The Powerless Series: Complete 5-Book Set

by Jason Letts

  The nine soldiers turned from Jeremy’s dirty grin to Mira’s stressed face. Her furrowed brow and her tense eyes strained to conceal the turmoil bubbling underneath. They waited for her to speak while Jeremy left to rejoin his new companions. Still, they all felt so many eyes hovering around them.

  “Let’s go inside,” Mira shuddered.

  Tying the tent closed, Mira and her soldiers settled into their small living space. Mira stood near the back of the tent, shivering and scornful. The candlelight flickered over them. Again, she noticed so many eyes full of worry and concern, and nothing she could say would relieve them of it.

  “What was he talking about, Mira? What happened at the leaders’ meeting?” Aoi asked.

  There was nowhere to hide, no way to pretend. Clearing her throat, Mira delivered the truth to them.

  “I have some bad news. A lot of bad news. We have been ordered to provoke the enemy army, just ourselves, to create a diversion so that a larger force can engage them behind their defenses. We leave today. I have reason to believe this mission is constructed with our destruction in mind, and the reason for that is because I did something bad.”

  “What did you do?” Mary interrupted. The group already had their mouths hanging open; they were ready to crack. The pain of speaking cut through Mira so deeply that her eyes fluttered shut.

  “I fought with Neeko. On top of Shadow Mountain after he’d already won. I tried to kill him. I wanted to. And now we are being punished for it. If we refuse to go, they’ll kill us here, or we can go, and we’ll probably all die.”

  The cries and moans of the group wouldn’t have sounded any different if they’d all been stabbed, but fighting through the words emboldened Mira. It freed her from some of the guilt that had been strewn atop her inner torment. She felt the same single-minded determination and fire she felt as she fought her way to the peak. There had to be a way to survive. But their fear-stricken faces showed Mira her friends had already begun to understand the position they were in. Mira thought she heard someone sniffling out of worry, and nervous tension filled the air.

  “What’s going to happen to us, Mira?” Chucky whimpered.

  “This is my burden to bear, and I’m sorry that it has been cast on you, but no one will die as long as you do what I say. I know you’re afraid, but there are only two responses to fear: to run and to fight. When you can’t run, you will fight. It’s instinct. As bad as this is, we have one reason to hope. Pyrenee leads them into every battle, so we will have our shot at her. If we can do what has never been done before, overpower her, we might have a chance,” she explained.

  “But how are we supposed to do that and hold off an entire army?” Vern asked.

  Mira gave a sharp look to Rowland, who held Mira’s bag. He rose and emptied it on the table in front of everyone. One after another, knives and metal shanks rattled out. Lastly, Rowland took Mira’s large metal mace by its rubber handle and set it on top of them. When she picked it up and began to admire her new weapon, everyone gasped at the pointy black barbs wrapping around it. Rowland sat down next to the others as they watched her test its weight and ready herself for some invisible enemy. Feeling the battery molded into the handle, she flipped the switch. Everyone jumped when the weapon began to spark and sizzle. A devious smile emerged on her face. Waving the club over the knives, small jolts of electricity shocked the blades, making them jump and snap.

  “You are terrifying!” Rowland laughed. Mira flipped off the switch and swung the bat down on the table. The barbs sunk into the wood and held the bat in place after Mira let it go.

  “Don’t you see?” Mira responded. “We have the means to fight back, to take what we want, because to take through force is the only way to regain what belongs to us. We will face our enemy, and we will trap her along with any who follow her. Here’s how we’re going to do it. Our goal will be to funnel them to Roselyn, and her song will neutralize them.”

  “Another plan revolving around me? What would you guys do without me?” Roselyn joked.

  “We’re going to need a bigger tent to fit all of that ego,” Will replied.

