Winter's Awakening: The Metahumans Emerge (Winter's Saga #1) (14 page)

I remembered how mom always smelled so good. I don’t know how she did it, but she always had a hint of a floral fragrance about her. I remember when I was a little girl I would curl up in her lap, snuggle my face into the crook of her neck and fall asleep feeling so safe with her strong arms and scent encircling me.

In the middle of those memories, I felt a tugging in my heart. It was weak, but it was there. I felt my mother somewhere in those buildings. She was in so much pain and was so scared. The more I knew where to focus the stronger the connection I could make with her emotions. Mom was alive, but barely.

“Meg, Meg! What is it? What do you feel? Is mom in there? Is mom alive? Meg wake up! What’s happening?” The boys were shaking my shoulders to bring me back to reality. I had been crying.

My heart still ached so deeply from the pain I felt emanating from our mother, but I managed a nod. Then I forced myself to tell my worried brothers everything I had just felt.

“They’ve hurt mom. She’s hurt and barely alive,” I said through quivering lips.

“Williams is going to burn for this.” Alik was shaking with anger.

“But she’s alive,” Evan said as if needing to hear the words out loud again. “Mom’s alive, and we’re going to get her back. Alik, you need to drive, man. We’re looking too conspicuous stopped here on the road.”

Thank God for Evan. He was always so level-headed, and boy did we need level-headed now. Alik pulled away slowly from the curb and pointed the truck away from the ghostly white compound. We had work to do and each of us felt both heavier with the weight of the endeavor at hand, and lighter at the hope our plan gave us. Mom was alive, and we were on our way to get her. Each of us prayed silent prayers for strength and skill, for the sake of our mother.

Chapter 39 Ammo and Donuts

Whoever said boys don’t like shopping has never been with them when they walked into a sporting goods store. Their eyes lit up like stars shooting across a dark night sky when they peeked into the window.

“You ready, Ev?” I asked, attempting to revive him from his ammo ogling.

“Oh, yeah,” he grinned.

We decided to walk through the sporting goods store before closing so Alik could memorize the merchandise layout. We wanted a very specific plan to get the necessary items for tomorrow’s operation and though Evan was pretty sure he could disengage the alarm system so we could move around undetected for as long as we needed, we didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

Just one rent-a-cop walking around with a flash light for a nightstick could completely ruin our plans. And mom didn’t have time for us to waste. She was alive, but wouldn’t be for too much longer without proper medical help. She was depending on us. There was no room for errors.

We left the store at 8:30 that night. We would be back at 2am, so we had some time to kill. Personally, I was getting a tongue-sore for those white powdered donuts. A quick stop at a gas station filled the truck, and my need for that particular sugar rush.

Evan drove us to a nearby dog-friendly park, where we did just that, parked. Maze jumped happily out of the truck and stretched. First he leaned forward, then back with his tail high in the air and finally he shook all over. That boy sure can shed, I thought as a silver cloud billowed around his shaking coat. Then he let out a wickedly huge yawn and trotted off to find, undoubtedly a place to sniff. I couldn’t help but smile after him. I have never had to use a leash with him. He’s always just come when I called to him. He’s like my constant shadow, ever present and dependable. Through this whole traumatic week, my sweet boy has been by my side.

All these thoughts were warm and fuzzy around my mind right up until I caught sight of Maze running full speed chasing a brown furry thing. Oh, good grief. Maze found a squirrel to torment. You’d think that boy would learn, I thought shaking my head. He let out some playful barks up into the tree; paws perched halfway up the trunk. He just wanted the yummy smelling brown thing to come down and play with him.

My brothers were walking toward the park’s restrooms stiffly. We were all so tense. It would be good for us to hang out here for a few hours and just run around, like, oh, I dunno, kids, maybe? I made a sour face at that thought. Williams tried to steal our childhoods, our lives. But mom gave it back to us. We knew how to play. Well, we knew how to play fight!

I raised my hands above my head and pulled myself easily up on point, stretching. I allowed my back to roll down so I touched my toes. I held my nose to my knees for a moment just enjoying the feel of my muscles.

Keeping Maze within sight, I found a nice spot of grass and sat down. I stretched one leg out to the right and leaned down to drape myself flat on it. Then I stretched the other leg out to the left and crawled in an arch around to stretch across it, too. Mom and I used to warm up like this when we’d do yoga together. I focused on my breathing … in through my nose, out through my mouth. I glanced toward the bathrooms, but Alik and Evan hadn’t come out yet.

I breathed again, in through my nose and out through my mouth, and abruptly stopped. I held my breath. My heart started racing with adrenaline as my fight-or-flight instinct kicked into overdrive.

Something wasn’t right.

I could feel it.

Chapter 40 Playtime at the Park

I took a quick inventory trying to figure out what I was sensing. Maze was nosing in the grass by a sycamore tree some fifty yards away. Evan and Alik were still not back from the restrooms.

Something wasn’t right.

Shoot. What is it?

I focused on feeling for my brothers and felt nothing unusual. They were still in the restroom where it felt like Evan had devised a way to increase the efficiency of the toilet. Apparently, it was broken and was constantly running, wasting water. Evan, our environmentalist, couldn’t just let that go. But his handyman efforts were annoying the heck out of Alik, as usual.

Maze was fine. I was too far away to feel mom. It wasn’t that. Then, what was—?

And that’s when I felt eyes boring into the back of my head. In one quick movement I jumped up, around and into a crouched position. My eyes caught sight of a red dot dancing on my ankle. What the heck?

Then I felt him. He was grinning into his weapon’s telescope relishing the feel of the trigger, wishing he could aim a few feet higher at my heart. The red dot was coming from a laser sniper rifle!

