Chapter Fifteen: What Now?
Johnny watched as Zale lay there on the bed, his tanned skin looking pale and lax. The men came in and hooked Zale's arm up to that needle and now he was barely breathing, barely moving. He was strapped down on his bed so he couldn't touch his brother like he wanted to. Johnny couldn't do anything to help his brother; he only knew of his premonition ability, there was nothing else he was capable of unlike his oldest brother and sister who constantly seemed to be learning new tricks and easily using them. He did not want the power his brother and sister had but he also wished he was capable of helping Zale right now.
Instead he was left alone, strapped down when the other men walked into the room, wheeling Zada in on a bed with rollers on the bottom like many had in the hospital that Doc Janet ran. He frowned and waited to see what would happen. Zada was awake and looking over at Zale before she looked to Johnny, "JJ, are you hurt?"
He shook his head in answer.
"Okay, your brother has already forced our hand and I want to see what we got from taking you."
"What are you planning to do?" Zada asked, her eyes glancing between the man and Johnny.
Johnny kept his eye on Zale but movement out of the corner of his sight brought his attention back to the man who pulled out a small device from inside his jacket and pushed a button, which made a two prong end come from within the device. Johnny watched as a blue light flickered from the two prongs and he didn't understand what it was until the man pressed it into Johnny's leg and a jolt of electricity tumbled through the slight muscle and sunk its painful teeth into his bones. Johnny opened his mouth and screamed, one of the few sounds he was ever capable of making and he hated it! Zada jerked and tugged at her restraints while their captor removed the device from Johnny's leg and he was left to breath in heavy little pants.
"What are you doing?" Zada cried out, Johnny couldn't look at her to let her know that the pain was fading a little at a time. Even though it would have been a lie, he shuddered and shook under the press of his restraints.
"It would seem he is your weakest link, the one you would do anything to protect and so I am going to make sure I can get what I can from you, even if I have to use him."
"Please don't hurt him," Zada pleaded and Johnny could hear the tears in her voice.
There was a momentary shock to Johnny's leg and he whimpered, and the shudders began again. His eyes glazed and he saw the previous vision from a couple days before and suddenly his face was filled in and the shock device was only the first of many things this man was capable and he started struggling for real against the restraints at his wrists, stomach and legs.
"Johnny, just hold on!" Zada said and there was power in her words. She was reaching out to her magic. He could feel the charge in the air as it grew and changed. The man was about to jab him again with the shock device when he was repelled off of an invisible shield. He frowned and tried again but his hand bounced back once more.
He swung around and looked down at Zada, "What are you doing?" he shouted and backhanded her across the cheek. Johnny shouted soundlessly, "NO!" just making himself frustrated that he didn't have any voice to speak with. He watched as Zada's head snapped back in response to the strike and her skin turned red. She looked back at him, glaring but equally shocked; none have them have ever been spanked let alone hit. "Do not touch me again, and do not lay a hand or that stupid device on my little brother!"
"And your sisters? What should I do with them?"
Johnny gasped, he didn't understand completely what the man was saying but the way Zada reacting there was something scary in the man's words. She was screaming and jerking against the bonds that held her to the bed. Johnny looked over to Zale again, who was still laying there still as death, he pushed his voice into his brother's mind, "Zale please! Someone is hurting Zada and me, you need to wake up!"
Nothing happened, Zale was still sleeping the deep-drugged slumber that he'd been forced under as soon as they were caught after the escape attempt. He watched as the man tried to push that device at Johnny again and Zada must have still been stunned because the jolt shot through his stomach, all the closer to his heart. Johnny's body jerked up against the bonds in a shuddering painful seizure all while Zada screamed in the background, turning everything into white noise.
"Stop it! I do not know what you want from me!" she screamed and then the device lifted and Johnny was left alone to calm his heart, calm his body and cry silently in the pain that vibrated under his skin and delved back into his heart. The tears slipped down the sides of his face, his body twitching every once in a while.
