Chapter 22: Bring Me To Life

EVANESCENCE - 2003

"Help! Mom! Caleb!" Kim screamed in her mind, panic clear in her thoughts. "They shot Jorge and kidnapped me!"

"Where are you?" JJ demanded, equal terror in her thoughts.

"I'm in the back of a van, but I don't know where we're going!" Kim screamed. "They shot Jorge! He was trying to help me, and they shot him. They shot him and left him in the street. You've got to help him. Come and get me! They want to hurt me!"

"Where is he?" Caleb demanded.

"He's in front of Linda's house. She lives on East Hayward Avenue, two houses east of Third Street," Kim blurted, her mind whirling in terror. "Hurry, Caleb! They shot him!" Kim implored. "Don't let him die!"

"I'm only a couple of blocks from there," Caleb said. "I can find you after I check on Jorge. JJ, stay where you are. You aren't supposed to know about this, yet. Remember, you have to react to the hand that Branch shows you."

"But, Caleb. She's my baby!" JJ wailed in their mental connection.

"I'll get her, JJ," Caleb soothed, even though she could feel the tension in his thoughts. "I can find her. I promise."

"Okay, Caleb," JJ said reluctantly. "Hurry, before they hurt her. Why would they kidnap her?"

"Based on what you got from the General, today, I think they want to use her to pressure you," Caleb replied, as the tension of fast driving without getting killed filled his thoughts. "I think they will take her someplace they consider secure. After Kim is frightened enough, they'll call you, and let you talk to her. Kim, play along with them, and try to act afraid."

"Act afraid!" Kim asked incredulously. "Are you insane? I'm terrified!"

"Good," Caleb replied calmly. "Just keep thinking like that, and maybe you can convince them. I see the Dodge. Apparently, no one else has noticed a body lying in the street. Welcome to Phoenix!" he said drily.

"That's not a body! That's Jorge," Kim admonished Caleb. "Save him!" she ordered.

"Yes, ma'am. Now try to look frightened until I can finish taking care of business here," Caleb instructed, and smiled grimly at Kim's mental sputtering.

Caleb stopped the little Nissan at the curb beside Jorge. He hurried from the car and was relieved to see the boy's body move with his shallow breaths. He carefully rolled the young Mexican onto his back, and winced at the amount of blood that he saw.

"Can we help him, Al?" Caleb asked.

"Yes, but the bullet is still in there. We'll need to get it out." Al replied calmly.

"How do we do that?" Caleb asked acerbically. "I'm pretty sure my fingers won't fit in that hole."

"I think we have three options," Al replied, still calm. "We can take him to a hospital. Or we can try telekinesis, and pull it out. I think you are capable of telekinesis, but we haven't had time to test your capabilities. You seem to be stumbling from one crisis to the next. We really need to stop, some day, and evaluate you."

"What's the third option," Caleb demanded. "I don't want him dying on us while you prattle."

"I don't prattle, and he's not going to die on us," Al asserted angrily. "As long as you are touching him, I can keep him alive. The third option is to heal him, and try to use the healing process to force the bullet out of him. You like to be in charge. You tell me what we need to do!"

"Al, please don't do this, now," Caleb pleaded. "I'm trying to save a guy's life here, and then I need to find Kim. You said that you can use my abilities like your own, now. Do what you think best to heal him. Let me watch, but hurry, please. They could hurt Kim."

"All three options are dangerous," Al admitted. "I don't think your telekinesis is strong enough to pull the bullet out, but it might be strong enough to guide it as the healing forces the bullet out. The problem with using healing is that it is slow. Remember when we worked on Bran?"

"Yes," Caleb replied tartly, wanting to get on with it. "You said that it would take a couple of days to heal Bran, but he was healed in a moment."

"Yes, and the result was he received a Companion," Al replied. "Do you want to go that route? It is the only fast way that I know to save his life, and still reach Kim before they hurt her."

Caleb only considered the question for a moment before nodding. Speed was essential. Jorge was shot doing something for him, and Caleb couldn't leave him. The young Mexican was simply going to need to learn to live with a Companion.

This was a different type of event from all the previous events involving Companions. All participants had been conscious in previous events. Another set of emotions had interacted with Caleb to reach the energy level needed, even if it was inadvertent. This time it was just Caleb, and the still, near death body of a young man.

He had to think about it. He didn't know how to simply generate the ecstatic feelings that had accompanied previous portal openings, especially under the current circumstances. Al replaying a scene like he had at Bill and Collette's wouldn't work because his was the only mind it would react with.

'How can I open the portal alone?' he asked himself, as he gazed down at the young man struggling to hang on to life.

The answer came to him, but not from his Companion. The answer came from what Caleb had learned from his mother as a little boy. It was simple compassion. Compassion wasn't like romantic love, or emotionally charged friendships. Compassion reaches into the core of a person's being for their basic connection with every other living thing. A person can have compassion for another person, or a dog, or a cat, or even a bug. It is more than sympathy, or empathy, or kindness. Caleb learned, in that moment, that Compassion could be as powerful as any emotion he had experienced in his life.

