The Pulse Series (Book 1): Pulse (14 page)

She wasn't moving.

I stood up and walked up to the window to get a closer look. Her eyes didn't track my movement at all. I had done it. I felt my face split into a grin. I had done it!

All at once the water rushed back into my chest and into a tight little ball that was much smaller than before. Doctor Lynn's eyes jumped up to mine and she gave a shout in fright and fell back off her chair. The equipment next to her lit up with lights and alarms.

"Oh my god I'm so sorry!" I rushed around to open the door and found her lying on the floor giggling. I smiled and held out hand to help her up. She stood and stared at me with wide, excited eyes.

"Well done! That was perfect."

I grinned again. "Do we go again?" I asked.

"No." At my frown she gave me a small smile. "Try to feel for the ball again."

I found it right away but it was much smaller than before.

"What happened?"

"You're out of, for lack of a better word, energy." She waved her hands around in the air when she said it. "It takes anywhere between a few hours and a few days to recharge. It depends on the person. We will meet here at the same time tomorrow night to see if we can get a measure on how much it has regenerated given twenty four hours. You've been a wonderful subject, Alex, most people don't get it on the first night."

I felt a warm glow rush through me at the praise.

"We're all done now, you can head on back to the barracks."

I thanked her and made my way out of the room and into the hallway. I paused for a few seconds to let it all sink in, and let out a shout of joy. The shout echoed all around me in the metal hallway, and I clasped a hand to my mouth, but there was no-one around to hear. I giggled and started walking down the hall and back toward the barracks.

Tomorrow was looking brighter.

SEVENTEEN

Sarah stepped forward and, as I launched my first, tilted her head to the side. My blow missed her by an inch, and the force of my throw threw me off balance. She grabbed my arm and pulled me forward before stepping one leg around my body and twisting across me. With a tilt of her hip I went flying. The wind flew from my lungs as I hit the ground.

I had asked Sarah to help me learn more about combat when I had stopped sparring with Bradley. I still wasn't anywhere near the level I wanted to be, so we cut our lunch short to come in here to get some extra training in. I had thought it was a good idea at the time, but my back was telling me a different story now.

Sarah helped me up with an apologetic smile, and stood with her hands raised in front of her in a defensive position. I shook my head.

"I give up," I said between breaths. "I just don't get it. I'm stronger than you. How are you beating me so easily?"

Sarah shook her head. "It's not about strength. You're too impatient. You rush in to attack the moment you see the opening. It makes you easy to predict, which makes you easy to manipulate."

"Manipulate?"

"All I had to do was show you a small opening. I knew you would jump at it, so it made your actions easy to counter. No matter how fast you move, if I already know about it beforehand, then it's always going to appear slow to me."

I frowned at her, but nodded. "Thanks. I'll need to work on that."

"Don't mention it! We could do some extra training after class today if you want?"

I sighed. "Can't today. Meeting with Thomas for some tutoring. He's helping me with the math."

"Oh?" Sarah threw me a suggestive smile. "'Tutoring', huh?"

I laughed at her smile. "It's not like that. He's just helping me out is all."

"I know, I'm just teasing you." Sarah gave a shrug. "Besides, I know who you've got a crush on already."

I felt my face heat. "What? What are you talking about?"

Sarah rolled her eyes. "Please. It would only be more obvious if you called his name out in your sleep. 'Oh Bradley!'"

My face felt as red as a beet. "That obvious, huh?"

"Not really." She gave me a grin. "But I just confirmed it then."

I jumped at her and grabbed her around the waist, pulling her down onto the ground in a surprised yelp. I started tickling her until she was gasping for breath between the laughter. When I finished I sat on top of her and pinned her shoulders to the ground to prevent her from getting up.

I gave her a smug smile. "Got you that time'"

She looked up at me, and I didn't notice the evil glint in her eye until it was too late. She twisted to the side and pushed off the ground with her feet, causing me to slip and fall to the ground. By the time I righted myself she was already standing above me with a hand out to help me up.

As she pulled me up she gave me a wink. "Only because you caught me off guard. Besides, it was worth it to see your face go that red."

