The Mouse

by Lauretta Hignett

  “Absolutely! I get to take one thing, right? I’m taking my cellphone. I know dad’s credit card number off by heart; I could have a chopper on its way to pick me up with Zara’s summer collection and a large pepperoni pizza inside, within five minutes. I wouldn’t even have to set eyes on my smelly cohort’s dangly bits. Challenge over.”

  “I think you’re missing the point. This is a survivalist’s show, to see how you would go in an apocalyptic situation. They’d be no internet. No choppers, no Dominos…”

  “Well, when the zombie apocalypse comes, then I’ll rethink my options. But I’d have the TV show nailed.”

  “What would you do in a zombie apocalypse?” Sunny asked her curiously.

  “Join the zombies. Become their queen and eat lots of people.”

  “I should have guessed.”

  They snuggled down to watch TV for a while in compatible silence, until Annabel drifted off into a drug-induced slumber, cocooned in her doona nest. Sunny’s yawns forced her off the couch and into Annabel’s mother’s room. As she climbed into the king-sized bed and got comfy between the two-thousand thread-count sheets, she decided she should sleep over more often.

  Before sleep overcame her, she thought again about the EMP. The thing was bothering her; she felt like she was missing something, an important piece of the puzzle. Hunter had told her everything that they knew about it, but it wasn’t much. They didn’t know what it looked like, only what it did.

  And no one had the technology to do what it did, yet that thing was knocking out the electrics in an entire country. It would have to be huge. And she couldn’t see how it could have been concealed in a cave in that mountain, unless the cave was the size of a cathedral.

  The other thing that was missing was any sign of tracks in or out of the mountain, no roads or even muddy paths. The truck that would be used to transport that thing would have to be huge too. But that didn’t feel right either.

  She brought up the valley in her mind’s eye, looking at it from all the angles she could. She focused on the river than ran through it; it had been deep and wide.

  That would be it. That would be how they transported the EMP machine. It was the only way.

  Still puzzling over how they would get it out of a boat and up a mountain, she decided to let it go for the night. She was due at Hunter’s early in the morning and wanted to have a decent night sleep so she’d have her wits about her.

  She cringed in the dark under those soft sheets as she thought about how she had dropped him when he said her real name. Lucky that he didn’t catch on. Although, she mused, as sleep started to creep in, would it be such a bad thing if he knew who she was? She had already told him so much, but nothing that could identify her. And she trusted him so completely.

  But, she thought, sighing to herself, if he knew who she was, someone else could get the information out of him by force. He had agreed – if she could stay as anonymous as possible, then it was less likely that anyone would find out about her.

  But she’d loved it when he said her name. It had felt like a caress.

  No wonder she’d dropped him.

  Chapter 22

  The next morning was Saturday, and Sunny was jolted awake by her phone’s alarm screaming at her to get up. She had given herself fifteen minutes to get to Hunter’s apartment that morning, and she’d told Annabel she wouldn’t wake her when she left. She had just enough time to shower and change into light blue ripped jeans and a white t-shirt and plait her hair into two French braids. As an afterthought and feeling naughty, she sprayed on a little of Minka’s perfume and bounced out of the house with her overnight bag slung over her shoulder.

  The day outside dawned bright and blue. There was a hint of the coming winter’s bite in the crisp air, but it was still warm enough for just the t-shirt. She headed into the dense bushes outside Annabel’s house and took off, headed straight for Hunter’s apartment.

  When she knocked on his door, she was surprised to hear him call out again.

  “If that’s you, Mouse, come on in.”

  Not hesitating this time, she drifted straight through it and headed to the kitchen.

  Hunter stood behind the counter, mid fry-up. He had bacon going in a frying pan, eggs poaching in a small saucepan, and was busy buttering toast.

  “Right on time,” he gave her a salute with the egg slice.

  Her stomach growled loudly, and she slid onto a stool at the counter. “How is it you know exactly when I need to eat?”

