Chapter 27

                                    

                                          


                          
        
                          
The healing injury I had in my arm felt like a minor bruise compared to the bullet now lodged in my thigh.  
                          
	The gathering pivoted towards the forest, suddenly mute. 
                          
	There was a short man, trying to be stealthy as he crept his way past the invisible barrier. Past it. There was nothing stopping him. 
                          
	I saw a few of our men from the other side of the building creeping up behind him. They would stop him. I didn't want to imagine the violence that would ensue. 
                          
	The pain I felt was torture. I blocked everything in and out of my head. I could only concentrate on the sharp pain that iced my leg. 
                          
	No one seemed to have noticed I had gotten shot. I was partially hidden behind the speeder. The striking pain had cut off my breath for a few seconds, had kept me from screaming out in agony. After a minute or two, I regained control of my thoughts and figured it was the right time to use my... powers. I tried without success to channel the pain into something else, anything else. I kept repeating to myself: "It doesn't hurt, it's just a scratch." But every time I looked down at the blood flowing out of my leg, I would start to breathe heavily, start to sweat, start to panic again. 
                          
	I wasn't far from the speeder, so when I saw K rush towards it, I hopped, one legged, into the speeder before he could see the state I was in, and covered my gash with a jacket. He didn't have to worry about this now. Fixing the safeguard was more important. 
                          
	We started towards the other end of the city again. I couldn't open my mouth, afraid I was going to scream. The lives of everyone in the city were at stake. I easily believed now that the Advisors would use lethal force to assimilate them. Assimilate us. The proof was lodged in my leg. 
                          
	K barely looked like he'd seen me; he was racing down the road, piloting the speeder manually. I wished I could have calmed him, but I had to direct all of my energy not to pass out, or cry out in pain. 
                          
	Still blocking my thoughts as best as I could, I desperately focused on channeling my pain away, now that I couldn't see my leg. After a few seconds, I could feel all of my energy sucking itself away from the wound, and the torturing agony slowly left my leg. It half vanished, and it was now more like a throbbing sore. I huffed in relief. I could not stop the blood from flowing, however, and soon, I could see it pooling on the floor of the speeder. I could feel the sweat pearling on the top of my forehead.  
                          
	I felt I was controlled enough now to talk without screaming, but my voice was shaky: "K, don't panic, okay, but something happened back there..." My voice broke so I shut my mouth. 
 	He seemed to have barely heard me; he stopped the speeder and turned towards me: "Let's go." 
                          
	He swiveled back and, wanting to grab my hand I assumed, grabbed the jacket instead. He paused for a second, assessing what he was seeing. His eyes widened in horror and he opened his mouth in shock: "WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY ANYTHING?" As he shouted, he tore off a piece of his t-shirt and made a tight tourniquet to help stop the bleeding. Right before he tightened it, I focused on his face, afraid the pain would come back and he said: "Open your mind." I knew what he meant, so I let him in, putting my hands on either side of his face to strengthen the connection. It was as if I was in his head for a second, because I didn't feel anything when he tightened the fabric around my wound. I saw a flash of pain cross his features before he quickly straightened his face. 
                          
	"I'm taking you back—" 
                          
	"NO." I was serious. He was not going to take me back for an injured leg when other people might also be injured, or even die, if he lost any precious time before getting the safeguard to work properly this time. And, I honestly felt better now, I was relieved that the bleeding had stopped, and I barely felt any pain when I centered my thoughts on Kleio. I looked deeply into his eyes: "All their lives depend on you. I don't know why, but it's you. You have to fix this. You can't worry about me now. I'll be fine; you know I can channel the pain, and the blood will be, well, your motivation to fix this. You know you can't take me back." 
     	"You bet I can—"
                          
	"But you won't." My tone was firm, putting an end to the conversation. We exchanged glances for the shortest second, but he understood. I was almost taken aback by all the courage and strength I'd had in the past hour, and since I'd never known any danger in my world, I wondered where it even came from. Maybe it just didn't come from this world. 
                          
	K took me gently into his arms and he took me to the power source, where we'd been barely 30 minutes ago. I could hear him thinking this was a bad idea. 
                          
	He took a deep breath, and got to work. There were a few people reappearing next to us, but there were fewer this time. Most had stayed behind—after losing hope in the safeguard project—in case the enemy decided to attack again. 
                          
	I was sitting beside K, not bothering to pay attention to the surroundings, when I saw another glimpse of a soldier's thoughts flashing before my eyes. I caught myself on K's arm, slightly panicked; knowing it meant a soldier could be very close. 
                          
	K turned his head around, and when he saw that I was scrutinizing the forest, he did the same. A few men were coming towards us, not bothering to try and hide. Luckily, and curiously too, they were unarmed. 
                          
	"I don't think they were expecting us here." When they saw us, they plummeted to the floor, trying to hide unsuccessfully. They looked ridiculous; did they really think we hadn't seen them? They exchanged glances when they saw we weren't looking away, and started charging us. They were still about a hundred meters away, but I was starting to lose it. 
 	"K?" I had never heard my voice so high pitched and strained. 
                          
	When he didn't answer I looked around to see him so concentrated on his work that he didn't let anyone else in, I only sensed fear and resignation when I tried to connect to him. I wanted to get through to him, get into his thoughts and tell him danger was near, make him feel the fear I was feeling, make him see the men that were right there, running towards us. I didn't care about the dome anymore, I wanted him to wake up and do something to save me, like he always did. But he didn't move, he didn't react, he was still shuffling screens. 
                          
	He suddenly glanced at me, and in that brief second I saw a fear in his eyes that made my heart stop. I turned back towards the forest understanding that K could not do anything to save me right now except raise this shield. 
                          
	Then I thought, "If I can hear their thoughts from here, can I get into their heads, too?" What if it went both ways? What if I could control them, make them see something else, anything else; project images and sounds into their minds to confuse them? 
                          
	I suddenly felt confident again. These men were unarmed; I could easily test my theory without great risk, as long as they were still at a distance. I felt like, for once, I had a job to do, I wasn't helpless; I could save the people that were around me, at least. 
                          
	"Stay focused on your shield thing, K." I turned to face the soldiers. "I got this."