page_123 < previous page page_123 next page > Page 123 Suddenly Jenna screamed, and I saw something in the thicket. I was terrified," he said softly. "Go on," I pushed, now disregarding his time limit. "To this day, I don't know what it was that came out of that underbrush. I was petrified, a frightened little boy with his eyes shut and praying. Apparently I got knocked down, and that must have been the thing that saved me. They found me three days later, wandering around in a state of shock." He recited the events without emotion, as though it had happened to someone else. "Why isn't any of this in the official record?" "It's quite simple, Mr. Wages. Everyone thought I was dead. There was no way for the authorities who conducted the investigation at Battle Harbor to identify one child from another. In most cases they were dealing with little more than mutilated bits and pieces of my classmates. When I was discovered, they decided to keep my survival quiet. They didn't know what they were dealing with and they were afraid of what the maniac would do if he knew that someone had survived. They thought he might even come after me." There have been no more than a handful of times in my life when I was speechless, but this was one of them. Â < previous page page_123 next page >