What would you choose?

Chapter Fourteen

It's been two weeks since Aiden, Luka and Jay moved in. Things have actually been good. Aiden's been alright, she's been helpful and civil with only the odd rude comment which shows progression. I've learned a few surprising things about Aiden like how she's really good at science and wants to be a therapist. I've grown close to Luka. I've learnt lots about him like he wants to either be a maths or music teacher. He's also an only child and his father works away a lot as a pilot so he's really close with his mum. Jay's a whole other story: most of the day he's not even here. He vanishes then comes back in the evening acting as if nothing's happened. I've asked him about it but he says he's off looking for supplies, once again he rubs his ear so I know he's lying. He never used to lie to me. Now it's constant. He clearly knows something about what's going on so why isn't he telling me.

Due to having three extra mouths to feed, resources are going fast. We're in desperate need of supplies. We've done many trips into the city and always come back empty handed. It's gotten to the point where we've had to take drastic measures and go beyond the city. My parents were strongly against this, they think it's too dangerous as if hardlings find us we won't be able to make it back to the house in time. It took a lot of convincing but they finally gave in and agreed to let us go as long as we promise to be safe and stick together.

We've been walking for a few hours now and have checked every house and shop we've seen but nothing. It was only me, Aiden and Luka on the supply run. Jay was supposed to come but we woke up this morning and he was gone. He told us the night before he'd be coming. We're used to him disappearing at this point so we didn't think anything about it. Our feet were killing, we were dehydrated and even though we're not wearing much clothing, we're still dying of heat. To distract myself I was practising magic. I've gotten better at using telechensis and can now lift a book and can produce a bigger flame, I can make a fire ball the size of a football but still no force field. I still sometimes struggle to do it on command. Jay thinks it's because I'm focusing all my energy on keeping the force field up. "It feels like we've been walking forever. Why can't we find anything?" Aiden moaned. I ignored her and kept focus on trying to lift a rock. "Hello? Maybe if you focused on helping instead of being a freak, we'd actually find something."

"Just ignore her," Luka said.

"Don't ignore me. We need all hands-on deck so less focus on the freaky magic and more on supply hunting."

"Okay I'll get back to looking." Aiden acts like I don't know how important finding supplies is but my powers could help with fighting the hardlings so I need to practise.

"The sooner we find something the sooner I can go home and rest," Aiden stated.

We've been walking for a further hour and I keep getting the sense we're being followed. I keep looking over my shoulder and in reflections and I swear I keep seeing someone. It's only for a second but I know it's there. Who's following us and why? "Guys I think we're being follow..."

"Look that car's full," Aiden interrupted. My mind switched from thinking about the stalker to the fact we've finally found food. We ran over to the car and a smile formed on our faces. "We hit the jackpot," Aiden cheered. The car's full of so many tins, medicine and bottles of water. It's got everything we need and there's enough here to last us a while. "We can't take this. It probably belongs to someone," Luka said and I agreed with him. It's wrong to steal from someone even in the apocalypse. There's a time to steal and a time to not.

"I don't think we have to worry about that," Aiden slowly said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I don't think you wanna know." Aiden was stood on the other side of the car looking down at the ground. Me and Luka slowly walked over and what we found we wish we could un-see. The sight was horrific. There was blood everywhere and in the middle was a women clutching her baby. Clearly the monsters got to them. It's not fair. Two innocent people slaughtered. I want to cry and scream. The hardlings need to be stopped but how? "What do with them?" Aiden asked.

"We can't just leave them," I said.

"The right thing is to bury them," Luka replied which we agreed to. Luka found a shovel and took the job of burying them. Me and Aiden made a tomb stone out of rocks. We took a minute of silence then went back to the car.

"So how are we gonna get all of these supplies back?" Luka asked, "the women didn't have any keys."

"I know how to hot wire a car," I said.

"How?" Aiden asked.

"I read about it."

"Now we just need to figure out how to drive it," Luka stated.

"That's the least of our problems," I shouted. The hardlings that were probably the ones that killed the girls were probably the same ones growing at us from the distance. We all get the same idea and sprinted away. We didn't stop. We couldn't stop. We stop and we're dead. We couldn't hide and we we're too far away from the house. We're screwed. I was out of breath; I don't know how much further I can go. I'm very unfit. Aiden's a cheerleader and Luka's a footballer so they're a lot fitter but even they're out of breath. "Autumn some magic would really help right now," Aiden shouted. I kept trying to focus on making fire but it wasn't working. The thought of being killed was overwhelming and I couldn't focus. "Autumn!" Aiden kept screaming at me which wasn't helping. I kept trying and trying but nothing was working. I saw a phone box at the start of an alley and decided to try to use telechensis. "Down the alley!" I shouted and the others did. We stopped halfway down the alley. I blocked out the hardlings and focused all of my energy on tipping the phone box over. I took a deep breath and managed to tip it. I did it. I actually did it. I felt drained but I'm very proud of myself. I know it won't stop them but it'll slow them down. We started running. We didn't know where we're going but it didn't matter as long as we escape.

Suddenly, we fell into a hole that's clearly man-made. We were so focused on running we didn't even see it until it was too late. Just when we thought we could get away this happens and now we're trapped. "Now what?" Aiden shouted.

"I don't know," Luka panted. I'm only five foot four and Aiden's about five foot six so we definitely couldn't climb out but Luka's six foot and he could only just about reach the top. There's no time for him to lift us both out then climb out himself and we're not going to leave him. "Autumn time to shine again." What was I supposed to do? Fire's not going to stop them; I couldn't use my telechensis to hold back four hardlings and there's no way I'm going to be able to produce a force field. "Autumn!" Aiden was screaming over and over again. This was it. We're finished. My family won't even know what's happened. "Autumn please do something!"

"I can't! I'm not strong enough." I cried.

"You can do this. We've both seen how strong you are. I believe in you. Just focus." Luka said. Just like before I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. I imagined a bubble forming around us and kept that image in my mind. I focused on how much I want to protect Aiden and Luka and how much I want to survive. I opened my eyes and a shimmery bubble was released and surrounded us. I did it. I actually made a force field. I'm full of surprises today. "I knew you could do it," Luka said.

"Just in time too," Aiden added. The hardlings jumped towards the ditch but went flying back. They kept coming back and pummelling the field. I could feel my power draining. I'm using all my strength to keep the force field up. The hardlings aren't going to give up and I don't know how much longer I can keep going. Didn't fully think this through. We're trapped.