An hour passed and they still had no firm plan on how to get past the house.
Jacks mind was in over drive, trying to find a scenario that would work to get everyone past undetected. Jack sighed, and leaned his head back against the enbankment he sat against.
This would be so much easier in a video game.
Jack rarely plated first person shooters, but if this situation resembled anything it was one of those.
Trying to imagine what he would do if it were a game, things started to fit in place, time the sentries, try to get a look behind the walls, mark the hostiles...
Jack had no idea how he would do the last one but the rest seemed plausible.
It seems the hours of stradegiesing on consol games was worth it after all.
Jack brought this up to the group and everyone was in agreement. Sara's eyes twinkled at the idea of all her own hours of gaming finally being useful in real life.
Bryan and Rachel stayed back while Sara and Jack started walking back the way they came.
Their goal was to find a way up the right side embankment to get a good look at the house.
Besides his attachment to Sara, Jack was hoping the pressure of this situation could bring out what ever Sara's power was. Bryan told him about how her eyes glowed gold as well when she woke up.
Jack still wasn't entirely sure what the colors ment, he had tried to turn his eyesight back to the way it was after he woke up but had not had any luck. He just knew that if two of them had powers instead of just him, their chance at survival would double as well.
Their 'recon' wasn't nearly as hard or scarey as they thought it would be. It just wasn't as fruitful as they had hoped either.
After back tracking down the road a ways, they found a way up the emankment on their right. It wasn't easy going but together they made it up. Sara blushed as Jack held out a hand to help her up the last few feet to the top.
When the pair approached the intersection, they laid down and army crawled as best they could, through the dirt and dead underbrush.
Watching movies and playing games could only get them so far.
They felt secure in the hilltop they found. If they were the ones throwing heavy objects it would have been a perfect vantage point.
The hill they hid behind was too steep to climb from the intersection and it went too far back for anyone to hike around without Jack and Sara noticing. The side was way too steep and made of packed dirt and loose rocks that would also be impossible for them to climb down.
While they hadn’t gotten a plan knocked out from theit look out point. They had at least come to realize a few things.
Jimmy and his crew must have beat them down the hills, they hadn’t seen a single person on the road and no one came or went from the house. There were two BAK brothers out front of the house and another at the front gate.
The guard at the gate was the one who was patroling and carried a shotgun, but how he held it told Jack that he had slim to no experience with it which could definitely help. Besides, he seemed more engaged with his nose then what was going on around him.
After an hour, they felt reasonably confident they got everything they could and headed back to the others.
Jack and Sara reported back to Bryan and Rachel what they found.
They had timed the guards walk and found that he was sporadic and unpredictable. There was no way they could just make a run for it. The upper floor windows of the house looked down on the intersection. They both could see people in the windows bit couldnt figure out how many people were inside.
The guard would just about meet them at the intersection. And one yelp from him would alert everyone in the house.
There was no possible way around it. They could try to out run them but Jack knew that the chances of at least one of them getting injured was really high.
The biggest unknown was Jack's Magic. And possibly Sara's.
-----------------------------------
The day seemed to crawl by. Jack just became more and more frustrated.
He had tried to activate his magic in every way possible but still had no way to control it. It seemed to only react to strong emotion. Not exactly the easiest thing to control.
Especially for a introvert gamer like hinself.
They found that however Jack had stopped to flying car, wasn’t reliable.
While taking a break from attempting to meditate, Bryan and Sara took turns throwing rocks at Jack for an hour.
Bryans throws at times were with a bit too much enthusiasm, but jack couldn’t get the icy feeling to return.
Likewise, his power of seeing possible outcomes of different actions wasn’t helping at all. Every time he tried it was the same sprint for the intersection followed by quickly being spotted by the guard with the shotgun.
The only thing that seemed to help from the visons was that every time there were rifle shots raining down from at least one person up closer to the house.
The result wasn’t pretty to watch but it was definitely helpful information to have. All the planning and plotting but still nothing, the sun was setting fast as they realized how hungry they had become.
“Well, at least we have enough food and water for a few more days. Could we just wait them out?” Bryan suggested, as he rifled through his pack for something more substantial for dinner then an energy bar.
