John dreamt of a mountain trail. He heard people talking behind him while he walked, calling back to them occasionally. He looked back and saw the other members of his junior class at David Roy High. He liked these dreams, they always had nice scenery. Coming up on the trail ahead, John spotted a figure jogging towards his group. He shouted over his shoulder for the group to move to the right and let them pass. The jogger passed them, and the group moved on and continued walking down the mountain pass.
The vistas passed by, and the group chattered back and forth. John noticed the faces of Case and Jen. He turned around to ask about which trail they wanted to take, and when he turned around, the jogger was somehow back and looming over him. A deafening, titanic voice filled his head.
“Hello. I am uncertain how many of you this message will reach. I will be brief. An unknown number of people have gained supernatural capabilities. These will be trying times. I will broadcast updates as I gain information.”
In his dream, John recoiled and shook his head at the deafening noise. He tripped and fell, then his eyes snapped open, and he was back in his bed. Just as he was about to write it off as a nightmare and head back to sleep, he felt something… different. There was a sense of warmth softly emanating from the direction of his parent’s room and like a bonfire from his own body. He blinked slowly and tried to identify the strange sensation. He heard the door to his parent’s room slam open, and his phone lit up like Christmas day. It has to be more than a coincidence.
John fumbled his phone from the nightstand, answering his friend Case who lived across the street. At the same moment, his dad came to his room and the sensation of warmth increased a degree in his direction.
“Hi Dad, hi Case. I’m going to put you on speaker, I’ve got a feeling that we just had a similar dream.”
“Son, did you just have a voice in your head too? It was so loud that your mother started awake. Damn near knocked me out of bed.” George Brisal was a large man, seeing his concerned face worried John.
“Hi Mr. Brisal, I heard it too. If we all heard it, what’s happening?” Case was a bright guy and had put two and two together.
John contemplated, especially about warmth strengthening as his dad entered his room.
“Something big’s happened. I don’t know what, bu-” John was cut off as a colossal explosion deafened the trio. The pre-dawn light from the window flared orange and sharing a look with his father, he spoke again. “Case, get outside. Are your parents there?
“They are, and I hear them yelling right now.”
“Alright, bring them too.”
John hung up and hustled to get clothes on, throwing on a pair of jeans and a tee shirt. His dad ran to get his mom, who had already started dressing. His dad retrieved the family’s shotgun from the safe in the closet, while John grabbed the bag he used for hiking and his hunting knife. The pack contained an extensive first aid kit for him to work with if anyone got hurt. John decided not to mention the strange feeling of warmth coming from his family as they went out to the street.
The Brisal family hustled out the door, casting glances up and down the street to see many neighbors emerging onto the street. The source of the explosion was obvious, a building several blocks away was on fire and most of the roof was missing. Case was outside his house with his family, the Kendersons. They saw each other and rushed together. John noticed Mr. Kenderson was carrying his service pistol and a walkie-talkie. Case’s younger sister Linda had slung her competition bow over one shoulder, opposite a quiver. Mr. Brisal and Mr. Kenderson stepped aside to talk with each other, while Mrs. Brisal, Mrs. Kenderson, and Linda began talking about the strange voice that woke them all up. John again noticed the sense of warmth from the other people, but it felt muted when he was not focusing on it.
Curiously, he noticed that the sensation coming from Case was completely different. He didn’t feel warm at all, more like a cold, rigid stone.
John greeted his friend, “Hi Case, what the hell do you think that was?”
“I’m not sure, but sure as shit it was loud. Both the voice and the explosion.”
“Yeah. What’s up with your sister?” Mr. Kenderson carrying his gun wasn’t unexpected, he was an officer in the Raleigh Police Department. John’s dad often put in range time with him.
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“The voice spooked her, so she grabbed the bow. Honestly, I would have my rifle, but it’s in the bigger safe in the basement.”
“Well, you might not need it, it doesn't seem like anything else has happened.”
John’s comment was inauspicious, and the next moment their neighbor Mr. Sudeiki crashed through his front door, followed by a white flash and a peal of thunder. He slammed through a bush and rolled to a halt in the street. Steam rose from his prone form, eerily backlit by the streetlamps. His son, Everett, strolled through the wreckage of the door, white sparks crackling around his eyes and through his hair. He was shirtless, but the shade of the porch concealed most of his body.
Everett ran at his father, vaulting through the hole in the bush easily. Too easily, in John’s mind, but Everett was a high jumper. However, the sparks were definitely not natural. He stopped and leaned over his dad, looking down at his face.
