Page 19 of Ash Fall

Kara rolls her eyes at me and stabs a perfectly manicured fingernail to the ground in front of her. "Jules," she says with exasperation, "sit your ass down. You're making the men with big guns and tiny dicks nervous with all your angry pacing."

Elenor raises an eyebrow at me and gives me the universal mother, I'm going to strangle you look, so I finally cave and settle down in front of them.

Reid tosses me an unopened water bottle that were passed out earlier. I crack the lid and gulp down half of the lukewarm water before clutching it in my hands and just staring at it in frustration.

"You need to calm down, Jules. Gage is out there making a plan. He's going to come back and get us out of here," Reid tells me.

I scoff. "Yeah? And just what are his qualifications for doing that? Blind optimism? How's one guy going to take on all of this?"

This is ridiculous. How long are they going to hold us here with no information on what's going on out there or what their plans are for the rest of us? It's driving me crazy that I don't know where Luna is or what Gage's plan is going to be once he finds her. I can't seem to control the rage that's spinning around and around in my head. The plastic of the water bottle crinkles as I squeeze it. I narrow my eyes at the water until it starts spinning in a mini cyclone inside the bottle. There's no controlling the power that's reacting to the rage inside of me.

Kara sucks in a sharp breath when she sees what's happening to the water and my eyes lift to meet hers. I'm somewhat surprised to see that her reaction isn't one of shock, but curiosity. She leans forward and reaches out her hand, pressing one finger to the plastic bottle. I almost drop it when the water spinning inside crystallizes and turns to solid ice. One slim shoulder lifts in a nonchalant shrug, a tiny smirk on her face as she removes her finger and the ice slowly starts to melt again.

Elenor lets out a low laugh and hands her bottle to Kara with a grin. "Slightly chilled, if you please?"

Before I can ask Kara any questions about the power she clearly now has, we hear a harsh psst noise. We all turn to look at a man and his wife who are leaning against the fence a few feet away from us. He gives a slight shake of his head and scoots a little bit closer.

"Don't do that!" His eyes dart to the guard towers and then back to us. "Anybody else who's shown they can do weird shit like that gets hauled away."

I give him a slow nod in understanding. "Thanks for the warning. Any idea what happens to them?"

"No, but I can tell you nobody I’ve seen get taken away has come back. Look, I don’t know you from Adam, but I just don’t want any trouble or for me and my wife to get caught up in the mess if they try to come after you."

The man slides further away from us again and I turn back to my friends.

"What about you, Elenor? Have you gotten any new party tricks since this all started?"

She makes a face of disappointment and shakes her head. "Nothing that I've noticed so far, but then again, it's hard to improve on perfection."

She opens her mouth to say something else, but before she can, we hear the squawk of all the soldiers' radios going off at once. A voice that I would know anywhere comes through them.

"All soldiers will lower their weapons and report to the front of the warehouse."

I flinch at the power I can hear in the voice of my friend. All the soldiers do exactly what he said, lower their weapons and start moving to the front of the warehouse. Looks like we aren't the only ones who have developed a new skill since we were last together. We watch as one by one all the guards from the towers and the ones standing around us turn and funnel away into the warehouse. The four of us exchange confused looks before we all jump to our feet and start following them to see what the hell is going on.

We push our way through the people crowded inside and follow the last of the soldiers right through the front doors without any of them looking back at us. It’s like they are ignoring everything except what they were just told to do.

The sheer amount of relief that fills me almost has my knees giving out when I see Torrin, Gage, and Luna standing across the parking lot. Seeing Luna whole and uninjured loosens something that has been clenched tight in my chest ever since I woke up in that water filled hotel room. Knowing that she's safe, that she's here, settles all the rage and anxiety that I've been filled with for the last week.

"What the fuck is he doing here?" Reid whispers beside me, causing me to tear my eyes from our girl to see what he's talking about.

All that rage that had just left me comes flying back when I see motherfucking Mars standing beside Torrin. I shake my head, not giving a shit at this moment. I'll deal with that asshole later.

Reid takes a step forward like he's going to race across the parking lot to Luna, but I grab him by the arm and hold him in place as more and more soldiers fill the lot. None of them are holding weapons, but until we know what's going on here it's best to stay out of the line of fire. We all shift slightly to the side so that we can get a better view of what's about to happen. That's when I spot an older man in uniform on his knees in front of Torrin. I'm relieved to see that he made it back here from Winnipeg, but when I take a good look at him, I start to worry. He's extremely pale and it looks almost like Gage and Luna are holding him up on either side. That doesn't stop the power that fills his voice when he speaks to the man on his knees, though.

"You will release the control you have over all of your men right now. Tell them to forget all of the orders you've given them since the moon cracked and not one other thing."

I don't have a view of the face of the man who must be in charge. Even so, I can see the way he seems to be straining against whatever is holding him in place on his knees. He's fighting against doing what Torrin has ordered him to do but Tor screams at him with such power I feel it ripple across my skin.

"DO IT NOW!"

Finally, the man speaks. I can feel that same power in it as Torrin’s as he snarls out in a British accent, "You are all released from every command I've given you since the moon cracked."

I have no idea what the hell that means or what he's commanded them to do but his words start a ripple throughout the crowd of soldiers as they all react to it. Some of them cry out and some of them immediately start swearing and yelling.

Torrin calls out to them, "You will let all of the townspeople you took go free and you will hurt none of them as they go."

A few of the soldiers rush to each other and immediately start conversations, but I don't give a shit about these men. My friends are what I care about, so I head in their direction now that he's ordered them to let us go and not hurt anybody. I make it halfway there with Reid, Kara, and Elenor when I feel that buzz of power brush against my skin. Spinning around to find where it's coming from, I see a soldier lifting his hands, electricity crackling between his fingers. He has a look of fury on his face as he walks slowly towards my friends. Panic fills my chest, so I raise my own hands and send a blast of air towards him to push him back.