Chapter 7

It was a dark room and there were three figures that were shrouded in darkness. One was seated in a chair with a hoodie on, to further accentuate the shadows hiding his face. The second figure was a chubby man standing in front of the seated man and the third was a slim, female figure with long dark hair.

There was a sudden rattling coming from a door bolted shut in a lock beside the man in the hood.

The female figure looked at the source of the sound and a smile embedded itself on her lips. "You know, you should really do something about her."

"Not that what I do with her is any your business," The man in the hoodie said in a deep voice. "but she is well sedated and is mostly harmless."

"Mostly harmless can still be pretty dangerous… if you're a woman." The female said, her smile getting slightly wider.

"Can we please speak about something other than the prisoner?" The chubby man said, in slight fear.

"Have you found Shaun yet?" The man seated calmly said.

"He seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth." The female said. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was out on some kind of drinking spree or in some hotel room half-conscious."

"It could be possible. I mean according to the news, he did successfully kill Kyle Bennet, so maybe he's celebrating." The chubby man said.

"But there's still no sign of Kyle Bennet's father, Noah Bennet." The man in the seat sighed before there was a rattling sound again. He looked at the metal door bolted shut, in deep thought. "I guess we'll continue surveillance until we find him. That means you'll have to go back to the hospital, Karla."

"Oh but…" Karla was about to protest.

"No buts!" The man in the seat silenced her. "And you Marty, keep an eye on the mother."

"Yes… sir." Marty said.

/

The group reached the nearest town with a working bus system. By the time they reached it, it was dark and the busses were no longer running for the rest of the night. They waited around at the empty bus stop.

"I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow," Remy said.

"Yeah but we have other problems." David said, looking at Alice who sat on the ground while fiddling with her dirty hair. "We don't have any money for bus fair."

"I know where we can find money," Alice said getting on her feet.

"Oh, that's great, Alice!" Matilda said. "Let's go!"

"No," David said, putting out his hand to stop Matilda. "I'll go with Alice, the rest of you stay here."

"Awe, why?" Remy was about to complain.

"Remy, I need you to take care of the girls while we're gone." David said to Remy.

Cammy tugged at David's hand, her little hands grabbing onto his dark fingers. "Will you be coming back soon?"

David kneeled down at her and smiled. "Of course I will. You just listen to Remy while I'm gone, okay?"

Cammy nodded.

David got up and looked at Alice. "Lead the way, Alice."

After a few minutes of walking in awkward silence, David and Alice reached a small convenience store at a petrol station.

"We're here," Alice said.

David looked around. "I don't see anything. Where is the money you talked about?" David had wondered where Alice would get the money. Did she have it buried somewhere near by?

"There," Alice pointed to an ATM.

David was surprised at hearing this. He did not expect Alice to save her money in a banking account. He did not think she was that forward thinking.

"Wow, okay." David said nodding slowly. "I guess you should withdraw the money."

Alice nodded and raised her arms.

David looked at her in confusion. "Uhm… Alice what are you doing?"

There was a sound of thunder as storm clouds gathered above the desert.

"Alice, wait… you're not going to…"

Lightning shot from the clouds above and struck the ATM, blowing it apart.

"Alice, you just struck a gas station with lightning!" David said. "Do you know how dangerous that is?"

Alice just stared at David as the fire at the ATM raged on. "You should… collect the money before it burns."

David looked at the flaming petrol station. "I'm not going near that, not with that fire. You should drench it down with rain."

Alice nodded before raising her hands again. The clouds that had gathered above the petrol station burst into raindrops. The fire soon weakened except for a few licks of flames.

"Is that it?" David said, seeing a little orange light.

"Not enough water in the air to make bigger clouds." Alice said.

David groaned before he ran to the station. He stomped the little fires he saw to death before grabbing a handful of bills and running away before the convenience store manager came out.

"Awe man!" The manager shouted. "This is the second time this has happened!"

David ran to where Alice was with cash in his arms. "Okay, I do not feel good about this, so I think we should go."

