"You're a telepath?" I said a little 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 loud enough, gremlin, they didn't hear you at the other end of the table." Meg grumbled, "but yeah, I am."
I could tell she was trying to look modest about it but was still failing miserably at that.
After Hylla had filled us in about the end of the world she'd sent us to our dorms. I took a shower and was given a fresh set of clothes, mostly khakis and camouflage clothing but I was all nice and comfy somehow.
While I was there I learnt that about eighty percent of the population in this barracks had gained special abilities at one point, ranging from creating flames to predicting disasters. Turned out most survivors of apocalyptic attacks always end 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 my foster care since our school got destroyed and I wasn't exactly keen to be back there.
"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, possibly because the food wasn't going down her throat smoothly. 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 from earlier, slid into the seat next to me.
"How's your first day going?" he asked, shredding his salmon with his fingers and stuffing it inside his mouth which was almost lost in the sea of beard.
"Not bad actually." I said, 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…" feeding 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, I thought. Not actual military military.
Meg's coughs finally died down, her eyes still filled 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."
"Fool." I muttered, "I hate you."
She just shrugged and continued trying to kill herself with food.
A small group came to our table, chattering and laughing. Brody grunted and shifted on his seat. Meg 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 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 just snorted and gave him the middle finger and he grinned wider. I stood up, "I'll let you kids catch up." I said, and was about to leave the table when I heard Meg's voice loud and clear, DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE ME HERE.
Was that inside my head?
I know I didn't see her mouth open but it was without doubt Meg's voice.
It was her telepathy. I grinned at her, suddenly interested again, "what was that? Do it again." I urged.
"What was what?" Carter asked, confused.
Brody grinned, "For a beginner telepath, that was pretty clear."
"You heard it?!" Meg and I asked at the same time.
"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. I'm sitting right next to Zeph."
"Well, that sucks." Meg muttered.
"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, I saw a bunch of soldiers huddled over something. I peeked over their shoulders and noticed they were engrossed on something on an ipad screen. It looked like one of those hurricane videos that those storm chasers usually film.
"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 them sometimes."
"Lame."
On the screen, I heard a roar that sounded like a thunderclap, shaking the frame. The clip wasn't too clear 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 I saw about fifty soldiers swarming around like ants, shooting everything they could into the angry cloud but tendrils of lightning flashed, momentarily turning the screen pure white. When the light died down, everything was on fire. And the screen went dark.
"You guys 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, "I'm Blaine by the way. Joined last month. If you guys need any help…" he winked at Meg.
After that, Meg and I took a walk around the camp. The sun was touching the edge of the horizon and all the security lamps in the barracks were turned on.
I spotted Hylla ordering a bunch of men filling armored trucks with crates. She looked great in the evening light with her black tank top and shorts. You'd never guess she was a captain. I stared until she noticed me and gave me a puzzled look and Meg pulled me away by the arm.
Now we were sitting under a tree at the edge of the camp watching people hang out in cliques, sitting around small bonfires and some others training.
"Are you going to join?" Meg asked finally. "E.N.D I mean. Do you want to?"
"I don't know…" I admitted, "you?"
"I think so. For one thing, they serve great food here." She smirked.
"Yeah? That's why you were trying to kill yourself by trying to inhale your entire meal it in one gulp?"
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!"
"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."
"I didn't even do it on purpose. I just thought really hard. As for reading your mind, I can sense your emotions and feelings 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 a mad anger. They had an overwhelming hatred, hatred of every single thing on the planet." She was shaking.
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 look." I joked.
She snickered, "oh please, you know me. I eat monsters like that for breakfast."
"Why do you want to join, Meg? Telepathy won't be any good in battle. You are gonna get hurt, you can't join." I said, "Did you see that clip Blaine showed us?"
Maybe I was being selfish to everyone else but Meg was all I've got. There were alot of other people with battle-oriented Abilities here already.
"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, giving me pleading big brown 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 ass 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 pink braids jump.
"Nope." I answered. I'd had enough of running for one day.
But she ran anyway.