Caleb placed on hand on Jorge's head, and another on his chest. He watched as his Companion began pumping energy into Jorge, as he cried at the injustice the young man had endured during his life. The bullet in Jorge's chest was the culmination of a long series of injustices, and Caleb would not stand for it.

He was looking at the small hole that was oozing blood when the pent up endorphins were released. In his mind, he could see the white light wash through Jorge, and saw a new entity take up residence. He also saw, with his physical eyes, the bullet wound pucker. A moment later a nine millimeter projectile was ejected, along with a few clothing fragments, just before the wound closed.

Jorge's eyes snapped opened in panic, and he began to struggle. It took him a moment to realize Caleb was kneeling over him.

"They shot me and took Kim," Jorge blurted.

"I know. How do you feel," Caleb asked, wiping his eyes.

"I feel fine. I feel good," Jorge answered in obvious surprise. "What happened?"

"You were shot, and they took Kim," Caleb answered with a grim smile. "Come on. I might need your help," he said, offering Jorge his hand.

He got Jorge to his feet and asked, "Are you okay? Can you walk?"

"Si. I'm just a little shaky," Jorge replied, still trying to figure out what was going on.

"Good enough. Get in the Dodge. I'll drive," Caleb ordered. "The Nissan can stay here until we get finished," he added, grabbing a backpack from the Nissan. "We need to get to Kim before they get too comfortable, and decide she's fair game."

"How will you find her?" Jorge asked, as he climbed into the passenger side of the Dodge.

"Well, that's something we need to talk about on the way to where Kim is," Caleb replied uncomfortably, as he climbed into the driver's side, dropping the backpack behind the seat.

The next few moments Caleb was kept busy getting the big Dodge moving towards where he could feel Kim.

Those moments gave Jorge time to take stock. He looked at all the blood on his shirt, and fingered the bullet hole in the cloth. His finger traced the slightly puckered skin, low on the right side of his chest. It matched the location of the hole in his shirt.

Jorge was familiar with bullets and bullet holes. He knew what a bullet hole looked like in cloth, and he knew a healed bullet hole when he saw one. He also knew that hole in his shirt and the puckered scar wasn't there earlier in the evening.

"You might want to keep this," Caleb said absently, handing Jorge the nine millimeter bullet, as he navigated the streets of Phoenix as quickly as he could.

"Was this a miracle?" Jorge asked in wonder, looking at the bullet in his hand and still touching the puckered place on his chest with the other.

"No. It's a nine millimeter projectile that almost killed you," Caleb retorted. "Sorry," he said after a moment of silence. "I'm getting angry, and I guess I'm a little sarcastic when I get angry. You could call getting the bullet out of you a miracle, but it really wasn't. A word of advice. Don't stand in front of guns when people are pulling the trigger."

"Okay ... um ... D'nada," Jorge said with a shrug for the apology. "If taking a bullet out of me, and healing me in just a few moments, isn't a miracle, what would you call it?"

"Jorge, I could have healed you, and taken the bullet out, but it would have taken a lot of time ... time that we didn't have. I could have taken you to the hospital, too. We didn't have the time for that, either. The only way we could heal you quickly, so we could go after Kim, was to make you like me," Caleb explained apologetically.

"What do you mean?" Jorge asked cautiously.

Caleb took a deep breath before explaining, "I have an alien living in my head, and please don't ask if my head will explode. It makes him mad."

Then Caleb proceeded to explain what happened to him, and why the Army was officially chasing him. He also explained more about the unofficial reasons, and the 'loose-cannon' General. Explaining how they knew the General's plan was a little embarrassing.

"So that is what you did to me on the bus," Jorge said, nodding his head in understanding.

"It wasn't my intention to mislead you," Caleb explained. "I just didn't correct your misconceptions."

Jorge chuckled and said, "That's okay. I've done more in the last three days than I've done in the last eight years. Are you sure that I'll be able to do what you do?"

"I'm sure," Caleb said wryly. "In about twelve hours, you will hear a voice in your head. You will have a new Companion, fresh from the other side of creation. Me ... I've got an old, irritating Companion that has been around for billions of years. I hope you have better luck with yours than I've had with mine."

"Don't let him fool you, Jorge," Al said to the young Mexican, causing him to jump. He ignored Jorge's reaction and said, "He really loves me, but he won't admit it."

"That was Al," Caleb said, rolling his eyes. "He also thinks that he's a comedian."

"I do not," the alien said in a huff. "I don't think that what humans call humor is funny at all. Name one comedy routine that doesn't include pretending someone is getting hurt."

"You just don't understand why humans laugh," Caleb said with a sigh.

"They stopped moving, and we're getting close," Caleb said, ignoring Al's sputtering. "Do you know how many men were in the van?"

"I only saw three," Jorge recalled.

"Kim, we're close. How are you doing, honey?" Caleb asked, including Jorge in the communication.

"Hurry," Kim responded in a near panic. "They were talking so I could overhear them, on purpose. They were talking about you being their boss. The guy in charge has about decided they've talked enough, and wants to get on with really frightening me. Their thoughts about what that will take is more than I want to deal with."