Author's note: Sorry about the kind of non posting thing. Over the summer i worked 12-10 like everyday so i didnt have much time to do much. Also while i've been going over the story i found that there were just too many holes that couldn't be fixed so i had to go back and change stuff - i changed chapter two because i just didnt like what i had written before. this i can at least live with for a while. anywho, i'll try and write as much as possible but i cant promise anything because soon i start college - eek! - and i have no idea about the amount of work i'll be expected to do. Ohhh, and for anyone who does not know, AZT is a drug that people with AIDS take.

~~**~~

"But my first priority is with the children. Children are the future of this world, I truly do believe that. And I feel it's our responsibility to take care of them. You know?"

Rew sat at the bar with a completely blank face, her eyes glazed over, staring off somewhere in the vacinity of this man's voice. Her mind was away on vacation for the moment. The sad thing actually was that this guy was like a rocket scientist compared to the rest of the bums that had tried to talk to her tonight. He was a twenty-five year old surfer who didn't believe in a government or law enforcment or any type of monetary system.

"The world should be free, man. Like the wind."

She unwillingly knew all of this because he had ever so kindly decided that she should know his life philosophies. Now he was giving her his beliefs on children. She couldn't really remember how the hell they had gotten to this subject, or to any other of the subjects he had spoken on so far, but she figured that if she just let him lumber on then the rest of the sleazy men waiting around would see that she was "taken", so to speak. So far, the theory had prooved correct.

"It's like, they're little...us's, running around with their little...two legs...and hands. They're gonna be the next great race to take over this planet. We should teach them all we know. Which is alot."

A small sign of life peeked through as Rew allowed the corner of her mouth to curve upwards. She fought not to break out laughing. Little us's? How much has this guy had to drink?

"You know what I mean?"

Rew's eyes came to focus, back from vacation, and settled on the man's features. He looked the typical surfer stereotype: flowered unbuttoned shirt, sandy rumpled hair, sea shell necklace. He could have been attractive if he just hadn't opened his mouth. But she just couldn't tolerate it anymore.

"Listen, Kit...Kai..."

"It's Skye. Well, Skyler, but my friends call me Skye."

"Yeeeaahhh. Ah, I gotta go take an AZT break. Hopefully you'll be here when i get back."

She winked at him and walked away, noting how he jumped up out of his seat and departed in the opposite direction.

Note to self: must thank Ginger for use of line.

Rew pushed her way through the crowd, trying to find the group of girls she had come with - or at least one of them because by now everyone was probably spread out everywhere. The club was packed, as was expected of a Friday night. But it was even more so because of a recent article in the Enquirer of how Britney Spears had come there, gotten drunk, and ripped off her shirt. You know, typical club activities. But hey, if Britney Spears does it, all of a sudden it becomes a national event and people come streaming in from all over the country to this club like its a national monument. Look kids, thats the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty, and Oh, the club where little Britney lost her way. Actually it was more like sleazy guys coming to see if they could catch a double take. But whatever.

"Rachel!" Rew caught sight of one of her friends down at the end of the bar ordering a drink. "Hey, Rachel!" She fought her way through the crowd and finally made it to Rachel's side.

"Well, now, have you been hanging around a one Mr. Samual Adams too much? You've got his scent on you."

"Ah shut your face Rew. You're just jealous cause you cant drink and you want to. Now what the hell are you yelling my name for? I told you, tonight I am Sassy...or was it Scarlet? Ah whatever."

"Actually, I think you were Sydney."

"Oh yeah."

"Hey, do you know where Ginger is?"

"Probably off living up to her stripper name somewhere, no doubt. Why?"

"I just wanted to tell her that her line actually worked."

"What line was that? The one about the shit?"

"No, the AZT one"

"Ah yeah, that's a good one. I use that a lot."

"Yeah, anyway, whats up with you? Are you going, are you staying?"

"Oh, I'm staying. I'm still having fun."

Just then the bartender came over and handed her her beer.

"Thank you my good man. Now if you'll excuse me Rew, it's time for me...to get drunk...or as I like to call it - Time Travel. Mua ah ah ah ah ah ah."

"Oh my God, you just crack yourself up. All right, I'm out of here. Talk to you later."

~*~*~*~

No longer feeling the suffocating atmosphere of the club, Rew headed down the street, her heels making a clicking noise on the sidewalk. She decided that the easiest route was to walk through the park and catch a cab on the other side. She didnt like the idea of walking through the park so late at night, but she didn't have enough money to pick up a cab where she was. So through the park it would be.

