Lightning

by Bonnie S. Calhoun

Selah’s heart pounded against her ribs. She worked hard at containing her joy of Bodhi staying in TicCity, but she worried about his emotional state. Neither Glade nor Bodhi liked the other all that much, so it surprised her to think they could work together without coming to blows. She hesitated to comment, only to preserve Glade’s almost pleasant mood. “You left off the trip part of my question. Do you really think it’s possible after all these years to find passage to the West? Wasn’t anyone looking while you were in captivity?”

  For a moment, Glade’s forehead glistened as though he might start to sweat. He brushed a hand across his brow. “Getting to the West and finding the Third Protocol—that last important set of Landers—is paramount now that you’ve been transitioned to a novarium. I had hoped to have more years to explore the data before you became of age, but it didn’t work out that way. No one looked while I was gone because there are very few First Protocols left here. TicCity has become mostly newer Lander generations that don’t have the commitment to old ways they’ve grown to consider myth and fallacy. The few marked Landers who were prisoners in the Mountain with me are just about all of the originals in our northern group who have survived this long.”

  “So that’s why I don’t see head markings among these people other than you, Bodhi, and the random stranger passing through.”

  Glade nodded. “Most of these Landers are a second generation of intermarriage. They actually place Bodhi and me higher up on the authority scale because we are among the two Protocols of originals.”

  Selah tipped her head. “How can people tell the difference between a First Protocol Lander like you and a Second Protocol Lander like Bodhi?”

  Glade smiled. “Have you ever really looked at our head markings? They are quite different to the knowledgeable observer.”

  Selah filed it in her list of things to do. She leaned back on the stool, maintaining a perfect balance, just shy of touching the digital board. She felt a sudden surge of energy and her extremities warmed. “How come you’re talking all of a sudden? This is more than you’ve told me about Landers since I arrived here.”

  “I’ve spent so many years lying and covering our tracks that it’s almost part of me now. I even find myself doing it with you, and I don’t want that kind of relationship. We’ve gotten off on the wrong foot lately, and I think if I’m more forthcoming with you, then you won’t need to waste all your time ensconced in the Repository.”

  There it was! Call it cynicism, but Selah knew there was a reason for his sudden change—to get her to give up on her file searches. But she loved him as her father, so she decided graciousness was the better answer. “I’m glad you’re willing to open up. Where are you going on this search and how long will you be gone?”

  Glade looked over his magnifying tool. “We’re headed into what used to be New York. Probably three or four days. We’re trying to match symbols, so the longest part will be the trip there and back, but we’ve got the Council’s fast transportation at our disposal since this is so important.”

  “How do the Appalachians or getting to the West help me? The truth this time.” She had to take a couple of good breaths to stop the grin trying to overtake her face. First Bodhi was staying, and now they were all going to be out of the city at the same time. She could explore all she wanted in the Repository.

  Glade removed his reading lenses and pinched the bridge of his nose. “The Appalachian Mountain range is very important, my princess. During the Sorrows, it protected the eastern coastal plains from the ravages of the Yellowstone super volcano. We’re looking for the opening to the West. Documents tell us there will be an opening. In my time I’ve searched from here all the way to the northern end of this safe zone. We’ll finish the search of the northern end as we cross into the tiny strip that’s the only place left in New York.”

  “Why do you care? The rest of New York and North America are covered yards deep in ash. The land is barren and uninhabitable.” Selah swept her hand over the maps, trying secretly to get a sideways look at them. Every time she showed interest, Glade rolled them up, which just piqued her curiosity more.

  Glade rubbed his brow. “It’s time to tell you, but to say I don’t have all the facts sounds like sheer lunacy.”

  “Tell me what?” Selah straightened.

  He looked down. “When Bodhi transitioned you to a novarium, it started a chain reaction that needs to be completed by you connecting with a Third Protocol Lander, who we can only find in the West.”

  Selah started to laugh. “You really had me going. I thought you were going to be serious this time.”

  Glade sat stone-faced. “I am serious. Much of the data and even the reasoning for this process have been lost and sometimes deliberately sabotaged to misdirect the searches. I’ve got bits and pieces of a very long story that I don’t have time to go into.”

  Selah stood. “So that’s all you’re going to tell me?” She blinked hard. Her head felt light from standing so fast.

  “I don’t know any more that would really help you at the moment.”

  “So what’s this process happening to me?”

  Glade shook his head. “I don’t know. We were subjected to mind-altering drugs before we left the Mountain 150 years ago. They gave us a folder afterward telling us our basic information and showing us a video where we all agreed to do this. To protect the integrity of the operation, we won’t get to fill in all the blanks until we find the Third Protocol and the process is finished.”

  Selah took that opportunity to look over the map. There were several dotted lines coming from the sea that converged in the area of Dominion. Another map blocked her from seeing their origin. She wanted to study the map, but he’d eventually look up if she didn’t keep talking.

  Selah played with the corner of the offending map, rolling and unrolling the edge. “Then what does novarium mean?”

  “It means you are the new one. The one who holds the keys to the kingdom.”

