Hey guys It's time for a new chapter! This ones a bit longer because I had more time to put into it due to it being the holidays in England :) As always please leave reviews, I love to hear what you guys think or follow and favorite it (it only takes one second!) OpticFlammingo out!
Chapter 20 Five
A few things I should admit to myself.
One. It turns out I get quite travel sick when Eight teleported me.
Two. Nine screams like a girl when he's afraid.
Three. In our rush to escape we may have forgotten our Chimera.
And four. I am on my way to my imminent death. Who would have thought the Mogs wouldn't kill me? Maybe I can have 'Death by Grand canyon' on my tombstone?
It's as if time slows down when we're falling. I see Eight has passed out and TK is desperately clutching his laptop closing his eyes. I am not going to die like this. I angle my body so I move to eight in the air and John has a similar idea and does the same to Sarah and TK. I use all the strength in my body to keep Eight and Nine floating slowly to the ground and feel my concentration slipping but not before Nine gets the idea and grabs Lola superman style.
I suddenly feel a pang of jealousy when I see this but not before I feel weightlessness. We're in a perfect circle floating slowly to the bottom. Each one of us holding each other up. I watch the orange rock as we descend to the bottom and see the sun start to rise. We hit the floor with a very large bump, unfortunately Eight lands on top of me and I quickly push him off and run away and vomit. Never again I think to myself. I suddenly feel a pair of hands holding my hair back and have to force myself not to punch them away.
I turn around and see Sarah's hands holding my hair back, I nod a quick thanks that she seems to understand and we walk back to the others. I look around and see the rock is starting to glow orange from the sunrise. Sarah asks if I'm okay and I just nod. At least one things straight in my mind, I will never ever want flying to be one of my legacies.
I see everyone is in a circle around Eight whilst TK is checking his laptop on his knees. I know it's important but can't he put it on something smaller and less likely to break?
"Does anyone have any water?" I ask.
"No you spent the last of it pouring it on me." John says emotionless which just makes it more funny and soon we're all laughing.
"Well should I ask the obvious question here TK? How the hell did we end up falling down the Grand Canyon?" Lola asks whilst looking up at the looming rock surrounding us.
"I'm assuming when Eight was teleporting us he looked at the sky" as if to emphasize this he looks up at the sky now turning bright. We stay silent for a minute just looking in awe at the large rocks. I see Eight is passed out on the floor and move his body flat and put my hoodie under his head.
"What now?" I hear from Sarah. I've been wondering that for the last couple of minutes.
"There's a Loric stone somewhere down here. Our aim is to find it and to teleport us on to a Loric ship somewhere in the Himalayas."
"There's one problem with that plan TK. This place is 200 miles LONG!" Nine shouts the last word and it bounces of the rocks. He looks proud of himself when he hears his voice repeated. Figures he would love the sound of his own voice.
"Sorted Nine. Using my Laptop and the many books inside of it, I'm cross referencing them all to locations on earth in the Grand Canyon and using the types and formations of rock down here we should have a one mile radius to find the stone." TK says.
"Awesome let's do that." Lola says.
TK grimaces. "One problem. With all my books it should take about a day to narrow down the location."
"So what should we do till then?" I say.
"Well looking at you, you should get new clothes and maybe a shower?" I give TK the finger and he just laughs, then look down at my clothes and realise he might be right. I've got Mog ash and dust covering my clothes and hair; I then see everybody else looks just the same.
"Catch!" He says and I see a gold card in the air. Before I catch it, it floats in the air for a second then moves to Nines hand.
"Jerk." I say.
"Bimbo." He replies.
"Dork"
"Loudmouth"
We stare at each other and I start to see a smile forming on Nine's mouth and have to force my mouth from doing the same.
"Hey Lovebirds, as much as I love a teenage romance, Everybody else is climbing up." TK interrupts and points to the direction of everybody else. Nine looks around and sees everybody climbing the rock face then runs after them and walks straight up the rocks laughing. I notice Sarah is holding on to Johns back while he climbs.
"What? Aren't you coming?" I ask. I realise it's a stupid question the moment I say it. TK just starting to get control of his legs again and I'm expecting him to climb.
"Nah. I've got to make sure this laptop works and look after Eight while he sleeps."
"Alright. I'll see you in a while." I start jogging after this and get a run up the side of the rock and latch on to a nearby handhold. It's not too hard climbing the rock but it looks like the others are struggling more than me. Nine just runs up and down the wall laughing and giving pointers. I see Johns especially struggling and soon Nines got a hold of Sarah and their walking up to the top.
When we finally reach the top I notice some tourists who have strayed, see us climb the rock. I quickly run up to then and say.
"You saw nothing. You are Just tourists who are now going to find your way back to the tourist trail." I say. I see the familiar glaze go over there eyes before they turn around and walk away.
"Nice work Five" I hear Lola say.
"Thanks Lo" I answer.
We walk until we see a highway and I flag a lift for us. I 'convinced' a guy in a pickup that he would let us ride with him to the nearest Walmart. I tell him to keep driving afterwards and watch him leave. I really do love my power sometimes. We all walk in careful to keep our heads down and head straight for the clothing section. I quickly grab a pair of jeans, a red tank top and a leather jacket. Then I see the most heavenly thing possible. Someone walking outside the staffroom with wet hair.
"Hey guys you want a shower?" Everyone nods manically.
"Follow me" We walk through the doors and into the air conditioned staff room. Some people try to tell us to get out but I just tell them we're not here and they calmly comply. Soon we're all showered and I see my Loric scars again. Even when we're on the run it's impossible to forget the dead Loric due to the Mogadorians. I quickly towel off my red hair and put my clothes on and walk out the shower.
