"What did you do?" Nathan asked as he softly laid her head down.
"I-I'm not sure," I stuttered. I had a feeling of what I did but wasn't 100% sure.
Carter came running in obvious distress, "What happened, is everyone okay? I heard Paige yelling."
"Carla knocked Paige out," Nathan explained, "her feet touched the ground and then she hyperventilate until she passed out."
Carter looked at me with disbelief, "Did you really?"
"She wouldn't let me go, I touch her shoulder to push her away from me and she hit the ground," I paused, "I found what made her unique and I think I flipped it."
"Woah so you actually tried it?" Carter excitedly squealed.
"So you reversed her powers?" Nathan asked as he just looked at Paige, she was starting to wake up.
"I didn't know you could do that to us," Carter said, looking back and forth between Paige and me, "it was just a theory."
"I didn't know I could do that either," I quietly said while looking at Paige, she was rubbing her eyes and sitting up.
"How did you do that?" Paige angrily asked.
"I don't know," I blankly answered.
"Well give them back Carla," Paige demanded.
"Eh," I answered, "I guess I'm not the most useless member of the group anymore."
"Okay Carla. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being mean, I'm sorry for putting you down, I'm sorry for being rude," Paige pleaded, "Are you happy now, I apologized. Can I please have my powers back?"
I laid my hand on her shoulder for a few seconds and then put my hands back in my pockets. She thanked me and walked away.
I leaned up against the rock walls of the cave and slid down them to the floor. What I could do created a whole new mess of ideas to get off the island. I didn't want to be in the center of it, but I ended up being there anyway. I just sat there though, looking at the dirt floor, longing for someone to take the pressure off of my shoulders. Carter was sitting beside me. I'm guessing for support but I ended up putting my head on his shoulder and falling asleep.
I woke up to the sound of a big splash. I lifted my head off of Carter's shoulder, who was already awake and tilting his head to look down the cave. I did the same; Liam had pushed the boat into the water. He walked back on the shore with the rope in his hand. Cleo peaked her head above the railing of the boat. She's the only person allowed to test out the boats so if they sink, she can breathe under water so can't drown. Carter slowly stood up and leaned farther around the corner to get a better look. "I think it's working," Carter happily exclaimed.
Carter helped me up, and we ran out of the cave and down the beach. "Is it working?" I shouted.
"Yeah so far," Cleo yelled from the boat.
Liam was holding on to the rope with his good arm. I walked up behind Liam and lightly laid my hand on his bad shoulder. He winced in pain for a second but quickly the obvious pain on his face disappeared and I took the sling off.
He bent his arm and rolled his shoulder, then in realization for what I did nodded at me, "How did you do that? Never mind, that doesn't matter, Thank you Carla."
"You're welcome," I nodded back, "but it was Carter's idea."
He nodded in Carter's direction and continued to watch the boat. All of us were gathered on the shore, watching the waves hit the boat, and the boat just took it. Not breaking, not bowing, not sinking. We had finally done it. We finally made a boat that actually worked.
"Whoo hoo! It works!" Cleo screamed from the boat, throwing both hands in the air in victory.
Everyone started cheering as Liam pulled the boat back to shore. Cleo put the ladder down over the side of the boat and climbed down. She walked down the beach to where we were all standing, "Anyone want to go for a ride? I'm pretty sure it's safe."
Everyone excitedly said, "Absolutely."
We all climbed up the ladder and onto the boat one by one and once everyone but Liam was on, she shoved the boat into the ocean, climbing the rope once it was far enough in. He had tied the rope to a big willow tree so we didn't float off. Everyone laid down on the wooden deck and looked up at the stars, but I looked at the water below. The water was almost glowing with the moon shinning off of it. Everything was just so pretty, the waves drew the boat further and further into the ocean. We looked around at each other and agreed that we would try our best to get everyone off the island soon. The sun was going to be coming back up soon, and we needed to get to the dorms before they marked us missing. It had taken a half hour for Liam to pull us back to shore with the rope even though it took 10 minutes to get out there. Liam pulled the boat onto the shore and in from of the cave. He threw the ladder up for us to get down. We all walked back to the dorms, joking and giggling at stupid little jokes we were making. As if Paige and I didn't fight at all, she was acting like a friend again. We all fell silent when we got to the treeline and saw the full disaster that the fire caused. The prison was located by the water, in between the cow field, and a playground built for the kids. Both of which were burnt to the ground. The building was reduced to a smoldering pile of ash. Across the field there were some adults rebuilding the cow fence and one adult keeping the cows from running out of the hole in the fence. We all instantly dropped to our hands and knees when we saw how many adults were walking around.
"What are we going to do?" Cleo whispered.
"I don't know," Nathan quietly confessed, "I don't think there's anything we can do."
"Let's go back to the Hideout and come up with a plan," Paige whispered.
"They'll be looking for us by then," Carter whispered, "Or they'll see us here."
Someone cleared their throat behind us, "Excuse me but aren't you guys out past curfew?" I turned to see the Commander for a split second before Carter, Kathy, and I were back in the cave."Wait, what happened?"I yelled.
"What about everyone else?" Kathy yelled, "We need to get them before the Commander captures them!"
Her point must have worked because in a flash of light, he left. He didn't come back.
"What could've happened to everyone?" We need to go make sure they're okay!" Kathy concerningly said about 20 minutes after Carter left.
