FLEE

by Miranda Kavi

  “Got it. Go.”

  “I’m ninety-seven years old, and I have been with the organization since I was a teenager. I have never seen any flying ability like yours before. Period.”

  “Your ninety-seven?” I said. “For reals?”

  His face pulled into a smile, making the skin around his eyes crinkle. Even so, he didn’t look a day over a very fit fifty. “Yes. We age slower, but this is about you, not me. Aurora, you’re fast. You have complete control over your gift. Most people have years of practice and training before they can return to society to live normally, if they so choose. You have been able to do it without any help. You picked up everything Konstantin showed you instantly. I can’t imagine the true extent of your ability. It’s amazing, really.”

  He looked at Konstantin before continuing. “Konstantin and I both agree your abilities are phenomenal. You could be of great asset to the organization. We just disagree on how best to utilize you, for now at least.”

  “Damn right, we do,” Konstantin said. “I need you to understand something very important. Whatever you decide to do, whether it is to work with the organization or return to normal society, it’s your decision.” He smoothed his face back into calm composure. “Go on, Dennis, tell her. She needs to know anyway.”

  My eyes darted back and forth between Konstantin and stoic Dennis.

  “How much do you know about them? The ones who chase us?” Dennis asked.

  “Not much because you guys haven’t told me jack,” I said. “I know they hunt us. I know they were tracking me, which is why I came here.”

  “Here’s your 101. We call them Shyama, a Hindi word for ‘dark ones.’ Their sole purpose is to destroy those with abilities. We don’t know where they came from, but they’ve been around as long as we have.” He paused, glancing at Carmen and Konstantin. “They usually take a human form.”

  I rubbed my forehead with one hands desperately trying to figure out where this new information would fit into reality. “What do you mean? What other form do they take?”

  Konstantin covered my free hand with his. “It’s okay. You’re safe here. We don’t know a lot about what exactly they are, but we will tell you everything we know. Okay?” He patted my hand before pulling it back, and then looked at Dennis.

  “It’s true,” Dennis said. “We don’t know exactly what they are. I’m not sure classifying them would help you understand.

  “Here’s what we do know. We think there are a four or five thousand worldwide, give or take a few. They don’t age, and they don’t die, except under very specific instances. They can take on many forms and move rapidly from on place to another, almost like teleportation.

  “The only thing that seems to really trip them up is a handler. They appear to be able to monitor media outlets on some level, and look for leaks like yours. Sometimes, they figure out who the identities of families of the gifted ones are and, well, go after them.”

  “What about my family? Couldn’t they figure it out and go after them?” I said.

  “Your family is fine,” Konstantin said. “We have blockers there watching over them.”

  “Why? Why do they do this?” I asked. “What are these things?”

  “I wish we knew what they are exactly. That’s why we work so hard to find those with abilities. If they find you first, well, let’s just say a lot of people die.” His voice was thick. He paused, taking a swig of his beer. “There’s more, if you are ready,” he said, glancing at Konstantin.

  “Oh, man.” I drained my wineglass. “Any more shocking bad news?” Life was darker, now and I was afraid of the how much darker it would get.

  “I’m telling you all of this for a reason. The division I head up is essentially tactical offense. Rather than passively waiting for them to find us and defend our brothers and sisters, we go after them.” He sat up taller. “We draw them out and attack, taking them down one by one. I’d like you to join us.”

  My head reeled again. I placed my hand on the table, just to feel something solid. “Join...us?”

  He smiled. “Yes. Fight back.”

  Carmen spoke. “There are many paths. You don’t have to take this one, and you don’t have to decide now. It’s an option. That’s all.” She directed her words at me, but her bright eyes bore into Dennis as she spoke.

  “Jesus Christ. What sort of crazy ass crap have I gotten myself into?” I tilted my head back until I found my voice again. “What would this entail for me?”

  Dennis answered. “It means you would train here, with us for a while. Then you would join operations.”

