Masked (11 page)

“That was stupid Michael,” I said
wincing at the still growing pain. I’d completely under estimated the brown
toothed wonder. The way he was able to react was fast, too fast. The speed he
was able to anticipate my move and stop me was uncanny. Also, his shots were
perfectly placed to disarm and immobilize me. There was no way you learn that
in country bumpkin school.

Who trained him? I then realized
that right then I didn’t care, I had just been shot three times and people were
about to die.

The pain continued to pulse
through my body. My clothes were soaked with blood and it had started to pool
on the floor. I tried to move my injured arm and leg, but immediately realized
I couldn’t. If I could just hold out, the wounds would start to heal. I’d be
able to move soon.

I knew I didn’t have the time to
wait. The truck would arrive in a matter of seconds.

“Damn it! What good are these
abilities if you can’t use them when they’re needed,” I muttered in
frustration.

“Ok, Michael there has to be
something you can do. Think.” I scrambled to block out the pain so I could try
to come up with something, anything.

I was wearing the PTD. I could probably
move enough to use it, but what good would it do to transport my broken body,
but give them a reason to fill me with more bullets? They probably wouldn’t be
as considerate to not kill me next time.

“Damn it, I was too careless.”

I heard three spouts of automatic
rifle fire outside. It sounded like there were a few shots of return fire and
then silence.

Eerie silence came with the cease
of the firefight outside. I was too late. I’d been too slow. The guards were dead.
I should have acted.

“Damn it,” I growled. I tried to
move without thinking and the still throbbing pain increased. I could have done
something.

I forced focus into my thoughts.
I needed to act before anyone else got hurt or killed, before I got anyone else
hurt or killed. I knew Hank wouldn’t pause at the thought of ordering everyone
killed before they left. He wouldn’t want to leave any witnesses. The only
reason he hadn’t so far was probably to keep all his men on board with him,
particularly Billy. I could have tried to get back into his mind to see what
their next move was, but there wasn’t any time. My wits needed to stay in check.
I had to stay aware.

It was impossible to fathom the
idea that they were doing all of this, going to kill so many people for one
truck of cash. I was going to stop them. Those backwards country psychos would get
what was coming. I’d make sure of that. The rage I usually kept in an internal
cage was breaking free. My teapot of pressure was on the verge of exploding and
struggled to maintain control and think clearly.

The pain from the multiple bullet
wounds was beginning to move from sharp to a dull spreading pain. The immense
hatred I had for the gun men gave some distraction from the pain. The wounds weren’t
going to completely heal with the bullets still in me and I didn’t have the
time or the willingness to dig them out right then. My body was healing around
the bullets, but I wasn’t sure what that meant as far as mobility. I tried to
move my wounded shoulder, which was a bad idea. Another sharp twinge of pain ran
through me.

I looked over at the rest of the
hostages. The small family was all huddled together, the children both crying
into the parents arms. The girl in the sweatshirt was sitting with her knees
pulled up to her chest, a blank look on her face. The large man in the hat was still
red faced and sweat streamed down both sides. His eyes were bulging and he was nervously
looking around as if ready to bound away from anything that came near him. The
two clerks were sitting next to each other. Ahmed was motionless and actually looked
relatively calm, but expressionless. Jack also looked calm, though his right
arm was making small subtle movements.

With a closer look, I saw he
actually had something in his hand and he was moving his fingers, making quick
glances down to see what he was doing. He looked up catching my gaze and nodded.
Then, he brought a phone to his ear. He had somehow concealed it when they
searched him. I shook my head mouthing “no” in response to this action. He ignored
me.

Jack spoke with rapid words. “We
have armed gunmen at the Granite Trail Stop at exit 46, Hwy 200…” He was cut
off by another small explosion. A dark hole appeared in his forehead.

All of the hostages, including
me, cried out in shocked response. My insides were screaming. I instinctively tried
to move but still couldn’t enough to do anything.

I was just lying useless while
everyone was dying. I wanted was to rip them to pieces. My breathing became heavy
and fast paced as hatred took over. Making them pay for what they’d done was all
that mattered.

Bobby shouted to the front of the
store. “Hank, we better hurry. The cops are on their way.” Hank had been monitoring
the movement of the cash from the truck.

