"Come on, sleepy head.  Time to get up and go to school," my mom said, gently rubbing my shoulder.

"I don't want too," I mumbled, not opening my eyes.

"Breakfast is on the table, so get your ass up before I get your father to drag you out," she said, sounding like she was already down the hall.

I could smell the bacon in the air, and I suddenly realized I was really hungry, so I opened my eyes, expecting to see my old room...

"Shit," I moaned, finding myself in some sort of holding cell.

I only had taken a quick glance around since I was feeling pretty sore from all the climbing the past few days, and just closed my eyes and tried to ignore the hunger I felt.

But the damn bacon smell didn't go away.  It was almost like there really was some bacon...

I opened my eyes and sat up with a start when I felt an impatient empathic touch, then kind of sat there a bit disorientated staring at the pair of albino twins holding a plate of bacon and eggs and a large glass of milk just like I had envisioned in my dream.

"Uhm, thank you," I said when I recovered enough of my senses to take the plate and glass from them.

They watched me as I wolfed down the generous portion of eggs and inhaled the juicy bacon, then as I was gulping down the milk, I heard a door being opened followed by the sounds of a man's struggling.

"No....  You don't understand..." Charles said weakly as another pair of twins escorted him and the two Venezuelan men carrying him by the arms entered my view from my cell.  "We must stop him before he destroys himself!"

"Charles!" I yelled, leaping to my feet and rushing up to the bars of my cell closest to them.  "Are you okay?!"

"We must save my son before he destroys himself..." Charles said desperately to me.  "I need my girls!"

His eyes were filled with confusion, emotion, and a look of dazed madness.  I was stunned by his obvious loss of his facilities, and helplessly watched him struggle against the two men carrying him into the cell beside mine and force him to remain inside as they left.

"Girls!  Don't leave me!" he begged as the set of twins who were in my cell were let out, then both pairs left with the men.

"Charles, what happened?  Did they do this to you?"

"Be-gone, spy!!" he said with emotion, half falling, half crawling to the furthest corner of his cell from me to sob.

After unsuccessfully trying to get Charles to talk to me, I took a good look around through the bars of my cell.  There were two other identical cells across from mine, each with three solid walls with the fourth naturally being steel bars with a steel bar door.  While I couldn't see into Charles' cell, I had no reason to believe it was any different that the other three.

Each had a cot, a toilet, and a sink, but no windows, tables or chairs.  I couldn't see far enough down what appeared to be halls on either side of the cells to know if there were any other rooms or cells in that place.

I hadn't heard anyone climbing steps, but I could hear rain falling on the roof above me, so I assumed we were inside a single floor building.

I think I must have dozed off listening to the rain, for the next thing I knew, Kain was standing outside my cell with those old twins on either side of him.

"Where is HE!" I said, leaping up to my feet and rushing forward, intending to grab him through the bars and....

There was a flash, then suddenly I found myself standing inside some sort of glass cylinder like in one of those science fiction movies.  In fact, the room I was now in appeared to be a strange mixture alien and human technology, and the giant wasp like creatures who entered the lab were definitely from a B type movie.

I didn't notice the other cylinder chambers beside me until one of them raised up, releasing the little girl trapped inside who surprisingly didn't run, but actually walked over to the giant bugs rather stiffly.

I shivered seeing that mindless empty look on her face when she turned towards me, pulled off her pants and underpants, then remained bent over while one of the wasps approached her naked behind and...

I couldn't watch...  It was too horrible.  I closed my eyes and threw my weight toward the glass cylinder wall, then found myself falling to the floor.

"That was a warning," Kain said, partially amused.

"You sick son of a bitch," I said, desperately trying to stop the shakes I felt while picking myself off the cell floor.  "What have you done to Charles, and where is Tim?!"

"I'm sorry to disappoint you on both accounts, but Tim hasn't been here since he left with you last year, and as for his papa...  We're not really sure what's wrong with him, but other than giving him a sedative, he's exactly as we found him."

"Liar!" I spat, having successfully gotten back to my feet and was slowly approaching the bars.  "I know he's here.  I can feel it."

Kain studied my face a moment, then said, "I'll be honest with you, Joey.  I was against my father's idea on bringing you and Tim here last year.  If you were such a threat, you should have been conditioned and released, not wiped.  But make no mistake.  I'd have you killed in a moment if I believed you were dangerous to us in some way.

"This building's walls, ceiling, and floor contain a wood which absorbs telepathic energy.  No voice has ever been able to penetrate it, and so you can not possibly be feeling Tim or anyone else except for the four of us and yourself, and even that is dampened within these walls.  You have made a mistake.  Lucky for you, I have convinced my father to allow me to...  Girls?"

I hadn't noticed his two escorts having left his sides and walked over to Charles' cell until that instant, but I really didn't care about anything but what he planned to do with me and Charles.

