And suddenly, I could see it. Trees that were ready to be uprooted. Rocks weathered away by time. Tunnels, probably the former mine beneath me, ready to be collapsed. There were plenty of potential outlets for my power.
But only one that would help me take all of them out.
I reached up over my head and prepared to strike the rocks beneath me with a punishing double-fisted blow that would leave my knuckles happy that I had done this while wearing armored gloves. Taking a deep breath, I prepared to reach for that familiar, comforting rage.
But then, I felt something inside of me shake, and paused.
With a frown, I rested my hands on the rocks, and keeping my anger at simmering level, I pushed.
The earth beneath my feet began to tremble.
Only unlike last time, I didn’t pull away, didn’t let the shake dissipate. I directed it.
Fault lines broke over the rock face in front of me. It was so similar, yet so different than anything I had ever done before.
When I had used my power before it had been lashing out, plain and simple, but this was controlled. Sure, I still used my anger, my deep resentments, but in a far more direct way. The mountain almost seemed to speak to me. I could tell just how much I needed to push if I just wanted to scare them or bury them alive.
So, I started out small.
I sent a pulse of power through the ground, starting an avalanche of rocks, roughly the sizes of my fists. They went tumbling down the mountains, colliding with the men in no time. I watched as one smacked a guy in the gut. He stumbled backward with a shout of pain. His companions came to a complete halt, raising arms to protect their faces.
But others raised their weapons.
Looked like it was time to turn things up a bit. I dug deeper into that rage, and the boulders increased in size. They were now bigger than fists, bigger than bowling balls. I felt a jolt of satisfaction as one smashed a guy right in the face. I couldn’t think of anyone who deserved it more. Stupid SynergyCorp, thinking they could just take my Dawn and torture her for weeks without any consequences. Thinking they could just throw money at it and bury it all. I’d show them buried. Put every one of their agents six feet under. Show them who was the real powerful one here.
From beneath me, the entire mountain began to shake. My vision was suddenly a wash of red. The noises all around me seemed to blend together, the cries of the men, the cracking of the earth, a single voice calling my name.
“Stop. They’re gone! Stop!”
I spun around to see Alan standing next to me in those stupid douchey shades and expensive clothing. Just another asshole trying to tell me what to do. I felt my hands clench into fists and reared back, my fist soaring in a perfect arc that could easily shatter his jaw.
And then, at the last possible moment, his body changed into shadow and my fist flew straight through.
The shock was enough to cut through my rage.
What was I doing? That was Dawn’s brother. The person I was supposed to protect today. Had he not been empowered, that would have hurt him, seriously.
I stumbled backward, only to realize that the earth beneath me was still shaking. I felt it settle beneath my feet. I raised my hands to cover my face, if just to block out the wash of red that still dominated my vision. Those bright lights…
What the hell was going on with me?
“Alex?”
I’m not sure how many times Alan had said my name before I really heard it. I looked up to see him, human-shaped once more.
“I…I didn’t kill anyone, did I?” I said, my voice half muffled by my own hands.
“I don’t… No, you didn’t.”
I hadn’t missed that pause. Did he really know—
I couldn’t tell you if I felt or heard the explosion first. All I knew is that the earth was suddenly bucking beneath my feet, the air filled with a thunderous boom. No, not the air…
“Did you—” Alan began.
“No,” I replied.
Before I could say more, another explosion wracked the mountain, and then another. I turned to Alan, wide-eyed, the truth hitting us at the same moment.
“Project Regen,” he whispered. “They’re destroying it.”
I felt my eyes widen as I turned back to the entrance. “And Connor’s still in there.”
21
Dawn
According to Gerry, a not-so-unexpected result of their last breakout attempt was an increase in cameras. Most of them were well hidden, but that didn’t change the fact that they were there. The Big Room, the pods, even the bathrooms—as creepy as it was to think about that—all had cameras. But now, we had someone who could circumvent them.
Karen nodded across the room at Luiz, who stood beneath the large shower room’s one video camera, his hand firmly planted against the wall. He nodded back.
We had kept things small, figuring the White Masks would take notice if everyone went to the non-functioning showers at the same time. So, it was just me, Karen, and Gerry from Pod Four, and Bixby, Justin, and Sam representing the recently combined Pods Two and Three. There were no surviving members of Pod One.
“I know that you’re all taking a bit of a risk by meeting here,” Bixby said. “The guards aren’t always comfortable seeing us gather in big groups, and they’re right to be.”
“Why?” Sam asked, arms crossed over his chest. “Because a bunch of you tried an insane escape attempt six months ago? What does that have to do with now?”
I cringed. I didn’t know too much about Bixby, but everyone knew that patience wasn’t exactly something she had in abundance. Unfortunately, Sam held Bixby responsible for the loss of Casey. Partially because Casey had been visiting Bixby when Chloe had started the cave-in, and partially for failing to keep one of her charges under wraps.
This surprised me. If Sam wasn’t a fan of Bixby, then why invite the woman to his pod? When I had asked Gerry why, he had smiled.
“Sam and Bixby may not always agree, but Bixby and Karen are a powder keg. It was a much better merger.”
