Zero-Point

by T J Trapp

  “Look,” said Daniel, pointing to a small handwritten note taped to the corner of the glass panel.

  ‘Office closed for remodeling. Danger! Stay out. For more information cell this contact.’ A contact code was scrawled underneath.

  “Whoever wrote that had lousy handwriting,” said Daniel.

  “Weird,” said Celeste. “Let me unlock the door.” She held her cell near the cyber lock.

  “Are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Daniel.

  “No,” she answered tersely.

  The door lock clicked open. Celeste stepped inside and Daniel cautiously followed her. The whole area was dark, and Celeste turned on the lights. The floor was littered with hats and cells and backpacks.

  “From the attack yesterday,” murmured Celeste. “I guess nobody has been here since then.” A pair of glasses lay in the middle of the floor and she crossed the reception area being careful not to step on them. She pointed to one of the doors. “That leads to my office. Look at the broken door.”

  Daniel looked at the door, hanging loosely by mangled hinges from its broken frame.

  “Wow,” he said.

  “That’s the door that they knocked down to chase me. My desk is the one over there in the corner. This is creepy,” Celeste said. She walked over to her desk and took a small framed photo and a few other items from the drawer and stuffed them into her backpack.

  “When I threw my pistol, it landed by the door, but now I don’t see it. Look around and see if you can find it,” she said, searching the floor by the broken door.

  Daniel obediently crawled around on the floor, peering under desks and chairs. “Nope, nada,” he said. “Not here. Maybe they took it.”

  “I guess they must have,” she said sighing.

  She led the way back across the reception area. “That’s Professor Smidt’s office,” she said, pointing to a glass-paned door behind the receptionist’s desk. “I wonder if there’s anything in there that would be a hint as to what happened.”

  Daniel waited in the outer office while Celeste opened the Professor’s office door. After a little while she came out of the office. “Nope. No clues. All of the professor’s books and stuff are still here. But there are no signs of him. He’s just disappeared.”

  “Anything else? Maybe we should leave,” Daniel said.

  Suddenly Celeste stood up straight, and looked at Daniel wide-eyed. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she whispered. “Right now. I can sense that someone is coming after us.”

  Daniel looked at her. “Who?”

  “I don’t know, but someone is coming.”

  Celeste grabbed Daniel’s hand and pulled him towards the outer door. She stuck her head out the door and peeked down the hallway. Two men were coming towards them, wearing uniforms of dark blue pants and light blue shirts, a holster visible at the beltline.

  “Maybe out the window,” whispered Celeste. “That’s the fire escape.” Then she sensed. “There is someone outside watching the window – that won’t work.”

  “We haven’t done anything wrong. It’s not like we’re trespassing. They shouldn’t want us. Let’s go out the front,” said Daniel reasonably.

  Celeste frowned, but followed Daniel. They stepped out of the main door of the office complex into the hall. Daniel nodded at the two uniformed men.

  “What are you doing in this building?” asked one of the men gruffly.

  “I am a student here, and I have an office in this complex. I just came by to pick something up,” replied Celeste.

  “Is there an issue, sir?” asked Daniel.

  “You are trespassing. This building has been closed. Didn’t you see the sign on the front door? We need to check your identification,” said one of the men.

  “Fine,” replied Daniel and he handed them his cell. The man took Daniel’s cell and then Celeste’s.

  Celeste felt her ring and sensed. She didn’t like the way the lines wrapped around the men. I don’t know what this means. If I were Erin, I could handle them, but I don’t know what to do.

  The man holding their cells touched each device to his own, first Daniel’s, then Celeste’s. When he saw the display on Celeste’s cell, he drew his pistol.

  “Both of you get down on your knees and put your hands behind your back!” he barked. There was no politeness in the request.

  “Officer, we weren’t doing anything wrong.”

  The second man also drew his pistol. “We will let others figure that out! Now get down on your knees.”