"Exactly what is going to happen to us?" I said, reaching through the bars and snapping my fingers in front of his face to pull his attention away from the twins a moment.

"You will be conditioned and released unharmed.  That is if you don't give me reason to do otherwise."

"Why?" I blurted out.  "I mean, you're the last person I expected to just let us go."

He glanced back at the twins a moment, then said softly while looking me straight in the eyes, "Because of you, I now have a son to pass my inheritance on to.  While you had no direct control over this, you were still the... catalyst, and for that reason alone I will overlook your...  your..."

"Trespassing?" I offered.

"Trespassing... gracias, that was the word I was seeking for," he said, looking back over at the twins, then glancing down at his watch with a slight frown.  "Girls, you are expected at the nursery."

When they didn't move, Kain walked up behind them and gently placed his hands on their shoulders before repeating his message in Spanish.  They seemed hesitant to leave for a moment, but then as another pair of twins walked in, there was a brief exchange of looks between the empaths before the elder pair left the way they had came.

Just as I heard the door close, Charles suddenly woke up and yelled, "GIRLS!  GIRLS! Come back!  Please come back!"

"Calm down, Charles," Kain said as the remaining twins took position on either side of him.

"No!  You don't understand!  He's doesn't know!  He doesn't understand!  GIRLS!  Remember!  Zamdiri!!  Zamdiri!!!!"

"Zamdiri?" I repeated questioningly to Kain after he had let the twins in with Charles.

"No idea," Kain said as the twins used their empathic power to sooth Charles back to sleep.  "At least his mind is starting to form more coherent thoughts than when we first found him.  I'm afraid there's very little we can do for him until he's in a more... sane state of mind.  Perhaps if you could talk about his family or job it might help him recover faster."

"So he will recover?" I said, hearing Charles's gentle mumbles as Kain opened Charles's door to let the twins back out.

"Time will only tell.  Speaking of which, I must go.  The girls will bring you your lunch in a couple of hours, then if you cooperate, they will begin reconditioning you to where I can trust you enough to let you out."

"I'll have to think about that," I said honestly. 

"You have my word your personality will not be altered, only your... perspective.  It is either that or remaining in that cell until Charles is well enough for the conditioning and you're both done at the same time.  At least I've given you a choice," Kain said as he left.

"Some choice," I muttered.

I jumped away from the bars when the twins sent an empathic message to back away, then watched with surprise as they used the ring of keys which they had retrieved from down the hall to unlock my cell and came in.

"Uhm, I thought Kain said after lunch," I said a bit nervously after they indicated for me to strip.

Their empathic response didn't answer my indirect question, but I still pulled my shorts and shirt off just the same, cursing my inability to prevent my cock's full woody just from feeling their empathic call.

"You want to suck me?" I said with even more surprise after they indicated for me to sit down on the cot, not lay.

They didn't bother to answer me that time since they were already on their knees and crawling up my spreading legs.  I shivered with anticipation from their hot soft skin making contact with my legs, yet I was not so lost in my lust as to not wonder what I had done to deserve this kind of treatment.

Within minutes, I was drifting in nothingness as they alternated their mouths on my cock in such a way I forgot there were two instead of just the one I felt.

Despite the fact I was completely unaware of my surroundings at the time, I still retained a thread of conscious thought that was trying to figure out what was going on and what to do next.

So when my left hand accidentally came across the keys on the floor, even though I never realized they had moved us to the floor, that thread of thought recognized an opportunity, and thanks to the time I spent playing poker with Tim, I managed to pull off what I believed was the key to my cell (they had different shapes to them since twins can't read) without letting on to the twins I was doing something covertly like that.

Once I had the key off the key chain, I had the difficult task of locating a hiding place for it that was in reach so I could simply forget about it until after the twins left to get my lunch.  The floor had no cracks to stick it in, my clothes were too far away, and I couldn't risk reaching up over my head to hide it in the cot somehow.  I considered putting it in my mouth, but even that might draw too much attention, especially if I accidentally choked on the thing when they made me come.

So I just held onto it for a while, that thread of thought attempting to make itself as inconspicuous as it could while waiting for an opportunity to stick it somewhere out of sight, and more importantly, out of mind.

Shit, I did such a good job at forgetting what I had done, I totally forgot all about it, even after they got up and shut the self locking door behind them to go get our lunches.

I was laying on the floor, enjoying the post come relaxation, and just happened to run my hands up my sweaty chest and abs before lifting them up over my head and catching a whiff..

I cautiously smelled my left index finger, trying to recall if at any time I had run it across one of the twin's ass, then suddenly became aware of the poop in my chute was ready to go.

It wasn't until I heard the "clink" right after the "plop" that I remembered anything about the key.  I still don't remember doing it, but I think you can piece it together like I had moments before I was about to flush.

I think I broke my own record of how many times I could say "shit" in one breath while I was washing my hands and the key in the sink.

