Rise

by K. T. Hanna

  Fine. I’d get up and help Orion.

  He already had most things organized but looked up with faint surprise.

  “Go cut that summer sausage, thanks.” He looked back down at the cheese blocks he was working on, but I could see the flicker of a smile cross his face.

  I’d just finished arranging the sausage, cheese, and crackers plate when the doorbell rang. Orion rushed out to get it, and Cyan and Sam came pouring in, followed by Neale and Levi.

  Neale immediately sought me out. “I hear you’re being reckless with your body.”

  “You know that came off way differently than you intended, right?” I asked, not skipping a beat as I put some relish in a tiny clear plastic container I think had come with a sandwich box set at some stage.

  Neale blushed and ruffled my hair. “Well. Be careful of your back. Those injuries never heal well.”

  I looked up at him and saw the faint glimpse of sadness that colored his words. Neale played basketball, but his older brother had played football a few years ahead of us in high school. Neale had looked up to the guy so much. But then his brother was the victim of an illegal tackle on the day scouts were there to watch the game, and his brother was left with a broken back and no hope of ever walking again.

  So, I got his concern. “I’ll do my best not to worry you again.”

  “Excellent.” He grinned and stole a piece of sausage before I could smack his fingers. “I’ll go wait for the food out there, shall I?”

  I bit the sarcasm off before I could say it and laughed instead. “Yep, you go wait. I’ll be out in a few minutes.”

  Composing myself before I went out, I mantra’d my brain. See, this was my life, not the tasks. These people were my friends, even if half of them were in my program with me. Of course, the level of not-coincidence in that didn’t escape my notice.

  Plastering a smile on my face, I entered the living room with the tray of food held high, determined to enjoy my first Friday night with friends in a damned long time.

  Saturday morning came too quickly. I woke up groggy and allergic to the sun. Well, not actually allergic, because I know there are true allergies to it which really suck, but I buried my head in my pillows, trying desperately to avoid the light.

  Out in the kitchen, I could hear plates being stacked on one another, some eighties music blaring through the speakers. That meant Jacob was up. He always maintained that the eighties and nineties had the best music, and sometimes I had to admit he was right. But only to myself. Not to him. I’d never live it down.

  I lay in the bed with my head buried by my pillow and tried to pretend it was still dark outside.

  Assignment Notification.

  Why could I see it even with my eyes closed? That was so unfair. Eyes closed should mean no sight. I wondered if Orion got it too.

  Location: Meet at the south stairs of the Columbia Bridge off MLK Jr Dr at 5:30p.m.. Do not be late.

  Objective: To be revealed once the team has assembled.

  Time Limit: Not to exceed twelve hours.

  Reward: Determined upon completion.

  Caution: Direct orders must be obeyed. Failure to do so will result in severe punishment or termination.

  Great. There was no going back to sleep now, so I rolled out of bed and onto the floor. Hazard of not sleeping on a proper bed. Or maybe it was a benefit, I didn’t even know anymore. I was still huddled there when Orion burst into my room.

  “Did you get a message?” He whispered in that non-whisper way.

  “Yes. Why don’t you tell the whole world next time?” I was grumpy. I usually did okay on around six hours sleep, but we were up past two in the morning trying to tame a werewolf-succubus hybrid in a village full of innocents. Thanks so much to Sam for those nightmares.

  “I was going to put up a billboard, but it was too expensive.” His humor caught me off guard and made me laugh.

  “Very well, fine sir! You win this time. But be wary, for I shall triumph when next we meet!” It probably would have sounded grander coming from someone who wasn’t half crawling on the floor with blankets still tangled in their legs.

  But at least Orion laughed too. “We have time. But I’m awake now.”

  He was so right. I didn’t want to be awake, but the sun was up too, so more sleep probably wasn’t an option. I had assignments and training, and we were on the home stretch of the second semester. A few more weeks and we’d be done.

  I managed to disentangle myself from the blankets without falling flat on my face, and I figured that was a good start to the day.

  The living room was remarkably tidy, though I couldn’t remember tidying it up. Sam or Cyan had probably done it while I crawled into bed, barely conscious. While I could function on around six hours sleep, any less and I was done for.

  Stumbling into the kitchen, I grabbed an apple out and nodded when Jacob held the pancake mix up above him. He didn’t turn toward me, he never did. But I knew he’d got my answer anyway. I could so go pancakes after being woken up with a damned assignment.

  We both had the same assignment.

  Again. For the third time in two weeks. Surely that wasn’t normal.

  I frowned as I chomped down on the juicy gala apple. Why was that making my gut roil? I mean it wasn’t a hunger grumble, but an uneasiness I couldn’t explain.

  Why are Orion and I on the same mission again? Easiest way to get a direct answer was to ask a direct question. Or so I thought.

  Because your specific skill sets work very well together, and, as a team, you mesh. Therefore, it makes the most sense to throw you together when both of your skill sets are required. Which is fairly often. Does that answer your question?

  Sort of. Which was true. I wanted a color-coordinated graph of how designations and skill sets interacted with each other. Not to mention the ranking system.

