Dangerous Game

Chapter sixteen: Mutants Make Good Troublemakers

We walked  cautiously into the unfamiliar town searching desperately for a source of food. I told everyone to stay together in case of an emergency. We finally found a small fast food place on the edge of town and sighed in relief. A sinking feeling came to me as the others began to approach the glass double doors.

"Wait! We don't have any money and people don't take kindly to stealing..." I think back to my shop lifting days when Jenna- Jenna! Oh my goodness she must be so worried! With all the excitement I hadn't even thought of the temporary home and wonderful person I'd left behind. Well, technically I was taken from her.

I had no way of contacting her because those jerks confiscated my phone. That's it! If we could somehow make it back to Jenna, I know we'd be safe. Then we could go from there.

"Okay new plan." I rolled my eyes as the ravenous mutants groaned. "Hear me out. We need money and resources." We could search the town for stuff we need and then go and find Jenna. Despite what I'd said about staying together, we needed to split up to cover more ground. I didn't really want anyone going off on their own, though. "We need to spread out in groups of two." I said as I quickly took a head count. "Then, we can get the stuff we need, eat, and get out of this town before we get noticed."

Mal quickly grabbed Erin's arm and there was no way I was splitting those two up. I looked at Seth, hoping he had gotten over whatever he was being such a baby about, but he just met my eyes and looked at the ground. That made me so mad.

"Fine, I'll go with Cam. Seth and Kason can go together since they obviously have issues to work out." I said, taking her hand firmly.

"Wait, I don't want to-" Kason started, but he quickly shut up when he saw the look on my face. Seth said nothing but he had a scowl on his face that told me he was mad.

"Erin and Mal, don't draw too much attention, but try to find out if anyone's heard of a school called, Middletown High anywhere in the area." I directed. I wasn't quite sure just how far Jenna's town was from the Lab, but I know I couldn't have gone very far when I escaped the first time without transportation. Plus, the town Jenna took me to wasn't very far from the abandoned lake house.

"Kason, you and Seth look for anything we could use for our trip. That includes transportation." If Kason could manipulate metal, then we could probably put it to good use if we find a car or something. "I'll handle money. We'll all meet back here in an hour and no later."

"How are you gonna find money?" Erin asked curiously.

"Trust me," I said, "I've done this before." With that, everyone nodded and went our separate ways, following signs to point us in the right direction.

*********

"Okay, come on. He's leaving." I whispered to Cam as we approached the ATM machine the stranger was walking away from. I felt bad teaching a little innocent girl how to steal, but we needed help. "Uh oh." I examined the unfamiliar machine. It looked different from the one I used before. I had all the information from the man, but I was at loss as to how to use the thing.

I looked helplessly at Cam who then proceeded to pull me down to her level. I knelt with one knee on the ground not knowing what she wanted. She then put her hands on both sides of my head and closed her eyes. I winced as her fingers brushed the scars that had been engraved in my temples.

She opened her eyes again and then touched the machine. The screen started flashing really fast and I couldn't even keep up with the images. All of a sudden one hundred dollar bills were rapidly shooting out of the machine slot. I struggled to catch them as they kept coming. I tried stuffing them in my bag but they were coming out faster than I could stuff.