It has been a long time since I last updated this story but I decided
it's time to pick it up again. Good news: we're getting back to earlier
OC's, which means we're only one step from really getting somewhere.
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The streets were far too calm. This was Queens, after all. Even so Maria couldn't stop to marvel; she was too hungry. Her stomach felt like it was eating itself. It was only natural – she had hidden out in the abandoned construction site for as long as she could – but that didn't make it any easier. Actually she had been tempted not to go out even after she thought she couldn't take it anymore, but she eventually realized it wouldn't be too much longer before she was too weak to get herself to someplace where she could get food. Now she was a little sorry she had waited as long as she had; there were cars absolutely everywhere but there was no one moving around in them and she really was hungry.
She managed not to see or hear anyone in the eight or nine blocks she wandered before she found the little Latin market. It was closed up but someone had already broken the lock on the door so she walked in. She expected to walk right into whoever it had been who had broken the lock but she was too hungry to be cautious.
There was no one inside. She ripped open the packaging on the first thing that came to hand – beef jerky – and tore into it ravenously. After a couple of bites she decided that that was too much work to eat and went over to the little fruit section. The apple she grabbed and stuffed into her mouth tasted great even though it looked overripe. She worked most of the way through the fruit before turning back to the beef jerky and then moving to the bread section.
A few minutes later she was hunched over, feeling like she was going to throw up. She had eaten far more far faster than ever before. For some reason she didn't even mind the feeling. At least she wasn't starving anymore.
She was starting to consider where she ought to go next when the lights went off, as did the low refrigerator hum and the other little machine noises. She felt her way toward the door, managing to trip over a poorly placed bag of rice despite her care. She flicked all three of the light switches twice each before giving up and leaving.
She hadn't decided where to go yet, so she started aimlessly down the sidewalk. After a few feet she started to smile. For the first time since the energy wave she felt peaceful. She felt happy. She even skipped a step a two, and only stopped because she felt like a total idiot.
"Who's going to find out?" she whispered. The sound of it caught her off- guard. It sounded loud in the complete stillness around her. She took a deep breath and spoke again, louder. "Is this really Queens?" Then she yelled, "Helloooo?" She wasn't expecting any kind of response, so it was something of a nasty shock that she got one.
"Who there?" called someone from far away, a black man by the sound of the voice.
Maria felt her pulse spike up and she stood in shock for what seemed like a long time. Then she snapped out of it and felt like an idiot again. What had made her think she was the only one in the whole city? She was the only one left in all of Queens county? Not likely. It was stupid of her to feel comfortable; New York would never be completely empty of people and she would never be able to completely relax as long as there was even one person close enough that they might come up to her while she slept.
She turned away from the voice and started walking. Then she realized that if the man was alone he would be looking for company, and sped up.
She had rounded the corner and had gone another block or two when a thought struck her: what if being immune to the virus or whatever it was caused her to kill people who weren't immune? Would it mean that all of the survivors killed everyone they touched? A chill went up her spine. Then she thought about it a little more, and realized that if only people who were immune were still there then they wouldn't be able to affect each other. She stopped. Could it be possible? Could she touch another person again if that person was immune just like her? Just imagining it made her breathing speed up. She had spent however many days it had been believing she would never be able to touch a person or even get anywhere near them ever again. She stood, frozen to the spot. She couldn't get over the idea of being able to touch another person again, but she also couldn't get herself to actually turn around and walk back toward the man who had answered her. It was too dangerous. It was just too dangerous; if she was wrong then she would kill the only other survivor around. With so few people having survived she just wouldn't be able to bear it if another person died.
"Hello?"
Maria literally fell down she was so startled. The voice sounded like it was right behind her. She whipped her head around and found that it was a small white woman, very much unlike the person who had answered her call before. She was standing about 20 feet or so from Maria. Then she took a step forward.
"Stop!" screamed Maria. She scrambled to her feet and backed away from the woman. "Don't come any closer!"
"Calm down," said the woman, "I'm not going to hurt you." She had stopped, but Maria still didn't feel any calmer.
"It's not you hurting me..." She took a step backwards, and another step.
"You're not going to hurt me either. Fia told me about you; I'm not going to touch you."
"What? Fia?"
"A little girl, Sofia. She's telepathic. After we heard you calling she followed you with her mind and told me where you went so I could catch up with you."
