*Gaia King's POV:
"Do you see a payphone anywhere?" I asked everyone, rolling down the window as we cruised through downtown Eureka. We've probably spent around an hour traveling through the city, through good and bad neighborhoods, and through rural and suburban areas. It was 2024, people didn't use payphone's anymore. It would take a miracle for us to find one.
"I don't see any- wait, wait, there, over there!" Danny pointed from the front passenger seat, causing us to look towards a local bar down the street ahead of us. There, a payphone was revealed in front of the building. But at the same spot, was also people standing outside of the bar, drinking and laughing.
Celosia gently hit the breaks as the light began to change to red.
"Alright, once we get to this payphone, we will call Trevor and tell him our location, see if he can catch us give a plane ride to the Philippines, and hopefully a ride back", Celosia told us, turning her body around to look at us.
"And if he can't or doesn't want to help? What then?", Kimberly asked from between me and Beval, crossing her arms.
Celosia blinked as she bit on to her bottom lip, not knowing what to say.
"Well, let's just look on the bright side before we assume the worse, okay?" She smiled back at Kimberly. Her smile was uncertain and unnerved. She wasn't confident in what she was doing, yet she was still trying. That to me was what displayed true confidence. Typical Celosia, but it was what I loved about her growing up, she was always there to protect me and Beval. But now everything is different. She has Kimberly to keep her company.
I snapped out of my thoughts as we began to drift along the far right side of the road, parking the van in front of the payphone.
"Hikari, Tyler, stay in the car", Celosia directed as we hopped out of the van.
"Huh? No, I want to come t-"
"I'm not asking..." Celosia interrupted Hikari, giving her a stern look before slamming the door shut.
After I hopped out of the vehicle, a strong yet bitter, plant smell filled my nostrils. A few people nearby were smoking weed, while most of the others were drinking. These were people our age...young adults. It made me wonder if this is what we would've been doing if we had our normal lives back: nothing but college life, partying, drinking and smoking, along with the occasional sexual activity.
"Keep your head down", Celosia told me as she popped her hoodie on. "Don't let these people see your eyes. They remember experi-babies, and they'll have no problem reporting us."
I slipped my yellow hoodie over my head, trying my best to not make eye contact with the people near the bar as some of them began to look our way.
Danny slipped fifty cent into the coin slot before picking up the phone to dial the number on the piece of paper he was holding with his other hand. The faint ringing sound was heard even from where I was, three feet away.
"Come on, come on, come on", Danny repeated to himself anxiously, tapping the glass with his fingers.
Just when I thought all hope was lost, someone picked up the phone.
"Hello? Hello? Hey, this is Danny, Noah's brother. Yes, yes I'm fine. Look, Shimizu is still alive. I said Shimizu is still alive. He is in the Philippines, and me and his friends need to find him. Yes, they are okay. We've been in that shelter this whole time and it's been absolute hell. Are you available to take us?"
Me and the others stood behind Danny, trying our best to eavesdrop into the conversation. I looked over to my right to see two girls whispering to each other as they looked our way. Another guy examined us from a distant table that was filled with three other men.
"We have to hurry, people are staring," I whispered to Beval, grabbing onto his arm and squeezing.
"It's gonna be okay, I'll protect you", he reassured me as he pulled me closer to him. I could smell his natural scent on his purple hoodie. It was mesmerizing to say the least. My fingers met his and danced together until he grabbed my hand. It was sweaty, so even though he was protecting me, he was still nervous about the outcome of this situation.
"What? You are where?! YOU'RE WITH HIM?!" Danny yelled in disbelief.
"WHAT?!", Celosia screamed in shock before trying to grab the phone. "Let me talk to him."
"Stop, stop!", Danny said, shoving Celosia back as he tried to listen to what Trevor had to say.
"Why would Trevor be with Shimizu?", I asked Danny, not really expecting an answer from him. He was way too focused.
"Okay, okay, who's going to pick us up? Meet them where? Which forest? Alright, Alright, we will be there. Okay. Thank you so much! See ya!"
The minute Danny got off the phone, Kimberly, Beval and Celosia bombarded him with urgent questions.
"Hold on, hold on! I'll tell you everything he told me so far, but first, act cool."
Danny, I, and the others looked towards a girl and a guy walking towards us. The girl was a white brunette and wore a short, stylish, flowy blue dress and black heels. The guy was bald white guy, but wore causal clothing.
"Hey, you guys new around here? I never seen ya'll before. And you...", the brunette girl smiled as she walked up to us, eyeing Beval. She walked closer to him, placing her hands on his chest and whispered something in his ear. "Have nice eyes, they're so...sexy."
It took me everything in my power to not slap that chick across her face, but I had to play it cool, since we forgot our contacts back at the shelter.
"Thanks, but these are just contacts," he smiled nervously as he backed up, trying to add some space between the girl and him.
"You know Halloween is over right?" the man joked before chugging down some of his alcohol. "But like seriously, where are you guys from?"
"Oh, um, San Diego." I lied, deciding to look the guy in his eyes as I took my hood off.
"San Diego?" the girl asked me.
"Yup! We came to visit this beautiful city and see what it has to offer," I smiled, my eye slightly twitching.
"And as a matter of fact, since we just made a call with our loved ones, we should be going now. It's getting pretty late", Danny said swiftly as he gathered us all up, pushing us towards the van.
"Wait a second...take off your contacts. I wanna see your real eye colors," the man asked in an unsmiling tone.
We stood there, planted only two feet away from the man. My mind was racing with what lie to tell, but I didn't know exactly which one to pick. My heart raced as my adrenaline began to build up. My toes curled in my black New Balance shoes. I began playing with my fingers as I took a few deep breaths.
"Um, why? Come on dude, what do you take us as?" Beval chuckled, trying to reason with the fellow man.
