LOCATION: 68 MILES FROM TENNESSEE BORDER
TIME: 3:44 PM
The Four fugitives fled as fast as they could from the scene of the crash. Taking great care to avoid any roads or any direction that looked like it led to somewhere inhabited. They also weren't about to risk leaving a trail by using their powers either. A nice long streak of charred woods or pillars of concrete would have been about as subtle as hanging a flashing neon sign saying 'They went that way'. So, they kept running, never looking back and with each foot fall they put between themselves and the wrecked transports, the more elated they each became about their newfound freedom.
The trek was long and monotonous, but they didn't slow down until they all felt like they put a hundred miles between them and the crash site. It's funny since they only made it about a couple dozen, but still the sentiment was enjoyed.
"Ok, fearless leader. Where do we go now," Lu spoke up after catching his breath.
The other two conduits turned to Natie with equally curious expressions. The electric conduit didn't like how she had become the de facto leader, but it was her plan and her persistence that got the others on board in the first place. In all actuality, she hadn't expected the others to follow her this far. She had expected at least Sam or Lu to make their own breaks in a different direction once they were all free. Yet, she wasn't about to let them all down just yet.
Her reply was swiftly cut off by a horrible growling, the likes of which sounding like it came from a crazed animal. Everyone turned toward the source of the feral noise and gave the offending source a indifferent frown. The growling sounded again and Sam held his hands up defensively, a bashful smile on his face. Lu gave a snort of cynical laughter while Natie groaned and shook her head into the palm of her hand.
Sam scowled defiantly as he defended himself, "Give me a break! I was nervous about the whole escape thing and barely ate breakfast! Plus, you all know that the stuff they served us back there is worse than airline food."
Natie unfold her arms and walked straight up to Sam. Sam already knew what was coming and just braced as the electric conduit gave him a light, but swift, smack to the back of the head. She turned back around to face the other two and sighed.
"Sam does bring up a good point though," Natie spoke up to the rest of the group, "We're not getting meals brought to us anymore. We have to find our own food. Sam, I know what you're going to say, and shut up. We're not drinking our own piss like Bear Grylls."
The wire conduit put his hand down and turned away in indignation. Natie had actually been pondering about this particular predicament ever since they escaped. A few ideas of what they could do came to mind, but from the years that she had gotten to know her friends, none of them were wilderness survival experts. Even if Sam swore up and down that his knowledge of 'Man vs Wild' was good enough. In the end, only one idea really stood out to her that they could thesiably use. She didn't like it, if only for the fact that it would perpetuate the stereotype they were trying to avoid.
Natie closed her eyes and sat down on the dew soaked ground among the wooded terrain. The others watched and waited, knowing that they would have their questions answered in a few moments. The electric conduit cleared her mind and focused. The lack of any electrical sources in their surrounding had been making her anxious, but she had kept track of where they had been heading and anything that was in between. She reached deep within herself and felt the electrical energy that was source of her powers stir. A light blue haze surrounded the young woman as she pushed more energy into what she was doing. As the light grew brighter, the haze flashed white and then pulsed outward. The pulse flew off and pinged off any source of electrical energy, like a form of echolocation.
The first thing Natie saw through this sixth sense were her friend, silhouetted in the same light blue energy as her pulse. Next came the surrounding wildlife. There were a couple of deer, some birds in the tree she couldn't identify with the sense alone, and finally a couple of small rodent like creatures that had made burrows that she could see through the ground. Though, the things she was looking for took longer to detect and only registered as hazy blue shapes in the distance. Vehicles, by what Natie could tell, zipped by along the highway that she had been following parallel to on their trek. She smiled knowing that where there were highways, there would be gas stations. To that end, if there were gas stations, then inevitably, there would be food.
Natie stood back up and swiped the dead leaves of the underbrush off her clothes then pointed off in a direction, "Ok, the highway is about two miles in that direction. We'll get close and follow it until we find a gas station."
"Natie, we're not cars, and I'm not about to chug some gasoline to find out," Lu piped up with a condescending look on his face.
"You idiot," Sam busted out laughing at the absurd statement, "Have you never taken a cross country trip?"
