***
Crow hands me a sleeping bag and forces me to lie down in the tent. I am exhausted and haven’t slept at all since Goatee and Armpits attacked me. I tell myself that I will just rest my tired body and in an hour I will attempt a link with Adam again. That’s what I tell myself…there is nothing I can do to stop exhaustion from overcoming me.
Adam’s voice flitters through my dream like glitter floating in water. I reach out my hand and touch the swirls it makes around me. A blue spark jumps from the swirl, skipping over my palm and up my arm. I smile to myself. My best dreams are of Adam.
“Baby, are you dreaming?” He sounds amused.
“Yeah,” I say. “Look at this.” I grab hold of another glitter swirl of his voice and open my palm to reveal an orb of electricity. I bounce it in my palm and run it over my knuckles.
“That’s a little weird,” he says, a smile in his voice.
“It’s beautiful.”
“You’re beautiful.”
“Aww, even in my dreams you’re cute.”
He laughs, and glitter falls around me, sparking as it touches my skin. “I get the feeling that you’re safe? Where are you, Teds?”
“I’m with Shift.”
“Shift?”
“Yes, they’re our people,” I say, repeating Leoni’s words. “Did you know that my grandfather founded Shift over twenty years ago? I had no idea. And I have a cousin- Crow. Well, his real name is Ian, but we all have nicknames and freaky mask things that distort our voices.” It’s nice to talk to him, even if he is just a dream. I want to keep his voice raining on me.
“Okay, Teds. I need you to wake up now. You’re not making any sense.”
“Where are you?”
“I’m with Yana. We got out of the E.N.C base before the government torched the place. We’re headed for Cornwall. Yana overheard an E.N.C guy talking about finding Theyda Woodman in Cornwall. Are you sure you’re safe, Teds?”
“I’m a member of Shift now, and we’re going to Syndicate headquarters in Cornwall to accept their proposition. There is a warehouse about twenty miles south of the detention centre you were in.”
“Specifics, Baby.”
“There’s a packing factory within a mile of HQ. I don’t know specifics, but I know that we’re Batman and Syndicate is Jim Gordon.” Okay, now I’m talking dream talk. I’m not even sounding sane to me. Oh well, what does it matter? It’s only a dream.
“Who are you with, Teds, other than this Crow guy?”
“Coop is here. We’ve named him Psycho, that was my idea,” I laugh to myself.
“Do you trust these people?”
“Yes, Leoni explained everything to me and I trust her.”
The glitter sparks in a brilliant, white light, and an uneasy feeling grips at my chest. The dream is slipping away from me.
“Leoni who?” Adam asks. His words don’t dance around me anymore, and I get annoyed with myself.
“Your Mum, Leoni. She came back for me and Coop.”
“Wake up, Baby. You’re not making any sense. I’m not a dream, Teds. You’re linking with me. Why are you talking about my Mum? She’s died when I was a kid.”
I feel the tug as I rouse from my dream state. The tent is pitch black and silent except for Leoni and Coco’s breathing.
“Teds?” Adam’s voice tinkles in my mind once more.
“Oh god, Adam, I was dreaming. I didn’t want you to find out this way.”
“My Mum’s alive?” his voice is small, almost childlike.
“Yes. She’s here with me. I never wanted you to find out—”
“How long have you known? Did you know this when we last linked?”
“Baby, you have to understand that I didn’t think this was the best way to tell you. I was only concerned with finding you.”
“So, you’ve known this for three days and you didn’t think I had a right to know?” He’s angry, and his words eat up all the good feelings from my dream. “I’ve been waiting for you to link for what feels like a bloody eternity. You said you wouldn’t leave it long. Is that why you waited? You didn’t want to tell me about her?”
“No, I couldn’t link. I was in a fight house. Please, don’t be mad at me, Baby. I didn’t think—”
“You got that right. How could you not think I should know about this? Would you have told me if you hadn’t been dreaming?”
“Probably not. Not Like this. It wasn’t my place.” Hurt laces my voice.
