by A. G. Taylor
Sarah made sure Daniel was well tucked up before they left him. It was several hours since he’d succumbed to the virus, but she knew he would need medical attention within a few days if he was to survive. She didn’t intend to be stuck in Esperinka that long, and Colonel Moss’s forces were bound to find them before then anyway.
With Daniel sorted, they walked to a café across the street. The electricity wasn’t working, but the large oven in the kitchen ran on gas. Sarah turned on one of the rings and reached for a box of matches on the workbench – it was empty.
Let me, a voice said at her side.
Sarah looked round to see Wei standing there. He pointed a finger at the hob and a single spark of fire ignited the gas. Wei held his fingertip to his mouth and blew on it with a grin.
“Thanks,” Sarah said, putting down the empty box. “Your name’s Sikong Wei, isn’t it? Where have I heard that before?”
Wei cocked his head to one side and looked at her. “My dad is the manager of the McKeever–Sikong oil refinery. It’s my grandfather’s business.”
“We were there,” Sarah said slowly. “There was a massive fire. Do you know anything about that?”
She studied Wei’s face, but he gave no response. Finally he said, “When the virus struck, someone must’ve had an accident.”
With that, he turned and walked through to join Louise in the front of the café. They sat down at a table near the window and began talking quietly together.
“What was that about?” Nestor asked as he walked into the kitchen.
Sarah shrugged. “Possible fire hazard.”
Nestor looked round at Wei and Louise. “You think he can’t control his power yet?”
“I don’t think any of us can,” she replied, pulling a catering-sized tin of baked beans from the shelf and handing it to him. “Make yourself useful.”
They set to work preparing the best meal they could. Twenty minutes later, they served plates of beans and tinned sausages. The five of them sat around the large table in the centre of the café and tucked into the food ravenously – it had been almost twenty hours since they’d last eaten.
As she wiped her plate clean with a piece of stale bread, Sarah looked round at the others. “Okay. Let’s talk about how we’re going to fight off Colonel Moss’s men.”
In turn they suggested how their powers might be used against any mirror-masks entering the town. Louise’s telekinetic ability – breaking glass, plastic and even metal – was an obvious choice against any vehicles they brought into town. The whirlwind that Nestor could conjure would provide a strong line of defence, especially when combined with Wei’s pyrokinesis – the wall of fire had certainly worked back at the dome. Sarah was confident that her power of suggestion could be used to confuse or frighten away individual enemies, but she was unsure how effective they would be against two or more of the soldiers.
They talked for the best part of half an hour, each contributing ideas. As well as fighting off HIDRA, a clear priority was to find another vehicle that could get them out of the quarantine zone.
“Perhaps we could steal one of their helicopters!” Louise suggested.
Nestor raised an eyebrow. “And who’s going to fly it?”
“Daniel showed you how to drive a truck, didn’t he?” she said indignantly.
“Right,” Nestor said, “I’m sure the controls are very similar.”
At times they laughed and joked about some of the ways they could get the better of the HIDRA forces, forgetting that they were planning a war against the well-equipped task force heading their way. It almost seemed like a game.
But it wasn’t a game. Sarah tried to remember that as she looked around the others.
Only Robert had been quiet during the discussion. She poked him in the arm and smiled in his direction.
Hey, are you okay? she asked so the others couldn’t hear. Nestor had explained that by focusing on just one person, it was possible to have a conversation without the other mind-readers being able to pick it up. Telepathic instant messaging, Robert called it.
Yeah, he replied. I mean, no. I’m the only one here without any powers.
We’re speaking using only our minds, Robert. What kind of powers do you want?
I mean, I don’t have any extra-extra-special powers. I can’t make windstorms or break stuff.
Sarah laid a hand on his shoulder, seeing how left out he felt.
Yours will come, I’m sure of it, she said. I’m sorry if I’ve given you a hard time before. I haven’t been very nice over the last few months.
It’s okay, Sarah. He smiled at her, but then his expression darkened. How far do you think the fall virus has spread? Will there be more people like us?
Sarah shrugged. If there are, HIDRA will have something to worry about. And don’t stress about not having a special power yet. I want you to be the lookout for the rest of us. That’s the most important job. Find a way up on one of the roofs and keep an eye out for any trucks or helicopters. Think you can do that?
Robert looked at her and nodded. The smile had returned to his face.
Sarah turned her attention back to the others.
“Okay,” she said aloud, “so we all know what we can do. Now we have to get better at it. Everybody spread out and practise your skill, but be careful – give each other space. We don’t need any injuries before the real battle. Robert is going to be the lookout. If he says they’re coming, Nestor and Wei you’re in charge of driving back the soldiers any way you can. Louise, you take care of any trucks that come in. I’ll try my best to scare the living daylights out of anyone else.”
The others nodded. For a moment, Sarah actually believed they had a chance.
30
They split up. If HIDRA entered the town she and her friends would be harder to fight if they were spread out, Sarah reasoned. She hoped she was right, as she’d also heard that there was safety in numbers. I’m actually planning a battle, she thought as she climbed the stairs to the apartment above the shop where they’d put Daniel. Am I crazy?
