Evolution

by Dave Nesbit

  “Whenever you’re ready.” Dr. Ng whispered, trying hard not to break my concentration. I could feel the room get just a little more tense.

  With a deep breath I let myself relax and felt for the currents of air present in the room. Once I had them, I reached out and pushed as hard as I could.

  When you set off a bomb the actual damage is done by the compression of air. The release of energy is so violent that if you happen to be near a 500 pound bomb the resulting shock wave is like being hit by a steel I-beam moving at about 24,000 ft. per second.

  The end result of me pushing hard was not quite that powerful but it was competitive. The blast of air was something you could actually see for a fraction of a second as it drew a line about three feet wide and four inches deep through the air. The wave hit the wall and rocked it so hard that the concrete and steel on the other end were broken and dented by the impact. The sound was amazing, not as much a boom as a harsh pulse.

  Dr. Ng and I both stood there for a second neither of us quite believing what we were seeing.

  “Not bad Ryan.” She said. “Now we should probably work on getting a little control on that ability.”

  “Yeah I don't want to think about what it might do if I let that loose on a crowd of people.” Looking at the smashed steel and concrete I shook my head. I knew I had power; now I had to control it.

  Sadly, not every one of us felt that way.

  Chapter 17

  The next day we got to escape into the city again. The school was handing out day passes for the houses that did the best. Both academically and in the development of their abilities. Which we could trade in for time away from the walls.

  Apparently they had noticed that a lot of the kids who were used to a little after homework freedom were getting a little stir crazy behind the fort walls.

  There was still the problem of getting out of there. If the media presence around the school had been big before, it was now approaching biblical proportions. Again, I volunteered to fly out. And again, I was reminded of the rather crowded air traffic pattern in the area. With a sigh, I got into a Ford POS with Rachel; who was also taking the day away from the school.

  We piled into the car, which had dark tinted windows, While two similar vehicles full of students followed in our wake. As we drove through the gates, cameras were pointed right up at the windows of the vehicle and microphones pressed as well. I was wondering what kind of quote they thought they might get from the glass when we went through the gate.

  Of course now we were surrounded by media chase vehicles.

  “I'm beginning to see why celebrities start punching out members of the paparazzi.” We took several hard turns to break eye contact with the media cars. Then pulled into a garage and waited for them to pass. After they did we took a turn onto the interstate and were gone, headed toward downtown.

  “What’s your plan?” I asked Rachel as we drove out.

  “Wander around, maybe find a few shirts that sort of thing.” She said. “What about you?”

  “Meeting someone for coffee.” I answered.

  “Ohh, a male or female someone?” She enquired.

  “Female; I met her at the record shop.” I added.

  “Cool, think she’s girlfriend material?”

  “I've never had one before so I wouldn't know. But hope springs eternal.” I responded with a shrug.

  “Let me guess, I should steer clear of you if I see you out there with this friend?”

  I shrugged. “Depends. If it's heading south and I wave you over, come up with an emergency we need to fix.”

  “Deal, but you'll owe me.” Rachel observed with a grin.

  The car pulled up in front of a book shop and we got out. “See you at seven.” The driver said.

  “Freedom!” Rachel shouted with a grin. “I'm off to look for clothes. Have a good time.” She said and strode off. Before heading off to meet Cathy, I took a moment to enjoy the sight of Rachel walking away. It certainly was an enjoyable view.

  I grinned and walked off toward Atomic Records. I had a little time to kill before we met so I took the time to go through their wares and remind myself I was only going to buy five more albums for my collection. I added Pink Floyd, Joy Division, New Order, Thelonious Monk and Yo-Yo Ma to my stash. Then grabbed a book on the Rolling Stones and, after paying for my loot, walked off to a nearby coffee place.

  After grabbing a large something or other latte with extra stuff and less goop, I took a seat outside to enjoy the early fall day; reading while the city made sounds around me.

