The Tempest

They say curiosity killed the cat, but that’s a damned lie. It was a collapsing baton, and no, I don’t have a habit of beating animals to death. It was night and it startled me; I thought it was an alien. Not that I believe in that kind of thing, but when you’re in a potentially dangerous situation and your life’s flashing before your eyes, you don’t think. You reach out for the first semi-plausible explanation and seize it with a death-grip.

I know what you’re thinking. “You’re rambling, Joe. Get to the point. What does this have to do with the people trying to kill you or the girl you--”

Shit. I haven’t even introduced myself yet. Maybe it’d be better if I started from the beginning. My name is Joseph Kite, and I have--had--the illustrious career of a night-shift security guard at the local protect-our-shit-we-don’t-want-anyone-knowing-about facility. You know, the ones that look like high-rise office buildings on the outside.

My problems--the life threatening ones that is--all started 22 hours ago.

The ice-cold cola had barely touched my cracked lips before I had to set it down to answer my cell. My friend gave his customary greeting of †˜Yo Joe.’ For some reason, he was amused that †˜yo’ rhymed with my name.

“You coming to Fred’s or what?” I cursed under my breath. The party had slipped me mind despite my resolve to not let that happen.

“I’m driving,” I said. “Can’t this wait?”

“You forgot, didn’t you?”

“No, it’s just that . . . you know how it is. I couldn’t get anyone to fill in for me.” Not entirely a lie. I hadn’t tried to get anyone to of course.

“Why does it matter? I know you, Joe. You hate your job. You’ve been waiting for a sign to quit. Maybe this is it.”

“A party is the sign I should quit?”

“Yes. That is how bad of a job it is.”

I’d be lying if I said the thought of waking up with a head-pounding hangover tomorrow didn’t appeal to me. “I’ll see what I can do,” I said as I pulled into the parking lot of the office building I was tasked with guarding from the hordes of thieves that were no doubt eyeing it at that moment.

“And I will see you later tonight,” my friend said. I snapped my cell closed knowing full well that I wouldn't make the party.

I got out of the beat-up old Saturn, coke in hand. I was never religious, but I offered a prayer nonetheless to the automobile god for keeping it from falling apart another day. It wasn’t quite dark enough for lights to start popping on inside, so the building looked rather forlorn tucked in the shadows of its taller, prouder neighbors. There was plenty of traffic still going by on the street, but I was the only one in the parking lot. I couldn’t explain it then and still can’t, but at that moment, I felt inexplicably alone. Not the kind of alone that makes you want to put a gun to your head, but it was sufficiently melancholy.

I pushed through the lobby doors and was greeted by the lone receptionist getting ready to head home. I nodded. “Katie.”

“And so my day comes to an end as your day begins,” she said.

“Yep. Truly a vicious, never-ending cycle.”

“But what can we do? The Man will always find a way to keep us down.”

“No doubt about it.” Having completed our daily nonsensical conversation, I moved on to the backroom that served as a security station to grab the tools of my trade: a flashlight and my trusty baton. I could have had a taser as part of my arsenal as well, but I wasn’t willing to complete the training, which involved getting shocked by one yourself.

The dayshift was still there when I entered. Arthur the ginger and Stephen, as bald and fat as ever. I checked the stainless steel wall clock. 7:45. I still had some time before my shift began, so I sat around and finished off the rest of the coke. I realized that Stephen was drinking one as well, and I had the eerie premonition that I would look like him in seven years. I vowed never to touch another soda.

Stephen and Arthur turned in their flashlight and baton (they were company property). Arthur left with a salute. Stephen said, “She’s all yours,” while pushing the door open with his rear. I studied my hand that had touched that very door minutes ago and gave it a good wipe on my pants.

8:01. Bobby was late again. Hell if I know how that guy got away with it so much. I showed up late once and got chewed out pretty hard.

I could see in the monitors that the ceiling lights had come on automatically by now, staving off the encroaching darkness of the city beyond. I know what you’re thinking. Two guys--well, one since Bobby was an asshole--for the whole building? Would you believe me if I said that there were only cameras on the first floor or that until that night, I had never set foot on any floor higher or lower than the first? That’s right.

I asked the head of security during my orientation about it, and he chalked it up to the owners being cheap and reasoning that there was no need to guard the other floors if no one could get past the first floor. I then asked what the protocol would be if someone were to zip-line over from an adjacent building like at the beginning of The Dark Knight to which he responded with an eyebrow-knitting scowl. I guess he didn’t like clowns. No that it matters; I never saw him again.

Time ticked by as I tried my hand at minesweeper and solitaire on a computer straight out of the nineties complete with a mini-tv sized monitor. The clock reached 11:00 without incident, but by then I had noticed that something was off.

You know that feeling you get when you feel as if you’re supposed to feel like someone’s watching you but you don’t? It’s similar to when that questionable friend of yours forces you to eat a brownie of unknown origin. You’re sitting there sweating, waiting for whatever he laced it with to kick in, but nothing happens. Your friend who you should then ditch at that point plays it off as a joke, but you can’t help but wonder. Was it really? What if there was something in there after all, waiting to take you unaware later? That’s exactly how I felt. Like I had just ingested the brownie and didn’t know whether or not I was doomed to die of a sudden heart attack.

I took my glasses off and rubbed my eyes and son of a bitch. Just when that sinking feeling was beginning to dissipate, I opened my eyes, and there on the monitor fuzzy under the scrutiny of my naked eyes was someone strolling down the halls. I cursed and threw my glasses back on, but the black and white figure was already gone. Now that’s what I call rotten luck. Had I continued rubbing my eyes for literally two seconds longer, I would have missed the guy entirely. I could have sat at the security station, thumb up my ass, not giving a damn, but no. Somebody had to come and ruin my night. I stood up, swivel chair spinning in my haste, and made my way to the hall where the intruder was.

I heard a noise coming from one of the side rooms and stumbled. The minimal training I had undergone for the job fled. “Um, Sir?” No good. I raised my voice, tried to make myself sound assertive. “You are trespassing on private property. Come out and vacate the premises. Immediately!” I waited for a masked robber to jump out, guns blazing, but it never came. “I’m not kidding, asshole!” Then it occurred to me. What if it was just some scared kid screwing around?

“Uh, I’m not going to hurt you. I mean, I don’t even have a gun. Just a weak, pathetic baton that would probably snap in half like a toothpick.” Still no response.

“Goddamn it,” I said to myself. I opened the door to the first floor office. The light from the hall penetrated the darkness for maybe 10 feet. I pulled out my flashlight and scanned the open room seeing not much beyond cubicles. I stood on my tiptoes on the hopes of seeing someone crouched in one, but I came up empty. I had to stop myself from taking a deep breath. A scared kid hiding from a scared security officer? This was ridiculous. I walked into the room before that part of the brain that could tell me what a terrible idea this was kicked in.

I strolled down the rows of cubicles trying to act casual. I pursed my lips to whistle but couldn’t get off more than two notes. I didn’t just do a half-assed search as much I would have liked to. I checked everywhere, and I mean everywhere. The aisles, under all the desks. Whoever was in there must have given me the slip, which was fine with me. I didn’t care about pressing charges. I wanted them gone, simple as that.

I stepped back out into the hall, turning off my flashlight when I heard the elevator doors at the end of the hall close. I whirred around, but it was already too late. The elevator was going up. Things just kept getting better.

