Charged (8 page)

After having some time to think it over, I’m still completely freaked out by my shocking new talent. But I feel better, having Mason know, and more than anything, knowing that I’m not losing my mind. Of course, the alternative is not any more comforting than insanity, but I still prefer it.

I text Brie as soon as I think she’s up. I need to spill the beans to her, too, or she’ll be really pissed at me for holding out on her. Not telling Brie doesn’t even occur to me. Brie would never tell any of my secrets, and while glowing and throwing zappy spheres is not my typical type of secret, I know it will still be safe.

When Mason and I meet up with her she is about to explode with curiosity. Best friend or not, I know in this case that it’s something that she has to see first-hand to believe. She demands that we forfeit first period and let her into the loop. I have no qualms missing gym, and Mason just shrugs, so we let her lead us back to her house. Her mom has already left for the day.

“Okay,” Brie huffs. “Now, spill.”

I jump into the story yet again, walking into Brie’s kitchen for the first demonstration. Standing next to the outlet by her back door, and warning them to stand back, I raise my hand towards the outlet and approach it. Almost a foot away from it, I feel the tingling sensation jump from my palm, and then the current is visible.

Both Brie and Mason are doing their best goldfish impressions, frozen otherwise in blatant shock. I lower my hand, the energy disappearing from sight, and I feel what my body has absorbed. I turn to them both. “We should probably go outside for part two.” Not waiting for a response, I go out the back door, sitting on the steps of the porch until I hear the door open behind me.

“There’s more?” Brie asks, quietly.

I nod. Mason sits next to me, throwing an arm over my shoulder. I can’t help but feel a little self-conscious. “I’m a total freak, right?”

Mason says no at the same time Brie says yes. They both stop talking, and maybe I’m slightly hysterical, but I find it so funny that I begin laughing, hard. Within a few seconds they are laughing with me.

When we recover, both of them seem to be regarding me normally again. Brie looks at me, smirking. “So, c’mon already, I still want to see.”

I glance at Mason. We still don’t know how volatile the sphere can be. “Maybe we should go back to that playground?”

In agreement, we leave our bags and weave through the backyards again to the old park. Brie stops in front of the old, now obliterated teeter-totter. “What the heck happened to this thing?” She asks and as I blush, her eyes widen. “Get out.”

Instructing her and Mason to stand behind me in the trees, I look for my next target. I see the old slide, complete with holes. It looks dangerous, so I guess it’s almost a public service to demolish it…at least that’s what I tell myself as I hold my palms out in front of me again, facing the other.

Again I push the energy out, visualizing it. I throw the glowing sphere in my hands at the slide, but this time I’m prepared for the aftershock of it, and I duck down to one knee, placing a steadying hand on the ground. The effect is the same as last time.

“Holy crap!” Brie exclaims. But her eyes are dancing. “Kat, that’s amazing!”

I smile. “It is kind of cool, isn’t it?”

“I told you.” Mason says. “I wonder, can you make it less intense, like change the power of it so it’s not quite so potent?”

I shrug, but give it a try. I try sending a small sphere at a small leftover piece of the slide. It coats the metal in an eerie glow before it dissipates. I play around for a few more minutes, but then a quick glance at my phone tells me that we should be on our way.

B
ack at Brie’s we grab our bags. We still have a few minutes, and perhaps out of habit, she flicks on the TV while we wait. The screen catches all of our attention:

“…at this rate, the numbers are staggering. Within just a few days the entire eastern seaboard will be affected, unless we figure out how to stop them.”

Another reporter’s voice cuts in, “The issue with that, Jim, is that at the rate people are falling to this, all of the scientists with the knowledge to fix them will be overtaken, before they have a chance.”

The screen changes from the debating reporters to a news studio. “If you are just joining us, we are reporting live, up to the minute coverage of the nanobot invasion. Early this morning, Michael Roberts, the man with the first successfully regenerated limb through nanotechnology, was found in his room, deceased. Upon discovery, police were called on the scene. It didn’t take long for people to notice things changing.

“In the beginning, four out of six people exposed to Michael’s body began exhibiting symptoms of a fever and a rash. Within thirty minute, the numbers had risen to sixty. Approximately twenty minutes after the onset of symptoms, those affected have lost consciousness. When they awaken, they no longer appear human. Their emotions are gone, their movements calculated. Dr. Julian Ford explains.”

Dr. Ford appears uncomfortable on the screen, in his own small box in the corner. I assume he is being shot on location in his lab at BioNano. His voice is shaky as he begins. “Thank you.” He clears his throat. “The onset of symptoms is the indicator that these rogue nanobots have infected a body. They appear like that of a virus, because the nanobots are infecting a body as a foreign entity and the body is trying to fight it off.” His voice grows somber. “Upon exposure, there’s no hope of containment and currently, though we are hard at work, we do not have the ability to stop them. They appear to be taking control of those they have infected. At this time, we don’t know what intentions they have, if any. Please, remain indoors if possible, but remember that exposure does not stop with people. These nanobots work on a molecular level. Everything they come in contact with, people, animals, buildings, even water can become a carrier.”

