Gifted #Wattys2015

Chapter 3

Establishment

We'd been on the run two full days together now, Jason and I. It was better, I think, with someone to guard your back, knowing you were also guarding there's. Jason knew more about survival on the run, and knew a good place where we would be safe for a bit. First, however, we had to get there. This was the third day we'd been running through endless woods and forests, with no sightings of any village or town, abandoned or otherwise. I had hated it at first, but Jason relished being amongst nature. It did help that he could just become any creature he wanted to, whenever he wanted to. Right now, he was an owl, perched on a twig sized branch of the tree we were in; his patient eyes were watching for any sign of movement.

"No one?" I asked

The owl hopped onto the much thicker and larger branch I was on, and grew, turning back to human form. "Not a thing," He replied, "but even so, you're taking first watch." He grinned mischievously.

"Okay then," I said, smiling back, "I think I can see someone."

"Yeah?" He asked.

"Yeah, you!"

With that I pushed him off the branch so that he fell to the loud with a thud. We weren't very high so it wouldn't have hurt too much, but the look on his face was priceless.

He grew wings and floated back up to the branch where he glared at me, and then settled back, in human form, and went to sleep.

I watched the forest for five hours, struggling to stay awake. Everything in the forest was still, without even any nocturnal animals to rustle. The silence made it even harder for me to keep awake. I blinked vigorously to stay awake, knowing my shift was nearly over. I poked Jason's arm, and he turned, sitting up. "Your turn." I whispered. Not giving him chance to say anything, I settled down, and fell asleep.

The morning came too soon. According to Jason though, we were only a day away from the place he had described; it was the place we needed to find. It was an old town, off the map completely, a place where there were no patrols. Rumour had it that there were a couple of other enhanced people hiding out there, Jason thought they might want to help us.

"Help us do what?" I said.

"Well I don't want to be on the run all the time, I think we need a place, a team, a band of us to look out for each other. Wouldn't you agree?"

"That does sound good, but I don't know if that could ever be possible."

"I don't know, with the right people, and the right leader, I think we could stand a chance of making the authorities stay away from us."

"I think that's a possibility, I guess, I mean, who's the right leader? They'd need to be responsible for the lives of a load of supposedly teenage people. Our generation of enhanced that still exist can't possibly be older than early twenties, surely?"

"You, you can do this," Jason assured. "This is a group that needs to be formed, and I think we have the capability to do that."

I stayed silent. We had been jogging throughout the whole conversation, and Jason later assured me we were almost there.

I focused on the greenery around me. Tall trees spring up around us as we ran, their many golden leaves floating down to the bank of grass. There was still heavy dew on the grass from the early morning, and I could feel droplets of it on my ankles and shoes. To the left, a pool of crisp, fresh, spring water that bubbled over a rock from an underground source was visible. We immediately stop to fill our water bottles, as we've only seen two other pools in the days we have been travelling. Once they are filled, I placed a few drops of iodine in them, and we continue jogging.