Chapter 2 Part 2: Food Glorious Food.
I leap off the building, feeling gravity drag my body down at a rapid speed. My shortened, messy hair flies upwards as the wind rakes through it and adrenaline courses through my veins. As I reach the ground in an estimated 10 seconds, I land crouching in a sort of cool ninja pose as the pavement cracks a little below me. Since the day of the blast, I hadn't only inherited the ability to control electricity, other changes were also prominent.
Zeke and I were walking across a road five days after my recovery when a vehicle emblazoned with the logo of a black flaming skull ran over me without stopping. I was told that the vehicle was probably driven by members of crime syndicate known as the 'Reapers' that had risen recently. Surprisingly though, I barely felt any pain from the force of the impact, I could even stand up after the whole ordeal. Sure enough, Zeke took me to the hospital and the doctors did an X-ray on me, telling me that I was alright, no broken ribs or any other injuries present save for a few scratches. My body had become near impervious to physical injury, it would take more than a car crash or a fire to kill me now. Since then, Zeke and I have been trying to find out the limit of my abilities and what each of them were.
So far we've check-listed enhanced reflexes agility, super strength, electrokinesis and the factor above...We have yet to learn what else I can do.
Zeke shows up next to me a minute later, panting from exhaustion.
"Wow. That was one hell of a jump, man. Wish I could do that-runnin down all those star is sucks donkey balls".
I chuckle lightly. We run towards Archer Square, past the starving and poor who survived the blast. I wonder sometimes how many of them wished they'd died in the blast instead. Some of them are huddled up in groups, warming themselves near fire while others can only lie on the ground, feeling hopeless, starving and depressed. All I can do is look away so that I don't have to feel their guilt and get infected by the look in their sorrowful eyes, after all, it's not like I can give them our food or anything, Zeke and I were suffering just as badly as they were.
Zeke leads the way. We turn into a diverging road that goes two ways passing by dipliated buildings and kicking up rubble and dust as we keep running. Zeke makes a right turn.
"Hey, Archer Square is the other direction." I inform him of the obvious route.
"Before we do that," he huffs, "I need to pick up a new six-shooter".
I sigh, "Here we go again..."
"Nah, that was badass. The second you touched it, the electricity in your hands cooks off the gunpowder and ka-blam! the whole thing goes off. The look on your face was priceless." he teased.
"It damn near blew my hand off." I reflected on the event angrily. Two days ago, Zeke had given me a gun to use for my protection but then my electrokinesis reacted somehow and exploded the weapon, almost would have killed me if I hadn't flung it to the corner.
"Which is why you won't be touching the new one." he assured me. "Traded this guy one of my homemade batteries for it".
"The ones that explode when you use them?"
"Hell, he doesn't know that. C'mon, he told me he was going to leave it in a parking lot a few blocks from here".
Most businesses were destroyed by the blast, none were occupied any longer, now such buildings would be the residence of illegal black markets or trades. Zeke and I had such a shop, selling still working batteries we scavenged from around town or handmade batteries which had a 50/50 chance of working or malfunctioning and were crafted by Zeke's own hands, a useful but-not-particularly-useful-previously skill he learned from his father who was involved in some sort of technology job.
We head into an intersection where the stoplight flashes green ahead of us. Looking to the side, I recognise the Clover Cafe now in a state of neglect. It was a nice cafe with good coffee and cake and thinking about it made me hungry, about where we should have been going. Zeke's attention, as usual, was somewhere else, on a billboard above with an advertisement for pizza on it.
"Hey Cole, you know what I miss: Pizza. A big, sloppy slice dripping with grease and pepperoni."
"And payday." he adds, "Having a big, fat wad of bills in my pocket".
"I'd settled for some hot water." I say while we make a sprint across the road. Then, we turn into an alleyway next to the Reel Theatre and zig-zag on the path, walking up and down stairs and passing by groups of people. Finally, we enter the carpark and Zeke scans the area and we make a round.
"Hey, remember that time we were coming home from Duffys and I had to take a leak? And that bike cop was yeiign at me to put up my hands?"
I laughed, "You pissed all over him".
"Well, he told me to put up my hands. While he's fumbling around, I jump in the car and we take off. Ha, ha, Awesome!"
"Yeah, until we ran into a wall of cops and I was grounded from seeing all of you for a whole of five months".
Zeke frowned for a moment but, in the next few seconds, quickly smiled again, "Like I said, Awesome! Bummer we won't be able to do anything like that again."
"Not unless some genius also invents a car that doesn't explode when I sit in it either." I say, "Or maybe find some way to get rid of these powers?"
"Aw, c'mon," Zeke moans ignoring my sentence while he stops stares at three cars parked in front of him, "He told me he was going to leave it under a car. I figured there would be only one. We'll never find it".
"Zeke, stand back...I think I have an idea".
I summon up electricity by flicking my wrists. The blue static coils around my fingers and I let it flow, slightly damaging the metal hides of the cars.
Damn, this isn't strong or good enough.
I know it's dangerous but, I call on more energy, focusing on it to rise. The voltage builds up higher and higher and suddenly, an electric explosion causes the cars to fly out of the way. I'm thrown back from the force of the impact too.
"Hellacious, I didn't know you could do something like that!" Exclaimed Zeke as he picked up the fully-loaded gun.
"Me neither, there was this surge..." I trail off feeling lightheaded.
Man, that shockwave cost me a lot of energy.
"Hey Cole, you don't look too good." he points out.
"Tired all of a sudden," I say as the world goes grey, "Just...give me a second".
