“Shadow,” I could hear Carla shouting. I looked up to see

Carla leaning over my limp body. “Shadow, speak to me.”

“She’s gone,” I said and rose to a sitting position.

“Mary?” She questioned. I nodded indicating her correctness. “She said you were dead,” she added.

“Came close.” I explained no further and saw that Carla was confused enough. “Where are we?”

“The woods outside Wilmington.”

I looked at my surrounding. “Virginia?” Everything was so quiet, eerily quiet. Something had happened here, but I could not remember what. “This is too confusing.”

“Mary, we have to go,” Carla said. I could see the urgency in her face. “We have to get as far from here as possible. Doctor Brown won’t be far behind.”

“How can we escape?” I asked. I felt him close, perhaps more so than Carla did. I looked to her for the answer.

“Through Wilmington,” she said.

“Where will we go?” I finally rose to my feet, but held on to the tree for support. I could felt Carla’s hands on my back. She must have been afraid I would fall.

My back was still facing her as she said, “What about New York. You’re uncle is there. I know he…”

“No,” I shouted, cutting her off. My strength quickly returned as turned around to face her. Visibly upset, my lips trembled as I continued, “I told you before, he doesn’t want me, Carla. Please, don’t force me to see him.”

“All right,” she said. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to. Don’t worry, Mary. We’ll figure something out.”

“I hate him, Carla. I don’t know why but I do.”

“I understood why you hate Brown.”

I looked surprised that Carla didn’t realize that I spoke of Martin Drell and not Doctor Brown. In my resentment of Uncle Martin I started to feel a little of what Shadow did. I realized I had been a bad mother to her. My compassionate side had taken a back seat over my need for survive.