ã€ŠThe Coming of Magic : A World in Chaosã€‹


 Prologue

    The Brant brothers had only been at Gamecon in Los Angeles for three days, but Bryan couldn¡¯t wait to get back home.

    On the other hand, Jack, the younger of the two, had been saving to make the trip happen for years. His parents had been hesitant about letting him go at first, but they knew it was something important to him.

    So years ago Jacks parents put a plan together to make sure it happened for him.

    When his older brother Bryan went away to college, they came up with the idea that if he was able to get a job and raise the money for the trip himself that he could go..... If he brought Bryan with him as well.

    To top it off, he was the one that had to get Bryan to agree to the trip.

    Growing up always fighting and arguing as they had, Jack knew that that was going to be the hardest part.

    Saving the money was easy for Jack. He completely surprised his parents by taking to the plan with a fervor they had not expected of him.

    Jack had always been a shut in for the most part growing up, with the exception of going camping, hiking and mountain biking with his father and brother, he spent most of his time reading books in his room or playing video games online with his small group of friends from school.

    But once the deal was struck, he went out and found a job at a local book store. At only 16 he had to go through the lengthy process of getting a work permit. But as long as it got him closer to his goal he didn''t mind the hassle a bit. In an effort to get more points with his parents, he became very helpful around the house as well.

    One night he sat both his parents down and propositioned them to make contributions to his trip fund for picking up that extra handywork around the house on top of his chores. Cleaning the gutters, painting the trellis, all of the odd fix it''s a house would need.

    With his dads help he became a variable handy man, learning how to fix many things around the house and even how to properly paint a room.

    Soon the neighbors had heard of this and he had found plenty of work around the neighborhood helping with their homes and lawns as well.

    His parents were very proud of what he had become, even adding a bit extra to his fund on birthdays and holidays.If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    Amending things with Bryan was not as easy. Having so little in common it was hard for them to relate or have anything at all to talk about. But Jack tried, making sure to keep his temper in check when Bryan came home for the holidays.

    Over the first summer Bryan was home from school, Jack had asked Bryan about his studies at collage one day while their parents were out.

    Bryan went off the handle on him about it being none of his business. It quick decayed into a slew of curse words and dirty names.

    Instead of engaging like he always had, Jack stayed silent and just gave his brother a look of surprise. He wasn''t making fun of him, he just asked a normal question. He was used to fighting with Bryan but normally it had some sort of reason behind it.

    Bryan had stormed off, but later when their parents were asleep, he came to Jack in his room and apologized. Nothing warm and fuzzy no, but an apology none the less.

    Jack had asked again and Bryan finally slowly admitted his short comings as of late in all his classes.

    It turns out he was almost flunking out from either not going to class or when he was there he had missed so much he had no idea what was going on.

    Jack was afraid to say much, not wanting to raise his brothers¡¯ wrath so he listened and gave short advice. Since then the two had slowly been on the mend, extremely slowly but progress is still progress right?

    Jacks parents noticed at the holiday break for Jacks senior year and Bryans second year in college, that other than quips back and forth, they actually could be in the same room together. The fighting had been so bad just 2 years ago that they now hardly even recognized the boys.

    On Christmas morning, one of Jacks presents was an envelope with two passes for Gamecon and a fancy printed out certificate to let Jack know he could go on the trip, all he needed to do was get Bryan to agree.

    Even in Bryan¡¯s softened state, it took him quite a while to agree. It took their parents explaining to him that they would pay for his ticket and even give him spending money for the trip he grudgingly agreed.

    The day they left started out on a great note. Jacks parents also gave him some extra spending money that they had saved up for him as well as his brother.

    Jack tried to refuse it but his parents insisted it was the least they could do for how proud they were of the changes he had made in his life in the past two years. ¡±Consider it a graduation present¡± they said.

    Taking it and hugging his parents, Bryan did the same and then headed into the airport with their bags.

    Turning back, they both waved good bye to their parents. Little did they know it might just be the last time they ever saw them, for what was to come would surely change their lives forever¡­.

    The time at Gamecon had flown by. Three full days from sun up to sun down of walking from booth to booth, listening to presentations on future games and upcoming game systems. There was even a conference on prospects of full emersion gaming that Jack dragged Bryan to that even he admittedly enjoyed.

    With their pocket money, they ate like kings at all the fine restaurants in the area, Jack bought a number of different souvenirs and had enjoyed himself immensely at all there was to take in. But the conference had ended, and it was almost time to go home.

    Jack and Bryan went back to their hotel room, the realization of having to go home and everything that was going on in the world outside of Gamecon came crashing back down on them.

 Chapter 1

    Jack stood at the window with his phone to his ear, staring out at the decrepit motel parking lot before him. The asphalt was so broken up it was a year away from being gravel. Yellowed weeds had made a home around the edges of the largest sections that were left intact.

    This musty road side motel had been his brother Bryan and his home for three days now.

    ¡°We¡¯ll be ok mom!¡± Jack exclaimed, for what felt like the hundredth time. ¡°Yes, we have plenty of food. We have bottles of water just in case too, but we¡¯re not going to need them. We have been keeping tabs on the news all day and they say there is no chance of it hitting earth.¡± Jack leaned his head forward against the window, tapping his toe against the wall in anxiety. ¡°My battery is about to die though, I have got to go... Okay mom, love you too. Bryan too.¡± Hanging up the phone, Jack let out a long sigh and looked over to his brother Bryan.

    Bryan was lounging on one of the two stiff as a board twin beds with an amused look on his face, happy it wasn''t him fielding calls from their parents.

    Jack had saved up for a long time to make this trip happen. But having never done anything like this before, he hadn¡¯t counted on a few things.

    Like that all the hotels in LA had either been booked or way out of his price range when he had tried to book one only two weeks before the trip.

    Furious with himself having not planned ahead properly, he booked the cheapest motel he could find that wasn''t somewhere they were in danger of being shot. The result of which is where they sat now.

    The closest to LA he could get was almost 2 hours out of the city, all the way in the city of Wittier. It was a dingy, somehow damp room.

    The only light in the room rested in-between the beds on a cigarette burn stained nightstand that really needed replacing. The walls where a smoke stained wallpaper that might have at one point been white but now was an aged yellow with strips of wallpaper pulling up in the corners. Under the window the air conditioner looked older then Jack, with mold spreading out from its edges that lent even more must to the smoky stench of the room.

    Despite the disrepair, Bryan had made himself at home.

    ¡°I don¡¯t even know why I let mom and dad talk me into this stupid trip!¡± said Bryan, sitting up on his elbows to look strait at Jack. This argument had been going on for days now and was only interrupted by the phone call from their parents. ¡°Of all the times to leave home, you chose now. Good job Genius!¡±

    Jack hated it when his brother called him that, it never meant what its intended to. Jack had always felt like the screw up of the family, always clumsy and accident prone. He had a streak of bad luck that at times was just inconceivable. And his brother never let him forget it.

    ¡°We are going to be fine¡± Jack retorted with frustration clearly showing in his voice. Jack moved to the empty bed and plopped down on top of the grubby blanket the hotel supplied.

    Laying his head down on a pillow he brought from home, he tried to relax.

    He took time to reflect, thinking back on the events of the day, never having expected anything like this would ever happen.

    The last three days, Jack had been in absolute heaven spending all day at the convention center.

    Jack had been planning and saving for so long, it was extremely gratifying for him to have it have paid off.

    The struggle to complete what his parents had set for him had been a serious list of conditions that at times Jack thought were unfair.

    But after finally making the trip, to Jack, it was worth it.

    GameCon is the largest collection of new and upcoming games in the world, where thousands upon thousands of people come every year to see the latest and greatest games and technology. Jack had always been a fan of all video games, anything sci-fi and his ultimate favorite was fantasy books

    The only drag on the entire trip was been his brother Bryan¡¯s chaperoning, Jacks least favorite loop his parents had set for him.

    Bryan was the total opposite of Jack. While Jack was into video games, reading and school work, Bryan was the golden boy of the family. He was a state champion in wrestling and football, while only doing enough school work to barely get by. Now he is two years into college, attending Kansas State for the football program, he was the pride and joy of his parents.

    Little did they know how much he had gone wild since hitting the campus. They knew nothing of him joining a fraternity and partying all the time, class work and even sports had fallen quite far in his priorities.

    Jack and Bryan had never gotten along well. Seeing as they didn¡¯t have much in common at all, they always where butting heads. Their shouting matches and brawls where legendary in their neighborhood growing up. They were always coming home with black eyes and skinned elbows and knees. Their parents didn¡¯t know what to do with them but luckily Bryan went to college before it escalated too far.

    Jack was glad they at least some what had been getting along on the trip. Sarcasm aside of course.

    Even Jack''s reminiscing and thoughts couldn''t keep him from turning his head to stare out at the increasingly green sky.

    That was the other major excitement of the trip.

    A meteor the size of Texas had snuck up on scientists coming from the far side of the sun. It came over the top of the sun and was currently hurtling towards earth.

    Having appeared just before the brothers flight to LA, the meteor was traveling so fast that in the three days that had passed, it was already making its approach to earth.You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    The scientists said that it would pass close to the planet, even in-between the moon and earth but all studies say that it will pass by the earth at a safe distance. The public had seemed rather subdued for such a major event, seeming to blindly accept the words of broadcasters.

    Even parties had sprung up for the event all over the world!

    But Jack and Bryan where still underage to get in the clubs and bars, so they stayed in their dank hotel room and were resting up for their trip home the next day.

    Jack silently hoped that the scientists were right. The fact that they didn''t catch it until it was already over the sun didn''t leave him with much faith in the matter though.

    Bryan was laying back on the bed flipping through the channels on TV, glancing out the window from time to time just to take in the green. It''s not every day the sky turns almost neon green.

    He watched as a family with binoculars walked by the window and across the parking lot to their minivan. With a look of frustration that slowly turned to elation, Bryan had come to a decision on how he could finally get something he wanted to do done on this trip.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go see it¡± he breathed. It seemed like he even surprised himself.

    Jacks ears perked up and just blinked a few times astounded by what he had just heard. ¡°You can¡¯t be serious?¡±

    ¡°Hell yea I am, if this meteor thing is coming and could kill us all, I want to see it.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not going to kill anyone, it¡¯s not going to hit earth.¡± Jack dejectedly sighed.

    ¡°Whatever, I just spent three days going to this stupid conference of yours, we¡¯re going.¡± Bryan sprang from bed committed to this new idea. He looked around at the room that was now covered with their belongings that seemed to have spread everywhere in only three days. Shaking his head, he headed to the bathroom.

    Jack did some head shaking of his own, thinking his brother was crazy.

    It¡¯s not that that he didn¡¯t want to see it, he really did actually. He was just afraid of what it would be like out in the city. They didn¡¯t even know where to go, not being familiar with the area at all. Sure, people seemed to be taking this disturbing news pretty well, there wasn¡¯t panic or rioting going on. None the less, earlier today at the convention there was definitely a subtle uneasy feeling in the air that felt like everyone knew something was off.

    Jack was mentally digging in on his opinion to stay at the motel the more he thought of it, and now he had to try to convince his brother.

    ¡°What about our flight tomorrow? We have to be at the airport at 5am!¡± Jack called to his brother in the bathroom as he sat up in the bed.

    ¡°So we will pack tonight and even pack the car. That way we won¡¯t have to worry about it in the morning and can catch up on some extra sleep in the terminal.¡± Bryan explained.

    Jack thought on it a moment, his curiosity was starting to get the best of him. But his logic just wouldn¡¯t let him go. ¡°We have a full day of traveling tomorrow, it¡¯s already seven o¡¯clock. What if we get back and sleep through our flight?¡± he argued.

    Bryan walked out of the bathroom with a look on his face that bordered on angry and annoyed. ¡°I can¡¯t even piss in peace.¡± He muttered and started walking around the room picking up his things with a little more force than he would have liked, starting to let his temper show through.

    ¡°So we just stay up all night, is that too much for the little baby?¡± Bryan teased with a smirk, talking to jack like he was 2. ¡°Besides, like you said we have a day of traveling tomorrow we can just sleep on the plane. I don¡¯t care what you say, we¡¯re going.¡±

    Bryan was a master at that, turning Jacks argument back on himself.

    Giving up, Jack sat up the rest of the way and swung his legs over the side of the bed. As much as he really wanted to go, he couldn¡¯t let his brother know he won. ¡°Alright fine.¡± Trying his best to sound dejected.

    He slowly stood and stretched. His legs and back where sore from all the walking around they had been doing the past few days. Walking the short distance of the room to the dresser under the TV at the foot of his bed, he started gathering his belongings.

    Jack tossed his backpack onto his bed next to his duffel and started sorting through it. Over the past three days he had accrued a bunch of junk from the conference. Some of which he wasn¡¯t too keen on bringing through security at the airport. Jack took all the fliers and handouts he had received out and dumped them in his duffle bag. Most people would throw them out, but Jack actually reads them. He¡¯ll get to them eventually. Next he comes across some tech gadgets he bought. These he wanted to keep with him, not trusting that they would still be in his bag when he got home in New York. Then came the assorted snacks and drinks that he had brought with him from home. A slew of chips, granola bars, a large bag of trail mix and four water bottles. Jack takes all of it and reorganizes it as best he can to make sure nothing gets crushed.

    Lastly he came across his new favorite possession.

    The knife was just over a foot long from tip to pommel. It was a deadly looking eight inch blade that resembled a lick of fire sprouting from a black steel cross piece. The handle was wrapped in a red dyed leather that came down to the black steel pommel tipped with a single talon shaped spike. He had found it in a corner of the conference at a vendor booth. It was a particularly good find since it was razor sharp.

    As a rule at the conference no actual edged weapons were supposed to be sold.

    To Jacks luck, the local vendor had accidently packed it for the show not realizing it had been sharpened. Or so he had said...

    Jack started to remove it and its sheath from the bottom of his bag. . But as he does, he gets a strange feeling in the bottom of his stomach and decided to leave it. Better safe than sorry, he thought to himself.

    With a last thought he grabs a sweatshirt from his bag and toss¡¯s it in and closes the bag.

    ¡°You ready to go Bryan?¡± asked Jack as he started his check to make sure he had not forgotten anything.

    ¡°Almost, just a few more things¡± Bryan says.

    While jack had been busy with his backpack, Bryan had been picking up his disaster strewn side of the room.

    He always was the messy one when it came to traveling. But by now most of it was stuffed into his own duffel and he was doing his own check to make sure he had everything. ¡°Just one more thing.¡± Bryan crossed the room to the bathroom with a mischievous grin on his face. Jack immediately knew just what he was doing.

    ¡°Do you really need all that stuff?¡± Jack calls, sighing, as his brother ransacks the bathroom for any and all things he can find to take with him.

    ¡°No, but that¡¯s not the point. It¡¯s free, so why not take it?¡± Just as he finishes, he comes around the corner with an armful of soap and shampoo.

    Bryan makes it to his bags and starts piling it in, Jack notices he is even taking the wash cloths. ¡°Okay now we can go.¡± He states with a grin.

    Jack and Bryan pick up their bags and make for their tiny rental car. Neither of them like the little eco box as Bryan calls it. With four doors and only about enough space inside for three people. It was functional but cheap, just like their motel room.

    They both dropped their bags in the trunk, with those alone it was pretty much full.

    Jack made for the passenger door and had to throw some trash in the back so he can actually have some foot room to speak of.

    Bryan slammed the trunk shut, excitedly rushing around the car, opening the driver¡¯s side door and throws his backpack to Jack. ¡°Ow, hey. Come on now.¡±

    Bryan just laughs and starts to get in, but stops with a look of stupidity on his face with one leg already in the car. The realization hits him that he has no idea where to go. ¡°Ah man, wait here, I¡¯m going to go ask the reception person for directions to a place to go.¡±

    Rolling his eyes Jack yells ¡°Now who¡¯s the genius?¡± Which gets him a stiff glare from Bryan as he turns to go to the front office.

    Leaning the seat back, Jack lets a smile creep on his face for getting one back on him finally.

 Chapter 2

    It turns out that Turnbull Canyon was a lot closer than they thought it would be, especially for the view that the Motel attendant said they would get.

    ¡°If it¡¯s not the view he said it would be, we are going back and I am going to kick his ass.¡± Bryan muttered as they sat in traffic.

    Jack stifled a laugh at that, ¡°You¡¯re the one who paid the guy for information it¡¯s his job to give out.¡±

    It was getting harder and harder for him to not to let out a laugh at his brothers expense.

    Visibly frustrated, Bryan launched into a defense ¡°It¡¯s LA. I thought that¡¯s how things worked here, I wanted to make sure it was a good spot that he was telling me about.¡±

    Jack couldn¡¯t hold back anymore and started laughing quietly as possible to not riel up his brother too much.

    ¡°Twenty bucks though? I think you have seen too many movies Bry¡± Jack says still trying to rein in his laughter.

    That was enough to earn him a quick jab in the arm from Bryan ¡°ow!¡± Jack exclaimed.

    ¡°Serves you right, I told you to never call me that!¡± Bryan was all but yelling.

    Jack was still smiling, but his arm smarted a lot more than he was willing to show Bryan.

    They were coming up on their turn, according to their navigation. Jack focused back to peering out the window, soaking up his last night in California. ¡°It¡¯s a hundred feet away on the right.¡± Jack said.

    They had long turned off the voice commands from the navigation that just left the both of them creeped out.

    ¡°I see it.¡± Bryan sighed.

    The road curved back and forth like a snake through the hills. From time to time Jack thought he could see a bright forest green glow in the sky just passed the hills.

    They were still supposed to be miles away from where they were headed, but cars where becoming more and more common on the side of the road. Soon the cars where so thick that it was just solid bands on both sides of their car. There was just barely a wide enough track going through the center for their eco box to squeeze through, but Bryan was determined and kept driving.

    ¡°You know we could walk from here if you wanted.¡± Jack tried to chime in. ¡°It will probably make it easier to leave as well.¡± He added.

    ¡°Do you see any parking spots? Besides, I want to get us as close as I can. The traffic took too long as it was and now it¡¯s almost ten o¡¯clock. The news said that the meteor will be most visible for the pacific coast between eleven and one am.¡± Bryan went on.

    They had finally found the tail end of the cars moving forward down the street. Slowly all the cars ahead of thwm put on their breaks and gradually came to a stop with the destination still no were in sight. Bryan was about to start honking when he realized people where just getting out and walking. They were going to have to hike the rest of the way anyway it seems. Bryan and Jack both clambered out of the car and stretched.

    The heat of the night surprised jack as he collected his backpack from the car. Being from NY he had expected a higher elevation like this to be colder.

    Jack threw his brothers backpack to him over the car and slung on his own. Checking his shoes to make sure they were tied right Jack called to Bryan ¡°Make sure you lock it.¡±

    ¡°Thanks mom I will. Now come on, let¡¯s get going!¡± Bryan mocked.

    Jack pulled out his phone and transferred over the navigation. He felt silly doing it, since there were a good amount of people making their way past the cars ahead of them, but it still made him feel better about not knowing where they were.

    Still a mile from their destination, they had a decent hike ahead of them. Jack was still trying to soak in the sites but there just wasn¡¯t much to see. The right side of the road where shear rock faces almost twelve feet high to his left side, and dry grass with dull green bushes and withered looking tree¡¯s he didn¡¯t recognize spotting an almost desert forest like landscape on the other. The darkness of night that had crept up on them didn¡¯t help much either, but the sky was still lit by the orange glow of the city lights.

    The brothers both worked their way through the lines of cars, squeezing by as best they could at times. Jack was amazed at how many cars there were, being from a small town, he figured this would have been just about everyone in town back home. The road still twisted back and forth, and became much more of an incline as they pulled themselves along.

    Stopping at an overly large lifted truck, Jack had to take a breather. He wasn¡¯t out of shape by a long run but the dirty smog filled air was taking its toll on him. ¡°Hold on a second¡± Jack almost wheezed out.

    Bryan stopped, obviously not nearly as tired as jack, with a face twisted with impatience for his little brother. ¡°Come on, we are almost there. Quit being a wimp and move!¡±

    Jack scowled back at his brother, he sure knew how to press his buttons when he wanted to. ¡°Look it¡¯s not far ahead, we¡¯re not going to miss anything. I promise. I just need to catch my breath a bit, this smog is killing me.¡± Jack said.

    He stood up strait and arched his back, trying to breath as deep as he could.

    ¡°Want some water?¡± he asked.

    ¡°Nope just want to get moving.¡± Bryan smartly retorted.

    Sighing and shaking his head at his brothers lack of patience, Jack bent down to one knee and opened his backpack. With a small amount of searching he found himself a bottle of water. He wondered how his brother was not being nearly as effected as him by the smog. He guessed that while Bryan was in school in Kansas he had gotten a bit more used to it.

    Jack took a quick swig of water and bent back over to replace the bottle when he heard loud yelling, that sounded like it was coming from ahead of them.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    ¡°Hey!¡± yelled a strange, slurred voice. ¡°What the hell do you think you are doing to my truck?¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Jack admonished. Looking up, he saw what looked like a giant coming toward him. Standing up, he appraised the coming giant. He was well over six feet tall probably close to seven, with shoulders that where wide enough to fill a doorway. As he approached closer, Jack noticed his t-shirt had three Greek letters on it, which to him explained the strangers¡¯ almost drunken stagger as he walked with urgency toward them.

    ¡°You heard me kid, what are you doing?¡± He threatened.

    Jack still had his hand in his bag, close to the knife, with the other wrapped around the bag holding it to his chest. ¡°I wasn¡¯t doing anything, I was just catching my breath.¡± Jack sheepishly replied.

    ¡°Oh yea? I¡¯ll see about that.¡± The mongoloid proclaimed, as he started inspecting his truck. He stumbled a bit, trying to inspect the paint.

    Jack wasn¡¯t quite sure he could see strait to begin with. When he went to inspect the tire he lost his balance and teetered like a falling tree, barely catching himself on the tread of the tire with his finger tips.

    Just then another stranger appeared among the cars ahead of them. ¡°Hey Jimmy! What¡¯s taking so long?¡± he seemed soberer than Jimmy that¡¯s for sure.

    ¡°You fall down again?¡± He stopped cold when he saw Jack standing behind his friend Jimmy crouched at the oversized tire. ¡°Oi, what¡¯s going on here?¡±

    Jimmy shot up, and looked at his frat brother with annoyance. ¡°I was just checking my baby quick to make sure these idiots didn¡¯t mess with it. Their lucky, looks like it¡¯s untouched. You didn¡¯t have to come looking for me Aaron.¡± He managed to blurt out.

    Aaron turned to Jack just as Bryan had finished moving around the truck from behind to help back up his brother if need be. Aaron just sighed ¡°I apologize for Jimmy boys. He¡¯s a bit... Attached to his truck.¡±

    Aaron could see Jacks uncomfortable defensive positioning ¡°You can take your hand off whatever you¡¯re protecting in that bag of yours, he won¡¯t mug you.¡±

    Jack hadn¡¯t realized his hand had unconsciously slipped around the handle of the knife in his bag and let go in shock. What was he thinking?

    He wasn¡¯t going to pull it out on anyone! He almost chuckled to himself in amusement at his own foolishness. Releasing the dagger, he closed and shouldered his bag, laughing at the image in his head of him pulling the dagger out to defend against the giant.

    Aaron stood perplexed as Jack just stood there with a goofy look on his face lost in his own thought. ¡°Is he alright?¡± he addressed Bryan, motioning to Jack''s apparent daze.

    Bryan gets a good laugh at that and shrugs ¡°Depends on what your definition of alright¡± Laughing as he spoke. ¡°He¡¯s alright, just a little strange some times. Okay maybe more than sometimes.¡±

    Jack snapped out of it at that. Shooting his brother a scowl to let him know the comment did not go unnoticed, he pulled his phone back out for the navigation and looked to Bryan. ¡°Let¡¯s just get going, we¡¯re almost there.¡± He mumbled a bit dejectedly.

    Bryan pushed past him in a hurried step ¡°Good idea.¡±

    With a nod toward Aaron that was returned with a smile, they marched off to the destination given to them by the motel attendant.

    The sun had completely disappeared from the sky by now, leaving them in what would have been a stark pitch black if not for the orange glow of the city lights on the edge of the horizon around them. Passing the cars was becoming easier as they went, but the hill got steeper.

    Bryan was excited at the prospect of so many people heading the same place they were, if those frat guys they ran into where any indication there might be one heck of a party waiting for them. At least one good thing will come of this trip, he thought to himself. He was lost in thought at the excitement of it all when Jack snapped him back to reality.

    ¡°Hold up¡± Jack yelled to his impatient brother.

    Bryan turned with anger cleanly stated on his face from his brother¡¯s constant delays. Now slowly moving towards Jack he raises his hands in a frustrated flourish, ¡°What now? Genius needs another break?¡±

    Jack winced a bit at the name but confidently retorted ¡°No dill weed, it says we are here.¡± Jack watched his brother¡¯s embarrassment at this with smug smile only growing on his face.

    Looking around the scenery hasn¡¯t changed at all, the green/grey bushes are a bit fewer he noticed but all in all still seems like he¡¯s on the edge of a desert from some TV reality show.

    Looking around it was hard to make out much around the cars on the side of the road, but there are no longer any people walking ahead of them. Bryan walked back to Jack still feeling foolish from his outburst, but he wasn¡¯t going to let Jack know it.

    ¡°So this is supposed to be it? I¡¯m going to beat the heck out of that guy when we get back!¡± Bryans cheeks started to turn red in frustration.

    ¡°Relax, if you weren¡¯t being such an idiot, you would notice the trail¡± Jack said as he pointed up the hill to his left with a clear path leading windingly to what has to be the lookout they were told about.

    ¡°Besides, Listen¡± he tells Bryan.

    Begrudgingly Bryan listens to his brother and closes his eyes and tries to listen as hard as he can. How could he have missed it before, listening closely he can hear the shouting and music of the party at the lookout. His eyes pop open, and in his excitement he does something he rarely does, ¡°Your right little brother, let¡¯s go!¡±

    Jack was taken aback by his brother actually admitting he was right, but didn¡¯t have time to think about it because Bryan was almost running up the trail now. Jack kept up as best he could, the noise got louder as they went. The blasting music from a radio, the smell of alcohol mixed with the undeniable smoke of a bonfire, was all wafting down the hill, along with the giggle of girls.

    Jacks stomach dropped. He never had ever had much luck with girls growing up. Just thinking about it made his palms sweaty, and that was with girls he had known for years growing up, these would be strangers! His stomach churned more the more he thought about the possibility of his brother wanting him to be a wing man for him and help talking to random girls. So caught up in his thoughts Jack hadn¡¯t noticed they already had almost made it to the top. As he looked up from his feet he was in awe.

    The entire hilltop was draped in a green iridescent glow, hundreds of people where jumping and dancing around the fire to the music, basking in a soft green light. Looking for the light source, Jack almost fell back down the hill when he saw it. The meteor was shining bright in the sky, almost the size of the moon but with an unnatural dark yet almost neon, green light flaring from its entirety. Unlike the moon, with a silver surface, the meteors surface if you could see past the light was blacker then night itself.

    Standing there for what felt like ten minutes he realized his mouth was open so he promptly shut it glancing around to see if anyone had noticed. He stole a look toward Bryan and he saw that the meteor had the same effect on him.

    Bryan was shocked in wonder gazing upon the meteor. Jack could see the light reflecting from his wide open dark brown eyes. He too had let his jaw sag at the site.

    ¡°This was the best idea you¡¯ve ever had!¡± Jack exclaimed.

    Bryan snapped out of his almost reverent state. Closing his mouth and blinking his eyes for what felt like the first time in minutes he turned to jack with a gigantic smile and said ¡°Of course it was!¡± Now glancing at all the people, trying to take it all it, he could see a sampling of the cultures of LA.

    There where people of every nationality, all wearing different styles from fancy dress¡¯s and tuxes that wouldn¡¯t be out of place in a ballroom to essentially dancing around in what looked like pretty skimpy underwear. On the right there was a group huddled together, playing their own music that clashed hard against hip-hop that was blasting over the crowd. Appraising them they didn¡¯t look like they were to be messed with which is probably why no one had said anything about the music.

    Bryan remembered Jack talking about the gangs in LA, explaining why they hadn¡¯t stayed somewhere closer to the convention and decided to avert his eyes post haste.

    A swift breeze coming from the right of the hill brought the smell of smoke that wasn¡¯t from cigarettes or the fire, turned his head to a group closer to the trail on his right. He laughed to himself, hippies he thought.

    Welcome to California right?

    Now scanning to the left, over near the edge of the gathering was a group of frat guys standing around a bunch of kegs. Bryan was willing to bet that they were brothers of the two they met earlier. Next to them was a group that got Bryans blood pumping..... Sorority girls!!

 Chapter 3

    ¡°Here take this for a while, will you?¡± Bryan tossed his backpack to Jack, after quickly whipping around to face him.

    Not ready for it and surprised by the weight of the bag, Jack almost fell over as it hit him in the chest.

    ¡°Hey! I¡¯m not your mule!¡± Jack proclaimed.

    Laughing, Bryan just shook his head, ¡°Mule? Are you trying to make it easy on me to make fun of you JACK?¡± Still laughing, he turned toward the crowd, rolling his shoulders and straitened his shirt as best he could. After inspecting his breath by breathing in his hand and sniffing, Bryan finally judged himself ready to attend.

    ¡°Alright little brother, I¡¯m off to go to talk to those girls over there.¡± He announced, nodding his chin toward the sorority girls to their left. ¡°Now you go find your own fun, hopefully as far away from me as possible.¡± He looked to Jack with a big smile, excitement clearly written on his face.

    As he turned to leave, he saw Jacks almost panic stricken face, Bryan couldn''t help but get a pang of responsibility as he heard his parent¡¯s voices screaming in his head.

    Moving back to his brother, he walked closer and put a hand on Jacks shoulder as he spoke. ¡°Okay look, try and have some fun, but be safe about it. First off, don¡¯t you dare drink, I don¡¯t want to deal with that mess tonight.¡± Seeing his brothers non reassured face he tried a different angle, ¡°Second, just try relax Jack, walk around, meet people! It¡¯s our last night here! If you make a fool of yourself in front of any of these people who cares, you¡¯ll never see them again. Now Go! I¡¯ll find you in a few hours¡­ if I¡¯m not too busy¡± he finished with a smirk, wiggling his eye brows up and down.

    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll see you then¡± Jack exhaled as he tried his best to relax. He was never a fan of mass social situations and it clearly showed.

    As Bryan walks away Jack realized that that was the most brotherly Bryan had ever been in his life to him. He smiled a bit at that, and took his brothers advice to heart.

    Glancing around the hill, he started feeling the confidence stemming from his brothers words. ¡°I can do this¡± he quietly mutters to himself. Lifting his brother¡¯s bag to hang over his shoulder, he started making his way through the crowd.

    Seeing all the people dancing, Jack can¡¯t help himself but feel that he should join in. For the most part people were just jumping up and down with their hands in the air, or flailing wildly not even in time with the music. But it somehow made Jack feel a little better about the idea of joining since he knew his dancing skills where dismal at best. As one of his favorite songs came on, he decided it¡¯s time to jump in the mix. Quite literally.

    Jack started singing along and jumping up and down, slowly edging his way into the crowd. With the two bags on his back, his movement was quite awkward.

    Dancing his way through the people, he had trouble not hitting people with the bags. It was slow going, but he was having more fun than he had ever imagined he would.

    Leaning his head back and staring at the meteor in the sky, Jack reveled in the light. Something about it just filled him with both excitement and relaxation.

    I cant believe I almost missed this.

    Just as the thought hit him, so did something else.

    In all his staring at the meteor, he had completely forgot about dancing.

    Jack soon found himself being bounced back and forth between people as they gyrated and grinded on each other. His confidence started to wane about dancing being a good idea as he rebounded like a pin ball from person to person. Out of nowhere, he all of a sudden was hoisted up off his feet. Jack screamed in response but couldn''t comprehend what was happening as he quickly gripped both bags for his life as he began being crowd surfed forward through the dancing mob.

    Jack at first thought it was fun but he could hear the murmurs of the people below him bring back the panic he originally felt.

    ¡°Get this idiot out of here¡± Jack hears as he¡¯s being passed along.

    ¡°Stupid kid, couldn¡¯t dance if his life depended on it!¡± he can hear being yelled from the direction he started in.

    "Ow asshole, watch it!" Someone yelled and the backpacks shifted in his grip.

    Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.Jack was frightened for his life. He tried yelling to get people to let him down but they just kept passing him along belly up with no way to see where they were pushing him to. No matter how hard he tried to turn or craned his neck, he couldn''t manage to turn.