Something blue glows in front of me, standing out from the grey and I approach it with an outstretched hand. The blue enters my hand. A large amount of electricity courses through my veins like a snake and the world returns to normal.
"Did you see that?" I asks Zeke
"Woah man, you're a walking battery! Must have to recharge whenever you fire off a bunch of juice. Sorry, I think that came out wrong..."
"I can feel electricity surging through me, almost as if I'm being healed by it".
"This rocks so hard. C'mon, let's haul tail down to Archer Square before someone takes all the brewskis".
Archer Square was a lively hangout for teens and adults alike, decorated in lights and street lights shaped like plants that changed colours in the evenings. Even now, people still gather here to talk and nowadays, live in the Square. In the middle, was a large, pretty, abstract metal sculpture designed by an unknown artist and currently trapped on top of it, was the food supply. When Zeke and I got there, several of the starving citizens were gathered and were throwing rocks at the crate in a vain attempt to get it down.
"Whew, boy that's stuck up there." sighed Zeke, "I hate to say it pal, but you're the only one here who'd live from a fall like that. You gotta climb up there and knock that stuff free".
I sigh in response, "Whatever".
I push past the crowd and leap onto a ledge, making my way up to the sculpture's climax. As fate would have had it, I got a phone call from Tristan as soon as I was crossing midway over a thin sheet of metal path like a tightrope performer. I get to the other side rapidly, get to where the crate is and answer the phone.
"Coleen are you there?" My boyfriend's voice asks concerned.
"Hey sweetheart." I greet him.
"They've dropped some food over at Archer Square." he informs me.
"I know that. Zeke and I are already there".
"How are you feeling?"
"Alright I guess." I stretch my left hand, "Powers are all over the place. It used to be that I could barely power a light bulb and now, I'm jumping off buildings and tossing over cars with shockwaves".
"You jumped off a building? What were you thinking?!"
"Relax, I'm fine." I assure him as I stand fearless atop the Archer Square sculpture.
"Just take it easy. After what happened with Amy I couldn't-Ah never mind, see you guys at Archer Square. I love you Coleen".
"Love you too Tristan".
"Stop screwing around, get the food down." Shouts someone from below. I roll my eyes and with a quick zap of the metal ring which tied the crate to the trapped parachute, it fell.
"Yeah, we are eating!" I hear Zeke shout from below.
However, the celebration could not start just yet. My eyes widened. In the distance, a group of three trucks approached from the left and right streets. They weren't just any trucks though, they had the black fiery skull on them...and out of them emerged 3 dozen mysterious figures in red hoods carrying AK-47s, charging rapidly towards the centre of Archer Square. This was my first sight of them in the flesh: The Reapers. Before the blast, I heard that they were just a bunch of junkies dealing drugs, criminals and even regular thugs that lurked the streets. Nowadays however, they own the Neon District, taking whatever they want without resistance. That changes today.
I look below to where a Reaper is harming an innocent woman. I've tried this technique only once, but it should do. Electricity tails at my feet as I launch myself below and knock the Reaper away from the woman. I use my new shockwave technique on the man, noticing I didn't get tired this time around.
Hmm, I think, Maybe if I use my powers more often, I get better and less exhausted from using them?
"Cole look out!" Shouts Zeke behind me.
Just as I turn, Zeke fires a bullet that nearly hits me but doesn't. Instead, it buries a hole into the chest of the Reaper about to ambush me from behind.
"What the hell Zeke, you could have killed me!" I say in an angry tone.
"Yeah, but I didn't so that's good". He shrugged.
"Whatever, don't try it again please".
I take the Reapers down with Zeke one by one, forcing them to retreat and unaware of why they were doing so. The moment they're all gone, the civilians rush towards the scattered crates of food like children greedily grabbing sweets from a broken piñata.
There's lots of food here, I think, a lot for Zeke, Tristan and I. Enough to feed us for weeks, maybe even longer...If I fry a couple of people In the crowd, the rest will most likely run food will be all ours, but some of these guys might starve...
I hold out my right arm, electricity is still dancing upon my fingertips, I cause it to grow larger until-
"Cole! What are you doing?"
I snap my arm back and 'shut down', turning to the source of the voice.
"Hey Tristan. Sorry, I may have almost lost control again." I fibbed
He gave a sigh of relief and then hugged me. "I'm so glad you got the food down. All these poor people are starving..."
I smile shyly, "I'm just doing what I can. Someone had to help them".
"Those idiots dropped us canned prunes," complained Zeke behind us, "No wwho the hell would want to eat this crap.
Out of the blue, one of the screens come to life. It's the Voice.
"Take a look at this Empire City, this footage was caught by a security cam near ground Zero".
His image blurs out. The video plays, starting off from a high angle in an empty corner of an alleyway. Someone in a yellow jacket enters riding a bicycle with an odd blue sphere upon its front basket. The figure parks it at the corner, humming Fallout Boy. The figure turns its head revealing...
Tristan lets go of me, his mouth gaping. My eyes widen.
"Hey Cole, you're up on the big screen." Zeke announces the obvious.
"This girl ruined our city, our lives. So if you wondering why your families and loved ones have died, you know who to blame. If you know anything about this chick, let me know because we've got to get the word out on this terrorist. I don't give a shit about what her age is, we're going to make her pay anyway".
I look at Tristan, he's staring at the now blank screen in horror and shock. He then turns to me, glaring with newfound hate.
"Tristan...I..."
"Don't say another word." he seethes, "Goodbye Coleen".
He walks away with a furious stride and I watch him in sadness and shock as he departs, vanishing into the unmoving crowd.