Voices: A Special Abilities Novel Series

By Brad Mann

You’ll love this fast paced story from beginning to end packed with tons of action romance and laughs. Wilson entered college looking for fun, pizza, and friends. But found himself in a group of students rounded up by the government for their unique talents. In their 1st semester Wilsons group would be asked to not only pass all their classes but also save the world. Read book 2 "VISION" out now

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brad Mann
• Release date: May 20, 2010
• ISBN: 9781458046529

Brad Mann

Married longer than I can remember, and just now getting it right... per my lovely wife. Two sons that are the nicest two people I know. Very blessed indeed. Currently living in Michigan and wanting to move to Florida again someday... miss it bad!

Book preview

Voices

A Special Abilities Novel

Brad C. Mann

Published by Brad C. Mann at Smashwords

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you.

Chapter 1

Good First Day

It was still early morning when I finished getting my car loaded down with all my clothes, TV, small CD player, and a new laptop that was a graduation present from my mom. Plus I had packed a week’s worth of junk food I was sure would not go to waste.

By mid morning I was cruising down I-75 in my freshly waxed Pontiac Grand Prix. I got the car a couple of months ago, right after my high school graduation. Since then I must have waxed it at least fifty times. It’s amazing there’s any paint left on it! The car cost me a bit more of my savings than I had planned, so I’d have to find a way to replace the extra money I’d spent.

I was getting hungry for some real food, so shortly after hitting the Kentucky/Tennessee state line I pulled off the highway into a Zippys burger. Zippys was one of the many fast food joints lining the main street. I skipped the drive thru and parked in the lot. Jumping out of the car I proceeded to stretch every single aching muscle in my body. I always go inside, because when I’m low on cash it pays off to go into the counter sometimes. And I got lucky this time. As I walked to the counter the store manager in a loud and aggravated voice was telling the assistant counter manager what a poor job the day shift crew did keeping the place clean, and he knew her crew would do a much better job later on that night.

The rich smell of french fries and burgers filled the air by the counter making me feel even hungrier now. The store manager was walking back through the double swinging doors towards the kitchen as I got to the counter. I thought I’d heard his voice well enough, so I threw his voice back thru the double doors to the counter manager.

Give that good looking young man whatever he wants on the house for having to see this place in such a mess.

I added the good looking part... well, just because I could. The cute counter manager stared back at the double doors, taking a second to digest what she’d heard. She turned back to me, slightly embarrassed, smiled, and said, What would you like sir… on the house of course.

I’ll take the three sandwiches that are under the warmer and a large chocolate milk shake to go please.

I took the sandwiches and shake she bagged for me, gave her a wink and headed out the door within ninety seconds of hitting the counter which was almost a record time for me. In and out, no blood no foul.

I never order stuff that takes too long in case the person’s voice I was stealing… no… stealing is an ugly word, lets say… mimicking, yeah in case the person’s voice I was mimicking decided to come back. I only did this when I was short on cash, or saving cash for something like college. So… in the last four years I’ve eaten a lot of free burgers.

The special sauce on the burger was really hitting the spot when I realized, I hadn’t had a Zippys burger since I was in the 8th grade. The last time I had been in a Zippys Burger wasn’t a memory I cherished.

***

My mom and I pulled into the Zippys Burger that was across the street from my orthodontist. We always stopped there before my appointments to get my braces tighten, before my teeth had a chance to start hurting. Every time I would go to the orthodontist they would tighten my braces, making the tension on my teeth so intense I couldn’t eat for about a week.

This particular day as my mom walked thru the door to Zippys just ahead of me, I saw over her shoulder, a man with a gun facing us with his back against the counter. He was holding another man around the neck with one arm, and pointing the gun in his other hand at the door yelling something. The gun suddenly went off and my mom went down in front of me, right inside the doorway. I felt a sting hit my leg as blood splattered from the back of my mother’s leg onto my pants. I ducked back out the door as it shut behind my mother, trapping her inside. I looked around and saw an old hubcap lying on the ground just a few feet from me. I bent down and in one motion grabbed the metal hubcap and whipped it through the front window to set off the store’s alarm system. The crook panicked as the front window shattered and the alarm blared out. He released his hold on the hostage giving him a shove as he jumped over the counter and took off through the back. As I jumped in through the smashed window, I saw the hostage that had been held at gunpoint a second ago, was now bent over my mothers leg applying pressure to her wound. I only paused long enough to feel confident that my mother wasn’t in any real immediate danger before racing after the crook.

