“I just wanted to...I don’t know, have the same experiences my parents did, you know?”
Yes. He knew. He understood. That wasn’t the problem. With some effort, he set himself aside.
“First, I’m going to check everything out, completely, to make sure it is perfectly safe. It will take a while for that, so don’t bug me until it’s done. Then…”
“You’re going to let me go?” She was such a firecracker. She jumped forward and hugged him.
He continued firmly, “Then, we’ll bring it to your parents and see what they say…”
“Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!” She pressed her cheek against his and squeezed him around the neck.
He pulled her scent in, and then took her arms and set her back on her chair. He gave her his best no nonsense stare. “And then...there will be rules.”
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In her vision, Mercy looked closer at the bodies lying still in the back of the trucks: her mother, her father, Harmony, Miriam, her own body. Then, she started to notice what bodies were missing, and she cried out. She turned her tiny head and looked back the way she had come. Among the lost and gone were her uncle Smoke, Anora, all the Kin, but also many of the children. She kept looking, until she found what she didn’t want to find, and then she cried again. The loud, piercing shriek shook the air around her.
Her blood spilled out of his body, her brown eyes stared into space, young blood, young face, young brother lying lost.
Icicles drilled their way through her veins, under her skin, toward her heart. She had rarely felt so much pain from a vision.
Then something bizarre happened in Mercy’s vision: it began to shred. The house tore open and, in the rooms that were exposed, the dead helped each other up and hurried on their way. The trucks stopped. Not stopped moving, but stopped being. They were suddenly not plodding, hadn’t been bloated, didn’t eat their fill of quiet bodies, because the bodies hadn’t gone still. The air tore, too, and her wings that had just taken a stroke slipped on the nothing that was where the wind had been. She fell, into the light.
The light was on the ceiling above her. Her mother and Harmony and Miriam were there, leaning over her. They all began to speak. No, they had been speaking, for a while.
“Where’s...?” Her chest was wrapped in bands, and a Young face overlapped everything she saw.
“Are you okay?” Miriam asked, and Mercy realized it was her hand that she had been gripping. She sat up.
“Mercy,” her mother said, supporting her back. “Your father, Lena, Smoke and Anora are preparing to defend the house. We’re to get everyone to the safe room.”
The safe room was what they called the cellar, which had been modified by Scythe, Smoke and Anora for the purpose of protecting their loved ones for a short time, a week at most. From there, the security devices could be monitored and controlled, and some significant defensive and offensive maneuvers could be carried out. It had once been used to hide the children and Humans when there had been a scheduled visit from a health department official on a routine inspection of the winery. Other than that, it had only been used for emergency drills.
Her mother was standing Mercy up, and Miriam and Harmony were already at the door. Just outside, friends of hers and their children were hurrying by, in various stages of distress. They were all rushing to the back stairs, which they would take all the way down to the cellar.
“Mom, where’s Will?” Mercy asked, looking around for him. Everything in her chest was so tight that it was hard to breathe. Where is he? One of her ribbons was searching the floor, but he wasn’t there. If only he were powered, she would know exactly...
“He’s already downstairs, Mercy.”
A burst of breath, and a quick nod. Okay. Okay. She sent it down and around until she found him. She wrapped herself around his body and held him extra close.
Mercy, he asked fearfully, What’s happening? Then, because he could feel her and knew right away that she was in a panic, he demanded, What’s the matter? Are you hurt?
I’m okay, Will. Keep a clear head, okay? She was telling herself to do the same.
I will. She got the feeling he rolled his eyes at her. Cheeky kid. I’m already starting on the monitors.
Good. She told herself firmly that he was all right and worked on calming down. She receded from his thoughts, but didn’t release him. She couldn’t seem to let go.
Enera’s hand was clamped onto that of a nine-year-old Yureg; he stared around himself fearfully, unconsciously pressing his body against his mother’s. She asked, “This is not a drill, what is happening?”
Faith answered, “The house has been surrounded, and the majority of our perimeter safeguards were eliminated by someone who knows what they are doing. We’re locking everything down.”
Enera nodded and hurried forward, passing Mercy who had finally pulled herself together.
Mercy stopped at the top of the stairs, her position for the evacuation, and ushered the few remaining people down.
I’ll do a final check, she said to her mother who had hesitated next to her.
Alright, I’m going down. I’ll expect you immediately.
Okay. Mercy sent her power in a large, tightly focused ribbon down the hall. At each pair of doors, a strip peeled off, split in two, and each one took a room, quickly checking by touch for dawdlers. She had to feel around for unpowered Humans and the Kin, but it didn’t take long, just a quick sweep across the room and she was done. Then the ribbons pulled back into the main piece like rubber bands. Within one minute, she had checked the whole floor.
The upstairs is clear, she told her mother, and, since they were connected now, her father and aunt as well. I’m coming down.
Give us a bird’s eye real quick, will you, Mercy? her dad requested.
