by A J Donovan
My legs buckle underneath me and I drop to my knees. I put my hand against the floor, trying to ignore the warm liquid soaking through my jeans and sticking to my palm. Ice spreads quickly and blocks the doorway, growing into an impenetrable wall of ice that covers the entrance. I let the power flow through my hand until the wall is several feet thick. They won’t be able to break through it.
No one around me moves or makes any noises. I use my power to reach out to each of them, searching desperately for a sign of life. There isn’t any.
Reggie did this. He did all of this.
Sobs rip themselves from my chest. I sit there alone, in the midst of all the innocents he killed.
Reggie did this. He is responsible for all of this.
***
Chapter 26 - Broadcasting
Kim
Three days have passed since I almost killed hundreds of people.
I am starting to feel a bit better about my close call with losing control of my power. It reacts to my emotions like fuel to a fire, it’s far too easy to lose myself in the moment. I need to work on keeping a tighter grip on my emotions.
It used to be easier. Before I was bitten, before the Outbreak happened, it was easy to calm myself down. Calming techniques like taking a deep breath, taking a break, counting to ten, they all worked. But now, as soon as I get angry or irritated or feel any kind of strong emotion, it overwhelms me.
I don’t know what caused the change but it doesn’t matter. I know I can control myself. I am stronger than my anger.
Kayla and Cole have both been supportive, in their own ways. Kayla has endless stories about friends from before the Outbreak, and all of them feature men and women who did things far more insane than me. Cole doesn’t say as much as Kayla - no one does - but he firmly believes in me. He believes that I can master my power and the wild emotions that come with it.
The people that came with us from Camp Turk are calmer and kinder than I expected. A mixture of soldiers and civilians, all of them made a stand against prejudice and violence. Most of them are happy to follow me, for now. It will only take a few days to get to the new military camp and I don’t expect any trouble before we get there.
Once we arrive, they can take a vote and elect a real leader.
Rex is keeping his distance. He misses me, I can feel it every time our minds connect. It breaks my heart to keep him away but he would terrify everyone here. It’s not his fault but I don’t see a better solution. It’s only for a few days, then we can be back together again. If this new camp won’t accept him, I will make a home for myself somewhere nearby. Close enough to visit the camp as often as my friends want, but far enough away that no one gets worried about Rex.
Camp Turk hasn’t sent any scouts to follow us, as far as we know. I worry about what they are going to do now, where they will continue their persecution of the Unturned or if they learned their lesson. I can pretend to hope for the best, but I know which of those two options is more likely.
On the brighter side of things, Click found a radio yesterday and he started fixing it up. I have no idea how it’s broken, in what way it can be fixed, or what he’s doing to get it working again, but he seems confident. Earlier today he showed us that he got it to receive signals on various frequencies. Apparently he hasn’t gotten it to receive on all of the normal frequencies that it should be able to receive on, but he doesn’t think it will be a problem. I’m taking his word for it.
Initially, he wanted to see if Camp Turk was broadcasting anything. We wanted to get as much information about them as possible, but when he started scanning the channels, he found a broadcast from the lake camp. They say they are happy to take in any survivors who are willing to contribute to the camp and its survival, including families and the injured or elderly. It sounds perfect. I don’t think anyone fully believes that it’s true but everyone is hopeful.
There are a lot of people travelling with us and it is rare to find a moment alone, but when I do, I find my thoughts coming back to Jake. I know he is alive. Whatever part of my power is connecting me to him is telling me that he’s alive. I see him in my dreams and I feel it in my gut. I just hope he’s still the same person I’ve always known. I hope this new world hasn’t changed him like it changed me.
I hope he’s okay.
***
“I think we should send out a broadcast from the radio,” Click announces.
We are having lunch together in the kitchen of a house. The group took over several houses in a cul-de-sac yesterday. The area is protected by high walls on three sides and it made a great base after we cleared the undead in the houses. There are only a few of us here right now, the others are patrolling and gathering supplies. We have a rotating system for resting, patrolling and scouting shifts.
I invited Click, Kayla and Cole to eat with me, to take a break from our constant discussion of what to do next. I asked Will and Jade to join us too but both of them are patrolling.
“Why broadcast?” Cole asks him. “We don’t have anything to offer and we would just be giving away our location to bandits or the surviving traitors from Camp Turk.” I can’t say I’m surprised at the bitter undertone to his words. Everyone feels the same way about Camp Turk, especially the soldiers. They were betrayed. We all were.
“We don’t have to tell them where we are,” Click says. “We could give a neutral rendezvous point somewhere nearby and send scouts there to check for survivors that heard our broadcast.”
“I don’t mean to sound unkind,” Kayla says. “But we have nothing to gain from this. We barely have enough supplies for ourselves. It wouldn’t make sense to invite more people to join us.”
“And they might try to rob us,” Cole says. “We have to be practical. Bandits and thieves could take advantage of our kindness. We would be putting lives at risk.”