Which probably explained the look of baffled surprise on the man’s face when Karen took a step toward him, hands raised. Karen was tall for a woman, meaning that unlike Bixby, she could meet Sam eye to eye.
“Listen,” Karen said. “I know you don’t want to be here right now, but it’s important you know what’s going on.”
“Strange to see you leaping to her defense,” Sam said, eyebrows raised.
“I’m not defending Bixby.” She paused, turning back to me. “I’m here because of her.”
Sam looked to me, dark eyes meeting mine.
“You,” he said. “You’re the one who tried to save Casey. Haven’t seen too much of you recently. The Mask have been on you like white on rice. You have something you want to tell us?”
I nodded. And while my memory has never been as good as my brother’s, I found I could recall pretty much every word exchanged between Dr. Hale and Gardiner.
“Damn,” Sam said, rubbing a hand across his beard. “You sure about this?”
“Um…yes?” I said, finding his very direct gaze uncomfortable.
“Why would she lie?” Bixby countered.
“Not saying she lied,” Sam said. “But sometimes our minds remember what they want to.”
“I don’t think this is something Dawn would want to hear.” Karen shook her head.
“But…it doesn’t make sense. A full purge? They’ve never done anything like that before.”
“That we know of,” Gerry said, adjusting his glasses. “The four of us, myself, Bixby, Karen and” —he hesitated for four long seconds, then snapped his fingers in realization— “Justin. We’ve been here the longest. Over six months, if my notes are correct.” He let out a pained smile. “But we don’t know what happened in this place beforehand. It was empty when we arrived, so we always assumed that we were the first. But if they had performed a similar purge before our arrival—”
“You’d think someone would
notice if they were doing this so long,” Sam said. “I mean, how many people have you seen die in just the past six months?”
“Fifty…fifty-three. I think.”
“Wanna check your notes, man?”
“Regardless of how many people SynergyCorp has killed, one thing is clear,” Karen spoke up. “They’re planning on adding a dozen more to the list when they take out all of us in two weeks.”
“Which is why we need to make a break for it now.” Bixby slapped the back of her right hand into the palm of her left. “We have strong fighters, and powers that we can use to our advantage. That Mexican guy you have is like a fucking ninja. You saw how he almost took out three guards just by himself. And you.” She looked to me. “Those rocks you moved weren’t exactly small.”
“That’s true,” I said, looking down at my hands. “But I still don’t know how I did it.”
“What? They haven’t been able to bring that out of you during testing?”
“Bixby, you know we don’t ask people about that.” Karen frowned.
“No, it’s okay.” I tucked a strand of hair behind my right ear. “Yeah, they have been able to bring it out. But only by, ah…breaking things so I can heal them. And the more I heal, the faster I seem to run out of power and pass out.”
“Oh, I’m sure we could figure out how to break something,” Bixby replied.
“Did you hear the second half of that statement?” Karen said, voice rising. “She heals too much, she passes out. That’s not going to help us during a breakout.”
“It is if it’s our only option,” Bixby shot back. “We need to go!”
“Please,” Gerry said, raising both hands. “Let’s keep our voices down. We don’t want to draw attention to the fact that we’re all in here.”
The group fell completely silent, and for a few seconds, the only noise was Luiz, shifting from foot to foot beneath the security camera, the focus in his gaze indicating that he understood at least some of the conversation.
To my surprise, it was the mild-mannered Justin who was the first to break the silence. I had almost forgotten he was in the room.
“You know, I understand what you mean, Bixby, we do need to figure out an escape plan. Staying here…” He shook his head. “It’s no longer an option.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to say,” Bixby replied, teeth clenched.
“But why does it have to be now? If we have two weeks, why not use that time to our advantage. Make a plan. Figure out how to use our powers better.”
“What, like do our own testing?” Sam made a face.
“That’s not what I meant,” Justin said, and frowned, playing with the silver ring on his thumb. It was a feeling I was familiar with, knowing what I wanted to say, but finding myself unable to form the words. Of course, with me that usually led to awkward babbling. But I could tell what Justin was trying to explain.
“It wouldn’t need to be like testing,” I said. “The testing, well…it’s all about them trying to pry our powers out of us. Not about teaching us how to use them.”
“I get what you’re saying, kid, but aren’t you forgetting? There are cameras in the bedrooms, observational decks overlooking the Big Room. I’d think they’d notice if we started playing danger room,” Sam replied.
Before I could comment on the perfectly timed X-Men reference, Karen jumped in.
“So, we don’t practice out there,” she said. “We do it in here, with plenty of people keeping an eye out to let us know if anyone’s coming.”
“Which would be especially easy considering only, what…four of us have powers that would be useful in this situation?” Sam asked.
“Not necessarily,” Gerry said, opening his notebook. “While it’s true that we only have a handful of people whose abilities could be called combat-ready, others may work well in support roles. Justin’s ability to create light, for example. If you could figure out how to concentrate that in a single flash, that could be used to blind the Black Hats.”
“And us, if we’re not careful.”
