The Wastelands

Chapter 26 - 22

Lilia's hand tightened around Druid's shoulder when Heather's voice filled her head.

*What's with the alarms?*

"Heather," Lilia breathed out, both aloud and telepathically. Everyone focused on her. Lilia pulled away from Druid.

"Heather, we were trying to contact you. Where are you?" she asked.

*Garage.*

Lilia sighed in relief. Heather was precisely where Lilia thought she was. With what happened with Bryson, Lilia hadn't had the chance to locate Terran and Heather, and both haven't picked up their communication devices. Lilia wanted to talk to them through her telepathy, but she couldn't find them through all that noise unless they made an effort to call her.

"That's good. Just wait there, and someone will come to get you. Do you have your medium?" Terran and Heather didn't keep their mediums with them. They were big and showy and drew too much attention.

*What are you talking about?* Heather sounded confused.

Lilia glanced at the Headmistress, and she nodded to give permission.

"Shadow is targeting us; he is aiming for our mediums. He already got to Bryson." Lilia spoke calmly, trying not to upset Heather.

There was a pause before Heather answered, "He wouldn't know where mine is. I move mine frequently. It's close by like I could touch it, close by."

Lilia sighed in relief. Thank the heavens for Heather's tendency to rearrange everything at her fancy. Her inability to stay still was good for something, at least.

*But Terran," panic laced through Heather's voice. *he keeps his in his room. Everyone, we all know where he keeps it. Shadow would know.*

Everyone started speaking at once. Lilia turned away for the noise; she needed to focus on Heather. She didn't want to lose the connection.

"Heather, stay calm. Where is Terran, in the herb garden?"

*No. Terran's outside near the West gate. He needed some wild herbs growing nearby.* Well, that explained why Terran hadn't responded on the compound coms worked fine, but in the Wastelands not so much, but other than that…

'No, no, no. That was across the compound. Terran probably wouldn't have heard the alarms. Shadow was heading towards him, for sure.'

*I'm going to find him,* Heather stated.

"No, Heather. We need to regroup. Heather!" Lilia cried out desperately, but the connection was gone.

She glanced at the others. "Heather is going after Terran."

Statson stepped up. "Hell, we can just intercept her; it is not like she could teleport, like the Red Princess."

"No, even worse, she can fly," Druid said quietly. Her worried eyes were on Bryson. "No one could catch her in the air."

"You damn power freaks," growled Statson, huffing, and puffing.

Lilia just ignored him. It wouldn't do any good to argue, men like Statson was too stubborn to listen to any reason except his own.

"Druid, teleport and intercept Heather," ordered Headmistress Weatherly.

"I can't."

"Why the hell not?" Statson demanded. "Can't leave your boy here? Too emotional? Women."

"Sergeant!" Rachel gasped. "That's going too far."

"Just saying that we need to act. Sitting around here isn't doing any good." Statson clarified.

"Don't we have better things to do than nic-picking at each other," the Headmistress warned.

Druid abruptly got up and glared furiously at Statson. There were tears of frustration in her eyes. "Don't you think I want to? Don't you think I want to help Bryson? Help Terran? Help Heather? My foresight won't let me. It stops me from interfering after a certain point. That's the price, there is always a price," she ended in a whisper. She glanced at Rachel before retaining her focus on Bryson.

Rachel straightened. A look of shock overcame her concerned face. "Do you mean when you saved me? Why? How am I involved?"

Druid looked up again, her eyes drained of emotion, haunted. Lilia had never seen Druid like this. She looked so exhausted. "You're not, not really. But if you died that night, then the outcome would have been much, much worse." She was still hiding something, but Druid always hid something, always sneaking around with her half-truths. Usually, she had good reason. It was still frustrating as hell, though.

"Well, that's transparent as stone." Statson pointed out.

Druid shrugged. "It's just how it works."

Lilia never envied Druid's foresight and its quirks. But then again, Lilia's over sensory issues weren't something to envy about either. Everyone in the group had abilities with setbacks. Like Bryson, who had to wear gloves, so he wouldn't read the past of everything he touched. Or Shadow, who could tap into other's emotional state, but didn't understand his own. The twins were no better; it was like one was missing something that the other had to be complete, both in abilities and as a people.

Lilia sighed, not saying a word. 'We're all a bunch of messed up people.'

Headmistress Weatherly stepped up her high-heeled shoes, clipping against the pavement floor. "Okay, there is no use arguing, we have a lot of things to do, and not a lot of time to do them." She directed the people in white coats. "We need more containment pods ready. I want to know about the progress of the evacuation to the Quarantine Areas. I need medical to be on standby. Find Shadow…" As they scurried to obey, Headmistress Weatherly turned towards Lilia and the others. "We can't do anything until the students and staff are safe. We have a little bit of leeway, so any ideas?"

"I don't think there is a lot we can do, short of gathering an army to stop him," Rachel stated.

"All we have is a school full of half-trained kids, and Sean is not the sort to show mercy. Besides, the fewer people that know, the better chance I have, to salvage this mess," Headmistress Weatherly vetoed, shaking her head.

"You just want to save your hide," scoffed Statson.

Headmistress Weatherly whirled around and stepped into Statson's space. "If this secret comes out, it's not only my hide that's in danger, it's this very compound. If the compound goes down, the children will be divided among the other compounds. You've been to them before, and you know that some of them are not as nice as here. There are children here as young as six years old. Do you want to bet the odds of how long they'd survive? Hmmm?" When he didn't answer, she turned away and said, "I thought so."

