Chp. 7 "Close Call"

So I had decided to wait for Max in the library while he finished up his fourth hour. I was sitting on the couch pretending to be working on something when in reality I was thinking of Avery. Her eyes had looked so sad, like she had lost her best friend or something. It pained me seeing her like that but I felt as if it was too soon to attempt and comfort her.

Besides, she told me she didn’t like talking about her family problems.

Hopefully after Max got out of class we would go to our usual spot on the outskirts of our little town and have some fun like he said. We hadn’t been there in a while, which only excited me more just thinking about going again.

It was really like an abandoned junk yard but to Max and I it was our hide out, our secret spot that held so many memories. That’s where we had gone every day for almost a year to practice and master our powers, a place where we could have complete privacy.

And we were finally going back.

Sometimes I forgot what I was capable of, and sometimes I couldn’t help but wonder how I ended up with this power. It was just a weird coincidence to find out I have the exact same power as Max on the first day I met him. The more I thought about it the more it started to not make sense. I mean, everything changed whenever I touched him and that was when it seemed to happen. Before that I could touch my radio without a care and not worry about shorting out my car.

So what happened?

Was it possible that Max gave me his power? Was that even possible?

Then the bell rang and I realized it was time to go back to the parking lot. By the time I made it to the parking lot I saw Max’s head towering over everyone’s as he made his way to my car. His eyes caught mine as he waved to me and I joined him in my car.

He sighed, “So, we’re going back.”

I nodded excitedly, “Yea, we are.”

“I’m actually pretty excited to go back, I missed going there.”

I started my car and agreed with him silently, I was super excited to go back. I hadn’t been able to express myself with my powers lately because I’ve had to suppress them for so long.

The drive there was about fifteen minutes from school if the traffic was absent, and soon enough we were pulling up to the abandoned gate. Max spoke, “I’ll go open it.”

I watched him run out and walk up to the keypad that locked us out, but it had no chance against me and Max. He shocked the keypad, causing the gate to slide open and allow me to drive my car in.

Every time we came here there was never any sign of anything that changed, it was always the same. It was nice to have a place like this; it was like our secret meeting place, our safe haven. We were allowed to be ourselves here, and once Max closed the gate again we would have complete privacy.

I parked my car and got out, feeling the slight cool wind threatening to pierce through my jacket. It was early March and you could tell the weather was trying to start warming up again.

Max spoke, “Everything’s still the same.”

I nodded, “Just like we left it.”

We walked over to the old generator that was beginning to rust but Max ignored it and grabbed the electric cord, plugging it into the wall and bringing it back to life. He let it run for a couple of minutes while talking to me, “So, Avery bailed?”

I shrugged, “She’s not having a good day, something with her family… So we’re finishing up the project tomorrow.”

I walked along side with Max as he started finding old bottles and metal boxes to set on the table-like junk we had made years ago. It was like a shooting range where we would practice shooting, but not shooting guns of course, we would shoot our electricity.

After setting up our targets over different parts of the junk yard we were finally ready to start and I knew we would be a little rusty. Max held his hands towards the running generator and sucked as much electricity out of it as he could, causing the generator to slow down. I watched him throw his arms in the direction of the bottles and electric bolts flying out of his hands, only hitting two bottles in the process. He cursed, “Shit, I’m rusty.”

I laughed, knowing it was my turn to show him what I got. I sucked the electricity out from the generator feeling the electricity buzz through my body and making me vibrate. I threw my hands like Max and hit the first, second and third bottle in a row, glancing at him and winking.

“Beat that.”

He shoved me, “Move over rookie.”

He began throwing his arms quick, giving me a magnificent view of blue electricity flying and shattering four glass bottles in a row. I clapped, “Nice job.”

He held his hands up like guns and pretended to blow them out like candles, “Thank you.”

Electric powers were magnificent and I couldn’t help but be fascinated with them. I mean we could control something that was lethal and dangerous, how was that not cool? I was still extremely curious as to how I obtained these powers and if I would’ve still gotten them if I hadn’t met Max.

Another thing that was extremely awesome was that we could get electrocuted by lightning, we could actually absorb it.

It was one time when we were here during a lightning storm and lightning struck Max, I guessed it was because we were currently holding a lot of electricity. He was fine, nothing was fried and in a way he almost controlled the lightning itself.

It had been awesome.

We could also restore power if it was out, depending on how strong the electric source was. I could hold a simple light bulb in my hand and light it up without a problem but ask me to restore a house’s electricity and I was out of energy in seconds.

We weren’t that strong yet.

I sat on top of an old rusted car hood and watched Max pick up the metal boxes and find more glass bottles. Avery was still lingering on my mind but I was less anxious about her now, most likely because I was releasing some of my tension here.

I sighed, “So you think Avery likes me?”

