AUGUST IS A FEVER

9

The safety and freedom you felt from escaping was suddenly drained from your body when you began to connect the dots after seeing the cigarette between your boots. You bent down onto one knee and grabbed the cigarette, examining it closely. The owner had disposed of it merely minutes ago.

If it really was a bounty hunter then they could still be in your immediate area. Out of fear, you burnt the cigarette to a crisp, the ash falling down onto the brown and orange leaves below your boots. You stood up and glanced behind you. You were really leaving your life at Thurmond behind. You had to run farther and now for your own life.

You looked in front of you and saw the endless forest. The trees seemed to go on and on forever, you could definitely lose someone in these woods. You got up and off of your knee and began to think to yourself.

If you were to run then the risk of you stepping on a stick or a leaf with a louder crunch than usual - it would alert anyone nearby of your presence. That won't do. You decided on walking slowly and keeping your eyes and ears peeled for people potentially out for your blood.

Right now your mindset was that everyone you would end up coming across is a bounty hunter until proven otherwise. In a post-apocalyptic world like this, everyone was your enemy until you were one hundred percent certain you could trust them.

You didn't even fully trust your cabin mates. It was a mistake to trust Samantha. You've learned your lesson.

Taking your first step forward was a large task. You took the step and at this point you were scared that people nearby could hear your pounding heartbeat. After you exhaled from your mouth softly and as quietly as you could, you took your next step. Then the next, then the next, then the next.

It all was so exhausting as the adrenaline seemed to begin to wear off of your body. You wanted so badly as to fall to the floor and pass out but if you did, you knew you would be a sitting duck. You prevailed, leaning on the trunks of trees as you tried to keep yourself awake, your eyes being half-lidded majority of the time. Yes, it did mean you were less attentive but you couldn't help it. You were exhausted to say the least.

The sun was beginning to rise, the black of the sky beginning to bleed into its usual morning blue. The sun on the horizon glaring in your eyes was enough to wake you up a bit, you had to squint your eyes.

You kept walking for what seemed like forever when in reality it was only about two hours. You were honestly surprised that you were still alive at all.

Looking back at what happened at night, you were astonished about what you did. You didn't realize your powers had such capability. It seemed whenever you would purposefully use your abilities without the stake of your life on the line, the most you could do was maybe light a campfire. You always seemed to do the most damage unintentionally.

This got you thinking. Since your abilities weren't something you needed to necessarily hide anymore, maybe you could practice your control of them. You looked at the tree your hand was resting on to keep yourself from passing out, your eyes moving from the trunk to your dark grey ash-covered hand.

You slowly moved your hand off of the wooden plant in fear of accidently lighting it on fire. Maybe hiding in the forest wasn't such a good idea considering you were a Red. Sighing, you kept walking after wiping the soot off of your hands on your lime green pants, leaving streaky black ash stains on them.

Your thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a twig snapping. You softly huffed a laugh. You thought it would be you who would give yourself away. You brought your hands away from your clothing so you were prepared in case you needed to cremate some motherfuckers.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are." You said, trying to keep your voice steady. You managed but there was still an anxious edge to your cadence.

"Shit." You heard someone mutter.

"Bro, run!" Another voice yelled. After that you heard people running, their footsteps crunching the leaves below their sneakers.

As you began to run after them you caught a glimpse of the two boys. You could somewhat makeout their obviously features from their backs.

One of them was very obviously taller than the other. The short boy had brown hair that had been messed up from all the running. He wore a blue sweatshirt and dark wash overalls that were definitely too big for him. He probably borrowed them from his friend who was bigger in size. He had sneakers that looked beat-up, the creases were very predominate.

The tall one had dirty blonde hair and wore a light wash denim jacket with a green hoodie underneath. He had black sweatpants that were a bit torn and were covered in dirt, concentrated on the ends of the pant legs. His beat-up sneakers were the ugliest thing you'd ever seen in your life, but what caught your attention were his gloves. They were bright yellow rubber gloves that people would wear to wash dishes. Only Yellows wore those type of gloves to prevent them from using their abilities accidentally. Before the Yellows at Thurmond suddenly disappeared, the gloves were apart of their required uniform. They're just kids, you realized.

You couldn't identify what type of PSI kid the short one was, nothing about him gave it away.

The brunette turned to look at you. For the short moment his eyes remained brown, you made eye contact with him as you sprinted for the two. His eyes soon faded into a bright blue as he used his telekinesis to make a tree fall down in front of you with a loud thud that shook the ground. Blue, you identified.

"Oh, shit!" His blonde friend exclaimed at the thud.

The short brunette cursed under his breath as he saw what he tried to do wasn't successful, you just simply jumped over the tree.

You all kept running and running no matter how badly your feet ached from each step you took and how heavy they began to feel. The weighty boots were tiring to run in.

Eventually you caught up to the two teenaged boys and the chase was soon over as you tackled the blonde to the ground.