Rachel broke the awkward silence. "Stella said that she has a database on the Lumeye, right?"

Everyone turned towards Stella. Stella blushed with all the attention, before turning towards her terminal, typing away. "Hmmm. Shadow is a hard nut to crack. He can manipulate and travel through shadows. He is an empath. Which makes it harder to sneak take him by surprise. Besides, he is a highly trained assassin. In both power and abilities, he is a couple of steps above the rest of the Lumeye. Sorry, sis." Lilia nodded. It was no use to argue, besides Stella was right, after all. "His weaknesses are …"

"Me," Lilia breathed out.

"Then let's use Lilia as bait," Statson said, worry edging his brow. "I would like to say, but…"

"If he wanted to take me, he would have done so already," sighed Lilia. "He follows me around all over the place. That's how we kept track of him in the first place."

"You sure that he's not in love you?" Rachel asked.

Lilia smiled, a little sad. "No, not love. He may think it is, but it is more like he is obsessed." Even if it were love, she still couldn't return his feelings.

"Wait a minute," Statson interrupted. "You knew that this guy would go off the deep end, and you didn't do anything about it?"

Headmistress Weatherly said tiredly, "It's not like we can do anything, at least not until he makes his move. We might have a chance if the other Lumeye weren't so scattered…" She sighed.

"You guys lack teamwork and discipline," stated Statson.

"That is why I need you, Mr. Statson," Headmistress Weatherly replied with a wave of her hand. "And Miss Keaton, of course."

"Can we use Druid and Lilia?" asked Rachel.

Headmistress Weatherly simply shook her head. "Even with Druid and Lilia fighting him together, they still would have a hard time restraining him without killing him."

"Is that such a bad thing? Killing him, I mean, he seems out of control I don't see how you can avoid it." Rachel asked.

This time Statson was the one to answer. "During the Lumeye/Human war, we found out that Lumeye fight in groups. Within the group, the members have a weird connection. If one of the group dies, then the rest die with him. That is how we had the leg up during the war." Statson glanced at Druid and Lille. "I assume that it's the same with your group?"

Lilia nodded. "That's why he is breaking our Mediums, to render us useless at least for a while. Though the setback is that we lose control of our abilities."

"Maybe he wants that to throw us more into disarray," Druid stated. "Trying to get Bryson into the containment tube and keeping it under wraps from anyone wasn't easy."

Lilia nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah, have to drag Bryson a.s.s out of that watery hellhole wasn't fun either." She reminded Rachel. Rachel was there; she knew what happened.

Druid was desperate to help but, in the end, conceded because she wasn't that good of a swimmer. Plus, her fire element doesn't mix well with water. In the end, Lilia, who had good body endurance and can hold her breath for a long time, was chosen.

Lilia shuddered, she had little choice in the matter, and she had to endure cold water, with limited maneuverability just to get Bryson back to safety. Lilia's lungs were burning after the incident, and her ears were still waterlogged.

Lilia saw Rachel face turn into a grimace. "Yes, convincing everyone that a pipe burst, big enough flood the whole floor, was interesting, to say the least." Rachel paused and sighed. "And the thought of doing the same again five more times…" They all fell into silence.

"Yeah, yeah. " Statson waved his hand in indifference. "Right now, all I care about, right now, is there any chance of defeating that boy, because it sounds like we are all screwed."

"That's hard to say…" Lilia answered thoughtfully.

Stella spoke up, raising her hand, timidly."I might have something; it's something small, though."

Statson rounded on Stella, but Headmistress Weatherly stepped in. "Quiet you." She interrupted Statson. "Now, Stella, what is it?"

"Um," Stella moved to Lilia, and Lilia gave her a smile for encouragement. "Shadow's body endurance is no better than a highly trained fighter. If we can get past his power then…"

"Lilia can do it," Druid spoke up. "She is physically the strongest of us. Especially if she goes full out." There was a pause. "Besides, it looks like Lilia will be the last one he's going to confront anyways."

Lilia wanted to disagree. She didn't believe in herself as much as Druid seemed to. If and that was a big if she could reach him, which is damn near impossible, his stamina was too high. Lilia needed a distraction.

'Wait…'

An idea was forming. Lilia brushed against the flute case that she always carried around with her. Lilia moved up to Stella, seeing that everyone was arguing back and forth. "I need to ask you something," Lilia whispered in her ear so that the others couldn't hear her. Lilia wished that she could talk to Stella with her telepathy, but Stella had an immunity. Lilia had only encountered a couple of people with it. Rachel also had it too, but not as intense. It was great most of the time, but at this moment, not so much.

"Did you write what my Medium was in my profile?" Lilia asked.

"No, you told me not to," Stella whispered back.

Lilia nodded her head. "Good." For some reason, Lilia kept her Medium secret from everyone. At the time, Lilia didn't know why maybe it was due to the advice that Headmistress Weatherly said to her when she first arrived. In so, her instincts screamed at her to not say anything. Maybe she sensed what Shadow might do. Now she was grateful.

Lilia straightened up to address everyone. "I may have an idea."

But before she could voice her plan, the ground started to shake.

'Terran!' Lilia thought. 'We just ran out of time.'

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