The walk back to my place was long, like ridiculously long. We lived about fifteen minutes out of town, a twenty minute drive in to get to the school each day. Plus we had to take the way through the woods that encased and grew throughout our rural district. I was used to hiking and a lot of other outdoorsy activities, but the trek to my house was an unenjoyable one. Lana had discovered a few talents on the way, and kept stopping to practice them. I found it a little irritating. I told myself that it was because she was making our trip longer, but to tell the truth, it was because I was a little jealous. Not of the scales, but of having superpowers! I mean, I know mutants have a hard time trying to fit into society, but doesn't everyone? They might have a harder time with it, but wouldn't having superpowers make up for that a little?
Lana had this unbelievable agility. And her reptilian claws adapted her well for scaling up trees. It seemed she could change her colouring to camouflage into her surroundings, though she hadn't mastered that skill yet. She also had enhanced senses, which lead her to finding my stash of Oreos at the bottom of my schoolbag.
Right now she was proudly showing me how tough her new skin was by attempting to cut herself with a sharp stone she found on the ground.
"Ssssee? It jussst ssscrapesss acrosssss, I can't even feel it!" She said gleefully.
"Yeah, that's cool." I replied irritably. I wonder how well her scales would hold up against the hunting knife Dad makes me keep on me all the time. It was made of this really rare, weird metal; and I haven't found something yet that it couldn't cut through. Wood, rock, steel.
"Yeah, and-" Lana stopped herself, getting a weird look on her face. Experimentally, she flicked out her tongue, as if tasting the wind.
"All right, that's it! I know you're excited about your superpowers but please, just-" Lana held up a clawed hand to interrupt my complaining. I lowered my voice. "What is it?
"Itsss," Lana tasted the air again. "It ssssmellsss like sssmoke. And burning."
I sniffed the air (with my nose, not my tongue). "I can't smell anything."
Lana didn't reply, just took off running into the forest. I ran after her, calling her name, but she wouldn't respond. I had to admit, I was having problems keeping up with her. I consider myself really fit, but I was defiantly not in the same league as the lizard girl.
Three minutes into our run, I smelt it too.
And by the time I got to the clearing where my house used to stand, I could see it.
xXx
"Uh, I, uh," I was speechless. My home was only a smoldering pile of ash and still burning wood. The whole place looked like a war zone.
"What happened?" Lana asked, as if I would know.
Oh no, my house always looks like this. Its normally a pile. Want some marshmallows? I thought sarcastically, though I held my tongue.
"I-I don't know. Oh my God, are my parents in there?" I just came to the realization that both my parents were supposed to be home tonight. Were they somewhere trapped within the fire an smoke? I ran towards the pile. "Call, call the fire department! And an ambulance!"
"Leah, don't! You can't go in there!" Lana hollered at me. I ignored her, until she caught up with me and grabbed my arm, forcing me to stop.
"Let me go, my parents could be in there!" I yelled. I fought her and was just about to bite her hand (weird, I know, but I was desperate) when the engine and slapping sounds of a helicopter cut through the area. From the open meadow behind the garage, five black helicopter rose into the air. On each of the copter's doors was a logo of bold yellow letters reading MRD.
"MRD?" I read, confused. What the Hell did that stand for? Actually, I really didn't care. I knew these people had something to do with all the chaos and destruction that lay before me, and I wanted answers. I ran towards the coppers, ignoring Lana's pleas not to. "Hey, yo, Men in Black! Hey, I'm talking to you!"
The copters continued to rise higher into the sky, ignoring me.
I swore, loudly and vulgarly. It didn't make me feel any better.
What made me feel worse was when the giant scary robot emerged from the forest.
xXx
"Leah! Help!" Lana screamed as she dodged the red laser beams that shot at her from the giant robot.
"Mutant detected. Terminate." The robot replied in a metallic voice and proceeded to try to fry Lana.
"LEAH!" Lana screeched.
"What am I supposed to do?" I asked, desperate. "You're the ones with superpowers!"
"I had them for like, three hoursss!" Lana yelled, frustrated. "NOW HELP!"
