CHAPTER 18 #2
Astrid takes a seat in the waiting room, and I turn to her.
“Do you want to come back with us?” I ask. “I feel bad leaving you alone.”
“No,” Luca interjects quickly. “She needs to stay here.”
My eyes dart to Luca as my eyebrow raises.
“It’s fine, Sparks,” Astrid assures me. “Go make sure you’re healthy and everything.”
Luca leads me back to the exam room. I sit on the bed as he takes my temperature, scribbling numbers down on a clipboard. He gestures for me to remove my jacket as he unwraps a blood pressure cuff. I shrug it off one of my shoulders and he takes his measurements.
“One last thing before you go, flu shot.” Luca draws a syringe of liquid before flicking the needle.
“Does this really have to happen right now?” I groan. “I have other things to do.”
“You can explain to Derek why you’re sick this flu season if you want.” Luca gives me a knowing look.
“Fine.”
Luca lightly grabs my shoulder, his hand trembling. I notice a bead of sweat dribbling down his forehead. This isn’t like Luca. Where was the steady, confident medic who stitched my shoulder after I got shot?
“Actually, I think I’m going to come back later.” I pull my shoulder away, but Luca tightens his grip.
“I already have the medication drawn, just relax your arm,” Luca mutters.
He looks in my eyes, and I know. Worse, he knows that I know. He jabs the needle into my shoulder as I pull away. The syringe falls to the floor before the full dosage can be administered. I stomp on the plastic casing, spilling the liquid on the floor.
“Damn it,” he curses. “Now you’ll need a second dose. Can’t have either of you waking up early.”
Either? Astrid. I need to warn her. I crawl on the floor, my legs already going numb. Luca walks around me, heading toward the door. I reach out with my powers, feebly launching a bolt toward him. It’s not very strong, but it hits.
“Ow!” Luca cries out. “Motherfucker!”
There's rustling on the other side of the door. Luca panics, drawing a gun and running back to me. No, Astrid! Go away!
“Run!” I yell, hoping she hears my warning. “It’s a trap!”
The door flings open, and Astrid stands confidently in the entryway. She pulls water from the sink along the wall, creating a sphere floating in the air. The syringe, the traitor, the gun flush with my temple. She takes a moment for it all to sink in.
“Drop the gun,” she commands.
“I think not.” Luca flicks off the safety. “Release the water. Now.”
Astrid glances at me. I shake my head. Don’t. Please. Save yourself. Luca pulls my hair, and I whimper from the pain. Her eyes soften and the spheres turn to puddles on the floor.
“Kneel to the ground,” Luca orders. He releases my hair to slide a syringe to Astrid, keeping the gun trained on me. “Inject yourself.”
One leg at a time, Astrid lowers herself to her knees, eyes never leaving Luca. She plucks the syringe from the floor.
“No!” The lights flicker as my strength is slowly sapped away, but I can’t do anything to stop her. She flinches as she jabs the needle into her thigh, pressing the plunger all the way down.
“I love you,” Astrid mouths to me as the drug rapidly takes effect. She collapses on the cold linoleum, her blonde hair splayed around her.
“See.” Luca gestures at Astrid’s unmoving form. “Isn’t it so much nicer to get the full dose? Partial doses just drag out the inevitable, especially since this is the second time we’ve had to go down this road. But hey, now I get a bonus for securing both girls.”
“How could you?”
It’s a struggle to keep my eyes open. A team of men step off the service elevator. One hoists Astrid limply over his shoulder. I reach for her desperately, knowing there is nothing I can do.
“Shh,” Luca soothes. “You’re going right behind her.”
A second needle pricks my skin, and her blonde hair is the last thing I see before the world goes black.
My body is jostled as we drive into a particularly large pothole.
Soft hands hold me tightly, stroking my hair and humming a lullaby.
I groan as I struggle to open my eyes, remnants of the drug still in my system.
Astrid pulls me tighter as I stir, glancing nervously through the clear divider blocking us from the rest of the car.
Thunder rumbles outside of the SUV, the dark clouds making it hard to get my bearings.
What time is it? Where are we going? I don’t know the answer to either.
The SUV looks fairly standard, the only difference being the thick piece of glass separating us from the front of the car.
Astrid and I seem to be in the trunk. A second black SUV follows behind us.
The car finds another pothole, and she protectively squeezes me to her chest, absorbing the blow for us.
I hear a metal tinkling caused by the handcuffs around her wrists.
I have a matching pair. Fortunately, these are the standard variety, so they shouldn’t be too hard to pick with my tools.
I reach for my belt before remembering I’m not wearing my bodysuit. Fuck.
“What did you do?” I tuck a flyaway strand of hair behind her ear. “You were supposed to run.”
“I’m not leaving you,” she says, stubbornly. She adjusts her legs, pulling me further onto her lap. “We’re a team.”
