Sapience

by bret Wellman

  “So are we.” Adrian said before she finished. “Spencer, Brianna, and the others, they were trained to obey too.”

  “When are they coming here?” I asked. The thought of being hunted by the same people I grew up with ran goose bumps up my arms.

  “Could be a week could be a month.” Lillie looked like she hadn’t slept in days. Her exhaustion was obvious as she spoke. “The Kingdom hasn’t decided yet.”

  I realized I was squeezing a throw pillow against my chest. I didn’t bother to let go. Instead I squeezed tighter.

  “They're only sending one?” I looked at the floor as I spoke.

  “There are too many armories to send more than one.” Adrian informed me.

  “If that one physical user were to call in for backup I imagine they would send them all.” Lillie added.

  So that was what was on the documents. They were sending a physical user in to flush us out. If they succeeded no doubt the world would come crashing down right on top of our heads.

  I hopped off the couch and went into the kitchen. It was more than frightening to know the lengths the Kingdom was willing to go to get us back. Why couldn’t they just let things be? We would just go our own way and the Kingdom could go theirs? I thought even though deep down I knew how valuable we were to the Kingdom, I was just afraid to admit it. They could live without a few physical users, but we were the only three mental users in the world. The Kingdom would refuse to ever let us get away, no matter what the cost. My shirt seemed a little tight at my neck, I tugged on it to try and loosen it up.

  I had to get rid of some stress, but had already showered and didn’t want to work out so I started pulling out vegetables, uncertain of what I was going to make. I pulled out a piece of steak and a chicken breast and added them to my pile of ingredients. Lastly, I cut up some potatoes, onions, and tomatoes.

  When everything was out, there was quite a large pile of ingredients. I ignored the vegetables and started cooking the meat in a pan. It didn’t take long for the juices and butter to sizzle in the heat. After adding the potatoes, I turned the stove up and pulled out a large butcher’s knife. It was a short release of tension as I chopped up the meat. It helped for a minute but soon all the meat had been cut.

  To be honest, I knew very little about cooking. I figured as long as everything was heated up enough it would be safe to eat. Lillie was an expert, I was winging it.

  I pulled out more pans and started cutting and cooking the vegetables. It was fast becoming a complicated juggle trying to keep everything cooking at the right pace. I welcomed it. My mind was so wrapped up it became hard to remember anything else.

  Slowly, as everything began to fall into place it got easier and easier until I was simply stirring the pots every so often.

  Soon it became so easy to stir that my thoughts began to wander. I glanced out to the papers lying on the living room floor.

  The Kingdom was sending a physical user here to try and find us. They were also sending them everywhere else. It would be stupid to ignore the danger but for now we were still safe and as long as we weren't noticed it would stay that way.

  We could run, but that would be a waste. Every town we would come to would present the same danger. That meant that staying here was just as good as anything, and I much preferred staying here.

  If we were discovered we would simply fight. The Kingdom's entire army would be right on top of us and we would most likely end up dead. At least it was better than being a slave to the Kingdom again.

  In the end it seemed logical to continue on the same as always. Try to blend in and let the cards land where they may. Maybe the physical user wouldn’t be able to recognize me. My eyes were different now than they used to be. That may be all I need.

  I knew that from then on I wouldn’t worry about the future. What was going to happen would happen and there was no need to fear it.

  When the food was done I sprinkled it with one last bit of seasoning. It smelled delicious but I wasn’t quite so sure if it would taste good or not. Before I had time to talk myself out of it, I filled a plate and went to the dining room. I was cautious when taking my first bite but after the juices caressed my taste buds I was soon devouring the whole plate.

  Lillie and Adrian bickered back and forth about the papers for the rest of the night so I decided to go to bed early.

  I fell asleep fast. The night before I had been worried about going into the armory so bad that I had hardly gotten any sleep. It felt like I had blinked and it was already the morning.

  I was happy it was Saturday until I realized I actually wanted to go to school. I was going to have to wait until Monday before I had a chance to see Brianna again.

  Lillie greeted me in the dining room with a plate of bacon and eggs.

  “Good morning William. How did you sleep?” She asked.

  “Great.” I said through a mouth full of food.

  “Don’t speak with food in your mouth.” She said with a scowl. It was times like these that made me think of Lillie as the mother I never had. She was a few years older than me and ever since I could remember she used that excuse as a reason to take care of me.

  I ate breakfast slowly savoring every bite. Lillie grabbed my plate when I was done and left to go wash it.

  She soon came back and asked if I would start work on a back porch. She gave me solid instructions on the proper way to set it up and sent me on my way.

  It was steady work and a few hours flew by before I knew it. At first I had no clue what I was doing but soon discovered how simple Lillie’s instructions made building a frame. When I was satisfied with the amount of work I had gotten done for the day I decided to wrap things up and go check out the rest of the property.

  My first stop was an old shed at the edge of the forest in the back yard. Trees towered over me in every direction as if to point out how secluded the mansion really was.

  It was cold outside so I slipped on my brown jacket as I left.

