“Yes, High Priestess,” Father says.
“I don’t want to leave the village!” Khala shouts. She looks up at her mother. “Mother, please—”
“That is enough, child. You must do as the high priestess commands.”
“Why?”
“Because it is tradition. And your father and I say so.”
Whenever her parents say that, Khala knows she can’t win. She is just a child, far too little to oppose them. Unless she can do again what she did this morning. She closes her eyes, but she can’t make anything happen. Maybe it was only a one time occurrence. Maybe the priestess is wrong about her having any power.
The priestess holds out her staff. The gnarled end of it touches Khala’s forehead. “When you return, you will take my place,” the priestess says. “You will be the protector of the village, as you were today.”
Khala wants to scream she doesn’t want to, but she knows it’s futile. There’s nothing she can do even as her parents take her from the village—her only home—the next morning. They have no idea where they’re going, only that it will be far away. Over Mother’s shoulder Khala takes one last look at the village and wonders when she’ll see it again.
Chapter 21
Dr. Pierce wakes up to find a stack of crates towering over her. She has to raise her hand and study it for a moment to realize she’s not still a child. That was only a dream. No, not a dream—a memory. A memory long hidden away, pushed down with many others from her time in the village as she became accustomed to her new “civilized” life in England.
Young Khala’s mother looks down on Dr. Pierce and then helps her to sit up. The woman clutches her child close to her chest. She smiles and then in English says, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Dr. Pierce says. She gasps to see that awful guard still hanging from the barbed wire, looking almost crucified there. She gets to her wobbly feet to see the factory has erupted into chaos. The other workers are battling the guards with brooms, mops, pipes, and some of the staffs they’ve been assembling. So far the guards are only using their clubs, but she knows it’s a matter of time before they elect to use something stronger.
She would have expected Tonya Kinney to be in the middle of the battle, but the teenager is huddled over something inside the pen. “What are you doing?” Dr. Pierce asks.
“I’m making a transmitter. It should be enough to signal Melanie. Or any other good guys in the area.”
“I see. That is wise of you.”
Tonya motions towards the revolt with her head. “You should go help them out. Go all Carrie on those guys again.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s another movie. You ever hear of telekinesis?”
“Yes—” Dr. Pierce puts a hand to her mouth. “You think that’s what I did?”
“Sure looked that way to me.”
“But there’s no such thing—” Her voice trails off again as she thinks back to what happened in the village so long ago. She had thrown those strangers the same way she’d thrown that guard—the same way she’d killed him. She whispers, “I’m a murderer now.”
“What, that asshole? That wasn’t murder. That was justice.”
“I’m not sure a court would agree.”
“Look, Doc, he was going to kill a baby. A baby. If that’s not justifiable homicide I don’t know what is.”
“I suppose that’s true.” Still, as a doctor she’s sworn to save lives, not end them. The fact she saved the baby named for her is of little comfort at the moment.
“So get out there and buy some time for me to call in the cavalry.”
“I’ll try.”
Dr. Pierce limps away from the pen, still feeling wobbly. She almost stumbles into one of the guards. He raises his club to hit her. She tries to summon the power to push him away, but nothing happens. Perhaps she’s used it up already.
Before the club can hit her, the guard pitches forward. Dr. Pierce finds Tikembe behind him, one of the metal staffs in her hand. “You are back,” she says. “Now we can—”
There’s that sound like thunder Dr. Pierce remembers from her dream. A hole blooms in Tikembe’s chest as it did in the warrior back in the village. The woman tumbles forward, into Dr. Pierce’s arms. From the amount of blood, Dr. Pierce knows there’s no way to save the woman, not before they could get her to a hospital. “Take this,” Tikembe says. She presses her staff into Dr. Pierce’s hands before her last breath escapes her lips. She rolls off of Dr. Pierce to sprawl limp on the factory floor.
