Apex (11 page)

When Scott and Melanie turned on the general, he shrugged his shoulders innocently and said, “I didn’t know that.”

The general and his men
stayed put at the front of the room, taking in the scene. Guns littered the bar top. A shotgun was propped against the pool table and rifles hung over every other shoulder. A dozen kids huddled around a pinball machine, watching another kid play.

A man brushed past them and started to latch boards back into place across the doorway
, feverishly, like their lives depended on it.

The lone TV behind the bar showed devastation, smoke and chaos.

The general had a strange thought: Maybe he was lucky to have been led to Ault, Colorado. These people were unharmed and they were intelligently defending themselves against whatever was coming their way.

Maybe this crap-hole town was a Godsend?

Gone

Jack woke up standing on wobbly legs. He was no longer in the alley because the alley was no longer there. The buildings, with their rubble, and the sliced open cars were all gone too. Jack was at the bottom of a neatly carved crater. He clambered up the smooth dirt wall and pulled himself over the top. The crater was a hundred feet wide and twenty feet deep.

He knew deep down that he had accidentally teleported everything around him to some other place; the crater was evidence of that fact. He’d subconsciously sent everything on that patch of missing land to someplace he couldn’t remember. But where had he sent it? Had people been hurt?

He looked up instinctively, fearful that the convex section of land might fall from the sky, but it was clear and blue and empty. He felt the adrenaline-dump set in and he sat on the ground, Indian style. He tried to remember anything that had just happened but he drew a blank. But the aggressive aspect of his powers was sated for the time being. He felt at peace with the world.

Some people started to gather and gawk at him, but he was too drained to be upset by their angered, fearful looks. They pointed and yelled, but they kept their distance, afraid that they might fall victim to his bizarre abilities too.

He gave up right then. If his mom was dead, then that was ok because at least she’d been spared the devastation of finding out that her son was a freak and a cold blooded murderer.

He started to get angry with himself again, but he quickly reined it in. The last time he got angry, everyone and everything within shouting distance had vanished.

He closed his eyes and disappeared before the gathering crowd worked up the courage to attack him for what he’d just done.

Asteroid
City 

Second in command, Fillo, was shaking his gray oversized head. “We’ve just detected unnatural seismic activity on the surface of the planet, and I’ve just learned that an asteroid, that we hadn’t previously detected, is in fact a large chunk of an Earth city, hurtling away into outer space.”

C
ommander Davok was annoyed by the unnecessary distraction. “What does that have to do with our mission?”

“I don’t know. It’s just a strange anomaly I thought you’d be interested in.”

“So you think they launched a chunk of their own planet out here?”

“No. We would’ve seen that. It seems that it disappeared and reappeared in space.”

“That is peculiar. Why would they do that? Was it directed at the ship?”

“Nope.”

“It makes no sense.”

“What’s even stranger is that there were still humans on it.”

The commander raised his hairless brow.

Fillo
said, “I was going to see if we should deploy a couple of troopers to check it out, but the people already perished of asphyxiation.”

“Well then, whatever weird strategy
that was, it clearly backfired on the humans.”

“If it was strategic, I don’t see the benefit of it. I
do wonder how they developed technology that could do that.”

“Let’s just chalk it up to another unexpected development. This mission is just full of them.”

“Yes sir. But when we send in the clean-up crew, I’d like to send extra troops to the region the piece of land came from.”

“Of course. Get them prepped for action.”

“Yes sir.”

“Send a missile to destroy the anomaly just in case.”

“Good idea.”

A Unique Little Town

The general managed to pry Scott away from his mom and brother. “Why do you think your friend’s powers are so much stronger than yours?”

Scott was perplexed. Did he mean Melanie? Of course not. He meant Jack. It was the elephant in the room they’d all seen but avoided discussing. “I don’t know.”

“We need to get him back. Do you have a way to reach him? Does he have a cell phone?”

“I’ve been trying to think of a way to get a hold of him, but not because I want to use him, like you do. I’d like to tell him his mom is here and she’s alive.”

“Of course. Forgive me for being so insensitive. I’m so worried about an impending attack that I sometimes forget my humanity.”

Scott thought a little more about the general’s question. “Maybe he has stronger powers because he took a full blast of that alien mist. We were standing back but he was right next to it.”

The general said, “I sure wish that whatever that mist was hadn’t been wasted on you kids. Imagine how formidable we’d be if my soldiers had such powers.”

Scott’s mom overheard the conversation. “What the heck are you talking about?”

The general laughed emotionlessly and said, “Are you going to tell these fine people, Scotty boy?”

Scott glared as the general called for silence in the room. “I need everyone’s attention. I want everyone here to see what we have on our side.” Then he pointed at Scott and said, “Show them what you can do.”

Everyone turned to Scott now. His face flushed with a mix of embarrassment and anger. But now that he was put on the spot, he knew better than to give in to the general’s wishes. He still couldn’t control his abilities. He might accidentally cut someone in half.

Melanie saved him. She stood shoulder to shoulder with him and said, “You owe me one.”

Then she levitated an empty bar stool. No one noticed it until she floated it towards her. Her hands were engorged with blood as she concentrated. A leg
of the stool snapped in half as she struggled to control her powers.

Some people murmured but the room went eerily still as Melanie performed her parlor trick.

