PHOENIX (The Weaver Series Book 4)

by Vaun Murphrey

  Full Bladder Man was still peeing a strong stream, but he could be done at any second and this opportunity would be lost. I had to decide just what the opportunity was though. An urgency to help the Weavers being transported in the back of the sweltering cargo area had to be weighed against the newly discovered tunnel and what it might mean for the planned assault against the Warp Faction. If what I did now destroyed any chance to contain or kill the Soul Eater later, should I do it?

  AK47 Guy whipped his head in the staring boy’s direction and withdrew his weapon from the curtain. My view was blocked but I heard a thick impact, a grunt and the little girl shrieked. A few others from inside gasped.

  The guard I couldn’t see spoke in an inhumanly dispassionate tone. “Any of you look at me sideways, I’ll shoot the girl and dump her off the end to get eaten by buzzards. There may only be one of me, but I have the gun and you don’t. You’re lucky I don’t just do it now for fun. Sit back and enjoy the ride, traitors.”

  I didn’t have time to consult anyone, and I couldn’t stomach the idea of letting the Warps make it behind their compound walls with their human freight. What if they put that little girl with the pink toenails in my old white room and she was forced to endure the same hell I’d gone through with Silver? I needed to at least put out the red alert before I went off half-cocked. My lids lowered and I soared into the ether to tug on all my attachments with so much force I was surprised they didn’t tear.

  Silver came first with Mez, Kal, Maggie, Melody and Malcolm in tow. James was next with Corinne and Kevin on his metaphorical heels. The blast furnace of their concern was deadening to my mind so I hardened the core of my essence, then injected a snapshot of the current situation down each line like information through fiber-optic cables. They would need clear images if they chose to teleport to my location. I outlined the tentative plan to get the refugees underground in the tunnel and then I slashed the Web connection closed as if a dull guillotine had slammed down on the bridge of my soul.

  The world of the physical was back and Full Bladder Guy was just zipping his fly. My reserves weren’t low, but I preferred to disable this many men with my shield if I could. It was the only viable quiet option. Anything else could risk injury to the captives or allow the men time to report through the Web to their Warp cohorts. I wasn’t a cold hearted assassin, but some things had to be done whether you enjoyed them or not.

  First things first, I had to make sure they couldn’t drive away. My shield flexed and stretched into a needle thin point directly out of my belly button. When it was anaconda long and flexible like a tendril of invisible hair I pierced one rear tire and then the other. The back end began to sink as the air whistled out.

  AK47 Guy drew the curtain aside and peered over the tailgate, then—just as he closed his eyes to connect to the Web—I wrapped the ropelike cable projecting from my stomach around his muscular neck and jerked it so tight I nearly decapitated him. His pale eyes bulged in their sockets and his tongue protruded like a fat coral-colored snail foot. Too much—too much force whispered in a detached part of my mind.

  He collapsed sideways onto his assault rifle and one arm flopped over the back end to hang limp after his knuckles rapped the tailgate. I shredded my light field and stared into dead eyes the same color as the empty looking sky.

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Release

  The boy in the Diamondback cap covered the little girl’s mouth so she couldn’t scream. His gaze met mine and looked deep. I held the index finger of my right hand vertically over my lips and tapped the side of my head with my left. When he looked ready to get up I motioned with a palm outward for him to stay. My tone was even and normal since the men in the front cab wouldn’t be able to hear me over the engine. “Stay here until I come back and give you the all clear. I have to take out the other three before they alert anyone. Be quiet.”

  A middle-aged, heavy-set woman in a blue broom skirt and a red sleeveless blouse came forward from the dimness, hunched with her arms thrown out for balance as she tried to avoid other’s feet and the hem of her own long skirt. “Who are you?”

  I heard hinges protest as the one of the doors up front opened. I hissed with a finger point in her direction. “Nieta to Noemi Covarrubias and leader of the Wind Runners, here to save some Mesa Verde ass, so sit and keep your heads down, dammit!”

