Drew didn’t back down. “Selena, I can help.”
I stepped towards the door. “We don’t have time for this, Drew. We can’t be worrying about keeping you safe. Stay here and stay safe.” I didn’t give him the chance to argue back. I turned and ran out the front door, Selena close behind. I could practically feel Drew’s eyes staring at us as we launched into the air, Selena leading the way to this new breed of Supers.
****
Selena landed in front of a large natural history museum. The building was shaped like an uneven cube, with the right side being taller than the left, and the back side even taller.
“They were running in there,” Selena said as she walked up the steps to the front door. “There’s about a hundred refugees that live here. I’ve helped them out a time or two. We need to be extremely careful, there’s no telling what these Supers are capable of.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got your back,” I said. We reached the top of the stairs. The glass in the front windows and doors were covered with so many cracks it was hard to see through them. Vain attempts to break through the bullet proof glass by people trying to get to the items within the museum and the people inside.
We reached the front door, or what was left of it. It was barely hanging onto its hinges, its metal frame all bent out of shape. It seemed at least one of the Supers had super strength since the industrial locks on the door didn’t seem to faze them.
Selena stepped over the door and inside the museum. I followed close behind, keeping an eye on my surroundings, trying to stay as quiet as possible. We took a few steps into the museum, the quiet whistle of the wind through the front door the only sound to be heard. Brochures and pamphlets littered the front entryway. They flipped and blew around in the wind. A huge circular front desk sat in the middle of the room, behind which the concierge and ticket counters sat. There was a huge crack in the middle of the desk, as if somebody had punched or thrown something into it.
“See anything?” Selena asked.
“Nothing except that huge crack,” I said back as quiet as I could without whispering. I pointed towards the desk.
Selena nodded her head. “Yeah, that was an accident.”
“You did that?” I asked, a smile sneaking across my face.
“Kane, focus,” she said. “Listen and try and find out where the Supers are.”
I closed my eyes, and cleared the thoughts from my mind. I imagined my hearing as a sphere around me. I slowly expanded that sphere, growing it to fill the front foyer we were standing in. I imagined it growing larger and larger, until a few moments later, I heard something.
“—told you, I don’t know what you’re looking for,” I heard a young man whimper.
“Lies. You’ve lived in this establishment for many months. Surely you know the location.”
“Got something,” I said, reaching out, tapping Selena on the arm.
“Which way?” she asked.
I zeroed in on the voices, trying to hear what direction they were coming from. I slowly spun on my heels, trying to face the origin of the sounds. “This way,” I said, opening my eyes. I jogged towards the hallway that led to the fossils exhibit.
We ran as quietly as we could, following the voices. “Sounds like they’re questioning the people about something,” she said.
“Yeah,” I whispered back. “We need to draw them outside somehow.”
We continued jogging, going from exhibit to exhibit. The museum was set up like a labyrinth. The voices were getting louder and louder, and I had to continuously pull back my sphere of hearing. Before long, the voices were reaching my ears without the help of my abilities.
“Next room,” Selena whispered as quietly as she could.
I nodded my head as I inched towards the doorway that led to the next exhibit. There was an archway followed by a short hall before exiting into the next room. I peeked around the corner and saw a group of a dozen or so refugees sitting in the middle of a trashed room. Glass covered the floor, rocks from exhibits were strewn around the room, and a young man sat on his knees on the opposite side of the room from the other refugees. He was flanked by two young men who had glowing white eyes. They stared straight forward, as if they were robots. Another Super kneeled in front of the young man, this one a woman. Her blonde hair pulled back into a tight ponytail. Not a single strand of hair was loose. Standing guard in front of the rest of the refugees stood an Asian man, his eyes glowing white, staring straight ahead like the other two men.
In the corner of the room, four people were laying on top of each other in a pile, not moving.
These guys meant business.
“I will ask you one more time before you join the rest of your friends,” the woman said, gesturing with her head towards the pile. She held up a piece of parchment paper that had something drawn on it. Exactly what, I couldn’t see. “Where in this museum is this artifact located?”
“I’m telling you, I don’t know!” The young man shouted. Tears filled his eyes as he inched closer and closer to his death. “I’d tell you if I knew, I swear. I swear to you, I would. But I don’t know! I just help cook the food here, no one really pays attention to the exhibits.” The tears were falling now. “Please, please just look for whatever it is you want. We’ll leave you alone. Just please let us go.”
The woman stood, anger exuding from every step she took.
“Joshua,” she said, turning to the Asian man who guarded the other refugees. “Bring me another.”
“No, please!” The teenaged boy on his knees pleaded. He knew this meant his time was up, and he’d be joining his friends in the corner.
One of the Supers behind him picked him up by the back of his neck. It was time for Selena and I to step in.
“You’re going to want to set him down,” I said as I appeared in the room, having run in there so fast nobody saw me coming.
“You guys don’t mind if we have a small chat with you outside, do you?” Selena asked. I could hear the smirk in her voice.
If she was afraid, she was doing a good job at hiding it. I was trying my best, but neither one of us had any idea what these Supers were capable of. We really didn’t even know if their eyes glowing white meant anything at all. This was either going to go really easy, or things were about to get much more difficult.
