At first there was darkness, then there were flames. The way the fire coiled around itself was familiar. Satisfying. The landscape began to grow around me, tombstone, crooked trees and figures in the distance with guns blasting away at everything in sight. Six people hid behind the tombstones which slowly crumbled away at the touch of the bullets. Then everything just stopped, bullets stopped mid shot and the people stopped moving, but the flames still flickered around me like a boundary. I moved towards the people to inspect them as I got closer their features became familiar, Adam shielded himself behind the furthest tombstone, a lightning bolt stuck in the air leaving his fingers, the metallic blue ripping through the darkness and what looked like a javelin in his other hand. Next to him was Ellie, her clothes were in shambles, strips of maroon laced her scarf that was now wrapped tightly around her left arm. She starred at my sister who was beside her, tears ran down her eyes as she looked down at her lap where Megan lay crimson dripping from her side, her hair was knotted with leaves and dirt tucked into each curl. Her eyes were closed so loosely that I could barely tell if she was alive. By the crooked tree curled up behind a tombstone was... myself. I saw myself with tears welling up in my eyes looking at Megan's body, my fingers combed through my hair with flames still glowing from my palms growing across my arms. The last person hid behind a tree, but I couldn't see their face. Their body was covered in a silver shroud that began to blind me the more I looked. My heart started beating louder until it was the only thing I could hear, just the thud of my heart against my ribs. Without warning, I let out a scream that rattled my surroundings until they completely changed into the face of a little girl with her sunlight gold hair in pigtails who smiled grimly.

"They're all awake. Yay!" she squealed as she ran away from me. "Now we can have fun with our new playthings."

I have been called many things in my life, but never did I expect to be called someone's plaything. The girl with golden pigtails ran around me in circles, she was no more than eight years old. I tried to turn my body to follow her around, then I realized that my hands and legs were bound to a chair, I also had duct tape over my mouth. The walls around me were grey and depressing with wear and tear embellished all over them. At the end of the wall I saw a metal door, next to it was a shelf of bags and weapons. Lights hung from the extended ceiling from thin wires, swinging to the smallest gusts of wind. When she came back around to look at me with a big smile.

"Don't worry I won't bite, but I'm not too sure about them." She said whilst pointing behind me, I tried to turn my head to see what she was pointing at, but she started laughing. "Let me help you silly." She said as she spun my chair around to face my peanut gallery, Stephy, Megan, Adam and Ellie, all of them were in the same position as I was and none of them looked to please to see me. "Let's get these off you." She said as the tape across all of our faces flew off and floated in the middle of the circle."

"OLIVER STARK, I SWEAR TO GOD, I AM GOING TO END YOUR USELESS, PATHETE-" Adam screamed at me before his tape flew back on to his face.

"Someone is grumpy." The girl said as she walked into the middle of the circle and sat with legs crossed. "Sooooooooo," she said looking at me. "Do you know any fun games we can play before my sister comes back?"

I looked at the unsettled group of people worriedly then back at the girl. "Maybe, you can untie us, and we can play tag," I said clearly trying to hide the worry in my voice.

"Boring!" she said and with that, I felt a force shove me to the floor whilst still on the chair. I could still see the little girl she turned herself towards Megan. "What about you miss?"

"Firstly," Megan said calmly. "What's your name?"

"My name is Amelia." She cheerfully.

"Well Amelia, my name is Megan. It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too."

"So, what do you like to do here? Wherever here is?"

"Well the camp has so many things to do, but when my sister isn't around I go swimming in the lake." Amelia inched closer to Megan.

"Can you tell me where exactly we are? I can't really remember much." Her voice was soothing and very relaxed.

"You maybe don't remember because you fell from the sky into our lake." She said innocently, mimicking the actions of something falling from the sky and crashing with her hands. "You're at Camp Nestry in Montana, we're right at the shore of Lake Dickey."

Megan looked around at the rest of us. "Why are you at camp during the beginning of March? Don't you have school."

"I thought you wanted to play games, Megan," Amelia said with a sudden drop of cheer in her voice. I felt my chair slowly left of the ground, I looked around to see that I wasn't the only who started to levitate slowly into the air.

