Heroes Fanfiction: Volume 4- Fugitives: Trevor’s Story, Part 2: School’s Out

Trevor’s Story, Part 2: School’s Out1

During the past few days, Trevor had been using his power constantly to aid him during his day to day grind. Oftentimes, Trevor would use his ability on certain teachers and deputy principals in order to escape their wrath, or sometimes to just watch them act around rather foolishly. 2

However, today would be no ordinary day- especially for Trevor. This would be the beginning of the end…3

Trevor walked into the kitchen, greeting his mum as he sat down at the table.4

“Good morning sleepyhead. How’re you?” his mum asked. Trevor made a non-committal noise and began to eat his bacon and eggs. She walked over and rubbed him on the back, before slightly pausing mid-rub. Trevor looked over at his mother, who was staring at something on his back.5

“Mum?” Trevor called out to her. She snapped out of her trance and walked back to the sink.6

“I’m fine dear… just a bit… woozy I suppose. You go get dressed now, alright?”7

Trevor nodded sleepily, but as he walked off towards the shower, he smirked. ‘Maybe I should just try it out…’8

Remembering his mother’s touch, Trevor began to evoke sadness in her emotions. It was strange: he always saw the two emotions, happiness and sadness, as colours- yellow and blue. He had no idea why, but whatever it was, it worked with him. Concentrating, he nudged the blue cloud within his mother’s body into a larger shape. Coming out from his trance, Trevor smiled and got into the shower.9

After getting dressed and grabbing his school bag, Trevor walked into the kitchen to give his mother a goodbye kiss, when he saw her sobbing rather uncontrollably on the kitchen bench.10

“Mum?” he asked uncertainly, but there was a faint smile playing on his lips. It was harsh to use his mother as his own guinea pig, but he needed to practice it on someone… right?11

“Yes darling?” she sobbed, dabbing at her eyes with a paper towel.12

“Um… are you alright?”13

“Yes, yes… I’m fine. Just a bit sad at the moment…” she said, before trailing off. Trevor just stared at her.14

“Why, what’s wrong?”15

“I’m… I’m just really upset that you’re going! To school!” she said, before bursting into tears. Trevor stifled a snigger, but patted his mum’s back softly.16

“Don’t worry, I’ll be home soon, alright? I won’t be gone for long- you’ll hardly notice.”17

She sobbed even harder and Trevor sniggered. She suddenly looked up at him with her red, puffy eyes. Raising her paper towel, she blew her nose rather loudly before saying hoarsely, “Trevor Naylor-Jones! How dare you laugh at me! This is a rather serious topic! You… could die, or be captured or something…”18

Trevor chuckled before giving her a kiss on the forehead.19

“Don’t worry mum, I’ll be fine. I’ll see you at four okay?”20

She sobbed and waved goodbye to him. Little did she know that this would be the last time she’d see him ever again…21

Looking at his watch, Trevor realised that he was late. All of that talking with his mother made him miss his bus- now he had to go and catch a later one, which wouldn’t come for another five minutes. Sighing, he took out his phone and called his friend, Antonia.22

“Hello?”23

“Hey Antonia, it’s me Trevor.”24

“Oh, hey Trevor! Why aren’t you at school yet? We’ve been looking for you.”25

Reaching the bus stop, he brought the phone to his other ear before sitting down, his bag next to him.26

“Oh, I just had to talk to mum for a bit. I was just wondering if you could tell my form teacher that I was going to be a bit late? She usually doesn’t mind.”27

“Oh, well, I would, but Trevor… the school bell hasn’t rung yet.”28

“Huh?” he asked, looking at his watch. “But… it should’ve rung five minutes ago!”29

“Yeah, well, it’s weird. All the students are still outside, and none of the teachers know what’s happening. It’s just all strange.”30

Trevor frowned. The school bell always rung on time- it was automated. Then that meant someone must have changed the times or turned it off- but why?31

“So… I suppose I’m not late then?” he asked.32

“Well, not until the bell rings, no,” Antonia replied.33

“Well, alright,” Trevor said, and he noticed that the bus had just pulled up in front of the stop. “I’m getting on the bus now. I’ll see you in five, alright?”34

