Elevated (Book 1): Elevated (21 page)

“What’s going on?” Shelly whispers.

“He’s leaving,” I whisper.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about your powers,” Aaron says.

“Will you shut up,” Elliott says.

We dash across the atrium, Zach joining us on the grassy lawn and race down the hill to our car, which is parked in the forest nearby.

“Was worried about you, the fire truck just arrived,” Zach says. “Thought you were caught.”

“Would be hard to get caught, what with her super powers,” Aaron says in a huff.

We reach the car and pile in. Surprisingly, it starts up on the first try. Picking up the phone, I get a hold of Jex and tell him about Sapphire Ward. He tells us to meet him at the perimeter wall and gives us coordinates that Aaron punches into the car.

For a few minutes, the ride is silent as we catch our breath from the excitement.

Zach breaks the quiet. “The only thing I’ve been wondering is if you wanted to get zapped, why you didn’t do it on Elevation Day.”

“I didn’t mean for it to happen,” I say.

“How can you not mean for it to happen?” Zach asks.

“We might as well tell them,” Elliott says. “My ability is unlocking others abilities.”

Shelly’s eyes widen. “Really?”

“Yeah, I’ve got some sort of energy field that comes out of my hands and—well—I can’t explain it, but it acts like a blaster.”

“Fascinating,” Zach says.

“Frightening is more like it. You better stay away from me, Elliott,” Aaron says. “If you blast me, I’ll kill you.”

“It was an accident!”

“There better not be any more accidents,” Aaron says.

“Or aim them my way,” Shelly says.

“No way,” Elliott says. “I’m done zapping people. No good can come of it.”

“At least we can agree on something,” Aaron says.

“Everyone, look at this,” Zach says, pointing to his phone. “Police are investigating a strange murder that took place last night involving an employee from the GEMO Control Center, Wendy Silvers.”

I snatch the phone from his hand. “Wendy Silvers!”

Staring at her picture, I know I’ve seen her somewhere before. Then I remember. It’s the name on the I.D. I have in my pocket. Murder.

Jex murdered her for me.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“You don’t know Jex killed her,” Aaron says as he switches the car to manual and drives it into the woods. He keeps staring forward, refusing to look at me. He’s still not used to my power. I wonder if he ever will be.

In the back seat, Elliott studies the ID in his hand, matching it to the photo on the phone. “It’s the only explanation that makes sense.”

“You guys are crazy!” Shelly screams. “All of you! Let me out of this car!”

She reaches for the back door, but Zach stops her. “Shelly, stop.”

“You can’t kidnap me,” she says.

“Maybe it was faked. She got knocked out or something,” Aaron says.

“They don’t declare someone dead just for being unconscious,” Elliott says.

“They could be lying, the media covers up stuff all the time,” Aaron says.

“Or,” says Elliott, “you just can’t accept the fact that Jex is a psycho.”

Shelly grabs the back door. “You’re all psycho!”

Zach holds it closed. “We’re not the ones trying to jump out of a moving car.”

“You can’t keep me in here. They’ll catch you,” Shelly says, before pointing at a police car. “There they are!”   

It approaches fast. I grip the door so tight I’m afraid my skin will peel off. We pass the police car and my eyes stay fixated on the rear mirror.

“Don’t follow us, don’t follow us,” I think aloud.

Shelly spits a string of words I didn’t think she knew. Her whole body shakes as Zach holds her close. Very close. I’m starting to wish I had picked the back seat. I take deep breaths as the police car sinks out of sight beyond the horizon behind us.

“The smartest thing we can do is to keep going,” Zach says.

“Keep going?” Shelly asks.

Zach speaks every word with a heavy weight. “Suppose he is a murderer. What do you suspect he would do to us if we abandoned him?”

“He’s not a murderer,” Aaron says.

“No, he’s not.” I glance over at Aaron and see a smile on his face, though he still won’t turn his head back to me. Jex might be mysterious, but he isn’t a killer.

“We’re going to find out soon,” Elliott says. “We’re almost to our rendezvous point.”

The car zigzags through the dense woods, down an even bumpier trail than last time. The dips send me into my seatbelt and Shelly, Elliott, and Zach ricochet off each other in the backseat. A few bone-rattling minutes later, we reach the compound wall.

Aaron stops the car. “Ok, up and over.”

