Embers & Ice (Rouge) (15 page)

TWENTY-SEVEN

“Well-”
said Eli as he slipped into the backseat of the car, coffee sloshing over the
rim of the plastic lid, and slammed the door just as Joshua skidded away from
the curb. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m pretty keen to put Minneapolis
in the rear vision mirror.”

He
handed Jenny the coffee and she took it wordlessly. Joshua wriggled in the
driver’s seat, his eyes – as always – glued to the road. There was tension in
the air, and Joshua wasn’t sure if it was his fault or if it had something to
do with Jenny as well.

“Guys?”

“Why,
did something happen to you last night while you were out gallivanting around
the city behind my back?” Joshua snapped. He remembered hearing the boy sneak
back into the hotel room at an earlier hour than he expected, but decided to
leave it until morning to get furious.

“For
your information,” said Eli, “I visited my mother, a mother I haven’t seen nor
heard from in nine years since she ran out on me and my dad. I’m terribly sorry
if that was any inconvenience to you. I’ll try to be less
selfish
next
time.”

The
car went instantly cold. Joshua squirmed in the seat and said nothing.

“Are
you alright?” Jenny asked him.

Eli
shrugged. “I guess so. It wasn’t worth the sixty bucks I spent in cab money,
I’ll tell you that. So did you guys get up to any mischief last night?”

Jenny
choked a little on her coffee and wiped a hand across her chin to cover it.
Joshua pretended to fiddle with the radio, but his palms were getting clammy.
And that
never
happened.

“Okay…
something’s going down that you two aren’t telling me.” Eli leaned forward and
tapped Joshua on the shoulder. “Is it something to do with this professor guy
you’re taking us to?”

“It’s…”
Joshua shot a sideways glance at Jenny, and then he blinked several times.
“It’s nothing.”

Eli
must have seen the blush that crept into Joshua’s cheeks, for he sat back
against the leather seat and huffed a laugh.

“Holy
shit. You guys buried the bishop, didn’t you?”

This
time, Jenny spat coffee all over the windshield. Joshua let out a yelp and the
car swerved, jerking all three of them to the right.

“Hey,
watch where you’re driving!” Eli groaned at the sight of half his coffee
sloshed on the carpet floor of the car. “Now I have half a laté. Thanks.”

Joshua
flicked his wrist at Eli and instantly, his laté turned to ice. Rock solid ice
in a Styrofoam cup.

“There.
Now you have half a
frozen
laté.” Joshua stepped on the gas and they all
lurched forward. He didn’t have the patience to deal with Eli any more than he
wanted to re-live the awkwardly terrifying events of the night before.

“Joshua,
I think you need to relax a little.” Jenny lifted a tissue and delicately wiped
away the coffee dripping down the dashboard. “Do you want to get pulled over?”

Joshua
didn’t like Jenny telling him what to do, but sometimes her voice was like a
cool rush of water that moved through his body and commanded the ice to stop
whatever it was doing and listen. He eased his foot off the break.

“You’re
right. We don’t need that kind of trouble.” Joshua’s eyes sought Eli’s in the
mirror. “We did not do anything of that sort, for your information Eli.”

He
coughed a clearly audible ‘bullshit’. Jenny hid a smile.

Joshua
readjusted his hands and turned onto the highway. “It’s about nine hours to
Dickinson. I suggest you both… sleep for a while. I’ll stop for gas in about an
hour and we can eat a real breakfast.”

Jenny
nodded and opened her book, kicking her feet up on the dash. Joshua didn’t even
order her to put them back down. He focused on the road ahead, but his thoughts
were miles away. Without realizing it, Joshua drove straight into a bump on the
road and the three of them were jolted upright.

And
just like that, Joshua was taken by a memory. He and Liz were driving through
the mountains in Cuba into town to buy some groceries and visit the hospital
for a check-up. He glanced at her sitting in the passenger seat, examining some
data he’d printed out earlier.

“Honestly,
don’t you think that sometimes these readings have a mind of their own?” Liz
asked, turning the paper upside down as if that helped the data appear regular.

Joshua
swerved around another bush, cursing the rough terrain. The heat of the
mountains was making him jittery. “Not really, yours look pretty-”

“Not
mine; Hunter’s. Are you sure you did this right?”

“Liz,
that’s my first homemade ultrasound in a power-generated shed out in the middle
of nowhere. It’s highly probable I made a mistake.”

Liz
groaned and shoved the pages back in her bag.

“What’s
wrong? I told you, no one will find us out here. I mean we’re living here
illegally, I know, but after the fire I was sure you just wanted to run and-”

“It’s
not that, it’s the baby.”

