Escape From Thera: Chapter 8

We slowed down, spiraling around the smoke. I could hear gunfire and even more explosions. These were smaller than that first one and had a metallic ring to them. Like coins bouncing against a coin counter. It was weird. We landed on the street and we both leaned around the edge corner at the fight.

They were in a cone aiming at a dumpster. The bullets kept bouncing off them and at first I didn’t get who they were shooting at but then I saw it. A small flash of grey hair followed by the whistling sound and an explosion at one of the locations. They shouted as they were blown away. That took their numbers down from five to four.

I glanced at Alice and slowly signed, “Go. I’ll watch your back.”

She nodded turning invisible while I drew my bow and knocked the arrow. Stepping onto the street I loosed an arrow and it barely missed. It hit against the wall beside one guys head. I still needed to get better at this. Then again, my hands weren’t exactly steady. Too much going on in the past hour.

Shaking my head. I ducked out of sight and heard the bullets whizzing past. Only a few so maybe the rest didn’t get the memo. I think I could deal with just one guy right? Just gotta stop the bullets with magnetism. No pressure.

Taking a really deep breath and hoping I wasn’t about to be boned I held my hand out pumping magnetic fields out. I could feel it like a shield around me separating part of the world from me. Just a shade off from the normal.

The guy started firing at me and I winced, closing my eyes. No burning searing pain so I figured things were working well. I looked and saw that the bullets were hovering in the air. A few feet in front of me.

Holy shit it worked.

It was like holding my breath. Keeping them there left a strain on my mind that hurt, like an aching burning sensation on the back of my head. Now what did I do? How did I make this work to my advantage? If I could stop bullets, maybe I could send them back.

Narrowing my eyes for a moment I pushed at the little bubble that surrounded me. I shoved it outward and felt force in every direction. The cars jerked behind me and flipped over. The dumpsters echoed around and the bullets flew back to their sender taking him down with dull thuds.

Another man cried out and I was pretty sure that was Alice doing her thing. Which meant there were two left. “Fucking mutants!”

“Yeah they know about us.” I said to myself and chuckled as I ducked down behind a stoop. The concrete made for better company than any of these nearby dumpsters. I drew another arrow and turned around the corner raising it up.

A man jerked upward raising the gun. They aimed but an explosion behind them threw them off a bit. I fired first and this time I didn’t miss. Hit him in the eye and took him down. I could still hear him screaming as I ducked forward and kept going. I passed by him and with a flick of my wrist whipped the arrow from his face.

The gore and final scream made me cringe.

Killing was one thing. Really weird torture was not on my radar. Knocking the arrow I tried to regroup, feeling for Alice. I heard a soft tinkling of metal on the ground and glanced down. A ball was resting there, metal. Except it wasn’t a regular ball. Oh shit.

I ducked back toward the stoop and next thing I knew it was being launched into the air with an explosion of bright orange and red. The boom was ringing in my ears and I fell over thinking I had a wall to support me. Narrowing my eyes I tried to stand again but I had a gun pointed to my forehead suddenly. The last of them. Snuck up on me after the grenade went off.

Bastard. Granted I did mess it up a little.

Let’s just close the barrel of the gun and block the possible bullet and I’d be good right?

“Fucking mutants. Better off killing you all.”

But he didn’t get the chance. Instead he was blown away by an explosion with a metallic whistle behind it. Wincing from the explosion I stared at the empty space where the guy once was. Now he was kinda in pieces over there. Over there. And up there.

Scrambling to my feet I balanced on my bow and grunted. Hurt my side from the fall along with my hand. Waving it out back and forth I was brought to my feet properly. I glanced at Alice as she came back to visibility.

“Was that you or our new friend?”

She turned her masked face toward the dumpsters and a grey head popped up. He was glancing around but noted that all the men with guns were long dead. He hopped over the dumpster and held up his hand, poised as if he were going to snap his fingers at us.

He was about my height. So many short people in one place. Go figure. He had grey hair with orange roots underneath. He was wearing the tattered remains of a jacket and jeans. His arms had the remains of former scratches and his eyes were somewhat sunken. His skin was tanned dark but more like he was once pale and got scarred by the sun. His eyes were green like mine. He had broken chains on his ankles and wrists.

“Alright. Thanks, I guess? That was you getting rid of them, right?”

“Yeah it was.” I said lowering my bow slowly.

His face changed though when he looked past me. It broke into a huge O shaped mouth and then a grin. He started to move forward but checked himself and spread his arms wide. “Holy shit. You’re still alive out here. I never thought I’d see you again.”

I turned to Alice and her body stiffened entirely. She stared ahead but she looked uncomfortable. I put a hand on her shoulder before stepping in front of her. Alice touched my shoulder and walked in front of me toward him. She sheathed her machete and then hugged him.

He hugged her back and started laughing. “Alice. It is you. Wow.” His laughter was mixed with something like tears but he didn’t go overboard with it. I was so confused by this but I let off a lopsided smile and put the arrow back in its quiver.

“So you gonna explain who you are?”

They separated and Alice looked between us before nodding at him. She waved her hand pointing from him to me and then rolling it at the wrist. But she looked at me and signed slowly, “He’s friend. From. Before these.”

