Unique

by Starr Z Davies

  Jayme is the first to slip around and immediately ushers us back as stone arrows hammer against the side of the DMA shuttle. A trooper jumps out, boots thumping on the broken pavement, and points toward the assailant. We watch from the shadows as a stone arrow glances off the uniform and the trooper lifts a hand, twists his wrist, and the assailant yelps in pain, yanked toward him. The trooper never touches the man as he uses his Power to levitate the assailant into the back of the shuttle.

  Just as he’s about to pull himself back into the vehicle, he pauses and turns abruptly in our direction. All of us jump backward and press our backs to the brick wall of the apartment building. I hold my breath, listening closely for the thump of approaching boots. After a minute, we all let out a sigh of relief as the shuttle disappears down another street.

  Jayme steps out and looks both ways, hesitating as he looks back the way we came as if debating whether or not we should go onward. Please don’t turn back now. Finally, he turns in the direction Sho indicated and we stick as tight to the apartment building as we can.

  Along the next street, the homes look more like houses and less like businesses or apartment buildings butted against each other. There’s a little yard space on either side and a couple of feet of dead grass in front of the porch on each house. Jayme leads us halfway up the block, glances up and down the street, then motions for us to crouch as we hustle across and through one of the narrow spaces between houses.

  Both houses have barred windows, and no light emits from within. Either no one lives there—which I sincerely hope—or no one is awake.

  The backyard is a narrow space as well, maybe ten feet deep and only slightly wider than the house itself. Jayme takes a knee in the brittle grass and motions to Sho. Everyone gathers around.

  Jayme pulls a small tablet from his pocket, and a moment later a holograph of Pax appears with a dot blinking exactly where we crouch.

  “We’re here,” Jayme whispers, pointing at a dot. “Best guess is that this is the block the coordinates lead to. Was there anything else that might hint where exactly this stash is?”

  I glance at Enid and we both shake our heads. “I don’t think he wanted to give away too much. Sho, now that we’re closer, can you pinpoint it?”

  Sho chews at the inside of his cheek, staring at the map. Is he using his Power? As he moves his hand over the map, I glance at Miller. The rest of us are crouched around the map, but he lingers at the edge of our little circle, staring off into the distance with his hands stuffed into his pockets. Why did he insist on coming along when he clearly has no interest in anything that’s going on?

  “I think,” Sho says.

  Jayme, Sho, and I rise as Jayme shuts down the map and tucks the tablet away.

  I offer Enid a hand to help her up.

  “Lead the way,” Jayme says.

  21

  After hopping a couple of short chain-link fences, Sho guides the group through another backyard, where I nearly trip into an old firepit. Enid grabs my arm for balance, pulling me along. Sho climbs the back steps to one of the houses. The mask of darkness provides us with cover as we huddle in a mass.

  “I’ll clear the house, then you follow me in,” Jayme says.

  Sho shakes his head. “No one is in there. Just a couple rats.” His Echolocation allows him to detect life. Sho used the trick to find me in that first Survival Test in Paragon.

  One of the hinges on the screen door is broken, making the screen slant and strain the metal of the lower hinge. I expect the rusted hinges to grind, but Sho pulls it open without a sound. The wooden door behind it is closed tight.

  “It’s locked,” Sho says when the handle won’t turn.

  Jayme nudges him out of the way and wraps his hand around the metal doorknob. After a few seconds, a click resounds inside the door, and Jayme turns the knob. Miller made Jayme out to be weak when he told me about Jayme in that second Survival Test—the torture he sustained and how frail he was near the end of his time there. So far, that hasn’t been my take. Maybe it was something Paragon was doing to him that made him weaker.

  I’m the last one through the door, and I close it behind us and lock it. Maybe the door was locked because of Dad. Was there a key I should have found in that bag?

  The inside of the house isn’t in any better shape than the outside. Furniture left behind, aged through disuse. Sun-bleached curtains with rods broken off the walls. Layers of grime on the linoleum. We make our way through the back kitchen toward the living room at the front of the house.

  “It’s too dark,” Enid whispers, and I can hear the tinge of eeriness in her voice.