But the strongest "shit" I made that day was when I tried the key in my lock and discovered I had the wrong one.

"Girls," Charles moaned from the cell beside.  "Come to me, my girls..."

"Charles?  You feeling any better?"

"You...." Charles said with a sound of recognition and desperation.  "You would help me?"

"Of course I'll help you.  Kain said..."

"Kain!" Charles spat in annoyance.  "Betrayer....  Betrayer of his own blood.  You must help me.  Help me save him before he destroys himself!"

"Help who?  Tim?"

"My son!  I must save my son before...  Zamdiri!  ZAMDIRI!!!" he screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Charles, calm down, please.  Tell me what, or, or who is zamdiri?"

"You can not understand.  Only my girls understand.  My son, my only son does not know..."

"He's not your only son," I said, seeing a chance to bring up the rest of his family like Kain suggested.  "Richie.  Remember Richie?"

"Richie?" Charles said in a squeaky voice.  "My baby boy..."

"Yes.  And Samantha? Tim's and Richie's mom, your wife?"

"Oh mother..." Charles moaned, followed by a sob.  "Mother, my brave mother...  She gave her life for his..."

"For whose life?" I asked very cautiously, uncertain if this was really the right direction to go in his current state.

"My son's...  No...  Not my son...  My son...  I...  I must save them..  From his...  He doesn't know...  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" he screamed as he violently shook his cell's door.

"LISTEN!  Charles!  Listen to me!" I yelled, holding the key out beyond the bars where he could see it.  "I think this key will open your door.  It doesn't match the symbols on the two locks across the hall, and it won't open mine.  Take it and use it on yours.  If it opens yours, then get the ring of keys and..."

He snatched it from my hand so fast the key stung my fingers, and a few moments later I heard it click in his door and the lock turning.

"Great!  Now go get the ring of keys down..  No! Charles!  The other way.  Charles!  CHARLES!!!"

"I must find my girls!" he said desperately from down the hall, opening the door to leave.

"I can... I can help you find them!"

"You can't help me," he said in a hushed voice.  "You don't know how to find them, but I still can't feel anything..."

I heard the door shut, and my heart sank believing he had left me.

I nearly brained myself on the damn bars when he walked into my range of view with a deeply worried expression on his face, and as he stood there studying me, I said gently, "I can help you.  I'm here to save Tim too.  I'm not your enemy."

His eyes suddenly became a bit more focused a moment before he pointed to me and said, "Joey." 

"That's right.  Remember?  Uhm...  The campfire?  The bottle of gin, and the beans?"

"How can you help me?" he said very carefully.

"I... uhh..  I can form a share link with you so you can feel your girls out better."

"Yes...  Yes, you can help that way.  You helped him that way..."

"That's right.  I helped Tim that way, and you."

"Yes.  Do it.  Help me now."

"First get the keys and open my cell.  Then I'll do that and help you find Tim."

"No, no, no, NO!  First you help me find my girls!  I can not go anywhere without my girls!"

"Look, we don't time to argue!  The twins will be back any minute with our lunches, and if we're not out of here by then, we're toast!  Now open my door!"

"First you link, I call my girls, then I let you out while I wait for them."

"All right!" I spat nervously.  "Just make it fast!"

I formed the share link, then paced back and forth anxiously while Charles stood just outside the door.

After a few minutes, Charles closed the door and came back, saying, "They are coming for me."

"They are?" I said, wondering if he really knew what the hell he was talking about.  "Uhm, well that's great.  Now go get those keys down there and open my door like we agreed."

"I don't believe I can do that," he said after taking a couple of steps then stopping.

"We HAD A DEAL!" I exploded before Charles started backing up with slow and careful steps, his eyes appearing frozen in their sockets.

"Shit!" I exclaimed as the pair of twins, each carrying a tray of food, stepped into my view, their eyes looking just like Tim's when he held someone with his empathic stare.

They backed Charles all the way into his cell and had him take his tray from the twin on the left before backing themselves out, closing the door, and removing the key from its lock.

"Well, you can't blame me for trying," I said with a weak grin as they turned their powerful gaze towards me.

After I too backed up, took my tray, then stood there unable to move until my cell door was also closed tight, I sighed and set my tray on the cot, finding my appetite gone for the time being.

Charles, on the other hand, was eating his lunch, or more like he was inhaling from the sounds I heard coming from his cell.

"Want seconds?" I said, holding out my bowl of cut fruit out in the space between our two cells.

"Gracias, amigo," Charles said while taking the bowl.  "I'm sorry I couldn't help you in time."

"Well, it's not like we really had much of a chance anyways," I said.  "I mean, I doubt we would have made it to the mountain before they realized we were missing."

"Hmm, you probably wouldn't have," Charles said, holding the bowl back out with only a few slices missing.  "You can have this back now."

