The Seven

by Sean Patrick Little

  She tried the door: It was locked. The keys she carried would probably get her through it, but the door at the other end of the corridor was most likely locked as well and there was a camera globe in the ceiling. I could chance it, she thought. Maybe the guard wouldn't watch that monitor at that moment. It would take her a few seconds to try different keys if the key that opened the near door had a different lock. She would need a lot of luck, but she didn't have a better plan.

  At that moment, an ear-splitting siren above her head began to wail. Above her, in the stairs, she heard feet thundering around, and men calling out directions. Her escape had been discovered.

  Several rather choice words raced from Sarah's lips. She was pretty much out of options. She began trying keys, flipping through the ring as fast as possible. Once she found the right key, she flung open the door and raced to the next door. Different locks. She tried more keys. Nothing was working.

  A male voice suddenly came over an intercom, "Visual with the prisoner. MM---128. Move to intercept. MM---128."

  A pair of guards suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stairs. Sarah ducked below the narrow windows in the door and moved against the wall. The doors opened as the guards came in and Sarah crushed the first one against the wall, grabbed the door, and raced past the second one, lashing out with her fist as she engaged her powers and sending him spinning. Her hand was throbbing, but she didn't slow down. Sarah flew up the stairs. At the next floor, guards were racing down the hallway. The male voice on the intercom was trying to keep tabs on her position, constantly relaying coordinates. Sarah kept moving up. She banged around the landings and kept moving. At the top of the stairs, she was left with only one set of doors. She grabbed the handle and ripped it open, engaging speed as she did and launching down the hall.

  A guard came around the corner at the end of the hall moving in slow motion. She lowered her shoulder and rammed him, smashing him into the wall, and kept going. The hall was long, very long, but she made it to the other end in an instant. There was a room to her right and another corridor.

  "Suspect confirmed: GS-400 Hallway. Consider dangerous. Use non-lethal force. There is a no-kill order. Repeat, use non-lethal force." They were closing in on her position quickly. Sarah could hear them thundering up the stairs at both ends of the halls. She could try running through them, but with each body in her way, she would be slowed. She would have to go out a window. Moving quickly, she began trying doors in the hallway. Locked. Locked. Locked. The lights in most of the rooms were dark. Sarah kept trying.

  Finally, one door gave way. Sarah slipped in and slammed the door behind her. There was no lock on the inside of the door. Sarah grabbed a chair near the door and wedged it under the handle like she'd seen them do in movies.

  "Who is there?"

  Sarah spun around. It was a makeshift hospital room. A TV on a mobile cart was playing some mindless daytime TV program. A long window on the far wall allowed a few speckles of sunlight to filter through gauzy curtains. There was a bed in the center of the room surrounded with a few machines and a wooden armoire along the other wall. Sarah couldn't talk. She looked for some sort of escape, but leaping from the window was the only way out.

  "I say again, who is there?" the voice was crisp and even. Sarah recognized it in an instant.

  Sarah hesitated, she didn't want to speak if the doctor was going to rat her out.

  "Who are you?" repeated Cormair.

  "Sarah, Dr. Cormair. It's Sarah."

  "Sarah!" Cormair's sounded surprised.

  Sarah moved to Cormair's bedside. He looked much older than she remembered, as if he had aged a decade in a few hours.

  "Sarah, what are you doing?"

  "They had me, Doctor. I was a prisoner. I got free, though. I used my powers. I'm going to escape. I've got to go find the others. Please don't tell the soldiers that I'm here!"

  Cormair leveled his gaze at Sarah. His stern countenance softened. "They are coming. You know that?"

  "I do."

  "Open the window."

  "What?"

  "Just open the window! Hurry!"

  Sarah went to the wall. "There are no locks or anything. This window doesn't open!"

  Cormair pointed at a chair in the corner. "Use that! Smash the damn thing!"

  Sarah grabbed the chair by its back and swung it into the glass, shattering it and throwing the chair through. A rush of wind swept into the room billowing the drapes.

