CAMP – Ron’s Journey
Chapter 31
As if things weren’t bad enough
“Ron!” cried Jill, who was the first to see him enter the
room. She ran to him and hugged him furiously, while Kim slipped off
to find the rest of the family.
It had taken them only a few hours to get home, since they
could now fly together, and in a direct route. Kim had worried about
how the cat would get home, but Ron told her not to concern herself
with Jessica. Sure enough, Jessica had been waiting for them when
they’d arrived. This was Kim’s first sign that the cat was not normal.
By the time Ron disentangled himself from Jill, the rest of
the family was present, and many hugs were shared. Everyone was
relieved to see him. And Linda had a surprise for him.
“You’ve lost a little weight,” Ron said in fun.
“Tammy?” Linda called quietly. Tammy came over, carrying
the baby, and put it in Ron’s arms.
“I know you probably wanted a boy…” Linda began. Ron just
looked at her and smiled.
“I didn’t really care which it was, Linda, but she’s
beautiful!” He stared down at his new daughter, Mary Christine
Chaffey. Well, there could be some dispute, legally, over that last
name, but no one here would argue the point.
Ron cuddled his daughter for several minutes, and no one
objected, even though they wanted to know what had happened while he
was gone. Kim tried to detach herself, not wanting to interfere, but
Ron carried the baby directly to her, and she finally realized that she
was, truly, a full-fledged part of the family now.
Finally, the baby started to fidget, and Ron handed it over
to Tammy, who had imposed upon herself the job of helping Linda care
for her. Ron could see the pain in Tammy’s eyes, and he knew what it
was from. Telling her was the easiest way to get the message out.
“Don’t worry, Tams. I know how to find the girls, now.”
One little sentence, and the entire family nearly came
unglued. There was a chorus of questions, and a lot of confusion. Ron
noticed that the cougar, who had come into the room with them, was
settled quietly in a corner. Ron tried to calm the group.
“Guys, guys! I can’t answer you all at once. And, I need
to apologize, because I should have thought of this three weeks ago.”
Now that he had everyone’s attention, he could continue. “Jess! Come
here, please.” The big cat rose from its spot and padded over to her
friend. “Kim, did you wonder how Jessica knew so precisely where I
was?”
“I did find it a bit curious.”
“Well, I know this is going to be hard for all of you to
swallow, but this cat doesn’t just remind me of our friend Jessica.
She *is* our friend Jessica.” He was getting blank stares, so he
figured he’d better press on. “She’s not reincarnated, or anything
like that. She exists in the Spirit Realm, she keeps an eye on all of
us. This,” he said, indicating the cat before him, “Is just her
physical form here on Earth. I know, I know, this is all whacked, but
that’s how it works.”
It took a while before anyone could speak, but Tammy
finally asked, “How does that help us find Nikki and Dawn?”
“See, where Jessica really is, there are a lot of people
observing the Earth. They’re called ‘Watchers’. And I’m willing to
bet they know exactly where the girls are. We just have to get them to
tell us.” Ron knew they weren’t really “people”, as such, but why
confuse the issue?
“Well, how do we do that?” Sandra asked.
Ron turned to Jessica. “Jess? Can you ask them for me?”
As he half-expected, she shook her head in the negative. “Okay.” To
the rest of the family, he said, “Looks like I’m going back to the
Spirit Realm. Remember when we tried to save Kumiko?” his voice almost
didn’t crack when he said that, which was an improvement, the others
thought. “I went into the Spirit Realm then. I need to go again, to
find Dawn and Nikki.”
“What do you need us to do, Master?” Jill asked. Her
question brought something to his mind.
“Cindy didn’t make it, did she?” It wasn’t really a
question, and Jill shook her head “no.”
“Damn. Jill, I need you to set up a quiet space around
here somewhere, where I won’t be disturbed.”
She nodded, and moved off to do as she had been told. Ron
looked at Tammy, and gave her a smile. “We’ll find them.” Ron waited
where he was, resting and looking around at the facility, while the
rest of the family moved off. He took little note of Linda and Sandra
talking quietly with Kim.
“So?” Linda prodded.
“So, what?” Kimberly replied, playing dumb.
“Come on, Kim! Don’t torment us!” Sandra insisted.
“He is a very wonderful man,” Kim said, “And, I am now a
woman.”
Nothing else needed to be said. Linda gave her a warm hug,
and Sandra gave her a kiss. “Welcome to the family,” she offered.
“Sandy, it was… unbelievable. Nothing in my life has
*ever* felt like that!”
“Two psionics together… I imagine that is special.”
“Especially when there’s love involved,” Linda mused.
The room did not take long to prepare. Jill had turned her
celebrity arrogance into authoritative competence, and she was always
listened to by the residents of the shelter. Ron was led to a
comfortable, if slightly damaged, chair in a secluded section of the
shelter.
“Is there anything else you will need, Master?”
“Not right now, Jill, but I’ll need something to drink when
I come out of it, and there should always be someone here with me, just
in case something unexpected happens.”
“What should we do,” Tammy inquired, “if the unexpected
happens?”
“If I knew *that*,” Ron answered with a chuckle, “then it
wouldn’t be unexpected!” He lay back in the chair and closed his
eyes. He let the outside world drift away from his consciousness, and
he focused his mind. Turning his energy back in upon itself, once
again he found himself in the Plane of the Watchers.
“Hello, Master.” He had expected to be greeted by
Jessica. After all, that was who *always* greeted him here. He was
not ready to be greeted by someone else.
“Megan! What are you- No, never mind, I know what you’re
doing here. You look very nice.” Ron embraced her, and held onto her
for some minutes. Unlike last time, he realized that minutes here were
bare seconds in real life, and so he took the time to enjoy the
sensation.
Finally, she released him, and he backed away. “I need to
see one of the Watchers, Megan.”
“Yes, Master. Jessica told us as much. I will take you to
them.”
“*Us?*” Ron inquired.
“Cindy is here, as well. All of your family will wait for
you here, until it is time for your passing.”
