The night was long and difficult to withstand. Everyone was on edge, especially after pain. They had slept most of the night, while I took short naps between watching the broken doorway and looking out the windows for any threats. It was clear to me that I would have to make arrangements with the others for guard duty. Thankfully nothing happened, but I couldn't be certain without seeing for myself.
In the morning, everyone walked into the kitchen, still in sleep mode. I was jealous of their relaxed attitudes.
"What's for breakfast?" Leo asked, looking around the kitchen as if I had made a full breakfast for everyone.
I pulled out another package of meat, this time a pork roast, and set it on the counter. He grimaced and I wanted to hit him for thinking that everything would work just the way he wanted to. Besides, it was better to get food out and eat it while it was still good. The fridge had already lost its cold and the freezer was close to leaving only rotten meat.
"Just think of it like bacon" I smiled in order to mask my annoyance.
He smiled tensely and Ryan stepped in front of him and tore the package open. He clearly wasn't going to complain about what was available. I set a knife next to the Styrofoam tray and he stabbed into the white meat that still had blood oozing from it. He cut off a chunk and handed it to me with a childlike smile.
"Thanks" I smiled and took what he offered.
Leo walked the rest of the way into the room and took the knife after Ryan was done with it. Kelsey and Sadie had shared one of the twin-sized beds that had probably once belonged to the children, and they had immediately clicked as friends, for whatever reason they might have had. Not that I didn't think they could be friends, they just seemed really different from each other. It did make me feel happy knowing that even in chaos, happiness could be found. Justin and Mariah had slept in separate rooms; Mariah shared the master room with Amber. Another guest room housed Ryan, Jason and Leo. While I stayed in the living room. We had formed our own family.
"Is that all we have to eat?" Sadie complained.
"There's another couple packages of ground beef and another pork roast, if we need them. But I'd rather we didn't eat too much so we don't get sluggish."
Sadie looked at me as if she were seeing me for the first time. Like she finally didn't completely hate me.
"Amber walked into the room and, in a sleepy daze walked up and rested her head on my shoulder. Her body temperature was intense, but it was kind of adorable the way she often acted.
"Time to wake up" I spoke quietly.
She grumbled something that I couldn't make out, but it was fine. She was up and moving, which was a good start. I guided her to a chair around a large white wooden table and grabbed a chunk of pork to bring to her. Her eyes opened a crack and she took the meat, eating it without really seeing it. When I looked back around the counter, Justin, Mariah, and Jason had already made their way into the kitchen and were already eating. With our group having gotten so large in numbers, we were going to need more food. Not that I wasn't happy to have so many allies. I couldn't help but think of myself as the mother to this rag-tag group, despite both Sadie and Kelsey being older than me. Though Jason was actually the oldest of us all, at 20 years old. It seemed odd that all of us were in our mid to late teens. It was possible that the younger we were, the more susceptible to the parasite we were, or maybe Mother just liked us being younger because we were still in the process of learning what was right and what was wrong. It could also have been that our genes were special at our age. There really was no way of knowing for certain.
"So, where do we start looking for Mother?" Jason asked as he finished eating the last piece of pork.
"Well, the subways are a simple place to look for the beasts of her army, but we probably won't find her in such an obvious location. She will likely have found a headquarters, and we need to look for clues for that." I answered automatically. I had actually been thinking of that while watching the street.
"She wasn't at the Empire state building, since Kelsey was there and Mother was using her abilities to manipulate fear and make Kim submit to her control" Ryan thought aloud.
I nodded and added "Plus the stone guy took of, probably to protect Mother's true location. So we really need to keep an eye out for him, if we want any luck."
"Shouldn't we plan things a little more precisely?" Sadie asked, sounding strangely polite.
"If anyone has any ideas, I'm very welcome to them." I spoke softly, wishing for a good answer. I really hated having to make all of the plans.
"We could track one of the beasts, and see if it returns to her" Kelsey suggested quietly.
It could have been a great idea, if logic didn't have to butt in.
"They're just the troops. They connect with her through their minds. I doubt they really go back and forth between her and the hunt."
"What about finding one of the others like us?" Leo asked.
"Yeah, maybe they'll know where she is." Ryan agreed.
I nodded, the thought of the strategy sounding logical. No doubt Mother would feel a closer bond to her children than to her pets.
"Where should we look for them?" I asked easily.
"We could do something to bring them to us" Amber said, groggily.
"I like the sound of that" Leo smiled wildly "We can mess up some of her pets and she'll send someone after us."
"There were 15 of you at the hospital, right? How many were left on the night of the 21st ?"
"On that night there was still 6 kids left before...well...you know." Mariah stated anxiously. She was rather obvious with her inability to fully accept everything. I couldn't blame her for that.
"So we still have a few options. Any recommendations?" I offered, hoping that some of them would accept that I did have an open mind, rather than me being a drill sergeant.
