and found my bed was still made… ‘She never even went to bed.’ they thought. They could only assume that the men had taken me in the container they saw earlier.
“Let’s see if we can figure out where they took her.” Ethan told Josh.
“How do we do that?”
“We follow someone around and hope he leads us somewhere.”
“Dude, you’re pretty smart. You’re like one of those guys in the movies…”
“Josh…” Ethan began to say, “whatever…let’s go.”

I was so tired and felt so dizzy…I realized that Chloe was looking worse than I felt.
“Chloe?” I called her and she barely looked up at me. Most of my voice was coming back. “Chloe, are you going to be okay?”
“I feel very weak…Chelsea, I’m scared.” She murmured.
The door slid open and a white gas poured into the room, along with a loud whizzing sound.
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2-26-05 I have been very busy working on some films. Thanks for your patience.
Do come back for Prototype Part V--it really is coming soon!)