Slowly, like someone gently turning on a faucet, my emotions trickled back in, the warmth keeping the negative ones associated with almost killing Trinity from coming back.
I blinked a few times, before my gaze shifted to the source of the unusual experience. It was like her touch had set off a chain reaction in my nerves, like that sensation I used to get when something would make me feel awed – a sort of tingling euphoria that ran across my entire body.
Ava seemed shocked that her touch had brought my emotions back, and honestly I was a little surprised too. She was gorgeous, but I had been so focused on Trinity that I hadn’t really developed any kind of attachment to her other than the fact that she was a comrade. Although, I didn’t feel any special way towards Liz either, other than caring about her general wellbeing, and yet even Trinity hadn’t been able to bring my emotions back then, when I wasn’t sure if Liz was okay after the parachutes failed.
So then, maybe Ava’s touch just reminded me that I wasn’t alone?
I honestly wasn’t sure.
It didn’t occur to me that Ava was shamelessly holding my gaze, until Zayden got her attention by sitting up with a scowl on his face, as was his usual expression when waking up. She immediately pulled her hand away at the same time that she glanced at him, before her gaze shifted past me towards Zane. I assumed he must be looking in her direction, since she rolled her eyes.
I cleared my throat, speaking to Ava. “Umm, do you want to wake up Liz?” I wondered.
She cleared her throat too, as if mimicking me. “Sure,” she agreed, reaching down to run her fingers through Liz’s hair affectionately, like I imagined she might do to one of her little sisters.
Liz sighed heavily, rubbing her eyes while mumbling ‘Good morning,’ to no one in particular.
I focused my attention on Trinity, removing my arm from underneath her knees to gently caress her face. However, she didn’t wake up, so I finally gave her shoulder a little shake.
She still didn’t rouse.
“Trinity,” I finally said, a little alarmed. From what I had seen, she usually wasn’t a deep sleeper, and just touching her had been enough to wake her up before.
Had I accidentally stolen some more of her blood while she was asleep?
Surely not!
When she still didn’t rouse, I sat her upright on my lap, her head dropping straight down, her chin on her chest.
Now everyone was alarmed by her limp form.
“Trinity!” I said louder, ignoring Liz’s panicked expression in the corner of my vision. At the same time, Ava got to her knees and reached up to pat Trinity on the cheek a few times. The next sound almost made me want to cry.
“Stop,” she mumbled in annoyance, her blue eyebrows knitting together.
Everyone sighed in relief. Both Zayden and Zane cursed underneath their breath.
“Are you okay?” I asked seriously, keeping her body upright.
She finally took a deep breath and lifted her head up with her eyes still shut. “Yes,” she groaned in annoyance. “Why are you waking me up? It’s the weekend, I want to sleep in.”
My eyes widened in shock, and Ava responded before I could.
“Trinity,” she snapped. “It’s not the weekend. We’re in Indonesia on a mission that we aborted because of a nuclear bomb. Open your eyes.”
She complied slowly, her crimson irises appearing to have difficulty focusing before they widened and she finally sat up straight on her own, looking around. “Oh.” She paused. “Damn, I was really out of it. I thought I was sleeping in my bed at home.”
Zayden scoffed. “You haven’t even been home in almost ten years.”
Trinity’s head snapped around as she glared at him. He must have been in a bad mood though, because he didn’t take it back. In the end, she let it go.
“Why are you so tired?” I wondered, pulling her attention towards me. “Usually you’re so easy to wake up.”
She shrugged. “I mean, I haven’t killed any people after I let you take some of my blood – animals aren’t as effective at healing me and I haven’t had a chance to eat anything with iron. I’m probably anemic or something.”
“Oh.” I considered that for a moment, trying not to let the reminder of what I’d done pull my thoughts down again. “Makes sense. Sorry.”
She shrugged. “Anyway,” she continued, readjusting herself on my lap. “I guess we should all down an energy pouch and get a move on. Once we find people who seem to be doing alright, we can contact the general and arrange a pickup.”
