Origin (Book 2)

Chapter 32

"Who's coming?" I asked, ready to fight anything.

Jake was still miles away, I thought. There must have been somebody else.

"You don't understand," Sage said. "They're sending Adam after us. He's almost here. We have to go!"

"How do you know?" I still needed her to answer my question.

"I can just sense him," she said, less urgently this time. "And Jake's not too far behind."

I sensed him as well, evidenced by the terrible feeling growing in my stomach.

"Well, we can't just jump off the bus," I said. Who was this Adam guy, anyway? Was he a superhuman, too, like us?

"We'll catch you later, Mom." Sage shook out her wet hair and wiped her face with her hands.

"I think you should stop and think about this for a second, Sage," Mom said. "There are other ways."

"He's only a few minutes out from us. There is no other way," Sage said.

While they argued about that, I communicated with the bus driver. Standing up in my seat, I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted for him to stop.

Moments later, the bus lurched to a halt, and the man opened the doors, not trying to hide the scowl evident on his face.

"Sorry." I handed him a generous twenty for his troubles.

"Sage and I will get off here," I said to Mom at the back of the bus, oddly confident. I'd never done anything remotely close to dealing with a superhuman before, and yet, it felt like I knew exactly what to do. Muscle memory, maybe?

After Sage and I were off, she immediately began running in the opposite direction. I trusted her to lead the way.

Using speed to travel felt natural, but if I thought about it too hard, it wouldn't make sense. Shouldn't I have gotten tired?

For the most part, we went straight- in the direction Jake and Adam were supposedly coming from. Sage veered right a minute after I had this thought.

We were drawing the two superhumans away from Mom and after us at the same time. I prized Sage for that.

I ran a little faster so I could be even with her. She slowed down so we could talk, but her glances behind us told me we couldn't be moving this slow for long.

"Where do you plan on going?" I asked her.

"Somewhere public. A major city, probably. They won't attack us if we're in a crowd," she said.

"Are you sure about that?" I asked.

She didn't answer my question. "We need to pick up the pace. Don't trail behind me again."

"Yeah," I said, my mind already somewhere else. What were we supposed to do if they did catch up to us?

"Sage," I called out.

"What?" She slowed down once again to reply.

"Do you see an energy trail behind you?"

"You stopped me to ask me that?" she said, irritated. "No, I can't. Now come on."

I remained quiet as I pondered this. If she couldn't see it, and I didn't think Jake did, then it was just me.