The Push Chronicles (Book 2): Indefatigable

by J. B. Garner

"I am never one for overindulgent displays of affection, Indomitable, but I am glad you have come back to us," Mind's Eye added, nodding blindly in my general direction. Medusa let out a short chuckle at that.

  "Where is everybody else?" I asked. I didn't want to repeat myself and we still didn't have a lot of time ... assuming Mackenzie hadn't already touched off his plan. I felt stupid I hadn't even considered that before, probably as stupid as Ian did when he chained me in that pumping room. Nine out of ten, Mackenzie had already started the final act of his play before I had even woken up for our 'chat'.

  "I'm right here," Ex said as he walked through the door, shaking off an icy crust that was peppered with bomb fragments. "Sorry, small bomb Downtown. Rachel and Duane are handling an on-site investigation but I doubt we'll find anything new." I could see that he was trying not to look me directly in the eyes.

  "I'm glad to see you too," I said, looking away. "Archer is probably still at the hospital dropping off that victim. Can anyone with a working com open up a channel to the Dynamic Duo?" I sighed. "We're in trouble and I only want to run this down twice." Tank started tapping at the computer mounted in his cybernetic arm as I crossed my arms. Look at me, so tightly wound I couldn't even give my friends a smile with business afoot. There was a cold hand on my shoulder.

  "Hey, I'm sorry." Ex frowned as I turned to look at him, but his eyes danced with relief. "I just ... you know ... with everything ... I'm just glad to see you're okay." I cracked a small smile and patted his hand.

  "Thanks. Glad to see everyone here is okay too."

  "Well, I think we might have to thank you for that too," the frozen firefighter explained. "When you disappeared, the Hogs vanished into the sewers. We managed to track a few down, but considering the whole blood pumping thing, we figured we had won the important fight."

  "It was not until after we regrouped did we realize that you were gone and that area's pumping equipment contained no blood," Mind's Eye added without prompt. "In fact, the machinery was disconnected from the main line entirely."

  "Now," Hex said, running two hands through his hair, "they've had us dancin' like a bunch of idjits chasin' bombers all around town, probably just to keep us so busy we ain't got a chance to track 'em down."

  "I know you guys did everything you could. I hate to say it, you're totally right, Hex, that exactly what they have been doing."

  "Okay, ladies and gents, you too, Miss Eye, I've got it all set up and Rachel and Duane and Archer are all listening and they're like totally happy to find out you're okay and are wondering what happened and if you -" Tank had sprouted fold-out speakers from his chassis and would have undoubtedly continued for another minute of exposition if Mind's Eye hadn't favored him with a brief smile. "Oh, uh, yeah, so we're live!"

  "Rachel, Duane, Archer?" I called out. Fortunately, I was now used to talking to thin air, so at least I didn't feel stupid, at least outside of the thin sewer-and-blood-soaked scrubs.

  "Damn, Doc, next time you let the bad guys snatch you, at least drop a note," Brooks said, crackling over the speakers, "so we know not to worry too much."

  "What he means is that it's nice to hear you, Indy," Choi added.

  "Right, folks," I said, sitting down in one of the meeting room chairs, "here's what's going on ..."

  It took a surprisingly brief amount of time to recount what had happened to me under Ian Mackenzie's care. I had to brush over some of the specifics but I deviated as little as possible. In particular, I glossed over some details about the Whiteout itself Ian and I had discussed; it was too close to the things I swore never to tell my Pushed friends. For the most part, outside of a few questions to clarify my story, the team listened quietly, absorbing the details. The first person to offer up something after my story's conclusion was Medusa.

  "Ssssee?" she said. "You ssshould lissten to uss when we ssay you need to get your resst." It was half-joke and half-rebuke, but I couldn't argue with it.

  "And for that, I sincerely apologize, but how about we focus on the big picture?" I felt strangely clear-headed even after this day's ordeal. Was it simply the forced rest or something else? I flexed my aching hand and a distant echo in my head wondered if I wouldn't be that much more clear-headed if I took something for the lingering pain.

