Elise reached up from the back seat and touched Terra's arm with her semi-transparent hand. "Your eyes are leaking Terra, do you need medical attention?"
“No, no. I'm alright." Terra's voice sounded raw and shaky.
“You sound odd,” Brendan said. “We should look into it. Your body may be broken. I can drive you to a hospital; it's really no trouble.” He looked at her with Liam's beautiful eyes from the passenger seat of the clunker.
Terra looked away and stared out of the windshield. Reminding herself of Liam would not help her compose herself.
Terra swallowed hard to clear her throat. “We need to get going.”
The worst part about being human is always having to say goodbye. It seems like that's all I do since I've been here.
Elise tilted her head as she concentrated. “Where will we begin our search?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure.” Terra took a deep breath and put her head down on the steering wheel.
“Terra? I think Korin will be just fine,” Brendan said. “They'll let her go in a few days, and she can get on with her life!”
“I know; it’s just hard leaving her behind like this. Now, I have to find Liam, and I have no idea where to begin.”
“You can’t sense him at all?” Elise asked.
Terra shook her head. “No, it's like he no longer exists.”
“Look, it's been a long day,” Elise said. “We need to find somewhere you two can get some rest. Neither of you is truly healed up. If you use up all your strength just driving around, then we'll be in trouble once we find this Orthos character. Besides, after a good night’s sleep, maybe we'll be able to come up with a new plan.”
“You’re probably right.” Terra slid the gear shifter and let the car roll slowly out of its parking spot. “Where do you think the closest hotel is?”
“Hotel?” Elise asked.
“You know, a place where they rent out rooms,” Terra said.
“I’m not sure,” Brendan said. The expression on his face told Terra that he had no idea what she was talking about.
It's nice to have help with the Scourge, but Brendan and Elise have a lot to learn about Earth!
“It’s alright; I think there's an app on my phone that will tell me,” Terra dug the phone out of her bag and entered the information. A moment later, she was driving to the hotel. The car was quiet as each of its occupants wondered where they should go next.
Terra’s head throbbed in time with the road noise. Occasionally she sniffled or dabbed at her eyes.
Brendan glanced at Elise in the back seat.
Elise pressed her lips together into a halfhearted smile.
~~~~~~~~~
Terra handed the clerk Portia’s credit card at the hotel's front desk.
The middle-aged, balding clerk raised his eyebrows. “Let me see your ID again.” He held out his hand.
Terra slowly took her ID from her wallet and handed it to the clerk for the second time.
“This name don’t match the card.” The clerk pointed his fat finger at the picture ID and the name.
“I already told you, the card belongs to my mother. If you look, you'll see that we have the same last name. She gave me the card to use. I’m touring colleges.”
“And you’re alone?” the clerk asked.
“No, like I said before, I need two rooms. One will be for my friend Liam.”
Brendan turned and waved at the clerk from the hallway.
“You’re telling me you want separate rooms?” The clerk raised his eyebrows, deepening the furrows of his forehead.
Terra gripped her purse to her side. “Yes, that's exactly what I’m telling you.”
“I don’t think he wants to let us stay here,” Elise said.
Terra nodded slightly but kept her eyes on the desk clerk.
“If you don’t want my business, I'll take it elsewhere,” Terra held her hand out for her cards.
The clerk tightened his grip on the cards. “Now sweetie, I have evidence that you stole this credit card. I’ll be keeping it myself. No stolen property will pass by me!” He grinned, exposing his rotting teeth.
“I’ve stolen nothing!” Terra said.
Elise made her way behind the counter. She put her hand on the man’s shoulder to tap into his thoughts.
“You have no proof that these cards are yours. They’re mine now!” He shivered and shrugged away from Elise. “I don’t care where you get a room.”
Elise grimaced as she witnessed the clerk's thoughts. “He’s not even the real clerk, Terra. He's Scourge.”
“I thought so,” Terra said. “Just take the cards back and let’s go.”
The imposter clerk glanced behind him to see who Terra was speaking to. Seeing no one, he turned back to Terra.
“Not a problem.” Elise yanked the cards out of the hand of the infected clerk.
“What the?” The clerk grunted and tried to snatch the cards from where they appeared to be floating in midair.
“Why you little… How did you do that? You've got some kind of magic?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Terra said. She turned to walk away.
The Scourge clerk reached across the counter and grabbed Terra’s arm. “You’re not going anywhere!”
“You’re making a mistake,” Terra reached up and grabbed the man’s hand as he clutched at her.
Brendan crossed the room without his crutches, gliding an inch or so above the floor. The abandoned crutches fell to the floor with a clatter that caught the clerk’s attention. “Is there a problem, Terra?” Brendan asked.
“Yes, this one's a Scourge,” Terra said. “I wonder where the original owner of the body went to.”
“It’s in a human form; if we end it, won’t the body die?” Brendan asked.
“Yes, we can’t go around murdering living people,” Terra said. “I don’t think the court system would understand.”
"You think you could murder me, little girl?" The man growled, tightening his grip on Terra.
