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whispered, “I think they’re more likely to have us executed.”
    Jack shook his head. “Let’s just see what we can do before we worry about what comes afterwards.”
    Melanie held her hand out, palm up, and said, “I already know how to do some things.” Her hand filled with blood and turned bright red. Her fingernails turned a deep pink. Then, a light fixture in the ceiling crashed to the floor just a few feet from them.
    The general was busy instructing his men to move the unused tables out of the center of the room. He turned to the fal len light fixture and said absently, “This place is a dump.”
    Melanie whispered, “We don’t need them to help us figure out what we can do.”
    Jack asked, “How did you do that?”
    “It just came to me naturally. It’ll come to you two as well. We’re infected. Something has changed inside of us.”
    The doctor came into the disused cafeteria. He was nonchalantly messing with his phone when he looked up and saw the three teenagers. “I can’t wait to see what potential you have.”
    Jack said, “I thought you were going to have a bunch of tests set up for us. What happened?”
    “The military got involved.” The doctor offered nothing more by way of explanation because it spoke volumes all by itself.
    The general dismissed all but one of his men once the center of the room was cleared. They took up posts outside the doors.
    He asked Jack to stand in the middle of the room and for everyone else to step back. When that was done, he turned to his man and ordered, “Kill him.”

    Fight
     
    If Jack thought the soldier might have a problem with killing an unarmed, teenaged civilian, he was wrong. The man was quick too, coming at Jack with murder in his eyes and a foot long knife in his grasp. Jack’s mind was running in several directions at once. What could he do?
    The doctor tried to intervene but a stern look from the general rooted him in place. He shut his mouth and watched the horror unfold.
    The soldier brought the knife down fast but he missed. The room flickered before Jack’s eyes. He felt faint, but elated at the same time.
    He counted his blessings and was about to run when the man slashed again with the knife. Only then did Jack notice it was going straight through him like he wasn’t even there. The room flickered again.
    Melanie screamed out in pure fear and the soldier came off of the ground. He was being propelled upwards by an unseen force, his arms thrashing around, and his legs kicking the air. His eyes bugged out as he looked around, confusion and fear all over his face.  His body crashed into the ceiling, but instead of hitting it and falling back down, he was pushed upwards even harder. He started yelling for mercy.
    The general watched it all unfold with a detached look of bemusement. He did nothing to intervene.
    Jack saw blood start to drip at his feet as the suspended soldier was crushed more and more, rupturing and leaking his fluids. Jack looked around the room to see who or what was doing this unnatural thing to the soldier. Melanie’s hands were beet red and a thin trickle of blood dripped from her cuticles. Her hands were raised towards the soldier and they were quivering uncontrollably.
    Jack did a double take, just to be sure he was seeing what he thought he was, and then he yelled for her to stop hurting the guy. He didn’t know why he cared. The man had just tried to kill him. But none of them were murderers and the soldier’s screams were chilling his blood.
    Melanie seemed to be struggling against some unknown entity that no one else could see. She was trying to control her powers but they’d gone haywire.
    The man on the ceiling was screaming in utter horror now. He sounded like a dying animal.
    Scott put a hand on her shoulder and the soldier fell to the floor in a heap. He didn’t move. He was already dead.
    Melanie started to cry and Scott hugged her tightly. When she saw the dead soldier, her cries turned to