The Affected: Dancing Wind Epilogue

Epilogue

Well several weeks have gone by since I went public.  Dr. Rambles has been working with some powerful affected to “get the truth” out of our so called government officials.    But I’ll let her tell all about that if she chooses to do so.

I found out that “Fab” was short for Fabio, seems his mom was really into those bodice ripper romances that Fabio modeled for.  Yes, we’ve kept in touch with that Farm and I think Aunt Becca takes too many trips out there to take seed to them.    Now that partnership began with her taking them some seed as a thank you for helping me.  She took them some agave plants that I handled also.   They now make the best tequila in the world.   All legal like too.  ;)

As for me, I’m back at Aunt Becca’s ranch but I also have been working with the “good guys” of the Affected.  Here and there.  Sometimes I’m just able to gather some information where others have failed.    Dr. Rambles does a whole lot more than I can. 

I’ve had to restart all my experiments and such.  But I’m pretty sure I’ve been able to find the limits of my abilities.   While extreme stress does seem to enhance them, regular stress doesn’t.   

I really didn’t like being in the spot light and thankfully, I was ‘forgotten’ when more powerful Affected “came out of the closest”.  Hahahaha!  I like the quiet life. 

Aunt Becca is glad that the worse seems to be over and  has managed to wrangle a 5000 year contract with the government that NO government official or agency will ever take away her Ranch.   She did the same for the Farm which included all the land around it that was federally owned.  It’s huge now and that family has its hands full.   I don’t know how she does that.   She got all the water and mineral rights too.   She even managed to get some money for the damage the Feds caused when they stormed the ranch.  And then some extra.  Sorry taxpayers. 

Kassie is still amazing.  She has really blossomed into a natural botanist and has begun to make hybrids out of some of the plants I’ve been working with.   So not only is she still helping/apprenticing with me, she has begun her own experiments.  It’s awesome to watch.

The Greenhouses are bursting with plants and we’ve planted new orchards and gardens.  One of the things we’ve begun is testing the potency of some of the medical herbs.   We are looking for other farms to work with and are carefully going through all the applicants.  Only GOOD people will be chosen. 

I think if we plan it just right…and only deal with the people… we will be able to wipe out hunger in our country…and then we will tackle the world.   My Aunt has already begun working with schools in our area and sending “dinner” home with those kids who will take it.  We are making gardens at the schools for the kids to help with; I’ve just been handing out seeds.   The kids are even bringing seeds for me to touch for their own gardens at home. 

I’ve narrowed down what actually happens when I touch the seed.  The vibrations in me “jiggle” the DNA in the seeds to work more efficiently.  So instead of a lot of seed that never germinates, all the seeds do and they use their stored food more efficient until they emerge from the soil.  Then they are able to use sunlight 100%.  It’s just amazing watching what happens.   Even under the microscope. 

These vibrations are also what seem to allow me to understand and talk to animals.  It’s like my whole body just vibrates differently.  I wondered what was happening with my brain and so went in for a cat scan, MRI, and another brain scan that I never heard of.  My brain is like all lit up.  One of the staff brought in their “mascot” Sparky.  He is a beautiful Golden Retriever to ‘talk to me’ during that last scan and I guess my brain just really went nuts… but in a good way.   The same with me flying, these vibrations manipulate the air. 

So as you can guess, I’m spending a lot of time learning to control these vibrations and my abilities. 

Oh, and Betty is acting like an old married horse with Stanford, but anyone can see how happy they are.  And she is going to give birth sometime early next year.

I can talk to her filly too.  

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Twenty-Eight

Chapter Twenty-Eight

There must have been twenty of them, all armed and all their arms pointed at the five of us.

Dr. Rambles told them that we were not there to hurt anyone but that we were just trying to get home.

They frisked us and saw we did not have any guns or weapons so they finally lowered theirs and asked where we came from. 

When Dr.  Rambles explained that we were running away from that building and pointed over towards where we came from, they started to raise their guns again but she worked her ability and while convincing them we had been prisoners there, found out that this group had been fed up with the comings and goings of that place ever since “The Event”.  They had figured out pretty quick it was not a legit place. 

I figured they would be putting two and two together pretty quick and decided to take control.