    Just as quickly as it had started, the series of hands that had been holding him up dropped away letting him tumble to the ground head first. Both backpacks fell after him, hitting him in the head shortly after he hit the ground.

    ¡°Ow! Hey!¡± Jack cried.

    The people that had been carrying him snorted with laughter and returned to the crowd.

    Staying curled up on the ground, Jack rubbed the back of his head, feeling for the lump he was sure was coming in already.

    He rocked back and forth on the ground at the pain in his head, grubling under his breath about how the people were not even Really dancing. Jack heard a light giggle that was barely being suppressed from somewhere behind him and it snapped him out of his brooding. It wasn''t like the degrading laughs of the crowd. More of a embarrassed musing.

    Opening his eyes was a struggle, Jack was still seeing stars from the drop. Through his bleary vison he could barely make out the form of a girl sitting on a cluster of huge boulders that had been hidden behind the crowd on the edge of the hill.

    ¡°That looked brutal!¡± the girl out right laughed at Jack.

    Jack grew angry at being laughed at, especially when he had no idea who it was. But something in her voice as she laughed gave him a warm feeling inside. He quickly felt the anger melt into embarrassment as he imagined what he must look like laying there on the ground still.

    He pushed himself up into a sitting position and found himself smiling and chuckling quietly along with this mysterious girl as he tried to get a better look at her.

    Not having much luck seeing through the people moving around the edge of the gathering, Jack brushed himself off and gathered the bags, preparing to stand up.

    The giggling returned as he started to stand, but being surprised by the now closeness of the giggling he fell back on his butt, failing to succeed.

    ¡°Now that¡¯s just sad, come on,¡± the strange girl said with pity. Reaching down she extended a hand to help the red faced and thoroughly embarrassed Jack to his feet.

    Jack took the help and looked up at his unknown tormenter as he stood up.

    When he reached his feet he found himself looking back down to her as she was shorter than he expected, the top of her head just barely passing his shoulder. Her face small like the rest of her but had a subtle striking exotic beauty to it, the shape of her eyes just barely letting on that she was of Asian descent. Her tan complexion was smooth as silk with just a few freckles spotting her cheeks just under her eyes. But what Jack was most drawn to as he peered in the dark at her was her dark brown eye¡¯s that seemed to have gold flakes in them that glimmered in the pale green light of the night.

    Looking into them gave Jack a fluttering feeling in his chest that was completely foreign to him. ¡°Are you alright?¡± she asked with a face that showed apprehension as she took a half step back.

    Jack snapped and realized he must have been staring. ¡°O, yea. Sorry, I¡¯m Jack¡± he fumbled and put his hand out for a handshake. Only then realizing how awkward he must seem to her. Jack was never good at talking to girls but this was a new low.

    ¡°I¡¯m Sara,¡± she replied with a knowing smile shaking the offered hand with a bit of a chuckle. ¡°What¡¯s with all the bags?¡± she questioned as she turned to head back to her boulder pile, motioning him to follow.

    Taking the invitation, Jack moved quickly to catch up while explaining, ¡°Well one is mine and the other is my brothers. He¡¯s around here somewhere.¡±

    Probably having much better luck chatting up a girl somewhere else he thought to himself.

    Sara had stopped dead in her tracks, and turned questioningly to Jack, ¡°Brother? You¡¯re not a pledge are you?¡± placing her hands on her hips and adorning a scowl all at the same time.

    The look terrified Jack.

    ¡°Pledge?¡± his brow furrowed in thought and immediately he remembered the frat brothers they encountered on road near the cars. ¡°You mean to a frat?¡± he laughed ¡°Hell no.¡± breaking into more laughter.

    Sara¡¯s scowl dropped to a smile ¡°Good¡± as she laughed along with him she turn back toward her rocks.

    They both climbed a few rocks up and took seats on the pile. It was a little higher up from where she had originally been sitting, but it was a much better view of all the people gathered.

    It turns out they both enjoyed people watching so they managed some polite small talk as they joked around talked about the impossible mix of different people in attendance.Jack enjoyed her company, and at least to him it seemed like she enjoyed his as well. Jack looked out over the crowd during a comfortable silence, the crowd of people had settled down a bit and were staring towards the sky. The meteor had been visible for a while now and was slowly growing in the sky, its green light permeated the skyline. Jack checked his watch, having lost track of time completely.

    It was 11:58.

    Looking up in the green night sky, Jack steered the conversation toward the meteor.

    ¡°Did you know for the next half hour they said the meteor supposed to be the closest anything of its size has come to earth in millions of years?¡±

    Sara looked up at the huge blaze of green in the sky, squinting a bit as if to get a better look. ¡°Yea, I heard it on the news on the way over with my cousin. She wanted to come just for the party. She doesn¡¯t care about the meteor at all.¡± She looked at jack with a innocent yet somehow mischievous grin, ¡°It¡¯s getting pretty cold out here¡± she hinted as she slid her way closer to Jack.

    Jacks jaw dropped, but he was quick to pick it up again, hoping Sara hadn¡¯t noticed. Smiling he slid towards her, still unsure of himself in lou of her obvious age old hint.

    Just as Sara started to slowly lean her head toward Jack''s shoulder, he saw a commotion near the edge of the remaining people dancing. He could barely discern the yelling and screaming from the already boisterous partying going on.

    ¡°Look at those idiots,¡± he laughed, but it got caught in his throat, it was distant but he swore he could hear Bryans voice.

    Of course he would find a way to ruin this moment!

 Chapter 4

    Bryan felt in his element for the first time since arriving in California. Party¡¯s like this where common place for him back in Kansas. He felt a little bad abandoning his brother like that, but there was no way he was going to let him ruin a night of partying for him.

    He¡¯s 18, not a kid anymore, Jack will be fine, he told himself.

    Standing up strait and inspecting his shirt again to make sure he didn¡¯t look too much like a slob, he put on a confident grin and headed toward the keg next to the fraternity brothers.

    The crowd was easy enough for him to sort through, twisting and edging his way past people. Back in college Bryan had joined {insert frat} his freshman year, so it was a common site around the keg for Bryan.

    Looking at the group of guys next to the keg, he could easily pick out which brothers where pledges, they were the ones in diapers. The older brothers all were getting a huge kick out of their antics, making them dance around in circles singing nursery rhymes. Bryan remembered the hazing he had had to go through and gave a short shudder at the memories of the shame and degradation his Beta Alpha Kapa brothers had put him through.

    After a few minutes spent reminiscing in his head, he was up to the keg.

    Picking up a red party cup from the stack on the keg, he began to fill his cup.

    ¡°Oi¡± Someone shouted behind Bryan making him jump, making him spill all over himself. The laughter of the people around him had clued him in that a large amount of the people in the immediate area had turned their attention to his show of cowardice.

    His face turning red, Bryan stood tall and spun on his heel to confront his scarer.

    ¡°What the hell is your...¡± Bryan started but stopped. In front of him where the two guys from earlier on the road.

    In the green light, the huge one looked so much like the hulk, had he not been less than a foot from him staring him down with his arms crossed, like he killed his cat, Bryan would have busted out laughing. ¡°O great, you again,¡± Bryan chided steeped in sarcasm.

    He felt a bit foolish at taunting the meat head, but the laughing from the gathering group behind him had come to a halt.

    ¡°Leave the poor guy alone Jimmy,¡± Said Aaron, making his presence known from behind Jimmy. ¡°You¡¯ve scared him, and his brother now, just let the kid get a drink.¡±

    Jimmy smiled at that and dropped his arms to his side. ¡°Fine, doesn¡¯t mean I gotta like the kid though.¡±

    ¡°Your insufferable sometimes you know that Jimmy?¡± Aaron exasperatedly questioned.

    Jimmy just shrugged his shoulders and walked over to a group of brothers a good twenty feet away that where chatting it up with the sorority girls on the other side of their area.

    ¡°Don¡¯t know what ya did to piss him off, but it seems you succeeded with flying colors¡± Aaron cracked.

    ¡°No fricken idea,¡± Bryan remarked with a laugh that still held a touch of nervousness he had been hiding.

    ¡°Thanks by the way, that could have been a mess.¡± He looked down at his front, now covered in beer. ¡°Well, even more of a mess yea?¡±

    ¡°Yea, instead of just beer, you would be covered in your own blood as well¡± Aaron remarked as he crossed Bryan to grab a cup and fill it from the keg. Glancing at Bryan for his reaction to the comment, he could tell Bryan was conflicted on how to take it. ¡°Oi, relax. He¡¯d kick my ass in a fight as well. He¡¯s a walking house.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Chuckling at that Bryan agreed. Aaron wasn¡¯t a small guy by any means, but he definitely wasn¡¯t a mongoloid like Jimmy. He was definitely older, probably a senior he recognized. With short brown hair, the build of a lacrosse player and brown eyes gleamed in the green light of the night, Bryan was sure he had no problems with the ladies. But all it ment to Bryan was competition.

    ¡°So you from around here?¡± Aaron asked, sipping his beer and taking in the sites of the party around them.

    ¡°Nope I¡¯m going to college in Kansas but grew up in New York,¡± replied Bryan. He always hated to party small talk like this. He knew exactly how it was going to go. O what part of New York? Have you ever been to New York City? I think I have family over there, do you know a so and so? Every time. Without fail. While answering Aaron¡¯s questions and asking the usual of him in return almost on auto pilot, Bryan spotted what he had been looking for since they had parked the car, a beautiful, smoking hot sorority girl.

    She caught his eye over Aarons shoulder as he kept talking, Bryan wasn¡¯t even paying attention anymore. She was the perfect height, looking to be just a few inches shorter then Bryan with legs for days as some would say. She clearly wasn¡¯t afraid to show them off either, wearing short black shorts that really didn¡¯t leave much to the imagination, and a tight light colored tank top that was very generous in showing off her cleavage. Her dark brown hair was swaying with the breeze that was cut just at her shoulders, straitened, with her bangs pulled to the side. Her eyes where a bright stone blue, that rang clear even in the dark green twilight of the night. And he realized, those eyes were looking right at him.

    ¡°So I¡¯m guessing you ski right?¡± Aaron asked. ¡°You alright? You look like your about to drool dude.¡±

    Bryan still in his reverie starring at the captivating girl over his shoulder, snapped out of it at that. He pounded his beer back, and looked to Aaron. ¡°Refill time, I¡¯ll catch you around,¡± and without another word or glance he went to the keg filling two cups to the top.

    Taking a deep breath and closed his eyes in an attempt to calm himself. He could still feel his heart beating like a drum at even the thought of this girl. ¡°You can do this Bryan, just be cool,¡± he mumbled to himself. In his mind he committed to it and spun on his heel and step forward leading into what would have been a fast walk. He opened his eyes as his foot hit the ground... and someone¡¯s toes.

    ¡°Ow! What the hell dude!¡± she yelled.

    Before he could catch himself, his momentum carried him into her, leading with the drinks in each of his hands. Both quickly upended all over the girl and himself. Losing his balance he through his arms out to hold onto something to stabilize himself and to his and her surprise he managed to grab hold of this poor girl he knocked into and pulled her to the trampled dirt ground now muddied with the spilled beer.

    When he opened his eyes, he realized, it was her. The girl he had been starring at and making eyes at with over Aarons shoulder. She was covered in beer and now mud made by the beer mixing with the dirt started clinging to her and she pushed herself up trying to get her baring¡¯s.

    ¡°AHHHHHHHHHHHH¡± she screamed

    ¡°AHHHHHHHHHH, you pervert! Jimmy help!¡± she cried out.

    You have got to be kidding me, Bryan thought as he stood up surveying the mess he had now made, trying to shake off the dirt.

    Then what she said sunk in.

    ¡°Aw shit¡± Bryan mumbled.

    He couldn¡¯t believe it, of course she means something to Jimmy of all people.

    People where now staring and crowding the pair of them, two girls ran over to make sure the girl on the ground was ok, shooting Bryan looks that could kill a moose.

    Realizing it was time to get the heck out of there Bryan looked around for a way to get away from the group as quick as he could. The girl still hadn¡¯t quit screaming for Jimmy, thankfully for Bryan¡¯s sake he apparently hadn¡¯t been close but he was sure people had gone to get him by now.

    He slowly started edging his way towards the huge group of people dancing, if he could make it to them he figured no one would be able to recognize him. Just as he started to dance to blend in jumping up and down, a large hand came down on his shoulder.

    ¡°You¡¯re not going anywhere¡± said a deep voice from behind him.

    Turning quickly to break the guys grasp, Bryan came face to face with what could have been the mongoloid Jimmies cousin.

    He was just as tall and wide but a few inches shorter, wearing the same blue Greek lettered shirt and the same scowl that made it look like he was going to try to eat you. Deciding there was no way in winning any type of fight that was sure to follow if he stayed, Bryan did yhe only thing he could think of. He kicked the monster in the shin as hard as he could, turned away and sprinted off through the crowd as fast as he could.

    With his legs straining to keep up his pace, he was bowling people over as he went, the complaints and yelling behind him got louder for a few seconds and then slowly went back to the cacophony of noise it had been to start with.

    Knowing he was getting away, he decided it was time to go check on Jack.

 Chapter 5

    Jack couldn¡¯t remember his brother ever running so fast before.

    He was looking around, squinting into the darkness. For a second Jack thought about just letting him run around in circles, it put a smile on his face but it looked like he was in trouble of some sort.

    ¡°Over here Bryan¡± Jack called. Reluctantly he pulled himself up from huddling with Sara and waved his arms over his head at his brother.

    Bryan saw Jack waving his arms at him and just shook his head at him as he finally reached him.

    ¡°Good job genius!¡± Bryan yelled, his face red with anger as he came to a stop a few feet from the rocks.

    Putting his arms behind his head he paced slowly in front of the pair trying to catch his breath. ¡°Now...¡± he breathed ¡°they are going to know exactly where I went!¡±

    Jack sat back down next to Sara and looked at Bryan with a blank confused face. ¡°Who is they?¡± He asked.

    Bryan looked behind him the way he had come and Jack tried to follow his gaze. In the crowd about one hundred feet and closing was a group of ten or so fraternity brothers in a hurry.

    Squinting at the huge guy leading the charge, Jack was getting the idea. ¡°Is that...¡±

    ¡°Your pall Jimmy from the walk here? Yep.¡± Bryan sarcastically interrupted, still breathing heavily, hunched over with his hands on his knees.

    Bryan turned back, and his eyes settled on Sara and the first time, realizing his brother had some company. ¡°Looks like you are doing much better for yourself.¡± He scoffed. ¡°Who¡¯s this?¡±

    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.¡°O, right. Sara this is my brother Bryan, Bryan this is Sara.¡± Jack hastily introduced.

    Finally tearing his gaze away from the group charging through the crowd, he turned to Sara in disappointment, realizing he would soon be running to.

    Sara saw the look in his eyes and smiled a playful grin, ¡°you¡¯re not getting rid of me that easy, let¡¯s get the hell out of here!¡± At that, she stood and grabbed hold of Jack¡¯s hand, with an iron grip.

    Jack was at a loss for words, no girl had made him feel like this before, let alone openly showing feelings like this towards him. His stomach floated with butterflies like the feeling when going over a quick hill on a roller coaster. His thoughts where running a mile a minute.

    Is this just a California thing? Was she just messing with him? O no, my hand is already getting sweaty!

    ¡°Ok love birds, time to go!¡± shouted Bryan, spotting what now resembled and lynch mob getting within thirty feet, bringing Jack back to reality.

    As Jack jumped off the rocks and turned to help Sara down, the sky lit up in vivid green light so bright it could have been noon.

    Everyone stopped dead in their tracks, even over the music you could hear the collective intake of breath as the hundreds of people¡¯s gaze shot to the sky.

    What followed was a Boom so loud that shook the earth to its core.

    As the green meteor broke through the atmosphere, it started growing a tail of a rainbow of burning colors, blue, red, and orange all shifted behind the green meteor, bright as day in the eerie green sky.

    There was a Second explosion, the likes of which had never heard by human kind before. It was an earsplitting crack followed by a shockwave that was so strong it knocked anyone standing to the ground, causing skyscrapers and buildings in the city to sway so bad it was visible from the lookout.

    The sound of people screaming and crying was all that could be heard over the constant ringing.

    Jack looked to Sara and reached out to hold her as she cowered with her eyes still glued to the horrifying sight. But as he did, he felt an incredible pressure build in his head.

    He jerked back pulling at his own hair, glancing at Sara it looked like she was dealing with the same phenomenon. Jack tried to fight it but all he could do was let out a guttural scream that blended in with all the others as spots formed in his vison, the pain increased by the second.

    In his blurred vison as he writhed in pain on the ground, it looked like everyone else had stopped moving. Seconds that felt like hours later, the pain was just too great, Jack slumped over the rock next to Sara. She had long before him succumbed to the pain and blacked out.

 Chapter 6

    Bryan rolled on the ground, moaning and mumbling, slowly regaining consciousness.

    The ground beneath him was still shaking like an old wooden roller coaster.

    What the hell is going on? Slowly he managed to open his eyes, and turned his head to see the cityscape off the ledge of the lookout.

    Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw.

    The city was pitch black, except for the fires. Whole skyscrapers were bent over at ninety degree angles, only held up by the buildings they had landed on with fire pouring out clearly shattered windows.

    All along the sprawling city scape was the same dark view. Fires, some taking up whole blocks, reaching high in the night air. Smoke towering into the night sky. The green glow that had been so prevalent had almost faded from the horizon, but the meteor was still visible far to the east. It looked even larger than before, with the tail now the only thing lighting the sky other than the raging inferno all through the city.

    The sounds around him brought his focus back to his immediate area.

    People all around him where slowly coming to as well.

    The screaming started.

    It was like something out of a nightmare. Bryan saw groups of people that had woken up stumbling around looking for other members of their group while the earth seemingly tried to shake them back to the ground. If Bryan had had the presence of mind to notice, there were a lot fewer people stiring then were still on the ground...

    Slowly a steady stream of people were heading to the trail leading back to the avenue of cars.

    The mob that had been chasing Bryan was nowhere to be found. He spotted two or three girls that where standing in place screaming out names of their friends, unable to deal with what was happening.

    As people started realizing that the people still on the ground were not getting up, they finally noticed the blood. Leaking from every opening of the head, some even from their eyes. It was a gruesome sight. A sight that no one there was prepared for. With hundreds of bodies that just minutes ago were living breathing people scattered around, slowly cooling in the night air, it was more than enough to spark a panic in the survivors.

    Everywhere Bryan looked was a frantic jumble of people trying to leave. His head spun in the chaos that surrounded him. The first thought he managed to actually process was Jack!

    Bryan scrambled, trying to stand while the ground was still shaking. It was far harder then he thought it was going to be. Instead he pulled his way to the rock next to Jack in a half crawl.

    His eyes were closed, still passed out cold but he was still breathing. No blood visible on his face.

    Bryan slumped against the nearest boulder and exhaled, releasing some of his anxiety knowing at least his brother was still alive.

    After gathering his thoughts, Bryan tried to wake him.

    He shook him, bouncing his head off the ground. Realizing that would be making it worse he stopped and tried slapping him as hard as he could. He still didn¡¯t wake up.

    So he sat and waited, hovering over his unconscious body, praying he would wake soon.

    Looking back to the chaos, the majority of people that lived had already left towards the cars. A few people were left struggling, carrying family members or friends that still hadn¡¯t woken up.

    Even fewer where wandering the now almost empty lookout, still search for friends and loved ones. How they managed to even stand as the ground was shaking, Bryan couldn¡¯t even fathom.

    Off to the side he saw the largest group still present and couldn¡¯t help but over hear the caterwauling and clamor coming from the group. Even from the distance, he could hear their cries, a number of their friends had died. The bodies they were crowded around could still be seen from Bryan¡¯s angle in the light of the bonfire. A chill ran down his spine. He had never been in the presence of death before. This whole scene was just to much.

    Looking away he scanned the ground of the lookout, still barely believing what he was seeing. When his eyes fell on the girl Jack had been talking to, Sara, he jumped.

    She looked quite a bit like the one he had spilled beer all over. Reaching over Jack, Bryan grabbed her outstretched wrist and checked her pulse. She is alive, maybe more were.. Bryan only hoped. Leaning back against the rock, he spotted his and Jacks backpacks a few feet away on the ground. Not wanting to stand up with the ground still rumbling away, he leaned on his side trying to reach. They were just barely out of reach. Leaning further put him in quite an awkward position, he was straining his legs out behind him at an awkward angle, toes pointed like a ballerina. His torso was twisted at an angle that not only looked highly uncomfortable but a bit unnatural. From the corner of his eye he caught movement towards Jack and the girl, adding a twist of his head to his contortions. Standing there, braced against the rocks, was the girl he had spilled the beer on and dragged to the mud with him.

    She barely noticed him as she bent down to check the pulse of the girl next to jack. ¡°O thank god.¡± She exclaimed, in the same moment collapsing next to the still body. Tears streaming down her face, crying hard.

    Bryan was at a loss in what to do, he wanted to help her, to say something to make her feel better but had no clue what to say, for the first time he could remember he was without words.

    Like she could sense what he was thinking, still crying she tilted her head up and looked at Bryan for the first time since she had arrived at the group.

    Bryan froze, and tried to smile.

    Through her tears she started giggling, which soon turned to full on laughter. It sounded so out of place on the lookout that it almost had an echo that reverberated across the lookout. ¡°You have no idea how funny you look,¡± with that she laughed harder.

    Bryan shrunk back embarrassed, forgetting about the bags. He managed to pull himself to a sitting position and realized just how splayed out he must have been.

    Picturing himself there like that from her point of view he let the embarrassment and annoyance fade into a light laugh of his own.

    Like that, his mind seemed to thaw, from the freeze of embarrassment. "Yea, that was a bad idea,¡± he admitted with embarrassment showing in his voice, ¡°I don¡¯t think we were properly introduced before, I¡¯m Bryan.¡± He offered out his hand.

    ¡°Rachel¡± she replied giggling, taking the offered hand shake. ¡°This by no means mean I¡¯m not still mad at you for earlier, you ruined these cloths and embarrassed me in front of everyone,¡± she added with all seriousness.

    ¡°That¡¯s Fair enough¡± Bryan agreed, smiling as he looked into her big blue eyes.

    Rachel Smiled back but looked away toward Sara laying on the ground and it faded. ¡°Do you think they will be ok?¡±

    Bryan looked at his brother as he replied, ¡°I hope so.¡±

    ¡°But everyone else has already woken up, well everyone who is still¡­¡± she trailed off, starting to sob uncontrollably again.

    Still caught in the moment, Bryans brow lowered in confusion, ¡°Still what?¡± As he said it, it all came back.

    Bryan was sent reeling. His mind was finally processing what He had been look at before Rachel came over. He looked at all the people still on the ground littering the lookout. They were dead, all of them. How could people have just left them there? Where these just the people that came alone? The crying people flashed back in his mind carrying people that he thought where passed out over their shoulder.

    Could they really have been carrying their dead friends? Had this happened everywhere? No, it¡¯s not possible he told himself. He reached out for Jack, again checking his pulse. Still alive, but why hadn¡¯t he woken up yet? Why had the other girl not woken either?

    Rachel and Bryan sat there with the unconscious pair for what felt like hours. The shaking had slowed to a far off rumble but Bryan still had crawled to the backpacks and pulled out some chips to share. He wasn¡¯t sure how, but he was hungry. They adjusted their body¡¯s to make them more comfortable, lying them flat on the ground, with one arm to the side, the other across their chests for periodic pulse checks.

    Bryan came to learn that, Rachel and Sara where cousins. He found that uncanny, seeing as how much they looked alike, other than their height, they could have been sisters.

    Rachel had convinced Sara to come to this so she could hang out with jimmy and his friends.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    Bryan pulled away at that, how could someone hang out with guys like that?

    ¡°They¡¯re not so bad once you get to know them.¡± Rachel implored.

    ¡°Sure, one almost attacked us for standing next to his truck, then tried to beat the hell out of me over an accident. They are just great people. ¡± Bryan sarcastically retorted.

    Speaking of the accident reminded him though. ¡°Sorry about the beer and everything though.¡± Bryan sheepishly apologized.

    ¡°O its ok, I¡¯ve got cloths in the car.¡± She replied in turn hoping he wouldn¡¯t ask more.

    At that moment a catch of breath came from Sara as her eyes fluttered open. She immediately sat forward coughing and sputtering, trying to catch her breath like she just ran a mile.

    Rachel let out a noise that almost classified as a squeal. Rushing forward to hug Sara.

    ¡°What¡­ What happened?¡± Sara asked, exasperated. Trying to get her bearings she took in her surroundings.

    They were all but alone on the lookout now, the bonfire had burned down significantly. She saw someone huddled in the far corner crying over someone.

    Then came the bodies, people sprawled on the ground as she had been, but motionless, she somehow knew that they were all dead. She cried, she cried for them, people that had just been having the time of their life, gone. Gone forever. She had seen her grandma pass away when she was younger, but this was on a massive scale in comparison.

    She looked down at Jack, ¡°O no!¡± she flung herself on his chest, wailing and crying even harder.

    Jack and Rachel both looked at each other taken aback a little. They had known that she and Jack had been talking but she already apparently showed surprisingly strong feelings for him.

    Rachel grabbed her shoulders gently and pulled her back to her, ¡°He¡¯s still alive, just passed out like you had been.¡±

    Sara Looked back towards Jack as he lay peacefully on the ground. She could see it, he was still alive. She didn¡¯t know how but she could see it, his whole body was pulsing in her sight, like a light was trying to shine through from inside him.

    This however scared her even more and she turned to her cousin and buried her head in her chest sobbing, ¡°What¡¯s happened to me?¡±

    Rachel pulled Sara¡¯s chin up to look her in the eye. ¡°What do you mean?¡± She asked, now totally confused by her cousin.

    Sara looked up and opened her crying eyes, look right in to Rachel¡¯s big blues for the first time since she woke up.

    ¡°O my Gosh! Your eyes!¡± Rachel exclaimed, pulling Sara directly in front of her so she could get a better look.

    ¡°What?¡± Sara asked

    ¡°WHAT IS IT?¡± she screamed through new tears.

    Rachel jumped at her cousins¡¯ change in demeanor. ¡°They have changed color, there is a bright gold around them now!¡± Rachel then fumbled for her purse, looking for a mirror to show her.

    Taking the mirror from Rachel, Sara turned to catch some of the remaining fire light in the mirror.

    What she saw amazed her. Her pupils where the same and she still had a ring of brown surrounding it, but around the brown there was now a band of shining gold.

    ¡°Holy Crap!¡±

    Bryan laughed at that, ¡°Not exactly the words I would use but same sentiment none the less¡± as he chuckled.

    Both girls turned and gave him a glare that he thought would eat right through him. His mind froze again in what to say.

    Jack moaned and reached for his head. ¡°What the hell...¡±

    In that moment the girls gaze at Bryan melted away and both went to Jacks side. Bryan took a mental note to thank Jack for that later.

    Maybe.

    ¡°You¡¯re awake!¡± Sara yelped and hugged Jack¡¯s prone body. Snapping back she hit him across the chest so hard he started coughing.

    ¡°Never scare me like that again!¡±

    Rachel reached out to Sara and pulled her closer again, for jacks¡¯ sake this time.

    Hacking and coughing, Jack started to sit up but quickly laid back. ¡°What in the world happened? My head feels like it¡¯s about to explode.¡± He felt the back of his head, eyes scrunched in pain. ¡°Is my head bleeding?¡±

    Bryan blushed at that, he hadn¡¯t realized how hard he must have been shaking him to wake him up.

    Glancing over, the girls started eyeing him with a knowing look.

    ¡°Must have been the fall from the rocks!¡± He blustered, trying to cover his tracks.

    ¡°But my face feels like it took the brunt of the fall too.¡± Jack mumbled while working his jaw up and down and rubbing the side of his face.

    The girls where now glowering at Bryan.

    ¡°Ok, so I tried to wake you up!¡± Bryan gave in. ¡°I wanted to make sure you where ok.¡±

    At that the girls faces softened a bit and both went back to smiling.

    Jack opened his eyes wide, blinking trying to get them to focus.

    Everyone¡¯s jovial mood fell crashing back to the ground as they stared at Jack. His eyes, had turned completely gold except for his pupils.

    Jack¡¯s world spun, giving his headache fuel for the fire. Bright light filled his vision like he was staring at the sun.

    He blinked furiously trying to remedy it, the blur slowly faded but the light remained. He stopped his blinking, realizing it wasn¡¯t doing him any good at all. Staring up at the night sky he started noticing the colors in the light. The burning tail of the meteor still shone brightly in the sky for him, twinkling like Christmas lights.

    His gaze fell to Sara who was crouched over him still with a face of pure shock. But there was more to her now, to jacks eyes she was radiant.

    She had a core of silver with a swirl of magenta and turquoise, branching out to a brilliant silver, shining bright as a star. An aura of gold light danced around the edges, making her already pretty face look like that of an angle.

    Jacks jaw dropped in aww of her. ¡°You look like an angel!¡± he stammered.

    Sara blushed so hard she thought she would burst and pulled back from Jack going from staring in his eyes to the ground in an instant.

    Bryan laughed quietly, earning himself a side look from Rachel.

    Jack clinched his eyes shut again in pain in his head, blasting away like a canon. ¡°Jesus Bryan, you couldn¡¯t have taken the extra second to raise my head a bit more? How hard did you shake me?¡± Turning his head to his brother, he finally noticed him glowing as well.

    To Jack, Bryan was almost as bright as Sara but a total different color scheme. His core was a much more pewter grey then silver, with dueling bands of blue and red striking out at random.

    Bryan knew he was right, but couldn¡¯t think of a smart remark for once so kept it simple ¡°sorry about that, I just wanted to make sure you where ok.¡±

    Jack smiled at his brothers¡¯ candidness, not being able to think of a time where his brother had ever spoken to him like this other than at the start of the party.

    The world started spinning again so jack starred back to the stars. ¡°It¡¯s ok, I...¡± but he didn¡¯t finish his sentence.

    Jack passed back into unconsciousness.

    Bryan shot forward to Jacks side, checking his pulse again. Sitting back with a sigh he looked toward Sara and Rachel. ¡°Should I try and wake him again? What if he has a concussion?¡±

    Rachel Laughed ¡°Unless you¡¯re trying to kill him yourself I¡¯d say let him be, he came to once, and He¡¯ll come to again.¡±

    Sara stared at Jack in earnest, now that she was focused, she could see the pulsing of Jacks energy. It looked different this time, slower than before. She watched his chest and he was breathing deeper.

    She looked up at the others with concern, ¡°I don¡¯t know, it¡¯s different this time. I can¡¯t tell why but his light...¡±

    She didn¡¯t get to finish her sentence. Jack let out a long low snore, and almost whistled as he exhaled.

    Everyone froze, staring at each other. Collectively they let out a gut wrenching laugh.

    The girls where wiping away tears, this time of joy from laughing so hard. Bryan had fallen over sideways on the ground next to the bags.

    With the laughs settling, Rachel glanced again at the field as the wind shifted. The smell the wind brought with it was horrifying.

    Catching Rachel by surprise, she covered het mouth and nose and took a deep breath to settle herself. Immediately, she turned and retched.

    Bryan and Sara turned to her with concern, but were also taken over by the revolting stink coming off the top of the hill.

    Reality set back in for the trio realizing that the smell was from the now long dead people strewn across the field.

    First to get their stomach under control, Bryan spoke up. ¡°We have got to get out of here. Do you guys live close?¡±

    Sara shook her head, hand still clamped over her mouth. ¡°No, we¡¯re staying about two hours from here.¡±

    Bryan, surprised at that, figured he would ask later. They had to get out of here before the sun came up and made things a lot worse.

    Looking to the sky, he figured they had at least a two maybe three hours until that happened. Just now realizing how long they had waited for Jack. Looks like they would be heading back to the rat hole of a motel after all.

    ¡°We have a hotel room back in Whittier, its only 15 miles or so from here. Do you two have a car?¡± questioned Bryan.

    Rachel looked a bit sheepish at that, ¡°No we came with some of the frat guys.¡± She frowned at that, now realizing how they had picked up disappeared without an ounce of concern for her. Maybe it was time to find a new crowd, she thought to herself.

    Gathering what possessions they had, everyone stood and stretched, they had been sitting for quite a while and had quite a walk ahead of them.

    Sara stood on the rock she had been sitting on, peering around for anything she might have left. As she prepared to jump down, she turned back one more time towards the devastated cityscape. Some of the fires had burned down to spires of smoke, but others raged on, swallowing up even more of the urban landscape.

