Trials

Chapter 14- Mack

          "Get back here!"

           Little thirteen year old Mack hid under the table, giggles practically bubbling in her throat.

          Then, a girl only two months younger than her, appears at her side. Xeda. Her best friend in the whole world. She'd only known her for two months, but they already did everything together around the mountain. She always felt relief when she was around her bright spirit. Her strawberry brown hair and green eyes always found her for school everyday and was there to comfort her after fights with her father.

          Xeda's emerald eyes flicker to Mack mischievously and they both laugh.

         "Did you get it?" Mack whispers.

        Xeda tosses her a bag.

        "What do you think? I always come through, Max." She grins.

        "Xeda! I told you never to call me that! It's not funny!"

          She bursts out laughing. "It's plenty funny for me, Max."

         "That's your freaking dog's name!"

         "That was my aunt's dog's name,"

         Then they both break out into a contagious laughter.

         "I really need a powdered donut," Mack gasps.

        Xeda nods and pulls out the treats she smuggled from her bag. Mack relishes the warm flaky powder, dissolving on her tongue. She bathed in the sweetness of the tart strawberry cream center. She may never taste something like this again, it was a nice moment.

         "Mmm," She sighs, as the last traces of the donut roll down her throat.

        "There you troublemakers are!"

        Mack and Xeda jump back as the baker appears to them from the table.

       "Caught you both red-handed!"

       Xeda sticks out her tongue as he pulls them both up roughly by the arm and snatches back his bakery items Xeda stole.

        "Well at least we were caught together?" Xeda offers sadly, gazing at the brown back of treats.

        Mack nods. Nothing could ever really break them apart.

        "Hey Mack..." Xeda says.

        "MAAACK! That's your name right?"

         Mack woke up with a start. She rubs her eyes.

       "What-what happened?"

         Sara sighs. "We ran. You were in so much shock I told you to lie down. Feeling any better?"

        "How long has it been!"

        "What? Umm..." Sara looks down at a brightly colored pink watch.

        "Thirty minutes."

       Mack stares down at the colored watch. Then back at Sara.

      "Who are you?" Mack says, her hoarse voice suddenly sounding very hostile.

        Sara pauses uncomfortably and then she opens her mouth to say something, but the jaguar cub lets out a cute little mew and Sara's attention snaps directly to him.

       "Are you sure?" Sara whispers to the cub. "How soon?"

       This younger girl, Mack decides, is either part insane or yeah- insane.

       "He says we have to go now because some bad men are heading our way!" Sara warns.

       "We're all paranoid here, Sara, but let's not-"

         There was a rustle in the bushes before a dart whizzes past her ear and the needle digs firmly into a tree. Mack froze in place, waiting for a shower of darts, but for a long, awful moment, there was silence in the jungle.

        Then, Mack took a slow, cautious step towards the nearby tree. She grabbed Sara by the wrist and shoved her behind a large kapok tree with Zu secured slowly in her arms. A single bullet hit the tree, leaving a sizzling hole in the wood, and echoing a large boom throughout the rainforest. 

       Mack gasps and ducks quickly behind the tree with Sara as a shower of booming bullets real bullets, planted themselves into the tree, a deadly rainforest shower.

         "Run, run now,"

        Mack shoves Sara forward as they both run as far and as fast as they can through the jungle. She didn't look back and threw Sara out of the way every now in then as she and Mack were put again in the line of fire. The closest they got was a single bullet in the heel of Mack's shoe. And as they ran further, the firing became less accurate. The adrenaline coursing through her causes her surroundings to blur, but out of the corner of her eye she spots Zu loping beside them even as it got harder for him to catch up. A few more bullets whiz past them, a dart occasionally, one just barely missing Sara and bouncing off of an aluminum wrist cuff she wore on the opposite hand of her watch.

        The run as far as they can until Sara nearly collapses on the ground.

         "Come on!" Mack urges. "We have to keep running!"

        Sara shakes her head as she tries to slow her wheezing breath.

        "Can't... I have... asthma." She wheezes out.

