All American Rejects (Users #3) (13 page)

Ryker dropped a wall of ice that managed to block himself and the others from being battered by the worst of the blast.

"You okay?" Ryker asked.

"I'm fine. Just keep moving to the door," Carter said and even as he spoke the words, Barber was already exiting the building through the side door with the All Americans following close behind. Carter ignored the searing pain and the myriad of bloody spots running up the left side of his body as he hoisted Alaric up the stairs and to the door. As he pulled back on the knob, he caught a glimpse of Evan.

"What do you plan to do?" Heath asked.

But Evan didn't answer. He grimaced, sweat beading across his forehead as if he were pulling an enormous weight. Evan growled and his breathing was heavy from the strain. His arms were spread wide as if he were being crucified.

The building's rumbling turned into a great shaking. Long cracks split up the concrete walls like jagged lightning. The building groaned as if it were in pain.

"Are you crazy? You're going to bring the building down on both of us." Heath said.

Evan managed a weak smirk. "That's the plan."

Heath's eyes went wide, and his expression turned grim. Heath bolted for the door, but a chunk of the ceiling fell, almost crushing him where he stood, and blocking his path to the door. Another chunk broke free and crashed down right on top of Heath, but he used his telekinesis to send it flying away. Desperately, Heath lifted the chunk blocking his path and tossed it aside, but another piece, this time from the wall, fell down in front of him, followed by another and another.

"Let's go!" Bobby shouted and practically shoved Carter, Alaric and himself through the open door. As the door shut behind him, Carter's gaze fell on Evan one last time. The man had a serene look on his face.

A great cloud of dust plumed over them as Carter and Bobby ran all-out, the building crumbling behind them. It collapsed in on itself like a controlled demolition. The first floor going, followed by the one above it, and the one above that, until there was nothing left, but a pile of rubble.

The building was gone, and it had taken Evan, and Heath, with it.

Chapter 16

Carter stood, still propping Alaric up on his shoulder, stunned to silence. There was nothing he could do for Evan. He had made the ultimate sacrifice. Not just for them, but for Users everywhere.

Clouds of dust roiled in great plumes around them. The dust was so thick, Carter could taste the grit on his teeth. The sun had just begun to set behind the towering buildings of the city, their stacked floors casting long shadows down onto the streets.

"Lay him down against the wall," Carter said to Bobby. Together they placed him against the wall of an adjacent building.

A hand gripped his shoulder from behind. "It's over," Ryker said.

"Is it?" Barber asked. "What about the government? They're still going to be looking for the super powered serum for their soldiers aren't they?"

"Yes, but with their scientist gone, they have no way of getting it," Ryker said.

"Won't they just get another scientist? To carry on his work?" Barber blurted out frantically. "Won't they-"

"Barber." Carter grabbed Barber by the shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eyes. "Calm down. His work is destroyed, buried under thousands of tons of stone and steel," he continued, evenly. "It's over. Just, calm, down."

Barber breathed a sigh of relief, and dropped his forehead into Carter's chest. Tears were streaming from his eyes, uncontrollably.

"Why us?" Barber sobbed quietly. "Of all the Users in the world, why do we constantly end up in these situations?"

"I don't have an answer to that," Carter answered, and he paused for a moment. "But I do know this, that we have surrounded ourselves with courageous friends and allies." He motioned to the remains of their tattered group, currently taking inventory of their injuries. "Maybe when people are a part of a group who isn't afraid to step up, the universe presents them with opportunities to do so."

"Like Evan?" Barber asked, looking up at Carter.

"Yes, like Evan. He died so we could live," Carter said. "The same way Walt did. Let's honor them, all of those who have sacrificed, by living well."

Ryker nodded at Carter, and a tiny smile of approval crept across his face. Carter took it as an affirmation that he was finally doing right by Barber. He was finally telling the young man the things he needed to hear. After so much disappointment for Barber, just maybe, Carter could finally be the role model he needed and give him the life that he deserved.

Sirens rang in the distance. An alarm that told them they needed to scatter. Alaric stirred from his place on the ground and slowly sat up, but he still needed to lean up against the building just to reach a sitting position.