  The shed was only a short walk from the house. It was old and faded, I could almost see it being part of the woods, as if it had grown like that, straight out of the ground. Once I reached the shed I was surprised to see how old and battered it truly was. It looked like it could fall over at any second. Yet I still felt that it fit in perfect sitting here at the edge of the woods. Somehow it belonged.

  When I pulled the latch and started to open the door there was no resistance at all. I expected it to stick or break, maybe even be locked… something. The door opened as if it were only a day old. When I looked inside I found out why.

  Shiny diamond chrome plating covered the walls from the ceiling all the way down to a diamond chrome plate table top that surrounded the border of the room. Guns hung from brackets in the wall. Not one the same. There were machine guns, rifles, shot guns. There was a time when I knew all the names of these guns, now I could only remember a few. AA12- automatic shot gun, AAB ACR- Assault Rifle, Accu- Tek AT32- Pistol. These weren’t your average everyday hunting weapons, unless you were hunting an army. There was even a rocket launcher and some grenades. It all sat peacefully under the glow of fluorescent lights.

  I stood frozen half in the door half in the yard not sure if it would be safe to step in any further. Why wasn’t the door locked? You would think the person who owned this stuff wouldn’t want anyone accidentally wandering in.

  “What do you think?” I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sound of Adrian’s voice behind me.

  “We have enough artillery to start a war in our back yard.” I said as he stepped past me.

  He glanced around the room taking a big breath of air. The smile on his face sent chills up and down my arms.

  “The first person to try and rob our house is in for a surprise.” He said, tossing a grenade in his hand.

  “I wouldn’t want to be that guy. What if he comes while we are asleep?”

  “I have a similar stash under my bed.”

  The room got a little crowded for my taste
as he grabbed a shot gun and cocked it.

  “Great selection isn’t it?”

  “The best I’ve ever seen in one place.” I agreed. I spotted a few mortars propped up against the back wall above them were thousands of clips of ammunition.

  “What do you think about the Kingdom sending a physical user to find us?” He said, changing the subject. His voice was a little bit too mocking for my taste, as if he thought I was scared.

  “I think we should just keep doing what we’re doing.” I didn’t add that I had already accepted whatever fate might lie ahead.

  He placed the shotgun back up on the hanger. “I agree. No need to run like scared rabbits.”

  “We have no other choice.”

  “I could think of a few things.” He smiled. “But this way is more exciting.”

  “Exciting is always a plus.” Whatever he was thinking, I didn’t want any part of it.

  He watched me carefully, obviously judging my reaction.

  “You think I’ve been a jerk don’t you?” He said in a dead serious tone. “That I’ve been hard on you?”

  “Well.” I wasn’t sure how to answer. I really wasn’t in the mood for a fight and the wrong answer could easily cause one.

  “It’s ok.” He said. “I have been and you know it.”

  “You were just trying to protect us.” Was he apologizing?

  “I was.” He kicked the toe of his shoe into the ground. “But that’s no excuse. I was wrong. There are other ways that are just as affective. We would still be safe without me acting like I did.”

  “Considering the situation, it wasn’t that bad.” Actually it was, I just didn’t want to provoke him.

  I flinched as he waved the shotgun around. “Not that bad? I can see it in your face. I was horrible.”

  “No harm no foul.” I didn’t mention that punching me counted as harm. “I’m going to go explore the woods for a while.” I knew he was trying to come clean. But it was still hard to talk to him, we were too different now.

  “There’s a trail that starts in our back yard.” He called from the shed. “Follow it.”

  I thought about going down the trail and turning off as soon as I was out of his eyesight but thought better of it. He had built this trail for a reason and I couldn’t help but wonder why. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t noticed this trail before. I guess it was because other than fixing the siding on the house and building the deck I hadn’t been outside much.

  The trail led me deep into the woods. As far as I could tell it wasn’t in any particular direction. Most the leaves had fallen to the ground in an assortment of browns and oranges. The thin leaves that remained on the tree made it easy to see for long distances, though as far as I could tell the house was out of sight. It was sort of like being in a tunnel, I bet the sun would hardly get through in midsummer. Even though it seemed to go on for a long time, I didn’t mind the walk at all. The ground was a colorful barrage of orange, brown and yellow, it was full of life.

  I was watching a rabbit dart from a group of bushes when I noticed an opening in the woods further up ahead. Before I could take another step I noticed that under my feet the trail had turned to golden colored sand.

  Anticipation pushed me ahead, I can’t say why but something inside of me, a childish part that I had never known, enticed me to start running and I soon emerged from the trees.

  Dead center in the middle of the forest a large lake emerged. It shimmered and sparkled with glassy ripples. The woods wrapped around it in either direction hiding it from the outside world. An island of gold sand grew defiantly in the center of the lake a hundred yards out. Beaches with similar sand lined the shore every so often like the lakes hands trying to push back the woods.

  The beach I stood on was the largest of them all. It was as big as a football field lying alongside the water’s edge. Four wave runners and a red speed boat floated in place at the end of a freshly built silver dock.

  A memory pushed its way back into my mind, a satellite image. How could I have forgotten this lake?

