Cry For Tomorrow (37 page)

The crowd shifted and I noticed that the two rows of freaks on the outer-fringes of the crowd had moved out and away from those clasping the crystals. And when I saw the look of determination in their eyes I knew that these were not the vague, lost freaks of the inner-cities but the more powerful of the psis like my friends and I who had managed to conceal our identities, and sanity, within the ranks of the lost.

These men and women now gathered in small circles and threw their heads back, focusing their telekinetic abilities on repelling the advancing troops and protecting those within the circle. The sounds of hover-craft and chopper engines stuttered and faltered and one of the helicopters dropped from the sky. Others followed. Flames erupted from the fields where they crashed.

There were muted cries from the crowd now but it was not for the sake of the fallen enemy. Astonished and filled with a warring sense of fear and awe, I could only stare as, in the blue of the sky and the roiling tumble of golden clouds, the faces of the denizens of Tereus appeared, so ghostly, yet growing denser with every throb of the storm brewing.

“Halie, it’s time.” Rainor squeezed my shoulders in an attempt to reassure me as he led me away from my friends and into the middle of the platform.

“W-what do you want me to do?” I managed to whisper. My knees were shaking and I was afraid that I just might really faint this time.

“Hold the heart out on the palms of your hands like so—” Rainor was behind me, his strong arms holding me close against his chest. I could feel the energy from his body rising, radiating into mine as he whispered, “I want you to trust me now, close your eyes and relax. I’m here and together we are going to
feel
for the place where the two worlds are touching.”

His voice was so soft and hypnotic and I could feel it. I could hear the voices of those Beyond, and they were demanding entrance.

The crowd of freaks surrounding us were already lost in a mindless chant, completely unaware that the crystal chip clutched in their hands was absorbing the wells of psychic energy trapped within their minds, and the burning heart of the crystal was greedily drawing all that energy to it, consuming it.

“Yes! I can feel it, it’s right
there
.” The stone clutched in my hands was burning with growing life, but I knew that my flesh was safe and did not try to pull them away. The waves of energy pulsing from the gem continued to build until I felt as if I was nothing more than a small cork adrift in a storming sea of energy. Trapped within the roiling waves and flashing lightening of the psychic storm, I had no choice but to hold on, focusing all of my attention
, becoming
the matrix for the energy being reflected and multiplied within the crystal heart.

Far away, at the edge of my awareness, I heard the soft
buzz!
of a taser set on stun, and Rainor’s arms went slack. Within a blink of the first, a second
buzz!
caught the big man at my side in the chest before he could fully turn to face his attackers.
I was aware of their bodies falling but I dared not let my concentration waver long enough to check that they were safe. There was no one to go to their aid, for the crowd of telekinetic people surrounding me were already trapped within the energy matrix I was commanding and totally unaware of what was happening around them.

“We’re here,” whispered Jennie and Jake as they took positions on each side of me. As we’d agreed, they had taken the precaution of shielding themselves and their telekinetic energy from me, retaining a full awareness of what was happening around them so that they could protect me.

Nodding my head to acknowledge them, I closed my eyes and concentrated. I was aware of the rumble and shake of the ground under us. Even the air sparked with the electrical charge surrounding me, but I ignored everything outside of the throbbing heartbeat of the crystal. I could feel the pulse of the under-world now, feel the phantoms surging against the curtain, reaching for the heat of our sun, demanding release. Within my mind I pictured the currents of energy surging around me and
reached
, drawing it all to me.

I visualized a swirling storm of energy and wind, and when it had grown so great that I could feel it tugging at the limits of my control, I
pushed
with every grain of the energy I had gathered and
released it—and felt Tereus moving away!

Those trapped on the far side went insane. Pounding and flying against the curtain, they tried to force a way through the damaged fabric of the dimensions, but their efforts were for naught. It felt as if the whole world was shaking now, but I trusted my friends and the hands I felt holding me as I retained my hold, refusing to release the storm.