“Not your place?” He’s shouting in my mind now. “If not you, then who, Teds? Jesus, I feel sick. This can’t be happening.”
“Adam, I’m sorry—”
“We’ll head for Syndicate headquarters.” he says, and then the link breaks.
The life feels drained out of me. Crawling across the sleeping bags, I grab Leoni’s shoulders and shake her awake. “This is all your fault,” I whisper in her bewildered face. “I should have told him, but I listened to you, and now he hates me.”
“Teddie, slow down. Have you linked with Adam?”
“Yes, but I thought I was dreaming and told him about you. I didn’t realise I had linked with him.”
“You what? Christ’s sake, Teddie. He shouldn’t have had to find out like that,” Leoni snaps, pushing me away from her.
Coco shines a torch in our faces. “What the hell is going on?”
I ignore her, turning back to Leoni. “No, he shouldn’t have. I should have told him straight away. I should never have listened to you. He hates me. This whole situation is shit enough without Adam hating me too.”
“He’s not angry at you, Teddie. He’s angry at me.” She brings her knees up to her chest and buries her face in them. “He’ll forgive you.”
I storm from the tent. I know it’s not Leoni’s fault. I agreed with her- telling Adam via link wasn’t fair on him and it was as much my decision to wait as it was hers. I’m actually kind of mad at Adam; I know he inadvertently received the biggest news of his life, but if the shoe was on the other foot, I reckon he’d not want to tell me over the link.
Sitting on the trunk beside the dying embers, I notice a torch in a tree toward the edge of our camp. Kid waves me over.
“Is everything alright?” His features appear even more mouse like from this angle.
I have to strain my neck to see him in the heights. “Boyfriend trouble.”
“So, the link didn’t go well,” he asks. I snort and kick at the frozen earth with the toe of my shoe. “Long distance relationships, eh? I’ve got a girl back home. Well, I hope she’s still waiting for me.”
“Where’s home for you?”
“Norfolk. I’ve got my Nan and sister back there too. They think I’m on the run. Crow insisted it was safer if they knew nothing. To be honest, they must think I’m dead.”
“That’s probably for the best. Crow’s right- they are safer.”
“I just remind myself that when all this is done I get to surprise them, right?”
“Do you really think this will ever be done?”
He looks at me for a moment, swallowing hard. “Yeah, I do.”
“I wish I had your confidence.”
“If that’s the case, then why aren’t you linking with your boyfriend right now? You have the ability to put things right, so why fanny about and waste what precious time you think that we have left.”
He doesn’t raise his voice, but I think I pissed him off. I have a knack for that. He’s spot on, though. I can link with Adam and put this right. I will make him listen to reason.
I clench my eyes, but Kid hisses at me to stop, and then points to the sky. A drone flies silently over us.
“Do they have cameras?” I whisper, unsure if they can pick up my voice.
He shakes his head, continuing to watch it through binoculars. “Not that we know of. They just read kinetic energy and report rises back to a computer tracking system. The military and Taggers have access to the system. Do not link until I give you the all clear, got i
t?” He picks up a walkie talkie. “Crow, there’s a Dumbo coming your way.”
“Right on,” crackles Crow’s voice.
***
The embers spit and crackle at my feet. I just stare at the amber glow in a trance, my mind awhirl with ‘woulda coulda shouldas’. Adam had wanted me to tell him and he’s right- if not me, then who? Would I have let him find out in front of everyone? Would he have handled that? Would he have hated me more?
Kid taps my shoulder and I start. “Sorry, I thought you’d have sensed me coming or something?” he says, chortling.
“You said no abilities, remember? Not that I’m much good anyway.”
He tilts his head. “How so?”
“Ever since Leoni un-manipulated certain memories of mine, I have been having trouble controlling my telepathy. It’s all or nothing. If I read the area right now, for instance, I’d hear everything. A jumble of every thought for a mile radius. It’s deafening. The only thing I’m sure of is mine and Adam’s link.”
