Sons of Thunder

by Bowen Greenwood

Once again, he took off sprinting for the next piece of cover closer to the Legion headquarters.

  But this time they were ready for him. The dust of impacting bullets kicked up in front of him, and Connor skidded to a stop, yelling in fear. Scrambling for traction on the parched desert dirt, he made his way back to the cover of the armored vehicle. Just as he pulled his leg in behind it, he heard the ringing sound of a bullet ricocheting off the steel.

  Connor was embarrassed to feel himself crying but glad beyond words that no one was there to see it.

  “I can’t, God,” he prayed aloud. “I’m so scared. I don’t want to die. I can’t. I’m sorry. I hate the idea that I’m letting her down, but I can’t.”

  Now the soldiers kept up a steady stream of suppressing fire all around the Bradley. He couldn’t run forward, and he couldn’t run back. Connor thought the gunshots sounded like they were moving closer. Perhaps the soldiers were coming to get him, and he’d wind up back in Area 51.

  He heard harsh whispers and shuffling from the other side of the vehicle. No doubt about it; the soldiers were coming for him. This had seemed so right, but it turned out to be just one more bad decision. He always choked under fire; maybe he always would. Connor tried to come up with something to say to Flake when he saw her again.

  That’s when Anna appeared in front of him.

  Connor shouted, the sight startled him so much. He instinctively tried to crouch back, until he realized it was her.

  “Come on,” she said as she took his hand. “I’m sorry I got you into this.”

  And then they were back behind their original rock outcropping. Mr. Moses’ normally formal demeanor broke into a relieved grin, and he sighed at the sight of him. Spark ran up and hugged him. Even the wounded soldier looked at him with a smile.

  But Connor just collapsed to the ground, head in his hands.

  “I’m sorry guys. I let you all down. I’m so sorry.”

  Anna shook her head and said, “Don’t be. We’ll find some other way.”

  Connor looked over at Spark and instantly wished he hadn’t. Before his friend could say anything, Connor rejected the idea.

  “No, Spark,” he said. “I won’t put you through that again, man.”

  Spark replied “Look, I can use my Gift without hurting anyone. You saw it with Pitch. I’ll make a wind that’ll blow all the rocks to the ground.”

  “Yeah, but wind isn’t going to stop bullets,” Connor replied.

  Anna shook her head.

  “I’ll just have to risk it,” she said.

  And then she was gone.

  Connor immediately panicked and almost stood straight up to look in toward the Legion’s headquarters, as though he could catch a glimpse of her, but Spark held him back.

  “Don’t do it. You already tried that once.”

  Connor sunk back down to lean against the rocks.

  “I can’t believe I let her down like that,” he said.

  Mr. Moses knelt down beside him and put an arm around him.

  He said, “Don’t say that, Connor. Ms. Wales is a very capable young lady. Let us see what she accomplishes.”

  “You heard her,” he replied. “She’ll get caught by the prisoner control people.”

  “I heard that from her,” Mr. Moses replied. “But I didn’t hear it from God. And he is the only one who never makes mistakes. The rest of us may, from time to time, be wrong. Even Ms. Wales.”

  Connor didn’t reply. He just stared at the dirt. So Mr. Moses tried again.

  He said, “There is no guilt, shame, or condemnation in God, Connor. He is the God who rights wrongs, redeems mistakes, and forgives what we do wrong. Don’t beat yourself up. Trust him. Ms. Wales did not go in there alone.”

  Spark chimed in and said, “Yeah, look at me. The most terrible consequence of my actions turned out not to be true. I know God can do that for you, too.”

  Connor didn’t reply to any of them. In his head, he was forcing himself to confront his fear.

  Death.

  He was afraid to believe in the idea that he could be immune to gunfire because he was afraid of dying.

  If Mr. Moses and Anna were right, that was nothing to be afraid of. Die, go to heaven, and be with God. Simple. But what if they were wrong?

  Death meant nothingness. Death meant an end to failing people. It meant an end to living with the fact that Anna had to risk her life because he was too afraid to get the job done.