“But… you didn’t make a conscious decision to be with me, I
forced you to. So, you’re stuck with that for the rest of eternity?”
“No, Master. When I passed, my mind was freed from your
control. I was shown my life before you, and after you, and was given
a choice. I chose to remain.”
Ron was completely speechless with that pronouncement. He
didn’t know what to say, and so he said nothing, but hugged her again.
When he let go, he had only one doubt left. “And Cindy?”
“Master, her life before you was so horrid as to be
something you’d rather not know. Though her time with you was short,
it was the most pleasant period of her life. She, also, has chosen to
remain with you.”
Ron was moved beyond words. He would deal with these
emotions at a later time, when he could afford it. “Thank you for
telling me, Megan. You can call me Ron, now, if you’d like.”
“You were, are, and always will be my Master. And, sir,
the Watchers are waiting for you. We should get going.”
The small committee of Watchers met Ron at the seashore.
He had come to understand that everything in this Realm was some kind
of metaphor or analog to what it was used for. He didn’t waste much
time considering why Earth was represented by a vast sea of swirling
and roiling currents.
The lead Watcher stood from his place in the sand to greet
the duo. He then returned to his spot, and motioned them to sit as
well. Ron sat slowly, as the man looked remarkably familiar to him,
but he couldn’t place the face or voice. The man, seeing this, cleared
the matter up for him.
“I am Sarcerion. I am also a child of Calliope. The
family resemblance is what has you confused.”
“You were… removed from Guardian Hall?”
“Not exactly. I chose not to take an active part in what
was going on around me. I am not a fan of battle, and so I do what I
can for the Earth Realm.”
Ron took that at face value, and sat down on the warm
sand. The five Watchers observed him for some time before anyone
spoke. The one woman in their group was the first to speak.
“What can we do for you, Master Chaffey?”
“Excuse me? Master?”
Sarcerion explained, “It is a title given to all of the
Earth Realm who hold a position of import.”
“Ah. Well, I thought Jess would have explained this to
you. My sisters have been kidnapped by the enemy forces, and I would
like to get them back.”
“An understandable feeling,” another said, “But how can we
be of help? We cannot enter the Earth Realm.”
“No, but you can tell me where they are, can’t you?”
“Ahhh,” said a fourth. “You seek from us information.”
“When you need something, you go to the best.”
“Flattery will not aid you in this endeavor, Master
Chaffey,” Sarcerion said with a smile. “However, in this matter, we
can be of help. We have been given direction to be as helpful to you
as possible. You are highly regarded in the Spirit Realm, especially
among the Guardians. Also, you have gained the respect of certain
Centurions, and that is not an easy task. Let us consult, and see if
we can locate the information you seek. Please wait here. We shall
return as quickly as possible.”
“Thank you.”
The five rose, and walked swiftly into the sea. They
disappeared rapidly, and Ron and Megan were left alone to wait.
“I was troubled when you left home, Master. I worried for
you.”
“I was worried for me, too, Megan. But things are a little
better now.”
“Yes, we know. She is very special to you, isn’t she?”
“You’ve been watching me since you got here, haven’t you?”
“Yes, Master. And I will continue to do so, unless you
would rather I didn’t.”
“I don’t mind, Megan. But, when Kim and I made love… it’s
never been like that before. I can’t even begin to describe how that
felt to me. The emotions and thoughts and movements… it all swirled
together.”
“And you love her.”
“Yes.”
“Then I am happy for you, Master. I knew that I would
never hold that place in your heart, but I always wished that someone
would.”
“How come you never spoke this way when you were on Earth?”
“On Earth, I was fully under your control, Master. Your
programming did not permit me to speak my wants and wishes. Here, I am
not under your control. I have merely chosen to remain as your
servant.”
“Oh. Megan, I’m sorry. When I chose you at CAMP, well… my
intention was merely physical. I chose you because…”
“Because, Master, I was a bitch. And you felt I needed
taming.”
“Well… there was also the fact that you’re a total fox.”
Megan blushed. “Master, I do not regret the time I have
spent with you. My life before you was far worse than anything you did
to me. Even that day when we were first together… when you…”
“Yeah, I still remember that day. You sure did wriggle
around a lot, stuck in mid-air.”
Again she blushed. “I hated you that day. I am sorry for
that, Master.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not important.”
“Cindy wanted to be here, but she needed to keep an eye on
something or other, I’m not sure what.”
“I would have liked to see her. Tell her that I miss her,
please?”
“She knows, Master. We all know how you feel about us.
You have not hidden those feelings from us. We all love you, you do
know that?”
“Yes, Megan, I-“ Ron was interrupted as the five emerged
from the sea again. They did not retake their seats. Ron wondered why
the illusion did not carry over to them being sopping wet after walking
out of an ocean, but dismissed it as irrelevant.
“We have located your family.”
“That didn’t take long.”
“Actually, it took us three days. Time in there,” he
indicated the ocean, “Moves at a different rate even from the other
portions of the Spirit Realm. Anyway, I will show you, mentally, where
you must go now.”
A map was burned into Ron’s memory. He would not forget
this location. Useful images were also passed along, showing Nikki and
Dawn, held confined, but in good condition; not unduly mistreated, but
merely imprisoned.
After the images, Sarcerion said, “You should know that
there is another person there that you are familiar with. After
consultation, we decided it would be best *not* to tell you who it is.
But, we will tell you, this person’s presence there is not a trick or a
trap. This person is genuine, and you can believe what they are going
to tell you.”
“O…kay… Thank you very much for the information.”
“You are welcome, Master Chaffey. If we are needed in the
future, we stand ready to assist. However, you should know that
frivolous requests cannot be fulfilled. We are very busy.”
“I understand that. I don’t anticipate needing your help
again soon. But I appreciate knowing that you are here if I need you.
Again, thank you. I will be going now.”
“Good luck to you.”
Megan walked with him back to his point of arrival, and she
gave him a warm good-bye kiss. “I wish you could stay longer, Master.
We will be together again, someday.”
“I love you, Megan.”
