The Gifted (21 page)

Rolling off my bed, I landed on the ground
just as a giant set of metal teeth came through the wall. When it
broke all the way through, I saw it was some kind giant machine
made to burrow through rock and dirt. Once through, a metallic
bubble on top opened up and out stepped the general, our betrayer.
He had a small square remote in his hand. Once he saw me, he paused
as though distracted for a moment.

I lay on the ground, starting to get up when
he pressed a button on the remote and a side compartment in the
machine opened up. Then the strangest thing happened. Out hopped
this toad! Only it wasn’t an ordinary sized toad. This toad was a
burnt brown color and probably a foot and a half high and three
feet wide and for some reason, smoke was coming from its back.

It lashed out its tongue at me which wrapped
around my legs. As soon as it did this, I felt hot, searing pain. I
screamed and the toad let go with its tongue. I had been wearing
sweatpants, but now they were burned off in strips and red blisters
were underneath.

“That’s for taking away our island facility,”
said General Garcia. “Now it’s crawling with military! Why couldn’t
you give in to Abe like you were supposed to? But you’re not worth
my trouble. Not this time. I’ve got a list to find.” He pressed a
different button and another compartment of the ship opened up.
This time two robots hopped out. These were not like the ones we
fought earlier. They were boxy and small. They flanked the general,
one on each side, as he left my room at a quick pace. The toad
hopped just behind him.

I stood, stunned for a few seconds, then I
remembered that there was a way for me to call the nurse by
pressing a button on the wall near my bed. I walked to it, but my
legs felt like fire. I pressed the button and waited. Within twenty
seconds, a nurse came in, “What can I do for you?” She took a look
at the hole in the wall and my legs, “What happened?”

“First thing’s first,” I said. “General
Garcia is here and he says he’s looking for a list.”

“Oh no,” she said. She grabbed a radio she
had on her hip, “Captain. . .I mean General, Garcia is here and
he’s after a list. Does he mean the list of gifted kids from
Research?”

Brock’s voice came back, “Right. On my way.”
The nurse looked worried and rushed from the room.

This struck a chord with me. That’s how they
got me. That’s how Tracy was almost taken and her family killed.
The general had been sending information about kids from the list
we were making. If they had the whole list, they could kidnap more
kids!

The nurse had just walked out when the
thought came to me that Research was just down the hall from where
I was, but even if Brock was on base, it would probably take him
several minutes to get here.

I knew what I had to do. I ran to the machine
and grabbed what I needed. Then I ran like a wildman out of the
room and down the hallway. My adrenaline was pumping so hard I
could barely feel the throbbing in my unsteady legs. The general
was an expert in martial arts and I had only taken beginning
classes in combat, but somehow he had to be stopped, and I was
closer than anyone else.

I heard a tearing of metal around the corner
and then an alarm went off. It was very loud. When I rounded the
corner, I saw the research facility. The door to the lab had been
torn through, probably by the robots.

When I got there the only lights were red
emergency lights from the alarm. I stepped inside. Computers and
various experiments lay scattered all over the room on tables and
desks. I had never been here.

The emergency lights revealed the general was
leaning over a computer desk, yanking open the top drawer. He
pulled out a small USB drive. “That’s the one,” he said. His robots
and toad were standing behind him.

I tried to run toward him, but fell on the
way. My legs were too weak and felt like lava. I stood back up.
“You think you can stop me?” he said with a mocking tone. He walked
toward me, and on the way past, kicked me in the ribs, doubling me
over, and as I fell, he struck me with an uppercut in the face.

I heard him walking away from me. I could not
let him leave with that list! I used the table nearest me to pull
myself up. It took me a few seconds before I could get onto my
feet. Once I did, I saw the general running away with a robot on
each side and the toad still behind him.

I hobbled over to the entrance, now with
blood dripping from my chin. I knew kids would be kidnapped or even
die if I didn’t stop him.

The general was running down to a “T” in the
hall not far away and took the turn. I ran in spite of the pain,
and by the time I got there, he was already down the other hallway.
I ran a bit further and just before he entered my room, I yelled,
“Hey, Garcia!”

