Kinetics

by Andrew Peed

  "It's in the mountains of Colorado. Twenty years ago the town was built as support for an observatory. We found that it was a great spot for us to set up shop." Sam explained.

  "How many people live there?" Ronnie asked.

  "A few hundred; it's about a three hour drive to any large city. Most of the people that live in Eastcroft work for us, or run one of the shops in the town, or teach in the school." Sam explained.

  "When are we going to leave?" Ronnie asked mouth full of mashed potatoes.

  "In the morning."

  ~//~

  I never wanted to fly in a small one engine plane again. It was the most terrifying experience in my life. Every little bit of chop made me dig my fingernails into Ronnie's leg and then he would hiss in pain.

  "Sorry."

  "Its alright." he grunted through clenched teeth.

  The plane was so small we could only fit five people besides the pilot in the thing. Rachel had to catch the next flight which I could look out the window and see it bobbing around behind us.

  We passed over miles of towns, mountains, and fields. The fifteen hour flight seemed like it took far longer. We had to land twice to fuel.

  "There it is." Sam pointed to the left side of the plane to a crescent shaped mountain formation.

  The first thing that I could see was the observatory. It sat on top of the mountain and we had to look up out of the windows to see it. The landing on top of the mountain was very rundown. One of the two large satellite dishes had collapsed and damaged one of the two buildings that rested on the landing.

  The town itself was small and tucked back into the base of the mountain itself. Outside of the edge of the mountain was a small airport, or dirt strip anyway, that had zero traffic. There was one road leading out of the town, and I would barely call it a paved road. It merged into a better two lane road that curved back around to the other side of the mountain.

  Trees were thick in all directions and there was a small lake centered in the woods on the opposite side of the mountain.

  The whole place almost looked man made.

  "What is so special about this place?" Ronnie asked.

  "Well besides being for sale when we were looking and very cheap. The mountains are perfect for a device that is designed to mask Kinetic brain waves from Aurora tracking systems." Sam grinned with pride at the sight of the rundown town.

  The pilot swung the plane around and lined us up with the runway for a landing, "Eastcroft, this is LL01 requesting clearance for landing." the pilot said into his radio.

  He pushed on the steering wheel forcing the nose of the plane down and I couldn't help but dig my nails in more as the plane thrashed around in the wind.

  "First thing we are going to do is get your nails cut." Ronnie grabbed the back of his leg.

  I couldn't ease up at all.

  The wheels touched down and rocked violently on the uneven ground beneath us, "I'm so sorry Ronnie." I pried my fingers from his flesh.

  Chapter 10: ATN

  "I hope you guys are ready for this." Sam opened his door and climbed out of the passenger seat.

  The pilot remained.

  "I don't know what I'm ready for anymore." I followed Ronnie out, Kenny and Sandy following behind me.

  We left the hanger through a long hallway that led to a door built into the rock. The door exited out onto a street, where an SUV sat parked on the shoulder. The sun was falling behind the mountains making it hard to tell what the time was.

  We all crammed into the SUV. Silence and Hothead helped Vanish into another small car before speeding off into town without a word.

  "Where are we going? I would love to get a shower." Sandy said from the backseat. "We have had people working all day to prepare a house for the bunch of you to move into and it’s ready so we are going there right away.” Sam said.

  We drove down an outer road that was hardly paved. It went around the far outreaches of the small town right up against the base of the mountain range. He pulled into the driveway of a two story house with large windows on the second floor and on either side of the front door. The rest of the house lacked windows altogether.

  “Why are there no windows on the rest of the house?” Sandy took the words right out of my mouth.

  "The sun never hits those parts of the house. There are three bedrooms, so there will be sharing. There is a full kitchen and two full bathrooms on the first floor. There is a computer and a TV, but the computer is a little old. We are working on getting you some money so you can go out and buy clothes, laptops, whatever you need to feel like home." Sam put the truck into park and cut the engine.

  We all climbed out of the truck and went inside. It was medically sterilized and the furniture looked like it had never been used.

  I went up the stairs. There was a landing with five huge bay windows and three doors. Ronnie, Kenny, and Sandy all climbed up a second set of stairs on the other side of the landing. They all looked happy, something I hadn’t seen, ever.

  "Who gets their own room?" Kenny asked.

  "We share." Ronnie smacked Kenny on the back of the head.

  "Sandy? Rachel?" I asked.

  "You take it Grace." Sandy said.

  "Yeah, I'm good to share." Rachel walked into the middle room followed by Sandy.

  I walked into the last room with the feeling that no one wanted to be too close to me, just in case. The room wasn't small; two beds could comfortably fit and have plenty of room for other furniture. The bed was pushed up against the back wall and the dresser was placed at the end of the bed. There were no windows. A thick blanket was folded on the bed and two pillows were stacked behind it against the headboard.

  I sat down on the bed and folded my hands in my lap. I looked around the room. I was supposed to call this home now. My home before was not the greatest, but I knew it as a norm. I had no idea anymore what a normal life was or if I would ever have one again.

