Winters Family Psi Chronicles 1: Transformation (3 page)

Jeremy brought the receiver to his ear and only silence greeted his ear. He tapped the buttons on the phone which elicited the same lack of results. Jeremy went to the kitchen and tried that phone but discovered it was dead as well. He went to his SUV to use his cell which he always kept for emergencies. As his fingers closed over the phone, a scene leapt into his mind’s eye. From a distance, he saw an ambulance which had been struck by a truck from the left side. Jeremy willed himself closer and found that his sight obediently moved towards the wreckage. The driver of the ambulance was slumped over the wheel. Somehow, Jeremy intuitively knew that he was dead but that the other passengers were alive. The scene abruptly shifted and he saw the two emergency technicians unconscious and Skylar strapped to a platform with an IV hooked into his arm. Jeremy immediately snapped out of the vision and became aware that the cell phone had slipped from his grasp. He picked it up off the ground and set it back in its holder. No, he couldn’t call an ambulance when he knew a truck would crash into it.

Jeremy had always believed that psychic abilities were theoretically possible but now he had to accept them as real or risk endangering himself and his family due to ignorance. He could obviously see the future while Skylar now possessed the ability to read minds. Jeremy wondered if somehow, the myriad of thoughts that hammered at Skylar’s consciousness were harming him. Could that be possible? Jeremy wished he could say for certain. If Skylar’s new ability was the cause for his current debilitating condition, the hospital could do nothing for him. However, Jeremy couldn’t sit idly by without trying everything in his power to save him. He would drive Skylar to the hospital himself.

When Jeremy returned to the living room, Skylar was awake and hunched forward with both hands clasped tightly over his ears as if struggling to shut out all noises.

“We have to get you to the hospital,” Jeremy said as he reached down to pull his friend to his feet.

Skylar refused to budge. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Come on! We have to go now!” Jeremy said forcefully.

“Leave me alone!” Skylar demanded as he squirmed out of his grasp.

Jeremy stood over him and watched helplessly as his friend leaned to the side in obvious agony. After several moments, Skylar passed out again. Jeremy’s mind churned chaotically as he struggled to decide on a course of action. The most logical choice would be to drive his friend to the hospital. Jeremy sighed and reluctantly reached down to heave his friend up. Luckily, Skylar was skinny or this would be impossible. Jeremy got a firm grip under his friend’s arms and dragged him toward the front door. It was a major struggle to transport Skylar’s unconscious body to the SUV and drag him into the back seat. Jeremy panted with exertion and slumped with fatigue as he sank in the driver’s seat. He became aware of voices speaking chaotically in his mind. More and more of them joined in until it seemed thousands of conversations crashed against his skull. It took an enormous effort of will to remain awake and lucid. His body wanted to shut down as the mind screamed against the over-stimulation. Jeremy realized that this must be what his friend had been going through. He wasn’t consciously aware of squeezing his eyes shut and clamping his hands over his ears but at some point realized he’d done so.

Jeremy wanted to lash out at the rude voices that battered at his mind. He found it difficult to think as though the portions of the brain used for thinking were being utilized by the incoming thoughts of others. Of course, this was absurd. Jeremy remembered watching numerous science fiction shows about telepaths and a constant theme was their ability to block out unwanted thoughts. He wondered if this was possible. Jeremy experimented with picturing brick walls blocking off the outside world. Surprisingly, the voices did quiet down considerably but not nearly enough. He tried picturing the brick walls in more detail but that didn’t help. Soon, he couldn’t hold the image in his mind anymore. At some point, everything went quiet and Jeremy opened his eyes. He was curled in a fetal position on his side. He slowly sat straight up and gazed around at his surroundings.  Skylar remained unconscious in the back seat. He checked the time and realized only about fifteen minutes had passed since he’d loaded his friend into his truck. Jeremy wondered what had turned off his telepathic ability and what had triggered it in the first place. Apparently, he had multiple talents and one of them was extremely debilitating.

Jeremy wondered if it was wise to drive in his current condition. He had no way of knowing when he’d suffer another telepathic attack. His grip tightened on the steering wheel as he silently debated with himself. The cell phone suddenly rang and Jeremy was relieved at the interruption. He glanced at the caller ID screen which showed his mother’s name, Kate.

