Freegans part 56

Ben
Madiza-or Ivy, I guess, but to me, she was still Madiza- collapsed to her knees, shrieking, "MAKE IT STOP!!!" Her hands flew to her ears, and she began rocking back and forth uncontrollably and screaming. Instantly I went to her side; catching her by the shoulders, I got her to look me in the eyes. She stopped screaming, and began sobbing instead. I gently took her hands from her ears, and wrapped my arms around her, holding her head against my shoulder. I could guess what had happened: seeing her old 'friend' again had brought back all the memories she had tried to suppress for so long. That was why she allowed her brain to be so bombarded with trivia and facts; it kept the pain away. It tore me apart to see her so upset, because-well, because I loved her.

I'm sorry if you are feeling disgusted by the sappiness of that statement, but it's the truth. I needed her to be her usual, happy self. I wished fervently that I could talk, say something, anything that could help her.
"We need to go!" I heard Ox say. I wondered when he had gotten here. I looked up, and saw that the whole team had arrived. They had freed all the prisoners, who were now standing in a huddle, looking as if they expected this to be another trap. I couldn't really blame them. Slowly, I stood up, lifting Madiza with me. She clung to me like a limpet, trembling, with her eyes squeezed shut. With one hand, I began checking my pockets. I knew what she needed. Luckily, I was able to procure a pencil, and some paper. Gently, I pushed them into her hands. After a second, her eyes slowly opened. Her spidery fingers closed around the pencil, and she began writing.

Cara and Matt walked with us, carrying their helmets under their arms. Everyone had them off by now; there seemed to be no more point in trying to pretend. Suddenly, I noticed that Paris was following us, staring anxiously at Madiza. I gave her a cold stare, and motioned her away. She had done enough.
"Please," she said in a small, pathetic voice, "I didn't mean for this to happen to her. They promised they wouldn't do anything to harm her-really, they did. I never thought-"
"Well, you should have!" snapped Cara. "Don't you see? You can't trust the government to keep promises, or tell you the truth! They would have told you anything to get what they want!"
"Cara," Matt said softly, "I think she understands now." He gave her a look, and she turned away from Paris, teeth clenched.

As the crowd of people went down a corridor, they came across a Drone, slumped against a wall. They started back in fright, but Deep Thought came forward fearlessly. He casually opened a panel, rearranged some wires, and then closed it again.
"What did you do?" asked Lucy, who was standing next to him.
"The same thing I did to the last one who got too close to my cell: reprogramming it. Just in case." Deep Thought smirked.

Freegans part 42

Ben
For a while all I did was watch Madiza draw. I could tell something was wrong, because her hands were trembling slightly, and she was writing an essay in Latin. That only happens when she feels agitated. I reached out and touched her shoulder. She stopped her frantic scribbling, and looked up at me. Her green eyes were bulging with fear.

Hey, are you okay? I signed at her with my free hand. Madiza had taught me sign language, but we didn't use it that often, unless I had no writing materials handy. She replied, No. Well, not really. If you want to know the truth, Ben-ben, I'm really scared. I'm expected to turn off the Drones of Golden Light, for crying out loud! It was clear that she was in one of her more lucid moments. She looked down, and suddenly stuffed the chalk in her pocket.

I don't know if I can take all this pressure, Ben! she signed. I reached out and put an arm around her bony shoulders.
Madiza, I signed with my right hand, you're a genius. You know the KillCode. And we'll all be here to protect you. You'll be fine.
She smiled at me gratefully. Thanks, Ben-ben. But what happens afterward? What will they do to us? They seem nice, but who knows what their real motives are?

I pulled her close, leaning her head against my shoulder. Gently I began to rock back and forth, hissing through my teeth. It was a guaranteed way to calm her down.

Freegans part 33

Ben
Kestrel led us into a small alcove, and tapped part of the wall. To my surprise, it slid away, revealing a hidden cavern! He brought us inside, and tapped the wall again, closing it. Lucy gratefully sank to the floor in exhaustion. Kestrel said, "We'll wait here until reinforcements arrive."
"Reinforcements?" asked Cara. "There are more of you?"
"Of course," Kestrel said with a smile. "You didn't think I was the only Resistance member, did you?"
"Well, no," she admitted. I noticed that Madiza was sitting on the ground too. She had her chalk out, and was writing again. This time it caught me by surprise. She was writing over and over the number 112. Kestrel had noticed it too. His eyes widened.
"112?" asked Matt, staring at it. He looked up at the Kestrel. "Does this mean anything to you?"
"Maybe. But I can't explain right now. Later."

There was an old paraffin stove and some provisions in the cavern, and the Kestrel soon had things rather nice and cozy. He produced some sleeping bags when we were done eating, and Lucy (of course) was the first to crawl into one and fall asleep. Matt and Cara soon followed, and I didn't keep my eyes open for much longer. The sleeping bag was wonderfully comfortable, much better than the old pile of rags I'd slept on for the past five years. Madiza was now drawing cross sections of several different eyes, and I left her to it.