         Mack lets out a frustrated grunt. She could already hear the thunder of those black boots trudging forward to proceed the shooting.

        "Oh... no." Sara coughs.

       Mack sets her gaze forward.

       "Stay here. I'll have to take care of this." She tells her.

       Mack practically throws herself through the bushes. Even with a mask on she could tell that the men in the dark suits were annoyed that she ruined their surprise attack. Mack grins as she uses the moment of shock to her advantage. She couldn't wait any longer. It didn't have to come to this, but, oh well. Mack threw out a hand and it connected, in sync to her mind. 

      With a swipe the man in front twists over with a sickening c***k. The other two finally realize what's happening and begin raising their guns, but the guns fly out of their hands and shove themselves right back against their chests. Mack uses one of the guns to shoot the other man in the pant leg. The last man gets up to run, but Mack holds him in place, the g*n coming down hard on his ribcage, pinning him to the ground. Blood starts to drip out of his ears and he crumples to the ground. Mack puts a hand to her head as searing pain starts to cause her vision to blur. She turns around to see Sara holding Zu, her eyes widened in horror. Her jaw falls open and she even drops Zu. The cub gives a nasty growl and scrambles to his paws.

         "I told you to stay!" Mack snaps, turning away from the bodies that lie limply on the jungle floor.

         Sara doesn't speak, her face frozen in fear.

         Mack lets out an exhausted sigh.

          "I-I was worried." Sara murmurs.

          Mack glares at her.

         "But you- you just-" Sara stammers.

        Mack shakes her head, cursing under her breath. "Let's talk. Follow me."

         Mack takes one last look at the men, one dead, one unconscious, and one gravely injured. She guiltily watches as Sara shakes her head as if to clear the image, and reluctantly follows Mack with Zu tagging close behind her.

         Mack took a careful path along the edges of the tropical forest. It had been awhile, but she had studied a map of the Trial, along with a path to avoid all cams. Sara was still shaken up, but managed to follow all her instructions when Mack either beckoned her to keep walking or stop altogether.

        "How far are we going again?" Sara mutters as she nearly trips over another patch of ivy.

        "Shh," Mack puts a finger to her lips and points off in the distance at a black object attached to a tree branch.

        "Cameras and microphones are everywhere," Sara whispers.

        She doesn't make a sound, but Mack was sure she saw the girl shiver.

       They come out in a soft clearing along with the emerald green moss that littered the ground. Mack does a double check to look for cams, they stood black and lifeless, and she nods.

        "Alright. We're good. Now let's dig," Mack says.

           "Dig?"

           Mack tosses her a wide stick split in half.

          "Extra security. It's possible a mic could pick us up out here, or extra cams were added after I got my map plan. If we are going to talk, we need to dig a ditch. And here's your shovel."

        Sara glares, but plants the makeshift shovel into the ground. And after an hour of barely a word, buckets of sweat, and a good level of dirt above the ditch, Mack hops in and Sara follows.

        Sara pats down some of the loose dirt and they both lay in the ditch after Mack gave one last look up above.

       "At least this dirt is soft. Probably from all the rain right?"

        Mack nods, lost in thought.

       Sara shifts awkwardly and smiles at Mack.

       "So... are you going to start or-"

       Mack looks up. "Oh! Yes! Umm..."

      Mack takes a deep breath. Telling her story to a stranger was like dancing at a party you weren't invited to. It felt all wrong to her...

       "As a kid, I lived in a place, very far away from here, called Ohio. I lived with my father and my mother and my little brother. One day, I had discovered my power to move things without touching them already after a coma. They had started taking kids away. I ran with my brother, my parents helped us hide in the garage. It was that night when my mother and father were visited by a man claiming to take away me and my brother."