    ¡°What do you think it¡¯s going to be like out there now? Do you think it¡¯s safe?¡± Obvious fear that had snuck up on her rang out with her words.

    Bryan walked carefully to the edge, looking out over what was left of the city. The devastation was complete that¡¯s for sure.

    Questions rang through his head. How where they going to get home? Surely the airport of in ruins as much as the city. Did they have a home to go back to? He turned from the girls as panic creped to his face.

    Their parents. Where they still alive? No, he can¡¯t think like that. Of course they are ok.

    The foul wind kicked up again snapping him out of his fearful stupor.

    He steeled himself, he had to take care of jack first. He can¡¯t do anything without doing that first. Turning towards the girls, he realized how long he¡¯d been staring off the cliff.

    Both girls where eyeing him expectantly. ¡°Look¡± he said, ¡°Who knows what is going on out there. But right now all we know is that we can¡¯t stay here. All we have is each other.¡± He fumbled at that realizing he sounded like some idiot in a movie but he pressed on, ¡°What I mean is we need to stick together, for safety and survival. I¡¯ll do my best to protect you...¡±

    Rachel was glaring like she wanted his head on a platter ¡°Let me stop your big speech there mister, who says we need protecting at all? Who says we are going with you at all?¡±

    ¡°I do.¡± Sara cut in, receiving such a surprised look from Rachel, Sara thought her eyebrows might become her new hairline.

    ¡°Look, stupid speech aside, none of us know what¡¯s going on. I like Jack, and I don¡¯t want to leave his side. It just feels... Right.¡±

    Noticing how crazy she herself was starting to sound, she changed tactics. ¡°Rachel, if movies have taught us anything, it¡¯s crazy down their right now. I trust Jack, and besides ruining your outfit what has Bryan done to harm either of us? We¡¯ve been sitting here together for hours. I think we can trust him yea?¡±

    That worked.

    Rachel nodded in agreement, ¡°Your right, it¡¯s smart.¡±

    Wheeling back to Bryan though, ¡°You still owe me an outfit by the, I¡¯m not going to forget it!¡± As if that settled everything she grabbed her purse and went to put in one of the backpacks.

    ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± she question as she pulled a red leather wrapped handle out of the bag. She pulled it put and the sheath fell off. She looked at it questioningly, raising an eyebrow and looking to Bryan.

    Bryan crossed to her and she handed it to him, laughing to himself ¡°And here I made fun of him for this, I can¡¯t believe he brought it here though.¡± Looking over to Jack, he pointed with the dagger ¡°he bought it at Gamecon, looks like he¡¯s not such a geek after all."

    Sheathing the blade, he attached it to his belt like a work knife. Glancing to the girls he grinned, ¡°So who wants to carry Jack?¡±

 Chapter 7

    A group decision was made and instead of marching through the disgusting mess of the clearing, they would go around the edge.

    The ground had finally stopped shaking constantly, which for Bryan made it much easier to make the walk.

    The walk though turned out to be just as stomach churning.

    After Bryan¡¯s poor joke, the girls agreed to carry the backpacks and he would take Jack.

    Jack was fit and all with his hiking and biking he loved to do, but Bryan was still having trouble and had to stop every hundred feet or so.

    The smell was far worse than the wind had been on their corner near the cliff.

    They all tried to avert their eyes from the death that laid around them but it was impossible unless they wanted to be tripping over another body every few minutes.

    When they reached where the frat guys had been the trio took a quick rest that Rachel had insisted upon. Some of them had been her friends and she just had to know.

    Bryan didn¡¯t mind because it wasn¡¯t far from the trail back to the cars and he would need all the strength he could get to not drop Jack and have him roll like a ragdoll down the hill.

    Rachel started slowly working her way around the bodies. She took her time to be careful not to step in any of the muck that littered the ground around the bodies, she couldn''t believe its true what movies say about evacuating your bowls when you die. The smell was almost overbearing as Rachel crouched to get a better view. After carefully examining only a few faces, she came to one and dropped to her knees and her tears renewed.

    Bryan craned his neck to see the face and was himself shocked to see he knew the face as well.

    It was Aaron.

    Just over four hours ago they had been sitting around chatting. He couldn¡¯t believe how much had changed so quickly. Bryan bowed his head and said a silent prayer for the guy. He wasn¡¯t a religious person at all really, but this guy had saved him and his brother twice from getting in a fight.

    He felt like he owed him at least a prayer for that.

    Rachel reached out and closed his eyes, hers where still pouring tears like a waterfall. Bowing her head and placing her palms together in front of her, she prayed.

    A howl pierced the night from the other side of the trampled outlook.

    ¡°Um, Rachel?¡± Bryan managed, not want to break her revere.

    It was Sara who finally spoke up after another howl, it sounded closer, ¡±There are coyotes, we have to get going Rachel I¡¯m sorry."

    Rachel turned, eyes red and puffy and nodded. Pushing herself up she whispered ¡°Be safe Aaron, I¡¯m sorry.¡±

    She rushed back to Sara and Bryan standing on the edge of the outlook.

    Bryan had already picked up Jack, who was still managing to snore incidentally, and headed for the trail head.

    The girls went ahead of Bryan just in case he slipped and dropped Jack. It wasn¡¯t easy going but they reached the cars in a lot less time than they thought it would take.

    As they walked in-between the cars, every once in a while they saw they weren¡¯t the only ones with this idea, every few rows of cars they saw people sitting in a car, never more than two people but all were either asleep or crying. Few even gave them any mind the whole way back to the eco box.

    ¡°That¡¯s your car?¡± Rachel said coming to a stop looking at with apprehension. ¡°How are we going to fit Bryan?¡±

    ¡°Honestly? Haven¡¯t worked that part out yet. But it¡¯ll be safe from coyotes and will keep the smell mostly out at least if the wind shifts again. Just make sure to kick the trash on the floor out.¡± Bryan answered.

    Opening all the doors, they threw all the trash on to the street. Sara was against it at first saying it was littering, but Bryan was quick to point out the destroyed buildings of the city and reasoned how much a little more was going hurt.

    The girls took the back seat, Sara being the smallest of the group was unfortunate and got the floor. When Bryan offered jacks sweatshirt from his backpack for a pillow she ceased complaining and laid down for the night.

    Rachel took Bryans bag for a pillow and laid down on the back seat after helping get Jack situated in the passenger seat. Bryan would feel bad but he had the driver¡¯s seat with a steering wheel and peddles to contend with.

    Sleep came surprisingly easy to the trio, the night has been the hardest in their life yet and it had definitely taken its toll.

    Jack was first to wake, light was leaking over the hillside but the sun still hadn¡¯t risen over the crest of the outlook. He jumped at first, not knowing where he was. After a quick look around, he recognized the rental and that the girls had apparently decided to stick around at least for the night.

    Shaking his head and rubbing his eyes, he tried to piece it all together.

    The last thing he remembered was being on the lookout, head feeling like it was about to explode. He remembered chastising his brother and then it got fuzzy.

    He thought harder, feeling like he was missing something. As it came back to him he turned bright red and scolded himself under his breath.

    He had called Sara an angel.

    Looking into the back seat she was still sleeping soundly. Pausing to gaze at her, he hadn¡¯t realized how beautiful she truly was in the dark last night. Why on earth did she pick me to talk to last night? Jack was stumped, at least I didn¡¯t scare her off with the whole angel thing.

    Taking a deep breath and turning to look out the windshield, he noticed Bryan stirring.

    Bryan opened his mouth to speak, but Jack raised a finger to his lips silencing him. Motioning to the still sleeping girls Bryan nodded his head in understanding.

    Bryan reached between his knees and lifted Jacks backpack to his lap. Slowly he opened it in search of something to snack on. Knowing his brother well, he soon found what he was looking for in a pair of granola bars. He tossed one to Jack, looking in his eyes as he caught it. His eyes had returned to normal.

    Bryan sat wondering what that meant. Silently both sat starring out the windshield still processing everything that had happened in the past eight hours.

    Jack munched the granola bar as quietly as he could, when something struck him like a two by four.Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    Their Parents! Are they ok? Were they one of the ones that never woke up?

    Starting to inwardly panic, still keeping quiet, Jack reach in his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

    He was thankful it didn¡¯t fall out in being moved all the way here, but looking at the screen it was dead. Did he ever turn off the navigation last night? Knowing that eats the battery, he plugged it into the charger he had set up in the dash. It had charged while the car was off before, but now it seemed to not be working.

    Bryan noticed his brother¡¯s plight and he pulled the keys out and tried to turn on the electric system of the car.

    Nothing.

    No blinking lights, no annoying ding for not wearing the seatbelt, not single light on the dash blipped even for a second.

    Remembering how the city had gone dark after the original quakes, it struck Bryan. ¡°O Crap,¡± he blurted out a little louder than he had intended.

    Rachel stirred rubbing her eyes and pushing her long chestnut hair out of her face, sitting up slightly, she looked at Bryans face and immediately grew concerned herself. ¡°What is it?¡± she atempted to wisper quietly, trying not to wake Sara.

    Jack, seeing his brothers shock and dismay, finally put together what happened and was first to answer in a whisper, ¡°The Meteor must have caused an EMP of some sort last night, nothing electronic is working.¡±

    He handed her his phone for proof and she immediately grabbed her purse from her makeshift pillow set up and checked her own as well.

    Hers was fried as well.

    All the commotion had now woken Sara, ¡°Are you kidding me?¡± She added, still sounding half asleep.

    Rachel moved to sit up so Sara could join her on the bench seat instead of the floor.

    As Sara sat, her eyes went wide and turned in a panic to Rachel. Both jumped into conversation that went so fast the boys couldn¡¯t keep up. Even if they could it was in what sounded to them like Japanese.

    With raised eyebrows Jack and Bryan exchanged glances. Neither had any idea the girls where Japanese in decent.

    Jack was surprised as he listened, starting to pick up on a few words here and there. He¡¯d never spent a second learning anything but English other than Spanish in high school, and that he was terrible at.

    Not having time to dwell on it though for a sinking feeling hit his gut. Something felt as if it was screaming at him in the back of his head. He didn¡¯t know how he knows but danger is close.

    Turning in his seat looking out the windows, he still saw nothing. But he knew it was there. The girls got louder and he swore under his breath like he¡¯d seen Bryan do countless times.

    ¡°Girls,¡± he tries to gently butt in. ¡°Girls!¡± he exclaimed trying to keep his voice hushed. ¡°We have bigger problems right now then your parents!¡±

    Everyone in the car now looked at him. Bryan was confused on two levels, what danger? And could Jack understand them?

    The girls just looked in shock that he had caught any word of what was said. Either way, the desired effect was had, the car was stone silent.

    Jack strained his ears and kept looking around. Now that it was quite, he could hear them. Just barely at first, but growing louder steadily. Finally looking in the mirror outside his car door, he saw them approaching. ¡°Here they come,¡± Jack noted.

    Bryan searched the mirrors and finally found what jack was talking about in the rearview mirror.

    Squinting, trying to make out faces over the distance, he couldn¡¯t believe what he saw. ¡°You have got to be kidding me,¡± he exasperated.

    As they walked, he became one hundred percent sure. Jack recognized him as well. About fifteen cars back, just having come around the corner, was Jimmy.

    ¡°Of course he fricking lived,¡± exclaimed Jack turning back around and throwing his head back in frustrations.

    The girls looked from one of them to the other in confusion, finally Rachel had had enough. ¡°What on earth are you guys talking about?¡±

    Bryans turn to be quick on the draw, ¡°Your boyfriend is not only alive, but appears to have rallied some friends. Looks like they came back to loot cars, they keep searching them as they go.¡±

    ¡°He is not my boyfriend!¡± She exclaimed in her own defense ¡°I had to tutor him in high school and he got me into the right social crowd!¡±

    Bryan chuckled a bit and turned to Jack. ¡°I guess that answers that question,¡± he smirks.

    Jack couldn¡¯t help but go along with it, ¡°What question?¡±

    ¡°He really is as stupid as he looks!¡± Bryan explained with a hearty laugh.

    Rachel just scowled at the both of them as they had their laugh. Having had enough she sits back and huffs, looking to Sara for help but she seems to be lost in the conversation, smirking a little herself.

    Having had his fun, Jack settled down and realized they might have a problem.

    What if he wanted what they had?

    ¡°Rachel, how close where you two? Think he¡¯ll leave us alone?¡±

    Shifting in her seat a bit, her face scrunched as if hiding something but decided to lay it all out, ¡°Probably not, he¡¯s always had a thing for me and just last night I shut him down in front of his frat brothers. That¡¯s why he took so long to come after you last night I think. He wasn¡¯t sure if he should help me.¡±

    ¡°Well lucky for me I guess!¡± Bryan blurted, suddenly realizing what he said didn¡¯t sound the way he had wanted it to. He turned bright red in embarrassment.

    Jack was still watching them in the mirror. It appears like they stopped at a car with someone in it. Whoever it was refused to give something up and locked the door.

    Jimmies posy laughed and backed away from the car, leaving jimmy standing at the front door. As if enraged, jimmy put his head back and screamed so loud jack thought he felt the car shake. Squatting down Jimmy put his hand under the car, grabbing hold to the frame of the full size four door sedan.

    Standing and still screaming jimmy raised his hands, and to Jacks amazement, the car! He proceeded to sling it over his head.

    The car soared through the air, the man¡¯s face was in total shock as he flew through the air. Jack saw the hood ornament as it flew and recognized it as a Buick.

    The car hit the wall roof first. With the screech of metal on rock, Jack cringed as it had slowly descended down the wall. The sound sent shivers down his spine.

    The Buick came to a stop, hitting the gravel embankment with a crunch. A weight moved inside the car, Jack guessed the poor soul that was inside it, and the car tilted ever so slowly and thumped back onto its wheels. It looked like something in a junkyard now, completely destroyed.

    Eyes wide in fear, Jack turned to the others and quickly blurted, ¡°We need to get out of here!¡±

    Bryan was still in awe of what he saw happen in the mirror but still couldn¡¯t bring himself to believe it. ¡°Yea,¡± he shuddered ¡°We really do!¡±

    Both girls where now turned around watching out the back window, they had just barely seen the car tip and come to a stop. Their faces shocked in horror of what they just saw.

    Rachel turned to Bryan and Jack with neck breaking speed. ¡°What are we going to do?¡± she cried.

    Sara had started weeping for the man in the car. Was he dead? He had to be after that she thought.

    Jack¡¯s mind was racing, playing out scenarios one by one of how to get everyone out of there. It felt like his brain was in overdrive as he closed his eyes and watched it all go by.

    Every way he tried to imagine it, they still had to confront jimmy and his posy. Opening his eye¡¯s he turned to Bryan with a frown. ¡°There is no way out of this without having to confront them,¡± he finally concluded.

    Bryan looked at his brother and noticed the gold had returned in just a tiny rim, smaller then Sara¡¯s had been the night before.

    Something inside told him he had to trust what Jack said. ¡°Ok, well then let¡¯s do this right.¡±

    Jack nodded and took his pack from his brother, closing it back up, throwing his dead phone and charger in just in case. Bryan tried to hand him his dagger, but he refused it for now. He knew Bryan was much stronger then him and if it came to it, it would be more useful in his hands.

    The boys tried to be valiant and told the girls to stay put while they handled it. That went over about as well as if they had suggested handing the girls over to the posy and running.

    That settled, the girls took the bags and at least agreed to stand behind them somewhat.

    All set, Bryan and Jack looked to each other. Bryan grinned with a laugh, ¡° We¡¯ve fought each other so much the last ten years, let see what we can do turning ourselves on someone else for a change.¡±

    Jack laughed at that, remember all their brawls growing up. He knew Bryan was trying to raise some courage in himself just as much as in Jack.

    His thoughts drew towards having to confront Jimmy again, especially after seeing him throw a car, he was unsure of how this would go.

    Jack thought of all the books he had read and what the heroes would do in this situation. He breathed deep and remembered everything he had watched in his mind.

    Jack''s mind cleared as he worked it out in his mind. Immediately he felt that this was the best possible outcome and started to form a resolve for what had to be done. As he became sure that this was the right action, he focused on what was to come.

    Having finished gathering his things and himself, he felt something within himself rise up.

    He could feel pressure building inside himself. Was it fear? Anticipation of what was to come? Excitement? He wasn¡¯t sure, but it felt like ice water was rushing up his spine to his brain. Or was it the other way around? Jack had no idea, but it was new and it calmed him.

    One more nod to his brother that he was ready and he reached for the door handle. His fingers tingled and the door handle pulled itself and he pushed it open in surprise. What was that?

    This was about to get interesting he couldn''t help to think as he smiled to himself. Stepping out of the car, Jack turned to face the coming confrontation.

 Chapter 8

    Jack could not believe the confidence this feeling gave him. The second the door opened at his thought, things started to click into place for Jack.

    He had been a nerd among nerds for all his life. Reading every fantasy story he could get his hands on. That is how he knew.

    I''ve got magic..

    And so Jack smiled. He had no idea what the extent of his magic was or how to really use it. But the emotional response was there.

    Jack''s thought process had sped up again, recalculating the odds of success to their plan. With this new development, Jack was sure the cards were in his favor. He just had to hope it worked.

    Bryan got out of the car and carefully helped the girls out of the back.

    After some awkwardly rushed stretching, the trio then scurried around the front of the car to Jack as they had planned. But they all took pause when they saw Jacks face.

    What stopped Bryan and the girls in their tracks was the smile on Jack¡¯s face. It went from ear to ear, and that his eyes had turned even further gold than in the car.

    Jack met his brothers stare and nodded. Slowly but confidently he turned toward Jimmy and his posy.

    Bryan had to hitch up his step to catch up with his brothers confident steps as the girls backed off as they had talked about, staying close, but well out of the way.

    Bryan tried to be like stone, with a light smile, he tried to match jack.

    But between the way his brother was acting, and walking towards a man that could throw cars armed with nothing but a little dagger, his fa?ade was wavering.

    Coming to a stop, they waited.

    By now, Jimmy had taken notice of them and was headed in their direction. With only four cars distance between them, he and his posy came to a halt.

    Jimmy looked like the cook who had just caught the mouse that was plaguing his kitchen.

    If anything his expression resembled Jack¡¯s wide grin, but on Jimmy, it just made him look like a villain out of one of Jack¡¯s fantasy books.

    What stood out the most was his eyes, bloodshot, with illuminated ring of red just barely visible around the edges.

    His group was comprised of six other frat guys from the party the night before. Bryan recognized one as Jimmies almost twin that chased him away last night. The other four, he didn''t think he had the ''pleasure'' of meeting just yet.

    All of them were still wearing the same shirts with the Greek letters that made it so easy to tag them as frat brothers. Two of them had ripped off the short sleeves of the shirt, to show off their tattoos. One had a shaved head that really screamed que ball with a barbed wire tattoo wrapped around one arm and Chinese lettering on the other shoulder. The next had a faux hawk with the sides shaved bald, a half sleeve tattoo Jack couldn¡¯t make out from the distance on one arm and the Greek letters from the shirt down his other.

    Que ball was the only one that looked almost as ruthless and strong as Jimmy, but the others physique¡¯s still looked like they could rip Jacks head off. The finial one was absolutely the stereo type of a frat guy, his shirt wasn¡¯t a t-shirt like the others, but a polo shirt with the same logo. With gelled hair that somehow made it through the night and a face and body that could be in an Abercrombie add, he could have just walked out of any 90s teen movie. For what it¡¯s worth, he looked very uncomfortable with the situation.

    Bryan had to stifle a laugh In seeing the group, the fear fading away just for a moment.

    Are these guys for real? People like this really exist in California?

    Sure, he¡¯d seen the movies but they were just movies right? Totally satirical and made up for entertainments sake. He couldn¡¯t believe it. The crew standing in front of him was living proof.

    ¡°So you idiots survived eh?¡± Jimmy opened up. ¡°And Rachel too, what are you doing with these guys? The rest of the guys and some of the other girls from last night are at a house close to the bottom of the hill. You should come with us.¡±

    Rachel put on a defiant look, knowing this wasn''t something Jimmy hears often, ¡°No thank you.¡± She firmly stated.

    You could see the anger start to bubble behind his eyes as he clenched his fists, ¡°I really think you don¡¯t understand the mistake you¡¯re making.¡± Anger rising even further, ¡°Get over here now!¡± Jimmies rage seemed to go 0 to 100 in a second flat.

    How quick he was to anger made Jack''s thoughts swim, wondering if it was a side effect from the red rings around his eyes. He was a dick but not that quick to anger the night before.

    ¡°No!¡± Rachel screamed, now holding Sara¡¯s hand and backing up a few steps.

    Jimmy had had enough, and barked out an order to his friends, ¡°Go get her boys.¡±

    The muscle head started forward first, with the tattooed guy¡¯s right behind them.

    Seeing it was his turn, Jack started the show.

    ¡°No.¡±

    It was stated so calmly and simply, caught off guard by his nonchalant reaction, the posy flinched and looked to Jimmy.

    ¡°If you want her, come get her yourself.¡± Jack cooly continued. His glowing eyes never left Jimmies own. He knew it was a risky idea, but somehow he felt he could handle it.

    Bryan stood ready as he could, having pulled at the dagger as soon as they started advancing, but was now starring at Jack.

    What on earth is he thinking! We just saw this guy throw a car and now Jack is goading him like he¡¯s the bully.

    Jack was on a roll, he couldn¡¯t believe what he was doing but fought hard not to show it.

    Where did this new found confidence come from? Just from knowing he had magic?

    This wasn¡¯t him, this was like one of his characters from the stories and games he loved so much. He didn¡¯t know where it was coming from, but he liked it, so he went with it. But he had to focus, the more he thought about it he could feel it slipping through the cracks.

    Jimmy snorted at his taunt, ¡°Fine by me then, clear out boys.¡±

    Jimmies posy retreated quickly like they had heard the tone before.

    Taking a few steps forward, jimmy shook out his arms and rolled his neck. He looked like someone from the ironman contest about to pull a truck. Or a small car¡­

    Without warning, he lunged to his left and grabbed a smart car that he had been standing next to like it was a baseball and hurled it at Jack and Bryan.

    Bryan let out a cry in fear, but Jack kept quiet and as he saw Jimmy lunge had raised his left palm up to face the oncoming car. ¡°No,¡± Jack shouted, voice obviously strained.

    With Jack¡¯s command, a shimmering field appeared in the air and the car stopped in midair. The shimmering field quickly attached itself to the car, visibly making the whole car shimmer like a golden disco ball.

    Jimmies eyes went wide with fear and amazement. No one ever stood up to him since elementary school, for someone to have the audacity to do it now that he was so strong blew his mind.

    Jack''s own surprise was evident on his face at first but he quickly doned his mask again. All the while he kept focus on maintaining the field. The car shook but maintained its height in the air. With fierce concentration, Jack still couldn''t help the excitement from bubbling up. It was something he had always dreamed of. His grin from earlier returned.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

    ¡°Do you see that Bryan? And look at his face!¡± He exclaimed, sounding like a kid at Christmas. ¡°That is bad ass!¡±

    Bryan was torn, he didn¡¯t know if his brother had gone crazy or was back to normal.

    What was normal now anyway?

    Either way, this wasn¡¯t over just yet.

    ¡°Yea it is,¡± Bryan said trying to sound excited for him but failing. ¡°But can we focus a bit here?¡±

    Jack realized that Jimmy and his posy where still there and had to be dealt with. Looking over at the posy, he knew the fight had gone out of them. They were certainly not expecting any sort of resistance.

    All of them stood with a slack jaw, starring between Jack and the hovering car. Jack smiled, and put his hand back up. They all flinched back, but unbeknownst to them jack was now struggling a bit.

    The ice water and tingling he had felt before was waning having held the car in place so long. Starting to freak out on the inside, he thought of something one of his characters from D&D back in middle school.

    Letting the car drop, with his mind he pushed the car toward Jimmy with all he had left.

    He watched it go just as he fell to his knees and his head felt like it was split in half. As the car flew, Jack started to collapse. The girls rushed forward to help him from hitting the ground.

    The smart car rolled twice in the air, hitting the ground with the crunch of breaking plastic. It cart wheeled another two times and slid to a crunching stop, a foot from Jimmies feet. All the fluids the car had held, started to seep out onto the asphalt making a puddle at his feet.

    Bryan, not believing what he saw, feeling the levity brought on by his brother, or maybe finally cracking under the insanity of the past 12 hours or so, bust out laughing himself.

    As it hit him he couldn¡¯t help himself. Having not seen his brother drop to the ground next to him, he stepped forward with the same confidence Jack had showed he shouted his taunt, ¡°Ball one! Care to try again?¡±

    All the while menacing Jack¡¯s knife like he was prepared to throw it.

    Jimmy turned tail and ran, as did the two cronies of his that hadn¡¯t already run away scared back to where ever they came from.

    Once Jimmy and his crew where out of sight, Bryan finally turned to Jack and was surprised to see him on his knees, being attended to by the girls.

    Bryans face and spirited dropped the ground as he jumped to Jacks side. ¡°Are you alright?¡± he asked with concern laced through his voice.

    Jack looked up, eyes still gold but far less than before. He pondered a smart as remark for a minute but his headache had a different idea. ¡°I¡¯ll live, how about next time we don¡¯t taunt people when I¡¯m down? And a baseball joke? Really?¡±

    Bryan realized his foolishness in and instant. If Jimmy had continued, they would have been in deep trouble. With a touch of shame that was very unlike himself, Bryan apologized. Profusely.

    Jack smiled as he weakly replied, "Lesson learned, no worries. Besides, it was an epic end to the show."

    Bryan was mildly confused by what ever Jack ment by show. But even though he still had not fully processed what he just witnessed, his stomach pulled him from his thoughts.

    Thinking back, other than the granola bars in the car he and Jack hadn¡¯t eaten since an early dinner the night before.

    Jack, hearing his brother¡¯s stomach from where he had crumpled, he managed a smile. ¡°Just help me to the car right there, we should have enough food for a decent breakfast at least.¡±

    The girls nodded in understanding, now feeling the pull of morning hunger themselves, they found their bodies had ignored letting them know about it due to their already eventful day.

    Bryan replaced Sara as he and Rachel helped Jack get to his feet and lean against the nearest car.

    Jack slid down to the ground carefully, bracing himself against the tire. Afterwards the girls plopped down facing Jack and the green rusted sedan that now formed the back of Jack¡¯s chair.

    Bryan brought the backpacks over from where the girls had dropped them to go help Jack. Sitting down next to Jack, he started through them looking for something that would pass as breakfast.

    In Jack¡¯s bag he found the stash of granola bars and started passing them out with a bottle of water each.

    ¡°Jacks only got two more waters and two Gatorades, and I¡¯ve got three water bottles myself left. We should try to make them last.¡± Bryan noted. Magic was new to him, but camping and survival was not.

    The others looked to each other and nodded as Bryan took out the trail mix that was going to end up being the bulk of their roadside meal.

    The direness of the situation seemed to set in, no one spoke as they munched down the snacks and sipped the water.

    Bryan was the first to break the silence, ¡°Well since no one else is gunna say it I have to, what the hell was that Jack?¡±

    Jack looked up from his handful of trail mix and sipped his water bottle. Looking to Bryan he opened his mouth to explain but found he couldn¡¯t find the words.

    What had it been?

    It was like something had takin hold of him. That icy coolness that had run down his spine and into his arms, how was he to explain it? Now that the ice water feeling was gone, he started to doubt himself.

    Was it really Magic?

    Other then knowing that it seems to react to his emotionsback could explain the magic. Without anything else to say, he just looked to Bryan and shrugged, ¡°No idea. It started in the car, I didn¡¯t even pull the door handle myself. I just looked at it and it magically opened.¡±

    Judging by everyone¡¯s vacant glares, he decided he should go on explaining as best he could, ¡°I guess it really started when I was thinking of what we should do. It was subtle then, just in the front of my head if it matters. I saw flashes of all the different actions we couldtake and the results they would bring. That¡¯s how I knew we had to confront them.¡±

    ¡°So that¡¯s why you were so confident when you got out of the car? You already knew he was going to through the car and that you would somehow stop it?¡± Sara butt in.

    Jack looked to her, he hadn¡¯t realized she was paying that close attention to him. ¡°No¡± He answered, ¡°I had no idea that brute was going to hurl a smart car like a kid throws a stone.¡±

    He chuckled a second to himself but everyone else still seemed put off by this. ¡°I knew that any other way we went about it, running no matter which direction was going to end rather¡­ badly¡± He trailed off.

    Eyes wide, Rachel though she had put it together. ¡°So you can see the future?¡± her tone was almost excited yet in absolute awe.

    ¡°No nothing like that I don¡¯t think,¡± Jack confidently stated. ¡°I¡¯ve always had a knack for strategy in all the games I¡¯ve ever played. A lot of times you have to be 2 steps ahead if you want to win, so you have to imagine all the possible outcomes and be ready for any of them. I think that¡¯s more along the lines of what happened.¡± The confidence slipped towards the end of his words, realizing his inner geek was showing strong.

    If anyone cared, no one said one negative thing about it as he peered over the group.

    ¡°Your eyes, the gold rings are fading again. It was there when you got out of the car, but it was worse when we came to your side. It¡¯s unnatural, and¡­ disconcerting.¡± Rachel chimed in. She reached in her purse Bryan had also at some point fished out of the bags for her and tossed him the mirror to look for himself.

    "I wouldn''t say worse, just brighter." Sara chimed in, embarrassment evident in her tone.

    Catching the mirror, Jack opened it up and held it up to catch light. Opening his eyes wide to better see, he saw what she meant.

    The gold rings where slowly fading, even as he watched in the mirror. But to him, it wasn¡¯t disconcerting, it was exciting yet mysterious.

    He liked it.

    Sara squirmed a bit as she finished her handful of trail mix. ¡°I don¡¯t think it¡¯s disconcerting, I like the way it looks.¡± She smiled at Jack, something he returned and nodded his head in thank you to.

    ¡°Besides, mine did it as well right? Last night?¡±

    Bryan and Rachel nodded solemnly, hardly imaging all had happened the night before. It seemed that everyone¡¯s thought went back to the previous night¡¯s events with the meteor crossing into the atmosphere.

    The shaking and rumbling of the earth they could all still feel if they closed their eyes and thought about it. The countless bodies that now littered the lookout point, it all seemed surreal to them all. As they all finished their munching, it seemed they all had the chills from their own thoughts.

    ¡°So what do we do now?¡± Sara asked, her voice shaking with uncertainty.

    Jack sighed, shaking himself from his thoughts. What to do? He and Bryan where three thousand miles from home with no family any closer than further south on the east coast.

    Their parents! His thoughts wandered toward them again for the first time since earlier in the morning.

    Are they safe? Did they never wake up?

    Worst case scenarios ran through his head so fast he had to shake it to keep himself from the horrors.

    Well that''s one hell of a downside.

    See his parents deaths like that even knowing that it was just a scenario still disturbed Jack.

    I''ve got to get handle on that ability really quickly. That would drive me nuts.

    Bryan had an idea of what his brother was thinking, ¡°Well, we have to make it back to our parents in New York.¡± There was no question of this for him, it was his first and foremost concern. He wouldn¡¯t let it show but he was far more worried about them then he was willing to show to Jack, he decided late last night that he had to be strong for his brother through this.

    He is the older brother after all.

    He had to take care of Jack, it¡¯s a foreign concept to him but now that he felt if he had no idea how he had not in all the years growing up with Jack.

    Jack nodded in agreement, and turned his gaze to the girls. Sara and Rachel both looked as fearful as Bryan felt. ¡°What about your parents, you said they were a ways away right?¡±

    Rachel¡¯s brow furrowed at that, ¡°You were passed out when we talked about that...¡±

    Sara¡¯s ears turned red in embarrassment Had he heard what she said about him last night? If he did he hadn¡¯t let on that he knew. No, he couldn¡¯t have heard she decided, and tried her best to bury her embarrassment.

    ¡°Hmm I guess that¡¯s why the memory is so fuzzy, I must have been half out or something.¡± Jack surmised.

    Rachel thought a moment a then started in, ¡°Well, like I said, our parents are about two hours away. Without a working car though I have no idea how long it could take to get there. They went to our cabin on Mount Baldy for the weekend together. They don¡¯t even know we are here.¡±

    The last bit it seemed she was saying to herself for she reeled back at the thought and started tearing up again.

    Bryan was quick on the up take and knew Jack would agree by just meeting his eyes and giving a short nod. ¡°Well, that makes it easy,¡± he declared, ¡°We¡¯ll go to them.¡± Bryan scooted over to put an arm around Rachel.

