My mind raced with everything that had just happened. My brother was taken into custody. He was apparently special too, and so was Alex. He had shown incredibly quick control of the ability, and it probably saved our lives. The swat team and apparently the CDC were in on the ruse, but they had finally had to come up with a more elaborate lie than just single person incidents and shady arrests. Maybe the truth would come to light soon.
I sighed as the reality of our situation hit me. We couldn’t go back. Gone was the ideal of returning to our normal lives and hiding just my secret. Just like that the two people I cared about most in the world were in as much danger as I was now in. Worse yet, I failed to save Jake. I made a mental promise to find and free him as soon I was able, regardless of the risk. I wouldn’t let him be locked up like that while the government continued to lie. I knew Jake, he was no more of a danger than I was, and he hadn’t even shown any sign of an ability. Locking someone away based on a blood test was absurd. My mind was reeling from it all, and I had no idea where to go from here.
I turned to look at Alex, and a scowl was fixed to his face as he focused on the drive back to the cabin. He seemed just as perplexed and frustrated at our current situation as I was. It occurred to me that he was probably going through the same wave of emotions that hit me when the wings first appeared. He was a target now too, and though his abilities didn’t seem too dangerous, they still changed the trajectory of his future. I thought about broaching the subject with him, but decided it was best to let him focus on the drive for now. We weren’t out of danger just yet.
The rest of the drive remained quiet. I spent my time trying to figure out our next steps. First we had to figure out exactly how Alex’s ability worked, just like we had with mine. Then we would have to find somewhere safer to stay, somewhere that wasn’t connected to either of us. In the event that they figured out it was us that fled the graduation ceremony, it would only be a short time before they checked the cabin if they really wanted to find us. We also needed to keep an eye on the news for as long as possible in case something more was revealed to the public. Next would be trying to uncover exactly what was happening to us, and then figuring out where all of the people with abilities were taken. I had to find Jake, no matter what.
I let myself start to wonder just how widespread this was. Was it happening everywhere or just here? How many of the incidents on the news were actually strange powers, and how many people had they taken in purely based on the blood results. Was there a whole prison somewhere filled with innocent people like me? Or people like Jake, who hadn’t even exhibited any power. Was it worse than locking them up for observation? Were they being experimented on or killed? I shook my head to dismiss the train of thought. I couldn’t let myself worry about the what-ifs right now.
I snapped my eyes back to the road as I felt the car slow onto the now familiar dirt road. We were finally back to the cabin. Thankfully we were cautious enough to foresee something like this happening, so we were already well stocked on everything we’d need to survive for a while. I looked back in the direction of the city we left behind. The skyline of Dallas that I was so familiar with was too far away to be seen. I didn’t know when I’d be able to rest my eyes on the skyscrapers again, and I felt a twinge of pain leaving it behind. It was all I’d ever known. Now we were being thrown into a life of dangers and unknowns, and we only had each other to rely on. I grabbed my suitcase from the trunk and headed inside, we had no choice but to continue down this path for now.
I landed on the couch and let my wings out. I didn’t feel much like hiding them for the time being. I sat there in the torn white dress, wings at my sides. It was an all too familiar scene. The adrenaline from our daring escape had worn off. I felt tired, distraught, and cornered. Alex knelt down in front of me, resting on the coffee table. He put his hand on my chin and pushed it up gently so I’d look at him. I offered him a weak smile, it was all I could manage at the moment. He returned the smile and took it as confirmation that I was okay. He got up and moved to the chair across from me, propping his feet up on the table and looking at me.
“Hey Angel?” he started calmly. I met his eyes and nodded for him to continue. “Thank you. What you did was incredible. I know it wasn’t easy, but thank you for saving me.”
I smiled and told him what he told me, “You don’t have to thank me, I’d never let that happen to you.”
With that said it was his turn to feel the weight of the burden thrust upon us. He softly started to cry. Just a few tears came out, and it was silent, but it was enough. I’d only seen him cry once before, so I knew this had affected him as badly as it did me. I swiftly tucked the wings in and rushed to his side. I sat on the armrest and leaned in to engulf him in a hug. We sat like that silently until his tears dried and then I got up to make food. I returned to the living room a short while later, and handed him a plate. I sat back across from him and we ate in silence. The tv droned on, revealing nothing about our circumstances, or the two teens who escaped the lockdown earlier that day.
Alex took a deep breath, finally letting go of the tension he’d been holding onto. “Sorry,” he said with a half smile, “I don’t know what came over me.”
“It’s okay, we’ve been through a lot. Do you want to talk about what happened to you today?” I asked softly.
