The Nexus

Chapter 34

The man on the ground came to with a jerk. He screamed and everyone in the room jumped back. All the Alliance prisoners stared at the scene.

When his scream stopped he looked at Emma and whimpered. "Does it feel like your whole body is on fire?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Do you feel paralyzed?"

He nodded again.

Emma smiled, "You will show us the way out of here or I will do it again," she said.

He sniffed and started to get himself up in compliance.

Sophia no longer looked shocked when Emma looked at her, she looked a mixture of horrified and disgusted. There wasn't anyone else that Emma recognized in the cell with Sophia and Isabelle, so she immediately led them one of the other doors.

When they opened it, Miles Chandak and Ruth were the next people that Emma truly recognized. They both helped shuffle people out quickly while Emma ran around the corner to the next door.

In this room there wasn't anyone that Emma actually knew. There were faces she recognized, but none that she had bothered to put a name to. Where the hell is Thomas? she thought. There were about twenty people in this room and they exited quickly.

Alarms were still sounding and when first of the attack began on the little group. Emma estimated somewhere between eighty to one hundred people were crammed into the small hallway that made an L shape. She was at the back of the group when the first round of guards came up from behind her.

Emma summoned her ability to slow everything down. She breathed deep and let the energy of the entire scene flow through her. The running men and women in black mercenary uniforms froze mid-run and Emma walked to them. This time she closely observed tingle in the air around her. The currents of electrical pulses that filled all of her cells.

She calmly walked to the first of the Agency's soldiers and touched the first one. Emma could feel the woman's entire makeup. The vibrations within the atoms that held together the nuclei in the soldiers' cells. Emma felt like she could blow this woman apart like a dried leaf. Instead she focused her attention on the woman's consciousness and turned off her ability to move. She did the same to all of the other mercenaries as she walked through the hall. When she was done she turned around to look as time regained its original speed.

All of the people in black collapsed onto each other and she walked over them to move into the front of the shocked crowd of fearful Allegiance members. They parted for her like the fluid red sea and she met up with Sophia and the other Agency guard.

She touched his arm and felt his shudder. His fear radiated off of him and it tasted metallic in her mouth. She realized that no one knew if the other mercenaries were dead or just unconscious, and she liked it that way. "Lead us out," she ordered.

He obeyed and started walking down the straight corridor. White lights were blinking on the dark grey walls as they walked. There were no windows and Emma had the sense that they were underground.

Her suspicions were confirmed when they came to a stairwell leading up. She could see the light of day at the top and when they stepped onto the third step the daylight was blotted out by more black-clad mercenaries. These ones were more heavily armed and wore massive amounts of body armor. She stopped time right as one threw a canister into the stairwell.