The Permutation

Apex (Part 3) Christopher

Saturday November 5th, 12:30 a.m.

Concepts like exhaustion, cold, and guilt didn't apply to Christopher. Gracie did. While the others were stressed about the thugs brandishing guns, Christopher had noted an orange glow on the horizon. A glow that looked suspiciously like a fire, a fire in the general vicinity of Kate's house.

Christopher remembered the blistering heat he felt in Kate's living room. He started to recite prime numbers to help clear his mind. The facts as they presented themselves were as such: Christopher could do things that defied human explanation, Jessica Kinghorn had changed irrevocably before Tony's thug had ended her existence, and Lancet Falls was descending into chaos at a breakneck pace. Securing Gracie's safety was on the forefront of Christopher's mind. When he was assured of her wellbeing, Christopher would return and help young Jordan and Diana.

At other times, he may have felt guilt. He felt quite fond of that Jordan girl. He sensed in her a kinship that was unparalleled with other humans, and he supposed that Diana was also his responsibility in the absence of her parents, but Gracie trumped them both in the hierarchy of needs.

I'm sure they will understand once I explain to them that I really didn't have a choice in the matter.

Christopher had foregone using the roads and sidewalks of Lancet Falls. The straight line distance between his position and that of Kate's house took a route through expanses of open fields and various backyards of residents of the town. Most of these backyards did not possess fences. Issues like personal property did not apply to a town with a good foundation of trust and integrity.

In days gone by, Kate had made him watch a movie called Ferris Bueller's Day Off. When he watched it, he always sympathized with the main character's best friend, Cameron Frye. He seemed to be the only one of them that realized the gravity of their collective situation, but today Christopher felt like the protagonist of the story as he traversed the property of his various neighbors.

Every once and awhile, motion detector lights went off, but no one seemed to pay him any notice. On the streets, he could see people running around and connecting their mouths together.

There must be some holiday that I'm not privy to.

Christopher shunted the bizarre sight into the back of his mind as he got closer to his goal, because Kate's house was most certainly on fire. The fire wasn't a full blown blaze, but it was enough that the first floor of Kate's house was engulfed by a blistering heat that Christopher felt even from a distance.

At this point, he would have expected a meltdown, but he couldn't afford one at this juncture. The efforts of Lancet Falls' fire department were woefully ineffectual. Lancet Falls had not experienced a fire like this in its entire history. When he and Kate had Gracie, he'd studied any natural disaster that could befall their family, and residential fire had been nowhere on the list.

He hadn't been able to prepare them.

Christopher did not have any control of the phenomenon that occurred in times of stress like the police cruiser or the Jessica Kinghorn incident. It seemed to trigger in times of desperate need. He felt like rushing into a burning building qualified. Regardless, he would do what was necessary even if it resulted in his physical harm. Christopher was sure of one thing, he did not want to live in a world that was absent of Gracie's smile.

The men wearing flame retardant suits the murky yellow of an iron tetrachloro complex were holding a hose spewing high pressure water at the fire. The only thing the water seemed to be doing was keeping the fire from spreading any further. It did nothing to diminish the flames that currently existed. The foundations of the house creaked and groaned in symphony with the roaring and crackling of the fire. At this rate, the house would fall in on itself, and if Gracie hadn't already perished, she would in the ensuing collapse.