Thursday

When he awoke, Erick lay there on his cot for a long while. With all the windows and doors boarded up the interior stayed fairly dark, though to his eyes it remained gray, not quite fading out of sight. All the while that he lay there, he went over in his mind what his next move should be. He’d gathered a good amount of information about Fort Stag, he’d learned all the powers he could think of, and the only thing left for him to do now was to practice. It was that or decide he was ready and go for it. Erick didn’t feel ready, not yet.

With effort, he pushed himself up and got ready for the day. There wasn’t much, really, for him to do but a change of clothes, a quick breakfast, and a few stretches got him up and feeling better about the day. The first few hours were spent practicing his various powers. He still couldn’t handle more than two different powers at the same time so he focused on getting comfortable using his powers in as many combinations as he could manage.

Erick figured it was past midday by the time he needed to take a break and recharge. Rather than just waiting around to naturally recharge, he left the YMCA building in search of a park or someplace where he might be able to find someone asleep that he could siphon energy off of. There were a few parks nearby, though they were mostly deserted. Fortunately, Erick did find someone sleeping beside a tree in one of the parks. They looked homeless and Erick wondered if what he was doing was wrong. He still didn’t know if siphoning energy from others would have any detrimental effect on them later on. Did it just make them need to sleep longer? It was a bit late to be having second thoughts about using this power since he’d already used it dozens of times. He also wasn’t going to stop using it right now, though perhaps he’d limit himself to only using it when he needed to and not just to top himself off.

After Erick was finished draining the sleeping person of their energy, he searched their mind to make sure they were okay. He’d never explored a sleeping person’s mind before and it was a strange experience. There were very few thoughts and instead flashes of memory played out. They seemed to be of the previous day, mostly. The memories were too disjointed for Erick to make any sense of them so he let go of their mind. As he did, he became aware of a few other minds nearby. They were thinking about him.

Erick looked around, suddenly on high alert. No one else seemed to be nearby, yet these minds didn’t feel that far away.

He’s close, one of the minds thought.

A nondescript van drove up the street towards the park. Erick focused on it and confirmed that that was where these minds were. Erick looked through their eyes and none of them were looking at him. Not yet. Instead they were watching a small, handheld device that had a small needle pointed in his general direction. It was the same device they’d used to track him down earlier. Beside the needle was a gauge that displayed distances. At its highest it could measure a few miles. Currently it was showing a few dozen yards. Any minute now someone would notice him. It wasn’t as though the park was filled with people that he could hide among. Sure, he could make himself invisible to them but with their device they’d still know roughly where he was and they could follow him wherever he went.

This wasn’t a situation he could just ignore. If he kept running, they’d just track him down again. Erick needed to be more proactive in his own defense. Before they could pinpoint him, Erick threw an energy blast at the van. It wasn’t as powerful a blast as he’d used on the car in the theater parking lot but it was still enough to violently stop the van. Everyone inside rocked around, most of them not buckled into their seats. Erick sped forward so they wouldn’t have time to react. In moments he reached the van, ripped the side door open, and climbed in. Sped up as he was, everyone inside looked nearly frozen in place.

One by one, he delivered a small energy blast point blank to their heads. It wouldn’t kill them but it would knock them out. Once he was sure they were all unconscious, Erick began his search of the van. They’d come prepared with tranquilizer guns, zip ties, and radios. He used the zip ties to bind the men in the van so when they did wake up they wouldn’t be able to do anything. The device they had been using to track him was hard to find since it had been thrown around the van during the crash but Erick eventually found it. He took it so he could test it out himself and see if there was a way he could hide himself from it as well.

There wasn’t much else he could really glean from this situation so he left them where they were. It would be obvious what had happened to them and unless Erick wanted to start killing people, there wasn’t much he could do about that. They’d wake up in a few minutes and then take a few more minutes to get out of their zip ties. Erick destroyed their radios and cellphones to prevent them from calling for backup but that was the extent of what he was willing to do for now. Taking the device they’d used to track him down, Erick flew away. This town was no longer safe for him to stay in so he returned to the YMCA building, packed up his belongings in his pack, and left. This time he took the bus. Between the training he’d done that morning and then the fight, he was pretty drained even with the energy he’d gotten from the person in the park.

While he waited for the bus, he looked over the tracking device. The needle was pointing right at him, though the attraction wasn’t very great. If he turned the device it would take it a moment to point back at him again. On a hunch, he filled his body with energy. The tracker became much more attracted him and it even started to beep. Erick looked around briefly to make sure no one was around to hear it, though he realized right away that unless someone already knew what the device was they wouldn’t likely care. Either way, he stopped using his energy and the device quieted back down.

So it was more responsive to him when he was using his powers. That was good to know. Rather than flooding his body with energy, he pulled it all inside, not using it, going totally powerless. It was a surprise to him when the world around him grew dimmer and less sharp. Erick wasn’t even aware that he’d been using his powers to enhance his vision but it was apparent now.

The device stopped registering Erick’s presence. As long as he fully suppressed his powers the device was blind to him. That was excellent news, though now he had a problem. He could either mask his presence or he could continue practicing his powers. The minute he started using his powers again, if anyone looking for him was within a few miles, they’d get a ping on their device and start zeroing in on him. That made Erick wonder if he really did need to practice more or if her was perhaps ready after all.