  Miller halts beside me and pulls his hands from his pockets. The tips of his fingers bridge together as he instinctively attempts using his Power, then he lets out a frustrated grunt and his arms slap against his sides. Getting used to not having it anymore can’t be easy.

  My hand falls on his shoulder. “It’s okay. We’re fine.” I fish out the flashlight from a vest pocket.

  Miller scowls and pulls away, moving toward a bookshelf with the shelves fallen and no books in sight. From the corner of my eye, I can see Jayme glaring at me, but I don’t engage.

  “Ugene, why don’t you take someone to search upstairs,” Jayme says.

  Enid joins me as I approach the bottom step and gaze up. The staircase is enclosed and dark, but I have just enough light from the streetlights outside to see the warped and cracking wood. There’s no way those steps can hold my weight.

  “It’s not up there,” I say, stepping back.

  Jayme places himself subconsciously—or maybe consciously—between Miller and me, and the way he looks at me makes my skin crawl. “How do you know?”

  “Because Dad was Somatic, and Somatics are naturally denser than the rest of us,” I say. “And there’s no way he would have risked walking up those stairs. They look ready to break under even my weight.”

  Sho moves toward a doorway on the opposite wall, brandishing his own flashlight. “I’ll check the dining room. Any idea what we’re looking for?”

  I don’t really have an answer for that. “Not exactly. A package of some sort. It could be small or just a stack of papers. He didn’t say. But he wouldn’t leave it out in the open.”

  Jayme gives a sharp nod. “Why don’t you and Enid check the kitchen? Miller and I will search the living room.”

  Taking orders from Jayme doesn’t settle well with me, but I’m in no mood to start a fight. We don’t have a lot of time. I nod, and Enid follows me into the kitchen, and we both turn on our flashlights.

  Like the rest of the house, the kitchen is in serious need of attention. Some of the cupboard doors hang from hinges. Other cupboard doors are missing like they were stripped away and taken to another house. Linoleum peels up in the corners of the room. A table and chairs lie at angles against the far wall, and dirty, crusted-over rags lay abandoned on the counter and floor. The space doesn’t exactly smell fresh either. It reeks of rot.

  Enid moves toward the cupboard under the sink and gags, covering her mouth and nose with her sleeve. “Oh my God. It smells like something died in the pipes.”

  Enid grips the flashlight between her teeth and covers her nose to block the pungent smell without hindering the light.

  The two of us move methodically through the room, starting with the cupboards. Opening a few proves to be a mistake. They either stink of decaying vermin and rotting wood or are coated in cobwebs. The time it takes to create webs that thick convinces me that whatever we’re looking for isn’t in those spaces. They’ve been untouched for too long.

  Enid sits on the floor in front of the sink, the doors spread wide as she presses against the bottom shelf for a hidden compartment. A rat scurries out from under the cabinet and Enid instinctively uses her Power to toss it across the room into the wall with a small yelp.

  “Sorry,” she mumbles.

  Muffled voices begin raising from the living room, followed by a thump and crash like som
ething shattered. The noise scares the crap out of me, violating the working silence.

  “Stop,” Jayme says. “Please.”

  Enid and I exchange a glance, then I move to the doorway between the kitchen and living room.

  Miller hunches in front of a broken mirror hanging on the wall near the stairs. His hands are balled in fists at his side, blood dripping from one.

  I move toward Miller to help, but Jayme pushes at my shoulder as he steps in. It isn’t a hard shove, but it’s clear this is one of those places where he doesn’t think I belong—or he doesn’t want me involved.

  “Hey!” Enid says, hustling forward.

  I shake my head at her, grabbing her hand. “It’s okay.”

  “Is it?” Jayme snaps, glaring at me as he lifts Miller’s fist to look at it. Miller just stays there, his entire posture indicating utter defeat. “It would be nice if you knew what we were looking for here.”

  I don’t respond. Hopefully, Jayme will get over this and realize he’s overreacting about this whole thing.

  With no desire to go back into the kitchen, Enid and I join Sho in the dining room. He has a number of trinkets laid out over the table, examining each of them.