  Selah knit her eyebrows together. “Riddles, you’re talking in riddles.”

  Glade looked at her like he was having second thoughts about sharing. “That’s all you need to understand right now. And no, to answer your question before you ask, other Landers don’t know more about being novarium than you do. They’re guessing and perpetuating myths that have grown up in the absence of facts.”

  Selah’s fingers stopped in mid-roll. “But historical accounts said the four states positioned in the ring of the volcano caldera were blown to pieces. No one could have survived. You think there are people alive for us to find, on the other side of the country?”

  Glade sighed. “At this point, our existence depends on it.”

  Instead of raising her voice at another of his riddles, she bit her lip and took a deep breath. “Then at least explain why you won’t help me find data on how to get Bodhi help with his lost abilities.” Selah hoped his generous mood might extend a little longer.

  “You’ve only known him for the three months since your Birth Remembrance. Why do you want him? He came here as a Second Protocol Lander. There are at least half a dozen young men in this community who are the third and fourth generation of our First Protocol. They are more in line with the type of man you should be with.”

  “I love Bodhi.” Selah felt the words stick like a heavy lump in her throat.

  Glade looked over at her. “What do you know of love? You’re too young.”

  “I know how I feel when I’m with him. I know how my insides get all jumbled up and that I feel flushed.” Selah cringed at opening up that way to her father, but she had to make him understand.

  “And how do you know that wasn’t just the changes of turning novarium coming over you? The reorganization of nerve fibers and biometric connections?”

  Selah opened her mouth to speak and then closed it. How ironic that she was being asked not to trust her feelings for a man she’d known only three months . . . by another man she’d known only three months. Then again, Glade was the only oth
er person who could help her with the cryptic file code Jaenen had given her.

  And how did she know the difference between love and turning novarium? She was willing to take the chance on it really being love, but she wasn’t willing to gamble that the file detailing the condition affecting Bodhi would still be available if she asked Glade to help her get it. She decided to stay silent.

  Glade averted his eyes again and ran his hand across his chin. He mumbled something she couldn’t hear.

  “What did you say?” Selah continued to absorb details from the map.

  “I said Bodhi is useless to you now. You need someone who still has their abilities to help protect you. There’s a long journey ahead to the West, and there are going to be many trying to stop you from reaching the Third Protocol.” Glade’s voice came out agitated and abrupt. “I’m your father and I will guide your path on this.”

  Selah’s head snapped up. She shook with anger. “You forfeited the right to guide my path the day you walked away.”

  Glade went back to his work. “Bodhi didn’t come here with the mandate I’ve been given. His job is done. My remaining purpose is to get you on the other side of the mountains to the Third Protocol. That has to succeed above all else. Lives—a thousand years of lives—depend upon my completion of this task. I’ve been thwarted for the last eighteen years. Time is running out, and I make no apologies.”

  “So no one or nothing is more important than your plans.” She glanced at him one more time. His eyes suddenly appeared tired, and he looked like he was aging before her eyes.

  Selah stormed up the stairs and pushed her way through the heavy door. She wanted to slam it so the sound would echo, so it would make her feel better, but with the restrictors that closed it slowly, all she could manage was a soft thud. Not at all satisfying.

  Just as she reached the outside, her ComLink sounded. She punched the key, missed it the first time, and dug her fingernail into her arm.

  She winced and tried again. Treva’s face popped onto the screen, large and close. “Listen,” she said in almost a whisper. “I couldn’t talk freely before. Don’t go near MedTec, and meet me at the transport. I have to tell you what I just found out.”

  4

  Bodhi watched Selah leave. The look of anger on her face was unmistakable. He crossed the hall to the teaching theater and pulled open the door, aware of his diminishing strength. A week ago he’d have barely noticed the weight of the thick wooden door.

  Glade was still sitting down at the front, bent over a slew of old maps. Bodhi rushed down the stairs and over to the table attached to Glade’s desk.

  “I don’t know what you said to your daughter, but you have to stop treating her like that.”

  Seemingly unfazed by Bodhi’s outburst, Glade peered over the magnifying lenses, then back down at his work.

  “Selah looked like she was angry and ready to cry when she left here.”

  “And what business is that of yours? Need I remind you that I’ve ordered you away from my daughter?”

  Bodhi leaned forward and rested his palms on the tabletop. “I made a bad deal, and I’m going to back out of it. I love your daughter, and I’m going to be with her whether you like it or not.”

  Glade leaned back in his chair and tented his fingers together. “Is that so? Tell me, what do you still remember of your past? Keep in mind that I run this community, so where are you going to take her to live? And while I’m on the subject of living, how long do you think your life will be now that your abilities are waning?”

  Bodhi’s bluster faded. He froze, momentarily overwhelmed, not able to give satisfactory answers to any of those questions. “But I love her.”

  Glade smiled wryly. “Love is never enough. Now, I would like to think this will be the last time we have this unpleasantness. I was serious when I said you’re to be my right hand and confidant on this project. I need your undivided attention, and that is why there’s no room for romancing my daughter.”

  Bodhi straightened his shoulders. “How can you have so much trust in me when you know I don’t like you for holding the rest of my life hostage?”

