Enhanced

by Carrie Jones

  Janeice is tactical and smart. I let what she just said settle into my head and take a big breath. I’m so tired and woozy.

  “You killed him,” I finally say, looking back at Wharff’s dead body.

  She shrugs. “Well, somebody had to.”

  “Guys,” Lyle says. “I’m pretty sure I was in grave, mortal danger. I’m pretty sure that I was possibly saved by one of you or both of you, and I’m pretty sure that somebody should be hugging me right now, but I’d like to know if Seppie is safe, who is going to pick up that damn crystal, who that dead guy is, and whether or not we can get off this damn mountain because it is freezing cold up here. Can we do that?”

  “What do you want to do first, demanding one?” I ask.

  “Hug,” he admits with a smile.

  I step forward and wrap my arms around him, for a second leaning into him and letting him take my weight, but only for a second because I unwrap one arm and yank Janeice in, too. She lets me, laughing.

  “You all are too lovey-dovey for me,” she mutters.

  “Well, you’re just going to have to get used to it,” I say and kiss her cheek. “Because that’s how it’s going to be.”

  CHAPTER 17

  Given Janeice’s and my status as Enhanced, we decide it would be safest for Lyle to grab the crystal for now, and he does, wrapping the edge of his shirt around it to pick it up. We even find a nice metal container inside the helicopter and put the crystal inside of it. We are super-careful that Lyle is the only one who touches it. We think that more than one Enhanced has to touch it at the same time, since I’ve handled it before and nothing happened, but we really don’t want to make a mistake here, especially since that mistake could kill us. When Wharff bled all over that crystal, we think he triggered it to make it so it will kill all the Enhanced once two more touch it. We might be wrong, but it’s too big a risk to take.

  Once the crystal is contained, we wipe Janeice’s prints off the gun and throw it next to Wharff before we get in the helicopter again. We buckle up and fly off the mountain.

  “It seems wrong to leave him there,” I say as we lift up, the helicopter’s rotor blades cutting through the air, shooting more snow onto his lifeless body.

  “The government will come get him. They always do.” Janeice says this as if it’s not a big deal at all, and I guess for her, it isn’t. She’s far calmer than I am and she knows more. I’m guessing that she knows a lot more. Via use of the technological marvel that is the cell phone, we contact the other Futures and decide to land on the ball field by the YMCA, which is, I guess, where Life Flight helicopters land for medical emergencies.

  Lyle hangs up the phone after this is determined.

  “We probably should take you to the hospital,” he says.

  “I’m fine.”

  “You’re bleeding. You have a gun shot wound. Seppie will have to go, too.” He shakes his head.

  “I think the others were already taking her,” I say.

  “I hope she remembered to hold her breath when the gas came. I hope they all did,” Janeice says as she lands the helicopter on the field, which is literally about two minutes away from the top of Cadillac Mountain. “It would suck to have to explain everything that happened to everyone.”

  * * *

  As we’re getting out, a Jeep barrels up and slams to a stop on the snow, just a couple yards away from the helicopter’s whirling blades, which Janeice shuts off. She taps the control panel goodbye and tells it she’s going to miss it, but my attention isn’t on her. It’s on the Jeep, and the large man hauling ass out of it and toward us.

  “China!” I’ve already opened the helicopter door and I’m running across the couple of feet and launching into his arms. He wraps those same arms right around me, laughing.

  China engulfs me in a massive leather-smelling hug. “Kid, I am so pissed off at you, but thank God … thank God, you’re okay. I’m so mad at you but so relieved. Tell me everything.” He swings me around in the air and then releases me, but keeps his hand on my elbow like he’s afraid I might take off. “You trust me again?”

  I do trust him again. I think of him as this all-knowing authority figure, but he isn’t. Sometimes he’s just as powerless, just as much a pawn, as I am. And I bet he hates it, too. I tease, “Lyle said you were okay.”

  “The world has obviously ended.” He laughs.

