The New Magic - The Revelation of Jonah McAllister

by Landon Wark

  "Okay," he breathed. "Okay. Let's just... Find your Adepts and get the hell out of here. We'll worry about the morality of it all after."

  "They're going to be looking for us now," Aegera motioned to the radio on the soldier's shoulder.

  "Yeah. Just... Act now, worry later," he said. It was all his brain could come up with.

  He slotted the tubing into a pair of pockets in the lining of his heavy coat, hoping it would be out of the way enough that it would survive the pressure of his arms and Aegera did the same. They moved carefully to where the alley intersected with the street. It was there that the cause of the traffic along the thoroughfare became apparent. A large vehicle, some kind of personnel carrier was perched at the place where the large street joined up with the grid of the city roads. Several dozen meters down there was another and then another after that. A pair of soldiers stood watch over each in their disconcertingly identical black riot gear.

  Stormtroopers is right.

  "Holy Hell," Aegera whispered. "What the fuck is going on? It was always just groups of about four or so. This... this is organized. This is some straight Gestapo shit."

  Jonah nodded slowly. There was a kind of bleary, unreality about the whole scene where he could have sworn he was looking through a screen into the realm of a kind of Fascist dystopia. A sickening worry that he had woefully misjudged exactly what kind of world he was throwing rocks at rippled into him. He had to lean against the brick wall of the building they were using for cover lest he fall over.

  "This isn't supposed to happen. This isn't supposed to happen," he found himself repeating.

  The men guarding the carriers glanced around the area, undoubtedly on alert after having heard the call on the radio.

  "We can jump across the main street to over there." Aegera pointed, but Jonah wasn't completely listening. His mind was busy trying to unwrap what must be going through the heads of whoever set something like this up. Send soldiers in? For trying to make people's lives better? For fucking science? They didn't have to do this!

  They don't have to do this.

  "Yeah, yeah, we can do that," he muttered.

  But...

  Before he really knew what was going on they were on the other side of the street, looking back at the carriers from the opposite angle. There were more spaces between the buildings on this side and they could move easily from side street to side street from here. Several of them slipped past as Jonah wrestled with the idea that anyone would react this way to... to magic?

  After slipping undetected through three or four of the alleys/side streets (he was too distracted to keep a precise count) they found a small grouping of the black-clad soldiers barring the way into a small cluster of tightly spaced buildings and what looked like an automotive garage.

  "This was the meeting site," Aegera brushed a stray strand of her icy hair behind her ear and exhaled a cloud of mist into the cold air. "Looks like they took everyone out. Why are they still wait—Christ. They're waiting to see who else shows up. Assholes are setting a trap."

  "Yeah."

  "I—"

  The medium-distance sound of blades thrumming through the air interrupted Aegera's voice with the announcement of the arrival of a helicopter to the cordoned off area where they stood.

  "You gotta be kidding!" she hissed, her accented voice slipping through.

  Although it was a large show of force, the air support was something that was easily dealt with. A curtain of glimmer went up over their heads. Much improved since the last time he had used it, the distortion now remained steadfast in place over their heads, a guarantee that anyone watching from overhead would not be able to pinpoint where they waited.

  "Should work the same for infrared," Jonah said, more for his own benefit than Aegera's.

  "Where the hell did they take them?" Aegera grumbled impatiently.

  "Maybe we should ask them," Jonah whispered.

  "Maybe..."

  Before he could say anything, Aegera slipped from her place beside him and entered the street. In full sight of the soldiers who were loitering around the entrance to the garage.

  The first one of them to lay eyes on her raised his weapon, followed by the others. When she didn't stop at their warnings one of the men yelled into his radio. Another two steps and they pulled on the triggers of their weapons which did little more than sputter a pop or two. A quick sequence of words and a spark leaped from Aegera's finger, arcing from the nearest soldier to the one next to him. Both folded to the ground in a heap while the other two frantically checked and banged on their weapons. One of the remaining soldiers lifted off his feet, crashing into the overhanging roof at speed before falling beside the others.

  The wide, fearful eyes of the last one were visible even through the heavy goggles he wore over them. As Aegera approached at a walk he tried one last time to get his weapon to fire before heaving it at her and attempting to run. She sidestepped the clumsy toss and as Jonah watched, the man was bowled over by invisible force. He managed to roll over in time for Aegera to place her boot on his shoulder and push him into the concrete.

  "Where are they?" Jonah heard her shout as he found enough fortitude to slip from where he stood, bringing the distortion field along with him.

  "Shit," he whispered.

  The man thrashed momentarily. His panicked hold on whatever English he might know obviously insufficient to allow him to understand what she was saying.

  "You piece of shit!" Aegera's voice raised despite Jonah's pawing at her shoulder, trying to keep her quiet.

  "They're going to be coming," he hissed. "We can't stay here."

  "Where?" Aegrea pushed harder on the man's shoulder, simplifying her interrogation.

  Babbling incoherently the soldier tried to scramble out from under Aegera's boot, no answer to the shouts of the woman standing over him, cutting a mixture of intimidation and buffoonery in her heavy down-stuffed coat.