  Light buzzed over my skin and the rush of hiding in plain sight filled me with satisfaction. Steps came closer on my right as I waited for my prey to come to me. The stupid woman didn’t sit on her rump, instead she huffed aloud, “Where did she go?”

  Diamondback Boy hushed her with wild serious eyes and four tan arms reached out from the bench seat to tug her down.

  Full Bladder Guy was who I expected but it wasn’t who I got. The man with the Boonie Hat came even with the tire and kicked it with a beige military issue boot. His chin was covered in a dark brown goatee that didn’t match the color of his red hair, but it was trimmed so short I hadn’t noticed it earlier.

  “Rainbows—get out here. We’ve got a flat!”

  The top half of his face was shaded by the floppy canvas brim but I saw the tightening of his cheeks and lips as his eyes fell on AK47 Guy’s limp fingers. With more confidence I looped my killer tentacle behind his neck and over his Adam’s apple. Bugged out eyes and gagging sounds followed but I didn’t almost garrote off his head like the last one—I was learning. He flailed a little more and his floppy hat got knocked off to reveal a freckled face gone red. I lifted him high until his feet stopped kicking and I felt the snap of his hyoid bone.

  Now I had running footsteps from both sides. Suck a duck! I dropped dead guy number two and put my back to the tailgate near the left taillight. The manipulable arm of my shield guarded the right corner. If I judged the height of my foe wrong the arm might miss its target.

  I was out of time. The driver, the one guard I hadn’t seen yet, ran his face into my fist. The sideways crunch of the cartilage in his nose wasn’t pleasurable or exciting. I had a job to do, so I was doing it. There was an impression of dark brown curly hair and then I back-kicked the knee joint on his right leg.

  A sensation of impact that felt like stabbing a knife into wet clay rippled down the line of my extended shield so I dared a look over my shoulder. I had misjudged Full Bladder Guy’s height so instead of penetrating his neck somewhere in the middle I had gouged through the suprasternal notch between his clavicles. His windpipe wasn’t crushed, it was impaled, and judging by how deep I’d gone his spinal column was severed. To be succinct, he was very dead and no longer my concern.

  I pooled my strength in my arms as I shifted my attention forward, leaned down and rotated the gurgling driver’s head until I heard the snap of vertebrae. When I released his body and the face was revealed it felt as if all the air were being pulled from my lungs through the soles of my boots to a leaden hellhole of sorrow at the center of the Earth. The features were the same—the wide mouth, the thick eyebrows, the firm jaw and this time, the age matched the last memory I had of my father Declan. I knew it wasn’t him in my mind, but my heart and soul were bleeding.

  The boy in the Diamondback cap clenched his fingers over the edge of the tailgate. His light brown eyes looked golden in the light and his lips were chapped. “That’s all of ‘em?”

  I tugged my shield arm out of the other dead body and the sound of it hitting the ground was muffled by the still running M927’s diesel engine. The little pink-toed girl didn’t need to walk past these bodies. I nodded at the boy. “Yeah, that’s it. I don’t know how long we have until the Warps come looking so we need to hurry. Let me get the guards piled under the truck and then y’all can get out.”

  He ducked his chin into his neck and his eyes went sideways at the little girl he’d tried to protect earlier. “My name is Jesus Ramon Ballesteros Soto the third. Call me Three. Why are we not taking the truck? How else are we going to get out of here?” Two thin black eyebrows accentuated his confusion as one hand flicked
in the direction of the endless dry dessert.

  How fitting that Ramon and I would get here just in time to save one of his blood relations. My guess for Three was grandson. “Your clan leader Ramon is here too. He’s in the tunnel I’m going to take you to.”

  As I spoke I used my invisible tentacle to drag each body by a leg under the trailer. The once fat but now flat all-terrain tires were still big enough to hide the three men I’d piled one atop the other. Now for AK47 Guy—he would be tricky. His neck was keeping his head attached but not well. I’d really gone overboard. I insinuated my shield tentacle under his arms and lifted his dead weight up then out. The abandoned assault rifle clattered to the floor of the trailer out of sight. He joined his comrades in the dog pile without his noggin coming loose.

