Dreams of Tomorrow

Part 20

"I'll go with Andrew." You insist immediately. "I can manage, Liz."

She hesitates but nods. The four of you accept lengths of cloth to wrap around your faces and duck outside into the thick fumes. The villagers watch you go uncertainly. They haven't followed the rapid conversation in the English but they understand that you plan to warn their neighbouring villages and wish you luck with quiet murmurs. It only takes a few strides before you're out of sight of the door and then you feel rather than see first Hsui Tai and then Elizabeth jaunt. You look over towards Andrew, seeing him as a shadow through the thin gauze over your eyes and feel his agreement. Together, you jaunt.

If the village you were in was shaded with an unnatural twilight, this one is cloaked in a terrifying night. Even through the cloth, the ash gets into your lungs and now it is burning you from inside out.

[We have to get inside!] Andrew shouts in your mind. [This place is right in the outfall from the first eruption. It's not safe to be out in this!]

You struggle through air which seems almost thick enough to support your weight. You don't realise until too late that Andrew has gone in the other direction. You feel his relief as he manages to find another of the prefabricated village buildings in which these travelers have been settled. Then your outstretched hands feels another of the walls and you stagger along it until your questing fingers find the vertical lines of a doorframe. At last both you and Andrew are inside and you unwrap the gauze from around your eyes and let Andrew see what you're seeing even as he shares his view with you. You're both standing in cold, dark, empty rooms. Ash has crept in even here and although the air is clearer than that outside it's still choking.

[Deserted!] Andrew comments. [They must have given up and left even before we got here to warn them.]

[Not all of them.] You disagree. With your mental shields still not as powerful as Andrew's you can feel other minds in the ruins of this village. [There are still people here. A few, the ones who refused to leave their homes.]

[They'll be wiped out when the volcano goes, Jay!]

You walk round the room, peering out through smeared the glass windows, trying to get a hint of how the village was laid out. On the horizon you can just make out the thicker cloud of ash that hides the volcano. It glows orange, lit from below by the fires of the Earth. To your horror a second glow lights the night well to one side of the volcano.

[Andrew! Some of the village is on fire from the burning embers. The people could be trapped.]

[Alright, Jay.] Andrew's voice is tense but still calm. [We need to jaunt back to the Lab and get artificial environment suits. We cant do anything here without them.]

[There isn't time!] You're adamant and you risk a short jaunt to just outside the burning building. This close you can feel the panic of the two people trapped inside and it begins to override your thoughts. Sympathetic panic rises inside you and you run through the charring door frame. All you can think is that if you can get to them you can do something, protect them somehow, even get TIM to send you matter transporters for them.

[Jay!] Andrew's voice is urgent now and scared. [You're too open. You're letting their thoughts control you. You have to come back!]

You feel him outside the building now and know he's being beaten back by the flames you can feel against your skin as you run through the house to the basement where the villagers are trapped. You're not thinking coherently now. You're entirely ruled by the emotions you're sensing.

[Jay, your special powers are out of control! That building's going to collapse any second! You have to get out.]

You don't hear the panic in Andrew's voice. You don't realise that you made the wrong choice. Your special powers weren't ready for this kind of trial. You don't even hear the roar of the burning timbers as the they fall in on you.

And then you never hear anything again.


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