The Elementals

Thankfully, I wake up before anyone can catch me. I stay quiet for as long as I can because everyone is still sleeping, but eventually my legs start to cramp up and I have to get up. I tiptoe around all the sleeping forms and over to the pool edge. I walk to the woods to start scouting for a civilization.

I hear footsteps behind me. I turn, expecting Coal or Sparky, but I see Steel.

“What are you doing?” he asks.

“Looking for a town or food, something like that.”

“Can I come?”

“Sure.” I say. Why not?

We start walking along the stream flowing from the pool. It becomes apparent that we are in the middle of nowhere, and will not find any other people. Figures. I try to find some edible plants, but all I really recognize are some wild strawberries. I pop one in my mouth. It’s tart and sweet all at once. I pick some more and then realize I can’t put them anywhere.

“Here,” Steel holds out a small metal bowl looking thing. “There was a bunch of metal bits in the rock.”

I drop the strawberries in it gratefully. “You can do that? Just take the metal from the rock?”

He nods. “I can sort of sense it there, with my magnetism.”

“Huh.”

“I guess I’m like a secondary element of earth, like Maple.”

I look at him. “That’s what I thought. I think Sparky is from fire.”

He nods. “But you and Breeze don’t have a sub element.”

“Well that means there’s still a least two more Elementals out there.” The thought that other kids are somewhere, confused and lonely, bothers me. “We should find them.”

“Or you just don’t have any sub elements.” Steel points out. “I mean I thought yours would be ice but that’s obviously not it.”

“What about Breeze?”

He thinks for a moment. “I don’t know.” He shrugs.

I freeze as the birds go quiet. I know this silence all too well. Steel looks at me questioningly, but I motion for him to wait. I listen. I can hear voices, and rustling leaves. I creep over behind a tree. Peering around it, I hold my breath. There are about 30 guys traipsing through the underbrush. A couple of them have tranquilizer guns. They’re headed straight back to the waterfall. I go over to Steel and we both duck behind a bush.

“There’s a cave under the pool. It’s by the waterfall, Coal knows.” I tell him. “Go warn the others and get them down there.”

“But what about you?” Steel objects.

“I’ll be fine. Go. Now."

Unwillingly, he gets up and starts to quietly move back to the waterfall. I wait until he’s out of earshot, before I move.

I follow the mini army along the river. Then I stop behind a tree. “Come on, Coal!” I hiss loudly. I hear the sound of 30 men doing a double take. I rush forward a little bit and say. “Keep going, Maple.”

Now I have their attention. I can hear them trying to follow us quietly. They sound like a small herd of elephants. I’m on the other side of the river.

“Go, go, go!” I try to mimic Terra. “We have to hurry. Faster!” I stomp around a bit, and then run along the bank for a second. The men start going faster with the sight of me.

I dash back into the woods and shout, “We have to go! Move, move, MOVE!”

I see that the river runs through a clearing up ahead. I race into it and position myself with my back to a boulder along the edge of the forest. The men burst into the clearing and I bring the water up and form an ice wall around, trapping all of us in.

I take out the guys with tranquilizers first. One of them tries to take a shot but I duck as the dart whizzes by my cheek. I leap up as they surge in on me, and do a sidekick, knocking the guy’s gun out of his hands. I land on it, hearing the barrel snap satisfyingly. I grab the second shooters gun by the end and twist it out of his grasp. I use it like a bat, and take out the other three guys with tranquilizers. I kick them into the river and freeze them.

I feel a pain in my side; one of the men has landed a blow. I whip around, snarling, and sock him in the gut. He falls to the ground and I vault off his back. I come down hard on some guy’s shoulder blade with my foot.

Ouch.

I duck under someone’s swing and uppercut them in the jaw. Six down, 24 to go. My feet get kicked and I go down. I crouch, then spring up and kick some man out of the way. I run to the river and jump over it. A few of the men follow, splashing through the water.

“Do you guys ever learn?” I ask and freeze their feet.

There’s still more though. I face them, my back protected by the ice wall. I drop, feinting to the left, then leap up and do a punch and kick. My fist connects with someone’s face, but my foot is grabbed. I fall to the ground, spitting dirt.

Someone pulls me to my feet.

“What were you saying about being more defensive, Flippers?” says Coal, holding the men off with a blast of fire.

“Didn’t Steel tell you to hide?” Is, along with gratitude and relief, is my first thought.

“He did.” Replies Coal. “But I have people issues, so I didn’t pay attention.”

“Naturally.”

Coal lets up the flames and I dash to the river so we’re on either side of the men. I bring up an arsenal of hail balls. Coal drives the guys to me, like cattle, and I nail them. While their down, I glance back at the men I trapped in the ice. One has a radio to his mouth. Too late I leap at him and knock it out of his hand. He sneers at me.

“Still think we’re easy, miss?”

I step back, cursing. I recognize the guy from his time as a Popsicle. I rush back to Coal.

“They just called for reinforcements.” I tell him.

“Run?”

“Run.” I say and we dash to the wall. I melt a hole and refreeze it behind us.

“What do we do about Breeze and Terra and everyone else?” I ask breathlessly.

