Thunder and Storm

It Never Rains, It Pours

KOWALSKI.

"Damn it!" I kicked the car door in anger. "You had her and you just let her get away."

"It was the damn dog, sir. I swear," Charleston complained, fidgeting in his stance. I took out my gun and shot him in the head.

Fucking useless son of a bitch.

I groaned and rubbed my hand down my face. The idiot just blew our chance of catching her. I didn’t get why that stupid bitch was so slippery.

"That was a tad unnecessary, don't you think?" said a voice behind me and I groaned inwardly. This is just fucking great.

I schooled my features before turning to face him. There he stood with a disapproving frown on his face, his hands folded behind him. The evil overlord himself.

"She gave you all the information you needed, all you had to do was get there and extract her and you failed."

"I’m sorry, sir."

"Save your apologies for my father when you see him," he snapped.

Fuck!

"Was all the shooting necessary?" he asked.

"It was to incapacitate them," I replied.

"And how did that turn out?" He raised a sarcastic brow.

"I'll try again and this time, I won't fail."

"You'd better not or you know what comes next.” He moved his fingers and a wave of dark energy surrounded them.

An image of Doc lying in his own blood flashed before me and I swallowed. He walked around me, circling me. It was a show of dominance, intimidation, something I did quite well and it worked. Only a few things scared me in this world but that was a world without hybrid creatures like him roaming in it, now they were everywhere.

"How's the transfer coming along?" he asked.

"As scheduled."

"Good.” He nodded then vanished.

I stared at the spot he occupied only a few seconds ago, at the dark shadow he left on the snow, slowly disappearing until there was nothing but crispy white snow.

"What do we do now, boss?"

"We wait."

"Boss, you might want to see this," Artemis said from the van.

"What?” I walked over to the van and peered into it. He was sitting in front of the seismograph. He looked up at my arrival.

"There's seismic activity going on southeast of here. It's off the charts," he said.

"Where?"

"On a mountain range in Phoenix."


SALLY.


My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright. My head ached with a persistent throb at the back of my head. My arms and legs were tied together by a thick rope. I looked down at them and flexed my wrists, there was hardly any space to move in it.

"You're awake," Rayne said. She was sitting on a stool staring at me.

"What is this?" I raised my arms.

"Insurance, in case you decide to go all beast mode on us again."

"I won't be doing that." I failed to tell her the rope wouldn't have stopped me if I had decided to go beast mode as she said.

"You swear?"

Seriously? "I swear."

"Pinky swear?" she held out her pinky.

"That's ridiculous, Rayne."

She laughed. "I'm just messing with you.” She got up and took out a pocket knife from her jacket pocket, flipped it open, and slashed the ropes. They fell away and I flexed my wrists.

She was acting like I hadn't almost buried us all under piles of rocks earlier.

"You're not mad at me?" I asked.

"There's nothing to be mad at. I was once like you, you know, weak. No offense though."

"None taken.” I sighed. I didn't have any right to be offended after my earlier actions. I should be grateful if any one of them even spared me a glance.

"I understand the burden of having powers you can't control," she looked somber as she spoke. "At first, I couldn't control my powers too and I paid a heavy price for it."

"I don't think yours is anything like mine, Rayne. Every time I use my power, I kill people," I said quietly. Max died today because of me and I wasn't even using my power. Maybe I was just a bad omen for everyone around me.

"What you did to Petra today, what was it?"

I looked down at the pieces of rope on the mat. "I absorb the power of anyone I touch."

"That's why you don't like anyone touching you.” She stated and I nodded.

"I'm sorry about today, I don't know what happened. I just...get so scared sometimes," I explained.

"I'm not the one you should apologize to. Cameron's out back, in the meadow."

She got up and walked to the exit then paused and turned back. "You'll be fine.” She gave me a small smile then left.

I got up and walked out of the tent. The moment I stepped out, all conversations around me stopped. I walked through their midst with my head down, avoiding their gazes. A pin drop on the floor could be heard over the roar of the silence. I walked out of the cave, into the meadow. In the distance, I could see Cameron kneeling in the snow. I moved closer and realized he was kneeling in front of a small mound on the ground.

I went to him and stood a few inches away. I stared at the fresh mound. It was a pile of dirt and snow.