“I know, sir. And I will always love you. Go now, and
rescue your sisters. They need you now more than I do.”
Ron waded into the ocean, and soon he was returned to his
own body. The family was gathered, and waiting, but they were calm as
Ron took a large drink of the juice by his chair. This sort of trip
always took a bit out of him.
“Okay,” he started, after letting the juice trickle down
his throat. “I know where they are. It’s not heavily defended. I
think Kim and I can handle this alone.”
“Are you sure, Ron?” Linda said. “We don’t want to lose
two more people.”
“You won’t. The Watchers showed me what we need to know.
We can get them out of there. We’ll rest here tonight, and leave in
the morning. It should be about a two day trip, out and back.” To
help ease some feelings he knew the family had, he added, “And, by the
way, Megan and Cindy said hi.” Not strictly speaking the truth, it was
close enough, and had the desired results. A few small smiles broke
out in the knowledge that, though they were no longer present, they
were still okay.
They departed early in the morning, flying northwest away
from the sun. It was a long trip, and it took them several, thankfully
uneventful, hours to get there. They landed a mile away from the place
the girls were being held, and paused to get their bearings, to make
sure no one was watching, and to rest a bit.
“There is something I haven’t told you yet,” Ron said as
they sat on a fallen log.
“What’s that?”
“The Watchers said there was someone else here that I knew,
but they wouldn’t tell me who it was. They only assured me that this
person, whoever it is, isn’t a trick or a trap. So, we’ll have to do a
little extra looking around after we rescue the girls.”
“Where you lead, I will follow.”
“Now you sound like Megan,” he said, half-playfully. “Are
you ready?”
“As ready as I’m ever going to be, I suppose.”
“Okay, let’s get going, then.”
They crept the last mile. It took them over an hour to
reach the small house where the girls were being held. From the
outside, it looked normal enough, but Ron was sure it would be fairly
heavily secured. They could see no one watching out of the windows for
them, and no one on the porch. Then Ron spotted a door down to the
basement on the side of the house. He pointed.
“Most likely, they’d be keeping them in the basement for
security. If we go in those doors, maybe we can avoid some trouble.”
What he left unspoken was that this was most likely to be the most
heavily defended door, but he really didn’t care at this point.
The pair waited until night fell, and then they ran, in a
crouch, across the yard to the hatch-style doors that led to the
basement. They paused, and each tried to sense if there was someone on
the other side of the door. Slowly, they increased their psionic
output, until they were certain there was no one within twenty feet of
the door. Nor was the door locked. This made Ron horribly suspicious:
this was far too easy.
Nevertheless, the pair pressed on. Even if it were a trap,
they could hardly turn back this close to the objective. Ron opened
the door slowly, hoping like hell it didn’t squeak. It didn’t. They
slipped in and closed the door behind them, locking it so that no one
could sneak up behind them.
Ron led the way down a short hallway that then branched
into two directions. He looked both ways, and saw no one, but he saw
that the one hallway turned again. He led them down the shorter
hallway first.
The door to each of these rooms was open, and empty. This
worried Ron. Could they have moved the girls? Perhaps they had
somehow found out he was coming? But that wasn’t possible, was it? No
one but he had known just where he was going today.
Quickly, they moved into the second hallway. The doors
here were closed, and locked. This was more promising. Kim picked the
lock on each door, careful to keep her psionic energies focused. The
first doorway swung open silently, to reveal someone… that Ron didn’t
know.
“Who the hell are you?” he whispered hoarsely, as Kim kept
guard.
“Jack Tiner. I used to live in Dallas.”
“Why are you here?”
“Well, quite frankly, they captured me, and wanted some
computer codes. I gave the codes to them, and then they threw me in
here.”
Ron’s mouth set in a frown. A traitor. But he couldn’t
kill the man just for saving his own neck. “Fine. You will wait at
this door, and you will leave with us.” The man nodded, and then Ron
thought to add something else. “You betray us, and I will kill you
before I fight them, understood?” The man nodded vigorously.
Ron and Kim moved on to the second door, where Kim repeated
her lock picking skills. This door squeaked slightly, and they all
froze, but no one came to inquire on it. The door went the rest of the
way silently.
“Ron!” Nikki half-whispered in astonishment.
“Anybody like a ride home?” Ron asked.
Nikki rushed to him and gave him a big hug. Dawn remained
on her cot. Finally, she said, “So, I suppose you are now going to
whisk us away back to *your* headquarters. Shit. What makes you any
better than them?”
“Stuff it, Dawn,” Ron responded. He was in no mood, and
had no time, to deal with her just now. He was behaving as a soldier,
and had no energy to spare on her ramblings. “Kim, keep guard here.
I’m going to take a look around the corner.”
Kim nodded, and Ron moved quietly off to the corner. When
he looked around it, he saw three guards in front of one room. *Now,
who could possibly be in that room to warrant *three* guards?* The
answer came pretty quickly: there had to be a psionic in that room.
And that meant the guards would be heavily focused on what was *inside*
the room, rather than anyone approaching it. He proved this by
stepping into the middle of the hallway. He wasn’t directly in their
line of sight, but anyone who was wary of intruders would have been
more alert.
Kim heard the sizzle of psionic energy, and knew that the
blast must have been rather impressive. She wondered why it was
necessary, but didn’t dare move from her post without being called.
The guards died without ever knowing what killed them. Ron
moved down to the door they’d been guarding, to find that it was not
just locked, but triple-locked, with one of them being a fairly complex
combination lock. He blasted through all three of them with a single
focused burst of energy. Not as fancy as Kim’s work, it did the
trick. The door swung open with a loud groan. Obviously, it hadn’t
been used much.
What Ron saw inside the room made him draw back.
“You- You can’t be here!” he nearly shouted.
“Ron?” she said, unsure of what she was seeing. When she’d
first come here, they’d played many games with her mind, and, though
they’d quit that after a month or two, she was still wary of anything
she saw that was out of the ordinary.
“No! You cannot be here! You’re leading *them*!”
