Away From the Sun (14 page)

I run over to another box that’s filled with magazines to match the box of rifles. I drag it to the lift and strain to stack it on top of the other box. I can hear the groaning greyskins moving closer on us.
 

“How’s it going up there?” I ask, but she doesn’t hear me as she takes more shots.

I reach for the rope on the side and pull with all my might. The lift moves upward just a few inches and I already have to let go. I’m thankful for the brake system, so I don’t have to retry when I let go, but the top box is just too heavy. I reach for the handle and drag it off the lift. It cracks open when it hits the floor, but no real damage is done. I reach for the rope again and this time the lift moves much more quickly. I tug away until the box of rifles is near the top of the hatch.
 

“Ashley!” I yell out.
 

“What?”
Boom. Boom.
 

“You’ve got to slide the box off the lift!”

Nothing but the firing of her rifle seems to happen for at least thirty seconds. I curse myself for being down here while she is stuck with a herd of greyskins coming after her. I hate not being able to do anything. After another minute, I fear the next sound I will hear is her screams and I will be stuck down here to face the onslaught of undead creatures by myself. I look behind me and find a box of grenades. I grab it by the rope handle and slide the lid off the top. They may make a lot of noise, but they can take out a group of them faster than a rifle. I reach for the rope and begin pulling the box of rifles down. Once it hits the ground, I move back over to the box of grenades and start filling my pockets. I’m carrying seven of them by the time I get back on the ladder. I climb my way to the top and I’m not quite ready for what I see.
 

It’s definitely a herd.
 

Ashley doesn’t even see me behind her when I step out and pull the pin from the first grenade. I throw it as far as I can into a group of greyskins that Ashley is aiming at. Neither one of us is ready for the effect of the blast when the deafening explosion engulfs the greyskins in a fireball and rotten body parts fly in every direction.
 

Ashley turns to me with her mouth hanging open. “Do that again!” she yells.
 

I oblige. To my right, there’s a group coming even closer. I toss a grenade in the middle of them and we both take cover behind the truck. We cover our ears and duck our heads low as the blast rocks us to the bone and more limbs and torsos spin through the air. Ashley immediately brings her gun over the back of the truck and begins firing. I set the five remaining grenades in the back and tell her to use as many as she needs.
 

“You’ve got to pull the boxes off the lift!” I tell her, moving back to the ladder.
 

She nods at me in response as she reaches for one of the grenades. I’m about halfway down the ladder when the explosion nearly makes me lose my grip. Once on the floor, I start pulling the box of rifles to the top with the rope. There’s another explosion that drops clouds of dust from the top of the hatch all over me. Once the box is to the top, Ashley pulls it away almost immediately. Not long after, another explosion goes off.
 

The rest is like clockwork. Magazines, grenades, rocket launchers, pistols, and knives all make it into the back of the truck. When I finally get to the top of the hatch again, it looks like there are nearly a thousand greyskins on top of us. Ashley runs to the front of the truck and turns on the engine.

I grab three grenades from the crate before getting into the front seat. I roll down the window and lean outside the truck. With as much strength as I can gather, I throw the first grenade into the middle of the greyskins. With a bright flash and a loud blast, a path is cut through the middle of them. I don’t have to tell Ashley to take it. She already knows. Every time the path starts to close in, I throw another grenade, and the greyskins splatter.
 

We’re out of Marion in less than a minute. When I look at the town behind us, I can’t help but wonder how there could have been so many greyskins. I wonder why this place is always so deadly.

Any time I run into them like this, I start to question my beliefs about the outbreak being a good thing. Perhaps humanity didn’t deserve this. This just might be too extreme. There has to be some end to it soon. But what will that end be?
 

With the greyskin disease, there spreads a more deadly virus than anything else: the disease of fear. I can feel my limbs shaking and I wish they would stop.
 

