It was cold outside. Why hadn’t I thought of a jacket? Why was I thinking about something as stupid as a jacket? I looked around the dark drive nervously. What was I doing out here? This was like something out of a movie. Real people didn’t hot-wire federal cars. Of course, most people didn’t have the feds in their backyards trying to kidnap them, either. I was half surprised not to see a line of armed men waiting for us. Everything was dark and quiet. David hadn’t turned the outside lights back on. The only sound was our footsteps on the gravel and the soft gurgle of water in the distance.

“Did you have an idea here, or are we just winging it?” I whispered. I had to stop myself from laughing. I couldn’t help it.

David did laugh then, but quietly. Evidently, I wasn’t the only one feeling the pressure of all this. “Well, I figured…” He trailed off, staring into the distance. “Oh, no!” He moaned.

I followed his line of sight, and my heart sank. Through the trees, I could just see the road leading to the drive entrance. There were headlights moving toward us.

“It might not be them.” I said weakly.

“It might not. It could be more feds. Either way, we’re in trouble.” He moved suddenly. “We have to distract them!” He ran ahead and out of sight.

“Wait!” I could hear gravel crunching as he ran down the drive. I did the only thing I could. I followed him.

Without warning, lightning burst from the clear night sky, first above the woods on the edge of the property, then at the end of the drive. I thought I heard a woman scream from somewhere in the dark, but the noise of the crashing trees and raining gravel was drowning out everything. I did not know what to do, so I just kept running. David stopped, panting, two hundred feet from the end of the drive. I slid in the gravel as he came into view. Light bloomed in the sky again, illuminating the two dark sedans parked on the berm near the road. There were two figures standing near the car closest to the road. One was facing us and the other the approaching car, which was almost on top of them and coming fast, faster than it should have been. It was hard to see details, but they both looked to be armed.

“It’s Colin. That’s Colin’s car!” David sounded terrified.

The car didn’t slow when it took the corner. The tires squealed on the asphalt as it slid into the gravel drive. One of the armed men yelled. They were too far away to make out exactly what he was yelling, but I saw one of them raise his gun toward the oncoming car.

“No!”

Suddenly the man rose off the ground and flew, literally flew, through the air. He landed in a heap in the grass by the drive and didn’t get up. The other one froze. Colin’s car had passed him in the commotion. I could just see the still standing fed turn from his fallen partner and raise his gun toward the retreating car. A flash of light blasted the ground in front of him. He screamed as he stumbled back. I heard footsteps behind us and panicked, turned to find Sean and Anna standing there panting. Sean was grinning.

“I didn’t know it worked that far away.” He tipped his head toward the man in the grass.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Where are the guys from the woods? And where’s Mel? And Ben and Stephen?” David asked over his shoulder. He still had his eyes on the approaching car, which had slowed now.

“We found two guys in the woods and helped them to their car. They’re fine, by the way,” he said sarcastically. “Worst they’ll have is a sore head. More than I can say for that guy you just blasted.” David turned to glare at him. Sean must have realized he could do the same thing to him because he went on in a rush. “Anna must have been mistaken on the head count because we didn’t find anybody else. We made pretty quick work of them. They were distracted by the light show. Mel went back to the house after.”

Colin’s car finally pulled to a stop in front of us, its headlights directed toward the trees. Nate and a man with long blonde hair jumped out as it stopped. I could see Colin in the driver's seat. The blonde man got to us first. “What the hell is happening? We heard there might be trouble…”

“Cooper?” I asked in astonishment. It sounded like him and looked like him now that he was closer, but the hair and skin color were wrong.

He looked confused at first too, and then smiled sheepishly. “Oh, yeah.” He pointed to his hair. “Sorry, figured a new look was in order for the trip.” He squinted his eyes rather comically and his hair changed slowly back to the neat black style.

This night was getting to be a bit too much. “That is…” I stopped as something in the trees caught my attention.

Everything after that happened so fast. Cooper turned to question David. I stared into the poorly lit trees, waiting for my eyes to adjust. Maybe I was seeing things. But there, at the edge of the woods, just illuminated by the light from the car, was a man. He was dressed like the men by the cars and held a gun in his hand at his side. He was watching us. I opened my mouth to yell, but he raised his gun and pointed it at Nate, who was still in the open space between us and the car.

“Nate!” I ran and lunged at him as hard as I could, hoping to knock him down and out of the man’s line of fire. But I wasn’t heavy enough. Nate grunted as I plowed into him, but he only stumbled to the side. It was enough, though. I heard the shot a split second before I felt the bullet tear through my shoulder. I screamed as I fell. My arm was on fire and I felt warm blood running down my back. The force of the shot knocked me to the ground. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.

“Stay still!” It was Nate. He was on top of me, trying to shield me from the shooter. He was the reason I couldn’t move. I heard someone yell for everyone to get into the house and heard people running in the gravel around us. I thought it was Colin yelling but I couldn’t be sure in the commotion and being half smothered. I peeked from under Nate’s arm and saw Sean running toward the woods. What is he doing? Did he think he could stop a bullet? Then I heard a sound like a helicopter coming toward us. Shit! they’re coming for us! I struggled to push Nate off of me. The pain in my shoulder had already faded to a dull ache, but he wouldn’t budge. The sound grew louder and louder. Why wouldn’t he move? We had to get away.

“Get her in the house!” It was Colin. He was standing somewhere close now. Nate’s weight lifted off me. I could breathe again but before I could even try to get up he was lifting me into his arms.

“I’m fine. Stop.” I struggled in his arms. The noise was right on top of us now. I tried to fight him, but he turned and ran toward the house. Over his shoulder, I saw the source of the noise and forgot about trying to fight. An enormous wave of water, ten feet tall and twice as wide, was rushing toward the trees, blocking us from sight. I saw Colin still standing by the car, staring at the wall of water as it crashed into the trees, uprooting some of the smaller ones. My god, I thought, he’s doing that. That was the last thing I saw before the door shut behind us.