by J. A. Giunta
“Don’t touch her!” he yelled and backed away from Allie with a hand fumbling for his gun.
Ember went down hard, taking two others with her who’d tried to catch her.
The glow had faded from Allie’s hands. She looked at them, confused, then back to Ember with concern.
Lee stormed forward and shouted at the cop.
“Hey! That’s my sister!”
The officer whirled around and glared at him, hand on his gun.
“Stay back,” he warned, as if Lee was a genuine danger.
As Lee focused his sense on the four officers, he began to understand. They weren’t afraid for the safety of those gathered. They only cared about themselves and protecting one another, from Allie and the crowd.
A mote of blue light appeared above of the man’s head. Lee saw it and backed away in surprise. The officer mistook the reaction as justified fear and turned his attention back to the crowd.
The two officers tased Allie. She cried out in pain but otherwise seemed unaffected by the shocks. The third then tackled her like she was a physical threat, as if she were a fully grown man and not a teenage girl. He landed atop her, forced her onto her stomach and drove a knee into her back.
The two dropped their tasers and were on her in seconds. One grabbed her wrists and yanked them back, while the other grabbed her ankles. There was a crackle as he twisted one arm from its socket. She gasped, and people in the crowd started yelling. The officer ignored them and clasped handcuffs on her tight.
Allie pleaded with them to stop, said she couldn’t breathe and tried to move beneath the three men to draw in air. The officer on her back drove his knee down even harder and put both hands around her neck.
They’re going to kill her, Lee thought.
“What the hell!” a guy yelled and came toward them.
It was Rick, someone who used to be good friends with Lee when they were younger. The only cop still standing finally drew his gun and pointed it in Rick’s face. His finger was on the trigger, not on the side like it should’ve been.
“Back off!” he shouted.
Rick flinched, looked scared, but didn’t budge.
“Or what, you’ll shoot me?”
The officer looked at the crowd, at all the phones recording him. He holstered his gun, took the mace from his belt and sprayed Rick without a warning. He ignored Rick’s screams, grabbed him by the neck and left arm, tripped him and drove him down toward the pavement. Rick hit face first and lay still. Blood began to pool around his head, as the officer roughly cuffed him.
Another mote of blue light appeared over Rick. It faded quickly, as if it had entered his body. Others began to flash in and out of existence over the crowd. No one else seemed to notice it. They were preoccupied with Allie, who was being dragged unconscious toward a vehicle.
Ember had gotten to her feet. She had a few scrapes and the start of a nasty bruise on her elbow. She seemed otherwise unhurt but was still in shock at what just happened. She watched helpless as her friend was taken away.
An ambulance and two more police cars arrived. Once Allie and Rick were secured, officers began pushing everyone further back. One confiscated a phone, forcibly, which dispersed the crowd faster than any yelling. They threatened to arrest anyone who didn’t leave. One’s eyes fell pointedly on Lee and Jen.
Ember turned and joined them. The three went back toward the car, looking on as even more police arrived.
What the hell just happened?
Lee’s mind was racing. It was like something out of a movie or a comic book. Allie’s hands had glowed, like she’d caused all those scorch marks. It had to be related to the Pillars and the Rumbling.
I’m not going crazy, he thought and looked back at the restaurant, but I almost wish I was.
Police were setting up yellow tape and making people leave. Had something happened inside too? Either way, they’d have to find somewhere else to eat.
- Ember -
Ember trudged into the kitchen, feeling like crap. She curled her toes at the greasy feel of the tile on her bare feet. She opened the refrigerator, stared inside, then closed it again. The door slammed shut so hard the entire fridge shuddered like it had been hit by a linebacker. If she hadn’t known better, she’d have said she was hungover, but it wasn’t like she’d been out partying the night before. In fact, after that weird rumbling started, she just couldn’t get her party vibe in gear. She stared at the clock for half a minute before the time actually penetrated her foggy brain. After 4:00 pm. She really had slept like the dead.