“Yeah, okay. I’ll see you soon Trev.”35

Trevor walked through the Patterson River Secondary College gates, or, more commonly known as ‘Patto’. Looking around, he noticed that several students were running around, while a teacher looked on, doing nothing. Obviously the bell still hadn’t rung during the five or so minutes it took to get there. Finding Antonia waiting for him, he walked over to her and waved.36

“You’re finally here,” she said, punching him in the arm. “You took your time.”37

“Yeah, I know. Like I said, mum was… well, a bit emotional today,” he said hiding a smile by pretending to scratch his nose. Antonia simply nodded and they began to walk inside the school grounds. Passing some students, Trevor noticed that even though they were happily gossiping away, the way they were standing made them looked unsure and uneasy about the whole fifteen minute thing. That and he could feel a vague uneasiness emanating from that. He thought anyways. He wasn’t too sure…38

“God, watch where you’re going dickwad!”39

Turning around, I saw that I had accidentally bumped into Davies- the school bully. He was tall, muscular, 18 and blonde- he’d would’ve been considered good looking, except for the fact that he was known for a quick temper. It was usually best for most students to briefly look at him neutrally, before walking quickly away into an area full of students and teachers. But today, Trevor had different plans for him…40

Sighing, I looked at him in a rather exasperated way and replied, “Sorry. Should’ve been watching where I was going.”41

Davies narrowed his eyes in dislike and walked up to me. “Did you just roll your eyes at me?” 42

Antonia rolled her eyes, but I just simply stared back at Davies, a look of pure innocence etched all over my face. “No. Why would I do that?”43

“Are you being smart with me?”44

“Oh god, c’mon Trev, let’s leave this brainless idiot to his mindless ramblings with his group of trolls,” Antonia said scathingly, throwing him a dirty look. 45

Davies turned towards her, his eyes narrowed in pure hate, while Antonia returned the glare. Suddenly, a loud, ear splitting crack that sounded like a gunshot resonated throughout the area. The seventh graders looked towards us, while Davies’ friends, Antonia and Trevor looked around in surprise. As Antonia and Davies’ friends searched for what had made that noise, Trevor had noticed that there was a crack in the middle of the glass window behind them, almost as if someone had thrown a rock at it. Nudging Antonia, she looked at it in shock before glancing back towards the seventh graders, but they were moving in, an excitable murmur wafting through the group. 46

“Clear off cunts!” Davies snapped at them, and they all jumped backwards, before running back off to their game. Turning his eyes back onto Trevor, he asked again, “Well? Were you?”47

Trevor narrowed his eyes at him, but not in anger or hate. Curiously, he looked him over, wondering if Davies’ was like him...48

However, he could feel Davies’ eyes drilling into him, completely oblivious to what Trevor was figuring out. Sighing, he delved within his mental psyche, and he noticed he could feel a lot of… cloudiness. He wasn’t sure what it meant. But within it, he could see a faint patch of blue. Grabbing at it like some sort of life preserver, Trevor pulled it out, expanding it within Davies’ body. Pulling out of his short trance, Trevor looked back at Davies, a slight smirk on his face.49

Davies stared blankly back at Trevor for five full seconds, before blinking and looking around. His three friends who were watching from behind, came up to him, and one of them asked in a rather gruff voice, “’Sup?” 50

Davies simply shook his head and turned away from them. Trevor stepped back, ready to enjoy the show, while Antonia looked back and forth between Trevor and Davies, a look of confusion drawn onto her face.51

Raising his hands, Davies, as well as everyone else, noticed that they were shaking rather badly. Looking up with tears silently cascading down his face, he grabbed his gruff voiced friend, pulled him in close and said rather hoarsely, “I fuckin’ miss her, you know that Lane?”52

He shook his head silently, in awe that Davies was actually showing emotion other than anger for once. Davies pushed him back a little, before wiping his eyes. “Of course you don’t… you fuckin’ never had a girl like her had you? She was too good to be true…” and with that, Davies broke down and started to openly cry fresh new tears, obviously not aware that three of his tough friends were watching. Antonia looked rather shocked at this display of emotion, whereas Trevor simply maintained a neutral look on his face. Inside, however, he was laughing hysterically at Davies humiliation. He knew he couldn’t keep it in any longer…53

