by R. A. Rock
I eyed him. He was a warrior. I could tell from the way he moved, the way he kept his knife razor sharp, and something in his eyes. But he also clearly had an intellectual vibe going on with the glasses and an intelligence in his eyes that seemed as razor sharp as his knife.
“You were the one that beat up Brett?” He seemed completely confounded. “But you fought him with all his guards there and, rumour has it, with your hands tied.”
I shrugged.
“Is it true?”
“Yes,” I admitted. “What? You were expecting someone more… burly?”
It was his turn to shrug.
“So the story’s true? All of it?”
“Yes. Does this mean you’re not going to kill me?”
“Kill you?” he said. “I want to kiss you for defending Zoe. That was so brave.”
I stepped back and put my hands up, palms out.
“Alright. That’s not necessary. Anybody would have done the same.”
He raised one eyebrow and his eyes filled with resentment.
“I beg to differ. The rest of the people just stood there and watched him do it.” His voice was bitter and accompanied by a feeling I knew well from recent experience — helplessness.
“Well, I couldn’t just stand there and watch him hit a pregnant woman in the stomach. I have standards, you know.”
“Who are you?” he said, a smile on his face. There was a wondering and admiring tone in his deep voice.
“Yumi,” I said, holding my hand out to shake. “And you are?”
“Ernest,” he said. “Zoe’s husband.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
YUMI
Thank goodness for moonlight. It was bright enough that I could clearly see the First Nations man standing across from me in the forest near Matt and Nessa’s house. And damn, was he fine. Where I had been exhausted before, I now felt a burst of energy fueled by curiosity. It must be close to midnight but I had a sudden second wind.
Holy shit. This hot guy was Zoe’s husband? And most likely the father of her child.
“That’s what I just told you,” he said. “And yes, I’m the father. Jeez.”
I froze.
“Did you just hear that?”
“Of course,” he said. “You just said it, didn’t you? And I’m married, so you shouldn’t tell me I’m hot.”
“I didn’t,” I whispered.
Holy fuck! Ernest could hear me.
“Of course I can,” he said. “You keep talking.”
But I wasn’t talking.
Ernest had heard my thoughts.
I immediately pulled a mental shield up, so he wouldn’t hear anymore. My mind was a fucked up place right now and he didn’t need to be privy to that. So, Audrey was right. It didn’t do to be too careful. And Ernest was one of the people who had evolved the brain structure.
Fascinating.
“Let’s head back to the house,” he said. “I’m just getting back from a scouting mission to Brett’s furthest camp.”
“Then how did you hear about me beating up that woman?”
He shrugged.
“People talk.”
I wondered if people talked, or Ernest heard their thoughts. Even from hundreds of kilometres away. If he had heard about what had happened when he was still on his trip, then he must be a powerful receiver. I wondered about his sending abilities.
We would need to test him. We could help train him. His abilities could be a real help in their fight against Brett.
But that was crazy talk. We wouldn’t tell him anything.
We had the bracelets and we were going home.
“I heard you talking as I was getting back and followed the sound of your voice.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I hadn’t said a word since I left Chad.
“Did you?”
“Yeah, you know, you shouldn’t really wander the woods alone, mumbling loudly. It’s not really safe.”
“Ah, yeah. I won’t do that anymore. I was having a hard night and needed some air to calm down.”
“I see.”
We walked in silence after that.
We had been up late drinking and talking. Then I had taken Chad to bed. After that, I had gone and cried in the forest for I don’t know how long. And then I had met Ernest and I had no idea what time it was, except that the sky was beginning to lighten in the east so it must be almost morning.
When we got to the house, I could see a light in the kitchen. Someone was already up.
Ernest didn’t knock, but went right in.
Nessa turned when the door opened, pulling on her housecoat.
Oh God, I hope they didn’t see me. I’m showing now so it’s going to be a lot harder to hide that I’m pregnant.
I blinked. Those had been Nessa’s thoughts that I had heard. I needed to both shield my thoughts from Ernest and block everyone else in order to not hear what people were thinking. But I was out of practise. None of us had been bothering with any of that at all, assuming that no one here had any powers. Guess that was a mistake. In our defence, though, we had only recently got our powers back.
Nessa was pregnant? And hiding it?
If she was showing that meant she was probably around four months along. Why would she be hiding that she was pregnant?
“Ernest, you’re back,” she said, smiling and coming towards him. They hugged. “I’m sorry I can’t say that we got Zoe back. The raid on the prison camp didn’t go as well as he had hoped.”
She gave me a look that I couldn’t decipher and I wondered what the hell had happened. Chad hadn’t given any details. Only said it had been a clusterfuck.
Shiv came in at that moment and pulled me aside.
“We’ve been looking all over for you,” he said. “Come on.”
“See you later,” I called out as Shiv nearly dragged me from the house. Nessa and Ernest waved but didn’t stop their conversation.
“Team meeting,” he said, pulling me by the hand towards the guest house.
