by Jess Petosa
They decided it was worth a try and ducked along the back of the house, slowly creeping up to the bottom of the window. Ally motioned for Stosh to move to the next house while she checked this one. Once he had disappeared from her view, she lifted her head slowly and peered into the window. She had been right; it gave a view of the main area of the home. A dozen or so Ordinary girls were scattered through out the room. A few of them were reading books, but the majority of them were watching a movie on a large TV. She looked them all over and didn’t see Willow, but she knew that that didn’t mean she wasn’t in there. Willow could easily be in another room.
“Ally,” Stosh popped up beside her and she had to cover her mouth to keep from screaming.
“Don’t do that.” She slapped him, watching him stifle a laugh.
“I found her,” he said with wide eyes, pointing to the housing unit next to the one she had been searching.
They crouched down and moved fast, stopping below the wide window at the back of the unit. She stood up slowly, observing a scene similar to the one she saw in the previous home. Ally found Willow almost immediately. She was seated on the couch, reading a book and looking awfully bored.
“Did you find her?” Luke came up behind Ally, causing her to shriek into her hand.
“What is with you guys tonight?” She punched Stosh again, who was really having trouble stifling a laugh this time.
“Hey, he did it, not me.” Stosh pointed at Luke.
Ally narrowed her eyes at him before looking at Luke. “She is in this one.”
“We have an idea to get her out,” Luke said. “But you aren’t going to like it.”
“Oh, well that has me convinced,” she responded. “What is your idea?”
Flint stepped from the shadows. “I’m going to create a diversion so that you can grab her and get away.”
Ally frowned. “What do you mean?”
Stosh placed a hand on her shoulder. “He is going to stay behind, Ally.”
She shook her head. “No, we’ll think of a different plan so that you can come with us.”
Flint gave her a slight smile. “It’s okay, Ally, really. I’m like Mazzi; I think I’ll be just fine here. I agreed to come along because I didn’t want to be left behind, but the Wilderness doesn’t sound like the place for me.”
Ally looked him over. She hadn’t gotten to know him very well in her time here, but he had always been kind to her. She leaned forward and gave him a hug.
“Thank you,” she said in his ear before pulling away.
He nodded and stepped away, disappearing around the side of the house.
“What do you think he is going to do?” she asked.
Luke looked into the window. “I’m not sure, but we better act fast once he decides. Which is one is Willow?”
Ally pointed her out and he grinned. “She’s pretty.”
She elbowed him in the side. “Watch it.”
They only had to wait a few minutes for Flint’s diversion. A loud crash came from the front of the house and they could hear voices yelling from inside. Several of the girls even stood and ran toward the front door. Willow stayed seated but put her book down, looking in the direction of the action.
“Now or never,” Luke said, raising his hands. “Everyone duck.”
They did as his said and soon glass was raining down on their heads. Luke had somehow blown the back window out and was now jumping up and into the house. Ally followed after him, knowing she didn’t need to tell Stosh and Asher to stay behind. Ordinarys couldn’t jump that high.
The few girls that remained in the room stared at them in horror; a few of them were poised to start screaming. Luke grabbed Willow from the couch and threw her over his shoulder. Ally walked backward behind him, watching the girls.
“Please, you didn’t see any of this,” she spoke to them.
She jumped back out the window, where Luke was already waiting with the others, Willow still thrown over his shoulder.
“I think she is still drugged,” Luke said. “I’ll have to carry her to the wall.”
Ally didn’t question his decision. They all took off in a run back to where Sabine was still waiting and found that she had tears running down her cheeks from the anticipation. But Stosh came to her side and helped her up, whispering something in her ear to settle her down. Ally noticed that Stosh didn’t let go of Sabine’s hand as they ran, and despite the situation they were currently in, she managed to smile.
Luke had told them before they left that he would need to lead them through the back streets to get to their escape point at the boundary wall. Even past dark, the streets would be full of Exceptionals planning for tomorrow’s ceremony. They would look especially suspicious with Luke carrying Willow over his shoulder. Ally was losing patience with all the extra time it was taking, knowing that the Guards would be after them soon.
By the time they finally reached the wall, the Ordinarys were having trouble keeping up. Ally was still amazed by her newfound endurance, and had almost forgotten that the others would tire out after a certain distance. This thought added more worry to the success of their escape once they were out in the woods, and then into the Wilderness. She had no idea how she would hide the others if this happened. She couldn’t carry them all.
Stosh stared up at the wall, which rose two stories above them. “How are we going to get over it?”
“Now that we have Luke, it won’t be that difficult,” she smiled.
Luke set Willow down carefully. “I can lift you up one by one and set you on the other side.”
Stosh laughed. “Yeah. Right.”
Ally had forgotten that this world was new to Stosh. He didn’t know about Luke’s extra capabilities yet.
Luke smirked and flicked his hand, causing Stosh to fall backwards.
“Be nice,” she said through gritted teeth.
Stosh stood up quickly, brushing dirt from his shoulder. “Okay okay, I believe you.”
