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Chapter 14
“So where do we go now?” I asked him while trying to keep up with him as he stormed out of the building.
“I’ve got a friend,” he said, “She lives by herself, but I’m sure she has room for us for one night.”
Knowing our luck she probably had some party going on right now…
We got back to the car and Nolan drove off down the street. We sat in silence. What was so wrong about his roommate? So he made a few sexual jokes. It’s not like other guys at my school do it. I crossed my arms as we made our way in the silent streets. 5:20 am. We would be lucky if we got a couple hours of sleep.
Nolan parked in front of small, bricked bungalow home. He paused for a moment before leaving the car and I followed him. I couldn’t see if any of the lights were on inside so I was a bit worried we would wake her up.
Nolan knocked on the door anyway and a couple seconds later I heard footsteps approaching. A moment later the door opened and revealed an olive skinned girl with brown curls falling down on her shoulders. Her face was a bit neutral until her eyes fell on Nolan. Her eyebrows came together in confusion.
“Nolan,” she said, “What are you doing here?”
“Felicia,” Nolan replied, “Hey. I was wondering if we could stay the night at your place.”
He pointed at me and looked back at her. She looked at me before nodding.
“Uh- um- sure,” she said and moved out of the way to let us in, “I’ve got a pull out couch and a spare bed.”
“Thanks,” Nolan said as he passed her on the way in.
I followed him inside and followed my brother’s example and took my coat off. Felicia stood at the doorway to the living room, watching us.
“We didn’t wake you, did we?” Nolan asked.
She stood up straighter and waved her hands.
“Oh no, no,” she reassured us, “I was trying to finish a report for physics when you knocked.”
Nolan nodded and Felicia showed us to the living room, which could barely fit the two small couches, television and bookshelf in it
“You can both take a couch each if you want,” she said, “Unless one of you prefers to sleep on the bed.”
“We’ll both take the couches,” he replied, “I’d prefer if we stuck together so I can keep an eye on her.”
He gave a reassuring smile that it wasn’t for bad reasons. She nodded and showed us to the living room.
“I’ll be in the dining room, attempting to finish that report,” she explained, “But we all know I won’t. So if you need me or anything, you know where to find me.”
I nodded my head as well.
“Thanks,” I managed out of me.
“You’re welcome,” she said, smiling, before turning to Nolan, “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Sure,” he replied slowly, as if considering if it was a good idea or not and followed her out of the room.
I watched him leave and looked at the couch. My curiousity was greater though and I wanted to know what was happening. I shut my eyes and tried to listen for their conversation in the other room. I missed the start though, but managed to catch up.
“…your sister?” I heard her voice say, “What are you doing?”
“I’ve got to bring her to a tournament in Alberta,” Nolan lied, “My parents are way too busy with work so I offered to take her since - technically - I was headed in the same direction.”
“So she’s just gonna hop on a bus now to Canada?” she demanded.
“No, Felicia. I’m driving her. That’s why I won’t be here for a couple days. I need you to take notes in our chemistry class for me.”
She groaned and I heard footsteps.
“I heard on the news what happened to her,” she continued and there was a pause, “What’s happening… for real.”
Nolan didn’t reply right away and Felicia began attacking him with an interrogation.
“I demand to know what’s happening,” she snapped at him, “I give you a place to stay the night and… why couldn’t you go to your place?”
“Because Thomas is there,” he replied, “And I can’t have a girl in my room, related or not.”
She muttered something under her breath, but I couldn’t catch it.
A new voice whispered something and my eyes snapped open. My eyes flickered around the room, but nothing was here with me. I rubbed my head and sat down on the couch. Maybe I just heard Felicia or Nolan. No, I shook my head. It didn’t sound like them at all. It was male and not soft like Nolan’s either. I played back my memory to the voice. It sounded oddly like it had asked for my name and I could’ve sworn I heard it before. I checked around the room again. I shoved it away, thinking it was something related to my exhaustion and lied down on the couch.
I heard Nolan’s footsteps re-enter the room before I fell fast asleep.
***
Betty sleepily trudged down the stairs. Sally was still sleeping in her bed. As she walked to the kitchen she suddenly began to notice how eerily quiet it was. Usually her husband was frying something in the kitchen or making some sort of noise to wake up the rest of the household. She made it to the kitchen and found it empty.
“Robert?” she said out loud.
No one replied and she went to the table where the newspaper from this morning was sprawled out to a page. She looked at the page and saw an article that caught her eye.
