He didn’t get very far. Someone tackled him to the floor and finally the screaming stopped.
“Get her away from me,” Michael shouted, struggling as someone much larger than himself encased him in a powerful grip. Eli’s face came into view. Behind him, Peter and Ian were standing in the doorway, mouths open in shock.
“Calm down, Mike, you son of a bitch,” Eli said. “You almost woke up the town.”
Behind him, Ian was helping Charlotte up and inspecting her face. He gave Michael a look of utter confusion.
“Did you hit her?” he said.
Michael pushed Eli away and tried to regain his breath.
Charlotte was sobbing. “I don’t remember what happened. I just remember going to sleep and then—and then I woke up, and I was here, and—Oh God, what did he do to me?”
She covered herself with her hands and arms, thighs pressed together as before.
“Give her a sheet,” Eli told Michael. “At least.”
Michael complied. Charlotte went to grab the sheet when suddenly, to everyone’s surprise, Ian put a hand around her neck and drove her against the wall.
“You lying slut,” he shouted into her face.
“Ian!”
Eli pulled him away. Charlotte released a girlish sob.
“He raped me and you think it’s my fault?” She picked up her clothes and began to change into them. “We’ll see what the town thinks of this.”
With a few loud sobs, she ran out of the room.
“What did you do?” Eli said, getting on one knee and looking into Michael’s eyes. “Talk to me, brother. What did you do?”
Michael was too stunned to move as a single word echoed inside his mind.
Rape.
In Gulch it was a sin punishable by death.
~
Episode IV
UPRISING
Chapter 1
The test Midas Ford ran on Charlotte came out positive.
It wasn’t sophisticated enough to confirm that it was Michael’s DNA inside of her, but it didn’t need to be. Michael explained the situation clearly, making sure not to leave out any details.
Ian came immediately to Michael’s defense.
“Charlotte used a chameleon effect,” he said. “But she twisted it to change her appearance. I know because she used it on me a bunch of times. She can turn herself into any woman you ask and keep it going as long as she wants. Redhead, blonde, black or white, curvy or skinny—you have to believe us. She’s the one guilty of rape, not him.”
When word got out about what had happened—including Charlotte’s chameleon effect, which many didn’t believe was possible—the town divided into two opposing sides. There were those—men, mostly—who sided with Michael. “Don’t tell me that little slut got raped again,” they said. “Like it’s becoming a habit, wouldn’t ya say?”
The other half—made up mostly of women—didn’t believe that Charlotte could have tricked him. “He’s a Type I,” they said, “and you’re telling me Charlotte used telepathy to make herself look like her sister? Are you crazy? I’ll tell you what happened—Arielle rejected him, and he was so overcome with lust that he used his ability on Charlotte to turn her into a sex puppet. He might as well have drugged her.”
A considerable group of people, mainly those tired of all the violence and conflict, supported a town-wide witch-hunt.
“I think we should get rid of all them ments,” they said. “Things were better back when Meacham was Overseer and Louis Blake and his boys were kept on a tight leash. There’s even rumors we got slavers and People’s Republic men looking for us. This town’s going to Hell and it’s that boy Michael’s fault.”
Louis Blake and Midas Ford had their own private opinions.
“She tricked him,” Blake said. “I don’t know how she pulled it off, but she tricked him.”
Midas Ford obviously didn’t feel comfortable taking sides. Since becoming Overseer, he’d become a lot less bold with his opinions. No surprise there. Some men just didn’t mix well with power, and Blake was certain Midas Ford was one of those men.
“Listen to yourself,” Midas said. “That boy is the most powerful telepath we’ve ever seen. And you think Charlotte was able to do what, exactly? Convince him she was a blonde about twenty pounds lighter with a completely different voice? You think Michael didn’t know what was happening?”
“Even if he did know it was Charlotte, that doesn’t make it rape. She came into his bedroom.”
“That’s the thing,” Midas said. “And I’ve been telling you this since we exiled John Meacham. Michael can turn people into puppets, Blake. Imagine what it must be like to have that kind of power. And a teenage boy with all those hormones coursing through his body—hell, he might even be manipulating Ian Meacham into defending him.”
“You think Ian’s lying?”
Midas sighed. “That’s not what I’m saying. I’m Overseer now, Louis, whether I like it or not. These are things I have to take into consideration. I like that boy every bit as much as you do, but he’s become too powerful for a place like this. I’m not saying we outcast him, but I am saying that it’s time he moved on. You need to summon your contacts in the NDR and tell them they’ve got a new recruit coming.”
Blake shook his head. “That won’t work. Not yet, anyway. He needs to prove himself first.”
“And how do you propose he does that?”
“I don’t know. But we’ll figure something out.”
They soon brought Michael into the conversation.
“I won’t go anywhere without Arielle,” he said.
Blake grimaced. “They’re very strict about who gets into the NDR. And you aren’t even married.”
“Then we’ll get married. It’s not a problem. We love each other.”
“Take it easy,” Blake said. “No one’s kicking you out.”
“Not yet,” Michael said cynically.
