The Push Chronicles (Book 1): Indomitable Read Online Free PDF Page B

thoughts out of my head.  Easy.
    I kicked the Kawasaki to life and rode out of the parking deck.
     
    Atlanta has always been infamous for it’s horrible traffic snarls, so I wasn’t immediately surprised to hit an unmoving mass of vehicles headed out from the apartment.  I took the moment to once again run down in my head the approach I would take if, no, when I saw Eric.  It was the roar of sirens that caused me to pay attention. Several police motorcycles wove through the gaps in the vehicles and roared past me, lights flashing.
    I tried to focus on their destination but all I could see was a large billowing cloud of smoke or dust.  I wasn’t the only one who was curious by the sudden police presence as several motorists came out of their cars, craning necks and holding up smartphones.  The sirens grew more distant then suddenly stopped, their glaring noise being cut off by another, far more violent, sound.
    The explosion shattered car windows and sent bystanders tumbling.  I could see shrapnel and debris pepper the nearest cars to the cloud of smoke as I braced myself against the sudden pressure.  As the cloud itself was torn into wisps by the shockwave, my skin instantly began to crawl as what it had been hiding was dramatically revealed.
    It was the first time I had seen direct evidence of one of the Pushed.  The organism I saw undoubtedly had once been human and was still humanoid in shape.  Whatever shaped this creature's alterations took inspiration from fire itself because living flame was the best description I could come up with at the time.  To fly further in the face of conventional science, his flames seemed selective for the pair of slacks he wore and the watch on his wrist remained surprisingly undamaged by his new form.  There seemed to be something else, something more ... real beneath the flames, but I could see what it was from so far away.
    All around me, a wave that combined fascination with terror swept among those watching.  Some started to run away, weaving and pushing through the press of vehicles.  Others continued to stare and gawk while snapping away with their phone’s cameras.  As for myself, I felt neither.  Yes, I was afraid, but not in some primal way.  Yes, I was fascinated, but not to the point of loosing my senses.  My scientific curiosity was peaked.
    More so, I was overcome with the sudden sense that someone had to do something.  Who knows how many people had died from that explosion?  Who knows how many more people were about to die as the man made of fire started to stalk up the street?   Coupled with that urgency of action was the sick sensation that I was about to do something my rational mind was trying to fight off at any cost.
    Just as I was about to gun the engine of my bike over the ever louder protestation of my rational mind, the air suddenly turned frigid as a large crystalline mass flew right past my head.  It was ice, a spear of ice, hurtling past me..  To my eyes, it didn’t even seem entirely real, much like this entire situation outside of the damage and injuries.  The large chunk landed square in what would pass for a chest of a normal human and instantly melted, partially vaporizing in the intense flames.
    The flame man made an inhuman roar so loud that I could barely pick up what I thought was a much more mundane scream hidden behind it.  Running past me, hopping from car roof to car roof, was what had to be another Pushed, his mere presence sending my senses into alarm.
    I could only guess that he had been a fireman, because that was how he was dressed.  He may have even been responding to the reports of this fire.  Now, though, he was something else.  His black skin was frosted with ice and had an inhuman bluish tinge.  To me, it looked shimmering and phantasmal and I could see the real man underneath the trappings.
    Whatever truth lay beneath the skin, it didn't stop the firefighter from instinctively spreading his hands, shrouded