The guard looms over Dr. Pierce, a smoking pistol in hand. He turns it to Dr. Pierce. She brings up the staff. Strangely the end of it glows purple. She intended only to knock the guard’s pistol away, but instead the staff erupts with purple lightning. The guard is thrown back a good twenty yards to lie in a smoldering heap at the edge of the pen.
Dr. Pierce gets to her feet. The staff is still glowing. Not only that, she feels electricity from it running through her. The aches and pains from the beating she took vanish. “My goodness,” she says to herself.
There’s a snarl to her left. She sees another guard approaching to avenge his comrade. She turns the staff to him and again lightning shoots from it. The guard is thrown violently into a wall. “What’s happening to me?” she asks, staring at the staff incredulously.
A hand touches her shoulder. She holds up the staff but then sees it’s only Tonya. “Looks like the tide has turned,” the girl says. She gestures to the pen. “I’ve got the beacon going, but we might not need it.”
To Dr. Pierce’s surprise the girl has a pistol taken from a guard. “Oh dear,” Dr. Pierce mumbles. Then she lets Tonya drag her away from where Tikembe—her friend—still lies.
***
At a time like this, Melanie wishes superhero costumes could be a little more practical. Even her old black catsuit would be better than trying to waltz into this enemy stronghold in a powder blue-and-white catsuit with matching cape, mask, and beret. The costume she had designed more for its symbolic value than as camouflage. Maybe she could ask Tonya or Alan about finding a way to make the fabric change color as needed.
She mentions the dilemma to Kila. “Is there a spell or something that could turn us invisible or make me look like one of them or something?”
“Not that I am aware of. However, I may be able to assist in another way.” Kila holds out her staff. Melanie waits for it to glow or shoot lightning as she’s seen before. Instead a black pellet drops to the ground. Melanie is about to ask what good that would be, but then she watches as the pellet inflates into a suitcase big enough that it would need to be checked at an airport.
“That’s pretty convenient,” Melanie says.
“Yes. Starla has encouraged me to adopt a more human guise when I am not working,” Kila explains as she unzips the suitcase to reveal an array of women’s clothes. Melanie rummages through these, wishing Kila had brought a pink bathrobe with her.
She does have a pink nightgown that might work if no one looks too closely. Even better, she can wear it over her General Gaia uniform—except the beret and mask, which she’s happy enough to be rid of. It’s not an ideal disguise, but it’s better than the alternative.
“I’ll go in to assess the situation. When I give the word, you and Garlak can come in as backup.”
“Me not want to stay here,” Garlak grumbles.
“I know, but it’ll just be a few minutes. Then I promise you can bash stuff.”
“Good.”
“We will wait for your signal,” Kila says.
Melanie nods to her and then sets out into town. A guard stops her before she reaches the first building. “You a little lost?”
“Yes.” Melanie giggles like an airhead. “I made a wrong turn. Do you know where Miss Moon went?”
“She’s in the temple with the rest of them. You best hurry up.”
“Thank you.” She gives the man a wave and then skips away into town. She stops the skipping after a block
to resume a more normal pace. Peeking into a convenience store she notes one of the civilians being held, probably as forced labor.
It’s clear the farther she goes that the entire town has become Sunny Moon’s property. Melanie supposes it makes sense. This region is so contested that it already changes hands about once a month. And situated in the heart of Africa, it’s far from where anyone except the occasional movie star or singer doing charity work might take notice. Here Sunny Moon and her church can operate under the radar.
The only question is what they want. Melanie figures the answer to that will be inside the “temple.” In reality the temple is a mansion that probably belonged to whoever was running the factory before Moon and her Peacekeeper friend took the place over.
Melanie’s able to easily slip past the guards; they barely take notice of her as she rushes past them. After all, how many other white girls dressed in pink are they likely to see out here? She follows the sound of voices into what used to be a ballroom. Now there are rows of chairs lined up, most of them occupied by a young woman in a robe.