The sky and earth around us seemed to roll together, as if we were trapped within a water-globe full of snowflakes and tiny stars being shaken by a child’s careless hand, and all the bits and pieces of two worlds swirled together. A wall of dancing flames coursed across the horizon and the sky exploded in a firestorm of meteors and falling stars all rushing toward the earth.

I felt a sudden surge of energy, and it was free! Released from the grip of the storm, the worlds fell away. Free from over-world’s deadly grip, Tereus began a slow spiral toward its original orbit, and with it went the meteors and falling stars dancing in its wake.

Suddenly aware that the crystal was burning my hands, I dropped it. Still pulsing with the remnants of the telekinetic energy that had been feeding it, the crystal continued to burn like a tiny sun gone nova until it had consumed every stray bit of energy from the minds around me and went dark.

When I was finally able to focus my eyes again I realized that the sudden gravitational release had thrown most of the freaks trapped in my matrix to the ground.

“Halie, are you okay?” Jennie asked as she helped me to my feet. I didn’t remember falling. I didn’t answer her right away. My attention was on the freaks scattered on the ground around the village square.

“I’m okay, but I think it’s going to be a while before they—” I nodded at the confused and
conscious
expressions on the faces of the freaks already gathering together, “make much sense of what’s going on.”

“Did you do it? Did it really work, Sissy?” Kelly asked hopefully as I helped her to her feet.

“I don’t know,” I mumbled as I stared at the carnage of tumbled buildings surrounding us. Before I could say anything else, Ben and Rainor stirred, waking from their sleep. They each reacted with horror when they realized what had happened.

“Halie, what have you done?” gasped Ben.

But Rainor was beyond words—he could only stare around him in despair.

As if exhausted from its efforts, the world around us paused, taking a deep breath, and all was suddenly still. Nothing moved, not even a whisper of wind. And then the earth began to tremble and a high-pitched whistling began, as if the wind was calling all the demons of hell to its arms.

Holding tight to Kelly, I huddled together with my friends in the open. We were too afraid to run to one of the village houses for protection, as the earth shook and rumbled under us. Cracks and trenches began to appear, criss-crossing the earth as if a madman slashed at it with a great clever, and from these cracks rose billowing smoke and clouds of phantoms.
Like flocks of frightened pigeons, they fluttered skyward and became trapped in one of the hundreds of small wind-devils flitting from place to place.

We watched with a mix of emotions as one of the giant, armed helicopters dared to attempt an approach of the village and was instantly prey to one of the tornadoes. I wanted to laugh at the foolishness of an enemy but a sob for the lives lost was the only thing I could manage.

Ben was on his feet and his arms were around my waist, holding me tight against the wind surging around us. “You should have warned me,” he shouted to be heard over the sound of screaming phantoms. “I would have understood!”

“Did you know? Were you aware of the danger there would be in merging the two worlds when you followed us to Tereus?” I demanded. “Do you understand why I had to stop this?”

Ben nodded his head. “This was not my plan. My superiors insisted that theirs was the only way, that as long as we maintained control that everything would be okay.
No one
believed that there was a psi strong enough to stop the merging!”

Jake leaned in and added, “Hey, I don’t believe that garbage for a minute! You know as well as I do that the military saw the merging as a way to gain bodies for their damned armies. Did they really believe that they could ever control the ghouls?”

“Yes, they did,” rasped Rainor as he dragged himself to his feet. “They all wanted it so bad that they were even willing to deal with a monster like Selena.” He shook his head sadly and went on, “Even we of Tereus wanted—
needed
—to believe so much that we refused to see the truth. Now I know that no one, not even Selena, would have been able to control the ghouls. They would have ravaged the humans of your world without mercy.”

He looked into my eyes and I could see the tears of helplessness in them. “I’m sorry, I wanted to believe that the curtain would have nullified them but there was never any proof of this. There just was not any other hope. The other conservatives and I tried for more than a year to acquire enough of the sane psis to work together to drive away the two dimensions, but we couldn’t get to them before your Agency did. Ben’s right. No one ever really believed that there was a lone psi able to stop the merging.”

