The Doomsday Device (Teen Superheroes Book 2) (7 page)

“I don’t usually have anything to say.” Ebony looked at the food on the table. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Not if you think it’s a Big Mac and fries,” Brodie said. “It’s sandwiches and water.”

Ebony half stumbled when she tried to stand. Brodie grabbed her, directed her into a seat and poured her a glass of water.

“You don’t look great,” Brodie said.

“I don’t feel great. I think I might vomit.”

Brodie patted her shoulder sympathetically. Usually Ebony was not her favorite person. More than once she had noticed the quiet girl giving Axel glances out of the corner of her eye. The glances had made her feel…uneasy. Especially when he had looked up unexpectedly and smiled back at her.

She shouldn’t be so jealous. She didn’t own Axel. She couldn’t control who he looked at or who looked at him. Despite sharing a few kisses over the last few months, they were not an item. She wasn’t sure why not. He seemed to like her. She just assumed it had just been such a crazy time that relationships had to be put on the back burner.

Chad had certainly shown a lot more interest than Axel. When she thought about him she wondered if she could ever be in a relationship with the blonde headed boy. Chad was an egotistical show off and loud mouth. He was also very good looking.

Before Brodie could continue this line of thinking, Ebony suddenly pitched forward and vomited over the tray.

“Oh hell,” Brodie muttered.

As Ebony emptied the contents of her stomach, Brodie looked around for something to wipe her mouth. She finally picked up a cloth serviette and gave it to the girl. Ebony accepted it gratefully.

“Thanks,” she said. “I think I’m feeling a little better now.”

“Wash your mouth out with water,” Brodie said. “There’s a small hand basin over here.”

As Ebony cleaned up, Brodie glanced over at Dan. He could sleep through a tornado, that kid. She focused on his face. Not only was he dead to the world, but he looked quite pale. She quickly felt his forehead and took his pulse.

Brodie turned to Ebony in shock. “Something’s wrong with Dan! He’s barely breathing!”

Chapter Thirteen

There are times when you’re lucky and there’s times when you’re unlucky. As the bomb exploded in the plane I was able to throw a shield around ourselves. It shielded us from the bulk of the blast. I then converted it into a flying wing and took us safely to earth.

I don’t want to think about the other possibilities; that my powers could have failed at the moment the bomb exploded and we were blown to pieces. Or that my flying platform could have evaporated when we were half way back to earth and we fell thousands of feet to the earth below, ending up as two bloody smears on the desert surface.

Like I said, best not to think of those possibilities.

It was bad enough that my powers failed again once we had landed, leaving us to walk back to civilization through the heart of the desert with the early morning sun beating down on our heads. Try doing that when you don’t have food, water or a hat.

“So what’s going on with your powers?” Chad asked after a few hours of marching across the same repetitive landscape. “What’s with the on/off switch?”

“I wish I knew,” I said.

I explained about the problems back on the plane and then back at the house. Normally Chad had a smart ass remark for everything, but this time he surprised me.

“What do you think is causing it?” he asked.

“I’ve got no idea.” We trudged over a rise in the landscape. “Maybe it’s the injections that caused our powers in the first place. Whoever said they were permanent?”

“No-one I suppose,” Chad said. “Is that a road up ahead?”

I could have jumped for joy. “It is. I think it’s the Ninety-Five.”

A truck moving across the landscape proved me right. It was US Route 95. Once I had thought of it as just another road. Now I felt like building a monument to its glory and writing a song in its praise. As we stomped across the sandy dirt towards it, I began to wonder about our next step.

Unless Brodie and the others had made a miraculous escape from their captors, they were still missing in action. The most logical plan would be for Chad and me to return home and make our plans from there. Except our home had been fully alight when we last saw it.

By the time we reached the highway, we must have been looking pretty bad. Usually Chad was impeccable about his appearance, but even he looked like he’d been living on the streets for six months. Several more hours of walking took us back to our house. Or what remained of it. It looked like both the fire brigade and the police had been here. What wasn’t burnt had been ruined by the attempts by the fire brigade to extinguish the blaze. An untidy trail of police tape ran about the circumference of the property.