  Failing Anna was worse than death. That was what it boiled down to. Connor liked her. He wanted her to like him. He hated the fact that he was cowering safe behind a rock while she was going into the Legion’s base.

  Mr. Moses suddenly froze in place, and the unexpected change caused Connor to look up at him.

  The older man breathed deeply, closed his eyes, and muttered “Yes Lord,” a couple times. All around them the battle raged on but as far as one could tell from looking at him, they might have been in a mountain monastery.

  “What is it?” Connor asked.

  Mr. Moses made no reply for a while. He simply stood still and took in very regular, very deep breaths.

  Finally, he opened his eyes and said, “The problem with prophecy is, sometimes God warns us about problems. It’s never easy to be the bearer of bad news.”

  “What is it?” Connor asked again.

  Mr. Moses knelt down, put a hand on the younger man’s shoulder and looked him in the eye.

  He said, “I’m sorry, Connor. Sebastian has Anna.”

  Connor’s mouth fell open and he stared.

  He could only cry out, “No!”

  “They have her in their prison,” Moses said. “I know it, just as I knew you were in the government’s custody.”

  Keeping his head low, Spark rose from his crouching position behind the rocks. He whispered a prayer that no one else could hear. He clenched his teeth, setting his jaw firmly in place.

  He said, “I can work this out. I can use rain and fog to hide in, and wind to blow away any rocks the Legion throws at me. If I do have to defend myself, well, there’s the lightning.”

  Connor felt determination welling up in him. He remembered how the Legion treated their prisoners. He remembered the verbal and mental abuse that people endured there. And now Anna was going to be treated the same way, all because he had made another bad decision.

  Now Spark was about to suffer, too.

  Connor, bent at the waist to stay out of the line of fire, hugged Spark from the side.

  He said, “Not this time, man. I’m not doing this to you again.”

  Spark started to protest, but Connor interrupted.

  “I’m going to get her,” he said barely audible over the gunshots.

  Spark replied, “What? Are you sure? Connor, I don’t think…”

  Connor said, “I don’t care about the consequences to me. I’m not letting them hurt her. She’s there because I was afraid. It’s my responsibility.”

  He rose slowly to his feet. Like Spark, he looked up toward the heavens.

  “Lord,” he prayed. “I’m sick of making mistakes. I’m sick of letting people down. On my own, I’ve messed everything up. I’m done with that. I want you, God. If I die, let me come and be with you. If I don’t die, I want to live with you. I trust you to decide, God. I trust you.”

  With that, he walked out from behind the rocks.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  At first, the gunfire wasn’t aimed directly at him. The soldiers were attacking the Legion’s base. But ever since Connor’s first ill-fated expedition, they’d been watching their rear as well. As soon as he stepped out, a couple soldiers shouted an alarm, and the gunfire started in earnest. The soldiers turned their guns directly on Connor.

  The first bullet felt a little bit like being tapped in the chest. It wasn’t the kind of hard poke that might lead to a fight in the schoolyard but just a gentle tap. As more began to hit him, he found that they all felt the same way. He tried to remember if the convenience sto
re shooting had felt like this, when all of a sudden the fact of it hit him.

  I’m bulletproof!

  He threw his arm in the air and cheered. Almost immediately afterward, he remembered who made him that way.

  “Thank you God,” he whispered. “Thank you for this. Please help me get Anna out.”

  As he kept walking, he could see the soldiers who were shooting at him. One was shouting into a radio for help, another one was ejecting a magazine from his weapon and replacing it. Connor smiled at them and waved. His response was another hail of bullets.

  Every time one hit him and fell away, he wanted to shout for joy. He wanted to cheer. He stretched his arms out toward heaven and shouted, “Thank you, God!”

  Connor kept walking until he stepped right up to the soldiers. They had risen to their feet, both pointing their carbines at him. Both of them were about his age. They were just young men trying to do what was right, just like he was. Looking into the eyes of first one and then another, Connor realized the truth of what Mr. Moses had said before they teleported here. These were brothers. God loved them. He wasn’t there to fight them at all. He was there to set them free.