"Full?"

"No.  I don't have time to eat them now."

"And why is that?" I said, half expecting his reason to be something ridiculous.

A door at the other end opened, and as the twins guarding us openly showed signs of confusion and distress, Charles said, "Because my girls are here to take me to my son."

"Your girls?" I exclaimed as I caught sight of the elder twins walking up to Charles's cell.  "What is going on?"

I had missed the fact the other twins had fetched the key ring until they passed my cell, then with my mouth hanging open, I could only listen to the sound of his cell door opening and Charles walking out.

"Charles, what the hell..."

"I'm sorry, Joey.  You see, I'm not who you think I am.  Of course before you formed that...  link with me, Charles and I were pretty mixed up.  But now I'm in full control and I have to save my son if I can."

"WAIT!" I cried, realizing they had already walked out the door when the share link broke. 

I turned to the twins who were still guarding me and demanded, "What the hell is going on?  Why did you let him leave?  Can't you see he's not normal?"

The uncertainty on their faces as they glanced to each other only added to my own confusion, and out of frustration I kicked the cell door hard and nearly broke my toe in the process.

I hopped over to the cot in pain, sending my tray of food to the floor at first by accident, but once it was on its way, I actually helped it along by giving it an additional shove.  As the bowls and dishes scattered their contents across the floor with a loud crash, I flung myself on my back onto the cot, flung my shoe off, then babied my poor toe a few minutes, reciting every cuss word and phrase I knew in the process.

I think I was on my second pass at the Christian cusses, (you know, using God's and/or Jesus's names in unpleasant ways) when we heard a faint scream.

The twins were already walking towards the exit to the left of my cell when I looked up, and while they had the door open, I could hear what sounded like a school yard bawl.

"Fuck, this is so fucked up," I said, laying back down on my cot and covering my face with my hands.

"Shit," I said, finding my hand still smelling like shit, and got up to give it another scrubbing in the sink.

I didn't even realize I wasn't alone until I heard the lock click, and when I turned to see who it was, all I saw before my mind was switched off was the back of some kid's blonde head as he looked down the hall holding the door open.

"...hope he's worth all the trouble," a young male voice said when my mind was switched back on.

"Jonas and Peter must think so," a familiar female voice said.  "Come on, Joe.  Stop pretending.  We know you're awake."

I opened my eyes and for a moment didn't recognize the...  girl/woman sitting beside me on a plush bed.  The girl was in her final stages of pregnancy, and her hair was cut very short compared to what I was familiar with.

"Whitney?" I said in surprise when I finally placed the eyes.

"I...  Yes, it's me.  But... I'm sorry, but I don't actually remember you."

"That's okay.  I half expected that.  But who's this?" I said, sitting up and indicating the young, barely in his teens if even that blonde boy sitting beside her.

"This is Jack Ladbrokes.  He's our newest voice."

"You can call me Squeak," he said, holding out his hand to me.

"Don't let his nickname fool you.  He's no squeak when it comes to his voice.  He's stronger than any of us."

"And I'm cute too," Squeak added with a wicked grin.

"Uhm, I don't mean to be rude, but, why am I here?  What are you planning to do with me?"

"That's what we want to ask you," Whitney said, shifting uncomfortably.  "But first would you mind moving over so I could lay down?"

"Sure," I said, getting off the bed entirely, then crawling back on to help her lay down.

"I guess I don't have to tell you the risk we're all taking by bringing you to the garden house.  But Chris, Peter, and Jonas say you were one of us, and you had something to do with bringing us all together."

"So they took the bait after all," I said, grinning to myself.

"Bait?" Squeak squeaked.

"It's nothing," I chucked, but when I saw they didn't see the humor of it I added, "I mentioned they shouldn't go looking into my memories of last summer just before they zombified me, hoping they would and maybe bring some of their memories back to the surface."

"That's not all it brought up, too," Squeak commented.

"Heh.  They puked a few times?"

"More like ten or twelve times," Squeak said before jumping off the bed, exclaiming, "I remember now!" then running for the bathroom and making puking sounds.

"What were we talking about?" he said when he came back out.

Squeak and I cracked up laughing while Whitney only smiled before saying, "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not try to remember anything if that's what happens."

Looking at her deformed body a moment, I could only say, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"So why are you here?" Whitney said, blushing slightly.

"I came looking for my best friend.  I thought Gladius kidnapped him again and was holding him and another friend here."

"Does he have voice?" Squeak asked.

"Yep.  And he's an empath."

"A what?"

"He's like all the twins," Whitney explained for me.

"Really?  Wow.  I wish I could meet him."

"Maybe you will.  That is if I can figure out where Gladius is holding him."

Someone knocked on the door just then, and before I could even react, Whitney said, "Come in, Gordon."

"Hi," Gordon simply said when he saw me.

"Hey Gordon.  So...  Do you remember me?"