"You're right, I'm sorry. I just wanted to know you first that's all." Megan sounded less sure of what she was saying. "Let's play some... uh."

"You don't have any games to play," Amelia said with a lot more aggression. We began to float higher into the air, Megan tried to get words out, but she started to panic.

"Amelia! Put them down." A voice called out from out of my field of view.

"Awwwww, you're no fun," Amelia said as she dropped us from midair, I hit the ground shoulder first with a groan while everyone landed upright, I could see a smile form on Adam's cheeks through the tape on his mouth. As I looked around I saw a silver glint deep in my sock, half dazed I realized what it was.

"If you break them before the counsellor sees them, who knows what she'll do to you. She might take away your power." The voice said while coming closer.

"NOOOOOOO! Not that! Please!" Amelia wailed.

"What do you want with us?" Ellie asked before having tape fly onto her mouth

"Sorry, not taking any questions." The voice said coldly. "Amelia, the counsellor will be here in a few minutes and you know she doesn't like it when we interrupt."

"But Hailey..." Amelia said with a whine.

"No buts, let's go," Hailey said as she walked into the centre of the circle and grabbed Amelia. "Don't move you guys, oh wait you can't anyways." She said as she dragged the little girl behind her.

I heard a door slam from behind me. "This is all your fault, Oliver." Stephy started.

"Yeah, yeah, we can talk about that when we get out of here. Megan, there's a dagger in my sock that they didn't take off me." I said to her.

"Come closer, I can't reach from here."

"What the hell are you even doing here. I thought you didn't want to come on this mission. I thought you said it wasn't your problem." Stephy asked while I tried to shimmy myself to Megan.

"I changed my mind," I said as I felt nimble fingers graze my foot.

"Well, you changing your mind has cost us quite a bit. We were supposed to be in South Dakota but thanks to you were short a few hundred miles." Stephy began to shout. I could feel Megan's fingers grasp the hilt of the dagger and pull it out of its sheath.

"It sucks that we got captured by a crazy super powered nine-year-old but I'm not letting you out of my sight."

"Are you serious! One minute you're mad at me, the next you don't want me out of your sight. What the hell is wrong with you!" She continued to scold me.

"You know I haven't quite figured that out," I said bluntly as I felt hands grab the side of my chair, I looked up to see Megan cutting me free. After cutting the rope from my leg I rolled on to the floor and Megan went over to my sister to cut her free. I struggled onto my legs but when I finally got to my feet, I could properly see the room around me. We were definitely in a warehouse, it was completely barren except for a table on the far table with backpacks and the rest of our equipment by the only exit from the room. On the ceiling were sky lights that revealed the sapphire sky above, dirt grimed the pale glass. I heard the tape being ripped from the faces of the rest of the group behind me, when I looked back the force a punch knocked me to the floor. I felt the fists bombard my face with elegant, blinding speed before it was ripped away. I could barely see but I could make out the three girls trying to force Adam off of me.

"You asked me if you could come after you clearly stated you didn't want to be anywhere near this mission in the first place!" he yelled. "Then you ruin our teleport and jeopardize the mission entirely. I get you wanting to protect your sister, but WE HAVE FOUR DAYS TO GET THIS DONE." He continued to scream.

"I messed up, okay," I said frustratedly as I picked myself off the floor. "There's nothing else we can do about it, Ellie can't take me back because one she won't have enough energy to take you guys anywhere and two she probably can't even teleport out of this room."

"That wouldn't have been a problem if you weren't here." He said furiously.

"WELL HE IS, AND NOW WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH IT. NOW RELAX." Stephy shouted and once she was done, I felt my body loosen up, my rapidly beating heart slowed down to a steady drum. Everyone around me seemed to relax, even Adam. Stephy came towards me placed her hand against my head sending a shot of warmth through my body and stopped at my chest where it seemed to grow, it was the only warmth I've felt since my fingers first became match sticks. The pain from Adam's onslaught of punches subsided to pulsing ache.

"Okay guys, plan?" Megan asked as she walked over to the equipment, grabbing a backpack and two poles the length of my arms, each pole a glistening obsidian black that clinked as they were pulled from the table. She strapped them to her belt and they slowly faded from existence. She grabbed the other bags and items from the table.