I sighed and looked at the clock on the wall. "We better get to class."

"Yeah. Oh by the way, I was making fun of you before, but do you think Thomas would mind if I came along to the tutoring session? I need to brush up on my math too."

I shrugged and nodded. "I don't see why not. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

She grinned and the two of us made our way over toward the classrooms. Thomas and Chris were walking out of the lunch room as we passed, and I called them over to walk with us to the mansion.

"Hey Thomas. Sarah needs some help with math too. It's cool if she comes with us today, right?"

Thomas frowned. "You need help, Sarah? You're top of our class."

I looked at her in confusion.

Sarah didn't turn to look at either of us. "Oh, I just wanted to catch up on a few things I wasn't sure about."

From my angle I could see her cheeks tint red, causing me to break out into a grin. She glared daggers and shook her head. I lifted a hand to my lips and mimed locking them, but continued to smile as we walked.

Thomas just shrugged. "Yeah no problems. More the merrier."

Sarah's mouth curved upward. "Thank you."

I laughed, causing Sarah to glare at me again and Thomas to look at me in confusion. Now I know how Sarah felt before, and I understood why she messed with me the way she did.

This was way too much fun.

EIGHTEEN

Sarah dropped her fork onto her plate. "Wait, you've been here a month?"

I tilted my head and raised an eyebrow. "Why? What's the big deal?"

She looked around the mess hall to see if anyone was listening. She was about to open her mouth to talk when a hand slammed down on her shoulder, causing her to jump in fright. I looked up at see Jane standing above her. She looked… I wouldn't say happy, but she was smiling about something.

Jane looked down at Sarah. "You weren't thinking of ruining the surprise, were you?"

Sarah pushed Jane's hand away and turned back to her food. "I know the rules."

"Glad to hear it." Jane turned and walked back over to her table. As she sat down, she leaned over and whispered into Benny's ear. He looked up at me and grinned. He looked more like a gorilla than a person. I shuddered at the look in his eyes.

I turned to Sarah. "What's going on?"

Sarah gave a shrug. "It's just something everyone has to do. We're not allowed to talk about it until you've done it though. That's all I can say."

I frowned at her but went back to my meal anyway. I was almost finished when Bradley walked into the building and made a beeline straight for our table. He had his mouth pressed into the thin line.

"Alex, with me." He turned without another word and walked back toward the exit. I glanced at Sarah, but all she did was frown into her food. I stood and followed Bradley out of the building and headed toward the mansion.

"What's going on?"

He didn't turn to look at me. "Today is the day you begin your box training." He sounded angry.

"What's 'box training'?"

"You will know when it's done. It cannot be spoken of until then. By order of the General."

I frowned, but kept my mouth shut and followed him into the west wing of the mansion. We went down a set of stairs and into the basement of the building. Unlike the other side of the underground area, this place wasn't made from steel. There were walls like normal, but a majority was glass panels. I could see into almost every room, and I wasn't sure what I was looking at in most of them.

Complex computer equipment filled a lot of the rooms, but some of them looked more like operating rooms. As we walked I saw more equipment I didn't understand. I asked Bradley what it was.

"Science stuff. This is the laboratory of Doctor Vorboyov, our resident physician, scientist, and psychologist. He is the one who is in charge of all the pulse training and experimentation."

I frowned at his term. "Experimentation? What the hell does that mean?"

"It means we still have little idea of how pulse abilities work." Bradley gave a small shrug. "It's his job to find out. The training you do in the east wing, even though you've never met him, is under the Doctor's purview. All your results and recordings go to him for study."

"I see." I felt my forehead knot and I turned to Bradley. "So when will I get to meet this man?"

As if on queue an old, balding man in a white lab coat stepped out from one of the rooms and into the hallway. He looked up at us through his thick glasses and smiled.

"Welcome, welcome!" the doctor said. He had a Russian accent. "I believe you are Miss Alex, no?"

