Gifted #Wattys2015

Chapter 5

New Recruits

We ran into the valley, not even bothering to look behind us. The shouts and rustling made by the authorities had long disappeared, meaning we'd lost them again. We were forced to stop after a while though, when Blade collapsed. The hand he had been holding his side with now lay on the ground, covered in blood. Bullet wound, I thought, he should have told us. "He's lost quite a bit of blood" Madi said, staring at the hole in Blades top, which was also covered with blood.

"Acute observation Madi, but now we have to actually help him." Said Jason.

"Enough." Jamie commanded. "Hand me a bottle of water."

I passed her one from my bag quickly.

"We need to remove the bullet." She said.

"I can do that." I said. I leaned over Blade's collapsed figure, my hand only centimetres from the wound and concentrated. The familiar blue glow surrounded my palm momentarily as I tried to lift the bullet. A second later a bullet covered in dark red blood appeared, and I threw it to the side. "Now what?" I asked.

Jamie opened her own bag, and took out a First Aid kit, grabbing a sterile padding and carefully binding it round Blade's side. "That's all we can do for now. Let's get him up."

Despite this, we made it to Madi's cousin's house, our safe house, quicker than expected. With only short breaks to rest, eat and drink, the dawn was only just breaking, and my watch told us it was 4:27 am. We hadn't slept since the previous night, before we realised we had been betrayed, before we had to face the authorities yet again.

Luckily, the town was devoid of all people and we made it to the safe house undisturbed. Once there, Madi instructed us around the house. As it turned out, her cousins weren't in, there was even a letter on the front door reminding anyone that needed them that they were on holiday in the Canary Islands. Obviously, we didn't have a key, but Theo was a great lock picker. "This is not a permanent residence guys, remember that." Madi said.

Me and Jamie put Blade down on a sofa. All the bleeding had stopped, and Blade had slipped in and out of conscience as we had walked. He wasn't able to walk properly yet though. Since we had only planned to get this far, I wasn't sure what to do, simply instructing everyone to get some rest.

I awoke, and groggily checked my watch, confirming that it was early evening. I stood up, grabbed my rucksack and went over to the table. Settling down, I opened my bag and took out the map, a few crumpled sheets of paper and a pen quietly, aware of the other still sleeping people in the room. There had to be a lot more enhanced on the run, it was so difficult to keep any type of power hidden. The map didn't help much really, but I drew circles round the forests around us and some other cities nearby, where it was likely for scared and alone run aways to be. We needed more people before we established a more permanent place. That's what we needed to focus on now. That and money of course, something we were seriously lacking in. I was no artist, but as I also knew a way we could get some information about a potential enhanced. I drew a rough sketch of a hooded figure, making it difficult to make out anything past basic facial features. I noticed that Theo had joined me. "That's a good drawing, but what's it for?" He whispered.

"I was thinking that if we asked around for an enhanced thief that we'd seen, and hope someone actually has seen an enhanced. That way, we get information about an enhanced without seeming too suspicious. But it's just an idea."

"It could work, there's no harm in trying at least."

I waited until everyone was awake, including Blade, before showing everyone my idea. It seemed like our only option for now. The debate of money came up too, when Theo chirped up suddenly "I know more than how to pick a lock. I'm actually a decent pickpocket, if you want."