Off the Wagon (Users #2) (13 page)

Carter handed it over slowly, his eyes still darting across the words on the page. Barber examined it closely. The young man’s lips moving along as he read the words quietly to himself.

“I don’t believe it,” Barber said when he finally finished reading the will. “There must be some mistake.”

“There is no mistake,” Jack said. “He came to me a few months ago, wanting to leave everything to you, but it’s not just the belongings.”

“What else is there?” Carter asked.

“There is also a large amount of cash that you will receive on your eighteenth birthday.”

“How large?” Carter asked.

“It’s close to two million dollars,” Jack answered. “The money is to go to you to help you run the Compound. There are considerable expenses that go along with running this facility, but that amount of cash should allow you to keep the doors open for the next fifty or so years.”

Now Barber’s jaw was hanging open in astonishment. It was a surreal moment for Carter as well. The uncertainty of what they were doing, keeping open the Compound, was now settled, but it left Barber with all the power. Barber could say who came and who goes. Barber had control over what they did while at the Compound. But most importantly, Barber would decide who ran the Compound until he came of age, and while it had been Barber who had recommended that Carter run the Compound in the first place, it was now fully the young man’s decision whether Carter stayed at the head of the organization.

“Well I guess you’re the man in charge now,” Carter said.

“This changes nothing. You will still run the Compound until I come of age or am even ready to take on the responsibility,” Barber said as if reading his mind.

Carter nodded, despite the sinking feeling that his place at the head of the Compound was precarious at best.

There was a short discussion of legalities and some paperwork to sign before Jack could be on his way. Carter remained through the entirety, even though he tuned out the majority of the conversation. His mind wandered with fantasies of giving dear old dad a good thrashing; payback for any one of the many beatings he had suffered at his hands as a child.

To say things between him and his father had not been good as of late would be a vast understatement. Sobriety definitely brought out a different perspective on his childhood. With a clear head and no opiates to block out the excruciating memories, he now had to deal with the realities of life. As far as Carter was concerned, Jack was an abusive bastard, and he didn’t much care if he lived or died. But, even still, Carter couldn’t escape the nagging feeling that deep down, he still needed the man’s approval; despite all the hatred and pain.

Carter did his best to remain as cool as possible in his father’s presence and finally, about the same time he could stand no more of Jack’s snake charmer discourse, he rose to leave. The awkwardness crowded the room and made Carter claustrophobic. He headed toward the exit, with Barber and Jack following close behind. They chatted softly and as they reached they door, Jack offered future legal assistance should he need any. Saying his goodbyes to Barber he turned to Carter and motioned for him to escort him back to his car.

The walk to his vehicle was short and silent. The night had closed in and the Compound lights twinkled like scattered stars, which were not visible through the canopy of clouds above.

“Well, I guess I’ll see ya ‘round” was all Carter could say, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand and looking to the ground.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” Jack offered his condolences. “I can see Walt meant a lot to you, Carter.”

Jack leaned in and hugged Carter, catching him off guard. “I love ya” he stated as though there was no dissonance between them.

His casual disregard of the past just pissed Carter off more, but he knew that the fight wasn’t even worth it and conceded.

“I love you too, drive safe.”

Chapter 14

They had not seen the sun in many days, and this bitter cold morning was no different.

“Everyone line up,” Carter shouted to the Users of the Compound as if they hadn’t done this a hundred times before.

It was the ass crack of dawn, which meant morning exercises, and Carter had every intention of running the Compound just as Walt had for years. That meant Mondays they would play capture the flag, and every other morning they would do their exercises. It was important, especially for the newly sober, to get in the habit of getting off your ass and doing something. It also helped to work out whatever poisons were coursing through their veins. At the very least they need to work up a good sweat. Some of the newer members had toxins coming out their pores. Carter could smell it on them.

Carter called out to them, counting with each sit up, push up, or jumping jack as they went through their routine.

“What’s the matter Evan?” Carter asked, noticing the lackluster effort the Mover was putting into the push ups they were doing.

Evan was barely going half way down and was lagging behind the rest of the group in number of push ups completed.

“Nothing,” Evan answered.

“Then what’s up with the half ass job you’re doing?” Carter meant to make an example of Evan before others got the idea it was okay to slack off on his watch.

“I’m tired.”

“Oh, you’re tired. Well are you too tired for a round in the pit?”

“Come on, man. It’s too early for that shit,” Evan groaned.

“How come you were never tired when Walt was running the exercises?” Carter asked. “Get in the pit,” Carter said before Evan could offer a response.

“With you?” Evan asked.

There was a hopeful tone in Evan’s voice as if he wanted the chance to take a shot at Carter, but he wasn’t going to give Evan the satisfaction. No, he was going to pit him against someone else, and he didn’t have to spend much time thinking about who it was.

“How about we see what the new guy can do?” Carter asked. “Ryker, you’re up.”

He led the way over to the pit with the rest of the Users hot on his heels. This was the first fight under Carter’s watch and no one was going to miss this. Evan was a powerful Mover, but there was a buzz of anticipation regarding Ryker and what he could do.

Carter wasn’t even sure what kind of User Ryker was now that he thought about it. The pair entered the sandy pit and the rest of the Users circled around them like a knife fight was about to happen between the Jets and the Sharks. A round of encouragement went up from the crowd for Ryker, cheering him on.

“You got this Evan,” Lucy, a Blinder who was particularly fond of Evan, said.

Evan looked up at her and nodded, despite the overwhelming support for Ryker from most everyone else.

