CHAPTER SIXTY

CRASHING ONTO THE immobilized twitcher, I plunged the shard of glass through his eye and into his skull. Too weak to cry out or resist, he simply flinched a final time and fell limp.

After a moment of relief, several sensations registered at once. Mentally I felt like I’d gone to school without clothing. Then a chorus of shrieks rose throughout the streets of Everlast. I’d lost the current. In a terrifying orgy of violence, the top half of the jailhouse tore away, stones scattering as if from a meteor strike.

Head over heels, I slammed against a remaining section of wall and dropped to the floor. Overhead the morning sky shone orange, filtered through a cloud of dust and increasing plumes of black smoke.

“Jim.” Adel’s voice croaked from beneath a heap of rubble. Before I could respond, a nearby crack caught my attention. The pecan tree from the center of town, top half aflame, tumbled from the sky. Smashing into the remains of the jail, it pinned me into the corner.

Choking on the smoke, I huddled as far from the flames as possible and plunged back into the current. The landscape had changed radically in the mere seconds I’d been gone. Everlast had been pulverized, revealing new underground chambers and burying others. Rounding up the twitchers, I spun my mind like a child’s top. Slamming into violent streams of telekinetic energy, I shattered and confused the signals until binding the twitchers into tiny coronas.

But I could only find twenty-three. Two had now gone missing beneath the town. Near panic, I split the rest of my attention in as many ways as I could maintain without losing the current again.

While the hair on my legs began to curl from encroaching flames, I sought for Adel’s signal. I found her beneath the burning half of the tree and the remains of a metal desk. Reaching into her mind, I screamed out her name. She continued to replay a litany of failures and mistakes from her past, a list longer than I could fathom in the time I could afford.

On hands and knees, I searched the current for the coolest path through the flames. Several twitchers closed on our position. They’d found me. God, how was I going to maintain the current and save Adel, or even myself? Embers and burning branches showered me, the tree snapping and popping with fire. “Adel!” I coughed. “They’re coming. What do I do?”

A dozen twitchers encircled the building. I tore off my burning sweatshirt, using it to grip the edge of the smoldering desk. The skeletal remains of the tree enshrouding us exploded in a burst of sparks and flame as I watched the attack coming in my mind. My body hadn’t the ability to respond.

The kick struck me in the chest. Still clinging to the desk, the force of the blow tossed me and the desk both through burning branches and into the street. Blackened and bloodied, I stood. Wrenching the desk apart, I gripped a jagged metal leg in each hand.

The assault came immediately and from every direction. Perceiving their motions through the current, I dipped and spun, struggling to stay a split second ahead of every oily ripple. Stabbing upward, I pierced the lead attacker before catching the next two with a slashing blow across their chests.

Flinging the first into two more, I began to churn the air like a blender. Moving as quickly as my feet would allow, I kept my center low and connected to the ground. The pecan tree flared, shooting sparks high overhead and showering the assault.

Three, four at a time the twitchers lunged, jabbed and kicked. As one, we danced across the street. Gradually I worked my way toward the buildings on the opposite side in an effort to limit the area I had to defend.

A fist clipped my jaw, forcing me to bend over backwards. Planting my hands on the ground, I sprang into the air. Catching the monster in-between both feet, I flung him into three others. Two more were already on me. A blow to the ribs spun me off the ground. While continuing to swing the metal legs, I hit hard and bounced. The current flickered. I had to maintain the current, but I’d lost my own signal amidst the black smudges—blocking out both the sun and my mind’s eye.

At the last possible moment, a swarm of plasma converged into a blinding ball of lightning and cooked flesh. Like a clump of hot metal suddenly frozen, the twitchers shattered and dispersed. Save one, his throat still clutched in my grasp.

As hornets of plasma popped and frizzed through the air overtop of us, I dodged the angry jabs of the twitcher. One after the other he struck the air to either side of my head. He thrust a blow at my chest. I blocked it, snapping his wrist. He shrieked and buried both knees into my stomach, the very spot which had housed a dagger only moments earlier. “Pain is a lie.” I quoted his creator, planting the heel of my palm into his nose.

He squirmed, clapping both of my ears with his hands. The current flickered. “Enough.” I released his throat, dropping him on top of me. With a quick yank, I twisted his head abruptly to the side before kicking him into the remains of the burning tree.

Main Street had blossomed into a full-scale firefight. Small bands of militia took shelter back to back or against the few structures still standing. Twitchers attacked and feinted. They worked feverishly to separate and isolate the now exposed citizens of Everlast, whose numbers had been greatly reduced during the seconds I’d spent in the desert with Oleg. We were losing.

Down to twenty-one twitcher signals, I still couldn’t find the missing two. Plus, Adel’s signal had nearly faded to nothing. “Adel!” Tumbling to avoid an incoming twitcher, I rolled and came up running.

“Over here.” It was Jeb.

