G.U.A.R.D. Book #4: Tracked

-15-

    The four of us were in the van again. The guard was in the very back. Grayson and Winnie sat together on the third row of seats, and Alek and I were in front of them. Director Alexander still hadn't explained what was going on, so we all huddled together.

"I don't understand," I said, fighting to keep my voice level. "What do you mean Cindy is alive?"

"Start from the beginning," Winnie told him. She had always been easy to succumb to airsickness, but she wore a motion sickness patch. "Tell them everything."

Alek took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts. I wanted to punch something, I was so impatient. Finally, the guy looked back to us and said, "So you guys remember back at Base 5 how agents kept taking me away to train me on how to use my powers?"

I snapped my head up and down.

"They continued that training at Station 1. I got really good. Then Base 5 was attacked, and our instructors took us here. At one point, the League brought reinforcements, and my head instructor Elmer Howell showed up and said they needed me down there."

"You mean you fought the League agents?" Grayson asked. "Directly?"

"Shh," Winnie reprimanded. "Let him finish."

If I wasn't so intent on hearing this story, I would've been surprised that it was Winnie doing the shushing.

"No, not directly," Alek said. His expression turned pained. "Instructor Howell took me out to one of the vans. Four people were in it. A black guy, a buff guy, a..." his cheeks turned a bit red, "woman, and Showgirl. But I didn't know she was back there. I just got in the front. I'm so used to everyone at Station 1 giving me the cold shoulder, or-"

"Alek," I interrupted. His voice was starting to sound defensive. "What happened?"

He ran a hand through his black hair, taking a deep breath. "Okay, so we went down there. The island was complete chaos. So many buildings... I mean, you'll see it soon." I got a sinking feeling in my chest. "Anyway, the Guardians had set up a barricade in front of the specialized training building and second parking garage. It nearly ran the entire length of the island. There was a huge gunfight going on between the G.U.A.R.D. agents and League agents. Howell put me up right next to the barricade, and I used my X-ray vision to look past, and..." He faltered. "And I... I told the other four where the League agents were."

Grayson's expression was grim. "And they shot them."

Winnie looked close to tears. I couldn't believe G.U.A.R.D. would force a teenager into a situation like that. Just because he was a metahuman—they thought of him as an asset, nothing more. But how could I criticize them when it was my fault the League even found Base 5? I tightened my jaw.

"I had done it before," Alek said, voice thick. "Back at the station. The instructors would make me do it with a team of agents—sometimes carrying real guns, sometimes paintball guns. But it was so much more real down..." He trailed off as the van passed through a new energy field. Sick to the stomach, I followed his gaze outside and felt my heart drop.

The island was in even worse shape than it was when Carlton showed me that video. The only building that wasn't completely damaged appeared to be the lounge near the girls' dorms, and only because it sat on a corner of the island. The forest was in the same, sad condition.

And yet, that wasn't even the worst of it. The worst was the bodies. G.U.A.R.D. agents had taken to piling them on top of one another. Blood had stopped flowing, but it was still everywhere. There were even some unattached limbs strewn around, some on the pile, some on the ground. Flies buzzed around. The skin of the bodies was bluish, some already rotting.