Fierce Flight

by R. A. Rock

  Everyone was quiet.

  “We have to get there, Gideon. We don’t have a choice,” I said.

  “Because you think some long lost relative is still living there?”

  That was our cover story. We couldn’t tell him that we needed a certain metal alloy and tools to fix our time travel devices.

  “I hope you’re not going to be too disappointed when you find out this person isn’t there or is dead. It’s highly unlikely that they would still be there since the solar flare.”

  “We know,” Grace said. “And it’s our mother — not some random long lost relative. We have to find out.”

  We hated lying but we had needed a story that was believable. And if Grace and I thought our mother might be in Winnipeg, we would go through way worse than The Wastelands to get to her.

  He nodded.

  “Okay, I get that. But I still say it’s a suicide mission.”

  “So, you won’t come with us?” Shiv said, obviously not expecting him to say yes.

  “Never in a million years,” he said. “I’ll bring you to the edge of The Wastelands and that’s it. Then if you’re very lucky and make it back, I’ll see you in Gimli or back at Matt and Nessa’s.”

  “Good enough,” I said. “We appreciate all the help that you’ve given us, Gideon.”

  “Sure,” he said with a wink for Audrey, who blushed? “More fun travelling with other people anyway.”

  What was up with those two anyway?

  Ghost Town

  Chad

  We arrived in Ashern — where we were hoping to spend the night — as the last rays of the sun were touching the tree tops. I felt a sense of nostalgia wash over me. I remembered so many hovercraft trips to Winnipeg where Grace, Yumi, and I would always watch for Ashern because it meant that we were almost there. I turned to ask if Yumi remembered but she was already speaking.

  “I remember,” she said. “Though it looked a heck of a lot different from above than it does from here.”

  “Yeah, and it’s a bit of a dump in this time. Never mind a ghost town.”

  The houses were boarded up and falling down. But I could tell that even before they had started to deteriorate, it hadn’t been a really high class area. In our time, Winnipeg was spread much further than now and Ashern was a high class suburb. People lived there and commuted by hovercraft to Winnipeg for work.

  “Yeah.” She looked around, wrinkling her nose. There was a cloying stench in the air. Like rotting garbage maybe. A board had come loose from one of the windows and swung lazily in the wind, creaking on every backswing. It grated on my nerves.

  “Wait, did you catch that thought?” I said, feeling hopeful.

  She shook her head, sadly. The hairs that had come out of her braid whispered around her face in the wind that blew across the bare prairie and into town. The wind was cold and had made Yumi’s cheeks rosy. But that, along with the desolate landscape and cold autumn wind, just made me feel lonelier.

  “No, it was through the soul bond.”

  “Damn.” We were pretty worried about our abilities not coming back. The only thing that had returned was the soul bond — no one was able to use their powers.

  And everyone was thinking about how Shiv had said that time travel without the protective mechanism would damage the ante-prefrontal cortex that gave us our telepathic, telekinetic, and manifestation abilities.

  What if we had damaged our brains too much and we never got our mental abilities back?

  It was too horrible to contemplate, so I pushed the idea away. Losing our abilities would be like losing a leg, so integral were they to who we were. I didn’t even want to entertain the thought that we wouldn’t get them back.

  We had to get our powers back.

  “Wow, this place is fabulous,” Audrey said, speaking Primary. Of course she was being her usual sarcastic self.

  “I love hearing you speak Afrikaans,” Gideon said, checking out Audrey’s ass when she passed him.

  “I have no idea what he’s saying, and I don’t care,” she said to all of us. “He’s cute.”

  “Audrey,” Yumi said, switching to Primary and stepping closer to her. “You’re not messing with him, are you? He seems like a good guy. What about everything being classified?”

  “Everything’s classified except my…”

  “Audrey,” Shiv said, interrupting. He was clearly horrified at what she might say. “We do not need any information whatsoever about your sex life.”

  “Audrey, I don’t think…” I started.

