Riser (Teen Horror/Science Fiction) (Book #1 in The Riser Saga) ((Volume 1)) (41 page)

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you? For George.” I said with a smile of approval.

“Maybe,” Ryan replied slyly. “He deserves it after everything he’s done for you. For us.”

“Do you think you’ll take the job?” I asked. I was secretly hoping we could go to college together. If I made it that long. Ugggh! Stop!

“Naaah, but I always listen to their offers. It’ll be pretty boring, but at least I’ll get a free meal out of it.” He smiled.

“Well… be careful.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say I was so nervous about what was coming.

Ryan squeezed my hand and pulled it up to his lips, kissing it gently. “Nancy’s parents will just have to pay a fine. They’ll understand. You shouldn’t go.”

“I’m going. I’m just a little nervous is all.” As much as I wanted to agree with Ryan, I needed to get this over with.

We arrived at the parking lot and Jill was waiting there with her scowl of greeting.

“Let’s go.” Jill started walking away without waiting to see if I was following.

I turned and kissed Ryan. “Love you.”

Ryan kissed me back. “Love you.”

I couldn’t look at him anymore or I’d chicken out. And where was Bill and Nancy? They were probably tied up in class. I wanted to wait to say goodbye to them, but Jill was almost out of view. I ran after her like an idiot.

I caught up to Jill and walked next to her, hoping we wouldn’t have to talk.
Just drop me off at Nancy’s and leave me alone.
Maybe I’d see Nancy and Bill before Turner’s car came to pick me up.

Jill’s hover-car was a top of the line ridiculously expensive BMW. “Get in,” she barked.

I opened the door and slid into the car. I really didn’t want to fight with her, and thankfully it appeared she didn’t want to either. The interior of the car was to be expected, lots of expensive bells and whistles, including a holo-GPS and auto-pilot.

“Don’t touch anything.” Jill wanted to make sure I knew my place.

“Jill, just shut-up.” I tried to keep quiet, but she was so good at provoking me.

“I’ll make you ride in the trunk.” Jill’s eyes flared angrily.

“I’d like to see you try.” I gave her a look that suggested she should back off.

Jill grumbled something under her breath, turned on her car, and took off out of the parking lot. The way she was driving we’d be there in no time. Thank goodness.

The holo-GPS projected the three-dimensional map in the middle of the dashboard and led Jill to Nancy’s house.

“I could just tell you how to get there,” I said, and as soon as I did I knew I shouldn’t have.

“Yeah, right. Like I’d take directions from trailer trash. My dad warned me not to listen to anything you say.
Most
of all directions. He said you could lead me into a trap,” Jill smirked egotistically.

“A trap? What? Where I beat the crap out of you and steal your car?” Now that I said it, it sounded like a good idea, in dreamland that is. But the more obvious point of Jill’s rant was Turner’s paranoia that I wouldn’t show up for this reunion.

“Exactly. Your seat is rigged to taser by the way, so don’t even think about trying anything.” Jill actually sounded scared so I wondered at the validity of her threat.

“I’m not going to do anything. Just get me to Nancy’s so I can get away from you.” I stared out the window trying to ignore her.

“I’m not the freak in this situation, you know.” Jill wasn’t letting go. It was like now that we were alone she could let out all of her frustration on me. “You’re the one who intruded in a life you had no right to. You don’t belong with the rich, you belong with your own kind.” Jill sounded like she believed the hate she was spouting.

I was tempted to destroy her world and tell her about her dad, or worse let him die naturally by disconnecting him from Turner’s control, but as annoying and cruel as Jill was, I just couldn’t do that to another human being. No matter how tempting.

“Why should you care? What possible difference in your life could it make to have someone who doesn’t have any money go to your school? Really? Are you that bigoted?” I sighed, already exhausted from this conversation.

“I am
not
a bigot.” Jill seemed horrified by the notion, which was weird because she so obviously
was
.

“What would you call it then? Let me quote:
You don’t belong with the rich, you belong with your own kind.
How is that
not
being a bigot?” I stared at her profile as she kept here eyes on the airspace in front of her. I had hit a nerve.

“I hate you,” Jill seethed and said nothing more.

Good. Now I could concentrate on… uuuggh… what? How my grandpa was planning on finishing me off? My argument with Jill felt like a vacation compared to what was in store for me.

And then out of the blue Jill said, “I’m sorry I made you cry the other day, when I brought up your mom.”

“You have reached your destination,” the GPS announced.

I turned to Jill as if my ears had played tricks on me. Was that an apology? She stared straight ahead as if she hadn’t said anything, but I could tell there was
actually
some emotion there.

“Look, Jill…” I started.

“Don’t,” Jill stopped me. “I just need you to be my enemy right now.” She still couldn’t look at me. “It’s the only thing that makes sense to me.”

And as weird of a statement as that was, I actually got it. She needed something stable in her life and I guess her hatred for me was it. Maybe that could change in time. I could only hope. It would make the last year of high school a whole lot easier, but then again I might not make it past the next couple of hours so I simply nodded.