  “Behind Roselyn, we have Vern, drawing the enemy close enough to drop them at her feet. Mary will be back there too, trying to give us an idea of what powers we’ll be facing. The rest of us will spread forward diagonally, forcing them into our trap. Arm yourselves to your liking, but if your power can’t help you I recommend you come here now and claim a knife.”

  Following her instructions, about half of the group decided to take a weapon. While Dot rolled stones in her hand and Aoi practiced with her toothpicks, others who were less prepared to fight approached the table. Will selected a knife and let his finger graze the sharp edge. Mira watched him, wondering how long his enthusiasm would last against his fear. Rowland quickly grabbed the largest knife, presumably one he made for himself. Kurt and Chucky also took a blade.

  “It feels so weird to know what I’ll be using this for,” Chucky said.

  Mary also reached out to take something, but Mira grabbed the only piece that was not a blade and put it in her hand. Eyeing Mary, Mira could tell she would be the most helpless once the battle began. If she didn’t get some kind of help, she was a walking corpse just like Corey said.

  “Squeeze the handle of this simple lighter, and the dragging metal will create a spark,” Mira explained to her and then turned to Chucky. “I want you to look after her, Chucky, but don’t let her ignite any of your gooey grease while it’s still on you.”

  “Are you sure you don’t need any looking after?” Chucky asked. He was trying to empathize with her, but she lowered her eyes to the floor.

  “I don’t deserve to have anyone,” she said, pausing abruptly, “looking after me.”

  Soon they had settled on their mats, and Mira stood over them, finding something to relish in all their despair. Her almond eyes grew large in the candlelight. The way she savored her words at once evoked their enthusiasm and made their skin crawl.

  “There are no more tests, no more trials. Carry only what will aid you in the fight. We go now to face the real thing, the battle that has haunted you for most of your lives. It’s so close I can taste it! They say there’s something life-defining about being in a war, something that latches onto you and leeches at your soul. And I’m sorry that you will know it and have it festering inside your minds. Just don’t let it be you who has to do the things you have to do. Instead, be the hero you always wished you could be.”

  Before any of them were ready to go, a lieutenant appeared in the entrance demanding they proceed. While they quickly rummaged through their bags one more time for anything that might help, the lieutenant’s commands became more severe, forcing them to abandon the rest of their belongings and move to the exit.

  Filing outside onto the pathway, most of the other soldiers stopped and stood in front of their tents to watch Mira and her soldiers pass by. Some marveled at the weapon that Mira held against her shoulder, but most of the other untested soldiers held either scorn or sympathy on their faces. Even though all present knew the group was being punished, little time stood in the way before they made a similar walk.

  Mira and her team kept their heads down, feeling like convicts. They tried to shut out the whispering and the smirking, braced themselves for the voice of Neeko or Jeremy, and remembered the words of the supportive mentors they had so recently left behind. The ten soldiers made it through the residential area behind the lieutenant, who headed straight for base camp’s eastern most point. Fewer buildings obstructed the view in this area, allowing them to see the larger force gathering in the training fields.

  Stopping at the boundary between the shield’s shade and the open sunlight, the lieutenant gave them directions to the forward station, the last stronghold before the war zone and the enemy territory beyond. Before they set off, Mira and her friends received one last piece of advice.

  “If something should happen, try to keep your uniforms clean. That way we can r
euse them,” the lieutenant said.

  Receiving no other salutation, the group set into the hot sun carrying nothing more than what little they could jam in the pockets. Between their sudden, sullen departure and the promise of mortal danger at their destination, a solemn feeling swept over them. They started to picture their lives assuming its end would come in less than a day. No one spoke for some time.

  “I for one am glad we’re going to be doing it on our own. We don’t need anyone else. This is how it always should’ve been,” Rowland cheered.

  “I wish I’d been nicer to my family,” Vern said. “It took me far too long to outgrow being a brat.”

  “Don’t say that, Vern,” Aoi sympathized. “We’re still waiting for you to outgrow it.”