"You heard me calling?" Maria had no idea what to say. She wasn't really processing anything the woman was saying; she was still too scared.
"Yep. Norris called back to you but it's the three of us: Norris, Sofia, and me, Katherine Derby."
"The three of you are together?"
"Well, okay, so we aren't quite together – Norris doesn't really like either of us and so far we've pretty much been following him around – but that will change. Like I've been saying since the troubles with people attacking mutants started, we mutants need to stick together. And now it's more a matter of us survivors sticking together."
"Mutant? People attacking mutants?"
"Yes. I am a mutant. So are you. Everyone who is still alive in this city is a mutant, but for a while before everybody else died or left they were attacking us. It was a combination of people being scared and needing a scapegoat and mutants like Norris accidentally killing people."
"Norris accidentally killed people too?" Maria said the words very quickly, then realized what she had just said and clamped her hand over her mouth.
"Don't worry; Fia told me about the people you killed and all I can say is that it's too bad but there's nothing you can do about it now. It wasn't even your fault. Just don't touch any of us and we won't touch you and you'll be fine."
Just then someone rounded the corner behind the woman, Katherine, and jogged up beside her. It was a girl of about nine or ten. Sofia. She was panting. "You're too fast," she told Katherine.
"Is Norris back there somewhere?" asked the woman in response.
"Yeah. He doesn't feel like coming to meet her since we're here but he's not leaving either." The girl turned to Maria. "Hola. I'm Sofia."
"You...know about me?"
"Uh huh. When we heard you I found you." She pointed at her head. "I'm not very good at it yet, but you're so loud it wasn't hard." She paused, blinked, and continued. "But I don't mean anything bad. For all I know everybody who's scared or confused has loud thoughts and there isn't anybody left who isn't scared or confused."
Maria didn't have anything to say in response to that, so she stayed silent.
"Did the electricity go out where you were too?" asked Katherine.
"Um, yes."
"Too bad. Like I thought, the power in the whole area is finally out. And there's no one there to turn it back on again either, most likely."
"No more electricity?"
Katherine looked annoyed. "Just a minute. I'll be back." She turned and became a blur of motion which then disappeared around the corner.
Maria gaped. "Wha...?"
"She can move muy, muy rápido. Just like I can hear people thinking and Norris can make his body blow up."
"You mean like explode?" Suddenly she wasn't quite as interested in meeting this guy.
"Well, it's not exploding. But there's this big flash and it's really bright and everything gets thrown. It's how come everybody was after him, because he blew up right around a whole bunch of people."
Maria just stared at the little girl. She seemed perfectly happy describing this scene when who knows how many people died. She had probably been just like that when she was describing Maria's power to the other two, also. She shook her head. How anyone could keep that kind of an attitude, much less a child, was beyond her.
"It's not that hard, you know."
"What's not?" Maria tried to remember back to something the girl could have been talking about.
"It's not that hard to keep my kind of attitude. It just happens. Everybody is gone, but that's not so bad. At least they're not coming after us anymore."
She just didn't understand. Even if she had seen the deaths, even if she had heard other people's thoughts about killing other people she still didn't get it. She hoped that the girl wouldn't suddenly understand it and go catatonic. She stopped, realizing that if it did happen it would be her own thoughts that would make the girl realize the truth. She guiltily stared at the wall of the building next to her.
"So anyways, eres chicana, ¿no? Soy boricua."
"Yeah, but I was born in New York and my English is better than my Spanish."
"Oh. Where do..." The girl trailed off. She wasn't even looking at Maria anymore, but more like over her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" She almost went up to the girl, but didn't. It was dangerous enough just to be talking to her.
"We have to go," said Sofia, then she looked back at Maria. "Norris is getting mad again." She turned around and walked away.
Maria didn't move right away. "Wait, you're going back to him because he's getting mad? This is the same guy who explodes sometimes and who is annoyed by the two of you?" The girl didn't respond anything or even slow down. Maybe she didn't hear. After another two beats Maria followed.
"What you want me to do?" Norris was half-yelling when Maria got back to where he was standing with Katherine. "I ain't no electrician. It nothing I can do about it."
"I'm not asking you fix the lights," responded Katherine. "I'm saying if we find a store that sells flashlights we can use up a battery a day each and it won't even matter."