"He better," Squeak said seriously.

"Shut up, Squeak," Gordon said, giving him a partial noogie before saying, "Yeah, I remember you, Joe."

Then he leaned over Whitney and exchanged a quick tender kiss on the lips with her, they apparently filling each other in telepathically as they did so.

"What happened to Peter and Jonas?" Squeak asked Gordon.

"Twins got them in Kain's lab right now," Gordon said before looking me in the eye and said, "They're there because of you, you know."

"What do you mean?" I said.

"A lot has changed since you and Nathan left," Gordon began.  "Ever since you showed us how to share our bodies with each other, we've become dependant on it.  We all kind of paired up and did it separately at first, but when that got old some of us started playing around with someone else's, er, mate, and for a while someone was always fighting with someone else and...  Well... It wasn't pretty."

"And then when I realized I was pregnant, things really got bad between the guys.  They all knew any of them could be the father, but they all pointed the finger at each other."

"Anyone but me," Squeak pointed out.

"Squeak couldn't come yet," Gordon explained.

"I can now, though.  Better than any of them too."

"Shut up, Squeak," Gordon snapped.  "Anyway, like two months later, Annette started having morning sickness too, and that's when everyone started getting serious about each other.  We're like one big family now.  But Jonas and Peter still get a bit ticked at each other over Annette's miscarriage, so Peter thought it seemed only natural to use that as an excuse for a diversion to get the twins out of the building long enough to get you out of there and find out why you're here."

"I can't believe you guys did all that for me," I said honestly.  "So where's Chris, Beatrice, Liz, and, uhm....  Connie?"

"They're all covering Squeak's and my shifts while doing their own.  We don't have much time, Joe.  You're going to be missed once Kain finishes correcting Peter and Jonas and realizes where the twins who broke up the fight had been assigned.  I just hope that memory trick Nathan taught me last year holds out under the twin's inspection."

"Nathan taught you?" I said with surprise.  "Why that little...  He wasn't supposed to show anyone...  Shit.  Look, I don't want to get you guys into any more trouble than you are now.  I came here to find Nathan.  Have you seen him?"

"I thought his name was Tim?" Squeak pointed out.

"Shut up, Squeak," Gordon said again.

"You shut up, Gordon!  You forget I can kick your butt!"

"We don't have time to explain everything to you, all right?  We all knew this Tim guy as Nathan."

"Okay, that's better," Squeak simply said.

"Joe... Nathan or Tim, or whatever name he goes by now...  He isn't inside the wall.  There's no way a voice could be inside the walls without one of us detecting him during our nightly sweeps.  There's only Kain, Grandfather, the teen voices, you and that guy you were with."

"But we couldn't detect them this morning," Squeak pointed out.

"Shut up, Squeak.  That's because they were in the holding tank."

"You said there's no way, but there is."

"Look, you moron.  Did you see anyone else inside the tank with him?"

"No, but..."

"Gordon," I interrupted.  "I think he has a point.  Is there any other place inside the walls a voice could be where you can't detect them?"

"No.  Just the tank."

"Ugh!  And the nursery!?!" Squeak argued.

"Have you ever been in the nursery?" Gordon snapped nastily at him.

"No, I haven't!"

"Either have I!  Either has any voice besides Grandfather!"

"Why?  What's so special about the nursery?" I asked.

"Well it is the nursery.  You know.  Where all the twins are born and live until they're ready to be bonded with their master or something like that."

"I still say this Tim guy could be in there," Squeak muttered.

"Duh....  Look you moron.  Even Kain's never been inside.  Only twins and Grandfather."

"Duh...." Squeak repeated an octave higher than Gordon had.  "But this guy is a... What did you call him?  M something?"

"That's right," I exclaimed.  "Tim's an empath.  And Eric was showing signs of being one too before...  Holy shit.  That's where they are, Gordon.  That has to be where they are."

"Duh...."  Squeak echoed again, but then gave Gordon a twinkling smile that made Gordon sigh, grab him by the head, then gave him another noogie for his trouble.

"Something's wrong," Whitney interrupted, struggling to sit up.

"Are you sure?" Gordon said, releasing Squeak and reaching out with his mind to the surrounding area.

"Well?" Squeak said impatiently, straightening his hair up before pinching Gordon on the leg.

"Squeak, you better get in on this," Gordon said urgently.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Just give me sec and I'll tell you.  They've probably lost another kid in the fields again and...  I...  Oh..."

"Shit I hate it when people do this to me!" I said frustrated.  "Just to warn you, I beat the shit out Tim once for ignoring me like this!"

"Chris says...  Do that link with...  Squeak.  Help," Gordon said with difficulty.

"Shit.  What?  Are we under attack?" I said as I formed a share link with Squeak as requested.

As soon as I felt the extra senses come online, I reached out with my mind and found...  Chaos.

