Barely Human

Chapter 27

Hey. it was brought to my attention that the last tow chapters were out of order. hopefully this fixes some of your confusion.

Chapter 27

“Hold on,” Jason says putting his hands up. “You guys know this kid?”

“It’s a long story,” Sam explains.

“We have time.”

“I’ll tell you later then.”

Sam, Jason, and I stand in a small circle around Adam who is still pinned to the ground by Lillie. I can honestly say that I never thought I would see him again, let alone find him trying to kidnap a small girl.

“I can explain,” Adam pleads from his spot on the ground.

“Not here,” I say. “People are staring.”

“When don’t they? It’s not every day you see someone running faster than the speed of light. Or, for that matter, someone floating down from the sky with a group of kids behind him,” Jason laughs. “But yeah I get your point.”

Jason spins around and walks toward the group of kids he “floated down from the sky” and says something to them. The all jump up immediately and start laughing in excitement. I turn back to Lillie. “How are we going to get him to come with us?” I ask gesturing at Adam with my head.

“Oh he’ll come don’t worry,” she hisses. Slowly, Lillie climbs to her feet. She then kicks Adam and tells him to get up while keeping the arrowhead tip of her tail pinned to his neck. “So are you guys ready?” she asks cheerily once both she and Adam had climbed to their feet.

“It’s not me you need to ask,” I say.

“Well I’m ready to get out of here,” Sam says.

“How about Mr. Popular over there?”

“Not too sure about him.” Sam walks toward Jason and the group of kids. He says something to Jason and soon they are walking back towards us.

“So I can carry me and the kids to wherever it is you want to go. I’m assuming Lillie can teleport herself and that guy. And you two can just fly with me,” Jason says. “Does that work?”

“Sure. But where are we even going?”

“I have a place in Georgia,” Sam says. “Though that’s on the other side of the country.”

One of the smaller children in Jason’s group speaks up. “There is a safe house that me and my friends made before we got taken by the crazy people. It’s up north in Washington,” he says in a small high-pitched voice. The kid can’t be more than seven or eight years old.

“Thanks man,” Sam says. “Lead the way.”

Jason starts floating into the air and so does the group of kids with him. Lillie and Adam disappear in a puff of smoke and Sam picks up Danni before taking off. Soon enough I have joined the group and we are off.

***

“Are you sure you know where we are going kid?” Jason asks after we have been flying for three hours.

“Yeah it should be just over the border,” the kid, whose name I found out is Tate, says. “I’m sure it’s still here.”

“Okay we’ll go for a bit longer. Then we have to find Lillie.”

We left California about an hour and a half ago and just crossed the border into Washington. Honestly I was just hoping for a rest. Not that I’m tired physically but mentally I am drained. In the distance, I can see the sunset over the tips of the mountains that have come into view. It reminds me of the rest of the world and how they are just going about their normal lives without a care in the world. I envy them.

“There it is!” Tate shouts. He points at a small clearing in the otherwise tree-covered landscape. “In that clearing.”

I’m not sure how exactly he can distinguish this particular clearing from the rest of them but I’m not going to argue.

I start to descend as does the rest of the group. “Wait here,” Sam says to the rest of us when we are no more than thirty feet in the air. He hands Danni off to Jason and lets him float her instead. Sam flies down to the ground, lands gently just inside the tree line and disappears into the woods.

“I’m going down too,” I say following Sam’s path to the ground. I land on the opposite side of the clearing and begin combing my way through the trees. There is nothing there except for the usual wildlife and fallen leaves. I make my way back to the main clearing and motion for the others to come down. Jason, along with the rest of the kids, descends the rest of the way to the ground and immediately some of them collapse.

“They fell asleep,” Jason explains. “Lead the way, Tate.”

The little boy climbs toward us and over a few kids before taking Jason’s hand in his own and leading him toward the center of the clearing. There, sitting peacefully atop a mound of dirt is a small, red tulip. Tate bends down and plucks the tulip from the ground. A series of small clicking noises occurs, followed by a small square of dirt peeling away. There in the hole that was created is a door knob. Tate reaches into the hole and turns the knob, pulling upwards. With a loud creaking sound, a much bigger square pulls itself from the ground. Jason reaches to take over and soon enough there is a human sized, square hole in the ground with a ladder leading into the dark depths beneath it.

“Tada,” Tate says. A cute, childish smile covers his face.

“This is great, man,” Jason says. Suddenly a puff of smoke appears next to him.

“What’d I miss?” Lillie asks with a grin, her grip still tight on Adam’s arm.

Tate jumps into the hole and disappears. “Not much actually. We just landed a few minutes ago.”

“That’s good to know,” she says. “But where’s Sam?”

“I’m here.”

“Great. Now we can all go down,” Jason says. He picks up a few of the sleeping children and gently floats them down into the hole following behind shortly. The three remaining kids start down the ladder. They are followed by Sam, then Danni, then Lillie and Adam. Finally I go down and close the hatch behind me.

I am met with darkness. I literally can’t see a thing when my feet hit the ground.

“Hello,” Jason calls. His voice echoes softly around us. “Okay now that’s just creepy. Tate hit the lights.”

“Okay,” a small voice says. And then there is light. The cavern is bathed in a golden sheen of light. Solid, rock walls stretch fifteen feet into the air and the room we are in must be at least forty feet in each direction. Small doorways line the walls and small lanterns sit between each.

“Woah,” I breathe.

“Woah is right,” Sam agrees.

“So now what?”

I walk toward one of the alcoves in the wall and out into a small passageway. I head to the left and walk until another door appears on the side. Through the entryway is another large room, though not as big as the first. This one however is some sort of a kitchen. There are ovens, microwaves, stovetops, and a fully stocked pantry. We definitely won’t be going hungry any time soon. I pull a few bags of chips off the top shelf and head back toward the main room.

The sight that greets me is anything but normal. There are kids sleeping on the ceiling while others sit in a semi-circle on the wall playing some sort of card game. Adam and Jacob wrestle on the floor while Lillie, Jason, and Sam watch on in amusement.

“I, uh, brought chips.”