Oblivion (10 page)

TWENTY-THREE

Jason

As we ran, I spent
some time studying my new friend. She appeared to be about sixteen or
seventeen, although she could have been a little older or younger. Her short
black hair had a pink stripe near the front, giving her a punk look. She wore
loose fitting pajama pants and a form fitting tank top.

“Did they take you
from your home?” I asked, slightly breathless from running.

She sent a look of
confusion my way. “No. I don’t… No. Why?”

“The pajamas. They
look too normal for that place,” I explained, my face heating slightly at her
raised eyebrow.

Her mouth quirked
up into a half-smile and her dark eyes lit up. “I guess I’ve been a good enough
prisoner that they bought me a couple items to make my stay more comfortable.
Didn’t stop them from chaining me to the bed though.”

I had to give her
that one. We paused at a corner and I finally glanced around to see where we
were. It seemed to be the end of a residential area, and the start of a
business district. “Where are we going?”

She pointed to the
left. “That place has a basement that no one ever goes in. We’ll start there
and figure out our options. Can you tell if anyone is following us?”

“You’re the mind
reader, can’t you tell?” I asked, curious to learn more about the girl.

“I can only affect
some of the guards,” she answered after a short pause. “There are… special
ones. The ones the Doctor and the Boss took interest in, and affected in some
way. At least that’s what I assume. When they came in, I could manipulate them.
They were not necessarily nice people, but in some ways I think they were
starting to see what was being done to people like us was wrong. The ones I
could affect eventually changed, and now I can’t control them. It’s as if their
minds are hidden from me. I’m hoping they can’t hide from you. It’s harder to
hide footsteps than to block a mind.”

Unsettled by the
fact this girl knew my abilities, I felt myself begin to tremble. It hit me
that I was out in the world with a girl I’d just met, and I knew nothing about…
well, anything. Nothing here appeared familiar, the girl was a stranger, and we
would be hunted by those who’d held us prisoner. I started scratching at my arm
where the Doctor had injected me with—

“Don’t fall apart
on me yet, Jason,” she ordered, interrupting my thoughts. She was not unsympathetic,
but was firm. “We’ll have time for that soon. Please check.”

I stopped
scratching my arm and looked at her in horror. “They put something in my arm,”
I told her. “Something they said would make it easier to find me if I tried to
escape.”

She let out a
frustrated groan as she peered at the needle mark. “GPS chip, I’d bet. We need
to find a way to disrupt the signal. Although the thick walls in the basement
should weaken it enough for now. Just make sure no one is nearby when we go in,
and hopefully we’ll have some time to deal with the chip.”

I took a deep
breath and knelt with one hand touching the ground. Sending my power in all
directions, I was shocked at how far I could feel, and how many people were
around. “I… I don’t…”

“It’s okay. I know
it can be overwhelming. Try to concentrate on anyone heading in our direction.”

Her voice soothed
me, and allowed me to focus my power on the people closest to us. “I don’t
think anyone is interested in us. There is someone in the house behind us
watching. They’re at the front window. Probably wondering why we’re just
standing here.”

“Probably. We
should circle around the building so they don’t see us go in.”

“Why aren’t they
following us? They should have noticed the cameras were down and come for us
right away.”

“Discussion for
later, Jason. Let’s go, before we get the cops called on us.”

She started moving
before I could protest. I had no option but to follow.

We managed to
sneak into the building easily, and made our way to a small room in the
basement. As I looked around I realized someone had stayed here before. A small
pile of blankets was in the corner, and a medium sized cooler sat next to it.

“Help yourself to
some water. I’m betting they haven’t given you much since you woke.”

Her observation
made me realize how dry my mouth felt, so I grabbed a bottle and chugged almost
the whole thing before I took a breath. The rest I drank more slowly.

Sliding down the
wall to sit near the pile of blankets, I observed, “You live here, don’t you.”

“Up ‘til they grabbed
me, yeah. This was home sweet home. Great, right?”

“What’s your
name?” I asked finally. It was time to get to know the only nice person I’d met
so far.

“Lena. It’s nice
to meet you, Jason. Welcome to my place.”

“What happened?
Why do you live here and not with your family?”

“That seems like
an awfully personal question, Jason. Besides, from what I can tell in your
mind, you aren’t one to talk about living with family.” Her tone was defensive,
but there was a vulnerability to her.

Raising my arms in
surrender I answered, “I can take a hint. I won’t ask again, but if you ever
feel like talking…”

“I’ll let you know.”
She answered in such a way that said she was unlikely to do so.

“So,” I started,
unsure what to say.

She smirked at me.
“What?”

“I think it’s time
for you to tell me what exactly you know about me. You said just now that I’m
not one to talk about family, what did you mean by that? And I need to know
more about the group of people who were holding us. I need information, and I
need it fast.”