“Yes it was just horrible being locked up in there! Please we need to get out of here before those horrible people find us.  Can you please help us?”

The man who seemed to be in charge, stepped forward and said “My name is Fab…don’t ask… well if you’re some of those freaks, why don’t you save yourself?”

“We don’t have super powers or abilities.  Please we just need to get away, as far away as possible.  Will you help us?”

Then the man named “Fab” (and yes I was dying to know the story behind that name, I mean was his mom stupid enough to name him after laundry soap? Or did she think he was just ‘Fabulous’ at birth) hollered out “Junior!” (oh please, does this mean there is a Jr. Fab running around??) “Get the van started and take these people to town.”

“Thank you so much Mr. Fab!  We really appreciate it!”

“I’m not doing it for you, I don’t want those gooberment goons coming over here.”

Dr. Rambles just could not help herself “Why not?”

Ole Fab didn’t stand a chance but blurted out all about the still he had in one of the old barns, even going so far as to brag about how unique and efficient it was.   

Needless to say, the rest of the group hustled us into the van and Jr took off fast.  We didn’t even have seat belts on and kind of got tossed around a bit. 

Jr slowed down when we heard the helicopter, trying hard not to draw attention to us.  We didn’t realize that a few others from the farm also jumped into vehicles and drove in different directions all crazy like so the helicopter actually took off after one of them. 

Jr was more talkative on the ride to town, not sure if it was because Dr. Rambles was sitting up front with him or not.  But he filled us in on the happenings.  Seems we had been locked up for almost a month.  I had thought that only one or two at the most, days had gone by. 

No wonder I was starving.  I looked at my arms and only then noticed the needle marks.  All five of us had them. 

Anyways, back to the happenings.  I guess some of the Affected have had it with the government and someone (or more) has been ‘disappearing’ members of congress who have now been found to be BAD BAD people.   The Affected were demanding to be treated with all the same rights that God gave everyone else. 

I had to wonder how many other buildings were being used to ‘house’ affected.   There were five of us in this one… ten more would be fifty.  It was unacceptable. 

Just ONE held against their will was unacceptable.   I was worried about Aunt Becca and Kassie. 

“Town” turned out to be just what we needed.   The other three affected were able to call family and have them come and get them.  Again, that is their story to tell.  As for me and Dr. Rambles, well I called Aunt Becca and told her I was ok and she told me to NOT come home because she had just had a horrible visit by the FBI and Selman.  They even threatened to take her ranch if she did not tell them where I was. 

Good grief!  Why are they so interested in ME?  I’m not anyone nor do I have super powers. 

Dr. Rambles was able to get a hold of her husband who had been in the hospital with a heart attack.  She was horrified and decided she was going to fly home as fast as she could.  She didn’t think she would have a job anymore either. 

We both decided we would be safer if we went public.   And two weeks later, that is what we did.  

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Twenty-Seven

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I sent some of the mice to look for the keys to the other rooms.  By this time, I was sure no one would see me in the plants, I was well hidden.    The foliage was much thicker now.  But I didn’t want there to be too much of a difference so I tried to pull in all the plants growing and just concentrate on the ivies.   I could feel the plants begin to respond and they began to slow down. 

I thought that by now I would be exhausted and weak but I actually felt pretty good.  I was still hoppin’ mad because I realized that Selman was probably behind all this. 

I had other mice search the whole place so that I could figure out the ‘lay of the land’ as it were.  It wasn’t as big as I thought it might be but it wasn’t small either.  I sent a few to find a way outside and they were happy to “show” me.   There was a small crack in one of the unused storage closets way in the back that actually had stuff in it with layers of dust. 

Outside looked to be a forest.  Well I was looking through the eyes of a mouse now.  Grass tends to look that way to them. She scurried along the outside wall until she got to the parking lot.  Now I could see for a longer ways and I could not believe where I was.

In the middle of NOWHERE!!!  How long was I out?  It was just fields forever!  Oh there were trees here and there but mostly just over grown fields.  Now again, I was looking through mouse eyes so I HOPE there was more.  I had her go completely around the building, it took her awhile but she did.  I didn’t see anything different or helpful.   It was the same view as outside the windows behind me.

