You're a telepath?" I said a little too loudly, getting strange looks from people around.
We were at the camp's mess hall later that evening, feasting on grilled salmon and roasted vegetables.
"Shout it a little louder, gremlin, they didn't hear you at the other end of the table." Meg grumbled, "but yeah, I am a telepath."
I could tell she was trying to look modest about it but was failing miserably at that.
After Hylla had filled us in about the coming apocalypse, she'd sent us to separate dorms in the camp to freshen up. Nothing like a peaceful rest after learning about the end of the world fast approaching.
I took a shower and was given a fresh set of clothes, mostly khakis and camouflage clothing but it was somehow nice and comfy.
While I was there I learnt that about eighty percent of the population in this barracks(or Camp as they called it) had gained special abilities at one point, ranging from creating and controlling flames to predicting disasters. Turns out most survivors of apocalyptic attacks usually ended up with special Abilities. But of course with my luck, nothing had manifested in me.
Hylla gave Meg and I a choice to join the force. She'd given us five days to decide, but while we were here, we were to live among the END soldiers.
Wasn't a bad deal. Alternative was I'd be going back to the foster care that had raised me since I was four. I wasn't exactly keen to be back there.
Meg hated her alcoholic aunt that she lived with and wasn't ready to go back there either.
"What am I thinking of right now?" I asked Meg, who was sitting next to me, inhaling her food.
She took a minute to swallow, hitting the table violently with her fist, possibly because the food wasn't going down her throat smoothly.
I mean what did she expect, shoving down salmon down her throat like a lunatic.
I patted her back to help her digestion while we got weird looks from the people around again. I wanted to tell them to forgive Meg and her street urchin behavior, when Brody, the big bearded dude from earlier, slid into the seat next to me.
"How's your first day going?" he asked, shredding his food with his fingers and stuffing it inside his mouth which was almost lost in the sea of beard. "Not bad actually." I shrugged, "We are still…adjusting."
Meg was still retching and coughing loudly beside me. Brody just smiled and went back to his meal.
I turned back to Meg who was now coughing like a dead rat was lodged in the back of her throat.
I whispered to her, "Get yourself together, I swear to God…" I rubbed her back and fed her a glass of water and smiled apologetically to everyone watching. They just snickered and continued their meals.
Most of them were about my age, young and looking hyperactive. They had this carefree look about them, like they weren't scared of anything. They just didn't have the usual hardened look of military personnel. I figured it was because they were mostly gifted. They were not actually trained in the military.
To my greatest relief, Meg's coughs finally died down, her eyes rimmed with tears and she muttered, "nothing."
"Huh?" I asked, startled.
"Your brain." Meg managed, "you asked me if I knew what you were thinking? Your brain is literally empty so…yeah. Nothing in there."
"You Fool." I said, my voice light with relief, "I hate you."
She just shrugged and continued trying to kill herself with food.
A small group of chattering soldiers came to our table, chattering and laughing. They all seemed to be around my age. Brody grunted and shifted on his seat. When Meg saw them, she made a surprised gasp and tried to hide under the table for some reason.
"Hey, what are you-" I started but Meg accidentally pressed on the side of my plate and smoked vegetables flew into my face.
Everyone roared with laughter, especially loudly from the new group that had just come. My face burned with shame, I wanted to hide under the table with Meg.
"Well, if it isn't Meg Bennett!" one of the guys in the group roared.
Meg stood up, trying to pretend like she was just trying to find something under the table earlier.
"Hmph, hey Carter." Meg said, trying to look smug, "been a while."
Carter grinned, "I could sense your clumsiness from a mile away." He stared at me, "Who's the boyfriend?"
I said nothing and he grinned wider.
Who was he? Probably one of Meg's flings?
I stood up not wanting to get involved, "I'll let you kids catch up." I said, and stood up to leave the table when I heard Meg's voice loud and clear-
DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME HERE.
I paused, startled for a second.
I looked at Meg.
I know I didn't see her mouth open but it was without doubt Meg's voice.
I'd heard it inside my head.
And then it finally clicked for me. It was her telepathy. I grinned at her, suddenly interested again, "What was that? Do it again." I urged.
"What was what?" Carter asked, looking confused.
Brody grinned, "For a beginner telepath, that was pretty clear and audible."
"You heard it?" Meg and I asked at the same time.
He nodded, "You'll need to learn to control it better. It leaks out in the direction you portray it towards if you're not focused enough." Brody said, "That's why I could hear it too. I'm sitting right next to Zeph."
"Well, that sucks." Meg grumbled, "It had the potential to be the best gossipping tool yet."
"Come on Meg, let's go." I said and nodded at Carter who had already lost interest in our conversation, laughing loudly at what someone said, "before he notices."
***
On our way out of the mess hall, we saw a bunch of soldiers huddled together, excited whispers coming from the group.
I stopped to peek over their shoulders and noticed they were engrossed on something on an ipad screen. It looked like one of those grainy hurricane videos that crazy storm chasers usually filmed.
"What's that?" I asked.
They all turned to look at me.
"You guys newbies?" a blond guy asked us and we nodded.
