Chapter 6

I saw that Dan was indeed impressed, “we have been running for the last few months. Every time we stopped to rest, they seemed to find us. How in the hell is it that they haven’t found you?” Dan asked.

I smiled, trying not to look creepy as I said, “well, you might say that I’ve been at this for a long time. At the moment there are only four of us strong enough to leave here. I have expanded the house so that we all have our own room.”

“So,” Dan started, “they can’t detect us?”

“I wouldn’t say they can’t detect us. They probably can. I am saying that they cannot get to us here,” I told Dan and his sister. “As you found out, it’s not easy to get through. If at all.”

“So, we’re prisoners here?” Dan asked, a slight look of panic on his face.

A movement behind him caught my attention. Shelly, Dan’s sister, started to whisper in his ear. At first Dan showed no reaction, then his eyes went wide as he started to nod. A moment later, she stood beside him.

“It appears that my sister thinks that I am behaving like an idiot. She said that she hasn’t felt as safe as she does right now. She has a far more sensitive mind than I do,” A slightly blushing Dan said.

My eyebrows raised as I looked at Shelly, then nodded to her. “I’m glad that you feel safe here, you should eat and gain your strength back,” I told the both of them.

They both looked at me with large eyes, then nodded as they moved to the kitchen.

I turned to look at my daughters, “are you still tracking the alien?”

“Yes,” Bell said, “the last three hits it took from you have weakened it even more. In the last few hours, it appears to be trying to find another host. It has passed up quite a few. I am still...”

“It is the minds, they are far stronger than they were when all this started many years ago. The young man that it first took over was an avid gamer, his mind was weak though far stronger in other ways. It appears that the human race has indeed grown stronger. Well, a good many have,” I said.

“Wait,” Trina interjected, “being a gamer strengthened his mind?”

“As far as I can see, yes,” I told my daughters. “As both of you know, games have changed a lot in the last two decades. Hell, hand to eye coordination is remarkable for a lot of games.”

All that were there, could only stare at me as if I had lost my mind. “I’m sorry, most of the games made in the last few years feel as if they’d melt the brain, not strengthen it,” Bell said.

“Sorry,” I said. “The simple fact that he was as avid a gamer as he was, made the blocks he put up almost impossible for it to break.”

“Yes, but finding many more like him would almost be impossible,” Andy said.

“No, not really. Even the simpler games we played, strengthened our minds. Though I have to confess, we passed him a while back, he was already a few levels above us in blocking. Well, at least when we started that is,” I said.

“So, the simple fact that anyone on earth that played these games has a more natural blocking ability?” Dan spoke up.

“Yes, it would appear so though, it doesn’t make any of us impervious to having them try to take us over,” I told him.

A few miles away, a young man was having a battle within his mind. Somehow, he couldn’t get his body to respond. Well, not a lot at first, though over the last hour he was starting to gain more.

He could feel as if something was trying to take him over, much like in one of his favorite paranormal games. He thought hard as he remembered that part of the game, erecting shields and walls to keep anything out.

For a while, it hadn’t done more than slow whatever it was down. Now it seemed as if whatever it was, was starting to be slowly pushed out.

The strongest warrior was befuddled. Never had he met any race whose younglings were as strong as this one. A check again confirmed that indeed this was a youngling barely fifteen cycles. He needed to inform the ultimate leader of this fact.

Still trying to gain ground, the mind warrior was thwarted every way he tried. Even worse than that, the alien/human mind was starting to gain more important parts. Hmmm, the Xetron mind warrior thought, it was almost a shame to destroy this one.

The Xetron was preparing to destroy all the mind it was half in possession of. The teen felt a shift in whatever was trying to take him over. Concentrating hard, he heard a scream.

The Xetron was in shock, the youngling had thrown a shield around him. A shield that was slowly starting to crush the Xetron. He saw that they were approaching what the younglings mind saw as a store. Ah! More of this one’s species, olderlings! Perhaps a very weak mind to take.

The teen entered the store though he was more hesitant than before. A look around, the Xetron saw several candidates, rapidly it chose an older woman. Less than ten seconds, it had taken her mind.

