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

by Ryan, Matt

  “If you tell him what you planned on doing to him and his friends, I’ll let you stay in a better room.”

  Her eyes lit up and Larry’s head jerked toward the mirror. “We were going to torture the one for answers, Joey, but the stupid kid puked on my jacket. I was going to kill him—”

  “And what of his friends, maybe Poly?”

  “Oh yeah, she was still unconscious. I had some fun plans for that one,” Larry chimed in.

  “Yeah you did, you perv.” Unitas chuckled. “I had some plans for that one too, like rearranging her pretty little face. Once I was done with her, not a plastic surgeon around could make that face normal again.”

  Larry laughed, his large gut shaking with joy.

  “She was a sleeping angel.” Larry’s face brightened and he adjusted his black slacks. “Her hair smelled like a newborns. So fresh.”

  “And this sick perv wanted to do things to her while she was still unconscious. He had her shirt half off when—”

  The chill went down his spine and Joey’s eyes blazed with hate. That sick man and woman had touched Poly. Joey bounded to the glass door, past a motionless Emmett and into the room with Larry and Unitas. Emmett was right, they both deserved to die and all the types like them. They sickened the world with their diseased thoughts and poisoned the decent world with their very presence.

  Unitas’s mouth moved a hair’s width a second. He didn’t want her to finish the last word, he didn’t want them talking about Poly the way they did. He didn’t even want her to get her last thought off. He had to stop it.

  He brought the gun up to her face, gritted his teeth and sucked in the snot from his nose. He felt the sweat beading on his forehead and wiped it with his free hand. He pressed the gun up against the side of her head. She’d never know what hit her. It’d be like a light switch. This close, he saw the dirt in her nails, the oil in her hair, and a faint smell of body odor.

  He pushed the gun against her head again and tapped the trigger with his shaky hand. Her face looked much worse than he remembered, even from a week ago. What was Emmett doing to them?

  As disgusting as she was, she didn’t deserve to die, not like this. He pulled his finger away from the trigger, but the tip of it slid on the metal and the gun fired. The bullet crashed into the side of Unitas’s head in slow motion.

  The sounds of the room crashed around him. What have I done? He screamed the question in his mind as the nausea overwhelmed him and he fell to the floor. Her wicked eyes, dull with death. He killed her. He didn’t want to kill her. He spewed his stomach contents on the floor. Larry ran to him and kicked him in the face.

  How could he have killed her? He pulled his finger off the trigger. It was an accident. How could this have happened?

  Larry kicked him again and Joey went into a fetal position, suffering from the blows Larry’s foot was inflicting. He didn’t want to fight back, he deserved it. How could he have killed her, even if she was the vilest person he’d ever met? She didn’t deserve that, Emmett was wrong. He had to be wrong.

  Emmett moved into the room with lightning speed and punched Larry in the throat. Larry wheezed and fell to the floor next to Unitas, grabbing at his fat neck.

  Emmett picked Joey up by his arms and dragged him into the adjacent room. “You okay?”

  He heard the words, but the nausea and guilt of what he did flooded his thoughts. He coughed and tried to sit up, but the whole world seemed dizzy.

  “Gingy, can you get some water?” Emmett said, and she ran out the room. “First time?”

  First time? What did that mean? Joey gazed at Emmett with a confused expression. Emmett sat on the floor next to him and even looked . . . sympathetic?

  “It gets easier,” Emmett said in a long sigh.

  What was the man talking about? Killing people? “I need to go.”

  “Yeah, I think we’ve done enough for one night. Please let Gingy clean you up. I bet you don’t want to come up with an excuse for that face.”

  Joey’s face pulsed with pain. Larry’s large shoe must have left a mark and from the feel of it, a terrible one.

  “Come on.” Emmett offered him a hand. “For what it’s worth, I think it was awesome what you did in there. I mean, to actually see it in person . . . being able to harness that power.”