“Yeah. You do,”
she agreed. “But we should get that chip out of your arm first. The walls will
help for now, but if we want to leave this building without you popping back up
on the radar, we need to destroy it.”

I was all for
that, but I had no idea how to go about it. “How exactly do we do that?”

“We could try
finding a magnet, and seeing if they can find us again, but I think the best
thing would be to take it out.”

I looked at her,
my mouth hanging a bit open. “T-take it out? You mean… we’d—”

“Cut it out,” she
interrupted with a quick nod. “Yes.”

She grimaced a
bit, probably a reaction to the sick look on my face. “Yeah, I know it sounds
bad, but I think it may be the best way. I have some aspirin, a knife, and a
lighter. We can make this work.”

My first reaction
was to back away from the crazy girl with a knife, but I could tell she wasn’t
any more excited about this than me. I nodded curtly. “Let’s do it.”

She moved to get
the supplies and also ripped a strip of cloth from a shirt in a bag I hadn’t noticed
earlier.

As she approached,
I could feel my body tensing. “Wait!” I held up a hand to stop her as she
touched the knife to my skin. “I… I need a distraction. Tell me what you know.”

“Fine,” she
agreed. “What I can tell in your mind is that in one section it feels like
there is a scar over it. Apparently, that’s over the area controlling your
memories. I know that you are more powerful than you are aware.”

“What do you mean?”
I asked; teeth clenched against the burning pain of the careful incision she
was making. “I…
Ahh
! I already know I can destroy
stuff with my power. In fact, I almost completely wrecked the courtyard at that
place.”

I took a breath
when she pulled the knife away, but tensed again when she pulled the edges
apart to find the implant.

“Yeah. Not
impressive,” she informed me with a slight shake of her head. “From what I can
tell, you could have destroyed the whole place. You might have even managed to
stop the Puppet Master if you had done so…
Gotcha
!”
she said triumphantly, pulling a small microchip from my arm.

I winced, but my
confusion trumped my pain. “Who is the Puppet Master?”

She raised an
eyebrow and answered as she placed a piece of tape across the edges of the
wound and wrapped my arm with the strip of cloth.

“That is the question,
isn’t it? I have no idea. There was a time I thought it was the Doctor, but I
have never sensed that kind of power from him. The Puppet Master has the
strongest mental abilities I have ever seen, and that includes your friend.”

“He’s not my
friend,” I argued, flexing my arm to test how it felt. “He’s just…”

“The only person
you know, apart from me,” she cut in. “Yeah, I know.” She waved a hand, clearly
showing her disinterest in the distinction.

“He’s a killer.
That’s not me,” I insisted. For some reason I didn’t want this brash young girl
to think poorly of me. “I lost my memories. If he has the mental powers you say
he does, then couldn’t that mean he has something to do with my memory loss?”

She thought about
it briefly. “No, I don’t think so. From what I could tell from him, he was
there to help. There was another person with him whose powers felt similar. He
may have been the one.”

“Oblivion,” I
muttered softly.

“What?”

“Oblivion,” I
repeated. “It’s a name Jeremiah mentioned to me. I almost didn’t believe he
existed.”

Lena smiled
slightly. “He exists. And I think he is more important to you than you know. I
couldn’t get a good read on him, but he definitely cares about you. If he’s
behind your loss of memory, I can’t imagine he did it on purpose.”

“What about you,
Lena?”

“What about me?”
she asked, her eyes narrowed.

“How powerful are
you? I already know you can read minds, and use it in some way to distract
people. Is there any other aspect to it?”

“You’re asking if
I would be capable of wiping
memories?
That I may have
done it either maliciously or by the direction of someone else?” Her eyes
widened, either in amusement or surprise. “The answer is no. I can’t do that.
Unlike this… Oblivion person; that is not how my power works.”

She sighed. “And
now you’re wondering if you can trust what I say. That’s going to have to be up
to you. I can’t make you decide whether to trust me or not. I’m hoping we can
help each other. You are one of the only people I feel I can trust.”

“Why?”

Lena shrugged,
suddenly self-conscious. “Dunno. I just know you’re a good person; even if you
were hanging out with a killer. You weren’t given much choice in the matter. I
think you have people out there who care about you, and Oblivion is obviously
one of them.”

“So do you think I
should try to find them? Go back to a group of people who are working with a
murderer?”

Shrugging again,
the girl narrowed her eyes at me. “How should I know? I got a quick glimpse at
the killer and the kid, and you expect me to…”

“Kid?” I interrupted.

“Yeah. Oblivion.
He’s a kid, probably no older than me.”

The only kid
Jeremiah had mentioned to me was my little brother. The only name he’d given me
was Oblivion. And he had been angry when he mentioned my brother. I felt my
breath quicken, and Lena’s heart rate sped up as she watched me.

“What is it?” she
asked urgently. “What’s wrong?”

