inFAMOUS: Legacy of the Beast

Chapter 9

"Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene."
~Arthur Christopher Benson

"Here's one," said Kuo as the four Conduits came upon a gray Tacoma. "Inconspicuous color—should draw less attention. And it only has a few dents and scratches."

For the better part of an hour, they had searched the outskirts of the town for a working vehicle where the impact of the blast was less severe. Most had blown out tires or already caught on fire. Others were damaged beyond repair whether from the explosion itself or a chaotic reaction between the fire and gasoline.

The former agent cupped her hands around her eyes to peer inside of the window. "We're in luck. The keys are still in the ignition."

She pulled open the driver side door. An unbuckled cadaver slunk dead onto the pavement at her feet.

Julia gave a startled yelp.

Rush spun her around by her shoulders and said, "Let's wait for Kuo to finish her work, huh?" Then he took her across the street to an open park, leaving Cole and Kuo to prepare the truck in peace.

Cole dragged the body into a nearby parking lot to get it out of their way and out of Julia's sight.

Kuo leaned forward into the cab and turned the key. The truck didn't even sputter. She cursed and twisted it twice more in aggravation before giving up.

Cole returned as she propped up the hood and peered around the engine block. "Think it's the battery?"

"For our sake, it had better be...."

"I'll give it a shot," said Cole. "Go try to start it up."

"Just be gentle, okay? We may not find another one for two hundred miles."

"Try to have a little more faith in me. I charged batteries in the Quarantine in exchange for food."

Kuo returned to the driver's seat and waited. Cole brought a charge to his hands and conducted a current into each of the two metal nodes on the car's battery.

The fact that nothing exploded outright was a good sign.

At the first attempt to turn the engine over, nothing happened. Cole kept the current coming for another minute before Kuo tried again. This time the truck came to life.

Kuo smiled and revved the pedal a couple times. "That did it. We're good to go."

After closing the hood, he leaned into the window and asked, "How's everything else look?"

"Well, it has about three-quarters of a tank of gas left. We should be fine for a while."

The two glanced over to see Rush and Julia sitting on the grass in the park looking through her mother's handmade flower encyclopedia. The young man pointed to the pages with a smile and spoke softly as if he were talking to his niece.

Julia did not appear to be as jovial.

"Why did you lie to them?" Kuo asked him in a whisper.

"Knowing wouldn't help them," he answered.

"No," she dejected. "If they knew, it wouldn't help you. You're afraid they wouldn't come with us."

"So what if I am," said Cole with a tinge of annoyance. "If they're with us, I can protect them. The military will always be one step behind us, and if we left every Conduit we saved none of them would survive. How much time would we be wasting then?"