  “You know what they say, an army marches on its stomach,” he told her, pouring her a cup of coffee from the filter jug. “Let’s just say I learned from your first little outing. I’m not having you pass out on me again.”

  She sipped at her coffee and made a face. Rolling his eyes at her, Hunter slid over the sugar jar, and she spooned in a couple of teaspoons, took another sip, and sighed with satisfaction.

  “How’s your sick friend?”

  “Annabel? She’s alright. Just got the flu. She looks hilariously awful though, like an Anti-Annabel. She’s usually so perfectly groomed and poised. She’s like a whip, in every sense of the word.”

  “And what about your other friend, was it Simon?”

  Sunny looked down into her coffee. “Simon hasn’t been around in the last couple of days. Because Annabel hasn’t been around.”

  “That’s not particularly healthy. You’ve got other mates to hang out with though, right? With Annabel and Simon both away.”

  “Not really,” she said casually. “I’m kinda new at the school, so I’m just getting to know the other kids in my year. Me and Annabel bonded immediately. She’s my kind of girl.”

  “Ah ha!” He gave her a dirty grin.

  “Not like that.” She rolled her eyes at him. “I admire her, she’s so ambitious. I wish I could be like that.”

  “In my experience, ambitious people are made that way by some sort of deprivation.”

  “That would make sense. Her parents are never around,” Sunny commented, deftly avoiding the fact that Hunter was obviously very ambitious himself.

  He slid some honeyed bacon onto the toast and topped it off with a perfectly poached egg.

  “No hollandaise?” She asked, and he turned around and smacked her gently on the hand with the egg slice.

  He piled his plate high and limped around the counter to take a seat next to her, and she clocked the thick boot on his bad leg.

  “Your foot is in a cast?” Sunny gasped.

  “As it turns out, there’s a minor fracture,” Hunter admitted. “It’s not too bad, but it will heal faster in a brace. I suspected as such; it hurt a bit more than just the usual sprain.”

  “Oh, I feel awful,” Sunny moaned. “I’m so sorry. This hasn’t put you off, has it?”

  “No.” He smiled at her. “I’m dying to do it again.”

  They ate in silence for a bit, and she sipped at her second cup of coffee. “So, same as before? Shall we hit the couch?”

  “Let’s just do it here,” he replied, turning to her.

  She had to stifle a giggle. “You don’t want to lie down, with your leg hurt?”

  “It’s ok here on the bar stool.”

  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, holding out his hand to her. She reached for it, slowly and deliberately, and he suddenly snatched it away.

  “Don’t lift me this time, ok?” Hunter raised his eyebrows at her. “Let’s take this slow.”

  “Anyone would think I’m taking your virginity or something,” Sunny muttered. Hunter winked at her, starting some palpitations in her heart, and held out his hand to her again. She took it and held it for a moment before she went into the Alternate, leaving out one hand.

  She watched him, so still and golden and gorgeous, as his colours swirled and throbbed, then ever so slightly, sped up.

  He was getting quicker and quicker at this, she thought, as she attempted to push her energy over to him. She fumbled for a minute or two. Trying to get hol
d of something that was intangible was difficult, but she was getting better at it.

  And then it suddenly worked. Sunny melded her energy with Hunter's, and as soon as she felt it, like mixing oil and water together, she pulled him into the next dimension with her. He opened his eyes straight away this time and turned to her slowly. Sunny held her breath, trying to decipher the look on his face.

  He was both cautious and elated at the same time.

  “This is…” he breathed. He looked down at his own body, taking in all its colours and lights, and back at Sunny, drinking her in. “Amazing.”

  “I know, right?” She squealed, so excited she felt she might hop out of her skin. Reigning herself in with effort, she sat quietly and let him look slowly around the room for a while.

  “Wow,” Hunter whispered, awestruck.

  Then again, “Wow. Take a look at Angus!”

  Sunny followed his gaze towards Hunter’s bad-tempered rescue cat. He was watching them with disdain from his spot on the side table near the balcony’s sliding doors.

