Altered Ch. 07

One of the reasons it took me so long to leave was that it took so long to clean up the history on this new ID. I hired a team of lawyers to pay any fines or bails and clear any warrants. It's amazing how easy the law will back off of a man when he has money. Not only was Jack Johnson cleared of all charges but in many cases past discrepancies also became fully pardoned after a few governors got a little extra money to finance their campaigns. It ended up costing me close to a couple hundred thousand dollars to clean up his name.

"Hi there, can I help you with anything?" the salesman tentatively asked, still not sure what I was there for.

"Yes, you can actually. I have a rental waiting for me."

"Ah, I see," he said, looking disappointed, he pointed inside. "Inside, Michelle will help you."

I had rented the car under a company I started with my last ID, I did not want there to be a trail back here so I was planning on taking it out of state and dropping it off at another rental place. I needed to leave as few breadcrumbs as possible. After taking care of some paperwork I was led to a red Ford Explorer. I packed up my things and headed west down the two-lane highway through the mountains.

I had been having sex regularly ever since I started my relationship with Robin and Tracey. Besides their companionship and love, I knew I would miss the sex - they kept the edge off. I would be alone once again and I was voluntarily subjecting myself to the old tortures of my hyper-sex drive. I wasn't looking forward to it. It's not like it ever went away but having an outlet gave me true peace of mind for the first time since puberty and now I was wading back into the chaos.

I decided to use mostly alternate roads as the main road would have more chances to run into trackers or possibly an OEC or Illuminati agent. I was the only shape shifter alive besides the girls, (at least that's what I was told), and with my aura masking I wasn't super worried about trackers. However, psionics weren't the only way to track someone and if the bounty was high enough you'd be surprised at the ingenuity bounty hunters could come up with to find someone. I didn't want to underestimate them. I had no idea what technologies they had on hand to use to find me and I definitely didn't have time to deal with them if they did find me.

I made slow progress through the beautiful winter scenery. At times it was so beautiful, I had to just pull over and soak it all in for a few minutes. The trees poked out of fields of snow and were covered in white powder hiding their green. I could see fence post tops peeking out as if they were nothing but rocks in a field of sand. There were no animals or birds anywhere, they were all hunkered up in their bunkers or flown south for warmer climates. Mountain peaks rose out of the ground as if giants, imposing - I was small and insignificant in comparison.

At times the road rose and fell up and down like I was on the longest roller coaster in the world. I ran into a few snow storms in my trek and found myself carefully navigating the treacherous road. I neither wanted to crash nor cause anyone to. But the huge semi-trucks barreling through as if they hadn't notice the blizzard confounded me. They almost seemed suicidal to me, but I realized that they drove this weather hundreds of times before and it was just old hat.

I stopped for gas from time to time, but I didn't really need sleep so it was only the weather that slowed progress. I was taking a north eastern route to Rock Springs Wyoming, which was not the most direct route but that was the point.

I was winding my way through a mountainous forest. The snow was lightly falling off and on all afternoon. I was driving kind of slowly for several reasons: the winding roads of the mountain, the slippery asphalt wet from the snow and black ice not to mention my constant vigilance as I searched for trackers. I was also worried I might get caught in a blizzard so I was fighting against my urge to drive faster when I saw an older Chevy Malibu off the side of the road.

It was practically buried in snow - only the back end of it could been seen and even that was camouflaged by a light blanket of snow. I wouldn't have noticed it at all except that I saw a bright flash of light almost like a lighthouse shining its light at you as it passed in its arc across the sea. The 'light' came from my second sight; I thought it might be a tracker masking his aura so it got my adrenaline pumping. I pulled over to investigate and I found that the light wasn't very bright and it seemed to be dimming.

Whoever it was, was probably dying, so I rushed to help. I took out one of the SUV's floor mats and used it as an impromptu shovel for the snow. I dug my way to the buried car's driver door. As I wiped off the window, I saw that there was no one in the front seat. So, I looked in the back seat and sure enough a small figure was crumpled up like a wadded-up piece of paper carelessly tossed in the trash.

