Whispers in the Dark

by Pam Jernigan

  He nodded, but didn't release his hold on her. “Give me a minute,” he requested. With a soft smile, she acquiesced, laying her head on his chest and making one of her little happy noises.

  Leo kept an eye on Jamal, who approached Pip and offered a quiet apology.

  “Oh, well… It’s okay.” She looked away for a second, blowing her breath out, before looking back. “Hey. I’m Pip.”

  “I’m Jamal,” he said. “I saw you talking to Leo, before. But you didn’t tell.”

  Her eyes widened. “You remember that?” She glanced at Karen and Leo. “Thought you were… you know, Mindless.”

  “No,” Leo said quietly. “Borsa experimented on him.”

  “Well, heck. Borsa’s got a cure?”

  Jamal shrugged. “It helped, but… I was still starving. Until Leo and Karen…”

  Pip grinned at him. “Yeah, I always said she was crazy. Just goes to show, God can use anyone. So what can I do to help y’all?”

  #

  When he felt a little more in control of himself, Leo edged Karen away from the group, leaving Jamal and Pip to take charge of the newly awakened.

  Karen took Leo’s hand, leading him towards the building, stopping near the back wall. She searched his face. “You sure you’re okay?”

  He nodded. “Yeah.”

  “What did he do to you?”

  “Injected me. He knew I was different. Made me Mindless again.” He shivered, remembering. “God, Karen, I was so lost. So alone.” He kissed her again, quickly this time. “Thank you.”

  “He must have given you his enhancement formula, afterwards, with all the others.”

  Leo tried to remember, sorting back through a jumble of images, all foggy. “Maybe. All I knew was that I needed something. Desperately.”

  “Feelings,” she answered.

  He smiled at her. “Or you.”

  “I’m just so glad you came back,” Karen said, her voice going a little quavery. She swiped her free hand at her eyes, impatiently brushing tears away. “I was so scared.”

  “It’s okay,” he said, his finger tracing her cheek. “We’re going to be fine.”

  She took a breath and straightened up, pushing down the remnants of sadness. Mastering her emotions and moving forward, that was his Karen. She amazed him. “Yeah. Yes, we will,” she told him. Her eyes shone with affection and humor. “I say so.”

  He melted a little. “Then we will be.”

  She attempted a smile, a weak effort, but beautiful. “And don’t you forget it. All right, let’s go see the Commander. We ought to tell them what’s happened.” She hesitated, looking at him, then headed towards the nearest door.

  He stood still and held on, until the tug on her hand stopped her. She turned in surprise and came to him. “What’s up?”

  Leo looked down at her. “I... wanted to…” Words failed him.

  “Wanted to what?” she asked, in a quieter tone. More intimate.

  He searched her face and saw nothing but invitation. Feeling daring, he leaned down and kissed her more thoroughly. Karen responded immediately, moving closer to him and looping an arm around his neck. After a moment, he pulled back, checking to make sure it was okay.

  “Mmm. You can do that anytime.” There was movement in the yard which broke the spell. She smiled ruefully. “Let’s go.”

  #

  Leo entered the building. For the first time, he decided. The cage didn’t count. Karen seemed to know where she was going. He could sense a lot of high emotion emanating from ahead of them, and she led him straight to it. They stopped at the door to a room filled with people.

  He spotted Borsa immediately; the doctor was standing at the far end of the room, talking loudly. “-you have no choice, Commander. The only way anyone is getting out of this building is if I decide to allow it. If you cooperate, I promise not to use my Mindless formula on you.”

  The man he seemed to be addressing was taller, with sparse gray hair. Karen leaned towards him and said quietly, “That’s Commander Harris. He’s the good guy.”

  He smiled faintly. “I could tell,” he whispered back. The Commander was worried, but trying not to show it.

  "I don't believe you," Harris replied.

  “Would you like me to prove it?” Borsa challenged.

  Leo felt Karen’s burgeoning amusement. “Yes,” she said loudly, from the doorway. “Yes, I’d very much like to see you prove it.”

