Stefani set her gun down for a minute and rifled through a supply box on the other side of the transport. A moment later, she pulled out a dark gray vagrant uniform and a set of the body armor they wore. Jeff stared at it hungrily; he’d seen a little of what the suits were capable of, and he longed to have one.
“Here you go,” Stefani said. “Don’t embarrass us while you wear it.”
Jeff held it up, admiring the workmanship and inspecting the various pockets and pieces of armor.
“Try it on,” Stefani said.
“Now?”
“Can’t learn to press until you have it on,” Stefani said. “Transport rules.”
He pulled his shirt off and nearly went for his pants before he realized that Stefani was still watching him.
“Sorry,” Stefani said as she looked away.
He hurriedly pulled his uniform on and noted that it fit him perfectly. It even snugly fit over his metal appendages.
“You pressed this in,” Jeff said.
“Of course we did,” Stefani said. “You covered your privates yet?”
“Yeah.” He didn’t have all the pieces of external body armor on yet, or the cloak and hood, but he was fully covered.
“Well, look at you!” Stefani said.
“You look like you could fight a leech with your bare hands,” Carlee said.
He focused on figuring out the rest of the pieces of his uniform to keep himself from blushing at the compliments. He felt good. The change of clothes had somehow helped to calm the nerves that had been tightening his abdomen.
“I knew we were smart to save him,” Stefani said as she turned back to her gun.
“That’s exactly what I remember you saying,” Carlee said.
Jeff attached the cloak and looked himself over, wishing he had a mirror. He couldn’t help but think about what Chad and Dane would say if they saw him now.
“I’m ready for my first lesson on how to press,” Jeff announced as he sat down. Thinking of his brother and his former friend had brought a quick end to his feel-good moment.
“But you’ve had many lessons on how to press already,” Carlee said. “What did you think those other lectures were about?”
“History?” Jeff said. He ran through what he could remember in his head and didn’t recall anything about pressing.
“In a way, they were designed to teach you the history of our people. In a way, they were designed to teach you the hopelessness of using your powers to fight the Apostles, so you don’t throw your training away. But most important, they were to teach you how to press.”
“I think I might have missed something.”
“What is history?”
“Stuff that happened in the past?”
“One could say that history is a recounting of the endless choices made by countless individuals that resulted in us being on this path together now. Do you know why that’s related to pressing?”
“I thought that’s how we could sense things that happened in other realities,” Jeff said. “Not see the future, but see the present in a different time line.”
“Very good. I haven’t failed completely. Now, doesn’t it seem strange that you can sense pieces of different realities and time lines?”
“Of course. It’s crazy.”
“Now, since you know that those other realities exist, and you have felt them and seen them before, wouldn’t it stand to reason that there is a way to connect with those other realities?”
“Sure.”
“And if you know you can connect with those other realities, wouldn’t it make sense that there would be a way to build a more powerful connection between realities? What if I closed my eyes and tried to strengthen that connection between this reality where those clothes lie at your feet and a reality where a spare uniform rests there instead?”
Carlee closed her eyes, and Jeff stared down at the clothes he had just removed.
“And what if I were able to do it?” Carlee asked. “What if I were to press that other reality onto our own so powerfully that for a split second, our time lines merged?”
The air glimmered and twisted at the pile of clothes in front of his feet.
“And what would happen if those two realities were pressed on top of each other . . .” Carlee paused briefly.
In an instant, the air returned to its natural self, and a brand-new, folded vagrant uniform sat where his old clothes had been a moment before.
“And the other reality left its mark on our own, replacing what had been here before?” Carlee opened her eyes.
“I . . . Wow.”
“Pretty cool, eh, Handsome?” Stefani said.
“It’s . . . it makes sense . . . somehow . . . I mean, it doesn’t make any sense, but at the same time, it all just . . . fits.”
“In a way, it’s very simple. We press two realities together, imprinting from another onto our own. And with the infinite realities, with more time lines created every second, it opens up a range of possibilities.”
“So how do I do it?” Jeff asked. He squeezed his eyes shut. “You said you strengthen that connection . . .”
“That is, unfortunately, where things are not quite so simple. It’s difficult to describe. In many ways, it’s more of an art form than a science.”
“It’s easy,” Stefani said over her shoulder. “But no more pressing. I’m not that eager to die.”
“It’s not easy,” Carlee said. “Everyone manages it a bit differently, but to me, the most important aspect is confidence. People have been forming connections with different realities throughout history. Most of them simply get a feeling, or have déjà vu, or have a powerful dream. Those are glimpses of realities, but the truly great people, the ones who rose above the rest, were able to bridge realities much more completely.”
“I don’t remember hearing stories about people turning rags into body armor.”
“That’s because that’s only the most obvious way to press. You’ve already had connections with other realities during a fight—when you knew what to do. You learned from another reality and applied that to your own. You didn’t pull any material over directly, but in a way, you made this reality match another. Press. Scientists who suddenly get hit with a breakthrough discovery, an athlete who knows a shot is perfect before it connects, a general who pulls off unbelievable victories—things don’t just happen.”
“Apparently not.”
