فصل 18

chapter-18 The hunters.

It was a Sunday, I think. I wasn’t sure. Since arriving at the ranch, it had been hard to keep track of what day it was. The sun was setting over the western hills of Kane County, casting the ranch in a rose-gold hue, which, in spite of all the fear I carried, was still beautiful.

After dinner, Taylor and I grabbed a couple of quilts from my bunkhouse and walked down to the pond. We lay the blankets flat on the wooden dock that hung out over water that had been dyed blue-green so it looked more like water from the Bahamas than a cow pond.

The sun had fallen during our short walk, and the canyons to the east were bright pink with the sun’s last offering. We lay down next to each other.

“It’s so beautiful,” Taylor said.

I pointed toward a large stone outcrop. “See that ridge right there, that juts out? It’s called Queen’s Throne.” “How do you know that?”

“Ostin,” I said.

“Ostin,” she repeated. “Of course Ostin knew.” “Just past that is the city of Kanab. They used to shoot a lot of old Western movies there. They call it ‘Little Hollywood.’” “Ostin again?”

I nodded. “He knows everything.”

We looked out over the horizon in silence. The canyons changed as the sun fell more and shadows crept up from the plateau’s jagged foothills like a rising hand.

I swatted at a moth that was fluttering in front of my face. Being outside at night at the ranch was a problem. As the sun set, the insects were attracted to our glows, but especially mine, which now seemed to be getting brighter almost daily. I felt like a glowstick. Or, more accurately, a bug zapper. (An Electrical Discharge Insect Control System, as Ostin would call it.) The truth is, I didn’t need to swat at the bugs. They’d disintegrate as soon as they landed on my skin. I just didn’t like the powder marks and the smell of burning insects on my body.

“Your glow is getting brighter,” Taylor said.

“I’m still getting more electric.”

“Does that worry you?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what it means.” I looked at Taylor. “I find myself still worrying about that lie Hatch told me at the academy about some of the electric children dying of cancer.” “He uses fear and lies to control people.”

“The thing is, I know it’s a lie. So why do I still think about it?” “A lie can exist in your mind even when you know it’s a lie. That’s why you should never stop challenging your beliefs.” I looked out over the pond. A fish jumped. “You’re right.” “It’s so peaceful out here,” Taylor said. She was tracing the fernlike scars on my arm with her fingernail.

“They’re weird, aren’t they?” I said.

“I like them. I always have.” She was quiet a moment more, then said, “I’m afraid of this mission. I have a bad feeling about it.” She looked up into my eyes. “Are you afraid?” I took a deep breath. “Yeah. Like out of my skull afraid.” “Then why are we doing this? Why don’t we just stay here?” “Because eventually the Dark Lord will reach the Shire,” I said. Taylor looked at me peculiarly. “I mean the battle will come here, too.” “Then let it,” she said. “Let them come to us.” “By the time it reaches us, it will be too late. We’ll have no chance at all.” She sighed. “You’re right. I don’t like it, but I know you’re right.” She went back to tracing on my arm. “Is everyone coming?” “So far.”

“Even Grace?”

“No. She’ll be helping from back here. She’d just be another person we’d have to watch out for.” “My parents are freaking out about this. My father doesn’t want me to go.” “When did he say that?”

“Last night. He said we just got back together and he’ll never let me out of his sight again.” A part of me was glad to hear this. The protective part of me didn’t want her to go, even though I honestly didn’t think we could succeed without her.

“This morning I heard him telling the chairman that this was a suicide mission and he couldn’t believe the chairman would send a bunch of kids to their deaths.” “What did the chairman say?”

“He said that we aren’t just a bunch of kids. That we’re not only gifted, we’re smart.” “That describes us,” I said sardonically.

“Then he said he knew it was dangerous, but these are dangerous times.” She hesitated. “No, he said desperate times. And desperate times require desperate measures.” “So we’re a desperate measure,” I said.

