The Gifted (6 page)

“I grabbed his large, metal flashlight, and
when the other guy climbed back up, I was waiting for him. I
clubbed him hard.”

“Good job,” said Brock.

Brock was carrying our clothes in a small
watertight bag. First Tracy changed out of her wetsuit and we
turned around. Then the guys changed. Now we had on regular
clothes.

“This way,” said Brock and we followed him.
Ahead we could see the beginning of a tunnel of rock but it was a
quick dead end. We walked to the end of the tunnel and took a
rusted metal ladder attached to the wall.

We climbed up, coming out in a cavern so
large I could barely see the top. It reminded me of a cave I once
took a tour of back home: tan colored stone with stalactites making
the whole thing feel ominous. There were lights here and there
along the wall, which made it eerie.

We all stood huddled together. “Okay, let’s
quietly and carefully explore this cave,” said Brock. Since lights
were placed far apart, it was difficult to see very far. Eventually
we found the cave to be mostly bare except for some tall steel
lockers along one side. On each one was a lock.

“There must be a reason for these locks,” he
said. “It makes me want to get into them all the more. Does anyone
have a way to get into these?” Then looking at us thoughtfully he
said, “Tracy, can you heat up one of these enough to melt the lock
off?”

“I've never tried something like that,” she
said. “It would take a lot of heat.”

“Give it a shot,” said Brock.

“Okay.” She walked up to the first cabinet
and closed her eyes furling her brow. We all remained silent. After
a couple of minutes, which seemed like forever, there was a smell
like someone’s car brakes burning up. Black smoke drifted up from
the lock and now there was a dark red glow to it, which grew to a
lighter red. The lock melted off and fell apart.

“Wow,” said Brock. He looked shocked. “Do you
know the melting point of carbide steel? I didn’t think you could
do it.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, Brock”
said Tracy.

“Good work,” he said.

I elbowed Han. “She’s even scary to Brock,” I
said.

Tracy looked at me angrily and I shut up so I
didn’t get punched in the mouth.

Brock opened the locker. “Jackpot,” he said.
There before us was an arsenal of guns, mostly M16’s, lined up
along two rows with boxes of ammo just beneath. “Now why would they
need all these?” said Brock. He took out his own massive gun, I
think he just liked to hold it, and looked back in the locker.
“Let's go,” he said, closing the cabinet and we followed him.

We walked further along the wall of the
cavern and found a door on one side. It was hidden from view by a
shelf of rock unless you came from a certain angle. The door was
unlocked, so Brock opened it. We came out in a hallway that led to
several flights of cement stairs, which in turn led to a brick
tunnel. Brock looked both ways and whispered, “all clear.” As we
walked on, the tunnel had other hallways that split off of it, but
always to the right. We kept to the main tunnel until we came to a
branch on the right where we could hear machinery. We took that
one. The sound got louder and louder the farther we went.
Eventually it sounded quite clearly like the machinery was coming
through a door on the left. Brock tried to open it, but it was
locked. Then he pulled out a knife from one of his many pockets and
inserted the blade between the door jamb and the door. Immediately
the door creaked open and we crept inside. The room was loud and
busy. It was also stiflingly hot. Machines that were painted yellow
were working in a long line: an assembly line. It reminded me of a
car manufacturing plant, but these were no cars.

“What is this all for?” Tracy yelled above
the noise.

“I'm not sure,” yelled Brock. “But it appears
to be completely automated.” As we walked along the assembly line
we saw the progress of what was being built. It was Han who first
said, “Robots!”

“What?” I said.

“He's right,” yelled Tracy. Up ahead I could
see the machines were attaching arms to a central hub and then
later some kind of round part that could only be a head. Then came
the legs. Only they didn’t attach just two, but four. “Maybe they
walk like spiders,” said Tracy loudly. “Creepy!” She sounded
excited.

Brock made a sour mouth. “I don't like
spiders,” he said.

Brock surveyed the room. “We never saw this
coming,” he yelled above the noise. “It was just supposed to be a
training facility for kids. Nothing about guns or robots.”

