14. A Blind Follower

I stand up, not quite sure what to make of the suspicious tone in his voice. He is silent for a minute, but then sighs and rubs his forehead.

"I am so not supposed to be doing this." He murmurs, then looks up. "Kayla, you never actually were on mars. You just... thought you were."

I choke and nearly burst out laughing So my whole life I've been dreaming? Nice try, Jake! Instead I calmly ask, "So, I 've been dreaming my whole life, and I just woke up a couple days ago?"

"No no no. You were part of an experiment, a scientific challenge to see if people could survive on Mars"

I shake my head, "Nope, not buying it."

"Fine, come on and I'll prove it, but you've got to do exactly as I say. Okay?"

"Sure."

We walk a while without talking, and I wonder why he said to 'do exactly as he said' , but then I notice a strange, worried sort of look on Jake's face.

"Jake?" I ask, worried at his expression. "What's wrong?"

Barely moving his lips he shudders, "I just realized that I am headed straight toward the cloud."

"The cloud? What cloud- Oh." The ominous cloud Jake had told me about earlier looms over us, like a vulture ready to strike.

"You know what," Jake breaths and confidently begins marching toward it "I don't care. You have to know and I've got to tell you so, HA!" He shouts at the cloud, as if it would scare it, and the doom it supposedly carried for him, away.

Okay... weird! I think but follow anyway.

After awhile of more silence, we start to choke and cough, as if we were in a cloud of smoke and pollution. My eyes start to water and I can feel my pulse in my lungs.

Through cough and choke I manage to ask, "What-cough-cough- is this- cough- place?"

Jake is a blurry figure because of my burning eyes, but he mumbles, "We're here."

"Here? Wha-cough-what do you- cough- mean?" I struggle to talk, even to think, in the thick, intoxicating air.

Jake grabs my elbow and dashes through the smog. I continue to cough and choke, stumbling over my feet, but I sense dread in Jake and try to little avail to suppress my racket.

My back bangs against concrete as I stumble on the ledge of the block. So... we're at the same place I was last night? Or- wait.. I don't remember so much smoke and... Jake yanks me to my feet and continues to drag me, full speed across the concrete. He moans something like, "Hurry!" or "Oh, NO!" but I can't hear very well. I can feel consciousness slipping from me in the cage of smoke. My face slams against a metal wall and Jake hisses in my ear. "Don't make a sound or you're dead!"

Shocked, I nearly fall unconscious, but as my vision narrows, I force myself to focus. Not to move a muscle, not to collapse, not to make a sound. I don't close my eyes though the smoke feels like it is penetrating them. All the while, in a flurry of confusion. Has Jake betrayed me? But, that doesn't make any sense, what has he betrayed me to? But, then again, why would he say he'd kill me if I made a sound? But... he didn't say he would kill me.. just that I'd be killed!

"FREEZE!!" Mr. Buxton's words from the night before ring true and clear in my ears as they are repeated, two yards away.