Helen and Mia sat in the loveseat and a small round woman came up to us. “Can I get you a glass of iced tea or freshly squeezed lemonade?”
I thought about it and worried that maybe they had poisoned the drinks, but felt it was only polite to agree. “Lemonade would be great,” I said.
The others looked equally as hesitant but asked for the same. Once the woman turned away, we brought our attention back to Helen.
“We have a lot of questions. Why did Stephan do this to us? What do we have in common? Why are we all from St. Louis? Why was my fiancé murdered?” I started.
“I can only answer one question at a time. As for why Stephan did this to you, it was a gift. You are special in every way for a reason. Soon you will understand what having this gift means and how it will make your life worth it.”
“Ok, why are we all from St. Louis?” Noah hedged.
“That is a little easier to explain. That was primary based on close proximity to us and statistics. It is the nearest city that met his criteria for the operation.”
“Why was my fiancé murdered?” I asked as tears began to blur my eyes.
“He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was an accident, he wouldn’t let Stephan speak to you and he knew you would dissolve in just a matter of time. He tried to move him out of the way and he fell, hitting his head on the statue. He is truly sorry for that.”
“That is no excuse for murdering him! I loved him!” I spat, tears streaming down my cheeks.
“I am sorry for my son’s actions but it won’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I can understand your anger and we are all sacrificing a lot for this, some more than others.”
“Why did he choose us in particular?” Shane asked, effectively changing the sensitive subject.
“Genetics, pure and simple, your genetic markers had a chromosome that was hospitable to the gene you were inserted with. I don’t really understand the whole scientific facts of it, just that you were a good host for the mutation.”
“Where did he get our DNA in the first place?” I questioned.
“He used hospital records to track down perfect matches throughout the city. You all have very unique genetic structures from what Stephan has told me,” she replied gently.
“Why are all our powers different?” Nessa inquired.
“It has to do with the way your body adapted to the mutation. It is different for everyone.”
“Are there more of us?” I asked.
“Yes, but I wasn’t privy to that information, I am sorry.”
“Where is Stephan now?” I questioned my words hardening.
“He is out, that is all I know. I was instructed to answer your questions as best I could.”
Mia jumped in changing the subject. “So what are your powers? Are they cool?”
“Shane can heal, Noah can mimic other people’s looks, Nessa can read minds, and I can dissolve.”
“That is so cool!” she said tucking her auburn hair back behind her ears.
“Okay, that is all the time we have for questions. There is more here for you to discover. Excuse me for a minute. I need to prepare the modifier for our demonstration,” Helen said looking a little bereft as she exited the room.
“What is going on?” I asked Mia.
“It is about time for a demonstration. We have to show you so you understand.”
“Show us what?” I asked with a shiver sliding up my spine.
“You will have to wait and see. We don’t know exactly. Stephan just left instructions for the machine.”
At the word “machine” we were up in an instant. Who knows what would happen but it was clear Nessa knew something was up and was freaked to the max.
“Where are Helen and the machine?” I asked.
“In the kitchen,” Mia replied.
We all tore through the living room and headed to where we guessed was the kitchen. Helen was there, just preparing our drinks. I stared at the glasses of lemonade, but Nessa nodded and took a sip of hers. Assuming we were safe, we all followed suit. Then it was back to business.
“Helen, where is the machine?” Shane asked.
“The machine is safe, and it is set for one o’clock. We will see in just a few short minutes,” Helen said.
Nessa met my eyes and all I saw was pure terror. “Nessa, what is it?”
“They don’t know what the machine does. We could be damned for all we know. It could be a bomb or anything imaginable. They are putting blind faith into this machine Stephan left them.”
“Where is it?” Noah asked.
“We are too late to do anything about it,” Nessa replied.
“Do they know more than what they told us?” I hedged.
“No, that is all they know. They were telling the truth. They were only given limited information, probably because of me,” Nessa said.
“So we just sit and wait for this thing to do whatever it is going to do?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“Seriously, Nessa, that sounds like a terrible idea.”
“It is the only one we have. We wanted answers and now we have them. Granted, it just leaves me with more questions, but this is what we came here for. Let’s wait it out,” Shane replied to our conversation.
Just then, I noticed a paper stuck up on the refrigerator. I rushed forward and yanked it off to read, “Trust- love Stephan.”
At the bottom of the paper was the blue embossed recycle sign again. I turned to Helen with a questioning look.
“What does this symbol mean?”
“I don’t know, recycle I guess. Why?”
“It is on all the notes Stephan left us,” I began to tell her as the clock in the hallway struck one.