Sunny Moon stands at a podium on a makeshift stage. “My friends, the time has come. The alien invasion gave us a fresh lease on life, a second chance. Now it is up to us to use that second chance not to make the same mistakes. Today we will begin a revolution to change the balance of power forever. The old men who’ve managed to cling to power—to the past—will be wiped away.”
Moon stops as a half-dozen servants are marched into the room carrying long wooden boxes. “You girls have been chosen because you alone can use the tools that will give us victory over the old guard.”
Melanie watches the women begin to open the wooden boxes. Out of them they take out the imitation Peacekeeper staffs Diane first came across in the Outback. It’s all falling into place now. These are the women who disappeared across the world. Somehow—perhaps with Peacekeeper help—Moon determined those who have some kind of latent supernatural ability that in theory will make them able to use the staffs. With the magical weapons, not even the Super Squad would be able to stop them. The only ones who might are the Peacekeepers themselves and who knows how many of them Moon’s gotten to?
A hand clamps down on Melanie’s shoulder. She assumes she’s about to be given one of the weapons, but then she looks up to see Hitter. “I think you’d best come with me, love.”
“Excuse me? I’m with Miss Moon—”
“I know who you are, General. You don’t think we have face recognition gizmos in here?”
“Oh. I see.” Melanie could try to fight, but she’s sitting, unarmed, and in a room full of the enemy. All she can do is touch her communicator as she gets up. She gives it a few clicks, which she hopes Kila will understand is a code that she needs rescued. Then she lets Hitter drag her from the room.
Chapter 22
The battle for the factory is Dr. Pierce’s first real taste of combat. She decides it’s much less fun than those video games her grandchildren are always playing. Most of the time she would like nothing more than to dissolve into a sobbing heap, but she can’t. As the only one capable of using a Peacekeeper staff, she has to lead the fight.
Tonya stays with her, which is a good thing as the girl despite her age knows much more about fighting than Dr. Pierce does. The girl shoves her behind some boxes as shots go over their head. “Careful, Doc. You’re our secret weapon.”
“I’m sorry. They didn’t prepare me for this in medical school.”
She peeks over the boxes to see two more of the guards. No, these aren’t the normal guards. From the amount of weapons they’re carrying, these are some of the men from outside the factory, like those who apprehended her. They must be calling in their reserves to put down the rebellion.
Dr. Pierce lifts the staff enough to fire a burst of lightning. She’s gotten to the point where she doesn’t close her eyes whenever she fires it. She’s also improved her aim enough that she hits one man in the left leg. The other she hits in the right shoulder.
With her using the staff for cover, Tonya bolts to disarm the soldiers. She adds their machine guns and grenades to her growing cache of weapons. Some of these she hands out to other women to use, though Dr. Pierce doubts they have any more idea how to use them than she does.
Machine gun fire interrupts her thoughts. Tonya somersaults behind the boxes a moment before a half-dozen soldiers round the corner. “Light them up, Doc.”
“Yes, quite,” Dr. Pierce mumbles. She’s never imagined herself a warrior before, but there’s no choice in this situation. She fires a burst from her staff, taking down two of the soldiers. She ducks before they can return fire.
While Dr. Pierce is cowering, Tonya takes one of the grenades from her belt. “Oh dear. You’ll kill them.”
“Nope,” Tonya says as she hurls the grenade. Dr. Pierce curls up behind the boxes and puts her hands to her ears. That’s not enough to blot out the screams of the soldiers.
She summons her courage to look over the edge of the boxes. From the way the men are writhing on the floor and the lack of blood it’s clear they aren’t dead. “Flash-bang,” Tonya says. Then she hurries out from behind the boxes to disarm the men. She also clobbers each on the head with the butt of a machine gun to knock them out.
Dr. Pierce flattens herself against a wall and then peeks around a corner. She’s in time to see a large man with a red beard accompanied by a dozen more soldiers. Following behind them is another man strangely dressed in a gray suit, something not well-suited to a battlefield like this, especially in this climate.
