Road Trip

Miles woke suddenly, in a strange and foreign place. He really needed to stop waking up like that. He was laying on a hard bed, staring up at a white ceiling. It was cold.

"Oh no," he thought to himself. "Not this again."

He was back in the room he had seen the night before. Nothing seemed real in the room. It was as if he was in one of those movies where they put a very creepy blue filter over everything. Miles jumped as he noticed someone beside him. It was the hand of a Chinese man who was sitting in the white chair beside him. The man had a faint smile, kind eyes, and worrisome eyebrows.

Miles relaxed a little bit as the man grabbed an item from the table but his relaxation didn't last long. The man had grabbed a syringe. No, no, no. Miles had seen this before. It wasn't like he had much of a problem with needles, but he didn't care for a mysterious one in some odd room.

As the man pulled the syringe closer to Miles' arm, Miles shoved at the man to try to get him to back off. What happened next was very strange. Stranger than anything about the room. Miles' arm went straight through the man's chest. It was like the man was a ghost. Or maybe Miles was the ghost. Nevertheless, the needle still came towards Miles until it hit.

"Wake up already, we don't have forever!" a voice came from the downstairs of the cabin.

Miles sat up and started to get dressed. Last night he had shared a room with Caspar, who seemed to still be knocked out cold. They had both just slept in sleeping bags, as the bed in the room smelled too much like urine for either of them to sleep on. Miles had been leery at first with sleeping in the same room as a strange guy that he'd previously assumed to be a bully. He'd had some bad experiences with bullies, and wouldn't have dreamed of letting his guard down like that around Bailey or Rocco or someone. But as it turned out, Miles had pegged Caspar incorrectly. The guy was actually super chill and welcoming to him. Caspar also had left him to his own thoughts which, whether on purpose or not, Miles appreciated. He needed all the time he could get to process everything going on. He'd stayed up half the night running everything through his head, but that hadn't stopped him from eventually slipping back into the same weird dream.

Miles kicked Caspar's bag to try to get him up and save Lancaster and Dawn some yelling, both of whom were already up and ready.

"Right, right," mumbled Caspar in response. "Getting up..."

Miles finished getting dressed. He would have brushed his teeth or taken a shower but the water in the cabin was mostly muck. Besides, where was he going to find soap or a toothbrush?

"Move quickly!" reminded Lancaster from below. "We've got to go soon! You can shower later!"

"Quickly!" Caspar grinned and sat up. "Now that I can do!"

In a split second, Caspar stood in the doorway, holding his clothes.

"Impressive," Miles said, and he meant it.

"Yeah teleportation comes in handy, but I haven't quite mastered it, see," he explained. "Sometimes I'll miscalculate a tad bit and end up in the wrong place. One time it was the women's restroom. That was… awkward."

Caspar winked, put on his clothes, ran a hand through his hair, and popped a mint into his mouth. He offered one to Miles, who declined but instantly regretted it. He still had a bad taste in his mouth from earlier. But he didn't have time to feel sorry for himself. He followed Caspar down the stairs and out of the cabin. They walked over to a small, dark car.

"Where exactly are we going?" Miles asked, sitting in the back with Caspar while Dr. Lancaster and Dawn got in the front.

"The academy," replied Lancaster simply. "To train you."

They rode in silence, other than the occasional crunch of Caspar eating some Doritos he found in the back of the car. Miles wondered if they were even still fresh, but Caspar didn't seem to care so he didn't ask. Besides, he had much more important questions to voice.

"Err, Lancaster? Mr. Lancaster? Dr. Lancaster?" Miles said, fumbling for the right works.

"Just call 'em the Doc," said Caspar.

Lancaster ignored Caspar. "What is it, Miles?"

"How can I do what I can do? Why do I have this strength?" It was something he had been wondering about all last night.

"That's a good question," was the only response he got.

Caspar leaned over to Miles, "He won't tell us. All we can do is guess."

"You know, don't you?" Dawn chimed in, addressing Dr. Lancaster. "You know why we're like this. I can feel it."

"Please don't read my emotions, Dawn," Lancaster replied gently.

"Then tell us why we have these powers," pressed Miles. "I mean, is what you're doing even legal?"

Lancaster merely peered at Miles through his front seat mirror. "What we are trying to accomplish at the academy is out of the government's hands. If they were any the wiser about you kids, you would be locked away, or maybe worse, I don't know. The people, and the government, even, always lean in favor of something familiar. The Necron Syndicate is a well-known organization, some branches are even in association with the government," Lancaster stopped, realizing he was talking to three teenagers. "What I'm trying to say is, Necron would take control of the situation, which wouldn't end well. We're on our own for this."

Everyone was quiet for a second. "Just us?" Miles asked.

"There are more people at the academy, plus the staff there. Other than that, yes."

"We're not going to win this war then, are we?"

"I'm not talking about war here, kid," explained Lancaster. "Not yet, anyways. Right now we just need to disappear, let them lose interest in you kids. But if worse comes to worse, you need to be prepared."

"Why don't we just attack them, chief?" Caspar spoke up. "We're ready."

Lancaster smiled, "None of you can even comprehend what you are capable of. But someday, you will be ready. For whatever may come. And it may never even come to any of this. But it's best to be prepared, yeah?"

Dawn nodded, satisfied with this answer. Caspar shrugged and looked out the window. Miles stared down at the floor of the car, thinking about what had just been said. It sounded like he was going to some sort of boot camp school. Training to be a soldier for a possible war. Life was changing so fast, and Miles had no idea what to do. He had half a mind to jump out of the car and just run. Where to, he had no idea. He could just keep running. But that would never work. He was safer for now right where he was. Two other seemingly nice kids and a man who was not to be messed with. And he could leave at any time. It wasn't like his life was changing forever. Just a temporary thing, right...? Wrong.