Chapter 12

Cory McCloud stood guard, wrapped in his lead-lined poncho, and looked out over the magnificent mountains and valleys. The Appalachians were beautiful and peacefully magnificent, but the Rockies were magnificently harsh – each upthrust detail and stark cliff face crisp and visible – and completely inspiring to any soul who gazed upon them.

In the three weeks that his unit had been traveling across the continent, Cory had seen many sights that shook him deep inside. He'd never realized how large America was, even though he had trampled all over the wondrous green mountains and valleys of West Virginia and Tennessee. The army avoided the empty cities except for small squads that foraged for canned goods in the early morning or early evening of each day while the remainder were either setting up or taking down their protective lead-lined tents and shelters.

He reached the end of his assigned section, still watching carefully for any signs of motion, and turned to go back. He jumped and nearly fell over when he saw the incredibly beautiful and completely naked blonde sitting on a rock, watching him.

"Hi," Tanya said, smiling.

"Holy..." Cory began. "Uh, wow! Uh, Miss, you shouldn't be out here in the ... uh, sun. It isn't healthy." 'Wow! Talk about healthy! Holy shit that is the most incredible... '

Tanya laughed as she felt his emotions flow over her. His boyish lust was a real turn-on for the hundred-and-forty-year-old girl.

"You're HER!" he exclaimed, swinging his rifle around and pointing it at the naked blonde. "The Wicked Seductress! The Devil Girl!"

"Well!" Tanya exclaimed, trying not to laugh. "You mean I have my own religion?" Tanya stood up and delicately stepped down off the rock she'd been sitting on, not paying any attention to the rifle in the nervous young lad's hands. She looked up and noticed that it was pointed right at her. Smiling, she began to walk toward him.

The rifle vanished! 'Hey! Put that back!'

Cory was slowly backing away, his mind a boiling cauldron of fear and lusty desire. The fear had increased a lot now that his rifle had disappeared.

"Tell me, you sweet boy," Tanya cooed at the retreating guard, "What do they say about me?"

"T-t-they s-say," Cory stuttered and tried valiantly to bring his unreasoning fear of her under control. "S-say that you s-seduce the guards, then steal everything they're trying to p-protect!"

"That it?" Tanya complained, pretending to be insulted. "No ... sucking your soul out, or leaving you with such unfulfilled desire that no other woman will do?"

"Well, yeah," he admitted. "I ... I heard t-that, too!"

"Surely you don't believe that," she said softly, taking another step toward him.

Cory looked around, desperately hoping he'd see his rifle on the ground. He didn't. "I-I didn't, never b-believed you were real!"

He flinched as she touched his cheek. He felt her mind flood into his and find his images of laughing with his squad members, each one bragging about what they would do to her if she came to them.

"You'd really tie me up and titty-fuck me?" she murmured, almost laughing. "How sweet!"

'The supplies are in the flattop next to the command bunker, ' she thought at Béla.

'Okay – let's go!'

"Sorry I can't stay," Tanya whispered to the poor, trembling boy. She kissed him full on the lips, then vanished.

It was darker in the supply tent and it took a moment for Tanya's eyes to adjust.

"This is fucking ammo!" she heard Béla curse. "Where's the food?"

Casting about with her mind, Tanya felt another guard standing outside. He was holding a device in his hand and pointing it at the flattop tent surrounding them. "It's a trap!" she yelped and vanished again.

She teleported out behind the guard and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him to the ground. The little remote in his hand went flying. There were pounding boots coming up from behind her – several, in fact. She looked around quickly and spied the remote. It vanished. An instant later, so did she.

'The food is already loaded into the trucks, ' she heard Béla say in her mind.

'They knew we were coming!' Tanya thought back. 'We shouldn't take the trucks anywhere vital – they might be booby trapped!'

One girl at each end of the truck, they teleported it outside the entrance to their mountain.

"Can you do one more?" Béla asked, already feeling the energy drain on her body.

"Yeah!" Tanya panted. They teleported one more truck, then collapsed to the ground, exhausted. Tanya passed completely out and found herself dreamwalking inside the trailer.

'Hmm. The nice thing about dreamwalking is you don't need light to see, ' she thought as she perused over boxes of canned goods and dried vegetables.

Creating an image of the Phoenix's cargo hold, she began moving boxes from the trailer to the orbiting ship. She didn't even have to pick any of them up – she simply moved the image of the cargo hold over each box and watch as it vanished.

