Alive Again: Awakening (Book 1)

177

A week or two ago, I would have sworn that learning this and that about magnetism was a useless way to spend a class hour. But now I was praying that my mediocre score on our last test would be good enough to stop two boys from killing each other.

I'd noticed some metal scraps on the forrest floor as we'd headed this way. Rusting spare car parts and tractor trailer lay forgotten by what looked like the ghost of an old dirt path. Not a particularly unusual sighting while hiking, nor were those items particularly useful. Until, well, now.

"I know you don't know me that well, so I'm sorry to do this, but . . ." I charged at Sting and did my best to get his arms behind his back.

"Robyn, let go of me!" He was stronger than he looked. Not even my most enthusiastic PE efforts could hold him for long.

Delilah transformed, slithered up a tree, and leapt as best her snake-self could into Brandon. He stumbled forward as she restrained him. She was working to limit blood circulation to his hands, so he couldn't use his powers.

"Hurry!" I cried, as Sting threw me off.

Beetle and Maple returned together. Maple with a rusting rebar, and Beetle with a small bug army schlepping the rest of the debris.

"Now!" I signaled. Delilah released Brandon and launched herself at Sting, as Maple conjured two branchy arms, one to grab Brandon and the other to wrap the rebar around him like a coil. Before he could get so much as a glare out, the metal debris rose from its place and slunk to his body. In minutes, Brandon lay immobilized on the forrest floor in an angry electromagnetic heap and Sting had two sturdy wooden mugs cuffed around his hands.

Delilah shifted back and rubbed her neck. "If I'd known we were going to brawl each other, I would have brought some of Xion's sparring gear."

"I can't believe it actually worked," I muttered. "A current, the coil, a ferromagnetic—"

"Didn't you think it would?" She asked me.

"If you two are done congratulating yourselves, could you find it in your hearts to let us go?" Brandon's anger had simmered down to something that sounded like disappointment.

"He's right," Sting agreed, equally downcast.

"Depends," Delilah decreed. "Are the two of you going to try for another grand slam title or can we get on with the mission?" Both of them were silent. She exhaled. "I say we call a truce."

"Truce! Truce!" Beetle and Maple agreed enthusiastically.

Sting shot her a look. "Delilah!"

"Things aren't okay. They probably won't be for a while, and that's fine, but right now, we have a job to do. So let's just all agree to fight to the death after we get home. Deal?"

One way or another, everyone agreed and soon enough, we were back on the move. Honestly, I felt strange. Maybe it was the nightmares catching up with me or maybe I felt guilty for intervening in the smackdown. It seemed like the right thing to do, but several hours later, neither Sting nor Brandon had uttered a single word to each other or any of us.

Delilah, Beetle, and Maple filled the time by asking me questions about Atlanta and my parents. At some point, we stopped for lunch and finished the last of the mac and cheese and ate potato chips for desert. Before long, the sun arched again toward the horizon, the ache in my feet had become more of a protest, and I desperately wanted not to be the one who suggested we stop for the night. I'd interrupted Brandon's fight. I didn't want to interrupt his silent treatment too.

Just as I worked up the courage, the sound of a car zooming past waded into our ears. Everybody looked in the direction it'd come from.

Cars. We were near a highway.

We walked, quickening our steps toward the noise. And sure enough, there was a highway. A green sign in the distance read Welcome to Helen, Georgia! And just a little bit further was an off-ramp beside which a car dealership sat.

An idea struck me that both scared and excited me.

"Brandon, you want us to keep moving, right?"

"Do I have to keep repeating myself?"

"Let's steal a car."