The Seven

by Sean Patrick Little

  Holly nodded. Indigo squeezed her eyes shut and jammed her fingers in her ears. A moment later, there was a loud pop and white light pushed hard on her eyelids. There were screams of pain right outside the shack as the flashbang overloaded the night-vision goggles of the soldiers.

  John was out the door in an instant, Indigo on his heels. John was a tornado, whirling and moving almost too fast to comprehend. He was on top of the nearest soldier in a heartbeat. Indigo watched him unleash a flurry of punches into the man's chest, neck, and face and saw the man's legs go to jelly and he collapsed in an unconscious heap.

  Indigo tried to remember where she heard screams and scanned the darkness. "Kenny! Flare!" There was another pop as Kenny fired the flare gun and the sky was suddenly filled with a sparking orange light that illuminated a wide circle on the ground.

  Indigo spotted a soldier crouched in tall grass near the shack, rubbing his eyes. "There's one!" She felt a surge of anger when she saw him and felt that tingle in her brain expand. She took control of her telekinetic field and threw an invisible wall of energy at the soldier. It hit him like a fist and knocked him backward.

  "Another over here!" shouted Kenny. Indigo whipped around and saw a larger soldier lumbering toward them, a gun in his hand. He was shouting commands, but Indigo only heard a blur of words that made no sense. John attacked the man, a kick to the side of his knee that buckled him, a fast elbow to the man's temple that knocked him to the ground. John finished with a flurry of fists to the man's face.

  "Get to the van!" John shouted. "Sebbins, get the van started! We have to roll out of here!"

  Sebbins took steps toward the van and a voice rang out from the grass. "They're trying to run!"

  Indigo tried to locate the source so she could take him out, but even with the light from the flare, she couldn't find the soldier.

  Suddenly, another soldier's voice shouted out, "The adult is expendable!"

  The crisp thunderclap of a gun shattered the night. Dr. Sebbins cried out and dropped to her knees.

  "Seb!" Holly screamed.

  Everything seemed to slow down. Holly dove to Seb's side. John drew his sidearm and began firing blindly into the grass. Kenny struggled to pull his gun from the holster. Soldiers began to pour out of the grass. Indigo began to feel a new kind of fear: Fear of death, fear of more experiments, fear of ending life as a pile of data, a general terror began to sweep through her. Close on the heels of this terror was a different emotion: Rage. She was sick of being afraid, sick of feeling helpless. The hub of her telekinetic power within her brain began swelling. Indigo looked down at Sebbins, a rosebud of blood spreading rapidly across the doctor's chest. The force in Indigo's brain was screaming to be freed. Indigo caught sight of a soldier from the corner of her eye and whirled in that direction, flinging her arms wide as she did and releasing the pent-up fear and anger in a telekinetic bolt. The soldier was slammed backward as if he had been hit by a locomotive. His body rag-dolled into the trees, cracking into a large oak sending bark and splinters flying. A rush of power and adrenaline flooded through Indigo's body. She felt the energy of her powers crackle through her and awaken every inch of her body. Joy flooded through her, as if her brain had been crying out for her to find this hidden strength. The joy fueled her powers further.

  Another soldier stood up and leveled a strange-looking gun at Indigo. It fired with a small flare of light and a hollow "poik" sound. Indigo stuck out a hand and froze the projectile, a feather-ended tranquilizer dart, inches from her palm. She flipped the needle in the air so it pointed back at the soldier and sent it flying into the soldier's neck faster than the gun had fired it. The soldier clapped a hand to his neck and fell into the grass.

  Indigo turned on her heel and saw two more soldiers. She unleashed a bolt at the nearest soldier and sent him cartwheeling into the sky. He flew above the treetops and fell back toward earth, slamming hard into the ground and laying still.

  John dispatched the last soldier with a rapid combination of punches and kicks and the action ceased. Everything became quiet and still.

  A searing pain shot through the center of Indigo's head. It made her drop to her knees and clap her hands to the side of her head. Her vision dimmed to black and her chest tightened until it was hard to breathe. As quickly as the pain came on, it dissipated until it was an aggravating throbbing in her temples. Indigo took in a deep breath through her nose. What made her hurt so much? Was it a repercussion from using her powers?

