The Hunt: The Oakmont Saga, Book 2

“Mrs. Stone,” came the yell, which made her bolt out of the kitchen and back to the gym. Melanie was the only child left there. All of the others were actually studying, doing school work, in the various Sunday school rooms of the church. Robbie had arranged for a group, mostly retired teachers, to come work with the kids. It was a challenge, since they had no idea where the kids were at, academically. Rebecca had stayed out of that, even though she likely had the best information. Her entire focus was on Melanie.

As soon as she got there, she saw why she was called. One of Melanie’s eyes had opened. Although it was only the barest amount, it was definitely open. She thought it was a shame that Randy had needed to head back, but she knew he needed to. She almost called him, but this wasn’t significant enough to build his hopes up. She also knew it might not mean anything.

She sat down, and put Melanie’s hand in hers, hoping to feel something that was deliberate. “Melanie,” she said, hoping for a response, but there was nothing.

Through the darkness and pain, I began feeling something. There was an odd tickle on my mind. It was something that seemed familiar, but different at the same time. I knew that feeling, but couldn’t place it.

Although I knew there would be a lot of pain doing it, I reached into my telepathy and sent a probe out. I wanted to know where the source of the tickle was. It was close, and I started feeling, oddly blind to what was around me. Not blind with my eyes, but with my mind.

After randomly flailing around, I found what I thought was the source, and was very surprised. I knew my Daddy’s mind as soon as I touched it. I wasn’t sure how I knew it, since I’d never been in his mind before, but I knew.

As I was about to establish a connection, so I could talk to him, my probe simply disappeared. It was as if my telepathy just stopped working. The way it disappeared felt a lot like the device they’d put in my head.

Terror welled up in me. Had they put another one in? Had Dad allowed, or helped them to do it? In the depths of my mind, I began crying, and screaming. There was no response. I was trapped in my mind.

I continued trying to get through, until I was absolutely exhausted. That’s a very odd idea, since my body wasn’t doing anything, but I was definitely exhausted. Once I felt even the slightest bit rested, I began fighting again, and again, and again…

It seemed like forever before I finally felt like I had a chance of moving any of my muscles. Surprisingly, it was my right eye that I was able to open, and only barely. As the pain I was expecting didn’t happen, I tried to open it a little more. I couldn’t turn my head, though, and I saw no one. I seemed to be in a large room, and as my mind began to engage with my senses, or maybe sense, I thought it looked like a gym.

Could I still be in the gym at that Catholic church in St. Charles? I quickly realized that this looked different, though. Seeing a basketball goal hanging from the ceiling, along with the wire caged lights, I knew it had to be a gym, though.

“Melanie,” I heard, but I couldn’t talk. Nothing was working, other than the one eye and even that wasn’t complete. I still couldn’t open it completely.

With all of the struggling I’d done to simply open a single eye, I was exhausted, and this time it was my body as well as my mind. Unable to resist, my eye closed and I returned to the darkness. My mind didn’t rest, though.

It seemed like forever before I was able to try and interact with my body again. I’d never been able to touch my telepathy again, since Dad had been there, and even attempting to brought on more pain than I was willing to deal with. Not only that, it exhausted me too much.

Wanting to take it easier this time, I slowly opened the same eye, and was pleasantly surprised when my left eye also opened. If I’d been able to make any sound, I’d have squealed with delight. As it was, I thought some kind of sound did make its way out of my mouth. I knew I’d heard something.

A moment later, I actually felt someone take my hand. Once it was taken, I couldn’t feel it anymore, but I’d definitely felt that.

That simple thing made me so happy, I felt a tear form in my eyes. Of course, that blurred my vision and I couldn’t wipe it away.

I saw a dark shape cross my vision, but with my vision blurred, had no idea who or what it was. There was no body control, which meant I had no way to communicate. It was driving me crazy...maybe crazier.

“Melanie, are you in there? Please respond somehow,” I heard, but no matter how hard I tried, there was no response from my body. They didn’t know I was actually hearing and seeing them. Seeing might not have been completely accurate, but I was seeing.

