THE GUARDIAN
BY: DIANA M.

Chapter Two

 
  Scarlett walked into the commissary the next morning. She had thought that the disturbing discovery of the night before would keep her from sleep. She had thrown the milk out the window, wary of what dangers its steamy whiteness might have hidden; there were a lot of sick people out there. For some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to get rid of the fireflies. She left them to light the jar by on her nightstand. It had been the best night’s sleep she had experienced in quite some time.

  Breakfast was an unappetizing affair of scrambled eggs and cheese congealed on toast. By some miracle of science, it had almost completely cooled before she found her seat. Scarlett decided to ignore her plate and concentrate on the juice instead. Lunch would surely be a sandwich buffet of some kind, and a wiser choice of awful food was better than subjecting herself to a single nauseating dish.

  She had finished one glass of orange juice, and was considering getting in line for another when Snake Eyes and Stalker sat down across the table.

  "Morning, Scarlett," Stalker smiled. Snake Eyes nodded hello, and Timber shuffled his way under the table top and licked Scarlett’s hand.

  Scarlett laughed. "You should keep an eye on that wolf of yours, Snakes. He almost made me jump out of my skin on last night. God only knows what he’s done to the rabbit population around here."

  Stalker and Snake Eyes looked at each other, then back at her. " Last night?" Stalker looked confused, "are you sure it was last night?"

  "You bet I am. It was after midnight, and this little red riding hood almost lost her basket of goodies."

  Snake Eyes shook his head in wonder. Stalker put down his fork and stared at Scarlett seriously, "But that’s impossible. Snake Eyes and I went off base yesterday. We didn’t get back ‘till a few minutes ago. Timber was with us the whole time."

  Scarlett decided another juice wasn’t very important after all.

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  There’s a very simple explanation for all of this, Scarlett told herself, these things just don’t appear out of thin air. Fireflies where they're not supposed to be, warm milk appearing in a completely locked room, strange wolves scaring me late at night. There’s some very logical explanation that I am completely-

  Her thoughts were stopped short when she ran smack into Duke. The stack of papers he carried flew everywhere.

  "Oh God, I am so sorry!" Scarlett stooped to pick up a handful.

  "No problem...uhhh...Fancy running into you here!" Duke grinned nervously. "Its nothing that important. These are all outdated codes, anyhow." He shuffled the papers into a messy pile. "What’s breakfast like?"

  "Better bring a gun, I think it might be alive." She had to crane her neck to look up into his crystalline blue eyes. As always, a thrill ran down her spine. Being with Duke always made her feel safe and in jeopardy at the same time.

  "Wow, really? That means its at least animal matter of some sort," Duke glanced at his watch, "I’d better get moving, though. Join me for lunch today?"

  "Sure, I’ll see you there around one," Scarlett caught herself nervously running her fingers through her hair.

  "One’s good. I’ll see you later," Duke smiled and walked away down the hall, self confidence oozing out with every step.

  Scarlett reabsorbed herself in thoughts of last night.

  If that wolf wasn’t Timber, then where did it come from, and why did it come so close? Scarlett had always thought of wolves as shy, timid creatures. It must have set off some sort of perimeter alarm...It can’t have got in without notice. I certainly didn’t see anything on my watch, though. Odd. Maybe there’s a breach in security somewhere.

  Scarlett decided to ask Dial-Tone about it. He had taken the watch after hers. If the wolf hadn’t set anything off entering, it might have tripped an alarm leaving. Or if not an alarm, maybe a security camera caught it in action.

  She found him, after an hour of searching, in the weight room. She should have known. Dial -Tone was constantly searching for ways to improve himself. Exercise, creatine; Roadblock had taken him out last weekend to redesign his wardrobe.

  "A man just can’t dress himself that way and be mentally stable," The large bald man had confided in her later, "I couldn’t just LEAVE him like that!"

  Dial-Tone was pumping iron and watching a Tony Robbins tape on the TV. His shirt was soaked with sweat. Scarlett often wondered whether he would ever be comfortable with himself.

  "Dial-Tone?" He spun around on the bench. The room was otherwise empty, and he hadn’t heard her come in over Robbins’ blaring inspiration. "Dial-Tone, did you see anything strange on your watch last night?"

  "Not really. It was a mostly boring night. I think I fell asleep twice," he put the dumbbell down and wiped his face with a ratty towel.

  "What do you mean ‘mostly boring’? You mean there WAS something?" Scarlett paused the videotape for his full attention.

  "Well, nothing, really. There was that weird thing with the fireflies. Naturally that happens when I’m on watch. I always seem to miss these things." Dial-Tone squirted a mouthful of water from the bottle next to the bench. He added more weight to the barbell and lay back to do a few presses.

  "Anything else?"

  "No, not really. Unless you count...nah, its not important..." Sweat began to pour off his brow. He must have been training for some time. Scarlett could smell the must of heavy perspiration now that she was closer to him.

  "Dial-Tone, anything might be important."

  "Well, I was watching you walk home on the cameras," He blushed and avoided her gaze, "Just to make sure you got there ok, it being so late and all..."

  "Thanks for your concern," Scarlett tried to ignore the feeling of being trespassed upon.

  "The funny thing was, at the edge of the cameras, I could see... Well, barely see..well, it was REALLY strange," he put the barbell back on the rack and sat up to face her, "Timber followed you the whole way. I mean the WHOLE way. And he didn’t let you see him, either. He was always where I could just barely make him out." Dial- Tone took another sip of water. "Once you caught him, because I saw you turn to face him. He ran off, but by the time you got within sight of the next camera, he was there again, just off to the edge of its field. I swear, he followed you straight to your door. But I guess it was OK, because he slipped in after you, and that was that."

  Scarlett felt very cold.

  "The brightness on those damn cameras needs fixing, though."

  "Hmm?"

  "He looked so totally white, it was unbelievable." 

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