  “Everything okay in there?” he asks, turning a ceramic penguin over in his hand. “I wish Lily was here with us.”

  “No,” Enid says, picking up a snow globe off the table. “Everything is not okay.”

  I wave her off. “It’s fine. Jayme has it under control.”

  A scuff against the pavement outside fixes me in place. Sho and Enid must hear it, too, because they both gaze toward the street. Not that we can see anything but the wall. After a moment, no more sound emits and we resume our search.

  I step toward the table to examine the items Sho has found, and a floorboard creaks under my weight. I step back and experimentally bounce my weight on it again. The board creaks. Frowning, I kneel beside the board and pull out my switchblade from the vest. It provides leverage to loosen the board, which pops up easily. Another board pries loose as well, revealing a hidden compartment in the floorboards. And inside, a bundle wrapped in fresh red fabric.

  “What is it?” Enid asks.

  “I think…this might be it.” I put away the switchblade, remove the bundle, and turn it over in my hands. The fabric is soft cotton. Excitement forces a fresh wave of adrenaline through my veins. My gaze shoots up to Enid. “It has to be this.”

  Enid opens her mouth to respond, but nothing comes out. Her entire body suddenly becomes rigid, frozen in place with her eyes wide. A spike of fear rushes through me.

  “Enid?” I step toward her as the snow globe slips from her fingers and breaks on the floor. The base pops off the bottom. Glass shatters. The liquid inside spills out on the wood floor.

  I rush in front of her, placing my hands on her arms so she doesn’t fall over. “Enid, what’s wrong?” Was the globe coated in poison? That doesn’t make sense, though. Why would someone put poison on it? The only alternative is that someone is somehow using a Power on her. But no one knows we are here.

  Enid doesn’t budge.

  Sho hustles around the table to her side.

  Jayme runs in, pulling Miller along with him. “What is all the—”

  After laying eyes on Enid, Jayme’s irritation vanishes. He knows what’s going on! Jayme presses Miller toward us and lays his hand against the open wooden doorframe—one hand on either side.

  The sudden leap to action makes me uneasy. I draw Miller away from the doorway toward where we gather at the edge of the table. “What—?”

  Jayme shushes me.

  Leaning his weight against the wood, Jayme bows his head. The wood of the frame grows across the gap from both sides like spreading tree roots as he uses his Transformation Power. The wood slowly stitches the open doorway closed.

  A hard thump against the front door makes all of us jump—except Enid. We all extinguish our flashlights, putting them away.

  Another thump and crash. The door breaks in. Someone else is here. Who is it? Are they looking for us?

  Only a narrow gap remains, just wide enough to see the light shining in the living room. Panic turns my adrenaline into high gear.

  The last gap in the doorway becomes concealed in a knot of roots as a shot fires at us. Jayme releases the now mangled door frame and stumbles back.

  Did they shoot him? I rip the jacket away and search for a wound, praying I don’t find one. What if those are Power-removing bullets?

  “Who is it?” I ask as Jayme tries to swat my hands away.

  Blood drips from his nose, reminding me of Dr. Lydia’s warning. Overuse of his Power is dangerous to his health.

  “We have to go,” Jayme gasps.

  A thump hammers against the root-wood barricade Jayme created.

  Miller nudges me aside and brushes his hands over Jayme’s chest and torso. They come away with blood.

  Jayme shakes his head. “It’s just a scratch. We need to move now.”

  Miller and I hesitate. If he’s been shot—

  “Go!” Jayme growls, pushing both of us away.

  Thump!

  Everyone launches into action. Everyone except Enid. As the others move toward the boarded-up window on the side of the house, I try to figure out what’s going on with her. A tear slips out of each of her eyes.

  Thump!

  “Ugene!” Sho calls as Jayme and Miller pry the board off the window.

  No. I left Dad. I left Bianca. I won’t leave Enid.

  “Go!” I call back, stuffing the cloth-wrapped bundle into the lining of my jacket and zipping it tight.

  Thump!