  I was lost in the weird adventures of the band when I felt someone tap my arm. “Hi, got room for another at your table?” Cathy took a seat with a smile on her face. She was dressed in a blue v neck top and jeans that nearly matched the color of her top.

  “Yes please.” I replied.

  “Okay show me what you got.” I produced my purchases, which she perused with a critical eye.

  “How can you not have ‘Unknown Pleasures’ in your collection all ready?” she inquired holding up the Joy Division record.

  “Well I've had it on digital for a year, but this was the first vinyl copy of it I could find.”

  “I guess it's forgivable then.” She answered with a smile. “You never mentioned you were one of the people at that school.” I took a moment to recover. “I admire your priorities.” She looked confused. “You checked out the music before you wanted to know about the school stuff. To me that’s a good sign.”

  She chuckled. “Valid point. But the whole thing does have me curious.”

  “I'm not surprised. I'm still trying to figure it all out.”

  “What do you mean?”

  I took a second to think about it. “I'm the winner in a world’s luckiest human competition. I can do things other people can't and I have no idea what any of it means.” I took a drink of my concoction and thought about it. “I mean in the old mythologies and stuff, people were chosen by the Gods or God, or there was a quest that they were given that they needed the extra firepower for. This just seems like dumb luck.”

  “Okay I get it. I think.” Cathy said with a nod. “You have all these abilities but no real sense of what you should do with them.” She paused. “Mind you, that whole scene by the bank does point to a possible use for what you have.”

  “Saw that huh?”

  She rolled her eyes and sighed. “People in Mumbai saw it. It was all over CNN, and the other news networks.”

  “Oh right, that takes a little getting used to as well.”

  “I bet. How did you sneak out without being followed by news crews anyway?”

  “The guy who drove us here used to work for the secret service.” Cathy nodded sagely at that.

  “Us?” She raised an eyebrow at the plural.

  “One of my housemates came along too, she’s out shopping.” Her eyebrow rose.

  “Anyone special?”

  “She shares a house with me and a few others. She’s pretty awesome but it would be odd to be in a house with an ex-girlfriend if it crashed and burned.” I answered.

  “Good thinking. Wanna take a walk?”

  I had no objection to the idea. We walked out into the city itself then headed down a side street where Cathy said we could find an excellent dinner. I was about to say something when I felt a pain in my stomach and hit the floor. A whoosh of air screamed by me.

  “Ryan?” Cathy looked concerned. I stood up and this time got nailed in the kidney for my trouble. Again that whooshing of air. Suddenly I had a feeling of what was up.

  I stayed down and focused my mind, waiting for the feel of anything moving very fast. When I felt it, the motion was so quick that I nearly missed it. I rolled out of the way of the incoming impact and reached out with my power.

  I could feel small pieces of metal moving with my attacker. With a thought, I compressed them as he turned to move toward me again. He was surging toward me at high speed before he noticed what was happening.


  Yanking hard with my mind, I pulled the front snap and zipper off of his pants. They fell to his ankles and he skidded past me on his arms and knees. As he did I could see he was wearing a mask but the voice sounded familiar as he passed by gasping and cursing. He got up, and, God as my witness, dropped his pants and ran off; taking a second to get up to that blazing speed again.

  “What? Who was that?” Cathy asked.

  I stood up a bit straighter and stretched. Which was a major mistake. My back was aching badly and my stomach was screaming. I'm glad I somehow managed to hold down both lunch and coffee.

  “I think that was a classmate of mine.” I mumbled, then found my voice again. “He's been trying out the role of school bully for a bit.” Footsteps ran up behind us and I turned suddenly then regretted it. Man he really had popped me good.

  Rachel was running up; a Macy's bag under her arm. “Ryan what the hell happened?”

  “I think Jimmy ran by to say hi.” I answered. “How did you know what was going on?”

  “You used your power. I can feel it surge if I'm near.” She said. “Are you alright?”