“Don’t fuckin’ say that shit Lane! Fuck… Heidi was a sweet lil’ princess… my lil’ princess… and some fucker takes her away from me! I mean, fuck…”54

‘‘Lil’ princess?’ Trevor thought, and with his sides aching, he pulled a rather unwilling Antonia along with him. 55

“What’d you do that for? I was getting interested… Davies’ wasn’t one for emotional downfalls, let alone girlfriends,” she said rather disappointedly.56

“Antonia, it was just too amusing to watch. I just had to go otherwise I’d probably kill myself with all the laughter I was holding back.”57

Antonia simply rolled her eyes when suddenly a teacher walked up to us. Trevor didn’t recognise her at first, but he realised that she was a Maths department teacher.58

“Mrs. Vincouroff wants all students to report to the gym immediately,” and, with that, she left before telling another group of girls that was walking behind us the same thing. Heading over there, the pair noticed large groups of students all converging into the gym. However, the students were all warily eyeing the uniform-clad soldiers that were standing along the pathways, staring at the students as they walked past. As Trevor and Antonia walked past, he noticed that they carried several guns and various other items on their utility belts that were fastened around their waists.59

“This looks serious…” a bunch of seniors whispered as they passed him. Trevor had to agree. This was serious… and he didn’t need to read minds to have a hunch at what might be going on.60

The inside of the gym was also filled with even more soldiers, all standing on the boundaries, watching the students as they filed in. As they walked into the gym, Antonia left Trevor to go to her class, muttering a hasty ‘bye’. Glancing around, Trevor noticed that roughly everyone else were taking on quiet personas, whispering so low their friends had to ask them to repeat what they were saying in equally hushed tones. The soldiers paid no attention to this, however they did eye up a few students, almost as if they were observing them, calculating things…61

Sitting down in his form class, Trevor looked towards the front and saw Mrs. Vincouroff in her plain white blouse; a black, knee-length skirt accompanied with dark stockings and shoes. She was chatting to a man- and she appeared to be rather nervous, which struck Trevor as rather odd. Glancing at the man she was talking to, he saw that he was wearing a black trench coat on top of a dark pinstripe suit with a blood red tie tucked into the vest. He had short brown hair, which he appeared to have gelled into small spikes all over his head.62

As he watched, Mrs. Vincouroff somehow regained her posture and shook some of her papers at the pinstripe suit, whispering something that no one except the two of them could hear. But his square jaw, however, seemed locked into position as he stared down Mrs. Vincouroff, and she sighed, in a defeated kind of way, before stalking towards the front of the gym, ready to address the students. Trevor knew that the pinstripe suit- and his soldiers- meant trouble for himself, as well as anyone else within the school.63

He gulped. He suddenly felt very vulnerable…64

“I’m kinda feeling nervous about this… aren’t you?” whispered one of his form classmates. Trevor simply nodded, words failing him.65

“Good morning students. I apologise for the… delay with today’s assembly,” the principal apologised, but she shot the pinstripe suit a nasty look before continuing. Students glanced over at him, but he stared into space, apparently bored with the proceedings. “Can the following students make their way to the year 9 common room- immediately.”66

Somehow, the air within the gym grew to an almost suffocating tension. As Mrs. Vincouroff read names off the several papers in her hands (which were slightly trembling), students from all year levels got up uneasily, before walking out of the gym. 67

“Jenna Eaves.” A rather tall and slightly built girl stood up with a neutral expression on her face before walking out. 68

“Orson Jeffries.” A skinny, 15 year old boy with black hair stood up, shaking very slightly, before following Jenna, his head hung down like he was ashamed of being called out.69

“Layla Vince. Trayde Gardens. Rose Gardens. Dane Jones. Trent Days…” and it continued, with several more students following, either holding their head up high as if nothing was wrong, or skulking away from everyone else, almost as if they didn’t want anyone to see them. Snapping his attention back to Mrs. Vincouroff, he had a feeling his name was printed on that page somewhere…70

“Jadon Davies,” she called out, and Trevor spun around so fast, he heard his back crack. Davies, looking surlier than ever, stood up before casting a contemptuous look over the students, before walking off in the same direction as the rest of roughly around 100 students that had been called forth so far. 71