“Apparently.” She frowned. “You know what’s really weird? My brothers in college have no idea what’s going on. My father hadn’t even told them that my mother was arrested.” “How would you even begin to explain things to them?” “I have no clue. Especially since they probably think our parents are dead.” She shook her head. “They don’t even know I’m electric.” Taylor’s frown deepened. “Do you think that the Elgen would hunt down my brothers?” I didn’t want to tell her what I really thought. The truth was, I was surprised that the Elgen hadn’t found them already. “I don’t know,” I finally said. “So what are you going to do about the mission?” “What do you want me to do?”

I thought for a moment, then breathed out slowly. “I want you to be safe. I want you to be a million miles away from Hatch and the Elgen.” “That would put me on the sun.”

I grinned. “The sun is ninety-three million miles from the Earth.” She grinned back. “Really, Ostin?”

“Sorry. I am starting to sound like him.”

“One Ostin’s enough.” She laughed. “Actually, one is more than enough.” “My point is, I don’t care how far you are from Hatch, just as long as he can’t find you.” “So you don’t want me to go?”

I again hesitated. “I want you to be safe. But I don’t know if we can do it without you. I know I can’t. You saved my butt at least ten times.” “You’ve saved mine, too,” Taylor said softly. “Don’t worry. I know you need me. And I’m not a kid asking my mommy and daddy for permission anymore. I left all that back in Idaho. My dad still doesn’t understand the big picture. He still believes that things can go back to the way they were and we can be a cozy, innocent little family. What he wants right now doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is whether or not it’s the right thing.” She touched my face. “You taught me that.” “If we don’t stop the Elgen, they’ll just grow more powerful. The longer we wait, the more dangerous they become. Like python eggs.” “Exactly. Easy to crush, but let them hatch and grow, and they’ll crush you.” Let them Hatch, I thought.

“There’s something else I don’t know what to do about. . . . I mean, in case we don’t make it back,” Taylor said.

“What’s that?”

“I know what Jade Dragon knows. I mean, I don’t understand it, but I could recite it all. Should I tell them?” I swatted at another moth. “I don’t think so.” “You don’t trust the resistance?”

“I don’t know if I trust them with that.”

“But we’ve trusted them with our lives.”

“It’s not the same. Even if they weren’t our friends, our lives are important to them. But this is different. Some information is too tempting. It’s like, I’ve never stolen anything before, but if you told me that there’s a million dollars, unguarded, in a box behind the school, I might consider taking it. You know what I mean?” “Yeah.”

“What if someone decides that it’s a good idea to beat Hatch at his own game by creating their own electric civilization?” “Someone? You mean, the resistance?”

I nodded. “We don’t really know much about the voice, do we? What I do know is that that much power in one person’s hands is too much. Besides, they know where to find Jade Dragon.” I kissed the top of Taylor’s head. “There will be time to figure this out after we come back.” She nodded. “After we come back.” She cuddled back into me. We lay there quietly on the quilt with my arms around her, and her head on my chest. She felt so good. So warm and soft. In spite of the mess of my life, I still felt lucky. If my electricity had brought me nothing but Taylor, it was worth it. I couldn’t imagine loving anyone more than I loved her.

Then Taylor lifted her head and looked at me. “There’s something else I want to tell you. But I’m afraid.” I leaned up on one elbow. “Why would you be afraid?” “I don’t want you to think I’m crazy.”

“I know you’re crazy,” I said.

She punched my shoulder. “No, I’m serious. It’s weird.” “So? I’m weird. Tell me.”

She took a deep breath. “How do I begin?” She hesitated a moment, then said, “I read something the other day that said we only use ten percent of our brains. Except, like Ostin, he probably uses like ninety percent, but this article said that if we could use all of our brains, we would not only be able to read minds, but we’d be able to see the future.” She looked at me intensely. “I thought it was interesting that they made the connection of mind reading to seeing the future. What do you think of that?” I shrugged. “I don’t know how you could know something that hasn’t happened. But I don’t know if time is really the way we think it is. Ostin once tried to explain to me Einstein’s theory of relativity and how time warps. I didn’t get it. He also said that Stephen Hawking said that he couldn’t understand why we couldn’t remember the future, so maybe if our brains were powerful enough, we could.” “So you think that it might be possible to tell the future?” “Yes. I mean, people have made predictions before, like prophets and Nostradamus and stuff.” I looked into her eyes. “Why?” “Something is happening to me. I keep having dreams. But they don’t feel like dreams, they feel real. Almost like memories. And they come true. At least they have so far.” “What kind of dreams?”

