by S. S. Segran
“It still might take a while,” Marshall said. “There’s a ton of people to go through and only a couple of nurses this time of night.” He looked over to the exit behind them where fully armed military personnel were now posted.
“Guess we can’t make a break for it,” Tegan said, seemingly half-joking.
Kody prodded Aari’s knee. “Hey,” he said, “wasn’t high fever one of the symptoms of the Omega strain? The violent one?”
“Yeah,” Aari replied. “Why?”
Kody surreptitiously indicated with his chin. “You see that girl there, with her head in her hands?”
Mariah scanned the crowd from the Jordan flight until she found the passenger—the young woman in a mint-colored hijab holding her head tightly as if in pain.
“I see her,” Aari said. “She was ahead of us in the queue.”
“I just did a thermal scan of the crowd,” Kody murmured. “Everyone’s body temperature is normal . . . except for hers and the woman beside her, probably her mom. Her mother’s is elevated just a bit, but the girl? She’s off the charts.”
“What?” Mariah hissed. “How did they get past the health screening in Jordan?”
Dread flashed in Marshall’s eyes. “Maybe they didn’t screen their passengers at all.”
“The girl’s all the way over there,” Tegan said, pressing her mask flatter against her face. “And everyone’s covered up, so we should be fine. Right?”
“Guys.” Kody’s voice shook. “There’s blood dripping from the corner of her eyes.”
The young woman suddenly screamed. She fell off her chair onto her knees, banging her fists against her head. Her mother crouched next to her but was roughly shoved onto her back. Scarlet leaked from the girl’s nose, staining her clothes even as blood trailed down her face from her tear ducts. She bashed her head against the ground over and over, wailing.
All hell broke loose as terrified passengers made a break for the exit. The soldiers standing guard pointed their rifles at the approaching crowd and shouting at them to stay inside. The passengers screamed and begged to leave, some even falling to their knees with their hands raised in supplication, but the armed men forced them back into the screening area. Some retaliated but were struck with batons and shoved away. The passengers gathered behind the seats, putting distance between themselves and the sick girl. A few wept openly. Marshall stepped protectively in front of the friends.
The girl turned to see two nurses escorted by airport security approaching her; one of the nurses had a needle in hand. She scurried backward on all fours, quivering, her eyes darting from one person to the next. She looked like a terrified child.
As Mariah watched helplessly, Tegan and Kody slid their arms around her, holding her from either side. Aari, standing next to Tegan with his hands tucked firmly under his arms, could barely watch.
“Ummi!” the girl cried, reaching for her mother. Blood dribbled between her lips. “Ummi!”
The older woman ran to her despite the guards’ efforts to hold her back and knelt beside her daughter. The girl suddenly bared her teeth, ripped off her hijab and threw herself at her mother, fingers curved like claws, sweat dripping from her forehead. She screeched and swung at the older woman but missed, her sharp nails striking the ground.
The guards and nurses moved in but she must have sensed their approach. She leapt off her mother with a snarl and was rapidly circled by the workers. They spoke in soothing tones as they orbited her, the guards with their hands on their holsters, the nurses holding up sedatives. She twisted around to keep an eye on all of them as they got closer, her body heaving with ragged breaths, her dark hair covering half her face. She’d started to bleed from her ears, and the whites of her eyes were almost completely covered in red veins.
What can I do? Mariah thought, gripping Tegan’s and Kody’s arms tightly. There has to be something. I can’t just . . . just stand around!
The girl stomped her feet, warning the workers to keep away as terror returned to her face. But they only moved closer. One of the nurses approached her from the side but the girl saw the oncoming threat. With a bellow she hurled herself onto the woman, throwing her to the ground and savagely beating her with her fists.
The guards yelled for her to stop as they swung their guns up. Mariah frantically looked from the men to the girl beating and clawing at the shrieking nurse. As the guards’ fingers slid to the triggers, she focused on the weapons.
But she was half a second too slow.