“You little shit!” I sprinted to the elevator and pounded at the door in order to . . I don’t know. Maybe I could will it to stop with my mind? It didn’t work. I pushed the call button, resigned. A minute later, the elevator doors slid open. I stepped inside the empty elevator and pressed the button for the third floor, the floor the intruder had gotten off on.

The elevator dinged to announce that I had arrived at my destination. In that brief moment before the doors opened, I held my breath. I had, after all, never been up there before. It would have been different if I simply never had a reason to go up until then as opposed to being expressly told to avoid it like the plague.

My mind took off before I could get a good hold on it. But when the doors opened at last after two long, agonizing seconds, I was disappointed to find a hall not unlike the ones on the first floor. There was no sign of an illegal gambling den, and it sure as hell didn’t look like a superhero’s hideout.

There was also no sign of the intruder. I placed one tentative foot out of the elevator, and the lights flickered. They didn’t die on me, but I had my flashlight out again anyway, and I didn’t have the faintest desire of putting it back in my belt. I chose a direction (left, the other options being right and dead ahead) and moved up, the elevator closing behind me. I scanned for any sign at all of where that fucker could have gone but came up with nothing until I turned the corner.

I came out on a hallway that must have spanned the length of the entire building, and there, about halfway down, was a plain white door ajar, emitting a bluish glow. Then the hall lights went out, bathing me in darkness. It made the glow all the more deeper and strangely alluring. I turned around but could see nothing. Might as well press on having made it this far. I turned on my flashlight.

I suddenly wished I had taken the time to get my will straightened out. Not that I was scared or anything. Just a random thought.

The door felt surprisingly sturdy compared to the other ones in the building. I pointed my flashlight at a black box on the wall next to it, revealing a code pad or rather, what had been a code pad. The screen where the numbers would have been displayed was blown out.

“That’s not a good sign,” I said to myself.

I slipped into the room and into the blue aura it emitted. I entered what must have been another world. There’s no other way to explain it. The room was absolutely cavernous and located roughly in the center of the building. The walls were covered in what looked like soundproof material. Layers upon layers of equipment that I didn’t even want to guess at littered the floor, mixed in with other more obvious items like the latest, high-tech computers. I just knew the owners were holding out on us poor security guards.

A shiver worked its way through my spine like a bad chiropractor as I passed by an operating table complete with straps to tie down patients and proceeded to the source of the glow. Before me stood row upon row of liquid filled pods, a person suspended in the middle of each of them.

My breath caught. “What the fuck is going on here?” My voice couldn’t have sounded any smaller than it did then. I walked down the row of tanks on level with the floor. They weren’t clones, which was my first impression. Upon closer inspection, they were all different. I stopped before one tank that contained a girl who couldn’t have been older than 20. She wore what looked like a hospital gown, but it was hard to tell in the posture she was in. She was rolled up in a ball, arms wrapped around her knees. Her hair, long and purple, floated up with the buoyancy of the liquid.

I leaned in for a better look, shining the flashlight at her downcast head. She looked up, eyes snapping open. A thin line shot out across the side of the tank. I backed up. My flashlight popped like popcorn, puff of smoke bellowing out where the lens had been a second ago. I dropped it like a hot potato, but my attention was quickly drawn back to the girl whose tank now sported a web of cracks centered on the first one. Not good. Or was it?

It shattered, spilling its contents, and I took several more startled steps back to avoid getting wet. The girl landed on her side. She coughed up whatever that liquid was and groped around as if she were blind. Her eyes zeroed in on me. Then if felt like a bomb went off in front of me.

My body exploded with pain. I was thrown off my feet and crashed into some expensive looking instrument. Sparks shot out on impact. My ears rang, and my vision blurred, but not enough to lose focus of the shape of the girl approaching on unsteady legs. I groped for my baton, but it was useless. My fingers felt like limp noodles. She stopped in front of me. Her lips parted. I could almost feel the heat of the laser that was about to come out and melt my--

“Oh! I am so sorry!” She helped me climb back to my feet. “I thought you were one of them.” One of who?

I tried to ask her just what the fuck was going on when she shushed me, grabbed me by the arm and started dragging me away. We emerged back into the hallway, lights still out. She led me back the way I had come, back to the elevator. She pressed the call button, but nothing happened.

“The power’s out,” I said. The call button flickered back to life proceeded by the dull roar of the elevator making its way to us. According to the panel, it had for reasons unknown taken a trip to the sixteenth floor after I got off. We waited in silence. I stole a glance at the strange girl/robot/whateverthehell, but her face betrayed nothing. She stared dead ahead at the elevator, crystal blue eyes focused.

I took the opportunity to snatch my arm away from her. “What the hell is going on in this place?”

“I can explain later,” she said.

“You can tell me now or I won’t continue to help you!” I hadn’t actually done anything to help so far, but we didn’t need to go there.

She shushed me again. “Do you want them to hear you?”

I was about to ask who †˜them’ was when I heard what sounded like a precession of boots making their way toward us. Beams of light shone on the wall at the end of the hall. Suddenly, the elevator couldn’t have come faster.

We reached the first floor and continued to the lobby, but we didn’t stop there. She stopped us in the middle of the parking lot to look around. I pointed at my Saturn, and we pressed on, but something occurred to me.

“Wait!” I said. “We have to lock up the building.” But my protest went unheeded. She stared at me from the passenger’s side, expression souring from mildly pleasant to pissed off as she waited on me to unlock the doors. I sighed, giving in. Before I knew it, we were several blocks away at a red light and heading nowhere in particular.

“Okay. I think now’s as good a time as any for you to explain what . . .” I trailed off. She was slumped over in her seat, snoring. “Motherfucker.”

I slammed the horn out of frustration. She stirred but didn’t wake.

I drove around aimlessly for an hour or two, whittling down my gas. I toyed with the idea of taking the mysterious girl to my friend’s house but quickly discarded it. In the end, I did the only sensible thing to do when you might be being followed by shady guys who may or may not have the authority of the government backing them. I went home to my apartment.

I pulled into my spot in the parking garage, slammed the car door in another fit of rage and walked around to the passenger side.

I froze.

She hadn’t been wearing her seatbelt the entire trip. Had she no regard for personal safety? Imagine what would have happened if we ran into a cop! I couldn’t afford to pay tickets at the time, believe me. After venting my fumes, I pulled her out, one arm under her knees, the other around her back. Hugging her close, I made the trek up to my apartment.

I almost got there without issue. Almost. As I stood outside my door struggling to pull keys out of my pocket while keeping the girl from falling, my neighbor (a veteran who I thank for his service) just had to step out for an early morning jog at that exact moment. He took one look at me and my load. I shouldn’t have to say how shifty I looked.

“Rough night?” he asked.

“You could say that,” I said, keys forgotten. “She’s, uh . . . did I ever tell you about my sister?” He shook his head. “She’s visiting from out of town. I just got back from picking her up at the airport, and as you can see, she has a terrible case of jetlag.”

My neighbor studied us, comparing my brown hair and slightly tan skin to her purple hair and skin that was a little on the pale side.

“She’s into dying her hair weird colors,” I added. “Isn’t it cute?” I tried my hand at smiling but made myself look more like a guy about to molest a helpless girl if anything.

He shrugged and took off. I did my best not to linger on his broad shoulders or finely toned forearms. I should take this opportunity to point out that I’m not insecure about my body or masculinity in anyway. I mean, I was the one coming home with a hot chick.

