The Hero Effect

(10) In Which Kyle Meets People of Importance

I woke up slowly and groggily. I was shaky and clammy and my stomach stirred uneasily. I tiredly opened my eyes, but it was dark, except for some tiny glowing lights.

"Jade? He awakes," said a really soft girl's voice. I forced my eyes open fully. I was sitting in a thinly padded armchair and there were a couple of straps around my shoulders like a harness.

"Kyle?" said a high pitched voice. I remembered her name to be Jade. "How are you feeling."

"Like crap," I muttered.

She was quiet for a moment. "I'm sorry. I wish I could do something to help. I have some ibuprofen if that would help."

"Maybe a couple," I said. "Where are we?"

I heard her rustle around in the dark in what sounded like some kind of bag. My eyes were slowly adjusting to the light. I could see two seats like mine in front of me and a lit up panel in front those. There was a shadowed figure sitting on the left holding something that looked kinda like a steering wheel. Jade's voice came from in front of me. To my left was a third figure that must have been the first girl. I couldn't tell very well in the dark. Also, glancing over my shoulder, I saw a leggy blond boy slumped over in a seat behind us.

"Well...it's kind of a long story, but we're in a hovercraft right now." She reached behind the seat with her both her hands out, one holding a bottle of water, one holding a couple pills. "Here. Swallow these."

The guy in the driver' seat spoke, the guy named Carter. "We're flying over Denver now."

I choked on the water that I was using to swallow the pills. "Flying?" My hands found the armrests and I gripped them tightly.

"Are you okay?" Jade asked.

"Yeah," I replied shakily. My headache, the same one that had been coming to me on an off, was building up in my skull. "I just...I hate flying."

"Oh...Sorry. We didn't know. We're on our way to pick up-"

"I knew," Carter mentioned.

"What? Why didn't you say-"

He laughed. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I could have only know if I he had been thinking about it while I was reading his mind."

"Who's the guy in the back?" I asked, decided to gloss over the reading-my-mind thing.

"His name is Jayden," Jade said. "He says to call him J.D. We saved him right after you."

"Huh," I said. "So we all got out okay?"

"Mostly. We did steal the hovercraft, which means they're probably tracking us right now. But other than that we're all right."

"Right...hovercraft..." I said. "I really hate flying."

"Kyle?" The girl on my left asked very softly. "My name is Kaya. I am pleased to meet you. I have just very recently gotten very used to flying. You see, I am new here and the idea frightened me at first as well, but it seems, in my experience, to be quite safe. And fun if you let it be."

My grip did not lessen, but I laid my head back, closed my eyes, and said, "Thank you." I decided conversation was probably not a bad way of not thinking about flying and asked, "Where are you from?"

"Well...Do not be alarmed....but I am from another planet." She giggled very softly. "I come in peace."

Carter laughed up front. "I taught her that."

If I had heard the same sentence a month ago, I would have probably laughed too and asked, "From Canada then?" But as it was, I realized that she couldn't be joking. I'd heard about stranger things than aliens lately.