Static

CHAPTER FIVE

*Imogen pictured above*

We reached Colorado, Denver to be exact, by late the next day. The drive had gone well, we only stopped twice, once for Taylor to use the bathroom and fill up our gas tank and another for Blake to buy a couple snacks as he had complained most of the way about his constant hunger.
We had traveled in silence most of the way, Taylor and I were to focused on taking in the scenery. We hadn't seen anything except the zone for the last three years, we were interested to see how the world had got along in our absence. It was kind of strange though, considering the fact that not much had changed from what we could see. The world hadn't gone into chaos knowing that super powered beings were living among them. Maybe it was because Order and the government had fought to keep them a secret for just that reason.
"We'll stay here for the next few days then we'll figure out where to go when the time comes to leave." Blake had said as he pulled up into a tiny rundown motel that looked like it was built sometime in the 70's back when wallpaper and neon signs were the new thing.
"Wait here, I'll go check it out." Alice said, unbuckling her seat belt and slamming her door shut before Blake could try to object. I watched from the front seat as Alice walked up to the front of the building, tugging the hood of her jacket over her head and sweeping her blonde curls to the side of her neck.
"What does she think she's doing?" Blake had mumbled, watching her intently. He wasn't at all relaxed, his blue eyes darting between Alice and the side view mirror constantly.
Alice knocked twice on the front door, turning and flashing us a thumbs up as she did so.
I heard Blake snicker beside me but it was a halfhearted laugh. He was still on edge about letting Alice check out the place alone. I didn't understand why. With her curse, Alice would be perfectly safe, in fact, she probably could've seen if anyone was in the motel all the way from the car. Even further than that, she could see it from the other side of the world if she wanted too.
No one answered the door when Alice knocked and somehow I knew that she was already aware that no one was inside.
"I guess we get to stay for free then." Blake said as he climbed out of the car. I took a deep breath before joining him and Taylor at the door to the motel.
It was freezing out here. There was no other way to describe it. January is bad enough in the zone but this, this was nearly unbearable. Snow had even begun fall, adding glistening white specks to Blake's jet black hair and settling on Taylor's coffee brown skin.
"How do we get in?" I asked, after Blake had tried the door with no luck.
"That's where you come in, missy." Alice said, slapping a hand on my shoulder. At first I had no idea what she meant. How could I open the door if no one else could? Then I realized from the look she gave me that she didn't want me to open the door, she wanted my curse to. I could almost feel my eyes widen in horror at the very thought. I turned to look at Blake and Taylor for support but Blake didn't so much as blink when I looked to him and Taylor was off in Lala land trying to catch snow flakes on her tongue.
"Come on, Roach!" Alice begged, gesturing to the electronic keypad that held the door closed.
"All you have to do is give it a little jolt and we're good to go!" I shook her hand off my shoulder. I was not some lost little kid and I hated that she was treating me like that.
Suck it up, I told myself, your going to have to use it eventually and besides, you don't want to freeze to death out here.
I summoned my curse. I brought it up all the way from my gut and let a small purple bolt jet from my finger, just enough to overload and fry the keypad. I had kept my eyes closed the whole time, worried I might accidentally let loose a little to much and barbecue everyone around me. But, thankfully, I was just being paranoid. That or I was being totally rational and we just got really lucky.
The key pad was now a charred black and smoking little box hanging by a little scrap of metal from the paint chipped wooden door.
Alice tested the handle again and it opened with ease. Blake gave me a pat on the back as he followed Alice into the small motel room.
"Taylor!" I shouted at my friend who had been occupied by the little frozen crystals that now decorated her hair in a thin veil. She hurried into the room after me and I shut the door behind her.
The room was actually more well kept than I would've thought. It had a couch and a kitchen, not that we knew the appliances still worked or if the couch had become home to a couple of rats, but at least we had them. The walls were decorated with an ugly orange wallpaper that chipped and faded in the most bizarre places. It had a bed tucked away in one corner with someone's long forgotten purse lying next to the wadded up sheets. And well, that was about it. It was good enough for me and Taylor seemed ecstatic about the whole thing.