Zayden was already rummaging through a pack, tossing a pouch to Ava over Liz’s head, before handing our personal shield one too, followed by Zane.
“Err, about that…” I began hesitantly, earning Trinity’s attention again. Her crimson gaze was…happy, considering the circumstances. I supposed she was enjoying being in my lap, and her face was so close to mine that I really just wanted to lean forward and kiss her – something we still had yet to do outside of her waking me up from being hypnotized on my first mission, or needing to pull me out of my emotionless state.
“Yes?” she prompted in a pleasant tone.
“I don’t think Liz should go back,” I began in a rush. “I’m concerned she won’t be safe there, so I think we should claim she didn’t survive the blast. I mean, if I hadn’t kept us stationary then she probably would have died for real, considering getting hit with that blast of energy would have been like getting plowed over by a semitruck going two-hundred miles per hour, and–“
Liz finally cut me off. “But wait. Does that mean you’re not going either?” she demanded.
I made a face.
“No!” Liz exclaimed loudly. “If you’re going back, then I am too!”
Surprisingly, Trinity was collected as she responded. “There’s just one problem with that plan, Jake. If Liz supposedly died, then we all did – or at the very least, Zane would have.” I didn’t say anything, causing her red eyes to widen. “You’ve already thought about that, haven’t you?” she realized.
I glanced back at Zane to meet his gaze for a moment.
He finally spoke up. “So you want to claim that Liz and I died to keep her safe.” It wasn’t a question.
I turned my head back around. “And, Trinity too,” I added.
That really got her attention, her pleasant expression turning to one of disbelief. When she spoke, her voice was almost inaudible. “You want me to stay too?” she whispered.
I nodded slowly. “I figured just Zayden and I would go back, both of us being able to claim we survived…” I paused, about to mention Ava wanted to go back too, but deciding I shouldn’t let anyone know we had discussed that. Instead, I’d let her bring it up. “But yes, that means that Zane would have to stay, and I’d like you to stay too. The more people we say died, the more believable the story. The only other person who might reasonably get by with claiming they survived is Ava…”
She took my cue. “And I’m definitely going back,” she reaffirmed. “I’ve got my own reasons for needing them to believe I’m still alive. And someone needs to stop the maniac who killed a tenth of the world.”
I glanced at her from the corner of my eye, but she was holding Trinity’s gaze.
I cleared my throat to get Trinity’s attention again. “Will you do that for me?” I wondered seriously. “Stay with Zane and Liz to keep them safe?”
“No,” Liz said firmly, but everyone ignored her.
Zayden abruptly chimed in, sounding annoyed. “Won’t the General be able to find them?” he scoffed. “I mean, if they’re alive, then it seems like the military always has a way to find people.”
“I doubt they could find us on the other side of the world,” Trinity replied, still holding my gaze. “If they have a metahuman with a locating ability, doubtful that it’s that powerful.” She then leaned back slightly to look at Zane behind me.
He replied to her unspoken question, his voice gruff. “Honestly, I don’t care. I’ve g
ot nothing left to live for anyway – I haven’t for a long time, so staying here and pretending I’m dead is fine with me.”
“Whatever,” Zayden retorted under his breath, as if anyone cared about his opinion. Maybe he just didn’t like it that people were making decisions based on what I wanted, as opposed to doing it for selfish reasons like he usually did.
“Jake,” Trinity continued. “You realize we might not see each other for a long time, right? Like, years even.”
I nodded, looking away. I didn’t want to be reminded of the fact that ‘years’ might actually mean forever, at least if I did the right thing to keep them safe…from me.
Liz gasped. “No!” she repeated. She turned on Trinity when I continued to ignore her, grabbing her arm. “You aren’t serious, are you?! I don’t want to stay here without him!”
She sighed, reaching out to place her hand on top of Liz’s blonde hair. “Jake can sense us from pretty far away. As long as we don’t go too far, he’ll be able to find us again.”