Before we leave we grab three tents and a cane for TK. The spotty employee looks surprised at the stuff we're buying and looks at the state we're in.
"So…Uh coming back from a hike then?" He says whilst beeping the items and looks nervous. I instantly realise he might have recognised us and get ready to fight.
"Something like that." I reply feeling for my dagger on the side of my waist.
"So..Um. What's your number? Maybe we can go out sometime?" He asks. I can't stop my eyebrows from shooting up when suddenly something grabs my waist and kisses me on the cheek.
"What's up Scarlett?" Nine asks. I realise that I'm going to have to go along with Nine's act.
"Oh. You have a boyfriend." The spotty employee says. I kind of feel sorry for the guy. At least no one's noticed us.
"Regrettably so. We'll just take these now" We all quickly grab the supplies and walk out. I grab Nines arm from my waist and flip him over my head. All he does is laugh. I walk away at that point and flag us another lift from another pickup. Why would he just do that to me?
When we get back to the top of our little camp below the Grand Canyon. I see Eight is pacing below, we call down to him and he grabs our stuff and teleports it and us to the bottom. When he is about to teleport me, I tell him how I only want to be teleport when I have to and he seems to understand.
"Made me feel a bit ill first time I did it as well." He says smiling before he teleports to the bottom of the basin. I climb down and notice TK is starting to hobble around with his cane. He calls us around a campfire they've set up whilst we were gone when it starts to get dark.
"So quick update. The laptops almost narrowed down the location of the Loric crystal and it should only take a couple of hours more to find." TK announces.
"What about Eights new legacy. Shouldn't that help?" I hear Sarah say. She's leaning on John's shoulder and John is smiling.
"That's the thing. I can see peoples structures like the vat born Mog's, they've got bigger bones-"
"Are you sure there just not fat?" I interrupt Eight. Everybody looks at me except Nine and Lola who are smiling. I guess the humour in this group lives and dies with me.
"Anyway I can see bodies not rocks." He continues.
"But eventually you will be able." TK says not looking away from the fire. The silence is left for a while and we all just look at the fire. After that we all head for our tents and go to sleep unfortunately the dreams find me.
I see the New York roads and navigate them to our bunker below. I dodge the incoming Traffic until we get out of New York
"Don't go over the speed limit Five" TK moans. I see his legs and the amount of blood coming from them. I feel bile in my mouth and have to stop myself throwing up. I jump out of the Van and put my Pendant into the Covering hiding our bunker entrance. The familiar sound of it creaking open is reassuring. I grab TK from the Van and gently carry him below. I try to use my newfound legacy of persuasion to make him feel better but it doesn't work.
I see Lars playing with another Chimera but as soon as Lars sees me he runs over transforming himself into a horse like creature with large ears and carries TK to our workbench.
"Grab your chest Five. Look for a healing stone." He moans. This is my entire fault. I pick up my chest from the corner of the room and grab TK's hand and put it on it and it pops open.
"Anything?" He moans. The blood coming from his legs is starting to slow and Lars and the other chimera are licking his legs. I don't bother to name them, they're not mine.
"Nothing!" I shout. I rummage through my chest and nothing matches the healing stone pictures TK showed me when I was young.
"Shhh. Grab some bandages, disinfectant and surgical tape. It's going to be okay." He says trying to comfort me but it's no good. I'm only twelve I think to myself.
The next few hours are filled with a lot blood and a lot of bandages. TK instructs me what to do and eventually his whole legs are bandaged up. Lars carries him to his room and when they're gone I start to cry. I think of how this is all my fault and more tears follow.
I suddenly wake up and feel my face and feel the tears. I quickly wipe my face and realise I'm still in my seventeen year old body and remind myself I'm not a kid. I suddenly feel the worst hunger pains and decide to steal some food from the Grand canyon research centre I saw on our way back. I start to climb the rock slowly and suddenly feel my whole world flip.
I see Nine looking at me, holding my hand and it's strangely hot.
"What are you doing out here?" He whispers. He looks concerned which is a look I've never seen on him before.
"I'm getting some food. I'm starving" I whisper back.
"Well, I'm coming with you. Two people are better than one." I sigh and decide to let him come along. Soon we're outside the research centre and I see it has a vending machine in.
"Grab my hand." He follows my instructions and I walk him through the door.
"What are we going to do about these cameras?" I ask looking around at the CCTV cameras.
"Watch this." As he says this he walks up the wall and I see a small spark of electricity hit the camera and it goes dead.
"That's awesome. When did you find out about that?" I ask. He returns my smile and says.
"Last night." He does the same for the rest of the cameras.
I walk over to the vending machine and try to unhook a couple of chocolate bars.
"Can't you take them all?" he says in a normal voice now the cameras are down.
"No. I've got to take enough so it doesn't seem suspicious." He's silent for a moment and then catches me off guard with a question.
"You know we're more alike than you realise?"
"Really because way I hear it. You got a penthouse in Chicago and your own selection of cars." He laughs at this.
"No I mean we were both sheltered. Never got to talk to anyone."
"Didn't you say to John one time you had a girlfriend?" I ask, it's hard to hide the jealousy from my voice. I regret it as soon as it's said and see he instantly looks sad.
"Had. She was killed by Mogs" I instantly feel bad for feeling jealous of this girl.
"Well, this will cheer you up." I say and I throw a snickers bar at his face. I can't stop myself laughing at his face and soon he's doing the same. Then suddenly he kisses me. I kiss him back and am surprised by how warm his lips are, before I can think about this further he pulls away. I wonder if I've done something wrong. He sees my face and quickly says.
"No No No! It's not you. Mogs." Suddenly I look outside and see them. A small army with guns. I grab Nines hand and run back to camp hoping the Mogs haven't found and killed everybody else yet.