Hank walked back to where we were
at, followed by another man whom I hadn’t seen until then. He must have been
one of the men who had taken out the armored truck. He was another unshaven
redneck type in a t-shirt and jeans, but I didn’t care who he was. All that
mattered was he wasn’t going to walk away. None of them were. “We’re ready
anyways,” Hank said.

As he walked by I looked up with
hate filled eyes.

“You still alive?” He said as he passed.

It took every ounce of control left
to not use my good leg and take him out right then. I was still not in any
shape to take all three of them. I could have probably taken down Hank, snapped
his leg with one quick kick, but Bobby would have had a bullet in my head
before I could get to the others. I forced myself to stay still.

“Bobby, you come with us. Billy
you stay behind with Travis and take care of the hostages. Then meet us at the rendezvous,”
Hank ordered.

Frantic surprise washed over
Billy’s face. “What? That wasn’t part of the plan.”

Hank moved to within a few inches
of Billy’s face. “It is now, and you are either in it or not Billy. Travis,
make sure Billy is in it. If not, take care of him as well. You can leave the
kids though,” Hank said before he turned to leave.

“You’re going to kill us?” shouted
the father franticly, moving to stand.

The rest of the hostages began to
panic.

“Oh no, oh no, oh...” the large
man started to mutter, his red face turned completely white.

Travis waved the gun at the
father. “Sit down unless you want us to change our minds about the kids.

The father looked at his daughter
standing behind him and at his wife and son on the floor and reluctantly sat
back down.

Hank was almost to the front of
the store when he turned back. “Bobby, grab a hostage just in case we need a
bargaining chip.”

“Sure thing,” Bobby said and pointed
his gun at the girl in the sweatshirt, his face fixed with a menacing smile.
“Come on sweet thing.”

“No, no, no…” she said repeatedly
moving her head from side to side. She continued to sit.

Bobby moved towards her. “Ok, you
want it rough then? I like it that way.” He forcefully pulled her up by the arm
until she was standing. He put the gun to her head and forced her forward
towards the front of the store.

“See you boys soon,” he said nodding
at Travis and Billy as he walked by.

I couldn’t worry about the girl.
I needed to protect the people still at the store first. The girl would be kept
alive until they felt they were safely away. I needed to take care of the two left
to kill the rest of us, then catch up to the others.

I tried to move my wounded
shoulder again and even though the dull pain was still there, I could now move
it some. I tried my leg and it was the same way. I wasn’t sure if I could walk
yet, but I couldn’t waste any more time. I had to move.

“Ok, so who’s first?” said Travis
with too much enthusiasm in his voice.

“We don’t have to do this man,” pleaded
Billy.

“Yes we do and you better not get
in my way.”

“So, no volunteers huh? Travis
pointed his gun at Ahmed. “How about you? It’s time to join your buddy.”

Neither of the gun men were paying
any particular attention to me. They didn’t realize the kid with the bullet
holes in him was about to jump up and give their day a turn for the worse. With
some pain I was able to move my knees under my body and rise to stand. I was about
four feet from Travis and had my hand on the wrist control of the PTD.

“You can start with me,” I said,
startling both Billy and Travis.

“What? How the hell …” Travis started
to say moving his weapon to direct at me.

I pushed the screen on the wrist
control and instantaneously disappeared and reappeared in between Travis and
Billy. From behind Travis’s turned back, I grabbed his right wrist, and with a
snap broke it. He screamed in surprised pain as I took his gun, and bludgeoned
his head with it on my way to point it at Billy. The weapon was fixed on Billy
before he even realized what had happened. I heard a thud as Travis fell to the
floor. Billy’s face turned white with shock.

“So Billy, you have a choice. You
don’t deserve one, but I’ll give you one. You tell me where they took the girl
or I kill you now.” I was using all the restraint I had left from just putting the
bullet in him anyways. I’d killed before. I could do it again. The idiot didn’t
deserve to live.

“I, I, I can’t. Hank will kill me,”
he stuttered.

“W,w,well if you don’t, I’m g,g,going
to kill you,” I said in a disgusted mocking tone.

