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Authors: Shelly Crane

BOOK: Catalyst
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"I'm sorry," she finally said and her eyes went back to their color. "I guess I have to focus on someone specific. I'm getting nothing."

             
"It's alright," I told her at the same time that Danny said, "It's ok, babe."

             
"I don't see anything either," Josh supplied and shook his head to clear his vision. "All I see is wall after wall. That doesn't mean that someone isn't in there though. It's just too much to see through."

             
"Well, we go in like the
good old days. B
lind," Miguel said and checked his knife in his boot
and his stake in his waistband
before straightening and leading the way.
"Let's get this show on the road."

             
"I swear, Miguel," Celeste said as she tripped over the doorway and kicked it in retaliation. "Your accent is so much more pronounced when you're itching for violence."

             
"As it should be," he answered and looked around
the worn and weathered warehouse
. He looked at me. "Should we just ring the bell?" he said sarcastically.

             
"I'm afraid we're just winging it."

             
"Great," he drug out
as he eyed the massive creaky doorway
. "I'll let my coconut be on the chopping block first, sinc
e I don't have a pretty little s
heila waiting for me."

             
"Neither do I," Josh muttered behind me, almost startling me because he'd been so quiet.

             
"
Aw, Miguel," Celeste chimed. "You want me
to search in my mind
for you a lovely little s
heila?" she goaded.

             
"Oh, boy," Danny replied.

             
"Alright, everyone, let's muzzle it so I can think," Miguel growled.

             
He looked around as we all stood in the doorway. It was wide open, but that didn't mean anything either way. It was a very likely possibility that we would search for days and find nothing. I almost growled at the thought
as we inched our way inside,
but it didn't take long before we heard a crunch behind us.

             
My fing
ers automatically went to the
stake in my back pocket. With Miguel and me flanking the group we stood silently waiting for somethin
g to indicate what we had heard:
friend or foe?

             
"What was that?" Celeste hissed as Kay pulled her tighter to her just and Danny did the same thing.

             
"Quiet
," Miguel barked
,
which was silly given the word he had just said. "
Hello?" he called. "We aren't here to hurt you."

             
The silence was too eerie, too telling. It reeked of trouble. I motioned them back to the doorway until we could regroup and maybe grab more weapons. My actions were futile as two Lighters dropped down from the roof right in front of the doorway.

             
"Mmm, Keeper," one of them acknowledged with a nod and a grunt.
Then he looked at Kay and grinned. "And Keeper.
What a surprise."

             
"Lighters right out of the gate," Miguel mused beside me
and switched his stake from one hand to the other
. "And I was beginning to think my lucky rabbit's foot had failed me."

             
As I began to think strategy, one of the Lighters walked straight to Danny, his gait lazy and languid as if he had all the time in the world. I balked and blurred to him
,
but Danny held his hand up. He easily handed the Lighter a
slim
stake and I watched as he
walked back to his comrade and
staked him
right
through his stunned chest. The lightning burst through his chest and the crackle in the air had barely gone
away
before the Lighter then staked himself
in a blur
. Another burst of lighting burst forth upward, taking out the rickety ceiling and a huge chunk of the wall.

             
We all turned to Danny. He shrugged.

             
"I figured I'd make it easy on you
, Keeper-o-mine
. Sorry
,
Miguel, I know you wanted to bust heads."

             
"That
wasn't much fun," Josh said and laughed at Miguel's expression.

             
"It
was
rather anti-climatic," Mi
guel sulked and I almost laughed
.

             
"
Yeah, dude," Josh said and slapped Miguel's arm. "Why'd we even come along? We're outdated models now."

             
"Well, it was just-" Danny started
,
but there was a loud groan.

             
We all stopped and looked around. The groan was strained and metallic. It got louder and I was clueless
,
but Miguel must've understood.

             
"The building's coming down. Move!"