Jill landed the hover-car and opened my door from her side.

“Get out,” Jill said quietly.

I exited the car and before I could turn around she had shut the door and lifted off.

So much for Jill Forester.

Almost within seconds a steel box of a hover-truck landed in front of me. It was solid silver like a bar of tin with spinning fans. I couldn’t even see where the driver would sit, the metal was so continuous.
Where were the windows?

“What the…?” I said and my heart sank. This was Turner’s “ride.”

Two heavy doors swung open and a man dressed in an all white three-piece suit was there with a large grin. “Chelsan, come in.” He looked like he was in his mid-twenties so he either
was
in his mid-twenties or he was middle class and had been Turner’s slave for centuries. His hair was short and perfectly in place along with everything else about him. He could have been a doll with his aquiline features and perfectly constructed body.

The inside of the hover-box was as white and sterile as the guy who greeted me. It was devoid of anything except two benches built into the walls facing each other. I sat down on one of them and the spongy white surface wasn’t any kind of material I could recognize. I felt way out of my depth in this situation, which was exactly the way Turner wanted me to feel, I guessed. I gritted my teeth in frustration because I was letting it work. I was letting him win even on the smallest of levels and that was unacceptable.

The man in white shut the doors and sat across from me with that same annoying grin. “All set here. Let’s go.” He seemed to be talking to the air in front of him.

But the hover fans churned in response and we were off. Away from my friends. Away from safety.

What was this place? It was like a quarantine facility… Oh.

It
was
a quarantine facility, and I was the thing that needed to be quarantined. Nothing dead in this spotlessly clean metal box. No swirling black holes here. It was amazing how comforting they had become to me since meeting my grandpa. Something I used to consider a curse ended up being the one thing I could depend on.

“Where are we going?” I asked fruitlessly.

“We’ll know when we get there.” The man in white said with a smile.

Can we get a little more vague?
Probably, so I kept my mouth shut and took deep calming breaths. As we whizzed over Los Angeles I leaned my head back against the wall of the truck and closed my eyes. I knew there was no way I could even guess where we were going, but since I was stuck here in this sterile box I thought I could try something. I concentrated on the ground below us and sought out any and every black hole I could find. Mostly bugs, ants and houseplants. Okay, that means we’re still in the burbs. That was helpful. The longer we drove the black holes turned into larger animals, opossums, coyotes, lots more bugs of every variety imaginable (blek), birds, heading over a forest, but which one and where? It was impossible to tell there were so many now because of Population Control’s laws. It didn’t matter, there were enough animals I could use in my arsenal if I had to. Of course, that was assuming we were going to land sometime soon! Where were we going?! So frustrating!

I was so zoned into all the black swirling chasms, I nearly jumped when they all turned into at least five square miles of giant dead oaks. No dead animal or insect or any kind of corpse that I could sense. Just the blackened roots of lifeless trees.

The hover-truck landed in the center of the dead forest. I couldn’t for the life of me remember any place like this. You’d think we’d have learned about places like these in geography class or something, but it must be just another one of Turner’s secrets he kept from the people.

The man in white opened the doors of the truck and smiled at me. “Out, please.”

I stood up and jumped outside of the metal box.

Burnt, charred earth greeted me like an apocalypse. It made me a little dizzy with the swirling holes of the dead trees and the blackened ground beneath me. The only proof that there had been any kind of life here was
me
.

“This way, please.” The man in white was a startling contrast to the darkness of the land.

I followed him around the hover-truck and I gasped.

Turner stood in front of an army of hundreds of soldiers with nothing but scorched earth for miles. It was a surreal moment to see so many men dressed in full army gear, holding automatic weapons, all pointed at me. Turner had a smug look on his face. He was only about twenty feet away, which was way too close for my taste. And
way
too close for those guns to be aimed in my direction. Who did he think I was? Some kind of living bomb? I wish I were at this point. Maybe I could take him down with me. I just hoped Jason would have enough time to get the holo-footage on the air and hopefully save my butt. It didn’t look good at this point in time.

The driver of the hover-truck was one of Turner’s soldiers and he exited the vehicle with his own gun raised stepping into line with his fellow combatants.

“Did you enjoy your adventures in my wife’s head last night?” Turner had an edge of fury to his voice.

“Yes,” I said. A part of me wanted to goad him on. It was like playing Russian Roulette. I felt like I had nothing to lose. If he was going to kill me, there was nothing I could do about it.

“Tell me what you saw?” He took a step closer and something in his eyes warned me that something was off.

“No.” I kept my answers as brief as possible and noticed that the less I said the more agitated he grew. I had seen this kind of behavior before. He was stalling. But for what? I needed to find out more. “You brought a firing squad?”

“Possibly, that depends on you. Nothing dead for miles. I wasn’t sure how far your reach was, so I made sure five square miles was free of any corpses for you to
surprise
me with.” The look on Turner’s face was infuriating. He was so proud of himself.

Interesting.

He had no idea I could control dead plant-life.