  "Damage check," John's voice snapped Indigo out of her daze. "Is anyone hurt?"

  "John, please help me!" cried Holly. She was kneeling by Dr. Sebbins' body and pressing her hands over the wound. Even in the soft light of the still-burning flare, Indigo could see Holly's hands were slick with blood. "It's bad, John," said Holly. "Real bad."

  John gently pulled Holly's hands off the wound. The bullet had hit the doctor in the right side of her chest, just to the right of her sternum. The blood was dark, darker than Indigo thought it should be. All of them had been trained in anatomy and physiology. They had all learned basic First-Aid techniques, but this type of wound was beyond any of them.

  John frowned. "I don't think it hit her heart," he said, "but..." his voice trailed. Indigo knew he didn't want to finish the sentence. It was a bad wound. Sebbins wasn't going to live. Her labored breaths and rasping, gurgling coughs could tell them that. She had blood in her lungs.

  Holly was biting her lip so hard that a thin trickle of blood was seeping out the corner of her mouth. Her eyes were welling with tears. Kenny swiped his wrist across his eyes and sat back, hugging his knees to his chest.

  Indigo felt that telekinetic hub of her brain begin to swell again. Sorrow and sadness swamped her mind. She choked back a sob and knelt next to Holly. She reached down and picked up Seb's hand.

  Dr. Sebbins turned her head toward Indigo and Holly and coughed, blood flecking her lips as she gasped for air. "Not...gonna..."

  "Don't talk," said Holly. "You're...you're going to be okay."

  Sebbins smiled weakly. "Bad...liar."

  "We're gonna get you to a hospital, Doc," said John. "Just save your strength."

  Sebbins shook her head. "Don't...not gonna...make it." Coughs wracked her body and she spit up a horrid amount of blood.

  Indigo cleared her throat. "Seb, I'm sorry I was such a bitch to you." Sebbins squeezed her hand. "I...You didn't deserve it. I just...I don't know why I did it. I never meant it. I was just being an idiot."

  "I'm sorry if I was ever short with you," said John.

  Sebbins slowly reached a hand out toward him and he took it. "Never." She licked her lips and coughed lightly. Blood flecked her lips. "Don't bury me...just go. Get...Sarah and Andy."

  "We won't just leave you!" said Indigo.

  "Don't...be stupid," said Sebbins. "Get away...from these people. Take care of each...other..." Sebbins coughed again, she went rigid and struggled for a moment, and then she gave a shuddering, breathy heave. Her head lolled to one side.

  Indigo felt the doctor's hand go slack. Indigo reached a shaking hand to Sebbins' neck and felt for the pulse she knew wasn't going to be there. "She's gone," said Indigo. She felt tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

  Holly slumped over against Indigo and sobbed. Kenny's face was buried in his arms and his back was shaking.

  John cleared his throat and spoke quietly. "I'm not going to just leave her here."

  "Bury her?" Indigo asked.

  "I aim to," he said. "But first, we have to get those soldiers stowed. Kenny, get some rope from the shelter."

  Holly stood up. "I'm going to get a shovel," she said. "There are entrenching tools in the shelter. I'm going to start Seb's grave." She sobbed again. "I hate this."

  Kenny returned with a coil of rope. John cut lengths with a pocketknife. "Let's get the soldiers tied up. Take away any communication devices and pile them by Sebbins' body. We'll save one and destroy the rest."

  Indigo walked over to
the soldier that she had thrown into the sky. She started to loop the rope around his wrists and stopped. He wasn't breathing. She frantically felt for a pulse. None. "John! Help! What did I do?" Panic clutched at her heart. She hadn't meant to kill this man. Indigo blew breaths into the man's mouth and began chest compressions. John was at her side in a second and began assisting her.

  While she applied steady compressions to the man's chest, she began babbling. "I wasn't in control. I didn't control my power. I had a big surge of emotion and I unleashed it without thinking! I didn't mean to hurt him."

  John puffed breath into the man's mouth. "I know, Indigo. I know."

  "Did you see me? Did you see this man? I accidentally threw him really, really high. He fell really far." She was babbling and she couldn't stop herself.

