Chapter Two - My Last OSM

The next morning I quickly got out of bed when the siren wailed and headed down to the showers. As I turned the tap to a hot temperature and stepped under the stream of warm water pouring over me I felt my muscles relax. I hadn’t realized how tense I had got during the night. I always become tense before a mission. The excitement of leaving shift, the fear of something going wrong, the responsibility over my charge; Reese in this mission and the stress of taking something that doesn’t belong to me. Back at the bunk I take out my black pants instead of my khakis. These are for missions only, they're more concealing than light coloured pants. “Excited?” Melodie came back to the bunks wearing a towel and started changing into her dailies. “yeah” I smiled “it’s a long drive though” I say putting my book into my bag. “Wanna head down to breakfast early? I’m hungry” I nodded in response and started walking with Melodie to the cafeteria. As we walked I braided my wet hair. My hair was long and thick so a braid was the easiest way to control it. We had the option to have our hair cut every six months, I began to opt out of getting it cut. It was the only decision I could make for myself in here, they have every minute of our day planned, they tell us what to eat when to take our vitamins, when to wake up, when to sleep. Being able to grow my hair long was the only decision I could make, it felt like the only way to remind myself that I was my own person.

Soon Brayden joined us at a table and began talking with Melodie. I listened to their conversation in silence while thinking about the mission. I had to meet Reese in BR6 at 8 o’clock. Reese seemed like a good mission partner he was excited as all new OSM members are but he also seemed responsible like I could trust him in any situation. I hoped nothing would go wrong, it’s on me to make sure everything goes according to plan. I began worrying what would happen if someone caught us. What if we were arrested? I was too young to take the sacrifice pill. I didn’t want to die; I didn’t want Reese to die.

At a quarter to eight I made my way down to our meeting room. This time Mackie was there alone, Reese hadn’t arrived yet. As I followed her into the room I noticed she wasn’t wearing her mind band. I don’t hear what everyone thinks all the time that would be pretty overwhelming. I have trained myself to only hear the thoughts of people I choose to listen to. Most often allowing people their privacy. Did she forget my abilities? Did she trust me not to listen? Was this a test? I had never had anyone in charge leave their minds open for me to read. I couldn't help wanting to know what she was thinking. I know I would get in a lot of trouble if they caught me reading her mind and then I did it. She was thinking about a family, her family I felt there was a woman and a man with two kids. Her thoughts had an edge of sadness and anger to them. I looked up into her eyes; she was staring straight at me. She knew I was reading her mind. I felt guilty and right before I stopped I heard her clearly think “It’s not what they tell you.” and then there was a knock at the door she picked up her mind band placed it over her hair and let Reese into the room. What wasn’t what they are telling me? Who are they? What did this family have to do with me? I had so many questions but I couldn't ask, not in front of Reese, not in here. There are cameras everywhere. I knew she did it this way to keep it a secret.

The drive was really long. Mackie was the one to drive us; we sat in the back of a black car with black tinted windows. I read for a while then started talking with Reese. “So how do you make sure the guards are gone and disable the cameras?” he asked. “Electric waves, I can fry the cameras and stop them from recording. I can also pick up the human minds electric wave lengths allowing me to know what they are thinking, for us to avoid them in the halls.” I saw Reese’s face, he seemed to relax when I finished explaining what I could do. “You nervous kid?” “No!” he protested and I gave him a knowing look. “Yeah, okay a little” he gave in. “How old are you?” “17 how old are you?” “19” I smiled, he looked more nervous than he was letting on. “Have you ever had anyone catch you before?” he asked. There was one time I got caught hiding outside a one year olds room trying to get a read on him. I lied my way out of it and police weren’t called but I didn't want to tell Reese this. Something about him felt like I had to protect him. I didn’t quite understand. “No, I’m good at what I do, you have nothing to worry about kid.”

We had been driving for six hours at this point and we had just entered a small city. Mackie turned to us; she had been listening to our conversation. “Hungry? Food might help calm the nerves” She pulled into a lot that had one building in the centre. “Why are we stopping?” I asked. “I thought you guys might like to try some fast food” Mackie had a mischievous smile on her lips. I could tell she didn’t like following all of Shifts rules. “We have our packed lunch” Reese stated. I looked from Mackie to Reese “I won’t tell if you don’t” he smiled back at me. “Okay lets go in” Mackie turned off the car. “Wait” Reese started again “go in with the rest of the people? What if they know we’re not normal?” “They won’t” I told him. “They wouldn't care if they did know? Mackie mumbled under her breath. “What?” “Nothing” she responded to my question. I tried to read her mind to see what she meant but she was still wearing her mind band and it just hurt my head. Trying was pointless, I gave up.

We went in, there was so many people everywhere. A lot of kids laughing, everyone’s voices combined into an indistinguishable chaos. We took a long time to figure out what we wanted. The cashier was confused to how we had never had fast food before. In the end Mackie and Reese got a cheese burger and I got nuggets and a chocolate shake. We went back to the car and returned to our journey. Just over another four hours we entered another much larger city. The sun had set a few hours ago, now it was nine. The lights from the city lit everything up. There were still many cars and people on the streets. Mackie parked down an alley, the car had to be hidden. “Alright, here are your walkie talkies.” she handed us each a head set and put one of her own on. She then handed us a black capsule each. This was the sacrifice pill. It was poison that would kill us almost immediately if we were to be caught by the police. Shifts secrecy was a top priority in every mission. I took the pill. It felt heavy in my hand. I knew I would take the pill if the time came. Shift had saved me as a child. I owed them everything; I would give the rest of my life to them. I put the capsule into my jacket pocket and got out of the car. Mackie showed us the way to the museums back door on the map “Remember down the hall, turn left and then this door here; good luck, I’ll be waiting here when you’re done.” and with that we left.

