“I don’t know what I’m ready for anymore.” I followed Ronnie out, Kenny and Sandy following behind me.
We left the hanger through a long hallway that led to a door built into the rock. The door exited out onto a street, where an SUV sat parked on the shoulder. The sun was falling behind the mountains making it hard to tell what the time was.
We all crammed into the SUV. Silence and Hothead helped Vanish into another small car before speeding off into town without a word.
“Where are we going? I would love to get a shower.” Sandy said from the backseat. "We have had people working all day to prepare a house for the bunch of you to move into and it’s ready so we are going there right away.” Sam said.
We drove down an outer road that was hardly paved. It went around the far outreaches of the small town right up against the base of the mountain range. He pulled into the driveway of a two story house with large windows on the second floor and on either side of the front door. The rest of the house lacked windows altogether.
“Why are there no windows on the rest of the house?” Sandy took the words right out of my mouth.
“The sun never hits those parts of the house. There are three bedrooms, so there will be sharing. There is a full kitchen and two full bathrooms on the first floor. There is a computer and a TV, but the computer is a little old. We are working on getting you some money so you can go out and buy clothes, laptops, whatever you need to feel like home.” Sam put the truck into park and cut the engine.
We all climbed out of the truck and went inside. It was medically sterilized and the furniture looked like it had never been used.
I went up the stairs. There was a landing with five huge bay windows and three doors. Ronnie, Kenny, and Sandy all climbed up a second set of stairs on the other side of the landing. They all looked happy, something I hadn’t seen, ever.
“Who gets their own room?” Kenny asked.
“We share.” Ronnie smacked Kenny on the back of the head.
“Sandy? Rachel?” I asked.
“You take it Grace.” Sandy said.
“Yeah, I’m good to share.” Rachel walked into the middle room followed by Sandy.
I walked into the last room with the feeling that no one wanted to be too close to me, just in case. The room wasn’t small; two beds could comfortably fit and have plenty of room for other furniture. The bed was pushed up against the back wall and the dresser was placed at the end of the bed. There were no windows. A thick blanket was folded on the bed and two pillows were stacked behind it against the headboard.
I sat down on the bed and folded my hands in my lap. I looked around the room. I was supposed to call this home now. My home before was not the greatest, but I knew it as a norm. I had no idea anymore what a normal life was or if I would ever have one again.
I looked up to see Ronnie standing in the door way.
“Hey.” He said when he saw me look.
“Hi.” I said quietly.
“What do you think?” he walked into the room. He leaned against the wall next to the bed.
“I think that we have a chance to be normal.” I said, “Whatever that may be.”
“I think that our current situation puts us just about as far from normal as you can get. I think that we need to be careful.” He looked at the back of his hand.
“Think about it Ronnie. Yeah we’re different now, but everyone around us is different too, we can take this chance to fit in, and maybe stop acting so, well for lack of a better word, different. In being different we are now just a new group of students, kids, people to join this community.”
“I see. That’s an interesting way of looking at it and you know what? I like it.”
We left the room and went down stairs. Sam was in the kitchen with his head in the fridge. He heard us walk into the room so he closed the door and turned around.
“I have gathered some clothes for all of you. It’s nothing too stylish but it’ll have to do until we have a chance to go into the city.” He pointed to the couch where some bags were piled.
“Well, I call first shower.” I grabbed the bag marked Grace. The two bathrooms were at the back of the house.
Inside the bathroom, the smell of cleaner filled my nose and bright white tile blinded me. I looked into the mirror and traced my face with my eyes. I held out my hands and I tried to use my abilities. I closed my eyes and tried to go back to that desert that I had seen back at the Aurora facility. I tried to force fire out of my hands but nothing happened.
I got frustrated and let my arms fall to my side. I figured that with some practice that I should be able to use my abilities again, but if I couldn’t I wondered if Sam would make me leave? I started the water and got into the shower letting the water flow over my body, washing the filth away.
He wasn’t lying about the clothes not being stylish. There was a pair of loose fit jeans, and a white shirt along with a fresh set of underwear. I’m not the most fashionable person around, but come on.
I picked the hoodie up off the ground and sniffed it hoping that I would still be able to wear it, but I was wrong. I gathered up all of the clothes off the floor, and decided that I should just go ahead and have them burnt.
I left the bathroom clean, and Sandy shot right in after me. Kenny looked pissed that he was beaten to the door. I suspected that he let her win though. It was weird to see them like that, like nothing ever happened.
“Feel better?” Sam sat in an oversized recliner in the living room.
“Much.” I said, “Is there anything to eat?” I rubbed my stomach.
“There is some food in the kitchen. I have to leave soon, but I wanted to hang out until you got done in the shower. A few things that I wanted to let you know about; I will be a guardian for all of you, but I won’t live here. I live three houses down. I will be checking up on you occasionally. I’m also there if any of you need anything. We consider you adults until you prove otherwise.”
“Sounds good to me.”
The cabinets were full of instant foods and nothing really hit the spot, but I picked something anyway. I made myself some noodles with chicken flavoring.
I went up to my bedroom and laid out the blanket. I got into bed and tried to find a comfortable spot, but the bed was stiff and unused.
I looked up to the doorway, "That’s going to get creepy.” I said to Ronnie who was standing in the door arms crossed.
He was clean now.
“I don’t mean it to be creepy. I just worry.”
“I worry too, but I don’t sneak up on people.”
He smiled and leaned on the doorway, “How are you feeling?”
“Are you having any trouble using your abilities?” I sat up on the bed.
He held out his hands and a bolt of energy arched across his palms, "nope it’s actually getting easier the more I use them.”
“Oh.” I looked at my hands. I concentrated on nothing else and thought only about the fire, but still nothing happened.
“Maybe we can ask Sam.” He said, “I’m sure he’ll know what’s going on.”
“I don’t know.” I thought for a moment, “Can we keep this between us for now?”
He nodded as he walked away. He closed the door making sure that it clicked.
Sleep came surprisingly slowly that night with all that had been going on the past few days. My body was hot, uncomfortable, but I wasn’t sweating at all. There were a lot of new noises, and the heat was out of control in the room. I kicked the blanket off in the middle of the night. Somehow one of the pillows ended up by the door.
The next morning Sam was waiting in the kitchen with a buffet of breakfast foods waiting, cooked to perfection.
“Can we expect this every morning?” Kenny loaded his plate down with some of everything on the table. We all did just as he did, mounding food onto our plates.