“How long have we been driving?” I nervously look outside. The standard hilly plains have been replaced with mountains. I don’t think we’re in Massachusetts anymore.
“I woke up about half an hour ago.” She glances out the window as well. “But I don’t know how long I was out. Assuming this is the same drug as you had the last time, that would be a smidge over an hour.”
“I didn’t get the full dose last time,” I correct, remembering how the syringe fell from my arm. “It could have been hours.”
“I don’t want to know where they’re taking us,” Astrid mutters. “We need to escape.”
“Is that SUV following us with them?” I ask.
“I think so.” She nods. “They’ve been with us for the past half hour, so it’s a fair assumption.”
“If we can pull over, I could take at least two guys at once,” I grimace, not seeing any obvious sources of electricity, like streetlamps. “More if I can get these cuffs off.”
“I can take care of the cuffs once we get outside.” She strains her wrists. “I just need some water.”
“Good news.” The thunder crashes as we drive deeper into the storm. The rain pelts the windows outside. “We have plenty of that.”
The rain obscures the horizon, blurring the text on street signs. I wish I could just clear it away so I could see where we were. The SUV behind us has their windshield wipers swishing rapidly.
“Astrid, remember that time last year you caused a blizzard?” An idea forms in my head. A very bad idea. A very stupid, no-good idea.
“I don’t like where this is going…” she responds hesitantly, “but yes.”
“Can you do that with rain?” The fragmented pieces of the plan click together in my brain. “Force the car to crash?”
“The car that we are currently in?” Astrid thinks I’m crazy. She might be right. “We’re not even wearing seatbelts!”
“How else could we get them to pull over? Unless of course, you’re okay with jumping out of a moving vehicle, likely into the SUV following behind us.”
“I don’t like this.” Astrid’s eyebrows scrunch together. “We could get hurt.”
“Think of it this way.” I stare out as the terrain passes beneath us. “We could get roughed up now, or we will be killed later. I’d rather take my chances here.”
Astrid sighs but doesn’t disagree.
“Listen.” I hold her hands in mine. “You force the car to crash. Cover the windshield, make it hydroplane, whatever. We’ll bust out this window and then run as fast as we can.”
“I won’t leave you,” Astrid argues.
“I’ll be right behind you,” I promise. “But don’t stop running. No matter what.”
“Why do I feel like you’re saying goodbye?” I don’t have a response. Astrid pulls me in, and her lips graze my cheek. “No matter what happens next, I’m so grateful to have met you. I wouldn’t trade a single second.”
“We’re going to be fine,” I say, trying to convince myself as much as her. “Both of us.”
With that, Astrid rises to a kneeling position to get a better vantage point.
It’s subtle at first, but the rain falls faster and faster.
Quickly, the windshield is completely saturated.
The men inside the car freak out, pulling on seatbelts and grabbing the door handles.
Astrid’s face scrunches as she concentrates, and the car swerves.
The driver yanks on the wheel, but he loses control of the car.
A flash of lightning streaks across the sky, lighting up the outline of a large tree.
“Brace yourself!” Astrid shrieks. I cover my head as we ram directly into it.
Immediately, I kick out the trunk’s window.
A trickle of blood drips from Astrid’s eyebrow, but I can’t care about that right now.
Instead, I shove her through the opening.
She helps me out, and we take off. The second car follows us, not concerned with their injured comrades.
I drag Astrid off the road into the tree line.
We duck behind a ditch, and I extend my hands.
“Take off the cuffs, Astrid,” I order frantically. “Quickly!”
Water seeps into the locking mechanism. Just when I think she’s overstated her handcuff-removing abilities, the water freezes and shatters the lock. The cuffs fall off in a fluid motion.
“Thanks.” I rub my wrists. “Do yours. I’ll buy us some time.”
“Wait!” She calls, but I’m already creeping back toward the road.
The second car has slowed, scouring the darkness for us. They roll down their window, and I hear voices shout. They’ve spotted us. I reach out with my powers, feeling the polarization of the air. Any second now. I just need to be patient. The SUV pulls over.
“C’mon, anytime now,” I mutter.
Astrid crouches beside me, pulling on my arm.
“We need to go!” She whispers.
“Hold on.” I yank my arm free. “They’d just follow us. I’m going to stop them. Stand back a few feet, I have a plan.”
She obliges, trusting me. Focus, any second now. The men scramble out of the SUV. Wait for it. Static shifts in the air. Now!
“Astrid, get down!” I shout as I reach for the sky.
The static energy crackles as it converts into electricity.
I grit my teeth as I grab the strongest current I have ever redirected, hurling it at the SUV.
Lightning bursts from the sky, igniting the gas tank into a fireball.
The shockwave knocks the breath from my lungs, and I am thrown through the air.