Discovery (Science of Psionics Book #1)

by Dave Renol

  After an initial sip to clear my throat, I sucked back half of the bottle. “Much better,” I said relieved. “How’s Linda? And how are you two?”

  “Linda is still asleep, but I think she’s resting easier now than she was earlier. Miss Congeniality won’t let me sleep because of the bump to my head. She said that I might have a concussion and that if I fall asleep she’ll shoot me or cut something delicate off. She’s over by the entrance keeping watch, or maybe sleeping, I dunno.”

  “I heard that,” she whispered back.

  “You were meant to,” he said without turning. “Anyway, we’re still stuck in this cave in the cliff waiting for you two to get better and save the day. That’s about it. Any more questions, or are you ready to do that day saving thing?”

  “I’ll check the schedule in my day timer and get back to you on that.”

  I looked down at Linda and saw that Carl was probably right. The lines of pain that had etched her face earlier had faded, and she seemed to be resting normally. With her hair singed and matted with blood, not to mention the bandage covering her forehead, she obviously needed some time to recuperate. I didn’t have a mirror handy, but I was pretty sure that I wouldn’t be winning any beauty pageants either.

  “Is there any sign of them in the area?” I asked, turning to Sara.

  “There was movement around the pool earlier, but nothing for the last couple of hours. They know that we were in the area last night and there’s probably blood on the rocks to let them know they did some damage, but they can’t know where we went after that. If I were in their shoes, I would have a couple of people watch this area while others spread out and searched for us.”

  “We need to get help for Linda. She’s looking a bit better, but that’s a relative statement. She might have internal injuries or the blow to the head could be causing all sorts of problems that we can’t diagnose, let alone treat.”

  “She’s too weak to move, and you’re too weak to get us out of here and defend us. No, it’s too dangerous to try leaving now. Give it a little time, and things will become safer.”

  “What if Linda starts getting worse?”

  “If she gets worse, then we’ll try it. If you’re feeling better by tonight, then you could maybe try making a break for town and help. I can stay with Linda and take care of her. Alternatively, you could try making a break for town with Linda while Carl and I stay here. I wouldn’t recommend that though.”

  “Why not,” I asked.

  “If you take Carl, then you can split up and get both medical and police or military help. Carl is also independently mobile on foot. If you take Linda and for some reason have to abort the flight, then you’ll be stuck in the middle of nowhere with her. Also, I have a gut feeling that Linda will be ok and just needs more time. Last, but not least, if something does happen to you, then Linda and I can come rescue you once she’s healed up.”

  “I don’t quite like it, but I can’t fault your logic.”

  “Eat something and get some rest. We’ll be able to make better decisions by tonight. We’ll wake you if anything changes.”

  Nodding, I accepted a ham sandwich from Carl and started eating. I choked it down and wondered if it seemed unappetizing because of my condition or because the weirdo put pickles in it. I drank some more water and lay down with Linda again. “I don’t know if you can hear me or not, but everything is going to be ok.” I sent to her while gently stroking her cheek. I fell asleep almost instantly.

  When I next awoke, it was with Carl shaking my shoulder. “Wake up bud,” he was saying.

  “Which part of you do I have to punch in order to hit the snooze button,” I queried.

  “It’s getting dark and we need to exchange some information.”

  “Ok, ok – give me a sec, will ya.”

  As I started to wake up more, the first thing that I noticed was that Linda was still asleep, but her hand was clenching my wrist. Elated, I asked “Did she wake up?”

  “Yes, but only briefly. She complained of a headache and of being cold before passing out again. She’s going to be ok! How are you doing now?”

  “I’m cold and have a headache,” I said bluntly. “What’s the word from the Russian front?”

  “It’s cold and Sid is giving me a headache,” Sara replied deadpan. “I spotted some movement just before twilight, so I think there are definitely watchers out there. We promised to wake you when it got dark or if anything changed, so here we are. Are you ready to make a decision yet?”

