The Push Chronicles (Book 3): Incorruptible (24 page)

The growing light was so bright it felt like it was about to burn through my eyelids.  My teeth started to chatter in my head and liquid agony from the intense vibrations poured through my mental block.  Even I, with all my immunity to the powers of the Pushed, couldn't withstand this terrible meeting of forces.  Despite what I knew was happening to me, I wasn't going to give up, to leave an innocent man to his fate, not now.  Not ever.

"Come on, Gerald, do it!  Do it now!"  I don't know if he actually heard me over the screaming sounds all around us.  I certainly didn't hear it.  There was a long moment of horror, a seemingly endless thrum of unearthly vibrations speeding up through me.  Finally, it ended.  Not with a terrible clap of thunder or building-leveling explosion but with a sudden breeze and a loud sigh.

I dared to open my eyes.

Kneeling on the ground in front of me was an unconscious Gerald Schuller, still garbed in military prison issue attire.  Mind's Eye was still hovering in her meditation position, eyes closed, deep in telepathic rapport with Gerald.   She had done her job perfectly.  Once Reaper's mental shields were suppressed by Gerald and Epic's combined efforts, Mind's Eye had simply put poor Gerald to sleep.  As for everyone else, there was simply silence for a moment.

We had won.  Somehow, we had won.  Unfortunately, there was one more battle to win before the war was over.

Chapter 25 Army

Epic hovered forward and gently laid the deeply sleeping Schuller onto the debris-strewn floor.  Mind's Eye must have felt it was safe to pull him from the depths of unconsciousness.  I clenched my fists, forcing myself to turn away.  My focus was flagging and I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep going, but I had to.

"Ex."  I focused myself at the firefighter, who was putting pressure on a bleeding slash in his arm.  "You need to take care of things here.  Please, save who you can"

"Where are you going?" Extinguisher said, looking confused, even shocked.  "We don't know who's dead and -"

"I have to concur, milady," Archer added as he looked up from binding Hexagon's many wounds.  "This is no time to be bounding off.  After all, have we not won?"

"No, we haven't.  Not yet."  I started to limp towards the edge where Epic was floating, waiting.

"She's right.  Don't forget about the army coming."  Observant Quentin.  Like me, he hadn't lost sight of the endgame.

"We must all come then in case things go worse than they already are," Mind's Eye said, trying to stand straight, something she wasn't quite capable of.  "I sense the mood of the crowd is one to stand up to the army, but whenever I seek out the source of this notion, I run into clouds and empty space."

"No, we can't, Ms. Eye, because, like, if we go now, then they might panic to see all these Pushed all messed up and angry-looking and they'll only guess that we're out for blood and what about Poly and Alma and Frost and Vee and Battalion and Wavey and the steampunk dude and the creepy doctor and, Ms. Eye, they'll die if we leave them."  The Human Tank might have been hyperactive, but he had moment of astounding clarity.

"Wait, what crowd?"  The one time I had been thrown violently out of the building, I hadn't exactly taken the time to scan the streets below the Bank of America Plaza.

"The one that gathers in the streets," Epic said, his booming voice modulated into more humble tones.  It seemed hard for him to do, to not shout and proclaim.  "Normal citizenry gathering for some unknown purpose."  He looked to the Human Tank.

"The youth speaks the truth.  You, friends, must please do as Indomitable asks.  We will need every man and woman we can save for the days ahead ... to stand up for those that have fallen."  He clenched a fist and the section of floor with Gerald on it cracked free, suspended by a web of white lightning.  "Indomitable and I will go, show that Reaper has been quelled, and plead our case."

"Beat me to it," I muttered as I clambered onto the floating hunk of floor.  Thank God Epic was going to carry me.  The thought of moving that far under my own power scared me.

"Be careful, milady."

"What Robin Hood said.  Don't get us nuked, Indy."  Ex couldn't help but cast a suspicious eye at Epic, but he said nothing.

I only gave a brief nod in reply.  I was busy, trying to muster every rational fiber of my mind for what was to come.  With the barest of gestures, Epic launched out over the city, following the direction the mass of people below seemed to be going, with me and our sleeping cargo in tow.

Despite the problem I was wrestling with and the ever-increasing mental focus I had to use to keep standing with broken bones, oozing wounds, and constant spikes of pain, my eyes just couldn't peel away from the citizenry below.  How had they gotten the idea to do this, to march towards the impending danger instead of hiding away?  Why would they even want to make the army stand down?  Hadn't weeks of oppression turned them wisely against their superhuman masters?  That's what Ian would have thought, for sure.