  “Because, my friend—”

  “Don’t call me your friend,” Bodhi said, disgust in his voice. “I’m no friend of yours.”

  “But you are in love with my daughter, and her safety is the reason for all of this.”

  Bodhi glared daggers at Glade. If there was ever a time he wished another man harm, it was surely now. “I can’t believe you’d have the audacity to bring that up after the litany of intimidation you just laid on me.”

  Glade waved a hand over the maps. “This project is about finding the way to the West.”

  “And I care about your project why?”

  “Because it’s important to Selah as a novarium.”

  “Why should I believe you?”

  Glade pointed a finger at him. “Because you’re the one who transitioned her. You’re the one who set her on this path, and you’re the one who is going to help me carry it through.” He frowned and ran his finger back over a section to find his place.

  Bodhi’s heart pounded against his chest. He took the stool next to the table. “Are you saying that just to undercut my attitude about you?”

  “It’s time we talk seriously, and no more of this male posturing. If I agree to that, will you?” Glade stood and held out a hand.

  Bodhi hesitated. If he made peace with Glade, that was the end of it. There was no turning back on a bond. There hadn’t been an opportunity to feel any spirit of kinship, other than when they first left the Mountain. That sense quickly faded in Baltimore when Glade took up a fast friendship with Jaenen Malik. Bodhi had a bad feeling about that guy. But could he trust this man?

  He took a deep breath, exhaled, and stood up. He stuck out his hand and gripped Glade above the wrist, arm to arm, pulse to pulse. They pumped a shake. Bonded forever, however long that was fated to be.

  Bodhi held on until he felt Glade’s grip relax. He didn’t want it to seem that he didn’t know the customs involved in making a bond. They parted and Glade motioned him to take a seat.

  “Can I get some answers now?” Bodhi’s desire to understand this place competed with the knowledge that as his memories faded, his past moved into oblivion.

  “Yes, we’re going to spend a lot of time together, so you might as well get some answers now so I can have your full concentration on the work at hand.”

  “Already I can’t remember home or what precipitated my coming here. How much of my memory will I lose?” Bodhi laced his fingers on the table, knuckles turning white, waiting for the sentence.

  “What’s it been now? Three months? The Protocol has gone inert. You should have lost just about all the memory and abilities you’re going to lose. It’s interesting that you ask about memories rather than the strengthened abilities you gained coming here.”

  Bodhi shook his head. “My past is more important than those. When you forget your mistakes, you’re doomed to make them again. What about longevity? Do I lose that also?”

  “I truly can’t say. I’ve never known one of you long enough to find out.”

  Bodhi tensed. “What do you mean?”

  “Eventually the other Second Protocols like you left the community and never returned,” Glade said, turning away from Bodhi.

  He felt the slight. There was something wrong in the way Glade said that. Was it painful for him to admit? Should he ask? Better still, did he want to know the answer?

  “Why did they leave?”

  Glade busied himself with reshuffling the maps. “That’s something to be discussed later.”

  Bodhi understood the tone. He should drop the subject for now. But he made a mental note to ask about it again when the time presented itself. “When did you come here?”

  Glade made a notation on his halo-tablet and looked up. “To TicCity?”

  “No, I mean to this place, this country. You haven’t lost any abilities, and you only seem t
o have gained. I can’t believe your Protocol is the same as ours. We’re all prepared for some ability loss regardless of a transition.”

  For a minute there was dead air, then Glade cleared his throat and spoke in a soft tone. “I could have stopped it from happening. The Sorrows were my fault.”

  “You’re one of the originals? I thought you were just a progeny of that first generation.” Bodhi didn’t want to believe he was sitting with the catalyst of historic destruction.

  “I could have stopped the nuclear explosions that set off the chain reaction.” Glade looked almost passive at the moment.

  “You were here?” Some of Bodhi’s bluster dissolved as he looked at the pain on the man’s face. He couldn’t imagine bearing that much agony for eternity.

  “Yes.” Glade spread his hands out over the map.

  “You can’t expect me to believe you let a whole country be destroyed just because you could. There has to be another reason that makes more sense than this craziness. Why would you let this happen?”

  Bodhi watched as Glade’s countenance changed. His shoulders drooped, then quaked as though he was being wracked with sobs, but there were no sounds. He stared off into the distance.

  “Sometimes groanings are necessary for rebirth.”

  “That’s more crazy talk!” Bodhi forgot the bond he’d just made and slammed his hand on the table. A disorganized group of old documents dislodged from a mountainous pile and fluttered to the floor like fall leaves, pulling a rolled map with them. The map bounced upon hitting the floor, the tie holding it strung open, and the map unrolled.

  Bodhi wanted to rage about the logic of destroying a society and millions of people, but the look on Glade’s face said he’d better pick up the documents first. He ground his teeth and bent over to retrieve the pages and map. Slow, steady breath. He picked up the map with shaking hands and began to reroll it. A small image caught his eye. He rolled past it, then stopped. He unrolled the map and spread it out on the table.

  His eyes widened and his heartbeat began to race. “What is this map for?”