"Listen Kathy; I'm worried about them too, but I need you to calm down, they need you to calm down. If you don't calm down then we can't collectively think properly, " I explained as I put my hand on her shoulder, "okay?"
She nodded and looked in the direction of camp, "What's the plan Carla? The rest of our group isn't here, and I have no ideas."
The fact was that the only plan I had was to march in there a rescue them. I just didn't know how I was going to the just walk in there and just grab them without being seen or getting captured myself. I was sitting there thinking, looking out at the sun rising above the ocean.
"Sissy?" A light and joyful little boy's voice that I knew too well came from the woods. "Sissy... Sissy... Sissy, " It kept repeating but I was already on my feet by the first time I heard it. Kathy ran over and covered my mouth at the moment I was going to scream for my little brother, Grant. "Carla listen," Kathy whispered in my ear, "It's the same tone, same word, same frequency, repeating over and over every 15 seconds. It's a recording."
I moved her hand. "That means they have Grant," I whispered back.
"That means you have to hide the boat," Kathy took a step back and pointed at the cave.
"How are we going to hide a full-blown boat Kathy?" I questioned. There's no way we could hide a boat that size anywhere.
"The way you built the cave, build a hollow rock formation over it," Kathy intelligently explained.
I outreached a hand towards the boat and within a few minutes had completed the rock cast. The recording had become louder at this point and there was really no place to go, but the beach.
As if Kathy could read my mind, she angrily whispered to me, "No! It's too open. There's no way we could escape or hide behind anything if they shot at us!"
"Do you see another way out of this?" I whispered back.
She looked out at the ocean, "If this gets me killed I'm not going to be happy with you."
We both sprinted down the wide trail and out onto the beach. We ran as fast as our legs could take us down the tree line of the beach towards camp, eventually turning back into the forest after we knew we were far enough away. Kathy and I were both already out of breath but we kept running. Without the prison we had no idea where they were, but since Kathy and I are both short I figured we could fit right in with everyone else and find our friends. We were winging it and praying whatever we did was going to work.
We reached the tree line where everyone else been caught and Kathy and I surveyed the area. "Carla, look," She pointed to the Commander, who was standing up on her hill. Paige was standing next to her.
"That filthy traitor!" I said as a turned around and started pacing.
"Carla what if she is up there because she's convincing the Commander to let our friends go?" Kathy said as she tried to calm me down.
"Then why did she just point the Commander to look in our direction?" I said as I pulled kathy down under a bush and pulled my sword off my back holster. Paige was flying over here now, quickly. As she got closer, I realized she looked angry and had a knife in her hand. No words were exchanged, she just started attacking us. Kathy snapped her finger and a ball of energy that was bigger than her hand appeared. She threw it at Paige but Paige moved before she could get hit. I put my sword back in its holster as she was coming to attack me. She slashed my arm with a knife, and I swung my hand at her stomach. All I did was touch her stomach, and she fell to the ground again this time her body went limp too.
"What did you do?" Kathy said.
"Kicking butt," I laughed.
"Is she dead?" Kathy quickly and cautiously asked.
"Probably, I don't know what I did. We need to get to the dorms to get everyone gathered up before the Commander catches on to what we're doing," I stated as I ushered Kathy to start walking. Paige was lying motionless on the ground.
We ran across the field to the dorms. I ran face first into the door and fell backwards. Immediately getting up I looked up at the sky, "It's not breakfast yet, why's it locked? You try the back door, I'm going to check the children's dorm."
Kathy nodded, and we ran our separate directions. I ran around the left side of the building, past the well and lounge to the kids dorm. I could hear them on the inside. The door was locked but because I could hear them, I launched myself at the door. Once on the inside I couldn't see any kids. A few seconds after bursting in, Penelope and Kate came out from their hiding spots. Both of them rushed to give me a hug.
"Where's everyone else?" I asked.
Penelope spoke, "The guards took them Carla, they took Will and Grant and the twins!"
I looked out the doorway then back at Penelope, "Your older brothers are missing."
Kate started to cry, "Is Cornelius okay?"
"I haven't seen our brother Kate; I haven't seen him for a few days actually." I paused, "I'm going to be honest with you all, We're going to try to get everyone off the island. Some people dont like that we're leaving and they want to hurt us, I need you all's help."
They nodded, "Anything to survive right? That what we used to say?" Kate said.
I looked down, I forgot she heard me say that a few weeks ago. "We can do it, Carla," Penelope said, "For Will and Grant."
"And Carter and Nathan," Kate said.
"And Cleo and Madelyn," Cornelius said as he walked in.
I turned towards him. Kathy was standing behind him. "And Liam," I said.
"And everyone else," Kathy proudly said.
I looked around at our group. We were relying on a Penelope; Carter and Nathan's little sister, who can create and control ice, Kate; my little sister, who can shape shift, Cornelius; my big brother, who can move things with his mind, along with Kathy who has energy attacks and me who can control the atoms of anything. Two-fifths of us were below the age of thirteen. The rest of us were above the age of fifteen. Two preteens, two teenagers, and an eighteen year old were going to save five friends, two younger siblings, and as many adults as possible. The only problem was that nobody had a plan. Nobody knew how we were going to pull this off, and nobody knew where anyone we planned to save was being kept.