  “He looks incredible. Those spikes of deep blue whirling around in that red…What a fighter!”

  “Are you seeing the same thing I am? Because to me, those colours and that vibration mean he’s a bad-tempered asshole.”

  “I would interpret that as he’s had a hard knock life, but he’s a survivor who fiercely defends the creature comforts that he has now.”

  “So you’re an expert on auras now?”

  “I did a little reading. When you told me about how you could see people’s internal lights when you were here in this dimension.”

  “Oh. Well, you’re officially more of an expert than me, anyway.”

  “You should have done the research, Mouse,” he reprimanded her. “Being able to see people’s characters is another really useful gift you have been given. You should know how to use it.”

  “Your cat is still an asshole,” she muttered belligerently.

  He gave a short laugh and tugged her hand. “Come on then, let’s go somewhere. Just, please try not to let go of my hand.”

  “Not a problem. Where to?”

  “Not too far. Somewhere local, let’s keep it within the continent for now.”

  She thought for a minute, and then slowly drew him up with her. They drifted up, through the white ceiling of his apartment, past the roof crawl space and right up and over the building.

  She paused on the roof, letting him drink in the view.

  He looked around, absorbing the different sight of the city in the Alternate. “I’ve never been up here before; there’s no access. It’s a great view.”

  “You just wait. It’s the living things that look the most beautiful. Are you ready? I thought we’d head to a beautiful spot that I’ve been meaning to visit.”

  “Where?”

  “Wait and see.” She gave him a private smile.

  Holding his hand tightly, she lifted herself up into the sky, pulling him up behind her effortlessly. She went slowly, as not to disorient him, but a quick look at his face told her that he was taking everything in his stride. She went up, a tiny bit faster now until they were a couple of miles above the ground.

  “What’s this, have you got the brakes on or something?” He grinned at her. “I thought you could go fast?”

  “I’ll show you fast, smartass.” She turned him northwest. Shooting like a bullet out of a gun she flew, dragging him beside her, straight up the east side of Australia. She could hear Hunter’s exhilarated shout of laughter as they flashed like lightning up the coast.

  She reached the spot she wanted in seconds and stopped abruptly. Hunter turned to her, smiling widely, glowing like a golden god in his t-shirt and holey jeans.

  “Look down there,” she said, pointing to the seascape below them.

  He turned away from her and looked down.

  She’d brought him to the Whitsunday Islands. Out to sea, sprawled below them, was the Great Barrier Reef.

  The colours were astounding. The base of the reef was the brightest silver, and it was flecked with all the hues of the rainbow, swirling deep shades of magenta and royal blue in some places, flickering candy pinks and mint green in others. There were even some colours that Sunny had never seen before. Besides its colours, just like the oldest trees in the forest, the reef seemed to hum with energy. The thrum it gave off was fast but profound, the deepest Sunny had felt since she came into this world. It seemed to vibrate to the roots of her soul.

  She floated there, gaping like an idiot.

  Hunter turned to her and wordlessly pointed down. She obliged, and they hovered lower, almost touching the ocean.

  They drifted up and down the reef, watching tiny neon fish flit between the undulating anemones and disappear between the bright coral; they watched huge rays fly through the water, kicking up sparkly dust on the ocean floor.

  Up close, they were fully submerged in the energy and colour of the reef. It hummed all around, the ancient vibrations soaking into them. As they explored some more, rather than decrease as time went on, the feelings seemed to intensify, and Sunny felt herself lead Hunter away from the reef, worried they would go mad from the energy they were absorbing.

  He came with her willingly, and they flew away from the reef, heading south-west. She had a place in her mind’s eye to take him to, somewhere that they could be alone. She headed up a bit to navigate properly and spotted the North Island, headed to the west coast, and found what she was looking for. She brought them down on a grassy ledge on the side of an enormous mountain-like rock, overlooking the ocean. She let go of Hunter’s hand.