Alice looked at David running in the distance and followed.

/

From one vandalised convenience stores to another. Eddie, Bell and Luke approached Eddie's former place of work. Bell was holding a 5l container in hand while they ran to the place.

"Okay, Bell, you know what to do." Luke said.

Bell nodded and ran to a station where she began filling up the container while Luke and Eddie approached the store door.

"That's weird. This store never closes." Eddie said.

"What do you expect?" Luke said. "They just lost their best employee."

Eddie could not help but blush at that.

Luke held out his palm to the lock and a wave of radiation came from his palm and melted the lock. They entered the store and closed the door behind them.

"How about giving us some light?" Luke said to Eddie.

"What? I-I can't control my powers yet." Eddie said.

"No time to learn like the present. Just close your eyes and relax."

Eddie did as Luke commanded and closed his eyes.

"Some people struggle to control their powers for different reasons." Luke began. "Some people can control their powers easily, like the Ferris wheel girl. When you know what you can do, you can do it well. Do you think she would have jumped off the Ferris wheel if she did not know that she would survive?"

"No," Eddie answered with his eyes still shut.

"So you should be able to use your powers because you know what they're capable of." Luke said. "You know what your powers can do. You know what you can do, don't you?"

"Yes."

"What can you do?" Luke asked.

"I can glow in the dark."

"Then glow."

White light began emanating from Eddie's body.

Luke smiled at this. "Eddie, open your eyes. You're doing it."

Eddie opened his eyes and looked at his hands as light came from his arms and palms. "Wow, I can't believe it."

"Now, lead us to the safe so we can get out of here." Luke said to Eddie who was still mesmerised by the white light coming from his arms. "Eddie."

Eddie was snapped out of his trance. "Uh… yeah, sorry."

Eddie walked to Mr. Claude's office where Luke melted the lock of the door off. Eddie knew exactly where the safe was. Luke melted the steel around the metal safe door.

Eddie was mesmerised by the amount of money in the safe. He had never seen so much before.

"Jackpot!" Luke pumped his fist happily before he took the stacks of cash into a paper bag.

Eddie helped Luke stuff the money into the bag.

Bell burst in through the door of the store. "Luke! Luke! The cops are coming!"

"The cops?" Luke and Eddie said looking at each other in worry.

They ran out of the office.

"What do you mean the cops are coming?" Luke said.

"They're on the way with sirens blazing!" Bell said. "What do you think I mean?"

Luke looked at Eddie who grabbed his head.

"The silent alarm may have gone off." Eddie said, remembering about the alarm.

"Why didn't you tell us about that?" Luke shouted angrily.

"I-I don't know," Eddie tried to explain. "This-This is my first time breaking and entering s-s-so I'm… I'm a bit nervous."

Luke was already at the window looking out at the flashing ligts coming closer. "What do you think, Bell? How many cars?"

"One, probably." Bell said.

"Oh no!" Eddie said also looking out the window. "This is bad. We're dead! Dead!"

"Eddie, shut up and tone down the brightness would you?" Luke said, noting that Eddie was getting brighter.

"I can't! I'm too afraid of going to jail!" Eddie said, getting even brighter. "I don't want to go to jail. I've seen what happens to people like us! We don't even make it to jail. People with powers are the new black people!" Eddie looked at his trembling hands, where light was coming from. "Oh my goodness, I'm the new black! I'm black and shining!"

Bell slapped Eddie so hard that the sound echoes throughout the empty store.

Eddie was shocked and grabbed his stinging cheek. "Thanks… I-I needed that." Eddie said before the light coming from him died to nothing, plunging the three into darkness.

"Is there a backdoor out of here?" Luke asked Eddie.

Eddie nodded and ran to where it was, bumping into shelves and spilling food on the floor on his way.

Eddie tried to open the door but he could not. "It's locked!"

"Out of the way!" Luke said shoving Eddie aside. He opened his palm and out of it came radiated waves which began melting the lock.