Michelle rose from her cot, stiffly and slowly. “When she
captured me, she rummaged through my head. I wasn’t good enough to
stop her. She gathered information about you, and CAMP. And then she
changed her appearance to look like me. I’ve been stuck down here ever
since then.”
“Oh, shit, Michelle. I’m sorry. I didn’t-“
“You couldn’t have known. Let’s get the hell out of here,
though. Wait, if you’re not here for me, then-“
“They kidnapped Nikki and Dawn.”
“Oh, shit. Are they all right?”
“Yeah, we’ve already got them unlocked. Come on, we’ve got
to go before someone knows we’re here.”
“They probably already know that, Ron.”
“Could be, but is there a benefit to hanging around?”
She agreed there wasn’t, and then followed him down the
hallway. As they moved around the corner, Michelle and Kim got their
first look at each other. It was an immediately competitive
atmosphere. Each one instinctively knew what the other’s presence
meant. Ron hadn’t caught on to anything yet, mainly because his
concern was getting the hell out of Dodge at this point.
“Kim, bring up the rear. Nikki, Dawn, get moving!”
Without even thinking about it, he gave them a mental push to make sure
they cooperated. Jack fell into line without being bidden, and they
all quickly made for the basement door.
They made it outside and into the woods without the
slightest hint of trouble. The longer they went without encountering
difficulty, the more Ron worried. They stopped about three hundred
yards into the woods, to take a quick breather. He turned to Jack.
“You’re out of here. I don’t trust you any further than I
can throw you. I’m sure as hell not carrying you along with us.
You’re on your own.”
“I understand that. You want to wipe my mind of where you
are?”
“Wouldn’t do any good. Just get moving. Go that way,” Ron
pointed. “It appears to be safe, and it should eventually lead you to
a city. We will go… in some other direction.”
He waited until Tiner was out of sight, and even outside a
low psionic scan, then they moved off in a direction at a right angle
to Tiner’s. They walked for two hours, both because they didn’t want
to use any unnecessary psionic power so close to the house, and because
Ron was a bit worn from the stress of the previous day.
They reached a small meadow, and that’s where Ron stopped.
“We’ll camp here for the night, and then we’ll fly home in the morning.”
“I don’t see a fucking airport around here anywhere,” Dawn
said acidly.
“We don’t need one,” Ron replied coldly, “Now go to sleep.”
Whether it was because he was tired, or perhaps because he
didn’t want to deal with it, Ron’s brain never registered the looks
that were passing between Michelle and Kim. They each slept beside
Ron, on opposite sides, and no more than five feet away from him. Deep
in his subconscious, Ron knew there was a problem, but he thought it
would keep.
The morning turned out to be a very rude awakening. Ron
bolted awake to the sense that there were others nearby. He saw that
Kim and Michelle were both awake, too. *So it wasn’t a dream.*
He pulled the five of them into a defensive posture, his
sisters in the center, protected by the three psionics. Ron debated
whether to use his energy to search for the enemy, or to remain silent,
in the hopes that the enemy did not know where they were, and wouldn’t
find out.
His debate didn’t last long, as the trees on the edge of
the small clearing they were in were blasted away by mental fire, and a
team of eight Russian psionics poured into the opening they had made.
*Death Squad,* Ron thought. His shields went to maximum.
He couldn’t sustain this level for very long, but there was almost
nothing that would get through it.
The eight Russians blasted away at the shield, which became
visible as their energies impacted it. Kim and Michelle used their
combined strength to take down one of the Russians. But the strain was
more than Ron could take. These were not merely psionics: they were
among the best of the Russian team. All of them were level 14, by CAMP
standards, or higher. Death Squads were few in number, Ron knew, but
wherever they went, they killed with impunity. *Not here, and not
now!* Ron raged.
Ron quickly switched to offense, firing off a blinding
blast of light, to disorient the attackers. He quickly moved his team
to the far side, hiding behind trees not so much for protection as to
confuse their location. He lanced a mental blast at the lead Russian,
and he fell, his body twisting in the pain induced by overloaded
synapses.
The Russians were firing back blindly, their eyes still not
clear of the flash-blindness caused by Ron’s trick. He raised his
shields quickly as an errant blast strayed near him. It missed wide.
Michelle, angry with the Russians for her captivity,
blasted all her energy at the nearest soldier, severing his head clean
from his body. The count was down to four, as Kim had also scored, but
now the Russian’s were learning: they used their televiewing to see,
instead of their eyes. Their return fire was much more accurate.
Michelle ducked behind a tree, just narrowly escaping a return volley
from two Russians.
Ron focused his thoughts, and immediately four hundred
glowing butterflies appeared in front of the enemy. Because these were
“real”, having physical appearance, this interfered with televiewing as
well as normal vision. Kim took the opportunity to charge her nearest
opponent, a mere ten feet away. A flip and a scissors-strike, and her
foe was lying dead on the ground, his neck snapped cleanly. She
retreated back to cover before anyone could catch her, but the mental
fire was right on her heels.
Ron was running out of tricks. He could take on one of
these Russians, easily. Two with some difficulty. But three were just
beyond him. And neither of the ladies could stand up to them
one-on-one. He let the butterflies fade, and he zapped another of
them, watching him fall to the ground.
It was that momentarily lapse in concentration, while he
was watching his vanquished foe, that caused him the greatest harm. A
bolt of energy sliced into him from one of the two remaining soldiers.
His shields kicked in almost automatically, but the force of the blast
was enough to throw him backward.
Ron hit a large oak tree with a great deal of force. He
heard the snapping and popping of breaking bone. He knew they were
his, but he couldn’t feel any of it. He marveled at the warm sensation
flowing over his body. Then he felt a very hard surface connect with
his left temple. After that, his unconscious form felt nothing at all,
as it slid to the ground.
