Drifting Off

Friday nights alright for fighting.

Man, the streets are harsh. I wouldn't have managed it if it wasn't for the arms that would be knit around one another. In other words, being alone would've fucked me. But it was here my story took a softer turn. As winter took its hardest turn, we did our bi-weekly move. We didn't stay in one place for very long. No point in getting settled. Until we found a place. A perfect place. A VW campervan. It happened to have the keys on the floor near it. It was perfect. Fuel cans in the back, enough beds if we doubled up plus one person driving. And considering only one of us could drive, it meant we had to have a few lessons, but we made it work. No more huddling for warmth. Just cuddling for pleasure. Tina always had issues sleeping in the months we were on the run. What she saw plagued her. Immensely. She saw what happened to the others before us. She saw the people watching us sleep, choosing who they wanted to buy. She saw what would've been us. One night I had awoken to her crying. We were the ones doubling up in the same bed, so we were already fairly used to being close to each other. But, just, seeing her crying broke me. I wrapped my arms around her. She buried her face in my shoulder. We sat in silence, her weak body juddering into me with her light sobs. I slowly lowered us down to the bed and pulled the cover over us, where we fell asleep together, safe in each other's arms. It was the easiest night we had. Still had no feelings just yet, however. I should probably let you meet the others, it's been only about me and Tina so far so allow me to get started. Zack, the wall walker. The dude can shift his gravity at will to walk on walls, upside down etc. He's a cool guy, probably who I would call my best friend. He's probably our biggest asset to staying alive. He can drive and is most often the one who does the robbing while we make sure he won't get caught. He's ginger, Irish, and Tina's brother. He's the youngest of us all, but not by much. I'm the oldest at 17, and everyone else bar one is 16. Speaking of, we also have Abigail. Not the most trustworthy, being a shape-shifter and all. Again, incredibly useful to us staying alive, but she doesn't particularly like us. She was just here so she wasn't enslaved at typhon's. I can't blame her, we're all just in it for survival at this point. The two of them are what really keep us alive.

But then it gets confusing. There's one more I didn't mention, Oscar. And for what he does? He knows things. I wish I knew what things, but he just has a habit of just, knowing things. He spends most of his time with myself and zack, robbing whatever supplies we may need. Our nights though, include all of us. Including Abigail. We might not be the best family, but a family we are. We're all each other has, so we are very, very dependent on each other.

An issue came up, however, the one time we left the van unwatched, it was hotwired and taken. We were distraught, to say the least. That meant back to the harsh streets. This was a low point. A major low point. Suffice to say, we thought ourselves fucked. I wish I could say it was better than I expected. We slept rough. Very rough. We stole and begged, scraped by on scraps.

And here we have our first plot point ladies and gentlemen. We were doing our usual theft run, looking for any cars that would be easy to take and sell stuff off, parcels to steal, or busy shops so it's easier to get stuff. Doing this for months- we got good at it. What our experience didn't tell us, however, was how if you rob a place the same day every week for a month then they catch on. The police were waiting for us. They jumped out from all around us, surrounding us. A patronising asshat was talking, telling us to give in. He was advancing towards Tina, and she backed into a policeman. He slapped her around the back of the head and shoved her over. I took a second with my hand by my waist, feeling the space in which the air connects, and snapped my hand out, sending the policeman flying, being hit by a wall of air. You forgot about the powers part of the story, didn't you? I swung a punch at the nearest cop, getting him straight in the jaw. Zack took down one cop, the same as Abigail and Oscar, as I took care of my third, feinting low with my left before grabbing her by the back on the head and slamming it down into a knee-shot. K.O. Good fight all around. Except there were two left, and both had tasers out of the holsters and primed them to fire. They hit Zack and Tina. I rushed forward, but at that moment more cops came into the shop, I could see them through the aisles. In full riot gear carrying guns. Zack, coming around quicker than Tina, yelled for us to run. We had little choice in the matter. Oscar shoved over an aisle wall, landing on top of a cop, and leading us to run to the exit the cops hadn't covered yet.

We were safe. But down two people.