“I
promise you, you’re not going to give birth to a demon, alright? Everything
will be fine.”

“I
just don’t know Joshua,” she sighed. “Everything we’ve searched for here has
only led to more questions. And then there’s the heat flushes, the random fires
in the shack, the voice, the-”

“The
what?” He turned to stare at her and almost swerved completely off the track.
“You’re hearing a voice now? When were you going to tell me this?”

“Never,”
she said softly. She was biting her lip. “It’s nothing.”

 “Nothing?”
Joshua snorted. “Yeah, because I hear a voice in my head all the time.”

“Don’t
mock me,” she sneered. “I just get these random thoughts, okay? Sometimes they
come in the middle of the night and I wake up in a heat flush, sometimes I get
them when I’m in the shower, sometimes when I’m outside lying on the hammock.
They’re just… feelings.”

“I’m
not sure I know what you mean.” He leaned forward and checked both ways before
turning right on the wider dirt track that led to town. “What exactly does your
mystery voice say?”

“It…”
she began hesitantly, “it says…”

“Liz,
you can tell me. I’m here for you, remember?”

“Fine.
It says… ‘Take me back to the lake of fire’.”

Joshua
slammed his foot on the brakes and they both went lurching forward.

“Joshua!
Give me whiplash-”

“You
heard a voice tell you
that
, and you didn’t think it was important
enough to tell me? What, so next time you start breathing fire just bring it up
over coffee a month later, sound good?”

“You’re
freaking out,” she muttered. Her hand clasped over her belly as she eyed him
cautiously. Those dark eyes always made his temper calmer and Joshua told
himself to relax, but inside his head was screaming. Should he listen to this?
Did it mean anything, or was it just the distorted mind of a pregnant woman
whispering psycho things to herself? He decided to remain calm – for Liz’s
sake, mostly – and investigate later. Whatever it was, it made him feel
nervous.

“I’m
sure it’s nothing,” he said and pulled back onto the road. “I think we should
just forget it and concentrate on the checkup.”

Liz’s
smile widened. “Thank you Joshua.”

“I’m
here for you Lizzie,” he replied gently.

He
gripped the steering wheel and made a mental note to himself: Postpone testing
with the formula until further research on side effects has been complete.

Don’t
want any creepy voices in my head,
he thought and dropped his
visor to block out the sun.

TWENTY-EIGHT

Alfie
exploded. And expanded. And transformed before every eye in the breakfast hall
into a gigantic, twenty-foot beast with a mammoth mouth opening and closing in
slow motion. Slivers of rope-thick saliva stretched from one deadly tooth to
the other. He had russet brown scales and crazy black eyes the size of tennis
balls. His tiny hands hung limply from his body, and his tail swung back and
forth, knocking over tables with a loud crash.

The
Men in White were slow to react, because they weren’t sure what was going on.
Alfie had had a restraint around his neck like Chantal’s that stopped him using
his powers. How could he have changed?

One
of the guards was stupid enough to take a shot at Alfie with the taser, but his
skin was too thick for it to do any damage. The dinosaur turned his head and spotted
the guard who stood frozen in fear. He stretched his mouth wide open and let
out a terrific roar that caused the thick glass across the canteen windows to
shatter.

“It’s
Jurassic Park, people!” Zac shrieked. As he did, the ten-ton tail of a T-rex
slammed down on a table just feet away from him. He leapt out of the way,
rolled twice across the floor, and scrambled to his feet just in time to yell
with incredible calm, “Seriously, does
anyone
have a tranquilizer gun?”

The
breakfast hall was in utter chaos. Half the room had emptied, but Alfie the
dinosaur was blocking the way out and there was nowhere else to run to. The
canteen was jammed with tables that had been thrown against the kitchen glass.
An alarm like an alien ringtone was blaring. The Men in White couldn’t contain
him because the tasers didn’t have any effect on Alfie’s skin. The more they
tried to take him down, the angrier he became. And there was nothing worse than
a pissed off, twenty-foot dinosaur.

“Zac,
get down!” Hunter shrieked, and in a matter of seconds they had scattered like
petrified rabbits to their rabbit holes.

“We
have to do something!” Marcus screamed at the others.

They
were all cowering behind upturned tables. A few of the younger kids were
holding tight to Hunter’s jumpsuit, and if she weren’t so preoccupied by the
stomping dinosaur, her heart would have broken for them.

“Okay,”
said Zac, “you grab a rope and lasso him around the neck while I run around and
pretend to be a nice juicy cow or something.”

Hunter
didn’t have the time to roll her eyes.