  I settled my shield back in place and I felt the area over my belly button undulate as the flexible energy field redistributed itself to an even thickness. Ozone flooded the air. In a desert environment that was rare. I knew help had arrived and for the first time I wanted to break down but I couldn’t. Mesa Verde needed confidence, not some sobbing, hysterical woman.

  I’d advised they all ‘port into the wash first in my hastily sent message and it was a good thing too because everyone but Maggie and Melody had shown up. They were all covered in a light field but I could sense the protective energy shield creeping up their legs. I counted seven pairs of feet. Judging by the sizes I was hazarding Corinne, Kevin, Malcolm, James, Kal, Silver and Mez.

  I looked up at Three and pitched my voice to carry on the wind for ears other than his. “Help’s here. Two of them aren’t human so don’t be scared.” I flung an arm behind me at the roadside depression then toward the rumbling front end of the M927. “I’m gonna go turn off the truck.”

  By the time I climbed in the high cab, extracted the key and made it back to the tailgate things had become tense. The middle-aged, heavy-set woman in the red sleeveless blouse from earlier was pointing the AK47 at Mez, who had his arms palm out and shoulder high.

  Silver flexed her shield outward just as I had earlier but she extended from the tip of her right index finger and gripped the barrel as she spoke, “Lady, I’m giving you two seconds to point that thing at the sky.”

  Three had one hand on his lap out of sight and the other plucked at the blue broom skirt of his armed clan member. “Rose, you need to listen. If they wanted to kill us they would’ve already. You saw what just one of the Wind Runners can do, let alone seven more. Put the rifle down before you accidently shoot one of us…please?”

  Silver ran out of patience and bent the barrel with a wiggle of her finger. To the Weavers in the truck it must have looked like magic.

  James strode to me and grabbed both sides of my head over the ears. The adrenaline was fading in me, leaving behind a wistful ache for another life that sometimes hit when I least expected it. My soul reached out for my twin and when it encountered memories instead I felt hollowed like a depleted ore mine. I wanted to sag into his embrace for a moment and forget what I’d done to protect perfect strangers who would probably be afraid of me forever. James’ vivid green eyes bored deep into my own. When he was assured I was in one piece his chest heaved under his white dress shirt and his arms dropped.

  He leaned sideways, taking in the body count by the massive tire. “Impressive. Did the cab have any sort of GPS device? This year model doesn’t look that technologically advanced, but they could’ve updated the electronics. Have you searched the dead for cell phones?”

  I was attacked from behind before I could answer as Silver wrapped her arms around my shoulders and hauled me off my feet.

  Her voice was shrill with excitement. “Holy bat shit, Cass! You are a one woman wrecking crew. How long did this take you?” Silver bent at the hips to deposit her sisterly load.

  I did a one-eighty inside the cage of her long arms. At some point she’d ditched the purple sweater but her t-shirt still read ‘GOT MILK?’. She saw something in my face, pulled back our shields enough for contact and ran the knuckles of her right hand against my left temple. Kara’s altered features sagged in concern as if that one part of Silver’s borrowed body was susceptible to an increased gravitational pull.

  Corinne’s words were harsh as they broke through the emotionally charged atmosphere. “What part of don’t take your shields down do you two not understand? We could be attacked any second, and you’re making moon eyes at each other and getting touchy feely. Cut the shit and let’s do whatever the hell it is we’re going to do.”

  The anger that bloomed in my gut to replace the remorse, pain and fear filled a need. I fueled it and stoked it with all the injustice in life to bolster my sagging spine. When I looked at Corinne her nose was long over her upper lip and all of her features were attempting to pool in the center of her face. The emotions around Corinne must have been putting her on overload. I snapped a finger in front of her eyes. “You gonna make it, or should I send you home?”

  Corinne’s eyes went hooded and she relaxed her cheeks one twitchy muscle at a time as she ignored the question and asked another. “Where is the tunnel?”