Luke shrugged and looked at the wall. “I’ll need to scale it first and get to the top, otherwise I won’t be able to see you to the other side.”
“Let me lift you,” Ally suggested.
He looked skeptical. “The girl who made ten rubber balls explodes?”
She took hold of his hand. “I can do this, I promise. I don’t think any part of me, even the one that controls my abilities, could ever hurt you.”
Luke seemed to struggle with that thought before finally saying, “Alright, I trust you.”
Ally had the others step back while Luke approached the wall. She closed her eyes and reached into her mind, searching for the energy had been practicing with all afternoon. She found it quickly and made it expand, feeling the familiar tingle in her arms. She opened her eyes and focused on Luke, picturing his safe arrival at the top of the wall. Ever so slightly, she released the power from her hands. Luke shot up quickly and she pulled the energy back, stopping him in mid-air.
“Careful,” he warned.
She took a deep breath and nodded. “I can do this.”
She started again, managing to release less energy this time. Slowly, Luke began to rise toward the top of the wall. He was currently sideways in the air so she imagined him standing upright, as if an invisible platform were beneath him. She watched as his body turned into the position she wanted. He reached his hands up toward the top of the wall, grasping it as soon as he got close enough. She released the energy and allowed him to pull himself the rest of the way up. He looked down at her and gave her two thumbs up.
“Stosh first,” she said up to him.
Stosh stepped toward the wall tentatively. “See you on the other side, Al.”
Luke lifted him carefully and Ally watched as he disappeared over the top. Sabine went next, and then Willow. Asher stepped forward after he spent a minute arguing with Ally that she would get to go next.
“I need to be here in case something happens. I can cover your back.”
Asher had responded wi
th, “Then who will protect yours?”
Luke. She thought to herself.
Asher was halfway up the wall when the Guards found them. Ally froze where she was, shocked by the sheer sight of them. Half a dozen of them appeared around the side of the house they had been standing behind, their violet eyes glowing in the night. She gasped when she recognized the Guard leading the small ground. Pax grinned at Ally and then raised his gun, using it to shoot Asher out of the air.
Chapter Twenty-Five
A month ago, Ally would have fainted at the sight of a dead body at her feet. Now, well now the sight made her angry. It reminded her of the loss of her mother, and the loss of other Ordinarys at the mercy of the Exceptionals. She clenched her hands into fists at her side and looked up, watching as the Guards formed a line in front of her.
“We know what you’re up to, Ally,” Pax said. “Where are the others?”
Ally laughed, but it held no humor. “I’m by myself. Did you think they would want to risk coming with me?”
Pax shook his head. “Oh Ally. Did you think I didn’t know about your friend Willow? Luke sent Maver and I on a mission to find her two days ago, and then tonight she goes missing from her housing unit at the ORC. Doesn’t that seem a little strange to you? And do you expect me to believe that you would leave your brother behind? So where are they? On the other side of the wall?”
Ally’s body stiffened but she kept her expression calm.
One of the Guards with Pax coughed, and she recognized him as the Guard from the front gate her first day into the City.
“This can be easy, or this can be hard,” Byron said.
“I think we’ll go with hard,” Luke said, appearing by Ally’s side. He had jumped from above, falling two stories and landing on his feet.
Ally didn’t waste any time. She raised her hands and the energy still buzzed in her arms from lifting Luke. She didn’t hold back this time, not caring about the outcome of using her abilities this time. Hopefully she would blow the Exceptional Guards so far through the air that they would land a mile away. She had never felt so much hatred for a group of people before, with the exception of Aden. But when the light from her hands met the three guards on the left directly, their bodies disintegrated into ashes. The other three Guards, including Pax and Byron, were thrown backwards.
Ally quickly dropped her hands to her side, managing to strangle the cry in her throat. “What have I done?”
Luke looked at her with horror filled eyes. “Ally.” He reached toward her.
“No, don’t touch me,” she backed up.
“You had no choice,” he said, continuing to move toward her.
“I killed them,” she croaked, looking at her hands.
“Ally, you have to go.” He motioned to the remaining Guards, who were coming to.
“What about you?” she said. “Come with us.”
“I have to stay here.” He took another step toward her. “I’ll take care of them.”
Luke raised his hands and her body lifted off the ground.
She took one last look at him, finally able to respond to his statement from earlier in the park. “I love you too, Luke.”
“Stay safe, Ally. Come back to me.” Luke said beneath her, but to this she had no response.
How could she ever return to this place? They would most likely kill her on the spot for murder. She wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at the wall, grabbing the edge when she reached it. She lowered herself over the other side and quickly, but carefully, used the uneven stones as a way to climb down. On the ground, Stosh was pacing frantically.
“Ally!” he said, rushing to give her a hug once she was down safely. “We weren’t sure what happened. We heard the commotion on the other side.”
“You should have run!” she said, looking back toward the top of the wall. “We need to move. Now.”