Dominic strolled into Midas Ford’s new office on the second floor of the town hall, where John Meacham had once presided as Overseer. Midas had gotten rid of the desk and replaced it with a conference table. Dominic refused to sit.
“He’s not going anywhere without me,” he said, standing before all of them. “If he goes to the NDR, I go with him. You know he can’t just walk in there alone.”
“I appreciate it, Dom,” Michael said.
Louis Blake watched them both. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think the two of you were brothers.”
Michael and Dominic frowned, mirroring each other’s movements.
“What does Reggie think of you leaving?” Midas asked Dominic.
“He’s coming with us. Forgot to mention that.”
“Hell,” Blake said. “We’ll all go. One big, happy family of killer ments. They’ll love us.”
Midas took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was about to speak when Michael broke in.
“I don’t get why we can’t just stay a while longer. At least until we can use our contacts to get passports.”
Blake shook his head. “Every woman in this town is out for your blood. Now they think you’ve been manipulating both Arielle and Charlotte. And if Charlotte turns out to be pregnant, it’ll be a thousand times worse.”
“So you all believe me,” Michael said. “That I didn’t rape her.”
“We believe you,” Midas said. “But even as Overseer, I can’t just put an end to this backlash. People have to understand—on a deeper, more emotional level—that there’s nothing wrong with any of you just because you’re telepaths. And so far, you haven’t made that easy. Just weeks ago there was blood running in the streets.”
Dominic put his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “We believe you, Mike. Don’t you worry about that. We’ll stick with you no matter what people say.”
“We believe,” Blake said, “that you weren’t yourself when it happened. But that doesn’t mean you’re not responsible. I’ve been training you to avoid exactly that
kind of telepathic deception.” He shot up out of his seat and began to shout,“If Charlotte could get past your defenses without any formal training whatsoever, there’s no telling what one of Harris Kole’s Type IIs could pull off. What the hell were you thinking when she stepped into your bedroom that night?”
“I thought she was Arielle.”
“You did? Or was it another part of your anatomy?”
Michael looked away, his face reddening with shame. “What should I do now?”
Blake stood by the window with his arms crossed. He looked out at the darkening sky.
“There is one option. You leave for a few months, go east. Tell everyone you were so ashamed of what happened that you decided to seek penance. Go alone and go well prepared. Maybe get a job as a farmhand in a neighboring town. Use the opportunity to sharpen your ability because there’s not much more I can teach you here.”
Michael nodded. “What about Arielle?”
“If she loves you as you say she does, she’ll wait.”
“Reggie and I will watch over her,” Dominic said. “Keep her safe.”
“And what if I don’t make it back?”
Blake narrowed his eyes at Michael. “That’s up to you. You’re a man now. You’ll have to get used to taking care of yourself.”
They all were silent for a few moments.
“Then we’re all agreed,” Midas Ford said, standing. “Voluntary exile. In the meantime, I’ll get a statement out of Charlotte one way or another saying you didn’t rape her.”
Michael stood and left the room without saying another word.
Chapter 2
The front door flew open and banged against the wall.
Charlotte tightened her grip around her son. She had already explained to him his role as her blocker, her shield, how he was never to leave her side unless it became absolutely necessary. Michael was dangerous, she had told him. They had to watch out for Michael and his friends.
But it wasn’t Michael who had just barged in. It was Arielle.
“William,” Arielle said, “go play in your room.”
William looked up at his mother, saw her piercing look, and shook his head at Arielle.
“Fine. Then I’m sorry you have to see this.”
She stormed into the living room and slapped Charlotte across the face hard enough to fling her back against the couch cushions.
“Arielle!” Charlotte yelled, clutching her cheek. William rose off the couch and backed away toward the door. “William, don’t go,” his mother called after him.
“You committed the same sin Paul committed against us, and I’ll never forgive you for it,” Arielle said, hands balled into fists.
“He’s mine now,” Charlotte said, “and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Arielle’s lip trembled. “I can’t believe you would do that to me.”
“Do what?” Charlotte said, rising off the couch, their faces now a foot apart. “Protect you from a monster? You can’t handle someone like him, and I won’t always be there to protect you when he blows a circuit in that precious brain of his and goes crazy. You know it’ll happen eventually.”
“It won’t. He hasn’t done anything like that since he got here. It’s the regular people that are trying to kill everyone, not telepaths. People like Warren and Meacham. Michael’s nothing like them.”
Charlotte’s nose crinkled with rage. “Arielle, he was designed to kill people. That’s what he does.”
Arielle nodded. “Is that right? And what were we designed to do? We came out of those experiments, same as him. What does that make us?”
“Breeders, Arielle. Women meant to give birth to more killers. Is that what you wanted to hear?”
Charlotte smiled at her sister’s look of disgust. Arielle tried to speak, but the words got caught in her throat. Finally, in a quiet, shuddering voice, she managed to say the words Charlotte knew she would say eventually.
“I love him.”