“Man Spots UFOs Over Farm,” she read out loud and scanned her eyes over it.
She suddenly spotted her husband’s name on it and her eyes widened.
“Robert?” she called out louder, but again silence answered.
***
I woke up to Nolan pulling on a pair of jeans. The early sun rays were spilling into the room from the big living room window. He saw me get onto my elbows and whispered, “We’re leaving soon. We can grab a breakfast to go at some coffee shop.”
“What about your friend?” I asked softly.
“I don’t want to wake her up,” he replied and grabbed his bag, “Come on. I want to leave. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us, so let’s get started.”
I pulled the blankets off and tiptoed to the bathroom. I quickly did what I had to and slipped out to see Nolan looking at me anxiously. I grabbed my bag and we left Felicia’s house. I checked the clock before the door closed. 8:30 am. Three and half hours of sleep... if we were lucky. We should be fine… until Nolan crashes.
The air outside was freezing. I could hardly breathe in and I wondered if we could start the car. Maybe I should’ve also thought about bringing a hat or mitts or something. But of course I was too stupid for that. We got inside the car and, thankfully, the car’s engine started with its heating system.
“Ready?” Nolan said before pressing on the gas pedal.
I nodded.
“No turning back, now,” he added, “Not until we find it.”
I nodded my head again. I couldn’t go back now even if I really wanted to.

I fell asleep again. I can’t imagine what this was doing to Nolan since he couldn’t just pass out like me. Too bad I didn’t really have a driver’s license yet. I know how to, I just don’t have the “approval” certificate that makes everybody else think I can. I looked over at my brother.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“At this speed?” he replied, “We’ll be in South Dakota in the next hour. Devil’s Tower in the next two or three.”
I looked outside and tall grass swaying in the winds. The ground was getting flatter and hills were stretched out, but not that high. I rubbed my eyes and looked forward where the highway stretched on for miles. This was going to be a long day.
I sat up straighter in my chair.
“Are you going to take a break soon?” I asked and shook my head, “I’m going to restate that. In the next five minutes, when are planning to pull on the side of the road to take a nap before you end up on the side of the road by accident?”
“I’m fine, Amber,” he said and I rolled my eyes.
“Three hours,” I argued, “Three hours of sleep last night and you tell me you’re fine. And I’m guessing you took another “power nap” as well two hours ago?”
“In fact I did,” he said calmly, “And I stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts.” He held up a disposable cup with the familiar logo. “America runs on it.” He took a sip and his face cringed at the taste. “And so do I.”
I rolled my eyes again. No use arguing to a brick wall. I sat back on my seat with my arms crossed. How long could he do this for? I had to take over at some point before he completely crashed.
A couple minutes later, I saw the sign for South Dakota and sighed. The Badlands would be coming up soon. The plains outside looked so big. How could we ever find it? What would we be looking for?
I didn’t hear it at first, but it seemed to be growing louder now. It was sort of a hissing sound. I thought for one panicking moment that the car was giving up on us and breaking down. But it didn’t seem like it was coming from the car. I looked around me. I suddenly realized that it wasn’t hissing, but whispering.
“What?” I asked out loud. That was stupid.
“Huh?” Nolan replied, making me feel even stupider.
“Nothing,” I mumbled as the whispering continued.
I tried focusing on the sound to hear what it was saying, but it was so soft that I couldn’t make it out. It was getting louder though. I looked around me. Where was it coming from though? I shut my eyes again and concentrated. It was almost loud enough now that I could make it out. Just give it a moment-
Nolan cried out in shock and slammed on the brakes. The seatbelt dug into my chest and my eyes flew open just in time to see a ball of smoke and flame reach into the sky. It was small though and cleared quickly to reveal something black, shiny, and flat flying in the sky. Other vehicles had screeched to a halt as well, some even skidding off the road. Nolan quickly placed his into reverse, pressed the gas pedal, and looked over his shoulder to back. He cried out again and the seatbelt once again dug into me as he braked. I recovered quickly and looked to see more floating things hovering over the highway. I cursed and we both looked ahead of us again. More of them were now circling around our car.
“We’re surrounded,” I shouted. No duh, I thought to myself, I think we’ve all figured that out, Sherlock.
“Not for long,” Nolan replied and placed it out of reverse.
He slammed the gas pedal down and drove as fast as he could down the highway. I looked up at the aircrafts and realized after a moment that I was looking down the barrel of its gun. I cursed again.