The car looked in bad shape; it was smashed into a tree and facing down at an odd angle in a trench. I tried opening a door to get into the car but the doors were sealed shut by dents and damage to the side of car. I might have tried brute force but the angle and footing gave me no leverage. Besides, I wasn't sure if that was a good idea since the car was precariously near a cliff's edge. With the snow obscuring the car, and the cliffside I didn't know how violently moving the car would affect it and not knowing where to put a vector to pull the care up with telekinesis seemed just as dangerous.

My best guess as to what happened was that the damage on the driver side was caused by a hit and run. It must have careened off the road and through the guard rail. Whomever was in the car was unconscious and maybe suffering from hypothermia. Whatever the case, he/she was dying and I needed to get him/her help quickly.

I took the floor mat and put it against the driver side window and drove my hand into it with a palm strike. The window shattered, spraying the front seat with shards of glass. Using my floor mat once again I cleared the edge of the window of the remaining glass then draped it over the bottom edge so that I could get the body out easier without cutting it up.

I hopped into the car "Dukes of Hazzard" style then kicked as much of the glass on the seat to the floor. I leaned over the seat and saw a diminutive figure, very small and frail, in a plaid skirt and button up shirt and matching plaid tie around her neck. It was hard to tell if she had a school uniform because she was in school, but she could also be role playing for her partner or maybe she was a hooker. Either way, I reached over and scooped her up easily. She must have been no more than 100 lbs. soaking wet. Her weight was never going to be an issue with my enhanced strength but she seemed unusually light and felt thin like maybe she was emaciated. Her skin looked loose, I could tell she was young but definitely not a child. Her face looked unnaturally wrinkly almost like she was really old but I could tell she wasn't old. The car was not only pointed downward at a 30-degree angle but it was also leaned over to the right. The odd angles the car was in made it difficult to get her from the back seat to the front as her body seemed to hang down at odd angles.

I had to grab her body in odd places to maneuver her out of the car and I was doing my best not to molest her unnecessarily. Her hair was blonde and matted and seemed to be pasted to her face by dried up blood. It took me almost 20 minutes getting her out of the car. And once I did, I noticed her skin was a shade of blue and her breathing was light and shallow.

I rushed her to my SUV and cleared the back seat as best as I could. I laid her across the back seat, turned the heated seats on and covered her in a blanket that I packed for my trip. I closed the door so that she could get warm and pulled out my phone and tried calling 911 but there was no signal. I kicked myself for getting rid of my satellite phone, I was being paranoid and didn't want anyone to link my old ID to the new one so I disposed of it.

While I was pondering what to do about the girl, it started snowing. The local radio station had talked of a blizzard earlier so I got worried that I would be stuck in the middle of the blizzard with a dying woman. I got back in the back seat to check up on the girl. She didn't seem like she was warming up and I couldn't even tell if she was breathing. I got out my smartphone and held the glass over her mouth and saw that it fogged up, but only slightly.

I sat there trying to figure out a way to warm her up without resorting to naked bodies pressed up against each other when her body started to shake and convulse and her eyes opened wide as if in shock. I held her as still as I could without hurting her, hoping I was doing the right thing when she suddenly stopped. Her eyes seemed to glaze over and I could no longer feel a pulse and I checked her breathing and this time there was nothing.

I immediately started performing CPR. After 5 minutes of trying, she still wasn't breathing on her own. I kept it up and didn't give up, then I tried looking into her mind.

*

Blackness was all there was. Nothing awake, everything still and peaceful.

"Wake up!"

I forced my awareness in, and I could see a bright light all around me.

"Wake up!" I repeated, over and over.

Finally, I was aware of her, it was like sensing movement except it was an awareness that there was another mind present.

"Who's there?"

"You need to... WAKE UP!" I said with desperation. "You're cold and dying, don't die on me!"

*

Suddenly my mind was forced back to the present. The girl under me gasped and deeply inhaled a desperate breath. I leaned up and off of her and she pushed me desperate to get me off of her. She screamed bloody murder and acted like I was violating her.