“Hi, Mom,” Jeremy said.

“Hi, sweetie,” she said. “It looks like I do have a psychic ability after all – precognition. Whatever you do, don’t try to drive your friend to the hospital.”

“You saw what happened?” Jeremy asked.

“You’re going to lose control of your vehicle somehow and end up crashing into someone’s house,” Kate said shakily. “Don’t go!”

“Okay, I won’t,” he promised.

He certainly knew exactly what courses of action he shouldn’t take. If only he could discover a solution rather than what to avoid.

Chapter 3

Emily awakened with a minor headache in the main room of her living quarters. The power was still out and she was one of the first to regain consciousness due to her prep work. She swiftly rose to her feet and rushed over to her bedroom. She pulled sheets from the closet and tucked them underneath the covers to give the false impression that she was in bed sleeping. Any moment now, the employees of this facility would be waking up and checking their prisoners in a panic to ensure that no one had escaped. Almost everyone remained unconscious but the post-transformation protocols specifically outlined the necessity of this check. Emily strode over to bathroom and hid behind the door. Peering through the crack, she had a perfect view of the front portion of the main room.

Emily could hear frantic activity nearby and tensed with anticipation. She would either escape now or die within several days at the hands of security operatives under the strict initiation of the post-transformation protocols. The front door burst open and two men burst inside. One was medium set with brown hair and blue eyes while the other was short with cruel blue eyes, a stubby nose, and an intense frown on his face. They both wore black shirts and khaki pants. Just as Emily had previously foreseen, they quickly scanned the room for her. They glanced first at the seemingly empty bathroom before honing in on the bedroom where she’d intentionally left the door closed.

“Are you awake in there?” the shorter man asked.

When she failed to respond, they scooted forward. The shorter man hung back with his stun gun held at the ready and nodded at the other man to proceed. Both of them now had their backs to her so Emily slipped out of the bathroom and stealthily slipped out the front door. Her telepathy was stronger now although only at level four strength. The improvement was enough to allow her to sense that both men were focused on her huddled form under the sheets of the bed. Emily raced down the hall that she had preplanned on her travel path. Virtually no one was awake so it was unlikely she’d happen upon any staff here. She located one of the uniform rooms which was kept unlocked. Emily slipped inside and changed into a security operative uniform.  Unfortunately, name tags and stun guns were locked away in a secure location. She would only fool those who didn’t examine her too closely. Hopefully, she would avoid encounters with any of the staff.

Emily traversed down the hallway and made a beeline for the stairs. She opened her telepathic awareness so she would sense anyone nearby before they could spot her. Emily dashed down the stairs and managed to make quite a bit of progress before she became aware of a couple of security operatives heading for the door below. They were intending to travel up the stairs but she couldn’t tell how far. Emily went up to the next door and slipped into the empty hallway. They clambered up the stairs at an agonizingly slow pace. Emily wished they’d hurry up. She retreated to a bend in the hallway in case they came through here. Fortunately, they didn’t. She waited until they were a flight above her then quietly slipped back to the stairway and stealthily scrambled down them toward the second floor. Emily silently congratulated herself upon making it safely to her destination. She reached out with her mind for any presence before emerging in the hallway.

She had only gotten halfway to her target when she sensed a staff member in one of the rooms getting ready to leave. She couldn’t determine the identity of the individual so she rushed past the door right before it opened. She was too far to reach a bend and duck out of sight so she slowed her pace to a brisk walk. Hopefully, if it was someone who had worked with her, they wouldn’t recognize her from behind. Emily’s stomach clenched with anxiety and cold shivers danced at the back of her neck. She carefully sensed the presence behind her who happened to be walking in the same direction that she did. She could tell that it was a male and he hadn’t recognized her but was paying a moderate amount of attention. The man wasn’t suspicious yet but wondering about her. Emily loosened her gait so she wouldn’t look tense. It was imperative that she give the appearance of being a fellow staff member.

