Project Aquarius (The Sensitives Series Book 1) (28 page)

“Hey. I’m Kyle.” He extended his hand and gave a firm, but friendly shake. “This is Mackenzie.” He pointed to the girl who clung to his pant leg. A miniature Riley buried her face against him, shying away.

“I’m Dr. Owens. Take a seat.”

Kyle sat back in the interview chair casually slumping as though he were about to play a video game. The preschooler skittered behind the chair. She ducked so she was completely hidden.

“What can I do for you?” Kyle asked.

“I need to collect some information from you.”

“Shoot.”

“Your full legal name,” Sara prompted.

“Kyle Llewellyn Kirkpatrick… I don’t use my middle name much.” He smirked as he ran his fingers through his wavy hair.

“Place of residence?”

“Gymnasium in tall creepy science building,” he said, being purposefully smug.

“Before the Pulse?”

“Newton, Massachusetts. But you already knew that, so why did you ask?”

“Because I have to. It’s my job,” Sara said, playing the authority card. “And how did you survive?”

“My friends and I were in the natatorium in our high school.”

Sara stared blankly.

“That’s the fancy world for indoor swimming pool. Anyway, my ears started to feel funny so I dove under and so did some of my friends. When we came up for air, most of our classmates were floaters.”

A swimming pool. Interesting survival technique.

“And where is the pool located in your school?”

“Way down in the basement.”

Sara’s suspicions were confirmed. Kyle had managed to shield himself from the electromagnetic energy by being underground and underwater.

“What did you do after discovering that everyone else was dead?”

“Dried off and ran out of the building with my friends. We went to my house and checked things out. When we realized that our families were gone, we went back to the school and waited there until you guys showed up.”

“Why did you go back to the school? Why not stay at home?”

“I dunno, figured the police or some rescue would show up eventually. You guys came in SWAT gear. Quite a show. Bravo. But I get the feeling you guys aren’t the police, are you?”

“No.” Sara hesitated. “So why did you come here willingly?”

“I dunno. You guys had food and shelter and a refugee center with other survivors. Sounded pretty good. We didn’t want to stay out there stepping over dead bodies.”

Sara typed into the form, ‘motivated by refuge’.

“Can I ask you a question?” Kyle pried.

Sara was going to have to be more cautious with Kyle than she had been with Riley. “Depends on the question.”

“Is there going to be more smoked salmon tonight? That stuff is good.”

CHAPTER FORTY

Drea

Drea couldn’t sleep and Beverly had awakened early as usual. The old woman was in the kitchen humming “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” as she made a pot of tea.

    Taylor emerged from the guest cabin just after sunrise. The normally serene look on her face had degenerated into a forced grimace over night. Taylor’s eyebrows were furrowed and her hair was messed up. She shuffled her feet when she walked. Intuitively, Drea knew something was wrong as soon as she saw her.

Taylor drew open the screen door to the Chow House and carelessly let it slam behind her.

“Where’s Izzy? Is he up yet?” she asked urgently.

“Oh no dear, he’s a late to bed, late to rise kind of a guy. What can I do for you?” Beverly answered.

The elderly woman was dressed in an old fashioned nightgown that harkened back to Dickens. The cast iron teapot she wielded completed the historical effect.

“I need to talk to him. Right now.” Taylor’s voice was shaky, but insistent.

“Why don’t we wait on that? I was talking to Drea about her interesting revelation. You see, she just discovered that it’s the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. Isn’t that fantastic!”

Taylor persisted, “It can’t wait. I have a message for him… from the other side.”

Beverly stopped her bubbling. “Okay, dear one. Wait a moment. But, I’ve got to warn you. He’s not a morning person.”

A few minutes later, Beverly returned to the Chow House with a sleepy Izzy in tow. His beard was wild on one side and his eyes were barely open. He walked with strained effort. Once he stood three feet in front of Taylor he grumbled, “Well?’

“You remember Bert?” Taylor began.

Izzy’s eyes snapped open. “Yeah, what about him?”

“He came to me last night in a dream. He has a message for you. Said it was urgent. When I woke up, I wrote down as much as I could remember. Here.”

She handed him a folded notebook page with ragged edges.

Remember why we founded this self-sustainable community. We were always ahead of the curve, Izzy. This is a time of great suffering on the planet. It is crucial that you teach others to survive like we did. Follow your dharma, even when Earthbound is no more. More suffering will come, but do not fear pain. Teaching the children is your destiny. There is nothing more important. Stay ahead of the curve.

Izzy’s shoulders slumped.

“What does it all mean? More suffering will come? Stay ahead of the curve?” Taylor asked.

“Thank you for the message Taylor. You can tell him I received it loud and clear.” Izzy turned to Beverly, “I’m going out to the workshop. Don’t disturb me.” His tone was hard to read and his face was unforgiving.

“No,” Taylor said, stepping in front of him. “You don’t get to receive a personal message channeled through me and then run away. Tell me what it means.”

“It means that my life’s work is still yet to come and I can’t lose sight of it when circumstance changes.” Tears rolled slowly down Izzy’s worn face. “Dharma is the yogic word for life purpose. We yoga-types believe we are each handed a Gift and we have a profound responsibility to that Gift. My Gift is the ability to communicate with children. It is my dharma.”

“But you don’t do that at all in your current line of work,” Taylor pointed out.

Izzy’s face soured. “ I know. That’s because my Gift comes with my greatest wound. I have been unable to have children in this lifetime.”

“Oh.”

Taylor stood in awkward silence.