“Look out!” I yelled before a spray of bullets came near to hitting us.
He swerved in time though, but I saw the windshield crack. He cursed this time. He drove faster dodging cars and bullets. I looked behind us and saw them chasing. They were catching up too easily.
“Hold tight,” Nolan warned and suddenly turned right.
The sharp turn stole my breath and I gasped for air. He hit the grassy plains and - well - saying they were bumpy would be an understatement. I gripped onto whatever I could as he tried to make his way across the field as fast as he could in a little economy car. It smoothed out and dust kicked up behind us, creating a bit of shield, but giving us away still.
“I don’t know if this is any use,” he said to me panicking.
“Running, I think, would be a better option at this point,” I replied.
He gripped the wheel tighter as he hit another bump. My head snapped a bit and I loosened one hand to rub the back of my neck.
“Yeah,” he said, “But giving up the car and leaving it behind? It’s our only transportation for miles especially when we get rid of these guys. Damaging it would mean we’d have to walk on the highway or hitchhike.”
I bit my lip and then saw something up ahead.
“There,” I said, pointing, “Hide it in there.”
He drove towards the small nook in the hill. I heard more bullets being fired and gripped the handles tighter until it hurt. We were gonna die. He reached the nook and slammed the brakes.
“Come on,” he said to me as I tried to recover from shock.
I rushed out, throwing off the seatbelt, and followed him out. Dust still gave us some cover and we reached the end of the nook. Nolan held out his hand to stop me. He gestured for me to follow and we ran out and around the hill. The dust was settling though and they quickly spotted us running. My curse flew into the wind as I pushed myself to run faster as bullets jumped in the grass near us. Come on, come on.
One of them suddenly floated down in front of us, blocking us. We turned on our heel and tried going the other way, but another blocked us. Now what?
“Fight,” I heard.
“What?” I called out, spinning my head wildly.
“You have powers - dammit - use them,” someone replied.
“Right,” I said back and my hands flew up.
The aircraft spun backwards and crashed onto the ground. I spun around and the others went flying backwards as well. They began shooting again and I grabbed Nolan who was standing there in a bit of shock. More of them flew back and Nolan cried out in pain. I cursed, but we couldn’t play field doctor at the moment. We raced across the field and I looked over my shoulder to see them following us still. I sent a dust cloud into the air behind us and kept running. Bullets were still whizzing by us though and I couldn’t control those things. They were too small and too fast. I heard the pounding of feet over the noise of the chasers. Uh oh. I glanced back to see some of them on foot with guns pointed straight at us. I sent up another cloud and turned left. Nolan was stumbling behind me. I slowed suddenly as more on feet appeared in front of me and behind me.
I cursed again and waited for the triggers to blow my brains out. I heard a crack of a gunshot. After a second of not feeling pain I looked up to see a few of them lying on the ground. Two guys were running towards me and Nolan, waving guns. But they weren’t dressed like the other ones. Their outfits were dusty and looked like they came from a thrift store, not some government agency. I didn’t have time to debate whether they were on our side or against everybody as they came straight towards us. They stopped in front of us and pointed their rifles at the men. Okay good. They were on our side. Two less guns to worry about. About fifty more pointed at us though.
“Fight,” the older one said and a pang hit me as the voice matched the one from earlier.
I pushed it aside since it wasn’t the best choice to be thinking about in the current situation. As the shooting continued, my hands flew up to help in the best way I could. The men were flying backwards or falling to the ground as we fought back.
“Come on,” the guy shouted at us and he and the other one began running away from it.
I grabbed Nolan again and dragged him along until he caught his feet and we ran after them. It was sort of a hard decision to make but I guess this was the best one. Either stay behind in the middle of a gunfight or follow a stranger with a gun that you prayed was on your side. They kept shooting behind us as we ran. I focused on sending the bodies flying backwards and heard more gunshots. My breathing was hard though and I was running out of energy. Should’ve taken that stupid Phys Ed class…
“Send the spaceships down,” the older one shouted at me and I was taken a bit by surprise again.
I looked back towards the aircrafts anyway. I concentrated on them as my feet kept moving forward. One crashed into another and sent flames outwards as they collided. It fell to the ground scattering the fire. I saw the grass catch fire. Bigger uh oh.
“That’s more like it,” he yelled to me and I heard the other one laugh as he looked back to see the crash.