No, it wasn't that.  It also couldn't have been Eric's reversal.  Oh, sure, the people that saw him fighting Reaper alongside the rest of us might be even more motivated, but that didn't explain the source of this.  I could only guess that the Whiteout had sparked some kind of simultaneous divergent thought in so many people, some kind of assurance that the Pushed were a better choice than the army.  That was asking for a big coincidence and even that seemed a stretch.  Maybe it was the message I had recorded with Stephanya.  If it had gone as viral as that original film, maybe it could have sparked this, but that too seemed pretty far-fetched.

Epic seemed a bit more focused but, even so, I could see Eric doing sweeping scans of the people down below.  It was obvious to me that he was as puzzled as I was.  Well, it wasn't as if his supposed omniscience hadn't been proven spotty in the past, especially in regards to anything involving Naturals.  I'm sure my and Quentin's presence was playing havoc with him and Mind's Eye.

It was only moments, even if my rapid-fire thoughts made it seem like minutes, before the front line of the Army's advance came into view.  They hadn't ventured far beyond the dome's former perimeter, just past the I-285 bypass that circled Atlanta, and that very fact hammered home just how swiftly our battle had come to its conclusion.  It couldn't have been more than ten minutes since we had first engaged Reaper and his other flunkies.  More than that, it made the marching citizens even more of an enigma.  How could this have been planned with such foresight as to be ready for this?

The answer presented itself as plain as day as the frontlines of the citizen march came into clear view and the final puzzle pieces clicked into place.  Standing in the back of a pick-up truck, extolling the normal men and women of Atlanta onward through a bullhorn, was a heavily-bandaged Rachel Choi.  The truck itself was eased slowly towards the Army lines by Duane Brooks, looking as mummified by gauze, if not more so, than his partner.

"How did I not see them before?"

Epic's question was rhetorical because his mind was only a pace behind mine.  It really only made sense, if you considered what had already been laid out for me.  Any normal human could become Pushed, or else new Pushed wouldn't keep cropping up.  I had seen first-hand that a Natural could become Pushed, as Ian had.  Why couldn't a normal person gain the will and, to be honest, the suspicion to break free of the Whiteout and become like me?

"Well, at least it explains a lot."

"Indeed.  With them at our backs, it will make attaining our intended goal that much more likely, yet I still fear for our success."  A darkness fell over Epic's eyes as we arced down towards the ground and the fated meeting of all three sides.  "It would be so much easier to save the people by wiping out this army before it even has a chance to fire a shot."

"No."  My gaze narrowed.  "We don't work that way.  You trusted me back there, keep doing so.  I just need a little faith from you and a steady hand."  He let out a sharp hiss of a sigh.

"I will do my best, Irene."

"Good enough for me."

The highway was wide enough to accommodate the tanks three abreast and the main guns swiveled to follow our motion.  More concerning to me was the infantry mixed in loose formation around and behind the initial vanguard of armor.  We were small targets, after all.  The chance that I would be hit by a burst of suppressing machine gun fire was much higher than being splattered by a tank shell.  The thing that gave me hope was that no one opened fire, not even a jumpy private who might be seeing action for the first time.  Was it the proximity of civilians that held them back or some deep seated understanding that we didn't come as the enemy?  I didn't know and I didn't honestly care.

Epic settled my rock platform on the ground as Brooks pumped the accelerator behind us.  There were probably two dozen guns immediately trained on me and even more on Epic as I found the strength to cradle Schuller like a baby and step off into the street.  Brakes signaled the truck halting behind us as I stepped forward, searching the eyes of the soldiers in front of us, most of them as anxious and scared as the thousands of civilians in our wake.

"Stay cool, guys, we're on the same side."  I tried to find a medium between soothing and authoritative in my tone.  "I really need to talk to someone in charge before something bad happens."  To try to emphasize the 'we come in peace' point I slowly laid Gerald carefully out on the ground and raised my hands.  Taking my lead, Epic actually deigned to lower himself fully to the ground and spread out his hands openly.

There was a murmur back and forth, whispers among the infantry, as footsteps from behind announced the arrival of Rachel and Duane in the flesh.  I risked a glance at the two of them and gave a brief nod and smile.  It was a relief to see them alive, even if they looked like they had been caught in a tenement fire.  Maybe they had taken 'torching the place' literally.

