"Katrina? Katrina, wake up."

Katrina groaned, feeling someone shake her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see Blythe looking at her.

"It's your turn to take watch now," she said, before jumping nimbly out of the tree.

Katrina stretched and clambered down, taking her blanket with her. She sat down at the base of the tree, watching her comrades sleep around her.

As the sun rose, it chased away the shadows, revealing things that weren't so obvious a couple of minutes ago. There were wild animals here. Katrina could see rabbits peeking out of the grass and deer grazing nearby. It was truly beautiful.

Soon, everyone started waking up due to the bright sunlight. Dean snatched his bag, which he was using as a pillow, and grabbed a loaf of bread from inside. He split it into even parts and threw them to everyone. Katrina nibbled on her piece as everyone got ready to continue their journey to the south of the area, where the city was.

"Everyone ready?" Dean asked. Without waiting for a reply, he stood up and started leading the way to the city, Blythe right on his heels. The two chatted endlessly as Katrina decided to hang back. She cornered Derrick.

"Look, I know that we weren't the best of friends before-" Katrina stopped as Derrick let out a snort, "However, we need to let the past be the past and work together. We both have a common enemy: The Experiment. We need to work together to survive this and bickering and fighting won't help anyone."

"You really want to work together?" he asked.

"Of course I don't. The only reason I'm putting up with you is because of the Experiment," she replied matter-of-factly.

Derrick considered her words and finally gave a short, curt nod. He hung back as Katrina rejoined the group.

Katrina moved to the front where Dean and Blythe were still chattering away, wanting to catch a glimpse of the city.

A small pop! suddenly rang through the air as a boy materialized in front of them.

He was about fifteen years of age and had sweeping brown hair and bright green eyes. His ability must've been teleportation, based on the way he just appeared before them.

"Wyne? What are you doing here?" Dean asked.

"It kind of hit me that I could just teleport you guys directly to the city and spare you the hike," he shrugged. "Sorry for not thinking of it sooner."

"It's fine," Dean said. "You're here now, that's all that matters."

"Hey, can't you just teleport out of the Experiment?" a kid called out.

"I wish," Wyne replied glumly. "That was the first thing I tried. The architects of this place must've added a thing that prevents teleporters from getting out."

Katrina was disappointed. If he could teleport out, he could potentially become the first person to ever leave the Experiment alive and help the others escape, too.

Dean had everyone line up so that Wyne could teleport them to the city.

"Katrina, can you be last? I want to make sure that everyone gets there safely," Dean asked. Katrina nodded.

She watched as Wyne teleported everyone there one by one, starting with Dean. Each time he came back, he looked more and more exhausted and tired. By the time only Katrina, Derrick, and Blythe were left, Wyne looked ready to fall down.

"Woah, you okay?" Katrina asked, concerned, as he turned a pale shade of green.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," he replied, before grabbing Derrick's wrist and teleporting off. A minute later, he came back, barely standing.

"Sit down!" Blythe exclaimed. Wyne complied, leaning against a nearby tree. Blythe moved her hands over his body but frowned.

"I guess my power can't cure headaches or nausea," she concluded.

"It's fine," Wyne replied, turning sickly pale. "There's only two people left; I can do this." He held on to Blythe's shoulder as he stood up and teleported to the city.

Katrina waited anxiously for Wyne to come back. A minute passed, then another. Finally, just as Katrina was planning on walking to the city herself, Wyne came back and fainted.

Katrina cursed, kneeling down next to him and feeling his heartbeat. His heart rate was normal, and as far as she could tell, he had no physical injuries. She supposed that this was one of those times where a Deviant overexerted themselves by using their power too much and fell unconscious, like she did right after she first discovered her ability. If Katrina was right, then Wyne may not wake up for hours, maybe even days.

Katrina dragged him into the shade of a nearby oak tree and plopped down, ripping grass from its roots as she waited for him to wake up. Her stomach was growling, but there was nothing to eat as Dean had taken all the food.

Katrina could just jog to the city; it wasn't that far off, perhaps five miles away. She could get there by nightfall. On the other hand, there was no way she was going to abandon Wyne here, alone, and Katrina definitely didn't have the strength to carry him with her.

Katrina sighed as she resigned herself to the fact that she was going to be stuck. She passed the time by fashioning a crude dagger out of a stone and was quite proud of the sharp, deadly edge when Wyne stirred. She tucked the knife inside her pocket as she tended to Wyne.