She opened a cupboard, stared inside, then closed it again with a loud bang and the metal handle came off in her hand. She clearly needed caffeine.
She tossed the handle into the trash and reached for the coffee pot. The sludge in the bottom of the carafe was cold. A layer of oily scum floated on top of the dark liquid that had once been coffee. She set the carafe down in the sink and heard an ugly cracking sound. Coffee syrup leaked out of the bottom of the pot.
Lee clattered into the room. “What’s for dinner? I’m starving.”
“Like that’s anything new.” She sniffed, and her hand went to her face. “Ugh. What’s up with the cologne bath? You trying to cover up some new bad habit?”
“You should know. When’s mom coming home?”
“When did it become my job to keep track of Mom?” She leaned back against the center Island and crossed her arms, in irritation. “By the way, you might want to erase the answering machine messages,” she suggested. “School called. Skipping pretty early in the year. What’s up with that?”
“I overslept. What’s your excuse?” he nodded at her rumpled t-shirt and sleeping shorts. “Like you ever have a shortage.”
“Whatev.” Her scalp itched. She tried to comb her fingers through her snarled hair.
“Why didn’t Mom wake us up?”
“I don’t know. Not like I’m a mind reader. Maybe she thought we were sick.”
“Maybe. How about a run to Finley’s?”
“Why? You have a date with Emma?” She would have made duck lips at him, but she was too tired to bother revving him up.
“Like I have her schedule memorized. I’m just hungry, and there’s nothing to eat here.”
His wheedling grated on her already raw nerves. She so wasn’t in the mood for it. “There’s plenty to eat here. You just have to make it.” She waved at the cupboards.
“Yeah, no. C’mon, you just got mom’s old car. Aren’t you dying to use it?”
Ember snorted. She wanted to tell him that the car wasn’t officially hers; it was more a communal car, but that would lead to questions about their extended family. Questions she couldn’t answer. Just thinking about it made her mark flare and caused her to twitch. “Maybe, I just don’t want to be chauffeuring your ass over to see your girlfriend.”
“Come on. Have one of your friends meet us there. Allison or Somebody. I really need food.”
She stared over at the broken carafe still leaking coffee into the sink. “Fine. I need coffee, anyway. I’m guessing Jen’s going to be tagging along?”
“Probably.”
She shrugged. “I gotta get dressed first.”
***
She slipped into her cleanest pair of black jeans and laced up her boots. For some reason she felt the need for the security of ass-kickable footwear. When she strode back into the kitchen to grab her keys, Lee gave her the eyeball.
“You’re not going to change your shirt?”
She looked down at herself and he laughed. “Man, you really are tired.” He swung open the door and headed out.
Jen was waiting for them outside the garage, face glued to her phone, as usual.
“Great. Now, I look like an Uber driver. I should start charging mileage.” Ember adjusted the mirror as Lee and Jen hopped into the b
ack seat.
The Lexus was old in years, almost as old as Lee, but mom had kept it pristine. Now, it smelled like the deodorizing cleaner Ember had used to try and get the spilled latte out of the carpet.
She glanced at them in the rearview mirror. Jen still had her head down, absorbed by her phone. Lee just looked back at Ember and shrugged.
She pressed the voice activation button on her phone to call Allison and felt the plastic crack. Damn! She must have dropped her crappy phone one too many times. She tossed it onto the seat and turned on the radio.
“Nice static.” Lee rolled his eyes at her.
She turned off the radio. “Hey, Jen. Do me a favor and call Allie.”
“Can’t.” Jen kept playing her stupid game. “Don’t have her number.”
“Oh yeah. I forgot. She had to get a new phone plan when her parents split and her dad’s new girlfriend kept harassing them.” Ember turned her attention to the road.
“Not sure trying to communicate with them counts as harassment,” Lee said.