Chad and I barely said anything to each other. It was obvious the others were gone. They had not made a miraculous escape otherwise they would be here waiting for us. Chad and I trudged back to the highway. Fortunately this time a passing trucker took pity on us and gave us a ride.

“How did you boys end up all the way out here?” he asked.

“Our car broke down,” I explained.

“Where do you need to go?”

“Into Vegas,” I said, before Chad could reply. “All the way into the city.”

Chad shot me a look, but I gave him a look.

Later.

The driver dropped us off on South Las Vegas Boulevard and we gave him a cheery wave goodbye.

“Do you mind telling me what we’re doing here?” Chad asked.

“We need help if we’re going to find the others.”

“What sort of help?”

“Agency kind of help.”

“Are you insane?” he asked. “We wouldn’t be in this situation if it weren’t for those crazies!”

Actually, he was kind of right in saying that. If The Agency hadn’t pumped us full of drugs and given us super powers we probably wouldn’t be standing on South Las Vegas Boulevard with no money, no identification and no memory of our previous lives.

Life’s funny like that.

I even told him so.

Chad looked like he wanted to hit me. “I’m not contacting The Agency. I’m not going back there. I’m going back to the house and taking my life back.”

“What life?” I was starting to get annoyed now. “And what house? It’s a smoldering wreck in the middle of the desert!”

That shut him up. Even in his desert addled, water deprived state of mind he could see my logic.

“So how will we contact The Agency?” he asked.

I reached into my pocket and produced a card that Mr. Jones had given me the previous day.

“I have an address.”

Chad shook his head. “This is a mistake.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

He didn’t.

Cars whizzed by at great speeds as we marched down the road. I reflected how this whole area must have changed over the years. A century ago American Indians would have hunted and gathered as they had for thousands of years. Now the same territory had been eaten up by wedding chapels, bail bondsman, pawn shops, restaurants and low rise hotels.

Who would have thought it?

We finally arrived at the address on the card. I looked down at the address and double checked it. Yep, this was the place.

It was not quite what I expected.

“The Hound Dog Wedding Chapel?” Chad read the sign in disbelief. “Are you sure this is the right place?”

“This is it.” I started up the path. “Let’s see if Elvis is home.”

Chapter  Fourteen

“We need help!” Brodie hammered the metal door. “Our friend is unwell!”

She had been hitting the door for a full minute by the time a female voice replied from the other side.

“That’s the oldest trick in the book,” the voice said. “We weren’t born yesterday.”

“It’s not a trick!” Brodie yelled. “Besides, if we wanted to be out of here, we would be.”

“We know you have some crazy powers,” the woman replied. She sounded older than the teenage boy with whom Brodie had spoken. “I advise you to just eat your food and settle in. Tomorrow morning we can -.”

“My friend might not last till tomorrow!” Brodie snapped. “Ebony!”

Ebony knew exactly what to do. Dan’s breathing was dangerously shallow. He could die if they didn’t take some proactive measures. She crossed to the metal door and touched it with her bare hand.

“Oxygen,” she said.

The door transmuted into oxygen, revealing a surprised woman on the other side. She was dressed in army fatigues and carrying a rifle. She started to raise the weapon. Brodie leapt forward, grabbed the weapon and twisted it one hundred and eighty degrees out of her grasp.

She pointed it at the astonished woman. Looking left and right, she realized she was in a long concrete passageway leading in both directions. She could take this woman hostage, but she had no idea where the exit was from this place. In addition, she wasn’t sure they could carry Dan with them all the way.

Plus they still had to find Ferdy.

At that moment a door opened at the other end of the passageway. A good looking young man appeared. Brodie thought it was Jason.

He raised his rifle and pointed it at her. “Put that gun down!”

“Listen to me -.” Brodie began.

“Put it down!”

“My friend is sick!” Brodie snapped. “He’s not breathing properly. He needs medical assistance.”

“I don’t believe you,” the youth said.

Brodie was exasperated. “What is it with you people? You have to believe me!”