“I don’t see why Jex can’t sneak us through,” Shelly says, as we head out of the car.

“They have Scanners working at the border,” Zach says. “Want to make sure that no mutant animals get shipped back over.”

The giant wall of cracked concrete looms over the forest, a dirty patchwork of gray and black. I place my hand against the cool surface and follow the cracks upwards. It’s about 30 feet tall.   

 Elliott stares at it. “Won’t someone see us?”

“We’ll be quick, they don’t watch these walls anyway,” Aaron says.

Elliott shakes his head. “Probably because no one is dumb enough to climb over.”

I smile, trying not to think of the last time I watched Explorer Rob, and the mutant alligator that jumped up at his head.

“We had better begin,” Zach unfastens his wingvest and his wings unfurl like a blanket. “Shelly, you first.”

She nods and staggers over to Zach, who turns and crouches down, offering his back. She climbs on, wrapping her arms around his neck. His wings flap, lifting them both into the sky. She clings to him as they soar over the wall and disappear on the other side.

“Smart, letting her go first,” Aaron says. “She can’t run away now.”

Elliott stares at the sky, his lips quivering. “What are we doing? First murder. Now it feels like kidnapping.”

Aaron jerks his head towards him. “It’s not kidnapping if you want to go.”

“Feels like blackmail to me.”

“You honestly thought we could break a guy out of prison and go back to our normal lives? This isn’t a game.”

“You and Jex sure seem to treat it like one.”

Zach reappears from the other side and floats downwards. The wind from Zach’s wings whip up the dust and leaves on the ground.

“Who’s next?” Zach asks, a little breathless from the flight.

“Elliott should go next,” I say.

Elliott frowns, but doesn’t resist and climbs on Zach’s back. Zach takes off again, and I cover my eyes to avoid getting pelted with dust.

A breeze whistles through the trees. I would usually find this symphony of nature soothing, but all I see is my friend Aaron, staring down at the ground. He refuses to look at me. At his feet grows a patch of cream flowers, springing from the ground like giant ears of corn.

“Squawroot,” I say.

Aaron nods.

“Parasite. Takes its energy from that oak tree there.” I point at the oak, and watch as its leaves dance in the wind.

Aaron kicks his feet around in the dirt.

The silence kills me. He keeps moving the dirt around his feet.

“Are you going to ignore me? What can I say?”

He turns to me. “There’s nothing to say.”

“You’re going to have to accept it. I have powers. That’s all there is.”

“But you’re not going use them, I mean, after this.”

“I don’t know, Aaron. I don’t know.”

Zach comes back over the wall.

“Your ride is here,” Aaron says, as Zach lands.

“You first, I’ll go last.”

Aaron shrugs and climbs on Zach’s back. Zach grunts and lifts up a foot off the ground, then comes back down.

“You need to adjust your diet,” Zach says.

Aaron smacks his back and they both smile.

Heaving, Zach launches upwards, a little slower, and lot less elegant with the extra weight. As they disappear over the wall, it occurs to me why I keep sending the others before me. I’m scared of flying with Zach. Not that I’m afraid I will hate it. No. I’m afraid I will love it.

Zach returns over the wall, his wings glowing translucent in front of the sun. He flies down with the grace of a swan, turns, and offers his back.

My feet freeze to the ground, refusing to let me move. I’m lightheaded, probably from my heart, which  pumps faster than I thought possible.

Zach cranes his head around. “Rose, are you ok?”

“Yeah.”

The others wait on the opposite side. Jex will be here soon. I can’t wait any longer. Willing my body into submission, I pounce forward, landing on his back with a thump. He stumbles beneath me.

My lungs close in. “Sorry, sorry.”

“It’s ok, no harm done,” he says.

I grasp his wings, which are like fluffy pillows in my fingers. Before I can breathe, my eyes open to a view of the ground far below. The wind blasts through my hair, sending it into what I’m sure will be a tangled mess. For the first time, I don’t care.

As we reach the top of the fence, I have a stunning view of the Mutant Forest. The dense wooded area stretches for miles, with a small clearing at the edge of horizon.

Sapphire Ward.

I’m comforted by the fact it’s within eyesight. At least we don’t have far to travel. I lean back, gaining a new respect for the beauty of nature. It’s so peaceful up here. If I were a Flier, I couldn’t imagine wanting to land.