"Plan is to get out of here before those two girls come back," Ellie said pacing around the circle of chairs.

"The little girl said this was place was a camp. We have to be careful, we don't know how many people are out there." Megan said as she came back to the group with our bags in hand.

"Someone should sco-" I started but was cut off.

"No, you don't get input here. You may be here, but this still isn't your mission." Adam said taking his bag from Megan. "Megan, use your powers and go out, try and scout the place. See how many Amps were dealing with."

"I don't know how long I can hold a mirage but it's definitely not long enough to scout this whole place." She said as she handed Ellie and my sister their bags.

"Then stay in the shadows, okay, now go before someone comes back," Adam said sternly. Megan handed me my bag and my dagger, but her attention was elsewhere. She sighed and walked towards the door, but before she could open the door, it swung open. Megan disappeared into thin air as three figures burst into the room. They looked at us in shock. Adam was the first to react, he grabbed the lightsaber hilt from his bag and with a flash of silver, it extended into a giant javelin. He charged at them but suddenly stopped. Then I felt trapped in my own skin, I tried to move my head, but nothing happened. The three-people moved closer, a boy and two girls.

"I swear we had five of them." Said the girl, her voice was the same as the girl form earlier. She looked like the Amelia, but her hair was darker like the sun at dawn.

"That means you either don't know how to count or that you've lost one. Now if you don't want us to take away your powers I suggest you find the one you lost quickly." The other girl said from beside her with a strong British accent, she had short coffee bean brown hair that hung just above her shoulders.

"Yes, Ma'am," Hailey said before she ran out of the warehouse.

"Can I kill them." The boy said with a bit too much excitement for someone his age. He looked about twelve years old and shared the same British accent as the girl. His hair was a similar colour but in a messy faux hawk. "I haven't killed anyone in a while."

"Ethan, I've already told you we can't do that. They will make us very rich and once that happens we can finally kill the others." The girl said.

"Hey!" Adam shouted at them, the boy got startled and I felt my body loosen but then the grip came back tighter. The girl, on the other hand, did not look amused. She looked at Adam with a scowl that shot shivers down my spine. She walked up to him with so much elegance, when she finally reached him, she flicked him in the head which knocked him to the floor like a domino.

"You know actually, we just need the Stark's. They are the ones that Transgress wants, and for a lot of cash I do add." She said as she coldly pushed him to the floor, where he lay in the say position he stood.

"So, I can kill the Blonde one," Ethan said with a giddy smile.

"Hey, wait, you don't want to do that." I heard Stephy's voice from behind me. The girl looked up and looked up and walked toward where Steph's voice came from, leaving my field of view.

"Hey! Get your hands off her!" Ellie's voice said before the sound of a slap echoed the warehouse.

"You. Shut up. I'll do what I want. You come to my camp and try to tell me what to do. No, I don't think that's how this is going to work." She said powerfully before I heard her footsteps echo through the room again. "You must be Stephanie Stark, they said you had beautiful eyes, but beauty cannot begin to express it." her voice was soft and warm.

"Why, how flattering. Why don't you let me, us, go and-" Stephy said softly.

"You maybe beautiful but not that beautiful." She said laughing before she appeared before me. "You must be Oliver then. My, my, you Stark's are an attractive brood." She slides the back of her hand against my face.

"Who are you and how do you know us," I said with my eyes fixated on her.

"Ellen Nestry and the boy over there, the one who is holding you in place, that is my little brother Ethan. You probably don't know us, but everyone knows you two. You're celebrities, Transgress' most wanted, with a marvellous bounty on your head that could make a priest murder, just for a quarter of what you're worth."

"You really think they are going to pay you for handing us over, they'll screw you over before you have the chance to give us up."

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see because they are on there way," Ellen said slowly making the moment last.

"You can't trust them, they'll kill you after killing us."

"We have a camp full of telekinetics, we can protect ourselves here."

"Wait," Adam shouted from the floor. "A whole camp of telekinetic Amps, how the hell do you find that many people with the same power."

