by Kelli Kimble
Elton’s mouth crept into a half-smile. I like it, he said.
She started to groan, and a hand went to her head. She rolled onto her side and pedaled her legs, but she couldn’t find anything to push against. It was useless, anyway. Elton easily lifted her and forced her into the box. I pushed the lid closed with my hands, but latched the lock with my mind. I’d always had to unlock it to free myself; it felt liberating to lock someone else in, instead. I hooked up the tubes, turned them on, and heard the water rushing into the box.
The doctor banged against the lid, calling for us. “I can help you!” she shouted. “You need to learn how to focus, how to improve! There’s so much more you could both do!” She banged on the lid again. “Are you there?! Did you hear me?! Nimisila! I command you to open this box right now!”
What should we do? I asked Elton.
Let’s get out of here, he said. It won’t take long for someone to figure out something went wrong. He glanced down at the box. How long will it take for her to die in there?
About 45 minutes for it to fill up. Probably another five or so for her to drown.
He came around the box and stood beside me. They hurt you a lot in that box, didn’t they?
I nodded.
They hurt me, too. Usually with electricity. Nothing as terrifying as this, though. He put an arm around my shoulder. We should wait until she’s dead. The whole experiment will die with her.
This was all her?
Yep. Mrs. Darit helped—and, of course, her family’s power backed it up. He looked at me, his eyes filled with pain. But, without her, there’s no drive. She almost succeeded at getting what she wanted. She proved she could give you and me the ability—and, to some extent, Talika.
Have you seen Talika? We probably shouldn’t leave her here.
Talika deserves what she gets, he said. Our families are probably dead, and neither of us is ever going to be the same, and for what? So she wouldn’t have to endure abuse anymore?
Her family broke her, Elton. It’s not her fault. She thought this was a way out. I wanted to blame her, too. But, I knew it was Mrs. Darit’s doing; she’d spotted Tal’s weakness from a million miles away and twisted it to her own advantage.
Then, she can find her own damn way out. I’m not helping her.
What about Marve?
Marve’s dead. He didn’t survive even a month.
I—how do you know?
He scowled. Part of the experiments they did on me.
I had no idea what that meant, but I was pretty certain I didn’t want to know. I checked the time. The box was about half-full. We should check for survivors, I said. Elton dropped his arm from my shoulder and allowed me to move away to check on the lab workers, but he didn’t assist me. They were all dead. It seemed I’d developed pretty good aim, as soon as I thought I was going to lose Elton. That gave me an idea. She said my power was always strongest when I was desperate, I said. So, maybe we should wait until we’re caught. We can get rid of anybody who knows who we are, and who knows about the experiments. Then, we can find some way to destroy the building, and everything in it. Even if someone survives, and they know about us, they’ll think we died with everyone else.
A new flurry of panic raised from inside the box. The doctor must have been pressing her face to the lid now. I thought about how they never cleaned it, and how the inside of it was slimy with greenish-black mold, and how that made the water taste and smell terrible. I thought of how unpleasant it was to press my face against the slick lid and breathe in the smell because it was the only way to survive.
I smiled.
What are your powers? he asked.
Besides telepathy, I can move things with my mind. Isn’t that what you can do?
No. My power is strength.
So, that explained the way he’d broken out of the leather straps. Then, why did you let them bring you in here? Why didn’t you just knock them down and run away?
I knew they were bringing me to you, he said. I knew they would use you against me, or the other way around. That’s what they tried to do with Marve. They didn’t know I hated him.
But, you let them tie you up. She shot at you! You could have gotten out of the way.
He tapped the top of the lid. Should be almost time.
So, he didn’t want to talk about it. I studied his face. He looked much older, and sadder. I checked the time again. She was probably completely underwater now. The box began to shudder with her movements, even swayed back and forth. I knew that wouldn’t work, though. Not when the box was already full.
I was struck with a wave of sympathy, and in my mind, I reached out to the lock. Beside me, Elton shifted his weight from one foot to the other so that he leaned against me slightly. The feeling of mercy passed, and I dropped my head to rest on Elton’s shoulder.
You know, nobody else will ever understand what happened to us here, he said. You and I, we’re bonded together by it. Don’t you think?
I frowned. I knew he’d endured horrible things, but I knew almost nothing about what those things were, and surely, he knew very little about what they’d been doing to me all this time. I won’t give them credit for that, I said. I snaked my hand down his side, pushed my fingers between his, and squeezed. They don’t get to be the reason we’re bonded together. We were bonded before, by friendship and adventure. We’ve come to a place where we’re different than before. But, the bond hasn’t broken.
He tipped his head so that it rested on top of mine. You’re right. They don’t get credit for that. For any of this. Maybe they helped us transform. Maybe we’ll be able to leave here and go to the normal school and get normal jobs and not have to scrape and suffer. But, we did it. Not them. Ultimately, we made our own transformation.
The movement in the box changed to clawing fury. I recognized the panic, the desperation. But, the doctor didn’t have our talents. She hadn’t tried any experiments on herself yet. She’d been too busy forcing her will on us to; she was too afraid to throw herself into the mix. Her own fear was keeping her in the box now.
