The Cure

by JG Faherty

  “No.” Lea pushed herself to her feet, using one of the consoles for support. “I won’t kill an innocent man. And he’s about as innocent as they come.”

  Keeping one hand on the countertop to steady herself, she placed her other hand against the center of the equipment, felt the muted hum of the electronics through her palm.

  “Energy comes in many forms, but in the end it’s all just energy.” A professor had said that many years ago, during one of her college physics classes.

  Oh my God. Could it be that simple?

  She let the death and pain flow out, the same as if she were passing on a terminal illness to an already doomed animal.

  Sparks exploded from the console and the video screens shattered. There was a series of muffled pops! from the computer drives. At the same time, all the lights in the room and the hallway went dark.

  Somewhere deeper in the building, alarms began to sound.

  “Damn!” came John’s voice from the darkness. “Did you do that?”

  “I think so.”

  Leah felt inside herself. No trace of pain in her head, no acid fire on her skin. She’d done it! More than anything she’d learned about herself, more than any of the new Powers she had gained, this one ability was the greatest thing that could have ever happened to her.

  “John, do you know what this means?” She reached for him in the dark, felt his doing the same. They clasped hands. “I passed those wounds into the computer system. From now on, when I Cure an animal, I don’t have to kill something else!”

  “That’s great,” he said, and she could tell he meant it. But there was something else in his voice, an urgency. “Right now we have to get the hell out of here.”

  She nodded and let him lead her out of the room, but her mind was still on the major transformation in her life. She’d always felt so guilty every time she killed something, even though the sacrifices were animals that were too old, too sick for her to Cure without raising suspicion. But she’d had to; there’d been no other options, not if she wanted to Cure at all.

  For all those years she’d consoled herself by rationalizing it as the circle of life: animals lived and died, it was the natural order of things. She wasn’t playing God by Curing her patients, she was merely making that circle of life last longer. The same thing doctors and people had been trying to do since the dawn of civilization.

  And now? It was a question with as many possibilities as the branching corridors John was guiding them through, and filled with just as many dangers.

  Her first thought was that she’d be able to Cure every animal that came to her, regardless of its diagnosis. Except that would quickly lead to complications. People wondering how their dying pets suddenly had completely recovered. Dogs and cats that were healthy and young well beyond the time they should have died from old age. Complications like that would bring more unwanted attention, which, in turn, would lead to situations just like the one she was in.

  And you’re not unstoppable, she reminded herself. Look at what that soldier did, paralyzed you with a single shot.

  Of course, he hadn’t used an ordinary weapon, The flash of light and strange sound told her the gun had to use some kind of laser or sonic disruption—or maybe a combination of both—to temporarily jumble a person’s synapses. And who knew what other weapons the military might have developed? After all, it was what they did for a living.

  John broke her train of thought by roughly pulling her into a doorway.

  “Ssshhh.” It came out as a whispered hiss.

  Leah pressed her back against the door and listened for whatever he’d heard. Scattered red emergency lights set in the ceiling turned the hallway into a corridor to hell, their dim glow ensuring a potential enemy could be dangerously close before you could see them.

  Then, over the thump of her own pulse in her ears, she heard the sound of footsteps.

  Someone was coming!

  Leah let go of John’s hand, prepared to defend herself—defend both of them—if she had to.

  And then froze.

  Because she had no idea what she would do or how she would do it. Would her Power still work at a distance? Did she have to Cure before she could Kill? Would her previous supernatural form manifest itself if needed?

  In that moment, she realized her biggest weakness was her own mind. A simple hesitation was all an enemy would need to put her down the way that soldier had.

  The footsteps slowly drew closer, each one adding to her inner quandary, until the men were so near she could hear their breathing.

  Just then, the crackle of a handheld radio echoed in the dark.

  “We’ve found the general! Medical assistance needed in video room A!”

  “Let’s go!” a voice said, so near and loud that Leah actually jumped and had to bite down a surprised cry. A second later, two men ran past the doorway in the direction John and Leah had just come from.

  “This is our chance,” John said, pulling her into the hall.

  They followed the main corridor, ignoring side hallways, for what seemed a million miles to Leah. Each branch heightened her anxiety at getting caught again. The silence—except for their footsteps—made things worse. Why weren’t there any alarms going off? She’d expected blaring sirens and packs of soldiers in the wake of her escape. Instead, she felt like they were being stalked by ninjas.

  She was about to ask John if he had any idea of how they would get out when a dancing light appeared up ahead. John stopped and Leah’s heart jitterbugged in her chest as she recognized it: the bouncing beam of a flashlight hitting the corridor walls.

  “They’re coming right at us,” John whispered. “Quick, back this way.” He turned and led her to a side hallway they’d just passed. They moved deeper into the hall, past several doors, and waited for the soldiers to go by.