When I finally managed to make it inside, I set her down on the couch and dragged a chair over from the table in the kitchen. I checked my watch. 5:32. Where had all the time went? I wasn’t tired; I usually didn’t crash until about 9 or 10. I was however hungry. And chilly. It wasn’t until then that I realized how much of her body heat had seeped into me.

I examined for not the first time the features of the runaway lab rat. She rolled onto her side, expression the epitome of tranquility. I had the desire to snuggle on the couch alongside her and get some of that warmth back, but I didn’t dare act on it. I settled for tucking a few loose strands of purple hair behind her ear instead.

Despite breaking, like, 50 laws and racking up no fewer than 20 years of hard time, I wasn’t fearing for my life. I felt excited if anything to be honest. In a way, I had finally stuck it to my shitty employer. Besides, this was the first time I’d ever had a girl over even if I had taken her in unconscious and without her consent. Shoving my dirty thoughts to the farthest reaches of my mind, it was also the first time it fell squarely on me to look after someone, and I wasn’t about to let her down.

But man, was I hungry! Peanut-butter jelly time. I grabbed a coke out of the fridge along with the jar of jelly. Nothing had tasted sweeter than that soda--Damn it! I broke my vow.

Thank God for Wal-Mart. Say what you want about how detrimental they are to local businesses or how terribly they treat their employees, but having a store open 24 hours was pretty damn convenient. As I munched on my sandwich, it occurred to me that the girl would need a change of clothes.

I won’t bore you with the minute details of my shopping trip, but imagine a game where you close your eyes and stick your hand out at random. Now imagine doing this with a rack of bras. Now imagine going through this process in front of a bunch of strangers. You get the idea.

I didn’t have the foresight to take her measurements. I also didn’t know how I would even go about doing that. In the end, I bought woman’s underwear in three different sizes to go with clothes that I thought would fit.

As I got to the floor of my apartment, my heart sank. The door was wide open. I distinctly remembered locking it shut. A cursory glance inside told me she was gone

“Oh shit. Okay, think,” I said to myself. “The key is not to panic. Whatever I do, do not panic.” I spent the next five minutes pacing back and forth as calmly as possible. Wherever she was, she couldn’t have gone far. She could even still be in the building. Unless she was kidnapped by the guys from the crazy lab. It didn’t look like there was a struggle. Everything in the apartment was the way I left it excerpt for her. Unless they whisked her off when she was sleeping.

I really needed to stop with the negative thinking; it wasn’t leading anywhere. But too much optimism could be downright stupid. Ugh! I had to start somewhere. I grabbed my baton from work and stuffed it into my pocket before beginning my search of the apartment complex.

This required some expert detective work. Three doors of pissed off people later, I got someone who saw my runaway girl heading toward the stairs. Where to now? Up or down? I had ruled out the floor I was on, but there were still 14 other floors to check.

I settled for starting with the top and working my way down. I climbed the stairs two at a time and arrived at the top floor, but I stopped there. The door to the roof was cracked open, and rays of sunlight were poking in. I climbed the last flight and found a cinder block keeping the door in place. I opened it the rest of the way and there she was at the edge of the roof, wind playing with her hair and gown. She faced the sun rising above the distant buildings, her back to me.

I can’t explain what I was feeling at the time, but I couldn’t bring myself to call out to her. Just seeing her like that . . . it felt wrong somehow, like I was intruding on something I shouldn’t be a part of. At the same time, I couldn’t bring myself to leave either. As corny as this sounds, the whole ordeal had felt like a dream until then, but with this sight before me, the spell had worn off. I was awake.

I didn’t have to wait long. She turned, lips parted to form the beginnings of a question. Then she smiled bright and wide. It was so sudden it made my heart jump.

“I really did it this time, didn’t I?” she asked.

I had no response.

“I’m free!” She twirled, the edges of her gown spinning at her knees. She ran up to me, arms spread out and stopped just short of running into me. She was nearly a head shorter than me.

Now seemed like as good a time as any.

“Can you please explain what the fuck is going on? I’m very confused.”

“Oh right, sorry! I guess it slipped my mind.” Her stomach rumbled.

“I’ve got food back in my apartment. A change of clothes for you to.” I had her at the food. Getting her to come back with me had been far easier than I feared it would.

When the girl whose name I still didn’t know walked out of my bathroom, she did so in jeans, sneakers and a hoodie. I learned then how bad I was at sizing people up. The pants were the only things that fit. Both the hoodie and the sneakers were several sizes too big, making her appear even smaller than she was. It was quite comical.

I tried and failed to stifle a laugh, but a gaze from her matching the one she used to get me to get in my car shut me up. Luckily I had an offering in the form of a sandwich and smore pop-tarts fresh out of the toaster. She accepted them with all the grace of a goddess forgiving a loyal subject and devoured them. I watched, mouth agape.

“What?” she said after swallowing a mouthful.

“Um, I’m Joseph Kite. My friends call me Joe.”

She stared at me like I had gone mad. “I’m Em! Thanks for the tasty food, Joe.”

“Is that short for something?”

She shook her head. “Nope. Just Em. I had another name once, I think. But I don’t remember.”

“You got amnesia or something?”

“Sure.”

“Do you even know what amnesia is?”

“How old do you think I am?” she asked. I gulped. This was one of the questions to avoid when talking to a girl.

“. . . 18?”

She slammed a fist down on the table. The light above us flickered. I could have sworn I replaced it not too long ago. “I’m 21!” This wasn’t going at all like I had planned. A minute of actual conversation with her, Em, and she already hated me. I suppose I shouldn’t have had any higher expectations.

But her outburst was gone in a flash, and she was back to finishing off the last pop-tart as happy as can be. Talk about mood swings. I stopped myself from asking if she was on her period, which A, would have been sexist, and B, I liked living.

“So, just Em. What was going on in that place?”

She was hesitant to answer, but after twenty minutes of coaxing . . . I still didn’t get her to talk much. I learned that it was indeed some kind of lab in which they performed experiments on her and the others. When they weren’t being used, they were stored in those tanks filled with that liquid, which, according to her, definitely wasn’t water. She wouldn’t spill a word about how she ended up there or what her life was like before. I listened to what she did tell me with riveting interest.

When she was done, I removed my glasses to rub my burning eyes. “You don’t believe me, do you?” she asked.

“I was there, remember? I was the one who drove you away and carried you here. It’s just that . . . it’s hard to swallow, even after all that. How can something on that scale go on without anyone finding out? This is America, the land of freedom and eagles and all that shit.”

“Oh, I wanna see an eagle!”

“That was a figure of speech. There aren’t any around here.”

After a time, Em said, “I don’t know. It’s not like they told me everything. I only know what they did to me and what I overheard.”

“Maybe I’d be more inclined to go along with this if you told me everything you do know . . .” She shot me another one of her looks, but I didn’t back down this time. “Look, I think we can both agree that your escape plan wouldn’t have worked if I didn’t happen to be there. Plus, I haven’t turned you in yet, have I? I’d say I’ve earned your trust.”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t feel up to it. Maybe later.” Her bluster had been replaced with gloominess. Now I felt like a jerk, but I didn’t apologize.

I dug my cell out of my pocket and flipped it open.

“What are you doing?” Em asked before I could push a single button.

“Calling the cops.”

“You can’t!”

“Why not? Those guys back at the lab will be looking for you, won’t they? In any case, the authorities can do more for you than I can.”