“Mrs. Stone, Mahael said there’s a large group of people headed this way. He thinks they’re soldiers, but he’s not positive. He can’t read them,” a girl’s voice said. I knew I had to get out of this trap I was in and help, but I couldn’t get anything to work.

Redoubling my efforts, I fought harder than I’d already been fighting. I’d done this before, after the fight at the cabin, but I had no idea how long that actually took, and I really didn’t remember what I did. What I did know was, I had to fight and fight I did.

With a blast of intense pain, I felt something happen in my mind. Not waiting to be gentle, I tried raising my hand, and got a response. That’s when I felt a hand still in mine. However, that hand was a problem, as nice as it was. I needed it gone, because I’d need my hand to help raise myself up, and that was my next effort.

With everything I had, I started trying to push my body to obey my command. Lots of pain, and lots of sweat were given to the effort, but I managed to sit up. I was exhausted, but I knew I couldn’t stop. Somewhere during the process, the hand that had been in mine had left. I suspected it was Mrs. Stone, and she was watching me, monitoring my progress.

I knew she’d try and stop me, and looking over, I saw her sitting in a chair beside the cot I was on. I swung my feet over. They flopped over, kind of like someone who’s legs didn’t work at all. As I started to stand, she gently held me down.

“Melanie, don’t overdo it,” she said.

Ignoring her, I began again, and again she tried to hold me down. This time, I used my mind to keep her from touching me. She was shocked when she was the one unable to move. Actually, I was shocked too, considering my last attempt to access my abilities.

“Melanie?” she asked, sounding worried and shocked. That’s when I realized she didn’t know I could do that. There was a small amount of satisfaction at that, going back to my time at Oakmont. It wasn’t fair to her, though, and I knew it.

I couldn’t talk to her to try and explain. All of my strength was being put into the effort of getting up. Finally, I managed to climb to my feet, unsteady and weak, but I was standing.

“Melanie, stop. You’re too weak to stand without help. At least let me help you,” she begged.

“Only if you help me join them,” I replied, breathing heavily. I was struggling to remain upright, teetering a bit. Strangely, my mental powers seemed completely ready, and even rested.

She definitely didn’t want to do what I’d asked, but she also knew her choices were limited. She couldn’t come near me, as it was at that moment, so she finally nodded, “Alright.” I suspected she thought I wouldn’t have the strength to do anything anyway, but she was horribly wrong, and I knew it.

“Mrs. Stone, please take me to where Richard and Chelsea are,” I asked, so she put an arm around my shoulder and began guiding me.

“Melanie!” they both exclaimed, but looked worried, seeing me being held up by Mrs. Stone.

“Give me the link, please?” I asked. They both looked unsure, and I knew Mrs. Stone was probably giving them a look of “Don’t you dare!”

Although I could sense her silently trying to tell them not to, they gave it to me. My body was struggling, but my mind was awake and ready.

“I need to sit down, please,” I said to her. Although she didn’t move from my side, a chair appeared under me a few moments later, and I gratefully sat in it.

As I gave in to the power and abilities that had been handed to me, I sensed a lot of vehicles and men coming to our location, encircling us. This group was not being quite as upfront as the group in Montana, which would make this a bit messier.

I reached into the pool, but stopped myself. I knew I needed to give them a chance to retreat peacefully. As that thought entered my mind, a probe immediately entered the mind of every single one of them, and I even included Mr. and Mrs. Stone, and any other adults nearby. They would all know.

I’m Melanie Brager, a telepath created by the United States government. You have been sent here to capture me and a bunch of kids like me, but we’re not going back. Death is better than what they’ll do to us when we go back. If you continue on this mission, I will destroy all of you, or you’ll kill a bunch of kids, I stated, and only withdrew nicely from those I knew were friendly to us. Thanks to someone else’s talent, I could sense who those people were. Man, I loved this ability sharing. It was a very nice, and unexpected side effect of linking.

All of the soldiers stopped, probably reeling from the pain they suffered at my withdrawal, but I had hope that they might actually be considering retreat. My hopes were dashed a short while later, as I felt all of them resume their slow, but deliberate advance.

“I tried,” I said aloud, sighing at my failed attempt to end this without any more bloodshed.

