“Let us out!” Dylan yelled as he jumped to his feet and banged on the back doors in vain. He slumped to the floor in defeat. “Where are we going?” he said quietly.
“We don’t know,” a male voice replied. “They took us hostage too and we have no idea why. I’m Jay by the way.”
Dylan squinted through the darkness – he could just about see his fellow prisoners.
“Dylan,” he said. “And this is my sister, Sophia.”
“Toshiko,” said a fashionably dressed Japanese girl.
“I’m Neelam,” the third teenager, a beautiful Asian girl with lustrous, long hair said. “And I think I might have an idea why these men have taken us.”
Chapter 2
“You know something?” Jay said in response to Neelam’s revelation. “Why on earth didn’t you tell us?”
“I only found out a minute ago,” she said with a shrug of the shoulders.
“What? How?” Jay looked around in confusion.
Neelam stared at the floor of the van as if searching for the right words. “I’m telepathic,” she eventually said. “I have been able to read thoughts for about a month now, so I peeked into those drivers’ minds just now and picked the information about what their plans are for us out of their brain.”
Jay laughed. “Yeah right.”
“It’s true.”
“And I suppose you can fly and see through walls too,” Toshiko said, shaking her head.
“I can read people’s minds,” Neelam protested. “I can! I’m not brilliant at it yet, but I can do it.”
“Alright then super wonder girl or whatever you call yourself, why can’t you break us out of here if you’re so amazing and powerful?” Jay was obviously trying to be funny, but she looked hurt.
Neelam sighed. “I said I’m a telepath, not someone who can leap tall buildings, tear through metal and fly into outer space.”
Unlike Jay and Toshiko, Dylan was sure she was telling the truth, so he jumped in to defend her. “I believe you.”
Jay laughed. “You’re crazy.”
“No I’m not,” Dylan said. “But I do believe in super powers or whatever it is you call Neelam’s special gift.”
“Oh come on…” Jay said. “Are you for real?”
“Very much so,” Dylan said. He eyed up a tiny puddle of liquid in the middle of the floor. “Watch,” he said as he reached forward to touch the water and freeze it. The group fell silent. He repeated the process, only this time he melted the ice.
“You too!” Neelam gasped.
“No way,” Jay said.
Toshiko just shook her head in amazement.
“How did you do that?” a scared Sophia asked. Dylan turned around to see his nine-year-old sister sitting in the corner looking wide-eyed. He had completely forgotten she was there.
“Don’t be afraid,” he said. “It’s just something I recently learned to do. I’m still the same Dylan – your over-protective big bro.” He beamed her a huge smile.
Sophia grinned back shyly. “It’s pretty cool,” she said. “I wish I had super powers.”
“You might have,” Neelam said. “If what I learned from those men is true that is.”
“What did you find out?” Dylan asked. In the rush to defend Neelam, he’d completely forgotten about her revelation.
“Well, they seem to think we all have these special gifts.”
“What!” Jay said. “Not me.”
“From what I can gather, earlier today a boy called Andrew manifested some kind of invulnerability power when he was in a road accident. For some reason, they’ve linked us to him and come to the conclusion that we have special abilities too. They’re taking us to a lab somewhere to test their theory out.”
“You and I have powers,” Dylan said. “They might be right.”
“Nah, I ain’t got nothing like that,” Toshiko said.
“Well, I’ve only had this ability for two weeks, Neelam said she’s been reading minds for a month and this Andrew guy found out today. Chances are, you and Jay simply don’t know yet.”
Just then, the van pulled up again and the men got out and slammed the doors shut.
“Where are we?” Sophia whispered.
“I don’t know,” Dylan said. He slid over and put his arm around her. “But I promise that I’ll protect you whatever happens.”
“Do you think we’re at the lab?” Jay asked. “Do the mind readingy thing again, Neelam.”
“I can’t,” she said. “Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. It sounds like they’ve walked away and they have to be close by for my power to work.”
“I think we should get out of here while the van’s stopped,” Toshiko said.
“Good idea,” Jay agreed. “Dylan, can you use your powers?”
“I’m not sure. All I do is control water.” He looked at Toshiko, Jay and Neelam, who were staring at him hopefully, then turned to see the frightened look on his little sister’s face. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Dylan looked around in the desperate hope that an escape plan would present itself to him, but all he could see were bare, rusty walls. He stared back at the small puddle of liquid on the floor, then looked to the door.
“Jay, how strong are you?”
“Not very. Why?”
“I’m thinking about freezing the lock on the back door. I wonder if, with the combined efforts of the two of us, we could then bash it open.”
“Well, we can give it a go. Good idea, mate.”
Dylan focussed on the puddle and willed the liquid to lift up into the air and over to the lock, where he swiftly turned it to ice.
“OK, Jay, let’s smash that thing.”
The two boys repeatedly pummelled on the locked double doors until they finally sprung open.
“Result!” Jay shouted, giving Dylan a high five. “Now let’s get out of here.” He leapt out of the van and helped Toshiko and Neelam down, while Dylan grabbed Sophia.
