Finding ELE (ELE Series #2) Written By: Rebecca Gober and Courtney Nuckels (2 page)

"No, he's as healthy as a horse. We gave him
the survival shot and he never displayed any symptoms of the
virus."

The survival shot was the second shot that
they gave to the people who were denied entry. The bright yellow
shot was supposed to help sustain life.

Hearing that both mom and Sabby are safe and
alive is the most heart-warming news I've heard in a while. I
continue to cry tears of joy.

My mom pulls me into her arms again and
comforts me until I am able to compose myself. "I love you
Willow."

I wipe away the tears and look up at her. "I
love you too mom. I thought you were both gone. I still can't
believe it."

"I can't believe you're here." She rests her
hands on my cheeks, looking me up and down, taking me in. Finally
focusing on my eyes she whispers. "Amazing."

A strange nervous feeling builds up as I
wonder what she thinks of the new Willow. "It's kind of creepy,
isn't it?"

"If your eyes are creepy then you must think
mine are out of this world. They practically glow in the dark." She
jokes. "I've seen a healers eyes, but yours are a little
different."

"Different is a generous word to use for
this psychedelic rainbow eye." I point up at my left eye. "The
solid brown of my other eye makes it even creepier. They don't even
match."

My mom gives me a strange look. "No, your
eyes match." She moves closer to examine them. "I hadn't noticed
the rainbow though at first since it's so dark in here. Mostly they
are a dark blue with a fleck of red. But, now that you mention it I
can see a sort of rainbow prism thing going on. It's barely
noticeable, yet it's quite remarkable."

"What do you mean?" My eyes match? The
colors are barely noticeable? I make a move to get off the bed but
the man from the mountainside blocks me from getting up.

"You can let my daughter up Anthony." My mom
says in a scolding tone. "She's not going to hurt anyone."

He gives me an unsure look but finally steps
aside.

Mr. Leroy interjects, "Sure, she didn't hurt
you, but what will keep her from taking from us or the others?
Perhaps she spared you because of your relation."

"Come on! Have you seen any of those
monsters show any compassion for a single person, let alone their
own family? She is not like them." My mom looks thoroughly annoyed
that she's having to go around with them again.

"No, but we certainly can't risk allowing
her to roam free." Mr. Leroy replies.

"I was just looking for a mirror. I'm not
trying to hurt anyone." I look around the room but I don't see any
reflective surfaces readily available.

Tony takes a small step towards the door and
something in his expression tells me he believes my mom when she
said that I'm harmless. “I’ll get you that mirror. Stay there and
rest.” I'm not sure if he is really having a change of heart when
it comes to me or if he just wants an excuse to leave the room.
It's an odd feeling having people afraid of me. I know deep down
that I couldn't hurt a fly, but obviously Mr. Leroy and Tony both
seem pretty creeped out. Well, maybe Tony isn't necessarily as
creeped out as he is overly protective of my mom. I can't help
wondering why that is.

"Thank you. I just wanted to see my eyes,
you know?" I tell Tony. I don't know why it matters to me at all if
this guy thinks I'm vain, but I still feel the need to qualify my
request.

"No problem." He says and then he does
something I would never expect, he smiles. I mean, it's not a huge
smile but just a slight lift in his lips. Somehow that little smile
comforts me. I can't put a finger on why it comforts me, but it
does. I lie back on my bed and watch as he leaves the room.

Mr. Leroy wastes no time once the door is
securely closed behind Tony. He grabs a new set of handcuffs from a
drawer, which has me wondering just how many sets are in there.

My mom darts up off the bed and moves
impossibly fast, landing in front of me a millisecond later. "You
are really starting to piss me off old man! I recommend you put
those back where you found them and leave this instant." When he
doesn't obey, she steps closer to him and whispers in a daunting
voice that is completely foreign to me. "I don't think you want to
test me. I can find some alternative ways to use those handcuffs on
you that will not involve any sort of pleasure." Her hands clench
into fists.

