“How good is your bungee?” Amber murmured. She was beginning to regret agreeing to any of this.
“No worries, Amber,” Rai assured her. “I’m a freaking superhero.” He took her by the hand and started heading back the way they had come.
“Where are we going?”
“We passed one of those check-cashing places,” he said. “They have a lot of money inside. If this blackout lasts, it’ll be a prime target.” Amber followed, doing her best to keep up with Rai’s pace. Fortunately, they didn’t have far to go.
“What do we do now?” Amber asked as they stood on the sidewalk across the street from the check-cashing and title-loan store. The lights were out on the street as well, and Amber could make out movement inside the dark store.
“We wait and hope we’re not needed,” Rai said. They didn’t have long to wait.
A dozen people or more eased their way out of a darkened doorway across the street. The people, though young, had a rough, hungry look to them that Amber didn’t like. The distant sounds of fire engines and sirens could be heard through the downpour to the north. It echoed through the streets like a clarion call to the group. Moving as one, they rushed the front of the title-loan store beating on the front door.
“What do I do?” Amber asked as two of the attackers took up a metal trash can from the edge of the street and threw it through the window. Glass shattered, and the looters began climbing inside.
“Stay here!” He shouted and darted across the street in a blur of motion. All at once, heavy rain crashed over Amber from above as Rai’s shield moved away with him. She saw sinuous blue waves intensify around her friend a moment before he leaped headlong into the store and out of sight. Then, there was mayhem.
From inside, several loud – whoomps - resounded followed quickly by screams. One of the looters came cartwheeling out through the broken window and landed in a stunned heap on the sidewalk. She heard a voice shout, “Cease all criminal activity at once or face my wrath!” It was obviously Rai even though he was trying to make his voice deep and gravelly. Did he really say, “Face my wrath”? Amber almost laughed.
Then three sharp pops in rapid succession came as a reply to Rai’s challenge and stole all the humor from her. As impressive as Rai’s air powers were, Amber knew exactly what those sounds were. The presence of a gun escalated the situation from insane to deadly. She shrank back against the wall and pulled out her cell to dial 911, doing her best not to panic while shielding the phone at the same time. She was failing at both those goals. There was so much water flying at her that she couldn’t even tell if the phone was on. Looters ran out of the store and scattered in every direction. All fell silent on the street save for the rain and the distant drone of sirens while Amber clutched her phone in a death grip, struggling against a rising sense of dread. Then the rain stopped.
Amber blinked and wiped at her eyes. The rain poured down all around her but not on her anymore. The door to the store opened abruptly, and Rai sauntered out followed by a tall bearded man wearing a security uniform complete with a holster on his hip. She shook her head in disbelief as Rai and the guard exchanged some friendly conversation. Amber was sure she heard Rai use the word “citizen” at least twice in a trying-too-hard-to-sound-like-Batman voice before he trotted jovially across the street to join her.
Amber couldn’t decide if she wanted to hug him or punch him. She had never felt so scared for anyone in her entire life. Her emotions were such a confusing mess now and didn’t dare risk punching or hugging him for fear her powers had manifested from sheer panic.
“Well, that went better than expected,” Rai said.
“That was terrible!” Amber shouted. “I thought you got shot. I didn’t know what to do!”
“Nobody got shot,” Rai retorted.
“I heard shots. There were three shots!” Amber shook as her sense of panic and accompanying adrenalin began to fade. Now, she was mad.
“Yeah, that was the security guy.” Rai nodded. “We totally teamed up in there. A couple of the looters were fighting him when I busted in. I knocked one of them out the window, and he took care of the other one.”
“He shot him?”
“No, no,” Rai assured her. “Nobody got shot, I swear. He did kick the dude pretty hard though. The room was crazy-rowdy, but the others took off after he pulled his pistol and shot into the ceiling.”
