Jason searched the room for another exit, but the only door was the one we came in. I could see the poor man riddled with bloody holes across the hall from us, his black chasm swirling madly.
“No way out,” Jason said, holding the bat in front of us protectively, then shrugged at the obvious futility of it.
“I can help.” I had to try something.
The gunfire had stopped. Orders were barked out to the other soldiers. They thought we were dead and they were coming in to collect the bodies.
Screams from the other inhabitants of the virtual reality bar echoed outside our room. They had obviously heard the gunfire and were running out of the bar for their lives.
I only had a few moments, maybe less before the soldiers turned the corner and saw us huddled in our rattrap. I took a deep breath and connected to the lady’s black hole in front of us. Just like Bruce, I kept reminding myself.
Footsteps crunched over the glass…
… almost to our door.
I made the lady run up to the doorway.
Gunfire tore through her, shredding pieces of skin, causing them to slap against the wall and floor. I still couldn’t see any of our attackers. I knew as soon as they saw us alive they’d shoot us instantly. They were at close range, but I made the lady move closer to them. And then I heard the distinct call from one of the men.
“Zombie 442! Take proper aim!”
Zombie 442? Apparently this wasn’t the first time this gun crew had seen an active dead person.
I angled myself so I could see what I was doing and made the woman grab the gunman’s throat that was standing closest to her with frightening impact. His face was already turning blue. I could feel her hand squeezing the life out of this soldier and it terrified me, but I couldn’t stop either. All I could think about was keeping his gun from blowing us away. Bullets tore into the woman’s head from all sides, as if they thought this was the key to finishing her off. In a matter of seconds she was completely headless, just a pulp of cracked neck bone was left. Vomit. Yes, vomiting sounded like the right thing to do at this point, but I had to save Jason and myself first.
I made the woman throw the man she was strangling down the hallway where most of the bullets had come from. There were actual shrieks of panic and a clattering of metal with a resounding thud of men smacking the floor and walls. I must have had her throw him pretty hard. I had never used my power that way before and I had to say it was making me a little dizzy and excited.
Now that all the soldiers were out of view I needed to see what was going on. I was a blind puppet master, and Jason and I wouldn’t be safe until we could get out of this building. I took a sneak peek over at Jason, whose eyes were round with fear.
He made quick eye contact with me. “That’s way different than a fly,” was all he could sputter out.
“I’ll get us out of here, I promise.” I lied. I had no idea if that was even possible. I was starting to think this was it for me. I was going to be responsible for killing my celebrity crush. At least I wouldn’t have to feel guilty for long.
Then I remembered what I did with Bruce. When I made him show me what really happened at the trailer park, and I thought I could do something similar with the first man they killed.
I sought out his black hole and linked myself to him.
Okay. Body parts check, now for the hard part.
I put all my energy in trying to focus on his sight.
POP.
Whoa.
I could see through his eyes and I could see through mine.
At the same time.
Talk about instant migraine.
I closed my eyes to eliminate any confusion (and headaches).
From his viewpoint, I was in the room we had just abandoned. I was still aware of my own body back with Jason across the hall. It was totally surreal. I made the man stand up and walk to the doorway. Gunfire tore through him as soon as I made him enter into the hallway. They were aiming at his head, so it was like trying to see through a snow storm with all the bullets hitting his face. Damn, they hit his left eye. I had one eye left. I made a quick count. There were four of them and they were all wide-eyed with fear, unloading their guns into both corpses in front of them.
I realized at that moment I was still controlling the woman as well.
I needed the man’s functional eye so I made him put his arm out protectively and let them shred his arm until it was just bloody pulp and bone. I didn’t care as long as I could see. I focused my attention on the woman, using the man as a lookout and her as my weapon.
I made her leap forward grabbing the first gun she could get her hands on. It was very awkward, using his eyes and her body, it made my perspective all wonky. But from the looks on these soldier’s faces, they were halfway to peeing their pants, so I took full advantage of their freaked-out status. I could feel that she had a good grip on the handgun. I made her rip it from his hand and point it at the four combatants. Their bullets were tearing through what was left of her flesh, and I felt like I was starting to lose control of her. I made a note that maybe my gift was somehow tied to skin or something, I would need to tell Nancy right away. We could look it up. Then with a pang of anguish, I remembered I would probably never be able to see Nancy again. Maybe Jason would help me if we survived, but my corporeal self couldn’t help but feel him cowering next to me like a baby. I couldn’t blame him, I guess. This was definitely some gruesome stuff. If I hadn’t been keeping a dead man alive for the last eleven years I might not have fared as well either.