"Well, this happened last week, north of Chicago. One of the most powerful Armageddon Bringers we've ever witnessed".
"Armageddon Bringers?" Meg asked.
"Yeah, that's what we call the monsters."
"That's kinda lame." Meg decided.
The guy shrugged and beckoned to us to move closer to the iPad, "Watch this."
On the iPad, I heard a monstrous roar suspiciously sounding like a thunderclap, vibrating the device.
The clip wasn't very clear and visible because of the storm but I could have sworn I saw a massive barbed leathery tail knock down two skyscrapers in one swipe. The camera zoomed in and the frame became a bit clearer. I saw about fifty soldiers swarming around like ants, firing everything they could into the angry cloud. In response, tendrils of lightning flashed, momentarily turning the screen pure white. When the light died down, everything was on fire. And the screen went dark.
After the video ended, I noticed Meg's face had gotten paler than usual. She caught me staring and quickly looked away.
"You guys usually fight things like that?" I asked, appalled.
"Not usually, but lately we've had five incidents as big as this in just two weeks." The blond guy said and shrugged, "I'm Blaine by the way. Joined last month. If you guys need any help…" he winked at Meg.
"I need some air." Meg muttered and stepped outside.
"Uh, see you around, I guess." I told Blaine and went after Meg.
She was waiting outside the mess hall, her hands deep in the pockets of her cargo pants, staring into the distance.
"Sorry about that." She said when I caught up to her.
I shook my head. I was pretty shaken too. If beings that powerful were out there in this world…
"Wanna go for a walk?" I asked and she nodded.
So we took a walk around the camp, exploring the place and letting out curiosity pull us wherever it wanted. The sun was touching the edge of the horizon, bathing the camp in orange and red. One by one, the security lamps in the barracks were flicked on.
I spotted Hylla near the warehouse building, giving orders to a bunch of soldiers filling armored trucks with crates. She looked great in the evening light with her black tank top and casual shorts. You'd never guess she was the commander/captain by just looking at her.
I accidentally stared long enough for her to notice me. She gave me a puzzled look and Meg quickly pulled me away by the arm.
After a while, we ended up sitting under a tree at the edge of the camp watching people hang out in small cliques, sitting around small bonfires while others trained, swinging dangerous weapons at each other.
"Are you really going to join?" Meg asked finally. "E.N.D I mean. Do you want to?"
I expected the question.
"I don't know…" I admitted, "Do you?"
"I think so. For one thing, they serve great food here." She smirked, her expression a little dreamy.
"Yeah? That's why you were trying to kill yourself by trying to inhale your entire meal it in one gulp?" I mocked.
She smirked, ruffled my hair and leaned against me. "Don't talk about it again or I'll tell Captain Hylla you always imagine her naked in your head."
"Hey!"
"She'd believe me because I'm a telepath." She said, warming up to the idea.
"Don't you dare." I warned, "I'll tell Carter you are madly in love with him."
"Haha." She muttered, "I hate that guy. It took one date for me to realize he's an asshole." She sighed, "Never thought I'd find him here."
"On the bright side, you are a telepath." I said, trying to cheer her up, "You can read anybody's mind."
"I can't though." She sighed, "I can't see into your mind…not enough at least. I talked with Hylla about it before dinner. She said to hone my senses… whatever that means." she shrugged.
"But you could communicate with me with your mind during dinner. That was impressive."
"That wasn't even on purpose. I just thought really hard and accidentally projected it. As for reading your mind, I can sense your emotions and feelings and mood but not what you are thinking exactly."
"And how about…what happened back in school? You were all pale and sweaty…that's when you got your Ability right?" I asked.
She nodded, "I felt overloaded, Zeph. I could suddenly feel and hear so many panicked and scared minds. It was terrifying. I thought I might be going mad. And worst of all, I felt the rage of those monsters. God…it's mad anger. These monsters…they have an overwhelming hatred, hatred for every single thing on the planet." She was shaking as she spoke.
I snorted but wrapped her in my arms, her lemon scent filling my nose, "And hear I thought you were just scared of the monster's horrifying look." I joked.
She sniffed and snickered, "oh please, you know me. I eat monsters like that for breakfast."
"Why do you have to join?" I asked, "Telepathy won't be any good in battle. You are going to get seriously hurt…or worse. Did you see the clip Blaine showed us?"
Maybe I was being selfish to everyone else but Meg was all I had. There were already alot of other people here with more battle-oriented Abilities here.
"I want to do this. I can help." She insisted, "with my telepathy I can sense attacks before they even happen. I can also sense the scale of a threat and avoid it before it happens. I'll be a great help to any squad I'm in. I know it. You have to trust me on this." she said, looking up at me with her overly blue eyes.
"Fine." I grumbled, now making up my mind. "But I'm going to have to join too. No other person can look after your clumsy butt like I can."
"Zeph-." She started but I shushed her.
"Shut up, Meg. It's been a long day and we need to sleep. Probably would need our strength tomorrow. Come on." I said and pulled her up. "It's getting dark".
"Race you to the dorms?" She smirked, pumping up and down like a bunny, making her black and pink braids jump.
"Nope." I answered. I'd had enough of running for one day.
But she ran anyway.