        Sara froze up, suddenly startled. "That happened to me,"

         Mack sighs. "Did it? Well, kid, you and I are the lucky ones. Because after my parents refused, they came in by force. They shot my mother. Then my little brother took a hunting knife from the kitchen..." She pauses, her eyes glossing over. "They shot him down in less than a second..." Her breath came out shallowly. "My father and I ran. That was when they started closing the airports down to catch the runaways. They called us terrorists. But luckily, me and my father made one of the last available flights to China. There, we were offered shelter by a small group of people giving the other kids like us that the people were after, shelter, in the mountains. There was sanctuary in Thunder Mountain. Our population kept growing. And it wasn't until Siyu, our leading man, was assassinated. My father took leadership after his untimely death, and we continued to help more kids. Together we turned the sanctuary into a thriving little town buried inside a mountain. I came here two years ago in search for a pair of twins. I've been frozen for two years until a friend helped me to escape. That's my story. So what's yours, kid? Obviously you're not from here."

         Sara opens her mouth and pauses. "B-but what about the powers... surely it couldn't have been just a coma-"

        Mack groans. "We have time for explanations later. You know me. Now, I get to know you."

        Sara pauses, considering this, and nods.

       "I lived with my family in Kansas. It feels like only days ago. They did do something weird like that at my middle school. Only they didn't come to my house. They grabbed me and my brother Ross."

         Sara started to shake and tears pooled around her eyes.

         "It was my first day back to school. I'd been in a small coma in the hospital. The doctors had thought it was a stress coma. But when I came out I had changed. I spoke to my animals. People thought I was crazy. So I sent rabbits to chew their gardens. Some people thought I was weird. So I made mosquitoes infest their house. And every time I found more and more animals to contact. I could control them. Tell them what to do. A-and when they took us... it was my fault. I revealed myself at a gas station. Then they caught us. They took us to a cell. I protected my brother. There were only a few kids, Mack. We were kept in those small cells for I don't know? Weeks? They took us all in a line. One. By. One. They gave them something to erase their memories. It made them forget themselves. They'd ask them questions and the kids wouldn't know what to say. They assigned them names. They gave them false memories to replace the emptiness.

          Tears fell from her eyes.

          "I- I watched my brother come out, not know me. They carried him away. It was all I could do to fake my memory wipe because I tricked the doctor. I was given the name Lyla. Triggered with false memories placed in between my thoughts. It took awhile to fool my false parents. It took even longer to separate reality from fiction. At times it seemed so impossible to escape the Glacier Trial. But I did. I unsurfaced a file on Ross. It said he was here. I spent days in wait looking for him, but never found him. And I looked! I scared all people away with my new anaconda. I lay and wait and finally made the most foolish decision to finally trust someone! And now I find someone who has powers like me! So I'm begging you Mack, if not an explanation than at least some... help!" Sara sobs.

          Mack pauses, not daring to say anything. She was just in so much shock at Sara's story she couldn't even think. This girl had gone through some serious trauma. And this information- this information could go right to her father. It could really help. The only problem, that's all they were doing. Exchanging information. Even through Sara's tears Mack could tell there was much she wasn't telling her. And it was only fair. There were some secrets she had that she would never risk giving Sara. Mack could only hope that Sara would catch on to the information she was giving her. If her father found out that she'd revealed the location of safety to a stranger then she'd be grounded for life.

           Mack took Sara's hands in hers gently.

         "I'll do better than that. How about both?"

         Sara wipes her tears only to start crying a bit again.

         "I-I don't know what-what to say." She chokes out.

       "Sara let me start by saying that you were very brave to make it all this way. We're in the same boat, kid. This- this memory stuff is something we'll have to look into and uh..."

        Mack coughs finally realizing how off-topic she'd gotten. This kid needed her help. It didn't matter what information she had if she wasn't even in the right mental state to share it.

       "When did this coma happen?" Mack asks.

        Sara nods. "Right before the start of school. Doctors thought it was from stress because I was bullied in school. Terrified to go back."

        "What was your immediate response after waking up?" Mack asks.

         Sara pondered the question, confused.

         "Umm- I had a terrible headache and I oh- I was really hungry like I mean REALLY hungry!"

         Mack nods and sighs.

         "No one told you what I'm about to say, okay?"

        "Yeah?"

         "When I was almost thirteen, younger than you, I had the same coma. They call it the Transformation."

         Sara's eyes widened.

