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highway.  The sun had gone down
and there were far fewer cars on the road. 
    "I have another question. How long
were we in there?" I looked back to Rachel. 
    She shrugged, "I was in there
several years."
    I turned on the GPS that was built into
the dashboard of the truck.  I flipped through the settings looking for the
date and time, but the thing wouldn't tell me anything until I put in a
destination.  So I entered the address of the orphanage. 
    "You will arrive at your
destination at four a.m.” the GPS announced with a British accent.  Up in the
corner of the GPS the date was 7/6/2063 .
    I looked up at Ronnie, "We were
there a month."
    "More than a month actually."
    I sat back in the seat and rubbed my
palms into my eyes, feeling a head ache was coming on quickly. Our
incarceration had lasted longer than I could have dreamed.
    All I wanted was to be home in my
basement bed. 

Chapter 7: Home
     
    We arrived in the small town of
Greencrest as the sun was starting to come up over the nearby trees.  The town
was empty, the streets void of life, but that was completely normal for our
home town.  There were maybe a total of twenty thousand people in the whole
town, and most of those people had to drive to neighboring cities for work. 
    We pulled up to the lot where the
orphanage used to be located and Ronnie cut the trucks engine. 
    We all climbed out and stretched. 
    Ronnie and I stared at the lot in an
awestruck state.  Not only was the house gone, but it looked as if it had never
been there to begin with.  There was not a spot of evidence, nothing at all,
just an empty plot of grass.  The gravel driveway and the shed were both gone
as well. 
    "How can this even be possible?"
I asked Ronnie who was knelt down beside where the front door would have been. 
    He reached out and felt the grass.
    "I don't know but I don't think we
need to hang around here too long." He stood and rubbed his hands
together.
    We all agreed. 
    "Let's go down to the diner and see
about some breakfast.  I am already hungry again." I rubbed my stomach
absent mindedly.
    "Me too." Kenny chimed in.   
    "I overheard, one of the scientists
talking about that once.  He said that our metabolisms are amped up to like ten
times their normal rate to compensate for the extra energy needed to use the
abilities." Rachel recalled.
    "Over heard, or were you in his
head?" I hated the idea that she could freely walk around people’s minds. 
    “Grace, please, I am really sorry about
invading your mind.” She pleaded.
    I considered for a moment and decided to
let it go, “Forget it.  So, how long were you locked up?”
    "Now that I know the date I have a
better idea. Something like ten years." she looked away and pushing away a
tear that cropped up around her eye.
    "You would have had to been what
six or seven when they took you?  What about your parents?" We all walked
down the side walk.  Greencrest was a small town, anyone could walk to anywhere
in the town, if need be. The diner was only a couple of blocks away from the
orphanage.  Sandy was going to apply for a job there over the summer.
    "Seven." she said quietly, “My
parents were killed in the same accident that landed me in the ICU.
    "Where did you come from?"
Kenny asked.
    "I couldn't tell you, I'm not
sure.  I was in and out of it so much while I was there that my memories before
that place are all munched up.  I can only remember flashes.  The twins were
only five when we were abducted from the hospital.  They know nothing before
their abduction.”
    We went into the diner and sat in the
corner booth at the back; it was bigger so we could all seven sit around one
table.  Ronnie counted the cash that we had left and decided that we still had
enough for us all to go ahead and get whatever we wanted.
    "We were locked away in that place
for more than a month, and I can only remember eating a dozen or so of those
nasty protein bars." I wanted real food more than anything.
    "The