Pov: Kaylee

I had followed Megan as well as I could, and ended up outside the Japanese Garden. There where small groups of people huddled together talking quietly. They seemed frightened by something.

Perhaps my Sister and her new found butt-kicking skills?

I approached two people, an middle-aged woman and a younger boy, likely around six or seven.

"Excuse me, is something going on in the garden? I was supposed to meet my friend on there and..." I began, but the middle-aged woman cut me off.

"No, don't go in there!" she said passionately, "We were told to leave the garden because a criminal was hiding in there, and it was likely to get dangerous. If your friend was in there, she should be out here now. Or she's on her way to meet you. But please, don't go in there."

The young boy by her side mumbled something.

"What did you say David?" The woman asked.

"I saw her," the little boy, apparently David, said quietly.

"You did?" I asked quickly, "What did she look like?"

"Why didn't you say anything?" The woman interjected again, "And how do you know they're a she?"

David shrugged, "She had really long brown hair. Only girls have hair that long."

"What else was she wearing?" I asked, "Did she have a backpack?"

"Yeah, she did. When I saw her she was fighting with this man on the ground."

"Why do you want to know?" The woman asked, sounding suspicious, "Do you know her?"

"Yeah, apparently so," I answered, "Now if you will excuse me..."

I ran inside the garden as fast as I could, ignoring the woman calling at me to come back. In my head I replied snarkily back to her, I'm sorry, no I won't come back. I need to tell at my sister, and that is a much higher priority then getting yelled at myself.

When I entered the garden, I walked up to the pond and looked around. I could see some people across the pond and slightly to my left, which meant they were mostly hidden by the trees and bushes.

Welp, let's go see what's going on. I thought to myself, then began jogging over.

As I got closer, I showed to a walk, and tried to approach stealthily, like Megan had taught me to over the past few months. That was another thing I'd added to my list of her abnormalities. If she wanted to, she could move as quietly as a Hobbit. Because of this I tried to never play games like hide-and-seek or man-tracker with her. She was just too good.

Anyways, I used the techniques she'd taught me, like walking heel to toe, and moving crouched down slightly.

I finally got close enough to see what was going on, and to this day, I am proud that I kept my cool despite what I saw.

There were four people pointing handguns at Megan, and Megan was straddling an unmoving middle-aged man. She looked thoughtful, and completely unaware of the people pointing the guns at her.

"Put your hands on your head, we have four guns trained on you, and we'd rather not use up our valuable resource called bullets." Gun Wielder one, who seemed to be a she, said. I could only tell because of her voice, as they were all standing at an angle to me, and their faces were in shadow.

Megan tensed up,and looked up at gun wielding woman. I could almost see the gears turning in her head, but I had no clue what she was thinking. I considered stepping out of my hiding spot, but decided against it. Watching seemed like the better option.

Megan slowly raised her hands behind her head, but stayed sitting on top of the fallen guy.

"Can I help you?" She asked the gun wielders.

"You can help us by coming quietly," Gun Wielder woman replies tersely.

"Coming? Coming where?" Megan asked, sounding very confused.

I barely saw the Gun Wielding lady roll her eyes and in that split second, there was a blur of movement in my peripheral vision. I turned my head to look, and was shocked to see that Megan had lunged forward a foot or so, grabbed a handgun and was pointing it at the people threatening her. They seemed just as surprised as I was.

"Look, I see you are you are young, so maybe you skipped learning to count," The woman said as if she was speaking to a toddler, "There are four of us, and one of you. You are outnumbered. Stand down."

Megan smirked, "I will take this opportunity to quote Captain James T. Kirk, 'So go get some more guys and then it'll be an even fight.'"

"Do you honestly expect me to believe a captain said that?" Gun Wielder Woman sounded exasperated.

"It doesn't really matter one way or another to me," Megan said causally, "What matters to me is that I successfully escape from you and your backup that is probably a minute and a half away. So if you will excuse me..." Megan began to move the the side, then froze as gun lady's have tightened on her gun.

"Move another step and we will shoot." She threatened.

No. Just, no. I felt like my brain was short circuiting. This makes no sense. I...Gah! I need to help Megan. I can't just sit her while she's being threatened! But what can I do? Um...great, I have no brilliant ideas. So let's improvise. But I should wait for the opportune moment.

