Absolute Power (Book 1): Origins (7 page)

Her instincts led her straight toward him.  Geert was kneeling on the ground, with his hands in the air.  A man with a gun was standing behind him.  When he saw his daughter, terror rushed through his veins.  He would not let them get her, no matter what.  With no hope of winning, Geert jumped up and reached for the man’s gun.  The machine gun tore through him at point blank range.

Anne Marie didn’t cry out or shout.  That would have been stupid, and so the man didn’t see her.  And even if he had, he wouldn’t have expected what happened next.  Anne Marie didn’t either.

Her senses flared like wild fire.  Time seemed to slow.  She could feel the air, hear the children behind her and smell the three soldiers in front.  And at her hands she felt a power; the primal sensation of destruction.

One clawed hand slashed through the man’s neck, spurting blood into the night.  He went down quietly, struggling to scream.  Anne Marie leapt onto the back of a second man, who was too startled to react.  She dug her claws into his throat and held on till he toppled to the ground dead.  The last man shot at her, but Anne Marie had become supernaturally fast.  She rolled left then darted back right, popping up at his feet and nearly cut him in half.

Sniffing the air, she couldn’t detect any other nearby threats.  “They’re dead.  It’s safe,” she called out to the children.  “Hurry, go now.”

A brief hesitation turned into a flood of fleeing boys and girls.  Anne Marie made her way to her father.  She didn’t’ expect much.  He was dead; there would be no last words.  She couldn’t tell him that she wasn’t angry; that she was proud of him.  Before it was too late, Anne Marie escaped into the night.

With the other children, they had made it to the nearest city.  Many of them had seen what Anne Marie had done, and were both afraid and awed.  They took her to the Holy Mother orphanage, where she told her story; that her father was dead, and her mother was most likely dead too.  Despite being over crowded, they took her in.  The sisters gave her a cot to sleep in; it was one of many shoved into a small room filled with girls like herself.

Anne Marie sat on the makeshift bed, staring out the window and wondering what to do with the rest of her life.

One of the sisters came into the room and called out, “Anne.”  Three other girls looked up at the same time.  There were twelve Anne’s in total at the orphanage.  “Anne G,” the sister added.

Anne Marie heard her but made no sign that she did.

The girl in the cot next to her, Elizabeth, said, “Angie, she called you.”  She was an older girl who had heard the rumors of what Anne Marie had done and decided that they were friends.  “Angie?”

“Yes,” Anne Marie said as she stood up.

“Anne G,” the sister said.  “Mother Superior would like to speak with you.”

Anne Marie followed the sister down the concrete halls, stained and cracked with age.  With a quick knock at the office door, the sister showed Anne Marie inside.

The Mother Superior was an older woman from America, though she’d been away for so long she’d picked up an accent.  “Close the door,” she said to Anne Marie.  “Anne G, take a seat.  I have some news.”  She waited till Anne Marie was settled and continued, “I have been in contact with the police.  I’m sorry to tell you; they have identified the body of your mother.”  Expecting a response, tears or some emotion, she waited again.  When nothing came, the Mother Superior said, “I’ve also spoken with some people in Kenya, and we can’t seem to find any relatives.”

“I don’t have any,” Anne Marie told her.  “If that’s all, may I be excused?”

“Sure,” Mother Superior said.  “If you would like to talk, I’m always available.”

Anne Marie left the office and returned back to the dorm.  Elizabeth was waiting for her at the door.

“I’m sorry,” Elizabeth said immediately.  Anne Marie furrowed her brow.  “It’s never good news,” she explained.  Anne Marie started for her cot, but Elizabeth stopped her.  “Wait.  Come with me for a second, I want you to hear something.”

Elizabeth took her out in front of the orphanage were a few of the children were playing.  The building was surrounded by a high wall and a locked gate.  On the other side were more children, some with family somewhere, but all came to find company.  There was a boy at the center of a crowd; he was talking, and they were listening.

“I escaped, I swear it,” the boy said.  “I came to tell someone; something must be done.”

“Hey,” Elizabeth called him over.  “Tell my friend what you said.”

He was only too happy to have someone hear him.  “I ran.  I ran as fast as I could.  The LRA is coming.  There is a village, they will attack it tonight, but they would not listen to me.  No one will.  They will all be killed.”

The night air was stiff and stale.  Somewhere in the distance a fire was raging.  Anne Marie could see it, but the smoke hadn't reached the orphanage.  She leaned against the windowsill and watched the night.  Secretly, they’d managed to remove the bars that were once their cage.  With the rope they scavenged, Elizabeth tied it off.  The other girls in the room all watched; coconspirators who would cover for Anne Marie if need be.

Anne Marie was twelve, but she had grown up a lot.  Especially with her new found power.  After that, the next step was inevitable.  She couldn't sit still and watch innocent people be hurt.  It's not like she thought she could save the country, but she knew she could save a few and maybe they would save a few and so on and so on.

It was a child's dream, but maybe it would take a child to do it.

Anne Marie winced as she thought of herself as a child.  She checked that her boots were tied tight.  She was dressed in all black with a pack strapped to her back.  In the pack were food and a flashlight.  As far as weapons, Anne Marie was the weapon.

She tossed the rope out the window.  She made it to the ground then proceeded to work her way over the eight foot wall.  The alley behind the orphanage was dirty and piled with trash.  There was no light, so it was easy to get clear without being seen.  Stray animals picked at the rubbish and sized her up for food.  Anne Marie paid them no attention.

The village she was headed for was an hour away on foot according to the boy.  The LRA would be there in two hours.  She knew from experience what they would do.

The thought of boys her age having their hands cut off, or the girls used for sex, spurred her on.  She moved at full speed through the streets.