As I nodded he stepped up to me and grabbed my hand, shaking it and leaning forward to look into my eyes as he did so. He lifted my hand and studied it for a few moments, before scanning his eyes over the rest of my body. It didn't look sexual, but I couldn't help feeling a little violated. I pulled my hand back the moment he released it and clutched it to my chest.

"Yes, good, good. My name is Doctor Vorboyov."

He nodded himself before turning and walking back through the doorway. Bradley followed him so I did the same, and found myself in a room with a large chair in the center. It had various straps on it, and a large piece of computing equipment behind it. The rest of the room was covered in computing equipment that blinked and beeped and made a variety of noises. Most of the things in here were older than the inbuilt touch screens I had seen around other places in the mansion.

Vorboyov turned to Bradley. "You are not required to stay."

Bradley stared into my eyes. "I'll stay."

I felt relief wash through me. I wasn't sure what was going on, but I would be glad to have a familiar face to confront it with.

The doctor turned to me. He smiled, but it was more something you saw on the face of someone who had a knife pulled on you in an alley than anything friendly. "Alex, my dear, are you ready?"

"I'm not sure."

His wide grin made him appear more skeletal-like. "Do not worry, child, you will be safe. Please take a seat."

I grimaced as I walked toward the large chair. When I was sitting Doctor Vorboyov walked over and started attaching wires to my skin. He had me lift my shirt to put them on my back and chest. Bradley was polite enough to turn his back. Some more wires went onto various positions around my face, head, and neck. Once all the nodes were in place he pulled the straps around my body and tightened them until I couldn't move. I felt like I was something out of a science fiction novel.

He flipped some switches and I heard the winding up sound of fans from somewhere below us. A series of fast beeps come from one of the machines behind me, and it took me a few second to realize it was a heart-rate monitor. I could tell because it matched the tempo of the pounding in my ears.

"Ready to begin in ten seconds."

Bradley stepped from the doorway and moved into my view. I gasped as I saw his face. He looked like he was torn between wanting to be sick and punching something hard. I couldn't work out why he was so upset—it couldn't be that bad.

As I caught his eyes he stared hard at me. I couldn't be sure, but for a moment they looked damp.

I opened my mouth to ask him what was wrong when the world went black.

***

I awoke to the smell of ammonia.

It felt like my head was full of cotton wool, and my mouth was as dry as sandpaper. I tried to open my eyes but found that they were already open, the room I was in was just pitch black. I went to stand up and realized that I was still strapped to the chair. I tried to wriggle but couldn't move—the straps were too tight.

Something must have gone wrong. There was no-one here, and I felt like I had gone a round with a bull. I tried to shake my head to clear it, but the strap on my forehead kept me from doing even that much.

Wait, that wasn't right. The doctor never strapped my head.

I opened my mouth to call out for help when the lights came on with a loud clang, like someone had thrown a heavy switch. I blinked into the sudden brightness and waited for my eyes to adjust. When they did I wished the lights had stayed off.

I was sitting in the middle of a filthy, windowless room. The walls were brick and the floor and ceiling were concrete. On one wall was a large mirror, but I couldn't turn my head far enough to look at it. The floor was almost black, but I could see that someone had stained it that way. Although I wanted to know what was going on, the sole piece of furniture in the room was what held my attention for the moment.

Sitting in front of me was a table covered in equipment. Saws, drills, hammers, screwdrivers, and all other manner of tools. As my eyes scanned over the table in confusion, they stopped when they settled on a different set of tools.

Laying on the right side of the table were a set of scalpels and knives. They were almost hidden from my sight due to my restraints, but I could make out the clean shimmer of the blades. They stood out against the filth of everything else in the room.

I heard the sound of heavy door behind me open, and on instinct I tried to turn my head, reminding me of my predicament. Heavy, solid footsteps sounded from behind me and got closer with each thud. I could feel that I was shaking.

A monster of a person stepped into view. He (I assumed he was male due to his bulk) was a tall man with the largest forearms I had ever seen. He was wearing black pants, a black close fitting t-shirt that covered the full length of his arms, and a black hood over his face. As he stepped into the center of my view he paused and looked me up and down. I was too terrified to say anything.