The Deviant Underground (Time Bandit) (23 page)

Kathryn breathed heavily for a moment, her hands on her hips. Sweat poured down her forehead and into her eyes. She took off her sunglasses, grabbed the hem of her t-shirt, and wiped her face. She felt great.

From their vantage point, she could see the entire valley. Miles and miles of green and brown waves stretched before them, as the thick foliage, some of it dying from lack of water, stood silently in the sun. Now that her breathing had settled, all Kathryn heard was the rustle of the wind as it rattled some of the dead and dying leaves. An occasional hawk flew low and cried out in the distance. A few feet in front of them, the hill ended, resulting in a drop of several hundred feet to the valley floor below. Susan walked up to the edge and sat down in the dry grass.

Kathryn joined her and sat cross-legged in the sun. The sky was a cloudless blue, and the sun, now at their backs, threw their shadows over the edge of the cliff. Susan stared into the valley. Kathryn did the same, respecting her need for quiet. After a few minutes, Susan finally spoke. “Shit, it's hot.”

Kathryn chuckled. “Yeah. It is. Although,” she inhaled the dry air deeply, “it's not like St. Louis. St. Louis hot will have you drowning in five minutes. You need a knife just to cut through the humidity.”

“Yeah, I guess you're right.” Susan playfully nudged her. “Good thing we got your stubborn ass to open up to us before summer hit. I don't think that I would have survived a summer in St. Louis.”

“Spoiled, New England girl.” Kathryn nudged her back.

“Hey, it gets hot in Massachusetts. Cold, too. Very cold.”

“Whatever.” Kathryn rolled her eyes, but she knew Susan couldn't see them through the sunglasses. “Come live in Chicago for a year and then talk to me about cold.”

Susan chuckled and looked across the valley again. “Don't worry.” Kathryn tried to be reassuring. “Charge will find your friend. If anyone can find him, Charge can.”

“Her.”

Kathryn corrected herself. “Her.”

Susan paused before continuing. “Alex is my ex-girlfriend.” Now Kathryn understood the look on Susan's face. She wrapped her arm around Susan's shoulder and squeezed her firmly.

“Don't worry. Charge will find her.”

Susan's knees were bent, and she hung her head between them. “We got into such a stupid-ass argument the last time we talked.” Her voice quivered. “She wanted to come here to visit but refused to stay with us in the cabin.” She sniffed and wiped away a single tear that threatened to make its way down her cheek. “We were going to try to work it out, but she's jealous of Jonathan. I told her that being jealous of Jonathan was stupid, and that if she wasn't going to come and stay with us, then she might as well not come at all.” Susan sighed. “She hung up. And that was the last that I heard from her.” Kathryn kept her arm around her shoulder as Susan's tears dropped onto the dust between her feet.

The sun continued to beam down on them. “I'm thirsty as hell. Do you want some water?”

Susan nodded. “Yeah, but—” Kathryn didn't wait around to hear the rest of Susan's sentence. She teleported back to the cabin, retracing their running path as a guide, and reappeared in the kitchen. She grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge and teleported back to Susan. She sat down next to her and held out one of the bottles. “Here.” Susan stared at her without taking it. “What?”

“What the hell did you just do?”

“Um, went back to the cabin for some water.”

“How far is that?”

“I don't know. A few miles maybe.” She still held out the water for Susan to take.

“Give me this.” Susan snatched it out of her hand. “You’ve been holding out on me.”

“No I haven't.” Kathryn opened her bottle and took a long drink. “Wait. What do you mean?”

Susan cracked open her bottle and drank generously. “I didn't know that you could teleport that far.” Susan punctuated her next sentence with punches to Kathryn's shoulder. “You. Have. Been. Holding. Out. On. Me!”

“Ow.” Kathryn batted away Susan's fist. “I have not. That's the first time I ever did that, I swear. Now quit hitting me!”

Susan stared at her unconvincingly and took another drink. “So what made you decide to do it now?”

