Going Wild (23 page)

M
aria clenched her fists. “What the—” she muttered. “I don't think they're cosplayers.” She began looking around wildly for help, but their path was deserted. “Come on,” she said, grabbing Charlie's arm and walking faster.

The strange-looking figures advanced quickly toward the girls, and Charlie had an uneasy feeling that whoever these people were, they weren't here to play nice.

“Device located!” said the middle one. “It's there on her arm!”

A gasp caught in Charlie's throat—they were after the bracelet! And it was in plain sight since she'd taken off her sweatshirt. It was too late to hide it.

“Maria, run!” Charlie screamed. “Get out of here!” The bracelet was warm, but Charlie didn't know what she was supposed to do—run? Or fight? She couldn't tell without looking at it, and she didn't dare take her eyes off the strange pursuers. She threw her backpack to the ground and raised her fists.

Maria grabbed the backpack and sprinted away as the three figures advanced and surrounded Charlie. The first one was tall and broad shouldered and extremely muscular. The second was
slight and lithe and stood as if she was poised to jump, and the third was of average size and seemed to be constantly moving.

“Hand over the bracelet,” thundered the first one.

“I can't,” Charlie said, raising her fists and trying not to panic. “It's stuck on my arm. I'd take it off if I could.”

The three figures simultaneously lunged for her. Charlie flailed, swinging both elbows wide, and caught the two smaller ones in the chests and in the faces, sending them flying backward. She kicked wildly, slamming her foot under the big one's chin. He reared back and fell to the ground with a thud.

“Cyke!” the small one hissed, but the man lay still. “Miko?” she called, but the other woman didn't move either.

Charlie turned to face her. “Leave me alone,” she warned, but her voice betrayed her fear.

The woman sprang up in the air and pounced on Charlie, sinking sharp clawlike nails into the girl's skin. Charlie yelled in pain and whirled around, trying to loosen the woman's hold, and punched her in the face. The woman dropped like a stone at Charlie's feet and didn't move.

“Sheesh,” Charlie whispered as she pulled her wits together. She hadn't expected to have to fight actual people like this. Pain pulsed through her, but she didn't have time to examine her wounds. By now it was clear that her strength power had activated. She hoped the healing would too. Quickly she turned as the third attacker, Miko, hopped to her feet and began
bounding side to side like a monkey.

Miko sprang up and grabbed the street sign, swung on it to gain momentum, then did a flip in the air, kicking Charlie in the face on her way down. Charlie recoiled, her eyes watering from the shocking blow.

“OUCH, you little creep!” she cried.

Charlie grabbed the jumpy attacker by the foot before she could slide away, swung her around, and flung her into a bed of prickly pear cacti. Miko screeched and rolled, trying desperately to pull out the dozens of needles that had pierced her bodysuit. The big guy, Cyke, slowly rose to his feet, shook his head as if to clear it, and galloped toward Charlie, his muscles rippling under his suit.

Cyke may have been big, but his reflexes were slower than the other two. Unsure what to do, Charlie ran at him, awkwardly threw herself forward, and kneed him in the stomach. He didn't even grunt, but Charlie's knee exploded in pain. Cyke grabbed her around the waist and held her away from him as she tried to kick him. Failing, she grabbed his thumbs and bent them back as hard as she could, squirming to get out of his grasp. He yelled and dropped her, and she managed to cuff him in the ear on her way down.

Charlie scrambled out of his reach, dragging one leg. Her knee throbbed and began swelling. “Come on, starfish power,” she muttered. She couldn't fight like this, and she certainly couldn't run. What was she going to do? She hazarded a quick click and a
glance at the bracelet, and saw that the climbing lizard was pulsing as well as the weight-lifting elephant.

Ah
, she thought. She'd almost forgotten about her newest ability, and since she'd been focused on her knee pain, she hadn't noticed the tingling. She moved farther away, limping, and spied a triple group of giant palms on the side of the church. Peering from between two of them was Maria.

Charlie limp-ran toward her. “They'll be coming soon. Get on my back and hang on.” Maria didn't hesitate—she leaped onto Charlie's back as Cyke charged toward them. With no time to take off her shoes, Charlie began climbing the tree with her hands, remembering what Mac had said about geckos only needing a single finger to hang on to anything, and desperately hoping the bracelet's lizard was a gecko, just in case. “I've got to start wearing flip-flops,” she said, grimacing as she climbed hand over hand, barely pulling herself and Maria out of Cyke's reach.

“I'd take off your shoes if I could reach,” said Maria, dangling from Charlie's shoulders as Charlie scrambled higher.

“Don't worry about that—just hang on.”

Cyke jumped and grabbed onto the tree, attempting to come after them.

“Yikes!” squeaked Maria. “Look out!”

But apparently Cyke wasn't a climber. He fell to the ground, snorted angrily, then reached around the trunk and began to shake it, trying to make Charlie lose her grip.

“Knock it off, you brute!” Charlie shouted, her lower half swinging wildly. She clenched her jaws and doggedly climbed a few feet higher. Maria's fingers dug into Charlie's shoulders as she tried to wrap her legs around her friend's waist.

Charlie eyed the church roof. Lizards could climb, but could they jump, too? Her stomach twisted. “Don't let go, Maria, whatever you do,” she said quietly. “The next time the big guy sways the tree toward the church, I'm going to jump to the roof.”

“
¡Ay Dios mío!
” cried Maria. “I can't watch.” She buried her face in Charlie's shirt.

“Just hang on. Ready?”

Maria gulped and tightened her grip. “Okay.”

The tree swayed. Charlie scrambled a couple of feet higher, her good leg helping to push them along. She gripped the trunk, and when the tree bent close to the building, she swung back and leaped with all her might, never taking her eyes off the rooftop. Maria stifled a scream.