"What happened?" Alaric asked.

"Doesn't matter," Carter said. "It's over now. You're going to be okay. We're all going to be okay."

The sirens were getting louder now as the police closed in on their location.

"Go," Alaric said. "Take Ryker and Barber and...where's Evan?"

"Gone," Carter said.

Alaric nodded. "Go on, get out of here. We'll handle the cops."

"Thank you," Carter said.

"It's nothing. The cops pose no threat to us," Alaric said.

"Not for that," Carter said. "For coming back. You saved our lives."

"I finally realized what a fool I've been all these years. All this time I believed I was better than you, doing what was right. And in the end, you were the one to stand up and do the honorable thing. You put your life on the line for your friends, while I put other lives on the chopping block to spare my own, and that of my friends," Alaric said. "That, and I couldn't let you have all the glory."

"Come on," Carter said as he slapped Barber across the back. "It's time to go."

Barber looked up at him, but Carter was looking beyond Barber to a piece of rubble appearing through the dissipating dust. He could have sworn he saw a jagged chunk of concrete shift to one side, but as he peered through the ever diminishing fog of settling debris, he saw nothing, just a pile of motionless remains.

"What?" Ryker asked noticing Carter's piercing gaze.

"Nothing...I thought I saw something, but it was nothing," Carter answered. But as he finished speaking the words, the stone shifted again. "There," Carter said pointing to a spot in the rubble that was roughly where Evan had been standing. "I saw the something moving in there."

"Evan?" Barber asked hopefully.

The young man turned from Carter, and bolted over to the collapsed building as if he meant to climb atop it and dig Evan out with his bare hands.

"Barber, no!" Carter shouted and raised a hand out, wishing he were a Mover, and could mentally pull the young man back.

Barber had almost reached the wreckage, was about to step up on the first piece of broken concrete when the ground began to rumble. Then the top blew off the rubble like someone had taken the top off of a shaken soda bottle. Fragments of debris were thrust to the sides, thrown in an arch, and blown straight into the sky. A good sized chunk, almost as big as he was, hit Barber with a gut wrenching thwack, and sent him sliding across the dust filled street.

"Barber!" Ryker rushed over to his side where he finally came to a stop at the base of the sidewalk. He put his hands on him, careful not to move him too much, just in case he was seriously injured. "You okay? Carter...he's not responding."

"Is he okay?" Carter asked.

"Is he dead?" Bobby asked, and when no one responded immediately, he nervously continued. "I'm just asking."

"No, he's breathing. I think he's just been knocked out," Ryker said.

Carter wanted to go to Barber. He wanted to throw an angry glare at Bobby for his insensitivity. He wanted to do a lot of things at that moment, but his gaze was steeled on the pile of rubble. More exactly, his eyes were pinpointed on the exact spot where the rubble had erupted, because amid the dust and rubble was a silhouette. The silhouette of a man draped in a lab coat. The silhouette of Heath.

Heath laughed menacingly. "Did you really think that was going to kill me?"

"I had kinda hoped," Carter admitted, but he wasn't sure why he would. It's not like it had worked on the All Americans earlier that day.

If Carter could have pulled his gaze from Heath, he would have been able to see the stunned look on his companions faces, but he was too focused on the fact that Evan had sacrificed his life, and yet the bastard still stood, with that fucking smirk on his face. It was enough to make Carter see red. His blood literally boiled as his superheated heart pumped at a hundred times the speed of a normal heart.

"I should have known that wasn't going to work," Carter said.

"Why?" Bobby asked.

"It didn't work on you, did it?" Carter asked.

"That was only a house. This was an entire building." Bobby stepped up next to Carter.

"Where do you think you're going?" Carter asked.

"I'm getting ready to fight," Bobby said, but Carter was shaking his head before he even finished.

"No," Carter said. "Not this time. This time it's just me."

Bobby's face was twisted in a confused expression. No doubt, the man thought he was crazy, but Carter didn't care. This was something he had to do on his own.