  "I didn't see it."

  "He fell really far!"

  "I know, Indigo," said John. He felt the man's neck for a pulse and shook his head. Indigo continued with the chest compressions. John pushed her away. "You're not pushing hard enough!" John straddled the man's body and pushed once, then pulled his arms back. "His chest is crushed. He's done."

  "Oh, please no," Indigo breathed. "I killed him."

  "They killed Sebbins. They were going to kill us eventually. It just happened. Let it go," said John. "Things like this happen in war."

  "I killed a man," said Indigo. She felt her world spiral. "I...killed him." Her mind started flicking to thoughts of whether or not the man had a family, if his parents would be sad. She thought of the man possibly having a dog that might be at home, waiting for its master to come back and feed it. It was all too horrible. Indigo fell to her side and began bawling.

  John grabbed her and sat her up. His large, strong hands held her by the shoulders and he looked at her. "Indigo, don't do this. I need you here. Now. We don't have time for this. This is war. The first rule of war: People Die."

  "But nowhere in that rule does it say that I have to be the one who kills them!"

  Kenny came out of the woods. "There's another one dead," he said. "Looks like he dented a tree with his body."

  "I killed two of them!"

  John shook Indigo. "This is not the time to fall apart, Indy! We need you here and now!"

  "I killed two men!"

  "What did you think you were doing when you sent him flying into a tree?"

  "I wasn't thinking! I just did it! I didn't think about where he would go, or if he would hit a tree!" Indigo was blubbering now. She was angry at herself for crying, and even angrier at herself for killing those men. Killing didn't feel like she thought it would. It was hollow and empty and dark.

  John pulled Indigo to his chest and held her. "Indigo, calm down. It will be okay."

  "Says you!" said Indigo. "I don't have ten years' worth of military programming rolling around in my brain. I'm not some advanced weapon ready to kill everything I meet."

  "Then think about our philosophy classes: Soldiers understand that death is a part of their job. These men were professional soldiers, paid to give up their lives if need be. This wasn't a couple of innocent bystanders. They weren't a pair of eighteen-year-old kids sent to a foreign land because their government was ironing out grievances; they were hired guns, willing to kill for their cause."

  "It doesn't make what I did right."

  "It's going to be part of this whole mess we're in, Indigo. These men are dangerous. They want to capture us, torture us with tests, and eventually kill us. Once they decide that they have enough information for their research, we're going to be killed unless we fight back. We can run for a while, we might even be lucky enough to get Andy and Sarah without combat, but eventually the day will come when we have to fight. When that happens, people are going to die...whether it's us or them."

  "I won't kill again," said Indigo. She meant it. "I can do other things with my telekinesis. I don't need to kill."

  "If that's how you want to play this, that's fine. I don't blame you," said John. "Maybe you'll be able to do that."

  "It's not like G.I. Joe, is it?" said Kenny. Indigo looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Kenny shrugged. "Remember when we were kids, John? We would watch G.I. Joe cartoons on TV?"

  "Yeah," John smiled slowly. "I loved those shows."

  "Every time one of the Joes would fire a rocket or a laser at a Cobra vehicle, the vehicle would blow up, but every pilot would bail out and parachute to safety. Laser blasts flew everywhere and no one even got nicked."

  "And I show up and kill two men with a whim, a thought. G.I. Joe never did that," said Indigo.

  "That's why I said it's not like G.I. Joe," said Kenny.

  "You going to be okay, Indigo?" asked John. Indigo looked up into his brown eyes and nodded.

  "Do I have a choice?"

  "No. We've got work to do. Can you help Holly with Sebbins' grave while Kenny and I tie up the other soldiers in the shack?"

  "I'm burying the soldiers, I killed," said Indigo.

  "We don't have time for that."

  "John, I'm taking care of them," Indigo glared at John. "I killed them. I am going to bury them."

  "And I said we don't have time for that! We get Seb buried, and we roll."

  "John!"

  "Indigo! I am leading this team! We have to go. We can't waste time digging holes for those men. It's taking enough time to bury Sebbins! I am sorry that you feel guilty, and I will help you get through that some day in the future, but right now we must leave."