  I took a mental inventory and found that other than being stiff and sore all over, I wasn’t in too bad shape. My headache was still fairly prominent, but it was far better than it had been earlier. As a test of my psionics, I lifted one of the packs off the ground briefly. There didn’t seem to be any problem doing it, but I could feel the effort echoed in my headache. It seemed akin to the unpleasant feeling of hot sun on skin that was already sunburnt, except I’ve never had sunburn on the back of my eyeballs before.

  “I think I would be able to make a run for it, but it won’t be easy; it hurts a bit to lift just the one pack. If I had to exert myself carrying a lot of weight for an extended flight, then I don’t think I would be in any kind of shape when I landed.”

  “Ok, then how about this: wait until false dawn before making your break. That’ll give you more time to recover, and you’ll still have bad lighting outside in case anyone is looking to shoot at you. Dawn and dusk are the two worst times for acquiring a target. You can get some altitude and follow the mountain spine toward town. By the time you get clear of here and need to turn down into the valley, you’ll have plenty of light to fly by.”

  “Do you think I should still take Carl, or just go myself?”

  “Take Carl with you. We’ll give him your laptop and a phone. If it doesn’t look safe to go into town, then maybe y’all can hole up in someone’s yard, shed, or maybe an empty house. If you can get a phone signal or internet connection, then you can get help without exposing yourself.”

  “I doubt that Sid went so far as to put troops in town,” I said in disbelief.

  “It’s not likely, but I try and think of everything possible. We already know he contacted the sheriff, and it’s possible that he left a man there to liaison with him. Or to spy on him and make sure that we don’t make contact.”

  “Alright, it sounds like we’ve got a plan. If I’m able, then we leave at dawn. What if I’m not ready though?”

  She shrugged. “If you can’t leave, then we wait another day. I’m pretty sure that we’re safe up here, and the longer we wait, the better your chances are of not being seen. In another day, he might figure that we’re long gone and move out.”

  “If Linda’s getting better, should we just wait a week or so and let them go away?”

  “No. We’re pretty much trapped in here right now, and the goofy gourmet over there only made us a dozen ham sandwiches out of a whole fridge full of food. There’s a trickle of water that I can reach just outside the cave, but we can’t hunt or forage with his men out there. We’ll have to leave within a couple days at the outside.”

  “Very well then,” I decided. “Unless something changes, Carl and I will leave in the morning.”

  ***

  Our breakout went as planned. I was feeling much better by this point, and so, it appeared, was Linda. She hadn’t woken up again, but she occasionally shifted in her sleep so I was much encouraged in her recovery. Carl had filled and put on his backpack hours ago in case we had to leave suddenly. I debated eating another one of Carl’s grotesque sandwiches but declined. We could get something to eat if we made it to town. WHEN we made it to town, and not IF, I chided myself.

  Sara handed us each a full bottle of water and also gave Carl a spare clip of ammo for his handgun. She once again warned us to try and keep evasive in our flight and then made us wait until the first lightening of the sky heralded the approaching dawn.

  Ok, it’s time to go,” she finally said. “
Get some altitude quickly so you don’t ram Carl’s pointy head into too many trees. After all, I wouldn’t want to see any trees damaged.”

  Carl gave her a quick salute with his middle finger as he stepped to my side. “Now or never,” I thought.

  I took a deep breath and lifted us off the ground. I gathered myself for a moment, planning out what I wanted to do and then flung us out and up. Once I got us a few yards away from the cliff face, I began climbing in a spiral pattern as fast as I could. It was a little disorienting, but I kept at it until I figured that I was about a thousand feet up.

  It took a few more turns before I could orient myself properly in the near darkness, but I finally noticed that it was a bit brighter in one direction and figured that was east. Once I had that determined, I angled our upward spiral toward the north and tried to add more speed. After keeping to that heading for about fifteen minutes, I thought that we would be safe enough, so I cut sharply to the east.