Billy just stood there not saying
anything in response.

“There’s no time for this crap.” I
had no patience or time left.

I took Billy’s gun and handed it
to the father. He took it and passed his daughter over to his wife.

“Can you hold this on him? I need
about a minute or so, if he tries anything, shoot him,” I said.

He held the gun to Billy’s head. “No
problem.” His face was a mask of calm hate with cold eyes fixed on the
frightened Billy.

I stepped back a few inches and
closed my eyes. I tried to calm myself enough to do what I needed to. I had to
let the anger fall just long enough to be able to focus. It took a little bit,
but once I was calm enough I focused on Billy’s mind and a few seconds later, I
was in.

As I’d guessed, most of his
thoughts were centered on fear of being killed by either me or Hank, but he was
also thinking of the location he needed to get to. I was able to see where I
needed to go. “This guy is pathetic,” I thought as I left his mind.

I guess I understood why everyone
was staring at me when I left Billy’s mind. I mean, I had just teleported in
front of them, disarming both men, and then decided to just stare at Billy for
a while. Of course they didn’t understand any of what they’d seen.

“W,w,what did you just do to me?”
Billy stuttered, sounding even more frightened than he had been before. He was staring
at me with a terrified confused look. “How did you get in my head?

As far as I knew, no one before had
ever been able to sense me in their mind. Why was he different? Why could he sense
me? I didn’t know and didn’t have the time to ponder right then.

“What?” I said, blowing it off.
He continued to look at me with the same expression. Everyone else was just
staring as well. No one had moved yet.

The police were sure to be there
any minute and I needed to leave before they arrived. I needed to get to the
girl before they had a chance to get away. Also, I couldn’t allow myself to get
tied up with police inquiry. I carried a fake ID, several in fact, but none
were good enough to make it past police scrutiny. Even if I could pass it off
as legitimate, there wasn’t time. I needed to act right then.

Just as that thought left my mind,
I heard the sirens out front.

I turned to the silent group. “Is
everyone ok here?”

They all nodded. I don’t think they
knew what to make of the bullet ridden teenager who had teleported to save
their lives.

“Thank you,” said the mother
holding both of her children.

“Yes, thank you son,” agreed her
husband still holding Billy at gunpoint.

“Of course. You take good care of
those kids,” I said. “Do you have him under control until the cops come in? I
mean if you need me to, I would love to knock this idiot out.”

“I think I have it covered,” the
father said keeping the gun on Billy.

The sirens were now right outside.
I could see the sun was up now. I needed to get to the Land Cruiser and then
past the police, so I had to think fast.

An idea came and I started to
walk, forgetting about the leg injury. Fortunately, my wounds had mostly healed
around the slugs still in me. It was sore when I moved, but I could walk just
fine. Quickly, I made my way around the store, grabbing a pair of black leather
work gloves, sunglasses and a ski mask off of the shelves.

“Please, do me a favor and don’t
mention I was here, at least not initially,” I asked the group of survivors.

“No problem,” said the father. “You
just saved our lives. Are you going after the girl?”

“Yes. I’ll get her back,” I said.

“Do you need a hand?” The father
asked.

“Take care of your kids. I’ve got
this.”

“I don’t doubt that.” The father
put the gun into his left hand and expended the right to me. “Good luck son,
and thanks again.” I shook it and nodded.

I put the confiscated gun in my holster
and headed back into the men’s restroom. Since I knew it was at the back of the
store, if I gave myself ten feet to jump from the back wall, I should be able
to clear the store. It was risky to jump when you couldn’t see the destination.
Ten feet was enough to clear the store, but I wasn’t sure what might be behind
the store. If there was an object in the exact place I was going to jump to,
well let’s just say it would be extremely uncomfortable.

Once I cleared the store, I needed
to get to the truck. The items I grabbed would protect me from the sun and once
I was in the truck, I’d be further protected. The windows were darkly tinted
and they kept the sun off when I had to drive during the day. The trick would be
to avoid detection by the police. I hoped they hadn’t blocked me in.

I heard the police enter the store
beyond the restroom door. Quickly, I put on the gloves, mask and sunglasses and
then took a second to look in the mirror.