  James was on all fours pilfering perished people’s pockets looking for phones or other gadgetry that would send a signal. I elbowed Silver and she grunted with fake pain, adding a sunny smile and a hand over her side. “I’m changing the plan. I think we can keep the tunnel a secret for a bit longer. Take the Mesa Verde bunch under cover of a light field a ways off into the desert and then we’ll ‘port to the enclave from there. Anyone who follows their tracks will still assume they were rescued, but maybe the Warps won’t discover the tunnel.” My lips curled together between my teeth before I bit the right side of my bottom lip. “I better go get Ramon. He could be freaking out down there. Be right back!”

  The feel of the older man’s protected outline all alone below our feet helped me concentrate on the near dark that would be pitch-black for him. Pale blue disappeared to be replaced by close confines and the smell of dirt. The air wasn’t stuffy and I could feel a current coming from further down the glorified subterranean hallway, then the creeping neutral feeling of the protective energy layer lapped over me like an incoming tide.

  I opened my pupils as wide as they would go and Ramon came into view. He was kneeling just the way I had left him with his eyes open to the darkness. I scuffed the loose soil under my feet to announce myself and he jumped.

  “Who’s there?”

  “It’s just me Ramon. I can ‘port you out or you can walk—‘porting is faster. Some of your family is up there. Maybe a whole bunch since I don’t know all your kin. Three’s a cool kid, you must be proud.” I paused a heartbeat before adding, “You could have asked us for help.”

  Ramon gathered his feet under himself to stand, rising with a smoothness that belayed his age. Instinctively he made as if to brush the dirt from his pants then stopped, “You covered my body with something that kept me safe didn’t you? Where are we?”

  So he was going to fake like I hadn’t caught him out? Okey dokey.

  “I did and you’ll know soon enough. We have to go. Walk or ‘port?”

  His fingers curled closed then open, once then twice before he chose. “Walk.”

  I sighed. “I’m about to grab your arm, Ramon, don’t freak. I’m gonna put it on my shoulder and then we’re marching out double-time. You may wish you’d chosen the other way.”

  His bottom lip protruded in a child-like pout. “I can keep up with you, girl.”

  I smiled and put one foot in front of the other with an extra push of speed. “We’ll see.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three: Human Landfill

  It turned out Silver could mend plants as well as human beings. The gobernadoras were healed and bushier after she tampered with them. The petals of the yellow flowers jumped out from the waxy green leaves in firework explosions of color.

  If repairing plants were an option, maybe Carrie the waitress could have been fixed on the spot? It was something worth expl
oring if it ever came up again. Outsiders needed all the positives they could get if Weavers became fully mainstreamed. I didn’t know about anyone else, but I’d prefer not to end up confined to internment camps while America decided if we had the right to live. I also didn’t want Silver to become swarmed with the near-dead and dying searching for a cure. Death was a natural part of life, even if it didn’t always feel like it should be.

  James was next to me staring at the heat-wavering horizon. The outline of the Warp stronghold shimmied and danced in the distance like a fantastical illusion.

  “How long do you think this tunnel is and who the hell built it?”

  I thinned my shield, tugged down my Fugazi shirt by the hem and then sealed myself tight so Corinne wouldn’t bitch. “Don’t know and don’t know, but I have a guess.”

  He bent his neck to either side as if trying to work out a kink. “You think it has to do with Noemi and that’s why she’s been trying to get you to wade her memories?”

  “Yup.”

  James thrust a hand out over my middle when I would have joined Silver and the others.

  “I saw the one that looked like Declan. He wasn’t your father.”

  I blinked. The inside of my mouth felt too small for my tongue and it took me a second to make the fat slug behind my teeth work. “I know that. I’ll get over it.”

  Something moved behind his jade eyes, a knowing of my ways and an acceptance. He morphed his limb from a barrier into a guide as it swept over the many footprints on the fine silt in the wash. “I guess we can smooth all these out with our shields. Will you teach me to make an arm?”