“Then, you need to practice. Stop, moping about it and hone your ability. The brain is a muscle too.” He is very matter of fact. This is the second time that Kid has put me in my place. You never thought him as a no nonsense type of guy, but he’s to the point, and not wrong. “You can link now. The drone has buggered off.”
I wait until he is back in the tree before closing my eyes.
“Adam?” I ask, allowing the erratic crackle to warm me.
“Thank God, Baby,” he says, sighing. “I was a dick.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I kind of didn’t know where to start.”
“That doesn’t matter now. We overheard talk about fight houses. I had no idea what they are. You’re good, right?”
“Cooper lost a couple fingers, and I...”
“You what?” I can hear the panic in his voice.
“I took a slice to the face, but I’ll be alright.” Nausea washes over me at the thought of my face. I’m scarred for life because someone was scared of something they didn’t understand. This is what it has all been about- people who are scared of something they don’t understand. Ignorance is the deadliest flaw in the human species.
“But my Mum got you out of that place?”
“Yes, Leoni and Shift. I first met her at Syndicate headquarters after they rescued us from the beach. She was helping me to find you.”
“Okay, we’ll meet you at Syndicate headquarters. We’re not far off now. We’ve hitched a lift with some decent EVO. I love you, Baby. We’re good, yeah?”
“We’re perfect. We’re setting off at midnight. We have a bus load of EVO who want Syndicate’s protection to keep under the radar. I won’t link again in case of drones. Just get to the headquarters and we’ll meet you there. I’ll explain everything, I promise. I love you and stay safe.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Pug shuffles to the communal tent with both feet still in his sleeping bag. “Is that coffee hot?” Cooper hands him a cup. “My nuts have retreated back into the warmth of my stomach.”
That’s an image I could have done without. Coco groans, swatting him with the back of her hand. The guys laugh in agreement. I feel at ease with these people. They remind me of the old gang. My heart breaks a little bit more. We’ll never be whole again, not without Golding and Haydn. I will find the others. There’s no way I’m losing them too.
Rio knocks Brick’s feet off of the remaining chair and flops in half asleep.
“Do you want a coffee?” Coco asks him.
Brick winks at me. “Seeing as you’re offering; we all could do with a refill.”
We all agree, passing up our cups. Coco’s seconds from protesting, but in doing so she’ll admit her crush on Rio. She sucks her teeth and starts tipping the coffee sachets into the cups.
Rio reaches back, giving her forearm a squeeze. “You’re a good’en, Coco Loco.” She blushes and hands him his drink.
The others may not have seen it, but I’m guessing the feeling is mutual. I didn’t miss the eye contact, or his hand lingering on her arm a moment longer than necessary.
Brick leans across to me and whispers in my ear. “Everyone knows what’s going on except them. We kind of work it to our benefit.” He shakes his cup of coffee at me, holding a finger to his lips.
“So, how’d you get your nicknames?” I ask him.
He sits forward eagerly. I get the feeling he’s surprised it has taken me this long to ask. “Well, Pug is self-explanatory.” Pug flips him the bird. “I’m Brick because of my size. Kid because he was the baby of the group. Crow because he’s Peter Pan to our lost boys.”
“And lost girl,” Coco adds.
“Quite right, my lady. Coco because Rio had started calling her Coco Loco and it stuck, and Rio because the first time Crow and I met him, he was at an eighties party dressed as Simon Le Bon from Duran Duran.”
I splutter into my cup. “That’s something I’d pay to see.”
The radio crackles causing everyone to start. “Who’s on duty?” asks Crow.
Pug raises his hand for everyone to shut up, and then he presses the button. “What’s up, Crow?”
“You guys better be loading those vans. We’re out of here in thirty minutes.”
Pug rolls his eyes, and the others hold in their laughter.
“Yep, we’re on it.”
“I mean it, Pug. If you’re still piss arsing around I swear I’ll—”
“I said we’re on it, didn’t I?” He drops the radio onto the table, and sets about refilling his cup.
“You’re on it alright,” says Crow, appearing at the tent door.
Pug launches to his feet, dropping his sleeping bag around his ankles. “I said move it,” he shouts at us. Brick just roars with laughter at him.