Kim saw the attack, and the result. A battle cry welled up
from her inner being and escaped out her mouth as her body flew toward
the offending person. He was still winded from using so much power to
take down Ron, and he was hardly ready for a berserker charge from this
female. Her shields were at maximum, and her mental energy crackled
around her like lightning. She lunged at him, and her hands, and her
energy, clasped around his throat. The momentum of her charge brought
her in a swinging circle all the way around her opponent. She was
immensely startled when his head actually tore free from his body. She
released him, using her kinetics to flip her back to her feet, and
ignored the dead body as it fell to the ground.
There were now two very pissed off women facing one
remaining Russian soldier. He had seen the look of rage in his
girlfriend’s eyes often enough to know when leaving was the better part
of valor. He bolted straight upward, leaving the scene as fast as he
could. Both of them considered following him, but for only as long as
it took to remember that Ron was lying in a heap over by a tree.
They rushed over to him, to find Nikki already kneeling
over him. Dawn was sitting off by another tree, resolutely not paying
any attention to her brother.
“Nikki, is he…” Kim couldn’t bring herself to finish the
question.
“He’s still breathing. But he’s hurt bad. His arm’s at
the wrong angle, and I don’t know what else might be damaged. Can’t
you… fix him?”
Kim shook her head, and then looked to Michelle. “Can you?”
“No. I never got good at healing others.”
“We’ve got to get him back home!”
“We will, Nikki, we will. Can you fly, Michelle?”
“Barely. There’s no way I could carry anyone with me.”
“Damn. And I can’t carry three people on my own that
distance.”
“I’m not ‘flying’ anywhere with you people,” Dawn
interjected from her tree.
“You’ll do what you’re told, remember?” Kim said, rather
forcefully. Michelle looked at her in utter astonishment. “But in
this case, she’s right. We’re going to have to walk. We can carry Ron
between us.”
“It’s several hundred miles back to Ron’s house, if that’s
where we’re going.”
“Eventually. But, if I recall my map correctly, there was
a PPA unit not too far from here. It’ll probably take us several days
of walking to get there, though.”
“Why go there? Why not call them here?” Michelle
challenged.
“You want *more* Russians after us? If they knew there was
an unprotected unit, carrying the PPA commander… Christ, they’d be on
us like you wouldn’t believe!”
“But the PPA would be all over us, too, wouldn’t they?”
Michelle responded.
“Not fast enough. How long do you think it would take a
hundred soldiers to take us out? Twenty seconds, and the battle’s
over!”
“Alright, Alright. Which way?”
Kim oriented herself, as she had been taught to do in the
ShadowDragon. Then she pointed. “That way.”
“Okay, you go first.”
Ron found himself standing on a hill. The hill was a
chalky white color, with sparse grass growing up through depressions in
the rock…
Was it rock?
Ron knelt down to look at the ground more closely. He
picked at a loose section. It came free. He turned it over, and found
a human skull staring back at him.
Ron screamed.
The jaw of the skull fell open.
Ron threw the skull, and tumbled backwards. He rolled over
the edge of the hill, and began tumbling downward. He hit his head,
and the world went back to black.
It was a long walk, and they stopped only seldom. No one
spoke for the first hours, until they paused for lunch. Lunch turned
out to be whatever they could collect from the path they had walked.
Being winter, very few edible plants were around. They managed to
gather a few small items. It would have to do until they could either
find better food, or some kind of civilization.
Once again, they began to walk. Kim took the lead, with
Michelle walking behind her. They levitated Ron between them. Nikki
walked slightly off to one side, so that she could keep her eyes on her
brother. Dawn walked aimlessly behind them all, not giving a damn
whether they got where they were going or not. *How did I end up
surrounded by these goddamned psionics!*
Ron came to slowly. He didn’t know you could pass out in a
dream. He knew this was a dream, or some version of one. He knew this
because, first off, he had no Ability here, and second, that fall
should have killed him. Since he wasn’t seeing any Guardians or Judges
nearby, he assumed he was not dead.
*So, I’m dreaming. How deep is this dream? What is the
last thing I remember?*
That line of questioning brought a fierce, fiery stab of
pain to his head. It hurt so bad that he dropped to his knees and
closed his eyes. The pain only subsided when he consciously decided to
stop thinking about *before*. He would worry about before, *later*.
He rose from his position, his head clearing slowly of the
blinding pain. He was standing with his back to the… hill… and he saw
before him a valley, bathed in the red glow of a setting sun. Or was
it rising? How to tell when you have no orientation for time or space?
*Now what do I do?*
It appeared as if, down in the crux of a river below him,
was a large house. It seemed to be somehow lit up, as if there were
rays of sunshine that played upon it, and it alone.
*Well, slick, it’s your dream. Might as well get
walking.* He thought, as he went along, how much easier flying would
be. But he’d already tried to levitate himself, and it just didn’t
work. He was normal again, here.
*A little late.*
He walked slowly and steadily, not wanting to tire himself,
if that were possible in a place like this. *Hey, if knocking yourself
out in a dream is possible, anything is.* He walked endlessly, and it
almost appeared as if he wasn’t going anywhere. He looked down at his
path, and it appeared as if it were actually moving backward, or as if
it was growing before his eyes. He noted, for the first time, that the
scenery around him wasn’t moving past as it should. He was on a damned
treadmill!
He leaped sideways, into the brush. He rolled down an
embankment, and ended up laying against something soft. He rolled to
see what it was, and found dead human eyes staring back at him. Once
again he screamed, and the blackness engulfed him.
Michelle managed to catch a small rabbit before dinnertime
rolled around, and Kim managed a small fire, to warm them, and to cook
the food. The fire was a danger, but they had to do it. Neither of
the normals had any winter clothing, and the clothing that the Russians
had been wearing was simply too big to be of any use.
Dawn sat close to the rest of the group only because that’s
where the fire was. Nikki sat next to her brother, lying on the ground
still unconscious. Kim and Michelle had spoken very few words to each
other all day. But without any activity, their minds went into work,
and their emotions came to the fore.
“He used to be mine, you know,” Michelle said quietly.
“Yes. I have heard many things about you,” Kim replied.
“Perhaps he will be mine again.”
“He loves me.”
“He told you that?” Kim nodded. “Well.”