  "Skyway," Ex muttered, rubbing his chin. "The only place that has a name like that I know of is an old government housing project. It's still up and running as far as I know." I realized that I had never mentioned all the specifics when I told him about the Whiteout's origin; I had been too busy making digs about unreality or something stupid.

  "Whatever it be, it is of utmost importance," Archer added over the line, "for 't was the poor lad's last words before the doctors put him into a coma."

  "You're both correct," Rachel added. "Indy, perhaps you should elaborate on this. You were there, after all." All eyes in the room shifted to me. There was a flash of recognition in Ex's eyes as he put the pieces together.

  "Skyway is where the Whiteout actually started." I closed my eyes. "It's the place that the Pulse originated from. A Pulse that was created by Eric Flynn, the man you know as Epic, and yes, I was there that night."

  "You know what caused us to be this way and have known all of this time," Mind's Eyes intoned, not as a question but as an accusation. "Yet you have hidden this from us."

  "Gotta admit, Indy, it does sound kinda fishy," Hexagon added, shrugging his shoulder helplessly.

  "There musst be a good reassson," Medusa insisted. "We have fought, worked, lived together for monthssss now. When hass ssshe not done the right thing by any of usss?"

  "Medusa is right," Extinguisher added. "Anyway, it doesn't matter one bit in regards to Mackenzie or his vampire Hogs. I think we can safely assume that he's already pulled off this theft you mentioned, so all we can do now is get our act together and get over to Skyway."

  "What about what she did to you?" the Indian seer arched an eyebrow at Extinguisher.

  "Hey!" I shouted, slamming my palms down on the table. "Anything between Ex and me that happened in private is just that, private. Keep your third eye out of this." Who didn't know about our relationship at this point? Why did we even try to keep it hidden? Regardless, I was more than willing to accept a fair measure of guilt. Even with what happened with Ex, I still should have tried to tell all of them the truth sooner. However, I wasn't going to let what little private life I had be drug out as a cause to suspect me of anything.

  "Please, friends, still thy tempers," Archer said. "Can any group of close friends be forever in good humors? I say thee 'nay'. Do not let this bout of ill feeling drive a wedge amongst you and do not let it stray us from our most vital purpose."

  "Robin Hood is right," Ex said. "We'll talk about this again. Later." He shot both me and Eye hard looks. "Lives are at stake." The Human Tank nodded emphatically. The teen was obviously a bit upset at seeing his friends arguing and was more than eager to see it end.

  "The leader has spoken and none too soon," Rachel said. "While you all were 'discussing', I pulled the financial records on Skyway Apartments. Several of the recent tenants have suspected affiliations with the Humans for God and other racist groups."

  "Look, I'm sorry for the past," I said, rising from my chair. "And I'll make it up to you, somehow. Just believe me when I say that Ian's not just thinking of taking over a building or killing some people. He's going to take over this city and he just might manage to do a lot more than that." I looked from friend to friend. "So pax. Let's go to it, right?"

  "Indeed," Eye nodded. "There is a day to be saved, after all."

  "I'm putting a call through to PART," Duane added. "Rachel and I will meet you guys on-site. Dollars to doughnuts, that whole complex is Vamp central, so grab whatever you might need from the lockers and we'll throw a plan together when we meet up."

  "Suit up, people," Ex commanded. "I want us out of here in ten."

  I knew I would have to answer for everything I had hidden from them later, but I w
ould be lying if I didn't say that I was happy to have something else to worry about, even if it was the potential of being wiped out by a vampire army ... or something far worse. I still mulled over Mackenzie's last clue in the back of my mind. I had a bad feeling that I would find out exactly what he was referring to all too soon.

  Chapter 16 Room

  The cyclical nature of events wasn't lost on me as I stared at the decrepit twin towers of the Skyway apartments. If anything, it was even more sad and forlorn than it had been three months ago when I had first stood on that spot. At least this time I wasn't alone.

  "Every window is either curtained or boarded over," Duane said, looking over the buildings with binoculars. Rachel tightened the straps on her bulletproof vest and glanced at the sky.