"What was that, asshat?" Lu shot back, even if having never left his hometown before had nothing to do with it.
Isabelle put herself between the two guys who looked like they were about to get into a fight and pleaded, "Guys, please! This isn't the time to be fighting each other. Lu, Natie only meant that highway gas stations have all kinds of food from snacks to packaged sandwiches and other stuff besides just the pumps."
Sam looked off into space with a longing expression and muttered mostly to himself, "Oh god, I could kill for a gas station burrito. I haven't had one in years."
Seeing how everyone looked to be onboard for the plan, for the most part, Natie pushed past the others and took the lead once more. The others followed and kept pace with the electric conduit's brisk jog toward their next goal.
-o0o-
The group of fugitive conduits hid within the underbrush across from the gas station on the other side of the highway. It seemed that this particular stretch of road was sparsely used, whether out of this particular time of the year or just because of how small the road and accompanying gas station was. Either way, it allowed the four conduits to spy on the near deserted gas station without fear of wondering eyes from passing cars. At the moment, there were only four cars at the building. One currently at a gas pump with a person getting her car gassed up for whatever trip or commute she was making. The other three were parked in front of the main building, but lacked any indication of their owners being present. More than likely, they were inside getting whatever it was they needed to make their drive less monotonous.
Natie held up her hand and waited until she saw the woman at the gas pump get into her car and pull out of the station altogether. Once she was sure that the woman would have no reason to look back, Natie waved for her fellow escapees to cross the stretch of road and make their way up to the gas station. They made it safely and with no one to spare a glance toward them to question their odd behavior. Of course, that was only one thing that they had to worry about. They still had the issue of their 'detainee' uniforms to deal with and how obviously they would stick out with them on. Though, having nothing to change into, the group was forced to turn the clothes they wore inside out to hide the big, black, and incriminating labels all over them. Isabelle even suggested that they tie the over shirt around their waists to look less conspicuous. Granted, it wasn't a bad idea, but a group of four 'incognito' fugitives wearing nothing but bright, orange pants, plain white undershirts, and orange over shirts tied around their waists was far from inconspicuous.
Natie, being at the front, nearly jumped at the welcome chime as she opened the door to the gas station's main building. She expected at any moment that a fireteam of heavily armed D.U.P. troopers to burst out of nowhere to haul them all in. Though, when all she received was what she could only assume was the newest hit pop playlist playing over the building's PA system, she tried to relax her nerves.
It had been a while, but Natie remembered what a gas station store looked like vaguely. In front of her was the obvious 'tourist isle'. Shelves of little knick-knacks and trinkets that were only there to make a quick buck off the suckers who bought the crap. To her left, there were more isles, the tops of which she could see full of snacks, car accessories, and other little things one might need to take on the road. Beyond that was a small freezer section. Stuffed with soft drinks and the world's smallest selection of terrible frozen dinners.
On the right side of the store, the front counter with all the tobacco products and lotto tickets, was manned by a husky looking fellow. His receding hairline was haphazardly covered by longer strands of dirty blonde hair, but did nothing to truly hide his male pattern baldness. His expression was gruff looking and when he and Natie caught each other's eyes, his posture tensed. She was afraid he might try something, but his lack of initiative led the electric conduit to believe that she was either being paranoid or that the older man was just suspicious of anyone that came into his store. Using every ounce of her willpower, she turned away slowly and kept her own posture and expression as neutral as possible.
She slipped further into the store to allow the rest of the crew to enter, only speaking just above a whisper so only they could hear, "Move into position and wait for the signal."
She received a series of nods and grunts of acknowledgement and watched as the group spread throughout the gas station store. They were all nervous and it showed, but years of discipline kept them from panicking and bolstered their resolve for what they were about to do. Sam and Isabelle moved to the back, pretending to browse through the magazine racks. Lu took to the snack isles, placing himself strategically near the center of the store. And within arms reach of of everything in the shelves.
