by J. Kowallis
This isn’t helping me sleep. If anything, it’s keeping me awake, and possibly giving away my location.
I lay my head back. I’m exhausted. Why don’t my eyes know it?
I tug off another leaf and it sparks into a faint flame. I hide it with my hand and control the fire from consuming the leaf too quickly. The vein patterns in the leaf ebb and brilliantly glow.
A crackle within the copse of trees travels to my ears. Ignoring it, like before, I pick off another leaf and, again hiding it, the foliage starts to burn from the tips of my fingers, climbing up.
I hear it again; moving through the forest slowly.
That, I didn’t imagine. It’s too cautious to be an animal. Too controlled to be a breeze.
My eyes jerk to the left. I cut off the flames and hold my breath. This close to The Public, I have to know what’s around me. It could be anyone or anything. I can’t see anything. My eyes slowly adjust to the darkness again, trying to see anything in the glowing dark that could have popped.
Then I see them. One person. A light flashes up into the tree about forty feet from me and then goes out. Even from this distance, I can see it’s a man. The figure moves again and flashes a light into the next tree. Wait, there are two figures. They’re looking for something in the trees.
Mierda. I shake my head, holding my breath. This close to the public with visible fire! I knew I shouldn’t have!
The figures keep moving closer, shining the light up into the trees. I carefully untie the coat securing my legs to the tree and silently rest it on the limb. Getting a good grip on the trunk behind me, I carefully lift myself up and monitor my movements—observant of each twig around me that might make noise. Silently, I climb down the opposite side of the large tree and drop to the ground.
I nearly lose my balance, and latch onto the trunk. My breath bounces off the bark and hits my face again, warm, but unsteady.
The sound of my feet landing on the uneven soil make them stop. Every sound cuts off. They’re waiting. I’m waiting.
I peek around the side of the tree to get the two figures back within my eyesight. They’re whispering, but I can’t yet tell what they’re saying. One of them moves in front of the other, moving a little faster. They’re only six feet away from where I’m standing now and I can see them better. My eyes widen further. The second figure is a woman.
The light shines up into the tree to my right and I look closely to see the face holding the light. The man is well built, and he’s been taken care of. Not Nomadic, and too healthy for a community like Roy’s. They’re Public citizens. They have to be, and if they are, I can’t let them find me. If they do, at the very least I can’t let them return.
“Are you sure?” I finally hear the woman whisper in English. She moves closer to my tree and points upward. “Try here.”
The light flashes again and she stares up into the branches where I once sat. “There’s a coat up there,” she murmurs.
I dive at her. With one kick to her gut, I level her to the ground, her back crumpling the dead leaves below her. She grunts from the wind knocking free of her lungs. The man turns on me. His fist connects with my jaw, and I slam against the tree behind me. Bark digs into my forehead. I feel like a log has bashed my skull. His fists are like steel. My head rings. I duck, my head throbbing, when he swings again and I plant a hard fist to his ribcage and follow it up with a kick to his knee. He struggles to gain his balance, but I pull his shoulders forward, kneeing him in the stomach.
A curse flies from his mouth, and before I can round on him again, the woman grabs me from behind, looping an arm around my neck. “Ransley! No!”
My heart leaps up into my throat. She knows my name. I can’t swallow.
“How do you know my name!?” I growl.
“I’ll let you go, but you have to calm down,” she says steadily into my ear. She’s breathing hard. The man stands up, hobbling on his leg and cusses again.
“What?” He looks at the woman. “You didn’t see that coming?”
“I told you to keep a close eye.”
He groans. “You didn’t tell me to keep that close of an eye.” He throws the pack on his shoulders to the ground and grunts.
“Let me go!” I struggle against her and finally knock my head back, butting her forehead. I feel the sharp pain run through my skull followed by her yell. She releases me and stumbles back. I have enough time to pull back and keep them both within my sight.
“Ransley, stop it!” She winces.