The box stilled. I was well aware someone like the doctor could pretend to be dead. So, I didn’t unlock the lid to look, and if the box became a watery grave she was never rescued from—even after death—I was perfectly fine with that. She’d had few qualms about putting me in the box, and I would return the favor.
What do we do now? he asked.
Wait, I said. Eventually, someone will come, and they’ll alert other people. We’ll just fight our way out.
He picked the doctor’s gun up from the floor, and he reloaded it. I looked around the room for something we could use to burn down or destroy the building. There wasn’t much of use—until I found the kerosene. I poured it around the lab, making sure I sloshed a little extra on the target, the chair, and the box. Elton watched with a smirk; I think he was enjoying the idea of burning the place down. I was splashing it over the instrument console, when I noticed a round, red button I’d never seen before, on the side of the panel that faced away from the chair. It had a clear, plastic cover over it that flipped up, and it was labeled PANIC in bright, yellow letters.
“Are you ready?” I asked.
Elton shrugged. “Sure,” he said. “Did you see someone?” He turned towards the doors and raised the gun.
“Not yet,” I said.
I pressed the button.
In the distance, I could hear what must have been an ear-splitting alarm from close range. Immediately, there were heavy steps running down the hallway. The doors slammed open, and three armed guards rushed in, pointing their weapons everywhere. I yanked them from their grasps; their faces registered shock and panic as they realized Elton was pointing a gun at them. Shots were fired. I made sure each bullet hit the mark, right in the center of their foreheads. I grabbed two of the guns and handed the third to Elton. It only took a minute for more footsteps to come running in our direction.
We retreated behind the box so that we weren’t
so easily visible and waited. Guard after guard came into the room; one by one, they were stripped of their weapons, and they were shot. I began lifting their bodies and piling them up in a corner so that the ones entering the room wouldn’t see the danger right away. A feeling of strength and security welled inside me, and suddenly, it was enough. I didn’t have to kill anybody else; I just needed to get out.
I went to the console and turned on the halo, then ripped a cord from it. It spewed sparks and ozone into the air, and I dropped it into a puddle of kerosene. There was a violent whoosh, and a steady breeze flowed through the door to feed the rapidly-spreading fire.
“Nimisila! Come on!” Elton was calling to me. I don’t know how long I was staring at the fire, but the room was engulfed. I pushed at it with my power and ran to the door, where Elton was waiting. We rushed through the hall, Elton dragging me behind him.
“Do you know where to go?” I said. Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to me that we needed to know a way out of the building to leave it.
“Up,” he said. He threw open a door. It was a stairwell. We were at the lowest level. Looking up between the railings as we mounted the steps, I could see the stairs went up and up, a half-dozen floors, at least, and I couldn’t see the top from our vantage point.
“We’re underground?” I asked.
He nodded. “There’s an elevator up to the ground floor, but with the alarm going, it probably isn’t a good idea to use it.”
We’d made it up two flights, and my breath was starting to get huffy. “This is the only other way out?” I said between puffs of breath.
“There’s another stairwell, closer to the lab. I figured they’d watch that one first, though.”
Above us, I heard a door slam open, then heavy, fast steps. I couldn’t tell if they were coming towards us or going away. Elton flattened against the outer wall, pushing me behind him and shielding me with his arm. I certainly didn’t mind being shielded, but it blocked my vision. I took a step down so that I could see around him. The door at the bottom of the stairs, just behind me, banged open.
“You! Stop where you are! Put your hands up where I can see them!” a guard shouted. He was brandishing a gun at us. I focused on the gun and was about to rip it away, but Elton stepped out around me, then swung his leg back, and then forward. His foot connected with the guard’s head with such force that the man’s head appeared to disconnect from his body as he tumbled to the floor.
The guard directly behind him opened his mouth, probably to repeat the instructions. But, then he dropped the gun and backed away. “I don’t want any trouble,” he said. “I’m just trying to do my job.”
“We’re just trying to be normal,” I said. I focused on his chest and pushed.
He took another step back. “Seriously, you don’t need to hurt me. I won’t hurt you.” His hands were raised.
I pulled his gun towards me from the ground.
The footsteps above suddenly became louder, and a pair of boots came into view on the landing above us, then turned and came down towards us. “Get your hands where I can see them,” the guard said. His eyes were crazed, and spittle was flying from his mouth as he gave the instructions. He was brandishing a gun, and without warning, he pulled the trigger. I deflected the bullets, directing one back at him. His weapon was automatic, though, and his finger didn’t let go of the trigger. Bullets sprayed in every direction as he fell backwards. I imagined a silo of safety around Elton and me, and the bullets pinged off it harmlessly.
As soon as the gun stopped, Elton grabbed my arm and started hauling me up the stairs. I glanced back at the guard who’d tried to give up; he’d taken a bullet in the leg and was moaning on the floor, clutching the wounded area. I didn’t think we’d have any more trouble from him.
