Chapter 33 #2
Allie, meanwhile, finished her work and asked about cleanup.
“We’ll be spelled soon. There are groups back at the main buildings ready to come out and take over.” Dette stretched. “It’s a pretty efficient system.” Then she stopped and waved, calling, “Cameron!”
Allie’s heart leapt before she turned to see him. Key came up behind him, her brows furrowed.
“Oh, thank God,” Dette muttered before she ran over to Key, giving her a once-over. “You okay? Need water?”
“I’m okay.” She sighed and gave Dette a quick, hard hug. “That was wild.”
Cam came to Allie, looking spooked half out of his mind but alive.
She took him in her arms. “You’re cold,” she murmured. “I’m so sorry.”
He shuddered and leaned into her. “I haven’t been that scared in a very long time. Even with the glasses.”
They were joined by a pale, quiet Rachel, who took a bottle of water with a mumbled thanks, and then Ripper, who looked exhausted but was none the worse for wear.
“Those Z-terror glasses are fucking genius,” he said before taking a long swig of water.
“Kudos to whoever came up with that. Mal, I guess?”
“Yeah, looks like,” Key said, looking back at where the armor, including the special glasses, were being gathered up. “How he figured it out, I’m not sure.”
“Newtown got cleared out,” Cam said to Odette, who gasped.
“That’s the direction the Zs came from,” Ripper said. “I heard some of the other pikers talking about it. There’ve been attacks fairly regularly ever since. Nothing like this, though.”
Key looked at Allie. “Did you dream?”
“I did, but Morrigan didn’t alert us to the attack until it was close enough for us to see.
” And why was that? “I need to talk to Frankie,” she murmured, almost to herself.
When she realized the others were staring at her, she added, “Frankie was there, in my dream. Actually her in a dream state, not me dreaming about her. Morrigan said I brought them both there. I’ve never done that before. ”
Cam frowned and turned her to look at him, his eyes intent on hers. “No nosebleeds or headaches?”
“No.” She put a hand to his cheek. “I promise.”
Key sucked air through her teeth, obviously frustrated. “When I asked Liam about the attack, he said I needed to talk to my brother. Sounds like we have some questions he needs to answer.”
When Key, Odette, Allie, and Cam walked into what the others called the War Room, Malcolm was communicating with someone about food over a walkie-talkie.
“Over and out.” He put down the device and gestured at the empty chairs around him, smiling.
“Have a seat. I’m sure you’re all tired. Thanks for helping out.”
Key didn’t waste time. “What happened to Newtown?”
Mal frowned. “Shawnie, settlements get overrun. We were able to save most of the people, and we’re going to get it set back up again in the future.”
“Okay.” She crossed her arms, leaning back in her chair. “It got overrun. And yet, the Zs are still coming?”
He sighed. “We get attention here. Lot of people, lot of activity.”
“Not like that—”
Allie put a hand on Key’s arm. This couldn’t turn into another family argument. “I had a dream,” she said. “My goddess was here. She said you’ve been learning about the zombies.”
Malcolm looked at her, eyes unreadable. “And so we have.”
“She also said there were risks involved in what you were doing.” She let that statement linger. Time to bait a hook. “Nice work on the Z-terror glasses. They work about as well as anything could, I’ll bet.”
Mal smiled. “You’d be right about that. They’ve saved a lot of lives.”
Yes, you like being praised, don’t you?
“Yeah.” Key cocked her head. “How the fuck did you figure that out?”
“How do we figure anything out? Research. Testing. We’re working our asses off here to figure out what this shit really is, Key.
” He huffed out a breath. “When you told me about your dreams, I didn’t believe you.
But I was wrong. The way to understand what’s happening with the Zs is in the dreams and abilities.
Ones like Frankie’s. We’ve seen some crazy shit. ”
“What kind of crazy shit?”
“Meeting Harper really opened our eyes, let’s just say. She’s been here a few times since, and between her and some of the other abilities we’ve found?” Mal sighed. “That changed the game in a big way.”
“What abilities?” Allie couldn’t help but ask.