Kathryn shrugged. “I don't know. I just wanted to go back to the cabin, so I did. I followed our running path to get there.”

Susan snorted. “You bitch.”

“What?”

Susan finished her water. “Nothing. You are just one damn talented bitch, that's all.”

“Well, I can't argue with that.”

“I wonder how far you can go.”

“I don't know. I do know that I have to know where I'm going. Otherwise, I could get lost, and all the teleporting in the world couldn't save me from that situation.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Just thinking.”

“Yeah, well,” Kathryn finished her water, “don't hurt yourself.”

“You bitch.” Susan pushed Kathryn so hard that she nearly fell over into the dirt.

“Watch it. You almost killed me!”

“Almost killed you what? What are you talking about?”

Kathryn gestured a few feet ahead of them to the edge of the ravine. “In case you haven't noticed, that's a serious, neck breaking drop right there.”

“Yes, it is,” Susan said thoughtfully. She then jumped up. “Stand up.”

“What? Why?”

“Just do it.”

Kathryn reluctantly got to her feet. “Okay, now what?”

Susan pointed to the edge. “Now jump.”

Kathryn laughed. “You are out of your damn mind!”

“I'm serious! Jump. You're not going to hit the bottom. Just teleport back up here.”

Kathryn thought for a second. “What if I can't do it?”

“What do you mean, 'can't do it?' You just teleported miles to the cabin and back. This is just a few feet.”

Kathryn craned her neck forward and peered over the edge. The scraggly drop was peppered with tufts of grass, dead tree branches, and jutting rocks all the way down to the valley floor. “This is different,” Kathryn said softly.

Susan put her hands on her hips. “No, it's not. It's not different. When you teleport, you’re traveling in all directions. Left, right, up, down—there's no difference. Going from this point to over there.” Susan pointed a few feet behind them. “Uses the exact same principles as going from here to down there.” Susan pointed over the edge. “So jump. And let yourself fall a bit before you come back up here. Don't wuss out.”

“Shit.” Kathryn exhaled sharply. She was scared, but she had to admit that the thought of pulling off this little trick was exciting as well. “Okay. Okay.” She slowly walked up to the edge.

“No. Take a running start.” Susan urged. “You wouldn't want to bang your head on one of those rocks before you had a chance to get back up here.”

Kathryn shot her a glance, but she knew Susan was right. “Okay. Okay.” She backed up a few feet and butterflies fluttered in her stomach. “Shit, Susan, this is scary.”

“Oh, come on. You can do it. Go. Go. Go!” Susan chanted as Kathryn took a deep breath, ran up to the end of the cliff, and jumped.

The sensation of free falling was exhilarating. Kathryn screamed as she saw the ground fall away from her as she dropped. The butterflies in the stomach rose up to her throat and took her breath away. Her body fell faster and faster as it picked up momentum, and the valley floor rose to meet her. Kathryn squealed as she teleported back up the cliff and reappeared right next to Susan.

“Oh, shit!” Susan screamed before recovering. “You scared me.”

Kathryn laughed. “Sorry.”

“That was so damn cool,” Susan gushed. “For a minute there, though, I didn't know if you were going to come back. You fell for a long time.”

Kathryn grinned. “I know. I was enjoying the rush.”

“So, successful experiment?”

“Absolutely. Except that we need to do one more experiment.”

“Oh, yeah, what's that?”

“You need to come with me.” Kathryn ran and tackled Susan, pitching them both over the edge.

Susan screamed as they fell. This time, Kathryn didn't wait quite as long to teleport them both back up to the top. They reappeared a few feet from the edge, and Susan was still screaming even though they were standing still, a look of sheer terror plastered on her face. Kathryn let her go and broke out into peals of laughter. “Holy, shit, Susan. You should see your face!”

Susan stopped screaming and took note that they were safely away from the ledge before turning to Kathryn. “I am so going to kill you! You gave me a heart attack.” She lunged for her, and Kathryn teleported out of the way. She stood on the edge of the cliff knowing that there was no way that Susan was going to come near the ledge again.

