Chapter Two

Six

Are they here? Could it be possible? They survived, I think, that's what's important. I keep my fist in my mouth to avoid screaming. They're here! After all those nightmares, the light breaks through. My heart explodes as new hope is born. I wait for them to exit the car before I wake any of the others. But what happens next was not what I expect. Instead of Sam emerging behind the driver's side door where I seen him last, is a man, though I'm sure is still young enough to be called a boy. But by the way he clears six feet; I guess the word "man" is more appropriate. He's wearing a tight black shirt and camouflaged pants that are tucked away in combat boots. On his right ankle, the pants leg is ripped five inches. My stomach drops. A Mogadorian? They didn't make it after all. Tears fill my eyes as I try to steady myself. My breathing rattles along with my body. I force my legs to move, to wake Crayton and the others, but I find myself transfixed on a dark shadow on the passenger seat. The man I suspect as a Mogadorian scans the scene, and a few feet before his eyes find mine, I turn invisible. I step away from the curtains. I turn visible and wake up Crayton. Thankfully, Crayton's one to wake up silently. I mouth the word "Mogs". He nods and gets up silently, waking Ella and Marina. Crayton whispers something in Marina's ear, and minutes later she nods. With her hand wrapped tightly around Ella's they scoot off the bed and hide under it. I open my bag and remove a knife six inches long, with the blade dipped in Loricyde. Crayton wears a leather vest with two pockets, in which he slips two guns into it. He wears a coat then waits. I nod to Crayton in the dark and, while invisible, I look out the window. The man is staring right at me, as if he can see me. I tap three times on the window and Crayton unlocks the door and walks out, as casually as he can. He drops his keys on purpose and signals for me to slip out. And when he closes the door he locks it. He whistles while walking, his hands in his pockets. The Mog follows Crayton with his eyes. The bitter wind bites into my skin. I try my best to keep my teeth from chattering. I will the wind to cut a swath for me, and eventually it does. Crayton walks down the steps, rubbing his hands. Crayton walks slowly, and even in the cold night air, he sweats.

I can't help it. The adrenaline in veins causes me to jump off the railing, leaving Crayton on the stairs while landing cat-like on the asphalt. The Mogadorian watches Crayton closely, and I notice that Crayton's truck is two spaces before the SUV. I walk as quietly as I can, the Mog watching Crayton intently. The dark shadow in the passenger seat stirs. The Mog doesn't mind it. Crayton's near the truck now, his car keys clinking in his pocket. Upon closer inspection, concealed in the rip of his pants, the man in the tight shirt has a circular scar embedded in his skin that looks exactly like—

Crayton has his guns aimed at the man when I yell, "Stop!" I materialize, and the man in the tight shirt is startled, but got over his surprise quickly. His hands are aimed at Crayton, while Crayton has his fingers hovering a millimeter above the triggers. "Who are you?" asks the man, his voice has a pinch of arrogance and grittiness. His eyes shift between me and Crayton and back again. I take cautious steps towards the man. "I am Number Six," I say, now between Crayton and the man. The man lowers his hands, and his forearms reveal veins crisscrossing here and there. Crayton holds his ground, but he's relaxed. "I'm Nine," says the man, stepping over the passenger's window, blocking it from my view.