Via the mice, I found room #3 and Dr. Rambles.  So I concentrated the ivy growth towards her.  The ivy grew out of the ducts in her room which were right above her bed.  One of the mice went into her room by squeezing under the door.  So I could “see” how the ivy was doing by looking through the eyes of the mouse. 

Did I mention that this was freaking me out?? But oh so cool! 

Soon I had five keys in my hands, four to the rooms and one to the front door.   The seven men were still running around the place being chased by the bugs until finally they ended up running out the back door.  Even the four security guards ran out.   The door closed with a solid thunk behind them.  

In Dr. Rambles room I could see she had woke up and was reaching for the ivy, as she touched it, I got a jolt!

Freaky!

I could see her nod her head and hear her whisper “Dani?” 

I whispered back in my head “yes and I’m coming to free you.”

I decided that this place needed to go and so gave the plants some last words.  They were to do enough damage to make it uninhabitable for humans but not enough to damage themselves. 

I gently crawled out of the planter.  I could see that there was now only one car left in the lot and nothing but a dust cloud on the road leading away. 

I went and released Dr. Rambles and the other three. 

I’m not going to tell the names of the three and yes they all did have abilities but that is their stories to tell and really this story is about ME! ;)

It turns out we were in a long forgotten building that was to be the first building of a new community.  It was a real estate office best I could tell.  But the community never took off.  And guess where?  No guess?

Kansas. 

Yep I was about three hundred miles from home.  But the girl was from Canada.  The guys? One was from Florida and the other from Oregon.  The only thing they had in common was they were all three going to some meeting that had been arranged for The Affected. 

I wasn’t sure what to think but we all agreed we needed to get out of there.  We all ran back to the reception area where the plants had already begun again to outgrow their planters and slipped outside after I used the last key to unlock the door. 

We checked the car out to see if we could use it but there were no keys and none of us knew how to hot wire a car.  And it was an automatic, so no pushing it to jump start it.   There was only the one road and so we didn’t know which way to go. 

Thankfully a Robin pointed us in the right direction to the nearest “huumens” which I took as meaning a town.  Robins can be pretty abrupt and rude.  It wasn’t a town but rather a farm.    I guess they moved out to the boonies for a reason.  I guess they didn’t like to have people around.  I guess that is why they met us with guns.

Craaaaap.

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Twenty-Six

Chapter Twenty-Six

Yes I am NOT ashamed at all.  I called every spider, ant, fly, roach, and creepy crawler I could think of. 

And they came.  Boy did they come. 

The bad guys (or whoever they were) began to beat on the door and make threats telling me I better move the bed and such and let them in.

Did they really think I was that stupid??

Well they began to scream when the fire ants poured out of the small gap in the door and began to bite them.

The one time I thanked God for fire ants! 

There were only three guys, the “Mountain” and the two geeks.  The mouthy geek and the quiet geek. 

I think that the Mountain squealed louder than the other two but I could definitely hear three squealers out there.  And they then ran and left my door open.  I did not waste any time.  I shoved the bed out of the way and ran out the door.  All the bugs had followed the three men. 

As I began to run down the hall, I saw an open door and peeked in.  It was the monitor room and I could see other rooms on different monitors.  Dr. Rambles was on one of the screens.  It looked like she was asleep on her cot. 

I remembered she and I had been talking when I was hit by the dart.  They must have got her too.  I hope they just took her because she was there and not because they knew about her ability. 

There was a number 3 written on a scrap of paper and taped to her monitor.  There were five all together and the one with just fuzz on it had a 1.  I figured that was mine.  All the monitors were watching someone.   Besides Dr. Rambles, there were two other females and one male.  

Just then a siren went off and I bolted out of the room and down the hall, the opposite way of the men.   I came to a door and the handle was jiggling so I shot up above the door frame as close to the wall as I could.  Just in time too, it opened and four men came rushing through.  I stuck my hand in the door way, stopping the door from closing all the way.  As soon as they ran around the corner, I pulled myself through the door and closed it. 

Windows.  Lots of lovely windows and a door at the far end that led outside.   Bu the windows showed nothing but a lot of empty fields.  No other buildings.  Some trees here and there.  Even the road looked worn and faded.  It was a single lane dirt packed road that may have had asphalt on it long ago.    The door was glass but only showed a small parking lot that had six vehicles in it. 