“But you’re a security guard.”

“The proper authorities--”

“That’s you. Think about the pain you’d have to go through if you called the cops. You’d have to explain everything.” She really did not want me to contact them. She didn’t reach out to stop me, but she looked at me imploringly. I sighed and put the phone away. I could always call them later. What could possibly go wrong?

The tension melted out of her. “Now what?” she asked.

“Now’s about the time I’d go to sleep.” But I didn’t know if that was such a good idea. She seemed to read my mind.

“I can stay put,” she said with a smile.

“Don’t . . . you better mean it. You can’t leave this apartment at all.” She nodded. “If anyone comes to the door, don’t answer it. Or wake me up, or whatever.” She nodded again. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say her eyes were glistening with excitement. “You swear?” She held out her pinky. Good enough for me. You couldn’t get any closer to a legally binding document than that.

I plopped down on my bed, ready for the night to end. I tried to think back on everything that had happened, but sleep took me away in minutes to a land of dark corridors and faceless pursuers.

I sat up, not in a sweat, but I might as well have been. And here I thought I was handling the situation fairly well. Way to betray me, subconscious.

I checked the alarm clock on the nightstand. 1:10. I had gotten less than four hours of sleep. I was hoping for more, but I’ve managed to make due with less. I wasn’t going to be able to fall back asleep anyway, that was for damn sure. I grabbed a fresh change of clothes and took a quick five minute shower, just enough to make me feel refreshed.

I walked out into the living room and there was Em sitting on the couch, face beat red. She stared straight ahead at the blank television, not daring to look at me. You see, I don’t have guests over, like ever, so I normally don’t bother closing the bathroom door. I had forgotten that just maybe that might have been a good idea this time.

I coughed into my hand. "Did you see anything?"

She continued her staring contest with the TV. “I don't know what you're talking about.” She laughed nervously. I don’t even know why I bothered.

I rubbed my neck. “I guess I should have--”

“I said I didn’t see anything!” There was a loud bang like a gunshot. I collapsed to the ground, wrapping my arms around my head for protection. A picture of a woman lying face-down in a puddle of blood danced at the edge of my vision. I was later told by Em that a whimper escaped my mouth. I know what you thinking. What a pathetic bastard, but don’t judge. I had my reasons that I’m not prepared to share yet.

I risked a glance between my arms and realized that Em still sat on the couch, hands folded on her lap. She regarded me with a mix of curiosity and worry. “W-what are you doing? Get down!” I shouted.

“But why?”

“Are you deaf? Someone shot at us!”

“I’m sorry. I guess I should have said something earlier.”

Said what earlier? I looked up with caution. There was a big smoking hole in the TV screen, but that was it. There were no bullet holes anywhere that I could see. I relaxed. “Did you do that?” I asked, hesitant.

“It’s not like those experiments they did accomplished nothing,” she said. “For a while now, I’ve been able to manipulate electricity.”

Bullshit. That was my first response, but it didn’t seem so farfetched when I thought about it. Something similar happened to my flashlight when she first broke out of her tank. Then there was that freak force that threw me off my feet. After that, the power magically turned back on, allowing us to use the elevator to get out. There was also earlier in the kitchen. When I recounted my tale of my trip to the third floor, she said everything I saw must have been their systems going haywire while she gathered enough power to make her escape.

“I, uh, sometimes I have trouble controlling it.”

“And here I was thinking you blew up my TV for shits and giggles.”

“I said I was sorry.”

I stood to my feet and loomed over her. I raised my hand, and she closed her eyes shut, waiting for what was to come. What the hell did she think I was going to do? I guess this spoke volumes of the way she was treated before her breakout. Thinking about it made my blood boil.

I laid my hand gently on her shoulder and patted it. Her eyes opened; her smile returned. It almost made me forget that I was out a TV. “Mind if I sit here?”

“Go ahead.”

I sat down next to her. I felt sorry for Em. I really did, but this was starting to get way over the head of a nightshift security guard. It was becoming more and more tempting to call the police by the second. If only there was a clear-cut answer. I was pretty good at following orders like an obedient little grunt. Making up those orders myself though? That was entirely different territory.

The quiet that had settled between us erupted into the blaring alarm of the smoke detector causing us both to jump. I was about ready to cry at that point. I shook my head, and just like that, the alarm was silenced. I knew immediately why.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome,” Em said.

My phone vibrated. I pulled it out. It was work. Em must have seen the look on my face. “What is it?” she asked.

“My boss,” I whispered.

She dropped the volume of her voice to match mine. “Why are we whispering?”

“I don’t know. Don’t say anything.” I flipped it open, starting the call.

“Joseph.” My boss’s voice crackled at the other end.

“Mr. Graham.”

“Where have you been? You weren’t there when the morning shift came in. We checked the cameras. You left around midnight and didn’t come back.”

“My apologies, sir. It was the strangest thing.”

“I’d love to hear all about it.”

“Family emergency. I shouldn’t go into the details.”

“And you decided it would be in everyone’s best interest if you just left without saying a word? Did you even think to try to contact anyone to take over for you?”

I actually had, but I decided against it for obvious reasons. “It won’t happen again.”

“Where are you?” The question came out of nowhere.

“My apar--friend’s house. Why?” I already knew. There was only one possibility.

“It’s nothing. I thought I heard something in the background, but it looks like it’s coming from this end.” Wow. And I thought I was a bad liar. “If you pull a stunt like this one more time, you’re fired.”

As if my job mattered now. Might as well say something I had been meaning to say for quite some time. “Oh shoot, it almost slipped my mind. I quit.”

“You--” I closed my phone with a snap. Words could not describe the way I felt. Too bad I didn’t have time to sit around and enjoy it. I ran back to my room to grab my wallet and keys.

“What’s going on?” Em called. “Joe?”

I should have realized it earlier. “We’re leaving.”

“Why?”

“Because they fucking know where I live. That’s why!” She didn’t need to be told a second time. She was up in an instant and followed me out the door. We started to go to the elevator, but that thing could have been a death trap waiting to happen if they showed up. †˜They’ being Graham and whoever he answered to. We turned around to take the stairs at the end of the hall instead.

We had just gotten to the stairwell. The elevator dinged, announcing that someone was about to get off. The noise rooted me in place, but I motioned Em to go on. I turned around slowly like I was surrounded by jello. Standing in front of the elevator doors was a man I had never seen before. He wore everyday clothes and wouldn’t have looked particularly threatening if he wasn’t staring at me, gaze unwavering. There had been but one other time in my life when I had done something to deserve the death stare. Let’s just say it wasn’t a good sign.

I turned back, trying to act as casual as possible, but it wasn’t long before I broke into a run, bounding down the stairs. Maybe it was my imagination playing tricks on me, maybe it wasn’t. But I could have sworn I heard the sounds of boots echoing after me. I didn’t dare look back to find out.

I assumed that Em’s ogling of everything we drove by would cease after ten minutes, give or take. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I called her name; she didn’t respond.

“You’d think this was her first time outside in years,” I said under my breath. It was meant to be a joke, but I’ll never know if it was funny. Em was too busy pressing her face against the window to give her feedback. At least she was wearing her seatbelt this time. I had made sure of that.

“You’re going to draw attention to us,” I said, voice raised.

“I can’t help it,” she said. She still hadn’t budged. I gave up.

“So, what’s the plan?”

“I dunno. I thought you had one.”