We went to the far end of the factory until
we came to a door which led to the hallway again. We walked a bit
further until we heard someone coming, so we took the first room on
the left. Brock quickly opened the door and peered through before
we all followed him. It might have been a place where training or
teaching happened because it was huge and there were chairs all in
rows. We were on a second floor balcony so we could see down into
the room. Red emergency lights ran along the walls. A sudden voice
broke out. “I told you I felt something up here.”

Four men with guns trained on us stood along
the back wall. The lights came on and a man with a thick mustache
stood forward. “So you did. Very good work.” He had a gun to
Brock’s head and three other men had similar weapons trained on us.
A boy, maybe my age, was standing against the wall behind them.
“Why don’t you come with us,” said the man with the mustache. It
was not a request.

They took us back out the door we had come
through and down some different tunnels, the whole time keeping the
gun pointed at Brock. When we came to a small, well-lit room, there
were several other men standing by a desk. A red-haired man whose
face was scratched up with large purplish bruises on both cheeks
whispered something to another, who until that moment had his head
down and was carefully reading papers at his desk. When he looked
up, I recognized him at once. His nose was bent to the right: the
guy who had kidnapped me from school. He had a grim smile that
looked forced, but I knew he couldn’t help it. “Check him for
weapons, and check the kids too.”

They searched Brock first. “Now what's this?”
One of the men pulled out Brock's gun. He gave it to the man with
the messed-up nose. “This might be fun on the firing range.” I
looked over to Brock and I could tell he was trying not to smile.
The wrestler at the desk yelled at one of his men. “Put handcuffs
on him and take him to a cell!”

“Yes sir,” and they led him away. Brock
seemed to accept his fate. Now we were all alone with no adult
help. I knew what that meant; we were no longer going home. No
leader, no rescue. A dread came over me. The man who checked me for
weapons smiled as he did so, probably not even sure why. It was
like being in a dream. “Nothing here,” he said.

The leader with the nose turned to another
one of his men. “Show these kids a place they can rest for the
night. Tomorrow they’ll train with the others. They should comply
once Abe has seen them.”

“Yes sir,” he said. “Come with me.” He had a
gun on us so we followed. Tracy had her eyes closed as we were led
by the man with the gun down another set of corridors. As we came
around one corner I could see a small wisp of smoke coming off the
gun. “Aiieee,” yelled the man. He dropped the gun and tried to grab
me, thinking I would escape, but then all those hours of Tae Kwon
Do started an automatic response because without even thinking I
kicked him in the side with a round house and as he doubled over,
reaching for his ribs, I axe-kicked him on his left shoulder,
driving him to the ground. It was weird, it was so automatic it was
like I was watching myself do it.

“Great,” said Guido. “Now what?”

Everyone was looking at me. They always
looked at me. I thought this was a bad time to point out my lack of
leadership skills, so I yelled, “Run!”

We ran through the corridors, everyone
following me. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going.
“If we can find him, let's rescue Brock,” I said.

“I thought we were supposed to integrate into
the school to find out what’s going on,” Guido said from my right
somewhere. “Shouldn’t we do that first?” He was right. That was our
mission.

“Good idea,” I said. And everyone believed
me.

We took a left, coming to a door. “In that
case,” said Tracy, “We need to find the rest of the students.”

I opened the door and led the way through.
Then I took a step back in surprise. “I think we did.” In front of
us was a group of about thirty students, staring at us and
grinning.

“Hi,” I said, walking up to one of the
students. I put out my hand, acting much more confident than I
felt.

“We were waiting for you,” said a boy who
spoke with authority. He shook my hand.

“Good to hear,” I said. I smiled back trying
to hide my confusion.

“Abe,” he said with a smile. “My name is
Abe.” He was a few inches taller than me, with dark brown hair, and
his smile looked genuine. “It’s good to finally see you. We have
already made preparations for your stay. In fact, if you like, I'll
show you the rooms we’ve picked out for you.” I looked at Han and
Tracy, who both looked as confused as I felt, and we followed.