Norris still didn't look happy. "I don't even know why you and the little mind reader over there got to follow me around everywhere."
"Uh oh," said Sofia.
Maria looked over at her to figure what she was worrying about, but she quickly figured it out on her own as she heard a voice coming from a side street. "Hey, there!" Seconds later two men came around a corner and walked over to them. One was Hispanic and the other was white and she didn't especially like the looks of either of them.
"Look at you all!" said the white guy. He seemed pleased to find them, but in a strangely threatening way.
"Hell no," said Norris, "ain't nobody else gonna follow me around."
"What's this?" said the Hispanic guy, "Why you trying to keep all the ladies to yourself?"
Maria had no idea what to say to that and apparently no one else did either; silence fell on the six of them.
"We're just lonely; that's all," continued the Hispanic guy. "Come on." He turned to Maria. "You want to hang out with us for a little while?"
Maria stayed frozen to the spot.
"It'd be fun, and it'd be a good deal, too. Money probably wouldn't be much use no more, but we do got batteries. A lot of batteries, all kinds. Can't get far without them, and we already cleaned out all the stores around here."
Norris chuckled, but not in a happy or pleasant way; it was a chuckle that wouldn't have sounded out of place coming from a mob boss. "Hey Maria, maybe you should go with them."
Maria whipped her head around to look at him. Did he have any idea what he was suggesting? Judging by the gleam in his eye, yes, he knew exactly what he was suggesting. He wanted her to kill them.
"See, your friend agrees," said the white guy. He held out a hand and suddenly Maria felt herself being pulled toward the two men. It was not a sensation she liked; not only did she suddenly feel out of control and like she was going to fall down but she was also getting closer to the two men. She yelled, not a full scream but still charged with surprise and fear.
Before she had been pulled five feet a bright light burst out somewhere to her left, distracting her. It was Norris. She closed her eyes and brought a hand up to shield her face but the flash was already over. Her whole body was tingly but it was only fear; she was fine. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked back over to the two creeps, only to find that they were lying unmoving on the ground eight or ten feet further back than where they had been.
"Good," said Katherine with a tone of light speculation, "I told you you were getting better at controlling that. That was actually a pretty narrow beam that time."
Maria gaped. And continued to gape.
"They were dead anyway," said Katherine finally, turning to her. "You should thank him; if he hadn't done it it would have been you who'd have done it and you probably wouldn't have liked that."
"Dead anyway? They had to die? Does everybody have to die?" Maria was muttering to herself rather than speaking to the other three, and she wasn't really listening to Katherine's response.
"Not everybody. That's just the way some people are; they think they can do anything they want now that the normal rules are out the window."
"I'm gonna see if I can find those batteries," said Sofia, and she walked over to the bodies.
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As far as Damian was concerned Bill Hammell was pretty much a replacement Ty. He wasn't quite the same – not only was he 15 years older and white but he was also hot and that made it a little harder to see him as a brother – but in many ways he was close enough. Bill met him right as Ty was in his last hour or two, and comforted him a lot like Ty had after their parents had died. Bill had lost his wife at the same time, so it was the same kind of mutual silent support Damian and Ty had had before. It had been Bill who had suggested the meditation techniques that had allowed him to get a little bit of control over the flames that had continuously poured out of him since Ty had started showing obvious signs of having the same sickness that had killed their dad. He had also offered to give Damian a massage that would help, but the latter couldn't help but think that receiving a massage from the man would only make his body temperature rise. Even without the massage, though, he was feeling a lot better than he would have been if he had not met Bill. He wondered whether he'd have gone crazy, or be running around burning everything he could get his hands on. He still felt a little like those were both options, but at least with Bill there he wouldn't do either without some kind of big reason.
"How you doing now?" asked Bill at the end of their impromptu dinner at Albertson's. It was probably the ninth time that day he had asked the question.
"I don't know, better I guess; I got through that last whole bottle without melting the bottle till the very end." Usually when he tried to drink pop he ended up drinking a quarter of it then losing the rest as the bottle broke open.
"That's good. You wanna stay here tonight?"
"Naw, I'd still burn the place down. You can stay in and I'll find a car outside." Nobody was using the cars anymore; he could burn one or two of them out and not hurt anything.
"I'll find a car too."
"You don't have to."