Their conversation stopped at that point, and the group
settled back into silence for the night. They had at least two more
days to walk. It was obvious that it would not be pleasant.
Ron awakened after another fear-induced nap, but was awake
enough *not* to open his eyes right away. He could still feel the
soft… body… resting next to him. He rolled away, and stood up before
opening his eyes, slowly and carefully.
*What the hell *is* this place? Am I the only living
person here?*
*>>What if you are?<<*
The thought came from somewhere outside his dream-self, and
scared him right down to the very fiber of his being. The sky, which
up to now had been a mild overcast, became dark and forbidding. It was
almost a twilight darkness now, powerful and menacing.
He didn’t want to, but Ron knew he had to face that body
again. When he turned, he realized that his initial impression was
right. It was Kumiko’s body, lifeless and broken. He turned away,
looking toward where he knew the house to be. If he was to find any
answers in this place, he knew they would be found there.
*>>But do you want answers?<<*
That voice was starting to get to him already, and his
knees wobbled as he moved off, through the brush, to get to the house.
It couldn’t be all that long a walk, if the damned environment would
just let him get there. He stumbled on through the forest, getting
scrapes and cuts that he would normally have healed without a thought,
and now he had to put up with.
Finally, he broke from the forest, and was able to see the
whole of the valley. Strange that the house to which he was headed was
the only one in sight.
*It’s a dream, dumbass. Things don’t have to make sense.*
* >>But if this is just a dream, how come you know it’s a
dream?<<*
That voice again. It sent shivers up his spine, mainly
because he knew it was right. He’d never been able to dream lucidly.
He was normally so engrossed in his dreams that he didn’t stop to
realize they *were* dreams. But this time…
*Is this really a dream?*
* >>If you don’t know, how can I tell you?<<*
Ron moved on quickly toward the house.
The next day progressed very much like the first, the four
girls speaking only when necessary. They’d found an abandoned
farmhouse with some canned food still in the pantry, and so they at
least had nourishment, if you liked canned beans and V-8 juice.
The tension between Kim and Michelle was becoming palpable,
but no one wanted to mention it. They sat down quietly for their
mid-day meal, and Nikki tried to get Ron to swallow some nourishment.
“That ain’t going to work, Nicole,” Michelle said.
“What’s the harm in her trying?” Kim rebutted.
“Mind your own damned business.” Michelle retorted.
“Anything that happens to Ron *is* my business!”
“Maybe some of us don’t see it that way.”
“The way *you* see it isn’t really important to me!”
“No, I suppose a boyfriend-thief wouldn’t worry about such
things!”
“I did not steal him from anyone! He was unattached when I
met him!”
“*Unattached!* I’m not dead! I wasn’t dead then! And you
have the unmitigated *gall* to say he wasn’t attached? I have seen
some arrogance in my life, but *you*-“
“I speak the truth! If he were so damned attached to you,
how come he wasn’t looking for you, hmm? Why did he let you rot in
that place?”
“He thought I had turned on him! He thought that Zinaida
was me, you stupid bitch!”
“And, if he was so enamored with you, how come it is that
he couldn’t tell differently?”
At this point, Nikki had enough of their bickering. “Shut
the fuck up, both of you! I can’t believe you two!”
“Mind your business, Nikki, or I’ll-“ Michelle began.
“You’ll *what*?” Nicole demanded. “You’ll hurt me? You
and I both know better! You harm me in any way at all, and Ron won’t
just *banish* you when he gets well, he’s damned well likely to *kill
your ass*! And you fucking well know it!
“I can’t believe the two of you can stand there and argue
over whose *boyfriend* he is, when we don’t even know why he’s
unconscious! He could be dying for all we know, and you two are
fighting over the remains! You’re both sick!”
“Eh, let ‘em go at it, Little Sis,” Dawn spoke for the
first time in two days. “At least it’s entertainment.”
“You! You can just go fuck yourself, *Big Sister Dear.*
You deserted us long ago! Why should I give a flip what the hell you
want? You turned your back on all of us years ago! You made your bed,
but when you couldn’t deal with it, you came back home crying your eyes
out, and bitching about every minute of it!
“Wake up and smell the shit, Dawn! Ron ain’t responsible
for this war! And he’s not responsible for all the crap you’ve gone
through! You have got to be the biggest fucking *coward* I’ve ever
met! You ran away from your family! We really could have used your
help these last couple of years! So don’t you *dare* try to tell me
what to do!
“All of you need to be whacked upside the head with a two
by four! Ron is lying there, broken bones and unconscious, and you all
are caught up in your own fucking petty problems! How dare you! Now,
we’re going to get back on the path, we’re going to keep moving, and
we’re *going to get help for my brother*. NOW MOVE IT!”
Nobody dared speak a word. Even Michelle, who felt
somewhat superior to Nikki, was somewhat afraid to cross her at this
point. For one thing, she was right: if anyone hurt Nikki, they’d be
lucky to survive the day of Ron’s awakening. The two psionics resumed
their burden, and the small group moved on resolutely.
Lars really didn’t need any more on his plate. The last
four weeks without Ron had been a disaster. He’d lost over 2,000
troops in just that one month. He’d watched sixteen more cities fall.
The Russians were working over medium-sized cities now. Still New York
and Washington, D.C. stood, though no one understood why. They were
the only large cities remaining, possibly in the world.
When a major came tearing into the command tent, Lars was
trying to get some much-needed rest. His eyes came open immediately at
the major’s words:
“General! We’re going nuclear!”
Lars was immediately galvanized into full alertness.
“What the hell are you talking about? What’s going on?”
“Sir, we’ve been keeping an eye on the President as you
ordered. The VP has just talked him into ordering a nuclear strike!
The countdowns have begun, sir!”
“Oh, shit! Can we get to him in time?”
“Negative, sir! We don’t have any mentspecs close enough,
with enough strength!” The major was referring to a “mental
specialist”, a psionic whose primary skill lay in the mental, rather
than kinetic, powers.