He paused, trying to gather his thoughts, then nodded. “The itching, before your wings grew, was that your only sign that something was wrong? And did it go away once you had control of them?” I nodded to each question. The abilities were similar in that aspect. He described to me the sweating he experienced shortly before his abilities manifested. It was like a sense of dread, or warning. And then once he realized that he was responsible for producing the fog, his body just knew how to turn it back off automatically, and the sweating was gone.
“The control you showed just minutes after it manifested was incredible,” I praised, admiring the show he’d put on at the fire exit. I thought back to when the wings first appeared. I had no idea how to control them the first day. I’d hurt him twice in the process of learning. He was so much calmer than I was, and I was sure he was the only reason we’d made it this far.
“I’m actually glad, now that I’m over the shock of it all,” he stated plainly. I raised my eyebrow at him, not understanding what there was to be happy about. “Well,” he cleared his throat and locked eyes with me, “even if nothing had happened to me I was in this with you. This way I can actually help you.”
I felt the words claw at my heart. “You’ve been helping, even without the abilities. But ya, I guess we do make a pretty good team,” I said and gave him a shy smile. I wanted him to be happy again, to crack jokes and laugh with me. Nothing hurt as much as seeing him cry.
“We make an amazing team,” Alex winked, a smile now firmly planted on his face. “Let’s call it an early night tonight. Tomorrow I’ll start training my abilities.”
“Do you think it’s safe to stay here? Considering..” I blurted out without thinking. I meant to keep the worry to myself a bit longer so he could relax, but the impending danger was all I could think about.
Alex was already halfway to the bathroom and he paused to turn and look at me. He leaned against the wall and took a moment to weigh his options. “Honestly? I think they have bigger threats than a couple of love birds sneaking off,” he said with a wink. “I’d wager it’ll take them a few days to think about tracking down more of us, and at that point surely we’ll at least see something on the news about increased police activity. Don’t worry, I'll start thinking of somewhere now.” I nodded in acceptance and Alex turned back towards the bathroom to shower.
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We stuck to the plan and went to sleep after we’d both showered and changed from our formal clothes. The last time we were here we were forced to sleep in them, so at least that had changed. We were more prepared than before, but I still felt the pressure of whoever was in charge of the multi-agency secret closing in. Someone had to be giving out orders to keep this all under lock and key. Plus they’d clearly performed some amount of experiments on those already captured in order to come up with the blood testing that had made its way around graduation, capturing many. I fell asleep while racking my brain trying to crack the mystery.
When I woke up I took a minute to orient myself in the bedroom. For a blissful moment I’d forgotten how twisted our reality had become, and I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t in my own room. I blinked my eyes a few times as the harsh reality came back to me, and let out a deep sigh. I changed into some fresh clothes from the suitcase and wandered into the living room. I didn’t immediately see Alex so I poked my head into the kitchen, but he wasn’t there either.
“Alex?” I questioned while knocking on his bedroom door. It was unusual for him to sleep in as late as I did. I didn’t receive a reply so I cracked the door enough to peek inside. He wasn’t there either and I frowned, trying to dismiss the feeling of worry building up inside me. I headed outside, and heard a grunt in the distance, it was definitely Alex. The fearful feeling only grew stronger as I circled to the back of the cabin towards the noise.
“There you are sleepy head,” Alex chirped, noticing my presence. I let out a sigh of relief and stared at him for a moment. He had been lifting weights on the back porch for at least an hour judging by the wetness of his hair. I watched the sunlight reflect off the beads of sweat dripping down his bare chest, and had to glance at the lake to distract myself. “Something the matter?” he questioned, dropping the weights at his side and standing up to face me.
“No, I just didn’t know where you went,” I stole another glance at him as I replied, and then turned my attention back to the lake.
“I’m done now, just let me rinse off and I'll make something to eat,” he smiled and walked towards me to head back inside.
I shook my head, my cheeks were already red and I needed something to distract myself, “I can do it, take your time,” I smiled and then went inside ahead of him to avoid any more conversation until he was dressed again. I was frustrated with myself. All these years I'd been able to keep my feelings under control and suddenly when our safety hinged on me keeping a cool head, I was this flustered just from seeing him without a shirt on. It was foolish and risky. I had to calm down and keep it to myself. Now wasn’t the time for getting cozy and letting my guard down, It would be selfish to even bring it up while things were this serious.
I was feeling more normal after breakfast. Alex had rinsed off in the shower and changed, and by the time he got out I had a plate of food ready for him while my attention was keenly fixed on the news channel. Two more incidents that might be related to our situation, but nothing new so far. Alex and I talked briefly about the news and then decided to get a better understanding of his power.
We went further out into the woods, hoping the cover of trees would be enough to hide any trace of fog from any would-be visitors. Alex told me that his powers were somewhat opposite to mine. Where I had to focus on keeping the wings put away and used them with ease, his fog required great focus and effort, but if he wasn't actively trying to produce it, nothing would seep out. He theorized that the only reason it came out at graduation was because of the stress from the situation. He’d been tensing up, and fighting off the urge to grab me and flee.