"They aren't Amps, idiot, it's my power. I can take the power of any person around and feed it to as many people as I want."

"So, you're a power transmitter." Adam taunted.

"You could say that, if you want to sound even more like an idiot then you look." She said before walking away from me.

"Wait, how are you able to choose with all the power surrounding us, shouldn't you be transmitting any of our powers," I said while watching her stroll towards her brother.

"Wow, all of you are horribly stupid. I can control whoever's power I want to project." She said. "Ethan let go of the Stark's and tie up these other two, get someone to watch over them then meet us by the lake."

"Yes, ma'am." He said, suddenly my body lost all its tension and I fell limp on the floor.

"Let's go, you too. I have money to make."

Ellen zip tied our hands together behind our backs before taking us out of the stuffy warehouse, leaving Adam and Ellie gagged and tied to the chairs in the centre of the room. As we exited, sunlight brushed over my skin, the light was nearly blinding but as my eyes adjusted the beauty of the camp peaked through the tree. Lush green leaves rustled above the three of us, the sun glowed through branches of the different trees around us. Before us, the dirt path twisted like a snake through shrubbery, I could see the clearing ahead. Beautiful oak wood cabins surrounded an empty patch of land, curving around it like two C's facing the patch. People roamed around the grounds happily, families sat together on picnic blankets laughing, enjoying their life. Objects levitated carelessly above the camp, everyone seemed to enjoy, in the centre of the patch was a statue of bronze that was the exact likeness of Ellen, it stood tall and proud, hands outstretched almost like wings ready to protect everyone around it, people kneeled down at its legs, worshipping it. As Ellen walked past them with us in bonds they all started to cheer, some even broke into tears.

"Do you like it?" Ellen asked whimsically.

"A statue for yourself, how self-conceited," Stephy said sharply.

"I didn't build, they did. I gave them gifts, so they made it for me as a thank you."

"Seems more like an offering," I whispered to myself.

"Offering, tribute, call it what you want," Ellen said.

"They bow to you like you're a God," Stephy said in disgust.

"A God gives gifts to her servants, does she not?" She asked quirkily.

"You're not a God, all you are is an Amp with an untamed God complex. There are probably hundreds of more amps with the same power as you. You aren't special." Stephy said confidently.

Ellen stopped in her tracks and turned towards her. "What I'm doing here is good. I'm giving normal people something they can't have. I'm giving them the ability to do the impossible. How they choose to perceive me is up to them. I mean look at them," She said as she pointed at them. "Don't they look happy with where they are." I wanted to disagree with her, but they were all living in a fantasy that they could only have thought about in their dreams. They all looked like they enjoyed being in the camp, being able to have powers, like they weren't useless.

"You're running a cultist camp where you're the thing they worship. Don't you think that it's wrong?" I said before she slapped me. Stephy darted to my side to comfort me as the woman narrowed her eyes.

"I am this camp. I didn't force anyone of them in here nor did I tell them to stay. That was their choice and so was the statue. They made their decision. I have provided them with food and water, education for the kids, hell even permanent residence for those who are too addicted to leave. They never have to worry about paying rent or any kind of bill ever again. I'm not raising an army or a secret organization, I'm just giving them something to escape the reality of life." She said a bit more forcefully. "I don't think you have seen the news in the last month, but the world is falling apart. Vortex has been taking more and more cities by the day, Transgress is taking in more and more people for suspicion of being an Amp. World leaders are trying to keep the peace but what can they do. All of this started with you two."

"What's Vortex?" My sister asked trying to get closer to Ellen.

"You see, you've been in hiding so long you don't even know about another side effect of what you started, and you have the audacity to call me bad. At least I didn't commit matricide."

"Don't. Dare. Mention. Our. Mother." I spoke with force, feeling my heart well up in anger.

"How are you even able to pay for all that," Stephy asked, changing the topic, keeping the venom from spilling from her lips.

"Family inheritance but that's running dry. We've tried to robbing stores and banks but that's not enough. That was until our cash cows fell into our lake." Ellen said sinisterly.

"So, you used your powers to rob places?" I asked

"I never personally committed the crimes, they did," she said gesturing to the people.

