Chapter 17

"Ahh!!!" I yell, as I sit abruptly up, passing through Gabe's head.

"Eww..." He says, with a smile on his face.

"Emmanuel!" I turn around, and see Emily. She tries to give me a hug, but instead passes through me and hugs Katie instead. She quickly scrambles up, blushing.

"Where, what, uh, why, wha, wha?" I managed. This made no sense. I was on the parking lot ground, and Master bugging the sh*t out of me.

"We found you. Knocked out on the computer. Make any sense?" Gabe said. I looked around. I was in the basement, lying on the floor. Gabe on my left, Emily on my right, Katie with her head right above mine, giving you the weird I'm looking at you upside-down vertigo style feeling.

"Katie, stop doing that," I snapped. She eased out of view. "And no, Gabe, that made no sense."

"I was listening in on your dream. I think Master knocked you out on that computer, and made you see the two boys and car thingamajig. I could feel another, much darker, being there." I tried to get up. My legs felt weak, and my arms felt like putty. I lifted myself up unto the piano, with the help of Gabe and Em. 

"Where's Nick and Matt?" I asked. Sounded more like a whimper.

"Well, well, Ghost, " he says sarcastically. Emily punches him in the shoulder. "Nick caught the idea, and got the measurements of your baskyard, and found that your chickens produce about three eggs a day, great, probably enough for fertilizing the back yard."

"What is he fertilizing? Are we eating grass?"

"He found some packets of seeds when we went raiding the plants and growth section of Walmart."

"And?"

"See for yourself. He's been hoping it's alright with you, but if it's not, it's a bit too late to turn back..."

"Show me,"I demand. I lean on Emily as Gabe opens the glass sliding door. I walk over, occasionally literally falling through Emily's arms. When I got there, the sun shone down from above, and the grass that was once here had disappeared.

The soil was turned, plowed into stripes. I know, that sounds horrible, but I've only seen the pictures of farms. I don't know what they call them. Nick had taken his glasses off, wearing somewhat familiar boots, and a pair of jeans a size too large for him. I guess that was sort of the point. He was hoeing (ha, lol to all of you slang pervs) the ground, or should I say tilling (lol, guys) the earth. His dirt brown hair plastered against his hair, sleeves rolled up to his elbows. I see Matt off to my right, holding a plastic bag with what I guess are seeds, dropping them in a few at a time.

I was stunned. Nick had thought of everything before hand. Now we have a slightly more sustainable food source. Now we have the problem of looters who get really desperate. I was hoping this would all blow over in a few months, but apparently not.

Nick stands up straight, and seems to just realize I was watching him.

"Hey, Emmanuel!" He waves an arm around. I weakly wave back to him. 

"What else do I need to know?" I asked Gabe.

"Well, not much, if you want to include the fact that Collin has been into, some, ah, suspicious activity." Gabe replied, Sherlock style.

"And who told you to go looking in on Collin and Keva?" Although, it would be nice to know what they were up to...

"Oh, the usual," he said lazily. "Making deals with neighborhood gangs, -"

"That's going to be a major problem." I commented.

"I've been pulling in favors as well, Mr. Lo. He's also been traveling to and from farms-

"For food, probably"

"Moscow,-"

"Firearms"

"And the airport."

"Wait, how did you manage to follow them?"

"Emmanuel, I would like to introduce you to Nick. Not only does he know how to herd cattle and feed chickens, among other things, he has very similar powers to you. Only, much farther downgraded in the passing through objects things, and specializing in the 'cannot be detected by others under certain circumstances' aspect." I glared at Katie. She raised her arms in defense.

"Hey, Gabe practically begged me to know what was going inside your head." She said. I let that one slide.

"Anything else?" Emily eased me on the purple couch.

"Moscow has grown wary of him."

"Yeah, I suspected that."

"No, not him. Him. They know there's a Master character."

"Huh?" At this perfect moment, Nick came over.

"So, what's going on?" He asked.

"Oh, we're just telling him how there's a Mister Mysterious guy, and how Collin has been gathering fire-arms."

"Oh, yeah, and Ghost?" I had a slight delay. I'm still not used to my new "name", I guess. 

"Huh?"

"Collin has been spreading  rumors about you. How you can be anywhere you want and  that's somehow better than him making tornadoes from his hands and earthquakes by will."

"Are you sure it's Collin? Or is it Master, when Collin's eyes are abnormally gray?" I asked, urgently. This was important, and I needed him to know it.

"Well," He sort of drifted off. "He didn't look any different, just that..."

"Come one, tell me!" I reached up to grab him, but my hands went through him anyways. Nevertheless, he flinched.

"His eyes were, at some point, flashing gray. Yeah, I think." He replied, shakily.

"Not I THINK! I need to know!" Emily put a hand over my arm, or tried to.

"It's alright, Emmanuel, it's alright," She said, soothingly, but I could tell she was afraid.

Of me.