"The SUV, where did you get it?" I ask, hearing my own voice strange in my ears. I feel the power in my body growing. My vision has blue tint. Someone struggles to open the door Nine is blocking. But that person is clever enough to go around, opening the door Nine just emerged from. A boy with his hood up comes out, but I can just see a tuft of blond hair he did not manage to cover. I hear a familiar pant of a dog. My heart skips a few beats. A lump is formed in my throat. The blue tint in my vision disappears. The boy walks slowly, his head bent. Around the edge of the car, a beagle comes to view, its tongue dangling, his tail waving madly. "It's okay BK," the boy says. The beagle retreats back to the car. My stomach does a flip. I know that voice. The boy stands beside Nine, and looks up. Behind the hood, his blue eyes shine brightly. A sly and crooked grin plays on his lips, showing his dazzling white teeth. My breath is carried away by the wind. I feel my eyes widen. The lump in my throat has moved into my mouth, and I force it back down. "John," I whisper, slowly walking to him. I break into a run and fling my arms around him. He hugs me tightly, one of his hands on the small of my back. Tears cascade down my cheeks and onto his shirt. I breathe in the scent of his hair, his warmth, his closeness. His fingers trace the braid that runs down my back. "Who did this? You look cute," he says with a slight laugh. We break apart but keep his hand. Nine and Crayton are deep in conversation. "Ella did. She's Number Ten. I found her and Number Seven in Spain. She's Marina. Crayton's Ella's Cêpan. Come on you have to meet them," I say, my hand caressing John's face. He holds it there, then cups my face in his hands. "You don't know how much I've missed both of you," I say, but as soon as the words reach his ears, his expression hardens. He pulls away, looking at the ground. "Where's Sam?" I ask. John doesn't answer. I know what's coming, but still I had to ask. "John, look at me," I say, pulling his face up until he meets my eyes. He sighs and whispers, "He didn't make it. He got left behind. The cave was protected by a force field. I couldn't get in. I'm sorry."

Everything happens so fast that I didn't have time to process everything. Mog scouts come out of the lower rooms, armed with cannons, guns and tubes. I let go of John and send a tremor through the earth. The Mogs fall backwards, leaving Nine, Crayton, John and I standing. Nine's eyes widen. I let go of John's hand and set a fire near the clump of bushes. "Fire! There's a fire!" I yell, the other civilians walking out the motel with everything they own. Suddenly my mind has its own master, and I know better than to disobey it. The Mogadorians are disoriented, covering their eyes with their gnarled and ashen hands. "Keep them busy. I have to get to Ella and Marina," I say to John, kissing him before I jump to the second floor, willing the fire to remain at bay. I kick the door open, the locks flying everywhere. "Ella, Marina! Pack up! We have to leave immediately!" I say, putting the laptops back in there bags in hyper speed while they emerge from their hiding place. Marina and Ella move along the same pace with me, throwing clothes in their bags untidily. In two minutes we're bounding down the stairs. I toss Crayton his bag of guns as I go. Ella jumps and goes to Crayton, who hands her a gun and starts firing. Marina squeals at the sight of John, but quickly gets on action, killing two Mogs. I find that I'm minded, but set that thought aside. Nine is down, paralyzed by the tube. I extinguish the flames and hide our things behind a rock. John is protecting Nine, who's still paralyzed. The blue tint comes back, and a rage I have never felt before boils up inside me. I clap my hands in front of me, causing the wind to sweep the Mogadorians off their feet and at the same time, Crayton, Nine, Ella, Marina and John are hefted up in the air by my telekinesis. I gather them in a circle around me, and as the last civilian drives away, I pull every molecule of oxygen towards us with my mind. the Mogs farthest from us disintegrated in seconds. The others took too much time trying to understand the situation. Soon, the oxygen-free air is thick with dust. I send the molecules back, the wind blowing the ashes away. The others are still stunned from what I have done. The faint blue that slightly blurs my vision disappears. I look at the others, their wide eyes on me.

"What?" I ask. John snaps out of it and grabs our bags. Crayton and Marina help Nine to his feet. His eyes open like he broke some sort of trance, and helps John. Ella walks to the pickup truck and climbs in, followed by Marina and Crayton. That's when my knees buckle, and inch by inch I sink to the ground, which was now wiped clean of the ashes by the wind. I hide my face from the others, but the tears slip from my fingers. John's arms wrap around me. I bury my face in his chest, my tears making the front of his shirt wet. The adrenaline I possessed mere minutes ago left my body. My arms felt like lead. John sweeps his arms from under me, carrying me to our SUV. "Do you want me to come with you?" asks Nine. John mutters in disagreement, and nothing is further said. He opens the door with telekinesis and slips me in the passenger seat. Bernie Kosar paws at my feet and settles his head on my foot. John climbs the driver's seat and starts the engine. As he drives the car in reverse, he waits for Crayton's lead. Then he follows. I kiss him on the cheek and pass out on my seat.