I tried to make the woman squeeze the trigger of the gun she was holding, but I couldn’t do it. Physically I could, but mentally I wasn’t ready to shoot anyone. I logically told myself that if I didn’t kill them, they would most definitely kill me, but after killing Bruce when I was seven I just couldn’t do it. I wasn’t a murderer even if it was self-defense. I was better than that. I had to think.
I made the man leap forward as fast as I could manage (which was ridiculously fast by the way). Controlling him was about ten times easier than controlling the woman since he still had most of his body in tact. I made him snatch another gun from one of the men and bash the soldier over the head with it. He fell into one of the other goons, unconscious. I felt guilty, but at least he was still alive.
“Retreat!” one of the men screamed. His voice was shrill and breathy. As much action as I assumed these men had seen, apparently they hadn’t seen this.
I watched from the man’s corpse as the soldiers backed away, guns drawn, one of the combatants potato sacking his unconscious team member over his shoulder. And they were gone.
Out the front door.
I made my one-eyed corpse follow them out to make sure they were truly gone. I had him aim his gun at the retreating soldiers as they jumped in their hover-hummer, dumping their fallen compadre in the back and whizzing away out of view.
I instantly dropped my connection with both corpses. My head was spinning. I had never done anything like that before and it literally drained me of most of my energy. I felt like I hadn’t slept for ten days straight. I turned to Jason, my eyes drooping. I knew I was going to crash and we needed to get out of there before the soldiers returned with back up to finish us off.
“We have to get out of here,” Jason said as if reading my thoughts.
“Yeah. I’m not sure I can stay awake,” I managed to slur out.
He just nodded and his previously horrified looks had now turned to determination and protectiveness. Jason picked me up like a baby and carried me out of the building and into the abandoned parking lot.
“Great.” Jason shook his head in anger.
“What is it?” My mouth felt like it couldn’t open properly and no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t seem to keep my eyes open.
“They towed my hover. We’re going to have to walk. Can you walk?” Jason could see that he was asking the impossible. “Of course you can’t, you just managed to make two zombies fight Turner’s
thugs,” he mumbled more to himself than to me, but then he smiled his signature roguish smile and looked at me. “Impressive by the way.”
I could barely enjoy the compliment, but I managed a weak smile. Or at least I think I did, it was always impossible for me to tell what expression I was making my face accomplish. Especially when I was this tired. “It’s….good…” Don’t know what that meant, but I was trying.
Then I heard the whirling fan of a hover car. “They….they’re…coming…” I tried to make my mouth and voice function normally.
“It’s not them. Maybe we can hitch a ride, looks like they’re coming to the bar.” Jason carried me over to where the hover car landed. “Hey, we need help.”
Maybe I was imagining it, but I swore I heard Nancy shriek. I tried to pry my eyes open. I must have been delusional. Wishful thinking. In my tired stupor I really wanted my best friend with me.
“What did you do to her?!” It really did sound like Nancy.
“Nothing. Look, we need a ride. We really need to get out of here, NOW!” Jason was feeling the pressure and the panic as time was slipping away.
“Don’t you yell at me! Just because you’re some famous reporter doesn’t give you the right to use and abuse my best friend!”
It was Nancy. Please don’t be a dream. Please don’t be a dream. Even though I knew now more than ever that having my friends around me was a death sentence to them, I couldn’t help but be selfish. I needed Nancy. I needed Ryan. And I needed Bill.
“Best friend?” Jason was confused now.
“Nancy?” I managed to squeak out.
And suddenly I was being taken out of Jason’s arms, into someone else’s. My stomach managed to perform the impossible back flip as I realized Ryan had grabbed me from Jason. His face was worried and flushed. It was like a full on battle with my eyelids to stay open. Ryan was ridiculously gorgeous.
“I knew you’d try something. I managed to put a tracer in your shoes before you took off. It took a while to track you down, with all the crowds and then there was some kind of frequency jammer messing with the signal.” I heard about half of that. I couldn’t stop staring at his lips moving. I must have looked like an idiot.
“We better get you out of here.” It was Bill’s voice. Bill had come, too.
“Bill.” His name was easier to say being only one syllable.
“Yeah, it’s me.” Bill’s hand touched my hair and I hoped it wasn’t my fatigued state, but he looked fine with me being in Ryan’s arms.
“In the car. Let’s get out of here.” Nancy had taken charge like she always did.
“Let her go to sleep. Trust me, she needs it,” Jason said to the others.
I felt Ryan’s lips touch my forehead and then everything went black.
Monday September 20, 2320
Chapter Four
“Chelsan, wake up. It’s time for school.”