  Your affinity, while not rare, has a low survival rate. You have managed to adapt well to yours though, and coupled with Orion’s multiple talents, and your history as friends who are used to working together, it makes sense to send such a sturdy team out when possible. Does that explain it better?

  Yes. It does. And then again, it sort of didn’t. Water and electricity didn’t seem to be the best combination I could think of, but I was just a newb after all. Luckily, I didn’t direct that thought at the system. I wasn’t sure it would put up with that much sarcasm from me.

  Still, though. It was one of those things I needed to figure out. Had they realized we were keeping thoughts to ourselves now?

  I had to make a concerted effort to talk to the system. I’d been silent so often, I’d probably fucked it up.

  Couldn’t you just stop listening to me? I made sure to enter the right amount of plaintiveness into my tone. It’s so hard to keep my mind void of thought so you don’t pry, but damn if it means I can’t really think at all.

  Privacy is that important, isn’t it? It sounded amused, and yet at the same time baffled. I will attempt not to snoop. However, it is difficult. There are certain words, actions, elements that trigger the program and make it check in on the subject.

  Sort of like babysitting us?

  No. More like making sure the investment we’ve made is...okay.

  You were going to say malfunctioning, weren’t you? I half meant it as teasing, but also half because I truly think that’s where it was going.

  Not really. I was going to say cooperating, but it didn’t seem appropriate in this instance.

  Interesting. Does that mean you’ve had agents who didn’t cooperate?

  Rephrase the question. I’m not permitted to answer it in this form.

  Another eye opener. It’s fine. It really wasn’t that important.

  Then why ask in the first place?

  Because we were talking, and it was an organic question. I smiled, the gesture softe
ning my stance.

  True. We were talking. I like to converse with you. It sounded hesitant and that gave me a brief surge of sadness. What was the program? How did it exist, and when had it been created? There were so many things I wanted to say to it. But for now, I thought that maybe being friendlier to this thing in my head might be a good start. Even if I had ulterior motives.

  Me too. With you. The thing was, I wasn’t actually lying. When it wasn’t sending me on missions or listening in on my thoughts, I think I actually liked it.

  The day passed in a blur and it was time to get ready before I knew it. I really needed to get another set of my incognito gear. Non-descript clothes that weren’t heavier sweats and a hoodie. Because pulling these clothes on again made me realize that I’d worn them more than ever over the last six weeks.

  It was still cool enough in the evenings that I could get away with it, but I was going to have to expand my ninja wardrobe if I was going to keep up with this life of crime. I’d always imagined being the superhero, never the villain. It was a bit anticlimactic that I’d acquired super powers and couldn’t use them to leap tall buildings and whatnot.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Orion nudged me with his elbow. Even though his hands remained shoved into his pockets.

  “Life. The universe. Why the fuck I’m not a superhero.” I kicked a small pebble.

  Or I tried to. There’s a reason I run. My aim and hand eye coordination have never been the best, but my speed? Yeah, that I have. The pebble remained exactly where it was as we passed it. If I tried, I swore I could hear it laughing at me.

  “Superheroes are overrated.” Orion started the lecture with the perfect tone. “They never get paid and never get credit for what they do.”

  “We don’t get credit either.”

  “But we do get paid.”

  “Touché!” I laughed. “That was perfectly set up, by the way.”

  Orion grinned and we fell back into companionable silence. I wasn’t too sure about the way down to the river this far north. I’d never gone this way before, not on any of my runs. And after living here for almost three years, I’d gone on a lot of runs. It was darker through this part of town, mostly parks and golf courses, now we’d left the main streets behind us.

  The ornamental street lights flickered intermittently in this section, and I got the constant feeling I was being watched. But when I turned around, I only ever caught brief glimpses of red or yellow. If I brought it up, I knew Orion would probably dismiss it as fireflies. Maybe. He’d been surprisingly amenable to me partitioning his mind.

  “Ever get the feeling you’re being watched?” I asked, my voice deliberately pitched low.

  “All the damned time. For the last two odd years. It’s like something is keeping an eye on me because it knows I should already be dead.” He shrugged and I got the feeling he was exerting extreme willpower not to look behind us.

  But it was amazing news. This probably wasn’t just in my head. “You said you’d noticed shadows with beady red eyes, and clawed hands?”

  He glanced at me, his brow pinched in irritation. “I think so. A couple of times, but after asking and being dismissed by the system, I thought it better to keep hallucinations in my head. Didn’t want to find out the hard way that it was as negative side effect of resurrection.”

  “You realize people don’t hallucinate the same things at the same times, right?” I asked, digging my own hands into my pockets to ward off the sudden chill.

  “That’s not...well. What is it, then?” His words were challenging. Likely because I’d taken something he’d come to terms with and twisted it around to where he’d actually been right all along.

  “I don’t know. But I do know they’ve—or it’s—tried to stop me a couple of times.”

  “Stop you?”

  I realized I hadn’t said that well and searched for the words. Damn. I hoped he was separating the direction of his thoughts right now. “I had to go and retrieve something one night, and right where the lights were out down the bad corner of our street?”

  He nodded, and I gathered the courage and continued.