“Trevor! Oi, she called you,” one of his classmates nudged him, nodding towards Mrs. Vincouroff.72

“Trevor Jones?” she said again. He just froze to the spot, almost in disbelief. She was staring at him with a ‘hurry up- get out of here’ look… which was odd, even for her. Grimacing, Trevor picked up his bag before walking out, several students following him in his wake.73

“Hey, Trev, wait up,” someone whispered behind him. Turning around, he noticed it was Ryder Lewis, a fellow classmate of his.74

“Hey Ryder. This is pretty freaky, isn’t it?” he whispered back, staring at the soldiers as they passed. Ryder glared at the soldier with enough attitude that one of them actually moved and put his hand on his hip- a pistol. Ryder was unnerved, but scowled as he continued on walking.75

“Idiots… you do know why we’re being called up right?”76

“No… why?” Trevor whispered back. Even though they were already outside the gym and heading towards the year 9 common room, Trevor felt uneasy with the soldiers staring down at them. As Trevor asked the question, Ryder actually gave a small smile towards him.77

“Are you serious? You don’t know?” he shook his head. Ryder sighed and dropped his voice even lower. “It’s because of who we are. What we can do. The government is threatened by us- especially the younger generation. They’re all rounding us up and… well, god knows what.”78

Trevor’s blood ran cold at this unsuspecting, dark news. Looking up, he stared Ryder straight in the eye, in case it was some joke, but he remained sombre. Trevor looked away and the pair walked in silence until they entered the year 9 common room. The boards on either side of the room that separated the main hall and the smaller rooms were pushed back, allowing a much greater space for the students to mill around aimlessly. The overall emotion within the common room was almost like a funeral home of a recently deceased- they were all looking sad, depressed and nervous and he could see why. All around the room, along the walls, stood soldiers with their guns out, watching the students as they entered. Trevor shivered.79

As he silently made through the whispering crowd, Ryder followed him, before the pair reached a rather quiet corner of the room. Dropping his bag onto the floor, Trevor sunk down next to it, his mind reeling with unanswered questions, nervousness and pure, utter shock. Ryder placed his bag next to Trevor and stood next to him, eyeing all the other students in the common room. Glancing over at the door, Trevor assumed that Mrs. Vincouroff hadn’t finished as a new stream of students had entered, all looking around in a dazed and confused way.80

Looking up at Ryder, he saw his face momentarily soften as he noticed that several year 7 girls and boys had walked in, all looking very upset and scared, even for them. Frowning at Ryder, Trevor suddenly asked,81

“What can you do?”82

Ryder looked down at him, his eyebrows raised. Trevor didn’t deter from his stare.83

“I… I can create some sort of… psychic explosion in people’s heads,” Ryder said rather quietly. Trevor raised his eyebrows.84

“‘Psychic Explosions’?”85

“It’s… more of a blast really. What happens is that I let loose a burst of psychic energy into people’s heads, and… it just messes them up I suppose…” Ryder tried to explain. Pausing for a moment, he observed Trevor as he processed this information, before asking, “What about you? I didn’t know you were… well, like us I suppose.”86

Trevor grimaced and replied, “Well… I think I can change people’s moods. So far I’ve only been able to create happiness and sadness, so… yeah.” 87

Ryder nodded in an almost solemn way, before coming silent. As the two looked around, more and more students walked through the doors, when finally, after about 15 minutes, the pinstripe suit walked through the doors, his eyes glancing around with a piercing look, his jaw locked into place. Several soldiers followed him in, before closing the door with two of them standing guard. Standing in front of them, pinstripe suit observed them before ‘greeting’ them with a short sentence.88

“Every single student in this room is accused of being a terrorist and will henceforth be escorted to a holding area, before being taken away to a facility for people of… your kind.” 89

Muttered outrage swept through the students, but pinstripe suit held up his hand and without any effort, called out, “Enough!”90

The students ceased their talking. Trevor looked around and noticed that the soldiers posted all around the room were getting ready to ‘escort’ the students out. Nudging Ryder, he pointed this out, with Ryder narrowing his eyes at the soldier nearest to them. The soldier didn’t retaliate. 91

