The Shooting Star

(6) หก: Training Grounds

After a few hours flying south, the four of us decided to stop and take ground. Ricky brought his wallet, and Jasmine has a few dollars on her, so we planned on going to the store. My powers are still a little bit stronger since the adrenaline of fighting is still flowing through me, and I was able to slowly lower Lily's van onto the ground. It was like I could feel how high the truck was in the air and lower it at my own pace. 

We landed in a dark, secluded area and then drove out to the nearest store. We picked up fruits, chips, bread, meats, and a lot of water, and went back to the van. We drove out for about an hour and found a secluded spacious area, with a lot of flat, grassy land and a small lake nearby.

Jasmine and Ricky laid down horizontally on the two rows of seats in the back, but Lily and I sat up in the front seats, looking at the moon and the night sky. It was probably about 12 o'clock in the morning, but we couldn't sleep.

 "So," I started, "What do you know about the others, from the lab?"

"Well, there were 11 of us, my mother said. Each one of us had a set of abilities that these scientists had planned on training us to master. The first generation of children, the one my mother was in, did a good job with the studies, but none of them had plans to fight for the government, I think. Some went rogue and now live normal lives, and others became psychos and live in solitude. Then, we were created. They gave us too much power and planned on training us to become unstoppable, but when they realized that it was too difficult to control us, they halted the research. They sold us and shipped us out to be cared for, some by trusted individuals, some of us stolen. I guess they had planned to continue the research a few days ago, but my mother refused to bring me back to that place. She says it will ruin me." 

"Wow, unstoppable." I thought about that for a moment. Unstoppable. Before this trip, I had trouble lifting chairs and tables in my room, but now I was able to shoot an entire creek into the air and I was able to shoot a wave of rocks towards my father, throwing him into the air. I couldn't even pick myself up before, and now I can levitate myself with 3 other people holding onto me. I have become extremely more powerful in the past few days, and I feel stronger too.

"I know Jasmine has uncovered a few other abilities," Lily says, "like me with my plant abilities and my healing abilities, but have you learned anything new?"

"I'm not sure," I said, thinking, "But I was able to jump over an entire house without thinking, and when I slapped the water in the stream, it came back down..."

"It'll take a lot of practice and studying for you to be able to fully learn how your powers work, but you are starting off great." She smiled at me, taking a bite out of a sandwich she bought from that local market we went to earlier. I had a lot to think about. Lily and I pushed our seat back and drifted off to sleep. If I had the potential to become powerful, I wanna make sure I can get as close as I can to that point before we have to encounter our parents again. And the thing that has been stuck in my head this whole night is, if what Lily is saying is true, then we're going to have to go back to Brunswick sooner or later. 

The next morning, I woke up to the smell of a nice warm breakfast. Jasmine was up cooking eggs and sausage under a green fire and on a pan that we bought from the store. I go over to Ricky, still laying down in the back row of the van. "Ricky, wake up, we have breakfast," I said awkwardly, giggling. I tapped him on the shoulder a few times, and he opened his eyes, looking up at me, "Hey, Hen. Let's get some food." I didn't really know what else to say, so I just laughed and we got out of the van, going over to the fire. 

"Is it safe to eat from green fire?" Ricky said jokingly. "I don't know," Jasmine replied, "Let me know if your throat starts feeling funny."