The Powerless Series: Complete 5-Book Set

by Jason Letts

“Let me tell you where you’re going. To get to Shade Base Camp, cross the mountains here past Dustfalls, continue through the grasslands south of Shadow Mountain, and then curve northward once you meet the badlands. The camp is protected from the sun by a colossal shield that floats in the sky. Use it to guide you.”

  Confident she understood the directions, Mira waved Natalie off as the others gathered around. Butterflies in their stomachs, they said yet more goodbyes to these final two figures who had come to see them off.

  “Just listen to Mira!” Fortst pleaded as they set off, since his previous advice had been taken much differently than he intended it. Natalie stood silently by his side, holding back her own pain. The group had already left earshot, marching along the forest’s edge to where they would climb into the mountains. From the outpost gate, they shrunk to tiny specks in the distance, and then they disappeared altogether.

  For the next several days, these ten soldiers made their journey to their army’s home base. During that time, they caught up on what they had done during The Shadowing, helped each other manage life on a trail, and became acquainted with Mira’s troubling new temperament. Despite rationing food, sleeping outside, and the fatigue of constant work, they radiated optimism and excitement. Seeing another group making an identical pilgrimage, they decided to race them, though Mira already pushed them at break-neck speeds.

  From the mountain of sand that formed Dustfalls to the sweeping grasslands, the natural beauty of the landscape accompanied them on their journey. But then the land became rocky and barren. Wind kicked up sand, and the scarred, rocky terrain irritated them. Continuing to follow their directions, they yearned to be wherever they needed to be.

  Then, overcoming a steep hillside, they first caught sight of their destination. A large settlement of tents staked out territory on a flat expanse of earth alongside a narrow stream. Caravans traveled along paths across the rock and sand. But above the encampment, positioned in just the right place so that it would block the sun, hung a massive wooden shield assembled from countless tree trunks. Seeing the shield floating in the air and the darkness that it cast below made everyone’s mouth hang open with wonder and astonishment.

  “There’s no going back now,” Vern sighed.

  Chapter 2: Shade Base Camp

  Descending the hill, they began to understand the level of organization within this buzzing enclave. Soldiers in formation trained on the far fields. Horses dragged carts of food and supplies to large warehouses. Lookouts stood perched in tall towers. And, like themselves, other groups made their final steps in a long trek from disparate parts of the land.

  They spotted a large map etched into wood just outside of the entrance. Above a lieutenant who directed incoming soldiers, the map displayed the four quadrants of Shade Base Camp, the residential area, the medical area, the training grounds, and the administrative headquarters. Different buildings and tents were labeled, amounting to a dizzyingly complex operation.

  Once thirty new soldiers in their old yellow academy uniforms cleared out of the way, Mira and the others approached the stern, young lieutenant. He sat behind a counter, shuffling the papers on it furiously. The sharp line between the sunlight and the shade curved around just in front of him.

  “Academy name,” he demanded.

  “Dustfalls Academy,” Mira responded, causing the lieutenant to jerk his head and give Mira a careful look. He knew something or had heard of them, and it made her uneasy.

  “Check. Proceed into the storage house behind me to get your uniforms and then continue to the residences where you can claim an unoccupied tent for your group. Also, the leaders’ meeting with the Commander will be tomorrow morning at dawn in the assembly hall. Do not be late.”

  Another group joined the line behind them, and so Mira leaned closer to him to ask her question.

  “Where do we get weapons?” she asked. The lieutenant gave her a funny look.

  “You get them from the web. But if you admit you’re too feeble you can scrounge around in the dirt.”

  Mira took a step to the storage house containing the uniforms but then stopped suddenly.

  “How do we know if a tent is unoccupied?” she asked.

  “You know it’s unoccupied if nobody’s in it,” he said.

  The lieutenant urged her away by waving the group behind on. Mira had no choice but to take her peers into the storage house, a basic structure with four walls, an entryway on each side, and nothing but uniform crates inside. Each of the ten soldiers stepped across the barrier of sun and shade, immediately feeling the relief from the beating light.