I was in some kind of reception area.  Or at least that is what it probably was back in the 40’s.  But that’s ok.   Because there were PLANTS in the room!  Lots of plants.  Why there were plants, I don’t know and didn’t care but I totally got to work. 

The reception room (as I began to call it) had those HUGE built in planters that were the rage decades ago.  So I crawled into one and began to touch and talk to the plants. 

Something different happened that day.  It wasn’t like when I touched the hay and became exhausted.  This was, well how do I explain something I am not sure I understand?

This was a ‘give and take’ with the plants this time.  It was like they could sense my desperation and so opened up to me more fully.  I felt literally connected to them all and I did not have to touch every single plant. 

We became one.  It was bizarre and so far, I’ve never felt that same thing.  Some of the plants were very old, I’d say at least 30 or so years old.  Remember we are talking about huge planters.  Like twenty feet long as they followed the windows and six or seven feet wide –from the window to the outer edge.  And the plants had already filled the planters.  They were well established. 

I think the difference may be because the planters had a water system that was like a drip system so they had constant access to water.   I’m not sure how they set it up but I could sense that the more water the plants used, the more water would be ‘pulled’ from the system.  And “we” pulled a LOT of water from it. 

There were five kinds of ivy type plants growing and I “sent” them through the duct system. 

I met a nice mouse in the planter I was sitting in and he introduced me to his family, all 389 of them.  They were more than happy to help me. 

And here is where it got really freaky.  I began to be able to see through their eyes.  I felt like the Beast Master (you know that old movie with Mark Singer? No? well google it then.)

The Affected: Dancing Wind Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

To say I was angry was an understatement.  I was LIVID.  As soon as I was awake enough, I thoroughly searched the room, even floating up to the ceiling and inspecting every single inch of the place.  There was a camera that I immediately disabled by pulling it out of the wall.  The walls were cinder blocks and painted a dull white.  The only break in the walls was the solid steel door.  The ceiling had one light and two small air ducts.

The building was old though I could tell because when I pulled the camera out of the wall, some of the cinder block crumbled.  I could not really make the hole bigger with my finger but it just felt old.  But there were also a lot of cracks showing not only along the floor but on the walls.  It reminded me of a store I saw once in California where there had been a lot of earthquakes.  I remember asking my dad who briefly worked there, why were there so many cracks and he explained that they were caused by earthquakes.  The walls only held strong due to the rebar and filling in of the cinder blocks but the paint and mortar would crack.  Then he went on for fifteen minutes about the benefits of stucco. 

I also found a microphone hidden in the bed frame.  It was tucked in the corner.  I smashed that also.  I counted the seconds to see how long it took someone to come to the room.  Their monitors must be close by since I only got to 55 hippopotamus.   That is right, I do not say Mississippi.   So their room is probably right next door. 

I wish I could say that I fought my way out of the room but alas I failed in that.  I did try but I swear that the guy they sent with the geeks was made of stone and I would have hurt myself if he had not restrained me.  He was gentle about it, I have to give him that… he could have snapped me in half like a twig. 

“I’ll just rip them out again! “ I yelled as loud as I could. 

“Then we will restrain you.”

“oh yeah? Then what are you going to watch?”

I could feel that mountain holding me trying to not laugh.

“I’ve got rights!  You have no right to hold me here against my will!”

“We are holding you under the Patriot Act, so you have no rights.”

“So you are declaring me an enemy of the country?”

“Basically.”

“Well then I hope you are ready for a war because that is what you are going to get!”  I then shut up and just watched them.  The big guy finally set me down but he kept his hands on my shoulders.  I think the thought I would try to float away or something.  But I refused to use my abilities in their presence. 

Finally they were done and I was alone again and I promptly busted the camera and microphone again.  And then I slid the bed in front of the door.  The room was so small that it was only an inch or two longer than the bed. 

I sat on the bed and began to call.  

Ok, since I really had no idea where I was, I didn’t really know which kind of animal to call and I was not like Tarzan who could make one call and all the animals would heed it. 

So I called the ONLY group of “animals” I KNEW would be around. 

Bugs.