Blake and Alice soon discovered that the couch could be pulled out into a bed.
"Ok, Taylor and Roach you can take the couch, Alice you got the bed and I'll find some sheets in the closet to make room for me on the floor." Blake had already taken charge, ordering us around to clean up this mess on the counter, or see if you can find anything useful in those cabinets.
I watched from the couch, following Alice, Taylor, and Blake around with my eyes, still not sure where I could jump in and help. Blake must've noticed my confused state as he walked over to the couch where I sat.
He was about to say something, maybe offer me a job to do so I wasn't just wasting my time sitting here. But when he opened his mouth to speak, there was a knock at the door. So he stood there, his mouth hung open, caught pre-sentence while the visitor knocked again.
I felt my heart skip a beat and threaten to stop all together at the noise. Had they found us already? Was this all for nothing? I just got out of the zone, I just became free, and I never even got to see Charlotte again.
Blake didn't stay frozen for long, he quickly yanked my wrist so I was standing and dragged me into the closet. He left only for a moment and returned with Taylor. Alice was not in his company.
"I'm sure it's nothing, they'll probably go away once they realize no one's home." Blake reassured me and Taylor. He left us then, without word of why but I assumed he was going to look for Alice.
I Turned to look at Taylor in the dark, cramped space of the musty closet. She was breathing on my neck rapidly, trying to stifle it as best she could by the way it sometimes hitched in her throat.
I wasn't doing much better myself. Where was Alice? Why would Blake-
I was cut off in my train of thought by a blast. At first, I had no idea what had caused it, no idea where it had come from since I couldn't see anything beyond the closet door. But it soon became clear that the blast was a gunshot. There was no mistaking the way the sound rang out in the air long after the bullet was fired.
There were footsteps inside now, voices too. None of them belonged to Blake or Alice. I could move my arms, could barely even twist my neck, and Taylor was starting to have a mini freak out moment. I tried to comfort her by wiggling my hand up so it could squeeze hers but there just wasn't enough room.
Heavy boots stalked around the motel room outside, voices shouted inaudible commands at high volumes. Then, just when my breath was starting to return to me, a hand banged on the closet door. At first, in my already shocked and terrified state, I assumed it was another gunshot and I about braced myself for the bullet. Lucky for me, this was not the case, only, by the time the man who'd knocked yanked open the door and Taylor and I came spilling out of it, I wished it was a gunshot and that I would be dead instead of having to deal with this.
"Freeze!" The man shouted, I couldn't see him, my brain refused to focus on anything other the gleaming barrel of the silver pistol he aimed at my skull.
My heart thundered in my chest and my vision blurred in and out. I obeyed the man as he snarled at me to get on the ground and then when I was too slow for his liking, he kicked the back of my knees so I was forced to collapse on the floor.
I breathed in and out, trying to concentrate on keeping myself steady and more importantly, Conscience. I gained some of my senses back as I rested on my knees, hands on my head.
There were two men and one women, both over 30 at least. The one with his gun in my face was dressed in black from head to toe, as were the other two. The women was standing to my left, her hand tangled in Taylor's black hair as she pushed her down beside me.
The other man stood in front of us, his face was smeared with blood and his black shirt was shiny and slick with it. He clutched his right shoulder with his left hand, it too was drenched in the same crimson liquid that seemed to be pulsing from where he held his shoulder.
He was holding Blake's shirt collar with his right fist. Blake could easily twist free, the man was loosing a gallon of blood every minuet, he was weaker than an infant by now.
That's when I realized Blake was crying. It was not a slow stream of tears without any sound, it was a heavy, violent collection of shuddering sobs that shook his whole body.
"Get those two in the truck!" The bleeding man howled, Blake still in his grasp.
The man with the gun and the women exchanged an uneasy look.