The plan was simple; create some distracting chaos, grab everything they could that looked edible, and then bolt out the store before anyone knew what was going on. As the four gave each other quick looks to show their readiness, Natie walked up to front with the old man and pay counter. He gave her a look that reeked of weariness and discontent. The electric conduit did her best to look as innocent as possible, but the gesture seemed to fall short with another eye narrow from the old clerk.
Natie was about to move off to the side, which was closer to the counter shelves of gum and candy when something she heard caught her attention. Next to the register in front of the gas station clerk sat an old looking ten inch tv. The man had been in the middle of watching something when a series of alert tones came from the tv's speakers. Out of the corner of Natie's eye, she watched as the screen turned from its regular programming to an emergency broadcast.
The low and monotone voice of the news anchor droned on as he spoke, "We interrupt your broadcast to bring you an emergency bulletin. At approximately three fifteen today, a U.S. army convoy was thrown off the road, resulting in a catastrophic wreck just off the I-40. The convoy was making a prisoner transport of four bio-terrorists to a secure military detainment facility, following the scheduled decommission of the Department of Unified Protection, when the vehicles of the convoy were violently thrown off the road." All the color drained out from Natie's face, leaving her as pale as a ghost as she listened in on the report. "Reports suggests that the bio-terrorists were indeed the cause of the convoy's destruction, and that they had fled the scene before army reinforcements could arrive to contain the situation. Citizens in the north-east territories of Arkansas are advised to stay indoors as these bio-terrorists are extremely dangerous. The military is also asking for the public's cooperation for any information in regards to the bio-terrorists' location that will lead to their recapture. Details are posted on screen of these four bio-terrorists and an emergency hotline at which individuals can report any information they have on their whereabouts."
Natie had completely tuned out the rest of the reporter's coverage in favor of looking at what was on the screen of the television itself. Just like that, there they were. Lu, Sam, Isabelle, and herself with their D.U.P. detainee profile pictures now plastered all over the screen. Natie's insides twisted up into knots so tight, she thought she was going to puke. A twitch of movement caught the electric conduit's attention out of the corner of her eye. The old man of a store clerk stared directly at her as he began to reach slowly under the counter. The old man's face was caught somewhere between a look of outright panic and disgust. Natie slowly slid her hand along the outside of the counter to where the lotto tickets were being displayed under a bright, fluorescent tube light just below the counter's surface. For a split second, Natie hoped that the old man was merely reaching down to pick up something he might have dropped, or scratch an itch on his leg, or some other seemingly innocent task. That thought died in an instant when she heard the familiar sound of a gun getting cocked beneath the counter.
"Down!" Natie cried out as she grabbed the corner of the glass case to the lotto tickets.
The whole place erupted into chaos after that. Natie charged her hand full of electrical energy and pumped it all into the flourescent bulb in the lotto ticket case. The surge passed through the bulb and into the rest of the building's circuitry until all the lights within the little gas station store exploded in bright flashes of light. The light bulbs, turned miniature flashbangs, blinded anyone who was unfortunate enough to not cover their eyes, which included the old clerk behind the counter. A gunshot rang out and Natie felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, but ignored it. The clerk, and the rest of the store's patrons, screamed in panic in their disorientation while trying to recover from their blindness. In that time, there was great deal of hurried scuffling, shouting, and panicked running as Natie and the rest of the fugitive conduits grabbed everything they could in their arms from the food shelves and ran for the exit.
The four conduits bolted across the gas station pumping stations and heard a few more gunshots ring out behind them. None of them turned around and they swiftly made it back across the highway to the relative safety of the woodlands. Though, they didn't stop there. With Natie leading the way, they ran as fast as they could while carrying their spoils deeper into the obstructing foliage and continued running. They ran and ran, longer than any of them had during one of their training sessions within the concrete prison. They kept going even when they felt like their legs were going to fall off. It was nearly half an hour before all of them dropped to the ground, panting from exhaustion.
For a while, all any of them could hear was the frantic beating of their own hearts and the ragged breathing they all had from trying to recover. As the adrenaline slowly began to wear off and they all had a few minutes to catch their breaths, they heard a new sound. It started off as a light chuckle, but it then developed into something more. Natie, Sam, and Isabelle turned to see a smiling, cackling Lu lying on the ground, laughing his heart out. The sensation became infectious and soon Isabelle was giggling. Natie and Sam soon joined in, and the once silent forest was soon filled with uproaring laughter.
