Visette sat in the backyard with her legs crossed and her eyes closed as she used her Psionics to make a set of small pebbles orbit around her. She found it as a safer way to increase her mental resistance, but the credit went to Charlie who suggested it in the first place. Charlie had gotten the idea from an old book in which one of the characters would hold his weapon outstretched and meditate for hours to strengthen his mind and body. Obviously, some liberties were taken with the process due to Visette’s abilities, but Charlie managed to get the idea across.
The person responsible for developing the meditation method was watching Visette with a fascinated expression. Charlie quickly became obsessed with Visette, so much so that she rarely played with her friends anymore. From Charlie’s perspective, Visette was comparable to a budding hero from one of the many books she loved to read. She counted herself lucky to stumble on Visette that day she went fishing with her mother.
Rachel came outside to see Charlie resting her chin on her hands while watching Visette “meditate” and sighed. No matter how friendly and cheerful they were it seemed impossible for Visette to reciprocate it. Since Visette had stayed with them she hadn't smiled once, not even a forced smile.
After completing another “orbit” with the pebbles, Visette dropped them and opened her eyes.
“It was a very effective exercise, thank you,” She said while looking at Charlie.
“It’s ok, really.” Charlie stood up somewhat hastily.
“Is there anything else you think I should try?” Visette asked curiously.
“Uh...Oh!” Charlie’s eyes widened before she spoke again, “Anton!”
Visette silently waited for an explanation as she had no way of knowing what Charlie meant.
“S-Sorry, You must not know. Ehem.” Charlie cleared her throat before starting her explanation. “There’s an old legend about a man named Anton that began right after the restart of the era. It's about how he used to wander around and kill Corrupted with nothing but what he had available. There’s at least one record of Anton at every city on the continent and it’s said he killed at least three to five hundred Corrupted by himself. Anyway, there’s one particular story about Anton killing a Corrupted by chopping its head off with his bare hands.”
“Charlie, time has a way of altering stories for the better. Most of those Anton stories are used to boost morale, how is that gonna help Vis?” Rachel interrupted. While Rachel’s view was slightly cynical, she was right.
When things look bad for people fighting on the frontlines they often would say “Anton could kill you all with a stick” or “If Anton was here you’d kill yourself to save him the trouble.” There were times when people who recount tales of Anton with their own personal spin, there were several that detailed Anton killing a man by glaring at him, Anton surviving the winter while being half-naked the whole time, Anton killing a Corrupted with one punch, and the most common, Anton killing several Corrupted with a stick. Anton was truly an inspirational figure whose name never failed to drum up courage, but whether he existed or not remained to be seen. Like that, Anton became a source of hope and a sign of good luck for nearly everyone who had heard of him.
“That’s not the point mom.” Charlie pouted. She was attempting to look knowledgeable in front of Visette, but she felt like Rachel ruined her moment. “Anyway...” Charlie continued, “You can try cutting something in half with your power, just like Anton.”
Rachel contemplated on whether or not it would cause Visette to pass out, but in the end, it wasn't up to her.
Rachel picked up a thick log and sat it on a tree stump, “You can try with this.”
Visette nodded and stood in front of the stump before raising her hand. Psionic energy began to gather at the bottom of her hand, but this time she didn’t overdo it to prevent herself from passing out. Visette raised her hand slowly and then she made a swift chopping motion. She easily split the log in half and even some of the stump under it.
“Are you ok?” Charlie was amazed, but she made sure to check Visette’s condition before continuing and Rachel was no different.
“My condition is acceptable.” Vis nodded as drops of blood slowly fell from her nose like a broken faucet.
“Your condition…” Rachel repeated with an uncomfortable expression. “Vis, I’m fine with you practicing...abilities...but I don’t want you telling anyone else about them just yet. What you have is nothing short of a miracle, but there will be people that want to exploit you as much as they can. If that’s too hard to keep it a secret, at least pretend you have a strengthening ability.”
“I will attempt to keep my abilities hidden as much as the situation allows,” Visette nodded.
She basically meant that if it came down to her own purpose and goals and concealing her powers, she’d choose the former. It was apparent that her powers could be used to acquire resources from any city she went to. In many ways, Visette would be the perfect soldier. Of course, it would be impossible for one person to shift the battle of thousands, but a team of elites could accomplish quite a lot.
Rachel felt unsatisfied with Visette’s answer but could only sigh, “...In any case, it’s nearly time for lunch.”
As the trio moved to enter the house a high pitched alarm rang out three times before silence returned.
“We have to go now!” Rachel shouted as she led the two girls into the house, “Charlie pack what you can, but don’t bring anything too heavy.”