"Calm down, girl! I'm not trying to rape you... You were dying and stopped breathing so I gave you CPR."

She was slow and lethargic, but her voice was not hampered in the least. She screamed bloody murder, I don't think she even heard my pleas. So, I sat on my haunches at her feet backing away as much as I could with my hands held up displayed in front of me as a gesture of peace.

After a few minute of her screams and my not attacking her, she came around and saw that I was not trying to hurt her and her panic subsided.

"Listen, you are cold - hypothermic. You need to get your body temperature up. I was going to lay on top of you for a while..." I began, then saw the panic in her eyes once again. "FULLY CLOTHED! No touching or anything inappropriate... but if you have a better idea, I'm up for suggestions..."

She stared at me for several minutes and her eyes seemed to fade in and out of consciousness.

"I'm not a doctor but I need to get you warm before I can take you to a hospital..."

Her eyes flared up in panic once more, "NO! No hospitals - please. I can't go back..." she said, as she faded back into unconsciousness.

I checked her pulse once more and she seemed to be ok, so I decided to warm her without her permission, she could hate me later but at least she would be alive to do it. I unbuttoned her shirt and pulled it open. I took my shirt off and laid on her chest like a human blanket. It was like laying on an ice cube.

My body starting reacting to her cold and I felt myself getting warmer almost feverish. After a half hour of this, I got up and saw that she was turning a little pink so I pulled her shirt closed and buttoned her back up. I covered her with a couple of blankets and tucked her in and strapped a seatbelt onto her as best as I could.

I had no idea what was wrong. She seemed dehydrated, her skin was wrinkled and sagging almost like she was once fat but lost a lot of weight. One thing I did know was she had some sort of psychic ability and she was panicking about going to a hospital. This led me to believe that, maybe, she was being hunted by someone, just like me - maybe even the same people. I needed to get out of there before I got stuck in the blizzard; I wouldn't be able to do much for her then.

I left my engine running to keep the heat going in the car so when I tried backing out of the side of the road all it took was a shift of a lever. My tires spun but had no traction. There is no way I was going to stay there; I would probably survive but she would be dead soon if I didn't get her help. There was nothing for 30 miles the way I came, the only hope was to go forward.

I put the SUV in neutral then got out and took a look at the situation. My tires were stuck in muddy sludge and sunk in about five inches. There was no gravel to put under the tires, nor any boards nor branches nearby as we were on a steep slope and any reachable debris would require my traversing through what was turning into a full-blown blizzard.

I went around the back and tried pushing. All that accomplished was to push myself into the mud - at one point I almost slipped into the mud face first. Luckily, I caught the bumper and only got my pants muddy. I could feel the cold wetness of the mud, it was shocking at first, but soon after my body started warming up and I could see small bits of steam coming from my pants.

"OK, one more thing to try," I thought.

I went to the side of the truck and gripped the bottom side of the truck near the back wheel well where you would place a jack to change the back tire. I squatted down and with both hands I lifted the SUV up and the back wheel cleared the ground by over 10 inches then I pulled it towards me. I was able to pull it a couple inches at a time and repeated this until the tires finally seemed to be in a solid rocky area close to the asphalt. I got back in and shifted into reverse and the SUV slipped a little and took a little extra gas and it lurched onto the road. With a sigh of relief, I drove forward a few feet.

I was glad I had taken the time to prepare for hazardous driving. I knew I was heading into possible snowy conditions so it was required to drive out there anyway as the highway patrol would often check cars to be sure they had chains before they were allowed up in the mountains. I had bought snow chains and other emergency equipment and from my kit I grabbed some flares and placed them back a ways to warn others that I was stopped ahead. I took out my snow chains and attached them to my tires. Then I slowly made my way down the road.

With the defroster and the wipers going full blast I could barely see the road so I kept my speed at 20 MPS. They must have shut down the road because I hadn't seen a sign of a car since I rescued the girl.

