Rise

by K. T. Hanna

  The voice was made of steel and very compelling. But power surged inside me, rising up, trying to escape anyway it could. It was like the indignant kid who’d been called a chicken. Fight me was its motto and oh how I wanted to be swept along with it.

  The four minutes were ticking down, and it was difficult to remain still. The amount of effort it took to resist the temptation to just go for it made my body shake. Lucky for me, the tremors that wracked my body didn’t seem to account for movement or I’d be dead.

  But the Blocker was on the ground, crouched with one hand touching the dirt. I wasn’t sure why I could see it, given the darkness surrounding us. Food for experimentation later. It could have been my imagination, but I was certain his hand glowed for a split second before a massive pillar of earth shot up beneath our would-be attacker and caught him in the chin. It happened so fast I could barely track it despite my better than expected vision, and it knocked him flying, like the perfect upper-cut.

  “Go. Now,” the Blocker called out, no hint of desperation in his voice.

  He didn’t have to tell me twice. I pulled up the map in my mind, overlaying it on the terrain in front of us so I could navigate through the maze of guard points. I ran so fast, I swear even Coach Marth would be impressed with my sprinting speed. Though I admit I fueled my speed with a lot of added electricity. It was practically bursting out of me, and I had to expend it somehow. I stopped when I reached the house, waiting for the other two. In my haste I’d forgotten that I shouldn’t go too fast. Fear and adrenaline pumped me full to capacity again, making it feel like my skin strained to contain it. The others were nowhere near as fast, so I had time to wait and to think.

  Wait and practice calming myself down was probably more accurate. The need to just let loose kept whispering in the back of my mind. Power like tendrils tickled at my brain, under the skin, inside the skull, as if it were haunting me. I resisted it with childlike petulance, refusing to admit I might be tempted at all.

  Still though, in the darkness around me, I felt like my eyes didn’t need help to see. And even then, even hiding in the dark if I looked through the window, I could see shapes moving around. Only, if I listened closely, these made a noise. A click here and there, a buzz so high pitched I almost missed it. Shadows clung to the walls, and dripped like molasses from the ceiling to the floor making me feel decidedly uncomfortable. I wanted to quantify them. To reach out and touch them. See if they were the real sort from the lab, or the ones that assailed my mind constantly.

  It seemed like hours before the other two joined me. Enough time for me to question everything, and need to solve it all.

  “Door is this way.” Our Blocker motioned for us to follow him, and even through the dire situation I found myself wondering what his name was. What had his life been like before this? How many of us were there in this completely twisted situation?

  Orion was light on his feet, moving with practiced ease that bespoke of him being at this a hell of a lot longer than I had. It meant he had to have died a good while ago. What if the program hadn’t picked him up? Where would I be now? I pushed down the melancholy wave I could feel rising inside me. That could be dealt with later, it had to be. I had to focus before my ability used inattention as an excuse to push past my defenses and blow up everything.

  Faster than my eyes could follow, the Blocker applied something to the hinges on the door, and it swung in without a sound. Wise. We moved through the darkness like we’d done it a million times before. Maybe they had, but I was light on my feet and mimicking their every move. My eyes could see as if the room were lit by the aftershock of a lightning strip, but shapes still moved around me. Shadowy shelving units loomed over us, making me feel small. If I looked too closely it seemed as if they warped into human shapes and back again.

  I swore I could hear a rumbling cackle beneath the silence. The air was thick and tasted like a fresh laid tar on a road in the summer heat. At least the floor didn’t stick to our feet. I followed the others, watching the countdown in the corner of my vision tick past one minute. What did it mean when it finally hit zero? Would the lights come back on? The questions that bombarded my brain wouldn’t stop. Nervous habits didn’t vanish upon death. The irony wasn’t lost on me.

  With thirty seconds left as we continued to move slowly, I could feel the oxygen in my lungs strain against my controlled breathing. I was wound so tightly, clamping down on the electricity that wanted to escape.