“I don’t want to do this, Rai.” Amber exhaled a calming breath. “Seeing you run off to fight a bunch of people was too much. Anything could have happened to you in there. I’m not watching that again, and there’s no way I’m ever going to do anything like that. Powers or no powers.” The flashing blue lights of a police cruiser rounded the far corner of the street, heading for the loan store.
“Okay,” Rai said. She could hear the disappointment in his voice. “Let’s get you home.”
11
HIGH WATER
The road back to Wimberley from Austin had been a treacherous collection of deep puddles and running water.
“Maybe we should have taken a boat instead,” Rai griped.
“It’s getting bad out here,” Amber agreed. If anything, the pounding rain had only intensified since leaving Austin over an hour ago. The conversation had been sparse. Amber could tell Rai was mad at her for giving up on the superhero thing, but she had never signed up for that.
The whole adventure had been a “ride along” at best, an attempt to help her understand her abilities and nothing more. She did learn that. Unlike Rai, she did not enjoy situations where she would have to hurt people and would much rather avoid putting herself in the middle of them. Rai had convinced her that she needed to learn how her abilities worked, and Amber agreed. But squeezing into a spandex outfit and running around the city, playing Robin to his Batman, was off the table. He should try to convince Kendra Radcliff to be his partner since he liked her so much. They could come up with cute code names and matching costumes, which that girl would no doubt look amazing in.
Amber was being pouty and realized it. A small part of her even wished she could play the role of the crime-fighting partner that Rai so obviously craved. She could master the new exciting thing she had and remake herself into someone Rai would see differently. That was the part of her that doubted, the part that feared what the entire world thought. It was the persistent insecure whisper in the back of her mind that said she wasn’t smart enough or skinny enough. An inner voice that told her she wasn’t enough, and that all she had to do was change everything about herself to be accepted and happy. Amber learned to ignore that voice a long time ago and had no intention of listening to it now. She did think the world of Rai, but if he didn’t like her the way she was, then she wasn’t going to start lying or trying to change his mind.
Amber’s musing was interrupted when Rai suddenly stopped the car. Amber looked up to see a lengthy line of other cars stopped in front of them on the road. In the distance, yellow flashing lights of service vehicles blinked through the pounding rain.
“I think the road might be closed up there,” Rai complained.
“Something’s wrong,” Amber said. A sense of foreboding formed in the pit of her stomach.
“The road is probably way too flooded up there is all.” Rai shrugged. “It’s going to be a long detour, but I’ll get you home.”
“Pull over,” Amber shook her head. “We need to go see what’s happening up there.”
“I thought you didn’t want to play the hero or get involved?” Rai shot back.
“I never said that,” Amber explained patiently. “I don’t want to go out and fight people like you do, Rai. That doesn’t mean I don’t want to help people if I can.” She watched Rai’s mouth open as he considered her words. His expression shifted at least three times before he nodded and pulled over to the shoulder.
“Well, let’s go see what’s going on up there then!” The two friends got out of the car. Though Rai deflected the rain, the two of them had to slog through w
ater and mud mounting along the shoulder and road. “I’ll probably need a tow truck to get my car out of there,” Rai grumbled.
“Stop being a baby,” Amber said as they made their way up the road past the line of sitting vehicles. The yellow lights turned out to be from a power company truck. Parked by the edge of the bridge, two workers were cutting up a downed power pole blocking the road.
On the opposite side of the bridge, the storm had knocked down another pole that stuck out from under a fallen tree. One the large branches rested over the hood of an unlucky car. There were two cars stuck on the bridge, but it didn’t look like anyone was hurt. Electrical lines laid across the road but did not appear to be sparking or doing anything crazy. Amber assumed the power was out. Still, she felt uneasy and anxious.
“Something’s up,” Rai said.
“You feel it too?” Amber asked.
“Yeah, I got a bad feeling,” Rai confirmed. “Is my hair standing up?” he pulled back his hood and patted the top of his head with a hand. “It feels like my hair is standing up.”
“Your hair is always standing up.” Amber smiled at him despite the situation. “It’s actually flatter than usual.”