  Her comment scored some weak laughter, and then they returned to staring at the sandy rock beneath their feet in silence. They couldn’t see anything but barren hillsides and destitute wasteland in any direction. The unceasing sun convinced them to make use of their hoods, which they pulled over their heads. Tilting their heads against the brim, they would tempt a peek at the sun to see if it had dropped any lower.

  Hours passed and their rigid two-lined formation had collapsed completely. They now clumped together in small groups, never drifting too far from the rest.

  “Is this what it’s all been for?” Mary asked. “It feels like I’ve done so little. What happened to my family, my kids?”

  “What about love?” Roselyn asked, right by Mary’s side.

  “You want love, well you’re about to know it,” Mira said. “The greatest love you can conceive and the greatest hate you can fathom look exactly the same inside of your mind. To know one is to know the other, and the only escape is apathy.”

  “I suppose I should be thankful for this then,” Chucky said. “I can’t recall managing to have an intense feeling in my entire life.”

  Will put his hand on his friend’s shoulder to comfort him. Soon the sun dipped low against the horizon behind them and turned a brilliant orange. When it finally dropped out of sight, they all felt a huge swelling of relief. As the last vestiges of sunlight trickled around the revolving Earth, the brilliant web stitched together the stars in the night’s sky. The faint threads criss-crossed against the atmosphere, separating the planet from the emptiness of space.

  They used the threads in the web to guide them east, and they reached the forward station after a few hours in the darkness. Two torches burned at the entrance to a small bunker set against a hill. Tired eyes glimmered through the windowless holes at the group of arrivals. The veterans who manned this station offered little in the way of greetings. Still, nothing seemed more appealing than a short rest, and so Mira and her friends entered and sat down at one of the long benches.

  Some rations had been left on the counter, and they helped themselves to the fare. In the orange firelight, Mira noticed spots of mold on her bread. She picked them off and flicked them away before eating.

  “First-timers?” asked a grizzled man who sat on the floor against the wall. He received nods in reply and even a smile from Roselyn.

  “Figured. It’s that time of year. After your first day you’ll pray for the sun to set. After three you’ll never want it to rise again.”

  “What’s so bad about the sun? We still don’t get it,” Aoi said.

  “It saps your energy, scalding you as though you were in boiling water and on fire at the same time. Cover up or it’ll drain the life right out of you. Always remember, the stronger the sun gets, the closer you are…‌to him.”

  “Thanks,” Aoi muttered, casting glances around at her friends to see what they could make of it.

  “Seems to me if somebody’s got a power that’s a thorn in everybody’s side, that somebody should be our first target. Get rid of the person, get rid of the power,” Vern argued.

  “If they haven’t gotten rid of it by now, I doubt we’ll have much luck putting a stop to it. Maybe it’ll be cloudy and we won’t have to worry about it,” Will pondered, causing the veteran to chuckle.

  “Don’t get too many cloudy days around here. Does a good job of sucking them dry.”

  Further unsettled by the veteran, the group rested quietly until another soldier emerged from a back room.

  “It’s time for you to get going. You’ve got a long night ahead of you, and you don’t want to waste it. Follow the second spiral. It’ll take you to the scrub forest. Chances are slim you’ll run into any trouble before the morning assault, but it can’t be ruled out. And I wouldn’t recommend running for it. There’s a whole lot of nothing in every direction.”

  They left the station behind, guided by Mira’s flashlight and the dim light trickling down on them through the cloudless sky. The only comfort was in the temperature, which stayed warm through the night. A gentle gust swept steadily around their exposed fingers. It made them think of both where it came from and where it was headed. Both places had to be better than where they were right now.

  Walking through the night, they kept their ears open for any sounds in the darkness. Their nerves and worries seemed all the more frightening in the mysterious landscape. They toppled over the rolling hills, rubble and stone littering the ground.

  “What’s that?” Will asked, spotting something under the flashlight.

