Chapter 7

This vision was of the same house. Kathy and the black-haired girl were both crying on the floor. A light tan adult dog was licking their tears away it came over to me with a sad look and laid its head in my lap. Something hard bumped against my leg. I leaned over and looked at what it was. The dog had a cross hanging off the cloth around its neck. It read Catalina. She licked my face. I turned to look out the window, the horse wasn't there. Kathy started to sob louder so I turned my attention back to them. Nobody else was in sight.

I jolted awake from my vision on the cold, sunset lit wooden deck. That vision was not nearly as along as the others. I sat up and looked around, nobody was on deck but the teenagers. Kathy was sitting beside me, Carter was standing up a few feet away, and everyone else was looking into the forest off the side of the ship.

"You're awake, good. We kind of, sorta, very much so need you," Kathy admitted.

I slowly stood to my feet to see what everyone else was looking at. I steadily walked over to them but very quickly noticed the green and red laser trails flying from the left side of the forest in our direction. I looked at everyones faces, studying who was scared and who was better at hiding it. Our team has never looked this Out-Of-Your-Mind scared ever, but we've also never had all of our friends family's lives on the line. Liam slowly and quietly walked up the access board to get on the boat. "Guys, do you want me to push it into the ocean or are we going to fight?" Liam whispered.

"The hall of the ship wouldn't be able to withstand the bullets if they open fired on the boat," Madelyn quietly explained.

"I can't make a force field big enough to shield the entire boat," Cornelius admitted.

"One bullet hole would slowly sink the ship," Kathy whispered.

"Why doesn't Carla fix the bullet holes then?" Nathan asked.

"If Carla did that then the boat's density wouldn't be the same and would break apart as soon as a wave hit it," Madelyn explained.

"Are we fighting then?" Liam asked.

"We don't have any other choice," Carter admitted. Everyone nodded in agreement and started to walk in the direction of the board to get off the boat.

"Wait," I loudly ordered. Everyone stopped and looked at me. I reached my hand in my pocket and pulled out all seven cross necklaces and held then out towards my friends. Everyone grabbed one and put it on, I put mine on last. "So we don't lose who we are in the fight."

"Until our last punch," Liam proudly stated as he pit his necklace on.

"To our last blast," Kathy added as she pulled the necklace over her head.

"Til our last thought," Madelyn built on as she put her necklace around her neck.

"Til our last fight," Nathan added as he pulled the necklace on.

"Until our last step," Carter said as he tied the necklace around his neck.

"And until our last breath," I said as I clasped the necklace around my neck and centered it in my chest.

I gulped down what felt like a frog in my throat before we all simultaneously said, "Friends until the end."

Everyone's fear wiped away as we marched into the forest, Cornelius stayed behind to guard the boat and everyone inside it. We were trudging forward in a line; Madelyn had a gun and Nathan had some of his tech. Madelyn and Nathan were in the center of the group while Carter and Liam were on the outer most sides; Kathy was on Liam's side of Madelyn and Nathan and I was on Carter's side. Kathy looked over at us, "That friends until the end thing we just did was so cool, I'm so glad we made it up. It ended up being very inspiring." Kathy was right, it had wiped away our fears of this battle. And what she said made us laugh so it made the walk to the commander's crew a lot less heart stopping. It wasn't long before we met the group who was hunting us. Carter rushed forward in his super speed as the people started to open fired. The Commander brought up the center of the opposing force's group. Liam and Kathy took the left side of the opposing force's group and Nathan and Madelyn took the right side. There was a line of lightning running from one edge of their group to the other, Carter had got really good at catching bullets before they hit anyone. The Commander charged straight forward towards me and pulled out her sword. As soon as we got within distance, she started swinging her sword at me. She forced the sword into my abdomen but she fell forward into me because my body had contorted to the blow so I wouldn't get hurt. I fell backwards with the Commander on top of me. She didn't pull the sword out of my stomach but instead grabbed a knife and started to stab at me. She put it to my throat, "This is what you get you monster."

I grabbed the hand that had the knife and was struggling to keep it off my neck when I started to feel a horrific pain coming from my stomach. I started to scream of the pain and I felt as if time stood still. I put my other hand on the Commander's forehead and was trying to stop whatever power she was using to hurt me. She didn't have a power though, she was a normal human, she wasn't like us. Still struggling and screaming I forced my knee into her stomach and try to kick her off. In the distance I hear Madelyn yell, "Carla needs help." And that's when the Commander was pulled off me and thrown high into a tree. A branch impaled her stomach. I looked down at my stomach and clenched my jaw in pain. Because the sword wasnt taken out my body reformed to the sword, cutting it apart the way it would've if anyone else got stabbed. Nathan rushed over and tried to stop the bleeding. I threw my head back and started breathing heavy through my closed teeth. "What will happen if I take it out?" Nathan asked.