"Might as well stay together." Just a little reminder that even among the survivors Damian wasn't wanted. If anybody from the Camp found him all alone and asleep they might just figure the world would be better off without a gay black kid who can't walk down the goddamn street without burning something down.
"Yeah."
"Don't be like that. You're not thinking about the Camp again, are you?"
Damian didn't bother to lie.
"Well you might as well stop. It wasn't your fault and we won't go back there so it doesn't matter anymore."
"Why would it matter? They only have half the supplies left in the city."
Bill chuckled. "Two people don't use that much stuff. We'll get by fine."
"You don't need a lot of stuff. You're not the one who burns through his f...his clothes every couple hours."
"You've pretty much stopped that now, though, right? And now the rain's picked up again you can always just go outside for a few minutes."
Damian smiled. "Yeah, and go back to being Steam Man."
"Having steam pour off of you has to be better than having flames pour off of you, right?"
He shrugged.
"So what's up for tomorrow?"
"Hell if I know. Find food, eat it, avoid getting attacked by those Camp assholes, get a little farther from the Camp, find food, eat it, find a place to sleep. How's that?"
"I'd say that's pretty close. Once we get away from the Camp, though, is there anything is particular you want to do?"
"Besides survive?" He shrugged again. "Catch the new Vin Diesel movie?"
Bill laughed. "You know, we might as well. The reels will probably still be around and we have the time to spare to figure out to make it work."
"Yeah, if the power decides to come back on for no reason."
The man waved his objective off. "We'll figure something out. A generator or something. You think a movie theater just gives up and accepts the losses every time there's a blackout?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Well whatever. Like I said, we have the time."
They sat in silence for a minute or two, then Bill got to his feet. "I'm going to grab a magazine or something. Want something?"
"I'll come."
With flashlights drawn they found the magazine aisle and started looking through the covers. To Damian they were fascinating; not a one of them made any mention of the disaster that had wiped out the whole city and apparently other cities as well and maybe even the whole country. Of course it was only because after the disaster there was no one left to write the stories inside the city and no one to pick up the magazines from other places, but it was still unbelievable. Here was a magazine that promised an in-depth report on all the up-and-coming teen pop stars. Were they still up- and-coming? Did people still sit around gossiping about them? Maybe the funniest, though, was the Newsweek. "A New Meaning for the Term 'Gifted Program?': More Mutants in Schools Than Ever" They were way off: there was not even one mutant left in any school in Philadelphia. Of course there weren't any normal kids left either...
"It's incredible, isn't it?" marveled Bill, breaking the silence.
"Hell yes! Did you see the Newsweek?"
Bill laughed. "Yeah. Did you see the Hollywood?"
"No." Bill held up the magazine and flipped through the pages so Damian could see. It seemed the biggest single article was dedicated to Christina Aguilera's car crash and how she broke an arm and had to get laser surgery to eliminate the scar. He gaped, completely unable to comprehend the fact that the editors could spend that much of a magazine talking about such stupid crap when his whole city was dead.
They kept entertained for several hours before Bill finally turned to Damian and said, "We have to get to sleep so we can use the daylight and save the flashlights."
"Okay."
When they got outside and found two cars that were unlocked and not too far apart. They stopped and looked at each other before getting in their respective cars.
"I love you, Bill." He hadn't meant to say it, but it had come out anyway and now that it was out he was awaiting the reaction nervously.
"Well, Damian, I love you too, like a son. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," returned Damian dejectedly. He got in his car, put back the seat and stared at the ceiling. Bill had given him exactly the kind of answer he knew he'd get: appropriate and polite but still leaving absolutely no doubt that they could have a closer relationship. He knew Bill was straight and everything, but after all the crap that had happened he had be sort of hoping... He just couldn't believe that Bill would be that cool toward him – helping him get away from the Camp and helping him when he was burning through his food and everything – without liking him. Somehow Bill had come to think of him as a son, he had said. All he could do was hope that after a couple of weeks he would get lonely and realize that Damian was the only one left. But no, he couldn't allow himself to hope that. It wouldn't matter anyway; Bill was too strong for that. But did that mean that he was allowed to hope or not?
He turned on his side and looked around the car before closing his eyes in preparation for sleep. The smoke was already getting thick; if it got any worse he'd have to open a window despite the rain. The car would be completely gutted before morning. On the bright side the chances were that no one would bug him while he slept. Not unless they were going to do so with a gun. He shook the thought out of his mind and settled himself more comfortably in his seat.