“Don’t make this any worse that it already is,” pinstripe suit said venomously. “You will all be taken outside, handcuffed and-” 92

Before he could finish his sentence, two teenagers stood up, their arms flying out at either side of them. The soldiers across the room from them were flown backwards, hitting the wall hard, before collapsing onto the ground, apparently out cold. 93

“Run!” they cried out.94

Pinstripe suit was not impressed. “Lock the doors! Take them down, immediately!” before he himself took out his own taser gun and began firing it randomly at the students. Panic erupted within Trevor as he sat there, frozen with terror. Looking over at the doors, he noticed that a good fifteen to twenty soldiers all surrounded the common room doors- their only way out. As students rallied around the doors, desperately trying to get out, the remaining soldiers and pinstripe suit calmly walked towards them, lazily reloading their ammo. 95

“Stand back!” called out a male teenager. Looking through the gaps, Trevor noticed that it was a large grade twelve student standing in front of them. Watching him, Trevor saw him raise his hand towards the doors. The soldiers raised their rifles, aiming it at him, but, before they could even fire, there was a sudden rumble underneath their feet, before a loud, ‘CRACK’ echoed throughout the room.96

Standing up on his tiptoes, Trevor noticed that all of the soldiers that were guarding the door had been flown backwards, while the common room doors themselves were literally torn out of the wall, lying outside on a few soldiers who had been unlucky enough to not see the doors flying out towards them.97

As the students rushed through the door, pinstripe suit and the remaining soldiers inside began shooting at the students. Some of the students on the outermost of the crowd deflected the taser bullets, raising up forcefields and shields, while some flung them away using telekinesis. 98

Ryder immediately pulled on Trevor’s arm, saying rather urgently, “C’mon, c’mon! We need to get out of here!”99

As they ran for the door, Trevor halfway realised that he had forgotten his bag. Running back for it, Ryder called out, “What’re you doing?”100

“My wallet! I need it!”101

As he searched through his bag frantically, he finally found it in the front pocket. Grabbing it, he turned around, only to be greeted by the barrel of an automatic rifle. Freezing in terror, Trevor looked up at his assailant, but his face was hidden beneath a black ski mask and goggles. As fear gripped him, he saw the soldier getting ready to pull the trigger, when suddenly he froze, before falling to the ground, shaking violently. 102

As Trevor watched him, he heard someone calling out to him. Looking up, he saw that Ryder had his hand outstretched towards the now apparently comatose soldier, and that he was nodding his head towards the door, signalling for them to move.103

As soon as they got outside, they saw all of the other students running off in several directions. Not knowing which way to run, Trevor just stood there, his heart pounding in his chest with fear and anxiety. Suddenly, Ryder ran off in one direction, prompting for Trevor to follow him. 104

“Where are we going?” Trevor huffed as he ran alongside him.105

“To find some teachers, students. Anyone. I want them to know what’s happening to us- maybe they can help.”106

Trevor nodded in agreement. As they ran along the path, they noticed several soldiers running towards them, guns aimed at them. Without pausing to think, Ryder stopped, raising his hand as he closed his eyes. Within seconds, the soldiers had collapsed to the ground holding their heads, writhing in pain. 107

Breathing deeply, Ryder turned towards Trevor, only for him to yell out and tackle him to the ground. Feeling Ryder’s elbow on his ribs, Trevor shoved him off of him, coughing as he did so.108

“Are you out of your mind?!” Trevor wheezed. Ryder looked up and pointed behind him. There stood a soldier, his rifle aimed at Trevor and Ryder. Breathing deeply, Trevor closed his eyes and flinched as heard the gunshot. Expecting pain to be shooting throughout his body any moment, he stopped breathing, feeling it to be unnecessary. 109

After a few moments, he realised that there hadn’t been any pain, and, opening one of his eyes slightly, he saw a large figure standing in front of him. Letting out a low breath, he squinted at the figure, only to see that the person had their back to him. Shuffling backwards next to Ryder, he realised that it was a girl who had saved him, throwing herself into the firing range. Watching her, he saw her calmly pull out the several taser bullets that had latched onto her chest. The soldier, unfazed, reloaded the gun quickly and expertly, and within seconds shot another five tasers at her.110