He looked at me and rolled his eyes, “Dude, yes, the way she looks at you makes that so obvious.”

I felt my heart warm at the thought of Avery and I being more than friends and it excited me. I smiled, “So what should I do?”

He shrugged, “Keep hanging out with her, let her know you don’t just want to be friend though or she might think you don’t like her.”

Her round, perfect face came into mind as I pictured her glowing beautiful eyes looking into mine. My heart hammered in my chest as I thought of her lips and how touching her skin would feel completely amazing.

“I just don’t want to scare her off.”

He held up his hands, showing me the electricity flowing to and from his hands, “Well, this might scare her off if your infatuation doesn’t.”

I rolled my eyes, “I’m not going to show her that.”

He tilted his head, “If you’re with her you won’t be able to hide it for long.”

I knew he was right; there was no way I could hide that completely from Avery. Sometimes I slipped up and made a mistake, and if she was with me I would be screwed.

Then again, me and very weren’t even together in the first place so what was I worrying about?

Max and I started heading back to the garage-looking building that was open on one half, holding the generator and a couch that was a bit dusty. Max found a radio sitting on the ground and plugged that in also, turning the knob and trying to find a decent channel.

I heard fuzz and muffled voices and then all of a sudden I heard a voice that sounded a bit urgent, “Max stop right here…”

He tuned it to where it was clear and sat next to me, listening to the reporter, “There have now been 30 total deaths in New York and 4 reported cases in Pennsylvania of the spreading BD3, also known as Sanguinea . The early symptoms are extreme nausea and blurred vision, also a high fever and extreme sweating is visible. If you are experiencing these symptoms please seek medical assistance and quarantine yourself from other healthy people….”

Max looked at me and shook his head, “Still no cure apparently… do you think it’ll make it down here?”

This disease had been making its way from Canada and now it has made its way over the border and into the U.S. It was spreading pretty quickly but I didn’t want to worry Max, then again I was worried my own self…

I shrugged, “I hope not.”

He stood, walking over through some rubbish and scrap metal, seeming as if he wasn’t here anymore. I joined next to him, “They’ll find a cure…”

He shook his head, “No, it’s been two months since BD3 has broken out, they’re not trying…”

“Diseases can’t have an antibiotic in no time Max, it takes testing… they’ll find one.”

“Yea when everyone’s done dead and no ones left.”

I hated when he thought like that, but I knew he was right in some ways. The disease was spreading faster than cure breakthroughs were being found and I knew it was only a matter of time before it made its way down here.

Then Max stopped me and sighed, “Look at this huge magnet, I bet they used it to pick up cars.”

I looked at him, “Power it up.”

He shot some electricity into it but not too much, allowing us to throw metal scraps at it while it stuck to the magnet. It was pretty cool, I had to admit, but it would soon run out of power because Max didn’t give it enough juice to pick up anything extremely heavy.

“Andy watch out!”

I turned around to see him and that’s when I saw it, a sharp metal scrap being sucked towards me. I screamed but it was no use, the metal pierced right through my right arm and cutting right down to the bone. I looked down in completely shock, seeing the shard of metal sticking out as I screamed, “Max, turn the fucking magnet off!”

He hit the switch and ran to me as I held my arm, not really knowing what to do. It hurt like a bitch and I knew I should try taking it out but I was scared.

I would bleed to death.

The cut was extremely deep, it had sliced right through my skin and muscle and all the way to my bone. Blood oozed out as I screamed in pain, it hurt like a mother fucker. I fell to the ground, allowing some of the white hot pain to spread through my body as I began to cry.

Max screamed, “Andy! What the fuck do we do!?”

“Take it out… please…”

I was whimpering from the pain and the fear of dying, the deepness of the cut was scaring me as I moved the piece of metal. Max grabbed it with one hand and held my arm with the other, making some of my blood spill onto his hands. I started panting, my heart was hammering hard in my chest as I watched Max grip the piece of metal tight, preparing to rip it out of my arm.

Then he pulled, the metal slicing more of my skin as I screamed out in agonizing pain. My voice went hoarse because of the intensity as I panted harder. Max spoke, “We need to go to the hospital.”

Then suddenly I felt a sharp tingling in my arm where the pain had just been momentarily ago. I looked down at the deep scar only to see the skin reconnecting itself. I gasped, “What the…”

I felt muscles reconnecting inside my arm as the pain subsided, causing me to lean back on a rusted car in amazement. This just couldn’t be real…

My body was healing itself at an amazing rate.

Max and I watched my arm in amazement as the last slit of open skin reconnected, leaving nothing but dried blood. I ran my free hand over where the invisible scar had been just seconds ago as I tried to find evidence that this incident had happened but found nothing.

My arm was completely healed as if nothing had happened.