  “I don’t care what any of you think,” she said, loudly in Primary her temper flaring unexpectedly. “I don’t care what anyone thinks. I’m done being careful. I’m done trying to be someone I’m not. I’m done. And if I want to fuck Gideon, then I’m going to. And no one is going to tell me not to.”

  “What are you all saying, then?” Gideon said, looking confused, although I noticed his gaze was still admiring when it landed on Audrey.

  “Audrey,” Yumi said. “You’re not leading this guy on, are you? What about Dorian?”

  “I’m not leading him on,” she said, a flicker of guilt appearing on her face and then disappearing. “Dorian is gone. And he made the choice to leave me.”

  “He left you to save you,” Yumi said, like she couldn’t believe that Audrey would blame Dorian for that.

  This was horrible. Audrey backsliding and turning back into Merrywell was not something any one of us wanted to see.

  “Oh, go to hell, Yumi, you hypocrite. Chad did the exact same thing for you and you still won’t forgive him. So don’t lecture me.”

  This felt about as pleasant to me as a kick in the balls and shocked Yumi into silence. She didn’t look at me.

  “And what if he falls in love with you?” Grace said, picking up the thread of the lecture. “You’re just going to leave and break his heart?”

  “We’re just having sex,” Audrey said. “It’s not love.”

  “I didn’t know you all spoke Afrikaans,” Gideon said, looking more confused as the argument heated up.

  “You’re blowing our cover,” Shiv said, his face annoyed. “And you’re leading this guy on. That’s unacceptable.”

  “Well, maybe I don’t want to be acceptable. Maybe I’m no good at acceptable. Maybe I should stop trying so hard to be something I’m not.”

  She had raised her voice by now and was giving us all a venomous look.

  “Hey,” Gideon said, moving to stand beside Audrey. “I don’t know what’s going on but you guys need to stop attacking Audrey. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Gideon,” I said, switching to English. “Please, just stay out of this. You don’t understand the situation.”

  “Maybe I don’t,” he said. “But I understand that you’re all attacking my…” He paused and changed what he was going to say. “I understand that you’re all attacking Audrey and I don’t like it.”

  Oh God, he had almost said… what? My woman? My girlfriend? My partner? Didn’t matter what he called it, I recognized the protectiveness of a guy that considers a woman his. I glanced over at Yumi when I had this thought and could have kicked myself.

  She’s not yours, man, I told myself. You heard Audrey. She still hasn’t forgiven you. Just get over her.

  I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to just get over the woman I had loved my entire life. But there had to be a way. But how, when we worked so closely together and she was always right in my face — in all her beautiful, prickly snarkiness. I glanced over at Yumi, with her long black hair braided into pigtails at the side of her head. Her face was dismayed at this turn of events. And in the middle of all this craziness, all I wanted to do was kiss her.

  Shit, I needed to focus. What was I thinking?

  “We should all just calm down,” Grace said, pulling me out of my thoughts. She repeated her words first in Primary and then in English. Then she switched back to Primary to talk to Audrey. “We don’t want you to be someone you
’re not, Audrey.”

  “Really?” Audrey said, her face completely skeptical. “Because it sure seems that way to me.”

  “No, we want you to be who you truly are,” Grace said, her voice earnest. “Underneath all the habits that you’ve built up over your lifetime, there is a person who’s naturally good. Who finds it easy to do the right thing. And who can be acceptable without any effort.”

  “Are you for real?” she said, glaring at Grace — who looked as pretty as I had ever seen her with her long red hair blowing in the wind and cheeks as pink as a sunrise. But Audrey was scowling at her as if she were the devil incarnate. “Fuck you, Gracie.”

  She turned and stormed away. Gideon gave us all a glance that was both angry and confused, then followed her.

  Damn, that hadn’t gone well at all.

  I sighed.

  This wasn’t good.

