Shining Truth

Chapter Nine: The Return

As the files were opened, Emily stood watch. We were all scared of what lied ahead and what information there was of us at that awful place. Inside were several papers, some of which fell to the ground, making us pick them up before they blew away in the wind. Tabs labeled with all of our names separated the pages. The first one was Abby. It was oddly organized by first name, in alphabetical order. We opened it up, there were records of her birth, her doctors appointments and lists of what she had done throughout her life. We decided not to read through much of that. Next was Emily, they had records on all of us. Paige, Skye and myself. It terrified me to know that they've been there my whole life. Watching.
There were files from other to. Others who I assume were the "mistakes". I couldn't recognise any of them. On the ends of the ends of all their files, was a big blue stamp that read "cleared". I wondered what that could mean.We needed to keep these files, they could be important. We need to be able to figure out what it means and why this happened.
I took the folder, taking one of the paper clips from inside to keep it shut, and looked at everyone.
"We need to get back to our homes and get supplies like clothes and stuff."
Skye looked at me, "They'll be expecting us to go there. They'll be swarming the areas."
"And it's not like they'll let us go through," Emily interjected.
"And we don't know where everyone lives anyway,"Paige said. I held up the folders.
"We know where we live and the addresses are all here anyway," I told them.
"It's or like we have anywhere else to go, and we can't go back there" Abby said.
"But Lizzy's in there! What do we do about her?"I asked. Everyone looked down.
"We have to leave her. She can figure a way out on her own," Skye said.
"Fine. But we need to be able to find her when she gets out."
"We can work that out later, but we need to go now," Emily said urgently. We looked over to see guards coming to our location in cars.
"What do we do? How do we-" I stopped, watching as Emily rose the ground from below us, raising us into the air. She moved us forward using wind. I was right. That's what they had given her. Control over the elements.
The wind whipped through our hair, and I tightly grasped the folder. The ground raced beneath us, taking us farther from the cars that were now chasing us. I glanced over at Emily, strain showing on her face.I wondered what I could do to help her, to help keep those annoying lunatics away from us. Skye was sitting calmly on the chunk of earth we were on. Abby seemed to be panicking, not knowing what to do. Paige was making grass turn into snakes below us, trying to help, but they were in cars. The snakes quickly became road kill. I thought for a moment. We need something, anything that will make them leave, or make us go faster. I looked at the cars, bouncing along the flat terrain. Mountains. Head towards mountains. I stood up, positioning myself so I wouldn't fly off the rock.
"Emily," I yelled over the wind, "head towards rough terrain like mountains! They won't be able to follow us!" I yelled. She looked like she was about to faint. I glanced behind us, the lunatics still on our tail. I felt the rock move upward, and the ground became farther away. I began to see large stones jutting out from the ground. The cars they were in stopped as they watched the first few cars smash into the rocks, tearing off chunks of them and making some roll to a stop.
We watched as the cars disappeared into the distance. We slowed to a stop, and Emily fell to her knees. She was smiling, a look of relief on her face. What would have happened if I hadn't said that? What if she would have given out before that? I didn't want to think about it.
We rushed over to help Emily up. She seemed okay from what we could tell. We had to make a decision; stay and rest and risk capture or go now with everyone exhausted making us more likely to be captured while we are getting supplies I looked over to Skye.
“What do we do?” I asked. I needed to know what would happen. I just wanted to get out of here. For all of us to escape. She would have to know, otherwise everything we had done to get here would be for nothing.
She looked at me, concern on her face. “If we go now we won't be captured but,”she didn't finish her sentence.
“What if we stay?” I studied her worried face.
“We get captured.” She looked over at everyone. Why wouldn’t she tell me what was going to happen. It couldn’t possibly be that bad.
“Should we leave now, then?” I asked, I was hoping to get an answer out of her.
“Yes, sadly we have to. We don’t have time to rest. They’re still coming for us.”
I looked at all of us, tired of running, tired of having to deal with their cruel looks. We just wanted to go home, to return to life before it was destroyed. There were bags under many of our eyes. Dark, sleepy faces, wanting rest and good food. The air was humid, and hot. Insects flew around us, feasting on our dead skin and blood. I swatted at my legs, getting mosquitoes off of my skin. I was sure I had bites all over them. We enjoyed the shade, out of the sun’s rays. It was peaceful, at least. I looked behind us, security carrying their tranq guns and trying to get to where we were. They weren’t slowing down.
“Emily,” I said, “do you think you can do that again?”
