Evelyn Earth Part 17

“What does that have to do with anything anyways?” he asked. I could tell he was trying to be patient with me. His voice took on that wary edge, that intonation that psychiatrists used with dangerous patients that might lash out them for no apparent reason. I certainly felt like lashing out. For the past week I had thought that my abilities were progressing, that by touching man-made objects I could initiate minute destruction, but the whole time I was just playing games. My real power lay on the main land, where the earth could invigorate me.

I clutched my head in frustration. How did I not realise that I was capable of destroying whole blocks of buildings? Was it something I could do at will or was it a reaction to the man on the boat? I was sick of everything being so vague and unknown!

“Evie, come one, get up let’s get moving. You wanted to go home right? Its’ not that far, let’s just keep walking.” He was coaxing me like a fucking puppy dog. I growled in response and he jerked his head back. “Hey!” He sounded surprised and frankly so was I. Surprised at the fact that I hadn’t seen any animals for the past three months. Granted we were in Docklands, but I remembered seeing plenty of rabbits running around the area before the war came about.

They lived in the abandoned warehouse down the road, digging burrows in the mounds of forgotten dirt that had once been compiled by a builder for one purpose or another. I used to love the way they ram. Small brown bodies bouncing at lightning speed, marked by a flash of white as their tails flicked upwards with every jump.

“Where did all the animals go?” I wasn’t exactly expecting an answer from Owen, the question was more posed for me, but I didn’t expect the reaction I got. He bent down and grabbed me up by my waist, slinging me over his shoulder. He was almost as fast as those rabbits.

“Put me down!” I screamed in protest, but my attempts at freedom were feeble and his grip was iron hard. “You’re going to stay like this until we get home because you’re freaking me out Evie.” I flopped around on his back for a while before other voices interrupted his sullen march back to the container bunker.

“Oi! Owen! Hey man, did you see that!” one of the ambiguous male duo yelled before he ran up to us.

“Hey Tod, yeah we were just over there” he gave my ass a pat, to indicate the ‘we’ I presumed. I was in such a state of weakness and disorientation by that point that I didn’t even protest. The world was slowly slipping away from me and my mind couldn’t focus on one thing for longer than a few seconds. I figured, in the depths of my foggy mind that it all had something to do with the fact that I was standing on man-made ground in such close proximity to a man.

It hurt my brain so much just trying to think of the reasons why these two things would physically impede me now, when just days before they had almost no effect on me at all. Owen always had a buffering effect on me when it came to the darkness, but the lack of physical connection with the earth was affecting me more than it ever had before. It was a sensation of loss and mindlessness that was threatening to immobilise me.

I began to squirm again.

“Oh yeah, what did you see? Is she okay?” Tod asked carefully.

“She’s fine, we’re heading home.” It seemed like Owen wanted Tod to move out of his way, but the guy wouldn’t budge.

“What happened down there man, all I saw was a cloud of blackness and suddenly the skyline was missing some roofs”

“I don’t know, I think maybe another one of those black holes…” he trailed off. Meanwhile my movements had gained some purpose. I felt my knees connect with Owen’s chest a few times before he tightened his grip around my legs.

“You can go see for yourself, there really isn’t anything down there now.”

“Are you sure she’s okay?” Tod asked again, this time I could sense rigidness in his voice that wasn’t there before.

“Yeah man, doesn’t look like she’s too happy in that position.” Jack’s feet suddenly materialised in my line of vision. With a lot of effort I pulled my head up and saw him standing there, before I could fully assess his presence though I was swung around to face Tod.

“She’s fine, just tired that’s all. Aren’t you Evie?” His question dangled in the air like an ominous presence. If I answered yes, we would be on our way, going deeper into no-man’s land, or no-earth’s land in my case. If I answered no on the other hand Jack and Tod could take me off Owen’s hands. I kept my mouth shut, I was in no condition to be making choices and anyways, my neck was getting tired of holding my head up. As I flopped back against Owen’s back I heard him say smugly, “See she’s just tired.” 

“Did you happen to see anything else up there?” Jack asked. It felt like we were stuck in a repetitive conversation.

“No, like I said to your mate there’s absolutely nothing down there anymore. It’s all gone”

“Gone?”

“Just like that?”

“Yes, just like that.”

Before either of the duo could come up with anymore roundabout questions a panting and dishevelled Fins came skidding around the corner.

“There you are!” he exclaimed, “Something’s going on, you guys have to come see this!” not even waiting to see if we’d follow he spun around and disappeared around the corner of a container stack. I could feel the tension between Jack, Owen and Tod and even though I couldn’t see their faces I could imagine each of them eyeing each other off.

Whatever it was that Fins wanted us to see had won over the tense hostility that had built up between the three of them. Jack was the first to turn and run after Fins. Tod quickly followed and I assumed we would too, but Owen stubbornly continued to plod in the direction of our bunker.

“Hey” I intoned weekly, “Don’t you want to know what’s going on?”

“I think we’ve had enough excitement for one day don’t you?” he growled. I spark of anger flared up inside me and I could feel the feint beat of the Mother’s heart. Even through water I had some semblance of power, I had proved that with my little experiments hadn’t I?

“I want to know what’s going on” my voice came out firm and solid, like 100kg weights being dropped on the ground. Owen stopped in his tracks, but before he could rebuke me I laid both of my palms against his back and sent in a shock of energy. Compared to the energy I had just released it was minute, almost non-existent, but boy did it scare him.

 I was dumped on the floor like a sack of potatoes and as I sat there I could see his face drain of all colour. One arm unsuccessfully tried to clutch at the spot on his back through which the energy had entered whilst the other grabbed at thin air. I tilted my head to one side and documented his reaction. I had never tried to use my newfound power on a living thing before. It felt strange, yet almost orgasmic to know that it could do something like this. Make someone utterly defenceless. I knew that if in this instant I got up and hit Owen over the head with a rock, again and again and again, he could do nothing to stop me. Nothing.

I could feel the tips of my fingers tingling and I brought them up to my face to cup my cheek bones. I stayed like that until the colour returned to Owen’s cheeks and he began to gulp down the air that he had just been grabbing at. Then I calmly stood up and followed in Tod’s footsteps. I really wanted to know what was going on.