  Pack of Dogs

  Yumi

  Audrey stomped off with Gideon right behind. The rest of us, looked at each other not sure what to do. Then I followed them into the shadowy ghost town that was definitely a lot more spooky as the light began to dim.

  And that was saying something because even in the daylight it had been eerie.

  I wasn’t going to let her undo all of the progress she had made. Gideon would be good for mindless sex but he wouldn’t understand her the way we did. The way I did.

  In my peripheral vision, I noted that everyone else was behind me. And I wondered if we weren’t maybe being a bit hard on her. If I had the opportunity for mindless sex, I would probably take it. The past year had been a very long dry spell and to be honest, I could go for a good shagging, especially the mindless kind.

  I couldn’t help but glance over at Chad at this thought. His beard was growing in again, since we had been travelling. I wasn’t sure why he had shaved it after we arrived in this time but I was glad it was coming back. I had to admit that I fucking loved it on him. It made me crazy with desire. My fingers tingled and I wanted to grab his cheeks and find out what it would be like to kiss him with that sexy beard.

  Fuck. I clenched my fists tightly until my fingernails bit into my skin. I needed to get ahold of myself. Sometimes we picked up on each other’s thoughts and emotions through the soul bond. And I didn’t want him to know how much I still wanted him. He didn’t need to have any more power over me than he already did — though he probably didn’t realize how much I still cared.

  He was avoiding my eyes after Audrey’s little temper tantrum and I didn’t blame him. Audrey’s comment had shocked me. She was right, of course. But having it pointed out in front of everyone wasn’t pleasant.

  And Chad and I had been getting along just fine since we had defeated Brett together. No more fighting or bitterness. Good friends. Like we were a long time ago. It was a little empty, but it was better than before.

  I was going to forgive him. Of course I was. I just didn’t quite know how to do it yet. And neither of us wanted our hearts broken again. After the misery of the past year, it was nice to bask in a mostly pain-free existence. I wasn’t going to push it and ruin what we now had. I would get to forgiveness when I got to it.

  I didn’t know what to make of what was going on with Audrey. The only thing I could think was that we were somehow excluding her and this was her way of telling us that something was wrong. She wasn’t very good at communicating her feelings because for so long she had pretended she didn’t have any.

  I was no one to talk about communicating feelings but I knew I was a hell of a lot better at it than her.

  They were about two houses ahead of me when Audrey turned to go down the next street.

  And that was when I heard them.

  Dogs.

  Wild dogs.

  A pack of wild dogs.

  They looked like a bunch of mutts representing every colour and breed of dog, but I noticed that every last one of them was big.

  And they were all growling at Audrey and Gideon, who were standing side by side, very still. No doubt, trying not to antagonize the animals. Audrey’s pale blonde hair had come out of its ponytail at some point and was blowing out behind her as she stood perfectly frozen next to Gideon.

  The dogs were about twenty feet away from the pair.

  Oh fuck. This was bad. We shouldn’t have come in here.

  My fear for Audrey and Gideon seemed echoed by the mournful way the wind was blowing through the trees at the edge of town and I searched my mind, trying to figure out what to do to get us all safely out of this mess.

  “Yumi,” Audrey said, turning her head very quietly and slowly to look at me. “I didn’t mean anything I said. Please help us.”

  “Of course. Of course. Stay still,” I said, wondering that she still thought I would abandon her in a time of need. “What do we do?”

  This last question was aimed at Chad who had come up beside me. I didn’t move but cut my eyes over to him.

  He had never had a dog but somehow he was really good with them and knew what to do with the bizarre creatures. I personally hate them unless they’re small, quiet, and friendly.

  “Audrey, the two of you are going to back very slowly away from them, never turning away, and don’t make eye contact.”

  He repeated himself in English for Gideon’s benefit.

  “You didn’t bring your bow?” he said to me, though it was clear I hadn’t.

  “I…” I started to make an excuse but there was no excuse for not bringing weapons, even if I hadn’t intended to go very far and had been distracted by the fight with Audrey. “No. I don’t have it.”

