A groan from the back seat reminded me about Calidia. I looked back at her to see her grimacing in pain. I reached back to touch her arm. I hadn't had a chance to peek at her abilities and now seemed like a good time. It was bad. Her core wasn't silver, but purple and was riddled with cracks as were most of her ability cores.
As if sensing me the mana in her mana core stretched out of her core towards me like a snake striking. As soon as it reached me I could feel the mana I took from Emily being siphoned off into Calidia, the mana was drawn into her mana core where it slowly started to fix the cracks in the core. When the loose mana was gone the mana from my own mana core flowed out of me and into her. I wasn't big on the idea and the lose of mana made me feel weaker, but I didn't try to stop it. Calidia knew more about what was going on than we did so it would be a good idea to try to get her back on her feet.
I had no way to gauge how much mana she took from my core but it felt like half before the cracks in her core were fixed and the flow of mana stopped.
Once the mana core was fixed I removed my hand and relaxed against the seat tiredly.
"What happened?" Megan asked turning the truck onto highway 87. It didn't look too bad yet, there weren't many cars on the road yet, in fact most of the cars were going in the other direction. With the number of twisted appearances being in the valley I could understand everyone's desire to leave.
I relayed what I saw and what happened to her.
"Does that mean you have bond with her now?" Megan asked me.
I frowned then shook my head. "I don't think so." I replied.
"Why?" she asked.
"I can kind of sense you, but I can't her." I replied.
Megan frowned but didn't pursue the matter anymore as she sped up the truck now that we were on the highway. Thankfully highway 87 was fairly clear giving us no trouble. Calidia started to stir as we transitioned onto highway 202.
I looked back at her as she opened her eyes for a moment then groaned and shut them again. "Where am I?" she asked after a moment.
"In our truck." I replied.
Calidia opened her eyes again then glanced over at me. "Why can I feel you?" she asked me.
I shrugged. "No idea. You were pretty banged up and drained a lot of my mana from me." I replied.
Calidia frowned then closed her eyes again they flew open a moment a fearful look on her face. Then tears began to fall from her eyes as sobs racked her body.
I sighed then looked back out the front window to give her some modicum of privacy.
Megan shot me a glare but I ignored it.
Highway 202 was a lot busier than the 87. Traffic slowed us down a lot but at least it was still moving.
After a few minutes Calidia calmed down. "I am sure you are curious as to what happened." she stated.
I looked back at her meeting her gaze. Her red eyes were even redder from the crying. "Yeah." I replied.
"I spoke to you of bonds before." she told me. "The intimate bond you have with the girl there is only one. You and I now have a savior bond. In me it will instill a sense of gratitude and a desire to repay you for your kindness. Besides these there is a parental, slave, and several others. I had a parental bond with my father which strengthened my mana core and abilities. While I was controlling the space tunnel my bond with my father broke. The recoil from the broken bond caused me to lose control of the tunnel. I do not know what happened, but it must have been something severe if no one has come for me yet." she told us.
I frowned. "Aren't the havens supposed to be safe?" I asked.
Calidia nodded, "From twisted and mana beasts." she agreed. "But not from other humans." she added.
I frowned. They were hiding in artificial spaces to keep from being torn apart by the twisted and beasts and they were still fighting each other? Wasn't that the time we were supposed to put our differences aside and all work together? Then again when had we ever done that.
"Does that mean your father is dead?" Megan asked bluntly.
Calidia's body shook. "Not by itself. Death is a possibility, but as our bond was active, severe injury or some kinds of isolation will break the bond." she replied.
"Active?" I asked.
"My father was supplying me with the energy for abilities beyond my reach. To do this our bond was always actively pushing energy into me to help my development. Our savior bond, and your intimate bond are passive." she explained.
Megan cursed so I shifted my view to the front to see a wall of cars. Seemed like we finally reached the real traffic. Michael's truck had been lifted so we had a good view. I could see the red and blue flashing lights of police ahead. I was surprised they had anyone to spare at the moment. I glanced around and spotted a sign. We were approaching the exit for Scottsdale road. After a moment I paled. That was right by Arizona State University and all its sports fields. After what happened at the Cardinal's stadium I was getting a bad feeling.
"We might not be able to get through." I told Megan.
Megan glanced at me for a moment then ahead again. "Don't jinx us." she told me. "The stadiums are close but they are on the other side of Salt River." she argued.
We pulled up slowly following traffic. Thankfully traffic hadn't stopped completely but it was still slow going.
Calidia sat up in the back to peer out the windows. "Your world is so different." she commented.
"Never seen cars before?" I asked.
"Not exactly like these no, but vehicles are common, we have even brought many into the havens." Calidia replied. "No I mean there is usually more panic after the second wave. I know that the exposure of he mana isn't uniform but there still should have been many who mutated into twisted." she told us.
"There probably is a lot of panic." Megan agreed, "But many of us have faith in the military and police force. So rather than causing a ruckus there will be plenty who stay home and wait for the storm to pass. As long as the power and internet doesn't go down we will be able keep back the madness for a while." Megan told her. "If those go down…" Megan started then stopped. "Heaven's help us all."
I nodded. It had only been about a half day, as long as the power and internet kept working there was an illusion that everything was fine and the problems would be fixed. There was even a chance that there were many who had no idea what was going on.
"That is a benefit to us, but I doubt it will last past the third wave." Calidia told us.
"Why?" I asked back.
"The severity of the waves get worse as do the exposure level. On the next wave the amount of mana to come through will be at least ten times more than all you have gotten before. The rate of mutation will be like nothing you have ever seen before." she warned us.
That didn't sound good.
Megan kept the truck moving and we soon passed a large crash. I could see that it had been bloody. There was a red twisted fallen behind a car with several other bodies laying close by. I was surprised to see that no one had taken care of the deceased, but when we passed the lone police car we saw that there was no one inside. The car had been left there to help maintain order. That worried me.
Once past the crash Megan kicked the speed up as we rushed towards the Priest Drive exit.
Emily started to stir on my lap reminding me of a question for Calidia. I told her about what happened to Emily then asked why she had her and why Emily didn't awaken.
"When the tunnel was collapsing I noticed that she had been separated from her parents. If she was mutating that would explain how she was separated. There is a energy field around the haven that would push away twisted and those mutating. I feared for her safety so I drew her to me as the tunnel collapsed. As for why she didn't awaken? She is too young. No matter what happens humans can not awaken until they are ten. Given what happened to her she will probably awaken as soon as she turns ten."
"So she just has to wait a year." Megan stated.
I frowned at Megan, wasn't Emily eight?
"We have the same birthday." Megan told me.
I thought about it. Megan's birthday was May tenth, a week from now she would be eighteen, then that meant Emily was almost nine. It was a long time though.
We reached the Priest Drive exit a moment later and turned north.
Emily woke up as I called her mother.
"Daryl? Are you close?" she asked.
"Almost there." I replied.
"Hurry, something seems to be going on." she told me.
"Huh? What is it?" I asked.
"I don't know, but I hear gunshots to the north." she told me.
I kept my eyes open as we drove. There were a lot more cars here, as we reached an intersection I spotted Rebecca standing on the corner looking towards the north worriedly.
"Mommy!" Emily shouted happily.
Rebecca seemed to hear her. She turned to see us approaching then waved at us. I think Megan had the idea to pull into a parking lot nearby but Rebecca jumped into the back of the truck as we drove past her.
"That's one way to do it." Megan said with a grin.
I wanted to smile to but caught sight of something I never expected to see. Coming down the road ahead of us was the biggest fucking elephant I had ever seen. You didn't see that wrong. It was an elephant!