Kard on the roof

Kard Lowen watched the clear night sky with fascination. It had been a while since he was let outside. The institute never allowed someone in his condition to wander around by himself. It was just too dangerous. Kard's mind was racing at the possibilities ahead of him. Now that he was free, he could roam the earth looking for answers to his questions, and someone to pass the answers down to. "I have to find a child of my own," he said to the night.

Turning around to look at his handiwork, Kard surveyed the rooftop. He didn't remember there being so many bodies laying about, but he guessed it could have been any number. They'd kept him so drugged up, how was he to know how far to push himself. There were fifteen bodies up here. What would he do with them all?

Kard allowed his mind to reach out like a tendril, creep along the roof and touch each of the bodies. His psychic strength had grown since he had last used them. "Hmmm, what were they pumping me with?" He wondered aloud.

His mind searched for a living mind. Something to help him gain a better picture of the what he had just done. A second tendril of thought reached from his mind. Kard imagined it looked like the flowing arm of a cartoon pie's odor attracting one of the many characters to the window ledge where it cooled. Then a third tendril reach out and searched for a living mind here on the roof.

As his mind touched a body, he could feel the cold emptiness of the husk these people had left behind. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, but he needed to know if anyone was alive. His eyes teared up from the death, as though he were morning the loss of people he cared for.

No one on the roof was living. "They're all dead," he informed the night, arms spread out to indicate he'd checked. What was he to do?

Kard heard the sirens screaming in the night air. They were too far away to be of any use to him. He wanted to talk to some one. He had to know how long he'd be away. Kard sent out his mental tendrils down into the building below him. He found very little he could use. All the sane people were dead. For that matter, all the insane ones were dead as well. At least on the 2nd floor. On the first floor, someone did stir.

He tried to wrap his mind around the person he found, but was unable to get a clear picture of who it was. It was a man, but not a patient. That's when the full realization of where he was hit him. "I've been a patient here. Why have I been a patent here?" Kard screamed aloud, as if his words could reach the mind he'd found and lend force to his thoughts. He reeled in pain as something struck his mind and sent him stumbling back. He was too close the edge of the roof, and had to drop his body to hug the rooftop and grab hold of the side to keep from falling off.

Whoever that was he'd attempted to contact was not a normal person. Kard believed that man on the first floor was an oddity, a freak of nature. No one should have that much power. Power enough to resist the effects of his mental probe. Kard also believed people could not get that strong. Never strong enough to push back.