Margie and I both lifted our faces, inviting the sun in. A small wave of energy tingled at my fingertips. We glanced down at the plant.
"See?" asked Margie. "Do you feel that? There is an increased electrical current in the plant. And with stronger illumination the process accelerates, creating more and more energy. All you need to do is tap into it."
Above us, the clouds moved with the wind, and the beam of sun slowly shifted down the forest. Margie extended her hand toward the beam, following it with soft footsteps in the soil. Large leaves on the plants dipped and rose; the stems on taller plants leaned to the side.
"Are you doing that?" I asked.
"Hmm." She nodded. "It isn't exact. I can't manipulate them to do move exactly how I want. The vines over the river were more of a fluke; made me look better than I am." She gave a nervous laugh. "You try."
I was still riding the high frequency of air. Earth was much lower. Slow and steady. I made the transition, tapping into the soil.
"A little higher," Margie coaxed. "Remember, it is a mix of solar and earth energy."
I tried again, melding the two elemental properties together, remaining sensitive to what responded. Finally, a frequency hit, the waves parallel to those I was managing. I followed it back to a plant. I almost got bogged down in it. "Sticky – like syrup."
"Glucose," Margie said. "You got it."
I sent my own energy to intertwine with that of the plant. The weaves buzzed and the plant leaves moved, like it was waving to me. I smiled, waving my own hand in response.
Margie laughed. "Good! You’re a quick learner."
The clouds closed up again and the combined energy fizzled out. We lowered our hands.
"Could this be a power source? For electricity?" I asked.
She nodded. "Biofuels. I was following research on the concept before Daybreak. It is totally possible, but there was a lot of development needed on the technology back then. Not sure if anyone pursues it anymore. Too many distractions nowadays, like…"
"Surviving?" I interjected for her.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Well, if plants give off their own frequency – does everything?"
She furrowed her eyebrows. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, do people emit a certain frequency?"
"Yes, I suppose everything does. But you can't use a 'people frequency' as an energy source."
"No, no." I laughed. "I was thinking it might be useful for more of location purposes. Like finding someone."
"Kaitlyn?" Alex's voice startled us. "Ready? We want to cover some ground before we lose daylight."
"Sure." I turned back to Margie, trying to wipe Micah from my mind. "Thanks and…be careful. I'll see you in a couple days."
"You be careful too. Good luck, and kiss that baby for me." Margie hugged me.
"Okay." I turned away with an unexpected lump in my throat. Had I not spent so much time suspecting her, we might have had a chance to become good friends.
Alex glanced at me as we walked. "You okay?"
"Yeah, fine. In fact, really, really good." I took a deep breath. "Looking forward to keeping my feet on dry ground for a change."
"You and me both," Alex said.
Chapter 23
Theories
By the third day of walking, my feet were covered in blisters.
"Those boats made me go soft," I told Susan as she helped bandage them. "I never had this problem before."
Susan shoved a canteen in my face. "You don't drink enough water."
"What does water have to do with blistering feet?" I asked.
"Water has everything to do with your body." She put the last bandage on. "There – that should get you a few more miles."
I finished half the canteen under her watchful eye, then handed it back. As I laced up my boots, Alex joined us. He stopped, setting a large, clunky radio next to his feet on one side, and Bee on the other.
Bee popped up on her feet, hopped over the radio, and got busy pushing buttons and turning dials. She picked up the handset. "There? Over – come in. Over."
Alex beamed. "She uses better radio etiquette than you."
"Oh, shush." I tied my second boot and stood. "Trying to track down the other group?"
We had expected them to catch up with us by yesterday morning, but there was no sign of them. Not even this afternoon when Alex had backtracked to search for them. I looked up at the sun, slowly sinking behind the trees. It would be time to stop for the night soon.
"Yeah. They were supposed to be the faster group; I purposely divided them up by physical…prowess," said Alex.
Susan and I laughed, covering our mouths trying to hold in the snorts.
"Prowess?" I mocked him.
"You know what I mean," he grumbled. "Little Miss Bee, can I see the radio now?"
She shook her head ‘no’ and turned her back on him. "Over, over."
Susan and I were still laughing.
"That's just what I need; someone else to ignore me." Alex rubbed his temples. "You know what? You two try – I'm going to scout ahead."
He stomped off before we had a chance to apologize.
"Should we go after him?" I asked.
"Nah," said Susan. "Let him walk it off. He needs it."
I glanced at her. Of all of us, Alex had been doing the most walking. Constantly scouting ahead, and sometimes behind, he probably covered more than twice the distance we did.
A muffled, distorted voice came in over the radio. "Who is this? Over."
Susan grabbed the handset from Bee, and I grabbed Bee, searching my bag for honeysuckle to keep her quiet.
"This is…" Susan let go of the handset, then whispered to me, "Oh, geez. We didn't come up with call signs."
I rolled my eyes, taking the handset from her. "Margie? This is Kait—"
Susan ripped the handset right out of my palm. "Don't use your real name."
I took the handset back. "What else should I use?"
"Give that to me!" She yanked it back.
I lunged for it again, but tripped. I fell into her and we both ended up on the ground, wrestling for the handset.