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The streets were far too calm. This was Queens, after all. Even so Maria couldn't stop to marvel; she was too hungry. Her stomach felt like it was eating itself. It was only natural – she had hidden out in the abandoned construction site for as long as she could – but that didn't make it any easier. Actually she had been tempted not to go out even after she thought she couldn't take it anymore, but she eventually realized it wouldn't be too much longer before she was too weak to get herself to someplace where she could get food. Now she was a little sorry she had waited as long as she had; there were cars absolutely everywhere but there was no one moving around in them and she really was hungry.
She managed not to see or hear anyone in the eight or nine blocks she wandered before she found the little Latin market. It was closed up but someone had already broken the lock on the door so she walked in. She expected to walk right into whoever it had been who had broken the lock but she was too hungry to be cautious.
There was no one inside. She ripped open the packaging on the first thing that came to hand – beef jerky – and tore into it ravenously. After a couple of bites she decided that that was too much work to eat and went over to the little fruit section. The apple she grabbed and stuffed into her mouth tasted great even though it looked overripe. She worked most of the way through the fruit before turning back to the beef jerky and then moving to the bread section.
A few minutes later she was hunched over, feeling like she was going to throw up. She had eaten far more far faster than ever before. For some reason she didn't even mind the feeling. At least she wasn't starving anymore.
She was starting to consider where she ought to go next when the lights went off, as did the low refrigerator hum and the other little machine noises. She felt her way toward the door, managing to trip over a poorly placed bag of rice despite her care. She flicked all three of the light switches twice each before giving up and leaving.
She hadn't decided where to go yet, so she started aimlessly down the sidewalk. After a few feet she started to smile. For the first time since the energy wave she felt peaceful. She felt happy. She even skipped a step a two, and only stopped because she felt like a total idiot.
"Who's going to find out?" she whispered. The sound of it caught her off- guard. It sounded loud in the complete stillness around her. She took a deep breath and spoke again, louder. "Is this really Queens?" Then she yelled, "Helloooo?" She wasn't expecting any kind of response, so it was something of a nasty shock that she got one.
"Who there?" called someone from far away, a black man by the sound of the voice.
Maria felt her pulse spike up and she stood in shock for what seemed like a long time. Then she snapped out of it and felt like an idiot again. What had made her think she was the only one in the whole city? She was the only one left in all of Queens county? Not likely. It was stupid of her to feel comfortable; New York would never be completely empty of people and she would never be able to completely relax as long as there was even one person close enough that they might come up to her while she slept.
She turned away from the voice and started walking. Then she realized that if the man was alone he would be looking for company, and sped up.
She had rounded the corner and had gone another block or two when a thought struck her: what if being immune to the virus or whatever it was caused her to kill people who weren't immune? Would it mean that all of the survivors killed everyone they touched? A chill went up her spine. Then she thought about it a little more, and realized that if only people who were immune were still there then they wouldn't be able to affect each other. She stopped. Could it be possible? Could she touch another person again if that person was immune just like her? Just imagining it made her breathing speed up. She had spent however many days it had been believing she would never be able to touch a person or even get anywhere near them ever again. She stood, frozen to the spot. She couldn't get over the idea of being able to touch another person again, but she also couldn't get herself to actually turn around and walk back toward the man who had answered her. It was too dangerous. It was just too dangerous; if she was wrong then she would kill the only other survivor around. With so few people having survived she just wouldn't be able to bear it if another person died.
"Hello?"
Maria literally fell down she was so startled. The voice sounded like it was right behind her. She whipped her head around and found that it was a small white woman, very much unlike the person who had answered her call before. She was standing about 20 feet or so from Maria. Then she took a step forward.
"Stop!" screamed Maria. She scrambled to her feet and backed away from the woman. "Don't come any closer!"
"Calm down," said the woman, "I'm not going to hurt you." She had stopped, but Maria still didn't feel any calmer.
"It's not you hurting me..." She took a step backwards, and another step.
"You're not going to hurt me either. Fia told me about you; I'm not going to touch you."
"What? Fia?"
"A little girl, Sofia. She's telepathic. After we heard you calling she followed you with her mind and told me where you went so I could catch up with you."
"You heard me calling?" Maria had no idea what to say. She wasn't really processing anything the woman was saying; she was still too scared.