  "Get into the armoire!" Cormair commanded. "Do not move! Do not even breathe until I tell you to!"

  Sarah climbed into the closet and slipped the door shut, holding her breath. She could hear the door to the room burst open.

  "She jumped, you idiots! She shattered the window and leapt!" Cormair shouted.

  Sarah heard a soldier's voice. "She jumped! I repeat the subject is in the yard! The subject is in the yard!"

  Fuzzy and metallic, a voice answered over what must have been a hand-held radio. "I don't have visual confirmation! I repeat: No visual I.D."

  Cormair's voice berated the men in the same acidic tone that Sarah had heard so many times before. "You morons! Of course you cannot see her! She travels at the speed of sound! She could run past you and kill you before you even felt the breeze!"

  There was flurry of cursing and shouting. The alarm klaxon kept blaring its obnoxious scream and the male voice shouted instructions. Sarah held her breath and waited. Cormair called to her lowly. She crept out of the armoire and looked around.

  Cormair looked sad, his eyes looked dark and morose. "In a moment," he said, "a nurse will come in to check on me. You need to knock her out. I do not have any medication so you will have to hit her. Aim for the spot where the neck joins the skull and swing hard. If you can, engage your speed powers just before you start to swing. You should connect with more than enough force to render her unconscious. Once she is out, take her uniform and put her in the armoire. That should get you out the door without too many problems."

  "Why would you do this for me? I thought you were one of these jerks."

  Cormair shook his head. "I suppose I was, though that was never my intention. I regret that I might have been one of them once. I am not any more. It's all over for me. I am old, Sarah. I have made some mistakes."

  "Like what? I don't understand."

  A tear crept to the corner of Cormair's eye. "I was so focused on the research, on the experiments, on succeeding, that I forgot the most important thing: My kids. You all are my children. My children. My creations." Cormair put a hand over his eyes and sobbed once. He inhaled sharply and wiped his eyes. "I tried to keep it hidden, to not let it show, and for that I am wholly sorry. Over the last ten years, I watched you all grow and learn. I monitored your existences. From afar, I shared in your joys, celebrated your triumphs, and mourned your failures. It has been my greatest joy to watch you all grow and become adults."

  Sarah was both touched and revolted. The Dr. Cormair she knew was cold and cruel, a driven taskmaster. The Cormair before her was a frail, sad old man, hurt and bandaged, gaunt and pale, a shadow of the man she knew.

  "Sarah, do you think...Can...Can you forgive a stupid, prideful old man?"

  "Dr. Cormair, I...I don't know what to say. I...I don't know if I can say anything."

  "You don't have to say anything. Just escape. Get out of here."

  "Where, though? Where do I go?"

  "There is a town called Barnsdale. It's in Pennsylvania, near the Dutch Amish country, about two hours from here. I set up a lab there in a valley. The valley is very low and I built the lab underground with a lead shield over the top of it to keep them from being able to scan for you. Go there. The lab is beneath an abandoned cabin far back in the woods. If the others escaped with Dr. Sebbins, that's where they went. It had the equipment Posey would have needed to survive her transformation. I don't know if I can help you any more. Just get out of here and run. Don't look back. Just run."

  "I will, Doctor. I'll get there as
fast as I can go, but what about you?"

  "Don't worry about me. I'm an old man and they need me to complete the data on their experiments. I will be fine."

  The door to the room suddenly opened and the nurse walked in. She was a bit shorter than Sarah and a redhead instead of a blonde. Her scrubs would have to do, though. Just as Cormair said, Sarah engaged her powers and cracked her fist across the back of the nurse's head. The woman collapsed in a heap. Sarah shook her own hand wildly. "Oooh! That hurts so much!"

  Sarah stripped the nurse to her skivvies and donned the blue surgical scrubs. She dragged the woman over to the bathroom adjacent to the room and laid the woman in the bathtub. Cormair instructed her to put an icepack on the woman's neck to help the headache she would undoubtedly have when she awoke.