Trey looked at her and me raising his eyebrows, “No idea what that was but my names Trey. Me and Alice here were both captives of Duncan. Real asshole. Has a thing about finding people with powers, starving them then making us fight for his and his people’s amusement. Me and Alice here were both unlucky participants of this games.”

“You guys knew each other before this?” I asked and motioned to the world around me.

They both shook their heads. “Nope. Just found each other after getting caught by him. There were a lot of us back then.”

“Were?” I asked.

“Duncan had a habit of killing those that didn’t perform often enough. Or if he bet on one of us and we lost” He dragged his thumb across his throat. “Instant dead.”

I shuddered. Not because of how easily he said it but because of the way his eyes were. There wasn’t a glint of humor. Just cold facts behind a resigned smile. I shook my head slowly and then looked at Alice.

“Is Duncan the guy who did that to you?” I signed slowly. Alice was slow to respond but then gave a quick nod. Gripping my bow tightly I mumbled. “Fuck.”

“Duncan’s a fucking monster and I’m glad I got out.” Trey said.

Alice tapped on his shoulder and he glanced at her. She signed asking, “Where is grumpy.” She said then slowly signed out, “S-E-T-H.” But looking at his blank expression and then her own hands she looked at me helplessly. I smiled and repeated what she said adding on, “I’ve been teaching her ASL.”

“Cool,” He smiled but frowned and put his hands on his hips. “No. Me and Seth got separated. Told me to keep going and he’d catch up. That was the last time I saw him. That was a day ago. A day and a half maybe. Fuzzy. The goons have been chasing me since then.” He motioned toward the guys and shrugged. “I want to go back. I need to know if he’s alive still.”

Turning to Alice he spread his arms. “I’m asking because he was our friend. Can you help me? With your power’s we can sneak back in then break out.”

Alice looked past him and at me. There was something about the way she was looking at me. She started moving her hands slowly, concentrating. “He’s friend. Can’t abandon. You don’t,” she struggled before manually signing. “N-E-E-D to go.” I smiled awkwardly showing her how to say ‘need’ and then sighed looking at Trey.

“Alice wants to help. And I can’t let her go alone.”

“Really?” He arched his eyebrow, surprised. “Did you say all that with your hand sign stuff?”

“Yeah. I can show you some basic stuff.”

“Definitively. Better than trying to play charades,” Shaking his head he stretched his arms above his head slowly and then grunted. “Alright. So, here’s all the information I got on the situation.”

He walked toward the wall and sat pointing at in the distance. “I came from over there. Somewhere near old century. The arena that they made for us is in the park but the place they keep us captive is in the station. Dozens of guys with guns watch over it. Getting in wouldn’t be that easy but with Alice that should be pretty easy. Duncan’s an asshole and since I got out, he’ll want to make an example out of Seth for the rest of them. What do you do by the way?”

I pointed toward the dumpsters. It jerked at my pull and then slid toward me hard. I leaned against it folding my arms. He stared at me and pointed between the two. “Alright, so telekinesis?”

“Magnetism. But close.”

“Cool!” He laughed clapping his hands. “But since Alice can only turn herself invisible, we’re gonna have to find our own way to sneak in.”

“Actually,” I jerked my thumb at her and she walked over turning us both invisible. I still couldn’t get used to not seeing myself anymore. Just seeing through it all. “She’s got a few new tricks since you met her.”

“Holy shit. Alright, so this is looking way more feasible than I first thought.” He laughed clapping his hands. “Alright. So, here’s my plan. I just threw this together right now. We’re going to all turn invisible. Sneak past. See if Seth is still alive. If he is we get him to help us get out of there. And hell, let’s get the rest of them too. Why not right?” He tossed his arms up and laughed.

“What stopped you guys from escaping before now?” I asked arching my eyebrow.

“Trust me, some have tried. But they get killed a lot. Alice was the last person to really try and well. No one was eager to rise up again.” He motioned toward her and his face fell. My heart ached as I looked toward Alice. She didn’t seem like she wanted any of that sympathy from us and urged us to move on.

“Right. Well let’s make sure no one else has to deal with this Duncan guy again.”

Trey laughed, “I just wanna rescue Seth. Anything after that is gravy. You feel me?”

I laughed simply because of how he talked. “Yeah. I feel you.”

It must have sounded as awkward as I thought because he laughed and pushed himself to his feet. “Alright. If we start moving now it’ll be night by the time we’re there. Which should make this whole thing easier on us.”

Alice nodded and I agreed as well. He started walking toward the street and we fell into step behind him. I debated on bringing the dumpster board with me but decided against it. It served its purpose and right now it’d be too troublesome to carry around. So, make do with nothing for the time being.

I glanced at her and signed at her slowly, “When did you escape? How?”

She looked at me frowning hard and finally said, “After these. I escaped. Thanks to my gifts. I wanted to go back. But I didn’t. Making up for that now.”

I looked at her hard and then walked over and squeezed her hand. I whispered near her head and said. “You didn’t abandon them. I know you’re thinking that. You made lemonade with some really shitty lemons. And now here we are.”