  Joey’s body felt like it weighed five hundred pounds as he staggered to the metal patient chair. He plopped down on it and rested his head. With his eyes closed, he relived the bullet striking her head in horrible slow motion. He should be punished for what he’d done, sent to jail forever, even if it was an accident.

  “Don’t worry, hun, I’ll get that face fixed up.” Gingy’s smiled seemed forced now. “Can you put that gun away though?”

  Joey looked at the hunk of metal in his fist. He’d forgotten it was there and stuffed it back in its holster. His hand felt empty without it.

  A wet cloth touched his mouth and he felt her pulling the square pieces of metal from his skin. Gingy even lifted his shirt and took the ones from his chest. This time it didn’t bother him. The process seemed like it was happening to another person. It could have been Emmett taking them off for all he knew.

  “I’m going to bring back that pretty face of yours now.”

  Joey turned his head to Gingy, regardless of her age, she had a soft feel to her. She’d committed her life to helping others, she had to have good in her. “Am I a monster?”

  “If you are, you’re the best looking monster I’ve ever seen.” She didn’t pull off her soft flirts this time. In fact, she barely looked him in the eye as she spoke and the laugh afterward didn’t have the fun bubbly feel to it. She was afraid of him.

  Joey breathed in deep and faced the ceiling. Her hands moved over his face and she rubbed something on it, but he didn’t pay attention. In a few minutes, it was over.

  “All better, hun. Might be a hint of swelling, but no one should notice such a thing.”

  “Thank you.” He’d already missed her easy playfulness.

  He was a monster.

  THE SOUNDS OF THE NIGHT became a background to his slow walk back home. He held the gun in his hand and stared at its black metal. Such a simple thing, a gun, but put in the wrong hands and it became a weapon of destruction. He threw the gun to the forest floor.

  “You may need that.”

  Joey stopped and whipped around.

  The man walked closer, with his hands in his pockets. The moon gave enough light to see the worn look on Harris’s face. He’d never looked weary, but there he was, on the edge of looking ragged. How bad was it in Vanar?

  “What are you doing here?” Joey couldn’t handle much more this evening.

  “I might ask you the same question.”

  He searched for a plausible lie. “Just out for a walk, it clears my head.”

  “Does Emmett clear your head as well?”

  Joey sighed and stuffed his thumbs at the top of his jeans. “I plan on killing him. As soon as he teaches me to command my skill.”

  Harris folded his arms. “Do you have any idea what a man like him could do if he figured out your skill?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He’s using you. He’s trying to find out what makes it work.” Harris tapped his finger on the side of his head. “And as soon as he does, he won’t need you anymore.”

  “I can handle him.”

  “He’s a rank nine, you will lose.”

  Joey suppressed his anger building up. Harris was a nine. Perhaps he could use him as practice. “What do you know? Why are you even here?”

  “I came to talk with you guys, check on you.”

  “Really, cause how’s it going on your side?” Joey regretted the snippiness.

  Harris shook his head. “Not good, not good at all.” He rubbed his chin. “Each time we get a system up, Alice shuts it down. This thing that Marcus unleashed on us is devastating the people, and I think it’s only going to get worse.”

  Joey lowered his h
ead. He felt stupid for acting like he was going through anything special while an entire planet was being destroyed. “I’m sorry. Did Jack or anyone find a way to stop her?”

  “That’s sort of the reason I came here. Julie contacted Alice directly in the past and as far as I know, she’s the only person Alice has ever reached out to. If she can get through her walls and stop Alice, she might be able to save billions of people.”

  Joey’s heartbeat picked up as Harris spoke. It sounded as if he wanted their help, or at least Julie’s. The thought of any of his friends going back to Vanar frightened him. “Have you found Marcus?” The question jumped from his tongue.

  “No. But, at some point, he’ll have a need of you, or all of you.”

  “So, what do you want from us?”

  Harris rubbed the stubble on his chin. “I hate asking this of you, and if you tell me no, then I’ll understand but I need Julie and Lucas on Vanar.”

  “Why Lucas?”

  “He’s immune.”

