Masked (28 page)

It’s amazing I was still
conscious, especially given my track record. I may have blacked out, when the
rocket first hit but it couldn’t have been for long. I felt some pain in my
right arm and side, but it was tolerable. As I tried to move, I realized the
outside facing wall of the room was mostly on top of me. The ringing in my ears
started to fade and I could hear again the rhythmic beat of the blades, loud,
close.

Now free from the shock induced
stupor, I tried to assess the situation. I was on my chest and half the room was
on top of me. The pressure of the debris made it hard to move, but I was able
to shift enough to get my hands underneath me. As I lifted in a push up, a
sharp jab of pain flared in my right arm and side. Ignoring the pain, I brought
my knees to my chest, planting my feet on the ground and then pushed up with my
legs, enabling me to break through the debris. I felt stone, glass and wood cut
into me as I did, but ignored it. I had to get to Sara.

Facing away from the outside wall,
I saw what they’d hit us with had blown straight through to the other side of
the house. Quickly, I turned to the other side of the room. It was brighter than
it had been before due to the gaping hole in the wall and the helicopter lights
just outside.

I looked to where Sara had been
and could only see debris covering that spot on the floor. Ignoring the helicopter,
I tried to move through the wreckage towards Sara. I heard shouting and weapons
fire from outside. I looked back towards the sounds and two figures, dark
against the dim light, appeared just inside the room.

I didn’t think. Not about the
fact it was a two story fall to the ground, not that Sara could be hurt
underneath the wreckage, not that I hadn’t had the chance to pee yet, or the
fact I was only wearing briefs. I just acted.

I launched myself towards them.
My bloodied, dirty almost naked body hit its targets and all three of us fell through
the gap, hitting the ground hard. Since I used their motionless bodies to land
on, shielding me from the impact with the pieces of fallen house, their fall
was a bit harder.

It took me only seconds to catch
my breath and I went for one of the assault weapons lying nearby. Once in hand
I backed up against the house, finding some cover behind the wreckage. The
helicopter was hovering over the space between the house and the lake. Down
towards the lake, I could barely hear more weapons fire over the sound of blades
above me.

It sounded like Alex was holding
them off, at least for now.

I’d never had the occasion to
shoot down a helicopter before, but thought it might be possible with the
weapon I held. Raising the rifle, I aimed at the rotor and pulled off a burst
of shots. A dim barrier of blue light appeared covering the helicopter just
short of the blades. My shots had no effect.

“You’ve got to be freaking kidding
me! A helicopter with a force field! Not fair!”

Since I wasn’t going to be able
to shoot it down, I decided I needed to get back up to where Sara was. Would they
let me? They’d literally caught me with my pants down and having one of those
new PTD’s right then would have been handy.

Suddenly I remembered I did have
the ability to read people’s minds; in the heat of everything happening, it
hadn’t occurred to me to try and reach out to Sara.

Trying to ignore the commotion, I
focused above me, back into the shambles of the house, at where Sara had been
sleeping. I tried for several seconds but couldn’t make any contact. There was
either no conscious thought there to connect with or I was being blocked. I
hoped it was the later. She’d be okay, I convinced myself.

I was trying to re-focus when my concentration
was interrupted by a piercing pain in my right arm. I looked up as more figures
dark against the light from the helicopter popped into being in the space just
under the hovering vehicle. Each of the six figures appeared six feet above the
paved earth. They hit the ground and moved towards me without even a stagger, never
losing their stride.

There was nowhere for me to go
but towards them. If I was to have any chance of getting to Sara, I needed to
take care of them first. The weapons fire I’d heard before from the direction
of the lake house was gone. That meant someone had won that fight. I could only
hope it was Alex and Laura.

Wearing only my underwear,
ignoring the now multiple injuries to my right arm and full bladder, I jumped
from my position of cover, towards six fully armed and clothed soldiers. Yes, I
know I shouldn’t have been focused on my bladder, but I’d really had a lot of
beer that night.

In the couple seconds it took me to
reach the group, they were able to fire off a several shots which luckily missed.
The one shot I got off as I ran, hit its target, dropping one opponent, at
least temporarily.

I jumped up and came down with a
round house kick to the head of one and a downward punch to another, landing
right in the middle of them. If I could keep the fight close, I hoped there was
less chance of them being able to effectively use their weapons against me.

There was an impact to my side
and then another to the side of my head. Pushing through the pain and dizziness,
I didn’t allow myself to slow down. With my left, I raked the assault weapon
hard across the face of one attacker and threw a side kick to another. Turning
behind me I was able to put a bullet in another. I’m not sure where it hit, but
he fell.

One of them got a shot off too,
as I felt it go through my side. The spot exploded into fiery pain, but I could
tell the bullet had gone straight through. I knew it would soon heal, so I
ignored the pain and keep swinging.

For each one I knocked down, one or
two more rose back up, seemingly recovered and ready for more. Fatigue and
injury were rapidly setting in, working to wear me down. I knew I couldn’t keep
it up for much longer, but also knew my only choice was to try. They weren’t there
to load us up with tranquilizers and take us back like before. They were there
to take care of us for good. The rocket and live rounds made that apparent.

A fist hit my head. I spun and
fell back. As I did I saw another figure moving fast towards me. I hit the
ground on my back, but now energized with renewed hope, I rolled out of it and tried
to get back on my feet. I guess I wasn’t as renewed as I’d thought: I found I could
barely stand.

