quickly wiped them away. She leaned her head back to wait for the pain to recede. Finally, Emily pulled back onto the highway and continued her journey. Hopefully, she’d temporarily thrown them off her track and bought herself some more time.
Chapter 6
Jeremy had just finished speaking to his mother when Skylar awakened in the back seat of the truck. After expending so much time and effort lugging his friend’s unconscious body to his vehicle, he was reluctant to return to the house even though his condition made driving extremely dangerous. If he tried driving to the hospital, Jeremy was likely to lose consciousness during a critical point and end up in a fatal accident.
“I’m going back inside,” Skylar said.
“Wait a second,” Jeremy said. “We need to do something.”
“No doctor can help us. We’re suffering from some sort of brain trauma. Some people gained a psychic ability while others received a death sentence.” Skylar shoved the door open and stumbled out of the truck.
Jeremy shook his head with exasperation and immediately hundreds of voices pummeled his mind. He followed his friend back into the house and they gathered in the living room. Dizziness and fatigue seeped into Jeremy’s body and blackness crept along the edge of his vision. He barely had time to lean back before losing consciousness. The next thing he knew, he was sitting up on the floor beside the couch. Jeremy took stock of his surroundings then picked himself up off the floor. Skylar was seated at his desk typing swiftly on his desktop computer.
“How long was I out?” Jeremy asked.
“About ten minutes or so,” Skylar said in a distracted tone.
“What are you doing?” Jeremy peered over his friend’s shoulder at the large, flat-screen monitor.
A blog page on an internet site filled the screen as Skylar perused the information.
“I’m reading everything posted during the last three days that pertains to telepathy,” Skylar said.
“Why?”
“I’m hoping someone knows something.”
“Interesting,” Jeremy said even though just the opposite was true.
He sincerely doubted that anyone afflicted with their condition had discovered any useful information for medical treatment.
“You’d be surprised what you could learn by surfing the net,” Skylar said.
Jeremy sprawled on the couch and wondered what he should do. He turned on the television and tuned into the news.
“Would you mind turning that down? Everyone’s thoughts are loud enough,” Skylar said.
“Sorry,” Jeremy apologized.
He knew exactly what hundreds of strangers’ thoughts pummeling at one’s mind could do. He immediately turned the sound down to a very low volume. Electrical storms continued to beat at the Midwest and the Southeastern portions of the United States. Missouri, Nebraska, Florida, and Georgia were now in a state of emergency because of the devastation and continual onslaught of electrical damage. The rest of the electrical storms had dissipated except for much of the Middle East countries and North Africa. Anecdotal stories on psychic phenomenon continued to sprinkle over the news broadcasts as well as live demonstrations. Jeremy was astonished by some of the footage. The most impressive demonstration was performed by a middle-aged woman who was lifting small objects randomly chosen by the reporter and a couple of volunteers and causing these objects to spin madly and glide through the air.
Other demonstrations included those who could apparently read thoughts with ease and individuals who could somehow absorb information from objects pertaining to former owners. Jeremy was fascinated by the telepaths who seemed to suffer no ill effects from their newfound abilities. So far, there were no stories that mentioned any afflictions like the kind that plagued him and Skylar. However, patients who’d lost consciousness during the initial outbreak of the world-wide electrical storms but had failed to awaken flooded the