“This
is all your fault Hunter!” hissed Jet from behind the next table. “You
shouldn’t have interrupted our conversation, now he’s confused!”

“How
can you even
be
that stupid?” she snarled back. “It’s because you called
him gay!”

“Uh,
he
is
gay!”

“Shut
up you two!” Marcus waved frantically at them.

A
crash and a scream caused them to peer over the rim of the table. Alfie was
stomping towards two of the guards who were cowering in the corner. As she
watched, her heart beat faster. Alfie’s giant tail wagged back and forth and he
let out an almighty roar that shook the room. One of the guards pulled out a
knife from his belt and managed to run forward and drive it into Alfie’s leg.
The dinosaur roared it pain before opening wide his mouth and snapping it
around the guard’s body. His scream was cut off and blood sprayed across the
white walls of the breakfast hall. The other guard scrambled away and ducked
behind some chairs.

Alfie
chewed on the guard, his bones cracking. The terrible sound of blood and
entrails falling to the floor with a splat echoed throughout the room. Hunter
dropped back behind the table and little Sammy cried and wriggled closer to
her.

“Block
your ears,” said Hunter and she held him tight against her.

Will
placed a hand on her shoulder. Hunter turned her eyes to his fear-filled face
and furrowed brow. He really had no idea what to do.

“We
have to get them out of here,” she whispered.

“Yes,
but how do you knock out a dinosaur the size of a crane when tasers aren’t
powerful enough?”

An
idea hit her. “They’re not powerful enough. But I know someone who is.” She
nodded to the opposite table where Marcus was crouched down, staring at them
both. He frowned as if to say ‘what are you looking at me like that for?’

“Hunter,”
said Will. “He’s useless. We all are without powers.”

“Then
we get one of the guards to disarm our bracelets.”

“But
they don’t-”

Alfie
roared again, cutting Will off, and Hunter started searching for someone who
could help. Almost instantly, she spotted a man in the white guard uniform
lying flat under a bench with his hands over his head. He was too far away to
reach. She’d have to run to him. She looked again at Will and ignored the doubt
in his eyes.

“You
got a better plan?”

For
a moment he struggled, knowing there was a chance the guard might not even have
the authority to disarm their bracelets, but it wasn’t in Will’s nature to back
out if there was still hope.

“Well
then you’ll need a distraction.”

“No,”
Hunter said firmly. She knew exactly what he was thinking, and she didn’t like
it one bit. “No way in-”

Will
jumped up, removing himself from the protection of their fort.

“Will,
don’t–”

But
he was running, his back bent low and his footsteps gliding along the floor. He
ducked around the table while Alfie nuzzled the ground on the other side of the
hall for food, and ran in the opposite direction.

Her
stomach curdling, Hunter sprinted as fast as she could and slid down beside
Marcus.

“What
the hell are you doing?”

“You
need to put this dino down,” she said firmly. Before he could argue, she
grabbed his wrist and gripped the bracelet. “I’m going over to that guard to
get him to unlock your bracelet. Once you’re free, you have to electrocute it.”

“Are
you outta your mind? I haven’t generated that much power in my entire life! To
put down a dinosaur it’s gonna take more than just a zap, Hunter!”

“Just…
I dunno, draw it from somewhere! A power hub or something!”

There
was a shout from the opposite side of the room and Hunter and Marcus peered up
and over the table at Will. He was standing on a bench, waving his arms at
Alfie and throwing trays at his body that wouldn’t have been more effective
than hitting a building with a pencil, but the shouting drew his attention. He
turned and roared at Will so savagely, Hunter’s ears rung.

“Do
it!” Will screamed, and Alfie started to charge.

“Can
you do this Marcus?”

“Do
I have a choice?”

Hunter
kicked off from the table and sprinted to the guard lying under the bench. She
slid along the scuffed floor and knocked into the man, who turned over and
nearly screamed in fright.

“What
the hell-”

“Where’s
the key?”

“The
what?”

“The
key, you know, to unlock this thing!” She tapped her bracelet.

Alfie
chomped down on the bench where Will had been standing and threw it across the
room like it weighed nothing but air. Will scrambled away and Hunter started
shaking the guard.

“I
don’t have it!” he whimpered. Hunter moaned, thinking
these guys were such
hardasses when their stupid tasers worked, and now they’re hiding here like
wimps while us kids take care of the raging dinosaur!

“Listen,
we can take this thing down, but we need your help! Give me the key. I know you
have it!”

She
was bluffing, because she had no idea what they used to unlock the restraints.
It could be a machine sealed in the lab for all she knew. She was unconscious
when they deactivated her bracelet and put her in the Orb. But it was her best
bet, and if it didn’t work they had nothing else.
Jeez, where’s Dr. Wolfe when
you need him?

