[Ganzfield 2] Adversary by Kate Kaynak Page B

happ—
    Oh, God. I don’t want to die!
    Someone help me!
    He experienced their sick horror of watching their friends die around them. Screams and sobs burned into his brain, followed by the cold that seeped into the wounded as their lives drained away.
    As I experienced Seth’s memories, I felt what he’d felt.
    Oh, God.
    Trevor held me close, giving me some of his strength. Several images leaked through to him, enough to for him piece together the bigger picture.
    Grant McFee took down the first invader. He dropped to one knee and aimed for the heart. The crack of his rifle was covered by the attacker’s gunshots as they moved from body to body in the snow, shooting those who were still alive after the first volley. Grant’s second shot wounded another attacker. His strangled howl alerted the others to the sparks’ attack.
    By that point, Katie Underwood and her cousin, Jonah Parker, had gotten close enough to use their abilities. They threw themselves flat in the snow and focused on the guns. Between the two of them, they suppressed more than half of the invaders’ weapons. Melanie cried out as a shot clipped her shoulder and the pain tore through her—and through Seth. Two more injured sparks screamed as bullets slammed into them. Seth fell to his knees in proximity to such intense agony. He curled his arms around his head as though the motion might block out his ability.
    More shots. More pain.
    Tom McFee’s voice cut through the confusion. “Burn ‘em! From the inside out!”
    Seth felt him focus within the silver suit of one attacker, heating a spot of clothing that suddenly caught and spread. The screams weren’t loud through the helmet, but the pain of burning flesh seared into Seth’s mind. A bullet caught Tom in the chest, knocking his suddenly lifeless body back into the snow.
    Invaders shrieked as they roasted alive within their gear. Ellen and Harrison added their efforts to suppress the guns. The silver-suits began a panicked retreat to the helicopters. The pilots took off while men still tried to scramble aboard, flying away from the sparks and out of their range in a rush to escape. The invaders’ fears of being left to the mercy of the freaks and monsters tasted bitter through the filter of Seth’s memories.
    They were the brutal killers of dozens of unarmed teenagers, but we were the monsters?
    The attackers who’d been left behind tried to run. Seth staggered forward and grabbed Sean’s arm. With the contact, Sean’s thoughts kicked Seth in the head. “Keep…them alive…for questioning,” Seth gasped, and then dropped his hand.
    Sean nodded and passed the word, but seven sparks had been shot and two of them were dead. Family. Several more silver-suited men burned alive before the order to take prisoners took effect. The two survivors were now tied up in one of the outbuildings here at this old summer camp.
    Back at Ganzfield, Seth hadn’t needed the men to answer his questions—he’d only needed them to think about the answers. “The people that left here this afternoon…what happened to them?”
    Dead. They’d truly believed we were dead. Zack had charmed the watchers into believing that they’d killed all of their targets—Dr. Williamson must’ve been on the target list, as well. Seth’s questions had filtered through the men’s thoughts. He’d seen their connection to the Sons of Adam and to their leader, Jonas Pike.
    Holy crap.
    Jonas Pike was Isaiah’s alias. Isaiah Lerner, probably the most dangerous G-positive on the planet, now controlled the group dedicated to the destruction of G-positives, supposedly because we were dangerous.
    If I hadn’t been so sick at heart, I might’ve admired his chutzpah.
    I now understood why Seth had that scream within his mind. I was nearly there myself. The horrible memories wouldn’t stop and the churning emotions of the people in the main part of the camp pressed in on him, even at this distance. A shuddering exhaustion