It took me a few minutes to comprehend what the hell was going on.  The slaves were all...  grieving.  It was all very confusing until I used a woman's eyes to look around and found a pair of twins huddled in each other's arms crying and looking like two lost children in the middle of nowhere during a thunderstorm.

"Tim," I gasped, recalling the warning's Charles had been giving about saving his son before he could destroy himself.

"Gordon!" I yelled in his face as I shook him by the shoulders.  "Where's the nursery!  I have to go there!"

"No..." Gordon moaned distantly.  "No no..."

I slapped him once just hard enough to sting, then slapped him again really hard before giving up and turning to Squeak.

"Squeak.  Can you hear me?"

"Uh huh..." he said softly with tears running down his child like face.

"I need your help.  Can you show me where the nursery is?"

"Nursery?"

"Shit," I muttered, realizing if someone experienced as Gordon was so lost in the emotions not to respond to pain, this newbie would be hopeless.

"Jack," I said softly.  "Listen to me.  Come back to the room where Gordon, Whitney and I are in.  You can't help anyone like this."

"Can't...  Must help.."

"But you look like a mindless zombie," I commented while trying to think of a way to get his attention back to the here and now.

"Zombie?"

"Yeah, like a brainless, helpless little squeak child who doesn't know jack shit about how his dick really works."

"I do too know how it works!" he said, snapping out of his daze and frowning at me.

"Good for you, Jack," I said grinning.  "I knew you could do it.  Now stay with me.  I need you to come with me to the nursery."

"Okay, but why?" he said, glancing at Gordon's empty expression, then realizing his own face was wet just like Gordon's.

"Because the share link doesn't work through that shielded wood the nursery is made of, that's why."

"Oh.  Hey, did I look like that a minute ago?"

"Yes.  Now come on," I said, taking his hand and dragging him out of Whitney's suite with me.

The moment we stepped out into the street, we were both overcome by the ocean of grief flowing throughout the immediate area.  I barely had enough sense to pull myself and Squeak inside and shut the door, and then it took a minute or two for us to calm down enough to think straight.

"Shit, we're trapped," I said first.

"I wish you wouldn't cuss so much," Squeak said while wiping his face off with his shirt sleeve.

"Shit, that's just how I talk.  Shit, see?  I can't help it."

"I bet I could cure that real fast with a single..."

"What?" I said when he looked at me with this new sparkle in his eyes.

"Do you know how I got you here without any of the twins picking up on it?"

"Yeah.  You zombified me."

"Well yeah, I did that to you.  I was talking about me.  Those twins can sniff you out faster than a dog searching for the hotdog in your pocket."

"Okay, so how did you do it?" I said patiently.

"Simple.  I ordered you to follow me no matter where I went, then ordered myself to forget what I was doing until I got back inside the garden house."

"So how does this help us?" I said, finding myself understanding why Gordon was so short tempered with this kid.

"Isn't it obvious?  We just order ourselves to go there and not stop for anything until we're inside."

"Shit, it is obvious.  Shit, Jack.  How did you get so smart?"

"Just always have been.  But I like to think I'm cuter than I am smart."

"Shit," I chucked, then for a moment wondered if he was serious about that.

"So now all we need is someone who knows where the nursery is," Jack stated.

"I thought you knew!?!" I exclaimed.

"No...  Gordon was the one who knew.  I've never been there, remember?  Here.  Let me ask him."

"No wait!" I said when I realized what he was going to do, then groaned as his face went slack.

"Jack...  Oh Jack...  Your fly's open and your mom can see your dick hanging out."

"Ha ha," he said distantly.

"Don't get lost in there," I warned.

"I'm not..."

"Well then what's taking so long?"

Jack's face came back to life before he said, "Whitney's contractions were getting too close together.  I didn't think we wanted her to go into labor right now, so I spaced them out a bit and snapped her and Gordon out of it to take care of that."

"Shit.  You did all that while getting the directions to the nursery?" I said, truly impressed.

"Well, no.  Someone kept distracting me and I forgot," he said with a huff before closing his eyes again.

Ten minutes later, we were wading through our own tears as well as the pouring rain as we hurried down the streets of depression-ville.  Damn it was hell.  It was like the air was saturated with grief and despair, people just sitting out in the rain gently sobbing, the rain partially drowning out the wails from every direction, but adding to the grief in its own way.

We cried the whole way to what looked like the entrance to a subway, and it wasn't until we were inside with the heavy reinforced doors closed behind us that our self programming ran out and we collapsed to the floor out of breath and out of tears.

"It's cold in here," Jack said softly after we got up and started looking around.  "And quiet.  Dead quiet."

"Shhh," I said, sensing we weren't alone.

"You.  What are you doing here?" Kain's voice boomed out from the next room.

"Uhm, trying to get out of the rain?" Jack offered.