Mercy slid up to the window, staying back and to the side and exposing as little of herself as possible to the outside. She looked out. North side looks clear. I don’t see them. I’m going to isolate the power user that I first detected. Also, my vision…
Wait, Lena interrupted, Don’t track him down yet. It might let him find you.
Yeah, but once I’ve got him, I’ve got him. Mercy argued. He won’t be a problem after that.
She could feel their reluctance and discomfort with the easy way she talked about taking care of the unknown person. She wasn’t making any apologies. They hadn’t seen her vision.
They’re not here to visit, Lena. Look. Mercy showed them the images of their dead friends, and the trucks with their own unmoving forms within. They’re here for us, any powered they can get their hands on. There wasn’t a non-powered in any of the trucks. Even Will was left behind. She was kind; she didn’t share the image of Will with them, but her parents still reacted strongly to the news.
Is it a sure one, Mercy? Ian asked, his anxiety reflecting her own. They believed that some visions of the future were stronger than others and were harder to change, while the rest were mere possibilities and could be interfered with. Mercy now felt that they were all possibilities, and derailing them was just a matter of understanding them well enough to know what key elements had to be messed with in order to keep the rest from happening. For example, if the trucks were sabotaged, then her vision would have to be radically different, at least at the end.
On the other hand, her vision had just been interrupted in a way she didn’t know was possible, so she wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
I don’t think so, but I’m not at all sure. Here’s the north view. She sent them an image of what she could see through the north window. Then she went into the first bedroom and approached the window. Looking out, she saw over a dozen figures weaving through the vineyard, slowly moving inward toward the house. From her perspective, they didn’t look like people; they were just gray figures, shadows in the shadows. Seeing them creep up on the house was very helpful. It washed away her fear. For them.
Perhaps fear wasn’t the right word. Concern. Compassion. Thos
e were words she was used to applying to people. Compassion for others had always been a priority for her. Watching someone crawl toward her house over the ground with the intent to harm her loved ones washed it all away, and, when the wave receded, sensations that were newer to her lay on the wet sand. Some she had learned from sitting in Helaine’s mind for too long, and some were her own: sly, nasty little things that had been hidden by her own clever self. One compulsion in particular that she spent a lot of time ignoring had a bit of an appetite.
She looked out at those blurry figures crawling toward her family and she wanted to pinch them between her fingers until they popped.
She leaned against the wall and shook her head. For over a week, she’d been holding the horror of what she had done at Chromatic Technologies close to her in order to teach herself, to keep herself from doing anything like it again. Then, as soon as the opportunity arose, she was ready...no, eager to do it again. See? she told herself. See what you are?
No, Mercy...her mother objected firmly, startling her. She had not been careful and had let them see what she was thinking. At first she was embarrassed, but then she told herself that they already knew her secrets, anyway. Honey, we are all feeling protective right now, look here.
Her mother shared herself with Mercy, and she could see that her mother, too, was ready to hurt, even kill anyone who threatened her children, friends or husband.
Thanks, sweetheart, Ian sent with his usual humor. At least I’m ahead of the dog...Adjusting his tone after a pair of harsh rebukes from his wife and sister, he added more seriously, Mercy, you are being too hard on yourself. You are not a killer. Wanting to hurt people who threaten your home does not prove that you are a monster...Now, we’ve seen all we want. Come down and lock up.
Mercy pushed against the wall and crossed to the stairs. On her way to the first floor, she followed her tiny link to him, the powered man who had brought her such a terrible vision. She was also conscious of several new links being formed as other powered individuals came into range. Five more from different angles approached the house. She took note of them, but concentrated on him, their lead man.
Her father objected to her decision to isolate the user with her power, but she ignored him and he let her be. They sat quietly in her mind, half watching while they took care of their own jobs. Her mother had ushered everyone into the safe room and was monitoring the cameras. Lena and Smoke were hunkered down just inside the back entrance, the closest to the cellar; they sat calmly and covered the closed door with automatic rifles. Lena would be able to handle anyone who got close enough with her power; Smoke’s job was to make sure she only had one to deal with at a time, and to ensure her focus wasn’t interrupted. The automatic rifles were for deterring the invaders from a hasty rush, because a successful one would be very problematic for them.
Anora and Ian were at the next closest door, the one adjacent to the kitchen; they had already locked and barricaded the reinforced door that divided the front of the house from the smaller rear portion. Smoke had come up with the plan to construct the thick wall at that strategic point, effectively dividing the open, hard to defend front of the house from the relatively easier to defend back. All that they had to do to was seal that door and defend the two remaining entrances.
At the bottom of the stairs, another reinforced door would prevent anyone from getting into the section from the upper floor. Once it was bolted, the thick metal door, like its brother down the hall, provided a formidable barrier. Security shutters had been installed on all the windows and had already been lowered by remote throughout the lower half of the house. It made a good bolt hole, which was their intention. However, it was not an impregnable one, especially since they couldn’t depend on help from outside to come any time soon, if ever. So, the plan was designed to ensure the safety of the residents while the threat was eliminated from outside by the people in the household who were skilled in that area: Scythe, Smoke, Anora, Lena and Ian.
