Codes (Book 2)

Chapter 19: Claire

I stepped back, horrified, as Jade threw Lauren's body into one of our RV's with inhuman strength. The other Glitches screamed, running in all directions, completely and utterly confused. Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, Justin's eyes glazed over too. 

"No!" I screamed, ducking as my brother hurled Aural icicles at me and Kelly. I felt a chill run down my spine as two of the icicles pierced the tree behind me, making it instantly explode in a flash of blue. 

"What's happening?" Kelly asked. 

How to summarize this...

"We're being attacked by evil aliens who've dedicated their lives to wiping out the human race!" I yelled over the sound of the flying icicles that surged through the air. 

"What!?" Kelly raised an eyebrow. 

"No time to explain!" I put up a quick Aural shield around us, deflecting five deadly-looking Aural ninja stars just in time. 

"You have magical lightning powers!" Kelly gasped. 

"Again, no time to explain!" I gritted my teeth, running up to Amanda, who was busy shooting powerful Aural blasts at Jade. However, she nimbly dodged them all. 

"We have to get behind the trees! It's our best chance of not getting hit!" Amanda asserted. Nodding, I grabbed Kelly's hand and followed her into a small patch of greenery. From there, I had a full view of the entire scene, and was mortified by the sheer number of Glitches who had fallen. Some were barely breathing. Most weren't breathing at all. 

How could she do something this horrific? 

"I've done worse." 

I whipped around at the sound of a very familiar taunting, singsong voice and was shocked at what I saw. It was Queen Saralee's voice. Coming out of my brother. Although this was the worst possible time for humor...it was actually pretty funny. 

"What are you doing here?" Amanda hissed. 

"I saw so much footage of this Program, perhaps humanity's greatest creation," Justin laughed. "I was fascinated by it. I just had to see it in person!" 

"Then why didn't you just come?" I rolled my eyes. 

"You mean bring my real body?" Justin sighed. "My real body is on a very tight schedule! Speeches, Council meetings, executive dinners, my niece's birthday parties, you name it! When I leave the planet, I always do it through a Code. It's better that way." 

"So you would just use a random person's body without even asking?" 

"Well, yeah. After all, the weak are born to be tools of the strong." 

"You're messed up." 

"I know." 

"Die, you murderous psycho!" I threw a bolt of Aura at Justin as hard as I could, but he quickly sidestepped it. 

"Better not attack me!" Justin laughed. "You'll just be wounding your brother, remember this is his body! Another advantage of traveling through a Code: no one can hurt you!" 

"You're infuriating," I spat. 

"I get that a lot," Justin shrugged innocently. "I need to go, the show's only just begun!" He flashed that freakishly insane grin you see in every horror movie before joyfully skipping away. 

"We need to protect the Glitches," I said, raising shields around me and preparing to venture back into the open. 

"No!" Amanda yelled, grabbing my arm. "You're far more important."