  Several Powers could immobilize her. Telekinesis. Powerful Telepathy. Cellular Manipulation. I don’t have time to puzzle out which one to help her. Right now, we need to get out.

  “Don’t worry,” I say, trying to offer her some reassurance.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” Miller snaps as the board pops off the window and Sho slips through the gap.

  “I’m not leaving her here.”

  Thump. The root-wood barrier cracks. A shot fires at it, and I instinctively duck. Jayme rolls his weight through the window.

  Miller remains at the window, staring at me. His expression is unreadable.

  “Miller!” Jayme hisses from outside.

  Ignoring Jayme’s call, Miller joins me beside Enid and says, “Grab her arms.”

  Thump! Crack!

  I slip my arms under hers and lean her weight back against me as Miller bends down, his movements almost robotic, and lifts her legs. Thankfully, Enid’s condition doesn’t make her body stiff. It only immobilizes her muscles. Her body goes limp in our arms. Not Telekinesis, then.

  We carry her toward the window.

  Thump. Crack!

  Sho and Jayme wait impatiently outside. Miller and I lift her and slide her out the window legs first. Sho scurries to catch Enid’s legs. Miller squeezes through around her and jumps to the ground, then raises his arms to take the burden from me.

  Thump. Crack!

  The root-wood barrier blasts open. Wood shrapnel flies into the dining room. I cover my head with my arms and jump from the window. Hopefully, once we get Enid far enough from whoever is doing this to her, she will be able to move freely again.

  Jayme leads the group away from the house, sticking close to the other houses for cover. Miller and I each slide an arm under Enid’s and drag her along with us.

  “Where to?” I whisper. Whether he likes me or not, I have nothing against him.

  Jayme nods between two houses. “We need to get out of sight.”

  Sho focuses his Power ahead of us, then motions for us to go. He leads the way, followed by Miller and I holding Enid, with Jayme at the rear of the group. We scurry around the corner of the house into the backyard, to a screened porch. The screens are partly ripped. Sho rushes up the steps and eases the screen door open, holding it for the rest of us to slip inside.

  Enid seems to be regaining
some of her senses enough to sit with her back to the wall, head below the trim around the screens like the rest of us.

  Sho holds a finger to his lips and all of us freeze, holding our breath.

  Boots crunch the dead grass outside in the backyard. Not one set, but several. Maybe three?

  I shoot a glance at Enid, but she just gazes at me in wide-eyed fear, hugging herself. I look from one of my companions to the next. Sho is balled up low and tight, out of sight, with powerful concentration creasing his face. Miller huddles close to Jayme, trying to look at the wound, but Jayme seems fine. Maybe the bullet just grazed him.

  “Anything?” a deep male voice says.

  Silence.

  I run my fingers over the pockets of the vest, wondering if this is the right time to use one of the pieces of tactical gear. Maybe the smoke bomb.

  Jayme closes his eyes and presses his head against the half-wall of the porch.

  “Are there animals nearby?” Deep Voice asks his partners. “It’s keeping me from detecting their blood. Can you pinpoint them?”

  Blood… A Bloodhound? I haven’t heard of many people with that skill—it’s exclusive to highly-ranked Hematology Power. If a Bloodhound is on our trail, we are in far more trouble than I first suspected.

  Enid raises her hand over her knee and closes her own eyes, focusing her Environment Creation Power elsewhere. I can’t tell what she’s doing, but the flick of her wrist away from us makes it clear she’s trying to throw off the scent they are using to track us. Maybe she created the smell. It reeks of stinkweed.

  “They aren’t far, but I can’t seem to pinpoint them,” another, more familiar male voice says.

  I would know that voice anywhere.

  Terry the Telepath.

  Terry threatened me in Paragon, nearly made my brain explode with his Telepathic Powers. In the final Survival Test, he tried to kill me before Bianca laid him out. We left him on the ground in the simulation as we escaped. He didn’t—to my knowledge, anyway. What happened to him after we left? His Telepathic Power could have frozen Enid, but if so, he has learned some new tricks. I have no doubt where those tricks came from.

  But how could Terry not pinpoint us? His Telepathy should easily find my friends, even if he can’t detect me.