  “Here.” Blocker stopped, and I almost bumped into Orion because I didn’t register the words fast enough. My panic receded, grumbling in the back of my mind as the shadows came to rest around us. I watched them out of the corner of my eyes, seething darkness that slithered back into place with a strange underlying whirr that didn’t sit right.

  This phenomenon only began after I was killed. Well, after I was killed and went to the damned bakery. Shadows, shadows everywhere and most of them missing the robotic elements of the first ones I’d seen. Maybe it was like that old movie, where something came back with you if you came back to life. Except this time as a robot, or something.

  Fantastic. Now I’d freaked myself out. I shuffled closer to Orion just as the emergency lighting booted back up, casting a dull golden glow over the entire area and proving to me that the shelves were just shelves. Shadow monsters weren’t real; only robots were.

  The warehouse’s decor was older than I’d expected. Wood paneling lined the offices like some remnant of a 70s sitcom. I waited, concentrating on what I could see of Blocker’s face. His expression held no fear, only determination. It calmed me. I needed the calm.

  “I hid the guard. He’ll be out for a while. No one knows we’re here. For all they know, that outage was natural.” He paused and his lips spread into a grin. “We have to wait about three minutes, and we’ll have a clear shot over to that fuse box. Can you see it, Runner?”

  It took me a second, but I realized that was me, and nodded. Using our designations instead of names seemed overkill, but I guess that meant there was no way our names could lead to us being discovered. The Blocker raised an eyebrow before continuing. “Short it again. Focus though. Make it look like it’s just a surge of power like the last one. It’s a smart security system. It’ll repair itself this time too, but it’ll give us enough time to get into the main office and grab what we need. The Cleaner will nuke any signs we were ever here. Got it?”

  “Got it.” I answered in unison with Orion. The Blocker nodded again, and turned to look alternatively at his watch, and out into the dimly lit foyer, leaving me alone with my thoughts. Orion kept looking back at me, and I was quite certain he was trying to show solidarity, that we were in this together.

  Except it didn’t feel like that. I felt like a complete outsider, only good for what my little pinkie could exude in electrical power.

  This is correct. Why is that a problem?

  Oh, joy. The system chose that moment to listen in and be concerned. So not what I needed. I chose my words carefully, suppressing the desire to let my ability encase me from head to toe because it was so close to overflowing. Because I have no idea what I’m doing, and I get the feeling I shouldn’t have clearance for this shit yet.

  You shouldn’t. But an exception was made due to a lack of Runners being available in this particular region.

  But why are there so few Runners? I asked the million dollar question, and didn’t like the silence that followed.

  Finally though, SC’s words spilled into my mind again. Electricity is an unpredictable ability. Sometimes, when a Runner overdoes it, overuses that element, they are wiped from our existence. No longer visible to us, we rarely find their second death’s corpse. Over the years, many Runners have simply vanished. Does that help?

  Not really. But thanks for explaining it.

  You are welcome.

  Not really at all. The mood of my little parasitic passenger wasn�
�t helped either. It stalked around inside me, unsettled and restless. I began to suspect that the system wasn’t telling me everything for a reason. And for a moment, I didn’t think I wanted to know anyway.

  “Go.” Blocker’s voice acted like the starting gun at my races. My adrenaline surged, giving the hungry power within the reins. It practically propelled me forward and I barely managed to stop before I hit the fuse box. I didn’t have time to shake or be scared, and I placed my hand against the box, allowing a surge of electricity to run through my body.

  In hindsight, I should have slowed down and focused before releasing the energy. But calm had deserted me and the strength suffusing my body lent me an overconfidence I wasn’t sure was a good thing. Instead, I placed my whole hand on the box, giving the energy a much larger conduit to travel through.

