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Chapter Six
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The trip back to the Rebel encampment was uneventful.

At least, Dana assumed they were returning to the place from which they
had departed, but to be perfectly accurate, she was unable to recognize
any landmarks.  Just pine trees, as far as the eye could see.

Not that she was spending a great deal of time admiring the scenery. 
She had other things occupying her mind -- not least of which was that
Pan and Diana were flying ahead of her, hand in hand, and no matter how
hard she tried, she couldn't seem to catch up.  The two of them were
also evidently talking more or less nonstop, although they were far
enough ahead that Dana wasn't able to pick up more than a word or two
out of any given sentence.  And occasionally, they laughed.

She tried to tell herself that she shouldn't let it bother her.  Pan had
obviously known Diana for some time; they were friends.  It wasn't
surprising, then, that they would have things to talk about, especially
considering the harrowing circumstances of the rescue.  Dana, on the
other hand, had known Pan for only a little over a day, and there was no
real reason why she should be upset that he was paying attention to
someone else.

Or at least, so she kept telling herself.

Of course, there was the small matter of Diana's apparent disloyalty. 
There had been no opportunity during the flight to the Rebel camp for
Dana to bring this to Pan's attention, but *that* was something she
intended to rectify as soon as possible after their arrival.

And now, finally, Pan and Diana were angling downwards, towards a
clearing in the trees, and Dana followed suit.  She had a brief glimpse,
off to her left, of a small group of structures scattered through a
section of forest where the trees were a bit thinner, but then Pan and
Diana made a slight course change and slanted even more sharply
downwards, and Dana had to concentrate on her landing.

This time it was a bit easier, although she still stumbled a bit upon
reaching the ground.  She found herself in a large grassy space that was
almost large enough to be called a meadow.  She glanced around quickly,
intending to find Pan so she could unload some of her annoyance at his
recent behavior -- and, incidentally, tell him about the conversation
she'd overheard in the cave.  But it was already too late.

Pan and Diana were standing close together, about 30 yards away -- but
it might as well have been thirty miles.  The two of them were
surrounded by a group of at least a dozen people, with more streaming
out of the treeline with each passing second, and a happy babble of
voices was filling the clearing.

As Dana watched, Alex burst out of the trees and elbowed his way through
the growing crowd, a happy smile on his face.  A moment later he was
hugging Pan and Diana and pounding on their backs, and then the crowd
was lifting the three of them off the ground and carrying them into the
trees -- leaving Dana, once again, with little alternative but to follow
along behind.

The trees in this part of the forest were fairly thick, but the brush
seemed to have been cleared, which made the walking fairly easy.   And
it wasn't very long before Dana found herself entering another cleearing.

This one was smaller and cozier than the previous one, and there was a
bonfire roaring in the very center.  People were milling about, talking
and laughing and obviously having a good time -- but Pan, Diana and Alex
were nowhere to be seen.  Dana frowned as she walked slowly through the
happy throngs.  Where could they have disappeared to?  And then she
glanced into the treeline, and what she saw there caused her frown to
deepen.

There were more people back there in the forest.  At least, they seemed
to be people; they were shaped like people.  But try as she could, Dana
couldn't get a good look at any of them.  Everytime she moved close to
the treeline, whichever of the figures she was closest to drifted away,
remaining little more than dark shadows skulking among the trees.

"Wendy!"

Dana spun around in surprise at the sound of Pan's voice, to see him
bearing down on her, still dragging Diana by the hand.  This was her
chance, then.  She was a little hesitant to raise the issue with Diana
standing right there, but it didn't look like she was going to have
another opportunity, anytime soon.  And so she took a deep breath, and
said, "Pan, I --"

"Dance with me, Wendy!"

Before Dana could respond, Pan had let go of Diana's hand and taken hold
of both of hers, and in another instant he was whirling her about the
meadow, apparently moving to music and a rhythm only he could hear. 
Despite herself, Dana found herself being swept up in his movements, and
soon the two of them were dancing madly about the clearing.  Dana was
distantly aware that the crowd of people had gathered into a large
circle around them and were watching -- but all she could really see was
Pan's face.

He was looking at her, staring down at her intently with his large,
unblinking, hazel colored eyes.  He seemed to be staring right through
her skin, right down inside of her, into her very soul, and she was
helpless to look away.  A small part of her was scared of the loss of
control, and wanted to pull away, but most of her was simply captivated
and enthralled.  No boy had ever focused this much attention on her --
not in this way.  She realized that she could no longer feel the ground
beneath her; glancing down, she saw that they were a good five feet in
the air.  Pan had literally swept her off her feet --

Somehow, that enabled her to break free, just a little.  She looked back
up at the boy, and said, "Pan, we need to talk."

"Not now, Wendy," he replied, shaking his head, a dreamy expression on
his face.  "Not now."

"Yes, now!" she said sharply.  "There's something you need to know." 
Before he could object, she proceeded to rattle off a summary of the
conversation she'd overheard in the cave.  As Pan realized what she was
talking about, his forehead furrowed, as if in thought -- but by the
time she finished, he was shaking his head.