She looked at me and glanced away closing her eyes. She took her hand back slowly and signed slowly, “Thank you.”

The walk through the street was slow but it went by quick because Trey was a chatterbox. He used to live here and he talked about all the streets we passed. Trouble he used to get into before the meteor. Girls and boys that he’d made out with at parks, restaurants, bathrooms, and vacant lots. The illegal things he’d done here and there for a quick buck. The brother he’d lost to gangs and the sister he watched get accepted into high school.

I didn’t notice the sun going down as he spoke nor the refreshing feeling of just having another person to talk to. Alice was great company in every regard but there was something about having another voice in the chorus that I just couldn’t get past. Alice seemed to be okay with all, just going with the flow of both conversation and the walk. She did sign some comments my way that made me giggle that I refused to translate for Trey.

I kept looking at her, to see if there was some sign from her or thought process about all of this but she was for the most part focused ahead. I kept thinking about the scars beneath the bandana but she was still Alice at the end of the day. Something about that simple fact helped to think about it.

We walked out of another alley and that’s when I saw it. The stone steps, the broken pillars of the library, and the stairs that led to the underground train station. Centaury station right there. I’d taken that train to and from my suburban home so many times.

The moon hung in the sky, light washing over the streets. It made seeing things around here easily but it meant trying to sneak in was pretty risky considering we’d get caught on the first mistake. There two armed men standing in front of the steps though. They looked similar to the guys that visited our apartment. Made me wonder how bad it would be inside the station.

“Do Duncan and his guards sleep inside the station?” I asked glancing at Trey.

He nodded. “They sleep up in the shopping area. It’s a decent sized digs. But we were kept in the tunnels. Usually abandoned train cars that were watched by rotating guard cycles. Some times as punishment you got abandoned in the tunnels themselves. Big no no. The big freaky bone guys were in there. Or you just starved to death.”

“Super mutants,” I said to myself more than him.

“Super mutants?”

“Well I figured we got mutated by the meteor. So, if we’re regular mutants then those things are a super mutants.”

He laughed, “I guess that’s right. Better than most of the names we came up with in the train cars.”

“Let’s go over the plan one more time for good measure,” I said never taking my eyes of the guards. They were talking to each other though I couldn’t hear them. Jostling back and forth one of them shoved the other and it looked like they were laughing but I couldn’t really tell.

“Well before I was gonna make some noise and a distraction. Then you guys sneak past. But since we’ve got super sneaky Alice, let’s get their attention somehow.”

“There’s a lot of cars. I can probably mess with them from here. Make some noise.”

“That sounds like a good idea.” He said. “Great actually. So hopefully they take the bait and leave their post for a bit. Alice then can turn us invisible and lead us to the stairs. From there we skulk into the tunnels.”

“That works for me,” Alice signed to which I repeated.

“Do you remember which train you guys were in?”

“Yeah. We get migrated between trains every other night. They’ve probably moved by now and beefed up some security since we escaped.” His voice hitched and he frowned. Alice put a hand on his shoulder. “Thanks. I’m worried about him.”

She nodded her understanding and turned to looked at me and signed slowly, “They’re really close.”

I nodded in understanding and looked at Trey, “Once we find Seth we go back out the way we came?”

Trey shook his head. “That’s plan B. Hopefully though we can use plan A.”

“Which is?”

“Seth is a teleporter. Pretty good one. Distance is a bit of an issue for him though. And he can’t make too many jumps in a row without burning himself out.”

“And that’s not telling how far he can go with a bunch of us now.”

Trey nodded slowly and sighed. “Hopefully he can pull it off. I know he can do two people almost no problem, that’s how we got out. But all four of us might mean only one jump if we’re lucky.”

“So let’s not get caught. Gotcha. That’s the plan for us all. Think we can handle that?”

Everyone nodded as I looked at them and I looked down the street. Empty as can be. The guards hadn’t moved either. Me and Alice both took off our bags and put them in the corner mostly out of sight. Reaching out to the cars in the distant I started to give them each a shove, hearing the metal screech as it was pushed across the ground. I pushed them harder, having to raise my hands. The screeching echoed in my ears but let it go as I took a deep breath.

All of us looked at the guards who now had guns up looking back and forth between each other. They started walking forward slowly their guns up high. This was our chance. Holding out our hands Alice took both of them and we turned invisible. I was getting a little more used to this feeling.

I heard Trey swear and knew it was bizarre for a first timer. Alice took the lead and with some guidance we walked together. Stepping around a trash can at Alice’s urging, we kept going into the street itself. The cars weren’t too much in the way but it was the cracked ground and debris causing trouble.

With her help, I as getting the hang of my spatial awareness. She would squeeze my wrist to stop and tug hard if I needed to step over something. A twist meant to speed up and a tap to slow down. I could guess where my foot was going and how close everything was. Being invisible wasn’t a hazard anymore.

We made it all the way to the stairs without any problems. We looked down the staircase and it was empty with a touch of dark. There were some lanterns sprinkled around granting light but not enough. I frowned for a moment but I felt her moving in front of me, lightly tapping my wrist. Slow easy steps as we went on the stairs.