“B-But, that’s not the point!” Liz continued.
Zane chimed in. “We’ll have to establish meeting locations in the event we do need to move around for safety reasons. Otherwise, we might never see each other again.”
“Possibly,” I replied. “Although, for some reason, I can sense Liz pretty far away even though she’s not dangerous to anyone.”
“Yeah, but can you sense her on the other side of the Earth?” Zane wondered seriously, knowing I didn’t have the answer to that question. “Because that’s how far away you’ll be.”
“R-Right,” I agreed, looking down at Trinity’s dark green military pants pulled tight across her thighs. For some unknown reason, my ability to sense my comrades seemed to get stronger the longer I spent with them, as if time together made me more sensitive to their presence. However, the signal I felt from Liz had slowly grown even more powerful than the threat I felt from Trinity, even though Liz wasn’t a threat at all. I had no idea why that might be, but I suspected I could sense Liz from a significantly greater distance away than everyone else.
Granted, the other side of the world was a different story altogether.
“Then, we’ll establish meeting locations,” Trinity decided. “It doesn’t have to be too specific since Jake’s range is easily several miles – we can just pick various cities to meet up in, both in this country as well as maybe our home country in the event we have to flee for some reason.”
“I’m not staying,” Liz humphed, crossing her arms over her chest.
I just shook my head, wondering if I would be able to convince her. Trinity didn’t bother trying to take the time to convince her now either, instead leaning back to grab a pouch full of calorie-packed syrup from the pack next to Zayden.
As a part of Liz’s opposition to the idea I’d brought up, she refused to eat, so I just hoisted her onto my back and everyone else shouldered a pack so that we could be on our way again. At least being on my back seemed to keep her satisfied for now.
We walked across the massive field and then entered another forest, before coming out upon the remnants of a village. There were no people in sight, and a lot of the buildings were falling apart, many of the roofs caved in. It was also strange to see so many colors, with many of the wooden buildings being painted orange, pink, and yellow. There was one pink house in particular that looked like something an eccentric cat-lady might own, but apparently that was just the culture here. People liked colorful buildings.
Zane commented that the place must have been abandoned long before the bomb hit, because the initial wave of radiation hadn’t reach this far out, and the black rain wouldn’t have killed people instantly, not to mention there were no bodies in sight.
He wondered if maybe the nearby volcano had been responsible for making this area uninhabitable years ago.
Finding nothing of any significance, we continued on through the paved streets, discovering statues of what I assumed to be Buddha hidden amongst the shrubs along the way. It became a game after a while, with everyone playing except me and Zayden – even Zane picked out a few. I suspected that Ava was cheating, since she had her own second-sight, but if she was using her extra power she must have also been letting Liz win on purpose, neglecting to mention a few statues she may have picked out so that Liz could claim to see them first.
All of the plants looked to be stained with black spots, as if wet ash or dust had fallen last night instead of black rain. Although I supposed that was why the rain had been black in the first place, so it made sense in hindsight.
It was as we had finally exited the village and were entering a field that I sensed something peculiar in the distance, hidden amongst the trees on the other side.
I slowed down to a stop, before deciding to change directions slightly to our right. Everyone followed suit given that I was carrying our shield, but Trinity was quick to inquire about my shift in direction, looking up at me in confusion.
“Something wrong?” she wondered from my right, her fingers intertwined with mine.
I pursed my lips briefly as I thought about it. “No, not exactly. There’s a couple of ability users over there at the edge of the forest, just standing there like they’re waiting for us.”
“That’s…strange…” Trinity commented.
“It is,” I agreed simply.
“Are they a threat?” Zane asked from my left side, with Ava walking behind me at the moment.
I shook my head. “No, not at all. Not to any of us. Honestly, I’m not even sure they would be a threat to normal people, so I figured it couldn’t hurt to see who they are.”
