The Preston Six Collection: (Book 1, 2 and 3)

by Ryan, Matt

  “It’s quite a house,” Joey said. “So Marcus lived here?”

  “He’d been here a few times, but when he got sick, he never really left the bunker.”

  A woman in a business suit came up to Emmett with a Panavice in her hand. She glanced at Joey before getting close to Emmett and whispering to him while pointing at the screen, her face strained with panic. Whatever the news, it was very important to her. Emmett’s face never changed and after he whispered his reply, she rushed off.

  Joey reminded himself to not give anything away. Emmett didn’t know they knew about the collapse of Vanar, or that Harris was still alive. “Everything okay?”

  “Marcus left us with a few problems.”

  That was the understatement of the year. From what Julie talked about, their entire world would be in chaos. No food, no water, no orange, people rioting, governments falling. Emmett found his sanctuary in Marcus’s old house, but the rest of the world was probably fighting for their lives.

  “Let’s get started.” Emmett walked to Joey and placed a hand on his shoulder. Joey felt the guns at his sides, he might have had a shot at that moment, but with armed men around, it would’ve been suicide. He allowed the man to guide him to the back of the house and down a flight of ornate stairs.

  They entered a medical wing, similar to the one in the MM bunker. Screen and scanners filled the room. Then, his vision took in two people. His heart raced and he looked up the stairs. Memories of being trapped in a chair while being tortured spilled over his consciousness and he felt like throwing up.

  “What’s this?” Joey asked.

  “It’s okay, she’s a friend.”

  “The hell she is.” He reached for his gun, but Emmett put a hand on his arm.

  The vile woman crossed her arms and turned to see him. “Oh, come on. Are you still upset about that little bit of torture?” Unitas rolled her eyes.

  The ghost of a sharp pain shot into his knee. She was a cold, heartless person. The bandages wrapping her right hand were the reminders of his rescuer, Simon.

  “It’s not something I’ll ever forget. I should kill you for what you did to me.” His mouth frothed out the words and spittle landed on the floor in front of him. Unitas lifted an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

  “Joey, please, listen to me.” Emmett stood in front of him, blocking his view of Unitas. “This is my first lesson to you. I know of your history with her and I want you to use it. Right now, funnel that rage. Channel it and see if you can slow it down.”

  “Please, like this kid can do anything special. I mean, he whimpered like a puppy. It was pathetic.”

  Her words issued a rage in him and Emmett stepped sideways, giving him full view of her smug face. He didn’t need Emmett’s words to funnel his hatred toward her. Where was her companion, Larry? There he was, sitting in the background, same as before, with a disinterested expression wrapped over his face. Could there be a more vile pair of humans?

  “That’s it, focus.”

  Joey fixated on her, shaking with rage. Then he felt it start, like a chill at the back of his neck. A large electrical charge shot into his wrists and he fell to the ground, convulsing. Unitas laughed and he heard Larry chuckling from a distance. Then the nausea spilled over him, he had no control as he threw up on the floor. He had forgotten about the bracelets in his rage with Unitas.

  “Kid’s a puker, that’s for sure,” Larry said from his chair.

  “I almost forgot about that,” Unitas said. “I had to throw away that jacket, you little turd.”

  “Sorry about that.” Emmett grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. “I wasn’t sure if those would work or not. Apparently, they do. Now we know we have to remove them.” Emmett waved over a woman in a white jumpsuit with an oak tree on it. “Gingy, can you cut these off? And, be careful.”

  Joey touched the metal bracelets. The shining metal would be something his friends would notice missing. The questions that would come up would have to be answered and he was a terrible liar. “I have to be able to wear these when I’m not here. My friends will notice.”

  “We’ll cut them in a way we can put them back on, for show.”

  “Come on, sweetie,” Gingy said. Her deep red hair waved over the edges of her beautiful face. She smiled and placed her hand on his arm.

  “Okay,” Joey said. Then he glared at Unitas with her face full of amusement. He pointed at her. “But I don’t want her here.”

  “She’s here for you. You need her to find that hate.” Emmett clinched his fist and uppercut the air.

  Joey scowled at Unitas as he followed Gingy to a side room. Being in a different room wasn’t far away enough from Unitas, but Gingy’s soft eyes and easy looks relaxed him enough to settle in the chair she motioned to. She stood next to him with a thin metal table.

  Gingy slid a thin piece of material under the bracelet and then used a handheld laser, the size of a pen, to cut through it. The heat radiated through the material and he winced as it reached a high level of pain.

  “Oh, am I hurting you?” Gingy asked.

  “No, it’s just getting a bit hot.”

  “You’re not too bad yourself.” She winked.

  “I’m talking about my wrist.”

  “I know, just a bit of humor. Jeesh, you are one serious guy.”

  She moved back to the laser. He closed his eyes and endured the pain. The bracelet made a click sound and he felt pressure release from his wrist.

  “One down. You sure you’re doing okay? You look a bit ill.”

  “I . . . well, it’s just that this is a bit strange.” Strange didn’t even begin to describe how he felt.

  Gingy looked around the room, even though it was obvious they were alone. “After the great fall, nothing seems strange to me anymore.”