         "It changes our minds, our thoughts, our feelings. We wake up with a dire thirst of power. It grows for a day until it becomes a need and sparks energy. That energy then powers a different part of the brain. You can keep it anywhere. For you, power over animals. For me, telekinesis. Your power will grow and grow and perhaps find other places to hide, and it will consume you. It won't stop, it'll be a like a cancer, it will grow and grow and grow until-"

        Sara pauses finally realizing the truth. "Until it bursts. Until it kills you."

       "Well, that's what me and my father are trying to prevent." Mack assures her.

       Sara gives a weak smile.

        Mack squeezes her hand and continues. "So my father put in place a system in Thunder Mountain. After the Transformation kids were assigned the how  to be able to channel their power. My father chose their powers for them. So that maybe it could delay the inevitable."

       "What about the kids who didn't listen? What if they put their power into something else? Something that they weren't supposed to?" Sara asks.

        Mack looks away. "Only been one. My friend, Xeda. No one even knows but me. But...never mind. That's a story for another time. We need to get out of this Trial. We can look for your brother another time."

        "And?" Sara ventures.

         "And?"

        Sara rolls her puffy red eyes. "And why have you been here so long? And is every kid like this? And why didn't your friend come after you? And why are we here? And what will they do to us? And what caused this? AND WHY US!!!" Sara cries out.

        Mack looks away, shaken by Sara's anger and distress and sighs. "I wish I knew." She whispers to her.

       "Let's-let's get out of here. Obviously Natalie isn't here. I know a way to-

       "Natalie?"

        Mack squeezes her eyes shut. "You know what, never mind. Let's just go."

                                                                                            . . .

        It rained as they walked back through the jungle. Zu lay on Sara's shoulders purring softly to sleep until a raindrop dropped on his nose and he woke up with a start. There was no way the cams would recognize them through the heavy rain. The mics would only pick up the trudging of footsteps and that could be anyone from this Trial. They were safe. For now.

         Then suddenly a bolt of lightning struck the tree in front of them. Sara and Mack were thrown back in surprise and Zu's ears were twitching back and forth in alertness.

         "We have to get out of here! It'll start a fire!" Sara exclaims.

        The rain felt like small bullets as it flew down. The wind seemed to blow them back in any direction but forwards. Soon they both were sprinting through the mud to escape the rain. Mack spots a grassy hill, hidden behind the undergrowth. They sprint to the dryer spot on the top. From there they can see all the way to the Trial door. Mack couldn't believe it! She spots the wave of people hurrying to get through to the Trial door as the announcement to end the Trial for the day sounded around the jungle.

           Sara squints through the rain and looks to Mack for direction.

            "We should head down there and blend in!" She yells above the rain. "It's too rainy to see anyone clearly, so we won't be noticed! Let's head down to the camp!"

          Sara nods and they both hurry down to the crowd piling out of the Trial door.

          "Wait!" Sara cries as they reach the door.

            "What!" Mack snaps. "This better be important!"

           Sara looks at the ground. "It's just something I have to do. It'll only be a second."

          Sara picks up Zu and runs toward camp with Mack following right behind on her heel. There was no way she'd leave the girl out on her own.

         The mud flies out with a splash under Sara's black boots. Her pale gray clothes are smothered in mud so there was no way someone could tell them from normal Trial attire. Sara speeds up until she catches up with a boy with dirty blond hair heading for the door. She holds Zu out to him.

          "Josh? I believe he's yours. Or your sister's anyways. Send her my regards. Also send Liam my regards, bye!"

         The boy stops.

          "Don't worry she's okay. Courtney's with Noah so he's okay too."

          "What're you talking about?" Josh says.

          "I'm saying do you want the freaking cub?"

          Josh looks to Zu hesitantly. "No," He whispers. "I'm not Mya. I can't compensate for the animal that could kill us one day. You keep him."

         Sara bundles up Zu with a disappointed huff, setting the cub on the ground. Zu follows her back to Mack with large, curious eyes.

       "How did you know all that?" Mack asks as they hurry back to the Trial door.