  As quickly as possible, I let him in on everything that has happened. Lyle and Janeice join us and occasionally add a detail or two.

  And I finally tell him about the crystal.

  “The only way to ensure your protection is to keep that with an Enhanced, since that’s what it’s been charged with, and unlike regular humans or aliens, you’ll die if it goes off,” China says. “You all aren’t going to want to kill yourself. If it had been charged with a human, they’d be the ones who died. If it had been charged with Lyle, it would have been the aliens.”

  “And you suddenly know all about the crystal how?” I ask. I try to put my hands on my hips, but everything hurts too much and I sway, losing balance.

  China, Lyle, and Janeice all lunge to catch me before I hit the ground, but it’s China who picks me up in a sweeping gesture that reminds me of knights and firefighters and also like a basket catch in cheering. Seppie is good at that catch. She really excels at everything.

  My voice cracks out, “Seppie?”

  “Already at the hospital,” China says. “Which is where you will be soon.”

  His face fades in and out.

  “I can carry her,” Lyle says.

  “Sorry, bud. This time I’ve got her.” China tucks me into the backseat of a car. “You guys meet us at the hospital, okay? Janeice, take the crystal.”

  She starts to protest, but China shuts the car door and I can’t hear any more. A minute later he’s in the driver’s seat.

  “I’m pretty mad at you,” I croak.

  “I’m pretty mad at you back,” he says, “but I’m thankful you’re alive.”

  We are silent. The car moves forward and turns. My head lurches.

  “You didn’t tell me about the crystal,” he says, “and you ran away from the compound.”

  “They were going to kill me.”

  “No, they weren’t. That was just Jon being Wharff’s mind-controlled pawn. Nobody was going to kill you.”

  “Well, you didn’t tell me stuff,” I protest.

  “True.”

  “It’s hard to trust people when they don’t tell you everything.”

  “Which is why you did it, too?”

  He has a point. I sigh. “Even?”

  “Hardly.” He stops the car. “We’re here.”

  “Already?”

  “Already.” He’s out of the car and opening the door, assisting me so I don’t fall down onto the snow-covered pavement.

  I let him help me and try not to wuss out about how much everything hurts. I’m a cheerleader. I’m used to falling and being banged up. I’m not so used to being grazed by bullets and thrown around on the top of mountains, but I feel like I should be tougher somehow.

  Enoch comes thundering down the road, sprinting. Her dog fur flows from the force of the run and the wind, snowflakes stuck to it. I’ve never seen such a beautiful dog. Ever. My heart soars. “Baby!”

  She slows down so that she doesn’t knock me over, and licks my cheek, nuzzling my hair with the bottom of her chin like she’s claiming me.

  “That dog loves you.”

  “I love her so much.”

  “I’m pretty sure she’s not a dog.”

  I sway. “Me, too.”

  China insists on carrying me again and I let him, as Enoch trails behind us, and I say, “I feel like we don’t have closure. Like we need to talk more.”

  He laughs. “The only real closure is death, Mana, and I don’t think we’re ready for that yet, right?”

  “Right,” I say. “Right…”

  But I can’t bring myself to laugh about it the way he
does. I can only close my eyes and let the world fade away.

  * * *

  It turns out that I have a concussion and the hospital, which is so small and adorable, wants to keep me overnight. Janeice and China take turns guarding my room. Seppie is in here with me and she’s staying overnight, too, and getting blood transfusions, but none of us is sure why. Enoch sneaks in and hides in the bathroom whenever any attendants come. Seppie side-eyes her a lot, but I convince her that whatever the hell Enoch is, she’s on our side.

  “She is not a normal dog,” Seppie says.

  “No. No, she isn’t. She is even better.”

  “You’ve always wanted a dog.”

  “Pretty much.” My mom never let me have one. Maybe this was why. Maybe she knew that some dogs are a wee bit different.

  The room phone rings and China answers it. His back stiffens and he talks into it softly before he hands it to me. “It’s Pierce.”