"You're turning them into criminals just so you can continue giving them power. That's horrible." Stephy said.

"It's business, missy. This is the easiest way for them to make a living.

"And you're going to still try to make me believe that you aren't running your own cult." I hissed.

"You have children here, their barely old enough to decide what flavour juice they want. What you did was show them power and now they don't want to lose it. Now you're turning their parents into criminals for your agenda." Stephy said to her with a scowl. The zip tie seemed to get tighter behind my back, I could hear my sister wince from beside me like she felt the same way.

"Well, that's going to change when I sell you off." She said with confidence. Behind us a pitter-patter of footsteps raced towards us, as we turned around we saw that it was Ellen's brother racing towards us with a grin from cheek to cheek and speckles of blood on his shirt.

"All tied up again. Miles and Harsh are watching them very carefully." Ethan said gleefully. "It was really hard not killing them, but I couldn't help but have a little fun with the blond one."

"You might as well go kill him and the girl anyways. You deserve it." Ellen said as if she was doing him a favour.

"Wait!" I shouted turning to Ethan before he could leave. "You can't kill them."

Ellen grab my shoulder and yank me around, having me stare into her chocolaty brown eyes. "Why not."

"Ellie is twice as important to Transgress than both of us combined, they will definitely want her alive," I said quickly before she could change her mind about it.

"Okay then, just kill the boy and bring the girl here." She said without hesitation. "Or is he more valuable as well."

"No, you can kill him," I said before Stephy kicked me in the shin.

"He means, you can't kill him either. Transgress will want to know where we were going with three of there most wanted, which he knows about." Stephy said while giving me the stink eye.

"So, no killing," Ethan said as if he was going to cry.

"If I find out that their lives are worthless we'll keep them and torture them. For now, we'll give Transgress you two first and then bring them out."

"Oh yay. Torture is a lot more fun than just killing them." Ethan squalled as he ran towards he's sister. We began to walk again, passing through the heart of the camp. People stared at Ellen with bewilderment while others would bow to her as we passed. It was like the whole camp was staring at us like we were on death row, which we pretty much were. From the crowd of people, I recognized Amelia in her ponytails, she had the same evil smile on her face. Her sister Hailey walked up to Ellen and whispered something in her ear before running back to her little sister.

"Well, it seems your other friend has disappeared. No one can find her anywhere." She said with clear anger in her voice. "She didn't seem important anyways. Now hurry up, we have to be at the beach for your pick up."

Ethan and his sister lead the path but always looked back at my sister and I to make sure we weren't too behind or gone. We walked through the sparse forest that grew around us leaving the camp behind us, trudging over uneven ground. While walking Stephy caught my eye and began to slow down a bit, so I did the same. We stayed far enough out of ear shot but kept our pace enough to be inconspicuous.

"How are we going to get out of this?" Stephy whispered to me.

"If we take out Ethan, we might have a chance to get out of here," I said softly.

"What about Ellen?"

"If we tried to go back we would have a whole camp of on us, we could try to knock them both out and tie them up but Transgress is on their way meaning we don't have a lot of time."

"So, what? You want to leave Adam and Ellie?"

"Of course not," I said trying to think of something. "Megan is still out there, she might have of gotten them out and is trying to lead them to us."

"What if she isn't?"

"Oi. You two." Ethan shouted. "Move faster."

"Listen, I'm more concerned about the both us right now cause last time we were around Transgress they didn't seem to mind killing us," I said as we began to move faster.

Stephy was silent for a few seconds then sighed under her breathe. "Okay fine. Do you have a way of getting out of these zip ties?"

"I've been trying to heat up my hands but it's not working."

"Well make it work faster because I can see the coast of the lake from here." She whispered. She wasn't wrong, the dirt path began to slowly fade into sand. Ahead the jewel blue water rippled in the distance, small waves crashed over the shore with urgency. The rustle of leaves faded into the swishing of water, it was hard to make myself angry with the soothing sounds of nature calming my soul, but I concentrated on the things that had already happened today. With the thoughts building up in my head, my arms began to heat up. After a few seconds, I grabbed the zip tie with my fingers and I could feel the plastic melt slowly in between my fingertips. Finally, with a quick tug, it snapped off and I quickly shove it into my pocket with only Stephy noticing. The trees began to disappear as we broke into the coast of the lake, the beautiful lake gave a radiant glow as the sun beat against it, guards towers stood proudly watching the massive lake. The sand crunched under my shoes, I tried to come up with an escape plan before Stephy and I were lifted into the air and tossed towards the closest guard tower.