"Where- where am I?" Wyne mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"In the Experiment," Katrina replied.

"Oh, I remember now."

Katrina helped Wyne sit up.

"Wanna teleport back to the others?" Wyne asked.

"Not unless you're up to it," Katrina said firmly. "Last time you teleported, you fainted."

"I have my strength back now. Besides, it doesn't take much energy to teleport once."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

Katrina let Wyne grab her hand and teleport, not knowing what to expect.

Teleporting felt like someone was pulling Katrina apart from the inside out, and then, she felt weirdly light, kind of like she could be carried away by a breeze. When they materialized, it was like someone was pushing her together, trying to shove her into a small, tiny box.

Katrina gasped as they arrived at the city. Wyne chuckled when he saw her.

"It's hard to get used to, isn't it?" he grinned.

Katrina nodded.

"You never gave me your name," Wyne commented.

Katrina straightened. "I'm Katrina York," she said. "I'm an illusionist."

"Wyne Fox. Pleased to meet you."

They shook hands.

"Where're you from?" Katrina asked.

"Seattle. You?"

"NYC," she replied, her suspicions confirmed.

Even though they were from opposite sides of the country, they were still in the same Experiment, meaning that there was probably only one Experiment faculty in the country. She told Wyne her suspicions and he nodded, agreeing with her.

Katrina looked at the city around them. The city was empty and silent, not at all how she imagined it. The windows were dirty and cracked. The doors to the buildings were falling off its hinges. It was a ghost town.

"Where're everyone else?" Katrina asked.

"I don't know," Wyne said uneasily. "It wasn't like this when I was teleporting everyone else here. Before, it was cleaner, normal, and... less creepy."

Indeed, the ghost town was quite creepy. A lone vulture shrieked above them and Katrina wouldn't be surprised if a tumbleweed rolled across the road.

"I wonder what happened," Katrina said.

As the sun set, shadows lengthened and made the city look more like something straight out of a horror movie.

"Let's get out of here, this place is freaking me out," Katrina said, edging closer to Wyne. "Can you take us back to the farm?"

Instead of replying, Wyne grabbed her hand and teleported away. When they arrived, they found the farm in similar shape. Abandoned, creepy, and strange. The farm animals and plants were still alive, but when Katrina approached the cow pasture, the cows seemed fearful.

"Katrina, over here," Wyne called. Katrina followed the sound of his voice. Wyne was standing over a puddle of thick red blood in the barn.

Katrina stumbled and gagged. The irony, metallic smell of blood was filling her nose and Katrina knew that she couldn't stay in there for another second. She stumbled out to the fresh, clean air outside, panting. She usually wasn't scared of blood, but today was different.

Wyne placed a hand on her shoulder, making her jump. He looked queasy, too.

"Come on, let's get out of here," he said,

They teleported back to where they first met, in the clearing. There, it showed no signs of anything unnatural and looked exactly like how they left it. Katrina shivered in the cold, night air. Next to her, Wyne's teeth were already chattering.

Katrina conjured up an illusion of a large, flickering fire. Although she herself could not feel the warmth coming from it as she didn't believe in the illusion, Wyne could. Katrina sat down next to him to soak up some of his body heat.

"How did you do that!" Wyne exclaimed, heating up his hands using the fire. "I thought you were an illusionist."

"I am," Katrina replied. "The illusion of sight isn't the only type of illusion there is, you know."

After both of them were suitably warmed up, Katrina extinguished the fire and stood up.

"What do you think happened to the others?" she asked.

"I don't know. Maybe someone, or something, attacked them."

Katrina shivered, imagining horrid blank eyes attacking them, ripping them apart using bloody claws.

"Come on, we should probably get to sleep," Wyne suggested. He curled up at the base of a tree, trying to get comfortable. Katrina created the illusion of a blanket and pillow as Wyne gratefully laid down.

"I'll take first watch," she volunteered.

"Yeah, sure," Wyne yawned, quickly drifting off to sleep.

Katrina studied the stars as she waited for dawn. She had never been interested in astrology growing up, and could not recognize any of the them. As a child, she had always been fascinated by art class, even more so when her ability had developed when she was nine.

Creating an illusion, she discovered, was much like drawing or painting. She had to get the details just right. She had spent hours studying nature, determined to get her illusions to become realistic. By the time she turned thirteen and ran away to avoid going into the Experiment, she could create an illusion of anything and make it realistic, as well as create the illusion of sound and touch.

