Awaken the Elements (Elemental Trilogy) (2 page)

Chapter 2

              Autumn stopped cutting up the peppers as a special announcement interrupted her show, the knife forgotten in her hand.  Her fiancé turned up the TV. News reporters were chatting from all over the globe about some weird infection that was spreading faster than they could contain. There was no cure at the moment. Reports came in that the virus had entered the United States. A reporter down in Texas said she had some insight into the first of the infected. They switched to her live.

             
“I’m reporting here from Cameria, Texas where the first outbreak from South America has appeared”,
said the fake-blond news reporter with the unusually large brown eyes.

             
The man looked awfully sick, and his Barbie-shaped, bleached blond wife held onto him scared.
“We’re sitting out there enjoyin’ some beer when this homeless lookin’ guy walked up to us in the alley.”

             
“He wasn’t walkin’, more a shamblin’,”
his wife interrupted.

             
He nodded.
“I thought maybe he’d had some kinda accident, so I walked over to him. Soon as I got myself a good look at the fella, I knew he wasn’t well,”
The man’s voice was unsteady. He started to wobble.
“Top it off, the sick bastard bit me!”
Tony touched the wound on his arm. His eyes rolled up into his head as he passed out.

             
“Sir, you okay?” The reporter asked, squatting down by him.

             
He let out a small moan.
“Don’t worry, hon,” Bambie said. “He’s been doing this for three days.”
She squatted by him as the shakes started
. “He’ll come out of it right soon.”

             
Just then, Tony sat straight up looking disoriented. He didn’t look around, just kept his head straight. Eyes unblinking, the cameraman let out a low whistle. Tony’s eyes had taken on a white hue, making him look blind, and his face was totally expressionless.

             
“Come on, babe. Let’s go home.” Bambie said, trying to pull him to his feet.
She was having a hard time, since he outweighed her by three hundred pounds.

             
Screams came from behind the reporter. She stood up, turning to look away from Tony. “My god. Those men over there are attacking those children!”

             
Bambie was still trying to help her husband to his feet. The people watching TV would have noticed the slight change in the man. Autumn stared at the TV with wide, unbelieving eyes. Slowly Bambie managed to get the man to his feet. He swayed, eyes unblinking
.

             
Bambie was now looking at the men attacking the children.
“My lil Sylvie's over there! One of you guys call the cops!” She looked around with frightened blue eyes.

             
No one noticed Tony. Even the cameraman wasn't looking. He suddenly swung around, violently grabbing the reporter. Before she could scream, he sunk his teeth into her neck. The cameraman or one of the crew let out a loud, scared scream as he ripped a chunk of the reporter's skin off. He looked at his wife, chewing what was in his mouth, blood and saliva dripping from his chin. Bambie had placed her hand to her mouth, but the loud shrieking noise she made wasn't muffled by it.

             
Tony let go of the reporter. The cameraman dropped the camera, so you saw the reporter scratch at the messy wound trying to breathe as the viewers watched Tony’s feet shuffle toward his wife.

             
“Tony?” Bambie pleaded before her husband attacked her in the background as the reporter ceased moving.

             
The news went back to Sally behind the desk; her small, usually pretty face was now as white as a sheet. She said nothing, speechless, like everyone else watching.

             
Autumn dropped the knife as her cell went off. She picked it up without really thinking. She hit the button, and her mom’s frantic voice met her ears. Her eyes slid to her fiancé, and he too was on the phone.

****

             
The crazy bag lady pushed her cart into a rundown abandoned house. A tall man hiding in the darkness walked out into the small amount of light coming from the boarded up windows. The lady stopped dead, watching him. His curly, dark blond hair shown with natural red streaks as he walked into the light, making it easy to see his crystal blue eyes glitter as the light flashed in them. He looked almost like his father; he and his sister had the same color hair, but the eyes were wild and different.

             
“Mabon, have you been waiting long?” she asked, trying to quiet her little, yapping, and mangy dog.

             
“Not long, what news do you have?” he asked, his voice light and friendly, but she knew how dangerous he could be if provoked.

             
“The time has come for you to take over guardianship of,” she said, pausing to look at the birthmark on his power arm; a perfect upside down triangle. It could have been a tattoo, but he had been born with it; the element of water. If the Dark Lord had known that two were born male, he would have been looking for them too. So far, the evil witch only knew of the females.

             
Mabon’s eyes followed her. “You know where she is?” That old longing to be close to his sister squeezed at his heart like usual when he thought of her. He thought of her more and more recently. Missing out on a childhood together, he wondered what she liked and how she managed in a non-magical world.

             
She nodded, “I am the only one who knows.”

             
“Why wasn’t I told? I have waited so long, almost sure I would never
   
” he stopped. The pain in his chest was too much. He had lost his mother and father when he was very young, and now he was going to meet her, finally, after so many years of being separated. He had thought of her, of what they would say, of all the stories they would stay up late telling each other. He had yearned to be in her life since he could remember, always feeling alone, different. Knowing he wouldn’t be whole until she was back in his life.

