Ch. 7...
Power outages don’t happen often; after all, the weather in Andover is blazing sunshine almost year round. As is true for most cities in the NAC, Andover relies on a combination of power sources: mostly solar and wind. They don’t have the advantage of the larger cities on the coasts with their tidal power stations or those near rivers that power hydroelectric dams. Relying on solar power, landlocked cities charge batteries during the day to last through the night.
Everyone knows the drill: if storms cause solar panel failure, all alternate power generation goes toward emergency services and citizens are expected to have their own supplies.
Bells’ first storm seemed like such an adventure, stocking up on candles and eating rations. He’s been through quite a few power outages since then and he always thinks of them as a time for fun, not dangerous. For the last few storms, he and Jess went to Emma’s house to hang out. They built blanket forts, watched holovids until the battery ran out, and ate way too much junk food.
Today’s storm warning is typically ominous:
STORM WARNING IN EFFECT UNTIL 6AM JANUARY 8. SOLAR PANELS WILL SHUT DOWN PRODUCTIVITY IN 90 MINUTES. PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION WILL SHUT DOWN. CENTRAL STATION WILL REMAIN OPEN SHOULD YOU HAVE A HOVERTRAIN TICKET THIS EVENING.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO PREPARE FOR SEVERE STORM DAYS, VISIT THE FOLLOWING HOLOPAGES.
Almost everything in the house is powered down when Bells gets the message on his DED. Thunder rumbles, but the sky isn’t quite dark.
“You still have your DED on? You know you won’t be able to charge it later.” Simon teases.
“Have you heard anything from Ma?”
Simon nods. “Yes, Sean got a message yesterday; they just made the drop-off to our Grassroots contact in Middleton.” He claps Bells on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, they’re making lots of progress getting all those meta-humans to safety.”
Bells is relieved to hear things are going well, but it doesn’t change how much he worries about his parents.
From: Emma 5:22 pm
hey!!! new episode of GD, wanna come over and watch it with me?
To: Emma 5:23 pm
NO POWER, REMEMBER?
IT WONT COME ON UNTIL 8 AND THE STORM IS ALREADY GETTING HERE AT SIX
From: Emma 5:25pm
i know, it’s your fave show tho. i can come over and pick you up? plenty of charge before the storm gets here, and i’ve got the screener and you can stay the night. you know my moms don’t care
“Hey, I’m gonna go to Emma’s house and sit out the storm with her,” Bells tells his brother.
Simon tilts his head. “I suppose, in the parental role here, I should be asking if it’s all right with her parents and do the thing where…”
Bells rolls his eyes. “I go to Emma’s all the time. Her moms love me.”
Simon clucks his tongue. “I know, huh? So, what is this, do you want the talk or what?”
Bells gapes at him and then elbows his brother in the stomach. “Ew! Gross! I don’t wanna have a talk with you! It was embarrassing enough with Ma; you don’t—”
Simon laughs. “All right, little bro, just playing with you.”
“She’s my friend.” Bells glares.
“Mmmhmm.” Simon gives him a knowing smile. “Okay. I can’t give you a ride, though. I have to take the car to the farm, and the buses aren’t running. And before you say you’re gonna take your super-sexy-secret-superhero motorcycle, I’m gonna warn you that—”
“Storm. I know, Simon. I’m not dumb. Besides, Emma’s gonna pick me up.” He’s already messaging her YES. It doesn’t take long before Bells spots Emma’s little red car coming down the street, but the way his brother is teasing him, it feels like forever.
The rain falls steadily on the dark street. Emma waves as he picks his way down the driveway. Without streetlamps, everything seems precarious.
Bells throws his backpack into the back of Emma’s car and gets in the front seat. “Jess coming?” he asks, out of habit.
“She’s at Abby’s house,” Emma says.
Bells chuckles. “Why did I even ask?”
The drive is eerily silent aside from occasional thunder in the distance. Saving their batteries, most of the town has gone to sleep already.
Emma leads Bells inside. The house is brightly lit. “Oh, we’ve got plenty of energy tonight,” she says. “Tulsa had a super windy day today, and, if they didn’t sell their energy, it’d just go to waste. Come on!”
“Bells! Did you eat dinner?”
