Omega Zero

by Kurtis Eckstein

  Her unique warmth began seeping into my muscles, sending a cascade of sensations down my body, mingling with the gaping hole in my chest. Suddenly my creeping numbness vanished, and I could feel every inch of her body pressed against mine. Her presence pushing away the void that threatened to steal all my emotions.

  Leaving behind nothing to stop it.

  All that I had been holding back, everything I’d been keeping at bay, rushed through unhindered.

  A sob erupted from my chest, followed by a whine – my own humiliating whine, as my jaw trembled and tears slipped down my cheeks.

  First, the pain ability-user Avery betrayed me, and now Trinity too, neither of whom I had known long. Both pretending to be in a relationship with me, only to have an ulterior motive. At least Trinity hadn’t gone as far as Avery to convince me that she cared, but it didn’t make it hurt any less.

  It hurt more.

  Because I had never felt so strongly about anyone like I did with Trinity.

  The moment I sobbed, Ava pulled away to shift her weight, followed by attempting to pull my head down. At first, I didn’t budge, but after my second sob I conceded.

  She pulled me firmly against her chest, my body curled into hers as she wrapped her arms tightly around my head while resting her cheek against my hair.

  “I’m sorry,” she choked out, her grip tightening even more when I sobbed again, beginning to whine like a wounded animal. It was pathetic, but in that moment I couldn’t work up the energy to care.

  My world had just been destroyed. My heart ripped out by a betrayal and deceit I never saw coming.

  And what was worse – I had to feel it. I couldn’t make it go away.

  Having my head completely encompassed in Ava’s embrace, was both my saving grace and my damning curse. It was the thing that kept me from disappearing forever, and the thing that made the tears flow endlessly, allowing me to feel all my pent-up despair all at once.

  My chest ached, like someone had stabbed me in the heart, even though I supposedly couldn’t feel pain anymore. And even though I wasn’t hungry, I felt cold – not freezing like when I had been starving, but a different type of cold. A different type of emptiness.

  After a second, Zayden scoffed, sounding like he was going to say something else.

  “Shut the hell up!” Ava snapped, before he could get a word out.

  Needless to say, I didn’t hear another word out of him as I began to cry violently.

  My entire body was shaking, and I had nothing to hold onto. Everything I grasped yielded to my grip, demolished by my inhuman strength, and yet Ava held my head tightly against her even as I slowly destroyed the seat around her. I had at least had enough sense to be careful about keeping my head stationary, and careful not to touch her with my hands.

  But then, after I had been crying for what felt like an eternity, I did accidentally.

  My palm rested on her thigh, ready to crush something else – anything else, only for the exact opposite to occur.

  As I felt her warm thigh, my entire body went limp. My tense muscles went numb.

  I wasn’t entirely certain where the armrest between us had ended up, but it was gone as I shifted my weight to my side. Her embrace on my head loosened when I forced myself downward, finding it in her lap.

  Both of her hands trailed after, her fingers running gently through my hair once I had settled.

  I held my breath as another sob shook my body – a sob I refused to let out. I then continued to hold my breath, wishing I could just disappear, wishing I could just pass out and escape reality for once.

  Instead, I felt some of my blood begin leaving my body, the urge to breathe disappearing entirely as I collected the oxygen I needed in the most inhuman way possible.

  When Ava’s legs tensed underneath me, I sucked in a ragged breath and pulled my blood back inside my body. She resumed running her fingers through my hair a moment later.

  I closed my endlessly leaking eyes, focusing on the only thing that was warm in the world.

  Like the previous time Ava had comforted me, it felt like her body was radiating heat. But it wasn’t enough this time to keep the frigid sensation completely at bay. Because I had been upset before about something I had almost done. Something that had ultimately turned out okay.

  But this was different.

  This was something that would never change. Something I could never make right. Something I couldn’t fully recover from.

  Trinity wasn’t mine, and she never had been.

  Chapter 7: Deceit

  I barely even noticed when we landed. Barely even noticed when a bunch of soldiers came to escort us off the plane.

  Ava had to prompt me a few times to get up. And when I finally did rise to my feet, she had to tug me along by the hand to get me to move. I couldn’t think straight. I was like a zombie, except one that had to feel things. Stupid things.

  When Ava finally let go of my hand, her warmth left with it, leaving me freezing again. Someone else grabbed me by the arm, but it wasn’t her hand. It was too large, the fingers too rough, unlike her gentle touch.

  I was a little disoriented when I noticed that the sun was just rising. We had left a little after midnight the previous day, but that had been in the afternoon here. Which meant seventeen hours had us arriving in the early morning.

  Not that it mattered anymore. Not that anything mattered.

  What was I even doing with my life? Why was I even here?

  It wasn’t until someone spoke the one word that my world revolved around that I finally realized I was sitting down in some random office at the military airport – no, in an interrogation room.

  I looked up to meet the blue eyes of the man sitting across from me. He wasn’t very old. At least, not much older than…Zane…

  Part of me wanted to hate him. And part of me suspected he hadn’t had a choice in Trinity’s deceit. Then again, I had no idea how it worked between them. Maybe Zane was the one who called all the shots from behind the scenes, since he had originally been the leader. Not to mention, Trinity was only sixteen, and he had been on the team for eight years at least.