We kept running and attacking. My lungs burned and I looked over at Nolan who was drenched in sweat and his eyes half closed. Shoot. This better end soon or it’ll be our end. I stopped and turned around. My hands flew up once more and sent a wave of force towards the chasing army. They all flew backwards and into the flames. I heard shooting behind me from the two guys.
It went dead quiet except for the flames crackling. No more men came out of the fire and smoke to come attack us further. I fell to my knees out of exhaustion and bent over as I gasped for air and looked over at Nolan. He was lying on his back and grasping his left arm. I didn’t think much of his posture until I saw red flowing out from between his fingers. I cursed loudly and crawled to him quickly. I reached his arm and tried to pull away his fingers to look at the wound. He resisted, but gave up in the end and allowed me examine it. I saw a huge gash across the side of his arm spilling blood onto the soil.
He had been shot.
“Just grazed my arm,” he reassured me and squeezed his eyes shut before looking up at me, “Nothing a little bandage can’t fix.”
“But…,” I started. I thought you needed stitches or something. What if he lost too much blood?
“Don’t worry,” I heard behind me, “Little blood is spilt so now and then. Although stitches might be useful. I wouldn’t suggest going to hospital now though.”
I looked back at the older one who I knew had spoken. I narrowed my eyes at his statement though.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Why not what?” Nolan asked next to me, gasping for air as he spoke.
I looked over at him and his face looked confused before scrunching up in pain again. It loosened and he said, “It’s not that deep. It just really hurts.”
He forced a smile and a laugh as he looked at me.
“I’m a baby, remember?” he joked.
“Nolan,” I replied, not amused at all, “A bullet hit you in the arm. Of course it’s gonna hurt. You’re not a baby and we have to get help.”
“It’s not that deep,” he replied, “Trust me. I’m a doctor in training.”
I wanted to continue arguing, but knew it was no use with his thick skull.
“We have to get out of here,” the guy said behind me and I looked back at him.
“Someone will see the flames and start investigating,” the guy continued, “It’s not safe to stay around.”
I nodded and stood up.
“You remember where you parked your car?” he asked.
I looked over at Nolan. In a nook of hill near the highway, wherever that was. I heard crunching of footsteps and looked up to see the more silent one walking towards the flames.
“Boy it’s too hot that way,” I heard the older one call after him, but the guy kept walking. We looked at each other.
“Highway’s that way,” the older guy said while shaking his head.
He followed the other one as I helped Nolan up and did the same. I kept gazing over at him in case he fainted from blood loss. I also looked at the two new ones. Both looked like two fugitives. The silent one however, looked just a bit older than me while the older one looked like he was in his thirties or something. The older one had dirty long blonde hair slicked back. He wore a big, worn, brown leather coat and his clothes were covered in dirt and dust. The younger one had similar clothing, but a black leather jacket fit onto his wiry body and he had matching black shorter hair.
“Amber,” Nolan’s whisper snapped me back and I turned to him, “Do you know them?”
I shook my head as he continued to look at the other two with his lips pressed together. He sighed before continuing.
“Did you hear them speak?” he asked next and I tried to keep myself from looking shocked at his random question.
“Well yeah,” I replied, “Why? Did something they say make you anxious?”
“It’s that fact that I’ve heard them speak maybe twice since they came, yet you act like you’ve been having a whole conversation with them with the way you talk,” he replied, “Have you been hearing voices now?”
“We can talk telepathically,” I heard the older one speak and Nolan’s head turned towards him and he stopped.
“What?” Nolan replied.
The other one was turned towards us as well.
“You’re studying psychology, you should know what that is by now,” the guy replied.
“But that’s-”
“Impossible? You say that after your sister made a guy fly ten feet backwards without touching him?”
Nolan stared at him, unable to answer.
“You think she’s the only one?” the guy continued, “Me and him have been running from the same people for years now. They injected us as well. But lucky for us all, we seem to be able to communicate easily with… our kind I guess you could say. It’s an easy way to find each other.”
I stared at him. It explains a lot I guess? So can they make people fly too?
“No,” the guy replied, “We all have one different power. Telekinesis is yours.”
He turned and began walking again. Nolan and I looked at each other.
“He can read thoughts?” Nolan asked.
“Obviously,” I hissed back.
“I feel invaded on so many levels right now,” he mumbled behind the palm of his hand.
“Tell me about it…”

Description
Chapter 14
“So where do we go now?” I asked him while trying to keep up with him as he stormed out of the building.