She sat up, pulling back from me a little. “Like, right after we escaped the Starxource plant in Taiwan, I had a dream that all these black dragons were flying over Timepiece Ranch and then they started breathing fire over it until everything was burned to ashes. After it was over, there was one dead dragon on the ground.

“And when we got there, that’s what we saw—the ranch was completely burned up and there was one crashed helicopter on the ground.” “Why didn’t you tell me about your dream?” I sat up too.

“I didn’t think it mattered then. I mean, we were facing real nightmares in Taiwan. But then I had another dream. The night after we met up with Gervaso in the Gadsden, I had a dream that my mother was in a cage and my father was walking around it dressed in his police uniform. I asked him why he didn’t let her out, and he said, ‘Because she stole you.’ I said, ‘How could she steal me, I’m right here?’ and he said, ‘No one can see you, so the police won’t let her go.’” Taylor exhaled slowly. “Then, just a few days later, we find out that my mother had been arrested by the Boise police and charged with my disappearance.” “That’s weird,” I said, not sure what to say. Taylor looked upset.

“I don’t know what to make of it.” She looked me in the eyes. “Am I, like, psychic?” “Maybe we should talk to Ostin about this. I’m sure he’ll know something about this.” Taylor put her hand on my arm. “I don’t want anyone else to know. At least not yet.” “Okay,” I said. “Anyway, if it’s true, then it’s a good thing. We’ll have an idea of what’s going on.” “Yeah, if we knew what my dreams meant. Like, last night I had a dream that my father grew antlers like a deer and was running around the ranch being chased by hunters. Then one of them shot him.” “Were they Elgen?”

“I don’t think so. I mean, it was like they were just . . . hunters.” Just then the serenity was broken by the sound of three gunshots—the sharp recoil echoing through the surrounding hills.

“What was that?” Taylor asked.

“Gunshots.” My worst fear flooded in. What if the Elgen has found us?

“We’d better go see,” I said. I looked to the hill south of us, where the water tower and sentry were. “It came from over there.” Leaving our blankets, we ran up the north bank of the hill toward the water tower. It wasn’t easy in the dark, as our path was lit only by a rising moon.

We had run nearly two hundred yards from the pond when we reached the top of the hill. We were both out of breath, and my face was ticking like crazy. We stopped next to the water tower to rest.

The water tower was nearly thirty feet high, with a three-thousand-gallon water tank and an observation deck on top that was usually manned by a lookout, but wasn’t now.

“Isn’t there supposed to be someone—”

“Shh,” I said, raising my hand. I could hear voices below us. “They’re down there,” I whispered, looking toward the base of the southern slope.

The hill was cast in dark shadows and covered with cedar and juniper, which gave us good cover as we hurried down. We pulled our sleeves over our hands so the only visible glow was on our faces.

At the base of the hill, on the dirt road that paralleled the corral leading to the main house, was a group of five or six men.

“Are they Elgen?” Taylor asked.

“I can’t tell. Let’s get closer.”

As we neared the road, I could see that the two men with their backs to the ranch were Chairman Simon and Taylor’s father. In front of them were four men with rifles.

“That’s my dad,” Taylor said, starting to stand. I grabbed her.

“Stay down. They aren’t Elgen, but they’ve got guns.” “They’re hunters,” Taylor said. “What are they doing out so late?” “Let’s get closer.”