Don’t I wish. We stopped at an intersection. The sunlight hit her purple hair, lighting it up like a beacon. “We’re going to need to do something about your hair.”

“My hair?”

“I’m thinking we should dye it black.” That got her undivided attention. She settled back in her seat.

“No!”

“Brown then?”

“What’s wrong with my hair?”

“Do I really need to say it? It makes you stick out like a sore thumb. Why’d you go and get it dyed purple of all colors in the first place?” Come to think of it, why would the secret lab let her dye it to begin with?

“This isn’t dye.” She grabbed a couple strands. “It’s 100 percent natural.”

“Natural my ass.”

“You’ve never seen anyone with purple hair before?”

“No. Look, this isn’t a discrimination thing. I don’t judge people by the color of their hair, but we’ve got to do something. You might as well hang a neon sign around you that says †˜here I am.’”

“Fine,” she pouted. “But if I have to dye mine, you have to dye yours too. It’s only fair.”

“No it’s not. There’s nothing wrong with my hair color.”

“And you must make it green.”

“That would only make the situation worse.”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never seen anyone with green hair either!”

“What planet have you been living on?”

“This one.”

Speaking of green, the light changed. I put my foot back on the gas pedal, but nothing happened. I pushed a little harder. Still nothing. Some impatient guy behind me tooted his horn by now.

“What the hell is . . .” I trailed off as I spotted the fuel gauge. It was on E. I let my forehead hit the wheel. The horn blared.

What was shaping up to be the longest day of my life wasn’t getting any better. It took several minutes of me pushing, Em steering and verbal abuse from traffic before we were able to maneuver the Saturn into a parking spot. It took another minute to catch my breath.

“You are like one giant bad luck magnet,” I said, resting against the bumper.

“I’m sorry. I’m not doing it on purpose,” she said. She sat in the driver seat, twirling her index fingers around each other. “I can magnetize myself though. They made me do it a couple a times. It was actually kinda cool, but it felt really weird.”

“If you’re a goddamn superhero, why don’t you just kick their asses?”

“I don’t wanna kill anyone.”

“What was that last night when you first broke out of your tank?”

“I just wanted to stun you, but I over did it. Sorry.”

“You don’t have to apologize for everything all the fucking time,” I snapped. She curled up into a ball. Fan-fucking-tastic. Not even an hour into our getaway, and everything was already going to shit. To top it all off, I couldn’t even bitch about it without feeling guilty immediately after.

“Sometimes, people don’t leave you with choices,” I said.

“My power isn’t infinite. It’s like a rechargeable battery. It’ll die out after a while, and then I have to wait for it to come back.”

“Makes sense.” I didn’t understand it at all. All I needed to know was that she wasn’t going to kill though. I decided to leave everything about her powers to her. I heard a familiar grumbling noise. “What’d they feed you in that place, anyway?”

“The food was the worst. All they ever gave us were these nutrient bar things.”

"So army rations basically?"

"Sure."

I didn't bother to ask if she knew what I was talking about. “Come on,” I said.

“Where are we going?”

“To get something to eat. Where else?”

She didn’t move. “I’ve been thinking. Maybe it would be better if I went off on my own.”

“Nonsense.”

“I’ve already caused you enough trouble.” Her words nagged at me. She was offering me a way out. As much as I don’t want to admit it, I knew that part of me wanted that more than anything, to be able to go back to last night and never get on that elevator. But the other part? I guarantee you it wouldn’t have stood for abandoning her.

I grabbed her by the arm and led her out of the car. “Let’s go,” I said. “I don’t know about you, but I’m starving. And if you don’t want to come, you’re staying here until I get back, understand? Understand?” Her smile returned. “There we go!”

“Joe? Don’t ever talk to me like a child again.” I muttered a hasty apology as we went out in search of a good place to grab a bite.

The café we settled on was near deserted. We must have just missed the lunch rush. Besides Em and I, the only other people there were the employees and a man at a table in the corner wearing a deep burgundy suit complete with a hat and a cane. In short, he looked like a reject pimp. I placed our orders for two BLTs and drinks to go with them.

I dug in immediately after our food arrived at the table, getting a big bite of lettuce and bread. Em, who sat across from me, didn’t have the same enthusiasm that I did however. She held hers in both hands, staring it down.

“Eat,” I said. “It’s already paid for, so it’ll just go to waste if you don’t--”

“What the hell is this, Joe?” I didn’t see anything wrong with it. “There’re vegetables on this thing!”

“Are you sure you’re 21?” Em glared. “If you didn’t want vegetables, then why didn’t you say anything when I ordered the food?”

“How was I supposed to know what †˜BLT’ means?”

“Bacon, lettuce, tomato? Everyone knows what that means.” I didn’t want to sound insensitive to her predicament. I had not forgotten that she had spent the last several years as a lab rat, but what about before all that? I shook my head in disbelief.

Glare.

“Give it here.” I took the sandwich and set it down next to my half-eaten one. I pulled out my wallet. Huh. Only two 5’s and a 20? We were gonna need more money soon. I handed her one of the 5’s. “Go back up and get whatever you want.”

“You don’t have--”

“Now!” She hopped to her feet and shuffled over to the counter.

The bell above the door jingled, but I was too busy with my two sandwiches to pay attention to who it was. Clothes rustle and chair legs screeched as someone settled in at the table behind me.

“Good afternoon, Joseph Kite.” The voice was a whisper in my ear that sent shivers down my spine. I reached for the baton tucked in my belt.

“Don’t move,” the man said. I glanced at Em who was conducting an intense study of the menu.

I gulped. “Who are you?”

An employee walked over. “Have you placed an order yet, sir?” she asked him.

“I just stepped in to get off my feet,” he said. His voice sounded radically different when it wasn’t a sinister whisper in my ear.

“You can only sit down if you’re a customer. If you don’t order anything, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you to leave soon.”

“All right. I’ll get something. Just give me time to think.”

“Yes, sir.” With that, the waitress left.

“You know who I am,” he said, voice back to a whisper when she was gone. “You know who I work for that is, and that’s all you need to know.”

“Fuck you and fuck your bosses, motherfucker. What kind of monster does the shit you guys do to other people?”

“It’s not my place to judge, but if I had to take a crack at it, I’d say you’re being naïve especially for a kid who witnessed his mother shot dead.”

Impossible. “Bullshit. Do you even know what’s going on in there yourself? I’m calling the cops now.”

“And do what? Hand her over to them? What do you think will happen then? She’ll go into protective custody? No, Mr. Kite. She goes where we want her to go.”

It looks like not calling them was the right choice, assuming this guy was telling the truth. “Fine then. We’ve managed to escape your grasp on our own so far.”

“Don’t kid yourself. Have you not wondered why we haven’t come for her in force? You’ve only done as well as you have thus far because we want to avoid making a scene. Believe me when I say, we can and will make your life a living hell if you want to continue playing Where’s Waldo.” It was a threat, but there was no malice. This was his job, to tell people how it was.

“You’re a smart man, Mr. Kite, and here’s why. I’m going to leave. Shortly after, you’re going to leave. Turn down the alley a block north of here and follow it all the way down to where I’ll be waiting. I’ll take her off your hands and you get to go on with your life. You’re fired from your job of course, but that’s your problem to deal with.”

