Schism

Chapter 31 part 4

The heat on William's leg grew.  He heard the man coughing inside and had no idea how he was still fighting.

He turned to the voices.  "Help."  As The Hunter knelt with him, the metal roof groaned again.  He felt the shock of it run through the bricks.  It started at the far end of the building and ran across it like a wave, sections of it tumbling into the building.  He couldn't see it fall from where he lay trapped, but saw the flames shooting up over the wall, moving toward him.

The Hunter stretched out with him, gave him strength to free his leg.  He twisted, cleared his right leg completely from the hole in the wall, planted it on the outside wall and pushed.

Too late.  The section of roof directly overhead slammed down onto the man inside.  Part of it landed on the outside of William's left calf and burned into his skin.

The pain forced all awareness of the voices away.  William screamed and thrashed, but the effort and abuse of the last week had left him exhausted.  He couldn't get free.  As the section of burning roof seared into his leg, William tried to calm his breathing, tried to bring the voices back.

Then there were hands under his armpits.  He looked up, unable to focus or see clearly.  His helper hauled once and William moved out an inch, only to feel the broken roof burn his leg even more.

"Shit, shit, shit,"  said the young man.  He had let go of William and grasped his own leg.  Then, the young man took a deep breath and hauled on William again.  William pushed on the wall with his right leg and came free.  They both tumbled back into the rear parking lot.

William rolled to his stomach, tried to prop his head up.  His voice was barely a croak.  "Get them clear."

The young man was cradling his left calf, just where William's burn was.  Slowly, he let go and looked at William.  "I did.  Getting you out now."  He offered a hand up and William took it, careful not to put any weight on the burned leg.

The fabric was burned away on the outside of the pants from William's knee down to the top of the old combat boot.  The skin underneath it was worse than he could have imagined.  Patches of it were blackened, surrounding areas where the skin had completely burned away.  Beneath, red muscle oozed through already broken blisters.  He turned away from it.  He knew that with the skin broken, infection was sure to set in.  Was that how he was going to die, wasting away like he'd done for the last two years, but with gangrene thrown in?

He leaned on the young man and hopped away from the heat of the building.  They struggled down a side street and turned into the first alley they saw as William heard police and fire sirens draw near.  "You need to go," he told the young man as he leaned against a wall and slid down.  He kept his knee turned in so the burn didn’t touch the ground.

The young man didn't move.  "You’re him?”

William grimaced.  “Do not say that stupid name.  I mean it.”

All the teen did was shrug.  “You got a thing like me?"

William didn't answer.  He snuck another look at his leg and turned away just as quickly.

"You can feel, like I do?" the young man asked.

Looking up at the teenager was better than looking at his leg, no matter how much William didn't want to talk about it.  It had become a curse for him, and he knew something like this would have to be torture for a teenage boy as well.  "What do you feel?"

The young man looked around, obviously afraid to talk about it.  "What other people feel in here," he pointed to his chest, his heart.  "And sometimes what they feel in their bodies."

William nodded.  "It's different for me."  He thought of how to explain it and the image of the young woman in the diner came to him.  She was more like William, but there had been something different about what she perceived as well.  She had been frightened by something.

He spoke with the voices, the young man felt emotions and the diner girl had seen something else.  Each of them was different somehow, different from each other, and very different from other people.  And the fire starter was one too.  He was like William and these others.

William closed his eyes and tried to push the pain away on his own.  Slowly, the fog curled around him and helped dampen the physical sensation.

Each of them was unique.  Each of them perceived something different, something smaller or larger.

But the realization didn't help him know what to tell the young man before him.  "Listen, I know this has got to be awful for you."  He stopped, searched for an explanation.

"What?"  The young man shook his head.  "You mean today?  Yeah, your leg hurt like freaking hell.  And those little kids being so scared, that felt creepy.  That’s why I stay away from crap like that…hang out with the girlfriend.”

William stared up at the teenager, who glanced down at his leg and took a step back.

“Yeah, that’s messed up, man.  I’m gonna need a week with her to get that shit outta my system.”

William squinted in reply and the young man puffed up his skinny chest a little.  He peered around for eavesdroppers again and went on.  “She loves my thing man, says it makes me sensitive…and good in bed.”

The blank stare on William's face turned into a scowl.  The kid wasn’t tortured by his ability, he was using it to have better sex.  "You suck," William said.  It seemed the most appropriate response to so much salt in the wound.

"What?  Doesn't work that way for you?"

"Does it look like I'm getting laid?"  William shooed his hand at the young man.  "Thanks for pulling me out.  Go.  Tell the cops I went the other direction or something.  Okay?"

*

(Author’s note: Another person who’s changing?  What could this mean for William?  If you’re thinking this is a big clue, you’re right!  And one that not only tells us about the rest of this book…but the two sequels!  But for now, let’s see if battered, burned and insulted is as bad as things get for William.  And as for Bryan…he just might have to answer for a few of his decisions, don’t you think?  Check out the next chapter to see what happens…)