“You ready Greenie?” Evan asked, referring to him being the new guy in camp.

“I’m ready, but are you?” Ryker asked with a smirk.

They sized one another up, circling each other around the pit. Evan had a good half a foot height advantage on Ryker and with Evan’s lanky arms, a substantial reach advantage as well, but in a User fight, that didn’t always spell victory. In a User fight, the smallest woman could easily beat the largest man if she had honed her powers to a level above her opponent.

“Five bucks on the new guy,” Barber said coming up to stand next to Carter at the edge of the sandy pit.

“You really want to throw away all that money already?” Carter asked. “Your on.”

Evan and Ryker charged one another, but Evan pulled up short, blasting Ryker with a wicked uppercut that was backed by his Mover powers. Evan’s fist didn’t even physically connect with Ryker’s face, but an invisible forcefield surrounded Evan’s fist like a boxing glove made of psychic energy. Ryker was knocked back on his ass, and it looked like the fight was going to be over before it had even started, but there was more to this pretty boy than Carter had imagined. Ryker was slow to get to his feet, but he dug his heels into the sand and got back into a fighting stance. Evan, instead of jumping on Ryker, waited patiently for him to find his bearings.

“You okay?” Evan asked sarcastically.

“I’m fine. How about you big guy?” Ryker asked, but he had to straighten his jaw with his hand.

“Just making sure. You look a little wobbly.”

“Enough talking!” Carter shouted.

“Well, you heard the man,” Ryker said. “Let’s get it on.”

Evan burst into motion, swinging his arms, and sending the sand at his feet hovering above the ground. The air around the pit tingled with energy as the wave of mental power built within Evan. Carter almost felt bad for what was about to happen to Ryker.

Then Ryker simply extended a hand in Evan’s direction. In the blink of an eye ice shot from Ryker’s hand and Evan was frozen stiff, encased in a layer of solid ice. The ice was form fitted to Evan’s body, following his every curve and sinking into every crevice, turning him into an Evan popsicle. Evan looked ridiculous with his arms extended to his sides, his eyes wide and his mouth open.

“Holy shit!” Barber shouted. “That was awesome!”

The rest of the Users, including Carter, stood stunned, nearly as frozen as Evan. None of them had ever seen…whatever it was that Ryker was. He must have been the first of his kind, a User able to use ice.

“A little help over here,” Ryker said motioning to Evan.

“Who me?” Carter asked.

“You think you could thaw him out before he suffocates please?” Ryker asked.

“Oh, yeah.” Carter threw fire from his palm like a flamethrower, melting the ice encasing Evan’s body. Moments later, Evan fell to his hands and knees, gasping for breath and drenched from head to toe in cold water, but was otherwise no worse for the wear.

“What the hell happened,” Evan asked once he had regained his ability to speak.

“He froze you in a layer of ice,” Carter answered.

“He can do that?” Evan asked in astonishment.

“Apparently.” Carter’s suspicions that there was more to Ryker than meets the eye was confirmed.

He was more than just a pretty face, much more. Making the situation worse, was the fact that Ryker’s powers appeared to be the exact opposite of Carters. Carter had to assume that their powers would essentially cancel one another out, but he wasn’t eager to find out, just in case Ryker’s powers were more powerful than his own.

“Did you see that?” Barber was like a child at a magic show. “The guy is an Icer!”

“A what?” Carter asked.

“An Icer. I just came up with it,” Barber said proudly.

“I think we can come up with a better name than that,” Carter said, but Barber wasn’t listening.

Barber ran up to Ryker and extended a hand to help pull him out of the pit.

“Thanks,” Ryker said taking Barber’s hand.

Carter could only watch as Ryker led the way with Barber following close behind, asking him all sorts of questions about the man’s powers. This was going to be a problem.

*****

“Thanks for bringing me along,” Barber said as they crossed from one empty alleyway into another.

“No problem. I could use the back up anyway,” Carter said as he sank into a nearby shadow.

“For what? We haven’t seen any action tonight,” Barber said while tightening the strings on his hood to shield his face from the bitter cold. “It’s too damn cold for anyone to be out committing a crime.”

Carter couldn’t deny the fact that the streets were almost entirely empty. There was the occasional homeless person asleep on a bench or in an abandoned doorway, but overall the city was like a ghost town. He hadn’t brought Barber out here to really help him fight crime anyway, he just wanted to get Barber alone, which had become nearly impossible back at the Compound. It seemed as though every time Carter turned around, Ryker was there, haunting his every move and spending more and more time with Barber.

“You never know when something big is going to happen.” Carter spoke in vague terms.

Carter had to keep Barber close. The young man seemed infatuated with Ryker, and Carter didn’t like it one bit.

“What made you change your mind?” Barber asked.

“About what?” Carter asked.

He was playing dumb, he knew exactly what Barber was talking about, but Carter didn’t want to come right out and say it.

“About bringing me on patrol with you.”

“I was wrong. You need the experience. If you’re going to run the Compound someday, you need to face real life obstacles too,” Carter lied.

Carter darted from shadow to shadow back and forth through the alley, with Barber following his lead. They took a brief respite behind the cover of a dumpster full of foul smelling garbage, thrown out by the restaurant that occupied the building’s front. A rat scurried past their feet, stopped, and looked up at them as if they were bothering it before disappearing through a hole in the side of the building.

“Oh, that’s gross,” Barber said.

“No shit.”

“Have you even busted any drug dealers since we took down the factory producing the Pow?” Barber asked.

“No. I haven’t seen any real shit going down since then,” Carter answered.