“Ah, Kane Andrews. How nice of you to stop by,” the woman said with a smirk of her own across her face. She turned to Selena, her smile growing. “Always a pleasure, Holocene.”
“Have we met before?” Selena asked.
The woman threw her head back and laughed. “Not quite, however your reputation precedes you. The two of you have accomplished a great many things on your own, much less together.” She looked between the two of us like a mother admiring her children before they went off on a school dance with their respective dates.
“How about you let these people go and we can tell you a story or two?” I said, my fists tightening by my side.
The woman made a tsk-tsk noise as she shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that at the moment, although I’d love to take a rain check.”
I took a step forward, and I sensed the three other Supers tense up, ready to fight. The woman at the middle, however, stayed relaxed and smiling. “Let these people go. Now,” I said, gritting my teeth.
The woman sighed. “When I woke up this morning I said ‘Genna don’t get into any fights you can’t win.’,” she said, more to herself than anything.
“That’s a very specific and ironic mantra,” Selena said.
“I guess it is. Fortunately for me, though, I think this is one fight I can win.”
With that, Genna lunged across the room and grabbed me by my shirt. She threw me straight up, right through the top of the museum.
It was time to find out what these white-eyed Supers were made of.
7
WHITE VS. BLUE
I flew back down through the hole in the ceiling I’d made, and slammed into the room right
as Genna punched Selena, sending her flying through the back wall.
The three male Supers took a step towards me, and when Genna turned and saw me standing there, I was officially surrounded. I made eye contact with the teenage boy and gestured my head towards the exit. He slowly got up and inched towards the door. When he saw the other Supers weren’t going to do anything, he took off running, and the rest of the hostages in the room took off too.
I never took my eyes off Genna the whole time. “You know when we’re done here, I’ll just find them and kill them all,” she said.
“You sound like someone who likes to make goals. I’m sure you’ll try your best to meet that one,” I said. My eyes wandered behind her and I saw Selena flying towards her.
Genna shook her head. “No, I won’t try very hard at all.” A smile flicked across her face as she turned and caught Selena by the fist right before she reached her.
I leapt forward to help Selena, but multiple hands grabbed me and pulled me back. I shook the first one off my shoulder, and then swung upwards behind me with my left hand, knocking the other arm off me. I reached around with my freed right hand and grabbed the last hand around my waist, and twisted it as I turned around, sending one of the Supers flipping to the ground. I twisted with a crack, snapping his arm.
The Asian guy lunged at me and I ducked down. I reached up as he flew over me, caught him by his shirt, and slammed him into the ground. I kicked behind me at the third Super who was coming at me with a shard of glass—as if that was going to do anything. My foot connected with his chest and he flew backwards into the wall.
I turned to get back to helping Selena, but she and Genna were nowhere to be seen, and there was now a new hole in the ceiling.
A scream from behind interrupted me before I took off. I turned and saw the Super whose arm I broke clutching his arm as it slowly repaired itself. I prepared myself to unleash another attack on him, but something stopped me before I did.
His eyes.
They were no longer glowing a bright white, but were now a piercing blue, just like mine and the rest of the Supers.
I looked through the hole in the wall I’d made with the Super I kicked through it, and saw a blue glow coming from the next room over. I looked down at my feet, and the Asian Supers eyes too were glowing bright and blue as he picked himself up from the ground, dazed and confused.
Before I had the chance to ask what was going on, however, part of the ceiling caved in. Genna slammed into the ground, and Selena landed on top of her. Genna’s eyes were definitely still white, and if the look on her face was any indicator, they were filled with rage.
She lifted her legs up and wrapped them in front of Selena. She slammed her to the ground, and rolled on top of her. I leapt towards her, tackling Genna off Selena and pinning her to the ground. Selena scrambled over and helped me pin her down. Genna struggled, but her strength was no match for both Selena and I.
“What are you doing here?” I yelled. “Why are your eyes glowing white?”
Genna spat in my face. “You’re pathetic, Kane Andrews. You fight with blinders over your eyes. Stumbling through this world with no direction. You can’t even see what’s right in front of you!”
A body slammed into my side and I flew off Genna and through a wall. I got up as fast as I could, and saw one of the Supers from earlier helping Genna up, his eyes once again glowing white. I ran towards them, but once again slammed to the ground as someone grabbed my ankle. I turned and saw it was the Super I’d kicked into the room earlier, his eyes glowing a piercing white. He threw me into the corner and I slammed into Selena, who was just standing up. Our bodies collided and we fell back to the ground.
I got up fast, but wasn’t fast enough. I stormed into the room Genna and the rest of the Supers had been in, but they were no longer there. All four of them were gone, leaving no clue as to where they were going.
8
THE CALM
I didn’t bother picking my feet up as I shuffled through the dark forest, my glowing blue eyes lighting the way. I scanned the ground, exactly what I was looking for I wasn’t sure. Anything at all, I guess.