"Shut up, Squeak," I said without realizing it.  "Kain, you know why I'm here."

Kain sighed, then said, "I looks like you were right after all.  Somehow my father sneaked your friend and another into the nursery without me or anyone else knowing.  And now for some reason they have locked themselves inside a room and won't come out."

"You might as well tell him the rest, Kain."

"Charles?" I said with surprise, finding him leaning up against a door with his ear pressed against it while the two eldest twins stood on either side of him protectively.

"But Grandfather, he shouldn't be here in the first place."

"Grandfather?!?" I exclaimed.  "Look, what the hell is going on?  The whole village is a sea of crying people, all the voices have their hands full just keeping people from committing suicide I think, and all the twins act like they've lost their mommy."

"We know," both Kain and Charles said at the same time.

"Well?"

"Tell him, Kain," Charles said.  "We may need him."

Kain pursed his lips in a sign of silent disagreement, but then said, "My father attempted to bond Tim and someone else together using the same... method as bonding a pair of twins together empathically.  The bond would result in their life long loyalty to my father, and that's the only reason why my father would have done something like this.  But..."

"But what he didn't take in account for was how the drug would effect a voice," Charles said.  "It appears we're too late to save them.  One of them is already dead, the other may be permanently damaged, but can't tell who it is from out here."

"You can't know any of that for sure," I said after swallowing my heart.  "If I can't sense anything beyond the door, how can you?"

"There is an infrared scanner built into the ceiling of the room for monitoring the emotional states of the girls during their training," Kain explained.  "There are three human shapes inside, one which is not emitting enough heat to still be alive.  One of the other two's cerebellum is emitting twice the normal amount of heat, which to me indicates severe mental trauma.  The other we've identified not being Tim or my father, and by his movements he's extremely disturbed and possibly violent."

"How do you know it's Eric?"

"By the size of his.. uh.."

"Oh, I see."

"What?" Squeak asked.

Out of annoyance, I said, "His fuck stick."

"His what?"

"His dick.  His penis.  His cock."

"Oh."

"So don't you have a spare key to the door?" I asked.

"The door doesn't have a lock," Charles stated.  "Someone has barricaded the door with the room's furniture."

"So, lets force it open," I said, leaning up against the door beside Charles.

When Charles moved away from the door, I gave him a dirty look before throwing all my weight and strength against the door.

"SSHHHITT!" I groaned after my third go without the door budging a single inch.  "What kind of furniture does this place have?  Leftover parts from world war two tanks?"

"Are those the only doors in?" Squeak asked as I slid down the door panting for my breath.

"Maybe you should go help the others, Jack," Kain said.

"Nobody ever thinks I know anything," Squeak said, turning around and heading towards the exit shaking his head.  "I'd like just once, one single measly time before I turn thirteen and start thinking with something other than my brain for someone to say, 'That's a good idea, Jack.  Why didn't I think of that.'"

"You know, he may be right," I said, having at least gained enough respect for Jack's childish sounding ideas to consider it.  "Charles, you once said Gladius loved to misdirect or deceive people by hiding things in plain view."

"There are no other doors to this room besides these," Charles said firmly.

The confidence in his tone of voice made me wonder how the hell he could possibly know that, but when he offered no explanation, I said, "Okay, maybe not a door.  But this place is air conditioned.  Surely there's an air vent leading into the room from somewhere we can get into."

"Kain?" Charles queried.

"I've never been in here before," Kain said with a shrug.

"When I had the nursery built, there was no such thing as air conditioning.  My son must have had it added on later."

"Okay, what's going on..." I said, getting a bit spooked out by the way Charles was talking.  "Who do you think you are?"

"That's precisely his problem," Kain said.

"Who do you think I am, Joey?" Charles said with a cold serious expression.

"I don't have a fucking clue.  You talk like you're Gladius's old man, but how could...  Oh shit.  The cave..."

"Enough questions," Charles/Gladius Sr. said.  "We need to find the air vents leading to that room."

The place was a lot bigger than I thought.  There must have been at least twenty other rooms beside the one we were trying to get into, and while they all had air vents, none were large enough for someone to crawl through.

"Well, so much for that idea," I said, joining the other two by the doors again.  "I take it we just can't knock a hole in a wall somewhere."

"They're seven inch concrete with three inch diameter steel rods reinforcement," Charles confirmed.

"Shit, you weren't a little paranoid, were you?"

"The day I heard about Hiroshima, I started designing this structure for I knew the day would come other nations would obtain the weapon for themselves.  This was the very first private atomic bomb shelter built, not that I ever announced its existence to the public for the record."

"So, mister architect, how did you plan to get out if the doors were melted shut?"

"Don't be ridiculous.  These are interior doors.  They are purely here for ascetic reasons."

"They sure don't feel like they're here for ascetic reasons."

"These are not the original doors," Charles said, noticing the fact for the first time.