She could feel Béla dreamwalking in the other trailer and doing the same thing. They had both trailers almost empty, now.

"Get out! NOW!" Lisa screamed into Tanya's mind.

She felt Béla receive the alarm as well, and teleported her sleeping body into the image of the Phoenix's cargo hold. Béla didn't appear, so Tanya, still dream-walking, returned to the entrance into the mountain.

At least, she tried to. She dropped into a vast fireball of nuclear energy expanding rapidly upward into the stratosphere.

Terrified, she teleported into Solar City. Everything was shaking and the roof of the vast cavern was caving in and falling...

No. The cave roof was flat, now, resting against...

'Tabatha! Thank God!'

Tabatha had created a time-shield around the central part of the city. A dozen people whom she'd been unable to protect had been killed as the cave collapsed around the edges of the city, but most of the populace had been returning from work and were at the centrally located food stations for their evening meals.

Returning to her body, Tanya woke up on the floor of the cargo hold and physically teleported down to Solar City.

"Tanya!" Frank yelled with joy when he saw her. "You're all right!"

"Yeah," she replied, barely able to talk with his arms so tightly around her. "What happened?"

"They booby-trapped everything!" Lisa exclaimed angrily. "The food was booby-trapped and the guards were misinformed as to where stuff was. I thought I'd lost Tabby until I got back here. She must have time-walked because I couldn't find her anywhere. Then the bomb went off at the front gate and I had to go back and warn you and Mom..."

"Thank you, Lisa," Tanya exclaimed and hugged her into Frank's embrace. "You saved my butt – again!"

The three of them radiated their joy that they all had survived the Confederacy's vile trickery. Then Tanya started to faint from exhaustion, almost pulling the other two down.

"Hey, Sweetheart," Frank asked anxiously. "You okay?"

"Hungry, dizzy," Tanya panted, not able to catch her breath. Frank and Lisa helped her sit down. Weak and weary, Tanya looked around at the survivors. Béla was sitting, slumped like Tanya. The two Jakes were both solicitously spooning food into her as fast as she could swallow.

Tanya's numb reverie was interrupted a moment later as Frank returned carrying two platefuls of something. 'Oh, joy! Beans – again ... Yay! A chunk of meat! Alright!'

Lisa was helping. She'd loaded him up with dishes and was now unloading him, placing several hot dishes right in front of Tanya. She sat down and started shoveling food into her face, not waiting to see what Tanya wanted. Chuckling tiredly, Tanya pulled the nearest plate of beans and cornbread closer and began to eat.

"Jake wants a debriefing as soon as you girls are ready," Frank told both of them as he sat down.

Lisa looked up, frowning. "I'm going to tell them there is no military threat anymore. I won't need fifteen minutes to finish them off!"

"No!" Tanya exclaimed wearily. "Let's decide as a group! We should stick together."

Lisa fumed. Her voice shook with emotion and rage. "I thought I lost Tabby! I couldn't find her anywhere! I timewalked back and saw her disappear from inside the truck she was searching, then it blew up! That's when I knew she was okay. I went back again and teleported the truck back to where we found it as soon as Tabby teleported out. It blew up right in the middle of their camp!"

"You wiped out the entire army?" Tanya asked, stunned.

"I didn't stay to find out," Lisa replied. "I figured if our stuff was booby-trapped, yours probably was, too. By the time I got there, everything was vaporized. I time-walked back to warn you. And, no, I didn't get an image of what you were thinking when you died, this time!"

Frank laughed nervously at that. Tanya just sighed, obviously disappointed.

"You faker!" Lisa exclaimed at Tanya's fake depression. "You didn't even think of it until I told you!"

Béla came over and sat down with them. "Feeling better?"

"Yes," Tanya replied. "Thanks to Lisa, we're still around, huh?"

"I know," Béla replied. "Sweetheart, you make a good backup, even if you don't have your 'phoenix' abilities."

"She sure does," Tanya replied when Lisa didn't say anything. "There's a debriefing?"

"Yes," Béla replied. "In about five minutes."

Lisa turned and looked at her mom. "Good! I won't be gone that long..." She vanished. A moment later she reappeared. Her body was warm like she'd been out in the sun.

"Where'd you go?" Tanya asked cheerfully.

An image of Tanya being vaporized and the single instant of her awareness that it was happening before she dissolved.