The practice in the forest yielded a few pieces of information. The fog seemed to come from his pores, it dehydrated him if he produced too much, drying out his skin in the process. Other than that it was fairly easy for him, it didn’t require any muscle usage, just concentration and good hydration. He could produce much more fog than we’d seen at graduation, and depending on what he focused on he could either make a decent sized cloud of thick blinding fog, or a much larger cloud of noticeably thinner fog. They each had their potential uses and drawbacks. It was good information to know.
We returned to the cabin and Alex grabbed a glass of water from the sink, downing it immediately and promptly refilling it. “Isn’t working out and sweating just making you feel worse, given the power?” I asked.
He put down the second glass of water, already half empty, and looked at me, pondering my question. “I mean ya but it’s worth it. We could end up in really serious danger and I can’t rely on hiding in a cloud. I have to be able to fight.”
“Why not?” I asked sincerely. “I have wings, you have fog, we seem well suited to running and hiding,” I joked.
His brows furrowed in confusion. He held up his hand and pointed at the mostly-healed cuts from the two incidents. “You do realize you could do some serious damage to someone if you wanted to, right? I can’t do that, All I can do is continue working out so I can knock someone out the old fashioned way,” He grinned and punched the air to prove his point.
I hadn’t realized, actually. It should’ve been obvious but I’d never been a fighter, always preferring to flee if things got rough. They were wings after all, so they had to be most useful in flight, right? I pulled the wings out and stroked a feather, pondering the thought of using them as a weapon. They wouldn’t hurt me, and the only damage they’d done this far was two relatively minor accidents. How would I even go about using them offensively if I had to?
“Wanna try?” Alex asked. He got up to get a third glass of water and smiled at me, gesturing to the door.
“During the day?” I replied expressing my doubt.
Alex shrugged, “Honestly I think we’re far enough away from most people that we might as well take advantage of the light. We don’t exactly have a ton of time before we’ll have to leave, and who knows if we’ll have this type of seclusion again.”
“Alright, I’ll try it,” I mumbled nervously. Was I really okay with being a human weapon? I guess if it was for our survival I had to be okay with it. I got up and followed Alex outside. I stretched my wings out and took a deep breath, following him back to the deeper part of the woods. We approached a large tree that stood far enough from the others that I could stretch my wings properly.
“Do whatever feels natural and try to bring it down so we can see how much power those steel blades are packing,” he smiled and took a few steps out of my range.
Natural would be running away if the tree posed any threat to me, but I took his meaning. I spread my wings out to my side, and turned the feathers forward. The blades laid flat at shoulder height, their sharper edge out in front of me like several swords lined up on either side. I dug my feet into the ground and swung one wing forward violently. It struck the tree, cutting in several inches and getting lodged there. I wiggled it free and brought back the wings, placing them back at my side to observe the damage.
Alex stepped forward and felt at the deep gash I’d left in the tree. “Impressive, it’s pretty solid wood, I’d hate to think what that could do to a person,” he winked and wiggled the healing cuts on his fingers at me again.
The thought horrified me. I could feel what my wings felt. I could feel the bark ripping, and the wind slicing against them when I flew. To feel flesh tearing under their pressure would be too much for me. But Alex was right, it might really come down to that.
Alex took note of the expression on my face, “Sorry. I hope it doesn’t come to that. Can you try one more thing for me?” I nodded my head and gestured for him to continue. “Take a running start, and don’t stop, let your wing go straight through the tree. I think it could.”
I humored him and took a few steps back, setting my wings back to their lethal positioning. I took a breath and imagined myself back at a track meet, waiting for the gun to signal my start. I took my place at the imaginary starting line and glanced at Alex, before returning my attention back to my target. Alex slapped his hands together loudly to signal my start. I took off towards the tree, bracing myself for impact. I felt my wing slice into the tree, and before I knew it I was on the other side. It was a clean cut all the way through the large tree. I couldn’t believe my wings had the raw power to achieve the feat. The tree made a loud cracking sound, and started its descent towards the ground. Alex quickly stepped back a few feet to ensure he was in the clear, and the tree fell to the ground between us.
I folded my wings away and turned my attention to Alex. My eyes were wide with shock at the realization of what I was capable of. Alex was still looking at the tree clapping his hands at the show. He looked up to meet my eyes and stopped clapping upon reading my expression. “It’s okay. It’s a good thing Angel,” he said softly. “I’m only having you practice in case things hit the worst case scenario. With any luck you’ll never use them like that.” I nodded my head and thanked him, and we headed back to the cabin.