“I think we should do the broadcast,” I say. “It’s the right thing to do. We won’t be here for long so there won’t be many people who hear it in time to meet us. We can be careful when we meet whoever shows up, if anyone even does, and we’ll keep an eye on them.”
“It’s too risky,” Cole says.
“What if it was us?” I ask. “If any of us, or anyone that we care about, was out there and they needed help, wouldn’t you want some kind stranger to help them?”
“Of course I would,” Cole says. “But that’s not the point.”
“That’s exactly the point,” I say. “We have enough guns and soldiers to deal with any group of bandits, and that’s before we even think about our Unturned. We have my air, your lightning and Maria’s force fields. Do you really think we’re in danger from bandits?”
Cole sighs. “I suppose not. And it is the right thing to do.”
Kayla shrugs. “Alright. But we need to talk to the others. I don’t think everyone will be as happy as us to go along with your plan.”
I nod. “I’ll talk to them. Click, get the broadcast set up and ready to go, but don’t send it until we get agreement from everyone.”
I stand up to leave but before I leave the room, Click says, “What if they don’t agree?”
“If they don’t agree, we won’t do it. This isn’t a dictatorship and Cole is right, this could be dangerous. We all need to choose whether we want to do this or not.”
***
We get a response to our broadcast a day later, when Will and Jade find a message spray painted on the wall of the store. This building is the rendezvous point we mentioned in the broadcast.
“See you soon.”
I frown, staring up at it. They called us over as soon as they saw it. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
The others are looking at it too, while Cole and Jade start scanning the area around us for the people who wrote this.
“I don’t see anyone,” Jade says quietly. “But that doesn’t mean they’re not there.”
Cole checks his rifle, and everyone else quickly follows his lead as the ominous feeling hits them. We only
have four guns, so Will, Cole, Jade and Click are spreading out in a circle around us. The shape is better for Maria too, if she needs to throw up a bubble shield. The problem is that her barrier will stop our bullets, too, and give away the fact that we have Unturned with us.
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, letting the air fill my lungs. I picture the air, entering my lungs, swirling around inside, and then leaving again. It leaves my body and diffuses into the air around us. Within moments, my mind is spreading throughout the empty space around us. Air currents flow and drift between buildings, through their windows and their doors, and they fill up every empty space inside them.
“Not all of the buildings are empty,” I say.
“Where?” Cole asks.
I walk towards a building in front of us. The others walk with me, keeping their formation.
“Found you,” I murmur, waving my hand.
The front wall of the building blows off in an explosion of dust and stone. I lock the air molecules around our three visitors to stop them from escaping.
“Whoa,” Click says. “Someone remind me to never make her angry.”
I don’t respond, my focus is still on the building. I wave again and the three of them come flying out of the building. I cushion their landing so they don’t break anything too important, and they roll to a stop about ten feet from us. There are two men and a woman.
“Don’t hurt us!” one of the men cries out, throwing his hands in the air. The corner of a bandage is visible over the collar of his shirt. It could be a bite injury, we should be careful.
The woman stands up more slowly than her companions.
“You’re one of them!” The man says. “I’ve heard about the things you people do.”
I glance at his friend, the third member of their little group, but he is still on the ground, frozen in terror. It makes sense, he was just picked up by an invisible force that tore apart a building and thrown across a street.
Cole steps forward, holding his rifle up pointedly. “Who are you? Why were you watching us?”
I look back at the woman. She’s not afraid. She’s petite, wearing an oversized flannel shirt that makes her look even smaller than she is. She glances at her friends for a brief moment before she answers Cole.
“We were watching you to see if you were bandits. We thought the broadcast might have been a trap. It wouldn’t be the first time.”
Cole nods. “Alright, that makes sense. But why should we trust you? What can you offer us, why should we take you in? We could just leave you here.
Cole is completely bluffing, of course, he’d never leave these people here without shelter or supplies. He’s trying to find out who these people are, get to know them more before we invite them back to the base.
The woman hesitates. “I’m a doctor.”
Jade scoffs.
“No, really! Look, I can show you.”
She takes a step forward and four guns snap up to aim at her. She pales but doesn’t falter and steps over to the man closest to us. “Look.” She pulls up his shirt and reveals a huge bandage covering his chest. It’s not just a bite or a minor cut or bruise. There must be a serious wound under that bandage.
I step past Cole. “You did that?”
She nods. “The day of the Outbreak. It was a stray bullet, it would have killed him without medical attention. We dragged him into an ambulance and I took the bullet out and treated his wound. It wasn’t ideal. I could have done a better job in an actual hospital, but at least he survived.”
She peels back the bandage and reveals a stitched up wound that would have turned my stomach before the Outbreak. I step closer, examining it. There’s no way to be sure that she’s telling the truth, but the wound is definitely real.
“Another doctor would definitely come in handy,” I say. I look over my shoulder to ask what everyone else thinks.
The moment I turn away, the quiet man mutters something like a prayer, and then lunges at me with a battle cry and a knife.