Bruce? Were the last three days all a terrible nightmare? Sure, I’d still have to take care of Bruce the rest of my existence, but that would be paradise compared to what I’d been through. It made sense. I mean, being Vice President Turner’s granddaughter? Extermination of trailer parks and zombie fights? Really? It had to be a dream. And best of all that meant my mom was still alive…
“Mom?” I opened up my eyes in expectation of seeing my drab trailer wall.
I was in Nancy’s room.
My heart sunk. All of it actually happened. Mom was truly gone. My eyes welled up.
“Hey, you okay?”
That’s when I noticed that Ryan was lying next to me!
I was immediately self-conscious. I must have looked like a complete disaster because he kept on staring at me.
“You look beautiful.” Ryan brushed his hand against my cheek and smiled.
I decided to throw caution to the wind and I reached up and held his hand in mine. Not as bold as Nancy probably would have been, but I was pretty wimpy when it came to boys I was fast discovering. Ryan didn’t seem to mind, he snuggled in closer so we were forehead to forehead.
“Were you here all night?” I asked.
“No. I just snuck in the window this morning. No one knows I’m here, Nancy would freak. I’ll climb out when she comes back up,” Ryan whispered. His breath was minty fresh and I realized with sudden horror my breath probably smelled like the sewer.
“I think I need a mint.” Wow. I amazed myself at what came out of my mouth.
Ryan didn’t even blink as he reached down in his jeans pocket and pulled out his personal metal gum container. He took out a piece of gum and placed it in my mouth. This guy really made my mind turn to jelly.
“Better?” he asked with a smile and put his forehead back to mine.
“Better.” I needed to get past this “school girl crush mode” that made me paralyzed around him. “Why do you like me?” I blurted out.
And to my surprise, he just smiled. “Anyone would be crazy not to like you.”
“Then everyone’s been crazy my whole life. You’re the first one.” Being a leper at school was pretty much common knowledge.
Ryan rolled his eyes. “I know a lot of guys who like you, they’re just too scared to do anything about it because of Jill.”
“Yeah right.” I couldn’t believe him. I saw the way people looked at me, like I was going to eat their pets or something. Jill didn’t have that kind of power. Did she?
“You don’t even know how beautiful you are, do you?” Ryan’s hand stroked my cheek again and then his face turned serious. “Ever since I tutored you last year I wanted to be with you, but I let my fear of being a social outcast make all my decisions for me.”
“But you’re so popular. No one would have cared who you dated.” I was both excited to hear him say that he’s liked me since last year and hurt that he didn’t like me enough to do anything about it.
He leaned in and kissed me.
Mush. Pure mush. I couldn’t think straight. All I could do was kiss him back. I didn’t want to stop. The more we kissed the tighter I held onto him.
Eventually he pulled away. His stare was so intense I couldn’t keep eye contact with him for very long. It scared me how much I liked him.
“I shouldn’t have cared what people thought.” Ryan’s face was full of hurt and embarrassment. I could tell it was a decision he had struggled with.
“We could have kept it secret.” We could have. No one would have needed to know. And I certainly knew how to keep a secret. Until recently anyway.
He held my face with both hands so I had to look him straight in the eye. He was almost angry he was so passionate. He accentuated every word, “I would never disrespect you like that.”
“It wouldn’t have been disrespectful. I get it. People don’t like me because I’m trailer trash. I wouldn’t expect you to…” I couldn’t even finish my sentence. He silenced me with another kiss.
Ryan pulled away. “You are not trailer trash. You are the most amazing human being I’ve ever met. You can do things with your mind that scientists all across the world have been trying to do for centuries. Besides myself, you’re the smartest person that I know. And you’re drop dead gorgeous. And I love it when you make that confused little face of yours. You get this cute little crinkle on your forehead.” He was smiling by then and it made my heart spin. “And I’m shocked that you’d even be interested in me. I’m a weak jerk for not telling everyone to F themselves when I wanted to ask you out. I treated you like crap and I don’t deserve you.” He was hurt again.
“Hey.” I held his cheeks in my hands like he did to me. “Don’t beat yourself up for trying to fit in. If I thought I had a remote chance of having a normal High School existence, I wouldn’t date you either.” I smiled at my own joke, but Ryan wasn’t having it.
“Don’t brush this off. I was mean.” Ryan was more serious than I’d ever seen him.
“Okay. I get it. But that’s over now. Everyone pretty much knows we’re going out. You made that quite clear last Fri
day.”
“Why are you trying to make me feel better for being a dick?”
“Fine. Feel like crap, just don’t break up with me.” A part of me liked the fact that he was beating himself up about the way he ignored me, but another part of me just wanted him to shut up already and kiss me.
Ryan smiled. “I’m never going to break up with you. In fact, even if you break up with me, because you probably will you know, I’m very boring, I’ll stalk you forever.”
The Riser Saga Page 14