  Electricity coursed through my body, ejecting from my palm like one massive bolt of power. I felt the box beneath me react, the metal conducting the charge, and the plastic bits burning in response as wires fried beneath the onslaught. In what seemed like a dream, it blew away from the wall, glancing off what appeared to be a shield around me, before the door clattered to the ground with a clang.

  “Oops?” I blinked as time came rushing back.

  Warning. Timestance activated. Unauthorized use.

  I blinked at the words running in front of my eyes while I still regained equilibrium.

  “Shit.” Blocker’s curse followed mine almost seamlessly.

  “At least the lights are out now?” I asked tentatively, hoping it would get me off the hook. Timestance? Was that what it said? My head buzzed, the glee of the electricity inside me difficult to push past.

  Orion sighed and grabbed my elbow, ushering me after Blocker toward the office we needed to access to complete our task. “Yes, they are, but we might not even have four minutes now. It’ll be trying to access backup generators. But I think you might have put a kink in that. Getting out is going to be a hell of a lot more difficult than getting in was.”

  There was worry in his voice. Blocker probably didn’t know how to detect it with Orion, but I did. And if my best friend was worried, then I had probably really fucked shit up. I had no idea what exactly I’d fucked up, but an alarm sounding, when we were somewhere we shouldn’t be didn’t sound like a good thing. I felt guilty, and a little defensive. I’d only been dead for two weeks, why on earth did they send me on this mission?

  This time I watched from behind Orion as we moved as swiftly and silently as possible through the rooms. He utilized what looked like a sheet of ice, cold and sharp. It didn’t quite touch anything and seemed to mold its way around every object, drawing fibers and dust, and hairs, and whatever else had been left behind by human bodies. Like a sort of massive, cold lint roller. One that made sure we left no evidence behind whatsoever. Did that mean some of the SC operatives had been criminals?

  His finesse implied a practiced ease that I wasn’t even close to yet. I wished that ability was in my arsenal. His ability zapped anything it encountered into oblivion. I’d never imagined ice could burn like that. But I could only dream of having that much skill.

  The thought made me shudder, and I glanced up to see him ushering me through the door so he could clean up after me too. The Blocker was punching some numbers into a safe. It made sense that it would operate on a type of battery back-up. It opened with a soft whoosh of air, like a sigh of relief that whatever was hidden within would finally be out in the open.

  The shadows around us felt like they were closing in, like there was someone reaching for me and my hands and the power I held inside. The sharp intake of breath that escaped me didn’t help calm my nerves or the thrill I felt at potential combat. I’d never been a violent person, preferring to run. Now though, now I was strong, powerful. Now I could win.

  Even against laboratory guarding shadow machines. I wanted to know how they were made. I wanted to know what they kept prisoner in those cages.

  “Runner.” Orion’s voice tore me out of my self-inflicted spiral. “Stick with us.”

  I knew he shouldn’t be worrying about me, because I should be able to do this myself. But I was sort of glad he was. By their own admission, I was green and shouldn’t have been here. Given free rein with my overly eager electrical pal living in my body, there was no end to the shit I could fuck up.

  Wonder if they ever stopped to consider that this was the reason they didn’t have many Runners? Because they kept putting them in shitty situations while inexperienced.

  The safe was closed again the next time I looked, and the time ticked down at the bottom left corner of my vision. Slowly. Surely. Ninety seconds. There was no way we’d make it out of the compound before the alarms went off. I followed the Blocker while Orion brought up the rear, cleaning up after us as if we’d never been there. We made it to the exit with thirty seconds to spare, but we were moving faster, trying to beat the clock. The fence along the outer perimeter was at least a minute away.

  The night air felt cool as it ruffled my hoodie. I had to hold onto the peak of it so it didn’t blow down. The charcoal facemask made the air taste like a warning. I couldn’t help the trepidation that ran through my body. It wasn’t a premonition so much as a distinct certainty that something was about to happen, except I had no idea what.

  Warning: Portent Ability beyond current skill level. Access may be detrimental to your mind.

