They sagged to the floor, their bodies weak.
"Why is that happening?" Kevin asked.
"It probably wouldn't if they didn't fight back," she said, and then added with a grin, "but they always fight back."
Simon leaped atop the table in front of her and growled. "What about Heather? Let her go too!"
Becca shook her head. "I don't think so. She was thinking about taking my power and using it against me." She turned toward Heather. "Sorry, sweetie. You're not getting anywhere near me."
Simon growled and moved forward, then stopped short.
"That's two," Becca said. "Anyone else want to play?"
"Let him go," Kevin said.
"Nope. He had his chance, and he fucked it up."
Kevin shook his head. "Fine, let's just get this over with."
They walked to the scientist. Kevin stood on one side, Becca the other.
Kevin squatted down and looked him in the eye. "I'm going to ask you some questions now. I want you to answer me honestly."
The scientist nodded, with a glance at Becca.
"He's thinking this won't work," she said.
"He's probably had some kind of anti-psychic training," Brandon said. "They have to do that because the aliens can read minds."
"Aliens?" Becca said. "You really are an idiot."
"Says the super-villain."
"Brandon," Kevin raised a hand.
Brandon fell silent and waited.
Kevin turned back to the scientist. "What is your name?"
"Dr. Samuel Juergens."
Kevin looked at Becca. She shrugged. “He pictured that name. He pictured it on a name badge.”
"It's over here," Mia said. She picked up the badge off the floor. "It could have fallen off when..."
"When you went postal on him?" Becca finished.
Mia looked down, the yellow energy crackling around her eyes. "Yeah..."
"Basically, it could be his name," Brandon said. "Or he could have focused on it to fool you."
Becca shrugged.
Kevin turned back to him. "What happened to us on the bus?"
"I don't know," the man answered. "Exactly! I know the bus drove through something. Something we don't entirely understand."
Becca grimaced. "I don't know. He thought of something, but I don't know what it means. Faces in the trees, wooden towers...nothingness."
"I saw faces!" Mia exclaimed. "I saw faces in the trees!"
"Ask him about the aliens!" Brandon said.
Becca appeared to listen to something, then turned back. "There were no aliens. That came through pretty clear."
"There had to be!" Brandon threw up his hands. "I saw them!"
"We all saw something, Dork," Becca said.
Kevin nodded. "It seems like each of us saw something different. And none of what we saw makes any sense together."
*****
At first, she went back to the club to work, but Becca soon found she didn't need to work anymore.
Bartenders sold her drinks on other people's credit cards, and then forgot. One of the local dealers handed her free mollies every night. The thoughts flooded her: She's so hot - God what I wouldn't - Damn girl - That body -Becca danced, she drank, she lost herself in music and ecstasy. The hottest guys and girls flocked to her, and at the end of the night she got paid and someone drove her home, whether they wanted to or not.
One night, as she waited at the bar for another drink, she saw a couple arguing in a corner. She reached out her mind and listened. He had looked at some other girl and she was angry, but he was laughing inside, because he had done more than look. He was a serial cheater, had been with another girl that very night.
YYOU FUCKING PRICKK
The guy jumped, but Becca caught him with her mind and he froze.
"Brian?" the girl said.
Brian stripped off his clothes. A bouncer came running, but Becca stopped him cold. Brian danced out in the middle of the floor, wiggling his penis for all to see.
"I have the tiniest pee pee IN THE WORRRRLD!" he shouted.
People were clapping and laughing, Becca the hardest of all.
Just like that, Becca Miller had a new hobby.
*****
As the bus struck the railing, there was an eerie silence.
Becca saw the bus was sailing into the air, crashing down into the water, but she heard nothing. She felt nothing.
"Daddy help me, I'm scared!" she screamed.
The door opened, and the faceless men entered. The one in front looked familiar.
*****
“Why are you trying to kill us?” Kevin asked.
“I’m not,” he said. “It’s the General, General Higgins. He’s gone crazy, thinks you kids are some kind of threat.”
Becca nodded. “He’s got a pretty clear image of the General.”
“Which doesn’t mean anything except that the General’s a real person,” Brandon said.
“Listen to me,” Juergens said, “the bus, what happened wasn’t isolated. It’s spreading, there could be a catastrophe if we don’t stop it!”
Becca nodded again.
“What can we do?” asked Kevin.
“There’s another lab, the computer lab, I’ve been working on a prototype satellite, to analyze the readings from space. They set a launch date for two months from now, but we don’t have that much time. You could get it into space now,” he said, indicating Brandon.
“Me? In space?” Brandon looked nervous.
“If we don’t figure out what’s happening and how to stop it, the whole world could be in danger!”
Becca nodded. “He’s thinking there is a danger and he is trying to stop it.”
Brandon shook his head. “He’s broadcasting. Just thinking of partial truths to stop us from getting to the real story.”
“Which is the aliens I guess,” Becca said. “You never quit.”
“I don’t KNOW what it is!” Brandon said.
“This is pointless.” Becca stood. “I’m getting out of here.”
