Purple | Cole Stewart -VERSION DISCONTINUED

Chapter Sixteen: Noise

“Will you cut that out?” Liam snapped, “You’ll rip it.”
Chubs stopped whatever he had been doing immediately.
I hadn’t realized it until now, but Chubs had been messing with something in his lap for the last few minutes- and it was probably Jack's letter.
I hadn’t known Jack all that well during my time at Caledonia- not personally, anyways. He had been one of Liam and Chubs bunkmates, and well as one of their best friends. He didn’t have a lot in common with Lee and Chubs, but I guess that makes some friendships stronger. He fought against the PSF’s- a lot. He taught Lee how to use his powers-Chubs too. Lee had said that he spent days carving the New York skyline into the blackboard in their room, and the PSF’s had been so impressed they let him keep working on it.
To summarize- he was a bit of a legend at Caledonia, and an ever bigger one to Liam and Chubs.
“Can’t we just… try? Do we need the slip kid for this?”
I assumed he was referring to the letter in his hands. When they had started planning the big escape, all three of them had written letters on stolen napkins with stolen pens, just in case one of them didn’t make it out.
Jack didn’t make it out, in case you were wondering.
“Do you really want to risk it?”
“Jack would have.”
“Right, but Jack…” Liam trailed off, but I understood his unspoken words. Jack isn’t here. “Lets just play it safe. He’ll help us when we get there.”
“If we get there.” Chubs huffed.
“Jack?” Ruby asked, startling me.
“It’s none of your business,” Chubs said, and left it at that.
Liam didn’t share Chubs’ opinion. “He was our friend- in our room at camp, I mean. We’re trying… we’re just trying to get in touch with his dad. It’s one of the reasons we need to hit up the slip kid.”
“Before you guys broke out, he wrote a letter?”
“The three of us each did. In case one of us backed out at the last minute and didn’t want to come or… didn’t make it out.”
“Which Jack did not.” Chubs’ voice was sharper than I had ever heard it.
“Anyway.” Liam cleared his throat. “We’re trying to put his letter into his dad's hands. We tried going to the address Jack gave us, but the house had been repossessed. He left a note saying he was going to D.C. for work, but noo new address or phone number. That’s why we need the Slip Kids help- to find where he is now.”
“You can’t just mail it?”
I jumped in, hoping to spare Liam for a few moments. “Yeah, no. they started scanning mail for that exact reason after-” I cut myself off before I could say I. “Just after you went to Thurmond. The government’s playing god- they read all, speak all, and write all. And to top it all off, they’ve crafted up a lovely little story about how we’re all being saved and reprogrammed into sweet little angels at camp, and they don’t want anyone finding out the truth.”
“Sorry,” Ruby mumbled. “I didn’t mean to give you a shakedown about it.”
Liam waited an awkwardly long time before replying. “It’s okay,” he said. “It's fine.”
•••
I couldn’t seem to fall asleep now that we were out of imminent danger- probably because I had been sleeping just a few hours ago.
Besides Liam and myself, I was fairly certain only Ruby was awake. Chubs hadn’t moved for at least the last half hour, and I could see that Zu’s eyes were closed.
Then Ruby seemed to notice something I didn’t, because she forward out of her seat in the row in front of me and crouched in between the two front seats.
Liam gestured to the rear view mirror, but from my seat I couldn’t see what they were looking at. I was feeling pretty rested though, and I hadn’t used my abilities in a while, so I decided to take a look my way.
I closed my eyes and imagined Betty’s interior, drawing in as many details as I could, then let my mind relax a little to fill in the images outside the windows, then eventually all of the space around the van. I knew I had reached that point because my body felt just slightly less rigid- almost like it was telling me I could move now.
So I did, allowing what I imagined to be a bubble to float through Betty’s ceiling and give me a 360º view around it.
Liam had been gesturing to the white pickup truck a few car lengths behind us- but I couldn’t tell if there were one or two men inside. I imagined my bubble floating back down and entering my brain before I let the picture disappear. It was only after I completed that process was I able to open my eyes.
We had pulled up to an intersection. Liam flicked one of the blinkers on. I leaned forward to see that it was the left one, and from the sighs of relief from both Liam and Ruby, I guessed the pickup was going right.
Another car approached the intersection- a small silver Volkswagen.
“Okay, Old Man River.” Liam gave the car an impatient wave. “Go ahead and turn before the next century. No, take your time, shave, contemplate the universe…” I rolled my eyes. Ruby laughed.
I could hear music blasting from the other car, but I couldn’t quite place the song. I smiled, watching as the driver bobbed his head along to the music- and then there was  screech, and he was stopped right in front of us, in the middle of the intersection.
“You have got to be kidding me!” Liam looked like he was about to press his hand to the horn, but my attention was stolen by the black object that was now pointed at us through the open window of the Volkswagen.
Gun.
No. Worse. Something I had been lucky enough to forget about up until now.
White Noise machine.
Ruby reacted faster than I did, turning the radio up as high as it could go as I slid down between the seats with my hands over my ears, the position all too familiar to me.
And then the world exploded into a cacophony of noise. There really was no other way to describe it. It wasn't as bad as I remembered it being, and Ruby’s radio trick certainly helped, but I was still struggling to hear myself think.
I felt, rather than heard, one of the doors open, then another.
I have to help them. I have to get up.

Word count: 1132