Project Aquarius (The Sensitives Series Book 1) (29 page)

Let go into the fear. Move through it. Your sensitivity is your power. And you are an incredibly powerful woman.

Taylor’s eyes pulled her in and made her aware of every breath. Drea could feel the microseconds on her skin. Then she felt an intense shift, as if something cracked open in her mind. A warm wave of self-acceptance washed over her. It was time to embrace the totality of her power. She was Sensitive for a reason. She could talk in her mind to other people and she could sometimes predict the future. Her sensitivity was a beautiful gift, not a flaw.

Drea pushed the feeling outward, letting her warm strength encompass the room. In her periphery, she saw a hazy shimmer. It was working. She was casting a protection bubble. Drea focused on everything she loved in the world, everything she believed in. They were going to be okay. She felt it. She held everyone she loved at Earthbound inside the shimmering protective light.

See? You are incredibly powerful and beautiful. I’m glad you can finally see it.
Taylor smiled.

Drea felt centered and peaceful and completely right. In fact, she felt beautiful for the first time in her life. For a moment, she deeply understood that outer appearance didn’t matter and that beauty lived within. She was beautiful and powerful and exactly how she was supposed to be.

Suddenly, Beverly threw open the front door and the opalescent bubble popped, letting in a flood of light. Drea snapped back to the room.

“This is a peaceful place!” Beverly shouted at the intruders.

A megaphone answered her, “Put your hands on your head.”

Through the open doorway, Drea saw Peace Frog on her knees in the yard, her hands piled on top of her head, tears streaming down her face.

“Please put down your guns and come inside. All are welcome here,” Beverly begged.

“Last warning. Put your hands on your head,” said the angry male voice through the speaker.

“There’s no need for shouting. I—”

Beverly didn’t get to finish her sentence. There was a sharp crack as the first round hit the house. The windows shattered, iridescent shards raining down. Then a shower of bullets sprayed through the open door, pinging around the dining room. The volley made Beverly buckle at the knees. She hit the ground with a sickening crack.

“No!” shouted Taylor from her cover under the table.

“No!” Drea yelled, chest rattling in anguish.

Beverly’s head lolled to the side, revealing a gory sight. Not much of her right eye remained. A gaping hole stared back from the old woman’s face.

Her body was riddled with bullet holes. They had left pockmarks on her skin like a terrible disease. Beverly’s face stared in frozen agony.

Drea joined Sammy’s screaming and the world began to melt out of focus. She wasn’t going down without a fight. She had something to fight for now. She had to stop the vile people who stole Beverly Heartsong from the Earth.

They would take Sammy over her dead body. And they would never take her soul. Drea believed in herself now and she knew she needed to live.

As the men in black riot gear stormed the Chow House, Drea held her arms up over her face in defense, the red-handled knife at the ready. One man grabbed her arm and she swung her weapon haphazardly. She felt it make contact, slicing through fabric into pulpy flesh. Warm angry blood soaked into her sleeves. Drea stabbed and slashed over and over again. She was winning her fight against evil. She wouldn’t let them take her freedom. She wouldn’t let them take her Gift.

Suddenly, there was a snap and a zap accompanied by the smell of urine. She lay twitching on the ground. Drea couldn’t move any of the muscles in her body.

She had been tased.

Everything went dark.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Sara

Dr. Shin had called an emergency staff meeting. It was the type of announcement that raised Sara’s blood pressure. She looked for James in the auditorium, but he wasn’t there. That worried her a bit.

   Sara took a seat on the end of an aisle. There were significantly less people at this staff meeting than at the previous one. The room wasn’t even half full. Had that many people quit? Sara shuddered to think of the other option.

Dr. Shin appeared on stage in casual dress, an aqua polo and some black slacks. No microphone, no projector screens. He was flying minimal for this announcement. It must be timely.

“Good evening everyone. Thanks for coming on such short notice. I wanted to invite you here to share a wonderful find with you. Bring them in.”

Several men in dark black military gear appeared on stage escorting a chain gang of children who were shackled together at the ankles. The children had blindfolds over their eyes. There was a little red haired boy, two teenage girls, and an African-American boy who was the only one with duct tape over his mouth. The sight made Sara gasp. Were the shackles really necessary? And the duct tape? It was all too reminiscent of the dark days of slavery and war.

With a grand flourish, Dr. Shin said, “Presenting, one of the original experiments from Project Aquarius.”

There was no discernible response from the crowd. Of course, Sara had heard of the early experiments, but what did Dr. Shin mean?

Her boss continued, “This is a great day for the Project. Our wonderful Recon Team fortuitously recovered one of the subjects from the original genomic mapping experiment. Almost a decade ago, the original project had its funding cut due to a shift toward stem cell research. The data on subjects 1 through 100 was labeled and stowed away in a computer file. But I used that original DNA data for my subsequent experiments.”

He took a deep breath. “Most importantly this girl is the reason we are here today,” he said pointing at the chubby teen in the middle. “This girl is proof that we are evolving with superhuman Sensitivities. The original experiment data is the reason behind the Pulse. And this girl is proof that it worked! So please give a warm welcome to Subject 37.”

Dr. Shin nodded and one of the larger goons removed the girl’s blindfold.

“Hello, Andrea Fox. Welcome home.”

***

To be continued in
Subject 37:
Book Two of The Sensitives Series.