  “Trinity Graham,” the man repeated, along with a full sentence that I didn’t hear.

  “What?” I finally asked, realizing the guy looked extremely annoyed.

  “Can you confirm that Elizabeth Mason and Trinity Graham are deceased,” he repeated.

  I blinked at him for a moment, before looking away, finally registering that he had said Liz’s name too. Although, I never called her Elizabeth so it hadn’t initially registered. “Yes,” I croaked out after a moment, not really thinking about what I was saying.

  We had already worked out our story, so it wasn’t like I had to think hard about what to say.

  I suddenly realized I could still sense Liz. We were a world apart, and I could still feel her…below me. It was strange to perceive her existence in that direction, like she was buried underneath my feet, entombed in a grave she couldn’t escape. Yet I could detect the distance. I could sense she was an infinity away.

  The sensation of such a great distance was difficult to process now that I was focusing on her again. It made me feel sick.

  “And you witnessed their deaths?” the man repeated for possibly the fifth time. I had no idea how many times he had asked the same questions, only to have me ignore them completely.

  I finally met his azure gaze again, his blue eyes and short blonde hair causing me to remember why this had all happened in the first place – recalling that I had done everything to protect Liz. Even if Trinity had betrayed me, I couldn’t abandon that primary objective. I couldn’t say something that would lead to Liz dying simply because of what Trinity had done in leading me on…and crushing my heart in the process.

  I cleared my throat, my voice sounding defeated. “The explosion hit us like a truck. I survived – they didn’t.”

  “Zane Fowler too?” he clarified.

  I scoffed, sincerely annoyed n
ow. “And how in the hell would he have survived a nuclear bomb?” I demanded. “What? Did you want me to bring back the bits and pieces that were left over? Bring back some of their blood so you can do a DNA test? Well?!”

  The abrupt change in my demeanor made him jump.

  “Usually there wouldn’t be anything left,” he clarified.

  “Yeah, well usually you don’t have an invisible shield,” I snapped. I then took a deep breath, trying to collect my thoughts. “I used my blood to keep Trinity inside Liz’s shield, but that didn’t stop the impact from killing them both. From crushing them both.”

  “And Fowler?” he pressed.

  I shrugged. “He wasn’t in the shield, so I assume there’s nothing left, like you said.”

  The man pursed his lips but didn’t ask any more questions. He then got up and left without a word. Not that I cared. I was ignoring everything again anyway.

  Now that he was gone, I could feel the tears resurfacing. I didn’t want to cry, didn’t want to feel. But I was so cold now without Ava here. I realized my body was trembling again uncontrollably.

  I leaned forward, resting my elbows on the metal table before me, burying my face in my palms as my tears streamed down my face and dripped onto the table. I waited for my emotions to disappear, but I couldn’t detect any sign of that void that had previously stolen them away. I abruptly gripped the metal surface when another intense sob erupted out of my chest, a squeal filling my ears from the twisting steel in my hand.

  I was alone.

  Completely alone.

  Forever.

  And it felt like forever as I cried by myself, until Ava’s presence appeared in the hallway, followed by her muffled voice outside the door.

  “Just let me see him!” she exclaimed loudly.

  I was surprised when the General’s gruff voice was the one to answer her. “He’s too unstable right now. We can’t risk losing another member of the team.”

  “He’s not going to hurt me!” she retorted in annoyance.

  “And what if that table was your arm!” he countered with just as much frustration, prompting me to wonder why they were even arguing in the first place. Why was the General even allowing her to argue? Was it because technically he couldn’t control her like he could everyone else? Because she could just float right through the walls? Did that matter to the General?

  But Ava didn’t respond.

  Instead, I felt her warm arms wrap around my chest, her head resting against my upper back. “I’m here Jake,” she whispered simply.

  The endless winter instantly disappeared.

  I sucked in a ragged breath as my muscles untangled, and I set my head down on the table, my hands falling limp in my lap. Her warmth was a fire on a chilly night, an inferno in the frigid snow, the sun in empty freezing outer space. The source of life in an otherwise lifeless universe.

  The door to the room flew open behind me, but the General and the three men with him didn’t enter the room. No one said anything, and after a few minutes of complete silence, the door slowly closed again, leaving us alone.

  I had stopped crying, though the tangle of devastation in my heart hadn’t loosened at all. After a while, I sniffled and took a deep breath.

  “I’m pathetic,” I whispered.

  Ava’s body immediately tensed, and she seemed to choose her words carefully as she replied. “You’re not pathetic, Jake. Anyone would be a mess after…experiencing something so…awful…”

  I realized we must have people listening to us – or at least capable of listening to us.

  I scoffed internally. Of course they were listening.

  I sucked in another deep breath, not having any motivation to do anything, but knowing that I couldn’t just stay here forever.

  “What now?” I wondered quietly.

  She hesitated for a moment, before pulling away. I turned in my seat to look up at her, as she seemed to evaluate my defeated expression.