“I’ve got a friend,” he said, “She lives by herself, but I’m sure she has room for us for one night.”
Knowing our luck she probably had some party going on right now…
We got back to the car and Nolan drove off down the street. We sat in silence. What was so wrong about his roommate? So he made a few sexual jokes. It’s not like other guys at my school do it. I crossed my arms as we made our way in the silent streets. 5:20 am. We would be lucky if we got a couple hours of sleep.
Nolan parked in front of small, bricked bungalow home. He paused for a moment before leaving the car and I followed him. I couldn’t see if any of the lights were on inside so I was a bit worried we would wake her up.
Nolan knocked on the door anyway and a couple seconds later I heard footsteps approaching. A moment later the door opened and revealed an olive skinned girl with brown curls falling down on her shoulders. Her face was a bit neutral until her eyes fell on Nolan. Her eyebrows came together in confusion.
“Nolan,” she said, “What are you doing here?”
“Felicia,” Nolan replied, “Hey. I was wondering if we could stay the night at your place.”
He pointed at me and looked back at her. She looked at me before nodding.
“Uh- um- sure,” she said and moved out of the way to let us in, “I’ve got a pull out couch and a spare bed.”
“Thanks,” Nolan said as he passed her on the way in.
I followed him inside and followed my brother’s example and took my coat off. Felicia stood at the doorway to the living room, watching us.
“We didn’t wake you, did we?” Nolan asked.
She stood up straighter and waved her hands.
“Oh no, no,” she reassured us, “I was trying to finish a report for physics when you knocked.”
Nolan nodded and Felicia showed us to the living room, which could barely fit the two small couches, television and bookshelf in it
“You can both take a couch each if you want,” she said, “Unless one of you prefers to sleep on the bed.”
“We’ll both take the couches,” he replied, “I’d prefer if we stuck together so I can keep an eye on her.”
He gave a reassuring smile that it wasn’t for bad reasons. She nodded and showed us to the living room.
“I’ll be in the dining room, attempting to finish that report,” she explained, “But we all know I won’t. So if you need me or anything, you know where to find me.”
I nodded my head as well.
“Thanks,” I managed out of me.
“You’re welcome,” she said, smiling, before turning to Nolan, “Can I talk to you for a second?”
“Sure,” he replied slowly, as if considering if it was a good idea or not and followed her out of the room.
I watched him leave and looked at the couch. My curiousity was greater though and I wanted to know what was happening. I shut my eyes and tried to listen for their conversation in the other room. I missed the start though, but managed to catch up.
“…your sister?” I heard her voice say, “What are you doing?”
“I’ve got to bring her to a tournament in Alberta,” Nolan lied, “My parents are way too busy with work so I offered to take her since - technically - I was headed in the same direction.”
“So she’s just gonna hop on a bus now to Canada?” she demanded.
“No, Felicia. I’m driving her. That’s why I won’t be here for a couple days. I need you to take notes in our chemistry class for me.”
She groaned and I heard footsteps.
“I heard on the news what happened to her,” she continued and there was a pause, “What’s happening… for real.”
Nolan didn’t reply right away and Felicia began attacking him with an interrogation.
“I demand to know what’s happening,” she snapped at him, “I give you a place to stay the night and… why couldn’t you go to your place?”
“Because Thomas is there,” he replied, “And I can’t have a girl in my room, related or not.”
She muttered something under her breath, but I couldn’t catch it.
A new voice whispered something and my eyes snapped open. My eyes flickered around the room, but nothing was here with me. I rubbed my head and sat down on the couch. Maybe I just heard Felicia or Nolan. No, I shook my head. It didn’t sound like them at all. It was male and not soft like Nolan’s either. I played back my memory to the voice. It sounded oddly like it had asked for my name and I could’ve sworn I heard it before. I checked around the room again. I shoved it away, thinking it was something related to my exhaustion and lied down on the couch.
I heard Nolan’s footsteps re-enter the room before I fell fast asleep.
***
Betty sleepily trudged down the stairs. Sally was still sleeping in her bed. As she walked to the kitchen she suddenly began to notice how eerily quiet it was. Usually her husband was frying something in the kitchen or making some sort of noise to wake up the rest of the household. She made it to the kitchen and found it empty.
“Robert?” she said out loud.
No one replied and she went to the table where the newspaper from this morning was sprawled out to a page. She looked at the page and saw an article that caught her eye.