I roll my eyes and send his knife flying out of his hand while gunfire explodes around me.
It’s never simple, is it?
***
Chapter 27 - Fight for Our Lives
Jake
A small sound catches my attention. I look around at the corpses filling the room. Is someone alive?
“Jake.”
I look up. Diana is hopping down from a cabinet beside an open window. “Diana. How did you get here?”
“I climbed through the window. I heard some of the men talking about you, that you blocked off a room with ice. It didn’t take much effort to find out which room they were talking about.”
She hurries across the room to join me. I haven’t stood up yet. I don’t know if I can.
“Are you hurt?” she asks.
“Reggie is behind the attack,” I tell her.
“I know.”
“You do? How can you be okay with this?”
“I’m not okay with it. I’m angry. I’m so angry I could tear him apart with my bare hands, but we can’t sit here and feel sorry for ourselves, Jake. We need to do something.”
I know she’s right but I need some time to process all of this. “He’s a monster, Diana. How are you not more upset?”
She sighs and kneels down in front of me. “I am upset.”
“You’re getting blood on your clothes.”
“It doesn’t matter. I’m sure they will get a lot more blood on them soon.” She takes my hands. “Listen, Jake. You were closer with Reggie than I was. I liked him and I trusted him but I didn’t care for him the way you did.”
I don’t know what to say. I shrug.
“You were looking for a father figure and he took advantage of you. I thought he was being kind, but now I realise that he was playing you. He played all of us. He uses a person’s weakness against them, that’s what he does.”
I nod and force myself to stand. “What now? How do we deal with this?”
“They turned on us and stabbed us in the back,” she says. “Our next step is obvious, isn’t it?”
I meet her gaze with new determination. “We fight them. We win. We get justice for the people they killed.”
She grins. “Exactly.”
Diana walks to the ice wall and glances back at me.
“Anyone outside?” she asks.
I flip my vision but there isn’t any water on the other side of the wall. “No, we’re good.”
“Then let’s go.”
I turn the ice to water with a thought and it splashes across the floor.
Diana leads the way, clearing the next room, then moving silently down the hallway and into the main lobby. The building is big, but it’s not a mansion, I’m surprised we haven’t run into anyone yet. We take cover behind the massive staircase that dominates the room. It is covered in intricate carvings and has an ornate golden banister running all the way up to the first floor.
We step out into the open and immediately come to an abrupt stop. We have finally found someone.
“Lana?”
The woman stands before us, blocking our way out of the lobby. Her expression is set, determined, but there’s some guilt mixed in there, too.
“You’re not on our side,” I say.
“No, I’m not.”
Diana’s rifle snaps up but Lana jerks her head and the metal crumples back on itself. Diana lets it go before it traps her fingers and the misshapen rifle drops to the floor.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask.
“Reggie told me about the camp last night. It’s all a lie, Jake! None of it’s true. They want us to think it’s safe and when we get there, they’ll attack us all. It’s a trap.”
Diana is motionless, her eyes are locked on the other woman. I wonder if Diana will be fast enough to draw another weapon. I know she has at least one backup, I’d bet my life on it.
“You don’t believe that,” I say.
Lana frowns. “What?”
“You don’t believe it. You’re too smart to fall for his lies. Why are you really doing this?”
Lana drags a hand through her hair. “You know why. You were there, Jake. Reggie sent you to save us.” She takes a deep, shaky breath, before lifting her hands into the air. “He sent all of you. He sent Gavin. Reggie saved Bill’s life. I owe him everything.”
She throws her arms forward and sends every piece of metal in the room hurtling towards us.
I curse and throw a wave of ice against the onslaught of metal debris she sends at us. Ice collides with metal and I grit my teeth, throwing more power into the wave. Lana is strong.
We seem evenly matched but I encase the pieces of metal in ice, blocking her off from her weapons. Soon, she runs out of things to throw at us.
“I can’t let you win,” she says, breathing hard and staring at me with wide eyes. She lifts her hands again and I do the same, trying to be ready for whatever she’s going to do next.
The main staircase behind us cracks and splinters as the entire banister running along the side is ripped from the wood. The railing floats into the air, looming over all of us.
I look over at Lana, her face is red and her entire focus is on the banister. I’m sure I could send an icicle at her now and she wouldn’t be able to stop me.
I hesitate, not wanting to kill a woman who has been manipulated by the same man who tricked us all.
Diana lifts a handgun I didn’t know she had and fires.
Lana’s eyes snap towards us and the bullet stop in midair, inches from her face. The bullet stays floating there for a second and Lana’s eyes narrow.
“Get down!” I shove Diana out of the way and throw out a blast of frost at the same moment that Lana shoots the bullet at us. The bullet is knocked to the side of the room.
The banister turns and lifts as Lana moves her arms. It floats right above us.
“Don’t do this,” I say.
“I have no choice.”
I could freeze the blood in her veins. I could stop her heart or freeze her brain. I know I could do it. I feel the power pulsing through me, ready to be unleashed.