“Har, har.” Rai made a face and stuck out his tongue. “But seriously, I’ve had this feeling before. It was when Kendra lost control and went all Smaug on us.”
“You’re not thinking it’s me, are you?” Amber asked with concern.
“I don’t know,” Rai replied. “Are you having any feelings of uncontrollable rage or a sudden, overwhelming desire to destroy a medieval village?”
“Nope.” Amber shook her head. “I feel sort of anxious.” On the bridge, car doors open simultaneously. The first cars’ passengers scrambled out and began running away. But, the woman in the second car struggled with something in the backseat. A child in a car seat from the looks of it. “Should they be getting out?”
“Oh, crap,” Rai shouted and pointed upstream. Amber sucked in a breath of horror as she followed his gesture. A wall of broken trees, debris, and water—lots and lots of water—was heading toward the bridge. It had to be at least twenty feet high. Amber had grown up in South Texas, and flash floods were a part of life here, but she had never seen one this big.
“They’re not going to make it,” Amber said with deadly calm as she watched the woman still at her car. “It’s coming too fast!”
“I’ll have to slow it down then!” Rai cried out as he ran towards them. Amber wasn’t sure what he planned to do, but she followed behind him onto the bridge. She stumbled and slid. Her boots making it difficult to follow him without falling. Rai reached the midpoint of the bridge but didn’t go to the car. He stopped and turned toward the onrushing water instead.
What was he doing!? The floodwaters were close now, too close. Amber swore and kicked off her boots and socks and ran for all she was worth toward the panicked mother. They would never make it off the bridge in time. Amber knew this but didn’t consider turning back.
The road under her feet reassured her, and she once more felt the patient and powerful connection. Somehow, she was intimately aware of the bridge under her feet, the concrete and steel reinforcements running through it anchored deep into the basin below and into solid earth. Was it really that simple? Amber chastised herself for not realizing it sooner: her connection to the earth needed actual contact.
Amber reached the car and looked inside. The woman was leaning over trying to untangle a seatbelt from the car seat holding a crying toddler. “Let me help!” Amber shouted while reaching past the mother and grabbing the belt below the car seat and pulling. She didn’t know how strong a seatbelt was, but this one stretched and tore in her grip as if made of wet paper. The car seat came loose from the car, child, belts, and all. “Run,” Amber said, handing the carrier to the woman.
“Thank you. I…” the woman began to say. Her words interrupted by a thunderous crash.
“Go!” Amber cried aloud and turned toward the sound. She saw Rai standing with his arms raised. He faced the river and shook with visible strain. She could see his power flaring in bright azure serpentine coils around him.
The rising water churned and crashed like something large moved within it. The deafening sound was a terrifying roar in Amber’s ears. Whatever it was was only a few feet from Rai and inching closer as he struggled to hold it back.
“Hang on, Rai!” Amber shouted. “I’ll get you off the bridge.”
“Get clear!” He cried. “It’s not just water! Something is fighting me. I can’t hold it!” Amber ran, but she ran to Rai. She stepped between him and the wall of water and locked her arms around him.
“They’re off the bridge.” Amber nodded to him. “I’ve got you.”
“It’s going to crush us!” Rai argued. “Please, you need to run.”
“I found my strength, Rai,” Amber said serenely, “Trust me. I’ve got you.”
“Okay,” Rai said with a simple nod. “You say you got this? Then you got this.” He exhaled, and a moment later, the wall came down on them like a tsunami.
12
UNMOVABLE
The dark water crashed into Amber. Filled with rock, wood, and heavy debris, the wall of water rammed into her in a series of waves. But she held tight. Her body took the shattering assault, shielding her friend from harm.
Amber surrendered to the power, her power, and knew that at this moment nothing on earth could move her. She felt immune from harm, like a child in the warm and protective embrace of its mother. The torrent eventually ceased, and her head broke free of the water. Amber inhaled great gulps of air as she drew back to regard Rai. He was barely conscious but appeared otherwise unharmed and breathing steadily. He seemed to have been breathing the entire time they were submerged. Amber assumed it was a fortunate aspect of his power.