Charlie's injured leg hit the roof first and collapsed. She screeched and reeled backward, hindered by Maria's weight. Their bodies slid down the tiled incline toward the edge. “Don't let go!” screamed Charlie, slapping her palms down on the roof. They stuck fast as her lower half slid off.

Her feet dangled.

Maria's legs lost their grip around Charlie's waist and flailed precariously.

Charlie grimaced as Maria's grip started to choke her. Slowly, gasping for breath, Charlie moved one hand at a time, pulling herself and her cargo up over the edge of the roof, until finally Maria could ease off Charlie's back and sit on the roof herself.

The girls were shaking and covered in sweat. Charlie lay on her stomach for a long moment to catch her breath, then struggled to roll over and sit up. She untied her shoes and took them off, then tied the shoelaces together and strung them around her shoulders in case she needed her shoes later. They peered down at Cyke on the ground below as he stared up at them.

When Miko came bounding from the cactus bed toward Cyke, Charlie groaned and moved to her hands and one knee, letting the other leg drag behind. “Come on,” she said. “That one can climb and jump. We've got to get up and over this roof before she gets to us.”

“Right behind you,” Maria said weakly. She followed Charlie up the pitch of the roof, then over the peak. She and Charlie got one last look at Cyke and Miko, and to Charlie's surprise the two began walking away from the church toward the road as if they were giving up. Cyke had his hand by his ear and appeared to be talking to someone. Beyond them, the woman with the claws was just getting to her feet.

“I don't know where they're going,” said Charlie, “but let's lose them now while we have a chance.”

They descended the other side of the church roof. After a quick
look around, Charlie gave Maria a ride down the wall.

“Be right back,” Maria said, hopping to the ground. She ran to get their backpacks from behind the palm trees where she'd stashed them while Charlie put her shoes back on.

A moment later Maria returned. “Let's keep off the streets and go behind the houses. And stay quiet—we don't know if anybody else is out there.” She carried both backpacks, one slung over each shoulder, and helped her friend walk. They went as fast as Charlie's injured knee would allow, following the walled backyards that were typical of newer neighborhoods. Charlie fought off the pain and tried to concentrate on getting to Maria's house, but she couldn't stop wondering who the strangers were, and what exactly was happening.

“That was insane,” Maria said finally as they sneaked through a common space a short distance from her house. “I've never been so scared in my entire life.”

“I thought I told you to run away,” Charlie said, trying to breathe through the throbbing pain.

“Like I'd leave you totally alone with those grunts,” Maria said. “Who were they? Why isn't your knee healing? And where the heck is Mac? I texted him three times to come and help us.”

“All I know is, they were after the bracelet.”

“But how do they even know about it? And how did they know where to look for you?”

“No clue,” Charlie said as they reached the sidewalk and
turned toward Maria's house a short distance away. “I hope we lost them.” She looked cautiously up and down the street to see if Cyke and his team were anywhere in sight.

“Oh no!” Maria said with a gasp. “Look!” She pointed to her driveway. A white van with tinted windows idled there, belching occasional clouds of smoke from the tailpipe.

Charlie's eyes nearly popped out of her head. “That's the van that almost hit you!” Instantly her bracelet grew warmer. “And . . . is that—another one?” she asked, incredulous, as someone wearing the same weird bodysuit got into the driver's seat. “That's not Cyke or Miko or the claw woman.”

Maria grabbed Charlie's arm. “Look!” she cried. “They've got Mac!”

A man and a woman, who were big and beefy like bodyguards, were carrying Mac out to the van. One of them handed something to the driver through the window—it looked like Mac's iPad and cell phone. They tossed Mac into the back of the van and slammed the door, then climbed in.

“What are they doing?” Maria whispered, horrified.

The vehicle backed out of the driveway and started down the road, away from them. “Mac!” Maria screamed. She ran out into the open and chased it. “Mac!”

“I'm going after them!” Charlie said. She took three steps before she remembered her knee, but it was feeling a little better, so she kept going at a fast limping gait. Maria followed her. A
moment later the outline of a head popped up in the back window.

“Mac!” Charlie shouted. She waved her arms. She put on an extra burst of speed, trying to catch up to the van, but she was no match for it in her condition.

The back window angled open at the bottom, and Mac's hand slid out through the narrow space, waving frantically. “Help!” he yelled through the opening.

“We'll get you out of there!” Charlie called, hoping he could hear her.

The van swerved, knocking Mac off balance, and he disappeared from the window. A second later someone came running out of a house toward Charlie.

“Charlie, stop! Hold up!”

Charlie turned to look. It was Kelly.

“What?” Charlie slowed to a limp, anxious not to lose sight of the van but unable to catch it. She bent down and checked her knee as she moved along, and breathed a sigh of relief. The swelling was going down. It was definitely healing—and fast.

“Stop!” Kelly said. “I saw what happened—I'm calling the police!”

That halted Charlie in her tracks. “Kelly, no! You don't understand what's going on. Trust me, I can handle this.”

“Don't be stupid,” Kelly said. “Somebody just kidnapped Mac!” Kelly held her phone, finger poised to dial.

“Kelly!” Charlie yelled, frustrated. She didn't have time to
explain. And for once she just needed Kelly to listen to her.

Maria caught up. “Why did you stop chasing them?” she yelled. Her face was filled with panic.

“Sorry—Kelly stopped me, and now I don't know which way they turned,” Charlie said. “But hang on—we'll find them.” She looked around, then dashed to the back of Maria's house. The other girls followed.

By the time Maria and Kelly reached the backyard, Charlie was already climbing.