Shine: Season One (Shine Season Book 1)

by William Bernhardt

  “We’ve got to get her outside,” Lola said.

  Fires started on the coffee table, in the china cabinet, and along an ornate wall decorated with family photos. Her aunt wasn’t able to get to all of them before the flames spread.

  Frenchie threw open the sliding glass door. The cold winter air felt good but it also stirred the fires and did little to cool Caroline down. They had to make a run for it. The house was up in flames and soon there wouldn’t be any way out of it. But how could they get to Caroline? How could they save her? She was now surrounded by flames on the other side of the room.

  Jared came running out of the bedroom dressed in what looked like 30 layers of clothing. He caught fire almost instantly, but still he headed for his daughter. He scooped her up in his arms and ran through the patio door and into the backyard.

  Frenchie and the girls followed the scent of massive amounts of burning human hair.

  Aunt Katherine shoved a needle into Caroline’s arm and a few seconds later everything but the raging fire stopped.

  CHAPTER 8

  When they’d left, the house was engulfed in flames and Jared’s rental car had exploded in the driveway. Lola turned back toward the house. The sirens had stopped, but the flashing lights and the acrid smell of smoke still remained. She ran a few paces through the northern hills to catch up with the group. In a while it would be her turn to pull the unconscious Caroline in her cousin’s wagon.

  Lola pulled her hands into her shirt. The chilly night air made her wonder how long they’d all last. She needed something to take her mind off the weather. “How do you think your sister will explain the fire?” Lola asked.

  Jared covered the mouthpiece on his cell phone while placing it on mute. “I don’t know, an electrical fire maybe? She promised to keep you girls out of it. And she’ll explain that Caroline and I went out for the day long before the fire started.”

  “Any luck with the car rental agency?” Shinal asked.

  “I’m on hold again waiting for another manager, but hopefully we’ll find a ride soon.”

  Lola shivered. Her hands were aching from the cold weather and the tip of her nose felt like it was being eaten away by leprosy. She glanced at Shinal and noticed that she too was shaking, but of course she wouldn’t ever admit to it. The long-sleeved shirts they’d borrowed from Caroline and her aunt weren’t doing enough to keep anybody warm. “Hey, Frenchie.”

  Frenchie turned, her long hair wrapped around her face. Her hands looked like they were gloved. “Yeah.”

  “Can you hook the rest of us up with some extra warmth?”

  “You sure?”

  Everyone nodded in agreement.

  “Just make it go back to normal when we finally reach civilization,” Lola said.

  A minute or two later their entire group was coated like miniature Abominable Snowmen.

  “What are we going to do with Caroline when she wakes up?” Shinal asked.

  “I don’t know, but it’s obvious that I can’t teach her anything,” Frenchie said. “I worked with her for five minutes and now Jared’s sister is homeless.”

  Jared shut his phone. “What else can we do? Outside of putting her in a bubble, I’m at a total loss.”

  Frenchie looked at the ground and refused to make eye contact with him.

  The countryside was flat and the trees near naked. A light snow started to fall, covering their trail.

  “There is someone else who might be able to help,” Lola said. “Possibly a few people.”

  Jared stared at her for a long moment. “Well, who is it? Who can help?”

  “The Resistance.”

  Shinal rolled her eyes.

  “The who?” Jared asked.

  Lola ignored Shinal and continued. “The Resistance – a group of Shines and other citizens that are fighting back against the government. They don’t believe Seattle, Santa Monica and other related problems have been caused by the Shines at all. They think the events are conspiracies.”

  Shinal scoffed, “You’re kidding me. These loonies think the government destroyed two major U.S. cities just to invoke fear into people in order to control the Shines.”

  “It wouldn’t be the first time the governments’ gone to extremes to control the U.S. population.” Frenchie said. “Mind control and hiding the aliens to name a few.”

  “How could they help Caroline?” Jared asked.

