The Amplified : Fire Blight (Book 1)

Chapter Twelve - The Birds are Always Watching

It felt like I was out for a few minutes but when I opened my eyes the sky was a misty twilight; the sun had almost disappeared under the horizon. I looked back at the girls and they were chatting about something, but they were on a different frequency. Adam looked defeated, he had dark circles forming around his eyes, the blue in them seemed to fade into a stormy sky blue, his eyelids seemed to slowly flutter closed like an unhappy clam. He noticed me staring at him with slight terror and became instantaneously aware of his surrounds, almost as if he took four cups of coffee. Out the window, a forest expanding for miles, the leaves glowed a mesmerizing marigold in the light of the setting sun. A shudder rocked the helicopter as it started to descend into the tree line below. Adam held the lever uneasily as the wind knocked against the cockpit, leaves seemed to spiral around us as we dropped to the forest floor. It landed with a groaning thump, it rocked from side to side before it came to complete stop. Without hesitation, we all hopped out and onto the soft, marshy forest floor. Everyone looked a bit disgruntled, our clothes were dusted and tatted, our faces were worn to a shadow and standing up seemed as tedious the journey ahead. 

"Okay guys," Adam said with almost no energy. "We have three things we need to do two things. One we need to do something about this helicopter. It definitely has a tracker in it, so we have to destroy the helicopter."

"That won't stop them from tracking. If anything, destroying it will send out a large alert to their servers I can try to reprogram it if I can get to the navigation system." Megan said.

"You can do that?" He said with shock. "Great. Do that." He said as she grabbed her laptop from her bag and entered the machine. "The other thing we have to do is find somewhere to stay for the night." 

"On the way in, I spotted some cabins north of us. Probably an hour's walk." Ellie said looking towards the tangled forest.

"Okay. After Megan's done getting Transgress off our ass, we'll head there and see if we can get a place to stay. In the morning we have to get back on the road, leading to the second thing stealing a car." Adam said casually.

"Steal a car," I said with an awkward crack in my voice.

"Yeah. How else are we supposed to get out of here? We can't use the helicopter, especially now that they know that you and your sister are out in the open. Unless Ellie is able to teleport us close to Indiana. We need a car." He said firmly.

"Teleporting is off the table. I need a bit more time recharge before our next jump." She said while staring into the distant trees. Adam lifted his hands in a way that said, 'guess we have no choice.'

"It's done," Megan said while hopping out of the helicopter. "If I did it correctly they'll think we're in North Dakota."

"Let's hope it worked. Grab your bags and let's move." He said as he slung his own bag over his shoulder. After we got the rest of our stuff out of the helicopter, Adam sent a bolt of lightning through the hull of the machine, shorting it out. A pillar of smoke to rise the engine. Our hike to the cabins was mostly silence, Adam and Ellie took the lead while Megan and Stephy took up the rear. The darkness seemed to grow rapidly around us, but it didn't seem to bother the others, I lifted my hand anyways and watched as a flame flickered to life. Trees danced in the light of the flame, the fire seemed to speak to the world around us. Something about the hiss of the flames was relaxing, I stared into the flame for so long that I nearly walked into a tree.

"How are you holding up." Ellie had dropped behind leaving Adam in the front. "I saw your face after Adam killed Ellen." 

"I just don't like killing or death. I'm not saying that I'm not grateful but there had to have been another way to deal with her that didn't end with her dead." I said as we pushed through the thicket.