  Connor put his thumb over the barrel of the gun closest to him, just as that soldier pulled the trigger.

  The soldier swore and dropped the weapon as the barrel split with a small explosion. He shook his hands and pressed them against his thighs, shouting in pain.

  The hurt soldier stuck his hands under his armpits to apply pressure in hopes of stopping the stinging pain. His buddy stared at Connor and asked, “Who are you?”

  Connor smiled and patted him on the shoulder.

  He said, “My name’s Connor. I came to tell you that God loves you, brother. I’m on my way to set a prisoner free. It’s OK if you two keep shooting at me but please don’t shoot my friends behind me. We aren’t here to hurt you.”

  With that, he walked on, leaving the two soldiers staring at his back.

  Connor made his way forward, dodging places where it seemed like the soldiers were particularly thick. But he couldn’t avoid them entirely.

  Every time he encountered government troops, he let them shoot at him until they tired of it, then smiled at them and waved. One soldier got frustrated with the failed attempts to shoot him and tried to stab him with a knife. It slipped off to the side, and Connor patted him on the back.

  “God loves you, brother,” he said again.

  Once, he passed a couple of Legion Enforcers. They were out infiltrating the soldiers, attacking them when they weren’t looking. He thought about going over to interrupt the fight but decided against it.

  Anna was more important.

  Connor walked on until he found a cluster of boulders. From there he could see the tunnel mouth that led into Sebastian’s headquarters.

  Peeking out from behind the rocks, Connor discovered how the Legion’s defenses were so effective.

  Kila, the girl who could tell the future, stood just inside the tunnel. Her light brown hair was braided behind her head, and she wasn’t even looking out at the battle. Her eyes were closed, and her long nose was pointed up, as usual. She just kept calling out instructions to Pitch.

  “About thirty degrees to your right, about a hundred yards out!”

  A rock flew from the desert floor straight through the indicated area, and Connor heard a soldier scream in pain.

  “Same direction, about two hundred yards out!”

  Another rock flew and hit a soldier.

  And how am I supposed to get close when they have someone who can tell the future spotting every attack?

  The reply wasn’t really spoken aloud. It was just there in his head, quiet but insistent.

  I thought we settled this.

  Connor almost laughed.

  Aloud he said, “Good point.”

  Then he took a deep breath, stood up from his cover, and walked forward, directly toward Pitch.

  At first, they didn’t see him. Kila kept calling out the locations of soldiers, and Pitch hurled rocks at them with his mind.

  Then, out of nowhere, Kila screamed.

  She shouted, “In front of you! Right in front of you! Kill him! Don’t let him get me! Don’t let him get to me! Pitch!”

  Pitch looked, saw Connor, and his features twisted into a grimace of hate. At once, a rock the size of two fists flew straight at Connor.

  It hit his chest and disintegrated.

  Pitch shouted, “You have no idea how humiliated I was when you escaped!”

  Connor kept walking at them, smiling.

  Another huge stone flew at his head. Out of instinct Connor closed his eyes and looked away, but he needn’t have bothered. The impact was barely noticeable, and he felt dust from the crumbled rock trickling down his chest.

  He walked like a robot, smiling at Pitch, and not turning to the right or the left.

  Over and over again, Pitch yelled, “I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”

  A steady stream of rocks began pelting Connor like a machine gun. Every hit was noticeable but not in a painful way. Through it all, Connor kept up his smile.

  “Die! Die! Die! Die!” Pitch screamed as he hurled rocks. “Why won’t you just die?”

  Connor reached him and laid a hand on his shoulder. “Pitch, my brother. Stop. It’s not working.”

  Pitch collapsed onto the desert floor, sobbing.

  “It’s not fair!” he wailed. “Why can’t I kill you?”

  Connor knelt in front of him.

  He said, “You’re not a murderer, Pitch. You’re better than this.”

  “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

  Connor said, “We were friends, brother. Let’s be again.”

  “Yeah right! I tried to kill you.”