  “I have one,” Shiv said, moving at a snail’s pace to take it off his shoulder and hand it to me along with the quiver that I slung softly over my head.

  The second the bow was in my hands I pulled an arrow and sighted. I decided to take out the front dog in case it was the alpha. I aimed for the heart, knowing that even with my skill, it was too easy to miss the head.

  The lead dog barked at them and made me jump. It seemed to be a warning bark.

  I breathed in and then on then held my breath as I released the arrow. It killed the dog immediately and I wondered if dog meat was good to eat. The other dogs looked surprised when the first dog fell. Audrey and Gideon moved a tiny bit faster, but still slow enough that the rest of the dogs only continued to growl.

  I took out two more before the dogs realized there was a threat and it was us. That was when I realized that they weren’t behaving normally. There was something wrong with them. Rabies, maybe? I had no idea. Nor did it matter.

  Suddenly, they leapt into motion, snarling, their barks sharp, the sound stabbing my ears. Audrey and Gideon ran. I was able to take out two more before I ran out of arrows. Only Shiv would keep a bow with just three arrows in its quiver. Sheesh.

  We watched helplessly as Audrey and Gideon tore away from us and the dogs got closer and closer. In a moment, they would catch up to them and most likely kill our friends. And then us.

  I felt helpless and powerless as the dogs reached them and attacked. Time seemed to slow down and I could see the lead dog flying through the air, its jaws open wide to clamp down on Audrey’s jugular, killing her instantly.

  It wasn’t fair.

  She had come so far.

  And in that moment, I realized that I loved her. She was a bitch and a fighter and she had once been my worst enemy, but now she was my friend and I didn’t want to lose her.

  And just like the last time, I acted to save her before I thought through the consequences.

  “No!” I screamed with everything in my being.

  I would not let her be harmed.

  Out of Control

  Chad

  Coming to Ashern was quickly turning into my worst decision yet. Especially if that dog killed Audrey. I could hardly see Yumi beside me in the deepening evening, but as soon as I heard her physical scream, I knew what was going to happen.

  Maybe it was one of my visions, though what good it would
do me being only milliseconds away from the disaster, I didn’t know. Still, it did give me enough time to warn everyone and protect Gideon because even though I only had milliseconds, thoughts are much faster than that.

  “Shields!” I yelled into everyone’s minds, pulling my own mental shield into place and throwing a rough but effective shield over Gideon’s. I closed my eyes and hoped that Grace and Shiv had had enough time to protect themselves from Yumi’s mental scream. If not, I didn’t want to see what had happened.

  I knew that Yumi hadn’t got her powers back, yet. But in the vision, I had seen her screaming mentally with her full power. I had never ever heard her use all of her mental volume — thank goodness. But I knew she had this time. And I was afraid of the results.

  I don’t know how long I stood there with my eyes closed, listening and trying to figure out what had happened. But finally I was forced to open my eyes and find out, though, honestly I had never been so scared in my life.

  The first thing I saw was that Grace and Shiv were fine. Yumi was standing very still but I saw that her hands were shaking. Gideon was staring down at the four wild dogs that had been attacking them. His mouth was hanging open in amazement. Audrey was grimacing at the dogs in horror.

  I moved to stand beside Yumi and saw what had happened. There was a clear fluid leaking from their ears. She had melted their brains with a mental shout. And considering that the brains were coming out their ears, I figured that she had liquidized their skulls too.

  I took a deep breath, trying to calm down and then immediately put my hand to my nose to block the smell of what I assumed was not only liquified but cooked dogs brains. I swallowed hard, feeling like throwing up. This was bad.

  “I didn’t mean to,” she said, looking so shellshocked that I put my arms around her. She was shaking and seemed as though she was about to collapse.

  “I know,” I said, rubbing her back in an attempt to comfort her. “You had to kill them. They were going to hurt Audrey and Gideon.”