He’d been too late.
I’m trying to get to you. And Lily too. The agents brought us here. I don’t know where.
They just can’t keep us locked in here. They have to provide us a lawyer.
William almost laughed. She didn’t understand that the rules of the normal world didn’t apply anymore—
Hey, William. You there?
William’s eyes flew open. What was that voice?
Dude, I know you’re there.
William focused once more on Jane. I’ll find, you Jane. I’ll do everything I can.
He could see her frantic expression. William—
As he left her, he began to seek, until someone found him first.
There you are. Hello, General.
He was barely a teenager, swallowed in a La-Z-Boy recliner. In his hands were a game console, and the sounds of explosions and bullets came from a television. His hair was thick and unruly, and he wore a wrinkled Foo Fighters T-shirt and sweat pants.
So what’s going on in your side of the X-Men dorm? Your room isn’t nearly as tricked out as mine. But just make a bunch of threats, you’ll have a keg in there in no time.
You can see me?
Si, compadre. Once you opened up the communication channel, as I call it. Your room’s pretty lame.
William took a step back to steady himself. There would be no need to try and find the third of the abducted. The government already had him.
Where are we?
Somewhere in DC. The boy squirmed in his chair, leaning to the right in a desperate attempt to stay alive in whatever game he was playing. Deep DC. So far below that we can’t kill people. At least, that’s what they hope.
Who are you?
The boy cursed, slapping the console on his thigh. The sound of an electronic death came from the television. I can’t ever get past this stage. But all I got is time. So, I’m Ryan. Here’s my insta bio: thirteen, troubled youth, ability to kill. A pretty disturbing superpower, thanks to the star lords. It’s why I reside in the Taj Mahal of unwashed teenagers; they think if they keep me happy, I won’t kill people on the surface. And I have you to thank for this arrangement, I guess. And what’s the story with the hot doctor?
William scowled. You can listen in?
Oh sure. You and me are tight. You just don’t realize it yet. Each time you dreamed, opened the floodgates, reached out to the others, I was right there. Now that you’re my suitemate, looks like I can come to you, too. Which is nice, since I get no visitors, except for your aunt, that one time.
You led them to us?
We probably shouldn’t be allowed to wander around killing people. It’s not our fault, though, that we were picked up by the bastards and made to be weapons of mass destruction. I do wonder if we’ll survive, though, what’s coming.
What do you mean?
Ryan began playing again, swerving in his seat. I remember. I remember everything. I bet your little friend, Miss Lily, remembers too, but she’s too scared to talk about it. You and Dr. Sweetness are grownups, so they scorched your memory, it’s what they do to adults. But us kids remember. Oh wait, you were a kid when you were taken, right? So you must remember.
William frowned. Everything I knew was wiped out by the same agency that is locking us away.
Well, don’t be too grumpy about it. I wish I didn’t remember. I know what they did with us, how we’re different than the ones before. When they trigger us at the end, we’ll be just fine. Not like the old models, with their bleeding ears and blown up brains….
William’s stomach cramped.
Nanna.
Listen, Ryan, don’t say anything to them about how we communicate. I have to find a way to get us out of here.
You can’t stop it. The US might be in slightly better shape with three of us underground, but, as you probably have figured out, it’s happening all over the world. All you have to do is read any news website and you’ll see it. Hate to say it, but if I were in their position, I’d lock us up down here and throw away the key. And we’re down deep. Level forty-two deep. There’s no way out.
Just please don’t reveal that we can communicate.
Sure. Just don’t be a stranger, OK? I think we’re going to be down here for a long, long time.
I promise.
The boy was gone, the connection broken.
William knocked over two stacks of books and kicked a trashcan across the room. He pounded his fist on the door, yelling to be let out.
Lily stirred, and Jane stood. He saw them, as clearly as he could see Ryan, also rising from his chair.
He knew he could unleash them all. But it would do nothing. It would only prove why they need to be buried in a taxpayer-funded tomb.
He slumped down in a chair, his head in his hands. He might be able to control their abilities, but it wouldn’t help them escape. There was no way for him to attempt to contact anyone—not Blue, not Quincy. Aunt Kate certainly wouldn’t tell his parents or brothers where he was.
There was no way out. And everyone he loved would die because he couldn’t stop what was coming.
And what would happen when it did? Would the dream just suddenly seize him, connecting him to all the abducted all over the world, triggering them all at once?
If there was something in him that he could rip out, he would do it, even if he had to claw through his own skin….
William stared straight ahead. For several moments, he held his breath.
Then he closed his eyes.
The darkness was vast, so different than when he was trying to get to Jane across the angry gulf. This time, there was only black. He knew instinctively that what he was attempting wasn’t allowed.
He wasn’t supposed to enter the dark voluntarily.
When he took that first step, he felt it immediately: the anger looming in the distance, coming to pull him towards the disasters. He wanted to cower; its coming fury like a wave of heat.
The dreams were how they designed it to happen. He was theirs, their vehicle, their way to get to the others to connect. Establish a web, unite them all.
He was never to be in control, to navigate the way to the others on his own.
He turned from it and plunged into the dark.
How much time passed, he didn’t know. It felt like hours, but it could have been just moments; pushing through blackness as thick as tar. But at last, he found her.
She looked tired. He hated to wake her if she were sleeping.
As he reached her, Nanna opened her eyes.
“How many cups is that?”
Roxy scowled, raising her right eyebrow at Stella. “Don’t judge, young lady. It’s been a hell of a couple days. More excitement than I’ve had since, well, you know, the damn aliens.”
She expected a sigh or some retort from Lynn, but she’d just spaced out, sitting in the chair in the hotel room and staring out the window. Roxy had hoped she’d finally fallen asleep when her eyes had closed, given that Lynn had barely slept in the government safe house. But it appeared now she was just in a deep state of zoning out.
“No judging here. You’ve just mentioned, more than once, the coffee isn’t that good,” Stella said from where she sat across the room from her mother.
“Oh, it tastes like the Mississippi River, all right. But at least it has caffeine. Still no sign of discovery?”