Anomalies: Control

“What are you going to do if no one’s hiring?”

Before he had to answer Lily’s question, the chime on the door went off, and they and Henry exchanged a frightened, wary look. No one should be at their door this late. Laurel came down, pushing kids back toward the kitchen, and the littler ones hovered behind Cole and the other two - the three oldest in the house- but even Lily and Henry stood halfway behind him, like he’d really be any match for whatever was at the door.

Laurel cast a nervous glance to all the kids, and opened the door, smoothing back her ratty hair. She grew visibly more nervous at the sight of three Officers on their doorstep. “Hello Officers. How can I hel-”

The lead one cut her off with the haughty stare that came packaged with any Officer member. “Ma’am, we’re here to inform you there’s an Anomaly loose in your microdistrict, and we need to search the premises.”

“Sir, I assure you, there’s no Anomaly here, but of course.” She stood aside and the three very tall, very bulky men came inside, taking up the entire front hall. One went up the stairs, one started searching the floor they were on, and the lead walked over to where the twelve kids were clustered in the kitchen. “Line up, please.”

Even the youngest scrambled to obey quickly, and soon they were lined in age order, and he pulled out a scanner. He started with the youngest, waiting for the clear tone and green light that meant the testee was normal, and not carrying any of the Anomaly genes, and moved on to the next, one by one, with agonizing slowness, until he reached Henry. Henry held his breath until he cleared the test, and Lily looked faint while she was tested, but it was Cole who had the most trouble bringing his eyes from the ground to the Officers’ eyes. “Boy.” The Officers spoke, his voice like threatening thunder, and Cole forced his eyes up, and hated the shock that etched itself across the Officer’s face, and the suspicion in his eyes.

“Those are some... interesting eyes you have there…”

The screaming had stopped, and in its place was an ominously muffled silence as he realized that he hurt. Everywhere. Arms, legs, back, feet, everywhere felt like it had been hit by the falling ceiling. But if he hurt, he was alive. He could still feel Talia under his touch, panting heavily, and another hand reached out for him, and he grabbed Rune’s hand and squeezed it, wanting to tug her closer but unsure how hurt she was. He opened his mouth to ask if everyone was relatively alright, needing something to say or do while his eyes adjusted to the blackness around them, but Talia beat him to speaking.

“I’m a shield, to answer the general feeling of confusion.”

He squeezed her hand, trying to charge her up enough to keep the shield up, but not enough to hurt her with. “Shh, Talia. Concentrate on you, I’ve got it.” She squeezed his hand back and fell quiet, save the labored breathing.

Rune was not as impressed or grateful that they were safe for the moment under Talia’s shield. “Well that’s just peachy. So instead of being crushed to death nice and quickly, now we get to asphyxiate. Unless your shield gives in first. Then we get a nice slow crush of dea-”

“Enough, Rue,” he interrupted her, irritated that she couldn’t at least pretend to be grateful that they’d been saved by this girl who’d put herself at risk for who even knew what reason? “We’re only here because you decided to play hero.”

That apparently pissed her off. “Because of me?” she hissed. “I was prepared to go down with the building you stupid shit. You came in after me. I didn’t ask you to, and I sure as hell didn’t need you to.”

“Guys…” Talia groaned, and he tried to force an extra bit of energy to her, immediately distracted from the brewing bickering with Rune and trying to refocus on the matter at hand.

“We need to figure a way out of here.”

Another scoffing declaration from Rune had him wanting to throttle her. “There is no way out.” He opened his mouth to snap at her, but then she pulled from his hand, and in the darkness his eyes weren’t entirely used to yet, he watched her fall to her knees, yanking her hands through her hair. The reality of what she’d done was apparently hitting her all at once, and his desire to shake some sense into her faded in the face of needing to comfort her. “Rue? Rue, focus. Focus on my voice. We’ll figure something out.”

“Something like what, Cole? We’re basically buried alive,” the girl’s voice snapped.

“Tal, stop; she’s freaking out already.” He turned back to Rune. “Rue?” She’d stopped fidgeting, stopped freaking out, but she wasn’t responding, simply staring into space as she crouched on the ground. “Rue, can you hear me?” Still nothing. “Shit.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know. Just give her a minute, and I’m going to try to figure a way out of this.”

Talia’s voice softened, but it didn’t make it any easier to hear what she had to say. “Cole, I’m sorry, but I’m serious, there’s nothing we can do. I can keep it up maybe another half hour with your help, but… no one’s coming for us. Even if Anna realizes we’re alive or Amanda tells someone, no one’s coming for us. We’re as good as dead to anyone with the will and the manpower to come for us.”

He didn’t want to admit she was right, so he didn’t. He just sighed and leaned his head against her, needing to regroup his thoughts but unable to move away from her lest she lose the ability to hold the shield. “I’m sorry, Talia.”