“This is me, rolling my eyes.” Ember pulled into the crowded parking lot beside Finley’s. “Must be the night for bad burgers. Place looks extra busy.”
“Looks like cops.” Lee opened the door and got out, slamming it shut behind him. Even Jen looked up from her phone at the sudden noise.
“Watch the door,” Ember groused. “Last thing I need is a lecture from Mom on taking care of things.”
“It was an accident.” He held up his hands.
Ember shot him a dirty look and shut her own door gently, careful not to break anything.
“Isn’t that Allison?” Jen asked as they crossed the parking lot.
“Where?” Ember scanned the crowd of people holding up cell phones, apparently recording something near the entrance to the burger joint.
“Over there,” Jen pointed. “In the middle of the bunch of cops.”
That stopped her in her tracks. “What the hell?” Allie stood on the sidewalk, sobbing. Four uniformed officers surrounded her, tasers at the ready. They looked twitchy. One had his hand on the gun at his hip. The front of Finley’s looked like there’d been a fire. Scorch marks streaked the sidewalk and parking lot. In addition to the normal stench of frying meat, there was a scent of ozone in the air. And singed hair. Allie’s hair. It looked like they had already tased her. Why would they do that? Ember wondered, confusion and anger battling to overcome her.
The cops were yelling, shouting about hands, giving Allie commands. Why were they yelling at her?
Ember shoved her way forward as Allie wiped at her eyes. The cops all started yelling at her over each other. Ember only caught a few of the words. “Hands!” “On your knees.” “Subject not complying.” One of the cops was talking into his shoulder radio.
Allie stared at her hands in confusion. Tears wended their way down her face to drop from her chin. Sunlight seemed to gather around her fingertips.
The weird light made Ember blink. Why were all these cops hurting Allison? They needed to stop! There wasn’t time to think, she just suddenly knew she had to try to help her friend. “Allie!” Ember called and barreled through the crowd. She managed to slip past the cops and reach out to Allie before anyone could stop her.
Allie looked up and reached for Ember’s hand. Their fingers touched and a shock zapped through Ember. She jerked back her hand and felt like crap at the look of hurt on Allie’s face.
“Don’t touch her,” yelled one of the cops. He shoved her away from Allie before she could apologize to her. Ember fell back into the crowd and went down hard, her knee slamming into the pavement with a resounding smack.
Ember pushed herself up off the pavement. Lee was shouting at someone.
“Lee. Don’t!” Despite the way they bickered, Lee had hit sibling protection mode on more than one occasion. Normally, Ember would have let him help her out, and given him crap about it later. But cops. Lee could get hurt taking on the cops.
She rubbed at her knee in surprise. She’d expected it to be totally screwed after that fall, scraped and bruised at the very least. Before she could really examine it, tasers zapped, and Allie screamed. Gut churning, Ember tried to push through the crowd again.
“Don’t.” Jen grabbed for her arm. “I don’t know what’s going on, but you can’t help her now.”
Rick Grainger came barreling across the lot, yelling for them to stop. One of the cops pulled his gun, pointing it at Rick’s face. Rick pulled up short. An officer stepped up behind him, shoved him to the ground, pulled his hands behind his back and cuffed him. Ember stared at the chaos, stunned, heart pounding.
Lights flared. People screamed. Sirens blared as more cops arrived, along with an ambulance.
The cops cuffed Allie and dragged her to one of the police cars and shoved her into the back seat. Rick was taken to a separate car. Then the cops started grabbing cell phones and yelling at people to leave.
Jen stuck her cell phone into the back pocket of her jeans and backed away, trying to pull Ember with her. “We need to get out of here.”
Two
Wed, Aug 24, 5:23pm
- Lee -
They got in the car and drove to Hotspot, a pizza place on Melody and Fifth known for its free Wi-Fi. It was a popular hangout for people from Middleton High. Ember borrowed Lee’s phone, while Jen was typing away at hers.