Two reports sounded. The girl froze for a moment before slowly slumping onto the nurse. A sickening silence followed as though all the air had fled the hall.
Mariah dug her fingers into her friends’ arms. No.
“She’s still breathing,” Kody whispered. “But barely.”
Newly arrived guards in hazmat suits helped the nurses carry the young woman through a door at the back of the screening area behind the test tables. The girl’s mother sat on the ground, rocking back and forth, her lamentations echoing through the hall and her face soaked with tears. The guards returned and one guided her through the same door. The other addressed the passengers and crew in Arabic, then in English. “We will be moving everyone to a secure facility where you will all be tested again.”
The passengers went into an uproar. They flooded toward the guard, shouting over one another in protest. Marshall headed over, signaling for the friends to stay put.
Tegan pulled Mariah close. “Hey, come here.”
Mariah nestled into her friend’s warm hug, drained. “How are you so calm?”
“Because losing my head isn’t a reasonable option . . . but it doesn’t mean that that wasn’t one of the hardest things I’ve had to watch.”
“That girl could be dead.”
“She was already dying, ’Riah. We need to remember that. She could have seriously hurt, maybe even killed, the nurse. And it really sucks, I know, because we have these gifts, these abilities, and we’re powerless. But the only way we can help is by finding the seeds.”
Kody sunk into a chair. “It’s hard to keep that in mind when something like this happens right in front of you. At the Battle of Ayen’et—yeah, we saw good people die, but at least we were able to help some others in the moment.”
Mariah reached down to clasp his hand and he took it. Marshall returned a while later, grim. “There’s no way they’re letting anyone leave after what just happened,” he said. “We’re all quarantined. They’ve got buses coming to pick us up.”
“But even if we got sick,” Aari countered, “we can’t pass it on to anyone.”
“Try explaining that to the health authorities,” Kody said.
Tegan crossed her arms. “Then we have to break out of here.”
“Okay, Shawshank,” Marshall said. “Got a plan?”
Mariah looked up at the Sentry. “You mean you’re okay with this?”
“You guys call the shots, remember?”
“Alright, then,” Kody said. “Anyone got any ideas?”
Tegan did a head count of the military personnel at the exit. “You said buses were coming to pick us up, right, Marshall?”
“Yeah,” he replied.
Tegan started to nod slowly. “Then I might have a plan. And it all rests on you, ’Riah.”
Mariah groaned inwardly. Somehow, I don’t think I’m gonna enjoy this.
* * *
“Ready?” Tegan asked.
Mariah scowled. “Are you sure there’s no other way to do this?”
“Unless anyone else has a better idea that doesn’t involve getting in the crossfire of over fifteen military dudes, then yes.”
“This is gonna hurt. A lot.”
“I know, but you’ll pull through. And I’ve got some aspirin with your name on it.”
Four red buses idled on the road next to the terminal, away from the main entrances of the arrival hall. The friends and Marshall made sure they were last in line as the crowd boarded with their luggage. Three b
uses were completely filled, but the fourth at the back still had plenty of room. As the soldiers shepherded the teenagers and the Sentry toward it, a dark vehicle with its headlights off crept around the bend fifty yards behind the last bus.
Good, Domi’s ready, Mariah thought.
As the group neared the open door of the last bus, Tegan muttered, “Now!”
The bus at the front of the line lifted off its two right wheels, tilting toward the road. The passengers trapped inside screamed as they fell against the windows; Mariah had to shut her ears to them.
The armed men’s attention snapped to the front. They barked at each other in Arabic and two of them jogged to the first bus. Just as they arrived, the bus slammed heavily back onto the road, making them stumble back.
Mariah jammed her knuckles against the sides of her head, her legs almost buckling. This hurts! she thought to Tegan. It’s like someone’s jackhammering into my skull!
You need to do this! Tegan commanded. One more! One more and that’s it, I promise!
Mariah’s teeth chattered. She could barely see through the haze of agony.
