Phantom Universe

Chapter 43: Magnetic

Only those who will risk going too far can

possibly find out how far one can go.

T.S. Eliot

PART THREE

THE IMPOSSIBLE

16 years old

Something throbs behind Summer's eyes, pulsing, filling her brain with too much blood. The events of fleeing the Outlander camp come to life like a gigantic wave crashing over her head, washing away the pain. Her eyes pop open to reveal Gage; her head is in his lap, and he's absentmindedly stroking her hair. "It's been ten minutes," he's saying to someone, "and we need to find a place to stop for the night. The Leaguers aren't far behind, and we need to hide." Summer stretches, and Gage's emerald eyes snap down.

"Is she awake?" asks Landon softly.

Gage nods. "Flower?" he whispers and lightly brushes hair from her face. "Are you okay? What hurts?" His palm is already there and waiting for her.

"I'm fine," she writes slowly. "What happened?"

"The headband is magnetic. It destroys the neural implant's ability to transmit your location. Zoe didn't know it'd cause that kind of reaction. No one else had an issue." Gage sighs. "I was afraid to remove it, though, in case it affected your implant only temporarily. First, I checked you over to see if the Leaguers had injected you with anything while they were shooting at Landon. But when I didn't find anything, and you didn't wake up, I had to remove the headband."

Summer automatically reaches up to touch her ear, and Gage places his hand over hers. "Cameron, where are we?" he asks quickly, worried now, as Summer sits up and sees the world fly by the front window in a crimson and orange blur with streaks of silver from other cars and buildings.

"Not far enough. The news is blaring about the blonde Outlander who's broken free with a band of friends," she says. "No mention of help from any Leaguers—which means Ethan was able to turn the cameras off for us."

"That's good news," says Gage, relieved. "Are they all still meeting us in the Midwest Providence tomorrow?"

"Yes, Hunter's father owns a house in the middle of Nowhere, Illinois, that's a few hundred years old. He promises no cameras and says he'll take a hovercraft there tonight to check the place over first."

"What about your neural implants?" Jaden asks warily. "Don't you think it's silly for the ones who broke us free not to have that taken care of?"

"Doctor Rose manually removed our GPS tracking devices two days ago," says Cameron with a smile as she leans over the front seat. "She took a liking to Summer when she was in the hospital."

Avery suddenly starts to shout wildly with his hands waving around frantically, diving in and out of his red hair. Soon Lucy's joining him, stabbing her finger at the window. Funnily enough, Summer looks for a spider. "Turn around!" Avery finally yells to Cameron. "You're going to wreck us!"

"What?" Cameron swivels around and checks all the gauges glowing neon blue and green on the glass. "What are you seeing that I'm not?"

Gage bursts into laughter as Summer looks between everyone in confusion. "Nothing's wrong, Cameron! They just aren't used to seeing a car on autopilot, that's all."

"Autopilot?" Lucy's voice squeaks.

"That's not what I mean!" Avery screams. And then they see what he's freaking out over. Black cars with flashing lights are stopped up ahead, and more fly past in droves.

"Blimey," says Rob. "I knew it was too easy."

"Seatbelts," commands Gage. Straps automatically wrap around everyone in the back of the car, and for a moment, Summer freaks out over being tied down. "This car has Hover Mode, Cameron," he continues as calmly as any veteran Leaguer going into battle. "Use it."