He stopped and turned around. Then he
sneered. “So you think you’re going to save the day? Didn’t I tell
you you’re no leader? You have no training, no real skill, and no
head for strategy. Why, in the grand scheme of things, you’re
nothing!” He turned and walked with his frog and his two robots
into the room where his digging machine rested. In great pain, I
ran to the doorway. As I did, I saw Brock coming like a train from
the far end of the hall.

Standing in the doorway I peered in at the
general who was leaning over his machine. A confused look came over
his face. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a set of keys,
jiggling them. “Looking for these?”

“What?” He turned, taking quick angry steps
toward me. I stayed in the hallway and backed up against the wall.
“You give me those right now you little. . .” The general took one
step into the hallway and Brock hit him with a flying tackle. He
hit him so hard I thought I heard the crunch of bones. So hard the
general didn’t even fight back after that. He had been knocked
unconscious.

As Brock got up, two other men came with
handcuffs and guns, but neither of us stayed to see what was going
to happen. Brock and I started walking down the hallway. He put his
arm around me like my dad used to do. “Andy, now that was thinking
on your feet.”

“Thanks,” I said. “But if you don’t mind, I’d
like to get off my feet for a while. My legs are killing me!”

“Of course.” He led me to another room with a
bed. One without a gaping hole in the wall.

“So I’ve heard you play chess,” he said. “A
good game for strategy.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Guido got me started.”

“I’ve been known to play a game or two,” said
Brock, smiling.

“Let’s play sometime,” I said.

“Yes, let’s do that,” he said.

Once I was back in bed, I was treated for
second degree burns on both legs, some bruised ribs, and some
facial cuts. After a few sleepless nights, the pain in my legs
subsided, though the ribs took longer, and I was able to go back to
daily exercise. Two weeks later I was jogging half a mile with
little pain and at the end of the third week, I could jog two.

Some of the skin on my leg peeled off and
itched, but at least it didn’t hurt anymore.

Brock visited me at least once a week to play
chess, and I saw Han, Tracy, and Guido sometimes too. Tracy often
talked about the animals in the zoo. I guess she was a real animal
lover.

One day Guido and Tracy came to visit. I was
having kind of a hard time finding either of them unless I
concentrated on their voices. Shared gifts.

“Hey, want to see something?” asked
Guido.

“Sure,” I said.

He held up a piece of paper in his hand the
size and shape of a bookmark. Suddenly it burst into flames. He
smiled.

“That’s great!” I said. “Now I’ll need to
watch my back with you as well.”

A nurse came into the room and announced,
“Andy, you are being released. If you like, we can have your things
moved to your room in the compound.”

“That would be great,” I said. “Thanks.”

I got up from the chair I was sitting in and
walked out of the room with my friends.

Over the next couple of days we talked a lot
more together. Han was excited about showing us some new origami
animals he had created and Guido was always practicing with fire.
For Tracy, her new gift came naturally and without effort.

One night, just after dinner, a messenger
came to our common room, knowing that’s where we would be, and told
us we were being shipped home in the morning.

Tracy’s voice sounded small, “But what if you
don’t have a home?”

The man stammered, “Yes. . .well. You will
hear more about that in the morning, I suppose.” He turned and
left.

That night I didn’t sleep much because I
couldn’t get over the excitement and the anxiety of going back
home. This time in my dream a troll appeared with Abe Lincoln and
the burritos were especially good.

We all packed up quietly the following
morning. Afterwards we stood out in the hallway waiting for a golf
cart to come get us.

The cart arrived, driven by Brock and one
other man we didn’t know. They drove us to the upper entrance to
the facility.

“Hi son,” said Dad. He and Mom gave me a bear
hug, along with my brother who almost never hugged me before. He
was stronger now, and taller. I had to wipe tears from my eyes.

For the next few minutes we all introduced
our families to each other. I could see Guido since he put on a
fresh shirt, Hawaiian, of course. His dad was there, dressed in a
polo shirt and he smiled a lot.