  "We only have an hour maximum of daylight left," she noted. She pulled out her pistol and gave it a quick once-over. "As much as I would prefer to wait for PART's SWAT team to help kick in doors, we can't wait." Extinguisher nodded to her as I tapped on Mind's Eye's shoulder. The Indian psychic was hovering cross-legged in the air, probing the structure with her mental powers. The vampires weren't susceptible to her telepathy, but it didn't hurt to check.

  "Anything?" I asked.

  "To my surprise, Indomitable, yes." She turned her blind gaze towards me, as best as she could. "There are some living minds still in the buildings." She mulled over her words for a moment, then added: "Their minds are very anxious and alert. To pry too deep could bring me to their attention, but from their surface thoughts, they are anticipating something."

  "I'd hate to put it like this, but that's smart thinkin' there," Hexagon said, sliding stakes into two crossed bandoliers. "Mackenzie knows that we ain't gonna go in there hog-wild, pardon the pun, if there's living people we might hurt. Just puttin' a few live Hogs in there slows us down."

  "Lady Eye, might it be possible for you to pinpoint those minds?" Archer asked.

  "Surgical snatch?" Ex said to Archer as the seer concentrated her power once more.

  "Indeed. If we apply our swiftest knights -"

  "- we get the living clear so we can open up full power on the rest of the vamps. Great idea."

  As much as I would usually be in on the planning phase, I couldn't help but be focused on the buildings themselves. A thousand scenarios played out in my head as I wondered what I could have done different that night. Could I have changed everything if I had just done things a little differently? It was a foolish thing to waste time on. You couldn't change the past.

  "Irene," Medusa hiss-whispered. She had came up right next to me and I hadn't even noticed. "Why didn't you?"

  "Didn't what?" I asked, confused.

  "He didn't jussst assk you to join hiss sside, did he?"

  "No."

  "He thinksss he can change it all back and he assked you to help him. Becausse you were here. You know ssssomething more."

  "Yes."

  "Ssso why didn't you?" This time, there was a pleading in her voice.

  "It's not that easy, Meds. Even if he did recreate the experiment, well, you see how things are around us now? Who knows what his mind would create to replace it, no matter his intentions? I don't even know if it's right anymore to try to fix it." I was sure that my reply would make the snake-woman turn away, but instead she put a hand on my shoulder.

  "I hope you do find a right way to fix thingsss sssomeday, but I underssstand why you didn't today," she said softly. "With that being sssaid, let'sss go ssave the city, huh?"

  "Beautiful idea." I cracked a smile and glanced at Extinguisher and Rachel, who had apparently finished confabulating. "Do we have a plan?"

  "We have a plan."

  It began with a bang, not a whimper. More precisely, the simultaneous shattering of every exterior window, boarded or not, outward as Mind's Eye focused her telekinetic might. The sky glittered with the rain of glass tumbling down the sides of Skyway. With most of the building now exposed to the setting sun, it was time for the next step of the plan.

  They began their run the moment the windows broke. Extinguisher and the Argent Archer descended from the clouds, one trailing ice and the other trailing fire as they each cut an arc in the sky aiming directly for one of the two apartment buildings. The Human Tank roared out from our impromptu meeting area in the parking lot, tearing up grass and pavement alike with his treads. I couldn't hear it with my closed mind, but I could definitely imagine Mind's Eye directing them mentally to their targets: the living shields Mackenzie had left in place.

  "Two here, jumpy with guns."

  "'T would seem the windows breaking spooked the villains."

  "Got one, got another, go go go!"

  The chatter sounded good, but there was something nagging me about it. Opening up all the windows certainly lit up a good part of the building, but there were still plenty of interior spaces, as well as the side of the building opposite of the setting sun, that had to be protected enough. Where were the vamps? They would protect their brothers-in-arms, wouldn't they?

  "Let's go, folks," I called out. "Something's not right and I don't want to leave those three on their own."

  "Indy," Ex said over the com, "we're running into no problems here. Are you sure?"

  "Think about what you just said."

  "Lady's got a point," Duane noted as he and Rachel followed me towards the apartments. "Even normal human Hogs put up more of a fight."