  “The great fall?”

  “Yeah, people have been calling it that.” Gingy cut the second bracelet and used her gloved hands to pull it off.

  He didn’t let the pain of the heat register on his face the second time around. Free, he rubbed his wrists and studied their state. They appeared fine. It felt good to be rid of the bracelets. “Gingy, what is this place?”

  She shot a glance at the door and opened her mouth. Emmett opened the door, interrupting anything she might have said.

  “They come off okay?”

  “I had to go way beyond the safety levels to cut that steel, but they are off.”

  The woman acted like he was being a wimp and she was taking it way beyond the safety levels?

  “Good. How does it feel, Joey?”

  “It’s nice to have them off, but remember, I want them back on before I go home.”

  “Of course.” Emmett attempted what looked like a smile, but it looked strained.

  It would take Julie less than a second to ask about his bracelets and he’d be spilling his guts.

  “I can spot weld them in place, but I wouldn’t get into any rough play with them on.” Gingy set her laser pen on the metal table and stood.

  “That’s fine. Thanks for getting them off.”

  “No problem, sweetie. You were a great patient.” She eyed Emmett. “You need me for anything else?”

  “Yes, I’d like to get a sample of your blood, Joey.”

  Joey raised an eyebrow at the request. “I don’t know how that is going to help me find the speed.”

  “I think it will, if we can narrow down what it is, I think we can teach you to tap it when you want.”

  The idea of using his power was intoxicating. Almost all the bad things that’d happened to them since the first day he’d seen an Arrack could’ve been avoided if he slowed down time and stopped the bad guys. “Fine.” Joey laid his arm on the metal table.

  “This will only take a second.” Gingy slid her fingers over his arm and pushed a black gun against it. She shot into his arm and it felt like a pinch. He watched the glass vial in the gun fill with his blood.

  “Okay, all finished.” She put a bandage on
his arm.

  Joey took in the small room and thought about where he was and who he was with and it hit him. What was he doing? He didn’t belong there, even if he had planned on killing Emmett, it didn’t feel right being away from his friends. Everything he’d been through, he had shared with all of them, or at least one of them. Now, he sat alone in a room on Vanar. He glanced at Gingy and Emmett.

  “Can you just put the bracelets back on? I think I should be going.”

  “Don’t you want to realize the power that’s in you?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You can save everyone. You’d be unstoppable.”

  “I could stop Marcus?”

  Emmett’s eyes narrowed.

  “I mean, where is he? Is there something going on here?” Joey wanted to push it further but held back.

  “I think this is enough for today.” Emmett pointed at his wrists and Gingy picked up her laser pen.

  With the hot steel sat back on his wrists, they walked back to the Alius stone. No signs of Larry or Unitas.

  “I want to meet with you again next week, same time, same place.”

  As wrong as it felt, meeting with Emmett was his best chance at ending it all and if he could master the slow-mo stuff, he could take on Marcus himself. “Okay.”

  “You know, you’re special. You’re not like your friends. There’s something in you that is very unique. Why do you think Marcus wanted you so badly?”

  “Do you know where he is?”

  “I’d be afraid to speculate.”

  “Please do.”

  Emmett rubbed his chin. “Knowing him, I’d say he is somewhere with new challenges.”

  Joey nodded, he was ready to get home.

  JOEY FORKED AT HIS SALAD. He hated keeping things from them, especially big things. His secrets were mounting and his friends were beginning to notice his stress.

  “You okay?” Julie asked.

  He glanced at her and spotted Poly glancing at him with concern in her eyes, just before it was replaced with anger. Most of the time she looked sad. “I’m fine.”

  Nothing seemed right since returning. When the teacher spoke, he struggled to listen, to care. His friends as well, they felt distant. Poly was four feet from him, but she felt a mile away.

  “What do you think, Joey? Underwear grinner, or that grandpa grinner you took care of at Ferrell’s?”

  “Sorry, what?”

  “Haven’t you been listening? I don’t start these amazing conversations only to be ignored.”

  “Okay, umm . . . grandpa grinner?”

  “You would, you sick freak.”

  Joey sighed and looked out the window. He saw Lucas shaking his head at him before returning to his story.

  The rest of the week went the same way. They stopped asking what his problem was and stopped including him in their conversations. It was good this way. Lonely, but good. What he was planning on doing meant he risked everything. If he didn’t succeed, they’d miss him less.

  The metal on his wrists had a rough line on the inside from the spot weld Gingy put on them. He rubbed them as he walked down the dark dirt road to meet Emmett. This time, he planned on ending it. The second he got the opportunity, he’d kill him.

  “You ready?” Emmett’s voice projected from the forest.

  The dirt slid underneath his foot at the abrupt stop. He expected Emmett to be there, but hearing his voice still startled him. “Yeah.”

  Joey followed him through the forest toward the Alius stone. A faint sound of electricity told him Emmett had his shield up. Joey kept his gun holstered. He’d have to wait until he knew for sure he had a shot that would hit his target.

  “Have you experienced anything for the last week?” Emmett ducked under a tree branch and stepped through a bush.

  “Not really.”

  “A bit longer and I bet we can get you to control it.”

