Hope (Book 2, Harvester of Light Trilogy; Young Adult Science Fiction) (27 page)

“Don’t trust me?”
I asked her.

“You’re a
harvester,” she answered, not needing to say anything else.

“Ok, well, here
goes nothing,” Jackson said, turning to the fence and only hesitating for a
heartbeat before grabbing the chain link with both hands.

I’m not sure what
I expected to happen but the entire thing seemed a bit anticlimactic.  After a
few minutes the hum of the fence faded into silence indicating Jackson was
slowly sucking it dry of power.  Eventually Jackson let go of the fence and
turned to face us.  Sweat was pouring down his face and his clothes were
starting to smolder.

“That’s it,” he
said before collapsing onto the bow.

“Jackson!” Ava
yelled running to her friend.  As soon as she tried to touch his face, she
cried out in pain drawing back a hand burnt raw.  The metal on the bow began to
glow red hot around Jackson’s body.

I cursed softly
under my breath.  Before I could even take a step forward, Jackson’s body began
to convulse violently.  Ava had the good sense to step back just as her
friend’s body melted a hole through the deck.  I knew the hull of the boat
wouldn’t be far behind.

“Grab your stuff
and jump off the boat,” I ordered Ava.

“But what about Jackson?” 
She asked, completely hysterical.

“Get off the damn
boat, Ava!  Unless you want to be sucked down with it!”

I threw the door
to the cabin open and rushed in.

“Is everything all
right up there?” Zoe asked.  “I heard the yelling.”

“Jackson’s melting
a hole in the boat,” I said, realizing how silly the truth sounded.  “We’ve got
to get off.”

I grabbed Hope and
the leather bench cushion she was resting on.  Zoe carried Simon and Rose in
each arm.  By the time we reached the deck, the bow was already starting to
tilt forward as it filled up with water.  I saw Ava swimming off to the woods
to the right towing an unconscious Jackson like a life guard would with one arm
around his chest under his armpits.  I assumed the cold river water must have
dissipated the heat his body was emanating enough for her to hold him.

“How are we going
to get the babies and ourselves over there?” Zoe asked.

“Follow me,” I
told her heading to the back of the boat where the ladder leading to the water
was.

Once there I
tucked the bench cushion under one arm and held Hope close to my chest with the
other.  After I descended the steps, I placed the cushion on the surface of the
water to make sure it would float and not simply sink.  Thankfully, it was
water tight.  With one hand I held the cushion steady while placing Hope,
Simon, and Rose on it before completely stepping off the ladder into the water.

It didn’t take us
long to swim to shore but by the time we reached it, the fishing boat was
already half submerged in the river.

Soaking wet but
still alive, Zoe and I pulled the bench pad to shore.  The babies were only
slightly damp from their first swimming experience.

Zoe was doing her
best to cajole Simon and Rose to stop crying.  When I leaned down to pick up
Hope, her face lit up with a smile at the sight of me.  I began to wonder if
she thought I was her mother since I was usually the one who held her.  Her
siblings always seemed to be in more need of attention even though they were perfectly
healthy.

“My God, what
happened?”

I turned to look
behind me and saw Ash standing there with a backpack slung over one shoulder.

“Did you bring
back some supplies?” I asked, not feeling like answering his question when he
could plainly see what had happened for himself.

“Yeah,” he said
crouching to the ground to open the pack.  “You’re lucky my Mom used to work at
a Target.  I was able to snatch some stuff before I teleported again.”

“Hey who’s this?” 
Ava asked coming to stand by us.

“Ava, Ash.  Ash,
Ava,” I said in way of introduction.

“Oh, you the baby
daddy?” Ava asked Ash. 

“How would you
know that?” Zoe asked.

“Guards talk.” Ava
shrugged.  “Heard about what the Queen was doing with the two of you.  Jackson
and me thought we’d end up being next.  Figured that was the reason she hadn’t
made us into harvesters yet.” Ava shivered at the thought.  “I can’t imagine
having a litter of babies.”

“It wasn’t a
litter,” Zoe said defensively.  “It was only triplets.”

“Ok, half a
litter,” Ava amended.

“How’s Jackson?” I
said, feeling a need to change the subject.