There was a curfew in the city, but that meant nothing to the criminals.  It did make it easier for Anne Marie to tell who was friend or foe.  At this time of night, everyone was foe.

Anne Marie came upon the village.  It was quiet and dark except for the central fire and a few torches around the walls.  She could just make out a couple of men who must have been the local watch.  One had an old rifle and the others knives and clubs.  They would be no match for the LRA’s machine guns.

Anne Marie circled around to the main road and approached the village casually. When one of the guards spotted her, she waved and said, “Hello.”

The man waited till he got a look at her and then said, “What are you doing here, girl?”

“I've come to warn you that soldiers are coming,” she replied.

He waved his machete at her.  “Go away,” he said.  “You don't belong out here.  Go back to the city.”

“They will come,” Anne Marie pleaded.  “They'll have machine guns and they'll burn your village to the ground.”

“If that's so, why isn’t the military here?”  The man asked.  “Or did they send you to protect us?”  He laughed.

“Yes,” Anne Marie answered his joke.  It only made him laugh harder.  “Before I go, do you mind if I warm up by the fire?”

He made a sound that was a cross between annoyed and dismissive, but he waved her through.

Anne Marie lowered her head and walked into the village and to the central fire.  She didn’t expect him to believe her.  Still, she was embarrassed by the teasing.  Either way, she planned to stay as long as it took, even if he came around to make jokes at her expense.

The fire was warm, and Anne Marie took the time to eat some of the food she’d brought.  The men left her alone while she waited, but always kept an eye on her.  Villagers were notoriously untrusting of strangers, and they were right to be.  If they were smart, they should have kicked her out.  For all they knew she was a spy for the LRA, sizing them up.  It wasn't an unreasonable idea since most of the soldiers were kids.

She hated seeing drug crazed children screaming insanities, thinking that having a gun made them men.  If guns made them men, what did that make Ann Marie?

Looking at her hands in the firelight, she pondered the question.  If she had been born in a village like this, the people would probably think she was a demon.  Maybe she was?  Maybe that's the source of her powers?  Even after reading all the books on Super-Humans, they all said the same thing.  There was no single, direct explanation for Super-Human powers.  Some people had it in their genes.  Others got them through freak accidents and on occasion sometimes they were granted by higher beings.  Maybe one night the jackal came to her mother and made her a bargain?  She would never know.

The sound of a truck coming up the road caught her attention.  The men on watch started shouting to each other as they tried to blockade the main entrance.  Some of the sleeping villagers began to stir.  Anne Marie’s instinct said to wake everyone, get them to safety, get them running.  She knew that the LRA would only chase them down.  So she would stand her ground and protect them here.

Anne Marie whispered to herself, “You can't save everybody.”

Gunfire rattled off.  It was a loud enough wake up call.  Instantly, the entire village was awake.  The truck stopped at the entrance.  There was a machine gun mounted on the back and a man at the trigger.  He fired randomly into the village.  On foot, more soldiers were coming up the road.  They’d be at the wall in a few minutes.

Sprinting right and swinging around the side of the truck, Anne Marie knew what she had to do.  The gun was the biggest threat.  She flexed her hands, and her nails extended like three inch claws.  These were not fingernails or talons, but something more; able to cut through steel or man with ease.

The rebel behind the machine gun didn't hear or see her coming.  She put one foot on the tire and leapt up into the truck bed.  Her right hand pierced his side, slipping between the ribs.  He turned to face her, and Anne Marie hit him in the chest with her other hand.  The claws raked and chipped the bone.  The man toppled backwards off the side of the truck.  The driver of the truck looked back to see what had happened.  Anne Marie wasted no time punching through the glass and killing him.  She swung the fifty caliber weapon to face outwards through the gates.

“Come, come,” she called to a villager who was running past.  He stopped not quite sure to make of a twelve-year-old girl with a machine gun.  “Come shoot this thing,” she said to him.  “Now, before they get here.”

The idea seemed right to him, so he climbed into the truck.  Anne Marie left him, hoping fear wouldn’t get the better of the man.  She headed back to the center of the village looking for any soldiers that might have slipped by the guards.  Even still, with her enhanced night vision it was too dark to see much of anything, so she stopped and listened for shooting.  The soldiers loved to fire at everything.

There. Towards the back.

She sprinted full speed into the danger.  This side of the village was nearly pitch black.  A burst of gunfire lit up a hut.  As the man came out holding his AK-47 and laughing, Anne Marie struck.  With a single swipe, she cut the gun in half, taking his hand off in the process.  For several heart beats, the man had no idea what had happened.  Then by the time Anne Marie had spotted another man, the first one was screaming.  He called out to his friends for help.

It was the perfect opportunity for an ambush.

Two soldiers found their friend lying on the ground crying to himself.  They made it too easy, staring at their friend, backs open. The villagers were rarely a danger, so the men were over confident. Anne Marie came out from the darkness severing their spinal cords in a single slash.  Their deaths were instant.  Then she gathered their guns and went to find some villagers who were willing to fight.

By the end of the night, a dozen LRA soldiers lay dead.  The rest ran off.  Five of the villagers had been killed, and two children were missing.

“You can't save them all,” Anne Marie said to herself.  It was something she had to learn to live with.  Otherwise, the failures would become overwhelming, and she wouldn't be able to protect anyone.

When she arrived back at the orphanage, Anne Marie scaled the wall once again.  But as she approached the place where the rope hung from the window, she found the Mother Superior waiting for her.  A flashlight shone brightly into her face.

“Anne G?”  The Mother Superior questioned.  “What…?  Holy Mother.”

It was only now under the light that Anne Marie looked at herself.  Her face and clothes were covered in dirt and blood.