“In case you were wondering about how we knew
you were coming,” said Abe, “one of the students has the power to
sense the approach of others. He can feel when they are near and
some of their characteristics. All he knew is that you were young
like us and were heading our way, so I figured you were more
students and had a place made ready for you. We get new ones all
the time.” He turned around and smiled an honest, disarming
smile.

As he led us, the walls changed from brick to
wood paneling with round dim lights attached to the sides of the
hallway. “What are your names?” asked Abe.

“Tracy,” said Tracy. “And this is Andy,” I
waved. “And Han.”

I thought Guido must be hiding. “What about
the fourth?” asked Abe. I was told there were four.”

“Guido,” said Guido, “right here.”

Abe looked startled for a second, but never
lost his cool. “Your gift! Invisibility?”

“Un-noticeability,” said Guido.

“Interesting,” he said. We passed a couple of
boys our age along the hallway. “I hope you like it here.” As we
neared the end of one hall, he pointed to a room on the right, “The
guys can sleep in here.” Then he pointed to a door on the left.
“And Tracy, you can sleep here,” he said. “There are bathrooms down
the hallway on the right. If you have any questions, feel free to
ask anyone. Most of the kids are friendly. Unfortunately, you
missed dinner, but breakfast will be at 8 in the morning.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“You're welcome,” he said and walked back
down the hallway.

After he left I turned to the others, “Let's
get some sleep and talk in the morning. I don't know what's going
on, but this feels weird. It's like a dream or something.” Everyone
agreed.

The next morning I awoke, climbed down from
the top bunk, and put on a sweatshirt. I found that I was the
earliest riser. There was light coming from outside and it looked
to be a sunny day. When I walked over to the window I saw the ocean
in the distance and even a beach with large rocks here or there. I
couldn’t see it at night, so there must have been no lights. This
was actually a beautiful place. Through the window I could see part
of the brick building jutting outward on the left. There was only
one floor above ground, but I couldn't tell how large it was.

I felt a hand on my shoulder. “Hi,” said
Guido.

“Uh! Don’t do that to me! You’re going to
give someone a heart attack!”

“Sorry. Hey, what happened last night?” he
said. “How could that kid do that to us?”

“Do what?” I said.

“You didn’t feel it?” he said. “No, probably
you wouldn’t. Well, you’ve got some competition, my friend. He’s
kind of like you, you know.”

Han stirred from his bed and came over to
where I was. “Is Guido with you?”

“Yeah,” I said. Then I turned to Guido. “What
do you mean he’s like me?”

“You mean Abe?” said Han. “You felt it
too?”

“Hey, Abe is the nicest guy we’ve seen so
far. Can’t you just let it be?”

“Han, I don't think he can tell because of
his gift” said Guido. “Anyway, we’ve learned to resist it and he
hasn’t. In fact, maybe we’re the only ones in this place who know
how to resist.”

“Yes,” said Han.

“Would someone tell me what’s going on?” I
said. I was feeling the anger build up again.

“Andy,” said Guido, “you have this ability to
be naturally popular and everyone wants you to be the leader of any
group. It's your gift. Only you are so used to it that you don't
even notice it. Also, you have never encountered someone else with
that kind of gift so you don't know what it feels like. It’s hard
to resist, and it took me awhile to start trusting my own feelings
again.”

“Weird, but I guess I get it,” I said.
“So?”

“So,” said Guido, “I think Abe is like that.
Only it feels different than yours, and it's a lot stronger. With
him, I feel overwhelmed with a desire to believe in and trust him.
This makes me not want to trust him.”

I was getting more upset and I didn't even
know why, “But what if he really is honest and truthful and just
happens to have this gift? It doesn't mean he’s a bad guy. He can't
do anything about the gift he has!”

“It depends how he uses it,” said Han.

We were interrupted by a knock at the door.
Han opened it and Tracy smiled at us. “Are you guys talking about
Abe?” she said.

“Yeah,” I said. “It seems they don't trust
him.”

“Really?” she said. “I think he was great! He
didn't even know us and he gave us a place to stay. He was so
friendly and has the greatest smile!”