"Shooting me would be a very bad idea," Megan responded calmly, "If you shot me, you would fail your mission. You were clearly instructed to bring me in alive, and with all four of you shooting at me, I would not likely survive if even just two of you hit me in non-lethal places. So, I'd recommend holding your fire. Goodbye."

And with that, she turned and ran.

Oh no you don't, you are not getting away again! I though at Megan, and sprang out of my hiding spot just as the Lady stopped them from firing at Megan, "Hold your fire! She's right, damnit!" Then she saw me, "What the -"

As I passed, I reminded the lady, "Language."

She seemed to be frozen in shock, then she yelled after me "Hey! Stop right there! Stop or I will shoot!"

Yeah right, I thought to myself.

Then a bullet whizzed by my head. And one by my arm.

What? Oh shoot! Wait, no, don't. My running suddenly got much faster as adrenaline took over. As I ran I heard the people following me. I got back to the pond, and paused, looking around for Megan.

I heard a small pop, then felt something poke into the back of my neck. A second passed, and I was suddenly having trouble staying upright. My legs wanted to collapse, as did my neck and arms. I tried to walk a step, but instead fell onto my knees. I was confused and terrified. I couldn't control my own body!

I finished falling over helplessly, but I had managed to not fall on my face, but instead had my head facing to the side. I could now see Megan, who was trying to climb over the wall behind the small waterfall that fed the pond. It wasn't working for her. I felt people walking closer to me, behind my back.

Panicking, and with nothing left to lose, I gathered as much strength as I could and called out, "Megan! Help." The last word barely came out as a whisper. I no longer had any control over my muscles. My mouth was starting to relax, and there was definitely saliva in my mouth.

Oh please no, not drooling. I really do not want to drool here in public.

Megan glanced over at my call, and I couldn't read the look she had. Normally I could read her pretty well, but now, it was like she had a mask on her face. She glanced at the wall, then back at me. Her eyes closed for a moment, as if she was thinking, then the snapped open again, looking determined and intense. She ran over, and I heard cries of alarm from behind me.

Then Megan slowed down slightly, raised her gun, and took a shot.

Bang! I heard a yelp of pain behind me. The ground shook slightly as something came crashing down behind me.

Bang! Bang! More shots were fired, but this time from behind me. Megan ducked behind a tree, then popped out a moment later, and returned fire.

Bang! Another cry of pain and thump behind me.

I was terrified and I couldn't move because a stupid little dart had hit me and now I was lying on the ground in the middle of a gunfight.

Bang! I heard a more feminine yelp, but it was followed by yet another shot from behind me.

I heard an "Eep!" from Megan, followed up by more shots from her gun.

Bang! Another shot fired overtop of me and I flinched. Then I realized that I flinched! I clenched my fist, making sure that I was in control again. I moved my foot slightly. I then lifted my head to look around.

Megan had shot two of the freaky gun wielders, but the leader woman was still standing, as was one of her accomplices. The originally green pond water near me was kind of turning red, which I elected to ignore.

As quietly as I could, I rolled over, and began to do my best army crawl towards a handgun that had fallen near me.

Bang! Bang! They exchanged more gunfire. I heard wood splintering as I crawled forwards. I got to the gun, and grabbed it. I glanced over my shoulder, trying to decide what to do next.

The woman and her remaining accomplice where still standing. Megan was moving from cover to cover, slowly getting closer. As I watched, I got a look at her face. She looked focused, and somewhat scary.

What is going on with you, Megan? I thought to myself, then tried to remember what my friends had taught me about guns.

As the gun wielding people were firmly focused on Megan, I moved up into a crouch with one leg on the ground. I fought to steady my breathing, then aimed, and fired.

Bang! I yelped as the gun fired, and as the recoil nearly hit me in the face, but, miraculously, I managed to hit the leader woman in the leg. She cried out as she went down, sounding confused.

"Wha-" the last guy standing started to speak, but Megan took the opportunity to shoot him. He collapsed, blood pooling from his chest. I looked at him in horror.

I realized that I was crouched, surrounded by blood and dead people. Feeling nauseous, I looked around blankly at the bodies around me. I...I should be feeling. Why am I not? The woman... The one I shot, she's not dead. I should help her...

I stood up, beginning to move towards her, but someone grabbed my arm.

"Hey there, it's okay," A voice said gently, "We are just going to go this way, come on." I recognized the voice,but it sounded like it was coming from far away.

I followed mutely. The person moved their hand to my shoulder, and had seemed strangely calm.

