Ending ELE (ELE Series) (23 page)

“
It’s good to see that you made it out safe, kiddo,” Erik says. His light blue eyes make a strong contrast to his black hair. It’s shockingly cool. I had only seen Erik’s deep black eyes.

“
I see you found your man too.” Morgan pats the top of my head with a smile. He lowers the blacked-out sunglasses that have always been a staple and looks at Tony. Instead of seeing the freakish white irises, he has eyes that match Erik’s. Beautiful eyes. It’s then that I realize he can see again. That because of the device that eliminates our powers, he’s been given the gift of sight.

“
Yes, I did.” I smile and gesture for Tony to come meet them.

“
Tony, this is Morgan. You’ve met Erik before. Morgan is Erik’s brother,” I introduce them.

Tony shakes Morgan
’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Morgan. Good to see you again, Erik.” Tony gives him one of those side hug things that men give.

Lee interrupts our reunion.
“I think we all better take a seat.”

We follow suit and turn towards
Jon, who has a remote in his hand that’s connected to the screens behind him. He turns his head slightly to see them and clicks the remote. Three different live-video feeds pop up on the screens. My eyes open wide with interest at the images.

Jon begins the debriefing.
“First, let me start off by saying that the project to remove the shields that have acted as our ozone layer failed. It took us a few weeks to realize that the ozone layer, for the most part, had in fact healed itself. There were still a few holes here and there, but it wasn’t as bad as it was when we implemented the first Project ELE and put the shields up in the first place. This is why the earth didn’t heat up to the temperatures we anticipated. Unfortunately, this means that we can’t guarantee that the virus is gone for good. We
can
say that the epidemic has slowed quite a bit.”

That
’s some good news, I guess. I look over at Alec and wonder if the healing ability that we have, and all the others with navy eyes have, could save people infected with the virus. I don’t get to ponder on it for long because Jon goes on with the meeting.

Jon
holds a laser pointer at the screen, pointing to the various images. “As you can see, these are a few of the shelters around the country.”

We watch
the feed where life is going on normally inside the shelters. Citizens in scrubs walk to and from places within the shelter just like normal.

Jon continues.
“We need to inform you that the shelter that you were placed in was not run in the way that Dr. Hastings had been instructed to run it.”

“
Tell me about it,” Connor interjects.

Jon frowns
and grows serious. “What Dr. Hastings did was treason. He acted in the complete opposite of our instruction and performed non-sanctioned testing on the people in your shelter.” He looks over at me. “Michael informs me that you found evidence that Dr. Hastings was not acting in accordance to our laws and did not have our permission to perform this testing.”

“
Yes sir.” I nod my head.

“
Good. Most people have gone into total shock when we relayed this information. Being appalled and hurt is a very common reaction.” Jon says.

Claire interjects.
“We were all of those things. Being made a lab rat can make you feel quite inferior. We’ve just had time to deal with it.”

“
We knew before even leaving the shelter that Dr. Hastings was scum,” Alec says.

“
Yes, that he was,” Jon says dismissively. “I’ll continue then. So you’re all aware that Dr. Hastings injected the shelter’s occupants with his own
untested
and
unapproved
immunizations. He also gave injections to those that he turned away from the shelter. We believe that he chose the people who he thought would work best with each gift. The people he turned away were his first round of test subjects. He studied them from inside the shelter. We found video surveillance documenting this research.”

“
If you found this, then why didn’t you stop Dr. Hastings earlier?” Marya asks.

“
We found the surveillance after the fact. We didn’t realize anything was amiss at first. To be completely honest, we had not been aware that the shelter had been evacuated. Dr. Hastings must have hacked into our surveillance feed and looped past videos to make it look like everyone was still in the shelter. He continued to communicate and report to us up until his death. That was the first sign that things were off, when he stopped communicating.”

I shiver, the memory of putting a bullet into Dr. Hastings
sending a nasty feeling swishing through me. Tony puts his arm around me to pull me close.

“
We also received a distress call from this fine soldier.” Jon points to Lee.

I recall Lee
’s plans to try to get an S.O.S. out from Dr. Hasting’s base. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to find out if he had succeeded.

“
We aren’t proud of the fact that he pulled the wool over our eyes, but we accept responsibility for not adequately protecting the people of your shelter. We are working to make things right now. After finding Dr. Hasting’s base of operations, we found evidence that a movement was being made to sell his immunizations on the black market. We also found out that several heavy hitters like Blake were searching for you, Willow. We knew we had to protect you and the others. Our first priority was to bring you and all the other survivors to safety. Then we could focus on taking down Blake and the others. They, unfortunately, are laying really low,” Jon says.

“
How did Michael find us?” I ask, looking at Michael, who had remained very quiet this whole time.

He holds an ice pack to his mouth and removes it to answer me.
“Sheer luck. We had been tracking you all for a few days but you always stayed one step ahead of us. We figured that your powers were keeping us from finding you. I decided to go rogue. I had met Morgan and knew what he could do. I also knew that because of my memory lapses, I was hard to read. I figured that I’d have a better chance finding you on my own with that fact in my favor.”

“
Not to mention that you have all that freaking magnetism,” Erik interjects.

My eyes widen as I look from Erik to Michael.
“Magnetism? Like… you’re magnetic?”

His cheeks redden as he answers me.
“I wish I were magnetic. No, instead, I have the gift of magnetism, like charisma, charm.” He looks away.