  Leah tried not to breathe while they stood there, backs pressed against the wall. Seconds ticked by, turning into minutes. Afraid someone might sneak up behind them, she kept glancing back into the darkness. On the fourth or fifth time—she’d lost count, her brain ready to explode from tension—she noticed something was different.

  There were lights. Still far away, but definitely there.

  Oh shit.

  She tugged on John’s sleeve, not wanting to speak for fear of the other men who had to be close to them by then and must have turned their lights off because the corridor was dark. She felt him turn in her direction and she pointed down the hall at the lights.

  And realized how stupid that was, since he couldn’t see her.

  “Down there,” she said in a whisper so soft she could barely hear it herself. “Lights.”

  John’s body tensed under her hand and he leaned past her. Suddenly he grabbed her arm and started pulling her down the hall. Toward the lights.

  Has he gone crazy? Leah tried to pull away but he just held her tighter and ran faster, practically dragging her as his fingers bruised her arm.

  Then she saw it.

  A door! An unlit red-and-white EMERGENCY EXIT sign sat high up near the ceiling. And the lights…they were shining through around the edges of the door.

  John hit the door at full speed, ramming the metal bar with his hip. It flew open and in the same instant the world exploded in a silent detonation of light so bright Leah had to squeeze her eyes shut and cover them with her arms as she stumbled into John’s back.

  Despite not being able to see, she knew immediately that they were outside. Warm, fresh air enveloped her, wonderfully welcome after the stale, air-conditioned atmosphere of the building. The ground was hard under her feet, and she risked peering through squinted eyes to see where they were.

  And if anyone was waiting to kill them.

  Through tears that made everything look like she was seeing through someone else’s glasses, she saw they’d ended up in a parking lot. Only a
few scattered cars were present, at least directly in front of them.

  “Head for the woods,” John said, putting an arm around her waist. “It’s our only chance.”

  Her eyes still half-closed because of the bright sun riding high overhead, Leah looked in the direction where John was now leading them.

  Past the parking lot was a green, empty field that appeared larger than her entire neighborhood. And beyond that a fence. And then woods.

  He wants to cross all that without being seen? We’re as good as dead. They don’t even have to chase us. Snipers will pick us off before we get halfway there.

  Despite her fear, Leah ran alongside John, her head ducked and her shoulders tight, expecting a bullet to hit her at any moment. It didn’t matter that she’d been shot before and suffered no injury; her brain still hadn’t come to terms with being at least partially invulnerable.

  Besides, that had happened before, when she’d been different. Now there was no telling how her body would react to a bullet tearing through her, shattering bone and ripping organs to shreds…

  Stop it! She forced away the image of her death and concentrated on running faster.

  The change from blacktop to grass happened sooner than she expected and filled her with equal parts hope that they would make it and certainty that they’d be gunned down any second. John must have felt something similar, because he put his head down and somehow increased his speed even more. Leah kept up with him, her habit of jogging on weekends making up for her shorter stride. Even so, she was already breathing heavily and had the first hints of muscle exhaustion starting up in her ribs and legs as lactic acids began collecting faster than her body could break them down.

  At one point she glanced up and saw that they’d covered half the distance to the fence. Spurred on by the sight of it, she tried to quicken her pace even more. Instead, all that happened was she stumbled for a second before regaining her balance, and then had a cramp ignite in her calf.

  “Shi—!” the curse got lost as she gasped for air, but it was enough to make John turn around.

  “What?” His breathing was just as labored, his face flushed to the point where you couldn’t see his eyebrows against his red, sweating skin.

  “C-cramp,” she said, her gait now more of a hop than a true run as she tried not to put weight on her protesting leg.

  “Can’t stop, we’re almost there.” He put his arm around her back to support her. Without waiting for an answer, he started running again.

  Leah gritted her teeth and willed her legs to move. The first few steps were pure agony; each time her foot landed on the ground, fire raced up her calf and her leg buckled.

  Then a miracle happened.

  The pain disappeared, washed away by a cool, energizing wave that flowed through her, leaving her feeling like she could run another ten miles. At the same time, John stumbled and she had to support him. She glanced down and saw a faint green glow around his right calf.

  In the next instant it disappeared, simultaneous with her experiencing a sudden loss of energy. Not to the point where she couldn’t run, but enough to know she wasn’t going to be sprinting for two miles, let alone ten.

  What the hell just happened? she wondered as John picked up the pace again.

  It was almost as if…I shared my Power with John. Used his life force to Cure myself and then gave him back some of my energy, balanced it between us so neither of us would collapse.

  All without even thinking about it.

  More changes in her Powers? It was getting so she couldn’t keep up with them.

  Then there was no time to even think about what had happened as they reached the fence separating the field from the beckoning safety of the woods.

  “Wait.” John held out a trembling arm to stop her from moving forward. His breath came in huge, wheezing gasps. “Let me…test it…first.”

  Leah didn’t even respond; she let him search for a stick while she bent over, her hands on her thighs, and tried to get enough air into her lungs to put out the fire in her chest.

  John tossed a branch against the fence and it bounced off.

