The Death Series: A Dark Dystopian Fantasy Box Set: (Books 1-3) (64 page)

CHAPTER 27

We lay in a scattered pile, bellies distended, languid after the birthday banquet.

“Wow,” Jade said, laying her arm across her stomach.

“Yeah,” I agreed, groaning as I sat up.

“You'd be okay, ya walrus, if you hadn't had ten pieces of chicken,” Jonesy said.

I cocked an eyebrow. “And what did you have?”

Jonesy rolled his eyes skyward. “Seven or eight.”

Sophie narrowed her eyes on him.

“Maybe nine,” he corrected. Then he said, “I think you had what? Three or four yourself, sweet thing.”

“Girl's gotta keep up her strength,” she said.

“Yeah, I don't know if you look strong but you look healthy!” Jonesy said with admiration.

“You don't think I look fat?” Sophie asked and every guy in the room stopped breathing.

The F word.
Cripes.
Uttered by A Girl.

It was a total trap any way you answered. We watched Jonesy maneuver the word bomb. He had so much finesse. Geez.

“Nah, you've got the full booty thing goin' on and I like that.”

Huh, clever.

Sophie gave him a radiant smile.

That was close.

“You know what you need here,” Bry said.

We all looked at him,
a nap maybe?

“A fridge.”

“Yeah! You're right. No more lame-ass coolers,” Jonesy said.

“Logistics guys,” John said and Alex nodded.

“Yeah, where are you guys going to get the electricity?” Mia said.

“Do you think there's some still here we can like, siphon?” Tiff asked the room.

Jade looked around and said, “What about one of those long extension cords? If there's a working plug, maybe we can snake it back to here.” She spread her arms, indicating the center of the dirt floor filled with upside down milk crates, “and plug it into a mini.”

“I gotcha,” Mia said. “My older brother has one of those in his dorm room at college.”

“A fridge?” I asked, trying to get a visual.

She nodded. “It's super-small, just enough to hold some drinks.”

“Perfect,” Bry said.

“Wait a sec, does anyone have an extension cord up their ass for this fun little idea?” Jonesy asked.

Nobody did.

Sophie stood. “Let's check out the dump, people throw away perfectly good stuff all the time.”

We trooped out there, a little slow with all the food and pops sloshing around. John swung the fridge door open and the sun hit our faces. Slanting low now, nighttime was moving in, the last of the day's polish receding from the sky.

Sophie looked at the fading light. “K, let's book, maybe we've got, I don't know, twenty minutes until it's too dark to see.”

We scattered, looking for the elusive cord.

John was far away, up to his elbows in crap. “Alex found an outlet!”

“Got it!” screamed Jonesy, hauling up a torch-bright orange cord that took both of his arms to heave over his head in triumph. He jogged over to where Alex was. The girls, Bry and John made a loose circle around Jonesy.

The outlet for the juice looked in bad shape. “It's been exposed to the elements for a while,” John said.

Alex touched a cracked plastic box that had been a halfway covering at one time but now had a spider-web crack formation and was yellowed with age. “I don't know, Jonesy, looks decrepit. Maybe we keep looking for another outlet.”

I looked at a sky that was blood red, a stain of purple like a bruise overtaking it. “It's gonna be dark soon, we'll give it a try then explore alternative beverage storage in the hide-a-way later.”

Sophie rubbed her arms, feeling autumn creeping in as night stole over us. Jonesy took off his hoodie and gave it to her and she threw it on. “Thanks.”

“Welcome, Soph,” Jonesy said.

“Ah, the hell with it. I'm gonna give it a shot. If it works, we've got juice to the core of our lair and we can have what we need right there,” Jonesy said.

“Are ya sure Jones?” Tiff asked.

He shrugged. “What can happen?”

The guys looked at each other.

Bry said, “Here.” He held out his hand. “Let me give it a shot.”

“I can,” John said.

I nodded like,
any one of us guys can.

Mia said, “I can do it too, you know.”

“No way,” Bry said.

She looked up at him and he got that dazed look. “You're going to pull the 'macho-card'?”

“Yeah,” he said.

She shrugged. “Okay.”

She wasn't going to duke it out with him. Females have all the power, the ones that didn't get that weren't paying attention. Duh.

He held it in his hand, leaning forward. He looked at Alex who flipped the plastic box, exposing the outlet and jammed the pronged end into the holes.

Nothing happened.

“We're not gonna see the electricity working. Does anyone have something we can test it on?” I asked.

“Yeah, just let me get that toaster that's been jammed up my ass so we can figure this out,” Jonesy said.

“Nice sarcasm, Jones,” Tiff said, rolling her eyes.

Jade ran back into the tunnel and came back out a minute later. “Try this.” She held up a lantern that wasn't a dinosaur propane-fueled monster.

“Nice,” I said, kissing her on the mouth.

Then I kissed her again.

“Hart!” Bry said.

Right.

He grabbed the lantern and found the opposite end of the cord and plugged the lantern in.

Nothing. Well-
damn
.

Jonesy planted his hands on his hips, and rolled his shoulders. “That blows goats. I wanted this to happen.” He stalked over to the lantern, with every intention of jerking it off the end of the cord. The instant his hand touched it, the lantern lit up like the sun, the orb of the light looking like the moon was captured inside the glass.

Jade covered her eyes. “Okay, great it works. Maybe something needed to be, ya know, jiggled around.”

Jonesy howled and started to jiggle around.

