The Waiting Game

We're still alive, whatever that means these days. Things have been
so strange since we got back to the real world. We've seen Gabriel,
and he says that he doesn't remember anything about the last two
weeks. I think he's lying, though.

Now that Joe and all the WindWalkers are gone, and the Agents seem to
know all about what's going on, I see no problem with telling you what
happened.

Joe told us the other day that we were going to meet with one of the
people who had been turned by the Firebringers. Christine and I were
afraid, obviously; the last time something like this had happened, we
watched Bob crushed by Torment.

Instead, he took us to the house we remembered to be Gabriel's, from
when we were there when Unton was still gone. Joe took us inside.

Gabriel's mother was sitting on the couch, and she just stared right
through us as we walked in. I don't even think she could see us.

Gabriel was sitting at his computer. It was like, destiny or
something... We just looked at him, he looked at us, and then he
grinned.

Joe left, and Christine and I were alone with him. I could feel
Christine shaking.

"Hello," he said. "Colby? Christine?"

We said yes, that's who we were, and he grinned again. "I'm Gabriel."

I noticed he kept his hands hidden in his pockets, and that sort of
made me nervous. I remembered that alien infectees were supposed to
have black marks on their knuckles. Obviously he didn't want us to
see something.

"What's going on?" I asked. "What are the Firebringers planning? It
doesn't have to be this way, you know."

"The WindWalkers aren't what they seem," Gabriel said. "It's not like
they're telling you. The Firebringers are the ones who want to learn;
they do want to take some of us back to their home planet, but as an
ambassadors rather than as slaves."

That knocked me for a loop. Was it possible that he was telling the truth?

He just laughed. Then his head snapped around to the door, so I
turned around and a half-second later I heard someone screaming. It
sounded like a woman. We ran into the other room and a big, muscular
guy stood in the doorway. The woman was Gabriel's mother, and she was
pointing at the newcomer and shouting, "Him! It was him!"

Christine drew in a breath as she saw the man. "Chet," she whispered.

--I have to go, there's something happening outside.