  “From what I’ve read,” Lola said, “the Shines in their group are purposely developing their powers to fight off government intrusion. I figure if anyone can help get your daughter’s powers under control it would be them.”

  “Where are they?”

  “That’s the problem, no one really knows. They’re in hiding. Otherwise they would have been sentenced just like the rest of us.”

  “How are we supposed to find some mythical base of Shines?” Shinal asked.

  “By following the clues.” Lola tried to recall the information she’d pulled from various outlets that afternoon. “There’s actually quite a bit of information on the internet about these guys. A month ago they broke a group of Shines out of prison in New Jersey. Two weeks before that, they robbed a bank in North Dakota. Every government agency in the country is after them and not a one of the agencies has been able to find them.”

  “If the FBI, NSA, CIA and every military commando in the country can’t find these guys, what makes you think we can?” Shinal asked.

  “The government may be able to trace every phone call, email, and electronic connection around the world. But that doesn’t mean they know what to do with the information. I mean, most of their analysts are robotic morons that couldn’t think themselves out of a cardboard box.”

  “How would you know?” Shinal asked.

  “Because I’ve been running a team of the techno geeks since I was 16 years old.”

  “You,” Frenchie’s head was practically steaming. “You helped the government. You’re the reason we are all on the run?”

  The hair across Lola’s body quivered and tightened. She shook it free and felt some of the hair tear as she whipped around toward Frenchie. “No, I’m not. I didn’t spy on people from the U.S. I’ve had nothing to do with the Shines.”

  Frenchie rolled her eyes. “And how do you know where the messages came from, or do you think hidden communications in the United States only occur in English?”

  Lola would never admit it, but Frenchie had a point. She had no idea where the messages came from and the few messages she had seen didn’t make much sense. She took a calming breath and focused on chest breathing like she’d learned in an early Lamaze class.

  “I don’t believe that any of the messages my team de-coded originated from within the U.S. and none of them appeared to be about Shines,” Lola said, “but I do think that I’ve found the area of one of their secret bases.”

  “What? When?” Frenchie asked.

  “I used the laptop when we were at Jared’s house to tap into the military’s internet and skim their Shine files.”

  “What did you find?”

  “There were at least four major resistance camps in the country. Two on the east coast, one on the west coast, and one in the Midwest. The camp in Atlanta was destroyed a few months ago. The other camps are rumored to be in the Vermont-New Hampshire area, Detroit, Michigan, and somewhere in California or Nevada. Detroit looked like the place the military had the most intel on. They may never find the base, but their specifics make me want to go elsewhere. Does anybody know much about the east or west coasts?”

  “If we are talking L.A. I can help,” Jared said. “But if the base is supposed to be in that desert between California and Nevada – that’s a waste land. There ain’t nothing but sand, cactus, and cow dung from the occasional cattle ranch.”

  “The World Cup was in Connecticut a few years ago,” Shinal said. “I know a bit about the area.”

  “How about you, Frenchie. Any intel?”

  Frenchie’s attention was focused
on something off in the distance. Her eyes were frozen. Her feet stopped in their tracks.

  Lola followed her gaze and spotted the flashing lights barreling down the hill on police ATVs.

  CHAPTER 9

  The two ATVs were fast approaching. A trail of dust disrupted the pink and orange sunset.

  “Run,” Shinal screamed. She sprinted toward the trees 100 yards ahead. The old dirt path they were traveling on was meant for motorcycles. The wagon lurched forward or stalled high-centered on mounds of mud and grass. The hovering ATVs weren’t affected. They would be upon them soon.

  Shinal made it into the trees and continued to sprint through the brush. The rooftops of another neighborhood were visible just over the next ridge. It wouldn’t take much to slip away. She glanced back down the trail. Frenchie had entered the trees and Lola appeared to be panting heavily and grabbing her side just a few yards out. Jared, with Caroline and the wagon, hadn’t even made it around the bend, some 50 yards away, yet.

  She bit her lower lip and ran to help.