"Yep. Norris called back to you but it's the three of us: Norris, Sofia, and me, Katherine Derby."
"The three of you are together?"
"Well, okay, so we aren't quite together – Norris doesn't really like either of us and so far we've pretty much been following him around – but that will change. Like I've been saying since the troubles with people attacking mutants started, we mutants need to stick together. And now it's more a matter of us survivors sticking together."
"Mutant? People attacking mutants?"
"Yes. I am a mutant. So are you. Everyone who is still alive in this city is a mutant, but for a while before everybody else died or left they were attacking us. It was a combination of people being scared and needing a scapegoat and mutants like Norris accidentally killing people."
"Norris accidentally killed people too?" Maria said the words very quickly, then realized what she had just said and clamped her hand over her mouth.
"Don't worry; Fia told me about the people you killed and all I can say is that it's too bad but there's nothing you can do about it now. It wasn't even your fault. Just don't touch any of us and we won't touch you and you'll be fine."
Just then someone rounded the corner behind the woman, Katherine, and jogged up beside her. It was a girl of about nine or ten. Sofia. She was panting. "You're too fast," she told Katherine.
"Is Norris back there somewhere?" asked the woman in response.
"Yeah. He doesn't feel like coming to meet her since we're here but he's not leaving either." The girl turned to Maria. "Hola. I'm Sofia."
"You...know about me?"
"Uh huh. When we heard you I found you." She pointed at her head. "I'm not very good at it yet, but you're so loud it wasn't hard." She paused, blinked, and continued. "But I don't mean anything bad. For all I know everybody who's scared or confused has loud thoughts and there isn't anybody left who isn't scared or confused."
Maria didn't have anything to say in response to that, so she stayed silent.
"Did the electricity go out where you were too?" asked Katherine.
"Um, yes."
"Too bad. Like I thought, the power in the whole area is finally out. And there's no one there to turn it back on again either, most likely."
"No more electricity?"
Katherine looked annoyed. "Just a minute. I'll be back." She turned and became a blur of motion which then disappeared around the corner.
Maria gaped. "Wha...?"
"She can move muy, muy rápido. Just like I can hear people thinking and Norris can make his body blow up."
"You mean like explode?" Suddenly she wasn't quite as interested in meeting this guy.
"Well, it's not exploding. But there's this big flash and it's really bright and everything gets thrown. It's how come everybody was after him, because he blew up right around a whole bunch of people."
Maria just stared at the little girl. She seemed perfectly happy describing this scene when who knows how many people died. She had probably been just like that when she was describing Maria's power to the other two, also. She shook her head. How anyone could keep that kind of an attitude, much less a child, was beyond her.
"It's not that hard, you know."
"What's not?" Maria tried to remember back to something the girl could have been talking about.
"It's not that hard to keep my kind of attitude. It just happens. Everybody is gone, but that's not so bad. At least they're not coming after us anymore."
She just didn't understand. Even if she had seen the deaths, even if she had heard other people's thoughts about killing other people she still didn't get it. She hoped that the girl wouldn't suddenly understand it and go catatonic. She stopped, realizing that if it did happen it would be her own thoughts that would make the girl realize the truth. She guiltily stared at the wall of the building next to her.
"So anyways, eres chicana, ¿no? Soy boricua."
"Yeah, but I was born in New York and my English is better than my Spanish."
"Oh. Where do..." The girl trailed off. She wasn't even looking at Maria anymore, but more like over her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" She almost went up to the girl, but didn't. It was dangerous enough just to be talking to her.
"We have to go," said Sofia, then she looked back at Maria. "Norris is getting mad again." She turned around and walked away.
Maria didn't move right away. "Wait, you're going back to him because he's getting mad? This is the same guy who explodes sometimes and who is annoyed by the two of you?" The girl didn't respond anything or even slow down. Maybe she didn't hear. After another two beats Maria followed.
"What you want me to do?" Norris was half-yelling when Maria got back to where he was standing with Katherine. "I ain't no electrician. It nothing I can do about it."
"I'm not asking you fix the lights," responded Katherine. "I'm saying if we find a store that sells flashlights we can use up a battery a day each and it won't even matter."
Norris still didn't look happy. "I don't even know why you and the little mind reader over there got to follow me around everywhere."
"Uh oh," said Sofia.
