“What do I do?” he asked himself, staring at everything in turn. He tried touching the walls, searching for a hidden cabinet. But, the walls did nothing. They were just walls.
Any luck? asked Mae.
“Nothing,” said Shaun. “I’m back in the lab where we were trapped. It’s just the same furniture. Maybe the capsules are kept in one of those locked rooms.”
What do you see?
He told her what he had in front of him.
Well, that’s obvious, she said. Try some of the controls on that panel.
“But, what if I do something to the ship?”
Shaun, I highly doubt that those controls are the ones that navigate the ship. Just go ahead and try a few of them! We might get lucky.
His stomach was churning with anxiety. There were a million things that could go wrong, but Mae was right. This was his only option.
He stood in front of the panel and examined the various lights. They were all the same size, but different colors. Instead of a grid, these lights were arranged in a circle.
Shaun brought his finger down on a purple light, and as he made contact, a panel opened in the wall, revealing a swirling container of something. Liquid of some sort? That wasn’t helpful.
Another button was tried, resulting in another hidden compartment to open. This one contained nothing of note that Shaun could tell. A stack of discs that he didn’t have the space to transport. All of these things were useless to him.
“Come on…” he said, trying to decide what button he should try next. “Which one of you does something that will help me?”
It seemed counter-intuitive, but there was a red button at the upper left corner of the ring of buttons. He tried that one next, and immediately jumped as something started lowering from the ceiling behind him.
A round compartment was coming down into the middle of the room.
At first he thought that what he was seeing was some sort of hatchway into another level of the ship. But, as the platform came down to chest-level, he realized that this wasn’t just another doorway to a new space. This was, in fact, some sort of overhead storage compartment, and instead of looking into the opening in the ceiling to see what was there, all of the items that were being kept were actually resting on the circular platform, like a dumbwaiter.
His eyes widened as he registered what he was seeing.
What is it? asked Mae, sensing his excitement. Did you find them?
“Mae,” he said, reaching out to take one of the tiny capsules into his grasp. “I think I found the jackpot.”
27
Zolyn In Pursuit
There were no less than five capsules sitting on the platform. Each of them looked exactly as Mae had drawn them from her visions. Like tiny cylinders with a button on the end. How they worked, he had no idea! But, he knew that these were supposedly their salvation, if Xara was to be trusted at all.
In one sweep he grabbed them all and stuffed them into his pockets.
Shaun, I hope you’re right, said Mae suddenly.
“Yes, I’m right,” he answered.
Good, Mae continued. Because we need to get out of here right now! I see Zolyn off in the distance. She’s heading this way — and fast.
“Oh boy…”
Shaun didn’t waste a minute. Stepping into his super speed, he backtracked through the ship. Down the first corridor, then along the second until he was out in the open air. Mae remained at her post, though she was looking off in the distance. As Shaun stepped out of his speed, he saw what she had in her sights, and that indeed was Zolyn.
“She’s coming in fast!” she said.
“It must have been that alarm that’s attracted her,” Shaun added. Then, without wasting a moment, he reached out and brought an arm around Mae. “I think it’s time to get out of here in a flash. Hang on tight.”
Mae didn’t even have a moment to say anything before Shaun gripped her tightly to himself, then shot into the air with them both. The world blurred around them, and he could tell by looking at Mae’s expression that she was holding her breath. It was no secret that she hated moving at the speed of sound, but there was no other way to get out of Boston this quickly.
Up, higher and higher he brought them so that they were cleared of the tallest buildings. The sunlight blinded them for a moment, then he brought them through a few of the clouds. It was wet, but they could hide there, at least visually.
Once they were in the sky, he stopped in real-time to give Mae a chance to catch her breath.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded, taking a shuddering breath.
“I hate this.”
“I know. But, we’ve got to get out of here now. I’m going to speed again. You ready?”
“No. Just do it and get us back to your grandparents’ house.”
He adjusted his grip on her and shot them across the sky. At last, it seemed that something was going right. They had found what they needed, and they hadn’t been caught. Now all they had to do was get back to the safety of the Maine woods, and then everything else could be ironed out.
As the ground blurred beneath them, something caught Shaun’s attention.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw a mass of darkness catching up to him. It wasn’t stationary — it was moving nearly as fast as him.
Focusing his attention on the dark shape he realized that somehow Zolyn had noticed them. Was it their energy that had tipped her off? It didn’t matter now. He could clearly see the darkness of her spheres coming together into a cluster, all held together by that same alien energy.
He wanted to hope that she hadn’t seen them, but that was fruitless. After another few seconds, he knew for sure that she had spotted them, and in another few moments she was going to be completely caught up to them.
“Dammit!” he said through gritted teeth. Just when they were going to be in the clear!
He gave it his all, shooting them as fast as he could across the sky. Zolyn still caught up to them, and she was moving so fast that it appeared as if only the scenery surrounding them was zipping by.