“And what did all those people have in common? Confidence. They knew they were capable of something, or they knew it was going to happen before it did. If I don’t know for certain that I can press body armor where your clothing used to be, then I can’t do it.”
“But how can you know that? Especially if you’ve never done it before?” Jeff was equal parts amazed and frustrated. As hard as he’d tried to press things before, it had never happened. If there was one thing he did know, it was that he couldn’t press.
“That’s why some people think imagination is more important. Find the reality you want, and then force yourself to believe that it’s real. Others claim that visualizing things is the most important. That way, your mind knows what reality it wants, and then it connects to that reality and makes it happen.”
“That’s the right way,” Stefani chirped in. She was still glued to her gun, checking the horizon. Carlee insisted that the caravan had sophisticated scanners that would pick up on threats far faster and more accurately than Stefani could, but it didn’t prevent her from keeping watch anyway.
“Talon gets angry and uses willpower to demand that realities collide with each other. But in the end, we are all trying to do the same thing: create a connection between realities.”
“Do I have to close my eyes?” Jeff asked. Most of what Carlee was saying was washing over his head, but he hoped he would understand it all someday.
“No,” Carlee said. “But I’ve found it helps the mind to form a strong connection. That way, our reality only exists in your head as well since your
eyes are no longer showing it to you. That may be part of the reason why blind people tend to be natural vagrants; they don’t let what they see keep them from knowing they can change things.”
“Closing your eyes is for wimps,” Stefani said. “It also tends to get you shot more often.”
“So, let me get this straight. I imagine what I want to happen, and then I close my eyes and visualize it while telling myself that it is going to happen?”
“If that makes sense to you,” Carlee said.
“Yeah,” Jeff said. He closed his eyes and visualized his old clothes that should have been by his feet. It wasn’t a stretch to think of a reality where Carlee hadn’t changed them. He told himself over and over in his mind that it was going to work, pushing himself to bridge realities.
“Oh my—”
Something clicked on by the central panel of their transport, and an audio channel filled the vehicle.
“Scatter; regroup thirty miles from Petra. I’m sorry,” Jane’s voice filled the cabin.
Jeff opened his eyes to see Carlee and Stefani rushing about. The transport veered into a new course. Wind suddenly rushed by his face as Stefani pushed a strange device into the force field that created a hole to fire from. She jammed her gun through the opening and started shooting.
“What is it?” Carlee asked.
“Leeches, lots of them!” Stefani shouted.
“Why didn’t we see them coming?” Carlee asked.
Stefani was too busy firing her gun to respond. Jeff looked over the force field to see vagrant transports fleeing in all directions. Leeches of all kinds were pursuing them, firing energy blasts and other projectiles with deadly precision.
“They’re on us,” Carlee said.
“I see that!” Stefani shouted.
Jeff looked up to see a leech that looked like a cross between a giant spider and an enormous bird soar over them and smash into the ground directly in their path. Their transport cut to the right just as the ground below the leech exploded, shattering their enemy. Jeff looked over to see Carlee opening her eyes.
He looked down at his feet and saw a spare vagrant uniform just as a metal harpoon smashed into their antigravity vehicle.
19 HUNTED
JEFF JAMMED HIS METAL ARM down into the transport, forcing his metallic fingers into the vehicle, anchoring himself. The momentum of his body almost ripped him apart, but he managed to keep himself from smashing into the force field.
The antigravity technology failed, sending the transport skidding into the ground. He caught flashes of fighting in the sky as their vehicle came grinding to a stop. His head was rattled, but he was alive. He pulled himself up just as a metal tentacle appeared in the air above him. The razor-sharp metal prongs on the end of the long, snakelike tentacle flashed open as it swung down for him.
He raised his metal arm to block it, but the tentacle fell limp on his body. It was severed by a long force field in the shape of a spear. Carlee stood not far from him, already spinning her weapon around to slice off another leech arm.
“Thanks!” Jeff shouted. He made it to his feet this time, feeling only slightly dizzy. Transports and leeches were scattered about, some still engaging in fighting while others lay burning on the ground. His eyes caught some projectiles flying through the air; he focused on them to see that they were humans, rocketing through the air in what looked to be force-field armor.
He jumped out of the broken transport to where Stefani was kneeling on the ground, firing her sniper rifle. The blast from her weapon caught a leech and irreversibly disfigured it. Of the six or so shots she fired, none of them failed to destroy at least part of a leech. But it wasn’t enough. Somehow, they had ended up running into a leech army, and more leeches were approaching faster than Stefani could shoot them down.
“We gotta get out of here,” Jeff said.
“Press us some flying suits, Carl.”
“He doesn’t know how to use them!” Carlee shouted. “Bikes.”
Stefani growled as she unleashed another white-hot particle blast from her rifle. It shot through the air and hit the shields on a circular leech flying through the air, which caused the leech to falter. Another shot from Stefani broke through the shields and smashed into the leech, exploding it in a ball of fire.
“Fine!” Stefani shouted.
“We’re ready to go!” Carlee shouted back.