Faith had started with some of the exterior offensive traps and remote weapons that hadn't already been disabled by the intruders, and Ian and Lena were gathering their power. Mercy decided it was time for her to do her part as well. She turned at the bottom of the stairs and locked the door behind her, then pulled down the security gate and secured it as well. She looked across the hall where Hap’s son, Oak, stood at the nearly closed door to the cellar. Once it was closed and secured from inside, it could only be opened by someone within. His job was to ensure that the door was open as long as possible for people like her father and Lena if they had to retreat to safety. However, since the lives of those in the cellar were the top priority, he was ready to shut the door, locking out whoever didn’t make it in time, if he saw enemies coming down the hall instead of friends.
Instead of heading in the direction of Oak and the cellar like she was supposed to, Mercy turned toward Lena and Smoke’s position, stopping just outside their room. She sat down in the hallway, put her back against the wall and brought up her knees, which she wrapped her arms around and leaned her forehead against. Then she opened a way to their invader.
He was strong. That was probably why she had detected him as early as she did. He was also very sensitive to energy fields, which put him at the front of their formation instead of at the back with the others, whose skills were in other areas. He was strong, but he was still freaking out, because she was knocking on the door to his mind. She could feel him throwing up his shield in a panic and knew right away that he was a novice.
She disregarded her initial reaction to that, scolding herself that even if he was new and inexperienced, he was still one of the people who planned to leave her brother behind in a shallow pool.
Since he didn’t want to chat, she let him be and went and sat right over his well. Then she started to draw on his power. Three things happened at once. First, her body reacted instantly on its own: a tingling excitement spread through her chest, along with a quiet, gleeful anticipation; it disgusted her, but her disgust didn’t reduce the hunger at all. Second, he stopped in his tracks, fell to his knees, grabbing his chest and staring down at the ground. Third, her family started to object noisily, so she cut them off.
She squeezed, smiling when he dropped his shield enough to let her in.
Wait! His name was Bryan Hogge and he used to live in...
Not interested. No. She squeezed and started pulling harder. It felt good, really good. Smooth and rich. It was making her lightheaded.
Bryan cried out desperately, Wait! I can help you.
Don’t worry, you will. She grinned, and let him see.
Terror flooded his mind and he flailed helplessly in it. He wasn’t a fighter, after all. Ignoring her instinctive reaction to that piece of information, she began to pull faster. She had five more, still to deal with, and they were getting close.
In the room next to her, the sounds of weapons firing rapidly were deafening after so much quiet. There was some screaming, too, from someone right outside the house. That was an indication that Lena was getting serious.
Surprising her, Bryan found the resolve to fire an attack at her in the form of a ball of his delicious energy. It flew along the connection that she had made and smashed into the shield that she didn’t even have to concentrate on to keep in place. She had just enough time to try out a quick experiment. She twisted her shield, just before his power reached her, and made it like the cord that was attached to him: spongey. When the energy smashed into the shield, it bent inward and then soaked up the whole thing. It filled her, charged her until she felt springy inside, and giddy. A short laugh burst out of her, lifting up her head with a jerk. She stared forward without seeing a thing.
Very pleased.
They were pestering her, but she wasn’t interested in talking...or sharing.
She yanked and he began to die. She let it all come, the good...and the bad, too. Soaking it up. She looked into the faces of the soldiers around him; their mouths were moving but their words
were hard to identify past his screams. She felt the way he wet himself involuntarily during the seizure, and the way the intense pain shattered his concentration. Distantly, she thought that she knew what that was like. Just as it was ending, just as she was getting ready for the very best part, images of his family, his children, popped up in front of her. A birthday party. A proud mother. A smile. Then it was gone and all she knew was the feeling of his energy as it melted into hers. It was paradise. It rushed through her, making her entire body ring like a bell. For those few magnificent moments, she didn’t want it to stop, didn’t care what it cost, didn’t have a thought past her own rapture.
Love it. Want it.
When it began to wane, a very tiny portion of her self that could still think noted that the experience was no less euphoric than it had been in Chromatic Technologies. She had expected it to be different, wanted it to be different since she wasn’t affected by the drugs they had given her in the center. Then her distant self realized something with a start, she was under the influence of a drug. At the same moment, the connection to Bryan fizzled out.
Want it. Want more.
She didn’t even hesitate. She started strengthening the ties she had to the other users. Two were already approaching her entrance…
A clanking sound and then another echoed in the silence that had settled over the room just behind her. Then the hissing reached her ears.
“Gas!” Smoke shouted, “Get back, Lena!”
Irritated by the interruption, Mercy pivoted, peeking into the room and spotting the two metal cylinders that were spinning along the floor, spewing a little smoke and a lot of gas. She reached out with two ribbons, snagged and flung the cans out the door, dropping them in the midst of the two she was already focusing on. Smoke and Lena joined her, taking positions on the other side of the doorway.
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