Sapience (28 page)

“Ten thousand!” the expression on her face alone was enough to make me laugh. You would have thought I had just told her the world was flat or something.

“So what does this mean, that the president thinks ten thousand years is insignificant?” She asked.

“I guess so.”

“What else don’t I know?” She asked. “Why are things the way they are now? What was it like before?”

“Before?” That was a vague word, did she mean the country’s history or the world’s? “Well let’s see, from what we could tell, it was better before. I think I already told you about the economy collapsing and the Meads buying their way into power. What I didn’t tell you was about the domino effect that came after and hit almost every nation in the world. New nations were formed, President Mead destroyed Canada, threats were given by all and eventually nukes were aimed in every direction by everybody. No one wanted to end up like Canada. I guess you could say that was the beginning of world war three, the new cold war.” I paused to think if there was anything I had missed. “No country ever truly climbed out of that great depression. They all fell into this state of submission.”

She sat for a while, visibly thinking over what I had just told her. “I wonder what it would be like if none of those horrible things had happened.” She said.

It was then that a weird feeling crept into me. At least that’s what I thought at first. As the seconds ticked by the feeling grew stronger until it was an actual physical rhythmic thumping. A matching noise began to grow.

“Do you hear that?” Brianna asked.

Realization set in hard. “It’s a helicopter, they found us!”

Years of combat training kicked in, there was no panicking, no irrational thought, just a well-rehearsed reaction to an ambush. I had to find a tactical advantage, but where? The barn was so empty.

“This is the closest thing we have to a weapon.” Brianna said, tossing me a shovel.

“Ok” I said “That has to be a recovery helicopter which means a sweep team is already right on top of us. We are sitting ducks up here. Make a run for the door that separates the two halves up the barn. We can at least switch rooms if things get to out of hand in one.”

She gave me a quick nod and raced down the ladder. I saw shadows that blocked the sun as men scurried along the outside of the barn. By the time I got to the ground Brianna was already across the room.

One of the Kingdom’s soldiers appeared in the doorway just as she reached it. He was dressed in all black, holding an assault rifle. He towered over her.

Brianna put her hands together and an ice spear shot from her wrists. It hit the soldier in the stomach, piercing through both bullet proof vest and flesh. She had his rifle before he hit the floor. There was no hesitation, her eyes constantly scanned the room.

I ran as hard as I could, gripping the shovel in both hands, I was way too exposed.

She spun and shot another soldier coming in from the other direction.

I reached her in time to use the shovel to knock out a third man sneaking up from behind. His gun strap was wrapped around his shoulder. I pulled on it hard trying to loosen it. I could see another soldier through the door to the other room, I shot him with the rifle still tied up, giving me enough time to get it free.

I took a quick survey of the situation. We had poor cover, our backs were against the wall and we were extremely outmanned. There had to be a way, if we could just keep them from getting a footing on the inside of the barn. The car! The one under the tarp, if we could get there we could punch it out of here.

Three shadows crept along the outside of the wall, I fired on them, and all three went down.

I turned, looking through the door at the car on the far side of the room, we had a lot of open space to cross. I popped a soldier trying to climb in through a small window and he tumbled back out. As I was still looking another came into view and fired in at me. I was forced to turn back into the first room as bullets riddled the door frame.

Soon there were soldiers coming out everywhere. Every time I blinked it seemed like there was another. They were lining all the windows of the back room, cutting off our retreat. I couldn’t even look back there without getting shot at.

Brianna’s clip went empty which is bad because I couldn’t hold off all the soldiers by myself. She ran forward, sliding on her hip like a baseball player near the door. She yanked a gun off of a dead soldier as I shot one that tried to come in and grab her. She tossed me a spare clip as she raced back to my side.

I fired a round off into the back room hoping it would stop anybody from trying to slip in through one of the windows.

The soldiers trying to run in began to dwindle. Their new tactic was to shoot through the cracks. They couldn’t get a very accurate shot, but they could get one. Tools fell off the wall as they were hit by stray bullets. I could hear them as they whizzed past and struck the wall behind me.

I tried one last time to at least look at the car and was forced to turn back, the soldiers back there definitely had a more clear shot. Brianna and I fired at the shadows as they blocked the sun from coming through the cracks, some went down others were saved as the wall stopped our bullets.

To make a run for the car was to die, to keep fighting was to die, to surrender was to die. I looked over at Brianna, blood was pouring from a gash in her forearm where a bullet must have grazed her. She paid no mind to the wound and kept her eye looking down the barrel. Splintered pieces of wood showered down on us from the wall.

I spotted somebody trying to come through the front door, when I tried to shoot I missed. We did not have enough bullets for me to suddenly decide I was going to be a lousy shot.

The person that stepped through the door was far smaller than the soldiers, though dressed the same. My first thought was that it was an agent coming to finish us off, but then I saw it was a girl, there had never been a female agent, this was something else.

She had no gun and yet she walked straight toward us. Her face was expressionless and her eyes were completely white. Her hands hung limp at her sides as she took one slow step after another in our direction. She had sandy blond hair that flapped in the wind as my bullets passed by, off target.

I recognized her and that scared me more than anything else. She was a physical user, one of us. What had happened to her? There was no trace of the blue that had once been a dominant feature in her eyes. She looked like a walking corpse.

I had dreaded the idea of this moment ever since the first time we debated breaking out of the government buildings, the day I would have to kill one of my own.