Katrina created an illusion of a flower in her hand. Each detail was perfect, down to the veins in the leaves and to the small bugs crawling on it.

Suddenly, something caught Katrina's attention. Her flower illusion vanished as she shrouded darkness around her and Wyne, effectively rendering them invisible. She slowly shook Wyne's shoulder.

"Wyne, wake up. Wake up," she hissed.

"What?" he asked. Katrina slammed her hand against his mouth, silencing him. She put a finger against her lips in the universal Shh! sign and slowly removed her hand.

Wyne's eyes widened as he saw why she had woken him. Around them were a pack of coyotes, snarling.

"Come on, let's get out of here," Wyne said, fumbling for her hand. He tried to teleport, but a coyote lunged between them, separating the two.

"Katrina!" he yelled, rolling and tumbling with the coyote as he tried to push it off.

Katrina summoned illusions of other humans. The illusions were crude and didn't have enough details but were realistic enough to fool the coyotes.

The coyotes, startled by the sudden appearance of so many other humans, backed off. Katrina grabbed Wyne, who had a few scratches but was otherwise unharmed, and they teleported away.

They landed on the roof of a skyscraper in the city. A cool breeze ruffled her hair as Katrina walked to the edge and peered out. She couldn't see the coyotes anymore; they were too far away. Wyne walked up next to her.

"Well, I guess we now know what happened to the others," he said darkly. Katrina nodded.

"You think we're the only ones left?" he asked.

"Doubt it. There are sixty-four of us, and all of us are Deviants. At least some of us should've been able to survive."

"What were the rest of the group doing when you teleported them to the city?" Katrina asked.

"They were exploring. I'm pretty sure they went south," he replied. "They told me to teleport to them after I got you."

"Okay. We can follow them in the morning. Let's go find a place to sleep."

Wyne agreed and they descended the stairs into the building. They were in an apartment building and it wasn't difficult to find a room to sleep in.

"I'll take watch," Wyne said, holding up his hand when Katrina protested. "I was unconscious most of yesterday and you took watch for the first half of the night. You need to sleep."

Katrina didn't argue. She collapsed onto the bed, curled up under the covers, and quickly fell asleep.

...

Katrina woke up to the sound of an alarm. She sat up and pressed the button on the alarm clock.

"Sorry, I didn't know that there was a working alarm clock. Otherwise, I would've turned it off," Wyne apologized, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"It's not your fault," Katrina said. She glanced at the clock, which displayed the time. 7 a.m.

"So, does that mean there's electricity?" Katrina asked hopefully.

Wyne shook his head and pointed to the black panels on the back of the clock. "It's solar powered."

Katrina got off the bed and stood up.

"Any chance that there's food or water here?" she asked.

"Probably not," Wyne replied. "The bag that Dean had contained the only food from the farm and I already checked some of the other rooms in this building. There was nothing edible."

Katrina groaned as her stomach growled. She hadn't had anything to eat since yesterday, and even then, it was only a small piece of bread that didn't satisfy her gnawing hunger. As for water, well, Katrina couldn't remember the last time she had drank anything. Her throat was as dry as a desert.

"We can go back to the farm and kill one of the animals," Wyne suggested.

Katrina shuddered as she remembered the blood on the barn floor. She had no desire to go back there, much less kill one of the poor, innocent animals.

"No, it's fine. Let's go see if we can find the others."

Katrina and Wyne exited the building. In the lobby, they found two, solar powered hoverboards and snatched them. Flying on the hoverboard, Katrina felt as free as a bird for the first time since she entered the Experiment. She whooped as she did tricks on the hoverboard, ones that would surely make others scream in fear.

Wyne laughed as he tried to catch up with her. They scanned the buildings from above, looking for any signs of life. The farther they went, the cleaner the city was. It was like a normal city, except with no people. By the time noon came, their hoverboards had almost ran out of power, so they set down and placed them in the sun to let them charge.

"Let's go see if we can find other hoverboards," Katrina suggested. Wyne nodded, following her as she entered a mall, keeping close to Wyne in case they needed to make a quick getaway.

"There's a fountain!" Wyne joyfully shouted. They ran to the fountain in the middle of the mall lobby and gratefully drank some water to quench their thirst.

As they drank, Katrina noticed something at the base of the statue of a man in the middle of the fountain. She squinted but couldn't tell what it was.

"What's that?" she asked, pointing out the object. She rolled up her leggings before taking off her shoes and socks and wading in. She grabbed the object and screamed.

...

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