“Unconscious but
still breathing,” Ava reported.

I looked back to
Ash.  “Did you happen to bring us any clothes?”

“I brought Zoe and
the babies something to wear, but didn’t know you would be soaking wet.  Best I
can do for you is a dry towel,” he said rummaging through the contents of his
bag and handing me a coral colored towel with a decorative boarder.

“Guess that’ll
have to do,” I said grabbing the towel with my free hand.  “Here hold Hope,” I
said handing her over to Ash.

Just as he was
about to take hold of her, he vanished again.

“I really wish he
would stop doing that,” I growled in irritation.

I was about to
toss the towel to Ava when I saw her still burnt hand.

“Let me see your
hand,” I told her.  “I can heal it.  That’s my power.”

Surprisingly, Ava
didn’t question my motives and just handed me her hand.  In less than a minute
it was healed.  I handed her the towel.

“Here dry yourself
off as much as you can.  Maybe when Ash comes back he’ll remember to bring some
clothes for us too.”

After Ava toweled
off, she held Hope for me.  Zoe changed into the clothes Ash brought for her. 
I found a pack of diapers, wipes and clean clothes for the babies in the
supplies Ash brought back from the past.  While I was changing Simon into a
long sleeve onesie, I heard Zoe begin to whimper softly.  When I looked up at
her, I saw she was crying and pulling down the purple sweatshirt she wore past
her hips.  Zoe’s outfit brought back to mind a childhood TV show I once watched
with a big singing purple dinosaur.

“What’s wrong?” I
asked.  “Are you hurt?

Zoe shook her
head.  “No,” she whined.  “But look at how big this shirt is!”

“And your problem
with that is?” I asked, not seeing what the size of the shirt had to do with
anything.

“Ash must think
I’m as big as a house!” She cried.  “Why else would he have brought back
something so big for me to wear?”

“You’ve lost me,”
I said, still not understanding why she was so upset.

“She’s having a
girl moment,” Ava explained with a roll of her eyes.

“You just had
three babies,” I said to Zoe, continuing to snap the bottom of Simon’s outfit. 
“He probably just wanted you to be comfortable and warm.”

Zoe sniffed and
seemed to realize how ridiculous her behavior was.  “I don’t know why I care,”
she said, coming to help me change Rose into some dry clothes.  “It’s not like
he cares about me in that way.  He loves you.”

I didn’t miss the
envious way Zoe made her statement but I did intentionally ignore it.  All I
needed was to have an argument with a hormonally imbalanced Zoe.  Whether or
not Ash still loved me was completely irrelevant.  We had bigger problems to
contend with at the moment.  Namely, where we should head to next.

“Man, what
happened?”

Jackson came
stumbling towards us holding his head.  His clothes were wet like the rest of
us but he had a lot less of them.  There were so many holes in his jacket and
pants it looked like he had been attacked by a horde of angry giant moths.  His
shirt was practically nonexistent.

“You sunk the
boat,” I informed him, standing to take Hope from Ava to change her clothes
while Zoe finished up with Rose.

Jackson looked out
onto the water but the boat was already completely submerged.

“Remind me not to
ever do that again,” he told me.  “It was just too much.  I’ve never been
around that much power before.”

“Don’t worry,” I
told him.  “You did what we needed.  With or without the boat we stick to the
plan and go through the fence.  There has to be a house around here.  We’ll
just have to hope they left us some transportation.  You got enough juice left
to jumpstart a car if we need it?”

Jackson flexed his
hand and pointed his index finger at a nearby tree.  A stream of what looked
like lightening shot from the tip and struck the tree burning a hole straight
through its trunk like a pin point laser.

“Good,” I said,
trying not to show how impressed I actually was by Jackson’s display of power. 
All I needed was for him to think he had the upper hand in our little détente.

Once the babies
were dressed and wrapped up in the blankets Ash brought, I made a pseudo baby
carrier out of the backpack and placed Simon and Rose inside it.  I was
adjusting the straps of the backpack on my shoulders when Zoe said, “I can
carry Hope.”

“No, I can carry
her,” I told Zoe, taking Hope from Ava myself.

“I can help,” Zoe
said.  “You don’t have to do everything yourself, Skye.”

