"Guys, we were worried about being able to escape this island when it was 8 teenagers, how are we going to pull this off," Kathy quietly asked; she didn't want to alert anyone we were there just incase someone was around. She was quietly leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed and an obvious look of unfaithfulness in our group. She was looking straight at me and nobody else, "Seriously, how are we going to do this Carla?"
That's when I realized everyone was looking to me. The pit of my stomach started to twist and I felt as if I'd get sick. I wasn't the leader, we had no leader, but everyone was looking at me for a plan, for an answer. "I don't know," I said as I looked at my shoes then back at Kathy, "Wing it and pray it works."
"That's sounds like a great plan, tell us again how running in blind is going to help any of your friends and not get us killed," Cornelius angrily said as he used his superpower to create a force field around a nearby glass pot and lifted it just to release the force field so it crashes to the ground.
"Yeah, but first tell me how slamming a huge pot on the ground is going to do anything but alert everyone where we are?" I demanded, "In addition to that, I didn't hear you say your plan either so unless you've got something better; that's the only plan we've got."
Cornelius rolled his eyes, but I continued talking, "We're going to worry about getting our friends first, then we'll worry about how to escape."
Everyone nodded in agreement. Penelope and Kate had sat down on one of the beds and were re-tying their matching black sneakers.
"Cornelius do you know where they're keeping everyone?" I asked.
"No, the guards weren't even told they were being detained."
"Well then we're going to have to cover most of the island, I think I know where they are." I said.
"You're probably wrong, she's hiding them somewhere on the island, it's probably not the first place you think of," Cornelius stated. He had a point but I was almost certain I knew where they were.
I put my head in my hand, but looked back up to speak, "Kids stay here and hide," I looked over at Cornelius. He was leaning on the wall next to the door. The light was shining right in the middle of his chest which meant it was almost lunch time. "Cornelius search Section 2." I looked over at Kathy who was still leaning on the door frame, "And you look through section 3." Everyone agreed with our hurried, slapped together plan and we all ran out of the building in our own directions. They tried to get me to agreed that we'd meet back in the kids dorm after an hour passed but I told them if I wasn't back in an hour that I would need backup. They weren't happy but they agreed anyway. After everyone had left, I walked back into the kids dorm to grab Penelope and Kate. "Hey, Penelope and Kate," I whispered, "Come with me."
Penelope came out from under a bed, "Kate left already."
"What?" I said. My heart had dropped to the floor.
"After you all left. She said she going with Kathy, turned into a bird and left," Penelope explained.
I nodded and looked out the door, "Well let's go before someone sees us."
We walked in the direction of the farming fields on the island. The farms are located on the exact opposite side of the island as the Hideout. Penelope was trying to lighten the mood with some conversation but all it did was stress me out more. Eventually she grabbed my arm and turned me toward her, "Carla, we're going to save them. They're going to be okay." For a 12 year old, she's pretty persuasive.
I nodded and managed to pull a fake smile. I was nervous. Not only for them but if they were where I thought they were, then I just brought a 12-year-old to a battlefield. We crouched through the knee-high grass of the cow field. Continuously turning our heads to make sure we were by ourselves there, we kept walking. An hour had passed and we made it to the far end of the island where a huge barn stood. Kathy, Carter, Nathan, Liam, Madelyn and I used to play in this barn before we created the Hideout. This was the place we'd practice our powers, which was against the rules to do. After all those years I realize this is the reason why we weren't allowed to practice our powers; we'd become rebellious to the island, and we had thr strength to actually leave now. This was the barn that Carter passed out of dehydration, landed on a wheelbarrow, and cut open his chest. He still has the scar. This was the place that I realized that I had a huge crush on Carter, and vice-versa. This was the place that we all figured out that we had more in common than we once thought; the place we became friends. This was the barn that Nathan decorated with drawings that he made. The place is where Kathy found out she had a beautiful voice. The place Madelyn found out she didn't have to be quiet and shy around us. This was the barn that we all became best friends instead of just friends. It was the barn I knew the Commander had everyone in, and the barn I knew we'd rescue everyone out of.
There were so many memories contained in this one old barn on a little hill. There ain't no barn like that barn anywhere near that barn. That is the barn. It held so many important pieces of all of our childhoods and we are about to hop in there, powers blazing, to save my friends. I came to terms with the fact we'd probably destroy our childhood hangout place, so we started to walk up to the side of the barn. My heart started to beat faster and faster the closer we got to the barn. Penelope and I sat against the side of the barn. Penelope looked over at me. "Carla," Her voice shook as she spoke, "I'm scared."
"Me too, Penelope, me too. But we'll be okay. I promise," I whispered back.
I looked over towards the back door to the barn. It was only a few feet away from where we were sitting. The inside of the barn was silent and I started to worry about whether they were even in there. I looked at Penelope, who was looking at me waiting for our next move.
"It's now or never," I whispered as I stood up and pushed my way through the old barn door. My friends were laying on the floor, not moving, not even the slightest.
"Stay here," I whispered to Penelope as I pointed for her to hide behind a tower of hay. She nodded and crouched behind it. I quickly ran over to them. They were chained to chairs in a circle. Their chains were all connected to one another and each of them had a bump on their forehead, I guessed it was from them being knocked out. They had glowing silver metal collars on. I sped over to Carter and checked his pulse to make sure he was alive. His heartbeat was faint; very faint. I tried to break the metal collar but my powers didn't work on it. Me trying to break the collar off woke Carter up. "Carla?" Carter asked in a raspy, quiet voice. He didn't seem to believe it was actually me. He had a large cut running diagonal across his face from his right eyebrow to the left side of his neck. The blood was starting to clot so it wasn't bleeding very bad.