  “Well,” she began after a moment, trying to smile but failing. “We’ll be returning to base to regroup with a new team. Normally they might just add one more person to bring us back up to four, but I think they are adding three more to help us tackle this threat.”

  I scoffed. “A tenth of the world’s population just got bombed, and they’re just sending six people after them?”

  She shook her head. “No, of course not. Every military organization in the world is trying to go after these terrorists, but a team like ours doesn’t function very well with too many people. Four or five was usually the limit. The military might have other teams, but everything is disclosed on a need-to-know basis. And of course, we don’t need to know.”

  I sighed as I looked over at the wall, noticing for the first time that it had a small windowpane of one-way glass that almost looked like a normal-sized mirror set into the wall. I barely had to reach out with my sixth sense to detect several regular people on the other side.

  I groaned internally, feeling even more pathetic knowing that I might have had an audience to witness me breaking down again. “Then, let’s go,” I replied, slowly getting to my feet. I didn’t fatigue, and yet I felt lethargic. “I wouldn’t mind being sent on a mission to kill some people,” I added for the sake of the eavesdroppers, trying to play my role.

  Ava gave me a wary look, prompting me to wonder if she thought I was being serious. I couldn’t correct her now though. I’d just have to wait for later. I did feel horrible, but I knew killing people wasn’t going to make me feel any better. I’d just reinforce the reason Trinity did this in the first place – to protect the group from a monster.

  Then again, maybe I should be a monster? It wasn’t like I had anything going for me. In literally just a few days, I had redefined my entire life around one person. Granted, it had been a somewhat traumatic few days. It only seemed natural that I might cling to something or someone for stability. But I supposed I really was stupid for falling so madly in love with someone I barely knew, just like Zayden had arrogantly pointed out.

  However, the moment I focused on Ava’s deep brown eyes again, I realized I couldn’t do that to her – become what she feared…become like her father.

  And really, whether I killed or didn’t kill, it wouldn’t change the fact that I was completely alone. I was glad Ava had taken it upon herself to comfort me, but I still felt like I was on the edge of a cliff with her, walking a thin line where I might push her sympathy too far and prompt a comment about me being a ‘good friend’ or ‘like a brother.’

  She was college age after all.

  After a moment, Ava gave me a small nod instead of responding to my comment, turning to leave the room. She glanced over her shoulder when she opened the door, much like she had done on our hike, as if to make sure I was still following.

  We locked eyes for a moment, before she continued onward into the hall. And I followed after in single-file, letting her lead me instead of walking beside her. Instead of walking with her.

  Her black hair was pulled over one shoulder, revealing part of her tan neck exposed from behind. I kept my eyes trained there instead of observing my surroundings. It was all the same anyway. Some random hall with a random turn here or there, until we were outside, none of it mattering to me.

  The sun was high in the sky now, making me wonder how long I’d been in that interrogation room. It must have been a few hours, though it felt like both an eternity and just a few minutes at the same time. Still, I barely noticed the location of the sun – it provided me no warmth.

  Instead, I kept my eyes on the one thing that did give me warmth in this empty frigid world. Even now, I felt heat coming off her body, despite the fact we weren’t touching, like an invisible wave of energy pulsing in my direction.

  I didn’t know what it was, but I was beginning to doubt it was a warmth that had replaced one of my own sensations like I originally thought. Now, I was beginning to wonder if this warmth was truly an energy coming from her.

  Was I sensin
g something I hadn’t sensed before and perceiving it as warmth? The twins had mentioned that bonding usually caused powers to evolve and become stronger. Farah had originally only been able to detect psychics, but she obtained the ability to detect telekinetic metahumans as well, like Zayden and his pyrokinetic ability. Not to mention her range for psychics also increased dramatically.

  Had bonding with Liz made my abilities stronger?

  Farah did mention that her ability got stronger every day for the first year. Was that happening to me too?

  I had no way of determining what the warmth was at this point. All I knew was that it was there, and I needed it.

  Ava climbed into the back of a familiar black van, with seats lining the sides. Not that it was the same one I’d been in before, but it certainly looked the same. A soldier was holding the backdoor open as I followed after her. Zayden was already inside, looking as annoyed as ever. Ava sat down across from him, only to pat the seat next to her when I hesitated.

  It was reminiscent of someone else patting the seat next to them, making me pause for a moment longer as a new wave of devastation threatened to overtake me. I barely managed to keep it at bay as I climbed in.

  The moment I complied, and the soldier closed the door, Ava shifted into her shadow form giving the area a good look before turning solid again. She sighed then as the vehicle began moving.

  “Any bugs?” Zayden wondered.

  She shook her head. “No, looks like they don’t suspect anything. And I mean, why would they? The fact that any of us survived a nuclear bomb seems like a miracle to them. And right now, their top priority is eliminating this threat, not on determining if we are hiding something.” She paused. “Granted, it was still important they believe us…” Her voice trailed off.

  “Well, seems like they did,” Zayden scoffed, looking at me. “I hear you pulled that off really well,” he continued. “Blubbering like a baby and all.”

  “Shut up!” Ava snapped.

  He glared at her in annoyance. “Oh please. I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to know we lied to him.”

  That got my attention.