Then warm hands rested on each of her shoulders, followed by a peculiar sensation against her chest as her Dema-Ki pendant pulsated, like a heart. A sudden surge of energy like nothing she’d ever felt before nearly threw her forward. Whoa! What—
Before she realized what she was doing, the first two buses started to rattle and bounce uncontrollably from side to side. More screams and wails of terror threatened to suffocate her but she stubbornly pushed on. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
The hands lifted from her shoulders and it was as though her very bones had crumbled from rapid exhaustion. She heard Tegan say that she’d created the diversion they needed, but it sounded as if her voice was reverberating off the walls of a long tunnel. Excruciating pain shot through Mariah’s head, and the last thing she saw before the asphalt rushed to meet her was the unlit vehicle approaching from behind the buses.
44
From the back of the minivan, a groan sounded. “What the . . .”
Aari, buckled in the center row with Kody, looked over just as Mariah groggily lifted her head from Tegan’s lap. He closed his eyes briefly. She’s okay.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” Tegan said gently.
Mariah dropped her head back down, groaning again. “What happened? Why does my head feel like it’s been run over by a truck?”
Tegan stroked Mariah’s hair away from her face. “You blacked out, munchkin. Those buses really took a toll on you.”
“Blacked out? That’s new. Explains why I feel so weak right now. How long was I out?”
“Nearly half an hour,” Kody told her. “You also had one mother of a nosebleed.”
“Ew. I must have looked like a mess.”
“Without you we wouldn’t have gotten away,” Aari said, smiling over his seat at her. “We’re proud of you for pushing through.”
“Everything okay back there?” Marshall asked from the front passenger seat.
“Yeah!” Mariah called weakly. “Hi, Domi.”
The radiant African Sentry behind the wheel beamed into the rearview mirror. “Salut, ma chère! It’s good to see those beautiful brown eyes open.”
“Mmh, thanks. If you guys don’t mind, I think I’ll lay off my abilities for a while. And I could sure do with that aspirin now.”
Once Mariah gulped down two tablets, she said, “Hey, Marshall, have you ever heard of people being able to transfer their energy to someone else?”
“Never,” the Sentry answered. “As far as I know, that’s impossible.”
“Are you sure? Because I don’t know which two of you touched my shoulders earlier, but when you did, this fresh energy just flowed through me and I was able to keep going. But when you let go, I was completely drained.”
Aari looked down at his hand, and then at Kody. Both of them were perplexed.
“That was us,” Kody said uncertainly.
Marshall turned around to frown at the friends. “This is strange. First your pendants vibrated all on their own at Asa’s place, now this. I’ve never heard of this before.”
They drove through the city, nearing the desert. Aari knocked on his window. “’Riah. Sit up and look outside.”
He heard her shuffling in the backseat as she rubbernecked around him. “Oh! Oh, my gosh. Is that—”
“Yep. The Pyramids of Giza, the last of the Seven Wonders of the ancient world that remains.”
“Don’t feast your eyes just yet,” Dominique advised. “I’ll drop you off first and park elsewhere. Just remember to stay in the shadows away from the guards until I get back. And wear something warm—it can get chilly out here at night.”
The van rolled to a stop by the closed ticket office to the north of the pyramids. Aari, with the canister holding Lucius’s letters, followed the group as they slunk into the shadows of the office’s extended roof. As the vehicle retreated, Kody grabbed onto one of the support columns. “Marshall, could you give me a hand?”
“Gonna look for the security detail?” Marshall guessed, boosting him onto the ledge.
“Yep.”
As Kody scouted, Mariah sat heavily on the ground, still looking a little out of it. Aari joined her, distracting her by pointing out different constellations in the starry sky to marvel at.
“Wow,” Kody gasped. “These pyramids are amazing. I can’t believe they were built on only manual labor.”
“Crazy, right?” Aari said. “Over two million limestone blocks were used for the Pyramid of Khufu alone.”
