Melody and her brother, who I found had been standing right there, went with me to locate John and Randy. We told them of the plan to find a more defensible position, then with them in tow, we set out to look for one. I suggested that Melody and her brother stay, but they didn't seem to mind going. We started our quest at the top of the hill, cresting it slowly to ensure there wasn't an army of soldiers and Welders waiting on the other side. To my great relief, there wasn't.

We looked around and off to the right while facing the town. The hill continued to rise, and trees started to become denser. As I looked again toward the miniature city, I could see a small road that seemed to go in that direction. I pointed up the hill and to the trees.

"Let's check out that area," I said.

No one argued or said anything at all; we just moved in that direction. We entered the sparse thicket of trees, slowly making our way up the hill as we walked around large rocks and bushes. Like a high-pitched bark, a loud squeaking noise came from the trees.

"It's a squirrel! We need to run!" Melody said with panic in her voice.

I wondered why we would run from a squirrel, and I could tell John and Randy were too. Then, a squirrel's lithe but overly large body scurried down a tree about a dozen feet from us. The squirrel was three feet long, without its bushy tail. Its front teeth were longer than my fingers, and its eyes were blood red. It squeaked at us again and jumped forward a couple of feet.

"They're very territorial," Melody said. "If we slowly back away, maybe it won't attack."

We all started moving backward. I also started to move a little to the side to shield Melody and her brother, just in case it did attack. The squirrel was enormous, and my mind was shocked at what I saw.

I would still be routed to the spot if Melody hadn't been there. Why hadn't anyone told us about that? They mentioned things changed, but giant ferocious squirrels? What else was out there? I couldn't believe I just ran away from camp like I did.

We all started moving backward slowly, but Randy tripped on a rock. He managed to catch himself before he fell all the way to the ground. The sudden movement triggered the squirrel, and it began rushing toward him.

Randy hadn't even recovered yet to see the squirrel rushing forward. Even if he did see it, he wasn't near any vegetation other than a small bush, so he would be unable to protect himself. I activated my ability and rushed to intercept the squirrel. If I had actually thought about what I was doing, there would be no way I'd have done it, but I moved without thinking.

I tried to mimic the color of the squirrel the best I could. It was a blue and purple swirling miasma hurtling toward Randy. I reached the squirrel first and struck it with a fist. As I hit, I concentrated on disrupting the color pattern I saw in any way I could. The result was more destructive than I thought it would be.

Much more destructive.

My punch was like a cannon going off right against the squirrel. I hit the squirrel's left side, but its right side exploded in a spray of blood and viscera that blanketed the area in a cone that extended ten feet out. The squirrel's body flew with the force of my punch, and it was dead long before its body hit the ground.

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I was stunned and just stood there with my arm and fist still extended from my strike. Everyone must have also been in shock because no one else moved or said anything for a long moment. Finally, once I felt pain in my arm from holding it aloft, I dropped it to my side.

"What was that?" Randy asked, my movement breaking him from his shock.

"The giant squirrel or the punch?" I asked.

"Yes," he replied. "I mean, that squirrel sure was scary, and I think I should be scared of seeing more of them, but with you here and that punch." Randy ventured. "I'm not too worried."

I peeled my eyes off the results of my destruction to look over at Randy. He had a big grin and didn't seem to be shaken up. "Thanks," I said. "I think."

"His punch wasn't everything," Melody said.

"Yeah, man," John added. "It was almost like you teleported over there."

I looked at him questioningly and saw that he was serious, so I looked at Melody to confirm what he said. She nodded and said, "It was amazing. You didn't actually teleport, but if I had blinked, I would have thought you did. That squirrel was fast, but you…" she paused for a moment to gather her thoughts, then finally settled on, "that was crazy."

"Speaking of crazy, why the hell did a giant rabid squirrel attack us?" I asked. I didn't have any answers about my speed or punch; they were things I would have to try to replicate later.

"What else did you expect it to do?" Melody asked. "We were in its territory, so it's not like it was a surprise." I looked closely at her to see if she was joking, and I could see she wasn't.

"He means, why was there a giant rabid squirrel?" John clarified.

"What do you mean, why?"

Randy held his hands close together and said, "I thought squirrels were small creatures that just ate nuts and had a show about singing?"

"Those are chipmunks," John said.

"Oh, you better hope we don't run into a pack of chipmunks," Melody said with a shiver.

"We're getting off the subject," I said, then turned to Melody. "Squirrels are small, nut-gathering creatures. How is there a giant rabid one that exists?"

"They didn't tell you guys about this in that camp of yours?" she asked. We all shook our heads. "But, you guys know how you got your powers?" We all nodded. "Well, it was the same way."

"So we all got powers, the squirrels became giant, and something else happened to the chipmunks? It doesn't seem likely that whatever happened would only affect forest rodents and us. What else changed?" John looked to Melody for the answer.

"God!" Melody expelled. "They sure did keep you guys in the dark." Melody Flailed her arms in an arc. "Everything changed. All the plants, all the animals, sure some things look the same, but nothing really is."

John was about to say something else, but Melody cut him off. "Look, we could be out here for a week while I explain all the crazy shit going on in the world to you guys. But that's probably not the best idea since we just saw a giant squirrel. We don't know what else is out here, and you have a military regiment or whatever the hell they're called coming after you. Plus, if you guys don't know anything, then the others probably don't either, so we should probably all sit down later, and we can discuss it."

I nodded. Melody was right, and ultimately, it didn't matter right then. I reiterated that to the others, and we set off again up the hill, but we were much more cautious as we moved.

While we were walking, off-handed comments by people started to run through my mind, and everything started to make sense. Jace told me I didn't know what was really going on. I assumed he was only referring to the camp; I could have been wrong.

The sergeants and the colonel had repeated that it was a dangerous world, but we just assumed it was governmental and societal unrest. Old man Enzo was about to tell me something when I met him, but we got interrupted. He probably didn't think it was a big deal and assumed I knew.

All those thoughts flitted about in my head as we moved up the hill. After about ten minutes, the trees cleared out a little, and I could see the road that had led from the town to here. But, on closer inspection, it wasn't a road but a house's driveway.