“Do you have a doctor?” Ebony asked.

“Yes, but -.”

“As a symbol of good faith, my friend will put her weapon down,” Ebony said.

Brodie felt none too happy with complying with the idea, but she could see the sense in it. “We will not attack you,” she said. “All we want is help for our friend.”

Brodie placed the gun down. If the young man decided to shoot her, she doubted she could dodge out of the way in time.

“Get your gun, Donna,” the youth said.

The woman named Donna scooped up the weapon. “She’s fast, Jason. Watch out for her.”

Ebony stepped into the corridor. “Dan’s getting worse. He needs help.”

Jason pointed them back into the room with his rifle. Donna looked down at his inert form.

“He doesn’t look well,” she peered down at him.

“That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you,” Brodie said. “Do you have a doctor?”

“Doc Williams can look at him,” Donna said. “You young people better not be trying anything -.”

“We’re not,” Ebony said. “We just want help for our friend.”

“I’ll get the doc,” Donna said, departing the room.

Brodie found herself clenching her teeth in annoyance. Hopefully this doctor had some sort of proper qualifications, otherwise she and Ebony would have to fight their way out of here. Jason kept his gun trained on them until they heard the sound of a door opening and closing.

Donna returned with a man aged about sixty. He wore military fatigues like the others, but he had a red cross sewn onto his pocket and carried a leather medical bag. Kneeling down beside Dan, he quickly took his pulse and checked his breathing. After a moment he pulled out a small bottle and needle from his bag.

“What’s that?” Brodie asked in alarm.

“Don’t panic, missy,” he said. “Your friend’s had an allergic reaction to the hypodermic. I’m just giving him something to ease his breathing. He’ll be back to new before you know it.”

He injected Dan. Almost immediately, the boy’s color seemed to improve as did his breathing. It did not sound so labored. Brodie gave the doctor a grateful look.

“Thank you for your help,” she said.

“That’s okay,” he said. “It’s my job.”

“When can we get out of here?” Ebony had sat back down on her bunk bed. “Why have we been taken prisoner?”

The doctor held up a hand. “It’s not my place to answer those kinds of questions, but a man will be here shortly who will set your minds at ease.”

I doubt that
, Brodie thought.
The only thing that will set my mind at ease will be leaving this place.

As the doctor exited, Donna and Jason hovered in the entryway where the metal door used to be. They gave the gap a critical look.

“We won’t try to escape,” Brodie said. “You have my word.”

Jason seemed satisfied, but Donna looked undecided.

“We’re not leaving our friend,” Ebony said. “And he obviously can’t travel so it looks like we’re stuck here whether we like it or not.”

Donna nodded and departed. Jason gave them an appraising look.

“You people have got powers,” he said. “That’s going to come in handy.”

“Why?” Brodie asked.

“You’ll see,” he said enigmatically.

They heard the door open down the passage and a man sidled past Jason into the room. He was completely bald. Even apart from his baldness, Brodie realized he looked unusual and it took her a few seconds to work out why.

Oh my God
, she thought.

He had no ears.

“My name is Jeremiah Stead,” he said in a deep, confident voice. “I’m in charge here.”

“Where is ‘here’?” Brodie asked. “Exactly.”

“You’re at the Sanctuary Compound in Montana,” he said. “Consider yourselves to be among the fortunate few.”

“What do you mean?” Ebony asked.

Jeremiah smiled grimly and gave them a wink. “The world is coming to an end,” he said. “It’s your lucky day, kids.”

Chapter Fifteen

I stopped at the front steps of the Hound Dog Wedding Chapel. It was a two storey cream colored stucco building with a small bell tower and signage on the front indicating a selection of various wedding packages. They ranged from a traditional service conducted by a certified minister to the full performance where you could be married by a rock n roll singing and dancing Elvis.

Wow
, I thought.
If Brodie and I ever decide to tie the knot…

A Chinese restaurant sat to one side of the building. On the other was a small hotel. They even had deals where you could combine a three day weekend package with a complimentary Elvis wedding.