Fifteen

  America’s Most Wanted, Live And Coming Way Too Close

  It was a mad dash to throw everything we had in the truck.

  The tarp I’d hid under before was ditched in place of an old camper shell Matt had found stashed behind the cabin. Brooke, Conor, and I slid under it as the other three piled in the front. We bumped back down the rutted trail as fast as Matt dared to go, seeing signs of civilization in a little over an hour and a half. As he pulled onto the highway, Brynn twisted around in her seat and pushed open the partition window.

  “So, what’s the plan? Where’re we headed?” Conor asked.

  “We need to go off grid again. There’s no way we’ll be able to get Geni’s pod back with the CIA on our tails,” Matt said.

  “Not to mention we’ve been gone for what … a week? I’m sure our faces are all over the news by now,” Lucas added.

  Brooke clapped a hand to her mouth. “Oh, my gosh, our parents! They must be losing their minds over us right now!”

  “I know, but we can’t let them know where we are,” Brynn reached over to her sister’s shoulder. “Those FBI guys saw all of us at Matt’s house with Geni. I’m sure all of our parents are being monitored in case we try to call them.”

  As my friends talked, I scooched to the end of the truck bed to look out the tinted back window of the camper shell. In the distance, I thought I could see a black helicopter circling the forested hills. My hearts were chugging like a freight engine. Would we be able to put enough distance between them and us in time? Where were we going to go now? Turning, I sat with my knees held to my chest, folding my wings close to my shoulders and arms.

  All this is my fault. I knew going out to test my theory was stupid. I scowled as I chewed my lip. The second I call up my power, the CIA will know exactly where me and my friends are. If they get hurt in any way, I won’t be able to help them. Not that I can show myself anywhere in public either. Every human that sees me, panics. I’m not safe here on Earth. I need to get to my pod. I have to find my parents. I have to …

  “Uh … Geni?”

  Brynn’s voice pulled me out of my spiraling thoughts, and I looked up. I was confused to see not just her but Brooke, Conor, and Lucas all staring at me. Matt too was casting long glances at me in the rearview mirror. Straightening up a bit, my wings flattened a little more as I fidgeted with my hair.

  “What? What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “You … I … I swear you were talking, but we looked over and … your mouth wasn’t moving,” Conor blinked.

  I stared at him, then gasped and my hands flew to my head. “Aye-yah, my telepathy! I must’ve connected with you without noticing! I-I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you!”

  “Geni, calm down. You didn’t hurt us,” Brooke laughed softly as she pulled my hands down with a smile.

  “I … I didn’t?” I murmured.

  She shook her head. “No, it was just kinda weird and tingly.”

  “Once we realized it was you, we weren’t afraid or anything,” Conor shrugged.

  “But … the men from before reacted like my telepathy hurt them,” I puzzled.

  “Probably because they didn’t realize where it was coming from,” Matt caught my gaze again with a grin. “Since you’re our friend, we weren’t freaked out. It was kinda cool actually.”

  “Totally trippy! I never thought I’d hear someone’s voice in my head and not my ears!” Lucas cackled.

  I let out a chuckling sigh of relief. “Well, I’m glad that mystery got solved.”

  The roar of a car engine suddenly made us jump. In the next lane, a sporty vehicle of some kind rushed by with an obnoxious amount of revving, shooting past in the blink of an eye. The wailing of a police siren rapidly followed, making me sink lower in the truck bed out of instinct. Only once the flashing red and blue lights were fading into the distance did I let go of the breath I’d been holding.

  “We should find a place to regroup and stock up on supplies,” Matt spoke up. “Truck’s running low on gas and the fewer times we have to go into places and risk getting recognized, the better.”

  “Don’t worry, Geni. We’ll help you get your pod back and find your parents,” Brooke smiled as she scooched down next to me, running a hand along my feathers.

  I let my wings floof a little, resting my head on crossed arms with a sigh. “You guys are so different than everyone else I’ve met so far. I don’t get it. Why do you want to help me so badly?”

  Conor shrugged. “I dunno. I guess we were just raised to be good Samaritans.”

  “Samaritan? I thought you were Humans?” I looked up in confusion.

