Chapter 2: Into the Fire

Chapter 2: Into the Fire

The two children found their way to the living room, ignoring Max and Logan who followed, sharing uncertain glances the whole way. The girl helped her companion sit, it was obvious bending was a cause of some discomfort to him. Once seated, he murmured his thanks, and she eased onto the couch next to him.

"What kind of help are you after?" Logan inquired from the edge of the carpet. He was concerned for Max, for anybody to know who she was… That had to be a terrible violation to her.

"The kind of help you are known for, Eyes Only. We need information and protection." The girl's eyes bored into his, and it was Logan's turn to start.

"Where do you get off implicating these things?" Max asked, trying to keep her cool.

The boy responded this time, those two were strange, they acted far to intelligently and far to well as a single unit for their age, "We aren't implicating anything. Implicating suggests that what is stated isn't true."

"We aren't trying to threaten…" The girl said, "But we…" Her eyes overflowed, and she looked down. Seeing her distress, the boy placed his hand on her shoulder and continued where she left off, "But we need help. And to get help, we need the advantage. The two of you, more then anybody, know what an advantage knowledge is."

Wheeling closer, Logan trained his brilliantly intelligent blue eyes on them, "Why are you here?" He asked gently.

The girl looked up, "They're after us…" and she sniffled once more before wiping her eyes and looking completely composed, "They're either going to take us back, or kill us."

"And dying may be preferable." The boy informed them soberly.

Max, who was standing next to Logan at the edge of the room, arms wrapped around herself at this story that sounded so much like her own, looked down at her companion. They had a conversation in that shared gaze, their rapport was so strong now they didn't even need words. They both knew that, no matter how threatened they felt, they needed to see this through.

"Let's start at the beginning, then," Logan wheeled himself a little closer to the two tiny figures huddled on his couch, "What are your names?"

"I'm Mitad." The girl said, "And this is Jason." She entwined her fingers with her companion's.

"How did you get here?" Logan asked mildly.

"We walked." Jason informed them matter-of-factly.

"From where?" Max inquired.

"From Oregon. Corva, to be exact." Jason said.

"We escaped from the compound," Mitad clarified, "That's where they want to take us back to."

"What compound, Mitad?" Logan asked, trying his best not to scare them… However, he was not so busy trying to be gentle that he didn't notice the meaning of the girl's name. In Spanish, 'Mitad' meant 'half.' Not 'half' as in "out of a measurable quantity" but as in "half of what was formerly a whole." Who on earth would name a child that? Perhaps it was a nickname… She was short…

"Elekon." Jason responded, answering regardless of who Logan had been addressing, "They're like Manticore…"

"…Only more recent." Mitad finished, "And maybe more dangerous, too."

"More dangerous?" Logan couldn't help his incredulity. He caught Max's eye… She was wearing a look that seemed terribly far away, a place where Logan couldn't reach. A place Logan couldn't even begin to imagine…

"Max?" He whispered, aware of the children's probing eyes on them, "Max, are you--?"

"More dangerous?" Max asked quietly.

Mitad looked up solemnly, "Maybe. Probably."

The lights above threw the shadows of Max's eyelashes far down on her cheekbones, "What did they do?"

The two children shared a look, "You had better sit down." Jason directed her, his voice strangely compassionate. Looking numb, Max complied.

Mitad gazed up at Logan and smiled, her eyes regretful, "You won't have that problem…"

Something in her tone kept Logan from being stung at the casual remark.

"Elekon is just like Manticore in the fact that they breed and raise genetically engineered human beings." Mitad began without preamble, "They have many of the same problems. For example, they also use feline DNA to help with musculature," Mitad gave Max a significant look, "Which comes with it's own problems. We haven't gotten the 'problems' yet, but we will, once we're old enough."

"To understand fully," Jason took over the speech, "You need to know some history. Elekon was established as a sister company of Manticore, just after the pulse hit. Even though they were looking for their escapees and compensating for the loss of all electrical equipment, Research & Development was going full steam. During the Pulse, they discovered something very important."

"Around the pulse, where it had originated, there was a startling after effect," Mitad informed them, her fingertips nervously rubbing the knuckles on Jason's hand that she held, "For miles around, human beings were affected. Those closest to the blast were killed, their brains fried, short-circuited. That in itself wasn't expected—"

"The Pulse, you see," Jason picked up the thought, "It wasn't electricity, it was more like an airborne computer virus—"

"And no one, least of all it's creators, thought humans would be affected." Mitad finished.

"But, they were!" Jason told them, his eyes gleaming feverishly in what looked like fury, "Not only the humans, but animals too! Outside the initial circle of death was a larger, more horrifying circle. It was those that had survived." Jason's voice caught in anger, his cheeks were the bright red-color that only small children could achieve.

Using her spare hand to take his hand in both of hers, Mitad picked up the speech, her words picking up speed with every one she uttered, "They were insane. Crazy. Those that hadn't been killed initially walked around murdering people, talking to posts, slaughtering livestock that either died of fear on the spot or attacked them right back with astonishing ferocity. While not everybody was affected by homicidal tendencies, those that weren't were plagued by illusions, hallucinations, debilitating fear… They were easy prey for those that had been affected in a violent manner. The second circle was easily the bloodier sight." A tear slipped down her cheek, and Jason's head hung so low, it looked as if he would impale his chest with his chin. It was suddenly horrifyingly obvious to Logan and Max that these two had been witness to the pulse. Which made no sense… No matter how they talked, they looked no more then eleven… Even if they looked far to young for their age, they still were to young to remember…

"Manticore learned from this," Jason told them, raising eyes that Logan never, ever wanted to see on a child again. He was furious, terrified, desperate, but more then anything, he was desolate. Hopeless, "Just like them to learn from something so…" Tears spilled down his cheeks.

"Shh…" Mitad stroked his hair, "I'll finish." She looked up at the stunned adults and continued quietly, "They learned, through this—unconventional—experiment, that human mind's are fundamentally like electronic equipment. Much more sophisticated then that, but the fundamentals were the same. A human mind has a field around it, a malleable field, for those who knew how to manipulate it." Max sat forward on her seat, trying to catch every single incredible word coming out of the child's mouth. "So they set about making a child—a soldier—who could, and would, manipulate that field of energy… Using the principles they learned in the pulse, they set about making a human being who could manipulate the human mind."

"And you're it." Logan whispered, his downcast eyes suddenly meeting Mitad's with an unreadable, almost hostile expression.

"Please don't hate us." Mitad whispered, one of her arms now slung around Jason, who was now weeping soundlessly.

Logan took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose, finally, he looked up at them with blurred eyesight, "I can't hate you for something you have no control over."