  Everyone in the room turned to look their way, and Leo had to fight the urge to hide. Instead, he put an arm around Karen, standing close, backing her up.

  Borsa’s expression soured. “You. You have no idea what I’ve done.”

  She shook her head. “Oh, I know what you did. What you don’t know is what God’s done. Just now, outside. Your troops have changed sides.”

  “The Mindless have woken up,” Leo added. “We don’t take orders. We have our free will back.”

  Half the room gasped to hear him speak. Karen looked up at him for a moment. “They make their own choices now. And they’re pretty pissed at you at the moment, Borsa, so, yeah, go outside, I dare you. Order them to obey you. I’d enjoy watching the results.”

  “No, you wouldn’t,” Leo contradicted her. “It would be very ugly.” He spoke directly to Borsa. “Pip and I tried to talk them out of killing you. She’s pretty convincing. Don’t think you ought to test it though.”

  Borsa was gaping at him. “You! You’re Mindless. I made you Mindless.”

  Leo nodded. “Yes, you did. Twice.” He took a moment to master his anger. “But God healed me.”

  The Commander looked at Karen. “Are you saying…?”

  She smiled. “I’m saying, we won. He lost. This is my friend, Leo.” She glanced up at him, with a swell of affection. “He was Mindless, but he got better.”

  I was lost, Leo thought, a vague memory pushing itself forward. But now I’m found.

  “All the other Mindless in the camp are waking up, now, too,” Karen continued. “They’re going to need a lot of help, but… they’re awake, and aware, and starting to remember themselves.”

  “That’s not possible,” Borsa insisted, rage beginning to spiral. “That’s not what my formula was designed to do!”

  “True,” Karen said. “But your formula didn’t do it. Leo started to wake up a week ago. Before that, even. He and I were working together the whole time I was here.”

  “Well, in that case,” the Commander said, his calm now covering underlying anger instead of worry, “I’m going to pass on that whole surrender thing. Borsa, you and your goons are now our prisoners.” He made some hand motions and city soldiers stepped forward, guns pointing towards the camp contingent. “I’m taking control of this camp.”

  Karen smiled at Leo, eyes sparkling. “We did it,” she said, barely loud enough for him to hear over the tumult erupting inside the room. He stepped backwards, involuntarily, and she followed him into the hallway where the wall damped down the turbulent mix of strong emotions. He drew her into a hug.

  “So now what?”

  She shrugged, within his arms, turning her head to snuggle closer to him. “Now… we have a chance. A choice. What we do with it is up to us.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Leo backed up against the wall as people exited the room, hugging Karen close to avoid being in their way. Most of the people kept their distance, regarding them - him - with wide-eyed wariness. Karen looked up at him. “Are they scared of you?” she whispered.

  He shrugged. “Not… exactly. Amazed. Unsure.” He considered the matter. “Some are afraid to hope. And some are starting to feel guilty.”

  “Including Borsa, I hope.”

  Leo concentrated, then shook his head. “No, he’s still just angry, still convinced he was right.”

  She shook her head. “He’s an awful person.”

  “Curt, on the other hand,” Leo reported with some satisfaction, “is begin
ning to be ashamed of himself.”

  “Heh. Good. He didn't even object when Borsa wanted to infect me.”

  It was worse than that, as Leo recalled, but he didn’t know if he should elaborate. “I expect that will haunt him,” he said.

  The Commander came to the doorway, looking around, and nodded when he saw them. “Karen. You’re absolutely sure it’s okay to go outside?”

  Karen nodded, pulling away from Leo’s hug. “Yes, sir. Come on, we’ll introduce you to Jamal. I think he’s going to be the leader for a while.”

  #

  After introducing the Commander to Pip and Jamal, they returned to the mess hall. Leo looked around. The room was still fairly crowded with people, all overflowing with emotion. The energy poured over him from all directions. Too many feelings, almost overwhelming him. He closed his eyes for a moment, not that it made a difference, and tried to remember how he’d used his Mindless powers, earlier. He’d learned how not to broadcast. Could he decide not to receive? To turn it off?

