Tap. Tap. Tap.
The footsteps came from the guard's hard leather shoes. It struck the tiled floor, echoed against the white walls, and struck the ground again. Sue Snell listened closely to the noise outside of her room. She felt an odd combination of hatred, loathing, and fear to the point she'd rather listen to the bedsprings of her mattress than the clattering of feet from behind her locked door.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap tap. Tap tap.
This time the floor vibrated. More feet, more dress shoes or was it boots? She couldn't tell. A gathering of voices slipped through her ears. It wasn't one guard this time but maybe two. Three at most and other strange sounds joining in the conversation. The orderlies. It reminded her of an old joke. How many people does it take to hold down a defenseless, young girl? Not much.
Sue Snell always fought back as hard as she could. With her teeth, her nails, her head if she had to if her arms and legs failed her. She would continue to fight to protect the one person that mattered most.
Isabelle. Her daughter.
Sue blinked at the flickering lights overhead. For a prison, why can't these assholes do something about the fixtures? She thought to herself. The footsteps got even closer. She curled her body into a fetal position, waiting for her captors to administer a sedative to keep her docile before taking her away from the white room.
A jangle of keys got her attention. The lock of the metal door clicked, let out a creaking sound, as four large figures shuffled in. Sue counted four men. Big and burly, uniformed and just as ugly as their employed positions. Two were armed security guards while the other pair donned orderly scrubs and held a straightjacket and a syringe in their hands.
"Hold her down." One of the orderlies instructed.
Sue flipped off the bed and kicked at the first security guard's privates. He went down hollering in pain. "Bitch!" Undeterred, the second guard advanced. Raising a fist, Sue attempt a blow to his face but her opponent was much quicker. She missed a punch, leaving her enemy to grab hold of her wrist, wrenched it tight and brought her knees down. She screamed in anguish.
Her cries went unheard as the first security guard soon recovered and struck her on the back of her legs with his wooden baton. Sue cried out as she fell on the cold, tile floor, struggling against her attackers as best as she could. A shadow covered her face.
It came from one of the orderlies who removed the cap off the syringe. "Shh," he pressed a finger to his lips. "It'll all be over soon."
Sue screamed, protested but neither the security guards nor the other orderlies responded to her pleas. In fact, the other accomplice holding the straightjacket, helped lift the sleeve up from her hospital gown to allow his partner to prepare for the injection.
"This one is a fighter!" The first security guard laughed as he tightened a hold on one of her arms. His knee kneaded pressure on to her back in a form of revenge for kicking him earlier. Sue struggled but gradually her body submitted to fatigue. Even with all the perspiration beading down her forehead, her will to fight back, she was no match for the four assailants that held her down.
Helplessly, she watched as the point of the syringe's needle inched closer to her skin.
"NO!" She hollered.
It was a futile effort.
Suddenly, a shrill wail resonated in the room. Sue felt the grip of both her arms being released. She glanced up to see all four bodies flying across in different directions hitting each of the white walls and making cracks against the concrete. Her eyes scanned toward the open doorway as a pair of figures entered. A sigh of relief overcame her as she recognized them instantly.
The first was a blond boy of eight in a blue Canadian hockey jersey and jeans. Cody Cox had this ability to create deadly sonic frequencies with his voice. A gift that Sue appreciated at this moment. Disoriented from the attack, the second guard tried to recover his senses and reached for his pistol. He raised it toward Cody. She gasped. The gun shook for a moment in his hand as it flew out of reach and smashed against the concrete wall behind him.
Such an invisible force was familiar with Sue. From behind Coy stood an African American boy of thirteen in a t-shirt and basketball shorts with a telekinetic power quite like one she had witnessed before. Devonne Maxon displayed a dangerous grin while making a hand movement, slammed two of the security guards and their heads together, creating a splatter of blood against the wall. Sue covered her mouth in disgust. However, Devonne wasn't done yet. He lifted the two orderlies, who by now let go of the straightjacket and syringe, off the ground and dropped them, letting their heads split open against the hard linoleum.