I was pretty familiar with the kitchen here since the guy that owned the place liked my voices, and would sometimes comp my meals if I entertained him. I knew there was only one way out the back.

Running through the kitchen I grabbed a lighter off the counter and as I went by the searing hot stove I grabbed a medium size pot of grease. When I opened the back door into the alley the crook was already in his car and headed my way!

I threw the boiling pot of grease at the oncoming car, covering the hood and windshield with grease. As the car sped past me I lit the lighter and tossed it onto the hood igniting the grease. He swerved turning right out of the alley onto the road as the flames started to billow. Just as he rounded the corner a police car, lights and siren screaming turned into the alleyway. As the police car skidded to a stop in front of me the cop driving the car barked at me, which way did he go kid? I pointed up the alley ahead telling him the guy turned right at the corner…and, he’d be the one driving the car that was on fire. The cop gave me a look like I was stupid or something, before burning rubber down the alley onto the main road.

When I got back inside the paramedics had arrived and were giving my mom something for her pain. It must have been some pretty good stuff, because she was telling the young paramedic to adjust his collar, and how it’s always important to always look your best.

Lawrence, the owner of Zippys was being helped up from behind the cash register and treated for a major blow to the head.

Since Mom had the bullet go clean through her leg I was the one that ended up with the worst of it. That sting I felt earlier, turned out to be a bullet. The one that had gone through my mom’s leg had lodged itself into mine. Strange, but the bullet going in really didn’t hurt much, it was the digging it out part that killed me. Mom got to cruise through the rest of the day high on painkillers, while I sat in the emergency room most of the afternoon with an orderly digging mercilessly at my leg to retrieve the bullet.

I hadn’t realized it at the time it was all happening but the man that was being held hostage was Mr. Garner my school councilor. Mr. Garner went on and on to the local press about how quickly I had acted and turned the situation around, and that he owed me his life.

The police caught the crook just two blocks from the Zippys Burger, his windshield melted so badly he couldn’t see out of it causing him to smash into a parked car.

***

No wonder I haven’t been in a Zippys in a while. And now that I think about it, I never even got a Zippys burger that day.

Several hundred miles later, I merged on to I-95 south, about an hour into Florida. Having eaten at least my body weight in snickers and fruit rollups I vowed to alter my diet the minute I could escape the car. I didn’t want to meet over a thousand new girls not looking my best.

The weather change over the past twenty-two hours had been amazing. I’ll bet it was over ninety degrees out and it was only 11:00 in the morning. This was vastly different than Michigan’s weather, but in a good way. When I left Michigan the weather was just sixty-nine degrees. That was a bit low for this time of year, but not so abnormal that anyone talked about it or even really noticed. I could get used to ninety degrees pretty fast.

The highway that I was driving on now was flat and smooth and my tires made a hypnotic humming sound on the concrete highway, a very different sound than the clumpity clump, bone jarring weather beaten salt damaged roads of the north. About the only good thing the potholes served, is in keeping you awake. You had to stay awake just to avoid the potholes the size you could drive your car into and never be seen from again.

I felt so relaxed, taking everything in from my newfound freedom, to the warm weather and the new smells of Florida. I swear I could even smell the ocean in the breeze coming through the car window already. Although I was enjoying the drive, the heat and road hum were starting to get to me, making me sleepy. I wanted to finish the drive in one shot so I began mimicking voices on the radio, to keep myself alert.

I hit Coco Beach, just as it was reaching 3:00 in the afternoon. I had made good time. I followed the signs with little palm trees on them directing me into the next town of Palm Bay, where the college was located. Driving down A1A along the coast was a much more interesting and scenic route than the boring interstate.

Rolling up to a busy intersection I stopped at the red light. On the left side of the intersection there were a number of strip mall shops selling swimsuits and tee shirts. There were also some shops selling an assortment of beach toys. They sold everything from plastic pails and shovels clear up to cool looking surfboards in every color imaginable.

Alongside me in the left hand lane, was a Ford Taurus with three girls who looked like they had just came from the beach. There was also a police motorcycle sitting behind them waiting on the light to turn green. Since I was getting tired, I decide to have some fun with this.

The policeman was a big macho looking guy, who apparently didn’t need to wear a helmet. In Michigan there’s a law-requiring motorcyclist to wear a helmet, obviously that wasn’t the case in Florida. Since he wasn’t wearing one, I knew he would be able to hear pretty well. I took a deep breath and threw my voice over to the trunk of the Taurus and in an exact replica of Sheryl Crow’s voice, I yelled out, Help! Help get me out here. Please, help me get out of here. Please …Anyone?!