“There!” I yell. “How do you know my name? Who are you? Are you with The Public?”
“No!” she replies at the same time he retorts with a similar, “Hell, no!”
“Ransley, I . . .” she blows air out her lungs and stands up, her voice thin, “I need you to calm down so we can explain.”
“Explain what?”
I step back when the man steps forward. He stops with a Public power gun pointed at my skull. The woman looks over at him, shaking her head. They keep exchanging glances, communicating something to each other.
“A Public power gun? Right. Explain to me again how you’re not with The Public,” I spit.
“We will!” she exclaims in a hiss.
“I’d rather shoot her,” he grunts.
“Go ahead.” I glare.
The man drops the weapon, but glowers at me.
“Ransley,” the woman says my name again for the fourth time and I feel my blood run frigid, “we’re not here to hurt you. We’re here to help. I know this isn’t going to make much sense, and I don’t know how to say this, but . . . I knew you’d be here. My name is Reggie. This is Nathan.”
She pauses. I look at her with wide eyes. “And that means what to me?”
“Gosh, I,” she cups her forehead as a trickle of dark liquid runs down her temple, “I don’t even know where to start. So, I’ll just say it.” She shakes her head and purses her lips. “I’m like you. I have abilities too.”
“What?” I whisper, my breathing becoming more rapid.
“You, Roy, and me. We’re all the same.”
I back up further. I know she’s trying calm me down by telling me this, but all it’s doing is sending me into a panic. I’m supposed to be protecting Roy, but somehow everything about us, she knows. “How do you know about Roy?”
“I know he’s in trouble. I also know you can’t do this on your own.” She swallows.
I keep my eyes on Nathan. He hasn’t moved, and he just watches me—his chilly scowl shooting daggers at me.
“Ransley, I’m precognitive. That means I can see the future. I can look ahead and find out what’s going to happen. It’s,” she takes a deep breath and looks at Nathan, “it’s not an exact science all the time, but it helped me see you.”
It’s not that I don’t believe her, but I can’t talk. I don’t even know what to say. At my silence, she keeps going.
“You can manipulate and start fire. Pyrokinesis. Roy can Astral Project. That’s what he calls it, right? A couple months ago, I learned there was the possibility of others out there like me. So I’ve been trying to see you in my future so I could get a hint of where you were.”
She takes a step closer, keeping her hands cautiously in view, but I don’t move. “Ransley, you were the first one I saw. I saw you bleeding on the ground. People all around you and you were going to die. I saw what you did to Roy. I saw what he did to you. I saw the city, I saw the signs of Los Angeles, and I left right then. Nate and I traveled for weeks to get down here.”
My heart has slowed. Judging by the way she butchered Los Ángeles, she’s not from here. I don’t believe it. I mean, I do, but I don’t. I’ve lived my whole life believing I was the only one. In a matter of days, I find Roy, and Reggie finds me. Just a matter of days—and I’m being bombarded with information I’ve wanted all my life. It’s . . . not what I expected. For so long I’ve imagined a set of parents who loved me, who were perhaps gifted too, and died or had to leave me for some reaso
n. I’ve imagined brothers or sisters who I grew up with who loved me too.
She gets closer and I can see her more clearly. Her hair is twisted back delicately, but falling out of place now with tufts poking out. Her eyes are the lightest gray blue and her delicately thin lips and high cheekbones are tinged with pink from the cold.
“What?” I can barely speak. There are so many thoughts flooding me, I’m not sure I can stand any longer. I reach out for the nearest tree and sink to the ground, looking out over The Public.
I hear Reggie moving closer to me and she cautiously sits on the ground next to me. “I understand it’s a lot to take in. I just need you to know that we’re here to help, not hurt you.”
“You expect me to believe you?”
“I’m hoping you will.”
“All right, then what about you?” I whisper. “You know so much about me. What’s your story?”
My eyes snap up and I watch Nathan closer when his body shifts. I know I shouldn’t still be this jumpy, but I can’t help it. His demeanor is like a steel wall with knives protruding from it.