Emily reached one of the break rooms and entered it without hesitation as though she belonged here. Luckily, no one was inside. There were several, unscreened windows and one of them was her ticket to freedom. The break room door didn’t have a lock or she would have been tempted to engage it. Emily honed in on the mind of the staff member who’d been walking behind her. He was still approaching the door. She held her breath and her anxiety piqued. She couldn’t allow herself to be captured. She wondered who it was and if he’d immediately recognize her. The door opened and he joined her in the small room with an annoyed scowl on his face. He was in his late thirties and wore the typical security operative uniform.

“Now is not the time to take a break,” the man said tersely. “You aren’t even in full uniform.”

“This is my first day. Joe had to take care of some business and told me to meet him here. He was going to bring my name tag and stun gun with him,” Emily lied smoothly. She knew Joe was the name of one of the managers.

“I didn’t realize Joe was awake yet,” he said with surprise.

“He’ll be here any minute if you’d like to chat,” Emily said with a touch of sarcasm.

“It was just a misunderstanding. Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” the staff member said defensively.

He quickly retreated from the room and she immediately rushed over to the nearest window. She opened it and dropped down to the bushes. She strode to the parking lot and went directly to a blue Hyundai sedan that should be unlocked. She reached out and pulled on the handle. The door swung open and she breathed out a loud sigh of relief. Emily slipped behind the wheel and pulled a set of keys from underneath the passenger seat. It amazed her that some people didn’t lock their vehicle and actually left the keys conveniently ensconced where a thief could easily locate them. The parking lot wasn’t secure so Emily was able to drive away without any problem. It wasn’t until she’d reached the freeway that she allowed herself to feel a small measure of satisfaction over her escape.

After several miles of random driving to put a safe distance between herself and the Psi-Tech facility, she pulled over and hunted for a map which she found tucked in a bunch of papers inside the glove compartment. Emily studied the map and quickly determined the fastest route to her brother’s house. She left the map open and placed it on the passenger seat so she could refer to it quickly if needed. Emily took the freeway and shortly afterward, sensed something strange. She reached out with her mind to detect the anomaly and realized that someone at Psi-Tech was using remote-viewing to track her. There were several remote-viewers at the facility. The strongest had been a level four but it was likely they were stronger now. Emily forced herself to relax so she would maintain a strong grip on her psychic talents. It was vital that she retained complete control of her psychic ability as her telepathic strength was only a level four and the only way to detect when she was being observed by remote-viewers.

Emily went through the mental exercises necessary to delve deep into a relaxed, meditative state which wasn’t conducive to safe driving but better than being tracked down by security operatives and gunned down. If she had possessed stronger telepathic ability, she could have blocked the remote-viewer from locking onto her. When Emily could sense the withdrawal of the tracker, she pulled off the freeway and headed north via the side streets. She’d been forced to pass an exit to throw the security operatives off track. Hopefully, they wouldn’t figure out that she’d formulated a plan or what motivated her. Police, ambulance, and fire trucks swarmed everywhere as city officials frantically attempted to help those in need. Emily knew that the electrical storm had caused many fires in the city as this type of damage had occurred all over the world. Some areas had been harder hit than others. When Emily turned onto Jeremy’s street, a sense of wrongness took hold. This wasn’t what she’d seen in her vision. Emily came to a stop at what should have been her brother’s home but it wasn’t the one she’d foreseen.

“This isn’t possible!” Emily cried out with frustration and fear.

She stared at the unfamiliar, blue house with a cramped lawn. It had a small driveway with a small white sedan parked in front. Emily’s brown eyes fixed on the numbers of the house which matched that of her brother’s. She slowly got out of her vehicle and walked over to check the street sign and verify that she’d gone to the correct address. She stood there with her hands on her hips as she struggled to figure out what had gone wrong. All at once, she realized the serious mistake she’d made. In her visions of Jeremy, she’d seen him driving home several times and had seen him shopping in Seattle. She’d assumed he lived in Seattle but he could live in any of the nearby cities.