As soon as we walked in, I saw that everyone was assembled and they had only been waiting for me. Chad looked pitifully hung over. Grace was still pale but sitting up this morning, so that was good. Audrey was pacing.
“Okay, what was it that we all had to be together to hear, Shiv?” Audrey said. “Spit it out without any scientific jargon, or I swear I will…”
“Audrey,” I said, stopping her.
She shook her head as if waking up from a trance.
“Sorry,” she said to Shiv.
“There’s a really weird vibe in here,” I said. “What the hell’s going on, Shiv?”
“First of all, it’s good news,” he said.
“K, based on your tone, that’s not at all reassuring,” I said, shaking my head. “Go on.”
“Second of all, I think I fixed the bracelets. There are some parts that I cobbled together from component pieces that I found in some of their old smartphones…”
“Shiv.” It was Audrey’s voice and it was a warning.
“… and I’ve managed to jimmy something,” he went on quickly with a furtive glance at Audrey.
“Shiv, get to the point,” Chad said. “My head hurts just listening to you.”
“Told you not to drink that home-brew,” Audrey said. “It’s the worst for hangovers.”
“Let him talk,” Grace said, her voice quiet but firm. She smiled up at Shiv and he gave her a blinding smile. God, they were so happy together it made me sick.
“It’s just that there will be some extra risk going home, compared to coming here.”
“What do you mean, extra risk?” Audrey said.
“Well you know how the time travel seemed to suppress our powers for a while?”
We all nodded.
Pretty hard not to notice that.
Like not noticing that you’re a paraplegic and can’t walk.
“I’ve been thinking about what might have caused it.”
“And?” I said,
trying to crank him along to getting to his point. But once he was in professor mode, he could talk for days and not even notice that everyone had fallen asleep. It wasn’t that he was boring. It was that he knew so much more than all of us, we couldn’t follow, especially when he started talking about Ellynian physics.
“I think that whatever happens in time travel puts a lot of stress on the body and brain. But the ante-prefrontal cortex is so delicate that it actually destroys tiny pieces of it. As long as there is some left, the body can regenerate the entire organ. But if all of it is destroyed then there’s nothing to regenerate. And the person would lose their powers completely and never be able to get them back.”
I grimaced.
“That sounds bad.”
“Yes, but when the time travel bracelets were designed, there was a built in protective factor. To cushion, so to speak, the body and mind from the stress.”
“That sounds good,” I said.
“Yes, but the way I had to fix it, takes out a lot of that cushioning protective factor. Or maybe all of it.”
There was silence.
“That sounds bad again,” I said, tilting my head back to stare at the ceiling.
“It is.”
“Get to the point,” I said, my patience running out.
“The point is that when we time travel using the bracelets, we will almost definitely get home. I’m certain of that. But I don’t know if we’ll have our powers when we get there.”
We all stared at him.
“And I don’t know if we’ll have enough of the ante-prefrontal cortex left for them to ever come back.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAD
“Shit,” I said, leaning forward and clutching my head in my hands. I had such a bad headache. Plus, I made a completely fool of myself with Yumi last night and the conversation had ended so very badly.
And now Shiv was giving us the worst news in the world.
I couldn’t handle it.
We were gathered in the guest house again, and Shiv was telling us what he had found out about the time travel devices. It was way to early to be awake with the hangover I was dealing with. And it was definitely way too early to be having this depressing meeting.
“This is the worst news ever,” I said, softly so as not to make the headache worse.
Shiv winced.
“Well, not the worst.”
Audrey strode up to him and grabbed his shirt, shaking him. Never mind that she’s a good six inches shorter than him and he has about fifty pounds on her.
“Science Boy. Just. Fucking. Tell us. No more holding back.”
“Please let him go,” Gracie said from where she was lying, her voice faint. There was nothing weak about her words, though, and Audrey stepped away from Shiv.
“She’s right, Shiv. Please just tell us straight what the hell is going on,” Yumi said.
“Okay, okay. I didn’t mean to be obtuse,” he said.
“You never do,” I said. “But you always are.”
“Okay, I’ll skip the explanation. It’s just that if we don’t leave within the next 72 hours, we might not get home at all.”
“Well, that decides it,” Audrey said, putting her hands on her hips and looking around at all of us. “We’re going. Today.”
“I can’t,” Grace said. “I’m sorry, Audrey. I’m too weak. It might kill me.”
“You can’t travel injured?” Yumi said. “You never told us that, Shiv.”
“It’s not that you can’t travel injured,” he said. “It has to do with the fact that there’s no longer any cushioning. That’s why she can’t travel today.”
“Fine. When will she be able to travel?”
“In three days, maybe? If Cynthia says I’m strong enough,” Grace said.
“Wait, wait, wait,”Audrey said, a big smile on her face. “We’re not thinking straight. Everybody’s got injuries, right?”
I groaned at how awful I felt. I had several injuries from fighting at the prison, the worst of which was a sprained ankle. Yeah, it had been fun getting back with that. Thank goodness most of the way was in canoe where it hadn’t hampered me.