I didn’t say a word as the opportunity for a way out reared its head again. Boy was it tempting. He got up and as he walked past my table, I got a good look at him for the first time. The guy at the elevator back at the apartment. Em watched him leave, no longer paying attention to the menu, face taught with apprehension. Had she overheard?

“You decide what to get?” I asked her.

She jumped. “Not yet,” she said. She laughed nervously, rubbing the back of her neck.

I finished my sandwich and got started on the other BLT by the time Em made it back to the table with what looked liked two pieces of bread overflowing with nothing but roast beef and a side order of fries. We ate in silence for a time.

“Who was that?” she asked when she was done.

“Who?”

“That one guy.”

“Hell if I know. I overheard him tell the waitress that he was just resting his feet.”

“I think I’ve seen him before,” she said. “At the lab.”

So that’s what it was. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if she had indeed seen him before. “I wouldn’t worry about it,” I said. “If he was really one of them, don’t you think he would have tried to take you with him or something?”

That seemed to put her at ease. “I guess you’re right. Maybe I was mistaken.”

Lunch over, we threw the trash away and left. I couldn’t help but notice the reject pimp stealing glances at us. That guy was started to give me the creeps. I was glad to get away from him when the time came.

“Where are we going?” Em asked ten steps out of the café. “The car’s back the other way.” She hung back a bit, uncertain.

“It’s out of gas, and I’m short on money. I have a friend who lives close by.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I mean, should we drag him into this?”

“Who said anything about dragging him in? We’re just going to stop by for a bit. He owes me money. Besides, the guy’s such a jackass. He’d totally deserve it if he got shot in the knee or something. There was this one time he gave me this brownie . . .” I shivered. I couldn’t even go on with the story without the bad memories flooding back.

“What’s so bad about brownies?”

“Do you know what weed is?”

“Of course I do! It’s the stuff that grows in the ground that nobody likes.”

“Never mind.”

At that moment, I could have sworn I felt someone trying to burn holes in my back with their eyes. Em ran to catch up to me. “Now I want brownies,” she said when she was by my side.

“We just ate.”

“But not dessert. That’s the best part.”

I couldn’t comprehend where her body was finding room for all of this. I felt pretty full myself. Granted, I did eat two sandwiches. In the time it took us to walk down one block, I couldn’t keep my eyes from wandering. I constantly looked this way and that in search of someone who looked like they following us. If it only it was like the movies where all the bad guys wore suits and sunglasses. It would have given me a much easier time.

I stopped at the mouth of the alley indicated by the guy at the café.

“What’s wrong?” Em asked. I realized I was shaking from what I was about to do.

“There’s something I need to tell you,” I said, “and you need to listen carefully.”

You know what I love more than anything in the world? Walking down dank alleys that smell like shit. It reminded me of my cheery childhood when my father was a drunk that left one day never to be seen again, and, as the guy from the lab had said, my mother was killed right before my eyes in a drive-by shooting. I was about at the halfway point when a figured stepped out from the shadows of a doorway. Sure enough, it was the douche from before.

“Where’s the girl?” he asked.

“She has a name, you know. Em is far away from here already with any luck.” He was not amused. I continued. “That’s right. I warned her about this little setup, told her to get the fuck away.”

“You moron. You couldn’t follow simple directions could you?”

“Nope.”

“You leave me no choice then.” He reached into his pocket, withdrawing a handgun. My heartbeat quickened by tenfold in the span of a second. He pulled out a silencer to go along with it.

“Holy shit, do it now!”

He turned around just in time to see Em behind him. She held out her hand. His began to shake. Beads of sweat formed on the side of his face. Then the gun was free. It flew through the air and stuck to her open palm.

I whistled. “I bet you thought you were so clever.” He looked from Em to me, mouth open in surprise. “You--”

He charged at me, roaring. I whipped out the baton, but he grabbed me by the wrist. We fell to the dirty pavement, struggling over the blunt weapon. I put up a struggle, but there was no way in hell I was about to win out against a guy who was obviously trained for fighting.

“Em, do something!”

“Like what!?”

“Anything,” I choked out. He had the baton by both hands now and pinned my head to the asphalt with it. Its cold metal bit into my neck. Tears clouded my vision.

Then the weight holding me down left all at once. The enforcer was blown off me. He flew 20 feet before landing on his back, smoking.

“Thank you,” I managed. I rubbed at my throat and winced. There was a narrow burn mark where the baton had been. I ran over to Em who was still holding the gun. She collapsed to her knees.

“Did I just . . . just . . . k-k-ki--”

“Give me the gun,” I said. I put a hand on top of it, but her grip didn’t loosen.

“Em. Em? Give me the gun.” I tried to sound assertive and comforting at the same time. She let go of it at last though I didn’t like holding it that much either. I shot a look back at the enforcer. He groaned, but didn’t move. “He’s fine. You did your part perfectly.”

Tears welled up at the edges of her eyes. “Look at me. You did what you had to, and you didn’t kill him. Everything is going to be fine.”

I heard the enforcer stir. I tried to go check on him but found that Em was holding on to my free hand. A tear streaked down her cheek. “Don’t leave me,” she croaked.

“I have to check on him.” I waved urgently at the enforcer who had rolled onto his side. “I’ll be right back.” I pulled my hand free.

“Please,” she said, but I was already crossing the distance to him. I tapped him gently with the point of my shoe, eliciting another groan. His left hand had a nasty burn on it. His right still had the baton in it. I tucked the pistol into my pants and leaned over to winch it free. He grabbed me by the shirt.

“I warned you,” he said. “Don’t blame me when everything you know--”

“Goes to hell; I got that the first time.” He moaned as I pulled the baton free. I snapped it closed and put it next to the pistol. I was starting to form a nice little arsenal right above my ass.

I made my way back to Em who was still on her knees. I offered a hand and she took it. I helped her to her feet and led her back to the street with an arm around her shoulders. I tried to remove it when we were free of the alley, but she wouldn’t let me. If anything, she pressed herself closer against me. I wasn’t about to complain.

My reasons behind attacking the enforcer were thus. I didn’t doubt for a second that he or someone else would be waiting where he indicated on the off chance that we showed up, but I figured his words at the café served another purpose: to scare us. Put us on edge. Turning Em in would have obviously been the best outcome for them, but us terrified and on the run was most likely what they were expecting. So I decided to do the opposite. Besides, I seriously doubted they planned on letting me leave unharmed had I turned Em in. Chances are I would have ended up at the lab a test subject alongside her.

Having said that, I didn’t think that Em would have to go through what she did. Had I known what would have happened, I’m not sure I would have made the same choice.

A bus ride later and we were standing outside my friend’s house. Grey clouds roiled in the sky above us. Em was more or less back to her old herself by now, which was both good and bad. On the bright side, she was smiling again, which was the way she belonged; it somehow felt plain wrong when she was sad. On the other hand, she wasn’t clinging to me anymore, and I didn’t have the balls to put my arm around her again without a pretense like her being emotionally distraught.

“Come on,” I said. We walked up the pathway, and I rang the doorbell. Nothing. I rang it again. “Fred! You in there?” The door finally opened a minute later. The person before me stood 6 feet and 3 inches. Em must have looked like a dwarf compared to him. I went to confirm it for myself when I realized she was hiding behind me. Was she scared of him?

“Joe?” Fred said. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes. “Ah man, you look like hell. Where were you last night? The party was off the hook!” My clothes were still dirty from my tussle with the enforcer and there was the burn on my neck. I was doing my best to cope with the stinging.

“You know, same old same old.”

