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.
The old village was not broken and decrepit, like the last one, but certainly looked derelict. It still stood high; the only sign of its abandonment was the green ivy that had wound its way round every visible building. A large church stood in the centre of the area, and to my surprise Jason was heading towards it. I followed quickly, keeping up his pace.
"The information I received said this is where they were camping out, but I think we had better both keep an eye out." He murmured.
"Sure, sounds good, but I'll go first."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah."
The church was right in front of us now, and as I pushed the door open, I kept my arms extended. A blue aura appeared again as I created a shield to protect us. I called out loudly "Anyone here?"
Jason then called out "We're friendly!"
The church was seemingly empty as well, but plants and flowers seemed to be largely overgrown, covering all the chairs and growing high up the walls. Endless reams of stalks grew to form a dome around a central pillar that stood proud in the middle of the church. From all around, the plants began to move, writhing towards us. I tried to stop them as they circled us, blocking their stems with my force field. It sounds stupid, trying to block plants with the same shield I had blocked bullets with, but there were vast quantities of sharp, thorn wielding plants ready to wrap round us.
"Enough!" I yelled out suddenly, "Clearly you are an enhanced if you have the ability to do this! We are enhanced, and we are not looking for a fight!!"
The plants stopped. They sank slowly to the ground, slithering backwards, and dispersing as quickly as they had advanced. The dome of plants in the centre of the room also moved, revealing five figures sheltering inside it. The one I presumed was controlling the plants stepped out first, the four companions following after. The first was a girl; one that looked my age too. She had medium length brown hair and dark, clearly sleepless eyes, but the shadows of the plants made it too difficult to make out anything else.
"Who are you?" She asked accusingly. The five of them spread out in a line, making themselves seem more defensive. I dropped my arms, the force field disappearing slowly. I stepped forward, knowing Jason had mimicked my action yet stayed still a step behind.
"My name is Apryl, and this Jason." I said, gesturing to myself, and then Jason. "We are enhanced, and on the run." To prove out point I suppose, Jason suddenly became a wolf - one of his most favourite animals to become - and then an eagle, before returning to human form. I didn't need to make another demonstration. Instead, I nodded my head for the group in front of me to speak.
"I'm Jamie." The first girl said, who had controlled the plants. "We are all enhanced as well. I control plants, my father was a botanist, and I inherited the gift he had." She gestured to the boy on the far right of her.
Hesitantly, he said "I'm Blade." He looked at his wrists, bringing them up to face forwards, and two large broadswords appeared out of them, clearly in his skin though. My eyes widened but I said nothing, letting Jamie gestured to the next companion.
"Madilyn," she said, smiling slightly, "but you can call me Madi. I have the ability to walk through solid objects and turn invisible." With that, she vanished, and reappeared a moment later.
"I'm Theo," the next boy said, grinning. Before he could continue though, Jason interrupted.
"I'm sorry, I know everyone needs introductions and stuff but I'm about to collapse. I'd love to just sit, and eat, then we can discuss everyone else. That okay?"
Jamie nodded, "Course, sounds good to me, follow us." She and the others turned and walked towards the dome again. What me and Jason couldn't see before was that round the back of the dome was a tunnel formation, made from plants of course, that began to lead downwards. We followed them as they went into an underground room, presumably a place previously for people to say prayers in. Now, however, it was a seating area for everyone, and we all sat, all except Jamie. She opened a basket and took out a loaf of bread and a wedge of cheese. "All we got, I'm afraid, it'll do though." She placed them on the table, and we began to eat. Jason added an assortment of berries and nuts from the many forests that he assured were safe.
It was weird how all of us began to settle down around each other so quick, I thought to myself, trusting so quickly because there was no alternative. Maybe this group could work out.
During the meal, I nodded to the boy, "Theo, was it? He nodded. "What was your ability then, we never got to it?"
"If I'm holding an object, I can become the material it is made of. Such as..." He picked up the knife gingerly by the blade, careful not to cut himself and held it. His whole body began to go silver, metallic, the only parts of him that still looked normal were his dark blue eyes. He had become metal. Completely. He dropped the knife and he slowly returned to being normal.
"Impressive." I said, nodding approval. "And you?" I ask, looking and smiling politely to the final companion I had not met. He simply looked at me, glared slightly, and did not reply.
"That's Slick. He doesn't talk much, he's, out of sorts. He's a good guy really though." Jamie, who was sat next to me, whispered. I decided not to make any further comment and simply smiled at the guy, Slick, before returning to the meal.
We spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing, we got on surprising well, and it was great to have more people to talk to again. I know i hadn't been on the run long but I did feel lost without company. We all seemed to be in our element too, no one, well except for slick, seemed uncomfortable. The topic of forming a band, a group of enhanced, came up quickly. We all seemed interested, eager to have a chance to be more than a runaway, an outcast.
"We can do this, I'm sure." Madi said, "How hard could it be, we just need a place to stay, to be safe."
"That's the difficult part," Blade retorted, "there's no where the authorities wouldn't find us."
"Let them find us. We'll be ready." Jason added.
"Look, let's put it this way. Is this idea something we all would want to create?" I ask.
Murmurs of yes and encouragement rang round the table. Even Slick added a disgruntled "Yeah."
"But what would we be called?" Theo asked. "I mean, I don't want to be the enhanced."
"Theo's right," Madi agreed, "enhanced cause destruction and war, I don't want past generations to affect who we are anymore."
"I don't know though, what could we be?" Jason said.
The silence seemed endless, when it was in fact no longer than a few seconds.
I simply stated "The Gifted."
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I know this chapter is terrible, but I wanted to update. More chapters, hopefully better, will be coming soon. Any comments or likes or follows would really be appreciated! Thanks! :-)