  “What? I thought you guys cured him. Simon said as much.”

  “He lied. If we can get our nets back up and running and get the vaccine to the people, we might have a chance.”

  “What are you talking about?” The emotion coming from Harris freaked him out.

  “Even with Emmett melting the entire city, one of them got loose. We’ve lost Lutgard.” Harris kept his unblinking stare on Joey. “We had to burn the city down around them. They were everywhere.”

  Stars peeked through the leaves of the oak tree above. Orion’s belt slid in and out of view, as the trees swayed in the cold night air. Joey wanted to study the leaves, something he might be able to understand, control. Vanar seemed as far away as Orion. Did he really want to travel there, put his friends at risk? He closed his eyes and prayed for a reasonable answer, no option played out as a win.

  “I’ll talk with them about it.”

  “Time is not on Vanar’s side, can we meet here at first light?”

  “I’ll call them.”

  “There’s another thing. It involves you—”

  “Don’t worry, I’m not going back to Emmett.”

  “It’s not that.” Harris’s stare penetrated into him. “Arracks are coming through the stones, they captured several cities already. We’re at war.”

  “You want me to fight them?”

  “No. We can’t fight on so many fronts.” Harris shook his head. “You know them better than anyone. You were there. I want you to handle a peace treaty.”

  Joey’s mouth hung open. “I don’t . . . that’s crazy . . . I can’t . . .” He took a deep breath. “I can’t help you, we have our own world to save. We’ve done enough, it’s over.”

  “You think that?” Harris took two steps closer to Joey. “You think that once the Arrack’s are done with Vanar that they’ll forget about your planet? You think Marcus is going to get a job at a coffee shop and live out a simple life? These problems are at your back door, knocking and you choose to ignore them?”

  “You don’t think we’ve done enough?”

  “You’ve done more than I could have ever imagined, but let’s face it, you kids are special. For you to be here, waiting for the fight to come to you is a waste. You have a chance to bring it to them. No running, no hiding. Take the fight to their back door and stop the war.”

  The idea of fighting instead of running was exciting, but he wasn’t going to Arrack to fight. “What could I possibly say to the Arracks?”

  Harris pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Joey. “It’s our terms for them to surrender.”

  “It’s sealed.” Joey rubbed his thumb over the long, metallic sticker sealing the envelope.

  “Once you get to the right Arrack, the one that can make the agreement, they will open it. It’s imperative that no one opens it but that Arrack.”

  Joey turned the envelope over. There were no markings on it but the sticker. “And what if they kill me?”

  “You mentioned you had a contact there last time. I’d suggest you meet with her first.”

  “I have school tomorrow.”

  “This isn’t about just saving my world, it’s about saving this town.” Harris pointed to the ground. “Stopping this all, once and for all.”

  “This won’t stop Marcus.”

  Harris rubbed his chin. “No, it won’t. But it stops the dam from breaking on us.”

  “I’ll talk with everyone tomorrow.”

  “Not everyone. Poly, why don’t you come out?”

  Joey jerked around, looking into the darkness. Poly was here? She emerged from behind a tree, slouching as she walked into the opening. She held a knife in one hand and didn’t look happy about being found. “Why are you here?”

  “I’ve been following you. How could you have gone anywhere with that man?”

  Joey knew how she felt. Emmett was the one who kidnapped her. But Emmett would get his in due time. “I’d planned on killing him. I didn’t want to drag you guys into it with me.”

  “Oh really, it was to spare us? It wasn’t so you could learn how to do your slow-mo thing? Didn’t you think I’d notice your bracelets were different?” Poly fumed.

  He hated seeing her mad, but it was the first emotional contact he’d had with her since the lake. He’d take any contact with her at this point. “I’m sorry, I should have told you.”

  “Yeah, you should have. I shouldn’t have to stake out your house and follow you around.”

  He stuffed his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet. He hated keeping things from his friends, especially Poly. It felt good to have his secret out.

  “You should go with him, Poly.”