“Mom, was that the warning alarm?” Charlie showed a confused look but followed her instructions.
“Yes…” Rachel was grabbing canned food and ammo lying around the house before placing it into a large backpack. She grabbed a shotgun and a bandolier before stuffing shotgun shells into both before she looked at Visette who stood cluelessly.
“Vis, go grab clothes from Charlie’s room. Get something warm.”
Visette nodded and went to get some clothes from Charlie. After packing up and changing their clothes, Visette was wearing a windbreaker with jeans and hiking boots, and both Rachel and Charlie wore something similar.
“Is that everything?” Rachel looked at Charlie for confirmation.
“Yes,” Charlie nodded nervously. She had to leave her books behind which was the hardest part for her.
“Are you not taking your books with you?” Vis inquired.
“I-It would be too heavy to carry them all,” Charlie said with a tearful expression.
“Come on, we’ll buy new ones once we get to New Mayhall,” Rachel said half-heartedly as she lead them out of the house. Anything with sentimental value rarely survived run-ins with the Corrupted. If an inanimate object was lost during an evacuation it could be considered the best thing to happen.
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“...If that is so then I have memorized the titles of all of them and I can assist you with locating additional copies,” Visette said expressionlessly.
“Really?” Charlie asked.
“Yes,” Visette replied honestly. Charlie’s book collection wasn’t that large, but it was still large enough that one would be hard-pressed to remember half of the titles. Charlie herself had never finished reading all of them because she wanted to have something to do if she was bored or sick.
“Thank you, Vis.” Charlie smiled brightly as she hugged Visette.
Visette showed some slight confusion, but she eventually she reciprocated Charlie’s feeling with a stiff hug.
Rachel smiled at the sight but remembered that they were in the middle of an evacuation. “We have to go,” She said as she urged Charlie on.
“Right...let’s go, Vis.” Charlie had a look of renewed vigor as she followed behind her mother.
…
After arriving at the Town Square, Rachel, Charlie, and Vis ended up falling into a massive crowd of families that were carrying weapons and bags as food like them. The thing that caught Vis’ eyes were the lack of assault weapons in the hands of civilians, there were only hunting rifles, revolvers, and shotguns. When she read up on the history of Novo Prime she became aware that automatic weapons were available, but didn’t see any carried by the inhabitants of town C-23, but the guards around the town officials seemed to have some.
“Charlie.” A red-haired boy cried out.
“Hey, Arty.” Charlie greeted.
He walked toward her followed by a larger red-haired man, “Good to see you’re ok, Rachel.”
“You too, George.” Rachel nodded.
“Where have you…been?” Arty nearly stumbled as he looked at Visette.
“Vis this is Arthur, Arthur this is Visette,” Charlie said as she noticed the boy’s silence.
“Hello.” Visette gave a short greeting with no emotion behind it.
“Hi, My friends call me Ar-ty,” Arthur said with a voice crack that caused Charlie to laugh.
His father, George, shook his head and chuckled, “I guess he’s at that age.”
Arthur chose to remain silent as to not embarrass himself, but when he looked over at Visette he noticed she paid him no real attention. He found himself staring at Visette without knowing, her pale white hair and dark brown eyes contrasted perfectly with how delicate she looked. Eventually, Visette turned to look at him with an empty glance which caused him to quickly look away. She paid no mind to his strange actions as she turned back to the podium. A man dressed in a black tactical gear stood next to the Mayor of the town and surveyed the crowd.
“Attention!” The Mayor of the town spoke from through a loudspeaker from the top of the podium, “This is not a practice drill. Signs of Corrupted has been sighted a few miles away from here and per protocol, we are evacuating to New Mayhall. Before that can take place, I would like to ask that Rachel and Charlie Wakefield come up to the podium please.”
“...I’m right here.” Rachel’s expression changed to one of discomfort as she raised her hand in the middle of the commotion that erupted. “Come on.” She placed the shotgun on her shoulder before grabbing the hands of Charlie and Visette and pulling them through a worried crowd.
Rachel climbed the stairs of the podium and look directly at the man dressed in the uniform. He raised his PDA and looked at the features described to make sure they matched up.
“Rachel and Charlie Wakefield?” He asked for confirmation.
“...Yes.” Rachel answered dryly as her grip on Charlie’s hand tightened.
“I’m Captain Nicholas of the Thirteenth Recon Team. We’ve been given direct orders to escort you to New Mayfield,” Nicholas said solemnly.
Those who were close to the podium heard what he said and went quiet before breaking out into hushed murmurs.
“I’ll go, but Vis has to come with us,” Rachel said as she gestured to the young girl.