  Sarah stood at Cormair's bedside. "Do you want me to tell them anything when I get there?"

  The tears were flowing openly down the old man's cheeks. "Tell them...that I'm sorry."

  "I will." Sarah walked to the door and paused.

  "And Sarah," Cormair said.

  "Yes, Doctor?"

  "Please tell them that I am sorry about Andrew. I was powerless."

  Sarah's heart stopped. Cold sweat broke out on her body. She tried to speak but no sound came out. She licked her lips and tried again. "What did you say?"

  "Andrew's death. I was powerless to stop it."

  "Andy...is dead?"

  "He came here. I imagine he was looking for you. They caught him with a prototype freezing gel-foam that I had designed long ago. I didn't know they actually manufactured it. It's my fault he's dead. My heart is broken."

  "They killed him?" Sarah couldn't breathe.

  "The experiment was over," said Cormair. "He proved his powers; he became a liability. Andrew became a very big liability."

  "Killed?" Sarah felt her world crumbling.

  "He was taken to a lab for final tests, and then he was to be terminated for dissection and final data recovery."

  Sarah was scared, more scared than she had ever been. It was as if Cormair was telling her that goodness and kindness had been purged from the world. Andy was her best friend, her compatriot, she...loved him.

  "Doctor, is there a chance he's alive still?"

  Cormair shrugged. "Possibly. He was taken not too long ago. But don't throw effort at foolishness! If he's still alive, he's under heavy guard! Trying to free him will only result in your capture as well! Don't be stupid, girl! Run! Run now!"

  Sarah set her jaw defiantly. "No. Not without Andy."

  Holly stood and stared at the sky for a long time after Posey flew away. She stared into the horizon until the sun became too bright in that direction. She kept hoping that Posey would reconsider and come back. Holly had tried to follow Posey as she flew with a robin that she had been able to mind-capture, but as soon as Posey flew outside of Holly's power range, Holly lost her control on the robin and subsequently lost sight of her best friend.

  Dr. Sebbins went for a walk by herself. Indigo had locked herself in the minivan for a while, insisting she didn't want to be disturbed. John went into the bunker to eat and Kenny just sat on a fallen tree and aimlessly scratched the lichens on the trunk with his finger.

  Holly was still standing in the spot where Posey had knocked her out. Posey had never been violent, never even really been angry. Holly could still feel the strength in Posey's arms. Posey had really hurt her, not so much with the physical shove, but with the intent behind it. Posey would never be violent, never lash out like she did. Somehow, the transformation had made her do it.

  Holly had a twisted feeling in her gut, a raw anger at the whole project. Her parents were dead. Her brothers and sisters were dead. Her best friend was gone. All because of this stupid, stupid project. It wasn't fair. Holly didn't want to pout, but she couldn't help feeling like the world had gone out of its way to wrong her. Why did she have to have the DNA strands that Cormair had been looking for? Why did she have to be taken away from her family? Why did she have to suffer the surgeries and implants and training?

  The side door to the minivan slid open and Indigo slouched out, her eyes slightly red. She walked over to Holly and stood next to her. "She's gone, isn't she?" Indigo asked.

  Holly nodded. She couldn't bring herself to talk.

  "How's that bump on your noggin?"

  "I'll live," said Holly. "Just a little headache, that's all."

  "Do you think we'll ever see Posey again?"

  "I don't know. I've never seen her upset like that. It's been over two hours, hasn't it? That should be plenty of time to cool off, shouldn't it? She would have come back by now if she was planning to come back."

  Indigo made an odd sucking noise with her mouth. "I don't know. If it was me, I'd be gone at least a day or two---enough to make you all worry about me a lot. Then I'd come back and refuse to talk to any of you."

  "Posey doesn't run, though. She was the one who always wanted to talk out her problems."

  "Maybe she'll come back."

  "Yeah," said Holly. "Maybe. I hope she does. I hope its soon."

  At that moment, John stuck his head through the trap door in the shack and called out to them. "Indigo! Holly! Kenny! It's time to start planning our rescue! Come into the bunker!"