  Joey’s eyes went wide at the suggestion. Going by himself was bad enough, but the last thing he wanted was to put his friends in danger. “No, she should stay here and watch after Preston.”

  “You think I’m letting you go without me, then you don’t know me at all.”

  Joey sighed. He knew that I’m-going-to-get-my-way look. There was no talking her out of it at this point. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have someone watching my back.”

  “That’s what I thought.” Poly relished in her small victory.

  “Our parents are going to freak.” Joey looked at the path back to his house.

  JOEY WAS SURPRISED WHEN HIS parents both nodded and agreed to him leaving. It needed to end and if he could help, then he should. He half wanted them to tell him he couldn’t go, maybe then he could have argued the point and hopefully convinced himself and them at the same time. Maybe Poly would have more resistance with his friends.

  He got to the morning meeting spot on the dirt road near the stone. He saw his friends in a small group, huddled together. They spotted his approach and opened their tight circle to make room for him.

  “Hey.” Joey scanned their faces for that resistances but it wasn’t there. Julie actually seemed happy.

  “I gave them the run down already,” Poly said.

  “Great, what do you guys think?”

  “It’s a no-brainer for me and Julie. If we can help them, we’d be pretty big jerks not to,” Lucas said.

  Joey frowned, did no one else think they should be done with it all? When would it be enough, when one of them doesn’t come home?

  “What are Samantha and I supposed to do?” Hank asked.

  “Hank, we could use you with us,” Lucas said.

  “Right on,” Hank said and walked next to Lucas.

  “And I will go with Joey and Poly to Arrack,” Samantha declared.

  Joey closed his eyes and suppressed them from rolling up into his head. It was his worst nightmare. He opened his mouth and met eyes with Samantha. She sent him a scowl that closed his mouth. Maybe if he got away, he could go to Arrack by himself.

  “I guess we have our two parties then. Seems like we just got back together,” Lucas said.

  “We knew it wasn’t over,” Julie reminded him. “It was a nice little vacation though. I almost felt li
ke a teenager again, if only for a moment.”

  “Oh, come on. You stopped being a teenager at fourteen. You jumped right into a thirty-something, nerdy adult,” Lucas teased and then smiled.

  Julie pushed him. “Better than being a perpetual child.”

  Joey sighed and shook his head.

  “What’s the problem? You look like someone stomped on your dog,” Lucas asked.

  “It’s just that we spent so much time getting back together and here we are, splitting up again. It just doesn’t seem right.” He surveyed their faces and they stared at him with mixed emotions.

  “We have a chance to save their world, and ours probably, as well. How can we pass that up?” Julie said.

  “I know, but I don’t have to like it.”

  “I’m looking forward to some action, I mean, doesn’t this town feel incredibly small now?” Lucas said.

  He knew what they meant. The confines of the town seemed limitless not long ago, and now they felt cramped.

  “Have you all come to a decision?” Harris appeared behind Hank and they turned to face him.

  “Yes—” Julie started.

  “No,” Hank interrupted and took a step forward. “I’m going to Arrack with them, I’ll just be a third wheel with Lucas and Julie. On Arrack, I might be able to contribute.”

  Three, four . . . at this point, Joey slumped forward and felt the burden of another soul under his watch. “Happy to have you, Hank.”

  His face lit up with a smile and he turned back to Harris.

  “I just want to say that you kids are the finest people I’ve ever known. You never stop amazing me.”

  “Watch out, he’s getting all emo on us,” Lucas teased.

  Joey shook his head and stared at Lucas. “You just can’t turn it off can you?”

  “No. No, I can’t.”

  On the way to the stone, Joey fought the urge to rush ahead and leave without his friends. They gathered around the circle.

  Harris tilted his head sideways and raised an eyebrow. “I wanted to give you something.” He pulled out a handgun, but the barrel was square and there was a tiny hole at the end. “This is a railgun. It has hundreds of tiny projectiles and here are a few clips to go with it. This is enough shots to take out a small army.”