"Yeah Carter?" I quietly answered, "It's me, don't worry, I'm going to get you guys out of here." I was fiddling with the collar, still trying to break it with my powers.
"Carla, the collar is dampening our powers," He said quietly, "They're power proofed."
I looked at him, he seemed too weak to get out even if it didn't dampen his powers. "Penelope come over here," I called.
"You brought my sister?" Carter angrily and weakly whispered at me. I nodded my head because Penelope was our last hope for this fight.
"Sweetie you need to freeze the chains okay?" I quietly told her, "It's the only way to save your brothers." Penelope nodded and placed her hands on the chains and started to freeze them. Our talking had woken everyone up at this point.
"Nathan listen carefully," I stated, "Even though your powers are dampened you're still good with tech. You won't be able to control it but I know that you know how to shut down the computer systems. I'm going to need you to sneak into the drop ship and shut down all the computer systems so we don't get shot by the watch towers. I also dont want them to be able to track the collars."
He slowly nodded. I finished talking at the exact moment that Penelope had frozen the chains completely. I grabbed a shovel that leaning against a wall and hurled the tip of it into a chain link as hard as I could. The main chain link broke and I started to pull the chains out from the chain loops on their collars. Everyone stood up after they were unchained. I gave Penelope a high-five. Carter stood up last and just looked at Penelope, still in disbelief that we were there.
The door we walked through started to slowly creak open, I grabbed Penelope by her arm and threw her behind me. Everyone was standing behind me; everyone except Carter who stood beside me angrily while wielding a shovel over his head. The door suddenly stopped creaking and swung open.
Cornelius walked in, then Kate, Will, Grant, then Kathy in the back. "You said you'd need backup," Cornelius smiled as he gestured towards the kids.
I dropped to my knees and held out my arms, Grant and Will ran to give me a hug, then walked around and gave everyone else hugs. I don't think either of them realized how much we worried about them. Cornelius and Kathy were holding guns. It was enough for each of the teens to carry one. "I figured we'd need these," Cornelius said as he passed out the guns. I looked down at my hands then looked at Cornelius and refused the gun when he came around to me. He shook his head, "Just put it in your waistband if you're not going to use it." I picked up a small pistol out of his arms.
"Did you steal from the guards?" I nervously asked as I put the pistol in my boot.
"Borrowed with the intent of keeping," Cornelius laughed.
"So stealing?" Carter nervously stated as he fittled with the rifle he grabbed. Everyone stayed silent
The kids were playing beside the hay, except Grant and Will who were playing tag.
A gunshot ran out from the front door of the barn. The bullet went directly through my chest, literally. I turned to see Cleo behind me. my body had rapidly conformed around the bullet so I wouldn't be harmed. The bullet when through me and hit Cleo. I couldn't hear anything as I checked her pulse and cried. I started chest compressions knowing fully well they weren't going to bring her back.
Carter put his hand on my shoulder, he was telling me what I already know, "Its not going to help Carla, it's not going to wake her up." I looked at Carter's hand on my shoulder and followed it to Carter's face. He had tears running down his face; same as me. I stood up and looked at Cleo's body on the floor.
Liam took over chest compressions and I collapsed into Carter.
I woke up laying on the ground, Carter was sitting beside me. He handed me a canteen of water. His power dampening collar was off and was in obvious distress.
"Are you okay?" I weakly said as I started to sit up.
"I should be asking you that," Carter said as he scrubbed his hand with a rag. "You've been asleep for 5 minutes. I thought you weren't going to wake up."
"It was only 5 minutes, and I'm okay," I said in a stronger voice.
"Those 5 minutes felt like five hours," He said as he paused from scrubbing his hand. "Nathan shut off the power, the Commander will probably be looking for us soon."
"Who fired the gun?" I asked.
"Amelia," Carter's voice shook, "She fired the gun." He was still wiping blood off his hands with the rag.
"Where is she now?" I asked.
"Liam threw her through a tree, Kathy energy blasted her to put her out of her pain because the impact didn't kill her." Carter admitted.
I nodded, "My oldest friend tried to kill me, but actually kills one of my friends. This just feels like a bad nightmare."
I looked over to where Cleo's body was laying, she was covered in a tarp. Everyone had gathered around her body to pray for her; "Lord thank you for blessing us with Cleo, thank you lord for her jokes, her loving devotion to make us smile, and her friendship. We pray that she is beside you Lord, in your kingdom, and that we may meet up with her again one day. In Jesus name we pray, Amen."
I sat down beside her and put my hand over the bullet wound, when I lifted my hand her chest no longer had a bullet hole. We didn't have a lot of time to cry over our lost friend, we had to leave the island before anyone realized we were gone. I looked around at everyone, the kids were talking among themselves in a group. Liam was sitting on the floor by Cleo and was staring at the ceiling, his sister, Madelyn, was sitting next to him just staring at her own shoes. Kathy was standing by the door, talking to Cornelius. Carter was standing next to me and Nathan was nowhere to be seen yet. We all prayed that Nathan would get back safely and wasn't caught on his way out of the drop ship. I couldn't lose another friend today. We prayed for guidance to America since we didn't know our North from South, and we prayed that we would all arrive safely.