She’s about to poke her staff around the corner when Tonya yanks her back. “Don’t!”
“Why ever not?”
“That man in the suit—that’s Diane.”
Dr. Pierce peeks around the corner again. Now that she’s looking for it, she can see the similarities in the man’s features. If he were shorter, leaner, and had breasts he would be a dead ringer for Diane. “Oh dear. What do we do?”
“You take out the others. I’ll handle her—him.”
“Is that wise?”
“No, but I’ve got to believe she’s still in there. Maybe I can reach her.”
“Very well. Good luck, Miss Kinney.”
“You too.”
Then Tonya throws herself across a gap to take cover behind a machine. The soldiers naturally turn in that direction, making them an easy target for the staff. Dr. Pierce fires time and again until only the red-bearded man, two soldiers, and the man who used to be Diane remain.
The man who used to be Diane curses as Tonya nearly takes off his head with a bullet. He turns to the red-bearded one and says, “You handle that one. The little one is mine.” She can’t be sure where the man goes, probably to try to find a way to circle around behind Tonya.
The others fire their weapons in Dr. Pierce’s direction, but she’s too well protected by the wall. At least for the moment. In time they might find a way to circle around to entrap her. Unless she can deal with them first. She leans the staff around the corner and fires. Another of the soldiers goes down.
At that moment reinforcements show up in the form of another half-dozen soldiers, these armed with flamethrowers. Apparently they’re going to set the whole building on fire rather than try to bring the factory under control—a real scorched Earth policy. Even as she thinks this, a jet of flame narrowly misses her. No, it didn’t miss her, it was absorbed.
Dr. Pierce notes the staff is glowing, only now instead of shooting lightning, it’s erected a bubble around her. Apparently this bubble protects her from the flames. Will it also protect her from bullets? She’s not sure, but now is the time to find out.
She steps out from behind cover and closes her eyes as she hears the whoosh of the flamethrowers and thunderclaps of the guns. Nothing penetrates the bubble; she doesn’t even feel warmer. Dr. Pierce opens her eyes to stare at the men. “My apologies, gentlemen. I seem to have you at a disadvantage. Perhaps you would care to surrender?”
&nbs
p; “We ain’t going to surrender,” the red-bearded man growls. “We are going to burn this place to the ground. Try to stop us with that bubble of yours.”
He’s right that the bubble won’t work; it’s a defensive weapon, not an offensive one. She needs to knock the men with the flamethrowers down—
As if reading her thoughts the staff launches a concussive blast that knocks the soldiers off their feet. While they’re struggling to right themselves with the heavy fuel canisters on their backs, she does as Tonya has already done so many times before and hits them with her stick until they’re unconscious.
Only the red-bearded man is still conscious, but he’s managed to get to his feet and make it to a door. She tries another concussive blast, but she’s too late.
A cheer goes up behind her. She sees the other workers there, armed with their non-functioning sticks or guns given to them by Tonya. Some of them pat her on the back and congratulate her in their native language. Her cheeks warm at all this praise. She has saved lives before, but never in quite so dramatic a fashion.
“I suppose now it is time for us to leave this awful place,” she says. She points the staff at a wall and fires a concussive blast. It’s powerful enough to blow an opening through the wall to let the women pour out into the town.
Dr. Pierce stays behind to look for Tonya, but she can’t see the girl. Then she hears a scream.
***
A few times in bed Tonya had let Diane hit her. That was just a friendly little tap to energize their lovemaking. When Darrien hits her, it’s like having an anvil dropped on her as in an old cartoon. She wobbles on her feet for a moment before her body decides it’d be better off on the catwalk.
When she took her potshot at Darrien, she thought it would get his attention. Which it did. That was the only aspect of her plan to go right so far. After that she had scrambled up into the catwalks, hoping to use the terrain to her advantage. It did make it tougher for him to get a bead on her. That also made it harder for her to get a bead on him.
GAIA: Rogue State (A Girl Power Novella) Page 13