“You’re right. I suppose I do know more about you than you me . . .” She turns to look at me.
I listen carefully while she tells me about her experiences. She has no memories, like me and Roy. She was held as a prisoner of Public One for fifteen years, and eventually broke out. I look to Nate, who she’s stopped referring to as Nathan, and I realize by the carefulness in her voice, they’ve gone through hell too. Plus, something else is going on. Something wrong. Like a wall between them.
The more she talks, the more questions I have. Questions upon questions. Yet, Reggie has a peace to her I’ve never encountered before. Estevan was always rough around the edges, and I know I’ve learned a lot of that from him. We may both have unexplained abilities, but she’s not me. Even so, I can’t help but recognize a similar familiarity with her—just like I did with Roy. Even though she’s still talking, my mind wanders back to him. He has to be all right.
“It’s taken me two months to practice my ability. But, I’ve finally gotten to a point where I can call any vision I want. Now, there are still blocks in my mind, but I don’t have a lot of the inhibitions I’ve had before.”
“What?” I ask, coming out of my unfocused state.
She smiles softly to me. “You weren’t listening.”
“I’m sorry.” I drop my head. “This is all . . . too much. It’s a lot to take in. And I’m worried about a lot of other things.”
“Roy?” Her voice is quiet. The shifting of Nate’s feet on the forest floor make my eyes jerk to him again. He’s watching her, not me. So calmly and so . . . carefully.
Water pools at the corner of my eye and I take a deep breath to choke it down. “Yeah.” I tug on the seams of my pants and listen to the sound of my tongue try to form words. “It’s my fault he’s in there. I made him expose his power. If I hadn’t . . . .”
“You’re beating yourself up,” Reggie interrupted me. “Stop it.”
“Reg,” Nate says to her with a frown, pulling another power gun out of his belt loop, “I’m gonna . . .” he points toward the city and motions with his head.
Reggie nods.
His feet crack over twigs and dead foliage, jogging down the hill. The sounds soften the farther he moves.
“Where is he going?”
“Reconnaissance. He wants to know how many cameras, how many guards, and what the other security measures are like. He’s fine. He used to be in the United States military, you know. One of the best Marine snipers. So sometimes he’s good for things.” She gives me a full-on grin and picks at the hem of her sleeve.
“He seems like kind of a verga, you know.”
She frowns in confusion.
“A prick,” I clarify.
Reggie’s immediate laugh morphs into a cough and she turns to me with a mockingly serious face. “You don’t know the half of it.”
Ignoring the fact that I don’t even know this woman, the words shoot out of me. “Are you two in love?”
Reggie ducks her head. A thin tendril of long light brown hair falls to her face, casting a few lines of shadow on her skin. She looks back in the direction he took off. “Why would you say that?”
“I dunno. Maybe it’s the way he watches over you like a junkyard perro.”
She clears her throat. “It’s complicated.”
“So you do love him?”
Reggie pulls her knees up, hugging them. “I said, it’s complicated.”
“What, are you a slave or something? Not allowed to talk about it?”
“If it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer not talk about this.”
“Right. You have every right to delve into my private life without my permission, but I can’t ask a simple question? You sure know how to build trust.”
Her eyebrows drop down and she turns to me. “This isn’t about trust. I already told you what you need to know.”
“Like hell you did. You know about Roy and his powers. You know about me. And you’re just a friendly visionary? I’m gonna need more than that.”
“If you want our help, you’ll have to deal with what I give you.”
“Who says I want your help?” I fold my arms. Who is she to come here, telling me what she knows, and what to do? I didn’t ask her to come.
“You do.” She stares at me with her steel eyes. “And I think you know why.”
Roy.
I don’t know why I’m thinking of him right now. Maybe she’s right. Maybe I do need them to get him out. At least I can keep them around that long. Long enough to do what I came for, then get rid of them.