         Sara grins softly as a bolt of yellow lightning flashes. Yellow. Not white or gray, yellow. Mack rushes back through the crowd until a familiar brown-haired boy stands beside a girl with dark hair.

         "Jordan!" She calls.

        The boy turns around abruptly.

         "Do I know you?" He says as they reach the Trial door.

         Mack backs away in horror to run back to Sara, only glancing behind her once. The boy wasn't Jordan. It was a ginger-haired kid with no curls upon his head. He had bluer eyes than Jordan's dark brown ones and the girl with that pretty raven black hair was actually a blonde-haired girl with many freckles.

         When Mack stumbles through the crowd she only catches a glimpse of Sara moving the other direction. She follows her as the front of her boot slaps against the mud. Finally, when they're out of the crowd Sara turns back to her.

         "Lost?" Sara grins as her world starts to fade away. There's a quick flicker to a sunny meadow, and Xeda stands in the place of the small Sarafina.

          "Xeda?" She says warily, staring back into the face of that girl she knew that stole some donuts a long time ago. It couldn't be real. Could it? Her hair flickers softly beneath the sun.

        Xeda starts to laugh. Not a funny, silly laugh she always recognized from her best friend, but one that made her spine tense to the bone.

         "Oh my gosh Mack! I missed you soooooo much!" She teases. She made a childish hugging movement and bursts out into another fit of laughter. Then her face hardens.

        "Well what a load of shi-!" She bursts out laughing again when she sees Mack's horrified face.

       Mack is nearly thrown back by her words. This couldn't be Xeda.

        The scenery changes and drowns our her laughter as the sky turns to a pulsing black and wind picks up. A thick layer of black goo and cobwebs coats a small, dull colorless barn and Xeda is replaced by Liam, complete with wild pupils that and stretch across his entire eye. Thin black veins that run down his body. He was a sickly yellow, the black dust around him casting a dark shadow around his hideous broken form. His eyes are glazed and crusty and as he took in breath, a low wheezing sound comes from his throat. He lets out an awful, gurgling laugh that makes Mack cringe back. 

         "Did you miss me!" He sneers, the same black liquid on the ground spewing out of his mouth. Mack is frozen in fear until the scene finally comes back to the rain and mud and trees of the Rainforest Trial with Sara still facing her and thankfully not the terrible sigh of Xeda or Liam.

        "Why are you shaking! Liam didn't come back did he? Or someone else?" Sara cries.

          Mack pauses, noticing her shaking hands. She looks Sara in the eyes dizzily, confused by the whole ordeal. "I just- thought- thought I saw- never mind. Let's just- just go back now."

         She turns back around until her spine tingles with a different feeling, the same one she felt when she stared into Xeda's mocking eyes and Liam's pools of dark misery.

         "Why would you guess Liam?" Mack asks.

         Sara shrugs. "I don't know. Just a thought."

         "But he'd have had to leave already. Actually-actually almost everyone else is gone. And you brought us out here, in the open. It was almost as if-"

         Mack pins her to the ground with a wave of her power.

         "-you knew the hallucination I just had."

        Sara struggles beneath her tight grasp. Fear blossoming in her irises.

        "Is there something you neglected to mention to me?" Mack hisses softly into her ear.

        Sara takes a deep breath, she strains her head forward until her mouth is right at Mack's ear. Her tensed shoulders dropped and that fear that had plastered across her face since Mack met the girl suddenly peeled away to the most eerie, smug expression Mack had ever witnessed.

          "You don't- you don't know me." She whispers to her ear.

        The small girl with the braids disappears. Mack stares around to find her again, but then the world starts to fade around her again and hundreds of voices spring up around her with their whispers growing to a roar.

      Her father laughs beside her. A Silent sweeps her legs out from under her. And there were so many voices, so many sights, it was all so real. Gunshots rang out in a mighty battle cry, Faces of frozen children appeared as she stepped, and all around her was the fear, the pain, the guilt, the anger. It all came crashing down, like she'd just opened Pandora's Box. The demons came out to play.

         "GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" Mack screams.

          It all stopped.

        Then out of the blackness, a large branch swings around. And knocks her squarely in the head.