I look back again, this time my eyes glancing at the weapons in the truck. Shadowface is the one that should be infected with fear, now. I welcome an attack. We might not be able to win the fight, but he won’t be expecting this kind of firepower.
   

It has been over a week since we came to Elkhorn and there is no indication of an attack. However, I still locked the vial of blood in a small, tin box that Ethan and I found because I wasn’t very comfortable carrying it with me. It rests secretly under my cot in my room.
 

I think that either Shadowface doesn’t know about me and the vial of blood, or he no longer cares. If I were in his shoes, I would have attacked by now. I’m okay with either scenario, but Jeremiah seems convinced that Shadowface is just biding his time. The wait hasn’t stopped Stephen from arming his men and letting Mitch, Ashley, and Jeremiah train them how to use the new supplies.
 

Ethan and I have skipped out on the training sessions. Neither one of us is interested. Not only that, but we aren’t exactly comfortable being around a lot of people with guns. We don’t want to invite a scenario where Ethan finds himself walking alone down a street in a town full of armed men. A stray bullet could pass through him. I try to remember what his surroundings looked like in the vision, but the street escapes my memory. All I can envision is the look on his face as he is dying. He suggested that I take another look, but I told him it wouldn’t do any good. He didn’t seem to understand, but I didn’t expect him to.
 

I know that if I touch him to see another vision of the future, I will see something else. The first time, I saw him dying. The second time, I saw us kissing each other. I don’t really care to see any more. Since we’ve been spending every moment together, Ethan and I have talked a lot about it—in secret, of course. And we decided on something. We decided that I am going to use my new Starborn power for good. I will use it purposefully; not by accident.
   

I expressed to him that I don’t like knowing the future. It confuses me, and makes me wonder if sometimes the future is caused because I saw it. Would I kiss Ethan if I hadn’t seen myself kissing him? I assume so since it’s just a vision. (I didn’t mention this particular vision to
him
.) But I think about the time I came face-to-face with Scarecrow. In the vision of Scarecrow, I saw myself attacking him and falling over into the crowd of greyskins below, but because I had seen the vision, I was brought to the situation and was able to make a different decision. If I had not seen the future, would I have known to make a different decision?

“And that’s what makes me a Starborn,” I said to Ethan while we were playing a game of checkers. “Jeremiah had mentioned that Starborns gained their powers because they were meant to protect themselves. And for the past week, I haven’t been able to see the use of mine for myself. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more it starts to make sense.”
 

“How so?” he asked, staring down at the board.
 

“Maybe I first saw the future when I was sitting next to Lucas, because my power—my ability—was showing me that I should do what I foresaw.”

He looked up at me with downturned eyebrows. “I don’t follow.”

“Like the time I grabbed your hand on that first day,” I said. “I saw you kill the greyskin and you were safe afterwards. Well, I think it was to confirm that I shouldn’t do anything. Seeing Lucas die in my vision, confirmed that I shouldn’t have moved, I think. If I would have tried to reach up and pull him down, Scarecrow might have killed both of us.”

“Wow,” he said.
 

“Doesn’t mean I don’t wish I would have tried something,” I said.
 

He smiled at me. “That confirms it though.”

“What?”

“You have nothing you should regret. Your future showed that you would survive if you didn’t move when Lucas confronted the raiders. If you tried, you would have died, too. And maybe the rest of us as well.” He reached out his hand, but I didn’t take it. He pulled back quickly, realizing his mistake. “You did exactly what you were supposed to do. The futures you see show you when you should take action or when you should stay put.”

“That’s just it,” I said. “The vision I had of you has me nowhere in sight. All of the visions up to this point, have involved me in some way. In the vision of you, I see nothing. Why would I not be present in the future where you die, but present in all the others?”

“Maybe your power is growing,” he said. “Maybe the more you use it, the more you can go beyond yourself.” He shrugged. “Or maybe you being in all the visions is just coincidence. Maybe not every future you see has you in it. That would explain why you aren’t there when I get shot.”