Emily rushed back to her car and felt the presence of one or more remote-viewers locking onto her position again. She quickly drove forward and randomly down the streets as if she had a purpose in mind. The psychic stuck with her for perhaps five minutes which was probably the extent of their ability in sustaining contact. Emily took herself out of the residential area and parked in a shopping center. She found a telephone booth and quickly checked the white pages for Jeremy Winters. Unfortunately, she failed to find his name. Emily silently chastised herself for not thinking of this sooner. Her brother was an extremely private person and always chose to have his name unlisted. She dropped the phone book when she sensed another psychic intrusion. She dashed to her car and slowly drove out of the parking lot. She couldn’t let them track her.

Emily had unintentionally broken out of her trance. With the frantic traffic weaving around her, she couldn’t go through the proper exercises to return to the relaxed state needed. She drove aimlessly and changed directions often until it was safe again. Emily pulled into a large shopping center again, parked, and returned herself to the meditative state needed to fully utilize her psychic abilities. She thought of her brother and directed her foresight toward the near future. A view of Jeremy lying unconscious in his living room snapped into her mind. This didn’t show her anything useful. He would probably remain this way for several days. Maybe he had some mail lying around somewhere. Even as strong as she was, Emily couldn’t control her visions. The scene shifted and showed Jeremy stumbling down the hall and to the bathroom. He looked extremely exhausted and his dark, brown eyes were blood shot. He fumbled with a bottle of ibuprofen before Emily directed the vision farther into the future.

Now, she could see Jeremy carrying his best-friend out the front door of Skylar’s house.  Skylar’s head lolled loosely as he had passed out. Emily knew he had been transformed into a level nine telepath and his ability would kill him just as Jeremy’s multipathic talents would kill him. All individuals who’d converted into telepaths stronger than a level six wouldn’t survive the transformation. Psi-Tech didn’t possess any information on Skylar because he hadn’t survived and therefore hadn’t been around during the time period that the precognitives had gathered data about. This would aid in Emily’s ongoing efforts to elude capture but not for too much longer. She had to locate both her brother and Skylar soon or risk forfeiting all their lives.

“Where do you live, Jeremy?” Emily whispered to herself.

She tried telepathically locking onto him but wasn’t strong enough for that. She rested for a bit then continued utilizing her precognitive talents to ascertain her brother’s location. She could sense a stranger observing her again and knew it was time to leave. Emily drove to the freeway and headed north out of Seattle. She needed to put as great a distance as possible to avoid the security operatives who were obviously devoting significant resources in locating her. Emily waited awhile before checking the near future to glimpse her own situation. She was still driving safely so she checked the time which was roughly ten minutes in the future. She checked farther ahead and saw her car wrecked and overturned at the side of the freeway. She pulled back closer to the present and the scene shifted to her driving safely again. Emily checked the time and could see it was about twenty minutes in the future.

She didn’t want to strain herself and risk temporarily blacking out her psychic senses so she didn’t try to pinpoint the time of the accident any closer. Emily presumed that the security operatives would find her in the near future and run her off the road. To be completely certain she would avoid this fate, she needed to exit the freeway in about ten minutes. The next city was Shoreline and after that it would take at least another ten minutes before reaching the next town. Emily decided it was too risky to remain on the freeway so she pulled off at Shoreline and wove through the bustling traffic. Her objective was to make it extremely difficult to pinpoint her exact location. As soon as the remote-viewer withdrew, Emily headed for the freeway and made her way to Richmond Highlands which was less than a ten minute drive. She arrived in the business section of the town before the next remote-viewer locked onto her.

Emily smiled to herself with satisfaction because it would take some time before they would figure out she’d left Shoreline. Fred Meyer’s were common stores in this area and she’d passed at least two in Shoreline so she parked at the next one she saw. Emily sat in the car and realized she’d need to develop a better strategy. She looked at the map and could see that the closest city was Mountlake Terrace which would take about twenty minutes for her to commute. She’d have to start practicing some defensive psychic techniques if she were to continue to elude her executioners. Emily had observed the individuals in the distant future discussing and utilizing telepathic blocks for disrupting remote-viewers. She had never had the opportunity to practice until now. Unfortunately, she’d probably burn herself out in utilizing this new technique. Emily knew she didn’t have any choice. Soon, the remote-viewers would observe enough details of her surroundings to determine she’d left Shoreline then they’d figure out which city she’d relocated to.