“Man Spots UFOs Over Farm,” she read out loud and scanned her eyes over it.
She suddenly spotted her husband’s name on it and her eyes widened.
“Robert?” she called out louder, but again silence answered.
***
I woke up to Nolan pulling on a pair of jeans. The early sun rays were spilling into the room from the big living room window. He saw me get onto my elbows and whispered, “We’re leaving soon. We can grab a breakfast to go at some coffee shop.”
“What about your friend?” I asked softly.
“I don’t want to wake her up,” he replied and grabbed his bag, “Come on. I want to leave. We’ve got a long drive ahead of us, so let’s get started.”
I pulled the blankets off and tiptoed to the bathroom. I quickly did what I had to and slipped out to see Nolan looking at me anxiously. I grabbed my bag and we left Felicia’s house. I checked the clock before the door closed. 8:30 am. Three and half hours of sleep... if we were lucky. We should be fine… until Nolan crashes.
The air outside was freezing. I could hardly breathe in and I wondered if we could start the car. Maybe I should’ve also thought about bringing a hat or mitts or something. But of course I was too stupid for that. We got inside the car and, thankfully, the car’s engine started with its heating system.
“Ready?” Nolan said before pressing on the gas pedal.
I nodded.
“No turning back, now,” he added, “Not until we find it.”
I nodded my head again. I couldn’t go back now even if I really wanted to.

I fell asleep again. I can’t imagine what this was doing to Nolan since he couldn’t just pass out like me. Too bad I didn’t really have a driver’s license yet. I know how to, I just don’t have the “approval” certificate that makes everybody else think I can. I looked over at my brother.
“Where are we?” I asked.
“At this speed?” he replied, “We’ll be in South Dakota in the next hour. Devil’s Tower in the next two or three.”
I looked outside and tall grass swaying in the winds. The ground was getting flatter and hills were stretched out, but not that high. I rubbed my eyes and looked forward where the highway stretched on for miles. This was going to be a long day.
I sat up straighter in my chair.
“Are you going to take a break soon?” I asked and shook my head, “I’m going to restate that. In the next five minutes, when are planning to pull on the side of the road to take a nap before you end up on the side of the road by accident?”
“I’m fine, Amber,” he said and I rolled my eyes.
“Three hours,” I argued, “Three hours of sleep last night and you tell me you’re fine. And I’m guessing you took another “power nap” as well two hours ago?”
“In fact I did,” he said calmly, “And I stopped at a Dunkin’ Donuts.” He held up a disposable cup with the familiar logo. “America runs on it.” He took a sip and his face cringed at the taste. “And so do I.”
I rolled my eyes again. No use arguing to a brick wall. I sat back on my seat with my arms crossed. How long could he do this for? I had to take over at some point before he completely crashed.
A couple minutes later, I saw the sign for South Dakota and sighed. The Badlands would be coming up soon. The plains outside looked so big. How could we ever find it? What would we be looking for?
I didn’t hear it at first, but it seemed to be growing louder now. It was sort of a hissing sound. I thought for one panicking moment that the car was giving up on us and breaking down. But it didn’t seem like it was coming from the car. I looked around me. I suddenly realized that it wasn’t hissing, but whispering.
“What?” I asked out loud. That was stupid.
“Huh?” Nolan replied, making me feel even stupider.
“Nothing,” I mumbled as the whispering continued.
I tried focusing on the sound to hear what it was saying, but it was so soft that I couldn’t make it out. It was getting louder though. I looked around me. Where was it coming from though? I shut my eyes again and concentrated. It was almost loud enough now that I could make it out. Just give it a moment-
Nolan cried out in shock and slammed on the brakes. The seatbelt dug into my chest and my eyes flew open just in time to see a ball of smoke and flame reach into the sky. It was small though and cleared quickly to reveal something black, shiny, and flat flying in the sky. Other vehicles had screeched to a halt as well, some even skidding off the road. Nolan quickly placed his into reverse, pressed the gas pedal, and looked over his shoulder to back. He cried out again and the seatbelt once again dug into me as he braked. I recovered quickly and looked to see more floating things hovering over the highway. I cursed and we both looked ahead of us again. More of them were now circling around our car.
“We’re surrounded,” I shouted. No duh, I thought to myself, I think we’ve all figured that out, Sherlock.
“Not for long,” Nolan replied and placed it out of reverse.
