I’ve let him down.
I don’t know where Nine and Five are. There aren’t any new scars burning their way across my ankle, so they haven’t killed each other yet.
I lost Agent Walker, too. She and her agents are on their own. I hope they make it out alive. If they do, maybe they’ll be smart enough to meet us back at Ashwood Estates.
If Sam and I can even make it that far.
We run down streets filled with smoke, darting around overturned cars, climbing over fallen chunks of buildings. When one of the scout ships cruises by, we duck into alleys or hide in doorways.
I could fight them. With all the anger I’m holding on to, I’m sure I could rip through them in no time. I could easily take down one of the scout ships on my own.
But I’m not on my own.
There are about twenty survivors following me and Sam. A family I pulled off a burning balcony with my telekinesis, a pair of blood-splattered NYPD officers who saw me take down a pair of Mog warriors, a group that came out from hiding in a restaurant when I flashed my Lumen inside, and others still.
I can’t save everyone in this city, but I’ll do what I can. That means not picking fights with the Mogadorians. At least not until I can get these people to safety.
I avoid trouble wherever I can. It isn’t always possible.
We cross an intersection where slashed power lines are draped across the burned husk of a city bus, and we run right into a dozen Mogadorian warriors. They bring their blasters around on us, but I blow them back with a fireball before they can squeeze off any shots. The ones who aren’t immediately incinerated get popped by the cops standing behind me.
I look over my shoulder, nodding to the officers. ‘Nice shooting.’
‘We’ve got your back, John Smith,’ one of them says.
I don’t even think to ask how he knows my name.
Our group runs a few more blocks before I’m drawn to the sound of nearby screaming. Around the corner, we find a young couple trying to escape from their burning apartment building via the fire escape. The bolts look like they’ve come unmoored from the wall near the roof, and now the whole fire escape hangs like a crooked finger over the street. Still five stories up, the guy has fallen over the railing. His girlfriend desperately tries to pull him back over the side.
Sarah’s face flashes into my mind. Just stay alive, I think. Survive this, and we’ll be together. I’m going to make it back to her.
I run towards the fire escape, bracing it from a distance with my telekinesis.
‘Let go!’ I shout up at the couple. ‘I’ll catch you!’
‘Are you freaking nuts?’ the guy yells back.
None of us have time to argue, so I reach out with my telekinesis and just yank the couple off the fire escape. As I’m lowering them to the ground, I hear the beats of heavy footfalls bearing down on me.
‘John!’ Sam screams. ‘Look out!’
I turn my head. It’s a Piken. The beast gallops towards me at full speed, its jaws covered with slobber, its razor-sharp teeth bared. I hear screams from my group. The cops take some shots at the monster, but they don’t even slow it down. The others have the good sense to run from the rabid Mogadorian beast.
Except the direction they run in puts them right beneath the fire escape. Which, of course, chooses that exact moment to tear fully away from its building and come clattering down into the street.
I’ve still got the couple suspended in the air, and now I’m holding up the fire escape with my telekinesis, too. I try to divide my focus enough to turn on my Lumen, but it’s just too much. I’m too exhausted, the strain is more than I can manage.
The Piken is almost on top of me.
Sarah’s face flashes again to the forefront of my mind. I have to try. I grit my teeth and dig down deeper.
With a massive woomf, a wave of telekinetic force hits the Piken and knocks it into the air. The beast’s muscular legs flail wildly. It lands back-first on top of a stop sign, the pole impaling the beast right through the heart.
That didn’t come from me.
I lower the couple safely to the ground, toss the fire escape aside and turn in the direction the telekinetic blast came from.
Sam stares at me. He’s frozen. His hands are extended out in front of him like he just shoved the Piken and still hasn’t finished with the follow-through. Slowly, he blinks his eyes. Sam looks down at his hands, then over at me.
‘Holy shit,’ he says. ‘Did I just do that?’