"What about you and the boy?" The woman asked, yanking Taylor's hair again to keep her head upright.
"I'll follow you out, make sure Alice has everything she needs." The man growled. After a moments hesitation, the other two nodded in his direction as if in goodbye and exited the motel.
The man still remained, his fingers twisted in Blake's shirt and you could tell right then that there was no way he could follow them out. He couldn't even keep himself upright anymore. Slowly, he retracted his hand away from Blake and fell to his knees with a thud.
I'd never seen anyone die before. I mean, I killed Dr. Kumke back at the zone and the monitors that had chased after Taylor and I when we escaped. But that was different. When they died, it wasn't in a pool of their own blood, it wasn't a painful, slow death. It was quick and efficient, just like that they'd been gone before they had even known what hit them.
The man fell forward, his arms to limp to catch himself as he landed face first on the floor, his nose crunching under the weight.
Blake slumped back against the wall. His cries still rocking his body while he pressed his hands, soaked with the other mans blood, to his face in a vain attempt to smother the noises he made.
It took me a full second, maybe less, to collect myself and stagger up to my feet. Really, it wasn't myself pushing me to stand, it was the man with the gun. He had pressed it to the back of my skull and threatened to pull the trigger if I didn't stand.
The woman, who had pulled a gun from her pants, was now forcing Taylor to get up.
I don't think anything these people could do would hurt me more than the look of terror and loss that was evident on Taylor's poor, lovely face.
They pushed us to the door, completely ignoring Blake as he collapsed onto the floor, his back against the wall. He wasn't hurt, not on the outside at least, but on the inside, he was broken. Not in the way the people at the zone had been broke, no, this was something different. It wasn't out of fear that made him shatter, it was something else, something so heartbreaking that he just couldn't hold back his tears. That kind of torture couldn't be inflicted by machines and whips. That kind of horror only came from the real world and the tests it gives you, some just happen to be more harsh than others. Blake must have failed, judging by his state.
We reached the porch that extended outside of the motel. I didn't understand what was happening and I was too terrified to fight back, to petrified to protect myself or Taylor or Blake. All I know is that what I saw in the parking lot stabbed my fragile little heart like a rusted dagger that took an extra push before it actually got through.
The bearer of that dagger was Alice.
She stood in the parking lot of the motel, empty except for the car we drove in with and the silver truck that must've belonged to the woman and the two men. She stood next to the truck now, her hair billowing in the wind behind her like a cape of gold and hugging herself almost in a lost little puppy sort of way. But that's not what her face said.
Her face said hate. It was hardened and nearly blank. It reminded me instantly of the monitors back at the zone. She had no sympathy, no empathy or confusion. She was unreadable. The lighthearted joyous energy that I had associated her with was gone, replaced by something foul and ugly.
"Move!" The man snarled at me, shoving me closer to the truck. Alice was watching us all the way, her passionless eyes following my every step. The woman opened the back seat door and kicked Taylor in her back until she winced and climbed in reluctantly. I followed her before the man could prod me along.
We shuffled in, and the man reached in to bind our hands with zip ties.
What are you doing, Imogen? I thought to myself. You know who you are, you know what you can do. Do something.
So I did. It was a hasty decision one that I wasn't sure was the right one but it was the only thing I was willing to try.
I summoned my curse as discreetly as possible, I didn't close my eyes or clench my fists. I kept myself calm, I was ready for it and I embraced it when it came.
The electricity that buried itself in the mans chest caught him off guard and hurled him backward into the woman who's flailing arms caught Alice and drag greed her down. Together they skidded to a stop on the pavement, the man holding the woman down with the weight of his spazzing body and Alice trapped on the bottom.
I was ready to go, determined to grab Blake and Taylor and get moving somewhere far away from here.
I shimmied out of the back seat, dragging Taylor by her arm and bolted with her back into the motel.
"Get Blake!" I shouted at Taylor, she was still dazed but nodded and ran over to where he sat, crying still, against the wall.