“Where are we?” he asked as he jumped out of the van. He looked up and down the tree-lined road, which was full of large, Victorian houses.
“Dunno,” Jay said, “but we haven’t been driving long, so we must still be in north London somewhere. Let’s peg it for now and figure that out later.”
As the four teens and Sophia turned to scarper up the road, a blonde girl came running out of the house next to them.
“Get back here!” the skinnier one of the two kidnappers shouted. “Or I’ll shoot you and your brother.”
The girl spun around and fired a huge blast of lightning from her hands, knocking him to the ground.
“What was that? What did I do?” she said as she fell to her knees and stared at her hands in disbelief.
The chubby guard came running out and he was dragging a younger, blond boy with him.
“Let him go!” she shouted as she let out another devastating lightning bolt, but she missed the attacker and destroyed half the front porch instead. The man shoved the boy in front of him as a shield and held a gun to his head.
“Now, now, Miss Watts. There’s no need to get violent.”
“Don’t kill my brother,” she begged.
“No one’s going to get hurt so long as you do as we say and get in that van.” He turned to Dylan, Sophia, Toshiko, Neelam and Jay. “And that includes you lot. Don’t think I haven’t noticed your pathetic escape plan. You run and I’ll shoot you all.”
“You’ll never get away with that,” Dylan said. “The cops will arrest you.”
The man laughed, then pulled a badge out of his pocket. “Master Nicolson, we are the cops. Now get in that van. All of you.”
The scrawny guard, who had been hit by the lightning, got up off the floor and pointed his gun in their direction. “Do as he says.”
“Any genius ideas?” Jay whispered as they trudged back to the van.
“Afraid not,” Dylan said solemnly. “I can’t believe they’re the police. This is getting weirder by the minute.”
<
br /> The blonde girl was still frozen to the spot, stubbornly refusing to move.
“Look, little lady, I’m taking your brother to the van. You coming or am I going to have to put a bullet through his head?”
She lifted her hands and flung them in his direction, but nothing happened. “Oh,” she said. “It didn’t work that time.”
“Van. Now!”
She reluctantly followed his orders and climbed into the Transit along with her brother and the other teens. The men slammed the doors shut before padlocking them together.
“And no more crazy escape attempts,” one of them said sternly through the closed door. “I’m losing my patience with you dumb kids.”
“Hi,” Dylan said to the two new prisoners as the vehicle started to move. “You have super powers too.”
“Powers?” the girl said. “Is that what made me do what I did back there?”
“I assume so. Didn’t you know you had those abilities?”
She shook her head. “One minute I was desperately trying to save me and my brother, the next I was throwing lightning bolts out of nowhere.” She stared at her hands. “It’s kinda cool, but very scary.”
“I know,” he said. “I only discovered I could control water a couple of weeks ago and I’m still getting used to it. I’m Dylan by the way.”
“Lucy,” she said with a shy smile. She was very pretty, not really his type, but pretty nonetheless.
“Welcome Lucy,” Jay said, interrupting. From the way he was posturing, it would seem that he found her attractive too. “I’m Jay and these are our co-inmates, Neelam, Toshiko and Dylan’s sister, Sophia.”
“Hi,” she said. “This is my brother Aaron.”
“Do you have powers?” Dylan asked the boy, who was looking scared and nervous.
“Nope,” he said. He stared around the group and gave everyone a little wave.
“Do you know where they’re taking us?” Lucy asked.
“We’re not certain, but we think we’re headed to a lab,” Neelam said. “I read their minds. They don’t seem to know much other than that whoever is giving them orders wants us because they think we have powers.”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Lucy said. “What are they going to do – dissect us like aliens or something?”
“Gross,” Jay said.
“Aliens don’t exist. They’re just science fiction,” Neelam said, shaking her head in disbelief.
“Yeah, well till today, I thought the same about super powers,” Lucy quipped.
“Fair point.” Neelam laughed reluctantly, then pulled her legs towards herself awkwardly. “I’m scared.”
“Me too,” Lucy agreed.
“I think we all are.” Dylan looked around at the group. Everyone was looking apprehensive as though they were worried about what was going to happen to them. He couldn’t summon the energy to cheer them all up, so he hutched over to Sophia and put his arm her instead.
“It’ll be all right,” he promised her, partially trying to convince himself. “It will all be OK.”
Chapter 3
About an hour later, the van finally came to a stop again and the group listened as the policemen got out and closed the doors once more.
“Is this it?” Dylan said. “Are we here?”
“Who knows,” Jay said. “Maybe we’re picking up another hero to add to our super team.”
“If we’re so super, why are we still stuck here?” Toshiko asked sarcastically.
“I don’t see you helping out,” Neelam snapped. “If you have any bright ideas, please do share them.”
Toshiko just shrugged her shoulders coolly and folded her arms. “This is boring.”
Suddenly, the back door swung open. Dylan glanced at his watch and saw that it was just gone 8.30pm.
“Well, here we are,” the podgy policeman said. “Get inside quickly and no funny business. There are a lot more of us here, so you don’t stand a chance.”
Dylan helped Sophia down and saw they were parked right outside the door to a huge, nondescript building. The entrance was open and eight uniformed men were stood inside.