However, she seemed immune to the taser’s effects, and, after staring at the soldier for a few seconds, she planted her right food in the middle of his chest, making him fly backwards and hit his head on a metal pole behind him. Turning around, she took out the taser bullets embedded into her, while Trevor got up and said gratefully, “Thanks for that. You saved my life.”111

She gave a curt nod as she walked over, surveying us. “Where are you guys going?”112

“To find some teachers or students or… someone. Anyone that can help us.”113

She nodded again, but when the sound of running feet came from behind them, she ran off towards the oval, while Ryder and Trevor headed back down the path towards the classrooms. Looking over his shoulder, Trevor saw that a group of around ten soldiers were chasing them, while another five had gone after the girl. As they ran, their heads were bombarded by a loud, almost echoing scream that surrounded them. Slowing down a little bit to look for the person who screamed, Trevor looked over his shoulder to see that the soldiers had also heard the voice as well. They were aiming their guns around, listening intently. As they were distracted, Trevor and Ryder slipped out of sight around the corner and through some corridors. 114

Panting, they slumped against the wall, their hearts pounding against their chest. Then, suddenly, they heard the same, echo-y voice again. They looked around, but couldn’t see anyone near them, but they listened to the panicked voice.115

: They’re gone! All the students, teachers and faculty- gone!116

Ryder frowned for a moment before saying in a hoarse whisper, “A telepath.”117

“What?”118

“A telepath- that girl we heard screaming before- she was projecting her thoughts out to… well, I suppose everyone else. And she just did it again. Either she doesn’t have complete control over her powers or she’s just in angst over what’s happened here…”119

Trevor frowned at Ryder, but he shook his head. “Don’t worry. C’mon- we need to get out of here.”120

**********************************************************121

He just stood there, observing calmly at the two groups as they ran away. Watching, he saw the girl who was immune to their tasers run towards the oval, while he saw the two blonde and brown haired boys disappear around the corner during the little distraction the telepath girl made. Turning around, pinstripe suit issued some orders to the soldiers and pointed towards a black, military styled van out on the street behind them. The soldiers had managed to taser at least fifteen students, including the telepathic girl who had projected out her thoughts to everyone in the entire school grounds. As the soldiers complied with his orders, he brought up a radio to his thin lips, said something quietly, before holstering it and drawing out his gun. 122

Smiling, he issued the remaining soldiers with him to split up into two groups- one to go after the girl and the other to head after the two boys.123

“Aim for her eyes,” he said calmly as three soldiers ran towards the oval, rifles drawn. “So, you want to play huh?” pinstripe suit said to himself, as he walked in the same direction the boys had. “Well then- let the games begin.”124

********************************************************125

Jenna bolted towards the opposite end of the oval, pushing and shoving three kids along that she had met moments before. Glancing back, she saw five soldiers now running after them, their guns drawn. As soon as she looked back, the soldiers shot at her face, but she turned around quickly, and the tasers shot into the middle of her back.126

“Orson! Get those forcefields up, now!” she ordered as she pulled the tasers out.127

“B-but… there’s too many!” he shouted back. Glancing at the fifteen year old boy, Jenna sighed and shook her head at him. His tall and lanky frame made him take more strides than the other three, but he was weak- both body-wise and power-wise. Although he had managed to create forcefields that protected them from the three soldiers, when the other two showed up, his forcefields somehow collapsed under the strain of the bullets the five soldiers shot at him. And although he tried his best to create more forcefields, they continued to collapse from the soldiers combined shots. 128

Katy wept as they ran, while Heidi held her hand, almost pulling her along. Although Katy was only in grade seven, her ability of creating and manipulating fire in various forms made her one of the strongest in the group. However, she lacked control over it, and would not use her ability against the soldiers for some reason. 129

As they ran, Heidi suddenly screamed out, “Orson! Get that forcefield up around Katy NOW!”130

Orson hesitated for a brief second, before he created a cubed forcefield around Katy, dividing her hand and Heidi’s. Out of nowhere, another combined shot from the soldiers flew towards Katy, but bounced off of Orson’s forcefields. However, Orson grunted painfully, clutching his chest.131

