The Riser Saga

by Becca C. Smith

  “Well, we could rescue them the same way.”

  My mind was spinning a mile a minute. Use the twins to take control of living beings? Not only living beings but pregnant women? It seemed so wrong. So violating, for me and for the women. It was one thing controlling dead things, but making people do things against their will? It was revolting. It was wrong on so many different levels I couldn’t keep track. But on the other side of the coin, there were thousands of parents out there wondering if their unborn children were safe. If they’d ever see them again. Completely helpless. How would I feel if someone stole my unborn baby? It was making my head churn with confusion. And what if I couldn’t disconnect from the twins? It scared me, but I also knew I was the only one who could help so…

  “Okay.”

  “Okay?” Turner asked with a raise of his eyebrow.

  “Okay,” I repeated and found that the word stuck in my throat a bit. “When?”

  “They’re planning on kidnapping the surrogates tonight.” Turner’s face was full of relief.

  “We better get going then.”

  Wow. Phoenix, Arizona was quite possibly the ugliest city I had ever seen. Granted, I’d only seen Los Angeles in my lifetime, but wow, seriously, all strip malls and cactuses. And I guess Joshua trees counted for the tree law (the International Law that passed in 2142 where it’s required to plant a tree every twenty feet for oxygen levels) because there was one almost every seven feet or so lining the gravel streets below.

  Ryan sat next to me in the giant hummer-hover as we stared down at the desert abyss that was Arizona. I couldn’t wait to get this over with and head back to California where I belonged. The rest of the gang was there, too. It had taken some convincing to get everyone on board with the crazy plan, especially Jill, who was sitting in the corner by herself with her arms crossed. I really wished she’d come around, but I didn’t want to push her. She had lost both her parents in the last two months and she needed to deal with it in her own way. If that meant me being her punching bag then so be it. I was just glad Jill was here. I was glad they all came though I knew it was wrong. They should be at Nancy’s where they’d be safe, but I’d learned over the last two months there was no arguing with any of them, so I decided to just be happy that my friends were here. My human security blankets.

  Bill sat behind me, with Nancy and Jason, but he was definitely the odd man out as Nancy and Jason held hands and talked in whispers. I felt a pang of sympathy for Bill as he sat there, expressionless, but still willing to put his life on the line to help. He deserved better. They all did.

  Roberta and Turner were in a separate room of the hummer-hover. The vehicle itself was a beauty to behold, with four rooms in total all black leather and tinted windows. Behind us flew the biggest hover vehicle I’d ever seen and that’s saying a lot, considering the fact that Clean-Up’s hovers were the size of sky scrapers. This was at least twice that size. Turner claimed it carried up to two hundred thousand people. Why a hover monstrosity like that was ever made, I had no idea, but in our case it would be vital to making this a quick trip. I just had to control the surrogates long enough to walk them into the ship, and Turner would take them somewhere safe where the parents of the unborn babies were waiting.

  Ryan squeezed my hand to get my attention. I looked up at him and smiled. He leaned down, kissing me gently. “You ready for this?”

  I nodded, afraid to talk. I could see the spinning holes of John and Samuel’s heads in the back room. Turner’s scientists had led the twins into the hover, their faces blank, their eyes milky white, holding hands as they walked in unison. Part of me still wanted to see them as innocents, but the brief contact I’d had with them was enough to know that they were quite possibly more evil than even Elisha.

  I tried not to show Ryan the worry I was feeling. The thought of connecting to the twins was giving me heart palpitations. I wasn’t convinced that I wouldn’t go blind, and that was the least of my concerns by far.

  I mean, I was about to connect to thousands of human beings and make them my puppets essentially. It appalled me.

  I understood that it needed to be done, but I felt like I was playing at some kind of power trip that made my skin crawl. Who did I think I was, treating people like sheep? Dead things were one thing, they were well… dead. But a person? What if Turner had that kind of power? He probably would have taken control of my body and made me kill my mom or visa versa. I made a vow to myself: I’d connect to John and Samuel, get the girls out of Arizona, then out of Havenville, and, boom, no more contact with the twins. Not ever. Having to do two trips sucked, but I’d deal.

