by CC Solomon
“That was too much for me. I couldn’t go from protecting people to preying on them. I tried to rally people up against our alpha leader, but they were either too scared, or they actually believed him.”
“And I don’t think people liked Erik much. Thought he was too mean,” Lisa stated. “In retrospect, Erik shouldn’t have been the one leading the resistance.”
Erik sighed. “Anyway, some of us grabbed Lisa from her chains, and I got tasked with sneaking her out. We’ve been on the run for almost two weeks.”
“The big grouch has actually been my hero,” Lisa said, patting Erik’s shoulder.
I wondered if there was anything more between them. Strictly because I’m nosey.
Lisa continued. “Now you guys are my heroes too. I owe y’all some favors, so I’m down to help you set those others free. Us good guys gotta stick together.”
“Thank you, Lisa,” I said.
“So, tell us some about this, Phillip that Charles mentioned,” Erik said.
I really didn’t want to, but it felt only fair since we would end up in Silver Spring, and they’d meet him anyway. “He’s a guy who keeps showing up in my dreams, and we can speak telepathically from afar. He got us out of prison.”
“He was there?”
I shook my head. “I can’t explain it. He was just able to give me my strength back through my dream so that I could fight my way out of there.”
“Miss Annie Mae never did any of that for me. She just spoke to me in a couple of dreams. She said I’d find my people soon after I got to Silver Spring,” Lisa stated. “She told me about Erik too. Said he’d find his place in this world in her community.”
“So, what’d this Phillip promise you?” Erik asked.
I looked out of the window. “Other than helping me rescue the others, nothing.”
“Why do you want to go then?”
“It’s better than the prison and, honestly, since he helped us and has this kind of power, I want to meet him in person. What else is there to do?”
“Was he cute?” Lisa asked, clapping her hands lightly.
I glanced at her. “He’s nice looking.”
“Well, I guess we really know why you want to go, then,” Erik muttered. “Seems like a bit of a superficial reason, but I’m not judging.”
“Oh, lay off her, McGrouchy Pants,” Lisa said, shaking her head.
“What part of that sentence wasn’t judgmental?” I asked, adjusting in my seat. “Fine, since you want to be all in my business, understand this: for the six months that I was contained in that prison for the paranormal, I never dreamed except for when he visited. Why would he come out of the blue to me? Who is he? What drew him to a woman holed up in another state? How was he able to get my powers back? If you were me, would you just shrug and let that go? Maybe a guy like that knows why all this happened in the world. And now that he is probably in the same town as this Annie Mae, maybe this is a pretty darn special town, and I like special towns. That could mean safety, which would be nice in a freaky world like this.”
Erik sighed and then nodded. “Fair enough. But you should be careful who you show your magic to. You’re a little naive, and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
I crinkled my nose. “Thanks for the backhanded compliment. How am I naive?”
“Your whole story about this, Phillip, and even you stopping to help Lisa and I makes you a little too much of an easy prey. I’m surprised you’ve lasted this long. It’s probably due to your brother being with you.”
“Dude,” Charles whispered.
Lisa slapped Erik on the back.
“Hey, Charles,” I said in a pleasant tone, leaning forward. “Pull over really quick, so I can scratch Erik like an alley cat.”
Lisa let out a cackle.
Erik turned back to me, his eyes all too serious. “I’m just stating facts, Amina. If you were my client, I would tell you the same thing to save your life. Your nature is a danger in this kind of world.”
I leaned back.
“He’s right,” Charles whispered. “Helping and trusting people hasn’t really gotten us far in this world.”
I wasn’t naive. I was hopeful. Hopeful that this world could still be something good. That we could trust at least some people. If I didn’t believe that, then this wouldn’t be a world I wanted to be a part of. “If we can never rely on each other, then what are we doing here?” I asked rhetorically.
“You smell like good people. You just have to be more discriminating and find others like you,” Erik went on.
I raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by ‘smell like good people?”
“I’m a were. We can tell good and bad, truth and lies, all through our sense of smell. For good people or truth, it just smells like a nice, natural perfume. Like flowers. It doesn’t stand out unless I searched for it. But evil and lies, those smells are strong, and I started encountering it, recognizing it. Still took me a while to put together what the smells meant, but other weres had similar stories, and eventually, we figured it out.”
“What does evil smell like?” Charles asked.
“Sulfur.”
“Like someone passed gas?”
“Fun. What about lies?” I asked.
“Like body odor. And it was starting to smell like both in my pack.”
“That was one funky place,” Charles murmured.
“Why didn’t you run the pack?” I questioned Erik.
He shook his head. “Not my thing.”
I snorted. “Says the man who was former military. I’m assuming you weren’t some private ranked equivalent the whole time. What game are you playing? I smell sweaty underarms.” I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow.
Erik glanced at me again with a scowl. “What are you a were-witch?”
I wiggled my eyebrows. “You never know.”
The edge of his lips twisted up in a weak smile. Maybe he didn’t totally despise me.