Heath levitated above the rubble with his elbows tucked into his sides, and his palms to the sky. From the bottom of his feet shot two fiery torches that lifted him from the ground.

"Get Barber and Alaric up on their feet. Then you, and the rest get as far away from here as you can," Carter said.

Bobby wore a grim expression, but he nodded anyway.

Carter let the fires that were buried just under his skin excrete through his pores, igniting his body in flames. He didn't bother taking off his shoes or clothes first. If things went as planned, he wouldn't be needing them again anyway.

"Don't be angry. You're friend would have died anyway. Besides, you'll be seeing him again soon enough," Heath said as Carter flew over to face off against him.

"Maybe," Carter said. "Or maybe you'll be seeing your parents."

Heath's expression of confidence was wiped away, replaced instead with flushed red rage. "Don't you speak of my parents you filthy User."

"Newsflash asswipe. You're a User now too."

"No. No, I'm not," Heath said. "I may have the powers of a User, but I'll never be like you. I'd never kill a child's parents in front of him. I'd never splatter a mother's brains all over her own child."

"Jesus Christ," Carter said in disgust. "I'd never do anything like that either."

"Liar!" Heath shot forward, and in a flash, he was all over Carter like zits on a teenager. Heath was rabid.

Punches came at Carter in a flurry of jabs and wild swings, but Carter had perfected his fighting skills over years of being a hero. Even his time as a junkie, scraping to get by, fighting over every fix, had prepared him for this moment. And for the first time in years, he was glad he didn't have his medication. He wanted to feel this.

All of it.

Chapter 17

He needed to feel the anger, the pain, the suffering, without any barrier between him and his senses. With his reflexes at one-hundred percent, his mind one-hundred percent clear, he easily blocked every punch that Heath threw his way. Heath threw an overhand right, but Carter raised a forearm to block it. Heath went low with an uppercut, but Carter swiped across from left to right to send Heath's punch wide.

With the power of an Enforcer, Heath threw punches like a skinny Mike Tyson, but Carter was just too fast, too well trained.

"Argh!" a frustrated Heath growled.

His rage played out, Heath seemed to gain some semblance of control again.

"Is that all you got?" Carter asked, again baiting Heath, in an attempt to get a rise out of him.

Carter knew he couldn't beat Heath in a fair fight. He needed to play this smart. He needed Heath to lose control. He needed to keep Heath off his game.

But Heath didn't take the bait. A wry smirk spread across Heath's face, letting Carter know that Heath was on to him.

"Come on, fucker!" Carter didn't relent.

He had no other choice except to continue to antagonize Heath. He was in too deep to back down now. But Heath went on the defensive, opting instead to circle Carter from a few feet out.

They spiraled around, keeping their bodies facing one another, but spinning in a continual funnel, ever higher into the sky. Below them the police had arrived. Their lights flashed across the rubble and splayed across the building walls for blocks as more and more patrol cars surrounded the area around the fallen building. The lights alternated across Heath's face, turning his pasty skin blue and then red.

They were at an impass. Each staring down the other, they continued their spiraling ascent until they neared the tops of the city's buildings.

"Let's end this," Carter said.

"Gladly." Heath opened his mouth, and Carter thought he was going to launch into another extensive diatribe, but instead a scream erupted from Heath. The blast caught Carter by surprise, sending him spinning end over end. Carter hit the jets in his hands and feet in an attempt to right himself, but he didn't gain control before smashing into the side of a building. The Plexiglas shattered. Luckily for Carter it had been Heath's scream that ripped through the building before he did, and Carter was sent sprawling across the carpet of a fancy board room of some sort.

The fact that he didn't break the glass didn't prevent him from sustaining multiple cuts from the shards of broken glass that littered the floor. Heath sailed into the building through the open portal just as Carter was getting to his feet. Carter spread his arms to his sides and fire shot from both palms. He waved his arms up igniting the ceiling tiles, then down lighting the carpet on fire. Plumes of black smoke and whipping flames filled the room, making it impossible to see even a foot in front of him.

"Again with the tricks," Heath said. "Have you not learned your lesson?"