Rising Above: Super Story

Chapter 2: Stepping Into the Light

It was 3:00 am. I slammed my head into my pillow and hoped maybe I would be able to suffocate myself before having to go above. 

I wore my hair in a ponytail. Going above ground required blending in. We would wear dirty old rags like the rest of the people up top and hid our weapons and powers unless we came in contact with a hostile establishment goon. 

I looked at Merrick and Everett. How could they both look so calm. Well... almost Everett had his stupid grin plastered on his face while Merrick's brow was sweating. 

The doors opened. The light was so bright I thought I must have died already and this is what the afterlife looked like. Everyone made the same disgusted face I did. Heh. 

We all looked constipated when we left the doors behind. My eyes slowly adjusted and Everett was sent before everyone else since he could use his invisibility to warn us in advance and make sure the coast was clear. 

Everyone slowly moved toward the center of the borders. What are the borders you may ask? Behind the borders was the wild. It used to have society and civilians living in it but now it was all ash and dead grass. Nothing stood anymore behind the borders. 

Everyone was moved to the borders and leaving the borders meant dying. They'd shoot you if they saw you leaving because they identified trying to find freedom a rebellion crime. Nobody dared to leave. 

When the coast was clear we all separated. Merrick and I slowly walked as if we were starved and in pain from the boiling sun. Man, that thing was bright. When I was younger and the doors would open some of that light would enter the tunnels before shutting a few minutes later, me and Everett would have contests to see who could look at the sun's light the longest.

 Let's say I couldn't see anything but black spots for a few minutes and Everett was a cheat. That dude would always try to make me flinch. What a crapcake.

When I looked around Merrick was gone. I turned a full 360 but Merrick was nowhere to be seen. I sensed Everett's powers and quickly shuffled to his location. He looked at me and smirked. "Is someone watching me? It's 'cause I have a great ass am I right? See I get these from those squats." he said. He kept leaning trying to show me. What an idiot. "Yeah you have more cake than Patrick from Sponge bob Square pants."I mocked him. 

He looked at me and actually said, "Who is that?" I looked at him. My mouth was laying on the floor. 

Okay all that training and he never saw an episode of that show. That's what happens when there is only one old TV. The boys broke it when having an aggressive thumb war battle though. Guess he'd never know who I was talking about.

"Why are there so many patrols all of a sudden?" He looked dumbfounded. "They said that normally only one to two would be out but this has to be around eight or nine." he said.

I hope Merrick is okay. Gosh. What happened if- NO. I couldn't think about those things. I can't put myself through that.

"We should go back." Everett was starting to look nervous. When he got nervous then something was definitely wrong. 

I nodded my head. The rest should be coming to the safe place we agreed to meet at. We went out way earlier than we have before meaning the doors were going to shut at 7:00 am.

 "Hold on to me," he said. Having super powers meant he was able to project his powers onto me. Not many could do this but there were a few exceptions depending on the powers. 

For example if I wanted to barbecue Gwen with heat powers I couldn't. That power couldn't be projected. How inconvenient. 

While Everett led me back all I could think was how my brother could be out there. He could possibly need my help. What would happen if he was caught? Was he dead? No, I can't think like that. I tried to change my thoughts but my mind seemed to keep crawling back to worrying about my brother. He was more sensitive than I was and I could take a punch unlike him, people hate me.

"HARL-"Everett couldn't finish my name and before I knew it I saw black. I had a bag over my head but it wasn't hard to see through it. Was that blood on my bag? Barf. I held on to my oatmeal. It seemed everyone else had a bag on their heads too. All our weapons had been taken and we all had weird cuffs on our hands. They must have known supers were going to come out of the hole. But how? Who was telling?

Before I knew it all our bags were taken off our heads. A guard for each one of us. A black car pulled up and out came the most beautiful man I had ever seen. My mouth dropped open. He had dirty blonde hair, eyes as dark as a raging sea, olive skin, and was so muscular that you could see his muscles popping from his nice cut suit. He ran his hand through his hair. Holy moly. My girly instincts told me to bat my lashes and to try to look pretty. Then I noticed... OH YEAH I AM FREAKING' HANDCUFFED!!!! Plus I started to feel a swelling feeling on the back of my head and near my right eye. That soldier who knocked me out must have missed the back of my head and hit me upside my right side of my head. 

That douche. Could have ruined my mascara. 

Not that that was the most important thing. I liked being alive. Yay! Whoopie! But honestly if I am meeting a Calvin Klein model I wanna look good. You know?

"Look what we have here." The man muttered. Man can he get anymore hot. That voice and that jaw just made it a whole lot better. Focus! He is giving orders meaning he did this to our group. Why do hot people always have to be bad? Like seriously?

I was on the end of the right side. He began on the left. Poor Jack. He peed himself. The man looked towards Jack and then down the line. "My name is Ryder. Ryder Domhnall. Pleasure to be acquainted." 

HE HAS MANNERS!!! Okay snap out of it.

 "You see... the reason I have come here personally is due to you all causing an issue within the borders. We know you live outside the borders and were able to watch you enter them with the help of a 'special' friend. He went back and stood next to Jack's kneeling body.

He pulled his freshly polished handgun and shot Jack in the head. His body fell so quickly you heard the shot and then... blam!He was on the floor in a puddle of his own blood and his brain matter was right next to him in little pieces. My mouth dropped open and next was Masi. Poor girl was a mess and her mascara came down so quickly. Before she could even beg she had a matching hole in her head to what Jack had.

 I couldn't cry. I don't know why. I mean I was never close to them but I mean you would think under the stress and pressure of this situation that I might at least have a single tear. My eyes were as dry as a desert. I kept blinking, not believing what I was seeing.

My brother was next. Oh God not him! I squirmed. Ryder put his gun right against my brother's head and nudged his head with the end of his gun. It was still hot from the last two bullets that had escaped. My brother looked down and I looked straight at the man named Ryder. 

Before I could say anything he removed the gun from his head and moved to Everett. 

He looked directly into Ryder's eyes and challenged him. Everett in his normal state: dumber than a rock and as strong as an ox. Ryder raised an eyebrow to him. He hesitated. He removed his gun from Everett's head as well. Then came me. I looked into Ryder's deep blue eyes. 

Holy cow. Okay snap out of it. Can you imagine if my last thought was of how hot my murderer was?

 "Shoot me, I don't care. The supers will rise again and with it the council and establishment will fall to pieces." I couldn't believe I said that. Dang did I sound like a bad ass. He looked at me and smirked. Like he had a gun to my head and smirked.

"Fascinating. Lucky for you and him," He pointed to my brother. "I need you both." He looked at Everett. His voice became a low growl "You're gonna send your friends a message. If they keep coming out of their little hole in the ground then we will blow you to kingdom come." He quickly looked at me and my brother. "They will be good to extract information from," Ryder said. 

Everett still stood on the floor, eyes as wide as saucers, as me and Merrick had pitch black bags placed over our heads. This time I couldn't see. We were manhandled by the soldiers into a van. I heard the engine start and a fist collide with my face snapping my head up. I went unconscious and off we went.