“Understood. I want you to gather all the kinspecs you
can, and then communicate with all nearby units. We can’t save the
Russian people, but by God we’re going to save America.”
“Yes, sir!” The major left the room at a dead run, to
carry out his orders.
Lars had the unfortunate privilege of having to consider
this possibility for Ron some months ago. They had wondered how to
deal with it if the President decided that a nuclear first strike was
better than whatever was happening at the time. Lars had come up with
a plan that even he found cockamamie, but it was also the *only* plan
that had ever been dreamed up, and so they would have to implement his
impractical, at best, idea, and hope like hell it worked.
Fifteen minutes later, the senior officers of the PPA
command staff were gathered in the command tent. Lars began his
briefing by saying, “Gentlemen, we have a little problem. Five minutes
ago, the United States launched a nuclear attack on the Russian
state.” He had to raise his voice over the gasps. “We cannot help the
Russians. However, in about thirty minutes, nuclear missiles are going
to be falling all over the United States, as Russia will immediately
counterattack. We’ve been informed that the massive strike the US has
begun cannot possibly be misinterpreted, and that the likelihood of the
Russians *not* countering is roughly… um… six hundred billion to one, I
think was what someone said.”
“Sir,” asked one of the generals, “What are we going to do
about it?”
“Glad you asked, Brad. Here’s the plan…”
Ron was trekking through an unpleasant patch of marshy
land. Strange that he had not seen it from the hill; it seemed to have
sprung up out of nowhere. His feet sloshed as he slogged through the
muddy water-land mixture.
He came upon a large section of raised ground, and happily
removed himself from the muck. The ground was much easier going, and
he made good time. It was almost as if there were a path for him to
follow.
Then he turned a bend in the path, and froze in his
tracks. Dawn was standing before him. It was the pretty Dawn, the
quiet Dawn, the peaceful big sister he’d grown to love. But she had a
python wrapped around her, from her ankles to her neck. The snake was
larger around than Ron’s thigh. He could tell that it had begun to
squeeze.
“Rrrroonnn…. Hhhhhhhhhelp meeeeee….” Dawn said, as the
serpent constricted more and more tightly. Ron tried to pry it lose,
but he couldn’t budge even a single turn of the snake’s enormous,
muscular body. He watched his sister’s beautiful face contort into
horrible pain as he heard bones snap. The sound was sickening, and he
wished he could turn away, but he would not leave his sister to die
alone in this hell. His eyes conveyed the pain his words never would.
Dawn’s face turned a sickly purple, as the blood in her
chest was squeezed upward and downward, filling her other extremities.
More cracks and pops were heard as her body was rent by the crushing
power of the behemoth serpent. Ron could not bear to see his sister in
such pain, and he began to beat upon the snake, wanting to tear it
apart.
*Oh, if only I had my Ability!*
* >>But isn’t that what got us into this in the first
place?<<*
* *That voice again! Where did it come from? Who was it?
These questions distracted his mind, but unfortunately not his eyes, as
his sister’s mouth flew open, and breathed just one last time. The
hiss of air leaving her lungs was the most hollow sound he had ever
heard.
Ron turned from the scene, and walked down the path, which
quickly returned to the marsh, allowing him to slog on through his
misery. He had failed his sister; he had failed his follower; he had
failed his nation.
The four girls had walked on, sleeping as they had the
night before, and rising to meet the sunrise, only to continue their
journey. Kimberly moved with assurance, but Michelle grew more and
more concerned about their lack of destination.
“We’re lost,” she said, almost with a jeering tone.
“We are not,” Kim replied matter-of-factly. “We will find
what we are looking for if we continue in this direction.”
“Why are you keeping up the act? Admit it! You haven’t
the first clue as to where we’re going.” The taunt in her voice was
quite obvious.
“You sound as if you want to fail, Michelle,” Kim said.
“Perhaps you’d care to go off on your own from here on out? Perhaps
you can find the path that I have missed.”
“I think it’s *you* who needs to leave, Miss Priss. This
bullshit has gone on long enough! You walk into my life, tell me
you’ve taken my boyfriend, and *then* proceed to tell me what to do!
What right have you got?”
“I was given the right to lead both by my experience, and
by *him*,” she responded hotly, pointing to Ron, whom they had settled
to the ground.
“He only took you because he thought he couldn’t have me!”
“That is, perhaps, something we will never know, but I do
know that, at this time, he loves me.”
“You stay away from him, you conniving little bitch!”
With that, Michelle lunged at Kimberly. It was immediately
a wrestling match, the two grabbing and twisting each other in painful
ways. Kimberly threw Michelle in a classic judo move, only to see
Michelle roll out of it, and come up in a swinging roundhouse kick to
the head, which utterly failed to connect as Kim ducked out of it and
followed through with a backfist.
Michelle blocked Kim’s move, and countered with a flurry of
punches, all of which were blocked by Kim’s superior martial skill, not
to mention greater amount of practice.
When Michelle finally grew frustrated at her lack of
accomplishment in the physical, she accompanied one of her kicks with a
mental push. Kimberly blocked, but went flying anyway.
Kim picked herself up off the ground, and stared daggers at
Michelle. She took only a moment to notice that the two sisters had
moved themselves off the battle ground.
“You want to tangle with me, bitch? We’ll see which of us
is stronger!” With that, Kim lashed a mental whip at Michelle, who
ducked out of it, but was caught in the reverse swing. Her head
snapped over, and she tumbled to the ground, a welt raising on her
cheek.
Michelle countered with a strong blast toward Kim. A quick
roll moved Kimberly out of the way, but she felt the sizzle of it going
past her. She snaked her extension out, quickly sweeping over the
ground and sending Michelle flying off her feet and to the ground again.
Michelle rose, raising a medium shield, and preparing for
her next attack, waiting for Kim to make the first move.
Back at PPA headquarters, Lars had gathered together all of
his kinspec, or “kinetic specialist,” psionics. He had explained the
plan to them, and up until now, they had only been waiting for
confirmation.