  Celeste could see the pistol pointing directly at her head and she got down on her knees and put her hands behind her back. Daniel slowly followed. Celeste felt someone behind her grab her hands and roughly pull them together. She felt the chill of cold metal handcuffs as they were clipped to her hands and a sharp pain in her shoulders as her hands were tightly clenched together. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the other man put handcuffs on Daniel.

  A third man arrived. “What do we have?” he asked.

  One of the men pointed at Celeste, “She is one of the wanted ones. The male is clean, but we will send him in with her since they were together. He might know something. Have you called the collection wagon?”

  “I called, but they are backed up. It will be a couple of hours before they arrive. We will have to watch them in the meantime. I don’t want them to escape.”

  Celeste felt a leg iron latched to one leg and then felt a second one latched to her other leg. “She won’t go very far with those on. They don’t even give her enough space to walk.” The man pulled her to her feet. The leg irons allowed her legs to move only a few inches, and she stumbled. The man let her fall across a desk and then he commenced to pat down her body.

  “What are you doing?” she asked angrily.

  “Quiet! I am making sure you aren’t armed.” The uniformed man patted down Celeste’s body a second time, this time focusing on places where Celeste thought it was unlikely that she would have hidden a weapon.

  “What do we do with them until the collection wagon arrives?” the first man asked.

  “Stuff them in the coat closet,” the third man answered. “That’s as good as anyplace.”

  The first man pulled Celeste to her feet and hustled her across the room to a small closet. He pushed her into the closet; she tripped and crashed against the back wall, then slid down to the closet floor. Daniel was shoved on top of her. Then the door slammed closed and she heard the click of the deadbolt. The closet was very dark; only a bare sliver of light came from under the door.

  ✽✽✽

  Celeste started to cry. What did I get myself into? I escaped yesterday, but now I’m caught again! Uncle Al warned me not to come back. Daniel, why did you let me do something stupid like this? She forced herself to stop crying. Get yourself under control, girl – you must find a way out of this. She rolled over and slid and slithered until Daniel was no longer on top of her.

  “Are you all right?” she heard Daniel whisper.

  “Just wonderful. I have never been better,” she said bitterly.

  “Let’s see if we can figure out how to get out of this mess,” whispered Daniel back.

  Focus.

  Celeste felt the handcuffs come loose from her wrists. Daniel focused again and the links around her legs fell to the floor.

  “Thanks! How did you do that?” she whispered.

  “I’ve got my medallion, and the boss has been teaching me how to do lots of things with it. Even if I am not a fighter, like Zalla, I can do other things, like dissolve handcuffs and unlock closet doors.”

  “What now?” Celeste whispered.

  “I think we need to get out of here and get to our vehicle.”

  Celeste recalled that she was wearing her ring and used it to sense around. “There is a guard in the outer office. We can’t get out with him there, even though he’s not really paying any attention to us.”

  “Then I guess I’ll have to figure out a way to distract h
im,” Daniel whispered.

  Celeste could sense that Daniel was trying to focus dark energy, and she leaned close and took his arm. She could sense how hard he was trying. Then a feeling of rightness washed over her and she tried to help him direct the energy in the proper direction.

  Suddenly a loud bang came from the back of the building, followed by two more loud bangs from the same direction. They could hear the rhythm of booted feet as the man ran from the office and down the hall to investigate the noise.

  Celeste stood up and found the doorknob. She tried to turn it, but it wouldn’t turn. She leaned her weight against the door and pushed. Daniel focused again; the deadbolt dissolved, and the door came open, spilling Celeste into the room.

  No one was in the outer office.

  “Look – he left our cells on the table,” hissed Celeste. “But we’ll have to go out the front – they are searching the area where we came in.” They grabbed their devices and scuttled out the office door, into the darkened main hallway, and towards the front vestibule of the building. Every step seemed to echo.