“What happened?” Sabine asked. “Where is Asher?”
Ally knew she didn’t have time to be sensitive. “He’s dead.”
They ran toward the settlement but not directly into it. Ally didn’t know if was adrenaline that kept them moving, or fear, but Stosh and Sabine made it with out stopping. Ally carried Willow over her shoulder and used her Exceptional senses to navigate them. They hid behind a large outcropping of trees for fifteen minutes, but saw no signs that the Guards were after them. Darkness had fallen over the woods, and the only sounds came from crickets and the night birds.
“We’ll need to move quickly.” Ally said to the others.
They left their hiding spot and began to run again. She led them right up to Po’s house, hoping he was still awake. Stosh banged the door several times before leaning forward on his knees, making an attempt to catch his breath.
Po did finally come to the door and when he saw who stood on his porch, he almost fainted.
“Ally. Stosh. Willow,” he said their names in a rush, his face turning white. “What’s going on? What’s happened? Where is your mother?”
Ally set Willow down. She took five minutes to give Po the extremely short version of what was happening, hoping that in the end he would believe her. She didn’t know why she thought it would be as easy as marching into the settlement and getting everyone up and moving. Po seemed to be in disbelief that they were even here.
When she finished Po leaned against the wall, bringing his hand to his forehead. “I don’t understand.”
“You don’t have to understand right now, but I can promise you that I’m telling the truth. Look at my eyes.” She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her, making her violet eyes wide. “I’m an Exceptional now. We are leaving the settlement tonight and we need you to follow after us in a week. The Guards might come for us tonight, and we need you to tell them that you haven’t seen us. They’ll follow us into the Wilderness. We are going to lead them north; in the opposite direction I want you to go. We’ll make sure we lose them before we head south again, and we’ll make an attempt to catch up with you.”
“Where will we go?” Po asked.
Ally felt relief that he was finally taking her seriously.
“To the southern City,” she said.
Po’s eyes widened. “No one knows where the City is. It has only been talked about in stories and we can’t even be sure it ever existed.”
“It exists, and you will find it. We all will,” she said, placing a hand on either one of his shoulders.
THEY LEFT PO to think over her words, stepping out onto the dirt road that cut through the main part of town. Ally looked around, taking in her settlement. She had grown up here, and now it was barely recognizable. She had become so accustomed to the busy City, and the large buildings within it, that the settlement seemed small and fragile.
Sabine had a look on her face that was similar to the one Ally had her first day in the City, and Ally couldn’t help but laugh. “Welcome to our home, Sabine.”
Sabine smiled. “I kind of like it. Too bad we have to leave it behind.”
“Let’s gather more supplies from our house.” Stosh said. “We’ll need them if we want to make it in the Wilderness.”
“How will we bring enough food?” Sabine asked.
Stosh laughed. “Out here, we get the majority of our food from the woods. We were born to survive in the Wilderness.”
He took Sabine’s hand in his and smiled. They went to Stosh and Ally’s house, or old house now, dragging Willow behind them. She still hadn’t spoken a word since they took her from the home, but she at least seemed to be coming out of her drug induced fog. Ally hoped she would be fully aware once it was time for them to leave. They couldn’t leave her here to travel with the others. The Exceptional Guards would recognize her and take back to the City. They would use her to get information on where Ally and the others had gone.
“I’ll be right back. There is something I need to do,” Ally said as the others quietly raided her old home. The family that lived with them previously had vacated the home, most lik
ely after Guards had raided it to retrieve Stosh and their mother.
Ally left before they could respond and took the path behind their house that led into the woods. There were a few smaller homes back here, saved for single occupants, mainly the elderly. She found the home she was looking for and knocked on the door.
It took him a few minutes, but the man she was looking for finally answered the door.
“Allona!” He said, inviting her in.
He was old, probably one of the oldest Ordinarys in their settlement, and definitely the friendliest. She sat in one of his worn, wooden rocking chairs and leaned back.
“So, am I old enough to know your name now?” She grinned.
Even her mother hadn’t known his name, and they had been coming here twice a year for as long as Ally could remember. He would always joke, “When you’re older” but of course, her mother had been much older than Ally.
The old man laughed, his eyes meeting hers. “I see the change has started. Have you come for another injection?”
“Will it reverse what is happening to me?” she asked.
He nodded. “It will, and if you want your symptoms to stay away, you’ll have to keep up with the injections.”
She filled him in on how the rest of the settlement would be leaving in a week’s time and he grinned. “Finally, something exciting is happening around here. It is about time we stood up and thought for ourselves.”
“So, you’ll go?” Ally asked.
“Of course.”
“I was wondering, could I take a shot or two with me into the Wilderness, just in case. I want to stay Exceptional for now, in case I need my abilities to help us, but if I change my mind—”
The old man smiled, hobbling over to a wooden chest near the fireplace. He opened it and pulled out half a dozen small, canvas bags. Each held a vial of the vaccine and the needle to administer it. He hobbled back and handed it to her.