I stay clinging onto him, until I realize that we already landed and everyone is staring at me. Face flushing, I pull myself away.

My hands brush a few stray feathers that stuck on my pants, but catch one as it floats away. I sneak it into my pocket.

“So, I guess we wait for Jex now?” Elliott says.

Shelly paces, rubbing her arms. “He’d better come fast. Before something attacks us.”

Zach places his hand on her shoulder. “Nothing will attack us here. Animals don’t come right up to the perimeter wall.”

A rustling in the bushes causes us to jump back.

“What was that, Zach?” Aaron asks.

A squirrel pops out and stands in front of us. Shelly screams.

It stays there, glaring at us.

“It’s going to kill us!” she screams.

“It’s just a squirrel,” Zach says.

Shelly crouches down on the ground, curling up into a ball. “What if it has powers?”

“It can’t,” Zach says. “Squirrels don’t live that long. Mutant animals are all over 40 years old. Mutants don’t reproduce mutants, remember?”

Shelly picks herself up and wipes the dirt of her clothes. “Excuse me if I don’t know the lifespan of squirrels.”

“What about tortoises?” I ask, pointing at one creeping over to us.

“That’s a problem,” Zach says.

We scamper away from it, and I can’t help but feel stupid running away from a tortoise. Then I remember the Silencer locust and sprint faster.

We run a few yards and turn to find the tortoise gone. I hope he wandered back into the woods. The four us brace ourselves against the perimeter wall, jerking our heads back and forth for any sign of activity.

When I catch my breath, I scan the forest. “There’s a car coming. Probably Jex.”

We sigh in unison.

“We don’t tell him,” Zach says. “We don’t say anything about the murder. We play ignorant.”

All of us nod.

The distant sound of a rattling car gets louder until a huge white truck pulls out in front of us. Jex climbs out.

“Sorry I’m late,” he says as we dash into the car.

I grab the middle seat and Elliott sits next to me. Aaron, Shelly and Zach take the back. Elliott slams the door closed.

Jex takes the front seat. “Are you running from something?”

“A tortoise,” Shelly says.

Jex lets out a huge belly laugh.

“It’s not funny,” Aaron says. “How do we know what kind of crazy power it could have?”

“Maybe because the government never experimented on tortoises,” Jex says.

We turn towards Zach. Shelly punches his arm.

“That we know about,” Zach says. “You can’t be too careful.”

Aaron grunts. “The government should have blasted them to bits in the first place.”

“Ah,” Jex says. “But without them, would Sapphire Ward have been so inescapable?”

It makes perfect sense. Releasing the animals by the highest security ward would have been extra protection if an Unsound happened to get loose.

I leaned forward in my seat. “But how did they get over here? The people who worked the ward, I mean?”

Jex points outside the window. Above us is a concrete tunnel supported by pillars. “Electric rail. Fancy huh? Out of service for years. Supposedly.”

Elliott climbs up behind me to peer out the window. “Supposedly?”

“If it’s out of service, why are the lights on?”

A series of lights run along the entire tunnel, still glowing.

“Maddock,” I say.

“Bingo.”

The truck pounds its way through the forest. We hug the train tracks, taking advantage of the foliage carved out by the construction. I’m admiring some beautiful flowers out the window when the car lurches to a stop, knocking my head against the front seat. My fingers rub my throbbing head.

“Sorry guys,” Jex says. “Hit something.”

He steps out to examine the front of the car. I lean over to Elliott, who clutches his arm.

“Are you ok?” I ask.

“Yeah, just jerked my arm a bit.”

Shelly whines from the back seat, “My neck is killing me.”

Aaron is fiddling around, fingers twitching. “Can we get going?”

“Calm down,” Zach says.

The sound of a gunshot drums through my head, making my headache even worse.

“What was that?” asks Elliott.

Jex climbs in, throwing his gun on the seat. “Think I scared him away.”

Aaron’s voice trembles. “Him?”

Jex reverses the car and we follow the train tracks again.

“What was it, Jex?” Aaron asks again.

“You don’t want to know,” Jex says.

A loud thump on the roof sends me into my seatbelt. There’s a pitter-patter from above. Something is crawling around up there.

“I think we’re about to find out,” Elliott says.