Unexpected Rescue

A burst of noise. Footsteps outside the door. Or was it just another version of the voices? Helen could hardly tell. There was never this much noise here. Just the voices that crept at the edge of perception, coming in crests and troughs. She had lost track of how long she'd spent here, with fear and hallucinations her only companions.

These new voices were loud, though. They sounded human. Her caretakers never spoke that way. And there were never that many of them. Just two, to bring her meals, her medication, and her child when the girl needed fed or calming. She was her child, right? Or had she made that up, too?

Helen leaped back as the door shook with a loud bang. It was solid metal that she had tested many times. Was someone else on the other side?

“Stand back!” a voice shouted from the hallway. Helen fled into the corner of her room, hiding behind her bed. The next noise shook the room, leaving her ears ringing, and the door swung open. “Doctor Kincade? Are you in there?”

Stunned, Helen stood and drifted forward, confused. These were new people in the door, all dressed in bulky black, holding guns. Was she supposed to trust them? What had happened to her caretakers? And where was her daughter? What had they done to her daughter?

Helen screamed and rushed forward. “Where is she? Where is she?” She battered her hands against the man's armored chest.

The soldier looked side to side at his companions, bemused. He handed off his rifle to his next in command. “Helen Kincade?” he asked gently, gripping her wrists carefully to keep her from hurting herself.

Her eyes rimmed with red, Helen gazed up into the soldier's gray eyes. Who was he? Where had he come from? She had no answers, no reason to trust, but she nodded anyway.

“Doctor Kincade,” the soldier said. “We're here to bring you home.”

“And her! You have to bring her, too! You have to!”

“Who else, Helen? Who else is here?”

“My baby! Aurora! Please find her, too! Please!”

Helen collapsed to the floor, overwhelmed. Maybe they really were here to help. To help them both finally leave this place.