“Yes, Mrs. Robledo,” Bells says, giving her a hug. He loves Emma’s moms. “Thanks! Hi, Dr. Gutierrez!”
“How many times have I told you, you can just call us Samantha and Josephine,” Samantha says gently.
Bells rubs the back of his beck. “Ah, okay.” He agrees, one more time, but it’s weird to call adults by their first names, especially people as important as they are. Mrs. Robledo is their regional representative to the Collective government, and Dr. Gutierrez works at Andover Memorial Hospital. Bells really, really can’t use their first names. “How was, uh, New Bright City? Did you go anywhere else?”
“Yeah,” Emma says, perking up. “How are things going with, you know—” She glances around. “The business?”
Samantha rolls her eyes. “For the last time, this house isn’t bugged. My security team made sure of it.”
Josephine laughs. “It’s good to question,” she says, ruffling Emma’s hair. “She gets that from me.” She smacks a noisy kiss on Emma’s cheek.
“Hey!” Emma blushes. “Don’t you have the night shift?”
“I do,” Josephine says, and she kisses her wife goodbye. “Have fun, kids. Don’t stay up too late.”
“Where’s Jess tonight?” Samantha asks.
“At her girlfriend’s house,” Emma says.
Bells laughs as both moms awww and are interrupted by the chime of a DED message. They all look at their own wrists, but it’s Samantha who frowns.
“What, Kingston hounding you again about that damn produce bill?” Josephine sighs and tucks in a stray curl from Samantha’s otherwise-neat bun.
“He’s such a butthead,” Emma says. “You already said no and it’s gonna stay a no. Why is he still bothering you about it?” She shakes her head. “Did you even open that giant present he sent you last week?”
Bells chuckles as both moms give their daughter a stern look.
“No, I just put it in the basement,” Samantha says. “We don’t need any more fancy tech.”
Emma snorts. “Remember when he sent us that new projector console three months before it was released to the public? I mean, cool idea, but totally just trying to butter you up so you’d vote his way on the energy bill.”
“It did not work,” Samantha says, laughing. “And you can’t call the president a butthead.”
Emma lifts her eyebrows.
“He’s a very smart and capable leader who—” Samantha scrolls through the message and scowls. “—doesn’t understand a thing about what the Nevada region needs! Or the Collective! Ugh, this bill is going to be the end of me.” She sighs as Josephine laughs.
“Don’t work too hard. If I come home, and you’re still awake, you’re in trouble.” Josephine nudges Samantha, who goes to her home office.
Emma shakes her head. “Go to work, both of you. Bells and I are gonna watch The Gentleman Detective.”
Bells lets Emma tug him toward her bedroom. Around the holoprojector, she’s built a pillow fort of large, squashy cushions, complete with hanging sheets and fairy lights.
“Pajama time!” Emma singsongs and starts to shrug out of her T-shirt.
Bells blushes, turns around, and busies himself with the projector. This isn’t new; they’ve changed in front of each other before, but it feels new. He tries to not to think about Emma standing in her underwear as her T-shirt and jeans are tossed into the laundry pile. Failing, he blushes even harder, and then grabs his bag and dashes to her en-suite bathroom.
“I’m gonna change in the bathroom,” Bells says, looking at the ceiling, and then shuts the door. It takes him but a few seconds to change into his own T-shirt and sweatpants, and then he counts the tiles on the floor. He waits for a good two minutes, and, to his relief, Emma’s fully dressed. She’s wearing a too-big T-shirt and fluffy fleece pants and sitting on her bed with a series of files displayed on her holoprojector.
Emma pats the spot next to her. “Hey, okay, so I’ve got the new episode, which you haven’t seen, because no one has seen it but Mama just started getting the screeners and I was like, ‘pretty, pretty, please can I get the file for Bells’ and here it is!” Emma gestures proudly.
Bells is suddenly aware of how different this feels without Jess: too close, too intimate. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea; maybe I’ll be more comfortable if—
“Come on, lie down. I’ll start it. Want some popcorn?”
“I’m good.” Bells flops on the bed next to Emma so their shoulders knock.
“You okay?” Emma asks.
“Yeah,” Bells says. “Is this, um, weird for you?”
Emma raises her eyebrow. “Why would it be weird?”
