Last Updated: Feb. 9th 2016
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I had only planned to stay the night, but it was soon apparent that the original game plan wasn't going to turn out the way had I first intended it to. I got stuck with helping people and soon the days seemed to turn into one.
We actually ended up staying almost a whole week. I came to really like those who were here. The first couple of days I either stuck with Peter or Tori, mostly acting as a shadow to them, and tying to stay out of the way.
On the night before we had officially been there four 3 days and after all of the kids and some families were asleep, everyone else had all settled out in the back where David had coxed a burn pit into existence. Night had fallen and the air had chilled just enough for the fire and a cup of coffee/tea/cocoa to be comforting. I sat with to Peter on my right and another person I had met that week, Christopher Muse; a healing mutant, on my left. Tori and David sat across from us.
It felt like one big support group. Everyone shared how they got here and some of the things that had happened to them. Tori had made sure that everybody got to talk and we all offered advice, condolences or laughs depending on the story. I got to learn that one elderly looking woman named Virginia had actually gotten to meet and become a personal advisor for the last four presidents. That was until they found out she was a mutant and she was fired immediately because they thought she had an "unfair advantage" in her field and that her talents were not "genuine". I got to learn a lot of people's names and histories as The night went on. Let it be known none of them were that squeaky clean.
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On the sixth day we were there, I found myself outside in the back where some of the new comers had settled in tents because of the crowdedness of the inside building. I just wandered around, helping wherever they needed me.
I was kneeling in front of a little girl who was no older than seven with light honey hair that was pulled up out of her face. I was still hesitant to use my mutation on others out of respect for their privacy, so I usually just looked at their names abilities and touchy subjects that I would need to avoid with them. I learned her name was Rachel and that she was indeed seven. The peculiar thing about her was her eyes: one of them was an intriguing mint green color with brown flecks around the center and the other was a normal brown. I think they call it heterochromia.
She sat on a bench watching me examine her wrist, which was bruised an awful sickly green color with splotches of blues and browns. When I first touched it gingerly I took in a sharp breath of air and shut my eyes tightly. I knew this would happen. I got too lax; I let my walls down for a moment because Rachel was a kid and it took energy to keep them up.
I saw images and small snippets of what had happened to Rachel and her family. I swore under my breath so she wouldn't hear, my mutation was so confusing, even to me. Doing things or showing me things without warning, it was starting to drive me insane. I had to let go of her wrist momentarily because I had felt a sharp stabbing pain in own my wrist as I saw the past events. She had fallen on her wrist while getting away. Apparently their town had somehow gained detail on all of our kind that were housed in the area and quite literally ran them out of town.
"What's your name?" I asked trying to avert her mind from the matter. She had looked at me curiously when I had flinched and rubbed my own wrist, but I saw her shrug it off.
"Rachel" she said, her voice was small and child like reflecting her tiny stature.
"Rachel?.... and how old are you Rachel?" I asked as I ignored myself, and wrapped her own wrist as gently as I could, but I could still see her wince a couple of times. It wasn't broken, only bruised which, to me seemed like a miracle.
"Seven" she said quietly, making me smile.
"Well then Rachel who is seven, I honestly think that you'll make it this time" I said putting my hands on my hips. "I mean we didn't quite have to amputate..." I told her in a very serious manor, holding up her wrist to examine it again. "but you never know, you were really lucky."
She smiled brightly, laughing at my expression. She pulled her arm from my grasp and hopped down from her perch and ran off to find her parents.
I was chuckling as I stood, still rubbing my own wrist which no longer hurt, I just had a ghost sensation. I looked over to my right to see my silver haired friend leaning on one of the cement pillars that precariously held the entire outer structure of the building up, with his arms crossed over his chest. He had definitely been there awhile.
"It's rude to stare you know" I said, chucking a towel I had with the first aid kit at him. He caught it before it hit its trajectory.
"Thought you didn't like kids" he said.
"Not true, I just hate the greedy and annoying ones" I said as I walked towards the back entrance. He fell into step walking next me.
"So the majority of them."
"Right" I laughed, setting down my little kit on a steel shelf with the rest of a lot of essential supplies.
we made our way through the industrial sized, yet worn out and monochromatic kitchen to get to the main section of the building.
I sat on my cot, giving my feet a break after a whole day of not sitting for more than five minuets around noon. It was about seven in the evening now and the orange of the setting sun put a fiery glow on everything in it's path.
Over the few days, I had managed to before slightly numb to the constant information that was bombarding me form the people that filed these walls. My mind just had a constant hum to it, which I hardly noticed at times.
I sat with my legs crossed on my cot, listening to people around me. I let the minuets tick by slowly, letting my mind wander. I had made the decision that we would have to leave in the morning. It would be hard to do but my sister was still missing and that was a priority to me for the time being. I knew I would stop back as we came home. The thought crossed my mind to stay here after I got Lorna, but despite the good things that were here it was, in all reality a refugee camp.