A window at the top of the stairs looked down onto the main street. Sarah paused there and took a moment to watch the others preparing themselves. Wei stood by himself at one end of the street. He pointed at a leaf blowing along the road and it spontaneously burst into flames. Nearer to the shop, Nestor sent a cloud of sand and dust whirling, forming a cloak that shielded him from her view within seconds. On the other side of the street, Louise held out a hand and a trash can began to rise into the air. She pushed out her arm and it flew down the street like a missile. Sarah turned towards the bedroom – it was her turn to get ready.
She looked at Daniel, sleeping so peacefully in the bed, and for a moment she almost envied him. He didn’t have to fight any more. She quickly put that thought aside, however. They were going to send HIDRA packing and get out of Esperinka, not become slaves of Colonel Moss and his men. She’d already decided that when they got back to civilization, they’d help find the cure for Daniel and the other sleepers, but it would be on their terms – not HIDRA’s.
She sat on the side of the bed and looked at his sleeping face.
“I’m sorry, Daniel,” she whispered, pulling the sheet down a little. “I hope this doesn’t hurt you, but I have to practise. They’re relying on me to be strong.”
Closing her eyes, she concentrated on the man sleeping in front of her, feeling out with her mind for his, making a connection. It was like pushing through layers of heavy curtain, feeling her way through to his dreams. After a few seconds she felt in contact with the tumbling, falling thoughts of the sleeper.
He stands in a desert that goes on for ever. In the distance smoke from a hundred oil fires stretches into the sky. As Sarah approaches he turns and smiles at her…
“Sarah! What are you doing here? Where are we?”
“Hi, Daniel. How are you feeling?”
“Okay, I guess. Is this a dream? It seems to have been going on for ever.”
; “Don’t you remember what happened to you? The fall virus?”
He frowns. “Yes. Have you come to help me?”
She shakes her head. “We’re going to fight Colonel Moss. He’s chasing us and we can’t get away, so all we can do is face them down.”
Daniel nods his understanding. “So you came in here to test out your skills on me. Get a bit stronger.”
“That’s right,” Sarah replies. “Do you mind?”
Daniel smiles. “How could I mind? Let me help.”
“Okay. Tell me something that you’re really afraid of.”
Daniel thinks for a moment.
“Heights. I can’t stand heights.”
Sarah looks at the sandy ground surrounding them.
“Stand still,” she orders.
The desert splits open around them and falls away, exposing giant chasms on either side. Simultaneously, the patch of ground on which they stand explodes upward, becoming the tip of a mountain stretching hundreds of metres into the air. Daniel struggles to keep his balance as he looks, wide-eyed, at the thousand-metre drop on every side. He meets Sarah’s eyes and she sees real fear in them.
“Daniel…”
“Sarah! Well done! Don’t stop! Show me what else you can do.”
“You look kinda freaked out,” Sarah says, suddenly worried about him.
Daniel waves a hand at her. “It’s just like being on a rollercoaster. A really awful rollercoaster. Keep practising. You need to if you’re going to beat them.”
Sarah nods and brings the mountain they stand upon crashing to the ground. Around them she throws up a wall of fire that threatens to burn them to a crisp.
“Keep going!” Daniel cries above the flames, even as he cowers away from them.
Over the next hour Sarah puts them through more fire and ice, wind and rain. She covers Daniel in bugs and snakes and sends him to the top of the highest mountains. Finally, wide-eyed and sweating, he holds up a hand for her to stop.
“That’s enough, Sarah. I can’t take any more. You’re too strong now.”
She steps forward to help Daniel as he falls to one knee, but she senses that he is already fading. He’s drifting away from her into a deeper sleep, a place where she can’t follow easily.
“Dad!” she cries out.
He smiles and touches a hand to her cheek. “Don’t try to follow me, you’ll never find your way back… Give Colonel Moss hell…”
He disappears before her…
In the apartment above the shop, Sarah opened her eyes and looked down at the sleeping figure of Daniel. He looked no different from an hour before. Except, as Sarah leaned closer, she saw that the corners of his mouth were turned up slightly in what might have been a smile. She suddenly wished more than anything that he was there to help them.
“We’ll bring you back, Dad,” she said. “We’ll find a cure.”
She turned away and walked through to the bathroom to stop herself from crying. She was suddenly flooded with rage at what had happened to them. At what HIDRA wanted. Most of all, at Colonel Moss and the way he had treated them…
She splashed water on her face from the tap and looked into the mirror, wondering if she would look different from how she had a few days before. Older. What she saw made her jump back across the room.
Colonel Moss stood before her.
Sarah flew back, hit the shower curtain and almost fell into the bath. Opposite her, Colonel Moss jumped away in the other direction and was struggling to keep his balance. In confusion, she opened her mouth to scream for the others, but stopped as she realized that she was really looking in the bathroom mirror.
Regaining her balance, Sarah took a step towards the mirror, amazed at the sight of the colonel standing where her own reflection should have been. She raised a hand to her face and Colonel Moss did the same, wearing a shocked expression as he did so. Slowly, a grin spread across the reflection’s face. The image of Moss was already beginning to fade and Sarah could see her own, normal appearance returning like a ghost through him.
