Too close, dear children. Too. Close.

Friend or Foe?

Octavia woke up slowly at first, then quickly when she heard a voice. She started, her heart jumped and started thumping hard, forcing her body to twitch. Her eyes snapped open.
"Calm down girly." Beck whispered, "And stay quiet."
Octavia looked around. "It's still dark." She said.
"Only for a few hours. Get up and get dressed quietly. We have to go."
Octavia's eyes widened and her heart rate panicked. "What?" she asked, her throat trying to choke her.
"There's something out there. We have to leave now."
"Why don't we call the police?"
She saw Beck's face in the night-light. She shook her head. "Too long. And your parents would go nuts. Trust me."
Octavia sat up quickly but quietly. "Is someone out there?"
"Not yet but it will be soon."
Octavia nodded, still confused.
"Put on something practical." Beck said, constantly looking from the first window, to the second, to the door.
Octavia stood, already in most of her clothes. "I just need a jacket and my shoes."
"Joggers please." Beck stated.
Octavia rolled her eyes and was about to go into her closet, when Beck jumped and grabbed the handle, and made Octavia jump back and almost scream.
"Stand back for a second, it might come through here." Beck said.  Octavia stepped back and pressed herself against the wall, trying not to breath too hard. Beck stood boldly in front of the closet door and swung it open quickly. Nothing moved. Nothing came out of the door to attack them.
"Okay, it's safe for now. Just be quick."
Octavia nodded and rushed in, grabbing the only pair of joggers she had and the largest jacket.
"Do you think I'll need this?" she whispered as she grabbed it.
"We don't know how long we'll be gone." Beck said, pulling her out of the closet and closing the door.
Beck grabbed her wallet and a small black box that Octavia had never seen before, and then opened the window. "We're going to have to run once we're on the street, can you do it?"
"What, why?"
"Can you do it!?"
"Fine, yes, but not for very long, I'm not like you-,"
"That's all we need, just enough to get to the main road. I'll run with you the whole time." Beck hopped out the window and then turned with her arms out to catch Octavia. They'd done this a hundred times when sneaking out to go to friend's houses.
"Wait my phone!" Octavia said in a panic.
"They can track it, leave it." Beck said quickly.
Octavia made a face, but the urgency in Beck's voice scared her into jumping out the window. Beck caught her easily then lowered her to the ground and they ran. When they reached the waist-high picket fence, Beck leaped over without trouble, but Octavia had to use her hands to swing her less-athletic legs over the pickets.
And then they ran. It was barely three hundred metres to the main road, but already Octavia was tired. Beck kept her word and stayed right next to her, but Octavia knew she wasn't going as fast as she could. Octavia was nowhere near as athletic as her long legged friend.
Octavia heard something behind them. It was like a buzz that an electric guitar makes when it's plugged in to an amp, but lighter, like a hazy version of the sound. Then she heard an angry female voice yell,
"Dammit! She's got a D.E.D with her!"
This made her try running faster, and her speed increased, if only a little bit. She watched as a ute pulled up on the main road in front of them, two people in the front and two crouching in the tray.
"Jump into the car." Beck yelled, and then suddenly her form was not next to her, but Octavia was too scared to stop, her ragged breath coming in whines as well, her throat on the verge of letting out a scream. She reached the ute and the two in the back grabbed her arms and hauled her up as if she were a child. One was a blonde girl with tattoos and glasses and the other a middle aged dark man.
"Beck hurry up!" The girl yelled, gripping onto the roof racks, in an accent Octavia couldn't pick.
Octavia turned to watch as her friend kicked a strange looking humanoid in the face, then grabbed something that glowed blue in her hand and smashed it across the face, the glow flashing and sending the creature stumbling away. Beck turned, almost tripped, but then ran for the car.
"Little help!" she yelled as she approached. Someone in the front of the car stuck a shot-gun out the car window, and fired. The two creatures or people, whichever, who were still running for the car screamed and kneeled, but neither of them died. Octavia realised that the shot-gun hadn't fired normal pellets.
The ute's wheels then screeched for a second as it took off and Beck jumped the last few feet, grabbing the roof-rack and stuck her feet onto the running board just as the car started to speed away at a terrifying speed.
The middle aged man grabbed Octavia's shoulder as she started to roll back in the tray. She screamed and closed her eyes as she stopped then curled up against the trays back and waited for the trip to stop.