  Brooke laughed. “We are! It’s just a Bible phrase. A good Samaritan is someone who purposefully goes out of their way to help someone in need.”

  “What’s the Bible?” I asked.

  For the next hour and a half, she and Conor, with the others chiming in occasionally, told me about the incredible book. A book written by multiple people called prophets over almost fifteen hundred years, who’d been given their words by the very Creator of humans Himself. An all-powerful triune Maker called – God.

  Entranced, I listened to my friends recount the verses they had memorized about God forming the Earth and everything in it in only seven days. How He had formed Adam, the first human man, out of dust, and breathed life into him. And that the first human woman, Eve, had been made from one of Adam’s own ribs. Then there had been the Fall, when the perfect garden God had planted was invaded by another of His creations who had been consumed by his own pride. The tainted being convinced Adam and Eve to do something called “sin”, which separated them from God and cursed the entire world. But the great, all-knowing Maker had planned a way for the humans to be freed from this “sin”, by turning a part of Himself into a perfect human named Jesus. He was filled with power to do things known as “miracles”, like walking on water and healing hundreds of people.

  My hearts pounded so hard it felt like they were dancing. I was practically vibrating under the strain of keeping my energy suppressed as in my chest it pulsed and churned and seemed to leap at every scripture recited. That mysterious additional presence attached to me had never felt so real. I didn’t know how or why, but I felt connected to my friend’s words at what might as well have been a molecular level. I had to know what happened. I had to know more.

  “So, what happened?! Did Jesus use His miracles to heal every human from the sin?!” I bounced in excitement, my wings almost completely filling the camper shell.

  Conor spluttered a chuckle as he pushed my feathers aside. “Well, yes and no. Jesus made us free from the consequences of sin, so we wouldn’t be separated from Him forever, but He didn’t make the world perfect again. People can still sin.”

  “Then … how’d He free you?” I puzzled.

  “By performing the greatest miracle of all,” Brynn chimed in from the front seat.

  Brooke nodded in agreement. “Jesus came to take our punishment for sin by dying in our place.”

  “What?! No!” I gasped, horrified.

  “Oh, Geni, it’s okay! He’s so powerful that He defeated death and came back to life three days later,” she said quickly, reaching out to take my hands.

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  “R-really?” I stammered in surprise.

  She nodded. “Really! He showed up to all His disciples and hundreds of other people and proved He was alive.”

  “Then He went back up to Heaven to get it ready for when He comes back to Earth and makes everything perfect again,” Lucas spoke up.

  “But until then, we can call on His Spirit to help us try and live a sinless life like He did,” Brooke said.

  “We may not be able to physically see or hear Him anymore, but He’s always with us,” Matt tossed me a smile through the rearview mirror.

  “How do you call His Spirit?” I asked.

  Brynn looked over her shoulder. “He tells us in Romans 10:9, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”. We believe and have faith in Him, so now His Spirit lives in us.”

  I glanced down, one hand drifting up to my chest, fingers barely curling into the fabric of my shirt as I felt my pair of vital organs pumping beneath my palm. “Do you think I could have Jesus’s Spirit too? Even though I’m not human?”

  “I’ve never read any verse that says you have to be human. John 1:12 says, “But as many as received Him, to them He gives the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Conor said.

  “Do you want to accept the Holy Spirit, Geni?” Brooke asked.

  …

  … My energy sang inside me …

  … The dance of my hearts became a ferocious flamenco …

  … But my body seemed to shrink into itself …

  …

  “I … I don’t know yet. I’m not ready,” I murmured.

  Just then, the truck bounced and rocked over a speed bump, sending Conor and Brooke flopping into my wings, and I flailed as their weight knocked me over too. As we untangled ourselves and sat up, I saw we’d pulled into a gas station on the edge of a blink-and-you-miss-it sort of town. A main street that was only a few stores long soon disappeared into the forest on the other side, a handful of old houses peeking out from the densely wooded landscape. On the opposite side of the interstate, was a truck stop and a neighboring motel that seemed seconds from collapsing under the cubic ton of moss blanketing its roof. Pulling up beside an equally rust-encrusted pump station, Matt cut the engine.