We all stopped, wondering what was going to happen. I was about to turn to look at Nessa when it happened. Everything just happened so fast. We heard the scream as Helen’s face contorted into a mask of horror. She burned and flames licked her skin in the blink of an eye. I rushed forward to throw my lemonade on her, but I was too late and she had been reduced to nothing but a pile of simmering ash on the floor.
The screams echoed throughout the house as everyone inside it turned to flames. I looked to Nessa but there was nothing but her wide eyed ghost white face. When I turned back to the fading screams, the room was hazy from all of the ash that remained.
As the ash settled into piles on the floor, I looked over to find Mia with a horrified look on her face. Aside from us, she was all that was left of this party. I instantly turned my attention to her as tears streamed down her dusty cheeks and she shuttered.
“How could he do that? Ugh, it is awful. We are his family. He should have made us immune like you guys,” she said in a state of shock.
“You must be immune too. Are you alright?” I asked trying to diffuse the situation.
“He left me a nasty drink and told me I had to drink it before you got here. I drank it a few hours ago. I guess I should have shared it.” She says looking around the room stunned.
“Was everyone here family?” I asked.
“Friends and family both, we were instructed by Stephan to greet you when you got here. We had no idea he was this evil. He killed his own family. What a horrible person!” Mia said indignantly.
Nessa looked for the machine and found it inside the oven. It wasn’t anything like I expected. The machine was nothing more than a canister with a timer and a valve on it. It looked somewhat harmless if you didn’t know what it did. It was probably some sort of gas or chemical compound.
“If he wanted to scare us, that was a sure fire way to do it. Everyone burned but us and Mia,” Noah said.
“This is clearly linked to the Alaska and Washington. This is worse than the uni-bomber,” I replied.
Mia was clearly in shock and she fainted to the floor. We turned all of our attention to her and Shane rushed over just in time to catch her. He slid his hand to cup her head and brushed his hand across her forehead. She didn’t even stir.
“She is sick. Her skin is pasty and she has a fever. We have to help her. This isn’t her fault. She clearly got hooked into this under false pretenses.”
“Okay, but we need to comb every inch of this place before we get back on the road. I want answers and this is the best place to find them at the moment,” Noah said.
Agreeing, we each split up, careful to hedge around the piles of ash that were clearly people just a little while ago. I gave an involuntary shutter as I passed by them and headed to the sweeping staircase going up to the second floor. I climbed the wooden staircase and made my way to the left side of the house.
I stopped at the first door and open it to peer inside. It was an office. The desk had a glass clock on it and a shimmery brown vase in the corner of it. A regal looking office chair was sitting in front of it. The room was neat and everything looked in order. A Thomas Kinkade painting was framed over the desk and a few book cases lined the walls.
I looked at the desk and began to filter through it. I didn’t find much though, mainly bills and financial ledgers. However, I did manage to come across a picture underneath all of the paperwork. It was a family photo, and Stephan was in it. I shivered and dropped the picture back on the desk.
Disappointed that I didn’t find more, I turned to the bookshelves. I was not surprised at their selections of reading. The Bible and the complete selection of Mark Twain books lined the top shelf. Other authors I found on the shelves ranged from Charles Dickens to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Someone must have been an English teacher. Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath were dead giveaways to that effect.
The rest of the shelves were lined with nothing but dusty books. Reluctantly, I left the room and ventured to the second room I found. This room was bright and cheery. It must have been Julia’s room. Just the thought of her dying this way brought up an unrelenting disgust for Stephan.
The room was painted peppermint pink and displayed a prominent collection of my little ponies. A quick look around her room substantiated nothing. It was just a typical little girl’s room, nothing out of the ordinary.
A review of the next couple rooms proved less than useful. They had the house in immaculate condition, nothing out of place. I was about to give up when I saw a slip of paper sticking out from the base of the bed in the master bedroom. I quickly picked it up and read the message scrolled across it.
Ma,
Life’s little journey changes nothing about how much I love you.
Stephan
I dropped the note in horror as I realized just how terrible this act of terrorism truly was. The man burned his own mother right in front of us. He clearly had no gumption about wiping out the entire population if he so chose.
I dropped to the floor in sobs as I realized what a terrible person this Stephan really was. He murdered Tom in cold blood just because he was protecting me. I thought that finding answers would give me some closure, but instead it just opened the wound.
The ache in my heart just seemed to grow stronger as I sat there with my knees propped up. My tears were streaming without reserve and I let out all the pain this last week had brought me. My whole world was turned upside down and I had no idea how to fix it.