             
We m
oved
,
but it wasn't fast enough.
I could have blurred and made it
,
but I would have had to leave someone behind. So
I stayed behind
too
, blurring my way to Danny out of instinct instead,
and
as we all watched
the ceiling collapsed around the massive hole
already in the
structurally unsound
ceiling from the lightning.
We leapt back and though we were out of danger, we were cov
ered in dust and pieces of wood and metal
.
Our way
out was blocked
. The doorway
was
smashed a
nd covered in large chucks of debris too big to move with our hands
.

             
As Celeste muttered
as Kay helped
to brush her off,
I took the op
portunity to address my Special, after looking him o
ver to make sure he was alright first
, of course
.

             
"You know that was all on you
,
pal."

             
"What?" he screeched. "I saved us
from the Lighters
!"

             
"Yep, just to trap us
instead
," Josh said
,
but he laughed and pulled a big chunk of something from Celeste
's
hair. "Dude, we're screwed now."

             
"I'm sure there's another way..." he stopped his explanation when we all turned to see we were in a box. No doors, no windows
, no stairs
. It was a holding containment of some kind and we were now stuck. "Oh."

             
"Yeah, oh," Celeste said
in a grunt
,
but then softened
. "But, it wasn't entirely your fault, babe."

             
"Ok, fine. Maybe I should have lured them outside first. I tho
ught I was helping. W
hat do you want me to say?"

             
"Well," Miguel drawled, "I don't really think
'woops' quite covers
it
here, mate
."

             
"Woops," Danny rebutted sarcastically
. W
ith his arms crossed
,
he said,
"Seems like it works just fine to me."

             

             

 

Simon Says

Chapter 14
- Cain

 

 

 

             
"
Simon, man, come on. Somehow
,
I have survived for many years without you
han
g
ing on my heels
."

             
"That is not true!" he answered vehemently. "I've watched you every day since you were a baby. If you had ever been in real da
nger, I would have come for you, even in the war.
"

             
"Touché, but I still want you to sit in the car and wait. I'll scout and
then give you guys the go ahead, ok? That body of yours is breakable, you know.
"

             
"I'm not too keen on this idea either, Cain," Jeff turned traitor and spouted.

             
"Whatever, turncoat, I'm the only one here trained
for things like this
."

             
"Cain has his sonic hands….boomy thing," Marissa said and I nodded to my unlikely ally. "He'll be fine."

             
"Yeah," Billings chimed in, "he'll be fine with hi
s hot hands or whatever. Let the Marine
go
first
."

             
"For the sake of argument,
" I explained,
"let's call them Magic Fingers.
" I grinned
,
but no one smiled but Marissa, who was hiding it from Jeff. "Guys, I'm gonna go so crazy out here if y'all don't simmer down. Chill, mellow, chillax, veg, something. I can't
handle all this alpha male bull
crap the whole time, ok?"

             
"This is about me keeping you safe, no matter how useless you think I am," Simon said
with an edge
. "You can keep all your alpha male talk and your idioms
to yourself
."

             
"Ah," I laughed, "looky at Simon, playing professor."

             
"Cain,
" he said in exasperation.

             
"I'm just joshing you, man." I punched his shoulder lightly. "You've got to lighten up."

             
"I'll
lighten up
when we are back in the bunker."

             
"Alright, I'm going to move on inside. I'd prefer you all wait for me to check first, but if you must come," everyone piled out with gusto, "then…come on," I sighed.

             
"This is the whole point in bringing a team with us," Jeff said as he passed me, towing Marissa behind him.
"Strength in numbers."

             
"Or," Billings replied happily, "it could be the weakness is
the loud footsteps of the many." H
e stopped and stuck his hands in his pockets when
everyone glared at him but me. "D
epending…on how you look at it."

             
"Billings has a point," I said.

             
"Sadly, not a good
enough
one," Simon rebutted
gruffly
.
"We stay together, end of discussion
."

             
"Fine. Simon says lead the way," I replied and swept my ar
m wide for him to do just that.

             
He looked at me in confusion before shrugging, no doubt just brushing my sarcasm off as unnecessary. I did not get people who couldn't appreciate a little sarcasm.

