Human Batteries

~~~~~Chapter 10~~~~~

~~~~~Chapter 10~~~~~~
That night I sit in the hanger to eat dinner. I like hanging out in here because there are lots of little places to sit and hide.
I'm finishing up my mashed potatoes when Daltin pokes his head behind the closet where I'm sitting.
"Geez, there you are! You know, I've always been jealous of your hide-and-seek skills," he sits down next to me with his plate. "Do you remember when Mom called the police when we lost you at the mall. You were hiding in a clothes rack."
"No," I say with a smile. "I don't think we ever played hide-and-seek in the mall."
"Well, actually I don't think we were playing, but you were still hiding for some reason."
"I was just trying to get away from you."
"I said we should've left you."
"One time we did leave you. I told mom you were hiding in the back of the car, so she left you at the grocery store."
"I remember that. I was okay with it, I made the best of it. I used all my quarters at the bubblegum machine." We laugh. I sigh and the smile shrinks on my face.
"I miss those days. Just us being little kids."
"Yeah. Mom always said we were 'double trouble'." He looks me in the eye.
"What was the last thing she said?"
"'I'll meet you outside. I love you.'" I bite my lip. She did so much for us, I still can't believe she could be gone, just like that. Life was so simple. Now I don't even understand what's going on 60% of the time. Daltin scoots closer to me, and puts his arm around my shoulders.
"I won't let anyone hurt you," he states. "I swear." I smile at his brotherly protectiveness. At least I'll always have this big idiot to call my family.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
After an amazing nights rest, (not!) our new and improved team has its first meeting. Well, it's not exactly an official meeting, but it's more of a 'hey this is what's up, let's go'.
"We have some hints that there is a group of Ants in Washington. They're not very active, but they supposedly have valuable information," says Daltin slinging a duffle bag over his shoulder. "Us 'kids' will blend in and lesson suspicions, so that's why we're going. Put on your street clothes, we leave in ten minutes."
"Hey, wait up!" I hear someone call from behind me as I walk away. I turn to see it's Elaine. The other girl we found in Nevada.
"Do you have an extra pair clothes I could wear?"
"No, but I can find you some." I say with a smile.
"Thanks. It's pretty crazy down here, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Follow me, we'll get you some fresh clothes." We start walking to the girls changing room. She puts her hands in her pockets as we walk.
"So, what is it with this 'team' of yours?"
"Honestly," I say. "I don't know. I guess a group of teenagers is good for uncover, easy stuff. Like going to Washington- ugh, I don't know. I'm just a small town girl, this is all alien to me. Oh, and Ian is our baby-sitter"
"It's cool though, right?" she says, scrunching up her nose. "My Dad does some government protection stuff. He never realy told me about it though." That makes me think about Bailey. Her dad couldn't tell them about what he did sometimes. I wonder if her dad knew Bailey's.
"Well, here we are. There should be a few extra sets of clothes on some of the beds. I'm going to head back though." I say before leaving.

Back in the hanger, everyone is ready to go. I've just finished putting on black leggings with a scratched up pattern, a red shirt, my gray bomber jacket, and combat boots. My hair is pulled back half up/half down with a red bow.
Everyone meets back in the hangar after ten minutes, and we're ready to go. The engine starts up, and the platform rises so we can take off.
We land in a public airport and take a shuddle to downtown Kennewick.
We all take a little walkie talkie and split up. Daltin, and Kenna. Dixon, and Elaine. Ian's by himself. Alex, and I head to one of the suspicious sights.
The Black Cat, music/gaming and coffee store.
"I like it here," I say browsing around.
"Focus, Kat." Alex says back.
"You're telling me to focus? You're the least focused person I know. 'Derp, it looked cool! Herher, oops!'" I mock in dumb a voice he didn't even use.
"I have never said that in my life. In fact-"
"Focus, Alex." I mock again. He rolls his eyes and we continue looking for anything out of place. Note to self: He's fun to annoy. I'm checking out a head phone 'try me' display when I see Alex brushing past people to take wallets out of their pocket and check I.D.'s.
I take off the head phones and walk over to the cd's. I feel my walkie talkie vibrate, so I look at the screen. It's a message from Dixon and Elaine, 'nothing here'. I send a message back, 'same. We're gonna get some coffee, then we'll meet you at the park'.
I find a table to sit at and Alex joins me.
"Dixon and Elaine didn't find anything their way, I haven't seen anything weird, so we can head back after you go get me a mocha frappe." I say leaning back in my seat.
"I don't think we should leave just yet. I want to take a look at the security footage. These people have been hiding for years, they know how to stay out of sight or blend in."
"How do you plan on doing that?" He grins at me, and I know it can't be good.
"You could sweet talk nerdy over there long enough for me to go through the footage on his computer?" He nods in the direction of the cash register. Behind the counter is a guy with a mine craft t-shirt and a major over bite.
"You gotta be kidding me." I say in monotone voice. Alex chuckles.
"Eh, you probably couldn't do it any way." He says shrugging.
"Oh really? Watch this." I say, standing up. I run my fingers through my hair and walk over to the cashier. I have no idea what I'm going to say or do, but I'll make something up as I go.
I put my hands on the counter and lean forward slightly.
"Cool shirt," I say with a smile. "I love that game. Do you play a lot?"