“Incoming!” shouted a soldier keeping tabs on NORAD, the
North American Aerospace Defense Command, buried deep in Cheyenne
mountain, Colorado. The missiles were over the horizon, and were now
valid targets.
“Begin!” shouted Lars. All at once, the kinspecs focused
their energies on the incoming weapons. Already, they had separated
from their boosters, and even their warhead bus. They were now coming
down as MIRVs: Multiple, Independantly-Targetable Re-Entry Vehicles. A
multi-hundred pound warhead with a shell of Uranium, and a
thermonuclear bomb in the middle.
The psionics amassed their power, and started to slow the
warheads. It took three psionics for every warhead, because they were
moving so fast. Once a warhead was stopped, it was pushed back out
into space, and then launched on a trajectory for the sun. But there
were a great many warheads, and Lars worried that they would not stop
them all.
For several minutes, they fought the forces of nature,
mental power versus gravity, will versus momentum. They could only
hope that the Russian psionics were doing the same, or there was going
to be a bleeding sore upon the face of the Earth for a very long time
to come.
What Lars’ plan failed to consider, because he did not
thoroughly understand the concepts of nuclear warfare, was that not all
warheads were intended to reach the surface of the planet.
It was only one, and they almost got it. They cleaned up
all of its brethren afterwards, but that was of little consequence to
those who were blinded by the flash. Outside the atmosphere, a single
warhead exploded. The flash of it was seen from New York City to what
was left of Seattle. To most, it was merely a horribly bright spot in
the sky, almost a second sun. To those right under the blast, it was a
blinding, disorienting flash of light that made the sun look like a dim
flashlight bulb. Although there were no blast effects, nor any
radioactive contamination, the electrical devices in the area
immediately surrounding the explosion took note, and, one by one, began
to shut down.
Ron kept pushing his way through the muck until it finally
gave way to firmer soil. He pushed himself onto the roadway, but paid
close attention to whether he was actually moving. This road seemed to
get him where he needed to go.
But where that really was, or what it represented, he did
not know. Ron had seen a hill of skulls hundreds of feet high. He had
seen the dead and broken body of his beloved Kumiko. And, worst of
all, he had watched his own sister asphyxiated by an unstoppable
serpent.
*What does it all mean? What am I *doing* here?*
*>>What makes you so sure it means anything? It’s just a
dream, remember? Or have you changed your mind?<<*
Onward he walked. Continually he checked his progress,
but, while he was definitely moving forward, it still did not seem as
if that house in the distance was coming a bit closer. Finally, night
fell, but Ron did not bother stopping. He was no more tired now than
when he’d begun, and he felt that he should reach the house as quickly
as possible, to get this nightmare over with.
*>>Don’t you know that nightmares never end? You only hit
the pause button when you wake up, and sooner or later, you revisit
it. If you run from this nightmare, it will be waiting for next
time.<<*
That fear drove Ron onward even faster. Was he running
from the nightmare? Or was he working toward the nightmare’s end? The
only way to beat a nightmare is to finish it without waking up. Ron’s
fear was that his nightmare *was* waking up.
On and on he walked. The hours passed on, and the moon
set, but the sun did not come. The sky never lightened. Thick clouds
rolled over the sky, and a heavy, despairing rain deluged the valley of
Ron’s dream.
Finally, as if to surprise him, Ron’s destination was
suddenly very close. Only mere yards away. And suddenly, lightning
cracked. But it was the brightest flash of lightning he had ever
witnessed, as if looking upon a nuclear fireball, and he wondered why
there was no thunder. Then he began to wonder if he had been the one
who was struck.
Michelle circled round, trying to catch Kim off guard.
They had been fighting for what seemed like hours, but was certainly
only a few minutes. They moved with blinding speed, flying more than
running, and barely touching the ground, for it was not safe to be on
the ground where the other could remove it from beneath your feet, and
then you would be at a disadvantage.
The other difficulty was that both women had been combat
trained by the same expert. That expert was currently an unconscious
witness to their struggle for supremacy. Not unlike lions fighting
over a pride, the girls fought for primacy of place beside their leader.
Kim lunged suddenly, unexpectedly. Michelle swiveled
aside, and Kimberly missed, but a sharp pain sprang up on Michelle’s
side, as a deep gash appeared. Her clothing was in tatters, as was
Kim’s. Michelle took the single moment when Kim had her back turned,
and lasered a vicious attack. Kim was caught in the middle of her
back, and fell to the ground, momentarily disoriented.
But Michelle was not quick enough to take advantage of
this. Kimberly rolled over, and whipped her hands out, forming a
flaming ball of energy which she hurled at Michelle, who tried to duck
it, but it was a guided weapon, and it followed her every move. She
moved behind and between trees, but it dogged her every turn. It
finally caught her, and fried off the remaining scraps of her blouse,
leaving her top clad in only a bra.
Michelle was familiar with these techniques as well, and
she formed her own ball of energy. This one, however, was a feint, and
when Kimberly went to duck it, she ran straight into the real attack,
an invisible energy wall, which caught her and threw her roughly to the
ground. She was immediately on, and then above, her feet, floating and
ready for the next attack.
Michelle readied herself, but before she could begin, a
flurry of doves flew at her. She ducked and swerved before she
realized that the doves were nearly transparent, and could not be
real. That was of little comfort as she felt a mental blast rock
through her body, and her powers seized for just a fraction of a
second. It was long enough for her to fall fifteen feet to the
ground. She let out a loud “oof”, but rolled to her feet. Kimberly
was ready, and she plunged down out of the sun…
But was it the sun? Wasn’t the sun over in the other
direction?
The light grew brighter until Michelle could no longer look
at it, her eyes closing automatically.
Kimberly was luckier, faced only with the reflection of the
light… but that reflection was off *snow*, an almost perfect mirror for
such brightness. She was completely blinded, and she plowed into
Michelle, taking them both to the ground.
Michelle felt an impact, and was amazed at just how heavy
sunshine could be, until her head contacted the ground, and she passed
out. Kimberly, similarly unconscious, remained on top of her, their
fight, at least temporarily, over.