I stood back in the doorway, almost like I was guarding them as I waited for the woman or Alice to get away from their dying comrade and come for us.
They both wiggled out from underneath his now still body and spared only a moment to look at him before they turned back to face me.
I was standing with my fists curled at my sides, my jaw clenched and my anger rising by the second. I felt so much power, so much static, coursing through my veins, begging me to let it out and do its job.
"Come on, Roach, it's over." Alice hissed, wiping her newly busted lip with the back of her hand, smearing blood on her face and hand. She held up her hands, as if in surrender and the woman followed suit. They advanced ever so slowly to where I stood, as if approaching a wild animal that could lash out at any moment, which in all honesty, was not far from the truth.
I too raised my hands but it was not in surrender. It was a readying stance. I was preparing myself for the final attack.
Alice opened her mouth again to protest or possibly try and persuade me to submit to her but I cut her off, not wanting to hear anymore.
"Frankly Alice, I've had enough of your bull crap."
I can't remember to clearly about what happened next, I do remember a storm. Well, not really a storm, it was just a swarm of lightning bolts that came from my hands and found their way to Alice and the woman, knocking them down and producing the same result that my power had had on Dr. Kumke, the monitors, and the other man in their group.
Then, I had ran back into the motel and sunk down next to Taylor where she was trying desperately to comfort Blake. He had stopped crying but his eyes were still puffed and swollen and well, it takes a while to get over a total mental breakdown.
"Hey now." I said, awkwardly reaching over to squeeze his shaking shoulder.
"It's ok. They're all taken care of." I tried to us the most motherly voice I could muster but comforting people had never been my strong suit, it'd always' been Charlotte's role.
"Start the car." I told Taylor, I needed some time to set things straight with Blake and possibly get some answers out of him about who are little visitors were and especially why Alice was acquainted with them.
Oh god, Alice...
"But I don't know how." Taylor protested.
"Try." I interrupted. She lingered a moment longer, debating whether or not to object before finally sulking out the door.
I put my hand on Blake's shoulder, his sleeve soaked in blood that wasn't his. He turned his bowed head to where my hand rested then looked up at me.
I flinched under his gaze, those beautiful blue eyes finding a way even in the most dire of circumstances, to demand my attention.
"Why would she- it doesn't make any sense. I thought she cared about all of us, I thought she wasn't like them." He whimpered, looking to me in a way that seemed like he was begging for forgiveness and at the same time waiting for me to deny what Alice had done. Which, I still wasn't very clear on myself.
Not to mention I had killed her. There was no way we could ask her ourselves, no way to figure it out from the culprit herself.
"Blake, you need to calm down, we have to get out of here. We'll sort things out with Alice later-"
"No." Blake said with startling defiance.
"Not with Alice, about Alice. You killed her, I know. If you hadn't she'd be dragging us out to her car with her government buddies. About Alice, Roach, about."
He dropped his head again and rubbed a hand over his face with a sigh that was meant to gather and collect himself, I'm sure. He slowly got to his feet, as did I, and lead the way outside the motel, stopping only twice. Once to grab his backpack that he had said earlier was full of first aid supplies and snack foods, and another time in the parking lot to yank the gun out of the dead mans hand. He paused a third time too, but I didn't count it as a full-on stop. He briefly slowed on his way to the car to glance at Alice's crumpled body. His face was shielded from my angle so I couldn't read any emotion on his face.
I looked over at Alice too, her limbs sprawled out in almost a graceful manner, like those olde time pictures from story books of Snow White as she lay in her coffin of glass. Her golden hair was spread out like a halo around her flawless face. Her eyes were shut and that I was thankful for, I thought had her eyes been open, I might mistake her for an angle. She looked almost as beautiful, had her image not been tainted by what she had done, or what I was assuming she had done.
The answer to the riddle of Alice that I had concocted in my mind was this, she had sold us out to the government. That must be who the other three people worked for since Blake had referred to them as Alice's "government buddies". Maybe she really was loyal to Order at one point and they some how got ahold of her and bribed information out of her either with threats or money, I'm not sure. Then after that she led them right to us and the rest of Order.