Moments passed in silence and I began to fear that no one would give an answer.
"There's a girl kinda like you" Amber said, no longer in a sleep daze.
I looked at her curiously, not sure what she meant.
'"She uses water" she added "and she seemed really strong willed. She could probably help us."
"I don't know if that would work" I thought "if I tried curing her, I might end up completely freezing her. I'd rather not kill one of us if I can avoid it."
"Right..." she looked dejected.
"It wasn't a bad idea, Amber, I just can't risk doing any severe damage." I assured her.
"The stone man is probably out of the option, right?" Sadie asked.
"Yeah, I don't feel like making out with a rock."
Leo laughed shortly, then silence resumed.
Thunder boomed outside the house and someone outside screamed. I ran into the living room and saw a woman running down the street. Lightning exploded from the sky and hit the woman where she was. I heard a squeak escape behind me and saw Amber backing away from the window, drops of fire falling from her eyes and singeing the deep red carpet.
"She...she just..."
I got in front of her "Amber, relax. I know that's awful. That's why we're doing this."
She looked at me in a panic and I noticed the others joining us in the room. I hugged her, hearing the hiss of ice meeting fire, feeling the flames burn at my clothes. The clothes barely covered me anymore. Her arms wrapped around my back and gripped the back of my shirt tightly. She burst into tears then, so much that her whole body was shaking. I had never been the best at comforting others, no matter how I had tried. But it seemed to be enough that I was just there for her. I felt like somehow, I was giving her some of my strength, just by holding her through her tears.
Minutes passed of her tears and she pulled back. Her eyes had become completely red, as fire dropped from her eyes. She wiped at the flames with her sleeve, then froze when she saw the singed material.
"I don't want to be like this" she begged quietly.
"I know...I know...but we have to stay strong until we can fix this." I soothed.
"But we're stuck like this...How can we handle that? I just don't understand."
Kelsey stepped over to her and rested her hand on Amber's shoulder.
"We may not go back to being normal, but we're stronger now. Better than we could ever have been. We can save people because of how we are. Take pride in your difference, because it may be the key to saving the world" She said, earning an admiring stare from amber.
I admired her for stepping forward to help support those who needed a little help.
I smiled at her, then looked back to Amber and said "Just think of us as one big family. We'll support you through anything bad we have to face."
"Is anyone else bothered by the precision of that lightning?" Ryan asked, looking outside the window.
I quickly understood what he was getting at.
"Was there anyone at the hospital that showed lightning abilities?" I asked.
"Three was a guy who stayed in his room the whole time. Lights often flickered around his room. I even heard that some of the systems wouldn't work with him." Amber answered quietly.
I smiled "Then I think we have our target."
It wasn't like I'd intentionally thought of the guy as a target or an enemy. He was simply the only option available. We didn't have the time to be picky, not with the limited doses of medicine.
"Everybody pack up what you think we'll need. Don't pack anything unnecessary or too heavy." I instructed, hoping my confidence was convincing.
If I was going to lead our group, I had to keep up the act until the end.
"Do weapons count as necessary or unnecessary?" Jason asked, sounding bored of the whole thing.
"Weapons just piss the monsters off. If you feel you're in danger, use your powers."
"You mean the powers that we never asked for." Sadie grumbled.
I felt her pain "Yes. We never asked for any of this, but monsters don't really pay attention to what we, as humans, want."
"You should probably find another shirt" Ryan pointed out.
I looked down at the fabric that now hung on limp shreds. Amber's fire had burned through the fabric and almost through my bra.
I flushed, then clenched my fists "I'm sure they'll have something here I can wear."
"...sorry..." Amber looked at me anxiously.
"It's okay, we still have a lot to learn, and we have time to make it through this alive."
"What will happen after?" Mariah asked tensely, the question that was probably on everyone's mind.
"Yeah, what if there aren't anymore people left?" Justin added.
"I can't give anyone a 100% certain answer. I can only say that we need to have faith in the resilience of humanity."
'Yeah" Leo agreed "we, as humans, have been through plenty of crap before, and we're still alive, so us humans have to be made of something tougher than these monsters can break."
"So, where do we start?" Sadie asked in a demanding tone.
I doubted she'd be a great leader, but she was definitely able to take control in bad situations. Now, if only she had that confidence in her own abilities.
I sighed quietly to myself. If non of this had happened, I'd probably be nothing more than a semi-smart girl who was good in sports. And everybody here would still be living normal lives. Probably having nothing to do with each other.
"We should follow the lightning guy in the cloud" Ryan stated.
I nodded "Yeah, he's our best bet. We'll have to track him down or lure him out or something and..."
"And then I'll make him thing he's with 'Mother' and I'll know where she is from his perspective." Sadie smiled.
I was glad for someone else to finish the idea. Mostly because I hadn't had any major idea of what to do. I couldn't read the person's mind, and once they were returned to humanity, they wouldn't remember what they'd been through.