Her upper half solidified into the image of a woman, and her eyes flashed red at him.
“I should have known that you two were more resourceful than I gave you credit for,” she snarled. “Xara helped you.”
“How long did it take for you to figure that out?” Shaun shot back.
“Just now,” she said. “When you made the biggest mistake you could have made and returned to the ship. Trying to find things in locked rooms? Even a lowly human should know that it’s not right to go poking your nose where it doesn’t belong. I have to take you two back with me and put you where you are supposed to be — in my possession.”
“We’re not your possessions!” Shaun said. “And we’re not going to go back with you.”
“You think I won’t catch you?” Zolyn brought her hands up, clenched into fists.
“I’d like to see you try,” Shaun finished, then gave it his all to get them away.
At this point, we’ll never make it back to Maine before Zolyn captures us, thought Shaun as he pushed himself further. His grip tightened on Mae, and he looked down at her clinging to him with her eyes squeezed shut. Maybe Mae’s vision was wrong. Something could have already happened to change things up. We won’t make it back to Shapleigh…
No matter what he did, Shaun couldn’t outrun Zolyn. That left one other option for him to try and make an escape for himself and Mae.
Instantly he dropped his super speed and brought them to a screeching halt, pushing one arm out to buffer them against the air, and using the other arm to grip Mae tightly to himself.
This gave Zolyn a few seconds of super-speed where she blasted into the distance.
Mae glanced at Shaun from her spot against him with her mouth hanging open to catch her breath.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Trust me,” he replied. “I’m going to try something. Hang on!”
Then he cut off his flight and they went plummeting through the air so quickly and suddenly that Mae’s scream caught in her throat. It was terrifying to see the ground rushing towards them, with all the tiny cars and trees, houses and roadways going from the size of toys to rapidly approaching life-size structures, but it was the fastest way to get down on the ground and find some cover.
As they got nearer the ground, Shaun used his free arm to steer them towards a cluster of trees nestled in between a ring of neighborhood houses. Hiding there would give them at least a little bit of cover, and it would keep them out of the direct sunlight that betrayed their position at all times in the sky.
Down through the foliage they descended. Shaun used his feet to blast a few pulses to slow their progress. It was a lot like riding a dropping ride at an amusement park. Their hair flew up, then down with each blast. The branches scratched at their faces and exposed arms, but that was a small price to pay for the quick coverage.
Once they touched down on soft, leaf-covered turf, Shaun glanced up at the treetops, holding his breath.
Had Zolyn seen them descend?
If she had, there would be only a few moments before she came zooming after them.
“We need to hide,” said Mae, thinking two steps ahead of Shaun as he scanned the skies. “Quick — over here.”
She grabbed his hand and dragged him over to a wayward pine with branches cascading around like a tent. With a quick lift of one of these branches, they were able to duck inside and find shelter against the tree trunk. The sudden darkness beneath the branches was actually very peaceful, and Shaun breathed a sigh of relief, whether it was justified or not.
“Do you think she followed us?” asked Shaun in a hushed voice, hoping that Mae could do some sort of scan with her mind.
Mae listened for a moment, her eyes closed as she reached out with her abilities, and after a tense twenty seconds or so she shook her head.
“No, but I don’t think we have a long time to stay hidden. Eventually she’s going to start combing the area, and we’ll need to move if we have any chance of getting away.”
“You think we will still make it back to Maine?”
Shaun felt in his gut that this was now a lost cause. How could they make it back when Zolyn was hot on their tails? She could outrun them with every bit of energy she consumed — and he wondered morbidly in the back of his mind if she had already tested some of her hostages they had witnessed on the news, and if those hostages had tested positive for channeling of the Vestige.
If they had…it was only a matter of time before they were being drained just like Mae had been — and Mae was stronger than a normal person. The two of them had been channeling their powers for what felt like forever. That had to have given them a stamina that an average person didn’t possess.
These normal people were highly susceptible to being overdrawn. That could lead to death through all sorts of bodily malfunctions. Heart attacks, strokes. The thought sent chills down Shaun’s neck.
“We need to trick Zolyn into one of these capsules really fast,” he said, reaching into his pocket.
“So, you got the capsules?” asked Mae, her eyes wide with curiosity.
“Yeah, here they are,” he said, bringing them out of his pocket and into his open palms. “I grabbed them all.”
As Mae took one of them from his collection, a thought struck Shaun.
“Hey, wait a minute! If I grabbed all of the capsules, do you think that one of these might have Zolyn’s hostages in it?”
Mae raised an eyebrow.
“If they do, then that’s amazing luck. I bet those people will be happy to be set free. There’s also the chance that Zolyn has one of those capsules with her. She’s on the prowl, or at least that’s what we’ve seen on the news.”
Shaun nodded. “The more hostages are put away, the less resistance she will come up against.” He turned one of the capsules between his fingertips, examining how simple it was for such a powerful item. “Whatever the case may be,” he continued, “I don’t think we should let them out here under this tree.”