“How does it feel now?! I said that you wouldn’t keep getting away with it!” Everett yelled; his voice crazed. John noticed several old bruises on Everett’s torso.
Everett slapped his father, and Mr. Sudeiki didn’t move.
John shared a look with Case. They both knew Everett had some issues, not seeing eye to eye with his dad after Mrs. Sudeiki left when he was in middle school, but they had never suspected violence. They turned back to watch the scene unfold. Mr. Kenderson and John’s dad had started moving slowly towards Everett, while Mrs. Kenderson and John’s mom had retreated behind John’s truck in the driveway. Linda stood with Case and John, but she looked ready to bolt.
“Shouldn’t we do something?” she asked, looking at Case.
“Maybe, but let’s let Dad handle it for now.”
Mr. Kenderson gripped his pistol tight, warily watching Everett. He called out, “Everett, I know you. Put your hands up, and leave your dad alone!”
Everett’s eyes snapped up, looking at Mr. Kenderson with indignant fury.
“This isn’t about you, pig,” he sneered.
He raised a hand and a bolt of lightning snapped out, catching Mr. Kenderson on the chest, and throwing him back. Linda screamed and drew her bow, John’s dad yelled and moved to drag Mr. Kenderson to cover. The moms were frantically dialing 911 and shouting for help.
Case, panic in his eyes, moved to stop his sister, “Linda, careful!”
Unfortunately, Linda was a very skilled archer. She had already loosed the arrow towards Everett as Case moved to grab her. The arrow went wide and scored a line along Everett’s right arm, the one he was reaching towards his father with. Yelling, he whipped back to face the two and leveled both hands in their direction. A sizzling river of incandescent energy spilled from his hands, blistering skin and making a terrible noise as it went. Everyone screamed, and John was sure he was about to watch Linda and Case die.
Case dove to cover Linda, eyes locked on the lightning screaming towards them. As he tackled Linda to the ground, blue light cascaded from his torso and formed a tetrahedron around the pair. The lightning spilled around harmlessly and raced further down the street before arcing into a fire hydrant, reducing it to slag and charring the nearby grass.
John made up his mind and charged towards Everett as the other man was staring at his burnt hands with a blend of shock and agony, completely distracted. At the last moment, he bent low and tackled Everett around the waist. He was able to keep Everett between himself and the pavement, but his right arm was still torn up by the asphalt. He had to ignore it, the impact shocked Everett from his stupor.
John felt the hairs on his arm stand up. Shit, static. He levered himself up over Everett and started punching. Everett unleashed the lightning into him, but strangely, aside from quite a bit of pain, nothing happened. The warmth in his body, forgotten in the heat of the moment, flared up where the lightning hit. He felt what must have been his skin burning, but the warmth healed him. Even the shredded skin on his right arm stopped bleeding, and he could have sworn he saw some blood flow back into the wounds.
None of that mattered while Everett was still conscious. Through it all, John barely managed to keep throwing spastic punches, aided by his superior position and his physique from long hours in the gym. The punches slowly stunned Everett, and eventually John managed to make a solid connection to his chin, rocking Everett’s head back into the asphalt and knocking him out thoroughly.
John rolled over onto the street, steaming. The warmth in his body felt a little cooler. He thought about the miraculous healing, Case’s strange crystal thing, and the lightning. Supernatural capabilities, huh. His arm still hurt like a bitch and his knuckles were bleeding from misses where he punched the street, so he focused on the warmth inside. He tried to push it at the scrapes and bleeding knuckles. Astonishingly, it responded. John saw a red glow seep up over the wounds as his flesh knit back together. Well, that was fascinating, but could wait. He could feel the warmth, whatever it represented, waning in Mr. Sudeiki.
He sidled over to the man and kneeled over him. He didn’t know much first aid, but he could check for a pulse at least. He felt the man’s jugular, and there was nothing there. John wondered if the warmth could help other people. He focused on it and tried to push it out of his hand. It was reluctant, but eventually, it moved. The warmth moved from his arm, down to his hand, then started spraying out as red droplets before flowing together into a rippling sphere over his palm.
It answered one question. This strange energy looked like blood. John placed the orb on Mr. Sudeiki’s chest, and it flowed down into his skin. Recovery was immediate as color returned to his face and John felt a heartbeat return in the man’s neck. A lot of John’s ‘warmth’ was gone, but he still felt hotter than anyone around. Wobbling, he stood up and turned back towards Case and the rest.