  I also vowed to let Roberta teach me how to keep them out of my head. I didn’t know if she could, but I had try something. Now that they could enter into my brain at will, I was sure they’d make me go insane. Or worse, they’d figure out how to make me use their powers without me being able to stop them.

  That was the real fear, I guess.

  What if they found a way to do that?

  I never thought I’d wish anyone dead. Even two months ago when I almost let those dead bees kill Grandma, in the end I couldn’t do it. And that was something I was proud of. I didn’t want anyone to die at my hand. I knew what that felt like and I never wanted to feel it again. And if John and Samuel could make me…

  I took a deep breath.

  I couldn’t think that way. What ifs would kill me if I let them.

  Ryan wrapped his arm around me and held me close. “You’re doing the right thing,” he said as if reading my thoughts.

  “Thanks,” I said in response.

  I really didn’t want to connect to the twins.

  REALLY didn’t.

  Roberta walked into our room with her feline face and hair stretched back into her usual tight black bun. “We’re almost there, you’d better prepare.” She made eye contact with me alone.

  I nodded and stood up, Ryan next to me. I kissed him gently. “I need to do this alone… Or with her… you know what I mean.”

  Ryan smiled and kissed me back. “Yeah, I know. You know where we are if you need us.”

  Bill had stood up as well and reached down to hug me before I could react. I hugged him back, knowing how hard the last day had been for him. He whispered in my ear, “I’m really sorry.”

  I whispered, “It’s okay, Bill. I’m sorry, too.”

  Bill pulled away and we exchanged awkward but back to normal smiles.

  Nancy and Jason as a team hugged me as well. Nancy’s face was full of worry and unspoken lectures on how dangerous this whole thing was, while Jason just looked excited for a good story.

  Jill didn’t move from her chair, but we made momentary eye contact. It was enough for me.

  “Let’s do this,” I said to Roberta.

  Roberta started to walk to the back door that would lead us to the twins’ room. I took a deep calming breath (really didn’t help) and followed after her. She was just about to type in the code on the keypad to open the door when our vehicle made a sudden lurch and wheeled itself all the way around, speeding in the opposite direction. We were going back to California. What was going on?

  Roberta’s frozen features barely moved, but from my time spent with her when I was buried alive I could tell she was surprised.

  We both turned at the same time to see Gramps run into the room. That action alone was freaking me out. I’d never seen the man walk faster than a turtle. He’d usually just stand there and be menacing, not exactly a mover.

  “What is it, Geoffrey?” Roberta asked, real fear tightening her voice.

  “It was a set up. Elisha set us up!” Turner yelled across the room.

  It was frightening to see Turner lose it like that. He was always so composed, no matter how many wrenches one threw into his plans. (And trust me, as one that threw a lot of those wrenches, I knew what I was talking about.)

  “What do you mean a set up?” I found that I was the one who was speaking. My blood had turned cold. What ha
d Elisha done now?

  “The surrogates are already gone, taken to Havenville. My sources lied to me, they’re working for Roland.” Turner was pacing, fuming, livid.

  “So we’ll get them at Havenville, it’ll save us two trips,” Nancy suggested, trying to put a positive spin on the current events.

  And as much as I dreaded doing this mission in the first place, she had a point. It would be a lot better, mentally, if I only had to use the twins once and not twice like we planned.

  “You stupid girl! They have the surrogates, yes, but luring us out to Arizona was the set up!” Turner raced across the room to Roberta and held on to her tight. Roberta fell into his arms like a wilted flower. It would have been sweet if it weren’t them.

  “Geoffrey, what did she do, just tell us?” Roberta actually had tears streaming down her cheeks. Apparently, Gramps’s erratic behavior scared Roberta a lot more than any of us.

  “She broke out the I.Q. Farm.” Geoffrey’s words made everyone in the room go completely still.