It’s the noise outside that breaks our trance with the television. Mason moves towards the window. “You guys should see this.”

Brie and I move to the window. It’s pandemonium outside. The roads are jammed, drivers seem to be laying on their horns. People are running past each other on the sidewalks. Scared, I turn from the window and grab my phone. I try calling my mom, but it beeps at me, saying there’s no service. I frown and try Brie’s house phone. It’s dead, too.

I see Mason with his phone in his hand. He shakes his head. Brie rummages through her backpack and pulls hers out. I can tell by her frustrated expression that it’s not working either. My mind is racing. I want to find my mom, and I’m sure Brie does too, and Mason his parents. It doesn’t seem safe to separate. We need to stay together.

I take my backpack and dump it out on Brie’s kitchen table. I pluck a few things out of the pile, and rummage through Brie’s kitchen. I find matches, an LED flashlight, and a can opener, throwing them in my backpack. “We have to go.” I tell Mason and Brie. “We can try to find our parents, but once we do, we can’t stay here. BioNano is less than an hour east of here. If these things are spreading, we need to go west as quickly as possible, and judging by the traffic outside, we better go on foot.”

The contents of their bags have joined mine. My mind is still racing. “Brie, pack a change of clothes, and anything else you think you might need, but make sure you can carry it. We’ll leave a note for your mom to stay put. We can go check my house and Mason’s and then come back.”

“What if nobody’s there?” Brie looks terrified.

“We can go look for them.” Mason suggests.

I bite my lip. “I think we should take everything on an individualized basis right now. And I really don’t think we should assume anything.” I pull some water out of the fridge, two bottles for each of us, and toss Mason and Brie their bottles. “We should hurry.” A scream out front confirms this.

Brie takes off to her room. I throw a couple cans of food into my bag and Mason’s. When I stop, I break down. Mason holds me as I lose it for a minute. “What if they’re not there, Mason? What do we do?”

He sighs. “I don’t know. I think your right. It seems crazy out there, we’ll have to take it as it comes.”

I nod, slightly mollified that I’m not the only one who doesn’t know what to do. Before I can freak out anymore, Brie is back and ready to go. She’s changed into more suitable walking clothes. “Got everything?”

She nods, “Oh, the note!” Quickly, she jots down a note to her mom leaving it in plain view on the counter.

We make sure the house is locked up tight before we stand by the back door. The back yards appear empty, but we can still hear the panic on the streets out front. Locking the back door behind us, we creep through the backyards without incident, until we reach the street we have to cross, in order to get to the next set of yards.

I’m not surprised to see it’s as chaotic as Brie’s street. Everyone is hysterical, and trying to get out of town at once, with no regard for anyone’s safety. “We have to get across, try to stay together and not to draw attention to ourselves. The last thing we need are people catching onto our plan and tearing through the yards after us.” I whisper.

I take another look, and Mason pulls me back quickly, as a car comes flying down the sidewalk. It misses me by inches. Seconds later, it crashes into a telephone pole, and the front of the car catches fire, smoke billowing from it a few feet away. I figure this is about as good a chance as we’re going to get. “Go!” I yell, and take off weaving through the mess of cars and people, hoping Brie and Mason are behind me.

When I round the corner behind the house across the street, I stop, resting my hands on my thighs, trying to catch my breath. To my relief, Mason and Brie appear next to me almost instantly, mirroring my actions.

“That was like an obstacle course.” Mason says.

“Really,” Brie agrees, taking big gulps of air.

I want to wait to catch our breath more, but another explosion from the road tells me it’s time to move again. “C’mon.”

My house is empty when we get there. I change quickly, throw some clothes and some more supplies in my bag, and leave my own note for my mom. We find Mason’s house empty too. It’s discouraging, and we take a minute to figure out our next move.

“Let’s go up to the attic.” Mason suggests. “We can at least have a better view of what’s going on outside.”

It’s a good thing we did, but my heart falls as I look towards the downtown area, the place where all of our parents work. It looks like a war zone, completely impassable. My heart breaks, thinking of my mom. She’s working at the hospital. If people came in, infected, there would be no hope for her. Staring at the smoke and throngs of people running, I know we can’t go there, can’t look for our parents. Brie starts to cry, and Mason’s cheeks are wet. None of us have to say anything, we all know.

I’m the one to break the silence. “We have to go.” My voice is numb.

Brie nods. Mason tears his gaze from the window. “I have some camping stuff, in the garage, should I grab that, too?”

“That’s a good idea. We’ll grab some more food and water. Do you have a map by any chance?”

He directs me to a bookcase and I grab a map of northern New England. Turning to go, something metal catches my eye. I pick up an antique compass, holding it flat in my palm to see if it still works. It does, so I shove it in my pocket.

I take the map and lay it across Mason’s dining room table. The three of us stand over it, trying to plot the best way out of town. Once we decide on a course, we strap on our packs and make sure Mason’s house is locked up as tightly as mine and Brie’s.