He slammed the gas pedal down and drove as fast as he could down the highway. I looked up at the aircrafts and realized after a moment that I was looking down the barrel of its gun. I cursed again.
“Look out!” I yelled before a spray of bullets came near to hitting us.
He swerved in time though, but I saw the windshield crack. He cursed this time. He drove faster dodging cars and bullets. I looked behind us and saw them chasing. They were catching up too easily.
“Hold tight,” Nolan warned and suddenly turned right.
The sharp turn stole my breath and I gasped for air. He hit the grassy plains and - well - saying they were bumpy would be an understatement. I gripped onto whatever I could as he tried to make his way across the field as fast as he could in a little economy car. It smoothed out and dust kicked up behind us, creating a bit of shield, but giving us away still.
“I don’t know if this is any use,” he said to me panicking.
“Running, I think, would be a better option at this point,” I replied.
He gripped the wheel tighter as he hit another bump. My head snapped a bit and I loosened one hand to rub the back of my neck.
“Yeah,” he said, “But giving up the car and leaving it behind? It’s our only transportation for miles especially when we get rid of these guys. Damaging it would mean we’d have to walk on the highway or hitchhike.”
I bit my lip and then saw something up ahead.
“There,” I said, pointing, “Hide it in there.”
He drove towards the small nook in the hill. I heard more bullets being fired and gripped the handles tighter until it hurt. We were gonna die. He reached the nook and slammed the brakes.
“Come on,” he said to me as I tried to recover from shock.
I rushed out, throwing off the seatbelt, and followed him out. Dust still gave us some cover and we reached the end of the nook. Nolan held out his hand to stop me. He gestured for me to follow and we ran out and around the hill. The dust was settling though and they quickly spotted us running. My curse flew into the wind as I pushed myself to run faster as bullets jumped in the grass near us. Come on, come on.
One of them suddenly floated down in front of us, blocking us. We turned on our heel and tried going the other way, but another blocked us. Now what?
“Fight,” I heard.
“What?” I called out, spinning my head wildly.
“You have powers - dammit - use them,” someone replied.
“Right,” I said back and my hands flew up.
The aircraft spun backwards and crashed onto the ground. I spun around and the others went flying backwards as well. They began shooting again and I grabbed Nolan who was standing there in a bit of shock. More of them flew back and Nolan cried out in pain. I cursed, but we couldn’t play field doctor at the moment. We raced across the field and I looked over my shoulder to see them following us still. I sent a dust cloud into the air behind us and kept running. Bullets were still whizzing by us though and I couldn’t control those things. They were too small and too fast. I heard the pounding of feet over the noise of the chasers. Uh oh. I glanced back to see some of them on foot with guns pointed straight at us. I sent up another cloud and turned left. Nolan was stumbling behind me. I slowed suddenly as more on feet appeared in front of me and behind me.
I cursed again and waited for the triggers to blow my brains out. I heard a crack of a gunshot. After a second of not feeling pain I looked up to see a few of them lying on the ground. Two guys were running towards me and Nolan, waving guns. But they weren’t dressed like the other ones. Their outfits were dusty and looked like they came from a thrift store, not some government agency. I didn’t have time to debate whether they were on our side or against everybody as they came straight towards us. They stopped in front of us and pointed their rifles at the men. Okay good. They were on our side. Two less guns to worry about. About fifty more pointed at us though.
“Fight,” the older one said and a pang hit me as the voice matched the one from earlier.
I pushed it aside since it wasn’t the best choice to be thinking about in the current situation. As the shooting continued, my hands flew up to help in the best way I could. The men were flying backwards or falling to the ground as we fought back.
“Come on,” the guy shouted at us and he and the other one began running away from it.
I grabbed Nolan again and dragged him along until he caught his feet and we ran after them. It was sort of a hard decision to make but I guess this was the best one. Either stay behind in the middle of a gunfight or follow a stranger with a gun that you prayed was on your side. They kept shooting behind us as we ran. I focused on sending the bodies flying backwards and heard more gunshots. My breathing was hard though and I was running out of energy. Should’ve taken that stupid Phys Ed class…
“Send the spaceships down,” the older one shouted at me and I was taken a bit by surprise again.
I looked back towards the aircrafts anyway. I concentrated on them as my feet kept moving forward. One crashed into another and sent flames outwards as they collided. It fell to the ground scattering the fire. I saw the grass catch fire. Bigger uh oh.