Fingers caress my cheek in the chilly morning air. Bird sing in the trees nearby. I open my eyes and find John propped up on his right elbow, brushing my cheeks with his fingertips. The pale blue morning sky glows behind him. I'm in a sleeping bag with John in it. I rise high enough for my lips to reach his. I pull away and sit, taking in my surroundings. Ella and Marina re still asleep in a sleeping bag next to ours. Two more sleeping bags are laid out, but they're empty. "Where's Nine and Crayton?" I ask, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "Crayton's camouflaging the cars while Nine's trying to hunt," he replies, wrapping his arm around my waist. I lean my head on his shoulder, holding his hand in both of mine. "Tell me, what sort of Legacies does Seven and Ten have?" he asks, planting a kiss on my forehead. "Marina likes to be called by her name. I doubt Crayton's explained so much to you already. Anyway, Marina breathe underwater, see in the dark and she can heal herself and other people, but it gets her tired. Ella, on the other hand, is just eleven years old. She doesn't have any Legacies yet. But she's an Aeternus, though. What does Nine have?" I ask.

John says, "He's got more advance senses than most of us. He can grant his powers on humans temporarily, he can turn off the gravity around him and he can talk to animals, like me."

"Sounds like Nine is an arrogant person, with powers like that," I say. Nine stomps toward us with a frustrated look on his face, his eyebrows knitting themselves together. In his hands were my knives. "Hey!" I say, standing up, marching my way to Nine, "those are my knives!"

He twists the blade in his hand. They're small, the ones I used for hunting when Katarina died and I had nothing to eat. I snatch them away from him with telekinesis and run to the woods, the wind whipping my face as I ran. I hear footsteps behind me, and I stop. John stops when I do, and I take his hand. "Go back. I'll be there with rabbits, and if we're lucky, a buck," I say, kissing him on the lips. He kisses me back and pulls away. He sighs and says, "Too bad, though. I've always wanted to see you hunt." He winks and speeds off. Get a grip on yourself, I think, John's not totally yours. I breathe through the nose and exhale through my mouth. I walk silently, the dry leaves under my feet crunching. I hear water running further ahead. I race to the water as quietly as I can. There, I see salmon in a ten feet wide river with slow currents. On the other side of the river, I see a beautiful buck drinking from it. Judging by its size, it's just a year old. No antlers sprout from its head. It looks up, but it doesn't see me. With my three-inch knife, I grip the flat of the blade and throw it. By the time the deer looks my way it's too late. The knife found its eye. It falls dead on its side. With telekinesis, I grab twelve salmon. They writhe in the air, but quickly die of suffocation. I bring my kill to me, including the buck with my knife. I float them behind me as I run back to camp.

Nine was surprised when he sees my kill. I smirk at him and order Marina and Ella to cook the fish while John and I skin the buck. I make a fire out of the wood Nine has found. The smell of cooked fish and deer fills the air. The trees around us make great protection from prying eyes, and the canopy above is so thick only slivers of sunlight creep through. The tree barks are covered in thick moss. I grab a handful and wipe the blood from my knife. Knife throwing helped me survived this long. When Katarina died, I had to scavenge what I had in the woods, and sometimes sleep out in the open under the lights of the stars. It also help me fight my way out before my most powerful Legacy developed. In a few minutes the salmon was ready. We take a fish each and eat silently. Something makes a bush shake. Nine jumps up at once, but John reassures him it's just Bernie Kosar. I give the entire buck to Bernie Kosar and he digs in. "I've never been outside the woods. Literally. I just walk the trail I follow every time to my cave, where I painted your faces," Marina says, pointing at John and me. "Ella's a better painter than me, and I think you should see the pictures she's drawn," Marina continues, babbling about the first picture she saw Ella drew. Then she talks about how Ella's been drawing portraits of me. I blush in spite of myself, and so did Ella. "You never show me any of those pictures Ella gave you," John whispers in my ear. He just finished his salmon, licking the bones free of its flesh. "Where's my pack?" I ask, and Ella nods to a tree where ten backpacks hang, more or less. I search through the backpacks and duffels, until finally I found my own. Inside are Ella's pictures, the one when I looked out the window, the one when I stared at my reflection and, to my surprise, a picture of me asleep on the couch, the night Crayton injected the sedative into my arm. I hand these three pictures to John. Ella scooted over beside him and say, "That's what she looked like when you were gone. She never smiled, only once, I think. She can never sleep without screaming and murmuring at night. She always takes first watch. She kept looking out the window."