“In,” the officer repeated.
Dylan and Sophia did as they were told, closely followed by the rest of the group. They were each grabbed by one of the men and marched down a long corridor, where they went through some double doors and kept walking until they reached a room at the end. The short, chubby policeman who’d driven them here unlocked the door.
“Say hello to your new home,” he said to the teenagers. He then looked at the guards. “Throw them inside and two of you wait out here in case they attempt to escape. They’re an annoying little bunch.”
Dylan was shoved in first and he was surprised to see another boy his age sitting on a bed in the corner. There were two girls of around 12 with him and judging by the wide-eyed looks on their faces, they were just as shocked to see him.
“Who are you?” the boy asked.
“I’m Dylan, this is my sister Sophia and this lot are our new friends Jay, Neelam, Toshiko, Lucy and Aaron.” He turned and pointed at the group, who had all been locked in with him.
The room itself was white and bare, with nothing but empty pin boards for decoration. It reminded Dylan of a hospital, but he couldn’t be sure that it was one. The four beds made it look like a ward, but it was even less inviting than any he had visited.
“Nice to meet you,” the boy said. “These are my sisters, Rhianna and Louise, and I’m Andrew.”
“Andrew!” Neelam yelled. “Were you run over earlier today?”
He nodded. “How do you know?”
“I read the minds of the people who kidnapped us and they seemed to think you developed some kind of super power during the accident.”
“Super power?”
“Yeah, didn’t you?”
Andrew looked down and patted his arms and chest. “Well, I was hit by a car and thrown into the air, but survived to tell the tale. I was thinking I was just very lucky.”
“Mate, you were hit by a car?” Jay said incredulously. “You look fine.”
“Yeah not a scratch on me.”
“Sounds like invulnerability to me,” Jay said.
“How did you get here?” Dylan asked. He was keen to find out.
“I was in hospital after the accident and some guys suddenly whisked me and my sisters away out of a side door. They said they were transferring me to another hospital, but they didn’t – they brought me here. Other than some tests they carried out on the way, there’s been no sign of me receiving medical care.”
“How long have you been here?”
“About half an hour, I guess. They drove us down here from Carby in Yorkshire earlier this evening. So, Neelam, I apologise for prying, but did you say you read minds? That’s crazy.”
“Well you’re invulnerable,” she said.
“True.” He laughed.
“They think we might all have powers for some reason,” she explained. “Dylan here can control water and Lucy can throw lightning bolts. We’re all pretty new to our powers though.”
“The rest of us don’t even know if we have them yet,” Jay said. “I hope I can do something pretty good though. Flying would be cool.”
At that moment, the door unlocked and two girls were thrown in. They both looked Spanish or Italian with their olive colouring and wild curly black hair. The youngest one fell to the floor.
“I’ll kill you if you hurt her,” the older girl shouted. She hovered in the air and flew towards the door, but a guard shut it in her face.
“Ow,” she yelped as she banged her head and tumbled to the ground.
“Well, I guess someone beat me to flying,” Jay said with a jokey sigh.
“Are you OK?” Neelam asked.
“Yeah, yeah fine,” the girl said. “I head butt doors every day.”
Neelam winced a little at the girls’ harshness.
“Sorry, I’m just sick of all this. Some guys took me and
my sister hostage and I’m furious with myself that I couldn’t protect her.” She stood up and walked over to the younger girl. “You OK, Maria?”
“Fine, Sasha,” she insisted. “Don’t worry about me.”
“So who are you guys?”
Neelam quickly did the introductions and was going to quiz Sasha about her flying abilities when the door opened again. This time two boys were thrown into the group.
“Where are we?” one of them asked.
“A lab or hospital or… actually we’re not sure,” Dylan said. “So what’s your story?”
“I’m Alex. Some guys took me from my house in Manchester and brought me to this place. We picked up Ethan on the way. In… where was it? Birmingham?”
“Coventry,” Ethan corrected him with a laugh. “But you were close. Don’t worry, a lot of people make that mistake.”
“So, what are your powers?” Lucy asked.
The two boys looked at each other blankly.
“Powers?” Alex said.
“Yeah, they think we’re all some kind of super heroes,” Jay explained. “Lucy, Neelam, Andrew and Dylan have some kind of special skills, but the rest of us don’t. I’m guessing you’re with the latter group.”
“I don’t have any super anything,” Ethan laughed.
“Me neither,” Alex said. “They’ve made a big mistake there. What on earth led them to think that?”
“No idea,” Neelam said. “So do you think this is it? The room is very overcrowded now, surely there can’t be anyone else to…”
Her words were interrupted by an almighty clang that came from the corridor.
“Get her!” a voice shouted.
“I’m trying.”
More crashing, bashing and smashing noises ensued along with a great deal of shouting. Then there was a massive thud, which sounded like something or someone being thrown against a wall, followed by loud yelps.
“You buffoons, stop letting a girl beat you,” a voice said. A huge bang rang out throughout the corridor. Then it all went quiet.
Out Of Time (Book 0): Super Unknown Page 2