A cluster of phantoms shrieked through the village square, twisting and turning, fighting against the wind funnel sucking them toward the mad collage of gold and silver clouds swirling overhead. Rainor shivered and turned his head to watch as they lost the battle and were absorbed by the clouds.

The frogg suddenly leaped for us, throwing his fat, chunky body against Rainor’s legs and wrapping his fore arms around him. Trembling in fear, Ralph croaked pitifully.

“It will be all right, my friend,” he tried to reassure the terrified creature as he stroked his head. “We’re just going home the hard way.”

Suddenly remembering that Rainor was not really one of us, I reached out for him. “Rainor, what’s happening?”

“No, don’t touch me. I’m afraid you might get trapped in the vortex as well,” he warned. Seeing the concern in our faces, he whispered words of reassurance. “Don’t worry, I’ll be alright, all of us will be. The vortex is just taking us back to where we belong.” And now it was plain that something was happening, for he was fading, growing almost transparent, and a small vortex of air seemed to be forming around him and the frogg.

“It was an honor and a true privilege to have known you all,” he smiled wanly at us as his image faded more. “Halie, if things could have been different—” he held his hand out to me as the speed of the vortex increased. Bits of him seemed to fly away until all the molecules of the two beings within were part of the miniature wind devil flying toward the golden clouds overhead.

I fell to my knees, devastated by his loss, and watched until the funnel cloud had been completely absorbed.

As the exodus of phantoms faded, so did the earthquakes rocking the world. The people of the village were confused, but long years of practice and habit soon had them disappearing into the surrounding landscape.

The soldiers who survived the expulsion of Tereus and its denizens found no one to blame or punish. All had had the good sense to leave.

Kelly, Jon and Merry frolicked along the beach, pausing to toss the stick for the spotted dog splashing at their sides. In the distance, other figures walked the beach, too busy with their own affairs to care.

“This new village Pete and Karol are taking us to sounds like a promising place to start over. Have you been there before?” I asked as I walked along beside Ben.

“No. I
have
heard of it but my, umm,” he coughed diplomatically, “line of business made me less than welcome in the outlying villages and communes.”

“So, are you planning on returning to the Agency?” Jake asked from his other side. “It seems to me that now might be a really good time to reconsider your carrier choices.”

“Yes, does seem that way now, doesn’t it. ‘Course it would help my decision process a whole lot if a certain red-headed lady would, say, give me a little encouragement.”

He looked down at me with those big blue eyes and that goofy grin of his and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Hey, Kelly is much too young to make any such commitment!” Before he could reach me, I was running down the beach, laughing.

It didn’t take very long for him to catch me and our tumble into the sand quickly became a very long kiss. “Is that encouragement enough, sir?” I grinned up at him when he finally released my mouth.

“Well now, I am just a country boy and sometimes it takes me two or three times even before I understand properly.” He was reaching for me when the rest of our group caught up to us.

“Hey you two, we aren’t going to make very good time if you keep lying down on the job,” teased Jennie.

“Okay, okay.” Ben reluctantly released me.

The moment of levity was short-lived and my mind soon returned to the events of the day. I turned my head and stared back at the scattered fires that were still burning brightly against the horizon and the streaks of orange and red bleeding into the sunset. Everything was going to be different now.

Jennie jumped and shrieked softly in surprise when a small group of freaks flowed from between the sand dunes beside us and fluttered onto the beach.

A large man with a black beard and long hair smiled at us and waved one hand before they strode past. All of the group managed to make some kind of eye contact as they passed.

“It’s going to take a while before I get used to that,” commented Jake.

“Right, a world without freaks,” agreed Jennie. “Imagine that.”

“Do you think the Expulsion has done that for all of them?” I asked Ben.

“I hope so.”