Kinetics

by Andrew Peed

  Kinetics

  By Andrew Peed

  Copyright © 2012 by Andrew Peed

  All rights reserved.

  Cover art by:

  Ricardo Sandoval, Jr.

  Find more @ http://tvlookplay.deviantart.com/

  Cover model:

  Natalie Paquette

  Find more @ http://fetishfaerie-stock.deviantart.com/

  True thanks to my beautiful wife, Crystal, that has pushed me.

  To Daniel who always listened.

  And to my brother who wouldn’t stop asking for the next one.

  So Kinetics marks a large chunk of my free time. I began writing several years ago and worked with a small group of people to get just the right idea. I’ve thrown the manuscript more times than I care to admit and feel that the characters are part of me. I had my hang ups sure but it was a great journey along the way. Thanks to everyone who had ripped open their flesh and poured their blood in along with mine.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1: The Orphans

  Chapter 2: Abduction

  Chapter 3: Dr. Cid

  Chapter 4: Injection

  Chapter 5: Heat

  Chapter 6: Powers

  Chapter 7: Home

  Chapter 8: Vanish

  Chapter 9: Eastcroft

  Chapter 10: ATN

  Chapter 11: Block

  Chapter 12: Observatory

  Chapter 13: Denver

  Chapter 14: Truth

  Chapter 15: Past

  Chapter 16: Emotions

  Chapter 17: Sear

  Chapter 18: The Will

  Chapter 19: PCD-003

  Chapter 20: Cram Session

  Chapter 21: Descent

  Chapter 22: The Core

  Chapter 23: The Question

  Chapter 24: Opaque

  Chapter 25: Gone

  Chapter 26: Chuck

  Chapter 27: Possibility

  Chapter 28: Sister

  Chapter 29: Isabella

  Chapter 30: Hope

  Chapter 31: Flight

  Chapter 32: Hospital

  Chapter 33: Shock

  Chapter 34: Invisible

  Chapter 35: Lock Down

  Chapter 1: The Orphans

  The food was always cold, but I filled my tray anyway. When I got to the front of the line I took my government issued free lunch card from my back pocket, and handed it over to the lunch lady. She swiped the card in her computer and marked today's date, "You have six meals left in your program." She handed the card back to me, and I tried to put it away without anyone seeing.

  “Why is it that you can’t pay for you food like everyone else?” a boy behind me pushed. This kind of thing happened a few times a week. I didn't care about being poor, but everyone in this school seemed fixated on this fact. Ignore what he says and walk away I told myself, but that didn’t stop him from going on, “Yeah, that's right don’t listen to me you stuck up…” before he could finish, his buddy walked up and they began chest bumping and high fives followed by an explanation on the sick burn that I was just given.

  Normally I could blend in to the crowd quite nicely at five foot five and only a hundred and twenty pounds. My guardian expected me to do at least thirty minutes of exercise per day to stay healthy, which put me somewhere between athletic and skinny. I was the definition of the word average. My fiery red hair was the only part of me that I was particularly proud of and it was constantly getting me accused of using unnatural hair color by teachers.

  I sat down at an empty table and began gnawing on the so called chicken sandwich that I was served. The room was bustling with at least a hundred or so students coming and going. We were allowed to do whatever we wanted to do during lunch as long as we were back to class when the hour was up.

  The boy from the lunch line, Josh, along with his normal gang of buddies sat down at the table next to mine, “So, how about we finish our conversation?” the boy smiled a toothy grin. All of his friends were quiet waiting for my response. I always wondered what kind of damage that he suffered to spend so much time picking on a girl.

  “What conversation? Oh…wait, you mean you once again being the biggest asshole to walk the face of this planet?” I knew as the words left my lips that I would one way or another live to regret them.

  “How dare you!” he wasn’t used to anyone, especially me, actually talking back to him. As he stood to do god knows what to me, most likely sock me I wouldn’t put it past him, his girlfriend walked up and took his attention away from me.

  “We’ll finish this later.” He mouthed over his girlfriend’s shoulder.

  As much as it made me sick to my stomach I made a kissing noise and said, “See you later Josh.”

  His girlfriend reached out and smacked him across the face. He was furious, but had to chase after her to try and explain that I was screwing with him. He returned a few minutes later, alone and furious, and started to eat.

  I went back to my food, even colder now, and almost completely inedible. My mood for the day was completely shot.

  I was a constant target for ridicule. I lived in an orphanage with a few other kids that went to this school. Hillside was a place where they sent kids like me who have difficulties assimilating, or as I called settling for, a family. I have lived there for five years, I’m seventeen, and right around the corner is my eighteenth birthday. All of us at the orphanage are about the same age, within a few months anyway. Like there is some kind of cut off age for someone to be able to find a family.

  Ronnie, one of the other orphans, came to the table from the serving line. He could have blend in as easy as me, but chose a different approach. His short black hair was spiked in all different directions. He always seemed to be in a good mood, and talked to tons of people as he passed by their tables. I never understood why he always sat down at my table when he so many other friends that he could sit with.