             
"So, it looks deserted, but we better tread lightly just in case," Jeff said and took up the front lead. From the looks of things he'd coined himself the leader of the troupe. Th
at was a-okay with me. I was a S
ergeant no more and had no inclinations to pick back up the stars.

             
"
Great. And I'm guessing you want to lead the way."

             
"Despite what you believe, Cain," Jeff answered easily, his voice steady, "you are still
the more
breakable
of the two
. It's better for a Keeper to go first, always." He started to walk on
,
but then stopped and
barely turned to me. "Besides, y
ou don't want me to have to go back and tell Lillian that you didn't make it, do you?"

             
"Low blow, man," I growled at him
for
even
mentioning her name. I was trying to put on my game face, harden myself up for a fight
,
and he was bringing up the one thing that made me crumble?

             
"It's true."

             
"Regardless,
"
I barked back.

             
"Let's go."

             
I followed, scowling at his back. Maybe I needed to rethink this whole not-in-ch
arge thing
because taking orders sucked.

             
I bit on my lip ring. Something I'd always done before a mission or fight
was pinch or scratch myself to get alert and pissed
. When I pulled it or irritated it, it
made me agitated
. It seemed to bring me an edge of pain that I needed to want to hurt someone. I also used to hum when I cleaned my guns
and polished my boots
. It was a running joke in my barracks that I was a psycho beca
use of it. But for some reason that I was unaware of, Nirvana made me want to hurt people. Hey, whatever works to get the job done right?

             
Billings bumped my arm.

             
"Hey. So, the old guy is your Keeper right? And Jeff is a Keeper and Marissa is a..."

             
"Muse," I provided."

             
"Yes. Muse. Why did we get stuck with all the crazies and the other group only got one?"

             
"They have five
," I told him. "The only one without power is Miguel.
"

             
"Really? I can't keep track. I forgot some of you... Specials," he drug out the word, "have powers too."

             
"Watch it, pal. I'm one of those Specials," I said and bumped back his arm.

             
"I know. That's ok. I'm really curious about it all
,
actually. How did you know you were a Special?"

             
"Simon showed up and told me," I answered steadily.

             
"And you just believed him?"

             
"Well, no. It took some persuasion. But when he spoke into my mind, that was pretty much all I needed."

             
"Oh yeah. I forgot about that too," he grumbled.

             
"Dude, you've got to get over this whole grudge against the Keepers. The Lighters were feeding you horse manure and you were eating it up like Sunday dinner."

             
"You are way too descriptive, man."

             
"Just saying," I reasoned even as I continued to look around for signs of life.

             
"Horse manure or not, the Keepers weren't exactly honest either."

             
"When?"

             
"Well, w
hen I showed up for one. Not one of them made themselves known to me until you outed them."

             
"I didn't out them," I argued and lowered my voice so the ones ahead of us couldn't h
ear. "If you had come down the c
hute and the first thing anyone said was, 'Hey man, I'm a Keeper, can I take your gun for you?' You'd have run for the hills before I could even stop you."

             
"Probably," he conceded. "I'm just saying, y
ou say that the Lighters are deceitful and shifty
,
but I've heard stori
es
, man
. I mean even Merrick had to k
idnap Sherry and lie to Danny to get them to go with him."

             
"For good reason! Same reason we let you settle in and get comfortable before we told you. Could you imagine Sherry being told by some guy, her e
x-
boyfriend no less,
'I'm
an alien
or angel or whatever and I've come to help you
. Pretty please come with me underground?' No way, man. Sometimes you have to
stretch a lie a little bit to see the truth underneath."

             
He was silent for a second before he muttered, "Did you just make that up?"

             
"I did," I said and smirked proudly. "Like it?"

             
"You are something else, Cain."

             
"Hey, slowpokes! Let's get going," Jeff called and then put Marissa behind him as they flanked the door.

             
He rapped slowly and lightly on the big wooden door. It was an old abandoned house. Merrick's gro
up took the business district. W
e took the side with mostly houses on the outskirts. In honesty, I was glad we got this. We'd probably see more action, I figured.