“What?” Kevin stood. “You can’t just leave. There’s armed guards out there.”
“We can all leave,” Becca said. “All of us. They can’t stop us all.”
Silence fell as the others considered her words.
“Please,” said Dr. Juergens, “we have to stop it.”
“I don’t have to do a damn thing,” Becca said.
“But you did say he was telling the truth about that,” Kevin said.
“Maybe. Maybe it’s like the Dork said.”
“I never said we could leave!” Brandon said. “We’ve come this far, we have to stay and figure this all out.”
“I’ve been dead once, I’m not looking to go back.” Becca turned to Mia and flashed her brightest smile. “How about you, Blue? We could ditch these guys, get out of here together?”
Mia looked doubtful. “You just want me to help you get out.”
“Well, yeah, duh,” Becca said, “but we can help each other.” She reached out with her mind.
“Ahh…” Mia’s head rolled back.
“What are you doing to her?” Kevin asked, advancing.
“Calm down, she’s fine. I bet she feels a lot better now.”
“The sound,” Mia said. “That horrible sound. It’s gone.”
“It’s still there,” Becca said, “I’m just blocking it from hurting you. See, I’m not that bad, once you get to know me.” She reached out and touched Mia’s hand. “What do you say we get out of here?”
Mia looked around at the others.
“Don’t do it,” Brandon said.
Becca scowled. “Let me show you something, Blue.”
Her eyes were all Mia could see, and then the thoughts flooded into her:
Maybe we’re better off, that girl is crazy.
Good riddance to both of them.
Yeah take the crazy girl with you.
CRAZY.
The yellow energy blazed to life as
Mia took Becca’s hand. “If that’s how you all feel, then fine! Let’s go!”
They walked to the door, but Tyler turned his gaze on them and they both stopped, motionless.
“Let them go, Tyler,” Kevin said. “If they want to leave, let them.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
Tyler blinked, and the two of them stumbled forward, freed from whatever had held them.
“See you around, losers,” Becca said, reaching for the door.
“Blessing and a curse,” Brandon said.
Becca turned. “I know I’m gonna regret this, but what?”
“In comics, sometimes a hero’s powers are a blessing and a curse. You said you only get surface thoughts, right? Well that’s not who people really are. Yeah, we all think Mia might be crazy. We’re all freaked out that Simon looks like a gorilla. Kevin thinks I’m annoying. I think he’s afraid of his own shadow. People think things all the time, but that doesn’t make that all they are. You only see people for what’s on the surface, and it makes you think everyone’s like that all the time. Your power is a trap, and you’re caught in it. You have to break free.”
“Why should I?”
“Because...I don’t think we can do this without you,” Brandon said.
Who are you? Who’s that little girl?
Don’t you dare cry for him.
“Well then,” Becca said, “you really are fucked.” She opened the door and she and Mia slipped into the hall.
Tyler closed the door behind them.
*****
Becca no longer stayed at home. She had abandoned it in favor of penthouse suites paid for by wealthy men. She ate wherever she pleased, had people drive her wherever she wanted to go.
She spent her days in shopping malls and jewelry stores, wearing things once and then throwing them away. She danced away her nights and found men to punish for their misdeeds.
She thought she was being clever, changing hotels, malls, and bars every so often, but her life was catching up with her. Too many fraud charges were reported to credit card companies. Too many security cameras played back footage of a girl with long dirty blonde hair and green eyes. Too many confused men were arrested with no memories of why they had run naked in the streets, or inserted beer bottles into their rectums. Too many people had seen the blonde girl and surfaced to tell of her.
They were closing in on her, one report at a time.
Becca thought the party would never end.
One night, on the very bridge where the school bus had crashed, it ended.
*****
As the bus sank to the bottom, the faceless man walked down the aisle. His shirt was familiar to her. She had laid her head down on that shirt while watching a game.
WHOOOOO'S THAT GIRLLLL? The faceless man said in her mind.
Becca screamed.
The faceless man leaned over her, reaching for her.
WHO ARRRRRE YOOOU? his voice spoke in her head. WHOO'S THISS LITTLE GIRLLL?
Becca screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed.
DDADDY'S LITTLE PRINCESSSSSSSSSSS
Men were crowding over her.
Becca went wild, shrieking, thrashing, but they pinned her down as best they could.
"Hold her!" One of the EMTs said.
One of them managed to get a needle into her, and she felt herself drift away.
Jesus, almost couldn't get the needle in her, one of them said.
What happened to this girl? asked the other.
But they didn't speak out loud, she realized. It was in her mind.
Becca drifted off as the ambulance made its way to the hospital.
*****
“I think that’s all of them,” Mia said, the yellow energy pouring off of her.
Unconscious men surrounded them. Becca grinned.
“Nice job, Blue,” she said.
Mia smiled.
“Okay, time to go,” Becca said. “It’s been fun.”
“What? What do you mean?”
Becca laughed. “Sweetie, I wouldn’t hook up with you if we were shipwrecked together on Lesbo Island. Crazy bitch.”