  His eyes narrowed - he was instantly on high alert. “You shouldn’t have done that,” he said brusquely. “We should have stayed connected and invisible. You don’t know it its safe.”

  She rolled her eyes at him. “We’re okay,” she sang, trying to jolt him out of his sudden mood as he scouted out the small craggy ledge, trying to see up and over the hilltop and shading his eyes to scope out the other two islands in front of them.

  “Where are we?” Hunter barked, sharper than necessary.

  “New Plymouth, on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. This rock is called Paritutu, it’s connected to the land on one side, and dips into the Pacific Ocean on the other.”

  She lay down and made herself comfortable on the springy grass, with a moss-covered rock at her back. “It’s an eroded stump of an old volcanic crater, only takes about half an hour to climb. The peak is over there,” she said, pointing behind her. “We’re on a ledge about four metres down from the lookout. You can’t see this ledge from the top, and you can’t spot it from the ocean down there. We’re completely safe.”

  He turned and glared down at her. “You can’t know that. And why did you let go of my hand? What if we can’t get back out of here?”

  She smiled benignly up at him. “Then we climb up to the lookout on the peak, then down to the carpark. I know a great seafood place a few streets away.”

  He was still on edge and unwilling to relax. “Mouse, I cannot stress how important it is to avoid unnecessary risks.” He crouched down beside her, staring at her face darkly. “We can’t afford to be seen. By anyone.”

  “We won’t be. Not here. I told you, no one can see us from here. And no one can get to this ledge.”

  “How did you find it then?”

  “I fell down here,” she replied calmly.

  “You fell?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  He just stared at her, waiting for her to continue. She squirmed a little under her gaze.

  “Me and Dad came here to New Zealand to visit his aunt Donna a couple of years back. She married a dairy farmer when she was in her early twenties and has lived here ever since. We did a huge trip around both islands, but we spent a bit of time here in Taranaki with Donna. She took us up here to climb Paritutu, it’s a great view of the city from the top. That’s behind us. The view up here is just of the Sugar Loaf Islands. It’
s pretty, isn’t it?” She trailed off, withering under his gaze.

  “Keep going,” he commanded, crossing his arms over his muscular chest.

  “Well, we all climbed up and milled around the lookout up the top, then Dad and Donna and her kids wanted to head down and explore the docks and the carving shop below. I said I’d catch up with them. I loved looking out over the water from such a huge height.”

  “Uh huh,” he prompted, nodding.

  “Anyways, I climbed the barrier to get a better look at the ocean. I wanted to see what the drop was like.” She had to look away from, as his face got more and more incredulous. “Anyway, I fell.”

  “You fell?” He was practically shouting at her.

  “Uh, yeah. Well, I kind of rolled a few metres and dropped down onto this ledge. I hung on to some of these rushes to stop myself from going over. I’m not normally that clumsy, you know,” she added defensively.

  He just stared at her.

  “Anyway, you can’t see this ledge from the top, and you can’t get to it from there unless you’re happy to risk falling to your death. You can’t see it from the sea below – we took a charter boat around here to look at the seals, and I tried to spot it with binoculars, but I couldn’t.”

  “But if you had climbing equipment…” he growled at her.

  “Yeah, but you’d have to know that we were here in the first place. I’m sure we’ve got a few minutes to relax and enjoy the view,” she added lamely.

  He closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose as if she was giving him a headache. “Mouse, I get it, you chose this spot pretty wisely. But we didn’t have to come here at all. Listen,” he said, opening his eyes and giving her an intense, dark stare. “We cannot take any chances. You have to understand what could happen if it got out, what you can do. Do you not remember our conversation about what happens to people who have certain gifts?”

  Sunny felt a chill. “I remember,” she said. “But, like I said, we’re safe here.”

  He took a deep breath, and sat down beside her, elbows resting on his knees. “I guess we can stop here for a bit. But seriously, please tell me you will be more careful. Let’s not materialize in public together again.”