“What’s wrong?” Heidi asked, as she grabbed Katy’s hand again. 132

“I… don’t know. My chest… hurts…”133

Heidi frowned in a concerned way before saying, “Well, c’mon, conjure up a small shield in front of your face- they’ll be aiming for it soon.”134

Orson reluctantly complied, and within minutes, two taser bullets flew out towards his face, only to be deflected once again by the forcefields.135

Heidi had the ability to have an ‘instant’ precognition whenever she focused her mind. Although it allowed her to see only a few minutes into the future, it was still a rather useful technique, especially as it would often outweigh any surprise tactics the soldiers would use.136

But, there was a particular tactic the soldiers had employed that even Heidi wouldn’t have seen- until it was too late.137

“Oh my god!” she gasped finally, after coming out of her trance. “Stop, stop now!”138

“Why, what’s wrong Heidi?” Jenna asked as she slowed down. The other two copied her, panting and coughing.139

“We were being led into an ambush- look,” she said shakily, pointing towards a clump of bushes and trees that was no less than 20 metres ahead of them. Suddenly, no more than nine soldiers crawled out of the bushes, wearing camouflage uniforms with their guns held aloft. As the four stepped back, Jenna looked around and saw that the five soldiers behind them had caught up, and were now standing a good 15 metres away from them. 140

Jenna frowned, while Katy whimpered. Looking behind her, she saw the fence which surrounded the perimeter of the oval. As she began to back away from the soldiers and towards the fence, she grabbed Heidi and Katy and pulled them behind her.141

“Stay behind me,” she said quietly. She looked over at Orson and nodded her head at him, but he frowned at her nervously, before looking away. She sighed and as she turned to face the soldiers, she was instantly bombarded by tasers. As she shielded Katy and Heidi, Jenna looked over and saw that Orson had raised his forcefields around them, but she noticed that his strength seemed to be failing- fast.142

“Orson!” she called out to him over the gunfire and the issued orders of the soldiers, “Instead of creating large forcefields, try making smaller ones that still encompass us!”143

“How- will that work?” he asked confusedly, wincing every now and then at the gunfire on his forcefield.144

“Try it!” Heidi called out. “You won’t need to focus on strengthening the smaller shields, whereas with one large forcefield you have to put all your might in keeping it up!”145

Orson contemplated the thought for a moment, before nodding to the rest of them. As Jenna watched him close his eyes, the forcefields around them broke apart slightly to form numerous smaller shields. As soon as the tasers hit them, they disappeared, but were instantly replaced by another shield.146

“How’s that?” Orson asked, the fatigue disappearing slowly from his face.147

“That’s good, keep it up!” Jenna said nodding her approval. Staring around at the soldiers, she realised that escaping would be pointless- unless they wanted to get captured. No, the only way out was to fight back.148

Turning her head, Jenna looked down at Katy. Tears were cascading down her face, but her face was resilient and calm. She would be the only one who could help them get out of this situation. 149

************************************************************150

“Dammit, that was close!” Ryder shouted as a taser narrowly missed his head. He raised his hand at the soldier and, as Trevor watched, he fell to the ground, twitching. The other soldiers, however, grasped their heads in pain but they didn’t fall.151

“It’s a surround effect,” Ryder explained, noticing the confused look on Trevor’s face. The rest of the soldiers recovered fairly quickly, and continued to shoot at the pair. 152

“C’mon, we need to get out of here!” Trevor said, trying to pull Ryder along.153

“Where? We can’t go anywhere- they’ll just follow us. We need to beat them at their own game, here and now.”154

“How? There’s nine of them and only two of us. You can’t constantly attack them, you’ll eventually get beat in the end!”155

“Hey, whose side are you on?” Ryder said almost jokingly. Trevor shook his head in disbelief. Ryder rolled his eyes, but Trevor pulled him behind the corner of one of the school buildings as the soldiers began to close in on them.156

“Why’d you do that for?” Ryder asked.157

“To save you. They were eventually going to shoot you, you know that.”158

Ryder shook his head, but Trevor ignored him. Looking across the covered area, he saw that a path that they could use to escape.159

“Look, see that path over there? If we can get to it, we can cut through the science block and then out to the street.”160

“And then what?”161

“I don’t know… go home probably,” Trevor shrugged.162

“You know they’ll be waiting for us at home, right?” Ryder said, raising an eyebrow at him.163