“I started out leading when things first fell apart. I think I’ve just reached burnout. War can only prepare you for so much. Good people went bad. Bad people went worst. You just stop caring…” he replied, his voice trailing off.
I looked in his direction with a frown. I wondered what he’d gone through since the world changed. Lisa seemed to portray a pleasant disposition, even through all the pain I could only imagine she’d endured. We’d all lost friends, families, ways of life. What had Erik lost to make him so negative?
I looked to Lisa, who had turned away and was staring out of the window on her side. We were all strangers with pasts we wanted to escape.
Finding the Hagerstown government town was not a hard task. Government towns were all publicized on the internet. Sure, that was risky, knowing that there were insane people out there looking to take and destroy what was good. It’s why the town I’d lived in before I was snatched kept secret. But the whole point of the government reclaiming its role over the country was to let people know they existed. After all, the White House—before it was swallowed into the ground from a large supernatural sinkhole—was never in a secret location. People had to see things getting better.
Also, the only way the government would grow is if it had more people willing to live in its towns and follow its order. Government needed people to get things running and to defend its towns. And by people, they meant all people. As long as you weren’t breaking laws, it didn’t matter if you were supernatural or a normal human who wasn’t sick. And yes, the Sickness was still out there but less of a problem. Many of the non-gifted humans remaining were immune, which seemed like a gift to me.
Each government town was run by someone the equivalent of a mayor. From my limited understanding, they weren’t necessarily past politicians. The president and the vice president had perished. Most of government, federal and state, had been wiped out by the Sickness or some supernatural monster. I’m sure some people survived and had gotten roles or were even running the government-backed towns, but most leaders were
former non-politicians who’d found the leader in themselves as the world changed around us.
They ran their respective towns and regularly met with the other government leaders in North America. There wasn’t one leader, so our former democracy, where we had a president, wasn’t quite there yet. I had complete faith that a presidential race wasn’t too far away, especially as the government towns looked to expand and battle the “lawless” communities, as they called non-government towns.
I peered out of the front window. There was a large blue sign right off the highway, with wording in black paint telling us Hagerstown was about three miles ahead. When we got off the highway, we drove farther on an almost-cleared street, passing vacant housing, grocery stores, gas stations, fast-food joints, and office buildings.
Another blue sign told us to turn right to get to the town. After that, yet another sign stated, “Slow Down, Approaching Ward.” A few years ago, not having such a warning would have resulted in smashed cars at the least, and lives lost at the worst, since driving into a ward was like driving into a brick wall. I felt it before we even stopped in front of the invisible wall.
Charles slowed down, and we approached a final large sign on the left side of the two-way street. It was the size of a hut that stated, “Welcome to New Hagerstown: A United North American Territory.” To the right of the street was a bank. There were lights on inside and a car parked in the front lot.
Charles stopped the car on the side of the street in front of the bank.
“There’s a camera hanging from the street lamp in front of the bank and pointed at us. They know we’re here,” Erik stated, glancing out of the window.
“What if we came to the town at another entrance?” Charles asked.
“I don’t know how large this place is, but I’d have to assume they have this territory surrounded by cameras with guards scattered about. Probably signs telling people to come here or to particular sites where there are guards. We wait here.”
Minutes later, I strained to look past Lisa and saw two men in HAZMAT suits exit the bank and walk towards us. They were armed with automatic weapons.
“Well, that doesn’t look very welcoming,” I muttered.
One man, a tall black man, walked over to Charles’ window. “How can we help you?” He said, his accent sounded very New York.
“Well, we were hoping to get entrance into your town,” Charles replied with a smile. “We’re all paranormal and don’t have the Sickness.”
The man looked into the car at all of us. “Cut off your engine and pop your trunk and front hood. Everyone, please exit the vehicle.”
The second guard, a shorter Asian man, began checking the engine and the trunk after Charles complied.
“You have weapons in here,” the shorter man called from the rear of the car.
We got off of the truck and moved to stand in front of the car.
“Wouldn’t you?” Erik replied back, crossing his arms.
The man shrugged. “Well, everything else is clear,” he told the other guard and then looked back to us. “I’m confiscating your weapons for now.”
The man then looked to Charles and I. “Open your mouth,” he demanded. He took out two cotton swabs and a Petri dish.
I heard the other guard tell Erik and Lisa the same.
“Why?” Erik asked.
“So, we can test you for the Sickness,” the black man replied.
“You have a cure?” I asked.
“Not yet,” said the Asian man, before inserting a cotton swab in my mouth.
He ran it over my tongue and then rubbed it into the dish. He next took a small vial with a dropper out of his suit pocket and dropped a cloudy liquid in the dish. “Clear,” he announced soon after.
They did the same for the others, and we all got clear back.
“Names,” said the tall, black man.
We gave him our names, and he hung the gun by its strap on his shoulder. He then closed his eyes and raised his hands. I was pretty sure he was some form of witch. He was trying to determine whether we were good or bad. If we were evil, every bone in his body would ache like he had a severe case of arthritis. That was, of course, if we weren’t strong enough to mask our being.