Margie's voice continued to come over the radio, "Kaitlyn? What's happening? Are you okay?"
We both stole glances at Bee, ensuring we wouldn't roll over her. She did the right thing, backing away.
"Stop it, Susan! She's already used my name anyway!" I snaked my arm around Susan, grabbing at her shirt, trying to pull her off me. I wasn't really motivated to hurt her, unless she kept pushing her luck.
"I refuse to sit by and keep letting you put us in danger!"
I froze; so did she.
She recovered first, standing up and backing away. "Sorry; that came out wrong."
I stood as well, not bothering to brush off bits of dead leaves. "No it didn't."
"What?"
"You said exactly what you wanted to." I picked up Bee, who looked like she might cry, and put her on my hip. "What did it mean?"
Susan's face crumpled at Bee's pouting lip. "The disasters that have been following us…"
"What about them?"
"Oh, come on, Kaitlyn. I don't want to do this now."
Not without Alex, I thought. So they can gang up on me.
The handset laying on the ground between us sparked to life again, "Kaitlyn?"
"Look, we don't know for sure what’s causing them." I walked to the radio and picked it up. "And until we do, I'm not going to be separated from my child on a theory." I pressed the talk button. "Sorry, Margie. I'm here – everything is fine." The bite in my voice would tell her otherwise, even over the air.
"Um, ok. Things here aren't so good; there has been an earthquake."
My eyes opened wide; so did Susan's. Without breaking our shocked stare at each other, I put the handset back to my mouth. "Say again?"
"Earthquake, over."
I shook my head. "Impossible, we're not that far away. We would've felt it."
"I was able to contain it. Did some damage to our immediate area, though. We lost most of our supplies when the river surged. Half our group doesn't want to continue; we've been arguing back and forth. What should we do?"
"Um…" I trailed off.
"Say again?" asked Margie.
"Hold tight. Don't go anywhere. I have some thinking to do. Over and out." I dropped the handset, and brushed by Susan.
"Kaitlyn?" I heard her ask behind me.
I half-turned my head. "I said I have some thinking to do."
* * *
"Not now, Arnold."
He had been trying to catch my ear all day. Unfortunately, being with the slower group meant being with Arnold. For the most part, I was able to avoid him by using Bee as an excuse. Bee needs to pee. Bee needs to eat. Bee wants to be at the front of the pack. But now Susan had Bee, and I had no more excuses.
"I just wanted to talk about Fukushima."
I sighed. "You mean the nuclear meltdown in Japan? The tsunami that caused the release of radioactive material into the ecosystem."
"Yes – that was an example of our worst fears with nuclear power. And you know what we discovered?"
"What?"
"That it really wasn't that bad. Losses were minimal—" He tripped over a root sticking out of the ground, caught himself on my arm, and almost brought me down with him.
I smiled to myself. Was that Earth trying to tell him something?
When we both caught our footing, he continued like nothing had happened, "Scientists also agree there will never be an observable cancer increase in the Japanese population attributable to Fukushima."
"Way too early to know that." I didn't say what we were both thinking…because of Daybreak, now we'd never really know.
"But nuclear is just…dangerous," I said.
"Oh." He clicked his tongue. "That’s just fearmonger talk. More people die each day from coal pollution, or did before Daybreak, than have been killed by nuclear power in 50 years of operation."
"But we're not talking about coal. We're talking about renewable energy."
"Listen, in another time, I might have been all for renewable energy. But we just aren't there yet – we don’t have the capability of supporting large population masses on just that. And now, thanks to Daybreak…" He gestured up to the night sky and the green streaks of the aurora borealis. "We really don't have the chance."
I sighed. He was right – and it was because of my failure to stop Shawn. "Okay, so say we go the nuclear way—"
"You mean the right way," he interrupted.
I glared at him.
He cleared his throat and said, "Sorry."
"If we have nuclear power plants running all over the world, we still need Uranium to power them. How do we find that without gas to run the machines, or power to run the instruments?"
"Well, for starters – I think some of you magical folk can do it. I've been talking to some of your Earths—"
"Earths?" It was my turn to snort. "I've never seen an Earth powerful enough for that; not even Margie – I don't think."
Oh, shit.
I stopped dead in my tracks. The person behind me ran into me. It was definitely getting too dark to continue, but we hadn't yet found a good camp spot.
"Hey, you okay?" Arnold asked, pulling me forward again.
"Yes…I…it's just…"
It's just I know someone that might be able to find Uranium underground – me. Hell, I had managed to find iron sulphate at the bottom of the ocean, and that was back when I was new to the Gaia business. The problem was, if I knew that, Shawn definitely knew it. He was going to use a Gaia to run his nuclear power plant. And if he has more than one plant…
I cleared my throat. "It's just the same as with renewable energy – we aren't there yet. I'm not sure us 'magical' types have developed that ability."
"But you have to agree, it’s probably easier to attain than a ramp up of renewable energy would entail."
I stayed silent – I would never, ever admit that.
The quiet chattering ahead of us stopped as the entire line of people was coming to a halt. I tried craning my neck over their heads. "What is it?"