“I—don’t know.”
“Oh, I get it. You miss Jess and think she’s missing out.” Emma nods. “Well, you know some of these episodes go over her head; you know she would ask you to explain some of the plot points.” It’s the usual friendly teasing, and Bells laughs a little and relaxes.
He was just nervous, that’s all. Yes, it’s a different vibe, but a nice different.
Emma rests her head on his shoulder, and Bells throws his arm around her. She curls closer and rests her head perfectly between Bells’ neck and shoulder.
For so long, Bells has been afraid of telling her, of their friendship changing forever. But change is inevitable, right? And he and Emma have been through so much, from pre-school to schoolyard fights to middle school puberty and even surviving a Captain Orion attack. If she doesn’t feel the same way, then she doesn’t feel the same way. They’ll always be friends. After all, there was that phase when Emma really liked The Hay Hays and Bells didn’t, and when they had that huge fight over Pluto, but they made it through.
Emma’s eyes close. Soon, her breathing evens out, and she falls asleep. Bells turns down the volume and watches her sleep. He’ll move in a while and get her a pillow, but until then he wants to wait in this moment, this little forever.
He should tell her how he feels about her. Then he won’t have to wonder what if and spend forever not knowing if they could have gone in that direction.
But not in this moment.
Bells closes his eyes, and soon, he too is asleep.
* * *
Bells wakes up to the persistent ring of a holocall. He blinks groggily but doesn’t move. Emma is sprawled out on his chest, and he can see his DED shaking furiously on the other side of the room.
“Nnn, five more minutes,” Emma mumbles.
The call goes silent, and then Emma’s DED on her wrist chirps. It’s Jess. Bells waves his hand to accept the call, and her smiling contact photo changes to her face in real time, in panic.
“I’ve been trying to get you guys for the past five minutes! Please! Help, it’s Abby. I don’t know what to do!”
The next few minutes are a frantic blur. Bells jostles Emma awake, and they stumble out into the storm. Bells tries to calm Jess, talking to her through the staticky call as he holds an umbrella so Emma can charge her car with the emergency battery.
“She was trying to use her powers, and she says she felt it, and it moved—the cup—she made it wobble, and then she just collapsed!” Jess’ worried hologram wrings her hands.
“Did she hit her head?” Emma asks. “Is she bleeding? Does she know where she is?”
Jess shakes her head. “Didn’t hit her head, isn’t bleeding, but she looks really out of it and can’t move,” she says, panning the camera.
Abby is slumped on the couch; her face is ashen gray. “I… almost had it,” she mutters.
“Okay,” Bells says. “We’re on our way.”
“I’ve got the charge up to fifty percent,” Emma says. “That should be enough to get out there and back.”
“But the whole town is shut down. Where can we go?” Jess asks, wide-eyed.
“The hospital,” Bells says. “Come on.”
Emma frowns. “We can’t let them do any tests on her. They’ll know immediately she’s a meta-human. And then they’ll turn her over to the League!”
Bells opens the car door, gesturing for Emma to get inside. “Are you forgetting who works at the hospital?”
“Doctors? Nurses? Halebots?”
“Your mom!” Bells and Jess say at the same time.
Emma rubs her head. “It’s a really stressful situation, okay!”
“Don’t worry, we’ll be there soon,” Bells tells Jess.
“Okay—”
And then Bells’ DED dies.
With the torrent of rain and the rumble of thunder, the ride is more than a bit terrifying. The car skids and hits the sign that reads, Warning: Now Entering Unmaintained Zone, sending it flying into the night, but Emma just keeps speeding forward.
They almost miss the turn, but finally get through the canyon. At the last bend, the car lights illuminate a rain-sodden Jess, kicking at Abby’s car.
The car’s computer tries to boot up. “System starting…” it repeats.
“That won’t make it go any faster!” he yells at Jess as he tumbles out of the car.
“It makes me feel better!”
Jess hugs Bells and Emma. “I didn’t know what to think when the line went dead.”
“Just ran out of battery,” Bells says. “Were you trying to meet us in town?”
In the front seat, Abby is groaning, struggling to sit up. Jess tucks a lock of Abby’s hair behind her ear. “Is it getting worse? Are you okay?”