A hand gently squeezed my shoulder, and I was surprised to see a large hand that was obviously a man’s. Looking up it to the owner, I saw a very large man I hadn’t seen before. I gave him a wisp of a smile, as I wasn’t capable of much more, not with the prospect of what I was about to do.

I heard a warning in my mind, and it was preceded with a mental jab, There are three helicopters coming.

Following the path given to me, I sensed them. As much as I hated doing it, I repeated what I’d done in the last battle. I only did it to one of them, hoping the other two would leave when they saw one of their members go down. When I sent the energy into its engines, I knew it fell from the sky, by the loud crash and explosion. Just like last time, the explosion wasn’t as big as what TV always made it look like. I knew jet fuel wasn’t that explosive, though.

The other two helicopters paused, but then returned to their forward movement. Again, I sent an energy blast into their engines, and and they fell from the sky. Like the first one, there was a loud crash, followed by a small explosion from both of them. Since they crashed at the same time, it wasn’t possible to tell there was two separate crashes.

More people dead, at my hands. Tears began seeping from my eyes, and I couldn’t stop them.

Jets! came a scream in my mind. That was new, and I saw and heard them, about the same time that I sensed them.

Force field! I then screamed, sending my energy to whoever was manning it. Richard was acting as the director, a job I hadn’t even thought about.

Even with the force field, there was a gut wrenching explosion that knocked a lot of the kids, and adults down. Thankfully, I was already sitting.

Although a few of the younger telepaths had dropped out of the link when they were slammed to the ground, I was still in control of a massive amount of energy. Following the jets, I sent the same small energy burst into the jet’s engines and was rewarded with three more crashes and explosions. These were much more impressive than the helicopters, as their fuel seemed to explode as they crashed. My guess was that the fuel tanks ruptured, and with the turbines already heated, the fuel mixing with the air provided what was needed. It was a lot more impressive. As I thought about it, I realized, it could have been the weapons on the planes, rather than the fuel. It didn’t matter, though.

Returning to the masses of men and vehicles, I again repeated what I did in Montana. Although I couldn’t see them yet, I created that same thin line of flame and started raking the front vehicles with it. The effect, although not yet deadly to the people, was having a disastrous effect on the equipment. As it was happening, I realized, that might work better, as this was stopping the entire group. They were scared.

As rapidly as I could, I repeated it with the other three groups. They had arranged themselves in four groups, one coming from each direction. As I monitored the soldiers, I could sense confusion and concern. I was pretty sure they had no idea what had just happened, but it was a weapon they had no experience with. Again, my hopes were dashed, as they regrouped and continued forward, the undamaged vehicles leading the way.

“Why won’t they leave us alone!?” I screamed.

A sudden thought came to me, and without giving myself any time to think about it more, I sent a probe to every soldier out there. As that probe entered their minds, I sent a small burst of energy, and every single soldier dropped. What surprised me was, there were still about a dozen people coming. They had kind of been masked by the soldiers, but now I knew. They were telepaths, and very good ones.

I couldn’t do anything on a large scale with them. This had to be one on one, but I had a trick they hopefully wouldn’t expect. I was linked with 92 other telepaths.

A single, massive probe hit the first one. He easily deflected it, as if batting away a bug. Although it didn’t surprise me, I had hoped I’d make it through. As I expected, his probe hit me immediately after. I was ready, and had prepared.

There were holes in my shield that he rapidly penetrated. I could feel his confidence at having gotten in, but I knew I had a trick that had never been done before. I had multiple layers. Mr. Miller had been surprised at that, which let me know it was new.

As his probe penetrated the first three shields, I closed the holes his probe was coming through. As I did that, I sent a surge of energy. It was my turn to be surprised, as he resisted it. Not giving up, I sent a massive surge of energy the second time. He couldn’t block that. It simply overwhelmed him, and he collapsed. I knew he was either dead, or would be a vegetable for the rest of his life. Fresh tears added to the ones that were already there.

As he collapsed, I sensed the link between them. The eleven remaining, paused. They seemed to be surprised, or maybe rethinking their strategy.

