Rogue (Exceptional) (5 page)

       “The water is actually pretty clear, also.  Easy to see through.”

       With a scowl Ally covered her chest with her arms.  “Who are you? Answer quickly and carefully or I’ll knock you twenty feet back without ever leaving the water.”

       The boy held his hands up and smiled.

      
Smiled!

       “Whoa there, tiger.  I’m not threatening you. It’s just been awhile since I’ve seen another Ordinary outside of my own family.”

       It was Ally’s turn to smile.  She wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, or the shadows from the trees overhead, but this boy was definitely missing one of her most important traits.  She tried to muster up courage and moved forward in the water, keeping her hands in place.  She watched the understanding cross his face as she moved closer, first shock and then worry.

       “Are there more of you?” He reached behind him and pulled a small black object from the waist of his pants.  Ally recognized it as a gun, but the kind that she had seen in the movies at Luke’s house.  It wasn’t large and long like the ones the Guards carried.

       “Easy, tiger.” She raised her hand out of the water and quickly used her abilities to flick the gun from his hand.  It had been something she was working on while she traveled south.  She had started with small objects, and moving them with her mind rather than obliterating them. It was just in the past few weeks that she had started moving large branches and rocks.

       The boy clenched his fists and stood his ground. “How many of you are there?” He said each word with purpose.

       Ally didn’t want to tell him about the others, in case it put them in danger, so she decided to leave them out of the conversation for a moment. “Just me.”

       The boy glared at her, trying to decide if he was going to believe her.  His shoulder dropped slightly. “My uncle will want to know about this. I’ll need to take you to him.” He almost seemed to be talking to himself.

       Ally didn’t plan on going anywhere with him, but she did want to get out of the water.  She also wanted to know more about this Ordinary.  He wasn’t from her settlement, but he must have come from another settlement. Unless….

“Turn around so I can get dressed.”

       “Yeah, and then you can use your fancy powers against me? I don’t think so.”

       Ally and the boy stared at each other, waiting for the other to break.

       “Compromise?” Ally suggested.

       The boy raised both his eyebrows. “What are you proposing?”

       “Eye contact.  Strict eye contact while I leave the water and dress.  If your eyes so much as drop one millimeter south I swear I’ll send you flying back forty feet, rather than the twenty I threatened earlier.”

       A crooked grin fell on the boy’s face, one that painfully reminded her of Luke. “Deal.”

       The process went slower than Ally would have liked, since she couldn’t break eye contact with the boy, but she finally got herself somewhat decent and was able to drop her gaze while she buttoned her pants and pulled on her shoes.

       Now that she was up on the bank and closer to the boy, she could observe him closer.  He was tall, tall enough that she was sure she would have to look up if standing directly in front of him.  He had a stockier build to him, but it was of lean muscle, muscle one could only gain from working hard days logging or farming.  Above his clear blue eyes sat thick, dark eyebrows, which matched his thick head of hair. The area around his cheeks and chin was rough with stubble.  He had to be in his mid-twenties, much older than Ally.  He was dressed in a tan colored sleeveless shirt, and linen pants that were cut off just above the knee.  Ally had never seen clothes like these in the settlements, or even in the City.

       “I’m Max,” the boy interrupted her observations.  He started to extend his hand but pulled it back to his side, seeming to think better of it.

       “Ally,” she responded.

       “I like Tiger better.”

       “What does it mean?”

       “It means….” He thought for a moment. “You know what, forget it.  You coming?”

       “I don’t think so.” Ally bent over and picked up the bucket of water.

       “Where are you going, then?” He ran his hand through his hair and peered up at her.

       Ally looked at the path she had followed through the woods, the one that led back to the others.  She didn’t know enough about this boy to trust him, but her instincts didn’t tell her that they were in any immediate danger.

       His eyes widened. “There are others, aren’t there.”

       “It’s not what you think,” Ally said as she looked back at him. “They’re Ordinarys.”

       “Ordinarys,” Max repeated. “Why are you traveling with Ordinarys?”

       His expression turned angry for a moment and Ally quickly picked up on what he was thinking.  He thought she was traveling with Ordinarys as her workers, forcing them to do her bidding.

       “They’re my friends.  We’re traveling south, trying to reach the City there.”

       Max snorted. “What City? All you are going to find the further south you head is less people, less food, and less everything else.”

       Ally frowned. “I’m going to leave now.”

       “No, wait.” Max reached forward and grabbed her arm. “Let me come with you.  I want to meet them.”

       His blue eyes sparkled as he looked down at her, and she felt a rush of warmth in her cheeks.  His touch was the most meaningful one she had felt since the left the City, and she couldn’t explain why.

       “Okay, but one wrong move…”

       “I know, I know,” Max interrupted.  “You’ll send me
sixty
feet through the air.”

       Ally awarded him a small laugh before turning back to the path. She hoped that Max proved to be as trustworthy as she believed, because the last thing she needed was more blood on her hands.

CHAPTER FIVE

Stosh was the first one to stand up, more like shoot up, at the sight of Ally and Max.

       “Hey guys,” Ally said casually. “This is Max.”

       The reactions that passed over her friends were mixed.  Stosh was weary of Max, at the realization that he had no chance in winning a fight should it come to one.  Sabine was flashing him a friendly smile, all the while clinging to Stosh’s side.  Cody seemed unimpressed, and Willow was pink in the cheeks, obviously taking note of the same good looks that Ally had noticed.

       Max raised his hand. “Hey.”