  “Well, they grabbed me, tried to take it. But I shocked them away and ran.” I took a deep breath trying to settle the nerves. I made it sound like nothing serious, but it had been one of the scariest moments of my life. It seemed to have taken more of a toll on me than I’d realized.

  Orion shook his head. “That’s physical touch. I never got that far, but I’ve always felt watched, judged, and weighed. All of the time. When I look, most of the time, they’re gone. But like now?”

  “Now you feel like they’re following us.” I finished what he was saying, making sure my whisper was soft. He only nodded, his eyes set dead ahead.

  “We need to make it to the bridge soon. Or we’ll miss the meeting.”

  We picked up our pace, and this time I refused to look behind me. They say something is always lurking in the dark, but what were we supposed to do when the darkness that was lurking seemed attached to us?

  The bridge wasn’t exactly as I’d pictured it. Old and rundown, with rusting train tracks all along it, overgrown with patches of vegetation. I wasn’t even sure if it would bear the weight of a train anymore. It sat at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr and Montgomery Drive. Nestled among trees in a low traffic area, it appeared to have been abandoned. It still spanned the river, and at one stage probably seemed majestic. Although now, it just paled in comparison to the newer models.

  From where we stood on Montgomery, the bridge was swallowed by shadows that I swear writhed around it. Orion and I looked at each other at the same time and nodded. If we were going to do this, then we were doing it together.

  He took my hand, and I squeezed his. Doing so gave me that tiny bit of courage I needed to venture down there. I hoped it gave him the same. The path didn’t appear to be well maintained, nor particularly safe, but we had to get there. Second Chancers didn’t get a choice.

  The wind whipped up a bit, tossing branches of the trees surrounding us with abandon. Even the grass moved in time with it. The lawn didn’t seem to have been mowed in an age. At least the portion around and under the actual bridge. The area felt like a vacant lot in an abandoned city. The type of place everyone was warned to steer clear of. The ones they put in post-apocalyptic shows and movies.

  There was a mild stench in the air, of mud and rotting vegetation mixed with that fishy smell of too-old seafood. Seafood didn’t have a fishy taste if it was fresh. The dead fish down by the shore had been there far too long.

  Wait by the bridge.

  Ya think? I directed at my system. But if it was there, it showed no signs of listening to me right now. That made me even more nervous. After all, shouldn’t it be keeping an eye on us?

  The bridge towered over us, almost blocking out most of the remaining light as the sun was setting and cast us into shadows.

  “This isn’t instilling confidence in me.” Orion chattered when he got nervous. “I don’t like the ones where I feel like I’ll hate what I have to do.”

  I was quite surprised that this was the first sign of him disliking his tasks or being scared of our surroundings. There seemed to be more to it, I could see it in the way his eyes darted back and forth. Now wasn’t the time to ask him though, I’d have to do that later.

  Me on the other hand? I had no problem admitting that this mission had already scared me to death. Some actual zombies were about to push out of the ground and kill us both permanently. That’s where my mind was, completely stuck on rotting flesh.

  “Me either.” Pretty sure my voice shook and extended me into a three-syllable word.

  “Well, if some huge worm is about to tunnel up and eat us alive, I’m glad I got to be eaten alive with you.” Orion’s voice was deadpan, but I could feel his body trembling as we stood in front of the meeting plac
e.

  “Seriously, though, what do you think they want us to do?” I had to ask, had to talk, had to keep my overactive imagination at bay.

  “Feed the fish? Fertilize the ground? Repair the bridge?” Orion tried a few quippy puns, but they both fell flat and were decidedly unlikely. “Sorry. I’ve never had a meeting point like this, so I have no idea what to expect.”

  It was after five thirty, and the sun was going down. Behind this massive block of stone, it was already dark. Already on the other side of the day. “Maybe we’re on the wrong side of the bridge?”

  The idea gripped me, and I glanced each way before crossing the deserted road to the next pilon. I crept around to stand on the side closest to the river. Lo and behold, Adam was there, along with someone I’d never seen.

  “Cleaner?” I called out softly, “Come over here.”

  Adam grinned at me. “I see I owe you my life, Runner.”

  “That’s me. Just your friendly citywide Runner. In person. I’ll be here all week.”

  Adam laughed. “I really hope not. I think this one is supposed to be a quick in and out. As long as you’ve got a little more control over that power you have now.” He raised an eyebrow, and while I knew he was grateful I’d been around to help him not die, he probably also wouldn’t have needed my help had my abilities not gone haywire. Such a two-way street.

  I clenched my fists around my trusty little squash ball inside my hoodie pockets to steady myself as Adam continued.

  “This is our Driver.”

  I glanced at the guy I didn’t know. He was very nondescript. His eyes were hidden behind glasses that I really hoped were night vision enhanced, because otherwise he was just being a douche. And his hoodie revealed little about his hair or other facial features. Slightly shorter than Adam, but about two inches taller than me, all he did was nod in our direction. It was all I could do to bite back the comment sitting on my tongue. But telling our Driver that it was great he was so personable was probably not going to help the underlying tension I could already feel brewing.