Mutation

Chapter 9: Outside the Colony

Hazel

I honestly don't know how I managed it, but Leo and I snuck into one of the escape elevators. We even borrowed some of those purple jumpsuits that the other mutants were wearing. Currently, I'm thinking of what to do next, and I'm trying to hold back laughter from seeing Leo in spandex. Somehow, it suited his toned body. Wait, I shouldn't even be looking at him like that.

"So, the plan?" Leo asked, adjusting a wedgie in his suit. I snorted as he struggled.

"Well, I was hoping we'd wing it. Unless the scene up there is bad, then we stay out of sight," I explained. Leo nodded in understanding. It was a pretty simple plan.

The elevator slowed to a stop, and we were looking out into the forest. As the glass door slid open, I inhaled the fresh air that was better than the stuffy underground air. The air smelled of smoke and pollution, but it was still refreshing. Leo and I were standing there, just breathing in the fresh oxygen. Our sniffs were interrupted by a gunshot, and we jumped out of the elevator. The elevator was inside of a tree trunk.

"We need to take cover before we get shot!" Leo said frantically, as more gunshots were fired. We broke out into a sprint and headed towards a nearby trench. Of course, I was way behind the cross country runner, so I tried my best to keep up. I was running so wildly that I ran right smack into a body that was not Leo.

My body fell and rolled roughly on the ground, scraping up my suit a bit. I felt stinging cuts all over my body. Before I could react, a gun was pointed to my face. A person with a black mask and a gray army uniform sat in front of me, ready to shoot me in the face. My eyes widened, and my mind prepared itself to stop this bullet from entering my forehead. Did I even have the accuracy to stop a speeding bullet from hitting me? Only one way to find out.

I heard the ear-splitting sound of a gunshot, and before I knew it, the bullet was in mid air, a centimeter from my forehead. The amount of control I was using caused my head to radiate with pain. I moved the bullet away from my head, dropping it to the ground. I watched the soldier, who was dumbfounded. A sigh escaped my mouth, and a slight chuckle.

All of a sudden, the soldier looked as if he recognized me somehow, and he immediately reached out and wrapped his meaty hands around my throat. I didn't even expect it at all. I struggled for release, but he held me to the ground, pressing my throat down harder. My eyes watered and I desperately gasped for air, expecting the end of my life. One of my ideas has failed miserably.

Then I see a blur and the soldier was knocked off of me, and his limp body flew into a tree at a tremendous speed, instantly killing him. I choked and inhaled precious oxygen back into my lungs again, then before I knew it, I was lifted off my feet in a split second. I knew there was only one person who had remarkable speed like that. We stopped moving, and Leo set me down on the ground. He was kneeling down beside me as I continued to cough and gasp for air.

"I knew we shouldn't have come here! You almost died, Hazel!" Leo snapped at me. I was taken by surprise as he said this. But then again, it was my fault that I almost got choked to death.

"You know, a simple 'Are you okay' would be nice too," I replied bitterly, still coughing between words, "I'm fine, Leo, thanks for asking!"

Leo threw his hands up in frustration. "See, this is what I'm talking about! You always get your way and something bad happens! What if I'm not there next time you get yourself in a situation, Hazel?" His voice slowly calmed down to a much gentler tone.

I tried to answer, but I was interrupted by more gunshots. My mind came back to the realization that we were in a war zone. I was frantically thinking of another plan for me and Leo to get out of this forest alive. This was obviously not my fight, and I didn't have any business being here right now. I learned my lesson for future situations, that my curiosity could eventually get me killed.

"Alright," Leo says finally, putting aside our previous argument. "Let's just make a run for it, and try to find that tree with the elevator in it. Grab my hand and hold on."

I did as he said and clutched his arm tightly. Moving at the speed of light felt like being on a roller coaster on steroids. The feeling, at first, doesn't feel good in your stomach at all. I'll just have to get used to it, because I'm sure Leo will probably be pulling me out of dangerous situations more often. When we came to a brief stop to look around for the tree elevator, my head started spinning and my vision was blurry. Judging by Leo's huff in frustration, we didn't find the tree yet. Again, we started moving faster than I could process what was happening.

As I was about to vomit and fall over, Leo finally stopped. I swallowed hard and finally regained control of my stomach. We were in a small clearing.

"Why'd we stop?" I asked him, looking at all the trees around us. The trees around us were too rotted and broken to have an elevator inside of them. Wait, did I see one of the trees....move? Now I knew something was wrong. Then, three of the trees around us started wiggling before our eyes, each shape-shifting into human forms. As they formed human faces, three human bodies stood in front of us. They were triplets, two boys and a girl, and obviously mutants, and they had camouflaged themselves as trees.

I asked again, this time my voice more panicky as I realized I couldn't move from the spot I was standing in. "Leo, WHY did we stop?" I impatiently looked at Leo's face. He was frozen in shock and fear.

"Hazel, I'm not trying to scare you, but I didn't make us stop. We're frozen in place." His voice was low and full of fear.

"Then...w-who made us stop?" I honestly was scared to know. The shakiness in my voice caused the triplets who were once trees to laugh snidely.

"I did that, dear," a deep voice spoke. A man stepped out behind the trees and emerged beside the triplets. His facial expression stiffened when he saw mine and Leo's faces.