"Look, gentlemen, I'm former FBI agent Rachel Choi and this is my partner, Duane Brooks," Rachel said, flashing her old identification.  "There's no need for any of this.  If -"

"No need for more chatter, Ms. Choi."  The gravelly voice of a man who chain-smoked three packs a day came out of the top of one of the lead tanks' turrets as a helmeted head followed.

Square-jawed, so sun-weathered that I wasn't quite sure I could peg his ethnicity, every inch the career soldier, the man who emerged from the armored war machine certainly seemed to ooze authority.  I knew just enough about military markings to tell he wasn't a general or anything so high up, but he had to be at least somewhat in charge with how the other soldiers reacted to him.  The name tag on his urban camouflage read 'Jackson'.

"Major Frank Jackson."  He nodded down at us from the safety of his turret.  I couldn't hold that against him.  "I've been fully briefed on the Atlanta situation pre-dome.  No need for introductions."  He glanced at Gerald's peaceful form.  "Where are the rest of them?"

"Down, not dead, and that's probably all that's important right now."  I made a face.  "We weren't in time to save Liberty though."  I frowned.  He wasn't the only one we didn't save.  "Reaper snapped his neck before we got there."

"I'm sorry to hear that, ma'am.  Served with him for months now.  He was a good man."  He gave Epic a glance.  "I don't have the authority to do more than halt the advance right now, but I need some damn good reasons to even do that much, especially with our primary target hanging out in front of our main line."  Jackson looked back at all of us.  "That's what you're here for, I take it.  A cease to the advance?  Otherwise, we wouldn't have a line of civvies marching towards us.  They sure as hell aren't evacuating."

"You are most correct, Major," Epic began, paused for a long doubtful moment, then continued.  "I have come before you and your men to surrender myself for the crimes I have committed against this country and its people."

"I don't enforce laws but if it were up to me, your willingness to turn yourself in would mean something."  He rubbed his face.  "Still, you're going to have to forgive me for not taking you at face value, son.  I'm personally glad you have that psycho deactivated but, to be frank, you're the head of an army of a thousand people each with more firepower than an platoon of infantry.  Why would you surrender at all?"

"Major, if you know everyone here, you have to know me."  I decided to butt in before Eric started to get frustrated.  He was so brilliant that he tended to take even rational questions aimed at him as some kind of insult and even the soul-searching he had just recently undergone probably wouldn't change that.

"I do, ma'am.  Maybe you can enlighten this old warhorse as to why the people who last I saw were beating the holy hell out of each other are now standing side-by-side."

"Oh Lord, this is going to sound really corny, Major, but," I took a deep breath, "Epic has changed.  He's being honest about this and I think most of the other Crusaders will fall into lock-step.  There's not going to be a need for any of this by nightfall."

"Major, the lady's right," Duane added.  "Besides that, you guys have rules of engagement and shit.  There's tens of thousands of people that are willing to stand in your way because, hell, we don't need the army blowing up everything now.  The situation is handled."

The infantry's murmurs picked up.  Some of them even lowered their assault rifles.  The Major's expression was unchanging but his eyes seemed to soften just a hair.

"I want to believe all of this.  Heaven help me, I certainly don't want to be the officer who didn't listen and mistakenly shelled a major American city."  He rubbed his eyes.  "Give me something, some real assurance than if I hold this line, that when the inevitable screw-up happens, it won't make me regret not stopping you all here and now."

The four of us glanced between one another.  Did we really have anything to offer the Major?  It was stupid, but there was only one thing I could think to say.

"Major, you have my personal promise that nothing will happen."  I gestured behind me.  "There are a million people, if not more, that trust me and I didn't let them down."  I looked to Epic, then Brooks and Choi.  "We didn't let them down.  Sir, we won't let you down either."

The Major locked eyes with me and we stood there, taking a good measure of one another.  There was a long moment when I thought he was going to make the call to unleash hell down on us.  Instead, he popped back down into the tank and, like a ripple, tank cannons raised and the infantry seemed to back down.

I let myself take a deep breath as relief washed over me.  We did it.  Promises kept and lives saved.

Well, most of those lives were saved.

The tears that came were that strange mixture of joy at what we had accomplished and grief at what we had lost and I knew, as the Army line took a symbolic yard-long retreat, I wasn't the only one doing the same.