  "Shit!" Jonah swore at the sound of the approaching helicopter blades which undoubtedly foretold the coming of additional soldiers as well.

  The white light of the translocation procedure enfolded around the three of them followed by the sudden serenity of an abandoned alley not far from where they had been a moment previously.

  If Aegera noticed the change in scenery, she didn't let on, her focus squarely on getting any hint of where her pupils had gone. Likewise her target did not seem to notice.

  "Tell me where they are or I'm gonna turn you into a greasy puddle on the sidewalk," she sneered.

  A plume of yellowish, toxic smelling smoke curled up from the man's vest as a heat lance burned into it. His face contorted in agony as the burn ran clean through into the flesh underneath.

  "Sandy," Jonah put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't have to do this."

  The soldier's hand waved towards a general direction and he prattled off something in the local dialect before screaming in English. "THERE! THERE!"

  Whether he compensated for their change in location, whether he even noticed their change in location was unknown. But before he could say anything Aegera was off. Jonah managed one last look at the man lying on the concrete, desperately trying to peel the burning armour off of his chest as it seared into his skin.

  What the hell is happening? he thought.

  It seemed to take forever to reach the intersecting street where Jonah caught the last glimpse of a person being pulled away into the open. Aegera stutter-stepped and then rushed towards the corner of the building where they peered around the concrete edge.

  A group of nine men clad in the black armor each pulled along a disoriented, straggling person with identical dark green bags draped over their low hung heads. Jonah clenched his fists and felt the tension in Aegera as the two of them watched the grim parade trudge toward where the carriers sat like lounging tyrant kings in the middle of the street.

  What's happening? What's happening? They don't have to do this! But...

  Aegera flinched toward the peo
ple being led out into the street. Jonah managed to grapple onto her shoulder before she could get more than half a step.

  "You can't," he said with a kind of blunt regret. "There's too many of them. We'll be too exposed."

  Her eyes were wild and angry. "We can't let them do this! Once they take them away we'll never be able to find them. I'm going."

  His teeth grit together. "The suppressors aren't going to work against anything in that helicopter. They might not be able to see us from there, but if they start blind firing there's no telling what could happen."

  "I'm going!"

  Are you going to be okay without your only friend in the world?

  "Fuck! At least—we at least need a plan!"

  Her eyes lost a little of their wildness as they darted over the street ahead of them.

  "Jump us in. I'll do a massive surge of force, radiating outward. Knock everyone down. We'll get the others out. That'll even the odds."

  Jonah bit his tongue and tried to quell the jitteriness of his muscles. He felt sick with adrenaline and very near exhaustion, both nervous and physical, The plan might work, but...

  She's right. They get on those trucks and you'll never see them again.

  He exhaled in resignation and nodded. His voice trembled as he began speaking, but at least it gave him something to focus on. Aegera curled her finger and breathed heavily in anticipation.

  And then they were besides the nearest carrier, a little closer than he had intended, but still between the soldiers marching the prisoners toward their destination. There was a fraction of a seconds lag before he felt the crash of Aegera's wave ripple out around him. It rocked the carrier a little on its suspension and threw the first six black armored figures to the ground along with their green hooded captives. The remaining three readied their weapons, the panic over having people suddenly materialize in front of them clear even through their eyewear and even clearer when all that came out of their weapons were a couple of impotent pops.

  Aegera sent a lance of force into the chests of the first two men and they folded to the ground with the sound of breaking bones. Jonah watched as the third backed off with stuttering steps before abandoning his weapon entirely and bolting down the street as quickly as his bulky armour would allow.

  Aegera quickly yanked the weapons away from the fallen soldiers and Jonah carefully eyed both those guarding the carriers further down the street as well as the distortion field hanging over their head. The soldiers were scrambling, pulling some sort of equipment out of the carriers that he could not make out.

  Clang

  A loud ringing made him start and press his back up against the carrier for cover. He inhaled sharply, finding it almost impossible to exhale. The huge dent in the metal exterior of the vehicle gave away that the other soldiers had started firing from outside the range of the suppressors and that it was likely only due to their nerves at the strangeness of the situation that they had missed him.

  "Come on!" Aegera was pulling hoods off the Adepts and waving them over towards the carrier where he crouched, muscles so tense that he was unable to move.

  "How many can you jump?!" Her question was momentarily lost on him and upon realizing what it was he found he couldn't even remember the words that had seemed so clear only a minute prior.

  "I-I-I," was all that would seem to come out.

  "Jonah!" she shouted.

  "Four, maybe five," he replied as the first of the horrified Adepts joined him next to the slim cover of the carrier.

  The shots were coming half a dozen at a time and all he could tell himself was that there were forces he could put up, but his brain was scrambled by the noise and the adrenaline. He pulled his knees up to his chest and sunk against the comfortingly thick rubber of the carrier tire.

  You don't have to do this. You don't have to do this. Was the only thought that seemed to have the power to break through into his stream of consciousness.

  "Where's Tom?" Aegera shouted. Whether she got a response or not was lost on him.