Crow shakes his head, but there is a smile playing at his lips. “Get the damn vans loaded, you bunch of lazy bastards.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Pug grumbles.
I follow Crow out of the tent and help pack the camping mats away. Rio and Cooper kick at the tent pegs, allowing the tents to fall in a crumpled heap. It annoys Crow, he sighs and bites his lip, but doesn’t say anything; the job is getting done at least. I know why he’s in charge. He’s a leader- just like Jude- just like Rafe would have been; a family of strong men with people willing to follow their every word.
I’m happy to follow Crow. Even if he has no idea what he is doing, he makes me feel like he does and that’s enough. That’s how most leaders roll- without a clue, but a steely, infectious determination.
“What are you thinking?” he asks. I snap out of my reverie. “You’re thinking about something.”
“That someone needs to show those lads how to take a tent down,” I say, laughing. Crow smiles, his eyelid heavy over his eye with exhaustion. “I was also thinking that they listen to you. They’d follow you anywhere.”
He cocks his head, still filling the boxes. “Yeah, I know. I’ve always been the plan man, the ‘keep our shit’ together man. I kind of fell into the role.”
“It’s a burden, isn’t it?” I know how Yana, Haydn, and Golding looked to me. I know how it feels to have the weight of their loss on my shoulders. I let them all down in one way or another.
“One wrong move can mean somebody’s life. They reckon I’m a kill joy, but I’m forever second guessing myself. If something happens to one of them—”
“They’re grown-ups. They’re here because like me, they want to make a difference. You’re our leader, not our minder.”
“You really believe in us, don’t you?”
“Here’s what I know: When I needed you, you were there for me. When that Non-EVO woman at the fight house needed you, you were there for her. When those EVO asked you to take them to safety, you were there for them. Syndicate needs you and you are going to be there for them too. I believe in that.”
I hadn’t realised everyone had started listening to our conversation.
“Aw, Cub, you’re making me well up,�
�� says Brick. He’s joking, but I know I’ve struck a chord.
Rio wraps his arms around me from behind. “Okay, this one can keep the mask. She’s one of us,” he says.
Kesh appears from the tent, white faced and glassy eyed. “The E.N.C have just carried out three terrorist attacks at the houses of parliament, at a hospital, and at Tower bridge. Hundreds of Non-EVO are dead. This is bad- really really bad.”
Crow squeezes his temples. “Shit! Let’s move out,” he bellows.
***
I rest my head against the cool glass, feeling every judder and bump of the van. I won’t let myself get excited about seeing Adam and Yana. Nothing is a dead cert and I can’t keep taking let down. It’s eating me up. It’s easy to picture Adam waiting for me at the warehouse, but I quickly push the image away. I will relax when I can see him, touch him, kiss him. I need him with me, more so now I’ve heard about the E.N.C attacks in London. It’s easier not to think about that, to concentrate on Shift- Syndicate- anything other than E.N.C or Towley. I’m scared of what this could mean.
I lie on the floor and look up at the night sky. Although, it’s not really the sky at all, it’s Adam’s voice glittering above me like stars. The stars start to fall, bouncing off me, and leaving a little zing of electricity on my skin. They hit the floor like rain drops, only to spark like fireworks. I turn my head and see Adam lying beside me.
He flashed me the most brilliant of smiles.“Dreaming again, huh?”
“Are you real?” I ask him. “Not just a dream?”
“Well, some people have called me a dream before,” he jokes. “I’m real, Baby. You’re linking again.”
“Can you see this?”
“Of course, you’ve popped up in my dream.”
I sit up on my elbow. “No, it’s mine. Look-” I take his hand and the blue glow of his electrokinesis ignites in his palm. I cup my hand around it, forming an orb, and then I take it in my palm.
“This electrokinesis malarkey is easy,” I say, passing it from hand to hand.
“Oh really,” he says, laughing. He runs his fingers down my cheek and I kiss the palm of his hand. “So, are we sharing a dream?”
EVO Shift: EVO Nation Series: Book Two Page 16