But
it turned out they didn’t need him. The guard finally saw reason and reached
into his pocket for a set of keys. On the chain, there was a single card used
as his ID, a couple of average keys and a black square with a silver button in the
center. He forced the chain into her shaking hands and said, “The black one
scans the restraint and deactivates it. That’s the best I can do.”

Hunter
didn’t need telling twice. She scrambled out from under the bench just in time
to see Will take a running leap over a fallen table. The dinosaur ducked its
head and knocked the table out of the way just seconds after Will cleared it.
The table flew through the air and collided with Will, throwing him against the
wall with a thump. Hunter’s heart leapt. The table had crushed him.

“Hunter!”
he shouted. “Hurry!”

Adrenaline
pumped through her as she sprinted back to Marcus and slid into him. Her hands
fumbled with the key as she gripped the black square and pressed hard on the
button. A bright, silver laser shot out of the tip. She pointed it at Marcus’
outstretched wrist. The bracelet lit up like a firecracker and then became
loose.

A
split second of wonder passed between them before Marcus shook his wrist and
they jumped to their feet.

The
sight before her eyes knocked the air out of Hunter. The dinosaur’s jaws were
clamped around a table that was flung aside, leaving Will to army crawl as fast
as he could away from reach. But he was right beneath Alfie, and his legs were
crushed. He couldn’t move. He was about to be chomped by an extinct predator.

But
Marcus was quick. He ran as close to the dinosaur as time allowed before
throwing out his wrist and aiming it at the nearest power outlet. It sparked
angrily. Marcus started twitching. Just as Alfie’s jaws opened wide, a bolt of
electricity shot like lightning from the power outlet directly into Marcus’s
outstretched hand. He seized up and went bright blue like an electric fly trap.
Hunter would have shielded her eyes had she not been frozen in fear and
amazement.

Marcus
extended his other hand towards Alfie. The electricity that shot from the power
outlet bolted at Alfie and hit him hard in the neck.

The
scream that came from Alfie’s gaping jaw was deafening. He jerked backwards,
stumbled and twitched just as Marcus had. The power that zapped into him was
enough to bring him to an almighty crash on the floor. Marcus let out a sound
between a scream and a growl from the effort it took him before he released the
electricity and collapsed. A few sparks jumped off his body – and Alfie’s huge
dinosaur form – and then, there was silence.

Hunter
didn’t wait another second before she sprinted across the wrecked room to
Will’s body. She rolled him over, gasping at the blood that stained his legs
from where the table had crushed him and the deep cut across his forehead. Why
did he do this to himself again?

“Will!
Will, wake up!” She shook his shoulders.

A
groan escaped his lips and his eyes fluttered open. Hunter resisted the urge to
wrap her arms around him and squeeze him half to death, especially when his
mouth stretched into an exhausted smile.

“Hello,”
he said.

“You’re
the
stupidest
person I’ve ever met, you know that?” For some reason,
there were tears in her eyes as she shook her head harshly. “Do you
always
go sprinting off towards danger without caring for your own safety?”

“I
think it’s my hero tendency.” His brown eyes sparkled up at her, his hand
clutching hers without either of them realizing it.

“Yeah…
well I’m starting to wonder if you even have other tendencies.” She brushed the
hair away from his eyes. The simple touch felt almost natural to her, and she
was so filled with relief to notice that Will did not flinch at all.

Someone
tugged on her shoulder, and Hunter turned where little Sammy was staring
fearfully down at her, his bottom lip shaking. He didn’t want to look over at
the giant form of the dinosaur that was slowly morphing back into Alfie.

“Is
it over?”

Hunter
reached up and curled her arm around him, bringing him close against her in a
tight hug.

“Yeah
Sammy,” she sighed in relief. “It’s-”

“What
the hell are you doing?!”

Hunter
and Sammy whipped around at Ryo’s shriek. Instantly, Hunter’s stomach fell at
the sight of Alfie’s limp, naked body floating in the air just meters from her,
dangling like a puppet on strings. His eyes were closed.

And
there stood Jet, with his hand raised, his black eyes sparkling and his power
restraint gone. The guard’s keys were nowhere to be found.

“I’m
trying to wake him up again!” Jet yelled. “Oh, come on! It was getting kind of
interesting there, you gotta admit!”

“Put
him down Jet,” said Hunter. “Now.”

A
fierce pull in her chest caused Hunter to lurch forward. Her feet left the
ground and her stomach flipped over inside her. She saw Jet come closer to her
and suddenly she was there, right in front of his face, her body immobile and
hanging off the ground.