  I looked up to see Ronnie standing in the door way.

  "Hey." He said when he saw me look.

  "Hi." I said quietly.

  "What do you think?" he walked into the room. He leaned against the wall next to the bed.

  "I think that we have a chance to be normal." I said, “Whatever that may be.”

  "I think that our current situation puts us just about as far from normal as you can get. I think that we need to be careful." He looked at the back of his hand.

  "Think about it Ronnie. Yeah we’re different now, but everyone around us is different too, we can take this chance to fit in, and maybe stop acting so, well for lack of a better word, different. In being different we are now just a new group of students, kids, people to join this community.”

  "I see. That's an interesting way of looking at it and you know what? I like it."

  We left the room and went down stairs. Sam was in the kitchen with his head in the fridge. He heard us walk into the room so he closed the door and turned around.

  "I have gathered some clothes for all of you. It's nothing too stylish but it'll have to do until we have a chance to go into the city." He pointed to the couch where some bags were piled.

  "Well, I call first shower." I grabbed the bag marked Grace. The two bathrooms were at the back of the house.

  Inside the bathroom, the smell of cleaner filled my nose and bright white tile blinded me. I looked into the mirror and traced my face with my eyes. I held out my hands and I tried to use my abilities. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to that desert that I had seen back at the Aurora facility. I tried to force fire out of my hands but nothing happened.

  I got frustrated and let my arms fall to my side. I figured that with some practice that I should be able to use my abilities again, but if I couldn't I wondered if Sam would make me leave? I started the water and got into the shower letting the water flow over my body, washing the filth away.

  He wasn't lying about the clothes not being stylish. There was a pair of loose fit jeans, and a white shirt along with a fre
sh set of underwear. I'm not the most fashionable person around, but come on.

  I picked the hoodie up off the ground and sniffed it hoping that I would still be able to wear it, but I was wrong. I gathered up all of the clothes off the floor, and decided that I should just go ahead and have them burnt.

  I left the bathroom clean, and Sandy shot right in after me. Kenny looked pissed that he was beaten to the door. I suspected that he let her win though. It was weird to see them like that, like nothing ever happened.

  "Feel better?" Sam sat in an oversized recliner in the living room.

  "Much." I said, “Is there anything to eat?” I rubbed my stomach.

  "There is some food in the kitchen. I have to leave soon, but I wanted to hang out until you got done in the shower. A few things that I wanted to let you know about; I will be a guardian for all of you, but I won't live here. I live three houses down. I will be checking up on you occasionally. I’m also there if any of you need anything. We consider you adults until you prove otherwise."

  "Sounds good to me."

  The cabinets were full of instant foods and nothing really hit the spot, but I picked something anyway. I made myself some noodles with chicken flavoring.

  I went up to my bedroom and laid out the blanket. I got into bed and tried to find a comfortable spot, but the bed was stiff and unused.

  I looked up to the doorway, "That's going to get creepy." I said to Ronnie who was standing in the door arms crossed.

  He was clean now.

  "I don't mean it to be creepy. I just worry.”

  “I worry too, but I don’t sneak up on people.”

  He smiled and leaned on the doorway, “How are you feeling?”

  "Are you having any trouble using your abilities?" I sat up on the bed.

  He held out his hands and a bolt of energy arched across his palms, "nope it's actually getting easier the more I use them."

  "Oh." I looked at my hands. I concentrated on nothing else and thought only about the fire, but still nothing happened.

  "Maybe we can ask Sam." He said, “I’m sure he’ll know what’s going on.”

  "I don't know." I thought for a moment, “Can we keep this between us for now?”

  He nodded as he walked away. He closed the door making sure that it clicked.

  Sleep came surprisingly slowly that night with all that had been going on the past few days. My body was hot, uncomfortable, but I wasn’t sweating at all. There were a lot of new noises, and the heat was out of control in the room. I kicked the blanket off in the middle of the night. Somehow one of the pillows ended up by the door.

  ~//~

  The next morning Sam was waiting in the kitchen with a buffet of breakfast foods waiting, cooked to perfection.

  "Can we expect this every morning?" Kenny loaded his plate down with some of everything on the table. We all did just as he did, mounding food onto our plates.

  “Are we going to get fat eating like this?” Sandy asked.

  "No, your body will burn all of this off by midday. And unfortunately Kenny, I will not be able to cook like this on a regular basis. I just wanted you all to have a good start to your first day." He had a much, much smaller plate of food in front of him.

  "What are we going to do today?" I took a bite of toast.

  "I'm going to show you around Eastcroft. Then I’ll take you down to the server and get you guys into the system. You'll need to think about what you'd like for your codenames. You won’t need them today, but I want you to think about it over the next few days. You will need it before you go on your first mission." Sam explained.

  "What do you mean by ‘in the system’?" I asked.

  "We have a system implemented to track anyone who uses different abilities or oppose us in any way." Sam said.

  Sam took us on the promised tour of the small town. He showed us the location of the school, the clinic, and a small corner store. We also passed an unused police station and a larger group of abandoned buildings.