Horrified, Sue crawled to the corner of the room to vomit.
"I'm sorry, Miss Snell," said Devonne calmly. "It had to be done."
Sue finished and wiped her mouth. "You didn't have to kill them!" She shouted angrily.
Her words did little to faze the two boys. Devonne tore a piece of fabric off the scrubs of one of the dead orderlies and handed it to her. "It's either them or us," he stated. "It's war! They're the evil ones!"
She forced herself to agree. Her mouth spat up the last chunks of her regurgitation so she can raise herself off the floor. Cody grabbed her hand to lead her out into the hallway.
"We don't have much time," Cody stated. "We have only fifteen minutes to get you out of here." He pulled her down the hallway, along with Devonne in tow. Her bare feet made a slapping noise each time she sped through the corridor.
Midway, she stopped. "I can't leave! Not without my daughter!"
Devonne rolled his eyes and clucked his tongue. "You won't be able to save her if you're trapped here!" He pushed his point. "Izzy will be fine! Our goal right now is to get you out of here!" He took her hand. She refused to move.
"No!" Sue snapped. "I won't leave without her!" A splitting migraine squeezed her forehead. It had a vicelike grip that caused both her fingers to push into her temples. She shut her eyes, hoping the pain would subside. It eventually did but not without something else to replace it with. An image, a moving photograph appeared in front of her. She blinked for a moment to see flashes of memories playing out in her mind like a movie projector. The first scene came on. It was Izzy. Her ten-year-old daughter strapped down to a bed with a slew of wires and electrodes attached to her skin and face. A group of doctors rotated around her like a merry-go-round, jotting down notes as if she were an animal being watched and observed. Sue screamed her name. No answer.
The scene changed again but this time it was an empty room much like the one she been imprisoned in but this time there were no security guards or orderlies coming in to assault her. Instead, a certain peace and calmness filled the room, allowing Sue to inhale a breath for once without worrying about her enemies finding her. She rotated, attempting to get her bearings, before she noticed a dark-haired girl with curls standing in front of her.
Ten-year old Isabelle "Izzy" Carrieta Snell wore a long hospital nightgown and shot her mother a serious look. Instantly, tears filled Sue's eyes. She ran to embrace her daughter. To her surprise, she only hugged air. Confused, Sue's mouth dropped as she turned to Izzy.
"What's happening? What's going on?" She asked the will-o'-the-wisp.
"Mommy, it's me," Izzy frowned. "It's this thing I can do. A psychic illusion. It's like I can enter people's heads and their dreams."
Sue remained unimpressed. "Honey, I don't care about any of that." She knew about her daughter's gifts but to what extent she didn't know. All she knew was that she wanted hold her daughter close right now and not let her go. "Tell me where you are!" She demanded.
The ghostly Izzy shrugged. "I don't know. The Shop is keeping me somewhere secret. They need to know more about the stuff I can do." She looked at her mother more intently. "That is why I'm asking my friends to help me! You need to get out of here and go find help!"
Her mother shook her head. "No, Izzy! I'm not leaving you here!"
Izzy twisted her mouth. "Please, Mommy! You're the only one that can help stop them! Don't worry, they won't hurt me! My power is too important!"
Frustrated, Sue folded her arms. "How can I help you? How can I help any of you?" She referred to the other captive children inside the facility.
"Look for your old friend," Izzy smiled. "Carrie White."
"Carrie White?" Sue gasped. "But…but she's dead!"
Izzy shook her head. "No, Mommy. She's alive. She is hiding out with a friend who also has powers like us! Find them so they can stop these bad people! They can save us!"
Unsure of what to make of this revelation, Sue hesitated. "But how will I find them? I don't know where Carrie is!"
Her daughter's face turned pale. "Mommy, the bad people know what I'm doing!" She pleaded to her mother. "Run away and find her! Go!"
