The Edge

Matteo: Part Six

The craziest thing was, no one did a thing about him.

At first, Matteo expected someone to swing the door open and dislodge him, something that would at best maim him and at worst kill him. That never happened, so he could only assume the van's noisy engine had covered him. Once that danger had passed, Matteo expected...he didn't know, someone to ask more questions? A cop to pull the vehicle over? People to at least take notice of the guy clinging to the back of a van going what felt like 65 kph through a fairly busy downtown area? The closest he got was the one red light they stopped at, where someone in another car pointed at him. But the guy didn't look too eager to get out, ask questions, or help. He did start filming, though.

Great. Lovely. Thanks for the help.

At least the van didn't go to reach highway speeds. Matteo definitely wouldn't have been able to hold on if it had. Matteo was a little bit concerned about the fact that they, eventually, pulled out of the main downtown area and onto a road that seemed to lead out to the sticks. Of course, they had to land on a planet where driving in five minutes one direction put you in a populated area and five minutes in the other brought you to the ass-end of nowhere.

Why this? Why is this my life? And why the hell did they grab Tola?

Matteo was pretty sure he knew why: her very in-demand abilities. If they didn't want her healing powers for personal use (off-market body moddng could be very dangerous, after all), they'd probably want to sell her off. The real question was how they'd known to grab her. She hadn't told anyone at the hospital that she had used her mojo on Roland, and unless a member of Roland's family had blabbed or one of the tests had turned up something...

How else would they have known?

Maybe he'd be able to ask these guys once they stopped. Then again, he had to figure out how to handle the absolute mess he was in at the moment before he even considered getting answers.

Another flash from his powers warned him to hold on. Matteo gritted his teeth, pressed himself closer to the van, and held on for dear life. The van slowed to round a corner off the main road, onto some bumpy-ass road that led to who-knew-where.

I can't hold on, he realized with a sudden burst of terror. Every bump felt like it was going to throw him off, especially when he'd already been holding on for way too long. Between the death-grip he'd been keeping on the hinges and all the unprotected punching he'd been doing, his hands were in absolute agony.

I can't leave her, he thought. That thought was the only thing that kept him clinging to the car. But he knew, deep down, that he had two options: fall off on his own terms, or be forced off the next time they hit a pothole or bump in the road. At least one had a slightly lower chance of him getting hurt. He wouldn't be any use to Tola with a broken arm (or neck), so it logically made sense to ditch the car and try to chase them down on foot. Logic didn't make it feel any less like he was abandoning her, but...

Get over it, Matteo. You know what you have to do.

Matteo held on a bit longer, trying to feel into the future for when the car would slow down to avoid another rough part of the road. It took him a moment, as the road was actually pretty smooth for a few meters, but eventually, the thought came.

Now.

The second the car slowed, he jumped.

Unfortunately, the uneven ground and the awkward angle of his jump (more like a controlled fall, really) meant he didn't stick the landing. On the plus side, he was able to roll to the side of the road and into a ditch as soon as he hit the ground. He had tried to jump/fall backwards out of sight of the rearview mirror, but he still could've been spotted. Matteo froze in place, suddenly hyper-aware of his lack of hearing. If someone came for him, he wouldn't be able to hear their approach.

Except he didn't have to.

Matteo pulled his arm out from under him. His transcription device was still strapped to his forearm, undamaged, and turned on when he brought it out of sleep mode. Thank God. Matteo switched it from speech mode to all sounds, a custom setting he'd added specifically because he had siblings. He'd be a lot harder to prank if he had something that alerted him to footsteps.

This was a lot more high-stakes than a simple prank. Life or death kind of high stakes.

Don't fail me now, tech.

The words Car Engine (Away) flashed at the top of the screen, slowing and then fading away as the car drove off. Matteo counted to thirty before peering out of the ditch. No van, no figures looking for him. Just marshy fields to either side, the road behind him, and a forest up ahead.

Okay, now what?

First things first: get out of the ditch, check for injuries. He wasn't badly hurt; he'd probably be bruised tomorrow, and his knuckles were a bit scraped up, but nothing that would slow him down. Next, Matteo checked his phone. No signal, because of course there wasn't. He had managed to receive a voicemail from Helen before he hit this dead zone. Matteo checked the transcription. She wanted to know where he was and what was going on.

SIs, I wish I knew. Matteo sighed and looked up and down the road. Do I turn around? Should I go back for help?

No. That could take too long. He at least wanted to be close to Tola so he could intervene if things went south. Besides, maybe if he kept moving, he'd get service again, or find a phone that worked. Sure, there were a lot of variables, but going back was definitely abandonment, and Matteo wasn't going to do that.

Matteo dusted himself off and started down the road, cell phone in one hand, transcriber set to buzz at any unusual sounds, and a desperate prayer in his heart that this road only lead to one place. If there was a fork in the road...

Cross that bridge when you come to it. You'll figure something out.

He'd been thinking that a lot lately, and honestly? Matteo was starting to get sick of figuring something out. He missed when things just worked, when he knew what to expect, when he didn't have family constantly in bizarre and inexplicable danger. First Cassandra, now Tola...it was exhausting. Terrifying. He wanted it to be over.

He just wanted things to be normal again.