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Chapter 8- Connection

Jason

I rolled onto my side and reached over a sleeping Mairi for my phone.

[December 25th, 2016] 6:45 AM

Mom: Merry Christmas! Hope you're having fun with your friends. Love, mom.

Everything was so hectic that we all forgot that Christmas was here. I got up and stretched, making sure I didn't wake Mairi. The messy queen bed was evidence that Cedric and Irene were already up.

I walked into the kitchen; Tara was making coffee, Irene and Ackerman were on their laptops, and Cedric was flipping some pancakes. I sat down at the birch wood table across from Ackerman.

"Are you considering taking the drug?" Ackerman asked me.

I searched "Desert Eagles" up on my phone, hoping to find at least one source that knew what was going on. I didn't answer.

"You won't find anything. Trust me. I tried. They have a whole team that monitors what goes up on the web. That's how much money and power they have." He said, looking at me.

"What are the side effects?" I finally replied.

"It felt pretty out of it for a few hours. After that, I could feel the drug taking over my body." Irene answered, not looking up from her screen.

"Maybe it'd help us with fighting all those guards." Tara said, setting her coffee mug down on the table.

"I agree. But you'd need at least a week to stabilize the abilities. Otherwise, you'd probably run around like a horse with its head cut off." Ackerman joked.

"Hey, I am perfectly fine." Irene informed.

"Do we have a gameplan yet?" Tara asked.

"We should kick back a little. Hopefully they didn't remove the tracking implant from Karina." I proposed.

"Today's Christmas, right? So we should do a super duper late secret Santa!" Tara added.

"That sounds great!" Mairi agreed.

We all slowly gathered in the kitchen; only Michael and Nate were missing now. I ate breakfast with everyone in the comfy ambience that almost made us forget the whole bad situation. Somehow, we were talking about the drug again.

"How long does it last?" Mairi asked Ackerman.

"We haven't tested it long enough to know if the abilities cease after a period of time. The suspected duration of the drug is three to four years." He answered.

"Is there another drug that cancels it out?" I inquired.

"Not very sure yet."

After that it was just silent with the only sound of sipping and scraping of forks on plates. I played around with the leftover eggs on my plate.

"Isn't today Christmas? Why don't we go out and do something fun. Just for a bit." Tara said.

"Like what exactly?" Irene replied.

"A secret Santa. We can run out and get gifts and then wrap them."

"Good idea. We need some fun things to occupy us anyway." I added.

Tara took a part of Ackerman's newspaper and his pen. She tore off small pieces and handed a piece to each one of us.

"So why are you ripping up my sports page?" He asked.

"Everyone write your name on your slip of paper, fold it, and put it in the center of the table." Tara instructed.

Mairi passed the pen to me and I scribbled my name down.