Jack closed his eyes and thought a moment. “Nope,” He concluded definitively, “Then we risk them coming out for another scouting trip and we are right in the way. We would have another direct conflict on our hands except this time right next to their home base full of back up. Or we start to starve and are too weak to handle any other option.”
Noticing his brothers defeated looked and still not having found a decent thing for dinner, Jack pulls out a bag of beef jerky to share. Tossing some to Bryan he tries to console him, “There has to be a way, we just haven’t thought of it yet.”
With the sun going down, a chill was slowly creeping into the air. Sara pulled a red hoody with a New York Giants logo on it out of her bag and pulled it over her head. Jack looked at it and recognized it as his that she used for a pillow the night before.
He caught her eye to say something but when she looked in his eyes with her misgevious twinkle and a smile he decided he didn’t mind.
“Well its getting dark, maybe we can slip past after the suns completely set.” Sara offered up.
Rachel perked up at that as she swallowed her mouthful of trail mix, “That might actually work, do we have enough black cloths so we’ll all blend in?” setting aside her food she started going through her bag, and so did Sara.
In a moment Jack knew though, “No, we don’t. But it doesn’t rule out the possibility of it working.” Thinking it over, Jack had a thought that had acured to him earlier but had been afraid to voice.
If Rachel went out as bait, pretending to be hurt, they would recognize her and it would distract them. But any way he thought, it ended badly.
For her, and the rest of them.
Focusing on sneaking by in the dark his mind started swimming again with different ways for it to play out for the first time in hours .
Opening his eyes and coming back to reality he found himself sighing again, “It could work, but nine times out of ten it’s not pretty. But the possibility is there.”
“Well that’s an improvement!” Rachel exclaimed. Looking to jack she let out a quite yelp and dropped her water bottle.
“Sorry,” she explained while snatching up her bottle, “It’s just that your eyes are glowing again, more than they have been. Maybe it’s the dark.”
Jack smiled a bit and leaned back to stare at the darkening sky. From the corner of his eye he saw something he had never wanted to see again.
The green glow of the meteor was just barely creeping over the hill in the distance of the ravine. As if seeing the light was an invitation for it to appear, the front of the meteor poked over the ridge and the green light bathed out over the ravine.
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Jack panicked, the others took notice of the green light as well as it washed over them. “O no!” they collectively exclaimed. All eyes went to Jack, and as he met their eyes, his world went black and his body went slack.
Rachel just barely caught Sara’s head before it hit the ground as she fell backwards from her sitting position. “Not again, not now!” she cried.
Bryan rushed to Jack but he had already been leaning on the embankment so there was no danger of him falling. Check his pulse, he knew he was still alive.
But how long would he be out?
His thoughts of this where disrupted by screaming and commotion that had to be coming from the house.
Bryan moved to sneak another peek at the house they had been watching all afternoon. People in the house where yelling and the guard at the gate had turned and ran toward the frantic screams.
That answers that, he thought to himself.
There is someone in the house with powers as well.
Silently he hoped it was just Jimmy and he rushed back to Bryan’s side.
The rumbling of the earth from the night before started again. It was like riding a wave sitting on the road as the ground shook and rumbled like the whole state was going to crumble to dust.
Rocks and dirt started dislodging from the embankment. Bryan quickly grabbed Jack by the shoulder and pulled him to the center of the road, still hidden from around the bend.
Rachel pulled Sara closer to where Jack lay and ploped next to Bryan.
Bryan unconsciously reached out to Rachel as she prayed and grabbed hold of her hand. She looked up into his eyes and nodded in appreciation, tightening her grip on his hand.
Together they sat, and waited....
They didn’t have to wait long as Sara soon opened her eyes and took a deep breath then exhaled in a coughing sputter.
Realizing what had happened, she sat up frantically. “How long was I out?” she stammered, looking to Rachel at her side.
Rachel felt a brief wave of relief wash over her as her cousin sat up and spoke. “Only a few minutes this time, but Jack is still out,” She managed to explain.
Bryan jumped in and was explaining the noise at the house to Sara in no time.
She agreed that it didn’t bode well that at least one person in the house had powers and had passed out as well, but it was useful information she was thankful to have at the same time.
