Brenda started to look a little pale and disoriented.
“Are you okay?” I asked her.
“I’m feeling things. I can’t make sense of them. I’m good, though,” she said.
“We need to move,” said Donna again.
“What about Leah?” I asked.
“You’re coming back for her. But right now we need to get out,” said Donna.
I had growing doubts but she had never let me down.
“What do you need us to do?” I asked.
“You’re the boss,” said Brenda.
“Arms room. Next floor up. Let’s move,” she said and ran out of the room.
Brenda looked at me and then Leah. She took a deep breath, threw up her hands to say that she didn’t know what else to do, and then she ran after Donna. I walked over to Leah and kissed her on her forehead.
“I’ll come back for you. I promise,” I said.
Then I ran. I caught up with Brenda at the base of a stairwell. She was a little winded.
“Dude, you guys could have told me cardio was involved,” she said.
“Donna?” I asked.
“Already up there,” she said, pointing up.
“Hold on,” I told her.
I didn’t give Brenda a chance to respond. I grabbed her around her waist, pulled her in tight, and jumped up the stairwell to the next floor. I grabbed onto the railing and carried Brenda over the top.
“Can we do that again?” asked Brenda, with a little smile.
She was acting like her usual self but I could tell it was just a show. She had sadness behind her eyes and was still holding on just barely. Brenda had never lost anyone before. Jess was probably the person she felt the closest to in her entire life. She couldn’t explain why, but she felt like Jess was the sibling she never had.
“Maybe another time,” I said.
I ran through the stairwell door. The door to the arms room was just inside and it was open. Donna was already inside, prepping a rifle, pistol, body armor and extra ammunition. She began giving instructions without looking up.
“When I tell you to do something I need you to do it exactly. I need you to trust me,” she said.
“Always,” I said as Brenda caught up.
She stood just outside of the room.
“Damn. You got enough guns?” she said looking at Donna gearing up.
“Not nearly.” Donna said, pulling the charging handle on her rifle.
“You know that fire thing you do with your hand?” she asked Brenda.
“Uh, yeah?” said Brenda.
“Down the hall to the right, light it up,” said Donna.
Brenda shrugged, lifted her arm, aimed her hand, and sent fury down the hallway without looking. She caught ten guards as they turned a corner sprinting flat out. They had pale gray skin. All ten men turned to ash. Brenda exercised an amazing feat of control. The hallway had filled with flames but she kept them centered and off the walls, ceiling and floor.
“You meant those guys, right?” asked Brenda, as she dropped her arm.
Donna nodded. Then the sprinkler system turned on.
“That makes sense,” said Brenda.
“Looks like the safety systems are coming back online,” said Donna.
“Back?” I asked.
“I took them offline and messed with a bunch of other things to keep Leah occupied. I hoped it would keep her busy longer,” said Donna.
She walked out of the room and into the hall with Brenda. She lifted the rifle and fired two rounds down the hall, spun around, and fired three more into the stairwell. All five shots connected to the heads of the grey skin drones turning the corners and coming up the stairs.
“Damn,” said Brenda.
“I had some control in the system. Just barely. I also unlocked this arms room,” Donna said.
Donna spun, told Brenda to duck, and fired two more shots down the hall. Again she connected with head shots. Brenda saw a few more turning the corner from the opposite direction and fired another heat blast that incinerated them.
“Let’s move,” said Donna.
We started a quick sprint back up the stairwell to the next floor. Donna was taking shots and calling out threats the whole time. Brenda looked concerned, but she didn’t hesitate to burn these former people down. They were all already dead. She never fought this many people and could barely keep up with the threats. A couple of times she filled hallways with a wall of water from the sprinklers and flushed everything and everyone down somewhere below. I didn’t have anything to do but follow. They took care of all the drones before they got close to us. After going up more stairs and down hallways, we finally got to the ground level and an emergency exit. Donna paused.
“We need to hold here till it passes,” said Donna.
I was going to ask “Till what passes?” but Brenda screamed and curled into the fetal position. I knelt down beside her.
“Till that passes,” said Donna.
“Are you alright?” she asked Brenda.
“Oh, peachy. I feel great,” she said through clenched teeth.
“Really?” I asked.
“No! Not really,” she said and groaned. “It feels like someone is stretching out my insides and playing speed metal on them. But, you know, way worse.”
“Donna?” I asked, concerned.
“She is changing. Maybe being connected to Leah did something. Maybe this was always going to happen to her. More likely it was Liz. I don’t know. But Brenda is, for the lack of a better word… mutating,” she said.
Donna looked like she really didn’t want to say that last part because of what was said next.
“You said the thing. I am a mutant,” said Brenda, forcing a triumphant smile.
Donna shook her head.
“So why are we stopping? We need to do something,” I said.
My voice was tense. Our situation was bad, getting worse, and I felt like I couldn’t do anything to help.
“I’m all for doing something,” said Brenda as she pounded the floor with a clenched fist.
“We can’t move. We can’t touch her,” said Donna.
“What?” I said.
I reached down to touch Brenda but my hand was stopped by an energy field. If it was anyone but me, their hand would have been fried to a crisp, but the energy harmlessly crackled off my skin.
A now very sweaty Brenda said, “That’s new.”
Then another round of pain hit her.
“Son of a biiiii—!” she said and rolled over onto her back, still curled up.
“Okay. You can pick her up now,” said Donna.
“Is it over?” I asked Brenda.
“Eh. We’ll see,” said Brenda as her body uncurled and relaxed a bit.
“Would you judge me if I peed a little?” she asked.
I leaned in to pick her up but Brenda stopped me.
“Wait,” she said.
“For what?” I asked.
I saw sadness in her eyes and thought it was for Jess. But so was something else. Regret.