I sit there completely awestruck at the
situation and at how completely badass my mom has become.

Mr. Leroy backs down and puts the handcuffs
back in the drawer. "You better hope she's safe. It's not just your
life you are risking here." He huffs out as he exits the room.

My mom slams the door behind him and comes
back to my bedside. "I'm sorry honey. I don't want to make an
excuse for Mr. Grumps-A-lot," I smile remembering my old nickname
for Mr. Leroy. She continues. "But, things are crazy on the
outside. Actually crazy is an understatement. There's a war going
on outside of the shelters. Those people, no, those monsters with
the red eyes, they are deadly. They take and they kill with no
feeling. They show no remorse." Her eyes look haunted. "I know
you're not like them. He should never have compared you to them.
But, he is cautious because you do have that red in your eyes. It
has to be something different though. It's obviously not like what
they have."

"What do you mean? What do they have?" The
image of the red-eyed people I encountered plays across my
mind.

"Their ability is to take. They take until
there is nothing left." My mom looks almost sick explaining this to
me.

A shiver runs up my spine at my mom's
statement. "How do they take?"

It's obvious she doesn't like speaking about
’those people’, or monsters as she calls them. "I don't know the
science of it, but they can touch people and empty them. In the
process of doing whatever it is they do, they take peoples gifts,
or powers. I've only seen it done once or twice because they don't
have much to take from us since they already have our
abilities."

At the confusion on my face she clarifies.
"The survival shot we took had some strange side effects. Much like
whatever shot you took that caused your eyes to turn blue." I want
to stop and ask her what she means because my eyes are certainly
not just blue but I also want to hear more about these side
effects, so I let her continue. "We not only can live off little
sustenance, we also have super human strength. In addition we are
quite fast. The others were like us at first. They had the survival
shot. Things changed though when someone took the red shot
subsequently. That shot was meant to kill and in a way it did. It
killed their humanity. It also brought on a strange change in those
people. We didn't know the extent of this change at first. It seems
like forever ago but back then there were people around that had
other abilities. Amazing ones, like your healing ability. They were
the ones who took the immunization because they were accepted but
then refused to enter the shelter because of their loved ones being
denied. Some of those people with the different gifts started dying
off or having what we thought were strokes that left them brain
dead. It wasn't until the red eyed people increased in number that
we realized what they were doing. They were collecting their
powers! We call them Reapers."

My mom takes a deep breath and looks like
she's about to cry, so I lay my hand on top of hers in a comforting
gesture. She blinks back the tears and continues. "We tried to kick
them out when we figured out what was going on but they went on a
massacre. They killed most everyone with unique powers and many of
us as well during the fight. A lot of our friends died."

"I'm so sorry mom." I give her a hug to try
and offer some semblance of comfort. "How did you all get away? I
mean, it sounds like these people are pretty powerful if all they
need to do is touch someone to kill them."

"They are powerful, but not invincible. We
out number them and that allowed us to fight them off eventually.
Plus, they can't simply kill with a brief contact. It takes them a
few moments to kill someone with their reaping ability."

"What keeps them from attacking again?" I
ask.

"Along with our super strength and speed, we
have developed several defensive and offensive strategies to fight
back." I notice a sort of proud gleam in her eye. Not pride in
herself but pride in her people.

"And we have an amazing leader who will lead
us to victory." Anthony chimes in. I turn around to see him close
the door. He clutches a small hand held mirror in his hand.

"Oh, who is your leader?" I ask him.

"You're sitting next to her." He smiles big.
I realize that look that he has towards my mom now. It's pure
unadulterated dedication and respect.

He is her soldier? I turn in surprise to
look at my mom. "Really?"

She doesn't look too pleased that Anthony
spilled the beans. "Yes. Along with several others, I help direct
our people. The Reapers are trying to find a way into the shelter
and we have to stop them."