“That’s more like it,” he yelled to me and I heard the other one laugh as he looked back to see the crash.
We kept running and attacking. My lungs burned and I looked over at Nolan who was drenched in sweat and his eyes half closed. Shoot. This better end soon or it’ll be our end. I stopped and turned around. My hands flew up once more and sent a wave of force towards the chasing army. They all flew backwards and into the flames. I heard shooting behind me from the two guys.
It went dead quiet except for the flames crackling. No more men came out of the fire and smoke to come attack us further. I fell to my knees out of exhaustion and bent over as I gasped for air and looked over at Nolan. He was lying on his back and grasping his left arm. I didn’t think much of his posture until I saw red flowing out from between his fingers. I cursed loudly and crawled to him quickly. I reached his arm and tried to pull away his fingers to look at the wound. He resisted, but gave up in the end and allowed me examine it. I saw a huge gash across the side of his arm spilling blood onto the soil.
He had been shot.
“Just grazed my arm,” he reassured me and squeezed his eyes shut before looking up at me, “Nothing a little bandage can’t fix.”
“But…,” I started. I thought you needed stitches or something. What if he lost too much blood?
“Don’t worry,” I heard behind me, “Little blood is spilt so now and then. Although stitches might be useful. I wouldn’t suggest going to hospital now though.”
I looked back at the older one who I knew had spoken. I narrowed my eyes at his statement though.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Why not what?” Nolan asked next to me, gasping for air as he spoke.
I looked over at him and his face looked confused before scrunching up in pain again. It loosened and he said, “It’s not that deep. It just really hurts.”
He forced a smile and a laugh as he looked at me.
“I’m a baby, remember?” he joked.
“Nolan,” I replied, not amused at all, “A bullet hit you in the arm. Of course it’s gonna hurt. You’re not a baby and we have to get help.”
“It’s not that deep,” he replied, “Trust me. I’m a doctor in training.”
I wanted to continue arguing, but knew it was no use with his thick skull.
“We have to get out of here,” the guy said behind me and I looked back at him.
“Someone will see the flames and start investigating,” the guy continued, “It’s not safe to stay around.”
I nodded and stood up.
“You remember where you parked your car?” he asked.
I looked over at Nolan. In a nook of hill near the highway, wherever that was. I heard crunching of footsteps and looked up to see the more silent one walking towards the flames.
“Boy it’s too hot that way,” I heard the older one call after him, but the guy kept walking. We looked at each other.
“Highway’s that way,” the older guy said while shaking his head.
He followed the other one as I helped Nolan up and did the same. I kept gazing over at him in case he fainted from blood loss. I also looked at the two new ones. Both looked like two fugitives. The silent one however, looked just a bit older than me while the older one looked like he was in his thirties or something. The older one had dirty long blonde hair slicked back. He wore a big, worn, brown leather coat and his clothes were covered in dirt and dust. The younger one had similar clothing, but a black leather jacket fit onto his wiry body and he had matching black shorter hair.
“Amber,” Nolan’s whisper snapped me back and I turned to him, “Do you know them?”
I shook my head as he continued to look at the other two with his lips pressed together. He sighed before continuing.
“Did you hear them speak?” he asked next and I tried to keep myself from looking shocked at his random question.
“Well yeah,” I replied, “Why? Did something they say make you anxious?”
“It’s that fact that I’ve heard them speak maybe twice since they came, yet you act like you’ve been having a whole conversation with them with the way you talk,” he replied, “Have you been hearing voices now?”
“We can talk telepathically,” I heard the older one speak and Nolan’s head turned towards him and he stopped.
“What?” Nolan replied.
The other one was turned towards us as well.
“You’re studying psychology, you should know what that is by now,” the guy replied.
“But that’s-”
“Impossible? You say that after your sister made a guy fly ten feet backwards without touching him?”
Nolan stared at him, unable to answer.
“You think she’s the only one?” the guy continued, “Me and him have been running from the same people for years now. They injected us as well. But lucky for us all, we seem to be able to communicate easily with… our kind I guess you could say. It’s an easy way to find each other.”
I stared at him. It explains a lot I guess? So can they make people fly too?
“No,” the guy replied, “We all have one different power. Telekinesis is yours.”
He turned and began walking again. Nolan and I looked at each other.
“He can read thoughts?” Nolan asked.
“Obviously,” I hissed back.
“I feel invaded on so many levels right now,” he mumbled behind the palm of his hand.
“Tell me about it…”