Suddenly, blinding pain flooded Mia’s head, and a maddening cacophony exploded in her skull. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! Mia fell to her knees, clutching her head. The yellow energy began pulsing from her entire body.
“Yeah, I forgot to mention that’s been building up for a while now. That’s gotta suck.”
“Why?” Mia said through clenched teeth. “Why did you do this?”
Becca looked as if she pitied her, for a moment. “Not that it really matters, since you’re probably about to fuckin’ die, but…you really shouldn’t trust people. They’ll always let you down.”
As the yellow energy built to a climax, Becca left her.
*****
There was an explosion somewhere that rocked the lab. They grabbed the walls and stone tables, riding it out.
Tyler saw everything, but was powerless to stop it.
“They’re gone,” he said. “Becca escaped.”
“And Mia?” Kevin asked.
Tyler just shook his head.
They were all silent for a while. Simon and Heather held each other. Brandon sat in a chair and looked lost.
Zachary reached out a hand to Dr. Juergens.
“Thank you,” the scientist said. He stood with Zachary’s help.
“Even you can be saved,” Zachary said.
Juergens looked at him strangely for a moment, and then turned to the others. “They gave us some time. We need to use it to get to the computer lab. We have to go now.”
“Okay,” Kevin said. “Let’s go.”
Juergens moved forward, but Zachary tugged at his arm. He turned back.
“It’s important,” Zachary said. “The angels on the bus sang about it, the night God spoke to me.”
“There is no God, Zachary,” the scientist said, “any more than there are aliens.”
“He had a message for you,” Zachary said, and reached out to touch his face.
CHAPTER SEVEN
ZACHARY
"Can you be brave for me?"
"Well, aren't you just a little angel?"
The woman, her hair tied up in a graying blonde bun, leaned over the counter and peered down at him, standing holding hands with his father. She pushed her glasses up on her nose.
"What's your name, hon?" she asked.
Zachary said nothing, just shifted his feet and clutched his Bible to his chest. His grip on his father's hand tightened. His father was slim, somewhat frail in appearance, his dark brown hair balding on top, with a sparse comb-over. They both wore very plain clothes; Zachary's father didn't care for anything too flashy or colorful. Moreover, most of what they owned, including the plain white t-shirt and blue jeans Zachary wore, had been donated, and showed the signs of much use.
"Son," his father said gently, "do you want to show the lady your name?"
He nodded, reluctantly, and reached up, holding his Bible up to her.
"You want me to see your Bible?" she asked, a bit perplexed.
Zachary let go of his father's hand to open the front cover. There, scrawled on the inside, were these words:
MY NAME IS ZACHARY
"Aww, your name is Zachary, huh?" she said slowly. She was doing what everyone did eventually, speaking slowly and over-emphasizing words, as if speaking to a dog. "He don't talk?" she asked his father.
"He hasn't spoken yet," his father said. He tussled Zachary's blond hair as she handed back the old, careworn Bible. "I like to think he's saving it up for the right time. Someday, he's gonna have something important to say. My boy is special."
"Well, he's real sweet," she said as she rang up their purchase on the register. "That'll be fifty-seven dollars, sir."
Wallet half-open, his father paused. "Fifty-seven?"
"Yes sir," she said with a smile.
"It's thirty-two," he said. "It's always been thirty-two."
She frowned. "I'm sorry, the price went up just this month. Prices keep going up."
His father took his money out and counted. "I only have forty dollars, ma'am. I'm out of work, I do some odd jobs, but I...I don't make much."
"I'm sorry, sir," she said, "it's fifty-seven, I can't sell it for less than that. I'd get in trouble."
"Please, is there anyone else I can speak with? I need my medicine."
"I'm very sorry," she said flatly, her friendly demeanor gone.
Zachary's father was silent, his eyes searching about for what more to do, and finding nothing. "God bless you," he said softly.
"Next," she said.
His father took his hand, and led him from the store.
*****
Zachary wasn't sure what to think when the bus swerved for the first time. He braced himself with his hands on the seat in front of him and looked about.
A beautiful light was shining in through all the windows, and he could hear something: voices. A high-pitched, almost eerie singing drifted in on the light.
Zachary looked out the window, and that's when he saw them.
There were angels. There were angels everywhere.
*****
"Okay," the doctor said, "I need you to follow this light with your eyes, can you do that for me?"
Zachary nodded. He had been brought here by ambulance from the river, which was quite a treat because he had never ridden in an ambulance before. The lights and sirens had made him grin ear to ear. The doctor, a young man with short dark hair, moved the light back and forth a bit and peered into Zachary's eyes.
"Good," the doctor said. "I understand you don't have any I.D. Can you tell me your name?"
He looked about, searching for his Bible, but it wasn't there. He was flooded with a terrible sense of loss at the idea of it lost at the bottom of the river.
"Do you know your name, son?" the doctor asked.
He struggled for a bit, then opened his mouth. "My name is Zachary," he said.
The doctor smiled. "Good! Zachary, what's your last name?"
Zachary thought for a bit, then shrugged.
"You don't know?"
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