“That’s insane. Okay, back to business . . . I see one guard by a low wall near the first pyramid. He’s on his phone. The other guy’s circling the farthest pyramid. And, um, do they just let camels hang out in the open?”
“That’s not what I remember the last time I was here,” Marshall said, frowning. “I know they use tour camels during the day, but the owners always take them back once the place closes at night. Are you sure those are camels, Kody?”
“No, you’re right, I must be looking at deformed giraffes.”
“Alright, alright.”
A rush of wind whooshed past them. Dominique appeared, clad in a black running jacket and sweatpants.
“Whoa.” Kody leapt down from the ledge. “I forgot, you’re a speedster.”
“And more.” Dominique’s teeth flashed in a grin. “Mariah, you don’t look too well.”
Mariah smiled faintly. “I’ll be fine.”
The six of them took off at a jog, cutting away from the road and onto the sand toward one of the ancient cemeteries by the first pyramid. The pyramid towered over four-hundred-and-fifty feet from the desert floor. Keeping low, the group ducked past short, crumbling walls and got as close to the distracted guard as possible. Aari counted sixteen camels sleeping in a semi-circle behind the man, all tied to flimsy posts in the ground.
“They shouldn’t be here,” Dominique muttered. “Their owners must have paid the guards to look after them.”
“Then let’s set them free,” Tegan said, a roguish glint in her eyes.
A few seconds later, one of the camels awoke with a start, braying like a dying man. The others snapped up, joining the fracas and petrifying the guard who about now probably wished his uniform didn’t consist of white pants.
Aari’s eye twitched. This is the most disturbing thing I’ve ever heard, he thought. I could’ve gone my whole life not knowing what noises camels make. Good grief.
The first camel yanked its head back, pulling the lead rope off its post. The guard could only take one step toward it before the animal bucked at the second camel’s post, snapping it in half. The guard ran after the pair, trying to grab their ropes, but the camel Tegan controlled galloped around the semi-circle, rousing the rest of the herd. They danced and brayed around the guard until the lead camel took off westward, away from the pyramids and into the desert. He ran after them, yelling and waving his arms
uselessly. The guard on the other side of the pyramid complex heard the commotion and took off after the camels to try and block their escape.
Tegan darted out of hiding. “Come on!”
The group followed her, trying to stifle their giggles. Marshall pulled a face. “Get it together, all of you.”
“You first,” Kody retorted. “Don’t think I don’t see those tears!”
As they approached the first pyramid, Aari removed one of the letters from the canister. “Alright. The last thing I remember was me—I mean, Lucius—hurrying with Carmel toward the pyramids. They were already pretty close, but I may be too close . . .”
He turned and, with the others in tow, loped away to put more distance between him and the pyramids. When he got to a spot that felt right, he grasped the letter firmly, expecting a flash, while the rest waited with bated breath. All that appeared were some undistinguishable images with static, not unlike an old television with a bad antenna.
“Do you see anything?” Tegan asked.
“No,” he said. “I don’t understand. Feels like I’m at the same distance from the pyramids as they were the last I saw them. How—” He slapped his forehead. “Agh, I’m an idiot!”
“What is it?”
“The pyramids. The largest one is to my left and the smallest one is to my right. But in my vision, it was the other way around. We’re on the opposite side of where Lucius and Carmel were.”
With the desert sky twinkling above, they raced between the pyramids. Aari, still admiring the structures when they reached the other side of the ancient masonry, thought, Human hands created all of this in a desolate land. Human hands created a disease to wipe out humanity. Human hands help and hurt. Human hands can do so much . . . so why do we waste them on hate and destruction?
“Does this spot feel right to you?” Dominique asked.
Aari looked around, the city lights a few hundred meters behind them casting away the darkness surrounding the pyramids. “This isn’t it. I can only see two of them from here. I should be able to see all three.”
Dominique nodded toward a seven-story-tall limestone sculpture to their far left. “The Sphinx. That should give you the right view.”
