Ascension

you from grabbing him when you first met him, you can build a counter against others too.' said Jimbo

'Like a net?'

'That might have worked on someone else, not Bobby, do you think we sit around rocking ourselves back and forth all day long after the chores are done? We've been practicing and I can tell you his mind is nimble, as soon as you caught the fish, he'd be a cloud, or superman.'

'So what does this mean? Am I ready? Can I make the zombies see things that aren't there?'

'Could I do it to you this morning? No. So you won't be able to do it to others either, you had to let me in, or be seduced into letting me in. The other guy will too, and he won't be standing around letting it happen. There are other tricks you can pull on him though. We've had time to think of a few.'

'So will you help me?'

'We already are. Come back to the house. Bobby is at the neighbors, looking for another pellet gun, he seems to think you'll be staying with us.'

'I gotta go take care of this little problem first, but I think I might be back, if it's okay with you.'

'I think we could use another hand around the farm, if things work out.'

Red nodded as he felt Jimbo leave his mind. He didn't raise any defenses to keep the man out either, he was fairly certain he wouldn't know how.

Chapter 3 — Whatever happened in Nebraska?

The rest of the day passed in training. Red wanted to head back to attack Ramey immediately and said as much to Jimbo.

'Go ahead, but what has changed? I've only taught you the basics. It usually doesn't take long to do that, but this guy is tougher than you.'

'So?'

'Well you're the toughest person I've run into. You could have bent Nancy around your little finger if you wanted. But I can keep you out. You almost had Bobby in the barn, is the difference in power between you and Bobby the same as between you and this Ramey?'

'No.' Red assured Jimbo, 'We are pretty close to equal, he has just enough of an edge that he could win. If you show me how to keep you out, that should be enough.'

'Is he alone?'

'I don't know.'

'Were you?'

Red shook his head, 'You know I wasn't.'

'Then use your head, he won't be either. If one of his friends has the brains to shoot you in the head while you and Ramey are going at it in the mind's playground, you will be just as dead as if he rips your head off himself.'

'Are you offering to come with me?'

Jimbo looked down at the table, 'We talked about it. I think we have to be like Germany and stay out of it.'

'Switzerland, Jimbo. Not Germany.' Veronica corrected.

'Why?'

'We've fought enough. We'll be here when you get back, if you get back.'

'Your confidence is underwhelming.'

'I don't think you can do it now. I think you might keep him out of your head, but after that initial contact, he will pin you down and let his friends take you out.'

'Do you have a better idea.'

'Give me another day. Leave in the morning after I show you a few tricks and the way to keep me out of your mind.'

'Other tricks?' Red asked interested.

'Oh yeah, he has 'em. Jimbo may look like six feet and two hundred and fifty pounds of redneck, but he has mad skills. The best analogy I can think of is that me and Bobby, well, we are like a high school band. And Jimbo? Jimbo is like the Philharmonic Orchestra. There is a world of difference. I can play a nice tune and entertain my friends and family, but Jimbo, he can entertain the world.'

'Aw V, it's like you really care or something! I would blush if I could.'

'Okay you got my attention, but can you teach me enough in a day to make a difference?'

'I think so. I think it would be the difference between winning and losing.'

So Red had stayed.

The first thing he learned was that mental pictures were only so effective at accomplishing his goals. It was easy to concentrate on not being seen, but repeating 'You can't see me. You can't see me.', had no effect on Jimbo or Veronica at all. Sneaking by one zombie was easier than sneaking by two, every mind had to be masked and Red was not up to multitasking when they started. Similarly, once he had his mind locked inside his mental version of Fort Knox, he could hold Jimbo or Veronica at bay fairly well, but if the two of them concentrated they passed through his defenses like they were made of balsa wood.

After getting the basics of what he had to do down, Red and the others moved to the barn to practice what he had learned. They started with Red versus Veronica, grappling mentally at the same time that she went after him physically. It was a far more even match than Red would have thought, given their perspective abilities outside of the mental arena. Finally an hour away from sunrise, Jimbo called Bobby into the room and showed him what could be done with the minds of those that were weaker than theirs. For this exercise Red rode piggyback in Jimbo's mind as he went inside of Bobby's brain. They practiced changing Bobby's memory, the simplest thing to do was to modify the boy's brain so he thought Red's name was Rainbow.

'You can't be serious, this won't work.'

'Watch and learn.' Jimbo said, moving through the boys head at a speed that left Red gasping. Every meeting was touched upon, every encounter the boy had with Red had to be changed. Every thought the boy had about Red too. And Jimbo did it in seconds. They left the boy's mind and then Jimbo said, 'Hey Bobby, let's take a break for a minute. Why don't you guys go out and watch the sunrise.'

The boy shoved his chair away from the table and said, 'Okay. C'mon Rainbow, we can sit in the swinging chair, it's the best place.'

Red stopped and stared at the boy, who stammered, 'What?' then looked accusingly at Jimbo, 'You did something! What did you do?'

Jimbo smiled, 'Nothing Bobby, don't worry about it. Re-Rainbow, maybe you don't want to take a break yet?'

'No. Jimbo I think we better continue.' Red said, aghast that what he has seen worked.

'Okay Bobby sit down and we'll get through this next session then.'

'I don't understand why you need me.' The boy complained as he dropped back into his seat.

Once they were back in Bobby's mind Red watched as Jimbo went back and changed the boy's memories of his name again.

'We have to change everything back. I don't expect you are following all of this and I have to tell you it is dangerous too.'

'What do you mean?'

'What if you miss something? You might not have the control I do, just like I am not big and tough like you are. The thing is that there is no 'restore' button here, Red. I can't go back in and flip Bobby back to how he was before. The memories I take out are gone forever, overwritten by what I put there. I can't put the old ones back, I can only replace them with new ones. If I fuck that up, then Bobby here is fucked up as well. Plus we have to edit his new memories too, the ones that were made after we changed him the first time. See they are located here…' Red followed Jimbo down into a new section of Bobby's mind.