As I was processing all of that, it occurred to me. They had lost a perfect opportunity to take me down earlier. I had sent a probe into the entire opposing force to try and get them to leave. Why hadn’t they attacked me when I was vulnerable? It didn’t make sense.

Suddenly, nearly twenty of our weaker telepaths fell, their links disappearing at the same time. That was unexpected, and worried me greatly. Although I was worried about being able to beat them, the real worry was what had been done to the ones that had just fallen.

“Mrs. Stone, twenty of our kids just fell. They might need help,” I said aloud.

During that moment of distraction, I barely stopped the assault that hit my mind. It was the most powerful attack I’d ever felt, but it was sneaky as well. They had encased my shield in energy, and then it kind of pulsed. I was on the verge of panicking, because I couldn’t seem to sense anything outside of it, and I couldn’t get any probes to even touch it. I had no idea how to get rid of it. I also realized, I’d lost the link.

I only had my own energy to deal with this new threat. I tried my best to get my probes to batter it, but it was as if they slid off, or simply didn’t touch it. It was really weird.

The panic became a monster as I felt it getting smaller. As it shrunk, my shields began to collapse, and with that collapse, pain began radiating throughout my mind and body. I knew I screamed, but my senses were also affected. I couldn’t feel anything but the pain, and the terror. I was being boxed up again.

Then it occurred to me. I had something they didn’t. I had power that wasn’t telepathic. In a desperate move, I sent what I imagined to be like a telepathic hand out, but was the other energy. Thankfully, I remembered where they were. My telekinetic hand picked one of them up and slammed the telepath to the ground, very hard. Telekinesis doesn’t allow sensing of the person, just that they’re there. It’s more like very hazy eyesight.

Not wanting to squander my chance, I repeated it three more times before the energy field dissipated. The pain was gone, and I was free. The other eight telepaths were getting in a large vehicle, and leaving. Although it didn’t seem like much of a battle, I slid off the chair as I released my hold on the energy. I knew when my head landed on the pavement, but that was the last thing I knew.

When I saw light again, my body was thankfully working, although I would have been happy with a lot less pain. I didn’t think there was a place on me that didn’t hurt.

“How are you?” I heard, as I put my hands on my head, trying to crush it. Rather than reply, I simply moaned.

“Here, take this,” Mrs. Stone offered, handing me two capsules, and a cup of water.

I had no idea what it was, and I didn’t care. I took it without any thought.

“You need to eat,” she said, once I’d swallowed the medicine. Before I could even attempt to sit up, a very large man picked me up in his arms. He followed Mrs. Stone into a dining room, where there were people everywhere, and not just kids. What was really weird was that the kids were all seated, eating, and the adults were waiting on them.

“We should be waiting on all of you?” I said, knowing my voice was very quiet. Of course, my voice had always been quiet, but it was more so, at that moment.

“No, young lady. We’re waiting on you,” the large man said, a deep southern accent that was very deep indeed. Yet again, I’d found another southerner.

“What is it with me finding southerners in northern states?” I asked.

“You don’t know where you are, do you?” he asked, looking at me with a huge grin.

“Montana, I think,” I replied, but wasn’t very certain of that, considering his question.

He laughed a deep bellowing kind of laugh, and said, “You’re in Tennessee.”

“I guess that explains the accent, then,” I replied, laying my head down on his shoulder, as he carried me the rest of the way to a table. Kneeling down, he gently set me in a chair and stood back up.

“Now, what can I get you for breakfast?” he asked.

“Lots of crispy bacon and eggs, please,” I replied.

“What would you like to drink?” he then asked.

“Milk, please,” I said.

“You got it, missy,” he said, and without warning, I burst into tears. It all hit me in one gigantic bomb of emotion. I’d killed more people.

Although my body screamed at me, I ran out of the room into the closest place I could find, away from people. I found myself in a room with several couches, a raised platform with a drum set, a ping pong table, a foosball table and an air hockey table. There was a small bar looking thing, and some other stuff on the walls, but it didn’t really catch my notice. I went to a couch and pulled my knees to my chin, balling like a baby.

“Melanie, what’s wrong?” I heard Mrs. Stone ask.

“Nothing,” I replied, my automatic response.