“We can try and be a distraction, but if the guys find them...” Coal trails off.

“If we go back it would just be leading the men to them.” I hate how both choices are bad.

“Distraction is probably our best bet.” Coal says.

“Yup.”

We race through the woods, trying to leave as obvious a trail as possible.

“Thanks,” I say, “For coming and all.”

“I figured I owe you for busting me out even after I flipped on you.” Coal tramples some twigs.

“Nah, I deserved it. I mean I did kind of purposefully get you locked into a place you’d already said was a nightmare.” I say, “Did you really think I’d leave you?”

“Well, yeah,” he says.

I can’t tell whether I’m offended or not. Of course I wouldn’t leave him. I didn’t leave Maple, Sparky, or Steel. We slow down a little.

“They’re back up must have arrived by now.” Coals says.

I nod. “What’s the plan?”

“You’re the battle genius, Flippers.”

“We should find some water, and then wait for them to catch up.” I say, “Make them think they’ve forced the battle.”

“The river is somewhere to the left.”

We start moving in that direction. I see the brook through the trees. Coal and I race to it.

We don’t have to wait.

Only a few men emerge out of the trees this time. Ten or so. I lift the river to attack, when I see one of the guys has Steel. The water stops.

“Let him go.” I say to the man. I’m glaring at Steel though.

Why didn’t you just stay where you were?

Nobody moves. Coal and I are poised to attack, but the man doesn’t loosen his grip on Steel. The other guys slowly move in on us. I clench my teeth.

Why, why, WHY didn’t you just stay where you were?

I wave my hand. The men’s eyes flick over to it and I yell, spinning. The water sprays at them in little frozen needles. I rush the guy holding Steel. He drops Steel to block my attack and I dodge away at the last second as Steel whips around and punches. I hear an umpff from the guy and he falls to the ground.

Someone slams into me. It’s Coal. He’s been thrown into me by one of the guys. I try to scramble to my feet but a guy’s already there. He grabs shoulders and I’m running in place. Another man grabs Coal and Steel and I stop fighting.

We’re lead to a truck. No kidding. It’s this large, FedEx style thing except its white and says “Rush Delivery”. Guess the government would prefer that no one knows we exist.

We’re shoved into the back and the door is closed. I hear a buzzing noise and the door locks. I notice that the weird, white, glass stuff gives off a blue-ish light. I walk over to the door and see that the lock doesn’t require a key. It’s just a screen with a slot.

“Please Insert ID Card.” It blinks at me. I growl.

“What are you doing here?” snaps Coal. He and Steel start to argue.

“Stop it!” I shout over them. “Both of you.”

They stop. Coal starts to object but I glare at him.

“Why didn’t you stay with Breeze, Terra, Sparky, and Maple?” I ask Steel.

“I thought you might need some help.” He replies.

“Yeah, well we don’t-” Coal is mad.

I interrupt him. “Well you’re here now.” I tell Steel. “Got any brilliant ideas?”

Steel shakes his head. I slide down the wall and sit. The truck rumbles away, how it got through the trees I have no idea.

After a while I feel something poking me from my pocket. I fish it out. It’s the badge I nabbed from Popsicle guy. I smile. A few more minutes and the truck screeches to a stop. Coal and Steel have started arguing again. I hear some doors slam and I stand up.

I walk back over to the door and slip the badge out from its plastic holder. I slide it into the slot and hear a beep, then the door clicks, unlocked. Quietly, I push it open. We’re at a gas station, no one’s around. The men must’ve gone around to pay.

“Shut up and get over here!” I whisper to Steel and Coal.

Their faces are priceless. I wave the card at them and hop off. The tank is almost full, so I pull out the nozzle. I creep up to the front and see two things. There’s no one in the seats. The keys are dangling from the ignition.

“Do either of you happen to know how to operate a truck?” I ask them. Both of them shake their heads. “Well then I guess its driver’s Ed for all of us.”

I hop into the door and slide to the wheel. Driving can’t be that hard, right? I mean gas, brake, steer. Pretty simple stuff. I step on the gas pedal. The engine tries to move, but it won’t budge, and makes a sound like a dying walrus.

“I think you have to take it out of park.” Steel says and jumps in next to me, pulling a stick to my right.

“Oh,” I say and try the gas again. Sure enough, the truck zooms forward. I yelp and slam on the brake.

“Are you sure you’ve never driven before, Flippers?” Coal asks sarcastically, running up and climbing in before I run him over.

“Not helping.” I mutter.

"I think you’re doing great.” says Steel.

“Thank you.” I say, glancing triumphantly at Coal.

Haltingly, we lurch out of the gas station. Thankfully, the highway is empty. I pull out and we start down the highway.

“Is there a map somewhere?” I ask. I hear them rifling around, but I’m too fixated on the road to check myself.

“Nope.” says Steel.

So not only are we being chased by the government; we’re in a truck we don’t know how to drive, separated from half the group and we have no clue as to where we’re going. Fantastic.

“So,” Steel says. “What’s the plan?”

“We drive until we run out of gas.”

“Then what?”

“Then we find the others.”

It’s not much of a plan. Too bad.