             
“You still must not come into contact with her, not yet.” She noticed he was going to argue and held up her hand to silence him. “Please, Mabon, you must look after her and the other. I know how long you’ve waited, but she must be protected first. I feel a great evil is going to come, and they need someone who can watch over them.”

             
“Why will you not do it?” he asked.

             
“The elders are sending me away to find out what is happening with this virus,” She sighed, “I need to keep an eye on Moorgun. I feel she is getting closer to them.”

             
“Pyrus, when can I meet her?” he asked as his thoughts went to her.

             
“When this evil that is stirring is over,” she said, looking at her dog.

             
“Is there anything else you want from me before I leave?” he asked.

             
“I need you to get Aarawn to help you,” she did not look at him as she spoke.

             
“Why?” he asked, a bit aggravated.  He and Aarawn never saw eye to eye, and she knew it.

             
“He too will find this interesting.”

             
And then an idea came to him, and he almost didn’t ask. “He is the other?”

             
Pyrus nodded. “Make it clear to him he must not speak to her unless it is really necessary. They must not know anything about us until they are safe, and I have had time to talk to them.”

             
He gave a quick nod, “I understand. Where must I go?” She gave him the directions before they parted. She went back to the parking lot. If only Moorgun knew how close she has been to them all along.

****

             
“Are you okay?” Ryan asked as he sat beside Autumn on the couch watching the TV, stunned.

              “As okay as I can be,”

             
“My parents are going to check out the safe house in Madera; they want to know if your family is going as well.”

             
“Yes. I guess I’ll go while you go to work.”

             
He grabbed her hand, and she looked at him, his hazel eyes were huge and scared. “I can call in sick and go with you. It is
our
future, you know.”

             
She looked back into those eyes, and guilt bubbled in her stomach. She knew at that moment she really didn’t feel the same way he felt. She had tried. Really tried. “No. The hospital needs you more. I’ll go and make plans for us.” She looked back to the TV, not wanting him to see the guilt she felt.

             
“Okay. I will call you as soon as I can.”

****

             
Rumors regarding martial law began as national panic flared throughout the United States. The government started safe houses, giving tours to those who wished to sign up. But you didn’t really have an option. You came to live in a safe house, or you were all on your own when they locked the doors.

             
Autumn looked around the huge room where cots were crammed one against the other, and the artificial lights gave off a dark, dusty look. The idea of living in a giant room filled with thousands of people made her stomach twist into a knot.

             
“Did you see the bathroom?” Richard, her cousin on her dad’s side, asked. They were as close as if they were really brother and sister. He was only two weeks younger than her, and they had spent their lives growing up and accepting each other, unlike their parents. Richard knew he liked boys when they were really small, and Autumn had no issues with him coming out when he had.

             
“I can’t live here,” she replied. Already the walls were closing in; there was no outside. “Where is the outside?”

             
“Oh, there are acres of land,” said the liaison. “Right this way.” They followed her across the room and through the crowd of other people who were either moving in or being shown around like them. Pushing through the giant doors, sunlight made them shade their eyes.

             
“Out here,” she gestured, “is the land were we will all work to grow food and take care of the animals we’ll be living on.”

             
“So we are going to be slaves?” someone in their group asked.

             
“No; we will all work. To survive, we will have to pull together and work hard, and the government will have guards guarding the fences and making those hard decisions we aren’t prepared for.”

             
“I can’t do this,” Autumn whispered, feeling smothered already.

             
“Autumn, we don’t have much choice,” her mom said as Autumn started to walk away.

             
“We have to have you all sign in. Once we close up, we will not be opening our doors again. The virus is already quickly infesting through the southern states, showing signs in Southern California. In a matter of days, the infected will overwhelm the area,” the liaison said, likely reading from a script written by the government.

             
That night, Richard sat with her at the table, her laptop open, as they looked around for more info on the safe houses. They talked about how they couldn’t live in the safe houses.

             
“Remember that space before Los Banos that they’ve been working on forever?” Richard asked.

             
“The new mall,” she said as she brought it up on the screen.

             
They sat there looking at it. She ran her finger over the mouse pad so that the arrow hit the In Case of Emergency link on the main site.

             
Their eyes read over the info, and when they were done, they looked at each other. “I have an idea,” they said in unison.

             
They were finishing up plans on some printer paper when Autumn’s phone went off. She looked at the number, and then at the time.

             
“It’s Ryan,” she told her cousin as she answered. “Yeah.”

             
“Hey,” he said, and she already heard the fear in his voice.

             
“What’s wrong?” She got up and walked to the living room.

             
“It might be nothing, but we are being quarantined.”

             
Autumn sat down on the edge of the sofa. “For how long?”

             
“They haven’t said anything.”