The morning sun came through the crack in the curtains, hitting Marie's closed eyes that didn't stay closed for long. She blinked, finding herself in a bedroom she had no recollection of. It didn't take long for everything to come back to her. She threw off the blankets.

She walked out of the room to find herself in a two-bedroom house with a small kitchen and dinning area. A glance out the window made her realize she wasn't in Musical Land. It was nothing but forest outside. More importantly, she saw two adults sitting at the table, talking quietly to themselves.

The middle-aged man saw her first and smiled, showing a gap in his two front teeth that made his face look more boyish. "Good morning!"

The young woman turned, and Marie saw her feeding crushed fruit to a child who couldn't be more than a year old.

"Hello!" the young woman said. She scrapped the spoon across the dish and fed it to the child. The child, who seemed to have been happily eating his food, was now staring nervously at Marie with large brown eyes. Brown eyes like his mother's.

The middle-aged man stood. "You must be Marie Curie." Before Marie could get anything out, the man gave her a big hug, which startled Marie, but she hugged him back. "I'm told you have something of great value to give me!"

Marie tried to smile. "I can see you get straight to the point."

The man laughed. "I could almost hear Charles' excitement over the dots and dashes of the message. He said it was a way to stop Musical Land from making us into hobos."

Marie nodded as she found her bag on the small couch and pulled out the laminated page. "Here it is. The chemical formula they use."

The man's eyes brightened. He snatched the page out of Marie's hand, his eyes traveling over the chemicals, a wide smile growing across his face.

The woman had taken the child out of the chair, hugging him close as she approached Marie. "Charles also said you had letters from my husband, Sam?"

"Oh." Marie pulled out the packet of letters. "You must be Saca."

"Sacagawea, but yes, you may call me Saca." She tucked some brown hair behind her ear.

Marie handed Saca the packet of letters, and she held them tenderly like Marie had given her a precious jewel.

"Thank you. I miss my Sam. The coded messages are fine, but these I feel are for me. What do you think, little Sam? What do you think daddy has to say?"

She held the letters in front of the baby. The baby gave a shriek of excitement, reaching for the letters as his mouth parted to reveal two little teeth on the top and bottom gums. Saca laughed, holding the letters out of his reach.

"Da! Da!" the child said.

"Sorry, little Sam, but you will rip these to shreds if I let you have them. And they are far too precious."

Saca held them close and smiled at Marie, tears in her eyes. "Thank you. This means so much to me."

Marie smiled back but looked away, feeling she was invading something personal.

"We must waste no time! Saca, shall we return the same way we came? I'm anxious to study this," the man said.

"Yes. We'll be fine going back the way we came. It's about four miles. Marie? Are you okay with that? Did you receive any injuries at all?" Saca asked.

"I'll be fine. Let's go. I'm anxious to start cracking this code too."

"That's what I want to hear!" the man said, thumping Marie on the back. "You must have some chemistry knowledge, then?"

"I've studied it in my free time. It's a passion of mine."

"Excellent. We'll have a team set up to start working on this code. Are you interested in joining them?"

Marie's face brightened. "I would love to! I need the distraction. I... I sacrificed a lot to get to this point."

Saca nodded, then kissed her baby sweetly on the forehead. "Most people do."

The weight of her words felt heavy, but reflective of the strong spirit of the underground.

"Were you the original leader of the underground?" Marie asked the man.

"Technically still am!" he said with enthusiasm. "Just running it from this side of the wall. The S.E.A. will rue the day they banished us out here!"

Marie tried to smile but found she couldn't.

"Come! We must get back!"

The man turned, holding the laminated page close to his face as he studied it. Marie picked her bag up and followed. They waited outside as Saca put on a baby carrier around her back. They weren't far from the wall. Marie could still make it out through the thick trees. The morning breeze was crisp, and even though she didn't have a jacket, she didn't care. The ambition to crack the code warmed her enough. She saw a line of lamps and signs, all pointing to the safe house.

"What are these for?" Marie asked.

The man followed her gaze to the signs and lamps. "Sometimes people are forced over the wall without us being aware of it, so we lead them here to this safe house. We're alerted when someone's entered, and we come to get them."

"Oh," Marie said.

Marie helped Saca put little Sam in the baby carrier, and they started off. Saca pulled ahead and led the way. Marie heard little Sam laughing and cooing.

"I don't believe I introduced myself," the man said. "The name is Josef. Josef Mengele. Thank you for what you did. This will shorten the S.E.A.'s control by years."

Marie nodded, feeling something she couldn't explain tighten her stomach. She wasn't sure she wanted a war, but she couldn't turn back now. Marie wanted her dad back and her friends safe, hopefully before a war broke out.

Marie looked over her shoulder. The wall grew smaller the farther away they went. Part of her knew she'd be back. She wasn't prepared to face Musical Land yet, but next time she saw the wall, she'd be ready.

End of Book One