Zayden scoffed, walking towards my left in front of Zane. “Well shit. I was hoping to get the chance to kill someone.”
Ava chimed in. “Yeah, I don’t think you should be killing a couple of girls.”
I glanced back at her. “You can see them?” I wondered.
“I can now,” she nodded, still looking far past me, her brown eyes appearing completely normal. “A couple of Indonesian girls by the looks of it.” She paused as the sclerae and irises of both her eyes began turning pitch-black before rapidly reverting to normal. “And either they’re twins, or I just haven’t met enough Indonesian people to tell the difference between them.”
“Twins?” Trinity repeated. “That’s rare.”
“It is?” I wondered, not feeling like twins were too unusual.
She seemed to understand my confusion. “Metahuman twins are rare,” she elaborated. “I think it’s almost unheard of for two metahumans to be from the same family, but when they are, it’s because they are identical twins.”
“No fraternal twins?” I asked jokingly.
However, she responded with a serious expression. “No. Absolutely no fraternal twins. Only identical.”
“Does that mean they have the same ability?” Liz wondered, her voice sounding extra loud with it being so close to my ear.
“No,” Zane answered for her. “There are plenty of metahumans who have similar abilities, which is why we have unofficial classifications like psychics, blood-drinkers, and beasts like myself. But I’ve never heard of any two having the exact same ability, even twins.”
“What class am I?” Liz wondered. “Something cool like defender?”
Trinity, Ava, and Zane all laughed.
Ava answered her. “Those are unofficial classifications. All abilities don’t fall into a neat category. Your shield is pretty unique Liz, just like my ability is unique.”
“Which means,” Trinity chimed in, “you get to name your own class, Liz.”
“Then I’m a defender,” Liz replied confidently. “Or maybe just a shield class,” she added.
I laughed this time. “You could also be something like guardian,” I offered.
“Ugh, no,” she retorted. “A guardian is someone who takes care of you. I don’t want to sound old.”
I chuckled again, but it was cut short when I sensed something strange from one of the
people we were approaching.
I stopped immediately, causing Ava to bump into my back, while Zane reached out simultaneously to grab Zayden’s shoulder to make him stop.
“Shit,” Zayden mumbled. “Can’t you warn us when you’re going to–” His voice trailed off when he saw my focused expression.
The girl – and it was a girl, not much older than Liz – was afraid, yet determined. But I could feel she was afraid, just like I could sense Liz’s emotions sometimes, though I had no idea why – I certainly couldn’t feel anyone else’s emotions. Granted, what I sensed from this girl was extremely weak. It felt more…temporary, compared to how I sensed Liz.
I cleared my throat, looking around at our surroundings, examining the plants for any signs that they’d been exposed to radiation beyond the black rain. After a few seconds, I shifted my body entirely to glance back at Ava.
“I don’t think there’s any radiation this far out that we need protection from, and the girls are afraid.” I paused. “Well, at least one of them is. I don’t know about the second. But I think it might be best if just one of us goes to meet them.”
Ava glanced around too, before holding my gaze again. “And you’re sure there are no enemies nearby?” she clarified.
I nodded. “I don’t sense anything.”
She glance at Trinity and then Zane, before unbuckling her belt, her knives along with it, and handing it to Zane.
“Wait,” Trinity said, grabbing Ava’s arm as she began walking past. “Maybe I should go. I can always heal if there is still radiation in the air.”
Ava pursed her lips, looking at the vegetation again. “It’s okay Trinity. I think I’ll be fine. Besides, your red eyes might freak them out – the natives here have a lot of superstitions, and I wouldn’t be surprised if red-eyed demon is one of them, even if you are pretty. Not to mention, I look more like them in general.”
Trinity sighed. “Okay,” she agreed, letting go of Ava’s arm. It occurred to me that Ava wouldn’t have been able to escape her grasp unless she turned into a shadow, considering how abnormally strong Trinity was. Though I doubted she would hold Ava against her will anyway.
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