"Izzy!" Sue's voice stammered. She listened to her daughter's voice scream and everything faded to black. Someone tugged at the fabric of her hospital gown. She opened her eyes. It was Cody.
"We have to go!" Cody told her. He yanked her hand and followed Devonne through the hallway. It took them only few minutes before they heard the large stomping of feet heading across corner ready to cross the double doors at any second.
"They're coming!" Cody exclaimed. "We have to get you out of here!" Without warning, the lights shut off and Sue felt the boys push her through a secret door of the corridor.
Another tunnel appeared but this one was completely black except for a row of dim lights hanging at the top of the ceiling. Sue was dragged away.
"What is happening?" She asked her young rescuers.
Devonne spoke up. "That is Andy. He can control electronics. He's causing a blackout so you get escape. We got fifteen minutes to get through the fence before the guards find us."
Sue understood and allowed the two boys to lead the way. Concrete walls and cold, slabs of stone met them at every turn as they continued to dash through a series of mazes that seem to go nowhere. Finally, through the dimly lit hall, she noticed a metal door at the end of their path. Devonne opened it with ease until all three of them were let outside into the darkness.
Even in all the blackness, a row of stars and crescent moon could be seen into the horizon. Yet, admiring the landscape was not on their list priorities right now. Escaping was. They ran toward a dirt field until they reached a chain link fence. A small hole had been cut into it allowing someone small to crawl through. Devonne pulled back the metal back and ordered Sue through.
"Hurry, Miss Snell!" He said. "The time is almost up!"
Sue nodded, squatted down, and rapidly crawled on her hands and knees to the other side of the barrier. She lifted herself up from the dirt when she heard barking coming from the distance.
Cody gulped. "They're here!"
As soon as he said that, the lights outside of the building came back on. A siren screeched all around the compound as the sounds of barking dogs and shouting guards filled the establishment. The fence suddenly crackled and popped with a series of sparks that forced Sue and the boys to jump away from it. The barrier now had become electrified.
Devonne nodded to Sue. "Head half a mile west from here! A van will be waiting for you!"
Sue hesitated. "What about you two?"
Cody saluted her. "It's been a pleasure saving you, Mam!"
Sue's mouth dropped. She began to protest but Devonne stopped her. "GO!" He screamed.
Tears welled in her eyes as she ran toward the rural field in the dead of night. The barking dogs got louder. The guards got more aggressive but she ignored all that and pressed on. She got halfway inside the wooded area when she heard the shrill cry of a scream that meant certain death. Cody. A pause. Then a gunshot. And another. Devonne. She wept and pushed herself forward. She had a mission to carry out and so help her, she was going to make sure she determined to complete it.
It seemed like forever but with her feet scraped and cut from the jagged, dirt rocks and twigs to the heavy foliage she had to fight through, she pressed on until she saw what appeared to be a large, black vehicle hiding near an abandoned road. Even under the moonlight, she knew that such a thing seemed out of place in the middle of the night. Adrenaline pumped through her veins as she proceeded with caution. She wasn't sure if this person was a friend or foe. She hid behind a tree nearby before making a judgment call.
Seventeen year old Jane Delano got out of her van and glanced at her watch. Damn. This better be well-worth it. She knew what she was doing was crazy but this insane mission gave her sense of purpose. This was for her best friend. This was for all the boys and girls who were being treated as freaks and outcasts. This was for everyone who had been treated unjustly in the world.
She pulled open the car door and let herself out. Jane figured if she was going to be on stakeout, she might as well look the part. Dressed in a black skirt, gray striped leggings, and sporting a black Ramones t-shirt and leather jacket, she pulled out a cigarette from her pocket and lit up. How long was this rescue/pick-up going to take? She wondered. I'm missing an episode of Stranger Things. Her vintage Doc Martens kicked at the dirt and she took another drag.
From her tree, Sue observed the young woman. A teenager? The children send me a teenager as my getaway driver? She wondered if the kids were wrong. Her foot back away for a moment before she realized she snapped a twig nearby. Oh shit!