Like bad deja-vu, we all stand huddled by Mason’s back door, peeking out, just like we had to at my house and Brie’s before. Though our luck has run out with the backyards, other people have taken to fleeing through them, too. At least they’re leaving the houses alone. I stare nostalgically at my house, not knowing if I’ll ever see it again.

“Stay together.” Mason reminds us, opening the door and snapping me out of sobering thoughts.

Taking a deep breath, I follow Mason out the door. As we step into the chaos, we join hands. Mason leads us west. We hear loud screaming behind us, and suddenly people begin to race past us. I turn, and see an even larger mob heading our way. They must be running from the infection. It’s the only thing I can think of that would cause that level of fear.

Beside us, a young mother, carrying a young child, stumbles to her knees. Mason releases my hand to help her up, and we huddle around her as a throng of people hammer past us. My back is hit multiple times, and I know I’ll have some bruises to show for it. Out of the corner of my eye, about five people packed feet from us, I spy an open garage.

“Mason!” I scream. When he looks, I jut my chin in the garages direction. He nods, and slowly Mason, Brie and I shuffle ourselves and this woman and child into the garage. Mason slams the large door down behind us. The relief of being out of that mess of bodies is immediate.

The woman clutches her obviously frightened child to her. “Thank you, thank you so much.” She says between gulps of air. The little boy peeks at us through his mother’s hair.

“No problem,” Mason says. Then he turns to me. “There has to be a better way to do this.”

Chewing on my lip, I try to figure out how we can do this. I turn to the woman. “I’m Kat, that’s Brie and that’s Mason. Are you trying to go somewhere particular?”

She shakes her head. “I’m Becky. This is Nate. I don’t think that there’s a safe place left to go.” She takes a deep breath, and looks me in the eye, terrified. “When I looked out our large window upstairs,” she stutters, “I-I,
saw
it. It looked like a swarm, from a distance. But it shimmered in the sunlight. I’ve been watching the news. I grabbed Nate and what I could carry and ran.”

I look at Mason and Brie, they both nod slightly, giving me the approval I’m seeking. None of us have the heart to send this woman and kid back out into that mess. “You’re welcome to stay with us. I’m not quite sure where we’re going yet, or how we’ll get there, but it might be safer than being on your own.”

I see her eyes water. “That’d be great.” She says in a small voice. She probably doesn’t want to scare her kid any more than he already is.

I spy a window in the back corner. Moving to it, I wipe the excess dust off with my sleeve. There’s a small alley way between the house and the garage, it’s blessedly empty. I open the window, and put my index finger to lips, asking everyone to be quiet. I see Becky whisper into Nate’s ear, and his small head nod under her hair.

Climbing out the window isn’t as easy as it should be. The opening isn’t large, and I have to wiggle and contort myself through it. When my feet hit the ground and I find my bearings, I see Mason in the window behind me.

We need to go west, so I head left first. If we can get to the woods, we should be able to escape most of the pandemonium. That means crossing two more roads.

Both directions look the same. I know we can’t stay here. I motion to Mason to come out, quietly. It takes us a moment to convince Nate to let go of his mom, but he finally releases her, and clings to me instead while she makes her way out of the window. As soon as she’s out, a thought crosses my mind. I whisper in Becky’s ear, “If Nate will let him, maybe Mason should carry him, just until we hit the woods. He’s stronger, he can move faster with him.”

She nods, taking Nate back, whispering in his ear while I quietly explain to Mason. Mason nods, shifts his bag, tightening the straps, and holds his arms out to Nate. Tentatively, Nate reaches out and allows Mason to hold him. Mason wraps the boy’s small arms around his neck, with Nate in front of him, and then zips his jacket up around the boy, encasing him in it.

Everyone looks at me expectantly. I frown for a second, unsure when or how I became the person in charge. It’s a lot of responsibility when the world’s going to hell.

They follow me to the opening that we’ll have to sprint through. All of our eyes widen, things have gotten worse. Cars are plowed into each other, abandoned and barricading any possible path. This must be what drove all the people into the back yards. Some cars smoke, others burn. It looks like what I imagine a war zone would.

Turning back to our small group, I try to speak loud enough to be heard by them, but not so loud as to attract any unwanted attention. “We have to go over the cars. It’s the only way.”

I go first. I don’t want Mason to be the first person out while he’s holding Nate. We stay close together. People still race down the sidewalks and through the front yards, but they ignore us in their panic. I get to the first car and climb on over it, then turn to help Brie. I motion her to keep going. I help down Mason and Becky, while Brie waits for them on the other side of the next car. We follow this leap-frog pattern until we are on the other side of the road.

My body is already screaming from over-exertion, but I know we are a long way from being able to stop and rest. One hysterical woman latches onto Brie’s arm, screaming loudly. Brie tries pushing her off, but the woman won’t let go. I feel bad, but people are starting to notice us-
not
what we need right now-so, I slap the woman across the face, hard.