Alice was the mole and we fell right into her trap.
I opened the back seat for Blake and he paused again, his fourth, not-quite-a-stop stop, one foot inside the car, the other still resting on the pavement.
He looked at me, the blood that had been smeared on his cheeks and forehead was now drying and turning a rusted color.
"I'm so, so sorry." He muttered, never once breaking eye contact.
"It's ok, I believe you that you didn't know about Alice but I believed you when you said Order was safe and now look where that got us. I think we just need to take a moment and get somewhere out of the way before we settle this." He listened to my little speech, nodding along with each word. When I finished her pursed his lips and dragged a hand through his nest of black hair. Without another word he climbed into the car and shut the door behind him before I could.
I got into the passengers side next to a very frustrated looking Taylor.
"I think it's broken." She said after one final twist of the key in the ignition.
I reached over her to give it a go and the engine sputtered to life after one try.
"Ha ha ha." Taylor said without any trace of humor.
"If you thought I was gonna drive this stupid hunk of metal when I can't even turn it on the your insane." She added. I sighed and unbuckled my seatbelt, circled around the car and got into the drivers seat.
I didn't know how to drive a car, I had never touched a steering wheel in my life, no joke. But still, how hard could it be?

Apparently, very, very, hard.

I shifted the car into reverse, that much I knew how to do and in the process of backing out, I may or may not have run over the man who I'd taken out first.
"Shouldn't we do something about them?" Taylor had asked, indicating to the bodies in the parking lot.
"What can we do? I think it's best we just get out of here." I managed to get the car onto the road and we drove off at a snails pace in a zig zag pattern along the barren road making progress slowly but still, with each passing second, the traitor by the name of Alice got further and further away yet her name still haunted Blake, I could see it in his body language.
It only then occurred to me where we should go, where we could seek refuge. I knew only one place in the world where I wouldn't be hunted, where the word safe wasn't hallow but actually meant something.
I wouldn't tell Taylor or Blake until we got there, I would let them think we were just driving for the sake of it, just to get further away from our real life monsters.
I glanced in the rearview mirror only once, as I was too terrified to take my eyes off the road for longer than a second. When I did look though, I could see Blake, his eyelids closed, head drooping and bobbing along with the rhythm of the Colorado streets.
He was sleeping and so was Taylor when I dared to tear my eyes away again and look at her.
Charlotte would love them. She was always such a good listener and a lover of stories and these two had plenty to share. I could almost see it, the four of us together, cooped up inside my old house on a rainy day sharing tales of our past and laughing together like friends and families do.
Blake would probably be talking the most, enlightening us all about his pre-Order days. Charlotte would be deeply engaged, almost like she was living every moment instead of hearing about it in a story. Taylor and I would reminisce about the zone, dissing every monitor and talking about them like the scum bags they are.
My parents would be there too. In the kitchen trying to cook something up for their guests and ultimately failing but we'd all still eat it anyway. I mean, Blake would probably make silent gagging noises every time my mom or dad turned their back and we would all snicker discretely, mocking their ignorance.
That's why I wanted to take them to my home. I knew it would be safe and I knew they would love it. Colby is a quite town, small and away from it all. We would never again have to be stabbed in the back by people like Alice. Wouldn't have to serve any secret agencies like Order or be prisoners in a zone ever again.

If only, oh if only, it had actually turned out that way.

HEY GUYS!!!!!! I JUST WANTED TO APOLOGIZE FO NOT UPDATING IN A WHILE, IVE BEEN BUSY WORKING ON MY OTHER STORY, TO ALL MY FAKE AND PHONY FRIENDS. IF YOU HAVEN'T CHECKED THAT ONE OUT I REALLY HOPE YOU WILL NOW THAT YOU KNOW IT EXISTS! I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER AND HAVE A GREAT THANKSGIVING!!!!