Brendan grabbed the man’s arm. “Let her go. You don’t want to do this.” He spoke between his teeth.
“Are you threatening me again?” The clerk smirked at Brendan.
“He's up to something,” Elise said. She moved back toward the clerk.
“We're promising you that you're making a bad decision,” Terra said.
“Look out!” Elise screamed.
The clerk reached behind his back and produced a small handgun from his belt. He pointed it at Terra’s head.
“Back off, boy,” the clerk said. “All I wanted was the cards, but now I think I’ll keep your pretty friend too; at least for a little while!”
“Elise!” Terra looked at the clerk's arm, willing Elise to understand.
“What if it goes off?” Elise asked.
“Terra’s eyes widened. She didn’t want to think about that possibility. “Now,” she mouthed.
Elise grabbed the man’s arm.
The explosive blast of a gunshot filled the small lobby.
Chapter 36
Troy looked at the line of displaced souls he had been training. His recruits now numbered near one-hundred. The gathering of determined spirits was a formidable group, but when considering the thousands upon thousands of new Scourge converts, it was clear that they were more than outnumbered.
Troy ran his fingers through his dark curls. His forehead creased with concern. “Where's Scott?” Troy asked Ann, who was standing near the front of the crowd. “We’re not all accounted for.”
“He went out on a scouting mission this morning for Azalea,” she said.
“A mission? On whose orders? Azalea does not decide our missions. I was clear; nobody goes anywhere alone. At a minimum, we should be traveling in groups of five.”
“Yes, sir.” Ann bit her lip and looked down. “I suppose it was on her orders, sir.”
Troy paused to examine the woman's strange reaction. “There's more to this. What aren’t you tel
ling me?”
“I really shouldn’t…” She shuffled her feet in the loose dust of the alleyway.
“If Scott, one of our own, is in trouble, then you need to tell me immediately!” Troy’s raised voice made the petite woman cringe.
“Azalea asked Scott to help her.” Ann stepped back several paces.
“We're all helping her. But the agreement was that I would approve any requests before any of our group was called in. We have to keep our safety in mind. Azalea has a plan to thin out the Scourge, but I need to know what is going on if I am going to keep our group safe. That's what our plan is all about.”
“Yes, but Azalea wanted to test her formula, to make sure it was ready for the plan.” Ann’s voice shook.
“Are you telling me that she tested a formula that is designed to destroy an entity completely on Scott?” Troy’s response reverberated around the secluded cityscape, vibrating windows in the derelict building nearby.
“No, no, not at all.” The whites of Ann's eyes shone like a spooked horse. “She just wanted him to lure a Scourge close enough to try it out. I guess it makes sense. We don’t want to bring in a crowd of the things, and then find out the formula doesn’t work.” She stepped backward, bumping into the man standing in the line behind her.
Troy loomed over Ann. His hands opened and closed, clenching into tight fists. “I agreed to help Azalea with the understanding that this formula was tested and proven. Are you telling me that we are going to a firefight without checking our ammo?” He shook his head in disbelief.
Ann would not meet Troy's gaze as she responded. “Umm, I’m sure; I mean, I guess you would need to ask Azalea.”
“Oh, I will. In fact, I don’t think that's a question that can wait. The big football game is tomorrow. We already know that all those humans gathered in one place will be a feeding ground for the Scourge. I need to know what we're going into.” Troy turned and stomped off toward the home of Azalea’s daughter.
As he walked away, Ann darted off in the opposite direction.
~~~~~~~~
“Troy, I didn’t expect your visit,” Azalea sat on the back porch in an old rocking chair holding a glass of sweet tea. "It's nice of you to stop by. It's a long walk for my old body to come to visit you!”
Troy did not return her smile. “I think you know why I’m here. It's not to save you the trip.”
“Oh for goodness sake, I didn’t mean to step on your toes. If I could chase down a Scourge myself, I would. Scott is just fine. He knows what he's doing. You should trust your followers to do their jobs.”
“I trust my people to follow orders when I'm trying to keep them safe.” Troy loomed over the tiny woman. “My people work as a team. There's a system in place to keep up safe and to keep us from being corrupted by the things we're trying to protect ourselves from. I need you to respect that order if we're going to work together.”
“If? It’s a little late for doubts, don’t you think. We're ready to take out the first wave in less than twenty-four hours!”
“Yes IF. How do I know that your formula does what you say it will? If my people lure these creatures to that stadium full of innocent people, what’s stopping them from tearing into the crowd if your formula fails?”
“Once we hook it to the sprinkler system in the stadium and activate it; you'll have no doubts.”
Scott walked out of the house through the back door. His footsteps were silent on the wooden porch. “It’s true; the Scourge we caught today didn't have a chance. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“Scott, what were you thinking? You of all people should know better. We work in teams. As my second in command, I expect you to follow that protocol.”
Scott shook his head. “I understand that Troy; I do. But with the formula being untested, putting an entire group in harm’s way from the formula seemed riskier than taking on one straggler.”
“One straggler could be the scout for a whole gang of the things,” Troy said.
“But it wasn’t,” Scott said. “Everything went exactly as planned.”
