Globe Tracers 1: The Case of Thomas Crain

Chapter 27: Thomas

Xao:

The three of us ran out of that house faster than I reckon I've run in a very long time without activating my powers. I was afraid to use my powers since I didn't want to electrocute Thomas. However, unfortunately, as pharaohs, we age slowly and thus our body strength doesn't grow very fast either. After running just one kilometer with no one following us, my legs and shoulders started to give out and I finally had to demand we take cover and try to get Thomas walking on his own.

We took cover in a small abandoned building. "You can't run with him for just a few more minutes?" Kyle demanded. Looking around, the building was full of dust with blackened-out windows. It was great visual cover if any of us were being quiet. I set Thomas on a chair- which he quickly jumped off of and just sat on the floor. Probably had enough of chairs for a while.

"He weighs like a hundred pounds!" I shouted.

"I do not!" the boy shouted back at me. "I'm like half that."

"So you can carry yourself if you're so light," I reasoned.

"You weren't strapped to a chair for a day," the boy pointed out. "Sides, you're big, so I should be lite to you."

"You are," I said back, "But you know how metrics work? Try holding up eight pounds for five minutes with an extended arm." I looked at the boy. "Your legs aren't broken so get up."

"You sure about that? They do hurt," said the boy.

"If they were broken a piggyback ride would have hurt like heck," I said giving him a cocked-eyed look.

"They do hurt," the boy said.

"Get up," I finally demanded. Thomas slowly pushed himself up, resting his body against a stone building support. He staggered away from it, holding out his arms like he was tight rope walking. "Wow, he walks, I must be a miracle worker," I said with just a hint of sarcasm. Thomas smiled, shaking his head as he slowly straightened up.

Jessica appeared beside him, which apparently startled him, not knowing about our powers yet. "Well you can walk now," she started, "But what if I do this?" She quickly pushed Thomas in the chest and he fell down on his butt. Thomas glared at her. "Yep, he's ticked, my work is done." She disappeared again, appearing behind me.

"Jessica!" the boy shouted at her.

"He knows my name!" the girl said excitedly, still hiding behind me.

"Yeah you're not exactly hard to remember Jess," I commented back.

Thomas pointed at her, stomping his feet back under himself. "Okay I don't care how you're doing that, you're still dead!" He staggered a little but quickly got up and began awkwardly running after Jessica.

Jessica ran away from behind my back and started shouting, "Welp, looks like we're moving again!"

We moved on from there, running for a while, but in time, we lost any motivation to rush. I estimated we had actually gone a full mile before we finally started walking again. The sub only a few minutes away, Kyle, Jessica, and myself began to feel confident this would all just be a walk in the park from here on out.

Slowing to a walk it seemed everyone just wanted to get to know each other now. "So what are you guys doing here anyway... where are you from?" asked Thomas.

I chuckled. "These two come from a planet outside the solar system and me, the town in Britain where I was born, doesn't exist anymore. It was called Imber if you want to know. People were forced out for the construction of a military training area back in the forties in preparation for the big war."