Static

CHAPTER THREE

*Blake pictured above*

The man was standing.  Straight up, like nothing ever hit him.  Of course he had fallen, I had heard him connect with the car.  But he wasn't supposed to be alive now, he shouldn't have gotten back up that quickly let alone at all.
      Flea was ready to send another blast of air in his direction, I could see it in her eyes. She wasn't connecting the dots.  I, on the other hand, had just finished stringing them all together.
     "Flea stop!"  I called, placing a hand on her shoulder to steady myself as I stood, never once taking my eyes of the stranger who's face I still couldn't see.
     I felt Flea's confused gaze land on me but I also felt the tension in the air subside so I knew she was listening.
     "Your cursed?"  I asked him.  Knowing that this man was like us, that he had felt our same suffering, made me feel braver, like I could confront him easier knowing that he understands all of us cursed kids.
      He tilted his head and pursed his lips, considering what I had said. 

"Elaborate?"  He asked.

      "Cursed," Flea piped up.  "You have special talents, odd, inexplicable powers, your a freak?" 

     "Well I much rather like referring to myself as a superhero, like spider man or the Incredible Hulk, as opposed to a freak."  He said casually.  Nerd, I thought, despite myself. 

I heard shuffling behind me as Flea got up to her feet.

    I studied the stranger the best I could from this distance and he let me.  Finally he spoke, "Now that you've had your fun electrocuting me, would you care to hop in the back seat?"  His voice was dripping with sarcasm and I realized that he was younger than I had presumed.  I saw the silhouette of his arm gesture to the car door on his left side.
      "Why?  And who is that?"  I asked, in  perhaps a little more aggravated tone than I meant to use. The boy still kept his eyes on me.
     "Hey, now."  He held up his hands defensively and spoke calmly, and I crossed my arms in front of my chest.  "That is my partner, Alice.  She's umm what did you call it?  Cursed?  she's just like you two and me.  And as for why you need to get in the car, preferably sometime in the near future, is because we would like to keep you girlies away from the Zone."  Alice was leaning up against the front of the car and gave a little wave of her hand when her name was mentioned.
     I turned to Flea but when I looked to where she'd been standing, she wasn't there.  I turned forward again.  She had somehow snuck out in front of me without me noticing. Now she was standing right next to the boy, hand on the door handle, looking over her shoulder right at me.
     "Better risk this than going back to that place.  Besides, we don't have anywhere else to go."  She said.
     I looked back and forth between Alice, the mystery boy, and Flea who was already climbing into the back seat. I hesitated a moment.  What was she thinking?  Getting into a car with strangers whom we'd only just met a couple minuets ago and were very close to killing was not a good plan.
     "Idiot."  I mumbled to myself.  I jogged up to the car after Flea.  The boy and Alice had already gotten back in their respected side's of the car.
      Flea had buckled herself in so I did the same but neither Alice nor the boy buckled their's.
     The boy started the car and just like that we were rolling on down the road.
     This was so alien to me.  I hadn't been inside any sort of vehicle in years, let alone see other people besides the kids at the zone. 
     "So, what should I call you?"  Said the boy, he didn't look back at us when he talked, he kept his eyes on the road the whole time, guding the car down the narrow, straight road.  I still and hadn't seen his face.
    I stopped Flea from answering with a stern look that shut her right up.
    "That depends."  I said coldly.  I opened my mouth to finish he phrase but the boy finished it first.