10/17

Episode 6, Chapter 22

"I'm telling you, I don't know how that Clint kid did it, but the camera only hit your license plate once for a few seconds and you can only see, like, four of the numbers," Parker reassured Laney for the umpteenth time. "It's been two days and nothing's happened. Now, are you ready for this?" He was right. It was Sunday and the only thing that had happened since Friday was Parker receiving another certified letter, requesting he consider coming to the clinic.

"I know, I know. I saw the clip too. You're not saying anything I haven't been telling Nan since we got home on Friday. But, dang it, it's freaking me out. Our car sat in that lot for an hour and a half. I didn't see or feel Clint when we left."

"Like that matters," Parker interjected. Laney ignored him.

"So even though the news crew was gone, someone still could have snapped a picture of us then. With the protests getting worse and now all the new craziness from Friday night and yesterday." She left the statement hanging.

Neither she nor Parker wanted to rehash the latest news. The Rhode Island body was found on Tuesday morning. By Thursday afternoon, with no new remains discovered, they thought they could finally take a breath. All of that shattered Thursday night, when two new bodies were identified within a few hours of each other in different states. Friday brought a new horror. 

In Phoenix, a twelve car pile up, at the beginning of rush hour on their I Seventeen highway, resulted in multiple lives lost and several people rushed to local hospitals. The accident and subsequent cleanup caused delays upwards of four hours. By the time it was all sorted out, a dash cam video was salvaged from one of the first cars to wreck. In the video a tall male, a hat obscuring his features, climbed onto the highway shoulder, and threw his hands out before him. Clearly visible, a few yards from where he stood, a wall of what looked like yellow glass appeared out of no where, right in front of the oncoming vehicles. The video cut out as the car slammed into the barrier.

By the time the news of another Altered death Saturday morning was announced, the world's churning feelings toward the Altered was reaching a boiling point. Family advocacy groups across the country were calling for a more stringent round up of the Altered teens. In California, a law suit against the school district, the city and the family of Chet Karver was being publicly touted by families of the hundreds lost in the school fire. Like Dan Daly High, many schools across the nation had taken steps to remove their potentially Altered students from mainstream matriculation. Those few schools that still allowed them were finding hateful messages showing up in very public places threatening Altered students who dared to come back to class. The tension had made it to Tulsa, with the A-teen clinic under twenty-four hour protest. According to the news, just that morning, Saturday night, some of the activists attempted to burn the building with Molotov cocktails. Luckily, the security team caught the culprits before any damage occurred, but today, the number of guards around the clinic increased, and they openly carried firearms.

"Laney," Parker interrupted. "I get it. I've heard the news. Seriously, let it go for now. You can't do anything about it, so come on. Today is about having fun and letting loose. Now, are you ready?" Laney shook her head. He was right. Living in fear of what was going to happen next, wasn't living.

"Yes," she said, laughing. "Yes, yes, yes. Okay, already. Let's do this," she said into her phone.

"Finally," Parker said, shaking out his arms. "Okay, here goes. "First, the QuickTrip." In a blink, he made the jump, appearing in the bathroom stall of the gas station down the street. "Yes!" he whisper shouted as he poked his head out to make sure he was alone. "Okay, I made it," he said into his phone. They had already discovered his calls lasted though his jumps. "And no one was in here."