"My father was constantly adding improvements to the nursery," Kain offered on his own. "I was constantly having to schedule girls to wipe the workmen's memories."

"Makes you wonder what other enhancements he had done," I said as I got up and started walking around, looking at things, Charles doing the same after seeing what I was up to.

"What's this?" I said, having found a strange two foot square indentation in the wall.

"I don't know.  I don't remember that," Charles said.

When I tapped on it, it sounded hollow, so I carefully felt around it's edges, then finally just gave it a shove.

"Bingo," I said, finding it to be some kind of crawlway.  "I don't suppose either of you turkeys have a light on you."

I found two small flashlights being stuck in front of my face when I looked back at them, then after probably giving them a really weird look, I took one and shone it down the passage way.

"Well, I'll let you in as soon as I..."

"And what makes you think you're going alone?"  Charles said.

"That's probably my father's body in there," Kain added.  "I have to be the first to see."

"But Eric doesn't know either of you well enough to trust you.  Look, let me go in alone so we don't frighten him any more than we have to, and I swear the first thing I'll do when I'm sure he won't hurt whoever is left is open the door.  All right?"

"He may not even know who you are," Kain pointed out.

"And without your link, you will be mute," Charles pointed out.  "But then if my son did what we believe he did, your friend will probably be immune to voice, if only temporarily."

"Then I'll just have to grab him and hold on if he tries something.  I'm in better shape than either of you, and I'm already half way in this hole now," I said, wiggling my butt through the hole before pulling my legs in the rest of the way.

I crawled about fifteen feet before reaching the end, then checked the ceiling looking for a trap door or something.  When I didn't see anything but plywood, I wiggled myself sideways, put my shoulder up against the wood, planted my feet against the wall and pushed with all of my two hundred and thirty four pounds of mostly fatless muscle.

The wood was creaking a lot, but wasn't giving yet when Kain yelled to me, "What are you doing?"

I turned myself so that I was laying on the ground and raised my feet up before saying "I'm making myself a new DOOR!" while kicking a hole clean through the wood.

Two more kicks and one big shove, I was standing up in another room.  A room which was empty of people.

I carefully lifted myself out of the raised floor of the kitchen area, then as quietly as I could, I snuck up to a larger room where I instantly saw a pile of furniture stacked up as high as the ceiling along one wall.

Not forgetting there were supposed to be two people and a corpse in the room with me, I carefully bent down below the level of the table tops and spotted a bare foot disappearing behind a table turned on it's side in a corner.

I carefully approached the table, not exactly trying to sneak up on him, I just didn't want to startle him.

"UGHHHH!" Eric cried, startling me while he pushed me away from the corner he was blocking with the table.

"Eric, it's me.  Joey," I said as he frantically tried to keep himself between me and the corner.  "Come on, Eric.  Look at me.  I'm your friend.  Remember?"

"UGGHHHH!" he again cried as he rushed me with his head down, attempting to head butt me in the gut.

I grabbed him and held him as he violently struggled to get away, talking to him and finding every time I mentioned Tim's name, he shuttered or let out a brief sob. 

After a minute or two, I thought he was starting to listen to me by the way he had calmed down and was trying to look at me, so I loosened my grip and carefully released him.  The moment he realized he was free, he knocked me off my feet and jumped over the table.

When I got back to my feet, I found him desperately trying to find something else to cover what was obviously a person's body under a blanket.  Something in my gut told me it was Tim, and I swear I stopped breathing when the top of the blanket fell off his head and I saw his expressionless face.

The next moment I was falling to the ground from some kind of jolt.  It wasn't electrical, yet nothing else comes close.  When I tried to get back on my feet, I got hit again, and this time I blacked out for just a moment.

"Eric..." I said, realizing he was somehow doing this to me.  "Please...  I need to help Tim."

At the mention of his name, I saw Tim's eyes move towards me.  Then as Eric tried to cover his face back up, Tim's eyes looked at him before he said a very hoarse, "No..."

Eric seemed to accept his word, and actually probably accepted a lot more than just what he said right then.  When Tim again looked over at me, I sensed he was telling me I could get up and let the others in.

I carefully picked myself off the floor, finding Eric clinging onto Tim like he expected to be ripped away from him at any moment, but he didn't make any moves to stop me from what I was about to do.

It took me a good five minutes to disassemble the barricade only to find nobody outside the doors when I opened them.  After calling Charles's and Kain's names a few times, I had to help get Charles get unstuck from the hole in the floor when I guessed where they had went.

When I came back to where Tim and Eric were, I found Eric had managed to cover them both up with the blanket. 

Nevertheless, Tim knew I was there, and when he croaked out my name, I was smiling with tears in my eyes as I knelt down beside him and carefully uncovered his face.

I've never had a greater shock in my life than when Tim angrily said "I...  told you NOT...  to come looking for us!  This is... all your fault!"

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