    She seemed hesitant for it to be him, but quickly accepted the comforting she knew she needed.

    Jack slowly nodded to show his agreement to the girls. Sensing the girls worry over their parents, he scrambled to find something comforting to say. ¡°I¡¯m sure they are safe where they are. If this Mount Baldy is anything like the mountains we have at home, it will be far more secluded from idiots like Jimmy.¡±

    Both girls seemed to take heart in that, Rachel¡¯s tears faded and Sara nodded managing a small warn smile.

    Jack had to almost squint at Sara, as the sun finally peeked over the hilltop.

 Chapter 9

    As the silence settled over the group, Jacks mind started to speed up again.

    His curiousity was peaked, what on earth brought them back up here? He realized were his gaze had settled and he quickly moved his eyes, drifting away from Sara and towards where Jimmy had run off to before he was caught staring.

    Cautiously Jack approached the bags the thugs had left behind. But upon reaching them he realized what the thugs were doing.

    Looting.

    Jack could help but chuckle at the idea that Jimmy thought of something he had not. They are idiots, that was well established. It just so happens they are resourceful idiots.

    Jack''s chuckles had caught the others attention again, "It looks like baldy and the twins have someone in thegroup with a brain." Jack looked around the cars and he couldn''t help feel how lucky they were. They were in a mine field of possible resources. They just had to be quick in case Jimmy and his posy come back with reinforments.

    Bryan seemed to notice as well, "alright let''s comb through these cars and see what we can find. There may be food, water and all sorts of stuff just laying around."

    Rachel''s face grew red with indognation. "That is stealing!"

    Bryan could only roll his eyes. "Really? We really are having this argument?"

    Rachel''s cool glare only exacerbated Bryans sign.

    "Think about why all these cars are here. Why no one has come to get their stuff. The meteor has changed everything and left a lot of people dead for it. We need to think of our survival if we are going to make it to your parents. All this belongs to no one now. So now we will use everything we can to make sure we stay alive."

    Rachel face fell like a scolded child. You could tell she understood but was still refusing to accept it.

    Jack was left speechless for a second as his brother had just showed far more patience then Jack thought he was capable of.

    Sara seemed to be mulling it over with a sense of resolution on her face.

    "Well no time to waste!" Jack tried to get everyone moving. Splitting up seemed the obvious this to do so Jack took Sara by the hand and they left Bryan to consol and explore with Rachel.

    -------------------

    Bryan and Rachel where already back when Jack and Sara arrived.

    Sara had had some trouble carrying all the plunder and they had to stop twice to rearrange the load for Jack to carry.

    Finally setting it all down, he felt like he had run a marathon.

    I¡¯ve gotta get used to all this physical activity, the sooner the better.

    ¡°Well let¡¯s get sorting!¡±

    Jack plopped on the ground against the tire he had perched against over breakfast, while Sara pulled a bag over and set herself down next to him.

    Rachel and Bryan had taken up their own road seats, kneeling on towels to be in a better position to sort through the pile. They all were surprised at how much stuff they had found. It easily looked like they were preparing for a yard sale.

    Sorting it took quite a while. There were back packs, chips, Granola bars, cloths for the girls that were more suited to hiking then party cloths. The later that they had actually grabbed out of Jimmy¡¯s truck.

    The amount of food they actually found was staggering. Sara had even managed to find maps in the glove box of a Volvo. There was a large one of the whole US that wasn¡¯t easy to read, but there was also a laminated one that was bound with a spiral of plastic that covered the entire south west in its many pages.Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    The treasure trove was a cooler that had not been dragged up to the look out that appeared to have been saved for the morning after, filled with bottled water and gator aid.

    To try to organize, Sara had them start separate piles. One for food and drinks, one for helpful items they want to take with them, and the Junk pile. It gave them hope that the food pile was a good size but the pile of actually useful items was severely lacking in comparison. Besides the maps, there were a handful of different style back packs. Each had to be gone through. But besides matches, a few lighters, and a pocket knife there really wasn¡¯t much of any use in them other than some more snack food.

    They had found a compass but it was spinning wildly no matter what they did. It promptly got added to the growing trash pile.

    Other than the bags, there were some blankets with a various degree of smell to each of them. These they each sniffed gently and picked some of the heavier ones with the least stink to sleep on and a lighter one for a cover for each of them.

    After an hour or so with the sorting just about finished the only other useful items found where road flares and a hunting Bowie knife that Jack satisfyingly remembered taking out of Jimmy¡¯s truck.

    When Bryan saw the knife he immediately went for it. ¡°I¡¯ll take that, you can have your toy back,¡± he excitedly announced as he tossed Jack the black and red dagger from the conference.

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t the one brandishing it like a butter knife as if to scare jimmy off,¡± Jack mockingly scoffed. ¡°I¡¯ll take it though!¡± Latching it to his belt while sitting down was a challenge that made Sara giggle thinking of how he was sprawled when they had met. But to Jack, it just felt right once it was there.

    ¡°What about those bags?¡± Sara asked as she tossed a text book onto the now heaped pile of junk they weren¡¯t going to take with them, pointing at the bag that jimmy and his cronies had carried.

    Bryan laughed, having totally forgotten about the spoils of there early morning conflict. There were two black trash bags, stretched from being slung over a shoulder half full.

    Quickly he tossed one to Jack to go through as well, he was the one who chased them off after all.

    Bryan sat back down closer to Rachel so she could help and they started pulling things out one by one. More lighters, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, bottles of booze, it was soon apparent that the groups where each looking for very different items.

    Jack on the other hand, was pragmatic about it. Taking the bag and gently dumped it out on the ground. This person appeared to have a bit more sense. The first thing that caught Jack¡¯s eye was a zippo which he pocketed immediately, not wanting to have to give it up to Bryan. There were cigarettes and other drug paraphernalia as well but after setting that all aside Sara reached down and grabbed what looked like a high end multi-tool.

    ¡°This one¡¯s for me!¡± She happily said.

    She went to the pile of trash and found a belt she had discarded earlier and laced it about her with the multi-tool in its carrying case securely attached. She looked quite pleased with herself knowing it was probably the most useful item on the day other than the maps. ¡°Here take this Rachel!¡± she said as she tossed her a Swiss army knife that had been under her multi-tool.

    Taking it, it was very obvious Rachel wasn¡¯t quite sure what to do with it. Her lack of experience in camping was already showing through. ¡°I guess,¡± she mumbled, placing the knife in her back pocket.

    With the temperature on the rise, they all decided to start packing up. Each of the boys picked up a new back pack. Jack had picked out a black Oakley bag that looked like it was much better suited to traveling then the school bag he had. It was littered with different pockets and places to attach things if needed. Bryan on the other hand took what looked to be a person from the military¡¯s bag. It originally held a lot of the snacks they now where going to take with them, as well as fifty feet of paracord. The girls each picked as well, Sara a dark blue backpack that fit her well with a few pockets and some old patches sewn into the outside. Rachel picked a pink one that fit her well, but also was going to hold as much as she could carry.

    They divided up the food as equally as they could, the boys took more of the water and Gatorade to help the girls manage the weight. The girls in turn rolled up the bedding they all had selected and helped the boys secure it to their bags also.

    Jack had an idea and made sure to pack as much of the Tabaco products he could, knowing from his books they would come in handy if they ever had the need to barter.

    The extra pocket knife went to Jack so he had something more practical then the Black and red lick of flame at his side, and the maps stayed in hand.

    All packed up they looked around to make sure they weren¡¯t missing anything they had intended to take with them. There was still some candy bars and other foods they couldn¡¯t fit that offered the least nutrition they decided to leave, along with almost a twelve pack of soda.

    Each with a fresh bottle of water in hand, they started down the hill. The girls showed Bryan where on the map their parents should be and they headed out.

    By the scale of the map, it¡¯s about 30 miles trip through a lot of half destroyed city scape. Silently they all hoped that not everyone that survived had become as... uncivilized as Jimmy.

 Chapter 10

    By the time they headed away from the road, it was late morning.

    They all decided that the quickest way to get there is a straight line. They also reasoned that until they knew the situation of the general public it would be smart to stay off roads, least they run into jimmy again or worse.

    The hills they now hiked down had obviously not been walked through in any of their lifetimes. Besides the light trash that had been blown in the wind, it all seemed untouched. The Blonde grass came up to their knees as they slowly followed Bryans lead down the hillside with Jack ack taking up the rear.

    The boys stayed pretty silent as they went, both deep in thought of current events. The girls walked side by side talking idly about their parents and what they were sure their reactions would be to the chaos of the night before, both quietly knowing it was all speculative but it made them feel better so they ignored it as best they could.

    When coming upon the dark green bushes that where at times even taller than Bryan, they gave them a wide berth. Sara seemed to think it was a probable hiding spot for snakes. Jack and Bryan seceded in agreement, not knowing the wild life well enough to know for sure.

    Further down the hill there where full grown trees that from the heat of the sun that bared down on them all and harshness of the ground you would never realize were possible to exist.

    Finally they came to a trail that wasn¡¯t on the map but looked well maintained.

    ¡°Looks like a bike path,¡± Jack thought out loud.

    ¡°There is the genius chiming in!¡± Bryan chided, all this through the dry bushes and grass was getting to him. ¡°Statements like that let me know your still you. Is it strange I find that comforting?¡±

    Jack scowled at the first comment but the second he could help but laugh, ¡°Glad you¡¯re concerned but I¡¯m fine, I told you.¡±

    Bryan just shrugged and picked a place on a fallen tree that at some point must have lost a battle with the wind and fallen ones to the trail.

    Carefully looking for bugs and critters he sat down and slung his back pack around. ¡°Lunch time,¡± he declared.

    At that, the girls huffed and sat on the far end of the log from Bryan, quietly talking to each other in Japanese again. They each pulled out and energy bar and started to munch quietly.

    Seeing the girls want for privacy, Jack sat next to Bryan and found an energy bar of his own. The boys had let the girls have first pick of food, trying to be chivalrous, but Jack was now regretting that decision. His energy bar was supposed to be flax seed and berries but to him it tasted like cardboard with fake sugar on top. He read the label and saw that it was supposed to be organic and good for him, but at that moment he just wanted it to taste better.

    Knocking back the rest of his water, he was surprised to find Rachel and Sara standing in front of him and Bryan.

    ¡°We want to take the trail,¡± Rachel boldly stated. ¡°All this through tromping through the bushes like boy scouts is exhausting, one of us is going to turn an ankle or get bitten by a snake. And if that happens, it¡¯s not going to matter if we are safe from people now, because once we get to the city we will be weak and easy prey. We don¡¯t even know if anyone is out here other than us.¡± Her body seemed to deflate after blurting it all out in one go. He face still held an expression that dared them to challenge her.

    Bryan nodded seeing the logic, but it was Jack that spoke up.

    ¡°Your right, but I don¡¯t think that jimmy will give up so easy. Sure he ran like a little girl, but it was probably only to get reinforcements. What if he¡¯s not the only one in his group that can throw cars? Or if they have someone that can stop them like me?¡±

    Sara shook her head in dismay, ¡°But don¡¯t you see? That¡¯s why we need to get out of here as quick as we can. With the bike trail we will make much better time. Besides even if they do find us and have more people with powers, I¡¯ve got them too remember? You¡¯re not the only one.¡±

    Jack couldn¡¯t quite discern the tone of her voice. Was she jealous? Her eyes had glowed to, but her power hadn¡¯t surfaced yet. Does that mean that his are stronger? Is that what she thinks? Jack¡¯s thoughts started to swim in the growingly familure fashion, which disappeared when he felt a sharp sting on his cheek that threw his head to side. Sara had smacked him he realized.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you do that, don¡¯t you trust us? Or are you going to fact check us in your head every time we make a suggestion of something you two haven¡¯t thought of?¡± Sara exclaimed as stamped her foot and shot a look at him that could have burned through steel.

    Jack was in shock from being slapped, speechless from Sara¡¯s accusations. He looked at Bryan for help, but he was looking the other way, obviously trying to keep from laughing at his brothers¡¯ position.

    What he didn¡¯t see was the glare that came from Rachel at him that could have just as easily killed.

    Jack looked back to Sara and broke down, ¡°Of course I trust you! It¡¯s not that... I really... I wasn¡¯t..,¡± Jack stammered, ¡°I didn¡¯t mean to do the power thing, honest, I still don¡¯t know how it really works or what triggers it. I... I¡¯m sorry if it came off like me and Bryan didn¡¯t trust your opinions.¡±

    Sara¡¯s look broke, she looked on Jacks face with a mix of relief and acceptance of his apology. Turning her head to Rachel, she shot her a look that to jack looked almost like an I told you so. How could girls communicate so much with just a look? Jack wondered. How in the world am I supposed to read all these things properly? Jacks head started to spin but it had nothing to do with his powers.

    Bryan stood and packed away his trash, they had agreed they would burn it all. It might be the end of the world as they knew it but they should still be responsible, they had agreed. ¡°Your right, if we do come across more hostel people we are going to need our strength. We¡¯ll take the bike path down. Judging by the maps and the direction of the trail, if it stays in the same direction it will take us out not far from where we wanted anyway.¡±

    Jack snapped from his thoughts and nodded in agreement, taking his last bite of his lunch. He looked to Sara who smiled back at him.

    I¡¯ll never figure this out. How canto sentences and a look turn me into a blabbering fool. I just met Her! Although it was the happiest night of my life, up until the meteor of course...

    Walking the bike path was significantly easier then walking through the brush. Jack kicked rocks as he was deep in thought. The path winded back and forth around thicker patches of the now far more common trees, but it still slowly sloped downwards making it much easier now that they didn¡¯t have to worry about their footing.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

    While walking, Jack walked with Sara and Bryan with Rachel. Jack and Sara where back to enjoying each other¡¯s company. Jack had tried to apologize again but Sara would hear nothing of it, saying it was already forgiven and she knew it wasn¡¯t intentional.

    Bryan¡¯s advances on Rachel were meeting far more resistance, it was apparent to all but Bryan that she had no interest in him romantically and that their friendship to her was to be strictly plutonic. To change the subject she talked about where they were headed and had him bring out the maps so they could plan together.

    Bryan thought it a situation he could capitalize on so he became adamant about the change in group dynamics. By the time they reached the trail head they figured they had a well formulated plan.

    The trail head surprised them all, it really wasn¡¯t a trail head but just where it opened out to an open road. They weren¡¯t exactly sure where on the road they were but they felt strongly they knew which one they had reached. Stopping for a water break, Rachel went over the plan.

    ¡°So by Bryan and I¡¯s figuring, we are here.¡± She said gesturing to the laminated map booklet, ¡°The last mile or so of the trail actually took us south, but this road runs east to west and should take us to a road that heads almost due north all the way to more populated areas. We could go back to going through the brush but even from here it looks steep and would not only be dangerous but probably take us far longer to get where we want.¡±

    Bryan stood next to her, nodding with each statement. He had a smile on his face that almost made him look goofy, proud that they had worked together on the plan. ¡°So what do you two think?¡± he said.

    Jack looked to Sara and shrugged. Having not looked at the maps themselves since lunch time, they had no idea what half of that meant.

    ¡°We trust you guys, let¡¯s take the road.¡± Sara said with certainty that earned a smile from Rachel.

    The road was only two lanes wide but it was more than enough for them to walk side by side together. It slowly curved north as they walked along, with a chain link fence on their left to keep people from falling down an embankment so steep it was almost a cliff. The bottom of the embankment opened up to a ravine with the same vegetation they had now become accustomed to.

    On the far hill there was a house, marking their first sign of being back in civilization. There were a few cars as they went, but all were already visibly rooted threw with doors and trunks open wide. They hadn¡¯t found any bodies, and they all found that assuring. They hoped that the people that had been in them had made it to safety.

    The right side of the road raised into an embankment, almost as steep as the one on the other side but was more the twenty feet over head.

    Making it to the intersection to take the road north was much shorter than they thought it would be, only taking fifteen minutes they figured. But rounding a corner as the intersection came into view, Jacks stomach dropped when he read the street signs.

    ¡°Is this the bottom of the road we drove up last night to the lookout?¡± Jack asked with apprehension, stopping dead in his tracks.

    Bryan glanced around and nodded affirmative, and Jacks eyes grew wide, ¡°We have to get out of here NOW!¡± he asserted quietly with authority. At the same time he grabbed Sara¡¯s hand and hurried back around the corner.

    Seeing his reaction, Bryan and Rachel hurried after him.

    ¡°Hey, stop!¡± Bryan called out, Jack had almost broken into a jog. ¡°We have to go that way, there is no other road north for miles that direction.¡±

    Coming to a stop, Jack shook his head, slowly he walked back toward Bryan and Rachel who had stopped right around the corner safely out of sight from the intersection. Both looked completely and utterly confused by Jacks reaction.

    Sara managed to look concerned more than confused as she followed Jack back to the others. ¡°Don¡¯t you remember what Jimmy said?¡± Jack started in quietly.

    ¡°Jimmy? No, what? I was a bit distracted by the car throwing, I must have missed something,¡± Bryan mused.

    ¡°When he tried to take Rachel, you dolt. Figured you would for sure remember that!¡± Jack cut back, making Bryan¡¯s cheeks flush redder then sunburn. ¡°Jimmy said that the rest of his crew was at a house at the bottom of the hills.¡±

    Bryans face blanched, ¡°No way, I didn¡¯t see a house though, did you?¡±

    Jack pictured his look at the intersection in his head, trying to remember all that was there.

    It was vivid as if he was looking at it now.

    ¡°Yes,¡± he stated, ¡°there is a gate right at the corner of the intersection.¡±

    Rachel gasped as she ducked her head around the corner to look and pulled back, flattening herself against the embankment as she pulled back. ¡°He¡¯s right, it¡¯s there!¡±

    Daring herself another glace, she leaned and peered around the corner, looking for anyone in the vicinity of the house.

    It took less than a minute when she whipped back around. ¡°There are people there! I saw someone that looked to be guarding the walk way to the house. He walked up to the gate, looked around and then walked back up the path.¡± Shaking, she slowly dropped herself to the ground.

    Sara was shaken as well, but seeing her cousin in such a condition she went to her side. ¡°It¡¯ll be ok, we¡¯ll find a way around this.¡± She sat down next to her, putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close. As her shoulders started to bob, Sara knew she was sobbing.

    Looking up Sara gave Jack a pleading look.

    Jack looked to Bryan but he was staring at Rachel trying to think of a way to comfort her. ¡°There there, it¡¯s ok,¡± he started.

    Rachel looked up at him, eyes red from tears. ¡°Okay? OKAY? You call all this Okay?¡± She shouted, warranting a hush from Sara so that the noise didn¡¯t reach the intersection. ¡°This is not okay,¡± Rachel went on, ¡°Aaron is dead, God knows if our parents were ones to wake up after that damb comet, there is no electricity, our phones don¡¯t work, we have no way to get around and we are being hunted by an asshole I had to tutor in high school! Things are not okay!¡±

    P

    Her words struck Bryan like a physical attack, taking a step back to take it all in. He knew it all was true. Aaron was the first thing she listed, did she have feelings for him? The thought struck him that in all that she had said, that was what first popped in his head. He felt ashamed. So much had happened in the last day that he realized he hadn¡¯t really processed any of it just pushed it aside.

    He felt the fear of the uncertain bubble up inside him, his eyes start to tear. No he told himself. I must stay strong for Jack, I must keep it together to get him back to our parents. Bryan steadied himself and looked to Jack.

    Jack was frowning, watching the girls. It was obvious he felt bad for her and knew what she said was all true. But he also couldn¡¯t shake that he felt responsible for them all, that it was his job to make sure they were ok. I¡¯ve got to have these powers for a reason, he told himself.

    Whatever had happened to him in that eco box, had changed him forever.

    In the moment when he thought of all the ways to handle the situation, the calm that came over him he found had never really left. He had accepted in that moment what had happened and decided what needed to be done. ¡°Your right, it¡¯s not okay. Everything is royally screwed up. But, if we on dwell on what has happened and things we can do nothing about, it will only be worse.¡±

    Sighing and moving towards Rachel, who had looked up to hear his words with tears still slowly streaming down her face, and crouched to her level and continued, ¡°We must remember Aaron and his values as a person, we must remember what our parents have taught us, sure things look bleak now but we will find a way. We will find your parents and we will all be ok.¡±

    Rachel¡¯s tears came to a stop, staring into Jacks eyes, she found solace in his words. Wiping her eyes, she assured Sara she would be fine. Standing up she went to jack and gave him a soft hug. ¡°Your right, we have to keep it together.¡±

    Jack knew that in ''we'' she meant herself but he wasn¡¯t going to correct her now. He was horrible with girls but he wasn¡¯t stupid.

    Glancing to Bryan, he saw a look of shock on his face. ¡°What?¡± Jack asked.

    ¡°How is it that a shut in like you always knows what to say?¡± Bryan asked with a hint of awe in his voice that only Jack caught.

    Jacks face reddend a bit and he looked toward the road. Sheepishly he explained, ¡°What can I say, I read a lot of books and have played a lot of games. In both, the people that worked together and kept their cool in tuff situations always prevailed. Well almost always.¡±

    ¡°Whatever the reason, I¡¯m glad for it.¡± Sara commented, squeezing into Jack giving him a kiss on the cheek. Making Jack blush, turning almost magenta in color.

    ¡°Too bad you didn¡¯t read much about girls!¡± Bryan threw in with a laugh.

    Everyone seemed to catch a laugh at Jacks expense at that, even he couldn¡¯t bring himself to glare at Bryan like he wanted to.

    As the laughter subsided Jack remembered the task at hand. ¡°Sooo anyone have any ideas on what to do?¡±

 Chapter 11

    An hour passed and they still had no firm plan on how to get past the house.

    Jacks mind was in over drive, trying to find a scenario that would work to get everyone past undetected. Jack sighed, and leaned his head back against the enbankment he sat against.

    This would be so much easier in a video game.

    Jack rarely plated first person shooters, but if this situation resembled anything it was one of those.

    Trying to imagine what he would do if it were a game, things started to fit in place, time the sentries, try to get a look behind the walls, mark the hostiles...

    Jack had no idea how he would do the last one but the rest seemed plausible.

    It seems the hours of stradegiesing on consol games was worth it after all.

    Jack brought this up to the group and everyone was in agreement. Sara''s eyes twinkled at the idea of all her own hours of gaming finally being useful in real life.

    Bryan and Rachel stayed back while Sara and Jack started walking back the way they came.

    Their goal was to find a way up the right side embankment to get a good look at the house.

    Besides his attachment to Sara, Jack was hoping the pressure of this situation could bring out what ever Sara''s power was. Bryan told him about how her eyes glowed gold as well when she woke up.

    Jack still wasn''t entirely sure what the colors ment, he had tried to turn his eyesight back to the way it was after he woke up but had not had any luck. He just knew that if two of them had powers instead of just him, their chance at survival would double as well.

    Their ''recon'' wasn''t nearly as hard or scarey as they thought it would be. It just wasn''t as fruitful as they had hoped either.

    After back tracking down the road a ways, they found a way up the emankment on their right. It wasn''t easy going but together they made it up. Sara blushed as Jack held out a hand to help her up the last few feet to the top.

    When the pair approached the intersection, they laid down and army crawled as best they could, through the dirt and dead underbrush.

    Watching movies and playing games could only get them so far.

    They felt secure in the hilltop they found. If they were the ones throwing heavy objects it would have been a perfect vantage point.

    The hill they hid behind was too steep to climb from the intersection and it went too far back for anyone to hike around without Jack and Sara noticing. The side was way too steep and made of packed dirt and loose rocks that would also be impossible for them to climb down.

    While they hadn¡¯t gotten a plan knocked out from theit look out point. They had at least come to realize a few things.

    Jimmy and his crew must have beat them down the hills, they hadn¡¯t seen a single person on the road and no one came or went from the house. There were two BAK brothers out front of the house and another at the front gate.

    The guard at the gate was the one who was patroling and carried a shotgun, but how he held it told Jack that he had slim to no experience with it which could definitely help. Besides, he seemed more engaged with his nose then what was going on around him.

    After an hour, they felt reasonably confident they got everything they could and headed back to the others.

    Jack and Sara reported back to Bryan and Rachel what they found.

    They had timed the guards walk and found that he was sporadic and unpredictable. There was no way they could just make a run for it. The upper floor windows of the house looked down on the intersection. They both could see people in the windows bit couldnt figure out how many people were inside.

    The guard would just about meet them at the intersection. And one yelp from him would alert everyone in the house.

    There was no possible way around it. They could try to out run them but Jack knew that the chances of at least one of them getting injured was really high.

    The biggest unknown was Jack''s Magic. And possibly Sara''s.

    -----------------------------------

    The day seemed to crawl by. Jack just became more and more frustrated.

    He had tried to activate his magic in every way possible but still had no way to control it. It seemed to only react to strong emotion. Not exactly the easiest thing to control.

    Especially for a introvert gamer like hinself.

    They found that however Jack had stopped to flying car, wasn¡¯t reliable.

    While taking a break from attempting to meditate, Bryan and Sara took turns throwing rocks at Jack for an hour.

    Bryans throws at times were with a bit too much enthusiasm, but jack couldn¡¯t get the icy feeling to return.

    Likewise, his power of seeing possible outcomes of different actions wasn¡¯t helping at all. Every time he tried it was the same sprint for the intersection followed by quickly being spotted by the guard with the shotgun.

    The only thing that seemed to help from the visons was that every time there were rifle shots raining down from at least one person up closer to the house.

    The result wasn¡¯t pretty to watch but it was definitely helpful information to have. All the planning and plotting but still nothing, the sun was setting fast as they realized how hungry they had become.

    ¡°Well, at least we have enough food and water for a few more days. Could we just wait them out?¡± Bryan suggested, as he rifled through his pack for something more substantial for dinner then an energy bar.

    Jack closed his eyes and thought a moment. ¡°Nope,¡± He concluded definitively, ¡°Then we risk them coming out for another scouting trip and we are right in the way. We would have another direct conflict on our hands except this time right next to their home base full of back up. Or we start to starve and are too weak to handle any other option.¡±

    Noticing his brothers defeated looked and still not having found a decent thing for dinner, Jack pulls out a bag of beef jerky to share. Tossing some to Bryan he tries to console him, ¡°There has to be a way, we just haven¡¯t thought of it yet.¡±

    With the sun going down, a chill was slowly creeping into the air. Sara pulled a red hoody with a New York Giants logo on it out of her bag and pulled it over her head. Jack looked at it and recognized it as his that she used for a pillow the night before.

    He caught her eye to say something but when she looked in his eyes with her misgevious twinkle and a smile he decided he didn¡¯t mind.

    ¡°Well its getting dark, maybe we can slip past after the suns completely set.¡± Sara offered up.

    Rachel perked up at that as she swallowed her mouthful of trail mix, ¡°That might actually work, do we have enough black cloths so we¡¯ll all blend in?¡± setting aside her food she started going through her bag, and so did Sara.

    In a moment Jack knew though, ¡°No, we don¡¯t. But it doesn¡¯t rule out the possibility of it working.¡± Thinking it over, Jack had a thought that had acured to him earlier but had been afraid to voice.

    If Rachel went out as bait, pretending to be hurt, they would recognize her and it would distract them. But any way he thought, it ended badly.

    For her, and the rest of them.

    Focusing on sneaking by in the dark his mind started swimming again with different ways for it to play out for the first time in hours .

    Opening his eyes and coming back to reality he found himself sighing again, ¡°It could work, but nine times out of ten it¡¯s not pretty. But the possibility is there.¡±

    ¡°Well that¡¯s an improvement!¡± Rachel exclaimed. Looking to jack she let out a quite yelp and dropped her water bottle.

    ¡°Sorry,¡± she explained while snatching up her bottle, ¡°It¡¯s just that your eyes are glowing again, more than they have been. Maybe it¡¯s the dark.¡±

    Jack smiled a bit and leaned back to stare at the darkening sky. From the corner of his eye he saw something he had never wanted to see again.

    The green glow of the meteor was just barely creeping over the hill in the distance of the ravine. As if seeing the light was an invitation for it to appear, the front of the meteor poked over the ridge and the green light bathed out over the ravine.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    Jack panicked, the others took notice of the green light as well as it washed over them. ¡°O no!¡± they collectively exclaimed. All eyes went to Jack, and as he met their eyes, his world went black and his body went slack.

    Rachel just barely caught Sara¡¯s head before it hit the ground as she fell backwards from her sitting position. ¡°Not again, not now!¡± she cried.

    Bryan rushed to Jack but he had already been leaning on the embankment so there was no danger of him falling. Check his pulse, he knew he was still alive.

    But how long would he be out?

    His thoughts of this where disrupted by screaming and commotion that had to be coming from the house.

    Bryan moved to sneak another peek at the house they had been watching all afternoon. People in the house where yelling and the guard at the gate had turned and ran toward the frantic screams.

    That answers that, he thought to himself.

    There is someone in the house with powers as well.

    Silently he hoped it was just Jimmy and he rushed back to Bryan¡¯s side.

    The rumbling of the earth from the night before started again. It was like riding a wave sitting on the road as the ground shook and rumbled like the whole state was going to crumble to dust.

    Rocks and dirt started dislodging from the embankment. Bryan quickly grabbed Jack by the shoulder and pulled him to the center of the road, still hidden from around the bend.

    Rachel pulled Sara closer to where Jack lay and ploped next to Bryan.

    Bryan unconsciously reached out to Rachel as she prayed and grabbed hold of her hand. She looked up into his eyes and nodded in appreciation, tightening her grip on his hand.

    Together they sat, and waited....

    They didn¡¯t have to wait long as Sara soon opened her eyes and took a deep breath then exhaled in a coughing sputter.

    Realizing what had happened, she sat up frantically. ¡°How long was I out?¡± she stammered, looking to Rachel at her side.

    Rachel felt a brief wave of relief wash over her as her cousin sat up and spoke. ¡°Only a few minutes this time, but Jack is still out,¡± She managed to explain.

    Bryan jumped in and was explaining the noise at the house to Sara in no time.

    She agreed that it didn¡¯t bode well that at least one person in the house had powers and had passed out as well, but it was useful information she was thankful to have at the same time.

    While discussing what to do about Jack, Bryan took notice that the noise from the house around the corner had waned.

    Realizing it meant the person or people inside had woken up, he frantically started worrying about their situation with jack still out cold.

    There window of sneeking by was closing. ¡°Should I try to wake him?¡± Bryan quietly questioned.

    At the exact moment Jack let out a groan and reached for his head.

    ¡°Please don¡¯t, I could really go without the headache of you banging my head on the ground again.¡±

    Bryan smiled at that, knowing his brother was awake again and appearing to be in good health, he couldn¡¯t bring himself to fire back at him and just put a hand on his shoulder.

    Jack opened his eyes and again he was assaulted the bright colors and auras of the people and things around him.

    The paved ground around him was dark as night, which surprised him but was a welcome relief from the bright lights of nature that swirled around him in an attempt to blind him.

    Slowly pulling himself up to lean on his elbows, he was amazed when he took in his surroundings that the colors remained this time.

    His eyes and mind adjusted to the brightness, they also settled on Sara.

    She really does look like an angel like this, he thought to himself.

    As concern flashed into Jerry eyes and her aura flickered, he set her at ease with a smile and nod, letting her know he was ok.

    Looking to Rachel he could see she was put off again. ¡°Let me guess, they are glowing again?¡±

    All Rachel could manage was a nod in reply, mesmerized by the golden glow piercing the now dark night air that radiated from Jacks eyes.

    Jack broke his gaze with Rachel, hoping it would help settle her.

    Instead, he gazed up to the meteor that was plaguing the world, but seemingly causing major changes in Jacks being. It pulsed with a green glow in his new sight that made it as bright as the sun. But to Jack it didn¡¯t hurt to stare at, it was almost comforting.

    Smiling as he looked on, he peered closer at the pulsing light coming from the meteor. The light radiating from the meteor seemed to be in strands that reached out and retracted with every pulse. The tail of the meteor was still not in sight but he was sure that it would look close to the same.

    What where those strands?

    Jack tried remembering back to science class in high school, they had covered very little on things like asteroids, comets and meteors.

    When they enter the atmosphere the friction of the speed of the object against gravity and the particles in the atmosphere would set them aflame and burn them up either partially of completely before it reached the earths surface.

    But this was different, it hadn¡¯t hit the earth, or burned up. It had managed to turn an orbit around the earth and still be in one large piece.

    Was the green really fire?

    Surely it had to be, but what are the strands of light?

    Fire, Light, Energy?

    And that¡¯s when it hit him, the strands he saw and the glow of the people and things around him where all energy.