Jane reacted quickly. Flicking her cigarette, she pulled a flashlight, small bottle of mace, and aimed it at the direction of the sound. "Whoever you are! I'm warning you! I've got mace and I'm not afraid to use it!" Sue raised both her arms and moved from her hiding spot toward the light.
"Don't shoot!" She begged. "I'm unarmed!"
Jane squinted in the darkness. "Sue? Sue Snell?"
Sue nodded. "Are you here to rescue me?" She slowly put her arms down.
"Yeah, I guess." Jane stated. She lowered her mace and flashlight to open the passenger side of the van. "We better hurry. The Shop must realize you're missing by now. They'll be send their watchdogs after us. I know a safehouse an hour away from here."
"How do you know about The Shop?" Sue asked as she got inside the vehicle.
"It's a long story," said her companion as she got into the passenger's side. Within seconds, Jane peeled down the dirt road until they got on to the main highway. Once on the freeway, they made the safe drive toward their next destination.
All Sue Snell could do now was to nap. It had been a long day.
Sue woke up from her slumber to see her driver no longer on the freeway. As promised by Jane, the pair made it to a secluded country area an hour away from the facility. She drove toward a gorgeous lake house with a dock and a small motorboat parked at the pier. Sue stared at the home. It certainly could've been something that would have been featured on Architectural Digest. Still, she was shocked by enormity of the place.
"You live here?" She asked Jane as she got out of the van.
"Nope." The teenage girl replied. "My aunt owns it. She lets me borrow it from time to time." She opened the front door to let Sue in.
Sue scratched her head. "So, you're rich?" She paused at her rude faux pas.
"Nope again," Jane said bluntly. "My parents are rich. I'm just a product of their madness."
Sue walked into the foyer to see set of stairs leading to a few rooms upstairs, a kitchen up ahead to the left, and a family room to the right. She wondered if she had wiped her feet before coming in.
Jane moved past her. "Go head and freshen up. You can take any of the guestrooms upstairs. My aunt has plenty of clothes that she only wears once and donates them to charity." She glanced at Sue's dirty hospital attire. "You're welcome to them. I'm sure you might want to change out of what you have on."
Sue got the hint. "Thanks." She headed upstairs to find the nearest bathroom to shower. She found one just down the hall from the master suite and stripped off her clothes to clean herself. The water was amazing. It had been a long time since she was able to shower without a female guard watching over her. And the fact that she could only do it a few days a week made her cringe. Being alone for once in a bathroom felt like heaven.
She spent another ten minutes playing with the fancy shampoos, soaps, and body washes Jane's aunt stocked before getting out of the shower to dry off. Wrapping a towel herself, she found a first-aid kit inside the medicine cabinet and tended to the cuts and scrapes on her bare feet before blow drying the wet dark curls of her hair. Sue stared at the mirror for moment and sighed. She couldn't believe at twenty-eight that she had become a full-time mother but she was. It became her lot in life when she discovered she was pregnant at seventeen after the death of Izzy's father, Tommy Ross, at the infamous Black Prom.
Since then, she became a doting mother, protecting her daughter from the dangers of this world. Until now.
Sue walked to one of the guestrooms and opened the closet door. Rows upon rows of clothes hung, nearly untouched and in pristine condition. She pulled a pair of sweatpants and matching t-shirt out before gasping at the labels. Gucci! Dior! Chanel! No wonder Jane mentioned the whole one-time wear thing. Shrugging at the idea, she put on the clothes. Sue returned to closet to find a pair of Coach tennis shoes, luckily size 7, that fit her feet as she grabbed some clean underwear and socks from a nearby bureau.
From the kitchen, Jane caught Sue coming down the stairs looking normal and pretty than the horrible hospital garb which she was forced to wear. Sue's brunette curls had been pulled back into a ponytail and her slender figure accentuated her aunt's designer clothes to a tee. Skinny bitch. Jane thought to herself. Figures I'd get the one person who was probably the popular girl in high school.