"And the formula worked?" Troy asked.
"Like a charm," Azalea said.
“It was different than what Terra does,” Scott said. “There was no disintegration into particles of energy. Instead, the thing popped like an engorged tick. It made the strangest sound; metallic and cold. When the fragments landed they dissolved into nothing.”
“Science class Scott, energy cannot be created or destroyed,” Troy said.
“I mean the consciousness; it was just gone like it never existed,” Scott said.
Azalea smiled and rocked herself as the two men debated. "So my experiment was a success. We know now that this batch is strong enough to do what it was made for."
"It sounds that way," Troy admitted.
"I already have tickets to the game for Xavier and me," Azalea said. "He was pretty excited. I hated to tell him why we were really going."
"I bet he was upset," Scott said.
"He'll understand more when he gets older. For now, we need to get as many of these creeps into that stadium as we can. Get them to chase your people in and then get out as fast as you can. When your people are clear, I'll set off the sprinklers. If I'm right, the Scourge will be unable to resist the crowds of people."
Troy relaxed his shoulders slightly. "I think you’re right; it will be like chum for a shark to them. I just need to make sure all of my people are out of the stadium when the sprinklers go off."
"You do that. If any of them are caught inside, there won't be anything I can do to help them. This formula does not discriminate."
“I understand,” Troy said. “We’ll do our best to get the Scourge in and get out just no more surprises. If you want our help, then you need to be upfront with us.”
“I've told you the risks,” Azalea said.
Chapter 37
Terra saw an intense flash of light pass by her right eye. Her immortal-self reacted before her human body could. She recoiled away from the explosion, as the sound of the concentrated blast, inches from her ear drove out all other sounds.
She crumpled to the floor, clutching the right side of her head above her ear. She felt a hot sticky something oozing under her fingers as she lay curled in the fetal position.
No pain, how is there no pain? Am I dying?
The pulse of her own heartbeat became an intense cadence, shaking her body and reminding her of her fragile connection to the mortal world. The surrounding room rang with the incessant tone of hearing damage. Terra squeezed her eyes closed.
A hand touched her shoulder. Terra opened her eyes. Brendan stood over her, staring down with Liam’s eyes. His mouth moved, but Terra couldn’t make out what he was trying to say over the ringing.
Alive, I'm still on Earth for now!
Terra struggled to sit up. She looked around, searching for the clerk and found him pinned to the wall midway up, behind the front desk. Elise was holding him sideways. He looked unconscious. The gun was no longer in sight.
She looked down at her hand and saw that it was covered in blood. She looked back at Brendan. He seemed uninjured.
Am I dying? Why won’t somebody tell me?
Terra felt Brendan wrap something around her head. A new burning sensation above her ear answered Terra’s question. The pain was a reminder that her body was very much alive.
“I think you’re going to be okay,” Brendan shouted. “But we need to get out of here. Somebody will want to know why a gun was fired.”
“Okay,'' Terra struggled to her feet.
“I’m so sorry Terra. I was afraid he had killed you,” Elise said.
The tone buzzing in Terra’s ears grew quieter with each passing second.
“You saved me, Elise. Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I was almost too late,” Elise let the limp body slide down the wall and onto the floor.
“It was a bit too close for comfort,” Terra admitted.
“The bulle
t grazed you. I think you could use a stitch or two,” Brendan said.
“No hospitals; if I go in with a gunshot wound, they'll think I was involved with something I shouldn’t have been. After the explosion, I need to stay off the unexplained list for a while. If they think I'm a criminal, I may never get to Liam.”
Elise glanced at the doorway. “We really should get out of here,” she said.
Terra looked back at the clerk who still lay motionless. “Elise, you didn’t…”
“I’m not sure. I didn’t destroy the entity, but the body, well?”
Terra tried to climb onto the counter. “We can’t leave a corpse behind. We need to do CPR.”
“What do you mean?” Brendan helped Terra to climb over the counter.
“We need to get that body breathing again and then get out of here before we all end up in jail with Korin. Elise, try to find out where that camera in the corner is sending its data to. Levitating cards and clerks aren’t images than most people can understand.” Terra put the gun in her bag and wiped the blood from her fingers on a tissue before touching the inert clerk. His flesh was still warm to the touch. She felt for a pulse but felt none. After a moment, Terra rolled the obese man onto his back and began chest compressions. She worked silently for several minutes.
“Is he really dead?” Brendan asked.
“I… I'm not sure. No. I won’t allow it!” A memory came back to Terra. The first time she had left her human body to go to Liam the exchange with Korin had gone badly. Her body was left with no occupants for too long. It was expiring, just like the man who lay motionless before her.
Terra focused on channeling the surrounding energy. Her immortal energy, the endless supply from the Tweens pulsed through her fingers, causing them to glow. A slight odor of burning mortal flesh surrounded her as she carefully chose her target. Terra laid her hands on the man’s chest and allowed the charge to course through his body. The body twitched as the jolt passed through it. Terra watched for a response. When nothing happened, she tried again. This time the man's body arched unnaturally as Terra's energy coursed through it.
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