  As we sped along, I kept climbing as best as I could. It was tough to tell, but I estimated that we were better than a half mile up by now. I would have to dive down into the trees when we got closer to town but for now, the altitude was reassuring. The wind whipping by us was freezing. A pair of goggles sure would have been handy. Carl probably wished that he brought his toque.

  Once the sun broke over the horizon it became easier to pinpoint our position, but it was a bitch flying straight toward it. I was fairly proud to see that my blind reckoning was only off by a few degrees. I made a slight course correction and leveled out. “How are you holding up?” I shouted to Carl.

  “I’m glad that I skipped breakfast. That bloody corkscrew thing you did was almost enough to make me decorate the landscape. Then again, it might have been worth it to have puked on one of those bastards.”

  I had to chuckle at the thought of vomit landing on one of them out of nowhere. Carl was one of a kind.

  I kept to our course until I was past the town. I thought it would be safest to approach from the far side on the odd chance that Sara was right about there being an enemy presence around.

  We went down below the tree tops for the last half mile, and on foot for the last hundred yards. Pausing at the tree line I asked, “Ready to head in?”

  “Why don’t you wait here and let me check it out first. I’m pretty sure that Sara’s a little too paranoid, but better safe than sorry.” He slipped the pack off his back and hung it up on a short tree branch.

  Nodding agreement, I sat down with my back to a tree and rested. Our mad flight here had taken a lot out of me, and I almost dozed off a time or two waiting for him to come back. When he finally did, he came back bearing manna from heaven. It was only fast food coffee, but right now, I would be willing to swear that it was the best thing I had ever tasted.

  “There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary that I could see,” he reported.

  “I didn’t think there would be, but Sara’s paranoia is contagious and it was worth checking.”

  “Where shall we go first?”

  “Straight to the police station I think. The sheriff may have been duped by Sid about ‘maneuvers in the hills’ but if we report that Linda’s house was shot up, he’ll have to investigate. From there, he can call in whatever force is needed.”

  “Yeah, let him bring in the state troopers, SWAT teams, everything. We can sit back, relax, and let them round up the lunatics.”

  “You can sit here and relax. I’ll be heading back to the cave. Linda needs help still.”

  “Sorry, I almost forgot.”

  “It’s ok. Enough chatter though. Let’s go call up the cavalry and save the day, eh.”

  I grabbed the backpack and slung it over my shoulder. The police station was only a block away, so it wouldn’t be long before this nightmare was over. As we walked down Main Street I kept an eye open for anyone looking like they were in the military. Being so early in the morning, I didn’t see any foot traffic and only a few cars.

  “One quick detour first,” Carl said, pointing at a donut shop. “It could take a while at the cop shop, and I want to hit the restroom first.”

  “Fine, I’ll grab us a couple more coffees then.”

  Carl made a beeline for the washrooms and I headed up to the counter. We were the only people in the place, so I got our coffees fast, but to my chagrin, found that I didn’t have any money. Embarrassed, I told the cashier that I forgot my wallet, but my friend would cover it when he got out of the washroom.

  He came out, tucking his shirt back in at the same time as the bell rang at the door announcing another customer entering.

  “FREEZE,” I heard from behind me. “Keep your hands away from that gun and get down on the floor! Do it now!”

  I turned, startled, and saw a cop aiming his gun at Carl. Carl had the pistol from Sara tucked into his waistband and the officer saw it. He must have thought that Carl was going to rob the place!

  “They’re both together,” The cashier squawked.

  With Carl on the ground, he pointed his gun at me. “You too then, you’re both under arrest.”

  As I dropped down to the ground, I thought that there was no way the cops would believe us now.

  We were screwed.

  Chapter 23

  Linda: An Astral Journey

  My world had become darkness and pain. I was trapped inside this world, yet was able to look out around me. It was like a bad dream.

  I could see myself lying on the ground, Sara wiping blood from my forehead. I tried sinking my awareness back into my body but the pain expelled me within moments. Is this what death is like? It was surreal.