  I was just admiring the beauty of the view that was laid out before me. I casually strolled down to the water’s edge and sat in the welcoming blanket of the sand. I had read a document once where the author was talking about the smell of fall. I had always tried to conclude what that would be, deciphering chemicals in the air from decaying leaves and such. Even with all my power I had never come close to predicting it would smell like this. It was so much more potent and wonderful, the air smelt almost like cinnamon.

  As I sat there I couldn’t help but wonder what Brianna would be doing at that same moment. Would she be thinking of me? I banished the thought quickly. Why did I insist on complicating things? If Brianna knew what I thought about her, surely it would drive her away. I couldn’t let myself think like that. For now it would be best if we simply worked on being friends. With a determined sigh I laid back in the sand and let my mind go blank. The sound of the lake calmed my breathing.

  I felt blessed to be free, to be able to just lay around and not forced to train my life away.

  The warm sun fought away the bite of the cool wind. The sand curled around my arms and legs. I laid there, it seemed so ridiculous yet somehow it was fulfilling, maybe this was why people meditated. The sound of water and woods blended together with the chirping of birds and then slowly began to fade until I was drifting into sleep.

  When I woke it was night. Any heat the sun had granted was gone. The woods I had to walk back through looked a lot more sinister in the dark than they had earlier.

  The concept of walking through the dark woods was frightening but it had to be done. I sat up and watched the moon glisten against the lake for a while, not wanting to make the long walk back. It was ten minutes before I reluctantly got up and started to make my way through the woods.

  I tried as best I could not to be frightened at every sound coming from the black wall on either side of the trail. A rabbit ran through a bush close to my side making me jump a foot off the ground.

  The moon lit the woods just enough to make it more creepy. The shadows of trees made it impossible to see any farther than what was right in front of me. If something were to jump out at me I would never see it coming. But what would jump out, a bear, some other wild animal, one of the government’s men? If someone was waiting for the perfect moment to kill one of us, now would be better than ever.

  I was determined to make it out as quickly as possible. I kept putting one foot in front of the other and was soon released from the grip of the trees into the warm embrace of my back yard.

  When I got inside Adrian was waiting with a plate of food.

  “Adrian cooked us dinner.” Lillie said as I took off my coat.

  “He did?” It was hard to believe.

  “Like I said.” Adrian placed the warm plate of steak and vegetables in my hands. “I’m doing things different from now on.”

  There was a movie starting on the TV in the living room so I brought the plate of food with me to the couch and started to watch it. Lillie sat down on the same couch as Adrian and I sprawled out on the other one.

  “You guys never told me there was a lake out here.” I said when there was a lull in action.

  “We thought you knew.” Lillie said. “You must have forgotten when you got struck with that dart.”

  “I figured that out.” Adrian said. “So I bought the boats and built the dock. I was going to surprise you next spring.”

  “I guess that’s fair.” I ate a mouthful of food before going on. “It’s a really nice lake, secluded too.”

  “That’s what you told us before we escaped the Kingdom.” Lillie said, turning her attention back to the movie.

  Like remembering a dream I had forgotten, I slowly recalled a conversation I had had with them about the lake. It was foggy but I had known about the lake before coming here, more than just the satellite image. I wonder how much I had forgotten. It was a disturbing thought that wouldn’t go
away for the rest of the night.

  It was sprinkling when I woke the next morning, the air was foggy. I dressed for the cold in a gray zip-up sweater Lillie had bought a few weeks earlier. I flipped the hood over my head and went to the kitchen.

  I poured myself a bowl of cereal and ate in tired silence at breakfast. I could hear Adrian and Lillie making plans in the other room. I was content to enjoy my meal before seeing what they were up to.

  In the still of the kitchen the only thoughts that seemed to be coming to my head were all about the physical user being sent to look for us. I worried for our safety. What if one of us had to fight, to kill them? There would be no avoiding that attention, game over. Could I even kill one of my own?

  My new train of thought frightened me more than I wanted. To try to clear my head, I went to the living room where Adrian and Lillie were coming to the end of an argument.

  “So what’s on the agenda for today?” Their heads snapped up as I spoke.

  Adrian studied me for a short pause before speaking. “We have decided to go warn the others about this new threat.”

  “We're going to force them to move in with us.” Lillie added. “For their safety.”

  “We can’t force them.” I was frantic to explain. “They don’t trust us.”

  I could see all the trust Brianna had given me start to vanish in their words. I wanted to object, to put my foot down and say no. But I wanted Brianna to be safe even more.

  “Won’t it be dangerous to have us all in one place?” I asked.

  Lillie shook her head. “Under normal circumstances maybe, but with Adrian and I spending our time on the lookout, we think this will make things much easier to keep track of everyone.”

  This could only end in two ways,

  1. The house is going to get very awkward for a while.

  2. There is probably going to be a shootout.

  Chapter 9

  Adrian led us out to the black suburban in the driveway. Apparently while I was still asleep, Lillie had figured out Brianna’s house number and Adrian had called for them to meet us in the middle of some random park. I couldn’t imagine what he might have said to get them all there. But no doubt it would work. The whole idea of Adrian calling Brianna’s house was embarrassing so I tried not to think about it. I had to hand it to them, when they said they were going to do something they sure didn’t mess around.