  He tried to pay attention to Karen's conversation with the Commander.

  “Jake’s professor is going to want to see all this,” the Commander said. “He’s already working on those samples you brought. We’ll turn all this stuff over to him and his team.”

  “Jake will love that.” Karen frowned. “There might be too much to move, though. Think they’d want to come here? At least for a little while.”

  The Commander shrugged. “We can suggest it.”

  “Because, trust me, Borsa has a lot in his filing cabinets, and not much method to his madness. Filing, I mean. I have no clue how he ever found anything.”

  “Suzette said,” Leo began hesitantly. They both looked at him. “He filed things haphazardly. I think that was the word. Does it mean… messy?”

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Karen confirmed. “So Suzette might be a resource?”

  " Maybe."

  “Right, we’ll take her, too." Harris sighed. "We might have to take all of them. God only knows where we’ll put them.”

  God, again. “He’ll sort it out,” Leo offered. “Pip said God would sort me out, and I guess He did.” She’d also talked about praying. He wasn’t sure he knew how to do that, but… it was just talking, right? Only, inside your head, which was easier.

  God? Hi. This is Leo. I guess You know that. Um, thanks for letting Karen fix me. I’m going to need a lot of help. Yeah. Could You do something about all the noisy feelings?

  No audible answer. But it occurred to him that while he’d been concentrating on his prayer, some of the other things in the room had faded out. Maybe that was the secret: pick what to focus on. He smiled.

  #

  Things seemed to be progressing nicely, so Leo took Karen back outside, hoping for some peace. That lasted a few moments until they ran into another group of city people. “Hey, Jake,” Karen said, sounding tired, “meet my friend Leo. Leo, this is my ex-boyfriend Jake.”

  He liked how she emphasized the “ex” part of that. “Hi,” Leo said, not sure how to act. At least Jake seemed uncomfortable, too. “You must be the one who took care of Katrina for Karen. Thanks.”

  Jake shuffled his feet and tried not to stare. “I guess you took care of Karen for… well, took care of Karen.”

  “We took turns,” Karen said firmly.

  “So… what just happened here?” Jake asked, plaintively.

  “We… the Mindless,” Leo clarified, “We needed emotions.”

  “They can’t function without them, Jake. So, I… shared mine. With Leo. I wasn’t sure it would work, but it did. It woke him up.” She bounced a little, radiating happiness. Not as intense as the love, but almost as good.

  “And the rest of them?”

  Karen shrugged. “Leo can broadcast emotions, we discovered the other day.”

  “I shared what she was feeling.” He glanced at her, still amazed and humbled at what she’d done. “What we were feeling. With everyone. It woke them up, too.”

  “Okay. Well. Good.”

  “So your dad’s got Borsa in custody. He’s going to turn the lab notes over to you bio-geeks; maybe you can understand Borsa’s work.”

  Jake blinked at the change of topic. “Oh, the creepy doctor, right. That’ll be interesting. What was that guy’s deal?”

  “I think he wanted to rule the world,” Karen suggested. “Or prove that he was right.”

  Leo sorted back through his jumbled memories. “Some of them wanted to rule the world. Borsa wanted to own it.”

  Karen nodded. “So he could do whatever he wanted? Sounds about right. Seriously, Jake, wait until you see some of the man’s lab notes. Deeply creepy.” She shuddered, for emphasis.

  “Yeah, I was looking at your phone, remember? He’s kind of brilliant, though.” Jake cheered up, more confident on this topic. “I can’t wait to dig into his research.”

  “You have fun with that,” Karen said, stifling a yawn. “I want to go home.”

  Leo reached out and took her hand, just because he could, and smiled at her. “I’m with you.”

  #

  “Commander,” Karen asked, approaching him in the courtyard, “can Leo and I ride with you back to the city?”

  Jake’s dad frowned slightly. “I guess.”

  She relaxed a little, leaning against Leo’s side. He staggered, caught off guard, but recovered quickly. “Thanks. I’m tired. Tell you what, Leo can stay at my place, and you can post a guard outside if you want.”