  The wagon had tipped over and Jared was trying to place Caroline back in it. Shinal grabbed the back of the wagon and stabilized it. As soon as Caroline was mostly onboard Shinal screamed, “Go.” Both she and Jared ran with the wagon. They made it into the trees at least 50 yards in front of the ATVs.

  The ATVs’ engines were deafening, and police car lights were now visible on the roads below. With the house to the east and the ATVs coming from the hill above them, the trail into the hills was the only way to retreat. “Lola, Frenchie, drag Caroline into the bushes, but leave us the wagon.”

  She relayed her plan to Jared while he passed the contents of his pockets on to Lola. Then she scanned the trees, looked for limbs the right size, and climbed into position. She focused on her last uneven bars routine, particularly the dismount.

  The ATVs slowed as they neared the trees.

  She motioned to Jared.

  He collapsed facedown next to the wagon just 10 feet inside the treeline. His hair-laden body was muddied, his t-shirt ruined. “Aw,” he grunted, face down, arms extended.

  Two officers got off their ATVs. They drew their guns and scanned the area with their truncheon-like Maglites. Their beams stopped on Jared.

  “Freeze,” the sheriff said.

  Jared’s head twitched, as did one of his hands. He grunted like a wounded animal again.

  The deputy glanced at his partner.

  The sheriff waved his orderly forward. “Check for I.D.”

  The deputy took a step forward, holstered his gun, and rummaged through Jared’s pockets. “Nothing.”

  “Roll him over.”

  “Come on,” Shinal thought, needing both of the policemen to be next to Jared’s body.

  The deputy grabbed Jared by the shoulder and rolled him onto his back.

  Jared grunted and whimpered.

  The deputy jumped backwards. “Holy cow. What the hell is that? It looks like a damn werewolf.” He ripped his gun out of his holster.

  The two men were in the wrong spot but Shinal couldn’t wait any longer. They were both armed again. She jumped onto the branch above her and casted into a handstand position. The two men were at least twenty feet away. Too far to reach. But at least their attention was focused elsewhere.

  “Who, what are you?” the deputy demanded. When Jared refused to move, the policeman shot the ground a few feet to the right of him.

  Shinal drove her toes down towards the ground. At the last possible moment she let the centrifugal force whip her around the branch.

  The trees and bushes shook violently. The policemen whipped from one tree to the next trying to locate her.

  Shinal completed another giant and swung completely around the branch. She was ready to launch when the two men spotted her. Shots rang out.

  The end of the branch blew apart and collapsed.

  Shinal released the branch a split second after impact. She flipped through the air, grabbed hold of a second branch and spun around it in a tight circle with her hip pinned to the branch. More bullets whizzed past her. She twisted around the trunk of a tree and used the momentum to spring up into the tallest branches. There was no way she could get close enough to take them out.

  More bullets tore into the tree limbs surrounding her as she jumped from one branch to another, swinging through the trees like a monkey. She stayed on the move, searching her memory for a way to get her in close to the officers. But before she could envision someone to mimic, another round of bullets trashed the tree she was dangling from.

  She fell, taking many smaller limbs with her; one of them cut into her forearm, another scratched her face. Her left foot landed on a large branch and she sprinted to the base of the tree as if it were a balance beam.

  She came to a skidding stop. Caroline was below her, waving and clapping with her Cheshire smile.

  Shinal jumped from limb to limb in the top of the trees, desperate to draw their aim away from Caroline.

  The deputy reloaded a fresh clip while the sheriff kept firing. The cops appeared to have enough ammo to keep this up a lot longer than Shinal.

  Her arms and legs twitched. Knots and twigs had shredded her hands. There was no more strength. She would have one final chance to get within striking distance of the police officers and then, one way or another, the game would be over. She eyed the trees across the opening and reversed her grip. She would have to get enough momentum to clear ten feet.

  The bullets stopped.

  Shinal pulled herself back around the limb and looked down.

  Both men were lying on their faces. Lola was cuffing them with their hands behind their backs her small belly interrupting the view.