“Maybe… but what else are we supposed to do?” he reasoned back. Ryder thought for a minute, before conceding defeat.164

“Alright… let’s go then.”165

“Alright, on the count of three then. One, two… three!”166

And as they dashed out from their hiding place, Trevor saw all nine of the soldiers pointing their guns at them. They had been waiting for them to escape, but the pair had realised too late. The soldiers fired their guns, tasers flying out…167

Only to hit a materialising pane of glass that had appeared in front of Trevor and Ryder. The tasers made soft ‘pinging’ noises as they hit the glass and bounced off. Then, the glass shattered in millions of tiny pieces, before flying towards the group of soldiers and sinking themselves into the soft flesh of their victims. The soldiers cried out, before they dropped to the ground, a massive pool of blood now escaping from their wounds. 168

Ryder and Trevor looked up, but, before they could see who had saved them, more soldiers came around the corner. However, as soon as they had come, they suddenly collapsed all on top of each other, almost as if they lost their control in their arms and legs.169

Turning around slowly, they saw a large, muscular boy and a small, lithe girl walking towards them. The boy looked at Trevor in a concerned way, before asking, “Are you guys alright?”170

“Yeah, thanks to you. You saved us,” Ryder said thankfully.171

“That’s alright. We heard some noises and thought we’d check it out. Lucky too, you were about to be knocked out by those guys.”172

“Yeah, but thanks to me, you didn’t,” the muscular boy said smugly.173

Trevor stared at him, before it clicked in- it was Davies.174

“Yeah, and me. You didn’t even see that second group of soldiers coming around the corner. You could’ve joined these two here,” the small girl said, pointing towards Ryder and Trevor.175

“What are you guys doing now?” Ryder asked, looking between the two. Davies looked at the girl and shrugged. 176

“Dunno. We figured that, well, since the government may be out at our homes, we might stay back here and try and help the rest of the students.”177

“Most of the students are probably rounded up though,” Trevor said.178

“That may be true, but there’ll probably be a few, like yourselves, who are gonna fight,” the small girl said.179

Suddenly, a scream echoed throughout the area. Davies turned around, looking behind them.180

“Well, speak of the devil- looks like someone is in trouble,” and, with that, the girl and Davies rushed off towards the direction of where the scream had came. Ryder looked at Trevor and asked, “Well? What’re you gonna do?”181

Trevor contemplated the thought of helping his fellow students. Although it seemed dangerous and almost life-threatening, what else was he supposed to do? His home wasn’t safe anymore, and he had to keep his current company- that’s all he had left.182

“Let’s go,” Trevor said, and they both ran after Davies and the girl.183

****************************************************************184

‘Three down, five left,’ Rain thought to himself. Holding out both of his hands towards the five or so soldiers caught within his alternate dimensional rift, he looked around at the rest of the group, noting their progress. He realised that Emily, Lara and John had been knocked out, their bodies strewn about the battlefield. Smirking to himself, Rain thought that the only reason the soldiers hadn’t collected them yet, was due to the frenzied battle going on between the students and the soldiers. 185

He could hear Carson’s ‘blip, blip’ noise, as he teleported around the battlefield consistently, creating a distraction for the soldiers as Amelia fought against them. Trent himself proved useful, as he was teleported by Carson around the area, changing the soldier’s immune systems, making them succumb to the air they breathed, or allergic to the clothes they wore. Lief, however, was the one who had the most trouble however. The twelve metre vines she had created whipped around her, while tasers from every direction flew towards her, but they just barely missed. Not only was she stressed, but she also had little control over her abilities, which prompted the soldiers to aim after her. 186

“Carson! Can’t you teleport those guns away from them?” Amelia shouted, as she sent one of the soldier’s vans flying towards them.187

“There’s too many of them for me to concentrate! I won’t be able to!”188

Rain frowned at this, but brought his attention back to the alternate reality he had created for the soldiers. Suddenly, he noticed four more soldiers had begun to aim at him. Raising his hand, he focused his thoughts on them, before trapping them in an alternate reality where they might’ve just shot their loved ones.189

He smiled sadistically. They wanted a fight- they were going to get one.190