Maria looked over at her to figure what she was worrying about, but she quickly figured it out on her own as she heard a voice coming from a side street. "Hey, there!" Seconds later two men came around a corner and walked over to them. One was Hispanic and the other was white and she didn't especially like the looks of either of them.
"Look at you all!" said the white guy. He seemed pleased to find them, but in a strangely threatening way.
"Hell no," said Norris, "ain't nobody else gonna follow me around."
"What's this?" said the Hispanic guy, "Why you trying to keep all the ladies to yourself?"
Maria had no idea what to say to that and apparently no one else did either; silence fell on the six of them.
"We're just lonely; that's all," continued the Hispanic guy. "Come on." He turned to Maria. "You want to hang out with us for a little while?"
Maria stayed frozen to the spot.
"It'd be fun, and it'd be a good deal, too. Money probably wouldn't be much use no more, but we do got batteries. A lot of batteries, all kinds. Can't get far without them, and we already cleaned out all the stores around here."
Norris chuckled, but not in a happy or pleasant way; it was a chuckle that wouldn't have sounded out of place coming from a mob boss. "Hey Maria, maybe you should go with them."
Maria whipped her head around to look at him. Did he have any idea what he was suggesting? Judging by the gleam in his eye, yes, he knew exactly what he was suggesting. He wanted her to kill them.
"See, your friend agrees," said the white guy. He held out a hand and suddenly Maria felt herself being pulled toward the two men. It was not a sensation she liked; not only did she suddenly feel out of control and like she was going to fall down but she was also getting closer to the two men. She yelled, not a full scream but still charged with surprise and fear.
Before she had been pulled five feet a bright light burst out somewhere to her left, distracting her. It was Norris. She closed her eyes and brought a hand up to shield her face but the flash was already over. Her whole body was tingly but it was only fear; she was fine. She breathed a sigh of relief and looked back over to the two creeps, only to find that they were lying unmoving on the ground eight or ten feet further back than where they had been.
"Good," said Katherine with a tone of light speculation, "I told you you were getting better at controlling that. That was actually a pretty narrow beam that time."
Maria gaped. And continued to gape.
"They were dead anyway," said Katherine finally, turning to her. "You should thank him; if he hadn't done it it would have been you who'd have done it and you probably wouldn't have liked that."
"Dead anyway? They had to die? Does everybody have to die?" Maria was muttering to herself rather than speaking to the other three, and she wasn't really listening to Katherine's response.
"Not everybody. That's just the way some people are; they think they can do anything they want now that the normal rules are out the window."
"I'm gonna see if I can find those batteries," said Sofia, and she walked over to the bodies.
................................................
As far as Damian was concerned Bill Hammell was pretty much a replacement Ty. He wasn't quite the same – not only was he 15 years older and white but he was also hot and that made it a little harder to see him as a brother – but in many ways he was close enough. Bill met him right as Ty was in his last hour or two, and comforted him a lot like Ty had after their parents had died. Bill had lost his wife at the same time, so it was the same kind of mutual silent support Damian and Ty had had before. It had been Bill who had suggested the meditation techniques that had allowed him to get a little bit of control over the flames that had continuously poured out of him since Ty had started showing obvious signs of having the same sickness that had killed their dad. He had also offered to give Damian a massage that would help, but the latter couldn't help but think that receiving a massage from the man would only make his body temperature rise. Even without the massage, though, he was feeling a lot better than he would have been if he had not met Bill. He wondered whether he'd have gone crazy, or be running around burning everything he could get his hands on. He still felt a little like those were both options, but at least with Bill there he wouldn't do either without some kind of big reason.
"How you doing now?" asked Bill at the end of their impromptu dinner at Albertson's. It was probably the ninth time that day he had asked the question.
"I don't know, better I guess; I got through that last whole bottle without melting the bottle till the very end." Usually when he tried to drink pop he ended up drinking a quarter of it then losing the rest as the bottle broke open.
"That's good. You wanna stay here tonight?"
"Naw, I'd still burn the place down. You can stay in and I'll find a car outside." Nobody was using the cars anymore; he could burn one or two of them out and not hurt anything.
"I'll find a car too."
"You don't have to."
"Might as well stay together." Just a little reminder that even among the survivors Damian wasn't wanted. If anybody from the Camp found him all alone and asleep they might just figure the world would be better off without a gay black kid who can't walk down the goddamn street without burning something down.