Ella continues about the night when I suddenly just lost it, and the endless hours of doing nothing but looking out the window. After Ella was done, John looks at me apologetically and gives me a one-armed hug. I lean my head on his shoulder, holding the pictures in my hands. "Well, we can stay out here for two days at the most, then we find the Chimæras," says Crayton. We all agree, except Nine. He scoffs and walks away. I had a bad feeling that Nine was planning something even deadlier, a plan that evolved more on pride than that of intelligence. Crayton says he knows where they are, and they're all scattered in the state. By mid-afternoon, Nine gives John a training session on hand-to-hand physical combat while Marina and Ella fall under weapon usage with Crayton and me. Ella can shoot things people need a scope to see with a gun. Marina says she want to try a bow, and luckily Crayton has one and two quivers of arrows. The bow is retractable and folds to the size of a foot-long ruler, like the one in the movies. After a few tips and lessons, Marina can shoot as far as Ella can. I take out my knives, the small ones that range from three to three-and-a-half inches long. Nine and John are being watched closely by Crayton. Ella, Marina and I use trees as dummies. Ella only uses round, plastic ammo as big as a pin's head. Marina uses wood-tipped arrows instead of the metal ones dipped in Loricyde. My knives embed themselves deeply in the bark. Our weapons make noises upon contact with a tree, and thumps from the other side of camp tell me that John and Nine are still not done. My knives never miss a target. I can take two trees at a time, using my speed and telekinesis to send my used knives back at me. I'm suddenly aware that the thumps, the groans, and the loud bang of Ella's gun are absent. I look behind me and see that the others are staring at me once again. I blush and send my blades back to me, keeping them in my backpack. John takes a turn with Ella and Marina, his entire body covered with light bruises. "Good luck with Six, Nine," muses John, which made Nine seem less confident than before.

He starts by tackling me, which I counter. He blocks when I jab, I counter when he attacks. I do a roundhouse which hits him far harder than I expected. He flies to the nearest tree trunk but gets quickly to his feet, as if what I did was just minor compared to what he's been through. He charges, and aims a punch at me, I grab his wrist and use his momentum to sweep him off his feet. Nina falls flat on his back, breathing heavily, his arms raised in surrender. I raise my eyebrows at him, expecting attack. I expected what just happened. When Nine swept his legs under mine, I turn invisible and roll away from his feet. I stand up, looking for an opening. His back is unguarded. I tackle him and Nine falls face first to the ground. "Six, that'd be enough," says Crayton. I turn visible and try to help Nine to his feet. He waves my hand away and mutters something that sounded like, "Sandor would've killed me if he found out I got beaten by a girl."

Crayton calls lights out after training. I share the sleeping bag with John, my head on his chest. His arm is on my waist. I can feel his heartbeat, a little too fast for my taste. I look up at him, our lips half an inch away from each other. Ella and Marina dozed off already while Nine and Crayton took first watch. John leans in and kisses me good night. I let his steady breathing lull me to sleep. John rests his chin on my head. His free hand holds mine on his chest, right above his heart. Slowly, I begin to dream safe dreams. And with his arms around me, I wasn't afraid of the nightmares anymore. I feel protected. I close my eyes and let the dreams flash behind my eyelids.