             
No one answered so Jeff tried the knob. Locked.

             
"Kick it in, Chuck," Billings told him
eagerly
.

             
"What?" Jeff asked. "Who?"

             
I laughed as B
illings said, "How can you not know who Chuck Norris is?"

             
"Um, I've been somewhere else, and s
ince the Lighters c
a
me I haven't had time to dig into earth's pop culture.
Chuck Norris had his own Keeper
, I'm sure,
"
Jeff
sneered sarcastically.

             
"Seriously?
" Billings replied in excitement. "You really think he had one? He could still be alive somewhere. We could track him down-"

             
"Really?" I said incredulously. "We're really having this conversation?"

             
"Chuck would be a vital asset," Billings sulked. "He does
all of
his own stunts and everything."

             
I didn't know whether to laugh o
r kick him for being an idiot, s
o I just said, "This isn't Zombieland, ok? We aren't going to run into Hollywood and land
ourselves
in
to
Bill Murray's mansion."

             
"Bill Murray," he mused. "Think about all the people who could still be alive out there somewhere. I bet we could find Chuck if we looked hard enough." Marissa was laughing into her fist and Jeff and Simon were positively clueless.

             
"Ok," I
stopped him, "f
irst off, we need to eat soon because Billings is going into delusions." I heard his disgruntled 'hey' but kept going. "Secondly, move."

             
I kicked the door open for them and it gave
way
surprisingly easy. But the wood was rotted and my foot landed on the other side all by itself. I grunted in annoyance. This was the most ridiculous, unorganized mission I'd ever been on.

             
Jeff smashed the wood around my leg the rest of the way with his boot and the door fell loudly to the floor inside the house. We waited for a second. I had to hold out my hand to Billings who was trying to make a break inside.

             
"Don't you know anything about entering enemy territory?" I asked and pushed him back a little. "Don’t ever enter head first. That's how you end up headless."

             
"Hey, I know that," he argued, his tone indignant.
"
I've seen plenty of cop shows."

             
Marissa was no longer containing her laughter. I peeked back and even saw her wiping her eyes. Jeff looked at her funny, not
understanding what was so hilarious
. I almost wanted to sit there and explain it all out to him. How this was so utterly ridiculous, just so he'd understand and know why my eyes were rolling every eight seconds, but there was no time.

             
I'd just have to bear this burden of idiocy myself. So after I checked the entrance I dragged the idiot through the door with me.

             
"Hello?" I called and heard nothing.
I sniffed
and almost gagged. "It's rank
."

             
"If it's empty," Jeff started, "we should go ahead and move on. By the next place it'll be dark and we can bunk down for the night."

             
"Agreed. I'll head upstairs."

             
"With me," Simon said and pushed in a blur to move in front of me. I gawked at him. He'd never moved fast like the other's before. I realized there was plenty I didn't know about my old Keeper.

             
I followed him upstairs and we began to search the rooms, Simon first each time.
The further we got the more I knew what we were getting closer to. I started to warn Simon, but he already knew. He nodded and had the look of a solemn man. We ventured on anyway, like we had to see it with our eyes.

             
Even
with
me
expecting it and being
a military man, a hard-
nosed
jerk, a guy who'd seen death and used a gun more than I'd used a hairbrush…I gasped at what I saw.

             
There on the bed in the master bedroom was a middle aged couple
and two small children
. They were
all
lying on their sides, spooned together with their h
ands entwined in front of them, all had
on pajamas. It had been a while since they died and though the window was open slightly to let out the stink, it was still rancid. Their skin was wrinkled and a pale gray from death.

             
A
bottle of something was sitting on the nightstand and a single sheet of paper lay on the bed next to them. My fingers trembled as I reached for it and read it aloud because I couldn’t seem to stop myself.

             
Demons,

             
We died on our own
,
but were not alone. You tried to take us, use us, but we were one step ahead.
We refuse to be your puppets.
Judgment shall come and it will not be swift for you. My only regre
t is that we
won't be alive to see your demise. Rot in hell while we rest in peace.

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