"I don't know, I'll either bleed to death or heal myself," I answered quickly.

Everyone was still fighting.

"I've got her you keep fighting," Madelyn yelled as she came running over.

"It's fine I'll get her," Nathan answered.

"They need you and your tech out there, now go," Madelyn ordered as she ushered Nathan to go.

"You're going to be okay." Nathan ensured as he took off running towards the fight.

Madelyn crouched behind my head and started to pull me off what was now a battlefield and into the forest. As soon as she started pulling I watched Nathan use his tech to throw someone into and rock, then disappear. I looked at how much blood I had lost and thought I was seeing things. Nathan definitely didn't just disappear into thin air. Madelyn kept pulling until we couldn't see the fight anymore.

"Okay, I have 2 ideas and I need you to pick which one you're comfortable with," Madelyn explained.

I nodded.

"Okay what are my options?" I asked.

"One: I could pull the sword out slowly; stopping every inch or so to let your body regenerate before pulling it out anymore, but this would be excruciatingly painful. Or two: I could pull it out quickly and hope you don't bleed to death," Madelyn explained.

"Well let's see, extremely painful or bleed to death. I'll go for the choice that keeps me alive please," I painfully said as I laid back and looked up at the leaves of an old oak tree I was under. The branches intertwined with those of other oak trees nearby.

Madelyn pulled off her sleeve and put it in my mouth, "This is going to hurt, just... Don't move." Madelyn wrapped her hands around the handle of the blade and started to pull it out slowly. I screamed through the sleeve, my eyes were gushing tears. The pain of her pulling it out was more than when my body was growing through it. I opened my eyes through the excruciating pain and tears to look at what Madelyn was doing and everything instantly went black.

I was sitting against a tree in a haze; it was another vision. My friends we're fighting a few yards in front of me. Nathan was on the far right side, and used his nano pegs to burrow through the body of whoever they were fighting. Madelyn had made the nano pegs a few years ago for Nathan's birthday. Carter and Madelyn made up the middle. Madelyn's hand started to glow silver before she outstretched her fist towards her opponent. A blast of concussive power shot into her opponent, sending him flying backwards. Kathy was next to Madelyn in the middle of a hand-to-hand combat fight.

"She's not breathing, guys she's not breathing"

Kathy throat punched the person she'd been fighting who had thrown some punches in retaliation. Kathy grabbed her opponent's wrist, pulled the person in front of her, wrapped her arm around the person's neck, and used her body weight to swing the person around fast enough to fall down. Kathy then energy blasted the person.

"I've got it, Kathy take a break"

Liam was in hand-to-sword combat with a guy who was almost Liam's height. I gasped as the sword struck Liam's upper arm. I noticed something happened to her arm though, it turned to almost metal. Liam looked the guy in the face, grabbed him, and threw him. Looked right at me, then started to fade away.

"Come on Carla"

I couldn't move.

Carter was fighting someone who was keeping up with his super speed punches. His opponent tackled him like a football player. They rolled a few times before Carter pinned him to the ground and said several inaudible words before he let his opponent up and Carter looked around.

"I'll try to shock her, like those things in the doctor's tent"

His opponent started to charge him from the back when Carter pointed his fist in the person's direction as if to fist bump him. A yellow mist formed around his fist and a laser beam incinerated the opponent to dust.

"Carla you can't die, come on please wake up"

Something started to pick me up and walk away, but I couldn't see anyone.

"Carter stop, stop, you've been doing this for hours, she's not coming back"

"She has to"

It got faster, carrying me further away from my friends and the fight. Whatever it was, it was taking me somewhere, and it was taking me there fast.

I woke up on the boat's deck. It was dark out with only the moon giving me light to see. I stayed laying down and looked around. A figure that looked like Madelyn was leaning over the side of the boat, puking. Someone was at the steering wheel, and someone else was standing beside them. Someone was curled up in a ball by the stairs leading to the steering wheel. The last person was sitting on the deck leaning against the fence towards the front of the boat. Everyone was sniffling. I finally decided to get my lazy self back together and actually sit up. Upon doing this, everyone on deck had stopped what they were doing to look at me. In a flash of lightning, Carter was in front of me and hugged me tighter than he has ever before. Kathy was the next one to pretty much tackle me, and everyone else joined. In a group hug I had realized that Kathy was crying. Liam helped me stand up and everyone gave me a hug before taking a few steps back.

I looked around in bewilderment before resting my gaze on Kathy, who was wiping away tears. "Why are you crying?" I asked.

"Carla?" Liam asked, "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I asked as I looked at everyone's worried faces.

"Carla you didn't have a heartbeat, and you weren't breathing..." Carter answered.

"Well how long was I out?" I asked.

"For hours Carla," Madelyn interrupted, "You were in a coma for hours."