  “It’s nothing,” Mira said, jerking the flashlight away from the tan lump on the ground. She steered them around the body, and no one else said a word, but they all strained themselves to be more vigilant, searching for anything that might be hidden in the night.

  Hours passed, and they struggled to stay awake. Those who started to nod off while walking usually received a heavy shove to return them to their senses. Mira, tireless, pushed them along without ever saying a word. Sometimes someone would glimpse her at the right angle with the light just right, catching sight of her disconcerting smile and wide, gleaming eyes.

  Long after any of them remembered the time but before anyone could forget where they were, a squishy clicking caught their ears. Startled, they scanned the darkness for the sound’s source. Something shuffled against the ground and Mira stopped abruptly when a lumpy mass fell under the flashlight. The others ran into her and caught sight of a strange creature in the pale light.

  “Eek! What is that?” Mary cried amid gasps and drawn knives.

  Writhing and twirling, tentacles treaded on the ground to support a smooth head. It raised its front two appendages and hissed its discontent.

  “It’s an octopus!” they observed, though it blended in against the ground perfectly with its yellow and brown splotches. The fussy creature, no more than a foot tall, slapped its arms against the ground. None of them dared get any closer to it.

  “We’re going to run around it. Ready? Go!” Mira called and they all chased her through the darkness. The creature hissed but let its antagonists slip away. Their sprint settled into a jog and then collapsed into a walk.

  “What is going on?” Vern asked, bewildered. “That is not natural at all. I guess there’s a lot more than just what we’ve seen around Corey Outpost.”

  “Maybe someone made it,” Rowland guessed. “If I can make metal tools, what’s stopping someone else from creating a whole new species of animal?”

  “I bet it only seemed scary because we’re in the dark,” Will added. “Wouldn’t it be great to have one of those as a pet? We could call it a Walk-topus!”

  “You’re ridiculous,” Roselyn laughed, grabbing his uniform near his shoulder and yanking him along.

  “I wonder where the main army is,” Aoi pondered, looking around for other signs of light or movement in the dark. “They can’t be that far behind.”

  “Listen,” Mira ordered. “We’re not going into this without a way out. The most important thing is that we survive, so we’ll try our luck with Pyrenee, hold them off for as long as we can, and then meet somewhere on the side as soon as we can get away.”

  “The anticipation is killing me. I just wish it would be
here already,” Chucky squirmed.

  “It’ll be here sooner than you think,” Aoi responded, gesturing along the eastern horizon where the first hints of sunlight breached the sky.

  The wasteland they’d been walking through for hours began to reveal itself around them. A treacherous, tortured looking landscape, cracks stretched through the ground like giant scars. In the distance, thick, black trees of charcoal obscured the land beyond. A hill arched along the north, and Mira pointed that their goal would be to regroup on its far side.

  The sun burst into the sky, its harsh rays immediately sapping them of strength and hope. They kept their hands inside their sleeves and turned their faces away. Despite the thick fabric of their uniforms, the sunlight irritated them, rubbing and itching in all the wrong ways.

  Crossing over another bare hilltop and sneaking around some large boulders, they came within range of the scrub forest’s edge. Hiding behind the imposing stones, they scanned the area and listened for hostile sounds. Standing ground on the meadow would give them a chance to draw their enemy and flee amongst the rocks if necessary. Only the question of how it would all play out remained.

  “I can’t feel anyone, not the faintest hint of a gift. We’re alone,” Mary said after Mira shot her a look.

  “How do we provoke Pyrenee?” Vern asked Mira, the nerves making his eyes well up.

  “We make ourselves a target and hope she can’t resist,” Mira replied, gripping the rubber handle of her mace. “OK, are we ready?” she asked, turning to her group.

  Many of them were paralyzed in trepidation, but they forced a nod anyway, their big childish eyes gazing at Mira. They tiptoed out, every jerky movement forward seeming a great struggle between what they wanted and what they had to do.