Noah must have heard me because he is there in an instant. As hard as I tried, I just couldn’t seem to pull myself together. He scooped me up in his arms and shushed me. I pulled myself closer to him, the sobs coming louder between gasps for air.
Noah carried me all the way out of the house and to the car. Opening up the passenger side door, he pulled the front seat up and set me down in the back. I wanted to thank him, but he was gone before I had the chance.
Soon I heard hushed rustling and I saw Shane carrying Mia to the car. He had draped a small blanket over her and placed her in the back next to me. My eyes met his and his face showed nothing but compassion. I sniffled and tried to wipe the mess of tears away.
“Are you alright?” Shane asked as he slid into the backseat. He shifted a very unconscious Mia to rest in his arms.
“Yeah, everything is just finally catching up to me. I will be fine, how about her,” I said nodding to Mia.
“She is still unconscious; hopefully she will wake up soon. She still has a fever and the sweats. Noah just went to look for Nessa and then we will be out of here.”
I simply nodded and wiped at more tears as I leaned back and tried to get comfortable. The windows were still rolled down from earlier so I closed my eyes and let the breeze ease my pain.
My eyes didn’t prop open until I saw a very grave Nessa opening the driver’s side door. Noah was only seconds behind and was opening the passenger door and then shutting it behind him. He looked back at me and gave me a soft smile. I didn’t even want to admit the effect it had on me. My wounds were too raw.
Nessa held up a sheet of paper and sighs. “The bastard left us a note on one of the coffee tables. He planned this down to every little detail. This demonstration was meant as a taste of what is to come. He plans to decimate the world population and we are all that will remain.”
“What, that is absolutely absurd!” Shane burst out.
“Let me see that,” I said, yanking the sheet of paper out of her hands. I had to read the note twice in order for the weight of it to sink in.
To all-
What you see is what you get. Be prepared for a new life in a new world.
Stephan
“Shit, we are in so much trouble,” I said as I handed the note to Shane.
Chapter 14:
“So we are going to be all that is left of the world population? That is creepy; I can’t believe anyone would do that. He is playing God and that is never cool. All those innocent people will be killed for one man’s fancy, it’s awful,” Shane replied.
“I wonder how many of us there are, or will be. I wonder if he plans on killing our families,” Nessa asked, reality sinking in.
I shudder at the thought of him murdering anyone else that I love. “How could anyone be that cold? He must have been born without a heart,” I said.
“He takes mass murderer to a whole new level,” Noah chimed in.
Nessa started the car and the engine drummed to life with a purr. Shifting the eight ball, she pulled out of the driveway. “So where are we headed to now?”
“That is the million dollar question. Mia is traumatized. You and I are hiding from the cops. We have no clue where Stephan plans to hit next,” I said.
“I say we go to Washington and check out the scene. We can maybe get an idea of what this bastard is leaving us with and we might even find a clue,” Noah suggested.
“That sounds as logical as anything. I can’t think of anything else for us to do. We can’t go home and we already hit Florida. Does anyone have an objection to that?” Nessa asked the collective.
Everyone agreed and we headed back the way we came. “We need to head out Route 28 if we plan on heading to Washington, so we need to stop at the gas station and fill up. There isn’t much for a few hours, mainly farms and trees,” Noah said.
“I already planned on it,” Nessa replied.
“We should stop at the one fast food restaurant in town as well, I am starving,” Shane added.
“Okay, gas first and then we can get food,” Nessa conceded.
“Oh, did anyone grab some clothes or anything for Mia?” I asked.
“No, there wasn’t much there, we will have to stop at a Target or something once we hit Kansas City,” Noah replied.
Once we made it to the fast food drive thru, I realized how hungry I was because my stomach gave an involuntary growl. Nessa ordered for everyone and I savored the taste of my hamburger and fries. I washed it down with a Coke and slurped the remainder of the liquid. Finished, I tucked it all back in the bag and stuck it in the floor board beneath my feet.
“Let’s stay someplace just a little nicer tonight, please. I want a good night’s rest. All this drama is draining me,” I asked.
“Fine, but nothing too fancy
, we are still on a budget,” Nessa reminded me.
“We can stop in Kansas City for the night and then stop again just past Denver tomorrow night. We should make it to Washington in a few days, it is a long trip by car,” Shane said.
“That sounds reasonable. We are still a ways from Kansas City since there is no direct route from here. We will have to take route 28 to 63 then 70 on to Kansas City. Once we are on 70 we can stay on it for a ways. Then we will have to catch route 87 to highway 80 to Salt Lake City. From there, we will need to hit highway 15 to highway 90 before we reach Spokane, Washington,” Noah read out from the map.
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