"Stay!" Ellen said while staring at us like we were the catch of the day. "They'll be here any minute now."

"You're really going through with this even though they will probably take or kill you and your brother?" Stephy asked disgruntledly.

"For money, yes. Without hesitation and if they try something like that we'll just kill them. Now shut up. I think I can hear them." She said with razors in her voice, in the silence there was a low hum that filled the still air. Ellen turned her head away from My sister and I, giving me time to burn the zip tie off her wrist. I grabbed her wrist, and she winced at the touch of my hand. I readjusted and grabbed the zip tie, yanking it off swiftly. The humming got louder, and, in the distance, I noticed a speck in the sky racing towards us, the speck grew quickly, and I realized that it was a helicopter was flying towards us. With little time I signal to Stephy to go for Ellen, while I went for Ethan, with a node we got up off the sand and bolted towards them. With my hands-on fire, I pounced onto Ethan like a lion on its prey and brought him to the floor. I brought my fists down on him with force, after a few swings they stopped it mid-swing, he used he's telekinesis to throw me into the air and slam me into the course sand. Stephy handled herself with ease throwing punches and kicks, having each hit knock Ellen over. I struggled to my feet, as I managed to get myself standing I was knocked back over by Stephy who had been thrown off Ellen. The helicopter approached even faster, about a minute before it would reach the coast. Once again, I brought myself to my feet, picking Stephy up with me and stared down the Nestry's, who were panting in their place. Flames curled around my arms faster, almost to the beat of my heart, with a single motion I flicked a fireball at Ethan, who proceeded to freak out and dive towards the water. With that I ran towards Ellen and punched her in the face but seemed unfazed by it. Before I could process she hit me with an uppercut throwing me off balance, then Sparta kicked me backwards into the water. I tried to bring myself up, but Ellen was already on top of me.

"They said they wanted you dead or alive, what's one dead over four living." She whispered before grabbing me by the head and shoving it underwater. Her grip didn't wavery, I struggled under her weight, unable to lift my head. My hands clawed at her face, violently trying to make her stop, but she kept going. Water swirled around my face, it filled my ears and tried to force its way through into my nose. I couldn't hold my breath any longer, as water shot into my mouth and filled my lungs. I could feel the life inside me started to drift and I thought it was over until Ellen weight stopped forcing me down, her body suddenly slumped into the water beside me. With the opportunity, my head shot out of the water like a rocket, I coughed violently feeling the water rip through my throat as it came out. I looked at where Ellen lay, and a silver javelin stuck out of her chest, her head submerged in the water with the waves taking her hair onto the current, eyes staring into nothing. Suddenly Adam appeared in front of me, his blue eyes searching me like a spotlight, he spoke but it was muffled, drowned out by Ellen's lifeless body. Slowly my surrounding began the morph, the rushing water had turned to flames, the sand had shifted to hardwood with walls beginning to fold up on me to recreate my house and Ellen's body had become rippled into my mother body with flames washing over her corpse.

"Mom..." I began to whisper. "I'm sorry mom. I couldn't help. I save you." It was Adam who pulled me out of the mirage, I was met by his steely blue eyes and everything seemed to return to normal.

"Oliver! Are you okay?" He shouted whilst shaking me back to reality, his voice growled over the rumble of propellers, the helicopter had landed and Transgress soldiers flooded out. I looked down at the body and had returned to being Ellen then back at Adam and I nodded shakily. "We need to get to the helicopter, it's the only way out of here. Come on." He said as he extended his arm. I grabbed it and he pulled me up. Eight Transgress soldiers came out of the helicopter, guns pointed towards us, but they didn't shoot. Adam bent over Ellen's body and yanked the javelin from her corpse, close to the forest Megan and Stephy stood poised and ready to fight, Ellie was hastily tying a crying Ethan to a tree, his eyes were glues to the sight of his sister's body, fighting and screaming that he would kill us all.

