“You’re not going to go in there with us?” Tara asked.
“No.” Jacob glanced towards the doors. “It’s perfectly safe. We’ve all agreed that this first time, it should be just the two of you.” His eyes moved around, avoiding theirs.
“Thanks,” Colt said, tucking the map into his jacket pocket. He turned and used the key Jacob had just given him to unlock the door.
“When you’re done, make sure you lock it up tight again,” Jacob called out as he headed back the way they’d come. They both watched the beam of his flashlight disappear into the trees.
“Something tells me he didn’t want to go inside,” Tara said, and Colt saw her shiver.
“He’s probably been down here more times than he can count, considering everything that happened to them a couple years ago. He did get shot here, remember?” Colt reminded her.
“Right.” She nodded.
“Shall we?” He held out his hand.
She looked down at it and took a deep breath. “Just so you know, it’s not the dark I’ll be afraid of down there. It’s rats, spiders, and any other crawling things.” She shivered visibly.
“The strongest woman on Earth is afraid of spiders.” He chuckled and then added. “I’ve got your back. If I see anything, I’ll smash it for you.”
“Right.” She rolled her eyes. “Tell me again, why we are doing this at night?” she asked as they stepped inside the door.
“Not sure,” he admitted. “Want to come back tomorrow?”
She was silent for a moment, then she shook her head. “No, we’re here now.” She sighed. “Just… let’s go see if we can find any answers.”
“Yeah, about that. Do you know why they thought we’d find answers here?” he asked as they headed down the long narrow staircase. He went first, knocking a few cobwebs down for her.
When Tara remained silent for a while, he glanced over his shoulder at her.
“It’s like a beacon,” she said with a frown. “I can feel the pulse of power from here already.”
He stopped at the base of the staircase and looked at her. They were almost eye to eye now, with her on the bottom step.
“You feel something?” he asked her.
She looked down at him. “Don’t you?” she asked, watching his eyes.
He stopped, listened, opened himself to the possibilities for a moment, then shook his head. “No, nothing.”
“You don’t feel it yet,” she said suddenly. “Come on, let’s do some exploring.” She took his hand and they walked down a narrow hallway. They passed through several smaller rooms and down another set of stairs, and then they finally stepped into the massive silo.
It was as if a wave of awareness washed over him. Goose bumps had his skin tingling.
“Now you feel it,” she said, stepping into the room. The massive cover over the silo was shut tight. He used his flashlight and scanned the room; its beam barely traveled across the void to the other side.
He knew the hydraulics to lift the cover were probably far too old to work, yet he walked over and hit the lever regardless, flipping it several times with slight frustration.
“Need a hand?” she asked after a moment.
He glanced over at her and was about to turn her help down, but then he remembered who was standing next to him.
Smiling, he nodded to the darkness above them.
“You wouldn’t want to pop up there and open the lid so we can have a little more light in here, would you?” he asked.
She was silent for a moment, and he thought she was going to deny him, but then she effortlessly lifted into the air. He shined his flashlight on her and held his breath when she disappeared into the darkness.
He heard the metal start to move before he saw the sliver of moonlight flood in from the opening.
When her shadow crossed in front of the moon as she lifted the cover all the way off, he snapped a photo of her on his cell phone. He didn’t know why he’d taken it, other than he just wanted proof of how amazing she was.
To have such a power. His first thoughts were of how many people he could have saved overseas if he’d had half the strength she had. All the families that had been killed or destroyed in the war-torn areas he’d marched into. Even now, how many more were suffering that could be helped?
When she landed softly next to him, the moon’s light brightening up the entire silo area, he asked her the question that burned in his mind.
“Why do you hide it?” he said, watching her reaction under the night sky.
Her eyebrows shot up for a moment, then she sat down on the concrete steps and patted the spot next to her.
He handed her a bottled water and watched her take a sip.
“I did tell you about Rob, right?” she said when she was done.
“Yeah, I mean, I get it. There’s always going to be someone out there that will try and exploit someone like you.” He frowned down at his hands. “But think of the good you could be doing.” He looked back at her. “The lives that could be saved or changed for good.” He shook his head. “It’s got to outweigh the bad. Wouldn’t it?”
Instead of answering, she glanced up at the moon that hung overhead.
“The few times I’ve tried to help others, it’s always ended up badly,” she said.
“How so?”
“Rob wasn’t even the worse. I helped a young woman who I thought was being beat up in a random attack one night in Seattle. It turned out she’d just stolen an entire bag of drugs from her pimp. After I helped her escape, she turned around and sold those drugs to a bunch of high school students.” She looked over at him. “The drugs had been laced and four students died. One is brain dead, and another will never function as an adult.” She took another drink of the water. “What they don’t show you in all the superhero movies is that it’s hard to tell who is good and who is bad when you don’t have the backstory. There isn’t a guidebook for superheroing.”
He glanced up at the stars. “So why do you think you have these abilities? Why you? Why the others?”
Instead of answering, she glanced up at the sky for a moment. “I have never told this to anyone else”—she glanced over at him— “but I’m pretty sure I’m from a different planet.”
“Why exactly do you think that?” he asked. Maybe she was crazy. Maybe he was crazy.
She pointed to the sky. “The biggest hint is hovering about two hundred and thirty-nine thousand miles above us.”
He glanced up and frowned. “The moon?” He balked. “You…” He shook his head. “Where you came from, you didn’t have the moon?”
She shook her head. “There were two moons in our night sky, Selene and Tara.” She smiled. “I was named after the smaller of the two.”
He looked back at her, running his eyes over her face. Her long blonde hair almost glowed in the moonlight, and her piercing green eyes looked back at his as if she could see deeper into him than anyone else ever had.
“Okay.” He took a deep breath. “Wow, let me try and process this.”
She stood up and walked over to the middle of the room. Her shoulders slumped slightly.