What did he have to gain from waiting?

Erick thought about that long and hard but couldn’t come up with a suitable answer. He had enough endurance now that he could maintain his powers for a few hours of steady use. Did he think his assault on Fort Stag would last longer than that?

No. If things went on for that long there then he wasn’t likely to succeed. He needed to be fast, get in and get out without a prolonged fight.

The bus heading towards Purge arrived and Erick got on. He had originally been intending to get on the bus going in the opposite direction but now that he’d made up his mind, it was time to start making his way towards Fort Stag.

The people on the bus gave him suspicious looks and at first he worried that they knew who he was, but then realized that the only people taking the bus who also carried a pack like his were usually homeless.

He was homeless. That realization had hit him before but it was still a bit of a shock whenever he acknowledged his current status. He didn’t feel homeless, not really, but where could he call his home? Nowhere.

Erick found a seat by himself and sat down, shifting his pack onto the seat beside him. Most of the people who’d been staring looked away once the bus got moving again. It was just under an hour ride to reach Purge, with half a dozen stops between so Erick made himself comfortable. Being the middle of the day meant that there weren’t as many riders on the bus so no one ever had to come and sit near Erick. He was fine with that. It meant he didn’t have to move his pack off the seat beside him and he was left alone to his thoughts.

For today, he’d find someplace to spend the rest of the day and go over his notes on Fort Stag. Then he might even make his way over to the fort before the end of the day and scope it out. He’d have to be careful since he didn’t dare use any of his powers until he was actually attacking the fort and if anyone recognized him he’d be forced to use his powers and then he’d lose his element of surprise. When the bus reached the transit hub in Purge City, Erick got off the bus and began his search for a place to hide.

There were ample buildings that were shuttered for one reason or another, scattered throughout the city. After another hour or so, Erick found a closed strip mall that he break into without needing any of his powers. All he had to do was pry a sheet of plywood back and then climb in through the gap. He clearly wasn’t the first person to stay here as there was graffiti on the walls and signs of a makeshift fire pit in the middle of the floor.

What was with people making fires inside buildings? Perhaps it was to keep warm during the winter but a fire inside sounded like a recipe for disaster. The smoke alone would be problematic even without the fire spreading out of control.

Erick set up his own little space in the back corner with his cot and sleeping bag. He pulled out his little camp stove as well and heated up a can of soup. It wasn’t quite dinner time but he’d missed lunch and was pretty hungry. He figured he had enough food to last him another two days and he hoped to be far away from here by then.

As soon as he was finished eating, he cleaned up his dishes with the wipes he’d stolen and then crept back out of the strip mall. He was a little nervous about leaving his gear behind but if he was going to scope out Fort Stag he’d need to not draw attention to himself and carrying a large pack like that would definitely stand out.

The bus going to Fort Stag was easy enough to find. Erick didn’t ride it all the way to the gate and instead got off the stop before that one. It was only half a mile difference and this way he wouldn’t be getting off the bus right in front of the gate guards. He figured it would be pretty obvious he didn’t belong if he got off the bus at the gate but then didn’t go in, and without his powers he couldn’t hide from anyone who may be watching. Instead he found a walking trail that went near to the base. Cyclists were pretty common on the trail at this hour as people began leaving work and heading home. There were also a number of people just walking on the trail so he blended in much better here.

Sunset was another hour away so there was plenty of light to see by when he came in view of Fort Stag. A tall, chain link fence topped with barbed wire ran all the way around the perimeter. Security cameras were placed at regular intervals and from time to time an actual soldier would walk by on patrol. There were two gates, one on the north side and one on the south side. The south gate was nearest to where Erick suspected his family was being held in the security forces building. Starting his fight right at the gate didn’t sound ideal, though. He’d rather cut his way through the gate, or else fly over it and go directly to the building. No matter where he started, the moment he used his powers they would know he was here. Might as well have as few fights as possible so going over or through the fence was probably the way to go since there were fewer soldiers once you got away from the gates.

The path began to curve away from the fort as it neared the gate and Erick was fine with that. He could see the gate well enough from where he was, even without his enhanced vision, and the half dozen or so guards only served to cement his decision to come at them from the side.

There wasn’t much else he could glean from the path and he didn’t want to get any closer to the guards so Erick turned around and began making his way back to the strip mall. The sun would be setting soon and he didn’t want to be caught out in the dark and unable to see where he was going. He’d never experienced true darkness and didn’t want to now while outside. He had just enough money left over from what Saif had given him to take the bus back and it was with relief that he climbed back into the strip mall and found all of his belongings still there and untouched.

It wasn’t very late but with all the windows and doors of the strip mall boarded up it was nearly pitch black inside. The only source of light Erick had was his camp stove and he didn’t want to waste the fuel. Sitting in the dark was a new and uncomfortable experience for him. If this was what everyone saw in the dark, then he could understand why some people were afraid of it. Not wanting to drag out his time in the dark, Erick climbed into his sleeping bag and tried to fall asleep. It wasn’t easy and it took far longer than he wanted but eventually he drifted off into an uneasy sleep.