  As they approached the main door, they could see another uniformed man silhouetted against the afternoon sunshine, blocking the exit.

  “Stop!” the man shouted, and pointed his gun at them.

  Celeste pulled on Daniel’s arms and the two of them ran towards a side hallway, under a sign that said: ‘Restrooms This Way.’

  A gunshot rang out and Celeste heard the ricochet of the bullet on the foyer wall above her head. She felt a pain in her arm as a piece of the marble wall paneling popped loose and nicked her arm.

  “Over here,” Celeste said, running past the restrooms towards an alcove with a door marked ‘Service Stairwell – Authorized Access Only.’ “I checked out those stairs once when somebody left the door open – they go to the basement and we can get out that way.”

  She grabbed her cell and held it to the cyber lock.

  “Access denied,” said a flat mechanical voice.

  “He’s coming this way,” Daniel said. “Try again.”

  Celeste fumbled with her cell. “Maybe I was holding it backwards,” she muttered.

  “Access denied,” repeated the mechanical voice.

  “He’s almost here – I think they’ve caught us,” whimpered Celeste.

  “Let’s try one more thing,” said Daniel. Focus.

  Celeste sensed and could tell that Daniel was trying to channel dark energy, but she could detect the wrongness. “Let me help you,” she whispered.

  Daniel nodded in agreement. This time she imagined that she could sense the lines between her and Daniel.

  “Relax – let me into your mind,” she whispered.

  She felt Daniel try to relax and the lines softened and changed. Celeste imagined that she was swirling the lines between them and that her lines and Daniel’s lines were merging. She could feel what Daniel was trying to do in a totally new way. She had a sense of rightness and wrongness and helped him feel the rightness. She held onto him with both arms, pressed her face against his back, and continued to help him feel the rightness.

  A man appeared at the end of the short hallway, holding a gun. He came running towards their alcove. Just then the locked door from the service stairwell behind them opened, and a second man appeared, also holding a gun.

  “Where did they go?” he shouted at the first man.

  “They came down this hallway. They had to take that stairs.”

  “I just came from the upper floors. They weren’t up there. They must be in the basement – I’ll do down and look for them. You wait here.”

  Celeste and Daniel stood only feet away from the first man as he stood near the restroom doors. The man appeared to look directly at them, but never noticed them.

  Let’s see if we can slide down the hall past that guy, and keep the energy field up, Celeste thought. Somehow Daniel knew what she was thinking and the two of them silently inched past the guard and back to the main hall. They were almost across the main entry foyer when, suddenly, Celeste’s shoe squeaked against the marble floor. And, startled by the sound, Daniel lost his focus and their cloaking shield dissipated.

  “There you are!” the uniformed man yelled. “You’ll not get away this time!” He aimed his pistol at Celeste, his intentions absolutely clear to her.

  Daniel felt an absolute prerogative to protect Celeste. The man was going to kill her and he had to do something. Daniel did the only thing he could think of.

  Focus.

  The man’s face contorted, and then he collapsed on the floor, blood pouring from a gaping wound on the back of his head, a chunk of the marble cornice shattered nearby. Daniel looked at the collapsed figure in horror.

  “Is he dead?” he gasped.

  Celeste walked over to the man and prodded him with her foot, carefully avoiding the pool of blood.

  “I don’t know, but he isn’t moving. And most of his brains are on the floor.” She turned to Daniel and took his hand. “He was going to kill me. You did what you had to do.” Daniel shuddered.

  “Now let’s get out of here,” she said.

  They sprinted out the main door, down the broad stone steps beside the chiseled sign reading ‘Alder Hall,’ and onto the main quad.

  “Whew,” said Celeste, stopping to catch her breath.

  “Keep going – we aren’t safe yet,” Daniel said through clenched teeth. Celeste sensed and could tell that he was still focusing a lot of dark energy. They quickly walked down the broad tree-lined sidewalk, joining dozens of other students scurrying to and from classes. They walked with a group of chattering students until they had crossed the quadrangle.