Sue let out a small smile as she sat at the kitchen counter and watched as Jane placed two small trays of food and some bottled water on the table.
"Microwave pizzas." Jane announced. "I don't cook but it's the best I can do."
Sue nodded. "Thanks again," she started. "For everything. For helping me."
"Don't mention it." Jane replied flatly. She took a bite of her processed pizza. "It's what I'm supposed to do." Sue examined her companion closely. Despite the alternative clothes, goth make-up, nose ring, crazy striped purple hair, or even the fact that she was plus-sized, Jane Delano was a really, pretty girl. Sue majored in Psychology and became a school counselor. Sue knew that appearance-wise, Jane had been masking some inner pain. She knew her students well enough to know when they were hurting.
"So, what is the deal with your parents?" Sue asked directly. "Are they in the picture?"
Jane paused. "Why do you say that?" She shoved a piece of pizza into her mouth.
Sue grinned and shrugged. "Just making conversation. I mean you have all the financial advantages for a teen your age but, obviously, your parents or guardians are not concerned that you're chasing after some secret government organization that kidnaps and imprisons innocent people."
Jane's eyes rolled. "All right." Her tongue clucked. "Let me give you the edited version of my life. Both parents are rich. Married each other as part of a business merger. Had me as a consolidation prize. Agreed to not see each other as part of their financial arrangement unless obligated once a year. Was raised by my Russian nanny who loved me until she was given the pink slip because I was too old. Was named a multi-million-dollar trust fund baby to claim my fortune when I reach twenty-one. That pretty much sums it up. Any other questions?" She asked defensively.
"How do you know about the Shop?" asked Sue.
Jane inhaled. "Look, I don't have very many friends. And the friends that spend time with me, only do it because of my namesake. I met my best friend Jennifer at the private school back in West Virginia. She was a scholarship student who worked on the campus but came from a poor background deep in the rural area of the state. Our classmates were cruel to her but she managed to rise above it and maintain a 4.0 GPA. She was on her way to become valedictorian of our school, which made everyone jealous."
"Including her peers that were bullying her." Sue added. "I know how cruel kids can be." Her thoughts drifted back to Carrie White and the notorious Black Prom.
"Exactly," said Jane. "To teach her a lesson, one of the Queen Bees, Sandra Tremayne, arranged for her cronies to kidnap her as part of some bizarre nighttime, hazing ritual. They tied her up to a pole in the middle of an open field, began bullying, torturing her, and threatened her with their cars as they drove around her to scare her. Then things really got bizarre."
Listening intently, Sue leaned in. "In what way?"
She hesitated, then told the rest of the story. "I got to the site too late. I heard from some of the girls what they were planning to do to Jennifer so I went down to make sure nothing bad happened to her. I get there and, suddenly, these snakes appeared out of nowhere. It's like they were conjured out of magic. Before you know it, Sandra and her goons are getting bitten, cars are being flipped over, and kids are being sent to the ER for venom bites and other strange afflictions." Jane sighed. "Jennifer finally told me the true nature of her power and I made sure that I never told a soul about what I had just witnessed."
"That still doesn't explain how you know about the Shop," Sue pointed out
"I'm getting to that," replied Jane. "After the incident, things returned to normal at the school. Nobody suspected a thing. Then winter break rolls around and we get four weeks off. I return to school only to find that Jennifer mysteriously dropped out."
"But students drop out of school all the time," Sue noted. "It happens in high school, college…"
Jane stood up. "But not if you have full-ride scholarship and you've been named Valedictorian!" Her voice sounded exasperated. "None of that makes any sense so I did some digging." Sue cocked her head in curiosity. The goth girl left the kitchen for a moment only to return with a laptop. She clicked on the screen and opened a strange file menu. "My parents were stupid not do background checks on their employees. My nanny was a former KGB spy before she defected to the U. S. She taught me everything about hacking computer systems and covering my tracks. The last I heard, she is working undercover with the Pentagon!" She giggled at her remark as she pulled up the file. "Before Jennifer disappeared, I use to hack a lot into my parents' personal files from their cellphone records to the secretive Swiss bank accounts they had been funneling money into. I know the names and social security numbers of their lovers and mistresses, including if they are involved with anything illegal."