  Indigo felt a snap in her brain and she spun on her heel toward the area where Holly was digging. She grabbed chunks of ground with her powers and ripped plots of earth from the ground, creating three neat, square holes in the ground, each nearly five feet deep. She let the mounds of earth fall at the heads of the graves with a thud.

  John did a double-take, looking from Indigo, to the graves, to Indigo again. He opened and closed his mouths a few times like a guppy. "Okay, I guess we have time to bury them."

  "It's the least I could do," said Indigo. A shotgun blast of pain coursed through her skull and she turned her back to John so he wouldn't see her crying because of it.

  John lowered the first of the two guards into the grave Indigo made. Indigo lowered the second one telekinetically. John crawled out and watched Indigo fill in the two graves with dirt. Then, he looked at Dr. Sebbins' body.

  Dr. Sebbins had been different than the other researchers and scientists that had made their way through the Home. She had reached out to John on a personal level. She had made the time to get to know each of the seven individually, to find out what they liked to do and what they liked to watch on TV. She threw a football around with John and Andy. She taught Holly and Posey to put on make-up. She even showed Indigo how to sew so that she would be able to make her own clothes. John knew she had even reached out to Kenny, though he didn't know exactly how.

  As he watched Indigo gently lift Sebbins' body with her telekinesis and lower it into the ground, he felt a gnawing in his chest, a hollow, painful emptiness. He didn't feel like crying, though. Maybe that was part of his programming, part of his training, but he knew there wasn't going to be tears. Kenny's eyes were wet. Indigo had stains down her cheeks. Holly was a wreck. But John just stood there like a statue, a soldier standing honor guard.

  Sebbins lay in the grave. Her face looked different, changed. There was no worry in her face anymore, only a simple serenity. Indigo lifted the final mound of dirt and began to move it into place above the grave.

  "Hold it, Indigo. Someone should say something," said Kenny. The dirt gently drifted back to the head of the grave.

  "Does anyone know what religion she was?" asked Holly. They looked at each other and shrugged. Holly looked at John, "You are the best speaker."

  "I don't know what to say," said John.

  "Make it up. Just say something, anything," said Indigo.

  John took a deep breath. He had never attended a funeral. He had only seen a few on movies. From what he'd seen, there didn't se
em to be a right or wrong way to do a funeral. John looked at the sky for a moment. Nothing was coming to him. He focused on the star Deneb. Sebbins had been the teacher who taught them about astronomy, taught them the names of the stars and the constellations. "Sebbins wouldn't have wanted us to be sad," he said. "She would have wanted us to go on and do what we needed to do. She came with us at the risk of her own life. She knew that she could have stayed at the Home and been safe. Maybe she could have even gotten a new job. Who knows? But she chose to come with us because she really cared about us, and because it's what was right. She didn't deserve to die. She deserved a better life than what she got. She was one of the good guys."

  "Do...do we say 'Amen'?" asked Kenny.

  "I don't think so," said John. "It wasn't a prayer."

  "Remember that movie we watched last month?" asked Indigo. "The one where the cop died? Remember how everyone who was at the funeral walked up and threw a handful of dirt onto the coffin? Should we do that?"

  "I don't see why not," said John. He stepped forward and took a fistful of black dirt. He stepped to the edge of the hole and let it sieve through his fingers. "Good-bye, Seb." The dirt spotted her white coat.

  One by one, the other three stepped up and followed suite. Then, Indigo slowly lowered the dirt back onto Seb's body, letting it settle gently over her corpse. Indigo stepped back and touched her hands to the side of her head for a moment. She seemed to sway.

  "You okay?" John asked.

  Indigo shrugged. "I'm better than Seb," she said. She wiped her hand under her nose and a long smear of blood appeared on her wrist.

  John grabbed her wrist. "What's that?"

  Indigo yanked her hand back. "It's nothing. Leave me alone."

  "Are you bleeding?"

  "No."

  "Is that because you used your powers?"

  "No!" Indigo snapped. "Leave me alone, John."

  "John!" Kenny called out. "One of the soldiers is awake!"

  John gestured toward the soldier and beckoned Indigo to follow him.