  They walked through the doorless entryway just as the group of soldiers in front of them finished putting on their uniforms and left. The tan-colored, hooded coveralls fit tightly but stretched all the way to the wrists and ankles and high on the neck. The reason for such heavy jumpsuits was unmistakable; it was to block out their enemy, the sun.

  “That’s not going to look good on me at all,” Roselyn groaned.

  A few others echoed her sentiment, but then Mary voiced a more pressing concern.

  “Wait, we’re supposed to change in here too? If I wanted boys to ogle me, I’d have gone sunbathing!” Mary said.

  Already irritated by the complaints, Mira started to suggest that the boys could change first, but she looked back at where they had come and another group already waited to come in.

  “Boys face that wall and girls face this wall. Nobody look!” she ordered.

  The crates had labels according to the different sizes, and everyone grabbed one that would fit. Facing opposite directions, the five girls and five guys striped down to their underclothes and attempted to slip into the jumpsuits. Twisting his head around, Rowland started to snicker.

  “No peeking!” Mary scolded him, causing the rest of them to start glancing over their shoulders at bare or nearly bare body parts.

  “Did you get a good enough look?” Roselyn asked Rowland on the way out, rolling her eyes. He nodded and smiled, flashing bright white teeth through his dark complexion.

  “I’m glad that’s over,” Mary groaned when they emerged from the house on the other side. “The last thing I need is someone invading my privacy when I need to change clothes. Which way to our new home?”

  “That way!” Will declared, leaping forward and pointing with a dramatic chop. The others tested out their new uniforms in different ways while they walked through the alleys. They stretched and jogged. Some pulled down the hood to evoke laughs from their friends.

  “I simply refuse to wear it. My hair would never forgive me.” Mary proclaimed, broaching an amused smile and staking out her place right next to Roselyn.

  “I can’t wait to see where we’re going to live,” Roselyn said, causing Mary to start up again.

  “I brought sheets from home, candles, some drawings my family made for the wall. Life is too short to be uncomfortable, right?”

  “You’d better hope it’s not that short,” Mira chided, but Mary scoffed at her.

  “I thought it was Aoi’s job to make snide comments like that. What is she supposed to do now that you’ve taken it?”

  “My job? From now on the only job we all have is to make sure our hearts keep beating,” Aoi said.

  “That was just creepy. I don’t even know what to say,” Mary replied, and a hand swooped over her face and pressed against her mouth.

  “Then don’t say anything,” Roselyn laughed. “Just think about your candles.”

  The cheap wooden houses gave way to rows of tents as they entered into the residential area. Another new group moved into one down the ways. Older soldiers wandered about in the connecting pathways, and a few relaxed in makeshift chairs at tent entrances. Some chuckled and joked, seemingly no different from Mira’s friends, but then their invasive glares made them all feel uncomfortable as they walked by.

  “We’d better get to finding a tent,” Mira said, and the others began to fan out and search for an abandoned one. It did
n’t take long to find a few prospects.

  “This one’s empty,” Kurt hollered, motioning to enhance his peek by sticking his head in.

  “This one too,” Chucky shouted from a few tents down.

  “Oh no, wait,” Kurt called again. “There’s stuff in this one.”

  “This one too,” Chucky yelled, disappointed.

  “They all have stuff in them,” Rowland called from a different tent.

  Another lieutenant had just walked by on his way to a large mess hall, and Mira jogged to catch his attention.

  “Excuse me, we can’t find an empty tent.”

  The lieutenant turned around and waved his arms to the very tents that Chucky and Kurt stood before.

  “Most of these are still empty. Choose whichever one you like,” he said before continuing on. Mira gulped when she understood what it meant that the tents could still be empty even though they still had people’s belongings in them. She slowly walked back to her friends and ducked into the closest free tent, which Kurt stood alongside.

