Chapter 7: Gravel

Sally looked at the strange machines that ringed the prison, she had never seen the like of them. When they had arrived on the first day at the prison where the soldiers had placed her, she’d ran and hid in her tent, terrified of the things that were as big as a train engine and roared like monsters. Some of the other strangers with her called them tanks, barrels, land cruisers and other strange names. she had mostly listened, being able to only speak slowly and indistinctly.

There were twenty people like her being held by the people of the land. The other prisoners, each one inhuman and often monstrous, spoke English, at least a little. Most of the accents were hard to understand, and a few couldn’t speak at all having no working mouths, but could listen and understand what was being said. The soldiers of the United States of America, said that they had been put together for that reason, and that they would find better living quarters soon.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about what was going on. The room she had been given was better than her old home, they could eat more than most merchants of her town, and no one yelled at her or beat her. she should have been happy, but her body seemed to be wrapped in thick cloth, it was hard to really feel anything. For the first two days she’d broken almost everything she had touched, being so much stronger then before and not able to tell how hard she was gripping something, it had been a long and embarrassing learning experience. Even after a week of practice, she still had to remind herself how to move gently. The food was another problem, she couldn’t eat anything. she could chew it and kind of smell it, but there was no real taste, and the food passed through her stone body being ground up as it went for no purpose. On the third day Sally had simply stopped eating, and still wasn’t hungry.

Some of the other prisoners were in the same situation.

“Anything new?” Alain asked in a whisper, his accent barely comprehensible even after she had been listening to him for hours each day since he arrived three day ago.

“No,” she rumbled, turning her sandy head to look at Alain who was more like a whirlwind than anything else.

A blurry face made of leaves and dust appeared where a head would be on a tall man. “We have visitors who just arrived. They’re talking about… about… ah yes, a program. A way out.”

“You can go easy,” she told the windstorm.

“Go where? Do what? No one to speak of. No reason. Here, I have friends, books, tv. Good. We go see this program?” she asked.

Sally thought about it briefly. she still wasn’t sure what was going on. Was she dead and this was a test? Was she really in some new world like she had been told by the leaders? Was she sick and having fever dreams? she didn’t know. What she did know was that she wanted to get away from the dangerous machines. she wanted to be doing something rather than watching the pictures on tv, and struggling to read the books provided to them. If this was a test, she wouldn’t pass it by waiting.

“Lets go find the people,” she said slowly, and began lumbering off to the square were announcements were made and information could be found.

They reached the square where soldiers were setting up a speaker on the small podium. A horn sounded, summoning everyone to attend the coming speech. There were a few benches, specially reinforced for those who were heavier than regular people, she took a seat in the front row while Alain settled into a little dust devil beside her.

The others came along quickly or slowly depending on their attitudes and how they moved. Washington came roaring up on four wheels that had replaced his hands and feet, his thin, steel body somehow staying upright as he spun in a circle creating a cloud of dust, a handsome faceof silver glared at everyone around him. A giant of a person with six heads, four women and two men, came out of a tent in an ungainly movement of legs and arms, no one knew the name for the person, when it spoke it was an unintelligible gabble of noise from every head at once, but they understood English well enough. The legs seemed divided on where to go and the thing almost fell a few times until they came to an agreement and sat on a bench half sitting, half straddling it. A flock of blue jay size birds each with an identical human head flew over and sat on the nearest tent, squawking and talking to each other in high pitched, rapid English. The others, the scaled and furred people, the ones who were more machine than human, the girl made out of water who lost her shape every few feet and had to reform from a puddle, clutching her plastic robe to hide her nakedness, a person who crackled with lightening every time he moved, and more. The last one to arrive was a beautiful woman whose face and chest drew the eye, only to transform at the belly into a sluglike creature oozing mucus and moving with a strange undulating movement, her wrists were heavily bandaged.

A man wearing a strange suit which didn’t resemble any of the soldiers or their commanders got onto the podium. “Thank you for coming so promptly. I’m Mr. Walters, a liaison from the US government. Now I’m sure you are all eager to leave the camp and begin rebuilding your lives as best you can, we want to help you in this process. You have all acted admirably in a terrifying situation and now you are going to be given two options each of which will let you regain at least some type of normal life.”

Sally leaned forward, not understanding everything Mr. Walters was saying, but most of it was easy enough to follow.

“As you have been told we’re dealing with many people such as yourselves coming from other worlds. Not all of them are friendly. We are offering anyone who is willing, a chance to join the Hero Initiative. You will be trained to use your abilities and to help others who can’t help themselves. You will be well paid during your training, and once you have successfully completed your training you will work for the government for five years. Your pay will be increased, you will have legal identities and be able to live in a town or city where you will be seen as heroes by your friends and neighbours. The training will be two months long.” he waited for the crowd to quiet down. Sally was very interested in this and she knew several more people would be as well.