Yumi held up her arm that was bandaged tightly. Cynthia had stitched up the nausea inducing wound she’d received when Shiv had manifested the knife in her arm.
Shiv reached his hand up to touch the deep gash on his forehead that he had got when he’d fallen into the burning pit at the dump to help Yumi when she screamed.
Audrey was bruised from head to toe from her fight with the guard and had red marks on her wrists where she’d been tied up.
“Yes, Audrey,” I said. “What’s your point?”
“We can heal ourselves. Make a Circle.”
A Circle is when minds join together in order to become more powerful than they could individually.
“But you’re not part of our Circle,” Yumi pointed out.
“I know, but you four can form a Circle and heal each other. Then when Grace is better, she can heal me. Shiv, you can boost her when she does that, right?”
“Sure,” he said. “But what will they all say when they see that we’re miraculously healed?”
“Doesn’t matter. We’ll be gone,” Audrey said.
I wasn’t sure we’d all agree to leave after the healing. But I desperately wanted to feel better and I wasn’t going to interrupt Audrey is she was arranging it.
“We can leave our bandages on and still act sick,” Yumi said. “No big deal.”
Grace nodded.
“What about the soul bond?” Audrey said. “You want to use that?”
“No!” Yumi and I both said at the same time.
Audrey laughed.
“Figured you’d say that.”
“Audrey,” Yumi said, and it was her tone that was menacing this time.
“Okay, okay. Not funny. I’m sorry. So can we do this?”
There was a shadow over the window and I looked up but there was nothing there. I shook my head, then groaned when it hurt so bad I almost cried.
Healing.
Right.
Focus, Chad.
I went and sat on the bed beside Grace, while Yumi and Shiv stood. We all took hands.
“We should be careful,” Shiv said. “Everyone’s powers have been a little…”
He glanced apologetically at Yumi.
“Unpredictable.”
“And definitely no soul bond,” Yumi said.
I felt resentment boiling up in me and was glad I was on Shiv’s side, not hers. Of course, she had put herself there on purpose.
“In fact, Yumi, let’s sit. No use tempting fate.”
“Fine,” she said, and sat down. “Let’s just do this.”
“Ready?” Shiv said, and we all nodded. “Gracie, you take the lead when you feel better.”
Grace had learned to be a healer, using her Kinetic powers. She wouldn’t be using those powers this time, but only her healing knowledge.
She gave one firm nod, though her face was so exhausted that it worried me. Being shot and then lying on the ground with no treatment and then having an infection had really taken its toll on her.
I closed my eyes, knowing that everyone else was doing the same. I felt our minds connecting and twining together. Grace and Shiv first and then Yumi and I joined the Circle. The power flowed through us all and my headache disappeared to my intense relief.
In a minute or two of being joined, I felt Grace’s power surge and she began directing the energy — to Yumi’s arm, Shiv’s head, my injuries, and then through her entire body.
We focused and sent the healing energy through her until she could take no more. It was kind of like filling a gas tank.
“All good?” Gracie sent, her mental voice at full power.
There were mental nods all around and gradually we separated our minds the one from the other. When we were back and had opened our eyes, Audrey was clapping slowly.
“What?” Yumi said.
&nb
sp; “You people are so damn dramatic, you know that? You really know how to put on a show. Can’t you just make a Circle like everyone else?” she said.
“What do you mean?” Gracie said, standing up and stretching, her red hair looked clean like she had just washed it and her face glowed, her cheeks pink with health. She appeared perfect. Normal. Nothing like the lank-haired, pale-cheeked, weak woman who had lain on the bed just minutes before. I wondered how she was going to convince Cynthia that she was still on the brink of death.
“Do you have to do all that glowing, floating stuff all the time? Sheesh.”
“We were glowing and floating?” Shiv said. He looked at Yumi and I. “I thought that was only when we made a Circle using the soul bond.”
We shrugged in unison and then gave each other resentful looks. Why did we still have to be so in tune?
“Speaking of the soul bond,” Shiv said, suddenly thinking of something. “Were you two still getting thoughts and feelings from the other when you didn’t have your powers?”
I met Yumi’s eyes.
“No,” I said.
“No. What does that mean?” she said to Shiv, ignoring me.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Nobody knows what the deal is with the soul bond because you two are the only people who have ever lived with one and well, not died using it.
Fucking soul bond.
We had always had a love/hate relationship with the soul bond. It had saved us and our friends more than once. But it made it so that we heard echoes of each other’s thoughts and feelings all the time. We never had any privacy.
Except now.
Since we’d been here.
“I haven’t felt anything through it since we arrived here,” I said.
“Me neither,” Yumi said.
“Wow,” Gracie said. “Looks like you two are maybe free of it, finally. That’s great.”
“Yeah, great,” I said, not feeling like it was great at all.
Yumi caught my eye.
“We’re finally free of each other.” She nodded. “Good.”