Chapter 27: Escape

March 28th, 2017

Cadi picked at her fingernails nervously as she sat on her bed. Rick sat on the bed across from her, jostling his leg up and down. They had just taken the anklet things off using their abilities to fast forward time, and now...

The two of them were waiting.

Over the past week or so, they had practiced with their powers in their little room without the knowledge of Emille and Harry. Meanwhile, the two scientists seemed to be getting closer and closer to finishing whatever they were building. They had mostly left the two siblings alone in their room, only coming in or letting them out when it was time to eat or do an occasional test or reading on some of their equipment.

Rick and Cadi had originally planned to escape when Rick could fast forward and rewind almost as quickly as his sister, but Harry and Emille were getting dangerously close to finishing their little project, and Rick did not want to wait anymore.

“Are-are you sure we should do it tonight?” Cadi asked fearfully. “Why are we in such a rush-I mean-.”

“Cadi, you just have to trust me.” her brother said sternly, taking a deep breath to calm his nerves.

“But I’m scared.”

“I know. I am too. But if we stay any longer, bad things are going to happen.”

Cadi gulped. Rick closed his eyes and tried to stop himself from shaking.

“Ok. Do you remember the plan?” he asked. Cadi nodded.

“First, we get out. Then, we grab the keys to the van, and then we drive away and find help.”

“Yep. You got your blanket ready?”

The little girl nodded.

Rick clutched his own blanket, which had some food they had been saving safely tucked away inside. After all, they didn’t know how far away they were from other people, and Rick wanted to make sure they could last a little bit just in case they got lost.

“Have they stopped talking yet?” Cadi asked. Rick swallowed and walked over to the bathroom and put his ear to the vent.

“Yeah. And it sounds like Harry is snoring.”

Cadi nodded and stood up, clutching her blanket. Rick stood next to her with the food and his blanket as they looked at the locked door in front of them.

“Ok. Go straight for the van. I’ll get the keys. And be as quiet as you can.”

Cadi nodded silently, looking terrified.

“Are-are you sure we can’t just p-pause time?”

“They have those new wristband things now-remember? Pausing time won’t affect them. Otherwise we would’ve left as soon as I got back from the hospital.”

Cadi could feel her mouth going dry.

“Ok. I’m ready.” she said quietly. Rick nodded, and the both of them stared at the doorknob and started to concentrate. Quickly, it rusted, and then disintegrated, opening the door silently. The two of them crept out into the dark living room, doing their best not to make any sound. Cadi scurried up to the front door, and then slowly turned the knob so that she would be silent. Rick crept over to the counter, where he knew they kept the keys, and had just barely picked them up, when the light switched on. Rick and Cadi froze as Emille stood there in surprise in the doorway of the hallway in her pajamas.

“What in fresh hell?!” she screeched. “HARRY!!”

“CADI! RUN!” Rick screamed, immediately concentrating on the ceiling above Emille. Thankfully, she didn’t realize what he was doing until it was too late, and the deteriorated ceiling fell on top of her. Rick sprinted through the front door and was blasted by the cold winds of a blizzard. He made his way to the van, which thankfully, was under a type of covered patio.

“STOP!” the angry voice of Harry called out from behind him. Rick jumped into the driver’s side and immediately started to crank it.

“RICK!” Cadi yelled. Rick looked up to see Harry charging towards them.

They weren’t going to make it.

Desperately, he tried cranking the van again, his hand shaking. He looked up again to see where Harry was in his panic, and then stopped.

Harry was going in slow motion. Slowly, he turned to his sister, who was staring at the man slowly coming towards them. He thought about saying something, but then decided that it would be best not to break her concentration, so he went back to cranking the car.

Finally, it started, and Rick threw it in reverse and then drove off into the stormy night. After Cadi was out of sight of Harry, she collapsed in her seat, taking a few deep breaths. Rick strained to see through all the wind and snow, his shoulders hunched up. The van bumped up and down violently as they went over what was probably a very icy road.

“I didn’t know you could do that.” Rick said quietly, his heart still racing.

“I didn’t either.”