About twenty feet from the road there was a fallen juniper with its roots extending high enough that we could hide behind it. We crept the final few feet, carefully picking our steps to not make any sound. As we reached the tree, we could clearly see the chairman and Mr. Ridley and the four men dressed in hunting gear. The hunters looked angry, and there was obvious tension. Mr. Ridley also looked angry. The chairman was speaking.

“I don’t care where the elk ran. This is private property. You need to turn around and go back to where you came from.” One of the hunters laughed, then mumbled something. It sounded to me like he had been drinking.

“Listen, joker,” one of the hunters said. “I got a shot on that elk, and I’m claiming it.” The chairman crossed his arms. “You can claim all you want, but this is private property. You can’t trespass.” Another one of the men spoke, his words slightly slurred. “We chased it here. If we’re in chase, we can continue. It’s the law.” “That’s only a law for police in pursuit,” Mr. Ridley said. “I’m a cop. And I’m giving you ten seconds to turn around and get your hairy hides out of here.” The men looked at each other; then two of them leveled their guns at Ridley. “What kinda stupid are you? We’re in the middle of nowhere, you got four men with guns, and you’re telling them to leave? Maybe I’ll just bag—” The man suddenly stopped, and his rifle drooped until it was pointing at the ground.

I looked over. Taylor was reaching toward him, rebooting him. Then he reached up and grabbed his forehead. Actually, it looked more like he was clawing it, as if there was something inside it that he was trying to get out.

Seeing the man’s helplessness, Mr. Ridley rushed him, grabbing the barrel of the rifle. One of the other hunters pulled a large bowie knife from a sheath on his belt, and the other two lifted their guns.

“Stop it!” I shouted.

There was a rifle blast, and Mr. Ridley fell to the ground.

“They shot my father!” Taylor shouted, jumping up and running toward the men. One of the hunters, startled, wheeled around toward us with his gun.

“Taylor!” I shouted again. Before the hunter could pull the trigger, I pulsed, and a massive blue-gold wave of electricity exploded, knocking Taylor, the chairman, and all four of the hunters to the ground.

I ran to Taylor while the chairman crawled over next to Mr. Ridley. In the dark I could see something black around Mr. Ridley’s stomach. I froze. It was like Wade all over again. Even in the dark I could see that Taylor’s eyes were wild.

“Get help!” the chairman shouted to me, pulling up Mr. Ridley’s shirt and pressing down on his torso. “Get Dr. Benton. Tell Gervaso we need the helicopter. Fast.” Taylor was still dazed but got up onto her knees. “Get my mom.” “All right,” I said. “You’re going to have to keep rebooting these hunters until I get back. Can you do that?” “Yes.”

“I’ll be right back.” As I ran down the hill toward the house, Jack, Ian, and Zeus came running out the back. Jack and Zeus carried flashlights.

“Over here!” I shouted, though Ian had already seen me.

“We need Dr. Benton and the helicopter,” I shouted again. “Where’s Gervaso?” “I’ll get both of them,” Zeus said, heading back into the house.

“Get Abigail too,” I shouted after him.

Jack and Ian ran past me up the road.

Just then Mrs. Ridley rushed out of the house with my mother.

“What happened?” my mother asked.

“Mr. Ridley’s been shot!” I shouted.

Mrs. Ridley looked at me with panic.

“Where is he?” Mom asked.

“Up the road a hundred yards. Follow me.”

I turned and ran back, suddenly worried about Taylor being alone with the hunters. Somewhere in the distance I could hear the sound of a helicopter powering up.

When I got back, Jack and Ian were kneeling on the ground next to Mr. Ridley and the chairman. Behind them the hunters were all on the ground rolling around, moaning in pain. I don’t know what Taylor was doing to their brains—I’m not sure that she did either—but I’d never seen her more focused or intense. Then two of them started screaming, “Stop, please!” “Taylor,” I said.

She didn’t respond.

“Taylor! Back off!”

She turned and looked at me. Her eyes were crazy and angry.

“Back off,” I said, panting. “You’re hurting them.” “I know.”