I woke abruptly, after what seemed not a long enough amount of sleep. The Kestrel was still keeping watch, and Cara and the others were still asleep. I realized what had woken me. Madiza had dozed off some time previously, and was now tossing and moaning.
"No...no...no, you can't have it! No! Go away! It's mine! My preciousssss!" The last word came out in a loud hiss. She snapped awake, eyes wide. Her eyes darted this way and that before she suddenly realized, "Oh. It was a dream." Then she lay down and went back to sleep. Kestrel raised his eyebrows at me. I shrugged; things like that had happened so many times that I was used to it. Kestrel asked, "Does she always do things like that?"
I nodded. He then asked, "Do you know why she can do that?" He indicated the chalk drawings. I got out my notepad and wrote, 'It's because of the experiments the government did on her, right?'
He replied enigmatically, "Basically, yes." I was about to ask on paper what he meant, but suddenly the door to the cavern began to open!

Freegans part 29

Ben
Next I went to get Madiza. She wouldn't want to leave the fight, but what was important at the moment was that she be safe. Oh, and the others, too. She was zapping her tazer like a crazy person (Yes, I know she is), hitting a robot with every shot. However, more and more kept coming. I hoped Kestrel had a lot of plasma shots. I grabbed her arm. She turned to me.
"Hi, Ben-ben! Isn't this fun?!" she asked delightedly. I pointed to the rope swinging over the pit, which Lucy had now been freed from, then to Madiza. She got the hint almost immediately.

"But Ben, I'm having fun!" she protested. I paused quickly to kick the legs out from under one of the robots, then smashed the dome open with my hand, and pulled out some of the circuits. I pointed to it in a way that said, "It's too dangerous."
"Tell that to him!" Madiza pointed to Kestrel. I looked at her firmly, determined to make her go where it was safe. She glared stubbornly back. Suddenly I got an idea. I made big Bambi eyes, and made my best pleading look at her. Sighing, Madiza nodded. Turning away, she suddenly ran to the edge of the pit, grabbed the rope, and swung across with a loud Tarzan yell. She jumped off at exactly the right moment, and landed just behind Lucy, who was curled up in a fetal position, and Cara, who was trying to calm her down without actually touching her. I whistled to Matt, and waved him over to me. Now we would need to give Kestrel backup. Hopefully we would give the girls a chance to get away, even if it meant losing our own lives.

By now Kestrel had run out of plasma shots, and was instead smashing the robots with his rifle and other fighting skills. We went to join him. This looked like the end. However, I planned to use all my strength to the last.

Freegans part 8

Matt
I looked at Ben. He seemed sane, unlike his compatriot. Even if he was mute, there had to be some way to communicate with him.
"Can you understand me?" I asked. He nodded, then pulled out of his pocket a piece of paper and stub of pencil, then began scribbling furiously on it. Meanwhile, I turned to Madiza, and noticed that her wrists and ankles were in chains. Big, iron shackles that looked really uncomfortable. The ones around her ankles were attached to the wall in the far corner, which was why she had been staying in that area for most of the time. Cara and Lucy had seen them too, and cautiously walked over to her.

"Why do they chain you up?" asked Cara.
"It's so little old Madiza can't hurt anyone. They like to do that themselves," Madiza said. She snickered in a way that didn't sound really amused. She sat down, and rocked back and forth, singing in a haunting, high voice,
"See, saw, Margery Daw,
Jackie shall have a new mas-ter.
Jackie shall earn but a penny a day,
Because he can't work any fas-ter."

Ben, who had finished writing, handed me the paper, and I moved over into the candlelight to read it. It said, "I'm Ben. Pleased to meet you. This all may seem a little strange, but I will explain as best I can. Don't worry too much about Madiza: she's completely crazy. She was once a Freegan, who was captured and brought here long ago as an eight-year-old, I think. She was submitted to shock treatments and all other kinds of torture to try and get her to say where the Freegan hideout is, which eventually drove her around the bend. Now they just keep her here. I learned all of this from sitting for days and listening to her talk to herself, if you were wondering.

"I myself am here because I'm defective. I was born without a good singing voice, and the government brought me here to try and fix me, because they don't like the idea of anyone not being perfect. As a result of their experiments, I am now mute. They don't want to admit to failure, so they keep me here too. I don't know why they don't kill us, I just feel grateful to be alive. Are you Freegans too?"
"Yes," I said. "They'll probably try and torture us too, won't they?"
Ben nodded. He gestured for the paper, and began to write again.

At that moment Cara said from behind me, "I'm surprised you're not more like most consumerists. From what I've heard, there aren't any good ones left." I jumped about a foot, then turned to her.
"Cara, you know I hate it when you read over my shoulder like that," I said. She rolled her eyes. Then Ben handed me back the paper, and Cara and I both read it together.
"Living as a prisoner for several years kind of puts your life in perspective. I learned more by not being able to speak than I had in all the time I had gone to school. Of course, some of it was learned by listening to the ravings of a crazy lunatic, but it's amazing what you can learn from madness. In fact, there are times when she has brief bouts of sanity. Just wait."

At that moment, the door at the top of the stairs opened, and two big men came down the stairs. They came to the cage, opened it, and suddenly grabbed Lucy, dragging her out. We ran to the door, but before we could get there it was slammed and relocked.
"Where are you taking her?!" Cara screamed.
"For questioning," was the reply.