  The forest darkened and the noises of the night lessened. Funny how a place that terrified him for his whole life seemed a simple forest now, even in the dark. The idea of being in Watchers Woods at night would have sent him running under his bed not long ago. He could confidently say he was the second most dangerous thing in the forest at that moment.

  “Do you know why the ground changes near a stone?” Emmett asked.

  “Magnets?”

  Emmett laughed. “Actually that’s probably not too far off. You see these stones were created by someone, and when they did, they created them for all Vanars or Earths. I think they created them as travel to different parts of their own planet, but they ended up creating a portal to all possible worlds. At least, that was Marcus’s theory.”

  Emmett needed to meet Julie. “You guys ever meet the creators of these stones?” Joey asked.

  “No, in fact, Earth is only the third planet we’ve found with intelligent life, and we’ve been to thousands. Intelligent life is exceedingly rare, even when all the ingredients are there, most of the time we get all kinds of different animals, but nothing cognizant.” Coming up on the stone, he turned around and looked at Joey. “Shame what your parents went through.”

  Joey wasn’t sure if he meant the Arrack attacks or the fact half were killed years ago. He didn’t want to talk to Emmett about such things and didn’t respond.

  When they appeared in Marcus’s house, Joey took a quick inventory—less soldiers this time, by a lot, only four he could see. And the assistant lady stood nearby with her screen clutched in her hands. She looked distraught, but Emmett gave a slight wave of his finger, not even bringing his hand above his hip and she scurried up the stairs.

  In the brighter light of the house, Joey noticed the strain in Emmett’s eyes. The man usually had a blank face of stone. Were things that bad?

  “Right this way.” He took him to the medical wing one floor down.

  Gingy’s bright smile welcomed him. “It’s been a week already?”

  “Yeah, time flies.”

  She laughed, “That it does. Listen, hun, I’m going to put a few monitors on you so we can keep track of your heart rate and stuff.” She placed a hand on his shoulder and rubbed it.

  “Sure.” Joey sat on the metal chair as Gingy placed small pieces of metal on his temple and neck.

  “Can you take off that jacket and shirt? I need to put a few on your chest.”

  He gave her a questioning look and lifted the front of his shirt high above his chest, his gun strap hung across his stomach.

  “All the way off, please.”

  Joey obliged and lifted his shirt over his head.

  “I can work with that. I knew you had a smoking body hiding in there.” She giggled and moved closed to his face. “These may be a bit cold.” She place three squares on his chest.

  “All this for heart rate?”

  “Better safe than sorry.” She glided her fingers over his heart. “If this stops, I want to know.” It was hard to argue with a doctor. “Okay, all done.”

  Joey slid his shirt back down and Gingy pouted. He stared at her, trying to figure out her age. It was so hard with the people of Vanar. On earth, he would have pegged her at twenty-four. He wasn’t sure to be flattered or creeped out. The woman could be as old as Martha Washington for all he knew.

  “Ready?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Don’t mean to rush, but we don’t have much time tonight,” Emmett said with a bit of strain in his voice.

  A hint of sympathy crept in. The man must have the world on his shoulders . . . No. Joey gritted his teeth and scowled at Emmett. The man had blown up an entire city just to kill Harris. He’d worked side by side with Marcus and all the terrible deeds committed by him.

  “Well, let’s get him to the observation room then.” Gingy strutted to a nearby door and held it open.

  He followed Emmett into the small room with a wall of black windows on one side. Gingy came in, holding a screen in her hands. She leaned against the back wall of the room. Emmett pulled out his Panavice and pressed h
is finger against the screen. The dark room on the other side of the glass lit up and Unitas and Larry shielded their eyes from the bright light. They wore the same clothes as last week and looked rather haggard. Unitas squinted and stared at them.

  “She can’t see or hear us, but that door right over there,” Emmett pointed to the piece of glass at the end of the wall, “is operable and open. Once you slow down time, you can go in there and end them.”

  Joey’s heart rushed. He’d fantasized about it, but it didn’t feel right. He gazed at Unitas through the glass. She glared at the glass and moved her hand across her hair, adjusted the disheveled shirt, and pushed up her boobs. Her mouth moved, but no sound came through the glass.

  “I can’t just kill them in there.”

  “I got them to tell me everything they did to you. The stabbing, the torture, the humiliation, they deserve it. They deserve a lot more. People like them don’t deserve more chances. Do you have any idea how many times they’ve done what they did to you? Do you think if I let them leave here, they’d go and be good citizens?”

  So they were being held captive. Joey watched Unitas as she paced the room.

  “She’d kill you in one second, given the chance.”

  “I know what you’re trying to do, but I can’t get behind this. I mean look at them, they’re pathetic.”

  Emmett’s jaw muscles bulged from the sides of his lean face. “They are, but you need to harness that hate if you want to learn how to control your gift.”

  Joey sucked in air through his nose and stared at Unitas and Larry, when the sound of her voice bounced through the room.

  “. . . maybe if you hadn’t missed my last text.”

  “Unitas, Larry,” Emmett said. “Joey is here to see you.”

  “That little mutant puke?” Unitas said.