"Where...where are we going?" I asked, still dazed.

"Home."

The person led me away from the pond, walking towards the southeast corner. As we walk away from the pond, I look behind at the people - no, corpses that we were leaving behind. The lady was still conscious, but seemed focused on staying alive, rather than following us. As I looked behind, I saw that the pond water was now a mix of its normal green, and this strange brown colour from it mixing with the blood. The sight gave me another bout of nausea.

I could hear police sirens and people yelling at each other from outside the walls. It sounded like they were about to come in.

"Listen closely to me," The person said, turning me to face her.

"Megan?" I asked weakly, fully recognizing her.

"Yes," She said directly, " I know you are disoriented, but we need to get out of here without anyone seeing us. You know in video games how one person boosts the other to get up a wall, then pulls the other up?"

Video games... yes, I can think video games, "Yes, I... I do." I nodded.

"We need to get out of here without anyone seeing us. You know in video games how one person boosts the other to get up a wall, then helps the other up?"

"Yes..." I said hesitantly.

"So I'm going to boost you up the wall, then you are going to drop down, and find cover. I will follow, then we will head to the car.

I nodded again, "Okay." I was slowly beginning to think clearly and was yet again realizing how completely wacky all this was.

"Megan, what...what are you?" I asked, then all my questions came tumbling out, "Why did you shoot those people? Where and why did you learn to fight like that? Are you a criminal? They think you are. Why would they think that? What are we going to tell Mom? Are we going to be arrested?"

"First question, that's classified. Second, I did it because I had to. Third, that's also classified. Am I a criminal? Yes and no. They think I'm a criminal because they've been told so by their government. What will we tell Mom? I'm going to tell Mom the truth as quickly as possible, hopefully in one or two words. And no, you will not get arrested if you do exactly as I tell you to."

I stared at her blankly, "I've already forgotten half of what you said. Though why would anything about you be classified? What have you not been telling me? I'm sure it's a lot, but can you please explain?"

She looked at me, half sad, half amused, "You're right, it's a lot. I don't have time to explain, however. Come, we need to get over that fence. All you need to remember about what I said before was that last sentence. You will not get arrested if you do exactly as I say. Right now, you need to get ready to run at the fence and trust me to boost you. This won't work if you don't trust me." She sounded strangely calm for the severity of the situation. She was acting like this sort of insanity was normal, and I was beginning to consider that it was normal for her.

"Okay..." I said, "Wait, once I'm over the wall, how will you get over?"

"That doesn't matter. I will be right behind you," She reassured me, " But we need to hurry. Come."

I followed, jogging to keep up with her. As I watched her, it seemed like I was looking at a completely different person to the one I'd gotten to know over the past few months. Everything was different. She was walking more confidently than I'd ever seen, yet she was consistently looking all around as if she was expecting someone to jump out at her. She spoke with far more confidence, yet sounded terse and professional. Honestly, she was acting like an adult.

"Here is a good spot," Megan said, pointing at a section of wall. There was a small dirt path leading directly to the wall, which meant we had no bushes to scramble over.

Megan walked up to the wall, looking through a crack, "Yep, this'll work. There are no bushes for us to land on."

"Are..." I trailed off, realizing how dry my throat was, "Are you sure about this?"

She turned and smiled at me, and I saw the Megan I knew finally peeking through, "Yes, I am."

Then she suddenly tensed, then went down on one knee, preparing to boost me, "Kaylee, go now."

"What? What's the proble-" I trailed off again, hearing dogs barking and official sounding people talking quickly. My eyes widened in fear, and I ran over.

Megan boosted me, and I scrambled to the top of the fence, ending up sitting on top of it, facing the road. All right, Kaylee, you know how to do this part. You've done it millions of times at school during recess. Jump and roll... Now! My own thought startled me into action, I dropped off the wall, landed, then rolled to absorb the impact. After that, I glanced around, spotted some conifer bushes to my right, then burrowed into them, trying to ignore the needles scratching me.

I sat there, waiting for Megan to follow. I heard the dogs getting louder, then a male voice shouted, "Hey, who's that? Hey! Kid!"

A/N There you go, Chapter Six! I hope you guys are enjoying reading this as much as I am enjoying writing it. I'd love to hear any feedback you might have about my story!
Oh, and I've hit over 700 views! I'm so happy! Thank you all for reading and helping me get here, and I can't wait to keep going.