  He dug into his food. He was able to eat anything, as longs as it was dead before he started, and sometimes I even wondered about that. “What’s up?” he asked between bites.

  “Nothing.” I tried to mask my irritation, but it wasn’t long before he picked up on my tone, and he knew my tones.

  “Grace, what’s wrong?” he put his sandwich down.

  “Don’t worry about it.” before I could stop myself I had glanced over to the table of jerks, who were all laughing it up having a great lunch.

  “What happened, I swear if they laid a hand on you, I’ll kill ‘em.” He stood fork in hand. We weren't usually given knives for lunch.

  “No, just verbal abuse, sit down.” I pulled on his arm, “What, are you going to fork them to death with a plastic utensil? Enjoy your lunch.” I grinned at the thought of him doing just that.

  He sat uneasy and picked up his sandwich; he took a bite and then a big, forceful, gulp of his drink. He didn’t say anything until he couldn’t keep quiet anymore, “Why can’t they just leave you alone? They never mess with me and I don’t think that Kenny, or Sandy ever get this kind of treatment.”

  Kenny and Sandy were two other orphans in Hillside; somehow they actually fit in with the “so called” social groups. I didn’t know how Kenny did it; he joked around a lot. Sandy was gorgeous, at least compared to most of the girls in the school. They usually had friends around if any of the bullies started in on them.

  “I don’t know Ronnie and to be honest I really don’t care. I don’t think that they are ever going to stop. So I’m not going to worry about it.” I threw my fork down and officially gave up on the crappy food, chugged what I could of my drink, and stood up taking my tray in my hands.

  “Well, those clowns need to be taught a lesson.” He took a rather forceful bite out of a helpless apple.

  “You think?" I lathered
on the sarcasm, "But not by you.” I put my foot down.

  “And why not?”

  “Maybe because they're bigger than you, or maybe because they have you out numbered six to one, and I highly doubt that they are going to fight far.” I rolled my eyes.

  He got up from the table picking up his tray, “Yeah well, we’ll see.” He stormed off towards the trash cans.

  I left the lunch room before the class bell rang so that I could be one of the first people back into the classroom. The teacher was boring, no ifs, ands, or buts’ about it. On top of that it was history class so sleep was on the top of most people’s to-do lists.

  I didn’t sleep; I didn’t pay much attention to the lecture either. I preferred to use my time more for me. We were given e-book readers at the beginning of the year for our text books. I hacked mine so that I could load my own novels, which I read instead of the textbook. A book about humans colonizing the deepest reaches of the galaxy, it was interesting enough, it kept me from being bored to tears anyway.

  The teacher droned on about the finer details about World War II, the same things that we have been taught several times over the past few years. Most of the students in the class could have taken the tests without even studying.

  Before I could finish the chapter that I was reading, the bell signaling the end of classes rang. I finished the line that I was on and stuffed all of my things into my bag. I slowly shuffled from the classroom, and into the river of students leaving the school, then made my way down to the student parking lot.

  Out of all of us from the orphanage, Ronnie had gotten a job so that he could get a car. He was gracious enough to give me and the other orphans, Kenny and Sandy, a ride to and from school every day.

  I made my way across the parking lot to where his car was parked. A large group of students were circled around an empty spot next to Ronnie’s car and I knew instantly what was going down.

  They were all chanting in unison, "fight", and I knew that this was not going to end well. Once I was close enough to the crowd, I saw Josh land a punch across Ronnie’s face sending his head smashing into the driver’s side window of his car. The window cracked and blood remained as he fell to the ground.

  Kenny pushed his way through the students and threw a punch at Josh. His fist made contact with Josh’s jaw, sending him to the ground, and blood spraying all over the onlookers. A group of girls called out that it was gross. Ronnie pulled himself from the ground shaking his head and trying to clear the ringing in his ear.

  Josh had back up, the same guys from lunch joined in on the fight making the odds three to one. Ronnie balled his fists so tight that from where I was standing at the back of the crowd I could see his knuckles turning white.

  I tried to yell over the crowd, but my words where lost, and it felt like the people were holding me back as I tried to push my way into the circle to stop the madness. I could see Sandy trying as hard as I was to get to the boys, to help, to stop the bloodshed.

  Josh was picking himself up off the ground, Ronnie waited until he was in a kneeling position before running at him and kicking him in the gut. Josh fell back to the ground coughing.

  One of Josh’s buddies grabbed Ronnie from behind, as another began to pound him in the stomach with his fists over, and over again, blood spraying from his mouth with every hit. The same was being done with Kenny, but after a few hits they dropped him to the ground where he balled up in pain.

  Josh stood, and pushed his hair back out of his eyes, spitting blood onto Ronnie’s shoes. They held Ronnie up by his underarms, “Do you think that, that girl deserves this kind of a beating? She is nothing man. She will always be nothing.” He spoke as if he were talking to a friend, and then punched him in the face as hard as he could.

  “You’re nothing.” Ronnie coughed painfully. His left eye looked painfully blood shot and was beginning to swell.

