By Jacobi's mental clock, which was surprisingly accurate, it took the three jailbirds nine minutes to reach the entrance to the electrical service tunnel. The smoke was nearly gone, but the time that they had spent running through it had taken a greater toll on Jacobi that he had anticipated.
He struggled with the mighty valve and, try as he might, Jacobi couldn't get the door to the small tunnel open.
Charles motioned for Jacobi to step aside and he took his place. With a quick wrench the heavy metal door swung open. He turned a triumphant smile to his sister.
Sara motioned him into the corridor and closed the door behind them as she followed Jacobi through the hatch.
Jacobi ambled forward unsteadily and fell to his hands and knees.
“Whoa, you doin' alright there guy?” Charles patted him on the back as he coughed violently.
Jacobi swatted Charles's hand away. “I'm fine...” It was a blatant lie, he felt horrible, but he knew that he couldn't show any weakness here, he was supposed to be the leader. But most of all he didn't want to puke in front of Sara.
“Perhaps you should rest for a minute. It seems safe enough for now.” Sara looked down the dark hall that stretched endlessly before them. “Maybe I can answer a few of your questions while you recover.”
Jacobi propped himself against the wall and took a shallow breath. His lungs were on fire, how was it possible that those two seemed unaffected? “I guess...” He spoke slowly. “I guess we should start with how we're all still alive.”
Sara and Charles sat across from Jacobi. Charles leaned over and, in a loud whisper, asked: “He doesn’t know?”
“Know what?” Jacobi looked up groggily.
Charles looked at Jacobi and chuckled nervously. “You heard that? Man you've got some sharp ears.”
“You just need to learn how to whisper properly.” Sara scolded. She turned a smile to Jacobi.
Another round of coughs assaulted him and once he got his breathing under control again she answered his question: “You see, Charles and I aren't exactly normal...” She sounded embarrassed.
“What do you mean by that?” His lungs were starting to clear thanks to his hyperventilating, but his stomach lurched and he desperately fought the urge to throw-up.
Sara seemed to be struggling to find the right words and Charles huffed impatiently, an action that Jacobi quickly associated with the man's curt attitude.
“You seem like a smart guy, I'm sure you've heard of Vitalizers, right?” He didn't wait for Jacobi to answer before continuing. “Well that's what we are: Vitalizers.”
Jacobi's mind immediately shot back to the moment in his room when the temperature had plummeted unnaturally. At the time he hadn't even questioned why, it didn’t seem important, but now it made sense. The barrier of ice too. “You can harness the power of ice, can't you?” He looked up to Sara with eyes filled with wonder and curiosity.
She nodded hesitantly. Jacobi could see that she wasn’t accustomed to sharing her secret with anyone and it made his heart jump with joy that she would share it with him.
“Is that why you wear that coat? To keep yourself warm?”
She shrank back against the wall, pulled the neck of her coat up to her eyes and shook her head.
Jacobi couldn’t help but think that she was completely adorable when she was embarrassed. He coughed to hide his smile and continued in a raspy voice: “Then why?”
“It’s insulated and keeps the heat out…” Her voice was greatly muffled by the thick material but Jacobi could still hear her embarrassment. “I… I don’t do well with heat…”
Jacobi cupped his chin with his index finger and thumb. “I see…” He turned his thoughtful gaze to Charles. “And you? Are you indestructible or something?”
“Now that would be a handy power! But no. I’ve got fire powers.” He held his hand out and turned his palm to the ceiling. Suddenly a spark burst into existence and quickly blossomed into a ball easily twice the size of Charles’ hand. “A small campfire like the one back there definitely wouldn’t be enough to burn me.” His subsequent smile was filled with pride.
Before Jacobi could continue with another question the small voice in the back of his mind spoke up: “Fire and ice? These two hardly seem like siblings.” Jacobi agreed and decided to take his questions in a new direction.
“You two seem pretty different, height, hair color and eye color are some obvious examples. Are you two really related?”
Sara slightly lowered her sweater and looked up to Charles, his face was still shining with pride. “We sure are. Twins to be exact!”
“That’s unexpected…” The voice of reason said.
Jacobi vocalized the thought and Charles grunted: “Huh?”
“I just didn’t think that you two were the same age.” A devious smile cracked his lips and he quietly added: “You must be younger than you look.”
“Are you lookin’ to pick a fight?” Charles sat forward, his smile was gone.
Sara laughed and Charles lost his edge.
Jacobi put his hands into the air. “It was just a joke. Just a joke.”
Charles huffed and slumped back against the wall. When the tension had lifted Jacobi continued with his questions: “Did anyone know about your abilities?”
Charles mimicked Jacobi’s thumb-to-chin thinking pose and sighed.
Sara finally lowered her coat from her face and shook her head. “None of Gabgoblin’s people knew.”
That was the answer Jacobi was hoping for. If they ran into trouble a couple of Vital Abilities would be a nice ace to have up their sleeve.
“There was Pops.” Charles said matter-of-factly.
“Pops?”
“He’s an old man who lived in the same dorm as us at Gillian’s. He took care of us ever since we were children and taught us almost everything we know. He’s…” She hesitated. “He’s gone now.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Jacobi didn’t know what else to say. He had never been close to anyone and so he didn’t know what it was like to lose someone.
Charles grunted. “He was old an’ that’s what happens to old people. Nothin’ you or anyone else could have done to stop it.” As harsh as Charles’ words were, they were true.
“He went peacefully.” Sara added with a wan smile. It was the saddest smile that Jacobi had ever seen and it made his stomach sink. Perhaps sensing Jacobi’s discomfort, Sara quickly moved the conversation along: “Anyway, is there anything else you want to know?”
Jacobi was about to consider his curiosity quenched for the time being, they were short on time and his stomach did feel quite a bit better, but one last question popped into his mind. “What about Lawrence? Is he a Vitalizer too?”
The twins shared an inquisitive glance and simultaneously shook their heads.
“We don’t know.” Charles said with a shrug.
Sara quickly followed: “We didn’t think to ask. I guess it just slipped our minds.”
“But if I had to guess, I’d say he’s not.” Charles waved his hand in the air. “His power seemed different than ours. Kinda gave off a different vibe, y’know?”
Sara nodded in agreement.
With that Jacobi was satisfied. He shifted to his toes and hopped to his feet. In response his stomach ordered an evacuation with all-due haste. With one hand clamped over his stomach and the other over his mouth Jacobi ran down the hall.
When he couldn’t keep it down any longer he dropped to his knees and tossed his cookies.
“Jacobi!” Sara shouted and started towards him.
He shot his hand into the air telling her to stay back. “I’m okay.” Hopefully this was only a one time thing and there was no permanent damage from inhaling so much smoke.
He spit to rid himself of the taste of vomit and got to his feet. “This is no time to get sick.” He told himself. “You’ve already wasted enough time resting, if you don’t get back to finding your way out of here you’l
l be caught for sure.”
He returned to Sara and Charles. They both looked at him with worried expressions.
“I’m fine.” In fact, it was true: his lungs were clear, his stomach had settled and even his mind seemed to have cleared. Perhaps getting sick had helped him more than it had hurt him. But be that as it may, he still felt an overwhelming sense of embarrassment after throwing up in front of Sara. The embarrassment continued to haunt him as he led them down the darkened maintenance route.