"Did you see that, shit?!" Lu choked out between breaths of his laughing fit.
"Fuck yeah!" Sam chimed in, "That was awesome!"
Isabelle would have put it in a more milder tone, but nodded in agreement that what ended up happening was a bit funny when she thought about it.
Lu had to calm down a bit before he spoke again, "A-and that guy at the counter, oh my god! Did you hear what he said? 'Get out of my store you damn, bio-terrorists!'. Fuckin' priceless!"
At that, Natie's laughter died down until she had to turn away from the group to hide her pained expression. She felt someone brush up beside her and turned to see the sympathetic smile of her friend, Isabelle, next to her.
In a whisper that only the two of them could hear, Isabelle asked the obvious, "Are you ok?"
"I'm fine," Natie answered plainly, "Got shot in the shoulder, but that's already healed."
Isabelle already knew the tone that Natie was using and brought her hand up to squeeze on the electric conduit's shoulder. A silent reassurance that Natie understood as, 'They can talk later'. The electric conduit reached up and patted Isabelle's hand with her own and gave her a sad smile, 'thanks'. When the two rejoined the others back around the unorganized circle, Lu was still laughing up a storm while Sam gave Natie his own reassuring nod of understanding to the situation. Natie appreciated the gesture and took a moment to collect herself before putting on her game face.
"Alright," Natie called out for everyone's attention, "The feds are probably gonna hear about that little stunt we pulled, but we did put quite a bit of distance between us and them for now." Natie looked up to the sky and noticed that the sun was beginning its final crawl toward the horizon, leaving roughly an hour or two before nightfall. "Let's set up here and divy up the food for now."
"Oh god, finally! I'm starving," Sam praised.
The four dragged their spoils from where they dropped them to the center of their circle and looked over everything that they had. It seemed like they were lucky in that they had gotten quite the haul from their little 'snatch-n-run'. There were granola bars, bags of chips, poptarts, a few assorted canned goods, some snack boxes, a couple bottles of water and fruit drinks, and a handful of candy bars. It seemed that Lu and Sam had pilfered the most out of the combined effort, having the advantage to make basket like objects to carry a larger haul out of wire and concrete respectively. The four argued and haggled over who would get what, but in the end, they were all satisfied with how it was finally divided up. They dug in voraciously, but none of them cared for what people considered proper table manners.
Night was quickly approaching as the group of wayward conduits finished off their respective meals. The lack of federal pursuit was encouraging in that Natie felt it was safe enough to set up a campsite where they were for the night. Sam and Natie went out to the surrounding woodland to gather up anything dry enough to burn, while Lu and Isabelle set up the fire pit. It was a modest affair. Lu created a concrete basin and Isabelle cleared the surrounding foliage just as Sam and Natie returned, each with a bundle of wood. Isabelle lit the pit up with a spray of fire from her fingers once a shallow pile of sticks was built in the concrete basin. Some may consider a fire conduit to be cheating when it came to wilderness survival, but no one was complaining within this little group.
The four conduits huddled together in a circle around the crackling fire, periodically feeding the flames with fresh fuel when they needed. They didn't have much to talk about and none of them were really into the campfire stories, but they enjoyed the relative calmness of the outdoors that they had been denied for so long with content silence. The night was slowly settling in and it seemed like they were competing to see who would show the first signs of tiredness on their first day as free men and women.
Just as the sun made its full descent over the horizon and the world was plunged into shadows, Natie cleared her throat to get everyone's attention, "Listen, we may have finally escaped the D.U.P. and the government's control, but we can't let our guards down yet. They're out there looking for us, and I don't know about you, but I don't want to end up getting hauled back to Curdan Cay in my sleep. In any case, I think we should take turns keeping watch for tonight."
Sam groaned in a sarcastic manner, "Can't we put up a sign saying 'Do not disturb the sleeping conduits'?"
"Yeah, don't you know Sammy over here needs his beauty sleep," Lu remarked with a snort of laughter.