  “This will be fine,” she said, and the rest followed her in.

  The large tents had plenty of room for the twelve mats that covered most of the ground. A bag accompanied each mat, and some of them had personal belongings spilling out. The air smelled like it belonged to someone else, full of sweat.

  “We’re all going to be living in here? My mom would faint if she…” Mary babbled, but she saw the bags and became very quiet. Huddled in the narrow walkway between the mats, they looked at everything like they were in a graveyard. One of the most prominent artifacts in the room sat on a small table in the corner. Facing them, a wooden carving read, “Cherry Oak Academy.”

  An ill feeling swept over them all, making them put their heads down and close their eyes. No one moved an inch. It was a wonder none of them started crying. Suddenly, Mira, who could take no more of it, went to the table, grabbed the carving, and threw it out the entrance.

  “We don’t have time to feel sorry for them. Everybody take a bag and we’ll pile them behind the tent,” Mira ordered.

  The others reluctantly complied. They set their bags down on the floor and grabbed the ones already there. The weight and the feel of the bags were no different. These abandoned sacks could have just as easily been theirs. Soon they had finished cleaning out their new living space, having emptied everything onto a pile out back.

  Swallowing their discomfort, they went about the awkward process of settling in. Mary lit a candle and put it on a table. Some set clothes or small pillows on their mats. All ten people moving around, it wasn’t long before being stuffed together in a cramped tent grated on their nerves.

  “I’ve never shared a room before. If anybody snores, I’m going to strangle them,” Dot warned.

  Roselyn ducked her head outside and called to another soldier.

  “Where are the showers? The bathrooms?”

  “The outhouses are over that way, but I don’t think you’re going to like what you find,” the soldier answered.

  Inside, Will emptied his bag onto his mat. He wrapped up some of his clothes to try and make a pillow. The black uniform of the enemy Sunfighters sat on top. Trying to head off another problem, Mira crouched next to Will, making him jump.

  “I can’t blame you for bringing that,” Mira said, feeling the slick fabric of the black uniform, “but I think it’s best if you keep it a secret. Who knows what people would think if they found out you had that.”

  “Thanks, Mira,” he said, taking her advice and shoving the uniform back to the bottom. Just then, Mary stuck her head in from outside.

  “Mira, Rowland’s digging through the Cherry Oak bags!” she complained.

  Mira went out to check and a few others followed her. Looking along the side of the tent, they saw Rowland sitting on the ground beside a small pile of clothes and belongings that he had looted. He held a tin can in his hands, molding it into a smooth, round ball as though it were snow.

  “What’s the problem?” It’s not like they’re going to be using this stuff anymore,” Rowland said. Mary let out some of her disgust. By now everyone had come outside, and Mira turned to face them.

  “If something is against your morals, don’t do it. But I’m not going to stop anyone from doing anything they think will help either. In fact, Rowland, come with me. We’ve got work to do!” she ordered.

  By the time Rowland made it to the front end of the tent, Mira had already returned from inside carrying the small pouch of scraps that her parents had given her. Rowland tossed the metal ball in his hand and joined her in the sandy pathway.

  “Wait, what are we supposed to do?” Vern asked, his eyebrows scrunched in concern.

  “Get yourselves ready to fight as best you can. There’s no telling how quickly it will come.”

  Vern gave Mira a firm nod before she and Rowland disappeared down another side street. She took the metal ball out of his hands and dropped it into her pouch. It made a clinking noise when it hit the other metal pieces.

  “What are we doing anyway?” Rowland asked.

  “We’ve got to arm ourselves,” Mira decided, regardless of how feeble they would seem. Pride and honor were nothing if it got her killed, she reasoned. Besides, the web had never given her anything. “Let’s head for the supply bunkers.”

  Walking down Base Camp’s pathways, in the perpetual shade of the floating shield, they passed soldiers and officers of different ranks. Most of them went about their business without giving them even a look, and Mira felt relieved when no one asked her what they were doing.