I pulled the trigger again, these bullets went wide too, same with Brianna’s. I fired again and again, not one bullet hit its mark.

The physical user must have been bending the air, making her impossible to hit. I realized far too late that she was one of the few who could move objects with her mind.

A rock flew up from the ground and struck Brianna in the head. She was still falling when something struck me from behind, everything went black.

Chapter 18

            
 
I was aware of three things, I was definitely on a helicopter, there was definitely a bag over my head and someone definitely kicked me when I tried to get to my feet. That didn’t stop me though. I tried to roll to my feet like my life depended on it. It most definitely did.

“Stick him with this.” I heard a male voice say.

I made an attempt to kick at whoever was talking but my foot wouldn’t budge. They must have been tied together.

I felt the sharp sting of a wasp on my thigh and my leg began to go numb. Soon my other leg was numb, then my waist, followed by my chest and arms. As the powerful numbness came flooding into my head I desperately tried to understand what was happening. The thumping helicopter blades grew louder and louder until they sounded like a giant man laughing in my ear.

And then I was falling, the laughing helicopter grew farther and farther away until I was alone in a very dark place. My feet touched ground, I felt water rush over my shoes. I could hear it dripping as if I were in a giant sink.

“What did you do to me?” I yelled, my voice echoed through the darkness. “To me, to me, to me.”

I took a step and the water swooshed under my feet. It was cold, my feet were soon going numb. I was tired, all I wanted was to sit down but I didn’t dare sit in the icy water.

A chill was beginning to run up my legs and through my body. I needed to get my feet somewhere dry. But where? I couldn’t see anything.

I wandered for a while with my hands out, hoping to grasp something solid. All the while the cold water was eating at my strength. I was just about to collapse when something clamped down on my wrists. I tried to pull away, the clamp lifted my arms and picked me up out of the water. I went higher and higher, the darkness still flooding in from all sides. I saw light and realized that my eyes were closed. It took all my will to force them open.

My wrists felt like they were on fire and my shoulders felt like they were popping out of the socket. The bag was still over my head but I could tell I was suspended in the air, hanging from my bound wrists.

I stayed as still as possible. I was waking up from a bad dream only to find that reality was worse. Every movement sent great pain through my arms.

Eventually I heard a door open and a pair of feet tapping their way over to me. The sack was ripped off my head and light came flooding in stinging my eyes.

I squinted, trying to gain my bearings on where I was. The room was pure white, floor, ceiling, walls, all of it. The only variation was a large black mirror on the wall. I was half naked wearing nothing but my boxer briefs. My arms were tied up over my head and my toes were dangling inches from the floor. The rope tied to my wrists was looped over a hook in the ceiling.

There were three people in the room with me, two identical short, stocky, agents and the physical user from the barn. She looked even more deadened in this bright lighting.

“Inform our prisoner of his crimes.” One of the agents said in a deep voice that echoed around the room.

“Citizen William Fay.” The physical user said. Her voice was flat and even, like something you would hear from a computer. “You are charged with the murder of ten military officers yesterday and the assault of another last fall.”

“High crimes.” The agent cut in. “The likes of which earn you the right to be an example for the people.”

The fear of his threat was lost beneath a wave of relief. They didn’t know who or what I was. Even though I would die, the others would be safe.

“Your girlfriend too.”

My blood went cold, I couldn’t bear the thought of Brianna being killed. I could feel anger and adrenaline start to flow through my body. I wanted to kill these people.

“How did you find us?” I asked. I watched the user, waiting for the moment when she would realize who I was and go running off to sound the alarm. I recognized her, why hadn’t she recognized me?

“We planted a tracking device on your car yesterday at the school.” She said.

“That’s enough.” The agent said. “Don’t answer any more of his questions.”

He took a step forward and struck me blindingly fast in the side. I heard and felt my ribs crack.

I wanted to scream in pain, to break free of these ropes and break his neck. Instead I stayed limp and tried quietly to regain my breath. There was nothing I could do.

“We have discussed your punishment and decided it would be best to reveal you to the public after you are dead. They fear the unknown you see. After they gaze upon your broken body no one will dare attack one of our men again.”

All agents looked the same to me, they were like clones, freaks of nature built by man (Though I guess I would also fall under the freak of nature category) but this one seemed different than the others. He was more aged, or maybe he was simply higher in rank than the others. Either way, he held himself as though it were true.

“Who will have the pleasure of torturing this one?” The other agent asked, licking his lips.

The first agent looked me over before placing his hands on the other’s shoulder. Let’s let our new little pet do the dirty work.”

The other agents face sank. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, I think she will do a fine job.”

“Fine, in that case I will be in my quarters.” The agent turned like he was going to leave. Between his super speed and the surprise of it, I barely saw him turn and throw a punch. It felt like a sludge hammer.

I gasped in pain as I spun on the rope. He had hit me so hard that I was seeing dots. I tried to curl up into a ball, to protect my aching stomach but gravity kept me open. By the time I could muster the strength to look up he had already left the room.

“Do you feel sorry?” The remaining agent asked.

I met his eyes. “Sorry about what?”

“You killed a lot of innocent men, you should feel sorry.”

I managed to laugh through the pain. I knew I was only getting myself into worse trouble but couldn’t help it. “Those innocent men you speak of deserve a lot worse than what I gave them.”