  "You're the only one in the bunker," Indigo called back. "We're all out here. You come out here."

  John conceded and climbed out of the bunker. He sat on the log next to Kenny and looked up at the sun over the trees. "It'll be dark soon."

  "What's the plan, Fearless Leader?" said Indigo.

  "I don't have one," said John.

  "You're the super soldier," Indigo said. "You're supposed to be our tactician."

  "We're miles from anything. We don't have a car. The five of us walking through small towns will draw way too much attention to us. So, we're kind of stuck unless someone has a plan."

  "I can help," said Kenny.

  "Kenny, you're not allowed to use your powers," said John.

  "But, I can help! Let me walk to Barnsdale. There has got to be some Wi-Fi signal there. I can use that to hack a bank and get us some working cash. That cash can buy us a car. Bingo! Problem solved! We load up and roll back to the Home and find Sarah and Andy, grab them, and run."

  "No, Ken," said John.

  "Why not?" Holly asked. It made sense to her. "I think he's right."

  "Kenny's powers are slowly killing him. He's not doing it."

  "What?" Holly looked at Kenny. He looked sheepish.

  "I'll explain it later. Right now, it's not important. We can sit here and do nothing or I can get us a set of wheels and we can go get Andy and Sarah."

  "No, Ken! We'll find another way. Holly?"

  "What? I can't get us a car."

  "Can you get us horses?"

  "Horses? We're going to ride back to the Home?" Holly said. "It's over a hundred miles! That's ridiculous."

  "We're going to have to ride until we can get a car. Can you find us horses?"

  "I don't know. Let me check." Holly closed her eyes and extended her mind. She let her energies ebb out, spreading over the area like a rolling tide. She released pheromones and started making contacts with animals. Bugs and spiders were abundant. Smaller, lesser mammals were hunkered down in nests or warrens. The careful, nervous signals of deer came back to Holly, highly anxious creatures always ready to bolt. A flock of wild turkey sensed Holly's pheromones and the tom, a big study bird with a fierce sense of territory, began to puff and strut. A mountain lion made contact, private and solitary, its thoughts stark and sad compared to the herd animals. Holly felt the presence of a lot of creatures, but there were no horses. She retracted her energy field and came back into her own head. She looked over at John and shook her head.

  "Well, just because there are none around here right now doesn't mean that aren't any around here. We all saw them when we were coming down the road. This looks like Amish country. There's going to be horses."

  "So you
want me to steal some poor Amish guy's horses?"

  "I still think you should just let me reroute a few bank accounts," said Kenny.

  "Life or death situation only, Ken."

  "We can do this without your powers right now, Kenny. Save 'em for when we need 'em," said Indigo.

  Kenny slumped back dejected; the light in his eyes seemed to fade out. He held his arms out to the side and looked at John. "See? Useless."

  A few nearby animals suddenly raised alarms in Holly's head. She could hear them interpreting a predator. Holly zeroed in on a crow in a tree and asked him for an image of the predator. The crow answered, drawing a human female image in his mind and projecting to Holly. Sebbins was coming back.

  Holly stood up and looked in the direction the crow was pointing her. Dr. Sebbins was walking slowly toward the shack, her head down, hands shoved deeply into the pockets of her white lab coat. Holly could taste the sadness radiating from the doctor.

  Sebbins walked over to them and looked around, making eye contact with each of them. "We'll stay here for tonight. It's too late in the day to go anywhere. We've got food in the shelter. We've got beds. We'll rest tonight and start early tomorrow."

  "What about a car, Doc?" said John.

  "I'm going into town right now. There's a stash of money in the lab here. I'll buy a used car and be back as soon as I can."

  "You want me to go with you?" asked Kenny. "In case you need a computer hack?"

  "No. I'll be fine."

  "What do we do while we wait?" asked Indigo.

  Sebbins shrugged. "Lay low. Don't cause any problems. If you practice your powers, do it in the bunker."

  "Why?" asked Holly. "I've been using mine out here."