“Knock it off, none of us want to see you spread your love around, Jonesy,” Bry said with a laugh.

Jonesy put the lantern down and the light went out.

“Did you turn it off?” I asked. Because it hadn't dimmed, but  stopped instantly.

We got closer to the lantern and Bry picked it up, shaking it, looking at the on/off switch. Nothing made it come back on.

“Shitty connection,” Tiff said and Bry nodded.

“Bullshit! It worked like it was on fire for me,” Jonesy said, thumb planted in his chest.

He swooped down and picked it up again to do his own check.

It flared to life, a beacon in our eyes.

We looked at Jonesy and he looked back.

A slow smile spread over John's face and Alex and Sophie looked like a couple of kids that had swallowed the canary.

“What? What are the dumb looks for?” Jonesy said, swinging the lantern around, the light making a nauseating arc of brilliance against the gloom.

“Looks like you're Electra-man,” Tiff said.

“Are you kidding me?” Mia said.

“No. Looks like Jones can, ya know, manipulate the juice,” Tiff restated.

Jonesy said, “Listen guys, I don't think because the lantern came on for me...”

Holy shit.

John and I looked at each other at the same time. “The chopper!”

“The school!” John said.

“WTF?” Jonesy wailed. “Clue me in ass-hats!”

Jade was nodding. “Last year at that old cemetery...”

“Clemen's?” Bry supplied.

“Shut up, let her talk,” Tiff said and Bry glared at her.

“...that helicopter just died and then, at your school all the power failed...” Jade trailed off.

We all looked at Jonesy.

He put his palms up. “I haven't tried to do anything.”

I rolled my eyes this time. “Listen, that's how it always is. This accidental crap leaks out all over the place and before you know it, you're making it happen.”

“Remember the road-kill issues Caleb had last year?” John said.

Jonesy nodded. “Hell yeah, that was creeper-city.”

“Thanks,” I said.

“Don't get your boxers twisted over it, Hart,” he said.

Jade laughed and I looked at her and she laughed harder.

“She's laughing at your junk, Caleb! She's unmanning you,” Jonesy caterwauled.

“How do you know he wears boxers?” Jade asked reasonably.

Nice.

“Okay back on this electric thing...” he said, ignoring the underwear reference completely.

“Here's the thing,” John began, “if he has Electra-Magnetic he can control more than just electricity.”

Alex picked up the thread of conversation because he had the Geek Thing Going On. “Yes, from what I've read, an Electra-Magnetic can manipulate both natural and man-made electricity and that would include pulse,” Alex finished, adjusting his glasses.

“Let's test it on something!” Jonesy said.

Nobody moved.

“What?”

I thought fast. “If you're making choppers fall from the sky and school building pulse power systems fail, we probably don't want to dick around with this 'cuz something big may happen.”

“Like total city power failure,” John said.

“Or lightning striking,” Sophie said. Jonesy put his arm around her and she leaned into him. “Don't worry, I'll just let all that lightning shit hit all the ass-clowns,” he said.

“That's a long list, my friend,” Bry said.

Tiff nodded solemnly in agreement.

“There has to be a smart way to experiment with it,” Alex said, eyes steady, palming his chin that was shaped like a cone.

Mia said, “If he just made the connection,” she smiled at her pun, “tonight, maybe, with so little control... he needs to tell his Unclassified teacher and see how they handle it. The adults will have a...”

“Protocol? I don't know, they couldn't determine what he was so far... they weren't testing him right,” John said.

“It wasn't comprehensive enough. They needed a broader battery of tests,” Alex agreed.

“And it happened when you were under stress before,” I said.

“That's so textbook for a first manifestation, Jonesy. Early manifestations are almost always brought about because of an emotional burst. Like Sophie being taken by that Graysheet,” John said.

Jonesy thought about it. “I was pretty freaked about that ass-wipe taking Soph.” He unconsciously drew her in next to him and their hair, so much alike, mingled together in a fluffy cloud.

“Okay, so I'm an electra-whatever. Great, let's go figure it out.” He turned to Jade. “Are you okay, birthday girl...with a little fun?”

Jade nodded, lacing her fingers through mine. “Let's do a little test run.”

My pulse vibrated. I put up a finger to the others and depressed my thumb:

Hi, it's Sergeant Garcia
- Garcia, Raul- KCP

Hi, what's going on?
-CH

We have a situation again, another murder scene
.-Garcia, Raul- KCP

What?
Distress
who? -CH

You know I can't disclose a victim identity on pulse, Caleb.
-Garcia, Raul- KCP

Okay-
CH

We need to pick you up, where is your location? Is the Weller girl with you?
-Garcia, Raul- KCP

Yeah
.- CH

I've triangulated your pulse, we'll be there in ten minutes.-
Garcia, Raul- KCP

I depressed my thumb, ending the pulse and beginning anew:

Forward pulse message to Tiffany Weller, The Parents

Initializing

Target message pulsed

I thumbed my pulse to hibernate and watched the green characters fade.

Almost immediately they flared back to life:

Hey Pal, looks like you're working tonight. Keep Mom and I updated.
- KH

Okay.
- CH

Jade touched the skin of my arm and her eyes widened as she got what program was going down, tactile-much.

I drew her into my body again, hugging her. “I'm sorry,” I whispered against her hair, “that your birthday is interrupted.”

She leaned back. “Somebody died, I think I can get over it.”

The kids all looked at Tiff and I.

Tiff walked over to me. “We on tonight then?”