I drove for over an hour and the road got more and more treacherous. The road wasn't even visible however I was able to follow the outline and road markers. Eventually even that was lost to me. I used my third eye and was able to see the concentration of energy of the asphalt differential to the side of the road. I could clearly see the road, it was like seeing a computer outline overlay of the road in the midst of the snow. Even with my being able to see the road eventually the SUV would not be able to continue since the snow would start piling up and hinder its progress. I tried driving serpentine in order to shake off any built-up snow - I had no idea if it was helping. I got extremely lucky because as the SUV started getting sluggish and didn't look like it would make it very much farther, I saw a bright neon sign up the road.

I backed the truck up and tried plowing through different routes, I got out and cleared the snow in the front and after a few attempts I was finally able to pull up to the neon signed Black Creek Lodge. I got out of my SUV and rushed through the biting snow to the lobby.

The lobby demonstrated that this was not a five-star hotel. The counter was made of some old laminate, it was cracking with age, the avocado green reminded me of the 60's era styling long past its prime. The room was all wood paneling that was splintered and faded with age. There were holes cut randomly throughout the walls for various reasons unknown now as their purpose was lost in time. There were three tall wire racks filled with aging yellowed postcards that you might find at any typical truck stop - twenty years ago. As seedy as the place looked, it was immaculately clean. Not a speck of dust to be found anywhere.

There was no one in the lobby and I looked around and saw a sign saying to dial #67 for assistance. I picked up the old telephone and was unsure how to use it. There were no buttons on it, it just had a dial with numbers that went around a circle counterclockwise. I had only seen a rotary phone used in old movies and tv shows but I never used one before - it was a true novelty. Eventually I figured it out.

"Hello?"

"Hi, I'm in your lobby and we got caught in the storm and need a room for the night, can you help me?"

It was still early in the evening but this lady sounded tired, almost sickly.

"I'm sorry. I'm not feeling well right now and the last thing I want to do is trudge my way through the snow..." she began, and I was about to beg her and plead my case when she continued. "There should be one room left, the key is hanging up behind the counter. Take it and we will settle up in the morning."

"Aren't you afraid I'll take off on you?"

"You won't get far, the roads won't be cleared for a couple of days," she chuckled. "Besides, you sound honest enough to me... now let me get some sleep."

'CLICK.'

"Okaaaay, interesting," I thought.

I had never been to a place where they used an honor system. I looked around and saw some folded-up pieces of paper on the other side of a huge tube monitor, (I haven't seen one of those since I was 10), the papers were maps of the lodge and sprinkled through the property were many numbered cabins.

I took the key off of its hook and matched the number to the room and went back to the SUV. I climbed into the back to check on Jane Doe, I put my hand to her forehead and saw that she was cool but no longer ice cold. I had no way to drive the car to the cabin since the snow covered everything and all of the paths up to the cabins must have been dirt because I couldn't get a bead on them one way or the other.

I swaddled Jane Doe tightly in the blankets binding her in bungee cords to keep the blankets in place. I put a beanie on her head and covered her ears. I was strong but it would be really awkward carrying her and anything else, so, besides my backpack full of essentials, I would have to come back for my things later.

I hefted her up, laying her head on my shoulder. Luckily, she was pretty short, maybe under 5 feet, so I was able to keep her feet out of the snow as I trudged my way to the cabin. The cabin looked rustic and was painted a dark brown, with the snow blinding me I couldn't make out many details but I did see the front door right away so I rushed the last 20 yards to the door.

I hustled Jane Doe to the queen-sized bed in the middle of the room. There was a fireplace in the corner and a tube tv across from the bed with what looked like a VCR and a collection of old VHS tapes. Beside the fireplace was stacked a pile of firewood. I hurriedly started a fire, which was made easy by a Duraflame starter that I used under the kindling. Once the fire got going, I added a large log to it and the cold in the room quickly faded.

As the room got warmer, Jane Doe showed signs of life.

"Wha- What? Where am I?"

I looked over at Ms. Doe; she was looking around in shock.

"I rented us a room, you needed to get out of the cold."

"Who are you?"

"The name's Jack... Jack Johnson."

"Jack Johnson? You're shitting me! What's your REAL name?" she asked, half laughing.