Luke gritted his teeth as he melted the lock in front of him. He heard the door to the store open.

"The alarms still going." A police officer with her gun withdrawn said, inspecting the beeping alarm.

"Yeah, I bet they are still here. You saw the light in the window when we came here." The male officer said. "Whoever you are, give up!"

Luke finally was able to melt the whole lock. He opened the door and saw a bugler gate barring their way.

Bell looked over his shoulder at the gate. "You can melt through that in time, right?"

Luke sighed sadly. "You know what, forget it." Luke turned around and walked past Eddie. "Why should we run? An eagle doesn't run away from ants."

Eddie looked at both of them amazed.

"Eddie, I need you to head over there and shine as bright as you can." Luke said.

"But I…"

"There's no time for question.' Luke said. "Like you said, if we get caught, we're not going to make it to jail. Now go!"

Eddie ran to to the far side of the store. The police officers pointed their guns at the sound of someone running in the store.

"Whoever is here, I suggest you turn yourself in!" The female officer said sternly.

The guy made a sign to investigate where he thought the sound was coming from earning him a nod from the woman officer.

Eddie got onto his knees and curled himself into a ball. He closed his eyes tightly. "Think bright thoughts. Think bright thoughts." Eddie repeated to himself before light came from his body, enough to illuminate the part of the store he was in.

The two officers were surprised by the sudden light, which explains why the female one could not see Luke as he snuck up on her before it was too late. She tried to turn her gun on him but Luke grabbed her gun arm and sent out damaging radiation into her arm. He also opened his palm and sent out more waves of radiation at her face.

This elicited a scream from the female officer.

"Braxton!" The male officer said but before he could help his partner, he felt the air around him tighten and squeeze him from all sides, casuing him to also scream in pain.

Eddie got up and looked out at the sight in the store.

Braxton, the female officer, had fallen onto her back as Luke burnt her reddening face. Eddie could see the glee on Luke's face as he killed the female officer. He glanced at the male officer as he was being crushed by the air, with his hands at his sides. Eddie saw Bell standing before him with her hand thrust out towards his directions, while her fingers were curling closed which seemed to effect whatever was happening to the officer. The male officer eventually dropped his gun and fell to his knees.

"Stop this." Eddie said but between the screaming officers, his low voice could not be heard. He ran to Bell and pushed her hand down. "Stop this!" Their eyes met and he was sure that she could see the fear in his eyes. "Please."

Bell pulled her hand free of Eddie and went to Luke to tell him that they should leave. They began running out the door followed by Eddie.

Eddie saw the female officer as her body trembled lightly before it made its last shudder. Her face had been turned pink with boils and burns on her face.

"Officer Braxton," Eddie quietly remembering her. She and her partner were regulars at the store and he had served them both multiple times.

"Eddie!" Bell said, holding the doorway open. "Let's go!"

Eddie tore his eyes away from the female officer and followed Bell outside.

After a few hours they got to the car and refilled it before leaving. Luke and Bell spoke excitedly about what they had just done. Bell cuddled up close to Luke where they kissed ad fondled while he drove.

Eddie looked away out of the window a little embarrassed and asking himself what he had gotten himself into.

/

The doctor studied the charred body beneath him. He was tall, thin with dark ebony skin covering visible cheekbones. Thompson walked in and saw the doctor.

"Oh, sorry doctor." Thompson said. "I was sent by Dr. Thompkins to check the body but I can come back later."

"Yes, please do." The doctor said. He was thin, tall and had ebony skin. "Come back in 20 minutes. I'll be done by then."

"Okay," Thompson said making to turn around and leave but then he stopped. "You know, its quite funny doctor."

The doctor looked up at him. "What is?"

Thompson walked to the doctor. "I mentioned that a Dr. Thomkins sent me here to check the body but there is no Thomkins in this department and the body your examining has already been to an autopsy but you don't seem to know that."

"Well, uhm… it's a big…" Thompson was on him. He withdrew a knife from his back and made to slit his throat.