"No," he said.  They were no longer dancing; they were simply hovering
in midair, about ten feet off the ground.  And as Pan spoke, they slowly
started sinking downwards.  "No, you don't understand.  Diana's not like
that.  She wouldn't --"

"Pan, I heard her!" Dana snapped.  "I heard her talking to someone, and
I ... I smelled cigarette smoke."  Dana wasn't sure why that last was so
important, but somehow, she knew that it was.  "And they were talking
about 'the Project', whatever that is, and about how they were sure
you'd come for her."

"Well, they were right, weren't they?" Pan said blithely.  Dana felt her
mouth falling open in disbelief.  He went on, "Wendy, you're making this
personal."

"That's because it *is* personal," she replied.  She was shocked to hear
herself saying those words, but she seemed to be unable to stop
herself.  "Because personal interest is all that I have.  And if you
take that away, then there is no reason for me to continue."  And with
that, she pushed herself out of his arms, and turned and stalked away,
across the clearing, through the happy crowds of people, and on into the
forest.

"Dana!  Wait!"  It had only been a little over a day since Dana had
heard someone call her by her right name; nevertheless, she almost
didn't recognize it.  The call was repeated, and she stopped and turned
around, to see Alex bearing rapidly down upon her, a concerned look on
his face.  For a moment she was tempted just to turn away and keep going
-- she had no real use for Alex, after all -- but then she shook her
head and folded her arms across her chest.  What did she have to lose by
listening to whatever he had to say?

"I'm glad I caught you," Alex said, puffing a little as he came to a
halt a couple of feet in front of her.  "Where are you going?"

"I don't know," she said, gesturing vaguely into the forest.  "Away. 
Home, I guess."  As had happened the day before, Dana felt a sense of
uneasiness building within her simply from being close to Alex, and she
took a couple of steps back from him.

"That's not the way home," the man said with a smirk.  The man who was
so like Pan, and yet so different.  Dana shivered, shook her head, and
backed away a few more steps -- but this time, Alex followed her.

"I -- I just need to go," she said, now steadily backpedaling.  She
bumped into a tree and winced in surprise, but then moved around it and
turned and started striding determinedly away.

"It's about Pan, isn't it?"  Alex's voice was close to her ear, and she
turned her head briefly, long enough to see him walking along next to
her, an amused look on his face.  "It's about Pan," he repeated.  "He
really can be hard to get along with, can't he?  Erratic and
undependable.  And a little spooky, sometimes, too."

Dana stopped in midstride, and turned to look at Alex.  Erratic and
undependable?  The words were familiar; she had heard them before --
only a little while ago, she thought.  //You know how he is,// Diana had
said to the man in the cave.  //Erratic.  Undependable.  Spooky.//

But was Alex's choice of words just a coincidence?  He and Diana both
obviously had known Pan for some time; it shouldn't really surprise her
that they would use the same words to describe him.  They had probably
even talked to each other about him.  But somehow she felt that Alex had
chosen the words with care and deliberation -- almost as if they were a
code of some sort.

A code which Diana's mysterious companion in the cave had also been
familiar with.

She shook her head violently, and turned and hurried on through the
forest, trying to ignore the fact that Alex was still walking next to
her, matching her stride for stride.  She was so focused on ignoring
him, in fact, that she didn't notice that the footing had changed until
she tripped over a root and almost fell.

"Damn!"  The word was out of her mouth before she could stop herself,
and she felt a strong hand grasping her upper arm and steadying her. 
Alex, of course.  She shook him off, and continued on through the woods,
now having to pick her way through increasingly dense brush and
undergrowth.

"You really don't want to be going this way," Alex commented.

Dana glanced at him, then looked back to the front.  It occurred to her
that she could just fly away, and maybe Alex wouldn't be able to bother
her anymore.  She hadn't seen *him* fly, after all -- and besides, she
was going to have to fly, if she ever wanted to get home.  But for some
reason she didn't want to fly just then.  For some reason, it seemed to
be important to keep her feet on the ground, at least for the moment.

"Dana!"  The man's tone was sharp, demanding, but still Dana ignored
him.  It seemed to her the trees were a little thinner now, and the
undergrowth was getting easier to deal with again.  Perhaps that meant
they were coming to a clearing ....

And then, suddenly, she burst out of the treeline, and found herself on
the edge of a large-ish open space -- almost as large as the one she and
Pan and Diana had landed in, upon their return from Marooner's Rock. 
But unlike that clearing, this one was not empty -- it was filled with
buildings, scattered in a haphazard way across the meadow.  And her eyes
widened in fear, and her heart beat faster as she realized what they were.

Boxcars.  Railroad boxcars.

"I *told* you that you didn't want to come this way," Alex said, his
voice now low with menace.  "I told you, but you didn't listen.  Now you
have to choose."  And he grabbed her upper arm, squeezing so hard that
it hurt, and repeated the words Dana had first heard when she was taken
captive the day before.  "Resist or serve."

================END CHAPTER SIX================