  I could see that my body was alive. That was good news, but I needed to figure out what was happening to me. The last thing I could remember was fire and pain. Burnt flesh and hair, followed by darkness. As I got used to the dark, I became aware of the pain. Oh God, the pain!

  It was like a glowing ember in my mind, I would do anything to escape the horrible pain. Escape: That’s what I did; I escaped from my body to flee the unbearable pain. How? How didn’t matter, only the fact that by separating myself from my flesh, I was able to disassociate myself from the pain.

  Yes. I was still myself, even though I was separate from myself. It sounded like bad Zen. Ok, so I’ve somehow managed to separate my mind or spirit from my flesh. Can I do anything like this? I looked around and saw that we were all in a cave. Carl was tending to Mark, and Sara was now bandaging my head.

  Reaching out I found that I could ‘touch’ my body mentally, so I probed my injuries. I could tell that although my face looked like hell, the damage was actually minor. I checked my body from head to toe and it seemed that I was mostly intact. The various bruises and cuts seemed to glow a sickly orange to my psychic sight. While I found it easy to mentally touch things, I was unable to affect anything physically.

  I used that sight to quickly check on Mark and the others and was relieved to see that nobody was badly hurt. I touched Mark’s awareness briefly and got an echo of his pain, similar to my own. The extreme agony that forced me to flee my body must have been caused by the psionic backlash of our destroyed shields.

  I guess I couldn’t complain. Better to suffer mental pain than to have been blown to pieces. Perhaps I could wait out the pain in my weird astral form. If so, would I be able to merge back into my body? I had no answers. I needed answers. This was all uncharted territory though, and it wasn’t like I could just Google it.

  Sara and Carl began a conversation, and while I could hear them, I couldn’t speak to them. Sara seemed to think that after the blast, I was able to keep flying and bring everyone up to her cave. That didn’t seem likely to me. When the explosion hit us, all I knew was pain and then darkness. With all the recent practice I was getting pretty good at flying, but it still took a lot of concentration. There was no way I could have lifted a single pebble after that blast.

  I had to do something. There were only so many times that I could look at us i
nside the cave, so I decided to take a look outside and see if I could spot anything. In my spirit form, it involved almost no effort to glide outside and look around. It must have been the middle of the night, but I could see everything as plain as day.

  It wasn’t quite the same though. The rocks that made up the cliff face were a dull blue, trees and plants seemed a pale green, and living creatures glowed with a bright yellow aura. It was breathtakingly beautiful. It was like moving through a fairyland setting. Even the night time bugs flying around were beautiful. They made it seem like I was flying amongst the stars.

  I could clearly see two people in the trees near the pool. They glowed brightly among the rocks and trees that would shelter them from normal sight. Sara should know about this. My weird out of body vision could beat the heck out of her mere eyeballs. I brought myself back into the cave in an instant and tried to communicate, but to no avail. After trying for a few minutes, I gave up and steeled myself to try rejoining my body.

  The pain was intense, but I strove to bear it. I opened my eyes and groaned.

  “Linda, you’re awake!” Sara exclaimed, rushing quickly to my side. “How are ya doing, girl?”

  “I’m cold, tired, and feel like my head is about to explode.” I felt Mark beside me and placed my hand on his wrist, taking comfort in his presence.

  “Just try and relax. You had a nasty cut on your head, but seem to be otherwise ok. What can you tell me about any other injuries that you have?”

  I tried to answer her, but the pain was too much and I was overcome once again by the darkness.

  I arose from the darkness slowly this time, and as I separated myself from the pain, I separated myself from my body also. I had failed to get my message out, but was consoled by the fact that I would eventually be able to rejoin my body. It was only a matter of time, but how much time did we really have?

  There were people in the hills who were trying to kill us. They had almost succeeded several times, and it didn’t seem likely that they would give up any time soon. Several times I tried to test the waters and rejoin with my body, but was unable to regain control before the pain threatened to send me back into darkness. All that I accomplished was to shuffle my body slightly before I was forced to retreat.