The doctor was able to get his arms up and grab onto Thompson's wrist to stop the knife from slicing his throat.

Thompson pushed the doctor against the wall while trying to push the knife to his neck. The fight became one of strength and wills.

"You're quite nimble for an old man." Thompson grunted as he tried to push the knife into the doctor.

"Please," the doctor said with fear in his eyes. "I don't know who you think I am but please… stop this."

"Oh save it!" Thompson said as the edge of the blade came closer to the doctor's neck. "Why did your people kill Kyle Bennet?"

The doctor smiled. "So you know." The doctor skilfully manuvred Thompson to the ground.

Thompson's eyes widened as the doctor on top of him began changing. His skin grew wider as his face and skin grew paler. His black hair became blonde and his arms became bigger, so big that they almost burst through his sleeve. "You're quite forceful for a cute boy."

"So, you're a shapeshifter." Thomspon said before he was able to get the much bigger man off of him.

The shapeshifter was about to attack until he saw Thompson withdraw a gun from his back. He immediately turned tail and ran out of the door.

Thompson gave chase but he made sure to hide his gun as he ran through the hallways of the hospital after his target. The doctor eventually turned a corner and was hidden from Thompson for a moment. When Thomspon rounded the same corner, he saw that it was a waiting room filled with patients and doctors. He looked around for anyone in a lab coat because although the shapeshifter could change his body and face, he could not change his clothes.

He looked disappointedly as there were several people in lab coats both men and women and all looking like they were doing something important. Thomspon continued looking as the lab coats slowly disappeared. Neither of them looked suspicious, neither of them looked at him.

This guy is good, Thompson thought to himself. He knew that it would be easy for the shapeshifter to give him the slip after he lost him here.

/

Her legs began to wobble with every step. She was not sure if it was because f her exhaustion or maybe her thirst or maybe her hunger or maybe a combination of the three but she knew that she could not go on much longer.

Xing had walked the road for a better part of a day and still did not come across anything. She had come across no small town and no living thing. Her eyes began to tear up as she came to a stand still with her wobbly knees leaning against each other for support. Finally the past few days took their toll on her and she collapsed onto her knees in the middle of the tar road.

She began to openly weep as she wiped away her tears. Those that were no caught by her forearm dropped to the tar road, saturating it before it disappeared. She regretted ever having taken the journey. Her mind was filled with thoughts of how she should have listened to David and should have stayed with her friends and not takes this crazy journey to find Angela Petreli.

Now she did not know how to get back to her friends nor could she find her way to Angela. She would die alone in the middle of nowhere.

Her vision began to blur and she saw everything as doubles. She wiped at her nose while a dizzying feeling began overtaking her. It was then that a bright white light showered her. She looked up at the brilliant light ahead of her.

"I have finally reached the afterlife." Xing said in Mandurian. "I wonder what will it be like."

A silhouette stepped in front of the bright white light.

"Someone has come to welcome me into the afterlife," Xing smiled as tears flowed down her check.

"Uhm… ma'am, are you alright." The voice belonging to the silhouette said. "I don't really understand what you saying."

"Huh?" Xing made the sound questioningly while tilting her head. She did not expect the voice that welcomed her to sound the way it did. It sounded redneck-ish.

Xing blinked and her eyes adjusted. She saw that the light of the afterlife was actually just the headlights of a van and the voice belonged to a young man who was one of its passengers.

"Do you need help?" The young redneck man continued to speak to her.

"I'm looking for Angela Petreli in New York!" Xing said.

"Well, your far away from New York." The teenager said. "The nearest bus staion is that way." The boy pointed behind Xing.

Xing looked back at the road and realised the reason that she had not come across anything was because she had been walking in the wrong direction.

"Me and my folks are going that way." The boy said. "Maybe we can give you a ride?'

Xing smiled and nodded eagerly. "Thank you! Thank you!"

The boy helped her up and they jumped at the back of the van before it began moving away.