“Really?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow in a mocking way.

“I don’t want to talk,” I replied, through my sobbing.

“You never want to talk, and never have, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t,” she replied.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s almost over, one way or the other,” I told her, this time getting an honest look of curiosity.

“We’ll be in North Carolina soon, and we’ll either be in a good place, or they’ll terminate me. It’s almost over,” I said, repeating the last statement.

“And if it turns out bad, you’ll abandon all of those kids?” she asked.

“I won’t have to. They’ll kill me,” I replied.

“I seriously doubt that. You’ve just become much too valuable to them,” she said.

“No, I’ve become a liability and an embarrassment to them,” I told her.

“You’re not an embarrassment,” she countered, not understanding what I’d meant.

“You don’t get it! I’m not an embarrassment. I’ve embarrassed them, making them look stupid. They can’t let me live.”

“So, you’re still abandoning the rest of them,” she said, again.

“How?”

“By giving yourself up without a fight?” she said, and I laughed at her. For the first time, I thought, I actually laughed at her. Her comment was that stupid to me.

“I’ve killed a lot of people. Don’t tell me I didn’t fight!” I yelled.

“Yes, you have fought, but in the end, you’ll turn them over willingly,” she threw at me. It was like a slap in the face, and a very hard one. It didn’t change my mind, though.

“It has to be this way. I can’t live in the real world. It’s dangerous, and it’s not right,” I countered.

“Melanie, just because you’ve suffered a lot, and you have this power, doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the same freedom and rights as the rest of us,” she argued.

“Yes it does. I’m not a person, like you or anyone else. I was created, and I’ve got a singular purpose. I really am a weapon. All of my abilities are offensive, unlike Aliyah and most, if not all, of the others. I was created to destroy, nothing more. Not only am I a creation, I’m an evil creation. I’ve probably killed more people than any serial killer in history,” I argued back.

“The difference is, they were psychopaths, and did it deliberately, without remorse,” she tried to say, but that fed my argument.

“I am a psychopath, or at least badly mentally unstable. As for doing it deliberately, I definitely did it deliberately. I knew what I was doing, every time, and did it anyway. And you don’t know that they don’t feel remorse. I’ve read that it’s believed that many of them set themselves up to be caught, because they hated what they were doing. They just couldn’t stop, so, they very possibly had remorse. And back in Montana, when I killed those people, I didn’t care. I didn’t feel anything,” I told her. She had no good counter for that, and I knew it.

“Mrs. Stone, I know you want to think of me as normal, but I’m not. I never will be and I need to be locked up. I think all of us do,” I finally said, standing up and walking out. I left her there, thinking about what I’d told her.

Returning to the dining hall, I ate my breakfast, all of it, but not tasting any of it. It was nourishment, and nothing else. In spite of the talk with the priest, back in St. Charles, I was still suffering over the deaths I’d caused, the blood on my hands. It hurt, and there was no way around it.

“Richard, how long before we can leave?” I asked.

“Whenever you’re ready,” he said, but I could see he was worried about me too. That look was on everyone’s face. There were no exceptions. I walked to the large man, who I’d discovered was the pastor of the church we were at.

“Sir, thank you very much for helping us. I’m sure Mr. Stone can get my Dad to help pay for what we ate, and all,” I said, then stood there, looking stupid. I hadn’t worded that very eloquently, and left myself in an awkward position.

He chuckled at my apparent discomfort, putting his large, beefy hand on my shoulder. “Young lady, I don’t understand it, but you’re apparently the leader of this group, even over Brian and Rebecca. Although I don’t know everything there is to know about your situation, it looks like you’re doing a bang up job. May the Lord continue to bless and watch over you. You don’t need to worry about paying anything back,” he said, and suddenly brought me into a hug that completely smothered me.

“By the way, what happened to the soldiers?” I asked, once I’d regained my freedom and ability to breath.

“The national guard came and collected them. They didn’t seem to know anything about an operation in this area, and they’re still investigating the crashed helicopters and jets. In all honesty, I’d like to know about that,” he said, his face deadly serious.

“No, you wouldn’t,” I replied. He looked at me sidelong, but didn’t say anything else about it.