“Yay, team,” he muttered weakly. Water was still moving across the bridge, but it was only a couple of feet deep at this point. The two abandoned cars were nowhere to be seen.
“You okay to stand?” she asked.
“Yeah, but I’m going to hang here with the guard rail for a bit.” Rai frowned. “Amber, I don’t think it’s over.”
“I know, I can feel it, too,” Amber replied, looking around. She could hear fire engines on the way. There was a crowd of people gathered near the electric-company truck, backlit by the headlights of all the cars. They didn’t look like they were in any immediate danger, so she looked to the other end of the bridge, to a car on the incline pinned under the fallen oak.
Amber recognized the car! It belonged to her friend, Jeanette. Her eyes darted to the side, and she saw the dark water flowing up the bank toward it. Freaking magical murder-water. Why not? The river flowed forcefully into and over the bridge. Amber stepped into it, making her way to the car. Only steps away and a surge of water lifted the tree and pushed the car off the embankment toward the river. Amber was close enough to see that Jeanette was still inside.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Amber yelled out, not hesitating. She leaped and managed to catch hold of the bumper as the car was swept away. The first thing she noticed was the bone-numbing cold of the water as her connection to the ground was cut off. Metal bit into her fingertips as Amber was drug along. Yet, she refused to let go. Then her strength began to fade. She kicked and stretched her legs out desperately trying to reach for the river bottom—to touch the ground—but the water was far too deep.
The car began to tumble in the flow. Still, Amber held tight. She knew she was weakening, but she kept enough of her strength to dig in and claw her way across the trunk to the back window. She drove her fist into the glass, and the window spider-webbed from the impact. The car turned again, and Amber found herself underwater. Two more punches and she was through the window, crawling into the back seat.
Amber had no idea which way was up. The world was now a cold tumbling liquid darkness, but she knew her friend was near. There was a pocket of air at the front of the car, and Amber took several deep b
reaths as she pulled herself up to the passenger seat. She got hold of Jeanette, but her friend’s belt held tight to the seat.
As Amber struggled blindly to find the belt release, she saw something luminous flow past the passenger window. It writhed within the water, moving with serpentine grace. It was like the effect she saw around Rai, but this one was sickly green in color. Suddenly, it twisted around to the front of the car. Baleful emerald eyes ignited from out of the watery gloom beyond the windshield. Before Amber could begin to make sense of what she was seeing, something struck the car, shattering the glass. Amber’s scream turned into garbled bubbles as inky black water flooded into the vehicle. The force of it yanked her from the car, drug her along by powerful currents, and spun her into deeper darkness.
She hit the rocky bottom with bone-jarring force. The murderous currents drove her down, holding her there. But the pain was only momentary. Amber felt the chill and fatigue flow out of her as she regained contact with the earth. There was an odd heaviness in her chest, but Amber ignored it as she firmly planted her feet on the riverbed. The merciless current tore and pulled at her, and she could feel the impacts of rocks and debris battering against her. She would not be broken and could not be moved.
The assault finally relented, and through the murk, she spotted the dimming headlights of Jeanette’s car. It was only few yards away carried toward her by the current. Amber knew her friend didn’t have much time. Trudging heavily toward the other girl as quickly as she could manage, she reached the car as it passed and grabbed hold of the bumper. Holding tightly, she dragged the car up with her.
Amber could feel the power of the flowing water trying to pull the car away from her and the bumper began to tear free. Desperately, she reached out for a better grip and dug her hands in. The metal twisted in her grasp like soft clay, but she managed to get a secure hold. Then step by solid slow step, Amber hauled the wreck toward an incline and the river’s edge. At last, she broke the surface, pulling Jeanette’s car free and hauling it the sandy bank before setting it down. Whatever that thing was in the water, it seemed to have fully retreated.
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