“Come on in.” There wasn’t a light on inside. Between that and the clouds blocking the sun, it was a bit dark. It suddenly felt like 7:00 instead of 5:00. I shut the door behind us. “I keep telling you. That job is a dead in. When you gonna quit . . .” He trailed off as he noticed Em for the first time. If she really was scared, that gaze of his wasn’t helping. “Joe, you lucky bastard. Is she a new girlfriend?”

I didn’t want to tell him anymore than I needed to. It was best to leave him in the dark. “Sure,” I said at the same time that Em said, “No.” She glared at me, but her cheeks burned a shade of red.

Fred chuckled. “So, what? You hooked up last night and you’re already going through relationship problems? Smooth. Well, make yourselves comfortable. You got a name?” he asked her.

“Em,” she said. She sat down on the couch.

“Cute. Can I interest you in some refreshments? Beer? Snacks?”

“Do you have any brownies?” Em asked, face lit up with hope.

Fred smirked. “Yes I do, my lady. You want some?”

Our answers were the same as before but reversed. “Why not?” Em asked.

“His brownies come with a few surprises,” I said.

“I like surprises.”

Fred returned from the kitchen a moment later with a plate full of brownies. Em reached over to pick one up, but I slapped it out of her hand.

Fred cursed. “What the hell is wrong with you, man? Let the lady eat what she wants.”

“No,” I repeated.

“Why the fuck not?” Em asked, hands on her hips. It was the first I had heard her cuss. Had she picked it up from me? I glared at her. “What? W-why are you looking at me like that?”

Fred gave up and took the brownies back. “That is not a healthy relationship,” he said from the kitchen.

“Some water would be fine,” I said, then to Em, “Just trust me.”

“All right,” she said, but she didn’t look too happy about it.

Fred returned a moment later with two glasses of ice cold water. I downed half of mine in one gulp. I wandered over to the giant book case he had in the family room that covered an entire wall. I skimmed through the books and picked one out at random.

“I swear to God,” Fred said, “one of the best books I ever read.”

It was a fantasy judging by the picture on the cover of an armored figure standing in an epic pose, sword aflame and thrust up toward the sky. I placed it back and grabbed another. According to the bit on the back, that one was something about a kid who realizes the rulers of his clan are a bunch of evil assholes and then goes off on a journey to save his sister after being banished. Or something like that; it didn’t interest me in the least. I rarely read at all.

“So what brings you to my humble abode?” Fred asked. His house was anything but humble by the way. Did I mention that he was a pretty successful writer and that I had spotted several of his own books on the shelf? And all the weed? He claimed it gave him inspiration. I guess it was working for him.

I heard the pitter patter of rain hitting the roof now. I tuck another sip. “I quit my job earlier today.”

Fred clapped his hand together. “Well good for you!”

“Yeah!” Em joined in.

“Don’t encourage him,” I said. “It was an impulse thing, and I shouldn’t have done it. I’m a bit tight on cash right now. I hate to ask this of you, but could you lend me some money?” I in fact did not hate to ask him of it, but saying crap like that never hurt. It certainly helped that Fred had never been stingy with his money even before he sold his first book. I knew for sure that Fred was going to say--

“No can do.”

“What!? Why not? You owe me for that time I bailed you out at Mike’s.”

“Not today, Joe. I totally understand your plight, but I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. First it’s a 50 or two, then it’s 100's. I’ve seen this happen before, and it’s downright tragic. I’ll become your crutch, and then when your burdens become too heavy for me to bear, I’ll have to cut you off.” He snapped his fingers. “And the fall won’t be pretty. Damn, that was good! Excuse me; I need to go write that down while it’s fresh in my mind.”

“Now hold on there, Fred,” I said. Hmm. It is kind of amusing when you rhyme people’s names with stuff. I wonder if this is how Mike always felt when he said †˜Yo Joe.’

I leaned in close to Em and whispered in her ear. She returned my wicked smile. She set her cup on the coffee table and got down on her knees in front of Fred.

“What are you two playing at?” Fred asked.

Em clasped her hands together. “Please, Fred. We wouldn’t ask if we really didn’t have to. You’re the only one we can turn to.” She used a face that would have made anyone melt. I even saw a tear well up in the corner of one of her eyes. She was good. If this didn’t work, Fred officially had no soul. For added effect, I did my best imitation of Em glaring. I’d say we made an effective team.

“Whoa!” he exclaimed. “There’s no need for that. I was just playing with you guys, I swear!”

“So you’ll give us the money?” Em said, face brightening. She wiped the tear away.

“I said I was only screwing with you, didn’t I?”

“200 bucks, please!”

“See! Straight to 100's. Those things don’t grow on trees, you know.” Fred shook his head.

“Of course not,” I said. “It grows on cotton plants. That’s why whenever you leave your wallet in your pants, the money doesn’t get shredded in the--never mind. Fred, get the money.”

“I wouldn’t be doing this for anyone else,” he said pointing at me. “And we are so square after this. No more absurd favors.”

“Whatever you say, Fred. You’re the man.”

“Shake on it?” I offered my hand. Things were looking up.

And that’s when the world came crashing down. The front door came down in splinters. At the same time, the sliding door out back shattered as did some of the windows. Men swarmed in from everywhere at once, each armed with machine guns and covered from head to two in black body armor.

“The brownies are clean!” Fred shouted, holding his hands up high. “No marijuana or drug of any kind was used in their making!”

Em jumped to her feet and got close to me. The two SWAT members who barged in through the front door parted to let another one pass.

“We meet again,” he said. I recognized that voice. It was the enforcer.

“You could say that,” I said, trying to take my eyes off all the firepower.

“Joe, what the hell is going on,” Fred asked.

“Shut up, Fred!” I snapped.

“We’ll be taking the girl this time,” the enforcer said. “Don’t even think about trying anything. Our suits are lined with rubber on the inside.”

Em and I exchanged looks. I didn’t want to see her the way she was earlier. Maybe if we let things play out, they’d work out better than I feard. Em stared at the enforcer’s outstretched hand like it was a viper. She looked at me again. I shook my head. She took it.

“Kill the other two,” the enforcer said.

“No!” Em screamed. The room erupted in a bright, blinding light. I dropped, trying to blink my vision back into existence. A small, slender hand grabbed hold of me. I didn’t know where the hell it was taking me, but I followed it.

As my vision finally started coming back, one of the SWAT members jumped in front of us. He raised his gun and fired several shots before dropping his gun. I didn’t realize until later that she had fried its inside and made the bullets explode. I shoved him out of the way before he had the change to figure it out himself.

“Left!” I shouted. That led to the back door. We needed to get the fuck out of there. Our exit was in sight. Just a little closer. I made a silent prayer for Fred that he would somehow make it out of that mess alive. Then it felt like lightning hit me, struck out of nowhere. But lightning never struck twice in the same place as it had just then. Pain erupted in my stomach as I fell onto the tile floor of the kitchen. I touched the spot where it hit and my hand came away red.

Em helped me back to my feet. I think she called my name a few times, but all I heard was an incessant ringing in my ears. We managed to make it outside, but that’s when my vision went dark.

I didn’t die. Well, sort of. Let me put it to you this way. I'm still around to tell my story. I heard what happened next from Em. Fred can vouch for its authenticity.

She had indeed called my name after I got shot, and she feared the worse when I didn’t respond. After I collapsed, she tried to haul me back to my feet to no avail. The rain was coming down hard now. Lightning struck in the distance, and thunder rumbled like an earthquake.