  Oh man.

  “She what?” My voice sounded strange in the silence.

  Geoffrey pulled away from Roberta to focus on me. “She knew we were the only ones capable of stopping her, so she made sure we were both out of the way. And just to rub it in our faces, she took the surrogates before we even left the city.”

  “So we’re talking about an army of sociopaths?” Jill’s voice cut through the tension only to cause more tension.

  “Army?” Nancy questioned. She obviously hadn’t thought that far ahead.

  “We’re talking about a group of the most brilliant minds in existence, present company excluded.” Turner nodded to Ryan. “And, yes, they’re sociopaths which makes them far more dangerous than any soldier. They have no conscience. They feel nothing.”

  “So they’re like you then?” Jill piped in again. As much as I completely agreed with her, it wasn’t helping. I could see the terror in Nancy, Jason and Bill’s faces and I wanted to say something that would make them feel better.

  Only Ryan appeared calm, probably because he was trying to keep me calm as well. He reached down and held my hand, squeezing it to let me know he was with me no matter what.

  I realized in that moment that I needed to do something. I needed to be the strong one, the one that would somehow save the day and make everything okay again. It’s funny that now as I look back it was much easier when I was just dealing with the grandparents. Our battle was with each other, not with thousands of pregnant women in a Christian Coalition town and an army of Age-pro’d super geniuses that were psycho enough to do anything. It’s amazing how perspective could change. It was time for me to step up.

  Again.

  “We’re going to Havenville,” I said with as much confidence as I could fake. “I’m using the twins to get the surrogates and the I.Q. kids out of there. We’re taking Elisha and Roland down at whatever cost, and we’re doing it now.”

  I could see that even Turner and Roberta were nodding their heads in agreement.

  I had no idea how I would stop Elisha and Roland, and I didn’t really care, I just knew I had to try. I was going to have to use John and Samuel’s powers, but at least I’d only have to do it once, Nancy was right about that.

  “How are you going to tell the difference between the surrogates and the townspeople that are pregnant? And how will you know the I.Q. kids? Elisha will have them blend in with the other kids,” Bill said as if thinking out loud. I really hated it when he did that, it kind of took away from the momentum. But he was right.

  I couldn’t let us be defeated. “I’m taking them all, we’ll sort out the townspeople from the others once we have them in the giant hover behind us.”

  Jill whacked Bill in the chest with a roll of the eyes. “No more questions. Let’s get this done.” Surprisingly, Bill took the whack with dignity and even gave Jill a smile. He got it. We couldn’t afford to voice any more doubts. We had to try.

  “I’ll make the arrangements,” Turner said and he and Roberta left the room.

  We all just stared at each other after they left. No words needed to be said. This was it. Elisha would win or we would.

  At the moment my bet was on Elisha.

  Uggh.

  It was another hour before we reached Havenville. Elisha’s soldiers were in hover-trucks surrounding the town in a tight circle. Turner’s enormous people carrier was almost as big as the town itself and I must admit it probably looked quite intimidating landing on the outskirts of town. Not like it had any weapons, but still, any kind of edge was helpful. I wished we were in one of Turner’s stealth hover thingies, but we didn’t have any time to go get them. The sooner we nabbed the surrogates and psycho kids, the better.

  Ryan’s hand was glued to mine and I wanted it there. In the original plan, I was going to use the twins’ power with Roberta by my side, but now I needed Ryan’s strength to help me through as well. If I could just keep myself physically tied to him I knew I could get through this. At least I hoped so.

  The rest of the gang was going to help get the surrogate mothers and kids situated inside the people-hover. I knew I could control them long enough to herd them inside, but to make them sit or stand was not something I was sure I was up to. It was going to be hard enough connecting through the twins to over fifty thousand pregnant women, not to mention, the couple thousand kids.

  Ryan and I walked into the room housing the twins followed by Roberta. Turner was trying to find out what building Elisha and Roland were in so I could try and control them too. We walked into the back room of the hummer-hover to see John and Samuel sitting politely on a pair of black leather seats. They were holding hands as usual, their milky blue eyes eerily staring up at me. For blind kids it certainly felt like they could see just fine, but I was probably being paranoid.