We stepped out into the night. The air was cool and made you feel nostalgic for summer nights. The city made it impossible to see any stars. Quietly heads down we walked to the back of the building avoiding anyone’s gaze. Once at the building I leaned against the door listening for any guards. I could sense someone but they were to far away to know what they were thinking. “It’s clear”. Reese put his hand against the lock and concentrated. “What exactly is your power?” I asked him. He stopped what he was doing. “I can move matter, but I’m not great, it takes a lot of effort so shh.” and he replaced his hand to the lock. After a couple minutes the lock clicked open. I disabled the doors alarm much faster than Reese and again listened for the guards. “Okay, lets go.” “Going in” I said over the head set so Mackie would know where we were at. I pulled the door open. The hall was very dark and quiet. We turned on our night vision glasses. As we walked I quickly disabled each camera. The room we entered after turning left was very large and thankfully no security guards inside. There were glass cases filled with all different kinds of stones and minerals. It took twenty minutes just to find the right green stone. It was beautiful, more beautiful than the picture. It almost seemed to emit its own light. Underneath the stone was a panel explaining the stone was from Guatemala where the locals believed it had the abilities to hypnotize people. Reese placed his hand against the glass. “I’ll keep watch at the door.” I left his side. After another ten minutes I went back. “Are you almost done?” his face was red and he was very nervous again. There was a small hole formed in the glass. Just not large enough to pull the stone out yet. “I’m sorry, my nerves are making this harder” he looked ashamed. “It’s okay relax you can do this Reese” I stopped, I felt the mind of a guard, he was coming this way “On second thought hurry up a guard is on his way here, now” I went back to the door. I saw Reese finally put his hand through the glass and grab the stone just as the guard entered the room. “Hey!” he yelled “stop right there.” he held up his gun pointing it right at Reese, then the guard noticed me to his left. He turned ready to grab me. I hit the side of his temple first. He punched me in the stomach. I lost my breath for a second. I kicked him again. He turned his gun on me just as I sent a small bolt of electricity at him to knock him out. His gun went off and hit me in the leg. I screamed and Reese rushed over to me with the stone in hand. “We need to get out of here now, the other guard will have heard that” he picked me up and carried me all the way back to the car. The pain was unbearable; I had never felt anything like it. Back at the car he explained everything to Mackie who bandaged me up and told me the bullet just grazed my thigh. Inside the car I thanked Reese “It’s a good thing you’re so tiny” he smiled “I would never have been able to carry another man.” I laughed. Mackie gave me some pain killers, everything went black and I slept almost the entire way back to Shift leaning comfortably against Reese.

When I woke again I was in the infirmary and Mackie was beside me asleep. I looked around. It was pretty quiet, another girl a few beds down from me was reading. “Hey do you know what time it is?” “umm they brought lunch about an hour ago so maybe 1:30.” she responded in a soft young voice. I pulled the blanket off my leg, it was bandaged so I couldn't see how bad it looked. I didn’t feel any pain thanks to whatever drug was being administered by IV. “Mackie” I reached over and shook her. Has she been here the whole time I wondered? She must be exhausted after driving 20 hours, even with the anti-sleep drugs Shift would have given her. “Luna, you’re awake, how do you feel? I’m so sorry. I should have better prepared you guys for their guns.” she looked really upset “yeah, I’m okay, and I’ll be as good as new in no time.” I wanted to make her feel better. It wasn’t her fault, after shocking him I should have expected a response from his body. I liked Mackie, she was a good person and she shouldn’t feel guilty.

This was a fairly small place, I wondered why I had never met Mackie before, and almost everyone crossed paths a least once. “Mackie?” I hesitated; I wasn’t sure if asking her questions would get me in trouble. It seemed like she wanted to tell me stuff “yeah?” “Are you new here? I’ve never seen you before?” I said it quietly still afraid of getting in trouble. She just laughed “yeah I grew up out there, they wanted someone acquainted with society to help them with missions, and they found me.” “Wow so you grew up in the real world” I was in awe, no one here had spent more than five years out in the world. “Can you tell me about it?” “I wish I could” she looked at me sadly. She turned her head to so see if anyone was around. I looked around remembering where we were. “It’s wonderful” I realized then what drew me to Mackie, she wasn’t like anyone else here. She was rebellious; she thought her own thoughts and not what she was told to think. “I should go” she said “I’ll come back later” “Okay thanks Mackie” and I was alone.

I realized the girl a couple beds down was gone. There were a couple nurses at the front desk talking. Other than that the room was silent. I grew bored not having anything to do and before I realized what I was doing I had begun listening to the older nurse. She was talking to a young male nurse. “She’s pregnant, only 14, so young.” “I know, we must learn why the vitamins didn’t take away her libido. This is the first case I’ve heard of anyone having a sexual attraction to anyone here.” “She says she is in love with him” I gasped love, was the young girl beside me before who they were discussing? And what did they mean our vitamins didn’t work on her? I thought we didn’t fall in love because of our abilities, because we were special. These vitamins, they’re what stopped us from falling in love. I was in shock. I was angry, how could they do that, how could they take love away from us. Ever since I began reading love was all I’ve wanted to experience. I wanted to know this powerful feeling that people write about, the feeling that people would literally die for. This emotion that made no sense at all to me. It is supposed to be beautiful. My head was spinning. Why would they want to take love away from us? But if they can take it away I realized that means I can take it back. I was pissed. Mackie was right they have been lying to me. I’m done with them, no more vitamins no more Shift. I needed to get out. I hated them for taking love away from me. I knew now that I had to leave, but how?