Instantly, Sue put two and two together. "And this is how you found out about the Shop?"
"By accident," Jane defended. "I hacked into some strange government files and discovered websites along the Deep Web that mentioned the Shop and their motives. Unfortunately, much of it is encrypted and I don't have enough decoding experience to break into the files. However, I did discover that the Shop created the Lot 6 drug which gave patients paranormal and superhuman abilities that got passed along to their offspring. The purpose was to…"
"Weaponize these individuals for their own nefarious purposes," Sue finished the conversation. "My daughter included." Jane stared at her intently as she took an interest. Sue continued. "Izzy's father, Tommy, I had learned carried the genetic code of Lot 6 but didn't display any special abilities. He got the gene from his father who participated in the Lot 6 experiments but also showed no signs of powers. It skipped two generations and it got passed on to Izzy."
Jane closed her hands together and twiddled her thumbs. "So, what is your Izzy's abilities?"
"Clairvoyance and precognitive talents," Sue remarked proudly. As if having these powers were something to be proud of when it is more likely a curse. "She began displaying these abilities at age four with nightmares concerning our neighbors or of people we know who would die in some unforeseen circumstances. Then there are the voices she began hearing of people's thoughts. I tried my best to teach her to suppress them but eventually her powers kept growing. I feared for the day when her safety would be compromised.
"The Shop finally found her."
Once again tears streaked down Sue's face. "Six months ago, the Shop came and arrested us. I thought we were safe, that we fell under the radar but somehow, they found us. They locked me in that facility and experimented on Lizzy. I just prayed each day that she didn't experience any pain."
Jane reached out and placed her hand over Sue's. "That's what I said when I discovered they had Jennifer. I tried to pull up the full file but they blocked most of it. All I could get was a teenage girl who had a power over snakes being admitted. Then I began receiving strange chat messages from a boy named Andy.
Sue's eyes widened. "Andy is a kid who has this power over electronics."
Jane's brain lit up. "That explains why he is able to secretly contact me. Within the last year, he gave me everything I needed to know about the Shop. What they were doing. What their agenda was. Information about Lot 6 and an underground network of powered individuals who are in hiding!" She exhaled. "I decided to look for Jennifer full time. I dropped out of school, put on the goth clothes, and began assisting Andy with whatever information he needed. He told me about you and your daughter's capture. I could help in the fight against the Shop by first setting you free."
Sue put a hand to her temple. "But you couldn't help save my daughter? How is that going to help in this fight?"
Jane's fingers typed something on the laptop. "Andy gave me the coordinates of where you'd be when he orchestrated your escape. He told me that I needed to look for Lot 6's most powerful beings. Only then can they help us takedown the Shop. Only then, do we have a chance to put an end to this and save everyone. He told me to help Sue find Carrie White."
To her disbelief, Sue shook her head. "I keep hearing her name but I assure you Carrie White is dead. She used her powers to make her house collapse on top of her. There is no way she survived that."
"But she did," Jane responded. She spun her laptop around to show various photographs from across the United States. Taken from security footage and zoomed in to display the face, Sue stared at each picture and recognized the subject of each one. It was Carrie White. Sure, she had lost a lot of weight but there was no mistaking the natural beauty and innocent brown eyes that she sported. Even with different hairstyles of various colors, it was Carrie White on full display in each photograph.
Sue was speechless. What Izzy said was true. Carrie White did live on the night of the Black Prom.
"That's not all," Jane added. "The person who is hiding with her is another Lot 6 powerhouse."
"Who?"
"Charlie McGee."