"I want you to tell me how you do the things you do, the shield and the moving things without touching them?"
"Just leave my brother alone," Zada pleaded.
"And you'll tell us?" the man asked.
Johnny shook his head, "No Zada, Daddy and Papa said that nothing is worth others knowing what we can do."
Zada turned and her brown eyes locked with his and nothing stopped her words in his mind, "Taking care of you and the girls is more important than spilling secrets. Greer will get us home!"
Johnny thought about his friend and knew Zada was right, it was only a matter of time before they would find a way back to the future and back to the world where they wouldn't be tortured for being magical and being different. Greer would get them home; they just needed to get out of this place first.
"Tell me what you're capable of?" their captor yelled.
"Maybe I should show you!" Zada yelled back and used her power to shove the man away from her and he hit the wall with a sickening thud. Johnny wondered if Zada had actually killed him when he grunted and groaned. Zada pulled at her restraints but she couldn't get out of them same as Johnny. Zale was always the stronger telekinetic of the twins, where Zada's shields were unbreakable when she wasn't being drugged.
"You little bitch!" the man grunted as he stumbled around, trying to get to his feet. Johnny watched him start towards Zada again. Johnny wished again that he could shout something to make the man look at him. He forced his voice at the man's mind instead, "NO!"
The man gripped at his ears and forehead, shouting in pain and Johnny frowned, thinking, "Was that me?" to Zada who shrugged.
"What the hell was that?" the man demanded and turned to Johnny. He moved to quickly for Zada to keep the large hand from gripping Johnny's throat, cutting off Johnny's ability to breath. He gasped and tugged violently at his restraints. All the while Zada was screeching from behind him. "Let him go! No no no nononono!"
The man looked down at Johnny, "You can get into my head?"
Johnny shook his head, gasping in a few breaths when the fist loosened momentarily then it tightened once more.
"What the hell did you do to me? I have a massive headache now and I know it was something you did!" the man shouted in Johnny's face then turned to Zada, "I could snap his neck, I could do all sorts of nasty things to him. Do you want that?"
Zada shook her head against the bed, "Please no I do not want him to be hurt. I need you to take your hands off of him and I will tell you whatever you wish to know."
With that the man pressed harder and Johnny coughed, still trying to escape his bonds and fight for his life. He hated this helpless feeling, knew it was what his Daddy felt when he was hurt by Papa's brother, it is what Zale and Zada feel when their magical counterparts try to rule the body they both living within. It is what he feels when Johnny's mind is overtaken by a premonition.
Johnny couldn't stand that feeling; he turned it back on the man holding him. He forced all that agony into the man's contact. He forced the mental pain into physical pain and it shot into the captor's hand and he stumbled back and released his hold on Johnny's neck even as he gripped at his throat. He clawed as though icy fingers were wrapped around his neck now and then the feeling faded as Johnny had no physical connection to continue the magical transfer.
"Johnny?" Zada called out.
"I am alive," he whispered into her mind as he coughed and heaved in several deep breaths. "I forced pain into him, I have an other power!"
Zada nodded but she was more focused on the man getting to his feet again and an alarm sounded. Johnny wanted to press his hands into his ears, to block out the sound but he couldn't because of the straps. Zada struggled against her straps while another man ran into the room, glared at the man who'd been hurting them, "What are you doing in here?"
"What's going on?" the first man demanded instead of answering.
"Something is happening, we've been found and we need to get out and take the kids."
"We can't take them all," first man said.
"Then take the strongest and keep them drugged!"
First man nodded and left them room, pausing to glare at each of the strapped children. "I'm coming back for you and I'm going to make you pay for all the pain," he said with a smile that made Johnny cringe at the scary sight.
Then the man was gone and immediately Zada threw herself into action, twisting to free herself. Johnny did what he could but didn't have the strength to do more than lay on the bed and watch Zada struggle loose as she forced more of her power out in the effort. With a frustrated scream, his eldest sister shredded the straps.
"We gotta go Johnny," she said and jolted into stuttering action.