"Yeah."
"Don't be like that. You're not thinking about the Camp again, are you?"
Damian didn't bother to lie.
"Well you might as well stop. It wasn't your fault and we won't go back there so it doesn't matter anymore."
"Why would it matter? They only have half the supplies left in the city."
Bill chuckled. "Two people don't use that much stuff. We'll get by fine."
"You don't need a lot of stuff. You're not the one who burns through his f...his clothes every couple hours."
"You've pretty much stopped that now, though, right? And now the rain's picked up again you can always just go outside for a few minutes."
Damian smiled. "Yeah, and go back to being Steam Man."
"Having steam pour off of you has to be better than having flames pour off of you, right?"
He shrugged.
"So what's up for tomorrow?"
"Hell if I know. Find food, eat it, avoid getting attacked by those Camp assholes, get a little farther from the Camp, find food, eat it, find a place to sleep. How's that?"
"I'd say that's pretty close. Once we get away from the Camp, though, is there anything is particular you want to do?"
"Besides survive?" He shrugged again. "Catch the new Vin Diesel movie?"
Bill laughed. "You know, we might as well. The reels will probably still be around and we have the time to spare to figure out to make it work."
"Yeah, if the power decides to come back on for no reason."
The man waved his objective off. "We'll figure something out. A generator or something. You think a movie theater just gives up and accepts the losses every time there's a blackout?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Well whatever. Like I said, we have the time."
They sat in silence for a minute or two, then Bill got to his feet. "I'm going to grab a magazine or something. Want something?"
"I'll come."
With flashlights drawn they found the magazine aisle and started looking through the covers. To Damian they were fascinating; not a one of them made any mention of the disaster that had wiped out the whole city and apparently other cities as well and maybe even the whole country. Of course it was only because after the disaster there was no one left to write the stories inside the city and no one to pick up the magazines from other places, but it was still unbelievable. Here was a magazine that promised an in-depth report on all the up-and-coming teen pop stars. Were they still up- and-coming? Did people still sit around gossiping about them? Maybe the funniest, though, was the Newsweek. "A New Meaning for the Term 'Gifted Program?': More Mutants in Schools Than Ever" They were way off: there was not even one mutant left in any school in Philadelphia. Of course there weren't any normal kids left either...
"It's incredible, isn't it?" marveled Bill, breaking the silence.
"Hell yes! Did you see the Newsweek?"
Bill laughed. "Yeah. Did you see the Hollywood?"
"No." Bill held up the magazine and flipped through the pages so Damian could see. It seemed the biggest single article was dedicated to Christina Aguilera's car crash and how she broke an arm and had to get laser surgery to eliminate the scar. He gaped, completely unable to comprehend the fact that the editors could spend that much of a magazine talking about such stupid crap when his whole city was dead.
They kept entertained for several hours before Bill finally turned to Damian and said, "We have to get to sleep so we can use the daylight and save the flashlights."
"Okay."
When they got outside and found two cars that were unlocked and not too far apart. They stopped and looked at each other before getting in their respective cars.
"I love you, Bill." He hadn't meant to say it, but it had come out anyway and now that it was out he was awaiting the reaction nervously.
"Well, Damian, I love you too, like a son. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," returned Damian dejectedly. He got in his car, put back the seat and stared at the ceiling. Bill had given him exactly the kind of answer he knew he'd get: appropriate and polite but still leaving absolutely no doubt that they could have a closer relationship. He knew Bill was straight and everything, but after all the crap that had happened he had be sort of hoping... He just couldn't believe that Bill would be that cool toward him – helping him get away from the Camp and helping him when he was burning through his food and everything – without liking him. Somehow Bill had come to think of him as a son, he had said. All he could do was hope that after a couple of weeks he would get lonely and realize that Damian was the only one left. But no, he couldn't allow himself to hope that. It wouldn't matter anyway; Bill was too strong for that. But did that mean that he was allowed to hope or not?
He turned on his side and looked around the car before closing his eyes in preparation for sleep. The smoke was already getting thick; if it got any worse he'd have to open a window despite the rain. The car would be completely gutted before morning. On the bright side the chances were that no one would bug him while he slept. Not unless they were going to do so with a gun. He shook the thought out of his mind and settled himself more comfortably in his seat.