  "Affirmative," the firefighter replied. As if that were the definitive signal, Medusa and Hexagon swept into formation behind me as we moved towards our respective targets. Mind lingered back to coordinate and keep the rescued Hogs under telekinetic lockdown. As we neared the split between the two buildings, I veered towards the first. The two agents fell in with me as the two Push Heroes gave a silent nod as they moved in on building two.

  As competent as Brooks and Choi were, I couldn't help but feel a little worried having them here on the front lines. They were even more fragile than I was compared to our Pushed friends but, at the same time, I couldn't discount their ability. I'd just have to keep an eye out for them.

  The two detectives moved to either side of the double doors as I opened them with a straight kick. There was no call for subtlety now; speed was of the essence. A floor-by-floor, room-by-room clearing of all of Mackenzie's vampire army, that was the plan. The faster we executed it, the less likely we would be bogged down by the undead. Still, regardless of the plan, I wanted to get to room 1127. Eric's old room, the place where this all started. The steel and glass doors obligingly swung inward, sending even more shafts of sunlight down the dusty corridor. No immediate resistance.

  Rachel pointed left and I motioned right. As Duane broke the lock out of one door, I kicked down the opposite and barged in. Scattered rays of sunlight filtered through the shattered window of the front room as dust motes lazily played, ignorant of the drama in the air around them. For a building that was ostensibly still in use, the room was caked with far too much dust. Only a few scattered prints gave any awareness of activity, living or undead.

  Passing through the tiny room in a few bounding steps, I put my shoulder to the bedroom door, knocking it easily aside. Finally, something more than dirt and urban decay, but strangely disturbing in it's own way. It was a vampire, true enough, dressed in paramilitary fatigues and she was praying. Unusual, perhaps, but the Hogs were generally religious. The disturbing part was the way her hands were smoking, burning from the Bible she held open in front of her. This wasn't a creature ready to fight.

  Not that it stopped her. The corpse snarled with rage the moment she heard me and lunged. My moment's hesitation gave the monster all the opening she needed to grab me and drive me into the nearest wall, crumbling the cheap drywall. I didn't even feel it. What I did feel was fantastic. I couldn't remember the last time I felt so strong, so fast. The enforced rest and recovery at Mackenzie's hands had been a godsend in disguise.

  As the creature moved to bite, I freed one of my arms and grabbed her by
the throat, ignoring the nausea-inducing squish of my fingers on dead flesh. The creature roared in surprise as I snapped her neck and let go, staggering back as the horrible damage began to repair itself. Before it could have that chance, I pulled the crucifix out from my jacket, pinning her down to the ground under it's glare.

  "Where is Mackenzie?" I barked, kneeling over the vampire, my other hand on a stake.

  "I'll never talk," the beast replied in that same rapid, high-pitched patter as the others. "I'm ready to go to God now." The trouble with fanatics is that they really are ready to die. I wouldn't get anything out of this one.

  I slammed the stake down into the monster's heart. Ian was going to pay for everything he did to these people. The Hogs at this point were as much victims as anyone else. Just another tool one man created to further his goals and that he was just as likely to cast away when he didn't need it.

  I ran out the room. My sense of foreboding was only growing and I had a feeling in the pit of my gut that the answer to that foreboding would be in room 1127. It would have to wait; this wasn't the time to go maverick. I had people who were depending on me to follow the plan. Like Brooks and Choi, who had, by the sudden call into my earpiece, just found a vampire themselves. I crossed the hall in a couple of swift steps to the apartment the pair had invaded.

  As I stepped through, Duane slammed into the wall right next to the door frame, thumping his head hard before sliding to the floor. His attacker was roaring in agony as holy water melted undead flesh like acid as it rolled down his face, causing the monster to drop Rachel from his death grip. I could still make out the glass shards from the shattered vial as I stepped forward to grab the vampire. Surprisingly aware for how much pain it had to be in, the creature evaporated into mist before I could get a secure hold. In the dim light of the room, the mist was clearly visible, but who knew when or where it would reform? Rachel staggered to her feet, gasping for air.

  "Duane?"

  "Alive, I'm pretty sure," I stepped back-to-back with her. "Get ready." The air trembled and dust swirled; it had to be coming back together.