“Like all of you, I must work extra hard to live out my dharma, experiencing both my Gift and my limitations. I must seek out ways to teach children. And Bert is telling me that I will have a big opportunity really soon. So it is good news after all. You should all go back to bed.”

Izzy half-smiled and patted Taylor on the shoulder. But his expression was icy. He sidestepped around her and walked out the back door toward the workshop.

Beverly resumed her puttering in the kitchen as if nothing momentous had occurred.

“Well, breakfast anyone?”

Taylor fidgeted with her loose ponytail. “Beverly, what did Bert mean ‘when Earthbound is no more’?”

“No use in worrying about the future. It depletes your power. Your destiny is already written. How about a fresh veggie hash?” Beverly suggested.

***

Three sunrises later, Drea was still uneasy. Secrets did not sit well with her, not in a world where survival was questionable. But Taylor seemed like she had dropped it effortlessly and moved on.

   That morning Taylor and the other ladies were playing a game of Scrabble at the farm table, laughing and drinking lemonade. Drea had declined the invitation to the tournament. She wasn’t ready to have fun yet after all they’d been through. Somehow it seemed wrong. She had a lot of thinking to do.

    She sulked on the now familiar couch, watching the boys’ navigate their new hobby. Sammy and Darnell were gathering blankets and furniture to build a fort. Darnell had tied one end of a blanket around a spindle on a chair back with the seriousness of a sailor.

    “All set on this end!” he called.

    “One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Six chairs,” Sammy reported. He tried to space them as evenly as he could, adjusting them at first by inches and then by nanometers.

    Drea found the boys’ new interest in building ironic. A house within a house. And yet they were all still technically homeless… She had turned over a new leaf at Earthbound, but the depression crept into her mind like a determined cockroach.

There was a chill in the air. Drea shivered. Spring mountain breezes were serious business. She tucked her neck further into the enormous scarf Beverly had knit for her.

That’s when she heard it, a familiar thrumming.

“You hear that?”

Beverly peered over the rim of her glasses. “Hear what, honey? My hearing isn’t what it used to be.”

“That sound.” Drea’s back was completely erect, her neck craned toward the door. “It’s a chopper, I know it.”

“You sound like the guys from Nam,” Izzy laughed as he peeled potatoes. “It’s probably just a bunch of kids on ATVs.”

The guy didn’t get it. Drea’s hearing was perfect, super-sonic even. It was part of what made her so sensitive. Back when things were normal, Drea used to be kept awake at night by the high-pitched hum of her Dad’s old tube TV in the basement. She could hear the stupid thing click on from her bedroom on the second floor. Now, Drea’s sensitive ears told her the approaching sound was electric and modern and getting closer by the second. It was a dangerous sound.

“It’s a chopper. I know it,” she repeated.

Darnell peaked out from under one side of the fort. “Yo, she’s right. Listen… We gotta get outta here!”

“Sammy, get your stuff!” Drea yelled.

She was used to fast escapes by now. She slipped her sneakers on and drew her red Swiss army out of her pocket.

“Hey, hey, slow it down. Everything is fine. You’re safe here remember?” Izzy was doing his best to help calm the group down.

The sound got louder and suddenly registered in the adults’ eardrums.

“You know that does sound like a helicopter,” Peace Frog said. “Maybe it’s that U.N. Relief team I was talking about. I’ll go check.” She exited through the screen door, which clanged behind her.

Drea was still throwing stuff in her bag when the first shots were fired. Instinctively, she hit the ground.

“Sammy, get down!” she ordered as the world shifted into slow motion.

But the loud sound had Sammy frozen. He was staring out the window with his face pressed to the glass, drawn to the chaos that he loathed. Steam from his nostrils fogged the pane. Drea crawled army style across the fraying hand-braided rug and pulled on his leg.

“Get down Sammy,” she urged as a rain of bullets sprayed the Chow House.

Drea felt her head get tight. In the background, far away from her inner monologue, a voice said
Stay on the ground. Get him away from the window.
It was a familiar female voice. And it made Drea feel less alone. She reached up and used all her strength to pull Sammy to his knees. Then she threw her body on top of her brother.

“Get off me,” he said, muffled by the dusty carpet.

Shots and yells ricocheted around the Chow House. Drea heard Peace Frog shouting from outside.

Darnell ran to the window where Sammy had been standing seconds before. There was no fear in his eyes.

“Come in and get me you cowards. You don’t want to mess with a Dominican!” Darnell pounded on the glass with both fists.

Please, get him down. They’re going to shoot him. His dream was right.

Drea followed the voice’s advice. “Darnell, get down. You’re going to get shot!”

In one swift motion, she swept Darnell’s legs out with a kick and he landed hard next to her.

“Ow, what the hell?”

“You need to stay down. You were right. They have guns.”

“No kiddin’. I told you!” Darnell argued.

Drea looked over at Taylor who had taken shelter under the long dining table. Taylor nodded. The pressure in Drea’s head intensified and the volume of the real world turned way down.

Good job.

Wait, was Taylor talking in her mind?

Yes. I told you our gifts are getting stronger. We’re evolving more quickly in the new world.

Drea couldn’t help feeling the resistance that burned in her chest.

You’re so committed to your skepticism. It’s cute. No matter what happens. Remember that you aren’t alone. We are all connected.
Taylor’s eyes conveyed a quiet stoicism. They stared into a deep part of Drea, a part full of longing.
Everything is going to be okay. Everything happens for a reason. It’s okay.

It’s not okay. Why is this happening?

We’ll find out. Live your way into the answers. Dream them.

If this is what happens when dreams come true, Drea didn’t want it. She dreamed scary things.