“It’s not just here,” Jen said, or something to that effect. It was hard enough to focus on where they were going without all the extrasensory information clamoring for his attention. She kept reading and then typing more with both thumbs. “It’s happening everywhere, all over the world.”
Lee only nodded.
He wanted to know what was happening to him. He wanted to know what had happened to Allison. Not just with the police, but what had made her skin glow like that? How did she cause those scorch marks? It had to be from the Pillars. The Rumbling had only just ended 73 minutes ago. It couldn’t have been a coincidence.
More unnerving than seeing that effect in someone else, he thought about the blue bits of light, like tiny fireflies in the air. They were alive, smaller parts of a greater whole and moved with purpose. They didn’t seem to be a part of what had happened to Allison, and he had a sinking feeling he knew where they’d come from. Like the swarm of miniscule insects he sensed in his mind, outlining bodies outside his vision…
They were him.
Ember hung up and called someone else, but Lee was too distracted to listen in.
“Come on,” Jen said and prodded him with an elbow, her eyes still on her phone. “Aren’t you the least bit excited? It’s like a comic book come to life! People are getting superpowers!”
Lee shook his head. “Sure, what isn’t great about that? I’m sure Allison is loving it.”
Jen’s enthusiasm waned at that.
“Everyone thinks it’s the Pillars,” she said. “That the Rumbling somehow changed people. Not a big surprise, really.” She looked away from her phone long enough to gesture with her hands. “I mean, we find this alien artifact buried in the ocean and think, ‘Hey! Let’s turn it on! What could go wrong?’”
Ember hung up as they pulled into the parking lot. It was busy but not overcrowded. She handed him his phone back.
He was already dealing with the rush of sensations from the forty-seven people eating and working inside, their individual heartbeats, the flow of blood and other fluids and the spark of every neuron that fueled their emotions. The longer he was exposed to them, or more accurately, the longer they were exposed to him, the more he knew about their health and state of mind.
I’ll never be the same, he thought, and it scared him a little. A small part of him wished he was like Allison instead.
“Everything’s about to change,” Lee said to himself, quiet enough that he didn’t think anyone else had heard.
/> “Some things don’t,” Ember said.
She was trying to comfort him, despite being scared herself, but Lee felt beyond the help of words. He didn’t know what would help. It was only a matter of time before police came to take him the same way they had taken Allison.
The sense of envy and spite directed toward him caught his attention. Lee looked up and recognized other sophomores through the big glass windows, seated in large groups and laughing like nothing was wrong. He locked eyes with one and inwardly groaned.
Derek had made a point of picking on Lee whenever he could, no matter how much Lee tried to ignore him. Derek ran for the front doors as they got close, laughed and waved through the glass before walking back to his seat.
“He seriously needs to get laid,” Jen said, though she never seemed to take her eyes from her phone.
“What’s with him?” Ember asked.
Lee shrugged. “A lack of oxygen at birth?”
He was first to the door, took hold of the handle and pulled. There was a loud clank, and two metal pieces fell to the ground. It didn’t help that his mind was in a haze from all the sensory input crowding in. He fought past it and managed to focus on the bits of metal.
What the hell just happened?
His thoughts matched Ember’s expression. She put a hand to his arm, and he jerked away at the sudden silence. For the briefest of moments, he felt like he had when the Rumbling had ended.
Lee blinked and pieced it all together, just as Derek’s eyes went wide with realization. The knowing look he gave Lee seemed to say, You’re one of them.
The ass had locked the doors, and Lee just tore them open. He could feel Derek’s resentment turn to panic. Lee quickly slid the metal pieces aside with his foot before anyone could see.
It felt like everyone was staring, as they walked to an empty table. They weren’t, though. It was just the sense of each one of them flooding his mind, threatening to drown out any thoughts of his own. As usual, everyone else was wrapped up in their little worlds, talking and laughing together like nothing and no one else mattered, heads buried in social media. Only Derek seemed to follow them with his eyes.