I am Number Ten

CHAPTER 15

        We're weaving through the stopped traffic. It's like the world is standing still and rushing at the same time. Hand in hand, being sure not to lose sight of each other. We're also fighting against fleeing civilians, panicking and trying to find shelter before it gets any worse. I just hope it doesn't get any worse.

         We make it to the outskirts of the city, breathless, but relatively unscathed. It definitely was not easy, we had to hide anytime we heard a ship whirring above us. I desperately wanted to take some of them down, but I won't stand a chance without the others. I started wondering what kind of legacies they have. Big ones, from the damage I can see or is that the Mogs' damage, I can't tell. Whatever is going on, the Garde are putting up a fight. The problem growing in my mind is how I'm going to find the others. The city is huge and they might not be where the damage is at this moment.

I decide to try my telepathy. I reach down deep and trying to get the message out. I try to picture John Smith and what the others might look like.

Number 4? Number 5? Where are you?

Nothing.

Number 7? 8? Number 9! Someone, please answer! Still nothing

Anyone! Please respond!!

Telepathy is not helping. I need an alternate way to find them.

"I need my chest," I say to Blake. He hands me the backpack we picked up along the way. I also managed to grab a few guns out of a jeep and a hunting rifle from the back of a pickup truck. I drop the lock on the ground and grab my tiara. If it can detect energy, it should be able to find the Garde's energy. I slap the lock back on after grabbing my whip.

        Once my vision becomes blue I stare up ahead of me. I can see through some of the buildings and the tiny amounts of energy are people seeking shelter from the chaos. At this rate, I'll never locate them! I look down at my hands to memorize my own energy pattern, it's slightly different from the humans, stronger, but relatively the same. this is no help.

        I start thinking of my brother. Out there, somewhere in the huge battle. Probably fighting for the Mogs, trying to slay the other Garde so he can be in good favour with Setrakus Ra. I tear up a bit an cling to my pendant. I don't care what he's done, he's my brother and I love him. He could never do anything without feeling regret. I suddenly remember one time we were together, he pushed me down on the ship to obtain a toy I had. I began to bawl on the floor. Annie came to my aid and my brother's Cepan came to discipline him. He looked at me with those dark eyes, eyes that I realize were like my father's, a detail that had been lost in my sea of memories. I couldn't help, but glare at him, the way a child would at a bully. He reaches his hand out and helps me off the floor.

"I'm sorry Aralia," he says.

I pull him into a hug and we make up by me giving him the toy he wanted and he gives something else to play with.

"Very good Aruvun" his Cepan praises him.

"It's okay," I say to him.

Aruvun

My father's name... A child he never got to know. Would he be proud of his son now?

"Where are you?" I whisper. "I've lost my brother just as he has lost me!"

        Suddenly, my pendant begins to glow and something comes over me. I open my eyes again and I can see a bright patch of light ahead of me, like a map.

"Take me to my brother," I say with excitement. I just need to follow the path of light.

"I know where to go," I say to Blake.