After mine and Selena’s encounter with Genna and the other white-eyed Supers, I spent an hour or two trying to get some rest. That didn’t seem as if it was going to happen, so I decided to fly out to the woods I was in now. The woods were where I last saw Samantha.
Just a few miles straight ahead sat the remains of the army base we’d commandeered before Raven took over. It was a base that Samantha had found, brought everything over from where we were standing, and convinced some of the troops there to help our cause. She’d done that all on her own while Selena and I were overseas, fighting our own battles. She was so strong and courageous, I couldn’t help but smile thinking about her. She could’ve just stayed at the store we’d been camping out in. After going through the destruction of Dallas, nobody would’ve blamed her. She and the guys could’ve used a week of rest. But that wasn’t good enough for her. She needed to make progress. The evil in the world wasn’t going to rest, and neither would she.
I walked on through the forest, searching for any sign of her that was surely gone by now. I reached a tree that had a large growth on its side like a massive tumor, and sighed. It was the same tree I’d seen a million times by now. I wasn’t making any new ground. No new discoveries. I wasn’t any closer to finding her than I was the first nine-hundred ninety-nine thousand times.
“Where’d you go, Samantha,” I said, looking down at the ground as if I’d find a map straight to her sitting on top of the dirt. The crickets chirped around me and the trees whispered as they blew through the wind. The smell of pine and dirt filled my nose. A wonderful smell that I loved, but didn’t care to appreciate at the moment.
I sat down on the tumor-tree the best I could, although it was more of a lean than a proper sit. I sighed as I looked around, the green woods being tinted blue by the light from my eyes. I let my mind wander. I thought about my parents. It’d been so long since I actually talked to them. Face-to-face. Not through Samantha, but an actual conversation. I didn’t even know if they were safe. What if someone found out who they were? What if one of the other refugees told the STF just so they could get more food, or a bigger bed? Would they do something like that, or would they know better? Surely if someone knew whose parents they were, they’d know to leave them alone. Because if I ever found out that something happened to them and that there was someone responsible, I wasn’t going to be very happy with them to say the least.
The sound of a twig cracking rang through the night like a blast from a shotgun. I sat up straight and looked around for the source of the sound. It was probably just an animal, but I wasn’t going to take any chances. Especially not after having to fight as many Supers as I had to that day. Of course with just my luck another one would show up, not letting me end the day without just one more confrontation.
A blue light shone through the trees right at me. “Who’s there?” I asked.
“It’s just me,” Selena said as she emerged from the trees and walked towards where I was resting.
I relaxed and sat back. “What are you doing out here?”
“Probably the same thing as you,” Selena said. She stopped in front of me, getting down on one knee to rest.
“Want my seat?” I asked.
“It doesn’t look like much of one,” she said with a smirk. “Keep it, you earned it today.”
I smiled and sat back. “Out here looking for Samantha?”
Selena nodded. “Yeah, or at least that’s what I’m telling myself. Really it’s nice to just get out and be on my own. That house can get a little small sometimes.”
I nodded. “It’s pretty nice out here. A great place to think.”
“That’s for sure. I was flying over to the place I normally go to when I saw a blue light down here. Figured it was you, but just wanted to swing by to be sure.”
“Yep, it’s just me.”
&n
bsp; We sat in silence for a few moments, our minds wandering off. “Do you think we could rescue my parents?” I asked before I even knew what I was saying.
Selena looked up at me. She paused for a few moments, going over the possibilities in her mind. “Well, if anyone could do it, I think we could. I’m not sure why, though.”
“Why not?” I asked sitting up, agitated with her response.
“I think they’re safe where they are. I mean, you had to defend two different communities today from attacks by Supers. It’s getting crazier and crazier out here by the day. No one knows exactly where the STF bases are. Besides, the STF’s goal is to keep humans safe.” Selena stood from the ground and shrugged. “I think your parents are going to be perfectly fine.” She brushed the dirt from her jeans and stood up straight. She began floating in the air up towards the tree line. “I’m gonna go look around. Try and get some rest though, Kane. You could use it.” With that, she turned and flew into the night sky, the trees bending as the wind from her flight brushed through them.
I sighed and stood from the tree. My eyelids were feeling quite heavy. Selena was probably right. I needed some rest. I was betting that maybe after shutting my mind off for a few hours, I’d be able to think things through much more clearly. I was feeling better about my parents at least, so that was good.
I took off and flew towards the house that we called home. I flew right towards my bedroom window, opening it up and floating right through. I didn’t want to wake anybody up by going through the front door, which had hinges that screamed like a banshee. After switching from my jeans and t-shirt to just a pair of sweatpants, I climbed into bed, sleep finding me much easier than I’d anticipated.
9
THE STORM
“Kane!” Samantha screamed.
My eyes shot open, and I was surrounded by white. I floated above a sea of white liquid. It rippled like the ocean, its pure white beauty stretching out as far as I could see, before disappearing into a gray fog. I looked behind me, and it was the same sight as the one in front of me. White ocean, gray fog. I looked up, and all I could see was white as far as the eye could see.
The Secret of the Supers (The First Superhero Book 4) Page 3