Without thinking, I jumped and dove to my left, toward our parked truck just in time to hear a sharp whistle and thump. The dirt where I had been crouched half a second before exploded in a whisper as the bullet hit.

I felt his anger at the missed shot. Staying on my belly, I crawled commando-style the rest of the way to the truck to use it as a shield.

He had been so excited to see me separate from my brothers, even if it were just for a few minutes. He figured the best way to take us down was one-by-one.

I let out a low whistle getting Maze’s attention. His ears perked up immediately and his sharp yellow eyes locked onto mine. Maze didn’t just run, he flew toward me and was at my side almost instantly. He looked at me, ready for instructions, the fur on the back of his neck standing and a low growl deep in his throat told me he understood there was danger and he was ready for battle.

I peered around the edge of the truck looking toward where I sensed the gunman. Pushing my panic aside, I forced myself to feel.

He wasn’t alone and these guys had revenge on their mind. Oh my goodness, they were the same group of thugs that attacked us at the motel. We had embarrassed them to their boss, and they wanted payback.

Just then, I realized my brothers were about to walk out of the brick building that housed the bathrooms. They were about to be sitting ducks to the shooters. We were strong and fighters, but we weren’t invincible. I had no doubt we could be shot and killed.

All this time, I’d been so worried about rescuing mom I hadn’t even considered what would happen if I were captured. If we’re caught, Williams would no longer need to keep mom alive. Matter of fact, she was a liability because of all the information she knew about him. If we die, she dies.

Panic rose in my throat hot and violent enough to make me feel sure I was going to throw up. Swallowing hard, I allowed myself to react instinctively.

I slipped the truck’s front passenger door open and crawled inside, ordering with just a glance, for Maze to follow. I thought I remembered Evan leaving the keys in the ignition when we first pulled up, and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw them still dangling from the steering wheel’s column.

Moving as quickly as I could, while still ducked down, I slipped over to the driver’s seat.

Okay, now may be a good time to mention that I’ve never driven a car. I know I’m the oldest of the kids, but I just never had cause to learn to drive. Besides, it was easier to let the boys do it so I could boss them around with both hands. I was wishing I’d made them teach me, but there was nothing I could do about, now.

I didn’t let myself think, I turned the key just as I’d seen the boys do dozens of times and felt the truck roar to life. Peeking over the dashboard just enough to see where I was going, I grabbed the truck’s handle thingy and forced it to move so the red line pointed to “D” which I hoped stood for drive and not self-“D”estruct.

The truck lurched forward as I tried the pedals. Okay, I’m a fast learner and all, but when I guessed the correct pedal to move me forward, I didn’t gauge how hard to step on it. Suffice it to say, I now understood the expression “burned rubber.”

In a matter of two seconds, I’d closed the distance between where the truck had been parked and the restrooms where my brothers were already hurrying out. Apparently, they heard some idiot peeling out in the parking lot (rolling eyes).

Positioning myself between the guns and my brothers, I slammed on the break, and started screaming, “Alik, Evan…get in the car! They’re shooting at us! Quick! Jump!”

Alik grabbed the passenger side door and yanked it open just in time to hear a bullet shatter the back glass. He threw Evan in the truck then slammed the door shut. I could feel him seething with anger and boy, I could relate. He opened the door to the back seat and jumped in yelling, “Drive, go, Meg! Go! GOooooo!”

He didn’t have to say it because I was already doing it!

Bullets from at least three separate guns riddled the left side and back of the SUV. I prayed that none of them made contact with any of my family or the tires…or the gas tank. Running out of specifics to pray for or the sensibility to think at all, I just found myself begging God, oh, please, oh please…over and over.

I guess he heard me because only a few minutes had passed between when I first felt something was wrong and our escape through a rain of bullets. Somehow we were able to get away unscathed, except Evan who was nursing a headache from being slammed into the center console of the truck by his overprotective brother.

“You sensed him? You could feel his thoughts? Wow, Meg, you gotta know how cool that is!” Alik kept looking over at me like he was seeing me for the first time.

“He was aiming for your ankle. He wasn’t shooting to kill. Just maim. Williams is still trying to bring us in to The Institute his way. He wants us injured and unable to fight. He wants us to plead for our mother’s safety.” Evan’s way of viewing the world was always so clear-cut, unclouded by all these erratic emotions that not only tied me down but gave me wings. I admired him.

“He’s in for one heck of a surprise tomorrow.” Alik’s voice had an angry edge I completely understood.

Tomorrow needed to end well.

Chapter 41 So What Were You Doing at 2am?

We drove till we were too anxious to drive anymore and decided to park behind a quiet church surrounded by middle class homes in an unassuming neighborhood. The shattered back window let all the California night’s chill into the truck, so my brothers layered on as much of their clothes as possible. We found that the doctor had a large comforter folded neatly under the far back seats, so the boys used that.

I didn’t need anything besides my Maze. He instinctively knew to snuggle up to me and share his fur. We rested like this for a few hours, though I don’t think any of us slept. We were not only terrified for mom, but worried the thugs would jump out of the dark and start shooting.

At 1:45am Evan sat up straight, rubbed the sleep from his eyes and nudged Alik and me. It was time.

We drove to the same sporting goods store we visited six hours before. All the lights were out and the parking lot was empty, except one rusted-out compact car backed into a spot on the far left of the store. My guess was that it didn’t start when the owner tried to leave today and it was left here with plans to attempt revival come daylight. Maybe those were just my hopes, because if that car belonged to a night guard, we were screwed.

The boys and I sat and watched the store for fifteen minutes just in case there was someone in there. No lights turned on. No one drove up. No police cruiser. Just we three, and Maze, staring at a store chockfull of what we needed to save mom.