While discussing what to do about Jack, Bryan took notice that the noise from the house around the corner had waned.
Realizing it meant the person or people inside had woken up, he frantically started worrying about their situation with jack still out cold.
There window of sneeking by was closing. “Should I try to wake him?” Bryan quietly questioned.
At the exact moment Jack let out a groan and reached for his head.
“Please don’t, I could really go without the headache of you banging my head on the ground again.”
Bryan smiled at that, knowing his brother was awake again and appearing to be in good health, he couldn’t bring himself to fire back at him and just put a hand on his shoulder.
Jack opened his eyes and again he was assaulted the bright colors and auras of the people and things around him.
The paved ground around him was dark as night, which surprised him but was a welcome relief from the bright lights of nature that swirled around him in an attempt to blind him.
Slowly pulling himself up to lean on his elbows, he was amazed when he took in his surroundings that the colors remained this time.
His eyes and mind adjusted to the brightness, they also settled on Sara.
She really does look like an angel like this, he thought to himself.
As concern flashed into Jerry eyes and her aura flickered, he set her at ease with a smile and nod, letting her know he was ok.
Looking to Rachel he could see she was put off again. “Let me guess, they are glowing again?”
All Rachel could manage was a nod in reply, mesmerized by the golden glow piercing the now dark night air that radiated from Jacks eyes.
Jack broke his gaze with Rachel, hoping it would help settle her.
Instead, he gazed up to the meteor that was plaguing the world, but seemingly causing major changes in Jacks being. It pulsed with a green glow in his new sight that made it as bright as the sun. But to Jack it didn’t hurt to stare at, it was almost comforting.
Smiling as he looked on, he peered closer at the pulsing light coming from the meteor. The light radiating from the meteor seemed to be in strands that reached out and retracted with every pulse. The tail of the meteor was still not in sight but he was sure that it would look close to the same.
What where those strands?
Jack tried remembering back to science class in high school, they had covered very little on things like asteroids, comets and meteors.
When they enter the atmosphere the friction of the speed of the object against gravity and the particles in the atmosphere would set them aflame and burn them up either partially of completely before it reached the earths surface.
But this was different, it hadn’t hit the earth, or burned up. It had managed to turn an orbit around the earth and still be in one large piece.
Was the green really fire?
Surely it had to be, but what are the strands of light?
Fire, Light, Energy?
And that’s when it hit him, the strands he saw and the glow of the people and things around him where all energy.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, he heard echo in his head in the voice of his AP physics teacher.
Once he realized it, it made so much sense. Something from the meteor had changed him in a way that he now could see and feel. The different spectrums of light stood for differnet types of energy.
Could I wield it?
With all these thoughts running through his head, he had unconsciously put on a smile that was so big that when combined with his glowing eyes made him look like a monster. It was the same smile he had getting out of the car.
“Jack, are you alright? Your kinda scaring the shit out of us here,” Bryan quietly admonished.
Jack turned to bryan, letting his smile dwindle to a normal level. “Sorry about that,” he spoke with almost glee in his voice, “This is just incredible, I can see everything. I can see the energy of the world around me.”
Rachel dawned a confused face that still held a touch of fear, “Um, is that supposed to make us feel better?”
Jack blushed, relizing he wasn’t making any sence.
Slowly he explained to them all what he could see, and that he had seen it the night before right before he passed out the second time.
When explaining about all of their personal auras, the girls both got visibly perturbed at him being able to see so much into them. Bryan just felt pride for himself in what his brother saw, growing his ego even larger.
The concept itself took a lot more explaining then the colors themselves. Jack himself, didn’t have all the answers for their questions. But he now held a firm grasp of the basic understanding of what he believed it was and he felt the others where all slowly coming around in understanding.
“So do you think this all will help us get home somehow?” Sara asked.
Jack smiled and replied, “ Definitely, I know I can see it and feel it, I just have to figure out how to use it. Like the shield from last night.”
“I’ll grab some rocks!” Bryan declared.
Jack smile at that but nodded. While bryan collected a pile of rocks to start throwing, Jack looked at himself with his new vison and was confused by what he saw. It seems a large part of his aura or power was suppressed or locked away. There was what looked to be a supper dense cloud of light that surrounded his entire lower body.