  I pretty much snatch the phone out of his hand. “Pierce!”

  “Mana.”

  I look up, addressing the room. “Can I have some privacy, guys?”

  There is a lot of grumbling, especially from China and Lyle, and Enoch pretty much has to herd everyone out through the door, even Seppie who is currently between transfusions. The phone is heavy in my hand as I say, “Are you okay?”

  “Yes. Are you?”

  “I think so. I’m just … I’m kind of confused. At first we thought you were probably dead. Nobody heard from you at all. And then … Did you send the girl to the bathroom? Was that you in Australia? Is the guy okay? Wharff said he killed the Enhanced who didn’t cooperate, or had them killed.”

  “Mana. You always have so many questions.” She almost laughs.

  “It’s because I’m always so confused.”

  Now she does laugh. “I don’t have a lot of time, but I’ll try to answer your questions. I stole the crystal. That is a long story. I gave it to Madison. I was in Australia protecting another Enhanced. He has survived. Hopefully, you’ll meet soon.”

  “Madison died.”

  “I know.”

  “I’m so sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault, Mana.”

  It feels like it is. I plunge my hand in Enoch’s fur. “She said not to trust China.”

  “The agency is compromised. China still works for the agency and that makes him not quite trustworthy, not because he is intentionally doing wrong, but because he could have accidentally exposed the crystal to whoever is compromising the agency.”

  This makes sense. “And you’re okay?”

  “I am … okay.” She clears her throat. “I don’t have much time to talk, however. I just thought you might be reassured by my voice and you always have questions.”

  “I’m annoying that way.”

  “Not at all. You’re human that way.”

  “I guess … I’d like to know … Why me? Why did you trust the crystal with me, Pierce? Why didn’t you keep it?”

  “You are good, Mana, and kind. You are strong and you want so very much to do the right thing, not just for yourself, but for the world. I can’t think of anyone else that I would trust more.”

  She hangs up before I can say anything else. Tears come to my eyes, not because I’m sad, but because I’m so grateful. I’m lucky, really, to have someone like Pierce say that to me. I’m lucky to get to hang with Enoch and have friends like Lyle, Seppie, China, and hopefully Janeice. Bad things have happened—horrifyingly bad things like a missing dad and a sick mom and dead people—but good has happened, too. We’ve saved a world that didn’t even realize it needed to be saved, at least for now.

  I wipe at my tears. Enoch licks my hand and makes a whimpering noise. “Can you let Lyle back in?” I ask her. “Just him?”

  He strides in the room and sits on the end of the bed. Enoch stares hard at him as he says, “What’s up? Are we having a relationship talk?”

  “Good guess.” I feel a bit nervous about this, but compared to everything else we’ve been through? Well, it shouldn’t be that hard. “I am totally confused by our relationship status.”

  “Me, too.”

  “You are?”

  He shrugs. “I don’t like labels, as you know, but it’s sort of hard figuring us out. I mean, we’re best friends. I find you attractive.”

  “You do?”

  “Really attractive.” He smiles. My heart melts a bit. “And I really liked it when you kissed me. I always like it when you kiss me.”

  “Cool.” I sigh. “I think you’re attractive, too, and I love you. You’re my best friend in the world, but you didn’t tell me things and that … hurt.”

  “Seppie didn’t either.”

  “I haven’t kissed Seppie.”

  “We only kissed once,” he says. “Once really isn’t enough. Unless you count those couple other times…”

  “We probably should try it again sometime.” I say this as Enoch turns her back to us like she’s expecting the kiss to happen right this second.

  Apparently, Lyle’s thinking the same thing as Enoch because he’s leaning in, hovering over me, basically, and his eyes are starting to close. This is my best friend, the guy I just saved, the one whom I adore. I close my eyes, too, and let it happen, just to see. And it feels … And it feels …

  “Wow,” I whisper against his lips. “Aliens are amazing kissers.”