“To be fair, you told me not to come.”

“So why did you come?”

He felt her shrug. “I don’t know, honestly. I just - you care so much about all these people, about everyone getting out safely, and… I want to care about something like that. Amanda and I, we do our jobs and we survive, but we don’t like, have a cause, not like you do. And I figured if you care so much about everyone else, I could at least care about you.”

He didn’t really know what to say to that. “Thanks Talia,” he muttered, looking back to Rune and hoping she’d snap out of it soon. If he knew one thing, it was that they weren’t getting out without her. They sat in awkward silence for a few more minutes, until Rune started shaking her head, like she was coming out of a trance. “Rue, thank god. I thought we’d lost you.”

“No, I’m fine. Garet and the others came up with a plan. He got the layout from the Shifter-”

“Amanda? She’s alive? She’s ok?” Talia practically demanded, but went ignored.

“And they think we can get ourselves out through some old, abandoned project to the sewers.”

“The emergent doors,” Talia’s voice again.

“Shut up,” Rune snapped. “Can you move the shield or is it a ‘once it’s up it’s up, that’s it’ kind of deal?”

Cole’s eyes were bouncing between the two girls as they talked logistics. “I… I mean… I can move it. You’re talking like we walk and the shield moves around us? Because I can do that but I can’t move it through the rocks around the shield. That’s too much.”

“But if I could move the rock, you could move the shield into the open space and keep the rocks from falling back into place?”

There was a long pause, but eventually, “Hypothetically.”

“Good. Well get ready to do it in practice. Can you lift part of it?”

“What?”

“Like make an opening so I don’t shoot a blast of power and have it bounce back and kill us faster than oxygen deprivation is already trying to.”

Enough was enough with her attitude, and he finally spoke. “Rue…”

“Shut up Cole. I said what I said. Shield, get ready.”

“Talia,” Talia corrected.

“I don’t care. Get ready to lift the side of the shield. An opening would be great.”

“Yeah… I can lift it like a curtain from the bottom up, but anything other than that, you’re dreaming.”

She groaned, but didn’t have a choice but to accept. “Ok, then here’s the plan. Cole, you charge her up, make sure she’s got enough power to keep going. Shield-”

“Talia,” she tried again.

“Whatever. When I give the go, lift the shield just enough for us to crouch, crawl, whatever is the lowest position you can hold the shield from. I’m going to try to bust through the rock directly in front of us and try to keep us on track to the door. Every time you see the rock shatter, move the shield to keep it from falling back to the floor and hopefully we’ll be able to create a tunnel out of here.”

“I can only keep the shield up from so far away from it.”

Another groan. “That’s why you let it close closer to us once we move forward. Just keep it small and surrounding us. Once we’ve moved away from the back of the circle, pull it closer.”

“Ohhh, got it.”

“Thank the gods for that at least.” Rune’s voice practically dripped with sarcasm and condescension, and Cole felt his lips turn down in a scowl.

“Rue.”

“What?”

“Can you at least pretend to be grateful she’s here for us?”

“No. Shield, you ready?” He wanted to throw his hands in the air, but couldn’t move from near Talia, but the feeling of wanting to shake sense into Rune was back full force.

“Yeah,” Talia said, taking a deep breath.

“Cole?” He nodded and with a hand still on Talia’s, adjusted himself so he could slip behind her, grazing his hand under the hem of her shirt and pressing his palm against the skin of her lower back, eliciting a little squeak from the girl. He felt his blood quicken, a little awkward at being so intimate with a girl he barely knew, and Talia was fidgeting in either embarrassment or discomfort, but there was no other way to stay connected to her without being in her way. But their little dance of awkwardness had apparently worsened Rune’s mood.

“Seriously guys? Can we control ourselves until we’re sure we’re going to live?”

He shot a glare at her, but the sudden annoyance at least allowed him to be distracted from the fluster of intimacy, and he and Talia both refocused as Rune settled herself in front of a particular spot in their little bubble of protection.

“It’s going to be three, two, one, go. Lift the shield on one, and I’ll push through on go. Be ready to move the shield.” She took a breath, and both Cole and Talia did the same. “Three, two, one…” Talia’s shield lifted just high enough to provide them a small tunnel to crawl through and Rune shot her power forward, letting the power rush into the rubble and push at it, crushing some, moving what little had room to move, but mostly crushing and sending up a cloud of dust, making them cough and choke once more. After a moment, the coughing abated and he was surprised to see that even through the thick dust, Talia had managed to move the shield enough to give them a small tunnel to move forward through.

Rune finally seemed pleased. “Good. Move forward and get ready to go again.”