“This will not be easy, and if you fail the training you will not be hired. You will have to obey orders, follow strict rules and work very hard to succeed. So think carefully about this. You will also have to talk to several people to make sure you are right for the job. If these people say you can’t do it, you will not be accepted.” Again he had to wait while murmurs and questions arose.

“If you cannot or choose not to join the Hero Initiative, don’t worry. We have a second plan to slowly introduce you to others. This is slower and will take about a year to accomplish. Special doctors will work with you to teach you how to use your powers safely, and how our society works if your home was different from ours. You will not be paid, but you will be cared for. When you are ready to enter society we will give you identification, make sure you have a job and a home, and will continue helping you adjust. This is slower, but it is also safer,” he stressed. “Whatever happens we will not turn you away, or leave you to die. We don’t work like that and as long as you obey the laws, we will do whatever we can to reasonably help you.

“We are working with camps like this all over the country, and only a limited number of people will be accepted at first. You have until tomorrow at noon to sign up for the program and enter it in the next few days. After that you will have to wait until we are able to expand the program or someone leaves it. This will take at least one month, probably longer. Soldiers will give you information packets as you leave here, and you can ask for more details at anytime. At supper tonight you can sign up at the cafeteria, as well as tomorrow at breakfast and the beginning of lunch. Once your name is on the list simply wait and we will begin tomorrow afternoon.” he gave a small smile. “Thank you, and no matter what remember we only want to make your move into society as easy as possible. Please be patient and everything will work out in the end. Have a good day.”

With that the man left the stage and headed for the gate leading to the soldiers living areas. A soldier gave Sally a booklet which seemed very thick to her, and from the title would be very hard, if not impossible, to read. It didn’t matter, as soon as she had heard about helping others, she knew what her test was. she could hardly wait for supper.

**

“So you were accepted to?” Alain asked as they waited in line to talk to a doctor for the mind, that they called a psychologist.

“Yes. I told them I was sixteen. They tried to take blood. Listen to my heart, and more. The doctor stopped. He said I was a healthy rock,” she said, speaking slowly enough that it took over a minute to finish the sentence.

The dust devil roared with laughter, his voice joined by the light breeze blowing through the camp. When he was back under control, he reformed his face, using old cigarette butts. “My doctor took one look at me and said if I wasn’t dead yet, nothing would kill me. Best doctor ever.”

The line moved up as a flock of birds flew into one of the tents, while a spider man stormed out, spitting something that smoked and bubbled in the dirt, soldiers followed him at a discrete distance. Sally realized that this mind doctor could be more important then she had thought. “What does a psy- psych-, this doctor do?” she asked, frustrated at tripping over the new word.

“If it is like my world, the psychiatrist will ask you questions about how you feel, why you feel that way, and what you want to do. I never went, I think they’re all ducks. Not real, not good.”

“What should I tell them?” Sally asked, her fingers melding into her hands and reforming.

“Tell them you want to help. That you want to make a new life for yourself. That you want a purpose. What you have told me should be good,” Alain assured her.

“Really?”

“Yes. I think you are honest, and want to help people. Follow that.”

“Thank you.”

A metal man left a tent and a soldier waved for Sally to enter. Nervously, she entered the tent and sat down in the solid metal chair. A woman wearing clothes of a fabric she didn’t recognize, and large, dark circles around her eyes, sat behind a desk. Sally was surprised because no woman in her world would be placed in an important job like this, and everyone she had seen from this world had been men, so she had assumed it was the same.

“Hello Sally Jessup, I’m Dr. Miriam Yates. I’m going to ask you a few questions and would like you to answer me honestly. Do you understand?” the woman asked.

“Yes.”

“What did you do back on your world?”

“I was a miner. I pulled copper and rocks in the tunnels,” she said.

Dr. Yates, looked at her notes and nodded as if confirming something. “Do you have any experience fighting?”

She shook her head.

“So why do you want to join this program when you will be fighting?”

She tried to think about how to answer in a way that made sense. “I want to help people. In my world, I couldn’t do anything. Couldn’t help others, or me. I was weak, poor, and a girl. I couldn’t do anything without being told, STOP. Now, I am not weak, I am not even a girl. I am something strong. God has given me power. To not use it would be a sin. Now you are giving me a chance. I want to take it, to help.” She slumped in the chair, exhausted from speaking so much.

Something on her desk beeped. Sally didn’t even jerk at the unexpected sound, she’d seen so many strange miracles over the last few days, that the machine people called a miniphone, wasn’t enough to even make her blink anymore.

“Dr. Ya-” the woman started to say, before a tiny voice on the other end cut her off. After a few seconds, “Yes sir, I am speaking to them now.” Dr. Yates became pale, her hands shook. “Are you serious? But sir, I can’t just accept them all, some of them are not stable.” The voice on the other end spoke louder, sounding angry.