“Joe,” she said, fighting back tears. “Don’t do this to me!”

Boots stomped up water turned brown with mud. Em was surrounded. She let my unresponsive hand slip through her fingers.

“That’s enough!” one of the SWAT members shouted over the storm.

They advanced, more cautious than ever, and they had every right to be. Em remembered what that one guy said about the suits, and she didn’t care. She’d fry them alive anyway. She did something she didn’t know was possible, even for her. Have you ever been out in the middle of a thunder storm so fierce you can practically smell the electricity in the air? Em was at that very moment.

She reached out for all the power in the air and seized it with a death-grip and maybe, just maybe, the SWAT guys sensed what was coming. She channeled more electricity than she had ever handled before in her life as a lab experiment and sent it hurling at the closest SWAT member. He flew backward off his feet and at Fred’s house. He moved with such force, he created a SWAT sized hole in the wall.

Em screamed. They opened fire, their task of retrieving her alive forgotten. The bullets never reached her. She brought up a magnetic field, stopping them inches from harming her. She reversed the field, causing the bullets to fire back at them, taking down several of the SWAT members. Those that still stood finally took the hint and started running, but they didn’t make it far. Some were launched off their feet; some died where they stood.

Em heard a noise behind her and whirled only to find Fred standing there. He tripped over his feet and fell, trembling like a little girl. Em ran back to me and threw herself at my side. She put her ear over my heart. Nothing. I shit you not; I was good as dead.

“No,” she croaked. Tears streamed down her face, mixing with the rain. She did the only thing she could think to do. She gathered the power of the storm in her hands and pounded on my chest, unleashing it. Nothing.

“Wake up, Joe. Wake up!” She did it again. “You’re.” Again. “Not.” Again. “Dying!” Again. Again and again and again. She stopped after what had to have been her tenth attempt.

I felt the rain pelting my skin and soaking me through. But the first thing I heard was Em crying her eyes out. I tried to move but pain lanced through my chest.

I coughed. “I think you broke a rib,” I managed. She looked at me, relief plain on her face. She threw her arms around my neck, still crying.

“I thought you were gone,” she choked out.

“I think I would be if it wasn’t for you.” Of course, I wouldn’t have gotten shot in the first in the place if it hadn’t been for her, but she didn’t need to hear that, and it didn’t matter. If this is what getting shot did for you, it needed to happen more often.

Fred called 911, but there was no need. Someone nearby had heard the shots and already did so. By the time the paramedics arrived, Em had calmed down enough to let them take me away in an ambulance. She hitched a ride with me to the hospital.

All the heavily armed, fried bodies were a pain in the ass to explain, or so Fred told me. He was stumped until an officer investigating the scene stumbled across his stash of weed. Fred jumped all over the opportunity. He spun tale of how he was part of a huge sting operation to stop the drug cartels, but they were on to him and dropped a hit squad to take him out. As to why they were all fried . . . Some kind of crazy new drug.

The police didn’t buy any of that crap of course, but in the end, they never found any evidence that revealed what had really happened. And we sure as hell weren’t going to talk. Fred was arrested a few days later for possession of marijuana. As for Em and I?

One of the last things I remember before going into surgery was her by my side, keeping up with the nurses and doctors as they rolled me into the operating room. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when I came to and found her in my room. I regarded her through groggy eyes, watching her chest heave peacefully up and down. She was asleep in a chair at my bedside.

The door to my room opened, emitting a single nurse. “You're awake at last,” she said with a pleasant smile. She had a blanket in her hands. She walked over and draped it over Em.

“She refused to leave, you know,” the nurse said. “She must really care about you.”

“We’ve . . . been through a lot.” That seemed like an apt summary. The hospital already knew about me getting shot, but I wasn't about to reveal anymore details.

“When I told her to go home, she said she doesn’t have one.”

“I think what she meant was her home isn’t anywhere around here. She’s visiting from out of state.”

My heartbeat picked up as my brain pieced the particulars of our situation back together. This was no time to rest. I tried to sit up, but the nurse immediately forced me back down.

“You’re in no condition to be up,” she said in a tone that left no room for argument. “Look, you’re already sweating just from that.”

That wasn’t why I was sweating. “All right,” I said. I tried to make it sound as if I had given up, but I think a touch of anxiety made it through. The nurse studied me for several seconds before deciding I wasn’t going to try to get up and do jumping jacks.

As soon as the door closed behind her, I threw the sheets off and shook Em. She grabbed the blanket and pulled it tighter around her.

I sighed. “You asked for it.” I redoubled my efforts and shook her more violently. Her eyes opened at last. She smiled.

“You scared the fuck out of me, Joe.”

“No cussing,” I said at once.

“But you do it all the time!”

“It’s a bad habit. I’ll stop doing it, but that doesn’t matter right now. What’s important is why the fuck are you still here!?”

“Way to set an example.”

I did just cuss immediately after saying I’d stop, didn’t I? “Don’t dodge the subject.”

“I . . . I couldn’t leave you.”

“What about those SWAT guys? What if more of them come busting in here? They’re not after me, they’re after you!”

She frowned. “If that happens then I’ll k-deal with them just like last time.”

That was right. She killed. Not just once, but multiple times, and here I was concerned about her language. I felt horrible. She wouldn’t have had to go through this if I had been stronger or made better choices or . . .

“Don’t do that,” she said. She sounded as serious as I’ve ever heard her. “I see that look on your face. It’s not your fault. I wouldn’t even have made it as far as I did without you.”

I sat back on my bad across from her. “Even if that’s true, I failed you in the end.”

“No you didn’t! It’s like you said. We gotta do what we gotta do, even if it’s things we don’t like.” After a while, she said again, “I’m not leaving. I didn’t kill them to save myself. I killed them to save you.”

So we waited. Together. We waited, and nothing ever came. My working theory is that somewhere along the line, they realized we were only trying to save our own skins, and after they got their asses handed to them, they decided to cut their losses. I hope we never have to find out.

Those days we spent together in the hospital actually would have been pretty nice if it wasn’t for the constant fear of waiting for someone to walk in and try to kill us. There were the nightmares too. Some nights I’d lie awake, unwilling to go to sleep to face them, only to be forced to listen to Em struggle with her own.

“You really don’t have anywhere else to go?” I asked her one day when I was nearing the end of my stay. She wore a set of worn out, donated clothes that were given to her by the police.

She sat in her chair next to my bed, swinging her legs back and forth. “Nope.” Her voice was uncertain. I recalled the conversation we had in my kitchen. It would be best if I let her reveal her past to me in her own time, but if she really didn’t remember . . .

“I’ve been thinking,” I said. “You can come live with me if you have nowhere else to go. Temporarily of course. If you want to, that is.”

“I think I’d like that,” she said.

One night, I woke up to the pleasant surprise of Em snuggling up against me in my bed, sound asleep. I wondered what she thought of me. She obviously had feelings for me at this point, but how deep did they go? Did she think of me just as a source of protection?

I put my arm around her and stroked her head. I needed to ask her one of these days, but I was scared. Scared that her answer wouldn’t be the same as mine, that I wanted to be so much closer to her than that.

“Joe.” My heart skipped a beat. It was Em, but her eyes were still closed; she was still asleep. She mumbled something else after my name. Want to guess what it was?

I also may have forgotten what I did.