“For this. I am so sorry,” said Brenda.
Brenda reached out and touched my head. I gasped and fell to my knees. Then I blacked out. Donna got a sharp pain in her head.
“What is going on?” Donna asked through the pain.
“Change of plan,” said Brenda, standing up slowly and backing away from me. “You really got to trust me on this. I had to. We have to get out of the building right now.”
A low guttural growl came from me. I mean, from my body.
“What did you do?” asked Donna.
The question was more of a formality. Donna knew instantly. She looked at Brenda with a face that was half shock and half angry glare.
“I had to,” said Brenda.
I was on my hands and knees. My shoulders rolled and shifted forward. I slowly got up, moving and flexing my muscles and limbs. I stood on the balls of my feet with my knees bent forward, in a posture that looked animalistic. The Feral had taken over. Donna turned and sprinted out the exit. Brenda followed. Behind them they could hear chaos. Loud growls and snarls that sounded like a large animal accompanied crashes and bangs. It sounded like walls were being torn through and large things were being thrown around. I don’t remember any of it, being in that feral state and all. The metal walls of the building bowed out in some places because things, bodies included, were being flung at the inside walls at very high speeds. Outside there was nothing but a light breeze, dust, and silence.167Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnjdLlXwuNN
“I don’t know how I knew I could trigger her. I just knew I could and that I had to,” said Brenda.
“But why?” asked Donna, angrily.
She was mad at Brenda for doing this to me. But she was madder at the implication. Donna didn’t see this. She felt more timelines open up to her but it became obvious that she was still not connected to everything. At least not yet.
“There were more on the way. A lot more. I could feel them all over the building. We wouldn’t have made it,” said Brenda.
There was a loud crash that came from above them. She burst through the wall of an upper floor, grappling with a gray-skinned security guard. Another gray skin, this one a woman in a lab coat, was on my other’s back, clinging to her neck. She landed on top of the man and pounded his head into the ground with a series of rapid punches. His body went limp. The female was trying to bite her so she pulled the drone off her back and flung her into the distance, over a mountain. The feral turned around and sprinted through the building wall, and ran all the way through to the other side. Then she turned and ran through it again in a different place. She made course corrections here and there and tore through the occasional drone and structural support along the way. The drones kept trying to chase her through the building but she was too fast. She tore through them every way she could. Hands, fists, tooth and nail. What the Feral was doing didn’t become apparent until she exited through a different wall in front of Brenda and Donna. The building collapsed behind her, trapping the rest of the drones inside.
We had never credited my feral form as having any human-like intelligence. But, as it turned out, she was not just a killing machine. She had to have a certain level of problem solving to know on some level that the drones had to be held back. She had observed her surroundings, made a plan, and executed it. For now, no drones could escape the collapsed building. The Feral stood in front of Brenda and Donna. Her pupils were completely dilated. She looked more creature than human. She moved forward cautiously, still stepping only with the balls of her feet. Her back was arched, causing her shoulders to lean forward. Dark gray goo clung to my clothes and gray liquid dripped from her fists and mouth. There were rips all over my clothes, my hijab was gone, and dark gray wetness was matted though her wild hair. Brenda approached the Feral cautiously like she was a wild animal. She moved slowly, stretching out her arm. The Feral was breathing fast and heavy. Brenda’s hand got near her head and she growled.
“Careful. She will take your arm,” said Donna.
“I know,” said Brenda.167Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlWjiadRkUY
“It’s okay,” she said calmly to the predator in front of her. “We won’t hurt you.”
Brenda lightly touched the side of my head, causing the Feral to collapse. Brenda caught me. Or tried to. She fell on top of me as my weight pulled her to the ground.
“Jesus, you are heavy,” said Brenda in surprise. “Shit. Sorry. I didn’t mean that. Please don’t hate me for unleashing your beast mode and insinuating that you have a weight problem.”
I pushed Brenda off of me and didn’t say anything. I stood quickly and paced in a circle, trying to get my bearings. I rubbed my arms like I was trying to wipe the death off of me.
“I had to. It was the only…” Brenda started to say.
“Stop!” I screamed, cutting her off.
I was shaking. I needed a moment to compose myself and sort through the feelings. It was a huge violation unlocking that part of me. But as angry as I wanted to be, I got a flash of why she did it. When Brenda touched me, I could see through her senses. I don’t know if she let me feel that or if it was just a side effect. I could feel the horde of drones rushing towards us. I could feel them throughout the building through the weight of their bodies on the ground, through the water from the sprinklers, and through the air they were displacing. I don’t know how Brenda kept it together. It’s a lot of sensory information streaming to her.
I knew why she triggered me. With Brenda going through her mutation, there were too many for Donna and I to handle. And if Brenda had tried to help, the level of power she needed to use would have killed Donna. Then of course I wouldn’t have let myself turn feral. That could have cost them their lives. And even if I did let myself turn, I would have done so too late. So Brenda unleashed me and kept herself and Donna alive. It was the only way.
“Don’t you ever do that again!” I yelled, turning my head in her direction.
I was completely back, but my body was still coming down. My eyes were returning from their dilation and my voice was gravelly and guttural. Brenda’s eyes were sad and apologetic. She also looked scared. Not scared that I would harm her, but scared that I would never forgive her. And there was no time to resolve that. There was a sound like rolling thunder.
“What is that?” Brenda asked.
“Daytona,” said Donna said.
At the far end of the lake bed there was a dust cloud rising behind something moving fast.
“That is Daytona?” asked Brenda.
“That is,” said Donna.
She glanced around and said, “We’re too boxed in here. Move farther out into the lake bed.”
She ran. We followed.167Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡDCBo2kbVSY