I nod. “Fine. I’ll agree to work with you. That doesn’t mean I trust you.”
Reggie takes a breath. “You need to trust me.”
“No, I need a reason to. The fact that you’re an oracle means nothing to me. I’m a fighter and believe me, I don’t trust other fighters farther than a damn ant can throw them.”
Reggie bites down on her lower lip, looking off toward The Public. “Okay. I’ll work with what I can get.”
I want to ask her more, but I decide against it and hold everything in. All I hear is the cold crackle of dead leaves blowing in the trees and whistles combing through pine needles. The moon above us beams down over our position like an orb.
My eyes still burn with pain and I close them, digging my knuckles into the sockets.
“You see the future.” I say. It’s not a question.
“Yes. I don’t know what’s going to happen to Roy. At least not now, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“I probably would have eventually.” My heel digs into the ground. “But that’s not why I brought it up.”
Reggie tips her head. Moonlight bounces off her hair, making it look silver.
“Is that . . . all you can do? Or is there more? Like, something you didn’t know about?”
Her eyes narrow on me and she looks me up and down. “You’ve experienced something else, haven’t you? Your abilities are changing.”
Changing? I’m not so sure. It’s happened before, though I don’t remember the first time. But, I can still remember how hot I was that night after Roy choked me. How Estevan and Roy told me my eyes looked stained with red—broken blood vessels swimming through the white. I’d nearly died.
“Maybe,” I respond in a whisper.
Reggie looks calmly at me. “Is that why your eyes are so dark?”
“What do you mean?”
“There isn’t any white. But you already know that. Would you mind if I shined a light in your eyes. To see?”
“You’re not going to stab my eyes out?”
“If I were, would I tell you?” The corner of her mouth lifts.
I shake my head. “No, but I guess you can. Take a look, I mean.”
From her pocket, she pulls a small LED and clicks it on. The light trails up my face and rests below my eyes so not to blind me. I open them wider to give her a better l
ook and she reaches forward to touch my face and pulls down on my bottom lid.
“The color is all over. Have your pupils always been dilated like that too?”
“No. Since that night, I’ve actually seen better in dark areas. Daylight hurts a lot, but I think it’s starting to get back to normal. I’ve been wearing sunglasses until they heal.”
Reggie clicks off the light. “You’re changing aren’t you?”
“How do you know?”
“Because the same thing is happening to me.”
This grabs my attention, and she sees that.
“I have a theory.” Reggie adjusts her seating position. “I think maybe our abilities are all mind-driven. My mind can look farther into the future, and even connect with others because of my chip. Roy’s can essentially create another form of himself. Your mind excites molecules, maybe even at the simplest forms of atoms. If you can excite them, what if you could excite them without a catalyst?”
My head drops. “Roy said that too.”
“Wouldn’t it make sense? I mean, what if you could do more than you think? What if we all could? What if we were all able to tap into our abilities and exercise them? Like a muscle? I mean, you trained for years to become the fighter you are. But you haven’t done the same to your other talent. You’ve been hiding it.”
I know there’s truth behind what she says, but I don’t want to listen to it. Even thinking about the possibility exhausts me. With Roy challenging me to create fire out of thin air, and Reggie telling me I could freeze matter, I feel overwhelmed. I can’t do it, or think about it. It’s too much. No matter how it may help, I can’t. My only goal is to get Roy out. Get him out and away from this death pit.
“No.” I shake my head.
“I’m not saying you need to be able to do it tomorrow, but maybe it will come with time.”
I push myself off the ground, leaving Reggie there. “I don’t think so,” I briskly say. I reach up, and climb the tree to grab the coat I left. My feet thump on the ground again and I put the coat on the ground, nearly twenty feet from where Reggie’s still sitting. With a little movement, I fluff it into a pillow and lay down. Sharp pricks from the twigs, dead plant life, and rocks dig into my arms and ribs. It’s not the most comfortable bed, but it’ll have to do for the night.