The next day I wake up and remember that there's no school today, so I go down to the cafeteria and help Aunt Kate serve breakfast. It's not the most enjoyable job, but everyone has to do their part and since I'm not a fighter (right now) and there's no school today, I have to do something.
The last people to walk through the line though are Weaver, Tom and Hal. I grin at Hal's sleepy expression.
"Up late last night?" I tease.
"Ha, ha, very funny and yes; I had the twelve to three sentry posting," he says.
"So what are you doing up this early, usually Weaver let's you sleep in?" I ask curiously. It must be something big for him to get up so early after going to bed so late.
"I'm going to check out the alien tower thing with Dai and my dad," he says.
"One second," I say and I quickly run around the table, grab a bowl and wait in the line with him for some oatmeal.
"Ok, so why exactly are you joining to take a look at this thing?" I ask.
"Well we need to know where to put the bombs to get the most damage. Weaver thinks that if we can get close and look at it, we could do just that," he answers. I nod and we move with the line before I can think of something to say.
"So how are dealing with… with what I told you?" I whisper.
He shakes his head. "After everything I've seen I don't think anything can shock me anymore."
"Still, it's still a stretch from aliens. You sure you're ok with it?" I ask just to be sure.
"Yeah, I'm fine with it," he says like it's the most obvious thing in the world.
"Ok," I say slightly laughing. We got some mushy oatmeal plopped into our bowls and then we walk to the closest table.
"I remember when I told my best friend about it, she completely freaked. She said stay away from me and she practically ran screaming from the room," I say laughing at the memory, but also feeling that slight twinge of pain.
"I'm sorry," he says.
"No, it's ok. It was actually sort of funny," I say.
"Still, you lost your best friend. That can't have been the easiest thing to go through," he comments.
"Yeah well, after my mom asks why my best friend just went screaming out of the house and I told her that I told her about my ability, my mom thought it best that we leave the state," I say.
"Wow, can you say protective parent," Hal jokes and I elbow him in the ribs.
"It wasn't that- well it wasn't just that," I say and we laugh for a second. "No, but she was also worried that my so called best friend would tell people. Of course no one would believe her, but she still didn't want to stick around for it."
He doesn't know what to say, so he just nods.
"Well, I'm glad you told me," he declares.
"Well, that's a first. I have never told any of my friends about my ability and not have them freak out of me. It feels rather nice," I joke and we laugh again.
"But really, thank you. You have no idea what it's like a have a friend that I don't have to keep secrets from. I mean Jimmy knows, but he's family and sometimes you need someone else," I say.
"Trust me I understand what you mean about the whole wanting someone else to talk to besides your family. My family can be suffocating sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have my family, but sometimes…" he trails off.
"I know what you mean," I say. We eat in silence for a minute before Hal asks me something.
"So Jimmy, he doesn't have an ability, right?"
"Well, it's sort of complicated. He doesn't have one yet, but you get them when you're around thirteen or fourteen, so he might not have his yet. But then he might never get one, it's happened before," I answer.
"Do you know what it'll be?" he asks.
"There's no way to predict that. But it's usually similar to what everyone else in your family has," I say.
"So what other abilities are there?" he asks.
"Well, I slow down molecules, you could speed them up to the point where they catch fire, or explode or both," I say and he grins and says, "Cool."
I reach over and punch him lightly in the arm. "Typical boy, you love anything that explodes."
"And don't you forget it," he jokes back. We laugh a little before I continue.
"You could also glimpse into the future. And when I say glimpse, I mean glimpse, you can't see detailed movies of the futures, just flashes. I heard of people with telekinesis, psycho kinesis," I stop when I see his confused expression.
"Psycho kinesis is when you can move objects that you can't see with your mind," I clear up.
"Ok, so what's the difference between that and telekinesis?" he asks.
"Good question,-," I say.
"I try," he interrupts. I glare at him until I'm sure he won't interrupt me again, but then I break out into a smile.
"Telekinesis only works on things you can see," I say.
"Ok," he says.
"There's also teleportation, phasing, as in walking through walls, biological healing, transmutation of matter, or changing something's shape into another or basically shape-shifting, energy shield or force field, telepathic projection-" I stop when I see his face.
"Too much?" I ask.
He nods yes and I mentally slap myself. Of course he's freaked out, that was a lot to tell him.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have gone that fast, that was too much-" I say, but my voice I drowned out by Tom calling Hal's name.
"Hal! Time to go!" Tom yells and he looks back at me.
"Don't be sorry, I asked a question and you answered it. We'll talk later. Right now I gotta go help figure out how to kick some alien ass," he says and I laugh as he stands. He reaches for his bowl, but I take it.
"Go, I'll take this back. Tom seems to be in a hurry," I say.
"Thanks," he says and walks toward the door, braking into a jog halfway there.
The next day I am teaching, but for right now I'm not since I don't teach the little kids- yet. They're too energetic for me since I've just been feeling tired lately because of my wound. I found that I really enjoyed teaching, but not as much as I enjoyed fighting. I am a little surprised to find Matt sitting on the floor in the hallway looking very sad since I saw him earlier today playing outside with the other kids very happy.
"Hey Matt, why so sad?" I ask.
"My dad and Hal went to go fight," he says.