  Reaching the supply bunkers, they tried to figure out what the different buildings contained. They approached a guard who stood at his post in front of one of the bunker doors.

  “Excuse me, we need another tent pole. Someone grew unexpectedly and snapped it in half,” Mira explained, rolling her eyes.

  “This is the grain supply bunker. You’ll have to go down there,” he said pointing further down the row.

  Mira and Rowland followed his directions to the other bunker, feeding the same line to another guard at her post. The guard, who appeared bored to death, found plenty of amusement in the pair standing before her.

  “I swear every new group that shows up is dumber than the last. Probably wouldn’t know how to tie your shoes if someone didn’t show you.”

  “Yes, someone had to show me how to tie my shoes. But can we go in?” Mira pleaded.

  “Fine, but if you take longer than three minutes, I’m coming in after you,” the guard said.

  They wasted no time pushing in the thin wooden door and entering the dark enclosure. Completely alone in the building’s cool enclosure, they scoured crates of different sizes, finding tarps and sacks here, ropes and stakes there.

  “I found the poles,” Rowland called from one side of the bunker.

  “Great! Grab one and come over here,” Mira ordered.

  Rowland hoisted the long pole onto his shoulder and carried it toward Mira. Squinting in the darkness, he crept closer to Mira, who gazed lovingly at something near the ground. It took a few more steps before he could see the object of her affection, a large spool of barbed wire.

  “Oh, it’s perfect,” she rejoiced, almost giving it a hug.

  Carefully grabbing it to avoid the barbs, Mira yanked on the end and unrolled several feet’s worth. It took just an effortless pinch for Rowland to snap free the section that Mira held, but she puzzled over how to sneak it past the guard. It wouldn’t fit in the pouch. Snapping her fingers, the answer came to her, and she stuffed the wire into the hollow tube. They rushed through the exit, past the guard, and ducked into the first secluded place they could find.

  Hidden behind a few buildings in a crawlspace, Mira emptied her bag of scraps, batteries, and wires onto the ground as Rowland set down the long metal tube.

  “What’s all this stuff for anyway?” Rowland asked.

  “I need you to make something for me,” she whispered, her intense eye
s fixed upon him. “Make a bat about three feet long, wrap it with the barb wire and connect it to these wires and batteries. A simple switch will electrify it.”

  “You never cease to amaze me,” Rowland smiled, “but even I know that electricity means you’ll never be able to touch it.”

  “Mold these over the handle,” she said, removing the black rubber gloves she had gotten from her old mentor, Flip Widget. Rowland looked at the materials they had out on the dry, sandy earth and then cast Mira a pensive glance. He reached his hand out to grab a curved strip of metal, but then he stopped and dropped it.

  “What about me? What about the rest of us? You won’t be the only one out there with nothing but your fists to defend you,” he argued. For the first time, some of his bravado had left him, and he revealed his fear of what would come.

  Mira gave him a hard, piercing look as she considered him. She was tempted to snap at him and tell him just to do what she said, but then Corey’s words came to her. She had to protect them, or in this case give them a way to protect themselves.

  “OK, you’re right. There should be enough material here to do something about that,” she said. Mira gave him instructions for other things to make, and they started turning the metal chunks and tubing into weapons. Rowland worked the metal sheets and slivers like they were clay, melding them together and twisting them into whatever shape he desired. Soon he had the tube broken into sections and the scraps balled into a club.

  “Did you hear that?” came a voice from around the building, and a sudden panic set upon them. Without needing to say anything, they quickly hid the partly finished pieces between them and dashed around the corner just before an officer poked his head around the wall.

  Taking brisk steps and shortened breaths, they raced back to their tent as quickly as they could without seeming suspicious. Turning another corner, they returned to the residential area, closing in on their tent and their companions.

  “I’ll keep working on these. They’ll be just like you wanted,” Rowland promised.

  “Thank you. You have no idea how valuable you are to us,” Mira said before splitting up with him.