“We’ll have to plan ahead,” Gerry allowed. “But powers aren’t our only resource. Diego’s fighting abilities, as Bixby pointed out, are effective enough on their own. And Karen, don’t you have experience with firearms?”
“Some.” She shrugged.
“What kind of peace-loving Canadian are you?” Sam asked.
“I’m a woman of contradictions.”
“Well, put me in that category too, although it’s been a few years. Dad always wanted to make sure I knew how to protect myself, although I don’t think he was thinking about this.”
“But you have powers too,” Gerry offered.
“Barely. I can move objects with my mind, but even something small takes a ton of effort.” He nodded to Gerry. “What about you? Can either of you shoot?”
He let out a small smile. “My only weapon is information, which we can make use of to plan our escape, along with Luiz’s map of the electrical system. But if we’re going to do this right, it may require us to put off our escape plan until almost the last moment.”
Bixby scowled. “You…make a good point.”
“Words I don’t think I’ve ever heard come out of your mouth,” Karen muttered.
“Excuse me?”
“Look, I’m also up for waiting,” Sam said. “But that’s not our call. It’s yours.”
And then, to my surprise, he gestured toward me.
“Um…why me?” I asked, blinking.
“Two weeks to prepare, and to figure out these powers, those weeks are going to feel a lot longer for you, Diego, Mark, Luiz, and Anna. If they really are homing in on the folks from the last wave, then you’re the ones who are going to feel it the most. You’ve been through hell over the past week. Do you think you can go through two more?”
I found my left hand inching up to touch my right wrist, which had now been broken four times over the past eight days. I felt my mouth go dry. How long could I stand that, if it meant increasing our chances to escape?
“Ah…yes. Although we should probably clear it with everyone else.” I glanced at Luiz.
“All right then,” Sam said, moving away from the wall. “For better or for worse, I’m in. But that doesn’t mean I’m happy about it. This is a shit situation. Has always been a shit situation. But before, at least there was a chance of having the FBI or someone find us. Now, we don’t have a choice. Either we let them kill us or bolt. People are gonna die either way.”
“But this way, at the very least, we can take out as many of those fuckers as we can,” Bixby said, cracking her knuckles.
It was hard not to pick up on the different responses from the rest of the group. For Bixby, and to a lesser extent, Karen, there was almost a bloodthirsty glint in their eyes at the mention of taking down the people that had hurt and killed their podmates. Sam and Gerry looked resigned but determined. And Justin, who had remained silent for most of the conversation, just looked uncomfortable.
But how did I feel?
“That settles it then,” Sam said, “for better or for worse.”
He left the room, waving goodbye to Luiz on the way out. Luiz waved back, a look of concern on his face.
“You okay, Dawn?”
I blinked and looked at Karen, who now stood next to me. Behind her, Justin and Bixby were starting to head toward the exit, and Gerry was flipping through his notebook, already preparing.
“Y-yeah,” I said. “I’m fine.”
Over the next few days I saw the captives of Project Regen push themselves. Justin, his eyes screwed up in concentration, trying to turn his small, twinkling light into larger flashes (an action, Gerry told me, that left him feeling temporarily nauseous). Or Bixby, surrounding herself with people she placed into dreamlike trances with a touch of her hand (they would immediately fall out of it the second someone else touched them). And then there was Anna, the woman who could generate heat but sobbed every time she was forced to do it.
/> We weren’t exactly the Avengers.
The one person who seemed to have it together was Diego, and that probably had a lot to do with the fact that his strength didn’t entirely come from his powers. It was hard not to be amazed at how he could move. I had known kids growing up who had taken martial arts class, but this was so much more. He acted, well, like a superhero.
Myself, on the other hand…
Three of us stood in the shower area. Luiz, beneath the camera, flipping through a pocket Bible, and Diego, moving through a series of stretches. I did my best to ignore them both, focusing on the memory of Dr. Hale, her face hidden behind her white mask, or of Gardiner reaching for my arm. That sharp breaking sound…
I winced and opened my eyes as I looked down at my hands to find them ungloved, the red and black costume refusing to surface. I frowned and let them drop. Ugh! Seriously, what was the point in having powers if I needed to fear for my life for them to work?
“You thinking that maybe you’re going about this the wrong way?”
I blinked and turned toward Diego, looking at me from over his left shoulder.
When he caught sight of my confused look he added, “Triggering your powers, I mean.”
I sighed. “Every time I’ve transformed it was because I was physically harmed and scared out of my mind. And the fear.” I paused, licking my lips. “Um…I can take care of that, but it still doesn’t seem to work.”
“Perhaps your abilities are merely a defense mechanism,” Diego replied. “Stopping you from coming to future harm.”
“But I need to use them to stop others from coming from coming to future harm,” I shot back, then felt my gaze drop. “S-sorry. That came out a little grumpy.”
Diego let out a chuckle.
“You sound like Teresa,” he said. “Apologizing for her emotions, when there is nothing wrong with feeling them in the first place.”
I watched as his face fell.
“Like grief?” I asked.
Diego shook his head. “This isn’t a place for grief. For proper mourning, surrounded by loved ones. This is a place of pain and fear.”
Silver and Gold (Red and Black Book 3) Page 22