Jeff turned to see three new antigravity vehicles floating in the air next to Carlee. Weapons stuck out from the front and back of each, and the bikes pulsed with a faint interior glow. They looked like futuristic versions of a hover-scooter that Jeff had seen a merchant ride through Fifth Springs a few years prior.
“Yours is set to follow mine,” Carlee said as they approached their bikes. “Pull the triggers to shoot.”
“Right!” Jeff said.
Stefani fired off a few more shots before she joined them. Jeff was almost seated when the ground shook as a thirty-foot, stark-white Apostle landed right in front of them. The cloud of dust nearly obscured it from view, but Jeff could see the force-field wings deactivate as the human-formed Apostle stood before them. He instantly recognized it as the second Apostle that he had seen in Fifth Springs.
“Go!” Stefani shouted. Shots fired from her particle rifle in a flurry, colliding helplessly with the shields protecting the Apostle. Jeff struggled to hold on to his bike as it shot forward, snapping his neck back painfully. The Apostle started to move, but it suddenly found itself encased in force fields, which Jeff had no doubt were Carlee’s doing.
The Apostle’s fist glowed blue, and it somehow punched through the force-field barrier, where it was immediately greeted by a flurry of blasts from Stefani. Jeff wanted to scream to her, to tell her to get going, but they were already too far away, racing over the landscape. The Apostle didn’t even bother to shield himself as it moved toward Stefani.
“Hoods up!” Carlee said. Her voice echoed quietly behind him, coming from the hood that rested on the top of his cloak. “Pull your hood up!”
Jeff reached back with one hand and pulled the hood over his head. Somehow, it tightened, fastening to his head, and filled his ears. The rushing air was gone. And he could hear Carlee breathing. Other information appeared in faint outlines in his vision, and a tiny menu of text items became available.
“What is this?” Jeff asked.
“Leeches ahead.” Carlee ignored his question, just as little identifiers hit his eyes, showing him that what she said was true. “Be ready.”
“We have to go back for Stefani!” Jeff shouted.
“We can’t.” Her voice wavered slightly, but she didn’t question herself. “She’ll make it out.”
“Against an Apostle? She needs our help!”
“Stef is one the best vagrants I’ve ever met. She has a few tricks up her sleeve.”
The leeches appeared in front of them, and balls of unstable energy shot from Carlee’s bike, catching one of them before it could maneuver. A bubble of energy popped around the rolling leech, creating a small lightning storm that wasn’t over by the time Jeff whipped by it. Two more leeches came into view, and this time Jeff pulled the trigger behind his grips, shooting out energy from his bike.
The leech he was targeting dodged his attacks, but doing so slowed it down enough for them to race past it. His enhanced view didn’t show any more leeches up ahead, and they quickly outran the last ones.
“Good job,” Carlee flatly.
“We should go back.”
“No, the last thing we need is Stefani seeing us going back, trying to heroes again.”
“But—”
“Jeff, no. It’s not smart. Not as dumb as me pressing back there . . . I don’t know what I was thinking.”
The bikes were faster than the transports, and they flew by free-ranging cattle and crops faster than Jeff could process them. They passed a number of humans as well, and he was fairly certain that they were all naked. He didn’t see any houses or other sign
s of humanity, but they passed more than a few people.
“No clothes allowed in this part of town?” Jeff tried to change the subject for Carlee’s sake. It was clear she was blaming herself for what had happened.
“We’ve never been in this area before, but we know that Petra is big on preserving nature. It makes humans live as close to their animal origins as possible.”
“You didn’t mention that when you were planning on leaving me in Dallas.” He regretted the joke before it even left his mouth. It was no time to joke. Stefani might have laughed, but she was back fighting an Apostle on her own.
The farther they got from the site of the leech ambush, the slower Carlee set their pace. Soon they were moving only slightly faster than Jeff could run. The endless fields rolled by slowly now as Jeff tried to force himself to press. He wasn’t very successful, as his mind kept drifting back to Stefani. He couldn’t help but feel like they had just done to Stefani what Dane had done to him.
“Couldn’t you have just pressed the Apostle out of existence?” Jeff asked. “Just press in some air from a different reality where it was standing or something. Make it disappear?”
“I wish I could,” Carlee said. “But there are limitations to what we can do. To what I can do.”
“That sucks.”
“Life can’t be pressed either way. I can’t press something into the space life occupies in our reality, and I can’t pull in life from another. Most vagrants try to do it anyway at some point. It just gets . . . messy.”
“And an Apostle qualifies for that?”
“Apparently,” Carlee said.
“That really sucks. Those monsters aren’t alive. I don’t care how smart they are. They’re still not natural.”
“If we are natural, and we created them, doesn’t that make them natural?”
“I’ve never heard you call them natural intelligences.”
Carlee didn’t respond immediately, and Jeff didn’t rush her. They passed by a few children, all naked as could be, running around and chasing one another without a care in the world. They stopped and stared at their bikes as they passed, but they carried on a moment later. It was bizarre to see them so carefree, so simple, and so unaware that an army of leeches and Apostles was not far away, ready to rain destruction down on every living soul. But they seemed happy, and for that, Jeff was jealous.
Vagrants (Vagrants Series Book 1) Page 13