  “Mostly.” My voice came out in a groan. “He clocked me pretty good.”

  Cathy grabbed my dropped bag of records. “Um hi.” She looked at Rachel, who looked her over critically for a moment. The intramural dynamics of women are a mystery to me, but I had a feeling they were both sizing each other up.

  Rachael finally broke the unspoken tension. “Sorry about all this,” She said. “I'm Rachel. Nice to meet you, even if it is under weird circumstances.”

  “Hi I'm Cathy, uh, does this sort of thing happen all the time?”

  “Good question. This whole thing is kind of new.Take off your shirt.” Rachel said. “You really are hurting.”

  “This is turning into the weirdest coffee date ever.” I mumbled.

  “What do you mean?” Cathy asked.

  “Well aside from the high speed mugging, I've been requested to take off my shirt by a lady who isn't the one I came to meet.” I raised an eyebrow, trying to find any humor in the moment.

  “Oh. Well. Take off your shirt then.” Cathy said. Rachel giggled and raised an eyebrow.

  I slid my shirt off, grateful to the change in my genetics for what it had done to my metabolism. I used to carry around a small spare tire around my tummy, now that was gone.

  “Holy shit.” Rachel grabbed her phone.

  “Why do I have a feeling I don't want to know.” I groaned.

  “You've got a bruise that's taking up half your back.” Cathy looked down, her eyes wide.

  It felt like a good time to change the subject. “Well if you're still interested, I'm not sure what I can do to follow this up for a second time out.” Rachel guided me toward the street.

  “How about not get hurt, that would be great.” Cathy answered.

  “Well with the bar set that low, I should do alright.” That got a smile and a laugh.

  “I called the school, they're sending Hamilton to get us.” Rachel said.

  There we were, a classmate, a girl I was interested in and me with no shirt and a back that was apparently turning black from bruising.

  “It's weird how it turns all purple and green at the edges.” Rachel said as she looked over my back.

  “I always wondered why it would turn that color.” Cathy said.

  “Oh for God's sake. It’s my back not a piece of modern art!” I snapped, shaking my head. Mind you it took some effort not to laugh at their comments. Truth be told, I appreciated the distraction.

  “I don't know; you could take up performance art.” Cathy said with a grin.

  “Let me see, I get my butt kicked and open up the floor for discussion? It's a novel idea but I think I'll pass.” Just then a Ford panel van pulled up to where we were and out came Hamilton and Dr. Ng.

  “What happened?” Hamilton looked the whole scene over as he approached, sizing it all up.

  “Ryan got punched by a guy who was using super speed.” Rachel said.

  Hamilton shook his head. “Any likely suspects?”

  I rolled my eyes. “I got a pretty good idea.”

  “Me too.” Rachel said. “And I am going to go sort his shit out.”

  “You will do no such thing.” Dr. Ng growled. “The school has procedures for handling disciplinary issues. And we will follow them.”

  “You will.” Rachel whispered.

  “What was that?” Dr. Ng responded with a harsh look to Rachel.

  “Oh nothing, just commenting on Ryan's back.” Rachel turned her head to hide the look in her eyes. It promised torture and murder for Jimmy.

  “Let’s get you to the infirmary.” Hamilton said as he helped me to my feet.

  “Hopefully I haven't scared you off.” I said to Cathy.

  “Not yet, your overwhelming good taste in music makes up for the risk of being in the middle of a super battle.” She answered and handed me my records back. “Call me once you know how you're doing.”

  “Will do.” I replied with more energy than I felt and let myself get carried back to the van.

  As the van drove off, Dr. Ng, felt my back and around my kidney, which caused me to lurch reflexively. “Feeling light headed at all?”

  “Nope, it just hurts.” I responded then jumped again as she pressed my lower back.

  “Well you’ve probably got a few broken blood vessels. I think you missed having the kidney ruptured, but not by much.”