  “Are they still back there?” Daniel asked.

  “Two of them are following us,” Celeste said.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I can sense them. It is just like Erin described to me. They are behind us and trying to blend in with the students, but they are following us. They are angry, because they know one of their buddies is dead.”

  “When we go around the next corner towards the parking lot, step over to that wall and I will try something.”

  The brick wall was covered with ivy and screened the parking lot from the campus quadrangle. Celeste backed against the wall, pressing into the vines, and Daniel backed against the wall also. Celeste knew that he was using dark energy and Celeste could sense how he needed to do it. Celeste pressed close to Daniel and could feel everything that he was doing. Something in her sensed that he was not doing it quite right and she placed her hand on his arm and helped guide him until she felt it become right.

  Two uniformed men rounded the corner, right behind a group of students; Celeste could sense that these were the two who were looking for them. The two men came closer, methodically turning their heads back and forth as they scanned the area. As the two men came near, they looked closely at the ivy-covered brick wall where Celeste and Daniel stood motionless. The men paused, then moved on, following a knot of students, peering into every little nook of the wall as they went.

  Daniel released the dark energy. On impulse, Celeste gave Daniel a kiss. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back, long and lingering. She had kissed other boys before, having had her share of teen-age romance, but never like this. She felt every emotion of his flood her being as they kissed; and could tell that he returned the feelings right back to her.

  “Wow –” she whispered, “what a kiss! You old guys are much better kissers than the boys at my high school.”

  “‘Old guy’ – hey, what are you talking about?” Daniel said. “I’m not old! I’m just a few years older than you. I am not even twenty-five!”

  “That’s what I said,” she smirked. “Old guy.”

  Daniel smiled at her, his arms still around her. Maybe we should kiss again, in case they aren’t far enough away.

  Celeste sensed to see if she could feel the men, and then realized that Daniel had not said anything.

  “How did you d
o that?” she said, stepping back, still holding his hands.

  Daniel gave her a strange look. “I can somehow feel what you are feeling,” he answered. What is happening? Is it some result of those rings the boss made us wear?

  Celeste let her own mind relax. I can tell what you are thinking, also.

  “I am glad you are here with me,” she said. “I am frightened. I would be quivering and quaking if you weren’t here. But I feel safe with you around.”

  Daniel looked at her in surprise. “Me? I am not a warrior. The boss-lady could defend you against those guys here on the quad with her fancy kicks and feints, but I wouldn’t have the slightest idea what to do.” He put his arms around her and held her close. “I don’t know about what the boss said, about aliens trying to take over, but something is going on that isn’t good.” He kissed her hair. “Let’s get ourselves home.”

  Soon they were in their driverless. Daniel directed the car to return to the shop, and they eased out onto the campus roads, soon merging onto the main highway.

  Celeste rode in silence for a long time. Finally she stated, “I seem to be able to know everything about you.” She looked at him quizzically. Then she continued, “You always try to eat with your family on Sundays and try to take your mom and dad out once during the week. Lately you’ve been too busy to take them out. You are worried about your sister. You don’t have a girlfriend right now, and the ones you have had were disappointments. You were in love with one of them, but she cheated on you and left with one of your friends.”

  “How did you … That is personal. Please don’t repeat it,” replied Daniel.

  “You think I am cute, but that I am too impulsive and immature and bossy. Also too tall.”

  “Enough!” said Daniel. “This isn’t fair. I think what I think.”

  She looked at him, exasperated.

  I’m hungry, she realized.

  “By the way, I agree,” Daniel said, reading her thoughts. “I’m hungry, too. We have time to stop for pizza. It’s better here than the stuff in Texas out by the ranch.” The driverless responded to his voice and pulled in at a pizza joint. “Don’t worry, I can tell what your favorite kind is – and I’ll order one with ‘no anchovies.’”