Beck climbed into the tray as they were still speeding along. However, she saw over Tove's shoulder that the enemy's teleporter was catching up, flashing there, then there, closer each time.
"Tove, we might need a little help with speed." Beck said worriedly, now seeing the teleporter's angry face more clearly.
Tove looked over her shoulder and groaned. "Why don't we get another Booster?" she mumbled, as she approached the front of the tray where is connected to the main body. "It would make things so much easier."
She placed her hands on the top of the car roof, and then closed her eyes. Suddenly the cars speed increased to impossible levels, so much that Beck and Vihaan had to crouch down in the bottom of the tray so as not to be blown off. Beck smiled though as the teleporter slowed, and eventually was seen of no more. Beck's ear piece buzzed and then a voice came through.
"How you doing back there blue Beck?"
She smiled, then stuck an arm out with her thumb up, hoping he could see in the rear view mirror. In response, he said into her ear piece,
"Good. We'll just be going to the farm entrance. Make sure Octavia doesn't fall out the tray."
Beck couldn't respond through an ear piece without the mic, which she very rarely wore, so she just rolled her eyes and presumed he would know.
It only took twenty minutes to get to the farm house, ten minutes of that from Tove giving it extra speed. They pulled in as the kookaburra's started to laugh in the tall eucalyptus'. Beck pulled her jacket off just as they started to pull into the driveway, the ute now slowed and its occupants tired. Tove was asleep against Beck's chest, her body and brain exhausted from the boosting. Channelling all the energy from the universe took a lot out on a person, and anyone who didn't have magical qualities would be able to do it. So she let Tove use her as an anchor to help herself heal, and Beck was already feeling the effects.
Octavia was at first a curled up ball of distress, but when Beck had sat down with her back against the tray, she had sat up next to her, watching the other members of the Car Tray Team. She tried asking questions at first, but Beck said she'd tell her later. Tove needed rest and the wind was too noisy as they sped down the country road. Vihaan calmly stared out the back of the tray, his eyes zooming in and out, constantly checking for followers. Any update observations or simple comments he sent to Beck's earpiece, but she was tired enough to forget them straight away.
So it was a blessing when they turned onto the red gravel of the hundred meter driveway, and made their way to the house that was hidden among the splash of greenery on the river. It was hot and humid and shrubby up until the river, where everything was lush and humid, only a small strip in the dry landscape.
As they pulled up, Tove stirred awake and Octavia yawned and blinked away her tiredness. This early in the morning nothing stirred except for the kookaburra's and willy-wag-tails, flitting among the trees to catch their miniature prey. Corso and Kane got out of the front of the car, shutting their doors which sounded unnaturally loud in the mornings quiet.
Beck helped Tove stand, then jumped out the back and opened the tray for Octavia and Tove to slip down.
"This is one of the safe houses." Beck said quietly to Octavia. "It's not actually that safe, but it's one of the entrances to one of the actual safe houses. It's good for a quick get-away from anything though. There's always one of our people living inside who can give you some food and a bed."

The house was just an average farm house, not too large or small, not too old or new. White limestone bricks raised onto stilts with big windows and a tin roof. It was long, like most farm houses, to keep the air flow going in one direction down the house to keep out the summer heat. It was only one storey with a high roof, and had an entrance to a cellar under the outside stairs.
"Nice." Is all Octavia could think to say. She wasn't much of a country girl. She preferred the city, the people there and the size. She always knew Beck felt comfortable in both but preferred the country.
"We'll take you straight under. From there we should take you to Central Control." Tove said. "You'll have to be hidden like the others."
"What do you mean 'the others'?" Octavia said, looking a little concerned. She only just realized that maybe she'd fallen into a trap. Maybe she'd actually been kidnapped instead of rescued, and the others that had chased them had been her rescuers... Maybe she'd been betrayed by her own friend.
Nothing seemed safe anymore. Nothing made sense. Of course she'd followed her friend willingly. She'd trusted her, but maybe that was a mistake.
Octavia took a step back.
"You are not the only one to be rescued." Said the dark man. He looked like he was from India, and something about his voice sounded...weird. His eyes were weird too. And his movements...
He continued speaking. "Some of those who have gone missing were either taken by D.E.D, in other words, us. Or, they have been taken by our opponents. Some call them demons, others, mutants."
"We just call them the Contrasts." Said one of the men who got out of the cars, this one had short sun-bleached hair.
"Guys give her a minute." Beck said, then she turned to Octavia. "We'll explain everything later, after you get some more sleep and some food."
Octavia hugged her arms and looked around. Feeling like a child, she said, "When will I go home?"
The group eyed each other, then all turned their eyes to Beck, who's mouth twisted as she said, "You might not be able to. For a long time at least. Maybe never."
Octavia swallowed and felt herself getting terrified. Her eyes started to water and she tried blinking them away, feeling stupid.
Tove stepped forward. "It's okay, we promise we're not the bad guys. Beck here is too honorable for that."
Something about what she said was just too true. Beck was honorable, and honest. She could tell a lie without bettering an eyelid, but she hated them. She hated lying. If she was telling fibs to a friend to freak them out, she'd quickly assure them she was lying. Unless of course she was telling them to Octavia, because those could last for days. Octavia had no choice anyway. She'd rather be with someone familiar then run and brave it out there, possibly getting caught by the real danger.
Octavia wiped her nose and nodded, her shoe toe making circles in the red gravel of the drive-way.
"Come on girly." Beck lightly put her arm around her shoulders, and the movement felt natural.