Peter had gone off to talk and spend time with David. The two had become some what close and it was nice to see him branching out.
"Josie!" A little voice said to my left. I looked toward the sound to see Rachel who had a massive smile on her face.
"Rachel! Long time no see!" I said with a wink.
She shimmied her way up to sit next to me. All signs of her shyness that she possessed earlier was gone.
"Are you a mutant?" she asked after she sat beside me in silence for a little while.
"Why yes I am" I replied, curious where she wanted to go with this conversation.
"My mom is too" she said.
"Oh really? What does your mom do?"
She shrugged "She can do stuff with her voice."
"That seems pretty cool" I said with a smile and she nodded.
The rest of our conversation contained only small phrases and quips. It went on for at least fifteen minutes. During then, Rachel had described her friends back home, the dog they had to leave behind in the care of a neighbor.
I wasn't annoyed by her presence but I can't say I wasn't grateful to be interrupted by Tori. She had a habit of placing her hand on either the shoulder or upper arm of a person before she spoke to them, so I didn't see her approach me, I only felt her.
When I finally looked over at her I could saw panic and fear in the eyes of someone whom it was rarely seen on. I immediately stood up and walked out of earshot of Rachel
"They're coming" she told me in a harsh whisper after I had walked a few paces back with her to give us some privacy from the prying eyes and ears of others.
"Who is they?" I asked, confused as I tried to calm her down.
"There's been these cars driving by for the last few weeks and at first it was nothing but then it became more and more obvious... it's some group we think they're looking for mutants" she said so quickly it was hard to catch everything she was saying.
"Josie, they have guns" with great weight to her voice. There was a silence after her words.
She didn't need to say anything more. I flicked my eyes up to the nearly thirty people that were scattered around just in my line of sight. If it was true, I knew a lot of people were going to be turmoil in the next few moments.
"Get everyone in?" I asked, though I already knew the answer. I followed Tori's direction in these situations due to her experience over my own. She nodded and I was about to go round up the masses before she stopped me.
"I got this, go board everything up" she said and I nodded.
I went over what I needed to do in my mind, making a checklist of sorts. We've been over situations like this before, but it's never needed to be acted upon. I had shut down the power which turned out the lights. If we were able to make this place look as abandoned as possible it was going to be done.
People began to buzz with unrest in my head like angered bees. I resisted the urge to cover my ears because I knew it would do no good. I shut and bolted windows and doors even though I knew it would do very little. It was like the duck and cover method. I remember having to do those stupid drills. We were probably going to die here and there was nothing I could do.
People were rushing everywhere trying to get away. I had been bumped into at least six times now, and my shoulder was getting sore from it. After moments had passed by all the small children were taken to the tiny basement that only held twenty people, the rest of us were kneeled down out of sight from the windows. It was as if everyone had tool a collective breath and had not released it.
"Josephine!" I heard Peter say in a loud whisper. I had been ducked near the back of the large main room, my back pressed up to the old wooden walls. I hadn't even noticed that he was next to me. His words snapped me out of my thoughts like someone pouring icy water on a grey and washed out dream. Apparently he had been saying my name, trying to get my attention for a while now.
I looked over at him with the helplessness and slight fear still in my eyes, "what?"
He opened his mouth to say something but his words were cut off by voices outside. They were impossible to make out but after a moments pause, an explosion erupted through the silence.
My head was slammed back into the wall, sending white hot stars into my vison. I felt Peters arm around my waist, shielding me slightly. The heat was stifling and there was a sharp high pitched ringing in my ears from the blast.
People around me were screaming and struggling to get to their feet. My vision was murky and dark, but I felt Peter's arms pulling me up and words being shouted at me. The world was still in a thick slow motion.
Dozens of men in black bulletproof vests and matching uniforms entered through the smoke and the torched gaping hole that was now in the north wall. They moved low and covertly. It seemed pointless, no one was fighting back yet they had guns trained on people who were now trying to aid those around them who were bloodied and burned on the ground, myself included.
The arms that were pulling me up, and the voice that was commanding me started telling me to move. That I had to move or else I was going to die. The voice, however, did not belong to Peter which only scattered my already dazed mind even more.
I eventually found my legs again and was able to stand. Gun shots were fired near my head making me duck down and slam against the wall so I wouldn't fall. My guide helped stabilize me I started to move in a quick pace with the person who had pulled me up guiding me lightly with a hand on my lower back. We had almost made it to the door when one gun shot in particular made the person next to me jerk with the impact of the bullet and collapse almost immediately. I had only just managed to catch them before they hit the floor and get them them into the hallway just outside the line of fire.
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A/N: hey lovely people! I'm back from Hawaii and ready to start pumping out some more content!
Also I apologize cause this chapter kind of sucks
Alright so no random question today folks but my question to you all is do you like this so far? Is there anything that makes you groan and skip? Anything you feel could have been done Differently? I've reached that writing point with this story when you start doubting everything you do.
P.s thanks for 1.3k reads!!!