“Don’t argue with
me,” I told her.  “I could carry a truck on my back and not feel the weight. 
Harvester strength, remember?  Besides, you’ll all be able to travel faster
without carrying the added weight.  The faster we can get away from here the
safer you’ll be.”

Before Zoe could
argue further, I walked up to the chain link fence and tore a hole in it with
one hand large enough for us all to pass through.

It was late
afternoon, and I knew we would need to find shelter soon.  I didn’t want to
announce our presence by building a fire so finding an abandoned house was my
top priority.  I still had a mental picture of the map from the boat in my memory
and knew our best bet would be to travel south until we found a road, then I
would have a better idea about where we were exactly.

Only fifteen
minutes after we started walking away from the river deeper into the woods,
Simon and Rose began to cry again.  We stopped so Zoe could breast feed them. 
While Zoe was busy satiating their hunger, I sat with my back against a tree
and checked Hope.  As far as I knew, she hadn’t cried once to be fed.

“Have you tried to
feed Hope?” I asked Zoe.

“I tried to when
you were on deck dealing with Jackson and the fence,” she replied, holding a
suckling Simon to her breast.  “But she wouldn’t latch onto the nipple.”

When I looked back
down at Hope, I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or if she really did seem
to look paler than before.  I had no way of knowing what her condition meant
for the rest of her organs.  Was her heart pumping enough blood to them to keep
them functioning?  I hoped Ash would reappear and perhaps take Hope to the past
to find medical help but didn’t know when or if he would come back in time. 
All I did know was that Michael’s rebel base should have a surgeon who could
help her.  Since Ash’s power didn’t seem to be under his control, I couldn’t
solely rely on it to help us.

Once Zoe was
through feeding Simon and Rose, we continued our way southward and came upon a forked
road with a ranch style home sandwiched in between.  A silver Dodge Durango was
still parked behind it but it had one flat tire which would need to be fixed if
we were going to be able to use it at all.

Once we searched
the interior of the house, we were able to find clothes which fit all of us
allowing us to shed our river soaked garments.  After setting Zoe and the
babies up in the house, Jackson and I went to see what the Durango would need
to be made road worthy.  Luckily, it still had its spare tire mounted to the
underside.  I let Jackson deal with that while I went to scout a house up the
road which had an array of outer buildings surrounding the main house.  I knew
we would need to find as much gas as we possibly could.  We were still almost
three hundred miles away from Michael’s camp. 

The only gas I was
able to find was in the tank of an old tractor the owners had stashed away in a
small shed.  It was better than nothing.  It didn’t take long to siphon it out
with a garden hose into a small gas can.

When I got back to
the house, I noticed Jackson was no longer working on the Durango.  The spare
tire was still leaned against the side of it with the flat tire sitting on the
ground beside it.  Assuming Jackson went into the house for some reason; I set
the gas can on the ground and turned to walk towards the backdoor of the house
to find out what the hold up was.  As soon as I faced the house, I was met by
an image which stopped me in my tracks.

Behind the screen
door leading back into the house, Lawrence stood with his arms crossed over his
chest watching me.

Chapter 27

Lawrence stepped
through the screen door without opening it and walked into the backyard.

“What have you done
to them?” I asked.

“Nothing yet,” Lawrence
said, a sly grin spreading his thin lips.  “They’re still in the house.”

“You shouldn’t
have followed us, Lawrence.”  I slowly walked towards him.

“You didn’t think
I would just let you run away with Zoe and the babies, did you?” He cocked his
head.  “They’re too important to the Queen.”

“They’re more
important to me.”

“But you’re not
the Queen,” he said snidely, finding some sort of queer satisfaction in his
statement.  “She’ll be sorely disappointed in what you did to me.”

I laughed.  “The
Queen detests you Lawrence.  If you had any sense at all you would know that.”

“I’m smart enough
to know you’re betraying her.”

“Planning to tell
her that the next time you see her?” I asked stopping right in front of him.

“Yes, I do.”

“I’m sorry to hear
that,” I told him before hitting him with the flat on my hands on his chest sending
him flying into the air.  He didn’t stop until his back slammed against the
brick wall of the house, causing an indentation to form around his body.