“I’m sorry but that’s not possible, our orders are to extract you and only you,” Nicholas responded unflinchingly as he gave a hand signal to someone far off in the distance.
“She has to come with us!” Charlie protested.
“Orders are orders.” Nicholas remained strict as he watched a black armored truck park itself near the podium.
“Bullshit! She doesn’t have anyone to look after her, you have to take her,” Rachel attempted to shove Nicholas but he barely even swayed.
“I have no say in the matter, we’ve received direct orders from the Commander to extract you and no one else,” Nicholas replied.
“What aren’t you telling us?! You just said you’ve received direct orders from your Commander so what was so important that he had to give them.” An eavesdropping citizen began to raise a fuss.
Nicholas cursed himself at his slip and sighed deeply before speaking, “The truth is that there are signs of a horde on the move...We suspect upwards of one hundred Corrupted moving in the opposite direction, but as most of you may know that means the competition for food within their group will be high...The most likely scenario is that a few dozen are forced out of the group and head toward this town in search of food within a day.”
The crowd immediately broke out into a panic, weeping, cursing, screaming, and yelling came from the group which lined up with Nicholas’ expectations. The Mayor was no exception and he looked at Nicholas with a pleading gaze.
“Excuse me, but wouldn’t it be easy for you lead the evacuation convoy. It wouldn’t require any extra effort on your part. Just by being at the front of the evacuees would bring the feeling of safety.” The Mayor was practically begging.
“No,” Nicholas replied.
“You can’t do this!” One man raised his gun, but loud bang echoed and he slumped over with a newly formed hole in his head.
The crowd turned to silence as they looked at the armored truck sitting near them. Several men were dressed in gear similar to Nicholas’ own and one of them had an assault rifle with a smoking barrel pointed at the crowd which indicated that he was the one who shot. Another man climbed onto the machine gun mounted on the back of the truck and turned the safety off before pointing it at the civilians.
“Listen up! I’ve already helped you as much as I can by telling you about the Horde. Any attempts to impede us will be met with hostility! No one is allowed to move until we leave for your safety and for our own.” Nicholas yelled at the crowd before he turned to Visette. “What’s your name?” He asked.
“Visette Thales,” Vis answered before glancing at the erratic crowd.
“I’ll let those at the gate know who you are so you can be reunited with them if you can make it there alive.” Nicholas offered no false hope since it wouldn’t do either one of them any good, but unexpectedly Vis showed no sign of fear.
Nicholas looked at one of the men on the truck and shouted, “Get a three fifty-seven revolver with a holster and a bullet pouch.”
“Can she shoot?” He asked Rachel while one of his men went to retrieve a weapon.
“A shotgun, but she’s a good shot and a natural learner,” Rachel said.
“That’ll be enough,” Nicholas nodded as one of his men handed over the revolver and to him before he handed it over to Visette, “Put that on first.”
Visette fastened the holster to her waist and waited for Nicholas to hand over the gun.
“You release the cylinder to load the bullets and turn off the safety if you want to shoot, got it?” He asked after quickly demonstrating how to use it.
“Yes,” Visette replied.
“Good,” Nicholas shoved the revolver into Visette’s arms before he walked toward Rachel and Charlie, “We leave after you say your goodbyes.”
Charlie began to cry as she rushed up to Visette and hugged her even tighter than before, “I know you’ll be ok, Vis. Come to New Mayhall and help me find my books.”
Vis returned the hug with less difficulty than before, but her still expression never changed. For the brief time they had been together, Charlie began to see Visette as the sister she never had, even if Visette herself didn’t share that feeling.
“Alright, Charlie we have to go,” Rachel said as she tapped Charlie on the shoulder who reluctantly broke away from the hug.
Rachel took off the bandolier and the shotgun before handing it over to Visette and helping her put it on. She took a long look at the girl in front of her and placed both hands on her cheeks.
“You have people who care about you, Vis. I know that because of us those few people who have vehicles aren’t going to want to give you a ride, so just follow the main road but don’t walk directly on it. If the Corrupted do come, find somewhere to hide and only shoot if you have to. Don’t trust anyone except for George and Arthur, they’re good people. Be wary of everyone else, it’s hard to say what they might do if the Corrupted come.”
“I understand,” Visette said calmly.
“Please be careful, Vis.” Rachel stood up and wiped the tears forming at the edge of her eyes before she turned to Nicholas and nodded.
“Let’s go,” Nicholas gave a signal and someone opened the door to the armored truck for them.
The mother and daughter climbed into the car but not before giving one last look to the Visette who stood by herself on the podium.