  “Not…electrified,” he said. “I’ll…help you…over.”

  She didn’t think either of them would have the strength to climb the ten-foot wire mesh, but somehow they made it to the other side without falling. After taking cover behind a tree and catching their breath, a fifteen-minute walk took them to a highway. They followed it to the nearest town, which turned out to be the Upstate New York village of Liberty, where John called a friend to come pick them up.

  Leah slept the entire two-hour ride home.

  Not once did she think about how easy their escape was.

  Chapter Eight

  Agent Michael Smith smiled as he watched the video of Leah DeGarmo and John Carrera scaling the security fence surrounding the secret base he’d set up. He’d been afraid one or both of them would get hurt during their escape earlier in the week. It’d been tricky enough guiding them to the exit without their realizing it. An injury would mean resorting to a desperation plan of having two of his men disguised as civilians “accidentally” stumbling across the escaping pair and helping them into town.

  Another monitor showed General Moore in the infirmary. His condition had deteriorated over the past two days, to the point where he needed life support to maintain him. Smith felt no regret at the man’s loss. He’d done what they needed him to—served as the command figurehead for the soldiers, all of whom would have been hesitant about taking orders from a “spook”.

  And when Moore became a liability, there’d been no choice but to stop him before he told DeGarmo more than she needed to know.

  He’d had a moment of near panic when DeGarmo brought the general back to life, but luckily healing memories was beyond even her power.

  Power. The word echoed in Smith’s head. DeGarmo was an untapped source of limitless possibilities. And other than her boyfriend and a double handful of soldiers—all of whom would be assigned to his special ops team before the end of the day—only two people in the world knew about her.

  And it was time to call the other one.

  Smith tapped one of three contact numbers in his phone. It answered on the second ring.

  “Hello.” The voice on the other end knew exactly who was calling.

  “Plan B is a go,” Smith said, “as we both expected. I have to thank you. She’s everything you said and more. I’ll be in touch soon regarding the next steps. For now, just keep doing what you’ve been doing. Help her, support her, be everything she needs you to be. I’ll be in touch soon.” He hung up before the other man could respond.

  On the monitor, General Moore coded and died.

  Tapping a few keys, Smith backed the video log up to the point where DeGarmo broke out of her cell.

  He had a lot of studying to do.

  “Who was that?”

  John closed his phone and stuck it back in his pocket. They’d been staying in a hotel in Manhattan, courtesy of Leonard Marsh, for the past three days. During that time, Marsh’s security team had been watching Leah’s house and office, plus John’s house, to see if they were under surveillance.

  “Marsh,” John said. “As far as they can tell, everything’s clean. No bugs, no suspicious vehicles, nothing. He thinks it’s safe for us to go home.”

  “That would be like a miracle.” Leah patted the overstuffed mattress of their bed. “Staying in a hotel is great, but I really miss my own house.”

  The news that they weren’t being watched was just the latest in a string of good luck that had Leah feeling like life might finally be returning to something close to ordinary again. The most important thing was that physically she was perfectly normal again. What she referred to as her “dead eyes” had disappeared at some point during their escape from the military base. She believed—and John agreed
with her—that it happened when she passed the general’s wounds into the building’s network.

  Of almost equal importance was finding out they weren’t on the Wanted lists of any military or government agencies. Leah had called Marsh as soon as they got to Rocky Point, and in turn he’d called some of his contacts. As far as he could tell, the names DeGarmo and Carrera weren’t raising red flags anywhere.

  “That doesn’t mean you’re safe, though,” he’d told them. “From what you’ve told me, this sounds like more of a covert operation, something off the grid. Which means someone might still be looking for you. I think you should hide out in the city for a while until we’re sure it’s safe.”

  They’d taken Marsh up on his offer of a hotel room and checked in under his name.

  Now, if what he said was true, they could finally get their lives in order again, or at least something close to it. Marsh had promised to post security guards at their houses and the clinic 24/7, which went a long way toward easing Leah’s lingering fears of being taken hostage again.

  That she wasn’t completely terrified was something of a shock to her. She wasn’t sure if it was because she’d become numbed to the danger of it all, or because the exponential growth of her Powers gave her a confidence her conscious brain hadn’t processed—or accepted—yet.

  What will be, will be.

  A sentiment that could either be defeatist or optimistic.

  Maybe it’s both, she thought, getting off the bed. Or maybe there’s a third option: realistic.

  “Ready to go home?” John asked. His expression told her he already knew the answer, but she said it anyway.

  “Let’s start packing.”

  A week later, Leah opened the door to the clinic and couldn’t help but smile at the sight of a completely filled waiting room. She greeted the people and pets she knew, and introduced herself to the others before heading into the back to put on her white lab coat.

  John arrived an hour later with coffee and donuts, and the news that his retirement from the police force was official and he was ready to take on the role of office manager. It was something they’d discussed over the past week while reviewing applications for Leah’s new assistant.