After Tess left, Sasha and Mariel sat on the bed like two shipwreck victims clinging to the only other survivor.
“Does it seem like she’s expecting an awful lot from us?” Sasha finally asked.
“Yeah,” Mariel agreed. “Especially since nobody’s bothered to explain to us what our oh-so-amazing talents and abilities are supposed to allow us to do, or what we’re supposed to do with them!”
“So far, we don’t seem to be any more amazing than the rest of the kids.” Sasha observed wryly. “In fact, some of the others seemed to be mastering teleporting and stuff a lot better than we are.”
Without realizing it, the girls had switched back to communicating telepathically, unaware that the ease with which they’d mastered both telepathy and shielding outpaced all their classmates. In fact, they had already reached a level of proficiency many, including some of the Council members, never achieved. When did they start taking the skill for granted?
Though she hadn’t mentioned it, Tess was grateful their teleportation skills were slower to develop. The last thing she needed right now was to have the girls spontaneously teleporting to their parents once the lines of communication opened between them.
According to Tess, their parents were counting on their telepathic abilities and familial connections to share information gathered during their stay in the mine with Tess and the Council.
“I wonder why Tess or one of the Council members can’t do this telepathy thing with our parents themselves?”
“I dunno.” Sasha tilted her head to the side, wearing an expression Mariel knew too well. Her friend would figure this out or find someone to badger until she had answers. They both needed to understand why communication with their parents was so important, or what threat drove their actions in the first place. Since the day Tess showed up on Sasha’s doorstep, they’d been asked to take it on faith she had their best interests at heart. But at least half of what she’d first told them had been lies. Their own parents had lied to them. Who besides each other could they even trust?
Sasha and Mariel weren’t alone in having their heads filled with questions no one seemed ready or able to answer. All the untrained teenagers Tess and her team had gathered into the secure compounds were equally bewildered. It seemed the adults thought the less their charges knew the better. They kept their thoughts heavily shielded but a group of curious teenagers who were gifted with natural sensitivities had no trouble gauging the emotional climate pervading their temporary school and home. Something very serious was happening and their lack of training or even rudimentary instruction into their family history and purpose left them with thousands of questions and few answers. Despite the shielding and other precautions Tess and the Guardians had established, the common feelings among the displaced teenagers was confusion and frustration. When combined with their newly developing Talents and natural curiosity, it was a volatile mixture looking for a place to detonate.
Startling Mariel out of her reverie, Sasha unconsciously asked her next question vocally.
“I keep hearing the word “Transition”, but nobody’s bothered to explain what it means. They say it almost reverently so it must be something they consider sacred. I’m beginning to believe something changed recently, threatening this Transition thingie. Whatever changed freaked Tess and the Council out and made them put us all in protective custody.”
Pondering Sasha’s words, Mariel shifted positions so her back was against the cabin wall. Pulling her knees up, she rested her chin on them in what Sasha had come to recognize as her thinking pose. Ever since they were children, Mariel would shift into this position whenever she needed to think something through. Sasha had learned it was best to sit quietly and wait when Mariel shifted to thinking mode. Her patience was invariably rewarded with something insightful and wise beyond her years. Sasha expected nothing less this time.
A shift in Mariel’s eyes let Sasha know she’d reached a conclusion. Taking a deep breath, she began to speak in a voice devoid of inflection as if the words were appearing on an invisible screen from which she read.
“Is it really what changed, or something our parents have done? Our dads can be sneaky and they don’t take no for an answer when they get hooked on an idea. Is there something they wanted the Council to do? Tess said your parents tried to get them to help but they refused. Since they disappeared, everyone’s running around like their butts are on fire.”
“Yeah, and going on about having to train us as fast as possible as if a bunch of kids could keep the world from ending.” Sasha sat cross-legged on the cot. When she finished speaking, she put her elbows on her knees and rested her chin on her hands. Her eyes glazed over as if in a trance but Mariel knew her friend. Sasha was taking every word, both spoken and silent and turning them over in her mind like letters in a Scrabble game.
“I’ve watched them when they discuss this “Transition” and I’ve started to pay close attention when the subject comes up. It feels like some kind of birthing process, and our families were trained to act as a sort of midwife. Does that make sense?”
Mariel looked at Sasha with a new sense of admiration. The picture she painted actually made a lot of sense right now, especially when she thought about the lengths everyone was going to protect their thoughts, and especially those of the untrained teens. The silence lengthened until Mariel realized Sasha was waiting for an answer.
“It makes perfect sense, even if we’re missing a lot of pieces. What is it we’re supposed to be bringing into the world, and why would someone find it necessary to kidnap some of the midwives?”
Nodding her head in agreement, Sasha added more questions to their growing list.
“I’d also like to know why someone made the Council decide it was no longer necessary to train us as midwives, and why someone needed to take over a whole town?” Had Tess been listening, to the girls’ conversation, she would have been stunned to hear they had reached their own conclusions concerning the relationship between this faceless enemy and the Council when those erstwhile beings had only just figured it out themselves.
“Maybe we should write these down so we can ask Tess or some of our teachers?” Sasha suggested.
“I’d like to talk to some of the other kids first. They may have questions we haven’t thought of. They might even be able to fill in some of the blanks for us.” Mariel replied, adding, “Let’s start with some of the kids from our old neighborhood. We can figure out who else to ask after we talk to them.” Neither realized how quickly they had accepted life as they’d known it was something they probably wouldn’t return to.
Sasha nodded in agreement before sending out an invitation to their friends. At Mariel’s suggestion, she asked everyone to gather in one of the clearings they’d found while wandering the compound. The location was a bit of a hike but would take them away from the curious eyes of their teachers while they shared information and created a list of questions.
Everyone Sasha invited agreed to the meeting. They were all tired of being kept in the dark. The girls picked up their jackets and water bottles before leaving to join their friends. Almost to the door, Sasha ran back and grabbed a pen and notebook so she could write down everyone’s questions. They had no idea how extensive the list would prove to be, nor how closely the thoughts of their fellow campers had been mirroring their own.