Kathryn couldn't stop laughing. “I'm sorry, but damn, that was funny. You looked like you thought you were about to die!”

“I thought I was going to.” Susan stood there with her hand on her heart. “Oh my god. Never again. Don't you ever do that to me again.”

Kathryn fought to control her laughter. “I'm sorry. I just thought that you might like to experience it.”

Susan took a few deep breaths. “Well, you thought wrong. My hands are shaking.”

“Oh, Susan, I'm sorry.” Kathryn stepped away from the edge and walked toward her.

Susan stepped back defensively. “Don't touch me. Don't you touch me.” A smile crossed the corners of her lips, and Kathryn was happy to see that she wasn't really mad.

“That's not what you said the other night,” she teased.

Susan smirked. “Bitch. I'm going back to the cabin.” She turned and headed down the running trail.

Kathryn chuckled, picked up their empty water bottles and followed her. “Wait, Susan. I know a faster way.”

Chapter Twenty Four

“I hear we had an exciting revelation today.” Jonathan headed to the wine chest, selected a bottle of red, and took out three glasses.

Kathryn took the bubbling lasagna out of the oven. Its fragrant aroma wafted through the kitchen. Her stomach grumbled as she set it down carefully on the table. “Huh? What are you talking about?”

Jonathan poured three generous glasses. “Well, two things actually. One, you teleporting several miles to the cabin and back, and two, something about you jumping off a cliff and surviving to tell the tale?”

Kathryn sat down at the table. Susan set the salad bowl down in front of Kathryn and took her seat next to Jonathan. Charge's seat was empty, and Kathryn glanced at it sadly.

“She may have survived it, but I almost didn't,” Susan said as she helped herself to the steaming lasagna.

“Aw, you know that I would never let anything happen to you.” Susan looked at her doubtfully.

“I wonder.” Jonathan took a sip of his wine and gazed thoughtfully at the ceiling. “How far do you think you could go?”

“I don't know. I was telling Susan that all I do know is that I have to know and be able to see where I'm going. Otherwise, I'll get lost.”

“Hmm. I wonder if there is a way to remedy that situation.”

Kathryn took a sip of wine. It slid smoothly down her throat. “I don't think so.” She set the glass down on the table. “Not unless you installed a GPS in my head.”

Susan's fork hit her plate forcefully as she set it down. “That's it!”

Kathryn raised one eyebrow. “What's it? I hope you’re not planning on operating on me.”

“No. But what if we got you a portable GPS device? If you had a GPS, you could input where you are and where you’re going and have the GPS plot the course. Then all you would have to do is follow it.”

“Oh, god, that's not gonna work,” Kathryn groaned. “I can barely follow those damn internet map directions. I get lost every time.”

“It may take some practice, but you could do it. Besides, as you get more used to LA, you'll know where you’re going anyway. We should try it.”

Jonathan beamed. “That's an excellent idea, Susan. You two go and get the device tomorrow.”

“Why do I get the feeling that I'm the resident guinea pig around here?” Kathryn took another sip of wine.

Susan laughed. “Because you are.”

The next day, Kathryn and Susan headed to the electronics store. They surveyed all of the GPS options and finally decided on one that Kathryn could wear like a watch.

“This way, you won't lose it,” Susan said as she strapped it on Kathryn's wrist.

“I don't know.” Kathryn groaned as she pushed some of the buttons. “It's not the most stylish thing on the planet.”

“It'll grow on you.” Susan grabbed Kathryn's wrist and pushed the buttons herself, scrolling through some of the features. “Plus, this is cool. It gives you a map and traces your steps with a red line. Even a directionally challenged person like you should be able to figure out where you are going using that feature.” Kathryn reluctantly agreed.

Once back at the cabin, they decided to test it out. Susan took the GPS and typed in an address. “What are you doing?” Kathryn watched her input some information that she couldn’t identify.

“I'm putting in the address for the Basement.”