  “So are genetically modified humans,” he says, shifting so he’s closer to me, pulling me closer to him. I rest my back against his hands. As he holds me up, he smiles at me. And then he kisses me again and it’s … it’s a million butterflies floating around us and sunlight and ice cream and good. It’s good.

  “I think we definitely have something here,” I say after a minute.

  “Yeah,” he says. “Me, too.”

  * * *

  People come looking for me at the hospital. The government. A Man in Black. A Wendigo. None of them make it to my room. The future agents and Enoch quickly dispatch them all.

  “They like it way better than camp,” Lyle says when he joins the rest of us in my room the next day.

  “Well, it’s like they have a purpose. It’s good to feel like you have a purpose.”

  He sits on the edge of my bed. “You don’t have to save the world to have a purpose.”

  Seppie groans. “Ha.”

  “It’s true,” Lyle says.

  “So what happens next?” I ask.

  “Well, we’ve sort of saved the world, saved each other multiple times, and now we have a crystal in a box that will kill all of the Enhanced if two or more of you touch it,” Seppie says.

  “And you,” Janeice says. “He did something to you.”

  “I’m not sure what, though,” Seppie admits. “The man was strange.”

  I don’t like to think about what happened to Seppie and I don’t know much about what happened to her, but my not wanting to think about it is nothing compared to what she actually went through in the last forty-eight hours. My heart hurts for her and my insides rage at the Wharff guy. But there’s no point. He’s dead now. Dead and gone.

  Sighing, I try to find a way to breathe again, to be calm again. Seppie is the one who deserves to rage.

  “You okay?” I ask her.

  “Better than you, wounded warrior.” She laughs when she says it, so it isn’t mean. It just is.

  We talk and hang out and wait for our papers to get out of the hospital. Lyle goes and gets everyone muffins and bagels and comes back with China and we all sort of just awkwardly wait to be able to leave.

  It is in the middle of a Lyle and China teasing rampage that I interrupt and ask what it all means. What does it mean that Wharff was working with the United States government? Does that mean that our government was cool with killing all the aliens? The good and the bad?

  “They don’t see another choice,” China explains. “It’s hard to see another choice. It’s like what you were saying yesterday when we came to the hospital. People like
closure. Closure is hard to come by.”

  “We got rid of the crystal, though,” Lyle says. “Sort of. I mean, we have it. So, no one else can use it.”

  “But it doesn’t end the threat. There are still aliens. There are still aliens very mad at humans.” China sighs. “No offense, man. There are still humans terrified of an alien threat. We are just a tiny planet, you know? And our technology … Well, compared to theirs? It isn’t so awesome.”

  “So, what you’re saying is the threat never goes away?” Seppie asks, sitting up straight. She moves around and does a squat like she’s testing the strength of her leg muscles.

  “Pretty much. Not unless there is some sort of miracle, some sort of outcome or option that nobody is thinking of.”

  “There’s always another option,” I say, but even as I say it, the hope for peace fades away a little bit. The bloody clothes I had on yesterday are at the top of the waste bin, a harsh reminder of all the carnage and chaos that always seem right around the corner. “We can’t let abductions keep happening. We can’t live in fear.”

  Our world stops once we realize the secrets that are hidden within it. Our brains have to rush to process the understanding that we are not alone, not in this universe, and not even in our own world. Our hearts can’t ignore the way that feels—the threat, the hope, and the horror.

  I know we all wish we could see the future some of us should have been committed to—a future where we didn’t know about aliens, didn’t know we’d have to fight them; a future where some of us could have normal human lives and eat hot dogs and die of old age and have babies and be psyched about binge-watching whatever sci-fi Lyle was into binge-watching or going to the best possible wedding that you know Seppie would have, and maybe she still will. Who knows? And those nice, boring, predictable futures were close. So stunningly close.

  But that’s not our future anymore. It’s for other people. Well, it’s for other people if we can spare them the knowledge of aliens, of humanity’s almost-genocide, of us, the Enhanced.

  * * *