    Energy cannot be created or destroyed, he heard echo in his head in the voice of his AP physics teacher.

    Once he realized it, it made so much sense. Something from the meteor had changed him in a way that he now could see and feel. The different spectrums of light stood for differnet types of energy.

    Could I wield it?

    With all these thoughts running through his head, he had unconsciously put on a smile that was so big that when combined with his glowing eyes made him look like a monster. It was the same smile he had getting out of the car.

    ¡°Jack, are you alright? Your kinda scaring the shit out of us here,¡± Bryan quietly admonished.

    Jack turned to bryan, letting his smile dwindle to a normal level. ¡°Sorry about that,¡± he spoke with almost glee in his voice, ¡°This is just incredible, I can see everything. I can see the energy of the world around me.¡±

    Rachel dawned a confused face that still held a touch of fear, ¡°Um, is that supposed to make us feel better?¡±

    Jack blushed, relizing he wasn¡¯t making any sence.

    Slowly he explained to them all what he could see, and that he had seen it the night before right before he passed out the second time.

    When explaining about all of their personal auras, the girls both got visibly perturbed at him being able to see so much into them. Bryan just felt pride for himself in what his brother saw, growing his ego even larger.

    The concept itself took a lot more explaining then the colors themselves. Jack himself, didn¡¯t have all the answers for their questions. But he now held a firm grasp of the basic understanding of what he believed it was and he felt the others where all slowly coming around in understanding.

    ¡°So do you think this all will help us get home somehow?¡± Sara asked.

    Jack smiled and replied, ¡° Definitely, I know I can see it and feel it, I just have to figure out how to use it. Like the shield from last night.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll grab some rocks!¡± Bryan declared.

    Jack smile at that but nodded. While bryan collected a pile of rocks to start throwing, Jack looked at himself with his new vison and was confused by what he saw. It seems a large part of his aura or power was suppressed or locked away. There was what looked to be a supper dense cloud of light that surrounded his entire lower body.

    Thinking back to all his books he realized that in time he should be able to unlock it all. It still did leave him very little to work with right now, especially if they have to confront Jimmies whole household.

    Thinking back to his books, he realized he might be able to pull power from other objects and people. Doing so from his friends made him feel sick inside and would be very dangerous. Searching for something small to test, he found a bush just behind where he had been sitting that was glowing with a slightly dim green light as if it where almost dead.

    Figuring it wouldn¡¯t do much harm to experiment on it, Jack placed his hand on the bush. Surprisingly it pulsed at his touch as if it was begging to be used. Closing his eyes he found that he could now still see the glow of energy of the things around him even with his eyes shut.

    That could get annoying, Jack mused.

    While concentrating on the bush he tried pulling at the bush with his energy. It struggled in his mental grasp, retreating back to the bush.

    A few more tries and he found himself noticeably weaker.

    There has to be another way..

    Come on bush, please help me out here, he absent mindedly pleaded to himself.

    All of a sudden there was a rush of wind in his ears and the green energy of the plant flared as it soaked into his hand and up his arm.

    The feeling was incredible, he felt the energy pulse through his shoulders the the base of his brain then down his spine. It was different then the cold ice he had felt when creating the shimmering field that enveloped the car, almost warm like a summer evening, there was still the cold breeze flowing through it but much milder.

    Looking back to the bush to observe the effect of his draw on its energy, what he saw made his Smile fade away to remorse.

    The brown bush looked even more dried up then before, almost sickly in appearance. Raising his hand, he placed it on an exposed root of the bush that stuck out of the embankment.

    He sought to send the energy back to the bush. Closing his eyes again, he saw the last bit of energy left in the bush at the base of its roots. ¡°Here you go, little guy¡± he mumbled.

    Energy surged out of him and again he heard the wind in his ears. Ice shot up his back, Jack realized he was now giving his own energy to the bush.

    Panic struck him, realizing he didn¡¯t know how to stop it. ¡°Stop,¡± he mumbled repeatedly under his breath, and still no change. In last resort he pulled back with all his might from the bush, snapping his connection with the bush.

    Tingling sensations still ran through his arms, and Ice still ran down his back. Knowing he was safe he let out a breath he hadn¡¯t know he was holding.

    That could be really dangerous!

    Opening his eyes his gaze fell on the bush. It was now twice its original size, with green leaves and limbs that had sprouted from ends that had long been dormant in the shrewd enviorment.

    I made it grow, he realized.

    ¡°Thank you, you have taught me so much,¡± He quietly whispered to the bush.

    Bryan came back with the rocks just in time to witness his brothers reverent mumbles and raised his eyebrows, was Jack talking to a plant?

    Grabbing a golf ball size rock, he thought he would surprise Jack.

    Bringing back his arm he launched the rock almost as hard as he could toward his brothers¡¯ arm.

    Jack knew it was coming though, he didn''t know how but he could sense the energy coming off the stone.

    Raising his arm he waved his hand to the side and watched in awe as the rock picked up speed and ricochet into the ground so hard part of it embedded in the road and the rest crumbled to dust.

    With his big goofy smile returning to his face, he glanced to Bryan finding him standing with his jaw on the floor at what his brother just did.

    ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯ll need the rest of those rocks Bry.¡± Jack couldn''t keep from laughing.

    Bryan didn¡¯t have it in him to cut back at his brother for using the nick name he hated so much. He was still in shock at his brothers ability.

    Sara looked on in amazement, but also envy. She silently wished she would figure out how to use her powers as well, wanting to help Jack as best she could. While the jelousy rose, she also found solice in that yet again she had passed out along with jack.

    Sure she rose earlier but it had to mean something that it was effecting her as well, she kept telling herself. Steeling herself in confidence that it indeed meant something, she walked to Jack and gave him a big hug.

    Feeling him falter at her affection always made her feel better for some reason.

    Smiling, she pulled back and looked into his glowing eyes, ¡°What should we do?¡±

    Jack closed his eyes and using all the changes in their situation he thought of all the possibilities of actions to be takin.

    Everything flashed past his eyes in a matter of seconds. Opening them again he smiled at Sara, still looking like an angel in his glowing sight, ¡°We can do this.¡±

 Chapter 12

    Chapter 12

    Jack briskly strolled from bush to bush that lined the side of the road they had been camping all day.

    From each bush he took only a quarter of its energy, his new found ability was already becoming as natural to him as breathing.

    He made sure to be careful of the falling debris coming from above, as well as the shifting ground beneath his feet. The earthquakes still hadn¡¯t let up.

    After the eighth bush, Jack felt himself thrumming with the power of the bushes. It was a feeling he couldn¡¯t have imagined, the dull throbbing warmth with a cool center now running along his core and all of his extremities.

    Being as causous as possible, he returned to where the rest of the group had been prepairing.

    ¡°We¡¯re all set!¡± Rachel spouted up, still trying to be more of a leader then follower.

    Jack nodded his head and looked to his brother, seeing him smiling as Bryan nodded to his brother in confirmation, it was time.

    The plan was far from simple, but Jack knew they could pull it off.

    Almost all of it depended on him, but with his new handle on his abilities he was confident he could do what was needed.

    On its surface it was basic, get the guns and run.

    But Jack remembered something people always said in war movies, plans rarely hold once the first shot is fired.

    Jack ducked around the corner, peering at the gate in front of the house. The guard was back, but he looked to be quite uneasy and was having trouble walking on the shaking earth. Watching and waiting, Jack looked for the rifeman on top of the house. Unable to find him, he just hoped he hadn''t returned to his post as well.

    When the earth paused its shaking, he ran. The guard was so immersed in looking around in relief that the ground had stopped shaking he didn¡¯t see him coming.

    Jack brought up a compressed energy shield in front of him like he had used to stop the car the night before, he doubled its strength, not knowing how well it will stand up to bullets.

    Having the power of the plants for this was going to be invalueable.

    The guard was already away from the gate, heading back half way up the path inbetween a pair of trees.

    Right where I want him, Jack mused.

    As Jack reached the gate he reached out to the trees energy, feeding them energy he had pulled from the plants. With the connection made, he asked them to do something with the energy he was sending out. The tree¡¯s grew out and wrapped around the guard holding him in place. The branches grew like vines, rappedly encasing him in its bows.

    The guard paniced, trying to free himself to no avail. So surprised by seeing something that shouldn¡¯t be possible, he was yet to call out for help.

    Jack quickly made this impossible, asking for a branch to grow around his mouth. Leaves sprouted from the branch in his mouth to muffle his screems.

    Jack smiled as he jumped over the gate, sending a thank you to the tree¡¯s through his connection as he did.

    Canceling the connection, Jack realized it had taken a lot more of his power then he had expected to do it but he would just have to pray he still had enough left.

    Once over the gate, he scurried up to his captive. Now seeing him up close he realized it was one of the tattooed guys that had threatened them all earlier. He somehow felt better about what he had done.

    The captives eyes lit up with recognition as well when Jack rounded in front of him. In all his flailing Que ball had droped the old double barel shotgun on the ground. Reaching down to pick it up, Jack saw a puddle at Que balls feet and was disgusted.

    He had soiled himself.

    Letting out a slight laugh, Jack snatched up the gun and dove into bushes on the side of the walk way up to the house.

    The girls had wanted him to stop here and run, with the path now clear for the others to make it across as well, but Jack and bryan assured them that if they left the rifle not only would they be without a great hunting asset but if the shooter was worth his salt it would be a huge problem after they had made it past.

    Slowly stalking up to the house, Jack cursed himself for not going hunting with his friend nick and his dad when they invited him.

    His footsteps and breathing would easily alert anyone that came out of the house he was there. Still under cover of the bushes and trees, he knelt and caught his breath. He had a lot more running to do and if he tired himself out now, he would be in serious trouble in a few minutes.

    Glancing up at the roof he could barely make out footsteps being carefully made on the red clay tile roof. If he was going to get the rifle he was going to have to risk coming out of cover.

    Moving around to the side of the house Jack found that the yard opened up about fifty paces from the side of the house. This is going to be ruff he thought. Strengthening his shield again, he reshaped it into a sphere around himself with an inch of space off the ground to move and allow air in.

    This was something he quickly learned in testing the shields before hand, suffocating is a terrible feeling. Being suffocated while your brother pretends the bubble your in is a soccer ball is worse.

    Using the energy from the bushes, it had a sparkling tint of green that was barepy visible.

    Hadn¡¯t counted on that, he thought. I should have tested these at full strength even if it was a waste of energy.

    Just then a shout from above caught his attention. He¡¯d been spotted.

    Racing from his hiding spot, he knew the green glow had given him away.

    Holding the shotgun in one hand Jack reached up towards the now aiming rifleman on the roof. Creating a second shimmering field, while holding his own was far more taxing then he had imagined.

    Just as the second started materializing, the rifleman¡¯s first shot hit his barrier. The impact rocked inside Jack as he felt the energy being pulled from himself to sustain the shield.

    This isn¡¯t going to work, not like this.Not if he gets to many shots off.

    A second shot hit his shield and the pull came again, this time almost pulling him into unconsciousness.Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

    In a panic Jack reached to the grass at his feet, and knew it wouldn¡¯t be enough to hold the shield. Reaching his sences behind him he found the trees and bushes he had been hiding behind. I¡¯m sorry, he though, as he drained the trees dry.

    Something about it still felt unnatural to him draining things that far. The rush of power from the trees quickly replaced any misgivings about what he had done.

    Apparently trees held far more power than bushes...

    Another shot hit his shield, Jack felt the pull but with the reserves he had pulled from the tree and knew he could now withstand far more shots than the shooter would get off.

    Moving forward to have a better look at his shooter, Jack had a clear view of the man with the gun. He recognized this one too, it was the giant body double brute of Mommy''s.

    Another shot rang off his shield, it was time to finish this. Reaching out with his free hand, Jack pictured in his mind the field he had used to throw the car back at jimmy. A greedn shimmering ball the size of a basketball raced towards mongo on the roof. When it reached the rifle, Jack wrapped it around it and gave it a tug towards himself. Mongo faltered, but gripped the gun in fear for his life.

    Jack pulled again and this time mongo slipped, kissing his balance but still holding on. With on last pull, Jack brought the gun hovering six feet out from the house a full two and a half stories from the ground.

    Mongo was still clutching the gun in panic for his life, but he was slipping.

    Realizing this, Jack hurridly had the shield grab hold of his wrist to keep him from falling. A look of relief flooded mongos face, which was soon replaced with fear then masked with a looking a blinding rage.

    Jack had been so focused on Mongo that he hadn¡¯t seen the crowd that now gathered at the corner of the house near the front door, or Jimmy rushing him like a linebacker.

    Jimmies eyes blazed red, as he charged. He could see the green glow surrounding Jack but didn¡¯t care, with the force of a two ton dump truck he ran full speed into the shield.

    The collision hit jack like a ton of bricks, sending him flying in his fishbowl shield. Jack tumbled like a hamster in ball that had been pushed down the staiirs.

    In an attempt to brace himself, he pushed his still free right hand down to the shield. The shield still rolled beneath him, but when the open bottom came around his arm hit the ground at an awkward angle. The resulting crack echoed through the now silent night, his arm was broken, but it had at least stopped his momentum.

    The pain was immense but he still managed to hold his concentration enough to keep a shield up around himself. Frantically he looked up to gauge where his attacker was. But those thoughts ceased as he remembered in horror the rifleman he had been holding in the air. The second shield that was controlling the rifle was gone, Mongo had been dropped two stories down.

    Jack stood and grabed the shotgun that laid at his feet. With the shotgun in his good hand, he slowly approached the crowd where the man had fallen, trying to get a look to make sure he was ok. Sure the man had been shooting at him, but jack felt bile rising in his throat knowing that he had dropped him from the roof.

    Seeing him coming, the crowd of twenty or so fled scared back to the house, like he was a monster coming out of the night.

    Only one person remained by mongos side. Jimmy knelt next to Mongo, his aura in Jacks sight was rippling with different emotions. Fear, anger and a profound sadness radiated away from jimmy in waves that only Jack could see. Slowly Jack saw Jimmies resolve hardening in his aura, the red deepened and his aura pulsed with a seething anger that shimmered in a radient brilliance in the green glow of the night.

    Jack stoped in his tracks as jimmy stood tall, still blocking his view. Jimmies Aura was now almost crackling with rage.

    Jack stared into his crimson wrapped eyes, something about them looked older than the last time he stared him down. Jack couldn¡¯t help himself, ¡°Is he alright? Maybe I can help him!¡±

    With blood boiling in his viens, Jimmy side stepped to unblock Jacks view.

    ¡°Help him?¡± Jimmy quietly started. ¡°You killed him! You killed my cousin!¡± He screamed.

    Jack now finally getting a look at the man, could see the awkward angel in which the body was splayed out on the ground and knew it was the truth.

    He¡¯d killed him, the shock of it hit him hard, like something within him shifting.

    No breaking, he thought.

    The reality of what he had done and what living in this new world meant hot him.

    His knees and arms started shaking as it all sunk in. ¡°I¡¯m.. I¡¯m so sorry,¡± he quietly supplied.

    ¡°Sorry? SORRY? O you will be, I¡¯ll make sure of that. You are going to pay dearly for this, not just you, your friends too and that brother of yours. I¡¯m going to make you all pay.¡± Jimmy''s voice wad so calmly it sounded maniacal.

    With that said, as if the manner was settled he started towards Jack.

    Jack snapped to reality at Jimmy''s first forward movement.

    Quickly he raised the shotgun in his hand and pointed it at Jimmy.

    Struggling in pain, he used his right arm to steady its heavy dipping muzzle. ¡°Don¡¯t move,¡± Jack shouted, ¡°I¡¯ve had enough of this. You yourself tried to kill me and my friends this morning, your cousin had no problem trying to kill me here tonight, this has all gone way to far.¡±

    The sound of his words echoed off the house.

    Stealing a glance, Jack could see people crouded in the windows watching. As if steeling his own resolve he continued, ¡°Why all this needless violence? We all just want to survive and find our families. Why couldn¡¯t we have just worked together? The time for that has passed, obviously. I¡¯m very sorry for the death of your cousin, but if you had not charged me like a rhino he would have been fine. I had just saved him from falling and was about to slowly lower him to the ground. I had no intention of hurting anyone here tonight.¡±

    ¡°Lies!¡± Jimmy shouted, as the ramifications of what Jack was saying raced through his head.

    ¡°No!¡± Jack shouted back, ¡°Your gate guard is perfectly fine, all I wanted was the weapons to keep you from harming us as we passed by.¡±

    Without warning, jimmy had had enough and rushed at Jack. In a hurry Jack raced to raise the shield he had unconsciously dropped at some point without realizing it.

    But it was to late.

    Jimmy hit Jacks weak shield like he was trying to punch out a hoarse.

    The shield shattered and dissipated and the backlash inside of Jack''s mind was imence. He flew five feet back to the base of the trees he had been hiding behind, placing his arms out to break his fall.

    The pain in his right arm as he hit the ground was nothing compared to the feeling of his whole nervouse system flaring like it was raging inferno held inside himself.

    The whole sensation nearly brought him to unconsciousness again, all he could do was lay on the ground writing in the pain waiting for it to subside.

    Jimmy stood over Jack as he lay blinking and squirming on the ground. ¡°O your not getting out of this that easy,¡± he said.

    Jack stared up in horror as jimmy smirked, looking down at him with rage still pouring from his eyes.

    He looked like a maniac.

    This couldn¡¯t be it, jack thought.

    There has to be something I can do. This can''t be the way I die.

    Closing his eyes, jack concentrated hard. Slowly at first senarios started whipping past his eyes as his mind went into what he was taking to calling overdrive.

    Most of the scenarios he wished he had never seen.

    His head felt like it was about to explode, using his powers so soon after that backlash was definitly not a good idea.

    After what felt like minutes to him, and what was really only meer fraction of a second, he opened his eyes.

    Jimmy hadn¡¯t moved, in fact it looked like he was in his own transe, probably thinking of all the horrible things he was going to do to Jack.

    That instant was all jack needed, reaching his sences to a tree just beyond those he had already drained, he tapped it.

    Immediately he poured it into a new shield, this time around Jimmy. He condensed the energy so tight the light from the shield lit up the yard. This time Jack attached hardened roots, going deep underground to keep him from moving. Carefully, he did something he hadn¡¯t tried or even known possible before.

    He linked the shield directly to the tree so he had nothing to do with its power.

    Even the quick transfer of power brought back the internal burning like he was being flayed alive.

    Rolling and writhing, Jack knew he didn¡¯t have much time. Slowly the pain was subsiding and his eyes came to focus on Jimmy.

    Aperently the green glow that now surrounded him had brought him from his thoughts undoubtably of the horrific tourture he wanted to put Jack through.

    Jack watched as jimmy released his unbridaled rage unop the shield.

    Kicking, swinging and screaming, he drove to break the cage Jack had placed around him.

    Jack couldn¡¯t help but to feel pleased with himself even through the pain.

    Slowly Jack brought himself to his feet, coddling his surely broken arm. Once more he picked up the shotgun in his good arm and walked toward Jimmies cousin.

    The sight up close was more gastly then Jack had imagined. He had obviously used his arms to try and stop the fall but the speed at which he fell was to way too much for them as they had dislocated and twisted in an odd fasion that was only out done by the horrible angel his neck laid in.

    The wave of disgust that came over him almost made his sick then and there.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry,¡± Jack mumbled, ¡° this never should have happened.¡±

    Absently Jack knew he would never get this picture out of his head but it was too late now. Crouching down, he dropped the shotgun and slung the strap of the rifle over his shoulder.

    Grabbing the shotgun and rising, Jack gave one more glance to the mangled mess, made a quick prayer for him and started toward the gate.

    Walking the path, he steeled himself not to look back. He had to get back to his friends and get the heck out of there. He had no idea how long the cage would hold.

 Chapter 13

    The feeling of luck barely registered as Jack saw that the gate was unblocked, he pushed it open with the butt of the shotgun and jogged toward the center of the intersection.

    With every step he jostled his broken arm, shooting sharp pain ran through it.

    It is nothing compared to that backlash though, he thought.

    The girls and Bryan came running as they saw him from around their corner.

    Shouts of concern from Sara and Bryan flowed forth, followed by numerous questions by all of them flooded the air.

    Wincing in pain, Jack shook them all off, ¡°There will be time for all that later, we really need to get as far away from here as we can tonight.¡±

    Everyone gave a silent nod of their head in agreement, it was plain to them all that it had not gone as planned.

    They also noticed Jack¡¯s eyes clearer. His entire pupils were gold again, but the glow was dimmer, much dimmer.

    Bryan explained how he and Rachel had come up with a plan of where to go while Sara kept an eye out for Jack as he fought his breath. Explination over, theyquickly they were on their way.

    Sara insisted on making a sling once they were out of sight of the intersection. Rachel gladly helped make with a spare shirt.

    Sticking to the road, they had decided to make it down to the edge of suburbia. They had Jack double check the plan with his new ability, and he assured them all that as long as they kept up the pace they should be fine for the night.

    After an afternoon of lazing about trying to figure out what to do, they were all happy to be moving even by the light of cheap scavenged flash lights.

    Jack tried not to let his arm slow him but as the adrenalin faded the pain became more and more.

    Seeing the pain on Jacks face as they walked along Sara had an idea, ¡°Why don¡¯t we stop at the next house we see?¡±

    Jack vehemently shook his head in disagreement, ¡°No way, we have to get as far away as we can. I¡¯ll tell you why when we get there, but we have to keep moving no matter what.¡±

    Sara raised her eyebrow in interest but could tell that Jack wouldn¡¯t budge. It was so weird to her that she barely knew Jack but could read him like a book. Her thoughts wandered as she focused on the road.

    After a while, everyone had fallen into a quiet trudge. Jack knew they all had plenty of questions, especially about why they needed to move so far. But Jack couldn¡¯t answer them now if he tried. The nights events kept swirling through his head no matter how much he tried to push them away.

    As if to answer Jack call for a distraction from himself, the earth started shaking again as they walked. Though not as violent as before, it still added a degree of difficulty to the march, truthfully he had not even noticed when it stopped.

    Looking up as he walked Jack saw that the meteor was now almost on the far horizon.

    How long was I in there?

    Again he found himself pulled back to the memories of the night.

    After what felt like hours, Bryan brought everyone to a halt. ¡°We¡¯re getting close,¡± he stated, ¡°Looking at the map and judging by all the houses we have been passing, we¡¯re about four miles from where it goes from back woods houses with two lane roads like this, to the grids of LA.¡±

    ¡°Well lets find a empty house for the night then,¡± Rachel suggested.

    Jack felt a little apprehension at that. With his predictive ability the pictures of the last house had been near clear in his head. But they had been passing houses for a while now and hadn¡¯t seen a single sign of life.

    It was all rather creepy, knowing that just two nights ago these houses had all been full of families, working TV¡¯s, smartphones, people just waiting until they had to go back to work the next day. Now that all seemed frivolous, it¡¯s a new world he quietly sighed to himself.

    Just up the street from where they had come to a stop, they found a house with a pile of newspapers at the door.

    In checking the mail box, there wasn¡¯t anything there that was dated before the last four days. Together they decided whoever it was had left town before the meteor had come.

    The gate opened freely and they all walked to the door.

    ¡°Front door is locked,¡± Bryan commented, as he tried the door.

    ¡°Of course it is genius, not like they left in a panic,¡± Jack shot at him.

    His agitation from being in constant pain definitely coming through.

    ¡°Alright, well what is your idea then smart ass?¡± Bryan shot back.

    The girls just huffed, knowing it was just their way to banter back and forth like this by now.

    Jack smiled at Bryan and motioned for him to follow. As one group, with the boys in the lead they walked around to the back of the house.

    Lawn furniture, a well-tended garden, along with a few small fruit trees and bushes turned the walk into on obstacle course they all quickly completed.

    Reaching the door, Jack reached out for the handle of the screen door and swung it open. Unlocked, as was he assumed the normal door was as well.

    People in small communities like this trusted each other, he thought.

    Just like home.

    Brushing asside the nostalgia and reaching for the next handle, bryan smacked his hand away.

    ¡°You¡¯re really a total idiotaren¡¯t you? What if there is someone hiding in there?¡± Bryan chided.

    Jack just sighed and shook his head.

    Holding the shotgun at ready, Bryan indicated for him to open the door. When jack turned the nob with his good arm, Bryan rushed in.

    Pointing the gun back and forth around the room. ¡°Clear¡± He whispered back to the group. Bryan continued through the house like that for a good five minutes, finally returning to the group which had plopped themselves on the couch on the living room.

    ¡°All clear,¡± Bryan confidently beamed.

    ¡°Why are you all relaxing already? There could have been someone in the house, what if I was attacked?¡± Anxiety slightly creeping into his voice.

    Rachel stood and handed him a note. ¡°Found this in the kitchen after you rushed from the room while you were playing soldier,¡± she quipped with a smile on her face.

    Bryans face dropped as he read it aloud, ¡°Thanks for helping out, we¡¯ll be back in a month. Make sure fluffy gets fed two cups..¡± He trailed off as he read the feeding instructions for the cat. ¡°Where is the cat?¡±

    Rachel stifled a giggle as she pointed to Sara next to Jack on the couch, with her head on Jacks shoulder and a small orange tabby curled up on her lap, nuzzeling her hand as she pet it. ¡°Doesn¡¯t seem like a threat,¡± she added. You could here it¡¯s purr across the room.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    Everyone broke out into light laughter at that, even Bryan couldn¡¯t help himself.

    Bryan plopped himself down in the armchair next to the couch, taking care to lean the shotgun on the end table along with Jack¡¯s rifle. The sight of both weapons brought a grin to Bryans face. ¡°Don¡¯t think I forgot Jack, you have got a story to tell,¡± Bryan stated matter of factly.

    Jack took in a deep breath, closing his eyes to try and center himself.

    The entire walk after leaving Jimmies house, he had been argueing back and forth with himself on how much to tell everyone. In the end he decied they deserved the truth, Jack just hoped it wouldn¡¯t change their view of him, scare them. He knew the amount of power he had used sure scared the heck out of him, why wouldn¡¯t they be even more so?

    Reluctantly Jack started to retell every detail as he had experienced it. It came easier as he went, the heavy feeling on his shoulders he had had the entire walk to the house was slowly slipping away as he spoke. Bryan got a good laugh as Jack told of his hamster ball experience with his shield. His humor quickly dissipated when Jack told them that the hit had made him loose focus and drop Jimmies cousin to his death.

    Seeing the tears in his eyes, Sara softly tried to comfort him. ¡°You did what you had to, he would have killed you. He would have killed us too.¡±

    Sara¡¯s words filled Jack with relief that she didn¡¯t think he was evil for what he did. Still, he couldn¡¯t shake the cold dark feeling in his chest.

    I killed him...

    He could still see the look on the thugs face when he almost slipped. And the look when he caught him. Tears started to fill Jacks eyes as he thought of what he had done. His accelerated mind worked against him, with the surge of feelings, he struggledto shut it down. All the years Jack had grown up wishing for magic, now he had it and didn¡¯t know if he ever wanted to use it against another human being again.

    Bryan, knowing his brother and how he thinks, leaner closer to his brother as he chimed in. ¡°It¡¯s not your fault,¡± He said. ¡°I know your going to try blaming yourself for this but it really isn¡¯t your fault. If Jimmy hadn¡¯t been so hot headed and charged you, you would have slowly brought him to the ground safely. I know you would.¡±

    Jacks eyes still watered as he pictured the twisted body, barely keeping the bile from his throat he replied, ¡°But it is, if it wasn¡¯t for me pulling him off the edge he would have been safe on the roof.¡±

    ¡°But if in that second your shield went down, he would have shot you dead.¡± Bryan said sternly. ¡°He would have killed you had you given him the chance and you where trying to save him when you had the chance to kill him. Doesn¡¯t that tell you enough?¡±

    Jack nodded as he dried his eyes. He was only trying to protect his friends and had no intention of hurting anyone. He knew there was a high chance of confrontation going in, his powers had shown him that. But watching it in his head and watching in happen around him had been very different.

    ¡°Your right,¡± Jack conceded, ¡°It still doesn¡¯t make it any easier to handle. And I really don¡¯t think it¡¯s going to get any better going through the city tomorrow.¡±

    Bryan nodded in acknowledgment, ¡°Yea, who knows what its like down there. It might be something strait of road warriors or it might be completely deserted. We won¡¯t know until we get there, but we have to be prepared to defend ourselves. That¡¯s why we got the guns right? I don¡¯t look forward to any of it but if we are going to get to Rachel and Sara¡¯s parents¡¯ house, we are going to have to stick together and be prepared to do whatever it takes to get us their safely.¡± As Bryan finished he realized he had stood in his conviction of his words.

    Jack stared at his brother was a big smile that reached ear to ear, ¡°Your getting much better at big speeches there brother. Still a bit clich¨¦ but we¡¯ll work on it.¡±

    The girls broke into giggles, both remembering his speech the first night they had met.

    Bryan¡¯s face burned red with embarrassment, his fists clenched at his side he stared daggers at Jack.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry Bryan, I know what you meant.¡± Jack quickly backpedaled. He¡¯s seen this look from his brother before and it usually meant a fight was to ensue. ¡°Your right.¡±

    ¡°Alright, alright¡± Bryan started, trying to hide his embarrassment ¡°The house is safe but we have to keep it that way.¡± Trying to change the subject Bryan questioned Jack, ¡°How is your arm feeling little genius?¡±

    ¡°Hurts like hell for lack of a better phrase.¡±

    ¡°Well, Rachel, can you help me secure the rest of the house? We¡¯ve got to lock doors, windows, that sort of thing. We¡¯ll let Sara tend to Jack here,¡± Bryan asked with a wink at Jack.

    Rachel agreed with a nod, taking off through the house with Bryan to bolt the place down.

    Now left alone, Sara turned to jack with a sad look on her face. ¡°I wish there was something I could do to help Jack. Can I at least look at it, I took a first aid class one summer and should be able to at least give you a definite of how bad it is.¡±

    ¡°Sure,¡± Jack agreed. Sara¡¯s closeness was still making his heart flutter which only got worse as she slowly adjusted his arm to get a better look. It soon took a back seat though as Sara ran her finger down the bones in his arm, trying to determine where the break was for when she reached three inches above his wrist her finger hit a bump that sent pain rocking through Jacks arm that made him shriek like he had broken it anew.

    ¡°I¡¯m so sorry!¡± Sara apologized again and again at putting him in such agony again.

    Jack assured her it was okay, that he knew she was just trying to help. But it didn¡¯t help her hysterics much.

    Bryan poked his head around the corner to check on them, having heard the shriek. With a brief glance he knew everything was ok and he disappeared around another corner into a different room.

    Jack could swear he heard him being reprimanded by Rachel but at the same time Sara started sobbing.

    Jack tried to console her but she just kept going.

    ¡°I just feel so useless,¡± Sara mumbled through her tears. ¡°You have your powers, Bryan seems like a survival guru, Rachel is a great navigator, and then me? I just seem to be along for the ride.¡± At that, her sobs reached a new level and she softly placed her hands on Jacks broken arm. With her head hung low, hovering over her hands a tingling feeling began in jacks arm.

    Jacks eyes went wide in surprise as the tingling increased. If Sara noticed, she didn¡¯t show it in the least. Jack watched as she sobbed and saw the goose bumps on the back of her neck as her hair fell forward. She¡¯s feeling the ice, he thought. She¡¯s using her power!

    With one last racking sob Sara collapsed forward onto Jacks arm in silence. In preparation for the pain he was sure to have jack winced and kept his lips closed firmly, not wanting to show her that she had caused him any pain. But the pain never came.

    ¡°Sara, you healed my arm! You fixed it!¡± Jack excitedly exclaimed. ¡°Sara?¡±

    Carefully Jack pulled his previously injured arm out from under Sara¡¯s collapsed form. No pain. None at all, if anything it felt stronger than before as clenched his hand. Carefully he lifted Sara¡¯s shoulders, making sure to brace her head. Just as carefully, he stood up and laid her back on the couch, pulling her legs up so she could lie down in a comfortable position. ¡°Thank you,¡± Jack muttered under his breath. Taking a chance, he lent forward and kissed her cheek. Kneeling on the floor next to her, he stared at her calm beautiful face, still processing what she had done, inspecting his now healed wrist with his good arm.

    Jacked hadn¡¯t even noticed when Rachel had entered the room and was startled when he heard her voice come from above and behind him.