  “Oh.” A dead silence followed my words. A clock ticked, the trees outside brushed against the wall, and a bird chirped in the distance. I grabbed my beer and paced over to the living room window.

  I was part of a secret war the world did not know about, a war I had no choice but to fight. The furious pace of my mind gave way to numbness. I thought of family, friends, and Gavyn. Their faces flashed behind my closed eyes, playing a movie of a life that didn’t belong to me anymore. I was a menace to everyone I loved. Wherever I went they would follow, destroying everyone.

  But I understood now. My life as a normal person was over. I would never get married, never have children, and never finish school. I had a new life here, and I needed to accept it. I had to cut the chord of hope connecting me to my old life and to Gavyn.

  My stupid self replayed our story over and over in my head. I remembered everything; the first time I met him, his handsome features, the way his scent filled me up when we were tangled together, and his gentle but urgent touch. A memory of a life I almost had but would never be mine.

  A million miles away from my focus, Konstantin got up from the table. Carmen put a hand on his arm, gently pulling him back to his seat. “Leave her be. She’s okay. She’s figuring it out.”

  I stared out the window for what felt like hours. Surely, with time, I would be all right. A new direction would help me move on, literally and figuratively.

  Then I was done thinking and ready for action. I had no choice. I returned to the table, where they still sitting in quiet conversation.

  “I’m in.”

  Chapter 15

  “Eight fifteen, Aurora. Pick it up!” Konstantin shouted. He tapped his watch as I ran by. “You’re slowing down.”

  I grunted in response. It was all I could do at mile six. I’d been up since 4:30, and I was tired. Nevertheless, I pushed forward. Sooner than I thought, I looped around the thick trees to return to Konstantin at the edge of the forest.

  “Seven thirty. Good girl,” he said as I sailed past him. I slowed down to a walk as we passed into the clearing that housed our village.

  He handed me a bottle of water as we walked home. “You’re getting faster. Not bad for ten weeks of training.”

  I gulped down half the bottle before I answered. “Not bad? I thought I was kind of bad-ass, actually.”

  He smiled. “Like I said, not bad.”

  Dennis was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup off coffee when we came in. “How far?” he said.

  “Seven,” Konstantin said. “Average seven forty-five splits.”

  “Oh, not bad,” Dennis said. “Rinse off, we need to get a move on.”

  “Oh, please. Don’t get too heavy with the praise.”

  Dennis tossed me a tiny smile. Turns out the old bear did have a tiny sense of humor.

  Carmen appeared at my shoulder. “That’s man-speak for good.” She squeezed my elbow. “And you’re not going anywhere until you get a full meal.”

  She made a full spread: eggs, bacon, chopped cantaloupe, coffee and water. Dennis ate quickly, then stared at me while I ate.

  “Stop it!” I told him through a mouthful eggs. “It’s creepy.”

  “We need to get moving,” he said.

  “Fine.” I shoved my plate a way, wiped my mouth, and stood. He was already holding the front door for me.

  He led me to the forest in his fast gait. He w
as in his usual attire, some sort of militaryish cargo pants and heavy sweater.

  I ran a few steps to catch up to him. “So what’s today? Knife fighting? Jujitsu? Firearms?”

  “Firearms.” He didn’t bother to look at me while we talked.

  “Oh.”

  This time he glanced at me. “You sound disappointed.”

  “No, not really, but knife fighting is fun. It makes me feel like a super secret ninja,” I said.

  “Super secret ninja? What is this?”

  “Never mind.” I kicked the dirt as we approached the shooting range housed in a long, narrow clearing in the forest. “Old man,” I muttered.

  “Heard that. Use your subcompact today.” He pointed at the hard black box containing my gun.

  I flipped open the latches on the box. “But I like big guns. What about an AR-15?”

  “You can carry a subcompact with you wherever you go. The Shyama will follow you wherever you go. You can’t carry an AR-15 with you when you go grocery shopping, but you can carry a sub, so we focus on the sub. Got it?”