  I couldn’t let the messages flickering across my sight unnerve me. I’d get back to them later when I wasn’t trying to outrun an alarm.

  “Run to the edge. The alarm hits in about twenty seconds.” Blocker’s command was crisp and authoritative.

  Ten-year-old me would have wet my pants. But not newly dead me. I flew to the edge of the property, my eyes—used to the dark now—seeking out any interfering guards that might be off track. I balked as I realized the area we were heading to was faintly lit. It meant I’d only blown the power center in the actual building and not the entire compound.

  The Blocker had to have known. He was observant; he was in charge, right? Even so, I sprinted toward the box that charged the fence. I had to. There was no way over it if the power was still on. Shooting electricity through my body, feeding the synapses in my brain be damned with ramifications I’d not yet considered, supercharging my legs, I dashed to the edge so fucking fast, I wasn’t sure how I’d stop in time.

  Not twenty feet out from the fence, sirens began to blare.

  Though the alarm shrieked loudly, I was too far gone in the flow of running to stop, or even for it to trip me up. Skidding to a halt by the hub that powered the entire outer security, I grasped onto the metal leg that fed into the small structure so hard my knuckles turned white. Fuck being subtle. We didn’t have time for that anymore. Right now we needed to get out of here as quickly as possible.

  The power had been thrumming through my body the entire night, and at the mere thought of expelling it, it practically jumped from my body. Electricity crackled around me, through my body, over my skin, dancing like a mini lightning storm. Then it rushed through the structure, and in a split second I smelled burning plastic and charred wiring. My job here was done.

  I glanced back, thinking the others would almost be here, but they weren’t. They were still half-way to the office building. So slow. Had I really sped myself up that much? Pushing myself back into the shadow of the wall where the moonlight couldn’t even find me, I waited, not knowing what else to do. My power sat in my gut, happy, purring like a sated kitten. At least for now.

  Time slowed down again for me, like I was watching people run through a slow motion camera. Red numbers counted slowly higher in the left corner of my vision. Red for the time we’d exceeded our task. Or else for the time we’d screwed up and allowed the alarm to go off. Given that it was my fault, I couldn’t bring myself to just vault over the wall and be done.

  Timestan…


  The power in me surged again, just briefly, cutting off the words that floated across my vision. I’d deal with that later.

  I didn’t have the muscles to carry someone while running not even energizing my body, so there were flaws in my plan. But it was the only thing I could think of to do. My legs wouldn’t budge though. Seconds had passed, and Orion’s eyes were focused on me, begging me to stay put. I felt like a coward. Here I was with a strong ability and no knowledge of how best to use it.

  I clenched my fists, listening to what Orion was trying to convey. I obeyed and stayed where I was, because inside, I was terrified that by trying to help him, I might injure him instead. Closer now. They’d almost reached the shadows.

  Hopefully they wouldn’t start hearing the conversations I had with myself too. I could swear the leaves were whispering to me, trying to pull me in a different direction. Relief washed over me as I managed to recognize Orion’s eye roll. He’d done that as long as I could remember. I’d always been the faster one, the fitter one. If there was one thing I was good at, it was running, and as it turned out, running away.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but a sharp bang cut through the air, and he closed it, panic flitting through his expression so fast I barely recognized it. In the next moment he wore his calculating face, the one he wore when he attempted to work out difficult problems. Only we didn’t have time for that, and the Blocker knew it. Men appeared on the crest of the small hill we’d run down, silhouetted by the red of the glaring battery operated alarms. I wasn’t sure what this place worked on, but they didn’t appreciate interlopers.

  Blocker nodded at me, and I reached forward to grab Orion’s hand and tug him with me.

  A bullet tore through the air where his torso had been but a moment before, and he yelped in surprise, growing pale immediately. I didn’t do so well with blood, so I didn’t look down to see where he was wounded. The only thing I could be grateful of was that the shot didn’t catch him in his chest.