I wasn’t sure, and I’m still not. I would like to think my power is growing so I can control it. I would like to be able to touch someone’s hand without thinking I would see a future that I was supposed to fix.

That’s when the idea came to my head. “What if…” I shook my head.
 

“What?”

I took a deep breath and thought for a moment. I didn’t want to do what I was about to propose, but it could potentially help everyone here.
 

“We’ve been sitting here for about a week,” I said. “And nothing has happened.”

“Yeah,” Ethan said, his arms crossing his chest.
 

“Well, I have the ability to see into the future,” I explained. “Wouldn’t it make sense if I went around to everybody and started touching them to try and get a glimpse into the future?”

“I thought that was what you
didn’t
want to do,” he said. “I thought the idea terrified you.”

“It does. But if I can touch everyone and see many futures, then surely something of the next week or so will come up. There’s Jeremiah, Mitch, Ashley, Stephen, Gabe,” I shook my head. “Everyone. Surely if there is going to be an attack, I will see
something.”

“Don’t forget your sister,” he said.
 

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” I turned my head away sheepishly. “I’m not sure I can handle seeing her die of it came to that.”

“But if you can help prevent it, wouldn’t that be better?” He was leaning forward, his elbows on the table. He seemed excited by this prospect.
 

“I guess.”

“Would you still keep it a secret?” he asked.
 

“Yes.”

“Then you’re going to have to come out of your shell a little bit,” he said. “You’re too stiff. You need to loosen up and talk to people. Act interested in what they have to say. You’re going to have to become a toucher.”

“A what?”

“A toucher,” he said with a smile. “When you engage in conversation, you’ll need to be flirty. If Gabe makes you laugh, reach out and grab his hand. If Stephen tells you something sad, reach out with a sympathetic hand; act shocked. You know…a toucher.”

I had never been the flirty type. The thought of acting that way just depressed me. I don’t like the idea of chatting it up with all these people, but if it can save their lives…

The mission will take a few days. If I want to keep my power a secret, then I can’t just go around touching everyone on the same day. Ethan and I decided that after each person, I will write down everything I can remember seeing. Then, when we’ve got it all together, we will look at all of them and see if we can find a pattern.
 

It’s a week and a day since we came to Elkhorn, and I’m now ready for my first guinea pig: Stephen. Ethan and I stand outside his office door. He’s talking to someone about food supplies and how they have been running low ever since the new arrivals. Ethan stays back a few feet as I knock on the doorframe and give a short wave.
 

Stephen and the man next to him look up at me and are silent for a long moment. I suppose they weren’t expecting me, and given that I have barely spoken a word to Stephen since I got here, I’m sure he’s curious as to why I would be visiting.
 

“Come in,” he says slowly. I clear my throat and take a step forward. I don’t know why I’m nervous, but I am. I don’t wish to see his future, but this is important isn’t it?

“I was wondering if you had a moment to speak alone,” I ask him, nodding to the man next to Stephen.
 

Stephen looks at me, almost as if to say,
‘what in the world do you want’
, but he smiles briefly and asks the other man to leave.
 

“Have a seat,” he says, motioning to a chair across from him. I sit, though I feel like I’m too far away from him to actually reach over and touch him naturally. He leans back in his chair and keeps his hands close to his sides on the armrests. “What can I do for you?”

“I uh…” for some reason my mind draws a blank. This was supposed to be natural. We weren’t supposed to be sitting so far away from each other. I search for the words I’m supposed to say to him, but I can’t remember. Something about how he…Oh! Yes. “I was just curious about how you came to be here.”

His eyebrows instantly furrow at me and I know that this sounds forced. He shakes his head. “What do you need?”

“I just…I just want to get to know people here a little better,” I stutter. “I figured I would start with the leader.”

“Well,” he says with a smile, “it might be best to start with someone else, I am very busy right now.”