I took her arm. “Come on.” We both turned toward her father. He was now shaking. “Jack, can you watch the hunters?” Jack nodded. He handed Taylor his flashlight and picked up one of the men’s guns, checked its chamber, and then held the gun on them. “Which one of you scumbags shot Chuck?” “That one,” Taylor said, pointing the flashlight at one of the men on the ground.

Jack leveled the gun at the man’s chest. “No one messes with family. Any of you try anything, pig-face goes first. Then I shoot the rest of you.” I doubt the men even knew what Jack was saying, as they were still too disoriented to even speak. Taylor had really messed with their brains.

Mrs. Ridley reached us, followed by my mom, Zeus, and Abigail. Mrs. Ridley was crying. “What happened? Is he okay?” “He’s lost a lot of blood,” the chairman said. “I think he’s going into shock. Taylor, can you shine your light over here?” Mrs. Ridley knelt down next to her husband. “Chuck. Stay with us. Don’t leave us.” Abigail knelt down and put her hand on Mr. Ridley’s shoulder. His shaking body suddenly calmed.

“That’s good,” the chairman said. “It will slow his heart rate. Ian, what do you see?” “Not good. There’s a lot of blood. It’s filling his stomach.” About a hundred feet from us the helicopter began to lower into the corral.

My mother, the chairman, and Ian moved between the corral and Mr. Ridley to block the dust being kicked up by the helicopter’s rotors. Dr. Benton ran up and knelt down next to Mr. Ridley. “What happened?” “He was shot in the stomach.”

“It’s filling with blood,” Ian said.

Dr. Benton took Mr. Ridley’s wrist to check his pulse. “We need to stop the bleeding and get him to the hospital.” “Maybe McKenna could cauterize it,” Mrs. Ridley said.

“McKenna’s at the other house,” Ian said. “She’s too far away.” “Michael could do it,” my mother said.

“What do I do?” I asked.

“I can guide you,” Ian said. “Stick your finger into the bullet hole and burn it shut.” “My fingers are dirty.”

“The heat of your electricity will kill the germs,” the doctor said. “Infection is the least of our worries right now.” Mr. Ridley groaned.

“We’ve just got to buy him enough time to get him to the hospital in Kanab.” “The helicopter is ready,” Gervaso said, running up to us.

The chairman moved aside, and I knelt down next to Ridley. “Abi?” “I got him.” She closed her eyes. I could see her begin to tremble from the pain. I looked down at the mass of blood. The bullet wound was about the diameter of a dime and slightly ragged. I grimaced as I shoved my finger into the hole.

“How far?” I asked Ian.

“More. Push harder.”

I pushed in, my knuckles pressing into his abdomen. I could feel the blood, thick and sticky around my finger.

“Now,” Ian said.

I pulsed. Mr. Ridley’s body tensed, and in spite of Abigail’s help he still groaned out. I could feel his blood boil against my finger. The pungent stink of burning blood filled the air.

“I think it’s working,” Ian said. “I think it stopped.” I pulled my finger out and leaned back.

“Yeah, it stopped,” Ian said.

“Let’s get him to the helicopter,” Gervaso said.

Gervaso, Dr. Benton, and Ian lifted Mr. Ridley and carried him to the helicopter.

“Can I go with him?” Mrs. Ridley asked.

The chairman said, “The chopper can carry two passengers. You and . . .” He looked at Abigail. “Abigail should go.” The two women ran toward the helicopter.

“What about me?” Taylor asked.

“Gervaso will drive,” the chairman said. “It will only take twenty minutes.” “I’ll go with you,” I said.

“What about these clowns?” Jack asked, waving the gun at the hunters.

The chairman looked at them with disdain. “Blindfold them; then take them down to the lower barn and handcuff them to the wall. We’ll deal with them after we get back from the hospital.” His eyes narrowed. “If they try to escape, shoot them.” “I’ll fry them first,” Zeus said. “Extra crispy.” He walked over to them. “Stand up, losers.” I took Taylor’s hand. “C’mon, let’s get to the hospital.”