    ¡°What happened to her?¡± Rachel questioned with shock and anger leaking into her words. ¡°What did you do to her?¡±

    ¡°¡±Nothing I did nothing,¡± Jack stammered, ¡°She healed my arm! Look!¡±

    Jack turned to look up at the concerned and confused face of Rachel and flailed his not healed arm in front of her. ¡°She fixed it! She used her power finally, she can heal people! It probably just took a lot out of her to do it, remember how I almost passed out after the fight with Jimmy on the road?¡±

    Rachel nodded, coming to kneel next to Jack and held Sara¡¯s still overly warm hand, watching he chest slowly rise and fall. He could see the concern on her face but knew it was unwarented.

    For cousins they are pretty darn close. Before this trip I don¡¯t think Bryan would ever act like this for me. Maybe not even now.

    Jack slowly stood and put a reassuring hand on Rachels shoulder. ¡°She¡¯ll be perfectly fine.¡± Glancing around, Jack realized how quiet it was in the house. ¡°Where is Bryan?¡±

    ¡°Out back, stairing after the meteor¡± Rachel answered, pointing over her shoulderwith out taking her eyes off her cousin.

    Jack crossed the homey livingroom with pictures of an unknown family on every surface. He observed them wondering what happens to each of them as he made it to the rear screen door. Standing in the door, a cool chill ran through him as a gust of wind blew by into the house.

    The feeling relaxed him, reminding him of the cold night¡¯s back home waiting for them in upstate New York.

    Looking around, Jack quickly spotted Bryan standing on a chair he had dragged over to the fence so that he could comfortably lean forward on it. Jack pulled up another and placed it in the corner so he could do the same. Once standing at Bryans level, Jack looked over to his brother and gave a silent nod as both looked out to the stars of the night, the tail of the meteor just barely visible on the far horizon.

    The look on Bryans faced was something new to Jack, his brother looked pensive, staring out into the night. Jack could tell something was weighing him down but wasn¡¯t sure how to approach him, prying at times like this in the past few years had always ended ugly. Bryan seemed to read his mind though, letting out a long sigh and reaching over to tossel Jacks hair.

    ¡°We¡¯re a long way from home brother,¡± Bryan started, ¡°I¡¯m afraid for mom and dad. What if they didn¡¯t wake up? How are we going to get all the way there? What if we don¡¯t make it? It¡¯s barely been 24 hours since all this happened and we haven¡¯t even made it out of these dam hills.¡±

    Jack shook his head in thought, ¡°Our parents have to be alive bry, if we woke up, I¡¯m sure they did. Their mountain people, their resilient. They are the ones that taught us all of this survival stuff. Besides, do you really think that something like this has even shaken dad in the least? He¡¯s probably got the whole town walled up together in a compound of their own making.¡± Jack smiled at that, he and his dad didn¡¯t have a relationship like Bryan and he did, but he knew their dad had been in the military when he was younger and had always been a bit of a hard ass.

    No he thought, dads proably like superman through all this.

    Bryan got a light chuckle at that, he knew his brother spoke the truth.

    Jack¡¯s perch was closer to the next door neighbors then Bryan was. Something caught his attention, out of the corner of his eye he spotted something gleaming from the light of the meteor in the neighbor¡¯s yard. Jack¡¯s grin grew, ¡°And I think I know a way for us to speed up our movement.¡±

 Chapter 14

    ¡°Oh come on guys! This was my idea!¡± Jack yelled. He carefully peddled the child size bmx bike he road. He had wiped out two times already and didn''t think his ego or his knees could take a third.

    The others all peddled well ahead of him on the cache of mountain bikes Jack found in the back yard of the house next to where they stayed for the night. Their laughs echoed back to Jack, making him blush even further.

    The night before had been uneventful, with Jack and Bryan each taking turns keeping watch.

    Sara slept through the night and when she was told what she had done to Jack¡¯s arm she jumped with joy into his arms, excited at finally using her powers.

    "Did my eyes glow??" Sara''s excitement was bubbling over. Her jump had landed her with her head just above Jack''s and her legs wrapped around him to keep herself up.

    Jack leaned his head back and smiled staring into her bright beautiful eyes.

    "Yep!"

    Sara shouted with joy. The creeping useless feeling had completely left her.

    Finally I can help!!

    Realizing she was yelling in Jack''s face, Sara quickly dismounted him and turned her usual bright red. After making some quiet excuses with no eye contact, she ran out back to find a bush.

    Now what the hell was that. Jack couldn''t figure her out. Hot cold hot cold. I''ll have to ask Bryan... O God help me.

    Breakfast of assorted energy bars and granola bars went quickly as they gathered what meager supplies they found in the house and Jack tried to focus on the day ahead.

    A quick sweep of the yard and a hop over the fence and the friends headed out for the bikes next door.

    There where five, 3 adult size with two womens and one male mountain bikes, and then a child bmx and a kids size with training wheeles. Jack got stuck with the BMX.

    ¡°This is ridiculous! My knees are hitting the handle bars!¡± Jack complained.

    ¡°Quit your whining!¡± Bryan yelled, trying to stifle his laughter.

    Jack, looking for help , looked toward Sara but found she was laughing just as hard. Defeated, he pushed on and kept his grumbling to himself.

    The bikes had greatly increased their travel speed, having left the house they had stayed at less then an hour ago they where almost into the city limits.

    Houses had become common sight, lining the sides of the roads. From time to time they had to swerve around cars dead in the middle of the road.

    The majority of the time it was down hill, which made it easier on Jack as they went. What Jack found odd about the road they were on was the lack of people. He swore he saw a family watching out the windows of a few houses as they rolled on but he wasn¡¯t certain.

    As they came to an intersection at the bottom of the road, Jack almost plowed into Bryan and the girls that had come to a stop.

    ¡°What¡¯s the hold up?¡± Jack asked, looking over his travel companions.

    No one said a word, they just pointed ahead.

    They finally had made it to the grid lined streets of LA, and the sight was horrifying. Buildings and shops had crumbled from all the earth quakes of the past two nights. Fires raged in some buildings still, while others still smoldered, releasing towers of black smoke into the air.

    In the distance, more smoke rose from what was sure to be more burning buildings. The city was destroyed.

    What concerned Jack was the graffiti that looked fresh on some of the closer buildings. Although there where no visible people, Jack knew that whoever had tagged the buildings couldn¡¯t be far.

    Closing his eyes, jack tried to push the vison of the city from his eyes, not wanting to believe that it was no more.

    But as soon as they where closed, his mind reeled, processing possible outcomes like a slide projector moving at one hundred miles per hour.

    So sudden was it that Jack lost his balance standing on the bike and started to fall over.

    ¡°Wo there!¡± Bryan shouted, droping his backpack and gun and rushed over to Jack to keep him from hitting the ground.

    Jack opened his eyes with a gasp, coming back to the present. ¡°This is gunna be rough,¡± he stammered, sitting back on the seat of his bike.

    Everyone looked to Jack, the jovial mood seeping away in the scilence.

    ¡°We¡¯re going to have to be very careful,¡± Jack''s tone was deadly serious but Bryan as always just smirked.

    ¡°Duh genious, do you think we planned on not?¡± Bryan shot.

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°No, I mean really careful. We¡¯ll ride in a close group of two and two. Meaning we can only go as fast as our slowest rider. Let¡¯s hope we find a replacement bike for me soon so we can get out of the city as quick as possible. Keep an eye out for sports stores. Bryan, you keep the shotgun and ride up front, il ride cady corner with the rifle. I¡¯m going to go back up the hill a bit to get some energy from a copse of tree¡¯s I spotted. I have a feeling we¡¯ll need it. My sights been back to normal since I woke up this morning, hopefully that will turn that back on as well.¡±

    Jack had been hoping to be able to keep that last bit to himself, but now facing the realization of what the city was like he felt he had to tell them all.

    If the others where shocked at his admission and speech, it didn¡¯t show as they all rechecked bags and helped Bryan unlash the rifle from his pack.

    Jack hurried back up road to the tree¡¯s he had spotted earlier.

    His father had taught him plenty about all the plants and trees of the northeast but Jack was having trouble identifying most of the trees he had come across in California.

    After a short jog up the hill, Jack reached a cluster of what to him looked like young dogwood trees.

    Placing his hand on the ruff bark, Jack closed his eyes and tried to repeat the process he had used the day before.

    Nothing came.

    Remembering how the bush¡¯s energy from the night before had responded to his muttering of niceties, Jack tried again. ¡°Please nice tree, lend me your aid.¡± He muttered.

    Still nothing.

    Trying not to panic, Jack took a better look at the tree. Seeing the green leaves and thriving blossoms, he knew it wasn¡¯t dead.

    Concentrate, he scolded himself.

    Jack knelt next to the tree and put both hands forward onto the trunk near its base.

    Closing his eyes, Jack tried to clear his mind. The task was a lot harder then his books made it sound. The mongoloids face as he caught him and then his body on the ground, kept showing in his mind.

    Over and over.

    Only inturupted by the look of furry on Jimmies face as he left him in the bubble.

    Jack shook his head and thought of what happend after. Sara woke up her powers and healed him, Bryan actually acted like a brother. If he hadn''t done what he did, he knew that they would be injured, captured or worse.

    I had to. It was me or them.

    Coming to a bit of acceptance Jack tried again to clear his head. He knew that night would haunt him for a long time, but he had to worry about the hear and now or it will have been for nothing.

    When he felt his mind was clear, he focused on the feeling of power that had been with him the night before.

    Slowly, Jack felt his power coming through. From deep inside him he felt a trickle of ice start at the base of his skull and drip down his back and then down his shoulders. That wont be enough, he thought. Pushing himself mentally deeper, pulling on that trickle, it slowly became a river.

    His arms tingled with the icey power. Finally feeling he had enough, Jack opened his eyes to find his vison had still not changed.

    Jack couldn¡¯t help feeling let down that his second sight had not come back. But even after opening his eyes, the river was still flowing, filling him with power.

    But it was differen¡¯t, he noted.

    Unlike the night before, it held no warmth. When Jack relized this, he finally took notice of the tree. It haden¡¯t changed at all.

    Blossoms and all, not an inch had been drained.

    Maybe it has something to do with my second sight, Jack thought.

    Jack walked slowly back to the group at the bottom of the hill where the others where waiting. On the way, he played with the stream of internal power he¡¯d found. Slowly letting it slip away to nothing then bringing it back to the full river of before. Controling it was easier then he had imagined it being. In the short walk back, he already felt he could manage his power level and was confident he could call it when needed. What he could actually ,an age to do with it was yet to be seen.

    Smiling he greeted the others, to his surprise, their looks ranged from confused to concern.

    ¡°What took you so long?¡± Bryan blurted, ¡°Its been thirty minutes, have a good heart to heart with the tree?¡±

    Jack shook his head at his brothers remark but didn¡¯t get a chance to answer.

    ¡°Your eyes..¡± Rachel started.

    Not this again,Jack thought.

    ¡°They aren¡¯t glowing, did you get enough energy from the tree?¡±

    This was an out of place comment from Rachel for Jack. Normally she was so scared of his eyes when he was charged up then she flinched at every move he made like a scared rabit. Now she held the same fear in her voice to see him without the glow.

    ¡°I didn¡¯t get any at all actually.¡± Jack replied.

    The collective intake of breath at that somehow made him smile.

    Playing bryans fear like that always made him feel better. For the girls he held a pang of guilt at the twist.

    ¡°I got a better handle on my own power though.¡± Jack boasted, bringing sighs of relief and looks that pleaded for an explination.

    As to show his point to make things move along, Jack brought his power to a river inside himself and created a shimmering shield like he had before.

    ¡°Phew, if what you said is true we¡¯re going to need all you can get. Now spot wasting it and lets get moving.¡± Rachel said with force.

    Jack couldn¡¯t tell if it was fear pushing her forward, or her want for this to be over with so she can sleep in a her own bed.

    Her Sheltered upbringing was becoming more apparent. That morning as they road with her complaints and constant belittling of houses she didn¡¯t approve of as they passed. The shock and awe was whereing off on her he thought.

    Her true colors would show through soon enough. Something in that moment made him think of Sara.

    Hopefully she doesn¡¯t change too, he thought.

    Jacks thoughts where soon interrupted by Sara handing him the rifle.

    Her face was contorted in a fasion that made it hard for him to know how she was feeling.

    ¡°Your doing it again,¡± Sara stated.

    Seeing Jacks confusion she continued as she climbed back on her bike next to him. Speaking as they started to ride she went on, ¡°The last two days it seems that if you¡¯re not unconscious or hurt, your doing that mind thing of yours.¡±

    Jacks confusion deepend, he only used his mind exceleration power a few times that he could recall.

    Heading off Jacks response Sara Started in again, ¡°You know what I mean, don¡¯t give me that face. Your eyes glaze over like your miles away sitting right next to me.¡± Her boldness slipping, Sara Mumbled, ¡°besides, you promised to teach me about my powers and lately your barely even speaking to me.¡± she trailed off on her last words.

    Jack struggled hearing the words. In the last two days his life had been turned upsidedown.

    All of their lives had, he thought. She was right that he haden¡¯t been talking much lately, he had been consumed by his thoughts and concerns.

    Jack knew he had feelings for Sara but it was all so new and with everything going on he hadn¡¯t had any time in his mind for her. Besides, he had little to no experience romantically. With the world in it''s current state was it really the right time?

    Smileing Jack said, ¡°I¡¯m sorry Sara, your right. I¡¯ve just been so overwhelmed with everything lately. I¡¯ll do better.¡±

    The playfulness of the first night they had met finally returned to Sara¡¯s face as they started talking of their magic. They road next to each other, following closely behind Bryan and Rachel.

    Jack struggled to keep pace on his smaller BMX bike while talking at the same time, but he managed.

    He was still slowing down their progress by quiet a bit. But he and Sara where finally getting along as they had the first night. For the first time since then, Jack was happy.

    That was until they got further into the city scape.

 Chapter 15

    The plan had been to be out of the city and into the national forest that lay about 30 miles away by the time it was dark.

    With the way Jack was struggling to ride, they were not going to make it.

    Their passive looking around for a sports store had been useless for hours. The only things they passed where residences and restaurants. It was objective B of their plan. Find someplace to gear up and get more supplies. The loot from the cars was already running out.

    This turned out to be much harder done then said. Every where they looked was destruction. The fires had spread and turned most of the city to ruins. Some buildings still smoldering, some had been shaken to pieces. The larger structures that were still standing were either burnt from the inside out or looted bare.

    Remnants of buildings were plentyfull, but people where not.

    A few times, Jack spotted people slinking around buildings, some hiding behind windows. Some people gave them fearful looks, some had eyes filled with greed. Jack and the others just kept peddling, staying in their formation. All in all, the amount of people was frighteningly small.

    The smell was what bothered them all the most.

    Puddles of backed up sewage lined the streets in places, man hole covers nowhere to be found.Worse then the smells of an old never cleaned porta potty, was the smell of death. It was worse then anything any of them had ever smelled. The iron smell of blood, mixed with the rot and feces. They each had thrown up multiple times. Finally having enough, Bryan stopped everyone and pulled over to quickly cut up a spare shirt to make masks for everyone before setting out again.

    Riding down the fractured grungy streets, they passed bodies far more frequently then living people. Out front of a few Apartment buildings where stacks of dead that where taller then Jack just laying in the street.

    Someone had unloaded all the residents that had passed away unceremoniously and out in the open for scavengers to come pick away at what was left.

    Rats where rampant, fighting with crows over the stacked remains. On the few breaks the group took, they made sure not to touch anything, sure that disease was rampart in the conditions around them.

    From time to time the sound of gun shots ringing out in the distance kept them all on edge. As the group was passing a well preserved large outdoor shopping center, shots from an automatic wepon rang through the air. Unlike the previous shots, these where close.

    Very close.

    ¡°Lets head towards the shopping center. Maybe we can finally find somewhere that will have a better bike for Jack so we can get the hell out of here,¡± Bryan said.

    With all in agreement, the group headed into the mostly empty parking lot. There where a few cars toward the closest stores, but for the most part it was empty. The cars had all been ransacked, the windows smashed, and spray painted.

    The buildings in the shopping center looked to be in decent shape. Shattered windows, and cracked walls, but still standing.

    Walls four stories high for one of the big box stores were cracked from ground to ceiling. But the roof appeared to still be intact.

    The group road past, trying to get toward the center of the complex.

    As they explored, they found it was more of a outdoor mall then a shopping center. After leaving the parking lot behind they road the side walk past all kinds of restaurants and small shops.

    All of them had been obviously locked down tight before the meteor appeared.

    Any store that could hold anything helpful had broken windows, obviously ransacked and had been looted down to bare shelves.

    Rachel stopped her bike out front of a fancy kitchen ware store only to find it half burned out with the knife display case shattered on the floor by the door. Plenty of broken dishes lines the floors, now useless appliances strewn Kicked to the corners of the thousand square foot store. Even with a cursory glance, Rachel knew there was nothing of use left.

    Bryan had road ahead, breaking formation for the first time since they set out for the day and came across a shopping center map sitting in the middle of a plaza like clearing.If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Coming to a stop, bryan looked around.

    Something he¡¯d been doing all morning, checking for anyone or anything that moved. Finding nothing and noticing they where out of site of the road they had been traveling, Bryan let out a relaxing sigh and studied the map. ¡°I don¡¯t see any place that might have a bike guys.¡±

    Jack had caught up with the girls and they all took a turn studying the guide. Jack road around to the other side, hopeing there might be more.

    His hope was for nothing though as the other side was the same map.

    Feeling defeated, Jack pulled out his water bottle and finished what was left.

    Bryan looked to Jack with a frown, ¡°you know we only have one more water bottle for each of us don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°Yea I know, but you try pedeling this dam thing as fast as you guys and not working up a thirst. I¡¯m surprised I got it to last this long.¡± Jack replied.

    Sara had wandered to a message board posted a few yards away from the map.

    ¡°Yes!,¡± She yelped.

    The others all rushed to her as best they could on their bike to see what she was so excited about.

    ¡°Looks like we might have hit a gold mine,¡± She said before anyone could ask, ¡°There Is and Bass Pro shop that was supposed to open in a week that¡¯s up against the parking lot on the other side of the mall.¡±

    Rachel looked confused, ¡°Bass Pro what?¡±

    Bryan looked at her in shock, ¡°Really? You¡¯re an environmental science major and you don¡¯t know what an Bass Pro is? It¡¯s a really awesome camping store. We had one back in New York that our dad used to take us to all the time. Even if someine has found it I¡¯m sure we can get plenty of gear.¡±

    Rachel face burned red with embarrassment, she said nothing in reply to Bryans condescending tone.

    With her eyes welling with tears, she road off ahead of everyone heading towards the Bass pro.

    Bryan called after her, realizing his mistake but it was all to little to late.

    Jack and Sara exchanged concerned glances and chased after them. It didn¡¯t take them all long to get there, but coming around the corner towards the store front that was facing the parking lot, everyone froze again hearing gun shots ring out.

    Jack ordered everyone back around the corner. It was a silly thing to watch everyone with their packs and weapons waddling back and forth trying to scoot backwards, but Jack was to concerned to laugh.

    Across the parking lot next to the main road was a group of at least two dozen people.

    The yelling and gunshots in the air continued as they all stood around something.

    Jack took the rifle out and droped his bag on the ground.Laying down, he peered through the scope to get a better look at the group.What he saw was terrifying.

    All of the people jumping around and whooping where heavly tattooed and most had automatic weapons of some sort.In the center of the group where the bodies of two people in uniform.

    Police officers, he realized.

    A cold shiver ran up his spine that had nothing to do with his powers.How could the world fall so far so quickly? He asked himself.

    No, these people where already this sort of people when the meteor hit, he assured himself, these people where inherently evil long before any of this happened.

    Taking a quick head count, Jack pushed himself up and sat with legs crossed. ¡°Well, it looks like we have found some trouble.¡±

    ¡°Ok captin obvious, care to explain some more?¡± Bryan cut.

    ¡°Well, there are twenty seven of them, most with automatic weapons. They appear to be burning cars for a bonfire and they recently brutalized and murdered two uniformed police officers. Any more questions Lieutenant Richard?¡± Jack spat back.

    Rachel quickly hung onto Sara in surprise, needing her to keep standing. Sara just stood in shock barely noticing her cousin clinging to her.

    Bryans jaw hit the floor in surprise and just how much trouble they had found.

    ¡°The good news is, they have no camping gear. Which means either the store next to us here is empty, or they have no idea what is inside. Either way we still have to check. We¡¯re just going to have to do this right.¡± Jack said, trying to cheer everyone back up with limited success. ¡°Here, Bryan, you stay here and protect the girls and I¡¯ll go see if I can get the doors open. Their on the far side of the parking lot so I should be able to slip in and get it open with out them noticing a thing. When I do, I¡¯ll wave you over and you bring all the gear and bikes in and we¡¯ll relock it.¡±

    Everyone was either still digesting what Jack had said or found no faults in his plan for all he received where nods in agreement from everyone as they all positioned themselves and the bikes.

    Jack ran as quickly as he could while staying low, as not to be seen by the gang in the parking lot. He kneeled in front of the lock, wishing he still had his second sight, Jack closed his eyes and concentrated on his power.

    He was surprised how readily it came and turned into the river of power he had made it to be earlier.

    With his eyes still closed, Jack put his finger on the lock and willed his power into it, all the while picturing a key in his mind.

    Try as he might, after five separate tries and turns it wasn¡¯t working. He knew he needed to wrk faster. Getting spotted by the gang could be the last thing they ever did.

    Realizing he was wasting time, Jack remembered a trick from one of his favorite books. Picturing a shield shaped like a blade coming out of his finger, Jack let the magic flow back to his hand.

    Thankful that it was light out, The bladeglowed a sparkling gold. It was the size of a small letter opener but Jack hoped it would be enough.

    Turning back to the lock, he swiped his finger in-between the lock and then the top and bottoms of the door, with the third swipe he fell forward into the door way, having not realized how much he had been leaning on it.

    Rolling back to a kneel, half way in the door, Jack motioned for the others to come.

    With suprising speed, the others of the group were in the store and the door was closed. Jack sealed the door this time using the same visualization as before only adding heat to it to melt everything back in place.

    It took a few tries, the first of which Jack managed to burn himself so bad, he had to switch hands he was using to complete the spellwork.

    While Jack was sealing them in, the others had already started exploring.

 Chapter 16

    Nothing was already displayed in the main area of the store, no displays up, nothing on the shelves, just boxes. Tons and tons of boxes, all piled in the parts of the store where they were meant to be stocked.

    Sara was right, this was an untouched treasure trove.

    The layout looked similar to the REI they had in Jack and Bryans home town. Bryan noticed and couldn¡¯t help but let the corner of his lips turn up in a smile.

    ¡°Thank god for cookie cutter big box stores¡± Bryan had commented. This should be easy.

    And he was right, with Jack and bryan leading the way, they where able to find anything and everything they could have ever wanted for this situation. Packs, food, tools, cloths, it was all there.

    After an hour of searching, each of them had a internal frame backpacking bag, water purifiers, clean changes of rugged breathable clothing, cold weather jackets and pants, camping stoves and lanterns, and everyone¡¯s own utility knife like Rachel¡¯s.

    The boys where still pulling gear from all over the store as the girls resigned to packing the bags along with going through the food and a big box of odds and ends that the boys thought would be helpful if they could fit in the packs.

    Jack had picked out a bike, using the measurements of Bryans to find the one that fit him right.

    While looking for tools to put it together as well as a pump to fill the tires, Bryan came running around the corner from the back stock room.

    ¡°You have got to see this Jack!¡± Bryan said with a grin from ear to ear.

    Knowing his brother well, Jack ran to follow him before he was left in the dust. Coming around the corner of the large stock room in the rear of the store, Jack stopped dead in his tracks and his jaw hit the floor.

    Before him was a metal cage, filled to the brim with firearms and ammunition. ¡°Holy crap.¡± He stammered.

    Bryan was still grinning and motioned toward the door of the cage, ¡°Just need you to do your little trick and we¡¯re in!¡±

    Jack took it all in for a few seconds before snapping into action, quickly opening the cage with the same trick he used to open the front door.

    Bryan and Jack both carefully made their way into the cage. Easily the size of the living room of the house they stayed in the night before, the arsenal that now layed before the brothers was more then they could have ever imagined finding.

    Boxes were stacked high, Browning, Bushmaster, Beretta, Glock, Bennellli and Remington stamped on their sides with all their respective logos. Both brothers didn¡¯t know where to start, looking at each other, they both had faces of little kid on Christmas morning.

    Their father had taken them hunting with him as soon as they were old enough to stay quiet and still in the old tree stand that their father had built before they were born. But the gun laws being as strict as they are in New York, more than half the guns that lay before them were things they had never even seen before except day dreaming online.

    Embracing their childish wims, they quickly started pouring over the stacks and shelves looking for weapons they thought would be useful.

    Bryan went right for the Bushmaster stack, Jack knew his brother had an obsession with AR rifles growing up and was not surprised in the least at his brother¡¯s enthusiasm. Jack on the other hand, tried to stay practical. Thinking of the rifle he had carried from Jimmies, he gravitated towards the rifles, trying to find something more powerful than the flimsy old 22 they currently possessed.

    Remembering the words of his father that surprised him, he looked for a 30-06. The ammunition should be common enough that if they were to need more, it should be easy to find. Also heading into the mountains it should be a great help with wild animals.

    The boxes had been stacked by someone with organization in mind that made his search allot easier then he thought it would be. It only took a few shelves before he found what he was looking for.

    It was a rifle his father had talked about dreaming to own on their last trip, the name didn¡¯t mean much to him but when he opened the Browning box he knew why his father had coveted it. It was a sleak black carbon fiber stock, all the metal pieces shone like polished silver. Finding it already assembled in the box made his decision for him, this was now his rifle.

    Placing the box near the enterance of the cage, Jack watched his brother, opening box after box still searching for his own treasure. Smiling at his brothers lasting excitement, Jack turned to thinking of self-defense.

    Pistols, for each of them.

    Moving to the far end of the cage that held the much smaller boxes, Jack was overwhelmed with the choices. Having never fired a hand gun before, Jack was really at a loss of what was best. His only knowledge of handguns came from movies and TV and he was very hesitant on taking any of that seriously. Opening a few box¡¯s to have a look, Jack found most of them where not assembled. Worried about assembling them properly to work when they needed the most, Jack grew even further hesitant. Using the same theory as the rifle, Jack stuck with a common caliber 9mm. Grabing a few that looked the most assembled, Jack figured he would try to put them together as best he could and them come back for what he was most comfortable with.

    Heading out of the cage, Jack picked up the rifle box and struggled with his armfuls heading back to the girls.

    Rounding the first corner in the back storage area, Jack was supprised to find the girls had moved all the gear into the back, having cleared an area to continue their packing. Confused, all jack managed to do was raise his eyebrows at the girls before they jumped in explaining.

    ¡°Its getting dark already!¡± Rachel exclaimed, ¡°What are you boys doing back there? We had to move all this stuff by ourselves. We¡¯re going to need lanterns and flash lights to see by pretty soon and we didn¡¯t want to be a beacon for the gang still out in the parking lot!¡±

    Jack nodded, not realizing how much time had passed while in the gun room.

    Sara looked on Jack with an equally confused look, staring at the boxes in his arms. ¡°Whats all that?¡±

    She sounded slightly exasperated, as if the thought of now have to repack all the bags to carry what ever was in Jacks arms was going to break her spirit.

    ¡°Guns¡±, Jack said with a smile. Carefully Jack set down his burden an explained to the girls about the cage room.

    ¡°How on earth are we going to carry all that?¡± Rachel said, her inner brat showing through again. ¡°I can barely carry one of these packs as it is! I cant imagin having to ride a bike with it on. Now we¡¯re going to be carring load guns to? We¡¯ll be lucky not to kill ourselves by the time we get rolling!¡±

    Frowning, Jack caught a hint of truth to her words. Walking to one of the two packs the girls had finished, he hefted it to his shoulders, being careful of all the straps. Surprised by its bulk, it must have weighed over fifty pounds. With his frown reaching his eyes, he looked down at the unpacked bags in front of the girls and then to the pile of gear next to them. Quickly he realized they had picked and grabbed so much without a single thought to how much weight it would be.

    ¡°And that¡¯s the light one,¡± Sara added, ¡°we aren¡¯t used to packing these things and that one was our first, having the least in it.¡± Her voice was almost pleading, looking up at Jack with her big beautiful brown eyes.

    Those beautiful brown eyes, Jack thought. Melting all over again as he looked into her eyes. Jack stammered, trying to find the words, but having no luck other then the profuse opologies that came to his mind.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    As if on cue, Bryan barged in the room looking like he was about to burst in glee. ¡°Yes!¡± he shouted triumphantly, hold a semi-automatic rifle in each hand and another gun slung over his shoulder that looked to be a tactical shotgun of sorts. His grin quickly dropped at the sight of the girls look of contempt and Jacks look of elation at being saved from his awkwardness by Bryan. ¡°What? What happened?¡±

    ¡°Nothing,¡± Jack replied, ¡°We have a problem, we¡¯ve gathered to much stuff. They..¡± He noticed rachels glare of contempt shift to himself, ¡°Rachel just pointed out that we have to much to fit in the packs, and even if we do, they are going to be way too heavy to carry on the bikes and have any hope of making it out of the city alive.¡±

    The look on Bryan¡¯s face made no sence to Jack.

    It was back to excitement again, ¡°Be right back!¡± he shouted, placing the weapons down next to Jack and taking off at a run into the store.

    Bewildered by his brothers out burst Jack looked to the girls for an answer but both looked as utterly lost as him.

    Shrugging his shoulders, Jack opened his backpack from earlier in search of something to eat. In all the excitement he hadn¡¯t eaten dinner, and neither had the girls.

    Munching on beef jerky and drinking a sports drink they had found cases of, the trio sat and waited for Bryan to return. About half way through their meal, they heard a exasperated huff as Bryan came through the door still grinning ear to ear. He had pushed a big box through the swinging door and collapsed next to it, motioning for jack to toss him a drink.

    Jack acknowledged him, making the toss, but still was at a loss for his brothers elation. ¡°More stuff is the answer?¡± Jack offered up in confusion.

    ¡°No Genius, while you were picking out a bike, I found this.¡± Bryan shot back.

    ¡°And what is this?¡± Rachel questioned.

    Jack was glad she asked, he had no intention of prodding his brother any further.

    ¡°It¡¯s a buggy, A kid carriage that can be towed behind the bikes,¡± Bryan explained, ¡°You might have powers, but I am by far to be the better shopper!¡±

    Sara beat jack to it, ¡°Is that something you should brag about? Should we know something Bryan? Something you would like to share with the group?¡±

    Bryan turned bright red with rage, but the roar of laughter coming from Jack and Rachel. Seeing the others, Bryan had no choice but to join in laughing lightly, ¡°Ha Ha very funny, say what you want but I just fixed your problem.¡±

    Jack was still trying to get his laughter under control, no one spoke to Bryan like that. The only one to get away with a jibe like that and not get hit was him. And that was only because Jack could run faster when they where younger.

    And that¡¯s why I like her so much, he thought to himself.

    That thought seemed to base him out finally bringing his laughter under control. He really does, Jack realized. He really liked Sara, somehow even though it had only been two days, he found he had an overabundance of feelings for her. With out realizing it, he was staring at Sara, eyes brimming with emotions he was to afraid to show, didn¡¯t really know how to show. His gaze broke as something hit him in the face. Narrowing his eyes he knew it could only come from one source, it was Bryan now that was laughing out of control.

    As Jack glared, it was Rachel who sighed, breaking the tension, ¡°You boys better quit it, if the gang didn¡¯t hear the laughing before, your wailing Bryan might just do it.¡±

    Bryan stopped realizing she was quite right. Opening his own bag of jerky, Bryan started to put a dinner together for himself. As the others finished eating while Bryan was still working on the jerky, they talked out what was left to get and do.

    To Jacks surprise, Bryan had made a friend in collage that was in ROTC that used to take him shooting on the weekends. That explained how he was able to assemble the rifles, so he was in charge of outfitting their new personal arsenal.

    They knew they would need as much ammo they could carry, as well as clips and holsters, scopes for the rifles if he could find them. So after dinner he set off on his own by the cage with a lantern to find what they needed.

    Jack was responsible for putting together his bike, and along with it the carriages. Finding tools to assemble them was easy, most where already set out as if they workers had expected to start putting everything together the next day. Putting together the bike was easy enough, but as the light faded, trying to put the carriages together by lantern was not an easy feat.

    After attaching the first to his new bike, he realized it was going to be too wide to fit through back door of the store room, so he had to take it off and move the whole assembly out into the dark of the store front. Using his power to make his hands glow he made quick work of it, being careful to keep it dim to not arise suspicion from the gang he could still hear whooping and hollering across the parking lot.