There were still feet clomping up and down the stairs above us, but that didn’t stop Elton. He pulled me up three flights before stopping to rest for a moment. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” I said. “Out of breath, but fine.”
“They didn’t let you exercise at all, did they?”
“Not really. Unless you count walking to and from the lab.”
A different alarm started, and a light above the door at each landing began to strobe on and off.
“Great. The fire alarm. People are going to evacuate,” he said.
“Not if I have anything to say about it,” I said. I started running up the stairs as fast as I could. It seemed like there were only a few flights left.
A door below us slammed open, then another, making evident the familiar shuffling of civilians as they made their way somewhere, only half-convinced they needed to go.
“Get me to the top,” I said, bending over and huffing.
Elton grabbed me around the waist and launched himself up the stairs, three at a time. I’d been wrong; there were four floors left. A door to our left banged open as we passed by. Another at the top opened, but the people there stood to the side and let us pass. Maybe they thought I was injured. A handful of people were leaving through the exit door as we reached the top, but I didn’t bother myself with them.
“Go outside,” I said.
Elton hesitated. “I won’t leave you here,” he said.
“You’re not leaving me. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
Another beat passed, then he bounded out the door. I turned my attention to the ceiling. I imagined the metal and concrete crunching in my mind’s grasp, twisting and grating. Huge chunks of concrete began to fall from the ceiling. Girders snapped free of their positions and began to tumble down the stairs. Dust was billowing up and falling down; people were coughing and screaming.
Still, I pulled more down. I pulled it all down, and when I could see the sky, and the building above me was gone, I started pushing. I pushed the stairs we’d just come up, and the landing at the bottom—even though I couldn’t see any of it, with the ceiling all over the place. The stairs groaned and creaked, then tore away from the landing I stood on and began to collapse. Fully collapse, like Jacob’s ladder, rippling down and away from me.
The landing I was standing on suddenly pitched forward, and I lifted myself from it. I imagined myself floating out of the now-absent top of the building. My feet rose up from the ground, and a swell of air rushed around me, dense with debris and dust. It clogged my nose, and there was grit in my mouth, but I didn’t care.
When I was floating directly above the stairwell, open to the air around me, I imagined my foot stomping down and in, crushing it all to oblivion.
I glanced down at the ground. Elton was outside the building, grabbing hold of people who were pouring out of the doors. He was breaking their necks or crushing them; some of them, he kicked, just like he’d kicked the guard in the stairwell. They fell around him, and he tossed them away, like they were nothing but rags. I willed myself to move towards him, and I swooped through the air, imagining my feet stomping through the roof over the remainder of the building as I went. The building itself was small; it must have only housed the stairwell and elevator shaft.
By the time I reached Elton, the building was obliterated. People could no longer come out; there was no longer a door to exit from.
My feet came to the ground beside him.
He pointed to another, similar building a short distance away, up a hill. People were running away from it. “That’s the other exit,” he said.
Fury prickled up my spine and settled in a heated mass behind my eyes. I pointed at the building and pictured my anger rushing out of my fingertip. Great balls of flame shot out of the end of my finger and engulfed the building. The balls made a thwoop-thwoop sound as they rushed out of me and into the open air, where the oxygen could feed their flames. When I was satisfied the building wouldn’t survive the fire, I pointed at the people dashing around the hillside. Screaming people ran around; their clothes, hair, and skin were all on fire.
In the distance, I could hear the sirens of emergency vehicles approachin
g. “We should go,” I said.
Elton nodded. We turned away from the building and started walking down the hill in the direction most of the burned people had seemed to flee in. “Did you know you could do that?” he asked.
“What?”
“You just shot fire out of your finger. Did you know you could?”
“Nope.” I shrugged. “I just imagined I could, and then I really could. You try it.”
“No, thanks.”
We walked in silence. The sun was high above us, and it must have been near noon. After so many months underground, the brightness bothered my eyes a little, and I squinted at everything. Every now and then, we glanced back at the remains of the building. A fire vehicle was trying to douse the flames, but they weren’t going out.
They wouldn’t extinguish until I wanted them to.
Chapter 7
We decided to make our way to the power plant. We’d both been told our parents had been given jobs there, and anyway, Elton’s brother worked there, even if our parents didn’t. Nobody paid us any mind, and that was fine with me. At least, it meant nobody was looking for us. Maybe they thought better of it, after what we’d done to the lab.
The power plant was surrounded by a fence and had a security gate. There was a bench near the gate, and we took a seat on it to wait for the end of the shift. We didn’t approach the gates, and the guards didn’t even bother looking around. One of them sat with his feet up, a book in one hand, and a cup of tea in the other. The other guard was working on an old-style computer—though I suspected he was probably playing games and not doing any actual work.
My stomach rumbled, but we didn’t move from our spot. Elton held my hand in his. His palm was sweaty, but it didn’t bother me.
Do you think our parents are really here? I asked. I didn’t look at him as I talked. I couldn’t look. If he had even an ounce of doubt, I didn’t want to see it.