"Drop the weapons and surrender now, no one will get hurt." One of the soldiers shouted as he and his squad approached.

"Sure, but one question, what are your guns made of," Adam asked.

The soldier looked around at his squad mates confusingly. "Standard issue gunmetal. Why?"

"Oh, no reason. It just means it can conduct electricity." Adam said with a smirk and I realized what he was going to do. The blue in his eyes glowed like the northern lights and with a flick of his finger a single bolt of the lightning shoot and hit the guns of each soldier, electrocuting all of them. With the shock setting in Adam ran towards the helicopter without hesitation, I watched as the girls raced towards it as well, but I just stood paralyzed in the events that had happened. The soldiers shuddered in place, lightning cracked of them like frayed wires, holding their guns loosely. It was Megan who pulled me out of my trance by grabbing me by the arm and pulling me towards the helicopter. By the time we were at the aircraft, Adam had pulled the pilot out of his seat and sat in his seat, headgear already fastened. I hopped into the front with him while the girls sat in the cabin. The engine began to groan, and the rotor blades slowly started to rotate. The soldiers began to recover from the shock and one by one they started to fire their guns at the screen, but each shot ricocheted off with a sound like heavy raindrops.

"Do you know how to fly this?" I asked frantically as I fastened the safety belt.

"My father was a pilot," Adam said calmly while flipping switches.

"Have you ever actually flown a helicopter."

"Nope." He said as he pulled back on the controls. The aircraft lifted off the ground slowly and shakily. Bullets began to crack the screen, but Adam did not seem fazed by them. He concentrated on manoeuvring the helicopter while I dug my nails into the upholstery. The hull rattled to the beat of bullets bouncing off its surface and within seconds I could see the whole camp shrink beneath me and by the shore of the lake, eight furious dots tried shooting us down, and one lay half in the water coating it in a new shade of red.

Adam was very confident with his flying, we had been in the air for twenty mins, the girls in the back managed to fall asleep leaving Adam and I awake, flying in silence with the only sound resonating from the rotor blades.

"Thanks," I said breaking the silence. "You know for saving me back there."

"But..." he said like he was anticipating my next words.

"But you didn't need to kill her," I said with a creak in my voice.

Adam turned his head to look at me, the blue in his eyes seemed darker. "There was no other way, Ethan tried to stop any of us getting to you, I hit him with some lightning giving me enough time to get her off you the fastest way I could. It was you or her and just because you're a stowaway on this mission doesn't mean I'm going to let you die." He said as if he had said it a million times, but there was still a tinge of remorse.

"On that point what are you going to do with me?" I asked expecting the worse.

"What else is there to do with you, going back now would make us lose more time than we already have, so you're on this mission, but I'm calling the shots okay. I need you to remember that because things will get a lot worse than what happened that camp. Do you understand?" He said sternly.

"Yeah. I understand, and I'm-"

"Don't apologise. You apologise way too much, it's annoying."

"Sorry," I said instinctively.

Adam looked at me and just sighed. "I understand why you did it. I've done a lot to make sure my sister is always safe, so I know what you were feeling." Adam said, turning back to stare into the horizon. The sun slowly dropped from the sky, gliding to the ground with ease.

"So where exactly are we heading?" I asked.

"Wyoming. If we're in Montana, if we keep going south-east we should be there by sundown."

"Did your dad teach you how to navigate like this?"

"Father." He corrected me.

"Isn't that what I said?" I asked, unsure of what I said.

Adam didn't reply but I noticed his jaw tense up. "You should sleep." He finally said but made it sound like a command rather than a request.

"Hey, I didn't-" I started.

"The rest of this flight is going to be silence, or I'll throw you out the helicopter." He said bluntly, his knuckles went pale on the controls, he's stayed fixed on the sky. I knew Adam didn't make empty threats, so I kept silent. The shudder of the blades filled the cockpit, it was almost soothing. Energy almost seemed to slip from my fingers and soon enough I was putty in the seat slowly fading off into sleep.