  “We should have Lynn meet us at the infirmary.” Rachel reached for her phone.

  I thought of Lynn's soundless scream and the feeling that she was experiencing the pain of the people she helped. If I could help it, I would prefer to not to put her through that. “I'm sure it's not that bad.”

  “You can't see your back.” Rachel countered. “It's pretty ugly, and I'll bet you five dollars you can't stand up straight when we get back to school.”

  Dammit. “Okay, you got me there.” I answered.

  “I'd like to get an MRI of the damaged area first.” Dr. Ng said.

  “And I'd like to have a word or two with Mr. Blake.” Hamilton said. He looked at Rachel, “No you can't come with.” Cutting off her obvious next comment.

  “You're taking all the fun out of my day.” She said pouting.

  “I'm with the justice department. We do that a lot.”

  After that it got quiet in the van.

  Chapter 18

  I'm glad I didn't take Rachel up on her bet. Trying to stand once I got out of the van was agony. The muscles in the area were stiff as hell and standing up made them tense in protest. Dr. Ng helped me into the infirmary and Hamilton walked Rachel back to the house.

  On the list of positive things I can say about the school in general, the level of health care was amazing. Which, considering as how we were all rather unique physical specimens, shouldn't have surprised me in the least.

  As a result, I was treated to a relaxing lounge in an MRI machine. Which on the list of things you can do on any given day is about as much fun as, say, a prolonged stay in solitary confinement. After the machine ran its full series of sweeps, Doctor Ng came to me.

  “We don't have the full report but the good news is you don't seem to have ruptured any organs.”

  “Hooray for the good news.” I said being helped up out of the MRI bed. “Now make my day better and tell me you have something for the pain.”

  She held out a paper cup with pills in it and a glass of water. I swallowed them both down and let myself be led to a hospital room. Doctor Ng helped me out of my clothes and into a hospital gown.

  I had considered complaining about being kept overnight. Right until I tried to straighten up, my back said ‘oh, hell no’ and I realized that I wasn't going much of anywhere.

  Sitting down, I relaxed as the pills took hold and, moments later, I was fast asleep.

  Chapter 19

  There are times when I wonder if all the interesting stuff is fated to happen when I'm o
ut cold. As I rested, things kind of blew up. Hamilton went looking for Jimmy, who had made himself scarce; which then led to a mild panic amongst the school staff. Who then, for all intents and purposes, locked the place down and conducted a search which turned up...

  Nothing.

  Jimmy had disappeared. Which, all things considered, might have been for the best. I wasn't sure how they would have handled this whole situation, but it strikes me that the law loves to make an example of the first person who breaks it.

  I slept the night through and woke up late. The staff at the infirmary had set out a pair sweats for me and, a few moments after I slipped into them, they brought me breakfast. It was like service at a resort in a way.

  If you like resorts where you have to get beaten up to get into. Part of me wondered about that a moment. Then again, it's a world full of people with odd tastes.

  I chuckled at the thought and my back hurt.

  Dr. Ng allowed me to escape after putting me on light duty, which meant no flying, and making me wear a back brace till they told me not to.

  I managed to get out in time for lunch and ran into the crew at our usual table. Everyone waved as I came up. Lynn looked me over. “I could fix that.” She said.

  Memories of her healing those people came to mind. It would be nice to be rid of the pain, but I couldn’t forget that look on her face. If I was going to be the cause of that torment, I'd prefer that I not be cavalier about it.

  “It's all good. Give it a little time and I'll be right as rain.” I said with a smile and got up to grab lunch. Today was lasagna day at the cafeteria so I walked down and double loaded on pasta and veggies. Then added a piece of chocolate cake because dammit I had a date ruined and gotten beaten up, I think I was owed a little chocolate therapy.

  Apparently the world thought otherwise. I turned around to head back to the table and turned right into another student who had crowded up behind me. My cake went flying to the ground and splattered icing side down.