       “Max is from,” Ally paused. “Well, I don’t know where he is from, but I ran into him down by the creek.” As the words left her lips, she realized how naïve she sounded.

      
Hey, I know we really shouldn’t trust anyone we meet along the way, but I found this guy down by the creek, and I thought it would be a good idea to bring him to meet you guys.

      
Or not.

      “Ally, can I speak to you for a moment?” Stosh crooked a finger at her.

       She set the water bucket down by the fire and stepped over to her brother, who was still watching Max.

       “You’re telling me you found an Ordinary down by the creek, learned nothing about him other than his name, and brought him back to our camp.”

He kept his voice low and hushed.  Had Max been an Exceptional, he would have heard the conversation easily, but that was not the case.

       And when Stosh put it that way, Ally confirmed that questioning her decision-making abilities was the right move.

       She crinkled her nose. “Isn’t that exactly what we did with Cody, and then Theo and Flora?” At this point she was reaching.

       He sighed. “Yes, but we
knew
they were from the settlements after talking with them.  This is an Ordinary from the Wilderness, Al. We don’t know what he is capable or what he wants from us, because we have never dealt with this before.”

       “Then let’s find out,” she said with a nod and turned to face Max.

       He was perched at the edge of the camp, his strong arms crossed over his chest.  Now that they were out in the open, Max seemed bigger somehow.  Stronger, taller, and all around older.  His eyes were darker than before, and he was watching them with a rough expression.

       “You’re here,” Ally said. “Now what do you want?”

       “I told you, I just want to meet your friends.”

       Ally could see it in his eyes now.  He hadn’t believed her when she’d said that the Ordinarys traveling with her were doing so of free will, not being forced.  She laughed out loud and then shook her head, taking a seat by the fire.

       “By all means, question my captives.”

       Stosh shot her a confused look.  “Captives?”

       She smirked. “Max here thinks that I am forcing you guys to travel with me.  That I’m using my Exceptional abilities to make you do my bidding.” She waggled her fingers at her brother for effect.

       Willow snorted from across the fire, and even Sabine let out a small giggle.

       Stosh rolled his eyes and laughed with them. “Trust me, Max, we aren’t making this journey because we think it would be fun, but Ally isn’t the one forcing us on the run.  We are doing this simply to save our own lives.”

       Max stepped closer to the fire and let his arms drop to his sides. “You are on the run from the City, aren’t you?”

       They all nodded together.

       “There’s been an influx of Exceptional Guards in the area, coming into town to question us.  We knew they were searching for someone, but we couldn’t quite figure out who.”

       Ally bristled at the news.  “Did they say who they were looking for?”

       Max shrugged. “They didn’t speak much, just forced us out of our houses so that they could search us.”

       “I don’t like this, Al.” Stosh rubbed at his forehead. “I don’t trust him.”

       Her brother didn’t seem to care that Max was standing just a few feet from him.

       “We could offer you protection,” Max responded. “You think other Ordinarys haven’t come through this area, trying to get away from a life they once thought was perfect?”

       “We don’t need your protection,” Stosh fired back. “We’ve been doing just fine.”

       “Yeah, and what about the other two that came through before you? The couple with the matching blond hair and brown eyes?  They said the same thing, and walked away from our help.  We got news two hours later that the Exceptional Guards found them.”

       “Theo and Flora?” Cody stepped out of the shadow now, rubbing his hands together.  “You saw them?”

       Max’s stance was taut now; his arms crossed back over his chest. “I ran into them by the creek.  It’s why I was back down there today, seeing if any more of you would be coming through.  The boy refused to come with me and refused to listen to my warnings.  There is a Guard outpost just south of here.  They check every Ordinary that goes through, making sure they have clearance to pass.”

       “Clearance?” Ally asked.

       “Unmarked from the City,” Max responded.

       She rubbed the spot on her wrist where a microchip once sat just beneath the skin.  The spot where her mark had been before that.  Sabine did the same, as well as Willow.  Only Stosh and Cody still had their settlement markings.  Stosh hadn’t been in the City long enough to be implanted with a chip, but he might still be wanted by Aden and therefore recognizable. Ally had removed her own chip shortly after the escape, and had Sabine and Willow agree to do the same. It had been painful, but necessary.

       “Why didn’t Theo and Flora make it through then?” Sabine asked.

      “Because of what happened a week ago, the day they left us.  Somehow they must know.  Someone knows about our group, and they have descriptions of all of us,” Stosh responded.

       Max nodded in agreement. “So, will you come with me? We can help you get past the outpost, and continue on your way.”

       “How many of you are there?” Ally asked, still seated on the ground.

       “A little over two thousand.”

       “Whoa,” Sabine said with a gasp.

       She said just what they were all thinking.

       “That is a large family.” Ally raised her eyebrow.

       Max looked them over. “Does this mean you’ll come?”

       Ally looked at her brother, and then at the others.  They were all looking to her, waiting to see what her decision would be.  She knew they didn’t have much choice.  If what Max said was true, about the Guard outpost to the south, they would need all the help they could get with passing through; she didn’t travel this far and long to fail.

       “We’ll come,” she finally answered.

Max spent the night with them, using one of their extra tarps to make a decent tent under two branches. He had obviously done this before.  They left the camp early, setting out west rather than south. The dark circles under Stosh’s eyes told Ally that her brother hadn’t slept much.  She knew he still didn’t trust Max, and she wasn’t sure if she completely did either, but at the moment he was their best option for survival. If he turned out to be a fake, she knew one way she could take care of the situation.  Ally’s palms itched at the thought and she rubbed them on her worn shirt.