Sam gave the concrete conduit a nasty glare before getting a devious smirk, "Of course I do. Everyone does, but you'd probably need a nice long coma to fix that ugly mug of yours."
Shards of concrete surrounded Lu forearms as he jumped to his feet. Sam got up too, but remained low to the ground to hopefully slip under Lu's guard if he charged.
"Yeah, well I don't need charm to beat your face in, asshole," Lu threatened with a raised fist full of concrete.
Sam smirk grew as he knew what to say next, "You know what, your right, but I misspoke. There ain't enough hours of sleep you could get to fix that lump of ugly you call a face on ya."
Sam called it perfectly. Lu charged head-on with a warcry to land a haymaker of punch on his face. Sam had initially planned to duck under the blow and slip under Lu's left arm toward the same side that he constantly left open. After which, he would have ensnared the concrete conduit in a web of wires to throw him over his own shoulder and pin him while being careful to avoid any concrete shrapnel the other conduit would spray. At least, that was the plan until he suddenly found himself pinned to the ground himself by electrical restraints after being thrown like a ragdoll. Lu was right beside him, face down in the dirt, in a similar situation with a smug looking Natie standing over top of them both and brushing her hands off against each other.
"Ah, come on, Natie," Sam pleaded innocently, "We were just having a little fun~."
Natie gave the wire conduit a withering glare and Sam instantly clammed up. Lu was still struggling against his bindings, but Natie knew he wasn't going anywhere for a while.
Natie crouched down next to the nervously grinning wire conduit and gave him her own smirk, "Just for that, you're on first watch."
Natie snapped her fingers and a spark jumped from her fingers and down to the glowing restraints, to which they disappeared in an instant.
"You're the boss," Sam said and gave her a mock salute as he got back up.
"Hey, aren't you forgetting someone?" Lu grumbled from his place on the ground.
"No," Natie answered as she settled into a spot on the other side of fire, "You need time to cool off, and I don't want to stay up all night just to keep you two from killing each other. The restraints last an hour. So, goodnight."
"What the fuck?!" Lu tried one last time to break free before giving up and getting as comfortable as he could in his position.
Isabelle giggled as she too began to settle into her spot closest to the fire to go to sleep, "I'll take the next watch if no one minds."
Everyone gave their agreement to the arrangement, and they even came to the agreement that Lu would take the third watch while Natie would have the last.
"Good night, everyone," Isabelle muttered between her yawns, "and sleep well."
"You too, Isabelle," Sam called from his spot at the edge of the campfire's light as he started his watch out into the calming darkness of the woods, "You too, Natie⦠and I guess Lu as well."
"Fuck you!"
The woodland fell into a comfortable silence after that, but Natie was having trouble falling asleep. She turned onto her side so she was facing the fire. Her thoughts turned to everything that had happened in just the last twelve hours. She remembered when they were first loaded into the army transports back at Curdan Cay. How the snow crunched under her shoes from that snow covered prison and how anxious she felt when the opportunity that they had been waiting for was within their grasp. How they stepped up and into those transports, bidding the hellhole that they had been locked up in for years, goodbye. How the first set of transports had brought them down the mountain that the prison was based upon to an airstrip, and the four conduits had been loaded onto a cargo plane. How the flight was long and tedious as the army personnel never let them so much as flinch without drawing a line of fire on them after. Finally, leading into the cargo plane landing in Arkansas on a secluded airstrip as scheduled and the four being loaded onto another set of land transports. That would have been the final stretch before they arrived at their new detainment facility, were it not for the conduits' own plans.
The escape hadn't gone exactly as planned, but Natie was thankful for the soldier who lost his grip on his rifle long enough for her to swipe it away and fumble around with it until she could shoot her cuffs off. Had she failed, she didn't even want to think about what would have become of them all. Natie tried shaking the morbid thought away and curled in on herself a little tighter. The ground was uncomfortable, her over shirt she substituted for a pillow was flat, but in the end, she thought about how lucky she and her friends were to finally feel free after so long. She watched the flames from the fire flicker and crackle until the hypnotic view slowly lulled her to sleep.