"Experimented freaks...prove to me you aren't, and we'll let you go...unharmed," The man responded, getting closer to Beval, invading his person space. His blue eyes were pierced onto him, examining him like he was a science experiment. Two more men, came to the scene. The girl stood behind them, waiting to see what will happen next.
Beval was the tallest one out of all of us, reaching 6'3 in height and gave off a more intimidating vibe than Danny did. To the men, he was seen as the perfect challenger. To the girl, he was seen as the most attractive play toy. I guess there is a downside to having "pretty privilege".
"Let's go guys, we don't have time for this," Danny groaned as he shook his head, pushing Beval and us towards the van. Even I could see how stupid this whole confrontation was. But before we could fully make it to the car, from the corner of my eye I saw the bald guy grab the back of Danny's coat. At that moment, Beval (who still had his eye on the guy) turned around and swiftly went for a strike to the man's face.
The two other men proceeded to fight Beval after the bald man collapsed on the concrete. I swiftly bashed one of the men attacking Beval over and over with my fist. Celosia attempted to jumped in, but in a way I didn't expect: fire came from her hands as she charged at the man.
"CELOSIA, NO!", I heard Danny yell at Celosia, trying to break up the fight. Celosia's power were too fatal. If she lit them on fire, there would be no water for us to put it out. It would end up as a homicide and would drive out of control. Celosia jumped in either way, but without her power, attempting to drag the men away from Beval as they began grappling him.
Me and Celosia did as much as possible, but as women, there was only so much we could do. I could hear Hikari's screams and she and Tyler ran out of the car, trying to break us up.
Danny wasn't bothering to fight, but only to break it up. Eventually, he received a punch to the face by one of the men fighting Beval, in which he had no choice but to fight.
Now it was one man against Danny, along with me, Celosia, Hikari, Tyler and Kimberly trying to get the other man off of Beval as they fought.
I fell to the ground as a swift pain impacted my face, catching me off guard. I whimpered as I held my cheek. I looked up, only to see the bald guy towering over me.
He was on the ground for a while after Beval punched him that I nearly forgot to watch out for him.
I scooted backwards, trying to get away from him as I saw him lift his leg up, ready to stomp me out. I flinched, preparing for it, before I heard a loud roar, followed by the bald man screaming and running away. The noise was coming from a tiger.
"Shit!" I heard one of the men scream as they both left Beval and Danny alone and ran. Most of those who were outside of the bar, especially the girl who tried to flirt with Beval either ran back inside or down the street. They were desperately trying to get away from the tiger.
The Tiger scampered to me, turning into a human Kimberly in the process.
"Get in the car, let's go!", she yelled urgently, holding out her hand for me to grab. Without question I grabbed it, getting up on my feet in the process.
I looked around us. There were people around, even across the street. They were watching the whole thing, recording with their smartphones.
Fuck!
"We gotta go! Go!" Danny screamed in a panic, sprinting to the van. We ran to the van, slamming the door behind us after entering.
"Go! Go!" Danny screamed frantically.
Celosia hit the gas, turning the vehicle sharply back into the street. Cars behind us beep in response to her almost causing an accident.
"Are you hurt? Did they hit you?!", Beval asked, holding my head with his hands as he examined my face urgently. His eyes grew bigger. His concern turned into anger. "They did hit you! You have a knot on your forehead! I'm going to kill that bastard!"
"What the hell Val?! Why the hell would you punch him?! You should have let me take control of the situation!" Danny lashed out at Beval, turning around to look at him from the front passenger seat. As I examined Danny's face from a distance I could see that his lip was busted.
"Take control of the situation?! One of them tried to grab you, so I hit him! Those assholes wanted nothing but trouble!" Beval lashed back, touching his right eye that was now black.
"And you gave it to them! They were drunk! And guess what?! People were recording! Once this gets to social media, it will go viral: Kimberly turning into a Tiger, and fire coming out of Celosia's hands. Not to mention: your eyes! We will be suspecting "experimented people", and people will be hunting us down! All because you couldn't control your yourself!"
"Don't try and blame this on me! Who knows what that bald fuck would've done if I didn't do anything! We were suspected experi-babies anyway! They saw our eyes, we don't have money to buy contacts, so somebody would've found out sooner or la-"
"Both of you, just shut up!" Celosia screamed, almost swerving into a different lane. The entire van fell silent. "What happened, happened. What's important now is finding this forest." Celosia turned her head to briefly look at Danny. "So, where should where exactly should we meet him?"
"He said that someone will meet us down near the entrance of redwood national park, ah", Danny flinched in pain after touching his busted lip.
"Don't touch it, you might get it infected!", I warned him from the middle seat between Kimberly and Beval.
"Why there? Who would land a plane at Redwood?", Celosia asked Danny, trying to keep her eyes on the road.
"I don't know. Something tells me we aren't taking a plane."
Beval wrapped his arm around me. I pressed my head on his chest, but quickly flinched in pain as I picked it back up. I gently felt the knot on the right side of my head. It wasn't too big, but it was noticeable.
We haven't been outside of the shelter not even two hours and we're already getting into fights. I wouldn't be surprised if we get confronted again because our faces will be on the news for everyone to see.
The fight would only fit the "experimented people are violent" agenda, something they tried to persuade the public for decades and succeeded. It just shows you that people will trust anything they hear on the news, even if they've never met an experi-baby themselves. Some people may get jealous at the fact that animals love me, and how I can control the ground, make things grow and make things bloom. But trust me, the fear and controversy you'll cause will be the downside of it. People judging you, calling you a monster, fearing you, but also trying to take advantage of you and your power.
We never asked to have this power, but society doesn't care. They never did.
Something tells me we have a long way to go before they do.