The Dead Zone

Chapter 3

______One week and Three days later...
Waking up today brought a problem I hoped I had left behind. The room was freezing cold and was forming icicles on the ceiling. Looking up and around I saw the frosting windows and the barricaded doors were gaining icy spiderwebs across them. Looking around I found Terri balled up shaking, still asleep and probably having a nightmare. Shaking her awake earned me a nice hook to the jaw but she calmed down and that was the important matter. See this was part of the failure in project "Peacekeeper". When the serum dosage was increased some of us got extra abilities which led to an event that let us escape. Over the months after, the few remaining information hubs in the military were flooded with info about mysterious individuals who survived. One of us could shoot lightning and another could glow in the dark, or so I've heard. Terri gained cryokinesis. She could freeze something solid just by looking at it hard enough which proved to be a hazard. Over the last year she had been able to control it enough to turn it on and off. But if her emotions raged she would create a blizzard that could freeze anything in about a mile radius. I on the other hand gained pyrokinesis, the ability to create and control heat and fire . I can control it to a degree but I don't like using it because it makes me think of the days inside that lab. I hate remembering that. But if we were getting out of here I was gonna have to suck it up. After Terri calmed down and we gathered our stuff I defrosted the door and we went on our way. "Was it about mom and dad?" I asked. "Yeah" she replied flatly and stared down. "I'm not mad Terri, so stop looking so down." "But why not Zack!? I'm always the one who screws up everything!" I could tell she was trying to keep it together and avoid screaming but she was starting to crack. "You were the first one to get control of this freak show shit! You always found a way to calm yourself and all I do is lose control and hurt people. You've always been perfect!" At this comment I just sullenly stared at the ground as we walked. She had a point with me getting control faster. But that was because she was more afraid of her abilities, afraid of what would happen if she lost control. I worked so that I could help her even a little. Unfortunately all it really did was upset her more that she needed my help with it. After a long ten minutes of silence she let out a quiet sorry she thought I hadn't heard. It made me smile a bit. About forty miles down the road we were coming up to an old motel when something moved in the corner of my eye. Terri must have seen it to because suddenly she got tense and started pulling her crowbar out as we ducked behind some nearby deserted cars. After a few minutes a slouched figure came out of the brush. As we watched the black clad person looked around and ran to the motel that I started paying more attention to. At first it seemed normal for these times till I noticed that the overturned cars were on their sides moved into sort of a circle till them met the fence which was also fortified with sheet metal. With a little more observation, after sneaking in close enough to see more, I saw that the fence was about ten feet high and barbed on top as well being made sturdy with the metal sheets. The cars which were now more visible were all on their sides wheels facing the streets and formed a wall of sorts. As we got closer Terri started getting nervous and was letting of a cool breeze unknowingly. "Uh hey Terri?" I whispered. "What?" She hissed trying to look around. "Can you calm down a little?" At this she blushed and sat down telling me to go on while she watched my back. As I crept along the edge of the road crowbar in hand I couldn't help but feel like zed for a moment. Why was I sneaking around when I could just walk up and say hi. Of course the logical answer was, what if they try to kill you or take your stuff. I did find a little humor and let out a small chuckle. Throughout all this I forgot about the person in black clothes because all of a sudden what turned out to be a living person was right in front of me. Luckily she didn't know I was there because she rushed into hiding behind the car I was without looking. She had jumped back here while I was distracted. But she had a good reason to hide, there was a pack walking down the street. All rotting and stumbling down right where I was not thirty seconds ago. Terri was glaring from where I left her, although she was hidden too. One of them figured something out because it shambled out from the group to the door. While I was watching I became more aware that I should make my presence known to this mystery woman before trouble started so I quickly covered her mouth and pulled her my way. She nearly jumped out of her skin, almost screamed and giving us away had I not pinched her nose while she took in air. "Don't make a sound just stay calm and wait for them to pass." I whispered. She nodded and I let her go. She turned around and looked me scared to death but I was more focused on the corpses. They were moving down the road now and the straggler caught back up. After about twenty minutes Terri gave the all clear sign and I sighed with relief before I remembered the woman next to me. She was shaken up pretty bad and I began to regret how I handled the situation. When Terri got to us she got the gist of it from a short explanation. After introducing ourselves she calmed down a little. "I'm Tracy." she said softly stuttering a bit out of fear. She looked young. Around sixteen with an thin build. She had green eyes and red hair. Up close I noticed she had freckles and was quite pale. After a few minutes I could tell Terri wasn't going to be very patient for long as her expression started to become more and more annoyed. As much as I didn't want to, I was gonna need some answers quickly or things would get bad for Tracy.