“Don’t know. Dizzy.” Abby closes her eyes and sways. Definitely not good. She waves weakly at Emma and Bells.
The three of them help Abby to Emma’s car, and then they speed into the night.
The hospital is an attractive set of green buildings surrounding a small park with rock formations and a cactus garden. The green comes from swirling patches of algae growing in the water-filled glass walls—one of the town’s many vertical protein farms. Bells always thought the blooming trails of green dancing in the water were pretty, but they seem strange at night, opaque and threatening.
The lobby is empty, aside from one man talking about his headache to a Halebot hovering near him in the corner. Abby sinks into a chair, and Jess sits next to her.
Emma eyes dart around. “She recently changed departments. I don’t know where her new one is… Hey, can you tell me where the oncology department is?”
The Halebot slows to a halt in front of Emma. Unlike MonRobots, the Halebots boast soft features. Their work in medicine is mostly in administration, reception, and taking vitals, and they are the size and cuddliness of pillows. A small panel in the front displays a cheerful, smiling icon. “Hello. What seems to be troubling you today?”
“I need to find my mom!”
The Halebot keeps smiling. “I didn’t quite catch that. Can you repeat your request or select one of the following…”
“That way!” Jess points at a set of closed doors.
“Ugh, Halebots,” Abby groans and pushes the fluffy robot aside while it continues to rattle off its list. “They’re good for hugs and taking temperatures, that’s it.”
“Would you like a hug?” The bot floats toward Abby and adopts a comforting tone.
“No, get away,” Abby says, pushing the bot. It floats away, undeterred.
“Your temperature is 100.3 degrees. This is outside the acceptable range. Please follow me to a cubicle, where a nurse will be with you shortly.”
“Ugh, worst A.I. system ever,” Abby says. “Can’t believe you brought me here. I’m surrounded by talking marshmallows.”
Bells bites back a laugh. The Halebots are cute, but it’s probably not a good time to say so. “Jess, stay here and watch Abby. Message me if you need anything. Jess, which way?”
“Right,” Jess says, and directs them to a set of doors. Bells and Emma hurry through to the main hospital. A few doctors hustle past, but they’re too caught up in their work to notice the teens.
“Mom! Mom!” Emma waves frantically.
Josephine Gutierrez looks up from the holodisplay in her hands. “Emma? What are you doing here? You should all be home! Didn’t you hear the warning? There’s no power!”
“It’s Abby,” Bells says. “She’s in the waiting room, and it has to do with—” He lowers his voice to a hushed whisper. “—powers.”
“Right, right, okay.” Dr. Gutierrez waves over two Halebots and types something into their panels. The Halebots re-form into a fluffy stretcher. “These will follow you to get Abby and then bring you to an empty room. I’ll run some tests there.”
“How long do you think it’ll take?” Bells asks.
Emma frowns. “I don’t know.”
The waiting room’s holoprojector is on, and Bells flicks through the channels until he finally turns off the live feed to look for games, anything to distract them.
Muttering softly with her arms crossed, Jess paces the hallway.
Finally, the door opens, and Dr. Gutierrez steps out.
“Mom!” Emma rushes to Josephine, who hugs her tightly.
“Well, it looks like your friend is going to be all right. I’m not entirely sure how the meta-powers influenced this. What do you call it when you exhaust yourself?”
“Being tapped out,” Bells says. “But this is unusual because—”
Dr. Gutierrez nods. “Yes, Jessica updated me on the situation. Without a way to analyze the serum, I cannot speak to how it’s affecting her. It’s clearly dampening her powers, and her attempts to use them are exhausting her more and more.”
“But she’s okay?” Jess asks.
“Yes, she just needs to rest. I’ve given her electrolytes; with some time, she’ll be fine.”
Abby is pale but alert when they visit her. Jess takes her hand and kisses her forehead. “Don’t do that again,” she says.
“Eh,” Abby says. “Did you see that cup move?”
Jess gives her a weak smile and nods fondly. “It did. Just a little.”
“You scared us there,” Bells says, fluffing up her pillow.
Emma nods. “You heard what my mom said, right? The more you try, the more you’re going to make yourself sick.”
Abby offers a weak smile. “But if I don’t try, I won’t know, will I?”