She looked at me and nodded. She was determined to leave. She would rather exhaust all of her energy than risk being taken back. I think we all would. We rested for a minute or two longer, then set off again. Emily used a smaller area of land this time, making the job easier for herself. We didn’t mind, we couldn’t have her give out as quickly as before.
I tried to figure out how my powers worked. I managed to become a leopard again, but I couldn’t figure out how to become a bird. I wanted to be able to fly beside the rock Emily was transporting us on, make it even lighter. I watched as the guards and their destroyed cars vanished into the distance. The further we were from them, the better.
Progressively, we made our way to civilization. In the distance we could see a Macky-Mart in the distance. It must have been a city. We didn’t seem that far from home. We decided to go to my house first, considering it was closest at the time. I was surprised to not see anyone here. Emily landed us in a ditch a few minutes away. We got into my house through my window, which I always left open incase I forgot my keys. Probably not the safest thing to do, but we were glad I had done it now.
When we were inside, we could see that the place had been ransacked, my room and my mother’s room especially. I moved some things back to where they were supposed to go, then we continued throughout the house. Glass had been shattered on the ground, we tread carefully. They were here, they know where I live, and probably where the others live, too. I looked over at our living room coffee table, where we had several documents in need of organization. Most of the documents were gone, leaving a strange looking empty table.
“They were looking for more information, weren’t they?” I asked, “To see if there was anywhere else we would go.” My mother wasn’t here. Did they kill her? Perhaps capture her as they did us? I didn’t want to worry about that know. We needed to get what we needed and get out.
I ran upstairs, careful not to step on glass shards, and burst into my mother’s room again. I grabbed her emergency money stash that she kept beside her bed in a drawer. I also grabbed a family portrait of my mother and I. I was seven in the image. I ran downstairs, money and picture in hand, and grabbed an old backpack from my room. I shoved as many clothes into the pack as possible and also jammed in some food. I tossed in my journal for writing as I went back into the living room, where my friends were waiting.
“Let's go, I got all I can,” I said quickly. Some of them had filled their shirts with food and papers. We needed all we can get. We set off, Emily raised the rock again, and we traveled to each other's homes, getting bags of stuff. The last one we decided to go to was Abby’s, she lived farthest from where we came from. Landing in a clearing behind her house, we walked in. there was blood all over the floor. On the wall was a hole from someone punching the wall. Whoever was attacked here tried to struggle. We walked through the small house, Abby grabbed her bags and filled them. I grabbed some extra items, notebooks, pens and pencils. We would have to relax sometimes, if we ever got the chance.
I walked into the bathroom, horrified by what I saw. There was blood all over the doorknob, and along the wall. The shower curtain was pulled, hiding the tub. I moved the bloody curtain away, revealing a blood filled bath with a woman inside. The woman had blonde hair, and was obviously dead. There was a bloody spot on her skull, as she was face down in the water. They had attacked her, I assumed, and when she tried to escape, they drowned her in the tub. These people were horrible, to murder a person who defied them. I left and closed the door behind me. I couldn’t let Abby see this. It would crush her. I didn’t need someone giving up hope, yet. I don’t think that I will ever need that.
I blocked the door by standing in front of it, hoping she wouldn’t try to go inside. She walked past me, ready to go. She was unaware of what those monsters had done to her mother. Then suddenly, there was a loud bang. They burst into the house. They had found us. I pushed up a window and directed everyone to climb through it.
“Wait!” Abby exclaimed, “I have to get something!” She ran back to her room before anyone could stop her.
“Abby!” I called out to her. “We need to leave!” I ran to get her, running into her as she darted out of her room, a folder in hand. We bolted out of the hallway, and as we did so, the men began shooting. Abby made herself invisible, while I continued to run. I looked out the window, only to see our friends fighting off the guards outside, telling us to hurry. I looked over. I couldn’t see Abby, but what I could see was a gun pointed at me. The gun fired before I could do anything. I watched as the table crash sideways, and Abby became visible. She had taken a bullet for me, and knocked down the table as she fell. I tried to help her up, but the wound was to severe. She told me to go, before we were both left for dead. I knew she would die, and it hurt my heart knowing that I couldn’t do anything to help her. I didn’t want her to, not at the hands of an ignorant soldier, working for them. I looked behind me one more time as I jumped through the window. Running through the clearing, I jumped onto the hovering rock. We went as fast as possible. Emily straining to make us move faster with the extra weight. Bullets whizzed by, amazingly hitting no one.