“You could see into my mind?” I said sarcastically.
“Ah, yeah it’s one of my abilities.” she said, "We all have them now.”
I looked to Ronnie and he nodded. He turned the blinker on to exit the highway. The travel center that we pulled into was bustling with traffic, it seemed like the only place for miles to stop and get fuel, among other things.
“We’ll talk about all of this later.” He pulled into a line for a gas pump.
“How do you expect to pay for all of this?” I double checked that I was covered as he pulled up to an available pump.
“I took the wallets from the guys that we borrowed the truck from. Between them, we got eight hundred bucks cash and a few credit cards.” Kenny’s voice rang from the back seat. I was happy to hear his voice again.
Everyone but me filed out of the truck pretending we were one big happy family on vacation. I rolled down the window and stuck my head out. Ronnie stood next to the pump sliding one of the credit cards from the stack into the card reader.
“Don’t forget my clothes.” The fresh air felt freeing on my face; the truck was kind of stuffy.
“Rachel and Sandy are on it.” He flipped up the lever on the pump. The gas started to flow and the smell started to waft to the front of the truck. I sat back and rolled up my window. I reached over and turned on the radio, the silence was like a knife cutting into my head.
I surfed a few stations before I came to one claiming to be Las Vegas News XM. I turned it up and listened to the reporter, "The explosion that rocked Las Vegas last night went unexplained for almost fifteen hours as Aurora Corporation representatives declined interviews. Many people witnessed the enormous pillar of flame that blasted into the sky. We spoke to a paramedic who was reluctant to comment, but came forward in the end. He reported that there were four deaths and over a hundred injuries reported on site, however, Aurora refused paramedic assistance stating that it was in each employee’s contract to receive any, and all medical care from Aurora medical personnel.” She stopped for a breath.
“I am here now with Aurora Representative Rebecca Scott. Mrs. Scott, is Aurora ready to explain what happened here last night?” The reporter waited.
“Well at approximately fifteen after two in the morning, an experimental reactor, that has been contracted by the Nevada government to subsidize The Hoover Dam in power generation, went critical because of a minor malfunction in a piece of hardware created outside of the Aurora corporation. We have already assessed the issued, and the company that built the component has been dealt with and an alternative has been located and repair of the reactor will begin within two days.” The representative explained. It sounded like she was reading from a script.
“Are there any fears of radiation or any type of health concerns from the explosion?” the reporter asked.
“Fortunately the reactor that we are constructing is completely environmentally friendly and there is zero risk to anyone who lives near the reactor. As a matter of fact, a majority of the onsite workers that were not critically injured in the explosion have opted to return to work immediately.”
Someone knocked on my window, and when I turned to look, Rachel stood outside of my door holding up a shopping bag. I opened the door and made sure the lab coat was covering my body.
“There wasn’t a lot to choose from.” Rachel held the bag open.
“I don’t care, I just need some clothes.” I snatched the bag. We walked over to the bathrooms that were on the outside of the building. Rachel and Sandy tried their best to block me from the view of onlookers, but I still got dirty looks from all directions. I had a flash of frustration wondering why people couldn’t mind their own business. I opened the door and held my nose walking into the small bathroom, and locked the door behind me.
I opened the bag and took out the pants and underwear. The pants were blue jeans, but they were men’s and at least three sizes too large. They did, however, have the foresight to get me a belt. I had to pull it all the way to the last notch folding the waist of the pants as I went.
The shirt was obnoxiously red and on the front in gold glittery lettering it read, Hope you enjoyed the Slots! It fit better than the pants. I thanked God that there was a hoodie at the bottom of the bag that I could wear over the ugly shirt. I put it on and shoved the lab coat into the bag.
I stopped before I left the bathroom; the mirror had rust cracks all around the edges and was missing a corner. I washed my face and took a look at myself in the mirror. My eyes had changed color. Before all of this they where a dark green but now they were so blue that they were almost glowing. My hair was longer and had changed color to a darker maroon.
I opened the door stopping in front of Rachel and opening the hoodie, "What the hell were you thinking?”
“Only ladies shirt in the whole place.” she shrugged.
“I’m sorry Grace.” Sandy stood behind me. I turned around and wrapped my arms around her in a hug. I squeezed as hard as I could.
“It’s good to see that you are ok.” I let go of her.
We all walked back to the truck where everyone had already loaded up and were ready to hit the road. I hopped back into the passenger seat and put on my seat belt.
Ronnie joined the line of vehicles leaving the truck stop. He then pulled back onto the highway making sure to go the opposite way we had come.
“So did you find out where we are?” I adjusted the sun visor.
“We are an eight hour drive from home.” He looked over at me while we were stopped at a traffic light.
“Let’s do it.” I nodded.
“Alright.” He merged into the lane that would take us home.
“I don’t think that this is a good idea.” Rachel chimed from the back seat.
“I’m sure that it is a horrible idea, but I would like to see what is left of the orphanage and there are a few people in the town besides the woman who took care of us that we could contact.” I looked back over the seat again.
“So what is your story Rachel?” Kenny turned to look at her as well. Sandy followed suit.
“Well it is similar to yours; this is Mike and Mary by the way.” She said pointing to the two others in the back seat. They looked like they were a few years younger than the rest of us.
“Thank you for freeing us.” Mike said, "My sister hasn’t spoken since they gave her, her abilities.”
“We were all at a hospital in the intensive care unit, and then we awoke in the Aurora facility.” Rachel tried to recall her abduction.
“Aurora, wait a minute I just heard on the radio that one of their experimental power generators had exploded, you mean that was me?” I had never thought about putting the accident together with my losing control.
“Yeah.” Rachel nodded.
“They said that four people were killed and over a hundred were injured.” I turned around and sat back into my seat. I thought about Zach, who wasn’t here with us; I couldn’t help but think that he was one of the people that I had killed.
“He wasn’t killed.” Rachel said quietly.
“Ok, ground rule, stay out of my head.” I looked out of the window.
“Message received.” she sat back looking hurt.
"She did get us out of there.” Ronnie whispered from the corner of his mouth.
“I’m glad, but she convinced me to kill people, and I am not happy about that.” I hissed.
“Grace, she didn’t know you were going to kill anyone.” Ronnie tried to calm me down.
“You know what…” I almost yelled, but I could see tears welling in her eyes in the mirror, “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Alright, alright. I’m hungry, let’s get something to eat.” Kenny’s stomach growl was audible from the front seat.