Talia sighed quietly, and he brought his other hand up to massage her shoulders reassuringly, hoping she could keep it up. She had the hardest job by far, this poor girl who’d obviously not thought through her desire for a cause. It was taking a long time, too long he wanted to say, and he could feel Talia’s muscles trembling under his hands with every surge forward. She wouldn’t last much longer, but before he could ask Rune how much further, the girl was stopping them herself.

“Hold up.” She crouched on the ground and looked down, obviously waiting for who he could only assume was Garet.

“You alright, Tal?”

“I’ll be alright if we get out of here,” she whispered, not wanting to waste too much effort on talking. He went back to rubbing her shoulders with his one free hand, and her lower back with the one giving her the boost while they waited for Rune, hoping she’d come back with good news.

“Sorry, I’m back.” Rune’s voice came back, but he couldn’t tell if she had good news, bad news, or impartial news.

“Garet?” he asked.

“Yeah. They’re at the other end, waiting for us. Let’s pick up the pace.”

He felt Talia wilt under him, and her voice was more a groan than anything. “I’m already doing the best I can.”

“We know, Tal, we’re just trying to get us out of here so you can rest,” he mumbled softly to the girl, but that was all he was allowed before Rune started counting again.

“Three, two…” They continued their endless tunneling, not speaking anymore, though Cole did take over the counting. They couldn’t risk losing valuable air, and he needed Rune to focus on tunneling.

“We’re close.” Finally an emotion from Rune: relief. “Hold on a little longer Talia.”

She mumbled just a word, ‘door’, and the three set themselves up for hopefully the last blast to freedom and more importantly, air. The rock and the metal of a door gave under the blast of power, and air rushed into the little space and all three of them scrambled as much as they could manage through the opening, gasping the fresher air in big gulps. Rune first, then Cole and Talia together, and the shield fell, letting a mini rock slide slam into place in the suddenly empty space, cutting them off from their little tunnel. They didn’t actually move for a minute, simply lay on the dirty ground panting, and trying to collect themselves enough to keep moving.

“We have to go.” Cole forced the words out and pushed himself to his feet, offering a hand to each girl and pulling both to their feet. They couldn’t stay; every minute was a minute they risked being caught by someone other than Tech and whoever he brought.

Talia could barely stand, the survival driven adrenaline abandoning her, and Cole moved to loop an arm around her waist, helping her stay upright as they walked as quickly as they could manage down the tunnel. He narrowed his eyes at Rune’s limp and her bloodied leg, but refrained from asking. He’d do that later after Talia wasn’t around, get a better look at her injury. None of them had any clue how long the tunnel was, but they just tried to keep moving, and eventually a piece of the wall ahead of them, on their right, flew out of the wall and slammed into the other side, letting them see it was a door and not just a piece of the wall. They were stupefied for a moment, but then they realized there were figures at the other end, Kane and Tech, and they upped their pace, hurrying to the others.

Tech rushed Rune, to which he was grateful; someone needed to look out for her since she wasn’t going to admit to needing help, and after a few seconds, Talia stumbled away from him to rush at Amanda, who engulfed the girl in a hug as they started talking in low tones. His eyes strayed to Rune, wishing he’d been able to help her more, but then Banshee was in his sights and offering a hug, followed quickly by Kane and Lights of all people, and Rune was speaking as the group crowded around him.

“You assholes were gonna leave us weren’t you?”

“A timeline would have been nice,” Tech pointed out.

“Fuck you,” Rune chuckled, letting Tech lead her out as the others followed, Cole taking a constant mental count of who all was present in case they lost anyone. They reached the corner around the manhole, and waited a moment, listening for signs that Officials were already there. They heard faint sirens and Tech didn’t waste more time. “Lights and Kane.” They were already moving, Lights hopping on Kane’s back to scramble to his shoulders before they’d even fully reached a manhole cover, and pushed it aside to clamber his way out. He reached a hand down for Tech, and Kane linked his hands together to offer him a step, and they lifted Tech up through the hole. Rune was next, followed by the government girls, then Banshee, then Garet. Cole told Kane to go up first, knowing it’s be easier for the others to pull him up rather than the exceptional, and offered the same linked hands step Kane had been giving the others. Kane went up, and Cole leapt up to catch Kane’s hand, letting the other man pull him up with a little help from Banshee. He rose to his feet and looked around, doing another mental count before looking back to Tech.

“Let’s bolt,” he offered, and Tech nodded. “Meet at the safe house,” was his only order, and the group split into smaller groups. Cole immediately fell in line next to Rune, and Garet joined them after another moment. Duplicate and Jacob had already vanished, and Talia paired with Tech and Lights, and Amanda went with Kane and Banshee, who was looking surprisingly sour for this rescue mission having ended in relative success… if you were strictly judging by the fact that no one had died yet.

He didn’t have time to question Banshee’s moods, and slipped out of the alleyway with Rune and Garet, leaving the others to split up in different directions. They’d meet back at the safe house and figure out what to do from there.