Central Park was quiet. No one was around. Rew walked down the stone walkway under the soft glow of the lamps. She usually tried to run in the park at least three times a week and the beauty never escaped her. She always figured herself an outdoorsy sort of girl. Growing up in the city however, didn't really allow outdoorsy activities. So the park had served as her substitute forest when she was a child. Although Rew had grown up in a Catholic boarding school and the children hadn't really been allowed outside the grounds much anyway. The precious time she did have outside the gates, she spent in the park. It served as a refuge for her then. The nuns weren't particularly the type of people a young girl wanted to warm up to and hang around. Rew was grateful to them though. She would always be grateful.

At the age of three, she was found on the Mother superior's doorstep. The only thing the old woman could glean from the three-year-old was that her name was Rew. That was the only question that Rew would answer. She had stayed mute after that for the next few months. Then slowly she started to speak again, softly and rarely. The nuns had gone to the police and the report was filed, but no one ever came to claim Rew as their own. The nuns decided that they would keep Rew as a foster child and raise her in the church. Thus Rew grew up in the Catholic boarding school, under the nuns' watchful eyes. They had never found out who her parents were or how she had gotten to Mother Superior's doorstep and Rew had never remembered. From time to time she did wonder who her parents were and what her life could have been like but she usually didn't allow herself to dwell on it too much.

Rew stopped in the middle of the path as she stared into the trees that were just to her right. It was the strangest thing. She stepped closer to the right side of the path trying to get a closer look. A small pulsing orb of light was hovering about seven feet off of the ground. Maybe it was some type of firefly. No, fireflies didn't tend to grow in diameter as rapidly as this orb of light was. Rew backed away, keeping her eyes on the small light that was quickly growing larger and larger. By the time she decided she should start walking, nay, jogging away, the orb of light had become a swirling disc of color about as large as her torso. As soon as she started making her way down the path she heard a loud swush noise break through the air, almost like the sound of a strong wind. Her steps faltered as she turned her head to see what it was. The sight of a man hurling himself through the disc of color stopped her in her tracks completely.

The man was in all black: black boots up to the knees, black pants tight over his muscular legs, black shirt, and a black military vest (you know, those ones with all the pockets that have all sorts of crap in them). He tumbled to the ground but sprang back up to his feet so fast it was almost just a blur.

All Rew could do was gulp and mumble, "Shit."

As soon as he was out of the swirling disc, another man in black came lunging out. Then another and another. They came out in one long line. After the sixth guy came out, Rew snapped out of her stupor long enough to realize that she should be running and not standing in the path, welcoming the strange men falling out of thin air. Oh, sorry, falling out of a swirling disc that was hovering in the air.

She turned on her heel sharply and booked it down the dimly lit path. It curved toward the left as she ran on so she was hidden from the men by the cluster of trees between them.

"Shit, shit, shit." What the hell was going on?

Behind her she could hear the sound of the men's voices bellowing at each other.

"She ran down the path."

"Cole's team, down the path. My team, we're cutting through the trees."

Rew picked up her speed as she heard what seemed to be the man in charge's voice command the men after her. Why was someone after her? Was she not supposed to have seen whatever it was that she had just seen? And if they were cutting through the trees then she was screwed because they would reach her section of the path in the next five seconds and she would find out sooner than she would like why these freaky guys were after her.

She decided to run into the cluster of trees that were on the right side of the path, hiding there in the darkness. She stopped when she was confident that she was deep enough in so that they wouldn't see her yet close enough that she could see them. Her breath came raggedly, her chest rising and falling fast, but not just because she had exerted herself but because she had no idea what the Hell was going on and was just a tad bit frightened.

Her eyes searched everywhere but she couldn't see any of the strange men.

I swear to God that I did not dream that happening. They're out there, I know it.

The sound of a twig cracking came from the left of her. A gasp escaped her throat unwillingly. She slapped her hand across her mouth and held her breath. She could hear the shuffling of feet on the leaves but couldn't see anyone. If she closed her eyes it would sound as if there was a group of people walking around just up ahead of her. Yet there was no one there.

She narrowed her eyes and strained to see better out on the path. The branches on the trees were swinging. There was no wind tonight though. They were swinging back and forth as if someone had walked by and pushed them aside.

Then the swinging stopped. Rew realized that the noise of shuffling feet had stopped as well. Everything around her was suddenly very still and very quiet.

Then she heard it. She heard the faint whistling of the dart slicing through the air as it glided toward her. She felt it puncture her neck, releasing the burning liquid into her bloodstream. Everything seemed to slow down. The words of the men that had suddenly appeared around her, slurred. Her limbs became heavier and heavier, finally so heavy that she couldn't move them. She crumbled into a heap on the ground. And as the darkness surrounded her, closing in, clouding her vision, she could feel strong arms wrap around her and pick her up.