Jason had gone straight to Toby's house, desperate to find a sanctuary, where he wouldn't live in fear of being poisoned anymore. He sat with Toby on the couch, smoking.
“I told my brother about your situation,” said Toby.
“What did he think?” asked Jason.
“He said you were in extreme danger.”
“I am. I need somewhere to stay.”
“We can go there, but you've gotta understand something. They're gonna expect things of you.”
“What do you mean?”
“You'll see when we get there.”
Toby drove them southwest into a rural area with plenty of surrounding forest. Jason felt a sense of liberation looking at the landscape. The world was opening up to him again.
“I didn't want to tell you about it at the house,” Toby said, “but you should probably know before we get there.”
“Know what?”
“You gotta promise you won't tell anyone.”
Jason assumed it was probably something illegal. “Of course. I promise.”
“It's not just an anarchist group. It's a militia.”
“They're armed?”
“That's why I didn't tell you back at the house. It's gotta be kept secret.”
“Hell yeah!”
“They're gonna to expect you to work on the farm and learn how to handle firearms.”
“I've got no problem with that.”
When they arrived at the farm, Toby's older brother, Todd, was out front with two other men. Todd had an aquiline face similar to Toby's, but his frame was larger and he grew his hair down to his back. Todd and another more slender Caucasian male were smoking and a plump mulatto with glasses was popping candies into his mouth.
Todd was the first to greet them. “How was the drive over?” he asked.
“Uneventful.”
“This is the kid you told me about?”
“I'm turning eighteen in a couple months,” said Jason.
“His name's Jason,” said Toby.
“I'm Todd. This is Matt and that's Marvel.”
“Nice to meet you.”
Marvel held out the bag of chocolate candies. “You want some?” he asked with a lisp to his voice.
“That's up to Andrew,” said Todd, snuffing out his cigarette. “Let's go see him.”
Todd led them into a quaint home nearby, where they met Andrew in his office. Andrew was sitting behind his desk, reading, when they entered. “What do you want?” asked Andrew.
“This is the potential recruit,” said Todd.
“How old are you?”
“Seventeen,” replied Jason.
“Too young. You need to go back home.”
The rejection hit Jason hard. “I can't.”
“Why's that?”
“They're helping the government to kill me.”
“You think your parents are trying to kill you?”
“Inadvertently, yes. They're forcing me to ingest the psychiatric medications.”
“Why are you on psychiatric medications?”
“Originally it was to treat a sleeping disorder, but I'm certain that was only a ruse.”
“What do you mean a ruse?”
“The pills are magnetizable and I began receiving synthetic telepathy and electromagnetic shocks while I was taking them.”
“He's a gang stalking victim,” added Toby. “I've seen him being stalked by them.”
Jason's spirits rose a little. “Of course. I swear on my life I won't tell anyone outside that I'm here.”
“You better not. You'll be staying in the barracks with the others and sharing a bunk. Got a problem with that?”
“No.”
“Good. You can get him settled in now, Todd.”
Later that evening, when Jason entered the cafeteria, he was surprised by a familiar face. Tracy, whom he had met at the psychiatric institution, was sitting at a table next to Matt. There was recognition in her eyes when she saw him.
“Hi, Jason,” she said.
“Hello.”
“You two know each other?” asked Matt.
Jason went to get some food from nearby and he sat across from them.
“What brought you here?” asked Tracy.
“I was in fear for my life.”
“Why?”
“My parents were forcing me to take poisonous medications. Why did you join?”
“I needed a place to hide out.”
“Why did you need a place to hide?”
“I violated a gag order.”
“So much for freedom of speech.”
“Are you still seeing Jessica?”
Jason paused. “No, I'm not.”
“That's too bad. Why did you break up?”
“She's dead.”
Tracy's eyes widened. “Oh, I'm sorry.”
“It's all right. It's been a while now.”
“How did she die?”
“A seizure.”
“That's terrible. I hate what they did to her.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“She must have been given shock therapy too.”
Jason's eyes flared. “What makes you think that?”
“She changed her story about her step-father. I...” Tears rose to Tracy's eyes as she tried to recount what had happened. “I'm so ashamed of what I did.”
“You have nothing to be ashamed of.”
“I took it out on her. I ended up caving in under the pressure too.”
“You were put through shock treatment?”
“Yes, I was. Do you think she would forgive me if she were alive?”
“She would. She felt sorry for you.”
Later Jason got settled into the barracks. He put his backpack in the locker appointed to him at the foot of the bed and lay down on the bottom bunk.
An Asian male stopped and looked at him. “That's where I'm sleeping,” he said.
“Oh, sorry.” Jason got up.
“No problem. Long as you understand that.”
Jason reached for the ladder to the upper bunk, when the Asian male held out his hand. “I'm Vinh.”
Jason shook his hand. “My name's Jason.”
“Heard you were having problems with your parents.”
“They were about to have me thrown into an institution.”
“A lot of the targeted individuals end up in mental institutions. The system is set up that way.”
“Thank God Andrew took me in.”
“I felt pretty much the same way when I was accepted. Came over here from Georgia about a year ago.”
“Why'd you leave Georgia?”
“They had me gang stalked after they turned my girlfriend into a nimrod.”
“How did they do that?”
“She complained to me about a police officer stopping his car across the street and pointing a radar gun at her. Within a week she was gone.”
“That happened to me too.”
“You serious?”
“Yeah. A police officer pointed a radar gun at me and I could feel electricity in my spine. They tried to use it to control me with the synthetic telepathy.”
“What were you doing?”
“Just walking home.”
“That's what she was doing.”
“What do you think about anarchy and armed insurrection against the government?”