The panel truck containing Fathom reached a garage. JACK'S GARAGE said the sign out front.

     A call must've been made. The tall, aluminum doors that led into the garage opened. The panel truck rolled in, after which the door again immediately closed. 

     Shouldn't be that hard to get into, Trevor thought. 

     First, he utilized his anti-gravs to check out the roof, see if there were any skylights, anything like that.

     Nope. Nothing. 

     That meant going in through one of the three doors he found besides that one huge aluminum door. He tried the knob on each of them.

​     All locked. 

     Okay. He went to the door he figured would be the least trafficked and got out his laser-knife. He opened the door, then darted through it, pitching sharply to the left in case any militia people converged on the door.

     As it turned out, no one even looked in his direction. 

     He saw two militia vehicles, a panel truck and a SUV.

     He saw maybe a dozen militia members.

     He saw Fathom. She stood with the others. Her eyes darted this way and that.

     One guy sat at a table looking at a computer screen. The second Trevor focused on him, the guy looked up and all but shouted, "Extreme emergency! 5th and Greatway! Power Patriots roll!"

​     "Roll!" everyone else in the room shouted as one.

     As one of the women leaped into a panel truck, she turned to Fathom and yelled, "You're free now! You've been saved by the Power Patriots! Don't ever forget that!"

     Thirty seconds later, Fathom and Trevor were the only two people left in the garage.

     He flew to her.

     "Hi," he said, returning to visibility.

     Fathom screamed.

     "Did they hurt you at all?" he asked.

     "Get away from me!"

     "But..."

​     "Leave me alone!" 

     "But I'm friend of Niki's! Niki Creole's!" 

     "Who?"

     "That woman I was with. You didn't recognize her?" 

     "Of course I didn't...She...You all came at me so..." 

     And that's when it hit her. That's when she began to remember. The year before...She'd spent the night with a woman, and they'd gone absolutely crazy, sexually speaking, on each other. She remembered, in particular, the woman strapping on a dildo to come at Fathom from behind in front of a full-length mirror while taking swigs from the wine bottle they shared, although what really made that night special was that it felt, at the time, like so much more than mere sex. It felt like two people falling in love, so...so...    

     Oh yes. Now she remembered Niki.

     Warm memories flooded over Fathom then. They'd met through friends over beers, and they really did fall head over  heels in love with each other in, like, two hours, like it was some sort of cosmic thing or something. They parted as Lovers For Life, but, then, later that day, after a couple of very weird phone calls, Niki seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth. (Which, in fact, is exactly what she did.) That'd been Niki she'd just seen, that she'd just screamed in terror at. She'd watched as Niki took a cement block to the skull, and...and...oh no. Oh no. Fathom suddenly felt ill. That was Niki! Fear as powerful as a lightning bolt made Fathom quiver, but not fear for herself this time, but for the woman she loved and thought she'd lost forever.

​     She felt afraid for Niki. 

     Trevor said, "Fathom, listen, I'd love to explain to you exactly where Niki and I have been for the last year..."

​     "Niki and you?"

     "No no, it's nothing like that. We're partners, Niki and me. We've been training together for the last...Listen, I really shouldn't be taking the time to go into all of this right now. I know you're scared, Fathom. Everyone's scared today. Today is scared day. It's really all I can do to keep my own panic tamped down right now, but...You've got to trust me, Fathom. Please."

     "Who are you again? What's your name?" 

     "I'm Trevor. Trevor Harper." 

     "And you're the one...a couple years ago..."

     "That's another long story." 

​     "Get me out of here, Trevor. Keep me safe." 

     "Let's go find Niki."

     "How?"

​     "Jump on my back and hold on tight..." 

     "...we're going places." 

                                                           CONTINUE