  “What’s with all of the abandoned buildings?” I asked when we passed the fourth building.

  “When the company that owned the town put it up for sale they cleared out in a hurry. Most of these buildings are still full of equipment and we haven’t had time to clear them out yet.” Sam pulled into the parking lot of a small building that was set apart by the huge satellite dish on the roof.

  “What is this place?” Ronnie asked.

  "This is a server for the UATN, Users with Ability Tracking Network. It’s one of six across the country. The dish repeats up to that network station at the top of the mountain next to the observatory." he pointed to the top of the mountain, "and is accessible from anywhere in the world with the right set of access codes."

  "Will we have access?" I asked.

  "Yes, we will give you everything you need to use the network."

  We walked inside of the building. It reminded me of when I went with Ronnie to get his driver's license. The chairs were very uncomfortable as we waited for an old white haired woman to call our names. She made me think of the old woman from the orphanage.

  My name was called last. I walked up to the window where the woman immediately snapped my photo without any warning.

  "Wow, how about some notice next time." I rubbed my eyes, irritated, trying to blink the spots away.

  She looked like I had personally ruined her day. She asked me the standard questions like my age, height, weight, so on and so forth. She asked me about my abilities.

  What are my abilities?

  How quickly did they show?

  How hard was it for me to use them?

  What color were the chemicals that they used on me?

  How was the chemical given to me?

  It was all a little overwhelming.

  I went ahead and told her what happened at the Aurora facility. I left out my new found lack of abilities though.

  When she let me leave I met everyone outside in the parking lot. The lobby was small so I couldn’t blame them for wanting to get out into the open air.

  "Tomorrow we will go out to the field and you will work with Silence. He is very good at helping people learn to use their abilities properly. You are all still very unrefined, but you’ll gain control, before long you will be masters." Sam said.

  He took us back to the house.

  "When do we start school?" Ronnie asked when we got back inside and made ourselves comfortable in the living room.

  "We will get all of that sorted out in the next couple of days. For now just make yourselves at home and relax." Sam stayed for a few moments, but he had other pressing matter so he left us alone to catch up on television.

  Ronnie found a news station. The words Aurora Corporation caught our eyes. We all sat in silence and watched the reporter.

  “A short while ago we saw firsthand that The Aurora Corporation was not invincible when one of their experimental power reactors went critical in the wee hours of morning. Despite this small set back their latest project has not been slowed in the slightest. With NASA being completely dismantled after an incident last year, Aurora has stepped up to take the task of dismantling and transporting the ISS from orbit to a museum in Nevada. The Aurora Corporation has been constructing a replacement space station that will be operated in cooperation with the leading governments around the world.” The scene cut away from the reporter to photos of a computer generated model of the future space station.

  “Oh that’s what we need.” Ronnie shut off the TV and threw the remote a little harder then he should have on the coffee table. The batteries went flying across the room.

  Chapter 11: Block

  The heat was horrible but it seemed like it was affecting everyone else more than me. I usually didn't spend a lot of time outside, none of us did. Sam was kind enough to unload a couple of coolers full of water onto the field before he drove off to attend to his business.

  Silence came out of a tent that had been set up towards the back of the field. A satel
lite dish was planted in the ground next to the tent. He was wearing the same thick clothes that he wore when they rescued us from Jolt and his Sabers, but he already had sweat dripping from his face. He took his shirt off and threw it on a nearby chair.

  "I don't know if I'm going to be able to concentrate." Rachel bit her lower lip. I nodded, but kept hidden from Ronnie. Silence was lean, not an ounce of excess fat on his body.

  "Alright, we are going to start today with what we call showing. I know all of you were forced to show by Aurora, but using your abilities naturally without the assistance of their machines can make a world of difference." Silence explained.

  "What is your ability exactly?" Ronnie asked with aggravation in his voice.

  "I'm fast, agile, and above all silent. I can phase as I move to jump over pockets of space."

  Ronnie turned and looked at Kenny, they both chuckled. When they turned back, Silence was gone. Ronnie looked in all directions very quickly, but in a split second Silence had Ronnie’s arm twisted around his back.

  Ronnie tried to fight back, but Silence had his arm held behind his back too well, "Alright, I give."

  Silence let him go.

  "Above all, you must concentrate. It is important for you to focus your abilities into something that you can use. Never underestimate your opponent."

  "Let's get started already." Rachel said.

  Silence pulled a remote out of his pocket, shaking his head, "Two hundred yards away there are several targets set up and they are set on automatic mechanisms and timers. Break up and attack them as the target dummies appear.”

  We all walked off in different directions. I could see Ronnie in my peripheral vision. I kept my eye on him wondering what I was going to do. A target shot up in front of Ronnie; it was shaped like a masked soldier. He hesitated at first, but quickly shot a bolt of lightning into the targets chest sending splinters of wood flying in all directions.

  "Very good Ronnie." Silence yelled from the tent where he was recording everything.

  "Thanks." Ronnie spat towards the tent.

  "Visualize what you want to happen. Anything is possible." Silence announced to us all.