“Oh, to hell with that. We’re in the Eastlands, in case you forgot. Here, men with any ambition at all are either slavers or politicians, if not both. With an ability like his, Michael’s going to end up just like John Meacham, but worse. You saw how he turned that man into a puppet. You see how much he loves his own power.” Charlotte shook her head, hissed through her teeth as if her anger had come to a boil. “I always knew you were the idealistic one. I just never thought you were this stupid.”
Arielle inched closer and whispered fiercely into her sister’s face. “Then why do you want him so bad?”
“I don’t. I just want to get the hell out of this spiteful town while I’m still young and fertile. The NDR is where we should be, the wives of some rich businessmen or politicians.”
“Or the wife of a Type I,” Arielle said, a knowing look in her eyes. “Isn’t that your strategy?”
Bravo. So Arielle knew the truth, finally. Charlotte had to turn this around somehow, make it look like she was working for both of them.
She tried to touch Arielle’s shoulder, but her sister pulled away.
“We could go together,” Charlotte said. “You think Michael would complain if he had us both? It would be a fantasy come true. Look at how beautiful we are. He would protect us—you and me—and William, too. Don’t forget he’s your nephew.”
“You want to share him?” Arielle said through a bewildered expression. “You think he would actually do something like that? What’s wrong with you?”
Charlotte’s face was hot with conviction. It felt so right. Would Michael ever turn down the option of having two beautiful young wives? One of them a virgin? She couldn’t believe she’d never thought of it. Of course, he would love Arielle more; but that didn’t matter. He could get them both out of here and into the NDR, where things were safer, and where life wasn’t so boring.
“Look at us,” Charlotte said, softly now. She noticed her son was sitting at the foot of the stairs, brooding. “We’re beautiful and young. We deserve better than this place.”
Arielle’s voice came out a cracked whisper. “So he didn’t rape you.”
“Oh, sis.” A breathy sound of amusement erupted from Charlotte’s nose. “You really don’t understand the way powerful men think. When our child comes, he’ll take me with him wherever he goes. Don’t worry, he’ll take you, too. Then both of us will be protected from what’s out there.” She pointed at the window.
Arielle blinked away tears. With a shaky arm, she reached under the hem of her T-shirt and pulled something off her skin with a ripping sound. Charlotte’s eyes narrowed in suspicion.
“What is that?”
“This?” Arielle said, holding it up.
It looked like a clump of wires with something hard and black dangling at one end. When Charlotte realized what it was, she drew back in fear.
“You recorded us?” Charlotte said.
Arielle looked at her nephew. “I know William’s a blocker, and a powerful one, too.” She winked at him. William smiled sheepishly. “He protects his mommy from the bad people who want to get inside her head.” She cast Charlotte a defiant look. “But he can’t protect his mommy from a machine”—she tossed the microphone on the couch—“can he?”
Charlotte’s face burned with anger. “Where did you get that?”
“Michael made it. Didn’t you know? He used to build radios back in the People’s Republic to support his family. He’s a good man, Charlotte. Much too good for you.”
“You planned this with him?”
She shook her head. “I told him I needed it to record bird songs. It was all me, dear sister.”
“Who was listening?”
“The Council. Midas Ford and Louis Blake, and the new ministers, who are probably on their way right now to inform everyone that you’ve been lying to us all along, and that Michael isn’t a rapist at all.”
Charlotte’s eyes widened. She flicked the microphone off the couch as if it were a cockroach and dashed it to pieces with the heel
of her shoe. The look she gave her sister was pure poison.
“After everything I’ve done for you.”
Arielle was already on her way to the front door. “I don’t owe you anything, Charlotte, especially after what you did.”
“They’ll exile me.”
“Maybe you deserve it.”
Charlotte walked into the center of the room, hands clenched into fists, tears overflowing onto her cheeks. “They’ll exile William, too. Is that what you want? Your own nephew?”
The screen door slammed shut, and she was gone. Ignoring the frightened look on William’s face, Charlotte ran past him, up the stairs to her sister’s bedroom, knowing what she would find.
She flung the door open into a bare room. Only the bed frame and the mattress remained, and the dresser with one drawer half open and empty. Arielle had been planning this for days. She had probably moved her stuff into Michael’s crappy attic bedroom by now.
She ran back to the living room and found William standing there, watching her, ready for her command.
“You’re my blocker,” she told him, trying to pull a smile out of the boy’s frown. “My shield—isn’t that right, baby?”
William nodded glumly. It was enough to satisfy her for now. Louis Blake and his boys were always talking about war, but they hadn’t seen anything yet.
She would start a war those bastards would never forget.
Chapter 3
“It doesn’t change a thing.”
That was what half the town was saying. “If Michael didn’t use his ability to rape her, he certainly will use it for that sort of thing eventually. You know what they say about absolute power.”
Others turned it into a philosophical issue. “If you had that kind of ability”—mostly men said this, leaning over tables at the Cold War Café or the OldStone Tavern, mouths stinking of beer and cheap whiskey—“if you could command the minds of others, wouldn’t you use it to have a woman whenever you wanted? Wouldn’t you use it to lie, cheat, and steal? No one can resist temptation of that sort.”
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