"You can't answer?" Hannah gave him a sharp look and continued, "Isaac?"
Isaac looked at Elijah out of the corner of his eye. He shook his head and answered, "Not me. My power is fire."
Hannah's eyes searched Elijah's for a moment, then returned to the narrow road they were traveling. Hannah remembered Gwyneth's earlier report - when the ants had suddenly arrived - there was no sign of Elijah's superpower. Not even the young man showed any gamma radiation. She began to wonder if Map was giving off powers without realizing it.
Hannah knew that those with telekinetic powers did not all realize what their powers were at the beginning. Especially at such a young age. That had happened to Halsey when she was a child. She tried to push away the memories of a dark past.
"Hannah?" Derek glanced over. "You're okay."
"No." She shook her head.
Hannah focused on the road ahead of them, and the worry hadn't left her eyes. There were two cars in the group that had been destroyed by the ants. She did not know who the victims were. But it already broke Hannah's heart.
The people in the rebel group are her family, even though they started out as strangers. But having lived and fought together for so many years-the way she tells it, they went through the ups and downs hand in hand. So when there were casualties, how could Hannah not be sad? Before the arrival of the ants from Orb, Hannah had never lost anyone in the rebel group when they were forced to come into physical contact with the Army or Deformity.
Hannah bit her lower lip until it hurt. She would get even with these creatures.
Derek didn't say anything, he was just as devastated as Hannah. Those creatures from the Orb were not a worthy opponent for humans at all. There were too many of them, and they were too strong. I don't know if the humans could survive or if they would eventually die out. But they had to go on and survive.
*
The jeep continued to glide at high speed, following the truck in front of it. Half asleep, Elijah awoke from what must have been a long journey. He had no idea where they were now as it was quite dark outside. However, he was able to catch a glimpse of the landscape ahead through the headlights of the truck that had come first.
Apparently, they had entered a remote part of the forest, with a path just wide enough for a truck. There were tall trees to the left and right that made the atmosphere completely dark. There wasn't a single ant in sight.
Elijah remembered the ants surrounding them. When he was near the Orb, it was more frightening to him. But even when they were surrounded, it still made Elijah quite afraid. He began to think. Did the ants come from the Orb he had destroyed? Or from another Orb? He didn't have time to check the map for the locations of the orbs, he and Isaac were too focused on finding the headquarters of the Deformity and the Army.
Then the power, why was it so powerful? Even silencing the rest of the ants. Elijah didn't understand, was it because they were in a tight position, so his power could just jump out?
Elijah's shoes kicked lightly and the young man looked up at Isaac.
"Are you okay?" Elijah whispered quietly.
"Yeah," Isaac replied hoarsely.
"Don't talk to each other," Derek warned.
"Don't be an asshole, Derek," Hannah said calmly.
She bent down and picked up something from under her feet. She took something out of her backpack. Then she held out a bottle of mineral water.
"Are you thirsty?" she asked.
Elijah gladly accepted the bottle. "Thank you, ma'am."
"Where are you taking us?" Isaac asked.
Hannah replied, "Another rebel place."
"Why don't we go to Deformity or Army bases?" asked Elijah.
Hanna suddenly laughed discordantly. "You're joking, right?"
Elijah was surprised. "Earth is being invaded by aliens."
"Yeah, so?" Hannah leaned against the door and looked up at Elijah.
Elijah looked back at Hannah. "We humans should unite, I think. Why do we have to fight?"
"Don't you understand what a rebel is?"
"A bunch of people who kidnapped children in the Academy and slaughtered them?" Isaac answered Hannah with another question.
Hannah chuckled. "What did they do to you there? Brainwash you?"
"But it's true, the rebels were the ones who caused the chaos and kidnapped the children from the Academy," Isaac pointed out.
Hannah cleared her throat quietly. "You're wrong. We're trying to free the superpowered children from the shackles of the Army and the Deformity Forces."
"There is no way our masters would lie," Elijah added.
He had even seen several times what the rebels were doing in the cities. They tried to destroy facilities, though mostly military ones. If their intentions were good, many people had fallen victim to the rebels' cruelty over the years.
"You'll see," Hannah replied coldly.
*
Towards morning, they arrived at the edge of a very quiet lake, still surrounded by forests. The group stopped and people got out of each vehicle. Elijah and Isaac decided to stay in the jeep and just watch as the people went about their business. They were crying silently, sobbing in whispers. It made Elijah sad, because that was how he felt when the Academy was destroyed.
The back door opened and Gwyneth's face appeared. She looked a mess. "Are you okay?"
Elijah and Isaac nodded. "Yeah."
Gwyneth motioned to the two boys. "You better get out. We'll walk after."
"Where are we?" asked Elijah.
"Cedar Falls." Gwyneth replied quickly.
The woman hurried away and helped the others get things out of the truck. Isaac suddenly tapped Elijah's arm.
"We need to get out of here," Isaac whispered.
"But how? The nearest Deformity base is getting farther and farther away. We could get lost, we're in the woods, Isaac."
"So you want to stay with them? The traitors of the country?"
"Can you guarantee Map's safety? She needs food, she needs shelter. We might survive, but Map?"
"Leave her here."
"What?"
"They wouldn't hurt a child, would they? Unlike us."
"You're nuts, Isaac. Map has no one, we don't even know who her parents are."
"Exactly! She's not our responsibility!"
A banging on the door startled them both and woke Map from her sleep.
"Get out!" yelled Derek. "You think you can just sit there without helping? Get the stuff out of the back of the truck!"
Isaac sighed quietly, then hurried downstairs. It wasn't long before Elijah came down too, carrying Map.