"Yeah," he says after staring at he for a few seconds. He blushes a little. "I could show you some short cuts if you want," he says giving an awkward smile.
"Really? That would be awesome! Could you show me now?"
"Uh, s-sure," he says. He walks out from behind the counter leaving the computer with the surveillance footage vulnerable.
He takes an IPad and pulls up the game. I look over his shoulder and act like I know what he's talking about. He almost stops talking, like he's done telling me everything.
"So there are little characters you can buy?" I ask trying to keep conversation going.
"Of course. I've got some in the back I could show you," he says as he starts to turn toward Alex behind the counter.
"NO!" I say grabbing his shoulders to keep him from turning. He blushes and freezes. "I mean, uh, can I try?" I ask taking the IPad from him.
"Okay?" he says. He tells me what to do, and I try to act like I know I'm doing by moving the little character around. That's about when things go wrong.
I see two large figures come through a door behind Alex, out of the corner of my eye. The first man is about to bash Alex's skull in, but I scream as loud as I can
"WATCH OUT!!!" Which just draws attention toward me. The second guy whips out a knife and throws it at my chest. Luckily, my adrenalin spikes, and I jump behind a table right beside me, so it just grazes my right arm.
By now, everyone is screaming and running out of the store. Alex runs to me and pulls me up. We run out of the store and down the road with the two men right behind us.
When we reach the water, the road ends and goes either right or left, we go right and keep running. I'm panting, my heart is beating a hundred miles an hour, but I don't dare slow down.
Out of no where, three more men jump out about thirty feet in front of us. We try to stop and run the other direction, but that's hard when you're running as fast as you can. I grab Alex's arm as we skid to a stop and turn to run the other way.
As we pass the street we just turned from, we barely miss the first two men. Or at least I think so, until one of them grab the hood of my jacket.
I get choked and get pulled off balance. I try to breath, but my throat is closing from panic. The man still has a firm grip on my jacket. But just my hood. I put my arms back, and slip off the jacket. It all feels like it's in slow motion, but it all happens in the matter of a slip second. Just as I get free, is when Alex realizes I'm not beside him anymore. He stops running the same time I start running again. I push him forward and scream "GO!"
"Alex! Where do we go?!?!" I say as we continue running at top speed.
"Cable bridge!" He says back without hesitation. We run a few more blocks before we go right to get on the bridge.
I make the mistake of glancing behind us as we turn. There are still five men behind us, and they just pulled out more knifes.
They send one flying toward my head. Alex body slams me to the ground, so it sails over our heads. "Thanks," I mutter. There's a trash can right beside us, so Alex knocks it over on its side to slow our followers. Then we scrabble to get up, and keep running.
Alex grabs my arm to stop me, when we get about one third of the way across the bridge. "What?" I ask panting.
"We have to jump!" He says trying to catch his breath.
"How about no! Are you crazy?!" I say. He takes my hands and stares me in the eye.
"Trust me," he says slowly. I sigh.
"I can't say no, can I?"
"Nope!" he says. "Now, when you hit the water, swim under the bridge so they can't shoot at us or anything."
Together, we swing our legs over the railings. If it's possible, my heart starts beating even faster. The men are marching across the bridge now, advancing on us. There's no time for hesitation.
"Oh yeah, and keep your feet together or when you hit the water, it'll feel like a hammer to your crotch. Ready? Canon ball!" he says so fast, I don't have time to respond. He grabs my hand to force me to follow. And we jump.
Air rushes passed my ears, and makes my shirt and hair fly up. I force my feet together, and suck in a breath of air before we plunge into water.
We hit the cold water, hard. It burns as it goes up my nose. My clothes and shoes get heavy as they soak up water, but I can still swim. I shudder slightly. This brings back bad memories.
I open my eyes to see, but all I can see is bubbles floating up around me. I feel Alex tugging me in the right direction, under the bridge. So I swim that way.
I pop my head out of the water, and see Alex laughing at me.
"You should see your face! I'm sorry, but you look ridiculous Wait, wait, let me try. No, I can't do it right," he says making stupid faces, trying to mimick my expression.
"You'll look pretty ridiculous when I drown you!" I say splashing him in the face. He splashes me back, but I put my hands on his shoulders and push him underwater. When I let him back up he says
"Okay, truce. Truce!" spitting out water, and still laughing. He has a really cute laugh, too. I laugh and say "So, what now? Just float around for a while?"
"Why not," he says doing a back stroke. I smile and float on my back.
"Your face looks better, by the way," he says giving his head a small nod toward me.
"Was that a compliment? That was totally a compliment." I tease him. He smiles and shakes his head.
"I mean, all the cuts are healing up."
"No, you just gave me a compliment," I say with a small laugh. "See? You don't reply when you know I'm right."
"That is not true. I just don't want to argue with you."
"'Cause you know I'm more stubborn than you."
"What? No! Are we going to do this again." I laugh at him, he laughs at me, and we laugh at ourselves like we weren't just running for our lives.
Maybe we're going mad. Who cares, we weren't completely sane to start of with anyway.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
When we get to our meeting place at the park, everyone gives us crazy looks.
"Really," says Daltin looking us up and down. "Where did you have coffee at? The bottom of the Columbia river?"