James was now engaged with two of
the Titan soldiers, laying heavy blows and, lucky for me, the other two still
standing had their attention focused on the surprise entrance of James. With a side
kick to one and a right hook to the other, James’ took out his two, then turned
on the other two and took them out as well, seemingly effortless.

All six were now down on the
ground. James picked up one of the fallen weapons and put a shot into each of
their legs.

“That’ll keep them put for a
while,” he said.

Apparently realizing their men were
down; the helicopter lifted off and moved towards the lake.

James smiled. “Wow, a real wild
man. Fighting out here fist to fist in your man panties.”

“Shut up,” I said back and added
“thanks.”

Now with the fight over, at least
momentarily, and the adrenaline levels decreasing, the intensity of pain for my
various injuries was suddenly apparent. It hit me at once and I stammered in
shock. They’d really kicked the hell out of me. Of course, it had been me
against six super-powered armed men and just after I survived an explosion. I
should’ve got credit for that.

“No problem. Sorry I didn’t get
here any sooner,” James said.

He noticed my wincing. “Are you
okay?”

“I think so, just need time to
heal.”

“Where are the others? Where’s
Sara?” he asked.

I quickly filled him in. “Sara is
still upstairs. I need to get up to her. The rocket hit the house while she was
asleep on the floor. I didn’t have a chance to get through the rubble before I
was attacked. I haven’t seen Alex or Laura. There was weapons fire down by the
lake house, but it stopped.”

James picked up one of the fallen
assault weapons. “You go get Sara and I’ll check out the lake house,”

“Be careful. I’m not sure who won
the fight down there. There could be more Titan agents. Once I know Sara is
safe, I’ll be down,” I said.

“Will do,” James said and added with
a smile “and try to at least find some pants.”

He turned and dashed towards the
lake house and was just out of sight when I hear a woman’s voice from behind
me. “Drop the weapon and turn around slowly.”

It was another voice I knew from
my past. It seemed to be the day for reunions.

All the things I could do, other
than what she asked, ran through my mind, all of which involved a significant
amount of maneuverability and physical exertion. My stiff broken body could do
little more than walk, so any of those alternatives were not really feasible. I
didn’t have any viable options so I turned around to find Emily with her weapon
fixed on me.

Since I was apparently about to
die, the fact I really wanted a pair of pants shouldn’t have been the prominent
thought in my mind, but it was. Standing in your briefs in front of a girl you
know, but not in an intimate way at gun point is one of those really awkward
moments in life. It was happening to me and any pants would do.

“Hey Emily. It seems you’ve
caught me at an awkward moment. How are you?” I tried to be casual.

“I thought Alex was supposed to
be the humorous one?” She asked with a straight face.

“I’m just trying to compensate
for the lack of clothing. Do you think I can get something to cover up with
before we proceed?” I was half serious.

She showed just barely a smile.
“No, I think I’ll keep you just like this. You’re more vulnerable this way.” She
assessed what she saw and added insult to my already injured dignity. “I
pictured you as more of a boxer guy. I just can’t see what it is Sara ever saw
there.”

“Okay, now that all of the
niceties are behind us I assume you want something or you would have just shot
me in the back when you had the chance?”

“I want Sara. You tell me where
she is and I will let the rest of you live.”

Why did they want only Sara? Were
they just trying to pick up where they left off over a year ago? Was that still
what this was all about? Was it possible that she was the only one of us they were
aware of with other abilities?

“Why do you think I’d give her up
now?” I asked.

Emily smiled. “I don’t think you
will, but maybe I can get her to show herself to me.”

I could hear the blades of the
helicopter again. It was circling back.

“Let’s see if she’s willing to
sacrifice herself for you. If my guess is correct she will. Now get down on
your knees with your hands behind your head.”

I didn’t do what she asked, but tried
to scan her thoughts. It took a couple of seconds but I got in. It was only for
a moment. I lost the connection when a familiar pain coursed through me and
brought me to my knees.

I’d seen it coming but couldn’t
get out in time. I blinked up at Emily who seemed a little off balance and holding
one of the blue electrode tipped rods that was used on me before at the HUB. She
gathered herself before I could and prodded me again holding it against my
chest for what seemed like an eternity but probably was only a few seconds.

Fire burned in her eyes, fueled
either by anger or fear. I wasn’t sure which. “What did you just do to me?”

There was only one other time when
the person whose mind I’d been intruding felt me there. I hadn’t been able to
figure out why that pathetic excuse of a man back at the Idaho truck stop had
sensed me. It seemed Emily had a similar experience.

I caught my breath and moved into
a seated position before I could answer. “What do you mean?” I grinned.

She raised the gun again. “I
guess it’s of no matter right now.”

The helicopter was getting
louder. It was definitely on its way back. For the very short time I spent in
her head I saw she was telling the truth about wanting Sara alive. My
assumption was correct. Sara was the only one they knew who had developed an additional
ability. They wanted to finish their tests and try to reproduce the effect in
their other soldiers. She planned to kill the rest of us though, either way.

Emily’s voice boomed. “Sara. I
have your boyfriend here. I came for you. I’ll kill everyone here unless you
come with me.”

“I know you can hear me. You have
only until the helicopter arrives. After that, we will destroy everything and
everyone here.”

Obviously Emily didn’t know Sara
was in the room hit with the rocket and was probably still lying helpless under
the rubble of that demised part of the house. I didn’t think Emily was going to
get a response and not knowing what happened near the lake I couldn’t count on
Alex or James for any help. I could only count on action from myself. If I failed,
we would all perish.