The Revenants Attack.

They attacked. Before I could even figure out whether Reverend Tommy could see them, whether Brigitte could see them, whether I could do anything about them, they attacked.

Revenants move fast! I had been dealing with them only on a social level, or from afar, and only for a week (if you count since I woke up or whatever) or many years (if you go by when I'm dreaming) but either way, I don't think I'd ever seen one move like this. They go like wind, literally, and I don't mean "literally" the way you think people my age--

-- what is my age, do you think? I'd guess that most of me is 21 or 22--

-- people my age use "literally," I mean that revenants move just like the wind moves, whipping up and over and around things that are in their way and changing direction unexpectedly.

They did not attack me.

They did not attack Reverend Tommy.

They went for Brigitte. I saw that instantly, that they were going for her because they looked at me, they looked at Doc, and then they never looked at us again. They didn't even look at Reverend Tommy as they went past him, knocking him down, baring their teeth that looked somehow like fangs even though they were just teeth, I mean, as I remember them they were fangs but revenants keep the shape, mostly, of the human body that they ate to keep the spirit alive, mostly because they are longer and stringier but still look human-ish, so they don't have fangs.

I didn't think any of that then. I watched as they knocked Reverend Tommy down. I saw from the corner of my eye Brigitte stopping and looking at me and I heard Doc say

Don't let them get her

So I didn't. I moved in between Brigitte and them, pushing her back gently and they swarmed towards me and bowled into me. I grabbed the first one that got near me, grabbed him by his stinking t-shirt (I've always wondered why revenants wear clothing at all. They don't stay in the clothes their bodies wore when they died; they change clothes, but not often. I think they wear clothes until they rot off their body, and then get new ones), a t-shirt, I noticed, that had Pink Floyd written on it, and pushed him back.

I have no great fighting skills. I'm not magic or anything. I don't have psionic powers. I don't do magic. If you give me a ray gun I can fire it. I can hit people with a bat. You'd think that whoever grew me or put me together or cloned me or whatever would have done so with some specific purpose in mind but he or she didn't. I'm just ragtag, a mutt. I'm like a quilt person.

I pushed the revenant back and he pushed forward and one on the side of me grabbed my arm and bit it, hard. I didn't pay him any attention because while I don't have any great fighting skills, I also don't feel pain. Whatever construction went into me, it didn't include all the nerves or receptors or whatever. I feel some things -- I feel Brigitte's soft tongue tracing around my nipples and making them stand up -- but not others. I never feel pain.

The revenant bit in and hung on and pulled, and I kept pushing the other one back into the third, so now I had all three of them blocked from Brigitte, who I told to run.

She didn't.

Doc, though, went and hovered by her and the revenant I was blocking got by me while I held the first and the second continued chewing on my arm, but that third guy I couldn't stop and he went around me and was about to Brigitte when I saw a flash of yellow and heard a "pop!" and smelled burning, and the revenant dropped for a second.

So did Doc; he fell out of the sky and his balloon-head went limp. That shook me up, too, because Brigitte has been in my life only 4 days while Doc has been in it for 14 or so, making him my oldest friend when I'm awake. He says he's mostly electronics, that he'd be a Walkman and a food processor 100 years ago, but I still like him.

But I was still busy trying to figure out what to do with the two revenants that I had, and then the problem was solved because Reverend Tommy stood up and said something portentous about casting off demons as he grabbed the one that was biting me and pulled it off. The biter took a hunk of my arm with him.

Also, I don't bleed. Reverend Tommy saw that. He looked at the revenant, and looked at my arm, and then looked up at me. His eyes actually got wider!

The other revenant broke free and tried to dodge around me so I stuck out my leg and tripped him. I can't believe that worked. He fell right down and I turned around and kicked him, hard. I don't know if you can knock the wind out of a revenant because I don't know if they breathe. I don't think they do. I just kicked him because it felt natural.

Reverend Tommy, meanwhile, had the other revenant in front of him, and it was motionless. He had done something to it, but I didn't see what. He was moving in my direction, and I thought he was going to help me, but he didn't; he grabbed at me. I pulled away just in time.

"You're one of them!" he bellowed. Only a deep south reverend can actually "bellow."

"Let me go," I panted. The revenant I'd kicked was standing up and Reverend Tommy bent down and touched it.

"Be still," he said, and made the sign of the cross. It stopped moving. "That will hold him," he said. I was amazed. That gave him a chance to grab me and when he did, I felt it.

His grip was warm, almost hot, a little uncomfortable, but mostly, it pulsed. He had some kind of power that I didn't recognize.

"It's the power of the Lord," he said.

I pulled back but he kept his grip.

"Yes. You may not Share but that does not stop me," he told me. "I still see into you. The Lord runs through me. He guides my hand. He allows me to see and to know. And I know what you are."

There was another pop! and arc of yellow and burning. His hand fell away and the pulsing stopped. I looked. Doc was floating again and had zapped the Reverend Tommy.

I needed to recharge he told me.

How great have microchips gotten when they can be so small they can fit into a tiny floating octopus and make it sentient, or almost sentient? I think Doc is sentient.

The two revenants were still motionless. Reverend Tommy was out cold, but breathing; he had a scorch mark on his forehead. The third, the other one Doc had zapped, was moving a little.

Brigitte was breathing heavily and looking scared. I tried not to notice how her breasts moved with each breath.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"What did you see?" I asked her.

"I saw you fighting or something, and Reverend Tommy," she trailed off. "What bit you?"

"You don't see them?" I asked, gesturing towards the revenants.

"Who?"

Had Reverend Tommy known they were there? They had been behind him, after all. Why could he see them, and not Brigitte?

My arm still tingled where he'd touched it.

We need weapons. And to leave, Doc said.