“Oblivion is the
one Jeremiah told me wiped my memories. He told me I have a brother, but he
said it as if it was a bad thing. I think… I think maybe Oblivion is my
brother.”

TWENTY-FOUR

Jeremiah

I couldn’t
remember a time when I’d stood against a potential enemy with friends at my
back. Every time I had entered a fight, I’d known nobody would help me but me,
and nothing was at risk besides myself.

Now? Now I stood
ready to defend the Tracker’s family and friends. I stood with two officers of
the law ready to fight for our lives against an unknown threat. Officers
who—under different circumstances—wouldn’t hesitate to arrest me for a plethora
of felonies. Including multiple counts of first degree murder, stalking, and
I’m sure several other things I am forgetting. Most were done under the
influence of Trevor Mason, but some… some I did for fun.

There was nothing
keeping me here. The realization struck me as someone crashed through the
kitchen window. Jason was no longer in the hands of the Doctor, and I had no
reason to risk myself for these people.

Except for
friendship. These people are Jason’s family. Jason is my friend, even if he
doesn’t know it. My resolve strengthened.

The detective and
agent held their hands in front of their faces to protect themselves from
flying glass. The men who’d entered aimed their guns toward them, ready to take
them out while they were distracted. Thinking quickly, I hid the officers and
myself from view. The confusion should buy some time for Sam and the others to
get into the safe room.

There was a sudden
lull as the men quickly looked around, trying to find us. Before long I felt
Sam’s presence in my mind.

“I’m trying to break the hold on their
minds,”
he informed me.

Irritated, I
snapped,
“You are not supposed to be
using your abilities, child. Do you have a death wish?”

“The opposite, actually,”
he responded
calmly.
“I’m trying to survive, and to
help you and my friends survive. I’m making progress. The guards are frozen for
the moment. We could probably get out of the house before anyone else shows
up.”

“Can you be certain?”
I asked. I was
intrigued, despite my desire to be angry. As Sam said, the guards were no longer
moving. His power was incredible. It did seem he had doubts about going up
against the powerful man in charge of the facility, but it seemed they were
fairly evenly matched.

“Not completely, but if you can get the
others out I should be able to keep the guards busy. We have to go now.”

“Detective, Agent,
we should get the others and leave,” I suggested. “Sam is keeping them busy for
now, but that can only last a short time.”

The detective’s
sister and the older woman appeared at the top of the steps, slowly edging
toward them. Sam stood between them, his eyes squinted closed and hands pressed
tightly against the side of his head.

“Get him down here,
and get into the car,” I ordered.

Detective Farrow
and Agent Jones nodded at them, agreeing with my assessment. “Go, we’ll keep
watch on the guards. I’ll drive,” Jones commanded.

The women rushed
out the door, and I pushed Sam along, allowing the FBI agent to follow behind
us. We made it into the vehicle before Sam cried out and slumped against
Hannah.

Jones gunned the
engine and we took off down the road. Unsure where we could go, the man simply
drove around town, giving himself and the detective time to discuss options.

“How’s Sam?” Alice
called back.

“Unconscious, but
breathing well. His heart rate is really fast. I don’t know what happened,”
Hannah answered, her voice verging on panic. Her hands hovered over Sam’s body,
unsure what to do to help.

“The person who
controls the guards is powerful,” I informed them. “He likely didn’t appreciate
the boy’s interference with his plans. Sam doesn’t have the mental protections
his brother does, and was ill-prepared for going up against him.”

Despite the lack
of mental walls, Oblivion is still one of the most powerful people I have met.
With Jason as his brother, it came as little surprise. For someone to be able
to knock him down like this… it didn’t bode well for the rest of us.

“We should go
somewhere he can rest properly,” Tessa interjected.

“Do you have any
suggestions?” Agent Jones asked. “I’m open to anything at this point.”

She nodded slowly.
“I own another property in town. It is usually rented out, but has stood empty
for the last several months. We can go there. It is fully furnished and
comfortable.”

“It has the added
bonus of being nearby. Jason won’t have gotten far yet, so we don’t want to
leave,” the detective agreed.

Our plan made, the
agent set a course for the older woman’s property. Sam remained unconscious,
but there was nothing specific keeping him that way. My suspicion was that the
unknown Mastermind had sent a bolt of power at him, but that it should wear off
with no ill effects. It seemed somewhat similar to a trap I’d laid at a
warehouse a couple years ago for Mason. If someone with abilities attempted to
find a trail, it sent a burst of power through their mind. It was meant to make
it harder for them to concentrate on finding us, and forget anything they’d
discovered within the warehouse.

When the trap was
sprung, it had been before I cared what happened to Jason. He had been the
enemy at the time. Now I wanted nothing more than to keep Jason safe. Right
now, the way to do that is to help Sam.

I had failed to
protect the Tracker. I could not fail to protect his brother.