Ah! Thought the Xetron, this was more like it. There was hardly any resistance here. The alien was savoring its victory, when a weak shield snapped up. This can’t be! There was no training here. How?

The Xetron searched, though found nothing. It didn’t matter. The energy it needed was here though, the lifeforce was older almost at its end.

A look behind it saw that the teen was on the floor gasping for breath. The older woman smirked as she started to move past the teen, only to stop when the teen grasped the woman’s hand.

The Xetron almost screamed as some type of energy briefly flowed into the older woman’s body. With an almost supreme effort, the woman snatched her hand from the teen.

A shake of the woman’s head, she whispered, “you should be destroyed soon. Your energy is far too weak to survive.”

A step aside, soon had the woman moving past the gasping teen.

Outside, the Xetron smiled as it started to move away. Twenty feet away, the woman doubled over, then tried to move faster into the wooded area.

I felt the young man gasp out, looking at my daughters, I vanished. A moment later, I appeared outside an older store.

There was a crowd of people crowded around the door. Damnit! I was too late again, though I could help the youth. I reached out, planting an idea in all the minds there. I had done this before though, not quite on this scale.

I then walked into the store looking over everything, “Oh Doc! Glad you’re here. This young man just keeled over,” the store owner said.

I nodded as I put a hand on the teen’s throat. I then grabbed his wrist. I was fixing all I could as fast as I could.

A mere minute and a half later, I felt the teen start to awaken. I then pretended to give the teen a shot.

“There,” I said, “that ought to fix him up. Appears to have overheated himself. As I said, he ought to be alright now.”

I then walked out concentrating, wiping the thought of myself out. I turned toward the wooded area, feeling the alien warrior’s energy.

A moment later, both my daughters appeared, striding after me as I made my way rapidly through the forest. I could feel the Xetron in an older body moving far faster than I thought it could.

I reached out feeling the Xetron, damnit! It had managed to heal more than I thought it could. I could also feel the older woman’s lifeforce starting to fade.

This caused me to speed up even more as I tracked the alien. Finally, I took to the air, moving far faster than before. A minute later, I broke through the trees spying the older woman moving far faster than she should.

I started to fire several bolts at her, hitting her with the third shot. She/it stumbled, continuing forward, causing me to curse, ‘til I hit her again.

I could feel both my daughters closing in on me. I could also feel their fear and caution. A moment later, a weaker bolt shot through the trees, striking the woman, again causing her to stumble.

I cursed again as I saw that we were approaching a family’s campground. I, almost too late, saw the older woman turn to fire a different blast at me. This new blast barely brushed my leg, again knocking me from the sky.

I immediately thought I jumped up to search for him, shocked when Bell and Trina were standing over me. “How long,” I barely managed to get out.

“Just a few minutes, what happened?” Bell asked.

“It used another type of energy that I’d never seen before,” I told both of them. “I,” I started when there was a sudden influx of information in my mind.

Both my daughters became concerned when I grabbed at my head. “Are you under attack?” Trina asked.

I gasped out, then barely shook my head. I had learned long ago not to take the evidence of no pain, as a sign that it was probably there.

“No, another present from the Bellions. I remember them telling me that, when that part of my mind was ready, I would know. They just failed to let me know how much, how fast and just how much it would hurt. Yeah, it’s not good,” I said.

I looked ahead seeing the older woman the alien had been in. I moved to her, placing a hand on her, then my head dropped as I felt her lifeforce slipping away. I reached in, easing her pain, apologizing for not making it in time, then I wept for the loss of her life.

I felt her raise her hand to my cheek, then in a whisper she thanked me for trying. I felt more useless than I had ever when she expired in my arms.

I felt a slight nudge on my mind as I looked up. “We were certain when we saw you, that we had found a mind leader for this planet. Do not feel bad about the oldling, she will recover,” The Bellion said in my mind.

I could only stare at the being as if they had lost their mind, then I nodded. I remembered that they were thousands of years ahead of us.

“Thank you, now please excuse me, I need to find the Xetron that is loose on my planet,” I said. The Bellion nodded then winked out.