“Yeah,” Mae agreed. “I don’t think there’s enough room for a bunch of people to appear like they’re stepping out of a clown car…”
“We also don’t know which capsule has people in it. How can we tell if they are empty or not?”
“We’ll just have to open them ourselves.”
The two of them paused again, listening. There was silence at first, then the sound of a few car alarms off in the distance broke through the atmosphere, followed by some crashes.
“Sounds like Zolyn is already causing more mayhem,” said Shaun. “I think we should split up.”
“What do you mean? I’m not leaving you to fight alone.”
“I appreciate it, Mae, but there’s not much you can do against Zolyn other than hack into her mind. We still don’t even know if that’s possible. I need you to be safe…and I also need you to be ready with one of these capsules.”
“Oh,” she said, blinking and nodding. “So, you’re going to distract her while I figure all of this out?”
“Do you mind?” He grinned, earning himself a slap on the shoulder.
“How can you joke at a time like this?” Mae scolded him. “We need to focus!”
“I am focused,” he said with a chuckle. “But, I’d rather laugh than cry. Do you think we can make this happen? Even without your visions from earlier coming true?”
“All of them have lined up except for getting back to Maine,” she said. “And I don’t even know if Maine is what I saw with the town square. It could have been a generalization.”
“At the very least, we’re away from a major city,” Shaun agreed. “Less people to be affected, and less damage.” Another crunch of metal and glass burst through the sound of birds and regular afternoon traffic. “Hopefully. I’ll keep Zolyn busy, then you can give me the signal. We’ll push her inside, and then close everything off.”
“Just like throwing a witch into an oven,” muttered Mae. “Sounds like your typical superhero fare, doesn’t it?”
Shaun gave her a wink, then pushed his way out of the tree branches.
“I’ll see you in a bit! And if I don’t make it out of this alive, just keep my comic book collection safe from eBay.”
Mae clearly didn’t appreciate his sense of humor during this tense moment, so she waved him away.
“Go!”
He took off on foot, super-speeding around buildings until he found a spot where he could watch Zolyn without being seen. It was a secluded area just behind a Mom-and-Pop sub shop, complete with a chained-off seating area on the brick sidewalk. He crouched down behind some of the white metal chairs and peered around to see what Zolyn was doing.
As expected, she was turning cars over while people were fleeing. Perhaps she thought that the more destruction she caused, the more tempted he and Mae would be to break their seclusion and come to the rescue. She wasn’t wrong, but Shaun had no intentions of charging in straight away with no bearings on his surroundings.
When he studied the area before him, his brows raised.
This was a place he had seen before, captured in Mae’s drawing earlier that afternoon.
There was the pond with the fountain, surrounded by a small park. Shops faced this park, running along the street with old-fashioned lamp posts. It was all laid out just as Mae had seen.
The park from her vision.
“Maybe things will work out after all,” he muttered.
One can only hope.
28
The Release
Mae had to admit that she didn’t really know what she was doing.
Yes, being told that she needed to open each capsule and let out any prisoners seemed straightforward, but the more she thought about it while she ran in the opposite direction of Shaun, the more she realized that there were so many things that could distract her from her task once the hostages were freed.
How
many people were there going to be in a single prison cube? And how long would it take to vacate one of these capsules so that she could repurpose it to use on Zolyn? Some of these captured people might be injured and unable to move. Would there be people willing to help out with getting everyone back into the real-world? Or would they all just trample each other in their fear to be the first out the door?
I have to plan for the worst-case scenario, Mae told herself, and with that in mind, she hurried in search of a large open area where a crowd of people could be vacated.
There has to be a parking lot of some kind nearby…
This quaint town appeared to be some sort of tourist trap. There were dozens of restaurants that she didn’t recognize. Independent establishments with people walking casually around, shopping for souvenirs and other items, like shirts and apparel.
Most of the parking was on the street with every inch of space being used up by sidewalks and businesses.
Come on, parking lot… There has to be at least one!
Flying would make this much easier, but she couldn’t risk it. Zolyn would spot her in an instant and take her down. Everything had to be on foot and she didn’t possess the same speed powers that Shaun did. This was arduous and taking a lot of energy.
A cramp started to form in her stomach, just on the right side, making it hard to continue at such a steady pace.
She felt like she was in some sort of disaster movie, running as fast as she could, sweating and out of breath, looking over her shoulder every five seconds. She wasn’t being followed, so there was that. Shaun was doing his job keeping the attention off of her.
There was nothing more for open space besides the street parking. The more she looked, the more she started to lose hope.
Then, she turned a corner onto a side street, hoping upon hope that there would be some sort of flat surface that wasn’t crammed with cars or scenery, and what should come into view but a four-floor parking garage.
The Aberrant Series (Book 4): Super Invasion Page 17