"I'm really sorry about Max. He was a great dog, the best dog anyone could have ever wished for and he was really brave," I said.

He sniffed and wiped away his tears. "Yeah, he was."

Then he looked at me and I gasped, his eyes were shrouded by sadness. "Why didn't you tell me?" he asked.

"I was scared of what you'd think.” I sighed and knelt down beside him. The snow seeped into my pants. "Actually, I wasn't scared of what anyone would think. I was scared of myself, I was scared of what I could do. I was scared of killing another person because I couldn't control myself."

He placed his hand on my shoulder and pulled me towards himself.

"Hiding my abilities seemed like the only option, I couldn't hurt anyone and no one would have to be scared of me. It felt good for everyone to see me as an equal and not some kind of aberration but now it's all gone," I continued.

"No one sees you as an aberration," he said.

"You should see the way they look at me now, with fear in their eyes. It was palpable, reeking off them in waves."

"That's because you gave everyone quite a fright earlier. I've never seen anyone with that kind of ability. Don't worry they'll get over it."

"Are you over it?" I looked down at the little grave. I couldn't look at his face and see the answer to my question.

"The first time I saw Max, it was in a garbage can. He was rummaging through the garbage at the back of my house.” He chuckled. “He had ketchup and mustard smeared all over his mouth from the hotdog I'd dumped in there earlier. I had tried to chase him away but he had snarled at me, scaring me out of my wit's end. I had ran back in and bolted the door shut."

"That was two years ago.” He smiled and placed his hand on the grave, caressing it. "He came to my backyard every day to rummage through the garbage until one day, I took him, bathed him, and gave him food. I had gone to the store before then and gotten some dog food and treats. It continued like that for two weeks till he just followed me to my room one day and never left."

He sniffed and wiped his face with his hand covered in dirt, smearing it on his face. "When the virus broke out and I realized that I was immune to it, he fell sick, it was just the first stage but I thought he was going to die. I used to tear my palm open and drop a few of my blood into his drinking bowl till he got better. It always felt like we were connected, my blood ran through his veins."

I placed my hand on the grave, scooped up some of the dirt, and smeared it on my face. It felt cold and I shivered but it made him smile, albeit a small one.

"The military base was called the Underground. It was a nightmare in there.” I pulled up the sleeve of my shirt and showed him the mark on my wrist.

"They used to brand us with a number indicating the level of our abilities and we wore different colored jumpsuits for the same effect. We'd eat crappy food, train day and night till we had control over our powers except every time I used mine, someone ended up hurt or dead and I paid the price.”

Tears fell down my face and I wiped them off, smearing more dirt on my face. "That man, his name is Kowalski, he was the head of the Underground. He was in charge of instilling discipline in us and he made my life hell.” I flicked my tongue out to moisten my lips and swallowed. "The night you attacked the base, he tried to rape me."

"I'll kill him.” He clenched his fists, glaring at the ground. "The next time I see him, he's dead."

"I appreciate your sentiment, Cameron but Kowalski is a very dangerous man. He has weapons and devices that can hinder your abilities, you'll be powerless against him."

"You mean something like this?" he dipped his hand in his pocket and brought out the metallic band that he'd been shot back at the grocery store.

"Yeah. How did you get it off?" I took it from him and checked it out. It was just a harmless device now but it was capable of giving out immense pain when activated.

"Courtesy of your friend, Grayson. He seems to know a lot about a lot of things.” He rolled his eyes and I giggled.

"Do you like him?" he asked.

"Grayson? No, he's just a friend."

I stared into his blue eyes, noticing for the first time that there were flecks of green in them, green like the ocean. His head lowered, our lips just a few inches apart. My gaze flicked downwards to his pink lips, they were moist and looked soft. I wondered if they felt soft too.

"Sally," he whispered.

Someone called out his name and we sprang apart. I looked behind me to see a boy running towards us shouting at the top of his lungs.

"What is it?" Cameron asked.

The boy was breathless by the time he made it to us. "Cam, cars are heading up the mountain, driving towards us."

"What kind of cars?" I asked. Dread already creeping up my spine, I could tell who was coming.

"A black SUV and a truck," he replied.