"Ah," I say and sit beside him.
"You worried about them?" I ask.
"I always am. I just want to fight and be like dad and Hal. But everyone says I'm too young," he says.
"You know, the first time I asked my dad to show me how to use a gun he said the same thing, that I was too young," I divulge and he looks up at me surprised.
"Really?" he asks.
"Yep, but eventually he taught me. Did you ever think that your dad doesn't want to teach you how to use a gun because he isn't ready for his little boy to grow up?" I ask. He thinks about this for a second.
"I don't know, maybe," he shrugs. There's a moment of silence before I come up with something to say.
"Ok how about this. You stay after class every day and I'll teach you everything I know about some military tactics and weapons so that by the time you're allowed to fight you'll be smarter and know more about how to fight than anyone else," I offer.
"Yeah, sure," he says, but I can tell that he's not too enthusiastic, but it's the best I can offer.
"Ok Matt, if you ever want to talk I'll be here," I say, rubbing his arm comfortingly. I stand, I wince a little since it always agitates my side wound when I do, and leave him be. He probably just needs some alone time.
I spend the rest of my day helping where I can; whether it's cooking, teaching (more like making plans for tomorrow's classes) or getting guns and ammo ready for use. I find that I'm rather bored, so I make my way to the med lab. Maybe Anne will have something for me to do. Strangely though, she isn't here. Usually she's here 24/7 except for meal breaks. I sigh in disappointment and leave.
I find some more things to help out with to pass the time until Tom, Weaver and Hal get back. After dinner, which I spend with Jimmy, Anne, Ben, Matt and Rick (who barely eat and never talks), I decide to go to bed. My side is hurting a little, but it's barely noticeable.
The next morning I wake up and find out that Weaver, Tom and Hal have just gotten back. I take a guess at where they'll be and find I'm right as I approach the armory.
"First chance I'm going after her dad. First chance," Hal says and he walks out of the armory. Dai bumps into me as he enters the armory.
"What was all that about?" Dai asks me.
"I have no idea," I answer. But I have a feeling that it's about Karen because who else would Hal care about that much that's a girl.
"So you know anything about that mission that they just got back from? I've been a little out of the loop," I ask him since I've been a little out of the loop.
"Yeah, they went to scout the alien tower over Boston so we can know how to hit it for the attack," he says.
"What attack?" I ask.
"Wow, you really have been out of the loop. Ok so in… two days now the Second Mass along with the Fourth, Fifth and Seventh are going to attack the tower, hopefully knock it down. Each Mass gets a different leg of the tower and we use C4 to blow it up," he explains.
"Ok, so…" but my voice trails off when I hear a voice shouting from outside.
"All right everybody gather round, I got a demonstration. Come on, everybody, let's go. Come on, come on, I'm only going to do this once," Pope shouts. I exchange a look with Dai before we start walking out front. I see Jimmy and Hal standing over at the far side and run to join them.
"So, the score is: aliens one, humans zero. Hell, humans aren't even on the board," Pope starts saying and I resist the urge not to roll my eyes. He rattles on about something before Weaver and Tom come out onto the lawn.
"Oh, the whole gangs here," Pope comments and this I do roll my eyes. "Good I do not want to have to do this twice."
"You're supposed to be making bombs, Pope," Weaver says.
"You ever heard of multi-tasking, it's all under control," Pope says.
"It better be, because I'm itching for a reason to put you back behind bars," Weaver yells in response and I smile slightly at the idea.
"Hey take it easy, I've been studying hard. So can anyone tell me, why are we here, why are we losing the war, why's that? Because the bad guys have us outgunned. Hell it takes an entire magazine just to put a dent in one of their tin soldiers," Pope says, limping down from his podium.
"Hey," Pope says and points at a fighter with a loaded gun. The fighter looks at Weaver and he nods.
"Watch him!" Weaver commands and many guns rise at Pope when he gets the gun. Pope looks back at them, maybe a little nervous, but you can't see it in his expression. He then points the gun at a dead Mech body and fires an entire clip into it, barely scratching it. He holds the weapon up and holds it behind him, knowing that someone was already on their way to get it.
"So that's the way it's been. But there's a new sheriff in town. It's a standard bullet, only it's got a Mech metal slug," he says and hands one to Weaver. "A forty-five?"
Again the fighter looks at Weaver. "Captain?"
"Go ahead," Weaver orders and the fighter gives Pope a forty-five. While I don't know everything there is to know about guns and weapons, I do know a lot for someone my age, and a girl at that. My dad taught me how to shoot many different types, but I am a little hazy on their names and everything. I should probably learn a little more about this stuff though if I'm going to teach Matt about it.
Pope empties out all the bullets from it and puts in the Mech one. He then takes aim at the dead Mech and after a few long seconds, he fires. There's a loud bang as the bullet goes straight through the Mech shell and then the crowd erupts into cheers. Jimmy hugs me and I swear that he's about to pick me up. I'm so surprised that I just stand there. Then what just happened starts to register and start to hug him back. I turn to Hal and hug him with one arm as we exchange smiles before Matt gets his attention.
Everyone starts to get a little quieter when Weaver steps forward. He raises his fist and declares, "We're taking this fight to them!"