    Holding the door open, Sara helped jack load the carriages, handing things through to Jack to be loaded in. With the team work, they quickly had everything set to go.

    Rachel was repacking the bags, with help from Sara and Jack, once they finished they would be easy to carry but still hold all the essentials if they would have to ditch the carriages. It was tedious work, but it was crucial if something were to happen and they needed a quick getaway.

    Bryan came and went, dropping off supplies and ammo for the guns as they packed things away, finally coming up with some harnesses for the hand guns that Jack had put together under Bryans careful instruction.

    When Bryan finally came back and sat down, he had an armload of accessories he thought where essential for the guns. A high power scope for Jacks 30-06, two mid-range ones for the AR¡¯s as well as a bunch of smaller attachments to go on the AR¡¯s. Out of curiosity, he brought over a night scope but even though it had had the batteries out when the comet passed by, it still wouldn¡¯t work.

    While the girls where adjusting the straps on their packs trying to find comfortable settings and Bryan finishing up the AR¡¯s, Jack thought he would go sneak a peak through the front doors at the Gang across the way. Taking his 30-06, he thought he would test the scope by adding light to his vision, but as he carefully crawled to the front doors, his heart sank.

    Before he could reach for his magic, Jack squinted trying to believe what he had seen. In the dark it was hard to tell but Jack could have sworn he saw two Car sized objects fly through the air. His suspicions were confirmed as each car came down with a deafening crunch followed by and explosion so big it managed to rattle the front doors Jack was spying through. Fireballs climbing home gah in the sky.

    They must have at least one berserker mage like Jimmy, he thought.

    Reaching the mats in front of the doors, Jack set up the rifle in front of him. Bryan had found a mini tripod that attached nicely to the front to help keep it steady. Jack was thankful because he could feel his hands shaking in nervousness of the prospect of facing not one but possibly two mages along with the well-armed men.

    Peering down the scope with his right eye closed, Jack was able to make out shadows of people around the burning bonfire of a car on the far side of the parking lot. Without any lights but the raging bon fire, detecting any detail was going to be impossible.

    Seeing the bleak parking lot, Jack decided against trying to use his powers to light only his sight, if he did it wrong he would be like a beacon in the night for the gang to come attack. Sighing jack wiggled his way back away from the door. Once he made it back a safe distance, Jack crouched and ran for the back of the store.

    By the time Jack reachied the back, everyone was set and ready to go. Jack looked around at the group realizing they were all staring at him in waiting. ¡°Nothing to report on the gang,¡± he mumbled moving to triple check his own bag. ¡°But they have mages.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re kidding?¡± Bryan admonished in disbelief.

    ¡°Nope, it might just be one, but they would have to be a whole degree stronger than Jimmy, right when I got to the doors I saw two cars fly into their bonfire.¡±

    Groans of displeasure rung through the store area as they all settled back on the ground.

    ¡°Well, especially if that¡¯s the case, I¡¯ve got an idea,¡± Sara stated. With all eyes on her, she continued, ¡°If we make it out of here, any way we do it, the gang is going to know where we came from and find this place. Can you imagine if a group like that found all this stuff like we did? No one would stand a chance against them. I¡¯m sure those cops we saw dead at their feet where not their first victims and definitely not going to be their last.¡± Taking a deep breath, it seemed as if Sara had put a lot of thought towards these next words, ¡°We would either have to kill them all, or somehow destroy everything we¡¯re leaving behind to make sure they could never have any of this stuff.¡±

    ¡°Kill them all? Whats wrong with you Sara! How could you think that!¡± Rachel yelled.

    ¡°She¡¯s thinking realistically,¡± Jack cut in, ¡°Your right, those really are the only two options when it comes to all this coming into the wrong hands. Plus it might just be the distraction we¡¯ll need to get out of here as safely as possible.¡±

    ¡°But you¡¯re really not saying we have to kill all of them are you?¡± Bryan said, disgust blatant in his voice.

    ¡°Hey, you¡¯re the one that went straight for the semi-auto weapons. What did you think you were going to use them for? Shooting cans in the street on lunch breaks? Like you all assured me last night about Jimmy¡¯s cousin. At some time, our survival is going to come to an us or them situation. I don¡¯t know about you but with that gang out there I think it¡¯s not far off.¡± Pausing to gather himself, Jack looked at the faces around him, Sara was nodding in agreement, Rachel looked to be suffering from great internal conflict, but Bryan, Bryan seemed to be somberly seeing the light, starting to nod as well.

    ¡°Look, I¡¯m not saying we have to kill all those people out there. I¡¯m saying that if it comes down to protecting ourselves from them killing us by killing them, we have to be ready for that.¡±

    The mood in the room was heavy as Jacks words sunk in.

    Never in a million years did any of them think they would be in the position of kill or be killed. But it was here, and they had to recognize it or none of them would make it out of the parking lot, let alone back to their families. Jack felt the mood turning from that of understanding and sadness to a sour feeling or fear and lack of confidence. Trying to stymie the feelings before they took hold, Jack had an idea.

    ¡°But as for this place falling into the wrong hands, I have an idea what to do about that.¡±

 Chapter 17

    Jack proceeded to explain his plan. While he had been searching for a bike, he had come across the problem of reaching things that were on the top of the racks. In frustration of not being able to find a ladder, Jack turned to his magic. He really hadn¡¯t had any time to explore it at all or what all he could do. Up until now he had really only been acting on instinct.

    Jack tried to at first create a pole like he did the small knife from his finger, but as soon as it passed the 3 foot mark it be became too unsteady and broke apart. He found it odd as he thought back to when he stopped the smart car in the air. What about Jimmy¡¯s cousin? He was much further away.. The thoughts of yanking him off the roof started to flood his now overclocked brain. He then started thinking of the body, laying mangled and twisted. Over and over again it started to replay. The box he had been trying to prod off the shelf fell onto his head, breaking him out of the overdrive. He still felt terrible, but he knew he did everything he could to save him up intil Jimmy ruined it.

    I had him lashed to the gun! I could have held him there or lowered him to the ground!

    Lashed..

    The thoughts led him to what he now called the gripping field. Taking what he did to the car and Jimmy''s cousin, he wraped the force shield around the objects near him, he found he could push and pull things, lift them in the air and then direct them as they flew. He even could heat them like he did the knives from his fingers he used to open the door.The range was short, a little less the 30 feet from what he could guess. But when Jack made a replica of a throwing knife he saw in a cabinet and was actually able to throw it, he knew he found a game changer.

    This will help us survive, Jack told himself. With his mind still in overdrive, he knew what something like that would be used for. To kill. In the long run he knew at this point he would have to again. But he still left the knives out of his explanation to the others.

    They all agreed and set to work. Their trust in Jack had been stead fast all day. He had more then proved himself and his new abilities in their eyes. They all just wanted to do everything they could to help. Even Bryan was more readily listening to Jack.

    While the girls were busy prepping the front of the store for Jacks plan, he and Bryan were tearing through the gun cage.

    Box by box, they emptied all the weapons into a pile in the center of the cage. In the process of doing so, both Jack and Bryan found a few more weapons they wanted to take with them. Knowing there was still plenty of space in one of the carriages, they set those aside away from the front of the cage. It took time, but it had to be done.

    Once all the guns were successfully stacked high, Bryan went and grabbed a bunch of the accessories that he had found earlier and added what was left to the pile. Jack was surprised at the size of the pile now before him, almost up to his shoulders and about 7 feet around. He thought it was a shame, but it had to be done. There was no way they could leave it for the gang out front to find if they got away.

    O well, time for the fun part, he thought with a grin. He had been wanting to try out a new spell combination.

    ¡°You might want to back up,¡± Jack warned Bryan. Breathing deep with closed eyes, Jack called forth his power as the familiar tingling chill ran through his arms and spine.

    Opening his eyes, his second sight still hadn¡¯t returned but he was confident that he could wield what power he had. Taking a few steps back out of the cage, Jack started by using the same hot knife technique to separate off large pieces of the cage. Using a gripping field he sorted the pieces into two piles, once set, Bryan came forward with some heavy gloves they found and started carrying one pile out to the store front.

    Jack gripped the other separate pile and started laying it over the pile of guns before him. For time¡¯s sake, as well as the health of his arms, Jack had thought of a new way to melt it all in bulk, he just hoped it would work. Carefully, he created a energy shield around the pile, hugging it closely but not so it was touching the edges. The clear shimmer of his own magic was interesting to Jack, remembering the green that came when he used the trees. I¡¯l have to play with that more when I get some time, he noted. After strengthening the shield even further, Jack started applying heat like he had to the energy knife.

    Seeing it all working, Jack poured more energy into it, having to take a step back from the residual heat that was now as blisteringly hot as a industrial furnace.

    Plastic pieces from mounts, handles and stocks where melting and catching fire. The barrels that where visible sticking up and out of the pile were turning red hot and drooping over like wilted flowers, slowly dripping into the now molten pile of metals and smoking plastic remains. He kept the barrier tight so even after everything melted it was still over four feet tall.

    ¡°Wow,¡± Bryan stammered, having come back to watch without Jacks notice. ¡°I¡¯m not sure if that is just downright scary or amazing.¡±

    ¡°A little of both,¡± Jack replied with a smile, watching as Bryan laughed. If only we had always gotten along like this, he mused.

    ¡°Now let¡¯s grab these and go help the girls before I drop that shield and the real show begins.¡±

    As the brothers walked through the doors onto the sales floor of the store, their nostrils where assaulted by the smell of kerosene and lighter fluid. It hit Jack so hard he dropped the guns in his arms and almost dropped the barrier containing the molten weapons.

    ¡°Smells like they should be done.¡± Jack said, taking his arm and covering his mouth and nose with the crook of his elbow to help his attempts to breath.

    Sure enough, the girls were waiting for the boys by the front doors, sitting behind the carriages, keeping out of smell with bandanas they must have salvaged from somewhere covering their own faces to aid in breathing the chemically filled air. ¡°What took you boys so long? It¡¯s already getting dark! And now what are you carrying?¡± Sara said, seeing Bryan''s arms and the floor in front of Jack loaded up with more boxes for the carriages.

    ¡°Found a few guns we just didn¡¯t have the heart to melt down, and more ammo and accessories for each,¡± Bryan smirked.

    Rachel sighed, ¡°Boys will be boys,¡± she mumbled. ¡°Are we ready to go? To much more of this smell and we¡¯ll all be high as a kite and never make it out the doors let alone past those thugs.¡±

    Bryan packed away the guns quickly in the carriage attached to his bike and then moved to help Jack with the front doors. Using the hot knife again, Jack got the doors back open in relative ease. Carefully and quietly, they all led their bikes out into the night. With the girls standing watch, each with pistol in hand, Jack and Bryan went back in and pulled the pieces of cage against the front doors. While maintaining the barrier still white hot in the back room, Jack struggled to painstakingly melt the cage solidly to each door to insure they won¡¯t be opened. Before closing the final door, Jack created one of his hot knives from his finger and tossed it into the pile of box¡¯s the girls had made and soaked in anything flammable they could find. Immediately flames rose eight feet in the air and Jack quickly closed the door, taking care to seal it tight. ¡°Alright,¡± Jack quietly whispered, ¡°Lets get as far away from here as we can, see that camper over there about halfway across the parking lot?¡± All three nodded, ¡°Well let¡¯s get there before this thing blows!¡±

    As quietly as they could all manage, they climbed on their bikes and headed in the direction Jack indicated.

    Jack was excited to finally be on a mountain bike, even dragging the loaded carriage was far easier than just riding the BMX he started the day on. The farther he got from the heated shield the harder it got to maintain it. Struggling as he was, he really hoped to be able to avoid confrontation with the gang completely after the distraction went off. The power it was taking to maintain the barrier was heavily taxing.

    Reaching the camper, the boys circled the carriages so that they formed up as much of shield to hide behind as they could get. The girls leaned their bikes against the side of the carriage to help brace it, then sat with their backs to the camper and the gang. Bryan grabbed his AR that he had decked out in accessories and crawled under the camper taking a prone position. Like his father had taught him when deer hunting, he started looking down the scope toward the Gang that was now less than one hundred yards away. ¡°Its hard to tell, but I think there are almost fifty people out there now.¡± Bryan whispered back to Jack who was crouched at the place where Bryan had crawled under. ¡°And you were right little brother. There are three more uniformed bodies at their feet, they look like they were SWAT team.¡±

    Jack sighed deeply, as much as he enjoyed hearing Bryan admit that he was right, about this, he wished he had been wrong. ¡°How can you tell they were SWAT?¡± Jack asked.

    Bryan had turned around under the camper, now facing jack. ¡°Because they just kicked one towards the fire and it said SWAT across his chest genius,¡± Bryan answered. Seeing his brothers face, he knew what he was thinking. ¡°These guys have to be pretty crazy to take out members of SWAT together. But I guaranty none of them could pull of the stuff I¡¯ve seem you do in the past two days.¡±

    Seeing his brother smile, Bryan knew he got through to him, but Jack still looked troubled. ¡°Is it that hard to maintain that bubble of yours?¡± Bryan asked.

    ¡°Yea, and getting harder by the minute.¡± Jack said, signs of struggle clear in his voice.

    Bryan looked to the girls and nodded, Sara pulled out her own AR and Rachel took the safety off her pistol. ¡°Well let it drop Jack, we don¡¯t need you passing out on us again from over taxing yourself. We¡¯re ready.¡±

    Jack looked down and nodded as Bryan turned back around under the camper to keep an eye on how the gang reacted.

    Looking back to the Bass Pro Shop, Jack could see smoke leaking through gaps in the doors already. Adding a last push of heat into the shield, Jack dropped it. The molten metal it had been containing settled out to the floor in a rush. Right into all of the cardboard boxes and boxes of ammunition that Jack and Bryan had piled around the inside of what was left of the cage.

    Jack sat a listened, the sound of the bullets being set off and ricocheting around gradually got louder as more and more where set off by the growing fire.

    ¡°No movement yet, but their looking in that direction,¡± Bryan updated.

    The girls looked concerned that it wasn¡¯t going to work, Jack saw their faces but only smiled. ¡°Just wait,¡± he said.

    The series of explosions that followed made the group feel like the meteor was back, echoing across the parking lot, there was no way the gang would ignore it. The explosions continued, the glass of the front doors blew out, spreading shattered glass five feet out from the doors.

    A hissing noise started coming from inside the store when all of a sudden two huge compressed air tanks shot out the side of the building landing well before the gang, but skidding well past the camper where they were hiding.

    With that, the explosions halted, except for the bullets that could still be heard firing off in the open flames.

    Sara looked to Jack with mischievous wide eyes, ¡°So that¡¯s what took you so long! Next time I¡¯m helping!¡± she demanded.

    ¡°Let¡¯s hope there isn¡¯t¡­¡± Jack stoped as he saw motion in the distance.

    ¡°They¡¯re on the move. And it¡¯s not the reaction we wanted.¡± Bryan whispered back, tension rising in his voice. ¡°They have split into three groups, one leading head on and two smaller groups flanking each side. The middle group has the two berserkers, I can see their red eyes. Ones are the same amount of light as Jimmy¡¯s. The other though is much brighter, whatever that means"

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll deal with them first. Let¡¯s see if they can catch cars as well as they can throw them,¡± Jack smiled.

    The look on Sara¡¯s face quickly sapped away Jacks smile as he turned and saw her.

    ¡°Jack look,¡± Sara said pointing to the sky, ¡°Its back.¡±

    Looking up, Jack felt like his stomach dropped to the floor. Coming from the west as always, came the meteor. The green light was in view but hadn¡¯t bathed the shopping center yet. Something felt different to Jack. It was closer, much closer, and moving much faster as well. As it crested the horizon jacks feelings where realized, It looked huge in the dark night sky, a testament to how close it must be. The ground began shaking hard. Although it had picked up speed considerably, Jack could feel that the meteor itself was weakening. Just barely able to see the tail of the meteor he knew why, it was finally crumbling in the sky.

    Green tails where dropping from behind the meteor like salt from a snow plow in winter.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

    ¡°Looks like they see it to,¡± Bryan called out, ¡°They are all watching the zerker guys. Both flanks are jogging to rejoin the main group. What¡¯s the plan Jack? We should hit it now and they would never notice.¡±

    ¡°Jack?¡± Bryan called out, turning as best he could under the camper, he saw Jack crumpled on the ground again, ¡°JACK!¡± Rushing, Bryan scrambled out from under the camper. ¡°No, not now Jack,¡± he quietly scalded. Looking up at the girls, Sara seemed perfectly fine this time around other than the obvious concern for Jack and his poor timing. She knelt next to Jack, holding his hand and brushing dirt off his face with her other hand.

    ¡°He¡¯ll be ok Sara, we need to stay on guard though. Hopefully the gangs leader passed out too and this dam meteor bought us some time.¡± Rachel assured her cousin.

    Glancing under the camper, still sitting next to Jack, Bryan could still see the group of feet all clustered where they had been when he abandoned his post.

    ¡°No such luck comrade,¡± came a deep thick Russian accent from Bryans right. A chorus of deep chuckles along with a few female chortles came from around both sides of the camper.

    Bryan didn¡¯t even look up, immediately he reached for his AR that he had set down next to him while checking Jack only to hear a song of bolts locking in place.

    ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that if I were you,¡± the Russian laughed, ¡°I also wouldn¡¯t have screamed what I¡¯m guessing is this unconscious fellows here¡¯s name, Jack is it?¡±

    Bryan cursed himself for his stupidity. It was his fault they were all ambushed. Glaring at the Russian, Bryan nodded to confirm it was his name.

    The Russian nodded to his fellow gang members and quickly several of the Russians men swarmed on Rachel and Sara, holding their arms behind their back and zip tying their wrists together. Hearing the girls squeal and squirm, cursing their captures, Bryan snarled, staring down the Russian.

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare touch them! Let them go!¡± Bryan commanded. Using the outburst as a distraction, at the same time he jostled his knee forward trying to wake up Jack. In his fear, all he had managed was a nudge.

    The Russian left Bryan kneeling next to his unconscious brother and passed over to the restrained girls. ¡°It seems your travel with some quite beautiful companion¡¯s comrade, which one is yours?¡±

    ¡°Neither.. I swear if you touch a single hair¡­¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll what? Get yourself shot? Makes my life easier if you do, that way I can make off with both these beauties. Neither you say is yours huh? In that case you have no right to speak after them.¡±

    The Russian made a creepy purring noise as he ran a heavily tattooed and scarred hand down each of the girl¡¯s faces. In unison the girls each bit for his hands. The old Russian was too quick though and nether achieved the bite. ¡°Well well, fierce ones¡­ That can be broken.¡± He said with a heartless cold that struck them all to the bone.

    The trio was quickly aware of what this man was capable of. As well as the direness of their situation.

    The smell of the burning store front and screams of the girls had brought Jack back to consciousness quicker then ever. Being slow to actually come too, Jack realized the situation going on around him.

    They were caught.

    Both girls where hostages and Bryan looked to be cannon fodder for the Gangs amusement. Jack kept dead still as to not arise suspicion. And kept his eyes closed.

    It was then Jack realized with the meteors return, so did his second sight. A quick prayer and then a thank you to the meteor later, Jack used the senses of his second sight and reached out for the meteor.

    Come on big guy, Jack thought, let¡¯s teach this scum some manners.

    As his senses spread out, he could feel the meteor more closely. The green glow it was giving off was energy. He could feel it thrumming just at the edge of his reach. Pushing as hard as he could, he was able to establish a link like he had with the trees. Careful not to draw to much at once, Jack slowly absorbed the raw energy of the meteor. The strain it took was immense but not unbearable. He could feel the energy seeping into his very cells.

    Waiting for enough power and the right moment, Jack just kept filling himself with as much power as he could absorb from the green ambient light in the sky.

    ¡°You have two options,¡± Said the Russian, stepping forward into the light of the meteor.

    Now in the light, Bryan could finally put a face to his new worst enemy. He had to be in his early fifties, or maybe just having a ruff life made him look like that and he could possibly be in his forties. Grey hair streaked his temples, blending back into his dark, probably black grease slicked hair full with receding hairline. His face was a tapestry of Scars, with clearly Mafia type tattoos on his neck and cheek. A quick glance behind the Russian showed a surprising mix of ethnicity, remembering back to the conversation he and Jack had about the gangs of LA it looked like all parties where present in their own colors still no less.

    Bryan had no idea why, but this made him smirk. Jack really had planned ahead.

    ¡°Are you even listening?¡± The Russian snapped, impatience laced his thickly accented wordswords.

    Bryan felt a tap from Jack at his knees and almost lost it giving away their advantage, instead he pushed from an awkward surprised face into maniacal laughter.

    The Russian looked utterly confused as he reddened in anger at being mocked. Turning to the girls he raised his greying bushy eyebrows while he appraised them. ¡°I can¡¯t believe I can say this and mean it but I think you two pretties are better off with us. This ones cracked.¡± He explained thumbing to Bryan.

    With the Russian¡¯s back turned, Bryan chanced a glance down at Jack. The glow of the power Jack had been gathering was now showing through his eyelids.

    To Bryans surprise it was so much that he could actually feel the heat of it radiating from his brother.

    Feeling brave, he started in on the Russian.

    ¡°Not your usual crew here is it? What, were you the only person strong enough in your little mafia to wake up after the first meteor pass?¡± Bryan saw the rage in the Russians eyes, the Red power suffused them.

    But Bryan noticed that unlike Jacks glow that went all the way to his pupils, this red though stronger then jimmy, was nowhere near his brothers gold eyes. Feeling more confident than ever, he continued. ¡°What about the rest of you? Why follow this Rocky and Bullwinkle throw back?¡±

    He got a few chuckles from the gangsters but the Russian mobster was now almost foaming at the mouth in anger, Bryan did manage to spot the other zerkers red eyes a few paces behind.

    One of the gangsters started to pet Sara¡¯s hair and moving his hand up and down her arm, getting a bit bolder every stroke.

    Bryan felt Jack tense and knew that his stalling was just about up, but the Russian had taken the bate.

    ¡°I was going to give you options, I was going to let you and your little unconscious friend there live. But hear now what I am going to do. I am taking your women and will use them as I see fit, and when I¡¯m done I will let every man and women here tonight then do the same. And through this all I will keep you barely alive enough to watch the entire time and only kill you once I have killed them in front of you, slowly, very slowly.¡±

    Jack had had enough. Holding a field around himself, Bryan and then around the girls, he stood up. Quickly In his head he created the spell he had thought of to solve this. Even still, Jack made sure to keep his eyes closed, he wanted to have this man feel the fear he was trying to project on him and his friends.

    He heard the girls deep intake of breath, knowing everything was going to be just fine now when he realized that they hadn¡¯t known he was awake yet. Jack was enraged at what this man had just tried put them psychologically through.

    Wheeling towards the man, using his second sight to find his eyes, Jack opened his own eyes and let them shine like stars in the sky. The golden light filled the night, mixing with the green of the meteor still overhead feeding jack power as he spent it. The look on the Russians face was priceless, even the hardened gangster couldn¡¯t shield his fear of the display of power before him. The heat just from the shear amount of power he was channeling was enough to singe the closest thugs eyebrows. The hodgepodge of gangsters behind the Russian looked even worse for ware, some shaking, some cowering behind others like a two year old at their first day at day care. To top it off, if his nose was accurate, among the smell of the still burning store front, and hair, Jack got the distinct idea that at least one had soiled themselves.

    The Russian snapped out of his fear and as if trying to reprove himself as a hard gangster and tried rush Jack with all the power he had. Trouble was, Jack had his feet rooted to the ground with his gripping shields anchored down deep below the asphalt.

    There was no way he was making a step without Jacks permission.

    ¡°Here is how this is going to go,¡± Jack confidently projected for all to hear. ¡°My friends here and I are going to leave of our own volition with all of our gear, without a single scratch on us.¡± Turning to the girls, Jack motioned them forward and cut their bindings with one of his shield blades. Quickly they shook themselves loose of their would have been captors. Jack spotted the one that had been holding onto Sara, while getting uninvitingly frisky.

    Without as much as a movement of his hand, Jack bound the man to the ground like the Russian. Jack was disgusted by what he saw, the colors of the aura¡¯s before him where all so dark and twisted. These gangsters where truly horrible people. Unable to even begin to comprehend what heinous crimes these people have committed, Jack tried to steel himself for what he knew he must do to keep his friends and brother safe.

    Crossing to stand in front of the man that had uninvitedly caressed Sara, Jack saw nothing but contempt in the hardened criminals eyes.

    Fight fire with fire, Jack thought.

    Making a energy knife, this time levitating it in the air. Jack made a show of punishing the criminal. ¡°So is this what you like to do? Torture people with the fear of what your about to do?¡± Jack taunted, raising the knife to the man¡¯s cheek, he let it bite deep and mentally pulled it down in the same caressing motion Jack had seen him use on Sara.

    ¡°Well let this be a lesson,¡± Jack went on as he raked the blade down the mans arm, ¡°To all of you. You are not to follow us. Or try to ever harm us or anyone else again. I don¡¯t wish to kill any of you, but know that I can if I need to without so much as a thought.¡±

    The Russian began laughing at Jack. ¡°You barely cut one man, and expect us to be frightened? I¡¯ve taken shits scarier then you kid.¡±

    Jack smiled, ¡°Well I¡¯ll just keep trying then, Bryan, girls, you might want to come a little closer.¡±

    Quickly the girls and Bryan grabbed up their bags and weapons from the Gangsters and huddled behind Jack.

    ¡°This is no longer worth my time,¡± the Russian declared. ¡°Shoot him¡±

    Not only was Jack prepared, he had wondered why they hadn¡¯t tried that already. With a shield tightly packed around himself and friends, the onslaught came.

    Maniacal laughter came from the dark as bullets from what had to be at least forty different automatic weapons riddled Jacks shield. But with the direct link to the meteor above him, Jack had no shortage of power.

    Getting a spur of the moment idea, Jack tried something new.

    He no longer held a conduit to power the shield, he linked it to the meteor itself. It took an extra bit he imagined like a valve to regulate the flow of energy, but it worked like a charm. Nothing they threw at it could come through. With supreme confidence in his shield, Jack started his counter attack.

    Reaching up with his senses, Jack once again linked himself to the meteor. The wind slowly whipped up around Jacks huddled group.

    The energy of the wind was a lot harder to control then Jack had expected but as soon as he had the proper vortex of air, even at a slow speed, the pace quickly picked up. He had noticed when practicing throwing the energy knives that wind was something he could control as well. He had been trying to move multiple blades in a circle too fast and found it got easier as the wind in the room picked up and circulated.

    The gangsters all raised arms to try and block the wind and debris from stinging their eyes. Surely a little shocked that not a single bullet had gotten through to their target.

    They have no idea, Jack thought, but they will soon enough.

    The wind now was starting to push the gangsters around, many where trying to back up to escape what was quickly becoming a tornado.

    Well that won¡¯t do, Jack thought.

    With a little trepidation of what he was about to do, Jack reached into his second sight and located all the gangsters. Each one by an arm, a leg, a hand, a shoulder if they were lucky, Jack attached them in place with his gripping shields.

    The toll it took on him on top of creating the cyclone was staggering, but Jack was still holding on. He was no longer using any of his own power but the tingling burn of being a conduit for the meteor to do as he wished was taxing his body heavily.

    The wind speed was now increased to a point where the people stuck in one place by arms and legs where now flailing sideways in the wind like flags each from their own little flag polls. Gravel and shards of broken glass whipped through the cyclone, scratching, gouging, cutting at every inch of gangster they could find. Remorse for what he was putting these people through popped its way into the corner of his mind as he watched one Gangsters arm jarringly dislocate, without a doubt tearing ligaments in the process. But he looked again at the auras of Black, twisted with angry red, all surrounding grey clouds that ran into a black hole in the very center.

    Evil.

    And this was what he had to do if he was going to keep them all safe, he assured himself.

    Looking through the wind with his second sight, the twister was of a respectable magnitude, but seeing one of the gangster¡¯s arms starting to tear off at the shoulder, Jack thought it time to bring them all down. With a quick counter wind going in the opposite direction, the tornado of Jacks furry fell away. The roar of the wind was quickly replaced with the screams and tears of the tormented hardened criminals that now lay and hung scattered around the parking lot.

    ¡°Get the point now?¡± Jack remarked.

    The only reply he got was the groans of the masses. Jack released the gripping shields, dropping the rest onto the pavement. Jack canceled the stationary meteor linked shield he had held around the group to keep them safe, and motioned his friends towards the bikes, it was clearly time to leave. Un circling the carriages took longer than expected, but the thugs made no movement in their direction. Jack took in the sight of his brother and the girls as they got on the bikes. He could see the slight fear in his friends eyes, still taking in what had just happened.

    Just as they got sorted out, a crackling laugh again came from the Russian.

    ¡°You still couldn¡¯t kill me!¡± He exclaimed in triumph.

    Jack stared at him with pity and shook his head, ¡°You don¡¯t get it do you? I didn¡¯t even try to.¡±

    ¡°You.. no¡­ then what was all that?¡± the Russian stammered.

    ¡°A warning, and one I would listen to if I where you.¡± Jack coldly replied as he readied his petals to get moving.

    ¡°Jack look out!¡± Sara yelled pointing back to the Russian.

    Without even turning Jack put up the thickest shield he could as fast as possible. The Shot that hit it as he turned to look back at the Russian, felt like it could have come from an artillery cannon. Jack had just barely been able to stop the shell only inches from his chest.

    A .50 caliber hand gun? Really?

    But the Russian had just proved a point, this wasn¡¯t over yet. Not by a long shot for him. The only option Jack had left, he wasn¡¯t keen on, but knew it had to be done. Creating a dozen energy knives, Jack sent them flying as he turned his head, not wanting to watch the destruction that the knives were sure to cause. Without looking back, he guided the knives with his second sight. Alll he heard was the sloppy squish of all the now many pieces of the Russian hit the ground.

    Jack pressed the group to hurry along, heading north out of the parking lot, looking for the main street they had traveled the day before. With his second sight, Jack knew the other zerker was still there and was huddled over the pieces of the Russian as they left.

    No one looked back to see what happened. They knew they had to act fast.

    Pushing along, when they hit the road, Jack had them turn east a few streets. ¡°No reason to just give them a free shot at us showing them where we are going.¡±

    Everyone silently agreed. Other than Sara¡¯s yell of caution, the others where all being as quiet as mice.

    The silence scared Jack.

    He wanted to know what the others had thought about what he had done. What they thought about how he had treated Sara¡¯s attacker.

    He wasn¡¯t even sure how he felt about it. He may have gone to far, but it had kept them all safe. Right?

    But until the Meteor was far out of Jacks reach and the morning sun was up, no one said a word until they stopped for breakfast.

 Chapter 18

    Jack stopped his bike next to a light pole with a concrete base large enough for him to take a seat. They had been riding for hours. The sun was still on the rise but the heat of the day was already making itself known. Everyone was soaked in sweat. The pace they kept to get away from the gang was grueling.

    With murmurs and silent head nods, the others let Jack know they were ok with stopping in the church parking lot they had been about to pass. All happy to finally be taking a break.

    A large chain link fence, littered with different announcements and newspapers lined the parking lot, making for decent cover to stop for a quick bite. Getting off his bike, Jack found out the price of their pace. With legs like spaghetti that felt like they were on fire, he sat with his back to the reasonably cool concrete. He prepared to have the same somber breakfast as he did the morning before, Jack leaned back and stared up at the sky as he reached for a protein bar in his pack.

    Sara crossed to Jack, leaning her bike against the carriage he had been towing. Laying down her rifle, Sara sat next to the carriage and coughed, trying to get Jacks attention. At the cough Jack looked to Sara and she smiled lightly as he did and motioned for him to come sit next to her. Moving his pack To the side, he was too afraid to speak, he felt himself blush at the motion.

    Thankful for the companionship but still afraid of any conversation, Jack stared ahead awkwardly as she sat down right next to him. Sara sighed, and laid her head on Jack¡¯s shoulder once she was situated. Jack was shocked but tried not to show it, enjoying her closeness.

    ¡°Thank You,¡± Sara said, raising her head to look Jack in the eyes. Jack was confused, but she carefully kissed him on the cheek anyway. ¡°Don¡¯t give me that look, you saved me. You saved us all.¡±

    Lacing her arm through his, she replaced her head on his shoulder as they both stared at the sky. Just enjoying the moment.

    Bryan and Rachel joined the pair after getting their own bikes situated. Before Rachel sat down, she crouched on the other side of Jack and wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. Jack was scared for a moment as her grasp tightened, but Sara put her hand and Rachel¡¯s shoulder and her hold grew slack.