“Very well, sir. I’ll do that immediately,” Dr. Yates finally said, in a voice that was filled with anger. Putting the miniphone down, she smiled at Sally. “I have good news, you’ve been accepted. You will be going tomorrow to your training camp. A file is being prepared, but I can tell you now that your team leader is a hero called Fire Dancer.”

Sally scratched her head needlessly, she hadn’t been itchy since her change, but nervous habits died hard. “That is everything?”

“Yes. Congratulations,” Dr. Yates said, sounding anything but enthusiastic.

From over the loud speakers outside, the camp commander could be heard. “Attention. Due to further consideration, everyone who has applied for the Hero Initiative has now been accepted. Please be ready to leave tomorrow morning immediately following breakfast. You will be given your individual assignments within the hour.”

Numbly, Sally left the tent, Alain was waiting for her. “This is no good,” he said, in a low voice.

“Why not?” she asked.

“Look around.”

She did so, the soldiers were talking to each other, their formerly impassive faces seemed tenser, angrier, and they held their weapons more tightly.

“They’re scared, something bad has happened.”

Her body shifted shape uncontrollably, becoming larger, the stones mixed in with the dirt erupted outwards, as if forming armour. “What can we do?”

“Train, and hope they don’t send us to our death too soon,” her friend answered.

**

Sally sat in the back of a plane. She’d been told they could fly like a balloon, but much, much faster, yet seeing the things take off, being inside one as it went into the sky was terrifying. She kept her shut, whispering every prayer she knew, hoping that the journey would end soon. She was glad there weren’t windows on the plane, if she could have seen outside, the panic might have become overpowering.

The plane landed, but the soldier traveling with her said to stay where she was. The hatch on the side of the plane opened and an ordinary looking young man stepped in. He was wearing blue denim trousers, and a short sleeved shirt with a picture of a black skinned demon on it. She leaned away from him, thinking about what the priests and adults back home would say about the shirt.

“Holy shit! What is that?” the young man shouted upon seeing her sandy body.

She couldn’t blame him, she tried to make her body pleasant looking, spending over an hour that morning molding her face by hand. Most of her body was made of soft, brown sand and light clay, with dark black soil trailing from her scalp and down her back like hair. Two pretty pink stones made up her eyes. There were rocks inside of her to help her speak in her slow, grinding way. Alain had said she was pretty when he had seen her, she had hoped, even prayed a little that people wouldn’t shy away from her.

But as she saw in the eyes of the newcomer it had all been in vain. She was glad she could no longer cry.

“Your partner, Sally Jessup,” the soldier said. “Sally, this young man is Tony Alan, he’s on your training team.”

She waved at him, forming her useless lips into a smile that she didn’t feel.

“Uh, hi,” he said, standing by the door nervously.

The soldier closed the hatch, and motioned at the benches on the side of the plane. “Sit down and buckle up, we take off in five minutes.”

Tony sat across from her. “So… where are you from?”

“A town called Penance,” she said. He seemed to be annoyed at how long it took for her to talk. “You can do what?”

“What?” he asked not understanding. As she tried to think of how to say it quickly, understanding came to him. “Oh you mean my power. I can become part of a machine, like cars and things. Can’t do it with computers for some reason.”

“Co… compu-ters?” She wondered if things would ever start making sense in this new world.

“You didn’t have computers in your world?”

She shook her head, her body became smaller, compacting down, trying to hide. To the people around her, she was little better than one of the fallen barbarians who lived beyond the borders of her old home.

“Did you have cars, or planes or anything?”

“We have trains.”

He leaned his head back as the plane began to move. “What can you do?” he finally asked.

“I am a stone. I don’t eat or breath. I can change my body, or make a new one.” She held up her hand, turning her fingers into thick claws, then a club, and finally a hand again.

“Holy crap,” Tony whispered, while the blood drained from his face.

Again she felt a cut at her soul. She had thought her team would be impressed by her abilities, they would see her as valuable if nothing else. That hope was ripped away in less then a second. She’d never been one of the beauties in her town, and having the men looking at her didn’t interest her, but there had never been the hatred and disgust that was becoming so common place whenever someone looked at her. She was now more certain than ever that she was dead and this was a test.

The plane began to speed up. Sally closed her eyes again, her arms joined with her torso. The soft sand that formed her body smoothed out and hardened, making her look like an unearthly statue. Her consciousness huddled in the center of it, cutting her off from all but the barest sensations. She didn’t know how the coming tests would take shape, she had to be ready for anything. But as she sat in her shell, waiting for the strange ride to end, she realized that trying to be human was a waste of effort, better to save her strength for whatever had the spirits around her so scared.