A fat, middle aged lady who usually kept to herself whispered, “Devil.” Then she yelled more loudly, “That is the work of the devil. Judgment day has come and we’re harboring a devil child. We’re all doomed.”

The general walked up to her quickly and slapped her hard across the face. He said, “I will not allow hysteria here.”

The woman was unfazed. “We must cast out the devil girl. When the rapture comes, we will be condemned because of this.”

“Do you seriously believe that we were attacked with lasers by demons?”

“Of course I do. What else explains it?”

“It was aliens, you crazy old witch.”

The fat woman laughed heartlessly. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

A thin man wearing only his thermal’s said, “I thought it was the government.”

“The government does experiment with new technology, but we have nothing like those lasers. Even if we did, we wouldn’t deploy them on our own soil.”

The woman interrupted with a shrill shriek. “The girl must be banished.”

Melanie gently placed the bar stool in front of her and sat down on it, careful to keep her weight away from the side with the busted leg. “Why don’t you come over here and try to make me leave?”

Scott stepped in front of her. His eyes turned pink as blood threatened to rupture vessels in them. He concentrated and was able to encase Melanie in a force field. He lifted her and the stool up by a foot.

The bar was silent as a church mouse now. He dropped her back down and said, “I have an ability now too. So does our friend Jack and so do these nice people.” He pointed at Dan and Molly, standing near the front door.

Dan nodded and Molly smiled impishly.

The general said to everyone in the room, “If we come under attack, wouldn’t it be nice to complement our firepower with their strange abilities?”

A woman behind the bar, clearly drunk, said, “So if we come under attack, these kids can unleash the power of flotation? Wow, color me unimpressed.”

Dan’s hands lit up, the heat radiated throughout the bar. “We can do more than levitate things.” His hands went back to normal and Scott and Melanie counted their blessings. It wouldn’t help their case if Dan lost control again and torched the bar by accident.

Jack’s mom whispered to Scott, “Is it true?”

“Yes. Jack can teleport.”

She shook her head in confusion. “Then why doesn’t he teleport here?” Clearly she was less interested in his abilities than she was in making sure he was safe.

“When he doesn’t find you in Denver, he’ll come back to Ault.” Scott wasn’t sure if that was true, but he hoped it was.

The fat woman screeched, “They’re all possessed. We need to get away from them.”

An old man with gnarled hands moved towards the fat woman and grabbed her by the collar. “If you don’t shut up, I’ll personally lock
you
out. If it’s true about aliens attacking us, we might need all the help we can get. If that means we need to rely on kids and strangers wearing silly costumes, then so be it.”

Only then did Scott realize he was still wearing his
superhero outfit. He saw Dan look down at himself too, and Molly smiled when he shook his head. He’d never be able to show his face in town again after this.

They looked ridiculous.

Deserted

The farmhouse was deserted. Jack yelled out for Scott and Melanie but they were gone.

He searched for Dan and Molly, and then he remembered that the last time he’d seen his friends, the military was in their midst. Had the general decided to kill them? Had he decided to abduct them?

More than ever, he felt alone in the world. His mom was dead and now his friends had abandoned him, or worse, were dead too. The world was on the brink of destruction, and he was starting to believe it deserved its fate.

He’d seen hatred now. He’d witnessed senseless death and aimless fury. He’d killed people for no other reason than that they were near him. This world did not care for him and he was starting to think the feeling was mutual.

His mom’s face flashed before his mind’s eye and he felt that familiar rush of anger flood his senses; anger at himself. He was truly worthless.

But this time, he let
the emotions smash his senses to a pulp like a tsunami. He wanted the fear and hurt and hatred to grow. He wanted to physically express them through his powers, if only to purge them from his heart.

Maybe he’d feel better afterwards. Maybe not. But either way, it felt better to open himself up than to seal the poisonous feelings inside and let them fester.

Plus, no one was around this time to get hurt.

Tremors

The bar rumbled. Glasses fell and smashed on the floor.
Walls crumbled. A young girl screamed. Ault was nowhere near a fault line so this was something else. Maybe the enemy was approaching. Maybe the Earth was being torn asunder beneath their feet by the evil aliens that had already attacked them.

Little did any of them know that a teenage boy on the outskirts of town had produced the seismic jo
lting by literally moving and depositing millions of tons of Earth. Little did any of them know that he was no longer in control of his abilities and that this would be just the first of many instances.

The deafening scream
s that accompanied the rumbling was animalistic, fear inducing, and destructive in itself. They carried on the winds and it was impossible to locate their source. The windows cracked and their bones vibrated from it. The scream reached fever pitched even as the ground beneath them became still once more.

None of them could know that one of their own was losing the battle against his own powers.

Wave

Commander Davok issued the order. “Send the troops. Let’s get this over with and move on as quickly as possible.”

“Yes sir. The troops have been deployed, and not a moment too soon. They’re eager for action.”

“I hope so. Should we release the Rancunts to help them?”

“No way, sir. Just because we’re exterminating the humans doesn’t mean they should suffer such horrors as that. Allow them to die quickly.”

“You’re right. The round-up of those damn Rancunts will just slow us down afterwards anyway.”

S
econd in command, Fillo, breathed a sigh of relief. He hated those massive Rancunts. They scared the shit out of him and the troops alike. They were beasts they’d discovered on the first planet they’d attacked. They weren’t the apex species but the Greys were forced to contend with them anyway. Rancunts liked to eat and they were massive enough to require lots of meat.