    Quietly, Rachel mumbled a thank you as she became racked with sobs.

    Jack had no idea how to react and held her tight to his shoulder as best he could, trying to comfort her. It was awkward and it was failing.

    Seeing that it wasn¡¯t stopping, Sara pulled her off and away from the boys, trying her best to console the now wailing and frantically waving Rachel.

    Jack could see it in her eyes, Rachel was finally having a massive breakdown.

    Sara was doing everything she could to contain it and help her, but there really wasn¡¯t much she could do. She was just going to have to be there and help her out. Jack sighed, glad it wasn¡¯t up to him to calm her down.

    Seeing the look on his brothers face, Bryan smiled and moved to sit next to him. ¡°I agree little brother, glad I¡¯m not Sara. That doesn¡¯t look good,¡± Brian said with levity in his voice.

    ¡°Nope, we¡¯ll probably have to wait here for a little while. At least it¡¯s off the road,¡± Jack remarked.

    Jack drank from his water bottle he had mounted on the bike, back in the store. Thinking of how hard it had been to actually find one, his eyes settled on Bryan. For the first time Jack noticed his brother seemed to be fighting with himself as if wanting to say something but not sure how. ¡°What? Jack asked.

    ¡°You know¡­ what you did back there..¡± Bryan started, ¡°That was incredible.¡±

    Jack smiled at that but grew concerned as he could see his brother was still fighting for the right words to say.

    ¡°But that was absolutely crazy!¡± Bryan finally blurted out, his face turning dark. As if a dam had sprung a leak Bryan went on, ¡°And not in a good way Jack! Those people are destroyed. When the dust settled from the wind, everything I saw was destroyed. People were cut practically to ribbons from flying debree, still screaming like they had been flayed alive. And those people you held in place by a hand or arm or leg, they¡¯ll never be able to use those limbs again, and that¡¯s not considering what all that pulling and twisting did to their spines. Why Jack, whyin the world did you do that?¡±

    Jack felt like someone had thrown a phone book and hit him in the chest going a hundred mph. He hadn¡¯t even looked at the Russians followers, had his twister really created that much damage? ¡°I didn¡¯t see any of that,¡± Jack slowly admitted, clearly disgusted by his own actions. ¡°I was just trying to protect us, they were going to kill us and do far worse to the girls! I didn¡¯t want to just kill them all!¡±

    Tears now freely falling, swallowing hard to keep the bile from making a reappearance.

    Bryans look softened at his brother¡¯s tears, he wasn¡¯t trying to intentionally hurt Jack. Bryan just wanted Jack to realize the reality of his actions. He was all for fighting, even the fact that Jack kill Jimmy''s cousin hasent really bothered him. But what Jack had done was torture. Dooming them all to either a painfull existence or excrusiating death. Moving closer, Bryan put his arm over his brothers shoulder in an effort to comfort him. ¡°But don¡¯t you get it?¡± Bryan explained, ¡°You just as good as killed them. They all are now freshly disabled in a world with no health care or medicine. It¡¯s a dog eat dog world now Jack, and all of those people that lived are now at the bottom of the chain, weak, disabled, disfigured. They¡¯ll be easy targets for others even if they do manage to collect things to survive on their own. Instead of killing them outright, You¡¯ve doomed them to a slow agonizing death instead.¡±

    Jack thought hard about his brothers words, picturing the gangsters in his head. Bryans words bristled him. Jack pictured the colors of the gangsters auras in his head and studied them in his minds eye.

    ¡°No bryan,¡± Jack stated, tears coming to a stop. ¡°You¡¯re wrong. Did I go overboard and cause them undue pain and suffering, yes, hell I watched a man¡¯s face as his arm was partially torn off. But short of outright killing them, there was no other way to handle them. You don¡¯t know Bryan, you can¡¯t see them like I do. Their colors, their auras or whatever you want to call them. These people had preyed on the weak their whole lives, thugs, thieves, murderers. Every single one of them was evil to their core, I could see it. Does that make what I did right? No, not necessarily. What makes it right is what they were going to do to us if I didn¡¯t do it. The girls were to be their personal rape dolls while they made us watch, all for them to be slowly killed in front of us and then it was our turn. I know this Bryan, I know this because they told me it what they were going to do. And if keeping that from happening means those people will live miserable and albeit probably short lives, I¡¯d say that¡¯s a fair trade off. Wouldn¡¯t you agree?¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    Bryan was in shock at his brothers words. He hadn¡¯t heard the Russians plans for them in the parking lot. All of it had been a surprise for Bryan. ¡°I had no idea...¡± He stammered, ¡°Is that really... it¡¯s no wonder you... How could...¡± And Bryan lost control of his stomach gagging as he splattered the cuffs of his pants with his half-digested energy bar and neon sports drink.

    Jack jumped away from the spray but was at his brother¡¯s side as his heaving started to subside. Rubbing his back in circles like their mother always did for them when they were ill.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be ok, have a tissue or something?¡± Bryan asked, while trying to shake out his shoes at the same time Jack quickly produced a travel pack of tissues from the bag he had been riding with on his back.

    ¡°Do the girls know?¡±

    Jack stayed silent, shaking his head in negative affirmation.

    ¡°Well let¡¯s not let them know. I don¡¯t think it would be helpful in the least for them to know all this. Besides, they were too afraid to watch in the parking lot and stared at their toes the entire time so I really don¡¯t think they saw any of the carnage either.¡±

    ¡°Lets keep it that way,¡± Jack agreed.

    ¡°Speak of the devils, Is everything ok you two?¡± The girls had slunk back over toward the parked bikes, Rachel seemed to be under control now.

    ¡°Sorry about that everyone and I¡¯m sorry for strangling you Jack. It¡¯s just been hard, you know? I¡¯m so worried about my parents. You guys and even Sara put up a good front most of the time, laughing and enjoying the travel like your still on vacation. It¡¯s just harder for me, I¡¯m normally on medication to help me with handling my emotions, but I only brought enough to the party for that night and the next morning.¡± Chewing her lip in indecision, finally Rachel gathered enough courage for the last of what she wanted to say. ¡°Beside from ADD, I¡¯m also diagnosed manic.¡±

    Jack took in what she was saying, it was big of her to come out with this to him and his brother. The whole trip so far she had been fairly tight lipped when she wasn¡¯t complaining.

    This seemed to explain that. Somewhat.

    Nodding his head in understanding Jack questioned, ¡°Manic depression or just manic?¡±

    Rachel looked to jack and answered, ¡°Just manic. Although it not really a suitable situation for the word ¡®just¡¯. It means all of my emotions at times are sporadic to extremes not just depression.¡±

    ¡°Hmm could be fun,¡± Bryan jested, giving Rachel a wink.

    Rachel frowned but saw the wink and relaxed slightly.

    ¡°No worries Rachel, we all have our quirks and problems. Both me and Jack have ADD and Jack, well, you¡¯ve met him. Kinda sad isn¡¯t it?¡± Bryan Joked.

    Jack scowled at Bryan but couldn¡¯t help joining in with the group¡¯s laughter at his expense. He was making Rachel feel better, its worth the jab Jack thought. ¡°Well I might be sad, but at least I¡¯m not green and pitiful like you,¡± Jack jibed back with a smile, ¡°How about we get eating? I really don¡¯t think we should break out the stoves and freeze dried stuff, another trail mix and granola bar breakfast?¡±

    Groans again rang out in chorus from his companions at his choice of breakfast. It¡¯s all they had had for breakfast since they had met. Bryan even turned a darker shade of green.

    ¡°Nope, I¡¯ve got a better idea.¡± Sara said, getting up and walking over to the carriage that had been behind bryan. After a few minutes of digging around the gear, she seemed to find what she was looking for.

    With a jubilant hop, she turned around and practically raced over the group. ¡°Here, I found these in the bottom of a pile of boxes. I really hope you like them, I took almost the entire box. Just pour about a cup of water in, seal the top and shake it.¡± One by one she tossed the silver freeze dried packs to each of them then plopped herself back down next to Jack.

    When Jack caught his, he couldn¡¯t believe his eyes. ¡°I can¡¯t believe you found these! These where my favorite growing up whenever dad took up back packing!¡±

    ¡°Freeze dried granola with wild blueberries?,¡± Rachels face looked like she was afraid it was going to bite her.

    ¡°Their amazing! You¡¯ll love them! Thank you so much!¡± Jack excitedly exclaimed, leaning over and giving Sara a big kiss on her forehead.

    Sara sat silent with a smile ear to ear, happy to have unknowingly picked Jacks favorite, face as red as cherry Kool-Aid as Jack kissed her forehead.

    Bryan smiled at his brothers exuberance, glad to see him perking up after the conversation they had before the girls came back over. His nausea was passing with the levity.

    Rachel was smiling as well but Bryan could see in her eyes that she still wasn¡¯t at ease.

    ¡°So by what you were saying earlier Rachel, you really think we can make it to the mountains by lunch?¡± Bryan asked, trying to keep Rachel in the conversation and thinking about finally making it to her parents.

    ¡°Yep! We won¡¯t be anywhere near our parent¡¯s cabin but we will at least be out of the city and be reasonably out of danger.¡±

    ¡°Reasonably? I like that.¡± Bryan Laughed.

    Frowning at Bryans sarcasm, Rachel was trying her best to stay positive. ¡°Yes reasonably. It depends on the shape of the streets but if its not too crumbled up and we don¡¯t have any other complications, we¡¯ll easily make it by then. We¡¯re looking for a small back road that according to the map will take up directly to Mount Baldy where Sara and my parents are.¡±

    ¡°Is it mountain road like the trail we found of hiking through the back woods or like the road that we walked on by jimmy''s?¡± Jack asked, trying to guage the terrain.

    Rachel looked close at the map, then leaned back and put her hand on her chin as she stared to the sky in obvious contemplation. ¡°It would be a paved road with only two lanes, one on each side. If I remember right, my parents used to take me on part of it as a kid because I loved the up and downs and twists and turns.¡±

    ¡°So not so ¡®strait¡¯ there I guess¡± Laughed bryan.

    Rachel stood and looked down at Bryan with a her normal scornful scowel that she seemed to reserve only for him as of late, ¡°No, it¡¯s not. It will be a lot of hills, gaining a lot of elevation and a lot of twists and turns. Will the big baby be okay?¡±

    The last part she said in the mocking voice like she was talking to a two year old she had once heard Bryan use on Jack.

    Sure enough, when she met Jacks eyes they where beaming with pride as he held in his laughter at his brothers expense. ¡°But, it is a road that is rarely used by anyone other than locals and it will get us out of the city sooner. Or would you rather stick around and see how many other people we can piss off out here?¡±

    Jack was liking the new boldness coming from Rachel. Even more so, the awkwardness it was causing his brother Bryan had him in almost a fit of glee. All Bryan could do was stammer out an apology and agree it was the best option.

    As they all finished there granola, Sara went around collecting the bags saying that she would find some way to reuse the resealable bags later. With everything put away, they all did a weapons check, making sure they weren¡¯t leaving anything behind and that the placement was right for ease of use while riding if needed.

    All set, they finally headed back out onto the road, now making sure to go almost due north east, hoping to make it to their proper destination soon.

 Chapter 19

    Jacks mind wandered as they road on.

    He unconsciously kept thinking back to being next to that camper in the Bass Pro parking lot. Flashes of the tornado he had whipped up kept running like a movie in his mind. Bryan¡¯s words still swam in his head.

    <hr>

    Did I gooverboard?

    The scene of one of the men that he had pinned in place by his hand flashed in his mind. Slowly he watched the man screamed in pain, projectiles ravaging his body as he slowly stretched out further and further with the wind. It was quite obvious the man had several dislocated joints and torn ligaments. The thoughts disgusted Jack, shaking his head he tried to remove them from his mind. Failing to do so, his mind shifted to the scene they were leaving the gang behind, when he killed the russian.

    He didn¡¯t see the damage he had caused, he knew he would have lost it in that moment if he had looked. It would have endangered everyone I had broken downjust then, he told himself. It wasn¡¯t out of cowardice, he thought. I had to do it. It wasn¡¯t murder, it was self defence. But did I really have to dismember the guy like that? Where did that even come from? Jacks head swam with questions and images, a single tear fell down his cheek. Anxiety was gripping his mind like a vice.

    ¡°Jack!¡± Sara called out, ¡°Jack! You are going the wrong way! We¡¯re supposed to go left.¡± Sara quickly called to Rachel and Bryan to stop. She easily turned her bike to chase down Jack who was now almost a block away.

    ¡°Jack! Snap out of it!¡± Sara yelled, concern clear as a bell in her voice. Grabing a small rock from the ruble strewn street, she launched it at jacks head.

    ¡°Ow, shit. What was tha¡­¡± As Jack looked around, he realized he was no longer with the group. Quickly Jack looked around in near panic searching for his friends and brother. The sight of Sara¡¯s concerned face brought him back from his near panic attack.

    ¡°You know you shouldn¡¯t do that when you¡¯re riding. We¡¯re almost to the mountain road.¡± Sara said. Seeing his confusion Sara tried to mask her concern and continued, ¡°Your eyes, they are rimmed with gold light again.¡±

    Jack was suprised at her words, without trying he had tapped his power again. How? He thought. I didn¡¯t even feel the ice.. His thoughts started to wander again as he realized how vivid it all was, like he was standing there now.

    ¡°Stop it! We¡¯ve gotta get you turned around and back to the group.¡± Sara scolded as she noticed his eyes closing again.

    Jack could tell by her tone that she meant business. With a nod, he started to turn around his bike and carriage. With the ruble strewn street this was easier said then done, abandoned cars and broken concrete littered the street. Some cars were burnt to the ground while others had been flipped like a hamburger. Once turned around, he and Sara quickly made their way back to the intersection Rachel and Bryan were waiting for them at.

    ¡°You okay there little brother?¡± Bryan asked.

    ¡°Yea just thinking too much.¡± Jack replied. In an attempt to cease any questions, he jumped in with his own. ¡°Sara said we¡¯re almost to the road. How much further once we reach it?¡±

    ¡°Well once we actually hit the road I don¡¯t really know. It depends a lot on how fast we ride and with the ups and downs it¡¯s going to be hard going. The good news is that if we are still followed, we¡¯ll be able to spot them and deal with them accordingly before they report back to whoever they are with.¡±

    Jacks eyebrows rose in surprise at her words. ¡°We¡¯re being followed? And I didn¡¯t even notice? I haven¡¯t seen a single sole the entire ride!¡±

    Bryan frowned at his brother, knowing his actions must really be bothering him. He was normally the better of the two of them at knowing their surroundings. With Jacks magic, Bryan didn¡¯t even think he was in the same league anymore. But he had missed it. ¡°It¡¯s true,¡± He started, ¡°We have passed about fours significantly large groups at other shopping centers. Most looked like they fortified themselves into larger stores and where trying to wait this whole thing out. One had bikes with carriages like ours posted out front, probably for supply runs. But there are people walking behind us as well. I¡¯ve seen three different people twice each since we broke breakfast.¡±

    Jack was shocked at his own complacency.

    He had missed it all.

    There will be time for processing later, he thought, now I need to get us safely to the mountains.

    Closing his eyes, Jack focused on bringing his power alive once again. I should have been doing this the whole time, he chided himself. Opening his eyes, he was happy to have his second sight come to his call for the first time without the meteor being in the sky.

    Quickly, he scanned the immediate area for life. Stray animals where abundant, especially in the homes and businesses¡¯ that lines the streets. Small and large, they huddled around mass¡¯s that Jack didn¡¯t recognize with his sight yet. They¡¯re eating, he thought. All the people that didn¡¯t wake up¡­

    Jack got a sinking feeling in his gut that almost made him loose his breakfast. Focus, he told himself, that¡¯s not what I need to find. Pressing his sight further, he found what they had been talking about.

    Three people, fanned out with their intentions focused on him and his friends. ¡°Found them,¡± He announced. ¡°They are pretty clever to. If what you said is true, it looks like each take a different street and they shift to keep us in the middle so they know when we make left of right turns.¡±

    ¡°You know what¡¯s been bothering me about it? How are they keeping up with us? Walking versus us on the bikes, even with the carriages we should have outpaced them long ago.¡± Rachel asked, truly confused at their stamina.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know but let¡¯s go a few blocks forward and il keep watching them to find out. They are all stopped at intersections right now so they can communicate where we are.¡± Jack said.

    Quickly they all set out down the road until Jack noticed something new and called stop.

    Jack laughed out loud at the people following them, ¡°There riding scooters, you know, like the kids toy.¡±

    Bryan laughed along, but the girls still held serious faces.

    ¡°What on earth is so funny about that? I¡¯ve seen kids in my neighborhood on those, they could catch us couldn¡¯t they?¡±, Rachel asked.

    It was Jack who¡¯s laughing subsided enough soon enough to properly explain, ¡°Ever ridden one?¡±

    Rachel¡¯s eye brows where up, half from confusion and half irritation and the scowl returned to her face, ¡°No¡±

    ¡°Well I¡¯m surprised they have tailed us this far. You see, one small rock in the front wheel and you go flying¡­ Trust me, I know¡± Jack replied with a smile. ¡°There is no way they could keep up on this road your describing.¡±

    Seemingly pacified for the moment, Rachel nodded and proceeded to ride on.

    Sara looked after her then back to Jack. Jack caught her eye and smiled at her with a shrug and continued on riding himself.

    Jack tried to stay more alert as he road, not wanting to be caught unaware again. His second sight was becoming easier for him to maintain little by little. Jack kicked himself for not thinking of this sooner and wasting time dwelling on things he can¡¯t change. The quiet riding provided time for Jack to test his senses, pushing his awareness out searching all around them. He found that at one time he could be actively aware of any possibility of danger with in a two hundred foot radius. Jack could push further, but at that point he felt the drain on his power was to much to sustain it for any long period of time.

    What amazed him where the differences in energy flow from manmade to natural objects.

    Riding along he quickly noticed that wooden doors and fences had only trace amounts ofradiance and larger concrete and metal modern buildings where devoid of any energy at all. Jack felt himself sliping from his awareness and sorted those thoughts away for another day to debate, he knew there had to be some sort of significance to it.

    As jack reestablished his awareness perimeter, he detected something large directly ahead of them. Before he could through his senses further, the call from Bryan confirmed it.

    ¡°Something is blocking ahead,¡± Bryan called out as the group approached a jack knifed tractor trailer in the middle of the road. Out of caution he brought the group to a stop. Bryan cautiously got off his bike and held his AR in a ready position. Slowly he peeked around the corner of the trailer, finally getting a clear view of the road on the other side. What he saw suprised him. ¡°The street is clear up all the way up to what looks like a wall, can you tell what it is Jack?¡±

    Jack joined Bryan next to the trailer and closed his eyes to help focus. He could still use his second sight with them open, it just helped when he was studying things out the range of vison for his eyes. Try as he might, Jack couldn¡¯t get a detailed reading in his senses. Something was... weird. Looking around himself he tried to find a way to get a better vantage point. The other side of the trailer was out, that put him in plain view of the wall. Jack took in his surrounding with his sight again and knew he was going to need to get higher up to try and see behind the wall. Focusing on that fact he thought of how his magic could help. If only there was a way to get up there, he obsessed to himself.

    All of a sudden, with his eyes still closed, he felt his view rising in the air, the sudden feeling of no longer being on the ground almost made him loose his concentration and slam back toward the ground. Ground. As he thought of it, it made him look down. What he saw finally made his concentration snap, he was looking through a gold mist down at the top of his own head. The realization barely hit him before he slammed back down to his body.

    Opening his eyes, Jack took a deep gasping breath as he simultaneously fell back to the ground in a heap.

    Bryan quickly knelt next to his coughing brother, concern marked his face. Sara came running as well but Jack was already lifting his hands to wave them both off. His head ached but it wasn¡¯t bad enough to keep him down.

    ¡°I¡¯ll explain later, but I have to try that again, hold on.¡± Jack blurted. Quickly he sat down, taking a quick sip of water that Sara offered, then closing his eyes and trying again.

    Jack couldn¡¯t help but be ecstatic, if this was the spell he thought it was, it would be huge. Beyond huge, he could easily scout ahead, find enemies, check on the others, find safe areas. This was he and Bryan¡¯s ticket to safely making it home. If he can get it to work.

    With his focus renewed, Jack quickly slipped into his sight. He tried to capture the feeling he had, lifting up out of his body. Jack pictured himself floating, just below the top of the trailer. Nothing happend. Knitting his brow and pulling on his power, he let it fill his mind. In a sensation he could only describe as odd, he could feel it collect around his brain and somewhere in his chest. Picturing those two parts of his body floating up he could feel it taking hold. He rose again, this time at a controlled pace. He knew now was not the time to experiment but he couldn¡¯t help feeling excited about it. He brought himself up to the top edge of the trailer. Moving forward was easier than up.

    Up ahead a blockade came into view. Cars stacked side ways three cars high stood pressed into the center of cars still on their wheels. Beyond the top of the stack, Jack could see the top of another car so he had to assume there were even more stacked to reinforce the first row. Wedged around and inbetween the cars was various scrap metal from sign posts and fallen traffic lights. Jack couldn¡¯t help but be impressed by it all, it obviously had taken a lot of time and manpower to create.

    Letting his senses spread out, he found that all the streets as far as he could sense had similar blockades. All along the blockade Jack sensed a presence of people spread thinly around the perimeter. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the blockade linked up to buildings and houses, all walk ways in-between had been similarly blocked. Whoever was inside had created a fortress of sorts, the precision in which everything was built was what bothered Jack. They must have a mage to, maybe a few, he realized.

    Shrinking back to his body felt strange. Opening his eyes and coming back to normal sight, Jack also realized that his powers must be growing, after all that he still wasn¡¯t drained of Magic.

    ¡°Looks like a Fort.¡± Jack said, opening his eyes to gaze upon his companions reactions.

    ¡°Alright, how big is it? Can we just go around it? We¡¯re not far from the base of the road.¡± Asked Rachel.

    ¡°As far as I can tell the blockades are up for at least 200 feet each side. By how much work went into it I¡¯m sure it¡¯s much larger. By luck or other means we¡¯ve managed to head straight for the center of the south wall.¡± Jack replied.

    ¡°We could go around it but I¡¯m sure they¡¯ll see us and the carriages. With our current luck that means they will come after us in an area that they are familure with that we are not.¡± Jack relied, quietly coming to a conclusion in his mind.

    ¡°You want to go through it don¡¯t you?¡± Bryan accused.

    At that, Jack nodded with a grim smile. Well, It would at least be nice to meet who did such a great job building that monstrosity, he thought to himself. ¡°Yep,¡± Jack finaly contended. ¡°Besides, it¡¯s probably our best chance at losing the scooter crew behind us.¡±

    Everyone just nodded silently and started to peddle. By now everyone, including Bryan surprisingly, was learning to trust Jacks judgement. They knew if it was really something he had decieded that there was no way of talking him out of it otherwise, no matter how crazy it sounded. But each felt confident in Jacks growing abilities, knowing he could easily protect them from just about anything.

 Chapter 20

    Causiously the group peddled onward.

    The street beyond the tractor trailer was surprisingly free of refuse. Someone had spent a lot of effort to get the last 150 feet to the wall returned to relative norm. Things were not pushed aside as would be expected, someone actually took the time to remove everything. Even the normal trash you would expect was gone.

    Getting closer, Jack sensed something move on the wall. He could see the siloette of a man. The aura was weird though. It wasn¡¯t like any of his companions. It seemed... suppressed. The closer they got, the more detail he could see. It was a middle aged man, grey hair peeked in on his temples while the rest of his hair looked like he had had a few rough nights. The look on his face said the same. When Jack was close enough he could swear the look on the mans face was one of sadness, or maybe regret.

    ¡±Hello the wall!¡± Jack yelled to the man.

    Bryan just looked to Jack with uncertainty. Something about this just didn¡¯t feel right to him.

    The man on the wall looked down at the four. The corners of his mouth dipped down, his eyes filled with what Jack could now see was apprehension and fear. With a frantic look at his surroundings on the wall he laid down on the wall and stuck his head over the edge as the four came right up the the wall.

    ¡±You must leave!¡± The man called down in hushed tones. ¡°It isn¡¯t safe here, just turn around and go!¡±

    The others all looked to Jack. If the man guarding the place was warning them off, what ever was scaring him could not mean good things for them.

    ¡±Maybe we should go Jack,¡± Sara whispered. Fear plain on her face.

    Jack looked at his companions concerned faces then closed his eyes. He activated his overdrive and tried to imagine where this was going.

    What could scare this guy so bad, he thought. He¡¯s got walls to keep people out that were obviously made by powerful people. To clean the street like that?Jack was sure had taken quite the man power behind the walls. Especially if every side street was cleared the same. It has got to be a ton of people. Or maybe it was just someone with very strong powers...

    ¡°Time to go,¡± Jack quickly and quietly exhaled. ¡°Go, go, go now,¡± the urgency in Jacks voice was clear. They all started waddling the bikes, trying get them turned around from a stand still. The girls waited while Jack and Bryan struggled to turn the carriages. Right as they went for the peddles, they heard a voice that stopped them in their tracks.

    ¡±Ah! We have Visiters! Garret, why didn¡¯t you signal? This is no way to treat guests!¡± The voice sounded like a sleezy salesman, dripping with deceit and showmanship. It reminded Jack of a late night infomercial anouncer that obviously knew the product was a sham. But it also held a certain chill that put Jack on edge. ¡°Where are you off to?¡±

    The girls and Bryan all looked up to see that the voice matched the man. He looked to be in his early 30s, wrinkles had started to form on his forehead and around his eyes. His long dark hair was pulled back in a pony tail, which didn¡¯t stop him from putting something in it to make it shiny in the afternoon light. He was a skinny man, not malnourished but there definitly was a lack of muscle. He wore a black sport coat with dark red trim with a matching pocket square. His black slacks were pressed and clean, his crimson dress shirt was unbuttoned almost a quarter of the way down the shirt, spotty chest hair peeked out in patches. Black and that dark crimson red seemed to be to color scheme of his entire get up actually.

    Jack glanced up and opened his mouth to respond, but Bryan beat him to it. ¡°Oh, us? We are just out for a stroll and saw your nice wall. We came to admire it, but we¡¯re done. Sorry to disturb you!¡± Catching Jacks eye, he nodded away from the wall and started peddleing away with the girls.

    The others all did their best to hide their confusion at Bryan¡¯s very out of character comment. Jack was beyond confused at his behavior but quickly understood what he was doing. He jerked the bike the last little bit around in a hurry, and started to peddle away with the others. The fact that he couldn¡¯t sense the stranger coming made his blood run cold. He was in such a rush he didn¡¯t even get a good look at the man with his sight.

    ¡±And where do you think you are going now?¡± The voice came again, the chill more prevalent then before.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

    Jack turned his head back towards the voice. He wanted to get a look at him with his sight and thought he could hide it in a wave goodbye. If he haven¡¯t been attached to the carriage he would have fallen over with shock at what he saw. Black. The aura around the man was a smokey pitch black, only broken with silver threads that whipped around the core like tentacles reaching for more darkness. Jack couldn¡¯t pull his eyes away, he was trying to comprehend what it all ment. Jack turned off his sight, not wanting to see the horrors that surrounded the man anymore. He took a second and really looked this time at his sharp angled face, something about him seemed familiar. He just couldn¡¯t place it.

    ¡±Jack!¡± Rachel cried.

    Jack had not been paying attention as he road and ran right into the back of Rachel¡¯s bike. It was just the right angle to manage to knock her off the bike to the ground. She tumbled twice then quickly came to a stop, her shoulder cracked hard against the curb. There was a loud snap that could even be heard from the wall. It was quickly followed by the ear piercing scream of pain that Rachel bellowed out. Sara stopped in her tracks, dropped her bike and ran to her side, Bryan followed close behind.

    Jack inwardly cursed at himself for not paying attention. Now Rachel was hurt and they hadn¡¯t gotten fifty feet from the wall. Or from the stranger.

    ¡±Ouch that looks terrible! Here, why don¡¯t you all come on in. I don¡¯t know if you know this, but our world has changed. I have a friend inside that can help heal that shoulder.¡± The strange man just smiled, watch everything play out right into his hands. ¡°Besides you must be exhausted after pulling such heavy carriages all day.¡±

    Jack turned to respond and was mortified the the stranger was now casually standing in front of there group.

    How did he get down here that quick? This is bad news.

    ¡°It¡¯s ok, I c....¡± Sara didn¡¯t get to finish her sentence.

    ¡°That would be great!¡± Jack chimed in. The last thing he wanted was for this creep to know about their powers.

    Sara looked to him with confusion in here eyes. Jack just suddely shook his head.

    ¡±Ah, wonderful, wonderful!¡± The grin on the strangers face was ear to ear. He even bounced on the balls of his feet ever so slightly, hands folded in front of his chest. Jack could only imagine his thoughts. With his mind in overdrive there were many things that this over the top showman could want from them. What scared him more was the fact the stranger didn¡¯t seem to be bothered by them all being armed to the teeth. He hasn''t even acknowledged it even.

    He is either very confident or very stupid.

    Bryan put his smile back on and approached the stranger, leaving Sara and Jack to tend to Rachel. Her screaming had stopped but the pain was so terrible she was wailing, tears streaming down he face. Reaching out a hand Bryan introduced himself, ¡°Thank you sir, I¡¯m Bryan.¡±

    ¡±You may call me Gorduck,¡± the strander proudly proclaimed. ¡°Lord Gorduck.¡±

    Bryan had to physically restrain himself from making fun of the man. If Jack had said something like that he would never in a million years let him live it down. Gathering himself Bryan shook his hand, ¡°Nice to meet you Gorduck, and thank you for letting us in your..¡± Bryan paused no knowing what to call it. This was Jacks thing but Bryan didn¡¯t want Gordy interacting with his brother at all. Besides, he wouldn¡¯t have to explain why his little brother was basically their leader. The less they had to tell this man the better.

    ¡±It¡¯s LORD Gorduck, and this is my Fort.¡± Gorducks condecending attitude shown through clear as a bell in his words. ¡°Well, a Fort for now at least. We will be expanding soon. Maybe if you stick around you will see.¡± His eyes glazed over as he said it, you could almost see him imagining what had to be his own kingdom in his head.

    ¡±Probably not, we are just passing through. We will be out of your hair in no time.¡± Bryan did his best to deflect Gordys comments.

    ¡±Sorry to interrupt here, but we really have to get Rachel to that healer. She¡¯s in some serious pain here.¡± Jack called out. He and Sara had gotten her upright and standing, Jack even made her a sling from one of his extra shirts.

    Lord Gorduck turned to Jack, irritation plain on his face. ¡°And who are you?¡±

    ¡±His brother,¡± Jack blurted, ¡°But we either need to leave or get her to your healer quickly. How do we get passed that wall? How far is the healer from here?¡±

    It was clearly visible that Lord Gorduck held contempt for Jack, he was careful to smile but his sneer still came through.

    ¡°Why right this way of course, and why don¡¯t you put her in one of your carriages there and we can all go together to the healer.¡± Lord Gorduck¡¯s eyes grew Black, instead of a glow it was like a black fog had filled his eyes and was just barely leaking through. Black smoke surrounded both carriages, bikes still attached, and rose in the air. Slowly they turned to face the wall. Gently they came back to the ground, landing with barely a sound. Gorduck shot a Cheshire Cat smile at Jack and strode over to Bryan¡¯s carriage. Looking back to the wall he climbed up 5e carriage and perched himself on the top.

    Jack quickly loaded Rachel on his carriage and Sara grabbed her bike. Heading toward what looked like a solid wall of cars and scrap, Jack remembered that they left Rachel¡¯s Bike behind.

    Lord Gorduck stood on his carriage and opened his arms, ¡°Welcome to my home. Open seasame!¡±

    Really? Jack though, you couldn¡¯t be the least bit original?

    With a lift of his hands, the entire section of wall slid up ten feet in the air. The screeching of metal on metal and clamor of small bits of metal shifting on the wall assaulted their ears.

    Dam, Jack thought, We are so fucking screwed.

    It seemed that Rachel¡¯s bike had now become the least of his worries.

 Update!

    More chapters are coming! Sorry for not releasing lately. Work plus the holidays matched up with running out of pre-written chapters has stretched my time pretty tight. Chapters are coming, just until January. It won''t be as often as they have been. Any tips or ideas for the villan or what the compound should be like, feel free to pm me or comment! I''ve really stuggled with these next few chapters so anything helps! Sorry again and as always thanks for reading!Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    -twin