More Than Human

Chapter 1

June 6th

I walked through the forest with my friends. Fay, Lea and Gloria. Fay was talking excitedly about who-knows-what. She flung her hands in the air to illustrate her excitedness and ended up hitting Lea in the face.

"Don't do that, soldier!" ordered Lea as part of a running game in which Fay is her soldier and she's the general.

"Yes sir ma'am sir general sir." Fay saluted.

"Don't salute me, soldier!"

"Yes sir ma'am sir general sir." Fay saluted again.

Why were we in the forest, you ask? Well for my birthday we went to the beach, and the closest beach was part of a campground. So there were hikes. We decided to go, but the rest of our friends- Jess, Erica, and Rose- were back at our picnic site.

Gloria grabbed Fay's arm and pinned it to her side. "When Lea says don't salute, don't salute!"

Fay saluted with her other hand. "Yes sir ma'am sir general sir."

"Ugh."

I walked up behind Lea and played with her ponytail. She whipped around. "Don't you-"

But I was already running away.

I glanced behind me, still running. No one was chasing me. They didn't- Oof! I tripped over a branch laying across the middle of the trail.

Now they were running after me. To see if I was all right. I was. My knee was skinned and bleeding and it stung, but other than that I was completely fine.

I decided to play a trick on Fay and still being on the ground, I went limp and closed my eyes.

"No! Maddie!" she cried when she saw me. "Are you okay? Please tell me you're okay!"

Over Fay's wailing, Lea said in a bored voice, "Don't make me do CPR on you."

I knew it wouldn't work on Lea. She knows me very well. Fay does too, but she's... Fay.

Gloria was being strangely quiet. I wondered where she was but didn't open my eyes. Fay's wailing was too funny.

"Hey, where's Gloria?" asked Lea suddenly.

"Hey, have you seen our friend?" I heard Fay ask. "Hey! Let go!" she yelled, distressed.

My eyes shot open and I jumped up but was immediately shoved back down, landing on my scraped knee. Ow.

The person who shoved me held me down with their foot as I writhed and screamed, trying to get free. This was a complete stranger. Who knew what they wanted with me?!

The foot switched to a knee as he bent down and put his other knee on my upper arm, keeping my shoulder still.

I felt a jab in the spot where I normally get immunizations at school and knew a needle was being inserted. I screamed louder.

The last thought I remembered wasn't something heroic like 'I'll get you for this' or something that suggested undying kindness like 'I hope Lea, Fay, and Gloria are safe'.

It was more like something like, 'MOMMY!'

Hi! So here's my first attempt at original work here on Wattpad and I'm hoping you guys like it! Updates will probably be pretty slow, seeing as I'm not always in the mood to write. Thanks!

Nicole