Votary easily blocks the follow-up attack from Greg and places a boot into his chest. The kick knocks Greg into Staci’s vacated chair. The chair hovers down the floor and collides with the next empty one on the side of the table.
“Enough!” Votary bellows. “If you don’t behave I’ll show you how easy it is for me to keep you in line!”
The other eight individuals slowly take their same seats around the table. James and Greg glare daggers at each other and give their chairs a few extra inches of separation while Staci keeps her face buried in her hands.
“Does someone want to explain what just happened?” Votary asks.
“That bitch used her–” Greg begins.
“Someone who isn’t emotionally compromised right now?” Votary clarifies.
Dante speaks for the group. “Staci Post hasn’t accepted what just happened to all of us. She barely speaks, but we did get her name out of her. The scientist, Flaimeson did you say?”
Votary nods.
Dante continues. “Flaimeson used to speak a lot when we could hear. It gives some credibility to him being a spy for your side. He said that she can make a person feel extreme pain. I don’t know how, but if she wants to hurt you, you just hurt. I can tell you from personal experience that it isn’t great, I can feel it even in smoke form.”
“Curious,” Votary muses. “They let you use your powers while held captive?”
“They couldn’t really stop us,” Dale answers. “Except for you, I haven’t seen anything that can stop us from being augments.”
“Then why didn’t you escape?” Votary asks.
“Where to?” Dan demands. “We’re on a spaceship. Escaping our cells wouldn’t change that.”
“Besides,” Mary Lee continues, “they weren’t bad to us. Sure, they kept us confined, but they wanted us to join their crew.”
“Yeah, Vlad and Vape took them up on the offer,” James says after giving up his staring contest with Greg. “Those two left on day one, and we haven’t seen them since.”
“I see,” Votary says.”
“So, can we go home now?” Staci screams.
“I would prefer you all to stay,” Votary answers.
“No thank you,” Staci says.
“You’ll be free to go, if you wish, after you hear what I have to say about the Malignant, but, I’ll confer with Flaimeson first. This shouldn’t take longer than the rest of the day, assuming you aren’t diseased or anything like that, and you want to turn your back on the planet, I’ll send you home.”
“Oh God!” Staci sobs and buries her face into her folded arms on the table.
“Let’s hear it then,” Dante says.
Votary fills the new augments in on the story of the Gudz and Malignant. Soon the other augments hold similar faces of dread that Staci hides.
The Bystanders Series
The Bystanders Series
Bystanders (available now)
Bystanders II: Trophy Hunters (available now)
Bystanders III: Sleepers and Scouts (available now)
Bystanders IV: Our Contest (December 2018)
Get updates @bystanderssaga
A Note from the Author
Thank you for reading my novel. It’s the third of four in the Bystanders saga. I have been a fan of comic books and science fiction all my life. I often found myself annoyed that the stories never addressed the fact that buildings were always empty when a monster was thrown through one, or nobody ever moved away from the cities that had numerous battles. During my third deployment, I decided to start writing my own story.
I quickly decided that it would need multiple books that addressed a growing scale of violence. I determined that four books were the right number. I’m committed to getting all four books out as soon as possible. They’re already written and just need some final editing. I firmly believe that you can’t write an epic story if you don’t already know the end. I chose to complete the full story before allowing any to be published.
Sleepers and Scouts Page 33