Erik speaks up for him.
“Except times that by ten. People are drawn to him. Most people will do anything for him, just because he’s freaking prince charming. His power works way better on the opposite sex.” Erik seems almost jealous.

“
Dude, that totally makes sense!” Alec says with recollection in his eyes.

“
Wow,” I say evenly. I find it unusual that Dr. Hastings would have bothered with such a gift, but I’m sure there are many ways that it can be useful. “It’s kind of like compulsion then?”

Michael
’s expression turns to indignation. “Absolutely not. I don’t force people to do things. People still have their own free will. They just kind of… find themselves next to me without even thinking about it.”

“
Oh, okay. Noted.” I look away from his intense expression. I can tell he struggles with how he feels about his own gift. “Sorry.”

“
It’s okay.” Michael shrugs his shoulders and clears his throat. “Anyway, I wasn’t lying about waking up in a hospital by myself. I don’t know at what point I was injected with one of Dr. Hastings magical shots. I didn’t even realize I had a gift until after I turned to the military for help. I had been working with a recruiter and planned to be sworn into the Army. The train wreck happened before I was able to do that. Naturally, I turned to them for help when I woke up in an abandoned hospital. The first time I looked in the mirror, I thought that they had given me an eye transplant when I was in the coma. It was the creepiest thing ever. Then I went searching through the hospital, only to find it deserted. I thought I was in a nightmare—that none of it could be real. I didn’t know what to do. After spending a few days there by myself, I managed to transmit a message to 9-1-1 through a tablet with a battery on its last legs. Jon and his team came and got me that night.”

“
He was one of the first people with powers that we found, even though it took us a while to figure out what power he had. We found him after finding Dr. Hastings’s base,” Jon includes.

Michael says proudly,
“And I got sworn in that evening.”

“
And that circles us back around to how you found us,” Tony says.

Michael
’s brown eyes look down shyly. “I’m sorry I lied to you all. I didn’t know what to do. I had been told that you wouldn’t be trusting, so I immediately went in with a story planned out. Some of it was the truth and as you now know, some of it I made up.”

“
He had your best interests in mind,” Lee says, taking up for Michael.

Michael looks at Tony and me with hopeful eyes.

“I understand, man. I’m sorry I hit you,” Tony says.

“
I guess I kind of deserved it.” Michael smiles but then winces and raises the ice pack back up to his lip.

“
We forgive you,” I announce for everyone. I look around, hoping I didn’t speak out of turn, but they all nod their heads in agreement.

“
So, what does Blake want with Willow?” Connor asks.

I roll my eyes and answer for Jon.
“My blood. Exactly what he’s wanted all along.”

“
Yes, he has some high bidders who are willing to pay almost anything for your powers. They have already sold Dr. Hastings’s formulas to some weapons dealers in the Middle East. Thankfully, there isn’t a formula for your powers, Willow.” Jon looks over at Tony. “Or is there?”

“
No, there isn’t. This is just a fluke,” Tony says sternly.

I give Jon a look that tells him not
to question us further.

He nods his head in understanding.
“Understood.” I can tell though, that this won’t be the last time we’re questioned about this.

“
So what’s the plan now?” Alec asks, eager to find his father and bring him in.

“
Now that we have you here, safe, we hunt for Blake and his men,” Jon says.

“
I want in on that,” Alec says.

“
We can make that happen.”

“
Me too,” Tony and I say in unison. We turn and smile at each other. Marya, Claire, and Connor agree.

My dad says,
“I’ve already been sworn in.” He smiles.

“
All right then. We will have a ceremony later this evening. For now, let’s get everyone situated and fed,” Jon says.

We all agree and head out to find our new homes and the cafeteria hall.

***

Prior to dinner, we are sworn in—in front of a large crowd of three hundred plus soldiers. Afterwards, dinner turns into one big family reunion. We move from table to table, catching up with everyone that we knew from the safe houses and the shelter. Lee convinces Jon to allow us to host a bonfire like we used to do to celebrate at the first safe house. We even scrounge up the makings for s’mores.

Over the campfire and impromptu musical performances, Claire, Marya
, and I catch up with Candy. Turns out that she and Jake are doing great. She lets us know that she’s officially in love. We ooh and ahh while talking about our men. Candy has loved being a part of the military so far. She finds it exciting and fulfilling.

I break
away after we catch up and go in search of Audrey, Morgan’s wife. I find Molly along the way. She breaks away from her public make-out session with Seth. Thankfully, she doesn’t instigate too much of a conversation with me. She says hello and goes back to lip locking with Erik and Morgan’s younger brother. I shake my head, remembering how difficult she was to get along with back at the first safe house.

“
Willow!” Audrey calls from a few feet away. She meets me in the middle and gives me a heartwarming hug.

“
It’s so good to see you, Audrey!” I say, looking up at her. She’s still exotically beautiful. Her eyes are the color of gold, not too far off from the copper pot that they were when she was in full power.

We talk and catch up until Tony interrupts.
“Mind if I take Willow out for a spin?” he asks Audrey.

She grins slyly.
“Why, of course not.” She grabs my hand and pulls me closer to her so she can whisper in my ear before I go. “I will be your bridesmaid.” She laughs at my shocked expression. “I saw it,” is all she says before turning and walking in Morgan’s direction.

My heart thumps in my chest and my face flushes red.
I can’t help the Cheshire grin that spreads across my face.