  Roberta shut the door so it was just the five of us in the room.

  I clasped Ryan’s hand harder and he kissed my cheek in response. “You can do this,” he said with encouragement.

  Roberta stepped forward and grabbed my other hand. “You’re going to need my strength. If you feel like it’s too much, disconnect, take a breather, and re-connect. Do you understand?” she asked in her kind voice.

  I simply nodded.

  I didn’t want to think about it anymore.

  I just wanted to get it over with.

  I closed my eyes and slammed myself into the black swirling heads of the twins.

  The bright light engulfed me at once and I almost jumped out of them on instinct. I could feel Ryan and Roberta’s hands tighten as they sensed my trepidation, or maybe it was the small gasp I just realized I let out. Either way, I found the comfort I needed from them, then I concentrated hard enough so that I could see everything in over-exposed view rather than blinding sun view.

  Instead of black swirling holes, I saw only swirling light in almost everything around me and in the town. I steadied my thoughts to concentrate on isolating the white swirling light in only the people. It was hard because, just like with my own power, if I thought hard enough about it I could see the tiniest dead molecule, it was the same with the twins, to the tiniest atom. It was much harder controlling life than death. There was a lot more of it, first off, and John and Samuel’s power was brand new to me. I didn’t have the years of experience I had from using my own power, so isolating just people took a lot of deep breathing and focusing, but after a few moments...

  “Okay, I can see the people,” I said out loud, giving Ryan and Roberta a play-by-play of what was going on.

  It was actually a beautiful sight. In the midst of all this terror and mayhem, seeing every single person’s glowing bright light was stunning. I noticed two other things as well. One: the swirling white lights were in the chest, just like the black holes in the dead. Two: the twins did indeed have the same four-mile restriction I did. Good to know. It was a conflicting sensation seeing such beauty and at the same time ticking off stratagems for using the twins’ po
wers.

  Then I saw something that took my breath away.

  All the pregnant women. Their swirling white holes were brighter than the rest, but what was truly stunning was the almost blinding white lights swirling in their bellies. The babies. I almost cried at the sight, it was so beautiful!

  “Pretty babies. We can’t kill those, they’re too bright,” Samuel said in his oh-so-creepy voice in my head.

  Shut up! I wanted to scream. At the same time I needed to file that information away. It was one more detail about how Roberta and my father survived their first attack, and any information could be helpful later on.

  I tried not to think about the fact that John and Samuel could see what I saw, but I wasn’t surprised by it either. I had to block them out if I was to stay concentrated.

  I focused back on the women and then tried to seek out the I.Q. kids.

  Nothing.

  I couldn’t sense anyone under five feet tall. I knew I might have to control some short adults and then release them later, but there weren’t any short adults, either. Maybe Elisha didn’t bring them here? Maybe they were somewhere else entirely.

  “I don’t see any kids,” I said more to Roberta than Ryan. She’d need to tell Turner that we may have to look elsewhere.

  I kept my concentration on the surrogates, but I could hear Roberta report my lack of findings to Turner.

  “The I.Q. kids are with Elisha in Building Sixty,” Turner’s voice came through Roberta’s speaker phone.

  I immediately put my feelers out near the vicinity of Building Sixty, but I only saw one man’s spinning white hole. “I only see one guy, probably Roland.”

  Turner responded, “She must have found some way to mask them. Just get the surrogates into the containment-hover and then come over here as soon as you’re done.”

  “What about the twins?” I asked, hoping he’d say to send them as far away from this town as possible once I was finished.

  “Keep them with you, Elisha can’t use them, and if we figure out how to break her camouflage of the I.Q. kids we may need you to use John and Samuel again to control her,” Turner said through the speaker and I tried not to let my skin crawl. He was right though whether I liked it or not, I’d have to connect ot the twins a second time.