Chapter 5: Time stamp – Three Hours Post-Poof
----
Somewhere in Georgia…
“So, wait… you can control electricity, and you learned this because after the poof, you stepped on a downed power line and… didn’t die.”
“Exactly.”
“And you’re positive it wasn’t just ‘cause the line had already shorted out?”
“T-fan, you just had to be there, okay?”
“Okay, okay, I’m just saying, that’s a little… random. Even for RAF, that’s random, Shanker.”
“I never said it wasn’t. Would it make you feel better if I prove it to you?”
Touquie, who had to this point been reading a copy of Michael Grant’s GONE, put down the book and looked up, suddenly interested in this conversation. She’d already seen four times what came next, and it still never ceased to amuse her.
Shanker pulled a small cellular telephone out of his pocket and flipped it open. Still no signal. He held it up so that T-fan could clearly see the screen.
“This is obviously an ordinary cell phone, right?”
“Yep. Now what?”
“Now watch.” A look of concentration settled on Shanker’s face, and at the same time a look of disbelief crossed T-fan’s face. She could see the four bars of the battery indicator slowly disappearing one by one. Sparks of static snapped around Shanker’s hand where he gripped the phone, and eventually the screen went black, all the charge sapped from the battery.
“Keep watching.” Shanker set the phone down on the ground and held his hands in front of him, parallel to each other. Electricity arced visibly from fingertip to fingertip. He picked up the phone again and showed T-fan how the screen lit back up as he restored the battery’s charge.
“Putting the charge back is the hard part, because you can only go so fast with it if you don’t want to-“
ssssssSSSSSBANG!!!
“OWWW sh**!!!!” Shanker dropped the phone and reflexively put his scorched index finger in his mouth.
“…ith you don’ wanna’ burn the pith oudda’ your hanth when the baddery ethplodeth.”
“Here, let me take a look at that.” Touquie got up from her seat and walked over to Shanker, grabbing his hand and examining the severity of the burns.
“Eh. Only second degree this time, at least. You’re getting better at knowing when to drop the silly thing.”
“Yeah, but now I have to find another phone to practice on.”
“Oh, yes, because finding a free and otherwise useless cellular phone in a world full of abandoned electronic devices is the greatest of your worries right now, when you have things like electrical burns and starvation to worry you. Stop squirming. Seriously, though, I don’t know what we’re going to do when the growing season ends and all the free food expires.”
“Touquie, what are you doing with his hand?” T-fan saw a soft grayish light emanating from Touquie’s fingers as she looked over the burns.
“I’m accelerating the rate of cell division in his skin. It’s not exactly the same thing as healing it, more like just making the healing go faster. It’s only really good for superficial things like scratches and burns, but there are plenty of those to go around.”
“Waitaminute… do you think you could do that with… I dunno’, plants?”
“…” Touquie and Shanker stared a moment at the younger RAFian, then they looked at each other, obviously thinking the same thing. Finally, Touquie spoke.
“T-fan, I could just kiss you.”
-----
Somewhere in northern Illinois…
“Well, Horsey, are you ready to go?”
“Do you have to call me that? Yeah, I’m ready.” Horsefan and her brother grabbed their overstuffed backpacks and walked out to the bikes they had waiting and ready outside.
“Of course, I do, and you have to call me ‘Guy’. It’s how the others will be able to remember us. You can be sure they’re using their usernames. It just saves time.” The pair started pedaling southward, weaving between smashed cars and spewing fire hydrants.
“Alright, fine. So run the plan by me one more time, will you?”
“We bike our way out of the traffic jam, working our way towards Urbana. If we find any open road, we break into a car and drive as far as we can get to save energy. When we get to Urbana, we meet up with Tyler, and the three of us go as far south as we can get. We hope Anna finds us soon enough, but if not, at least we might run into Faerie or Estelore.”
“That’s kinda’ a sucky plan.”
“Do you have any better ones?”
“No; I’m just saying that as plans go, that sucks. Who knows how far we’ll have to go before we see anyone?”
“Yeah, well, we’d better get moving. I want to be out of this part of town before daylight, because it’s going to be hot tomorrow. The farther we get at night, the better.”
Ggggrrrgggrrrrrrr…
“Hey, did you hear someth-“ GgGGGRRAWWWRRR!!! Before Guy finished talking, a massive yellowish cat leapt out in front of him.
“Guy, watchit! It’s a lionessrrrwrrrrrrr!!” Horsey’s sentence trailed off on a guttural snarl. The big feline stopped in its tracks and looked right at Horsey.
Prrrgrrwrrr? It sounded like a question.
“Rrrgrrrprrr rwrrrrrggggggg.”
Guy stared at his little sister, mouth agape. The lioness tilted her head to the left, staring bemusedly at Horsey. Then she trotted away as though nothing had happened.
“Horsey, what just happened here?”
“Uhmn… from what I gather based on what she said-“
“What she said?!?!”
“Yes, of course. From what I gather, she escaped from the zoo when the keepers disappeared and the electronic locks failed. She called me the funniest-looking lioness she’s ever seen, and she’s sorry for mistaking us for food. I think.”
“You think.”
“Yeah. That, or she was insulting your hair, not sure which.”
“…Let’s just get outta’ here before we run into any of her old zoo buddies.”
“…Yeah.”
They pedaled as fast as they could away from the city, hoping not to cross paths with anymore carnivores on their way.
--------
