The next morning breakfast was a happy and exciting event as my group all ate together in the suite the Monea's were using. However the happy atmosphere didn't last for long.
I only had a few goals for the day before the third energy wave was supposed to hit; contact Heather's family and bring them through so they would be safe if the third wave really did encompass the whole world, contact Tracy's family and bring them through for the same reason as Heather's, contact Marshal and Derek then meet up with them to set up a friend level bond so I can help them in an emergency if I needed too.
While I was busy with all of that, the others would be securing as many supplies as they could. Thankfully there were several others in my group who could feel the impending third wave so I was expecting a better result than the last few attempts. Also Grace had her own space, her ability was only at one star but it was better than nothing and let me concentrate on my other goals.
Fortunately after several hours of practicing my space ability with Calidia's instructions, I was able to create space tunnels to a unfamiliar location as long as I had the direction and distance of where I wanted to go. GPS helped a lot there.
I was relieved when I succeeded the first time, as it meant that I didn't need to continue training with Calidia. It wasn't that she was a bad teacher, in truth she was very good at explaining the concept so that I could understand it. No, the troubling thing was I should have been able to learn it in one hour instead of three.
Calidia had changed out of the dress I had met her in and was now wearing skin tight pale green yoga pants, and an almost equally tight tank top, add onto the fact that she saw me as her husband and there was far more flirting and caresses involved in our training session than was necessary. The intimate bond that we shared only heightened my senses driving me crazy with desire for her despite the fact that we were training in under the supervisory gaze of Grace's family among others.
My 'wives' found the whole situation rather humorous. Megan couldn't seem to restrain her mischievous habits any longer and whispered suggestive comments through our bond as Calidia stood close to me or rubbed against me during our training. I was incredibly relieved to have succeeded and nearly fled from the room with Calidia in hand to reward myself for my accomplishment.
Unfortunately Heather and Tracy's moods quickly dampened my spirits. Apparently neither family were going to join us.
Tracy's family were sympathetic and sad for her loss, but felt that moving closer to Phoenix was a bad idea. In fact they spent most of the time Tracy was talking to them, trying to convince her to join them there.
When she told me I had to wonder if it was a valid option. There was nothing keeping us in Grand Junction. We had a temporary base in the hotel but it wasn't something we could count on long term as it was in the middle of the city. The only downside was the distance was too far, I wasn't strong enough to hold a space tunnel open long enough to send everyone through in one shot and Grace wouldn't have the ability to even open one. If I had advanced to three stars in my space ability I could consider it but until then it would be too exhausting and our groups would be split up while I recovered.
Heather's family was worse. They refused to believe anything, not the trouble they saw on the news or the death of their daughter. In fact her parents spent the majority of the call scolding her for such a tasteless prank then hung up on her after telling her they would return when their vacation was over and no sooner.
Neither took the news well and I half expected them to ask to be sent through to their families. Neither did. Heather spent a few moments in my arms as she cried, reminding me of what Grace had said about my presence being calming. Tracy just smiled bitterly with tears in her eyes.
"I could send you to them." I told Tracy feeling bad for her. We were little more than strangers and her connection to me was thinner than the others since she hadn't really noticed the first bond when she had it. So I thought she could use the emotional support of her family.
Tracy shook her head to my relief. Truthfully I didn't want her to go. I still felt very possessive of all the girls which I knew was incredibly unreasonable, but it was there regardless. "It would be harder listening to them console me." she replied sadly, then to my surprise she hugged me for a moment taking in a deep breath then left her face a few shades redder than it had been before.
Megan chuckled at my surprised expression. "You really do have a calming effect on us." she confirmed.
I found that thought to be rather comforting. It seemed like it might not be as hard to reestablish my bonds with the girls as I thought it would be.
As I grabbed my phone to call Marshal and Derek I noticed that Courtney had made her way up to our floor and was speaking animatedly with Hope. I sent Grace a thought through our bond to keep an eye on Courtney in case she was hoping to seduce the young girl into Michael's bed.