  “I could totally get an AR-15 to the grocery store. Have you seen my purse collection?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Gun, Aurora. Pick up the damn gun.”

  Oopsie. Now he looked angry. I picked up the gun and shoved in the clip. I put on my headphones and looked behind me to make sure Dennis had his on too. Then, I shot in rapid succession until the clip was empty. When the dust cleared, the center of the target was in tatters.

  He smiled. “Good.”

  By the time I got back to the cabin, dusk had arrived. I showered and found Carmen on the front porch, wrapped in a quilt to block the cold air.

  “Where is Dennis?” I said.

  “He went back to his place. Konstantin went with him.”

  “Oh.”

  She patted the seat next to me. “Sit.”

  We swung back and forth. “Your new passports arrived today,” she said.

  “Which ones?” I asked.

  She grinned. “UK, Sweden, and South Africa.”

  “I don’t even want to know how you get forged passports,” I said.

  “They’re not forged. They are real government issued documents with your real name, picture and address. The fake names and addresses come later. Having a 140 year life span can complicate things for you. Aurora Lockette will eventually need to die, at least in name, so you can get a new SSN number.”

  “I hadn’t even thought of that,” I said. “This is still so weird. This big secret, all of us.”

  “You’ll get used to it. The tough part comes later.”

  “How so?”

  “When you meet someone special. When you want to get married. That will probably be the next person you tell. And then later, your kids. They’ll notice you’re not aging normally at some point. No one else can know, really.”

  I laughed, but it came out forced. “I’m currently stuck on someone I can’t have and even if I wasn’t, how the hell am I supposed to find love when the Shyama are hunting me down? How am I supposed to be with someone who gets older and ages and gets sick, when I don’t? I don’t see it Carmen. I just don’t.”

  “Your time will come.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “What is it?”

  “Well, it’s just, I can tell your still struggling with him.” She looked at me with pity in her bright aqua eyes.

  It was true, of course. I was pathetic. The hole in my heart was not healing with time as conventional wisdom had promised.

  Three months had passed since I’d fled to Alaska. I was patient, waiting for the new activities that consumed my day to distract me, waiting for good old father time to at least lessen the tightness in my chest. But it didn’t. I was still in love with Gavyn. Hopelessly, foolishly in love.

  “I don’t know what the hell to do with myself sometimes, but I’m trying to get out there and be normal. At least as normal as I can be, seeing as how I am some sort of super-freak living in a village full of super-freaks and being hunted by dark forces.”

  She leaned her head against me and threw some of her quilt over to cover my legs. “You do try hard. It’s difficult to watch sometimes. Why don’t you call him? You need to ask what he actually thinks before you shut him out forever.”

  “In the unlikely event he would want to talk to me, I can’t do that to him. I can’t put him in danger.”

  “Calling him won’t put him in danger,” she reminded me.

  “No.” My voice dropped a whisper. “I can’t hear his voice and not see him.” I pulled the blanket to cover more of my body. “This way is better. I’m okay. Don’t worry.”

  She stood. “Don’t be a foolish girl. Life is too short.” She tugged on the corner of the quilt. “Are you going to stay out here?”

  I stood. “Nope. I’m cold, and I still smell like gunpowder.”

  I followed her into the house.

  “Help me with dinner?” she asked.

  “Sure.” I washed my hands, rubbing the soap all the way to my elbow. I had flat calluses forming where the hot gun touched my skin, round after round. It was one more sign I was morphing into a different person. My body was hardened with compact muscle, my gait was fast and strong.

  I could fight. I could kill. I could win.

  I still can’t cook worth a damn though so I chopped vegetables and grated cheese for the tacos. Carmen did everything else. She pulled them out of the oven as Konstantin and Dennis walked in the front door.

  “Good timing,” Carmen said. She saw their faces and her tone changed. “What’s up?”

  Dennis plopped down at the kitchen table. “We have some activity we need to address.”