The policeman jumped off his bike in a flash but stayed back away from the car as if to assess the situation for danger. He could see that the girls inside the Taurus didn’t look like the kind of group that would have someone locked inside a trunk. So, he quickly went to the driver’s window reached up and motioned for the girls to exit the vehicle.

The girls scrambling out of the car were all wearing tee shirts that only came down to their belly buttons and each girl’s hair was a wet, tangled mess. They must have spent the morning on the beach surfing. The officer forced them to open their trunk as traffic backed up and impatient drivers started to honk.

The trunk flew up as the policeman stood there looking dumbstruck and totally confused. Four dirty boogie boards were the only things inside the trunk. He must have wondered how the girls could have managed to get someone out of the trunk without him seeing, or if the cry for help was coming from another car. The girls looked at him as if he had just escaped a mental institute.

I laughed to myself as I drove from the scene. Replaying the look on the cops face in my head should help me stay awake and focused until I find the university.

Just a short while later I entered the Palm Bay city limits. You could see the heat rising off the road, like was melting the pavement or something. The road ahead looked out of focus, or it could just be the lack of sleep starting to really affect my eyesight now.

Downtown Palm Bay was much bigger than I imagined it to be. Finding the college though was not going to be a problem, as there were numerous signs marking the way to each building. A large sign standing between two draping palm trees showed that Mendon Hall, Cooper Science Tech. and the Administration building were to the left. Straight ahead I would find the Colonial dorms, Saint’s Gymnasium, and the University Library.

Since I already knew what my dorm assignment was, I headed straight to my dorm room to crash.

My dorm building was a new modern stucco building with lots of windows. The windows went from the floor to ceiling all around the building. While it looked very classy, I’m sure it cost a lot to air-condition, with the sun shining through those windows letting in all kinds of heat throughout the day.

When I got to my room, which was on the far side of the hall, I used the key swipe card that I received in the mail two weeks ago. What do you know, a bit of good luck, one swipe and the light turned green and let me right in. It was a nice surprise how cool it was inside. The cold breeze from the air conditioning sent a chill through my body as it hit the sweat on the back of my neck.

There was a huge guy with his back to me setting up a very large stereo system against the back wall. He must have been 6’-4", 230 lbs and all muscle. Football player I presumed since he was wearing a Saints football jersey with the name Joseph on the back.

He looked over his shoulder as he heard the door close behind me, and said Hey, I’m Joe Joseph.

Hi, I’m Wilson, Wilson McClain.

Where you from kid?

Kid… he didn’t seem rude or mean so that kid comment must mean he’s an upper classman. At least the guy seemed friendly, and from the look of his classic rock collection we had the same good taste in music. I’m from Ann Arbor, Michigan, how about you?

He turned back to finish working on his stereo before replying, I’m a local brat. The university usually likes to get any decent local talent for their sport teams. It’s their way of giving back to the community or something, I guess.

I was going to pass out any minute or develop one heck of a headache if I didn’t get to sleep pretty soon. I could tell Joe had some stuff crammed under one bed and his pillow on top of the bed, but to be polite I asked which bed I should take.

Once he pointed it out, I explained that I had made a twenty-six hour drive straight through and asked if he minded getting acquainted a little later so I could get a few winks. He said that was fine, he had some errands to run anyway to get some stereo connectors he needed, and that later tonight he would show me around town.

The bed was soft and the cool AC was blowing right across me. …college felt just like heaven already. I’m not even sure I got my shoes off before passing out…zzzzzzzzZZZ

I was up by 8:30 and the sun was just starting to set. Joe said this was a perfect time to hit his favorite pizza joint and then a couple hot clubs. Joe must have a pretty good time at the clubs since he had the rugged good looks, blond hair blue eye thing going for him. I’ll bet he never had a problem getting dance partners or any other partners for that matter.

All the places we went were right out by the ocean so everything seemed like it had a festive party atmosphere. It made me wonder how I could have wasted so much time anywhere else but right here.

The pizza was great, and the clubs were full of first, second, third and fourth year college students. The new students coming in for the first year did stand out a bit since freshmen don’t have that sophisticated look that the junior and senior students carry. And most of the freshmen were also a few shades paler than everyone else, since most of us