This is maybe the worst day of my life. I thought selfishly. Now how am I supposed to take out a giant robot?
I took a chance and ran in front of Lana, squeezing my eyes closed tight. It stalled the 'bot, for a moment.
It seemed to scan me. "Assessing…human. Do not terminate."
That made me feel a little better, the whole not terminating thing, until the stupid hunk of metal reached down and picked me up.
"Mutant detected, terminate." The robot said, still holding me.
"LANA, RUN!" I bellowed, trying to get loose. "Go for the dense part of the woods, its too big to get through!"
Lana nodded and booked it for the thickest part of the forest. The robot took slow, long steps towards where Lana disappeared into the trees.
"No! Bad robot, stop it!" I ordered.
Of course, the robot ignored me.
This doesn't make any sense! This is middle of nowhere Canada! We don't have giant killer robots who are made for killing mutants here! We have…moose! And free health care! This is too, American!
Calm down! Think! What would Dad do? Go all special forces on this giant toaster! Or take it apart using mad mechanic skills…special forces seems more impressive, lets got with that. Freeing my one arm, and almost dislocating it in the process, I used it to stab at the hand with Dad's knife. As always, it didn't let me down. Sliced through the robot's metal like butter!
I must had hit a hydraulic line, because one of the fingers went limp. I hurried to pull myself free of the hand, and began to scramble my way up its arm.
"Leah! It's ssstill trying to kill me!" Lana moaned from somewhere in the trees. "Ah!"
"I'ma bit busy right now!" I yelled back, trying to not lose my balance and fall to my death. Getting to its shoulder and arranging myself around to the back of its head. Taking a guess, I stabbed my wonderful knife into the robot's head.
I shrieked like a banshee as a gazillion bolts of electricity ran through my body. I felt myself fall from the twenty foot shoulder as I went unconscious.
xXx
"You are sssooooo lucky. Like ridiculoussssly lucky." A nervous voice told me as I began to regain consciousness.
"Argh, uh. I think I'm going to throw up." I moaned as I sat up. I felt like I'd been run over by a tractor, then a transport, then a herd of wild elephants.
"That's a good ssssign! Probably." Lana said unsurely. "It meansss you're alive, right?"
"It means I probably have brain damage." I replied sourly. I looked beside me to see the giant robot on the ground, inactive. "At least the robot didn't fall on me, that would have sucked."
"I pulled you away before it did. You ssssaved my life, leassst I could do wasss sssave yoursss, right?" Lana said, trying to keep the pride out of her voice.
"Yeah, you're a real Avenger." I said sarcastically. I pulled my phone out of my pocket to find it broken. "Can I use your phone?"
Lana handed it to me, and I dialed in my mom's cell number. Unfortunately, I heard ringing not too far away. I followed the sound to the burnt pile that used to be my house. Without words, I handed Lana back her phone.
"Maybe, maybe they weren't in there." Lana said hopefully. "Your mom could have left her phone at home or sssomething, right?"
I didn't answer. I sat down on the ground and watched what was left of my home burn. Soldiers don't cry, they don't show fear. But…what was I supposed to do now? They were all I had. No grandparents, no aunts or uncles. My mum might have extended family in somewhere in Africa but…
"Hal." I said it as soon as it came to me. I leapt up from the ground and ran towards the driveway.
"Hal?" Lana asked, on me in a second.
"Hal." I repeated. Mom's car was blown up and on fire, but I saw Dad's truck was okay (old, but okay) parked further away. "Hal Lang."
"The guy that ownsss the pub near the waterfront?" Lana asked skeptically.
"Yup." I hopped in the driver's seat and turned on the truck.
Hal was an old friend of my dad's. I think he was in the special forces with him ages ago. My parents were doomsayers (considering what happened today, maybe they had a right to be). They had told me over and over, 'if anything bad happens, if something happens to us, go to Hal.' I just thought he was like another emergency contact, that nothing would ever be that bad that I'd have to go to him and not my parents.
But right now, I needed Hal.