Vacation

5

When we hit the surface we all had to sit. It took what felt like hours in darkness to finally reach the mouth of the cave. We appeared in bright sunlight. We all sat in the bright green grass to let our eyes adjust.
The sun and scenery caught them off guard more than me. I only missed this for a day, who knows how long these people have been underground.

"The stream is this way." Jamie pointed to a grown out trail. "It's about half a mile down."

"Why does everything have to be so far?" Sam sighed and complained like a little kid. This made me laugh. "Can't you just fly us there?"

"Nope too many of us. It will weigh me down.  Plus, you guys know I can't fly back and forth and back and forth. It tires me out."

"Okay, okay, well let us rest first then." Sam continued.

After some time, we kept walking until we saw the stream. There were turtles, frogs, bass, and crawfish all in the stream. Around us were all kinds of berries.

"I found strawberries!" Sam explained.

"Here are some blueberries!" Alex was happy.

"Are these raspberries?" Jamie asked. I walked over to see.

"They are. There are more over there too." I told him and Jamie blushed a little and looked down.

"Thanks Hope." He looked to Sam and threw a handful of raspberries at him.

"Hey, these are for Hendricks, what are you doing?!" Sam took some strawberries and threw them at Jamie.

"Guys hurry up and stop messing around! Hope do you mind finding something to put these in so we can bring them back?" Alex asked me looking around for a temporary leaf or broken bowl.

"Sure thing." I started to walk back down the path hoping for something close.

I didn't realize how far out I had gone or how long I was gone until I came back. The day seemed the same. The sun was starting to come down. The breeze was nice and cool on a hot summer day. But the breeze also sent a shiver to my bone. Something told me to run. So I ran to where I left them. When I got there I saw Jamie and Sam freaking out.

"Where's Alex?" I asked calmly.

"THEY..."

"Shhhhhhhhh! Lower your voice a bit." Jamie interrupted Sam. "They took her." He looked angry with himself.

"The anti power groups?"

"Yes!" Sam answered my question with wild eyes and looking everywhere around him. "We don't know where they went though."

"We have to tell Hendricks!" I started to run back down the trail when Jamie grabbed my arm.

"We can't! Well not yet at least. He will get really mad and probably never let us up here again for a long time." Jamie explained looking in my eyes with worry on his face but hidden by seriousness.

"Oh... Ok..." I looked down breaking the eye contact and walked to Sam. "So what do we do now?"

"Jamie will take you and follow from the sky. I'll take to the shadows and follow on the ground."

"Ok."

"You scared of heights?" Jamie asked with a smug smile.

"Nope." I confidently smiled back.

"Ok good." Jamie grabbed my arms and took to the sky. Now I could see his wings. They were black making his blonde hair shine brighter. The feathers were like silk. He cut through the air with ease. The sun shone on the side of his face and made me squint so much I couldn't see his face. The wind was stronger than before but calming. Then I looked down.

"Oh... Ok maybe I'm a little scared... Of... GET ME DOWN!" I started half screaming half crying and kicking my legs.

"Haha I asked you." Jamie was being amused by the scene. "How about this?" He threw me in the air and dipped down to catch me on his back. I freaked out and grabbed a few feathers and some of his shirt. Then a burrowed my face between my hands and didn't let go. "That works." He laughed but stayed following a black truck.

"Sh... Shut... U... Up!" I began to cry a little.

"Lookup." I did as he said. I saw a flock of geese. They had black wings like Jamie's. They were in a 'v' shape. It fascinates me and I watched them as some switched positions going from front to back and another taking the lead. "You calmer now?"

"Yea." I smiled but put my face back between my hands to hide my new 'sun burn' yup that's it.

When we finally landed it was outside an abandoned building and Sam quickly joined. I slapped Jamie.

"Ouch!"

"Umm is there something I need to know?" Sam budded in.

"Nope." I again crossed my arms and gave a childish stomp.

"Ok well then hush we need to figure out what's happening. I'll fade into the shadows and go inside." Sam faded and disappeared.

"I don't like this." Jamie grabbed me and flew to the roof. "It wasn't safe down there."

I go on the ground and crawled to a spot. There I noticed something shiny. I looked closer and picked it up. It was a locket. I opened it to find a picture of my parents. There was another picture in the middle but was torn so I couldn't tell who or what it was.

"What is this doing here?"

"What?" Jamie started walking over.

"N... Nothing!" I tried to hide the locket at first. "Umm. Do you think you can help me put my locket on? It fell off." I held out the necklace.

"Sure." He helped put it on and never asked about it.

"Could they have a second life I didn't know about? Were they my real family or was I taken away from my real family and those were people from a anti power group?" I kept asking myself these questions until Sam came back.

"Ok ok so... They have her drugged and are tying her up so they can do blood work on her. I think they want to do other tests too but not sure yet. We need to help her soon but how? Oh and they can't do any of the tests here so they will move her again." Sam said everything almost all at once.

"Ok Sam we will get her." Jamie patted him on the shoulder to reassure him.

"We have to come up with a plan first." I added on.

"What if we use one of us as bait? I'll do it if y'all want." Sam said frantically.

"That's the last thing we want!" Jamie panicked.

"Then let me. I think I can learn something about my past life here too. That or at least my old family." I stood up and walked confidently towards the two boys.

"Past life?" Sam asked but Jamie and I ignored him.

"Fine but Sam will follow you the best he can as a shadow. If they leave the building I will follow." Jamie made our plan sound official.

"Ok ok but how will this work?" Sam looked at me "You can't just show up on their door step and say you will take the place of Alex."

"Yes I can." I smile and close my eyes picturing myself being the hero and saying those words 'I'm taking the place of Alex'.

"She actually probably could. If what Hendricks said is true, they would do anything to get her." Jamie agreed.

"THEN WHY ARE WE GIVING HER TO THEM?!" Sam was really confused and couldn't figure any of this out.

"Because I have hope that you two won't lose me, and you three together will come save me without struggling. I don't have my powers yet so they can't test me, but Alex is doomed." I finished then jumped off the side of the one story abandoned building before either if them could stop me.

"What do you want?" A man's voice came through the door.

"My name is Hope Foster and you took one of my friends. I would like you to let her go and take me in her place. I believe you will find me much more valuable." I finished to find only silence. Then as seconds passed mumbling arose. The mumbling grew louder until I finally heard the man's voice again.

"We accept your trade." Then the door opened to let me in. Once I entered everything turned black.