The two of them were silent for several minutes after that as Rick tried to concentrate on the road that was so hard to see. He had had no idea that there was a blizzard going on, and now he began to regret deciding to leave so soon. Then he thought about how close Harry and Emille were to finishing their machine, and regretted not leaving sooner.

“You’ve got your seat belt on right?” he asked, still trembling.

“Yeah. Duh.”

“Alight. Just making sure.”

“We actually got away.” Cadi breathed.

“Don’t celebrate just yet. We’re not quite out of the woods.”

There was a pause as the two of the them looked forward at the road-which had trees on either side. Rick smiled.

“Get it? Woods? And we’re actually in the woods?”

Instead of groaning, Cadi bust out laughing, which calmed Rick down a little bit. He hadn’t really heard her laugh in a while, and it was a nice thing to hear.

“How about a little music?” he asked, pressing the power button for the radio. Some pop song came on.

However, instead of dancing or singing along, the two of them still sat there tensely, adrenalin still coursing through their bodies.

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Rick drove through the night at a low speed, too wired to sleep. Cadi ended up huddled up with her blanket in the front seat, snoozing softly. He wasn’t sure how long he had been driving, but it definitely had given him time to think. And there was something worrying him.

For some reason, when he was in his coma, he had felt like the snow was significant somehow. When he had voiced this concern to Mary, she had acted like she knew why.

And now here he was-trying to drive through a blizzard. Grimly, he remembered how Mary almost acted like whatever was going to happen wasn’t going to be pleasant, and he couldn’t help but feel like they were far from out of the woods. Through the night, the storm had let up some, allowing him to make it through some of the wooded parts safely. However, with the coming of daylight, the storm picked up again and had gotten worse.

Rick hunched over the wheel, staring forward, starting to feel the effects of driving through the night. Cadi stirred in the seat next to him, and shivered as she opened her eyes.

“It’s cooold…” she said, her teeth chattering.

Rick had been so focused on trying to see the road that he had hardly noticed how cold it really was in the van. He glanced at his hands to see that they seemed to be a bit off color… especially at the tips. He slowly unclenched the wheel to see that he couldn’t even feel his fingers.

“Oh crap…” he said, shivering violently. “I may have frostbite…”

“H-here-...” Cadi said, staring at his hands.

Nothing happened.

“W-why won’t it w-w-work?” she whined, shivering vehemently even with the blanket wrapped around her.

“R-remember when w-we were t-testing your powers at home?” Rick asked. “E-environment and t-t-temperature matters.”

“O-oh y-yeah… Then- g-give me one of your hands...”

Rick held his hand out to her, keeping his eyes on the road. Cadi put her hands around his, and then concentrated. Rick winced as he felt a sting that went away after a second, and when he pulled his hand away, it was back to normal.

“G-good th-thinking.” he praised, handing her his other hand for her to heal.

After a few minutes, the weather somehow got even worse. Rick strained to see, feeling more and more tired from staying up so long.

“RICK!” Cadi suddenly screamed. Rick jolted just in time to see that they were smashing into a barricade. He slammed on the brakes as hard as he could, which barely stopped them from going forward any further. The two of them sat there stiffly.

“Is the van… teetering?” Rick breathed.

In horror, they realized that the whole van was starting to tilt forward.

“Cadi!! Get out! Through the back!” he yelled, ripping off his seat belt. In a panic, Cadi did the same, and the two of them jumped into the back as the van lurched forward. Rick threw open the back doors, and the two of them fell out just as the van disappeared over the barricade. Even over the roar of the wind, they could hear the van crashing down a cliff that they couldn’t really see. The two of them shakily stood up and clutched their coats around themselves.

“What d-do we do now?” Cadi yelled over the wind.

“We need to f-find shelter!!”

“B-but we’re in the middle of nowhere!!” she cried, starting to panic. “We’re g-going to d-die out here!! We never should have left the house!! We-.” Rick grabbed her by the hand and knelt down to her level.

“Cadi-I p-promise you that we’ll get out of this. We j-just need to play this smart.”

Cadi sniffed, and then nodded.

Rick stood up and braced himself against the storm, holding on tightly to his sister’s hand. Then, the two of them started to walk down the road and farther into the storm.