Han introduced me to his mother and one of
his sisters. He said his dad and other sister couldn’t make it.
They were all quite talkative, which was a surprise to me. At the
same time, they had that slow, calm way of talking like Han.

I turned to Tracy who tried to act happy, but
I know it must have hurt that she didn’t have any family there. I
didn’t really know what to say to her. I gave her a hug and now she
had tears in her eyes, and she couldn’t stop crying. Then Guido
came over and she hugged him and cried even harder. I stepped away,
not really sure what to do.

“Excuse me, Tracy?” it was Brock who stepped
up. “Tracy, we have an offer. You know, the training facility on
the island was unlike anything we have ever seen. We’ve had some
recent meetings.” Tracy looked up confused. “We would like to start
something here, not really military training, but so kids can learn
to cope with these gifts, and learn to use them.”

“What?” Tracy said.

“We are asking you to stay here. To help the
other kids. The list is getting bigger every day. This place is my
home, will you make it yours?”

She stared at the floor for a minute. I could
tell she was thinking. “Sure,” she said, looking unsure. Then she
smiled with more confidence, “I’d like that.”

After that we all said our goodbye’s and
dispersed.

Once home, I was told I needed to go back to
school. It was April and I had missed most of the year. The
government made up some reason for why I was gone so long and
everyone seemed to believe them. I appreciated school more now than
I used to and was actually glad to be back. I had some catching up
to do, so I was busy right until the end.

That summer was one of the warmest we had had
for years. The hills turned brown except near the ocean. I did a
lot of swimming in a neighborhood pool and played with old friends.
But most of all, I did things with my younger brother.

My dad and I played catch a lot and sometimes
we would get together with enough friends to play an actual
baseball game. Of course, I was always picked as the team captain,
but often I asked that someone else be captain.

I played chess with my mom a lot, and now
found that I could beat her more often than not. All that practice
with Guido and Brock had really paid off.

I didn’t see the other kids from the
facility, but I got email or letters from them. Once I got an
invitation for a birthday party for Guido. The invitation had a
picture of him with a birthday hat. I saw him in the picture, but
only when I looked carefully.

I wasn’t able to go to the party because he
lived in South Carolina and I lived in California, a distance of
over 2,800 miles. One time I calculated that if I drove, it would
take me over 43 hours, and if I walked it would take about 900
hours. I decided to send him a gift in the mail instead.

I also got mail from Han. He said he was
doing a lot of reading and swimming this summer. His family had
just come back from a trip to Korea to visit relatives. It was
weird, he said, but also cool seeing Korea for the first time. He
said the people there were a lot like him, but also totally
different. I’m sure that made sense to him.

I got emails from Tracy a little more often.
She was doing well at the training facility and said so far she had
a chance to see the island twice. I could tell she was excited
about it, but she could not tell me what she saw because it was top
secret and she could go to prison just for telling anyone.

She also said that she had been learning a
lot and that some exciting things were going to happen soon, but
that I would find out about it a little later. I wondered what that
meant.

Han lived the closest to me. He lived in Los
Angeles, whereas I lived up by Santa Cruz. One time he came out to
visit me. I figured my small town was quiet compared to what Han
was used to.

His mom and sisters were talkative, as I said
before, but his dad was more quiet like him. He showed me some cool
origami books he had checked out from the library and one book he
had just bought. My brother and I hung out with him and he taught
us how to make different things out of paper. My favorite was the
paper balloon that we could actually blow up!

He and his family stayed for a week, and I
learned a lot of origami from him. I also taught him something I
had learned about smiling. Han did not smile often, so I said that
smiling took fewer muscles than frowning. I also said that it is a
fact that if you smile at someone, usually they will smile back.
Even without my gift, that works. Then like goofs we walked out to
the sidewalk and as people we didn’t know walked by, we smiled at
them to see how many would smile back. My brother had a piece of
paper and he wrote down how many smiled and how many did not. We
were very scientific about it. We found about nine out of ten
people would smile. I had to hide behind a tree while they did this
so that I did not affect the results with my gift.