Epilogue

It came to an 'end' faster than it had started.

I was in Marco's restaurant walking around when the place got quiet. People stood up from their meals and walked to the bar area. The wait-staff and busboys were also congregating. Curious, I mentally pushed people aside to get me a prime spot in front of the TV.

The President was ... telling it all. I breathed a sigh of relief!

The people the President called to the podium were using small words and some had accents, but they laid it out plainly.

No more sex.

No more babies.

We watched in silence as they showed an in-vitro attempt to fertilize an egg. The scientist placed the sperm on top of the egg but nothing happened.

The final speaker was the Director of something they called The Department Of Procreation. His words were stark and unforgiving--the extinction of the human race. I waited, knowing he would be the one to drop the final revelation.

Positives.

I sighed again! There were more than me: people who could read minds, people who could control emotions in others, people with JACKED UP pheromones, and something about people who could control others by some unknown symbol language only they could see.

"You're one of them!" Mary exclaimed.

I turned my head towards her slowly. People stared at me for a second before backing away.

"Yes," I whispered into their minds. "I am a Positive."

People gasped; some of them fled the restaurant. They actually ran away from me!

"You were controlling me!" Mary screamed. "You made me break up with Matt, didn't you?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Stop!"

Everyone froze.

"Get out!" I commanded to the ones whose minds had turned to violence against me. I watched them leave before looking at Mary.

"No," I told her.

"You're lying!"

I smiled. "I might have accelerated the process but without sex Matt and you didn't have a prayer."

"YOU'RE LYING!"

"Stop yelling," I said. "I can read minds, Mary."

I waited, but she didn't get it.

"You were not happy with him," I told her. "You weren't going to make it. Don't bother lying! I can hear the truth in your mind. You know I'm right!"

I looked around the restaurant. I needed to watch the rest of the broadcast.

"Go home, people!" I said. "Watch it from home if you want to but I need silence."

I waved the bartender to get me an ice water and sat in front of the TV.

"What did you say to Mary?" Adriana asked me an hour later. The girls had come down; they were sitting around me.

"Orphan Teams," I said. "They sent out soldiers to raid orphanages around the world."

"How did they keep something like that quiet?" Adriana asked.

I smiled at her.

She snorted and rubbed my shoulder. "I guess someone like you does make keeping secrets easier."

I nodded.

"They're asking Positives to come in, Simon," she whispered. I could see the concern written on her face.

"You think we need to run?"

Adriana watched the broadcast for another hour. A general gave operational information about the Orphan Teams and the work they'd done.

"Those two," Adriana said finally. She pointed to the Director of the Department of Procreation and a woman who stood behind him.

"What about them?" I asked.

"He's the brains behind the government's reaction to it," she told me. "She's like you!"

"How can you tell that about her?"

"You stand the same way--taking it all in," Adriana said. "Other people are also walking in and out, but the President and those two have been on-screen the entire time."

I nodded.

"I wonder if they forced the other political party to agree or..." She shook her head.

"So we run, Adriana?"

She sat still for a second. I pulled out of her mind as fast as I could before she drowned me in the whirlwind of thought.

"They kidnapped kids and locked the media down," Adriana said. "They're being honest about it, Simon! It means they're willing to be honest about a lot of bad things so they can hide the REALLY bad things they've done or are going to do."

I winced, remembering the murders I committed.

She smiled widely.

"What?" I asked.

"I bet they're going to offer a pardon for any sins that a Positive might have committed," she told me. "They're going to phrase it nicely ... they 'understand' mistakes were made as people adjusted to the new circumstances of life."

I turned to the television. Adriana was right! Around midnight, they got more into the Positive Powers and phrased a pardon offer EXACTLY how Adriana predicted.

"You're more powerful than the mind-reader they put on display, Simon," Adriana said suddenly.

I shrugged. "They might be hiding something."

"I bet that bitch is more powerful," Adriana told me, pointing to the woman standing behind the DOP director. "But they would try to impress people so he can't be THAT weak. You nearly double his range now."

My power had continued to grow beyond the county limits.

"We need to setup somewhere to run to," Adriana said. "An island so you can cover all of it with your power if they come after us."

I smiled, knowing her next step. "Then we go down to Washington and see what I can hear."

"Yes," she said. "Maybe we can get close to the President or this Director."

"We'll have to be careful," I said. "They're going to have them covered."

"Not everybody," she replied.

"Like hookers," I said.

"There are no more hookers, Simon."

"I did not say prostitutes," I replied. "It is Washington!"

I didn't remember ever hearing Adriana laugh.

The bus driver parked in front of the building. We'd followed a tree-lined driveway for nearly a mile before we got to an open area. I wondered whose building the Department of Procreation had taken over. The grounds were impressive and the building was massive. Construction crews were also erecting other buildings around the open area.

I stepped out of the bus after my women did--none of the prostitutes chose to stay behind. The women lined up by the bus. A rat-face guy was inspecting Adriana in a rather rude and handsy fashion. He had a mental shield! I'd seen a few during my days of scanning Washington politicos.

"She's with me," I told him. His brow furrowed as he stared at me. He leaned towards me.

Adriana's mind had stopped!

"Sleep!" I told the rat-face. He took a step back. My command had not gotten through his shield.

I smiled at him. "SLEEP!"