He began mumbling something. I could see through the faceplate that his eyes were moving rapidly beneath closed lids. Finally, he opened them and looked at us. “Your powers are currently under lock, and you will not be able to use them,” he said, matter-of-factly.
“Come again?” I asked, eyebrows raised and mouth hanging open.
He gave me neutral eyes. “This is a short spell and will only last twenty-four hours,” he replied. “You are free to enter. There will be signs to lead you to our mayor’s office. We also have housing if you are allowed to stay. The mayor’s office is about two miles down the road. On your left, you will see a glass building. They’ll be signs. You can apply for a twenty-four-hour stay at the mayor’s and make an appointment to see someone about a permanent stay.”
We thanked him, he dropped the ward to the town, and we made our way. During the drive, we passed an active shopping plaza with clothing boutiques, a grocery store, a few other shops, and a couple of restaurants. We also passed a library and a high school. We saw kids playing in the field, running, and jumping. It looked almost like the town was unaffected by the changes in the world.
We finally reached a wide three-story glass building. In its former existence, the building had been your everyday office building. A giant New Hagerstown United American Government sign now stood out of a patch of grass at the entrance of the parking lot.
“So, what’s the plan again?” Charles asked, turning off the car.
“We ask for residency. Tell them the truth,” I said.
“We tell them we all escaped the prison,” Erik replied.
“Why lie?” Lisa asked, looking over to him.
“We don’t know if we can trust them. We tell them about Amina and Charles’ prison and that they need to help them.”
I opened my passenger door. “As long as you guys are good liars, so we don’t get kicked out for you lying, then I’m cool,” I replied. I didn’t like not going with the truth, but I trusted Erik’s instinct. He was the former military guy. I didn’t know too much about the pack they’d left, but I did know that this world was a suspicious one, and he had the best street smarts of us all.
So, I could go into the tale of us talking to the officials and getting their acceptance, but it was really uneventful. We were split up, and each of us told our stories. I strongly pushed that they needed to help the others in prison and that it would benefit them because I’m sure a lot of those people could bring their skill sets to the town. We were tested with magic of all sorts to determine our truths and questioned about our background to figure out what role we could play in the new society.
My legal background made them curious of my ability to assist with law-making or even teaching, which was a refreshing alternative to just cooking and healing. In the end, I made it through and was told by a local official I’d be on probation for six months. If I did anything immoral or against their rules, they would kick me out, or worse. I was provided with a thin book of rules and town references, given a housing assignment, and told to report to the school to start teaching the next day. Clearly, there would be no rest for the weary. They informed me that they would get back to me regarding helping our imprisoned friends.
When I exited my interrogation room, Lisa was already slouched on a blue couch in the bright and spacious lobby looking bored.
I walked over to her and sat down. I looked through the floor-to-ceiling windows at the parking lot. “Are the others still in?” I asked.
She shrugged. “I guess so. That took longer than I figured it should have. Two hours. I thought these towns were in need of people, especially ones with gifts.”
“They still have to have standards, I guess. What job did you get assigned?”
“So, clearly cosmetol
ogy is not a job that’s of importance now. But they feel me working at the market could be my calling.” She crossed her arms. “But they were open to me getting into fashion, which I am good at as well. Clothes are always a need. Maybe I can have my own clothing boutique.”
I looked at her with tired eyes. “Save it for Silver Spring. We’re only here for a short time.”
Her eyes grew wide. “Right. But…” She scrunched her face. “So, what if we go to Silver Spring and we don’t like it there? I’m thinking we can just come back here if we like it enough.”
“We’re going to like it there.” We had to. Any place that Phillip was had to be a place I would like to be. That sounded very naïve. Maybe Erik was right about me.
Lisa opened her mouth to speak again, but Charles walked off the elevator with a cocky grin.
“Big surprise, they’ve put me in I.T. and military. I gots two jobs,” Charles said, sounding a bit proud of himself.
“Military?” I asked.
“Well, it’s military slash police. ‘cause of my control over weapons and technology. Good for defense and tracking.”
“I always thought men in uniform were sexy,” Lisa said with a shy smile, head titled down.
Charles winked at her. I pretend to gag.
“He worked at an I.T. help desk before all this. Had a pocket protector and everything,” I cracked. “Wore glasses and superhero T-shirts.”
Lisa widened her eyes and made an O shape with her mouth.
Charles glared at me. “Why do you hate me?”
I gave him a toothy smile, and he rolled his eyes.
“Where’s Erik the Grouch?” Charles asked.
“Hasn’t come out yet,” I answered. And he didn’t come out for another thirty minutes.
Lisa jumped up when she saw him exit the elevators. “Finally! Are they kicking you out?” she cried.
“They want me in a leadership role in the government and military,” he replied, grimly.
I stood up. “They liked you, didn’t they?”
He gave a quick shrug. “More like loved.”
“What about helping our friends? They didn’t want to act on anything right now when I mentioned it. Since they loved you, did you talk about it with them?”