Arnold stood on his tiptoes. "It's Alex."
The line ahead parted, as people began diving into the tree line on either side of the trail.
"What the—?" I stopped, mid-question, as soon as I saw Alex. He was flashing a signal with his hands; the one signal I didn't want to see. Enemy coming. Hide and stay down.
A flutter by my side and Arnold was gone, disappearing into the trees on the side of the trail. I had not thought he could move so quickly. I stayed put until Alex made his way down the entire line to me.
The panicked look in his eyes said it all, but he told me anyway, "Elementals. About 50."
He grabbed me at the waist, ushering me into the tree line.
"One Less?" I whispered back.
Just as the shadows enveloped us, we heard boots on the trail. Alex had me out of view just in time. We both crouched behind a thick bush. "There are so many. Oh my God – Bee!"
I tried to jump up.
Alex gripped my shoulder, hard. "She’s with Susan. I saw them hop off the trail on the other side."
"The other side!" I hissed. "Then why didn't we go that way?"
"I was just getting you off the trail—"
I put my hand over his mouth. The front of the column had just reached the trail in front of us, when someone put their fist in the air and shouted, "We'll stop here. Fifteen minute break."
Alex and I looked at each other, each mouthing the word, "Shit."
Chapter 24
Fresh Scars
The long column of Elementals broke rank. Most of them started to make their way into the tree line and we heard a series of zippers echo throughout the forest. Considering there were hundreds of people in the immediate area, the silence was deafening.
Alex and I leaned further into the bush in front of us. Already pitch black outside, the tree cover made it even darker. I pulled my hands into the sleeves of my jacket, and closed my mouth and eyes, eliminating the whitest parts of my body. I prayed Bee was still asleep.
Footsteps approached the other side of the bush. My heart jumped to my throat.
Please don't come around, please don't come around.
He didn't. We heard a buckle, a zipper, then a steady stream of liquid spray across the bush and ground. Alex's hand stayed on my shoulder – my hand still covered his mouth. We refused to move anything.
It was the longest pee in the history of man. They must have just come across a freshwater source. I slowly opened my eyes, and could just make out the silhouette of legs in front of me. The stream inched toward the toes of my boot, which were shoved so far under the bush they almost came out the other side. The sound of his urine took a higher pitch when it moved from dirt to my boot.
I whimpered, looking at Alex. His grip on my shoulder tightened. His eyes bore into me. His creased forehead all but told me, If you move, things much worse than a little pee on your boot will happen.
Then I heard it. Bee cried out.
Her whimper sounded strangely out of place, almost otherworldly, even to me. A murmur of confused whispers followed it.
The stream in front of us stopped. The man turned and said to himself, "A baby?"
Alex and I shot to our feet. The man on the other side of the bush whipped back around. His jaw met Alex's fist, and he fell to the ground, unconscious.
Bee was still crying, but her voice was drifting further from us. Susan was on the run.
Short bursts of scuffles, scattered on both sides of the trail, brought the forest to life. Some of my people were running, some attacked. One Less responded more quickly than I did.
"Got one!" I heard down the way.
Someone responded, "Cuff 'em. Group them together!"
With hands bound behind their backs, people were dragged to the trail. I squinted my eyes in the dark; we were losing. A sm
all contingent of guards set themselves up around their captives.
"Do something!" shouted Alex.
I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. He was the man of action. Besides, I was doing something. I was finding Susan. I blocked out the noise around me, tuning into the telltale frequency of plants. I had meant to explore finding people’s frequencies with Margie – but her group had never caught up.
Now was not the time for experiments, but how else would I find Bee? I raised my pitch, disregarding the plant life and searching for humans. I found heartbeats – everywhere. Most were racing, beating frantically during the fight. I chose one and delved into it, mentally dissecting the body down to individual cells. They each vibrated at a certain frequency. Brain cells were faster. Those in the stomach were slower.
I looked closer. Each cell held its own anomaly. An additional type of energy emanating. This was a Fire. I moved to the next body – there were a lot of Fires.
It barely registered that two men had approached us. Alex intercepted them. They wrestled on the ground, similar to what Susan and I had done over the radio earlier. I hoped Alex had better moves than us.
He finally pulled out his knife, finishing the fight with two clean cuts.
I went more quickly now, pinpointing Waters. I found one, moving fast and away from me. A significantly stronger signal accompanied her, which caught my attention. Bee.
"Straight that way!" I caught Alex by the arm, hoisting him off the ground. I pointed the way and he took off running.
Two more men approached. I raised my pitch to the frequency of air, sucking it toward me then shooting out. I ducked to avoid my own gust, and the men flew back into the trees. The gust continued toward Alex. I flattened it to give him a push, increasing his speed and a better lift over obstacles.
I moved forward, making it back to the trail. The group of guards surrounding my people turned toward me, each pointing something at me. Few had guns with ammunition these days, but I wouldn't put it past them.
With one hand extended toward Alex, still pushing him forward with air, I shot my other toward the guards. Flames volleyed at the group, flying over my guys, who had been forced to sit. The smell of burned hair and singed skin permeated the air.
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