Making sense of this new ability, Sarah tried to remember what she’d been thinking about as she walked through the bathroom door. Colonel Moss, of course! She closed her eyes and brought Daniel to mind, trying to remember the details of his face and what he was wearing.
When she opened her eyes a few seconds later, her father stood before her. A perfect copy. Anyone looking at her wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference. She looked down at her hands, which appeared large and manly and turned them over. It was as if she had been encased in the image of another.
“Hello?” she said aloud, experimenting, and was surprised to hear his voice emerge from her lips.
“Hi, I’m Daniel,” she said, giggling a little at the deep sound coming from her throat.
When the image began to fade again, Sarah concentrated and brought it back, stronger, once more. She felt a little light-headed from the effort as she did so. She wasn’t sure how long she would be able to keep up such a disguise without becoming exhausted, but was determined to find out.
With a shift of focus in her mind, the image began to change again, this time to that of a woman. Her mother stood before her in the mirror, looking young and healthy in a way that Sarah hadn’t seen her for several years. The image smiled at her and she almost reached out to touch it.
“Mum!” came a cry from the doorway. A second later Robert threw his arms around her.
Sarah held him for a moment before pulling away. He looked up at her, his eyes filling with confusion as she allowed the illusion to fade away.
“But I thought I saw…” he began, his voice trailing off.
“I’m sorry, Robert,” she said. “It’s just a trick.”
Something in his expression changed.
“I’m getting sick of the tricks,” he said. “I’m getting sick of all your tricks. They’re just making things worse.”
Sarah reached out for him, but he moved away.
“You’d better come,” he said, not looking at her as he went through the door. “Someone’s trying to call us.”
31
The sound of a telephone rang out across the high street. The others were already on the road as Sarah and Robert ran out. They all looked round, trying to work out where it was coming from.
“Over there!” cried Wei and pointed to the bakery across the road.
They ran over to the open doorway and piled into the building. The phone hung on the wall behind the checkout counter. They looked at it for a moment, nobody moving.
Sarah realized that everyone was waiting for her to do something, so she reluctantly walked around the counter. She reached for the receiver.
“Wait!” said Louise, making Sarah freeze. “Maybe it’s a trick to see if we’re here.”
“I think they know we’re here, Louise,” Nestor said. “That’s why they’re calling.”
“We could run,” Wei suggested.
Robert shook his head. “Why don’t they just leave us alone?”
Sarah thought about what her brother had just said. “That’s a very good question, Robert,” she replied. “And there’s only one way to find out.”
She picked up the telephone receiver and held it to her ear. “Hello?”
For a moment there was silence on the other end of the line, before a familiar voice spoke.
“Sarah. So nice to speak to you again.”
It was Colonel Moss. She could recognize his soft, threatening tones anywhere.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“You’ve really done very well,” he replied, ignoring her question. “Escaping from the base and getting as far as you have. You’ve led us quite a dance. But I think it’s time that you gave it up, don’t you?”
Sarah hesitated a moment before answering. Her first instinct was simply to hang up the phone. She realized Colonel Moss and his forces were probably circling the town at that very moment, preparing to attack. Yet, something told her that she m
ight be able to gain something from keeping him talking just a little longer.
“Why don’t you just leave us alone?” she replied. “None of us want to come back to the base. We’re doing just fine by ourselves.”
“Oh, I can see that,” Colonel Moss replied with a laugh. “Hiding out in a ghost town with no way to escape. And then, of course, there’s your father. How’s Daniel doing, Sarah?”
Sarah bit her lip and closed her eyes, concentrating on the voice on the other end of the phone. She projected her mind across the distance linking her phone and the one Colonel Moss was holding.
“Well, Sarah?” Moss pressed. “Daniel needs urgent medical attention. The kind only we can give him.”
Images began to form as Sarah felt herself making contact with Colonel Moss’s mind. She felt his deviousness, the plans behind the words he was saying. He intended to take them back to the HIDRA base by any means necessary.
“You have to give yourselves up peacefully, Sarah,” he continued. “You’ve got younger children with you. If my men have to come into town after you, I can’t guarantee they’re not going to get hurt. Sarah, are you listening to me…?”
She almost missed the question, so intent was she upon trying to read his inner thoughts.
“Yes,” she replied hastily, trying not to lose focus, “how do I know we can trust you?”
“I give you my word…” Colonel Moss went on, his words fading away as Sarah went deeper into his mind. Now she was seeing into his memories: the first meteorite crash in Colombia and the survivors they found; discovering Nestor and Octavio’s powers; Colonel Moss trying to force them to work for him, only Octavio fully obeying.
These images faded away as a more recent image began to take shape…
He watches through an observation window as Major Bright is being injected with a sample of the fall virus. Bright’s eyes blaze fire and he bursts free of his restraints. The scientist standing over him backs away as Major Bright raises his hand. The room is engulfed as a maelstrom of swirling air sweeps the scientist away, along with the chair, the glass observation window, everything…