  “That might work,” Harris allowed. “You think your mom will go for that?”

  Karen smiled, hiding her slight doubts. “She’ll be fine.” If she was even there. And if not, she could spend the night at her job; wouldn’t be the first time.

  Leo looked at her sideways, and she smiled, getting her emotions back under control. “It’s okay,” she murmured to him. “I’ll introduce you to mom.” Her mood brightened. “And to Katrina.”

  “Let’s go then,” the commander said, leading them towards the truck, which was standing under one of the lights. From this angle, Karen could see several figures in the back. One of them was Margot, evidently guarding the prisoners.

  “Can we ride in the cab?” Karen asked. She never wanted to get close to Borsa again. No telling what she’d be tempted to do if she was there and he was tied up. Although, on the other hand… Margot probably wouldn’t stop her. She tilted her head, considering possibilities.

  “No,” Leo whispered. “Bad idea.”

  She grinned at him. “You sure?”

  Jake' s dad looked at them. “It’ll be tight in the front.”

  “That’s okay,” Karen assured him. “We’ll just squeeze in.” The commander might not be too comfortable sitting right next to Leo, so she entered the truck first and Leo followed. There was space enough for three of them, but Karen stuck close to Leo, after some creative seat-belting. She leaned against him again and sighed. “Can’t wait to get home.” She yawned. They’d put Leo up in the spare bedroom, most likely; she was pretty sure both God and her mom had rules against sleeping together - but what if she had a nightmare? She didn’t like to think of him being that far away, not after she’d just gotten him back. The drive home would take at least an hour, so she had time; she'd come up with something.

  #

  Karen fell asleep against Leo’s shoulder. He managed to get both arms around her and braced himself against the door so she wouldn’t slide too much with the motion of the truck.

  Riding inside was nicer than riding in the back, he decided. Less windy, less danger of sliding out.

  The commander kept silent as they travelled, his emotions under control but still evident to Leo. Uneasiness and worry sometimes shaded towards fear. Hardly surprising. Radical changes could be scary.

  They came to a halt in front of a wall, with soldiers standing guard. After a moment, the wall retracted, pulling to one side. Sliding open, like a giant closet door. They
drove through it and parked. The Commander looked sideways at him and Karen. “Stay here,” he ordered.

  That was an easy order to follow; he enjoyed holding Karen as she slept in his arms. People moved about in the surrounding spaces, but he paid little attention, focused on the woman he loved. A few minutes later the commander came back towards the passenger side door, a small contingent of soldiers trailing behind. They weren’t scared, exactly, but neither were they comfortable, and something about their resolve made him nervous.

  Reluctantly, he lowered his head and whispered, “Karen. Time to wake up.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  “Don’t want to wake up,” Karen mumbled against his shoulder, not budging.

  “I think you’d better,” he said, sharing some of his growing unease.

  She sat up, rubbing her eyes and looking around. “We’re back in the city. Everything should be good, right?”

  At that point, the door opened from the outside. Leo turned sideways and discovered several guns aimed in his direction. He tried to push Karen behind him, even as he asked, “What is this?”

  Karen pushed herself forward again. “What the heck?”

  “This is only a precaution,” the Commander stated, shifting his weight. “Karen, we need for your friend to come with us.”

  “His name is Leo,” she snapped. “And he’s right here; you could try talking to him.”

  “The council wants him contained,” was the only answer she got.

  Karen was starting to get angry, and she wrapped an arm around his waist, anchoring herself. “Contained where?”

  “Jail.” The Commander held up a hand to ward off her protest, his emotions still under control. He wasn’t scared, wasn’t angry, but he did seem determined. “Quarantine. Just for overnight. Tomorrow the council will want to talk to him. Then they’ll decide what to do.”

  Karen glanced up at Leo, but he stayed quiet, letting her handle it. After a moment, she said, “Fine. But I’m staying with him.”

  “That’s not a good idea, Karen.”