  Shinal dismounted out of the trees with a double back flip. After she landed, she glanced down at the bound officers. “What…how?”

  “Distraction,” Jared said. “While you kept their guns busy we knocked them out.”

  After checking their vitals, Shinal took one of the two police radios and tossed their weapons into the bushes. Over the years she’d picked up more than a few things from her personal trainers, and she knew that both officers would be fine, if they could ever get over the fact that they had just been attacked by a group of werewolves.

  A shot of cold blew through the area followed by a barely audible ear-piercing scream. The three of them ran to Caroline. Frenchie sat next to her, her right thigh hemorrhaging blood.

  CHAPTER 10

  Jared rushed Caroline further into the trees. Her shrieks scared away the few animals hidden in the brush.

  Frenchie looked up. Her blood-covered hands were still pressing down on her right thigh. Her face was a true beet red, probably from holding her tongue and breath so long. “Are they gone?” she asked.

  Lola nodded and tried to avoid staring at the open wound. “Incapacitated, anyway. What happened?”

  She grimaced. “I don’t know if it was a ricochet or a random shot, but at least one bullet hit me in the thigh.”

  Shinal ripped off a piece of her shirt to tie off the wound. Her bare midriff didn’t seem to mind since it was still covered with hair. She grabbed Lola’s hand and placed it on the bandage just above the wound. “Hold this here.”

  The fresh blood was warm, but the cool air caused it to coagulate and turn thick and sticky. The nausea Lola had experienced in the first trimester returned tenfold. She bent over at the waist and heaved. Her hand slipped off Frenchie’s leg.

  “Aaah,” Frenchie screamed.

  “Sorry,” Lola said as she scrambled to reapply the pressure.

  Shinal ran to the ATV, whose slick bottom was now resting on the ground. She ripped open all four side compartments, filtered through the contents, and then ran back. The box she carried appeared to have a large red cross.

  Lola retched again. She felt as sick and pale as Frenchie looked. Caroline’s high-pitched screams no longer echoed in her ears. There was only the torturous pain in her gut.

  “Focus, Lola,”
Shinal said. “She needs more pressure. You’ll have to do it for another minute or two.”

  The fact that Lola’s stomach was empty didn’t stop the gastric waves. But she pulled herself up and placed her full body weight down on Frenchie’s leg while trying to find her happy place.

  The free-flowing blood seemed to slow.

  Shinal twisted the cap off a bottle and jammed the contents into the bullet hole in Frenchie’s leg.

  Frenchie kicked, bucked, and screamed.

  For a moment Lola fell off, but a moment later she was on top of Frenchie, pinning her to the ground and reapplying the pressure.

  Shinal placed a thick pad of gauze over the wound and rolled a tight bandage around the leg. Then she put a few pills in Frenchie’s mouth and told her to swallow them dry.

  Jared and Caroline walked back into the alcove. Caroline smiled and laughed as if the accident and her tantrum had happened months ago.

  “Looks like you got everything under control,” Jared said.

  “Hardly,” Shinal said as she checked the bandage and her vitals. “She lost a lot of blood and if we don’t get her some help soon, she could lose her leg.”

  “Should we take her to the hospital?” Jared asked.

  “No hospital,” Frenchie shouted. “We ain’t giving up on account of my continued dumb luck. We’ll have to find help somewhere else.”

  “Don’t look at me,” Jared said. “We’ve literally burned down the house to the only contact I have around here.”

  “Well then, I guess there’s only one alternative,” Lola said. “We’re going to Detroit.”

  CHAPTER 11

  Though hovering vehicles were becoming a standard across the country, it was usually only the state workers who were able to afford them. Lola, Frenchie, and Shinal sandwiched onto one of the ATVs while Jared and Caroline climbed aboard the other.

  Lola turned the key. The engine started and the ATV rose about three feet in the air. The vehicle didn’t feel like it was going to flip over, but it did rock from left to right as the girls adjusted into their seats.