  Josh laughed and jostled the crowd around him, “Who here would say that I am nothing? I am worth twice what any of you are worth.” Josh nearly stuck his finger in Ronnie’s eye in anger. The people all around us began chanting Josh, Josh, over and over again. He punched Ronnie in the stomach once again. He yelled into the air making a show of things.

  Josh grinned ear to ear with bloody teeth, fists held high celebrating his victory over Ronnie. His buddies dropped Ronnie to the ground next to where Kenny laid.

  I was finally let loose from the crowd, as everyone lost interest and dispersed. I dropped to my knees next to Ronnie, “What did you think was going to happen?” I looked at his black swollen eye and gently examined his head.

  “I wanted to show him that we are not just going to sit by and take it while he treats you like crap. Besides, Kenny had my back.” He smiled with red teeth.

  “I wasn’t going to just let him beat on you man.” Kenny’s head was lying in Sandy’s lap. Kenny had less facial damage, but he strained to speak.

  “Grace, I will never just sit by and let something like that just keep happening. I care about you; I care about all of you more than that. You all deserve to be treated with respect.” He pushed himself up off the ground slowly and made for his keys. They were in the grass in front of his car. When he found them he looked at me to pick them up off the ground.

  “Well, it was stupid.” I helped him stand up straight and walk to his car.

  “That’s beside the point.” He joked, opening his door, and getting into the car and gently slid into the driver’s seat.

  Chapter 2: Abduction

  The drive home from school was short and quiet. We all had to figure out a way to explain what happened to the old lady, the woman who took care of us, no matter what we came up with, she would figure out the truth and we would be punished. She was very strict and she despised fighting.

  We all sighed in relief that she wasn’t home when we pulled in the driveway. She usually went into town to visit with a few of her old friends during the day while we were at school. We all went inside, Kenny walked up the stairs slowly to the boy’s bathroom, and Ronnie went downstairs to the girl’s.

  The house was separated into three levels. The top floor was where the boy’s rooms and bathroom were. The middle had the living room, kitchen, dining room, the old lady’s bedroom, and other various utility rooms. I never understood why, but the girls were downstairs, I always assumed it was some kind of joke.

  Strictly speaking, the boys were never allowed in the basement, and vice versa, but when the old lady was away we hardly ever followed the rules. I knocked on the girl’s bathroom door.

  “Yeah.” Ronnie spit blood into the sink.

  I opened the door slowly. Ronnie stood in front of the sink with his shirt off, covered from his neck to his waist in bruises, and his face swelling quickly. The sink had a small puddle of blood sitting in the bowl. “Are you alright?”

  “I’ll live.” He ran some water over a cut on his fist. I wondered if he was going to need stitches.

  “Why did you do that Ronnie?” I leaned on the door frame.

  He chuckled and washed his face, “Grace, you are not worthless. You are worth ten times any one of those assholes. You need to realize that.” He turned and placed his hand on my face. He looked into my eyes and I could feel what was going to happen next, so I turned away from him.

  “The old lady will be home soon.” I cleared my throat. I walked out of the room without another word.

  Upstairs in the living room Kenny was sprawled out on the couch watching TV. I pushed his foot out of the way; he winced with every movement, and sat down next to him. It was some sitcom, on a comedy channel.

  “What’s the damage?” I wasn’t interested in the show on the TV.

  “Mostly bruising, I think, nothing that some pampering won’t fix.” He smiled knowing that I would take care of him.

  “Don’t count on it, the old lady is going to work your butt off this weekend because of this, and you know it.” I smiled back shooting a hole in his weekend plans of lying around and
doing nothing. His grin vanished as he came to realize that I was right. He would have at least double the chores that he normally had, if she went light on us.

  Sandy came in from the kitchen, and sat down in an empty arm chair, “I just got off the phone with the old lady, and she said that the school called her about the fight. It turns out that when Ronnie kicked Josh in the stomach he broke three of his ribs; he is in the hospital right now.” Satisfaction washed over all of us, but we quickly realized the hell we would soon be in.

  “Who cares about Josh, how mad was the old lady?” Kenny started to flip through the channels.

  “Well, I tried to explain the whole situation to her, but she didn’t care. I think that the both of you are going to be in some deep crap for a while.” Sandy left the room ducking into her bedroom.

  “I don’t care, Josh won’t try anything like that again with you Grace.” Ronnie walked across the sitting room and went up the stairs. A few moments later his bedroom door slammed shut.

  ~//~

  The old lady was home before the next show could start and she was quiet, which was never a good sign. She cooked dinner without uttering a word, allowing the tension to build. At one point she walked up stairs and knocked on Ronnie’s door, but he didn’t answer.

  We all sat around the table for dinner, minus Ronnie, who never came out of his room. I thought that after getting beat so bad, he would want some food but he never came down.

  “It does not matter if someone is making fun of you or anything like that you never fight. I have to fill out all kinds of paper work on every issue that comes up, and fighting is no different.” The old lady passed the pasta around the table.

  None of us said anything; we just ate and let her lecture on about all the work that she has to do to keep us here. It always seemed to me that we were more trouble than we were worth; but once I caught a glimpse of one of her paychecks from the government. It was well worth the headache. That didn’t stop her from complaining though.