  “So? Pitch, are you really happy here? You were so nice to Linc and me when we first arrived. Wouldn’t you rather be chasing Spooky than killing soldiers?”

  Pitch didn’t answer right away.

  “I know you’ve got a good heart, man. You don’t belong with the Legion.”

  Pitch finally replied. “I lost my Lead Enforcer rank after you escaped. Sebastian just dropped me back down without a second thought.”

  “It doesn’t have to be like that,” Connor said.

  He added, “Come on, Pitch. Walk away. There’s never going to be a better chance.”

  Pitch replied through a clogged nose that was leaking embarrassingly.

  “What, and go back to Flake’s cells? I…”

  He paused to stare with horror out at the battlefield. “If they even let me go back there. I… after today, the government’s just as likely to put me in a real prison as to put me back in Area 51. Maybe even the death penalty.”

  “You don’t have to go to the government. There’s a bunch of us. People like you and me, Pitch. But we use our Gifts for good, not to try to take over the government. They want you. I want you. Join us.”

  Pitch stared down at the dirt, his voice barely audible, and said, “People like that wouldn’t want me. Not after today.”

  “I’m here to tell you it’s already forgiven. Trust me, Pitch. Make your way past the soldiers and look for Spark and our other friends hiding behind some rocks out there.”

  Pitch looked confused, and indecisive, so Connor added one last argument.

  He said, “It’s either that or sit here and wait for the soldiers to overrun this place. You’re doing a good job of holding them off, but nothing lasts forever. It’s the Army, man. They’re not going to run out of soldiers before you fall over exhausted.”

  “You… people like you… You promise me they’ll at least hear me out before they turn me in to the government?”

  Connor nodded as Pitch struggled to his feet. “Promise.”

  Pitch tried to speak. He stammered out some words that sounded like thanks. Then he ran off into the desert.

  Connor turned, and there was Kila. Her arms were crossed over her chest, and she glared at him intensely. The bl
atant hostility reminded him of their first meeting.

  “Why do you hate me?” he asked. She stood in the tunnel. He would have to push her aside to enter the base. Talking to her was the only polite choice, when the alternative was to shove her out of the way.

  Kila backed up from him. “I don’t want to talk to you!”

  But she didn’t back up more than a step or two, so Connor asked again.

  “Seriously, can you really be this mad at me over something I haven’t done yet? Over a vision of the future that neither of us understands? You’ve been this way since we met.”

  “Just shut up and leave me alone!”

  “Kila? Seriously, what’s wrong?”

  She shouted, “You’re trying to say you haven’t done it yet? You’re doing it! Right now! The moment I laid eyes on you, I saw this moment. I’ve known it was coming ever since. It’s the turning point of my life. You’re going to make me choose, and I don’t want to. I don’t want to!”

  “You don’t want to what?” Connor asked.

  “Oh don’t be so stupid! For as long as I’ve known you, my ability to know the future has been going away. For days I haven’t been able to see anything in the future past right now – this moment.”

  Connor tilted his head slightly to look at her. So, all those dirty looks every time they’d met had been leading up to this?

  “Kila, you’ve seen what the Legion does. They kill people, they imprison people, and they want to start a rebellion against the government.”

  “Who cares? I’m normal here. I’m even popular. No one stares at me like a freak.”

  “I don’t stare at you like a freak.”

  “That’s because you belong with us,” she replied.

  “No I don’t, Kila. I belong with people who are kind and who try to help others. So do you.”

  “No I don’t!”

  Connor smiled at her. “Kila, if you were so sure that you belonged with Sebastian, you wouldn’t be so freaked out about this confrontation.”

  She sighed. “I can’t tell what happens next.”

  At once, the knowledge was there for Connor. It felt an awful lot like Mr. Moses’s description of his own powers of prophecy. All of a sudden, he just knew.

  He said, “That’s because you have to make a choice, Kila. Two futures are in front of you. There’s a future where you’re a kind person, who uses her Gift to help and encourage. And there’s a future where you use your ability to see the future to help people who murder and imprison. Your future isn’t set, so you can’t see it.”