He sent her a calculating look. “There are a few pretty much everyone knows about here. Fire-starting and truth-dealing, for starters, but neither of those people are here. Harper’s got the truth thing, and she’s back at the Station.
The fire-starter’s out in the wind, somewhere east killing Zs, last we heard. ”
Fire-starting? That sounded both awesome and terrifying. “And now you have Frankie’s psychometry,” Allie said.
Everyone gave her a startled look except Mal, who simply nodded.
Key leaned forward. “So Frankie has dreams and an ability,” she said. “You’ve been studying her, obviously. What have you found out?”
Mal shrugged. “Not as much as I’d hoped, in some ways.
In others...” He frowned for a moment. “We’ve made a lot of progress but not just because of her.
” He paused then looked from Key to Allie.
“You two dream—not everyone with an ability does. Some people have an ability but don’t dream. Are either of you gifted?”
Allie met Key’s eyes, and they held each other’s gaze for a long moment, Allie thinking as hard as she could, It’s your call. I trust you.
Then Key looked at Malcolm. “Why are you asking?”
Malcolm clucked his tongue. “Well,” he said, “when Frankie touches things, she gets information from them. Feelings, thoughts, flashes of memory or history. We have four other people here who demonstrate other abilities, although none quite as exciting as hers, and then, of course, we have other folks we know in our network who have abilities. I’m certain there are more—we haven’t exactly been advertising that we’re looking for people who could join the X-Men, although thanks to Harper’s broadcasts, we’re getting more in. ”
That many? Allie could hardly fathom it.
Cam was sitting up straight, body tense. “What kinds of studies are you doing?”
“The kind where we test abilities. Aptitudes. Health. Same way we would for athletes or people with illnesses. We’ve had to come up with a lot of them on the fly—testing for stuff like ESP and enhanced strength isn’t exactly a specialty for anyone here. But we’ve found out a lot.”
He smiled. “You’ve already met Frankie, so you know we’re not putting people in steel cells or keeping them strapped to gurneys in the basement.”
“When Frankie’s doing checks, she’s looking for bites, but she’s also touching our skin.” Allie looked at him. “She’s the best early-warning system.”
“Bingo,” Mal said, smiling at her warmly. “I like her.” That was to Key. Then he looked back at Allie. “I like you.”
Cam shifted uncomfortably.
“Oh, but little Cameron doesn’t like me liking you.” Malcolm winked at Allie.
“Prick,” Cam muttered, which made Malcolm laugh. “None of this explains the Z-terror glasses. How the hell did you develop those?”
Key was looking at her brother. “And what did happen with your plan to find a cure or a vaccine? I assumed you were still working on it—or at least you were when we got here way back when.”
“We are getting close. Not to a cure, because you were right—it’s not a virus.
” Mal spread his hands. “There’s no cure.
No vaccine. We can’t protect against bites.
Literally everything we’ve tried has failed completely since before the world ended.
So yeah. We know it’s not a virus. There’s nothing we can vaccinate against.”
“It has to be supernatural,” Odette said. “That’s what we’ve been saying, Mal. The Z-terror, the way the Zs feel evil, not mindless...”
“I’m with the program now. I fucking hate it, but I’m there.” Mal nodded. “So we’ve been trying to determine what kind of ‘supernatural’ we’re dealing with. We started with the Z-terror. Why does it happen? How could we stop that?”
Dette leaned forward. “Okay. Did you ask Frankie? I mean, if she can get info from touching the Bitten... did that give you clues?”
Malcolm’s momentary rush of excitement seemed to drain a bit. “For the most part, the Bitten are still human, just on borrowed time.” He grimaced. “And when we tried having her touch an actual zombie, things didn’t go so well.”
Key jumped to her feet. “How in the actual fuck did she touch a real Z?”
“The same way we’ve been figuring out a lot of stuff in the past two months.
” Mal looked at Allie’s horrified face and smiled reassuringly.
“We wouldn’t have put Frankie in that situation unless we were sure we could control it.
” He turned back to Key. “We had so many questions we needed to answer, Shawnie. There was no other way.”
He took a breath. “We captured Zs for testing. They’re being kept in one of the labs.”