  “Alright, gang, let’s make this quick,” he unbuckled and twisted around. “I’ll fill the tank. Who wants to make a snack grab? If we all go, there’s a higher chance people might notice us.”

  “I’ll go! I really gotta pee,” Lucas opened the passenger door and jumped out.

  “And I’ll go with him to make sure he doesn’t load up on junk food,” Brynn rolled her eyes.

  Matt nodded. “Remember to pay in cash and make every dollar stretch. We don’t have a lot left. Geni, you need anything specific?”

  “No, I’m alright. Thanks, guys,” I smiled a bit bashfully.

  As Brynn and Matt disembarked, Connor, Brooke, and I stretched out in the truck bed, enjoying the moment of stillness and quiet. Now that I knew my telepathy wouldn’t hurt them, I gently touched at my friend’s minds. Like me, their emotions were all over the place – excited and stressed and curious and apprehensive – the surface of their subconscious bubbling like a cauldron. After a few minutes, Connor squinched his eyes shut with a grin.

  “Hey, Geni, are you poking around in my brain? You’re making my spine tingle!” he snickered.

  “Mine too!” Brooke giggled.

  “Sorry,” I laughed.

  “It’s okay, it feels really cool!” Connor glanced over. “If we thought an actual sentence to you, would you be able to hear it like in the movies?”

  “I don’t know how it sounds in your movies, but if I extend my mind to you and you think something to me, I’ll definitely be able to hear it,” I nodded.

  “Can I give it a try?” he asked.

  “Me too?” Brooke chimed in.

  “Sure!” I chuckled and let my telepathic field extend around them. Alright, you’re both in my range now. You still feel okay?

  Yeah! It feels like the inside of my brain is having pins-and-needles, but it definitely doesn’t hurt. Connor answered.

  Whoa, I can hear Connor’s voice too! Brooke exclaimed.

  Since you’re both in my field you’re technically using my mind as a conduit. I explained.

  Cool! They grinned at each other.

  I smiled, then sighed. My mom and dad and I used to talk like this all the time before I was strong enough to talk physically. It feels good to do this with someone again.

  I can’t imagine how much you miss them. Brooke squeezed my hand. Then again, I also can’t imagine being an entirely different planet than my parents either.

  Still … I can feel how much you miss yours too. I looked over at her. I’m confident I can take care of myself now. Are you sure you guys don’t want to just go home?

  Of course we’re sure! Helping you is way more important to us right now. She answered.

  Besides, do you have any idea how much crap we’d get if we bailed now and missed out on the adventure of a lifetime?! We’d be out of our minds! Connor flailed dramatically.

  Brooke and I laughed out loud. Just then the passenger side door opened, and Brynn and Lucas hopped back in with a full shopping bag each. Refreshments were distributed and a debate soon arose regarding which types of snacks were the best. As I was a literal alien and had never tasted anything similar before, it was decided I’d make the perfect tiebreaker to end the quarrel. Unfortunately for my friends, they didn’t take into consideration that all their preferences would be equally delicious to me. All the while, in my periphery, I’d noticed Lucas peeling the plastic off a smallish box he’d been keeping close to his side. He pulled out something thin, rectangular, and black. It wasn’t until I heard noises coming from it that my brain clicked on what it was, and apparently so did Brynn’s.

  “Lucas what are you doing?! You can’t use your phone! The CIA’s gonna know where we are!” she exclaimed.

  “Relax, it’s not my actual phone! It’s just a burner,” Lucas explained. “I saw something on the TV back there but couldn’t stick around and see what it was, so I figured I’d just get a phone that wasn’t ours and Google it.”

  Intrigued, we sat munching our various junk foods while watching Lucas fiddle with the burner. After a few minutes, he got it fully activated and opened an internet tab. He typed and searched several key word phrases until he found what he was looking for. A segment from a local news station. He cranked the volume to max and turned the screen so we could all see it. In between a scrolling headline banner and a backdrop of wavy blue screens sat a man with his hands folded over a stack of papers on a glossy white desk. Beside his head materialized some stock image of police tape and missing-persons fliers.