I doubted that Michael put her up to it. I was also sure that she was probably to young for his tastes, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Realizing the issue Grace quickly went to insert herself into the conversation. I worried for a moment that Courtney might try and pull Grace over to Michael's group but quickly pushed that aside. Of all my girls Grace seemed to be the most dedicated to the idea of reestablishing the marital bond with me, besides Calidia.
A quick call to Marshal revealed that both men I wanted to meet were in the same location which would make this part of my plan go a lot smoother.
Learning that they had commandeered a hotel as their base of operations and its location I quickly bid my ladies goodbye granting any of them that were interested a chaste kiss on the forehead, to which more than a few accepted, then created the space tunnel and stepped through.
It was felt odd being alone again, but I wasn't able to contemplate that long as I caught sight of my surroundings. I had deliberately set down on the roof so I didn't run into anyone. Finding that the roof was full of people just as surprised to see someone appear out of nowhere. Derek was among the group on the roof.
He recognized me quickly enough and reassured everyone else before the few guards had a chance to pull their guns on me, which I was grateful for.
I walked over to the side of the roof where Derek was standing with several other officers and police. They were gazing out at the city around them.
It was only when I joined them and looked over the city that I realized there might have been more to the reason Michael and his group were so quick to joining my group in Grand Junction. In the two days since I had left, the city had devolved considerably.
There was a lot of smoke in the air coming from several fires that still seemed to be burning. In the streets below I could see that they had cordoned off the area around the hotel with armed soldiers. Beyond the cordoned off area the town seemed completely deserted. No pedestrian or vehicle traffic anywhere in sight.
Yet I could hear the gunfire in several different directions, and it wasn't just a few gunshots but heavy fire that I expect to hear in a war movie when the enemy is assaulting the defensive line.
This was what I expected to see when I thought of the apocalypse.
"It isn't pretty is it." Derek commented tiredly.
I shook my head as I created the bond between us.
He flinched a bit as the bond formed but made no comment or complaint.
"Come with me." Derek told me.
I gazed at him suspiciously for a moment, I still clearly remembered the kidnapping attempt on me. He might have promised not to attempt it again, but I had the feeling he would have no trouble lying if it helped him fulfill his orders. To be cautious I formed the wind armor over my body like I did before, but made it as thick and resilient as I could without making it visible.
Thankfully I was overreacting. Derek led me into the building to a large room that had been transformed into a command center. On one wall of the room was an enormous map of the city that had been shaded in with various colors and had all kinds of stickers and pins on it. Looking over it I was able to make sense of some of it. Areas I had known were dangerous earlier like the stadium, zoo, colleges, and malls were highlighted in red along with the airport and many hospitals. Other areas had orange highlights and many more had yellow, truth be told it was harder to find an area that hadn't been highlighted.
"We could really use your help." Derek told me. "I don't know why, but we haven't been able to find very many awakened to help us push the twisted back. We have five confirmed purple twisted, those areas are far to dangerous for us to even consider taking back as we are now." Derek told me.
I was initially surprised that there were so few Awakened until I remembered why Calidia was with us. There probably had been more awakened but they had been recruited to the havens.
I told Derek my thoughts about the lack of awakened and could see him clenching his jaw tightly despite the fact that his expression did not change at all.
"Can you help us?" Derek asked. Several others in the room had been paying attention and were waiting for my reply.
I shook my head, "No." I replied firmly. "The third wave is coming tonight Derek, everything will get even worse after that. You need to consider evacuating your people." I told him as seriously as I could.
Derek didn't respond but Marshal showed up then with Rosa at his side giving me the opportunity to finish my own mission. I created a friend level bond between me and Marshal and another between him and Rosa.
"We can't evacuate." Derek told me after a few moments.
I frowned and wondered how he could be so stubborn.
"We're locked in." Marshal explained seeing my expression.
Looking at the map I spotted a single green dot on the map located where I thought we were. All around it were red zones and a very small number of orange between them. They were trapped and couldn't leave even if they wanted too.