Finally, after a brutal and endless walk, we finally heard cars. A little ways in front of us, a town started. I heard Nick sigh with relief.
“Thank God,” he said. He started walking a little faster, leaving me behind. I let him go ahead, I was tired enough as it was. He stopped at the side of the road, looking at what was ahead. I caught up with him, stopping at his side.
In front of us was a food market, a few restaurants, a clothing store, and a little patch of houses. Behind that was a middle school, and farther down the road was a high school. Seemed like your normal town.
Somewhere in that patch of houses, we noticed one that looked abandoned. Nick and I met eyes and mentally agreed on it. That house was our best option.
“We’re gonna have to break in, unless you feel like sleeping outside again,” Nick mentioned. I didn’t like the idea. But, then again, I didn’t like the idea of sleeping outside again.
“Fine,” I said. “But only for tonight. After that, we leave.” Nick nodded his head and crossed the street. I followed him, following him towards the houses.
“Alright, so I’ll knock on the door, and if no one answers I’ll sneak in.” He continued to look around.
“How are you gonna sneak in?” I asked. A noticeable smile formed onto his face, and he looked back at me.
“Just leave that to me.” He walked up to the door without waiting up for me and politely knocked. No one answered for a while, so he knocked again. No one answered. He looked over at me and smirked.
“Okay,” I said. “Now ‘sneak in’.” I leaned against a parked car and watched him as he backed away from the door and looked through a window. Then he backed away from the window, and rested the palm of his hand on it. Then, the glass was replaced with fire.
I expected there to be a loud crash for when the glass broke, but it didn’t. Instead, it melted completely. The fire disappeared, and so did the glass. Now there was just a gaping, square hole in the wall leading into the house. Nick leaped in and looked back at my stunned face.
“You coming?” he asked. I hesitated, then came back to perspective. I quickly looked around and leapt in with him. Instantly, I noticed something was up.
The home really didn’t look like it had been touched in forever. Cobwebs hung in the corners of the ceiling and dust aligned the walls and floor. Old pictures hung up and tables held old flower pots. There was no TV in the living room, just a dust-covered couch and a dust covered coffee table. Next to the living room was a hallway that lead down to two doors on either side.
“I’ll check the room on the right,” Nick said, already walking down there. I followed him, walking down the hall and examining the pictures. Most of them were of a family. A mom, dad, little boy, and a little girl.
Nick went into the room on the right as I went into the room on the left. In the room, there was a small bed, a desk across from the bed, a window next to the desk, a nightstand next to the bed, and a journal on the nightstand.
I heard Nick rummaging in the other room loudly as I walked over to the nightstand. I picked up the journal and blew off a ton of dust. It seemed old, older than me. I flipped through the pages, seeing a bunch of drawings of DNA strands and saw the word “human genomes’ a lot. Who would write this stuff? I flipped it over to the back and saw the words “Property of Joshua Shaw”.
Joshua Shaw?
“I believe that doesn’t belong to you,” came a startling voice from behind me. I quickly turned around and saw a hooded man standing on the other side of the room. I couldn’t see his face. It was hidden under his hood.
“Who the hell are you?” I asked. Stupid question.
“I could ask you the same thing,” he snapped. Before I could do anything, he raised his hand and a force pinned me to the wall. I couldn’t move no matter how hard I tried. I tried to call for Nick, but all of a sudden I couldn’t breath. It was as if I was being choked.
“What the hell are you doing here?” the man asked. “This isn’t a place that you can just break into. This place is special. Very, very special.” I tried to respond, but the force on my neck grew tighter. All that came out was a croak for air.
“Hey, Luke,” came Nick’s voice from the other room. “This place will have to do for tonight. From the looks of it, no one is gonna come in here anytime soon.” For a moment it was silent as I struggled to breath. I heard Nick walking towards the room. “Luke?”
He walked into the room and saw me pinned up against the wall, then saw the man standing there.
“Hello, Nick. I’ve been expecting you.” Before Nick could make his fire appear, the man quickly pushed his free hand in front of him, sending a force into Nick and sent him flying back. His right shoulder blade rammed into the doorframe, making him do a full one-eighty turn. He made a loud thud as he landed onto the hard floor.
The man looked back at me and started to laugh.
“Oh, Luke,” he said. “You have no idea how long I’ve been waiting to do this. I might’ve thought it was too late. But it must’ve slipped my mind that you two would come here. I forgot all about that.” What was he talking about?
The grip on my neck tightened more and more, up to the point where my neck was about to snap. But that’s when Nick stepped into the picture.
A big wall of fire surrounded the man, completely covering him and making him unseeable. The force on me and my neck vanished and I fell to the floor, gasping and coughing. Nick ran over to me and helped me up.
“Come on!” he yelled. We only made it a few steps before Nick was sent flying back, smashing into the wall and sending the air right out of him. The wall of fire vanished and the man stood there laughing.
“Did you think a small wall of fire would stop me?” The man started walking towards us. My heart started to race as I backed up against the wall. “I am more powerful than the two of you combined and more. You have no idea what I am capable of.” The man raised his hand at Nick and I, preparing to strangle us to death. But I was ready.
“Well,” I said, “you have no idea what we’re capable of.” I took a step and pushed my hand in front of me. At first, I was afraid that nothing would happen. But I was proved wrong.
A long shot of electricity shot from the palm of my hand and smacked right into the man’s chest, sending him back and ramming him into the wall. I grabbed Nick by the arm and dragged him over to the window. I rammed my elbow into the glass and it shattered, sending glass shards down to the floor. The man started to slowly stagger up, but I had already tossed Nick out the window and leapt out myself.
Nick had already started running away and I started to follow. I heard the man yell in anger, and I looked back. He was standing at the window, watching Nick and I run away. He pushed his arm out in front of him, and a car parked in front of the house was sent into the air towards us.
I honestly thought I was going to die right there as the car was just over my head. But with quick reflexes, I dived out of the way. The car landed just a few inches away from me. Glass shards flew in the air and got a few cuts on my face. Nick grabbed my arm and pulled me up.
I noticed the man was about to do that again, so I sent a bolt of electricity at him. It hit right at the bottom of the window frame, causing the wall to demolish into pieces. Smoke filled up around the window frame and the man could no longer be seen. Nick and I took that as our chance and ran as far and as fast as we could.
I couldn’t help but think. Who was that? What was that all about? How did he know who we were? But the biggest one that stuck out in my head was what bothered me.
Who was Joshua Shaw?
…..