  “Now we bring you back to Jackson County and the ongoing investigation into the case of a group of missing high school students,” the reporter announced. “For those of you just tuning in, the story began almost a week ago when a commotion broke out in a suburban community near Elk Valley, Tennessee. The three young men and two young women were seen shortly afterwards, driving erratically down main street. The highspeed chase with law enforcement ended in a nonfatal collision between drivers and agents from the local branch of the FBI. Sources say that a yet to be identified fugitive is to blame for the student’s erratic behavior and kidnapping. Now, several families are left in emotional wreckage, rumors circulating as to what exactly went down on that by-all-accounts ordinary day. The teenagers were last seen driving an olive-colored, 2013, Dodge Ram 2500 belonging to one of the boys, heading north on I-75. If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of these missing people, their families urge you to contact the Jackson County Police Department as soon as possible. We’ll keep you updated should any further updates be added to the case.”

  As he spoke, the picture beside him changed to show helicopter footage of the boxed in FBI car and what looked like a CCTV clip of Matt’s truck. Then the scene was replaced by still photos of my friends. I noticed Brook and Brynn exchange glances and the boys fidget in various ways at the mention of their families. The segment ended shortly after. A clunk from outside made the girls and I jump a bit.

  “Looks like the tanks topped off,” Matt cleared his throat. “I’ll go cap it up and then we can get outta here.”

  As he left, Lucas popped a little card out of the burner and turned it off. “Well, I guess we’re officially on the wanted list now.”

  My wings drooped as I dropped my head into my hands. “This is all just so crazy and confusing! I didn’t think your own people would come after you just as hard as they are after me.”

  “Everything’s going to be fine, Geni. We’ll all get home safe eventually, I promise,” Brynn reached out and squeezed my arm.

  “Yeah, and besides, we haven’t done anything technically illegal, so the cops probably won’t throw us in jail or whatever,” Connor shrugged.

  Then Matt tapped on the window. “Um … hey, guys? … I don’t think we were the only ones paying attention to that news report.”

  We all snapped to attention, heads swiveling to every window. Just inside the doors of the convenience store, I saw two men casually gesturing at Matt’s truck as they talked. One motioned to the TV mounted above the cashier. The clerk then leaned over the counter, squinting at his phone, then the truck, then his phone again, before nodding and pointing at us. Then the pair of burly customers slowly started walking out, their eyes fixed on our vehicle.

  “Matt … get in. Get in, get in, get in!” Brynn hissed.

  Without wasting another second, Matt flat out dropped the gas pump and leapt behind the wheel. At that, one of the men let out a sharp whistle and began waving and yelling at other patrons in the parking lot.

  “HEY! HEY! THOSE KIDS ARE ON THE NEWS FOR BEING KIDNAPPED! STOP THAT TRUCK! BLOCK IT IN! BLOCK IT IN!”

  As Matt put the pedal to the floor, several other engines roared around us. The truck’s tires spun up a cloud of burnt rubber before it leapt forwards with a screech. Brooke, Connor, and I were sent tumbling into a heap in the back of flat bed. We poked our heads up, clinging to one another and shouting as we saw other vehicles headed straight for us. Matt frantically cranked the wheel, swerving and dodging between two big SUVs by a feather’s breadth. I heard a crunch and breaking glass and looked up in time to see his driver’s side mirror fly past. We lurched to one side as another truck clipped the rear bumper. A fourth sped out ahead and we T-boned before Matt could hit the brakes. He threw it in reverse and whipped around in his seat, driving with one hand as he floored it backwards.

  “Brace yourselves!” he shouted.

  I held Connor and Brooke under my wings and put my head down. There was a huge bang and it felt like the whole back half of the truck bounced five feet in the air. We slammed back down, tires screaming, my friends and I tossed to one side, then the other. When the jostling stopped, we looked up and immediately regretted it. All of us screamed as a semi-truck blasted its horn right at us, its huge front grill slamming into the side of the camper shell. The glass cracked and metal dented but held as we bounced to the side and our path was cleared.

  Matt tore out of the lot, plowed over a curb, and swung out onto the freeway onramp.

  Once again, we were on the run.