  Just as the Adept next to him started to construct the wall of force he had long forgotten a metallic canister clattered along the concrete and a noxious cloud spewed from ports along the edge. Jonah felt a sharp painful sensation along his face. He scrambled to get to his feet, nearly bowling over the Adept as they coughed madly. Tears and mucus flowed from his eyes and nose as inhaling became a nightmare of burning.

  The Adept fumbled for the canister, his free arm up over his face and threw it as far as he could in the direction of the other carriers. Even as he did, the sound of several more landing nearby foretold an increase in the density of the toxic cloud. The sounds of soldiers from the other carriers coming closer hit him with renewed urgency.

  He struggled to his feet and turned to try to run, break free of the miasma that was billowing over the street. Something caught on his leg and he realized immediately that it was the hand of one of the soldiers who had fallen from Aegera's initial barrage. Someone careened into him as they tried to get away from the approaching line of soldiers, sending him sprawling to the ground.

  The world was a run of yellow air and tramping feet. There was no sound save for the bellowing of pain and the soft thumps of metal and concrete on flesh. Here and there were drops of blood on the pavement. He tried to pull himself up from his prone place on the ground but a shin impacting his ribs sent him back down in a sudden burst of confusion and pain.

  A scream in the distance and the sound of booted feet approaching ever closer.

  There had to be something, anything he could do to get free, but his mind was blanking and his lungs were ablaze.

  A broad boot planted on his back shoved him into the ground. The rough concrete abraded his hands as he pushed against the massive force that was pushing him down, hacking and spluttering in the yellow smoke.

  “Jonah!” The voice of Aegera reached his ears through the melee around. The cry was punctuated by a series of coughs that mirrored his own.

  He grit his teeth and shoved against the weight pressing him down only to fall back down to the dirt and concrete, the implacable foot pressing him into solid mass. His ribs burned and his eyes wept and his limbs flailed like a pinned lab specimen.

  There was something down there in the smoke with him. Something that he had once known but had long since forgotten about. Thinly cloaked in the civility of the world it had been watching him. One look into its dark depths told him that it had always been watching. It cared nothing for spreading the gift he had discovered and nothing for the morality of some fight that was taking place in the mist. All it cared for was the insect that was holding him down.

  He screamed into the pavement.

  "YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THIS!"

  The rules here are suspended, the thing slithered into his ear and spoke in a voice that was clear as day in the noxious fog.

  "YOU DON'T—" He paused to cough harshly. "—HAVE TO DO THIS!"

  But they want to.

  “Jonah!” Aegera yelled again.

  He could see her feet amid the fleeing Adepts and the advancing guard. Frantically he shoved against the force holding him to the ground. His muscles were exhausted, his blood felt like sludge in his veins and yet still this thing was holding him down. If he could just catch his breath…

  A tide of feet washed over Aegera as she fought to get to him, caught her up and pulled her away with its undertow. There were shouts of those who were being trampled. At nearly the same time a solid line of boots reached him. An iron bar thumped against his arm and stomach.

  Pain, sharp and undeniable, told him that the arm was broken. Doubled over, certain that he was about to throw up he was hauled towards one of the vehicles lining the outer perimeter of the melee. About ten meters out the smog was thinner, his lungs began to clear.

  The thing that had been with him down in the pavement screamed and roared, clawing at the sludge that fouled up his mind. Clarity slowly returned to him and as it did he sucked a gasp of cl
ean air. In an instant a word began to form on his lips, a deadly syllable.

  White light exploded around him, forming into blinding specks as something collided with the back of his head. The clarity was instantly gone, replaced by rings of washing darkness. The sounds of shouting and running grew distant and his body seemed to grow spongy beneath him. Hands were there to keep him from falling and for a moment he seemed to be floating towards the open maw of the vehicle.

  That something, the thing which now barely had strength to whisper in his ear, told him that if he disappeared inside of that door he would never see the light of day again. He struggled ineffectively against the grip they had on him and then the world grew dull and dim. His eyes remained barely open, but the functioning behind them was gone. The mind of Jonah McAllister fluttered once in a brief flight of fancy and then, it was silent.

  House of the Forgotten

  As her eyes snapped open, Jenny could have sworn that she saw Ezra's great round face hovering over her, as it had before. The face disappeared into the haunting white ceiling with its yellowish stains and exposed, cardboard-like interior.

  It was coming up on six months since the night of that dream and the semi-anniversary must be playing tricks on her mind. Still, it had happened before.

  She threw the blanket off of her body and embraced the cool December night air on her clammy skin, wet with the perspiration of a worried mind. Were they going to have to leave this place as well? This would be the fourth time since they had last seen Sandy and Jonah. No. There was no actual reason to leave, it was something her unconscious mind had convinced her of in her sleep.

  Dreams were something to take very seriously these days, but what she was experiencing was not a dream as much as a general malaise.

  She swung her legs out into the night air and, careful not to wake Carmen who was sleeping in the bed across the room, made her way to the bedroom door and out without a noise. The bathroom was down a long hallway that tended to squeak when certain places stepped on. She deftly avoided those spots with weeks of observation and practice and flicked on the ancient, stubborn light switch.