Thinking back to all his books he realized that in time he should be able to unlock it all. It still did leave him very little to work with right now, especially if they have to confront Jimmies whole household.
Thinking back to his books, he realized he might be able to pull power from other objects and people. Doing so from his friends made him feel sick inside and would be very dangerous. Searching for something small to test, he found a bush just behind where he had been sitting that was glowing with a slightly dim green light as if it where almost dead.
Figuring it wouldn’t do much harm to experiment on it, Jack placed his hand on the bush. Surprisingly it pulsed at his touch as if it was begging to be used. Closing his eyes he found that he could now still see the glow of energy of the things around him even with his eyes shut.
That could get annoying, Jack mused.
While concentrating on the bush he tried pulling at the bush with his energy. It struggled in his mental grasp, retreating back to the bush.
A few more tries and he found himself noticeably weaker.
There has to be another way..
Come on bush, please help me out here, he absent mindedly pleaded to himself.
All of a sudden there was a rush of wind in his ears and the green energy of the plant flared as it soaked into his hand and up his arm.
The feeling was incredible, he felt the energy pulse through his shoulders the the base of his brain then down his spine. It was different then the cold ice he had felt when creating the shimmering field that enveloped the car, almost warm like a summer evening, there was still the cold breeze flowing through it but much milder.
Looking back to the bush to observe the effect of his draw on its energy, what he saw made his Smile fade away to remorse.
The brown bush looked even more dried up then before, almost sickly in appearance. Raising his hand, he placed it on an exposed root of the bush that stuck out of the embankment.
He sought to send the energy back to the bush. Closing his eyes again, he saw the last bit of energy left in the bush at the base of its roots. “Here you go, little guy” he mumbled.
Energy surged out of him and again he heard the wind in his ears. Ice shot up his back, Jack realized he was now giving his own energy to the bush.
Panic struck him, realizing he didn’t know how to stop it. “Stop,” he mumbled repeatedly under his breath, and still no change. In last resort he pulled back with all his might from the bush, snapping his connection with the bush.
Tingling sensations still ran through his arms, and Ice still ran down his back. Knowing he was safe he let out a breath he hadn’t know he was holding.
That could be really dangerous!
Opening his eyes his gaze fell on the bush. It was now twice its original size, with green leaves and limbs that had sprouted from ends that had long been dormant in the shrewd enviorment.
I made it grow, he realized.
“Thank you, you have taught me so much,” He quietly whispered to the bush.
Bryan came back with the rocks just in time to witness his brothers reverent mumbles and raised his eyebrows, was Jack talking to a plant?
Grabbing a golf ball size rock, he thought he would surprise Jack.
Bringing back his arm he launched the rock almost as hard as he could toward his brothers’ arm.
Jack knew it was coming though, he didn't know how but he could sense the energy coming off the stone.
Raising his arm he waved his hand to the side and watched in awe as the rock picked up speed and ricochet into the ground so hard part of it embedded in the road and the rest crumbled to dust.
With his big goofy smile returning to his face, he glanced to Bryan finding him standing with his jaw on the floor at what his brother just did.
“I don’t think we’ll need the rest of those rocks Bry.” Jack couldn't keep from laughing.
Bryan didn’t have it in him to cut back at his brother for using the nick name he hated so much. He was still in shock at his brothers ability.
Sara looked on in amazement, but also envy. She silently wished she would figure out how to use her powers as well, wanting to help Jack as best she could. While the jelousy rose, she also found solice in that yet again she had passed out along with jack.
Sure she rose earlier but it had to mean something that it was effecting her as well, she kept telling herself. Steeling herself in confidence that it indeed meant something, she walked to Jack and gave him a big hug.
Feeling him falter at her affection always made her feel better for some reason.
Smiling, she pulled back and looked into his glowing eyes, “What should we do?”
Jack closed his eyes and using all the changes in their situation he thought of all the possibilities of actions to be takin.
Everything flashed past his eyes in a matter of seconds. Opening them again he smiled at Sara, still looking like an angel in his glowing sight, “We can do this.”