  I followed Carmen to the table with a stack of plates. She served the greasy tacos with a giant spatula. Dennis waited until we had time to eat at least some of our food before he spoke again.

  “A situation has come to my attention.”

  Carmen spoke next. “Where?”

  “New Orleans. There is a group of us there. They have four blockers out there, but something is off. One of the females, Maryanna, is having problems. She has seen the Shyama three times now. She has a handler, but I think something must be wrong with the bond. We need to evacuate them. This is an excellent opportunity for us.”

  “How many Shyama are there?” Konstantin asked.

  “Just two, as far as we can tell.”

  Carmen threw her napkin on the table. “You want to take Aurora, don’t you? Use her to draw them out?”

  “Yes,” Dennis answered. “We’ll take a good team. She’s unbonded, so she can easily draw them out with her presence and see how we operate. It’ll be a good learning experience for her.”

  “I don’t like this,” Konstantin said.

  “You can’t keep her in here forever. She needs to find a handler.”

  “He’s right,” I said. “Like it or not, I’m a target and I need to see how this works. This is what I’ve been training for.” My heart was pounding and my palms were a little sweaty, but not from fear. I was excited.

  Dennis smiled. “We move out in two days. We’ll be taking all of you, plus Damien and Karen. We’ll all fly. Oh, on a plane, I mean.” He winked at me. “My brother will meet you at the airport. We have four blockers from Houston meeting us there. They will drive in with the weapons.”

  “Why is your brother meeting us there?” I asked.

  “He’s my handler. His name is Ben, you’ll like him.” He stood to leave. “I must go. There is much to do.” Konstantin followed him out.

  I was alone with Carmen in the kitchen. She leaned against the counter and folded her petite arms over her chest. “Why are you so excited? I feel off about this.”

  “Yeah. Something is definitely off. I can fly, you can read minds, and we’re being hunted.”

  She gave me a look I’ve seen on my mother’s face before, a mixture of amusement, anger, reproach. “You didn’t answer my question. You should be a little afraid, at le
ast.”

  “Well, I’ve been trained to do this, right? I’ll get scared later,” I said.

  “You’re reckless. It all boils down to him, doesn’t it? You need to resolve your feelings for him. This is not healthy.”

  “Can I not have any privacy here? Even inside my head?” I ran up to my room and slammed the door behind me.

  I was wrong to snap at her. She’d been taking care of me for months now. I rocked slowly in the chair beside the window, staring out into the dark, snowy, world outside. I couldn’t see much, but my mind welcomed the view nonetheless. I switched on the lamp beside me and read a novel, grasping for the distraction I knew wouldn’t work.

  The next morning, I woke up to the sweet smell of pancakes and bacon wafting through the cabin. I pulled on a thick robe and slippers and went downstairs, my stomach rumbling with hunger.

  “Good morning,” Carmen said, still in her pajamas like me. “Do you want some breakfast?”

  “Yeah.”

  She piled a plate with pancakes, syrup and bacon burned to a crisp, just the way I liked it.

  I took the plate from her, and set it down on the counter behind me. “Look, I’m a turd,” I said. “I’m sorry I snapped at you last night. I really appreciate all you’ve done for me. I want you to know that.”

  She embraced me, rubbing my back soothingly. “I shouldn’t have said what I did. It’s not my place to comment on him.”

  We ate breakfast together at the table, our conversation tuned to a much lighter note.

  “Hey, I was thinking. Why don’t we head into town with Julie and have some fun? We can get our hair done or go shopping or anything you want. It would be nice to try and relax before we leave tomorrow,” she said as she pushed her now empty plate away from her.

  “Cool. I’ll call Julie.”

  Julie, of course, immediately agreed to come. She suggested pedicures, an idea I latched onto.

  I got ready quickly, eager to get into town and come back for our meeting. As I was blow drying my hair, a flick of movement on my wrist caught my eye. It was the bracelet Gavyn had given me. I stared at it for long time, wondering how I could have possibly forgotten I had it on.