"Why would they want to get into the
shelter?" The answer pops into my mind immediately so I answer my
own question. "They want more powers."

"Yes, but we won't let them get what they
want." Anthony declares in a statement that seems like he's overly
confident.

"I wonder if they know that not everyone
inside the shelter has a gift. Or a power." I feel a bit goofy
describing our new abilities as a power. It makes me think of super
heroes and old comic books.

"Not yet honey, but they will." My mom
says.

"We don't know how we got these abilities
though." I counter.

She walks over to a window at the edge of
the room. I hadn't paid much attention to it because of the
blackout curtain that's covering it. She pulls back the curtain and
sunlight filters into the room. I watch as dust motes dance around
in the sunbeams. "We are pretty sure that everyone inside should
have some sort of ability. It didn't take us long to realize that
the immunizations had to be the reason for the changes. Most of the
people inside haven't developed their powers yet because you are
all underground. The sun is the only thing that will complete the
change."

I had guessed as much. It was the only
explanation that made sense. I stand up and walk towards the
window. The sun is starting to set in the sky but it's still bright
enough out that I can take in the surroundings. Not that there's
much of anything out there anyhow. We are at least ten stories up.
Down below, a Holiday Inn sign stands tall at the entrance of an
overly large parking lot. I look back at the room that is now cast
in brightness. The fake abstract prints and floral motif of the
bedspread confirm that we are in fact in a hotel. Looking back out
the window I see the mountain a few miles off in the distance. A
knot in my stomach reminds me that my dad is still inside and my
friends are missing.

My heart starts pounding hard at the last
thought. "Mom! My friends are out there somewhere. What if..." My
sight goes blurry as tears well up in my eyes just thinking about
the Reapers out there with them. "What if they got to them?" I
whisper.

My mom's expression melts. Coming to my
side, she reaches up and wipes away the tear that is running down
my cheek. "What do you mean your friends are on the outside?" Her
expression turns to worry.

I don't know where to start with the
explanation of how Connor, Claire, my boyfriend Alec and I got
outside. I decide to give her a rundown of the basic facts and
succeed in spilling everything out in one long fast breath. "My
friends and I found a cave inside the shelter that had sunlight
pouring in. I guess now I know that this is how we started
developing our um...abilities. Dr. Hastings, the man who runs the
shelter found out about our abilities. Along with his son and his
horrible goons, he locked my friends in the cave by blowing up the
entrance. They kidnapped me and tried to run tests on me but I got
away. When I finally made it back to help my friends I found the
cave empty. They left a sign for me that had an arrow pointing to
the outside wall to let me know they’ve escaped."

My mom has a look of confusion from my
speedy recap that turns quickly to anger. "I can't believe..." She
lets out a deep shaky breath. "I can't believe they would try to
hurt innocent kids! We need to find out what's going on in there
fast. Wait. How did your friends escape? Was there an exit in the
cave?"

"If there is, we need to know about it. The
Reapers could try to use it as a way to gain access." Anthony
chimes in, understanding my mother's line of thinking.

"No, there isn't a way in and out for a
normal person. Connor, one of my friends, is able to pass through
objects. He must have found a way to use his gift to get Alec and
Claire free too." I say.

"Wait, how did you get out?" My mom
asks.

I look down at my hands and then back up at
her. "I can kind of do more than just heal. I can pretty much do
anything my friends can do, like pass through walls and stuff."

My mom looks at me with wide eyes. "And
stuff?"

I nod my head. "I can heal, pass through
things, listen to peoples thoughts, go invisible and compel people.
That's pretty much it."

My mom still looks a bit shocked. "Wow." Is
all she says.

We sit there staring at each other in
silence for a moment; then I change the subject. "If those Reapers
are as horrible as you say they are, then we need to find my
friends fast."

My mom crinkles her eyebrows in worry.
"Okay. We'll begin searching for them first thing in the morning."
She turns her sights on Anthony. "We will need to assemble some of
the fighters for the search."