Sam Sawyer Chapter Fourteen re write

Sam Sawyer
Chapter Fourteen

Unlike
Kathy, Sam did not change Kit when he unintentionally caught her in his bubble
universe. Not that Sam meant to reproduce his powers in Kathy when he healed
her, that was simply an unavoidable side effect. The healing process required a
cellular linking that, for all intents and purposes recreated Kathy as a kind
of female clone of Sam. Thankfully, she still maintained her identity and will.
All she lost was her mortality, something she had yet to fully grasp much less come
to terms with…

After
trading reassuring glances Kit and Kathy followed Sam through the forest toward
the road. There was no flying, no running. Not even Sam knew what lay beyond
the ‘Mezzanine’, which is what they came to call their bubble universe, so he
proceeded with sensible caution, determined not to succumb to over confidence.

The gravel
road snaked through the forest making a long corridor of blind curves, which
only heightened their uneasiness. A cool breeze teased the treetops, curious.
Light was coming through, now wind. That was a comfort. He hoped.

Gravel
crunched beneath their feet. Little rocks grinding against each other with
every step, sounding like bombs to their heightened senses. No one spoke, but
they all peered ahead, seeing only a seemingly endless winding tunnel of green
and gray.

Sam stopped,
shifted his attention. “Do you feel it?” He asked them as they neared the edge
of the forest. “just beneath us, vibration.” He lowered himself to the ground,
“Rumbling, below,” he murmured. “We should go up.”

“Not all of
us can fly Sam,” Kit stated flatly.

They flanked
her, each taking a hand, cloaking as the three of them rose and plowed through
the thick green overhang. Suddenly they burst through, neatly shielded in a translucent
ball of golden light, that blotted out a thirty- foot circle of blue sky but
only for a second, before it too became as invisible as the ‘Mezzanine’.   

As quick as
it was it did not go unnoticed. Far below drab green soldiers, trucks and tanks
swarmed around a perfectly circular lake crowned by a twenty -foot wide shoreline.

“They saw
us,” Sam remarked, obviously unconcerned, but a bit bemused by all the up
turned heads struggling to catch another glimpse of them. “At least the fools
are not shooting at us, not that it would matter.”

“They
wouldn’t do that Sam,” the irritation in Kathy’s voice stung in Sam’s ears.

“What,” he
asked.

She turned
away from him, refusing to reply. The disapproval in her voice, angered him.
But her icy silence quickly turned his anger to shame. “You’re right. I’m being
an ass. None of this is cute, or funny. I’m sorry.”

“They are just
doing their job Sam. There’s a mile -wide hole down there where your woods used
to be. What did you expect? They are just trying to keep us safe, maybe we need
to tell them what’s really happening.”

“What is
happening?” Kit asked, now hovering free between them. Without warning she ducked
down several feet and face planted herself against Sam’s spherical force
shield. “Hey.” She sputtered, “what is this thing, glass?”

“Stronger
than glass,” Sam said, clearly quite satisfied with himself. “Good thing too,
you still can’t fly. Maybe I can fix that.”

A worried
look spoiled Kathy’s pretty features. “You’re really enjoying this aren’t you.”
It wasn’t a question, but an accusation.

He forced
himself to look at her, not wanting to see the disappointment in her face.

“Yeah Kathy,
I guess I am. Power is fun. Too much fun. I do feel different. I’ve changed,”
he hesitated, “No, I’m changing, back.” His eyes narrowed, as he looked down at
all the little people swarming around the lake, the lake he had just made with
the slightest of effort and tried not to see them as insignificant ants. “They
knew Kathy.”

“That you
would change?”

“No, that I
wouldn’t change. I am them. I am Oloran. Whatever humanity I possess hasn’t
changed that.”

“No Sam, you
saved me, remember, you cared about me. You care about people, don’t let that
go. That’s how you fight them. You know that, so do it.”

“Yeah love, got
it. All you need is love, da, da, da, da, da, that’s what you’re talking
about.”

Kathy smiled.
He basked in her approval.

“Where’d all
the water come from?” Kit asked, more interested in her birds’ -eye view of the
world below than anything going on above her.

“Must have
hit a spring or an aquifer,” Sam replied, happy to change the subject, “water
level is pretty high around here.”

“So, we’re
here but not,” Kit asked?

“Phased out,
operating on another vibrational frequency.” Sam offered, but wasn’t surprised
when Kit looked up at him with a blank expression.

She accepted
his cryptic explanation with her typical adolescent shrug.

“My
parents,” Kathy jerked around, instinctively facing the direction of their home.
Then popped right out of Sam’s protective bubble as though it was a mere
bubble. A flash of white followed by a streak of gold that left a yellow smear
across the sky then quickly dissipated, her version of a contrail, Sam assumed.

“Crap!” Said
Sam.

“She can do
that?” Kit asked, clearly impressed.

“Looks like,
we have to get her.”

“Why?”

“Kit, we
can’t just come and go as we please.”

“We, nah Sam,
you mean us, but not you. You don’t own us Sam, okay. Trust her. She knows the
score.”

“Does she?”

“Yeah Sam
she does, but I think we should still find her just in case.”

“That’s my
girl.”

“No, I’m not
Sam.”

“Just an
expression, sorry, you know what I mean.”

Kit gave him
a wary look, just before he turned away and sent the sphere streaking across
the sky like a meteor.

Moments
later the sphere settled down on the neatly mowed lawn mere feet from her
parent’s front porch. It fell away but revealed nothing. Now Sam could cloak himself
just as easily as Kit.

“Nice,” Kit said
as they made their way across the beautifully maintained lawn. A large maple
tree stood in the center of the yard like a welcoming umbrella. A waist high
hedge corralled the old -fashioned front porch that looked like it was straight
out of a sixties TV show. Four white pillars stood behind a large wooden porch with
red brick steps that fanned down and out from the porch like open arms, funneling
all visitors through the hedge straight to the big stain glass front door of
the big white house.

Sam took a
quick look around, seeing no one on the street or in the strangely ‘empty’
neighborhood, he stepped into view just as he approached the front door. Hearing
muffled voices from inside, he tapped lightly on the door.

“Who’s there?”
It was Micah, Kathy’s father. Sam was a bit put off by his gruff tone.

“Sam, Sam
Sawyer, is Kathy here?”

No answer,
then Kathy pulled the door open. “Come in.” She looked past Sam saw Kit and no
one else, then ushered them in.

“What are
you doing here?” She asked shutting the door behind them as if a wolf were
about to leap inside.

Kathy stood
between her parents her features tense as her eyes darted about. They drew near
but slowly.

“First off,”
Sam began, “glad everyone is all right.”

“Are we?”
Jenny Kathy’s mother asked. “They told us to stay off the streets.

Something
happened in the woods.”

“Something
did but, it was my woods. I took it out.”

“What,”
Jenny asked. “Took it out. They showed a hole, a lake on tv, then nothing. The station
went blank. What are they hiding? What did you do?”

“He saved us
Mama. He did what he had to do.”

“I did more
than I intended.” Sam confessed, “Too many people know too much. Things are going
to get crazy.”

“Going,”
said Kit.

Kathy’s
parents smiled at her, “And this is…” Micah asked.

“Kit,” she
answered, I’m like Sam. Hope that’s all right, ‘cause I can leave…”

“No,” said
Jenny, “If you’re like Sam, you’re more than welcome here.”

Kathy
stepped back, pulling away from parents. “I’m. I’m like Sam too. Something
attacked us in the woods, his woods, He saved us but changed me. He made the
hole, the lake, and me.”

“Made you
Kathy,” her father looked at her, but saw nothing different, then he did.