Accepting his offer, I sprinted into the shadow of the only remaining wall of the jailhouse while he covered me.

After taking a knee to spray a burst of plasma bolts, he slammed up against the wall next to me. “I can’t get to her, but you can. I’ll keep the twitchers off your back, just get my little girl!” With a shove of his mighty shoulder, he heaved the stone wall over. Lighting off a spree of plasma bolts, he leapt on top of the crumbling remains. “Go!”

I followed his lead. Diving from the mound, I crashed through the brittle branches until striking the hard, stone floor. Crawling forward, I employed as much of my mind as I could spare to cauterize my burning flesh and steal away the pain. The rock itself had grown surprisingly hot.

Twitcher shrieks filled the sky. Their smudges swarmed crisscross through the current, lashing out at the flagging militia resistance. The citizens were dying. Adel was dying. I couldn’t help them.

Daddy.

Evie? Flittering across the stream, I found her outside of the shielded room. What are you doing? Get back inside.

And let everyone else die? We can do better than that. I can help.

Honey. I dragged myself within grasp of Adel’s foot. You can help me by staying safe.

No longer an option, Dad. Save Adel. Then together we’ll find a way to win this fight. I know we will. She was moving away from the shielded room, quickly. Too quickly.

Wait, where are you going?

Don’t worry, Dad, we’ll find a way. I love you. She paused, a slight tremor of fear swirling outward. They found me. She cut the signal.

“Evie!” I screamed her name out loud.

“Jim?” Adel’s foot shifted slightly. “Get out of here. You’re a sitting duck.”

“Cooking goose is more like it, but I’m not leaving without you. Your father insisted.”

“I’m busted up.”

“How bad?”

“Not so bad I can’t feel it.”

“Good, ‘cause we’ve gotta figure out a way to turn this thing around. They’ve got Evie.”

“Jim—”

“Here, take my hand.” I shoved a section of wall off her chest. Heaving upward, I used my back to shed the remains of the burning tree and shelter Adel from falling embers. Embracing her, I backed out the way I’d come. But standing up, we made a much bigger target.

“I see how it is with you.”

“What?”

“Any excuse to go bare-chested. You and my pop both.”

I snorted. “Come on, focus. What next?”

She winced, taking a deep breath. “There’s nothing left. We’ve given it everything.”

“Adelaide!” Jeb reached down to heave us out of the mess and over the crumbled wall.

I handed her to her father, taking his rifle and shouldering it.

“I’m fine, Pop.” Adel grunted as he embraced her. “What’s the situation?”

“Situation?” He held her a moment longer before lowering her into a seated position against the remaining wall. “We’re getting slaughtered.”

I pulled the trigger, rolling several rounds of plasma off smooth as butter, but trailing my target.

“Hey, doc, sparingly with the bolts. I only got a few dozen left.”

“Understood. Here.” I handed it back. “They’ve got Evie, and I’m not waiting around for any more demands.”

“We need a plan.” Adel grabbed my sweatpants, the only thing left on me to grab.

“No more hiding. No more planning. Sometimes the best plans just happen.”

“Go. I’ll round up as many of the others as I can. What’s left of ‘em.” Jeb hefted Adel over one shoulder and leveled his rifle with the other. “I’ve lived too damn long as it is.”

I peeked around the corner before sprinting down the dirt alley behind the jail, dodging sporadic, unorganized attacks. In the background, tugging at the edges of the current, I could feel Oleg again, knocking. Maybe our last encounter had exhausted him temporarily. I didn’t figure I could hold him out for much longer.

Evie.

I’m here.

Good. I’m coming your way, and you were right.

You’ll have to be more specific.

We can do this together. I need your help.

About time.

I’m a slow learner. I hit the deck as a couple of militia peppered oncoming twitchers, keeping my tail clean.

You okay?

Fine. I’m just a block away. In a second I’m going to need you to be my eyes. Can you mentally share with me everything you see? I need you to show me Everlast.

Why? Can’t you—

I’m about to go on a little trip.

Daddy, you can’t.

Don’t worry, with your help I plan on taking Everlast with me. Just show me what I need to see, okay, honey?

You got it.

Good. I smiled, a grim curl at the corners of my mouth. Things are about to get weird.

About to? Evie and her twitcher captor rounded the corner of a burning house.

Point taken. Gotta go. Slowly I stepped into the middle of the neighborhood street. Shattered and felled oaks littered what used to be neatly trimmed lawns.

“Got your six.” Jeb and the remaining militia, a dozen battle-hardened if exhausted warriors, took up positions among the debris directly behind me.

“You can do this, Jim. Oleg fears you. Find a way to use that.” A mildly improved Adel sidled up beside me.

I nodded. “Inform the others. If this works there could be a change of scenery—for all of us.”

“Anything to get out of this dump.”

With a final yank, Oleg wrenched Everlast out of my mental grip, but not all of it.